The Daily Grill

Bad Blood At The Red Cross

I think the ol' Red Cross could use a little triage to diagnose what's wrong with it. Not only have they been lambasted for their operations in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, but they've been burning through CEOs for  the past half-dozen years or so. Now the latest in charge, Mark Everson, has been forced to resign when a "personal relationship with a subordinate employee" came to light (actually, one of the senior exex ratted him out...) In retrospect, the board at the Red Cross should have seen this coming: before taking over, Everson was the commissioner of the IRS. Did they really think someone in charge of an organization that screws so many people was going to be able to go cold turkey?

Finally Quenched

Dr. J. Robert Cade, the inventor of Gatorade back in 1965 to help University of Florida athletes replenish their bodily fluids, passed away yesterday. Hitting on the discovery after Gators then-coach Dwayne Douglas asked him why the players didn't need to take a leak after the games, Cade not only formulated the beverage that is now sold in 80 countries around the world, but is also responsible for more coaches' cleaning bills than any other libation.

Don't Quit Your Day Job

Word comes in that Anna Ciriani, a teacher in Italy, has been suspended from her job teaching adult students during the evenings. All because of her extracurricular antics as "Madameweb", her popular internet and film persona, which was thought to be in conflict with her educational duties. I can see that. I guess we'll know for sure that the world's going to hell the day the porn industry boots out a sex star for teaching school in their off hours.

It's Legacy Time

White House Resident and Lame Duck George Bush is heading into the final year of his reign (barring his complete suspension of the Constitution...), and with the Iraq War™ turning out to be quite the millstone around his neck, His Nibs is attempting a massive misdirection in order to leave office with some iota of Middle Eastern glory points. Thus we have the grand assemblage in Annapolis, starring Dubya and a cast of representatives from more than 50 nations, including prime players Israel and the Palestinians. The hope is that some kind of lasting peace initiative can be established in the region. It seems to strike a rather hollow note with the ongoing Iraq and Afghanistan hostilities continuing just a bomb's throw away from the Holy Land in dispute.

Jangle All The Way

I wanted to acknowledge the holiday spirit going on as of this morning at my local Starbucks (that's the one tucked away at Tam Junction in Mill Valley, CA.) As you can see, the female part of the morning crew is gussied up with reindeer antlers, while the guy is wearing (somewhat harder to see) an elf hat complete with pointed ears attached. I felt a little bit guilty getting them to pose for my cell cam given the length of the line behind me but hey, it's the holidays!

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving!

To celebrate, here's the phodoodle that I did for the Half Moon Bay Review's Thanksgiving edition last year. (If you want to check out this year's toon, click here...)

The Spam What Am

As reported in the Business section today, Hormel Foods Corp. turned a 12% profit this past quarter. Hormel is the maker of Spam which, according to their website , is made from pork AND ham. Don't those both come from the same animal? And wouldn't that be like saying "beef AND steak"? Anyway, one wonders if part of their profit comes from all of the constant mentions of spam as it relates to junk email. Hormel used to try to fight it but now, every time they hear people grousing about "spam", they probably rub their human AND man hands together with glee.

Tubular

In Japan, folks are used to being able to get anything out of a vending machine. But here in America we're pretty much used to just the standard fare: Coke, candy and condoms. The other day Bike RX,  a nearby bike store, plunked a vending machine down outside and I was curious to see what would be inside. Turns out to be inspired marketing -- available for $5 you can get standard sizes of bicycle inner tubes, and for lesser amounts a patch kit or some of those edible energy gel products. Perfect stuff for the inevitable flat tire or empty belly (the bike shop is right on the way out twisty Highway 1 to Stinson Beach) that you'd get on a Sunday ride...when everything's closed.

Short-sheeting Bush

I love the snarky way the Democants have finally figured out a way to outsnark the nation's Snarkmaster, White House Resident Bush. For years he's been taking advantage of the Senate holiday breaks to shove through his appointments that otherwise would get slapped down in the approval process. This time around, now that the Dems are in the majority, they're calling "microsessions" on the Senate floor, with one Senator (Virginia's Jim Webb) and a skeleton crew, which effectively short-circuits Dubya's chance to push one of his noxious pals into office.

One of two things will happen. Bush will issue one of his Executive Proclamations, allowing him to appoint without approval, or Senator Webb is going to start having car trouble.

New vs Classic Stem Cells

Now that scientists have announced they've found a way to make skin cells into the equivalent of embryonic stem cells, there should finally be great strides in the field of genetic meds. Not because it sidesteps the furor over harvesting stem cells from human embryos, but because there's now two classes of cells -- one for the rich and stylish, and one for the rest of us (my assumption is that I have no readers in the latter category...) I mean, if you've got the scratch for bona fide "stemmers", why settle for retread "skinners"? So now that the well-to-do can have their own exclu genetic building blocks, expect DNA-based cures to take off.