Papa John's founder reunited with cherished Camaro

In 1983, John Schnatter had a gold and black 1971 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. It was one of his most beloved possessions. And then he had to sell it to help pay the bills for his father's tavern. The Camaro was bought for $2,800 and there was some money left over after his dad's business got out of hock.Schnatter used the leftover dough to start up Papa John's Pizza. Everyone...

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I'm FINALLY watching STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS

I'm either losing my interest in Star Wars (probably not) or just incredibly lazy when it comes to checking out new television (more likely). Whatever it is, at long last I'm getting to see Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the CGI-animated series on Cartoon Network set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.And against what I assumed would be my reaction, I must profess...

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Thoughts on Ted Kennedy

I try not to speak ill of the dearly departed. Regardless of that, some things demand saying...If it were not for his last name and his family, Ted Kennedy would have gone nowhere. The choices that he made as a person and that he continued to make would have been too grave a taint.And then, to have held the same elected position since 1962 is way too much. I've known of some people who had been in office for just as long and even longer, but I'm...

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"Weird Al" Yankovic imitates the inimitable Queen with "Ringtone"!

Yes, I'm up way early (or is that way late?) awaiting a new song by "Weird Al" Yankovic. But can ya blame me? Especially since Weird Al has bestowed upon us a better summer than we deserve with his "Internet Leaks" collection. A short while ago the fourth and final song from the set was released: "Ringtone". It's a Queen-style anthem celebrating/condemning cellular phone...

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A thought from the weekend's contemplation

They who sacrifice enlightenment for power are never fr...

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Factory worker steals motorcycle one piece at a time

So the very next day when I punched inWith my big lunchbox and with help from my friendsI left that day with a lunch box full of gearsNow, I never considered myself a thiefGM wouldn't miss just one little pieceEspecially if I strung it out over several years.-- "One Piece At A Time"Johnny Cash(written by Wayne Kemp)Zhang, a worker in a motorcycle factory in China, was no doubt...

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Back from the weekend

A lot of zaniness piled up on my desk. I'd better get to work.I heared you people behaved yourselves pretty well while I was gone. For that you can buy a candy bar and pretend I got it for you ...

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Gone for the weekend

Back Sunday night or Monday. Unless something crazy/bad/extraordinarily ridiculous happens that demands posting about, no new articles for the next few days.Probably some fresh and new stuff when I resume next week ...

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First trailer for James Cameron's AVATAR

Haven't been able to find it on YouTube yet, so for the time being you'll have to watch it in Quicktime format. Which may be for the best anyway, since Quicktime is much more high-res.Avatar certainly looks good. So far as what the story is supposed to be about, I'm not quite jazzed about it. Yet, anyway. But hey, I've been pleasantly surprised about a movie before, maybe...

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12,000-year old barbecue joint found in Cyprus

Archaeologists working on the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea are saying that a cave discovered there in 1961 may have been a take-out barbecue diner used around twelve thousand years ago. Except that instead of beef or pork, those ancient Cypriots were feasting on small hippopotamuses... and the human's appetite may have helped drive the species into extinction.Thousands...

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Two giants of journalism have passed away

Enigmatic but always sincere and true to himself. That's how I'm always going to think of Robert Novak - called and not without reason "the last of the shoe leather newspaper reporters" - who passed away yesterday at age 78 after a heroic battle against brain cancer.Novak embodied and epitomized everything that it's supposed to mean to be a reporter: working hard, cultivating...

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Awful quiet lately

Too qui...

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"Too funny!" Billy Bobb videos on YouTube

Holy cow!! Now I have seen everything.Years ago there was a local television station called WGGT Channel 48, broadcasting from Greensboro. This was back when unaffiliated stations were extremely independent in their programming and such. Well, WGGT might have been one of the last to have what many people will fondly remember as a "horror host": a home-grown character who presented various scary movies and sci-fi flicks on Saturday afternoons.Except...

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Mozart killed by strep throat?

That's what researchers are now saying about the famous composer. Instead of foul play or fouler pork, it might have been nothing as mundane as an infection of streptococcus that took Mozart's life at the age of 35.Read the rest of the story here, including all kinds of neat details about gory death in the Austrian Empi...

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Southeastern Conference bans social media at sports events

"No Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or TwitPic!" That's the dictate being sent to sports fans and students of Southeastern Conference member schools if they want to attend athletic events. Under its newly adopted media policy, the SEC has informed its schools that "Ticketed fans can't produce or disseminate (or aid in producing or disseminating) any material or information about the Event, including, but not limited to, any account, description, picture,...

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Don't sin at your own funeral, sez cult leader Johnny Robertson

If anyone still harbored doubts about Johnny Robertson - leader of the local cult calling itself the "Church of Christ" - those were erased during last night's broadcast of What Does the Bible Say? on WGSR Star 47.1 from Reidsville.During the program, which included pre-recorded footage of Robertson speaking yesterday at his "Martinsville Church of Christ", Robertson exclaimed...

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I have an idea...

It came to me when I happened to catch tonight's CBS Evening News (which I don't usually watch at all).Want to know how to economically revitalize the newspaper and television news industries, and increase enlightenment among the general public in one fell swoop?It's very simple: ban the words "conservative" and "liberal" from usage by professional journalists.Those words are worse than useless. They are woefully outdated terminology. The only...

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