Ramblings & ephemera
From KOMU’s “Sarah’s Stories – Wallet Memories” (KOMU: 4 January 2007): MEXICO [Misouri] – A local resident enjoyed an early, unexpected Christmas present. Ray Heilwagen, an 83-year-old World War II veteran, has a story that stretches from France to his front lawn. … During war, a wallet can be a soldier’s most prized pocession, full […]
Posted on April 1st, 2013 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, true stories | Comments Off on A wallet returned after 60+ years
Image via Wikipedia Read this article about Paul Krassner’s experiences with the Manson Family & note the emphasis I’ve added – is this not the greatest sentence out of nowhere you’ve ever seen? How in the world did that ever seem like a good idea? From Paul Krassner’s “My Acid Trip with Squeaky Fromme” (The […]
Posted on August 10th, 2009 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, history, on writing, politics, true stories, weird | Comments Off on Who would ever think that it was a good idea?
From Russell L. Ackoff & Daniel Greenberg’s Turning Learning Right Side Up: Putting Education Back on Track (2008): A classic story illustrates very well the potential cost of placing a problem in a disciplinary box. It involves a multistoried office building in New York. Occupants began complaining about the poor elevator service provided in the […]
Posted on September 18th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, science, true stories | Comments Off on To solve a problem, you first have to figure out the problem
Denise is talking to our class about how people are slowly giving up their civil liberties, a bit at a time: “It’s like the story about how you gradually turn the heat up on a pot of water and slowly boil the lobster!” (Hint: she meant frog.)
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, overheard, true stories | Comments Off on Denise-ism #601
“You’ve been hoist by your own retard.”
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, language & literature, true stories | Comments Off on Scott-words #17
Denise & I are in the car, talking about her friend Scott E., when her cell phone rings. It’s Scott E.! Denise: “Scott! We were just talking about you! Your ears must have been ringing!”
Posted on April 20th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, overheard, true stories | Comments Off on Denise-ism #37
From the email archives: On Sunday 30 May 2004 11:32 pm, Jerry Hubbard wrote: > How is everyone? Hope the storms did not harm anyone. My basement flooded twice, my tenant’s kitchen had water streaming in through the window frame, our backyard fence was blown down, the umbrella on our deck was blown off the […]
Posted on November 3rd, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories | Comments Off on My late May, 2004
From Reuters’s “Body found in bed 5 years after death” (4 October 2006): Austrian authorities have discovered the body of a man who apparently died at home in bed five years ago, a Vienna newspaper reported on Wednesday. The corpse of Franz Riedl, thought to have been in his late 80s when he died, went […]
Posted on October 5th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories, weird | Comments Off on Dead five years before he was discovered
From The New Yorker‘s “The Disappearing Poet” (4 July 2005): [Weldon] Kees himself was toiling on a script, a spy thriller called “Gadabout” … Kees was introduced as “Mr. Weldon Kees, poet, painter, artist, etcetera, composer, critic, etcetera, etcetera, ad infinitum.”
Posted on May 14th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, language & literature, on writing, true stories | Comments Off on Weldon Kees, polymath
From The Telegraph‘s “Skeleton woman’ dead in front of TV for years“: A woman’s skeleton was discovered in her flat three years after she is believed to have died, it emerged today. Joyce Vincent was surrounded by Christmas presents and the television and heating in her bedsit were still on. The 40-year-old’s body was so […]
Posted on April 15th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories | Comments Off on Dead for 3 years
From Bruce Schneier’s “The Silliness of Secrecy“, quoting The Wall Street Journal: Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has advised airplane pilots against flying near 100 nuclear power plants around the country or they will be forced down by fighter jets. But pilots say there’s a hitch in the instructions: aviation security officials […]
Posted on April 1st, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: security, true stories | Comments Off on Don’t fly where we won’t tell you not to fly
From “Stone Age tribe kills fishermen“: ONE of the world’s last Stone Age tribes has murdered two fishermen whose boat drifted on to a desert island in the Indian Ocean. The Sentinelese, thought to number between 50 and 200, have rebuffed all contact with the modern world, firing a shower of arrows at anyone who […]
Posted on February 9th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, science, true stories | Comments Off on The last remaining Stone Age tribesmen
From MSNBC’s “Very, very frequent flyer hits 1 million goal“: On his blog “The Great Canadian Mileage Run 2005,†[Marc] Tacchi reported on Wednesday that he had racked up 1,003,625 mileage points and spent 56 of the last 61 days in an airplane. … The 30-year-old embarked on his venture using Air Canada’s North America […]
Posted on January 28th, 2006 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, commonplace book, true stories | Comments Off on 1,000,000 miles in 30 days
This was written 15 January 2002, & the Hungry Buddha is gone now, but this is still an interesting description. Just got back from lunch at the Hungry Buddha. Man, that was good. It’s a small place on Washington Street in downtown St. Louis. There are signs all along the walls: “Buddha would bus his […]
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: business, commonplace book, history, musings, true stories | Comments Off on The late great Hungry Buddha
From The Sun: SHOCKED six-year-old Leah Lowland checked out a mystery bulge on her Incredible Hulk doll — and uncovered a giant green WILLY. Curious Leah noticed a lump after winning the monster, catchphrase “You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry,” at a seaside fair. And when she peeled off the green comic-book character’s ripped […]
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories, weird | Comments Off on Hulk, Willie, or Peter?
From Yahoo! News (March 2004): Andy Rooney certainly knows how to stir the passion in his viewers. The ’60 Minutes’ curmudgeon said Sunday he got 30,000 pieces of mail and e-mail in response to his Feb. 22 commentary, in which he called ‘The Passion of the Christ’ filmmaker Mel Gibson a ‘wacko.’ It’s the biggest […]
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, on writing, true stories | Comments Off on Now that is one good insult
From Yahoo! News (March 2004): Zombies Push Jesus from Top of North American Box Office
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories, weird | Comments Off on Best entertainment news headline ever
From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A convicted murderer being held in Atlanta is refusing to sign a waiver the district attorney says it needs to release the remains of an 8-year-old East Texas boy. Without the waiver, the family of Chad Choice cannot hold a funeral, although the boy was killed more than a decade ago. […]
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories | Comments Off on A horrid legal conundrum
From CNN: Customs officials opened his suitcase and a bird of paradise flew out but that was nothing compared to what they found in his pants — a pair of pygmy monkeys. Californian Robert Cusack has been sentenced to 57 days in jail for trying to smuggle the monkeys, a total of four exotic birds […]
Posted on November 28th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: commonplace book, true stories, weird | Comments Off on Greatest last line ever
Denise Lieberman, 15 November 2001: “I’m up to my earballs with work!”
Posted on November 27th, 2005 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: overheard, true stories | Comments Off on Denise-ism #890