Mike's Minutiae

In a story Sept. 12 about the Royal Mail's plan to issue six stamps honoring The Beatles, The Associated Press erroneously said "Meet The Beatles" was the group's first album released in the United States. Instead. "Introducing The Beatles" on the Vee-Jay label appeared in the U.S. before "Meet The Beatles," according to Bruce Spizer, author of the book "The Beatles are Coming!"

The story also said incorrectly that the U.S.-released "Meet The Beatles" was identical to the British 1963 album "With The Beatles." Nine of the 12 tracks on the British album were on the American one, according to The Beatles' official Web site.

TurboNick's Mr. Meaty Graduates

Las Vegas-based drinks company Redux Beverages is producing the drink which contains 280 milligrams of caffeine. According to the company's website, the only way to get more caffeine per ounce is with an espresso.... Dr Charles O'Brien, a professor and vice chairman of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, said: "It's just a bad idea and has all the same downsides of too much caffeine plus a very bad name."

For some reason, a lot of people believe candy cigarettes were "totally outlawed" in the United States sometime in the past, when in actuality, the major players have remained one step ahead of governmental regulation via sluggish self-policing and a strong commitment to what ESPN would call "Extreme Hiding." The links below will take you on a magical tour through the world of the only candy product that sells so much more than itself.

School officials apologized after an X-rated font was used on a third-grade spelling packet handed out to parents. The font showed male and female stick figures in provocative poses to form the letters of the alphabet.

"Peter's not a genius," said [Goon Show colleague Spike] Milligan, who knew him well and appraised him frankly. "He's something more. He's a freak." (link)

Sellers was the first man to appear on the cover of Playboy — he appeared on the April (1964) cover with Karen Lynn. (link)

Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr became close friends during the making of the film [The Magic Christian] and used to play practical jokes such as knotting together the belts of coats belonging to the film crew. When one of Ringo’s friends visited the set he couldn’t figure out why there were so many sniggers, until he discovered that a variety of objects, including match boxes and empty cigarettes packets, had been taped to his back. (link)

At Sellers' request, the song "In The Mood" was played at his funeral, a tune that he hated. According to biographer Roger Lewis, Sellers had told his son Michael that the song was "wonderfully inappropriate - hence, wonderfully appropriate - for solemn occasions." (link)

• Mike Sauter, F&FTermite
  
• Mike Sauter, KCD Enterprises Inc
  
• Mike Sauter, McIntyre Precision Inc
  
• Mike Sauter, Oklahoma Galaxy Pageants
  

Labels: Pointless Nostalgia

Caught a second student plagiarizing in my college class. First she turned in her mid-term essay 4 days late, meaning the best she could get was a D. Then I googled part of it and found it had been lifted from Wikipedia. I referred her to the Dean and she brought her boyfriend to the meeting. He had written the paper for her. He argued that Wikipedia entries aren't copyrighted, so it wasn't plagiarism. The Dean asked him to leave and he refused, and the police were almost called. The boyfriend left, shouting that if a record of the incident is placed in the student's file (it was), the school will be hearing from his lawyer!!!! So there.

"Pushing thru the market square
So many mothers sighing
News had just come over
We had five years left to cry in
News guy wept and told us
Earth was really dying
Cried so much his face was wet
Then I knew he was not lying..."

~~David Bowie, "Five Years"

"Pictures of the missing
Soon lined every New York block
Some turned up in hospitals
Most did not

People who would never
Have flown the flag before
Proudly hung the stars and stripes
Over their front door

People they lit candles
And said what can we do
They went and prayed in churches
And in the subway too

The President he seemed to grow up
Right before our eyes
Said we'd find out who did this
And they'd pay with their lives

Mayors, Governors, Senators
Foes the day before
All joined hands as comrades
As the country edged toward war

But what kind of war can this be
When the foe don't show his face
When his own life ain't worth nothing
And fear's his only ace

I can't say what will happen
How ends this deathly game
One thing I know for certain
We'll never be the same

We'll look over our shoulder
Pause when we hear a plane
We'll search the face of strangers
And wear the scars of pain

I pray we'll find who thought this up
No matter who or where
And that we'll string them up and
Leave 'em hanging in Times Square

I pray we'll try to understand
The anger behind the deed
I pray we'll know all people are
The same color when they bleed.

I pray we aren't so frightened
To let freedom find its end
The freedom that we desire
So much to defend ..."

~~Dan Bern, "New York 911"

At 26, many people haven’t even decided on a career. Luke Ravenstahl is already the mayor of Pittsburgh.

In the four short years since he left college, Mr. Ravenstahl has mastered the art of being at the right place at the right time, and last week he became the youngest mayor of any major city in the country, after the previous mayor, Bob O’Connor, died of a brain tumor.

According to the United States Conference of Mayors, Tallahassee, Fla., is the only other city with a population over 100,000 that has had a mayor as young as Mr. Ravenstahl — Scott Maddox, who was 26 when he was elected in 1995. Detroit, Cleveland and Dearborn, Mich., have had mayors who were 31, the conference said.

Steelers flatten fish in opener

Steve Irwin, the passionate conservationist who shot to international fame as the Crocodile Hunter, was killed today in a freak accident while diving off the north Queensland coast.

In a bitter irony, the man who risked his life handling one of the world's most dangerous reptiles was mortally wounded by a stingray, a usually passive sea creature which attacks only if threatened. Irwin, 44, was stung in the chest by the stingray's barbed tail, which whips up in a reflex action. The accident happened while he was filming a TV documentary called Oceans' Deadliest at Batt Reef, near Port Douglas.

Within minutes of the news of Irwin's death breaking this afternoon, someone had written: "Steve Irwin's dead! LOLOLOLOLOL!" on the biography of the Australian icon.

The entry was quickly spotted and removed from the page.

When twilight falls, prowl the night with the mysterious Nokia 7280 phone. Shrouded in the mystery is a passion that will only reveal itself as you slide it open. Its sublime form is exquisitely crafted, leaving you with a slim, sleek object of beauty, unmatched by any other. You and the Nokia 7280 phone, a combination that's as compelling as the night.

An evangelist who tried replicating Jesus' miracle of walking on water has reportedly drowned off the western coast of Africa.

Pastor Franck Kabele, 35, told his congregation he could repeat the biblical miracle, and he attempted it from a beach in Gabon's capital of Libreville.

"He told churchgoers he'd had a revelation that if he had enough faith, he could walk on water like Jesus," an eyewitness told the Glasgow Daily Record.

"He took his congregation to the beach saying he would walk across the Komo estuary, which takes 20 minutes by boat. He walked into the water, which soon passed over his head and he never came back."

The proliferation of cell phones, with their list of extra features, has had the knock-on effect of eliminating the need to wear a wristwatch unless it is to make a fashion statement.... U.S. watch sales, which have been on the decline since 2001, fell 4.9 percent in 2005, according to a new market research study.