All Good Things Must Come To A End

Oprah Winfrey is canceling her own show. The show will end on September 9, 2011. Winfrey will announce the end on tomorrow's show:
"Oprah will be ending her talk show," Harpo spokesman Don Halcombe said Thursday. "She will be speaking about it on tomorrow's live show."

Man carrying $600 stole a pencil

Police have arrested a man after he allegedly stole a pencil from a Bellingham store even though he was carrying $600 in cash. The man, 44, was booked into the Whatcom County Jail after police learned he had an outstanding warrant from Everett.Officers questioned the man about why he stole the mechanical pencil, worth $5.99, when he had enough money to pay for it. Police said the suspect just responded: "I don't know, being stupid I guess."
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That was unexpected!

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Soldiers Given Onions, Garlic to Fight H1N1 Flu

Moldova's army is feeding its soldiers onions and garlic to help them ward off swine flu.
Defense Ministry chief doctor Col. Sergiu Vasislita says about 0.9 ounces (25 grams) of onions and 0.5 ounces (15 grams) of garlic will be added to each soldier's daily diet. That roughly corresponds to a small onion and a couple of garlic cloves.
Onion and garlic are traditional remedies in Moldova where they are widely believed to boost the immune system.
Vasislita said Thursday that the measure was taken after 24 soldiers fell sick with swine flu in the past two weeks. More than 1,000 Moldovans have swine flu with 90 new cases reported daily.
About 6,500 troops serve in the army of Moldova, a small former Soviet republic bordering Romania and Ukraine.
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"Take Out"

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Are you listening to me?

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What's for school lunch?

Contents: Chicken fingers, french fries, ketchup, Clementine, chocolate milk.

What’s on your tray?

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Man, 96, holds pre-emptive wake

A 96-year-old photographer in Beaverton, Oregon said he decided to plan and hold his own wake prior to his death so he could attend the event.

Hugh Ackroyd, 96, said he held the wake for family and friends Sunday at the Beaverton home of friend Edda Sigurdar, The Oregonian reported Monday.

"Well, why not?" Ackroyd said of leading his own wake. "Why bother when (I'm) dead?"

Ackroyd, a father of two whose wife died about 12 years ago, sat in his padded wheelchair and greeted his friends as they arrived for the event. He said one of his favorite items at the wake was a wreath bearing a ribbon reading: "Eventually, Hugh, rest in peace."

"It's quite magnificent," Ackroyd said of his wake.
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Wind Extinguishes Eternal Flame

Flame's Self-Starter Is Broken, Won't Be Fixed Until January.
The day America sets aside to honor its veterans, many visitors to Jacksonville's Veterans Memorial Mall noticed the eternal flame was not burning.
The city said it learned two weeks ago that the self-starter built into the marble pedestal of the flame had stopped working, so when the wind blows out the flame, it has to be manually restarted by someone with a lighter.
Because the marble-covered ground around the pedestal has to be dug up to fix the flame, city leaders decided to wait to make the repairs until after the football season, when traffic in the surrounding sports complex drops off.
Harrison Conyers of the city's office of veterans affairs said it was unfortunate the flame was out much of Veterans Day, but the wind kept blowing it out.
The city plans a $20,000 repair project to not only fix the self-starter on the eternal flame, but also repair damage done by skateboarders and add an additional panel so more names of Jacksonville's war dead can be added.
"We're sorry the flame was out but it was something that was really out of our control," Conyers said Thursday. "Our staff was out working at the parade yesterday. There were multiple events going on all over town. We did the best we could."
The city is coming up with a schedule to have people check on the flame and relight it as necessary, but there is no way to ensure the eternal flame is constantly burning until permanent repairs are made.
"Could we have re-run the electric line in the last two or three days? Probably. But it would have meant tearing up all the marble that is out here. We could not have fixed that quickly," Conyers said. "So you would have had a flame but you would have had a monument that is defaced."

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Didn't get the Memo

Planners have driven motorists into a pole - by leaving a 40ft utility pole in the middle of a six lane highway.
The unmarked and unlit pole - in Zhengzhou, central China - has been the cause of dozens of accidents as unwary drivers smash into it.
And road signs only a few yards from the pole show an arrow directing drivers right into it at 50mph.
"We have complained to the council but they say it would cost too much to bury the cables underground so we are stuck with it," said local resident Chang Feng, 33.
The problem was caused when the road was widened and made worse when builders added an arrow less than 350 feet from the pole pointing straight at it.
The utility pole belongs to the local power authorities who explained that the pole used to be on the road side, but due to the widening of the road, the pole is now in the middle of the road.
A spokesman from the power authorities said: "They should have informed us before the road widening project, but none of us knew this. Now it's too expensive to move the pole."
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