"A Christmas Story," A tradition that will live on forever

I can almost guarentee that it would be very difficult to find someone in America who has no idea what A Christmas Story is. When A Christmas Story hit theaters in 1983, many including little ralphie himself had no idea that the movie would have its own 24 hour marathon 25 years later and im sure that in 1983, the makers of A Christmas Story would have never imagined the production becoming a christmas tradition in American households for years and years. According to CNN.com, a family in Cleveland, Ohio loved the movie so much that they transformed a house that was in the movie into a busy tourist attraction. I watch this movie every Christmas with my family. Its a moment that young family members and older family members can all share. the movie was introduced to me when I was a young boy, and i know that when i have kids, A Christmas Story will become part of my new family for many holiday's to come. To read this wonderful article, click here

New requirement for being a politician

There is a new law being discussed in Australia where politicians may have to take a breathalyzer test in order to vote on laws.

After there were two events that caused a great deal of controversy involving members of their lawmakers the plan may go into effect.

Said one person of the plan "Honestly, if you are going to have breathalyzers for people driving cranes you should have breathalyzers for people writing laws."

For more information visit Reuters

A different type of packrat

At a house that was called into the police for being in bad repair and seemingly abandoned was made a shocking discovery. The building had all the signs of a pack-rat; garbage and other assorted refuse. Also packed inside the building was the decomposing body of the owner of the North Hollywood house.

Police had difficulty getting into the building because of all the debris in front of the doors so they had to wait to for the fire department to come to the house to remove a door so they could get inside.

The body inside of the building was of an adult however it was impossible to determine age or gender becuase of its decomposing status. Coroner official described the body as "skeletony" and having been there for a "quite some time."

For more information visit the Los Angeles Times Web site

A new type of exam

A teacher in San Diego is selling ads on his tests, quizzes, and finals.

Tom Farber, San Diego, is selling ads in his assignments to make more money in order to pay an overwhelming copying fee.  Farber determined that it would take over $500 worth of copies in order to give tests and quizzes to all of his students. His copying budget is currently at $316.

Many companies are buying into this idea and he had already received 75 email requests for ads by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, when a story about his new technique of raising money was featured in the Thanksgiving edition of  The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Some parents not thrilled with the idea of having advertising forced into their child's face when they are working on a  difficult calculus problem are paying the fee and adding their own personal message to the tests or quizzes.

To read more about this visit the L.A. Times 

Found: Ring

A fisherman found something rather unusual in an 8 pound bass that he caught off the coast of Lake Sam Rayburn in Texas.  It was the class ring of Joe Richardson which he lost 21 years earlier on a fishing trip. 

The fisherman that found the ring used the internet and the name engraved on the ring to find him.

Richardson had lost the ring about two weeks after he graduated from Universal Technical Institute in 1987. His mother paid $200 for him to get it and was not happy to hear that it went missing after such a short time. 

Now that it has returned Richardson will not clean it and wear it, but store it away since he does not wear jewelry.

For more information Click Here

Death at what cost?

Oh Black Friday, when will the madness end? people rush out of thier houses and wait in line at early hours of the morning to get thier hands on thier favorite Christmas gifts for almost half of the price but at what cost? the people who wait in line know what they are in for and prepare themselves for the madness that follows when the doors of stores around the country open. but one would wonder if workers should be armed with weapons and protective gear when opening the doors of thier employer. This past friday a man by the name of Jdimytai Damour who works at a Long Island Wal-Mart was crushed to death when he and other associates opened the doors to the anxious crowd of bargian shoppers. and now, people who were hurt in the mele are suing Wal-Mart for injuries THEY suffered ignoring the man's death that insued that Friday morning. This is getting out of hand. Stores that run sales on Black Friday absolutley must implement some kind of extra security and if needed police force. It is disgusting to turn on the news year after year the day after Thanksgiving and almost predict that someone suffered injuries or in this case death from ignorant shoppers waiting to get thier hands on the latest commodity not giving a damn about other people. It disgusts me to know that somone's family member trying to make a decent living working the early hours in the morning after thanksgiving is killed. Not injured, KILLED and instead of having the man's family's wishes at heart, these money hungry americans are quick to do what we do best and automatically sue. If it were up to me, people who rush through the doors carelessly trampling other people should be tazed on target and detained untill the shopping spree is over. Its pathetic, its like a bunch of kids running for the Ice Cream truck but at least the kids arent killing the Ice Cream man. You can view the whole story here.

Dr. Pepper Fans Get Axled Out of Free Offer

As Gun N' Roses finally decided to release their first album in 17 years last week called 'Chinese Democracy,' Dr. Pepper agreed to promote the album by promising the band's fans with a coupon for a "free soda" which could be printed off of their website. Although this marketing plan seemed like a win-win for the band and their fans,there was a pitfall since fans were told if they failed to log onto the site within 24 hours, they weren't able to receive the free offer. As a result, fans besieged with panic, all signed onto the site simultaneously and clogged the page causing it to shut down.

This offer of free swag ended up backfiring, with the fiasco of people not receiving what they had been promised, provoked them to point their fingers directly towards GN'R.

"When you go on the blogs and you read the responses from the fans, they associated Axl with this promotion ... and blame him for the fact that they didn't get their free soda," said GN'R lawyer Laurie Soriano.

Without a doubt, this obviously led Axl Rose to lose his cool, and we all know what happens to Axl Rose when he gets upset, which can be seen displayed in this concert video.



As you can see, when Axl gets ticked off he doesn't let things simply slide, he acts accordingly to what he feels is best, which is typically disregarding the authorities and taking matters into his own hands, literally.

As a result of the crashing website, Dr. Pepper agreed to extend the giveaway for 42 hours instead of 24, so people would stop accusing the band for the mishaps they had experienced. They also went as far to create a toll-free line for people to call with requests for their coupon just in case they encountered anymore technical deficiencies once again.

"The door to a lawsuit being filed is always open until the fans are taken care of and Dr Pepper has done the right thing," Soriano told CNN.

Hopefully we've seen the last of these crazed Dr. Pepper junkies who demand they be reimbursed for the inconvenience they have been put through because of this overwhelming cyberspace meltdown.

For more on this story go to CNN.