The Joy of Scrabble

For all you Scrabble lovers (and haters) out there:



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And Then There's This Guy...

Steve "the Grape Guy" Spalding is looking to make the Guiness Book of World Records by catching grapes in his mouth. In fact, he's looking to set two records... One for most grapes caught in his mouth in 3 minutes (he did 116) and an endurance record (1,203 grapes caught in his mouth over a half hour from 15 feet away).

Sigh. It's simultaneously awesome and sad.

-e

UCLA Student Tasered for Refusing to Leave Library

Ah, America. Land of the free, home of the brave. Where students get tased FIVE TIMES because they plant bombs in... oh wait, no... because they were violent-- no... no, that wasn't it either.

Oh RIGHT... This UCLA student got tased five times by campus police because he wouldn't leave the library! GOD FORBID he learn something he's not supposed to!! Except, he was actually on his way out of the library, according to this UCLA newspaper article:

At around 11:30 p.m., CSOs asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check. The student did not exit the building immediately.

The CSOs left, returning minutes later, and police officers arrived to escort the student out. By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.

The student began to yell "get off me," repeating himself several times.

It was at this point that the officers shot the student with a Taser for the first time, causing him to fall to the floor and cry out in pain.

Did it stop there? No no. They proceeded to tase him four more times. All the while commanding him to "stand up." Now, excuse me for noticing this small problem, but how is someone supposed to STAND UP if you are REPEATEDLY TASING THEM?! Fucking idiot rent-a-cops.

Oh, and did I mention that the student is Iranian? Coincidence? I don't think so.

And how do I know what the cops were saying? Because someone, thankfully, got the whole thing on video:



An article in the LA Times noted that the officer had a history of fucked up behavior:

In May 1990, he was accused of using his nightstick to choke someone who was hanging out on a Saturday in front of a UCLA fraternity. Kente S. Scott alleged that Duren confronted him while he was walking on the street outside the Theta Xi fraternity house.

Scott sued the university, and according to court records, UCLA officials moved to have Duren dismissed from the police force. But after an independent administrative hearing, officials overturned the dismissal, suspending him for 90 days.

Duren on Monday disputed the allegations made by Scott.

In October 2003, Duren shot and wounded a homeless man he encountered in Kerckhoff Hall. Duren chased the man into a bathroom, where they struggled and he fired two shots.

The homeless man, Willie Davis Frazier, was later convicted of assaulting an officer. Duren said Frasier had tried to grab his gun during the struggle. But Frazier's attorney, John Raphling, said his client was mentally ill and didn't do anything to provoke the shooting.

Obviously a standup, shinning example of a campus police officer. And obviously very effective in his, um, despensing of justice.

This guy should be fucking tased over and over again to see how he likes it. Asshole.

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OJ: "If I did it..."

Sigh... OJ's back folks. That's right. He's coming out to say that he killed Nicol-- Oh wait. No no... He's coming out to say "well, I didn't do it... but if I did, here's how I would have done it..." C'mon, folks. Sometimes I read the CNN headlines and think, "Really? I mean... Really?"

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- In a new TV interview and book, O.J. Simpson discusses how he would have committed the slayings of his ex-wife and her friend "if I did it."

Some people just can't stand to be out of the spotlight.

The two-part television interview, titled "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How It Happened," will air November 27 and November 29 on Fox, the TV network said Tuesday.

Heh... Big surprise, it's on Fox.

"O.J. Simpson, in his own words, tells for the first time how he would have committed the murders if he were the one responsible for the crimes," the network said in a statement. "In the two-part event, Simpson describes how he would have carried out the murders he has vehemently denied committing for over a decade."

Is it really that big of a deal that they'd dedicate two shows to it?

"This is an interview that no one thought would ever happen. It's the definitive last chapter in the Trial of the Century," Mike Darnell, executive vice president of alternative programming for Fox, said in a statement.

Last chapter my ass. You just wait. In a few years, it'll be Fox reporting, "OJ Simpson: I did it, suckas!!"

The interview, conducted with book publisher Judith Regan, will air days before Simpson's new book, "If I Did It," goes on sale November 30. The book "hypothetically describes how the murders would have been committed," the network said.

Wait, so there's a book being published? And it's being released a few days after the interviews air? *gasp* ... big surprise.

Aren't there more important things to be reporting?

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Neighbors

I live near some crazy people.

A few weeks ago, I had an encounter with an old man in my neighborhood. I was driving around and kind of swerving to avoid the various obstacles in the street (pedestrians, bikers, etc) when I saw this old man crossing the street 2 blocks ahead. In typical old man fashion, he was walking ... very........ slowly. However, he was a little more than halfway across the street, so I leaned my car to the left a bit to curve around him. Pretty standard.

So what does the old guy do? He STOPS in the middle of the street (now I will no longer be able to avoid him) forcing me to slam on my brakes to avoid killing him. Why did he stop, you ask? To lecture me on driving too fast!! He just stopped in the middle of the road (not a crosswalk, mind you) held his hands out and screamed "STOP! STOP!!" Then he proceeded to yell at me about "this is not a racetrack" "why do you have to drive so fast," etc etc. I was thinking, "sorry, pops... maybe they didn't go so fast back in your time, but I really wasn't driving all that fast!"

So I sat there for a second and contemplated screaming back at him for almost making me run him over, but decided that yelling at some old crazy man in the middle of the street just wasn't worth my time. Instead, I just lowered my passenger side window and said very calmly, "I wasn't going to hit you, you know." Then I slowly drove around him and went on my merry way, while the old man kept yelling "No! Wait! Listen!!" Stupid old man.

Then there are the crazy people across the street from me... My street is really narrow, so the building across the street is quite close, and I can see and hear most of what goes on in there all the time. For instance, the rather obese boy with the really large bay windows refuses to put up shades or blinds, and instead changes in plain view of everyone on my side of the street. It's really quite unappetizing.

Anyhow, about every two days, all I hear over there is screaming and yelling from both children and adults. And I mean, all manner of curses and swears emanate from their house. I met the woman of the house, this nice lady named Dolores, when I first moved in. She asked me if I had any kids... when I replied "no no... not yet, anyway," she said she had three and asked me if I wanted them. Looking back I wonder if she was serious :p

Ah, neighbors.

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