By the time you read this, I will be sitting in Pierce County Superior Court, without any hope of an appeal. I’ve been called to jury duty for the first time in my life and unless the judge has determined I’m psycho, as some of you have observed in the past, I may be sitting in judgment of some peer of mine.
But while I’m waiting for some lawyer to chant, “If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit,” I’ve decided to catch up on the news.
Dairy Queen owners are revolting – And I mean that in the nicest possible way. It seems that the DQ corporation’s big bosses are trying to force the mom-and-pop franchise owners to spend mega-bucks on renovations. Franchise owner associations in nine states have filed suit against the home office.
Yo! Where’s your name? – Want to do a little spying on your friends, and your not-so-friends? Want to know if they have a MySpace page? Just go to www.YoName.com and type in their names. The site searches 20 social networking sites, including MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, and returns links. You might be surprised.
Teachers fight back – Back when I was a teenager, just after the Ice Age broke up, we used to annoy our least favorite teachers with a late-night toss of toilet paper into their front-year trees. These days, that sort of misapplied humor has taken a vicious detour. Students have posted teacher’s name on gay Web sites, posted embarrassing video and cruelly manipulated images.
But teachers in some states are fighting back with civil lawsuits and sometimes permanent expulsions from school. Lampooning in the cyberworld will test how courts regard the First Amendment in the Digital Age.
Night vision for cars – Several automakers are touting military style night vision systems for automobiles. Infrared cameras and sensors identify pedestrians, moving animals and other hazards well beyond the range of traditional headlights. They project the images on an LCD screen. The downside, besides the $2,000 price tag, is that a driver has to take his or her eyes off the road to watch the screen.
Fore! Three! Two! – Fewer people are playing golf these days, and those who play are playing less. The national estimate of golfers has dropped 14 percent since 2000 and the number of people who played 25 times a year or more dropped 33 percent in the same period. According to the National Golf Foundation, the industry now defines its “core players” as those who get in eight rounds or more in a year. Some say the escalating cost of green fees is causing the decline, while others believe there’s a general decline in outdoor activities.
And finally, another reason not to mow your lawn – A peace-loving Buddhist monk in London died when his tractor slipped into gear and pulled a multi-bladed grass-cutting machine over him. The monk had built a pagoda to promote peace and he spent his time mowing the surrounding 12 acres.
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