Catching Up On The News

Well, at least sort of catching up. A couple have tickled my fancy over the past few weeks. Yesterday's story about Huckabee and rock music was interesting. According to the Associated Press:

The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he's being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song "More Than a Feeling" without his permission.

A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee's band, Capitol Offense.

Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee's candidacy.

Interesting. Let's see the recording industry go after the candidates who play music at their rallies that may be copyrighted, etc. That wouldn't make for good PR. That's the problem when music becomes our personal soundtracks.

Staying in the political vein, we go traveling via Yahoo! News to Japan:

OBAMA, Japan - Barack Obama has never been to this port town on Japan's snowy west coast, and residents only know him from news reports on his faraway campaign for the U.S. presidency.

No matter, Obama the town is nuts about Obama the man.

Obama's name graces posters hung in the main hotel. Headbands and T-shirts with drawings of the candidate's face will be available soon. Local confectioners are designing Japanese-style sweet bean cakes with Obama's portrait on them.

Name recognition always helps.

On the sports front I don't even want to think about the Roger Clemens testimony before a congressional hearing. It is such a mess, such a mess! But Arlen Specter is up in arms over the New England Patriots (who beat his Eagles a few years ago in the Super Bowl) and their clandestine taping of their opponents. These are such important matters of national security. As Jon Stewart pointed out the other night there were other tapes destroyed- and I would add- clandestine (warrant-less) taping going on in other places as well.

But here's a neat sports story from Yahoo! News:

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Shirts and caps proclaiming the victory of the New England Patriots -- when the American football team actually lost the latest Super Bowl -- have ended up in the hands of poor Nicaraguan children.

Hundreds of shirts and caps, which had been manufactured in advance to celebrate the Patriots' expected victory over the New York Giants, were handed over to children in the southern city of Diriamba.

"The children are the winners," said Miriam Diaz, of World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization.

World Vision has links with the National Football League, or NFL, and every year helps out poor children in Latin America and Africa with the unwanted "winners" shirts of the team that actually loses the Super Bowl.

But perhaps the one that takes the prize for the week (news and "writing news" comes via The Mental Floss Blog:

The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile spun out on snow-covered route 15 near Mansfield, Pennsylvania Sunday and landed in a ditch. The two 22-year-olds in the vehicle knew they were in hot water when they hit an icy patch, but they weren’t hotdogging. It was not an experience they would relish, but they are none the wurst for wear.

And here's the picture to prove it: