Category Archives: People baffle me.

In which I attempt to read what everybody else is reading, and wind up depressed and horrified.

Posted on September 12, 2010 by Wesley

I don’t watch much TV. I don’t listen to top 40 radio. I’m not enticed by most of what ends up on the New York Times bestseller list. Almost invariably, my first hints that a new pop culture phenomenon is … Continue reading →

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Overheard in the Last Few Months

Posted on January 10, 2010 by Wesley

Sometimes I overhear odd things. I’ve been collecting these on Twitter. “When the squirrel started crying his ears hurt.” “…He looked exactly like me. And in a few days he was picked up by a private jet…” First guy: “You’re … Continue reading →

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Toyota is Lurking Under the Bed

Posted on October 31, 2009 by Wesley

Viral marketing and alternate reality games are the great new thing in marketing. Saatchi & Saatchi thought it had a doozy of an idea for Toytota. They’d stalk Toyota’s customers. Unsuspecting participants in “Your Other You” would receive a week’s … Continue reading →

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Buy Coke! See a Funeral!

Posted on October 21, 2009 by Wesley

The Des Moines Register has an article on a funeral home that’s putting its death notices on electronic billboards. Alternating with ads for vacation getaways and gas station soft drinks, the 8-second announcements feature the deceased’s name and the day, … Continue reading →

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They need to get in more.

Posted on October 17, 2009 by Wesley

On the bus the other evening I overheard the people in the seat behind me talking about books. Specifically, about people who keep their books, and have a lot of books around which “they’re never going to read again.” “It … Continue reading →

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The Action Never Stops in Iowa City

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Wesley

Hard on the heels of the Great Chicken Emergency comes the arrest of a woman who failed to return three VHS tapes to a long-defunct video rental store in 1998.

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Naturally, the headline included a pun on the word “fowl.”

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Wesley

It’s interesting living in a city where a mysterious mass chicken release is major breaking news.

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Someone must have had fun writing this headline.

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Wesley

Disappointingly, the headline was later changed to “Local authors write ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Chakras’”.

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Don’t buy a house there.

Posted on August 8, 2009 by Wesley

The worst street names I have ever encountered are Toadflax Boulevard and Dingleberry Road.

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They find your lack of faith disturbing.

Posted on August 6, 2009 by Wesley

A terribly offensive advertisement recently appeared on buses in Des Moines, Iowa. Passengers trembled. Small children cried. Governor Chet Culver weighed in: “I was disturbed, personally, by the advertisement and I can understand why other Iowans were also disturbed by … Continue reading →

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