[angelize56]

Morning Bruce: We're not allowed pets here in the townhouses! But I'd love to have a poodle again! Cosmos sounds like a nice kitty and good company. You take care there and have a nice day! angel

[Gibble]

Umm...actually the $20,000 seems about right...just odd.

btw, check the poll they have their...slightly one sided me thinks
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe...out/index.html

[eggplant43]

London to LA would be one long trip. I can only imagine how uncomfortable this poor woman must have been. It would sure be nice if the airlines would stop treating us like we are cattle. I imagine most passengers would be willing to pay a bit more, just to have comfortable seats.

[Shadow Bea]

Originally posted by eggplant43:
It's amazing what the animals who share our lives are capable of. I live with a wonderful cat, Cosmo, who greets me each morning at the pc when he awakens. I always look forward to the ritual. I'd expect the same kind of alarm from Cosmo if something like this were to happen.

Hi Bruce
Cosmo sounds like a cool cat
I too have a wonderful cat ,kitten really he's about 8 months old
and he fetches things and brings then back for me to throw again.
he is amazing really.. his name is Shadow
Bea

[eggplant43]

I know there are many who don't like cats, but I'm not one. This guy is my friend, my companion, and a fairly regular source of entertainment and amazement. We've been together for 5 years now, and each day we become closer. The level of trust he exhibits with me amazes me. He has his days, as we all do, but I'm sure glad this little guy is a part of my life.

I tend to like all animals, and love dogs, but don't currently lead a lifestyle that would allow me to be a good companion to a dog. Cosmo is just fine when we leave, because he knows we'll be back, and that we love him.

[Shadow Bea]

Hi Bruce,
I know what you mean.. I have had a dog in the past but my lifestyle is not right for a dog at this time I had a cat Lady for more than 15 years.. who was so special.. she died 2 years ago and last July I found Shadow.. he and his sister had been abandoned in my neighborhood .. our neighbors took his sister and we took Shadow he was only a few weeks old at the time. he is so smart and athletic.. a very special cat.

[eggplant43]

I can see why you call him shadow

[eggplant43]

I'd not want to imply that the barrister portrayed in this case is a certain Moderator at TSG, but when I close my eyes, that is who I see


High court hang-ups

'Why did you steal 40,000 hotel coat hangers, knowing that hotel coat hangers are designed to be useless outside hotel wardrobes?'

Miles Kington
15 October 2002

A most extraordinary trial is going on in the High Court at the moment in which a man named Chrysler is accused of stealing more than 40,000 coat hangers from hotels round the world. He admits his guilt, but in his defence he claims that – well, perhaps it would be simpler just to bring you a brief extract from the trial. We join the case at the point where Chrysler has just taken the stand.

Counsel: What is your name?

Chrysler: Chrysler. Arnold Chrysler.

Counsel: Is that your own name?

Chrysler: Whose name do you think it is?

Counsel: I am just asking if it is your name.

Chrysler: And I have just told you it is. Why do you doubt it?

Counsel: It is not unknown for people to give a false name in court.

Chrysler: Which court?

Counsel: This court.

Chrysler: What is the name of this court?

Counsel: This is No 5 Court.

Chrysler: No, that is the number of this court. What is the name of this court?

Counsel: It is quite immaterial what the name of this court is!

Chrysler: Then perhaps it is immaterial if Chrysler is really my name.

Counsel: No, not really, you see because...

Judge: Mr Lovelace?

Counsel: Yes, m'lud?

Judge: I think Mr Chrysler is running rings round you already. I would try a new line of attack if I were you.

Counsel: Thank you, m'lud.

Chrysler: And thank you from ME, m'lud. It's nice to be appreciated.

Judge: Shut up, witness.

Chrysler: Willingly, m'lud. It is a pleasure to be told to shut up by you. For you, I would...

Judge: Shut up, witness. Carry on, Mr Lovelace.

Counsel: Now, Mr Chrysler – for let us assume that that is your name – you are accused of purloining in excess of 40,000 hotel coat hangers.

Chrysler: I am.

Counsel: Can you explain how this came about?

Chrysler: Yes. I had 40,000 coats which I needed to hang up.

Counsel: Is that true?

Chrysler: No.

Counsel: Then why did you say it?

Chrysler: To attempt to throw you off balance.

Counsel: Off balance?

Chrysler: Certainly. As you know, all barristers seek to undermine the confidence of any hostile witness, or defendant. Therefore it must be equally open to the witness, or defendant, to try to shake the confidence of a hostile barrister.

Counsel: On the contrary, you are not here to indulge in cut and thrust with me. You are only here to answer my questions.

Chrysler: Was that a question?

Counsel: No.

Chrysler: Then I can't answer it.

Judge: Come on, Mr Lovelace! I think you are still being given the run-around here. You can do better than that. At least, for the sake of the English bar, I hope you can.

Counsel: Yes, m'lud. Now, Mr Chrysler, perhaps you will describe what reason you had to steal 40,000 coat hangers?

Chrysler: Is that a question?

Counsel: Yes.

Chrysler: It doesn't sound like one. It sounds like a proposition which doesn't believe in itself. You know – "Perhaps I will describe the reason I had to steal 40,000 coat hangers... Perhaps I won't... Perhaps I'll sing a little song instead..."

Judge: In fairness to Mr Lovelace, Mr Chrysler, I should remind you that barristers have an innate reluctance to frame a question as a question. Where you and I would say, "Where were you on Tuesday?", they are more likely to say, "Perhaps you could now inform the court of your precise whereabouts on the day after that Monday?". It isn't, strictly, a question, and it is not graceful English but you must pretend that it is a question and then answer it, otherwise we will be here for ever. Do you understand?

Chrysler: Yes, m'lud.

Judge: Carry on, Mr Lovelace.

Counsel: Mr Chrysler, why did you steal 40,000 hotel coat hangers, knowing as you must have that hotel coat hangers are designed to be useless outside hotel wardrobes?

Chrysler: Because I build and sell wardrobes which are specially designed to take nothing but hotel coat hangers.

Sensation in court. More of this tomorrow, I hope

[n2gun]

Surgeons Deliver 46-Year-Old Fetus


Oct 24, 1:42 pm ET

RABAT (Reuters) - Moroccan surgeons have relieved a 75-year-old woman

of what she thought was a long-standing tumor but turned out to be the

remains of a 46-year-old fetus, Moroccan newspapers said Thursday.
The woman had complained of abdominal pains, so she underwent surgery

in July by a team led by Professor Taibi Ouazzani in Rabat's Avicennes

hospital, the newspapers Al Ahdath al-Maghribia and L'Opinion said.

How the team determined how long the woman had carried the fetus was

not disclosed, and officials at Avicennes were not immediately

available for comment.

Ouazzani's team plans to show a video about the surgery at a news

conference Friday.

[eggplant43]

Boy, I sure want to see that!

[eggplant43]

There's no place like a hotel
'Hotels like to have a touch of class. They like to give their guests high-class wood hangers. It makes them feel good about themselves'

Miles Kington
16 October 2002


Yesterday I brought you part of an extraordinary High Court case in which Mr Arnold Chrysler stands accused of stealing thousands of hotel clothes hangers. His defence is that he manufactures wardrobes that can only take hotel clothes hangers, and he can only get hotel hangers from hotels. As a service to any of us who have ever taken anything home from a hotel, I bring you a further extract from this trial today.

Counsel: Now, Mr Chrysler, am I right in saying that hotel clothes hangers do not have hooks on top but little studs that will only work on special racks?

Chrysler: That is correct.

Counsel: This design arose because so many hotel hangers were

Chrysler: That is correct.

Counsel: And they had no option but to change the design to stop them being stolen?

Chrysler: That is not correct.

Counsel: That is not correct?

Chrysler: No. The world of hotels had not one, but two options. They could change the design of the way they were hung, yes, but they could also cheapen the hangers. They could very easily have given guests inexpensive plastic or metal hangers they would never have missed when they were stolen. But that would have lowered the tone of the hotel. Hotels, even hotels in a chain, like to have a touch of class. They like giving guests high-class solid wood hangers. It makes them feel good about themselves. It also makes them worth stealing.

Counsel: And people come to you, do they, asking you to make special wardrobes so that they can use stolen clothes hangers?

Chrysler: It isn't so much the fact that they are stolen that makes them attractive. You have to remember that many top businessmen spend more of their time in hotels than in their own home. They become used to hotel life. They think of hotels as home. Therefore they become used to hotel hangers and think of them as normal, and on the rare occasions when they spend some time at home they can't stand these fiddly things with hooks which you and I may think of as normal but which the business traveller thinks of as loose-fitting and badly designed. So they come to me and get me to make a hotel-style wardrobe.

Counsel: Are you seriously suggesting that there are people who prefer hotel life to home life?

Chrysler: Certainly. A lot of businessmen would never go home if they had the chance. So when they get home they like to recreate the hotel experience in their own house. Many of my clients have their own mini-bars in their bedrooms. They have TV sets at the end of the bed on a raised shelf, often with an adult sex channel on it. All their bathroom products come in wrappers and are thrown away each day. I have even known people in their own home put out "Do Not Disturb" notices on the door of their own bedroom.

Counsel: Stolen, presumably, from some hapless hotel.

Chrysler: Never call a hotel hapless. They know what they are doing. No hotel loses money willingly. They may have things taken from them, but the stuff that guests leave behind is just as valuable.

Counsel: Are you serious when you say that clients of yours drink from their own minibars in their own bedrooms in their own homes?

Chrysler: Certainly. And just as in a hotel, they grumble about the price and size of the bottles, and the absence of ice.

Counsel: So why don't they get a proper fridge in their bedroom?

Chrysler : Because then it wouldn't be like a hotel.

Judge: Tell me, Mr Chrysler, do these businessmen of yours also have Gideon Bibles by their bedside at home?

Chrysler: Many of them, sir.

Judge: And where do you get the Gideon Bibles from?

Chrysler: Alas, they, too, have to be taken from hotels.

Judge: Then why are you not also up on a charge of Bible-stealing?

Chrysler: Because the Bibles do not belong to the hotels. They belong to the Gideon Society. And the Gideon Society has decided not to prosecute me, but to forgive me and tell me to go and sin no more.

Judge: And have you sinned no more?

Chrysler: Alas, no.

This case continues, though not in this column. Those who are interested in a hotel ambiance for your home should contact Arthur Chrysler's World of Hotel Decor

[eggplant43]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

October 27, 2002
Authorities Say 8 Women Operated $12 Million Pyramid Scheme
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 26 (AP) — Eight women have been charged with fraud in what the authorities say was a $12 million pyramid scheme in which women were invited to parties in beauty salons and homes and promised the opportunity to help their community and make money for themselves.

The network, called Women Helping Women, held parties featuring a "birthday girl" who would receive up to $40,000 from the participants, each of whom had donated up to $5,000 to get in and was counting on eventually celebrating her own "birthday." For many women, the birthday party never came.

Four Sacramento-area women were arrested on Oct. 3 on fraud charges, and four more women were charged this week.

The parties, the authorities said, were part of a pattern of pyramid schemes found in nearly every state. Recently, 30 people were indicted in New Mexico on charges of running similar schemes.

The scheme has also surfaced in Texas, where two women were arrested in 2000, and in Philadelphia, where the authorities said last year that a dozen women had complained about a similar network.

In Maine, the attorney general warned last year of a similar scheme that concentrated on men, sometimes using the names Nascar or Men's Club.

In Sacramento, the four women arrested in early October face charges that could bring five years in prison. They are Cheryl Bean, 54, a former personnel officer at Pacific Bell; Anne Marie King, 47, the co-owner of a Montessori school; Pamela Garibaldi, 57, a part-time English professor at a community college; and Cathy Lovely, 49, a homemaker. None have entered pleas. Four more women, two of them Ms. Garibaldi's adult daughters, turned themselves in on Wednesday and Thursday.

Detectives said the enterprise in Sacramento boasted of getting 10,000 women to participate in the last two years.

Investigators said each woman had to recruit eight others to get her $40,000. Each of those eight women then had to recruit another eight. Eventually the pyramid collapses, with most participants losing their money.

[eggplant43]

Court rules professor without students can't be told to change ways

By ROGER H. AYLWORTH - Staff Writer
A state appeals court has officially ruled nobody can order a tenured Chico State University professor to do anything, but suggestions are acceptable.

The ruling from California's 3rd District Court of Appeals involved the case of Chico State finance Professor Suleman A. Moosa, who was demoted in 1998.

Moosa first came to public notice when it was discovered that he was being paid to teach several courses, but there were no students enrolled in any of the classes.

Both students and fellow faculty members alleged Moosa's approach to class was so strange and his manner so caustic that students refused to take his courses.

"It was, and has always been, Professor Moosa's position that the low enrollment and low grades in his courses were the result of university policies and the general lack of student preparedness for university-level work," according to court documents from the case.

After a performance review of Moosa by a committee of three other professors, Arno Rethans, then-dean of the College of Business, ruled Moosa had not changed his ways.

In February 1998, Rethans, according to the court papers, ordered Moosa "to develop an improvement plan," covering "the areas of course mechanics, material coverage, testing procedures and grading," and to have the plan completed within two weeks.

Instead of providing the improvement plan as ordered, the professor submitted a copy of his peer review report that said Moosa is "a knowledgeable and resourceful educator with a strong commitment to the teaching profession and the ideal of life-long learning."

The report also stated low enrollment was a result of a lack of "prerequisite knowledge and skills possessed by the students, a serious problem the dean and other administrators needed to address."

In March of the same year Chico State President Manuel Esteban demoted Moosa from full professor to associate professor, which included a substantial cut in pay, "for unprofessional conduct and failure or refusal to perform the normal and reasonable duties of (his) position."

That triggered a series of appeals including a suit Moosa brought in Butte County of Superior Court, all of which ended in upholding the demotion.

However, the appeals court in the recently rendered decision said Moosa's demotion was illegal because the contract between the professors' union - the California Faculty Association - and the California State University Board of Trustees doesn't allow for supervisors and administrators to give orders to faculty.

"There is nothing in the collective bargaining agreement authorizing the dean or any other administrator, as part of a periodic performance evaluation, to direct a tenured professor to engage in any activity, whether or not that activity is aimed at improving the professor's performance as a teacher," said the appeals court ruling.

"On the contrary, the applicable provision in the collective bargaining agreement authorizes only a discussion of the professor's strengths and weaknesses, 'along with suggestions, if any, for his/her improvement.'

"By definition, an order is the antithesis of a suggestion. While Dean Rethans had the right under the collective bargaining agreement to propose that Professor Moosa develop a plan to improve his teaching performance, he had no right to command Professor Moosa to do so," continued the ruling.

The appellate court ordered the case back to the Butte County Superior Court for further action.

Neither Moosa nor his attorney, Brendon Ishikawa of Davis, returned phone calls for comment.

President Esteban said the university will further appeal the ruling.

"I think this is an incredibly narrow interpretation of even that contract. If no one can ever tell people what to do, that they have to change, then we have anarchy," said the president.

[eggplant43]

Springfield man arrested after dog killed in microwave oven


By JOHN REYNOLDS
STAFF WRITER

A 41-year-old Springfield man was arrested Saturday after he allegedly killed his girlfriend's dog in a microwave, a Springfield police report indicated.
Everette S. Howze of the 2700 block of Poplar Avenue was still being held in the Sangamon County Jail Saturday evening where he is facing a possible charge of animal abuse-aggravated cruelty.

According to a police report, authorities were called to Howze's home by his girlfriend about 3 p.m. When they arrived, they found a pillowcase on the front porch that contained the remains of a small brownish-black dog.

Witnesses told police that Howze tied a blue bag around the dog's neck, put the live animal in the microwave and then turned on the oven.

Police examined the microwave, and found evidence that seemed to indicate the dog had been put inside the oven, the report said.

The police report alleged that Howze was jealous of the amount of attention his girlfriend was giving the dog.

Howze was not at the residence when police arrived, but contacted authorities when he heard that officers were at his home.

[eggplant43]

Tuesday » October 29 » 2002

40 bare all for free yoga clothing
More than 40 people hoped to snag free gifts at store's grand opening

Amy O'Brian
Vancouver Sun


Monday, October 28, 2002

Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun
These shoppers and other brave souls bared it all for new clothes in a promotional stunt for the opening of the Robson Street Lululemon. Here, manager Margarita Angelatos hands out panties to three women as accountant Jas Padda looks the other way.


It was not an affair for the meek, modest or mild.

But for those who revel in the sensation of naked flesh against frigid morning air and get a high from exposing private body parts to strangers, Lululemon's grand opening of its second Vancouver location was a perfect fit.

More than 40 robed men and women lined up in the bone-chilling air Saturday morning, hoping to snag one of 30 "naked passes" guaranteeing them a chance to bare all for free yoga wear.

People started arriving outside the new Robson Street boutique at 6:45 a.m., giving them about three hours to prepare for the crucial moment.

The 26 women and four men who got the naked passes were ordered to show their birthday suits for 30 seconds on Robson Street before being allowed to enter the store and scour the racks for one top and one bottom.

Masks, shoes and hats were allowed, while underwear, shirts and pants were not.

Looking like a unisex locker room, the boutique swarmed with bare bums and bouncing breasts as the winners bent to find their sizes and stretched to pull on lycra tops.

Ainsley Sutton, 22, walked away with $200 worth of yoga gear and a new appreciation for being naked in public.

"I'm not usually comfortable about being naked," she said. "In the change room, I'm usually the one facing the corner."

A student at Capilano College, Sutton said the three-hour wait gave her a chance to catch up on some of her studying.

Asked why she chose to bare all, she said: "Why not? It's an opportunity to get free clothes by doing something so easy."

Abby Reyes, 29, said she showed up and showed off because she thought it was a great gimmick.

Wearing a sparkling mask and shimmering Halloween wig, Reyes said she practises yoga religiously and often enjoys stretching in the nude.

"Yoga's not a sport that requires clothing, so this is a real treat," she said.

Chip Wilson, Lululemon's owner, conceded it was a cheeky promotional scheme, but said he likes to market his products in an entertaining way.

"I've been very unimpressed with normal advertising. I think any advertising should create excitement," he said.

The dozens of onlookers who showed up to sneak a peak at the nudies proved Wilson's marketing scheme a success.

"I think everyone had a fantastic time," he said. "Everyone had freedom of choice -- even just to come down and look."

Founded here in 1999, Lululemon now has stores in Toronto and Calgary, but Wilson said Saturday's promotional scheme was Vancouver-specific.

"There are a lot of things done in Vancouver that seem natural that would seem unnatural elsewhere," he said.

Vancouver police turned a blind eye to the promotional naked-fest and everyone was clothed by 10:05 a.m.

© Copyright 2002 Vancouver Sun