Cranky Greg's View

Pre-Soviet Color Photos

Great color photos of pre-USSR Russia.

Amazing.

Humpday Ramblings

Here's some shocking news:  Sammy Sosa tested positive for "performance enhancing drugs" in 2003!  Of course, no one is surprised by this.  Sammy was a cute and talented kid when he was drafted by the Texas Rangers.  Then he blew up into a caricature as the steroids inflated his muscles and he started looking goofy.  At least Sammy wasn't as stuck up as Barry Bonds.

U.S. Senator John Ensign from Nevada is the latest "family values" politician to disclose that he had been having an affair.  Ensign's affair was very similar to San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom's affair.  Like Newsom, Ensign had an affair with the wife of a close friend who worked on his staff.  Unlike Newsom, Ensign was a loudmouth participant of Promise Keepers, the religious right organization that loudly proclaims that its members are soldiers for God and integrity.  It always seems to me that the louder the politicians talk about family values and religion, the more they have to hide.  Cranky Greg could care less if a politician has an affair.  But CG has to chuckle when the preachy types get caught.  Sen. Ensign is Just Another Stupid Politician.

The City of Fresno ranks 94th out of the 100 largest cities nationwide for relative economic performance, according to a study released today by the Brookings Institution.  This does not surprise Cranky Greg because the housing bubble was a huge factor in this.  CG remembers the days of Wild West real estate in Fresno.  In a city where average incomes are among the lowest in California, people were snapping up $700k+ houses like crazy!  Now it's all crashing down, and Fresno is too reliant on agriculture to overcome a crisis like the real estate fiasco.  Until Fresno can broaden its economic base, Fresno and the rest of the Central Valley will have some more tough years ahead.

The David Letterman/Sarah Palin controversy is old news now, and Letterman "apologized" to Palin for his "joke" about A-Rod "knocking-up" Palin's daughter.  Everyone knows that if Sarah Palin said something obnoxious about Letterman's wife or child that she would be hammered by MSM.  But Letterman can get away with it.  His apology wasn't sincere, because it came so late.  CG used to be a big fan of Letterman until about 5 or 6 years ago when his show became stale and he became a surly old bastard.  Now viewers of Letterman's show see an old surly guy who simply reads from his blue cue cards the whole show.

Ann and John McClamrock

Cranky Greg has vague memories of the story of John McClamrock in Dallas from the 1970's.  John played on the JV football team for Hillcrest High School.  In September 1973, John was injured during a football game and was paralyzed from the neck down.  He could only move his head a little side-to-side.

John's saintly mother, Ann McClamrock, took care of John the rest of his life.  She gave her life to John.

John died in March 2008, just before his 52nd birthday.  Ann was still alive then, but would die a few weeks later at age 89.

Read Skip Hollandsworth's article about Ann and John McClamrock in this month's Texas Monthly magazine.

If you can read it without at least tearing-up or just flat-out bawling, then you are probably not a human being.

After reading this amazing article about two amazing people you will think twice about ever giving a shit about Paris Hilton, A-Rod, Michael Jackson, etc....  People like that just seem so irrelevant after reading about Ann and John.

Those Crazy New York Lawyers!

Fancy-pants New York City lawyer Madlyn Primoff was driving around the other day with her two young daughters who are 10 and 12.  As young sisters often do, they started bickering in the car.  Well, Ms. Primoff, who is an attorney and makes a living fussing and fighting all day, couldn't take it anymore so she pulled over and dumped her kids on the side of the road.  She was arrested for endangering a child.

Manhattan lawyer William Parente, while visiting his college-student daughter in Baltimore, killed his wife and two children and then committed suicide.  Friends describe Mr. and Mrs. Parente as a "perfect couple" and the family as "close."  No one knows why Parente went off the deep end.

Former New York attorney general and governor, Elliot Spitzer, resigned in disgrace after the hooker prosecuting prosecutor was found patronizing his former targets.  This weekend, Spitzer took his daughter to see State of Play, a new movie about a congressman who got caught having an affair with a pretty young thang.  Others who were at the show were "squirming" when they saw Spitzer at the show with his daughter.

Smelly Burglar

A dumb wannabe bad-ass teenager in Centerville, Utah defecated in his pants when he found out that a car he was about to break into was inhabited by a uniformed police officer.

Dude, It's My Brother!

Two Swiss identical twins beat the rap on a bunch of parking tickets because they blamed each other and claim to share the same car and even with video surveillance, no one can tell them apart.

Fat Guys Buy Two

Fat guys (aka "passengers requiring extra space") who want to fly United are gonna have to start buying two tickets.

Is it Cancer or a Fir Tree?

A Russian guy inhaled a seed and a fir tree started growing in his lung.  Russian surgeons recently removed the tree.

Ugly Building

The ugliest building at Texas Tech University is the Architecture Building.

It's Porn Time at UC Davis

The student-run Entertainment Council at The University of California at Davis is planning on showing a porn movie on campus tomorrow night.  On tap is Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge.

The administration says it does not censor student events.