Archive for March, 2009

Colossal Roundtripper Debated

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Wellington Leg: The forty third earl struck an enormous blow this spring training by smacking the longest home run in history, sources claim. The home run traveled more than three thousand feet clearing the HI Mom sign in dead center field with ease. The historic baseball landed in central Wellington Close before bouncing into a bowl of vichyssoise at the toney Hotel Faz Cafe. Diners fled in panic until maitre d Little Ricky announced the soup was on the house.

His Hickory Bat: The earl unveiled an eighty four ounce hickory bat in his first trip to the plate; he swung at the first offering from the Duchess who kicked the dirt in disgust when she heard the crack of the bat. “That was a warmup pitch,” she said. “43 was still in the ondeck circle.”

Monumental Blast: Fresh from winter ball in Newfoundland 43 looked relaxed as he hauled Big Hickory from the equipment bag. With the aid of several onlookers 43 hefted the mighty club briefly resting Big Hickory on his shoulders before collapsing. A small crane provided by the Economic Recovery Act lifted 43 upright just as the Duchess completed her windup. This proved fortuitous as the nine foot bat connected shortly before the earl fell over a second time, no doubt swept away by the sheer momentum he generated.

Mickey Mantle held the previous record with a 660 foot shot. Babe Ruth and Ted Williams went deep over 600 feet but none of those great players ever hit a bowl of soup in a trendy bistro with one their prodigious blows.

Exchequer Porfolio Swap Approved

Friday, March 13th, 2009

House of Gourds: The august upper chamber has given treasury and exchequer officials a reason for cheer: from now on they can forget about money. From now on they’re in charge of college basketball. “We realize how depressed these people were becoming,” said First Gourd Graf Rafferty. “We thought, let’s throw some new people into the financial crisis, people who are fresh and probably broke.”

Kansas Suffers: The Jayhawks men’s team suffered a first round loss in the Big 12 tourney. Part of the blame falls on the officiating crew who only days earlier worked for Treasury. “Well, we warned the point guards that we’d modify the three point line but only if a reasonable alternative presented itself, a blend of private initiative and public policy that might insure some consistency,” said referee JM Keynes. “In the end we will all die and these scores won’t matter all that much,” he added.

Atlantic Ten powerhouse Xavier fared better as the officiating crew replaced the scoreboard with the Philadelphia SOX Index. “We carefully weighted the performance of each player on each team and concluded that LaSalle, Duquesne, and Fordham had no chance of winning the tournament,” a Treasury official commented. “Forget St, Joe’s and GW.”

Syracuse Faces Sanctions: TARP officials may sanction Syracuse because of their six overtime win over UCONN. “That game took too long,” said an unnamed source. As noted in the FOMC minutes “Basketball games shall remain within the confines of their allotted duration, that is to say during regulation.” Clearly the unregulated Orange missed opportunities to put the Huskies away but opted instead to prolong the agony.

March Madness: In a related decision the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled that Niagara University will play Canisius for the national championship April 1st. All twelve fed governors will referee the contest. “This will save a lot of energy,” Speaker Pelosi said. She’s privately rooting for the Purple Eagles.

Sports and Finance Editor Al “Boom-Boom” Greenspan reporting.

Incessant Nibbling to be Outlawed

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

Wellington Leg: What do baseball and Wall Street have in common with literature? Cub reporter Tuffy Tuffington is going to answer that question in a series aptly titled: Nibbling Has Got to Stop!
The editorial board of the Druidical & Literary would like to thank Bernie’s Haus of Sox for sponsoring the series; remember at Bernie’s Haus of Sox you can spell words any way you want. Here then the Tuffington Post. Well, before we start let me just say that the Tuffington Post is no way a satirical look at the Huffington Post. Huffpo is much larger than Tuffpo with an incredible audience in the United States and abroad. Tuffpo is read by a handful of Brazilian oil service workers and a Chinese admiral. No one invites Tuffy to the Larry King show. No one thinks about offshore drilling or the Chinese Navy probably because the global economy is disintegrating. That’s our niche and we’re proud to fill it.

Tuffy got the idea for his series after a dream about Newt Gingrich in which Newt, dressed as Santa, urged Tuffy to stop nibbling around the edges and cut loose a few fastballs.
Thus with Newt as pitching coach and Santa Tuffy took the idea outside near his modest apartment complex just off Pink Panda Place. After chalking out a strike zone on a handy brick wall, Tuffy spent a largely fruitless hour designing a pitcher’s mound out of discarded newspapers and their employees. Once he was set Tuffy encountered an actual Santa on his way home from work. Mistaking the passerby for Newt Tuffy called a greeting only to be pummeled by the man and suffering a bruised rib.

A mighty wind blew the pitcher’s mound away while health care reformers studied Tuffy’s damaged rib suggesting he might find better care in France or Malaysia. This seemed daunting so Tuffy went back inside rebooted and found this phrase typed on his computer: Incessant Nibbling to be Outlawed.

Beginning to suspect that a blitz attack by Santa was no coincidence Tuffy began exploring the hidden costs of incessant nibbling by observing the ebb and flow at a nearby Dunkin Donuts. Thus inspired Tuffy went back into the field ever vigilant for angry men in red, and filed this report:

Next week we’ll have Tuffy’s actual report unless a certain someone hits the delete key again.

Your faithfully,

The Staff.

Nanobots Set to Strike

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Wellington Leg: According to the authoritative Nano News a strike vote has set the stage for a walkout scheduled to begin sometime after midnight. The chief negotiator for the Wellington Leg Nano Cooperative, Erhardt Crisp, has warned the Privy Council that the nanobots are serious this time and want to join the Teamsters Union. “They want to drive tiny trucks into tiny places where large trucks cannot go,” Mr. Crisp said. “They want to frequent miniature truck stops and drink coffee; they want to watch Smokey and the Bandit.”

It’s a Very Small World: Nanobots and NanoWorkers were assigned to repair roads under Wellington Leg’s Economic Stimulus package according to shift foreman Gus of Goth. “It was windy yesterday and my entire nano crew wound up sixty miles away in a chestnut tree. I mean, these nano guys are small, okay? It takes about three million of them to polish off a Big Mac.”

One Square Inch at a Time: Nano bridge building crews have completed a one inch section of the First Avenue Extension not far from Fran’s Haus of Beauty the epicenter of the credit crunch. Readers will recall than Fran’s one thousand dollar loan caused CitiGroup to collapse. “Enough already about CitiGroup,” Fran said. “I’m trying to style some nano hair over here.”

A Basket Full of Kittens: Even before the news of A-Rod’s impending hip surgery foremen such as Gus were having difficulty managing the nanobots. “My full size Ram truck carries about sixty million of these guys; every time I stop for a light they scatter to the four winds ( are there only four? I thought there more) I spend half my day running around looking for these guys,” Gus complained. “That ain’t very stimulative,” he added.

Better Working Conditions: Nanites enjoy their own cafeteria while Nanobots fend for themselves at enormous vending machines. “They form nano chains to reach the coin slot but the quarters are way too big. Plus if they can get the quarter into the machine they are a Snickers bar away from catastrophe.”

Organizers predict that the nano vote will be close: “We think a few Cat hats ought to cheer them up,” said Erhart Crisp. “One hat ought to cover about forty million nanobots.”

T. Rex Love-Handles reporting.

Wellosaurus May Be Fake

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

Wellington Leg: “Welly” a four and a half ton lizard running loose upon the land may not be an actual dinosaur. The Wellosaurus, believed to be relative of the Allosaurus, recently stepped on the roof of a taxicab near the Wellington Aerodrome. Cab driver Busby “Buzz” Busby had parked his cab near the Donut Kiosk; he was striding toward the dozen glazed donuts he had preordered on the Internet when he heard the sound of metal being crushed.

At first he thought nothing of it. Buzz is a veteran driver whose hack license can be traced back to the Hapsburg or Hohenzollern Ascendancy. When he heard the primordial trumpeting of a Jurassic Period Beast he knew that the monster had stomped his cab flat.

Dinosaurs Are Territorial: The Wellosaurus may have mistaken Busby Busby for a smaller grazing dinosaur that feeds off plants and jelly donuts. DCI Borchardt and the Flying Squad are performing forensic tests on the cab’s pancaked frame and have interviewed not only Busby Busby but eye-witness Bisby Busby no relation to Busby Busby. “Bisby claims that he saw a Wellosaurus shopping for toothpaste last Thursday at the Prince of Denmark Shopping Centre. We’re reviewing security video,” Borchardt said.

Good for the Economy? Most townes are feeling the pinch of declining economic activity so having an actual dinosaur running loose may be a boon. The Privy Council has ordered the Flying Squad to establish once and for all if the Wellosaurus is real; they hope to attract the attention of national media outlets but only if the mighty creature is genuine. “No one wants another fake dinosaur story,” notes Borchardt.

Both Busby and Bisby Busby, no relation, have canceled plans to flee in panic. Busby has tickets to the Gastropods game tonight. “They’re playing the Federal Reserve,” Busby said. “Let’s hope that the Wellosaurus is not a baseball fan,” he said.

T. Rex Love-Handles reporting.