Fridays Odds and Ends

One couple in Fort Worth, Texas are missing the home that belonged to the husband's grandmother. It was demolished by the city when a demolition crew went to the wrong address. The house next to it was the one that was supposed to be razed after being condemned. The owners were not there at the time, but a neighbor tried to intervene and get the demolition crew on the right track, but those attempts failed. According to an editorial in the Dallas Morning News, the owner is not in the kind of snit many of us would be. He is requesting that the city pay him the fair market value for the house that was demolished, and could the city please remove the concrete slab. "It's not much good anymore."

Not the actual slab, but imagine driving up to your house and seeing this.

 In an interesting take on the whole debate about Snowden and whether he is a traitor or a hero, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson said that one good thing to come from the mess is that now a public debate about NASA's domestic snooping is now unavoidable.

I agree that the discussion needs to happen. Ever since 9/11 the average citizen has been negatively impacted by anti-terrorism efforts in too many ways. More thought has to be put into how we protect against terrorism without infringing on the rights and privacy of American citizens, lest we live under the control of Big Brother as fictionalized in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
 

The original cover of the 1949 British Edition

In a real feel good story, I read about a boy of four who is raising money to replace the neighborhood park that was destroyed in the plant explosion in West, Texas. Apparently, this was the park that the boy liked to play in near his grandparents' home and he lost it, along with the home and his father who was a volunteer firefighter. The boy, Parker, is following in his father's legacy of raising money for charitable works, and he held a hot dog sale on a recent Saturday to start raising money to rebuild the park. His grandparents, while still grieving the loss of their son and Parker's father, joined in the effort, along with other residents who added a bake sale and a silent auction to the event. According to the grandmother, the amount of money raised was not enough to even get started on rebuilding the park, but she thought it was important to work with Parker and let him make this effort.

Kudos to Parker and to his grandparents.

Now for some fun from the funny papers. This one is from One Big Happy. Rose, Ruthie's grandmother, is sitting at a desk with a laptop open, her husband, Nick, stands behind her, looking over her shoulder.

Rose says, "Wasn't that cat video adorable."

Nick says, "Below it is the comment 'ROFL'"

Rose translates, "Rolling on the floor laughing."

To which Nick says, "Oh, I thought it meant 'Reaching out to fellow losers.'"

And from Pickles: Earl is sitting on the edge of the bed and Opal asks, "Why are you just sitting there staring into space, Earl?"

"I'm having one of those mornings where I can't decide whether to comb my hair or put on my socks."

"What, you can't do both?"

In the last panel, Opal has walked out and Earl calls after her. "Hey, we're not all overachievers like you you know."

The dog that is on the bed next to Earl adds an "Amen."

Did anything in the news recently strike you as particularly interesting or absurd? What is your favorite comic strip?