"Cello-punk band Rasputina's concept album Oh Perilous World features an alternative-history scenario where Mary Todd Lincoln is Queen of Florida."

- Wikipedia entry for Mary Todd Lincoln

Disputed isle in Bay of Bengal disappears into sea

For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal. Now rising sea levels have resolved the dispute for them: the island's gone.

New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, said oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Its disappearance has been confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols, he said.

Powder in Montana Envelope Just Crushed Pain Pill

So the story starts out by telling you that state officials in Montana are fine, after they discovered that a white powder in some mail they got was just a crushed up pain pill.

No, it wasn't put there on purpose to scare them. Apparently, some lady just accidentally dropped it into the envelope before she mailed it.

Okay, I buy that. It was on her desk, it fell in, sure.

Then they tell you the stick they thought was some kind of "triggering device" was actually a lollipop stick.

Wait, a stick? There was a stick, too? In the envelope?

Yes, apparently, this woman was carrying around the envelope in her purse for a week, where she naturally also had loose pain pills and used lollipop sticks floating around, and they made their way into the envelope.

Allowing for the moment that a lollipop stick and pain pill could make their way into an envelope by accident, how did this woman fail to notice the bulges when she sealed (I'm assuming they didn't crawl into a sealed envelope) and placed the envelope in the mail?

Also, why didn't she throw out the lollipop stick?!!

Clearly a massive government cover up. Everyone should be quarantined who so much as read the news today.

Cheese Thief Jailed for 7 Years in California

Decriminalize cheese thievery!

CONVERSATIONS WITH DEB

Deb, of Conversations with Deb, fame, brings you her trademark brand of interaction along with myself, Dru Johnston, and Scott Sobol. Friday at UCB at 8pm. $10.

We've done this show once before and it was terrific. It'll be even better this time because I won't try to put on a blazer while still holding a scotch glass.

Goat Leads Texas Police on 30-Minute Chase

"There was no immediate word on who owned the goat. "

*Apparently, I already had a "goats" tag.