Friday, May 9, 2008

Sinkhole de Mayo... Green puppies... Blog or chocolate?

It is always entertaining (well, mostly entertaining) watching MSNBC. You just never know what the cable news network will feature as "news." This morning, I got an unexpected two-fer. Apparently, down in Daisetta, Texas, there is a 260-foot-deep sinkhole that grew to the length of three football fields over just two days -- literally swallowing (or attempting to swallow) the town of Daisetta. (No mention of any giant worms.)

While I am sure this is no laughing matter to the good citizens of Daisetta, it is pretty awe inspiring. The funny part? Due to the fact that the sinkhole occurred in May, the locals refer to it as... wait for it... Sinkhole de Mayo. Get it?! Sinkhole de Mayo?!

Moving right along...

Also in the news (and I'm not talking "News of the World" or "The Star" but once again MSNBC), last week a golden retriever gave birth to a bright green puppy in New Orleans. Animal experts do not believe the pup, named Wasabi, will grow up to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Dog, but you never know.

UPDATE: According to sharp-eyed blog reader and blogger Betty Cracker, there were TWO green puppies born last week. Shocking but true. I apparently conflated the stories. The New Orleans green puppy, which I link to, was born to a boxer or boxer mix; the golden retriever and its green pup -- the one named Wasabi -- hail from California. Btw, if the owners of the other green pup have not come up with a name yet, I propose Quiche Lorraine.

Finally, a colleague of mine sent me this fascinating bit of research regarding women and blogging. (Thanks Dan!) According to the research brief, titled "Women Would Sacrifice Almost Anything But Chocolate For Blogging," which is based on a survey of more than 6,000 women conducted by BlogHer and Compass Partners, "36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week, with 15.1 million publishing and 21.1 million reading and commenting." And I'm one of them! Fascinating.

Even more interesting, according to the survey women are so passionate about blogging that they would be willing to give up something near and dear to them in order to keep blogging. Among the items included:

- 55% would give up alcohol
- 50% would give up their PDAs
- 42% would give up their i-Pod
- 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
- But only 20% would give up chocolate

I find it interesting that sex was not included among the choices (though will keep my snarky comments to myself).

For the record, you can have my chocolate; just keep your paws off my blog.

3 comments:

Dave S. said...

I of course was reminded of Elvis Costello's 1986 masterpiece, also the first words of the first track.

Sing/shout angrily with me:

"BLOG AND CHOCOLATE!"

Uncomplicated, truly.

Anonymous said...

I saw a green puppy report on CNN the other day, only they said it was a boxer rather than a goldern. I have a boxer, so that detail definitely caught my attention. I had to investigate. It turns out, a green golden retriever was born in CA, and a green boxer was born in NOLA. It can only be a sign of the apocalypse.

Anonymous said...

Smart women of the world unite and choose chocolate!