Archive for April, 2006
The Cobbler’s Shoes…
Wednesday, April 5th, 2006It seems H&R Block has restated its earning for the last two years, because it made mistakes on its income taxes.
Seriously.
H&R Block said on Friday that it was restating earnings for 2004 and 2005 to reflect previously reported mistakes on its income taxes.
In a series of regulatory filings, H&R Block said it underreported its state income tax liability by $30.5 million through April 30, 2005, requiring the company to lower per share earnings for that year by 3 cents, 2004 earnings by 4 cents and earnings before May 1, 2003, by 1 cent.
Heh…Only 10 days until April 15th. Probably a pretty busy time for them, huh? I guess this year , they’ll be shooting for the “don’t read the paper” crowd…
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The Most Trivial Piece of Trivia This Millenium
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006At 1:02:03AM tonight, the date and time will be:
01:02:03, 04/05/06
Of course, you know what that means….
That’s right: Absolutely nothing.
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Fun Facts from Charlotte
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006Two fun facts from my business trip to Charlotte:
1) The area of town where all the businesses are, typically referred to as “downtown” in most cities, is conveniently referred to as “uptown” in Charlotte. Takes a little getting used to, but no big deal…
2) Most of the office buildings have this sign posted in the lobby:
No Firearms Permitted on the Premises
Yes, that’s right – I said MOST buildings…
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Hey Donald – You’re Fired!
Tuesday, April 4th, 2006The University of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump’s alma mater, is giving The Donald’s major casino competitor, Steve Wynn, an honorary degree this year.
Can you get an honorary degree from a university where you’ve already earned an actual degree? Probably not when you’ve got billions of dollars and haven’t donated much (if anything) to the school all these years…
Categories: University of Pennsylvania | 4 Comments »
Whatever happened to the Soup Nazi?
Monday, April 3rd, 2006For Seinfeld fans who might be wondering what ever happened to the (in)famous Soup Nazi (based on Mr. Al Yeganeh, located at 55th Street and 8th avenue in Manhattan, and on the web at http://www.originalsoupman.com), here’s a press release announcing several of his planned 100 grand openings throughout Manhattan and around North America, which each include a $10,000 donation to City Harvest (a New York hunger relief group) from his charitable organization, known as Soup For Life.
The press release says he opened his first store in 1984, in order to fulfill his desire to “feed the world.” It also gives a website and phone number for those interested in franchising opportunities.
I hope this man calls Jerry Seinfeld each and every day and thanks him.
And maybe brings him free soup.
Not that Seinfeld needs free soup.
Nevermind….
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Da Vinci Code Paranoia
Sunday, April 2nd, 2006I’m in North Carolina on business. It’s 11PM, and I turned on FOX to watch Seinfeld. Except in North Carolina, you don’t get Seinfeld at 11PM, you get Jerry Falwell.
Now I’m not disparaging anyone’s faith here, but I gotta tell you – this show is funnier than Seinfeld. The topic of tonight’s show is “Disparaging the Da Vinci Code.” I can’t type fast enough to actually quote him, but here’s a paraphrase of what he said:
Dan Brown has written a book called the Da Vince Code, which has sold 30 million copies, and Ron Howard has made a movie about it that will open on May 19th. The book claims that Jesus Christ was not God, that he didn’t claim to be God, that he was human, that he married Mary Magdalene and had children with her, and that those children became the kings and queens of France. It claims that Jesus was human, and that Mary Magdalene was divine. This book is allegedly a novel, but we’re wondering if it’s really a mix of fact and fiction, presented in a way that makes one think all of it is true, when really, it’s not true at all. That’s why we’re offering a DVD set for four easy installments of $29.99, that explains all of the things in The Da Vince Code that aren’t true.
So to review: The book CLAIMS to be a novel. But this claim is deceiving, since what it really is is a book that merges facts and fiction in a way that sounds like fact, but really isn’t true. In other words, it’s A NOVEL. It’s almost like they wish Dan Brown was claiming it were true so they could prove him wrong.
One problem: he’s not claiming that. I’ve never read a single thing from Dan Brown or anyone connected to him claiming that the book is true. It was written as a novel and sold as a novel. The only claim that Brown makes is that the secret societies he mentions actually existed, as do all of the architecture, artwork, etc. that he references. None of this is inconsistent with the book being a fictional novel.
Meanwhile, in desperate attempts to counter these (admittedly) false claims, Falwell and friends keep plugging the book and the movie (all the while plugging their DVD set to debunk them).
Mark my words: this movie is going to be the next Titanic. It’s going to make a billion dollars. And the irony is, a lot of its business is going to be driven by these paranoid religious folks who seem so desparate to prove to us what we already know – that it’s just a story.
And what a story it is…
Categories: News and/or Media | 2 Comments »