Odds and Ends

I have some good news to report, and some odd news, thus the blog title header.

The good news?  Mom left behind two scratch-off lottery tickets at the grocery store and thought they were gone forever.  I called; they weren’t.  Some kind and honest soul had turned them in.  I went to get them for her, and unfortunately, they lost.

But it was greatly appreciated that an honest person found them and turned them in to the customer service desk at the store.  It helped restore my faith in humanity a little bit, which has been down since the unprovoked attack on Gabrielle Giffords, which killed six people and wounded fourteen, last Saturday.

Now for the odd news — this past Tuesday, Mary Fallin was sworn in as the new Governor of Oklahoma.  She is their state’s first woman Governor, and was taking her oath of office outdoors.

What happened?  Well, rather than say she’d “support, obey and defend” the Constitution, she said she’d “support, obey, and offend” the Constitution instead.

Don’t believe me?  Check out this story for further details:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/13/politics/main7242727.shtml

The most ridiculous quote in this article comes from Gov. Fallin’s spokesman Alex Weintz, who blamed the weather for Fallin’s verbal miscue.

“She dropped the ‘d’,” Fallin spokesman Alex Weintz said Wednesday. “I was amazed that anyone was able to speak at all or get any of their lines right considering how cold it was outside.” It was 29 degrees and light snow was falling when Fallin recited her oath of office on the steps of the state Capitol.

Now, folks . . . I live in Wisconsin.  We have colder temperatures than this all the time, and often, the oaths of office are administered outdoors.  No one here has ever said he’d “offend” the Constitution of the state, or of the United States of America.  So I have to believe this is a spurious reason for why Gov. Fallin misspoke.

Anyway, other than that things are just rolling along . . . writing-wise, I’ve written 3000 words this week, which isn’t bad, considering.  (Maybe I’ll get more writing in over the weekend; one can only hope.)  And tomorrow, there’ll be a Packers playoff game to watch — not sure if I’m rooting for ’em, against ’em or just watching ’em at this point, but at least it’s something that keeps me amused.