RIP Howard Zinn

Howard Zinn, Author Of 'People's History Of The United States' died today at age 87. If you're not familiar with his work, Zinn explained its purpose:

He called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter – not the last – of a new kind of history.

"There's no such thing as a whole story; every story is incomplete," Zinn said. "My idea was the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times."

Is that a gecko in your pocket, or are you--oh, it is?!?

German guy stuffed 44 little lizards into his pants before boarding a flight from New Zealand.

Sorry, Ben, no $300,000 car for you!

My firstborn, Benjamin Jordan, turns 16 this Saturday. While we will celebrate in style, it won't be Diddy-style.

What could go wrong?

Ticketmaster and Live Nation allowed to merge.

Watching the big games this week?

I like Dallas to upset Minnesota, New Orleans over Arizona, Indy over Baltimore, and San Diego to ground the Jets. If I watch each broadcast, I'll spend over half of each game watching big guys just standing around. This chart from The Wall Street Journal explains.

More heavy news - from Sweden

A group of Weight Watchers gathered for their weekly weigh-in. And the floor beneath them collapsed. No word on Reverend Gooch being involved.

The Devil responds to Pat Robertson

Via a letter to the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

TGIF doesn't matter this week

It's been a long, emotionally draining week. We've seen the devastation in Haiti and responded with compassion (Pat Robertson and Rush Limbaugh excluded). Pop culture lost the man who gave us "SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!" (on a Sunday, no less), R & B legend Teddy Pendergrass, and Memphis garage rocker Jay Reatard. Today, we say, "See You Later, Alligator" to Bobby Charles, who wrote the 1950's hit of the same name.

Closer to home, we've kept our thoughts and prayers focused on one of our LHS colleagues who lost her husband in an accident last weekend. Today, we learned that one of our grads lost his life in service to our country during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Offering thoughts and prayers just doesn't seem enough.

RIP Willie Mitchell

The man who helped produce GR-native Al Green's biggest hits died this week at age 81. If you're ever in Memphis, check out Willie's star on Beale Street.

What did we do to deserve this?

Just announced: Nickleback is coming to Grand Rapids.