--DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED?


…In entertainment news, Matt Lauer inked a $25 million-per-year deal to remain on NBC's Today show while Snoop Dog announced (this is true) he's releasing a smokable songbook of his lyrics, with pages that can be used as rolling papers.
Madonna tweeted to Britney: "please come on stage and kiss me again." while Ryan Gosling, who broke up a Manhattan street fight last year, just the other day saved a woman from getting hit by a taxi.

…You know how they say men get better with age and, well, women don't? Not true. Case in point is Julia Louise-Dreyfus. She looks fantastic. One hundred percent better than Jerry Sienfeld, George, Kramer or Newman. Maybe more than one hundred percent better.

…Last week some recreational parks people stocked the lake outside my window with 8,000 fish. Today long-necked ducks are dive-bombing the water like they've won the lottery, which I guess they have. It's quite a sight. There are dozens of the birds.

…In the latest issue of Newsweek the featured a large photograph of a man running down a street on fire.
There was a crowd lined up down the sides. Several people were taking photographs of the burning man.
27 year old Jamphel Yeshi had set himself on fire to denounce Chinese President Hu Jintao's impending visit to India. Yeshi died two days later from severe burns.
Almost 30 copy-cats have self-immolated this year.
I can understand the passion, but how can that be worth it?

…Why do we still have the death penalty? I don't get it.
Most executions in 2011:
#1 --China, 1,000+
#2 --Iran, 360
#3 --Saudi Arabia
#4 -- Iraq, 68
#5 --USA, 43

…Of the five most affordable cars, only one is made in America

…So far American Airlines has cut 14,200 jobs. How does a company get so bloated that it can afford to reasonably eliminate that many positions?

… A New York Times article says that every U.S. death affects, on average, four other people profoundly. Of those affected survivors, something like 15 percent can "barely function." And this decisive suffering--which lasts and last, and offers "no redemptive value"--has been given a name, to distinguish it from what used to be called sorrow: "Complicated Grief Disorder."
-taken from Darin Strauss's memior, "Half a Life."