Bugatti Veyron's great-great-grandfather...

Autoblog has this exciting post up today about the "barn find" of the decade. for those of you not aware of what that is, it is the discovery of a classic car that had been thought long destroyed or gone literally found in a barn.

in this case, an original 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante. there were only 17 of these cars made. so, it's really a rare find. it's also in it's original form never having been restored in any way. you can read the entire story here - Barn Find of the Decade: 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante. make sure you check out the full gallery of photos.

after looking at the photo below, try to guess how much this car may be worth. remember, it's great-great-grandson, the Bugatti Veyron, starts at $1.6 million.







ready? the initial guess is that it will go at auction for at least $8.8 Million!

sweet...

weekender...

now that the new year has started, many people have to go through all the hassles with health insurance. ABC World News did a story New Year's Eve on a run on doctors and hospitals because people didn't want to have to pay higher costs that would start after the first of the year nor did they want to start over with their yearly deductible. some were also facing new insurance programs with their employers.

here's a list that everyone should keep in mind if you're not sure if your insurance has changed:

The Top Ten indicators that your employer has changed to a cheaper health care plan.

10. Your annual breast exam is done at Hooters.

9. Directions to your doctor's office include "take a left when you enter the trailer park."

8. The tongue depressors taste faintly of Fudgesicles.

7. The only proctologist in the plan is Gus from Roto-Rooter.

6. The only item listed under Preventative Care Coverage is "an apple a day".

5. Your primary care physician is wearing the pants you gave to Goodwill last month.

4. "The patient is responsible for 200% of out-of-network charges." is not a typographical error.

3. The only expense covered 100% is embalming.

2. Your Prozac comes in different colors with little M's on them.

AND THE NUMBER ONE SIGN YOU'VE JOINED A VERY CHEAP HEALTH CARE PLAN:

1. You ask for Viagra, and they give you a Popsicle stick and duct tape.


you still have the next two days before starting the work new year. enjoy. have another glass of gin...

happy new year from Benedict...

A new statute coming into effect on January 1st will allow the Vatican to bypass Italian law.

This comes in the wake of a row at the UN, where the Vatican refused to sign up to a universal declaration of human rights regardless of gender or sexuality.

Under current laws, the Holy See must accept Italian laws automatically apart from in the case of "radical incompatibility" with canon law.

The new statute signed by Pope Benedict XVI will put an end to this system.

From the start of the new year, all Italian laws will be subject to scrutiny by Vatican authorities before being implemented in the city-state itself.

"Vatican breaks with Italian law after refusing to sign UN sexuality declaration" from PinkNews.co.uk

of course, he has his mouthpieces not connecting it to the UN resolution but to the myriad of Italian laws that are impossible to wade through. [how convenient...]

President of the Commission for the Revision of the Code of Vatican Law Jose Maria Serrano Ruiz said that the decision to change the legal system was due to the "instability" and "exorbitant" number of Italian laws.

see, here's what they really believe -

The Vatican's observer at the UN claimed last week that the declaration will somehow be used to force countries to recognise same-sex marriage.

"If adopted, they would create new and implacable discriminations," said Monsignor Celestino Migliore.

"For example, states which do not recognise same-sex unions as 'matrimony' will be pilloried and made an object of pressure."

so this is what we have. it is all right to discriminate against certain groups [that he chooses] but not to discriminate against others - like him. oh, by the way, the U.N. declaration makes no mention of marriage whatsoever - just advising that no one should be legally victimized because of their sexuality.

talk about obfuscation...

as i've quoted Henry II before, "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

2009...

for the first time in many years, i spent New Year's Eve alone. well, with a terrible cold actually. having worked at both a bar and a restaurant years ago, i came to the conclusion that New Year's Eve was amateur night - let's see how drunk we can get...! i felt safer behind the bar.

for the last 14 years i've spent the evening quietly with friends. usually i cook a multi-course dinner with matching wines and go over the top. it's fun; i love to cook; and it's nice ringing in the new year this way. this year, friends went home for the holidays so we're skipping the tradition. plus, with this cold, i don't feel like doing anything.

that's not true. i had a glass of gin. not just any gin - Bombay Sapphire in the new designer martini glass i got for Christmas...

Happy New Year!

Bonne Année...

a Paris c'est 2009.





elle est sept heures avant nous a Chicago.

j'ai visité Paris pour la fête en 1975 avec mon amie, April. nous avon eu une bonne temps. a diner dans un restaurante locale et une excursion de la Ville des Lumières.

superbe! je manque Paris. il y a trois année depuis j'ai visité ma favori espace des vacances...

eh, bien, peut-être l'année prochaine.

happy new year and thank you...

I just want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally screwed up now and have very little chance of recovery.






I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel or have them put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can't use the remote in a hotel room because I don't know what the last person was doing while flipping through the adult movie channels.







I can't sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking ones nose (although cell phone usage may be taking the number one spot).






Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans-fats I have consumed over the years.






I can't touch any woman's purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.





ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason,







I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me and St. Theresa's Novena has granted my every wish.







I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.







I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.






I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm pumping gas.







I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr. Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put 'Under God' on their cans.

I no longer use Saran Wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.






AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can't boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face... disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or Fed Ex since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don't support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan. where ever the hell they are...






I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

THANKS TO YOU I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.






AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can't ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy gas from certain gas companies!







I can't do any gardening because I'm afraid I'll get bitten by the brown recluse and my hand will fall off.






If you don't send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 pm. tomorrow afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor's ex-mother-in- law's second husband's cousin's beautician.


so...






Oh, by the way.....


A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse.

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late.

monday morning mayhem...

desk clerk



...so I booked into a hotel and said to the receptionist, "I hope the porn channel in my room is disabled."

"No," she said, "It's regular porn, you sick bastard."



New Competition for Virgin Airlines:







NEW YORK — A new airline has entered the highly competitive travel industry this week. Super Luxury Utopian Transport or SLUT airlines as it's referred to in the company brochures, is offering a unique service to the weary traveller.

A spokesman said the fledgling airline will be offering many amenities that the other airlines do not offer. "Take check-in for example - Instead of all those impersonal x-ray machines and waving wands, all our customers will be personally hand searched by a bevy of beautiful models, and all our seats transform into private beds where our world class beautiful stewardesses will be offering memberships in our special ‘Mile High Club’."

The company motto is: "Why fly a Virgin, when you can take a ride on a Slut?"


this IS the truth...






oh well, it is another 3-4 day week again... don't let work get you down, and don't look in the mirror unless you have to do it!

weekender...

the gift you didn't get but wished you had...







the rest of us are glad you didn't...

will we ever be able to say...

The War Is Over
by John Lennon

will we?

i won't give up hope
because...

when hope is gone, life is over....
Hopi Native-American belief

The Night Before Christmas...

from the
Disney Vault
1933

why Santa didn't answer your letter...

ummmmm..., i don't know what to say.


yes, i do sh*t! i'm never gonna get what i want.

what do i want?


i wrapped all the gifts today. i hate wrapping gifts. i prefer bags, but i didn't want to go out with this silly flu. as usual, i played with the kids' presents before i wrapped them. they never know...

the holidays always bring out the best...

the northern half of the U.S., as if there weren't enough problems for the economy and the state of the country, has been having a good old-fashioned winter. lots of snow. lots of ice. AND lots of cold. the last lots is making the electric and gas utility companies happy i'm sure. and it's all happening at the beginning of the joyous holiday season.

joyous! right.

i had my own retail store for a period in the 80's and it showed me the true joyousness the holidays could bring. everyone in retail will know of what i'm speaking. it really brings out the worst in people.

transportation and travel this season is, to understate, a disaster. people who were planning on traveling home for the holidays are rethinking their plans. some people who have already begun their voyages are stranded. this is the part i love.

interviewing a man in Seattle who was stranded because his bus couldn't go anywhere, a reporter was blasted by the man because the bus company stranded him in a place with no alternate plans. he has to be in a station he doesn't know. he might not make it to his destination AND he said that he doesn't even know where he is! [quelle vache!]

it's the bus company's fault.

yes, it must be. they have direct control over the prevailing weather patterns; they have the ability to stop the snow and ice from falling; and they have sole proprietorship of the National Weather Service.

wait, what about the airlines? Amtrack? the auto makers? they must be part of the conspiracy against this man and the others who are so inconvenienced by their utter lack of feeling for him and others who believe just as he does.

if he's from California, maybe he can get some sort of proposition passed to stop the transportation industry from doing these bad things?

just asking...

"Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?" - a new twist...

instead of talking through a designated representative, Benedict opens his own mouth and shows that he is not christian:

VATICAN CITY, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Monday that saving humanity from homosexual or transsexual behaviour was just as important as saving the rainforest from destruction.

"(The Church) should also protect man from the destruction of himself. A sort of ecology of man is needed," the pontiff said in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.

"The tropical forests do deserve our protection. But man, as a creature, does not deserve any less."

The Catholic Church teaches that while homosexuality is not sinful, homosexual acts are. It opposes gay marriage and, in October, a leading Vatican official called homosexuality "a deviation, an irregularity, a wound".

i would have more hope for Rick Warren than i would for this human, and i hesitate calling him a human.

the stands of this pope and his church over the last several months with its refusal to support the two U.N. resolutions, the one on disability because it says nothing about abortion and one other on decriminalizing LGBTQ in the world, speak to the inhumanity and the belief that all men are not created equal.

the panzerpope refuses to enter the 21st century and is ensuring the eventual death of his own belief system.

i've always found that the louder someone screams against something it is to hide their own fear that they will be found out.

do i think Benedict is queer? you bet. just like Saul of Tarsus...

Rick Warren controversy...

my first comment on this entire thing:

I think that Obama made a mistake and it wasn't calculated. I would bet that he, the transition team and inauguration committee are in surprise. They have been making logical statements about the reaction from the base and Obama has been stammering, if you listen closely, more than usual when he talks about it.

One of the more accurate commentaries I've heard about the controversy is this:

To understand how angry and disappointed many Democrats are that Barack Obama has invited evangelical preacher Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural, imagine if a President-elect John McCain had offered this unique honor to the Rev. Al Sharpton -- or the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. I know, it's hard to picture: John McCain would never do that in a million years. Republicans respect their base even when, as in McCain's case, it doesn't really return the favor.

Only Democrats, it seems, reward their most loyal supporters -- feminists, gays, liberals, opponents of the war, members of the reality-based community -- by elbowing them aside to embrace their opponents instead.

So... try to guess who, among the punditry, news shows, politicians made this comment.


Mike Huckabee, former Republican presidential candidate, former Governor of Arkansas, & fundamentalist minister speaking with Greta Vas Susteren on Fox![ Greta Von Susteren Asks Huckabee About Rick Warren's Role At Obama Inauguration]

what's is wrong with this picture?

just asking...


a thank you to Crooks and Liars for the heads-up.

monday morning mayhem...

my mayhem started last night about 10 pm, having a violent affair with the john...

got the stomach flu...

so the usual mayhem is late and it is brief, but funny...


Hillbilly Mirror

After living in the remote wilderness of Kentucky all his life, an old hillbilly decided it was time to visit the big city .

In one of the stores he picks up a mirror and looks in it. Not ever having seen one before, he remarked at the image staring back at him, 'How about that! Here's a picture of my daddy.'

He bought the mirror thinking it was a picture of his daddy, but on the way home he remembered his wife didn't like his father, so he hung it in the barn, and every morning before leaving for the fields, he would go there and look at it.

His wife began to get suspicious of these many trips to the barn. One day after her husband left, she searched the barn and found the mirror.

As she looked into the glass, she fumed, 'So that's the ugly bitch he's runnin' around with.'