This is Actually More Serious Than the Joke Below Suggests

10/26/26 Guardian:

The unintended actions flagged by Anthropic included a model submitting a fake tip about an unsolved murder to the Philadelphia police department. The US state department also revealed this month that Anthropic model had filed 19 visa applications in August.

So  did Claude also request naturalization for its agents? Or does birthright citizenship apply to clankers, too?

Have You Seen This Joke?

Only in Los Angeles can you go into night court and see someone charged with human sacrifice without the proper permit?

I think my memory says Fred Clark, 1940s.

Fun Things You Find Digging Through Old Newspapers

 

With what I am researching, any laughs at all are nice.

Apparently the Trump DOJ Investigated and Found This Was Bogus

Supposedly a smart thermostat in a Georgia precinct was relaying voting data to a server in China. If Trump's DOJ had not already examined this and found it unfounded, I would be worried.  But the comment from a Georgia voters that he was going to vote by thermostat next time gave me a laugh.

The Headline Was Disturbing

 8/20/26 CNN:

FBI raids former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s home, seizes devices in probe tied to sexual assault claims

The clarification in the article got us out of naughty land:

Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and then raided his home in Washington, DC, the next day as part of an ongoing probe connected to sexual assault allegations, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.[emphasis added]

Cute

On an SUV:

Emotional Support Vehicle 

My First Thought Was: Wiccan Store?

After analysis, this is even more disturbing. 

That seems to be a demonic hot dog.

Someone Had Way Too Much Fun Writing This Label

Funnest Collection of Memes Yet

Here.

A few/examples 

You're Having a Bad Day? Ask These Candles How Their Days Have Gone!

I used to by mistake use these to make the bearings on my Dobsonian move more smoothly. (That does not work. Clean them thoroughly instead, especially of any candle wax.) I kept them in the telescope in the last house. Think of the punishment "hot house' in Cool Hand Luke or the marvelous parody in Take the Money and Run, where the protagonist is locked in a hot house for two days with a life insurance salesman.

If You Grew Up Watching the Roadrunner Cartoons

You will look forward to this movie: Coyote v. Acme in which Wile E. Coyote hires an ambulance chaser to sue Acme for all the  injuries.

Just Saw This on X

I Do Not Generally Repost Memes, But This Was Too Good

Favorite Texas Joke

Two young men went to college together. After graduation, they went to separate jobs in New York City and Houston.  Two years later, the guy from New York City had a conference in Houston and called his friend. 

"Let's meet at your hotel in the bar," the newly minted Texas says.

They meet in the bar.

"Everything in Texas is bigger and better. The skies are bigger, the roads are bigger, the women are more beautiful."

After a few drinks, the New Yorker has a call of nature. He asks the bartender where the Men's Room is. The bartender says down to the corridor, turn right, and first door on the right. 

The New Yorker turns left and goes through the door which leads to the pool. The Texan hears a splash and runs out to the pool. His friend is splashing in the pool yelling, "Don't flush! Don't flush!"

The Blazing World (Funny History)

Bishop Juxon and his chancellor (why did a bishop need a chancellor?) Dr. Arthur Duck went on a visitation of their diocese. As they traveled, they subject to catcalls, jostling, and quacking.

Great Moments in Packaging Abuse

Fedex delivers package. Okay.

Inside is a Priority Mail box. Not okay, these are reserved for Priority Mail.

Inside the Priority Mail box is a Priority Mail envelope.

Not getting better. Inside it in bubble wrap are the little containers of scent that our wives use in outlets to keep the house smelling nice.

Someone clearly learned about the nesting Russian dolls and thought it was a how-to.

Which of These Methods of Execution is Worse?

I am enjoying Jonathan Healey's The Blazing World: A New History of Revolutionary England: 1603-1689. You doubtless know because you read this blog that treason in England was punished by drawing and quartering, of which castration was probably the least unpleasant part. So in reading the first sentence of chapter 3, I found myself wondering if the Gunpowder Plotters would have preferred execution by Ursus Horribilis:

I wish there was a way to rotate pictures on my phone.  I can rotate and save them in Photos but they stay upside from blogger app 

This is Stupid Crimes in California Week, I Guess

4/18/26 KABC:

IRVINE, Calif. (KABC) -- Irvine police arrested a man accused of purchasing Lego sets from Target, removing some of the valuable pieces and replacing them with dried pasta.

"You read that correctly, we are talking about durum wheat semolina pasta, and what we are calling a pasta-tively terrible plan," the Irvine Police Department said in a post on Instagram.

Target reported at least 70 thefts across the country allegedly tied to 28-year-old Jarrelle Augustine, of Paramount, police said. The thefts totaled about $34,000 in losses.

Not being part of Legoverse, I find myself wondering what are the "valuable pieces"? 

An Insurance Fraud So Weird That I Do Not Need to Tell You in What State it Happened

 4/17/26 SFGATE:

Multiple people in Glendale have been sentenced in a bizarre felony insurance fraud case involving a bear costume and luxury cars. 

Officials from the California Department of Insurance launched the investigation back in 2024 after an insurance company flagged an unusual claim of a Rolls-Royce Ghost sedan being damaged after a bear climbed inside near Lake Arrowhead. The grainy surveillance footage appeared to show a bear rummaging through the vehicle, and photos submitted showed scratches on the interior of the car, which can retail for over $400,000 when new.

But the video and photos from the scene didn’t look quite right. During the investigation, detectives sent the footage to a biologist from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who “concluded the animal shown was clearly a human in a bear suit,” according to the news release from the California Department of Insurance. The team then realized similar claims had been made about damage to two Mercedes vehicles. 

At least the "bear" did not drive it to a chop shop for disassembly. 

Most Amusing Insult That I Have Seen Recently

Did you have an accident with a few rubber bands, a liquid lunch, and a particle accelerator or something?