Congrats to Kelly (of Paradoxes and Problems) and Dave (From The Mind Of Dave), who are expecting their first 80% daughter. Well, their first child, who is going to be 80% girl. That is to say, the technician who did the ultrasound is 80% sure of it. Oh, heck... Kelly explains it better than I do. Stop by her blog and check out the earliest of all possible baby pictures.

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I want to join Ms. Elanaeous in Roanoke in expressing disgust at the way three local teenagers decided to behave during a recent trip to New York:

New York City police have charged three Roanoke County High school students with felonies for throwing buckets of paint off a hotel roof over the weekend.

The N.Y.P.D says 18-year-old Cave Spring high school senior Tyler "Moses" Moore, 18-year-old Cave Spring senior Sean McGhee and a 17-year-old Hidden Valley female student threw seven buckets of paint off their New York City hotel roof early Sunday morning.

Police say the cans hit several police cars and debris from one even hit an officer in the face.

The three students are all charged with criminal mischief, criminal trespass for being on the hotel roof and reckless endangerment and assault with intent to cause physical injury for throwing the paint cans.

All four of the charges the teens face are felonies.

I'd also like to extend an apology, for whatever it might be worth, to the good people of New York City, the NYPD, and just generally decent people everywhere. These three lunkheads don't represent the average Roanoker or the average Appalachian Virginian, and we're sincerely disappointed and embarrassed by their behavior. Feel free to cane 'em before you send 'em back.

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Thanks to MCF, I was able to find out what it would look like if 1,024 Cheerleaders help up placards to form a picture of our basset hound, Chester:

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Remember when David Blaine did interesting "magic" tricks? When was it that he changed from a magician into just another reject from MTV's Jackass?

Magician David Blaine left the hospital Tuesday where he had been admitted for observation after being submerged in an 8-foot fish bowl with an oxygen mask for a week followed by a 7-minute breath-holding stunt.

Rescue divers jumped into the 2,000-gallon saltwater tank Monday night and hauled up the magician as he struggled to break a breath-holding record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. Blaine, who had spent some 177 hours under water, went without air for 7 minutes, 8 seconds as a finale to his endurance stunt.

After being given oxygen, Blaine, 33, looking weak and wrinkly, addressed the large crowd that had gathered around the tank on the plaza of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The challenge had taken a toll on the magician’s body, including liver damage, pins and needles in his feet and hands, some loss of sensation and rashes, said Dr. Murat Gunel, who heads Blaine’s medical team and is associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine.

(Emphasis above is mine.)

OK, remember that weird kid in elementary school? The one who'd do stuff like eat bugs and put mud in his hair to amuse the older kids, hoping that they'd be his friends? But, really, they were just making fun of him and he was too silly and sad to know it? That kid grew up to be David Blaine.

The stuff he's been doing isn't magic. It's a desperate cry for help. It's time that we, as a society, stopped enabling him. Calm down, David Blaine. It's OK. You don't have to be weird to get our attention. We like you as you are. Here... here's a deck of cards... show us one of your neat magic tricks, OK? Calm down, David. It's all going to be OK.