My nephew: budding graphic artist

Not bad, huh?

My 10-year-old nephew Ian, who maintains his own Web site and illustrates the iPhone apps he would write if he could, created this logo for a couple of his elementary school friends.

They're starting a new business in which they sell "colored pencils and other stuff like that."

We can only aspire ...

 HOW MANY PEDIATRIC PATIENTS HAVE FALLEN INTO THIS POT?

Dear American friends,

I really hate to rub it in, but a man forewarned is a man forearmed.

As some of you know, I’ve been living in France for almost 7 years now. I am pretty much blessed with a good condition, so I never had to deal much with the French healthcare system until my son, Arthur, was born in May 2009.

During holidays Arthur had to be hospitalized for a few weeks when he caught the H1N1 flu on top of his already severe bronchiolitis. He’s alright now, but his stay at the hospital was hard on him. Attached are some pictures of his room in the pediatric service of Hopital Nord, Marseille, that I thought I’d share so you get a good idea of what “world class universal healthcare coverage” looks like. ...

[MORE]

Husbands and fat pants

Duane: What's taking you so long?
Julie: I can't find my fat jeans.
Duane: You don't need fat jeans.
[Could have stopped there, but...]
Duane: That was good, wasn't it?
Duane: I said the right thing, didn't I?

Am I Really that Elite or Excellent?

Influential, maybe. I do influence people to write me hate mail, send letters from prison, turn me into action figures, plagiarize my stuff and call for my demise, for example.

Me? Really?

Too many colors in this PR ... that's only one of the problems

1. Dude, what's with all the colors?
2. Why do PR people send an email asking permission to send another email?!
3. Um, hello? How about actually naming the organization and providing a link?

Hi

Every business can become more "Green" and learn different ways to conserve energy,
improve their environmental practices, while also saving money.

May I send you some information on joining the only NEW Green Manufacturing, Construction and Industry Association which is Global in Scope?

It's FREE to join and there are lots of benefits.

MEMBERS include:Manufacturers of Every Kind and Specialty
Material Handling
Packaging
Industrial
Construction
Dealers/Distributors

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS include:Government
Intermodal/Logistics
Supply Chain

And any Company
wanting to go GREEN
Looking forward towards hearing back from you.
Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ian HowardIan Howard

I want to touch the one without feces!

What publicist uses 'LOL' in her pitch?

I'm tempted to call, just for grins ...

Hello Julie

What story are you working on? How may I help you?

As you know, I love being a publicist and would love to serve you connecting you to families, businesses and sources in every state of America as well as some countries world-wide. ...

Feel free to share my contact information with your media friends. Think of me as the energizer bunny publicist, never quitting (LOL), especially call on me in a pinch.

Feel free to request to be removed. I'm really committed to making your job easier.  ~ Michelle

Most ridiculous press release ever?

I can barely stand the waiting ...

DMP to Unwrap Major New Offering at ISC West

Springfield, Missouri — March 11, 2010 — Digital Monitoring Products (DMP) announced today that it will be unveiling something exciting in its booth at ISC West, but is releasing no details about the new offering... whatever it is. ISC attendees will have to wait until the show begins to learn more about this most-recent DMP innovation.

"We'll have a number of innovative new products on hand for booth visitors to see," said Mark NeSmith, Vice President of Sales. "But we're keeping our major new announcement under wraps until March 24. Everyone enjoys a surprise, so we decided to provide one at the show. Visitors who want to see what we've got up our sleeve will need to stop by Booth 20017. We think they'll agree that it was worth waiting for."

Holy crap! Did Ken really say that?

EH Publishing president Ken Moyes issued a video message about EHX yesterday via YouTube.

One manufacturer duly listened to the message -- with Google's text-to-speech enabled.

For all of you hard-of-hearing folks, let me assure you that Google's translation in this case is incorrect.

Would it be un-Christian?

I selected you after visiting the website for this purpose and prayed over it, I am willing to donate the sum of $6.000,000.00 Million US Dollars tothe motherless baby homes, needy, poor, charity homes and widows too. Please note that, this fund is lying in a Bank here in abijan therefore my lawyer will file an immediate application for the transfer of the money in the name of your ministry. Please, do not reply me if you have the intention of using this fund for personal use other than enhancement of evangelism.

Dear Abby:

Would it be wrong of me to use this lucky inheritance for french fries and travel instead?

On economics and romance

Friends,

My GMU colleague and co-blogger, Russ Roberts, talks with Reason.tv about his most-recent book, The Price of Everything - and other novels (including Atlas Shrugged).  It's a really great sex-minute video!

http://movie.bloggles.co.cc/?p=68960

Don

Economist Donald Boudreaux then sent out this correction:

Friends,

In my previous e-mail, I meant to write "six-minute video."   While Russ does include some romance in his economics novels, they're all rated G.

I'm in serious need of more caffeine at the moment.....

Don

New Scrabble word?

We make typos all the time. Let's hope they don't appear on our magazine cover.

Etymology of 'SkyGrid'

I stumbled across this interesting content aggregator. Not so interesting? The SkyGrid FAQ:

7. What does the name SkyGrid mean?

SkyGrid is the combination of the two words “Sky” and “Grid”. 

Corrosive women?

NO, THIS IS NOT A FALLOPIAN TUBE

Anyone interested in the Women in Corrosion Lunch on March 15?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Turns out the luncheon is part of the Corrosion 2010, presented by NACE. That's right, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. The event is March 14-18 in San Antonio, Texas.

Just so you know, I was invited to this luncheon. Not that I'm corrosive or anything.

Typo: Dressed up security system

Dear Costumer,

EuroX10 launches the iConnect Security System. We think that it is an event that worth’s a complete newsletter, given the high quality of the equipment, its performance and range of solutions.

Now how did they know I like to dress up when I use my security system?

Mary from China

Dear Sir or Madam.,

Have a good day!

I am Mary form China. We come accross on the webside and know that you may in the market for HDMI cable. If so,we would like to introduce our company and product to you hope that we may buid business cooperation in the future.