URLs du Jour

2008-11-17

Make of this single anecdotal datapoint what you will: while driving around our local malls this past weekend I saw plenty of traffic and packed parking lots. I have memories of four previous recessions, and this doesn't look like them, at least not yet.

  • Although no Pun Salad readers are idiots, you might know someone who needs an answer to this question: Are you an idiot to keep paying your mortgage? (Via Instapundit.)

  • Jim Manzi refutes arguments that the Big 3 automakers deserve a bailout because, gee, this time they're on the verge of getting their act together. Honest. Real Soon Now.

    On the same topic, see Skip at Granite Grok and also Kip Esquire. There's no excuse for the bailout.

  • Monty Python fans will want to check out "Ancient Greeks pre-empted Dead Parrot sketch", a news story about a 4th century joke book:
    The 1,600-year-old work entitled "Philogelos: The Laugh Addict," one of the world's oldest joke books, features a joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died, its publisher said Friday.

    "By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "when he was with me, he never did any such thing!"

    The Cleese/Palin version still seems funnier somehow. The book's website is here. (Via GeekPress.)