But it’s still a fascinating story. Did you know that old McDonald’s Monopoly game was totally corrupt and broken? An insider was stealing the million dollar instant winner tokens, and passing them along to associates who’d cash them in and kickback thousands of dollars to the thief. “Jerome Jacobson and his network of mobsters, psychics, strip club owners, and drug traffickers won almost every prize for 12 years”. Whoa. My family played the game, casually and intermittently — this was happening during the years my kids insisted on going to McDonald’s. And now I learn there was never any chance I was going to get lucky and become a millionaire.

You might argue that this is just the actions of one rogue crook, but there were other ways the game was rigged by the officials running it.

During that 1995 prize draw, something happened that would change the game. According to Jacobson, when the computerized prize draw selected a factory location in Canada, Simon Marketing executives re-ran the program until it chose an area in the USA. Jacobson claimed he was ordered to ensure that no high-level prizes ever reached the Great White North.

Sorry, Canada.

Jacobson and many of his associates were eventually caught, arrested, and got some short prison sentences and massive fines. But the woes of McDonald’s promotion didn’t end there.

And when lady luck regained control of the McDonald’s competitions, she handed winning tickets to a man wearing a full Pizza Hut uniform; a Taco Bell owner; and a former homeless man who was later charged with beating up his fiancée–a PR nightmare.

You know, this is what everyone should have expected when you build a promotional contest around a terrible game that celebrates the worst of greed and selfishness — you’re going to find it hijacked by looters within, and if it were really a fair contest, you’d find that sometimes people outside your ideological group would win. And what is the game of Monopoly but a transparent metaphor for the evils of capitalism?

Hey! Have you been wondering what’s going on with the Carrier lawsuit? I can’t tell you. It’s mostly secret.

I can tell you though, that he has a new friend with money.

And we still need more money.

Just for funsies, here’s the letter Carrier’s new little buddy sent our lawyer, if you like bad letters to lawyers.

Greetings.

I have reviewed evidence recently published arguing your clients have defamed Richard Carrier, and we have become very concerned that your clients may have engaged in dangerous misconduct that threatens a movement and cause we care about (vide richardcarrier.info/archives/14176).

It is my intention to fully fund Richard Carrier’s lawsuit against your clients, unless you can persuade me he has misled me as to the facts, and that your clients do have a realistic chance of prevailing at trial. So in reflecting on whether to support Dr. Carrier, I want to test the facts of the case. Accordingly, I am giving you the opportunity to dissuade me.

Are the facts as Dr. Carrier has laid them out correct, or are there facts contradicting what he has stated, and supporting your clients’ assertions against him? If so, please demonstrate that to me and I will withdraw my support from his case. I will interpret your inability to do so, as confirmation of our expectation that Dr. Carrier will prevail in this case and deserves my support.

Sincerely,

Mario Quadracci

The thing is, everything she says is true.

I’ve long had a thing for Aquaman, he was my favorite comic book superhero when I was growing up. If you’d asked me then what superpower I wanted, it was none of that boring stuff like flying or super-strength — breathing underwater and talking to fish sounded awesome. So now out of the shambles of the DC superhero franchise comes a new Aquaman movie — I hope it’s more along the lines of Wonder Woman than the Bat-gloom and Super-morose po-faced stuff they’ve been turning out lately.

Someone needs to explain to Knut how to take cosplaying seriously.

There was this mysterious large black sarcophagus found in Egypt, and for a while, there were wild rumors of evil curses and imprisoned demons and HORRIBLE FATES AWAIT ALL WHO OPEN IT. Sadly, the only things in it were three skeletons and lots of reeking sewage that had seeped in.

Addressing media fears that disturbing the tomb could trigger an implacable Pharaoh’s curse, Mr Waziri declared: “We’ve opened it and, thank God, the world has not fallen into darkness.

“I was the first to put my whole head inside the sarcophagus… and here I stand before you … I am fine.”

Dang. I’d almost been hoping for an apocalypse that would put us out of our misery.

Despite that, the site has now been cleared of people amid fears the sarcophagus could release lethal toxic fumes, Egypt’s state-owned newspaper Al-Ahram says.

So, you’re saying, there’s still hope?

Did you know that YouTube comment sections are a cesspool? And that women get harassed more than men? It’s been checked out.

I have a small-time YouTube channel and don’t get all that many comments, but I can tell you that I’m not enjoying the discourse. I’ve activated the YouTube comment filter, which lets a lot slide through, but also holds a lot of crap back for approval…and I’ve looked through those and am usually disgusted. I’ve also been quick on the trigger to ban people, but the way YouTube works, they can just bounce back instantly with a new pseudonym.

I doubt that YouTube will ever do anything to fix the garbage. Hey, you wanna whine about civility? Stop complaining about leftists repudiating Nazis, and pay more attention to trolls on social media.

Hey! Today is the day I pick up my wife from the airport! It’s only been 6 weeks apart. She’s probably mostly distraught about having to leave her grandchild for…me.

But then, as I was packing up to leave, she informs me that her flight has been delayed about 2 hours, she had to rebook her connecting flight, and she’s getting in 5 hours later than expected. I’m ready and eager to set off to the Twin Cities, but I guess not. Think I’ll go clean the cat box again.