 Read | NSA SPYING ON DINERS (Arts & Leisure): MOSCOW -- National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden's latest revelation is that the United States government routinely collects information on citizen dining habits by hacking into iPad applications intended to help restaurants manage reservations and waiting lists. "Unless drone strike . . . . |
| Read | TECHNOLOGY MAKING AMERICANS SADD (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Researchers at Mudcat Falls Community College have released the results of a study identifying a disturbing new anxiety disorder afflicting modern society which they claim is reaching pandemic proportions. "If you have been stuck behind a driver aimless weaving from lane to lane, or . . . . |
| Read | OVERLORD: OVER THE TOP (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- The River's Edge Theater Group's original production, Overlord, The Musical, has something for everyone -- and then some. The World War II era story retelling the Allied invasion of Normandy is upbeat, with catchy tunes and breath-taking dance numbers. The opening tap sequence of so . . . . |
| Read | RENDER UNTO VISA (Arts & Leisure): WILMINGTON -- Move over Tiger Woods, Drew Bledsoe and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Pope John Paul II is now showing his team colors with the new Vatican Visa card. MBNA announced that they will become the official credit card issuer of the Roman Catholic Church, which joins the National Football League, th . . . . |
| Read | SID & NANCY MUSEUM OPENS (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- American folklore has it that New York City's fabled Chelsea Hotel is haunted by the ghosts of Mark Twain, Janis Joplin and other celebrities who once graced its now dilapidated rooms. But of all those famous wandering souls none could tell a more spine-tingling tale than the tortur . . . . |
| Read | UN-CIVIL WAR RE-ENACTMENT (Arts & Leisure): RED CHEEK BLUFFS -- Plans poured over, battle lines drawn, permits filed and parking spaces assigned, all was ready for this weekend's Civil War re-enactment of the Battle of Gila Bend, until a small but vocal group of protestors began picketing against the presence of the Confederate Battle Flag i . . . . |
| Read | NO SHOES, NO SHIRT, NO BLUES (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- A bizarre, yet entertaining, new chapter in the Civil Rights movement may have been written at Arlotta's Downtown Diner, when a mini-riot broke out after a member of the world's most renown modern day mime troupe, The Blue Man Group, was refused counter service. "I don't speak mime . . . . |
| Read | HAAGEN DASZ EYES CLINIC SITE (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- The local Planet Hollywood Weight Loss Clinic has announced that it will close at the end of the month. The downtown competitor to Weight Watcher's and Jenny Craig was a spin off of that Mecca of movie memorabilia begun by box office big boys, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallo . . . . |
| Read | HOME & GARDEN SHOW SOILED BY PROTESTERS (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Opening day for this season's Home & Garden Show was marred by protesters who stormed downtown's Squash Pavilion and trampled the ornate displays of daffodils, tulips and pansies. What started out as a noisy, yet orderly protest by the Citizen Landscapers for Agrarian Parity, quickl . . . . |
| Read | CALABASH COUNTY CASTING CALL CHAOS (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- National Guard troops were deployed to assist Sheriff Atticus W. Moosejowl and his deputies in bringing a mob under control at the downtown Motel 6 Suites on Center Street, when a riot broke out during a county wide casting call for the Jerry Springer Show. The altercation started w . . . . |
| Read | KICK FLICK FALTERS WITH FALLS FILMING FREEZE (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Citing artistic differences with studio executives, writer-director Ed Kick stormed off the set of his feature movie being filmed on the downtown streets of Mudcat Falls as well as the MFCC Campus. "How can I work like this? This is intolerable," emoted the local dinner theater dire . . . . |
| Read | NEA TO FIX NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (Arts & Leisure): WASHINGTON DC -- The National Education Association is calling for a radical overhaul of the country's primary and secondary education system by proposing new intermediate grade levels to allow more time for students to learn and prepare for federally mandated proficiency and graduation tests. "The . . . . |
| Read | EXPERTS ISOLATE BLOGGING DISEASE (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Scientists have identified a alarming new disorder that is exploding to pandemic proportions. Attention Excess Hyperactivity Disorder or AEHD is a recently discovered twin companion to the more widely known Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which researchers claim is largely . . . . |
| Read | AMAZON ANNOUNCES NEW KINDLE (Arts & Leisure): SEATTLE -- Two retailing pioneers, The Sharper Image and Amazon.com, have joined forces to bring an even newer twist to a new technology: a dual-screen Kindle electronic book reader. "One of the market acceptance issues we have found with all electronic book readers is the loss of the book cover," . . . . |
| Read | GEORGE W. BUSH ATE MY HOMEWORK (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Sophomore Barrington H. O'Camlin was unexpelled from Calabash-Hoover High School after a hearing, during which he blamed former President George W. Bush for his poor grades, chronic tardiness, acute absenteeism and record breaking detentions. ""What we inherited when we walked in th . . . . |
| Read | CONGRESS TO GRILL PEDDLERS (Arts & Leisure): WASHINGTON DC -- A local woman testified before Congress today in an effort to get the federal government to intervene to curb abuses wrought by over bearing infomercials. Parsimony Lessman, founder of Consumers for Limiting Aggressive Pitchmen, told the House Oversight sub-Committee on Citizen Inc . . . . |
| Read | SMOKERS VOW TO GO TOPLESS (Arts & Leisure): MUDCAT FALLS -- Embattled smokers are under assault yet again with a proposed city ordinance to improve indoor air quality by radically reducing RSP (respirable suspended particles) reflected from the apparel of tobacco users, which the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Healt . . . . |
| Read | THE PARTIES PARTY'S OVER? (Arts & Leisure): WASHINGTON DC -- In this election season, the Democrat and Republican parties are feeling corporate America's pain, struggling with slumping productivity, distracted workers and personal abuse of computer assets, as millions of party loyalists engage in the political equivalent of "Fantasy Football . . . . |