FOOTNOTED

If you thought you could get Mayor Bloomberg to answer whether he is running for president under oath, you’ll be sorely disappointed.

The New York Sun reports that as part of a defamation case brought against Bloomberg by a South Carolina gun salesman over remarks made by the mayor in 2006, Bloomberg was asked that very question. His response?

“I was not planning to run for president then.”

And thus, we wait.

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And finally…

The latest craze in ringtones? The King of Spain!

from www.reuters.com posted with vodpod

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Thinking about getting a new nativity scene for your home this Christmas?Leave it to the Neapolitans to come up with some of the best ideas for an off-beat look at this tradition made popular by St. Francis Asisi in 1223.

from www.reuters.com posted with vodpod

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NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly might want to look to India for a model to keep New York’s Finest in top shape.

The regime? Yoga and Bhangra.

from www.reuters.com posted with vodpod

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Gone are the days when one could lie down in the comfort of a hotel room bed, open the drawer of the night table, and pick up and read a few verses of the Bible.

That is, if you are staying in some of the new wave of boutique hotels opening all over the country.

Newsweek reports that since 2001 the number of hotels offering religious material in their rooms has dropped by 18 percent.

Not that fancy hotel rooms are lacking amenities. The Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan offers iPod docking stations, flat-screen TVs and a gold fish. Yes, a living gold fish.

But what is now replacing the holy book? Intimacy kits, of course. Think condoms and lovers’ dice games.

When asked if the new Marriott boutique chain in development would include Bibles in its rooms, a spokesman described the new ventures as “cutting-edge,” “more urban” and “less values-oriented.”

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Why not the King?

After President Chavez criticized former Spanish President Aznar, the current Spanish President Rodriguez Zapatero, a socialist with very different views from those of the conservative Aznar, defended his countryman by saying that President Aznar was chosen by the Spanish people.

This response, however, was not good enough for Chavez who kept interrupting. Until finally, a voice of reason rose from the crowd…

“Why don’t you shut up?,” the King of Spain, Juan Carlos, told President Chavez.

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Some of these are funny, others sad and tragic, but most of them are CRAZY.
2spare.com lists the Top 25 Craziest Deaths (in the last 100 years) and Famous Last Words.

Here’s a taste:

Frank Hayes, jockey, suffered a heart attack during a horse race. The horse, Sweet Kiss, went on to finish first, making Hayes the only deceased jockey to win a race. (1953)

Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Voltaire (attributed), when asked by a priest to renounce Satan.

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A scene of the new Batman movie starring Christian Bale that called for the actor to jump into the waters off Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour was canceled after testing found “all sort of things, salmonella and tuberculosis” in the water, the Guardian reports.

The waters are so dirty that since colonial times, when residents of Hong Kong used to bathe in the harbour, the only people who take dips in it are a few political activists.

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For those who wondered why drinking at New York City hotspots is so expensive, the truth is finally out: It’s the ice.

Three friends went for cocktails at the Bowery Hotel and when they asked why they were being charged extra for their drinks, they were told they were charged for the ice. They paid $2 extra for every drink with ice.

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The Good - The Greens: While Forbes credits city residents, for using cleaner transportation options and working and living in close quarters, for New York State ranking at No. 9 on their Greenest States list, Major Bloomberg is devising a new plan to have companies pay a greenhouse-gas tax.

The Bad - Strip and Strand: Two Staten Island cops thought they should teach a 14-year old boy a lesson after they found tossing eggs on Halloween. They made him strip to his underwear and left him in a desolated area.

The Ugly - Suicide Tourism: More than one in 10 of the suicides in Manhattan are out-of-towners who choose places like the Empire State Building, Times Square and the George Washington Bridge to take their lives.

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