Archive for the ‘Humor’ category

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Easter?

December 31st, 2008

As many other personal finance blogs get serious about the successes and shortcomings of the year that has passed, I decided to close out 2008 on a humorous note, courtesy of The Consumerist.

According to the link above, it seems like CVS has hit a new level of ridiculous for putting out seasonal merchandise early. You can now get your Cadbury Mini-Eggs (and other Easter candy as well) at a CVS store a Consumerist reader found in Indiana. Keep in mind that Easter is not until April 12, a good three and a half months away.

It makes some of my personal observations seem down right reasonable:

  • Valentine’s Day stuff everywhere (WalMart, Walgreens, CVS) the day after Christmas.
  • Mardi Gras stuff at WalMart in Baton Rouge the day after Christmas (FYI, Mardi Gras is February 24 this year). They didn’t waste any time shifting from celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior to celebrating a holiday best known for public drunkenness and girls flashing their breasts, did they?
  • Spring outdoors items like planters, planting bulbs, outdoor furniture, and grills at Sams Club here in Houston just yesterday. Wasn’t everyone clearancing out this stuff like a month ago when summer temperatures ended around here?

So there you have it. Thanks to the kind reminders of the retail industry, I will go ahead now and wish you a Happy New Year, Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Mardi Gras, and Happy Easter!

Off-Topic: A Ballpark Proposal Gone Terribly Wrong

August 21st, 2007

I headed out to the ballgame last night with my brother-in-law and his wife, along with the other brother-in-law. The game itself was awful with the Astros losing to the Nationals 7-0. It was one of those nights where nothing could go right for the home crowd.

The bad luck even extended to the stands. Minute Maid Park, like many other ballparks, does a “Kiss Cam” at some point during the game during the inning breaks. The Kiss Cam pans the crowd and focuses in on couples, who are then supposed to kiss with 30,000 plus fans cheering them on.

At last night’s game, the final couple shown on screen kissed and then the guy got down on one knee and proposed, with the “will you marry me” message on the scoreboard and wedding march music blaring. To everyone’s surprise, the woman had an absolutely horrified look on her face and got mad at the guy, dumping a bag of popcorn on his head and then storming off. The whole crowd of 30,000 people sat in stunned awkward silence at what they had just witnessed. The poor guy just sat there for the next half-inning before walking out to a loud cheer from the crowd.

Probably the oddest thing I have ever seen at a ballgame. The evening went so bad for the home team not even the cheesy marriage proposal went right!

Off-topic: The Harry Potter Release Freak Show

July 23rd, 2007

OK, this is a little off-topic, but still pretty funny. Last Friday night I went with my wife, brother-in-law, and a friend to Barnes and Noble for the release of the last Harry Potter book. I’ve gone with the wife before to these releases and although I’m not a Potter fan, I always thought the parties they have are kind of cool. However, this last one was a freak show on par with the opening night for a Star Trek movie, complete with people in costumes everywhere. I will give them some credit since most of them dressed up as characters other than Harry Potter. There were so many people there that were carrying around sticks thinking they were wands, and it seemed like quite a few of them believed that their sticks held some type of magical properties.

However, the highlight of the evening was after they began selling the books. My brother-in-law and I went and hung out by the front door waiting for my wife and her friend to get their books so we could go home. While we are waiting, this slightly chunky teenage girl comes through the front door and blows a whistle to get everyone’s attention. Of course everyone gets real quiet, thinking it is one of the workers making an announcement, at which time she proceeds to yell out at the top of her lungs “(Unnamed character) dies!” She then runs out the front door, with a mob of about 30 freaks running out chasing after her. The leader of the mob looked just like Harry Potter and was holding a magical “wand”, and it was hilarious to see them all chasing after her. We didn’t see where the mob ended up, but since only a couple of the people of the mob ever came back in the store, we’re guessing that Harry and his mob caught up with her. My guess is that it was the Harry Potter look-alike that got to her first, held up his wand, and yelled “Harry Potter’s gonna go Azkahban on your muggle a$$!”.

SNL Clip: Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford

May 9th, 2007

I found this great clip from SNL. The skit is for a book entitled “Don’t Buy Stuff You Can’t Afford”. Absolutely hilarious!

Clip found here at Daily Motion

Sadly it seems this is a completely foreign concept to most people these days.