Friday at the Water Cooler

Another Friday has come our way. Yeah!  Fairly busy week for obtaining chat fodder.  Hope you all are prepared to waste part of your work day hanging out and yakking.

Seems this week brought out several announcements pertaining to people exiting or as FOX calls it "transitioning out" of their jobs on television.  Glen Beck will be leaving his program by the end of the year.  One of the by-products of this story, are all the people that  are "weighing in" on the subject.  One of the most interesting comments was made by the President and Chairman of Fox Television, Roger Ailes. Mr. Ailes told the Associated Press, “Half of the headlines say he’s been cancelled. The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”  OUCH!  I have quit a lot of jobs in my time (face it when you move 21 times, it happens) but I don't remember any employers using the word HAPPY as I left.  Well....in fairness, maybe some of my ex employers "thought it" but still....they didn't go on record saying the word "happy".   One more clarification....I used the word "happy" on numerous occasions when I left various employers and I did go on record saying the word.

The other person that has a lot to say is John Stewart.  You know how he loves to put on the dark rimmed glasses and do his spoofs of Glenn.  Thursday evening John's show was on the subject of Glen Beck's departure from Fox. If you find John Stewart funny (I understand that is a big IF) you should watch the video of it.  If you think John Stewart is a douche, forget I mentioned it) I have to think that John Stewart, in his heart, has to be sad.  Who is he going to make fun of now?

The other two departures being discussed are Merideth Vieira and Matt Lauer over at The Today Show.
Supposedly, Merideth is leaving in September.  That news was no sooner making the rounds when Inside Edition had a story that Matt Lauer is, also,  not renewing his contract.   (and I believe anything and everything Inside Edition tells me...they are one of my prime sources for accuracy on my blog) This makes me wonder a few things (just a few, you say???) 

Is Matt just making this announcement because he is feeling left out?  Is he irked that Meredith is getting all the attention? Can he not stand training another co-host?  Who is going to replace Meredith?  Is Ann Curry
finally going to get the second chair or will Natalie Morales scoop her? A lot of questions to be answered over at the Today Show.

And last but not least...Katie Couric is leaving the CBS news anchor job that she left The Today Show for. Maybe this is it.  Maybe Katie is going back to Today for a solo act.


Other big events from this week....

An 85 year old, Anthony Smith, completed a 66 day voyage on a raft crossing the Atlantic.  Anthony and 3 other "senior" friends, Andrew Bainbridge, David Hildred, and John Russle built a 40 ft. raft to sail from the Canary Islands to St. Maarten.  They funded the trip with money that Smith received as a settlement from being hit by a van causing him to break a hip. (I am questioning the events of this accident.  Really...85 with a broken hip...no other explanation????)

Back to the sailing voyage...The foursome built the raft out of pipes and put a 400 square foot sail on the thing and pushed off.  Seemingly, the trip was fairly uneventful.  Andrew Bainbridge even baked a birthday cake for Anthony's 85th birthday on board the raft.  The group said the word "mutiny" only came up about 2 or 3 times a day.  Not bad for four old guys spending 66 days on a 40 ft. raft.



Do you think these two favor??



Oh, we probably have time for one more story to hash over.....

Well, another story from Inside Edition tells us that often husbands and wives are initially attracted to each other because they look alike.  Seems that people find an attraction to others that share similar facial characteristics.  So much in fact, that there is now a web site called findyourfacemate(dot)com. (sorry about the (dot)  but I just don't like to put links to other web sites on my blog. If you want to see it, you are on your own.)

What makes this REALLY interesting is that the story came out the same week as the story out of Great Britain where the two people that met on a dating site called, ForgetDinner(dot)co(dot)uk and were immediately attracted to each other.  Love at first byte, if you will.  Any way Sarah Kemp and George Bentley met in person and found each other to be that special someone that we all want to meet. (well...not me really)  It turns out though, that Sarah and George are brother and sister.  Somewhere it came into the conversation that Sarah's maiden name was Bentley.  Again, I have to ask...WTF.  If I went on a date with someone that had my same last name wouldn't I want to check that out fairly quickly?  Especially if I had any siblings unaccounted for.  All I can say to George is "You wouldn't want her as your wife anyway even if she weren't your sister.  Face it, George...she really isn't that bright."

For today, let's end with something uplifting.  Hard week, don't you think with all that is going on in the world.  I know a lot of you have seen this but still...cute story.

The Good for the day....It is Friday (you know I am in a pessimistic mood when I am struggling to come up with a "good".

The Bad for the Day....Still no word on the government shutdown.

The Weird for the Day..... The lady that had the piece of lumber come through her windshield.  HOLY CRAP....and she did a pretty good job of keeping control of her car.