News of the Weird... NOT!

January 2, 2005 5:17 PM

Though not the web institution of Jim Romenesko's Obscure Store or as overexposed as Dave Barry's Blog, Chuck Shepherd's NEWS of the WEIRD is a fairly good source for news stories that are... well... WEIRD. And Chuck's the only one who has collected a list of stories that "now occur with such frequency" that they are NO LONGER WEIRD. Quite a resource for judging how our society has changed in the last umpteen years.

In semi-related news, Barry is semi-retiring his weekly column, but we still have AutoDave, the automated Dave Barry column generator. Still, I suspect he did it just to upstage Dan Gillmor's farewell column, as he gives up the old-media columnar life in favor of "Grassroots Journalism".
To Dave Berry, 'Grassroots Journalism' is writing about the brown patch in your lawn directly over the septic tank.
posted by wendell (12 comments total)

*bides time*
posted by quonsar at 5:19 PM on January 2, 2005

My dad totally worships Dave Barry. He is gonna be so bummed out when he hears about this.
posted by Quartermass at 5:23 PM on January 2, 2005

*puts on another layer of flame-resistant bullet-proof underwear*
posted by wendell at 5:40 PM on January 2, 2005

You know, I think that Donald Trump guy has a television show nowadays. Also, have you seen that really funny thing where the little cardboard cutouts of George W. Bush and John Kerry sing "My Country 'Tis of Thee" or something like that? Somebody emailed me that the other day and I thought it was hilarious.
posted by Sidhedevil at 6:02 PM on January 2, 2005

The grass over the septic tanks I'm familiar with is always greener. What on earth is Dave Barry excreting that would be killing his lawn?!
posted by five fresh fish at 6:25 PM on January 2, 2005

Watch it, fff, he'll be writing about that once he finds this thread.

Oh, if only I was a BarryBot, I'd probably do the wickedest faux-column right here.
posted by tracicle at 6:36 PM on January 2, 2005

I heart Dave Barry.

That is all I have to say on this subject.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:03 PM on January 2, 2005

Is "I heart __" cool now that it was in the title of a clever existentialist comedy?
posted by NickDouglas at 11:36 PM on January 2, 2005

Dave Barry should have retired 15 years ago. "Bad Habits" was amazing, "Greatest Hits" was very good, and it's all been straight downhill from there to the point that I thnik he's submitted the same column every week for the last four years.
posted by Mayor Curley at 4:26 AM on January 3, 2005

Generally, the grass right over the tank is brown, and the grass over the drain field is green, Erma Bombeck notwithstanding.

The tank heats the ground just above it, but it's a very localised effect. It's especially noticeable when there's snow on the ground everywhere else, but right over the tank there's a bare spot.
posted by jlkr at 4:47 AM on January 3, 2005

you could add www.thisistrue.com to the list.
posted by Nauip at 8:03 AM on January 3, 2005

I love Mr. Barry...
posted by yodelingisfun at 11:03 AM on January 3, 2005