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This weeks comedian is one that many of the younger generations probably never heard of.  I am speaking of Bill Dana.

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Today’s factoids about the United States Congress come to us from the Facts section on Harper’s Magazine’s website.  I must say some of these were extremely surprising to me.

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Today’s Comedian is one of the newest citizens of the United States of America, Craig Ferguson.

Craig was born on May 17, 1962 in Glasgow, Scotland.  He was a drummer in a little known band called "The Bastards from Hell" and later renamed "Dreamboys."  They performed in Glasgow from 1980-1982.  Mr. Ferguson came to Los Angeles in 1994 and snagged his first role as a baker named Logan McDonough on the short-lived 1995 ABC comedy show "Maybe This Time".  He starred alongside Betty White, and Marie Osmond.

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This weeks Friday Factoids come to us from the National Safety Council’s compilation of injury reports since the 1920s. They have compiled a list of the odds of dying, most recent version is 2004, we’ll cover some of the more colorful and odd ways to die.

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Gary Leon Ridgway was raised in a seemingly stable household in Washington. Born in February 1949 to Mary Rita Steinman and Thomas Newton Ridgway, his mother was very controlling of him. His wife, says she has many fond memories “of the man I knew, not that man they took away.”

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The “quit smoking” crowd is everywhere, and it has infiltrated allscan.org now. I’ve been smoking cigarettes for six months, my wife much longer. While it has always been a choice to start, it seems that the choice to quit is much harder. I watched an episode of Modern Marvels on tobacco where a doctor mentioned that more people are addicted to nicotine than any other drug and that nicotine is the fastest addicting drug around.

Well I don’t know about all that, but here are some interesting facts about what happens to your body when you quit, along with a nice time line from HealthBolt.net.

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While doing some research for an upcoming Friday Factoid I needed to look up the gerund participle of the verb ‘to die.’ However, at that time I had no idea I needed the gerund participle, just that I wasn’t sure how to spell ‘dying.’ While searching for ‘verb conjugation’ I came across verb2verbe.com.

This site provides every possible conjugation of English and French verbs, great for anyone in school that needs to look up the proper imperative conjugation of the French verb reconnaître. verb2verbe has a very simple layout that lets your search for either English or French verbs and gives their conjugations in a fast and easy to print result page.

verb2verbe also allows you to browse through their database of English and French verbs. This is great, especially in French were many words can have the same beginning letters and have same meaning, allowing you to find just the right word.

To check out more of verb2verbe.com either click on the logo above or the link in this sentence.

I absolutely love things that make me laugh. It really doesn’t matter what the situation is. I thought I would do a weekly “Sunday Comics” with a twist. I am going to profile one Comedian each Sunday. I will include quotes from that weeks comedian.

The first comedian I am profiling is Demetri Martin. I enjoy his comedy because he is so intelligent. He turns everything into puzzles, palindromes and every other intelligent thing you could possible think of. He started Law School at NYU, but dropped out because he was so bored with it. Instead, he started doing stand up comedy at a club across from NYU’s campus. His career exploded…like when the American’s Dropped the Bomb on Hiroshima. Here is why he is so absolutely hilarious…His Jokes…His Quotes…His Stand-up Comedy Specials. Read the rest of this entry »

This weeks Friday Factoids come from an article by the ACLU, while their article only covers what to do if stopped in your car. I suggest reading the entire article, even for law-abiding citizens, it could be helpful. (source)

• Upon request, show them your driver’s license, registration, and proof of insurance. In certain cases, your car can be searched without a warrant as long as the police have probable cause. To protect yourself later, you should make it clear that you do not consent to a search. It is not lawful for police to arrest you simply for refusing to consent to a search.
• If you’re given a ticket, you should sign it; otherwise you can be arrested. You can always fight the case in court later.
• If you’re suspected of drunk driving (DWI) and refuse to take a blood, urine or breath test, your driver’s license may be suspended.

Let me first start by saying, “Happy President’s Day.” However, for the Presidents on this list, it wasn’t such a happy day when they were assassinated. This weeks installment of Monday Maniacs will cover the four assassins who killed Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, and John F. Kennedy.

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