Some of the relatives of George Gipp are suing over the exhumation of old George . (George Gipp, a famous Notre Dame football player, was recently exhumed after 87 years.) They are suing other family members, ESPN, the county coroner, the cemetery workers and the owner of the hearse, which was used to transport the body.

Unfortunately for George, he never married and had a family. Because of this, he has no descendants of his own. So, what we have is a first cousin once removed suing the great nephew, who gave the consent. And, both side are claiming legal authority.

ESPN states that they had nothing to do with the exhumation. They were just there to film the event. The cemetery workers and the hearse driver claim that they were just following the legal orders from the coroner.

The only thing redeeming about this event is that I get to use words that I seldom use. I exhume it is going to be a long winter.

The other weekend, Kathy and I went shopping for shoes. Actually, she was looking for some dress boot for winter wear. As for myself, I needed a couple of pairs of dress shoes for work.

Our first stop was Shoe Carnival. To save time, we always split up. Ten minutes later, I had two pairs of shoes but Kathy struck out.

Our next stop was Penny’s. In the past, Kathy had always found boots there so she was hopefully that the trend would continue.

As it turned out, Penny’s had an hours worth of dress boots so I sat down and took a nap. Unfortunately, my nap was short lived as another boot buying couple came over by me and disturbed me.

I have noticed that there is a difference between the way men and women buy shoes. With men, if they like the looks of the shoes and they fit, the are good to go. Not so with women. When women try on a pair of shoes, they have to stand and look at them in front of a mirror. Then, if they like the way the shoes look on them, they might buy them.

At one point in time, a woman tried on a pair of boots and then asked her husband if the boots made her butt look fat. I wanted to tell her that her butt looked fat before she tried on the boots but I didn’t.

In the end, Kathy found a pair of boots as did the woman with the fat butt.

In the conservative community of Interlochen, MI, a man was feeling despondent so he called 911. He told the 911 operator that he had a gun and was going to commit suicide. The 911 operator immediately contacted the local police.

When the police arrived, they surrounded the house and began negotiations with the man inside. They wanted him to put down his guns and come out of the house. He, on the other hand, kept threatening to kill him self.

After several hours of negotiations, the police shot and killed the man. I guess they considered him a threat to himself.  I guess they call that “death by policeman”.

Well, I finally went and did it. I traded in my 1998 Honda Accord for a 2004 Toyota Camry. After 10 years and 194,000 miles, I felt that it was time to retire the old Accord. Besides, I was tired of the color green.

The Camry has about 25,000 miles on it and is the color called “sand”. It is an XLE so it is fully loaded.

The only drawback to the car is that the former owner was a smoker. And while I may not be able to get out all of the smoky smell, I think I can reduce it quite a bit. Saturday, I will go over the seats with leather cleaner and conditioner which I think will help quite a bit.

Actually, I did not go out with the intention of buying a car. I just went out to look at them. But, when I saw this one, I knew it was the one for me. I guess it was love at first sight.

The car is quieter than my old Accord and has a very smooth ride. It has good pickup and handles quite nicely.

I am particularly excited about having a moon roof. We get so very little sunshine here in Michigan so we need to take in all that we can. Hopefully, this will help with our SAD.

All and all, I am very pleased with the car.

Michigan has now adopted the 85% law for speed limits. The speed limit is not based on what the cities or counties set. Rather, it is based on the speed that 85% of the motorist drive at.

The idea is simple. 85% of all motorist will drive at a speed that they feel is safe and appropriate even if that speed is higher than what is posted. The other 15% will drive at a higher and unsafe speed than the norm.

So, the speed for any given road will be determined by the speed of 85% of the motorists. Therefore, cities and counties are to post speed limits based on the 85% rule rather than arbitrarily imposing speed limits.

And while the 85% rule is now law, it will be a while yet before it will be successfully used to beat a speeding ticket.

A few weeks back, I blogged about the body of Geroge Gipp being exhumed. (George Gipp, aka the Gipper, was a famous Notre Dame football player.) This seemed strange since he has been dead for 87 years.

It seems that some woman claimed to be the granddaughter of George Gipp. Since George Gipp was never married, he would had to have had an illegitimate child. And, an illegitimate child would have tarnished George Gipps reputation. So, the family though it best to do DNA testing on George’s remains.

George’s body was exhumed, the right femur was removed and his remains were reburied. The DNA tests were performed and they came back negative. So much for that claim. Win one for the Gipper!

I wonder what they do with the rest of the femur? Sell it on Ebay?

What ever happened to Celery Seed dressing? It was so popular a few years ago that the stores couldn’t keep it in stock. Now, all of a sudden, it has completely disappeared.

Maybe there has been a series of celery seed crop failures. We could blame it on global warming.

By the way, where do they get celery seeds from anyway? I guess the most logical source would be celery plants, but maybe not. After all, we don’t get baby oil from babies.

Maybe celery seed was discovered to be a carcinogen. It certainly wouldn’t be the first common item to be bad for your health. As a kid, I drank gallons and gallons of root beer It was only later in life that sassafras was discovered to be a carcinogen. I wonder how many years I have left?

Maybe celery seed was found to be a narcotic like poppy seed. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen any poppy seed dressing lately either.

Well, what ever the reason, it appears that celery seed dressing is not destined to return any time soon.

The State Police here in Michigan are going to build a new 115 million dollar headquarters. At least, that is what the article on the front page of the Lansing State Journal stated. Of course, the article right next to it was about how the State is broke. Go figure.

Actually, I suspect that they have hooked on to some Homeland Security money as they are planning on breaking ground as soon as the State gets a budget together.

The State Police have been talking about building a new headquarters for about 20 years now. And I can understand why. The present headquarters is located in some old buildings that are leased from MSU.

The buildings were built back in the 40s and are in need of major updating. MSU plans to tear down the building once the State Police leave.

While I applaud there efforts to get a new building, I question the location that they have selected. The land that they have chosen is in the city on the river. And, I am sure that they got a good deal on the land.

Presently, there is nothing there except a parking lot. The reason for this is because the land is only about a foot about the flood plain and no one wants to build there.

In the past, Lansing has had issues with flash floods. But, as long as your office isn’t on the first floor, I am sure that you will be OK. 😉

Every year, in the fall, we get out our candy corn dispenser and fill it with candy corn. We have been doing this for so many years that I can’t even remember when we started doing this.

While I am not wild about candy corn, Kathy and the girls seem to live on it. And so, we have the candy corn dispenser sitting on the table until after the Thanksgiving holidays.

Well, the other day, I was sent to the store to purchase candy corn, in bulk, for the candy corn dispenser. But when I got to the bulk food section, there was no candy corn to be found.

This seemed rather odd, but I figured that they were just out of stock. So, I checked another store and discovered that they too were out.

Well, I though, maybe it is too early for candy corn. So, I decided I would check back in a couple of weeks.

I rechecked last night and there was still no candy corn to be found. Was it too late for candy corn? Was there a drought that ruined the candy corn crop? Is some speculator hoard candy corn until the prices go higher?

Some one once told me that candy corn was only made in 1920 and that what we have been eating all of these years is leftover from 1920. I suppose it is possible that the original supply has been used up. If so, then they need to make some more.

Fall just isn’t the same with out candy corn.

The State has gone through and replaced all of their light switches with motion detecting light switches. The idea is that if no one is in the room, the lights will automatically shut off. And, if some one enters the room, the lights will automatically turn on.

But, the automatic switch also has an over ride button. This button either turns the lights on or shuts the lights off. If the lights are off and you hit the button, the lights will turn on. If the lights are on and you hit the button, the lights will shut off. And this button is the reason that the whole project is a failure.

When people hit the button to turn on the lights, they assume that the lights will automatically shut off. So, when they leave the room, they don’t bother to shut the lights off. After all, the lights will shut off automatically, right?

Unfortunately, while there was enough time and money to install the special switches, there was not enough time to test the switches. Some of the switches randomly turn on the lights even if there is no one present. Other switches shut off the lights even when there are people in the room. And some of the switches don’t work at all so every one just uses the override button.

I walked into the bathroom this morning and the lights came on automatically. However, by the time I made it to a stall, the lights went out. Fortunately, I have a LED flash light on my key chain.

I made it back to the switch and hit the over ride button but nothing happened. I hit it three or four more times. Still nothing. Finally, I left. There is more than one bathroom in this building.

Another fine waste of tax payers money.