What does it say for us when we rely on a puppet to come out and speak the truth?

Courtesy of a friend visiting China.

During a recent debate in South Carolina, Newt Gingrich said the “Stop Online Piracy Act” was unnecessary because “We have a patent office, we have copyright law. If a company finds it has genuinely been infringed upon, it has the right to sue.”

So the composer of “Eye of the Tiger” has taken him at his word and is suing Gingrich for using his song without permission at campaign events.

Turns out that some women object to the urinals in the new Rolling Stones museum.

I have to admit some personal trepidation about putting myself in there.

The Los Angeles Review of Books gives us this discussion between two historic figures — Art Spiegelman, the first comic-book writer to win a Pulitzer Prize, and Van Dyke Parks, the lyricist and Brian Wilson collaborator behind some of the best Beach Boys music (“Cabinessence,” “Heroes and Villains,” and “Surf’s Up,” to name just three). It’s an interesting discussion, to say the least.

Microsoft word kept underlining my use of the word “forfend” in red today, suggesting that I’d misspelled it or, heaven forfend, made it up. (And, indeed, WordPress keeps doing the same thing as I write this.) So I took a minute to consult my friend Webster’s New World and discovered that “forfend” is now considered archaic. It may well be, but I’ll continue to use it, and I contemn anyone who would caution me against it.

The headline on the LATimes.com site reads: Body found in burning car on 10 Freeway onramp.

Which triggered this thought:  burning airlines give you so much more.

Squirrel underpants.

I prefer my squirrels naked.

Look closely.

(I should note that on the TV show, that rope was often slack, which would seem to defy physics. And “Hollywood Squares”-level celebrities would pop out of windows to talk to the caped crusaders. I guess in Gotham, crime really isn’t that pressing an issue.)

Here it is, free and available for your own use. There are many reasons I love the random corporate slogan generator, but here’s just one:  the awful crap it generates typifies what keeps me in business.