My favorite-ever scam email:

URGENT FUNDS FOR YOU

I am Alvin Rosenthal, a brother to the late American real estate billionaire named Leona Helmsley who passed away recently. Am in possession of $12m USD (twelve million dollars),in conversion to GREAT BRITISH POUNDS is £5,909,252.94 GBP, which she will to her beloved white MALTESE dog named TROUBLE. She made me vow to set up a trust fund with the dog's name, after the dog's death and burying the dog beside her.

I am taking this bold step to let you know that i want to leave in your care the money $12m USD (twelve million dollars) (£5,909,252.94 GBP). The fund is deposited in a security company in London, United Kingdom. The funds are meant for setting up a trust fund for the protection of animal rights in the world.

Recently, the dog fell very sick and was diagnosed with rabies, which I believed was injected on him by one of Leona Helmsley heir who got nothing from her will. Having known the dog's condition, I decided to look for a neutral person to take charge of administration of the trust fund after the dog's death.

Etc.

The rabies bit makes this sort of dementedly brilliant.

That Garrison Keillor editorial on LA that I was talking about is here.

This is clearly the best thing that's ever happened.

How did Speedos get into Gitmo?

Re: Discovery of Contraband Clothing in the Cases of Shaker Aamer, Detainee ISN 239, and Muhammed Hamid al-Qareni, Detainee ISN 269

Dear Mr. Stafford Smith.

Your client, Shaker Aamer, detainee ISN 239, was recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs and a Speedo bathing suit. Neither item was issued to the detainee by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail. Coincidentally, Muhammed al-Qareni, detainee ISN 269, who is represented by Mr. Katznelson of Reprieve, was also recently discovered to be wearing Under Armor briefs. As with detainee ISN 239, the briefs were not issued by JTF-Guantánamo personnel, nor did they enter the camp through regular mail.

Truly an offense against nature.

Arlen Specter on Larry Craig:

"You don't toss off, er, over, a friend of that duration."

Thompson/Petraeus is my dream ticket. I'm rock hard just thinking about it. I want to invent technology to reanimate their zombie corpses so that the Republicans can run that ticket in perpetuity.

Please make it happen, GOP.

A Stanford study on identity signaling::

In other work, Berger examined the 2004 yellow wristband phenomenon. A research team at Stanford first sold the bands to students living in one dorm. A week later, researchers began selling the wristbands in a neighboring dorm with a stronger academic focus and a social reputation as a "geek" dorm. A week after the wristbands were adopted by the "geeks," there was a 32% drop in students wearing the bands at the first dorm. The idea is "that people in the original dorm abandoned the wristband to avoid other students thinking they were similar to the geeks," Berger says.

The process of identity signaling, adoption and abandonment is continuous, he adds. "It is like when you drop a pebble in a pool and the ripples move from the epicenter. The original signal starts to lose its desired meaning as it moves outside the original circle. Slowly, the taste will move outward and the center will hollow out as the original taste holders abandon the taste."

Uh-oh.

MORE: Uh-oh.

STILL MORE: Uh-oh.