Story of the Week - Week of Jan 21-26

Animal Stories

In his 6th State of the Union Address, President Bush pleaded with Congress to let him do what he wants in Iraq and Afghanistan, and I guess, Iran, when it comes to that. The Senate Foreign Relations committee passed a non-binding resolution denouncing the new strategy, then haggled over the specific language, and in the end only one Republican, Sen Chuck Hagel voted for the toothless resolution.

There's a haggle-Hagel joke in there somewhere if you want to go get it.

So we've got wars and bickering Congress, and people throwing rocks at each other in Beirut (and, on at least one occasion, blaming Israel for it. Go figure) And Iran is developing nuclear weapons and now a spy satellite and--sheesh! There's a lot going on. News is chaos.

But you know, if we could get a bird to play golf...maybe that will help.

Move over, Tiger! There's a new animal on the links. (required Tiger-related animal golf quip) Meet AJ, the 5 inch tall Indian ringneck parakeet who plays golf! Watch him make a hole in one.

AJ can also dunk a tiny basketball in a tiny hoop on a tiny court. He can roll over and play dead.
He has his own profile on MySpace. And his videos appear on YouTube, adding dimension to a career that was once restricted to late night talk shows. And CNN filler.

AJ is the latest in a series of animal stories on CNN that include an anchorman-like following of the development of the newest baby Panda at the Atlanta Zoo, video of a woman essentially making out with her pet lion (so many things wrong with that statement) and who can forget the walrus doing sit-ups. Actually, you can't forget, because you had about 19 opportunities to see it last week.

But this week was all about AJ the putting parakeet. Ok, not really. But who needs to hear about wars and dying all day? AJ just made a hole in one.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/24/parakeet.putt.ap/index.html

Close runner-up:

Girls charged with conspiring to kill classmates, Oprah
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/24/parakeet.putt.ap/index.html

Headline really says it all. Oh, except the Energizer Bunny was also on their hit list.

Kill the Energizer Bunny? Never! He keeps going and going and going and going....

I'm sorry. That was terrible. But it had to be done.