Bottom of the News… Friday, April 11, 2008

Good morning my fellow Rotarians… You know April begins with one of my favorite holidays, April Fools, and yet it seems that there is no shortage of people who fit the bill as this month rolls on…

2008 People to Pose Nude for Euro 2008

VIENNA: New York contemporary artist Spencer Tunick has gained notoriety worldwide for photographing thousands of people in the nude. Now he's planning to pack a Vienna soccer stadium with 2,008 naked fans in the run-up to the Euro 2008 soccer tournament.
Organizers say that “Tunick's unusual genre is perfect for the European soccer championship because he spreads a strong sense of community spirit with the game of soccer against the backdrop of stadium architecture.

It is not exactly clear how Tunick will pose his 2,008 subjects, typically he decides only moments before his cameras begin to shoot.

The New York artist has grabbed headlines for draping naked bodies on glaciers, in front of the United Nations and in more than 70 other locations from Montreal to Melbourne, Australia.
He holds a record for photographing more than 18,000 naked people en masse in Mexico City's main square in 2007.

Far and Away and Bad Idea!

HACKEY, ENGLAND: Lefkos Hajji, 28, had an inspiration for a unique proposal to his girlfriend… He put her $12,000 diamond engagement ring in a balloon – a helium-filled balloon, so he could stick it with a pin to “pop’ the question at just the right moment.

Well, the best laid plans went south (or north actually) when Hajji took the balloon outside. A gust of wind snatched the balloon from his hand and it floated off, taking the ring with it.

Hajji chased the balloon for two hours before giving it up as lost as it floated out over the North Sea. "I felt like such a plonker," he told reporters. (Plonker is a silly idiot who is also careless).

Hajji’s girlfriend was furious demanding a new ring or she would call of the engagement. Short of telling his girlfriend to dive into the North Sea to look for the ring, Hajji decided to postpone the engagement until he can afford to buy a new one.

Wake Up Call For Hillary

WASHINGTON, DC: In what will probably become the iconic TV ad of the 2008 presidential campaign, you may recall the TV commercial where a little girl is shown sleeping as a red phone rings at 3:00 a.m. in the White House.

The spot, for Hillary Clinton, was meant to convey that she is ready on day-one to handle crises, and implied that her opponent Barack Obama is not.

The footage in this ad is at least ten years old and came from a video agency stock house. The little girl featured in the ad is today now 17 years old and the Clinton campaign used the footage without bothering to learn more about the girl featured in their ad.

As it turns out, the girl is Casey Knowles of Bonney Lake, WA. Ironically, this past year she has been working for a presidential campaign… Barack Obama's. When a call was made to the Clinton campaign regarding this interesting situation, the inquirer was told that Hillary would not take their call and that he campaign had “no comment.”

And there you have it, the Bottom of the News on this Friday, April 11, 2008. ###