An entertaining history of the late Weekly World News:

Clontz, who died in 2004, legendarily instructed his reporters to stay out of the way, let the sources tell the story: ”You’ve got to know when to stop asking questions.” If a guy called in and said Bigfoot stole his wife, then Bigfoot stole his wife. Why fact-check your way out of that one?

”We knew our core constituency wasn’t just college kids who are laughing at everything, but many people took the stories straight up and enjoyed them for what they were,” said former WWN managing editor Sal Ivone, proud author of the tortured-genius-demands-lobotomy classic. “They didn’t want to question it. So that was the way we played it.”

For a while, readers lapped it up. Circulation peaked at 1.2 million in 1988 with a front-page edition declaring ”ELVIS IS ALIVE — and living in Kalamazoo.” The tip was phoned in by a Michigan housewife.

A story would often start with a shred of truth and then a WWN writer would ”polish” it, sometimes to brilliantly ridiculous extremes. That’s why the WWN was the only media outlet to score exclusive Hubble telescope photos of Heaven.

”I always thought of it as the ultimate in wish-fulfillment,” Ivone said.

…Ivone said running characters like Bat Boy were a byproduct of reader appetites for story arcs.

Bat Boy was one of those happy accidents that could only occur at the Weekly World News. Dick Kulpa, the WWN’s graphics genius, was Photoshopping a human child’s image into another alien baby.

Tired of the same-old, same-old, Kulpa gave the tyke pointy ears, fangs and huge eyes. Ivone, who was standing nearby, muttered: ”Bat Boy!” The rest is blissful tabloid history.

It will be missed.

Someone had too much time on his hands (you don’t need to understand French to appreciate this video).

It’s a classic movie, and Lileks reviews it, so you don’t have to watch it.

I’m a faithful Wolverine, but I think that the response from Lloyd Carr and the others to Jim Harbaugh’s accurate comments is ridiculous. Note that none of them actually deny the allegations (because they know they’re true). They’re just upset because he’s perceived as being “disloyal.” I think that Michigan does as well to uphold academic standards as any program with their kind of record, but the notion that they don’t coddle the athletes academically is ridiculous. It’s unfortunate that this perception carries over to the athletes that are true scholars (and Michigan has many of those as well–I attended engineering classes with some football stars during my time there), but sometimes life isn’t fair.

They would have been better off not responding at all, since he certainly didn’t intend it as a specific slam at his own school, so much as the system in general. He was merely using Michigan as an example with which he was intimately familiar. In fact, you could replace the word “Michigan” in his comments with almost any other program, except perhaps Stanford, but then, they don’t win nearly as many football games.

Just in case you somehow imagined that Elton John wasn’t an idiot, this should lay the matter to rest:

OK, I love my feline overlord (or in this case, overlady), but unless you’re Bill Gates, $11,000 is a bit much. I spent less than a tenth of that a few years ago, and it was more than I probably should have.

Discuss.

Starbucks is increasing their prices.

I don’t think that I’ve ever given them a dime of business. If I did, I was purchasing something for someone else. I don’t even drink coffee. As I’ve noted in the past, if I were the market, there would be no Starbucks (and the economies of several tropical countries would be devastated).

A lot of Freepers seem to agree. Even the coffee drinkers. I like this proposal:

We need a $10 federal excise tax on Starbucks

Starbucks is increasing their prices.

I don’t think that I’ve ever given them a dime of business. If I did, I was purchasing something for someone else. I don’t even drink coffee. As I’ve noted in the past, if I were the market, there would be no Starbucks (and the economies of several tropical countries would be devastated).

A lot of Freepers seem to agree. Even the coffee drinkers. I like this proposal:

We need a $10 federal excise tax on Starbucks

Starbucks is increasing their prices.

I don’t think that I’ve ever given them a dime of business. If I did, I was purchasing something for someone else. I don’t even drink coffee. As I’ve noted in the past, if I were the market, there would be no Starbucks (and the economies of several tropical countries would be devastated).

A lot of Freepers seem to agree. Even the coffee drinkers. I like this proposal:

We need a $10 federal excise tax on Starbucks

Top ten things to hate about Star Trek.