Motivational quotes, because I need some inspiration to get up off my duff and do something:

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway. “  — John Wayne

Cat quotes, just because (more cat quotes here):

“No amount of time can erase the memory of a good cat, and no amount of masking tape can ever totally remove his fur from your couch.” — Leo Dworken

“Most beds sleep up to six cats. Ten cats without the owner.” — Stephen Baker

“Cats are smarter than dogs. You can’t get eight cats to pull a sled through snow.” — Jeff Valdez

“Cats do care. For example they know instinctively what time we have to be at work in the morning and they wake us up twenty minutes before the alarm goes off.” — Michael Nelson

Don’t people watch Law and Order anymore?

Apparently not in North Carolina.

A guy goes in a computer cafe and pretends the banana in his pocket is a gun.

In the criminal justice system, bananas are split between two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate the peels, and the district attorneys, who mash the pretenders. These are their stories.

The guy could have asked for anything. Money. Jewels. Heck, he could have pointed that loaded banana and demanded a computer.

But no.

The guy demanded Mountain Dew.

Now, if he’d said, “Gimme all yer Docter Pepper,” that would have made sense. Dr. Pepper is the official drink of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. It flows from the fountain drink machines of every convenience store in every small town below the Mason-Dixon line. Southern girls dab Dr. Pepper behind their ears like perfume before they go out on dates on Saturday night. It’s what makes Southern babies grow up to be extraordinary college football and basketball players.

This lack of common sense explains the thief’s next action — after he’s subdued by the cafe owner and a customer, the guy eats the banana.

Fortunately for everyone, a quick-thinking deputy (the Carolinas are famous for them) took a photo of the peel to submit as evidence.

Lenny Briscoe and Jack McCoy, where are you when we need you?

A guy suspected of drug dealing led Indiana Police on a high-speed chase through two counties …

… until he saw a Taco Bell.

Read the story here.

This would have made a great scene in a Dirty Harry movie.

(DRUG DEALER leaps from car, runs to door of Taco Bell; DIRTY HARRY in pursuit.)

DIRTY HARRY (stops running, wheezes, points gun at drug dealer): Freeze, punk!

DRUG DEALER (grabs door handle): I gotta have my burrito, man!

DIRTY HARRY: I have a burrito for you.  A cold steel burrito. (Cocks the trigger.) Go ahead — say ole.

DRUG DEALER: That’s all I want, man, just one more burrito.

DIRTY HARRY: That’s what you’re gonna get, punk — one more burrito, with a bullet.

DRUG DEALER: Does that come with a large Pepsi?

My daughter let me know the link to “The Best Town on Earth” video in an earlier post didn’t work, so we’ll try it another way.

The Best Town on Earth

We survived the strongest tornado to hit the United States in 2005.

We didn’t let the 2009 ice storm of the century get us down, either.

We’re small, but strong!

“When you write, you light a bonfire in the spirit world. It is dark there. Lost souls wander alone. Your inner flame flares up. And the lost souls gather near your light and heat. And they see the next artist at work and go there. And they follow the fires until they find their ways home.”
 
Said by a Mexican healer woman, quoted in “Life Is An Act Of Literary Creation,” by Luis Alberto Urrea (from NPR’s This I Believe.)

Yeah, everybody says they live in the best town on earth.

But how many have an awesome video to prove it?

(Be sure you watch it all the way through.  The woman at the end is awesome! She’s in her late 90’s and a great patron of the arts in our community.)