"Bits & Pieces" - Commentary by Tony Seton

Bits & Pieces

Bits and pieces from this reporter’s notebook.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....It didn’t make the front page of most newspapers or the evening newscasts. So many pre-cowering editors fear they will be accused of piling on if they report negative news from post-IraqAttaq. But, um, you should be told that U.S. weapons experts in Baghdad have said that a fleet of abandoned Saddamese drones -- those are pilotless planes -- weren’t built to disperse WMDs, as had been alleged by the Bush Administration.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....A new and unrelated study says monkeys may resent unfairness. An Emory University researcher says if you offer one monkey less of a reward than another for the same act, the first will often show displeasure. Another student of capuchin behavior said the monkeys must have learned that in captivity. But says the Emory researcher, nu-uh, since most animals "cannot learn things which they do not naturally do in the wild." Huh? Give me your paw, Buster.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....The Triple-A settled with the family of a Boston woman who didn’t get prompt auto service, accepted a ride with a stranger, and was raped and murdered by him. The family said if the auto club had shown up faster, instead of telling her the wait would be hours, she wouldn’t have gone with the would-be rescuer. The amount of the settlement was not revealed, nor why AAA settled, except to avoid publicity, as their liability wasn’t readily apparent.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....A Minnesota firm is recalling 154,000 pacifiers because they could come apart and choke infants and small children. No such incidents have yet been reported. It is also unclear how the company could actually go to market with a pacifier that could actually come apart.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....If you needed an excuse to eat pizza, try this one on for jumbo size. An Italian study says eating pizza can reduce your chance of getting cancer. Well, not yours necessarily, but if you lived in Italy and ate pizza at least once a week, you would be much less likely to get cancer of the esophagus and colon.

Da-deet-da-deet-da-deet-deet....And finally, more polish added to the class of rap, a 20-year-old apparently blond from Kingston, New York has the moniker "Feminen," which is apparently a take off on the popular male spewer Eminenm. Said she of their music, "his songs, like mine, are just part of the flow that happens when we’re freestyling in the zone." Happens in the best of families.

And that’s SetonnoteS...I’m Tony Seton.