Taxman Mr. Wilson, Taxman Mr. Heath

Former British PM Edward Heath dead at age 89 - Yahoo! News. As your personal portal into the world of obscure Beatles trivia, I feel it my duty to inform you that Edward Heath was one of two former British Prime Ministers named in George Harrison's "Taxman". The other, Harold Wilson, died in 1995.

"Show Me" your lazy bones

Survey finds Missouri is No. 1 in slacking at work. Uh, no comment.

A Million Ways

Chicago-based nerd rockers OK Go are generating a little buzz on the Net with their remarkable video for the song "A Million Ways". The story, apparently, is that they developed this routine as an end-of-set performance piece, and the video is a practice run that was taped in someone's backyard. It may or may not be an official video -- I don't even see it listed on the band's website -- but it's already been noticed by Entertainment Weekly, VH1's "Best Week Ever" and quite a few blogs, of course. Their second album comes out next month.

The original Charlie Bucket

Make something that becomes a cultural touchstone for an entire generation, then promptly drop out of the business, disappear from public view, decline all interviews, and basically act as though it never happened. I wonder if Peter Ostrum, the original Charlie Bucket, has the same publicist as J.D. Salinger?

Exploring new depths of loserdom

In freak-of-the-week news, a woman tattooed an ad for an online casino on her forehead for $10K. What an appropriate use of advertising money for a business that fleeces the poor on an everyday basis. Casinos should just offer it as a standard deal to their addicted customers: we'll pay off your gambling debts in exchange for you becoming our shill for life.