Even Oscar Wilde was a fan.

Our idea of inalienable style rights: life, Liberty and the pursuit of florals. These artful, eye-popping blooms from London’s Liberty Art Fabrics, the British house famous for its fabric collection since 1875 (even Oscar Wilde was a fan), are our current obsession. Our design team revived this drawn-from-life floral of garden perennials like wild grasses, oxeye daisies and forget-me-nots from the archives of Liberty’s Regent Street, London, emporium. So celebrate spring a little sooner and button up to brighten up. 

http://www.jcrew.com/index.jsp

Obama and Santorum share the same prayer.

The prospect of four more years of President Barack Obama holds some appeal for many Americans but probably not for most Republicans. It may give doubters among them some comfort, however, to know that Obama and Santorum share the same prayer: that Santorum be the Republican nominee.

Kathleen Parker
www.washingtonpost.com

Very smart, very emty.

1,200 guests, surrounded by 65,000 empty seats.

The Detroit Economic Club arranged the event and sold tickets for it ($45 for members; $75 for non-members), and when two indoor venues sold out quickly, club officials moved the speech to Ford Field.
Beth Chappell, president and chief executive of the Detroit Economic Club, said in a statement: “The original plan was to host the Romney meeting in the atrium, which is where we host DEC meetings when at Ford Field. During our walk through with the security team there were further issues raised due to the size of the crowd so we moved the event to the field.”
washington post

decibel

Il debutto del coro del San Paolo sulle note dell'inno Uefa è rimasto "storico". La prima volta mandò in distorsione l'audio di Sky Sport per l'incredibile quantità di decibel prodotti dai tifosi della curva che accompagna l'ultima strofa. Quel rito si rinnova a ogni partita di Champions del Napoli a Fuorigrotta, così come è consuetudine cantare "O surdato 'nnamurato", diventato l'inno della squadra.


http://video.repubblica.it/sport/napoli-in-champions-l-urlo-della-curva/88722/87115

- -

wow

Stringer/Italy/Reuters

The Treaty of Versailles

The Italian police on Friday arrested eight people on charges related to the seizure of $6 trillion in fake United States Treasury bonds, in a mysterious scheme that stretched from Hong Kong to Switzerland to the southern Italian region of Basilicata.

The value of the seized bonds is in the neighborhood of half of the United States’ entire public debt of $15.36 trillion, but only the uninitiated would have accepted them as real securities. Rather than counterfeit, they were what officials call fictitious, printed in 6,000 units of $1 billion each, a denomination that does not exist and the equivalent of $3 bills, American officials said.

In a statement on Friday, the United States Embassy in Rome said its experts had examined the bonds, which bore the date 1934, and determined that they were fictitious and apparently part of a scheme intended to defraud Swiss banks. [...]

The prosecutors said they had found the bonds — along with a fake copy of the Treaty of Versailles, signed by European powers at the end of World War I — in special compartments in metal crates in a Swiss vault, which the Swiss authorities had sent them last fall following a request for cooperation.

By RACHEL DONADIO - nytimes

En première période, le Bayer a effectué... 75 passes. Contre quasiment 500 pour le FC Barcelone...


http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/match/249336

No one ever doubted her talent: descended from a line of great singers, she was blessed with a voice that everyone from Smokey Robinson to Simon Cowell agreed was one of the best in the world. But her critics claimed the records she made with it erred on the safe side, tending towards pop rather than soul, the middle of the road rather than the cutting edge.
Alexis Petridis
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 February 2012 

Yes sir, No sir

A man with a gun went into a bank and demanded their money.
Once he was given the money, he turned to a customer and asked, 'Did you see me rob this bank?'
The man replied, 'Yes sir, I did'. The robber then shot him and killed him instantly.
He then turned to a couple standing next to him and asked the woman, 'Did you see me rob this bank?'
The woman replied, 'No sir, but my husband did'.

concordia

try on shoes before

He expressed frustration that not only had looters had the temerity to try on shoes before stealing them, they had also calmly queued up at tills to take off the security tags, before popping them into JD Sports carrier bags.

One war reporter, who has just returned from the frontline in Libya, was mugged by three hooded looters outside Curry's in Brixton on Sunday night with £2,500 worth of video equipment stolen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/09/london-riots-day-four-live-blog

Aura

But it’s hard to see how Gingrich’s Master Debater reputation recovers from his poor showings in the debates in Florida. Even if he stays in the race long enough to get another crack at Romney, voters will always remember that he can be bested – that if you prick him, he might just bleed. Once lost, an aura of invincibility is an awfully hard thing to regain.

nytimes.com

Except Leon Panetta

“The president, he went around the table with all the senior people, including the Chiefs of Staff, and he said, ‘I have to make a decision. What is your opinion?’ ” Biden recounted. “He started with the national security adviser, the secretary of state and he ended with me. Every single person in that room hedged their bets except Leon Panetta. Leon said go. Everyone else said, 49, 51. He got to me. He said, ‘Joe, what do you think?’ And I said, ‘You know, I didn’t know we had so many economists around the table.’ I said, ‘We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is, don’t go. We have to do two more things to see if he’s there.’ ”

Biden is so eager to show how bold and cool Obama was in that teeth-rattling moment that he relishes admitting he gave cautious advice that was ignored.

The next morning, the president came down to get into Marine One, turned to Tom Donilon and said, “Go.”

“He knew what was at stake,” Biden said. “Not just the lives of those brave warriors, but literally the presidency. And he pulled the trigger.”

The vice president concluded triumphantly: “This guy doesn’t lead from behind. He just leads.”

Don't muck it up

muck 

n.

1. A moist sticky mixture, especially of mud and filth.

2. Moist farmyard dung; manure.

3. Dark fertile soil containing decaying vegetable matter.

4. Something filthy or disgusting.

5. Earth, rocks, or clay excavated in mining.

tr.v. mucked, muck·ing, mucks

1. To fertilize with manure or compost.

2. To make dirty with or as if with muck.

3. To remove muck or dirt from (a mine, for example).

Phrasal Verbs:

muck about Chiefly British

To spend time idly; putter.

muck up Informal

To bungle, damage, or ruin.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/muck

[...] They have been offered a pre-professorship in Bingo. The position will match their Lala salary, but no bonuses. So they (Bingo) are paying a great premium over regular tenured senior lecturers, but it will still be a pay cut.

The Chronicles of Norflikston People (Vincent Sincus)

Zuckerberg is featured on the cover of Time magazine's 2010 "Person of the Year" issue. At 26, Zuckerberg was the youngest to earn the honor since the first person chosen, aviator Charles Lindbergh, in 1927. Lindbergh was 25.