Good morning, Netizens...

In this edition of Week in Review, we take a backwards glance at the various issues discussed this week, hopefully to see what, if anything, the Virtual Ballroom contributed either to mankind, the carbon footprint or in rare cases, the mantle atop the gigantic ballroom fireplace.

However, before we delve into that too deeply, I should mention that several garden gnomes have been outside the door to the ballroom this morning, among the petunias, tulips and dandelions and are shaking down the rest of the gnomes who obviously lost a bet. Apparently last winter, when the gnomes were hiding behind the stage in the ballroom, a bet was made that it would be June before the dandelions began blooming this year. Well, as any self-respecting garden gnome would know, the first dandelion burst into bloom when the snow was still in the snowy shadows, on March 12, so now we have a gnome shakedown under way. Corruption is everywhere, my friends, even here in the relative sanctity of the Virtual Ballroom.

Taking my first sip of the Virtual Espresso of the day, Kickass Very Quickly, and sliding into my favorite seat at the Virtual Espresso Bar, let us look in retrospect at those messages that will go down in history as speaking most often to our collective consciousnesses this week. (dotditdotdotdit) We have to use sound effects here before we’re too cheap to buy a pocket calculator.

The totals are in, and it probably will surprise no one that first place this week, at 14 responses, goes to Joseph Edward Duncan III who, it seems, may act as his own attorney which would result in him having one of the most macabre, stupid and thoroughly hideous clients in legal history. Where the hell is Perry Mason and Doris Street when we need them?

Of course, second place, at 13, has to go to the Hillary balloon. Something that was pointed out to me after-the-fact, is that the Hillary Balloon has no clothes on. As is often the case, the blow-up version of Hillary appears to have attire but in reality, like Hillary Clinton, I believe it the balloon is all hot air. Record this in the annals of the Spokesman-Review that this is the first time a caricature of a national political candidate has appeared in a blog sans clothing. There has to be a prize somewhere here, right?

It is somehow fit and proper that our discussion of the Holocaust, at 12, ranks within our top discussions this week. This coming Thursday isYom Hoshoah, a Jewish day of mourning, and undoubtedly more discussions and remembrances of this day of mourning. Genocide should never be dismissed as trivial or allowed to pass unremembered.

Our discussions of the series of earthquakes in Reno, Nevada and beyond tied with the discussions of the Holocaust at 12. To our good credit, no one from Spokane mentioned once that we could have oceanfront property here if the tectonic plates slipped in the right places. First we have to move five stories of books from Moe’s Bookstore on Telegraph Avenue to my back yard.

Fourth place, the story about Joseph Fritzl and his children, still leaves me with a queasy stomach, because as that story continued to develop, some major news media companies dropped the story as soon as the details were known. Fritzl is one sick puppy.

Wouldn’t you know it? The Word of the Day, harpy, placed fifth this week. I promise I am still searching for a masculine-gendered synonym for this word, but I am relatively certain if you stick around for awhile Anu Garg and his marvelously long-lived A Word a Day will find an appropriate word to describe the male of the species with equal abandon.

So, there you have it, the first weekly edition of The Week in Review.

Dave

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