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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Mar 27, 2014
March 27, 2014
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Small-town politics:
In a case of perhaps the worst timing at any political event ever, Massachusetts state treasurer and gubernatorial candidate STEVE GROSSMAN passed a kidney stone during a debate Tuesday night, and experienced serious physical pain in the middle of the forum.
Grossman reportedly woke up in pain in the middle of the night Tuesday morning, but "insisted on continuing with the day," powering his way through scheduled events, the debate, and an awards ceremony after the debate ended.
The incident, of course, did not go unnoticed on Twitter, and so there is now officially a Grossman's Stone Twitter account.
Editor's note: Best political metaphor ever.
--Only person in politics with bigger stones than that is Hillary Clinton. (Maiman)Shopping Around:
Ebates finds that about 11 percent of Americans are shopping daily from a mobile device and that more than one-third (35 percent) are doing that from work.
About half say they shop via mobile device during other activities --including children's ball games and family events. Other findings:
--6 in 10 are shopping mobile for convenience
--55 percent are using their mobile devices in-store: comparison shopping, scanning coupons, getting cash back details
--52 percent say they shop mobile to save time
--49 percent say they shop via mobile because they are bored
--about one-third shop via mobile for clothing, music or books
--between 20 percent and 30 percent say they shop mobiles for games, movies and travel bookings (Kaye)Fashion Emergency:
Male university students in North Korea are now required to get the same haircut as their leader KIM JONG-UN. According to the BBC's news blog, the state-sanctioned guideline was introduced in the capital Pyongyang about two weeks ago. It is now being rolled out across the country - although some people have expressed reservations about getting the look.
The reason: One North Korean now living in China told the Korea Times that "the look is actually unpopular at home because people think it resembles Chinese smugglers. Until the mid-2000s, we called it the 'Chinese smuggler haircut."
Apparently North Korea has been monitoring and issuing edicts over its citizens' haircuts for some time. Women are reported to only be allowed to choose one of 18 state-sanctioned styles. For the men who are not university students, they have a choice of 10 haircuts. North Korea's state TV has even launched a campaign against long hair, called "Let us trim our hair in accordance with the Socialist lifestyle."
North Korea's late leader, KIM JONG-IL, who ruled for 17 years before his son took over, sported a bouffant hairstyle, reportedly in order to look taller. (Bartha)Stupid people, stupid places:
Sweden has "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," and now Norway has The Boy With the McDonald's Receipt Tattoo. He's an 18-year-old from Lørenskog, and he'll always remember exactly what he ate on Monday‚ because the receipt for the meal is inked on his right arm.
Some friends who wanted to punish STIAN YTTERDAHL for being too active with the ladies (uh huh, sure) gave him a choice between a Barbie on his rear end or the receipt on his arm.
Sabelink Tattoo said it was the strangest tattoo they'd ever done, and asked Ytterdahl if he'd get their receipt on his other arm --for free, of course. He agreed, and the next session is scheduled for Monday. (Maiman) -
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