Clemens' Notebook

From The Week this week:

At least 90 former officiails at the Department of Homeland Security now work as executives, consultants, or lobbyists for companies that sell billions of dollars worth of goods and services to their former agency. The New York Times

Gustav Emegger, 70, of Braunschweig Germany, was apprehended by a policeman as he fled from a clothing store with a stolen shirt. In desperation he bit the officer's arm, moistening it severely. "He tried to bite the officer several times," said a police spokesperson, "but had forgotten to put his teeth in and so was unable to cause any harm.

LATE BREAKING NEWS! Hilary Duff says she is a virgin.


Charitable giving neared a record high last year, according to the Giving USA foundation. Americans gave an estimated $260.3 billion in 2005, close to the inflation adjusted $260.5 billion in 2000. Much of the surge in gifts went to victims of the Asian tsunami, the Pakistan earthquake, and the Gulf Coast hurricanse.

'Best Buy' in Vinho Verde: Quinta do Ameal 2004 Loureiro for $13. Vinho Verde was the favorite wine of the Bomash family in Minneapolis when Clemens lived there, long ago. It was a great wine for the summertime. According to the wine enthusiast 'it's low in alcohol, bonedry, thirst-quenching and crisp as a thin slice of lemon.' The Quinta do Ameal is produced by a top estate, is a Riesling like wine with the flavor of almonds and a 'piercingly clean ripeness and acidity.' Sounds like time for a run to the Big City.

And the news from Poland: A Polish lake became 30% vodka following a leak at a local distillery. As locals stampeded to collect pails of lake water, one 71 year-old woman commented, "If God doesn't help, everyone will be a drunkard with only a hole were the lake was."

More late breaking news: New York City was named by Reader's Digest as the most polite city in the world. [Maybe the staff was drinking Polish lake water]