So I'm going downtown Saturday night, and staying overnight. I decide to look at parking in a parking garage since the car I'm driving is new and it's snowing and I don't want snow and salt messing it up. But the parking garage costs $25 for anything over 10 hours, and it's definitely gonna be over 10 hours, so I opt instead to go for some street parking. The spot we find is about a foot off a fire hydrant, but we figure it's a small dead-end street and the spot's in the far corner, so it should be ok.

Read on for the rest of the story.

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dave submitted an article about the fight between Scott Stapp, lead singer of Creed and general douchebag, and the band 311.

Former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp and members of the band 311 were involved in a fight on Thanksgiving in the lounge of a luxury hotel, according to hotel security staff and 311 members.

311 were in Baltimore for a weekend concert when several members ran into Stapp earlier that day, band drummer Chad Sexton told The Associated Press. Both Stapp and 311 have the same producer, and Sexton said there were no problems during the first meeting.

But Stapp later came into the Harbor Court Hotel bar while Sexton and bandmates SA Martinez and P-Nut were watching basketball on television. He stepped in front of the screen and said, "311, I am ready to fight," according to Sexton.

Sexton said the band tried to defuse the situation, and Stapp went to the bar to drink. Later, he made "inappropriate" comments to Martinez's wife, and was confrontational with Sexton.

"All of a sudden, he clocked me in the left side of my face," Sexton said. "Then a huge fight broke out."

During the melee, Martinez broke a finger and later went to the hospital to have a cast put on his hand. Security guards eventually broke up the brawl. Police were called, but no arrests were made, according to hotel security.

"It was an unfortunate incident," Sexton said. "We are not brawlers."

Beth Keifetz, vice president of publicity at Stapp's label, Wind-up Records, wouldn't comment on the reports of a fight.

But Jonathan Jordan, director of security at the hotel, said the incident was captured on security cameras. He said Stapp was "attacked" by several members of 311 and that it took two security guards to break up the fight.

"It was definitely started by 311," Jordan said.

Read on for 311's response from their official site:

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dave submitted a story in the Chicago Tribune about a bunch of lawsuits over the diminishing use of the word "Christmas" and replacement by "holidays."

Christian groups point to recent controversies such as Boston naming its official Christmas tree a "holiday tree"--a label that has caused far more of a furor in Boston than in Chicago.

Donnie Hatt, the Canadian logger who has long donated a tree to Boston, said that if he had known the city would re-label his gift, he would have thrown it into a wood chipper instead.

Choice quote: "The interesting thing about each of these cases is they're all in red states," Johnson said, referring to the popular term that describes more conservative states that typically vote Republican in national elections. "That's rural Georgia. That's the last place you would think political correctness would rule the day, but that's apparently what's going on."

dave submitted an article about a teacher who got fired.

The New York Civil Liberties Union has filed a federal discrimination complaint against a Catholic school, charging that it unjustly fired an unmarried teacher for being pregnant.

"I don't understand how a religion that prides itself on forgiving and on valuing life could terminate me because I'm pregnant and choosing to have this baby," Michelle McCusker said Monday at a news conference to announce the suit.

Lawyers at the NYCLU, which filed the suit on McCusker's behalf, argued that administrators enforced the policy in a way that disproportionately affects women.

"The school used her pregnancy as a marker," attorney Cassandra Stubbs said. "How do they determine if male employees engage in premarital sex?"

According to The Canadian Press, someone cut Gregory Peck's star out of the sidewalk.

"They just left a big hole out there," said Johnny Grant, 82, who serves as Hollywood's honorary mayor and oversees ceremonies honouring star recipients. "Somebody went out there with a cement saw and carved it out of the black terrazzo." Peck's star is the fourth star to be stolen since the Walk of Fame was begun in 1960. Some 2,200 stars are now part of the walkway.

Peck's star was part of the original group of some 1,500 set into Hollywood sidewalks before it was officially dedicated in 1960. It apparently disappeared sometime between Nov. 17 and Nov. 22, Grant said.

You'd think someone would hear/notice someone breaking the concrete with a cement saw to remove the star.

According to an AP article, the man who ran out on the field during the Eagles' game on Sunday did it to dump his mother's ashes on the field.

Christopher Noteboom, of Tempe, Ariz., ran onto the field holding a plastic bag, leaving a cloud of fine powder behind. As he reached the 30-yard line, he dropped to his knees, made the sign of the cross and lay down on his stomach. Security personnel reached him moments later and he offered no resistance as he was escorted from the field.

The 33-year-old Noteboom, a native of Doylestown, said his mother died of emphysema in January 2005, shortly before the Eagles' Super Bowl appearance. "She never cared for any other team except the Eagles," Noteboom told WPVI-TV after he was released from custody Monday. "I know that the last handful of ashes I had are laying on the field, and will never be taken away. She'll always be part of Lincoln Financial Field and of the Eagles."

Noteboom, a bar owner in Arizona, was charged with defiant trespass. He has a hearing scheduled for Dec. 27.

"It's bizarre, but we have a zero tolerance for people who run on the field," Police Inspector William Colarulo said. "We especially have a zero tolerance for people who run onto the field and dump an unknown substance in a stadium full of people."

Who knows, maybe she wasn't an Eagles fan and just really liked Lincoln Financial.

According to impactlab.com, two cleaning ladies used an industrial vacuum cleaner to suck the money out of slot machines. They managed to get "hundreds of thousands of pounds" from a Slovenian casino. Managers noticed money started disappearing after the casino closed. Since they are having difficulty proving it, they fired the entire cleaning staff.

The title pretty much sums up the story, but I also think that the culprit could very well be dave (aka The Earl of Sandwich).

Police say a man used what they call a “gun-shaped” object in his attempt to rob a Humboldt Park bar Monday night. But a tipster tells CBS 2 the weapon was actually a ham sandwich molded into the shape of a gun. The ham-robber fell on his way out of the bar and was arrested.

I wonder if the "tipster" ate the evidence.

According to a news.com.au story, a French tourist on an Australia-bound plane tried to open the door mid-flight to go have a smoke.

Sadrine Helene Sellies, 34, was placed on a good behaviour bond after pleading guilty in Brisbane Magistrates' Court today to endangering the safety of an aircraft. The court was told Sellies was on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Brisbane on Saturday when the incident occurred. She was seen walking towards one of the aircraft's emergency exits with an unlit cigarette and a lighter in her hand and began tampering with the door.

But a flight attendant intervened and took Sellies back to her seat. Sellies was watched closely until the plane landed in Brisbane, where it was met by Australian Federal Police and she was arrested and charged.

Defence lawyer Helen Shilton told the court Sellies had been terrified of flying and had taken sleeping tablets and alcohol before takeoff. She had no memory of what had happened on the flight and also had a history of sleepwalking, Ms Shilton said.

Real Tech News has an article about a device that is attached to bottles at bars and monitors how much is being poured into a drink. If a bartender is pouring too much, it notifies the bar owner using wireless signals.

Capton's Beverage Tracker system is an innovative liquor monitoring system that helps bar owners increase their liquor profits by providing real-time wireless liquor consumption data to help prevent against shrinkage. Our system help you identify over-pours and drink giveaways. Think of it as an electronic journal of everything that happens within your bar operations. Remember, you can't manage what you can't measure!

Two reasons why this sucks:
a) More watery drinks from bartenders who are afraid of the device reporting them.
b) It also sucks for the bar owner because all the equipment involved costs something like 5 grand (for the pour spouts, wireless receiver, and software), and you're making up chump change each week. So the payoff will be after 20 years.

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