Poor Mojo's Newswire

A handful of spikes — metal rods roughly 2 or 3 feet long — were found Sunday night by a man wading near the boating center at the south end of the lake. After he alerted city parks staff, Seattle police divers on Monday found 39 spikes buried in the lake bottom, with sharp points sticking up.

"We're horrified," said city parks spokeswoman Dewey Potter. "There can't be any other explanation than malice that we can think of."

The spikes were buried near the center and southern docks of the boating center, where row boats and canoes can be rented. Parks officials believe the spikes may have been there as long as two months because some of the rods were corroded.

The report found that the US ranked 42nd in the world for life expectancy despite spending more on health care per person than any other country.

Overall, the American Human Development Report ranked the world's richest country 12th for human development.

. . .

Asian males in the US were found to have the highest human development index score and were expected to live 14 years longer than African-American males, who had the lowest human development index rating.

• What did you say... you want to do something original? Wait wait wait. Did you not read anything I've written already? "Original" means "risky," which to publishers and bookstores means "it might not sell." IT MIGHT NOT SELL? Oh boy... maybe you could consider doing a cookbook? Or could you become famous and then send out your idea?

• If you do get a publisher interested in your idea, you should know now what the deal will be. You write the book, you promote the book - in other words, you create the product and sell it - and in return, the publisher will allow their name to appear on the book jacket. Oh, and the publisher keeps most of the money - since, they'll remind you, they assumed all the risk in the project.