Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

A bank robber wears duct-taped tree branches. More here.

Arthur Friedman announced to his wife, Natalie, after ten years of marriage, that he wanted the couple to engage in group sex and swinging, so he could gratify himself watching his wife have sex with other men. Natalie, however, fell for one of her partners, German Blinov. The two left their spouses and ran off with one another. Arthur sued Blinov under the Illinois alienation of affection laws, and, amazingly enough, won $4,802 from a jury that thought the case was stupid. The former Mrs. Friedman expresses dismay about the award, but it's not clear whether it's the fact of the award or the trivial amount that offends her.

-- PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE

After decades of door-to-door proselytizing, Sybil Lovelace can count five people she's led to Bible study, which led to baptism.

-- MATTHAI CHAKKO KURUVILA

Spain's largest fighting bulls lived up to their fearsome reputation, goring two and crushing at least seven people as thousands of daredevils sprinted down narrow streets Sunday in Pamplona's annual running of the bulls.

The second of eight bull runs in the weeklong San Fermin festival involved the black and reddish-colored Miura bulls, renowned as the largest fighting bulls in Spain.

As they charged down the 800-meter route, two of them fell and, appearing to lose their way, turned on the crowd of runners. Two people were gored.

-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Snapple teas and juice drinks claim on their labels to be "all natural" and "made from the best stuff on Earth."

A lawsuit filed in New Jersey Superior Court and moved to federal court last week begs to differ. The complaint, filed against Snapple and its parent, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages, charges the use of high-fructose corn syrup in the drinks renders the "all natural" claim false and deceptive.

-- GREG SAITZ

Before there was "Freakonomics," before there was "The Tipping Point" or "Blink," Steven E. Landsburg wrote a regular column for Slate magazine called Everyday Economics. The column started in the summer of 1996 with an article headlined "More Sex Is Safer Sex," in which Landsburg argued that H.I.V. would spread less quickly if relatively chaste people each took on a few more sexual partners. At a given bar on a given night, he wrote, these disease-free singles would then make the pool of sexually active adults safer. . . .

<>This research was one of the early examples of the economics profession’s imperialist movement. For the last decade or so, economists have been increasingly poking their fingers into other disciplines, including epidemiology, psychology, sociology, oenology and even football strategy. These economists usually justify their expansionism on two grounds: They say they’re better with numbers than most other researchers and have a richer understanding of how people respond to incentives.

-- DAVID LEONHARDT

Argentina's economy minister said she committed no crime by hiding a bag stuffed with US$64,000 in cash in her office bathroom.

-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

I am not usually found at bars during the day, though the state of the Republican Party would justify it. But here I was at a bar talking to this fox -- I mean an actual fox, with fluffy tail and whiskers. It turns out that, in the online world of Second Life, many people prefer to take the shape of anthropomorphic animals called "furries," and this one is in a virtual bar talking about her frustrating job at a New York publishing house. But for all I know, she could be a man in outback Montana with a computer, a satellite dish and a vivid imagination.

-- MICHAEL GERSON

Homer (Simpson) is good because, above all, he is capable of great love. When the chips are down, he always does the right thing by his children – rejecting an offer of $1m from Mr Burns for a teddy bear of Maggie’s – and by Marge – he is never unfaithful in spite of several opportunities. And it's not because he fears being found out; it’s because he can’t. What Marge understands and what her sisters don’t is that having all of Homer is far, far better than having half of any ordinary man.

This capacity for love dwarfs his failings. Even God sees this. Homer can't stand his fundamentalist Christian neighbour, Flanders, and is bored to death by the sermons of the weary Reverend Lovejoy. He also has little time for the Bible – “If the Bible has taught us nothing else,” he tells Lisa, "and it hasn't, it's that girls should stick to girls' sports." But when God drops in for a chat, he discovers in Homer a surprisingly convincing theology. Basically, this is that life is tough and humans are hopeless but, without making a fuss about it, God is always there as the last safety net. And, when He's not around, there's love.

-- TIMES ONLINE