Good Week, Bad Week

Good week for:

Everyone who said, ‘The chicken,’ after British researchers, claiming to solve one of the world’s oldest riddles, concluded that the chicken came before the egg. A protein found in the chicken’s ovary, they found, is necessary for the formation of the egg.

Rod Blagojevich, after wiretapped recordings of his conversations posted online by federal prosecutors were turned into ringtones. The most popular: “I’ve got this thing and it’s f---ing golden.”

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Creativity, after Sarah Palin asked Muslims in a tweet to “pls refudiate” plans to build a mosque at Ground Zero. When critics pointed out that “refudiate” is not a word, Palin responded, “English is a living language. Shakespeare liked to coin new words too.”

Bad week for:

Sexting, after a survey in Britain found that 20 percent of racy texts are sent to the wrong person.

Massachusetts, after the state legislature released a list of the state’s top 1,000 tourist attractions, but listed only 996 places, some of which don’t exist anymore, are closed to the public, or are listed in the wrong towns.

Lean government, after the Los Angeles Times revealed that the small, largely impoverished city of Bell, Calif., pays its city manager $787,000 and its police chief $457,000. “Our streets are cleaner, we have lovely parks, our community is better,” explained Mayor Oscar Hernandez. An investigation is underway.