How hot is it...?

- Goodness, it's so hot that even the "heat" jokes aren't funny anymore. This is brutal and, apparently, pay back for last year's mild Kansas City summer.

- A lawsuit has been filed, by shoppers, against the 99 Cents Only Store. The reason? The chain has raised the price of its items to $0.9999. The chain's CEO, Eric Schiffer, said that the increase was for a "very tiny amount" but admitted that prices are then rounded up to $1.00 at the cash register. The "tiny" increase nets out a tidy $12 million more annually.

- Isn't there something a bit spooky about the fact that Mel Gibson has been getting "career advice" from none other than Britney Spears? According to In Touch magazine, "Mel has been talking to her a lot."

- Bill Clinton, who just married off his daughter, Chelsea, is now viewed more favorably than current president Barack Obama and immediate past president George Bush. According to a Gallup survey, Clinton is viewed favorably by 61% of the public while Obama is viewed favorably by 52% and Bush by 45%.

- Did I mention that it's hot?

- Kansas is in the news. According to The Wichita Eagle, the final roll of Kodachrome film that Kodak produced was processed this month in...Parsons, KS. Why Parsons? Kodak, which has retired this film brand, selected photographer Steve McCurry to shoot the last roll. McCurry photographed images in New York, India and...yep--Parsons.

- We're two episodes into Season Four of Mad Men and, already, this season is promising to rebound from last season's often lackluster performance. Yes, it was still the best work on television last summer but the writers seemed to struggle with what to do with certain characters until the final episode, which thus led to this season's early fireworks. The one question I have is with Jon Hamm's Don Draper character. Is Don currently just suffering a case of holiday loneliness, or does it go deeper than that? Is he truly troubled by the loss of his family? And, what of his sampling the company fare--and I don't mean the food and beverages--after the office Christmas party? Stay tuned...

- Here's a dubious record--NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler said that league officials told him his head-on collision, this past Sunday in Pocono, was the hardest recorded in the history of the sport. There wasn't a quality replay of Sadler's crash into the wall but enough was caught on camera to tell the story of this frightening accident. The previous "record" for a hard hit was held by Kyle Petty, who crashed at Bristol in 2003 at 80 Gs (80 times the force of gravity.)

- Okay, okay, you asked for it. Did you hear the one about the fire hydrant? It's so hot outside that a fire hydrant begged a dog to pee on it.