Havelock Scoop

Jokesters and pranksters nationwide have their moment of glory today, and it seems like everyone’s getting in on the act.

Google announced today that it’s teaming up with Virgin to create “Virgle,” a human colony on Mars. Consumer rights blog The Consumerist adopted an anti-customer attitude and redubbed itself The Conglomerist.

Closer to home, the Beaufort Observer in Washington, N.C. is reporting that staunch Republican county commissioner Hood Richardson has defected to the “Dimocrat” Party (note the purposeful misspelling in their story).

At our sister paper, the Kinston Free Press, reporter Jon Dawson and content editor Charlie Kraebel are pushing for each other’s immediate ouster on their blogs.

What’s the best April Fool you’ve seen today? Has anyone successfully pulled your leg?

Time to fill out those brackets and pick the winners. Who will it be — UNC, Duke, Syracuse, Nebraska?

Try Comcast, US Airways, Bank of America or the Recording Industry Association of America.

Consumer rights blog The Consumerist is holding its second annual Worst Company in America contest. You can visit the site and vote for the worst business in daily match-ups (the first clash: Menu Foods vs. Comcast).

Which company elevates bad customer service to an art form? Make your choice, and feel free to share how you voted here on the Havelock Scoop.

St. Patrick’s Day could become a national holiday if an online petition drive for Proposition 3-17 succeeds.

Irish beermaker Guinness has sponsored the effort to make March 17 an official holiday to commemorate Irish culture in the United States. The matter could be brought before the U.S. Congress, which always has time for blarney in the form of inane dedications like National Shoehorn Repairmen’s Awareness Week.

Do you think St. Patrick’s Day warrants a day off from work? Click here to sign the petition.

The year’s barely started, and I’ve got two nominations for the Havelock Scoop’s 2008 Irresponsible Advertising Award.

Lunging out of the gate first is Taco Bell with its TV commercials, placards and coupons touting a new addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner — “Fourthmeal.” The theme is meant to emphasize that Taco Bell is open late, and diners can stop by for a midnight snack between dinner and breakfast.

Great message. Let’s encourage a country chomping and slurping its way closer to national obesity to eat still more.

My second nominee is paint company Sherwin Williams’ logo, which depicts an overturned paint can atop the Earth with a gooey, viscous substance coating this terrestrial ball. Cover the earth with Sherwin Williams paint!

Yeah, that sends a positive environmental message. “Pave paradise, put up a parking lot,” anyone?

These are just two bad ads I’ve noticed this week. Send me your nominations for the worst sales pitch, and we may find something still less socially responsible.

Stand-up comic D.L. Hughley is headlining this year’s Kiss Comedy Jam, set for 8 p.m. Saturday at the Greenville Convention Center. Tickets for the Greenville show, presented by WIKS-FM 101.9, are on sale locally in Havelock and New Bern.

A comedian and actor who starred in the ABC sitcom “The Hughleys” and was the first host of “Comic View” on BET, Hughley will bring his Unapologetic Tour to Greenville with guest host Darren “D.S.” Sanders and musical guest I-15.

Tickets are $41 for general admission and $51 for VIP seating and are available at Image Update on East Main Street in Havelock, Flyin’ High Wireless in New Bern and on the Kiss FM Web site.

It’s a pricey show, but Hughley is a marquee comic who’s worth every penny.

Former New Bern television host Will C. Morgan has died, the Sun Journal reported in today’s edition.

Many old-timers will remember Morgan as the host of “Will C’s Red Eye Cinema” on WCTI Channel 12, the local ABC affiliate. More recently, Morgan hosted “Will C’s TV Flea” on C-TV 10 Community Television.

While I never got to see Morgan’s late-night movie picks — having moved to the New Bern area in 2002 — I had the privilege of meeting and working with Will C. when I worked as a videographer and creative services assistant for C-TV 10 during the summer of 2003.

Will C. was the consummate professional, and he will be greatly missed — rubber chicken and all.

Two supermarkets. A half-dozen or so fast-food joints. And two — as in plural, multiple, more than one — independent pro wrestling groups.

It’s rare that a city of Havelock’s size would have such an array of sports entertainment. A Community page story in Wednesday’s paper highlights the ICWF and Crash Wrestling, the indie circuit and promotions group, respectively, that are bringing leg drops and powerbombs to the Gateway City.

Crash has a show at 9 p.m. Friday at 238-A U.S. 70 West, and the ICWF is bringing its Labor Day Lashing to the Havelock Recreation Center at 7 p.m. Saturday. Check our coverage for ticket information.

Please don’t use the word “Brangelina” in reference to so-called supercouple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

This kind of cutesy name is enough to make most journalists cringe. It reeks of supermarket tabloid headlines and vacuous celebrity news shows, and you don’t have to dignify it with a mention in print, on air or online.

Refuse to use this word, and maybe if we cross our fingers, screw our eyes shut and count to 100, it will go away.

I didn’t expect much from Korn’s untitled January release after a few spins of the disc’s first single, “Evolution.”

The clumsy lyrics and disjointed chorus disappointed this former fan of the progressive rock-metal mainstay. But every album deserves a second chance, and when I got my hands on the CD in digital form yesterday and blasted the lesser-known tracks through my computer speakers, I became a Korn convert. Again.

Frontman Jonathan Davis shrieks the baleful and taunting “Ever Be,” and David Silviera’s clench-fisted drumstick assault keeps the chorus rattling around your skull.

If you want a brooding ballad (and after all, who doesn’t?), skip over to “Hushabye,” whose simple profundity makes this tune a leaky-eyed lighter-lifter.

The disc has some weak spots, to be sure, but for pre-Follow the Leader-era Korn fans, this is nothing short of a revival. Korn’s departure from peppy rap-rock and Fred Durst duets frees the band to do what it does best: Shred.

Slate.com skewers some hopelessly lame TV commercials in the latest installment of its popular Advertising Report Card feature.

One spot they didn’t deconstruct — but a Slate reader mentioned in a comment — is the awful Ball Park Franks commercial showing a muscly, hairy arm growing from a teen boy’s stomach, smacking him over the head with a tennis racket and shoving a Ball Park hot dog into his mouth.

Probably one of the grossest commercials I’ve seen. Who wants to be force-fed a hot dog by someone else’s hairy arm? You can bet that the next hot dogs I buy won’t be Ball Park brand.