Watercooler Sensation

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Cats! So Many Cats!

• Dogs, we have a problem. [Live Science]
• Live Science reports that “U.S. streets could soon be over-run with cats if communities fail to get a handle on growing feline populations.”
• The problem: A growing number of not just unspayed and unneutered strays, but also “free-roaming pet cats.”
• Cats have surpassed dogs as the most popular pet in America, “with 38.4 million households owning an estimated 88.3 million cats, according to a 2007–2008 National Pet Owners survey conducted by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.”
• One of the problems: when people see strays, they feed the poor little kitties instead of call the SPCA to get them neutered.
• A phone survey in Ohio found that “a quarter of respondents feed roaming cats and about a quarter of those folks feed the cats daily.”
• Only one eighth of respondents (a quarter of the quarter who feed them) took “the animals to the vet for some kind of care, including spaying or neutering.”
• “I was surprised by how many households were feeding cats,” says Linda K. Lord, assistant professor of veterinary preventive medicine at Ohio State University “In an ideal world, if you’re going to take the responsibility to feed a cat, which is going to make it viable longer, then it would be best to at least try to get the cat altered, so it’s not adding to the numbers.”
• And cats can really pop ‘em out. “Female cats produce an average of two litters of four to six kittens per year.”
• “If we don’t change something, we’re going to continue to lose this battle,” Lord said. “We’re going to have more and more cats reproducing, and we need to think about collective community approaches to prevent that.”

Cats!

Divorce + YouTube = Awesome

The Story

• YouTube has entered a new era. Witness the Bitter YouTube Divorce Video, created by our new nutty hero Tricia Walsh-Smith.
• Tricia Walsh-Smith is a stage actress. She is married to Philip J. Smith, the Broadway theater mogul (and head of the Schubert Theater). They’re going through a divorce.
• See, Philip is trying to throw Tricia out of their house. And thanks to a pre-nup, she won’t get a cent.
• In most cases like this, we’d be privvy to little glimpses of dirt leaked to the tabloids. But now, in the era of YouTube, Tricia gives new meaning to the phrase, “Don’t get mad. Get even.”
• Voila! We get an entire 6-minute video, filmed by Tricia, which trots out baskets of dirty laundry for our viewing pleasure. [YouTube]

The Audio

• A rant about how unfair it is for her mean husband to kick her to the curb? Check.
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• A porn-owning, Viagara-popping hubby who won’t sleep with her? Check.
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• A deliciously nasty call to his office to talk to his secretary about the porn and Viagra? Check.
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• Nasty attacks against his daughters from a previous marriage while flipping through wedding album? Check.
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• Oh, if only this had been around during Mia and Woody.

And you thought *your* last breakup got nasty!

The Jersey Shore Ain’t The Only Beach That’s Trashy

• Ah, spring time: those first few, warm months during which you’re able to tone up those abs and work on that tan before summer’s beach season. But when you’re planning your shore getaways this summer, a word of advice: bring trash bags. [USA Today]
• The Associated Press reports: “A report by the Ocean Conservancy...released Wednesday, catalogues nearly 7.2 million items that were collected by volunteers on a single day last September as they combed beaches and rocky shorelines in 76 countries from Bahrain to Bangladesh and in 45 states from southern California to the rocky coast of Maine.”
• A more shocking number: From the 33,000 miles covered during the pick-up, 6 million pounds of trash were collected. That’s an average 182 pounds of trash for every mile of shoreline
• The most extensive cleanup was in the United States where 190,000 volunteers covered 10,110 miles — about a third of the worldwide total — and picked up 3.9 million pounds of debris on a single Saturday last September, according to the report.
• Nice, guys: That’s 390 pounds of trash per mile, among the highest rates of any country.
• What’s fouling up our beaches? Take a look: The debris ranges from the relatively harmless, although annoying and an eyesore, to items that annually result in the death of hundreds of thousands of seabirds and marine mammals caught in abandoned fishing lines and netting.
• A third of all the trash, though, came from smokers. The volunteers collected and cataloged nearly 2.3 million cigarette butts, filters and cigar tips.

We need a shower.

By the Numbers

Here are some numbers to round out your discussion of the Pope’s visit this week. Okay, we’ll confess — we just wanted an excuse to talk about the Pope Mobile.

9,000

The number of people who flocked to the White House lawn yesterday to hear Pope Benedict XVI speak.

70 Million

The number of Catholics in the United States [Fox Sports]

46,000

The number of tickets printed to attend the free mass held at the new Nationals Park in Washington, DC Friday

8TH

The circle of Hell you’ll be banished to if you scalp your papal mass ticket. The sin is “simony,” which refers to spiritual trafficking. [Ticket News]

$16

Price of a “Property Of Pope Benedict XVI” t-shirt [Pope Visit 2008]

Mercedes-Benz ML430

The make of the International Pope Mobile the pope will drive around in during his visit. The Pope doesn’t drive himself — in fact, he doesn’t have a driver’s license. He does, however, have a license to pilot the papal helicopter.

Celebrities: Unfiltered

“It’s very, very dangerous for your spiritual, psychological, mental, emotional health and evolution. I think it stunts your evolution. If Scientology is real, then something’s [bleeped] up. . . It ain’t delivering what it’s promised. It sure has not.”

— Actor and (former) Scientologist Jason Beghe. Jason, we appreciate your chutzpah, but if we were you, we’d sleep with one eye open. [Page Six]

Speed Round

THE 8-YEAR-OLD DIVORCEE

An 8-year-old in Yemen was granted a divorce from the arranged marriage her father arranged with a 28-year-old. The girl said she was excited, as the divorce meant she’d be free to return to second grade. [Fox News]

WE SEE LONDON, WE SEE FRANCE

Coming soon to an airport near you: The T5000, a camera that can see through your clothes from up to 25 meters away. We hope you’re wearing new underpants. [CNN]

TRAGEDY

Actress Cameron Diaz’s father died suddenly from pneumonia this week. He was 58. [TMZ]

SMART PEOPLE

Check out our new favorite website, Titlepage.tv and find hour-long roundtable discussions of your favorite contemporary authors discussing their books. Thanks to PopCandy for the find, BTW. [PopCandy]

GWYNETH SPEAKS

“I didn’t know I had it until after it was over. I just didn’t know what was wrong with me...I felt really out of my body. I felt really disconnected. I felt really down; I felt pessimistic.” – Actress Gwyneth Paltrow, opening up to Vogue about her battles with post-partum depression after the birth of her son Moses. [E OnLine]

HOAX

You know that “graphic” Marilyn Monroe sex tape everyone’s been talking about? Fake. (You’re so gullible sometimes.) [Defamer]

MERIT BADGE IN MONKEY KILLING

Enjoying that box of Thin Mints, are you? Too bad about all those orangutans it’s endangering, huh? [Seattle Times]

CELEBRIDIRT

Pete Doherty, in the clink, and off heroin cold turkey...not a happy camper. [The Sun]

WHEN JOURNALISTS ARE BORED

“History, humor in Alaska names from Eek to Sagavanirktok” [AP]

PETCO

Man’s best friend is...a hedgehog? [Reuters]

UNDER THE BANNER OF SMOKIN’

Hot, shirtless Mormon missionary alert! Hot, shirtless Mormon missionary alert! [TMZ]

DON’T MIND IF WE DO

Bummed that you got bumped off your oversold flight? Don’t feel too bad...you could be up to $800 the richer for it. [CNN]

4/20 VS. CAPITALISM

Your favorite holiday from college years is sooo not the counterculture cool thing to do anymore. Just ask all the people trying to make a buck off of all you hippies. [MSNBC]

AND THEY SAY MIRACLES DON’T HAPPEN

“Florida Woman Survives Gunshot Right Between The Eyes.” [FOX NEWS]

SAFEWAY ERRS ON SIDE OF SAFETY

The 3rd largest supermarket chain, Safeway, has decided to live up to its name and restrict Chilean salmon over concern about a virus that is killing millions of fish there. [NYT]

GUILTY, GUILTY

Ex-Newark Mayor Sharpe James and his former mistress are convicted of corruption for tax evasion, illegal land sales, and other kinds of dirty stuff. [AP]