Thank you, Yahoo. Now I'll be afraid to go to sleep tonight.

The home page of Yahoo's E-mail features headlines from news services around the world. The one that led the Italian page was all about a girl calling her mother while a bear was eating her alive. What the Hell was the point of reporting that, let alone of placing it first? What do we learn from it? What good does it do? Where is the entertainment value, even? The only thing I know is that I can't get the idea out of my mind and that I am now really afraid that when I go to sleep in a few hours I'll dream about it. Thanks very much, Yahoo. Children use your e-mail in their millions, and they'll be reading this.

My older friends will have noticed that I have almost ceased to do my "You couldn't make it up dept." stories any more. The fact is that the sources seem to have dried up. I no longer seem to find stories in news sites that are merely silly, absurd, funny, or entertaining. I wonder whether it is only my impression that reporting seems to be becoming nastier and narrower.