Liar loans …

Published 11:20 pm Sunday, May 10, 2009

… and lying athletes: Herald business editor Mike Benbow draws an analogy between the mortgage mess created by lending money to people who couldn’t really afford it and recent allegations that Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez and other athletes took performance-enhancing steroids.

The consequences are a little different, however. The Buzz would rather lose a house through foreclosure than risk growing man boobs.

Can’t remember the name, but the stench rings a bell: Dog owners have no doubt noticed canines’ eagerness to sniff each other’s butts. Turns out dogs can’t see well up close and rely on their keen sense of smell to identify each other.

But if their olfactory sense is that good, what’s the explanation for why dogs will find the rankest thing in the yard to roll around in?

On this day in history:

Christopher Columbus leaves Spain for his fourth and final trip to the Western Hemisphere in 1502. Critics pan the fourth voyage in the series as repetitive and lacking the character development and plot twists of the first voyage.

Minnesota becomes the 32nd state in 1858. The Land of 10,000 Lakes has one boat for every six people, which explains why beer comes in six-packs.

­—Jon Bauer, Herald staff