It has been reported that experts have concluded that the tiger that killed one man and mauled two others outside its cage at the San Francisco Zoo may have indeed managed to jump up and scramble over the top of its 12-foot fence on its own. An official of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums said he “has seen” tigers reach the height of the fence in question. The fence was built in the 1940s and may have simply been restraining lazier tigers. With today’s standard some 25% higher, Tatiana, the climbing tiger, may have realized that the clock for escape was ticking down or was entwined in the unfortunate steroids scandal. If common beliefs about the installing new stop signs at dangerous intersections are valid, further maulings and fatalities may be required before a new tiger fence is judged to be necessary. If nothing else, this tragic incident may serve as a salutary warning to those who might have been tempted to harass Durham City Council members at meetings.

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A man contesting his tab at a Hooters in Knoxville just after midnight Saturday went out to the parking lot and opened fire with a .40-calibre handgun, firing, a news report said, at the building. The customer and manager of the restaurant who were struck by some of the shots are in critical condition, and the insane customer is at large. The condition of the building was not mentioned.

One wonders if this incident, otherwise just one more bizarre and insane resort to gun violence, will make any more impression on politically powerful NRA nuts because it happened at a Hooters in Tennessee.

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A Sunday headline mentions a “Stunning Slide” in new home sales in November. While the 9.6% slide from October sales was indeed a lot more than the 1.6% economists predicted, who was really stunned, and why was the prediction so low? Granted, headline writers often veer too far toward the dramatic, but what ordinary, reading person not hopelessly corrupted with corporate self-interest didn’t long ago see trouble brewing in the housing bubble? The experts apparently didn’t even see a bubble then, and, still willfully blind to logic, are able to be surprised at the obvious fallout of a bursting bubble now. That experts can be oafs — stunning, really, at this point? — is another opportunity to bring up a lot of persistent, foolish mainstream assumptions to reexamination. For instance, could a gullible public be made more receptive to the idea that Fox News is not presenting fair and balanced news, but a politically interested package of outrageously biased, slickly manipulative propaganda whose purpose is to mislead rather than to inform? That they could they be up to their ears in ideology? That a lot of their product could be verbal and video excrement rather than journalism?

Just asking.