Can You Believe This

As a young auditor almost a half century ago (!) TNB learned and tried to consistently follow 2 significant rules, which apply not only to his profession but also to the broader business world and life in general:
1. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn't
2. Trust, but verify

Perhaps this is why TNB personally and The Normal Blog in particular exhibits a decidedly skeptical, some might say cynical viewpoint. If instead of allowing greed and arrogance to overwhelm common sense, more people were more skeptical and didn't believe everything pitched to them, maybe we wouldn't be reeling from frauds large and small. What to believe? Just check out the following items--hard to tell what is totally true, what might have occurred and what is a stretch of TNB's bizarre imagination:

A. Bernie Madoff's wife, a renowned dietician and author, has a new volume out called "Cooking the Books", including some tasty recipes guaranteed to slim you down (at least your bank account).
B. After apparently making many rich Jews and Jewish charities a lot poorer (or in some cases totally bankrupt) Bernie Madoff broadened his reach, as an equal opportunity swindler, to many foreign investors. An Abu Dhabi hedge fund lost $400 million, thus causing further harm to Israeli-Arab peace prospects. BTW--see above re: "too good to be true", "trust & verify".
C. After disgustingly sneezing into a tissue on Jay Leno's program and then auctioning the tissue on E-Bay for $3,000 (proceeds to charity), actress Scarlet Johannson announced that she will also auction for charity some of her used feminine hygiene products.
D. The shotgun wedding of the decade was indefinitely postponed when Bristol Palin's prospective mother in law was arrested on felony drug charges (Wasilla, Alaska is a known meth center).
E. Quoting liberally from Rudyard Kipling's famous poem "If", Rod Blagojevich surprised most Illinoisans with his sensitive, cultured side.
F. Actor Jeremy Piven ("Entourage")suddenly quit the 3 person Broadway cast of "Speed the Plow" claiming that eating too mush sushi caused greatly elevated levels of mercury. TNB had seen his performance, which incredibly contained more expletives than uttered by Patti Blagojevich when talking about the Cubs and Tribune on the famous wiretaps. "Speed the Plow" playwright David Mamet, a noted softie, exclaimed "I guess Piven's given up show business to become a thermometer" (this is actually true--even TNB couldn't make it up).
G. George W. Bush is seriously considering pardoning imprisoned former governor George Ryan, since he was informed by Federal prison officials that their facilities can only handle one Illinois governor at a time.