Are you kidding me?

Decisions

“This will either end my career, or give me a boost for the next six months,” Gravel tells me. “I’ll take either. “

Are you kidding me?

Sub-Prime

“Some people give bottles of wine. He says, ‘Come and ask. I will give you a good rate on a mortgage,’ ” Cecala said.

Are you kidding me?

Rahm

The famously acid-tongued Chicagoan may be right, Democrats like Ellsworth and Boren may not pose a problem. But the Republican National Committee is sure trying to make them one. GOP officials have blasted out press releases highlighting Boren’s claim that Obama has the “most liberal” voting record in the Senate. “You go ask Boren,” Emanuel says, “he’ll tell you his view is that that was taken out of context, that he is going to support the nominee.”

(He was right: “My comments were taken out of context and as I have said from day one I will vote for the Democratic nominee in November,” Boren told The Huffington Post.)

Are you kidding me?

Fathers & Sons

“I’ve tried very hard for many years to help my son,” the elder Powers said in a statement released by his campaign.

“Unfortunately, he’s rejected everyone’s help to live a healthy lifestyle. Regardless of whether he wants to run for Congress, I still stand ready to help him move his life in a positive direction.”

The elder Powers did not comment beyond the statement, but a Republican source said that Powers was referring to his son’s “carefree” lifestyle in the music business.

Are you kidding me?

BONUS JOSHING:

“Fran’s been politically active philosophically,” Moore said. “I know what kind of roots he has on Staten Island.”

Tarh!

During the June 6 edition of Fox News’ America’s Pulse, host E.D. Hill teased an upcoming discussion by saying, “A fist bump? A pound? A terrorist fist jab? The gesture everyone seems to interpret differently.”

Are you kidding me?

Foreigners

Then there’s the empty brick house on Quincy Street NW, the one with the dead leaves piled at the front door, the ungainly forest consuming the back yard and the collapsed remnants of what was once a garage roof.

Neighborhood children refer to it as the “haunted house.”

Property records show the owner as the Embassy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Yugoslavia was dissolved in 1991.

Are you kidding me?

Elders?

In turn, that led to the kind of worries that have bubbled up in Arcata, home of Humboldt State University, where town elders say roughly one in five homes are “indoor grows,” with rooms or even entire structures converted into marijuana greenhouses.

Are you kidding me?

Meats

“Turn off this meat slideshow? Are you kidding me?”

Ghetto Operative

Nice. Frankly, in order to elicit the maximum degree of racial stereotyping I would have gone with “ghetto operative” or “slum captain” but I suppose that would have been too obvious.

Are you kidding me?

Spelling

· A May 31 Metro article about the Scripps National Spelling Bee misspelled last year’s winning word. The correct spelling is serrefine.

Are you kidding me?