TCP'S SIC SAD WORLD^TM, VOLUME I

Some things you read in the newspaper can't possibly be improved upon, and you just have to leave them "as written", or "sic" in Latin. To commemorate these self-ironic communications (just to completely belabor the point, I invented a three-letter acronym), TCP brings you SIC SAD WORLD^TM*.

In today's Philly Inquirer there is a report on wasteful spending of taxpayer funds by state legislators. The last part of the article includes our first ever SIC SAD WORLD^TM item:

One of the more mysterious spending items found in the stacks of legislative invoices is the contract between (Rep. Vince) Fumo and Frank D. Wallace, the former Philadelphia police inspector turned private investigator.

Why does the minority head of an appropriations committee need a $50,000-a-year private eye?

"Sometimes," said (Fumo spokeman Gary) Tuma, "we get tips from people about wasteful spending."

*SIC SAD WORLD is not really trademarked. I stole it from Daria. Sue me. Please. Anything for some traffic.