The Most Popular Way To Make Prank Phone Calls Online

April fool’s day is coming soon. If you have plans to trick your friend, then crank call is one of the best ways of doing so. Among numerous sites that can be found online, one such example is phonetrick.net that helps you to trick your friends through their online portal. The site offers the following functionalities: 

- Choose the Caller ID number for the prank 

- Prank any phone in the USA or Canada 

- Disguise your prank in 11 different voices 

- Schedule prank calls - increase the prank fun 

Prank Call Guidelines: 

Good prank calls are a lot of fun, and can be the source of enjoyment for both the parties involved. The word “Good” is the important aspect in the prank call guidelines as it defines the boundary of the prank call that is limited to having fun and not to cause torment or demean anyone. Experienced Pranksters will generally move on to other forms of entertainment, such as literature and music. There are many types of Prank Calls such as funny calls, spoof calls, and others. You need to have empathy and understand that your actions do not torment any particular person, just so that you can have fun. 

Reason to Prank: 

Prank calls means that recipients are to be fooled in one way or the other. Funny calls, Nuisance and spoof calls come under one category and are intended to have fun. Occasionally, prank callers will attempt to sell recordings of their calls for money. This happens without the recipient person’s consent and is means to embarrass them. 

On the other hand, threatening and harassment calls fall into the other category. It may be for a cause of revenge or to intimidate the recipient. Filing a case against the prankster may leave him behind bars. However, unless there is evidence that a serious incident could occur as a direct result of these phone calls the authorities are powerless to help. 

Funny calls and tricks: 

Good prank is to call a Chinese restaurant and ask for some junk food; also suggest that they must have that on their menu. One other prank call can be to pretend as if you’re a Television host and giving away lots of dollars for a simple participation. Behind all these calls you should prepare yourselves with a proper plan and then make a call. One other prank call can be to mimic the person you are placing the prank call on and repeat everything that he or she says. This is one of the best ideas for good prank calls that you can use if they say, hello, repeat the same, if they say, are you mad, you do the same. This is one of the most funny prank call ideas that you can make use of. 

Advise yourself by not crossing the line and you’re safe and happy and also create amusement for the recipient.

How To Save $500 On Gap Auto Insurance

The average price for gap auto insurance sold by an auto dealership or finance company is $578. 

Q. So why would anybody in their right mind pay $500 more they should? 

A. They don’t know any better. 

Imagine you’re in a car dealership and you’ve just purchased a brand new car. You’re sitting there with a self satisfied smile on your face that lets everybody in the showroom know you just brought the salesman to his knees with your finely honed negotiating skills. 

Next you go see the finance person to arrange a loan. This is where you’re casually informed that if you wreck your beautiful new car during the next year or two you’re going to have fork over maybe five grand because the car will be worth that much less than what you still owe the bank. 

Lucky for you the finance guy has a tailored made solution to the problem. For a measly $578 one time fee you can purchase a gap policy that protects you from a potential shortfall, up to $5,000, if you owe the bank more than the car is worth when that bus hits you. 

Of course you’re going to say “sure, go ahead” because you’re afraid of losing your shirt and, by the way, did I tell you the premium could be rolled right into the loan? 

On one hand, you’re relieved to know the value your asset is protected, but on the other hand you’re asking yourself why it had to cost so much. 

Well, it doesn’t. But who knew that there was even such a thing as gap insurance much less how much it’s supposed to cost. The problem is not with you, but with the major insurance companies and their brokers. 

The reason you don’t hear anything about gap from your insurance agent is that it isn’t exactly a big money maker. With an average gap endorsement costing around $35 a year, there isn’t a lot of profit incentive to buy 30 second spots on American Idol. 

Besides the price, there’s another difference between the gap insurance sold by a car dealer and the policy rider sold by a name brand gap insurance provider. When you buy gap from a major insurer you can cancel the rider as soon as the loan balance and value of your car reach parity – usually within the first two years of ownership. 

With dealership gap insurance, the coverage is spread out over 60 months and cannot be canceled for a refund – whether you need it or not.

Diagnosing Infants With Depression; According to a recent survey of drug trends, the prescription of antidepressants to "medicate" even the youngest children is growing at a disturbing rate

Byline: Kelly Patricia O'Meara, INSIGHT

For many people it is difficult to comprehend how children younger than 5 could be prescribed mind-altering drugs and be taking them on a regular basis, but according to a recent survey by Express Scripts Inc., a private pharmacy benefit manager that researches drug trends, not only are children from birth to age 5 being given antidepressants, it is this age group that has shown the largest proportional increase in the use of antidepressants.

The Express Scripts survey, titled Trends in the Use of Antidepressants in a National Sample of Commercially Insured Pediatric Patients, 1998 to 2002, presented prescription-claims data that showed "the overall prevalence of antidepressant use among children increased from 160 per 10,000 (1.6 percent) in 1998 to 240 per 10,000 (2.4 percent) in 2003, for an adjusted annual increase of 9.2 percent. The growth in the overall prevalence of antidepressants use was greater among girls (a 68 percent increase) than boys (a 34 percent increase). In 2002 antidepressant use was highest among girls aged 15 to 18 years, at 640 per 10,000 (6.4 percent). The trend of increasing overall use of antidepressants among children and adolescents appears to have been driven primarily by greater use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors."

The survey concludes that "the growth in the prevalence of use of antidepressant medications among youths appears to be continuing, and the rate of increase between 1998 and 2002 is similar to the rate of increase seen in the period of the second-generation antidepressants (late 1980s to mid-1990s)." This survey comes on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommending that pharmaceutical companies "change the labels of 10 drugs to include stronger cautions and warnings" due to increasing criticism about the potential for violence and suicide in adolescent and pediatric patients while taking the drugs. The antidepressants that fall under the FDA's recommendation, which also are included in the Express Scripts survey, include Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, Serzone and Remeron.

Premium mobile in US is far from a free market.

ANALYST SPEAK: John Strand, Strand Consult

The US is a remarkable country. It's still seen by many as the land of opportunity and a symbol of freedom, and the American Dream is one shared by many in the premium mobile industry. Some have already realised that dream. Just look at Jamba, which was sold toVeriSign in 2004 for $273m (#142m).

Premium mobile content was first seen in Norway in 1999 with the introduction of premium SMS and the use of common shortcodes across mobile operators.

Most European countries have implemented a set of rules covering all operators. There are also rules governing how content providers may market and sell different mobile services. These rules were formulated in dialogue between content providers, operators..

Gingrich Won't Vote in Virginia Primary

Neither Newt Gingrich nor his wife, Callista, will cast votes Tuesday in their home state of Virginia's Republican presidential primary.

NBC News has learned that the Gingriches have opted against voting in Virginia, one of the 11 states hosting primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday.

“Newt and Callista are not casting a ballot in Virginia and they did not request an absentee one,” Gingrich campaign spokesman R.C. Hammond told NBC News.

Only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul are on the state’s ballot as the former House speaker failed to obtain enough required valid signatures for his name to appear on the Virginia ballot. Rick Santorum will also not appear on the ballot.

“In this Republican primary, when given a choice between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, they could not pick either one,” Hammond said.

That creates the situation where Gingrich is favored to win the Super Tuesday contest taking place in his old home state -- Georgia -- but won't be voting in the Super Tuesday state where he currently lives and is registered to vote -- Virginia.

Still, if Gingrich fails to capture the Republican nomination, he would vote in the general election in Virginia, which is regarded as a toss-up state in November.

According to Hammond, the Gingriches would back whichever Republican gets through the primary season “because no one is worse than Barack Obama.”

The couple's decision to sit out the primary isn't just a pointed gesture toward Romney and Paul. Their vote would also conceivably remind voters of the fact that Gingrich makes his home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., and has for quite some time. Gingrich has spent the better part of the past week focusing on winning a primary on Tuesday in Georgia, the state he represented in Congress for two decades.

Romney will return to Massachusetts, the state where he served as governor, to vote Tuesday in the Bay State's primary. His election night party is also in Boston.

Ironically, Romney is the favorite to win Virginia. He outpaced Paul by a wide margin in Sunday's NBC News/Marist poll.

Gingrich, along with Santorum and former presidential candidates Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Jon Huntsman filed a lawsuit against the state of Virginia months ago to include all candidates' names on the ballot. The effort, led by Gov. Perry, was unsuccessful. The legislature also never added any type of write-in capabilities to the ballot, forcing Virginians to choose only between the candidates whose names appear on the ballot.

The speaker said over the weekend as he campaigned in Ohio, he “had some problems in Virginia” but also noted his main focus on Super Tuesday has always been the state he represented in Congress for more than 20 years.

“I said all along that Georgia was the key because if we didn’t do well in Georgia I thought we could not go on,” Gingrich said Saturday in Bowling Green, Ohio.

Obama won Virginia in 2008 but Republicans have said they hope to be successful there in 2012.

Super Tuesday voters put imprint on GOP race

 Mitt Romney is angling to solidify his front-runner status and Rick Santorum to keep it a two-man race as voters in 10 states put Super Tuesday's imprint on the Republican presidential contest. Newt Gingrich just hopes to keep his struggling campaign alive with a strong showing in Georgia.

With Ohio looming large in the Super Tuesday lineup, textbook editor Heather Froelich outside Columbus gave her vote to Romney, saying: "He understands the economy."

Enthusiasm was in short supply among some of those casting ballots.

Gingrich got a reluctant vote from Tricia Tetrault, in Edmond, Okla., where she explained her decision this way: "Ronald Reagan wasn't available any more. What can I say?"

Santorum got the support of contractor Matt Howells in suburban Cleveland, but Howells didn't expect his ballot would count for much.

"I really don't see a Republican winning the White House," he said.

With 419 delegates at stake around the country, Tuesday's voting represents a sizable slice of the 1,144 needed to nail down the GOP nomination.

Romney, who turned back Santorum in a close contest in Michiganlast week, hoped to continue his winning trend. He has won four consecutive contests, including Saturday's Washington caucuses.

The GOP front-runner, trying to keep his focus on President Barack Obama, used a speech Tuesday before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to argue he'd be more effective at containing Iran's nuclear ambitions. Santorum and Gingrich, too, addressed the committee and faulted the president's record on Iran and the Mideast.

The president, for his part, showed he had no intention of ceding the spotlight to his GOP challengers: He scheduled his first full news conference of the year for Tuesday afternoon. The president was announcing a new program to address the housing crisis, part of his ongoing effort to show he's working aggressively to help the economy recover.

Priorities USA Action, a super PAC backing the president, trained its criticism solely on Romney, issuing a "Super Tuesday memo" arguing that the front-runner's "agenda for the wealthy" was hurting him with those who are not.

After falling behind Santorum in Ohio last month, Romney closed the gap in recent days, with polls showing the race a dead heat on the eve of the primary. It's a familiar trend for Romney, whose superior fundraising and turnout operation have helped him turn deficits in Florida and Michigan into triumphs.

As the polls opened, a super PAC that supports Romney bought time for television commercials in Illinois and Louisiana, which hold primaries later in the month. The group had previously begun advertising in next week's primary states of Mississippi and Alabama.

Romney, a former venture capital executive, kept his campaign's focus on the economy in a final sprint across Ohio, where he and Santorum are competing most fiercely.

"Other people in this race have debated about the economy, they've read about the economy, they've talked about it in subcommittee hearings," Romney said of his opponents. "But I've actually been in it. I've worked in business and I understand what it takes to get a business successful and to thrive."

The New Englander in the race, Romney is expected to do well in the Vermont and Massachusetts primaries. He is also poised to win the Virginia primary.

Besides Ohio, Santorum is competing most aggressively in primaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee, where the GOP's conservative hue matches the strict social conservative's evangelical appeal. He was leading narrowly in Tennessee, where polls showed Gingrich and Romney closing.

Despite signs that Gingrich planned to remain in the race, Santorum urged voters in Ohio to see it as increasingly a two-candidate fight.

"I'm excited that we're here with the opportunity of winning states on Super Tuesday ... and, hopefully, eventually, having the opportunity to go one on one at the end of this thing and see where this race really falls out," Santorum told supporters in Miamisville, Ohio. "And when we do, we'll win."

Gingrich has won only one state — the Jan. 21 South Carolina primary — and was projected to win only Georgia out of the 10 states voting Tuesday. He began advertising in Tennessee on Monday, putting down just $35,000 for television time, a small purchase.

Yet, Gingrich planned to campaign Tuesday in Alabama, which holds its primary March 13, even before the voting was finished in Georgia. Ads for Gingrich were expected to begin airing in Alabama and Mississippi, which holds its primary on the same day, and he will visit both Southern states later in the week. He was then heading to Kansas, which holds its caucuses Saturday.

Still, Gingrich tried to cast a likely win in Georgia as a sign of momentum, comparing it to Romney's narrow win in his native Michigan over Santorum last week.

At a breakfast meeting of a suburban Atlanta chamber of commerce, Gingrich criticized his rivals as mere managers, rather than leaders of the change he recommends.

"The truth is I have opponents who are, in a normal period, adequate," he told more than 100 in Gwinnett, Ga. "But they don't have anything on the scale of change I just described to you."

At a polling place in Fayetteville, Ga., businessman Glenn Valencia sized up Gingrich as a hometown guy with great intellect but gave his vote nonetheless to Romney, saying Gingrich had "a lot of baggage" and might not hold up well against Obama.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was focusing on Tuesday's caucuses in Alaska, Idaho and North Dakota.

Despite the big chunk of votes being cast Tuesday, the race was expected to continue further into March because delegates are apportioned based on vote percentage and the candidates are focusing on different regions of the country.

In Ohio Rick Santorum says It’s gut-check time

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio--Rick Santorum, who has become a legitimate underdog challenger to longtime front-runner Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination, made his final pitch to Ohio voters Monday, calling Romney "the weakest candidate" for championing a state mandate to buy health insurance while he was governor of Massachusetts.

"He won't be able to ignore and avoid answering questions in the fall, and as a result, he will be the weakest candidate we could possibly put forward on the most important issue of the day," Santorum told supporters at his final rally here the night before Ohioans join Republicans in nine other states on Super Tuesday.

"Why would we put someone up who is uniquely unqualified to take him on in this issue? You don't think it will be used against him? You don't think we will hear this? It will be a drumbeat," he told supporters earlier Monday afternoon in Columbus. "It will take an issue where we're on the offensive and turn it into a liability. I don't care how much money he has. Don't let that happen, Ohio."

Romney's campaign spokesman, Ryan Williams, who has been trailing Santorum at events in Ohio for the past few days, responded to Santorum's latest line of attack, calling it a "desperate attempt by Senator Santorum to avoid a discussion about his flailing campaign and his loss in five straight states. Governor Romney has been consistent in opposing a federal mandate."

For the past week, Santorum has increased the level of criticism aimed at Romney, taking his message through Ohio, Georgia, Tennessee and Oklahoma, where he has argued that Romney would fail to garner enough support from the party base to beat Obama if he becomes nominee.

"Conservatives will not trust him, will not rally around him through this primary season," Santorum told reporters during a conference call Monday, seizing on recent news reports that as late as 2009, Romney appeared to uphold the Massachusetts government health care plan he signed into law as a model for a federal program.

On the stump, Santorum has also started to make bold predictions about his chances for success, a shift from a candidate who traditionally has avoided asserting himself as an inevitable nominee. In the past, if reporters asked Santorum if he thought he would win an upcoming contest, he would often shrug and respond by saying, "We'll see," or "I'm not a pollster." But on the night before Super Tuesday, Santorum oozed with confidence.

"We will be the nominee," Santorum said on the Monday call, echoing the words of Newt Gingrich, who made the same prediction before tanking in national polls.

According to the latest state polls taken before the election, Romney and Santorum are neck and neck in Ohio, and locked into competitive races in several other states. But because of the party's system of proportionately allocating delegates in many states, Santorum will need more than just majority vote victories to catch up to Romney, who has already secured twice as many delegates as Santorum. He will not only need several wins to catch up, he'll need to win big.

But based upon the time and resources Santorum has spent in Ohio, he has made it clear that he views Ohio as an important bellwether to gauge the level of support for the candidate and an opportunity to boost him into the spring contests.

"While it may not be make or break, it's going to be a huge, huge deal," he said at his Monday night rally, adding later: "It's gut check time. Who wants it the most? What do ya say?"

Romney, Santorum all tied up in latest poll

Poll also finds voters want clear GOP winner

After a good February for each of them, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum head into Super Tuesday essentially tied in The Washington Times/JZ Analytics’ poll of Republican primary voters nationwide, which also found little appetite for the GOP to wait until a convention to settle matters.

Only slightly more than a quarter of voters said they want to see a brokered convention, while nearly twice that many said they are satisfied with the choices presented to them this year.

There is no magic bullet candidate that could change the face of the race: Even given new choices such as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, a plurality of voters still sticks with Mr. Romney.

But there is also a tremendous amount of instability as many in the GOPremain unsure about their choice for nominee, or about whether they would prefer a brokered convention.

In the head-to-head matchup, Mr. Romney narrowly led Mr. Santorum25.5 percent to 25.3 percent out of 500 likely voters, well within the margin of error of 4.5 percentage points.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas had13.5 percent and former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich trailed with 11 percent, while 3 percent named someone else. Nearly 22 percent were unsure.

The survey indicates voters still want to kick the tires a bit more, saidJohn Zogby, the pollster who conducted the survey.

“They’ve test-driven a bunch of vehicles [and] while they haven’t quite gotten the perfect vehicle, they’re more comfortable with this one than they are with any of the others. The others have been ruled out,” Mr. Zogby said.

“They’re going to buy this car, but they’re just not exactly ready to make the down payment. They will. And it has nothing to do with Santorum,Gingrich, Paul or, frankly, as we see in this poll, anybody else.”

Voters remain apprehensive. In fact, the number of those reporting they aren’t sure about their choice of candidate has risen from the last Times/JZ Analytics Poll, taken in mid-January, which found that just 12 percent weren’t sure whom they would support. Now that number is 21 percent.

Although he seems to have a handle on the race, Mr. Romney’s support has fallen 6.1 percentage points since that poll. But so has support for Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul, leaving Mr. Santorum the only one to show improvement.

Even with Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Paul still competing, voters seem to view the race as a two-man affair between Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum.

Mr. Romney had the best February, winning in Nevada, Maine, Michigan and Arizona. Meanwhile, Mr. Santorum established himself as the chief alternative, winning caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and a nonbinding primary in Missouri.

Mr. Gingrich hasn’t won since South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary, while Mr. Paul has yet to win a single state — though he contends that when the delegates are selected from caucus states such as Iowa, he will outperform his initial showing.

Mr. Santorum came close to Mr. Romney in Michigan in part because he urged Democrats to come out and vote for him. Liberal interest groups made the same pitch, believing that it would further wound Mr. Romney.

GOP voters were divided on whether that should be allowed. About 48 percent said voting should be limited to dedicated Republicans, while 44 percent said it should be open to Democrats and independents as well.

On Tuesday, the four major candidates square off in 10 states. The biggest prizes of the day are Georgia, Ohio and Virginia.

As Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum have traded wins, some Republican strategists have begun to contemplate whether a nominee will be decided by the time of the convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.

The Times poll signals that there is not a lot of enthusiasm for that scenario.

Just 28 percent of those surveyed said they would like the nomination go to a brokered convention. About 48 percent said they are satisfied with their choices, and 24 percent said they’re not sure.

The Times poll also tested a number of other names that pundits have floated as late entrants into the race, or as potential consensus picks at a convention, and found none of them tops Mr. Romney.

In fact, Mrs. Palin, Mr. Bush, Mr. Christie and Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels all seem to cut more from the rest of the field than from Mr. Romney, who wins about a quarter of the voters in each scenario.

Mr. Christie would be the strongest of the late entries, garnering 14.3 percent in a hypothetical matchup with the current field — good for third place above Mr. Paul and Mr. Gingrich, but still trailing Mr. Romney andMr. Santorum.

The bad news for Mr. Romney is that in just about every question, he tops out at about 25 percent — substantially lower than where those who went on to win previous Republican nominations were at this point.

“It’s nowhere near the margin he should be at in March,” Mr. Zogby said.

But as long as Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum remain in the race, Mr. Romney faces split conservative opposition, and that has led to victories.

Addressing the split Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, Mr. Gingrich said there is room for two “conservative” candidates.

“In a sense, he and I represent two parts of conservatism,” the Georgia Republican said, arguing that Mr. Santorum appeals to blue-collar conservative voters but “has a harder time when he gets outside the industrial states.”

“I’m much more solution-oriented and much more willing to do things like have personal Social Security savings accounts for young people, I’m more willing to talk about the kind of solutions we need with being able to produce enough oil and gas,” Mr. Gingrich said. “I think, in that sense, we have different approaches to how we’d represent conservatism.”

The poll surveyed 500 voters who said they either already voted in the Republican primary or were likely to do so. It was conducted Friday and Saturday — after Mr. Romney’s wins in primaries in Arizona and Michigan, and his victory in Wyoming’s caucuses.

Mr. Santorum placed second in each of those.

Late Saturday Mr. Romney also handily won Washington’s caucuses with 38 percent of the vote, well ahead of Mr. Paul’s 25 percent and Mr. Santorum’s 24 percent. Mr. Gingrich trailed with 10 percent.

Obama to Romney: Good luck tonight

The question came with some explosive context: Mitt Romney has called you one of the most feckless presidents since Jimmy Carter.

What would you say to him? CBS's Norah O'Donnell asked.

Obama, conducting his first press conference of 2012 on Super Tuesday, smiled.

"Good luck tonight," he responded. After some pushing from reporters, Obama added an extended, "uuummm." Then: "Really."

Obama holds events to upstage GOP primaries

Call it a coincidence, but between White House business and campaign events, President Obama has delivered speeches or campaign remarks that coincided with almost every major Republican presidential election this cycle -- often using the occasions to attack Mitt Romney.

Today -- Super Tuesday in the Republican primary -- Obama chose to hold his first news conference of 2012, an event that guarantees Republicans will not have the media spotlight to themselves for this news cycle. The president took a shot at Romney, almost immediately. "I'm not one of those people who think we should wait and let the housing market hit bottom," he said during his opening remarks, alluding to Romney's advice for how to get the housing market to rebound most quickly.

The president has total control of his schedule for this event, which deprives him of the explanation offered by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney when asked why Obama chose to attack Mitt Romney last week at a United Auto Workers (UAW) event on the same day as the Michigan primary, which had brought the auto bailouts to center stage. 

"We had nothing to do with scheduling when the UAW was going to hold its conference," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said when denying that Obama held the event in order to be a counterweight to the Republican primary. "It was probably scheduled at a time long before any of you would have predicted that the Michigan primary was going to be a significant event."

On Feb. 3rd, the day before Romney won the Nevada caucuses, Obama went to the fire station that sent fire fighters to the Pentagon in response to the September 11 terror attacks to give a speech on the economy.

Obama also campaigned on the day of Romney's previous victory in the Florida primary (Jan. 31st), when he made remarks at two campaign fundraisers. He then travelled to Virginia, and Vice President Biden travelled to Michigan, for public eventsthe day after Romney won the Florida race. In the days leading up to the Florida election, Obama also went on a three-day, five-state bus tour of "battleground states."

The president did not hold any official White House events on the day of the South Carolina primary (Jan 21st). Two days before the election, though, Obama revealed that he can carry a tune, as he sang an Al Green song at fundraiser held at the Apollo theater in New York. Obama held two more fundraisers on Jan. 20th and Vice President Biden taped an interview with Ryan Seacrest. 

The day before the New Hampshire primary, Obama announced that he would have a new White House chief of staff. On the day of the primary, Vice President Biden held a campaign video teleconference with supporters in the state, even as President Obama had videoconferenced with Iowa supporters on the evening of the Iowa caucuses. 

Between the Obama campaign and White House events, the president has created his own media attention at almost every stage of the primary process. Coincidence or not, it's just one of the advantages of incumbency.

The Best Of The Tutankhamun Exhibit At The Museum of Fine Arts

One of the most publicized and definitely one of the most phenomenal archaeological exhibits ever to grace the city of Houston is coming to an end. Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaohs is the incredible spectacle of more than 100 authentic archaeological treasures from King Tut’s tomb and artifacts belonging to 30 Egyptian dynasties that span 2,000 years. The artifacts have been delicately preserved from an ancient era dubbed “The Golden Years” of Egyptian rule which took place as far back as 5,000 years ago. The exhibit has been on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston since October 16, 2011 and will run until April 15, 2012.

Artifacts from King Tutankhamun’s tomb have been on tour since the early 70s and have generated remarkable interest from the public; the authentic archaeological treasures have attracted millions of visitors who willingly waited in line to see a glimpse of history. The exhibit created such hype in the 70s that comedian Steve Martin performed a song with his special band released in 1978 to pay homage to the young King Tut. While the 70s exhibit attracted nearly 8 million visitors, Martin’s song sold more than a million copies.

The first King Tut exhibit ever to be hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston was held in 1962 before the lavish Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibitions came about in the 70s.  The second ambitious King Tut exhibit hosted by the MFAH, which began in October 2011, was preceded by a show in Dallas, Texas that was held in 2008.  Unfortunately, the U.S. tour may be the last of its kind for the Egyptian artifacts, as they will be taken home to Egypt soon after leaving the U.S. to be permanently housed in the newly built museum in Cairo.

Visitors of the MFAH exhibit expressed great amazement, not only for the artifacts but also for the way the museum organized, labeled and presented the Egyptian treasures to its guests.

The following have been crowd favorites guaranteed to draw more visitors throughout the much talked about archaeological phenomenon.

King Tut’s and statues of Egyptian royalty

The boy king’s amazing statue that measures 10 feet high found at the king’s high officials’ funerary temple is a sight to behold. Other phenomenal statues displayed with King Tut’s belong to famous Egyptian rulers, including that of Khafre, who built the Great Sphinx and a pyramid in Giza; the statue of the distinct Queen Hatsheput, who successfully ruled Ancient Egypt as its fifth pharaoh from the 18th dynasty; and the statue of the most celebrated Egyptian royalty, Ramesses the Great, who is hailed as the most powerful pharaoh of Egypt.

King Tut’s intricate tomb treasures

Found inside the 19 year old king’s tomb by Howard Carter and George Herbert in 1922 was the golden coffinette. Ordained with intricate designs, the coffinette kept the young ruler’s mummified stomach, along with the gold sandals that adorned his feet. Other treasures found include toe and finger protective coverings that were found on his mummy.

King Tut’s bed

See the ancient bed believed to have been laid on and used by the king himself.

The mask of Psusennes I 

The extraordinary gold funerary mask of the third king of Egypt belonging to the 21^st Egyptian dynasty, King Psussenes I, was discovered by Pierre Montet in 1940. The mask is considered one of the greatest treasures of Tanis.

The bust of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)

This bust is the massive and forbidding statue of the boy king’s father. Amenhotep IV was best known for putting an end to traditional religion during his reign, which was met with cold shoulders by his contemporaries.

Despite the absence of King Tut’s funerary mask and sarcophagi, which were not included in the exhibition due to the artifacts’ delicateness, the Tutankhanum exhibit has been drawing a multitude of visitors. The MFAH is anticipating at least 500,000 visitors to grace the show within the 6 month run.

For those who want to see the exhibit, tickets are being sold to the public at individual and family pack prices. It is important to note that the event is a timed-ticket exhibition where visitors choose the specific date and time of their visit. Visitors must come early because late entries for the show will not be permitted. Due to the high demand for tickets, visitors are advised to pre-register online to avoid waiting in line during the show.

Major proceeds of the exhibit will go to Egypt’s restoration and antiquities conservation projects, which includes the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza