Organic at the disco
Let me get this straight. Someone is being accused of leaking company secrets in the Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ:WFMI) deal to acquire Wild Oats (NASDAQ:OATS), and it has absolutely nothing to do with Rahodeb?

Sweet irony! This time it's Whole Foods on the offensive. The organic grocer is accusing the FTC of divulging proprietary business information in disclosing that Whole Foods plans to close nearly three dozen Wild Oats stores if the buyout is approved. The FTC normally blacks out business secrets in releasing documents to the public, but it apparently blew it this time.

Hmmm ... I wonder what the aliases of the FTC members will be as they defend their names out in cyberspace.

Quick hits
It was a busy week, so let's take a brisk walk on the lighter side of the market volatility.

  • I hear that elementary schools around the country are doing away with teaching prime numbers. Why? So they can focus on teaching children about subprime numbers. You know, like the number of subprime lenders that have gone under, and the $11.5 billion line of credit that Countrywide (NYSE:CFC) is drawing down to meet financial obligations.

  • Sometimes, even good news grows under the shade of Persian arrows. VMware (NYSE:VMW) soared 76% in its market debut on Tuesday. It then followed that performance by ticking even higher on Wednesday, despite the sharp share price drops elsewhere on the market. If only the virtualization-software provider could clone itself to multiply the good cheer to the rest of the market. Absent that, investors looking for rising stocks were no doubt overhead saying, "VM? Where?"

  • Wealthy philanthropist Brooke Astor passed away this past week. "Money is like manure," she once said. She meant that it ought to be spread around, but I think a lot of subprime investors are probably taking her words more literally lately.

  • Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) released the latest installment in its blockbuster football video-game franchise. Madden 08 is now the 18th annual game in the series. Last year's game moved a whopping 7 million copies. One of the new features is called Hit-Stick 2.0. Let's just hope it has nothing to do with Michael Vick and dog-fighting kennels.

Until next week, I remain,

Rick Munarriz

Whole Foods Market and Electronic Arts have been recommended to Motley Fool Stock Advisor newsletter subscribers. Take a free 30-day trial today to learn more.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz recommends windshield wiper fluid when trying to look back. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy.