Chauncey Wolcott, my new hero. This story was sent to me by Mr Buddy of Mr Buddy Heater Company.
Man pulls practical joke from the grave
www.upi.com | Oct. 5, 2009
SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Oct. 5 (UPI) — A man who died in 1976 is the likely culprit behind a mysterious note suggesting a chest of gold coins is buried in Springfield, Ill., an Illinois woman says.
Betty Atkinson Ryan of Mason City, Ill., claims the individual who likely left the recently-discovered note about the hidden treasure was former Journal-Register classified advertisement manager John “Jay” Slaven, the newspaper said Monday.
Ryan said Slaven was a practical joker who liked to sign his jokes with the pseudonym Chauncey Wolcott, the same name featured on the typewritten note found by Patty Henken of Mount Sterling, Ill.
Henken found the note in the stuffing of an antique chair and followed its details to a vacant Springfield lot.
The lot’s owners helped in the search for the chest of gold coins Sunday by digging into the property with a back hoe. Unfortunately for all involved, no hidden treasure was found.
“I am one of the worst practical jokers,” Henken, who is still holding onto the possibility of finding treasure at the lot, told the Journal-Register. “I deserve to get this letter. He’s got one on me. And I’ll have to wait until I die to get him back.”
This is a tragic end for Trevor Varinecz (VAIR-ih-nez) and a scary start to the school year for the students of Carolina Forest High School and it’s surrounding community. In addition to various spellings of his name, young Mr. Varinecz has also been alleged to suffer from Asperbergers syndrome or Autism. It is unknown at this time what caused the young man to begin stabbing the school’s resource officer. F.Y.I.a resource officer is a program that puts a law enforcement officer on a school campus.
Trevor Varinecz
Officials ID student fatally shot after stabbing officer
Oct 16, 2009 | www.wafb.com
MYRTLE BEACH, SC (WMBF) – An 11th grade student is dead Friday after stabbing a resource officer who defended himself with gunfire at Carolina Forest High School.
Teal Britton, spokeswoman for Horry County Schools, says the student, identified as Trevor Varinecz, asked to speak with the school resource officer in his office around 8:20 a.m. when a fight between the two ensued. Officials say Varinecz, 16, stabbed the officer multiple times, who returned with gunfire.
Both victims were taken to the Conway Medical Center, where hospital officials confirmed Varinecz died at 9:34 a.m. as a result of multiple gunshot wounds. The school resource officer, identified as Marcus Rhodes, was released from care at 12:30 p.m., hospital spokeswoman Julie Rajotte said.
A neighbor and family friend told WMBF News Varinecz and his parents made a wonderful family. They say the 16-year-old wasn’t a trouble maker, but he was a functioning autistic teenager whose parents worked hard to integrate him into normal activities.
Wonderful coincidence! Good to hear there is still a newsroom out there!
Joshua McKerrow - The Capital A balloon being tested by a contractor for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration drifted into the parking lot of The Capital last week, a day after it was launched from Columbia in Howard County. The balloon and its payload are being tested to use in a program that measures hurricane wind speed, wind direction and barometric pressure in an effort to improve hurricane forecasts.
Sources Say: Story falls from sky
www.hometownannapolis.com | 09/25/09
Reporters sometimes talk about stories that fall into their laps.
This time, the story literally fell on The Capital.
A large white balloon, with plastic-encased electronic devices attached, floated down from the sky last week, landing just outside the newspaper’s lobby.
While some suspected it was a normal weather balloon, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials said the balloon’s payload is a prototype for new technology being tested to more accurately predict the track of hurricanes.
The launch was part of the Weather In-Situ Deployment Optimization Method, or WISDOM, program, though the balloon is not of the small, pyramid-shaped type the program usually uses, said Justyna Nicinska, WISDOM program manager.
The program’s balloons drift at a constant altitude and measure wind speed and direction, as well as barometric pressure, around a hurricane, said Nicinska and Chris Jones, a senior engineer with the contractor that launched the balloon.
“The balloon and payload that landed in your parking lot is a prototype for the 2009 version,” Jones said in an e-mail.
It was launched from Columbia in Howard County the night before, and apparently failed shortly afterward, landing on a house in the Annapolis area first, then drifting to The Capital later, Jones said. Researchers were able to track the balloon via a satellite link that transmitted the information to the base station and displayed its position on Google Earth, he said.
The WISDOM program’s goal is to improve hurricane-track predictions in the three- to seven-day period before landfall, Nicinska said. The balloons are typically launched several days before a storm makes landfall, she said.
This year, it has been more difficult to get the necessary data because of the small number of hurricanes, Nicinska said. But scientists said they hope they can move from the research stage to the operations stage in five or six years, she said.
Ms Hamilton took her dismissal in April like a grown up. It was only when the ugly, distorted “photoshopped” image of her head on an emaciated body appeared that she got steamed. We wish her well in her legal action.
Personally, I think if she wasn’t fired for being fat she was fired for being too old, after all she isn’t the girl she was when they hired her at age 15.
In Ralph Lauren’s defense, the ad appears to be a back lit transit poster and her body was adjusted to better fill the space, a remarkably common practice. Look closely at movie posters where it’s often done as well.
Ralph Lauren Inc. does not want you to see this image.
Too fat for sample sizes.
Actual photographs and the "photoshopped" image used in the ad.
Size 4 model: I was fired for being too fat
Former Ralph Lauren model Filippa Hamilton is 5′ 10″ and 120 pounds
msnbc.com | Oct . 14, 2009
If you asked people at random to describe Filippa Hamilton in a word, you’d hear a lot of synonyms for “gorgeous.” What you wouldn’t hear is “fat.”
And yet the 5-foot-10-inch, 120-pound model says that is essentially why she was fired by Ralph Lauren after eight years with the fashion designer.
“They said I couldn’t fit in their clothes anymore,” the size 4 stunner told TODAY’s Ann Curry Wednesday in New York. Hamilton said that Lauren wrote a letter to her agent saying, “We’re terminating your services because you don’t fit into the sample clothes that you need to wear.”
Ralph Lauren denied that she was fired for being too large.
“We consider her an important part of our imaging and branding,” the designer said in a statement to the media. “We regret that our relationship has ended as a result of her inability to meet the obligations under her contract with us.”
Hamilton denied not meeting her obligations to a company that she called her second family.
“I did everything that I could. I was very loyal to them. I was on time every time,” Hamilton told Curry.
Photoshopping controversy
The 23-year-old Swedish-French model, who had been working for Lauren since she was 15, told Curry that Ralph Lauren fired her in April through her agency. She said she had no intention of going public with her complaint, but changed her mind when a Photoshopped image of her in a mall in Japan showed up on the Internet site BoingBoing.com.
Detroit: Too broke to bury their dead
Money to bury Detroit’s poor has dried up, forcing struggling families to abandon their loved ones in the morgue freezer.
CNNMoney.com | October 1, 2009 | Poppy Harlow
DETROIT — At 1300 E. Warren St., you can smell the plight of Detroit.
Inside the Wayne County morgue in midtown Detroit, 67 bodies are piled up, unclaimed, in the freezing temperatures. Neither the families nor the county can afford to bury the corpses. So they stack up inside the freezer.
Albert Samuels, chief investigator for the morgue, said he has never seen anything like it during his 13 years on the job. “Some people don’t come forward even though they know the people are here,” said the former Detroit cop. “They don’t have the money.”
Lifelong Detroit residents Darrell and Cheryl Vickers understand this firsthand. On a chilly September morning they had to visit the freezer to identify the body of Darrell’s aunt, Nancy Graham — and say their goodbyes.
The couple, already financially strained, don’t have the $695 needed to cremate her. Other family members, mostly in Florida, don’t have the means to contribute, either. In fact, when Darrell’s grandmother passed recently, his father paid for the cremation on a credit card — at 21% interest.
I’d heard Brian Jones was stuffed full of illegal drugs when he went for a swim and died way back when. Now official word is that he had the equivalent of 3 1/2 pints of beer in his system. Hmmm.
Mystery death: Brian Jones in 1965 with his then girlfriend, the model Anita Pallenberg
Police review Rolling Stone Brian Jones death after MoS reveals new evidence
www.dailymail.co.uk | By Christopher Leake | 29th August 2009
Police are reviewing the death of Rolling Stone Brian Jones – 40 years after his body was found at the bottom of a swimming pool.
The dramatic move by Sussex Police follows new evidence unearthed by The Mail on Sunday about the mysterious death of the rock legend which suggests he was murdered by his minder.
Officially, Jones drowned, aged 27, in his pool at Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, East Sussex, on July 2, 1969, while under the influence of drink and drugs.
An inquest recorded a verdict of death by misadventure, even though the post-mortem report said there were no illegal drugs in the star’s body, just the equivalent of three-and-a-half pints of beer.
It’s refreshing and novel to see a novelty aimed at smokers, a dying breed for sure. The fine people from Drinkingstuff.com have branched out into clothing and are offering this fine UK made import. Copy below is from the their site.
Don’t be left out in the cold anymore! Just grab a pair of these super warm, super comfy Smoking Mittens! Smoking Mittens allow you to still properly hold your cigarette while keeping your hands warm because one of the mittens in each pair has a grometted hole in it, just the right size for a cigarette to poke through. Smoking Mittens are one size fits all, unisex, and reversible for right or left handed smoking!
Hoist on his own petard! The video is great, we get to hear tidbits such as “they glued mah junk to, uh, the rest of me.” Hear how the superglue attached his junk to his belly and legs…. OUCH I guess with 4 gals they were able to get to all his junk!
Funny thing is I bet the victim will only swear off bondage in the future and continue to maintain intimate relations with multiple women. Wasn’t his fault he only slept with crazy bitches! ha ha ha ha ha
Skimmers of the article may miss the fact that the victim was shackled during his testimony “because he is jailed in an unrelated case on theft and child abuse charges.”
4 women in lover’s gluing must stand trial
By ROBERT IMRIE | AP | Sep 8, 2009
CHILTON, Wis. — A man whose penis was glued to his stomach testified Tuesday that a motel tryst with a girlfriend involving a bondage fantasy turned painful and humiliating after his wife, a second girlfriend and another woman burst into the room and harassed him because of his cheating ways.
The 37-year-old Fond du Lac man told Calumet County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Van Akkeren that during the July 30 ordeal, which lasted about 30 minutes, he was punched in the face twice. The woman he had gone to the motel to meet, Therese Ziemann, super glued his penis to his stomach while at least two of the other women watched, the man said.
“I was telling them, you can’t let her do it. This is assault,” the man testified.
Akkeren ruled there was enough evidence for the case to go to trial.
Ziemann, 48, of Menasha, Wendy Sewell, 43, of Kaukauna, Michelle Belliveau, 43, of Neenah and the man’s 30-year-old wife are each charged with being party to felony false imprisonment, a felony. Ziemann is also charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault in the gluing incident.
Belliveau pleaded not guilty to the charge Tuesday. The others asked for time to file motions before entering pleas.
All the women except the man’s wife glared at him during his nearly 90 minutes of testimony. They all declined to comment on their way out of court.
The Associated Press is not naming the man or his wife because he is the alleged victim of sexual abuse.
The man testified that he had developed sexual relationships with Ziemann and Sewall, but that Sewell had mentioned ending things in late July. He knew Belliveau because she was Ziemann’s sister.
The man said he agreed to be tied to the bed because he and Ziemann had talked about bondage and he had agreed to pay for some nice fabric she would buy to tie him.
He said he was startled by a knock at the door, and worried it might be Ziemann’s husband. He realized the “fun had stopped” after his wife and the other women entered the room.
“The rest came in and the hurting trip began,” said the man, who testified in shackles because he is jailed in an unrelated case on theft and child abuse charges. “It got chaotic real quick, real fast. … I was asking everybody in the room to cut me loose.”
The man testified that his wife was the first to leave, and that the others left “in a panic” when he began to struggle free of his bonds. It took him another 2-3 minutes to get free and run naked outside and seek help, he said.
Sewell’s attorney, Nila Robinson, said she would seek to have the charge against her client dismissed because of a lack of evidence.
“The inference that she was a participant in restraining (the man) is not justified. Just standing around is not enough,” Robinson said.
She called the man dishonest, a liar and a con man. He tricked the women he called his girlfriends by telling them he loved them and wanted futures with them, Robinson said.
Attorneys for the other women said there were no plea bargain talks under way with prosecutors, and that they intend to fight the charges.
This innovation, sugar pills marketed at Moms to give kids who aren’t REALLY sick has been getting a lot of unfair press. Some feel it’s wrong to lie to children and promote a “pill-will-cure-you-mentality.” Ironically, most Americans think Santa, The Tooth fairy and the Easter Bunny are all ok lies to tell children. Further, many Americans are advocates of NATURAL (and unregulated by the FDA) supplements like ocoQ10, Saw Palmetto, Chondroitin and the like. Bottom line, people lie to their kids and hard science has proven that Placebo is efficacious.
This is truly one of my favorite web posts, ever. Year after year it makes me laugh out loud. I hope you enjoy it. The sharp edge plastic mask and matching vinyl costume is both a high and low water mark in Halloween, costuming and corporate branding.
Imagine if your family died, and it was because of a floormat. This story is a reminder to all of humanity that every little last detail counts. There is truly nothing too small or insignificant.
Toyota formally recalls 3.8 million vehicles
By KEN THOMAS | AP | October 6, 2009
WASHINGTON — Toyota Motor Corp. officially recalled 3.8 million vehicles in the United States on Monday to address problems with floor mats that could cause the gas pedal to stick and cause a crash.
The automaker formally informed the federal government of the recall in a letter Monday. It will be Toyota’s largest U.S. recall and the country’s sixth-largest recall, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The recall includes 2007-2010 model year Toyota Camry, 2005-2010 Toyota Avalon, 2004-2009 Toyota Prius, 2005-2010 Tacoma, 2007-2010 Toyota Tundra, 2007-2010 Lexus ES350 and 2006-2010 Lexus IS250/IS350.
Chris Santucci, Toyota’s assistant manager for technical and regulatory affairs, wrote in the letter to NHTSA that there are 3.8 million vehicles involved but “this estimate is subject to change as Toyota refines the number of affected vehicles by model.”
Toyota told the government it has not determined that the vehicles “contain a ‘safety-related defect’ within the meaning of the federal safety laws” but would notify owners of the safety campaign.
Santucci wrote “there is a potential for an accelerator pedal to get stuck in the wide open position due to an unsecured or incompatible driver’s floor mat. A stuck open accelerator pedal may result in very high vehicle speeds and make it difficult to stop the vehicle, which could cause a crash, serious injury or death.”
Toyota announced last week it would recall the vehicles and warned owners to remove the driver’s side floor mats and not replace them until the company determined a way to fix the problem.
The massive recall was prompted by a high-speed crash in August involving a 2009 Lexus ES350. California Highway Patrol Officer Mark Saylor, 45, and three members of his family were killed when their vehicle hit speeds exceeding 120 mph, struck a sport utility vehicle, launched off an embankment, rolled several times and burst into flames.
