Advertising executive sends Christmas greetings from the grave
By Tom Fontaine | PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW | December 9, 2011
Known for sending humorous Christmas cards each year to hundreds of friends, Bob McCully outdid himself this year — posthumously.
Last week, about 400 people received unexpected holiday greetings from McCully, a former advertising executive and satirical writer from Point Breeze who died in August at 88.
“Hello, please don’t call. I recently moved to a quiet neighborhood and …,” the front of the card read, the words appearing under a photo of McCully in an office talking on the phone.
Who can blame them for wanting to be the same day as most of their neighbors. The odd glitch of a date not existing is very compelling.
Image bbc.co.uk
Time warp: Samoa’s new dawn
December 30, 2011 | www.smh.com.au
Time change has Samoa losing a day
On December 29, Samoa will move its time zone a day ahead by shifting the international dateline to the east, bringing it into line with neighbouring New Zealand and Australia.
For Samoans, today, December 30, is a day that never existed because the island nation is making a leap across the international dateline.
At midnight, Samoa’s calendar jumped straight to Saturday, December 31, as it redrew the dateline to move to the western side. The country went from being the last place in the world to see sunset to one of the first to see the sunrise.
The shift is aimed at improving trade with Australia and New Zealand. Tourism operators are also able to offer visitors two New Year’s Eves – one on Samoa and another on American Samoa, an hour’s flight away.
The time jump comes 119 years after US traders persuaded Samoan authorities to align their islands’ time with American Samoa.
Priests are peaceful men of god right? Apparently, not always. They can also act like sullen little boys who use cleaning their rooms as good reason to beat each other. Click here to read a very similar story about priests having a bloody brawl at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in 2008. Classy guys, really classy the way you are setting such a good example for people all over the world who keep the faith. Happy Birthday Jesus or a memorial gift for Christopher Hitchens?
Peace be with you brother?
Jesus wept.
Soldiers supervise the working priests. Talk about a nanny state.
Clergymen in a Broom Fight at the Birthplace of Jesus
By Amrutha Gayathri | http://www.ibtimes.com | December 29, 2011
An annual cleaning ritual at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of the most sacred and oldest continuously operating churches in the world, ended up in a broom fight between the rival clergy belonging to three separate monastic communities.
The church built over a cave, which is traditionally regarded as the birthplace of Jesus, is jointly administered by Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic authorities. According to convention, the right to own a portion or structure of the Church lies with the monastic community which cleans it up. This accepted practice may have led to the clash between clergymen who accused each other of encroachment by tidying up portions which didn’t belong to the community.
Live Nativity Scene Lamb Born On Christmas Eve
by Korva Coleman | http://www.npr.org | December 27, 2011
It’s almost too charming to be true – a sheep that’s part of a live nativity scene at a Cincinnati park gave birth to a lamb on Christmas Eve. Really.
The baby arrived late on Friday night at the Krohn Conservatory, but only a night watchman was present to witness the event, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Both the sheep and the lamb – a female – are in good health.
This story gets me “right here.” Imagine every person you see has a list of dreams in their pocket. What would your list have on it? Condolences to Ms Fountain’s friends and family.
Todd Maisel/New York Daily News Donna Fountain, 38, a home health attendant and single mom, was killed by a hit and run driver on Eastern Parkway and Troy Avenue Christmas morning, leaving behind her only son, Eliajah, 8. This is her photo from her ID.
Donna Fountain, 38, a home health attendant and single mom, was killed by a hit-and-run driver on Eastern Parkway and Troy Ave. on Christmas morning. A note she left behind lists her dreams.
Brooklyn woman killed in Christmas hit and run died with pocketful of dreams Donna Fountain leaves behind 8-year-old son
BY Helen Kennedy & Kevin Deutsch | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | December 27 2011, 6:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday, December 27 2011, 6:00 AM
Donna Fountain carried her list with her everywhere, five items written out in pencil headed simply “My Dreams.â€
Her goals: find a great job, buy a house by age 45, start a sanctuary for gay and lesbian teens, marry the woman of her dreams and watch her son, Elijah, graduate from college.
Donna Fountain will never see any of her dreams come true.
At just 38, she was cut down on Christmas morning by a hit-and-run driver in Crown Heights as she headed out to work as a home health care aide.
December 18th is a little early for Santa. I was actually looking for a link to a local news story about UFOs and reports of strange footprints found on roofs especially near the chimney on the night of Dec. 25 when I found this story. The lights seen in the video are indeed mysterious.
UFO sighting in South Carolina: Witness says two objects were moving in tandem
Tracey Parece, Unexplained Phenomena Examiner | December 20, 2011 | http://www.examiner.com
Lake Murray, South Carolina was the site of a UFO sighting on Sunday, December 18, 2011. Two unidentified flying objects were recorded hovering above a home for at least 30 seconds before disappearing from sight.
“Two UFO’s moving in tandem seen last night at Lake Murray, SC. Orange colored glowing objects moved slowly in an easterly direction, eventually went out of sight. I don’t have any idea what these things were, definitely not an airplane or birds. Unbelievable.”
A local man captured the UFO sighting on camera. The orbs appeared to be glowing white or yellow in the footage, but the witness described them as orange.
The UFO pair moved very slowly above the home seen in the video. You can hear the man excitedly narrating the scene as he recorded it:
“Oh my . . . What is it? What are those things? I’ve never seen anything like it before. Wow, there’s two things, like, moving together. That’s not an airplane. Sure not a bird either. Oh my . . . What is that thing? Oh my gosh.”
There hasn’t been much reaction to this UFO video yet. It currently has only one comment on YouTube, and it’s not particularly favorable. The solitary comment reads: “Once again a bad quality video. Strange.” But the quality of the video really isn’t that bad compared to some grainy UFO videos out there.
Who would boo jolly old Saint Nick? Who could possibly throw snowballs at Santa right before Christmas? Philadelphia eagles Fans that’s who. It sounds like sports mythology but it is true. Don’t feel bad Santa, Philly don’t care much for Nicole Snooki Sneakers either.
Merry Christmas. Stay safe Santa!
Does the source of his fame bother Frank Olivo? "Well, naturally, I love it," Olivo said. "I'm the guy that wanted to be in show business, so this is as far as I got." Image Drew Hallowell for ESPN.com
Philly booed Santa, but Santa still smiles Frank Olivo, who was once pelted with snowballs, still loves fans in Philadelphia
By Elizabeth Merrill | ESPN.com |  December 22, 2011
PHILADELPHIA — The old suit fell apart around the same time the old man’s body did. There have been a hundred stories written about Frank Olivo’s Santa costume, and most of them, he said, have been inaccurate. It was not a frumpy suit; it cost $100, which was big money back in the 1960s. It lasted nearly 40 Christmases, thanks to a lot of sewing and mending by his wife, but the corduroy finally gave, and Olivo sighed when the suit had to be put to rest.
A long time ago, before that suit became infamous, Rosalie Olivo swore she’d never end up with a guy like Frank. Italian men, she said, were not her type. They expected their women to mother them, to take care of them. But how could she resist when he came to her job at the luncheonette, reading tarot cards, saying she was destined to marry a fat barber? How could she know that years later, she’d quit her job to take care of him?
Frank Olivo is a romantic, but most of all, he is a ham. That’s why he used to show up for the Philadelphia Eagles’ final home game every season dressed in a Santa suit. He loved Christmas, loved his Eagles and loved the attention. And then one snowy day, Dec. 15, 1968, a halftime show was in jeopardy, a fan base was cold and discontented, and Olivo was summoned from the stands to walk the length of the football field and wave to the crowd and entertain them.
What happened in the next few minutes of this seemingly innocuous event became a staple of Philadelphia history. Santa was booed and pelted with snowballs, and a city cemented its reputation as the harshest place in sports. The story never died, and is still brought up 43 years later, every time a legend is jeered or a car with out-of-state license plates is trashed.
“Philadelphia sports fans have the reputation of being the worst in the country,” Olivo said, “and it’s bull. Because the Philadelphia sports fan, regardless of whether the team is good or bad, they will fill these stadiums, they’ll put their money out to go to these games, they’ll support the team.
“They’re smart fans. They live and die with their teams. I do.”
It will be a very Merry Christmas for a man from Lansdowne, Delaware County.
He lost his wallet on a SEPTA bus Thursday, but had it back in his possession in just a few hours, thanks to the diligence and honesty of a pair of SEPTA employees.
Joseph Love is both happy and grateful, and admittedly a little surprised at the kindness of his fellow man.
It was about 7:30am Thursday. Love was on SEPTA’s Route 32 bus on his way to work at the Construction Mall at 15th and Washington Ave.
A short time later he noticed he didn’t have his wallet.
“Ten minutes later I was like, ‘Where’s my wallet?’ I looked all over and I said to myself, ‘Oh, man!’ I usually keep it in a zipper pocket but I didn’t that day. I was feeling panicky because I knew it was a million-in-one shot that I would get it back,” Love told Action News.
Times are tough all over America and the Census confirms that half the US population is broke or flat broke. However not everyone is suffering and some of the not broke people are going to K-Mart stores and paying off the holiday lay aways of the less fortunate, who planned ahead and wanted to avoid credit card debt. Apparently the act of kindness started in Michigan and has spread.
Laguna Beach, Sacramento and Costa Mesa CA, Englewood, CO, Oregon, North Carolina, Washington DC, Michigan, Indiana, Idaho, Ohio, Florida, Virginia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Massachusetts and Connecticut K-Marts have all reported “Secret Santas” paying off the balances for people they most likely don’t know. Some Santas have not been so secret, and have come forward boasting of their good deed but far more kind hearted charitable people have quietly done a good deed without seeking any acknowledgement. Often a person comes to make a payment on their lay away, finds it has been paid and pays ANOTHERÂ person’s layaway account.
I have not been able to find one single article that touches on this contagious act of charity. Instead, local markets cover the charitable act in their towns and that is what I’ve included below.
K-Mart with it’s decades old year round layaway plan is an integral part of this story. K-Marts are often located in working class neighborhoods and the increasingly rare lay away program is a way for people with a budget to plan their holiday shopping. Some stories have said donors have specifically asked to pay off balances of lay aways that are near delinquency
Sam Wright, of Allentown, a store manager at Kmart on Tighman Street in Allentown talks about Secret Santas that are paying off Kmart account balances throughout Lehigh Valley. Kmart layaway account balances are being paid off by unanimous people in Lehigh Valley Image MONICA CABRERA/THE MORNING CALL
Secret Santas: Anonymous people are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts at Kmarts Anonymous people are paying off strangers’ layaway accounts at Kmarts.
By Tyrone Richardson, Of The Morning Call | Â December 22, 2011
A woman walked into the Kmart on Tilghman Street in South Whitehall Township Thursday afternoon with one goal: Pay off someone’s layaway balance.
The Secret Santa or “layaway angel,” who wanted to remain anonymous, asked assistant store manager Sam Wright if she could help a customer who owed money on layaway toys. Wright sorted through a long list of names to find a match.
The woman explained what moved her to act: The night before, she said, she and her 11-year-old daughter walked away from a head-on collision with a drunken driver. Her car was totaled.
“I thought I better get out today and do something,” she said. “I figure we had an angel yesterday, and I wanted to make sure someone else would have one today.”
Similar acts of kindness have echoed through Kmart stores across the Lehigh Valley and nation in recent weeks. People aglow with the spirit of giving are walking into the stores, opening their wallets and offering to pay off strangers’ layaway account balances largely without any recognition in return.
They say vinyl is making a come back… I love how the stenciled message “Restricted Area-Keep Out” was enough to keep MOST people out.
Master Sgt. John Solane, a 611th Air Support Group Detachment 1 contracting quality assurance specialist, looks at a Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers Band album called “Sure Feels Like Love†at Wake Island Airfield, Wake Island, recently. The yellow sleeves in the cubbies around Solane contain AFRTS-distributed records, which are copyrighted to protect the artists who gave the military authorization to use their recordings overseas for free. Image-U.S. Air Force photo/Capt. Amy Hansen)
Vinyl treasure found on Wake Island
Capt. Amy Hansen, 11th Air Force Public Affairs | /www.af.mil | 12/5/2011
12/5/2011 – WAKE ISLAND AIRFIELD, Wake Island (AFNS) — In a tale straight from an adventure book, contractors here recently stumbled upon a vinyl record collection with an estimated value between $90,000 and $250,000.
The 611th Air Support Group’s Detachment 1 is now making a comprehensive effort to preserve the nearly 9,000 vintage vinyl records and ship them to their rightful owner, the American Forces Radio and Television Network in Alexandria, Va., according to Master Sgt. Jean-Guy Fleury, the detachment’s infrastructure superintendent, who took over the project from the former Detachment 1 commander, Maj. Aaron Wilt.
No digging was required to access this treasure, as the records were cataloged and neatly organized on shelves in a small room on the second floor of the Wake Island Airfield base operations building. The door was conspicuously stenciled with the name of a radio station, KEAD, and a “restricted area warning” sign, which kept most people out.
“That’s a locked room normally, but people in my department have known the records were there for years,” said Colin Bradley, the communications superintendent with Chugach Federal Solutions, Inc. CFSI is the contractor that currently manages operations on Wake Island with the oversight of Air Force quality assurance personnel.
Lululemon seems to be in a habit of printing not so yoga positive things on it’s bags. In my research it seems this story from 2008 was bigger in Canada than the USA. It is unclear if the bags were only used in Canada.
A printed message hidden inside a Lululemon Athletica shopping bag is a lot more risqu� than the inspirational messages printed on the outside, as one Toronto mother inadvertently discovered.
Norma Columbus and her 17-year-old daughter Heather found the message after they washed the reusable bag from the yoga-wear retailer. One side began to peel off and Heather continued to scrape away, curious about what the message said.
Underneath a glossy layer of inspirational quotes such as “friends are more important than money” is a second note with a strong message about creativity and how regular aerobic exercise results in a similar “high” as drugs or sex.
“Some brief or quick-fix incidences when our minds are clear to be creative are….when drunk or stoned…just after an orgasm,” it says.
The message concludes to say that regular aerobic activity provides a longer, more sustainable high.
“The athlete’s high is the most long-lasting as it can last up to six hours,” the note continues to say.
“There is little difference between addicts and fanatic athletes. Both are continually searching for a way to remain in a creative state.”
This is a weird and sad story. Condolences to her friends and family.
Amish Community Stunned by Shooting Death of Girl
By Jack Shea Fox, 8 News Reporter | http://www.fox8.com | December 17, 2011
FREDERICKSBURG, Ohio—
Members of a close knit Amish community gathered Saturday night to mourn the death of a 15-year-old girl, who was shot to death under circumstances that are shrouded in mystery.
David Zuercher, a friend of the family of 15-year-old Rachel Yoder, told Fox 8 News, “Just total disbelief and shock. I just couldn’t believe it. I thought it was a joke, that it was not so.”
Relatives initially believed that Rachel suffered a head injury while on her way home from a Christmas party for employees at a produce shop.
The girl was discovered on the ground near her buggy Thursday night at the family farm in Fredericksburg, but when she was flown to Akron City Hospital, doctors discovered the teenager had been shot in the head.
