Yikes. The headline says, ‘Lori Loughlin pleads not guilty in college cheating scandal.’ What? I’m on the outside looking in, but it would sure seem to me that she is digging a crater for her and her husband. Instead, to be able to come out and say that she has made a huge mistake would be the very best example that she could set for her daughters who obviously need a good role model right now. I see harsh sentencing. Are they just getting horrible legal advice? (Maybe she is actually, seriously ill, with a case of “Affluenza.”) On the other hand, Felicity Huffman and 12 other parents have agreed to plead guilty. I bet they get a slap on the hand and a fine. Community service hours would be the best sentencing for all of them. Humbling, especially if it was working with kids trying to get into college, working two jobs with no car.
If you see a rabbit laying little brown eggs, don’t eat them. It’s not chocolate.
Happy 70th Anniversary to Wallace and Margaret Schlemmer. You have done what most people only wish and pray for. And you’ve done it for 70 years. Wow!
Tiger Woods, age 43, did it again by winning his fifth Masters tournament and a new green jacket; his first since 2005. (He also won $2.05 million, the standard 18% of the total pot, but I’m sure that it wasn’t very important to him…wink, wink.) Woods won his first Masters title at age 21. Rumor has it that this could be considered the greatest career comeback in the history of golf. Woods seems to be a touch more humbled, recently. Well, he needed to be, because he did a lot of damage to his family and his reputation before ‘getting it all together.’ President Trump is so impressed that he says he will be presenting him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. Huh?!? I guess I was under the impression that those awards were given to people that discover amazing things in medicine or someone that saves the lives of hundreds of orphans or something like that. Not always. In 2016 honorees from the sports world included basketball players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Jordan, along with veteran sports broadcaster Vin Scully. Entertainers included Ellen DeGeneres, Diana Ross, Tom Hanks, Robert Redford and Bruce Springsteen. Color me wrong.
Notre-Dame Cathedral sits on an island in the River Seine and marks the very center of Paris. It is one of France’s most visited places, with more than 12-million visitors per year – nearly double the people who visit the Eiffel Tower. No one was injured when a fire broke out there this week engulfing the spire, which collapsed followed by most of the roof. As of 04/17, nearly $1 billion has been promised from both rich & poor worshippers, small towns around the world, the parent companies of Louis Vuitton, Sephora, Gucci, Apple, L’Oréal, Chanel, and Dior, in order to help rebuild. Some of the most prized, centuries-old relics of France and Christianity, including the replica of The Crown of Thorns, which Jesus is said to have worn during his crucifixion by the Romans, were among the treasures that survived. It gives me shivers thinking about it, especially at Easter time.
Climate change is the most important story of our time. As caretakers of our Earth, we need to make better decisions. Yes, it’s overwhelming, but unless we start today, nothing is going to change, except to get worse. You have all experienced the changes, but what you do about it as an individual, really matters. Demand change from others. Reduce your waste. Use less energy. Talk to your friends and family. Pay more attention to what you buy and what you eat. How you travel. Stay informed and do your part to make this a better place than you found it. Earth Day is April 22. Plant a tree. Pick up trash. Make a difference.
Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things but in terms of ideals. C.M. Crowe
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Conservationist Dame Jane Goodall is 85. Singer Tony Orlando is 75. Actor David Hyde Pierce is 60. Dr. Niles Crain on Frasier. Comedian actor Eddie Murphy is 58. American zoologist Jim Fowler is 89. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom. Actor Dennis Quaid is 65. Actress model Paulina Porizkova is 54. Actress Cynthia Nixon is 53. Sex and the City. Actress Keisha Knight Pulliam is 40. The Cosby Show. Sportscaster John Madden is 83. Actor Steven Seagal is 67.
Actor Haley Joel Osment is 31. The Sixth Sense. Actor Joel Grey is 87. Cabaret. Actress Louise Lasser is 80. Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman. Married to Woody Allen from 1966-1970. Actor Peter Riegart is 72. Donald “Boon” Schoenstein in Animal House. Musician Herbie Hancock is 79. Musician John Kay is 75. Steppenwolf. Talk show host David Letterman is 72. Singer J.D. Nicholas is 67. The Commodores. Actor Andy Garcia is 63. Country singer Vince Gill is 62.
Actor Lyle Waggoner is 84. The Carol Burnett Show. Musician Jack Casady is 75. Jefferson Airplane. Actor Tony Dow is 74. Leave it to Beaver. Musician Al Green is 73. Actor Ron Perlman is 69. Actor Ricky Shroder is 49. Director Francis Ford Coppola is 80. Singer guitarist John Oates is 71. Hall and Oates. Ethel Kennedy is 91. Classical crossover singer Jackie Evanacho is 19. Country singer Loretta Lynn is 87. Actress Julie Christie is 79. Queen Elizabeth turns 93 on April 21.
April the 18th is International Juggler’s Day. On this occasion, I celebrate the people that work with me at The Source Weekly because they are the best jugglers ever; people that can multi-task like nobody’s business. Thank you to each and every one of them for making sure that this office works the best it can, each and every day!
Why do we have eyebrows? Do you know? Me neither, but when I spent more than a minute thinking about it, I figured I needed to know because I invest a lot of money to make it look like I have two of them. According to Mental Floss, “Eyebrows are the Swiss Army Knife of the human body – they do everything! First and foremost, they protect your eyes. The shape of the brow ridge and the brows themselves channel sweat, rain, and moisture away from the eyeballs so your vision stays clear. Second, they’re essential for nonverbal communication.” So, this tells me that if a good rainstorm comes, I’ll probably drown.
Question: What do you call ten rabbits marching backwards? Answer: A receding hareline.
Jamie Adams, a former Wall Street trader who opened Saint James Brewery in Long Island nearly two decades ago, says he and fellow divers salvaged bottles of beer from the SS Oregon, a luxury liner sailing from Liverpool to New York that sank off Fire Island in 1886. With this beer, they extracted the yeast, then spent the next two years brewing test batches to get just the right taste. Adams believes the yeast from the sunken ship is descended from the lineage used by Bass Brewers in England to make a brand called King’s Ale, which is no longer produced. The new beer has a slightly fruity taste with a hoppy finish and is a replication of what would have been served on that ship in 1886. The taste is also described as absolutely fantastic.
April the giraffe (remember her live stream) has given birth again and it’s a very tall boy. Almost two years after her last countdown that captivated us all, April welcomed her 5’11” calf to Animal Adventure Park in NY. His name is Azizi (Ah-Zee-Zee) which means “beloved precious; mighty.”
In Huffman, Texas, George Foreman’s garage caught fire and is believed to be the fault of a golf cart among the forty cars in the garage. Forty cars? That’s not a garage, that’s a bus terminal. Yikes.
Bend, Oregon will be home to the only Blockbuster Video store left standing after more than 9,000 of them closing since 2004.
Andrew Francis Lippi, 59, had just closed on an $8 million island called Thompson Island, off Key West, when he was arrested for returning several items that he had purchased at Kmart. It seems that he bought several boxed items including a Keurig coffeemaker and light bulbs, then returned the original boxes for refunds, aaahhh, but the boxes were stuffed with other items including a basketball. He had many smart remarks including, “The clerk should have known there was no coffeemaker inside the box because of the weight.” Hmmm.
Bugatti just unveiled the most expensive new car ever built. The French luxury sports car brand started showing off the Bugatti La Voiture Noire, which has a price tag of nearly $19 million USD. No, you can’t have one. They only built one and it has been sold to a mystery buyer, believed to be the former chairman of Volkswagen Group. Just my luck. Day late and dollar short. In this case, $19 million short.
Burger King is introducing the Impossible Whopper at 59 restaurants in the St. Louis area. This is a meatless patty that uses heme, an iron-rich protein that is believed to taste like beef. The heme is blended with a combination of other vegetarian ingredients that give it about the same amount of protein as the regular Whopper, with 15% less fat and 90% less cholesterol. Hmmm. I don’t eat much meat but when I do, I want a good juicy steak.
More than 500 cases of measles have been reported in NY, 332 of them since January with more than 40 new cases just last week. The health commissioner for Rockland County, NY, announced, “Anyone who is unvaccinated, has a laboratory-confirmed case of measles, has been identified by a health investigation as being exposed to measles and is under age 18 will be issued an order to essentially stay at home for up to 21 days depending on when they were exposed and when the county learns of the exposure.” Ruppert said that children must have proof of vaccination, immunity or an exemption form on file at schools and childcare facilities in order to attend. Parents and guardians are responsible for minors, and failure to comply is $2,000 per day. It’s the 29th week of fighting the measles outbreak – the longest lasting current outbreak in the entire nation and the largest outbreak in NY State in 30 years.
A 61-year-old Nebraska woman served as a surrogate mother for her son, Matthew, and his husband, Elliot, who married in 2015 and wanted to start a family. Matthew’s mom was approved as a surrogate after extensive screening, then Elliot’s sister stepped up as the egg donor and Matthew was the sperm donor. Uma Louise Dougherty-Eledge weighed in at 5lbs. 13oz. Tough question: Would you do this for your children? Being a parent has definitely been the most important part of my life, so yes, I guess so.
The odds of having sextuplets are estimated at one in 4.7 billion. A Houston woman gave birth to six babies at Women’s Hospital of Texas last month. Two sets of twin boys and one set of twin girls weighed from one lb. 12 oz. to two lb. 14 oz.
Thanks to Angela Garrett at Brazosport College for her help and to Mike at Reece Supply for ordering all the necessary foam board for all those kids at UH. It was appreciated. April 18th is Newspaper Columnist Day. Woohoo. (I’ll celebrate anything!) Dear Easter Bunny, please fill my eggs with health and happiness and deliver them to everyone that I love.
Have a safe Easter. Lisa
😊 Lisa
