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What I Heard This Week 08-01-2024

What I Heard This Week July 31, 2024

What is Slap Fighting? Slap fighting is a one-on-one competition in which opponents – a striker and a defender – strike each other in the face until someone is knocked out or quits. Chalk is provided to participants and is used to indicate where their strikes have landed on their opponent after they have thrown a slap. A competitor’s hair must also be tied up behind their head so as to not obstruct an incoming slap from their opponent. Yes, there are certainly dangers for the brain in slap-fighting bouts; safety is a concern with competitors using mouthguards, cotton balls to protect their ear drums, and allowing sixty seconds of recovery time before delivering the follow-up slap. In 2023, Artus ‘Walus’ Walczak suffered a stroke due to the blows he suffered at an event. I’m speechless. Oh, did I mention that you can bet on this “sport”?

Don’t handicap your children by making their lives easy. Robert A. Heinlein

Seen in a magazine…CUP NOODLES, Ramen Noodles in Sauce. What flavor were they, you ask? Ahhh. Thanks for wondering. Yes, they are a Limited Edition, Campfire S’mores with chocolate, graham cracker and marshmallow-flavored sauce (with natural and artificial flavors.) Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t sound good AT ALL. I think I like my ramen a little more earthy tasting with chicken broth, miso, cilantro, soy sauce, bean sprouts and scallions…maybe a boiled egg and some fish sauce… BUT NO marshmallows. I thought about this as I ate my bowl of Pho on Saturday afternoon. Gives me shivers.

Time is a created thing. To say, “I don’t have time”, is like saying, “I don’t want to”. Lao Tzu

Inside Out 2 is now the highest grossing animated movie of all time. That means it surpassed Frozen II, hitting the $1 BILLION mark, just 19 days after its release. Richard Gere is starring in his first major TV show. He will join Michael Fassbender in the Showtime spy thriller The Agency, which George Clooney and Grant Heslov are executive-producing. I would watch Richard Gere in anything. A German city, Gelsenkirchen, celebrated Taylor Swifts three sold-out concerts by temporarily renaming the city Swiftkirchen. In the summer of 1954 (70 years ago), Elvis recorded his debut single, That’s All Right. The upcoming Dolly Parton Broadway musical comedy and life story is called Here You Come Again.  Did you know that Taylor Swift is the Godmother to Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ four children. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are in talks to make a sequel to their supernatural 1998 movie, Practical Magic, where they played the witchy Owens sisters.

A 2,000 lb. vending machine stuck between an ATM and a row of ice machines in downtown Canyon Lake, Texas (and Alabama, and Oklahoma), now sells ammunition. Written across the front, it says, “Need to Reload?” …with the company’s motto… Ammo Sales Like You’ve Never Seen Before. Yes, it’s an ammunition dispenser right next door to a middle school. The owner says the devices that he plans to introduce to grocery stores across Texas make it impossible for minors to buy bullets. The machines include facial-recognition technology that verifies a customer’s age and identification, based on a driver’s license. They say that after a transaction, that information is not stored nor sold. Right… even some gun owners think this might be going a little far.

Gun control? We need bullet control. I think every bullet should cost $5,000. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollars, we wouldn’t have any innocent bystanders. Chris Rock

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who flew the first manned orbit of the moon in 1968, died at 90, when a plane he was piloting crashed into the ocean close to Seattle. Titanic and Avatar producer Jon Landau died at 63 after a short battle with cancer. Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author because she was non-judgmental, funny, super-smart, and only 4ft. 7”- tall with a cute German accent, and looked like everyone’s grandmother, died at 96. She was a regular on the late-night talk shows and had her own local radio program. Richard Simmons, died at 76. He was formally a 268-pound teen who shared his successful food plans, diets and exercise videos with millions, hoping to make the world a healthier, happier place. Actor Shelly Duvall, one of the biggest film stars of the 70’s and early 80’s – best known for playing opposite Jack Nicholson in The Shining, died at her home in Blanco, Texas, at 75. Comedy giant Bob Newhart died at 94. Before he was a star, he was an accountant working in Chicago who made some funny comic tapes to amuse himself. An executive at Warner Bros. Records heard about them, which resulted in the 1960 release of his comedy album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart.” The rest was history, including the Mark Twain prize for American Humor. Lawyer and U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee died at 74. She is only the second person to ever lie in state at the Houston City Hall rotunda. Quite an honor. She had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. Actor Bill Cobbs, known for Night at the Museum and The Bodyguard, died at 90.

NASA data shows that Monday, July 22, 2024, was the Earth’s hottest day on record… just last week. The most interesting part of this information is that on Sunday, July 21, 2024 – the day before – had just been declared the Earth’s hottest day since records began. So, in 48 hours, two records were broken and with 2023 proclaimed as the hottest year ever in modern records, I guess it’s safe to say that the Earth is getting hotter. Is human activity to blame?  Yep.

A California hiker lost for 10 days in thick Big Basin Redwoods, found waterfalls and survived by drinking a gallon of water out of his boot every day before he was rescued. He found a few wild berries, but said he craved a burrito and a taco bowl. He left on what was supposed to be a three-hour hike (sung to the tune of Gilligan’s Island… three-hour cruise…) with just his boots and a pair of pants – no shirt… but he did carry a flashlight and a pair of folding scissors. He struggled to navigate because certain landmarks had been wiped out by recent wildfires in northern California.

The CEO of CenterPoint Energy, Jason Wells, came under fire recently as we all sat in our kitchens without power, because during an interview a picture showed him sitting underneath a thermostat set comfortably to 70F degrees. Wells defended the power delays but vowed to have better communication after Hurricane Beryl. He was without power only two days, but also had a backup generator. According to CenterPoint’s “Energy Efficiency & Summer Safety 101,” residents are encouraged to keep their thermostats at 78°F or higher when at home and between 80-83°F when away to save power. Mattress Mack has started a petition calling for the CenterPoint CEO and other executives to resign as backlash over the company’s response to Hurricane Beryl continues to grow.

As I write this, it is Tuesday, and there is a disturbance in the central tropical Atlantic Ocean showing a 40-60% chance of tropical or subtropical formation that could have Florida in its path. Lady Gaga is engaged! She introduced her longtime boyfriend as “my fiancé” to French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal at the Paris Olympics. Simone Biles got the GOLD. Have a great week.

LISA

Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com

What I Heard This Week 02-17-2022

What I Heard This Week February 16, 2022

A Russian Olympic skater apologized and said he meant no offense for using the middle finger gesture as he crossed the finish line in victory over the U.S. Hmmm. I guess this means good job in Russian sign language.

In northern Italy, a 70-year-old woman’s mummified remains were found sitting at a table in her house, more than two years after she died. She had no living relatives. “The mystery of Marinella’s invisible life behind the closed gate of her cottage teaches us a terrible lesson,” the news said. “The real sadness is not that the others did not notice her death. It is that they did not realize Marinella Beretta was alive.” Those are words we probably need to read again, and file away in our hearts to remind us to take better care of those aging alone.

Olympic gold medalist, Simone Biles, is engaged to Houston Texans safety, Jonathan Owens, who she has been dating since 2020. Who says Texas doesn’t have royalty!

A practicing priest of more than two decades, resigned earlier this month after his diocese discovered baptisms he had performed, were invalid because he had changed a single word while performing the sacrament. Instead of “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he used, “We baptize you…”  He wrote, “I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience my actions have caused and genuinely ask for your prayers, forgiveness, and understanding.”  The way I understand it, the issue is that Christ baptizes the person, not a community of “we”.

As I read an article about “America’s Dad,” Bill Cosby, I was reminded that his profession on The Cosby Show, was an OB/GYN. Hmmm.

The official autopsy report for 23-year-old Brian Laundrie revealed new details. His remains were found in October after the death of his fiancée, Gabby Petito, who died by strangulation. Much of Laundrie’s corpse had “moderately extensive carnivore activity evidenced by multiple gouging and gnawing marks,” according to the medical examinator. “These areas are consistent with carnivores and/or omnivores including canines such as feral dogs and coyotes along with rodents and raccoons.” The remains included a “right and left scapulae, right humerus, right femur, two tibiae, two fibulae, two clavicles, two pelvic bones, the sacrum, one right ulna, one right radius, and multiple ribs” the report continued. “Also, multiple fragments of cranium and skull along with a generally intact mandible with attached teeth and the lower aspect of the maxilla with attached teeth are noted. Cervical, thoracic, and lumbar vertebrae are also located nearby.”  But he died from a self-inflected gunshot wound to the head. Not a pretty end.

According to Reader’s Digest, there are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with month, silver, bulb, wolf, walrus, rhythm, husband, woman, and purple.  I also found ninth, pint, opus, dangerous, marathon and discombobulate. This may affect your poem-writing abilities, if it hasn’t already.

Tay-Sachs is a severe neurological disease caused by a deficiency in an enzyme called HexA. The enzyme breaks down a fatlike substance that normally exists in very small, harmless amounts in the brain. Without HexA, the fatlike substance can accumulate to toxic levels that damage and kill neurons. After 14 years of study, researchers have developed a gene therapy that delivers DNA instructions to brain cells to teach them how to produce the missing enzyme. Two babies have received the gene-therapy and are doing great.

RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Singer Smokey Robinson is 82. Singer Lou Christie is 79. Lightnin’ Strikes and I’m Gonna Make You Mine. Guitarist Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath is 74. Actor Jeff Daniels is 67. Rapper-actor Ice-T is 64. Actor Lisa Loring is 64. Wednesday Addams of The Addams Family. Comedian Dame Edna aka Barry Humphries is 88. Actor Rene Russo is 68. Comedian Larry the Cable Guy is 59. Vocalist Yoko Ono is 89. Actor Cybill Shepherd is 72. Drummer Robbie Bachman of Bachman-Turner Overdrive is 69. Actor John Travolta is 68. Game show hostess Vanna White of Wheel of Fortune is 65.

Actor Sandy Duncan is 76. Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie is 81. Actor Peter Strauss is 75. Rich Man, Poor Man. Model Cindy Crawford is 56. Actor Tyne Daly is 76. Cagney & Lacey. Actor Anthony Daniels is 76. C3P0 in Star Wars. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 67. Singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 64. Passionate Kisses. Actor John Ashton is 74. Gomez in Addams Family. Actor Julie Walters of Harry Potter and Mamma Mia! is 72. Actor Drew Barrymore is 47.  Guitarist Brad Whitford of Aerosmith is 70.

Peter Robbins, the first actor who voiced Peanuts character Charlie Brown in 1963, died at 65. Isaac Bardavid, writer, voice-over actor died at 91. His voice can be heard as Freddy Krueger, Skeletor, Commissioner Gordon in Batman animated, Deep Throat in the X-Files, and Dr. Eggman in Sonic the Hedgehog. Basketball Hall of Fame coach Bill Fitch, who mentored some of the NBA’s biggest stars and helped lead Larry Bird and Boston Celtics to an NBA championship in 1981, died at 89.

The crew of an American Airlines flight for LA to Washington, D.C., used a coffee pot as a weapon to overpower and convince an unruly passenger who was interfering with the flight. He first tried to barge into the cockpit, then tried to pry open the plane’s door mid-air. From January 1st to February 8th of this year (that’s barely 6 weeks) there have been 394 unruly passenger incidents reported to the FAA. There were 5,981 incidents reported in 2021, the worst year on record.

A Connecticut woman, who was naked from the waist down, was dropped off at a Bronx hospital by two unidentified women. They drove her in her own BMW, portraying themselves as good Samaritans, before walking away. Doctors found needle marks on her body and a foreign substance had been injected into her buttocks. The woman died after what doctors believe was a butt-enhancement injection that went terribly wrong. A Brazilian butt-lift where they harvest your own fat from areas of the body where it’s not wanted, has an average cost of about $6,600, but can be as much as $12,000. That’s for a real surgeon that goes through approximately 13 years of education and training before earning a license to practice. That’s why they cost so much. But, if you don’t mind using silicone that was picked up at Home Depot or Lowe’s or was ordered from Amazon, and you are satisfied having your sutures closed with super-glue, you can get a much, much, better price. You just have to decide what your priorities are, and what you want your assets to look like.

Mattress Mac, owner of Gallery Furniture and sports gambler, bet a total of $9.5 million on the Cincinnati Bengals to beat the LA Rams at Super Bowl.  The Rams had a 23-20 win. Since January 1, Jim McIngvale has reportedly lost $15.43 million. Ouch. And this was after betting $3.35 million on the Astros to win the World Series just last year. In return, he sells millions of dollars of mattresses and gets massive amounts of advertising. You read this, didn’t you?

Former President Trump used a Secret Service agent’s phone to call first lady Melania Trump after she didn’t answer calls from his number when the Stormy Daniels story broke in 2018. Oops. JJ Watts’ 7,773 Sq. Ft. Houston home on ¾ acre lot, was just reduced to $4.9 million. Alex Baldwin and other producers have been sued by the family of the cinematographer killed on the set of Rust.

My friend always turned her nose up at bread pudding. I told her that she just hadn’t ever tasted the right bread pudding. Today I came across a recipe for Doughnut Bread Pudding. It forced me to look for more recipes. This one is from Bon Appetit. It says it is a great way to use up stale doughnuts. Hah. Who has stale doughnuts? It’s a 5-star recipe that they say is pretty hard to quit eating. You judge.

12 stale or fresh glazed or sugared doughnuts
4 large eggs
4 large egg yolks
4 cups half-and-half
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
½ tsp. kosher salt
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup raspberry preserves
Powdered sugar for dusting
Cold whipped cream for serving – optional

Preheat (center rack) to 325°. Butter 2-qt. baking dish. Cut each doughnut into eighths, arrange on parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake until dry and crisp, like little sugary croutons, about 15 minutes. Let cool enough to handle. Or you could just leave the pieces out uncovered overnight in a cold oven. Turn oven up to 350.
Whisk well eggs, egg yolks, half-and-half, sugar, vanilla, salt, and lemon zest until light, uniform, and foamy, or process in blender. Add doughnut pieces to custard. Gently push pieces down to absorb maximum liquid without falling apart. After 5 minutes, gently press again. Repeat two more times for a total soak time of 15 minutes, allowing the doughnuts to drink up the custard.
Transfer all to buttered baking dish. Dollop preserves over the top, avoiding the edge of pan where it could burn. Bake bread pudding, rotating pan halfway through, until puffed, golden brown, and bubbling along the edges, 50–60 minutes. If it starts to brown too much, cover with foil. It will fall like a souffle shortly after it comes out of the oven, but that’s ok.
Let bread pudding cool 20 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar.
Doughnuts can be dried 1 day ahead. Store in an airtight container at room temperature. Can you imagine how good Krispy Kreme donuts would be! Or a bourbon sauce at the end instead of preserves. How about espresso whipped cream? I’m so hungry.

More bad behavior: Someone without a lick of sense…carved their names and dates on prehistoric petroglyphs in Big Bend. In fact, it was Adrian, Ariel, Isaac, and Norma. Spread the word! They visited with something sharp in their pockets on Dec. 26, 2021. In case you are familiar with these guys, please call Big Bend National Park, then hand them a Big Chief tablet and crayons to keep them busy until park rangers arrive. Those carvings are 5000-year-old works of art, irreplaceable, and deserve far better.

Powderhorn Ranch is a 17,000-acre property near Matagorda Bay, which will soon be home to a massive $50 million Texas state park.  There are 11 miles of tidal bay front property, unaltered prairie, and freshwater wetlands that are natural and untouched. How exciting for us living so close. They must complete surveys, host public meetings, outline a master plan, and raise more money before construction can start. It’s safe to say that it won’t open to the public until around 2032. Because most of Texas is privately owned, having one of the largest remaining undisturbed tracts of native coastal prairie habitat left in Texas is pretty special. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation funded a significant portion of this conservation project using money resulting from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. 

February 22nd is National Margarita Day. The Brazoria County Dream Center is celebrating 15 years of serving our community. Help them celebrate by giving. Thanks for reading us this week.

LISA

 

  • What I Heard This Week 10-26-2023

    by on October 25, 2023 - 0 Comments

    Former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, recently remarried for the fourth time, which also happened to be on the occasion of his 93rd birthday. This time it was to Dr. Anca Faur, his 63-year-old, long-time companion (who looks like she wants to be 27), has a PhD in chemical engineering, and is now the executive vice president of Aldrin’s company, Buzz Aldrin Ventures.  He was first married to Joan Ann Archer in 1954 until divorcing in 1974. The next year he married Beverly Van Zile; they divorced after three years. His third marriage was to Lois Driggs Cannon in 1988 on Valentine's Day, divorcing 23 years later. Looks like he hasn’t given up on ‘love’ quite yet. He has sued two of his children and his former business manager claiming they stole money from him and are slandering his legacy, and that they also undermined his "personal romantic relationships" by forbidding him from getting married. His children say he is also spending money at an alarming rate. Sounds like those children are out of luck. There is a new sheriff in town and her name is MRS. Aldrin. ☹ Notes: Aldrin is also a strong advocate for human exploration of Mars. In 2002, he escaped assault charges after punching a man who demanded he swear on a Bible that the Moon landing was not staged. Good for him. He also said, “Tang sucks. “

  • What I Heard This Week 11-30-2023

    by on November 29, 2023 - 0 Comments

    Former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, recently remarried for the fourth time, which also happened to be on the occasion of his 93rd birthday. This time it was to Dr. Anca Faur, his 63-year-old, long-time companion (who looks like she wants to be 27), has a PhD in chemical engineering, and is now the executive vice president of Aldrin’s company, Buzz Aldrin Ventures.  He was first married to Joan Ann Archer in 1954 until divorcing in 1974. The next year he married Beverly Van Zile; they divorced after three years. His third marriage was to Lois Driggs Cannon in 1988 on Valentine's Day, divorcing 23 years later. Looks like he hasn’t given up on ‘love’ quite yet. He has sued two of his children and his former business manager claiming they stole money from him and are slandering his legacy, and that they also undermined his "personal romantic relationships" by forbidding him from getting married. His children say he is also spending money at an alarming rate. Sounds like those children are out of luck. There is a new sheriff in town and her name is MRS. Aldrin. ☹ Notes: Aldrin is also a strong advocate for human exploration of Mars. In 2002, he escaped assault charges after punching a man who demanded he swear on a Bible that the Moon landing was not staged. Good for him. He also said, “Tang sucks. “

  • Much Ado About Nothing - Texan in Winter

    by on December 6, 2018 - 0 Comments

    The power went out at my house last night for four hours. While this may not seem like a major catastrophe as it was the middle of the night and […]

  • Much Ado About Nothing - “Human Bait”

    by on January 16, 2020 - 0 Comments

    My dad always told me to have a backup plan in case my current job doesn’t work out. I wasn’t sure what that’d be until I saw this ad: “HUMAN […]

  • What I Heard This Week! December 20, 2018

    by on December 20, 2018 - 0 Comments

    The AK-47 is a type of assault rifle originally manufactured in the Soviet Union in 1949. A 17-year-old Humble High School student accidently shot herself recently with an AK-47 that […]

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