What I Heard This Week 02-17-2022
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
