What I Heard This Week! March 14, 2019
The FBI calls it “Operation Varsity Blues” and says that this scandal involves so many high-powered parents as well as coaches and college exam proctors, more than 50 people who used bribes and loopholes to get children into prestigious colleges. This includes changing SAT scores and faking children’s involvement in sports (crew teams) with the use of Photoshop, by taking a kid’s picture and putting it on the body of an athlete. What? Way too much to tell you in this column, but two names released were Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) and Lori Loughlin (Full House) and her husband, fashion designer, Mossimo Giannulli. Much of the indictment revolves around William Rick Singer, founder and consultant of a for-profit college counseling known as The Key. He has admitted that the fabricated academic, athletic credentials and arranged bribes to help get children into prestigious universities. He helped students score better on the ACT and SAT by cheating, bribing college coaches, $250,000 to a bank account at USC that funded the water polo team, and plenty more. Most parents paid between $250,000 and $400,000 per student for this service.Because all of us are aware that for years, wealthy people have been donating buildings or millions to schools to assure the acceptance of their children, some of this is not a surprise but the part that’s really disappointing was the fact that this guy had the parents pay their big bucks to Key Worldwide Foundation, a charity he formed in 2012 with a mission “to provide education that would normally be unattainable to underprivileged students.” This non-profit described spending thousands of dollars on trips for dental students to help needy Cambodians and offering math tutoring to under served children. It was nothing more than a means to launder money to an array of people requiring bribes and then the donors received a tax write-off. Andrew Lelling, US attorney for the District of Massachusetts said, “There will not be a separate admissions system for the wealthy and there will not be a separate criminal justice system either.” This hits close to home…The University of Texas has placed men’s tennis coach Michael Center on administrative leave and is cooperating with this investigation. One of the high schools that Singer controlled and that parents/clients were instructed to use for the rescheduled ACT and SAT exams was in Houston where an assistant teacher has been charged. Also charged is the president of a private tennis academy and camp in Houston. Hmmm. If only I have been better at Photoshop.
What is a crew team? “Crew“, as a noun, can refer to either the people in a specific high school or collegiate rowing boat or the entire sport of rowing in high school or college. The term “crew team” is redundant and is not properly used. After college, the term “crew” is no longer used to describe the sport or people in a boat.
Seen on Facebook: “The biggest communication problem is we don’t listen to UNDERSTAND, we listen to REPLY.”
Johnny, Johnny, Johnny! The Canadian Football League terminated the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner’s contract with the Montreal Alouettes. The league also informed the eight other teams that it wouldn’t register a contract for Johnny Manziel if any of them tried to sign him. Exactly what conditions or requirements that were broken or violated was not shared. Manziel had sought treatment for anger management and alcohol abuse as part of his acquittal on a 2016 charge of domestic violence.
If today is March 14th that means it is the 73rd day of year 2019. That also means there are 292 days left in this year. What are you going to do to make the most of these days? It’s not a little question.
It helps if you imagine ‘auto correct’ as a tiny little elf in your phone who’s trying so hard to be helpful but is in fact quite drunk.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Author James Ellroy is 71. His signature style of writing was not a result of conscious experimentation but of chance and came about when he was asked by his editor to shorten his novel L.A. Confidential by more than one hundred pages. Rather than removing any subplots, Ellroy abbreviated the novel by cutting every unnecessary word from every sentence, creating a very unique style.
Actress Catherine O’Hara is 65. She was the mom in Home Alone. Gay rights activist Chaz Bono is 50.TV personality Hugh Downs is 98. Jazz musician Maceo Parker is 76. Played with James Brown. Investigative journalist Carl Bernstein is 75. Watergate. Cajun singer musician Michael Doucet is 68. Beau Soleil. Pro football Hall of Fame Jim Kelly is 59. Actor Hal Holbrook is 94. Mark Twain. Actor comedian Barry Humphries is 85. Dame Edna. Actress Rene Russo is 65. Lethal Weapon.
Movie director Michael Bay is 55. Armageddon, Pearl Harbor and the Transformers. Actor Jerry O’Connell is 45. Singer songwriter Ed Sheeran is 28. Actor LeVar Burton is 62. Kunta Kinte in Roots. Actor rapper Ice-T is 61. Rock musician Andy Taylor is 58. Duran Duran and The Power Station. Dancer actress Carmen de Lavallade is 88. Singer songwriter James Taylor is 71.
Singer Mary Wilson is 75. The Supremes. Wilson was inducted along with Diana Ross and Florence Ballard into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.Actor Tom Arnold is 60. Opera singer Dame Kiri TeKanawa is 75. She joined Downton Abbey for a single episode to play Australian Soprano Nellie Melba, one of the biggest singing stars of the early 20th century.
Freeda Foreman, the daughter of boxing legend George Foreman was found dead at age 42, at her Houston home. Medical examiners confirmed that she died by suicide. Actor Jan-Michael Vincent died of a heart attack at age 73 or 74, depending on where you read it.
CORNED BEEF and CABBAGE and BEER, oh, my! To cook your cabbage this year, just cut it into wedges, place it on some parchment paper on a cookie sheet, drizzle on a bunch of good olive oil, salt and lemon pepper, then roast on 425 for 25-30 minutes or until you think they are done. You will never want to eat cabbage cooked any other way. For beer, this last week-end I shared a bottle of Founders, Breakfast Stout (double chocolate, coffee, oatmeal.) Note: You have to like coffee and I do, and I did.
St. Patrick’s Day is the traditional day for planting peas, even if it’s snowing outside.
Customs agents found 1,529 ‘live’exotic turtles that were duct-taped inside luggage that had been abandoned by a passenger in the arrival area of an airport in the Philippines. The pictures showed several different species, some so beautiful, but the grey duct-tape keeping them from crawling was so sad. Authorities said they believe “the passenger may have been informed of the vigilance of Bureau of Customs against illegal wildlife trade and its penalties.”Money and jail time.
“Life is like a cup of tea, it’s all in how you make it.” Irish Proverb.
“Text me when you get home.” We shouldn’t have to say it. But we do.
The Chappell Hill Historical Society announces the Official State of Texas Bluebonnet Festival in Chappell Hill on April 13 & 14. The bluebonnets are beautiful there in the spring and I have heard that this will be a record year because of all the rain. www.ChappellHillHistoricalSociety.com
Measles are making a comeback.
The Hula-Hoop is 51-years old. Remember the hip-swiveling toy that became a huge fad across America when it was first marketed by Wham-O in 1958. An estimated 25-million Hula-Hoops were sold in the first four months of production alone. Even if you hate everything, no one hates Hula Hoops.
According to Wikipedia, “Dog TV is a premium cable television network and the first television network that is made specifically for dogs. Dog TV provides 24/7 digital TV programming that is designed to provide entertainment for dogs. The programming, created with the help of dog behavior specialists, is color-adjusted to appeal to dogs, and features 3 to 6-minute segments designed to relax, to stimulate, and to expose the dog to scenes of everyday life such as doorbells or riding in a vehicle.”The channel gets a five-star rating from a humane society shelter in California.At my house, we are waiting for ‘Cat TV’ so my kitties will just have to be content with Animal Planet until that happens.😊
Bess Brannen Elementary in LJ is celebrating their 50th birthday. Happy Birthday to Principal Julie Evans, and her staff, who take so much pride in their school. It shows.
Doctors in the U.K. are saying that HIV is undetectable in a patient after a stem-cell transplant. This is the second case of its kind.
Australian Cardinal George Pell, a former leading Vatican official, has been sentenced to six years in prison for the sexual abuse of two children more than 20 years ago. Six years? He will be eligible for parole after 3 years and 8 months. Hmmm. You know what I think.
It is believed that the 2020 election will be the one in which climate, flooded coastlines and global warming will finally be discussion questions.
The mud-caked flight data recording ‘black box’ was recovered from the site of the February 23, cargo jet crash in Trinity Bay, 40 miles southeast of George Bush Intercontinental Airport. An initial review revealed that the quality of the audio is poor, and it is difficult to make out what the crew is saying, but it indicates a loss of control of the plane about 18 seconds before the recording ends. I think we all knew that,so we now wait for further information. Three people were killed in the crash. It is believed that the jet was traveling at 500 mph when it crashed in the 5ft. deep water.
We all remember the marshmallow bunnies from our childhood but it’s really getting complicated. There are now so many new flavors such as cotton candy, pancakes and syrup, orange sherbet, chocolate-caramel swirl, blue raspberry, root-beer float and vanilla crème. Too many choices. I just like yellow bunnies.
If today is March 14th then it is National Pi Day. Pi Day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π. Pi Day is observed on March 14 since 3, 1, and 4 are the first three significant digits of π. Pi is a name given to the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. That means, for any circle, you can divide the circumference (the distance around the circle) by the diameter and always get exactly the same number. I hope you got that! There will be a pop-test later today. 3.14159265
Sláinte (SLAHN-chə) is a word translated as ‘health’ in several Gaelic languages and is commonly used as a drinking toast in Ireland and Scotland. Variations of this toast include sláintem haith which is ‘good health’ in Irish.
So, thanks for taking the time to read this and sláintem haith.
Lisa
