What I Heard This Week! December 6, 2018
In Keller, A 22-year-old man left on vacation and left his three-foot red-tailed boa constrictor, Toki, in an aquarium with the lid taped down and reinforced with weights but to his surprise, the snake was missing when he got home. The owner and his roommates searched through the large house but assumed that the snake was “roughing” it on the streets. Eventually the man moved back with his parents, so he took some items that he wouldn’t need, like a couch and some clothing, to a Goodwill donation center. They are assuming that the snake had been living in the couch and sought refuge in a box of clothing once he arrived at the donation center because he ended up at a Goodwill sorting center in Fort Worth, 17-miles away, bundled up in a pile of clothes. Toki has now been reunited with his owner.
Duncan Hines is recalling 2.4 million boxes of cake mix because of a link to salmonella. The recall affects Classic White, Classic Butter Golden, Signature Confetti and Classic Yellow that have expiration dates between March 7th through 13th, 2019. Check your boxes.
Mrs. Doubtfire is 25 years old. I sure do miss Robin Williams.
There is a tiny, uninhabited island off Japan’s northern coast which was 4.5 ft. above sea level when it was last surveyed in 1987…average height of a 10-year-old child. It has been used to mark the country’s territorial waters. The Japanese coast guard are now looking for the island since it seems to have disappeared. Hmmm.
Albert Schweitzer – “Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the Earth.”
A Houston teen who raped and murdered his 15-year-old girlfriend when he was 15, was sentenced to life in prison. The teen, now 18, had not onlyrecorded the sexual assault and strangulation, including the girl begging for him not to kill her, but he then shared the recordings and graphic images. A life sentence is not enough.
A man boarded a Delta flight in Atlanta and found that his seat was covered in feces. It got on the legs of his pants, his ankles and his seatmate plus the floor and the wall of the plane and he sat in it. A complaint to the crew got him two paper towels and a bottle of Bombay Sapphire. He went to the bathroom to try to clean up and found that when he got back to his seat, the mess had not been cleaned up while he was trying to clean up in the bathroom. The flight crew told him he needed to talk to a gate agent who told him that “it was almost time to leave and that he could either sit back in his seat or get left behind.” By this time, several of the passengers were refusing to sit down until someone cleaned up the mess. In a statement, Delta acknowledged that “the area had not been appropriately cleaned following an incident involving an ill emotional support animal.” Shame on Delta. Shame on the owner of the animal.
When a flight from Orlando to London on British Airways started, it was supposed to be an 8-hour flight. First the plane was grounded because of mechanical issues. Then when they took off the next day, the flight was diverted as a precaution because of a minor technical issue, but finally arrived on Sunday after passengers had very little food, spotty communication from the airlines and some had to sleep on the floor. I don’t know about you, but driving is looking pretty good after these two stories.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Impressionist Rich Little is 80. His nickname is The Man of a Thousand Voices. Actor Peter Facinelli is 45.Dr. Carlisle Cullen in the ‘Twilight’ novel series. Singer pianist Bruce Hornsby is 64. TV personality Robin Roberts is 58. Good Morning America. Actress singer Miley Cyrus is 26. Actress singer Beverly D’Angelo is 67. Ellen Griswold in Vacation. Pop singer Jonathan Knight is 50. New Kids on the Block.Hall of Fame sportscaster Vin Scully is 91. He called games for LA Dodgers from 1950 to 2016. Blues singer musician John Mayall is 85.
Actress Kathryn Crosby is 85.She was born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff in West Columbia, Texas, graduated from the UT at Austin in 1955 and two years later became Bing Crosby‘s second wife, thirty years his junior. The couple had three children.Singer songwriter composer pianist Randy Newman is 75. Short People.Actor producer director and screenwriter Ed Harris is 68. Apollo 13.
Former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar is 55. Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins. Former First-Daughter Jenna Bush Hager is 37. Oh, and so is her twin, Barbara Bush Coyne. Basketball Hall of Fame Oscar Robertson is 80.“The Big O.”Actor and former president of the Screen Actors Guild Ed Asner is 89. Lou Grant. Actor filmmaker Danny DeVito is 74.Taxi, Romancing the Stone, Matilda.Actor Owen Wilson is 50. Actress Director Producer Jodie Foster is 56. Television host Larry King is 85. He has been married eight times, to seven women.
Actor Judd Nelson is 59. Brat Pack. Actress producer Meg Ryan is 57. Actress Goldie Hawn is 73. Actress Christina Applegate is 47. Married…with Children. Singer songwriter Amy Grant is 58.Singer songwriter dancer actress Tina Turner is 79.The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Television presenter Bill Nye is 63. The Science Guy. Actress Diane Ladd is 83. Alice. Actor Ben Stiller is 53. Former punk rocker musician Billy Idol is 63. Director Joel Coen is 64. Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Eddie Murphy and his fiancée have a new baby boy. This is his10th child; his first child is now 29-years-old. I have a small TV in my kitchen, so while I was cooking supper the other night, I happened upon the 1983 movie, Trading Places, with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd. I had forgotten how funny these guys are. Aykroyd plays a snobbish investor and Murphy is the street-smart con artist. They find their positions in life reversed as part of a $1-bet by two rich commodity brokers. The super-smart,kind, business minded prostitute is played by Jamie Lee Curtis. I bet it’s been 25 to 30 years since I first saw the movie, but I still laughed like it was yesterday.
There’s a big sign outside Starbucks that says they will be open on Christmas day. Hmmm. Doesn’t work for me. Surely you can make your own coffee for one day.
Elections are over. I receive all my mail at the office and have for the past 20 years, so junk mail I receive at home tends to collect for several weeks, even months before I find the key and free it to recycle.Imagine my surprise when I cleaned out the box yesterday and found a postcard explaining that my neighbors have better voting records than mine. Insert shock, dismay, and disappointment here. The card said, “Your neighborhood votes at a high rate according to researchers studying voter turnout in the area.” Six of my neighbors were listed by name and each one showed to have a 100% voting record. I, on the other hand, only had a “B” or an 85. At the bottom of the card it said, “Be A Voter November 6th.” In other words, I am a slacker. Just doesn’t seem right.
Abibliophobia:‘The fear of running out of books to read.’ The word is a joke but is correctly constructed, so if you wish to use it, you will not be breaking any rules of English grammar. I must have abibliophobia because there are too many unread books scattered all over my house.
While traveling back from Bastrop one day, I saw a sign out in front of a bar that said, ‘Happy Hour Bar, NO BYOB’. What?!? Does that mean that except for Happy Hour, you can bring your own liquor to the bar? Or is it called the Happy Hour Bar? Hmmm. Since that time, I have spoken with the worldlier people in my office and they informed me that some bars don’t have a liquor license and therefore sell beer only, but they still allow customers to bring their own liquor and then sell them set-ups.Oh.
Happiness is nothing more than good health and a bad memory.
Lowe’s announced the closing of 51 underperforming stores as “they focus on building a stronger business.”
Martha Stewart ordered the most expensive version of an Uber ride and wanted to be picked up on Fifth Avenue and 57th Street in NY. The first car did not show up. The second car parked halfway down the street where she couldn’t see the license plate and she said that the car “was a mess inside and out.” She even posted a picture of the trash on the floor and two water bottles. Bet Uber was excited about that.
Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.
George H. W. Bush – “I do not like broccoli and I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it,” he said,“And I’m president of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli. Now look, this is the last statement I’m going to have on broccoli. There are truckloads of broccoli at this very minute descending on Washington. My family is divided. For the broccoli vote out there: Barbara loves broccoli. She has tried to make me eat it. She eats it all the time herself. So, she can go out and meet the caravan of broccoli that’s coming in.”
This morning, as I prepared to finish this column, I found it hard to tear myself away from the funeral of George H. W. Bush, our nation’s 41st President. Over the past week, I have had opportunities to watch bits and pieces of the grand pageantry and ceremony associated with this occasion…such as James A. Baker III speaking on George Bush’s final moments,seeing the picture of his companion Sully in front of his casket, GWB speaking to his granddaughter,Jenna Bush Hager, about the people that he wants to meet when he arrives in heaven;his wife of 70 years, his daughter Robin and his parents. All these were tiny tear-filled moments for me. With this, came thoughts created about my own life and how I have lived. Did I try hard enough to always do the right thing for everyone associated with whatever situation was happening at the time? Within reason, I hope that I was the best child, sister, wife, mother or friend that I could have been. So, I leave you with this thought…have you lived the kind of life where people will attend your funeral out of ‘respect’for your character and the quality of life that you lived,or will it be out of obligation?
Thank you for setting aside the time to read this today. Hope you have a love-filled week. My kids are finishing finals and will be home enjoying a well-deserved break, so the cats and I rejoice.
