- Regardless of the state of the economy, people like to drink, they like to party and they like to see girls flash their breasts for nothing more than a string of beads. That’s why I’m not surprised in the least than Mardi Gras is as big as ever in New Orleans in spite of the nation’s sagging economy. "Things are sort of buzzing down here right now, and it feels good," said Michael Valentino, who owns three hotels in the French Quarter. "Didn't know what to expect this year, but it appears that interest is high and people are acting on that decision in order to make Carnival part of their travel plans." Didn’t know what to expect? Cheap drinks, parties that go all night and hot girls pulling up their shirts every time you turn around are all available in a city and you didn’t know what to expect? I did. I very much expected that hotel bookings would be on pace with last year (which they are), I also expected that the city would see just as many visitors and - between 700,000 and 800,000 - for Mardi Gras as it had in 2008. So while others may be surprised that tourism officials and business owners in the Crescent City expect this year's attendance to top last year's numbers, not me. It definitely doesn’t hurt that Fat Tuesday falls on February 24 this year, nearly three weeks later, giving everyone a few more days to figure out how to scrap together enough cash to go spend a week getting drunk. Just as one example, Valentino's Place d'Armes Hotel was about 96 percent booked for Mardi Gras' busiest weekend, which is right around the capacity that most major hotels have been reporting. On top of all that, orders from Mardi Gras staples like krewes and beads are up this year. Bottom line here is that it doesn’t matter how down and out the economy of a nation and city are, people like to show up, get hammered, act like fools and see girls flash them, and that’s something that just isn’t going to change…..
- Maybe it’s just my cynical self, but I am really getting tired of these stories of people who are mistakenly given massive sums of money by their banks or credit unions in some sort of freak accounting error and immediately hand the money right back. Enough with the “do the right thing stories” like that of 17-year-old Jacquelyn Lockard of Onslow County, N.C. Lockard went to a Marine Federal Credit Union ATM Feb. 12 to get some money when she saw there was $2.2 million in her account. “I looked at my receipt and I realized there as a lot of digits there that didn’t belong to me,” she said. “It was pretty insane.” Insane……but awesome. Any cool 17-year-old knows what to do with that sort of financial windfall: blow it. You either find a friend who is 21 and get them to buy a crap load of beer for the biggest party of the year, you head right to the mall and start blowing as much of it as possible or you start withdrawing it like nobody’s business and hide the cash somewhere. What you don’t do unless you’re an uber-dork is run right to daddy and have him call the credit union to report the mistake. Craig Chamberlin, the credit union president, took the call and looked into the matter, ultimately finding that t a large direct deposit from the IRS had been assigned to Lockard’s account when a worker went to put in the amount manually and entered her social security number by mistake. “It was just an accident. The only people who don’t make mistakes are the ones who aren’t doing anything,” Chamberlin said. “Their honesty is to be applauded. And do you think most people would do that in the same situation? I hope so.” Hope so, but no. These are tough financial times, Craig, so if someone is handing me $2.2 million, I’m not handing it back. If nothing else, it’d be a great chance to strike back at your bank or credit union for all of those bogus fees and what not they’ve stuck you with over the years. I just hope that sooner or later, Jacquelyn Lockard realizes that it was not the right thing to do, giving the money back, and acts differently if ever faced with a similar situation again. Had she done so this time, she wouldn’t be walking away with only the two days’ worth of interest from the $2.2 million balance, about $125, that the bank is giving her………..
- Hmm, should the sight of a bungee cord snapping and an Amboy, Wash. man falling 25 feet into a cold river below discourage me from wanting to bungee jump at some point? I’m saying no, because Mark Afforde survived the experience just fine. He and a few friends were enjoying a day of bungee jumping at Canyon Creek, northeast of Yacolt, Wash., when his cord snapped at the lowest point of the jump from an estimated 400-foot high bridge -- about 25 feet from the surface. Afforde says he heard the cord snap, fell into the water and took a moment to process what had happened before swimming to the side of the creek. "I am incredibly fortunate. Not only to be with the people I'm with, but to be here. Had it been a different situation, I probably wouldn't be here," Afforde stated. In spite of that, he said he would bungee jump again.
"The first jump was just phenomenal, it was an incredible experience. Therefore I wanted to do it again. This was just how it was supposed to play out," he said. See, that’s what I’m talking about. If this guy had this experience and would do it again, why wouldn’t I (or you) want to bungee jump? He suffered no serious injuries, he walked away from the incident and he has a heck of a story to tell. While not the ideal way to end a bungee jump, it makes for a unique experience and once I’m itching to try, minus the snapping cord and all……
- Ah, welcome back NFL Combine. You, the annual meat market for football talent where prospective NFLers take off their clothes, step on scales in only their underwear in front of a room of enraptured scouts and are weighed and measured like cuts of prime sirloin. You, the talent flea market where players are assigned IDs like “Tight End 16,” with “TE 16” printed on skin-tight spandex outfits that players wear while running the 40-yard dash over and over, doing shuttle runs and trying to throw up 225 pounds on the bench press as many times as possible. And yes, the place where some workout freak will earn himself a boatload of cash all because he can post a 4.4 40, lift 225 pounds 30 times and does well on the Wunderlich test. That’s the same freak who will then bomb out in the NFL because he’s not actually a great player, just a great workout guy. Some duped team will draft that player several rounds too high, hand him a ginormous signing bonus and expect great things out of him even though he was a perennial underachiever in college. Never mind his on-field performance or the fact that he failed to dominate in college despite all of those physical talents he displayed at the combine, draft him anyhow. As you can probably tell, I’m not a huge fan of the combine or the breathless, suffocating coverage it receives in the world of sports. The combine is being held this weekend in Indianapolis, where scouts from all 32 NFL teams have gathered to see most of the top players in April’s draft class work out. I’m just going to go ahead and ignore all of the hype and drama coming from the combine and stop buying into the illusion that it’s anything more than a hype machine while everyone else in and around the world of pro football goes the other direction……
- For all the money people spend on security systems to protect their home from burglars, could the most effective method for dealing with an intruder simply be chucking them into your swimming pool? Homeowner Robert Hartley of Lexington, Ky. might attest to that, as he caught Ruben Silva-Aguilar breaking into his home, tussled with the burglar and was stabbed in the arm before throwing Silva Aguilar into the pool and holding him there at gunpoint until police arrived. According to the police report, Silva-Aguilar tried to break into the home at about 3:35 p.m. Thursday but was caught by Hartley. Silva-Aguilar was trying to pilfer Hartley’s belongings from the back of the house when Hartley confronted him and was stabbed in the left arm for his efforts. The wound wasn’t serious enough to stop Hartley from throwing Silva-Aguilar into his backyard swimming pool, where he held him at gunpoint until deputies arrived at the home. Silva-Aguilar was arrested and charged with first degree burglary and assault and battery with intent to kill. Hartley’s actions would seem to be fairly impressive, but one person who doesn’t sound surprised is his wife, Cherie, who said, “I wouldn't have expected him to do anything less. He did what it took to protect what he's worked hard for and it's just, it's him, I wouldn't have expected anything less.” Hope all of that was worth it for Silva-Aguilar, who tried to steal four jars of coins he was going to make off with, a small safe and a gun. Ironically, the Hartleys didn’t have an alarm system in their home prior to the incident, but they do now. They’ve also moved all of their valuable items to a bank. Top all of this off with the fact that law enforcement officials are now looking into whether Silva-Aguilar, who was born in Mexico, entered the United States legally. Great, so not only are illegal immigrants stealing jobs in the service industry from Americans, now they’re stealing criminal enterprises from us too……
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