- Most people enjoy Halloween candy and you’d think that a dentist would especially enjoy the non-holiday because it would create more business for him or her. But Dr. Alan Friedler is not your normal dentist when it comes to Halloween and he has a unique offer for kids and parents in Madison, Wisc. Dr. Friedler is offering to buyback Halloween candy and then he plans to send it to troops serving overseas. He’s doing this even though he insists that not all candy is bad for your teeth, especially in moderation. "Candy by itself is not necessarily bad, it depends on how much you eat and how frequently you eat it and what kind of candy you're eating. Occasional chocolate, occasional candy is not the worst thing in the world, but if you have sticky candy, something that stays in your teeth," Dr. Friedler explained. However, the acids from certain candies and other sweets are what can wreck a person’s teeth and lead them to a life of dentist visits. So what kind of offer does Doc Friedler have in mind? He’ll buy Halloween candy at $1 a pound and then ship it off to American military personnel serving abroad. Apparently he’s not as concerned with the dental health and overall fitness of those defending our country as with the smiles and fitness of children. Operation Gratitude, as the effort is known, collected over 600 pounds of candy last year. "It wasn't just the candy, the kids actually wrote notes, little hearts out of construction paper, it was touching," Dr. Friedler said. Hmm, why don’t you just go out and buy some candy and send it to the troops yourself, doc? That way, the kids get to keep their candy, the troops still get their gift and you’re dishing out money either way. But who am I to attempt to inject logic into this mess? For those interested, Dr. Friedler's candy buyback will be Monday, Nov. 1 from 3 to 6 p.m. at his office. If you are one of those kids who wish that people handed out money instead of candy at Halloween, this is just the offer for you……….
- Maybe I’m the only one who laughed hysterically when they heard about this next story and watched the accompanying video, but that’s all right. Renewing your wedding vows just seems like a cheesy, TV sitcom-like thing to do and if you’re dumb enough to do it in a foreign country where you don’t understand the language…..well, what do you expect? That’s the question I have for the two Swiss tourists who chose the Maldives' white-sand beaches as the setting for the renewal of their vows and didn’t exactly get the romantic ceremony they were hoping for. Instead, they were mocked by the officiator, who chanted abuse and curses in the local language at them as the couple stood there, smiling politely and without an idea of what was being said. Video of the ceremony has since made its way to YouTube, accompanied by subtitles translating the abuse. The day didn’t end well for any of the involved parties in the ceremony, as the couple was obviously humiliated once they realized what had happened and the celebrant and a helper were arrested. Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed also "personally apologized" to the couple in a telephone conversation on Saturday afternoon in an attempt to save face for his island nation, which is something of a hotspot for destination weddings, vow renewals, etc. Nasheed condemned the ceremony as "absolutely disgraceful." A statement from Nasheed’s office read: "President Nasheed explained to the couple -- who have requested anonymity -- that the Maldives Police Service have arrested two members of the resort's staff who conducted the renewal of vows ceremony. The president said he will personally oversee an overhaul of the way wedding vows ceremonies are conducted in the Maldives.” The statement also explained that new regulations for resort weddings will be in place within a week. That’s fine, just as long as those doing ceremonies don’t actually follow the new rules. Seriously, watch the video of the Oct. 11 wedding and see if the sight of this clueless couple being taunted and subjected to scathing, bitter verbal vitriol isn’t amusing. "You are swine," the couple were told. "The children that you bear from this marriage will all be bastard swine. Your marriage is not a valid one. You are not the kind of people who can have a valid marriage. One of you is an infidel. The other, too, is an infidel and, we have reason to believe, an atheist." Freaking awesome, unidentified hotel employee who conducted the ceremony. You insulted their marriage, their future children and their religious beliefs in one short burst. Impressive, to say the least. These people paid you $1,300 for the privilege of being berated in a language they didn’t understand, which is also hilarious. If only pop skank Katy Perry and comic Russell Brand had held their wedding in Maldives instead of only honeymooning there, this kook could have been the one doing the ceremony for them. Keep it up, Maldives wedding officiators, no matter what your president says……..
- To the surprise of exactly no one, Saw 3-D won the Halloween weekend box office. And to the surprise of probably no one outside of those involved with the movie, it did so with a relatively uninspiring $22.5 million total that doesn’t exactly bode well for a successful long-term run in theaters. Yet it was enough to edge out fellow fright fest Paranormal Activity 2 for the top spot, with the latter plummeting 59 percent in its second weekend of release to finish with $16.5 million, upping its cumulative take to $65.7 million and counting. Hanging tough in its third weekend of wide release was geezer action flick Red, featuring aging spies trying to get back into the espionage game and scoring $10.8 million. The movie declined a mere 28 percent from last weekend to hold its spot in third place. On its heels was Jackass 3-D, which fell off the side of a cliff with a 61 percent drop and $8.4 million take, yet still crossed the $100 million cumulative barrier ($101.6 million and counting). Fifth place went to the mind-bender Hereafter, which conjured up $6.3 million in its third weekend of wide release and has made more than $22.1 million up to this point. The latter half of the top 10 was occupied by: Secretariat (No. 6 with $5 million and just under $45 million overall), Oscar favorite The Social Network (No. 7 with $4.7 million to up its overall earnings to an impressive $79.7 million after five weekends in theaters), the top 10’s worst movie, Life As We Know It (No. 8 with an even $4 million and an undeserved $43.5 million overall total), The Town (hanging on at No. 9 with $2 million and a running tally of $87.6 million) and Conviction (jumping up from No. 25 last weekend to No. 10 this weekend, earning $1.8 million to edge out former top 10 dwellers Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and Easy A, both of which finally dropped out of the top 10 after fairly successful runs there………
- The inevitable has become reality. Tiger Woods has finally lost his spot as golf’s No. 1-ranked player. The change will officially come Monday morning, which England’s Lee Westwood supplants Woods after a year in which the game’s former most-dominating, intimidating player failed to win a single tournament while his personal life went down the drain. "It's a great honor and a big responsibility," Westwood said. "It certainly sounds and feels good right now." It marks the first No. 1 ranking in Westwood’s 17-year pro career and ironically, he made it to the top during a stretch in which he hasn't even been playing golf. Instead, Westwood has spent his days following the endeavors of Hoof It, a racehorse he owns and which recently won a race at 9-1 odds. "All I did for a week was sit with my foot in the air and then I started in the gym last week," Westwood wrote on his website last week. "I was just about to start practicing when a bout of flu sidelined me again." Of course, he could spend less than a week at the top of the rankings if Woods, Phil Mickelson or Martin Kaymer wins at this week's HSBC Champions in Shanghai. There, he will compete in a field that also includes all three players with a chance to take over No. 1 with a win. Still, golf’s jacked-up rankings system gives a player the chance to ascend to No. 1 even after sitting out much of the season, including the PGA Championship, with a right calf injury. Westwood did return for the Ryder Cup in Wales, where he went 2-1-1 to lead Europe to a narrow victory. His return lasted about one week, as he accidentally slid down a bank and aggravated his calf while playing Kingsbarns at the Alfred Dunhill Cup and has been out ever since. His move to the top ends Woods’ string of 281 straight weeks as the world’s top-ranked player. But cheating on your then-wife with a conga line of porn stars, Perkins hostesses, club promoters and other hangers-on, ruining your personal life and losing endorsements by the boatload can weigh on a guy and even with the two-year cycle of the World Ranking, Woods couldn’t hold onto his top spot any longer. Westwood is a worthy holder of the spot, with 20 career victories on the European tour, a runner-up finish to Phil Mickelson at the Masters and to Louis Oosthuizen at the British Open and a win at the PGA Tour's St. Jude Classic in June. The one glaring hole in his resume is a major championship and he does become the first player without a major title to his name to take over the top spot in the world. Kaymer could have seized the top spot with a top-2 finish this weekend, but he fell well short and will have to make another run at it in Shanghai. Of course, most fans stopped paying attention to golf when it became clear that Tiger was no longer Tiger as we knew him and might never be again, so Westwood’s achievement isn’t exactly burning up the sports news scene………..
- Beware, would-be robbers of bodegas in the greater Manhattan area. The powers that be in the city are looking to help bodega owners defend themselves by giving them a firearm and a campaign to make that dream a reality is set to launch Thursday. Leading the way is Fernando Mateo, president of Hispanics Across America and representative of the Bodegueros Association. Mateo is calling the effort "Operation: Guns for All Bodega Owners." Hmm, such a cryptic name, whatever could it mean? "Sitting behind a counter 18 hours a day as a sitting duck is no longer acceptable, they must be able to defend themselves," a release from Hispanics Across America stated. To achieve their efforts, the group is attempting to distribute applications for gun permits bodega owners throughout New York City and lobby local politicians to pass a law requiring bodegas to install surveillance cameras. "Now that Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg has lowered the prices of the application bodega owners will apply for hand guns. We must send a message to criminals: 'If you rob a bodega you can lose your life in the process'," Mateo explained in a statement. Spurring the campaign on is the most recent example of a robbery gone wrong, an incident in which bodega owner Juan Torres of Cypress Hills was fatally shot while trying to protect his 50-year-old brother Felix, who was behind the register and the robber's initial target. "Last week, we lost Juan Torres in a robbery gone bad. Mr. Torres left a wife and four children. He was only 54-years-old. If he had a gun, he could have defended himself. We must allow bodega owners the right to carry a gun and defend themselves," said Ramon Murphy, president of the Bodegueros Association, in a statement. As a quick aside, the past week has to set a record for the most releases ever issued by bodega owners and their representatives in a one-week period. For the Torres family, it marks the second time they have lost a family member to a robbery-related shooting, as Juan Torres' brother Jesus was gunned down during a 1999 robbery at the family’s Ridgewood Deli on Ridgewood Avenue. Securing a gun permit is no cheap task, as applicants must pay an application fee or $340, and some may be required to submit their fingerprints for a fee of $94.25 to $104.25. They must also submit to the NYPD documents including their birth certificate, proof of citizenship/alien registration, military discharge, proof of residence, social security card, proof of business ownership and a letter of necessity. But Hispanics Across America and the Bodegueros Association aren’t merely looking to add more guns to an already dangerous battle. They are also lobbying for a law requiring all bodega owners to have working surveillance cameras in their stores. It’s a difficult situation with no easy, fix-it-all solution, but at least someone is attempting to address the issue………
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