- Welcome to the club, Brian Krantz of Saugus, Mass. There
are always plenty of members and they’re always entertaining, even if the vast
majority of the world is laughing at them and not with them. That would be the
club of people who believe they’ve seen the image of either the Almighty or
Virgin Mary burned into their toast, in a pile of grass clippings on the
neighbors’ lawn, etched into a grease stain on the stove at the local diner or
in any other number of seemingly innocuous places. These people believe that
because they fired open a bag of Lays potato chips and there is a burn mark on
one of them that kind of, sort of, maybe looks like a vague outline of Jesus’
face if you squint really hard and are a total moron who is so desperate for a
reason for hope in their life that they are “seeing” the Almighty on a piece of
salty snack food. Krantz’s supposed encounter came at his Saugus home, where he
supposedly Jesus Christ on
a drop cloth. “My heart went a million miles an hour. I was hyperventilating,” Krantz
recalled. “A crown or a halo. Two eyes. Mustache, nose, there’s the chin, jaw
line. His right arm out like that with cloths he was buried in hanging down.”
To the objective outsider, it looks like nothing but a paint-splattered drop
cloth. To Krantz, it’s a sign from above that he nearly missed and now, cannot
ignore. “I can't deny this. This is what it is. It looks like Jesus Christ,” he
said. “I had it folded up like this and I threw it on the floor and this is
what I saw first.” He says he used the drop cloth four years ago while spray
painting his gutters and has used it “50 or 60 more times” before “seeing” the
sign from above. He isn't completely sure what the sign means, but plans to
frame the image and keep it in his home while he figures it out…….
- Thanks for the warning, Justin Timberlake. The former
man-bander has put the world and its oft-assailed eardrums on notice by
announcing that he already has a follow-up to his next album “The 20/20
Experience” in the works. After (mercifully) going nearly seven years between
albums, the former man-bander could have reasonably been expected to wait a few
more years before unleashing his next album of unlistenable, overproduced pop
garbage. Instead, he revealed to the
crowd at a release party for his new album in Los Angeles Monday night that the
wait will be much shorter this time around. “I need to clear up a rumor,” he said.
“This whole thing about this being the first half of the album is true.” Uh-oh.
The train wreck of a project he just dropped Tuesday is only half of what he
has in store for the world? That direct reference to the idea of a second “20/20” album surfacing some time
later this year should send shivers down the spine of every fan who isn't a)
female and b) thinking more about sleeping with Timberlake than the actual
quality of his music. The rumor of two-part album was first floated by Ahmir
“?uestlove” Thompson of rap outfit/Jimmy Fallon house band The Roots. Thompson
suggested the idea on his group’s website message board. “Spoiler alert. 20/20
Vol 2 comes out in nov,” Thompson wrote. “10 songs now…..10 songs later= 20
vision.” So far, neither Timberlake nor his publicist has confirmed a supposed
November release date for the second half of the project, but the ex-man-bander
will show up Tuesday night on the CW for “Target Presents the iHeartRadio Album Release Party With Justin
Timberlake,” set to torment the masses at 8 p.m………
- It’s good to see the rich folks sweat. Having the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration upgrade its investigation into an estimated
250,000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans for a possible leak from the fuel tank
should cause a small amount of panic among the upper-class, even if their
E-Class is their “daily driver” when they don’t want to take the Rolls Royce or
Maybach out of the garage. The investigation was initially a preliminary
evaluation, but has been upgraded in light of 533 complaints received by
regulators and Daimler AG’s Mercedes. E-Class sedans of model-year 2003 to 2008
are under scrutiny and the next step in the process is an engineering analysis
that could result in a recall if NHTSA regulators determine that a safety issue
needs to be addressed by a manufacturer.
“We are taking this topic seriously
and are cooperating with NHTSA,” Mercedes said in a statement. “Neither we nor
NHTSA have received any reports of fire, accidents, or injury.” The agency has
been investigating the case since January 2012, when it received 20 consumer
complaints from owners of E55 AMG cars about alleged fuel leaks or the presence
of a strong gasoline odor both inside and outside the vehicle, particularly
after refueling. Why rich people are panicking over a tiny fuel leak here or
there isn't clear, but to date the agency and Mercedes have received 370 and
163 complaints related to the issue, respectively. According to NHTSA
documents, the initial investigation led to complaints about other E-Class
models, such as E320, E350, E500, E550 and E63 cars and now, it has snowballed
into something more larger……….
- Yemeni President Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi needs to take a step back,
shake himself and appreciate the interest of his people in the workings of
their government. Rather than call on some very vocal protestors to leave an
assembly room during the start of a national dialogue session, which Hadi did,
he should be happy that anyone cares enough to take time out of their day and
show up for a long-awaited national dialogue session that has both U.N. and
international support. To the suspicious eye, it might appear that the
president asked demonstrators to leave the assembly room because Al-Arabiya was
broadcasting the start of the conference and he thought the dissidents’
presence was bad for his and the government’s look. Maybe the protestors were
merely in shock because sessions that were originally scheduled for November were
finally taking place after being delayed from November because those supporting
a southern separatist movement refused to participate. Supporters of that
separatist movement were on hand for the start of the session after spending
the weekend protesting and waving the flag of the former independent South
Yemen during demonstrations. The chaos doesn’t portend well to Yemen’s efforts to
move past conflicts during the previous administration of long-time President
Ali Abdullah Saleh, separatists and the presence of al-Qaida. There is the
carrot of more than $350 million in assistance pledged by the U.S. government
in early March to help Yemen meet its political aspirations, money that might
not show up if the process comes off the rails and the government bursts into a
fiery ball of flames and carnage on the rocks below………
- Major League Baseball’s second-oldest stadium is once
again the source of controversy. The Chicago Cubs are seeking a stadium
refinancing deal and finding the going tough with the Wrigleyville community,
the name for the neighborhoods around historic Wrigley Field. Wrigleyville
leaders continue to put up roadblocks to slow down the settlement process,
which opened up a window of opportunity for one interested party with a desire
to snatch the franchise out from under downtown Chicago. Rosement, Ill. Mayor Brad
Stephens says he is willing to give the Cubs and the Ricketts family, which
owns the franchise, a 25-acre parcel of land in the village to build a new
stadium with parking and other facilities the franchise would want as part of a
new stadium complex. “The Chicago Cubs are being held hostage by the
neighborhood as they look to run their business. We are willing to offer them a
tremendous opportunity if they are interested. Bring the bricks and the ivy and
we can get a deal done, ” Stephens said. Wrigley Field, 99 years old and
showing it in many ways, has been renovated on a small scale several times
during its century of existence, but the Rickets family has sought a more
substantial overhaul since purchasing the team from the Tribune Company in
October of 2009. Chairman Tom Ricketts announced at the Cubs Convention in
January that he is willing to fund the project estimated at $500 million, but
in exchange he wants the city to ease up on some of the restrictions on the
stadium that limit signage as well as the number of night games that can be
played. Since lights were installed in 1988, the Wrigleyville neighborhood has
limited the number of night games per season because of their supposedly
disturbing effect on residents of apartment buildings in the area. Most MLB
teams play in excess of 50 night games a season and day games during the week
are obviously a tougher draw than a night contest. Couple those restrictions with
rules on signage because raising advertisements atop the outfield stands would
interfere with the sightlines of fans who watch games from surrounding rooftops
and the Cubs are clearly leaving money on the table. Stephens believes his city
is an ideal fit for the team and seems to believe that the Ricketts family
would be foolish enough to infuriate an entire fan base by moving the Cubs out
of the only city they’ve ever played in………
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