- Amsterdam is a famously liberal place. Pot is legal,
attitudes are laid back and the alcohol flows freely. For one group of
booze-loving Dutchmen, it is flowing even more freely these days. Because the
streets can get dirty and debris-littered in a place that loves to party,
someone has to clean up the garbage laying around after the hell-raising crowds
go home for the night and one of Europe’s best cities calms down. That group
includes city cleaning crews….and local alcoholics looking for some free beer. Thanks
to a group known as the Rainbow Foundation, Amsterdam’s bustling streets are
noticeably cleaner and all it costs the foundation is some cheep booze and some
rolling tobacco – no, no ganja, sadly. The foundation has established a special
program that pays alcoholics who linger in the city’s many parks in beer.
Participants receive 10 euros, a half-packet of rolling tobacco and five cans
of beer. These drunks get two of their beers at the start of the day – no shame
in a morning brew or two – two more at lunch and assuming they are both upright
and functional enough to work the rest of the day, they get their final beer at
the end of their shift. The program is funded by the government and private
donations and foundation executive Gerrie Holterman uses a unique and decidedly
Dutch rationale to defend it against critics. "Heroin addicts can go to
shooting galleries, so why shouldn't we also give people beer?" Holterman
asked. It’s a fair point and as a side benefit, the alcoholics are no longer
causing a nuisance in parks and can instead unleash their drunken antics on the
streets while helping to clean up the city upon when they very literally
urinate much of the time…….
- Sometimes you find your fights in life and sometimes, life
brings the fight to your door…or through your bay window. For Sugar Grove, Ill.
resident Keith Mohr, that fight game in the form of a large, antlered quadruped
that came crashing through his front window this week. Mohr, 71, was minding
his own business and taking a shower when he heard loud crashing noises coming
from his living room. He leapt from the shower, rushed out of the bathroom and came
face to face with a full-sized, six-point buck. The buck, bleeding from wounds
sustained leaping through a glass window, began running chaotically around the
house, starting with the kitchen. “I was screaming at him, ‘Get out of my
house, get out of my house!’” Mohr recalled. The blood and carnage spread
throughout the house and at one point, the deer attempted to climb over the
kitchen sink to get to the window above it. Showing true concern for her
husband, Mohr’s wife locked herself in the bedroom and called 9-1-1. “Enormous
damage,” Keith Mohr said. “Every time he went around here he just bled or
ripped something else down.” Thankfully, her husband was much bolder and
tougher, wading through the house full of broken glass and damaged furniture to
find a weapon to equalize the fight. An avid golfer, he reached for his Callaway
driver and busted the deer across the head with it, busting the club in the
process. “I just took my golf club and whacked him, and I knocked off his
antler. It was my best club,” Mohr wisecracked. After 10 minutes of mayhem,
Mohr was able to open a dining room window and the deer escaped back to the
wild. The encounter left the retiree with a cut on his leg, but otherwise in
good condition………
- The NFL has thrown
a flag on one of its men in stripes, suspending umpire Roy Ellison without pay
for one game for allegedly uttering a profane and derogatory statement to
offensive lineman Trent Williams during the Washington Redskins' game last Sunday
against the Philadelphia Eagles. The league announced the decision prior to
today’s games, citing its code of conduct for officials. "NFL game
officials are expected to avoid personal confrontations with players and be
respectful of players and coaches at all times,” the league’s statement said. “The
NFL-NFLRA collective bargaining agreement states that 'at no time will a game
official engage in any conduct which adversely affects or reflects on the NFL
or which results in the impairment of public confidence in the honest and
orderly conduct of league games or the integrity or good character of its game
officials.'" Ellison, an 11-year veteran official, is accused of cussing
Williams out during a Redskins drive late in the first half, an accusation
teammates backed. According to Williams, Ellison walked by him after a play and
called him a "garbage-ass, disrespectful m-----f-----.” Williams
maintained that he did not know why Ellison made the comment. Multiple sources
claimed that Williams may have used the N-word toward Ellison after Ellison
warned him about using such profanities during the course of the game. The NFL
clearly believed there was more to the story, otherwise it would not have given
one of its veteran officials an unpaid week off. NFL Referees Association executive
director Jim Quirk said in a statement that the suspension “creates a double
standard for what is acceptable on field conduct.” One could also argue that
not allowing normal-sized, unathletic officials to berate players on the field
also establishes a standard that will prevent players from snapping and kicking
some moonlighting accountants scrawny ass after a profanity-laced tirade
following a controversial penalty……..
- Volcanic eruptions often cause and suffering, but an
eruption off the coast of a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain near Japan
has created something interesting instead. Advisories from the Japanese coast
guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency laid out the details of the eruption,
which was substantial enough to literally raise a new island out of the sea. According
to the JMA, the islet is about 660 feet in diameter and it located just off the
coast of the Nishinoshima chain, also known as the Bonin Islands. The island
are located 620 miles south of Tokyo and 30 different small islands make up the
group. Along with the rest of Japan, they are collectively known as the
seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire.” Immediately following the
eruption, the coast guard issued an advisory warning of heavy black smoke in
the area. Television footage shot the during the event showed heavy smoke, ash
and rocks exploding from the crater, as steam billowed into the sky. Volcanologist
Hiroshi Ito cautioned that there was a possibility that the new island might be
eroded away, adding that “it also could remain permanently.” An eruption in
this particular region area is rare, as the last known occurrence was in the
mid-1970s. Volcanic activity does go on in the region, but it typically occurs
under the sea, which extends thousands of meters deep along the
Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench. "This has happened before and in some cases
the islands disappeared," government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said of the
new island. "If it becomes a full-fledged island, we would be happy to
have more territory." The Japanese archipelago already has thousands of
islands and as history shows, the nation is always looking to expand its
empire………
- Kristen Wiig is a talented comedic actress
and David Bowie is one of the biggest egomaniacs in rock and roll. The two famous
faces have come together for an unusual duet that will appear in Wiig’s new
film “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” which opens this December and co-stars
Ben Stiller. Wiig confirmed that she recorded a version of Bowie's iconic track
“Space Oddity” for the movie. One of the film’s producers then approached Bowie
and receive his permission to use his vocals in the new recording. "I just
found that out a couple of weeks ago - I guess they talked to him and it's now
a duet on the soundtrack. It's so weird. I have to pinch myself,” Wiig said. “It
was really fun recording that. I can't even describe it, just singing that
song. It's David Bowie and I'm such a huge Bowie fan. It was intimidating. I've
caught the bug now. I want to go on tour.” A tour will have to wait, but the
fact that Bowie allowed anyone to tread on one of his best songs is remarkable
in and of itself. Then again, the man who relayed the message from ground
control to Major Tom has been on a bit of a publicity blitz of late, with four
new songs premiering on line last month. “Atomica,” “Like a Rocket Man,” “The
Informer” and “Born in a UFO” all appear on the three-disc, extended edition of
his latest album, “The Next Day.” A deluxe version of the release includes the
original 14-track album, a 10-track CD of bonus songs and a DVD featuring the
four videos made for the album. Maybe Wiig can find a role for Bowie in the
film and he can turn it down because it’s just so beneath him……..
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