Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Spanish corruption, robbing a WWE champ and a Simpsons-Family Guy mash-up


- Take what attention you can get and don’t complain, Kazakhstani women’s volleyball team. You may think it’s insulting that 99 percent of the fans who show up for your games are there solely to stare at the most attractive player on your team, but when you feel like you’re being treated unfairly, just step back and ask yourself a simple question: Who was paying attention to Kazakhstani women’s volleyball before Sabina Altynbekova showed up? For those who don’t know, Altynbekova has developed quite a following in her home country and on an international scale by virtue of being tall, gorgeous and clad in skin-tight outfits during matches. The attention has gone far past the point of simply gawking at Altynbekova and admiring her physical assets and the situation has reached the juncture where Altynbekova’s teammates and coaches are openly complaining that she is too attractive and has become a distraction. Kazakhstan coach Nurlan Sadikov is particularly chapped and went so far as to say that many fans don’t actually pay any attention to the actual volleyball on the court and instead show up merely to spend two hours checking out Altynbekova while ignoring everything else on the court. “It is impossible to work like this," Sadikov said. "The crowd behaves like there is only one player at the championship.” Even Altynbekova owned the fact that her presence may be taking away from the game. "I was flattered at first but it's all getting a little bit much," she said. "I want to concentrate on playing volleyball and to be famous for that, not anything else." But that’s the problem, S. No one is paying attention to you for anything but how you look………


- Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin meet at last. Two of Fox’s biggest animated stars have succeeded on the airwaves for years, helping the network lead the way when it comes to adult cartoon ratings. Sensing that it might be time to unite the two patriarchs of its most famous fictional families, Fox will air a one-off special featuring the duo on Sept. 28. A five-minute teaser for the special aired over the weekend at San Diego's Comic-Con, where fanboys and fangirls saw Homer and Peter trying to find common ground over donuts. In the clip, Peter took a bit of a shot at Homer’s hometown of Springfield, lamenting, "Don't drink the water. Everybody around here looks like they have hepatitis." Elsewhere in the episode, Stewie and Bart build a bond calling “Simpsons” favorite Moe and skateboarding, but their respective fathers simply cannot get on the same page as they have a falling out over Patriot Ale vs. Duff Beer. The tension ultimately reaches a breaking point and rather than resolve their differences amicably, they take to the streets of Springfield for a showdown along the lines of the “Anchorman” news team brawl. There is also a cameo for another Fox animated character as Bob of “Bob’s Burgers” grabs some screen time. The entire special is an exercise in cross-promotion, but that doesn’t mean fans of both shows can't enjoy the short ride………


- When burglarizing a house, it’s good to do one’s homework. For example, a would-be thief should know whose home they are attempting to rob for many reasons, not the least of which is that the house in question might belong to a World Wrestling Entertainment superstar who specializes in submission holds that work surprisingly well in non-staged settings. That lesson has officially been learned by Cesar Sosa, a man who was merely out to burgle the Phoenix, Arizona home of former WWE champion Daniel Bryan late last week. Bryan, a.k.a. Brian Danielson in real life, was returning home with his wife at the end of the day when he saw two suspects running out of a rear door. Bryan, who is currently recovering from neck surgery, was nonetheless able to pursue and catch Sosa, putting him in a rear naked chokehold until the police arrived. Because Danielson lacked a solid tag team partner, the second suspect got away. It was a disturbing incident for many reasons, not the least of which was Danielson realizing that someone had broken into the home he had moved into only 10 days earlier. He was also worried for his 2-year-old French bulldog, Josie, and said he chased Sosa about 400 feet before grabbing him and shouting some "bad words." Danielson later addressed the incident during a news conference at police headquarters. "He was very, very tired and it literally took zero effort to take him down," Bryan humbly explained. "He put up very little resistance." He added that he was "borderline ashamed" for taking matters into his own hands, but glad that nothing bad happened. Sosa was booked into jail on suspicion of one count of burglary and his arrest tidied things up well for police in regards to the outstanding felony warrant for kidnapping and burglary he already had……….


- Spain's new king is vowing transparency and an end to corruption. Spaniards can be forgiven if they don’t automatically buy into what King Felipe VI is selling. Politicians and monarchs often sweep into power with grandiose promises to clean up what the former regime f*cked up, but very few actually deliver on those promises. King Felipe has ordered the palace's accounts to be audited externally and the results made public in a thinly cloaked and totally PR-focused bid to clean up the royal family's tarnished image. The palace released a statement declaring that the king had decided on a series of measures that include plans for a new code of good conduct, a ban on immediate royal family members working in the public sector and greater control of gifts received by the royal family. It was the sort of sweeping gesture he made after being named king last month when his father, King Juan Carlos, stepped down after a four-decade reign amidst controversy and allegations of rampant corruption. When Felipe took the throne, he insisted new royal blood was needed to energize the country. New blood is an interesting euphemism for avoiding fiscal and political corruption of the sort that have plagued the palace in recent years, but coming right out and saying that you want to make sure no one from the royal family is arrested or charged with serious crimes can indeed reflect poorly on the monarchy………

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