- Tony Plush is headed across the Pacific Ocean. That
would be Nyjer Morgan, the charismatic reserve outfielder whose gregarious
personality and alternate identity made him one of the most entertaining
players in Major League Baseball, is now on the downslope of his career and
that means it’s much more difficult to find a job in the majors. Faced with
unpalatable options for next season, Morgan has elected to turn his sights to
the Far East. A South Korean team
says it has signed the former major league outfielder to a one-year, $700,000 deal.
The Hanwha Eagles, who clearly know talent when they see it, said they were
duly impressed with Morgan's contact ability and base-running skills. Morgan
has displayed both of those skills in spades since he debuted with the
Pittsburgh Pirates in 2007 and hit .282 with 120 steals while playing in 598
games for four major league clubs. He showed that he has plenty left in his
baseball tank by hitting .341 (14 for 41) in 15 games for the Cleveland
Indians in 2014, but his successful season was derailed and ultimately
wrecked when he sprained his right knee running down a fly ball at Toronto on
May 14. Morgan wasn’t able to return until Aug. 5, when he was activated and
then released. Now, he will be a part of the effort to elevate the Eagles, based
in Daejeon, who finished last among the nine teams in the Korea Baseball
Organization this year. They may or may not win more games and climb to a
championship in 2015, but there is no doubt that they will be hellaciously
entertaining on any day when T-Plush takes the field……….
- Christmas tree farms are supposed to be fun, nostalgic
places where people go with their friends and family members to bitch about how
much real Christmas trees cost and what a pain in the ass they are to get home
once you overpay for them, a place where memories are made and the scent of
pine is permanently etched into clothing you actually like and didn’t want to
smell like a car air freshener. It has been that sort of atmosphere at Rossview
Farms in Concord, N.H. every year since 1957, but the memories and wacky
hijinks went on hold this year because of, ironically enough, a family feud –
no Ray Combs or Steve Harvey involved, sadly – within the clan that owns the
farm. The
Ross family is in the middle of a bitter family feud and because they can't resolve
their sh*t without allowing it to affect the family business, the farm has been
closed this Christmas seasons. Court documents showed that the owners of the
farm - Wayne and Ruth Ross - began leasing the farm to their son Don in 2006
for $21,000. This arrangement was an effort to gradually transfer ownership to
young Donald, but he didn’t seem to quite grasp the concept of actually paying
for what he was receiving, so much so that he never actually paid, leading to a
bitter family battle that has lasted almost a decade. Because he hasn’t actually
chipped off a dime for the property, he is currently banned from it and his
parents are asking the court to terminate the 2006 lease that gave him the
right to operate the farm. The sign at the farm letting the world know the
business is closed claims the closure is because the trees need another year of
growth - which is also true, according to Wayne Ross. Yet there are a few trees
that could be harvested this year, if only the dishonest, d-baggish son who is
supposed to take over the business feels like trying to work over his own
family in a business deal………..
- Sam Smith is nominated for six Grammy awards in 2015,
including best new artist, but even if he loses he’s going to close out 2014
with a hell of an honor that none of his peers can claim. Smith has become the
only artist to sell one million albums in the United Kingdom and United States
in 2014 with his debut record “In the Lonely Hour,” according to data from the
Official Charts Company. The album stood at just over 1 million copies in the
U.K. as of midnight Thursday, making Smith just the second artist to hit the
mark there for the year, along with Ed Sheeran. Sheeran hit seven figures in
November, while the only albums to surpass 1 million sales in the U.S. were
Taylor Swift’s “1989” and the “Frozen” soundtrack, according to Nielsen Music. “Many
festive congratulations to Sam. To hit a million anywhere is impressive, but to
become the only artist in the world to do so on both sides of the Atlantic is
quite remarkable,” said Official Charts chief executive Martin Talbot. “His
journey in 2014, from unknown newcomer winning the Brit Awards’ Critics Choice
award to internationally-renowned double million-seller, has been
incredible." Smith was quick to issue a statement thanking everyone who
made his success over the past 12 months possible and thanked one and all for
their support. “OFFICIALLY sold 1 MILLION copies of 'In The Lonely Hour'! To
say I am ecstatic is a huge understatement. Thank you so much to every single
person who has purchased my album,” Smith wrote in a statement. The album became
the fastest-selling debut album of the year in the U.K. when it went straight
in at No. 1 in May and has spent just one week outside the Top Five since its
release. Just as the lyrics to his biggest hit say, Smith’s music as clearly
stayed with fans and found a place in many playlists…….
- Look the hell out, Europe. According to scientists studying populations of bears,
wolves, Eurasian lynx and wolverines, these fearsome beasts are making a
comeback on the continent. Brown bears, grey wolves and other large carnivores
are on the comeback trail, having roared back to life decades after being
driven almost to extinction by hunting and the destruction of their habitat. In
other words, humanity almost managed to rid itself of these toothy terrors, but
failed. Now, these animals are living not in places they should be, like nature
reserves or remote wilderness, but co-existing in areas dominated by humans
across a third of Europe's land mass, the authors wrote in their article
published in the journal Science. According to the study, Europe, excluding
Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, "is succeeding in maintaining, and to some
extent restoring, large carnivore populations on a continental scale"
thanks in part to strong legal protection. That means most of the continent is
knee-deep in danger, except Denmark, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands,
which are the only continental countries to have no permanent breeding
populations of at least one large carnivore. Much to the surprise of no one, some
17,000 brown bears now inhabit much of Scandinavia, the Balkans and even parts
of the Alps and the Pyrenees. A whopping 12,000 wolves can be found in those
areas, but packs have also established themselves in much of eastern Europe,
parts of Germany, Italy, France and the Iberian peninsula. The numbers aren’t
quite as impressive for Eurasian lynx (9,000) and wolverines (1,250), but they
are terrifying nonetheless. Enough with the overly tolerant attitude toward
large carnivores, Europe. Don’t let this report by Guillaume Chapron, a
researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, discourage you.
This fight can still be won, you just have to excise those bleeding hearts from
your chests and man the hell up……….
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