- Italy, don’t you already have enough problems? Your
country is surrounded by sinking ferries, economic crises and now, you have
hundreds of Rome’s finest (traffic cops) allegedly playing hooky on work on one
of the busiest nights of the year? Verrrry classy, some 765 Roman traffic cops
who didn’t show up for work last Wednesday night. That caused some major
problems and now, inspectors have been enlisted to find out
whether or not the 85 percent of some 900 traffic officers scheduled to work on
the holiday were actually ill or if they flaked on work for something less
respectable and more Ferris Bueller. A whopping 10 percent of the cops who
didn’t bother showing up for work actually had the gall to claim that they were
donating blood. That’s an awfully large chunk of the force that suddenly felt
the need to do something kind for their fellow man. As of Monday morning, Public
Works Ministry inspectors began checking the sick-outs for doctor’s notes
certifying that they were actually ill. If you ask Roman Mayor Ignazio Marino, the
mass ditching of work is in response to his new policy to give raises only to
harder workers. That’s an ironic twist, calling in sick in order to show that it’s
unfair to not give a raise to the hardest workers on the force, and some might
argue that it only serves to reinforce the reasoning behind the new policy in
the first place. New Year’s Eve turned out to be a popular day for a work
stoppage in Italy, as massive numbers of Naples trash collectors and Bari bus
drivers also failed to show up for work due to claims of illness and have
sparked investigations in their respective cities……….
- This story is sure to create good vibrations. Sweet
sensations, even. Marky Mark, er, Mark Wahlberg is thinking big and while his
big idea isn't the immediate return he should be making to his rap and
underwear-modeling career, it’s still solid. Wahlberg has revealed that he is planning
a Boardwalk Empire movie and
he’s aiming big with the project. His goal is for Martin Scorsese to direct it
and Wahlberg’s ties to the show certainly make that possible. Wahlberg served
as an executive producer on the show, which aired its final episode last year.
The Prohibition Era drama has deep ties to Scorsese, who also served as an
executive producer on the show and directed its 2010 pilot episode, for which
he won an Emmy award. "My next goal now is to get the movie made and start
talking to Martin Scorsese about directing it," Wahlberg said. TV has been
a big focus for Wahlberg of late, as he recently served as a producer on the Entourage movie, set to be delivered
to the waiting masses on June 5. “Boardwalk
Empire” debuted on HBO in 2010 and ran for 56 episodes across five
critically acclaimed seasons, accruing numerous Emmy and Golden Globe awards.
Creator Terry Winter set the show in Atlantic City during the Prohibition era
and hinged it on Steve Buscemi's Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, a corrupt
politician who controls the city by living a double life as a gangster. The
show made household names of several rising actors, including “The Wire” star
Michael K. Williams, “No Country for Old Men” actor Kelly MacDonald and Stephen
Graham. Maybe the movie can serve as one final star-making vehicle for the
franchise………..
- Every city needs an Aaron Wendel. Wendel has styled himself as the
parking ticket champion of Kansas City, a businessman who made a T-shirt
promoting his willingness to fight his town’s draconian parking policies. Hell,
he even bought a school bus to avoid an upcoming enforcement crackdown.
According to Wendel, it’s been years since he received a parking ticket and he
had no intent of getting one any time soon. That’s what made it so awkward when
dozens of unpaid tickets with his name on them from 2007-08 were found in the
Kansas City Municipal Court’s database. He disputed the tickets and claimed all
of the tickets were settled six years ago after the city impounded his car.
It turns out that he was right and
the city’s attempt cash grab via parking double jeopardy was unfounded. City
Prosecutor Keith Ludwig reviewed the municipal court’s list of parking
offenders in December and determined Wendel’s tickets were mistakenly left in
the database and should have been dismissed. “I have to ask the question: How
many other old parking tickets are left in the system erroneously?” Wendel
asked. Public Works spokesman Sean Demory took a different approach, noting
that the case is a perfect example why the city conducted a thorough review
before moving forward with an increased crackdown of chronic parking offenders.
Under the new policy, all drivers with three or more parking warrants should
receive letters in January, warning them to pay what they owe or face the wrath
of The Man. Some offenders have already contacted the city to settle up, but
many more remain at large………
- Professional athletes are much like the rest of us. They
have more money and they can do things physically that no one else can do, but
at their core they share many things in common with their fellow man. Take
arguably the greatest women’s tennis player of all-time, Serena Williams. Williams
was playing for the United States at the
Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia early Monday afternoon and she was dragging. She
dropped the first set to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 6-0 and was looking lethargic
and jet-lagged. Facing a scorching day on which the roof was closed to cool the
Perth Arena, as temperatures in Perth topped 111 degrees Fahrenheit, Williams
turned to an unusual performance enhancer that typically isn't found in the
coolers or water bottles of the world’s top competitors. Instead of choosing
some Powerade, Gatorade or even Red Bull, she reached for a cup of java. Yes, java.
As in coffee, which Williams requested after checking with the chair umpire and
then with the tournament referee before having a ball girl fetch her some java,
which Williams later dubbed to be "miracle coffee." She went on to beat
Pennetta 0-6, 6-3, 6-0 on a sweltering day in Perth, so maybe she’s right. "I
was just feeling it, so I just had to get some coffee into me," Williams
said. "I just asked them to get me a shot of espresso -- I asked them if
it was legal, because I've never done it before. I needed to wake up."
What, there was no coffee machine in the players’ lounge that you could have
used for your caffeine fix, or at the über-luxury hotel at which you were
staying? Nothing like showing up for a major international sporting event and
admitting that you can’t shake a bad case of the morning blues any better than
the slug working 9 to 5 in a cubicle where he fills out one bland TPS report
after another. Very elite, S………..
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