- Maybe
it’s best that a lush who stumbled onto railroad
tracks in upstate New York and took a nap won't remember much of what happened
on the night his life nearly ended. Now, this drunk won't remember the sheer
terror of barely escaping injury after being run over by a freight train. His
booze-induced nap left him asleep on the tracks in the Rensselaer County town
of Schaghticoke, 20 miles north of Albany, during which time a Pan Am freight
train more than a mile long approached around 10:30 p.m. Thankfully, someone
involved in this situation was sober, responsible and thinking clearly. The
conductor spotted Aaron Collins on the tracks and stopped the train, but the
first two engines rushed over the Collins before all of the cars came to a
complete halt. According to state troopers who responded to the scene, the
engines were separated and the first engine was moved forward to free Collins,
who was uninjured but still drunk. He received a free ride to an Albany
hospital for evaluation and a chance to continue napping it out in a place
where there was a decidedly lower chance of a multi-compartment vehicle
crushing every bone and organ in his body and bringing his life to a
whiskey-soaked ending without him even realizing what was happening. A cynic
might argue that Collins has a drinking problem, while an optimist might call
him one of the luckiest men in the world……..
- Score
one for humility for 007. Daniel Craig is kind of a big deal in Hollywood and
he’s having none of any suggestion that he might subjugate his massive ego for
a moment to have some fun as a relatively anonymous bit player in the next
installment of arguably the most iconic science fiction franchise ever. Simon Pegg, whose
own cameo appearance in JJ Abrams' “Star
Wars” film has officially been confirmed, dared to suggest that Craig would also
be making an appearance as a Storm Trooper in the seventh installment of the
franchise. “Daniel Craig, he's a Storm Trooper... I shouldn't have said that,”
Pegg said. Of course, it took about five seconds for that to work his way back
to Craig, who could easily have laughed it off or even seized on a chance to
have a few minutes of fun by seeing if Abrams would actually cast him, instead
could not wait to let everyone know how far beneath him a cameo as an outer
space soldier would be. "Why would I ever bother doing something like
that? F*cking hell! Pffft. Play an extra in another movie?" Craig asked, probably in rhetorical fashion. "He's (Pegg) just jealous because he's
not in Star Wars. He's got some
issue with J.J. I don't know what the f*ck it is.” So Craig seemingly doesn’t know
that Pegg is actually in “Star Wars:
The Force Opens,” which will hit theaters in December, one month after Craig’s
next Bond movie, “Spectre,” which makes its cinematic debut Nov. 6. Here’s
hoping for a flood of cameo offers for the egomaniacal Craig in the meantime……….
- Riot
Watch! Riot Watch! By this point, many are asking the obvious question: Can
Greeks still be that angry on a daily basis after literally two straight years
of raging against the European Union machine? The answer, of course, is yes. Just
ask the rioters who hurled petrol bombs at police
who responded with tear gas during an anti-austerity demonstration outside
parliament in the latest fight over contentious measures needed to start
negotiations on a new bailout and avoid financial collapse. As has often been
the case in Greece’s uprising, the youth led the way. Massive mobs of youths
among the more than 12,000 demonstrators smashed storefronts and set at least
one vehicle ablaze in a textbook definition of rioting, the first significant
violence since the left-wing Syriza government came to power in January
promising to repeal bailout austerity. It’s reassuring the know that Greece hasn’t
lost its riot game and in the end, at least 50 people were detained. The timing
could not have been better as the riot coincided with the start of debate on the bill, which
includes consumer tax increases and pension reforms that will condemn Greeks to
years of more economic hardship. The bill has enraged the governing left-wing Syriza
party and led to a revolt by many party members against Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras, who is trying to sell the story that the deal was the best he could do
to prevent Greece from crashing out of Europe's joint currency. That didn’t fly
with civil servants, who protested with a 24-hour strike that disrupted public
transport and shut down state-run services across the country. Syriza lawmakers
are expected to vote against the package, though the bill is expected to pass anyhow.
Should that happen, look for Athens to burn once more. You know, assuming the
fires from the last one have gone out by now……….
- Major
League Baseball doesn’t seem like a surging business bursting at the seams and
in need of immediate growth. It’s fallen well behind the NFL and NBA in terms
of popularity and for those under the age of 50, it’s not even on the radar
most of the time. Yet commissioner Rob Manfred is painting a bull market
picture of where MLB is headed and believes it could ultimately include more than 30
franchises. Manfred, appearing at a luncheon at the All-Star Game in
Cincinnati, expressed openness to the possibility of MLB expanding for the
first time since the the league added the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay
Rays in 1998. "Maybe one of the reasons I got this job is, I'm bullish on
this game," Manfred said. "I think we are a growth business, broadly
defined. And over an extended period of time, growth businesses look to get
bigger. So yeah, I'm open to the idea that there will be a point in time where
expansion may be possible." Not only is he open to the idea, but Manfred
said MLB has compiled a list of cities that might be viable options through
expansion or possible relocation from existing markets. Ironically, Tampa Bay has
been mentioned as a current market that could eventually risk losing its team,
along with Oakland, if their ongoing
stadium issues are not resolved. The league intends to "examine their
viability, think about what we can do to make them more viable, so that we have
business alternatives that are available to us," Manfred said. The
eclectic and varied list of possible new MLB cities includes Montreal,
Charlotte, North Carolina, San Antonio, Portland, Oregon, Las Vegas, Oklahoma
City, northern New Jersey, Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico. Montreal, of
course, lost the Expos in 1995 when they moved to Washington, D.C., and Mayor Denis
Coderre met with Manfred in New York in late May to start a conversation about
the city’s future with baseball……….
No comments:
Post a Comment