- Not
you too, famed gondoliers of Venice. So many professional sports leagues and
franchises around the world have sold out and plastered their once-pristine
uniforms, practice jerseys and warmups with corporate logos in the name of
greed, but the fact that the iconic men on the backs of Venetian gondolas, famed for their striped, boat-neck shirts and rowing
prowess, are joining the corporate sellout parade is just disheartening. Sure
enough, these boat guides will rock a new logo, featuring Venetian symbols like
the Lion of St. Mark, on their iconic shirts thanks to an announced deal
between the gondoliers' association and Venetian clothier Emilio Ceccato. The
Ceccato shop, located near the Rialto bridge along Venice's Grand Canal, will
be ground zero for this hot mess of polluting awesomeness. The shop has long
been the place to go in Venice when you’re looking to dress like a gondolier,
which of course we all are. It will sell the gear with the new logo to the
general public as well and in the lone possible reason for this entire story
not to be entirely depressing, proceeds from sales of the logo-emblazoned gear will
go to the gondoliers' association, for training, upkeep of the gondola
workshops and materials needed for the boats and oars. It could be a noble idea
on some level, but it could also be the first step of turning gondoliers and
their boats into the Italian equivalent of the walking billboards that are
NASCAR drivers and their race cars………
- Inside
the octagon, your average mixed martial artist is a hazard to the guy or girl
he or she is being paid to beat the shit out of, but outside the cage they can
turn their rage on damn near anyone they please. That includes would-be robbers
who decide it’s a good idea to go around trying to jack people’s smartphones.
Yes, in an era where tracking phones is so easy a tech-savvy third grader can
do it, criminals are still trying to take someone else’s iPhone rather than buy
one of their own. Enter Monique Bastos, a Brazilian mixed martial artist who
spent an evening with her friends in a Brazilian jiu-jitsu class and later
encountered two idiots on a motorbike who figured accosting women who had just
trained to choke them out and try to relieve the ladies of their phones and
valuables. “I was going to my jiu-jitsu
training when they arrived on a motorcycle and said they wanted our phones Bastos
said. “I tried to hold my phone, and I realized they were not armed. When they
tried to escape, I lifted the rear wheel of the bike and they fell on the
ground. The guy who took my phone ran away, but I was able to get the other
one.” Just to be clear, the guys on a motorized bike tried to flee women on
foot and one of those women hulked up, lifted their bike off the ground and
tossed the thieves off of it. How did Bastos respond so well in the face of
adversity? "I've been through this a few times before, and it's the second
time I fought back," she said. "There were two guys, and they were
using knives, but I was able to use my jiu-jitsu and get my phone back.” Hell
yes she did because as we all know, when you get a phone you like and get all
of the settings how you want them, you’re not giving that up without a fight………
- Who
could ever have seen this coming? A doctor with an office in one of the biggest
international airports in the United States, with people from all around the
world flying into and out of his place of business every hour, is accused of
selling oxycodone prescriptions to his patients? No effing way. The real
stunner here would have been if Dr. Gerald Surya wasn’t peddling pain meds to
anyone with enough spare cash. This medical professional has an office at New
York's Kennedy Airport - or he did until he was arrested Thursday morning at
his Long Island home on 26 counts of criminal sale of a prescription. That
office won't be open any time soon and the man who has treated airline pilots
could soon be bunking up with a disgraced Ponzi schemer at a cushy federal
prison. Amazingly, Bridget Brennan, New York City's special narcotics
prosecutor, said none of the patients who bought the prescriptions were airline
pilots. Surya is accused of writing prescriptions for people who didn't need
them and as any pain pill addict knows, oxycodone is a narcotic used to treat
pain and for those who get hooked on it, it’s used to wreck their lives, ruin
relationships and deplete bank accounts in the name of chasing that next high. According
to authorities, Surya had been charging patients $60 for each prescription when
they started their investigation. The price soared 67 percent to $100 after investigators raided his Kennedy
Airport office in July 2014 because you know, risk goes up, price goes up. The
not-so-good doctor often sold multiple prescriptions to patients for their
families and friends and some patients would walk out his door with h numerous
prescriptions written for other people who never saw the doctor, Brennan said.
"By selling prescriptions for addictive drugs, Dr. Surya is charged with
jeopardizing the health and well-being of his patients and the general public
in order to line his own pockets," Brennan said. Score one for
#capitalism………
- Foals frontman
Yannis Philippakis is on point. Then he’s off point. And in between, who the
hell knows? While doing all he can to promote his indie-electronic band’s
newest release, “What Went Down,” did exactly what a rock star is supposed to
do: He said outlandish sh*t and took unprovoked shots at someone with a much
bigger name than him. Philippakis said Kanye West is not the "greatest
living rock star on the planet," which is both totally true and a response
to the rapper's recent comments at Glastonbury. Save for the fact that he’s not actually a rock star or a
rock musician and the fact that he’s wildly overrated, West could have been
right. But Philippakis weighed in on West and it
sounded like he was kind of a fan of Kanye…until he wasn’t. "I do like him,”
Philippakis said. “I don't think he's the greatest living rock star, but I
don't know who is, so maybe he could be. He's definitely a damn sight more
exciting than a lot of people." Wait….you like him, but you don’t know who
he is and you think he’s not the biggest rock star in the world, but you think
he’s more exciting than a lot of other musicians? Huh? But Philippakis was just
getting started and his next target was one he squared up and took down with an
on-point kill shot. He argued that aspiring musicians should not try to craft tunes
through the dying reality karaoke beast that is “The X Factor (Karaoke).” "I'm
probably a bit out of touch with that kind of thing. It's important that people
don't make music through that channel. If that becomes the only channel with
which younger people view their access to music, that would be a shame,” Philippakis
added. Well said, Yannis. It’s good to know that you’re capable of making sense……….
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