Thursday, December 10, 2015

Oprhaned planes in Malaysia, NFL coach v. McDonald's an needlessly reviving "Dirty Dancing"


- Is anyone missing a few Boeing 747-200F cargo jets? If so, now would be a great time to double-check your hangar and see what should be there but isn’t. Should one of those jumbo jets be AWOL from your collection, hit up the administration at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Malaysia because these fine folks have had just about enough of storing three mystery planes that seem to have been totally forgotten. Airport officials recently took out ads asking for the owner to please come get their planes. "If you fail to collect the aircraft within 14 days of the date of this notice, we reserve the right to sell or otherwise dispose of the aircraft," the ad reads. Along with the plea, there are photos of the orphaned jets -- two white and one "off-white" 747-200Fs - and according to the airport, cash raised in the sale of the 747-200Fs would be used to pay off expenses and debts. Malaysia Airports general manager Zainol Mohd Isa noted that the planes have been parked at KLIA for more than a year, each abandoned at a different point in time. No one knows who owns them and is therefore responsible for any related charges. "They've yet to pay the parking fee -- where do we send the bill?" Isa said. Aviation databases list the Boeings -- identified by their call signs TF-ARN, TF-ARH, TF-ARM -- as belonging to leasing firm Air Atlanta Icelandic, but AAI claims it sold the aircraft seven years ago and since then, they appear to have changed hands several times. Under Malaysia’s civil aviation regulations, giving notice is the next step toward being able to sell the planes and while storage space isn't an issue, no one wants to be a dumping ground for unwanted junk, even if that junk is worth millions of dollars………..


- The life of an NFL coach is already far more stressful than it should be. These are 32 members of a rare fraternity in which they make boatloads of money, but have to deal with amounts of pressure that should never be associated with grown men playing a game in which the goal is to advance an oblong leather sphere into a painted grass rectangle. Yet the guys responsible for coaching these gridiron battlers work insane numbers of hours, they do insane sh*t like sleeping on cots in their offices and seeing their families less than they see a good night of sleep. Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Zimmer is living this reality to a harsh degree this week and his week began with his Vikings getting b*tch-slapped 38-7 by the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday afternoon. That loss dropped the Vikings back into a tie for the NFC North lead with Green Bay and in the aftermath of his most lopsided loss of the season, Zimmer slept at the team’s practice facility Sunday night. On Monday after work, he finally headed home, but not before making a pit stop. "I went to McDonald's on the way home because I was hungry and ordered two cheeseburgers and I only got one. That's the kind of week it's been," Zimmer said. When someone asked him why he didn’t use his local celebrity status to score that second burger, he joked that the zit-faced high school kids working the drive-thru probably recognized him and gipped him his second greasy meat sphere on purpose. In the social media era, Zimmer’s comments quickly made their way to McDonald’s, which tweeted that it would send 100 burgers to Zimmer and the Vikings. It’s just what a man with one of the most stressful jobs around needs, tens of thousands of calories being sent his way, but it’s a nice gesture despite the calories…………


- Killing another person can give a person a lot to think about. As most of us have never gone through such an ordeal, maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to judge Riviera Beach, Fla. resident Rodney Chavers, who was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder following a bizarre night that is equal parts “The Hangover” and “Son of Sam.” According to police, Chavers killed Tarrie Wilder and after the killing, took an unusual approach to coping with what he had just done. Authorities claim that Chavers didn’t seek out a family member or close friend in whom to confide, he chose to soothe his soul with Cinnamon, Ginger, Destiny and the rest of the ladies in sequined G-strings working a filthy brass pole on stage at the local strip club. Yes, Chavers allegedly decided that the best way to figure out his next move while realizing that his life had just changed dramatically and for the worst was to go into a dim, poorly lit business where overpriced drinks, subpar food and drug-addled strippers with daddy issues and broken dreams are in bountiful supply. Unfortunately for Chavers, a place that serves as a haven of support to so many men who have done something wrong wasn’t so welcoming on this night and he was booted from the club for breaking one of its few rules - no, not putting his hands on one of the ladies or failing to meet the two-drink minimum cover charge - by bringing a gun into the club. At that point, he was either several drinks deep or in a terrible frame of mind because he later asked a group of men he didn't know to take him home. Amazingly, these bros agreed and soon came to regret their decision when Chavers told the men he had killed someone and went to the strip club to clear his mind. He then fell asleep and the men reacted the only logical way they could, by calling police while wondering what the hell they had just gotten themselves into. Chavers was soon arrested, hauled off to jail and at some point, he likely sobered up and wondered how the hell his life had gone so wrong, so quickly……..


- Bring on the latest old movie/TV show remake/recycling effort. Hollywood’s thirst for regurgitated, unoriginal ideas is never fully satiated, so the obvious next stop is converting cult favorite dancing drama “Dirty Dancing” into a TV movie musical. ABC is spearheading this one with “Little Miss Sunshine” and “Scream Queens” star Abigail Breslin filling Jennifer Grey's role as Baby, with the classic role of Johnny Castle played in the original film by the late Patrick Swayze has yet to be cast. What is known is that “Glee” writers Adam Anders and Peer Astrom are handling the music for the TV remake, with director Wayne Blair helming the project. This idea follows NBC offering up lives takes on “Peter Pan” (terrible) and “The Wiz” (less terrible), but unlike the Peacock, ABC will film this one ahead of time and not take the risk of disaster that inevitably comes with any live television show.  The original “Dirty Dancing” film starring Swayze and Grey became a huge hit in 1987, banking  $214 million at cinemas worldwide against an estimated budget of just $6 million. It’s most-heralded song, '(I've Had) The Time Of My Life', performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, later won an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy and the movie was adapted into a successful stage show in 2004 by Eleanor Bergstein, writer of the original film. Anyone who thought there was no life left in this franchise clearly underestimated Hollywood’s definition of what constitutes a viable franchise these days……….

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