Sunday, June 05, 2016

Zimbabwe quail obsession, Planet Fitness v. NFL's fittest man and HGTV reality star v. reality


- Score another one for those who know that the “Do you know who I am?” card never plays well in an encounter with the law. One guy who is still under the impression that uttering those six words will lead to a positive outcome is Jonathan Scott, the building contractor half of HGTV's “Property Brothers.” Scott, who works with his brother Drew Scott to renovate and/or find new homes for people who have little sense of how crappy their current home is or what they can get for the meager budget they have for a new one, found himself in a bit of a tight spot when he and his brother were in Fargo to speak at a design conference recently. Jonathan Scott was hanging out at Dempsey's Public House when bar employees informed them that it was closing time and they needed to surrender their drinks and take the party elsewhere. Scott, who was presumably a few drinks in, was led along with several other patrons out of the bar's back entrance, only to return and have to be kicked out again. When he was asked to give up his glass and go home, he resisted, was placed in a chokehold by bar security and uttered those famous word: “Do you know who I am?” As always, if you have to ask, they either don’t know or do know but don’t care and Scott succeeded only in getting himself arrested. However, the small-town legal eagles in the prosecutor’s office in Fargo decided there was insufficient evidence to charge him with any crime, so Scott can go back to upgrading kitchens with subway tile backsplashes, installing new hardwood flooring and trying to get homeowners than extra $10,000 they need for the sale of their current home so they can afford that dream home down the road…….


- There is never a good time to be arrested, but it’s hard to think of many worse than what happened to Belleville, Illinois resident and job-seeker Reginald Curry. Curry was interviewing for a kitchen job at Tavern on Main when his interview was hijacked by the long arm of the law. During the interview, police interrupted and took him into custody in connection with a bank robbery in Belleville. “He told me to stand up and put my hands behind my back and put handcuffs on me and then walked me outside,” Curry said. Police hauled him off to the bank, where they quickly learned that they had made a mistake. A witness said he wasn’t the robber and Curry was summarily set free, with officers later arresting a man named William Grier for the crime. Even though the incident may have caused Curry a chance for the job, the police weren't exactly apologetic for the mix-up. “Descriptions can be off a little bit so we look to refine that information as we go along and in the case of the gentlemen detained [Curry], he matched the description at the time,” said Sgt. Mark Heffernan of the Belleville Police Department. Heffernan said security footage from the bank and a tip led them to Curry, but after that information proved wrong, Curry said police didn’t do anything to show his potential employer that he was not involved with the robbery. “The fact that they couldn’t come back and tell everyone it was a big misunderstanding and say, ‘We found the real guy.’ They didn’t do anything to make the situation better for me,” he added. Thanks for nothing, Belleville police……


- When a professional athlete walks into your gym, it should be a great day. When that athlete it the fittest man in the NFL, the gym’s owners should be fired up and asking that athlete to pose for pictures and offer advice for everyone else working out in the facility. Neither happened when NFL punter Steve Weatherford walked into a Planet Fitness last week and sought to get his workout on alongside dozens of non-athletes and office workers. Weatherford, who is notorious for being an absolute gym rat, has appeared on numerous magazine covers and been celebrated for his shredded physique even though his position doesn’t demand that level of fitness. None of that matters to Planet Fitness staffers who decided that he was a nuisance to other customers and asked him to leave for making too much noise during his workout. Weatherford posted a video on Instagram offering his “sincerest apologies” to employees at Planet Fitness for “being such a savage,” saying that he was asked to leave for doing what so many workout warriors do while getting their lift on. “ Today I was unceremoniously kicked out of@planetfitness for excessive breathing/ grunting.  A gym should be a place that encourages, motivates, and inspires you to build the best version of yourself possible. Not a place that has a built in siren the manager activates when someone is working hard and breathes heavily. I'm embarrassed to say I paid $20 to this establishment. I'm fortunate to be an overly confident person. Can you imagine how embarrassing this would be to someone trying hard to change their image through hard work and they let a more than quiet breath out. The gym can already be a very intimidating place, clients don't need to worry about being completely humiliated for working hard,” Weatherford wrote in his post. Way to miss a golden chance for some great, free PR, Planet Fitness staffers……..


- Life in Zimbabwe can be rough. Maybe a tiny bird can make it better. In a nation with thousands of unemployed people, folks who are toiling under the repressive yolk of dictator Bob Mugabe need some way to find hope and in the fact of dire economic conditions in the southern African country, citizens are looking to the quail as an answer for what ails them. Quail farming is huge in other countries, including India, but until recently, few Zimbabweans had much to do with the small bird until rumors spread months ago that the bird has medicinal value. Since then, the quail has gained huge economic, political, religious, medicinal and entertainment value. In a land where the official statistics agency says the majority of citizens survive on just a dollar a day, turning a buck off a small bird is a big deal. Many citizens have turned their backyards into breeding zones and the less savory among them have gone poacher, risking lion attacks to sneak into national parks to hunt quail birds. Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri addressed parliament recently in regard to the trend and painted a jarring picture. "Some were almost shot by rangers," she said. Shortly thereafter, Muchinguri announced a ban on backyard quail breeding pending research on the supposed medicinal qualities. In the resulting backlash, Emmerson Mnangagwa, the deputy president, said quail are yummy. "The birds are very delicious," announced in an attempt to cool down lawmakers angered by the ban, adding that people would be allowed to continue breeding. So valued are quail that their products now sell for triple the price of chicken products and a friend quail egg costs a whopping  $5 at many restaurants. In related news, it’s not a good time to be quail in Zimbabwe………

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