- Horses and crap tend to go together - just not this way. In
the rural town of Bunnell, Florida, an unfortunate 24-year-old female horse
named Mercy found itself in an ugly spot recently when it was found stuck up to
its neck in a Flagler County septic tank for a couple of hours. Apparently Mercy
fell into the septic tank, which was covered with fiberglass while walking
through the yard where she and her owner had lived for the past six months, not
realizing that a simple piece of fiberglass was not strong enough to hold the
weight of a large quadruped. Thankfully, the horse’s owner, Barbara Jones, realized
what had happened and was able to call several agencies, including the Flagler
County Sheriff's Office and a large animal rescue team from St. Johns County,
to the scene. Crews were able to cut off a portion of the tank covering to gain
access and after sedating the agitated horse, they were able to safely remove Mercy
from the tank after almost two hours of work. After being rescued from the
depths at a tremendous cost of time, manpower and taxpayer dollars - none of
which that horse is ever going to repay, dammit - Mercy was assessed by a
veterinary team and appeared to have only minor injuries. In a true horsey
miracle, the beast suffered only a few cuts and will be treated with antibiotics
and pain medication rather than being shipped off to the glue factory. The
septic tank is specific to the Jones residence, so no one else will be affected
by having to cut it open, although the county health department plans to inspect the scene because
#bureaucracy…….
- For some, Benedict Cumberbatch has the most punchable face
in Hollywood. To others, he’s a talented, versatile actor who is the leading
man in Marvel's “Doctor Strange.” Yet Cumberbatch almost didn’t land the role,
as Marvel initially wanted to start shooting the hotly-anticipated superhero
movie last fall at a time when the actor was already contracted to appear on
stage in a production of Hamlet at London's Barbican theater. Director Scott
Derrickson approached Cumerbatch about the role, but was told at the time that
the actor simply couldn’t bail out of his Hamlet commitment, having given his
word. Forced to go further down his list of candidates for the role, Derrickson
met with Joaquin Phoenix, Jared Leto and Ryan Gosling to discuss the role, but
Marvel executive Kevin Feige decided that it simply had to be Cumberbatch,
pushing back the start of production in order to accommodate his top choice as
the good doctor. "If you can't jump on board when the ride's going past,
that's usually it, so the hugest compliment they paid me was to come back to me.
It motivated me to try to fulfill their faith in me,” Cumberbatch said of
having a second chance at the part. As a result, he will star in the
forthcoming superhero movie as Doctor Stephen Strange, a neurosurgeon who
discovers the hidden world of magic and alternate dimensions following a
serious car accident. He’ll be joined by a big-name cast including Chiwetel
Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen and Michael Stuhlbarg………
- The idea of voting being an act of defiance is a very
foreign one to those living in developed nations around the world. For most,
it’s an act of inconvenience, one that they really don’t want to make time for
in their busy lives and therefore leave to others. But in Bosnia, it was a bold
step for Bosnian Serbs voting in a referendum banned by the country's
constitutional court, risking Western sanctions against their autonomous region
and criminal charges against their leaders. What’s interesting about this vote
is that it wasn’t some major ballot sparking a total overhaul of the government,
but rather a vote on whether to keep Jan. 9 as a holiday in Republika Srpska —
commemorating the day in 1992 that Bosnian Serbs declared the creation of their
own state and ignited a devastating 1992-95 war. It’s noteworthy because it
comes despite the top court's ruling that the date discriminates against Muslim
Bosniaks and Catholic Croats in Bosnia, who were persecuted and expelled by the
Serbs. The vote has even drawn the interest of the West, which has urged the
illegal referendum not to be held. The Bosnian Serbs have the backing of
Russia, so this is another front for the fight of Russia v. the West, which has
suggested it might consider halting projects in the mini-state or impose travel
bans on leaders and freeze their assets if the vote were held and if it passes.
It’s the fight that just won't die………
- The Philadelphia 76ers may not win many games these days,
but that doesn’t mean they can't have nice things. For example, the Perpetual
Tankers in Philly, who looked last season like they would break the NBA’s
single-season mark for worst won-loss record, have just opened a new, state-of-the-art
practice facility, and as is fitting for a team that hasn’t been any good in a
long, long time, the coolest part of the new space is something marking a
special moment from 54 years ago. That would be the reception desk in the lobby
of the building, which is made out of part of the court from Wilt Chamberlain’s
100-point game on March 2, 1962. Chamberlain is one of the greatest players in
NBA history and given that no player on the team’s recent roster should even be
allowed to buy a ticket to the Basketball Hall of Fame at the moment, honoring
him rather than something of a more recent vintage is a wise move. The desk is
the first thing visitors will see when they enter the building and that’s a
much better first impression that anything referring to the Sixers’ 10-72 mark
from last season. They could always build the receptionst’s chair out of the
crutches former top draft pick Joel Embiid has used after any of the multiple
foot injuries and surgeries that have kept him from ever playing a game in his
two seasons with the team, or maybe recycle the stat sheets from one of their
72 losses last season to use as note paper at that front desk, but otherwise, it’s
best to keep all eyes on the distant past in Philly at this point……..
No comments:
Post a Comment