- Were they animal lovers or simply smart thieves who knew
where and when to strike? Let’s go with option B after a late-night break in at
one of the most expensive furrier shops in the country, located on Madison
Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Surveillance footage shows two men
hurling a huge rock through the glass front door, then bursting instead to make
the heist. One of the thieves was smacked in the head by the heavy steel bar at
the top of the door frame, but that didn’t stop he and his partner in crime as
they made off with more than $1 million worth of top-of-the-line designer furs.
In surveillance footage from the Dennis Basso boutique, the two thieves can be
seen toting out all of their stolen furs in less than a minute. According to a
store manager, the store has identified about 20 major pieces that were missing
and it’s clear the thieves knew what they were doing because they targeted the
very expensive sable coats and chinchillas. Owner Dennis Basso noted that the
thieves made off with several Russian sable coats, some of which were valued as
high as $200,000, but amazingly, police don’t have any suspects and are short
on leads as to who is responsible for the thefts. Store executive Achilleas
Georgiades said he can't believe something like this happened on the
"civilized" Madison Avenue proving that he either hasn’t been in
Manhattan too long or doesn’t venture outside of his little bubble too often……..
- It was an underhanded debut for Houston Rockets rookie
center Chinanu Onuaku - and he’s totally cool with that. Onuaku made his NBA
debut in eight fourth-quarter minutes of a 131-115 blowout victory over the
Phoenix Suns, notching six points and grabbing three rebounds. Still, it was
the two underhanded free throws he made with 2:46 to play that stood out. "I
was nervous as hell," Onuaku said. "I'm just happy that I made
them." He received an enthusiastic reaction from the Toyota Center crowd
after making that shots, becoming the first NBA player since Hall of Famer Rick
Barry (1966-80) to attempt underhanded free throws in a game. Barry did so
regularly and with great success, but it took more than three decades for the
trend to be revived as Onuaku brought the style back. He’s been doing it for
some time and began after his freshman season at Louisville, when he made just
46.7 percent of his foul shots. After making the change, Onuaku improved his
foul shooting (58.9 percent) and he hasn’t looked back. His teammates were
slightly amused at the sight, but those who spoke about Onuaku’s debut said
that as long as he makes the shots, they don’t really care how he does it.
After all, if Hall of Famers George Mikan and Wilt Chamberlain also tried it
for a time, then maybe it’s not so bad after all. Of the many, many terrible
free throw shooters who populate the NBA on an annual basis, it’s nice to see
one of them willing to try something that looks ridiculous but just might help
their game……..
- Artists, actors and other creative souls can be funny when
it comes to watching, listening to or otherwise taking in their work once they
complete it. “Star Wars” composer John Williams falls under that heading and
despite scoring the iconic sci-fi films, “Indiana Jones” films and many other
movies, he says he’s never watched a single “Star Wars” movie in which iconic
themes such as “The Imperial March,” “Rebel Fanfare” and “Overture” have been
heard. Why? According to Williams, he likes to leave a film behind entirely
when he’s finished working on it. “When I’m finished with a film, I’ve been living
with it, we’ve been dubbing it, recording to it, and so on,” he said. “You walk
out of the studio and, “Ah, it’s finished. I have not looked at the Star Wars
films and that’s absolutely true. I’m not particularly proud of that, I have to
say, but it’s also part of the fact that I finished Star Wars now and I’m
already working on Spielberg’s new film and I don’t want to listen to music or
see films.” At 83 years old and with plenty of awards and nominations in his
back pocket, Williams can handle his musical products however he sees fit, but
maybe his refusal to watch movies with his music in them stems from the artist’s
perennial quest for perfection. “You hope that you’ve gotten 90% of it or as
close to it as you can. But at least with me, and I think with most writers of
any kind, you really don’t say “Eureka! This is it,” Williams added. At the end
of the day, the checks still clear either way, so Williams can exist in
whatever isolated world he chooses to occupy……..
- That’s one way to stifle dissent, Cambodia. Ask anyone not
a part of the current reign of terror by Prime Minister Hun Sen or responding
out of sheer fear of reprisal by the regime and you’ll quickly learn that the
prime minister is working awfully hard to weaken his opponents ahead of local
elections next year. That crusade has taken on various forms, the latest of
which happened this week when a Cambodian court sentenced the country's exiled
opposition leader to five years in prison after finding him guilty of
conspiring to incite chaos by posting misleading documents on his Facebook
page. While convicting a guy who isn't actually there to defend himself is a
bit hollow, the conviction is the latest legal problem for Sam Rainsy, head of
the Cambodia National Rescue Party. There are several cases against him and
pressing forward with those cases is generally considered part of Hun Sen’s
plan to undermine the efforts of the opposition and minimize the threat to his
power in next year’s elections. As for Rainsy, his “crime” occurred when his
Facebook page reposted from a fellow party member several poorly translated
documents suggesting that Hun Sen's government had signed a treaty ceding
territory to neighboring Vietnam, Cambodia's traditional enemy. That sort of
action, albeit a digital one, is clearly viewed as a massive affront to the
prime minister and as such, worth prosecuting whether the accused is in the
courtroom or in another country. Keep shutting down critical voices, Cambodia,
and keep doing you……..
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