Thursday, December 29, 2016

Wentz's gun gifts, Argentine rock riots and Deadpool + Wolverine


- Well played, Mars candy company. You know that America is morbidly obese in an alarming way and while your mission of selling all manner of unhealthy, sugar-coated treats to the masses overtly contributes to that problem, you’re trying to find a way to offset the damage your products do - all while making it look like you're just a bunch of negligent f*ck-ups. The official story is that Toole, Utah resident Kassidy Maxfield rolled up on a local grocery store, purchased a bag of fun-size Snickers bars and on Christamas day, busted that bag open and was about to pop one of those too-small excuses for a candy bar into her mouth when she discovered a thumbtack inside the sweet treat. “That's the last thing I thought we would ever find,”
Maxfield said. But stop and realize that this woman was hungry and rather than eat a salad or a boneless, skinless grilled chicken breast, she grabbed a few Snickers candies from her 2-year-old's Christmas stocking. “Grabbed a couple pieces and the first pieces were fine,” Maxfield said. Had she stopped at two pieces of candy, she would have temporarily averted disaster, but she plowed ahead into that third candy bar and bit through the milk chocolate, peanuts, caramel and nougat and discovered an extra ingredient. She claims to have found a small gold thumb tack right in the middle of the bar and spit it out before it could do any damage to her teeth. Maxfield insists the wrapper hadn’t been tampered with and seems to imply that she didn’t plant the tack, so she called Mars and the company offered to send her coupons to get more Snickers. “I'm not interested in eating that candy anymore,” Maxfield said. Problem solved. Now, pick up that salad fork…….


- Superhero crossovers are box office gold these days. As such, trying to marry two über-popular heroes - albeit one of them a foul-mouthed anti-hero - in any form makes sense for everyone involved and thus, a Deadpool and Wolverine crossover could be happening - just not as a feature film. The word on the streets is that Ryan Reynolds shot a scene with “Deadpool 2” director David Leitch and that scene will be shown during the credits at the end of new Wolverine film “Logan.” While 20th Century Fox has not made any official comment on rumor yet, allowing it to waft into the air for fanboys all around the world to build buzz is a smart play. Reynolds, who plays the titular Deadpool, previsoly asked fans to lobby Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine, to not give up the role after the release of “Logan,” something Jackman is keen on doing. “I want Deapdool and Wolverine in a movie together,” Reynolds said. “What we’re gonna have to do is convince Hugh. If anything, I’m going to need to do what I can to get my Internet friends back on board to help rally another cause down the line. He noted that Jackman is “one of the best human beings” and said part of the reason he wanted a combo movie is because he just thinks Hugh is a swell guy. Whatever fills its credits, “Logan” will hit theaters in March, while “Deadpool 2” isn't due out until next year. That’s plenty of time for Jackman to film an extra outtake to round out its credits……..


- Sometimes, a rebel just needs to go Cro-Magnon in his efforts to force The Man to hear his voice. An angry mob in rural Argentina knows this to be true and these bold souls took that lesson to heart by attacking a vehicle carrying President Mauricio Macri as the president was heading to a ceremony to inaugurate a tourist information center in the southern town of Villa Traful, about 1,000 miles southwest of the capital of Buenos Aires. According to the president’s office, Macri was  attacked by rock-wielding protesters who broke two windows of his official vehicle, but the president himself was not injured. The official story is that about 10 people were involved in the attack, but if you can bring together 10 truly enraged people and some old-school tools of protest and you can bring the fight to the nation’s highest-ranking elected official, then the world will take notice for at least a moment. In this case, Macri continued with his normal schedule, but it’s safe to say that he won’t forget his visit to Villa Traful any time soon. The protestors’ aims weren’t immediately clear, but the conservative president took office a year ago and has been struggling with high inflation and a sluggish economy, so there is no shortage of fuel for those who feel like the government isn’t doing nearly enough to help them and better their lives in the midst of a hailstorm of problems and daily struggles……..


- Give gifts based on the recipient and not on your redneck roots. Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz chose to ignore that simple rule when following the popular trend of giving one’s offensive linemen extravagant presents for keeping him healthy and upright during the course of an NFL season. Thus, Wentz gave each of his offensive linemen a Beretta shotgun for Christmas, each gun personalized with the player's number engraved on the butt of the gun. One of those linemen, Allen Barbre, is a fellow hunter like Wentz, who spent the team’s bye week this season hunting back home in North Dakota and is clearly a camo-loving country boy who doesn’t mind spending to give his five linemen the Beretta model is a Silver Pigeon, which retails for around two thousand dollars a pop. Even if Barbre is a hunter and fellow lineman Brandon Brooks likes to “go clay shooting and stuff,” giving people guns for Christmas or end-of-the-work-year occasions just sends a bad message - namely, think of me when you go blasting away at animals or projected clay spheres. While Wentz may have been lying in a cornfield hunting geese when he got the call that Sam Bradford would be traded and that he would be named the starter prior to the season, was there really any harm in giving away 80-inch, 4K HD televisions, new motorcycles or an iced-out watch rather than a bullet-hurling instrument of death to a group of guys who may not all be card-carrying NRA members? Besides, a team that sits at 6-9 entering the final week of the season probably hasn’t accomplished anything truly gift-worthy……..

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