- Let the parade begin. Major League Baseball has kicked off
spring training and that means it’s time for to cavalcade of bizarre baseball injuries
in which world-class athletes who can throw balls 101 mph and hit said balls
450 feet over the fence are taken down and out of action by everyday items and
tasks that the rest of us handle without a second thought every damn day. There
will be injuries by common household appliance, articles of clothing, household
chores, pets, writing utensils and, apparently, barn roofs. In fact, barn roof
is the first entry on the list after Kansas City Royals reliever Brian Flynn
suffered a broken rib and three minor vertebrae fractures in his back after
falling through the roof of his barn while he was working on it. The valuable
reliever, who made 36 appearances last year and finished 2016 with a 1-2 record
and 2.60 ERA, was up on the roof top and judging by what happened next, he was
probably attempting to strengthen it because with a couple hundred pounds of
pressure on it, that roof caved in like the Cleveland Indians bullpen in Game 6
of the World Series, giving way and sending Flynn tumbling to the ground a
couple stories below. The injured pitcher is expected to be out eight weeks,
according to the team, during which time he should be able to find the number
for an excellent handyman who can come out with the proper equipment and safety
gear and fix the roof of his barn so Flynn can recuperate and get back to
performing athletic feats of which the rest of us can only dream of doing…….
- People love Lisbon. Or is it lesbians? Probably both, but
only the first one is causing the government in Portugal’s capital city to
adapt a military airport for commercial flights in an effort to ease the burden
on the capital's sole international airport. According to the government, it
plans to overhaul the little-used Montijo air base on the south side of the
River Tagus because the city’s main airport is nearing its capacity of 22
million passengers a year. For a country that has had a litany of fiscal
problems and dealt with über-unpopular austerity measures for months now, the
news that tourists are a-flockin’ to its gorgeous cities and southern Algarve
region is great to hear. The number of visitors hitting up Lisbon grew by more
than 8 percent last year, after a 5 percent increase in 2015, so there is clearly a need for more space to
land their flights and thus, the modification work, which requires approval
from environmental authorities and is expected to cost up to 400 million euros
($422 million). Flying into Montijo will either a) be a huge hassle for
travelers or b) add a new dimension to their Portuguese adventure by compelling
them to either travel eight miles by ferry or 20 miles by road to reach the
city limits of Lisbon. As with any government building project, this one won’t
happen quickly and officials hope the new airport will be operational by 2022…….
- It’s an abbreviated sequel, but a sequel nonetheless. According
to director Richard Curtis, there will be a sequel to his popular film, albeit a
10-minute one in support of Comic Relief. The aptly titled “Red Nose Day
Actually will air on March 24 – Red Nose Day – and in an interactive twist,
fans may be able to decide what happens to some of their favorite characters.
Curtis’ screenwriting partner, Emma Freud, revealed on Twitter that the script
for the short film is still being written and she invited followers to weigh in
on what they’d like to see transpire on screen. “I would never have dreamt of
writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10
minutes to see what everyone is now up to. We hope to make something that’ll be
fun – very much in the spirit of the original film and of Red Nose Day,” Curtis
said. “It’ll certainly be a nostalgic moment getting back together.” There were
plenty of famous and famous-to-be faces in the 2003 original film and some of
those big names are reportedly in line to make a return in the limited screen
time to be offered by this short sequel, including Keira Knightley, Colin
Firth, Liam Neeson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Andrew Lincoln and Rowan Atkinson.
Given that many involved with the first film were adamant that there would
never, ever happen, even a knock-off, truncated take on a sequel is something
at this point…….
- As always, at least there’s a good reason a police officer
was dragged the length of one and a half football fields and risked serious
injury and maybe even death. This time, it was so a shoplifter could get away
with $190 worth of beer he pilfered from a local convenience store. The suspect
is accused of shoplifting after a Best Market employee saw a man and woman
leave with $190 worth of beer and reported the alleged theft to police. An
officer responded to the scene and pursued Joshua Coonradt, who fled before the
long arm of the law could reach the store. He was spotted fleeing in a green
Honda Civic before the cops arrived and when police later saw the car traveling
east towards Wethersfield, an officer pulled Coonradt over. As the officer approached
the suspect’s car, he saw Coonradt reaching for a handgun on the dashboard and
the fast-reacting cop reached into the vehicle, setting off a struggle as he
and the suspect grappled for the gun. Eventually, Coonradt decided his best
option was to simply drive away, dragging the officer beside the car until he
could finally free himself. In a fortunate twist for both suspect and officer,
the cop wasn’t seriously injured, but had he been, those charges against Coonradt
could have been upgraded. Police eventually found the Civic and were able to
arrest the suspect’s companion, Sandra Weeks, who told them Coonradt often went
to a particular spot in Hartford to buy crack and typically slept in his car
nearby. Weeks was charged with sixth-degree larceny and released on a $5,000
bail as police continued their search for a beer-thieving crack head who sleeps
in his car and is now roaming free on the mean streets of Newington, about
eight miles south of downtown Hartford………
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