Taiwanese chef Huang Mingbo shows off a motorcycle which made from five lobster shells in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
Picture: Feature China / Barcroft Media
AS IT STANDS My name is Dave Stancliff. I'm a retired newspaper editor/publisher; husband/father, Vietnam vet, Laker fan for 63 years. All opinions are mine unless otherwise noted. I also share original short stories.
Taiwanese chef Huang Mingbo shows off a motorcycle which made from five lobster shells in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China
Picture: Feature China / Barcroft Media
As one 61 year-old Vietnam veteran to another: Right on bro! Wish I was in the shape you are. Make sure to show those kids a few things…
At an age when many start thinking about retirement, Alan Moore (pictured right) is restarting his football career. Moore, a 61 year-old Vietnam veteran, will kick this fall for Faulkner University, a small Christian school in Montgomery, Ala., 43 years after his initial college career was cut short by Vietnam. When he takes the field against Ave Maria on Sept. 10, Moore will be the oldest player ever to take the field for a four-year university.
Moore was only able to play his freshman year at Jones County (Miss.) Junior College before heading off to Vietnam for 11 months [in 1968]. Watching a football game in 2009 inspired him to purchase footballs, build goal posts in his daughter's back yard, and practice kicking.
Last year Moore was turned away in an attempt to try out for Jones' team but did end up making the team at Holmes (Miss.) Community College after being referred by the head coach's aunt. Ironically, he made an appearance for Holmes against Jones County.
Moore is the first sexagenarian football player on record at any level. George Blanda was 48 when he retired from the NFL after his career as a quarterback and kicker. In 2004, 39-year-old Tim Frisby successfully walked on at South Carolina as a wide receiver. "Pops" Frisby was also a veteran, spending time as a U.S. Army Ranger in the first Gulf War. Even on television, Gerald "Major Dad" McRaney was only in his 40s when he guest-starred as a veteran giving college football one last shot in the old sitcom "Coach."
However, Moore still has 13 years to go to top Ken Mink, who was 73 when he played for the Roane State (Tenn.) basketball team in 2008 in the Tennessee Junior Community College Athletic Association. Has there ever been an official verdict on social security as an "improper benefit"?
Good Morning Humboldt County!
Thanks for stopping by this Labor Day weekend. Grab a cup of Joe, get comfortable, and we’ll check out three stories from the headlines:
Jerry Lewis: MIA this Labor Day
Labor Day this year promises to be bland by comparison, with the 85-year-old Lewis now banished from the annual rite he built from scratch and molded in his image.
As if deflated by the absence of its larger-than-life host, "The 46th Annual MDA Labor Day Telethon" will fill just six hours (Sunday from 6 p.m. to midnight in each time zone; check local listings for station), rather than the grueling 21½-hour endurance contest that Lewis used to churn through with his viewers in tow.
On Aug. 3, with no elaboration, MDA announced that Lewis had "completed his run" as national chairman, and that he would not be appearing on the telethon, as promised earlier.
Lewis has provided no insight into the matter. But it's hard to imagine how wronged he must feel after bonding with the telethon for so long. As Levy writes in "King of Comedy," Lewis "had conflated America's charitable instincts with love for himself as a public figure and even as one more lonely child."
The artist may have been a favorite of Stalin, but Ivan Shadr's statue "Girl With an Oar" proved too sexy for the Soviet dictator.
The 23-foot nude statue, sculpted in 1934, was banished from pride of place in Moscow's Gorky Park to Ukraine in 1936 and replaced with a less sensual version, The Wall Street Journal reported.
However, a copy of the original was due to be unveiled Saturday on the bank of the Moskva River in the park at the finish line of an international regatta course, the paper said.
The model for the statue, Vera Voloshina, was captured and killed by German forces, the WSJ reported.
Documents found at the abandoned office of Libya’s former spymaster appear to provide new details of the close relations the Central Intelligence Agency shared with the Libyan intelligence service — most notably suggesting that the Americans sent terrorism suspects at least eight times for questioning in Libya despite that country’s reputation for torture.
Photo: CIA agent Edwin P. Wilson recruited Gadaffi in 1977, and the CIA shipped Libya over 2000 pounds of explosives," says former CIA agent Lester Coleman.
Time to walk on down the road…
Fireproof pot? A new fire-resistant strain developed by locals? How did those 9000 plants survive the fiery holocaust? Even more interesting is how did they come up with a street value of $10 million for outdoor? So many questions.
This summer's Las Conchas fire in New Mexico scorched tribal lands, threatened one of the nation's premier nuclear facilities and pushed bears into nearby cities. But it somehow spared more than 9,000 marijuana plants in a remote area of Bandelier National Monument.
Did a higher power save those plants? Too bad the divine protection didn’t extend to cops in fatigues. They were all over that crop like stink on shit. It was a first big pot bust in the Bandelier National Monument. Or so the feds say. They claim they are going to destroy all but a little bit for evidence. Yeah right…I’ll bet some people are getting high tonight! photo
By Joe Conason
If volunteerism is suddenly unpatriotic and even "socialist," that will come as a nasty surprise to many of the Republicans and conservatives who always have supported such efforts, notably including both presidents named Bush.
And if stepping up to help our neighbors and community on 9/11 would somehow dishonor the Americans killed in those infamous attacks — as feverish critics of President Barack Obama now scream — then what do they think actually happened on that day 10 years ago?
The latest outbreak of phony outrage began when the president, following a tradition established by George W. Bush, announced that he and the first lady will mark the upcoming anniversary as a "National Day of Service and Remembrance" and urged Americans to "come together, in their communities and neighborhoods, to honor the victims of 9/11 and to reaffirm the strength of our nation with acts of service and charity."
To Rush Limbaugh and assorted lesser cogs in the right-wing noise machine, that was a deeply controversial statement and an attempt to "politicize" the event — as if the White House had ordered everybody to put on blue caps, join a local Obama for America chapter and then build a solar house for the poor.
Yes, according to the furious wingers, Obama's attempt to inspire volunteerism was in fact a barely disguised appeal to "serve the state," as well as an un-American distraction from what should be, in their minds, a more militaristic commemoration.
But leaving aside their usual bizarre theories about the president and his motives, this pseudo-controversy shows how little these so-called conservatives understand what really happened on 9/11, in New York and then across the country.
On that day and the days that followed, we saw a demonstration of the highest American values, which are apparently no longer comprehensible to the denizens of the right-wing swamp. Read More Here
Good to see you this Friday morning. Pull up a seat and have a cup of coffee with me and we’ll look at what’s happening in the world around us.
7.1 magnitude earthquake strikes off Alaska
A 7.1 magnitude earthquake struck Friday in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska, the U.S. Geological Survey reported, prompting a brief tsunami warning for a portion of Alaska's coast. The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck in the waters at about 6:55 a.m. ET. There were no reports of injuries or damage, according to Alaska's KTUU.com.
A university professor suspected of leading a motorcycle gang and methamphetamine drug ring is wanted for arrest in California, authorities say. Steve Kinzey, 43, believed to be the president of the local chapter of the Devils Disciples motorcycle club, has been the target of a 6-month narcotics and weapons trafficking investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said.
Authorities said the probe stemmed from a federal undercover operation of another biker gang, the Mongols, in which Kinzey was identified as being involved in criminal activity.
The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation.
Time to walk on down the road…
This bobcat leapt 50 feet up a prickly cactus and stayed there for six hours to escape from a mountain lion in the Sonoran Desert, Gold Canyon, Arizona, United States.
The terrified feline climbed to the top of the Giant Saguaro Cactus and was so scared it stayed on top of the cactus for several hours.
Picture: Curt Fonger/solent
The Bobcat’s situation reminded me of this song:
Somewhere in the backround Diana Ross is singing to this lonely Bobcat…or the Bobcat is thinking there’s no mountain high enough so he had to get on top of this damn Giant Saguaro Cactus!
New photographs taken of a vast glacier in northern Greenland have revealed the astonishing rate of its breakup, with one scientist saying he was rendered "speechless."
In August 2010, part of the Petermann Glacier about four times the size of Manhattan island broke off , prompting a hearing in Congress.
Purple potatoes may help lower blood pressure
Pity the potato. It's widely blamed for the fattening of America . But a new study found that daily consumption of a certain type of potato -- purple ones, that is --- can help lower blood pressure, without causing weight gain.
While eating potatoes, most of the subjects -- even those on anti-hypertensive medications -- experienced lower blood pressure, and none of the subjects gained weight. The study, not yet published, was presented this week at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Denver.
Never mind ants in your pants, what about snakes and tortoises?
That's what authorities at Miami's international airport said they found inside the trousers of a passenger as he tried to board a flight for Brazil.The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said the man had seven exotic snakes and three tortoises wrapped in nylon bags that had been stuffed into his pants.
He was discovered as he went through a body scanner at one of the airport's security checkpoints on Thursday and arrested by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials for violating animal trafficking laws. photo
Time to walk on down the road…
Top congressional Republican John Boehner told the president to delay a planned jobs speech to a joint session of Congress by a day in order to avoid "impediments." Meaning the Republican presidential debate was set that day.
The House historian labeled Boehner's public rebuff as unprecedented. I guess this gives us all an idea what it’s going to be like when Congress is back in session. The partisanship will continue and Americans will once again be the losers.
Rich Shulman writes… “As a parent, I know that young children will cry about anything. But you have to wonder, isn't the natural fear of snakes a good thing?”
Arab Israeli children pose with a pet snake at an amusement park in the northern Israeli city of Acre on August 31 as Muslims celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Menahem Kahana / AFP - Getty Images
I finally hit the wall today. I can't think of what to say about all of the madness going on in this country right now. I'm a writer...