Misaddressed marijuana goes to elderly Pennsylvania couple

“Police say an elderly Pennsylvania couple was the unintended recipient of a very seedy delivery: a five-pound brick of marijuana.”

What’s with the seeds? Doesn’t sound like grade A Buds to me.

“Police in Upper Darby, just outside Philadelphia, say the couple paid little attention to the package when it was delivered last week. Not recognizing the name, they left it on their porch, expecting it to be picked up.

When nobody claimed the package, the couple opened it to find what police say was $10,000 in high-grade marijuana.”

Again…what’s with the seeds? Sounds like a brick of Mexican pot to me. Hardly hi-grade.

“Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood tells the Delaware County Daily Times the couple gave the package to police, who determined the return address in Tollison, Ariz., was fake.”

Who would of guessed? A fake return address. How clever. Except for the fact that whoever sent it got the wrong address! Or, did they????

“Chitwood says the department sees about a half-dozen similar deliveries a year and can sometimes track down the sender.”

Those senders they do track down probably put their real return address on the package – giving at least one clue to the cops. They’re not the brightest bulbs in the marijuana grow!

Information from: Delaware County Daily Times, http://www.delcotimes.com

Monday morning meanderings …

Actually it’s almost Monday afternoon (11:45) a.m.) but I’m moving slowly this morning. As I slugged down some Joe and scanned the headlines I found this interesting tidbit: Alligator finds its way into woman's bathroom 

How did the gator get in there you ask? Apparently he went in the doggie door – all seven feet of him! Got a hunch that doggie door s going to get nailed shut.

As a Laker fan it was hard to watch the game last night as; It all went wrong for Lakers in 93-88 loss at New Orleans

What made this loss so bad is that Kobe injured his ankle and I can’t see him being 100% for Tuesday’s game at Staples Arena. If you look at the other top seeds in the West, they too are struggling to take down their less-favored opponents. The Year of the Great Upset? I sure hope not – at least in the Lakers case!

The Dodgers are really looking good as their run production has steadily increased in the last five games.

Andre Ethier (pictured here) extends his hitting streak to 21 games. The Dodgers have scored 38 runs in their last five games after averaging 3.2 in their first 18.

Dodgers defeat Cubs, 7-3, as run production continues to improve

As a Dodger fan (you probably guessed that or read it on my profile) I’m encouraged that the team is improving despite the problems with ownership and the league having to take over the running of the Dodger organization for monetary reasons.

In Yemen, female anti-government protesters are demanding the resignation of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in Sana.

Two demonstrators have been killed and dozens of others wounded in continued clashes between security forces and protesters. Photo by Muhammed Muheisen /AP

I’ll bet you didn’t even know that today is WORLD PENGUIN DAY! Don’t feel bad as I’m sure there are others out there that were unaware of this special day for our tuxedo clad birds worldwide. Make sure to hug a penguin today in case you see one.

 

In England and Australia today they are celebrating the ANZAC forces during WW II for their part in winning the war.

Today seems to be a day for a lot of memorial things and activities.

This morning on the “Good Morning America” show Mariah Carey (pictured here) sang for the masses in Times-Square.

That’s about all for now, I need to shuffle on down the road…

As It Stands: Ultimate survivors -- cats and their reputed 9 lives

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

There are reasons why people say cats have nine lives.

I suspect the phrase originated because cats have a surprising ability to survive adversity. Just about every cat owner has a story about how their feline got into trouble and survived.

Why nine lives, you ask? I wondered too so I did a little research and found University of Winnipeg English professor Mark Morton who offers three possibilities for picking the number nine:

“First, it's pretty clear it would have to be one of the many numbers that has traditional significance in Western culture, of which nine is among the most resonant.

“While seven, for example, is almost always positive and 13 is almost always negative, nine can have both positive and negative connotations: for example, cloud nine versus the nine rivers of hell. I think this may reflect our ambivalent cultural attitude toward the cat.

“Third, assonance often plays a role in such idioms. In this case, the long 'i' in both nine and lives functions as a near rhyme, as is even more clear in 'a stitch in time saves nine.'”

I was raised with cats. At a very early age, my mother made me go under the house to “rescue” our cat Tiger, an enormous orange tabby with an attitude, when he was fighting with another feline. This happened more times than I care to think about. I remember their glowing eyes and high pitched screeches practically paralyzed me as I crawled around trying to “rescue” that red devil!

Did I mention that Tiger and I weren't on the best of terms? He once ate my pet bird; a rescued sparrow I named Sammy. Memories of tossing rocks at fighting felines and hoping they'd cease combat in the moist darkness below my parent's house still send shivers down my spine.

Don't get me wrong. I love cats and have had a few, during 36 years of marriage, that were really special. Asia, a Siamese, was our family favorite. He lived 19 years before we had to put him down because he couldn't walk or see. Talk about a survivor.

When we lived in 29 Palms, Asia was attacked by a pack of coyotes. Somehow, he got outside when we went to bed (we were always careful to make sure he was inside as we knew coyotes were plentiful) and ran into a vicious pack of nocturnal desert predators.

My wife woke up when she heard “yipping” sounds outside our bedroom. She glanced out the window, opened the closet and grabbed my shotgun -- sans ammo -- because she couldn't reach high enough to get it, and charged outside screaming at the top of her lungs. I followed.

The coyotes were playing a game of hot potato with Asia. They were so startled they dropped him and ran away. We gently picked him up (he was in shock), and ran to the local veterinarian's house and woke him up. He put in more than one hundred stitches and told us it didn't look good for Asia.

We took Asia home, and after a couple of days he started eating and drinking again. One life less, he recovered and moved on. There was another situation, while we lived in La Quinta (another happy hunting ground for coyotes), when Asia got out and disappeared for several days.

I, my wife and our three sons, were heartbroken and gave him up as a goner. Then one night at 3 a.m. my wife heard a scratching and familiar meow. She got up and let Asia in, none the worse for wear. Her happy voice greeting Asia woke the rest of us, and we all danced around the house like idiots!

Asia was our last cat. As much as we loved him and his feline predecessors, my wife and I decided we were tired of cleaning up a cat box (the one big negative about having a cat). The kids were gone, and it was just the two of us.

About a year later, we got a Pug puppy. That's all she wrote. We're on our second Pug and wouldn't think of having any other pet. She brings the benefit of doing her “business” outside, and of being a great companion. As we all know, cats are pretty independent. Dogs tend to be better companions because they simply adore us, and don't want to be separated from us.

As It Stands, I still have a lot of respect for cats and can relate to their built-in ability to survive in tough situations.

WEBSITES CARRYING THIS COLUMN:

 PUGS Monthly

CatPedia - The Cat Encyclopedia

Enjoy your Saturday Night Live…

 

                     Black & White Photo                                            color photo

More U.S. Soldiers Killed Themselves Than Died in Combat in 2010

For the second year in a row, more American soldiers—both enlisted men and women and veterans—committed suicide than were killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Excluding accidents and illness, 462 soldiers died in combat, while 468 committed suicide. A difference of six isn't vast by any means, but the symbolism is significant and troubling. In 2009, there were 381 suicides by military personnel, a number that also exceeded the number of combat deaths.

"If you think you know the one thing that causes people to commit suicide, please let us know,” Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli told the Army Times, "because we don't know what it is."  Story Here

Check out this amazing time lapse video of Milky Way

Terje Sorgjerd, the photographer behind the viral video The Aurora, has done it again. Sogjerd captures the Milky Way over El Teide, Spain’s highest mountain.

Filmed between April 4 and April 11, 2011, the individual frames were shot using a Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 17mm TSE, Canon 16-35mm II, Canon 24/1.4II, and Sigma 12-24mm.

GO HERE TO SEE VIDEO    Image via Vimeo screengrab

A poem by Ogen Nash…

The centipede was happy quite

Until a toad, in fun,

Said, "Pray, which leg goes after which When you begin to run?

That worked her mind to such a pitch,

She lay distracted in a ditch,

Considering how to run.

15 Bizarre Mental Delusions other than the ‘Birthers!’

When you are delusional, you lose the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. You know, like the “Birthers” right now. Sufferers stumble through life, constricted by pseudo-worlds of their own making. Although the term was first coined in 1977, symptoms of delusion have been recorded for over 150 years.

1. Capgras Delusion

In the heat of an argument it’s normal to want to disown your parents or kids, but for the sufferer of Capgras delusions that feeling never goes away. It’s commonly caused when the “wire” that connects the visual section of the brain to the emotional section is damaged. As a result, the sufferer sees their loved ones but no emotional response is triggered; they truly believe that the person in front of them is nothing more than an imposter.

source

Read about the other fourteen mental delusions here.

'Birther' claims force GOP leaders to take a stand – fact or fiction?

It's the conspiracy theory that won't go away. And it's forcing Republican officials and presidential contenders to pick sides: Do they think Barack Obama was born outside the United States and disqualified to be president? Story Here

Donald Duck Trump is talking like a presidential candidate and is actually leading top Republicans like Mitt Romney and former Gov. Mike Huckabee in the polls. OMG!

I think the Republican Party better get their collective heads out of their asses and ignore the “Birther” mania coming from the extremists. If they want to maintain any credibility in the upcoming 2012 elections they should cut the ties with the wackaloons who ignore facts and reality. Some Republicans frontrunners are admitting they know the president was born in Hawaii. Even Tea Party favorite, Michele Bachmann, grudgingly let go of the myth on TV recently: 

“When ABC's George Stephanopoulos showed a copy of Obama's birth certificate to Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, who was ambivalent at first, she said: "Well, then, that should settle it. ... I take the president at his word."

But that’s not going to stop those who simply hate Obama. The Republican Party is at a crossroads of credibility with the American public. Those who rise to the top and become viable contenders will have to cut ties to the vicious myths surrounding the president’s birthplace, unless they want to alienate Independent voters who don’t play the “Birther” game.

Meanwhile, oh what a circus this is shaping up to be! When you have clowns like “The Donald” in the main ring it’s going to be a show to remember. 

As It Stands, I recommend not sitting in the front row when the fun starts because there will be much fecal matter being thrown about during that three-ring  performance.

Guest Opinion: Class Warfarin: Dosage

Why Americans are not upset by the steady siphoning of wealth from the many to the very few is a question that confounds, more confounding than probing into America's love affair with the automobile because class and conflict are words, like Lord Voldemort, that cannot be uttered. Unfortunately, we are gladly feasting on what makes this silence possible.

by Joseph Natoli

“It’s crazy, but when I hear talk of “class warfare” in these Obama days we are in, I think of the rat poison Warfarin and the insidious way it kills.

Warfarin, according to our Delphic Oracle – Wikipedia – is the most widely prescribed anticoagulant drug in North America. Some thirty five years ago, I used it on my Oxley Holl’er West Virginia farm to poison a swarm of rats that had settled under the house for the winter. It’s got some persuasive talking points: one, the rats don’t eat it, croak and rot in place – under the house – but feed on it for days, wander away from the house seeking water, drink and die, and two, wise and closely observing rats can’t connect eating the poison and eventual death. They go on munching away while observing in the distance the death throes of their buddies. Maybe the expression “die like a rat” in some kind of loathsome, dark and mysterious way derives from this.”  Story Here 

The idea of class struggle and class conflict is foreign to American culture. We are all brought up to think we are one big, happy family.
—Howard Zinn

Every violent reform deserves censure, for it quite fails to remedy evil while men remain what they are, and also because wisdom needs no violence.
—Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

If you think you’re free, there’s no escape possible.
-Ram Dass

Kobe and Pau = KaPow! Lakers swat Hornets 100-86, take series lead

I just found out that Pau Gasol has been playing with a chest cold. Tonight he must have been feeling better because he scored 17 points and hauled down 10 rebounds in the Laker’s win.

Bynum continued to be a big factor, scoring 14 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. Kobe was Kobe and scored 30 points. That’s the 80th playoff game he’s done that in now. Wow! Only one other player in NBA history exceeds that number. Can you guess who? I’ll give the answer tomorrow with a short update on this post.

Go Lakers!

(4/23) The answer to the question is: Michael Jordan (who else?)

photo source