The passing of an icon: Don Knotts gives up the ‘Ghost’ at 81

"The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" star left audiences howling with delight.

Don Knotts, the saucer-eyed, scarecrow-thin comic actor best known for his roles as the high-strung small-town deputy Barney Fife on the 1960s CBS series "The Andy Griffith Show" and the leisure-suit-clad landlord Ralph Furley on ABC's '70s sitcom "Three's Company," has died. He was 81.

Don was one of my favorite comedians of all time. I loved every movie he ever starred in.  The Incredible Mr. Limpet" was one of his funniest movies in my opinion. RIP Don Knotts…you’ll be missed.

Finally Friday: Did you ever laugh so hard you thought you’d die?

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Glad you could join me this morning. The coffee’s hot and we’re burning daylight so let’s get with it shall we?

Have you ever laughed so hard you couldn’t get your breath and thought you were going to choke to death? A comedian named Jim Dailakis knows what that’s like. According to Dr. Martin Samuels, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, blacking out while laughing may be related to over-breathing, and is probably not too dangerous.

Store clerk opens up a can of you-know-what on assailant

Sorry Charlie! But no robbing this guy’s liquor store!

In what became the fight of his life, Benyahia grabbed something he knew might help, the hardest item on the shelf — a metal can of tuna.

In the video, you can see Hakim Benyahia hit the would-be robber on the head, just enough to shake him.

Dude! Tossed pot lands on police cruiser!

AP - State police say a man's effort to ditch some drugs from a moving car in western New York didn't exactly go as planned. Troopers with the state police Thruway detail say 20-year-old Sean Schmidt was standing with his upper body sticking out the sunroof of a vehicle traveling on Interstate 190 in Buffalo late Monday night.

When a trooper following in a state police cruiser activated the car lights to pull the other vehicle over, Schmidt threw a small bag of marijuana, which landed on the hood of the trooper's car.Troopers say Schmidt was ticketed for marijuana possession and not wearing a seat belt.

The coffee has kicked in and it’s time for me to head on down the road…

Summer by the Sea is Magical - Awash in Warm Colors and Mystery

Google image/ Anonymous Photographer

What America Needs: Young Entrepreneurs With Visions for a Future

From time to time, I talk about jobs in America. I’ve written why it’s so hard for young people today to find a job in this extended recession.

So, I’m always on the lookout for some good news on this subject. I recently read about a young entrepreneur who started an offline business at 16 years-old (in 2006), and who has steadily built his t-shirt business into a viable profit source online.

Graphic:  a screenshot of ooShirt’s Design Lab

Lei now employees six people, all current students or recent graduates from UC Berkeley. His company is called ooShirts, and he started out with $2,200 seed money. The UC Berkeley sophomore, who started ooShirts.com in his junior year at Cupertino's Monta Vista High School, represents a new wave of startups that require little or no capital.

“We're an "ultra-light" startup, meaning that we spend no money on direct advertising and generally make every penny count,” said Colleen Fitzgerald, an employee I recently talked with. This new business model requires a lot of hard work, but anyone with the desire could go the route that Lei has chosen.

One of the many aspects about Lei’s business is that he’s getting all of his t-shirts printed in locations throughout the USA. Lei couldn’t find inexpensive custom-shirts when he started out, so he built an easy-to-use website and found reliable suppliers who provide speedy deliveries.

Lei, a sophomore business major at the University of California-Berkeley, says his revenue is continuing to grow. "We grew from having about $30,000 in revenue per year all the way up about $2.2 million at the end of 2010," he says.

As It Stands, Lei is on the frontline for the new millennium of entrepreneurs that hopefully will generate more jobs during these hard times.

(Go to Custom shirts for more information)

Ammonia Treated Meat: Yummy! Some Pink Slime In That Burger?

Pink Slime? What’s That?

This product is actually called ammoniated boneless lean beef trimmings. Still not sure?  This is the cheapest, least desirable beef on offer – fatty sweepings from the slaughterhouse floor, which are notoriously rife with pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. Once swept up, the scraps are sent through a series of machines, which grinds them into a paste, separates out the fat, and laces the substance with ammonia to kill pathogens.

Sounds Tasty? It Gets Better!

The USDA allows this ammonia treated meat to enter the marketplace and with no labeling requirement on the packaging to inform the consumer that the meat they are about to buy contains ammonia. It is used to stretch the actual ground beef, and the USDA shockingly allows up to 15 percent of a ground beef product to be this filler and still be labeled ground beef.

On the premier of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution,” the British chef showed how “nasty pink slime,” as one FDA microbiologist calls it, is wrung in a centrifuge to remove the fat from the meat scraps, and then treated with ammonia to “retard spoilage,” and turned into “a mashlike substance frozen into blocks or chips”. You can view his show clicking here.

So if you are eating a burger, there’s a good chance that you are also eating Pink Slime. How yummy is that?

According to a New York Times article, The “majority of hamburger” now sold in the U.S. now contains fatty slaughterhouse trimmings “the industry once relegated to pet food and cooking oil,” “typically including most of the material from the outer surfaces of the carcass” that contains “larger microbiological populations.”

Read more here

Thursday Talk: Top FBI fugitive captured and some other stuff…

Good morning Humboldt County!

Pull up a chair and join me for some coffee or tea.  It’s another beautiful day in paradise. After being in the big city again, my appreciation for this area comes in waves of gratitude this morning for the opportunity to live here. Let’s get with it, shall we?

Fugitive mobster James 'Whitey' Bulger arrested

James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, has been captured near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said Wednesday.

The world's most adorable — and photogenic — animals

Ever heard someone say they don’t like animals? It’s a rare occurrence, and typically met with confused looks and protestations.

That’s because animals steal the show, drawing gasps and smiles from giddy onlookers, who scramble for their phones to snap photo after photo of each endearing or goofy expression.

Slideshow: World's most adorable animals

I'll have a 'Big Dirty' -- stirred, not shaken

Next time you’re in Washington, D.C., you can get down with the “Big Dirty.”

Wrap your arms around a hefty 48 ounces of your favorite cocktail — for just $80. And for $10 more, you get to keep the glass.  (Or save the money and the memory with a snapshot from your smartphone.) 

“It’s a good novelty thing, and a good way to brand ourselves,” said Walter Rhee, managing partner and director of operations at Dirty Martini, which sells about 35 to 40 of the supersize-me cocktails a week.

That’s all for now. Thanks for stopping by. Time for me to head on down the road…

Some common sense please: What will get you kicked off US Airways? Saggy pants or underpants?

I like to share stories like this where people simply don’t use common sense. You can’t tell me this guys get-up is better than saggy pants. I’ll take those baggy trousers every time. Can you imagine being the person sitting next to this cutie? I think he out-weinered Anthony Weiner!

US Airways has acknowledged that less than a week before having a college student arrested for allegedly refusing to hike up his saggy pants while boarding, the airline allowed a man (photo by another passenger, Jill Tarlow via AP) wearing little more than women’s underwear, black thigh-high stockings and heels to fly.

On June 16, University of New Mexico football player Deshon Marman was removed from a US Airways flight at San Francisco International Airport and arrested for refusing to follow crew members’ requests to hike up his saggy pants.

Members of Congress to introduce Historic Legislation Ending Marijuana Prohibition Thursday

This news just in:

The Legislation, Modeled after the Repeal of Alcohol Prohibition, Comes on the 40th Anniversary of the Failed War on Drugs and on the Heels of a Global Commission Report Recommending Marijuana Legalization

Teleconference: Rep. Barney Frank and Leading Organizations Working to End the Failed War on Marijuana Explain the Significance of the Legislation

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) will introduce bi-partisan legislation tomorrow, June 23, ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference. Other co-sponsors include Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA). The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, allowing people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal. The legislation is the first bill ever introduced in Congress to end federal marijuana prohibition.

Leading critics of the war on marijuana will explain its significance for state andnational marijuana policy at a national tele-press conference on Thursday.

What: Tele-Press Conference on the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011

When: Thursday, June 23. 2:00pm EST / 11am PST

Call-in Info: 1-800-311-9404; Passcode: Marijuana

Who:

• Representative Barney Frank (D-4th/MA)
• Aaron Houston, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP)
• Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project(MPP)
• Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)
• Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA)

Last week marked the 40th Anniversary of President Nixon declaring a war on marijuana and other drugs. In an oped in the New York Times last week, timed for the 40thAnniversary, former President Jimmy Carter called for reforming marijuana laws.

The legislation also comes on the heels of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which released a report on June 2 calling for a major paradigm shift in how our society deals with drugs, including calling for legal regulation of marijuana. The reportsent a jolt around the world, generating thousands of international media stories. The commission is comprised of international dignitaries including Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations; Richard Branson, entrepreneur, founder of the Virgin Group; and the former Presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Switzerland. Representing the U.S. on the commission are George P. Shultz, Paul Volcker, and John Whitehead.

46.5% of Californians voted last year to legalize marijuana in their state, and voters in Colorado, Washington and possibly other states are expected to vote on the issue next year. In the past year at least five state legislatures have considered legalizing marijuana, including California, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Washington. 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) continues to arrest people under federal law and U.S. Attorneys have in recent months sent threatening letters to state policymakers in an apparent attempt to meddle in state decision-making.

Rep. Frank's legislation would end state/federal conflicts over marijuana policy, reprioritize federal resources, and provide more room for states to do what is best for their own citizens.

It’s good to be back! Let’s see what’s happening today…

Good Morning Humboldt County!

Good to see you this morning. Grab a folding chair, stool, or beanbag and join me in having a cup of steaming hot Java or tea and we’ll see what we can see:

Spider Man sued for illegal Poker games 

Looks like actor spider man actor Tobey Maguire is in hot water over an illegal poker game in California.

Biblical proportions: Man builds full size Noah’s Ark

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Imagine going for a cruise on this boat!

Tiny art critics: Babies pick Picasso, study finds

The littlest art critics -- a bunch of 9-month-olds in Switzerland -- preferred the works of Picasso over Monet in a recent study.

Paintings by the Spanish artist appealed more to the diaper-clad set than those by the Frenchman in a series of five different experiments published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Now, you may wonder: How much insight can an infant offer when comparing cubism to impressionism?

"At 9-months of age, infants' vision is already much the same as in adults," says Trix Cacchione, a psychologist at the University of Zurich, and the study's lead author.

"To an infant, a painting is most likely only a perceptual pattern and their aesthetic preferences are most likely guided by low-level functions of the visual system."

That’s all for now. It sure is good to be back. Time for me to head on down the road…

I’m going on a Blog Break…

Time to recharge my batteries.

I’m stepping away from my word processor. My book. Newspaper columns. Daily posts on this blog. Making comments on other blogs or newspapers. I’m stepping away from them all. It’s time for me to walk on down the road…

See you next Wednesday – June 22nd. Please feel free to look over my column archives while I’m away. Peace.

The good news is: Lottery millionaire says he'll help charities, friends

I needed a feel-good story like this. The news has been so grim lately.

Ohio man on kidney dialysis plans to give back to those who helped him

LOGAN, Ohio — A local man won $5 million in the Ohio Lottery Tuesday, but even though he's dependent on kidney dialysis he’s already planning to share it.

Phillip Withem, of Logan, won the second chance drawing called the Top Prized Drawing.

"I'm going to help people because I love it. It makes me feel good and I think that's what God put us here for," he said.

Withem's life is sustained by kidney dialysis three times a week and said his sense of humor gets him by for now. He said his plans include helping some children's charities and friends who helped him during his illness.

image source  - story source