Wednesday, January 28, 2009
The Infamous Jessica Simpson Photo
Here's that pic of Jessica Simpson we talked about in the Celebrity Dirt Quick Shot. Ashlee says "STOP TALKING ABOUT JESSICA'S WEIGHT!!!" Amen.
Baby Born In Denver Library
DENVER - There wasn't time to look up any books on obstetrics before a woman gave birth in the Denver Public Library.
Library spokeswoman Celeste Jackson says the woman walked into the library, said she had been riding a city bus and was in labour.
She gave birth just inside the library entrance.
Staffers and security guards helped until paramedics arrived and took the mother and newborn girl to Denver Health Medical Centre.
Jackson said staffers didn't yet know their names but they want to send flowers. She says it's never happened before.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Never break up with a Prince on Facebook. He will turn you orange.
Chelsy Davy has returned to Leeds University looking decidedly orange days after her split with Prince Harry was announced.
The 23-year-old student had applied a deep layer of fake tan - possibly to perk up her complexion following several nights of soul-searching over the collapse of her five-year romance.
A bronzed Davy smiled for the cameras after leaving her student house in Leeds to walk to class with a group of friends shortly after 9.30am.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Couple Gets Married FIVE Times In ONE Year
Romantic Simonne and Ryan Feeney have celebrated their fifth marriage to each other in less than a year.
They first tied the knot in March at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas.
Since then, Mr Feeney, 36, and his 31-year-old bride have wed in Turkey, Britain, the US and finally in Australia.
Mrs Feeney, from Milton Keynes, said: 'It has been the best year of my life.'
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Creepy Mailman Reads Your Letters!
DETROIT — There were jokes and snickers at a Michigan post office when customers learned that an overwhelmed carrier had rented a storage unit to hide thousands of pieces of mail.
"I heard a couple of people come in and say, 'Can I pick up my mail — or is it in storage?"' said Annette Koss, the postmaster in Howell, 50 miles northwest of Detroit. "We just didn't understand it. It's such a stupid thing to do."
Jill Hull pleaded guilty Tuesday to deserting the mail, a misdemeanor. The case is rare but it happens: From North Carolina to North Dakota, carriers in recent months have been hauled to court for failing to fulfill their routes.
Mail has been found in basements, garages and, in Hull's case, a self-storage unit in Michigan's Livingston County. In North Carolina, a mail carrier admitted to keeping junk mail buried in his backyard.
In September, after she had failed to pay her bill, managers opened Hull's unit and discovered thousands of pieces of unopened mail, including 988 first-class letters. Some had postmarks from 2005.
"I was unable to deliver all the mail," Hull, 34, said during a brief hearing in federal court in Detroit.
In a court filing, postal investigator Douglas Mills said Hull had planned to catch up with late payments and apparently keep the mail under lock and key until she died.
No one on the rural route had complained about missing any mail.
"Looking back at her time sheets, she was leaving early everyday," said Koss, who became postmaster shortly after the discovery. "It's like it got dark and she didn't know what to do with the mail."
Hull and her attorney had no comment after the guilty plea. The maximum penalty is a year in prison, but Hull is hoping for probation.
The Postal Service says there were 333 cases of theft, delay or destruction of mail by employees or contractors filed in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. A California postal manager was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing thousands of DVDs.
More than 600,000 postal employees last March received a reminder in their pay statement that delaying, stealing or throwing away mail is a crime. "You don't have to be a genius to know," it said with an image of Albert Einstein.
"It's not a systemic issue; the majority of employees are hardworking and honest," said Agapi Doulaveris, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's internal investigators.
Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan said steadily decreasing mail volume — down by 9 billion pieces in the last fiscal year — and route changes should help alleviate any stress felt by carriers.
In North Dakota, Allen Prochnow, 62, will be sentenced in March for delaying mail for 10 years. Four tons were removed from his house in Wahpeton, including 3,000 pieces of first-class mail.
"He'd see a magazine he'd like to read and pretty soon it was quite a bit of mail," lawyer John Goff said. "A lot of it was piled neatly along walls in the house. In his own mind he was building a bunker. ... His most frequent answer has been, 'I don't know why."'
A tip from a meter reader led authorities last year to the home of Steven Padgett, 59, a carrier who delivered in the Apex, N.C., area. Authorities used four trucks to remove third-class mail that had been stashed in his garage for six years.
Padgett felt "it was almost a relief to get caught," lawyer Andrew McCoppin said in a court filing.
"He denied that it stemmed from an anti-junk mail moral protest. It seems more likely that this man ... could not admit to himself or his employer that he was beginning to have difficulty getting the job done," McCoppin said.
Padgett was placed on probation and fined $3,000 — a penalty that was mostly paid by MailChimp, an Atlanta company that specializes in marketing through e-mail, not traditional mail.
"We're doing everything we can to stop junk mail. We can relate" with Padgett, said co-founder Ben Chestnut, tongue in cheek.
"I heard a couple of people come in and say, 'Can I pick up my mail — or is it in storage?"' said Annette Koss, the postmaster in Howell, 50 miles northwest of Detroit. "We just didn't understand it. It's such a stupid thing to do."
Jill Hull pleaded guilty Tuesday to deserting the mail, a misdemeanor. The case is rare but it happens: From North Carolina to North Dakota, carriers in recent months have been hauled to court for failing to fulfill their routes.
Mail has been found in basements, garages and, in Hull's case, a self-storage unit in Michigan's Livingston County. In North Carolina, a mail carrier admitted to keeping junk mail buried in his backyard.
In September, after she had failed to pay her bill, managers opened Hull's unit and discovered thousands of pieces of unopened mail, including 988 first-class letters. Some had postmarks from 2005.
"I was unable to deliver all the mail," Hull, 34, said during a brief hearing in federal court in Detroit.
In a court filing, postal investigator Douglas Mills said Hull had planned to catch up with late payments and apparently keep the mail under lock and key until she died.
No one on the rural route had complained about missing any mail.
"Looking back at her time sheets, she was leaving early everyday," said Koss, who became postmaster shortly after the discovery. "It's like it got dark and she didn't know what to do with the mail."
Hull and her attorney had no comment after the guilty plea. The maximum penalty is a year in prison, but Hull is hoping for probation.
The Postal Service says there were 333 cases of theft, delay or destruction of mail by employees or contractors filed in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. A California postal manager was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing thousands of DVDs.
More than 600,000 postal employees last March received a reminder in their pay statement that delaying, stealing or throwing away mail is a crime. "You don't have to be a genius to know," it said with an image of Albert Einstein.
"It's not a systemic issue; the majority of employees are hardworking and honest," said Agapi Doulaveris, spokeswoman for the Postal Service's internal investigators.
Postal Service spokesman Gerry McKiernan said steadily decreasing mail volume — down by 9 billion pieces in the last fiscal year — and route changes should help alleviate any stress felt by carriers.
In North Dakota, Allen Prochnow, 62, will be sentenced in March for delaying mail for 10 years. Four tons were removed from his house in Wahpeton, including 3,000 pieces of first-class mail.
"He'd see a magazine he'd like to read and pretty soon it was quite a bit of mail," lawyer John Goff said. "A lot of it was piled neatly along walls in the house. In his own mind he was building a bunker. ... His most frequent answer has been, 'I don't know why."'
A tip from a meter reader led authorities last year to the home of Steven Padgett, 59, a carrier who delivered in the Apex, N.C., area. Authorities used four trucks to remove third-class mail that had been stashed in his garage for six years.
Padgett felt "it was almost a relief to get caught," lawyer Andrew McCoppin said in a court filing.
"He denied that it stemmed from an anti-junk mail moral protest. It seems more likely that this man ... could not admit to himself or his employer that he was beginning to have difficulty getting the job done," McCoppin said.
Padgett was placed on probation and fined $3,000 — a penalty that was mostly paid by MailChimp, an Atlanta company that specializes in marketing through e-mail, not traditional mail.
"We're doing everything we can to stop junk mail. We can relate" with Padgett, said co-founder Ben Chestnut, tongue in cheek.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
72 Year Old Retires After 36 years at McDonalds
Nell Pierce-Boykin, of Stockbridge, is 72 years old and definitely a people person.
For the last 14 years, she has driven a green, 1994 Buick to the McDonald's on Mt. Zion Parkway in Morrow at 4:30 a.m., to manage the morning shift.
Over the years, she has gained a loyal following of satisfied customers, turned friends, turned fans, who come from miles around for more than just the biscuits and coffee.
"Really, the best time is the morning, because you just get to know people," said Pierce-Boykin. "As the evening goes along, people just come in and out.
"We pay attention, we know what they are going to order in the morning and it makes a difference," she said. "Knowing if they want well-done biscuits, knowing the number of butters or the number of jellies they want, people appreciate little thoughtful things like that."
Pierce-Boykin started her career at McDonald's in 1970 in Forest Park, and since 1984, has managed five different stores in the Southern Crescent. This past Wednesday, thanks to an enormous stroke of luck, she was able to retire after 39 years.
On Dec. 14, her son, Dwayne Pierce, of Senoia, Ga., won $750,000 in a Georgia State Lottery scratch-off game. With the money from his winnings, he replaced her '94 Buick with a new Toyota Camry, and paid off the mortgage on her house.
"I have a 1,000 things I want to do now," Pierce-Boykin said.
Ray Justice, 75, franchise owner of the Mt. Zion Parkway McDonald's, as well as the Hudson Bridge Road location, said Pierce-Boykin has been with him for the majority of his 50 years working for McDonald's. He said she has made a difference at every store in which she has worked.
"In the fast food business, which has a turnover rate of 300 percent, to have someone stay for 39 years kind of breaks all those records," he said. "She had a true following. When people found out that she was at different stores, they would make a point to go back."
Justice said Pierce-Boykin's friendliness and attention to detail rubbed off on all of her employees. "You can get more with sugar than with vinegar with people," he said. "That's what she has applied her whole career ... let's treat people like human beings and we'll get the results we want, and that applied to the customers, too."
Pierce-Boykin's style of management has also rubbed off on many young people in the Southern Crescent, who have left McDonald's to go on to notable careers. Jeff Turner, chief of the Clayton County Police Department, worked for her at the age of 16, at the McDonald's on Jonesboro Road, near Southlake Mall in Morrow.
"I've only had two jobs in my life, McDonald's and the police department," said Turner. "That was the first job I ever got, and Nell was the manager and a sweet lady. She was fun to work for, but no-nonsense.
"The one thing I remember is that with her employees, when she dealt with us, she was always fair," he said. "We, as people, draw our management techniques from our life experiences. It might be a stretch going from flipping burgers to protecting the people of Clayton County, but the principals are the same when it comes to management."
Pierce-Boykin said the McDonald's franchise has been good to her as well. In 2001, she married her second husband, Joe Boykin, who was, at the time, an employee of the Clayton County Sheriff's Department, and a regular customer at the Mt. Zion Parkway location.
Her daughter, Donna Langston, of Tampa, Fla., met her husband, Miles Langston, an Air Force air traffic controller, while working at the Forest Parkway and Jonesboro Road McDonald's in Forest Park.
"We're all McDonald's people," she said. "Mr. Justice always says we have ketchup in our blood."
Pierce-Boykin said her immediate plans are to stay retired, travel more, and make more trips to Tampa, Fla., and Biloxi, Miss. She hopes other restaurants in the area will maintain the philosophy she has tried to spread for the last 39 years.
"There were times when I did have problems at home, but leave your problems at home," she said. "The customer doesn't have to bear the weight of it. If you can stay positive, the customer will feel it."
Monday, January 19, 2009
Christina -- Rugged Face
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Boy Licks Frozen Light Pole, Gets Stuck
HAMMOND, Ind. -- In a scene straight out of the movie "A Christmas Story," a 10-year-old Hammond boy got his tongue stuck to a metal light pole.
Police said the unidentified fourth-grader was able to tell them that a friend dared him to lick the pole Wednesday night. Temperatures in Hammond were around 10 degrees at the time.
By the time an ambulance arrived, the boy was able to yank his tongue off the frozen pole.
Police said ambulance personnel explained to the boy's mother how to care for his bleeding tongue.
The 1983 movie is set in a fictional city based on Hammond, the hometown of author Jean Shepherd.
Teen Charged With Spaghetti Sauce Vandalism
FRISCO, Texas -- -- An Allen teen armed himself with jars of spaghetti sauce and went on a vandalism spree, Frisco police said.
Jonathan William Kirby damaged several residences and vehicles by throwing the jars, they said.
They said the 18-year-old caused more than $6,000 in damages between July and November 2008.
He faces nine counts of criminal mischief.
According to investigators, media coverage of his vandalism inspired Kirby to continue.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Wanted: Hubby For 107-Year-Old Bride
*107-year-old Chinese woman never married
*Makes up her mind it's finally time
*Wants man roughly her own age
A 107-year-old Chinese woman who was afraid to marry when she was young has decided to look for her first husband and hopes to find a fellow centenarian so they will have something to talk about, a Chinese paper reported.
Wang Guiying is worried she is becoming a burden to her aging nieces and nephews since breaking her leg when she was 102 and had to stop doing chores like washing her clothes.
"I'm already 107 and I still haven't got married," the Chongqing Commercial Times quoted her saying.
"What will happen if I don't hurry up and find a husband?"
Born in southern Guizhou province the child of a salt merchant, Ms Wang grew up watching her uncles and other men scold and beat their wives and often found her aunt crying in the woodshed after an attack, the paper said.
"All the married people around there lived like that. Getting married was too frightening," she said of an era when Chinese women had few rights and low social standing.
After ms Wang's father, mother and older sister died, she still shied away from marriage.
Instead she moved to the countryside and survived as a farmer until she was 74 years old and no longer strong enough to work in the fields, the report said.
Her nephew in the booming city of Chongqing then took Ms Wang in, but she is worried he and her other nephews and nieces are too old to take care of her now even the youngest is 60.
"My nephews and nieces are getting older and their children are already tied up with their own families and I am becoming more and more of a burden," she said.
Local officials have said they are happy to help Ms Wang search for a 100-year old groom, and suggested her family get in touch with old people's homes to find candidates, the paper said.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Exoctic Dancer Busted for not Reporting $80,000 in TIPS!!!
A former exotic dancer who allegedly made about $80,000 in tips during one year is now facing multiple felony charges for failing to report the money as income.
Stephanie Antes, 28, of Albertville, is charged with five felony counts and one gross misdemeanor count of failing to file and pay income taxes and filing a false income tax return, according to the Minnesota Department of Revenue.
Antes worked as an exotic dancer and waitress at Rick's Cabaret in Minneapolis between 2004 and 2006. A tipster called the Department of Revenue to report that Antes had made around $80,000 per year in tips that she didn't report.
According to the criminal charges, her bank statements showed that she deposited $27,000 in 2004 and $76,000 in 2005, exceeding the income amounts she reported for those years by thousands of dollars.
She also received a large state refund in 2005 because she claimed both of her children as dependents, even though their father also claimed them.
Antes did not return calls for comment, but according to her MySpace page, she graduated from North Hennepin Community College with a degree in nursing in 2005.
If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine or both for each felony, and up to one year in prison, a $3,000 fine or both for the gross misdemeanor.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Man Arrested For Biting Engagement Ring Off Fiancee's Hand
An Albuquerque man was arrested after he allegedly tried to bite his fiance's engagement ring off her finger this week.
According to a criminal complaint, Matthew Sandoval, 23, was arguing with his fiance because she was planning to spend the night at her mother's house. In the course of the scuffle, Sandoval bit through the ring finger of his fiance's right hand in an attempt to remove the engagement ring, although she was wearing it on her left hand. Sandoval told police he wasn't stopping his fiance from leaving, he just wanted the ring back. Nowhere in the complaint does it indicate that he asked nicely before resorting to biting.
Police later found Sandoval at his mother's house, where he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a household member. At last check, he was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $5,000 bond.
According to a criminal complaint, Matthew Sandoval, 23, was arguing with his fiance because she was planning to spend the night at her mother's house. In the course of the scuffle, Sandoval bit through the ring finger of his fiance's right hand in an attempt to remove the engagement ring, although she was wearing it on her left hand. Sandoval told police he wasn't stopping his fiance from leaving, he just wanted the ring back. Nowhere in the complaint does it indicate that he asked nicely before resorting to biting.
Police later found Sandoval at his mother's house, where he was arrested and charged with aggravated battery on a household member. At last check, he was being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center on a $5,000 bond.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
84-year-old Woman Banned from Driving for the Next 1000 Years
AN 84-year-old pensioner has been banned from driving for the next 1000 years.
Luba Relic, who in her early 80s clashed with her neighbours in court 78 times, has hit her mid 80s with an appearance for negligent driving, driving without a licence and failing to give particulars.
The Warriewood pensioner was already banned from driving until 2999 when she fronted Manly Court but a magistrate added a year for her latest misdemeanours.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Amy Winehouse's New Man!!!
There ARE Bugs In Your Food
As it turns out, there really may be a bug in your soup.
The Food and Drug Administration has finalized a rule that will require food companies to list cochineal extract and carmine on the label when they are used in food and cosmetics. But the new rule contains one glaring omission. It doesn’t require companies to tell you that the ingredients come from a bug.
Cochineal extract and carmine, used to dye food, drinks and cosmetics various shades of red, orange, pink and purple, are extracted from the dried bodies of the female cochineal bug.
The F.D.A. typically doesn’t require color additives to be named on food labels. For years, the bug extracts “have been hidden under the terms ‘artificial colors’ or ‘color added,’ ” according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The group says the extracts are commonly used in reddish-colored foods and beverages, including fruit drinks, ice creams, yogurts and candies.
However, the F.D.A. required the ingredients be listed after University of Michigan allergist Dr. James L. Baldwin reported that some of his patients suffered severe allergic reactions to the bug extracts. After C.S.P.I. petitioned the F.D.A. in 1998, the group also received several dozen adverse-reaction reports from consumers.
In a statement, the group criticized the ruling, noting that labels should make it clear that the extracts come from bugs. They argue that people with allergies who want to avoid the foods for health reasons are well aware of what the ingredients are made from. But vegetarians and people of certain religious faiths who would typically avoid a bug-based product may not be aware of the origins of the extracts without more disclosure on the food label.
But the F.D.A. said that the labeling rule that requires companies to just list the name of the ingredient and nothing else gives “adequate information” to consumers who want to avoid the bug-based colorants for religious or dietary reasons. The new rule will take effect in 2011.
Couple Gets Married... For the 60th Time!!!
They are in love now as much as when they first tied the knot and to show it Margaret and John Beauvoisin have walked up the aisle together a staggering 60 times.
The couple married on December 27 in 1948 and have renewed their vows every year since 1950.
They only missed renewing their vows in 1949 because John was stationed thousands of miles away in Bermuda with the Royal Navy.
Soul mates: Margaret and John Beauvoisin
Each year since they have taken their rings off to be blessed before putting them back on again.
And 60 years after they first wed, the couple, now in their 80s, said there was still magic in the air as they tied the knot for their diamond wedding anniversary.
Each said they got a lump in their throat as they exchanged rings at the Sacred Heart Church in Waterlooville, near Portsmouth, Hants on December 27.
No fewer than ten of the couple's 11 children - together with most of their 23 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren - were there to see it.
Margaret, 81, of Waterlooville, said: 'It reinforces our promise to love and care for one another.'
The couple met at a dance at a hall in nearby Southsea.
The couple on their wedding day in 1948
'It was by accident really,' said Margaret. 'He was sitting in my chair and I went to sit next to him.
'Then he got up and I thought he was asking me to dance.
'He hadn't really intended to ask me it turns out, but we spent the rest of the night dancing and he saw me home.'
The moment they said farewell still brings a chuckle.
Margaret laughed: 'I asked what his name was, and he said Oswald. I said "Do people really call you that?"
'He said his middle name was John, so I said "I'm going to call you that instead".'
The couple married at St Swithun's Church in Southsea on December 27, 1948.
In the 1940s Margaret was the first female engineering student to attend Portsmouth Municipal College.
Home life eventually took over, however, and the couple went on to have 11 children - Odet, now 59, Catherine, 56, Christopher, 54, Peter, 53, Mary, 51, Bernard, 50, Gerard, 49, Hilda, 47, Laurence, 46, Anna, 42, and Dominic, 41.
Later in life John worked for the Post Office and Margaret was a Labour councillor and remains an active member of the party.
She also taught maths at South Downs College in Waterlooville for many years until she retired at 67.
On the secret to a happy marriage, Margaret said: 'He loves me and looks after me. We have remained faithful and love our family.'
'Unlike my mother I'm a terrible housewife really and not very good at keeping the house clean.
'But John puts up with that and keeps on loving me and looking after me.'
Mr Beauvoisin, 84, joked: 'I still love her somehow.'
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