The Saturday Picture Show, November 9, 2024

 

Hi folks. I'm Jack, the Ghost of Halloween Past, and I'm here to remind you it's time to take the Halloween decorations down and pull out the pilgrims and turkeys.

Shooting a movie and you don't have the money to pay for a stadium-sized crowd of spectators? That's where these guys come in. They're the Inflatable Crowd company, and they'll fill the seats with balloon people.

The Canadian view of autumn splendor.

Macaws or toucans? Nope. They're Oriental Pied Hornbills. You know, as in "Four and twenty blackbirds.."

Do you recognize this man? He and Donald Trump have something in common. Tell your History teacher about it!

Our beautiful national symbol.

I'm not encouraging you to run off and join a traveling troupe of hedonists, but certain things remind us to go find our joy and hold it close!

We had a bug matching this description flying around the kitchen this week...or was it another new bug every day? Only saw one at a time. And look how nicely he blended in with the paint!

Just in time for holiday mirth-making - your own private nog dispenser!

Godfather fans will recognize this scene as Clemenza's house. Cannoli fans will recognize being told not to forget the cannoli!

Vacation, all I ever wanted

 I don't know much about current music, but I know Olivia Rodrigo is popular in that field, so good for her. She's a strong, smart woman at 21, and I was thoroughly impressed to read that she has a question she always asks guys on a first date.

Here's the question:  “I always ask them if they would want to go to space.”

Warning to potential Olivia daters: give the wrong answer, and there is no second date.

Hint to potential Olivia daters:  “And if they say yes, I don’t date them.”

And I love her explanation:  “I just think if you want to go to space, you’re a little too full of yourself.” 

It's rare to find a young person whose attitude matches mine perfectly, but really, she does in this case. For all I know, that's all we have in common, philosophically.

This is just my thinking, and yours is probably different, but there is a lot to see and do here on what we still call Earth. There are sights to look at and music to hear and art to appreciate and food to taste and the lovely aroma of cheese bread baking. None of these treats are available in space, except for the music, if you take your MP3 player. 

I understand it makes me an outlier or even an outcast, but as far back as I can remember, I didn't see the point of men walking on the moon while women were back here doing worthwhile things. You go to the moon, you get moon rocks, but if you go to the beach here, you get rocks tumbled to pretty perfection over the years in Davy Jones's locker AND you get some of the greatest pizza in this world, and a chance to get a nice tan. 

And the trip home from the moon? Not a WaWa in sight, so you just have to hold it til you get back.

Go ahead, go to the moon. Olivia and I will miss you a lot.

Don't worry about it

 There are things I wonder about....

You know how you'll be paging through Facebook or whatever else and see a post with a message such as, "Facebook doesn't want you to see this. Let's make sure it keeps going."

And it's perfectly innocuous picture of a little child praying or something else completely anodyne.

Why is it that some people love to feel like they're being trampled upon? Does daring to post something that no one is trying to ban make them feel better, or stronger, or what?

I was thinking about the days of COVID 19...the very early period. Someone I know shared a meme that said, "COVID 19 stands for Chinese-Origin Viral Infectious Disease #19." This allowed people to blame something on people from far away, which is always a popular option.

As far back as the ancients making up myths to explain things they had not developed means to understand (the weather, the origin of the world, the lives of the gods, the meaning of various social customs, etc) because people just want something to cling to.  A good example is when parents who lack the information to explain what thunder is tell their children who ask what thunder is that it's "God bowling." 

But as far as believing that Mark Zuckerberg is sitting in his Barca-Lounger Xing out pictures that have religious themes, don't count on that happening. But as to why people like to feel that it is, you got me wondering too.

Meanwhile, according to his posts and pics, Zuckerberg is dealing with a house full of girls who are all getting into ballet, and wearing jewelry himself, so post what you want and feel good about it!

Lost and loss

A neighbor noticed that a package on the porch had not been taken in, and alertly notified the police.

Up in Alexander, Maine, John Helmstadter, 82, and Pamela Helmstadter, 72, had gone for a woodsy walk. They didn't take cellphones; perhaps they didn't plan to be that long out there on the trail, but then John fell, and was unable to get back on his feet. So Pamela went walking to get help, but she became lost. For four days and four frigid nights she was in the woods, and thank the stars that her dog was with her. When the Maine Warden service found her,  she was “severely hypothermic but alert with her dog by her side.”. They added that the lowest temperatures in Alexander that week ranged from 26 to 44 degrees Fahrenheit, according to AccuWeather.

Sad to say, after Pamela was found over a mile from their home, her husband was found dead half an hour later about 200 yards away.

Sgt Josh Beal of the Warden Service said that when she was found, “her dog (Lucy) was being very protective of her and even laid down on top of her on her chest. It sounds like that’s what the dog would do at night as well, to help keep her warm.”

Sgt Beal added, “She did very well to survive for that long,” and that Pamela's body temperature was 90.7°, and she said she had given up hope of being found and surviving.

The rescue crew, after finding the lady and her valiant dog.

She promised her husband that she'd be back, but the story went another way. During those four harrowing days, she was eating peat moss to stay alive, Pamela says she felt  “a lot of sadness and grief.  We were married for 31 years, and we had a good life together.”

We can all take from this a quick suggestion to plan for trouble by taking a cell phone and some provisions when going out, but the larger message is to make sure we enjoy our days together while we can still be together.

E Day

 It looks like a record turnout for this crucial election. Please don't be the only person you know who fails to go vote. It matters!

Why Tuesday?

From the Reader's Digest, which reprinted an article from the Smithsonian...here's the skinny on why Election Day is always a Tuesday.

No day was designated as voting day when the Constitution was ratified (1788), so for years, each state would set their own day, and you know what you're going to get with some of these states around here, which shall remain nameless, but rhyme with Blurginia...

Congress got right on it and took action in 1845. 57 years is not an unreasonable length of time, is it? 

OK. Sunday, no way. Monday also, no go, because people just had the buggy out to go to meetin' on Sunday, and they weren't about to get old Bessie out again. Wednesday was a big day for farmers to haul their goods to market, so that was no good, and, well, same for Thursday, if they were just getting back from the market.

And, this will sound like current-day America, but they didn't think people wanted to be bothered with things like voting or working on Fridays. And don't even think about Saturday, for crying out loud! Saturdays were for going to the town dance and coming home for a bath before Sunday services.

That left Tuesday, so tomorrow is your day to vote, if you have not done so already!

Sunday Rerun (from 2021): "You know, I read on Bookface that..."

 Sometimes it seems there is more misinformation out there than actual information. There are people among us who believe the Titanic was a fictional story about a ship that sank. 

Many people still believe that the moon landing the rest of us watched on a Sunday night in July, 1969, was not real, but no more than a Disney production.  And that is really Goofy!

Until 1800, people thought that California was an island. To this day, there are people who believe that a tobacco smoke enema will cure people of diseases.  It won't, but it will enable the recipient to blow interesting smoke rings.

Lots of people think that 5G cell technology causes cancer, although they won't say why it's ok to use 4G. 

In spite of all evidence to the contrary, many people think the earth is only 5,000 years old. 

Does she really mean this?

People who don't know they don't know will say that lightning never strikes the same place twice (these are usually people who call it "lightening"). The old rumor about people only using 10% of their brains is invalid. Even people who say nasty untruths have to use their noggin to come up with nonsense such as the stories about the Bermuda Triangle having more shipwrecks or mysterious disappearances than other waterways.

And this will make some parents mad at me, but you do not need to wait an hour after eating to go in swimming. You're not going to cramp and drown.

I was running all these falsehoods through my noggin, because last week, someone told me that the government started COVID-19 so that everyone would have to stay home and vote by mail only, thus enabling "the government" to rig elections.

The backbone of all these notions is always broken by simply asking the speaker for any shred of a scintilla of an iota of proof. There is none, just their beliefs, to which they cling like the lifejackets that they think will save them even if unworn.

The Saturday Picture Show, November 2, 2024

 

As proof of the current drought in the Northeast US, this bridge in an old New Jersey reservoir has not been seen for years and years.

Your free wallpaper for this week is this lovely picture of a Dutch lake.

Illuminated golden leaves at nighttime make a pretty canopy.

Trust in this simple law of nature: There's always going to be one.

This is one-time ER physician (really!) and current hilarious comedian Ken Jeong examining his star on the Hollywood Walk of Famous Stars or whatever they call it. "Oh, he does that from time to time." (If you know what I mean.)

The rabbits have had a great summer and fall and are now looking for their winter homes.

Maybe it's because of all the election commotion, or maybe it's because there are just so many natural calamities in the era of climate change, but there was massive flooding in Valencia, in Eastern Spain, this week, and I didn't see anything about it on the news until three days later. 

These men were preparing their itinerary for a business trip in 1969. They were the Apollo 11 crew, going for that moonwalk once they got there.

Mookie Betts, of Los Angeles, California, took a business trip to New York City this week and was assaulted by several thugs who attempted to rob him of a baseball and his glove, and also pull his arm out of its socket. One of the oafs told ESPN that everyone knows he "patrols that wall." Sure, son.

Don't say we didn't warn you! Take a fallback position tonight.

Growing Up

Perhaps this will be a key moment in the maturation of Tyrique Stevenson. Tyrique is 24, and is a cornerback for the Chicago Bears, who had just taken the lead Sunday over the Washington Commanders in exciting National Football League action. With mere seconds left, the Commanders lined up for a last-ditch attempt at a longshot touchdown pass. 

But... instead of preparing for the play, Tyrique spent time waving to the DC fans, taunting them even after the play began.

It gets worse. The fans hooted back at him, gesticulating that he would do well to turn around and play football with the other 21 men on the field, because the play was underway.

That he did, and it seems that it would have gone better for the Bears had Tyrique continued his antics, because when he did get into the action, he tipped the toss-up pass into the waiting hands of Washington receiver Noah Brown, who scampered into the end zone to win the game.

Of course, the twitterverse took Stevenson to task, and he replied: "To Chicago and teammates my apologies for lack of awareness and focus," he wrote. "The game ain't over until zeros hit the clock. Can't take anything for granted. Notes taken, improvement will happen."

Stevenson added Monday, "I let the moment get too big and it's something that can never happen again and won't ever happen again."

Moments have a way of taking on the size we allow them to have. Meanwhile, I'm saving that phrase for the next time I forget to check the catbox or buy too many pork chops or say something untoward: "Notes taken, improvement will happen."

Doesn't sound like me, but I won't let the moment get too big.

What's with these people?

I'll tell you the difference between the politicians of today and the politicians of yesterday,

The Nixon/Ford Administration, still the all-time leader in presidents forced to resign, had an Agriculture Secretary named Earl "Rusty" Butz. Earl was a farmer, born and bred, and was severely lacking in tact and discretion, but he only told his racist jokes to Pat Boone, who was a singer, and Sonny Bono, who certainly wasn't. The press over heard it. The joke he told those two aboard a commercial flight to California after the 1976 Republican National Convention was horribly offensive and racist that Butz was forced to resign and go back to Indiana.

Today, they pack Madison Square Garden and have "comedians" tell disgusting Puerto Rican jokes and I don't know what it takes to show you the complete lack of anything good there.

Whatever happened to respecting our fellow Americans? 

Decided

All the contumacious campaigning and the rowdy rallies and bellicose begging for votes are finished, and I am happy to tell you, the election is over.

No, not that one (yet!) I'm talking about the coveted Best Sandwich in Maryland title, decided by the greatest website I've not heard of before, Love Food. They have three million Facebook followers as they go on and on about "food, recipes and reviews." And based on reviews on line, awards, and "the first hand experience of their (their) team, "the best sandwich in Maryland is.....the the pit beef sandwich from Chaps Pit Beef, with locations in Baltimore,  Aberdeen (Harford County), and Glen Burnie (Anne Arundel County)."

Chaps's sandwich is the real deal, Baltimore style, medium rare and served on rye or a kaiser roll, with available toppings of barbecue sauce, sliced onions, and horseradish.

All over the country, especially in the South, they go on about barbecue, in which they swelter meat for a period of days in a low-heat oven until it gives up and disintegrates. Maryland Pit Beef is cooked over a hot coal fire rapidly and sliced while still hot.  You can really only find it in Maryland (unless other places are copying it) and I hope you get a chance too very soon!

 

 

 

Looky-loo!

Besides the festival of slurs and insults they threw at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, there was something even more fun going on in New York City.

They had a Timothée Chalamet look-alike contest, and guess who showed up?

Timothée Chalamet! He walked right on through the crowd assembled, took off his mask, and revealed himself to be himself, in front of the thrilled throng.

The actor happily posed with the people who tried to look like him, people dressed as the characters he played in movies like "Wonka" and "Dune."

He's sporting upper-lip fuzz now, which is said to be for his role in a movie called "Marty Supreme" that he's making with Gwyneth Paltrow, who named her daughter Apple and was not joking.

One of these people is said to be Chalamet. Congratulations to him for being the best Timothee.

No need

In Howard County, Maryland, a student at Howard High School was arrested recently and charged with the murder of a 26-year-old man who was shot at the local mall. 

This led to a new rule voted on by the Maryland State Board of Education,  mandating that when students accused or convicted of violent crimes transfer to new schools, the school they leave is obliged to the new school to...how about this...LET THEM KNOW!

Up until now, it was optional for the student's old school to tell the new one. Optional!

When the student was arrested, he had a loaded, fully automatic ghost gun in his backpack, and was wearing an ankle monitor. He was under arrest for an attempted murder that has left his victim paralyzed.

I remember getting in trouble for not wearing official white sox in phys ed. I should have told the teacher I had to cover up my ankle monitor, and white would clash.

There is what fancy speakers call a "disconnect" among people whose jobs involve keeping track of people's misbehavior. It reminds me of the case in my Baltimore County, in which a young girl was slowly and systematically beaten to death by the muscleman boyfriend of her mother.  A social worker knew all about this torture, even brought her cases notes to the trial when summoned, but said that it was not part of her job description to notify the police that a child was being murdered slowly.

She said it was a family matter and no one else's business.

It became police business, of course, and court business, but she tended to her own knitting and kept it all in the family for reasons that still elude me. 

Sunday Rerun: Soul Finger! Soul Fingerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 Got a minute for a little pop/soul music history?

I'm glad you do. More and more I find my mind drifting away from the current times anyway. How about 1967?  

In April of that year, along came a hit record, an instrumental, by a new group called The Bar-Kays.  They were on Volt Records, part of the Stax/Volt company out of Memphis, and this was their first single release, called "Soul Finger."

The band had been noodling in the studio, rehearsing to "But It's Alright," the song by J.J. Jackson.  As instrumentals often do, the band started with a melody (this time, it was the eight notes of "Mary Had A Little Lamb") and built the tune from there.

And in the studio that afternoon so long ago was none other than Isaac Hayes, about whom I could write three blogs, about his careers as a musician, producer, and actor. Isaac was an idea man, and he came up with a beauty for this record. First, he said, let's call the song "Soul Finger" (which must have been a tribute to James Bond, the double-naught spy from "Goldfinger").

And then, Isaac said, let's get some kids to help us out here by having them holler the title! David Porter, Hayes's production partner, knew whom to ask, when he saw kids out in the street in front of the Stax studios in Memphis, playing hopscotch, tag, chasing each other around on bikes...the usual kid stuff.

Porter went out and asked the group of kids if they wanted to help make a record...and he sweetened the deal by offering Coca-Cola for everyone! In came the kids, down went the soda, and the next thing you know, the kids are screeching "Soul Finger!" right on cue!

And the record was an instant hit, reaching # 3 on the U.S. Billboard R&B singles chart and # 17 on the Billboard Hot 100, with the B-side "Knucklehead" also getting some airplay.

As joyous as the sound of this record is, 1967 ended horribly for the Bar-Kays. Chosen by Otis Redding to go tour as his backup band, four of the band - guitarist Jimmie King, organist Ronnie Caldwell, saxophonist Phalon Jones, and the great drummer Carl Cunningham - died along with Redding and one other man when the star's airplane crashed into Lake Monona, near Madison, Wisconsin.

Other musicians continued playing as the Bar-Kays, notably on Isaac Hayes's "Hot Buttered Soul" album, but "Soul Finger" remains their essential legacy, and it's all due to some kids in Memphis, all sugar-rushed on Coca-Cola and hollering their hearts out! 

The Saturday Picture Show, October 26, 2024

 

There is a poem called "Fallow Fields" by H.E. Alexander. It starts off, 

The fallow fields of empty dreams

engulf my mind with barren schemes,

drying my thoughts like arid streams.

I look at fall quite differently. All spring and summer, the fields and forests gave us their bounty, and now it's their time to rest. It's also the best time to visit the fields!

How old am I? Old enough that this dental setup looks just the operatory of my boyhood dentist, Dr. Pullem, down on Plymouth Av. But for real, someone found this office abandoned in an old house in which the dentist, now presumably drilling in heaven, also had a homemade radio station. I guess that's where someone got the idea to play dentist office music....Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Christopher Cross. No Spooky Tooth, though.

We leaf-peepers wait all year for this!

If anyone was ever wondering, fingernail art shows up like this on an x-ray. Go ahead and make a costume out of this!

 She's Keiko Fukuda, she is 97, and she is now the first woman ever to earn a 10th degree black belt in Judo. I feel challenged, but not that much.

This woman, Sable Sky Atelier. of Fargo, N.D. has been asking people to send her their DVDs of the movie "Wedding Crashers." When she has collected 1,000, she is going to watch the movie, which she has never seen. She can't have my copy - the first ten minutes are too good to say goodbye to! I wonder if she's seen "Fargo."

The Ritter family continues to entertain. It all started with Tex, on the left, star of 459 Western movies and a few dozen singing cowboy hit country records. His son, John, lower right, was so beloved in "Three's Company, " and John's son, Jason, is on the new CBS version of "Matlock" which is so good that I can't even tell you why, but check it out. Starting with the pilot...

True facts, cool cats.

Great myths and fairy tales often told to mislead the working class, # 1.

Everything about this picture says "1973" - her glasses, she's smoking a cigarette, she's barefoot at an Allman Bros concert. Good times! You should have been there.

Mum's the word

 Scrolling through Instragram and I saw a video (screenshot here) of a woman stealing a  potted chrysanthemum from a neighbor's yard.

I didn't go further into the story; I don't know if the perpetrator was identified. or what-all else happened. I'm sure that lots of people had stories to share about similar incidents in neighborhood all over the nation.

Here's my question. Even disregarding the fact that this theft took place during the daytime, with no cover of darkness, what is it about people that makes them think they are entitled to rip off their neighbors, or anyone else?

Long ago I worked with a woman who lived in an apartment with her teenaged daughter. One Monday morning, the coworker was talking about their weekend. She said this right out loud: "Sunday morning, we wanted to read the paper, but we didn't feel like going out to buy one, so I just told (daughter's name) to go upstairs and take it from someone's doorstep."

The other day, I saw on Instagram a video appearing to show the mother of a Kansas City Chiefs player (not that one) (or the other one, either) taking an Amazon box from a neighbor's doorway. The comments that followed all went down the same lines: "Her son makes millions playing a game and she has to steal?"

Not, "No matter what kind of money her son makes, she shouldn't steal things."

In the case of the coworker years ago, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who thought it was a rotten thing to do, but, surprise, surprise, I was the only one in the room of 10 or so of us who pointed out that it was a rotten thing to do, and reflected a lack of respect for herself, her daughter, and the neighbor. Theft is not a victimless crime; when you take things, you are taking them from someone.

That happened decades ago, and I am still the kind of person who tells people they are wrong to steal. Maybe this honesty has caused me to lose friends over the years, but who wants to be friends with people who shrug about breaking a Commandment?

Number 8, if you're scoring at home.

A quick one

The flower people of the 1960s were fond of the anti-war slogan "Suppose they gave a war and nobody came?"

That never happened. Wars tend to go on for a long time, because people have their philosophical differences, and for real, there is big money to be made in war, selling guns and ammunition and vehicles and aircraft and uniforms and so forth. Another slogan of the 60s was, "War is good business. Invest your son."

Let me tell you about a war that was over before anyone was killed and no one had a chance to sell anything. It was the Anglo-Zanzibar War, which took place on  August 27, 1896. That was it. Just one day, and it only took 38 minutes to settle everything.

The whole deal was over who would be the next Sultan in Zanzibar. The British won.

On August 25, 1896, the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini died under suspicious circumstances. People of Zanzibar, an island nation off the coast of Tanganyika in the Indian Ocean (today it is part of Tanzania*) tried to install Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. However, British authorities sought to rule the world in those days, and they wanted the job to have Hamoud bin Mohammed placed as sultan. There was an agreement in place that made sure anyone proposed as sultan would get the nod from the British consul. Khalid had not gained this favor and was ordered to step down.

Instead, Khalid got his palace guard to stand back and stand by. In response, the British rounded up two cruisers, three gunboats, 150 marines and sailors, and 900 Zanzibari troops. The palace was set ablaze at 9:02 AM on August 27 after a 9 AM ultimatim was ignored, the British sank three Zanzibari naval vessels, and the whole thing was over at 9:46, just in time for an early lunch.

The palace after the brief war.

We could learn from history, but first, we'd have to read some of it.

*That's pronounced Tan-zan-EE-ah, unless you're Donald Trump, who said "TanZAYNeeah, because he doesn't know better.

Local mystery

Local news from over the past weekend included the sad story about a human skull being found in the woods around the Pleasant Rest Cemetery in Towson, which is a historic Black burial grounds owned by Mt. Olive Baptist Church at Kenilworth Drive and Bosley Avenue.

The police said that someone was walking around the area and found the skull, which has been verified as that of a human, and appears to have been at the location "for decades." There were no signs of trauma.

It's very sad to me that somehow, someone interrupted the pleasant rest of someone at the Pleasant Rest Cemetery. 

And the church itself, the Mt Olive Baptist, it has been for years and years a symbol of the originally Black community of Sandy Bottom.  A great deal of that area, near where York Rd and Fairmount Avenue meet, was owned, bought and settled by the families of freed once-enslaved people. It was the home of Carver High School, the secondary school for African-American students in our shameful days of school segregation.  Once Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) ruled that state-sanctioned segregation of public schools was a violation of the 14th amendment and was therefore unconstitutional, the county enlarged that building and it became Towsontown Junior High School (I'm a proud alumnus!) which closed in 1979, and was used as county offices. Eventually, the George Washington Carver Center For Arts and Technology was built there as a vocational high school where the name  Carver lives on.

It's a meaningful area and I hope someone can look into this mystery.

 

Trouble

Words you don't want to see preceding your name: "Troubled rocker" (as in "troubled rocker Tommy Lee") or "frequent Oprah show guest" as in most anyone.

But now, you see the preamble "Former NFL quarterback" and you look for trouble, because most former NFL quarterbacks take their money and go home in peace. If they make the news, it's for being stupid like Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler, who is accused of attempting to leave the scene of a Tennessee car wreck. Police say (those are two more words you don't want to see in a story about yourself) that the driver he rear-ended turned down his $2,000 bribe.

It was just a little crunchy bumper thing, but now Cutler, drafted out of Vanderbilt, and late of the Broncos (2006–2008), Bears (2009–2016), and Dolphins (2017) and a marriage to "reality star" (two more words to keep away from!) Kristin Cavallari, stands accused of DUI, possession of a handgun under the influence, failure to exercise due care to avoid a collision, and implied consent. He bonded out for $5,000.

The arrest report say Cutler rammed his Ram (that one was too easy) into another vehicle and ALLEGEDLY offered the other guy a couple thousand semoleons to keep it on the QT, but the guy called police, who soon arrived to find Cutler’s eyes all bloodshot as he “slurred and mumbled” his words.

The cops described him as “thick-tongued” in their report. Again, not a descriptor he will proudly tell his kids (sons Camden, 11, Jaxon, 9, and daughter Saylor, 8) about.  At first, the one-time athlete denied imbibing alcohol, but then amended his statement to say he had a "little bit" of the hooch.

Speaking of things he had, how about the rifle in the back seat as he careered through the streets, and the Glock handgun in the center console? 

Jay "Rambo" Cutler, on the prowl, ladies and gentlemen.

 

His mugshot, featuring a greying beard, is evidence that he should know better. The whole incident is evidence that parents should look elsewhere before telling their sons that they should model themselves after professional athletes.

 

Leavin', with a jet plane...

Stealing cars happens all the time, but this???

A Boeing 727-223 airliner, registered as N844AA (in case you see it flying by), was stolen from its parking spot at Quatro de Fevereiro Airport in Angola on May 25, 2003. People have been looking for it ever since with nary a trace turned up.

The plane was operated by American Airlines from 1975 - 2000 (just think, you might have flown on that very machine one time, on the way to Tom and Becky's wedding) and after that service, it became the property of Miami-based Aerospace Sales & Leasing. But they weren't using it; it had sat gathering dust for fourteen months and owed over $4 million in airport fees by 2003.

And you thought it was expensive to park to pick up Tom and Becky and their kids at the airport!

The missing plane was one of two that were being processed for use by Nigerian IRS Airlines. 

The FBI describes the plane as "...unpainted silver in color with a stripe of blue, white, and blue... formerly in the air fleet of a major airline, but all of the passenger seats have been removed. It is outfitted to carry diesel fuel." 

In case you see it.

On that day in 2003, two men were seen boarding the plane, one a pilot from the US and the other, a mechanic from the Congo. Neither of them were certified to fly a 727, but the plane took off anyway without clearance. The plane was last seen heading southwest over the Atlantic Ocean but that's the last anyone saw of it. It had enough fuel aboard to fly 1,500 miles.

Not one clue about the plane's whereabouts or the fates of the two men on it was known. Today, as you read this, no one knows a thing about any of all this, but a Boeing 727 is awfully hard to hide.

  

 

Sunday Rerun (from 2012): Oh, THAT Wib Davenport!

 Down in Virginia, if you want to drive away from a certain Chevrolet dealer, you should know this: they really drive a hard bargain!

Danny Sawyer, 40, bought a black Chevy Traverse from Priority Chevrolet back in May, but woke up the next day wishing he had bought a blue one.  He drove back to the dealership and found a blue one that caught his fancy, and that's where things go crazy.

The blue one must have had some optional equipment that the black SUV lacked, because after Sawyer swapped cars, went on vacation and came home, he came home to many frantic messages from the car lot and its sales manager, whose name is Wib Davenport.  We've all known someone named "Wib," haven't we?  The car Sawyer wound up with cost $5,600 more than the original one, and how would he like to pay for that, was the point of all the messages.

All this turmoil over this?

He wouldn't like to pay for that.  Sawyer says no one told him that the blue car cost more, and even though the dealership says they told him that it did, there still seems to be a matter of him not signing anything additional to attest to the switcheroo.

Completely disregarding the basic tenet of good customer service (Never have your customers thrown in jail, since it's hard to buy a car from there) the dealership called the local cops, who mistook a civil matter for a crime, and ushered Sawyer into a cell for four hours.

Dennis Ellmer, president of Priority Chevrolet, has decided to be adorable about the whole thing and says Sawyer can keep the blue car for the price of the black one, and hey!  How about a free tire rotation, buddy boy?

Ironically enough, Sawyer rotated those tires himself, driving over to the office of a lawyer, upon whose sage advice he has filed two lawsuits against the dealer, accusing the business of malicious prosecution, slander, defamation and abuse of process. He'll need a total of $2.2 million in damages, plus attorney fees before he feels better about the whole doggone thing.

We used to have a Chevy dealer in Baltimore who advertised that his dealership, at the corner of York and Bellona, was "the best place to become a Chevrolet ownah!" 

Priority Chevrolet can now claim proudly that they offer a car buyer the chance to "come on down and get a Chevy on sale - and if we don't like you, we'll throw you in jail!"