Category: News

I kinda sorta scan the obits in my hometown newspapers. Not because I will know anyone–I mean, my “hometowns” where I take the newspapers are all adopted home towns, and I didn’t go to high school there. But rather because I want to make sure that the people who have passed away are older than I am. And they are, for the most part, but that’s probably just as much because only old people and their families put obits in the paper any more.

At any rate, in the Stone County Republican and Crane Chronicle last week, I did spot a familiar name.

As you might remember, gentle reader, I read his book Traces of Silver about the mythical Yocum Silver Dollar not long after I moved to the area. Well, two years after I moved to the area, but in the perspective of the time that has passed, not long at all.

The book made an impression on me–I mean, I know the origin of Silver Dollar City’s name, and I know enough of the story that I can tell of it. And at the coin show this weekend, I thought about asking at the booths whether they had any Yocum dollars today, but I did not.

So rest in peace, Mr. Ayres. While the world mourns another actor, I’ll give thanks for your life and its slight impact on me.

Man clocked at 163 miles an hour on U.S. 60; arrested on Friday:

A Georgia man was clocked Friday by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper traveling on U.S. 60 in Howell County at 163 miles per hour, the agency said.

Troop G of the patrol said it is believed to be a record speeding violation within the nine-county area.

What we’re all wondering: What was he driving? A BMW M3.

Also, note that they did not pursue him and catch him. They conducted a search for him, which means that he was not just passing through on his way to Poplar Bluff or Springfield. Or was he? Hopefully, the print edition this week will have more. Considering that I have picked up numerous papers along US 60 in my trips to my brother’s and back (and to De Soto and back), I shall probably read about this in various places.

Ohio woman almost loses ear in deer attack during 5K race

Gee whiz, the last 5K I ran would have been…. a year and a half ago? No, the Ruck’n’Run was just last November.

Our autumn schedules have been pretty full of cross country, marching band, and whatnot in the interim. But I understand we are going to do the Turkey Trot this year as well as perhaps the Ruck’n’Run.

Still, they will be during the daytime. So I am more likely to be struck by a car or to be attacked by someone wearing a Thanksgiving-themed costume than be attacked by a deer.

Still, I should probably take it easy.

Causeway connecting Florida mainland to island washed away

Storm surge from Hurricane Ian washed away part of Florida’s Sanibel Causeway.

The causeway is the only way to get to or from Sanibel and Captiva Islands to the state’s mainland.

The only way, as boats and aircraft (and hovercraft) do not work in that particular region, a phenomenon known as The Lazy Journalist’s Triangle.

You know, I’ve driven over that span as I drove from a distant airport to Sanibel Island eight years ago. Eight?!

Modern journalism is 24-year-olds putting Twitter into paragraph form sometimes.

Ace says in his fashion:

You know, back in 2001-2002, cable “news” stations used to fill up cheap minutes by paying some Brooklyn idiot $28,000 per year to scroll through Twitter and highlight tweets for them to “react” to during short segments.

But soon, they decided that they would expand this pilot program, and that idiots babbling on Twitter would become their main “research tool.” Now Twitter would become what city hall and the courthouse and the police department used to be — the place you go to find “stories.”

And so they just go to Twitter to find some absurd “microagression” that some axe-grinding, attention-whoring leftwing lunatics are complaining about today, and bang, that’s a “news” story.

Imagine this 20 years ago — that what Stacy in Brooklyn is complaining about, that they’re not properly texturing the milk in frappuccinos lately, or that someone “misgendered” her because she doesn’t feel like a “she” today, she feels like a “shim,” is now “news” which “professional” “news” outlets now make “lead stories” on their actual broadcast “news” shows.

Imagine that.

No one could have imagined such a bizarre and dark world twenty years ago.

But that is the media we have now.

Because it’s just easier for the lazy, unprofessional, stupid, lazy, barely-educated, pig-ignorant “journalists” to get “stories” this way, so this is how 90% of “news” outlets’ “stories” are now “researched.”

True for the big dailies. Not so much the small papers I take.

‘The Phantom of the Opera’ to close on Broadway next year:

“The Phantom of the Opera” — Broadway’s longest-running show — is scheduled to close in February 2023, the biggest victim yet of the post-pandemic softening in theater attendance in New York.

The musical — a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts — will play its final performance on Broadway on Feb. 18, a spokesperson told The Associated Press on Friday. The closing will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

In news that some people pretend is unrelated because it is the result of the ongoing policy failures of the elite, Two pedestrians — including European tourist — shot while refusing muggers in separate NYC incidents and McDonald’s ax swinger had just been ‘rejected’ by woman, witness says. Key note:

Robbery and other major crimes have increased by about 40% in the city recently, NYPD data show.

One might think that it was not the virus nor the draconian authoritarian and ultimately inconsequential government actions that have led to the decline of downtown life in downtowns that are becoming no-go zones. But that would mean that the current officeholders and bureaucrats and their ongoing decisions are continuing to contribute to this problem.

But if it was COVID, man, that was the last governor and the last mayor of New York. Nothing the current crop can do about it. No need to hold them accountable!

(First New York City crime link via Instapundit who has another example. But I read the New York Post daily, so I see stories like these every day.)

Bass Pro Shops wants a special transportation taxing district to improve the infrastructure around Big Cedar Lodge and its various golf courses just south of Branson.

Projects include something called duel drop right lanes.

How far our society has fallen. I mean, lanes so you can just pull over and settle your score? I have seen dystopian films with more optimism.

But it should perhaps drive some people to the Big Cedar Lodge shooting academy. At least once. Maybe only once.

MicroRNA found to regrow 90% of lost hair, new study finds:

People affected by moderate hair loss turn to topical treatments like minoxidil (antihypertensive potassium channel opener) and finasteride (dihydrotestosterone-suppressing 5α-reductase inhibitor), the only Food and Drug Administration–approved treatments for inducing hair regrowth. Both are designed not for hair loss treatment but serendipity.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a microRNA (miRNA) that could promote hair regeneration. This miRNA – miR-218-5p – plays an important role in regulating the pathway involved in follicle regeneration, and could be a candidate for future drug development.

Yeah, I know, miRNA (Micro RNA) differs from mRNA (Messenger RNA). However, I have become very cautious about anything that deals with my personal nucleic acids. So although I am beginning to notice that I am bald, and old, none of this for me. Yet.

(Link via Instapundit, with whom I share a large percentage of my DNA.)

GOP’s Graham unveils nationwide abortion ban after 15 weeks

Now why after a celebration of leaving it to the states would you go out and make it a national issue, nationalizing every midterm election?

Not to win. Not to win.

Michigan castle seeks to court new owners for $2.5M

It has secret passages, of course. The New York Post article linked above has a couple sample pictures, but the Zillow sales listing has many, many more.

It’s only $2.5 million, which is a lot less than some of the real estate listings that catch my wistful eye.

Three alligator stories I saw in the news today:

• Emotional support alligator enjoys splash pad at park
• SEE YOU LATER: Alligator shows up on porch of West Plains, Mo. home
• Alligator delays flight on runway at Charleston International Airport

Coupled with the story about the triathlete attacked by a gator from ten days ago, that’s a lot of news about alligators recently.

Ya know, since the shark story frenzy in the news in 2001 that was knocked out of the headlines by the events of September 11, any time I see too many different stories with the same animal in them in the news too frequently, I fear we’re about to get a wake up call from the trivia.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $1 billion art collection set to be most expensive auction in history

It features at least one Renoir, “The Reader”. I would hide it in the living room on the wall with all the Renoir prints.

You know, I have not done a 5K in a while, so I am definitely not up for this: Proposed Ozark Run Scenic Byway to unite communities and highlight Ozarks region.

My god, how many hundreds of miles is that?

UPDATE: I have just been handed a note. Apparently, this is not a run run; instead, Ozark Run is the proposed name of the tax spending entity or something. Still, I had better take it easy.

MAULED BY MONSTER Terrifying moment triathlete is attacked by 12ft long alligator that clamped its jaws down onto his head

Actually, I have only done (small) triathlons with pool swims; no open water swims or practices for me.

And although I have an indoor triathlon, with a pool swim, coming up in five weeks, I have not swimmed swam swum (pick the right one) since February 21.

So I’m not sure how easier I can take it.

Videos show Jason Momoa unscathed after head-on motorcycle crash

Mimosa was in a 1970 Oldsmobile. One would guess he would be okay unless the rider came through the windshield and landed on his lap.

The motorcyclist was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, which indicates that it was a relatively low-speed collision.

One wonders what kind of fiction a writer such as myself would create with a with a writer’s retreat like this:

In what looks like a scene out of Martin Scorcese’s “Shutter Island,” a decommissioned World War II fort in the middle of the ocean is being auctioned off for first time, starting at just $60,000.

Located in the Humber Estuary of Northern England, the concrete vessel was initially constructed between 1915 and 1919 for naval defense during World War I, though it wouldn’t go into use until WWII.

Considered a historic listing, the property is defined by the United Kingdom as a “grade II” building or structure that is “of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it.”

It’s about sixty thousand dollars, but probably more to have it fixed up. It has water from its own artesian well, which means you don’t have to have it brought in. N

So it’s like Sealand except a little more sheltered from the open sea, it would seem, and a tad less than the billion dollar asking price.

But my beautiful wife says no, so I guess we’ll stay landlocked.

Teen turned away from water slide because of weight, family says:

A family in Illinois said their 13-year-old daughter was turned away from a ride at Raging Rivers Waterpark after being told to step on a scale in front of strangers.

* * * *

The scale read 205, but Batton said they were told there was a 200-pound weight limit.

A spokesperson for Raging Rivers said the decision was made to prioritize the safety of guests.

Jeez, Louise, this story is out there to ding The Man, in this case the operators of an amusement park with safety rules that single people out based on physicism, which takes into account things like mass and gravity to stigmatize individuals of a certain size and to prevent them from plunging to their deaths or turning their little rafts over in dangerous conditions.

I mean, it’s been months since we were seeing the opposite story in the news (Adjusted sensors on ride contributed to Fla. teen’s death in fall) wherein the large teen in question died instead of ran crying to the news about being embarrassed.

Full disclosure: This summer I was in a water park whose new rotating water slide wheel had a weight limit. I don’t remember whether it was posted on every landing climbing to the ride or whether it was just at the top, but my family was too heavy cumulatively to ride in one raft. And, yes, the staging area for getting into the raft was a scale, with the numbers where everyone could see them.

I’m not here to pick on large people.

I am here, however, to decry sensationalist media who will run both stories in succession: The story of dangerous theme park rides killing kids who are too large for them, and then running stories about mean theme parks not allowing kids on rides which would pose an extra danger for them.