samhexum

South Carolina store sells $350K lottery ticket, uses prize to fund community Thanksgiving A South Carolina convenience store got $3,500 after a local woman beat odds of one to 857,142.86 and won $350,000 off a scratch-off lottery ticket – now the store is using its earnings from selling the winning $10 Mighty Jumbo Bucks ticket to provide Thanksgiving meals for its community. “We’re going to have a Thanksgiving dinner for all of my walk-in traffic and homeless people around here,” said Aggi Tarnowski, store manager of KP Food Mart in Anderson, South Carolina. “We’re cooking all the sides, turkeys, everything, the whole nine yards. The food is going to be free for all who need it.” She and store supervisor Melissa Grimmette have divvied up the meal prep: Tarnowski is making macaroni and cheese, dressing, green bean casserole, and rolls, and Grimmette is going to fry turkeys. “It started because Aggi wanted to (feed the community),” Grimmette said. “She has a lot of traffic and people coming in who need food. She gives away the biscuits and things after a certain time, so she already wanted to do this. Of course, having the extra funds, (the owners) figured they’d help out and match whatever we get. They’re really good about that.” The store is new – and it’s a hope to use the meals to bond with the local residents. “We have been open only like two-and-half months, and this is a big thing for us to bring some positive vibes in Anderson as a new store,” Tarnowski said in a Polish accent. “It also shows the people us, as foreigners, can have good input in the community.” The women hope to feed up to 30 people. But no one will be turned away. “We’re not going to judge anyone, we’re all humans and nobody is perfect,” Tarnowski said. “I might not have much, but whatever I have, I’d give it all away. I will get it back tenfold and I will be blessed for it.”

CEO of Midwest health system leaves after refusing to wear mask The chief executive of one of the nation’s largest regional health systems is leaving his job after refusing to wear a mask in the office. Sanford Health said it “mutually agreed to part ways” with CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft after he reportedly sent an email to employees last week claiming he didn’t need to wear a face covering after recovering from the coronavirus. Krabbenhoft argued that using a mask would be a “symbolic gesture” because his bout with COVID-19 had made him immune to the virus for “at least seven months and perhaps years to come,” according to the Associated Press. That claim isn’t supported by scientific research. South Dakota-based Sanford, which has 46 hospitals and nearly 48,000 employees, did not mention the email when it announced Krabbenhoft’s departure on Tuesday. Krabbenhoft told local TV station KELO that he was leaving because the health system was in a strong position — even though he said in October that he wasn’t planning to retire for another 18 months. “If there was ever a time for a guy, who’s been through what I’ve been through, this is a great time to say goodbye,” Krabbenhoft told the CBS affiliate. Krabbenhoft sent the email as Midwestern hospitals battled a massive surge in COVID-19 cases. Sanford’s facilities are concentrated in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, which have three of the worst infection rates in the country, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Sanford distanced itself from Krabbenhoft’s email last week, saying the message only reflected his “personal opinions about the virus.” The company requires employees and visitors to wear masks at its clinics. “Sanford Health’s position is the same as it has always been — consistently wearing masks, avoiding crowds and staying home if you’re sick are critical to preventing the spread of the virus,” the health system said in a statement posted to its Facebook page on Friday. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis extends order banning local mask mandates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pushed through a measure banning local cities from enforcing mask mandates amid sky-high statewide coronavirus infection rates, according to a report Wednesday. The measure, which extends an executive orderDeSantis signed in September, prevents local governments from fining folks who fail to mask up — and from ordering restaurants to close without public health or economic data to justify the move, according to clickorlando.com. The order signals the Sunshine State’s move into “phase 3” of the pandemic — meaning restaurants, bars and salons will be allowed to reopen at full capacity, the outlet reported. Florida’s relaxed enforcement plan comes as asecond wave of COVID-19 slams the US, bringing the total number of deaths to more than 260,000 nationally — and prompting other states to add stricter safety regulations. It also comes after a Florida mayor shut down a bar in his county over the weekend after it was flooded by swarms of maskless partygoers upon reopening for the first time since the pandemic began. Photos show unprotected patrons packed shoulder to shoulder inside The Wharf Fort Lauderdale. On Wednesday, DeSantis released a video announcing vaccine breakthroughs — but didn’t comment on why he had extended the mask enforcement ban. “In recent days we’ve seen more breakthroughs in the fight of COVID-19,” . “If we can redouble our efforts until the vaccine is deployed, we’ll help safeguard the lives of thousands of Floridians.” On Tuesday, Florida health officials reported 8,555 new COVID-19 cases and 72 deaths due to the illness. More than 953,300 infections have been reported in the state in total and at least 18,157 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data Wednesday afternoon.

DEAR ABBY: I could use some advice on the best response to my 89-year-old father's letters. He cleverly inserts insults into them without writing anything for which he could be criticized. For example, he has always talked about how he hates fat people. I am very overweight. My father sends me letters talking about how fit and trim another relative is who had just visited. That's all he says about them, and it's all he writes to me about. I can certainly read between the lines. This isn't a one-time thing, just one example. I know my father will never change. He was abusive to me, my siblings and my mother. I see these letters as another way for him to continue his abuse, so I ignore them. Not engaging is my way of taking the high road. Extended family and friends bug me to talk with him about it, but I have never had a good experience with talking to my father. I would have hoped that being closer to death would cause him to reconsider his interactions with his children, but he just isn't able to do so. Could you recommend a response other than silence? — READING INTO IT IN ILLINOIS DEAR READING INTO IT: As a matter of fact, I can. Write him back and say something like this: "Dear Dad, you may have been wondering why I don't respond to your letters. They contain nothing more than comparisons to other relatives who are skinnier and more fit than I am, and frankly, I find them painful to read. I am not writing this as a criticism of you, but only so you will understand my silence. "Sincerely, "Your Daughter 'Judy'" You do not have to talk to him. This should get your message across. Visit him and sit on him. That action will carry more weight with him than any words could.

So he was only worth around $20 billion? Why didn't he tell me? -- I'd have hosted a telethon for him... or maybe bought some Cover-Girl makeup in honor of his mom.

A pair of Texas grandparents found a creative way to appear with their loved ones during the holidays — by sending cardboard cutouts of themselves. Missy and Barry Buchanan told “Good Morning America” they sent two of the massive 6-foot self replicas to their grandchildren in Texas and California for Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. The Buchanans’ daughter in California, Mindy Whittington, told “GMA” she burst out laughing when she received the package. “My mom had told me that she was sending a large package for the Thanksgiving table,” Whittington said. “We were just in stitches, we could not stop laughing. We were not expecting 6-foot cutouts of my parents.” Missy Buchanan said of the cutouts: “It’s a reminder that there’s still something to laugh about.” Admin Note: Image showing children removed.

I'm going to my sister's house. Just her and my brother-in-law and my niece and nephew and me. She's not cooking this year; they ordered from somewhere.

Elon Musk passes Bill Gates on rich list, but still lags in philanthropy Elon Musk may only be the world’s second-richest man, but he arguably holds the title for world’s cheapest. The Tesla chief has given away a paltry portion of his $128 billion fortune compared to more philanthropic billionaires like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Musk, 49, has donated roughly $100 million to charitable causes over the course of his career, amounting to less than 1 percent of his net worth, according to a Forbes estimate. That includes $25 million that he’s given to various nonprofits since 2002 through his eponymous foundation. Among the recipients of the Musk Foundation’s money are the University of Pennsylvania — Musk’s alma mater — and Big Green, a charity run by his brother Kimbal that sets up gardens at schools, Forbes says. The South African-born entrepreneur has also made large gifts to organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Future of Life Institute, which aims to keep artificial intelligence “beneficial to humanity.” But Musk has a long way to go to catch up with Gates, who along with his wife, Melinda, has given out around $50 billion over the past quarter-century, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The couple donated more than $5.5 billion to charity from 2017 to 2019 alone, most of which went to their namesake foundation, the outlet says. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has helped the software tycoon give away 10 to 20 percent of his wealth overall, Forbes estimates. The Gateses also joined forces with investment titan Warren Buffett to launch the Giving Pledge, an initiative encouraging the world’s wealthiest people to give away more than half their fortunes during their lifetime or in their will. Buffett is also a regular donor to the Gates Foundation. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whom Musk recently leapfrogged in the wealth rankings, is also a signatory of the Giving Pledge and had the San Francisco General Hospital named after him after donating $75 million to its foundation in 2015. He also helms Chan Zuckerberg Initiative along with his wife, Priscilla — and over the summer donated $30 million to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Musk’s entrance into the upper echelon of the world’s wealthiest people is a recent phenomenon driven by an explosion in Tesla’s stock price this year. If you take away the automaker’s eye-popping 2020 gains, Musk would be left with a roughly $30 billion fortune that he says is not liquid. Gates, meanwhile, has been among the world’s richest men since the 1990s. “People think I have a lot of cash. I actually don’t,” Musk testified in a Los Angeles courtroom in December 2019, noting that most of his fortune is tied up in shares of Tesla and his rocket company, SpaceX. He also said he has debt against his stock holdings. The Tesla CEO has said that all of his earthly business ventures are just a way to fund his true passion: colonizing Mars. “If there’s something terrible that happens on Earth, either made by humans or natural, we want to have, like, life insurance for life as a whole,” he said at a Mars conference this summer. Musk has, however, set lofty philanthropic goals for himself despite his limited giving so far. He’s among more than 200 individuals who have signed on to the Giving Pledge, and he tweeted in 2018 that he would sell about $100 million worth of Tesla stock for charity “every few years.” Musk has also tried to use his companies’ technology for good causes, such as when Tesla reportedly sent some of its Powerwall battery packs to provide electricity in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. SpaceX also infamously built a miniature submarine in a bid to rescue a group of soccer players who became trapped in a Thai cave in 2018 — an effort that landed Musk in court. The submarine was never used. Vernon Unsworth, a British diver who was involved in the operation, criticized the sub as a “PR stunt,” which prompted Musk to call him a “pedo guy” on Twitter. Unsworth sued Musk for defamation over the tweet, but a jury ruled in Musk’s favor when the case went to trial last year.

For the first time in 800 years, earthlings will be able to see the Milky Way’s uh... I think they meant our solar system's two biggest planets so close together it’ll look like they’re touching. Saturn and Jupiter will have a rare meeting from our vantage point on Dec. 21, 2020. The “conjunction,” or alignment, of the two planets hasn’t happened since 1226. Since the two planets are the biggest gas bodies in our solar system that won't be living in Florida soon, ??:cool: experts call this one a “Great Conjunction.” The two planets have been rather close in the sky lately, however, “it is fair to say that this conjunction is truly exceptional in that the planets get very close to one another,” Patrick Hartigan, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rice University, wrote in a blog entry on the conjunction. During this year’s conjunction, “both planets will be visible in the same field of view in most small telescopes, along with some of Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons,” Hartigan wrote. “In fact, they will be so close it may be a challenge to separate them with the unaided eye for many people.” It won’t be easy for much of the population to catch the rare celestial event, which falls on the winter solstice. The farther you are from the equator, the smaller your window to see the conjunction will be. Regardless, if you go outside around dusk (in New York City, this will be about 5 p.m.), and look toward the southwestern sky, you may have about an hour to find the two planets. It’ll help to use an app such as Google’s Sky Map, which can be held up to the sky to show where certain planets and stars are located. Conditions will have to be ideal that day, as in no low clouds fogging up the view. However, if you miss it, the two planets will still be relatively close through Christmas. So try the next day. And if you miss it again, well, the next conjunction like this will happen in 60 years. And though they may look close to our eyes, in space, they’re separated by a distance more than four times the distance between the earth and the sun.

When Musk passed Gates for 2nd richest: ( https://nypost.com/2020/11/24/elon-musk-passes-bill-gates-as-worlds-second-richest-person/ ) Does this mean his mother can stop doing those Cover-Girl commercials?

Abba will release five, rather than two, new tracks as their reunion is pushed back to 2021. The Swedish four-piece were originally going to put out new music later this year, but have been forced to delay these plans due to the coronavirus pandemic. Geoff Lloyd, co-host of the Reasons To Be Cheerful podcast, said: “I got to spend an hour […] with Björn Ulvaeus from Abba via Zoom. He’s quarantining – he’s got an island in the Stockholm archipelago. “They’ve recorded five new songs. They should have been out at the end of last year… Because of technical difficulties and the pandemic, it’s delayed things. But he promised me that the new Abba music will be out in 2021.”

Satisfying ending, though a little too neat & tidy.

When the militia men who don't believe Trump lost start a civil war and all the supply chains are broken, you can barter them for food.

1. Musial collected 3,630 career hits, the fourth-highest total in MLB history (second highest at time of retirement) -- 1,815 came at home and 1,815 on the road. 2. Musial was born on Nov. 21, 1920, in Donora, Pennsylvania, a small mining town in the southwest corner of the state. Forty-nine years later -- to the day -- Ken Griffey Jr. was born there too. Thus, as baseball historian Bill James put it, Griffey could be described as "the second-best left-handed-hitting, left-handed-throwing outfielder ever born in Donora, Pennsylvania, on Nov. 21." 3. Musial debuted as a 20-year-old on Sept. 17, 1941, at the tail end of baseball's greatest summer. Ted Williams batted .406 that year, the last player to hit .400 in a full season. Musial batted .426 -- 20-for-47 -- in 12 games. 4. Musial's nickname -- Stan the Man -- was bequeathed to him by Brooklyn Dodgers fans in 1946, who chanted "O-O-h, here comes the man again" when he walked up to the plate. Musial produced 522 career hits against the Dodgers, most by any player all time. Don Stanhouse was a pitcher who had a nine-year career, from 1972 to 1980... he was acquired by the Orioles and excelled in 1978 when Manager Earl Weaver employed him as a full-time closer. Because of his Harpo Marx hairstyle and pre-game batting practice antics – where his primal scream would entertain early ballpark arrivals – he was quickly labeled Stan the Man Unusual, a pun on the nickname "Stan the Man." 5. Musial generated 1,377 extra-base hits (the MLB record at the time of his retirement) for his career against 696 strikeouts. That margin (681 more extra-base hits than strikeouts) is the largest of its kind among all players to debut in the live ball era (since 1920). 6. Musial became the first player in National League history to win three MVP awards (1943, 1946, 1948). But perhaps more impressive, he finished top 10 in MVP voting 14 times, a record that stands to this day (for any player in either league). A Sporting News poll named Stan Musial its Player of the Decade for the years spanning 1946 to '55 (post-World War II). One voter was Joe Cronin, who served as Red Sox manager (1935-47) and general manager (1948-58) during that entire time. Over that span (under Cronin's watch), Ted Williams led MLB in all three triple-slash categories (.344/.490/.642). But Cronin did not vote Williams his Player of the Decade. He voted for Stan Musial.

I have no idea what you mean.

When A. Martinez was on the soap opera SANTA BARBARA, he was known for his skin-tight jeans which showed off a nice ass and impressive bulge. His crotch often arrived in a room several minutes before the rest of him did. This is a clip from the S6 E10 episode of Barney Miller, showing off his BIGGEST asset. He played Meryl Streep's lover in SHE DEVIL, and had a darkly-lit nude scene with Ally Sheedy in ONE NIGHT STAND.

Another amazing basket:

Another lousy episode, though I liked the interaction between Tammy & Adam.

Michael J. Fox is cutting ties with the world of acting. “There is a time for everything, and my time of putting in a 12-hour workday, and memorizing seven pages of dialogue, is best behind me,” the Canadian-American actor, 59, revealed in his new book and fourth memoir, “No Time Like the Future: An Optimist Considers Mortality.” “At least for now … I enter a second retirement,” the “Family Ties” star continued. “That could change, because everything changes. But if this is the end of my acting career, so be it.” The decision follows Fox, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease at 29, recently noticing symptoms of the disease including memory loss, delusions and dementia, cognitive declines which he writes he had “rarely contemplated before now, much less spoke of.” These have included confusing his twin daughters and searching for his car keys — despite the fact that he can no longer drive, according to the Los Angeles Times. The “Back to the Future” star also suffered a bad fall in 2019 while filming a cameo for the movie “See You Yesterday,” just four months after undergoing surgery to remove a tumor on his spine. Fox credits his optimism for allowing his career to continue despite his physical degradation. When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 1991, a doctor told him he’d be lucky if he was able to work another decade, a prediction which, 30 years, seven Emmy nominations and one Emmy win later, Fox has clearly defied. In addition to discussing his health and future career, Fox also touches on his family, famous friends and sobriety struggles in his book, out this week. “She’s not always a rock, but that’s okay,” he writes of wife Tracy Pollan, to whom he’s been married for 32 years. “Rocks are solid, stubborn, and immovable. That’s me. Tracy, on the other hand, has learned to keep the rock rolling.” I saw him on THE VIEW the other day & he didn't look good.