samhexum

Did the townsfolk have to go to a gas station parking lot to buy their art? Dogs playing poker painted on black velvet, maybe? Dutch supermarket conglomerate Ahold Delhaize is buying a majority stake in the FreshDirect grocery delivery service as the coronavirus pandemic spurs a shift to online food shopping. The companies announced the deal Wednesday — about a year after The Post reported that Bronx-based FreshDirect was searching for a buyer — but did not disclose the price of the acquisition. The takeover will allow Ahold Delhaize to reach more customers in the lucrative Big Apple market and grow its digital business amid a COVID-19-fueled surge in digital grocery orders, according to CEO Frans Muller, who noted that FreshDirect has generated “remarkable customer loyalty” in the city since its launch 18 years ago. FreshDirect will keep its brand name and continue to operate independently under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of next year. “I believe Ahold Delhaize’s global scale, focus on strong, leading local brands, and ability to utilize cost-of-goods synergies, will allow FreshDirect to achieve its full potential,” FreshDirect chief David McInerney said in a statement. New York-based investment firm Centerbridge Partners will also acquire a 20 percent stake in FreshDirect and become a minority investor alongside Ahold Delhaize, which owns the Stop & Shop, Giant and Food Lion grocery chains in the US. FreshDirect started shopping itself last year after a bungled move from Long Island City to its sprawling new facility in The Bronx caused service glitches that left it fighting to keep customers instead of expanding to new markets, as The Post reported exclusively in October 2019. Both Amazon and Walmart vetted FreshDirect’s finances, sources told The Post at the time, but neither pulled the trigger on an acquisition. FreshDirect has seen a surge in demand in recent months as the coronavirus pandemic led many shoppers to stay out of physical grocery stores. The service’s delivery time slots became completely booked in March amid a wave of virus-related panic shopping.

Dear Abby: All my boyfriend wants to do is clean the house and make love to me. He also cooks for me, massages me, worships my body, insists that I take naps and makes me laugh nonstop. What’s wrong with him? – Pondering in the Sunshine State Dear Pondering: What’s wrong with YOU? This must be a new relationship. Give it time, and I am sure you will uncover something. He has terrible taste in girlfriends.

Dinosaurs ‘were thriving’ before asteroid hit, says study Dinosaurs were “thriving” before an asteroid strike wiped them off the face of the Earth, a new study reveals. It shatters the myth that dinosaurs were already declining when a cataclysmic “mass extinction” event struck 66 million years ago. Recent research found that dinosaurs were killed off thanks to the combination of a major asteroid collision with Earth and intense volcanic activity. But scientists have long suspected that dinosaurs were on the way out anyway, after struggling to adapt to climate change. However, a new study by UK scientists revealed that dinosaurs were “flourishing” at the end of the Cretaceous period, just before their sudden demise. It goes against previous mathematical predictions that suggested the number of dinosaurs had fallen before the asteroid impact. Sadly, however, it’s impossible to say whether the now-extinct dinosaur species would’ve lived on into modern times. “As we can’t really predict the course of evolution of life, we can’t say if they would have died out, survived, or been outcompeted by other animals around after the Cretaceous,” said lead researcher Alessandro Chiarenza, a PhD student at Imperial College London, speaking to The Sun. “66 million years is a lot of time and we know that species turnover is way more rapid than that. But he added: “We do have dinosaurs around today, as we’ve got the chickens! Birds are indeed dinosaurs: just not the ones with nasty teeth and claws have gone extinct!” The new analysis by Imperial College London, University College London and the University of Bristol created wide-ranging models that mapped the changing environment and dinosaur species distribution across North America. It found that dinosaurs were likely not in decline before the meteorite impact. “Dinosaurs were likely not doomed to extinction until the end of the Cretaceous, when the asteroid hit, declaring the end of their reign and leaving the planet to animals like mammals, lizards and a minor group of surviving dinosaurs: birds,” “The results of our study suggest that dinosaurs as a whole were adaptable animals, capable of coping with the environmental changes and climatic fluctuations that happened during the last few million years of the Late Cretaceous,” Alessandro explained. “Climate change over prolonged time scales did not cause a long-term decline of dinosaurs through the last stages of this period.” The study, published in Nature Communications, reveals how changing conditions for fossilization of dinosaur remains has confused scientists. It explains that the mismatch meant that previous studies underestimated the number of dinosaur species alive at the end of the Cretaceous. “Most of what we know about Late Cretaceous North American dinosaurs comes from an area smaller than one-third of the present-day continent and yet we know that dinosaurs roamed all across North America, from Alaska to New Jersey and down to Mexico,” just like snowbird retirees! said co-author Dr. Philip Mannion, of the University College London. Researchers modeled the environmental conditions — like temperature or rainfall — that species needed to survive. The team then mapped where these conditions would have occurred across the continent and over time. This let them create a detailed picture of where groups of dinosaur species could’ve survived as climate conditions changed — rather than just where their fossils were found. Habitats that could support a range of dinosaur groups were more widespread at the end of the Cretaceous, according to scientists. However, these areas were in areas that are deemed “less likely to preserve fossils.” Most dinosaur fossils in North America are found in the western half of the continent, which was once split off from the eastern half by an inland sea millions of years ago. In the west, there was a “steady supply of sediment” from the Rocky Mountains, which created perfect conditions for fossilizing dinosaurs. But conditions in the eastern half of North America were not as good for fossilizing dinosaur remains. This means that not many fossils have been found in the eastern half, which lays the groundwork for scientific confusion. That’s because the new study suggests that climate conditions in the eastern half of the continent were fine for dinosaur survival, suggesting they would’ve “thrived.”

60-year-old woman beaten over mask dispute... A 60-year-old woman was left bruised in Brooklyn after being attacked for asking two people to stay out of an elevator if they won't wear masks, cops said Wednesday. The woman was waiting for the elevator, and asked a young man... IHOP employee slashed by customer refusing to wear mask... An enraged customer was caught on camera slashing an IHOP employee in Queens after refusing to wear a mask, police said. While trying to stab a male employee, he ended up slashing another 40-year-old female employee in the arm. She was taken to the hospital and needed seven stitches, police said.

That's JELLYstone. Didn't you ever watch Yogi Bear? There's a Yellowstone Blvd near me; I've always wanted to petition the city to rename it. Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort at Lazy River 50 Bevier Rd, Gardiner, NY 12525 (845) 255-5193 Jellystone Park™ at Birchwood Acres 85 Martinfeld Rd, Greenfield Park, NY 12435 (845) 434-4743 Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park™ Camp-Resort: Quarryville, PA 340 Blackburn Rd, Quarryville, PA 17566 (717) 610-4505

I occasionally say that to myself, although with an Irish brogue for some reason. Or his elbow Sophia: Congratulations, Rose Nylund. You are St. Olaf's woman of the year! Dorothy, Blanche, and Sophia: oof-da!!

There's never been a thread started about this show?!?!? Aram's gotten a promotion:

Plan a super spread — and perhaps a super-spreader event? A major supermarket chain put its foot where its mouth is after publishing a tone-deaf advertisement in its own magazine. It shows an image of shrimp, fruit and cheese platters — in a seeming nod to gathering together to share food — with text proclaiming, “Hosting? Plan a super spread,” TMZ reports. The chain, Giant Food — which has locations in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and in the nation’s capital — ran the ad across a full page to encourage readers to host gatherings, as well as share bites with each other. But TMZ notes the choice in words are synonymous with terms related to COVID-19 outbreaks, particularly “super spread.” Moreover, with COVID-19 cases rising in the New York tri-state area, as well as in other parts of the nation, the governors of New York and New Jersey recently issued executive orders both discouraging travel for Thanksgiving and limiting indoor gatherings to 10 people or fewer. Despite it all, a new survey found that more than a third of Americans plan on having Thanksgiving dinners with 10 or more people. Giant Food, for its part, has apologized. “While, in hindsight, the choice of words was a poor one, Giant had no intentions of insensitivity,” it said in a statement. Their parent company owns Stop&Shop in the northeast, as you can see by their logos:

AAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Though it wasn't a big hit, I remember liking that show.

Welcome to the Wild Wild West. Veteran actor Sam Elliott (and his iconic brush mustache) joins the surreal world of “Family Guy” this Sunday as recurring character Wild Wild West, a horseback-riding cowboy cousin of deceased Mayor Adam West, played by the real-life “Batman” star who died in 2017. In his introductory episode (9:30 p.m. on Fox), Wild is recruited by Peter (Seth MacFarlane) to run for mayor of Quahog against local librarian Elle Hitler. “My daughter has been a fan of [‘Family Guy’] for a number of years, and it’s because of her that I’ve seen a lot of episodes,” says Elliott, 76. “To be honest, I don’t wait up every week to watch, but I’ve certainly been aware [of the series]. You’ve got to be living in a hole somewhere … There’s no escaping ‘Family Guy.’ “There are a lot of super-intelligent, nice people that produce this and a few friends of mine looked at me and said, ‘Really? You’re gonna do that?'” Elliott says. “They just don’t get [the show]. My contribution is pretty much playing myself … It’s not like they wanted me to come up with a straight ‘character’ voice, so to speak. I’m leaning on the southwestern thing a little bit. Beyond that, I’m playing it fairly straight and letting the jokes take care of themselves. “There’s an old saying, ‘If it ain’t on the page, it ain’t on the stage,’ and I’ve always been a believer in that.” Elliott is no stranger to voiceover work; his honeyed, Western-tinged tones grace a variety of commercials (including Coors beer and Ram Trucks) and he snared a 2013 Emmy nomination for playing a (claymation) version of himself on “Robot Chicken,” the long-running Adult Swim animated series co-created by Seth Green. “That’s what really started this,” he says. “It started a lot of things in my life and for my career. I ended up getting a couple of other films [because of ‘Robot Chicken’] and I did a film with Lily Tomlin [‘Grandma’ in 2015] because of it.” He says that, when he was approached about joining “Family Guy,” producers wanted him to play himself. “I wasn’t interested in doing that,” he says. “Adam [West] had done that and he did it in spades, and that was like a bridge too far for me. I couldn’t imagine being [myself] week after week. “So they kicked it around and came back with this brilliant idea for Wild Wild West that I couldn’t say no to,” he says. “It’s interesting filling that void, shoes I would never even think about filling … I had to be somebody else — and I’m grateful I happen to be a relative of Adam’s now.” And, while “Family Guy” often ventures into risqué territory, Elliott says there was one scene where he balked a bit at a few lines of dialogue. “I do have a certain amount of integrity, and if it’s distasteful, no thanks,” he says. “There’s a sequence where [Wild] talks about his background, what qualifies him for running for office, and he’s talking about raising his [16] daughters … and there were a couple of lines that could’ve been taken absolutely the wrong way and I had no interest in doing that. “When talking to the producers they saw where I was on that and said, ‘No problem’ and they changed it — and the change ended up being funnier.” Elliott also gets a chance to sing in Sunday night’s episode when Wild sits around a campfire and strums an acoustic guitar. “That’s really me. I’ve sung my entire life and my mom dragged me to sing in a cherub choir when I was 4 years old in Sacramento at the Congregational Church, and that began a lifetime of singing,” he says — adding that he went to high school with the guys who formed the Kingsmen, who had a No. 1 hit in 1963 with “Louie Louie.” “I used to sing with those guys at dances,” he says. “I wasn’t a member of the band but they would back me up because we all went to the same school. “There was a point in time where I thought my career would be in music and not in the acting game. I never went after it,” he says. “I think I’m a little afraid of it.”

Alaska Airlines plane kills brown bear crossing runway Only in Alaska. A brown bear crossing a runway in Yakutat was killed when it was struck by a landing Alaska Airlines flight Saturday evening, The Anchorage Daily News reported. Its roughly 2-year-old cub survived and no one was injured on the Boeing 737-700, which was left with a damaged left engine cowl after the grisly accident. Airport personnel had cleared the runway several minutes before Flight 66 was due to arrive, state transportation spokesman Sam Dapcevich told the news outlet. The workers did not see any wildlife, but seconds after the plane landed the pilots spotted two bears crossing the runway, Dapcevich said. “The nose gear missed the bears, but the captain felt an impact on the left side after the bears passed under the plane,” the airline said in a statement. The pilots saw the “bear lying about 20 feet off the center of the runway,” as the plane taxied to the gate about 6:30 p.m., it said. “Our maintenance technicians are working to repair the plane, which will take a couple of days,” added the Alaska Airlines statement, which said the plane had arrived from Cordova and was scheduled to fly to Juneau next. There were six passengers aboard the plane, according to KTVA-TV. Dapcevich said officials with the state Department of Fish and Game were expected to collect the bear’s remains, which were cleared by Yakutat Airport workers. Employees at the airport, which is partly enclosed by a fence, undergo annual wildlife hazard training and use pyrotechnics or vehicles to move animals away from the area when necessary, he said. :(

Has Ryan ever explained why he named his son after a pitcher from the early 20th century? https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/phillde01.shtml

Just like covid

Thousands of Texas families hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic waited up to 12 hours to put food on the table this holiday season — as the state grapples with a surge in infections. The normally quiet grounds of Fair Park in Dallas was home to the North Texas Food Bank’s largest giveaway of food since coronavirus spread through the state, the Dallas Morning News reported. Saturday’s Thanksgiving-themed event handed out food to about 8,500 families facing financial stressfrom the growing crisis — 17 times more people than the annual event usually serves. Photos from the event showed traffic backed up for miles as people waited for hours in their cars for a package containing a frozen turkey, 20 pounds of canned goods and 15 pounds of fruits and vegetables along with bags of bread. Armando Castillo camped out overnight to get first dibs and waited more than 10 hours. “We’re really appreciative of food drives because if this didn’t happen, I guess we’d be back home farming for ourselves,” Castillo told the Dallas Morning News. “They also get food from their school — that’s why we have been able to make it lately,” he said of the family’s children. Two hundred volunteers worked through the night to prepare the event and load deliveries to local churches into U-Hauls. North Texas Food Bank president and CEO Trisha Cunningham said the pandemic has exposed previously hidden food insecurity in North Texas. Since mid-March, the food bank has given out about 70.8 million pounds of food. “So many people need it right now, and there is no stigma attached if you’re coming through this line. You will be served with dignity and respect,” Cunningham told the paper. The seven-day moving average of COVID-19 cases in the Lone Star State is now 9,807, up from 3,932 a month ago, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from Saturday.

I'm bummed there's only one episode left. I've enjoyed this show a lot.

I remember your mom's screen debut.

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A companion 'piece' to my last post: https://thumb-p6.xhcdn.com/a/l9OEGyRg0yo2SioaHY2mTA/000/288/737/026_450.gif https://cdn5-images.motherlessmedia.com/images/8E96714.gif https://25.media.tumblr.com/759a7e5429e90c3f4354c833a0fe85e6/tumblr_n39mwlb4XI1qfyt7wo2_500.gif https://cdn5-images.motherlessmedia.com/images/7382BBB.gif https://25.media.tumblr.com/155c071c81bb5c61a4321955c5791050/tumblr_mg654dSfFA1s0x8bno1_500.gif https://78.media.tumblr.com/c0665c031c0db9f5503baee63d21656e/tumblr_pazcjnrrtV1s2ijzao1_500.gif https://cdn5-images.motherlessmedia.com/images/502B444.gif https://thumb-p7.xhcdn.com/a/2sHRTifQhhs6S_QhmQdFJg/000/128/033/407_1000.gif https://78.media.tumblr.com/ad8ba0b36d17ac53de67b11c46f1884b/tumblr_ndmb79o13P1swkjl7o5_500.gif https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f-irmj51MTA/UIm32lAG5KI/AAAAAAAAT8A/7g1A0Vjf0DM/s1600/tumblr_lwhek1UiLy1r3wm2bo1_400.gif https://cdn5-images.motherlessmedia.com/images/F25A927.gif https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fPHcTdr-7z8/VCLM0jbcX0I/AAAAAAAAGAo/YxUkq6uZjN0/s1600/tumblr_n9p4ioSgR91rx67g9o1_400.gif https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-obgPxk2HD94/Vd_BZfdAS5I/AAAAAAAAHAI/EiUUPkMVFk8/s400/www.gozenapunheta.blogspot.com.br%2B%25282%2529.gif