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Inside Zsa Zsa Gabor’s sex goddess rise — and descent into madness One night in July 1951, Zsa Zsa Gabor was stuck at home, bored, in Bel Air, Calif., while her husband, the actor George Sanders, was away filming in England. Suddenly her brother-in-law called — he needed to fill a vacancy on a panel TV show “Bachelor’s Haven” and asked if she could step in. Zsa Zsa was hesitant to do live television, but she was ultimately convinced. She turned up on set in a black Balenciaga gown that perfectly showcased her creamy complexion and feminine curves, and quickly charmed the audience. When the host asked her about all the jewelry she was wearing, she quipped, “Dahling, zese are just my working diamonds” in her thick, sultry Hungarian accent. The crowd roared. A week later, Daily Variety proclaimed her an “instant star” and she was offered a regular role on the show. By October of that year, she was on the cover of Time magazine. She was “truly an overnight sensation,” said Sam Staggs, author of the new book “Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors Behind the Legend” (Kensington Books), out Tuesday. Her appearance on “Bachelor’s Haven” launched a five-decades-long career in film and television with Zsa Zsa usually playing some version of herself. “Zsa Zsa said things on television that were extremely funny, but they were so outrageous, I’m surprised she didn’t get bleeped,” Staggs told The Post. “Somebody asked her, ‘How many husbands have you had?’ and she said, ‘You mean apart from my own?’ ” Born Sari Gabor in 1917 in Budapest, Hungary, Zsa Zsa was the middle of three sisters in a secular Jewish family. Her mother, Jolie, had ambitions of becoming an actress that she projected onto her beautiful daughters. They were “forced to live Jolie’s dream, to learn languages, to acquire social graces and, most of all, as Jolie drummed into the heads of her young show ponies, to be agreeable to a man,” writes Staggs. At age 15, Zsa Zsa was a runner-up in the Miss Hungary pageant, and by age 18 she had embarked on her first of nine marriages, to a Turkish government official twice her age called Burnam Belge. She lived with him in Ankara, where she claimed to have had an affair with Turkish President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. “Atatürk ruined me for every other man I would ever love, or try to love,” she would later say. “He knew exactly how to please a young girl. He was a professional lover, a god and a king.” But Staggs is skeptical of some of her accounts, writing that with the threat of Hitler and Mussolini on the horizon in the 1930s, it’s unlikely that Atatürk would be able to “escape the presidential office for long afternoons spent sipping sweet liqueurs and lounging on cushions with Zsa Zsa.” Her marriage to Belge grew stale, and in 1941 she left Turkey to join her younger sister, Eva, an actress in the US. She couldn’t journey west through occupied countries, so she headed east, with 21 suitcases, and traveled across Iran, Afghanistan and Iraq — where she spent two months arranging her travels and living with a young sheik who wanted to marry her — before eventually boarding a ship from India to New York. “She was on the high seas for about six weeks during wartime,” said Staggs. “There was a very real danger that the boat could be blown up.” (Sanders would later say: “Whatever else could be said about Zsa Zsa … one thing is certain, she has a lot of guts.”) By 1942, Zsa Zsa was onto husband No. 2, marrying hotelier Conrad Hilton, one of the wealthiest men in the country. But, the initial excitement of arriving in the US soon gave way to darkness. Zsa Zsa suffered from bipolar disorder and worried what would become of her parents and older sister Magda, who remained in Hungary. Doctors prescribed heavy medications to help with her anxiety. “Zsa Zsa fell into the pattern of prescription barbiturates for sleep and amphetamines to energize her when overcome by worry and depression,” Staggs writes. In 1944, the Bel Air home she shared with Hilton burned to the ground. Zsa Zsa wasn’t in town, but her beloved dog Ranger died in the fire, which weighed on her heavily. “I could not sleep,” Zsa Zsa said. “I saw Mother and Father killed. I saw Magda struggling in the arms of soldiers — were they Nazis, were they Russians? I saw every member of my family tortured.” She had good reason to worry. When Hitler invaded Hungary in March 1944, Magda and her parents were arrested by the Hungarian political police one month later. But the Portuguese ambassador (who was also Magda’s lover) secured passports for the family to get out of Hungary and find safety in Portugal. One year later, they got their papers to come to the US. Eventually, Magda told Zsa Zsa of the horrors she’d seen: “Slaughter in the streets, the yellow badges, the men and women — our family physician, our lawyer, merchants we knew — taken to Tattersall, the famous riding academy, and there machine-gunned to death.” Meanwhile, in New York, Zsa Zsa was losing her mind and on a bender. She grilled meats in her suite at the Plaza and held wild shish-kabob parties, spent $15,000 on new furniture for the hotel, slept on benches in Central Park, racked up hundreds of dollars in long-distance phone calls, went on spending sprees at Van Cleef and Arpel and stayed out dancing all night. In April of 1945, she filed for divorce from Hilton. He agreed that it was the right decision, but he was also concerned about her welfare. Partnering with Eva, he had Zsa Zsa committed to a sanitarium. She spent almost two months there, undergoing barbaric insulin shock therapy. “She was an unwilling participant in medical experimentation,” Staggs writes. She and Conrad divorced in 1946, but Zsa Zsa turned up pregnant soon after. Conrad put his name on the birth certificate, though it was uncertain the child, a daughter named Francesca, was actually his. (It was rumored that Nicky Hilton, Zsa Zsa’s stepson, was actually the father.) In 1949, she wed Sanders. A few years into their marriage, she met a Dominican playboy named Porfirio Rubirosa and fell in deep lust. The two carried on a passionate public affair, but Zsa Zsa didn’t want to leave Sanders. “He understood her and kept her always a bit off-kilter, which she liked,” Staggs writes. In December 1953, he filed for divorce, leaving Zsa Zsa shattered. The two would go on to be good friends, and in 1967 Zsa Zsa convinced him to marry Magda, by then an invalid after suffering a stroke, to keep him in the family. Through Rubirosa, Zsa Zsa met Rafael “Ramfis” Trujillo, the son of a brutal Dominican dictator of the same name. She helped Trujillo get into the Hollywood scene and introduced him to various stars. As a thank you, he sent her a Mercedes convertible and a fur coat. In 1958, news broke of her involvement with him, and Zsa Zsa found herself at the center of a publicity crisis. She was even censured by Congress. “No one ever accused her of reading US News and World Report,” writes Staggs. “In her ignorance, she resembles those wives and mothers in ‘The Godfather’ who ask no questions and have no wish for answers.” (While Zsa Zsa had the most scandalous love life, her sisters also kept busy. According to Francesca, Eva was bisexual and had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. She married and divorced five husbands and went on to serve as a beard for her friend Merv Griffin. Magda sought a quieter life but still went through six husbands.) After Sanders, Zsa Zsa had a string of short, unremarkable marriages. “She could not bear to live alone,” Staggs writes. “Although a strong woman, she firmly believed that without a man she was incomplete.” In 1986, a then 70-year-old Zsa Zsa married Frederic von Anhalt, a 43-year-old German businessman who claimed to be a prince after he was adopted by a deposed European royal. They remained married until Zsa Zsa’s death in 2016, but there were indications he was a lousy husband, keeping Francesca from seeing her mother and creating a “circus” atmosphere around Zsa Zsa as her health declined. He was hardly the only questionable decision Zsa Zsa made later in life. In June 1989, she was driving her white Rolls-Royce in Beverly Hills when a cop pulled her over for having outdated registration. They argued, things escalated and Zsa Zsa slapped him across the face. She was eventually charged with five offenses, including battery upon a police officer and having an open container of alcohol in the car — she kept a silver flask of vodka in the glove compartment — and sentenced to three days in jail and 120 hours of community service. Unfortunately, Staggs says, “this is probably what she’s remembered for better than anything else, especially by younger people.” But, he hopes his book will shine a light beyond such moments and show that Zsa Zsa and her sisters weren’t a bunch of dumb blondes. Zsa Zsa was a huge animal-rights activist and also donated significant sums of money to the Hungarian revolution. Magda was a Holocaust survivor. Eva was a serious actress whose comedic work on “Green Acres” is more influential than many realize. “They were outrageous and over-the-top and subversive,” he said. “They were so different from everything else in the US.”

[continued] Dunaway — who was also married to J. Geils Band singer Peter Wolf during the 1970s, and has been romantically linked to comedian Lenny Bruce and actor Marcello Mastroianni — likewise made demands for O’Neill while working on the 1985 CBS miniseries “Christopher Columbus.” Before making a scheduled appearance to promote the miniseries, she called up with an ultimatum. “She wouldn’t appear unless CBS provided two first-class round-trip airplane tickets for a husband and son [Liam, now 39],” recalled someone who was a CBS publicist at the time. “The network was over a barrel, with too much at stake to do the event without her, and they provided the tickets.” Dunaway also seems to be so tender-hearted about her loved ones, being reminded of them can be a trigger. A New York media insider recalled walking through Times Square in 1981 and seeing the actress and her parents gawking at the lines of“Mommie Dearest” theater-goers that were “literally around the block . . . It’s one of the nicest things I ever saw, a prideful daughter with two very proud parents. “Years later, I find myself sitting with her at the Hollywood Improv. I told her how she gave me one of my favorite moments, when I saw her standing in Times Square with her parents. She cursed me out. Turns out she didn’t like talking about her [now-deceased] parents anymore — how dare I remind her of them.” Whatever is fueling Dunaway’s ire, one thing is for sure. “She is a wonderful performer, but her own worst enemy,” said wig designer Huntley. “She must be very insecure and very scared,” said the CBS publicist. “‘Tea at Five’ was such a good opportunity for her. Right now, it looks like her career is toast.”

When The Post reported this week that actress Faye Dunaway was fired from the Broadway-bound play “Tea at Five” — after allegedly slapping crew members and throwing things at them, and creating a “dangerous” environment in which no one was allowed to wear white lest it distract her — some people were not surprised. “My first day on the set, she slapped me,” said Rutanya Alda, who appeared with Dunaway in the 1981 movie “Mommie Dearest.” Alda, who played the assistant character to Dunaway’s Joan Crawford, told The Post that they were filming a scene when “instead of doing a stage slap, she slapped me on the cheek, hard and for real.” Broadway wig designer Paul Huntley, who worked with Dunaway on a 1996 tour of the show “Master Class,” claims to have witnessed her wrath. “Faye didn’t like how the hairpins were being presented and she slapped my assistant’s hand,” recalled Huntley. “[The assistant] was horrified and did not know what to do.” A publicist for Dunaway had no comment for this story. Indeed, the streets of Hollywood and Broadway are paved with tales of bad behavior by the legendary actress, who has starred in such film classics as “Bonnie and Clyde,” “Chinatown” and “Network.” Nominated for Best Actress Oscars for all three, she won in 1977 for “Network.” According to the book “Easy Riders and Raging Bulls,” during the filming of 1974’s “Chinatown,” Dunaway had a habit of urinating into trash cans and a disdain for flushing toilets in her dressing room. Rather, the book claims, she called in Teamsters to do the job, leading to multiple resignations. (Dunaway told author Peter Biskind she had “no recollection” of such doings.) Once during filming, the book alleges, Dunaway said that she needed a bathroom break but director Roman Polanski asked her to wait. Later, when he bent down to speak with the actress through a car window, she allegedly responded by tossing a cup of liquid into Polanski’s face. It was full of urine. Asked about the incident by the Guardian, Dunaway was quoted as calling the story “absolutely ridiculous” and saying it “doesn’t even deserve the dignity of a response.” Her pissy behavior has been so extreme, even other notoriously prickly actors are shocked. James Woods, who worked with Dunaway on the 1976 TV movie “The Disappearance of Aimee,” recalled in an interview how “she threw something at me because I ad-libbed a line . . . She was just so rude. If Bette Davis [also in the movie] can be nice to people, Faye Dunaway ought to be buying them limousines as presents.” Davis — said to be one of the most cantankerous women in Hollywood during her era — agreed. When “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson asked her to name the worst people in Hollywood, she chose Dunaway. More recently, a makeup artist was offered two films in 2006 — one starring a veteran actress, who, the artist said, was known by film-crew workers as “a real c–t,” and one with Faye Dunaway, who colleagues said was “a psycho.” In talking to several other makeup artists, she was warned, “The c–t is much better to work with than the psycho.” She chose “the c–t.” The Post also reported this week that Dunaway, 78, never learned her lines for “Tea at Five.” This led some Twitter users to speculate whether Dunaway’s age might have caused her memory to lapse. But singer Jill Sobule, who had a hit in 1995 with “I Kissed a Girl,” recalls Dunaway having similar issues decades ago. A teenaged Sobule was an extra on the Denver, Colo., set of “The Disappearance of Aimee.” “Faye Dunaway was hours late and we were all waiting for her, sweating through our costumes on the hottest day of the summer in an un-air-conditioned church,” Sobule told The Post. “[When she] finally arrived, she was in the foulest mood and didn’t know her lines. She yelled at people and huffed off the set . . . It was like something out of ‘Valley of the Dolls.’ ” Dunaway’s shenanigans have not been limited to showbiz settings. In the 1990s she lived in West Hollywood. A former neighbor recalled to The Post how the actress would park her Volvo station wagon and Mercedes SL “in anyone’s driveway, or block driveways. She’d always get into fights with [neighbors]. If they called the cops, she’d yell at the cops!” According to a former employee of the now-defunct store Video West in West Hollywood, the actress used to drive up to the store and honk her car horn, waiting for someone to come out to collect her videos. If they took too long, the source told The Post, Dunaway would “just toss [the tapes] out the window.” Michael Procopio, now a food writer in the Bay Area, was working at a Los Angeles Pottery Barn when he had his first run-in with Dunaway. “I made eye contact, she walked over and asked a question about wine glasses. I was so new that I didn’t have the answer and [had to ask] my manager,” he said. “I told her it would just be a second while he checked . . . She called me ‘a f–king moron’ and told me I couldn’t do my job.” A couple of years later, Procopio was working at the Beverly Hills restaurant Kate Mantilini when Dunaway was seated at one of his tables. She proceeded to order a complicated version of a menu item, asking for so many substitutions that it ceased being the dish on offer. “She hated the food, hated me and hurled another epithet. She was an awful person both times. Nobody likes her.” Food seems to be a recurring theme in Dunaway’s meltdowns. “I had lunch with Faye at The Ivy, and she pulled out a mini-kitchen scale and weighed all the food she was allowed to eat,” a Dunaway colleague told The Post. “She was . . . very cranky. Probably starving.” As The Post reported this week, the actress allegedly threw a salad on the floor while doing a photo shoot for “Tea at Five” — saying it would be better there than in her hand. Sources claimed that “Tea at Five” producers were so concerned about Dunaway that they called Actors’ Equity Association to see if it was “ethical” to put someone in her state in front of Boston audiences. Despite her reputation, some in Hollywood — even those who have been on the receiving end of her outrage — feel sympathy for the actress. An Oscars insider recalled how upset Dunaway was after her co-presenter Warren Beatty mistakenly announced “La La Land” — instead of true winner “Moonlight” — as Best Picture at the 2017 Academy Awards. “I saw her whip out her phone to show James Corden a picture of the card she and Beatty had been given on the Oscar stage — the one with [‘La La Land’ star] Emma Stone’s name on it,” said the Oscars insider. “She was showing as many people as she could. She was so embarrassed and afraid people were chalking it up to her age.” There was at least one person whom even Dunaway was intimidated by. While filming the 1987 movie “Barfly,” co-starring the actress and Mickey Rourke, the notorious Charles Bukowski — who’d written the script, derived from his memoirs — was sometimes on set. “Bukowski was a pugnacious alcoholic and would get into a fight with anyone at the drop of a hat,” said Jonathan Hodges, who was an assistant prop-master on the film. “So she never messed around with him.” The actress also has been incredibly loyal to those she’s loved. During the making of “Mommie Dearest,” there was a day when cast members were told not to bother going to the set. They feared they were being fired. Instead, “Faye wanted Terry O’Neill [her then-husband, a photographer] to get a producer credit,” recalled Alda. “He had never worked on a movie in his life, and she insisted that he get the credit or she would not show up. So much was invested that they decided to give him the credit.”

A mosque buried its imam in the backyard — and a little Rockland County (NY) village almost died of shock. Tosun Bayrak al-Jerrahi al-Halveti, who founded the Jerrahi Order of America mosque in Chestnut Ridge, died at the age of 92 in February 2018. He was laid to rest behind the house of worship a few days later. And in May of this year, the faithful erected a grand monument made from imported Turkish marble. A bench was installed next to it. Etched into the marble tomb is one of the sheikh’s favorite sayings: “The most beloved of Allah’s servants are those who engender Allah’s love in his servants and their love in Allah.” The gravesite is the picture of tranquility. But it has not been a peaceful resting place.The issue of private burials has haunted the public discourse in this village of 8,000 souls ever since, with opponents — led by a retired FBI agent — saying backyard graves are public health risks and that village officials should never have OK’d one. “I don’t think that an incorporated village where people live next door to one another on small or large parcels of land should allow the burial of human remains on properties,” said Hilda Kogut, the ex-Fed and chairwoman of Citizens United to Protect Our Neighborhoods, who called the town policy a “shock to the system.” Embarrassed village officials soon claimed they tried to stop the burial, but didn’t have the legal authority to block it. The mosque, providing correspondence as proof, said it asked for permission from the village to bury their beloved imam, and received it. The mosque “did it against our respectful wishes,” Chestnut Ridge Mayor Rosario Presti insisted. The mosque’s current sheikh, Yurdaer Doganata, noted that the congregation followed “local safety codes and health regulations and used a traditional casket. It was a green burial and there were no chemicals used. The grave site was approximately six feet deep. A member of our community who is a licensed contractor performed the ground preparations.” The coffin was made from wood with no nails, he said. The state does not have a law against home burial and allows local governments to pass their own ordinances regarding the practice. Chestnut Ridge has no law on the issue. Such interments are safe, and not uncommon in others parts of the country, according to the Funeral Consumers Alliance. “The myth of contagion from dead bodies is one of the most persistent of the American funeral industry,” reads the alliance’s website. “There is no evidence, peer-reviewed or otherwise, to justify it.” Still, New Yorkers creeped out by the prospect of living among the dead, need not be; NYC forbids private, at-home burials. Mayor Presti said the village hopes to soon draft an ordinance that bans backyard burials. But the late shiekh’s followers will not have to worry about an exhumation. “You can’t unring that bell,” the mayor said.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/31862a67ba6f182387f23c31398839a6/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o1_250.gif http://68.media.tumblr.com/b2c41bf82a2b28731d2a48733e868ea9/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o4_250.gif http://68.media.tumblr.com/e54cadd40e72d4f446a9cf1a6c6627a6/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o3_250.gif Newlyweds Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner are reportedly mourning the loss of their dog Waldo — who was struck and killed by a car in Manhattan this week. A rep for Jonas told TMZ that the incident happened on the Lower East Side Wednesday while their dog walker was taking a stroll with Waldo. The pooch had been on a leash, but was “spooked” by a pedestrian and broke off, TMZ reports. The Jonas rep called it “a freak accident” — adding that the couple was very emotional afterwards and had to see a therapist. They filed a report with police on Friday, however, NYPD officials were unable to provide information about the incident when reached by The Post. Jonas and Turner reportedly got Waldo, a Siberian Husky, back in April 2018. Jonas had initially adopted his brother, Porky, but decided to take Waldo in as well. “Welcome to the family,” wrote Turner on Instagram. The slain pup had is own IG account — with over 45,000 followers. “Bruthuz,” reads his only post, which features a pic of Waldo and Porky staring at each other. Attempts to reach Jonas and Turner’s reps were unsuccessful on Friday night.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/31862a67ba6f182387f23c31398839a6/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o1_250.gif http://68.media.tumblr.com/b2c41bf82a2b28731d2a48733e868ea9/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o4_250.gif http://68.media.tumblr.com/e54cadd40e72d4f446a9cf1a6c6627a6/tumblr_ohf7uuEXW01qekp69o3_250.gif Newlyweds Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner are reportedly mourning the loss of their dog Waldo — who was struck and killed by a car in Manhattan this week. A rep for Jonas told TMZ that the incident happened on the Lower East Side Wednesday while their dog walker was taking a stroll with Waldo. The pooch had been on a leash, but was “spooked” by a pedestrian and broke off, TMZ reports. The Jonas rep called it “a freak accident” — adding that the couple was very emotional afterwards and had to see a therapist. They filed a report with police on Friday, however, NYPD officials were unable to provide information about the incident when reached by The Post. Jonas and Turner reportedly got Waldo, a Siberian Husky, back in April 2018. Jonas had initially adopted his brother, Porky, but decided to take Waldo in as well. “Welcome to the family,” wrote Turner on Instagram. The slain pup had is own IG account — with over 45,000 followers. “Bruthuz,” reads his only post, which features a pic of Waldo and Porky staring at each other. Attempts to reach Jonas and Turner’s reps were unsuccessful on Friday night.

Burglarizing bears raiding freezers for ice cream in Colorado homes A band of burglarizing bears is on the loose, breaking into homes and cars in and around Aspen, Colorado, while searching for sweets and homing in on ice cream. “They’re going after ice cream,” Snowmass Village Police Chief Brian Olson told The Aspen Times. “They’re predominantly going after sweets.” “They’re going straight for the fridge,” Aspen Police Department community service officer Ginna Gordon told the newspaper. She said the bears have busted into seven homes and two or more cars in Aspen this month alone. Some residents are fighting back, with one would-be robbery victim punching a bear in the face Tuesday when it tried to shove its head through his girlfriend’s screen, Gordon said. But that’s not all. The rogue bears have also broken into nine homes this month in nearby Pitkin County, the sheriff’s office wildlife officer told the newspaper. The main culprits seem to be two juvenile siblings, police said, but they are monitoring at least a dozen of the animals. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials have been trying to trap the two main instigators, but cannot seem to entice them, said Kurtis Tesch, a wildlife officer. Residents are being warned to lock their cars and ground-floor windows and doors, and to bring in birdfeeders and pet food. “It’s gonna continue,” Tesch said. “Until we catch these problem bears, there will be a problem.” Bear breaks into car, drives downhill in Colorado BOULDER COUNTY, Colorado – A “delinquent bear” had a bit of fun in Boulder County this 4th of July, and it didn’t involve fireworks. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said a bear pulled open an unlocked driver’s doors and climbed in. Unfortunately for the bear – not to mention the owner of the car – the door closed behind the animal. The bear then worked on digging through all four doors, “but apparently butt-shifted the car into neutral.” The car then rolled back and off the driveway about 100 feet down the hill, and ended up sideswiping a tree before the car came to a full stop. That was enough for the car to prop a door open, and the bear left the scene of the crash on foot, or should we say… paws, in an unknown direction. The sheriff’s office said the image serves as a good reminder for people to lock their cars and remove all items that might attract a wild animal in bear country. Bear cub fed, used for selfies by tourists is killed by officials for becoming 'way too habituated' to humans A black bear cub was shot by wildlife officials in Oregon after multiple interactions with tourists caused the juvenile creature to become too habituated to humans, according to local authorities. The Washington County Sheriff's Office (WCSO) and the Oregon Department of Fish were first alerted to the young male cub's presence in Scoggins Valley Park near Henry Hagg Lake on June 4 through multiple phone calls and social media posts, according to the Salem Statesman Journal. The outlet reports that the 100-pound bear, which was between 2 and 3 years old, had been fed by and used for selfies by boating crowds who flocked to the lake all week long to enjoy the nice weather. WCSO took to Twitter on the evening of June 12 to warn park guests to stay away from a boat ramp that the bear was lingering near as they attempted to coax it back into the woods. About an hour later, the sheriff's office shared that their attempts had been successful and the cub had "wandered back into the woods." Wildlife biologists Kurt License and Doug Kitchen set out last week to trap and relocate the cub when they were informed the creature was on a nearby highway eating a mix of trail mix, sunflower seeds and cracked corn that visitors had left for it. When the pair approached the animal, it did not try to run away. "It was very clear that the animal was way too habituated," License told the Statesman Journal. "With that information, it was a human health and safety risk, and we had to remove it." On Friday morning, WCSO took to Facebook to share that the bear had to be killed as a "direct result of humans feeding and interacting" with it. "We're sad to report that the bear was "lethally removed" by the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife on Wednesday morning," it wrote. "Unfortunately, the wildlife experts say relocation wasn't an option for this bear. We are saddened by the outcome, but leave it to the experts when it comes to these kinds of tough decisions." Habituation happens when animals are exposed to the same unnatural stimuli so frequently that they eventually stop responding to it, according to the U.S. National Park Service. Although wild animals should have a natural fear of humans, many that are constantly exposed to people lose their fear and stop acting naturally around them, which frequently happens in heavily trafficked national parks like the Grand Canyon. When wild animals no longer see humans as a threat, they allow people to come very close to them, which can prove dangerous and sometimes fatal for both animals and people. Man in an Alaska village charged with federal crimes for allegedly killing polar bear and leaving it to rot for five months. Christopher Gordon of Kaktovik is accused of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act after he allegedly shot and killed a polar bear around December 20, 2018. Gordon has been charged with knowingly taking a polar bear in a manner unlawful under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and with one count of wasteful taking of a marine animal. The US Fish and Wildlife Service led the investigation. Katkovik, with about 250 residents, is some 640 miles north of Anchorage. Officials say Gordon improperly stored whale meat in his front yard, which attracted the polar bear. Gordon allegedly shot and killed the polar bear for trying to eat the whale meat, not to defend himself or someone else. Investigators say the carcass sat in Gordon’s yard from late December until May, when a snow removal vehicle hit the bear’s body and tore off one of its legs. Under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Gordon was allowed to harvest the polar bear for “subsistence or other purposes,” but not in a wasteful manner. Officials say he chose let the carcass rot, and he eventually took it to the Kaktovik dump to be burned without using any part of the bear for sustenance. Gordon faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine if convicted.

A man found a Egon Schiele drawing in a New York thrift store, and it could be worth a fortune A previously unknown drawing by Egon Schiele turned up in a Habitat for Humanity thrift store in Queens, New York, more than 100 years after the Austrian painter's death -- and it could sell for more than $100,000. Schiele made the pencil drawing of a reclining nude girl in 1918, the year he died of Spanish flu, said Jane Kallir, director of Galerie St. Etienne in New York, who published the first complete catalog of Schiele's watercolors and drawings in 1990. Schiele was part of Austria's expressionist movement and was mentored by Gustav Klimt. Kallir said a man contacted her last year after buying the drawing at the thrift shop, but the photos were too blurry for her to tell much about it. That happens all the time, she said. "We get hundreds of photographs a year, and most of them are fakes or copies or just misidentified as Schiele's work. We asked for better photos, and he took a year to get back to us." The next set of photos was better, and she asked the man to bring the drawing to the gallery. She wouldn't identify the man because he wants to remain anonymous. Kallir said that when she saw the piece in person, she was 99% sure that it was the real thing, but she took some time to compare it the Schiele's other work. "I wanted to see how this drawing fit with the other drawings," she said. "It fit perfectly, and I could almost pinpoint the modeling session from which it came, so then my initial gut was confirmed, and I said 'yeah, this is it.' " Schiele did about 20 drawings of this girl and her mother, and Kallir said two were probably made on the same day as this drawing. Those works are now in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria. The drawing is now for sale in her gallery and on display as part of an exhibit called "The Art Dealer as Scholar." If it sells, the man who found the drawing plans to donate some of the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity New York City, Kallir said. "We are ecstatic!" Karen Haycox, chief executive of Habitat for Humanity New York City, told The Art Newspaper. "And, maybe a little bit in shock but ultimately really happy for all involved. "I can't help but think that were it not for the Habitat NYC ReStore, this piece of art history might have ended up in a landfill, lost forever." 'Like a piece of junk' Kallir says that TV programs like "Antiques Roadshow" and "American Pickers" give the impression that "there are treasures in every junk shop and every attic and every basement." That's not been her experience. "I've been doing this since the 1980s, and this is only the second time something like this has happened," she said. She says the man who found the drawing is a part-time art handler, picker and collector who has a good eye and got really lucky. Schiele's work wasn't particularly valuable until the 1970s, and Kallir said this drawing was put in a frame in the '60s. At some point, the date and his signature were cut off. "You're looking at something that, at that moment, wasn't worth all that much, that was framed in a manner that made it look like a piece of junk, so somebody gave it away without knowing what they had," she said. National treasure in Austria Kallir said that a lot of Schiele's work was brought to America by Jews and other Europeans fleeing the Nazis in the late 1930s and '40s, and more came in after World War II. But Schiele was virtually unknown in the United States, she said. "In Austria, where my grandfather had his first gallery, Egon Schiele is like a national treasure," she said. "He's one of the most famous artists of the modern period in Austria." Her grandfather started Galerie St. Etienne in 1939 after coming to New York as a refugee. "He devoted his entire life to studying this artist and making him better known, and when he passed away in 1978, I simply continued the tradition," Kallir said.

Steinway piano customers claim they were duped into ‘investment’ NY Post February 9, 2019 Angry buyers of Steinway pianos say they were duped by salespeople who told them the instruments would increase in value, though they actually plunge in price by 50 percent or more as soon as they leave the showroom floor, according to a report Saturday. Owners of the ultra-expensive instruments, which cost between $70,000 and $150,000 when new, said salespeople lied to them about what their pianos’ worth in the future, the Hatch Institute reported Saturday. Customers said they were shown charts of steadily rising prices for new models and were told that buying a Steinway made a better investment than Wall Street stock, the investigative journalism site said. One Steinway brochure, titled “Your Steinway Investment,” claims that “for more than a century and a half, every handmade Steinway has increased in value,” adding that their pianos were “an investment instrument unique in all the world.” But when owners tried to sell, they learned their Steinways were worth tens of thousands less than what they’d paid, even when the pianos were just months old or had never been played, the site reported. One customer never took home the piano she purchased for $78,000 in 2013 after she agreed to accept an inexpensive upright while paying down a layaway loan that pushed the total cost to $100,000. Kelly Kilrea made $68,000 in payments but when she could no longer afford them, she looked into selling the instrument, only to learn that she wouldn’t get more than about $33,000 from a used-piano dealer, which is what still owes Steinway. “I said, `Are you kidding me? How is that possible when it’s supposed to appreciate.’ It was in showroom condition.” The Steinway Gallery in Virginia, where she bought the piano and where it has remained all these years, then repossessed it. Kilrea is trying work out a deal to complete the sale, but she needs to borrow from a third party to pay off the loan. “They use the word investment,” said Ronen Segev, who owns Park Avenue Pianos, which buys and sells used Steinways. “Steinways go up in value. It’s part of the expectation. Then you look at the secondary market and you see what prices are. It really shocks people.” Company spokesman Anthony Gilroy conceded that Steinways “go down in value significantly right off the bat.” He said claims by salespeople that the pianos increase was “a very rare occurrence.” As for the brochure making that statement, he said he “pulled it months ago from the website.” But Hatch found it was still widely in use. Steinway, a central part of Astoria since 1870, when founder William Steinway set up shop there, is one of the few manufacturing plants still in New York. All new Steinways sold in the U.S. are made at the company’s headquarters. The firm, which also once owned a palatial Victorian mansion with turrets and a tower a block away, is now being shopped by its owner, hedge fund billionaire John Paulson, who is asking $1 billion. He bought it for $513 million in 2013.

Old beer cans, whiskey bottles found during home renovation worth thousands A family found a “treasure” worth thousands of dollars hidden inside their home during a renovation — and it was in one of the most unlikely places. When the family discovered that one of the columns on their front porch was full of empty beer cans and whiskey bottles, it turned out to be great news. The items dated back to the 1940s, and being in good condition, they’re potentially worth thousands of dollars on the collector’s market. The collectibles were discovered in the column of a front porch in Kansas City, Fox 4 KC reports. The house was reportedly built in the 1920s and the empty drink containers date back to the 1940s. According to one of the workers, 100 cans came out of the column when they opened it up. Amazingly, a chute was discovered near the top of the column. It appears as though a previous homeowner was hiding the evidence of their drinking by dropping the empty bottles and cans through the chute. Now, decades later, they’re worth a decent amount of money to the right buyer. “It was a jackpot of the 1940s,” homeowner Danielle Molder told Fox 4 KC. “Every variety of whiskey and bourbon you can imagine. Tons of old vintage beer cans. Many of them in amazing condition. There are collectors and now, overnight, I have an extensive collection.” While it may not seem like much, collectors are reportedly willing to pay comparatively high prices for these items. “A quick Google research showed some of these Falstaff cans can go for 40 to 50 dollars. I’ve got at least 20 to 30 of these guys,” claims Molder. Out of all the weird items a drinker could hide in the house, this probably the best possible outcome for the Molders.

checking account... who writes checks anymore? savings account... who has any savings anymore? :(

It never should have gone past the video they made in support of Hillary. I've watched, been mildly amused, but continued because I only have basic cable & no streaming services. Jack's & Karen's relationships made me retch last year, Will's made me yawn, & Grace's was the only one I liked. So I'll miss it only because I can't afford anything else.

OKAY… THIS IS COOL… Tuesday night the Yanks & Twins played what many are calling the game of the year (for all of baseball). The Yanks had gone ahead 14-12 in the 10th inning, but the Twins loaded the bases with 2 out in the bottom half. Then Max Kepler (the first MLB player born & raised in Germany) hit a screaming liner to left center that was definitely going to clear the bases and win the game… until Aaron Hicks made a sensational sprinting, diving, backhand catch to end it. Yankee announcer Ryan Ruocco was appropriately insane about it. Well… T-shirt company Rotowear has combined Ruocco’s words & Hicks’ dive to create an awesome t-shirt. WATCH THE VIDEO TO SEE HOW WELL THEY DEPICTED THE DIVE AND THE EXHILARATED RUSH OF WORDS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrfualDo9nY QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ SCINTILLATING TV today: Ruocco, who started as an intern with the YES (Yankees Entertainment & Sports) Network, has had his status explode in the past month, filling in for 2 NY powerhouse voices. Yankee radio announcer John Sterling (great voice, annoying personality) was hired in 1989. His sister died that year & he missed 2 games. He had since called 5000+ straight games until recently taking a few off because he was under the weather. (He turned 81 July 4th, so he’s a Yankee Doodle Dandy). Ruocco got kudos for his fill-in work. The face & voice of YES is Michael Kay. He does most of the games on TV, hosts a weekday ESPN radio sports talk show that YES simulcasts, and has a talk show (no regular schedule) called CENTERSTAGE in which he’s interviewed many big entertainment & sports figures (and also his uncle, Danny Aiello). ANYHOO… about a month ago he called a game with horrible laryngitis, took a couple of days off, came back & sounded better, then announced he had to have vocal chord surgery and would not be allowed to talk for a month (which is why Ruocco was calling the game). This was especially tough because he married at ~48 and has 2 young kids. To communicate with them & his wife (former morning news personality Jodi Applegate) he got proficient at typing his words into his phone, then letting it speak for him. ANYHOO… again… I was watching TMKS (The Michael Kay Show) today on YES and one of the co-hosts (he has 2) mentioned that Michael was in the building (it turns out he was in the area to see Michael Buble in concert tonight). So he eventually came on the set & sat down at his normal seat, but he’s still a week away from being allowed to speak, so they interviewed him and he typed all his answers into the phone, then held it up to the microphone. CLASSIC TV! One funny moment… they asked him how he’d have called Hicks’ catch. He started typing… and typing… and… one of the co-hosts read a GEICO promo in the interim. Finally, he played it back, and it was actually damned good!

I posted a similar thread once: https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/actors-you-cant-stand-mannerisms-voice-looks-roles-chosen-etc.131845/

A complete game one-hit shutout for The Biebs!

Explorer who found the Titanic wants to solve Amelia Earhart’s disappearance Robert Ballard, the oceanographer who found the Titanic in 1985 during a secret military operation, will begin to search for signs of Amelia Earhart, the pilot who disappeared from her attempted around-the-world flight on July 12, 1937, after taking off from Lae, New Guinea, in a Lockheed Electra 10E plane bound for Howard Island, located just north of the equator. Her disappearance prompted years of search efforts and conspiracy theories, including beliefs Earhart was captured and killed by the Japanese, settled with the natives of a Pacific island and even returned to New Jersey where she secretly lived out the rest of her days as a housewife. A REAL HOUSEWIFE OF NEW JERSEY?!?!? Ballard and a National Geographic expedition will search for her plane near a Pacific Ocean atoll that’s part of the Phoenix Islands. His team will use remotely operated underwater vehicles in their search, the National Geographic channel said Tuesday. An archaeological team will also investigate a potential Earhart campsite with search dogs and DNA sampling. National Geographic will air a two-hour special on Oct. 20. “Expedition Amelia” will include clues gathered by the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery that led Ballard to the atoll, named Nikumaroro. Ballard also is responsible for finding pieces of John F. Kennedy’s World War II patrol boat in the Solomon Sea, the German battleship Bismarck in the Atlantic, and many ancient ships in the Black Sea, as well as hydrothermal vents near the Galapagos, the channel said.

5 guys arrested for a fist fight... at Five Guys Jul 22, 2019 STUART, Fla. (WXYZ) — Police in Florida say they arrested five guys at a Five Guys Burgers and Fries restaurant last week for a fight. According to the Stuart Police Department, they received a report of a fist fight inside the restaurant on July 17. They arrived and arrested them all. Police say three juvenile males and two adult males were charged and processed at the jail. A witness said a cup was thrown and a door slammed in someone’s face before an “all-out brawl” broke out, according to an arrest report. The cause of the fight is unknown. Three male juveniles and two adult men were charged with affray and processed at the Martin County Jail, police said. Florida law defines affray as a first degree misdemeanor charge resulting from two or more people fighting in a public place and disturbing the peace, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Keith Morine and Loren Perine, of Stuart, who are both 18, were arrested and booked into the Martin County Jail, the newspaper reported. The three male minors were fingerprinted, booked into the jail and later released to parents.