samhexum

Uhh... when you posted this, did you know...? Hall of Fame right-hander Bob Gibson, who won the Cy Young and National League MVP awards in 1968, sent a letter to living Hall of Famers informing them he is battling pancreatic cancer. Gibson, widely considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time, was diagnosed with cancer several weeks ago, his longtime agent, Dick Zitzmann, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Zitzmann told the newspaper that he has spoken to Gibson and that chemotherapy is expected to begin Monday in Omaha, Nebraska, the pitcher's hometown. Gibson, who turns 84 in November, has been hospitalized in Omaha for the past two weeks. "We all know what a competitor he is," Zitzmann told the Post-Dispatch. Gibson went 22-9 and led the majors in ERA (1.12), shutouts (13) and strikeouts (268) in 1968 for the St. Louis Cardinals. The year before, he went the distance in three games, all wins, and St. Louis beat the Boston Red Sox in seven games in an epic World Series. In 1969, Major League Baseball lowered the pitcher's mound from 15 inches to 10 inches in hopes of boosting offense. Gibson remained dominant, winning 20 games for the fourth time and completing 28 games in 35 starts. Gibson, who spent his entire career with the Cardinals, won 251 games over 17 seasons. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981. The Cardinals offered their well wishes Saturday night, tweeting: "Get well soon, Bob. All of Cardinal Nation is behind you!"

Punderdome spotlights Post editors who play — and slay — with words Outrageous headlines? Pun-derful! The fifth annual New York Post Edition of the Punderdome, hosted by funny father-daughter duo Fred and Jo Firestone, is set for Thursday at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Winners of the wordplay com-pun-tition will be decided through the Firestones’ proprietary “Human Clap-O-Meter.” Prepare for four rounds of witty wordsmithing (the ‘Dome is a serious spectator sport, according to the event’s website) from the writers and editors who brought you the likes of “Headless Body Found in Topless Bar” and “Osama Bin Wankin!” Pun-in-cheek prizes will be awarded throughout the night — blenders, Snuggies and other “As Seen on TV” were among years’ past trophies — not to mention tabloid glory. Tickets are $12 to watch Post vets take on the city’s (second) best punsters.

Two Detroit city workers on a bathroom break were reportedly injured when firecrackers exploded as they sat down on toilets inside their fire truck repair shop Wednesday. The stunt left one of the men with injuries to his leg and scrotum, according to the Detroit Metro Times. The victims are employees of the city’s General Services Department, an agency that repairs city fire trucks and other equipment, the report said. The city’s deputy fire commissioner, Dave Fornell, told the paper the incident “was a prank gone bad.” President of the Detroit Fire Fighters Association, Mike Nevin, insisted his members were not to blame. “This is an absolute embarrassment,” Nevin told the paper. “It is important for the public to know that no DFFA employees were involved in this incident.” Detroit police are working to determine who’s behind the prank.

But how's the Burger King $1 taco?

The story behind Giannis Antetokounmpo’s first Nike signature sneaker After sharing a pair of shoes with his brother as a kid, the NBA MVP now has his own — the Nike Zoom Freak 1 https://theundefeated.com/features/the-story-behind-giannis-antetokounmpos-first-nike-signature-sneaker/ Interesting bulge on the guy to Giannis' right...

The Los Angeles Angels honored their late teammate, Tyler Skaggs, in the best way possible Friday night. They all wore his No. 45 jersey onto the field, played a video montage on the giant video board, brought his mother out to the pitcher's mound, then put together one of the most impressive and inspired performances of the 2019 season. Two pitchers, Taylor Cole and Felix Pena, teamed up to no-hit the Seattle Mariners in a 13-0 victory at Angel Stadium in the Angels' first home game since Skaggs died in his hotel room in Texas on July 1. Cole worked two perfect innings to open the game, and Pena dominated through the final seven, allowing just one fifth-inning walk. They each pitched with the comfort of a massive lead, the product of a seven-run first inning that saw Mike Trout drive in four runs by himself -- two on a home run, then two on a double. After Seattle's Mallex Smith grounded out to second base to end it, the Angels took off their jerseys with Skaggs' name and number on the back and arrayed them on the pitcher's mound. When players returned from the All-Star break on Friday, they saw the shrine that was built by fans in front of the main gate of Angel Stadium now filled with caps and candles and hand-written letters. They saw images of Skaggs everywhere, including on the center-field wall. They saw his locker preserved in its usual spot. They saw his No. 45 painted behind the pitcher's mound. And they found their own No. 45 jersey hanging in their own locker. Trout ultimately reached base five times and drove in six runs. He is batting .407 with seven home runs and 16 RBIs in the seven games he has played since the death of one of his closest friends. In that time, Angels general manager Billy Eppler has seen Trout emerge as a leader. "His shoulders are broad because he carries around a lot," Eppler said prior to the game. "This kid -- or this young man -- has just continued to be there for everybody." Before the game, Debbie Skaggs was noticeably anxious as she boarded the elevator that would take her to the field for the heart-wrenching ceremony to honor her son. She was to deliver the ceremonial first pitch to Andrew Heaney, her son's best friend on the team. "I hope I make him proud," Debbie, a longtime high school softball coach who in many ways inspired Tyler's love of baseball, said from the suite level of Angel Stadium. She threw a perfect strike, without hesitation, then took four steps to the edge of the mound, brought her hands together and looked up to the heavens. Minutes later, she watched as Skaggs' teammates honored him in the best way possible.

Baker confuses request for ‘Moana’ birthday cake with ‘marijuana’ A confused birthday girl got a cake with a marijuana theme instead of her favorite Disney character, Moana. Kensli Davis’ mom had asked the Atlanta, Georgia, bakery staff to decorate it with images of the Hawaiian princess — but they misheard. She ended up blowing out the candles on a cake emblazoned with a giant cannabis leaf, green icing and a My Little Pony-style character with red eyes and a puff of smoke from its snout. Luckily, Kensli, 25, and her mom found the mix-up hilarious, and she shared a picture of the druggy dessert on social media. “I haven’t had a chance to tell y’all about our experience this weekend with my birthday cake,” she wrote. “So my mama called and ordered me a cake telling them how much I loved Moana. (Because really I do) Well needless to say these people thought she said marijuana.” Kensli’s post has been shared 11,000 times — with social media users finding the mix-up as funny as she did. Luckily, the birthday girl still got to have her cake and eat it. She wrote: “That ice cream cake was still good though.” Her mom ordered the cake because she is a huge fan of the 2016 Disney film “Moana.”

Equinox co-founder lists bonkers Westchester mansion Vito Errico, who co-founded the high-end gym brand Equinox with his siblings in 1991, hasn’t lost his flair for the fancy. Now, a custom-built contemporary stone home in Armonk, NY, that he co-designed is on the market for $8.88 million. The 11,423-square-foot “hotel at home” at 21 Sterling Road South is an assemblage of smaller buildings connected architecturally, notes broker Lesli Hammerschmidt, of Houlihan Lawrence, notes. “It wasn’t about building a grand, in-your-face mansion, but a home where my family and friends can enjoy their surroundings and one another,” Errico tells Gimme Shelter. The six-bedroom property, which dates back to 2006, was designed in collaboration with Carol Kurth Architects and Five Star House, the team that also originated Equinox’s designs. Highlights include an indoor pool and a spa area that is covered by a retractable glass A-frame roof. There’s also a billiards room, a home theater, a wine room and a recreation room including a “commercial-grade” gym with an indoor sports court. Outside, there’s a stone terrace with an outdoor barbecue and a fire pit.

Why mountain goats are being airlifted from Olympic National Park to Cascade Mountains For the second straight summer, mountain goats are flying in Olympic National Park. Officials this week began rounding up the sure-footed but non-native mammals from remote parts of the park where humans introduced them in the 1920s, to relocate them to the Cascade Mountains, where they do belong. Animal capture specialists called “gunners” and “muggers” sedate the animals with darts or capture them in nets, blindfold them, pad their horns and fly them – on slings dangling from a helicopter – to a staging area. There, they’re looked over by veterinarians and outfitted with tracking collars before being trucked to the Cascades and once again flown by helicopter, this time into their new alpine habitats. The relocations began last year, following a years-long stretch of planning and public comment, with 115 of the roughly 725 mountain goats in the Olympics being moved to the Cascades. Officials captured 17 Monday and Tuesday at the start of a two-week goat relocation period, including a kid about 6 weeks old, which got a ride on a mugger’s lap inside the helicopter instead of hanging beneath it. The Olympics have few natural salt licks. That makes it more likely goats there will be attracted to the sweat, urine and food of hikers, potentially endangering the hikers. One goat fatally gored a hiker in 2010. A coalition of state and federal agencies and American Indian tribes is behind the effort, which involves closing parts of the park, including the Seven Lakes Basin and Klahhane Ridge. A second two-week closure period is planned for August. “Mountain goat relocation will allow these animals to reoccupy historical range areas in the Cascades,” Jesse Plumage, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist, said in a news release. The capture of the goats was contracted out to Leading Edge Aviation, a company that specializes in animal capture and relocation. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife plans to release the goats at six sites in the Cascades. They include the Chikamin area in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, Preacher Mountain in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Hardscrabble Ridge and mountain peaks south of Darrington. Rich Harris, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist leading the agency’s work to move the goats, told The Seattle Times this month that of those relocated last year, about 65 to 70 survived the winter. Half of the 10 relocated kids survived, he said.

My childhood memory of a fun park: I was quite a young'n and my parents had taken us somewhere (Hershey Park?) that had little antique cars for kids to drive around a track. They were gas powered. Mine ran out of gas midway around the track & the attendant had to come out with a gas can. I have no idea what he looked like.

Who knew Rita could boogie like this?

http://www.diethobby.com/Tuploads/images/smileys/cartoon/helium_diet_cartoon.jpg

They couldn't pull it off... demolition has started.

How my lost wedding rings led me to a sister I never knew existed When Brittany Oliver, then 29, looked down at her left hand on a beautiful day, she felt like she’d been punched in the stomach: Her diamond wedding rings were gone. Incredibly, she would get them back the next day — and that would lead her to a new discovery: a long-lost sister. It would take four years, though, for their story to unfold. The saga begins on Labor Day 2015, at New York’s Seneca Lake. “I’d been playing volleyball in the sunshine with my husband, Steven, and daughters when I saw the rings were gone,” Oliver, now 33, tells The Post. Frantic, she retraced her steps. She even had friends, who owned a boat, post a sign about the missing jewels and cruise around the lake. But hours passed to no avail. Eventually, she says, “We went home. I was devastated.” While Oliver was combing the ground for her precious jewelry, Kala Rounds, another local spending her holiday at the lake, caught wind of her plight. “I heard that a woman was in tears over a lost ring and jumped to help,” says Rounds, then 25. “I thought about the time I’d lost a bracelet from a boyfriend and how upset I’d been. I could only imagine how losing a wedding ring would feel.” So she joined a group of strangers determined to help her find them. The search party spent hours scouring the shoreline. Rounds, now 28, remembers wading through waist-deep water, squinting through the muck on the lake bed, hoping to see a glint. Occasionally, someone would spot one and fish out a piece of jewelry — but there was no sign of Oliver’s diamond-studded wedding band or her engagement ring. They were starting to give up hope when a guy in the group hollered that he’d found the rings in the water. Someone called Oliver, who hopped on her friends’ boat, while Rounds corralled the search team onto her family’s boat. They met in the middle of the lake for the handoff. Both women remember seeing each other that day: the mother of two in happy tears, and Rounds, a disability-access counselor, pleased to have helped. The two went their separate ways: Oliver to her home in Watkins Glen, NY, and Rounds to Odessa, NY — both small towns, just 15 minutes apart. After an upbeat Facebook post from Oliver, life went back to normal — and remained so, until Christmas 2018. “[My husband], Steven, thought a 23andMe test would be fun,” Oliver says. So he wrapped one up for his wife, who was glad to receive it. Having grown up with her maternal grandparents, a mother who was in and out of her life and an estranged father, Oliver was interested in learning about her ancestry and family. But when the results arrived in January, something wasn’t right. “There were family connections on there that I didn’t understand,” says Oliver. Unable to reach her mom, she asked relatives if they could explain the results, but everyone was strangely evasive. After a day of confusion, “I finally spoke to my mom . . . and that’s when she reluctantly dropped a bombshell — the man on my birth certificate may not actually be my father,” Oliver says. “I went into shock.” It turns out her mom had been dating two people at the time of her conception. One was the man Oliver grew up believing was her father. The other was Mike Rounds. “One quick Google, and there he was,” she says. “The next day I took a deep breath as his home phone rang, ready to launch into this speech I’d prepared. But thinking I was a telemarketer he said, ‘Make it quick.’ So I just blurted out, ‘I think I’m your daughter.’ ” An hour later, Oliver, Rounds, and his wife, Beth, met at a local restaurant. It turned out the two families had been living just 15 minutes apart. That’s when Kala Rounds — now living in Syracuse, NY, two hours away — got a text from Beth, her mom. “She told me everything. And just like that, I had a sister.” The news didn’t come as a total shock to Rounds: Her mom had once told her that her dad might have gotten an ex pregnant. But for Oliver, it was a bolt from the blue. “There was so much for me to absorb,” she says. “For 32 years, I thought I knew who my parents were. Then suddenly I have a different dad, a brother and a sister. It made my head spin.” As soon as Oliver returned from meeting her biological dad and his wife, she reached out to Rounds on Facebook. “I nervously typed, ‘Hey, I’m your sister.’ I wanted her to realize that it was OK for us to talk.” The messages began flying immediately, and Rounds — recognizing Oliver’s name from that fateful incident in 2015 — mentioned the rings. Brittany was blown away. “When I realized it was Kala who’d helped find them, I couldn’t believe it. This woman who’d spent hours searching [to help] a perfect stranger, she was my sister. It was overwhelming,” she says. Four days later, the two met at Kala’s grandmother’s house. “I was supernervous and kept trying to make jokes,” Kala says. “But as soon as we started talking, it was like we’d known each other forever.” Both sisters were amazed at how similar they were. “When I decide to do something, I do it right away, no hesitation,” Kala says. “I’d never met anyone like that before, until Brittany.” Brittany agrees. “The nerves just fell away as I realized I was a blond-hair, blue-eyed version of Kala.” Now the sisters text constantly, and get together for meals, campfires and bowling. Brittany’s still amazed at everything that happened to bring them together. That day by the lake she thought she’d lost something precious — only to find something even better. “Meeting my sister was like a perfect piece of a puzzle falling into place.”

Thank you. Now I'm hearing Helen Reddy sing I DON'T KNOW HOW TO LOVE HIM... And I've had so many men before In very many ways He's just one more

I wish you good results, or at least peace of mind, whichever way you decide.

More importantly, how are you feeling? If it's even slightly better, and you can afford it, continue on and see if some positive momentum builds.

The Biebs won the All-Star Game MVP!

Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez is commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging. Prior to joining the de Blasio administration, she served in executive leadership roles with AARP, EmblemHealth and other organizations. She also served as New York’s first Latina Secretary of State. After serving as a senior adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio, I am honored to serve as the new Commissioner of the New York City Department for the Aging and to serve the city’s 1.6 million diverse older adults. I plan to highlight and address critical priorities for older New Yorkers, like social isolation. In a city of nearly 9 million people, many will endure loneliness – especially as they age. In fact, 1 in 5 older adults are socially isolated, which can lead to depression and a decline in physical health. Carrolyn Minggia, 64, is among them. She battles a syndrome that causes her immune system to attack her nerves. Since the death of her aunt, whom she moved to New York to care for, she also battles loneliness. We recently gave Minggia a robotic dog to ease that loneliness. The dog has sensors, responds to touch, barks and nuzzles and provides comfort. But technology isn’t the only way to fight the widespread problem of social isolation. Low-tech approaches, like acknowledging and greeting people or checking on older neighbors, go a long way. In 2017, we launched our ThriveNYC Friendly Visiting Program, which pairs trusted and trained volunteers with isolated older adults. In just a few years, we have provided more than 50,000 hours of in-home visits. Beyond those visits, the program allows for intergenerational exchange in which strong bonds are formed between visitors and program participants. Older adults who wish to explore options outside of the home can visit more than 200 senior centers across the city, many representing the languages and cultures that make New York City strong. The centers are safe places to socialize, have a meal with friends, take fitness and wellness classes, enjoy art classes, and attend cultural activities. Senior center membership is free to anyone age 60 or older. The Department for the Aging also plans to launch a campaign that highlights the problem of social isolation in order to encourage more people to explore resources that are available to them through the City of New York. If you are isolated, call 311 for more information about available services. The Department for the Aging is here to help.

Burger King brings back tacos for a limited time with new $1 Crispy Tacos For a limited time, the home of the Whopper will also serve tacos. Burger King announced Tuesday that participating restaurants nationwide are introducing a $1 Crispy Taco. Prices will be higher in Alaska and Hawaii. “We’ve seen success with tacos in our West Coast restaurants and knew it was time to bring this West Coast favorite nationwide,” Chris Finazzo, Burger King's president for North America, said in a statement. “The Crispy Taco adds variety to our snacking items and truly hits the spot.” According to Burger King, the taco features a “crispy, crunchy tortilla filled with seasoned beef, shredded cheddar cheese and crisp lettuce, all topped with just the right amount of our savory taco sauce.” In a commercial, The King, Burger King’s mascot, shows off the new tacos in a commercial shot in Austin, Texas. “This is Burger King, this is not Taco King here,” one person in the commercial says. Some locations starting selling the tacos before Tuesday's official launch, according to social media reports. Twitter user @palmqueezy tweeted Monday "@BurgerKing we need to taco bout this... Who let this happen?" Burger King's Twitter account responded simply: "Corporate." This is not the first time Burger King has offered tacos nationwide. According to Comicbook.com, the tacos exited most locations nearly a decade ago in 2010. Burger King also isn't the first burger chain to serve tacos. Jack in the Box said on its website that tacos have been a permanent menu item since the mid-1950s.