samhexum

A sleeping’s Hell Kitchen man awoke to find a stranger grabbing his genitals before the silent intruder bolted from the apartment early Thursday, cops said. The 21-year-old resident left his door unlocked, allowing the thirty-something assailant to slip inside the residence around 4:35 a.m., cops said. The intruder, sporting a multi-colored scarf, groped the sleeping man over his clothes — and when the victim awoke, the creepy night crawler placed his fingers to his lips and motioned for silence, cops said. The suspect then wordlessly exited the apartment at 51st St. and Ninth Ave. and headed west, police said. Police released a video showing the suspect’s escape. Cops described the wanted man as age 30 to 35, with black hair and glasses. In addition to the scarf, he was wearing a black coat, a gray shirt, jeans and dark shoes. Anyone with information can call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at (800) 577-TIP. Calls are confidential.

Woman’s car damaged in SpaghettiOs assault: cops PITTSBURGH — Police are investigating an assault involving several cans of SpaghettiOs in Pittsburgh. WTAE-TV reports a woman told police she was meeting someone in the city’s Terrace Village neighborhood last month when another woman approached her and began throwing the canned spaghetti at her vehicle. The victim says the suspect tried stabbing her with a knife, and she was sliced in the finger. Police say the victim managed to get away, taking the attacker’s purse with her. Items in the purse helped authorities identify the suspect as 59-year-old Eileen Gettleman. Police say the victim’s car was left with a broken back window and a splattering of red sauce and pasta. Gettleman has been charged with aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy. No attorney is listed in court documents. Police are working to identify any additional suspects.

And she said the nicest things about you! 'Major' Frida Kahlo Exhibit Coming To The Brooklyn Museum http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/fridakbk.jpg Frida in New York, 1946. The Brooklyn Museum has just announced a major exhibition "exploring the life and work of the iconic Mexican artist" Frida Kahlo. The exhibit will open on February 8th, 2019, and feature Kahlo's work—including paintings, drawings, photographs and film—as well as her clothing, jewelry, and other personal items. This is the first time her personal objects (from the Blue House, the artist's lifelong home in Mexico City) will be on view in the United States, according to the press release. A little more on that: After Kahlo's death in 1954 [when she was just 47 years old], her husband, muralist Diego Rivera, instructed that their personal belongings be locked away at the Blue House, not to be touched until 15 years after Rivera's death. In 2004, these items were unearthed and inventoried. Making their U.S. debut are more than one hundred of Kahlo's personal artifacts ranging from noteworthy examples of her iconic Tehuana clothing, contemporary and Mesoamerican jewelry, and some of the many hand-painted corsets and prosthetics used by the artist during her lifetime. Shedding new light on one of the most popular artists of the twentieth century, these objects illustrate how Kahlo crafted her appearance, and shaped her personal and public identity to reflect her cultural heritage and political beliefs while also addressing and incorporating her physical disabilities. Kahlo’s choice of clothing, though a purposeful statement of her politics, must also be understood in relationship to her well-documented disabilities. At eighteen, after recovering from a childhood case of polio that left one of her legs permanently weakened, Kahlo was in a horrific bus accident that left her with lifelong injuries, including a severely broken spine. Enduring more than thirty operations during her lifetime, Kahlo convalesced at the Blue House and in hospitals on and off for decades. The exhibition is titled Appearances Can Be Deceiving, after a drawing by Kahlo, "in which she makes visible the disability that her striking Tehuana skirts and blouses covered." The show will also delve into Kahlo's time in New York City, where she traveled with Rivera for his work, as well as her own. In 1934, the two had been in town when Rivera was commissioned to paint a mural at Rockefeller Center, but was fired from the project when he included (and refused to remove) an image of Vladimir Lenin (Kahlo and Rivera were active members of the Communist party). A few years later, in 1938, Kahlo was here again for her first and last NYC exhibit (and her first solo show), at the Julien Levy Gallery. The above portrait was taken not long after this show opened, and her career had been taking off both in New York and internationally; it was taken on the roof of a Greenwich Village building. It's unclear if this will be included, as it was at the 2015 exhibit at the the Detroit Institute of Arts, but it's worth highlighting here. In 1932, as Kahlo's career was just beginning, an article was published with this headline alongside her photo: "Wife of the Master Mural Painter Gleefully Dabbles in Works of Art." According to the Detroit News, the reporter, Florence Davies, asked Kahlo (who was living in Detroit at the time with Rivera), "Are you a painter, too?" Kahlo replied, "Yes. The greatest in the world." We're gonna go ahead and guess that the headline for Davies' article was the handiwork of a male editor. http://gothamist.com/attachments/arts_jen/kahlohealdine.jpg A 1932 headline that most certainly was written by a man. The exhibit—which the Museum's Anne Pasternak points out "comes at an important time, when it is critical to build cultural bridges between the United States and Mexico"—will only run through May 12th of next year, and will certainly be drawing crowds (the museum has already instituted a timed ticketing procedure).

I've posted about ESPN baseball analyst Keith Law's blog in the Political Forum. He also occasionally writes film reviews. Here's one: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. No story has a happy ending unless you stop telling it before it’s over. — Orson Welles Orson Welles’ spent about a decade on his last film project, The Other Side of the Wind, but never completed it before his death in 1985, having shot the film for over five years and spent several more editing it, or simply tinkering with it, before he lost the rights to the footage in a legal dispute. Netflix has commissioned a completion of the film with what was shot, in line with what’s known of Welles’ plans, as well as a companion documentary about the making of the original project called They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead. The former film holds little interest to me, for many reasons, but the documentary is one of the most purely entertaining things I’ve seen all year. Morgan Neville, who also had a hit this year with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, spoke to just about everyone involved in the making of The Other Side of the Wind who is still alive, used archival footage from others, footage from the movie itself, plus recorded interviews with Welles and bits of his other films to create an informative and fast-paced look at a slow-moving cinematic disaster. The documentary covers the period from when he began the project on The Other Side of the Wind in 1970 through the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which, for reasons explained in the documentary, cost Welles control of his project, with a quick run through the last few years of Welles’ life and some of the other projects he left unfinished. Welles appears to have had a general vision for the movie, which was itself a film-within-a-film and had a clearly autobiographical bent that he repeatedly denied, but the script and that vision kept changing, while Welles, strapped for cash, kept improvising on matters of location, crew, and even cast. He tried to use impressionist Rich Little in the film, and later cast a local waitress with no acting experience (or, it would appear, talent) in an important supporting role. He tried to work with a skeleton crew of people especially loyal to him, but the set is described by surviving members as “a circus” where it was often unclear why Welles was doing what he was doing, or if he even knew. Welles comes off as a narcissist and megalomaniac who openly lies to his cast and crew to avoid any admission that things weren’t going well. He was also a perfectionist, in the worst way that can be, in that he couldn’t bear to let films go, leaving at least four projects unfinished at his death — this one, The Deep (an adaptation of the novel Dead Calm), The Dreamers, and Welles’ adaptation of Don Quixote. The perfectionism meant that scenes were reshot and rewritten many times, often on the fly, while the editing process also took years as Welles, in the retelling of people who worked with him, altered his vision for the film as he edited it – while doing so as a squatter in the house of director Peter Bogdanovich, Welles’ friend and one of the stars of the film. The documentary doesn’t so much address the question of why the movie wasn’t finished – that’s straightforward – or what Welles hoped to accomplish with the movie beyond making his magnum opus, which is unanswerable. It seems more a study of Welles the character, a man undone by a massive early success in Citizen Kane, subsequent betrayals by Hollywood, a lack of contemporary acclaim for later works – many now seen as great films, as his entire legacy has undergone a total reassessment since his death – and strained personal relationships. There’s even a hint at the end of They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead that Welles’ upbringing played a substantial part in his perfectionism and constant need for approbation, although it’s underexplored, likely because there was no one to interview on camera about it. Instead, Neville seems to ask this question about The Other Side of the Wind: Did Welles ruin his own movie or did the movie ruin him? The film also includes vignettes from Welles’ personal life in the 1970s and early 1980s that both flesh out (no pun intended) his character while further explaining, or trying to explain, the endless story of the making of his movie. That includes the story of Welles’ friendship with Bogdanovich, which ended, per Bogdanovich’s telling, when Welles and Burt Reynolds mocked him during a television appearances; his longstanding affair with Oja Kador, a Croatian artist and actress who also starred in his film; and his extensive working relationship with cameraman Gary Graver, which crossed into the abusive. Those three relationships were essential both to the making of The Other Side of the Wind and its unmaking as well, as there is no way Welles would have fallen so far down this rabbit hole were it not for the devotion he inspired in his friends and colleagues. Neville uses some quirky devices to keep the pacing brisk, especially at the beginning, such as using clips of Welles from his films to create a false dialogue with the narrator, Alan Cummings, something that I found amusing but is certainly atypical for serious documentaries. There’s also a clip of his wonderful appearance in The Muppet Movie, likely the first appearance of Welles I ever saw, which forever cemented his image for me as a hefty, silver-bearded man with a deep voice and great charisma on the screen. As it turns out, Welles had a spectacular sense of humor as well, which comes across as a side effect in They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead; he had a huge laugh and a quick, dry wit, never evident in his films but very much a part of his persona and likely a reason people in his orbit were so willing to throw their lives into chaos when he called. I can’t say anything here made me more interested in seeing The Other Side of the Wind, but it did remind me of how much I enjoyed his work behind the camera (The Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil) and in front of it – especially The Third Man, a film so good that for years I assumed he directed it.

Identical twin Petula grieves...

The show really needs to tighten up its writing. I knew right from the start that Brett Kavanuagh’s college pal was the rapist. And they’re almost halfway through the season– shouldn’t Liv have been in a life-or-death situation at least 2 or 3 times already? RAY DONOVAN is shooting in NYC–shouldn’t his brother have tried to kidnap her again by now?

How this trio’s $400K GoFundMe scam was finally exposed It was a tale that warmed hearts around the world — a homeless vet forking over his last $20 to help a distressed driver gas up her car in the dead of night. But the truth is more stomach-turner than heart-warmer. The hero, the woman he “saved” and her boyfriend were a trio of scam artists who knew each other for a month before the so-called chance encounter — and the $400,000 they raised on GoFundMe was blown on luxury items and gambling trips that included a lavish New Year’s trip to Las Vegas, officials said Thursday. “The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,” said Burlington County, NJ, prosecutor Scott Coffina inannouncing criminal charges against couple Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure and vagrant Johnny Bobbitt. “[McClure] did not run out of gas on an I-95 off-ramp, and [bobbitt] did not spend his last $20 to help her,” Coffina said. “Rather, D’Amico, McClure and Bobbitt conspired to fabricate and promote a feel-good story that would compel donors to contribute to their cause.” The Florence Township couple had already known Bobbitt for at least a month before their “Paying It Forward” campaign went live on Nov. 10, 2017, spotting him panhandling by an underpass during their frequent gambling jaunts to Philadelphia’s SugarHouse Casino. Their first interactions even started with the same kindness they’d later project on their bogus GoFundMe campaign, with the couple spotting Bobbitt 10 bucks here, a hot cup of coffee there, officials said. ‘The entire campaign was predicated on a lie’ “[i don’t know] why but that homeless guy by sugarhouse [sic] just keeps popping in my damn head today,” McClure, 28, text messaged her boyfriend on Oct. 16, 2017. “Dude I just thought about him!!” replied D’Amico, 39, as the conversation turned to ways to help out the 35-year-old former Marine: Food, clothes, a Nintendo Switch, even a job and a house. Less than a month later, it was Bobbitt who supposedly came to McClure’s rescue when her car clunked out — off the same Girard Avenue exit ramp where the trio first met. McClure’s tank ran bone-dry along a desolate, litter-strewn stretch of I-95, forcing her to hike to the nearest gas station in the dark — or so the story posted to the GoFundMe page went. “I never ran out of gas before, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I pulled over as far as I could, and got out of the car to head to the nearest gas station,” she wrote. “That’s when I met Johnny. … He told me to get back in the car and lock the doors. A few minutes later, he comes back with a red gas can. Using his last 20 dollars to make sure I could get home safe.” In reality, it took McClure less than an hour after the campaign went live for her to tell her skeptical best friend that the too-good-to-be-true tale was exactly that. “The gas part is completely made up … but the guy isn’t,” she texted to the friend, whom officials didn’t identify by name. “I had to make something up to make people feel bad … So, shush about the made up part.” It worked: Between the drive’s launch and conclusion on Dec. 11, some 14,347 donors chipped in $402,706 to help Johnny, rocketing past the initial $10,000 goal. The trio’s touching tale made them overnight sensations, as they embarked on a media blitz that saw the story covered on “Good Morning America” and “The Ellen Show,” and in outlets around the globe. Bobbitt battled to kick his nagging drug habit, bought a home, and received a job offer from Amazon, while the couple negotiated a book deal. But behind the scenes, McClure was feeling the heat, even getting guilted by her own mother for the ruse. “My mother just called me and said that people go to jail for scamming others out of money. So there’s that,” she texted her friend. “That’s what my own mother thinks of me.” Meanwhile, relations strained between Bobbitt and the couple, who allegedly kept the bulk of the $367,108.81 they received after GoFundMe took its cut for processing fees. Bobbitt claimed he received only about $75,000, while McClure and D’Amico blew through the rest on everything from a 2015 BMW to designer shoes and sunglasses to a New Year’s trip to Las Vegas and a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon. Over $85,000 was withdrawn by the couple in or near casinos from Vegas to Atlantic City to Philly, financial records revealed to investigators. “You really need to get rid of [bobbitt] and get the public off your back by donating,” McClure’s friend warned her in March. “He could out you.” McClure replied, “I’ll be keeping the rest of the money, f–k you very much.” But even if McClure was willing to heed her friend’s advice, it was too late. “I can’t believe we have less than 10k left,” she texted D’Amico earlier that month. “I’m so upset.” taking McClure and D’Amico to court claiming they’d bilked him out of the windfall earned on the back of his supposed good deed. The couple countered that they were stiffing Bobbitt for his own good, because he was using the money to feed his resurfaced heroin habit. “Giving him all that money, it’s never going to happen,” D’Amico told Philly.com at the time. “I’ll burn it in front of him.” Privately, D’Amico was still clinging to his hopes of parlaying a book deal out of the flap, even floating a title throwing Bobbitt under the bus: “No Good Deed.” But it was his and McClure’s greed that likely doomed the scam, officials said Thursday. Had Bobbitt gotten a larger cut and not sued the couple, bringing investigators sniffing around, “there’s a good chance” the scheme never would’ve been uncovered, Coffina said. Still believing Bobbitt to be the victim, investigators raided the couple’s home in September, and also seized a trove of electronic records, including bank statements and over 60,000 text messages. D’Amico and McClure bickered over the scam as it crumbled before their eyes. “Twenty thousand [dollars], BMW. Five thousand, Disney [World and Land trips]. Ten thousand in bags. We both went to Vegas, right?” D’Amico wrote. “Like you act like you didn’t spend a dollar.” Wrote McClure the next day, “I wish that you never updated the GoFundMe. Like we shoulda just let it go and not f–king kept people informed.” As they unwound the twisted tale, authorities also dug into Bobbitt’s past and found that in 2012 he recounted a nearly identical tale on Twitter while he was living in North Carolina. “So this girl runs out of gas and has a flat tire at the same time in front of Wal-Mart and is blocking traffic,” he wrote. “So I run to the gas station and hen change her tire. I spent the only cash I had for supper but at least she can get her little children home safe.” Officials couldn’t say Thursday whether that good deed had actually happened and merely inspired the 2017 tale or was an early test run of the fabrication. Either way, “I don’t think that’s a coincidence,” Coffina said. Bobbitt “deserves our appreciation for his willingness to serve our country as a United States Marine and he has our sympathy and concern for the homelessness that he’s experienced, as well as his publicized struggle with addiction,” Coffina added. “But it is imperative to keep in mind that he was fully complicit in the scheme to defraud contributors.” McClure and D’Amico were taken into custody Wednesday, processed and released, while Bobbitt was arrested in Philadelphia and is awaiting extradition to New Jersey. All three face charges of theft by deception, and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, punishable by five to 10 years behind bars. A lawyer representing the couple declined to comment, and there was no answer at their Florence, NJ, home on Thursday. Multiple calls to an attorney representing Bobbitt went unanswered. As for the money, investigators are still trying to account for every penny, but Coffina said it’s believed “zero” is left. GoFundMe said in a statement that everyone who donated to help Bobbitt would be fully refunded in the coming days. “It was fictitious and illegal,” said Coffina. “And there are consequences.”

There have been a few SVU episodes that included it, including one in which Ian Somerholder raped John Ritter's kid (his younger brother) and then they began raping and killing people together. Whoopi Goldberg's ex was their drunken father.

Passionate kissing; shirtless, sweaty torsos; a rocking ambulance with a power line blown down and sparks flying... just like MY first sexual experience! :cool:

Milo was in a Disney movie, apparently. They're not really attracting Meryl Streep & Jack Nicholson, huh?

or Physician's Assistant. Maybe the dad has a weak heart.

Me, too, or a FTM trans... which I'm sure homophobes would have a field day with or a conniption about. Um... shouldn't that be his fiance? Joshua is not his husband yet.

Pink isn't a color that comes to mind when we think of chocolate. But a new, smoky rose-colored variety called "ruby chocolate" made its U.S. debut at Central Market in Texas in the spring. The chain was the only retailer in the country to sell a ruby chocolate line from Prestat, the London chocolatier favored by Britain's royal family. Last September, chocolate giant Barry Callebaut introduced the pink-hued chocolate with much fanfare at a global media event in Shanghai. The company developed the ruby chocolate as the "fourth type" of chocolate next to dark, milk and white. Recognizing the strong interest in this new chocolate variety, Prestat added five ruby chocolate products to its lineup, all sold in pretty packaging. What does it taste like? The flavor of ruby chocolate is nothing like dark chocolate. It's closer to that of white chocolate, but more complex, with a bright berry note and tartness that's balanced by sweetness. Initially, there's a fleeting perception of milk chocolate, thanks to its milk powder content, but it quickly gives way to the fresh berry flavor. Prestat's ruby chocolate labeling states a 47 percent cocoa content (cocoa solids and cocoa butter), which is considerably higher than the minimum requirement for milk chocolate. The mouthfeel is luxurious and creamy, similar to that of a fine quality milk chocolate. Ruby chocolate made from ruby-colored cocoa beans. The naturally ruby colored chocolate has a unique and distinctive berry-fruitiness. Why is it pink? With no artificial colors added, precisely what makes ruby chocolate pink is shrouded in mystery. Prestat's website states that the chocolate is made from "ruby cocoa beans specially selected for their exceptional color and natural forest fruit flavors." But there is not a genetic variety of cocoa bean called ruby, says Clay Gordon, a New York-based chocolate critic and the founder and moderator ofTheChocolateLife on The Maven network. Gordon was among a handful of chocolate influencers invited to taste ruby chocolate when Callebaut launched it in Shanghai. "Any cocoa bean that has a specific chemical profile can be used to make ruby chocolate," Gordon says. "Although there are no ruby cocoa beans — just as there are no milk chocolate cocoa beans or white chocolate cocoa beans — to make ruby chocolate, you do need special beans." He explains that fresh cocoa beans can display colors ranging from dark purple to light ivory, with shades of pink and lilac in between. Normally, the natural chemicals in the beans responsible for their color will oxidize and turn brown during fermentation and drying, and roasting accentuates that brownness. "Callebaut discovered a way to keep the cocoa from turning brown at every production step," Gordon says. In addition to using a shorter fermentation time, adding citric acid -- an antioxidant that's naturally present in fruit — preserves the pink color, he says. "[Citric acid] also contributes to the perception of bright fruity freshness, which is part of ruby chocolate's appeal." Gordon thinks consumers should approach ruby chocolate with an open mind. "If you consider yourself to be a connoisseur of high-end chocolates where there's a direct connection between the maker and the farmer, this might not be for you. But chances are you know someone who will like it," he says. Prestat's line of ruby chocolates at Central Market includes bars, champagne truffles and chocolate flakes. Prices range from $2.99 for an .88-ounce bar to $25.99 for a gift box of 10 champagne truffles. Other varieties and brands of ruby chocolate have been released in the United Kingdom and Japan, including a ruby KitKat bar from Nestle.

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Jeff Rohrer is about to become the first known former or current National Football League player to be part of a same-sex marriage. Rohrer and his husband, Joshua Ross, will get married in Los Angeles, Calif., on Sunday. The news was first reported by The New York Times. Rohrer was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the second round of the 1982 draft out of Yale. As a linebacker, he played for “America’s Team” for six seasons alongside some of the most recognizable figures in franchise history, including Tony Dorsett, Randy White and Ed “Too Tall” Jones. Here is what Rohrer told The New York Times. “If I had told the Dallas Cowboys in the 1980s that I was gay, I would have been cut immediately,” Rohrer said. “It was a different world back then, people didn’t want to hear that.” However, Rohrer went on to say this. “I’ve given at least five people heart attacks with this news,” Rohrer said. “But for the most part, many of my closest friends, including some of my former teammates with the Cowboys, could not have been more happy and supportive.” Rohrer has won several awards for his work as a producer on television commercials. According to the report, he has also has created oil paintings of his former Dallas Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, as well as former Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi and former Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams. There were only seven previously known gay players in the history of the NFL, according to SB Nation. None of those individuals came out while they were in the league. Several others, including Michael Sam, participated in NFL training camps. However, none never appeared in an NFL game. Jeff Rohrer (left) and Joshua Ross will marry one another this Sunday. http://fanpagepress.net/m/J/Jeff-Rohrer-new-pic-1.jpg

My Harlequin-romance couple was Beecher & Keller. My wish-I-coulda-watched-them-fuck couple was Michael (Chris Potter) & Will or Vince and Will. Or, given the character's annoying personality, Brian & Himself.

Robin... stop staring at my crotch and cover up yours!

During his 40-year comedy career, Garry Shandling created two of the most iconic and influential TV shows of all time. But instead of following "It's Garry Shandling's Show" and "The Larry Sanders Show" with another television masterpiece, Shandling worked on something else: a pickup basketball game. During the 25-year run of the weekly Sunday game, until Shandling's death at age 66 in 2016, it was attended by celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler and Judd Apatow, who directed the recent HBO documentary "The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling." But Shandling's was not a "Hollywood" game. Participants weren't allowed to network there or talk about it afterward. "It was 'Fight Club' with better jokes," says Shandling's writing partner Suli McCullough. The players respected this to protect the singular refuge Shandling carefully constructed. Those Sundays yielded friendships that are responsible for some of the best television and film of the past 20 years. As director Alex Richanbach says, "This group of people found a little family in Los Angeles because we all have the same comedy dad." This is the story, told by the players, of how Shandling's generosity, drive and anxiety led to a three-decade basketball game -- and the next generation of comedy. http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25258669/garry-shandling-secret-pickup-game http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2018%2F1112%2Fr462812_1296x518_5-2.jpg

Ryan Williams spent a month eating nothing but McDonald's, and the results were actually positive. He lost 16 pounds and 2 percent of his body fat. Williams, from Cheltenham, England, made sure not to exceed his daily calorie requirements and spent an hour working out every morning as well. It was all in an effort to debunk the results of Morgan Spurlock's famous documentary "Super Size Me," and to prove that fast food doesn't have to be bad. https://nypost.com/video/mcdonalds-diet-turned-this-man-into-a-hunk/