samhexum

I saw the London production & loved it. Don't remember if Paige was still in it at that point. Don't know why they altered the show for Broadway. My sister & former roommate used to sing I Know Him So Well at karaoke nights.

Rose: “This is not just a plate, mister. This is a family heirloom. It's Great-Great-Grandma Nylund's ceremonial wedding plate...The bride's family fills the plate with fruit and then at the wedding all the guests eat from it. And when the last piece is gone, that's when the bride and groom leave to start their wedding night, which takes place in a tent or a Best Western. The Vikings have always been a very progressive people. Anyway, that's when it's time for the husband to symbolically 'offer himself' to his new bride… on the plate.” Stan: “Yeck! I ate a tuna sandwich on that plate this afternoon.” Rose: “Stan, I'm never going to forgive you for this. My niece is getting married in the spring. What's her husband gonna do?” Blanche: “I bet a gravy boat would work in a pinch.”

Trucker pals who met at work discover they’re father and son Two Wisconsin truck drivers became buddies at work but found out they actually share a much deeper connection — they’re father and son. Nathan Boos, 28, who was adopted, never asked about his biological parents, so his adoptive mom and dad never disclosed their identities. “Growing up I always knew that I was adopted, it just never crossed my mind that I would ever find my parents,” the Tilden resident told local news network WEAU-TV. But unbeknownst to him, he’d been working alongside his biological father, Bob Degaro, 56, at Rock Solid Transport in Chippewa Falls for the past two years. Boos and Degaro became pals at work and were friends on Facebook — but it was Boos’ adoptive mother who made the link between the two. She told her son that his biological dad was also a truck driver. “She just went on my Facebook and went through my friends list and brought up his picture and I said, ‘Get out of here,’” Boos recalled. Degaro was equally floored. “He messaged me on Facebook one day and asked me if I knew his biological mother and I’m like yeah, that’s my ex-wife … and I about fell out of my seat … I’m like, oh my God,” Degaro said. Degaro said Boos was put up for adoption for financial reasons. “Back then I wasn’t much of a dad. His biological mom had chosen the adoptive parents because they were somewhat related … distant cousins, I believe, but I didn’t know that,” he explained. The two men are now working on strengthening the friendship they had already forged at work. Degaro is even planning on attending Boos’ upcoming wedding. “It’s still kind of a shock and there’s days I’m not sure exactly what to say or how to act,” Degaro said. “I mean, he is my son but yet we didn’t have that father-son relationship growing up and then we became working partners before we knew who we really were.” Boos added, “We’re just taking one day at a time, one mile at a time, as we say.”

Burt Reynolds, ‘Smokey and the Bandit’ actor, dead at 82 Burt Reynolds, an icon of 1970s Hollywood, has died at the age of 82. Reynolds’ manager, Erik Kritzer, confirmed the “Smokey and the Bandit” star’s death to The Hollywood Reporter, saying he passed away Thursday morning at Jupiter Medical Center in Florida. A former college football player who took up acting after an injury cut short his playing career, Reynolds spent a decade taking on bit roles in Hollywood before breaking through with roles in some of the biggest films of the decade, including “Deliverance,” “The Longest Yard” and — the movie he’s best known for — “Smokey and the Bandit.” Reynolds was born in Lansing, Michigan, on Feb. 11, 1936. His family settled in Riviera Beach, Florida, after his father, who served in the Army, returned from Europe in 1946. An All State football player in high school, Reynolds attended Florida State University on an athletic scholarship, playing halfback. Although he intended to go pro, his career was cut short by a series of injuries. Reynolds briefly contemplated a career in law enforcement, but a teacher recognized his talent while reading Shakespeare in English class and pushed him toward acting. The move would be a fruitful one, earning him the Florida State Drama Award in 1956, which came with a scholarship to the Hyde Park Playhouse, a summer stock theater in Hyde Park, New York. Afterwards, Reynolds had a brief stopover in New York, where he appeared in several theatrical productions before moving out west to Hollywood. He began appearing on television in the late ’50s, but it wasn’t until 1962 that he secured a consistent role as the half-Native American blacksmith Quint Asper on “Gunsmoke.” A decade later, he had his big-screen breakthrough in “Deliverance,” John Boorman’s psychological thriller about four friends whose rural rafting trip takes a terrifying turn. Reynolds said he considered the Oscar-nominated film, which co-starred Jon Voight, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox, the best of his career. The film helped establish Reynolds as one of the most marketable stars of the decade. He’d go on to star in a string of memorable hits including “White Lightning” (1973), “The Longest Yard” (1974), “Gator” (1976), “Semi-Tough” (1977) and, his most famous film, “Smokey and the Bandit” (1977). Reynolds starred in the film alongside future girlfriend Sally Field, playing Bo “Bandit” Darville, a charming outlaw tasked with transporting a tractor-trailer filled with beer over state lines. Reynolds continued to act regularly over the next four decades, notably starring in the “Cannonball Run” franchise in the ’80s and the sitcom “Evening Shade” in the early ’90s. But the most famous role of the latter part of his career was in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 1997 film “Boogie Nights.” While the film about the golden age of porn earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, it never stopped him from trashing the film, which he said he could never finish watching, or the director, whom he said he didn’t like. An action star who did many of his own stunts, Reynolds was also a charismatic rogue and relentless flirt on-screen, helping to make him one of the biggest sex symbols of his time. So did his infamous appearance in the nude as a Cosmopolitan centerfold in April 1972. The actor was as much of a ladies’ man off-screen, and was married twice, to Judy Carne from 1963 to 1965 and to Loni Anderson from 1988 to 1993. Despite those two trips down the aisle, the love of Reynolds’ life appeared to be his “Smokey and the Bandit” co-star Field, whom he famously described as the one who got away. No matter the role, Reynolds always tended to play lovable rascals, something he knew audiences expected of him. “We’re only here for a little while, and you’ve got to have some fun, right?,” he told the New York Times in the spring of 2018. “I don’t take myself seriously, and I think the ones that do, there’s some sickness with people like that.”

Domino’s realizes free pizza for life promotion was a bad idea Domino’s Pizza in Russia was forced to end a promotion offering fans free pizza for life if they got the brand’s logo tattooed “in a prominent place” on their body after the campaign became too popular. The promotion was originally advertised to run for two months, starting Aug. 31, but the pizza chain ended it only five days in after its social media was flooded with excited pizza fanatics all proudly displaying their Domino’s tattoos. The advertisement promised up to 100 free Domino’s pizzas every year for 100 years to anyone who got a tattoo of the company’s logo, posted the photo to social media and proved the authenticity of the ink. The company clearly was not expecting so many fans to go under the needle for free pizza and ended the promotion Tuesday, announcing only the first 350 people with tattoos will be awarded the special lifetime deal. Those still in the process were given a deadline. “An urgent message to all those sitting at the tattoo artist’s right now: We’ll include you in the list of participants, but we’re waiting for photos up to midday today,” Domino’s said in a message on the company’s Vkontakte page. “To those with appointments scheduled for later, we recommend canceling them,” the company added.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 64-year-old woman; my sister is 68. A few months ago, she was shopping and saw a man who looked exactly like our father. (Dad passed away in 2008.) A conversation ensued, and he subsequently came to visit her at her home. He’s 69. She snapped a picture of him and sent it to me, and the resemblance is uncanny. He was born in the same state as our father, was adopted and never knew his birth parents. We never had a brother; it was always just the two of us and our parents. She wants me to meet him. He’s married and doesn’t want to tell his family about us. I would be happy to meet him, brother or not, but I need to know the truth before getting involved. It would be too weird for me to just wonder. He seems reluctant to take the DNA test. My sister and I are in the AncestryDNA system already, so it would be easy for us all to confirm. What should I do? — GETTING INVOLVED DEAR GETTING INVOLVED: Because this man doesn’t want his family to know he may have siblings, is reluctant to take the test and you would prefer not to meet him unless you know his status, do nothing. The next move should be his.

White Sox star’s horrifying secret surgery: ‘strangled testicle’ White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu disclosed Tuesday why he has been out since Aug. 20: emergency surgery to repair what he called a “strangled testicle.” The club previously announced Abreu was out due to an abdominal/groin operation. Speaking with reporters through a translator Tuesday before his team’s home game against the Tigers, Abreu said he underwent surgery Aug. 21 to repair testicular torsion. “It was one of my testicles turned sideways and was strangled,” Abreu said. “The doctor had to perform emergency surgery to save it. I never thought about it, but it was serious. “I’m thankful for all the people who helped me, all the doctors and all the people in the hospital, who helped me to get better. I’m feeling good,” he added. Chicago general manager Rick Hahn recently said he expects Abreu back in the lineup in the middle of this month, Abreu already has begun cardio work and is set to resume on-field activities next week. Abreu, 31, leads the club in batting average (.272), home runs (22), RBIs (78), on-base percentage (.331) and hits (129).

Baseball teams expand their rosters in September. SEINFELD fans watching the Pittsburgh Pirates game last night might've done a double-take when looking into the team's dugout:

Whoop-de-fucking-do! It's too damn hot out to care about an 80 year old prop.

https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/fun-with-dildos.141432/#post-1598751

Man turns on pet cam just as friend leaps to her death A 51-year-old woman who was apartment-sitting leaped to her death Monday morning — as her horrified pal watched in real time from a dog camera inside the Midtown home, sources told The Post. The woman — a California resident with a history of psychiatric problems (isn't that redundant? :D;))— threw herself from the building on Park Avenue near East 36th Street around 8:50 a.m., sources said. The apartment owner tried calling her while on his way home from the airport but after getting no answer, he cued into his dog cam. That’s when he witnessed her opening a window and jumping out. The woman landed in a courtyard in the back of the building, sources said. FDNY medics responded to the scene and declared her dead, fire officials said. Her body was removed around 10:20 a.m. Details about why the woman jumped were not immediately available. Sources said she didn’t leave a note.

I have some chicken shaken and baking right now. Ah, classic haute cuisine! http://assets.kraftfoods.com/ecomm/kraft-recipes/product-image/640x428/2104_00043000057889.jpg

Doctors invent tool to remove 23-inch sex toy from man’s colon Doctors were forced to improvise when it came to removing a sex toy from one unlucky patient. The unnamed man turned up at the emergency room with a 23-inch sex toy lodged inside his colon. He apparently struggled to remove the toy at home. Deciding he needed expert help, the red-faced 31-year-old went to hospital 24 hours after the sex toy became stuck. He told doctors he was suffering from mild abdominal pain, but other than that had no symptoms that were causing concern. X-rays showed a “long and large-sized” foreign body in his colon. Doctors at ASST Great Metropolitan Hospital in Niguarda, Italy, tried to remove the sex toy using standard techniques, where a tube and grabbing device is inserted. But due to the “smoothness and size of the object,” none of the tools medics had were able to grab hold of the sex toy. The grabbing devices were either too loose or simply didn’t have the range to latch onto such a large foreign body, the doctors wrote in a case report. Stuck for ideas on how to remove the sex toy, the quick-thinking medics invented a new tool, using medical wire to latch onto it and pull it out. Threading the wire through a catheter tube to create a “noose” at the end, they were able to insert the tube into the man’s colon and reach the sex toy. The noose of wire was then looped around the sex toy like a lasso and tightened until doctors had enough grip to pull it out. The patient was discharged the same day and suffered no further symptoms. “Our new ‘handmade’ device proved to be harder than an ordinary snare used for polypectomy [a procedure normally used to remove polyps] and allowed us to grab the foreign body,” Dr. Lorenzo Dioscoridi wrote in the British Medical Journal case report. “The choice of a relatively large diameter of the catheter (2.8mm) allowed us to avoid an excessive kinking of the loop inside the catheter that could limit a correct opening of this snare-like device. “In our opinion, this new technique is easy and reproducible in most endoscopy rooms, and we suggest it as a valid option to remove large foreign bodies from the colon and rectum when standard endoscopic devices fail in foreign body extraction.”

DEAR ABBY: I am in my 80s. From time to time, when I have tried to contact a dear old friend or distant relative, I find they have recently passed away. Don't you think it would be a good idea for older people to make a short list of people we want contacted in case of serious illness or death? So many times our survivors have no idea who some of our friends are or how to contact them. -- GARY G. IN GEORGIA DEAR GARY: I think your idea is a sensible one. The list should include not only names, but also contact information. Thank you for sharing this with me and my readers because -- let's face it -- nobody lives forever.

Overdoses lead police to mobile home w/ drive-thru window 4 peddling drugs (link) AND... Police looking for person who left 5 pounds of pot at thrift store (link)

Drag Queen Story Hour sparks protests in conservative towns NEW ORLEANS — Once upon a time, in 2015, a writer in San Francisco named Michelle Tea got the idea for “Drag Queen Story Hour”: men in full drag reading children’s books to kids and parents in programs aimed at providing “positive and unabashedly queer role models.” Since then, Drag Queen Story Hours have been held at libraries or book stores in big cities including Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and costume-loving New Orleans — where over-the-top hair, makeup and gowns and stories about gender fluidity aren’t exactly new. In some smaller communities, however, the programs have sparked protests from conservative and religious groups. In Lafayette, Louisiana, west of New Orleans, the president of the local public library board resigned amid debate over plans to hold “Drag Queen Story Hour” and Mayor Joel Robideaux has indicated he may seek to cancel the Oct. 6 program. A handful of protesters showed up in the rain outside an August event at a library branch in Columbus, Georgia, according to the Ledger-Enquirer. And, on its Facebook page, a group called Common Sense Campaign Tea Party is calling for protests of a planned Sept. 8 event at a public library in Mobile, Alabama. That’s where drag queen Khloe Kash is scheduled to read “Rainbow Fish,” a 1992 story about the value of sharing, and “Stella Brings the Family,” about a little girl fretting over what to do about her school’s upcoming Mother’s Day celebration because she has two fathers. “It’s growing all over the nation, including the South,” Jonathan Hamilt, a New Yorker who provides help in organizing the story hours nationwide, told The Associated Press. He said there are DQSH chapters in 40 states and in other countries. Hamilt performs as his drag alter-ego, Ona Louise, at charity events and at Drag Queen Story Hours. He acknowledges that the story hours draw protests in some cities. But he has also been surprised at the acceptance it has received in some rural areas and conservative states such as Wisconsin and Georgia, where he grew up. “You never know how the community is going to react to the programing,” Hamilt said. “It’s kind of a toss-up.” Critics see something sinister: “The program is designed to purposely target children so as to make sexual perversion acceptable through repeated exposure,” a poster on the Common Sense Campaign Tea Party page wrote. AL.Com reported that opponents at a Mobile County Commission meeting described the programs as a “plan to indoctrinate children.” But, so far, the reading sessions are still on. At a Mobile City Council meeting, according to news accounts, some members expressed sympathy with opponents but also cited First Amendment concerns that made them reluctant to try to block the program. Scott Kinney, executive director of the Mobile Public Library system, said the system’s policy on use of meeting rooms stresses maximum availability to the public, and he noted that library facilities have been used by faith-based groups. In Lafayette, the planned October story hour is being coordinated by members of the Delta Lambda Phi Social Fraternity at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. The national fraternity, founded by gay men in 1986, issued a news release supporting the chapter as the controversy erupted last week. “This program teaches love, diversity and acceptance — powerful and positive messages from which all can benefit,” it said.

Just drop off the key, Lee.

Singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mERIFIwWYMg http://instagr.am/p/BI017Rkg_VI/media/?size=l http://instinctmagazine.com/sites/instinctmagazine.com/files/images/blog_posts/Kevin%20Symes/2018/02/26/Image-8.png

DEAR ABBY: Life hasn’t been easy for me. I taught in inner-city schools for 35 years and lost three life partners who were addicted to alcohol and drugs before they died of AIDS. Out of necessity, I had to carry on with my professional life while struggling with my unfortunate personal life. I’m happily retired now and living a wonderful life in Palm Springs, California. But sometimes I find myself starting to dwell on unhappy memories from my past. When it happens, I have found an effective coping method. It came from a simple mantra a former student of mine posted online: “There’s a reason the rearview mirror is so small and the windshield is so large. It’s because where you’re headed is much more important than where you’ve been.” Now, when a sad memory comes to mind, I say to myself, “big windshield; small rearview mirror,” let go of the unwanted thought and move on. This has been beneficial for my well-being, and I hope it will be for others. — DESERT JACK DEAR JACK: I’m glad you shared this. Clinging to loss and sadness isn’t healthy for anyone. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves to keep the past behind us rather than let it clutter up our present. Thank you for sharing your coping method. I, too, hope it will help readers.

Mogul was plied with alcohol, drugs by cheating husband in last days: suit The final days of the Manhattan mogul who made a fortune selling idyllic Snow Babies and Dickens Villages were a hazy, alcohol-soaked nightmare because of his grifter husband, the late millionaire’s family charges. Edward Bazinet, 73, who made as much as $100 million selling holiday figurines, was plied nightly with booze and drugs by Brett Jordan, who was 43 years younger and cheated on him regularly during their mere months as a wedded couple, according to the Manhattan Surrogate’s Court filing. Jordan “used Bazinet and he abused Bazinet, all while indulging himself in luxuries and wealth unimaginable to the boy from Tennessee who had often told stories . . . of a childhood steeped in abject poverty and abuse,” Bazinet’s family charges. Bazinet’s relatives have been battling Jordan over the businessman’s $54 million estate, most of which was set to go to a Minnesota trust before Jordan entered Bazinet’s life. Now Jordan, a real estate broker who also netted hefty commissions by buying apartments with his spouse, stands to inherit $32 million. The secret November 2017 nuptials were a “premeditated . . . scheme to defraud Bazinet,” the family alleges. Relatives charge Jordan made his true feelings clear in texts to friends, writing, “I HATE HIM,” while complaining about the older man’s incontinence and declining mobility. A lawyer for Jordan called the “spurious” allegations “a malicious smear campaign.”