Thanks for reading my blog this year! I hope you enjoyed my comments as well as my choices of music and videos!
I’m taking some time off before Tuesday, January 3, to enjoy the holidays, and I hope you will, too! It’s the season to enjoy the company of others and accomplish some things I need to get done!
So, here are some of my favorite seasonal songs to immerse yourself in until early 2012!
First up is a big favorite of mine, “Breath Of Heaven” by Amy Grant:
You might want to check any lottery tickets you have lying around!
Here’s the story from ajc.com:
>>What would you do if you won a $77 million lottery jackpot? What would you do if you didn’t discover that you had the winning ticket until AFTER the deadline for claiming the prize?
That’s the scenario that could play out next week, because the 180-day window for the Georgia Lottery player who won the June 29 Powerball jackpot to come forward slams shut on Monday.
Since players have just 180 days to claim any prize from online games, next Tuesday will be too late to claim the money, according to Georgia Lottery spokeswoman Tandi Reddick.
“Unclaimed Powerball jackpot prize funds are returned proportionately to each participating state based on that state’s sales for the particular drawing,” Reddick said.
At least this guy’s heart was in the right place, if not his car!
Here’s the story from the Democrat And Chronicle:
>>A Greece man was charged with driving while intoxicated after police found him allegedly trying to drive an injured deer to the hospital on Sunday night.
Andrew Caswell, 29, of Jamestown Terrace, had apparently struck the deer on Hincher Road and was driving it to Unity Hospital for treatment, said Greece Police Capt. Steve Chatterton.
Chatterton said residents of Hincher Road had called police late Sunday to report that a deer had been struck by a car, and that there was what appeared to be an argument among a small group of men near where the deer had been hit.
At the scene, residents gave a description of the car and told officers they’d heard the men say they were going to bring the deer to the hospital.
When police stopped Caswell’s car, he admitted to officers that he was taking the deer to the hospital, said Chatterton.
It seems that some folks in New York City are watching when residents put out their trash very carefully!
I know times are tight, but ticketing people for putting their trash out a whole half hour early?
Here’s the story from the Fox affiliate in NYC:
>>MYFOXNY.COM – A Queens man is very upset after trying to put his trash out for collection and ending up with a ticket.
He, and others, are getting snared in an enforcement of a law that few people even know exists.
The scrooge award goes to the New York City Sanitation Department for the $100 tickets.
Raymond Janson says he received the $100 fine for putting his garbage cans at the curb 30 minutes early.
“I can’t say how incensed I am over this,” Janson says. “Not only at the excessive amount, but the nature of the summons.”
The Failure to Store Receptacle summons from the agent stated: “I did observe three 30 gallon plastic can(s) placed out on the public sidewalk on a non-collection day.”
The bad economy keeps making people do more and more desperate things, seems like.
Take this interesting story, for example, from the CBS station website in Charlotte:
>>SALISBURY, N.C. (CBS Charlotte) – Shrimp, rib-eye steak, baby back ribs and smoked turkey. One Salisbury man celebrated his 45th birthday by trying to stuff all of it — almost $300 worth of food — down his pants.
Ronald Broadway, 45, was arrested Thursday night in the parking lot of his local Food Lion supermarket, packed with enough meats and fish intended for a birthday and holiday celebration, police said.
While in the store on Thursday night, Broadway was spotted by a Food Lion employee, who had caught Broadway sticking the food down sweatpants he wore under his jeans, Salisbury Police Capt. Sheila Lingle told CBS Charlotte. Broadway had allegedly duct taped the sweat pants around his ankles to keep the food from falling out.
You think it’s scary to see someone driving while talking on one cell phone? How about a “professional” driver talking on two of them at the same time?
Here’s the story from the breitbart website:
>>An Italian driver was stopped by astonished police in the southern city of Bari on Saturday when they saw him speaking on two phones with a handset in each hand and no control of the wheel.
Asked to explain his actions, the 43-year-old driver of an Alfa Romeo 166 saloon car said he was speaking to his wife when his mother called and he could not hang up on either of them, the Corriere Della Sera daily reported.
The man — a professional truck driver — made matters worse when he admitted that he frequently spoke on two handsets while on work trips.
The remaining December holidays are fast approaching, so it’s time to enjoy more seasonal music!
First up is Celine Dion singing “The Magic Of Christmas Day:”
The “golden era” of TV seems to be over. The Writers’ Strike a few years back taught audiences that they could survive without turning on the The Tube every evening, and things haven’t recovered for “broadcast” network television since then.
Here’s the latest analysis from the Ad Week website:
>>In what’s shaping up to be an annus horribilis for the broadcast networks, ratings for returning series are plummeting and only a few newcomers are finding an audience.
Eleven weeks into the 2011-12 TV season, ratings for a staggering 32 series are down by 10 percent or more, while another eight returning shows are off by single-digit percentages. Of the 56 veteran programs—a roster that includes newsmagazines, reality series, and Sunday Night Football—71 percent are experiencing year-over-year declines in the core 18-49 demo.
On a percentage basis, the biggest loser is NBC’s Chuck, whichis limping through its fifth and final season with an average rating of 0.9 with viewers 18-49. The spy spoof is down 53 percent in the demo from last season’s 1.9 rating. Total viewers for Chuck’s farewell tour are down 42 percent to 3.19 million viewers, per Nielsen live-plus-same-day ratings data.
Another cult favorite in bad decline is Fox’s Fringe. Now in its fourth season, the trippy drama has fallen 42 percent to 2.95 million viewers and a 1.1 rating. (Last fall, Fringe occupied the Thursday 9 p.m. time slot; the show was shipped off to its current 9 p.m. Friday slot in midseason.)
The CW is having a particularly rough outing thus far, as five of its six returning series—Supernatural, Nikita, Gossip Girl, 90210, America’s Next Top Model—are down at least 20 percent in total viewers. Tyra Banks’ competition series is toughing out the most severe declines, plummeting 38 percent from last fall’s cycle to 1.78 million viewers and a 0.8 rating.
Advertisers pay approximately $60,000 per 30-second spot on ANTM, making it The CW’s most expensive time buy.
Sometimes folks are so cruel to one another.
Here’s one such story from a Fox station in Philadelphia:
>>PHILADELPHIA – The owner of a North Philadelphia gas station who traveled out of the country for his mother’s funeral will come back to find his business destroyed.
FOX 29’s Chris O’Connell has the story you’ll see only on FOX.
Left behind is the aftermath of an all-out free-for-all.
On Wednesday, someone broke into a mini-mart on Cumberland Street and Germantown Avenue when word got around that the owner left town.
It didn’t take long before the looting started. Soon, the whole store was in shambles.
The inside of the store is ruined. The only products left are a bottle of vinegar and some oatmeal.
Kids even showed FOX 29 cameras the candy they took from the store.
I don’t understand how some students keep their pants from dropping down around their feet! I’m sometimes concerned I’ll see things I don’t particularly want to see if I look too long at some kids and their drawers!
Well, one school has decided to take action, although I doubt the students will actually follow through. Here’s the story from an NBC station’s website in Miami:
>>A school in South Carolina is taking on saggy pants by lending belts to students who show up with droopy drawers.
Students at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill used to face a disciplinary write-up for the dress code violation. But now Principal James Blake is hoping the new approach will get students to think about how they dress and also cut down on the number of students referred for discipline.
“We see kids with their britches hanging down all the time,” assistant football coach and administrative assistant William Cureton told The Herald of Rock Hill. “We want to change the culture.”
Students nabbed for saggy pants will have the option to “check out” a belt for the day.
