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Since 1994, this is the 1596th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 12 January 2025: Shake It Off | Copyright ©2025 https://thisistrue.com |
Gesundheit: Cameron Larusch, 39, told Cheatham County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s deputies that while driving in Ashland City, he began sneezing uncontrollably, and that’s why he crashed into a Mercedes. The man in the Mercedes, Zachary T. Scruggs, said he had been driving at the time of the crash, but a deputy noticed some long blonde hairs embedded in the smashed windshield of his car — at the driver’s position. Scruggs does not have long blonde hair, but the woman in the car with him does,and the deputy told Scruggs he was detaining them for investigation. Scruggs, 30, allegedly became irate and tried to grab the deputy’s handcuffs. During the struggle, firefighters at the crash jumped in to help; Scruggs was arrested, charged with assault on a first responder, and resisting arrest. On the way to the jail, the deputy noticed Scruggs was “fidgeting” with his boot. When booked into jail, Scruggs’ boots were searched and alleged drugs were found, so drug possession and introducingcontraband into a penal institution was added to his list of charges. (RC/Cheatham County Exchange) ...You know he’s an obliviot because he didn’t throw his drugs into Larusch’s car long before the cops arrived.
Heisenberg Principle: Joanne Quintana and her siblings are selling their Albuquerque, N.M., family home of over 50 years. While Zillowestimates the house’s value at under $350,000, they are asking for $4 million — because it was Walter White’s home in the 2008–2013 TV show Breaking Bad. The home still draws tourists from around the world. “We average 300 cars a day,” Quintana says, and “It’s time to move on.” With the high asking price, the family doesn’t expect the home to be purchased by a family. “I hope they make it what the fans want,” Quintana said. “They want a [bed and breakfast], they want a museum, theywant access to it. Go for it.” (MS/KOB Albuquerque) ...As long as they don’t want to reopen White’s lab.
As Much As I Appreciate Xero Shoes for being True’s top sponsor, I love it that you all are effectively buying out the ad space by supporting this publication yourselves — it takes about 5 upgrades/re-upgrades to pay this free edition’s freight each week. You’d think that would bereally easy, but no: in 2024 there were 92 new upgrades, 112 re-upgrades, and 38 contributions, or an average of 4.6 per week. Pretty close, but bottom line, the free edition operates at a bit of a loss. THANK YOU to those who helped, or will soon.
Big Win: Plaintiffs’ lawyers claimed that Verizon did not give customers goodenough disclosures about its “administrative charge.” Verizon denied this, but nevertheless agreed to change the disclosures in its contract and pay $100 million to customers. According to the settlement agreement, each customer who had paid the administrative charge was to receive $15, plus $1 for every month they paid it, up to $100 — subject to a few conditions, of course. For example, they had to file claims by April 15, 2024. The payouts could be reduced if the claims added up to more thanthe “Net Distributable Funds,” according to the settlement website. And the lawyers’ fees may have cut in a little — as of last year, they were asking for $33 million. When all was said and done, one claimant posted that they’d received a gift card for $2.37. Others got much more — $14.81. (AC/USA Today Network) ...If claimants were surprised, maybe they should file a class-action suit and claim the lawyers’ disclosures weren’t good enough.
Just Sit Right Back: The actual S.S. Minnow — the boat used in the 1964–1967 TV show Gilligan’s Island — has been fully restored. The wrecked boat on the show was a prop; the “real” Minnow was used for dream or flashback sequences during the show’s run. It was restored “from the gunnels up to build a pretty impressive, iconic machine that so many people are aware of,” says Ken Schley, who has owned it since 2006. Schley, who founded Quality Foods on Canada’sVancouver Island, uses it for promotions, and loans it out to charities for fundraisers. “I still do gala events and stuff like that.” (RC/Global News Canada) ...Despite it being a small boat, it takes 3 hours to tour it because the luggage compartment is gigantic.
Quick, Before It’s Illegal!
Kansas City to Consider Ordinance Requiring All Wheels of Vehicle Be on the Ground
KSHB Kansas City (Mo.) headline
Did You Find an Error? Check the Errata Page for updates.
This Week’s Contributors: MS-Mike Straw, AC-Alexander Cohen, RC-Randy Cassingham.
Stories This Week were Written/Edited in Valparaíso, Chile, the headquarters of the Chilean Navy since 1817 and “one of the Pacific Ocean’s most important seaports.”
Sunday night at dinner (dining rooms are in the rear of the ship, and the one we were in has a glass wall in the back), I was commenting on how much the ship was swinging out from the pier — stretching the mooring ropes — and back, bouncing off the pier bumpers and going back out at a pretty rapid rate. A few hours later, the Captain said it was so bad that a couple of the ropes had snapped; they had to start the engines to steady the ship, and if it got worse they would head out to sea. Kitand I hadn’t gone ashore on Sunday, so we hoped we would have the opportunity Monday. We did. Quite an interesting city.
I Was Amused by the source story’s lede in the “Gesundheit” story: “A nasal irritation led to a pointed imprecation, constabulary altercation and swift detention.” A frustrated poet at that newspaper?
Also amusing: in the Headline of the Week story, KSHB noted that the proposed law “would include both motor vehicles and motorcycles.” Maybe that’s why the proposed law just says “vehicles,” eh?
Alas, Flaky Internet Onboard Sunday caused me to miss the release of the Youtube interview I did with Geeks On Tour in my office aboard ship. (Tip: wear headphones or earbuds to watch this one: they had to use a phone to record it.) It did bring in some new readers, including at least one to the Premium membership. Cool! Thanks Jim & Chris.
Ten Years Ago in True: the forehead-slapping Shake it Off(icer).
This Week’s Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it) — about the Breaking Bad house — is posted on Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, Threads, BlueSky, Pixelfed (testing/new! — an Instagram competitor that Meta won’t let anyone link to), and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: Q: What’s it like to be with a friend as he dies? A: Incredibly profound. A true story. A Friend In Need. (James’ mother, Betsy, read the story on Sunday, and commented on the page.)
No Honorary Unsubscribe this week, at least so far. I looked for, but didn’t find, anyone who meets the criteria.
- But So Long to author Derek Humphrey, best known for his book Final Exit [*] and his tireless devotion to promoting death with dignity laws. He died January 2 from congestive heart failure, at 94.
- Honorary Unsubscribe Archive.
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Copyright ©2025 by Randy Cassingham, All Rights Reserved. All broadcast, publication, retransmission to email lists, web site or social media posting, or any other copying or storage, in any medium, online or not, is strictly prohibited without prior written permission from the author. Manual forwarding by email to friends is allowed if 1) the text is forwarded in its entirety from the “Since 1994” line on top through the end of this paragraph and 2) No fee is charged. I request that you forward no more than three copies to any one person — after that, they should get their own free subscription. I appreciate people who report violations of my copyright.
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