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Since 1994, this is the 1571st issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 21 July 2024: The Lone Ranger | Copyright ©2024 https://thisistrue.com |
Blowhards: Hurricane Beryl knocked out power for millions in the greater Houston, Texas, area, but it has taken longer than expected to get power restored. Why? “We’ve had [linemen] have guns pulled on them,” said Ed Allen of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union. “We’ve had guys had rocks picked up and slung at them. We’ve had people brandishing AK-47s. And it needs to stop.” Local utilities have brought in crews from as far away as Kansas to help, Allen says.They’re fed up with people complaining and threatening them if they take a moment to get a bite to eat. If it continues, they will “get in their trucks and drive off,” Allen said. “Please God, stop harassing these people.” (RC/KHOU Houston) ...Beryl: Act of God. Harassment: Act of Obliviots. Big difference.
Schooled: Tiffani Madias, 48, “held up a middle finger to [a] surveillance camera” before driving into the Bright Horizons School in Pompano Beach, Fla., the Broward County Sheriff’s Office says. And they do mean “into.” A witness says Madias “ended up driving through the hallway at least going 40 to 50 miles per hour.” She was charged with aggravated assault with a weapon, felony criminal mischief, and burglary, and is being held without bond. (MS/WPLG Miami) ...Which is the wayjudges hold up a middle finger.
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“This is True is unbiased and unadulterated, a must read, a refreshing non-politically-correct look at the obliviots that are us, the human race.” —Premium reader Neil, Florida
Losing Streak: “Nothing could have been more disgusting!! I am assuming someone returned it after using it and the company simply did not check the item and then shipped it to us as if it was brand new.” That’s just part of a review — a review with photos, no less — of a diaper. Before the review appeared on Amazon, Paul and Rachelle Baron’s small business had been working toward tripling annual sales that had already hit $1 million; after it appeared, sales dropped dramatically.Amazon now allows sellers to block resale of returned products, but until recently, according to Maria Boschetti, a spokesperson for the online giant, “all items returned as new were automatically resold after being carefully evaluated by a member of our team.” Boschetti said sellers can contact Amazon about complaints “incorrectly attributed to them,” but after a year of trying, the Barons were unable to get the review removed. The Barons also contacted the customer who left the review, ErinElizabeth Herbert. “They explained to me that Amazon handles all the returns and shipping,” the Redlands, Calif., teacher said. “I always meant to go back and revise my review to reflect that, and life got busy, and I never did.” Herbert said she had left the review to protect other consumers. (AC/Bloomberg) ...It was her busyness vs. the Barons’ business.
Growing Business: Spencer from SB Mowing in Wichita, Kan., has a different business model: you can’t hire him to mow your lawn. Instead, hechooses his own jobs, often for people who can’t clean up their yards, and does it for free. He makes videos of doing the work and posts them to Youtube, where he has more than 2 million subscribers, and TikTok, where he has nearly 10 million. In January he found an injured cat in an overgrown lawn in Corpus Christi, Texas. He had to call around before finally finding a cat rescue that would take the tom, but discovered the place was about to close since its founder was running it out of her ownpocket, and was almost out of money. Spencer, who doesn’t reveal his surname, gave Anissa Beal the $100 he had on him, and suggested that “I may be able to get you $10,000” by appealing to his viewers. Spencer, who is in his mid-20s, made a video about the rescue, and directed viewers to a Go Fund Me page he set up to benefit the charity, Edgar and Ivy’s Cat Sanctuary. In the seven months since, his viewers have contributed more than $192,000 in cash, and ordered four truckloads worth ofequipment and supplies from the rescue’s Amazon Wish List. The cat, now named “Esbee”, is doing fine, and is the shelter’s mascot. (RC/San Antonio Express-News) ...Actually, Esbee is now the rescue’s Executive Director, but don’t tell Beal.
Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.
Hillwalker Who Plunged 100ft on Scots Mountain Saved after ‘Becoming Human Bouncy Ball’
Glasgow (Scotland) Daily Record 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.
Two More Stories from the Premium edition are in my blog, and are examples of “difficult subjects” that True sometimes tackles. Writing the stories brought out a desire to write more about them, and why I sometimes feel the need to cover such stories. It’s probably not for the reason you think. It’s here: Difficult Subjects.
And while adding a couple of “difficult” stories to the newsletter, I thought about how some publications put “trigger warnings” on them. So I also polled Premium subscribers about that: did they think such warnings were helpful? More than a thousand(!) of them weighed in, and they convinced me that no, I shouldn’t use such warnings — and again, the reasons why are thoughtful and interesting. That’s discussed on the same page.
Ten Years Ago in True: an office supply chain learns the law of Supply and Demand.
The Cat Rescue is the Story of the Week, which means you’re welcome to share it from Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, True is back on Threads!, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: When it first started, This is True didn’t even have a web site. So what did the first site look like? True Joins the Web.
No Honorary Unsubscribe this week: I used up my emotional energy on my blog post instead.
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