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Since 1994, this is the 1399th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 4 April 2021: Penny for Your Thoughts | Copyright ©2021 https://thisistrue.com |
An Ever Widening Platform: Andreas Flaten of Fayetteville, Ga., gave his boss two weeks’ notice that he was quitting A-OK Walker Luxury Autoworks in Peachtree City dueto the company’s “toxic work environment.” On his last day he dropped off his uniforms — washed. But the owner didn’t pay him then, and didn’t pay him in January as promised, Flaten said. After months he told Walker he was going to call a lawyer over his missing $915, and very quickly the money was dropped off — a pile of pennies in Flaten’s driveway. They had oil dumped over them to make them hard to cash in, and a note on top reading “F--- you.” A reporter asked Miles Walker for his side ofthe story. “I don’t know if I did that or not,” Walker claimed. “I don’t really remember.” Wait, really? “It doesn’t matter, he got paid. That’s all that matters. He’s a f*****g weenie for even bringing it up.” Why’s that? “Because you guys give him a platform,” he said. “You guys are what’s wrong with the world. Get the f*** off my property.” Coin recycler Coinstar not only picked up the pennies, they made a donation to two charities of Flaten’s choice. (RC/WGCL Atlanta, AP) ...Walkerseems a little unclear about what’s wrong with the world.
Roll ’Em: Twins Alan and Alex Stokes, 23, are “Youtube stars” with “prank” videos. One in particular brought police: dressed in black including hoods, they pretended they had robbed a bank in Irvine, Calif., and hailed an Uber for their “getaway” as an accomplice shot video. The driver refused to go anywhere, and a witness called 911. Police removed the Uber driver from his vehicle at gunpoint, but let him go after determining he was not involved. Remarkably, police issued the twins awarning and let them go. More remarkably, because they didn’t get enough footage, they moved to the U.C. Irvine campus to do it all over again, which again brought police. They arrived after the twins left. “These were not pranks,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “These are crimes that could have resulted in someone getting seriously injured or even killed.” He charged the twins with counts that could have resulted in five-year prison terms, but over his objection the judgereduced the charges to a misdemeanor and sentenced them to 160 hours of community service, one year of probation, and payment of restitution. Also, he ordered, stop making prank “criminal” videos. (RC/KCAL Los Angeles, Orange County Register) ...Since the next one could well have featured slow-motion footage of them being shot to death — which would get record views!
On Camera II: At Clay High School in Jacksonville, Fla., two 14-year-old students reported seeing a camera lens in a locker inside the girls’ locker room. When administrators checked, they found a hole in the locker and a cell phone taped behind it. The phone had a 30-minute video of the students changing, and ended with the camera panning down to reveal a school I.D. badge — of janitor Jason Goff. Clay County Schools Police Chief Kenneth Wagner said Goff, 45, typically worked afterhours, and was never around children. Goff was arrested, pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. (MS/WJXT Jacksonville) ...And Goff now whines that prison staff can see him changing.
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Doesn’t Sound Very Graceful: “He can do four or five hours in one go if he’s having an off day,” says Stephen Legg. “I find it a bit irritating after acouple of hours.” You’d be irritated too if someone was knocking on your door for hours on end, even if that somebody was a swan. The swan treats Legg’s mail-slot flap as a door knocker. “People call it Percy and Cedric and almost everything else,” Legg said, but as for what he calls the bird, “I wouldn’t be able to say it on Canadian radio.” Swan-knocking season runs from March to June. One year, Legg used a plastic bag to deny Percy access to his mail slot; the bird found another Northampton,England, door to knock on, but Legg paid a price for that quiet. “The trouble was, of course, the postman and the newspaper boy couldn’t deliver things. So I didn’t have any post for three months.” (AC/CBC) ...In London, they have swan uppers; Northampton has more of a swan downer.
There were Seven More Stories this week, including: U.S. Government wages war on ...a pizzeria?! Canada finally acknowledged a girl who died at 7 ...in 2009, but.... Florida resort hotel decides to close without notice ...during spring break, and make everyone check out early, and not give them refunds, and.... The most bizarre story I’ve written in years (and hard to summarize in one sentence!) Company’s follow-on to “Jesus Shoes” (This is True #1322, 13 October 2019)might have been too over the top. Florida woman says she didn’t mean to run down a grandma and grandson — she was trying to run over a different woman. Florida Middle School mom comes to school prepared to ...fight?! It’s not too late to read these stories: just ask for your upgrade to start with the 4 April issue: Upgrades start at just $9.
Smooth Operator: Dasia Taylor, a student at West High School in Iowa City, Iowa, read about surgical sutures that could report wound infections to a smartphone. “That’s really cool, but the people that are really going to need these sutures and know when their wounds are infected,” she said, “they won’t be able to afford this technology.” Surgical wound infections are rare in the U.S., but much more common in developing countries, so she set about figuring out how to do it on thecheap. Rather than electronics detecting a significant spike in skin pH, which happens when the wound is infected, she found that certain vegetables change color with pH spikes too, such as beets, which turn from red to purple to magenta and then gray. “I put two and two together,” said the Chemistry Honors senior, now 17. “This is really a game changer.” She was named one of 40 $25,000 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search for 2021, one of the most prestigious national sciencecontests for students. The other finalists voted her the winner of the Seaborg Award, given to “the student who most exemplifies their class and the extraordinary attributes of” Nobel Prize winning chemist Glenn T. Seaborg. She plans to patent her innovation and license it out for use worldwide. (RC/Cedar Rapids Gazette, Washington Post) ...Hopefully it won’t get tied up in red tape.
But Wouldn’t They Eat a Lot More?
Caucus Club in Detroit Warns Diners to Dress Properly, Not Smell like Marijuana
Detroit (Mich.) Free Press 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.
This Week’s Lead Story (pennies) is the Story of the Week for easy social media sharing. You can find it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
For Those Who will surely wonder: Swan Upping.
I Wasn’t Going to Mention my new site this week, since it’s been a little incessant, but Kristi in Washington writes: “I’ve been reading This is True for quite a while, and been a Premium member for not long enough (but that’s my own fault for being a slow learner). I’ve appreciated all the work put into every single issue. But for what it’s worth I love What It’s Like to. The subjects areclearly going to be eclectic, which is my approach to life. They’re long enough to have some meat in them but short enough to not make me antsy about what ‘shoulds’ I am not doing. I can relax and enjoy them. Some day I hope to meet you and your wife. You’ve got a great approach to life and I appreciate being one of the recipients of a part of that.”
I appreciate your helping to keep the empire going, Kristi, and hope you (and others!) will think about what story you might write for the site: I think everyone has several stories they could tell that would be really interesting (see submission info). Currently I’m particularly looking for “fun” (or at least “light”) stories since there have been several “dark” ones (such as this week’s What It’s Like to Lose an Infant), and I want to keep a balance.
Ten Years Ago in True: it’s a given that Some Ideas Are Just Inherently Bad.
This Week’s True Stella Awards case re-post: he’s in the Classless of 2008.
This Week’s Randy’s Random: I’ve been Accused!
This Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Gianluigi Colalucci. An art restorer, Colalucci was handed an incredible job. The story in about 3 minutes: Gianluigi Colalucci (OK to share link).
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