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Since 1994, this is the 1609th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 13 April 2025: Stranded | Copyright ©2025 https://thisistrue.com |
Other Good Reading: An interesting cautionary report about a data leak from an AI company — a leak of the “prompts” people gave the software to generate images. Sure, sounds innocuous, but think again — and what if it was for a text generator? AI image generator’s data leak exposed thousands of prompts — and it’s a wake-up call for anyone using AI tools at Tom’s Guide.
(As always you’re welcome to copy out that paragraph and forward/post it as desired; credit True if you care to — not required.)
P.S.: Please finish reading the issue before you reply regarding the first story. P.P.S.: To be clear, I don’t want replies regarding the first story.
Surely You Jest: Police were called to a shopping center in Palm Bay, Fla., on a report that Christopher Marlowe, 40, was back. Marlowe had been“trespassed” from the property — legally informed that he could not return — and returning made him subject to arrest for trespassing. He was easy to spot, considering he was dressed in a bright yellow suit with white- and red-striped sleeves, a red clown nose, and riding a “stingray” style bicycle. Police say Marlowe forcibly resisted arrest, and that they found a weapon on him. Upon putting Marlowe in their patrol car to take him to jail, an officer observed, “You look like a clown.” Marlowereplied, “I am a clown, stupid!” (RC/WFLA Tampa) ...Reverse the last two words and the self-description is even more accurate.
Mars Escapes: The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. has a temporary outdoor display called “Celestial Bodies: Earth, Moon, Mars.” It includes30-foot-high inflatable replicas of each of those celestial bodies. “It’s an ‘out of this world’ photo op!” the Kennedy Center said. The Instagram page washingtonianprobs caught an unplanned photo op: Mars breaking orbit. In the video, captioned “Mars Escapes the Kennedy Center”, the inflatable can be seen rolling away from the Center’s building, and then rolling down the road. “Great representation of how everyone in DC is feeling right now,” one commenter said. When asked about it, the KennedyCenter said the planet is safe on their grounds, and the police haven’t received any calls about the incident. (MS/WTTG Washington) ...Investigators believe it was the result of huge amounts of hot air blowing over from the Capitol.
Dammit! Some Weeks I Really Hate having to rip most of the stories out of the full edition for this free sampler, because there are just so many great stories. Like this week, when a sports mascot helped save the life of a teammate. Or the #2 of the 1-2 punch that starts with “Understatement” (below), but I almost never have space here to run the stories that sequence together. Why Spain had to close a business in a hurry. An absolutely obsessed retired orthopedic surgeon whonarrowly escaped prison. The mom-and-pop restaurant proprietors who were absolutely shocked that their “special” that day — bigotry — triggered a boycott rather than a flood of customers. What fellow passengers did when a man died on a subway train in New York City. A schoolteacher who was a bit too concerned with a student’s homework. What the babysitter found when the kids asked her to prove there was no monster under the bed. What it takes for me to title a story “So Very Florida”. Anda feelgood story about a guy whose business survived a natural disaster. But the bottom line is, this is a free sampler for the whole thing, because the thousands of little bits of money that Premium subscribers pay, and they choose the price they want to pay starting at just $11 per quarter, add up to the budget required to run this newsletter. I’d love it if you joined them so you can get all the stories each week too. See your upgrade options here and thanks!
Library Line: On the border between Derby Line, Vt., and Stanstead, Que., Canada, stands the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. A line on the floor inside marks the border; Americans and Canadians move through the building and over the line as they please. The library was built more than a century ago as “a place to reunite the two countries, two communities,” said board president Sylvie Boudreau. But now the library is the scene of what local resident Allyson Howell calls “one morestep of building this chasm between these two nations.” Canadians who don’t work at the library or hold cards have been banned from using the main entrance, which is in Vermont; they must use the emergency exit to Quebec. And it’s been announced that at the beginning of October, there will be a checkpoint for Canadians to go through to use the main entrance. (AC/AP) ...The borders that are essential between countries are unhelpful within communities.
Understatement: “Am I in trouble?” cried Christina Formella, 30, a special education teacher at Downers Grove (Ill.) South High School. “I really would prefer that my husband be with me.” She was being handcuffed by police after an investigation alleges she had been having sex with a 15-year-old student. It was discovered by the boy’s mother, who had gotten her son a new iPhone and had logged into his Apple account to set it up, and noticed text messages allegedly from Formella, suchas “I love having sex with you.” By then the boy had already ended the contact. Investigators got a search warrant for Formella’s phone and found messages there, too. In one, she allegedly accused the boy of “cheating” on her by refusing to continue meeting with her. “I’m not a second choice,” she scolded. “I’m the best thing you’ll ever have even with all of my mistakes.” Formella is charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and criminal sexual assault. (RC/Arlington Heights Daily Herald)...Yep: she’s in trouble.
Every Price Slashed to the Bone!
Dollar Tree to Sell Family Dollar for $1 Billion a Decade after Buying It for More than $8 Billion
CBS 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 on Bonaire, an island in the Leeward Antilles of the Caribbean, one of the “ABC” islands — Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao — all of which are controlled by the Netherlands. Much more on this below....
Regarding the First Story’s Slug: “I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.” There, I said it so you don’t feel the need to reply to say that. Really: don’t make Leslie Nielsen roll over in his grave!
A Good Sleep Saturday night, as we were headed to Bonaire for a two-day stay, was great since I do most of my writing and editing of the stories on Sunday; other parts of the newsletter are done Monday to create the Premium edition, which I push to get into distribution by 5:00 p.m. Colorado time. And despite having everything written early on Monday, I almost couldn’t publish at all. Continues in my blog: Easy as A-B-C?
Last Summer I got a note from Kurt in Texas, notifying me that his father had died: Glenn was a Premium subscriber. I told Kurt that Glenn’s autorenewal had triggered that April, paying for another year, and canceled future renewals for him. I told Kurt I’d be happy to switch the remainder of his dad’s subscription to him if he’d like to read it himself. He said yes.
Here we are in April again, and the sub was coming due. Kurt renewed it. “Carrying on this account for my Dad (Glenn, 6/33-7/24),” he commented. “I know how much he enjoyed This is True!” I think it’s very nice that he’s enjoying it too, and is another link to his father’s memory. Plus, I got to learn why I’d never hear from Glenn again. Thanks, Kurt.
Kurt was aware of True, but hadn’t read it himself until he took over his dad’s email account to let his friends know what had happened. And he was hooked. Seriously, just try it! Subscribe for a quarter for $11. Read it for two months. If you love it, great: let it run. If you don’t (and I’d be surprised), go back to the shopping cart and cancel your autorenewal, which is very easy to do, and it will run out when your three months are up. Give me your feedback if you want: Igive priority to messages in response to Premium issues (just reply to one and it goes straight to my inbox). Trust me: if you like this newsletter, you’ll love the whole thing.
Ten Years Ago in True: I found and chose this one after writing the story this week which makes this one sound familiar: What Nightmares Are Made Of.
The First Story about the self-described Florida Clown is the Story of the Week, which means you’re welcome to share it from Telegram, Mastodon, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: “Giant cow” stories were going viral in 2018, so I threw some cold water on the “WOW!” factor. You Were Steered Wrong.
No Honorary Unsubscribe this week: I didn’t find anyone who met the qualifications.
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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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