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Since 1994, this is the 1654th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 22 February 2026: The Terminal | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
No Bones About It: My take on the “boneless chicken wings” lawsuit. [Premium Only]
Robots Seek Revenge: A.I. is getting wackier, and whiny-er. [Premium Only]
Shrunk: Florida psychiatrist’s license suspended for an interesting reason. [Premium Only]
Such Pain: Thanks to “well-documented mismanagement” and corruption, people in some parts of Johannesburg, South Africa, lack tap water. The highestofficial in Gauteng province gave a press conference. “People think that when there is no water, we and our families, we have special water, we don’t. We also ... suffer the same pain,” Premier Panyaza Lesufi said. “In some instances, I had to go to a certain hotel so that I could bathe.” Oops. “Let them shower in hotels,” said a meme, superimposing Lesufi’s face on a painting of Marie Antoinette. “He said he’s not special,” said comedian Linde Sibanda. “The fact that you’re going to a hotelmeans you are special, bro.” Johannesburg has so much poverty that some people didn’t lose their tap water because they never had it. (AC/NPR) ...Perhaps Lesufi is suffering the same inconveniences as the voters whose problems he understands.
Airing His Laundry: Small-town mayor is in legal trouble. Again. [Premium Only]
The Epstein Virus: Mom saves her teen daughter; “from who” is the wild twist. [Premium Only]
TOZO Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds, <$50.
All for under $50 in choice of 3 colors. Shop Now, Choose Wisely (Amazon). |
Yes, Looks Like Ads are here to stay for awhile: we’re sliding backwards. Here we are at the end of February and there haven’t been enough upgrades this entire month to omit ads for even one week. Ugh. You’re tired of reading the stats, and I’m tired of telling you we didn’t make it ...again. No knight in shining armor rode in to buy the space for a month like last time, which then got stretched out for weeks more by upgrades in the meantime. Sorry. Still, the best reasonto upgrade is to support the publication — that’s truly what has worked for the long term for the past 33-1/2 years — and to get all the stories every week. Thanks to the two folks who upgraded this month, and the one who came back after a lapse. Upgrade here, and thanks so much!
The Gravity of the Situation: When a woman claimed her wife illegally accessed her bank account, the accusation spawned a federal investigation, and now the accuser is going to prison in a wild case. [Premium Only]
And Then He Found Himself Locked Inside a Police Car! Witnesses heard a man screaming for help in Hialeah, Fla., claiming he couldn’t breathe, but “Don’t call the police!” Several people cautiously approached a white van, where the man was kicking at the door trying to get out. “There were machetes inside the truck,” said Nercy Toledo, whose landscaper was working in her yard. “He could’ve just come out and hurt anybody, so they left him in there” while waiting for police. The van isowned by that landscaper, and the entire event was captured by Toledo’s Ring doorbell camera — ending with the police arriving and arresting the man. Dean Young, 26, is charged with burglary and criminal mischief after allegedly parking his own car nearby, and entering the van. The landscaper locked the doors remotely. Young told police he had been chased by a dog, and simply jumped into the van to escape. The video proves there was no dog. Young was already out on bail from an earlier theftarrest — he allegedly stole landscaping equipment. (RC/WSVN Miami, WTVJ Miami) ...You don’t want to get into the landscaping business, man: there are too many thieves trying to rip you off.
Till Death Do...: The judge didn’t show up for a quick wedding, so someone interesting came to the rescue. [Premium Only]
And the Tin Medal for Commentary Goes To: The only True story on the recent Winter Olympics. [Premium Only]
Gaseous Anomalies: A team of researchers at the University of Maryland are launching a nationwide study. “We don’t actually know what normal flatus production looks like,” says Brantley Hall, who’s leading the project, the Human Flatus Atlas. The university’s Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics will send participants a device that uses electrochemical sensors to monitor — yes — farts around the clock. Dubbed Smart Underwear, it’s the first wearable technology built totrack intestinal gas production, and has already discovered that healthy adults pass gas an average of 32 times per day, around double previous estimates of 14 (plus or minus 6). The study is recruiting participants in multiple categories, including “Zen Digesters” and “Hydrogen Hyperproducers”. (MS/WWAY Wilmington) ...If you’re going to measure reality, start with what people say doesn’t happen.
Wrong End of the Leash: The d’awwwww! story of the week. [Premium Only]
Consequences: Alleged school bully goes free; the students who confronted him get suspended instead. [Premium Only]
A Little Help Here, Please? A nurse at Klinikum Links der Weser hospital in Bremen, Germany, noticed someone tapping on the window at the emergency room: acormorant, a medium-large coastal bird that can swim as deep as 45m (150 ft.) to catch fish. This one probably couldn’t eat: it had a trident fish hook stuck in its bill. Medical staff requested help from the local fire department, as their coats and gloves would protect them, and medical staff removed the hook so the bird could be released outside. (RC/AP) ...Patients that fly in often get priority.
It’s What’s for Dinner
Hawaii Residents Sick of Early Crowing and Aggressive Pecking Could Be Allowed to Kill Wild Chickens
AP 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 at sea between Sydney, Australia, and New Zealand, the 58th country of our voyage so far.
I Did Get my new Tozo earbuds (same model as in the ad) yesterday; I mentioned last week I had ordered some many weeks ago, but they take a long time to catch up to us as we travel.
My take? Fantastic! I actually have a pair of several-year-old Apple Airpods Pro (which are also active noise canceling), and the noise reduction to my ear is at least as good on the Tozos as those. But there are so many advantages for me as a Windows/Android user, because “there’s an app for that” on Android, not to mention the display on the case to get an instant read on the battery levels.
That and the Apple pods are starting to get balky, not connecting up as easily when I want them. As of this writing, the Tozo NC20s are showing a “Limited time deal” of $39.98. Even if you miss that, every time I’ve looked they’ve always been less than $50, which makes their $69.90 “list price” on Amazon an eye-roller. But frankly, even that would be a good deal compared to Big White. My honest review: I paid for mine, no “Get them free if you write a review” involved.
I Hit the Wall this weekend, falling behind on getting things done. I wanted to write Part 3 of my tribute to David Farber, a reader and friend who died earlier this month.
Also, I’d wanted to do a blog post about the 1-2 punch of the “Airing His Laundry” and “The Epstein Virus”. I won’t give details about the demands on my time, since it just feels like a list of excuses; who can cry “Poor me!” when living a lifestyle like this?! But I need to figure out how to balance my time and keep True very high on my priority list. It’s “what I do.”
Fair Warning: On March 5, the 3-year anniversary of the $40 price, the minimum charge for Premium upgrades is going from $40 to $44. I held it as long as I could, and gave Premium subscribers notice of this in mid-January.
For many years I’ve been looking for expenses to cut; the “big” one more recently was switching out True’s web server from “managed” (backed up by an experienced sysadmin on the other end of a support ticket) to “unmanaged” (I’m now the sysadmin, mostly now backed up by an A.I. bot, which has helped me fix some perplexing little issues). This not only saves a bundle, it allows True to afford a much more powerful machine, improving site speed and stability, which of course pushedcost back up some.
Though, problems get fixed much faster when I do it myself!
So there’s nothing left to cut, and in fact around the time I upgraded the server I also gave contributing writers Mike and Alexander a 25 percent raise: they’re impacted by inflation too, which marches merrily on. On that note, I have noticed a trend of readers kicking up the amounts they pay in recent months, though that’s balanced by some dropping back to the minimum as their own circumstances tighten up. I’m truly happy that they choose to stay rather than drop out entirely.
But in general, costs are up, including an increase in the server charges (figures!), hence the increase, with semi-annual autorenewals being slightly higher because of the extra trouble (and more fees taken off the top).
I’m Not (Not!) Raising what the current autorenewals are set to, and nearly 70 percent of Premium subscribers use the autorenewal option. If I do decide I need to kick them up later, I’ll give plenty of warning in at least two issues. But for new upgrades and manual renewals, the set minimum will go up on March 5.
The question I had for the Premium subscribers was, what should I do about the $52 “suggested” price? My sense was that it should go up — even though that ruins the lovely simplicity of “a dollar a week” — since the gap between the minimum and “suggested’ is getting very narrow. I set up a survey to get their input.
The results were very clear: there were more “votes” for $60 than all the other options combined, which the reason frequently given that it’s been at $52 for longer than the minimum has been $40, and it comes out to a nice round $5/month, which frankly is still one heck of a bargain.
So there is time to lock in $40 for at least one year, starting now, but a firm May 5 deadline, and several days before that for Paypal upgrades, which few use anymore anyway.
Ten Years Ago in True: Usually One Has to Hire a Taxi to Go This Far Out of the Way.
This Week’s Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it), about about the bird checking in for emergency treatment, is on Telegram, Mastodon, Bluesky, [Testing!] Digg, Instagram, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: My small role in the space mission to Pluto. Let’s Go to Pluto! from 2002.
This Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe is delayed.
Basic Subscriptions to This is True are Free at https://thisistrue.com. All stories are completely rewritten using facts from the noted sources. This is True® (and Get Out of Hell Free® and Stella Awards®) are registered trademarks of ThisisTrue.Inc. Published weekly by ThisisTrue.Inc, PO Box 666, Ridgway CO 81432 USA (ISSN 1521-1932).
Copyright ©2026 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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