To get these issues free by email each week, click here to open a subscribe form. (Or cruise around the web site to see more samples, archive, and info on our terrific book collections of thousands of past stories.)
Since 1994, this is the 1650th issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 25 January 2026: You Only Live Twice | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
Other Good Reading: An interesting essay by Patrick Stokes, a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Deakin University, a public research university in Victoria, Australia. He argues that No, you’re not entitled to your opinion (unless you can defend it) at The Conversation (“Academic rigour, journalistic flair”) is a site founded in 2010 where university researchers and academics can publishresearch-informed articles with professional journalist editing ...and more than 90,000(!) of them have.
(As always you’re welcome to copy out that paragraph and forward/post it as desired; credit True if you care to — not required.)
Common Criminal: It’s “not uncommon” in south Florida for fishing boat captains to find bundles of cocaine floating in thewater. Usually, the captains call the U.S. Coast Guard, which picks up the drugs. But Bradford Todd Picariello, 65, of Marathon, allegedly had a different idea, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says. They got a lead, and brought in an undercover federal agent to execute a deal. Picariello instructed the agent to bring a cooler to his boat so it looked like he was buying fish, and the agent bought a kilo of coke for the bargain price of $10,000, the department says. Picariello allegedly said hecould sell up to 100 more pounds of the drug if the buyer was interested. Picariello was arrested, and told agents where the rest of his stash was, in a storage unit. Investigators seized 23 additional kilos of cocaine, $8,000 in cash, a .40-caliber pistol, and the 38-foot charter boat. The name of Picariello’s business? Outlaw Fishing Charters. (RC/WEAR Pensacola, Miami Herald) ...At least his marketing was honest.
Sales Tactic: Jackson County, Mo., prosecutors say Mamadou Diallo, 24, sold two different cars on Facebook Marketplace — a total of eight times over the course of a month. They know this because Kansas City Police received eight stolen vehicle reports, each within 24 hours of being purchased, after Diallo allegedly stole them back. He gave several victims his phone number, and some identified him in a lineup. One victim had security camera footage showing Diallo taking the car. When hewas questioned, Diallo allegedly said he was “unaware of anything to do with selling vehicles,” and when asked if he’d used a specific name in his ads, he replied, “No, prove it.” They plan to: he’s charged with six counts of first-degree tampering with a motor vehicle, and eight counts of forgery. He’s being held on $30,000 cash bond, and faces up to 7 years in prison — for each count. (MS/Kansas City Star) ...Every 7 years they will release him, and then immediately jail him again.
Week 5 of No Ads thanks to continued reader support. I would much rather readers support True than rely on ads. It takes ~5 upgrades (or equivalent contributions) weekly to pay this free edition’s bills. With 3 carried over from last week, we only needed 2 more. Actual support: 1 new upgrade, 3 returnees, including one after a 21-year(!!) lapse. So we only need three upgrades to skip the ad next week (asalways, more will carry over). If you love True please support it. Upgrade here, and thanks!
Hm, I Don’t Recall 2: Possibly deadly recalled food stored in warehouse, accidentally shipped out to stores again and had to be re-recalled: corporate obliviocy! [Premium Only]
On Track, Unfortunately: “I actually felt a little sorry for the car,” said Professor Andrew Maynard of ArizonaState University. “It obviously made a bad decision and got itself in a difficult place.” The Waymo in question had stopped on light-rail tracks in Phoenix, then proceeded to drive down them. A passenger fled the vehicle since a train was approaching. But Valley Metro said one of its employees spotted the problem, and two trains headed in opposite directions swapped passengers and turned around. There was evidently no collision. There was construction in the area, and the track was less than ayear old, which Maynard thought might have added to the problem. “The machine drove like a machine rather than a person,” he said. Still, he thinks Waymos are probably safer than normal cars, because human drivers get distracted. (AC/KTVK Phoenix) ...Including by things they see, such as railroad tracks.
Way Mo’ Convincing: Another train, another robotic vehicle, much worse results ...in Florida. [Premium Only]
And He Only Took Two: DUI driver has an interesting excuse ...which not only didn’t work, but brought him greater trouble. [Premium Only]
And Spat Out: “It looked like it had been chewed up by Robosaurus,” said Cpl. Michael McLaughlin of the British Columbia (Canada) HighwayPatrol. The older Acura was pulled over for speeding at 130 kph in an 80 zone. “It’s amazing that this particular car could go that fast without disintegrating,” he said. Its rear window was a mishmash of rebar and duct tape. The driver’s door was held closed by a welded-on gate latch. In summary, McLaughlin said, the car was “held together with duct tape and wishful thinking.” The 22-year-old driver was cited for speeding, and ordered to keep the car off the road until it could pass inspection.“If you’re driving in a vehicle that’s obviously not roadworthy, you probably shouldn’t speed,” McLaughlin said. “Police can’t ignore that.” (RC/CTV) ...Not roadworthy? It wasn’t even at top speed!
Facing Doom: Cold war remnant destroyed by nature. [Premium Only]
Chain of Custody: ICE deports man out on bail: he faced years in prison, but not anymore! [Premium Only]
Scratching the Itch: True’s take on “cow uses tools.” [Premium Only]
Tag — You’re It: When police appropriately take great interest in a stray dog. [Premium Only]
I Heard You Don’t Like Doomscrolling: Is it ironic that some online personalities use social media to convince people to stop using social media? [Premium Only]
Flight Risk: A fun animal story. [Premium Only]
Now on the Lamb
Where’s the Beef? Down this South Florida Suspect’s Pants
WPLG Miami 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 during the 1,400-mile trek between French Polynesia and Tonga. Rough seas resulted in an intermediate stop in the Cook Islands being canceled, and we went over the International Date Line again and missed Sunday altogether.
Now and Then I like to Feed a completed True story into ChatGPT for its commentary because I actually find its analyses interesting. This week it was the Way Mo’ Convincing story that was not included in the free lineup this week. “That’s a well-matched slug/tagline pair,” it responded: “economical, legible, and properly merciless.” I chuckled at those final two words, replying that “I like that you ‘get’ the ‘properly merciless’part of commentary.”
And here’s where it gets interesting. “That’s the right word for it. Commentary that pulls its punch isn’t really commentary — it’s just narration with manners,” it responded. “What makes This is True work (and last) is that the mercy is aimed at readers, not at folly. When systems, institutions, or hype collide with reality, the kindest thing you can do is let the lesson land cleanly. ‘Properly merciless’ is really just economical honesty.”
I don’t ask Chatty-G about stories all that often, but I find it’s very insightful with psychological analysis, which seems ironic. (Example in my blog regarding a story in November.)
The real reason I opened cGPT, though, is I wanted to ask it about botulism, regarding the recalled food story ...which also didn't make it into this edition. Rather than paste in the story, I simply asked, just how dangerous is that form of food poisoning, and how quickly can someone die from it? The answer was long enough that my follow-up was to ask for a two-sentence summary. “Botulism is rare but extremely dangerous: untreated, it can be fatal in 30–60% of cases, whileprompt treatment cuts that risk to about 5–10%. Symptoms usually begin within 12–36 hours and can progress quickly to respiratory failure, making immediate medical care critical.”
Which really points out how stupid it is to store recalled food in a distribution warehouse, eh? Corporate obliviocy can be even worse than the personal sort.
My Attention Was Called to an obit in the Times of London last week: Sir John Blofeld’s family bought their home in Norfolk, England, in 1537. Like his father before him, John Blofeld was a member of Boodle’s, the second oldest private members’ club in London (and the world). So was Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond. Sir John never admitted knowing Fleming, but Blofeld’s brother, Henry, a popular now-retired cricket commentator, says Fleming told him directly that he indeed named one of his Bond villains Blofeld after Sir John. (That villain was memorably played by Donald Pleasence in You Only Live Twice (1967), and was portrayed in several Bond novels — and by Pleasence — with the affectation of stroking a snow-white cat.)
Sir John grew up to be a barrister, then QC, then judge, then High Court judge, hence earning a space for an obit in the Times. That, in turn, brought a Letter to the Editor from Sir John Royce, himself a retired judge of the High Court. And if such a man is willing to sign such a statement, you can be well assured it istrue. The Times slugged it “Old adversaries” and it reads:
Sir, Your obituary (Jan 19) of Mr Justice Blofeld rightly referred to his fine sense ofhumour. When he first sat in Winchester a barrister called Richard Bond stood up to open the first case. Mr Justice Blofeld began to stroke the white ermine on the sleeve of his High Court judge’s robes as if stroking a cat. He then said with a smile: “We meet at last, Mr Bond.”
Sir John Royce
Clifton, Bristol
I would have made Sir John an Honorary Unsubscribe just to tell that wonderful story (and more: sorry if the obit link hits a paywall), but although the obit was published on the 19th, as the other Sir John noted, Judge Blofeld died last November 30, and I won’t make an exception that H.U.s must be for someone who died quite recently. But I can certainly tell you about this fine example of dry British humour here! And really: in what other newsletter would you find a great story like that?!Yet not all little extras like that make it into Premium either: it’s just something else you often miss by not upgrading. That’s why I often refer to this edition as the “free sample” version. Upgrade here: if you like this edition, you will love Premium.
Karl in North Carolina, a Premium subscriber for 29 years (one of the first 200 to upgrade), writes, “I was flying from NC to SFO with a friend sitting next to me a couple of months ago. I opened up the Premium edition and started to read it and he glanced over, did a double take, and asked ‘Is that This is True? I used to read that YEARS ago.’ I assured him that it was, and that it is just as thought-provoking as ever. I have appreciated True even more over the past five months as Ihave gone through some challenging personal events.”
Sorry you’ve had some recent travails, Karl, but I’m very glad if True helped you in any way to get through them.
Ten Years Ago in True: Falling Dominoes.
This Week’s Story of the Week (you’re welcome to share it), about the Canadian’s beaten up car, is posted on Telegram, Mastodon, BlueSky, Instagram, Threads, and/or Facebook, or grab from any of those to post elsewhere.
This Week’s Sunday Reading: When nerds give This is True compliments. A short laugh from my blog in 2001. Rocket Science?
The Latest Honorary Unsubscribe goes to Robert Croft, who dove deeper (without aid of an air hose or tanks) than any human had survived before. The story in 3 minutes, which is far less time than he could hold his breath!
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.
To get True delivered to you every week, click here to open a subscribe form.