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Since 1994, this is the 1653rd issue of Randy Cassingham’s...
| 15 February 2026: Freebie and the Bean | Copyright ©2026 https://thisistrue.com |
What Goeth After a Fall: Three police officers had responded to a home in Monterey, Tenn. Everything was OK, and they started to leave.When the on-scene supervisor, identified only as Sgt. Bennett, stepped out, he tripped, fell, and rolled off the concrete porch into a planter, where he knocked over a metal flamingo. Monterey PD Chief John Mackie posted bodycam video of the incident, most notably featuring other officers laughing at Bennett, who says he broke his leg. He didn’t: another officer helped him up. Bennett replanted the flamingo and told “Mrs. Georgie”, the homeowner, “When you’re big you learn to fall gracefully”,“I killed the flamingo”, and “I think there’s a gnome somewhere it shouldn’t be.” The video has 39 million views (and counting) on Facebook alone. Chief Mackie says the footage shows Bennett “flawlessly” completing a “Rapid Tactical Descent,” and that while “The porch remains standing. Sgt. Bennett’s pride did not.” Bennett is now getting fan mail, including scores of pink flamingoes in various sizes. (RC/WSMV Nashville) ...The garden gnome remains at large.
Airborne Threat: Fighter jets intercept an airliner because.... [Premium Only]
Civic Duty: Father has to instruct his daughter about her responsibilities as a citizen when she was summoned for jury duty. Then it gets amusing. [Premium Only]
Circle: When memorials do it wrong. [Premium Only]
TOZO Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds, <$50.
All for under $50 in choice of 3 colors. Shop Now, Choose Wisely (Amazon). |
Back to Ads, dang it: I would much rather readers support True than ads. Each week it takes ~5 upgrades (or equivalent contributions) to pay this edition’s bills. Last week we only needed 3, since 2 were carried over from the previous week, but there was ZERO support from readers. 🙁 For this week, there was 1 new upgrade, no returnees, and no contributions. Now we need five upgradesto skip the ad next week (as always, more will carry over). If you love True please support it: taking your favorite sites for granted is why so many of them have disappeared. Upgrade here, and thanks!
The Laffer Curve: City’s bold plan to raise millions with new fees nearly destroyed the city’s cultural institutions (and didn’t help to raise cash). [Premium Only]
The Secret to Dating Women: Let’s just say it not only didn’t work, but she turned him in and he was sentenced to prison. [Premium Only]
Policing Is Sometimes a Dirty Job: Serial criminal surrenders to a drone sent up to find evidence. [Premium Only]
Sir, This Is a Wendy’s: In North Carolina, there are lots of rules when finding a place to do tattoos. And yet a video going around online shows that someone found a Wendy’s in Gastonia. Shelby McSwain apparently recorded the video from a car outside the fast-food joint, looking in at a blue-gloved person using what looked like a tattoo gun on a blue-haired, shirtless person. A municipal official said the restaurant would be “reminded” not to “tattoo without a permit.” But the Wendy’sfranchisee says it already “took immediate disciplinary action”: “This behavior does not reflect ... the standards we set for our teams.” (AC/WBTV Charlotte) ...Is that the behavior of the artist? The tattooee? Whoever didn’t intervene? Tell us: What’s the beef?
Wrong Turn: Why the Uber crashed into a building had to do with a Florida Man, and then it gets crazy. [Premium Only]
Cooking the Books: Grant Cranston, co-owner of the Hilton Chip Shop in Inverness, Scotland, says the biodiesel industry has really helped shops like his deal with rising costs, as used cooking oil is converted to renewable fuel. Restaurants are paid 30 pence (US$0.36) per liter for the oil. “You put that out there for it to go away and to be recycled, kind of doing your bit for the environment,” he said. But organized crime is now targeting chip shops and other restaurants to steal theoil. Police Scotland recorded 178 incidents of cooking oil theft in a 6-month period last year totaling 20,000 pounds (US$27,282) in lost revenue to businesses last year. On average, the U.K. Treasury loses 25 million pounds (US$34.1 million) in lost duty per year due to used cooking oil theft. (MS/BBC) ...With numbers like that, who’s really stealing here?
Citizen’s Arrest: I hated taking this one out because it’s both heartwarming and has a big laugh in the tag, but dang it, I’m forced to make hard choices. [Premium Only]
Success: Town’s efforts at boosting tourism backfires, so don’t come! [Premium Only]
That’s Just Bananas: Authorities in Vietnam say they will increase patrols after a man on a motorbike rode toSon Tra Mountain — also known as Monkey Mountain — to “tease” wild monkeys there. Specifically, he covered his entire torso, arms, and lower legs in bananas. There are numerous signs in the area warning people not to feed wildlife. The man, described only as a “foreign tourist,” left after being confronted by an officer who warned him about his “inappropriate behaviour” as several monkeys looked on. (RC/Straits Times) ...Authorities said foreign tourist, but you heard Darwin Awardsapplicant.
Always Ready to Help Calm Things Down
Orlando Police Officer Accidentally Fires Rifle During Middle School Lockdown
Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel 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 Townsville, Queensland, and Sydney, New South Wales, Australia — a 5-day, 1,100-mile trip. We sure enjoyed Sydney, so it was worth the wait.
I did buy the Tozo earbuds shown in the ad above, but I can’t tell you how much I like them yet: it takes awhile to get things delivered to the ship. We send packages to a logistics outfit in Florida, which gets all of our stuff together for a shipping container (or two!), figuring out where they can send it to meet us somewhere along our path.
So my earbuds are, so far, sitting in a warehouse with some other things, and we'll get them in a couple-few months. We DO have to plan ahead! That said, my old Tozo earbuds included in my list of things to bring on the Residential Cruising site still work great; they just don’t have active Noise Cancelling feature of the newer ones.
Remember Digg? It was a BIG early social site similar to Reddit for news link aggregation, starting in 2004. Users could “Digg” (vote up) or “Bury” (vote down) links. It crashed and burned after a 2010 redesign, and most users migrated to Reddit. Last year Kevin Rose, its original founder, bought the site back with a Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian, and they’re ramping it up again. Will it become the Reddit killer, or struggle like so many? Ihave no idea, but I now have a This is True community there, where I’m posting the Story of the Week.
That said, Week 1652’s post is showing “PENDING APPROVAL” ...but doesn’t say who needs to approve it. It’s supposedly my community, and as moderator I can delete the post, but can’t approve it. Clearly, the new Digg is still a work in progress. Let’s hope they don’t chase away their entire audience ...again.
“Come out with your hands up, and your pants down!” was a classic line from 1974’s Freebie and the Bean (played by James Caan and Alan Arkin, respectively) as San Francisco Police detectives in a film that was supposed to be a serious drama. Caan and Arkin, not wanting to play second fiddle to action sequences, played it in a comic way that spawned a generation of “buddy cop” films, not to mention (in my opinion, at least), the TV series Starsky & Hutch, which started asa 1975 TV movie.
The problem, of course, is you have no idea which story it was used for, or why, since this free edition gets most of its stories ripped out, but you can rest assured it worked well in context. 🙂 The line was then apparently reused in Poltergeist III (1988). Hollywood doesn’t just redo entire movies, they reuse memorable lines from other films!
I don’t usually explain the subject line for issues, letting readers figure out the connection between the subject and the content, but that one’s pretty obscure (and not included in this edition anyway...). Well, that and I didn’t want anyone to think I was quoting a frigging Poltergeist sequel!
Part 2 of My David Farber tribute was posted Monday. He was a computer/Internet pioneer and a friend: Kit and I visited him in his Tokyo apartment when we went to Japan in August. Well, he met us at a restaurant and walked us back to his apartment, and later walked us to the train station so we could head back to our ship. You’ll be amazed how much he had to do with the beginnings of the Internet.
If you missed last week’s, Part 1 is here. Part 2 is about his email list, which predates True by 9 years: Interesting People.
Ten Years Ago in True: Color Blind.
The Bananas Tourist is the Story of the Week, which means you’re welcome to share it from 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 advice for a friend who needed help figuring out what to do next in life is universal: it can help YOU, too. From my blog in 2012. Planning for the Rest of Your Life.
This Week’s Honorary Unsubscribe is Part 2 of my reflections on my friend David Farber.
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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