Roy Exum: Some Of This And That

  • Friday, February 14, 2014
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

When you are holed up and waiting for six inches of snow to melt, you’ll read darn near anything so here is a sampling of what caught my eye in my daily tour of the Internet:

* * *

When President Barack Obama visited the Amazon distribution center in Chattanooga last July, somebody bought jet fuel for Air Force One at the wrong place. According to Watchdog.org, which keeps an eye on government spending, there is a report that Air Force One was refueled at taxpayer-subsidized Wilson Air instead of TAC Air, which had the government contract.

And when a Freedom of Information Act request to know why went to the Air Force in Washington, spokesperson Denise Rogers informed Watchdog that no one can find the records to determine what caused the mix-up.

Wilson Air apparently charged higher prices than TAC Air, according to a story by Fox News.

* * *

The Japanese lingerie company Ravijour has just introduced a bra in time for Valentine’s Day that pops open when its wearer “reaches a true lover’s state.” Called the 'True Love Tester' bra, there are strategic sensors imbedded in the bra that are connected to a smartphone App via Bluetooth and – get this --when a woman's heart beat is increased but her 'adrenal medulla' - part of the adrenal gland –  the bra unsnaps automatically.

I don’t know how you get the thing off if you just want to take a shower but the sensors can reportedly tell the difference between regular exercise and being in love. So there.

* * *

Police in Lebanon, Tn., are now saying they have found a note that accompanied the mail bomb that killed retired lawyer John Setzer and his wife, Joan, who died later after she was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Apparently a package was delivered to the lawyer’s house sometime Monday and the huge blast shattered windows in the front and the rear of the house. "With a note in there, it very well may be some intentional revenge or something, that the attacker, the bomber, wanted to send them a message," Former ATF agent and bomb expert Joseph Vince told CNN. "This is a very important piece of evidence, because now you may have handwriting."

* * *

According to the Guinness World Record book, the longest kiss ever lasted 58.35 hours and was set in Thailand last Valentine’s Day by Ekkachai Tiranarat and Laksana Tiranarat. The most hugs in a 24-hour period? 8,709 by Jonathan Sexton at the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tn., on June 11, 2010, as he raised  money to help the flood victims in Nashville that year. And the longest marriage was North Carolina’s Herbert Fisher (USA, b. 10 June 1905) and Zelmyra Fisher (USA, b. 10 December 1907) who were married on May 13, 1924 and lived together for 86 years, 9 months, and 16 days until Herb died at age 105 on February 27, 2011.

* * *

Rashaan Evans, the star linebacker at Auburn High who just signed with Alabama, has been bombarded with hate mail and venom after picking the Crimson Tide over the hometown university. And now Rashaan’s father Alan – who once played for Auburn before finishing at UT-Chattanooga -- is begging people to leave their family alone.

"It's kind of disturbing to know that it's such a thin line between love and hate," Alan said. "A couple weeks ago before he made his decision, Auburn was handing him the keys to the kingdom when they thought he was a lock. Now they want to crucify Rashaan and his family because he wanted to do what he thought was best for him and his future.

"I understand that people in this state take football very seriously,” he told reporters, “and that's part of what makes it exciting, but when you start trying to hurt other people because of this game, you need to take a step back and think about what's going on. I guess the thing I would ask most of the people writing these hurtful things is how would you feel if this were your child?”

Alan runs the Corner Market in Auburn and some irate Tiger fans are also boycotting the store.

* * *

A 10-year-old boy in Norway decided he wanted to see his grandparents so he loaded his 18-month-old sister in the family car and got about 10 miles on the 25-mile journey before he veered off in a snowbank. When the driver of a snowplow stopped and asked what happened, the kid said he was a dwarf and had forgotten his driver’s license. The police promptly returned him, his sister and the family car to his parents, who were not amused.

* * *

Sharon Hart is a patient in the hematology unit of Chicago’s Rush Medical Center, which is on the top floor of the hospital. So the other night while she slept, her husband and 14-year-old son climbed to the top of a nearby parking garage and wrote “Hi Mom – God bless you all” in huge letters on the snowy rooftop. They used brooms to create the 8-foot letters in the snow that could be seen out the patients’ windows, which was pretty clever.

* * *

University of Memphis basketball coach Gary Pastner has suspended freshman forward Dominic Woodson indefinitely after the player used “inappropriate language” during the Tigers’ 76-70 win over Central Florida earlier this week. “I did not like some of his language he used,” Plastner told reporters, “so I told him, ‘See ya.’”

“Dom is a good kid; he has a good heart,” Pastner explained, “but there are some things that I just won’t tolerate. I don’t talk that way, and I don’t want players in my program talking that way, and that’s the bottom line.

“My job is to coach Dom and to love him,” Pastner added. “But with love comes discipline, and if a few wind sprints in practice didn’t teach a lesson, then maybe this suspension will.”

royexum@aol.com

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