I know that I had a similar post on this day last year, but it bears repeating.
TWIT would like to wish all of the veterans a very Happy Veterans Day. I hope these men don't get embarassed, but I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank some of my favorite veterans:
My Dad
Uncle Roy
Uncle Paul
Steve
Boots
Paul
John M
Greg D
John D
Thank you for proudly serving your country. You guys rock.
Pilfered parrot used to stuff bra, cops say
Woman busted while trying to exchange rare Greenwing for vintage car
FORT MYERS, Fla. - A woman has been arrested for padding her bra — with a stolen rare parrot.
Jill Knispel, 35, hid the Greenwing parrot in her bra after taking it from her employer, Baby Exotic Birds of Englewood, police said.
When Knispel went to trade the bird for a vintage car, she told the car’s owner how she got the animal, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Turns out the car’s owner is friends with the man who owns the $2,000 bird.
DNA tests confirmed the bird’s identity and Knispel was charged with grand theft.
“The circumstances of the case are the most bizarre I’ve ever encountered,” said veteran wildlife investigator Lenny Barshinger.
This raises a few questions.
1. What are the chances that the person you're trying to sell a stolen bird to knows the person you stole the bird from? (Yes, I know I butchered that sentence with my grammar, but please forgive me.)
2. What "vintage car" do you think you can get in trade for a parrot? Yes, it was a rare parrot worth $2000, but I think you'd need to throw in some more cash for the "vintage" car. That is, unless you're buying an old Ford Pinto.
3. No matter how buxom you are, don't you think someone just might notice that you have something live inside your bra?
From reading some previous entries in TWIT, you already know how much I like Terri Clark. She was in Louisville this evening at WAMZ, one of our country radio stations, and I guess the above picture is pretty self-explanatory.
This was my second time to get to meet Terri, and I've got to say that out of all of the celebrities I've met, she has to be the kindest and and most gracious. She took five minutes out of her schedule to stop in the parking lot on the way to the radio station to talk with me and pose for some pictures and give an autograph. Five minutes out of our schedules might not seem like much, but for a country star on a deadline, I think it was a great act of kindness.
The DJ said that she would be stopping by today to promote her new CD, "Life Goes On" and to talk about her new single, "She Didn't Have Time." I knew I had to be there to give her a gift I'd had for her since May - a personalized Louisville Slugger baseball bat. I took it with me to her concert in May, but security wouldn't let me bring it in because it was a dangerous weapon. I didn't trust leaving it with someone to give it to her, so I decided to just keep it till I got to see her again. I was able to find out that she would be on the air from 5:00 to 6:00. Unfortunately for me, I had a dentist's appointment at 3:30, and was sitting the big chair getting my crown and abssess examined, thinking the whole time "I'm jetting out of here at 4:45 even if he's not done." As my luck would have it, I was out of there in a flash and headed on over to the station's building. I sat patiently in my car, waiting for Terri to come out of her bus, rehearsing what I was going to say. Then at 4:55, out she came. I calmly and politely got out of the BMW, and asked her if I could get a picture with her either before or after her interview, and she walked right over to the car and started chatting. I gave her the bat (gift wrapped in a box, so she wouldn't see me with a bat and think I was some crazed stalker) and she seemed genuinely touched that I went to the trouble of getting it for her. After I gave her the bat, I told her how she was a bizillion times more gracious than The Female Rock Star That Shall Remain Nameless who dissed me two years ago when I gave her a personalized Louisville Slugger. She laughed at the story, and gave me a hug, and signed a copy of our picture together that I took at the May concert, and then posed for a picture. Her assistant took my camera and then dropped it. Pieces of the Fuji camera went all over the parking lot. I was like "Who cares?" But Terri and her assistant were both apologizing as they bent down and picked up the camera and put it back together. Her assistant tried to take a couple of pictures but the camera wouldn't work. Her assistant apologized again, and ran back to the bus and got her own camera and took a picture of Terri and me, and got my email address and said she'd email it to me as soon as she got back to Nashville. Just then, someone from inside the station called the assistant, and she told them that "Terri was speaking with someone right now, and she'd be in when she was finished." Now that's what I call an assistant. I didn't want to be a pest, so I thanked her for the picture and autograph, and told her I really enjoyed her new CD, and she got all giddy and thanked me for buying it, and asked what my favorite song was on it. Well, to be honest, I'd only played it once since it came out last week, and I was speechless. I said "I like them all" but she wasn't buying it. She wanted to know which one I liked the most. So I did some quick thinking and said "Life Goes On", since it was the title, and she got even more giddy and clapped her hands like a little kid and said "Yeahhhh, it's one of my favorites, too."
She went in to do her interview, and I stayed there in the parking lot, listening to her on the radio and fiddling with the camera until I got it working. At 6:00 when she went off the air, I walked back to the station and waited there in the lobby with three other fans, and when she saw me she yelled across the lobby "Did you get the camera working or am I going to have to buy you another one?" A star that still has a sense of humor - you gotta love that. She had her assistant take another picture, and told her "Don't drop it this time." As you can see above, we got the picture, and the rest is history.
I joined Terri's fan club two years ago, just so I would be eligible for the annual meet-and-greet pass, but from now on, I will pay my yearly dues and be a proud card carrying member of her Hats Brats fan club. I'll support any artist that treats fans like Terri Clark does. I doubt if she will ever read this, but thank you very much Terri for taking the time to care about your fans.You rock.
I've been too busy following the prison escapee stories the past week to keep up with other current events, so last night I made it a point to watch the national news after supper. For almost two weeks, I've heard snippets about riots in France, but until I took the time last night to watch the news, I had no clue why the people were rioting. Then I found out: PATs gone wild.
In case you are like me and didn't know what it was all about, it's pretty simple; the violence started on October 27 as a localized riot in a northeast Paris suburb. The rioters were rioting over the accidental deaths of two PATs who were electrocuted in a power station while hiding from the police. The violence has grown nationwide by angry and militant PATs.
These aren't your ordinary mailbox bashings or displays of rudeness like we have by the PATs on our side of the pond. In France, thousands of cars have been burned each night since the riots started, and the violence claimed its first victim Monday, with the death of a 61 year old man who was literally beat to death. And these PATs are carrying around a little more baggage then our PATs - the majority of the rioting PATs are French-born children of immigrants from France's former territories, and have been been neglected. They complain of lack of jobs and widespread discrimination, and many of these immigrants and their children have never been fully integrated into French society. These aren't deadbeat PATs, either; these have jobs, pay taxes, and vote - but they just aren't considered part of society.
TWIT is happy to report that fugitive Charles Thompson has been captured and is again behind bars. Thompson was nabbed last night after Shreveport police received a tip. They found him drunk and talking on a pay phone outside of a Shreveport bar. The police said he was too drunk to be interrogated, but he did tell them who he was. The authorities also said that Thompson had a bicycle with him when he was arrested, but they don't believe he peddled the 200+ miles from Houston to Shreveport.
I would have thought that Thompson would go down fighting when he was caught - he's on death row, so what does he have to lose? I would expect him to have been shot and killed by dozens of federal agents and U.S. Marshalls, or something; you know, like in a scene from "Walker, Texas Ranger." But instead his capture was like a bad scene from "Pee Wee's Big Adventure."
My dear friend GoalieGirl has been through quite a time lately with the hurricane season down in Louisiana. She and her family made it through Katrina, and for that we're grateful. But she asked me to share a link with you, my faithful readers, and as always I honor [almost] all requests.
Some friends of GoalieGirl's from Tulane University have set up a website and they're asking for donations to help the hurricane Katrina victims in New Orleans and the surrounding area. I'm sure you've visited and maybe even donated at the Red Cross site or other sites set up, but this one is different. At this site, you can donate money AND get some cool stuff. Please take a few moments and visit http://www.nolahurricanefund.org and give a few bucks. If you can afford it, get one of the cool "Hurricanes Blow" t-shirts like I did. If not, then you can still donate a few bucks; every little bit helps.
It's hard to believe that the holidays will be here before you know it. We'll be stuffing ourselves with turkey and dressing in less than three weeks. Some people cringe when it comes to holiday entertaining; they stress out over "What am I going to fix?" Not here at The Compound. When we do our holiday entertaining, we rely on The Peanut Shop to provide the before (and sometimes after) dinner snacks. I'd like to give a big shout out to Uncle Doug down in Alabama for turning us onto The Peanut Shop's New Orleans Style Spicy Peanuts. They rock. For those of you in the 'Ville that know all about Ollie's Trolly fries, these peanuts have the same seasoning. It will make you want to lick the bottom of the can once you've eaten all of the peanuts. Go to http://www.thepeanutshop.com and order a can today. You won't be disappointed. The Peanut Shop and especially their New Orleans Style Spicy Peanuts have the TWIT seal of approval.
