Category Archives: So Random!
Lunch Lady Faces $600 Fine For Feeding Needy Children In Pennsylvania
By Rene Lynch
August 17, 2012, 1:10 p.m.
Video Link: Lunch Lady Fined For Feeding Hungry Children
Lunch lady Angela Prattis thought she was just doing God’s work, handing out free lunches to hungry children in a Pennsylvania neighborhood. But even acts of altruism, it seems, must bow to red tape.
National outrage has erupted after Prattis found herself running afoul of Chester Township zoning laws and threatened with a $600 fine if she continued, according to NBC10 Philadelphia.
Moreover, she faces a $1,000 fee if she wants to continue performing her good deeds, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
The lunch lady, who is also a youth pastor at her church, was told that she needed a township zoning permit continue to hand out lunches outside her home. And the approval process requires an official hearing. And that hearing would cost her $1,000, the Inquirer reported.
It was enough to raise questions about whether Prattis could continue her work. She is a married mother of three and also a trained volunteer with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Nutritional Development Services, which supplies the food she gives out, according to the Inquirer.
The food is paid for by the state, according to the Inquirer, which also reported that program representatives had inspected and approved Prattis’ operation.
The stalemate has prompted an outpouring of support. So far, several in the community offered to cover the $1,000 bill. She has received dozens of calls from others offering to do whatever is needed to keep the lunch lady on the job, and a law firm has also offered to represent her for free.
Prattis told the Inquirer that she’s grateful for the offers but has not taken any money yet because she’s still hoping authorities will waive the fee.
The Inquirer said it spoke to the township’s acting solicitor, Murray Eckell, who acknowledged that the incident is giving local government a black eye. But he said the township is in a difficult position.
“Suppose a child gets hurt on her property,” Eckell was quoted as saying. “Will the family sue the township? What if somebody gets food poisoning?
“What she is doing is commendable…. But if we don’t have laws, there’s chaos. It’s a difficult situation for the township to be in.”
NBC10 says Prattis plans to attend the next township meeting in a bid to clear up the controversy, but until then she plans to continue feeding children.
The Chester Township manager did not return a phone call seeking comment by the time this article was posted online.
Gabby Douglas Gets A Makeover
fueling more ridiculous debate about her hair
Whether it was badminton teams losing matches on purpose, dubious refereeing in the fencing competition or North Korean soccer players taking the field under the wrong flag, the London Games featured plenty of controversy.
None of it is more frivolous or absurd, however, than the flap about how U.S. gymnast Gabby Douglas wears her hair.
Critics first complained that Douglas’ ponytail looked unkempt when the 16-year-old was winning gold in both the women’s team and all-around competitions. Now she’s receiving backlash for bowing to public pressure and receiving a makeover from a celebrity stylist upon returning home from London.
Before she began a week-long publicity blitz that included appearances on the Tonight Show, The Late Show and America’s Got Talent, Douglas hired New York-based stylist Ted Gibson to do her hair. Gibson, who works with Angelina Jolie and Anne Hathaway and also appears on the reality series What Not To Wear, gave Douglas a new look with a middle part and waves that fall just below her shoulders.
That Douglas has received criticism for getting a highly publicized makeover this week is almost as laughable as the response to her hairstyle during competition.
What elite athlete would be more concerned with her hair than her performance during the Olympics? And what 16-year-old girl wouldn’t want to look her best before a week’s worth of appearances on reality TV and the late-night talk show circuit?
Douglas had it exactly right last week when she brushed off her critics by telling reporters she was more focused on winning Olympic gold than looking perfect during every routine. And she’ll have it exactly right again this week if she explains she got a haircut to look her best on camera.
This is a 16-year-old girl who has handled Olympic pressure and media scrutiny with poise and grace so far. How about we stop paying so much attention to her hair and start giving her more credit for that?
Source: By Jeff Eisenberg | Fourth-Place Medal
The Man & The Ostrich
A man walks into a restaurant with a full-grown ostrich behind him. The waitress asks them for their orders.
The man says, “A hamburger, fries and a coke,” And turns to the ostrich, “What’s yours?”
“I’ll have the same,” says the ostrich.
A short time later the waitress returns with the order. “That will be $9.40 please.” The man reaches into his pocket and pulls out the exact change for payment.
The next day, the man and the ostrich come again And the man says, “A hamburger, fries and a coke.”
The ostrich says, “I’ll have the same.”
Again the man reaches into his pocket and pays with exact change..
This becomes routine until the two enter again. “The usual?” asks the waitress.
“No, this is Friday night, so I will have a steak, baked potato and a salad,” says the man. “Same,” says the ostrich.
Shortly the waitress brings the order and says, “That will be $32.62.” Once again the man
pulls the exact change out of his pocket and places it on the table..
The waitress cannot hold back her curiosity any longer. “Excuse me, sir. How do you manage to always
come up with the exact change in your pocket every time?”
“Well,” says the man, “several years ago I was cleaning the attic and found an old lamp. When I rubbed it,
a Genie appeared and offered me two wishes. My first wish was that if I ever had to pay for anything,
I would just put my hand in my pocket and the right amount of money would always be there.”
“That’s brilliant!” says the waitress. “Most people would ask for a million dollars or something, but you’ll always be as rich as you want for as long as you live!”
“That’s right, Whether it’s a gallon of milk or a Rolls Royce, the exact money is always there,” says the man.
The waitress asks, “What’s with the ostrich?”
The man sighs, pauses and answers, “My second wish was for a tall chick with a big butt and long legs who agrees with everything I say..”
2012 Presidential Cookie Bake-Off
Family Circle Magazine’s Presidential Cookie Bake-Off, which traditionally pits the cookie recipe of the current First Lady against that of the First Lady Hopeful, first occurred in 1992 and has now spanned six elections. What began as PR damage control for Hillary Clinton before the 1992 election (after she was accused of being out of touch with stay-at-home, cookie-baking women), has, oddly, become a rather prophetic indicator of the likely outcome of presidential elections. With the exception of Cindy McCain, every winner of the bake-off has gone on to the White House.
Not only does the outcome of the contest itself seem to (sometimes) predict that of the election, but one may even be able to predict the outcome of the bake-off itself based on one little factor: whether either recipe contains oats. According to Slate.com, trend analysis of the bake-off’s previous winning recipes has revealed that oat-containing recipes have consistently beat-out their non-oat-containing counterparts. From Cindy McCain’s oatmeal-butterscotch cookies to Laura Bush’s oatmeal chocolate chunks, this continues to ring true. So, if A+B=C, then do oats win presidential elections?
But cookie batter isn’t the only thing this contest stirs up – it also yields plenty of controversy. Many feel that the contest is outdated (and has been since its inception), and that it reduces some of the most politically powerful and influential women in the country to recipe-swapping, 1950s stereotypes. The flip side of that, of course, is that if the contest were to be canceled, it could be seen as a slap in the face to women who choose to work in the home and/or might imply that women who do have careers don’t also make time for their families. It’s pretty treacherous ground any way you slice it.
Additionally, in these health and weight-conscious times, some wonder whether promoting the baking of cookies that contain plenty of sugar and trans fats, in addition to oats, sends the wrong message. But both Mrs. Obama and Mrs. Romney make it pretty clear in their descriptions of their recipes that their cookies are used only as special treats, not daily staples. Like Cookie Monster now says, cookies are a “sometimes food.”
So, sexism and sugar aside, Will Ann Romney‘s oat-containing M&M recipe beat outMichele Obama‘s white and dark chocolate chip recipe? If it does, will Mrs. Obama pull a second upset and land in the White House anyway? Only time and voters (of both the bake-off and election varieties) will tell. If you are interested in whipping up a batch of presidential cookies, or want to vote, click here.
Steel Magnolia’s Remake
Atlanta’s Kenny Leon directed the remake of “Steel Magnolias,” which is set to air this fall on Lifetime.
The modern version, which filmed in Atlanta earlier this year, stars Queen Latifah as M’Lynn, the role Sally Field played in the original film. Alfre Woodard plays Ouiser (as Shirley MacLaine did in the original), Phylicia Rashad plays Clairee (Olympia Dukakis in the original film), Jill Scott plays Truvy (Dolly Parton’s former role), Adepero Oduye plays Annelle(Daryl Hannah in the original film) and Condola Rashad stars as Shelby (Julia Roberts in the original film).
Here’s an early look at the project. How do you think it will stack up against the original?
Happy Now? Gabby Douglas’ hair is styled.
It is shameful that many people in the African American community have overshadowed Gabby’s success by criticizing her hair. Yes, she was on television for the entire world to see, but people there is more to life than hair and there is definitely more to life than appearances. All this chatter around “Gabby Douglas gotta do something with this hair! These clips and this brown gel residue aint it” and “Gabby Douglas needs to tame the beady beads in the back of her hair.” is unnecessary and just highlights how shallow and superficial many of us are.
How about focusing more on fitness than hair. There are thousands of African Americans suffering from illnesses brought on my poor diets and lack of exercise. Many women are constricted by their hair refusing to swim or exercise because of the effect it may have on their hair. What were you doing when Gabby was practicing for the Olympics? Sitting on the couch eating a bag of Cheetos, while looking up the latest natural hair YouTube video? Your hair looks great, but your dying from poor lifestyle choices? You don’t want to exercise because you don’t want to sweat out your perm or wear a headscarf to the gym?Would you prefer to be in shape like Gabby Douglas or have a killer blow out or twist out?
For decades we have forgone extracurricular activities like swimming, camping and hiking because we just can’t get our hair messed up. Although many of us have joined #teamnatural, we still have a defeatist attitude where what we do is controlled by our hair. If Gabby were like the average woman she may not have won two gold metals because she would be too concerned that all that flipping, jumping and sweating may interfere with her hair. Many Olympic female athletes wear their hair in ponytails with clips. Why are we only focusing on Gabby?
We praise those crazy Basketball Wives and Love & Hip Hop reality stars because they wear Louboutins with weaves down to their backsides-paid for by laying on their back. But we criticize a woman who is magnificent and made her country proud because of her passion for a sport? Not every woman is going to be a glamour girl, we just need to accept that. It is OK to be who you are, flaws and all. Let’s stop all this negativity and give Gabby the praise and recognition she deserves.
In the words of Gabby: “What’s wrong with my hair? I’m like, ‘I just made history and people are focused on my hair?’ It can be bald or short; it doesn’t matter about [my] hair.”
New York Couple, 85, To Remarry 48 Years After Divorce
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — They got hitched while still in their teens, divorced 20 years and four children later, and are getting remarried after nearly a half-century apart.
For Lena Henderson and Roland Davis, both 85 years old, the second time around is finally here. The couple plans to get married again on Saturday, with four generations on hand to see it happen.
“It’s every child’s dream, every child who has ever been in a family where divorce has occurred, that your parents would come back together,” their youngest daughter, Renita Chadwick, said Tuesday as wedding preparations were in full swing.
“We are all so ridiculously excited. We’re like little children again,” said Chadwick, herself a grandmother.
Henderson and Davis met as teenagers in Chattanooga, Tenn., and were married by a justice of the peace. There was no reception or honeymoon.
“Oh no,” Henderson recalled with a laugh. “He went to work and I went home.” Davis was a hotel bellhop at the time, about to begin a career in the military.
This time around, a church wedding is planned, at Elim Christian Fellowship Church in Buffalo, followed by a reception at an Amherst restaurant.
Still no honeymoon trip, though.
“I’m just happy that we’re here,” said Davis, who recently moved to suburban Buffalo from Colorado, where he was living alone following the death of his second wife in January. Henderson also was widowed after re-marrying.
Davis proposed to Henderson over the phone around Easter and she accepted, even though they hadn’t seen each other since a family funeral in 1996. Before that, the two hadn’t been face-to-face since splitting up in 1964, though they had stayed in touch and kept up with each other’s lives through the children.
Their oldest daughter, Johnnie Mae Funderbirk, had been urging her father to return to New York since his wife’s death.
Davis was receptive, especially to the idea of reconnecting with Henderson.
“I had always kind of had that in mind, mostly because of the children,” he said. “You never forget someone that you cared for at one time or another.”
Henderson and Davis both said it was “nice” to see one another again, this time as an engaged couple.
The children are less reserved.
“I’m as excited as some 9-year-old whose parents are getting back together,” Funderbirk said, “and I’m 65 years old.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Girl Grabs Wheel When Grandfather Dies In New Jersey
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — As the pickup truck she was riding in careened down the road at 80 mph, 12-year-old Miranda Bowman knew one thing: She had to stop it.
Miranda’s grandfather, Paul Parker, was driving her home July 24 from an afternoon of go-karting when he told Miranda he didn’t feel well. He asked her to keep talking to keep him alert. She asked about things she spied on the side of the road — the racetrack, the unfinished bleachers. A few seconds later Miranda heard her grandfather’s head hit the driver’s side window.
Parker, 63, had just died of a heart attack, and his foot was pressing on the accelerator.
“He was like, `Miranda I’m scared, I’ve never felt like this before,'” Miranda said during a phone interview from her Burlington Township home. “I was scared because he would never say that. He was a tough cookie.”
After a “30-second freak-out” during which she cried, “Pop-pop, Pop-pop, Pop-pop,” Miranda realized the car was speeding up and drifting toward the side of the road. She undid her seat belt and tried to call 911 on her cellphone but she wasn’t getting any service. She then climbed underneath the steering wheel and pressed her hand on the brake.
But even though the car was slowing down, it was still hurtling down the road.
Miranda popped up from underneath the steering wheel, wedged her right foot under her left and pressed on the brake as hard as she could.
“I was going to put it in park and I thought we were going too fast,” she said. “I thought it would do the fish tail or flip over.”
Instead she grabbed onto the steering wheel and tried to find a place where she could force the car to stop.
“I was looking around and thought, `Should I go into the corn field, should I keep going?'” she said. “Down the street was a red light and I saw woods. I said `I can’t hurt anybody else, I can only hurt myself,'” by putting the car into the trees.
Miranda said the pickup truck ran into a few trees. She tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She wasn’t able to smash out the window. She finally spied a broken part of the passenger’s side door and kicked it open.
A woman driving behind the car saw it swerving and called 911 while following it. Miranda said she fell to her knees and wailed after getting out of the car. She then called her mother and grandmother.
“She said, `Mom, we were in an accident and Pop-pop is dead,'” said Miranda’s mother, Stephanie Bowman. “I keep thinking to myself, `I don’t know if I could have watched that happen to him and reacted the way she did.'”
Stephanie Bowman said the family is in shock from all that happened. Paul Parker was an active man who played fast-pitch baseball and started go-karting in his 60s. It was the first time Miranda watched her grandfather go-kart; she had long asked him to take her to the track.
“I’m very grateful to have my daughter be OK but losing my father at the same time, I’m just numb from the two emotions battling each other out,” Stephanie Bowman said.
Miranda said she knew how to react in an emergency situation because her father is an EMT. She also said she watches a lot of “Law and Order” on television and thought about what might happen on the show. And she always watches what people do while driving a car, so she knew to head for the brake.
Miranda said she wants to be a sign language interpreter when she is an adult.
“I’m very amazed by her, very impressed by her,” Stephanie Bowman said. “Where she got it from God only knows. He was her angel that day.”
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
California Man Attempts To Smuggle Meth As Candy
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man faces federal drug charges for allegedly trying to smuggle more than 4 pounds of methamphetamine to Japan in what looked like dozens of Snickers bars.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Monday that 34-year-old Rogelio Mauricio Harris of Long Beach was arrested last week at Los Angeles International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Japan.
Harris was charged in Los Angeles with drug possession and faces at least 10 years in prison if convicted.
Federal agents conducting routine baggage inspections found 45 full-sized Snickers bars inside Harris’ luggage. Each bar was coated in a chocolate-like substance to make it look like a candy bar, but tests revealed the so-called candy contained methamphetamine.
Authorities estimate the 4 pounds of meth is worth about $250,000.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Black Couple Denied Wedding At Mississippi Church
An African-American couple attending a predominantly white Baptist church in Jackson, Miss., nearly had their dream of a church wedding dashed when members of the congregation demanded that the nuptials be held elsewhere because of their race.
“The church congregation had decided no black could be married at that church, and that if he went on to marry her, then they would vote him out the church,” Charles Wilson told local news station WAFB-TV.
Wilson and his wife, commenting on how the Rev. Stan Weatherford of First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs decided to perform their wedding ceremony at a different church, said racism was to blame.
“I feel like it was blatant racial discrimination,” Wilson told the Clarion-Ledger.
“He had people in the sanctuary that were pitching a fit about us being a black couple,” said Te’Andrea Wilson. “I didn’t like it at all, because I wasn’t brought up to be racist. I was brought up to love and care for everybody.”
Charles and Te’Andrea Wilson are not members of FBC of Crystal Springs, but had been regular attendees, with Mrs. Wilson having family ties to the congregation. Her father used to attend the church and she has an uncle who was a custodian there.
“Prior to this, I had been telling people how nice they were here,” Charles Wilson said. “It makes you re-evaluate things. We were doing everything right. We wanted to get married.”
The Wilsons did get married on July 21 as planned, just not in the church where they had hoped to hold the ceremony.
No black couple has ever been married at First Baptist Church of Crystal Cathedral. Pastor Weatherford has said that members would be holding meetings to see how to go forward to avoid future situations similar to the one involving the Wilsons.
According to insiders at the 150-year-old First Baptists Church of Crystal Springs, about five or six people had approached Weatherford about the planned ceremony after witnessing a rehearsal at the church two days before the Saturday wedding.
Wilson only learned after the fact that it was reportedly a handful of people who challenged having the ceremony held at the church. He insisted that Weatherford should have pushed back instead of giving in to congregants’ demands.
“If you’re for Christ, you can’t straddle the fence,” he told the Clarion-Ledger. “He knew it was wrong.”
Weatherford, calling himself a peacemaker, said he felt it necessary to comply with requests to move the wedding ceremony elsewhere.
“I was just trying to think about a win-win,” the pastor explained. “The thing is, I’m a peacemaker, and sometimes because I’m a peacemaker it gets me in trouble. The thing about it is this: I love the people of our church and that’s the bottom line.”
Weatherford insisted his primary concerns were keeping peace at the church and making sure the Wilsons could enjoy their wedding day.
“I didn’t want to have a controversy within the church, and I didn’t want a controversy to affect the wedding of Charles and Te’Andrea. I wanted to make sure their wedding day was a special day,” the pastor told a local news station.
Others have suggested that Weatherford was essentially bullied into performing the wedding ceremony elsewhere and that the dissenting members do not represent the entire congregation.
“Some individuals intimidated the pastor and created a situation that had him in a bind and he was trying to do the best he could to work it out,” church attendee Bob Mack told WLBT-TV.
African-Americans in Jackson who have visited the church or have relationships with its members have defended it against claims of racism.
Church members also have apologized to the Wilsons and the local black community, denying that their church is home to a racist congregation.
Barbara Marck, a member of First Baptist Church of Crystal Springs, said the church’s image has been overshadowed by a few bad apples.
“We have been portrayed as a racist church, we’re not! We welcome anybody that wants to come through those doors,” she said.
The Rev. Jim Futral, executive director of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, said the situation at FBC of Crystal Springs was a “sad thing.”
“It’s not reflective of the spirit of the Lord and Mississippi Baptists,” he said. “It’s just a step backward. … It’s a sad thing.”
Saying much progress had been made in the denomination, Futral admitted that this step was definitely “one backward.”
The racism row comes just one month after the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant body in in the U.S., elected its first African-American president, the Rev. Frank Luter of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, La.
Source: The Christian Post
I Am Lady Fab 