Meanderings, 5 February 2022
Good morning from snowy, windy and cold Chicagoland.
Photo by Patrick Bald on Unsplash
NEW YORK -- Benny the ice skating dog made his debut at Wollman Rink on Wednesday afternoon.
The 8-year-old rescue Labrador retriever, who wears custom-made skates, was in Central Park to help raise funds for the Animal Vision Foundation.
His handler said his skating is motivated by the smiles he brings to onlookers.
"Benny was saved on his last day at a kill shelter in Utah so we share what rescue dogs can be and how important that is," Benny's handler Rick Vierkandt said.
Benny has performed at skating events all over the nation to raise funds for charity and help kids with autism.
"He'll just run on the ice whenever he wants and skate around after me and chase me and so he really does like it," Benny's owner Cheryl Delsangro said.
He is also the recipient of the American Kennel Club Exemplary Companion Award for the goodwill he inspires in everyone he meets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A wandering chicken was caught sneaking around a security area at the Pentagon, a local animal welfare organization said.
The loose hen was found early Monday morning near the U.S. Department of Defense headquarters, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington, Virginia, wrote on social media.
“Apparently, the answer to ‘why did the chicken cross the road’ is to get to the Pentagon,” the group posted.
The chicken was taken into custody by one of the league’s employees.
Chelsea Jones, a spokesperson for the organization, said in an email that she couldn’t reveal the precise location where the bird was spotted.
“We are not allowed to disclose exactly where she was found,” Jones said. “We can only say it was at a security checkpoint.”
It’s also unclear where the chicken came from or how she got to the Pentagon.
The hen — which has brown feathers and a red comb and wattles — is a Rhode Island Red. Jones described the bird as “sweet” and “nervous” but said she has allowed some people to pet her.
She’s now known as Henny Penny, one of the names given to the chicken that thinks “the sky is falling” in a folk tale.
Dillon Helbig, a second-grader who lives in Idaho, wrote about a Christmas adventure on the pages of a red-cover notebook and illustrated it with colored pencils.
When he finished it in mid-December, he decided he wanted to share it with other people. So much, in fact, that he hatched a plan and waited for just the right moment to pull it off.
Days later, during a visit to the Ada Community Library’s Lake Hazel Branch in Boise with his grandmother, he held the 81-page book to his chest and passed by the librarians. Then, unbeknown to his grandmother, Dillon slipped the book onto a children’s picture-book shelf. Nobody saw him do it.
“It was naughty-ish,” Dillon, 8, said of covertly depositing the book without permission. But the result, he added, is “pretty cool.”
The book, titled “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis,” is signed “by Dillon His Self.”
He later confessed to his mother, Susan Helbig, that he slid his book into the stacks and left it there, undetected. But when they returned about two days later, to the spot where he left the notebook, it was missing. Helbig called the library to ask whether anyone had found Dillon’s notebook and to request that they please not throw it away. …
The staff librarians who read Dillon’s book agreed that as informal and unconventional as it was, the book met the selection criteria for the collection in that it was a high-quality story that was fun to read. So, Hartman asked Helbig for permission to tack a bar code onto the book and formally add it to the library’s collection.
Dillon’s parents enthusiastically said yes, and the book is now part of the graphic-novels section for kids, teens and adults. The library even gave Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist, a category the library created for him, named after the library’s owl mascot.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) – A vandalized marker honoring Jackie Robinson will soon have a new home in Kansas City.
The marker stood in Georgia near the Florida border, near where Robinson was born. It was erected in 2001 by the state’s historical society, the Jackie Robinson Cairo Memorial Institute, Inc., and the MLB.
The Georgia Historical Society said the sign was damaged by gunfire in February 2021.
“Jackie Robinson was a pioneer in the integration of Major League Baseball and someone whose accomplishments should bring pride to all Americans. This is a shameful act of vandalism that unfortunately has been carried out against several other markers that commemorate civil rights figures, in Georgia and beyond,” Erroll B. Davis, Jr., GHS Board member, said at the time of the vandalism.
Local leaders worked with Major League Baseball to replace the marker this week, according to the New York Times.
While a new marker stands, the old one won’t be tossed aside. Instead, the damaged marker will be sent to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.
The word “socialist” scares people. Often only because people misunderstand it. It does have many meanings. One common one, not mine, is “Public ownership of the means of production.” There are degrees of socialism. If you want to know mine, what I mean by socialism, the socialism I embrace, you MUST watch this Youtube video: “The Time An American City Elected a Socialist Mayor | America’s Socialist Experiment | Timeline.” It is 55 minutes long and well worth the time. It’s much more engaging than the title indicates.
This kind of socialism, not public ownership of the means of production but government that helps society become humane, is part of American history and Christian history. More about that after a few caveats.
No, I do not think a person has to be a socialist to be Christian, but I do think that laissez faire capitalism, especially its Social Darwinist variety, is contrary to the spirit, the ethos, of Jesus Christ which is compassion for the weak, the vulnerable, the “little ones.”
The socialism I embrace is not tied to any political party; I am not a member of any political party. It is not Marxism, although it believes Marx’s critical analysis of capitalism has merit. It is not communism; it is compatible with free enterprise—up to a point. It is not represented by any communist country or society; its best visible representations are in the Scandinavian countries. Much of socialism is actually manifested in many things American society take for granted such as social security and Medicare and Medicaid and public ownership of many of the means of transportation, etc.
Again, if you are interested in what I mean by socialism, what I embrace as a socialist, you need to watch that excellent, informative, (to me) even gripping Youtube video. There’s a lot of American history in it even though it focuses on Milwaukee, Wisconsin—as its case study of American socialism.
(NewsNation Now) — Tickets to watch Super Bowl LVI in-person range from upward of $5,400 to nearly $100,000, according to ticket sale websites.
The most affordable ticket prices have fallen about 16% to $5,450 since the game-day teams were determined, according to ticket seller TickPicks. The admission price for the Super Bowl was $6,500 during the third quarter of the NFC Championship when the 49ers led the Rams.
That’s compared to the average $4,500-ticket five years ago, according to TickPicks.
Another popular ticket vendor, StubHub, lists tickets starting at $5,700. Others cost as much as $99,999 each for upper sideline seats. Once additional fees are added, that same ticket would cost an estimated $126,751.
But the average cost of purchase for Super Bowl tickets as of Monday afternoon, although still several thousands of dollars, was much lower — about $8,500, according to a news release from TickPicks. The site’s most expensive order total yet was $42,204. The purchase included three tickets in the 100 Level Club for $14,068 a piece.