Turtle crashes through windshield on Florida highway, survives
A turtle crashed through the windshield of a car on a Florida highway and struck a 71-year-old woman in the head -- but both the woman and the reptile are expected to be OK.
The Port Orange Police Department said a woman called 911 on Wednesday to report she had been driving on Interstate 95 when an object crashed through her windshield and struck her passenger, her 71-year-old mother, in the head.
A driver who stopped to help during the 911 call identified the object that came through the glass as a turtle.
The 911 caller's mother was taken to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, where doctors determined a cut above her eye was not a serious injury. She is expected to make a full recovery.
Officer Andre Fleming, a police spokesman, said firefighters discovered the turtle was alive and apparently free of serious injuries, suffering only scratch marks to its shell. Fleming said firefighters released the turtle into the nearby woods.
The driver of the vehicle said she didn't see the turtle until it was in the air and falling toward her windshield. Police said the animal may have been thrown into the air by a nearby vehicle.
Barilko collection revealed 70 years after Maple Leafs legend's death
Mark Fera, who lives in the GTA, owns a massive Toronto Maple Leafs collection of memorabilia and artifacts. The most unique piece of the entire collection is dedicated to legendary Leaf Bill Barilko. It includes the game-winning puck, gloves, skates and amazingly sections of the actual plane he last flew in. It includes the framework of the fuselage, pontoon, landing gear and exhaust system. Bill Barilko was missing 11 years. Now, Mark Fera wants to make sure his story is never forgotten.
With Wednesday the 70th anniversary of Barilko’s Stanley Cup overtime winner, prior to his disappearance on a fishing trip, the push is on for a permanent exhibition, tangible proof of the Maple Leaf defenceman’s lore.
With nearly 300 Barilko items among 3,000 Leafs artifacts in his customized suburban Toronto basement, Fera has secured the startling centrepiece for such a display. It’s the partial wreckage of the Fairchild 24 that took Barilko and pilot Dr. Henry Hudson on their fatal flight from Timmins, Ont., Aug. 26, 1951.
Despite a massive air search, the downed plane with the bodies strapped in, lay in the bush until a chance discovery just a few weeks after the Leafs won the 1962 Cup, hauntingly their first since Barilko went missing.
“It’s the Canadian Buddy Holly story,” said Fera. “Hometown hero, good-looking guy, the tough hockey player everyone loves, then gone at age 24. How many athletes died so suddenly in their prime?
“I know he wasn’t a Hall of Famer — in his last year, he was almost sent down at the start — but he won four Cups in five years and had the biggest goal in team history. As much good as the Leafs do, because they’re a business, I think we really struggle with maintaining the history of this team.
“When they opened the Air Canada Centre (in 1999), they had a room you could walk in and all the memorabilia was there. They took it away, but the reason that I loved it was the story behind every single piece. When I go around to different sports buildings such as Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium, I see how they hold onto their history and how they really value it.”
Fera, a 47-year-old who works for a fire and life safety company in Mississauga, can rattle off the most minute details as he shows his Barilko collection. But of course, a visitor’s eye gravitates to the crumpled and faded yellow fuselage, a pontoon, exhaust and the rusted passenger seat frames. Mindful of the terrible end the two men met, Fera put care and thought into the layout, ceiling to floor, ringing it with a shrine of items essential to the saga. They include the first memorial sign from the crash site, a small-scale highway billboard that Fera helped fundraise that boasts Timmins as Barilko’s hometown, the Tragically Hip’s hand-written lyrics to Fifty Mission Cap, aerial photos, Bill’s early hockey equipment and the puck he back-handed past Montreal goalie Gerry McNeil on April 21, 1951 at the Gardens.
That disc has its own amazing back story. As the Leafs mobbed Barilko, 16-year-old fan Harry Donohue saw the puck sitting in the Habs’ net and with approval from his father, Jeremiah, went on the ice to retrieve it. While the Hall Of Fame had what it believed was Barilko’s puck for decades, the real one sat on the Donohue mantle in Hamilton, Ont., where Harry’s sons later took it down to shoot around their basement, once nearly losing it down a drainpipe.
Fera also has a copy of Barilko’s contract with an $8,000 base salary, as well as signed programs with Bill and brother Alex from the minor league Hollywood Wolves, his ’51 Cup ring given posthumously to his mother, the only known ticket stub from the game and promo mini-sticks from the brothers’ electronics store on The Danforth in Toronto.
Fera credits the late, great Teeder Kennedy for inspiring his Barilko quest. In his earliest collecting days around age 13, Fera secured a sheet of autographs of the late 1940s Cup dynasty Leafs. Kennedy’s name was missing, but young Fera showed his smarts in a series of phone calls to find Teeder in his office at Fort Erie racetrack.
“We talked about an hour about the players on the sheet and he said ‘Mark, pay special attention to one signature — Bill Barilko. He has a unique story and was well-liked by his teammates’ …”
Fast forward to 2020, with Fera pulling into Timmins for his first look at the plane’s remains. He’d become a recognized Leaf antiquarian, who’d hosted many NHL celebs at his home, including Frank Mahovlich, Bob Baun and Ron Ellis, and had spoken to school groups about the team and Barilko.
He’d been directed to local resident/author Kevin Vincent, who’d led the 2011 recovery of the wreckage to a storage facility outside of town.
That same day, a hardy group of 16 had helicoptered in as close as they could to the crash site, 80 km. north of Cochrane, then slogged two hours through dense foliage and muskeg. They included Vincent, Barilko’s cousin Sandra Cattarello, John Shaw, the dentist who took over Hudson’s practice and one of Hudson’s old fishing pals. The bodies were removed in ’62, Barilko buried in a Timmins cemetery where fans often leave pucks and other hockey trinkets.
The guess was the Fairchild had mechanical issues or ran out of gas. Despite the massive search at the time, not until June 6, ’62 did chopper pilot Ron Boyd notice the sun reflecting on a metal object deep in the bush. He circled back and thinking quickly, dropped a roll of toilet paper to mark it.
“Barilko found,” Boyd jotted in his logbook, now part of Fera’s collection.
At the site, a tearful Cattarello led a prayer, Shaw read from A.E. Housman’s poem, To An Athlete Dying Young and another chopper hoisted the parts out. Vincent’s fear was imminent development of a nearby mining project would eventually lure souvenir hunters to desecrate the site.
For the symbolic completion of Barilko’s flight, the recovery team wanted to dip one battered pontoon in nearby Porcupine Lake where its journey began 60 years earlier. But the day of its recovery was getting too dark, so they went to the shore and filled some Tim Hortons coffee cups, an unscripted tribute as Horton would replace his fellow Northerner on the Leafs blueline soon after.
Plans for a Barilko museum in Timmins or a joint project with the Hall fell through, while the pieces lay in a stand-alone storage facility for the next decade.
“It came to a point where people up there felt the story was dying,” Fera said. “The parts were protected from snow and rain, but not the cold and they were corroding. They all talked and Vincent said ‘we’ve decided you’re the guy to carry this forward. We’ll give it to you to decide what’s best’…”
The coincidences surrounding Barilko never cease to amaze hockey historians, as Fera would soon realize.
“The first day I’d went out to see it with Kevin, Brandon Marsh from MLSE and the Mayor of Timmins (George Pirie), the weather called for big snow and it was uncertain we’d even get to the shed. But Kevin phoned to say ‘you won’t believe it; there’s snow on either side of the city, but not at the site’… So, Bashin’ Bill must have been giving us a path to the net.
“When we arrived, there was no one around and about three football fields to the nearest house. But just lying on the ground was a brand new $100 bill. I said ‘boys, Bill is buying us lunch’ … Then leaving town with the fuselage in my pick-up, there was the biggest rainbow, right in front of me, even though it was minus 17. It was like symbolic approval for what I was doing.
“Is it all myth? All I know is after I got the plane home, then the puck, the gloves, the pictures, skates and logbook all found me the next seven months.”
Immersing himself in the project has been cathartic for Fera, a survivor of the Gardens pedophile scandal that was revealed in the 1990s.
“I’m open to questions about it — that’s the only way we can raise awareness,” Fera said. “It took many years of therapy and unfortunately, I grew up a little later than everyone else. John Paul Roby was my abuser (the usher died in prison in 2001). I kept the phone number he wrote me as a reminder of where you’ve been and where you’re trying to get to.
“Some of my worst memories were what took place under the stands, but some of my greatest were in the stands watching the team with my Dad. This has been a great chance for me to celebrate the history of the team on a positive side.”
Fera has had some conversations with the Leafs about a Barilko memorial in or around Scotiabank Arena. But his best idea might be a sponsored travelling exhibit to take the plane (the engine and another pontoon will come south soon) and the treasured smaller items around the province or the country.
“Walking in the Gardens, seeing all those old pictures and old signs come to life … I’d love to think we can bring the Barilko story out to people. I’d like to use that to raise money, for awareness for abuse, for cancer care as my dad is a survivor, or another good cause.
“Eventually, I’d like to see a Canadian-made movie on this. Kevin Shea’s done an outstanding job (movie rights to Shea’s book ‘Without A Trace’ remain in limbo), but I think this needs to be cemented in our team’s history. Because it’s real.”
Even with no fans allowed at Scotiabank Arena, Fifty Mission Cap is still played on a Leaf game night.
The 1991 song by The Tragically Hip raises a torch to Barilko’s legend and whenever the band played it at the Gardens or SBA, his retired No. 5 banner was spotlit in the rafters.
Three days after returning from Timmins with pieces of Barilko’s plane, Fera was at his table at a large Toronto hockey card show when a fellow collector introduced himself.
“He says ‘you’re the Bill Barilko guy, right’? I’d literally had the fuselage about three days and hadn’t really told anybody, but he said, ‘I have something you’ll want to see’…”
It was a framed print of Fifty Mission Cap lyrics, handwritten by Hip frontman Gord Downie. One had been given to the Leafs for their dressing room, the other to Bill’s sister, Anne Klisanich, in a 2001 ceremony on the 50th anniversary of his goal. After her passing, a family member sold it.
“This guy had it now and told me he had an offer from a European collector who was going to take it to Germany,” Fera said. “I’m glad he was looking around the card show for me. I managed to keep that in the collection, too.”
Proving, perhaps, that it’s possible to get nostalgic about anything, it was announced this week that a new exhibition in London will look back on a year of wearing face masks. By contrast, a Cornish social enterprise looked forward, offering a novel solution to the heaps of blue plastic face coverings left behind by the pandemic.
Waterhaul, which recycles fishing nets and plastic waste, has launched a project to melt old masks into plastic blocks that will be used make new products. The first item, appropriately, is a litter-picker.
The social enterprise is trialling the initiative with Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, which pays £550 per tonne to have PPE incinerated. Instead, Waterhaul will pay the trust for the face masks it uses. A Kickstarter campaign is being launched to help the enterprise scale up.
Roz Davies, general manager at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “It’s fantastic news for our staff, patients and visitors to know that we can create a positive outcome from our waste – and that it will go on to make even further positive impact in the form of litter-pickers.”
Huge basking shark swims into UK marina in second rare shore sighting in week The incredible shark was seen swimming at the Torquay Marina, Devon days after a sighting of a 15ft one in Falmouth, Cornwall left onlookers amazed
This is the moment a 12ft long basking shark stunned tourists and gave paddleboarders a scare by swimming through a south coast marina.
The enormous fish could clearly be seen gliding through the clear turquoise water in Torquay Marina, Devon.
It swam to within six feet of the harbour wall where families on the Easter half term break had gathered.
Paddleboard instructor Owin Wong was out with a group of four novices when they thought they saw two dolphins circling - and then heard people shouting 'Shark! Shark!' from the harbour wall.
He told Devon Live : "It was very, very big. It was scary at first but I have had previous knowledge of basking shark and I know that they are not dangerous.
"I told any of the boarders who were worried to kneel down and just take it in - what an amazing experience to see this fabulous wild creature up close.
"I reassured the paddleboarders that there was nothing to worry about. All of them were first time paddleboarders in the Bay. What an amazing chance to see wildlife like that on their first time out."
It is the second sighting of a basking shark in the coast of the UK inside a few days.
The magnificent beast is the second-largest living shark in the world, after the whale shark.
On Monday, a sighting of a 15ft shark was captured leaving locals astonished.
AK Wildlife Cruises guide Georgia Bardua was stunned to see the shark near Falmouth and recorded the moment it was spotted.
The crew were testing out the boat last week prior to opening, and took it for a spin to Portloe bay.
Georgia was astonished to spot the basking shark cruising under the water.
"It was really exciting and very unexpected," Georgia said.
"It was quite a big basking shark, and really nice to see and record."
And this was the earliest AK Wildlife Cruises have ever seen a basking shark in Cornwall.
"There are only a handful of sightings around Cornwall every year," Georgia said.
"We used to spot quite a few around July time. In the last few years they have been seen quite a lot earlier in the year.
"I think this is the earliest we have ever recorded one."
Georgia says they believe it is due to sea temperatures increasing due to global warming.
The humongous fish is spotted in the Scottish Hebrides fairly regularly, however sightings in Cornwall are much rarer.
Here at The Old Farmer’s Almanac, we believe that nature, plants, and the land are integral to our own health and that individual responsibility lies with each of us.
Earth Day 2021 will mark the 51st anniversary of this holiday. Typically, Earth Day is assigned a different theme or area of focus each year; this year’s theme is “Restore Our Earth.”
Most years, Earth Day events range from river cleanups to removals of invasive plants. With social distancing still in place for many of us this April, Earth Day has gone digital. Virtual events, such as environmental lectures and films, will take place on Earth Day (Thursday, April 22). To see a catalog of official events, visit earthday.org.
Of course, social distancing doesn’t mean that you can’t go outside and enjoy nature, as long as you do so responsibly! Nature is not canceled!
WHAT IS EARTH DAY? Ever wonder how Earth Day began? The first Earth Day was held on April 22, 1970, when San Francisco activist John McConnell and Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson separately asked Americans to join in a grassroots demonstration. Dealing with dangerously serious issues concerning toxic drinking water, air pollution, and the effects of pesticides, an impressive 20 million Americans—10% of the population—ventured outdoors and protested together.
President Richard Nixon led the nation in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, which followed with successful laws including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act.
McConnell originally had chosen the spring equinox (March 20, 1970), but Nelson chose April 22, which ended up becoming the official celebration date. (Given that the date of the spring equinox changes over time, it may have made things more complicated to go with the astronomical event rather than just a calendar date.)
Today, not only is Earth Day a day meant to increase awareness of environmental problems, but it is also becoming a popular time for many communities to gather together to clean up litter, plant trees, or simply reflect on the beauty of nature.
Summer, fall, winter, spring, The seasons rotate as each brings Its special beauty to this Earth of ours. Winter’s snow and summer’s flowers; Frozen rivers will flow come spring, There is a renewal of everything. –Edna Frohock (1906–97)
I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days. It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it, protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters, or some other really bad story. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine IN OTHER NEWS FRIDAY APRIL 23
What is it? Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine. It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine
How do you play? Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good... BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING
EXAMPLE POST
Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag. Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back. But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters. As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh. Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs. The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.
Rules: Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days... You may post One Story in any 24 hour period So in other words, you can enter only once a day Each news day will start when I post announcing it OR at: 9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -5) 2:00 PM GMT (UTC -0) on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum Videos are allowed, but please keep them to under a minute, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed. And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories
Reward: Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$ If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle. Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final
So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...
Mum in hysterics after noticing X-rated detail in Julia Donaldson book
A woman shared a picture of the Julia Donaldson book on Facebook after she noticed something a little rude while reading the popular tale to her children, leaving parents in hysterics
Well, this is awkward.
One mum's nighttime routine with her children took an unexpected X-rated turn recently.
Mum-of-three, Stacey Brown, shared the hilarious incident on Facebook, and it's made others admit they'll "never unsee" it.
She was reading 'The Smartest Giant in Town' by Julia Donaldson when she noticed the rude detail in the illustration, reported the Manchester Evening News.
The picture of the giant's sock-covered foot sticking out the end of the trousers went viral after she shared the post online.
"How have I only just noticed this in our favourite bedtime story?" wrote Stacey on the popular Family LowdownFacebook page.
"Dirtiest giant in town. Trying to muffle the giggles as I read on," she added.
Her post has attracted a lot of attention as other parents admired the illustration by Axel Scheffler.
Her post has racked up hundreds of comments from parents, with many agreeing the foot does indeed look like a different body part.
One woman joked: "And that's how giants are made..."
Another commented: "Omg!!!! Penis Foot!!! I used to read this book to my kids."
A third said: "I can never unsee this! It’s my son’s favourite Julia Donaldson book as well."
One mum joked: "I noticed that and thought how could this be legal!!"
But another correct assessed the situation, writing: "You people have been in lockdown too long. Just looks like a sock to me."
Mum-of-three Stacey said she was 'hugely surprised' by the response to her post.
She said: "I thought it was just me and my dirty mind. I'm so glad it raised a lot of laughter though. People will never look at it the same again."
Restaurant boss baffled to receive mystery toilet roll through post with insult
Restaurateur and chef Gary Usher left people in stitches online, after showing off a package that arrived at one of his restaurants in city-centre Manchester, from a mystery sender
The chef shared the mystery package on social media
One by one, we are slowly unravelling the mysteries of the universe.
But some things look destined to remain an enigma for all eternity.
Take this mysterious package to chef Gary Usher for example - who appeared rather chuffed but admittedly confused.
Restaurateur Gary Usher, famed for his famously blunt responses to moany Trip Advisor reviews, runs a string of award-winning restaurants in the northwest of England.
He opened Kala, his new bistro in Manchester in 2018, to much acclaim - but not everyone was impressed.
Ahead of its opening, journalist Emily Heward shared a photo of the menu, and received a fairly blunt response dubbing it "try hard."
A year ago, this would have been COVETED
The non-expert went on to claim that the venue would only last nine months tops.
They tweeted: "Pumpkin seed puree, salsa matcha, smoked mussel cream... Menu all over the place, trying very hard. 9 months tops. Sorry. Review over."
But it doesn't take a genius to do the maths and realise that the restaurant has now clearly survived beyond this point.
Today, Gary was baffled to receive some loo roll in the post - with this man's original tweet on it.
Gary shared a photo of the loo roll on Twitter, where he explained: "A few years ago before we opened Kala a guy responded to a lovely post about our menu saying it was try-hard & we’d only last nine months.
"This bog roll with his tweet printed on it arrived for me at Burnt truffle today so I can wipe my arse with it. No note no idea who sent it."
His tweet left people in stitches, as one person joked: "Forget toilet roll, this is toilet troll."
Another commented: "Truly, whomever sent it to you was a scholar."
Couple tried to host wedding at empty mansion they passed off as their own
The $5.7million estate features a grand ballroom, two-story bar, movie theatre, two-lane bowling alley, pool, tennis court and dance studio.
SOUTHWEST RANCHES, Fla. (AP) — Courtney Wilson and Shenita Jones invited family and friends to their “dream home and estate” for their weekend wedding celebration: the ceremony Saturday, brunch on Sunday.
There was just one problem: the couple didn’t own the 16,300-square-foot (1,500-square-meter) mansion and didn’t have permission to use it. The suburban Fort Lauderdale estate had everything: a bowling alley, swimming pool with a waterfall, hot tub, tennis courts, a gazebo and an 800-foot (240-meter) bar. Wilson said it was God’s plan that the couple marry there.
But despite what the invitation inferred, the actual owner, Nathan Finkel, never gave them permission to hold the festivities there. He was stunned when Wilson showed up Saturday morning to set up and he called police, according to the South Florida SunSentinel.
“I have people trespassing on my property,” Finkel told a 911 dispatcher.
“And they keep harassing me, calling me. They say they’re having a wedding here and it’s God’s message. I don’t know what’s going on. All I want is (for) it to stop. And they’re sitting at my property right at the front gate right now.”
Two officers told Wilson he would have to leave. He did and no charges were filed.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Wilson told the paper.
Finkel, whose late father was an early IHOP restaurant franchisee, has been trying to sell the property for two years, now listing it for just over $5 million.
Wilson, posing as a potential buyer, toured the estate several months ago, said Keith Poliakoff, attorney for Southwest Ranches, the upscale suburb where Finkel resides.
“A few months later, this guy asked Nathan if he could use Nathan’s backyard for his wedding,” Poliakoff said. “Nathan said no.”
But that didn’t stop the couple from sending out elaborate invitations, detailing their love story: reconnecting 30 years after high school and how he proposed over pizza on Christmas Eve.
The Saturday afternoon ceremony would be followed by a red carpet cocktail hour and a reception lasting past midnight. Sunday brunch would be from noon to 4.
“The guy figured it was a vacant house and didn’t realize Nathan lived on the property in a different home,” Poliakoff said.
“This guy had no idea he lived there. You know the shock that must have been on his face when he showed up at the gate and the owner was home?”
Broward County records show a marriage license has been issued to the couple last week, but they had not registered as married by Wednesday.
Animal control officer uses phone to rescue ducklings from storm drain
An animal control officer in California climbed into a storm drain and used a recording on her phone to rescue 11 ducklings that fell through a grate while walking with their mother.
The Hayward Police Department said the mother duck was walking across the Chabot College campus with her 12 ducklings when all but one of the baby birds fell through the grate into the storm drain.
Chabot College Maintenance and Operations staff removed the grate cover from the drain, but the ducklings fled deeper into the pipes, leading the workers to call for help.
Hayward Animal Control Officer Susan Perez responded to the scene and climbed into the drain. The Police Department said Perez used her phone to play "mama duck sounds" to coax the ducklings out of the pipes and lifted them to safety one by one.
Rail Worker Who Saved Child From a Train Now Donates Half His Reward Money to Boy’s Family (Watch the Rescue)
After saving the life of a little boy who fell on the tracks, an Indian railway employee went viral for his kindness on the Internet.
Now he’s being praised once again—this time for giving the boy’s family money the Ministry of Railways gave him as a reward.
Though he has his own family to take care of, when 30-year-oldMayur Shelke was given ₹50,000 ($660) from the Ministry in a special ceremony, he decided he’d donate a good portion towards the education of the very child he saved.
“I’ll give half of the amount, given to me as token of appreciation, for that child’s welfare & education,” Shelke told Asian News International.
“I came to know that his family isn’t financially strong. So I decided this.”
As news of Shelke’s newest act of selflessness spread, his name once again began trending on social media, with many praising his kindness and good spirit.
Bravo! First the act of endangering his own life to save the child and now this, Mayur Shelke brings tears to my eyes. Humanity is still alive.
— Salman Rashid (@odysseuslahori) April 22, 2021
Earlier this week, Shelke saw the 6-year-old fall into the path of an oncoming train and instinct took over. “I ran towards the child but also thought that I might be in danger too. Still, I thought I should save him,” Shelke told Asian News International. “The woman (with the child) was visually impaired. She could do nothing.”
A new father himself, Shelke felt impelled to act. “The child who [slipped and fell] is someone’s precious child, too,” he told Times Now News.
“My child is the apple of my eye, so must that boy in peril have been to his parents. I just felt something stir within me and I rushed without thinking twice.”
It’s an old saying, but it feels particularly true when thinking of Shelke and his selfless deeds—true heroes really don’t wear capes.
Boy and Girl Got Polio Vaccine Together in 1955 — Now They’re Husband and Wife Getting COVID Shots
"We really wanted to get the COVID vaccine together. It just seemed like the bookends of our entire life," says Ann Molyneaux
It was April 29, 1955, and Ann and John Molyneaux, then just first and second graders, still remember being called down to the principal's office to get their polio vaccines.
By that time, the disease had infected more than 120,000 Americans and killed over 7,000 nationwide. And out of the 300 young students at Prospect Elementary School in Oberlin, Ohio, they had been chosen at random to have their picture taken by the local newspaper, The Oberlin News-Tribune.
"I still remember the photographer telling me to look worried and John to act macho," Ann, now 72, says with a laugh in this week's issue of PEOPLE.
Adds John, now 73: "We've always thought it was remarkable [that] the two of us got picked out of all the kids in our school. We kind of figured it was destiny."
Sixty-six years later, the Illinois-based pair — who've now been married for nearly 52 years — got a chance to relive that moment of destiny when, on March 9, they both received their second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine together.
"Every day, I look at that picture of the two of us," says Ann, who keeps the special photo on her bedroom dresser. "We really wanted to get the COVID vaccine together. It just seemed like the bookends of our entire life."
It's been quite a happy life for the Molyneauxs, who started dating in high school and went on to attend Miami University in Oxford, Ohio together.
In 1969, they married and by 1981, the couple had settled in Wilmette, Ill., where they had four kids — and later eight grandkids — all of whom they visited regularly over the years.
Then, last year, COVID changed all that.
At the time, the pair — who are semiretired from their financial-planning firm — were staying at their other home in Port Townsend, Washington, and planned to return to Illinois by Easter.
But those plans, along with their summer trips, were all canceled amid the COVID outbreak, leading John and Ann to "hunker down" at their Olympic Peninsula home for months.
"It all happened so quickly," recalls Ann. "To not see [our kids and grandkids] for 15 months, and only through FaceTime, that was really the hardest."
"It was hard for us to, also, listen to what our kids were going through, trying to homeschool their kids and keep their jobs," she continues. "I marvel that they were able to do it so successfully."
Adds John: "Usually, if the kids raise a white flag, meaning 'Come help us,' Ann can't say no. We're there. And we couldn't go."
By fall 2020, John and Ann were finally able to head back to Illinois — but it wasn't until early 2021 that they started to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the distribution of the COVID vaccine.
After many "stressful" weeks of trying to schedule their first vaccines, Ann was finally able to book ones three days apart on Feb. 6 and Feb. 9. One month later, they got their second dose side-by-side.
"When we finally got it, it was such a feeling of relief," says Ann. "There were tears in our eyes."
And although they attempted to recreate their 1955 photo during the second dose, Ann says the facility's strict photography rules prevented them from doing so.
"I took the [1955] photo with me to the vaccine, but they wouldn't let us [take photos]," she explains. "I thought they'd make an exception, but no such luck."
Instead, John and Ann snapped a post-shot selfie in the facility's hallway — an area that was designated for photos and even had an "I got my COVID shot" banner to stand in front of.
"It's something we'll always treasure," says Ann. "To get appointments that close that we could do it together and recreate it in our minds."
"We were ready to celebrate the life out of it," notes John.
Once the couple was fully vaccinated at the end of March, they wasted no time celebrating and embarked on an eight-day road trip to Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania to see their family.
"It was really wonderful," says Ann of the trip. "They all just gave us long hugs, and that felt really good... I think it meant as much to them as to us."
All the more reason, they say, to continue taking the necessary precautions to protect what's most precious to them.
"Families, like us, want to be together," John explains. "But people still need to take precautions."
Adds Ann: "We encourage everyone to get vaccinated. We're not through this yet, and we can't let our guard down."
Lava in a cold climate: Icelanders rush to get wed at volcano site The ‘quiet’ eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula lets scientists, the public and even marrying couples enjoy the spectacle close up
It was not the wedding they planned when they got engaged in 2017. But for Sumarliði and Jón, their ceremony in front of neon orange lava erupting from a volcano in Iceland was “weird, gorgeous and terrifying all at the same time”.
The grooms hiked for more than two hours through snow and wind to reach the spot on the Reykjanes peninsula. “I thought I might freeze to death at my own wedding,” Sumarliði told the Observer.
But as they changed into their wedding suits in a pop-up tent, the skies cleared and the sun came out. They exchanged rings and vows, and shared champagne and cake. “It was beyond perfect, a day we’ll never forget,” said Sumarliði.
The wedding couple are among almost 45,000 people who have visited the Fagradalsfjall mountains, about 20 miles from Reykjavík, since the volcanic eruption began a month ago. It is the first eruption in the area for 800 years.
The people of Iceland have embraced the natural phenomenon, posting thousands of images of bubbling lava on social media and watching round-the-clock live streams.
The country is “one of the most volcanically eruptive places on earth”, according to Thorvaldur Thordarson, professor of volcanology at the University of Iceland. “In simple terms, Iceland is one big volcano.”
But it is rare for an eruption to be as accessible to the public – and scientists – as this. “It’s very approachable, people can get reasonably close and still be safe,” said Thordarson, who has visited several times to collect samples and take measurements.
The eruption is comparatively “very quiet”, he added. “The flux coming from vents is about 10 cubic metres per second. With big explosive eruptions, you get tens of thousands – or even hundreds of thousands – of cubic metres per second. The probability of an explosive eruption here is very low.”
Several new fissures have opened since the first eruption on 19 March. “The lava flow is gradually working across the landscape. I have a feeling it will continue [to erupt] for some time, maybe years, but there is no guarantee,” said Thordarson.
“For now, we are watching and learning. It’s not often we get a chance to study low-intensity activity. Volcanoes are always awesome, and this is no exception. It’s spectacular to see how the forces of nature work.”
The Icelandic Tourist Board is monitoring the number of visitors to the site, counting more than 5,000 on busy days, although the number drops dramatically when the weather is bad.
“I went last night,” said Skarphéðinn Berg Steinarsson, the board’s director general. “Science tells us it’s a small volcanic eruption, but it’s absolutely wonderful to experience the power of nature.”
Iceland has recently reopened to foreign tourists who have been vaccinated against Covid, but there are very few in the country. “We’re expecting numbers to pick up, and the volcanic eruption is likely to be a big destination for tourists,” said Steinarsson.
But there was no infrastructure at the site, such as toilets or paved paths. “You have to bring everything with you – water, food, warm clothes, good shoes – and take it all away with you when you leave.”
Visitors also need to be aware of the hazards of volcanic gas. There have been no serious cases of health problems, but tourists are advised to stay upwind of the eruption and people with breathing difficulties are advised not to visit.
Birna Hrönn Björnsdóttir of Pink Iceland, a wedding and travel company which organised Sumarliði and Jón’s ceremony, knew that bad weather or gas pollution could scupper the event.
But when the sun came out, “we put everything into fifth gear, and got them as close to the lava as we could. It was out of this world – there was almost a waterfall of lava and steam was flowing all around them.”
After a difficult year for her business, she’s hoping to arrange more volcano weddings in the coming weeks and months. Sumarliði and Jón, whose original plan to get married last September fell victim to the pandemic, are now planning a party for friends and family when restrictions ease.
“We couldn’t invite anyone to the volcano, and we didn’t tell anyone until the day after,” said Sumarliði. “The whole thing feels like a dream.”
source Lava in a cold climate: Icelanders rush to get wed at volcano site | Iceland | The Guardian
Apr 23rd, 2021, 6:10 pm
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Stand aside Cannes and Sundance, there’s a new cinematic event on the circuit. Launching on Friday, the Feel Good Film Festival promises to serve up a smorgasbord of short flicks that organisers say are a celebration of “positivity and the art of happiness”.
“From joyful explorations of wacky subcultures to heartfelt tales of triumph over adversity, the Feel Good Film Festival is a dose of joy and inspiration – delivered to your sofa,” said festival director Nell Teasdale.
As well as short motion pictures, the event features Q&As with filmmakers. Tickets start from £10.
Illinois Man Discovers Mysterious 19th-Century Tunnel Under His House
While you’d expect to find nothing put pipes and dirt underneath your home, one guy found something much more interesting.
After a section of the path near his home fell apart, Gary Machens, from Illinois, decided to do some digging – literally – and uncovered a 19th-century tunnel beneath his home.
It’s believed the tunnel dates all the way back to the 1840s, but it remains a mystery as to why it was built.
Discussing the matter with Fox 2 St. Louis, Machens explained how he came to make the discovery. He explained, ‘[I] had a problem here at the sidewalk, and as we were doing some excavating and repacking of the rock here, we discovered this tunnel here.’
‘Whatever they built this for, it took a lot of men and a lot of hours,’ he added, while stood in the tunnel. ‘One guy didn’t do this.’
How did the tunnel come to be hidden then, I hear you ask? Machen believes that the change in elevation since 1895, when this brick-lined street was put down, covered the opening to the tunnel, Fox 2 reports.
Machens further detailed his home’s history to the local news channel:
Three former mayors of Alton have lived in this house through the years. I don’t know if any of them knew about [the tunnel]. The house was built in 1890, the tunnel is believed from 1840, so it was here for 50 years.
What it was used for, I don’t know. We’ve got maps that go back to 1863 and this house was not there and there was not another house on this property here.
The homeowner went on to question if the tunnel could have been used for an underground railroad. Machens added, ‘There’s no proof of [it being a railroad], but there was a ferry here in the Alton area to the Missouri side and it’s possible it could have been used for that.’
Machens has since spoken to Landmark Historic Society, which says there are a few more similar tunnels located nearby, New York Post reported.
The Illinois resident isn’t the only person to have made a strange discoveries around their home; this TikToker found a whole secret apartment located behind her bathroom mirror.
Fortunately no one appeared to be in the apartment – that she could see, anyway…
