Tales from the Corners

There's a bit of a Borscht Belt comedian in all of us, even U.S. Senator Charles Schumer whose latest beef is with our crammed airplanes.

I just came across an online article about someone who came up with today’s costs to live in the home depicted on the late 1980s/early 1990s situation comedy Full House . Now that many of the characters have been resurrected on the Netflix’s program, Fuller House , PopSugar figured out how much it would cost the Tanner family to live in that same house in 2016. The price tag is a whopping $3 million. The early 1990s cost to be in that same house was around $440,000. Now everyone knows that the city by the bay has always been expensive, but over the past quarter century, its costs have skyrocketed. Speaking of San Fran, I caught the last half hour of San Andreas , the wannabe Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson disaster thriller set in that city. San Andreas depicts the ‘perfect storm’ with San Francisco getting hit with super-earthquakes and a tsunami never before seen. The channel guide gave the film two stars so right there that’s being generous. Perhaps if the film was marketed as a ...

This February has been one tough month. Even though it's the shortest month of the year, psychologically it seems like the longest. Sure this year's February is one day longer, but somehow it seems like it dragged more than usual. I'm not sure what it is that made it seem longer. Perhaps it's the roller-coaster weather pattern was more intense than most years throughout the month? Since routine of consistent weather patterns seem to move time along easier, maybe because of the fact that one day it feels like spring and the next, it's blustery out there. I don't know - I'm quite confused. As I write this post, just a few days ago, the Atlanta metro was under the threat of possible tornadoes hitting our neck of the woods. The weather mavens attempted pinpoint just when the bad weather would hit the metro on one overnight. From what I've experienced all of these years, the weather systems typically come in far later than predicted - of course, n...

..and here you thought you might have some issues in life - just think about how the folks over at Briscoe Field in Georgia's Gwinnett County are feeling these days with a huge problem: vultures. Apparently these huge birds are wreaking havoc in and around this county airport posing a potential problem with aircraft.   The craziest thing in this story is that the vultures enjoy dining on... you guessed it.. caulk! Check this out:

Does anyone recall the story of Matthew Scheidt? The 'Catch Me If You Can' kid posed as a physician a number of years back. Now we have  Malachi A. Love-Robinson, another teen who posed as a doctor. Both are teens and from...you guessed it...Florida! What's up with that? Why does Florida produce these Doogie Howser-wannabes? 

It is no secret that Bruce Springsteen is in town on his 'River Redux' tour. The faithful fans lined up to get their floor wristbands at least 4-5 hours before Philips Arena ' s door open. It will probably be past midnight the next day by the time they get home. Now that is dedication. As for me, I saw Bruce on several occasions over the years, one time about a dozen rows back. My funds are beyond tight these days, so I am sitting this tour stop out on this gorgeous February 2016 day. 

On the heels of the possibility of the legendary Glenn Beck moving to Israel if Rafael 'Ted' Cruz is not elected, we have folks who have the option to move out of the U.S. if Donald J. Trump becomes president. Check out this story

Remember how we were sitting around in a state of jitters wondering if ice was going to hit the metro Atlanta area on President’s Day? Thankfully there was no event so we breathed a sigh of relief -- for now. There’s still plenty of winter left, folks. Some storms hit in early to mid-March. Anyone who has been in the metro ATL for many years will never forget past ice storms which wreaked havoc with downed power lines, loads of auto accidents and way too many slipping on the ice and dealing with injuries. February is dicey no matter where you live in the U.S., but when there’s the perfect brew of below freezing temps and precipitation, it’s no secret that we’re paralyzed in the metro area. Certainly we can prepare for the events, but still, there’s that ugly feeling of lives interrupted. Perhaps that’s a good thing because it reminds us that things are a bit more fragile than we realize. Obviously we’re not guaranteed continuous power and solid infrastructure so we get tho...

Here's an item for the Internet: More cat videos! Enjoy watching my neighborhood cat Willie confront another cat and come in from the cold. Willie typically never comes in, but Tuesday, February 9th's cold was a bit much for this (mainly) outdoor cat:

After Royal Caribbean called off its cruise due to incredibly rough weather, I'm reminded of a cruise feature that I produced a few years back. Click on images to read the feature:

On this Super Bowl 50 and all the talk about half-time shows, I'm reminded of this feature that I produced for The Los Angeles Journal in 2005. The feature focuses on the Janet Jackson 'wardrobe malfunction' at Super Bowl XXXVIII in 2004. Obviously these scanned shots need to be blown up to read. In this case, you need to click on the photo-scans. The takeaway here is that the brouhaha was over 40 television frames:

Nowadays it doesn’t take much for folks like me to get excited. Just the other day, I was beyond excited that Publix ran a special on their veggie wraps. That ‘event’ fell on the same day as the Iowa caucuses and the next day was Groundhog Day. I know, note to self: get a life! Speaking of Groundhog Day, both General Beauregard Lee in Georgia and Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania didn’t see their shadows. Hmm, could it just be coincidence that the sun was hiding and down here, we had fog? So these rodents supposedly didn’t see any shadows! Whoo-hoo! It is an early spring! If Beauregard and Phil are correct, it’s a great thing on one hand. No more Snowpocalypse Days filled with iced-over trees knocking out power lines leaving us stranded in our homes. No blasting the furnace thus pumping up our natural gas bills. No threat of pipes freezing up. No more jackets, hats and gloves! Of course they both could be wrong, but hey, they didn’t see their shadows which offers us ho...