Archive for March 22nd, 2007

Finally!

Posted 6:41 pm March 22nd, 2007 by bama2

One of the first posts I did was about the duck who was shot, stuck in a fridge and woke up a day or so later. I wanted to use a photo of myself and one of my ducks but had alittle problem getting it in the right place! Well, with Basil’s help, it has happened! Ta-da!pics-2-5a.jpg

No comments from the computer smarties, please! Just consider me a first-grader, hopefully learning everyday!

Thanks, Basil! ;)

Houdini kin wants body exhumed, tested

Posted 4:42 pm March 22nd, 2007 by bama2

For all his death-defying stunts, Harry Houdini couldn’t escape the Grim Reaper: He died on Halloween 1926, apparently from a punch to the stomach that ruptured his appendix. But rumors that he was murdered have persisted for decades. Eighty-one years after Houdini’s death, his great-nephew wants the escape artist’s body exhumed to determine if enemies poisoned him for debunking their bogus claims of contact with the dead.

“It needs to be looked at,” George Hardeen told The Associated Press. “His death shocked the entire nation, if not the world. Now, maybe it’s time to take a second look.”

Houdini’s family scheduled a news conference for Friday to give details on the plans. Prominent New York lawyer Joseph Tacopina is helping clear any legal hurdles to the exhumation

Who would want to murder Houdini? Possibly a group known as the Spiritualists, unhappy with his financial support to expose their fraudulent seances.

Comments like he would get his just desserts were made and the group was fond of arsenic poisoning.

At his death, it was thought a punch in the stomach had caused his appendix to burst and he had died from perilonitis. Arsenic poisoning would still be detectable.

Marine Pilot Receives British Honor

Posted 12:46 am March 22nd, 2007 by bama2

A lot of American tourists come to London hoping to catch a glimpse of the Queen. But Maj. William Cheserak is no tourist: He’s a hero.

Cheserak, a U.S. Marine pilot, was honored on Wednesday in a way no American has been since the Second World War. He was awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross — the most prestigious medal for airborne service the British have.

“I was overwhelmed, quite surprised,” Chesarak says.

Chesarek was serving as an exchange helicopter pilot in Iraq with a British Naval Air Squadron, flying cover for a ground patrol when it came under intense fire.

“I did basically a run into the town, low level,” he explains, adding that he preferred to not necessarily draw fire.

But draw fire he did, with one rocket round just missing him. Despite that, Chesarek then flew into the fight to evacuate a severely wounded British soldier, likely saving his life. He didn’t think he did anything extraordinary.

But others did. This war has plenty of controversy. It now has one more hero.

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