#brian died. and dennis went in his place | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

officialbillhader · 4 years

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Pool Boy (Macdennis)

Prompt: 80s AU where Dennis is a high power businessman and in a loveless marriage with his perfect wife Mandy, they live in a perfect mansion with their perfect children until Dennis gets feelings for their white trash pool cleaner with the beautiful brown eyes and bird that won’t quit. Fic is Notsfw! The nonsfw part is at the end. It also deals with cheating. Posted as chapter 17 of Now That I Found You (but it can be read as a stand alone). – “What’re the names of your family?” Frank points to the framed photo on his desk.

Dennis thinks he should know by now considering they’ve been working together for a few years, but he digresses. Frank’s the type of dude to be petty enough to demote or fire Dennis for pointing that out.

“Wife is Mandy and the two children are Brian and Samantha."

"Gorgeous family, huh?"

"Oh, yeah. I’m very happy. Now, about the presentation tomorrow…”

***

It’s a fucking lie. He’s not happy, he hasn’t been happy since Mandy first got pregnant and all emotional and needy and suddenly he was expected to be a good husband and a good dad. Then Mandy got pregnant again and she was beyond excited but Dennis only became unhappier having to take care of a toddler and a pregnant wife, then a toddler and a baby, then he got his promotion and Dennis had them moved into a mansion just because they had the money to and it was easier to avoid his family in a bigger space.

While all this happened, it was obvious that Mandy stopped loving him as much as he stopped loving her. She stopped trying to have sex, stopped trying to cuddle, stopped trying to talk about her day and his day. There’s a gap in the middle of their bed now, one that’s cold and unwrinkled.

Now, he stays at work for as long as possible, working overtime each and every week, happiest when he comes home after dinner and the kids are already in bed. He’ll sit on the couch and drink beer until he knows Mandy is in their bed asleep, then he’ll go to bed. Sometimes Mandy will join him on the couch and give him updates about the house, but usually he ignores her until she goes away.

Tonight is one of those nights. She plops down on the opposite side of the couch from him, her own beer in hand. He half-assedly greets her, then they’re silent for a long moment, staring at the TV, neither really watching it.

Eventually, Mandy pipes up. “I hired a new pool cleaner. He’s coming on Saturday, but I’m going to be gone. Can you show him where the pool is?"

Dennis grunts an agreement. "What time?"

"Around nine, I think."

"Okay.”

“Alright, well, I’m gonna go to bed, then. Goodnight, Dennis.” She doesn’t try to kiss him as she leaves. She stopped doing that long ago.

***

Saturday comes. Mandy wakes him up around eight, before she leaves, and reminds him to greet the pool cleaner. He doesn’t make any type of vocal response, but he also doesn’t go back to sleep. He gets up, takes a shower, gets dressed, then goes to the kitchen, only to find Samantha with her nanny. She yells out to him excitedly and runs towards him, being swooped into his arms with a hug.

He loves his children. He truly does. But they don’t make him happy and they’re exhausting and if there’s one thing he’s learned in his life it’s that love can only go so far.

Still, he ends up spending time with Samantha until he hears a knock on the front door and sends her back with her nanny. She protests, saying she wants to stay with him, but he doesn’t let her. Claims he has work to do, but, really, if he wanted to stay with her, he’d be able to.

He answers the door at the third time the bell is rung. He means to tell the pool boy off for being impatient, but his voice gets caught in his throat the moment he sees him.

The pool boy is, surprisely, very attractive. He’s built well, he has soft eyes, a strong chin, floppy hair. He isn’t covered in dirt either, like Dennis subconsciously expected him to be. No, he’s actually quite clean and well groomed. Even his beard is trimmed exactly to fit his face shape.

“Sir?” Pool Boy says, concern on his face, and Dennis realizes Pool Boy’s been talking the entire time he’s been checking him out.

“Oh, yeah– the pool,” he snaps out of it. “Follow me."

***

Dennis watches Pool Boy work. It’s easy to do, after all. He sits out on the porch, lets the sun tan his skin, gets up and grabs a beer occasionally, and he watches as Pool Boy, well, cleans the pool.

It’s a hard job. Mandy had fired their last pool cleaner back in the fall and hadn’t bothered to get a new one until now that it’s almost summer, so the pool never got any of the winter chemicals in it and was never drained of some of its water. It just sat, growing algea, for almost three whole seasons. Really, it needs to be entirely drained and scrubbed, but that’s for Pool Boy to figure out and do, not Dennis.

Right now he seems to be waiting as the pool drains water, looking at all his chemicals in the meantime and comparing them.

Dennis finishes his third beer of the morning, afternoon, whatever. When he gets up to get another one, he figures he might as well offer Pool Boy some water or a beer or something. He calls out to him and Pool Boy nearly jumps out of his skin, running his head in circles before he finds the source of the sound.

"Do you want anything to drink?” Dennis asks.

Pool Boy seems hestitant to answer at first, then he seems to get over his nerves. “Can I have some water, Mr. Reynolds?” he requests.

“Please, call me Dennis."

Dennis can just barely see Pool Boy nod his head.

***

"Thank you, Mr. Dennis.” He takes the bottle from him and drinks it down halfway, obviously a lot thirstier than he was willing to let on.

Dennis wants to tell him that just Dennis is fine, but he doesn’t. It suddenly doesn’t seem worth it, not when Mr. Dennis makes his stomach do a flip like he’s a school girl.

Dennis doesn’t leave when he should, which happens to be right after he gives Pool Boy the water. No, he sticks around, and he makes it awkward, and then he makes it even more awkward when he clears his throat, utters a goodbye to Pool Boy, then turns on his heel and leaves.

***

He wasn’t awkward around Mandy. He wooed her like he wooed any other female, the only difference being that this time he was out of college and had the expectation of marriage and children placed on him, especially by his mother, who saw it as a fact of life that Dennis would grow up and give her grandchildren. Dennis knew she never actually cared much for grandchildren, she just cared about what grandchildren meant for her in society. That she’s not behind all her other rich friends, that she’s worthy of grandchildren, whatever.

She died before she could meet Brian. She never even saw Mandy get pregnant. Not that Dennis cared, really, but it did kind of ruin the whole experience of giving his mom grandchildren.

And it made him realize that he’s not sure if he ever actually loved Mandy in the first place. He loved the idea of having a wife, of having children, of giving his mom grandchildren, of having children before his sister, and he tricked himself into believing he loved Mandy, and he tricked himself into believing he was happy to marry her, and he tricked himself into believing he was happy when Brian was born, when Samantha was born. He tricked himself into loving Mandy, really, loving her until the well went dry and he couldn’t love her anymore, for one reason or another.

He thinks she loved him. He did woo her, after all. He got her to say yes. He got her to get pregnant twice. He knows she doesn’t love him anymore, though. It’s obvious with everything they do. He’s surprised she hasn’t moved to one of the vacant guest rooms in the house, or made him move.

He doesn’t know where their relationship is heading. A divorce, most likely, one as messy as his parent’s divorce, one that’s going to traumatize his children like his parent’s divorce traumatized him and his sister, but he can’t bring himself to care. The moment he cares, the moment it will seem real. The moment he cares, the moment he knows he fucked up his life by getting down one on knee and smiling when she said yes.

***

It’s really easy to watch Pool Boy, Dennis learns. Pool Boy is here every weekend and only the weekends because apparently he has some other job over the week, which Dennis is fine with, because he’s only home during the weekends anyway.

Pool Boy knows that Dennis is watching him because Dennis brings him a new bottle of water every time he finishes one. He doesn’t mention it, only thanks him, makes small talk, then goes back to his work and Dennis goes back to the deck. The pattern repeats until Pool Boy finishes for the day. It goes on for weeks.

To Dennis’s dismay, the pool is getting cleaner and cleaner with each passing weekend. Of course, the pool always needs new chemicals and always needs to be vacuumed, so Pool Boy’s job is never actually over, but, once the pool is clean, there’s no reason for him to spend the whole day at the house. He’ll only have to come over every Saturday, check the chemical levels, do what needs to be done, then leave.

So as the weekends dwindle, Dennis starts to slip Pool Boy tips along with the water bottles, which Pool Boy takes without a word. Dennis sees it as an incentive for Pool Boy not to forget about him, but Pool Boy does what Dennis doesn’t expect.

Pool Boy starts to tease him.

The teasing starts miniscule. The shirt he wears is tighter, subtly showing off his muscles, and he isn’t as adamant on pulling up his shorts when they ride down his hips, and he doesn’t care much about getting wet.

It’s killing Dennis. Pool Boy was attractive dressed decently, let alone this. He doesn’t know how much more he can take before he pounces.

***

Pool Boy takes off his shirt today, which is enough to send Dennis feral, but then he makes eye contact with him, and he fucking winks. No shame to it, just a clear as day wink.

Then he goes back to working as if he did nothing.

Dennis tries to make himself believe that he didn’t actually see the wink, but he can’t. He knows what he saw. He knows that he’s being flirted with like there’s no tomorrow, like he’s not married.

At the end of the day, when he goes to ask Pool Boy how much longer it’ll be before the pool is ready, he slips a hundred-dollar bill in his hand.

***

Mandy knows he spends the weekends outside. She can tell when the freckles on his shoulders come out, he can tell when his skin becomes three shades darker. She can tell when she doesn’t find him on a couch in a room hidden from the children, TV on, beer in his head, eyes glazed over.

When she finds where he’s been hanging out outside, just on the deck, no less, she knows what he’s doing. She finds the Pool Boy attractive herself.

She didn’t know her husband swung that way, though.

She’s hurt, of course, her husband is staring at a man behind her back, but what is she going to do about it? Throw a fit, get the children involved, go stay with her mother? She knows what she got into a year after marrying Dennis. She figured out quickly that she would never be treated right while she was with him. She did nothing about it then and she does nothing about it now.

She lets him have his weekends with the pool boy.

***

Pool Boy is fucking killing him.

He’s stayed faithful in his marriage, but he can’t anymore. Not with how Pool Boy looks at him when Dennis hands over the water, sultry eyes, sweat shining on his forehead, dry kissable lips. Not with how Pool Boy never wears a shirt anymore, not with how he seems to have forgotten his underwear, not with how he has a package that he doesn’t mind Dennis looking at.

Dennis can see it because he’s moved much closer to the pool than the deck. He’s still not at the pool, per se, but he’s only a few feet from it. He brought out a chair and set it up on the grass and he leaves it out, told the gardeners to not touch it, so it’s always there, ready for him.

The sun is hot today so Pool Boy is going through more water than he normally does, but that’s okay because Dennis has long since kept a cooler filled with beer and water by his feet.

The next time Dennis gives Pool Boy a bottle of water, his hand lingers. It’s hot against Dennis’s hand and the condensated bottle. Their eyes meet. The sexual tension builds up farther than it’s ever been so far, and Dennis panics. He clutches down on the bottle, feeling all the air push at the lid, threatening to make it pop off.

“Mr. Dennis,” Pool Boy mumbles.

“Yes?” Dennis responds. His grip on the bottle doesn’t loosen.

“Can you let go of the bottle?”

Dennis snaps out of it. His hand falls by his side and dangles uselessly and suddenly he’s more embarrassed than he should be. He can feel his cheeks start to warm up and he hopes that Pool Boy will just think that the heat is getting to him.

Pool Boy smiles, drinks some of the water, then places it on the ground by his feet. He turns around and gestures at the pool.

“It’s gotten pretty clean, huh, Mr. Dennis?”

“Yeah,” Dennis responds numbly, because he’s not looking at the pool. He’s looking at the way Pool Boy’s muscles twitch and move as he moves his arm and shoulder, how sweat makes the tan skin shine.

Dennis has always liked how smooth a woman’s back is, has never paid much attention to what the muscles look like when they’re defined, but as he looks at Pool Boy, he can’t even picture what a woman’s back looks like. Sure, he likes Mandy’s back, wouldn’t have married her if there was something he didn’t like about her body, but him liking Pool Boy’s back feels difference. It feels much more natural to like his back, like he isn’t trying to foce himself to like something he simply can’t.

He shakes those thoughts away. Too heavy.

“It should be done in another week or two."

Dennis’s heart speeds up. "No!” he yells out before he can stop himself. Pool Boy turns and looks at him with wide eyes and Dennis has to restrain himself from fidgeting. “Sorry, I meant– it doesn’t look too clean does it?"

Pool Boy gives it a once over, then looks at Dennis like he’s crazy.

"I’ve scrubbed the whole thing, Mr. Dennis. It’s almost sparkling."

Yeah, it is. Dennis clears his throat.

He doesn’t know what’s happening. He’s always been smooth and relaxed around anyone he’s ever wanted to sleep with. He was even smooth and relaxed when he proposed to Mandy. How he’s acting now is unlike him and, frankly, upsetting.

"I guess,” he hesitates. “I guess, just, go home early. Take the rest of the day off."

Pool Boy has concern written over his face. His cheeks are pink and it must be because of the heat, not because Dennis is doing a good job flirting.

"Really, Mr. Dennis?"

"Really."

Pool Boy has good teeth, Dennis notices.

***

He doesn’t know what’s wrong with him. After sending Pool Boy home, he took a hot shower and he changed into clean clothes and he most certaintly avoided thinking about shirtless Pool Boy.

Now he sits on his couch and he waits for whoever-the-fuck cooks dinner for him and his fanily to come tell him that there’s food, only for him to respond that he doesn’t want to eat, partly because he doesn’t like eating and partly because he doesn’t want to see his family.

If he could, he’d walk out of this life right now and carve a new one with Pool Boy.

But he can’t.

He shouldn’t be so nervous around him. He shouldn’t shake and hesitate and stutter. Really, he’s Pool Boy’s superior. So what if he’s attractive? So what if he allows Dennis to escape this life he hates? So what if Dennis wants to wrap his arms around his waist and feel his floppy brown hair at his neck as his lips travel down? So what about any of it?

It all feels different. Less out of Dennis’s control than ever.

***

Mac knows that what he’s doing is wrong. He knows he shouldn’t be flirting with a married man. But he also knows he can’t stop.

It’s easy. Mr. Dennis eats it up and purposely eggs him on, whether he knows he does it or not. Although, he definitely knew what he was doing when he started slipping Mac money.

Mac felt dirty once that started. He told himself he’d stop his flirting. That went to shit the moment he saw Mr. Dennis the next day. Mr. Dennis wasn’t wearing one of his long-sleeved button ups and jeans, no, he was wearing a loose fitting T-shirt and basketball shorts. It made sense considering it had gone up fifteen degrees over night, but still unexpected. Even more unexpected was Dennis’s unstyled curls. Up until that point he had slicked back his hair, but along with his more relaxed outfit, his hair was also relaxed. He looked even more gorgeous like that.

So without much thought, Mac started to tease him. And he had fun doing it. He liked seeing how Mr. Dennis had to tear his eyes away everytime Mac looked at him. He liked the lingering hand touches and the subconscious lick lipping.

It made him feel good, no matter how bad he’d feel the moment his eye caught the sun’s reflection off Mr. Dennis’s wedding ring. No matter how many times he got home and went through the week and told himself like a mantra that he wouldn’t flirt anymore, he still did it.

And it became worse. His ability to not flirt, that is.

The first time he took off his shirt, he cursed himself for it.

And then he winked at Mr. Dennis and somehow it was worse and better all at once. He felt justified for taking off his shirt when he saw the blush spread across Mr. Dennis’s cheeks, when he averted his eyes. He probably doesn’t think Mac saw it, but he saw Mr. Dennis adjust his pants.

At the end of the day, Mr. Dennis gives him a hundred dollars. He keeps it because it helps him pay the bills, but he doesn’t feel good about it.

Most of the time, he confesses his sins. He goes to the church and he kneels in the pews until his knees hurt and he keeps his hands clasped together until they’re sore and he repeats his sins until they don’t feel real.

But the cycle repeats.

***

He doesn’t let go of the water bottle. He can’t. At this point, it’d seem like a crime to do so. Pool Boy looks at him with wide, blown eyes. Their fingers are touching and while Dennis’s are soft, Pool Boy’s are rough and calloused.

"I…” Dennis starts, then stops. He licks his lips and Pool Boy watches him as he does it.

“Yeah,” Pool Boy says.

Dennis hates that he’s hard. He has no reason to be hard. He’s been touching Pool Boy’s hand for weeks now, so what’s so different about this moment?

Everything is different about this moment.

Dennis leans in. Pool Boy lets him. Their eyes meet, then their lips. It’s sudden, but not surprising. He knew it was coming when he first looked at Pool Boy. He knew their relationship would build until it couldn’t anymore and then it’d snap and they’d be doing things that they shouldn’t be doing.

Dennis lets the water bottle fall to the ground and he wraps his arms around Pool Boy’s waist and pulls him closer. Pool Boy lets out a moan of surprise, but he falls into the gesture easily. Dennis knows he can feel his hard on through his shorts, but he doesn’t care. Let Pool Boy know how he feels. Besides, Pool Boy doesn’t pull back. In fact, he deepens the kiss, apparentally just as excited as Dennis is to do… whatever it is their doing.

They’re gonna have sex, Dennis decides.

He breaks the kiss and tugs on Pool Boy’s wrist. “Follow me,” he says, and Pool Boy does.

They end up in one of the rooms in the guest house. Dennis is pretty sure he’s never even been to this part of the house, but Mandy had made sure all the bedrooms had beds when they bought the house. He thinks she hired some furnishing company, but he doesn’t remember.

Once they enter the room, Pool Boy hestitates in the door. He looks nervous, he twiddles his thumbs and bites his lip.

Honestly, he looks adorable.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Mr. Dennis? You’re married.” His eyes flick to Dennis’s wedding band, and suddenly the ring is burning his skin. He twists the ring off and throws it across the room to who-knows-where.

“Yes. I want to do this.” His lips meet Pool Boy’s again, slow and soft and chaste. Pool Boy returns the kiss. He lets go and rests his forehead on Pool Boy’s. “I haven’t loved Man–”

“I don’t want to know her name,” Pool Boy interrupts.

“Okay. I haven’t loved her in years. I’m making this decision, not you. Don’t worry,” Dennis says, softly. Pool Boy relaxes and initiates the next kiss. All doubts seem to leave his mind after Dennis’s words and he pushes Dennis towards the bed, taking small steps until the back of Dennis’s knees hit the edge of the bed. He folds down on the bed and Mac climbs on top of him, kissing all the while.

Dennis breaks apart to take off his shirt and scoot to the head board. He beckons Pool Boy back over to him with a hand gesture and Pool Boy happily scrambles back to lavish his body. Dennis thinks he’s going to come back to his lips, but, no, he goes to his neck and starts kissing and sucking on it, sending shivers down Dennis’s body. He can’t remember the last time he had sex, and he’s not sure it’s ever felt this electrifying before.

He lets Pool Boy stay at his neck for a few seconds, but he doesn’t want any marks, so he gently pushes his head away and he captures his lips once Pool Boy looks at him to see what’s wrong.

“No marks,” he whispers against Pool Boy’s lips.

“Okay,” he responds.

Dennis delicately kisses the side of Pool Boy’s mouth and absolutely melts when he feels Pool Boy let out a small puff of air, a quiet whine buried underneath.

“How do you want to do this, baby boy?"

"Maybe I could suck you off?"

Dennis smiles, puts his hands on Pool Boy’s back, lets him feel the smooth skin. "Of course,” he says.

He lets his hand float above his back as Pool Boy lowers himself down to Dennis’s crotch, taking breaks as he goes down to pay attention to Dennis’s bare chest. He’s careful to leave no marks, but the butterfly kisses are still enough to send Dennis’s stomach flipping.

Pool Boy mouths over his hard cock, still in the basketball shorts. The only saving grace is he’s not wearing any underwear, but, still, he’s desperate to get the show on the road. His hips buck up a few inches and it makes Pool Boy dig his fingers into the curve of Dennis’s hips to help keep him still.

“C'mon, Mac,” Dennis whines. The name slips out. He doesn’t know where it comes from, or if it’s right, but, at the name, Pool Boy pulls down Dennis’s basketball shorts until they’re resting just under his cock, letting it spring out.

Dennis decides Mac is the right name. He must have read it on some name tag or something.

He ignores the fact that he knows Mac never wore a name tag.

Mac takes Dennis’s cock in his hand and he keeps it in his fist as he takes his balls in his mouth. His other hand is back on Dennis’s hip and his fingertips are digging into the thin flesh there, and it starts to hurt, but Dennis doesn’t care. He had forgotten how good it feels to have a mouth on him, hot and wet and enthusiastic.

It takes everything in him to not choke Mac with his cock. Absolutely everything.

Soon enough, Mac takes his hand away from his shaft and begins to dig into his other hip just as hard, but Dennis still doesn’t care because now Mac’s mouth is on the tip of his cock. He kisses down it, starting on the head and going down until he reaches the base. Slowly, way too slowly, he starts to put the entire thing in his mouth.

When he gets halfway down, Dennis groans out his name and he wraps his hands in Mac’s greasy hair and he tugs. He’s hestitant at first, but Mac doesn’t pull off and tell him to stop, so he takes it as a good sign. He helps ease Mac the rest of the way down until he’s deepthroating him and Mac must have had practice before because he’s doing it so smoothly.

A flair of jealousy shoots through him as he thinks about all the other men Mac’s been with. He pushes Mac down farther until he’s almost choking, until Dennis can feel the back of his throat flexing against him, and he’s not sure he’s ever felt anything more satisfying. He holds him there for a moment, but then Mac’s grip on his hips tightens and he lets him go. Mac pulls off and starts to cough while taking deep breaths. There are tears in his eyes.

Dennis expects to be yelled at, but it doesn’t come. Mac calms down and is right back on him and Dennis absolutely groans.

Mac’s tongue can work wonders, Dennis learns. He doesn’t need to be deepthroated to feel this good. All he needs is Mac’s tongue.

It isn’t long before his hips are twitching and his stomach is burning and he’s uttering a warning to Mac before Mac pulls off and lets Dennis cum over his face. Even as Dennis is finishing, Mac is licking his cock through the twitches, not caring where the cum is landing.

When Dennis is coherent enough after his orgasm, he is pulling Mac’s face to his own and he’s kissing him as hard as he possibly can, teeth clacking together and his own cum spreading from Mac’s face to his as well. He doesn’t care. All he cares about is Mac tastes like him and he tastes amazing, especially off of Mac’s lips.

“How do you want to finish, baby boy?” he whispers against Mac’s cheek, then licks a bit of the cum off there. He feels Mac shiver.

“Just touch me, Mr. Dennis."

Mac calling him Mr. Dennis while still covered in his release sends his stomach rolling.

Mac has been rolling his hips across Dennis’s thigh this whole time, desperately searching for friction, but Dennis calmly tells him to stop and rubs his back in comfort. Mac whimpers, but does as he’s told.

"So good for me,” Dennis mumbles.

“Good for you,” Mac repeats.

Dennis grips Mac’s ass cheeks through his pants, then he brings his hands back up and gently pulls his pants down past his ass. He doesn’t care to take them fully off in the same way Mac didn’t care to get his off.

Besides, he was right about Mac not wearing underwear. It makes it all easier.

He’s quick to get Mac’s cock in his hand, doesn’t daddle before he’s rubbing his hot palm in circles over the head. Mac is much noisier than he was and much more desperate, apparentally getting off just by pleasuring Dennis.

That’s hot.

It doesn’t take much finesse to get Mac to finish all over Dennis’s stomach. His body jerks and he moans and he holds himself up with shaky muscles.

When he’s done, he collapses, his head on Dennis’s chest. He’s breathing heavily, but so is Dennis. The air is hot and reeks of sex. They’re both covered in sweat.

Dennis cards his hands back into Mac’s hair and he starts to play with it. Mac relaxes into the touch, letting a sigh come out.

They’re quiet for a long time and Mac is almost asleep when Dennis speaks up.

“There’s a bathroom down the hall. There’s no toiletries, but we can at least wash off."

"Mhm,” Mac responds against his chest.

***

Mac leaves and confesses his sins right after.

Mandy sees the bruises on Dennis’s hips but says nothing about it.

Dennis waits for the next time Pool Boy comes over.

#ap's fics #macdennis #dennis reynolds #mac mcdonald #it's always sunny in Philadelphia #iasip #it's been so long since I've posted a full length fic on tumblr holy shit #awesomepie3221

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sadmmann · 5 years

Text

20 years ago

20 years ago, on April 20, during the massacre at Columbine High School, we lost not only 13 dear people, but 24 people were terribly injured after which they could never return to their previous lives.

I propose to recall their names

Richard Castaldo (17 in 1999) - He was shot 8 times in his left arm, right arm, chest, back, and abdomen. Since the shooting he has to use a wheelchair. After the shooting he got his driver's license and a car designed to be used by people in wheelchairs.

Lance Kirklin (16 in 1999) - Lance suffered from a total of five gunshot wounds. His jaw and face were rebuilt with bone and tissue from his leg as well as titanium alloy to replace lost bone in his thigh and jaw. The process took 9 operations. He was released from the hospital on May 15, 1999.

Anne-Marie Hochhalter (17 in 1999) - She tried to run to the safety of the cafeteria and was shot by once in the back and once in the chest. Paralyzed by a bullet that severed her spinal cord and went through her diaphragm (it was later found lodged in her liver), she collapsed, unable to move. She told investigators later that while she was playing dead she could hear one of the gunmen shouting orders to the other but couldn't understand what they were saying. If rescue workers had been two minutes slower in reaching her, she would have died. Doctors later called her the "miracle girl". After shooting, she has to use a wheelchair. Severe pain, disability and suicide of the mother did not break Anna, and she continues to fight to this day.

Sean Graves (15 in 1999) - His back/spine injury was deemed an 'incomplete spinal injury' by doctors, meaning that he was paralyzed below the injury level but retained some feeling and movement. He was later moved to Craig Hospital for spinal cord rehabilitation. On June 20th, 1999 he took his first steps. He was released from Craig July 7th, 1999.

Mark Taylor (17 in 1999) - He was hit several more times - twice in the chest and five times in the back - while laying there. As he watched, went over to where [Rachel] lay bleeding and shot her again as she tried to get up. Other students trampled Mark in their attempt to flee from the gunmen, thinking him dead. Eventually an officer showed up and dragged Mark to safety behind the nearby shed.Four of the eight bullets were left in him: Two near his aorta and two in his spine. He was released April 30, 1999.He was later re-admitted to Littleton Adventist for treatment of a staph infection in the wounds in his lungs. Was in and out of the hospital three times.

Michael Johnson (15 in 1999) - Michael was outside the cafeteria with four friends: Denny Rowe, Mark Taylor, John Cook, and Adam Thomas. They were sitting on the grass near the east stairs when the shooting began.At first Michael didn't know what was going on but he quickly realized bullets were hitting the ground near him and and his friends. He felt a sensation like someone had poured warm water on his left leg and he and his friends got up to run toward a shed that was about 120 yards away. As they ran he heard Mark cry out: "Oh my God! I've been shot!" as he fell to the ground. Mike continued to run. He felt another "warm feeling" on the back of his jaw and realized he'd been shot too. He managed to make it as far as the shed. Denny, John, and Adam kept running and jumped the nearby fence. Michael lay down and propped himself against the shed where noticed the left leg of his blue jeans was covered in blood from mid-thigh down to his ankle. Michael was in intensive care for 8 days during which time doctors had to wire his jaw shut and repair a ruptured blood vessel in his leg. He was released April 28, 1999.

Brian Anderson (17 in 1999) walked past the glass doors with Patti Nilsson (35 in 1999) when gunmen shot at them. The shattered door knocked Brian and Patty. In 2008 a friend of Brian's [Dewayne Johnson] said that 26 year old Brian Anderson has moved on with his life. He now owns his own trucking company in the Littleton, Colorado area. Brian still tries to make sense of that fateful day at Columbine High School. To this day he has not stepped one foot into any library nor does he like the sound of helicopters or fire alarms. Brian lost his good friend and classmate Corey DePooter in the shooting and said there are times when he thinks of him and all the fun times they had in school. Recently Brian said he would like to go back to Columbine and see the new library and there he hopes to find more closure. Brian still lives in the Jefferson County area. He would like to thank all those who pitched in with a helping hand during the whole ordeal at Columbine. Brian also stated that "there is one person that means a lot" to him and will always have a place in his heart because in his eyes she is a HERO and that is teacher Patti Nielson.

Stephanie Munson (17 in 1999) - Stephanie and her friend Melissa Walker were heading out of tech lab class to go talk with one of the A.C.E. teachers when she heard popping noises. She had never heard gunfire before so didn't recognize the sound. About that time a male teacher ran up behind them, yelling at them to get out of the building. She and Melissa ran west toward the main entrance. As they were exiting through the first set of double doors Stephanie felt as though her left foot exploded: There was a burning sensation and a pop, then her foot went numb.Once outside the school, Stephanie paused by the bike rack to look at her foot and saw that it was bleeding. Melissa, hysterical, insisted that she keep running. It wasn't until Stephanie got across the street to Leawood Park that she was able to stop and take off her shoe and sock. That's when she discovered that she'd been shot. There were several people already in the park at the time and more were pouring out of the school by the minute. Seeing her wounded ankle, which was a through-and-through injury from a 9mm bullet, someone with a cellphone called 911 .An ambulance arrived and took her to the hospital where she was treated and released April 20, 1999.

Nicholas Foss (18 in 1999) - Nick was treated for slight injuries sustained in the 15 foot fall through the ceiling and the bullet that grazed his head. Released April 20, 1999. He told investigators later that he felt as though angels were watching over him that day because one of the killers pointed a gun at his head but it didn't go off when the shooter pulled the trigger.

Joyce Jankowski (45 in 1999) - When the shooting began Joyce, a teacher at Columbine, was in the faculty lounge about to have lunch. She heard a commotion outside and when she looked out the window she saw two bodies. Judy Grecko, one of the other two teachers in the room, tried to call 911 but the phone was dead. Several shots soon followed and Joyce and another teacher, Amy Burnett, ran into the small one-person bathroom that was attached to the teachers' lounge. She was treated for injuries sustained in the fall through the ceiling when she tried to escape the school and was released April 20, 1999.

Adam Kyler (16 in 1999) - He was treated for abdominal pain and released April 20, 1999.

Evan Todd (16 in 1999) - was a sophomore at the time of the Massacre. He was the first to get injured in the library (however, he only suffered from minor injuries), as he was hit from flying splinters that came from the bullet striking the table he was hiding under.

Makai Hall (19 in 1999) - was sitting with his friends in the library when the shooting began. He hid under a table with Daniel Steepleton and Patrick Ireland when the shooters entered the library. When they demanded that everyone with white hats stand up, Dan - who was wearing a white hat - started to get up. Makai held him back, telling him: "Don't move." Shortly after killer looked under the table where Makai and his friends were hiding. Smiling, opened fire. Makai was hit in the knee by the shotgun blast. Pat moved to help him and was shot in the head. Pat was knocked unconscious; Makai and Dan played dead. Then killer threw a home-made C02 bomb that bounced under their table and landed on Dan's thigh. Dan was too afraid to move so Makai reached over, grabbed it, and threw it back out from underneath the table where it exploded mid-air.

Patrick Ireland (17 in 1999) - After Patti Nielson entered the library with Evan Todd, he hid under a table together with his friends Makai and Dan even though at first he thought it was just a joke; the other two hid under a different table.When the gunmen entered the library and shouted "Everybody with white hats get up" he closed his eyes and played dead.After some time and a lot of shooting he heard Makai groan in pain.He looked over and saw that both of his friends had been shot.Patrick decided to crawl over between them to provide first aid but passed out because he had been shot in the head twice but hadn't noticed this before.He passed in and out of consciousness for two hours but was woken by the fire alarm eventually.Patrick still hadn't noticed that he was shot and decided that he had to get out of there immediately but he couldn't stand up since he had been shot in his leg.He crawled towards a window and managed to pull himself up.He wanted to jump out in case nobody was there to help him but luckily members of the SWAT team saw him and parked their car right under the windowto pull Patrick out.

Daniel Steepleton (17 in 1999) - He saw killer look directly at him, smile, and then lift his sawed-off shotgun. He fired at Daniel, who was hit in the left knee. Daniel felt it as a sensation of warmth. He also saw that Makai had been hit in the right leg and it looked "torn up". Patrick reached over to help Makai;Daniel heard another shot and saw Patrick go down. He had been shot in the head. Both gunmen were firing their weapons at the time so Daniel wasn't sure who had shot Pat. Daniel fell to the floor where he lay with his head down and played dead. He was treated for a shotgun blast to the leg; he took five pellets to the knee and one to the chin. He was released before April 24, 1999.

Kacey Ruegsegger (17 in 1999) - She suffered multiple injuries including a gunshot wound to the right shoulder, a through-and-through injury to her right hand that medical officials pulled a metal washer out of, and a gunshot graze on her neck. They pulled a shotgun wad out of her shoulder. At the hospital she was given at least two doses of morphine and was still in quite a bit of pain. A steel plate was put in her arm and she went through lengthy physical therapy. She was released from the hospital on May 1, 1999.

Lisa Kreutz (18 in 1999) - She was hit several times, sustaining multiple gunshot wounds to her shoulder, hand, and both arms. She lay bleeding in the library for 2.5 hours, unable to move due to the severity of her injuries, before she was rescued by officials. She was the last survivor to be pulled from the library. Lisa was released from the hospital April 28, 1999.

Valeen Schnurr (18 in 1999) - suffered nine soft tissue wounds to her left arm, chest, and abdomen from shrapnel and through-and-through bullet wounds. she was released from Swedish April 27. Graduated from Columbine May 22. She graduated from Columbine May 23, 1999 despite her injuries

Mark Kintgen (17 in 1999) - When the shooters entered the library and began to kill people Mark didn't see much from where he was hiding but he clearly heard one of them say after shots were fired: "Oh look at his brains!". Laughter from the killers followed. Not long after that he heard one of the two assailants shoot out a nearby glass display case. The gunman then went over to the table where Mark was hiding and shot at him. Mark took a bullet to the head and one to the shoulder. The bullet in Mark's head was surgically removed. He was released from Denver Health April 23 with a bullet still lodged in his shoulder.

Nicole Nowlen (16 in 1999)) - was hiding under the table with John Tomlin when the shooters entered the library. She was shot in the abdomen but survived.

Jeanna Park (18 в 1999) - She was hit in the right knee, right shoulder and left foot, and fell to the floor where she stayed until she noticed some of the other people in the library getting up and leaving.She went to leave as well, checking the computer tables for her sister. Not seeing her, Jeanna left alone.

Jennifer Doyle (17 in 1999) - was hit with three shotgun pellets in her right hand: One crushed her ring finger, another entered her wrist, and another entered the back of her hand, resulting in seven broken bones. Released from the hospital April 24, 1999.

Austin Eubanks (16 in 1999) - He was put in the hospital and treated for a gunshot gazed knee. He was released the same day and graduated from Columbine High School on May 20, 2000.

Remember the survivors

#columbine high school #columbine school shooting #columbine shooting #columbine #memory

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hellzyeahwebwieldingreviews · 4 years

Text

Untold Tales of Spider-Man 13: Arms and the Man – by Keith R.A. DeCandido

99% great!

Randall Andros, a noted writer of “celebrity life stories” (his previous book being on Tony Stark) wants his last book in his current contract to be on Dr. Otto Octavius. “[N]ot just Dr. Octopus,” as he tells his editor, “Otto Octavius. He was a respected scientist before he got his extra arms and went cuckoo. People talk about Doc Ock all the time. I want to let everyone know who Otto Octavius is.” After getting his okay, Randall decides to call his new biography, “Requiem for an Octopus: The Life of Dr. Otto Octavius.” He freely admits he “stole the title from Rod Serling.” (Serling’s teleplay is “Requiem for a Heavyweight.”) He researches Otto’s career from respected scientist to arch-criminal, leading up to his recent plan to poison the ink “that the New York Daily Bugle was printed with” (which occurs in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15, 1981. (The Continuity Guide tells us this story takes place right after that.)

His next step is to interview friends and family. He tracks down “a paternal uncle named Karl Octavius, living in Detroit, Michigan and a maternal cousin named Thomas Hargrove.” Thomas previously worked with Otto at the United States Atomic Research Center, which has since been shut down by the Department of Energy. First, he interviews former USARC employee Brian Huss who tells him about Mary Alice Anders who dated Otto “but he broke it off. Rumor has it that he got her fired, actually.” After interviewing a number of former USARC employees and getting no consensus on Octavius, Andros decides he must track down Mary Alice Anders.Soon after, Randall learns that Mary Alice (Anders) Burke and her husband Ronald “had been among the victims in a nasty car accident on the West Side Highway a month previous.

Mary Alice had survived; Ronald hadn’t.” Randall contacts the doctor at the hospital who agrees to let her know about his interest. He puts his research assistant to work tracking down Thomas Hargrove and Karl Octavius and goes to the Bugle to interview Ben Urich, Charley Snow and Jacob Conover, then J. Jonah Jameson himself (who tells him how Peter Parker once disguised himself as Spider-Man to save Betty Brant from Doc Ock). This process leads him to an old article on Octavius detailing a press conference by brain specialist Kevin Hunt who had reported that Otto had suffered brain damage. “But only three weeks ago, Hunt was interviewed on a local news program right after Octavius’s most recent capture, and he hedged a good deal more about the apparent brain damage.”Andros contacts Hunt who tells him that “while it could have been brain damage, it could also have simply been his cranial chemistry rewriting itself to accommodate these four new limbs.” He talks to Thomas Hargrove and learns little. Karl Octavius tells him, “My brother was a fat slob who married a fatter slob and they had a far slob of a kid who grew up to be a psycho chicken.” Peter Parker then contacts Randall and tells him that he not only dressed as Spider-Man against Octavius but that his Aunt once took Otto in as a boarder. Randall assesses what he has so far. “Was [Otto] insane or not? What kind of person had he been before the accident? What kind of person had he become afterward? Had he ‘become’ anything, or had he not changed?” Suddenly, these questions are in danger of remaining unanswered as the lawyers move in.

Mary Alice Burke’s lawyer tells him she is suing Otto and shouldn’t talk. The Vulture’s lawyer also tells him his client will not speak. And Octavius’ lawyer gets a court-ordered “cease and desist with my research” because it could prejudice Otto’s trial.Soon after, Randall’s editor calls to tell him that he must pick another subject for his book but that Octavius wants to talk to him. “No tape recorders, no lawyers, no notes, just a conversation.” Even with the book cancelled, Randall can’t pass this up. He goes to Ryker’s Island where he meets Dr. Octopus. After demanding to know why Randall wants to write a book about him, Otto agrees to answer some questions. In the short interview, Octopus implies that the explosion that fused him to his tentacles was no accident. When Randall brings up Otto’s mother, the criminal quickly ends the conversation.Heading home, Randall decides that “the man I had talked to was many things, but crazy just was not one of them.” He tries to get a handle on Octopus but cannot. “Maybe it wasn’t possible,” he thinks, “Maybe you had to be like him to understand him. And I did not want to be like him. The very idea made my flesh crawl.”

When Randall returns home, he finds a man in his apartment. The man pulls a gun, says, “My name’s Niner. We got a mutual acquaintance in common, Mr. Andros. Name of Otto. He wanted to send a message to people who mess around with his life,” and then shoots. Randall lies bleeding on the floor, expecting to die. But then Spider-Man shows up at his window. As Spidey explains, “My old buddy Peter Parker said you were writing a bio of Doc Ock. I came by to chat about it – and tell you to pick another subject. Looks like I’m too late.” Randall asks Spidey why he’s always fighting Octopus. Spidey replies, “[P]art of it’s a kind of there-but-for-the-grace-of-God thing. I got my powers from radiation just like he did, but it didn’t make me nuts.” Randall grabs Spidey by his costume and tells him, “Listen!...Ock’s not nuts. I talked t’him, I listened t’him. Not insane. He’s aware of actions, he just doesn’t care.” Then he passes out.Randall wakes up in the hospital, brought there by Spidey. While there, he receives roses from Spidey with a note, “Best wishes for a speedy recovery. I hope you’re wrong.” When he leaves the hospital, Randall quits biography for fiction, never writing the last book in his contract. “And when I think back over my life – a frequent occurrence since almost losing it – I come to the same conclusion: the dumbest thing I ever did was tell my editor that I wanted my next book to be on Dr. Otto Octavius, aka the super-villain Dr. Octopus.”

This story is over all really good. The points of contention lie with the fact that Otto’s murder of Captain Stacy is such a huge plot point when in reality Otto didn’t kill Captain Stacy, he died in an act of self-sacrifice. Additionally I feel the story sort of just stopped rather than ended.

Nevertheless this was a great yarn set circa the Denny O’Neil run of Spidey and a companion piece to Otto’s origin from Unlim #3. In that sense it represents Doc Ock, unquestionably an indelible aspect of the Spidey mythos.

I feel cheated a little that we didn’t get to see Mary Alice but we did get more information on her nevertheless and the story was wonderfully meta. Otto in spite of being one of the most famous Spider-Man villain ever is one of the most inconsistent of all his rogue’s. The story takes advantage of that to explore a fundamental question of his sanity.

There was a brilliant retcon used to world build in the story too, specifically in establishing Otto’s ‘brain damage’ was in reality just his mind rewiring itself to operate his arms. The story’s conclusion is likely to rub some people the wrong way as they feel Otto is very much a MAD scientist, but I think the fact that he’s in fact someone terrible as opposed to simply going bad after a bump to the had renders him far more complex and compelling.

Aside from some tiny points of contention I’d rate this quite highly within the anthology and kind of wish it was turned into a canon comic book.

#Doctor Octopus #otto octavius #Doc Ock #Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #Spider-Man #Peter Parker

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thecomicsnexus · 5 years

Text

Batman’s longest case

DETECTIVE COMICS #1000 MAY 2019 BY SCOTT SNYDER, GREG CAPULLO, JONATHAN GLAPION, FCO PLASCENCIA, KEVIN SMITH, JIM LEE, SCOTT WILLIAMS, ALEX SINCLAIR, PAUL DINI, DUSTIN NGUYEN, DEREK FRIDOLFS, JOHN KALISZ, WARREN ELLIS, BECKY CLOONAN, JORDIE BELLAIRE, DENNY O’NEIL, STEVE EPTING, ELIZABETH BREITWEISER, CRISTOPHER PRIEST, NEAL ADAMS, DAVE STEWART, BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, ALEX MALEEV, GEOFF JOHNS, KELLEY JONES, MICHELLE MADSEN, JAMES TYNION IV, ALVARO MARTINEZ-BUENO, RAUL FERNANDEZ, BRAD ANDERSON, TOM KING, TONY S. DANIEL, JOËLLE JONES, TOMEU MOREY, MIKEL JANÍN, JASON FABOK, AMANDA CONNER, PAUL MONTS, PETER J. TOMASI, DOUG MAHNKE, JAIME MENDOZA AND DAVID BARON

REVIEW

Detective Comics got to the issue one thousand, and eighty years of delivering Batman stories. In the same way DC celebrated the 80 years of Superman last year, with Action Comics #1000, this year is Batman’s turn. An anthology book (96 pages) with multiple covers. Just like with Action Comics, most of these stories are non-canon.

The first story (by Snyder), gives as another aspect of Batman. We know he is a great detective, but it always seems to be on a second level compared to his never-ending quest of fighting crime. Most often than not, we see him fighting. In this story we get to see another aspect of it, that while Batman has a mission until he dies, he will enjoy investigating cases. He is a detective.

The second story is perhaps the heart of the book (by Kevin Smith), Batman tracks the gun that killed his parents and decides to put it to a good use. I think the book is worth buying just for this one.

The third story is by Paul Dini, and it’s hilarious. There is a documentary on TV about this henchman that all the villains hate. We get several interviews from different villains describing how their plans went to hell because of that stupid henchman. The story has a very clever punchline.

The fourth story is perhaps the most forgettable of the book, by Warren Ellis, and it’s about how Batman, despite not having super-powers, gets the job done by inspiring fear in the heart of his opponents.

The fifth story is a revisiting of an old bronze age story (where we meet Leslie Thompkins). Written by Dennis O’Neil, we get pretty much the same version of Leslie, but she knows he is Batman (so it’s a mix of that bronze age story with post-crisis). She is very disappointed at Bruce, because instead of fighting kids in the streets, he should be using his influences to make their lives better. Feeling sorry for his never ending cycle of violence.

The sixth story, by Priest and Neal Adams... mmm let’s say I don’t like when Adams inks himself, or at least not lately. He is still good, but the results are not as clean as they used to (or perhaps is a mix of things, like the coloring in the seventies was a bit simpler and enhanced his pencils). Despite this, I think it’s a good looking story with a very distinctive style. This being Neal Adams, the story of course is centered around the League of Assassins.

The seventh story by Bendis, is about an aged Penguin, facing an aged and crippled Bruce Wayne, to explain to him why he didn’t kill him when he found out he was Batman. I found the idea interesting, but the ending is a bit unsatisfactory. Alex Maleev does a great job in pencils, inks and colors (although the penguin goes from looking normal to looking like Danny DeVito, back and forth). The main inspiration is obviously that version.

The eighth story by Geoff Johns (and artist Kelley Jones), puts the bat-family solving Batman’s last case. Apparently they did such a good job, Gotham is finally a peaceful place on Earth. This story introduces Echo as Batman’s daughter.

The ninth story (by Tynion IV) is about Dick Grayson marking a precedent for more wards to come. Bruce knows that there is no way that they cannot try to save other traumatized children's’ lives. This story is right on point. This was the main purpose of at least two Robins, and at least one of them was able to have a better life thanks to Bruce.

The tenth story by Tom King is a bit of an excuse for Tony Daniel to put all the characters together in a double splash page. Bruce decides to take a selfie of the bat-family to take to his parents the next day. It’s not bad, but I was not convinced by the characterization of Barbara Gordon.

The last story in this book is just a sequence of splash pages, ending with the introduction of Arkham Knight.

I found this book quite good. It relies on nostalgia for the most part, but that’s the point. At least Tynion IV, O’Neil, Ellis, Smith and Snyder tried to picture a side of Batman’s psyche in their stories. The rest are more about villains or allies. If you don’t enjoy the story in some of these, you’ll most likely enjoy the art.

Happy hunting with those alternate covers!

I give this book a score of 9

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allthephils · 6 years

Text

Repose

Chapter 14/?

Rated M (adult themes, mentions of sex, seeping beauty au)

word count: 2438 / 40,051

Read on AO3

Excerpt: Phil had never felt fear like this. The room closed in, his heart beat in his ears. Tears sat in his eyes but couldn’t spill over. His arms and legs prickled with adrenaline but he felt frozen in place. He ran to his room, pulling out his dresser drawer and dumping the contents onto the carpet. Rifling through, he found Dan’s Versace t-shirt and held it to his chest. Finally, the sobs broke through and he fell to his knees, crying into the shirt with a painful force.

Chapter 14

The morning was beautiful. It had rained overnight and the world outside Phil’s window was clean and bright. He had gone to bed early, eager for a new day to spend with Dan. There was so much he wanted to tell him. He’d found a poem he thought Dan would like and had printed it to bring along and read aloud. He thought he might bring a few books to read as well. He chose the Outsiders to start with. It seemed like the kind of thing they could quote to each other later and he’d never read it so it would be new to both of them. Up earlier than usual, he took his time drinking his coffee and watched Louise’s new video. Everything felt normal, more normal than it had in a while and he basked in it. Picking up his phone, he rang his mum.

“Child.” Kath’s cheerful tone brought Phil right home.

Phil called his mother most weeks but hadn’t done since he’d first got the news about Dan.

“Mum, I’m sorry I haven’t called in a while. I’ve been busy, distracted.” Phil wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to hear her calm reassurances and her inevitable cheer leading. Instead he told her that he wanted to her soon, that they’d have to meet for breakfast because his days were full.

“Breakfast? So around noon then?” Kath jabbed at Phil but he just said, “No mum, I have to be home by noon.”

He told her he wanted to tell her what’s been going on for him, that he had good news but that it was too long a story to tell on the phone. He was done hiding. If he was going to fight this fight, he needed his family on his side. Kath was baffled at the mystery and the serious tone but she agreed and they made a date for the following week. When he ended the call Phil sat satisfied and feeling like today was the first day of something new. Something was going to change, he could feel it in his bones. He absolutely couldn’t wait to get in that car with Dennis. Phil glanced as his kitchen clock. 12:20. He’d talked to his mum longer than he thought, though that always happened with them.

Dennis had never been late before. He ran downstairs to see if maybe he didn’t hear the knock but there was nothing. No car at the curb, no Dennis. Maybe there was an accident on the road, traffic. He went back upstairs and sat on the sofa, waiting.

12:30. 12:45.

He had no way to reach Dennis, no way of knowing what was going on unless someone contacted him. 12:55. Phil’s stomach twisted into knots. He held his breath and opened Twitter on his phone. Just the usual cursed prince tabloid nonsense.

1:00.

If something happened to Dan, how would he know. He felt sick. If something had happened to Dan. What if he took a turn for the worse? They wouldn’t just leave Phil here, not knowing, would they? They wouldn’t let him find out in some awful Twitter headline that Dan had… He stop mid thought, unwilling to even consider the possibility that Dan could be gone.

1:10.

He picked up his phone and called Louise.

“Hey! They let you keep your phone today! Does this mean I get photos?” Louise was her usual chipper self but Phil broke at the sound of her voice.

“Lou, I’m not there. They didn’t come. What do I do Louise? Oh my god, what if he died? What if he died and they just aren’t coming?” Phil was near hyperventilation. He couldn’t catch his breath.

“Phil, listen.” Louise spoke slowly. “I’m on my way. We’ll go together and get to the bottom of this. Phil, breath for me sweetie. I need to know you're safe on your own till I get there.”

Phil took deep, slow breaths, gaining some small measure of control. “Ok, ok. I’m ok. I’ll be ok. Hurry Lou.”

Phil had never felt fear like this. The room closed in, his heart beat in his ears. Tears sat in his eyes but couldn’t spill over. His arms and legs prickled with adrenaline but he felt frozen in place. He ran to his room, pulling out his dresser drawer and dumping the contents onto the carpet. Rifling through, he found Dan’s Versace t-shirt and held it to his chest. Finally, the sobs broke through and he fell to his knees, crying into the shirt with a painful force. He stayed on the floor of his bedroom, playing through all the possibilities in his head. None of them were good. He heard the door slam and Louise called out, “Phil!”

When he look up, she walked past him and set a box on the bed. “This was outside your door. It’s addressed to you.”

Phil swallowed hard and stood. He shook so violently, he found it difficult to pull the tape off the box. For a long moment, he just stared at the still closed cardboard flaps.

“Phil, love, do you want me to…” Louise stepped forward but Phil held up his hand and shook his head. He carefully lifted one flap and then the others. When he saw what was inside, Phil gasped, his hand flying up to cover his mouth. The bottom of the box was littered with dirt from Loki’s pot, which lay on it’s side. The candles were there and the fairy lights, among broken glass from Phil’s terrarium. Everything was here, everything except Buffy. Phil reached in carefully and pulled out Loki, scooping as much dirt back in as he could manage, and straightening the little cactus in it’s tiny red pot. Phil stood tall, pulled his shoulders back, and wiped his tears. He closed the box and walked to the window, setting Loki on the sill, then turned to look at Louise.

“I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Phil had grown accustomed to waking up with Dan in his bed. His body was aware of the absence before his brain was fully awake. He fluttered his eyes open to see a blurry figured leaned against the doorway, arms folded like a catalog model.

“Dan?” Phil said, his voice thick with sleep. He reached for his glasses and put them on, with the sole purpose of seeing Dan. He couldn’t care less if the whole world was blurry so long as Dan came into focus.

“What are you doing?”

Dan’s smile was reserved but genuine. “Watching you sleep.”

“Ok creeper.” Phil joked, though his heart flipped, it’s one of those things people say in romantic stories and you laugh and roll your eyes. It’s not romantic, it’s creepy. Except it was romantic. If only because Phil understood the impulse. If he had a choice, his gaze would always fall on Dan. He had a twisting pain in his neck from sleeping half sitting up with Dan snuggled into his arms. He stretched and arched, cracking and popping, trying to set things back where they belong.

Dan just watched.

“You’re dressed.” Phil stated the obvious, disappointed at what that must mean.

“I have to go. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to wake you, we were up so late.” Dan smirked, a light blush in his cheek.

“OK. Will you be back tonight?”

Dan shook his head, wistful. “I have to spend some time with my grandmum tonight. I promised.”

“Your grandmum? You’re hanging with the queen tonight?” Phil thought he’d never get used to these abrupt reminders of Dan’s actual position in life.

“I am. She wants to discuss university, my future, you know.” Dan shrugged. “I wish I could bring you. You are my future after all. It seems ridiculous to discuss any of it without you.” Dan’s phone rang out and he huffed. “I have to go before Dennis has a literal baby out there. I’ll see you tomorrow after work, ok?”

Phil nodded and smiled into the kiss Dan leaned in for.

Dan whispered I love you and left. The words drifted through Phil’s mind like soft waves at low tide, rushing in, idling out, rushing in, idling out. He heard his front door close and heard himself whisper I love you too to the empty room.

Dan was the kind of person that should listen to jazz and Brian Eno and paint in the middle of the night. He was the kind of person who chains himself to a bulldozer to save a century old tree. That’s how Phil saw him anyway. Designer trousers and penthouse parties and living in a literal castle didn’t suit him. As privileged as he seemed, and he was so careful to own his privilege, his life was oppressive to him. Phil’s free spirit, his self actualized vision for his life, it was more than Dan could ever hope for. He admired Phil and he envied him in a way.

He spent days off poking around the flat, exploring and learning Phil in more and more detail. Phil learned Dan too. He learned how he takes coffee and he memorized what he sounds like when he sleeps. He learned that he’s an incredibly loud and competitive gamer but that he smiles proudly when Phil finally beats him. And he learned that Dan’s circumstance and his family dynamic had invited more demons into Dan’s life than he could handle sometimes. He learned how to hold him and talk him through when those demons got too demanding.

When Dan showed up in the evening, his cheeks were red and he barely held back his tears.

“Dan?” Phil pulled him close held him in his arms. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

Dan pulled away and paced the room, running his hand through his hair. “I can’t fucking do this anymore. I don’t want to. This isn’t who I am.” Phil watched as Dan moved about the room, manic. “But it is who I am, isn’t it? They groomed me like every prince before me, why do I have to want more? Why can’t I just be one of them so it doesn’t have to feel like this?”

“What happened?” Phil asked, trying to keep himself calm in the face of Dan’s distress.

“Paps spotted Dennis outside your place. Who knows how long they’ve been watching. They waited outside the shelter. Obviously, Dennis got me out a different way but they were out there, yelling. Asking what I’ve been up to, am I dating a commoner, am I gay? It always comes back to the gay question.” Dan stopped and sat on the sofa, looking up at Phil, his voice shook, “They stood outside a battered women’s shelter Phil. Shouting. And it’s my fault, because I won’t just grow up and fall into line, I brought that chaos to a place that’s supposed to be safe.”

Phil’s embrace knocked down Dan’s defenses and he sobbed, letting himself be held. Phil rocked and shushed him, fighting back his own tears. “It’s not your fault. I’ve got you. I’m here.”

Dan gathered himself, pulling back to look at Phil. “Phil I’m so sorry, Dennis’ threats will keep them at bay for a couple days but they’ll be back. They’ll wait outside your door. Fuck. This shit just follows me everywhere. I’m fucking poison Phil.”

“Stop it Dan. I won’t let you do that. You didn’t ask for any of this.”

“Well I certainly didn’t do anything to prevent it.”

“You spend every day helping people, every day. Then you come here and you make me happier than I’ve ever been. You’re not poison, you’re everything.” Phil’s voice cracked a bit and he drew in his own shaky breath, trying hard to keep it together for Dan but failing. “Let them wait, I never go outside anyway. In a couple days, we’ll both be gone for Christmas. We’ll wait it out. It’ll be ok.”

Dan cried into Phil’s t-shirt till there were no tears left then followed Phil into bed where he slept. It was the deep sleep of exhaustion and truly letting go, the kind that comes when the one you’re with is wide awake, holding space, helping you carry the heavy load.

They spent the next day their favorite way, in bed. The mood was heavy but they had each other and it was ok. They ordered every meal in and watched their favorite Christmas movies, Gremlins and Die Hard, not quite catching the ending of either of them. In between, they talked. Topics like the queen’s opinion on Dan’s future, university, and paparazzi, were off limits. Instead, they discussed the colors in Phil’s eyes and how he once ate fish food as a kid. They talked about the wonderful nanny that cared for Dan and Adrian as kids and how she bakes the most amazing mince pies. They listed all the places they wanted to travel to together. Tomorrow morning Dan and Dennis would drive Phil to the ferry to the Isle of Man and Dan would be on his way to Windsor to spend Christmas with his family. They’d be apart for just shy of two weeks but it sounded like an eternity.

Winter mornings meant bright, glaring sun through the window. Dan rolled away from light and into the warmth of Phil. Phil always slept so deeply with Dan there in his bed. He didn’t even stir as Dan hooked his leg around his, pressing himself close to Phil’s side, nuzzling his nose into Phil’s neck, breathing in gingerbread scented body wash. Dan pressed his lips there, feeling the rhythm of Phil’s pulse and there was a hum of sweet satisfaction in response. Phil turned his body toward Dan and his arms enveloped this treasure of his.

“It’s not daytime. Go back to sleep.” He murmured, squinting as he opened his eyes..

“It is daytime, it’s bright in here.” Dan answered.

“Close the blinds, we can pretend it’s night and then we don’t ever have to go.” Phil held Dan as tight as he could.

“Just close your eyes.” Dan said and he kissed each of Phil’s eyelids as they fluttered shut. “There. It’s night. We have nowhere to be.” Dan’s lips met Phil’s and they kissed, slowly first, then building in tension and heat.

Phil moved his lips across Dan’s jaw and and bit at his earlobe. “Good. I wanna give you something to think about when we’re apart.” At those words, he disappeared under the duvet and the quiet house filled with Dan’s sighs. Dennis would just have to wait a little bit longer.

#Phanfic #phanfiction #sleeping beauty au #repose #wip

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lindaseccaspina · 4 years

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June 2 Almonte Gazette 1960

Brian Hand, eleven-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Hand, Union Street was saved from drowning in the Mississippi River not far from his home by the prompt action of Mrs. Wm. Tuffin and Constable A. R. Mitchell.

Brian had tried to rescue a boat but the current was too strong and the boat went over the falls. He clung to a rock and his shouts for help were heard by Mrs. Win. Tuffin who was crossing the back bridge. She called Constable Mitchell who went into the water with a rope to bring the boy to safety. He was at the point of exhaustion by the time he was brought to shore. The current is very strong at this point especially this year when the water is high. Further, it is no place for boating. June 2-1960 Almonte Gazette

The community was shocked’ at the sudden death by electrocution jon Thursday evening, May 26th, of Floyd S. Dennie, 27-year-old resident of Blakeney. An employee of the Producers Dairy, Almonte, he was assisting Joe Sensenstein, local electrician in erecting a TV aerial on a trailer owned by Jim McMillan on Mr. Thos. Fulton’s farm in Pakenham Township.

When raising the aerial, it came in contact with a 4500 volt Hydro electric wire and Floyd who was nearest the serial received the full jolt. Both he and Mr. Sensenstein were thrown to the ground. Both men quickly recovered and sat up. Floyd spoke a few words asking if his companion was alright and then collapsed and died. Dr. M. Spacek of Pakenham attended and found Mr. Dennie dead on his arrival. Dr. A. A. Metcalfe, coroner, was called and after consultation with Crown Attorney, Mr. J. A. B. Dulmage, Q.C. of Smiths Falls, announced that no inquest would be held.

O.P.P. officers investigated the fatality. Mr. Dennie was a son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dennie of Almonte. Besides his parents, he leaves his wife, the former Rita Larkin and three small children. Also surviving are four brothers, and one sister, Carmen and George of Almonte; Earl of Carleton Place, Clarence of Smiths Falls and Verna, Mrs. Mike Cardinal of Newboro. June 2-1960 Almonte Gazette

June 1920– Almonte Gazette

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1960 Accidents – Union Street and Blakeney June 2 Almonte Gazette 1960 Brian Hand, eleven-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Hand, Union Street was saved from drowning in the Mississippi River not far from his home by the prompt action of Mrs.

#Accidents #almonte #almonte gazette #Blakeney

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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Corruption Inquiry Spreads to U.A.W. Lakeside Resort

ONAWAY, Mich. — The United Auto Workers union is based in Detroit, but its spiritual home lies 250 miles to the north, in a dense and remote forest on the shore of Black Lake.Here, 40 miles from the nearest Starbucks, the U.A.W. owns a spartan retreat known to few people outside the auto industry, though it opened nearly 50 years ago. Covering 1,000 acres, the gated compound includes cabins, lodges, a banquet hall and a recreation center with an Olympic-size swimming pool. An eternal flame marks the hilltop resting place of the ashes of Walter Reuther, who built the U.A.W. into one of the most powerful unions in the country in the 1950s and 1960s.This tranquil scene was disrupted in August when the F.B.I. raided the compound, seizing documents and records. The raid was the latest chapter in a yearslong Justice Department investigation into corruption at the union that has thrown the U.A.W. into turmoil and embroiled two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers — Fiat Chrysler and General Motors. The resort was one of a half-dozen locations government agents searched. The raids signaled that investigators were not done with their work, despite having charged or won convictions of a dozen union officials and three Fiat Chrysler executives.Last week, the U.A.W. president, Gary Jones, resigned as the union’s executive board was preparing to remove him for the submission of false expense reports and the use of union money for personal gain. The U.A.W. said Mr. Jones had concealed the use of more than $1 million in union funds for luxury travel, extravagant dinners and purchases of high-priced cigars, golf clubs and apparel for himself, his family and his lieutenants.What drew federal agents to Black Lake is not clear. But union members and labor experts have criticized the U.A.W.’s unusual decision to build a luxury lakeside cabin at the resort for the exclusive use of Mr. Jones’s predecessor as president, Dennis Williams. Federal agents searched the cabin and separately raided a home owned by Mr. Williams in Corona, Calif. The union is reviewing other financial transactions for possible wrongdoing, and now plans to sell the cabin and the land that it sits on in a secluded corner of the retreat, said Brian Rothenberg, a U.A.W. spokesman. The decision to sell the cabin was part of a set of reforms instituted by the acting president, Rory Gamble, after he took the helm from Mr. Jones. “Restoring the full faith and trust of our membership and protecting their interests is the top priority,” Mr. Rothenberg said.The U.A.W. provided more modest, rustic cabins within the retreat complex for other previous retired presidents, and the union is considering ending that practice, too.Union members and supporters say it is particularly disappointing that the resort — formally called the Walter P. and May Reuther Family Education Center — has been pulled into the investigation. The union uses it as a place for members to study the past and plan for the future in training seminars and conferences.“Black Lake serves a critical purpose for the union,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor relations professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has attended and taught seminars at the retreat since the 1970s. “It’s historically important for the union. It’s meant to get people together to debate critical issues. It’s a place of thinking and engaging.”When the retreat opened in 1970, it was heralded for its timbered beams and spare Scandinavian design.Today, rather than a showplace for the U.A.W., Black Lake is a part of the union’s financial difficulties. The union spends several million dollars a year to operate it — money that is classified as a loan to the subsidiary that operates Black Lake. In 2018, the accumulated debt amounted to more than $60 million.Anyone can book a stay there. During a recent overnight stay, I found it dated. Guest rooms feature few of the amenities found in modern hotels, like Wi-Fi and cable TV. Some hallways were marked by musty odors. But a golf course the U.A.W. built just outside the retreat in 2000, at a cost of $6.7 million, is considered one of the best in Michigan.At the main gate, I was told that only union-made vehicles were allowed on the grounds. I had to park my Volkswagen in a lot outside the perimeter. Some Chevrolets and Fords were parked there, too, because vehicles made in Mexico are not welcome, either.That week Black Lake was hosting about 150 workers for a weeklong seminar on the history of organized labor and the U.A.W. Any member is welcome to attend such courses. The union covers the cost and offsets the wages workers would have earned that week. Participants said they spent much of the day in lectures — instructors take attendance. One afternoon is set aside for recreation.When I visited, the large gymnasium with two full-size basketball courts and the pool were empty most of the day. Six pool tables remained untouched in a darkened room.These days, senior union officials often hold meetings in places like Orlando, Fla., Washington, D.C., and Cape May, N.J. Before becoming the U.A.W. president in 2018, Mr. Jones ran a regional office in Hazelwood, Mo., and held annual conferences in Palm Springs, Calif. Court filings by federal prosecutors and an internal union complaint against Mr. Jones claim that he and other union officials booked luxury villas for four weeks or more, even though the Palm Springs conferences lasted less than a week.In raids at Mr. Jones’s home and elsewhere, agents seized thousands of dollars in cash, hundreds of bottles of high-priced liquor, hundreds of golf shirts, multiple sets of golf clubs and large quantities of cigars that had been billed to union accounts, according to court filings. One dinner described by prosecutors ran up a bill of $6,599.87 that included $1,760 for four bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne.A lawyer for Mr. Jones, J. Bruce Maffeo, said the suggestion that the conference expenses had been concealed “is without any basis in fact.” Spending for the conferences in Palm Springs was “laid out in sufficient detail to the U.A.W. accounting department over a period of years.”A close associate of Mr. Jones who helped organize the conferences in Palm Springs and has been charged by federal prosecutors, Vance Pearson, resigned from the U.A.W. on Sunday. The union had been taking steps to remove him from his post as a regional director.Back at the union’s Black Lake resort, the stone and glass cabin for Mr. Williams, the former president, is in a fenced-off area more than a mile from the main complex. But it is accessible from the lake. Wading in to its shoreline, I found the home with picture windows facing the lake. According to the county planning office, the 1,885-square-foot residence has cherry cabinets, granite countertops, three-and-a-half baths and a stone patio.Mr. Reuther hoped the union would train future generations of leaders in the contemplative setting far from the toil of assembly lines. At one time, it had a day care center — Mr. Reuther imagined workers’ families joining them on their retreats.He also hoped it would be a place where the U.A.W. could use its power to solve societal problems. The first event held at Black Lake was a conference on the environment that the union organized with the United Nations in the summer of 1970.Such was the U.A.W.’s reach that it could attract foreign government officials to northern Michigan. But Mr. Reuther didn’t attend the event. He died in a plane crash while traveling to Black Lake a few months earlier. Shortly after the resort opened, the union waged a bitter strike against G.M., and it eventually prevailed, coming away with significant wage increases. The strike was tough on the union, which depleted its strike fund and went into debt, even mortgaging Black Lake to the Teamsters for a time.By the 1980s, the Big Three auto companies and the union were in a slow decline. Today, the U.A.W.’s membership has fallen to about 400,000, from as many as 1.5 million when Mr. Reuther ran it. But it remains a potent force, recently winning higher wages and bonuses for G.M. workers after a 40-day strike.Around the time G.M. and Chrysler were in bankruptcy in 2009, the U.A.W. tried to sell the resort, which was viewed as a luxury when thousands of workers were losing their jobs. But the union couldn’t find a buyer.That’s good news, said JoAn Matney, a retired autoworker from Toledo, Ohio. “It’s empowering and fun to go there,” she said. “I definitely think they should keep it.” Source link Read the full article

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thesportssoundoff · 7 years

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“A Solid Night Of Fights From Nassau” A UFC on Fox 25 Preview

Joey

July 18th

As we hit the middle event in this INSANE stretch of UFC shows from July to early August, we find ourselves looking a Fox card that feels similar to every other event we've gotten so far this year. There are no "big names" on it outside of the main event but all of these fights are evenly matched, competitive on paper and have the potential to be exciting outside of a few fights. The main card has three REALLY good fights on it and one snoozer while the Fox prelims are not bad and are anchored by two good welterweight fights, this card REALLY, REALLY shines on the Fight Pass portion where every fight is really good. So what's really here on a good card without a great fight to stand on? Well.....

Fights: 13

Debuts: 2 (Junior Albini, Eryk Anders)

Fight Changes/Injury Cancellations: 3 (Eryk Anders IN, Alessio Di Chirico OUT vs Rafael Natal/Christian Colombo OUT, Chase Sherman IN vs Damien Grabowski, Chan Sung Jung vs Ricardo Lamas moved to UFC 214)

Headliners (fighters who have either main evented or co-main evented shows in the UFC): 9 (Chris Weidman, Kelvin Gastelum, Patrick Cummins, Dennis Bermudez, Gian Villante, Thomas Almeida, Rafael Natal, Ryan LaFlare, Alex Oliveira)

Fighters On Losing Streaks in the UFC: 4 (Rafael Natal, Chris Wade, Damien Grabowski, Chris Weidman)

Fighters On Winning Streaks in the UFC: 7* (Darren Elkins, Jimmie Rivera, Elizeu Zaleski, Ryan LaFlare, Jeremy Kennedy, Marlon Vera, Shane Burgos)

*Two fighters are on unbeaten streaks (Gastelum and Alex Oliveira) but they have no decisions which snap it from being a winning streak, Gastelum for weed and Oliveira due to a no contest via illegal knee*

Stat Monitor for 2017:

Debuting Fighters (Current number: 17-19)- Eryk Anders, Junior Albini

Short Notice Fighters (Current number: 12-20)- Eryk Anders, Chase Sherman

Second Fight (Current number: 21-21)- Brian Kelleher,

Cage Corrosion (3-3)- Lyman Good

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- Do we need to really reconsider Kelvin Gastelum's chances at making a run at the 185 lbs in the aftermath of Robert Whittaker's stunning win over Yoel Romero? Whittaker proved that a young great athlete who can stuff takedowns can overcome the perceived size and strength difference at 185 lbs. Gastelum thus far at 185 lbs has shown that what made him work at 170 lbs (the solid striking, great offensive an ddefensive wrestling, killer chin) has made the move up with him and given his age and the gym he trains at, there's no doubt that the ceiling is the roof as one would say. There are obvious strength concerns given that he's not a massive 185er but he gave ALL kinds of problems to a very strong Tim Kennedy. The caveat is that Kennedy was coming off an immense layoff and that in turn is where the questions amplify. Gastelum's had four fights at 185 lbs; Johny Hendricks at a CW, Tim Kennedy off a layoff and the cooked corpses of Nate Marquardt (which remains a solid enough win with the benefit of hindsight given Nate's competitiveness recently) and Vitor Belfort. Even if he beats Weidman, there will be those who look only at the L's on his record and not the quality of competition Weidman's faced. To me, this is the sort of fight that goes a long way towards determining Gastelum's upside at 185 lbs even if I'd bet he's going to be a star at the 175 lb level when that division gets created.

2- Chris Weidman has lost three in a row but let's be mindful of the quality of competition here. Luke Rockhold is a very good and perhaps even great fighter, Yoel Romero is top 3 in the division and Gegard Mousasi was an awful no good stylistic matchup for him plus arguably a top 5-7 fighter at 185 lbs. Weidman was competitive in every single one of those fights but his cardio has frequently abandoned him in times of need and his chin and toughness can only take him so far.

3- How many times does Weidman have to gas out in the third or fourth round of a fight before he realizes that the cut to 185 is a stupid one?

4- So what necessarily pray tell is the reason why Dennis Bermudez vs Darren Elkins is co-maining over Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida? The winner of the latter is potentially a #1 contender whereas the former is probably going to be a pretty damn wacky fight.

5- Darren Elkins went over 12 UFC fights without getting a bonus. With one POTNB and a great comeback, he is co-maining on Fox. Sometimes it truly only takes one fight to change a narrative.

6- Jimmie Rivera vs Thomas Almeida is a great fight to test both guys as they look to potential sneak behind Dominick Cruz as an option for the 135 lb title picture. Rivera is back to being a decisionator but I don't think any of his fights were boring if I had to be honest with ya. It's almost like the Cruz era at 135 lbs where the fights were never bad but the finishes just never came. The opposite is true with Almeida who seems to live and die with the chaos he brings each fight out. Rivera's brief moments of trouble in his career have come from guys who can catch him down the middle with straight shots that buzz him whereas as we've seen with Almeida consistently, catching him cold and when he's being this wild reckless brawler gives you a serious chance at the upset.

7- It feels like Pat Cummins has fought everyone at 205 except for Jon Jones, right?

8- Elizeu Zaleski is one of those fighters who seems to be well worth keeping an eye on as the 170 lb division continues to undergo a very slow yet noticeable aging process. He's 30 years old with 3 UFC fights under his belt including two ridiculous brawls with Keita Nakamura and everybody's favorite bald madman Omari Akhmedov. Zaleski is a marvel on the feet but his takedown defense has shown incremental improvement with each passing fight, including surviving some wild scrambles with the always dangerous Keita Nakamura. He's facing Lyman Good in the main prelim in what should be another test of his wrestling chops.

9- Keeping up with the idea of a very bunched up 170 lb division; I wonder if Ryan Laflare might be a touch underrated by people. His wins are over very reputable guys like Mike Pierce, Roan Carneiro, Santiago Ponzinibbio (!) and Court McGee. He's probably not the most thrilling fighter (he's been in the UFC seven fights and has zero finishes) but he's a good fighter who shows improvement each time out and, as noted, 170 is getting old and crusty pretty quickly.

10- Why is Damian Grabowski still in the UFC? What is his primary function in the org?

11- Is Dennis Bermudez underrated at this point in his UFC career? We're talking about a guy who has beaten the likes of Max Holloway, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Jimmy Hettes and Rony Jason. Similarly his losses are to very poor stylistic matchups. We're talking about guys who can eat his power, stuff his takedowns and finish him when they inevitably rock him. Not thinking there are a lot of dudes in this division who can do that.

12- Lemme sell you on this prelims right quick. Jeremy Kennedy vs Kyle Bochniak is not a bad fight, pitting two under 30 featherweights coming off a win who matchup well on paper. Brian Kelleher vs Marlon Vera is an AWESOME fight pitting a solid MMA veteran vs a super athletic long lanky fighter who has a knack for the dramatic. Shane Burgos vs Godofredo Pepey is a truly solid fight well worthy of a main card spot on a card when you consider Pepey's first round sparks vs Burgos' power, chin and relentless pressure. Then you got Tim Johnson vs Junior Albini and I'm not about to sell you on that one other than to say "It'll be a thing for sure." Chris Wade vs Frankie Perez is a decent fight featuring two competent lightweights looking to find themselves.

Must Win

1- Kelvin Gastelum

The UFC is not and will never release Chris Weidman. He's the guy who beat Anderson Silva and will forever have a name and a secure legacy on that lone. He'd be given opportunity after opportunity to find a place be it at 185 lbs or 205 lbs. A win over Chris Weidman would be massive in vaulting Kelvin Gastelum into the top 5 at 185 lbs and, again, we've SEEN big 170ers have great success at 185 lbs. Gastelum could certainly be the next in line if he beats Weidman.

2- Jimmie Rivera

Rivera has been in some very exciting fights and he's put on some good performances. At the same time, 135 lbs is such that fight finishers, exciting ones at that, will always leapfrog the dudes who seem to struggle in that regard. Win or lose, Almeida's youth, exciting fighting style, finishing quality and just all around total package will guarantee him a "always just on the outside of title contention" burn. On the other hand, Rivera has beaten way better competition (sseriously, Almeida's top win in the UFC is Brad Pickett and given where Pickett was at the time, he's probably on par with Marcus Brimage) but in fights that are good but not the "keep 'em talking!" style Almeida has. Rivera's BIGGEST fear has to be that he turns into Aljamain Sterling; a talented guy who fans don't see as exciting in a division that is bubbling with big exciting fight finishers. That's the concern here.

3- Elizeu Zaleski

Brazilian WW prospects flaming out is not a new development for the UFC. Zaleski has a chance to really be different in that regard. Offensively on the feet, he's a whirling dervish of a dynamo and slowly but surely, his ground game is evolving. He'll never be Maia but there's progress and sometimes that's what counts. I'm n ot going to lie and act like he's going to turn into Anderson Silva but maybe Zaleski becomes an Erick Silva type with higher upside. To do that he's gotta pass another wrestling test with Lyman Good. Good isn't on the level of Nakamura in terms of his wrestling/grappling chops but he's better than Nicholas Dalby who beat Zalesaki on the back of a few clutch takedowns. It's a big fight.

Five Underlying Themes

1- Can the UFC sell Gastelum? Fight wise, he's amazing. On the other hand, he's a dude who has missed weight and failed drug tests in the past. If he beats Weidman (which to me is certainly possible), I just don't know what they do with him.

2- Will this card be the top rated Fox event thus far?

3- Which gets advertised more; UFC 214 or McGregor-Mayweather?

4- Will Grunt Style be advertised on the top of the cage like it was for DWTCS?

5- If the Almeida/Rivera winner is positioned as a potential #1 contender.

#MMA #UFC #Fox #Weidman #Gastelum

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papermoonloveslucy · 7 years

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Lucy the Stunt Man

S4;E5 ~ October 18, 1965

Synopsis

When Lucy needs money to buy a fur coat, she takes a job as a Hollywood stunt man.

Regular Cast

Lucille Ball (Lucy Carmichael), Gale Gordon (Theodore J. Mooney)

Mary Jane Croft (Mary Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.

Guest Cast

Joan Blondell (Joan Brenner) was born into a family of vaudevillians in 1906. She made her New York theatre debut with the Ziegfeld Follies and appeared in several Broadway productions. She made her film debut in 1930. She was nominated for an Oscar for 1951's The Blue Veil. In 1978 she had a small role in the film Grease. Although she was active in Hollywood concurrently with Lucille Ball, this (and the previous episode) is the first time she has appeared with her on screen. This is her final appearance on the series. She died of leukemia in 1979.

Don Magowan (Chuck Casey) worked on many westerns during his career, but was a regular on “The Beachcomber” (1962) playing Captain Huckabee. He will do one episode of “Here's Lucy” in 1970.

Lou Krugman (Mr. Wilson, Director) was born in Passaic, New Jersey, in 1914. He made a memorable debut at Desilu as the ever-patient film director in “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;18). After that episode was filmed, Lucy sent him a telegram telling him how impressed she was with his acting. She rewarded him with appearances in “The Great Train Robbery,” (ILL S5;E5) and the role of the Club Babalu’s Manager in “Lucy and Bob Hope” (ILL S6;E1) and “Lucy Meets Orson Welles” (ILL S6;E3). He previously appeared in “Lucy in the Music World“ (S4;E4) and “Lucy Takes Up Chemistry” (S1;E26). This is his last appearance on the show.

Eddie Quillan (Mr. Briggs) was born in Philadelphia in 1907. At the age of seven he was already performing in vaudeville with his sister and three brothers in an act called "The Rising Generation.” He made his screen debut in 1926 in a Mack Sennett short and went on to appear in such classic films as Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), and Brigadoon (1954). He previously appeared in “Lucy Buys a Sheep” (S1;E5). In 1964 he was seen in Advance to the Rear starring Joan Blondell. He also made two appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”

Burt Douglas (Slim Jones, below left) appeared in more than sixty films and TV shows from 1956 to 1992. This is his only appearance with Lucille Ball.

Chuck Hicks (Buzz Perkaby, above right) was a stunt man and actor who's career began in 1953. Hicks was a long-time stunt double for Brian Dennehy. He will appear on “Here's Lucy” in “Lucy and Wally Cox” (S2;E21).

Jack Perkins (Saloon Brawler) was often cast for his ability to play drunk. He also has quite a few credits as a brawler and a bartender. He will appear in two more episodes of “The Lucy Show.”

Dale Van Sickel (Saloon Brawler) was a Hollywood stunt man and actor whose career began in 1933. He appeared with Lucille Ball in the films Roberta (1935) and There Goes My Man (1937). He will also appear in both of the upcoming 'Iron Man Carmichael' episodes of “The Lucy Show.”

A few additional background performers take part in the saloon scene.

This is the first episode written by Edmond Beloin and Harry Garson. The two will pen five more episodes together. This is the first of three ‘Iron Man Carmichael’ episodes, all written by Beloin and Garson. The other two are "Lucy and the Return of Iron Man" (S4;E11) and "Lucy and Bob Crane" (S4;E22).

The date this episode first aired (October 18, 1965) actor Henry Travers died. Best known as Clarence the Angel in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), he co-starred with Lucille Ball in A Girl, A Guy, and a Gob (1941).

A clip from this episode was part of the season four 'kaleidoscope' opening credit sequence.

“The Lucy Show” stunt coordinator was Jesse Wayne who amassed over 500 credits as a stunt performer and actor. Due to his small stature he started out as stunt double for Hollywood's young actors. He wrote an e-book titled Confessions of a Hollywood Stunt Man.

The casting of Joan Blondell was another attempt to replace Vivian Vance as Lucy's 'partner in crime.' Ball and Blondell did not get along off stage, resulting in heated arguments. After the final shot of this episode, with the studio audience still present, Lucy made a 'flushing' motion in Blondell's direction. Blondell shouted,

“Fuck you, Lucille Ball.”

The two never reconciled. The very next episode Lucy brought back Ann Southern as the Countess Framboise.

Lucy brings up Danfield where she and Mr. Mooney used to live.

Lucille Ball resurrects her famous toaster gag that was so often seen on “I Love Lucy”: grabbing a piece of toast mid-air as it popped out of the toaster. She also did it on “The Lucy Show” in “Lucy Takes a Job at the Bank” (S2;E21), but with passbooks instead of bread!

Lucy gets a laugh by saying the line “Jiggle it a little, it'll open” very quickly. When Mr. Mooney said it there was no reaction from the studio audience.

Lucy Carmichael previously had trouble with her refrigerator back in Danfield in the episode “Lucy the Disc Jockey” (S3;E26). It is possible that this is the same set piece she ruined back east but repainted apple green. Despite deliberately wrecking the fridge to con Mr. Mooney into giving her money, the refrigerator is till in the kitchen in the next episode.

Lucy wants to spend $99.50 on a new leopard coat from Felix Franco the Friendly Furrier. Adjusting for inflation, this is more than $800 today. Back in Danfield, Lucy's friendly Franco furrier was Madame Fifi (Fifi D'Orsay).

'Iron Man Carmichael' says he's been out of the country working in Lawrence of Arabia. His gruff voice is attributed to being kicked in the throat by a camel. Lawrence of Arabia is a 1962 historical film based on the life of T.E. Lawrence and taking place mostly in the desert. It won seven Oscars including Best Picture. The film was previously mentioned in “Lucy the Disc Jockey” (S3;E26).

Lou Krugman (Mr. Wilson) also played a film director in “Lucy Gets Into Pictures” (ILL S4;18), his first job with Lucille Ball. It is fitting that he bookends his Desilu experience by playing another one.

When Gale Gordon addresses Lou Krugman as “Mr. Wilson” it is a bit of deja vu since Gordon played Mr. Wilson on “Dennis the Menace” just before he joined the cast of “The Lucy Show.”

As a dance hall girl in the saloon scene, Joan Blondell wears the same can-can style dress that Lucy wore in “Lucy and the Beauty Doctor” (S3;E24).

Mr. Mooney jokingly tells Joan that he's testing for the male lead in Liz Taylor's next picture. Elizabeth Taylor will appear with her husband Richard Burton (playing themselves) in a 1970 episode of “Here's Lucy.” Gale Gordon (Mr. Mooney) is also in the episode.

Callbacks!

The plot of this episode starts off very similar to “The Fur Coat” (ILL S1;E9), including the scene where Lucy Ricardo does dishes while wearing her cherished fur.

Lucy's drag cowboy stuntman looks nearly identical to the one she created in “Home Movies” (ILL S3;E20) in 1954.

“Lucy the Stunt Man” rates 3 Paper Hearts out of 5

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biofunmy · 4 years

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Corruption Inquiry Spreads to U.A.W. Lakeside Resort

ONAWAY, Mich. — The United Auto Workers union is based in Detroit, but its spiritual home lies 250 miles to the north, in a dense and remote forest on the shore of Black Lake.

Here, 40 miles from the nearest Starbucks, the U.A.W. owns a spartan retreat known to few people outside the auto industry, though it opened nearly 50 years ago. Covering 1,000 acres, the gated compound includes cabins, lodges, a banquet hall and a recreation center with an Olympic-size swimming pool. An eternal flame marks the hilltop resting place of the ashes of Walter Reuther, who built the U.A.W. into one of the most powerful unions in the country in the 1950s and 1960s.

This tranquil scene was disrupted in August when the F.B.I. raided the compound, seizing documents and records. The raid was the latest chapter in a yearslong Justice Department investigation into corruption at the union that has thrown the U.A.W. into turmoil and embroiled two of Detroit’s Big Three automakers — Fiat Chrysler and General Motors.

The resort was one of a half-dozen locations government agents searched. The raids signaled that investigators were not done with their work, despite having charged or won convictions of a dozen union officials and three Fiat Chrysler executives.

Last week, the U.A.W. president, Gary Jones, resigned as the union’s executive board was preparing to remove him for the submission of false expense reports and the use of union money for personal gain. The U.A.W. said Mr. Jones had concealed the use of more than $1 million in union funds for luxury travel, extravagant dinners and purchases of high-priced cigars, golf clubs and apparel for himself, his family and his lieutenants.

What drew federal agents to Black Lake is not clear. But union members and labor experts have criticized the U.A.W.’s unusual decision to build a luxury lakeside cabin at the resort for the exclusive use of Mr. Jones’s predecessor as president, Dennis Williams. Federal agents searched the cabin and separately raided a home owned by Mr. Williams in Corona, Calif. The union is reviewing other financial transactions for possible wrongdoing, and now plans to sell the cabin and the land that it sits on in a secluded corner of the retreat, said Brian Rothenberg, a U.A.W. spokesman.

The decision to sell the cabin was part of a set of reforms instituted by the acting president, Rory Gamble, after he took the helm from Mr. Jones. “Restoring the full faith and trust of our membership and protecting their interests is the top priority,” Mr. Rothenberg said.

The U.A.W. provided more modest, rustic cabins within the retreat complex for other previous retired presidents, and the union is considering ending that practice, too.

Union members and supporters say it is particularly disappointing that the resort — formally called the Walter P. and May Reuther Family Education Center — has been pulled into the investigation. The union uses it as a place for members to study the past and plan for the future in training seminars and conferences.

“Black Lake serves a critical purpose for the union,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor relations professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has attended and taught seminars at the retreat since the 1970s. “It’s historically important for the union. It’s meant to get people together to debate critical issues. It’s a place of thinking and engaging.”

When the retreat opened in 1970, it was heralded for its timbered beams and spare Scandinavian design.

Today, rather than a showplace for the U.A.W., Black Lake is a part of the union’s financial difficulties. The union spends several million dollars a year to operate it — money that is classified as a loan to the subsidiary that operates Black Lake. In 2018, the accumulated debt amounted to more than $60 million.

Anyone can book a stay there. During a recent overnight stay, I found it dated. Guest rooms feature few of the amenities found in modern hotels, like Wi-Fi and cable TV. Some hallways were marked by musty odors. But a golf course the U.A.W. built just outside the retreat in 2000, at a cost of $6.7 million, is considered one of the best in Michigan.

At the main gate, I was told that only union-made vehicles were allowed on the grounds. I had to park my Volkswagen in a lot outside the perimeter. Some Chevrolets and Fords were parked there, too, because vehicles made in Mexico are not welcome, either.

That week Black Lake was hosting about 150 workers for a weeklong seminar on the history of organized labor and the U.A.W. Any member is welcome to attend such courses. The union covers the cost and offsets the wages workers would have earned that week. Participants said they spent much of the day in lectures — instructors take attendance. One afternoon is set aside for recreation.

When I visited, the large gymnasium with two full-size basketball courts and the pool were empty most of the day. Six pool tables remained untouched in a darkened room.

These days, senior union officials often hold meetings in places like Orlando, Fla., Washington, D.C., and Cape May, N.J. Before becoming the U.A.W. president in 2018, Mr. Jones ran a regional office in Hazelwood, Mo., and held annual conferences in Palm Springs, Calif. Court filings by federal prosecutors and an internal union complaint against Mr. Jones claim that he and other union officials booked luxury villas for four weeks or more, even though the Palm Springs conferences lasted less than a week.

In raids at Mr. Jones’s home and elsewhere, agents seized thousands of dollars in cash, hundreds of bottles of high-priced liquor, hundreds of golf shirts, multiple sets of golf clubs and large quantities of cigars that had been billed to union accounts, according to court filings. One dinner described by prosecutors ran up a bill of $6,599.87 that included $1,760 for four bottles of Louis Roederer Cristal Champagne.

A lawyer for Mr. Jones, J. Bruce Maffeo, said the suggestion that the conference expenses had been concealed “is without any basis in fact.” Spending for the conferences in Palm Springs was “laid out in sufficient detail to the U.A.W. accounting department over a period of years.”

A close associate of Mr. Jones who helped organize the conferences in Palm Springs and has been charged by federal prosecutors, Vance Pearson, resigned from the U.A.W. on Sunday. The union had been taking steps to remove him from his post as a regional director.

Back at the union’s Black Lake resort, the stone and glass cabin for Mr. Williams, the former president, is in a fenced-off area more than a mile from the main complex. But it is accessible from the lake. Wading in to its shoreline, I found the home with picture windows facing the lake. According to the county planning office, the 1,885-square-foot residence has cherry cabinets, granite countertops, three-and-a-half baths and a stone patio.

Mr. Reuther hoped the union would train future generations of leaders in the contemplative setting far from the toil of assembly lines. At one time, it had a day care center — Mr. Reuther imagined workers’ families joining them on their retreats.

He also hoped it would be a place where the U.A.W. could use its power to solve societal problems. The first event held at Black Lake was a conference on the environment that the union organized with the United Nations in the summer of 1970.

Such was the U.A.W.’s reach that it could attract foreign government officials to northern Michigan. But Mr. Reuther didn’t attend the event. He died in a plane crash while traveling to Black Lake a few months earlier.

Shortly after the resort opened, the union waged a bitter strike against G.M., and it eventually prevailed, coming away with significant wage increases. The strike was tough on the union, which depleted its strike fund and went into debt, even mortgaging Black Lake to the Teamsters for a time.

By the 1980s, the Big Three auto companies and the union were in a slow decline. Today, the U.A.W.’s membership has fallen to about 400,000, from as many as 1.5 million when Mr. Reuther ran it. But it remains a potent force, recently winning higher wages and bonuses for G.M. workers after a 40-day strike.

Around the time G.M. and Chrysler were in bankruptcy in 2009, the U.A.W. tried to sell the resort, which was viewed as a luxury when thousands of workers were losing their jobs. But the union couldn’t find a buyer.

That’s good news, said JoAn Matney, a retired autoworker from Toledo, Ohio. “It’s empowering and fun to go there,” she said. “I definitely think they should keep it.”

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dulwichdiverter · 4 years

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Like a Rolling Stone

WORDS: SEAMUS HASSON; PHOTO: PAUL STAFFORD

Even in the context of a 40-year career as a music journalist, critic and author of no fewer than 20 biographies, 2019 has been an exciting year for Patrick Humphries.

He is currently promoting his new book about the Rolling Stones – titled Rolling Stones 69 – and has penned another called Cradle of Writers, a homage to five different authors who attended Dulwich College.

As a former pupil of the famous public school himself, the book has been a labour of love for Patrick as well as an opportunity to reacquaint himself with some old faces.

I met up with him for a drink at the East Dulwich Tavern to discuss both of his latest literary offerings, as well as his fascinating career in journalism.

I start by asking him why, after so many years in the trade, he waited until now to write a book about the Rolling Stones.

“I’d been writing about music since 1976,” he says, “but I’d never written about the Stones in any detail. I thought, ‘There’s no point doing another biography, there’s already so much out there.’”

Instead, Patrick’s book focuses primarily on one key year in the life of the band – 1969. It was, he feels, the most interesting period in their history, characterised by controversies and triumphs.

“I was interested in the 50th anniversary,” he explains. “I think Let It Bleed is their best-ever album and there was this incredible concert in Hyde Park in July 1969, which I estimate was the largest gathering of people in London since the coronation.

“Honky Tonk Woman was one of their all-time classic singles, which came out at that time. Brian Jones, the founder member, died only two days before the Hyde Park concert and then they undertook this American tour.

“They hadn’t played America in three years and America had changed so much.”

Patrick describes the America that the Rolling Stones returned to as “having gone very dark”. The squealing fans and teenyboppers of their previous tour were less prevalent against a backdrop of protests against the ongoing Vietnam War and the Charles Manson murders.

After the unexpected success of Woodstock that August, the band were under pressure from the American underground press to play a free gig.

“They were at the top of their game and the tour was well received,” Patrick says.

“They were still seen as rebels and the outlaw guys – it was long before they started hobnobbing with Princess Margaret – so they were keen to do it.”

The plug was pulled on the venue that the band had originally lined up for the gig, forcing them to rearrange it at the last minute.

“They ended up at this place called Altamont, it was policed by the Hells Angels and these were vicious, nasty guys,” Patrick says.

At the gig, a young fan was stabbed to death right in front of the stage. “It can all be seen in the film Gimme Shelter,” he says.

“I thought in terms of 12 months in the life of a rock and roll band, that’s pretty incident-packed.”

Reviews of the book certainly concur. Mojo gave it a “nice four-star review”, while Long Live Vinyl magazine awarded it a strong eight out of 10. Even the Spectator has been getting in on the act with a very positive write-up. “I mean, go figure,” Patrick says in a mock-surprise tone.

Patrick was born in Lewisham and apart from a brief spell in Scotland as a youngster, he has lived around south London all his life.

He attended Dulwich College between 1963 and 1969. Halfway through his time there his life took an unexpected and difficult turn.

“I lost my leg to cancer in 1966, which interrupted my schooling. I wasn’t doing very well anyway so I left with two O-levels,” he says.

On leaving school Patrick spent some years working for a government department, and his route into the world of music journalism was unconventional.

An avid pop fan and consumer of the music weeklies, he answered a now famous advert in the NME, which stated: “Hip young gunslingers wanted.”

His reply earned him a regular freelance gig with what was then a national institution. The magazine also took on Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill at the same time.

“They [the NME] knew something was in the air,” Patrick says.

“They knew that the days of Genesis and Yes and Led Zeppelin and all of these big bands playing 20,000, 30,000-seat shows had gone and there needed to be a kick up the arse and that was punk rock.

“And, of course they [Tony and Julie] had their finger right on the pulse, so that was my time at the NME.

“The offices were on the 22nd floor or something of the King’s Reach Tower and they used to go up in the lift with all these people from Yachting World and Country Life.

“I remember Tony and Julie put the filing cabinets and lockers in a square and put barbed wire around them to keep the bloody hippies out. It was very exciting.”

After a couple of years freelancing at the NME, an opportunity came up to join the staff at Melody Maker, the other leading music weekly at the time.

“I got offered the job when I was in my late 20s and I thought, ‘Do I stay with security and the civil service or do I take a bit of a punt and go into rock and roll?’

“I’d always loved music and I went with the Melody Maker.”

While there, he was thrown into the deep end at a weekly magazine, working to tight deadlines and writing about some of the music world’s biggest stars.

He has, it transpires, interviewed three of the four Beatles – only missing John Lennon by a couple of weeks.

“I had a couple of good years [at Melody Maker] but unfortunately musically things had moved on,” he says.

“Punk had been and gone, it had blazed brightly very briefly and then the New Romantics came along, and I had to go and review people like Haircut 100.

“I think when I got to 40 – I was on Vox magazine then – I realised I wasn’t recognising the likes of Oasis or Blur, but I had enough musical history and musical heritage to write about.”

As well as Rolling Stones 69, Patrick has written a number of other critically acclaimed books about music. His first was about a band called Fairport Convention, whom he describes as a sort of folk/rock band of the late 1960s.

That was followed up by a book on Simon & Garfunkel, which came about after a chance meeting with a publisher.

He has also covered the likes of Elvis, Nick Drake, The Beatles, Lonnie Donegan, Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen and his all-time hero – Bob Dylan.

“Dylan, I mean he’s virtually Canadian, he comes from right up in the Canadian border and he’s this kid with, you know, not a great education but he was very bright and he just wrote these incredible songs,” Patrick says.

“I’ve never met him, although he brushed against this shoulder once,” he says, pointing to his left.

“It’s not as tragic as it sounds,” he adds. “I was at a press conference and he was making his way to the stage but that’s the closest I’ve been to him.”

Patrick’s easy-going nature has in the past disarmed some of rock and roll’s most difficult characters, including the notoriously moody Velvet Underground singer Lou Reed.

Despite a difficult start to an interview where Reed stated his definition of abject misery was “speaking to an English journalist”, the two eventually bonded over a shared knowledge of the author Raymond Chandler. Reed even requested Patrick for a subsequent interview some years later.

Interestingly Chandler is one of the authors Patrick has featured in his other 2019 book release – Cradle of Writers.

Along with four other authors – PG Wodehouse, AEW Mason, Dennis Wheatley and CS Forester – the book is a celebration of Dulwich College’s rich literary history and its publication coincides with the 400th anniversary of the school.

“I spent about a year on that and it made a really nice change, because rather than trying to track down someone who played bass on the second Nick Drake album, you’re doing deep research into writers whose work you admired,” Patrick says.

“It was a bit weird going back to my old history master Terry Walsh, who died earlier this year unfortunately. He was a very good history master, but he used to terrify me when I was at school.

“We ended up going for drinks in the Alleyn’s Head and I was like, ‘Let me get you a drink Terry.’ It was a lovely book to do actually.”

So, after such an eventful year, does he have any further ambitions left to fulfil?

“If I went home and found a message from Bob Dylan on my answer machine, my life would be complete,” he says with a smile.

Rolling Stones 69 and Cradle of Writers are both out now and available to order or buy in all good bookshops

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saadullah-faisal-world · 5 years

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Human remains and personal belongings were still scattered across the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash a month after it happened, a relative of one of the victims has claimed. The London-based relative, whose sister died in the crash, told The Telegraph she was "horrified" to discover "what appeared to be an arm and a fragment of bone" when she visited the spot where 157 people lost their lives in March. She shared photographs showing children's shoes and other personal effects lying uncollected on the ground, taken 28 days after the tragedy, she said. The relative, who does not want to be identified, also claimed the site wasn't properly secured with gaps in the perimeter allowing people and animals to "freely pass by" where the tragedy took place. "We're still barely managing to believe what's happened but on top of the tragedy to have also no respect at all to the families and the victims and have those items left on the land... it's outrageous," she said. The photos shared with The Telegraph show clothes and other personal belongings at the crash site The claims raise serious questions about how the Ethiopian authorities have managed the aftermath of the tragedy and whether the investigation is as thorough as it could be. Contacted by this newspaper, the Ethiopian embassies in both the UK and the US declined to comment. The horror has added to a build up of frustration among victims' families following the two recent airline tragedies involving the Boeing 737 Max plane. Victims of Indonesia's Lion Air crash, the first of the two involving the model, have launched legal action against the American aviation manufacturer for the wrongful death of their loved ones. Among them is Rini Soegiyono, whose younger sister Niar, 39, was killed along with her state prosecutor husband Andri Wiranofa, 41, on the flight on October 29. Ms Soegiyono, 52, who has been left to raise her nieces, aged just 11 and seven, believes Boeing owes her family and the others taking legal action an explanation for what went wrong. "The world is also waiting so it is important to know so that it will not happen again. We don’t want any other family to have to go through what we are going through,” she told The Telegraph. “We screamed, we screamed to the world. We had no experience before, we never thought that it will happen to us, to our family… because at that time, Boeing said that the plane is safe.” The growing number of Indonesian litigants are now fighting for the right to have their cases heard in US courts, rather than in Indonesia, where victim compensation is likely to be much lower. A decision on whether that right will be granted is imminent. Divers recovered the black box from the wreckage of the Lion Air plane Credit: Adek Berry/AFP An apology issued earlier this month by Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s CEO, for the double tragedy, and his admission that a preliminary investigation into the Ethiopian crash revealed that both incidents involved similar errors in automated flight systems, gave victims’ families renewed hopes for justice. But Brian Kabateck, a high-profile California-based lawyer working on behalf of a dozen Indonesian families including Ms Soegiyono’s, said that Boeing owes the crash victims “much more than sympathy,” adding: “They deserve their day in a United States courtroom.” Lion Air flight 610 disappeared from the radar screens 12 minutes after take-off and all 189 passengers and crew were lost. Less than five months later, on March 10, a second Boeing 737 Max jet, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, nosedived into a field six minutes after take-off from Addis Ababa leaving no survivors. Even after the second crash, Boeing insisted that the 737 MAX was safe, and “was willing to continue to gamble with the lives of the flying public” while furiously working behind the scenes on a software fix, Mr Kabateck alleged. Boeing declined to comment on the current litigation, referring The Telegraph to general public statements on its website. For the families of the Ethiopian Airlines victims, the ordeal continues as they await reassurances that everything possible has been done to recover the personal belongings of their loved ones. More than 150 people were killed in the Ethiopian Airlines crash Credit: Eduardo Soteras/AFP The relative said she travelled to the crash site on April 7, almost a month after the tragedy, to be put at ease that the site had been thoroughly excavated after seeing pictures of chaotic scenes in the media. But to her dismay, she claimed the area was not properly secured and victims' belongings had been left unattended and exposed to the elements. She described the personal horror of flicking through the debris looking for a trace of her sister, a young aid worker. "I spent almost two hours looking for anything belonging to my sister and that's the last thing I would wish for anybody. I literally searched every single spot to find something pertaining to her," she told The Telegraph. "We found what we believe to be remains of human bones, which were then handed over to the guards in a military tent, just outside the site of the crash," she said. She added that to her shock the guards simply used a plastic bag lying on the ground to remove them, ignoring the "minimum standards and procedures" typically applied to the scene of a fatal accident. "I'm concerned that for them [the authorities] the search is finished. It is distressing to see that all the items that can mean the world to a suffering family are still on the ground, just waiting to be collected rather than being searched for," she said. "There's a risk for the families of not retrieving anything from their loved ones' belongings."

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beautytipsfor · 5 years

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Frustration builds for Boeing Max plane crash families as they fight to have lawsuits heard in US courts

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newsfundastuff · 5 years

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