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It is an odd, odd world out there
Poor, poor Gaylord.
The ostrich was just hanging out at his home near San Francisco one night when four drunken youths trespassed in to check out the wonderful world of ostriches. Scared, Gaylord attacked the two young men in the group — Timothy McKevitt, 19, and Jonathan Porter, 21. Gaylord reportedly kicked McKevitt in the ribs and knocked him over, and Porter suffered scrapes and bruises, according to a Reuters report on Monday, citing coverage from the San Francisco Chronicle.
It’s kind of funny, when you think about it. Two young guys trying to be hotshots in front of two young girls, and an ostrich attacks them out of fear. Heck, I would have laughed had I seen it happen. And the girls found it funny, too, as they reportedly laughed pretty hard, as well.
And that’s when things got bad for poor Gaylord.
Steaming that they had been embarrassed in front of the ladies by a flightless bird, the two morons, um, young men, returned to the ostrich ranch armed with a shotgun and rifle and reportedly fired seven shots into Gaylord, taking his life.
“The whole thing is about male pride,” said prosecutor Steve Wagstaffe.
And alcohol, testosterone, ignorance, brains filled with jelly krimpets, misplaced machismo, thought processes that border on the criminally insane and self-respect that adds up to about two pounds of smoldering ...
But I digress.
For their troubles, McKevitt was sentenced to five months in jail and Porter seven months. Who’s laughing now?
Man, sometimes research projects can just drive me crazy. University College London recently conducted a study on the link between bad relationships and heart attacks. The study, I’m supposing, was to conclude whether or not an individual can indeed die from a “broken heart.”
Well, as Reuters reported (don’t they report on the oddest stories?), the study of 9,000 British civil servants revealed that bad personal relationships raised the chances of a heart attack or chest pain by 34 percent when compared to people with good personal relationships.
So, um, stress can cause a person heart problems? Seems I’ve already heard that before — like maybe a million times.
“A person’s heart condition seems to be influenced by negative intimate relationships,” researchers wrote, and Reuters happily quoted. “We showed that the negative aspects of close relationships ... are associated with coronary heart disease.”
Really? How about stress at work? Or a sick family member? Or rising bills? Haven’t we heard for years that stress is bad for your heart? And, what are we supposed to do with this information? Avoid relationships? Dump our spouses if we have an argument?
Couldn’t this money have been better put to use, say, locking up McKevitt and Porter for longer than a combined year?
It would seem that Reuters was on a role the other day, as far as stories that raised my hackles. In fact, as I’m sitting here writing this, I’m wondering if it was my bad mood in general this particular day that got me ranting about these stories, or if they’re really that offputting. Let me offer one more from their service, and let you decide for yourselves.
You know what, I’m just going to quote the lede sentence in this story, and see if it causes the same reaction for you that it did for me.
“Former Miss USA Tara Conner, who nearly lost her title for alcohol abuse, is joining several other beauty queens on a new MTV reality show that follows what happens to the pageant winners when their crowns come off.”
First off, from the way it’s worded, I had to question whether Conner lost her crown as beauty queen, or for winning some kind of alcohol abuse contest. Personally, I was never invited to such a contest, so I have to question the credentials of the entrants, but that’s neither here nor there.
My second problem with this was that it was yet another sojourn into the insipid. A reality show based on a handful of former beauty queens living in a high-rise apartment in New York City for a year seems to be about as mentally stimulating as watching two dogs take a nap after eating a big bowl of table scraps.
What are we supposed to be watching here? Pretty girls talk about their hair? Well, maybe the voyeuristic thrill to the show will be watching them simultaneously melt down and succumb to the tempations of the Big Apple. Nope, they’re going to be having a very respected and responsible individual dropping by from time to time to keep an eye on them.
Donald Trump.
Isn’t that similar to having a hyena guard a room of gazelles? Or Shaun Lambert defending a plate of corn dogs? Or Sussex County Council putting together a comprehensive land-use plan?
And, more over, why do I care?
Start the bidding ... well, soon
There certainly seems to be a problem around us regarding governmental bidding processes.
As state officials prepare to begin anew the bidding process for the construction of a new Indian River Inlet Bridge, county officials are now setting into motion a new bidding process for work on the expansion of the South Coastal Library. Both entities appeared to make the logical decision in regards to re-opening the bidding, but there comes a time when people have to ask how these situations got so out-of-hand.
We’ve written at length about the bidding situation for the new bridge, and this week we reported on how the new bridge contract is expected to be awarded within a year. As for the library expansion, the snag in the bidding appears to be more of an administrative oversight that is pretty harmless, but it still was an infraction of Sussex County governmental rules.
According to the county’s bidding procedure guidelines, bidders on a project must include a list of the subcontractors who will work on said project. The lowest bidder on the library expansion project, Nason Construction, apparently did not include that list with their bid, and since the oversight was pointed out by the second-lowest bidder on the project, Gillis Gilkerson Inc., Sussex County Council decided it was best to avoid possible litigation and simply re-open the bidding.
Wise choice. Scary oversight.
All three bids the first go-around came in under the $5 million budgeted for work on the library’s expansion, but there’s no guarantee that will happen again. And, even if they do come in under budget, and can get the project completed in a reasonable amount of time, this is still a somewhat embarrassing situation.
There was nothing done maliciously by the Sussex County government in this situation, and it would be a real stretch to even call this a major mistake. It was simply an administrative oversight that could have potential to become a sticky legal situation down the road.
Sussex County made the right decision, and we don’t see this as being a major delay in time or very costly remedy. However, these bids have to be monitored better.
Shorter dunes would be short-sighted
Editor:
It is thrilling to see the progress being made in the beach and dune construction at Bethany Beach. For the first time in many years, people will be able to enjoy beach activities and have reasonable assurance that our town will not be washed away by a storm.
Some people are upset that they cannot see the surf hitting the beach from a spot on the boardwalk, and they are lobbying the authorities to lower the dunes so they can see more. These attempts are seriously misguided.
While it is true that we cannot see the surf hitting the beach from the boardwalk, even a short person can see the ocean from there, and a brief walk over the dunes gives a full panorama view. Some people got used to sitting on the boardwalk and watching the surf because the beach was covered with water and they could not even sit out there.
The beach reconstruction project was well planned, and is being well executed. The engineering studies that determined the height of the dunes were done by professionals working to protect our community. The existence of the dunes keeps the usable beach in place and helps keep it from being washed away.
The last thing we need to do is to diminish this protection, especially before settling, compaction from rain and wind erosion affect the height of the dunes.
We are so fortunate to have this project providing its many benefits — let’s not mess it up by a short-sighted action to reduce the dunes.
Lawrence R. Sherman
Bethany Beach, and Lancaster, Pa.
Big dunes a good thing in Bethany Beach
Editor:
I knew this would happen. In fact, I warned the town two years ago that there would be people complaining because they would not be able to see over the dunes.
Apparently, these people have no concern that we might be hit by a hurricane. They also have no sense of anything environmental, which I also said two years ago when I attempted to give information to the town on how places in California handled a growing dune.
This dune will grow even larger, we hope, and plans must be in place, as they have in California, for “drawbridges” to be placed over the dune level for those visiting the beach and those accessing the beach from their beachfront homes. These drawbridges are engineered so that they can be raised higher as the dune level grows higher.
Everyone in town was so darn desperate for this beach replenishment. No one seemed to care about the dune part of the equation.
Having been a rescuer in New Orleans during hurricanes, and in other locales on the East Coast, I can tell you that even if you don’t care about the environment, you had better care more about you and your family’s safety, than you whine about not being able to directly see the ocean.
Carol E. McCormick
Bethany Beach
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