How to turn a couple of dimes in to a small fortune? Take a spin...

A routine spin inside a Sacramento casino exploded into a jaw-dropping $381,009 payday after a lucky gambler cracked a massive progressive jackpot on a 10-cent slot machine. The anonymous player was betting just $8.80 on the Dancing Drums game when the machine suddenly lit up with the life-changing hit.

Officials at Thunder Valley Casino Resort confirmed the huge score came from the slot’s climbing progressive meter, the kind that keeps growing until one lucky player finally brings the house down. 

“It can create memories that last a lifetime,” Thunder Valley General Manager Dawn Clayton told The Sacramento Bee, adding that jackpots like the one hit Saturday bring “incredible energy and excitement to the entire casino.” 

 

The Lincoln resort, located about 30 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento, has been on a heater this spring with a string of eye-popping payouts. 

Thunder Valley boasts roughly 3,500 slot and video machines, around 90 table games, a 408-room hotel and a 4,500-seat concert venue, all fueling the nonstop casino buzz.

 

A stretch of credulity on 'The View'...

Disney and ABC are asking the Federal Communications Commission to keep “The View” classified as a bona fide news interview program. That matters because the label helps the show stay exempt from the equal time rule, which can force broadcasters to give political candidates similar airtime in certain cases.

The company filed the request earlier this month on behalf of ABC and its Houston station KTRK-TV. Disney says the long-running daytime show belongs in the same category as programs like “Meet the Press” and “Face the Nation,” which mix interviews, political discussion and news analysis.

The equal time rule comes from the Communications Act of 1934 and was written to stop broadcasters from tilting the playing field with the public airwaves. In simple terms, if a station gives one candidate time on a non-news program, it may have to offer the same opportunity to other candidates.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is not buying Disney’s argument. He said a show does not qualify as bona fide news if it is being used for partisan purposes, and he questioned whether “The View” meets the standard the agency uses for true news programming.

 

Disney says the show has had the exemption for more than 20 years and warns that changing the rule now could upset settled law and chill protected speech. The dispute also comes after years of tension between President Donald Trump and people associated with the show.

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Sources: Facebook Florida Hillbilly | UPI | FCC

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DEWALT 20V MAX Cordless Drill and Impact Driver, Power Tool 

Combo Kit with 2 Batteries and Charger - still only $ 149.00.

They're $ 199.00 at Walmart and Home Depot...

Click on the photo for ordering information

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What's your beef - and other stupid questions...

 

According to Forbes, A historic cattle shortage has pushed wholesale beef to record levels, slaughtering steakhouses from Texas barbecue institutions to high-end Midwest chains - though lower-cost players like Texas Roadhouse and Outback Steakhouse are growing through the squeeze.

Steak prices spiked 17% to an average $13.02 per pound in one year, and ground beef hit a record $6.90 per pound, up 19% from the year prior, according to April data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The U.S. cattle herd has fallen to a 75-year low,  driven by drought, labor shortages, dwindling ranch land and high operational costs. Wholesale brisket in Texas is up roughly 28% year-over-year, with take-out BBQ brisket now $35 per pound.

In my own experience, I have a good ribeye steak maybe once or twice a month as a treat to myself. At an average of almost $20 a pound, it's now rivaling lobster - which I haven't had in ten years, at least. What are you guys doing with steaks?

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I think it's about time to re-introduce some 

Freak Brothers back in to the lexicon.

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Pope Leo XIV used the first encyclical of his pontificate, published in Rome on Monday, to call for the disarmament of artificial intelligence.

 

The 245-paragraph document, titled Magnifica humanitas, frames AI as a technology that has begun to dominate the people it was built to serve, and argues that disarming it means restoring the moral primacy of the human over the algorithm. 

(I will touch on this at a later time in a way 

that's almost guaranteed to start a shit storm.)

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An Illinois couple was on their way to elope in the Smoky Mountains when the groom, Bob Hespen, suggested to his fiancée, Melanie Curtis, that they get married at a Buc-ee’s instead. “I proposed it as a joke,” Hespen said. “And I loved it,” Curtis said. “This was just very on-brand for us.”

The bride added that she “never had an interest in wasting tens of thousands on a traditional wedding,” and had settled on eloping in the Smokies. She said she felt overwhelmed by the number of elopement services in the area, so when Hespen suggested Buc-ee’s, she jumped at the chance. “It was fun, lighthearted and unique, which are also some of my favorite qualities of Bob. And unlike a traditional wedding, ours was zero stress and drama-free,” Curtis said. Curtis then put out a post on an East Tennessee bridal group looking for someone to officiate.

Curtis said she received some interesting offers – including from a ventriloquist who asked to officiate with a puppet. Curtis and Hespen settled on Sammy Solomon from the New Market Fire Department. The couple held the short ceremony at a Buc-ee’s gas station in Sevierville, Tennessee.

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These are the same ones I have in my kitchen.

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General H. Norman Schwarzkopf stood at the head of one of the largest military coalitions assembled since World War II. More than 540,000 coalition troops from multiple nations were mobilized after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The stakes were enormous, and the world was watching closely.

Schwarzkopf understood what failure would mean - a prolonged war, rising casualties, and a fragile coalition that could collapse under public pressure. Every decision had global consequences.

So the plan he approved was designed to avoid exactly that. Before any ground advance, coalition forces carried out weeks of intense air strikes that systematically targeted Iraqi command centers, supply lines, and defenses. The goal was to weaken the enemy long before ground troops moved in.

Then came the main operation. Instead of a direct frontal assault, Schwarzkopf executed a wide flanking maneuver that became known as the “left hook.” While Iraqi forces expected an attack from the south, coalition armored units moved rapidly through the desert to the west, circling around and striking from behind. The maneuver was fast, coordinated, and overwhelming.

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 Birthday or Anniversary coming up?

Here's a great idea for a gift for her

Click on the picture for more information on this unique pairing.

It's simple yet elegant - and comes to you with free shipping!

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/BjacksonJewelry

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I don't need a reason to include them here.

I'm sure it's okay with you...

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That is one helluva great price.

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Foggy PED-Xing...

 
Fog is simply a cloud that touches the ground. It forms when air cools to its dew point - the temperature at which the air can no longer hold moisture as a gas. This causes invisible water vapor to condense into tiny, floating water droplets. Depending on the local weather and geography, fog is created in a few specific ways.

Radiation Fog: Forms on clear, calm nights when the ground radiates heat into the atmosphere. The cooling ground chills the air above it to the dew point.

Advection Fog: Created when warm, humid air moves over a colder surface (like cold ocean water or snow). This is very common along coastlines.

Evaporation (Steam) Fog: Happens when cold air passes over warmer water. The warmer water evaporates moisture into the cold air until it saturates and condenses.

Upslope Fog: Occurs when moist air is pushed up a hill or mountain by the wind. As it rises, the air expands and cools, forcing condensation.

Valley Fog: Cold, heavy air sinks into a valley, trapping moisture. It often forms during the winter and can last for days.

Talk is cheap...

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Here's a great idea for a gift for her -

and you don't need a reason to buy it for her... 

Click on the picture for more information onwhat's available today.

They're all simple yet elegant - and everything comes to you with free shipping!

 https://www.etsy.com/shop/BjacksonJewelry

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Florida before Disney was a different place...

Before I-95. Before Disney. Before the snowbirds and the subdivisions, there was a Florida that moved at a different speed. In the 1950s, US Highway 1 was the spine of Florida. Families drove it from Jacksonville to Key West, stopping at roadside motels with neon signs and kidney-shaped pools. These places had names like "The Flamingo," "The Sea Breeze," and "The Palms." They charged $6 a night and they were full every weekend.

By 1965, the interstate system had bypassed most of them. By 1975, half were shuttered. By 1990, most had been demolished or converted into something unrecognizable. The Florida that longtime residents remember, the one their parents drove them through in station wagons with the windows down, was quietly erased one motel at a time.

Nobody announced it. Nobody mourned it publicly. It just disappeared.

What do you remember about old Florida? Drop a comment. 

 

Thanks to Florida Hillbilly for the inspriration.

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Sailors who knew how to sail - a submarine? Who knew...

In 1921, the USS R-14 left Pearl Harbor on a straightforward mission: find a missing tugboat somewhere in the vast Pacific Ocean. About 100 miles out, the submarine ran out of fuel. The diesel engines shut down. The batteries began draining. Radio communication went silent. The vessel sat in open ocean with limited food, no mechanical power, and no realistic prospect of anyone knowing exactly where to look for them.

Most crews in that situation would have done one thing: wait and hope. The crew of the R-14 decided to try something else. They looked at what they had. Mattress covers. Blankets. Spare canvas from the boat's interior. Poles. The periscope supports mounted on the deck. None of it was designed for what they were about to attempt. None of it needed to be. They were not building something elegant. They were building something that worked.

They fashioned makeshift sails from the fabric, mounted them onto poles and rigged them to the periscope supports, and turned a vessel specifically engineered to operate underwater using mechanical propulsion into something that had not existed before and has not existed since: a sailing submarine. The wind caught the sails. The R-14 began to move.

 

It was not fast. It was not graceful. A submarine is not built with hydrodynamics in mind for surface sailing, and the improvised rigging would not have impressed anyone who knew anything about seamanship. But it moved. Slowly, steadily, in the right direction.

The crew took turns managing the sails and navigating their course back toward Hawaii. They did this for five days. Five days of coaxing a submarine across the Pacific using nothing but wind, ingenuity, and the stubborn refusal to accept that they were stuck.

On the fifth day, the USS R-14 returned to Pearl Harbor under sail power.

The mission to find the missing tugboat had not been completed. But every man on board had come home, and they had done it using mattress covers and determination A submarine is not a sailboat. But 100 miles from Hawaii, with the engines dead and the radio silent and the ocean stretching out in every direction, close enough turned out to be exactly enough. They sailed home. Five days. One improvised rig. No fuel required.

The USS R-14 remains, by any reasonable measure, the only submarine in the history of naval warfare to return to port under sail. It is unlikely to be surpassed.

The three Military Holidays...

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Here's a great gift idea...

 

Click on the picture for more information on this lovely bracelet
It's only $ 35.00 - and it comes to you with free shipping!

https://www.etsy.com/shop/BjacksonJewelry

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I want you to meet Smokey...

Smoky was found in a foxhole in New Guinea in Feb 1944. The American thought she must have been a Japanese soldier's dog, but when he took her to a POW camp, they found out she didn't understand commands in Japanese of English. The soldier sold Smoky to Cpl. William Wynne of Cleveland OH for 2 dollars Australian.

Over the next two years Wynne carried Smoky in his backpack, fought in the jungles of Rock Island and New Guinea, flew 12 air/sea rescue, She survived 150 air raids on New Guinea and made it through a typhoon at Okinawa, made a combat jump in Lingayen Gulf, Luzon, in a parachute made for her. She would warn G.I's of incoming artillery and was dubbed the "angel from a foxhole."

Early in retaking the Philippines combat engineers were setting up a telegraph line to an airfield. The joints collapsed filling them in with sand. Cpl. Wynne knew that Smoky could climb through the pipe with a new line and that is what she did. Smoky's work saved approximately 250 ground crewmen from having to move around and keep operational 40 fighters and reconnaissance planes, while a construction detail dug up the taxiway, placing the men and the planes in danger from enemy bombings. What would have been a dangerous three-day digging task to place the wire was instead completed in minutes.

In her down time she preformed tricks with the Special Services to improve the moral of the troops and visited hospitals in Australia and Korea. Visiting with the sick and wounded, she became the first recorded "therapy dog".

After the war she became a sensation back int the states, had a live TV show, and often visited Veterans hospitals. Smoky's work as a therapy dog continued for 12 years. Wynne had Smokey 14 years before she passed away. He buried her in a 30 caliber ammo box in Rocky River Reservation, Ohio.

Smoky, the smallest war hero weighing in at 4 lbs even and standing 7 inches tall.

Pictures copyrighted by William A. Wynne (1996) and used by permission. 

Read the book "Yorkie Doodle Dandy" (1996) by William Wynne!

A Memorial Day HillBetty for ya...

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A good wallet for under 22 bucks? 

I got one - they're great. Click here...
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Ban 'em if they can't take a toke...

In a world-class example of insane logic, France’s health ministry has banned a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches, and violators of the law could face a nearly half-million-dollar fine and years in jail.

The prohibition extends to the use, acquisition, possession and sale of oral nicotine products such as pouches and gum lozenges. Those violating the law could be penalized by up to five years in prison and a $436,600 fine.

 

 

Now, it was my understanding that these things serve two purposes - One, that you can still get a nicotine buzz in places where they won't let you smoke, and TWO - more importantly - I has assumed these were used by people - like me - who want to quit smoking. How much sense does that make? None. Of course. C'est la France, ça. C'est la vie...

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If you're trying to quit yourself,

these may make it a lot easier...

Click  on the package for ordering information

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It is kinda stupid, isn't it...

Click on the screen cap to listen for free...

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Do you listen to music in the

 background while you're on your

 computer? I do, and I have

 these. Great sound and only 

38 bucks. Helluva deal.

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This is news for those who skeeve public toilet seats...

There are many unspoken, strange things in a public restroom  - the gaps in toilet seats are one of them. And while you might think it’s a manufacturing error, there’s actually a very real, legal reason why public toilet seats look the way they do compared to your porcelain throne at home.

Since 1955, that center gap in a public toilet seat has been required in every public restroom across the country, thanks to the American Standard National Plumbing Code, which states, “Water closets shall be equipped with seats of smooth non-absorbent material. All seats of water closets provided for public use shall be of the open-front type.”

According to one toilet expert who will remain un-named, “A closed oval seat creates a continuous surface where skin presses against plastic that thousands of strangers have already sat on. Removing the front section eliminates that contact zone entirely. Fewer shared square inches, fewer bacterial transfer points between users.”

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Do you have gout like I do?

 

Black cherry concentrate does one thing, and only one thing. It eliminates Uric

 Acid in your system - that's all it does. And it works better  than any drug any

 doctor can prescribe. If you have gout, buy a bottle and take two a day, that's all.

 See for yourself if it doesn't work. Trust me - it does. Click the picture.
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