Memories are what make us feel old...

It was 35 years age today that I opened my first bar/restaurant in 

Cruz Bay on St. John in the US Virgin Islands.  A wise old sage was offered this perfect truth: "Ya know how to make a small fortune in the islands? 

Easy - start with a big one and open a restaurant"...

Opening night. To say we drank a lot 

would be a mild understatement.

 ...  

Click here for more information.

...  

 

...  

And not a single one of them looked like her...

As Marilyn Monroe’s landmark birthday approaches, fans celebrated the legendary blonde bombshell by attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of Marilyn Monroe look-alikes.

Over an estimated thousand people showed up in Palm Springs Saturday to honor the glamorous movie legend ahead of what would have been her 100th birthday on June 1. The goal was pass the current record - of 254 Marilyns in one place set in 2020 - and fill the streets with a “sea of white dresses and blonde curls,” per the website for “Marilyn 100 A Centennial Celebration and World Record Attempt.”

 

Both men and women turned up rocking either platinum blonde hair or big blonde wigs for the big event. The sea of blonde contestants filled the downtown area, with hundreds wearing a replica of Monroe’s iconic white halter style dress that she wore in the 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch.”

Obviously, I get confused easily. Don't you?

 Why does the media keep referring to these jerkoffs 

as 'protestors'? They aren't. They're paid agitators...  

This was the scene again last night in Newark. These people are definitely not peaceful protestors.

A 'paid agitator' is a term used to describe an individual who is paid to participate in public demonstrations, protests, or rallies to disrupt the event, incite violence, or sway public opinion. While the term is frequently invoked in political discourse to discredit demonstrators, evidence of coordinated paid agitation is exceptionally rare because no one digs deep enough to find the facts behind the funding.

Politicians and public figures often claim that the participants in a protest are not genuine grassroots activists, but rather "professional" or "outside" agitators paid by opposing organizations, political campaigns, or foreign actors. Investigations into these claims - such as those by fact-checkers and news organizations covering recent U.S. demonstrations - have frequently found that allegations of widespread paid agitation are unsupported, simply because they purposely don't dig deep enough.  While genuine, politically motivated "paid agitators" are considered a myth by the media, there are legitimate businesses - like Crowds on Demand - that hire actors or brand ambassadors to stage corporate PR stunts, attend light-hearted flash mobs, or fill seats at entirely peaceful, permitted advocacy. What's to say an under-the radar actor like George Soros isn't funding these activities?

...  

...  

When pleasing the eye is as important as function, we can create some spectacular things, like these doors that look like pulled curtains - but they’re bronze.

This is the west portal of St. Jacobi Church in Hamburg, created in 1966 by sculptor Jürgen Weber. Set within the historic church’s stone entrance, the bronze doors fold like heavy fabric while carrying detailed relief scenes across their surface.

...  

...  

At the peak of ‘King of Cocaine’ Pablo Escobar’s reign, it’s claimed he was raking in $420million every week from the trade – almost $22billion a year.

There was so much cash it was impossible for his cartel to launder it quickly enough, so he had to resort to stashing it in unlikely places including derelict warehouses. 

...  

Yeah - they don't make ads like they used to...

...  

You walk out of the bar and this breaks out in front of you. Tell me you don't whip out your phone and trry to control your laughter while you're filming it.

... 

...  

Carl’s Jr. is closing nearly 50 locations across California in a major bloodbath triggered largely by the state’s punishing $20+ minimum wage and hostile business environment. The fast-food chain’s parent company, CKE Restaurants, is liquidating dozens of underperforming stores as skyrocketing labor costs, regulations, theft, and insurance premiums make it impossible to stay profitable.

California’s aggressive wage hikes, passed under Gavin Newsom, have forced chains to cut hours, raise prices, and close locations — with Carl’s Jr. now joining the growing list of brands pulling back from the state.

Insiders say many of these stores simply could no longer turn a profit after repeated wage increases and other progressive policies that punish success and reward dysfunction. This latest round of closures will leave thousands of Californians without jobs and many communities with fewer affordable dining options.

...  

...  

Daily Variety reports that Christopher Nolan's upcoming blockbuster movie Odyssey cast a black actress as Helen of Troy and a trans-gender as Achilles. It never ends. 

 

As long as we're re-writing history, I just saw an inspirational photo of 

Neil Armstrong planting the Confederate flag on the Moon. 

...  

...  

In 1964, Walt Disney didn't buy land. He stole it through silence. Using more than 30 shell companies with names like "Reedy Creek Ranch" and "Latin American Development," Disney's agents fanned out across Central Florida and quietly purchased over 27,000 acres of swamp, scrubland, and family farms - without ever revealing who the real buyer was.

Farmers sold for as little as $80 to $200 per acre. They had no idea they were negotiating with the most powerful entertainment company in the world. By the time the secret leaked in October 1965, it was over. The land was gone. The price had already been set.

One family, the Demetree brothers, unknowingly sold a parcel that would become the heart of Walt Disney World. They got a fair price for swampland. Disney got a kingdom.

The state of Florida then handed Disney something no private company had ever received: its own government. The Reedy Creek Improvement District gave Disney the power of a county - to build roads, issue bonds, and govern 25,000 acres without a single public vote.

Did they teach you about what a nice guy Uncle Walt was in school? 

Yeah, me neither...

...    

...  

...  

Did you ever notice that in some cultures and some religions, 

pallbearers lift the casket up on to their shoulders?

Now you know why...

...  

In the 1970s, workplace protests were the style of the times. According to Jacobin, there were 5,716 strikes involving 3 million workers in the year 1970 alone, kicking off a decade of labor revolt, often led by young people who refused to accept the status quo.

It was against this backdrop that Playboy Club Bunnies in Chicago walked off the job in June 1975. On a Wednesday, the club Bunnies went on strike for more fair working conditions and equality in the clubs. Their demands were simple: they were pushing back on unfair policies that banned them from using their full names on the job, dating club members, and from having a key to the club (the term for the cards club members carried to gain entry). As part of their cause, the women on strike wrote a letter to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner outlining their concern: “We love being Playboy Bunnies and most of the time we love you, but there are times when we think you are a Male Chauvinist Rabbit,” the letter read, according to an article about the 1975 strike by Patty Farmer in Playboy‘s November 2017 issue. 

...  

...  

When he was just 24 years old, Michelangelo carved the statue that made him famous: His Pietà debuted in St. Peter’s in Rome for the Holy Year of 1500. Thousands of pilgrims filed by and were amazed by what appeared to be a miraculous event carved out of marble yet unfolding before their eyes.

The word pietà means “pity,” and is the name of any work showing Mary tenderly mourning her dead son, Jesus.

Michelangelo, with his total mastery of the real world, captures the sadness of the moment. Mary gazes down on her crucified son. Christ’s lifeless right arm droops down, letting us know how heavy his corpse is. As Mary supports the body with her right hand, she turns her left hand upward, asking, “How could they do this to you?”

Michelangelo didn’t think of sculpting as creating a figure, but as simply freeing the God-made figure already in the marble. He’d launch himself into a project like this with an inspired passion, chipping away to find what God had put inside.

As realistic as this work is, its true power lies in the subtle “unreal” features. Life-size Christ looks childlike compared with larger-than-life Mary. Unnoticed at first, this makes a subliminal impression of Mary enfolding Jesus in her maternal love. Mary - the mother of a 33-year-old man - looks like a teenager. Christ’s body tilts diagonally down to the right, and Mary’s hem flows with it. Subconsciously, we feel the weight of this dead Savior sliding from her lap to the ground.

To appreciate the full impact of this scene, Michelangelo hoped you’d view his Pietà from close up, looking up at Mary’s face. Sadly, on May 21, 1972, a madman with a hammer entered St. Peter’s and began hacking away at the Pietà. The damage was repaired, but how people interact with this object of beauty was forever changed. It now sits behind a shield of bulletproof glass and is viewable only from a distance.

This is Michelangelo’s only signed work. The story goes that he overheard some pilgrims praising his Pietà, but saying it was done by a second-rate sculptor from a lesser city. Michelangelo was so enraged he grabbed his chisel and chipped an inscription in the ribbon running down Mary’s chest. It said, “This was made by Michelangelo Buonarroti of Florence.”

...  

 

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 on this bracelet.

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

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

...  

...  

Idyllic...

 

A small town in the country. Narrow streets, very little traffic. 

You know everyone by name. One store, a post office, two pubs. 

I could live there. Could you?

...  

...  

He must be one of my Goombahs...

 

Wanna see a lighthouse? Florida's your best shot...

Florida has more lighthouses per mile of coastline than almost any state in America, and the reason is written in the geography itself: Florida is a peninsula jutting 500 miles into the sea, surrounded on three sides by water - the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the west, and the Florida Straits to the south—with over 1,350 miles of coastline, more than any state except Alaska. 

Florida's coast is not a single continuous shoreline but a maze of barrier islands, sandbars, coral reefs, shallow bays, and the Florida Keys - a 120-mile island chain that required more lighthouses than any comparable stretch of American coastline because it sat directly in the path of every ship traveling between the Atlantic and the Gulf, and because the reefs that line the Keys destroyed ships by the hundreds before the lights went up.

The reason Florida needed so many lighthouses is the same reason Florida mattered so much in American maritime history. The Florida Straits and the Gulf Stream current made Florida's coast unavoidable for any vessel sailing from the Caribbean to the Atlantic seaboard or from the Gulf ports to the open ocean. Spanish treasure fleets, merchant ships, Navy vessels, passenger steamers—all of them had to navigate Florida's waters, and all of them faced the same dangers: shallow water that could ground a ship miles from shore, coral reefs invisible beneath the surface, hurricanes that struck without warning, and currents so strong they could push a vessel off course by miles in a single night. Before lighthouses, the Florida Keys alone claimed over 200 documented shipwrecks, and the actual number was almost certainly higher. 

 

The federal government recognized that Florida's economic future depended on whether ships could safely transit these waters, and beginning in the 1820s, it built lighthouse after lighthouse at every reef, every inlet, every rocky point where ships had already died.

...  

...  

Want a few likes? Act like a jerkoff and dive in...

Another tourist has made a mockery of Rome's Trevi Fountain by filming herself going for a swim at the historic monument for social media. The woman has been labelled as 'disrespectful' after she was seen taking off her shoes before entering the water. While onlookers appeared visibly frustrated, it wasn't long before security staff came over in a rage and demanded she get out. 

Footage taken by another tourist shows a guard pointing to the woman to remove herself from the water and shouting 'no' multiple times while waving his arms in a crossing motion. She was reportedly fined €500 ($587) by Rome's police for the stunt. 

Despite the confrontation, the trespasser continued to smirk and later took to social media to show off her antics. 

 

She later shared a video on TikTok doing laps in the water and recalled that police told her: 'Do you realise that you have just thrown yourself into the most famous monument in the world?' The woman said in the post that it was 'for that very reason' she had entered the fountain. 

Seattle's Mayor doesn't care that Starbucks dumped Seattle and moved 2,000 high-paying jobs to Red State Tennessee...

Starbucks just announced a major $100 million investment and a brand-new headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee — bringing 2,000 new jobs with an average salary of $125,000.

The move is a direct response to Washington state’s crushing business taxes, including the hated B&O tax that taxes revenue even when a company isn’t profitable. Tennessee has no state income tax and a much friendlier business climate.

Seattle’s far-left Mayor responded by calling for a boycott of Starbucks. Now questions are mounting - is this the beginning of Starbucks slowly abandoning its birthplace?  Will Seattle’s leadership finally wake up, or will more iconic companies follow Starbucks out the door?

It's estimated that a full 1/3 of all commercial properties in Seattle are now vacant. That estimate is actually spot-on for the office sector. Downtown Seattle’s office vacancy rate sits between 32% and 35%, making it one of the highest commercial vacancy rates in the United States. The surge in empty office space has wiped out billions in real estate value. Seattle’s top skyscrapers have lost about $3.7 billion in value since 2022, with major tech and financial hubs experiencing massive drops. 

 The vacancy crisis is uneven. While the downtown central business district is nearing 35% empty, certain submarkets like Pioneer Square are grappling with vacancies exceeding 50%. 

 The staggering amount of empty "Ghost Towers" has severely cut into city tax revenues. Local leaders, including Mayor Katie Wilson, have floated the idea of a commercial vacancy tax and incentives for office-to-residential conversions to revitalize the downtown core. 

 

Massive corporate employers in the area have re-evaluated their footprints. Companies like Amazon, Meta, and Expedia have shed or subleased over a million square feet of space as they cut back on pandemic-era office expansions.

 

The eyes on this HillBetty pose a threat - to your heart...

...  

...  

Thank him yourself - click the banner...

This Pennsyltucky Man sure looks like a Florida Man to me...

This looks like something straight outof the 'Florida Man Handbook'. 

A marital dispute in Pennsylvania took an extreme turn, resulting in the destruction of a large chunk of their house. According to local reports, 48-year-old Eric Pierwsza used an excavator to rip apart the rear of his family home in Butler County after a big night of drinking prompted an argument with his wife.

The damage to the house was so severe that investigators believe it has compromised the entire building’s structural integrity. The incident unfolded when Pierwsza’s wife reportedly told him their marriage was over, to which Pierwsza responded by saying: “If it’s over, I’ll tear the house down.” He then followed through. Local authorities allege Pierwsza climbed into the heavy machinery and began tearing into the house while his wife and two daughters were still inside.

The sound of the excavator tearing through the walls could reportedly be heard during his wife’s frantic 911 call. After the destruction stopped, investigators say Pierwsza went back inside, grabbed a gym bag, and went into town, before eventually located and taken into custody by police.

...  

...  

A cross-section of dachshund? No, thanks...

...   

Handmade gifts are extra special when

they're for someone extra special.

Click on the picture for more information on thesew earrings.

Each item  comes with free shipping.

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

...   

Do you like Pina Coladas? Good. Stick 'em where the sun don't shine...

He called himself "Prince of Joy." She went by "Sweetie." For weeks, they poured out their hearts online, complaining about their miserable marriages - unaware they were married to each other.

When they finally agreed to meet, each carried a rose so they'd recognize their soulmate. They found each other - and their marriage.

"He wrote things I'd never heard in years," Sana said. "She never said a nice word to me," Adnan said.

Instead of laughing at the bizarre twist, they both accused each other of betrayal and filed for divorce. The only couple who cheated on each other - with each other.

Sounds like something I might do. In another life, I mean...

...  

 ...  

 

Texas bound and down...

This is what electing a leftie loonie like her gets you, ya morons. A company that started before the invention of the modern car. A corporation that survived world wars, economic crashes, and a century of American history. ExxonMobil - originally Standard Oil of New Jersey - has officially voted to move its legal home to Texas.

But this isn’t just about one company leaving. It’s about a massive shift happening across the entire United States economy. For decades, Exxon was deeply tied to New Jersey. But over time, the headquarters drifted, jobs moved, research centers shut down, and now nearly 75% of its workforce is already in Texas. The final vote just made official what was happening in slow motion for years.

And Exxon is not alone. Tesla. SpaceX. Coinbase. Chevron. Hundreds of major companies have already relocated to Texas - chasing lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a more business-friendly environment.

Meanwhile, New Jersey ranks near the bottom of every major business competitiveness index, with the highest corporate tax rate in America and one of the heaviest regulatory systems in the country.

The question is no longer “why did Exxon leave?” The real question is: who’s next? Because somewhere right now, in boardrooms across America, more companies are running the same calculations.