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Welcome to Casual Friday where we wake you up with the overlooked news stories of the week. The offbeat, strange and sometimes downright weird news items that mainstream media tends to ignore, all wrapped up with a few funnies, all designed to get your face in smiling shape for the weekend.
Winner, Winner, Turkey Dinner -- with a side of justice. A Canton, Ohio woman knocked over a police officer with her car in June of this year. She failed to stop on his hand signal. At her trial she pleded guilty of felony assault and three misdemeanors. The judge placed her on probation for one year and sentenced her to prepare a Thanksgiving dinner for three police officers on leave and unable to work. If she violates the sentence she will face a year in prison. Justice, and turkey, is served!
"Frankenturkey" goes on the attack. Marcos Carreras of Farmington, CT has been the victim of two wild turkey attacks, or rather his car has. While on his way to work at Kingswood Oxford School on Wednesday morning, when Marcos filmed the turkeys attacking cars, including his.
According to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, there are wild turkeys in all 169 towns in the state.
Here's the video which is worth the short watch for Marcos' comments and "Frankenturkey's" sound effects.
Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree survived Sandy.
Mount Olive, New Jersey resident, Joe Balku, 76, learned that his 80-foot Norway spruce had been chosen for the honor of dominating New York's Rockefeller Center four weeks ago. Sandy hit two weeks later.
Balku said he watched through the throughout the storm as the tree, which weighs 10 tons and is 50 feet in diameter, swayed in the backyard.
I kept going outside during the night. I lost two trees, an oak and an evergreen, but the big tree was tied up for its protection.
His electricity went out, but on the morning after the storm, the tree was still standing and his home did not sustain any damage.
(More photos of the tree's removal here)
Loose Gorilla? Prankster playing with electronic road sign in Loomis, California.
The sign, located at Wells Avenue and Barton Road, is supposed to warn drivers that Wells Avenue will be closed in the future for pipeline construction. The sign is being operated by a private contractor performing the pipeline work for a commercial developer on the PCWA project. Instead, messages of a different kind turned up on three separate nights.
The first message read "Smoke Weed Everyday", the second read "Caution Loose Gorilla! and the third was a profane message.
Tony Firenzi, senior engineer for the Placer County Water Agency said:
It is rather difficult to get into them," said Firenzi. "There is some kind of electronic equipment that is needed to access the computerized system. There must be some pretty savvy people out there who were able to bypass all of that.
Those geeky nerdy gorillas!
"Florida has finally finished counting the votes. What is wrong with Florida? Why is it so hard for the people down there to count votes? We're talking about a state where half the population can play 10 bingo cards at the same time." –Jay Leno
"Gas rationing. Welcome to 1974! Here's the only good thing. We don't have enough gas now to drive over the fiscal cliff." –David Letterman
"James Bond beat Abraham Lincoln at the box office. Boy, it's really been a lousy week for Republicans, hasn't it?" –David Letterman
"Republicans still will not admit that they underestimated the power of the Hispanic vote. As a matter of fact, Latinos are calling this Cinco Denio." –David Letterman
"The Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree is being put in place this afternoon. They bring it in and hoist it with a crane and steel cables. It's the same way they get Chris Christie into his pants." –David Letterman
"Then they start decorating the tree with a beautiful array of Christmas lights and on the very top they put a tiny little Mayor Bloomberg. In fact, it actually is Mayor Bloomberg." –David Letterman
"The new 'Call of Duty: Black Ops' video game was released today, and it actually features General David Petraeus. So I guess it’s safe to assume the game has plenty of cheat codes." –Jimmy Fallon