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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.
PA man gets drive-thru send-off after funeral
David Kime, Jr. 88 and a WWII vet was a fast-food devotee. His daughter, Linda Phiel said her dad's idea of eating healthy was the lettuce on his burger.
To give him a whopper of a send-off Saturday, the funeral procession stopped at a Burger King where each mourner got a sandwich for the road.
Once at the cemetery, Kime's last burger was placed atop his coffin.
Phiel said the display wasn't a joke, rather a happy way of honoring her father and the things that brought him joy.
"He lived a wonderful life and on his own terms," she said.
More Than 300 Motorcycles Shut Down Freeway for Marriage Proposal
After several hundred motorcyclists shut down the 10 Freeway so one biker could propose to his girlfriend on the pavement, the California Highway Patrol says criminal charges could be filed.
After emitting a cloud of pink smoke from his motorcycle, a biker got down on one knee before his girlfriend, who was still wearing her red helmet. Several other bikers did wheelies off to the side, with between 300 to 400 bikers behind them.
With smoke swirling, the other bikers gathered around the couple, who got a few congratulatory hugs. The new fiancée looked shocked.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co decides not to remove painted gnomes
An anonymous artist who painted wooden blocks as gnomes and affixed them on thousands of utility poles in Oakland, CA, sent an email to the utility company in explanation:
"I'm a resident of Oakland who simply thought this would be a nice way to make my fellow Oaklanders happy and proud," the email read.
Previously the utility had announced they intended to remove the gnomes, but push-back from the residents changed their mind:
"We received a great deal of public feedback, so we're declaring the poles gnome-man's land. We're not going to remove them," PG&E spokesman Jason King said. "We're committed to working with the artist, the city and the community to find a peaceful resolution."
Humble nickel from 1913 likely to fetch millions
This image provided by Heritage Auctions shows an authentic 1913 Liberty Head nickel that was hidden in a Virginia closet for 41 years after its owners were mistakenly told it was a fake.
The 1913 Liberty Head nickel is one of only five known to exist, but it's the coin's back story that adds to its cachet: It was surreptitiously and illegally cast, discovered in a car wreck that killed its owner, declared a fake, forgotten in a closet for decades and then found to be the real deal.
It is expected to fetch $2.5 million or more when it goes on the auction block April 25 in suburban Chicago.
"Basically a coin with a story and a rarity will trump everything else," said Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo., which has held the coin for most of the past 10 years. He expects it could bring more than Heritage Auction's estimate, perhaps $4 million and even up to $5 million.
Four Virginia siblings who held on to the coin even after having been told it was a fake, will split the money equally.
"Already the Obama administration has been rocked by scandal. Beyonce lip-syncing; or at least we think she was lip-synching. Manti Te’o said it sounded very real to him." –Bill Maher, on Beyonce possibly lip-syncing at the Inauguration
"Lip-synching – let that be a lesson; if you are in Washington DC and you open your mouth and another voice comes out, it better be the NRA, an oil company, or a bank." –Bill Maher
Sports Illustrated says Ray Lewis used deer antler extract to heal his arm. The antler hormone boosts muscle and acts as an aphrodisiac. Vikings used to take one bite out of their helmet whenever they'd get that two o'clock feeling halfway through sacking a city. -Argus Hamilton
Iran launched a live monkey into space last week and retrived the monkey when the craft returned. It's bittersweet. It was great news for Iran, which made a huge advance in missile technology, but bad news for the monkey who thought he had made it out of Iran. -Argus Hamilton
"Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana said 'we must stopped being the stupid party.' Good luck with that. When Sarah Palin heard that, she demanded an apology. She said, 'How dare he insult hard-working, patriotic, idiotic Americans like me.'" –Bill Maher
"Did you know when you poke Chris Christie on Facebook, your computer giggles like the Pillsbury Doughboy?" –Jimmy Kimmel
"House Speaker John Boehner said that President Obama's focus is to annihilate the Republican Party. Do Republicans look like they need any help from President Obama? They're doing a hell of a job themselves." –Jay Leno