samhexum

This is the most romantic song I know: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGjX2eYiuaw

Not sexual, as there was never any physical attraction. I just was kind of spellbound, for lack of a better word. I would watch anything she was in. There was a fascination, as there has been one growing this year for Agnetha, as I've been on a real ABBA kick all year.

Di's NBC failed sitcom: (Patrick MacNee guest-starred once as her ex-hubby) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzwR0vade5I

If anyone gets COZI TV (and cares), they recently began Diana’s/Emma’s episodes. They show 2 episodes each night late at night over the weekend, so it’ll take 9 3/4 weekends for them to get through the rest + the crossover episode, which was actually Tara’s 1st episode & not an Emma episode. (Diana had already left the series, but was still technically under contract, so she was called back 9 months later for 4 days of shooting… leading to one of the all-time great TV departures.) (Patrick MacNee went back to his dressing room and cried when the scene was over.)

http://www.weeklystorybook.com/.a/6a0105369e6edf970b01bb0927620b970d-800wi I couldn't resist!

Medieval food jokes are coming. Fast food purveyor of “all the meats,” Arby’s, will be serving one pound turkey legs – for a limited time – beginning on Sunday. The new item will be added to the chain’s beef-heavy menu just in time for the “Game of Thrones” season finale. Although Arby’s does not have an official partnership with the HBO show, that didn’t stop them from hinting at the correlation. “Turkey is coming,” a release from the restaurant reads. “Arby’s is getting medieval with its latest menu offering…available at Arby’s restaurants in nine regions throughout our kingdom.” Those locations are Fargo, “a frigid land in the north,” Seattle, Norfolk, “a land of ships…forged from iron,” Pittsburgh, Phoenix, Denver, Omaha, Atlanta and Los Angeles, “known for its bountiful…gold.” The meaty legs, “fit for a king or queen,” are seasoned with salt and brown sugar, smoked and slow roasted. Turkeys were probably not available to the Westerosian lords and ladies of “Thrones,” since the birds are native to North America. But they sound a lot more appetizing than eating a pie full of your children.

MOVIE THEMES THAT WERE BETTER THAN THE MOVIES THEY CAME FROM: SONGS WITH DEEP, SOULFUL LYRICS: CLASSICAL COMPOSERS:

I was fortunate to be a teenager during music's golden age... the disco era. Donna Summer was, of course, the Queen (I saw her in concert twice... including during the week she had the top 2 songs on the Billboard charts... still (I believe) the only artist since The Beatles to do so). Another highlight of the period was that tired old songs got re-imagined with lively new arrangements that greatly enhanced their quality: BROADWAY STANDARDS: POP STANDARDS:

I found that there's a foolproof formula for creating a music group I'll love: equal numbers of men & women, one of the women is blonde, the women do the majority of the singing, & they're from Sweden. ABBA, Roxette, & Ace Of Base all fit the formula, & (coincidentally?) are the only 3 Swedish groups to achieve significant international success.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE ABBA SONGS, WITH AGNETHA LOOKING BEAUTIFUL AND STRUTTING HER STUFF: It’s weird watching recent videos of her now that I’ve been watching all these old ABBA videos… she’s a ‘woman of a certain age' now.

I’ve always kinda had one on EmmaPeel/Diana Rigg. Brilliant, beautiful, talented, kick-ass! I’ve been on an ABBA kick since NewYear’s eve, including reading/watching old interviews, & I seem to be developing one on Agnetha Faltskog (the blonde). Beautiful, talented, & a great flirter… She was known for having the best ass in Europe. I saw an interview in which she made a clever comment, and when the host reacted to it, she added “I’m not just a sexy bottom!" A line I’m sure many of you have used.

He's better looking in profile shots than straight on, but I'd force myself to do him. https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/26/39/ff/2639ffb743b5a9b5d26b9f0af8f580c5.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BsTbQyACUAAALua.jpg https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--TBQrhNXb--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/18j579z0f88v4jpg.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/21/03/31/2103314ecfcd89b4f866e462f1eb385e--mango-salsa-kansas-city-royals.jpg

He has bad skin, but I think Nolan Arenado is cute: http://www.chadrad.com/newsimages/Nolan%20Arenado%20tight%20mlb.jpg http://www.milb.com/images/571448/generic/180x270/571448.jpg https://twitter.com/MLB/status/900164063266619393/video/1

In addition, they’d recorded a song for their 8th album that never made the cut. I always thought it was decent, but now that I found a youtube video with the lyrics, I’m a little more impressed… Frida’s the harder to understand of the two women, & I never knew the lyrics fully until now: SHOULD I LAUGH OR CRY: I keep playing I AM THE CITY. IT’S GROWING ON ME. IT HAD A DIFFERENT SOUND MUSICALLY & VOCALLY THAN THEIR OTHER STUFF, SO IT INTERESTS ME, EVEN IF I DON’T THINK IT’S A GREAT SONG.

When ABBA stopped recording, they were in the midst of what would’ve been their 9th studio album. It was left unfinished, though two songs were released as singles (and two others as the “B” sides). They recorded 2 other songs… one appeared on a compilation album 11 years later [i Am The City], and one has never been released in full [Just Like That], though tapes of it were stolen from Bjorn’s car & are online. I liked 3 songs (including possibly my favorite ABBA song, The Day Before You Came, the last song they ever recorded) and thought I disliked the other three, based on a first (or second) listen. Well, I’ve been on an ABBA kick for months, so I decided to give the three another listen. I still don’t like two, but seriously misjudged the other. It’s a silly little trifle, but incredibly addictive (it’s been in my head for days). YOU OWE ME ONE: THE DAY BEFORE YOU CAME: (Agnetha looks beautiful in the video.) I also like CASSANDRA (B-side of The Day Before You Came): UNDER ATTACK was their last single (YOU OWE ME ONE was the “B” side. Should’ve flipped them): Those 4 of 6 songs would’ve formed the beginnings of a fairly good album, though not their best. Given their reticence in releasing the 2 other songs they recorded, who knows if they’d have even made the final cut. I say there was also an unofficial 7th song… on Frida’s 2nd solo album, she had a song I like that Bjorn & Benny wrote: SLOWLY (you can hear the similarity in style to CHESS):

UPDATE: A Massachusetts woman convicted of involuntary manslaughter for urging her boyfriend to commit suicide through a series of text messages was sentenced Thursday. A judge sentenced Michelle Carter to 2½-years in jail, but ruled she would be eligible for probation after 15 months and suspended the rest of her sentence until 2022. He also sentenced her to five years of probation. Moniz granted a defense motion to stay her sentence, meaning she will not have to go to jail until she exhausts her appeals in Massachusetts. She's now free on supervised release. Carter's attorney, Joseph Cataldo, told reporters he believes Carter will be cleared. Carter was 17 in July 2014 when she urged 18-year-old Conrad Roy III to "get back in" a truck filled with toxic carbon monoxide gas parked in a Fairhaven parking lot. Juvenile Court Judge Lawrence Moniz convicted Carter in June after a bench trial, saying her final instruction to Roy to get back in the truck caused his death. In dozens of text messages, Carter urged Roy to follow through on his talk of taking his own life. "The time is right and you are ready ... just do it babe," Carter wrote in a text the day he killed himself. Prosecutors allege Carter pushed Roy to commit suicide because she was desperate for attention and sympathy from classmates, and wanted to play the role of a grieving girlfriend. Cataldo said Roy was intent on killing himself and took Carter along on his "sad journey." A psychiatrist testified Carter too was "very troubled" and at first tried to talk Roy out of it, but became convinced she needed to help Roy "get to heaven" only after he convinced her there was nothing she could do to stop him. Cataldo had asked the judge to spare his client any jail time and instead give her five years of probation and require her to receive mental health counseling. He said Carter was struggling with mental health issues of her own -- bulimia, anorexia and depression -- during the time she urged Roy to kill himself. "Miss Carter will have to live with the consequences of this for the rest of her life," Cataldo said. "This was a horrible circumstance that she completely regrets." Prosecutor Maryclare Flynn called probation "just not reasonable punishment" for her role in Roy's death. Prosecutors asked the judge for a sentence of 7-12 years. Moniz repeated a statement by a prosecutor which he called "perhaps the most poignant comment in the trial" -- "This is tragedy for two families." In handing down his sentence, he cited that Carter was a juvenile at the time of the crime. He said he hasn't found that her age or level of maturity or mental illness had any significant impact on her actions, but said the young age of youthful offenders offers a greater promise of rehabilitation. Moniz said by the end of today, "people may wonder why all of this has happened." He said he used a compilation of best practices for sentencing juveniles as he came to his decision. He also cited the impact on Roy's family members and took into account their emotional statements to the court. Carter wiped away tears as she listened to the victim impact statements. Roy's sister Camden Roy said her brother was the "best friend and best role model any little sister could ask for." "Not having that one person I've been with every day since birth is a pain I'll always keep with me for the rest of my life," Camden Roy said. Camden Roy testified that she's "haunted" by the realization that she'll never see her brother wed or be an aunt to his children. Conrad Roy Jr., Roy's father, called his son his "best friend" and "first mate." "Although he did have some psychological troubles, we all felt he was going in the right direction and over the worst of it," Roy said. He said Michelle Carter has not shown any remorse and said she "exploited my son's weaknesses and used him as a pawn in her own well-being." "Where is her humanity? In what world is this behavior okay and acceptable?" Roy said. A prosecutor read a statement by Roy's mother Lynn Roy. "There is not one day I do not mourn the loss of my beloved son," the statement read. "I want him to be proud of me and how I am handling everything – I am trying to be there for his sisters in all of my pain we will carry with us for eternity." In a June interview with "48 Hours," Lynn Roy said she doesn't believe Carter "has a conscience." "48 Hours" investigated the case in the episode, Death by Text. "I think she needs to be held responsible for her actions 'cause she knew exactly what she was doing and what she said," Roy told Erin Moriarty. Carter, now 20, was tried as a youthful offender, so Moniz had several options for sentencing. He could have committed her to a Department of Youth Services facility until she turns 21 on Aug. 11. He could also have combined a DYS commitment with an adult sentence, or hand down an adult sentence of anything from probation to the maximum 20-year term. Carter's family also urged Moniz to consider a term of probation, while Roy's family petitioned the judge to hand her the maximum sentence. In a letter written to Moniz last month and obtained by the Boston Herald, Carter's father David Carter wrote, "I pray to God you will take into consideration that Michelle was a troubled, vulnerable teenager in an extremely difficult situation and made a tragic mistake." But in another letter obtained by the Herald, Roy's aunt Kim Bozzi asked Moniz to hand down the maximum sentence – 20 years. "I'm unsure when [Michelle Carter] decided to set her sick plan into motion or why, but when she did she did it relentlessly, it was calculated and it was planned down to a T," Bozzi wrote, according to the Herald. "She preyed on his vulnerabilities, he trusted her, which in turn, cost him his life." The sensational trial was closely watched on social media, in part because of the insistent tone of Carter's text messages. "You can't think about it. You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don't get why you aren't," Carter wrote in one text.

A Massachusetts woman accused of encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself before his suicide was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in June. Michelle Carter faces up to 20 years in prison after her conviction in the death of 18-year-old Conrad Roy III — who died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside his pickup truck in July 2014. Juvenile court Judge Lawrence Moniz said Carter was “mindful” of the toxic environment building in Roy’s pickup — yet encouraged the troubled teen to get back in the vehicle. “She is mindful that the process in the truck will take approximately 15 minutes,” Moniz said during Friday’s hearing in Taunton. Carter did that despite knowing “all of the feelings” Roy had shared with her previously, including a prior attempt to drown himself, Moniz said. “Instructing Mr. Roy to get back in the truck constituted wanton and reckless conduct, creating a situation where there’s a high degree of likelihood that substantial harm would result,” Moniz said. Carter — who spoke to Roy in a series of text messages and phone calls during his suicide bid — took no action to help Roy by calling either police or his family despite knowing of his plan and location, Moniz said. Moniz also banned Carter from contacting Roy’s relatives and ordered her not to obtain or apply for a passport. Carter is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 3. “She did not issue a simple additional instruction: Get out of the truck,” he continued. Text messages between the two shown in court revealed that Carter, then 17, told Roy to “get back in” the vehicle as it filled with the lethal gas. “You can’t think about it,” Carter allegedly texted Roy on the day of his death. “You just have to do it. You said you were gonna do it. Like I don’t get why you aren’t.” Prosecutors also noted that Carter sent a text to a friend from high school about two months after Roy’s death, admitting she was to blame. “It’s my fault,” Carter texted to classmate Samantha Boardman. “I could have stopped him but I told him to get back in the car.” Carter also told Boardman she was worried about what investigators would find on Roy’s phone. “I’m done,” Carter wrote in one message shown in court. “His family will hate me and I can go to jail.” Top Massachusetts attorneys have mixed opinions about the involuntary manslaughter conviction of Michelle Carter, but they agree on one thing — the ruling has caused a seismic shift in the intersection of technology and the law. Michelle Carter, then 17, told her 18-year-old boyfriend Conrad Roy III to “get back in” his truck as it filled with carbon monoxide in 2014. Judge Lawrence Moniz found Friday that Carter’s instructions “constituted wanton and reckless conduct.” Judge Moniz may have set a dangerous precedent with his decision, said longtime Quincy, Mass. attorney Bob Harnais. “You open up the door to a direction where words now can amount to weapons, this is absolutely all new territory” Harnais said. “Is she a criminal because she didn’t talk him out of it? That’s a big jump,” Harnais said. Another Massachusetts defense lawyer, J. Drew Segadelli, applauded the judge for his “careful consideration” of Carter’s damning text message to Roy to “get back in the” vehicle. “That was his lynchpin where he indicated that the behavior was wanton, he’s inferring intentional, and as such he found her guilty,” Segadelli said. Local attorney Kevin Reddington, who was in the courtroom when the judge read his verdict, said the judge gave a “very well reasoned decision that is consistent with the law.” Reddington predicted that an appeal will be an “uphill battle” because the state’s highest court has already ruled that Carter was “virtually” if not “physically” present at her boyfriend’s suicide through her text messages and phone calls. If the decision is upheld the first-of-its kind case will have major national ramifications, Reddington said.

A stripper in Florida was arrested for allegedly stabbing his boyfriend in the eyes and jamming a broken piece of wood down his throat following an argument. Authorities in Key West said they were called to a home early Monday morning following a report of a domestic dispute, ABC 10 reports. When officers arrived they found 67-year-old Mark Brann with a piece of wood in his throat and suffering from stab wounds to his eyes. He was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami in serious condition. Justin Calhoun, who works as a stripper, admitted to police that he attacked Brann, FL Keys News reports. He told authorities that he and Brann had gotten into an argument after he accused Brann of being a cannibal. Police said Brann responded to the accusations by grabbing a gun and firing it, but no one was hit. Calhoun then grabbed the weapon from Brann and allegedly tried shooting him, but it jammed. Authorities said that’s when Calhoun grabbed a pen and stabbed his partner in both eyes. “Calhoun then inserted a piece of broken wood into Brann’s mouth, stood up, and then stomped on the piece of wood to lodge it further down into Brann’s throat,” FL Keys News reports, citing the arrest affidavit. Calhoun continued to attack Brann, grabbing a dresser drawer and beating the injured man over the head with it. Calhoun said he then grabbed some money, a dress to wear, his backpack and “jumped out of the bedroom window while naked” before police arrived. He was arrested and faces a charge of attempted second-degree murder. He’s being held at the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office jail without bond.

other ads I like: For some reason, the Geico ‘Fire at will’ ad makes me chuckle.

I like this Volkswagen ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVIWcDIuxZ0 I think this ad is obnoxious, and should end with the girl having her driving privileges taken away for several years: A travel company is defending a bizarre advertising campaign that’s been panned on social media for featuring models posing as naked flight attendants. The ad, by Kazakhstan company Chocotravel, features a number of women wearing nothing but neck scarves and strategically placed hats, apparently to reinforce the company’s pledge to add nothing extra to the cost of airfares for customers. Chocotravel has kept the controversial ad on its Facebook page and on YouTube despite it being branded “demeaning” to women and “tasteless.” Many critics vented their outrage at the short clip on Facebook. “What if it was your mother or little sister in the ads. How would you feel?” one person asked, according to the BBC. Another said the company had hit an “all-time low” with the “old fashioned” and “sexist” ad. But some people defended the ad, saying there was nothing shameful about the women’s bodies, and praising the company’s bold advertising strategy. “They are brave people who are not afraid to experiment or act to change the world,” one person said on Facebook. Chocotravel published a male version of the same ad on its Facebook page the next day, using the same script but featuring male pilots, which did little to appease those complaining of the ad campaign’s sexism. Responding to the outrage on his Facebook page, Chocotravel ticketing service director Nikolay Mazensev said the clips were “bold and outrageous” and the company “did not mean to offend.” “It shows no less than you’d see on the beach or by the pool,” he said. “Do you attack girls in short skirts or swimsuits?” Nurken Rzaliyev, an employee of Chocotravel’s parent company Chocofamily, also took to Facebook to deny the ads were sexist. “There’s definitely no sexism,” he said. “Opinions were divided, but attention was made to the problem of high ticket prices.” https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1946717685576397

4/3/17: A Denver man choked to death on Sunday while participating in a doughnut eating challenge. Travis Malouff, 42, had been trying to scarf down a half-pound doughnut in 80 seconds when he started choking at Voodoo Doughnut in Denver, Colorado. People rushed to Malouff’s aid, but were unable to successfully perform the Heimlich maneuver. “They tried so hard to do everything. It was clear that nobody was trained and they were just reacting,” a witness said. The Denver Office of the Medical Examiner confirmed Monday that Malouff died from “asphyxia, due to obstruction of the airway.” “It’s tragic,” his father Curtis Malouff told KUSA. “It’s a loss of life that shouldn’t be.” The 42-year-old’s death comes the same day that a 20-year-old college student — the daughter of a Port Authority cop killed on Sept. 11 — died after choking on pancakes during an eating competition at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Caitlin Nelson, of Clark, New Jersey, who served as the vice president of community service at the school’s Kappa Delta sorority, was taking part in the Greek life eating contest last Thursday when she began choking after eating four or five pancakes. Nelson’s father, James, was a Port Authority police officer who died during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center when Caitlin was just 5 years old, the Connecticut Post reports. The 40-year-old cop also helped evacuate the area after the 1993 bombing. Last September, 15 years after the attacks, Caitlin Nelson posted a picture on Facebook of herself with her father. Nelson had several food allergies, but it was later determined by doctors that they were not a contributing factor to her death. Nelson had several friends at the competition who were aware of her allergies and she had all necessary emergency information listed in her cellphone for emergency responders, who initially thought she was suffering from anaphylactic shock. ******************************************************************************************************************************** A 13-year-old girl dropped her phone on the subway tracks, then lost her life when she tried to retrieve it and was fatally hit by an arriving train at a Rego Park station on Sunday. Dina Kadribasic of 64th Road climbed down off the platform on the Manhattan-bound side of the 63rd Drive station to get her fallen phone. She was reportedly attempting to get back on the platform when she was hit by the incoming R train. Officers from the 112th Precinct and EMS units responded to the scene. Kadribasic was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Manhattan-bound local service between 71st-Continental Avenues and Roosevelt Avenue was suspended for much of the remainder of Sunday as the investigation continued. The MTA reminds all riders that they should never climb off the platform onto the tracks for any reason. If you drop something on the tracks, alert an MTA employee. 2017-04-12: A Georgia 13 year old was livestreaming a video on Instagram Monday evening when he accidentally shot himself. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His mother was home when her son fatally shot himself while handling the gun in his bedroom. She said he had been trying to put a clip in the gun. “I heard a big boom. I couldn’t tell if it was a gun shot or what,” she said. She said had just watched her son take out the trash moments before he went into his bedroom to record the video on Instagram Live. When she heard the gun go off, she and her daughter ran upstairs to his bedroom, but the door was locked. “We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood. My daughter screamed and said, ‘Mom turn his phone off!’ As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live.” She said that his friends who had been watching the livestream ran over to their home. “There was about 40 to 50 kids outside,” she said. “I guess these were the kids that were watching on Live that live in the area. I guess when it happened they just ran over here.” Police are investigating how he got hold of the gun. 2017-04-14: Shaquille O’Neal has offered to pay for the funeral services of a Georgia teen who accidentally killed himself Monday while livestreaming a video on Instagram Live. Grieving family members were touched when O’Neal, who is from the Atlanta area, called and then paid a them visit on Thursday. “We just broke down and started crying because Malachi didn’t have any insurance,” Malachi’s godmother Shantirea Bankston told WXIA. “We wasn’t prepared to bury him this young. We didn’t have insurance for him. So to have that from Shaquille O’Neal it was a blessing and very touching, and we appreciate everything he do for the community.” The former basketball star said that he wanted to alleviate the financial burden for Malachi’s mother, Shaniqua Stephens. “No mother should have to go through this. I can only imagine the pain that she and all of Malachi’s family must be feeling. I just wanted to do what I could to help them at such a terrible time,” O’Neal said in a statement. 2017-05-23: A 29-year old man was crushed and killed by a dump truck near Times Square Monday evening when an attempted joyride turned deadly, cops said. The unidentified victim was seen moments before the fatal accident getting into an argument with the truck driver as he tried to cross into the path of the oncoming vehicle as it headed westbound on 51st Street at Broadway, according to a witness. “Him and the driver had words. Basically they was right there [51st street] and [victim] just put his hand up like ‘I’m crossing here,’ and they had attitude going back and forth,” said the witness who asked to remain anonymous. After the brief spat, the truck kept driving. But the man ran after the truck, climbed on to the driver’s side and tried to hold on before realizing he didn’t have enough room to clear a construction fence on the south side of 51st Street. He then made a desperate bid to dismount the 14-wheeler, only to be dragged under and killed, according to police sources. The victim was seen covered in a white sheet, in trench where workers had dug to a water main, across from Times Square Church, Monday night. The truck, and driver both remained at the scene, and NYPD Highway unit was investigating, cops said. 2017-06-03: A Tennessee teen was allegedly admiring a gun he received for graduation when he accidentally shot and killed his girlfriend. Shelby County Sheriff’s Office said Brennan Fields, 18, had just been given the firearm as a high school graduation gift from the dad of his 19-year-old girlfriend, Lucina Luna. He was showing off the new gun at her Arlington home when he accidentally shot Luna in the stomach, according to news station WMC. Did the dad give him a LOADED gun, or did he load it as he was showing off? Luna was rushed to a local hospital where she died from her injuries. Authorities do not plan to file charges against Fields. “By all indications, there was no intent for this to happen,” Shelby County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Earle Farrell told WMC. Friends of the couple said they were “distraught” over Luna’s sudden death and concerned about Fields. “This is going to hurt real bad for him. Like he’s not going to get over this for a long time. BUMMER! I am just worried about Brennan really and her parents too,” friend Kara Stubblefield said. GUNS DON’T KILL PEOPLE; IDIOTIC PARENTS AND BOYFRIENDS KILL PEOPLE. 2017-08-18: A Hong Kong fitness trainer died after he fell from the 12th floor of a building while trying to get the best picture of fellow fitness trainers. Will Kong Wai, a 25-year-old fitness buff, was helping an older photographer take promotional pictures of two other fitness instructors, according to an account in the South China Morning Post. Wai was standing on the railings of a tall building to get in a better position for the photos when he became unsteady and fell onto a podium on the fourth floor of the building. The fitness instructor was pronounced dead at the scene and a police spokesman has reported that initial investigations have found nothing suspicious. “We believe the victim lost his balance and fell off the building,” a source told the Post. Kong, who was also a bodybuilder and placed in several competitions, had been working at the fitness center in the building for less than two months before his fatal fall.

AVOCADOS: Prepare at your own risk Avocados are so dangerous, they may soon carry a warning label in the UK. Amateur cooks just can’t seem to slice up the fruit — a staple of brunch fare and Mexican food — without also chopping into their hands, according to a report from the Times of London. British surgeons have seen such a spike in the number of people who seriously injure themselves while trying to penetrate avocados’ rubbery skin and remove its finicky pit that they’ve dubbed the condition “avocado hand.” The British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons is demanding a warning label on the trendy food, which is actually quite healthy if consumers can manage to remove the skin and pit without also removing their own fingers. The problem is so pervasive that doctors at London’s St. Thomas Hospital expect a “post-brunch surge” of avocado-related injuries on Saturdays, the paper reported. A warning label could also include avoca-do’s and don’ts on how to safely dismantle the apparently hazardous fruit, according to one proponent. “We don’t want to put people off the fruit, but I think warning labels are an effective way of dealing with this,” surgeon Simon Eccles told the Times of London. “Perhaps we could have a cartoon picture of an avocado with a knife, and a big red cross going through it?” Police said Wednesday they have identified a person of interest in an attack where two men hurled avocados like baseballs at a Bronx deli worker, breaking the victim’s jaw. NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said a tipster helped identify one of the two men caught on video in the bizarre May 29 attack at the Stadium Gourmet Deli near Yankee Stadium on E. 161st St. and Walton Ave. Cops are trying to find that person. Police said the two assailants ordered sandwiches around 4:45 a.m. and became enraged when the cook got the order wrong. Surveillance video released by cops Tuesday shows one of the men, his hair shaved close and dressed in a black T-shirt with a graphic print, grabbing an armful of $2 avocados from a display near the counter. He scowls, then starts throwing them, one at a time, at the employee, who clutches his face and collapses. A bearded man, dressed in jeans, a white shirt and a blue vest, and holding his belt in his hand, joins in moments later. He grabs a handful of avocados and starts hurling them, lashes his belt in the air, and pulls down a store display. The first man can be seen jumping over the counter before he snatched a bunch of bananas and tossed them at the workers. The 21-year-old clerk who bore the brunt of the attack, identified by sources as Amir Alzabibi, suffered fractures to his face and a broken jaw, cops said. Medics took him to Lincoln Hospital in stable condition. Police are calling it grand theft avocado. Three produce company workers have been arrested in the theft of up to $300,000 worth of avocados, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office. Thirty-eight-year-old Joseph Valenzuela, 28-year-old Carlos Chavez and 30-year-old Rahim Leblanc were each charged with grand theft of fruit and were being held in jail on bail of $250,000 each. They were arrested Wednesday. It was unclear whether they have attorneys. Detectives began investigating the suspects in May after receiving a tip that they were conducting unauthorized cash sales of avocados from a ripening facility in the city of Oxnard owned by the Mission Produce company. The company estimated the avocado loss at about $300,000, the sheriff’s office said. “We take these kinds of thefts seriously. It’s a big product here and in California,” sheriff’s Sgt. John Franchi told the Los Angeles Times. “Everybody loves avocados.”

TYLER There was never a major league baseball player with the first name of Tyler before 1993. Now there have been close to 40. Tyler Austin is currently the Yankee first baseman. Recently, infielder Tyler Wade made his debut. I think he’s cute.

China built a solar field in the shape of a giant panda Renewable energy is good for the environment and can, apparently, enhance youth education when presented in an absolutely adorable way.A new 248-acre solar panel field in Datong, China looks like a giant panda bear. The Panda Power Plant started delivering power to a grid in northwestern China this week, and a second power panda is expected to go up later this year. The builders, China Merchants New Energy Group, developed the pandas along with the United Nations Development Program as part of a bigger initiative to educate young people about clean energy. “As the future of development, the youth have the opportunity to contribute to world-wide sustainable development,” the UNDP wrote in a statement. “UNDP will work to promote and popularize the promotion of new energy through summer camps and open innovation design contests. The initiatives aim to engage the youth of China and assist in developing the future leaders in the green energy field.” In total, the plants will be able to produce 3.2 billion kilowatt-hours of solar energy over 25 years, roughly the same as running an average TV, 24 hours per day for 3.65 million years. And by generating so much power from the sun, the pandas are expected to reduce China’s carbon emissions by 2.74 million tons, the equivalent of emissions generated by powering an average home for 210,769 years.

Two gay high school students whose quotes were removed from their senior yearbook say they’re “disheartened and angry” by the “senseless censorship” behind the move. Joey Slivinski and Thomas Swartz, who recently graduated from Kearney High School in Missouri,told KCTVthey submitted their senior quotes for the yearbook on time just like their other classmates — only to realize that something was amiss when they cracked open the keepsake. Without warning, school district officials had scrubbed their quotes out of concern that they could “potentially offend” other students. “Of course I dress well, I didn’t spend all that time in the closet for nothing,” Slivinski’s original quote read. Swartz, meanwhile, had submitted this: “If Harry Potter taught us anything, it’s that no one should have to live in the closet.” Slivinki, in a Facebook post last week, said he had always felt that his sexual orientation was respected in his community until his quotes were scrubbed. “I put a very innocent quote as my senior quote and they took it away from me with absolutely no warning or option to change it,” Slivinski wrote, adding, “Our schools are supposed to be a place that you can express being who you are.” Swartz said in a Facebook post that he didn’t need to be “protected from small minded people” and that he came out to his parents when he was 15 years old. “The only people I need protection from are the people directly involved with deleting my statement and infringing upon my civil rights,” Swartz wrote last week. District officials said they were trying to “protect” students by removing the quotes but acknowledged their “mistake” in offending another group of students. “In an effort to protect our students, quotes that could potentially offend another student or groups of students are not published,” the statement read. “It is the school’s practice to err on the side of caution. Doing so in this case had the unintentional consequence of offending the very students the practice was designed to protect. We sincerely apologize to those students.” The district’s statement also noted the “importance of inclusion and acceptance,” particularly in an educational setting. “We work diligently to help every student feel safe, supported, and included,” the statement continued. “District staff participate in ongoing training around issues of diversity and support student organizations that do the same. That being said, we acknowledge our mistake and will use it as a learning opportunity to improve in the future.” Slivinski and Swartz told KCTV they plan to make stickers to insert their quotes back into their yearbooks as well as those of their friends. “I’m proud to be from Kearney and I’m proud to be whom I am,” Slivinski told the station. “I’m just disappointed at what happened.”