Wedding Day Blues: Bride's Drunk Driving Arrest Before Ceremony

Police said this women was driving to her wedding
but was drunk behind the wheel. 

At most weddings I've been to, there's been a fair amount of drinking. Which is great, because it's a celebration! I'll drink to that!

Like most people on their wedding day, both my husband Jeff and I were stone cold sober, each surely with a blood alcohol content of 0.0 percent before and during our vows nearly six years ago.

 I can't guarantee the same for later that day, during the post-wedding celebration.

You want to - pardon the pun - drink in the moment of your vows, and it's easiest to do that while sober.

A bride in Arizona didn't think so. She was drunk before the wedding, which led to a highly embarrasing and dangerous situation:

Police said she was drunk behind the wheel,  and in March caused a crash that sent one person to the hospital with what thankfully turned out to be minor injuries.

Even worse, we were treated to the spectacle of the bride being cuffed at the scene in her full-length wedding dress. No word on whether she made it to the ceremony, or even if there was one.

Though police said she was on her way to her wedding, and told them that at the scene of the crash. However, the woman, Amber Young, 32, said later that she was not on her way to her wedding that day and was wearing a sundress as she drove to meet a friend for lunch. 

You be the judge.

Her attorney said police posted the photo, not as a warning against drunk driving, but to mock Young.

In any event, don't drink and drive, whether you're going to your wedding, or just ready to have lunch.

Ingenious Idea: Truckers Park Under Bridge To Prevent Suicide

Tractor trailer trucks park beneath a bridge long I-696 in Detroit to
prevent a suicidal man from getting hurt if he jumped off the bridge. 

A guy in Detroit this week was going to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge and onto busy I-696.

Police were called to try to negotiate with the guy to make him change his mind. That part of the story is unfortunately common. Happens all the time.

But the part of this story I - and pretty much the rest of social media and the public in general likes - is another way police and semi-truck drivers cooperated to prevent the suicide.

The cops closed the highway to traffic, except for 13 semi-truck drivers, who they let through. The catch was, the 13 truck drivers would park cheek-by-jowl under the bridge. If the guy did jump, he'd land on the roof of one of the trucks, which were only a few feet below the bridge. If the guy jumped, he probably wouldn't have even gotten hurt.

After a few hours, the suicidal guy agreed to give up and go to the hospital for an evaluation.

Sounds Like This Marriage Was Destined To Be

Ms Xue sits in front of a large sculpture in Qingdao, China
in the year 2000. The man in the background
met Ms. Xue in their hometown of Chengdue,
China 11 years later and got married. Then he
found the photo taken over a decade before they
actually met. Destiny?

In Chengdue, China,  Mr. Ye and a Ms. Xue met and fall in love back in 2011. Then they got married and are so far living happily ever after. Very nice.

Recently, according to Petapixel, Mr. Ye was going through soe of Ms. Xue's old family photos, and came across an old photo of his future wife visting the city of Qingdao eleven years before the couple met.

However, Mr. Ye noticed something interesting in the background of the photo. Namely, himself.

"When I saw the photo, I was taken by surprise and I got goosebumps all over my body....that was my pose for taking photos."

In the photo, Mr. Ye came across, Ms. Xue is sitting on a small stool, dressed in white, with an immense red sculpture behind her. On the right hand edge of the frame, you see Mr Ye striking a sort of "Vogue" pose for a camera person that's outside the field of vision.

Mr. Ye explained that he almost always struck that distinctive pose when somebody was photographing him, so as soon as he saw the image, he knew he was looking at himself.

The odds that the two would be in the same photo are slim. The two are from Chengdu, with a population of about 14 million. Qingdao, where the two independently visited on the same day 11 years before their marriage, has about 9 million people. Chengdu and Qingdao are about 1,100 miles from each other.

Not surprisingly, the photo has gone viral in China, with many people there and everywhere else using the photo as evidence the pair was destined for each other, though neither of them spoke to each other during that visit 11 years before the couple actually met.

World's Biggest Anti-Take A Kneel Guy A Hit On Social Media

Talk about insincerity!

A little hypocritical maybe?

The photo in this post went viral this week. It shows a guy at the NFL New England Patriots vs. New York Jets game wearing a "I Stand For the National Anthem" shirt.

As you can see, though, he decided to take a break and sit down, using the American flag as a picnic blanket for his fat butt.

The fact that he's drinking beer out of a straw is a nice touch, too, but that's besides the point.

So let's see if I've got this straight: If a black NFL player kneels during the National Anthem to protest police brutality against African Americans, that's totally disrespectful. If a white guy gets tired walking around with his warm, flat beer, he can use the American flag to sit on to keep his butt comfortable.

Got it.

Diggy The Dog Gets To Stay At His New Home Despite A Stupid Town

This viral goofy selfie of Dan Tillery
and his new companion Diggy almost
got Diggy banned from the town
where they live.  

Diggy The Dog made waves in June when he was adopted by a gentleman named Dan Tillery of Waterford Township, Michigan.

Right after Tillery adopted Diggy from a Detroit animal shelter, the two posed together in a selfie, with big goofy grins on their faces.

The photo, which you can see in this post, understandably made everybody smile.

Well almost everyone. The people that run Waterford Township were not smiling. They were convinced Diggy is a pit bull, and that breed of dog is specifically banned from Waterford Township, says the New York Times. 

Never mind that Diggy isn't even a pit bull. He's an American Bulldog.

However, that wasn't good enough for the people who run Waterford Township. Diggy resembled a pit bull, so therefore he was a pitiful, they decided. He had to go.

That move set off another Internet storm and got locals around Waterford Township riled up. Crowds demanded justice for Diggy at Township council meetings, the Michigan legislature considered outlawing municipal ordinances that banned specific breeds, and 10,000 people signed a petition to let Diggy stay put.

Tillery submitted affidavits from two veterinarians, each of whom determined that Diggy was indeed not a pit bull.

Recently Tillery and Diggy got great news: Waterford Township decided Diggy could remain a resident of that community.

It's a relief to Tillery, and presumably Diggy, who formed an immediate bond when they met. The pair are now besties.

"People had really invested their emotions in this story, and it's beautiful to see so amy people care about rescue dogs," said Kristina Rinaldi, the director of the Detroit Dog Rescue, a no-kill shelter where Tillery found Diggy, according to the New York Times.

Rinaldi says far from being dangerous, Diggy is a big goofball who loves people.

It certainly seems like he loves his new friend Tillery. We wish them a long and happy partnership.

And while we're at it, let's get rid of those stupid breed specific ordinances. It's the training of the dog, not the dog itself that determines whether they're dangerous.

Overdose Photos With Kid In Car Painful For Everybody

Boy, do I have mixed emotions about this.

The now-famous couple in the midst
of a heroin overdose with a four
year old boy in the back seat

According to Reuters and numerous other media outlets, the East Liverpool, Ohio police department distributed photos of a couple in a car, passed out from a heroin overdose, with the woman's scared four year old grandson in the back seat.

The photos went totally viral, and millions of people have seen them. One of the photos is in this post, as you can see.

The point of releasing the photo, says the East Liverpool police department, was to publicize how bad and how sad drug addiction is in Ohio and everywhere else.

"We are well aware that some may be offended by these images and for that we are truly sorry ,but is time that the non drug using public sees what we are now dealing with on a daily basis," said East Liverpool police in a Facebook post.

The passed-out couple, James Acord, 50, and Rhonda Pasek, 47, are charged with child endangerment.

The couple had been stopped by police because Acord was driving the Ford Explorer erratically. When the officer got to the car, Pacek was out cold and Acord lost consciousness.

They were given Narcan, the medication that reverses these kind of drug overdoses, and perked back up. 

I think a lot of people, including myself, have strong feelings both approving of the idea of releasing these photos and against it.

On the in favor side, I can understand the exasperation of the East Liverpool, Ohio police department. Every day, both where I live in Vermont, and just about everywhere else, we hear about opioid and heroin addictions running rampant.

In Burlington, Vermont recently, we had a situation that was very similar to that in East Liverpool, but in the Vermont case, police did not share photos on social media.

In Burlington, in early July a couple passed out in a car from heroin on a hot day with a five year old boy inside the vehicle with them. The boy screamed for help, The screams caught the attention of passerby, who called police.

"My mommy and daddy aren't waking up,!" the boy yelled, according to police.

If that doesn't make you both incredibly sad and make your blood boil, you're not human.

The photos from the East Liverpool police department telegraphed the frustration of police and made a stab at creating public awareness. A good thing.

However, I wonder about privacy here. The boy's face is blurred out in the photos, but it would be easy for a local to figure out who he is. 

Plus, the passed out couple is easily identifiable and their names were publicized in many media outlets, including this one.

Of course, what the couple did was dangerous and awful and they deserved to be punished. They ARE in legal trouble, for sure. But I have mixed emotions about having their faces and photos splashed all over the Internet, like I admittedly did here.

The couple's arrest, and the circumstances of it, are a matter of public record. I wonder if this infamous photo will haunt them for the rest of their lives, or maybe help turn it around.

They've already lost the kid, who's had a chaotic life. Just six weeks before the photo was taken, Pacek was granted custody of the boy because his own parents were incapable of raising him, says Fox 8 in Cleveland.  He has since been placed with a great aunt and great uncle in South Carolina.

Maybe I'm having a Pollyanna moment, but it would be nice if the pair are at least as horrified as the rest of us are at the photo and find a way to get clean. It's hard, but I  hope they do it.

Or, at the very least, I  hope other addicts see the photo, and maybe it will inspire them, to try to get clean.

It'll help all of us. Including a couple of terrified little boys in Ohio and Vermont. 

We Found Something Good That Came Out Of The RNC

To a lot of us, the Republican National Convention was a depressing stew of bad politics, anger, hate, racial divides, lies, counter-lies, and just general unpleasantness.

Toddlers in a Cleveland fountain during the RNC
gave us a break from the overheated yacking around us. 

I can hope the upcoming week's Democratic National Convention will be better, but I'm sure it will have its share of ugliness, too.  

Desperate to find a good moment to come out of the Republican Convention in Cleveland, people are seizing on the photo you see in this post that was taken in the city's downtown.

There's a fountain and square there, and it was the scene of a lot of noisy demonstrations and arguments and heat, both meteorological and emotional. 

Two little girls who were there with their families met and played in the fountain. It was that simple, that everyday, and that......nice.  The girls created the perfect antidote to the dreadfulness around them. 

Apparently, we all needed the break these kids provided: The photo has gone totally viral. 

Too bad toddlers, who are blind to race, politics and such, so often grow out of it. They're taught bad lessons by adults, and we get the kind of divides we have in this country now. But at least we can learn lessons little ones are trying to get through our fat, stubborn heads.

The kids are alright.

Here's more details from the television station - WEWS-TV -   that took the photo:

Viral Abandoned Dog Photo Has Happy Ending

This heartrending photo of a dog cruelly abandoned
on a London bus went viral.  

A photo went viral last week showing a Staffordshire Bull Terrier abandoned on a London bus.

The dog looked so dejected at being abandoned.  I'm sure a few people who saw the photo shed a few tears. How could anybody just leave such a wonderful dog on the bus to fend for itself?

You can see the photo here, near the top of this post.

What would prompt such cruelty?

The good news is the dog, named Boston, was not abandoned by his human family. He might have been kidnapped and abandoned by his kidnappers, but that's quite another thing.

Plus, bus company employees took good care of Boston while everything was sorted out. And the publicity associated with the viral photo ensured Boston came back home.

Last Thursday Boston's owner, Paulina Rybak, took him outside like she always does to do his business and he just disappeared.

Boston, having been likely abandoned on
the bus by dognappers, is now back home
and looking much happier. As are his human companions

Boston had never run off before, so Paulina and her two kids, Filip, 8, ad Zofia, 3 were distraught. The family worried they'd never seen Boston again, especially as the days ticked by with no sign of him.

The suspicion is kidnapping because the bus driver who found Boston abandoned on his rig also vaguely recalls the dog getting on the bus with two men.

Sounds like the two men might have grabbed Boston, then decided not to hang on to him.

The bus driver said Boston was very scared when he found him, and he and other staff did their best to comfort him.

Rybak went to the town council and animal shelters and other places looking for Boston, but no luck.

Then the photo went viral, and Rybak spotted the picture of Boston on the bus on the Evening Standard web site.   

The family has since been reunited, Boston is back home in good health, and all is well.

Sometimes the internet can be a horrible place. But sometimes, it's wonderful when it helps dogs like Boston and his human companions.

H/T Nothing To Do With Arborath

Dog Appears Pleased To Be Leaving Animal Shelter After Being Adopted

Coso celebrates as she leaves an animal shelter with
the two people who just adopted her.  

I just had to post this because the photo is perfect.

Coso, age seven, is an Australian Shepherd mix who had been at the Lort Smith Animal Shelter in Melbourne, Australia because the family that had her could no longer care for her, says The Dodo.

Eventually, a family came to the animal shelter and decided to adopt Coso and bring her to a new forever home.

Judging from the photo, Coso looked rather pleased as she left the animal shelter with her new family. Her new human companions don't exactly look upset, either.

Neo-Nazis Get The Music They Deserve

South Carolina Police Officer Leroy Smith, who is blakc
helps a white supremicist who was overcome
by the summer heat during the stupid racists'
pro-Confederate flag march in South Carolina
last week. Photo by Rob Godfrey/AP  

The National Socialist Party, a bunch of stupid neo-Nazis that hate Jews in particular but pretty much anyone who isn't white, had a big march in South Carolina last weekend in support of the Confederate flag.

It didn't go well.

At least for the National Socialist Party anyway. Counterprotests seemed to have a grand old time.

The group really looked as dumb as they were, and a bunch of people were on hand to give these wackos the derision they deserve.

The National Socialist Party's message was undercut in several ways, including via a viral photo by Rob Godfrey of the AP of a black cop helping one of these nutjobs who had been overcome by the intense summer heat in South Carolina.

The best part of the march came from a guy named Matt Buck, who decided the National Socialist Party pro-Confederate flag march could be improved upon by some musical accompanyment.

So be brought his sousaphone (kind of like a tuba) to the party and, in the viral video you'll see below, really managed to make the march worth attending.

Like many in the crowd of onlookers, and the nation as a whole, Buck is totally unimpressed with the National Socialist Party, and wanted to send them a message.

"I didn't really know how to show my opposition, so that was my way of doing it," Buck said, according to the Charleston City Paper. 

It seems like Buck put some thought into his musical selection. He started with the song Stewie from "Family Guy" plays when he's hired to follow overweight people around with a tuba.

Then Buck switched over to Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries."  He told the Charleston City Paper he did so because it reminded him of the Nazi car chase scene from "The Blues Brothers."

So thank you, Matt Buck, for wise song choices for last weekend's event!

Here's the video.

Man In Famous Dog/Lake Photo Gets Another Dog; Everyone Is Happy

The now-famous photo of John Unger and
Schoep, taken in 2012.  

I don't normally obsessively follow the activities of random guys in Wisconsin but I'm making an exception in regards to a guy named John Unger.  

Dog lovers like me get obsessive. So sue me.

The story, of course, involves a dog.

Back in 2012, a photograph of Unger and his dog named Schoep went totally viral. Everybody loved the photo, for good reason.

It showed the ponytailed Unger in water up to his chest in Lake Superior, holding his beloved dog named Schoep.

Unger said Schoep got him through a really bad time in his life, so Unger figured he owed the dog something. Schoep developed arthritis, and the cold waters of Lake Superior seemed to help, so Unger took Shoep into the water every day.

The result was that viral photo, of Unger looking peaceful and Schoep looking so happy to be in the arms of his companion.

Shoep died a year after the photo was taken at the age of 20, and Unger was devastated.  But by then, he'd gotten quite a following on Facebook, and the support helped him through.

Schoep died in 2013, and now, Bear, picture
here, has become John Unger's canine
companion. Looks like Bear's in for
a good life.  

Finally, recently, Unger felt ready to get another dog, and announced it on Facebook with a photo of his new companion:

"I am whole again. 
Ladies and Gentlemen - This is BEAR! 
The journey continues with the addition of Bear into my home, heart, soul and OUR lives!
Please give him a Big Hello!
Bear is a 1-year-ld, 70 lb. Akita/Shep/Lab mix. I am a very happy man, and proud to introduce him to you. Please join us as Bear and I learn, grow and help in the days, months and years to come!
Great Days Ahead To All
John." 

As of Thursday morning, Unger's Facebook post had gotten more than 83,000 likes and more than 20,000 comments. Lots of dog lovers out there, huh?

The best comment on Unger's Facebook page might have been this succinct but very likely true observation: "Schoep is smiling."

Yep, and so are the rest of us. Congratulations on your new friend, Bear! Same goes to you, John Unger.