Dressed To Ill: Buy Ebola Costumes For Halloween
As Halloween approaches, some costume companies are hoping to scare up sales based on current events. BrandsOnSale.com is finding a way to sell last year’s Breaking Bad costumes by marketing them as ‘Ebola containment suits’. The $79.99 costume comes with a face shield, breathing mask, safety goggles and blue latex gloves, but boots are not included. The costume’s web page calls the Ebola outfit the most “viral” costume of the year and says the wearer is “sure to be prepared if any outbreak happens”.
BrandsOnSale CEO Johnathon Weeks insists the costume is in the true spirit of the holiday. “You can go on any website for a zombie mask for an eight-year-old with cuts and scars all over their face,” he told the Atlantic. “It’s Halloween, it’s one day, if people are that serious about it, they don’t know what Halloween is about.”
But some like Philadelphia physician’s assistant Maria McKenna think the Ebola costume is sick — and not in a good way — since two fellow medical practitioners tested positive for the disease.”
New York Post columnist Kyle Smith is suggesting people not be so deadly serious about the Ebola costumes. “Since everybody dies, when we make fun of Ebola we’re just mocking our own fears of death,” he said.
(Huffington Post)
Tennessee woman jailed for neglecting her lawn
A judge in Tennessee gave a woman a reduced six-hour jail sentence because she failed to keep her lawn mowed according to standards set forth by city ordinance. Karen Holloway first received a citation from lenoir City over the summer, indicating that her lawn wasn’t maintained properly. At a hearing last week, Judge Terry Vann sentenced her to five days in a local jail for the offense. “It’s not right,” Holloway told WlTV. “Why would you put me in jail with child molesters, and people who’ve done real crimes, because I haven’t maintained my yardIJ”
Holloway appealed after claiming that she had been “bullied,” was not read her rights and was never told she could have a lawyer present. Vann reduced the sentence to six hours, and Holloway turned herself in to be processed into the jail.
A mother with a full-time job, one vehicle and two children living at home, Holloway admitted that she had let the yard go, but that it was “certainly not a criminal offense.” She said that she had received similar citations in the past when her husband was deployed with the military overseas.
Vann said at the appeal that Holloway was not a criminal, but insisted on the six-hour sentence even after Holloway requested community service. Vann said Holloway could face more jail time if progress on the lawn was not satisfactory by November, when the next hearing was scheduled. “This opens a floodgate to everybody in lenoir City being put in jail for silly things,” Holloway said.
(UPI)
New York makes yogurt the official state snack
Yogurt became New York’s official state snack recently, joining the likes of popcorn and salty boiled peanuts among popular foods honored by US states. New York has become the nation’s top yogurt producer amid the booming popularity of strained Greek-style yogurt, the office of Governor Andrew Cuomo said. Cuomo signed a Bill making it the official state snack.
“Designating yogurt as the official state snack will continue to raise public awareness of the economic and health benefits of yogurt and the dairy industry,” the governor’s office said.
Only a handful of states have official snacks. South Carolina has boiled peanuts, Texas has tortilla chips and salsa, Illinois has popcorn and Utah has Jell-O.
New York produced 336 million kg yogurt last year, accounting for 16 per cent of total US production, the statement said. Two leading brands of the thick Greek-style yogurt, Ciobani and Fage, have large production plants in New York.
Dairy manufacturers in New York employed about 9,500 people with total wages of $513 million in 2013, up from about 8,000 jobs and $401 million in wages in 2010.
(Reuters)
Painter Says He lost His Virginity To Alien lover
It’s not the kind of close encounter many people discuss, but one New Jersey-based artist says he feels better when he paints his sexual experiences with aliens. “I lost my virginity to an extraterrestrial woman,” David Huggins says in the trailer for a forthcoming documentary about his life and work, love and Saucers. “It was just a relief to get the images on canvas,” the 70-year-old says.
Huggins, who lives in Hoboken, says the abductions began when he was eight years old and have continued throughout his life. When he was 17, he says he began having sexual encounters with a female alien named Crescent.
Culture blog ANIMAl describes Huggins’ first encounter with Crescent: “She appeared human, except for her large, black eyes, a pale, pointy face and the wig... They consummated the start of their long-time and very long-distance romance.”
(Huffington Post)