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NBA Owners' net worth (Dan Gilbert's net worth rose from $7.5 billion to $45.3 billion this year)

...After his company went public. I had to include that in the title. Maybe now he won't be such a cheap bastard with his GMs. I had no idea Gilbert was now the second richest owner in the league.
Which made me wonder what other owners are worth (the title of this post was almost "why is Tilman Fertitta such a cheap bastard while Joe Lacob spends money like he thinks the shit's gonna rot?").
Which brings us to this handy Forbes list from March:
1. Steve Ballmer (Los Angeles Clippers): $51.4 billion
Ballmer scored a huge win this week for his dream of building a new arena. He bought the Forum for $400 million from the Madison Square Garden Company, which tried to block a new Clippers arena near the Forum in Inglewood, California.
2. Philip Anschutz (Los Angeles Lakers): $11.2 billion
Anschutz owns one-third of the Lakers, plus the arena in which they play, the Staples Center, in addition to the NHL’s Kings. \For those wondering, it's hard to find a reliable source on Jeanie's net worth but according to unreliable sources it's in the ballpark of $500 million*
3. Stanley Kroenke (Denver Nuggets): $10 billion
The real estate and sports mogul owns teams in the NBA, the NHL, the NFL, MLS and the Premier League.
4. Joseph Tsai (Brooklyn Nets): $9.9 billion
The cofounder of Alibaba Group completed his purchase of the Nets last year for $2.3 billion and bought the Barclays Center for an additional $1 billion.
5. Robert Pera (Memphis Grizzlies): $7.1 billion
Pera owns nearly three-quarters of wireless equipment maker Ubiquiti Networks. He was the lead investor in the Grizzlies purchase in 2012.
6. Daniel Gilbert (Cleveland Cavaliers): $6.2 billion
Gilbert made his first fortune from Quicken Loans, the largest online mortgage lender, which he cofounded in 1985 at 22 years old.*List is from March, before the IPO
7. Tom Gores (Detroit Pistons): $5.7 billion
Gores and his brother Alec are both private equity billionaires. The Pistons opened a new $90 million headquarters and training facility in September.
8. Micky Arison (Miami Heat): $5.3 billion
Arison’s net worth plummeted 33% over the past six weeks with the collapse in the stock price of Carnival Corp. The world’s largest cruise ship operator was founded by Arison’s father in 1972.
9. Tilman Fertitta (Houston Rockets): $4.4 billion
Fertitta furloughed roughly 40,000 employees at his casino and restaurant empire to curb the economic impact caused by coronavirus-induced shutdowns. His fortune is derived from his ownership of the Golden Nugget Casinos and Landry’s, a Texas-based restaurant and entertainment company.
10. Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks): $4.3 billion
Cuban was one of the first sports team owners to commit to paying hourly arena workers for games missed during the coronavirus crisis. He’s invested more than $20 million as a “shark” on ABC’s popular Shark Tank show.
11. Joshua Harris (Philadelphia 76ers): $3.7 billion
Harris cofounded private equity powerhouse Apollo Global Management in 1990 with fellow billionaires Leon Black and Marc Rowan. He remains a managing director there.
12. Gayle Benson (New Orleans Pelicans): $3.2 billion
Benson inherited the Pelicans and the NFL’s Saints when her husband, Tom, died in 2018.
13. Glen Taylor (Minnesota Timberwolves): $2.8 billion
His printing firm, Taylor Corp., generates more than $2 billion in revenue annually. Taylor also owns stakes in Minnesota’s MLS and WNBA teams.
14. Herb Simon (Indiana Pacers): $2.6 billion
The real estate mogul bought the Pacers with his since-deceased brother, Melvin, in 1983, for $10.5 million. Simon Property Group is one of the world’s largest real estate investment trusts, with 206 properties in the U.S.
15. Antony Ressler (Atlanta Hawks): $2.4 billion
Ressler cofounded private equity firm Ares Management in 1997. He owns a small piece of the Milwaukee Brewers, in addition to his controlling stake in the Hawks.
16. Michael Jordan (Charlotte Hornets): $2.1 billion
The NBA’s GOAT sold a minority stake in the Hornets in September in a deal that valued the team at $1.5 billion. Nike pays Jordan more than $100 million annuallybased on growing sales for the company’s Jordan Brand.
17. Marc Lasry (Milwaukee Bucks): $1.8 billion
Lasry, a hedge fund titan, joined Wes Edens to buy the Bucks in 2014 for $550 million. He was born in Morocco and moved to the U.S. at age 7 with his family.
18. Gail Miller (Utah Jazz): $1.7 billion
Miller transferred ownership of the Jazz in 2017 to a family legacy trust to deter her heirs from selling or moving the team. Gail and her since-deceased husband, Larry, bought the team for $22 million in 1986.
19. Jerry Reinsdorf (Chicago Bulls): $1.5 billion
Reinsdorf led a group of investors who bought a controlling stake in the Bulls for $9.2 million in 1985. Good timing. It was one year after the team drafted Michael Jordan, who led the Bulls to six NBA titles. The team is now worth $3.2 billion.
20. Theodore Leonsis (Washington Wizards): $1.4 billion
Leonsis initially built his fortune as a senior executive at AOL, before investing in sports teams like the Wizards and the NHL’s Capitals.
*Not included on the list but googled for your edification:
DeVos Family (Magic): $5.4 billion
James Dolan (Knicks): $2 billion
Joe Lacob (Warriors): $1.2 billion
Vivek Randive (Kings): $700 million
Robert Sarver (Suns): $400 million
Jody Allen (Trail Blazers): The sister of Microsoft cofounder, Paul G. Allen, took control of the team after his death. At the time her brother was worth $20 billion though he intended to give most of his fortune away...
Boston Basketball Partners LLC (Celtics): An American local private investment group formed to purchase the Boston Celtics
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (Raptors): The Raptors are a subsidiary of MLSE
The Professional Basketball Club, LLC (Thunder): A group of OKC businessmen "who represent a wide variety of local and national business interests" owns the Thunder
Spurs Sports & Entertainment LLC (Spurs): An American sports & entertainment organization, based in San Antonio, Texas owns the San Antonio Spurs
submitted by whoriasteinem to nba [link] [comments]

Missing/Murdered/Disappeared: Vanished from East Texas, 2000-2020

Hello friends. Per a request, here is a running list of those who have gone missing in East Texas. As a journalist in this area, these are the individuals I have noticed as part of the missing groups I frequent. Please feel free to direct me to more. As it is my line of work, I care deeply. Some of these individuals I know about, some I do not know much about. There are many more, but this first post is just the time range of 2000-2020. I will do other time periods if there is interest, although older cases are harder to track.
They are organized alphabetically.
Albright, Alwin- last seen 7/6/19 walking away from his home on Scott Street in Gilmer in Upshur County. He is 74 years old with grey hair and blue eyes. He’s 5’10” and 250 pounds. He was last seen wearing a red shirt and blue jeans. Mr. Albright has medical issues and is without the medications he needs. There is a $1000 reward for information regarding his whereabouts. Anyone with information should contact the Upshur County Sheriff.
Alvarado, Eric “Slow”- Last seen 11/20/18. Disappeared from Atlanta, Texas, he is 6’5” and 180 pounds. He was 32 years old, and now would be 34. He was last seen wearing camouflage pajama pants, a white t-shirt, and a gray zip-up jacket. He also may have the glasses he was wearing. He has tattoos on his arms, chest and neck. There is a $10,000 reward for information on his whereabouts. Anyone with information should contact the Atlanta, TX police.
Birdwell, Jerrod- Last seen 1/6/14. Missing from Tyler, Jerrod was 17 at the time he disappeared. His height is listed as 5’5” and weight as 170 pounds, but he may have grown. He is white, with short black hair and brown eyes. There are no more details available about him. Anyone with information should contact the Smith County Sheriff.
Boehm, Frederick “Lil Joe” Joseph- Last seen 1/25/01. 6’0”, 130 pounds, white male with hazel eyes and brown hair missing from Marshall. He has a rebel flag tattoo on his upper arm. His sister Jolene is searching for answers and offering a $5000 reward. Anyone with information should contact the Harrison County Sheriff.
Cannon, Heather Danielle- Last seen 8/27/09. The 15-year-old disappeared from Athens, Texas. Authorities believe she left of her own accord, and she was last seen in the company of her biological father, Jerral Allen Whitley. Whitley refused to take a polygraph test after Heather's disappearance and was later incarcerated in Florida for drug offenses and grand theft. He was imprisoned for 18 months before being released in October 2014. Police have since completed excavations of a property on County Road 4837, near Larue. Anyone with information should contact the Henderson County Sheriff.
Childress, Antoinette Renee- Last seen 10/13/15. Missing from Henderson at her trailer home. About a month before Childress went missing, her sister, Patricia Nichols, began receiving strange Facebook messages from her. The first message said there was an emergency and Childress needed her phone number. Three weeks later Nichols got another message that just said "Sister where are I, what's going on." On October 6, Nichols got a voice message from Childress's Facebook account. The message said something about guardian angels, but the voice wasn't Childress's. Nichols left home after that and didn't return until November 6, by which time Childress was missing.
Two women contacted Nichols after Childress's disappearance and said they knew what had happened to her. The women stated Childress had been involved in using and selling drugs, and gotten some bad people angry, and was tortured and killed as a result. This information has not been verified.
Childress was seeing Felipe Villanueva at the time of his disappearance. He is considered a person of interest in her case and has multiple warrants for his arrest on drug-related charges and driving without a license. His current whereabouts are unknown and it's unclear whether he's still in the area.
A few days after Childress was reported missing, police found her car being driven by a man in Henderson. He was arrested on an unrelated charge, and stated Childress had sold him the vehicle, something her family finds difficult to believe.
Childress has a warrant out for her arrest, but she's considered a missing person rather than a fugitive. Childress had just gotten off probation at the time and was trying to clean up her life. Her case remains unsolved and foul play is suspected. Anyone with information should call the Henderson County Sheriff
Combs, Donnie “Bon Jovi” and Cynthia Arnold (went missing together)- The pair was last seen 9/26/18 in Linden, near Atlanta, Texas in Cass County. Combs called Arnold and asked her to come pick him up in Cass Countyand she left home to do so. A little while later she contacted her mother and said Combs hadn't arrived and she was still waiting at the meeting spot. Neither of them has ever been heard from again. A few days after they were last seen, Arnold's truck was found abandoned and burned in Marion County, Texas. While Kevin Dewayne Shepard Jr. and his uncle, Gary Edward Shepard were charged in Oct. 2020 with capital murder of the pair, their bodies have never been found. They face the death penalty if convicted. Anyone with information should contact the Cass County Sheriff.
Culberson, Larry- Last seen 9/4/13. Larry went missing from his home on County Road 4320 in Emory. Larry had been having some medical issues shortly before his disappearance. Larry was last known to be wearing camouflage-style gray pants, a white T-shirt and he might be wearing high-top tennis shoes. He was 56 at the time of his disappearance. An extensive search was conducted in the area without any result. His medical condition causes him to walk with a limp. Anyone with information should contact the Rains County Sheriff.
Dunn, Hartford Hunter- Last seen 8/5/04. Vanished from his home in the 200 block of Private Road 4002 in Marshall in the early morning hours, his daughter said she woke up at 7:30 a.m. and found the door open and her father gone. At 76 years old, he was in the beginning years of dementia. He has not been seen since. Anyone with information should contact the Marshall Police.
Flint, Kimberly Carter- Last seen 9/29/18. Kim’s car was found partially crashed and abandoned in the roadway of State Highway 154 near the rural community of Rekaw, in Rusk County. Her purse ID, as well as other possessions, were at her home, according to Kim’s son James. Picture evidence of the wreck shows damage to the front and side panel of the grey four-door sedan. "The vehicle it was found still in the roadway partially crashed," her son said. "She just wasn't there." Two searches, both immediately after the crash and 170 days later, turned up nothing. A witness believes he saw her speaking with someone in a white pickup truck, but as any local knows… there are a lot of white pickup trucks in East Texas. Kim was featured on “The Vanished Podcast.” Anyone with information should contact the Rusk County Sheriff.
Farrell, Justin Kyle- Last seen 05/11/04. Farrell disappeared from Nacogdoches, Texas. In March 2015, his skeletal remains were found near Cushing in Nacogdoches County, Texas. They were identified in April 2015. Farrell's death remains under investigation and has not yet been ruled a homicide. Anyone with information should contact the Nacogdoches County Sheriff.
Fleisher, Steven Miller- Last seen 9/14/16. Missing from Troup, he was last seen around 6:15 a.m. in the 1200 block of Noble Street. Police say Fleisher did not take any of his belongings with him and his family has been unable to contact him. He was 53 years old at the time of his disappearance. Anyone with information should contact the Smith County Sheriff.
Flores, Lydia- Last seen 10/11/20. Reported missing on Oct. 19 by her Shreveport, LA boyfriend, who said he had not heard from her since Oct. 11. She is a 40-year-old Hispanic female, and has two tattoos: a barbed wire on her bicep and a playboy bunny on her lower back. She is 5’1” and 115 pounds. She has brown eyes and auburn hair. She is from Longview, but anyone with information should contact the Shreveport Police Department.
Franklin, Johnny William- Last seen 10/21/08. The black male, 5'9" tall and 150 pounds was last seen in Tyler. His vehicle was located in a church parking lot at 3009 N. Grand Ave. on October 21, but police said they saw no signs of foul play. He was 53 at the time of his disappearance. Anyone with information should contact the Smith County Sheriff.
Gallegos, Veronica- Last seen 01/11/05. Missing from Gun Barrel City at the age of 19, Her live-in boyfriend said she packed a suitcase and left; he speculated she'd returned to her native Mexico. She has never been heard from again. Gallegos left behind her purse, her Mexican identification and her six-month-old child. Her boyfriend is considered a person of interest in her case and has stopped cooperating with investigators. Foul play is possible in her disappearance, but few details are available in her case. Anyone with information should contact the Henderson County Sheriff.
Gipson, Tyress- last seen 8/22/20. Missing from Jacksonville, Texas in Cherokee County, Tyress had just turned 18 and graduated. He is 6’0” and weighs 180 pounds. He has tattoos of the name “Lavance,” “BG$” and prayer hands. He is an African American man, wears his hair in dreads, and has braces. Anyone with information should contact the Jacksonville Police Department.
Gutierrez, Marquita Leanna- Last seen 11/11/19. Some report her as missing out of Canton, while others report her as missing out of Wood County. Marquita Gutierrez was reported missing after borrowing her mom's pickup that morning to go to a doctor's appointment, but the doctor's office said she never showed up. Her husband told police she was last seen in the Dallas area and was possibly heading toward Laredo. Her husband has been named a person of interest in her case. Anyone with information should contact the Wood County Sheriff
Hunt, Shirley Mae- last seen 6/17/07. Missing from Henderson, Shirley was last seen walking on County Road 454 near her home in rural Rusk County. She had alzheimers at the time of her disappearance. She is 5’4”, 140 pounds with hazel eyes, white hair and a partial denture plate. She wears eyeglasses with a gold wire frame, and was 72 at the time of her disappearance. Sheriff’s deputies believe she got in someone’s car, due to scent dog tracking. Anyone with information should contact the Rusk County Sheriff.
Jackson, Cole Duane- last seen 07/13/06. Missing from Timpson, Jackson was last seen near FM 1645 and CR 4230. The truck he was driving came out of a private pasture and rammed into a fence. He stopped and spoke to the elderly man who owned the land. Jackson apologized and said he would pay $120 for the damage, but said he had to run to get away from the "bad people" who were chasing him. He abandoned his Dodge half-ton pickup with minor damage and left his two inhalers, which he needed, in the vehicle. The driver’s side door was open and the truck was still in four-wheel drive. Jackson's wife was three months pregnant with their first child at the time he went missing. Anyone with information should contact the Shelby County Sheriff.
Lee, Anthony Tyrone- last seen 6/25/11. Anthony was planning to go to the rodeo with his mother on the evening of June 25. When his mother came to pick him up for the rodeo, she found his home deserted. The ironing board was set up with the clothes Lee had planned to wear to the rodeo. His pants were on the ironing board with one leg dangling, as if he'd been interrupted while ironing and left in a hurry. His mother said he would not leave the house in his “house shoes” (a very East Texas thing lol) and he had $600 untouched in his bank account. About three weeks after Lee was reported missing, his mother got strange phone calls. A "death song" played on the line, then someone said, "that's what he gets for snitching." His mother noted that he had been associated with a known drug dealer and this person had wrecked Lee's car about a week before Lee disappeared. Anyone with information should contact the Texas Department of Public Safety (State Troopers).
Marshall, Kimberly Ann- last seen 3/17/17 after she spent one night in the Salvation Army womens’ shelter in Tyler, Texas. She was never seen again. Thirty-one years old at the time, Kimberly had cuts and scars on her arms, wrists and back. She also has upper dentures. She is 5’5” and approximately 105 pounds, although she fluctuates in weight. She has brown hair and brown eyes. Few details are available about her. Anyone with information should contact the Tyler Police Department.
Martin, David Michael- last seen 1/14/10. He was a truck driver based in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and came home to Louisiana most weekends to visit his family. On January 14, Martin called to say he wouldn't make it home that weekend because his truck had broken down. He never contacted his loved ones again. The last person known to have seen him was the mechanic in Longview, Texas whom Martin took his truck to for repairs. They had dinner together, then Martin said he was going to wait on a friend to get truck parts. The mechanic left to do more work on the truck. Martin has never been heard from again. Anyone with information should contact the Sand Springs Police.
Martinez, Gregoria Jacobo- last seen 8/13/09. Martinez was last seen in Nacogdoches. She was born in Mexico and was living in the United States without documents at the time of her disappearance. Her two young children, both of whom are U.S. citizens, and they were visiting their grandmother in Mexico when Martinez disappeared. She had asked the father of one of her children for money to help bring her children home from Mexico. He agreed to meet her and lend her money shortly before she disappeared.Martinez planned to go to the Nacogdoches County courthouse on July 13 to pick up copies of her children's birth certificates, but she never arrived there. She has never been heard from again. She was reported missing on July 16. That same day, her vehicle was found abandoned on the side of County Road 525, near the intersection of U. S. Highway 59 south. There were no obvious indications of a struggle at the scene. Martinez may have gotten a ride south with a truck driver in order to find her children; however, her family never saw her. Both the fathers of her children have been questioned and neither of them have been named as suspects. Authorities believe Martinez was taken against her will. Anyone with information should contact the Texas Department of Public Safety (State Troopers).
Marquez, Erin Raquel- last seen 8/30/14. The 17-year-old disappeared as she was leaving the Longview Baptist Church in Hallsville, near Longview. She has long dark hair that was dyed red, and 5’6”, 130 pounds, and has brown eyes. Anyone with information should contact the Harrison County Sheriff.
McKay, Melissa Darling- last seen 6/10/11. At 1:35 a.m., Melissa walked out of the Choctaw Casino in Grant, Oklahoma with a white male companion, Jeremy Upchurch, of Lamar TX and was never seen again. Upchurch continues to be a person of interest due to his criminal background. Properties in Oklahoma, Delta and Lamar counties were searched, but came up empty. I can’t find an independent source to corroborate, but a personal conversation I had with law enforcement indicates they have found her vehicle in Oklahoma and presume she is dead, possibly due to drug involvement. Anyone with information should contact the Hopkins County Sheriff or Sulphur Springs Police.
Meadows, Beverly Lofton- Last seen 12/26/08. Beverly walked away from the Community Cares Nursing Home in the 200 block of west Merritt Street in Marshall, Texas and has never been seen again. Meadows had lived in the nursing home for about six years prior to her disappearance. She was supposed to wear an identification bracelet that would have activated the nursing home's door alarms, but she took it off before she left. She left without taking any personal belongings. Her mother, who lives 15 miles from the nursing home, believes Meadows was trying to walk to her residence. She was 48 years old at the time of her disappearance, 5’3”, and 240 pounds with short brown hair. She requires daily medication, and she doesn't have her medicine with her. Anyone with information should contact the Marshall Police.
Morton, Sheila- last seen 6/2/14. Missing from Center, Texas, Sheila’s behavior and personality changed drastically in the weeks leading up to her disappearance, according to her mother Joan. She had recently quit a restaurant job she had for seven years, moved out of her residence, and began hanging out with an old group of friends. Additionally, the last purchase Sheila was known to make was for a 9mm handgun, which was left behind when she disappeared. She was last seen at her ex-boyfriend’s house. Her phone was turned off the same day she vanished, and she has never been seen or heard from again. Sheila’s family members do not believe she would voluntarily leave her son behind. Anyone with information should contact the Angelina County Sheriff.
Pierce, Ashley- last seen 3/10/20. Disappeared from the Longview area, she is 5’3” and has a Hello Kitty tattoo on her thigh and a scorpion on her shoulder. She has long brown hair. Anyone with information should contact the Gregg County Sheriff.
Salazar, Rosemary “Rose” Rodriguez- Last seen 10/6/19. Attended a family birthday party at the Golden Corral in Kilgore, and was supposed to report to work the next morning at the Kilgore Walmart, but no-show, no-called. She has several distinctive tattoos, including a heart with a fishing hook, a deathly hallow, and the inscription “my person” next to a rose. She is a 5’4”, 185 pound Hispanic woman with brown eyes and brown hair, and it is not known what she was wearing when she disappeared. Her lime green 2014 Chevrolet Sonic is also missing. Anyone with information should contact the Gregg County Sheriff.
Stewart, Harry Edward- Last seen 11/30/11. Harry was traveling from Springtown, Texas to Alabama and was last seen in Hallsville, Texas. His age was 65 and he is white, 5’10”, and weighs about 170 pounds. Sheriff’s deputies determined he was driving when he hit something and had to leave his vehicle after his radiator overheated. Harry told the responding officer he would wait at the Dairy Queen on Farm-to-Market Road 450 near mile marker 604 for a ride. He was never seen again.
Thompson, Lauren Colvin- Last seen 1/10/19. At 1:53 p.m., Lauren made a frantic but coherent call to her mother. At 2:01 p.m., Lauren called 911 and told Panola County dispatch she was being followed. The call lasted for 21 minutes before disconnecting. Lauren’s family says it “abruptly ended,” police say the “cell phone died.” Lauren’s phone and shoe were found in the Rock Hill community, a rural area with less than 200 residents and more than 2000 acres of woods. A search by multiple law enforcement agencies turned up nothing. A $10,000 reward is offered for information on Lauren’s whereabouts. Anyone with information should contact the Panola County Sheriff.
Tidwell, James “Jimmy” Lamar- Last seen 2/15/12. Family members found his rural cabin in Rusk County abandoned, and later found his vehicle abandoned on Farm Road 95, approximately five miles from his home, without a battery. "I do not believe for one minute that he left this property of his own free will," his sister Lynn Akin said. The road was a route he took frequently. He was 58 at the time of his disappearance. The truck showed no signs of foul play, according to Sheriff’s deputies. Anyone with information should contact the Rusk County Sheriff.
Valdovinos, Gustavo Baldovi- Last seen 7/11/12. Missing from his maternal aunt's home on Houston Street in Tyler. He told his family he was an alcoholic and had decided to go into treatment, and he left with a group of people who promised to get him some help. The group he left with is described as a Caucasian male and two Caucasian females driving a white Chevrolet Z71 or Silverado pickup truck. Anyone with information should contact the Smith County Sheriff.
Wells, Brandi- Last seen 8/3/06. Was leaving the Graham Central Station nightclub in Longview at around 12:30 a.m. Her damaged car was found on Interstate 20 near the Brownsboro exit with her personal belongings inside. She was wearing rust-colored gaucho pants and a floral tube top, and is 4’11, 130 pounds with blonde hair and blue eyes. She was 23 in 2006, she would be 36 now. She was featured on Investigation Discovery’s “Disappeared.” Anyone with information should contact the Henderson County Sheriff.
Witt, Jana Mann- last seen 8/17/05. Missing from Glen Rose in Somervell County, Ms. Witt displayed personality changes several weeks prior to her disappearance. She has also gone by the names Jana Holstin, Jana Howard and Jana Branch. She was 44 years of age at the time of her disappearance, and 5’3”, 160 pounds with blue eyes and dyed red hair. The missing persons database notes that foul play is possible. Anyone with information should contact the Somervell County Sheriff.
Sources: News reports, Charley Project, Missing Eight East Texas and more
https://www.news-journal.com/news/local/police-searching-for-husband-of-missing-wc-woman/article_7c5144ee-8434-5e12-9829-360d060c510a.html
https://www.ketk.com/news/vanished-hartford-hunter-dunn/
https://www.panolawatchman.com/news/still-no-answers-in-lauren-thompson-case-a-year-after-she-went-missing-from-panola/article_07d707bc-4d15-11ea-8c84-af4fb2d30b79.html
submitted by liberty285code6 to UnresolvedMysteries [link] [comments]

At the Holy Grail Casino, you gamble with a lot more than money

"King-high diamond flush," I said boldly as I laid my cards out on the table.
Despite my strong hand, my heart still thumped in my chest as I waited for the only other player in the hand to reveal his cards. Although my odds of winning were good, I was nervous. If my opponent had the ace...
"Ace-high diamond flush," my train of thought was disrupted and heart my sank. My opponent had the goddamn ace.
Unlike any other time I had played Texas Hold 'Em at a casino, I had no idea what to expect. See, I wasn't at a normal casino. I was at the Holy Grail Casino, where one does not gamble with money.
My opponent had wagered a finger, and I thought that that had been some colloquial way of making a small bet. Just as we frequently say "an arm and a leg" figuratively for an exorbitant cost, I thought that 'finger' was being used in the same context. I was proven brutally wrong when the dealer, without a hint of emotion, pulled a large knife out from some concealed location and chopped my pinky finger off.
I screamed, both in pain and disbelief. I had been expecting the most intense gambling experience of a life time, but I hadn't imagined anything of this magnitude.
I had finally found a form of gambling even I balked at.
I'll come clean and say it, I'm a compulsive gambler. I've had an enduring fixation on Lady Luck as early as I can remember. As a child, I loved making bets - even small and petty ones - with my peers.
When I was eighteen, and had my first job, I squandered a bigger portion of my very first paycheck than I care to admit on scratch-off lottery tickets.
With my addictive proclivities, I ignored the glaring net financial loss that this incurred, instead gravitating to the mere twenty dollars I did win with those tickets.
Now you can tell me that my gambling winnings are heavily outweighed by my losses over the years, and you'd be right. It's a stubborn fact that cannot be truthfully denied.
But it didn't matter to me. I was addicted to gambling. I was always convinced that the big, life-changing win I needed was right around the corner. It is this lifelong habit that has not only brought about a life of financial strain, but which, I fear, has brought about my imminent appointment with my own mortality.
You see, my gambling problem reached its zenith last year after I cajoled one of my poker friends, Dallas, into taking me to a secretive and high-stakes casino that he frequently spoke of, and this is as good a place as any to begin telling what happened.
"So, is this the night you're finally going to accede and tell me more about the mythical 'high stakes venue' you claim to frequent, Mr. Big Shot?" I asked my friend Dallas.
Dallas was a pro at gambling. At least, he swept the floor with the competition nine times out of ten and the backroom card games we frequented.
Dallas groaned loudly in the passager seat.
"Come on bro," I said doggedly, "you can't just set something up on a pedestal like this and not expect someone to persist."
"I don't know man. This isn't kitty shit. This is the big leagues." Dallas answered.
"I'm not a lightweight." I objected.
"No...but this is way more than anything we'd ever bet back there," he said, referring to our backroom games, one of which we had just left.
"This is the real shit. Hard-fucking-core. This is the most hardcore gambling around." Dallas continued.
"Like what, Russian Roulette?" I joked.
"Nah man." Dallas said cryptically.
"Look man, I give you rides to these games every week. You owe me." I was getting seriously annoyed at his reticence.
"Fine," Dallas groaned, exasperated.
I couldn't believe it. I had actually worn him down!
"But I'm warning you. This is serious shit." Dallas said sternly.
"I want to go." I said firmly.
Dallas reached into his wallet and handed me a medallion.
Upon inspection, I saw one side was affixed with the design of an ornate, bejeweled chalice with the words 'Holy Grail Casino' written above it. On the other side, written in elegant calligraphy was the phrase 'omnem marmora' - "all the marbles" in Latin.
This certainly bore the look of a ritzy and exclusionary place. I had a feeling I'd either win the jackpot of jackpots or end up homeless on the street. The reality would prove much worse than the latter.
Dallas was looking at me oddly, almost as if he was worried. But he could tell he wasn't going to be able to talk me out of it. I still hate him for his acquiescence to my pestering.
"When can we go?" I asked excitedly.
"I was planning to go tomorrow-," Dallas started.
"When I should I pick you up?" I interrupted.
"That's...not how we get there." Dallas answered.
"What-," I started, but it was Dallas' turn to interrupt.
"When you go to bed tomorrow night, write your full name on a piece of paper, then put it and the medallion in your pocket when you go to sleep."
I looked at him incredulously. Had he been fucking with me this whole time?
"Look...just trust me. Either do it or don't, but that's how you get there." Dallas said matter-of-factly.
I looked silently at the road as we neared the place where Dallas lived. Dallas seemed to be pensively looking out the window, as if he was debating whether or not he should have give me the medallion.
I dropped Dallas off without a word and raced home. I don't know why I was such a hurry - I guess I wanted to start waiting for tomorrow night as soon as possible.
After a torturous day of waiting, the next night finally came. Remembering Dallas' instructions, I wrote my full name on a slip of paper and placed it, along with the medallion, in the pockets of my sweatpants that I was wearing to bed for that purpose.
I could have sworn that I had heard my name being chanted as I drifted off to sleep, but the authenticity of those sounds is still ambiguous. What is not ambiguous is the fact that, shortly after falling asleep, I found myself in an opulent red-carpeted casino.
I was in a lobby of sorts, at least I think that's what it was. I was in a large, marble room with Greco-Roman style columns flanking a plush red carpet that led to two magnificent ebony doors, which boasted intricately carved ivory handles.
As I was soaking in the amazing luxurious sight, a man in a suit briskly approached me.
"You can't go to the floor dressed like that!" He admonished me, pointing to my sweatpants and white t-shirt.
"I'm sorry-," I began sluggishly, a bit confused by everything. Was I honestly expected to go to bed in a suit in order to gamble here?
"No worries sir," the man had a rather upper class accent, "we will get you outfitted here free of charge."
A short while later I was sporting a fine burgundy suit, a white dress shirt, and black loafers, and being led by the casino worker back to those grandiose doors. He stopped in front of them, held one of the doors open, and ushered me in.
"Enjoy your stay sir," he said as he closed the door behind me.
I took in the even more impressive sight that was the gambling floor. I stood at the top of a red-carpeted staircase with gilded railing, looking down at a large room. On the far end, the words 'Holy Grail Casino' were displayed prominently on the wall, illuminated by spotlights.
Like the lobby, a red carpet ran through the center, bisecting the impressive layout of games and tables. Interestingly, there didn't appear to be any slot machines- there seemed to be exclusively traditional games. Poker tables, blackjack tables, roulette wheels, and craps tables I all recognized.
Finally, I descended the stairs. The patrons and staff paid me little attention as I set foot on the floor. I briefly scanned the floor for Dallas but saw no saw no sign of him.
I shrugged and decided to jump into the games. All around me, finely dressed patrons were engrossed in their games, and others stood to the side, nursing cocktail glasses or puffing on cigars.
I had never had much of an affinity for roulette or craps, and I avoided blackjack like the plague (it's definitely rigged for the house). Accordingly, I quickly settled on poker.
After eyeing several tables I settled on a table occupied by just one patron - an uninterested old man in a black suit.
"Can I join here?" I asked.
The dealer replied affirmatively.
I sat down and noticed there were no chips in sight. I thought it had been odd that I hadn't received any, but I had just figured they would be given at the table. Curious, I asked.
"First time?" The dealer raised an eyebrow.
"Yes."
The old man sighed, annoyed. What the hell? Shouldn't a patron at such a purportedly high-stakes venue be eager to have fresh meat?
"Well, the rules state that one's first game is one round of betting only." The dealer said in a monotone voice. No wonder old man was annoyed.
I nodded and sat down.
"But the chips-," I began to inquire.
"We don't use 'em here." The old man spoke for the first time.
Before I ask what we did use, the old man placed what would apparently be the sole bet of this hand: a finger.
Had I heard him right? He couldn't actually mean-
"Bet is one finger." The dealer said, interrupting my thoughts.
As I stated in the beginning, I assumed that 'a finger' was being used in the same figurative context that one often uses the term 'an arm and a leg.' I called the bet.
The cards were dealt, and I felt confident as I laid out the King-high flush I spoke of in the beginning. But then came the old man's ace-high flush, and then came the chop.
I screamed. To my shock, none of the other patrons even looked up from their games at the sound of my screams and the chop. Was this an ordinary occurrence?
Before I could get up from the table, the dealer also procured some sort of ointment and quickly dabbed some on the nub where my finger had been. The bleeding instantly stopped, and the pain eased, but I was having none of it. I got up from the table and began to run back to the doors. This was too much. I had to get out of here.
I heard a despaired howl coming from the direction of the roulette wheels as I made it back to the center of the floor, but didn't dare look back at the source. I stepped onto the carpet and set for the stairs when I nearly collided with Dallas.
"Hey you made it!" He said. "Oooh tough break with the finger," he indicated my hand.
"How have you never lost anything?!" I asked pointedly, barely resisting the urge to shake his shoulders.
"Well I have," Dallas smirked.
"You-you have all your digits." I sputtered.
"Well that's cause I won them back." He said.
"You can win them back?!" I was in disbelief.
"Of course, they'll reattach it if you win one."
I should have just cut my losses. I shouldn't have been swayed by temptation. But if you know the rabbit hole that is gambling, you'll know how much people put themselves in the hole vainly trying to win back a negligible loss, all the while turning that negligible loss into something substantial.
I was still weighing my options (stay or quit while still ahead) when a booming voice disrupted my deliberation.
"Attention floor! We have a class ten loser! Death!"
He couldn't actually mean-
Before I could make any kind of move, the patrons become a mob, and the wave people pushed Dallas and I to the center with them.
A man, who I noticed was already missing an arm, was on his knees sobbing. An emotionless casino dealer stood before him, holding a sword.
"Everyone c-cut y-your loss-losses," the man stuttered through sobs.
Before he could say anything else, the sobs were cut off by the slice of the sword, and the poor man's head hit the floor and tumbled, landing at my feet.
submitted by Clarkinator69 to nosleep [link] [comments]

At the Holy Grail Casino, you gamble with a lot more than money. Part 2/Final

Part 1:https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/ibnwx5/at_the_holy_grail_casino_you_gamble_with_a_lot/
My jaw dropped open and I took several short-circuited breaths as the head stopped just shy of my feet.
Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't scream or vomit. Next to me, Dallas was completely unfazed.
I had to get out of here. To hell with my finger, this was too much. I turned to leave, pushing my way through the crowd of people.
Nobody tried to stop me. Dallas didn't seem to react to my attempted departure either.
As I made it through the crowd, and began sprinting towards the exit, I heard a loud, deafening sound. The sound of a clock striking the next hour. A cacophony of excited murmurs ensued behind me as I made it to the unyielding doors.
"Let me out! I need to get out of here!" I banged desperately on the doors.
"You can't. Not right now." I heard Dallas say behind me.
"Why not?" I asked frantically, turning to face him.
"The Masters of the Casino are here. Gambling is compulsory until they leave."
"No," I weakly sobbed.
"You may as well try to win your finger back," Dallas said gently. "I'm going to play some poker. Care to join my table?"
I didn't want to play poker. I really didn't. While it was typically my game of choice, the present circumstances were far from typical. I was no longer protected by the one-bet-only rule now that I had played my first hand, and I knew that, with all the successive betting, my predicament could quickly get out of control if I played poker.
"No thanks man. I think I'll find a different game."
Dallas nodded.
I sighed, and, regaining my composure, descended the stairs. All around me, patrons were engaged in the now mandatory games - no longer was anyone leisurely sipping a cocktail or enjoying a cigar.
The only ones not gambling were the four entities in the middle of the floor. As I walked along the carpet, I got a better look at them. They were utterly terrifying, devoid of any discernable trace of humanity. At least, what little of them I could see was.
They were clad in identical, elegant robes, with their faces concealed by cowls. Inside those cowls, yellow eyes stared back at me. And while their lower extremities were completely concealed by their robes, inhuman, twisted hands protruded from their sleeves. They were gray and looked to be of an organic material, but in shape they resembled tree branches more than hands.
"Play." One of them hissed icily at me.
I quickly nodded, terrified, and settled on roulette. Even though I had shunned it earlier, I now felt it to be my safest option. For one thing, I could control the betting. I wouldn't have to contend with any extreme bets from the other patrons, and I could bide my time until this involuntary gambling ended.
I approached a wheel, nodding at the gaunt casino worker there.
"Your bet sir?" He asked calmly.
"A finger." I said hesitantly.
As the man nodded, I realized what luck this was. This roulette wheel had no numbers! I literally had a 50-50 shot of winning back my digits and being whole again. I had never heard of such a wheel, but I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Black please." I said to the man.
"One finger on black," the man said as he set the game in motion.
I watched tensely as the ball rounded and slowed. Red. My heart sank.
More pain ensued as the man, much like that first dealer, removed my ring finger.
I cried out and fell to my knees. I struggled to get back up in between pained sobs. Gambling was still mandatory, and I did not want to anger those foul beings. I would just keep betting on black at the roulette wheel. Eventually I'd be whole again. It only took one win after all.
"Two fingers on black." I placed my bet.
"Very good sir." The Casino man said.
Red again. God fucking dammit.
More blinding pain. A pitiful, weak voice of mine bet four fingers through clenched teeth. Black.
It landed on black! Sweet merciful Jesus I was whole again!
Fascinated, I watched as the man procured four fingers from his coat pocket and somehow reattached them.
I gratefully rubbed my regenerated flesh as I left the wheel. If I could just blend in with the crowd until the Masters left, I would be in the clear. I could leave with my body whole and never return to this godforsaken place.
But I wouldn't get so lucky. After about ten minutes of attempting to be a wallflower, I was spotted by a poker dealer. I was clearly guilty of idling, and he knew it. I had two choices, he said. Play at his table or answer to the Masters.
I chose the former, and, as I sat down at the table, realized Dallas was there. And he was missing a hand.
It was just Dallas and one other when I joined, and this three player game quickly escalated. It was clear that this hand was all or nothing. Horrible as it was to be pitted against my friend, it was him or me. And damn straight I was choosing myself.
Soon, the betting had led to us all having, literally, our necks on the line. Somehow, I had ended up having my head on the line. Losing was not an option. It was no option for any of the three of us, but I was determined to win. But so was Dallas. And in his steadfast desire to live, he showed depths of depravity I would have never deemed him capable of.
"I'm upping the stakes. Death by immolation," Dallas proclaimed as the turn (for those who don't know, that's the fourth card in Texas Hold Em) was revealed.
I couldn't believe it, but the dealer blandly restated the bet as if nothing of note had happened.
"What the fuck Dallas?!" I screamed, completely shaken. "Death is already on the line!"
"I don't want to die buddy." Dallas said. "And I don't want you to die either. But, barring the unlikely event of a tie, two of us - and therefore you or I - will die after this hand. But there are many ways to die, and decapitation is much better than burning to death. If your cards are shit you need to seriously consider it. I feel pretty confident about my hand. How about you?"
I was terrified, both at Dallas' villainous monologue and the terrifying prospects that I faced. My nerves nearly failed. I very nearly folded and took the easy death (if you fold you forfeit what you have previously bet - in this case my head), but I called the bet with a quivering voice.
My nerves were apparently stronger than the third player. He sobbed at his dilemma before folding. Poor bastard. He was taken away from the table to be beheaded as the dealer prepared to reveal the river (the final card).
I braced myself. There were a couple things of note out of the four cards: three spades (possible flush for Dallas if he had two spades) and a ten. The ten was of note because I had two tens. Three of a kind would lose to a flush, but four of a kind would prevail and save my life.
After great inner suspense, the last card was revealed. I couldn't believe it! It was the ten! I was saved. My luck had saved me when it mattered the most.
"There's not much more to wager Dallas. I check." I said.
"Up to the Gods then? Fine." Dallas said, showing me a flush.
"Sorry Dallas. Four tens." I revealed my hand.
Dallas was shaking, hyperventilating even. I was too. I took no joy in my own survival. I was sorry then, and I still am.
I was sorry as I, along with many other spectators, watched Dallas get bound and set on fire. It should have been me there. I had hounded him incessantly into inviting me to the damn place. His agonized screams, and the smell of his burning flesh, will stay with me until the day I die - which probably won't be long.
As Dallas entered his death throes, the clock-like sound struck again - apparently signifying the end of the mandatory gambling period. We were free to leave. I was free to leave.
Dejected at the horrors I witnessed, and profoundly guilty at the hand I had in my friend's death, I began to mozy towards the exit - only to be stopped by some unseen force.
As many of the patrons filed out, the telekinetic force that had me in its grasp spun me around. I gasped. I was staring right at the Masters, and even though their faces were hidden, it was clear that they were angry with me.
"You...didn't play." One said accusingly.
My heart thumped rapidly as I said that I had played, and asked that I please be allowed to leave now.
"You didn't for a few minutes." Another one responded.
Shit. I was fucked.
"The Master Die." The first one said.
I watched in horror as on of them procured a large die and rolled it. By the looks of it, nothing nice was in store for me. I suppose the best description of the die I can offer is to say that it's similar to the one Bowser rolls if you land on his space in Mario Party 6.
But I digress. The die landed and my knees went weak.
"Fifty years of your life is forfeit as punishment." The Masters chimed. "Of course, feel free to try to win them back later."
I was sobbing. I was begging. But they were unmoved as they freed me from their supernatural grip. The next thing I remember is passing out on the red carpet, and waking up in my own bed.
I wanted to write it off as a bad dream so desperately, but I couldn't. First of all, I was dressed in the suit I had worn while gambling. My sweatpants and shirt were gone. Bad as that was, there was something much worse. Something that absolutely confirmed the worst.
Dallas had died under perplexing and seemingly downright impossible circumstances. There was no fire in his apartment, and nothing else was burned, yet his mysteriously charred corpse was discovered in his bed. Of course, I know why his corpse was charred. But I'm probably the only one.
But worst of all, I know my time is very limited. I don't know just how long I have, but it can't be long. I lost 50 years of life to those creatures. I'm 35 and still alive, so I would have lived to be at least 85. But how long after 85 would I have had? Maybe I'll die tomorrow, or the day after, or next year.
Or, if I'm lucky, maybe I'll have another 10 plus years. I'm living life knowing that every day could likely be my last. Loathe as I am to do so, I know my only hope is to go back to that awful Casino and win back my 50 years. I still have the medallion, and time is of essence. But I'm so afraid of going back there.
I'd better make a decision, lest I die without making peace.
submitted by Clarkinator69 to nosleep [link] [comments]

[Mod Post] Looking to spread cheer? These care homes have residents who'd be grateful for some mail during lockdown!

The RAoC Mod Team hopes you're staying safe and healthy during these trying times.
Many nursing homes, assisted living facilities, group homes, and similar locations are now on lockdown. This increased isolation can be very hard on residents. We're seeing more card requests here and around the internet, so we've decided to compile a list, and we need your help!
 
We've got 2 tasks we're asking for your help with:
  1. Send some cheer and support in the form of cards to some of the places on the list! Some tips for content & addressing cards are in the pinned comment below the post.
  2. Check out the social media of or contact a local nursing/assisted living/group/etc. home and ask if they would like to be on the list to receive cards! Get permission to publicly share the address, then fill out our form so we can add it to the list! You'll need a. the name of the place, b. the mailing address, and c. the name and contact information for who gave permission (this will be kept private) or the link to their request on social media.
 
You're also welcome to put more than one card per envelope to save on postage! Check your country's weight limits per stamp, but then feel free to load them on up to send the most cheer possible!

Places to send cards:

Note, list is not ordered by name or country, but by most recently added to our list. That way, the most recently added are easily found. Check back regularly! Countries are now bolded for visibility.
 
Skylark Assisted Living
900 Skylark Place
Ashland, OR 97520
USA
More Info: 100 Residents in assisted living and memory care ranging in age from 59-104!
 
Lake Gibson Village
ATTN: Pen Pals
771 Carpenters Way
Lakeland, FL 33809
USA
 
Hallmark Healthcare
255 Midland Parkway
Summerville SC, 29485
USA
More info: Please write "Cards for Residents" on the envelopes
 
72! Addresses available here.
More info: This company has 72 care homes you can send mail to. Also, they give a few ideas of things you can write about!
 
ATTN: Therese
Cards for Residents
1370 Victory Dr.
South Euclid OH 44121
USA
 
c/o Jan Hacke for RAoC
The Reserve At North Dallas
12271 Coit Road 2404
Dallas Texas 75251
USA
Extra Info: A RAoC member lives here and wants to share the joy of random happy mail with her fellow residents. The facility has been on lock down since March 12 and will remain on full lock down for the foreseeable future because many residents have additional susceptibility beyond just age. Some live independently, others are in assisted care. However, all are restricted to their rooms, most alone for nearly 23 hours per day. Note: On the outside of the envelope, please write "RAoC" and if there is more than 1 card inside.
 
Zearing Health Care Center
404 E Garfield St
Zearing IA, 50278
USA
Extra info: Good morning all! If you or your kids need something to do our residents would love some mail. They are really missing contact with the outside world. Anything would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your continued thoughts, everyone here is happy, just missing family and friends!!!
 
Thompson House Rehabilitation and Nursing Center
80 Maple Street
Brattleboro VT 05301
USA
Extra info: Thank You so much! Any corospondance or card will make the world of difference in the lives of the Thompson House residences and will be greeted with appreciation and joy.
 
The Esplanade
640 Oak Tree Rd.
Palisades, NY 10964
USA
Extra info: Not only can't they have outside visitors, but they're being quarantined to their own apartments, so cards would be very appreciated.
 
Oak Creek Terrace Nursing and Rehabilitation
2316 Springmill Rd.
Kettering, OH 45440
USA
 
C/O Activities Director
Brighton Gardens of Raleigh
3101 Duraleigh Rd
Raleigh NC 27612
USA
Extra info: A Sunrise Senior Assisted Living with a section for Memory Care, called Reminiscence. There are about 110 residents, and they'd love some cards! They were very excited that we reached out with an offer to add them to this list!
 
Silver Linings PCH
407 Harvey Street
Stapleton, GA 30823
USA
Extra info: We are a small assisted living facility for seniors and house 11 residents.
 
Wyoming Veteran
Veterans Home of Wyoming
700 Veterans Lane
Buffalo, WY 82834
USA
Extra info: This home provides food, shelter, and assisted living care to any Wyoming Veteran that needs it, free of charge. They're on lock down and can't leave or have visitors. Many of these Veterans do not have family or friends, so a card could/can help lift their spirits!
 
Heartis Clear Lake
14520 Highway 3
Webster, TX 77598
USA
Extra info: They'll share cards between all residents, but if you'd like to see if anyone in particular would like a card addressed to them, ask on their facebook link above!
 
Stadtresidenz im Casino Wetzlar
Bewohner der Junge Pflege
Kalsmuntstrasse 68-74
35578 Wetzlar
Germany
Extra info: This is a facility for young people with disabilities. Many of the residents do not understand why their family can't come visit anymore, so any sort of care and outreach would be greatly appreciated!
 
Retirement Community
Jenner Court: McCarthy & Stone
St George's Rd
Cheltenham
GL50 3ER
United Kingdom
Extra Info: Elderly residents who are around 80+ years old. Some of whom have mobility issues or are technologically illiterate, so they wouldn't know how to use social media. The residents very much enjoy playing Rummikub everyday, but due to social distancing, they can't really play anymore. They are no longer allowed visitors, but are still accepting packages, so snail mail communication would brighten them up.
 
Park House Residential Care Home
Martinstown
Dorchester
Dorset
DT2 9JN
UK
Extra info: They provide care for patients with a variety of needs, and are primarily a dementia care home. All you need to do is pick a room number (1 to 21 - no number 13) and send your card to the above address! They say "If you would like a letter or card back from one of our residents, please feel free to include your name and address."
submitted by NarcosNeedSleep to RandomActsofCards [link] [comments]

The Tale of The North Stars.

The North Stars, you all know what happened, Norm Green moves the team to Dallas, because he was a pervert. Well there was a lot more that went into them moving, than simply just “Norm’s wife told him to move the team or else”.
March 11, 1965, NHL President Clarence Campbell announces the NHL will expand to twelve teams, from six. With that the era of the Original Six, the “Original Six” weren’t even that, they were just six teams that managed to survive throughout a chaotic league. A group led by, Walter Bush, Jr., Robert Ridder, and John Driscoll, sought to bring the NHL to the Twin Cities, in Minnesota. The NHL awarded this group one of the six new franchises, with the other five going to Oakland(Seals), Pittsburgh(Penguins), St Louis(Blues), Philadelphia(Flyers) and Los Angeles(Kings). The as of yet unnamed franchise held a naming contest, as you typically do with a new team and the name “North Stars” was selected, which was derived from the states motto "L'Étoile du Nord" or Star of the North. Work quickly began on their new arena in Bloomington, with the arena eventually being named “The Metropolitan Sports Center.”
Honestly? There’s not much chaotic about the early North Stars, unlike the Blues who had to deal with the NHL’s bullshit(Norris Jr and his merry band of fools), or the Seals who were a mess to begin with, the North Stars were...stable. Game 1 of their first season was an entertaining one, playing against fellow expansion team, the St Louis Blues, they tied in their first game, with Bill Masterson scoring the first goal in franchise history. It was an exciting time to be a hockey fan. All was not well though, on January 13, 1968, the North Stars faced the California Seals, in what would be Masterson’s final game.
Masterson was skating the puck across the Blue Line, his skates got tangled in the stick of Larry Cahan or Ron Harris(it’s unknown as to which, but they were both close to him), Masterson lost his balance, pitching forward, he didn’t see the defendor coming up on him, who delivered a clean check to him, knocking him backwards. Masterson was not wearing a helmet(as was normal), as he smacked his head on the ice, going unconscious instantly. Masterson never recovered, he died a few days later. Teammate André Boudrias described the hit "It sounded like a baseball bat hitting a ball.” Boudrias helped the team trainer onto the ice, the team doctor joining them soon after. They carried Masterson off on a stretcher and into an ambulance to Fairview Southdale hospital, seven miles away. "His eyes were gray at the time -- it was like a horror picture," Boudrias says. "I knew he was done." Doctors did what they could, treating him with steroids and diuretics, but the swelling in his brain was too swift and severe. His Wife and Parents, who had flown in from Winnipeg to watch him play, had made the decision to remove Bill from life support.
Hours later, at 1:55AM, Bill Masterton was pronounced dead at the age of 29, he was survived by his wife Carol. Unfortunately this didn’t do much to make the NHL decide to make helmets mandatory, not for another decade when they finally made helmets mandatory. However this did spark a change among players, as more began to adopt helmets. Players before this had worn helmets, but most chose not to for “Vanity Reasons”(To quote Brett Hull). Bruins player Ted Green had become the first Bruin to wear a helmet, since Eddie Shore. Shore had suffered major head injuries as a result of a massive hit he laid onto Ace Bailey, Shore in turn had his head hit the ice in retaliation. Doctors described Masterton’s death as the result of “a massive brain injury”. After news of Masterton’s death spread to the team, the North Stars lost their next six, but also retired his Jersey. Masterson’s death opened many eyes to the realization that helmets were needed in a fast moving game such a hockey. Following his death, hockey writers announced the creation of the “Bill Masterton Trophy”, to be given annually to the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey. Basically the player who best overcame adversity for that season, such as Bobby Clarke, who overcame Diabetes to play in the NHL.
The North Stars finished fourth in the West Division(the one with all the expansion teams), in their first playoff run, they beat the Kings, advancing to the West Finals, where they lost to the Blues in a Game 7, in double overtime. The Blues proceeded to get swept by the Canadiens, in what becomes a recurring theme for the next 2 finals, Original Six sweeping the expansion Blues. This is by no means because the Blues were awful, it was because the odds were stacked against them and the rest of the “New Six”. They weren’t given great players and the GMs had no idea what they were doing, not to mention they were given their own division so the Original Six had a punching bag. Even in a “new era” the NHL was awful. The next few years were mostly uneventful for the North Stars, missing the playoffs once, but only posting one winning season in their first four seasons, it wasn’t looking great. They were better than their WHA Rivals, who folded four seasons in, but not by much. By ‘78 attendance had fallen so sharply that there were fears that they would fold due to how bad things were, they’d posted 2 whole winning seasons and out of the last six seasons, making the playoffs only once, it didn’t look good. But there was a worse team, the Cleveland Barons, formerly the Oakland / California Seals, who relocated to Cleveland due to a new arena being out of the question and the minority owners(George and Gordon Gund) convincing the majority owner Melvin Swig(wanted to move them to San Francisco, more on this at the end) to move the team to Cleveland. The Barons weren’t much better and then this happened.
Essentially the wealthy owners of the Barons, George(III) and Gordon Gund, would become the new owners of the North Stars, merging them with the Barons. The Barons would in turn merge with the North Stars, giving them the good parts of the team. The North Stars would not relocate, they would keep their name, logo, color, everything, but would be moved to the Adams Division, since now that division would be down to three teams. Most notable of the players the North Stars would get were Goaltender Gilles Meloche and forwards Al MacAdam and Mike Fidler. During the draft that year they had drafted future Calder winner, Bobby Smith, who helped to bolster an actually decent looking team now. They weren’t cup favorites, but they were an improved team, this merger is what saved the North Stars from folding and making the NHL’s expansion look like even worse of a joke. The season that followed was nothing short of incredible, suddenly the North Stars looked like a real team, everyone looked to be firing on all cylinders, leading to a historic game:
The following season proved to be an improvement over the last, with them finishing only a point lower than the previous year, but their playoff run was magical. The North Stars got through the Bruins, Sabres and finally the Flames, to reach the Cup Final. ...Where they promptly got beat 4-1, but it didn’t matter, because by all accounts the North Stars were doing much better now, people paid attention to them, the building was usually full. The next few seasons were the same, despite one early round exit, they made it to the Conference Finals, once more with two Round 1 exits and Round 2 exit. That was it for the Cinderella story of the North Stars though, 85-86 was the final time the North Stars would have a winning season. The 80’s were almost over and attendance was..dropping, despite everything, the North Stars were in trouble. They finished 87-88, just barely out of the playoffs, but allowed them to draft one of the greatest American-Born Players, of all time. Mike Modano.
Drafting Modano was great, but ownership kept threatening to move the team to San Francisco, the Gunds' didn’t exactly like Minnesota and with the fans not showing up, relocation become a threat, here you have a team that was close to folding just a decade ago, back to having trouble and it doesn’t look good on the NHL, despite them vetoing any attempts by the Gund’s to move the team. The NHL eventually gave into the Gund’s threats to move the team to San Francisco. This is where it becomes complicated.
Enter Norm Greed: Norm Green, former minority owner of the Flames, had joined Baldwin’s ownership group and purchased a 51% stake in the team. Green then purchased Baldwin’s stake in the team, gaining more than 75% control of the North Stars. He then went and bought Belzberg's share in October of 1990, giving him all the power he wanted, making him the owner of the team.
The 91 season was...odd for the North Stars. They finished with a losing record(as was the norm at this point), but had barely made the playoffs. This is where it gets weirder, they went on a cup run, beating two of the NHL’s best teams in the Blackhawks and Blues, steamrolling through the defending champions in the Oilers, finally facing off against Lemieux’s Penguins, who had just acquired Ron Francis, not too long ago. This Final didn’t go their way, just like the last one, but they fought hard in it, losing 4 games to 2. That was all she wrote for the North Stars though.
It was a strange offseason, in what could be called foreshadowing the North Stars got new uniforms. Gone were the Green uniforms and Stars on the pants, replaced with a simple Black and Green jersey, the new logo ditching the “North Stars” for just “Stars” The uniforms would literally just be the one’s later used in Dallas for most of the 90’s with minor changes. New uniforms weren’t it though, behind the scenes it was chaos. Green was trying to move the team to LA, to play in the still being built Honda Center(Yes, that one), where they would become the “L.A. Stars”. As Disney was in the middle of negotiations(the 90’s were fucking weird) to place a team there(they also owned the Angels), the North Stars would instead move to Dallas, Texas.
Dallas, Texas. In 1992 Greed announced the North Stars would move to Reunion Arena, in the heart of Dallas, Texas, becoming the Dallas Stars. Why did this happen? Variety of reasons really. Green was a massive pervert and couldn’t keep his hands to himself, or his junk in pants, so he faced a sexual harassment lawsuit, with his wife threatening to leave him, if he didn’t move the team. Why couldn’t they just play at Target Center, with the Timberwolves? Target was Coca-Cola, while the Stars advertised with Pepsi, which created issue. Issue I’m sure could have been solved, but hey, what do I know? Another reason was the dwindling attendance, it has been an issue for the past few years(minus the cup run), combine that with a team who can’t put together a winning season and people just weren’t having it. The on-ice product wasn’t good and they had no interest.
Another factor involved the Gunds’. Yes, they were out of the picture, but their stink still lingered. The Gunds’ had tried to build a shopping near the Met Center, after demolishing Met Stadium(Twins and Vikings played there), well it was looking like they would get their wish...until they didn’t. Instead the Ghermezian brothers, got the land and built The Mall of America. The Gunds’ had felt the Metro Sports Commission had cheated them over this and in turn demanded the MSC renovate the Met Center to the tune of $15 Million, adding close to 40 suites and expanding the concourse. None of that happened, the MSC laughed in their faces and told them to go away. However, North Stars GM Lou Nanne had been the one to actually do something. He persuaded the MSC to instead spend $3.5 Million and add only 20 suites.
The Gunds’ were incredibly frustrated with their situation in Minnesota. And fans were too. Years of failed drafts, trades, no talent and bad seasons, left many fans thinking ownership only cared about money. ...Which they did. Some even called them “No Stars”, because of how true it was, the North Stars had no stars, for most of the Gund era. With the Target Center being built, the Gunds’ took this as a sign, it was time to demand the MSC renovate the Met again, asking for money to do so, with the MSC again, laughing in their faces. It just so happened, Art Savage(friend of the Gunds’) was trying to get a team in San Francisco, so they decided to join forces and move the North Stars to San Francisco.
It wasn’t that easy though. GM Lou Nanne(voice of reason somehow) warned them the NHL wouldn’t allow it, but they went to the Board of Governors to get permission to move. Bill Wirtz was head of the BoG and pretty much denied them on the spot, but granted them a team in San Jose on the condition they sell the North Stars, to an owner who would keep them in Minnesota(Ahahaha). This left the Gunds’ split as George was fine with selling, but Gordon felt that they worked too hard to just sell now(what work did they do? The world may never know!). Eventually they did sell to the aforementioned group involving Norm Green however and they got their team in San Jose.
Norm and the sexual harassment allegations against him. Norm was being sued by some of his former secretaries for sexual harassment, he’d look down their blouses, and demand they kiss him, he was a creep in every way possible. His wife demanded he * move the team, to get rid of mounting media pressure on them, due to the aforementioned lawsuit. Norm made attempts to keep the North Stars in Minnesota, but as the MSC had just finished building the Target Center, they weren’t about to build another arena. The Target Center deal fell through, as did a deal that would link the Met Center to the Mall of America, via Skyway and would include a casino that Green would own. That proposal was shot down because it was almost the same cost as a new arena, that the MSC refused to pay for. He renovated the Met with his own money during his short tenure as North Stars Owner, but that was about it. Apparently it was thanks to former Cowboys Quarterback Roger Staubach that the Stars moved to Dallas, as he had convinced Green, Dallas was the perfect market for hockey.
The fans were as you can imagine angry. Bringing “Norm Sucks” signs and chanting that during games, even calling him “Norm Greed”(Accurate really). It was a horrible time to be a North Stars fan, hell a sports fan in Minnesota in general. Their final season was again, normalcy, sure they made the playoffs, but it was another losing season and this was it for them. They lost to Detroit in 7 games, playing their final game in Detroit, losing 1-0 in Overtime. It was also the first time the NHL tested video replay. The legendary Al Schaer final call goes as follows:
In many ways the Stars were what the NHL wanted, an experiment in the Southern US, to see if Hockey could work. Dallas, Miami, Tampa were experimental, the NHL wanted to expand into an untapped market, but in doing so alienated fans in Minnesota. They quelled this by announcing “The Twin Cities would get a new expansion team in the near future” the Minnesota Wild.
In the end, the North Stars were unstable for most of their existence, due to horrible ownership. The fans deserved better, but instead got people who didn’t want to spend much, instead. Even in the early years, things weren't good, the merger is what saved them, but in a way also killed them. The fans have every right to still despise Green, but I believe they should despise the Gunds' as well.
submitted by KikiFlowers to hockey [link] [comments]

All Information on Slipknot's Teasers So Far!

Official Countdown Website
Hello everyone... I noticed that no one has actually compiled a list of stuff from the teasers we've gotten so far. I wanted to make one for easy access to anyone who wants it. So far this is what we know.
I included links to Live Nation and the countdown website. Please comment if there's anything I missed!
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Edit: I felt that I missed some information, so I decided to come back and add some more stuff.
They will be touring with Gojira and Volbeat on a NA tour, following their European tour. The NA tour will start with their show at the Iowa State Fair, which is on August 10th. The NA locations are as follows:
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Not a lot of dates have been announced, but I'll add them as they are announced.
I believe that there is also a Toronto show, I'm not sure though.
It is also confirmed that Alex "V-Man" Venturella and Jay Weinberg will be with the band for this tour.
I will put more information pertaining to the countdown once something noteworthy happens. For now though, this is all I have.
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Edit #2: Thanks for the upvotes! I'm pretty new to Reddit, but this is the most upvotes I've ever gotten on a post, and I thank you guys. I just want to help the fellow users. I'll keep updating as more noteworthy events happen.
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Edit #3: Toronto is confirmed! Budweiser Stage, Toronto, Canada
I'm also including links to all teaser videos so far.
Teaser #1
Teaser #2
Teaser #3
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Edit #4: Wow! I just looked, and we're almost at the top of the page! this is way greater than I thought it would be, thank you guys so much! Hopefully this post helps all you guys out!
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Edit #5: Behemoth will also be touring with Slipknot.
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Edit#6: Special thanks to the mods for sticking the post! The amount of upvotes is insane! I'll keep making updates as new info is released.
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Edit #7: I will be at school at the time when the countdown ends, I will update it as soon as I can once something new happens.
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Edit #8: Thanks for all the help with making this post as accurate as possible! Like I said before, I'll be at school when the countdown ends, but I'll update as soon as possible. See ya later maggots!
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Final Edit: The countdown lead to an announcement of the NA tour, dubbed "Knotfest Roadshow". Not really much else to say there. They have confirmed an album release on August 9th.
submitted by deepfriedwater132 to Slipknot [link] [comments]

Weekend Reader: Two Haralabos Voulgaris Gambling Stories From The Past. (Very long).

[Note to this sub: Here are two gambling stories involving Haralabos Voulgaris. Two things you should know. 1) I originally wrote this for a completely different, anonymous audience and not for all the wonderful "Shoe Fitness Architects", "Pizza Delivery Engineers", Overnight Security Enforcers, and DMV Workers that I've gotten the pleasure of meeting on here during my time on /billsimmons. Instead, it will seem like I'm talking to a room full of strangers, and for the first time. So if you read something that you've already seen me say on this sub, you know the reason. I also sound “different” in this.
2) It's long. You've been warned, I don't want to hear shit about it being so damn long. Think of this as a throwback to the Page 2 days, when you knew a guy was going to take a huge, extended shit because he just printed out Simmons' latest article and ran into the bathroom. You know, the “glory days”.
If you read this on Friday, you can save this for your afternoon work shit. Read it on your phone though, because it's got a short YouTube clip in it that helps tell the story.
If you read it over the weekend, I suggest smoking a bowl beforehand, especially to our Canadian friends up North. Doesn't have to be Top Shelf, just something to buzz you going in.
That's it. Enjoy.
The recent news of the Dallas Mavericks hiring Haralabos Voulgaris as Director of Quantitative Research and Development recently blew my mind. I knew it was Bob's goal to be an NBA GM, and this job isn't quite on the GM level, but I still can't believe he's made it onto a real NBA organization. I still think of him mostly from his early 2000's poker and sports betting days, and I never imagined he'd be able to hold down a real job someday. I didn't think anyone from the gambling world ever could.
I was heavily into sports gambling and poker at the same time as Bob was ascending as a sports gambling force, from the late 80's until well into the 2000's. I didn't know Haralabos well, yet I heard about or saw him all the time. This pretty much describes all relationships in gambling to be honest. But I did make sure to hear all the stories about Haralabos back then, because they always made the gossip rounds and were usually funny.
I'm here to share two of Haralabos' famous gambling stories, to give you a little insight into the man. If you are an Old School gambler, you've already heard them. But they are now 15 years old, and I couldn't find a good telling already on the Internet, so new people might get a kick out of these. Sources are at the bottom of this post.
People need to understand that, back then (early 2000s), Bob was best known for two things: betting the NBA, and being a smart ass trash talker at the poker tables. Bob was a world class needler that people highly resented because he had “Fuck You” kinds of money and he sure lorded that fact over everybody. He found everyone in the gambling world incredibly stupid compared to himself, and wasn't afraid to let people know it. I guess that's not much different than his Twitter in 2018, except he's learned to be more polite about it.
It was amusing being in a poker room with Bob in it, unless you were the focus of his remarks. He did not have any boundaries and was merciless, and really went after people “Micheal Jordan style” with the ferocity of his put-downs. Asked to describe him, I'd say 98% of players back then would call him an “arrogant dickhead” (including me at that time), while 2% would say “really sharp guy who doesn't tolerate fools” (including me now). We would all agree that he could be hilarious.
With that set-up, here are two Haralabos Voulgaris gambling stories that let's you know what he was like back in the early 2000's.
Story #1
My favorite Haralabob story, which long time 2+2ers have already heard about and whose legend has grown over the years, is the infamous Freddy Deeb story. If you know it, you are already nodding your head. But hopefully it's new to you. It's a classic.
Freddy Deeb was a rich business man from Lebanon, but a lot of people thought he was Egyptian (close enough for poker players). “Fast Freddy” was a decent if unspectacular poker player who pre-dated the poker boom. So Freddy was a legit and well known regular even before TV got involved with the game, and parlayed that “real, genuine poker player” label into appearances on TV when the poker boom happened. He had strong credibility.
Freddy is probably most famously remembered for being accused of “Going South” by Johnny Chan on an episode of High Stakes Poker. Freddy handled that accusation in typical Freddy fashion – making a big deal about this small joke insulting his integrity, aggressively confronting everyone about it and challenging them to heads-up poker matches to prove his manhood. The dude could be a hothead. (“Going South”, which was more commonly called “rat-holing”, is when a player sneaks high denomination chips off the table undetected after winning a big pot, so he has no possibility of losing them back in a later big hand. It's a unethical way to play “hit and run” if you win big quickly, without the “running” part being as obvious as picking up and leaving immediately.)
The two things you needed to know about Freddy: 1) He was short. I mean really short, like 5'1” or less. Not to play Freud too much, but you can probably guess that the reason he spent all his time in poker rooms was because of this physical limitation. Poker attracted the social rejects like no other activity in the 1990's, and welcomed the physically and mentally defective in droves. It was a haven almost exclusively for nerds and losers, before TV made it cool for everyone to play No Limit Texas Hold'em, The Cadillac of Gambling Games (so hip!).
2) Stemming from #1, Freddy could have a short temper. If you are jumping straight into a “Napoleon Complex” accusation for Freddy, well, in this case you're the heavy favorite. Freddy was a quiet, nice guy for 90% of the time he played. But Freddy was quick to act like a gangster you didn't want to fuck with if you ever gave him the chance, with that persistent shoulder chip that will never go away. Everyone let him play gangster without comment as long as he still had a bankroll to gamble with.
Here is a YouTube video that illustrates both points perfectly. Watch the whole thing to the end for maximum comedy – it's fucking hilarious:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqwQiIy1b48
Here's Freddy acting like a super tough guy, and – in the moment - you can believe it too. Until the camera pulls back and shows the other players at the table, and then you get a height perspective of the whole scene. It's unreal funny at that point. Gus Hansen sitting next to him looks like Yao Ming by comparison.
So when this first HBob story happens, poker is just about to really take off. My guess is that it was around 2003-4, so the hype around poker was growing fast but still not close to the peak yet. The first Season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) had already aired, and it was a cultural phenomenon. Poker players were speculating already that WPT tournament champions were going to be as famous as top professional athletes, and with the same kind of ultra-lucrative sponsorship opportunities and endorsement deals. A very common topic at the table was how much getting to the final table at a televised WPT event was worth in fame, above and beyond any of the listed prize money. Perhaps a few million? It was a crazy time, and being on TV was all anyone cared about back then. Seems a bit silly now.
Freddy had been on TV a few times with some respectable runs in some bigger tournaments. The WPT and ESPN featured him in a few “flavor of the game” clips during their early poker broadcasts, and that seemed like a pretty big deal, especially to Freddy. TV Poker was grooming narratives and trying to create presentable, relatable stars in the poker world and weren't above adding in some artificial flavor to an otherwise unremarkable cast of characters.
Being a legit long time poker player was enough for Freddy to get some screen time – the TV producers could take it from there. I think the narrative was along the lines of how anyone – all ages, ethnicity, shapes and sizes could find a home in the poker world, and Freddy exemplified all that. It all went directly to Freddy's head, and he was not alone during this time.
Anyway, the story goes like this. Haralabos is playing in a very juicy high stakes poker game in a California casino, most likely the Commerce. The game was already full with 9 players, which is the max in most California rooms.
Haralabos himself was very new to poker at this time. He dabbled previously, but only started playing for big stakes in the past year or two because of the huge influx of new poker players, who watched the WPT on television and flooded into casinos, chasing riches. Thus there was easy money to be made. Before then, of course, he was focused on his NBA gambling. He was very near the height of his powers as an NBA sports bettor, and known pretty damn well in the sports betting world, if not the general public yet. Far more people in poker knew about Bob than he knew about them, though. He was just starting to get serious about playing poker. Bob knew about some of the bigger poker names he gambled with betting sports together in the past, but knew almost none of the newly (and artificially) created TV “poker stars” that ESPN / WPT had chosen to promote.
So Freddy walks into the Commerce one day and sees the high stakes poker table, and eyes the line up. Freddy knows this “Main Game” is incredibly juicy, and wants in – immediately. He calls the floorman over and insists they create an extra space at the table for him and for the game to be played 10-handed. 10-handed was actually the common number of players in Las Vegas poker tables at the time, and Freddy was usually based there. Freddy is sort of 'big timing' the floorman, reminding him how much he's played there over the years, how much rake he's given that casino, and how all these new poker players want to play with someone like himself, a big-shot, old school, now famous poker player.
There is nothing that poker players like more than poker room drama (except maybe comped food), so this commotion has drawn the attention of every table within earshot. Everyone near by was focusing on the Main Game with Haralabos in it. Drawn from many accounts, here is a recreation of what happened:
Freddy (accented, slightly broken English)(to Floorman): Johnny, there's no board. Just put me in big blind right now and we can play with ten.
Floorman Johnny: Table's not big enough for ten, Freddy. This isn't Vegas. Our players will object. Everyone wants their space.
Freddy: Just ask then. If there are objections then Freddy will wait. But no one will object! C'mon Johnny, how much action I give to you? Freddy is “action player”. Everyone wants to play with Freddy. They see me, they know “That's Freddy” and they want to play.
[Yes, Freddy was talking about himself in the Third Person. What can I say?]
Floorman Johnny (reluctantly, to Main Game): Guys, Freddy wants to sit and play 10-handed. There is no board an he doesn't want to wait around for nothing. Any objections?
Haralabos (immediately): I object. Who the fuck is this guy? [To Freddy] Buddy, you're not special. What makes you think you control this game? If more people come, then you can start a “Must-Move” game and play in that. Otherwise, wait your fucking turn like everyone else. Ok, buddy? [To Floorman, incredulous] What the fuck?
Freddy (heated at Haralabos): Listen, buddy. Everyone here know Freddy. Floorman. Dealer. Players. All know Freddy, love Freddy. Who the fuck are you? In Vegas, Freddy wants a game, the manager come running to help Freddy! They bring in best table to start new game for Freddy! They get best dealer on break to come deal! They bring in new chips, new cards for Freddy! They bring special chair for Freddy to sit in!
Haralabos: Oh yeah, Freddy? Is it a high chair?
A thunderclap of uproarious laughter rang out from all who were listening in, perhaps fifty people or more, all rubberneckers from other tables drawn in by the drama. There was no denying the spontaneity, no denying the reason, and certainly no denying the focus of who the laughter was directed at. Fast Freddy, all five feet zero inches of him, with the hair-trigger anger and never lacking words, was truly stunned and humiliated into silence. His eyes became squinted and his face was stuck in a wince of pain, his whole head turning as red as a stubborn, two-week old pimple that just wouldn't pop. He rocked back and forth as if recovering from a physical punch, not knowing what to do as a second, smaller wave of laughter began because it was just that funny, and now the story was being instantly re-told.
The few that were present and could actually feel sympathy quickly stifled their laughter, feeling the guilt of knowing the guy just got hit in his most sensitive area in front of a very large audience, and was truly wounded. They were hoping Freddy would finally say something, anything, to show that he wasn't completely crushed inside, that he wasn't as hurt as he seemed. Instead, Freddy walked away silently, his decades of “bluster armor” built protecting his sensitivity about his height laid on the ground, smashed.
Souls are crushed all the time in poker rooms. You think you've seen it all, and you just grow immune. But this one stood out, as almost a warning. You just don't want to get into a verbal war with Haralabob.
There is an addendum to this story.
A year or so later, and strictly by chance, Freddy and Haralabos found themselves at the same table during a big tournament. Neither man had forgotten their previous encounter (how could they?). By this time, poker was being covered in real-time by a fleet of new poker reporters and journalists, and, by all accounts, Haralabos was riding Freddy hard that day, with verbal put-downs and jokes at Freddy's expense non-stop. Freddy tried to play it cool, knowing he was no verbal match for HBob.
Until this happened. There was a Random Guy sitting directly on Freddy's left hand side who was new, didn't know anyone at the table (or their past history with each other) and who politely told Freddy this (recreation):
Random Guy (to Freddy): Hey man. You need to protect your cards better. I can see your hole cards flash sometimes when you look. I saw you had paint last hand. You need to learn to peek without flashing.
Freddy: Buddy, do you know who I am? I'm playing this game since before you were born! I win more money this year than you will have in your whole life! They ask me to write new poker book, that is kind of player I am! Buddy, I'm writing now, next time I see you I bring you a signed copy of my poker book!
Haralabos: Next time you should bring a phone book instead so you can sit on it and see your cards better.
Well, Freddy was playing it cool with HBob until then, but that last comment instantly set him off. Again, by the written accounts of the poker reporters live blogging the event, Freddy shot straight up out of his chair (though you probably couldn't tell...) and challenged HBob to a fist fight, screaming expletives at him and demanding a duel. Haralabob just sat in his chair laughing, saying he didn't want to go outside and fight Freddy because he didn't want to get arrested for child abuse.
Famous poker player Daniel Negreanu witnessed this incident live, and blogged about it at the time. I remember that he thought that Freddy would be a decent favorite in a fight between Freddy and Haralabos. But I have my doubts about that. Negreanu disliked Haralobob personally, like many poker players who ever faced him at that time, because HBob could be so vicious. So he was biased in his fight assessment, IMHO.
HBob was not a figher at all - more of a jester than a knight – but I thought he could always just stiff-arm Freddy by the forehead and then Freddy would be left with that cartoon 'swinging of the arms trying to reach him' thing while HBob could just jab him with his other arm. I would have made Haralabos the -200 favorite.
Story #2
This happened in the early 2000's, during Season 3 of the World Poker Tour, just a year or so after Story #1.
Haralabos had played in one of the WPT's big televised tournaments and made the Final Table. Not only that, but he ultimately came in Second Place, meaning he was going to get a LOT of TV time, which, again, most players thought was worth more than the actual prize money. Poker by now was white hot in America and was bringing so many people instant overnight fame. Players were resorting to obnoxious table antics and hyper displays of “personality” just to get a few seconds of screen time. Everyone was trying to create a “brand”.
Not to belabor the point, but before television made poker cool and respectable, it was filled with 95% scumbags and degenerates with almost no white-collar, working professionals. But TV poker didn't want to portray that sordid image. In the very early days, the WPT actually had a “dress code” for appearing on the televised Final Table, where a sports jacket and collared shirts were required and would be provided for you if you didn't own them yourself (in other words, for everyone).
Even the long time “Old School” gamblers were cleaned up and presented as daring adventurers instead of leather-assed angle-shooters they (we) really were. Known broke degenerates like T.J. Cloutier was turned into worshiped, heroic figures instantly, romanticized by television producers as sharp equity traders who practiced at the table instead of on Wall Street. The reality was that guys like Cloutier were hanging around poker rooms mostly to shamelessly beg recent winners for a buy-in, or even just a meal.
Under this ethos of “cleaning up poker players' images”, players were allowed to manufacture any kind of image they wanted if they were going to be on the WPT TV show. Producers for the WPT would ask each finalist for a biography, but did absolutely no fact or background checking at all intentionally, mostly out of fear of what they might find if they actually did do so. So with all that in mind, here is the official bio for Haralabos that appeared on the WPT website before his televised event, almost certainly written by HBob himself:
"Haralabos Voulgaris is a 29-year-old professional sports bettor from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. This poker tyro brings a lot more to his first WPT final table than meets the eye. He is a playwright, holds a degree in philosophy, and his goals reach far beyond the green felt. His plans for the next 5 years include learning to play the piano, to have one of his plays performed on Broadway, and to win a WPT title."
I'm not sure how much of this was an inside joke, how much was just the pressure to appear white-collar in order to attract advertisers (remember, poker players were all thinking about future endorsement deals at this time), and how much of this was HBob's ego run amuck.
BUT COME ON! “Playwright”? Has Haralabos ever gone to a play yet, even in 2018? But that wasn't enough; he wanted to have one of his many, many written plays performed on Broadway very soon, because that's how dedicated he was to this art form! Just remember, this is the guy who widely known throughout the poker world for using his mastery of language to mercilessly torture midgets and other unfortunates at the poker table. Not exactly Tennessee Williams. Add in the piano lessons and the PhD in philosophy (philosophy!), and the fact that the WPT didn't bat an eye in putting this up as his bio, and the unintentional comedy is off the charts.
Haralabos claimed to friends at the time that it was mostly a joke, but as we will now see, he seemed to really care about this false image.
As you probably well know, there is a gap between when the WPT Final Table was played, and when the show based off of it is actually aired. By the time Haralabos' episode was about to air, he was staying as a guest in the house of a former poker pro named Paul Phillips, who only the most dedicated and old players will remember. (Paul Phillips won 2 WPT titles in the very early seasons, took the prize money, and pretty much disappeared from poker, going on to live a “normal” life. One of the few gambling success stories, IMHO).
Well, Paul was a practical joker himself, and he had found a way to hack his DVR and change the description of recorded programs, including Bob's WPT episode. Knowing that Haralabos was coming back soon to watch it, Paul changed the description on the DVR to fuck with him. The original show description was something like this:
“Six new players vie for the title of Champion of the LA Poker Classic Tournament. Players include movie star John Smith, astronaut Mark Hunt, playwright Haralabos Volgaris, undercover international spy Chris Jenkins, the crown prince of Wakanda Jerome Jones, and the inventor of the Internet Joe “Man Tits” Mande.“
Obviously the other names and titles were made up by me, but you get the picture. Anyway, Paul made one small adjustment, knowing Haralabos would see it:
“Six new players vie for the title of Champion of the LA Poker Classic Tournament. Players include movie star John Smith, astronaut Mark Hunt, uptight playwright Haralabos Volgaris, undercover international spy Chris Jenkins, the crown prince of Wakanda Jerome Jones, and the inventor of the Internet Joe “Man Tits” Mande.“
Paul then waited for Haralabos to return so they could watch the episode together, leaving up the modified description of “uptight playwright” on the TV and making sure HBob was in the room alone for a few minutes before starting the show, so he had no choice but to stare at the phony description.
Bob noticed it immediately. According to Paul, HBob started to get really worried, thinking that the show was going to portray him in a terrible light and edit him to look dumb and foolish, just because of that one word “uptight” in the description. Before even starting the show, HBob was already making excuses, telling Paul that he forgot they kept his microphone on at all times, and he said some critical things about the WPT's production crew, and now they were getting their revenge by calling him uptight. He kept bringing up ways he might have acted uptight during the Final Table and was pre-rationalizing them for Paul, who was enjoying it all.
This went on for the first 15 minutes or so of the show, with Haralabos worrying and moaning non-stop about being called “uptight” and wondering how they were going to edit him to look that way, until Paul finally let him off the hook. According to Paul, Haralabos didn't believe it was a practical joke and kept worrying and griping longer, until he saw for himself that it was just a standard WPT show with no unfair editing involved.
I'm not going to put too much on Haralabos for being so worried about his portrayal. Players really did believe that a good edit was the difference between a lucrative endorsement deal with Budweiser or Nike and getting nothing. The sky seemed to be the limit. BUT... the notion that Bob was just playing an inside joke and didn't really care about being known as a “playwright, piano player, and philosopher” didn't quite match up with his defensive and concerned attitude that day.
Sources:
Source for Story #1: This is a very famous poker story that was talked about amoung players live and on 2+2 (the dominant, high-traffic poker forum back then and perhaps now) a lot when it happened. You can find snippets and references on twoplustwo.com. I'm sure other long time and knowledgeable players will verify hearing a version of this story before.
An account of it was given by Haralabos himself on the podcast “Big Poker Sundays” which he used to co-host with Scott Huff, but has long since disappeared. It was a part of Poker Road Radio, which was run by Barry Greenstein's asshole son before closing. As this story is now close to 15 years old and poker media is on life support, many previous accounts from blogs and recording are now gone, and thus a lot of it had to be reconstructed from memory. Part of the reason I'm re-telling it is because it was gradually being lost in time, and that is a motive to re-tell it now, for a new generation.
Source for Story #2: I got the exact WPT description of Bob's bio from the 2+2 Archive (http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=5504109&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1). The story of the altered DVR description and Paul Phillips came from the memory of Paul's old blog on LiveJournal (“extempore”), which has long been deleted, and from my own correspondence with Paul Phillips at the time (we were pretty good “online friends” before the invention of Social Media. Anyone remember r.g.p. on Usenet?). Again, unfortunately memory had to play a large role.
I by no means want to pretend Haralabos and I were close. I knew about him and tracked him more than most poker players due to my sports betting background, but Bob was just one of a hundred different and strange characters in the gambling world that you'd recognize daily, none of whom you'd want to spend a lot of time with. We had some mutual friends, that's about it.
Both stories were written under the Geneva Convention rules, which explicitly states that all gambling stories worldwide may contain up to 15% of exaggerations in order to make the story more entertaining or dramatic and still be called “truthful”. Like all good gambling stories should be told. But the core elements are as faithful a retelling as I could make it, including the WPT description, and the key dialogue by Bob that was quoted the most at that time. It's the dates and locations I'm least sure about.
submitted by mcribgaming to billsimmons [link] [comments]

On the LV incident

Stephen Paddock's employment history was largely with government, and featured an unusual career progression. He started off with an entry level position in the Postal Service, then transferred to the IRS, then wound up working for Morton-Thiokol, a defense contractor that specialized in rockets and aircraft systems. He officially retired in 1988, but continued to earn millions of dollars in over the years (allegedly from gambling), owning numerous homes and at least two aircraft stored in two different locations.
One of the aircraft he owned, a Cirrus SR20 (a common medium range 4-seater), registration number N5343M, was Paddock's from 2006-2010, until the registration was changed to Volant LLC (headquarted in Roanoke VA or Chantilly, VA, a hop skip and a jump from Langley or the National Reconnaissance Office, respectively). From here, the waters get a little murky. Read the following passage and take its conclusions with a grain of salt:
"Many of the wounded and witnesses from the Route 91 Harvest Festival have expressed their dismay at online harassment from alter-universe trolls who claim that the shooting never happened in a stage play by so-called “crisis actors”. This absurd theory, stated in barbaric disregard for the families of the dead, is not the opinion of a mere few deranged individuals; it's a repressive tactic of state-sponsored psychological warfare. If anything the online psy-op proves once again the foresight of the founding fathers who drafted the amendments to the Constitution in warning against the lust for power of a centralized state attempting to impose absolutist tyranny on a sovereign society.
The federal muzzling of local law enforcement in Las Vegas is a strong signal of the untrammeled powers of the federal intelligence agencies, which are largely responsible for the influx of fanatic foreign elements loyal to ISIS, Al Qaeda and other anti-democratic forces, even to the point of recruiting them into the U.S. armed forces and police agencies. The slaughter in Las Vegas was the outcome of the thinly concealed immigration alliance with jihadist oil mongering Arab states against the core American citizenry, especially those so-called “fans of country music” who are the most versed of all in the Constitution and its underlying values (as opposed to the mindless and cynical book-waving by that Pakistani ally of terrorism Khizer “Kaiser” Khan of Charlottesville, Virginia).
To protect their power and privileges, the elitist politicians and high bureaucrats in Washington D.C. are acting in ways no different from King George III who unloosed Hessian mercenaries on the colonies, even forcing American families to quarter those armed foreign spies inside their own homes.
Today, the same is being done through the localization of cyber-espionage in every state by the political cabal that is eager to oust the populist-elected president and install instead the chosen successor of the Clinton regime, Virginia Governor Terence “Terry” McAuliffe, the would-be dictator in the eye of the destructive hurricane sweeping across the United States.
This essay in the continuing series on Las Vegas 10/01 explores the centrality of McAuliffe’s fiefdom in the Commonwealth of Virginia to the military contractor role of the fall guy Stephen Paddock, along with the governor’s support for NSA federalization of the state National Guards as the front-line surveillance force to quell citizen-based democracy in every town and village from coast-to-coast. The present military cyber offensive, as shown in the Vegas cover-up, is every bit as threatening as the Red Coat invasion force at Lexington and Concord, and therefore given the moral-ethical surrender of traditional journalism, it is up to the Minutemen of the online media, and perhaps soon by shortwave radio, to defend a democracy under attack and in danger of extinction.
Ownership Transfer of the Plane
Online attempts to probe the background to the ownership of the Cirrus SR20 aircraft, registered under the name of Stephen Paddock for covert ops, have met with obfuscation from Pentagon trolls, who point out that the plane was sold to Volant LLC, owned by one John W. Roberts of Roanoke, Virginia. The key point being raised is that the limited liability (private) company should not be confused with Volant Associates LLC, a defense contractor. To understand this odd matter of the two Volants, let’s jump into the devilish details of provenance or successive ownership as listed at the FAA registry, which has been altered from the original longer version, which I cite here.
That single-engine prop plane was acquired by a Stephen Paddock of Henderson, near Lake Mead in the state of Nevada, on 2 June 2006. The Henderson Executive Airport was opened in the mid-1990s for small private planes as a back-up for crowded McCarren International on the south end of the Vegas Strip, right by the Tropicana, Hooters, New York New York and the Mandalay Bay, directly adjoining the site of the Route 91 Harvest Festival (all of these venues were sites of shooting on October 1). Henderson, on the southern tip of Nevada, is the sort of nondescript quiet town that Paddock preferred whenever making real-estate purchases, indicating his operaton of a trading business that demanded no witnesses.
A year later, on 25 May 2007, Paddock switched the registration address to Mesquite, Texas, a suburb east of Dallas with its own small Mesquite Metro Airport. Fort Worth hosts the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base (JRB) and the Lockheed-USAF Plant 4, a center for tech security. Although at greater distance from the Mexican border, compared with San Antonio or El Paso, the Cirrus has a 700-plus mile range and parking it in Henderson would have attracted no notice from DEA agents and the U.S. Border Patrol.
Nearly three years later, on 13 February 2010, the plane ownership was transferred—apparently merely on paper—to a company called UHS in Los Angeles. The acronym stands for Universal Student Housing, which is something of low-cost AirBnB for young people from foreign countries to stay in homes or apartments owned by Latinos, no questions asked. Human trafficking questions aside, the business operator is named Emerson Farias Torres who operates out of his apartment.
This modest businessman who kindly shelters DACA illegals becomes even more interesting because until 2009 Torres was the U.S. license holder for Jesa Air LLC, the U.S. branch of the Panama-registered Jesa Air West Africa. The tiny airline was owned by the Rhodesia-born mercenary and apartheid South African Air Force pilot Neal Ellis. His colorful career included helicopter piloting in the CIA’s Bosnia war against Serbian armed forces, a stint with the UK-based Executive Outcomes in Sierra Leone, and George W Bush’s invasion of Iraq. In the air-to-ground combat against West African rebels, the legendary merc Ellis befriended retired Lt. Col. Brian Boquist, the CEO of International Charter Incorporated (ICI) of Oregon, which fought in Liberia under contract with DynCorp. Two peas in the pod, they were jolly good buddies.
At the moment of Paddock’s paper “sale” of the Cirrus aircraft to Torres’ youth hostels, Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder and the DHS-run Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau (ATF) were two years into the Fast and Furious gun-walking transfer to the Mexico drug mafia along the Arizona and Texas border. That little ole airport in Mesquite was getting as hot as a charcoal-fired barbecue pit. In Los Angeles (Paddock was a graduate of Cal State Northridge), a location for plausible deniability over a plane with paperwork in Panama. “You see, senor, I’m just flying in Panama hats to sell to touristas on Olivera Street, comprendez?”
In a similar vein, the London address of Jena Air international is 55 Prince’s Gate, Exhibition Road along with 208 other paper companies. To learn more on how to operate your own private air force, look up the documentary film “Shadow Company”.
Stop here a moment to ask: “How come nobody’s raised these issues before?” Answer: Mainly because your press corps are all crisis actors in role of the deaf and dumb.
Then on 10 December 2010, the same plane is registered in Chantilly, Virginia, under Stephen C. Paddock and a John W. Rogers. Then on 30 August 2013, following the gunshot death of ATF forensic expert Paul Parisi in Chantilly, the plane is relocated to Roanoke, Virginia, a distance of 220 miles (355 km), under sole ownership of Volant LLC owned by a John W. Rogers. Obviously, then, Paddock and Rogers must have had some acquaintance with each other.
Two John W. Rogers are listed in Roanoke:
the first is a cancer surgeon at several Virginia hospitals, notably the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, which has a working relationship with the nearby Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center; and
the second John W. Rogers appears to be a fictitious identity created by a John J. Rogers, a newcomer to Virginia from East Palo Alto, a predominantly low-income African-American community “on the other side of Silicon Valley”, and he has since moved to a more affordable part of Virginia with several family members.
So what is a well-respected oncologist, who provides radiation treatment and chemotherapy for cancer patients, doing parking Paddock’s surreptitious aircraft on the tarmac at Roanoke for nearly three years until its sole flight just three weeks prior to the Las Vegas shootings?
To get at the answer, we must first probe into: What’s the difference between Volant Associates LLC and Dr. Rogers’ Volant LCC?
Do you have a credit card for a swipe? Because that’s how far apart these entities are, despite protestations to the contrary from the trolls in the employ of the Pentagon psychological warfare division. It’s called compartmentalization.
The word Volant has a nice ring to it, sounding like a contraction of “volunteers” but, alas, there’s neither connection nor connotation in this case of professional military operations. Translated from French, it means “flying”, although the term is closer to gliding. It is most frequently used for animals that glide despite their inability to sustain flight: for example a volant squirrel, those brave little creatures. “Volant” is also used to describe military airlift operations delivering troops and ground vehicles to the battlefield, such as Volant Solo and the many Volants combined with the names of trees, such as Volant Pine.
For our purpose of tracking down who and what killed Stephen Paddock and 60+ others in Las Vegas, there’s only one definition with any bearing to the case: Col. Adam Volant, a long-serving Army officer with the National Security Agency at its headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and present commander of Task Force Echo, which is deploying a massive National Guard-implemented domestic cyber-warfare and surveillance operation on American soil.
Col. Volant, who wears many hats, is a active service officer in the reserves, the head of the alumni association of Virginia Military Institute (VMI), a sponsor of a “non-profit group”, and a security adviser to U.S. President-in-waiting Terry McAuliffe, the Clinton loyalist who serves as governor of Virginia.
Volant Associates LLC, the now-infamous Pentagon network-systems contractor, which requires all its employees to have top-secret clearances is his “non-profit organization,” which has been awarded tens of millions of dollars in military contracts for network security of critical infrastructure and military facilities, a mandate that includes massive cyber-surveillance, which is now being deployed to an initial eight states by the newly hatched National Guard domestic spy organization. (The Guardsmen have traditionally been “weekend warriors” but at least since the Iraq War the so-called state militia has evolved into a full-time professional fighting force controlled by the Pentagon with most of its funding from the federal government.
What possibly could cancer surgeon John Rogers’ Volant LLC have to do with this watchdog program for militarization of the domestic civilian Internet and social media?
Unbeknownst to most of his civilian patients, Dr. Rogers is a military surgeon and a Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF Reserves. His caretaker role for Paddock’s plane is either based on a military arrangement or off-duty criminal activity as a favor for some past cooperation in the distribution of prescription drugs. Buying a plane only to park it makes no sense otherwise.
If the Roanoke Airport arrangement is indeed military, then Dr. Rogers must have some military-intelligence role. Advanced military systems including electronic warfare, X-band radar and chemical warfare exercises all entail exposure to cancer risks, so one question is whether a National Guard oncologist is supposed to act like a company doctor to explain away the consequences of occupational risks, as happened with Gulf War Syndrome. The Veterans Administration hospital system has been heavily criticized for negligence and mismanagement, and it is striking that the surgeon is so stretched between civilian and military hospitals, some of those sites quite distant from Virginia. Signing papers to park a plane is not much different than writing a prescription for a headache.
Although he’s never flown Paddock’s Cirrus, Lt. Col. Rogers may well be a pilot of military-operated aircraft since his Volant LLC has offices in six other towns, nearly all with or near Veterans Administration hospitals: Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Delmar, New York; Naples, Florida; Randolph, Minnesota; Stoughton, Wisconsin; and Salt Lake City, Utah.
-Delmar, New York, near his alma mater of Hobart College in the Finger Lakes region, with its privately own Cross’ Farm Airport and the Cross Excavating Corporation, and nearby casinos, and Delmar is near Albany’s large VA facility.
-Randolph, Minnesota, a small town of 430 residents near Minneapolis, is located in Dakota County where the Rosemount National Guard Armory, home base of the 34th Infantry Division’s 634th Military Intelligence Battalion. VA hospital.
-Dane County, Wisconsin, which includes Stoughton, is home to the Truax Air National Guard base in and also “Ron Weyer” (real name: Ronald Van Den Huevel, Clinton-Bush-CIA money launderer) and Wally Hilliard, owner of the Huffman Aviation School, operated by Rudi Dekker in Venice and Naples, Florida, and Fort Worth Spinks Airport at Burlson, Texas. Ditto VA.
-Naples, Florida, is home of one of Rudi Dekker’s two flight schools, where Mohamed Atta learned to pilot aircraft. The VA is also there, perhaps to provide first aid to Saudi and Egyptian pilots who crash their planes.
-Baton Rouge, Louisiana, north of his medical school in his hometown of New Orleans, is surrounded by a massive number of heavily armed National Guard bases, that can overwhelm most of the world’s armies, including a chemical-weapons unit, where cancer is an occupational hazard.
-Salt Lake City, the Utah Air National Guard, as big as most air forces with VA center.
The questions arising from Lt. Col. Rogers’ far-flung business registrations are similar to the many properties owned by Stephen Paddock across the country. Could there be some covert military intelligence rationale behind the geographic spread? Volant LLC and Volant Associates LLC look to be paper planes in a much larger covert operation being sent aloft from the highest levels of the NSA. If the volant operation is regime change, Dr. Rogers and Col. Volant both risk elimination for knowing too much, as happened their associate Paddock in Vegas."
submitted by VictoriasSecretCEO to conspiracy [link] [comments]

35 unexpected places the Berlin Wall ended up around the world

  1. The Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, has two sections of the Berlin Wall in its Trinity Corridor.
  2. This portion of the Berlin Wall, located in front of St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, was given to former South African President Nelson Mandela in the 1990s.
  3. Children play in a park in Torrejon de Ardoz, Spain, where a section of the Berlin Wall resides.
  4. This colorful portion of the Berlin Wall resides at The Wende Museum and Archive of the Cold War in Culver City, California. It was painted by French-born and Berlin-based artist Thierry Noir.
  5. The French municipality of Courbevoie bought this piece of the Berlin Wall back in 1990. It sits on display in the La Defense business district and includes a painting by famed German artist Kiddy Citny.
  6. The Blloku district of Tirana, Albania, unveiled this portion of the Berlin Wall as part of a memorial to honor victims of communism in the country.
  7. In addition, a segment of the wall resides outside the Imperial War Museum, in London, England.
  8. The Royal Engineers Museum, in Gillingham, England, also holds a portion of the Berlin Wall.
  9. Sections of the Berlin Wall stand as historical remnants in the Cold War exhibition of the Royal Air Force Museum, located in the village of Cosford, England.
  10. A three-ton portion of the Berlin Wall is on permanent display at the Armory in Seattle, Washington.
  11. Chapman University, located in Orange, California, has one of the largest displays of the Berlin Wall on a university campus. The section of the wall is surrounded by an Abraham Lincoln quote which says, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
  12. Plaza Berlin was built in coordination with the German Embassy of Guatemala and the Municipality of Guatemala in Guatemala City. The large space holds three sections of the Berlin Wall, a fountain made with Venetian mosaics brought by German residents in the country, and stunning panoramic views of the city.
  13. Ten segments of the Berlin Wall are on display outside of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in Los Angeles, California. The structure weights 25 tons.
  14. The European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, also contains original pieces of the Berlin Wall.
  15. Here, a chunk of the Berlin Wall can be seen through lush trees in Yokohama, a Japanese city that sits south of Tokyo.
  16. This 12-foot-tall portion of the Berlin Wall is on display at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library in Yorba Linda, California. It is covered with red, white, and blue graffiti on the side that faced democratic West Berlin while the side facing East Berlin remains unpainted.
  17. In this photo, schoolchildren can be seen walking near a piece of the Berlin Wall that sits on display in Battery Park in New York City.
  18. When visiting the Vatican Gardens of Vatican City, you'll come across a slab of the Berlin Wall that was allegedly won by former Ferrari motor sport director Marco Piccinini during an auction in 1990. He gifted it to the Vatican in 1994.
  19. In 1990, the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie (Checkpoint Charlie Museum) in Berlin presented this segment of the wall to the Andrei Sakharov Museum and Public Center in Moscow, Russia. It was decorated by artists and rises above the lawn near the museum building today.
  20. Local artists will often paint portions of the wall. Here, Victor Landeta, a street artists, spray paints a portrait of Nelson Mandela on a segment of the Berlin Wall in Kleinmachnow, Germany.
  21. Oddly enough, a section of the Berlin Wall was installed into the men's restroom of the Main Street station Casino, Brewery and Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The wall is protected by glass and can be observed by female visitors with the help of the area's security guards.
  22. There's another segment of the wall in Buenos Aires at the garden of San Martin palace, the headquarters of Argentina's Foreign Ministry.
  23. In 1991, Perfil Group, an Argentinian news company based in Buenos Aires, bought 20 segments of the Berlin Wall. The segments represent symbols of freedom to the company and stand protected behind a sheet of glass in the company's lobby.
  24. A piece of the Berlin Wall resides in Ein Hod, Israel. Ein Hod was founded in 1953 by a group of artists and remains an art-centered community where around 150 artists and their families reside.
  25. This portion of the Berlin Wall traveled from Hamburg to Miami Dade College's Wolfs Campus in Miami, Florida, last year. On the day of its unveiling, around 1,500 people gathered at the campus with German flags to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the wall.
  26. If you happen to be at Chicago's Western Brown Line L Station, located in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, look out for an 11-foot-tall and 4-foot-wide portion of the Berlin Wall. The piece was given to the city by the Senate and City of Berlin as a commemorative relic.
  27. This piece of the Berlin Wall has been on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California, since 1990.
  28. These four pieces of the Berlin Wall stand in Indonesian sculptor Teguh Ostenrik's workshop, located in Depok, Indonesia. Ostenrik brought the four original sections to Indonesia in 1990.
  29. The Newseum, an interactive museum of news and journalism in Washington, D.C., houses eight 12-foot-high concrete sections of the Berlin Wall. Next to them, you'll find a three-story East German guard tower that used to be located near Checkpoint Charlie.
  30. In 2004, the Seoul Metropolitan Government announced the creation of an open plaza area in Seoul, South Korea, that would be known as Berlin Square. With three segments of the Berlin Wall, street lights from Berlin, benches, and German trees, the Plaza has been built to stand as a symbol of hope for the reunification of North and South Korea.
  31. This 12-foot section of the Berlin Wall was given to Olympic champion Usain Bolt by the city of Berlin after he broke the world records in the 100 and 200 meter finals of the World Athletics Championships in 200229. The gift sits at the Jamaica Military Museum and Library in Kingston.
  32. "The Day the Wall Came Down" is a statue in the George H.W. Bush Library, in College Station, Texas. The statue depicts horses bolting for freedom over six broken segments of the Berlin Wall.
  33. Three segments of the Berlin Wall were gifted to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City by the Federal Republic of Germany. The illustration displays a boy and a girl meeting over the wall.
  34. Over the years, segments of the Berlin Wall have been gifted and sold to countries around the world. Here, portions of the Wall are up for sale at a storage yard in Teltow, Germany.
  35. The East Side Gallery is approximately a one-mile portion of the Berlin Wall in Berlin, Germany. The gallery is filled with symbolic artwork, like this one of a car breaking through the wall.
Link to article
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[44 M4F Austin, TX] Sleepless In Austin: r/Drama can you help me find the girl of my dreams?

About The Girl I Want

I am looking for a decent girl that wants to be in a long term monogamus relationship with me.
I want the girl to be attractive.
I like girls that are thin, or with a toned or athletic build. A average build is fine too, just as long as you are not over weight. I will not date a overweight or fat girl.
I like girls that are 130 pounds or less. Of course weight needs to be in proportion to their height, as long as they aren’t considred overweight, they should be fine.
Being overweight is a total dealbreaker with me.
I also like girls with long hair. I like a girl to look like a girl, not a man, I like a feminine, pretty girl. I like hair down to the shoulders at least. Sometimes I can make exceptions if it is shorter depending on how it looks on the girl. But for the most part, I love long hair.
Redheads are my favorite, next is Brunettes, and next is Blondes, in that order. I like all 3, but I’m just saying if I had to choose, that’s my order of preference.
I will not date a Black girl. I don’t care if she looks like Halle Berry, I will not ever date a Black girl.
However, I will date any other race, Hispanic, Mexican, Spanish, Russian, Italian, French, European, White, whatever, anything except Black.
I do not like glasses on a girl. Although, it’s not a dealbreaker, as long as she can wear contacts at least most of the time.
I do not ever want to have kids, so if a girl is wanting to have babies, I am not her man.
I will not date a girl that does not have a job or career.
I am not looking for any type of woman that is materialistic or a gold digger or expects a man to pay for everything.
I do not like tattoos on a woman. If a woman already has tattoos, it may not be a deal breaker unless she plans to get more in the future. If a woman has something small and feminine like a butterfly or rose already on her ankle or something then it may not necessacerily be a dealbreaker. And it would also help if she would consider having them laser removed, something I might would even pay to have done for her.
To me, tattoos just represent white trash or somone that’s been in prison. I do not care for following trends like mindless sheep and getting tats just because what ever Star on TV got them, they will always be a symbol of White Trash. The Female human body is the most beautiful work of Art God ever created, to tattoo it with ink is the same as vandalising a famous Monet painting with a can of spray paint!
I also do not like piercings on a woman. I do not like a woman to have anything pireced other than her Ears. If she has other piercings it’s not a dealbreaker as long as she removes them and never wears them again.
I do not like gamblers. I will not be in any relationship with a woman that gambles or wastes money on such things.
I do not like strippers! I will not date any girl that has ever been a stripper. I believe that the only person that should ever see a womans naked body is only her boyfriend or husband.
I will not date any girl that has ever had a threesome, or a large number of past sexual partners. I do not want a promiscuous slut, I want a normal, decent, good hearted girlfriend.
I will not date any girl that can not always be honest & faithful to me. This is very important.
I prefer a girl that does not smoke, but as long as she does not smoke in my house or around me, if she can go outside and smoke, then I can live with that. I lived with my ex girlfriend for Eleven years, and she was a smoker.
I will not date any girl if she is still friends with any men that she has been intimate with in the past, I believe once a relationship with someone is over, it’s OVER.
I will not date a selfish woman. I do not like selfish women at all.
I do not like sarcastic or cynical people, I do not like people that always think negatively either, so that type of girl would also not be a good match for me.
I know sometimes on this thread, I may seem like a negative person because I point out sooooo many things that I dislike, but I assure you I am a very positive person, I am just tring to put out here my likes/dislikes so you can know more about me and what type of girl may get along with me.
I do not expect a girl to agree with all of my beliefs or opinions etc, but I do not like to argue, and it’s very important that we can live in peace together if at some point the girl & I live together. I like to live in a quiet & peaceful environment. That is extremely important to me.
I like a girl that dresses on the conservative side. Not like a slut, and not anything weird. Just normal is fine. T-Shirt & Jeans are OK. But a girl in a dress really gets my heart racing! I also love it when a girl wears a mini skirt with boots, not cowboy boots, but sexy boots. Or high heels, I love spiked high heels!
I like a girl that takes care of herself and keeps herself clean of course.
I love it when a girl wears sexy lingerie in the bedroom! Especially thigh highs!
I need a girl that can be very warm & affectionate and loving.
It’s also nice if the girl has a big heart and appreciates simples things, and understands the value of sentimental things etc.
I like a girl that appreciates romance and the art of courtship.
Kissing is one of my most favorite things to do with a girl, it’s very important. I also love to hold a girls hand when I am walking with her. And I love sleeping beside a girl and holding her close to me, and spooning with her. In fact THAT is the reason I named this thread “Sleepless In Austin” because I haven’t had a single good nights sleep in years, ever since my relationship ended with my ex-girlfriend.
And yes, I also liked the movie Sleepless in Seattle, haha :)
It dosen’t matter at all to me how big or small a girls breasts are. I prefer them to be real & natural though. I am against breast implants, I see that as unnecessery self mutilation, and I would not want a girlfriend that has breast implants.
I prefer a woman that has never had children, because having kids does ruin a womans body often times. They end up with stretch marks. And also sometimes it makes their vagina looser, and I don’t care how many kegel exercises a woman does, after she has 2 or 3 eight to ten pound babies, you can’t tell me it’s going to be 100% as tight as it ever was! Plus, what’s even worse than all of that, is sometimes during childbirth the lips/vulva of a woman get torn and they never look the same as the did originally even after they heal, that’s why some women even get cosmetic reconstructive surgery to their vulvas after childbirth to try and regain their original appearance.
Now I’m not saying having had a kid or two is a for sure dealbreaker for me, but it’s a case by case basis, and I prefer a woman that’s never had kids if possible. My ex-girlfriend that I was with for Eleven years never had kids, she couldn’t because of a hysterectomy at a young age.
I like to get a lot of attention in a relationship, and I like to give it as well.
I also have a very high sex drive.

About Me

What follows is just a place where I will list some random information about me…
Romance is the air I breathe, for without it I surely would die!
So many people often wonder, what is the purpose of life, why are we here, what is the secret of the Universe etc. etc.
I know the answer to this. The answer is simple. The answer is Love.
The meaning and purpose of life is nothing more than love, for a life without love would be completely meaningless and would cease to have any purpose whatsoever!
Love is the only thing that truly drives me, I follow my Heart, always.
I am an Artist, Musician, Poet, Composer, Performer, Businessman, I am many things. I am very creative & artistic. I can be accurately described as being both a CEO & a Rockstar all at the same time, both of those perfectly existing in one person, Me. I am a very unique man. There is NOTHING typical, average, normal, or ordinary about me whatsoever!
I have a way of leaving lasting impressions on people the first time they meet me, they never forget me, and the more a person gets to know about me the more they realize that they have never, ever met another human being in this world like me!
I like to do abstract paintings on canvas with acrylic paints. Although it’s been a few years since I’ve had time to paint anything, I will eventually find the time to paint again in the future.
I love music. I have been playing guitar since I was 5 years old. I’ve written and recorded a lot of original songs. My favorite type of songs to write are love songs.
I’ve also written a book of love poetry.
I do wedding photography on the weekends as well as all other types of photography. And I also work another job Monday through Friday, and i also am currently working a lot of overtime.
I was born in Orlando, Florida on September 18, 1974.
I was then moved to Columbus, Georgia when I was about 2 years old by my great grandmother who took me to raise.
I lived in Columbus, Georgia until around the year 2000 when I was around 24 years old.
Then I sold my house there and I moved to Huntington, West Virginia and although I did not like Huntington, WV I lived there until I was about 35 years old.
And then I moved here to Austin, Texas on December 22nd, 2009.
I live in South Austin, right off William Cannon on Bluff Springs Rd.
South Austin, SoCo, Downtown, The Drag, and West Austin are my favorite parts of Austin.
I do not like North Austin or East Austin.
I know I live in SouthEast Austin, but I do not consider the spot I live to be the real East Austin, I just see where I live as South Austin.
To me, North Austin looks to much like any other city, boring, lacking the “Austin” vibe, the people up there remind me a little of Dallas people, and I do not like Dallas at all. And I do not like anything at all about anything near the Rundberg area up North.
And when I think of East Austin, I think of areas like around 12th & Chicon, that just looks like poverty striken, ghetto people crime infested neighborhoods, full of the trashy people that have long criminal records and lack any proper education. There’s nothing good I can say about East Austin, in fact I think East Austin is a disgrace the the great city of Austin and I wish we could eliminate that whole segment of the population from our beautiful city. Hopefully, that area will be filled with condos or something so that that “type” of people will be priced out of Austin and no longer be able to afford to live within our city limits here.
There’s very little crime in Austin, but when you do hear about crime, it’s usually up North near Rundberg or Airport Blvd, or it’s East Austin.
I know I read back in the 80′s there used to be a problem with gangs/crime in the Dove Springs area (Also Dove Springs isn’t bad like it used to be, but I’d still never want to live there either. I also dislike most of Riverside. You can usually just look at people in those areas and tell they are trashy.) here in South Austin, but I don’t live in Dove Springs, I am near it somewhat, but I am just a hop, skip and a jump to South Congress, and to me South Congress Avenue is one of the safest, most prestigious streets.roads in Austin. It leads all the way to Downtown where it turns into just Congress Ave, and then goes on behind the Capitol where it basically turns into The Drag or Guadalupe, which is very similar to the SoCo 78704 area, especially where they have all the shops and used to have the food trailers like Hey Cupcake.
THAT’S the part of Austin, that I love and consider to be the REAL Austin, those are the areas of Austin that I LOVE.
Mayfield Park is my absolute favorite place in Austin to go spend time! It’s in West/Central Austin on 3505 W. 35th Street. I think it’s the most beautiful place in America, like Heaven on Earth! I even wrote and recorded a love song about and dedicated to Mayfield Park! That’s how much I love it there! I love the Peacocks there the most! And the gardens, koi ponds, nature trails and palm trees, it’s amazing to be there!
And right by Mayfield Park is Mount Bonnel Drive which leads about 6 blocks or so up to the highest point of Austin, Mt Bonnel. I love going up the hundred or so steps there and enjoying that view! I love going to these two places in Austin as often as possible, and if you can’t tell I love to walk, and I do a lot of walking!
I also think Austin has the most beautiful Skyline in the country!
And I love the Congress Avenue Bridge!
I love to walk across it all the way downtown! I love to stand on it and watch the Sunset, or watch the Bats take flight at night!
I love to stand in that White Gazebo they have Downtown and look at the Colorado River.
I love to walk around the lake there as well.
I love to walk all up and down Congress Avenue and also up and down 6th Street. I love the energy of 6th Street. And I also love the Warehouse District downtown right before you get to 6th Street. The Red River area right past 6th Street is also nice to explore.
I also love the Capital, it is very beautiful to see Downtown.
I love to see a good live band from time to time, or go to a comedy club for some good standup comedy.
I love to see Art and to visit Museums.
I love to try new Restaurants and foods.
I love going to the Barton Creek Mall sometimes.
My favorite clubs are Friends on 6th Street, and the Continental Club on South Congress. Maggie Maes on 6th is also good. And the Elysium on Red River is good for something different sometimes.
I love watching movies at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz on 6th and the dinner & Milkshakes are good too there.
I love the Italian restaurant on Congress called La Traviata, and also the Mexican restaurant Manuels beside it there. And I love Conan’s deep dish Pizza on Guadalupe/Drag.
As far as Politics goes, I believe that democrats & republicans are really just two sides of the same coin to give us the illusion of choice,
I do not believe we live in a truly free country anymore, and it hasn’t been free in a very, very long time.
I do not like Obama. And, I did not like Bush or his Father either. I did not like the Clintons or the Reagan administration either. There hasn’t been a president during my lifetime so far that I have liked.
I believe that 99% of Fox News and mainstream Media is nothing but Lies, Lies and more Lies.
I think that the majority of Americans, along with the rest of the world are brainwashed sheep that are asleep.
I believe that 911 was a Inside Job, designed to instill more fear in Americans in which the government can use as a escuse to take away more of our rights and freedoms and push more of their terrible agenda upon us.
There’s a man here in Austin, Texas by the name of Alex Jones who has a show on KLBJ radio, he’s been talking about things like this for about 20 years or longer. He has a website www.prisonplanet.com and he’s also released about 17 video documentaries on this subject and everything he says or writes is backed up by documented fact.
I believe in and support almost everything he says on his show & documentaries and puts on his website. Check out his website and you will have a good idea on what my politics are.
I basically believe in our Constitution, the way our fore fathers wrote it, before Bush & Obama began destroying all the freedoms it contained with the Patriot Acts etc.
The best documentaries to watch of Alex Jones are Terrorstorm, and also End Game. There’s another great documentary by someone else called Loose Change. You can watch those for free if you search for them on Google Video.
Other than those types of polital beliefs, there’s a few other things I believe in…
I do not support abortion unless it’s for the result of rape or incest.
Abortion is murder.
I do not believe a woman should have the choice or freedom to kill her baby just because she was a slutty whore and dosen’t want to accept responsibility and raise the baby herself or give it to someone else who will.
I also do not support homosexuality. I think it’s disgusting, and morally wrong. I think it’s the trait of a defective human being.
I am old fashioned. I am conservative. I believe men should be men, and women should be women. God made Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve.
Furthermore, I do not believe homosexuals should be allowed to teach in schools or hold any type of job in which they have any type of interactions with children in which they could leave a false impression that homosexuality is ok on their young minds.
Now with that said, go ahead and ask me how I feel about Gay marriage…
And I will tell you that I am ok with that, because you know what, I’m just one person, I can’t stop it from happening, so if it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, and I am a Wedding Photographer, so just think if they allow Gays to legally marry, the income I make from Wedding Photography basically would double overnight wouldn’t it! hahaha!!!!
Now with that said, I am not a mean or hateful person. I am a very easy going, nice, peaceful guy. And I work with people sometimes that are Gay and never have any problems with them. We get a long fine.
I basically only concern myself with my own inner world near me, only stuff that has a direct impact on me and the little world around me.
I don’t go out of my way to recycle, I mean I don’t seperate my trash into different trash cans etc, plastic in one and this or that in the other like some people do. I don’t have time for that nonsense. The world will be here for as long as I live, and after I’m gone, whatever happens to this Earth is of no concern to me. I don’t have time for recycling. Let that be someone else’s job to sort out all of that stuff.
People now a days are always wanting everything to be green, like hybrid cars etc. Me, I am planning on getting a 1977 Corvette Stingray soon with a 350 V8 engine that will only get about 10 miles a gallon. How’s that for green??? hahaha!!!!
I don’t worry about killing trees when I waste paper either. And when I go out to eat dinner, I don’t care if I eat all of my food or not, it does not bother me to throw away whatever I am not hungry to eat.
Can you tell yet I’m not one of those Hippies that you see so much of here in Austin????
Hahahaha!
I love Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, and I seen the Woodstock DVD and that all is cool. I’m creative & artistic and believe in Freedom.
But, I am not a lazy slacker like most hippies are. I believe everyone needs to work to support theirself, earn their own money and not live off the government or off handouts or charity.
I do NOT believe marijuana should ever be legalized!
I do believe it’s ok for doctors to give to Cancer patients etc, but I do not believe it should be easy to get a prescription for, basically unless you can prove you have Cancer or something then you should not be allowed to smoke it.
I am not a Racist person. In fact I tend to get along much better with Black guys than I do White guys.
However, I do not like Rap or Hip Hop music. I do not even consider that to be real music. And I do not like Black people that listen to that kind of music. I do not like Black people that have a criminal record or smoke pot or do any other type of drugs. I do not like Black people that live in the “projects” or live off welfare or food stamps. I do not like Black people that do not have a full time job. I do not like Black people that wear their pants halfway down to their knees. And I do not like Black people that don’t speak proper English and pronounce their words correctly. I do not like Black people that dress like thugs or gangstas. I do not like uneducated Black People. And if you are a Black person that lives in East Austin or up North Austin around the Rundberg area then chances are I probably don’t like you either! So there! haha!!!!!
I am NOT racist. I just do NOT like ignorant, useless, TRASH.
I also don’t like White people that do those same types of things!
And, I do not believe that Whites & Blacks should mix races sexually and have kids together.
I think it’s ok for Whites & Hispanics. But not Blacks.
I would NEVER, EVER, EVER date a woman if I found out she had EVER been sexually active with a Black man.
That would just be pure filth.
I do not like Homeless people, bums, drunks, or drug users either, or anyone that participates in any type of criminal activity.
I also do not like White country types or Redneck types or Trailer trash types.
I do not believe in fishing or hunting, I do not support the killing of animals.
I am not a Vegetarian, but I don’t eat much meat compared to most people, and one day I’d like to be totally vegetarian, It takes a lot of will power though.
I love Animals.
I love Nature.
I love living in the City.
I love the Sunny days and warm weather of Austin.
I do not like cold weather or snow. I do not like to be cold.
I do not like the rain.
I am not materialistic, but I do like for the things I have to be nice and to be of excellent quality. I strive to live as comfortable of a life as I possibly can.
I am currently working with a realtor to buy a house here in South Austin so that I can move out of this apartment.
I am also working towards starting a romantic Bed & Breakfast in South Austin in the future.
I am a entrepenuer and I am in the process of establishing multiple streams of income that all target the same clients in the Wedding industry.
I also believe in living on a balanced budget, and setting aside money for savings as well as investing a portion into stocks.
Sometimes I think people see me as a very arrogant & egotistical man, I can’t help it if I am more intelligent than most men, that’s their problem and their own insecurities they must deal with. I think I am a very nice guy, very well balanced, highly intelligent, a hard worker, very assertive in life, with a huge heart and a very romantic side.
Some of my favorite movies, in no particular order, are:
Of What Dreams May Come, City Of Angels, Leaving Las Vegas, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, Finding Nemo, Naploeon Dynomite, Rock Star, The Basketball Diaries, The Doors, Rocky, Rocky Balboa, Wall-E, The Goonies, Star Wars, Kill Bill, Romeo & Juliet (DiCaprio version), The Devils Rejects, E.T., Friday, and Sling Blade.
Sam Kinison, Richard Pryor & Robin Williams are some of my favorite comedians.
Some of my favorite Bands are:
Guns & Roses, Poison, Black Crowes, Ozzy Osbourne, Def Leppard, The Cure, AC/DC, Metallica, Megadeth, Pink Floyd, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Etta James, Otis Redding, Diana Krall, Skid Row, Whitesnake, and David Gilmour.
Other Random Things About Me:
I like to eat:
Blueberries, Bannanas, Whole Wheat Whole Grain Breads, Spinach, Tomatos, Avacado, Tobasco Hot Sauce, Jalepinos, Banana Peppers, Green Peppers, Onions, Raw Garlic Cloves, Olivesm Cucumbers, Raw Honey, Cereals like Wheaties & Cheerios, Baked Potatos, Mashed Potatos, Fried green tomatos. Chicken is my least favorite meat. Beef is my next least favorite, and after Beef Pork. My favorite meat is Salmon & Tuna, and sometimes Turkey. Those seem to be the most healthy meats, if you are going to eat meat, which I try to eat as little of it as I can. Sometimes I go a few days without any meat at all. When I order Pizza, I usually just get it with Veggies. Dark Chocolate is my favorite, especially the truffles made by Lindt. My favorite cake is German Chocolate, my favorite ice cream is Rocky Road. I also love the home made brownies they sell on the counters at the 711 stores here. I am trying to eat more healthy. The only fast food I eat is at Subway.
I like all kinds of movies, thrillesuspense/horrodrama/comedy/romance/documentary.
I do not like to watch sports or reality shows.
I don’t watch much TV.
If I do watch TV, it’s usually a DVD.
But my favorite TV Shows are:
South Park, Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, Dexter, The Sopranos, Beavis & Butthead, and the X-Files.
I love to celebrate Christmas.
I am a very giving person.
I like to make a woman happy, it makes me happy if I can make the woman in my life happy.
I do not know how to swim, no one ever taught me.
I was on the Judge Judy TV show one time.
I had the lyrics to my song “Soul Brother” printed in a book about Stevie Ray Vaughan called You Can’t Stop A Comet by Cutter Brandenberg who was Stevie’s road manager and lives in Temple.
I was also written about in Kelly Garni’s autobiography, he was the original bass guitar player in the old 70′s band Quiet Riot along with Randy Rhoads who went on to play for Ozzy Osbourne.
A musician based in Dallas that has been on tours with ZZ Top, wrote & recorded a song about me and put it on one of his CDs, the song is called “Romeo”.
I was the person that got unreleased film footage of Randy Rhoads from film director Peter Margolis and uploaded it all over the internet for the world to see for the first time ever even though I did not have Peter’s permission, it made me a instant hero in the Randy Rhoads community/fan base, and now Ozzy & Sharon Osbourne even know who I am, they even had a meeting regarding me at one time awile back.
When I was in WV I once wrote a song about a man that painted a bridge Pink and I made the headlines of the newspaper there for it.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s brother Jimmie Vaughan once banned me from ever coming into Antones, he refused to play if I was in the audience, I don’t know if the ban is still in place because I always liked Nuno’s club better before it closed, but as you can see I can be quite a colorful & contraversial character at times obvisouly! Hahaha!!!
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