When Pigs Fly

This week in Las Vegas a truck pulling a semi load of hogs headed to slaughter overturned on the I-15 and I-215 offramp causing a 7 hour traffic delay. The Nevada Highway Patrol did not want to just flip the trailer over for fear the hogs would just scatter out and cause a larger mess.

This story reminded me of a story Terry Wheller told me when i was a kid. For the record Terry Wheller is a Lake Andes, SD native who worked for my family in the pork processing business in the 70's and continued on with my father at his tractor parts company and retired in 1995. Terry was an accountant by degree but spent many years bouncing around from truck driver and spotter for crop dusters in Texas and Oklahoma. Terry always had a great story to tell even if I had heard it before.

Terry once told me a story about when is was hauling a load of hogs at night and was approaching a train crossing which was not marked with lights. As he was approaching the crossing he noticed a train was coming and to avoid a collision he flipped his truck instead of collide with the train. Due to the rollover pigs were laying all over the place. The local sheriff who responded to the accident decided it was best to put many of the pigs out of their misery and pulled out his service revolver out and starting his own roadside slaughterhouse.

I guess the Nevada Highway Patrol didn't want to waste the bullets.

Big H

Forbes 400 List

It is a well versed adage in my family, my father probably lifted the saying from somewhere, that it is not news until you read it. I just read the Friday USA Today and they had a story about the Forbes 400. The writer made a big part of the story that 270 of the 400 are self made men. It then mentions as persons who were self made, Sheldon Adelson the son of poor immigrants and the Google boys. The next name shocked me: Bill Gates.

I guess the writer did not research their story very well. I remembered from reading the Gates biography like 10 years ago that his father was a big shot lawyer in Seattle. So I begin my research on wikapedia. The first two sentences are provided below.

William Henry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president.

Sounds like a real Horatio Alger story to me. I now remember the story were Bill put himself through Harvard by sweeping floors and cleaning toilets and working nights at Dunkin Donuts.

Big H

P.S. This story is not intended to be a slam on Bill Gates. Mr. Gates may be the worlds greatest philanthropist and I salute his efforts to held rid the world of childhood diseases.

Correction

It is now widely reported that the girl in question in the poker pro sex case from below was 17. The story I reported on had the victim as being a child.

Big H

The Circus Continues

A Las Vegas Poker Pro faces deportation for a 12 year old misdemeanor conviction for child molestation. Shawn Sheikhan has retained the services of David Chesnoff a top criminal lawyer in Las Vegas. I never liked "Sheiky" and thought he bit of an ass. Now I am proven right, his lawyer is not saying he is innocent, Mr. Chesnoff is arguing that his lawyer 12 years ago was incompetent. He got real lucky that the OJ thing went down, beacause it kept Sheiky below the fold. Actually it was on page 20, I wonder if there is still a fold on page 20.

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2007/09/shawn-sheikhan-faces-deportation-hearing.htm

Big H

The Circus is in town

I went down to Court yesterday and it was already a circus. Today one of my colleagues said there were hundreds of people down there. I luckily had no appearances today. One of the victims is now in the hospital with a heart attack. OJ may have dodged a bullet in a gruesome double homicide 13 years ago. Now it appears a heart attack as a result of the robbery could put him in a jail out in the desert for the rest of his life.

Big H

Had to do it

I had a court hearing this afternoon and the paparazzi were staked out waiting for the OJ hearings. On my way to security I put my blackberry to my ear and said "Tell OJ I'll be there in five minutes." I was then blinded by the flashes. So look for me on TMZ or some other gossip site.

Big H

Chargers are a Bust

The much touted Offensive Machine of the San Diego Chargers appear to be a bust. They were infective last week and looked lethargic tonight. On the other hand the evil empire of the Patriots looked great. It just tough to cheer from them since they are cheaters and their coach stalks the sidelines in the redneck cut-off sweatshirt. He looks like he lives in a trailer park. I guess he will have to mortgage the double wide to pay the fine.

Big H

The Western is Back

If you have not done so, run do not walk to your local cinema to see 3:10 to Yuma. It is an excellent movie in one of the best Hollywood genres. Leave it to Hollywood to cast an Australian and a Welshmen as an outlaw and a civil war veteran rancher who has fallen on tough times.

Big H

Fatherly Advice

My father has been bugging me since the whole "OJ" thing happened to blog about it. I had considered initially to blog on it since it was so outlandish. But I thought better of it since OJ is a piece of garbage who does not deserve my attention.

Big H

Rack em Pack em and Stack em

Fred Thompson has finally ended the speculation and announced his candidacy for President. NBC has taken the crazy step of not allowing re-runs of Law & Order that he was in during this time. What wimps. Let someone sue for equal time for a blurb on L&O. If the American voter is confused about who to vote for because of Fred Thompson playing a DA, they better not watch Die Hard 2 where Freddy kicks ass as the head of Dulles with a little help from fellow Republican Bruce Willis.

I actually rode on the elevator with Freddie once during my time on Capitol Hill in 1996. At the time he was dating a Victoria Secrets Underwear model, you should have seen his staff assistants. Wow. There is a reason they refer to the hot chicks on the Hill as Staff Ass.

Big H

NFL Kick Off

The NFL kicks off tonight with a great match-up of the Defending Champs versus the team people think is the best in the NFC, the New Orleans Saints. Lets just debunk that assumption for minute. The Bears made it to the Superbowl without a Quarterback and could have won the game had Lovie Smith not given up. Now the Bears have resigned everybody except Tank Johnson and how can you argue that Rex will not be better than last year. So it is safe to say that the Bears will cruise to the Super Bowl again. But they will not face the Colts, I think the Pats will be back, with their new explosive receivers. The Saints will be an also ran and if for some chance the Bears have to go to New Orleans to make it to the Superbowl, we can all remember the last big game played by the Bears in the SuperDome...SuperBowl XX.

Big H

Historic Dates

I was watching the Virginia Tech Football game today and the ESPN crew covering the game referred to the tragic school shooting that took place as 4/16. We need to stop this pattern. It started with 9/11 and has now been continued. We don't call Pearl Harbor day 12/8 and DDay is not 6/6. It is disrespectful for the people who suffered to refer to these dates instead of some other name. Also how about if your birthday is that day, so now we have a negative connotation to certain dates instead of understanding the underlying issues.

Just my .02

Big H