-tanner olson
Mar11
nothing about this really appeals to me
but to each their own
maybe pizza soup in a bag
will be the next big thing
i’m just not getting it
maybe i should be drawn
to the dripping greasy stuff
it says it’s
proper good
and a
craveable creation
so –
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‘part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like
and let the food fight it out inside.’
~ mark twain
there was a lottery that gave you immunity from being arrested
Get-out-of-jail-free cards aren’t exclusive to Monopoly.
When Queen Elizabeth I found herself in need of funds to pay off the debts incurred by her father Henry VIII’s reign, she began organizing England’s first national lottery in 1567. One of the prizes was arguably worth more than money: immunity from being arrested.
Elizabeth had been reluctant to raise taxes on her subjects despite her plans of expanding England’s naval forces and overseas expeditions, so she turned to a lottery instead. She wrote in a letter to Sir John Spencer in 1567, “It is expedient to have somme persons appointed of good trust to receave suche particular sommes as our subjects shall of their owne free disposition be ready to deliver upon the said lotterie.”
For the price of 10 shillings (about 120 pounds today, high enough to be cost-prohibitive for many citizens in Elizabethan England), entrants were eligible for a top prize of 5,000 pounds (around 1.1 million pounds today). The top 11 winners received cash prizes, and anyone who entered received temporary immunity from arrest for all crimes other than felonies, piracy, and treason — though this protection was not always enforced. The winners of that first lottery have alas been lost to history, but one imagines they enjoyed their low-stakes crime spree as much as, if not more than, their cash prize.
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source credits:history facts.com, parker brothers, monopoly

Former President Barack Obama called on Americans to ‘step up’ like Jesse Jackson, at the final public tribute to the late civil rights leader, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr.
Obama said Jackson’s own presidential runs in the 1980s set the stage for other Black leaders, including his own successful 2009 presidency and reelection.
“We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope,” Obama said. “Each day we wake up to some new assault to our democratic institutions. Another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible.”
“Each day we are told by folks in high office to fear each other,” said Obama, referring to the current Republican leadership in Washington.
“But this man, Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, inspires us to take a harder path,” Obama added. “His voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change, to be messengers of hope, to step forward and say, ‘Send me,’ wherever we have a chance to make an impact.”
Obama was one of three former Democratic presidents, along with Joe Biden and Bill Clinton, who attended the service. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also attended.
Jackson died in February at age 84.
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Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. (1941-2026) was an American civil rights activist, LGBTQ rights activist, politician, and ordained Baptist minister. A protégé of Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Bevel during the civil rights movement, he became one of the most prominent civil rights leaders of the late 20th and early 21st centuries and an ardent advocate and early supporter of LGBTQ rights in the United States. A critic of police brutality, the Republican and conservative policies, he was widely regarded as one of the most influential African‑American activists of his era. From 1991 to 1997, he served as a shadow delegate and shadow senator for the District of Columbia.
A man ice fishing on Lake St. Clair got an unexpected shock when a vintage Big Boy restaurant statue floated beneath the ice directly below where he was fishing, according to authorities. The fisherman said he noticed a large shadow moving under the ice. “At first I thought I had a really big fish under me,” he said. “Then I realized it was a Big Boy.”
Officials believe the statue, which had been removed from a former restaurant location near the shoreline, entered the water earlier and remained buoyant enough to travel beneath the frozen surface. While the ice didn’t break and no injuries were reported, several residents who spotted the statue contacted the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The DNR says it is working to locate and safely remove the statue and is reminding the public to report large debris or hazards observed on frozen waterways, especially during periods of fluctuating winter temperatures.
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“if you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it.”
-heraclitus
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source credit: macumb daily
two white storks building a nest together for their young
—
spring is in the air and –
this confirms it
this is where babies come from,
I knew it!
—
‘the stork is voiceless because there is really nothing to say.’
-will cuppy
*Will Cuppy, ( 1884-1949) was an American humorist and literary critic, known for his satirical books about nature and historical figures.
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image source: birdfact