The parents of missing Madeleine McCann continue to try to cast aspersions on anyone but themselves. Thus we have the latest and greatest, a sketch of a strange man alleged to have been seen hanging around the McCann’s vacation condo when the child disappeared. While I am still quite convinced that the McCanns know where their daughter is and where she is buried. Give them credit for keeping up their game plan.
We’ve also got chainsaw murderers, lies about returning Vets courtesy of the NY Times and could that missing girl from Nevada have been killed by those same friends who keep weeping for her return?
==============================
TIDBITS
On Toys
"What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs,
And makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing,
Everyone knows it's Slinky..."
"It's Slinky! It's Slinky!
For fun it's a wonderful toy,
It's fun for a girl and a boy!"
***
Toys/games you never may have heard of:
Probe
Lawn Darts
Mr. Machine
Tammy
Wizzer
Upsy Downsy Baby
***
Twister grabbed the attention of millions of viewers when Johnny Carson played it with Eva Gabor on his late night talk show in 1966, and "Weird Al" Yankovic has written a song in its honor.
***
GUMBY
Veteran animator Art Clokey invented Gumby, a little boy-creature made of green putty, for a 1953 short film called Gumbasia. The sprightly little fellow soon landed a regular spot on Howdy Doody and graduated to his own program, simply called The Gumby Show. Around this time, Lakeside Toys introduced the first Gumby toys. There were "bendy" action figures that could be posed and a Jeep that has become a favorite of collectors. During the 1960's, Lakeside would also produce Gumby wind-up toys and an electric drawing toy. They even made little costumes for the bendable figures.
***
Memory
Milton Bradley released Memory in 1966, a game for children aged 4 to 6. On one side of each of the 72 included cards was a colorful drawing; on the other side was the game's logo. These non-logo drawings all came in pairs, so there were 36 possible match-ups in the game. The game was played by shuffling a series of paired cards, laying them face down, and then trying to match them up again. If 36 was a bit much, the amount of pairs could be lowered or raised to match the players' ages and skill levels.
***
Tiddlywinks
Tiddlywinks originated in England during the late 1800's. Its name comes from "tiddly wink," which is English slang for an unlicensed pub. Tiddlywinks was popularized in pubs as a diversion to be indulged in while downing a few pints, much like darts or checkers. The game consists of a mat with a small, round pot at its center and several little discs made in four colors (blue, green, red, and yellow). Blue and red are always partners against yellow
and green and are laid across from each other diagonally around the pot in alphabetical order.
==================
The McCanns Continue to Try to Fool the World
From AOL.com:
The parents of a missing British girl released sketches Sunday of a man they said could be linked to the disappearance. A woman remembered seeing a suspicious character lurking around the Portuguese resort where Madeleine McCann vanished last May. "We want to know who he is and we want to know where he is," a family spokesman said.
First, the woman who allegedly saw this strange man didn’t report it until AFTER she returned to Britain. Madeleine disappeared in Portugal. Her disappearance was widely reported. But she waits until she goes home to tell police about this strange character she saw lurking around that vacation resort?
I suppose there might have been fears of a language barrier or Portuguese police incompetence but I don’t buy it. If you have information on a missing child you tell somebody. This woman could have, for example, informed Madeleine’s parents about the sighting.
I am very convinced that the McCanns had something to do with their child’s death. My reasoning here is, first, even the BRITISH investigators think the McCanns accidentally killed Madeleine then staged an abduction. Second, Madeleine’s twin siblings were also in that condo the night Madeleine went missing. If I’m going to sneak into a place and steal a child into the night, I’m going to be damn sure there’s no possibility of sleepy children awakening and spoiling my plan. It’s just so unlikely that a stranger out of nowhere would have climbed into a window and carried off a bulky child that might awake, squirm or scream at being taken off by a stranger. And if the abduction was planned by somebody nearby watching the McCann movements, surely that person would have known about the siblings in that apartment who might have sabotaged the abduction plan.
And so the McCanns, who will likely get away with this as it’s not likely Madeleine’s body will ever be recovered, must keep up some public façade that has them orchestrating a “search” for their missing daughter who they say they believe is alive.
One week we had an audience with the pope, widely publicized by the “McCann family spokesperson”. Yet another week we had reports from a McCann family friend about a strange person seen at the Portuguese resort carrying a young child in his arms.
Now…tada…the bushy-haired stranger!
With the passage of time the McCanns will likely stop all this urination upon our feet while telling us it’s raining. Madeleine is safely buried somewhere and these parents know where. I’m sure they suffered the loss of their child; I don’t think they meant to harm her, likely by administering a little too much sedative to keep her quiet while they went out to dinner with friends.
Life will go on, the world will forget about it, the police authorities will probably never make any kind of arrest and some author will someday write a book about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Lawsuit Filed in Taser Death
From Eastvelleytribune.com:
The parents of a Gilbert teen who died after police shocked him several times with a Taser filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the town on Thursday.
Lawyers filed the lawsuit on behalf of Drew and Gina Athetis, who claim that Gilbert police were negligent on Jan. 17, 2007, when their 18-year-old son, Andrew, was pronounced dead 11 hours after an officer subdued him with a Taser.
Here’s an 18-year-old male youth that died allegedly from being repeatedly shot with a taser over a year ago. I didn’t read the original story but now we learn that the parents are filing a lawsuit.
Well duh.
Andrew Athetis was a fine son whose parents must be so proud of him. He’d hit a woman in the chest and took off with her keys. Police were nearby at a robbery investigation. They chased the youth and cornered him. According to reports, the youth wouldn’t stop moving when commanded by the police. Thus he was tasered to stop his forward movement. Then, when he was on the ground, he wouldn’t stop moving and he was tasered three more times.
Andrew then lapsed into some sort of coma like state and died later.
Here’s the big caveat. This fine young man had himself some methamphetamine earlier in the day. His death was ruled a result of “excited delirium” caused by the same methamphetamine.
I’ve always been a bit wary of what might be perceived as runaway abuse of taser guns by the police but this is not such a case. Over the past year this case has been investigated by both internal and external agencies. The use of the stun gun was warranted was the ruling. Methamphetamine makes people do strange things.
His parents are so proud of this young man they raised who knocks down old ladies and indulges in methamphetamine that they are suing the state.
Anybody can sue anybody and there’s always a shark lawyer somewhere who’ll take the case.
Pic and Reporting Info on Missing Delaware Woman
Just earlier this week I wrote a tale about a missing Delaware woman, HERE.
Below, a pic of the missing woman and contact information should any reader have seen her.
From MLSKI.net:
A reward is being offered for information that leads to finding Christine Marie Sheddy, who has been missing since last month. Sheddy and her two young sons were staying with her mother at her Bowers Beach home. Sheddy told her mother she was going to Pocomoke to visit a couple (Tia & Junior) she met through her boyfriend, who is the father of her children. Anyone with information about Sheddy should contact the Worcester Bureau of Investigation or the Worcester County Sheriff's Office. Those numbers – (WCBI) 410-352-3476 in Maryland or 1-800-811-8396 or (Worc. Sheriff) 410-632-1111.
This is a case going completely under the radar. Christine Sheddy has a bit of a checkered history but hey, she left without clothes, pocketbook, cell phone, etc. All signs of a missing person who likely is missing due to foul play.
Christine’s sister’s wedding is coming up. Christine was supposed to be in that wedding. So far Christmas and Christine’s birthday has gone by with no sign of Christine.
Chainsaw Attack at Homeless Shelter
The Mid-America Care Center was trying to turn Matthew Watkins’ life around. He’d stayed at the center and at the time all appeared to be going well for Watkins.
Only on Saturday 1/19/08, Watkins came into the homeless shelter that had once offered him shelter armed with a knife and a chainsaw. Employees of the shelter managed to run away from the manic Watkins but one employee was slashed in the throat and another was attacked in the abdomen with the chainsaw.
There were no deaths and Watkins was stopped in his rampage. The shelter remained open and all involved are thankful this guy didn’t have a gun.
From KSDK.com:
KSDK) - It was a violent attack at a mid-Missouri homeless shelter. Armed with a knife and a chain saw, police say a man attacked four people. It happened Saturday near New Bloomfield, about 120 miles west of St. Louis.
Maria Lauterbach’s “Mother” Tries to Save Her Reputation
I’ll never quite get over the nerve of a so-called mother who released damning information about her own daughter that, as we know now, might have slowed down investigation into the woman’s disappearance.
It’s not quite clear if this fine woman, Mary Lauterbach, is Maria’s mother or stepmother as she’s been called both in various news articles.
But when news of the disappearance of Maria Lauterbach hit the media radar, for several days Mary Lauterbach’s pooh=poohing of Maria’s rape allegations, her assertion that Maria was bipolar and subject to telling tall tales, was all over the airwaves.
One would think this fine woman would be screeching bejeesus for investigators to find her missing daughter. Instead, even as Maria, 8 and a half months pregnant, was burned and buried in the backyard of the same fellow Maria accused of raping her, this mother of the year was shrugging off her daughter’s disappearance as business as usual.
Evidently this woman is trying to change her image but I’ll always think badly of her. The time to go airing your family’s dirty laundry is not when a child has up a disappeared only a few weeks before Christmas. A very pregnant child I might add, one who was signed up for the marines. A most unlikely person to go running off into the sunset and yet Maria Lauterbach was betrayed by her own family.
From Google.com:
"My daughter was a beautiful girl with a beautiful figure and perceived credibility issues. That set her up to be the perfect victim," Mary Lauterbach said of her daughter in an interview published Sunday in the Dayton Daily News.
Below is a montage of recently released pictures of all the activity going on in that Laurean home.
Old Murder Case in Colorado Raises Questions
I’m always skeptical when I hear of a renewed investigation into an old crime in an effort to clear the individuals originally arrested, charged and tried for the same crime.
My first firm assumption is that it takes a lot to try someone much less get them convicted by a jury of twelve. I’m thinking the percentage of these cases being on the money are at least 99.9%.
But there’s always the possibility of a prosecutorial mistake and after the fine Mike Nifong I’m wary of runaway prosecutors.
But the murder of Peggy Hettrick was most likely committed by the original fellow tried for the crime, at least as this amateur detective sees it.
As always when these things arise, you get former police types and prosecutorial witnesses who come out of the wood work stating that they had been wary all along about the guilt of he or she charged, tried and convicted. I wonder why the hell they didn’t say anything THEN!
Tim Masters was 15 at the time of Hettrick’s murder. He had a bedroom full of morose drawings of dead women. He had a drawer full of knives.
Further, Masters knew that Hettrick’s body was near his property, he was seen standing around the exact spot where the dead body lay yet he never reported it. Now we are to believe that Masters never told anybody about the body because he wanted to be a macabre writer like Steven King.
Finally, Masters knew that Hettrick’s body has been mutilated, specifically that the dead woman’s nipple had been removed from her dead body. This was information that had never been released to the public. Now we learn that a police scout had inadvertently given this information to young Masters and that was how he knew this alleged secret detail.
From CNN.com:
FORT COLLINS, Colorado (CNN) -- Police are still arguing about the case two decades after the sexually mutilated body of Peggy Hettrick turned up near the trailer where a gawky teen named Tim Masters lived.
Tim Masters was 15 years old when Peggy Hettrick was brutally slain in 1987.
When Masters was convicted and sentenced in 1999 to life in prison for Hettrick's murder, prosecutors thought they'd closed Fort Collins' then-only unsolved murder.
I understand there might be another trial for Masters so go ahead and let his pleas be heard.
I still think he did it.
The Fine NY Times Lies Blatantly About Our Troops
The NY Times, a fine crew of meterosexuals most of whom would scream for their mommies at the sight of a gun much less risk their lives to save their countrymen, reported on 1/13/08 that returning soldiers from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are more likely to commit murder than the rest of the population.
As analyzed by MoveAmericaForward.org this was bullshit. The Times, brave journalists daring to report their jealous lies, managed to find 121 cases of murder committed by returning vets. Heh.
Based on the Times’ statistics and those 121 murder cases over the six years of the wars overseas, this equals a rate of 1.34 violent incidents resulting in death per 100,000 compared to, get this, 5.80 violent incidents resulting in death per 100,000 for the non-veteran part of our population.
Maybe they can’t do math at the beloved, lying NY Times.
Don’t be fooled yon ladies and gems. The NY Times set out to do a hit piece on our troops and they deliberately finagled the numbers to convince us that our military are a bunch of murdering hotheads.
Not one meterosexual, jealous journalist at the NY Times has one ounce of the integrity that a member of our military has. This absurd hit piece is the very first proof of this.
More information and analysis at this site.
What Happened to Brianna Denison?
Now here’s a story currently being hyped over the national radar. It seems that Brianna Denison was visiting her friend in Reno, Nevada. The two returned from the party to the friend’s apartment around 4 am. The next morning the friend awoke around 9 am to find her friend, who she’d left sleeping on her couch, missing.
From KEYT.com:
Authorities are still searching for the Santa Barbara college student who disappeared in Reno, NV.
Police believe she may have been kidnapped from her friend's home. The incident may be linked to recent attacks on two other college students.
I watched this friend of Brianna on TV last night. She told her story and on TV she plead with whoever abducted her friend to please let her go.
Some of Brianna’s blood was found on the pillow on which she had slept.
Well that’s odd right there. If someone came into that apartment between the hours of 4 am and 9 am and somehow took Brianna, why would there be blood on the pillow? A drop of blood, folks, not a whole big splotch of blood. Just a drop.
What, did the kidnapper maybe punch Brianna in the nose and cause her to bleed during the abduction? And Brianna didn’t scream with the bleeding and what with someone removing her from the apartment?
There’s something weird here, yon ladies and gems.
Could Brianna maybe have drank a little too much, maybe took some drugs? Maybe she started to bleed, maybe from the mouth, her body’s reaction to the stress of the drugs and alcohol. Maybe Brianna’s friends panicked as their friend died from their “care”. Maybe somebody helped take Brianna’s dead body from the apartment and the plan was put in force to declare Brianna was somehow kidnapped while she slept.
Hey, nobody knows. But you can believe the police are thinking just like me.
FOCUS ON MADDIE MCCANN
===================
Her family was on holiday at an exclusive Portuguese resort. Madeleine McCann's parents were both physicians and in addition, they have two twins younger than Madeleine.
While Maddie's parents dined out at a nearby resort restaurant, with children believed to be soundly asleep, Madeleine McCann somehow disappeared. She was discovered missing upon a routine check of the McCann suite by her parents.
It took a few months but eventually the suspicion that Madeleine's parents might have had something to do with her disappearance was leaked by both the Portuguese and British police.
First report on this Blog of the Maddie McCann case
More info on Maddie's disappearance with my fine analysis
Announcement that McCanns might be responsible for Maddie's death
McCanns refuse to answer questions about Madeleine's disappearance
With little info known, my analysis of the McCann case. Or did the maid do it?
Maddie's Mother Claims Her Small Boobs Are to Blame.
What are the McCanns doing with the money collected to find Madeleine?
New info on original suspect in McCann case
