In what most NFL teams view as thin safety... class, especially when it comes to FS skill-sets, one guy who’s been flying under way too many radars is Cal’s Daniel Scott. He had him good Friday night in Indy. 40-yd: 4.45 (2nd best) BJ: 10-8 (4th) VJ: 39.5 (5th) 3-cone: 6.75 (1st)show more

Shedeur Sanders isn’t running a 40 at the #NFLCombine... —so as a former NFL Scout, I did the next best thing —I timed him running 40 yards during a game two years ago to see how fast he is. I got 5.37 seconds. I timed him with a stopwatch from his first step at the 50 until he reached the 10. What time did you get? I had to go back two years because Sanders only has one run in his 4 year college career over 40 yards on his ESPN stats page —and it was in this game when he played for FCS Jackson State vs. Southern in 2022. The record for the slowest time at the NFL Combine for a quarterback according to the USA Today is 5.37 by Ryan Mallet.show more

➡️ The ZANU fighter was just defeated by a... 60-year old guy. 😌 This guy, Themba Gorimbo, had the support of most Zimbabweans when he entered the UFC, because – what a great achievement and representation for our country! 👏🏾👏🏾🙌🏾 🇿🇼 Then, he made the quintessential error that many shallow Zimbabweans who find fame MAKE – he involved himself in regime politics ... because he saw it as a way to make a quick fortune. 💰💰 He started to ride high on ARROGANCE, and use his platform to insult and mock the opposition movement while promoting ED and ZANU PF regularly. He is especially known for stalking Winky D, and posting negative comments and mockeries about him, in order to please his ZANU masters. He thought that if he placed himself on the buttered side 🧈🍞 – the OPPRESSOR’S side - then he would be on the fast track to wealth, freebies and trinkets. 💵 Amateur mistake. When you’re a professional athlete there is no upside to playing politics. 🤷🏾‍♂️ You’ll just alienate many supporters unnecessarily, and attract controversy. You also draw negative attention to yourself internationally. MMA is a global sport and UFC is the pinnacle of the sport. So then he started losing supporters and attracting criticism ... but continued on his arrogant high horse, believing that his commitment to ZANU would pay off. Then when was CHOKED OUT in his last fight and lost consciousness in front of the entire world 😴- he thereafter had a "Damascus moment" when he realized that HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of UFC fans around the world were joyous about his humiliation! 😃 Especially when at one point he enjoyed widespread support and a growing fanbase - even the Rock had given him a house in the early days ... before Gorimbo showed himself to be an arrogant, toxic chump. 🤦🏾‍♂️ Then after being choked out he tried to “CHANGE” and win people over again, and started becoming anti-Zanu, etc. And it has worked for some people, but for a lot of OTHER people, including me (who was initially a HUGE fan), the damage had been done... 🙅🏾‍♂️ I always support Zimbabwean athletes and teams PASSIONATELY 🇿🇼 – but this guy has shown his true colours, and I find him to be unsavoury... He’s someone who tried to use his platform to benefit from the REGIME. He supported OPPRESSION and mocked the suffering of Zimbabweans, and efforts of the opposition. He is NOT a good guy. 😏 He is only now pretending to be in support of the PEOPLE because he has seen how supporting dictators will negatively affect his MMA career. It actually may be too late for him to redeem himself because even on the MMA twitterverse, I see a LOT of people from around the world posting negatively about his arrogance. They are also calling him a SCAMMER because of the library he had said he was building “in his village” and apparently people donated money, but there is ZERO library in existence 🤔- and when he has been pressed to explain he has been saying to critics that he built ¾ of the library and then he had to tear it down for some reason... 👀 I will always view him as a “ZANU fighter” because that’s what he proudly was for a long time, and has now realized his miscalculation ... and trying to pretend to be otherwise. Anyway, good luck to him. Because these days KARMA is visiting him.show more

This might be the greatest counting video ever. I... don’t want to spoil it, so watch it first, then come on back and let’s discuss… ____ There are so many fantastic things happening here as our hero (age: 2 years, 7 months) counts his plastic eggs. In this video we get a sense that he is well on his way to mastering two important early math skills: rote counting and one-to-one correspondence. Rote counting is the process of remembering and reciting numbers in their correct order. It’s a memorized skill - but an important one that helps children to understand that numbers exist in a fixed sequence. One to one correspondence is the process of matching each spoken number to one (and only one) physical object. This little guy pulls it off perfectly, counting with accuracy to 11. His inclusion of 8:30 between 8 and 9 was not only the best laugh I’ve had all week, but a telling stroke of genius as well. Where did it come from? I’d be willing to wager it’s his bedtime - which he’s learned comes between 8 and 9pm. So smart! 🧠 This little mathematician was shared to TT by smaxwell18.show more

"We picked up the ashes & kept going" When... Josh Hart was in high school The family house burned down Thankfully no one got hurt But they lost their dog And most belongings No family in the area And no insurance Mom a waitress Dad a cook Three kids Two bedrooms They started over. Josh got a scholarship To a private school in DC 1 hour & 2 buses away He was late too often And got mostly D's Got kicked out But then Something happened Other families in the school Rallied around Josh & his family They launched a Facebook page They called it"Let Josh Stay" Spammed the headmaster Demanding Josh Get 2nd chance He got one. To make it easier Josh spent some nights At the house of a teammate His name was Matthew Hillman Yes Roommates Show Matt Soon Matt & his family Became part of Josh's Josh did better Played better Villanova next And a title. Fast forward to today Josh on the Knicks plane Flying out to the NBA Finals And Matthew's mom Pamela Reposts video of Draft Night The night that he knew His mom would be OK His dad would be OK. Josh's dad Moses has said "He learned how to play hard Before he knew he was good Playing hard's the only thing he knows." The heart of Hart has always stood out "He had it from Day One" Said Josh's 8U coach That's 8 years old. Coaches saw it Teammates Families In a school He just got to They noticed too They rallied around him Got him a 2nd chance He kept going He's here nowshow more

Let’s talk about the post Trump made last night... regarding Joe Biden being executed and is now a soulless robot clone. Let’s address it for what it is and what it isn’t: 1. President Trump posted a picture of himself giving the peace sign ✌️ and chose to include a link to a post with remarks claiming that Joe Biden was executed in 2020. Those words were not his own. However, he chose to link that post to his photo, which originated from a Q community Group on Truth Social…. Why? 2.) We all know President Trump is a master troller, but attaching himself to such a serious claim, even if he is trolling, is significant. The post is still up, and it’s clear that he and his team have seen the reactions to it… 3.) Here’s what I ultimately think: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, even if you don’t believe Biden is dead, you have to admit that Joe Biden has looked vastly different at various times over the last several years. We’ve seen way too many versions of Joe Biden to dismiss it. Something is deeply wrong with the whole Biden situation. I think we just witnessed a truth disclosure in the most plausibly deniable way possible: “He’s gone, he’s shot.” The question is… who’s been calling the shots since?show more

Most people's minds are wired to seek safety, comfort,... to avoid embarrassment or failure. Reduce risk as much as possible. Don't stand out. Don't attempt high greatness, because the fall if it doesn't succeed would be too embarrassing and painful. I actually had this mentality impressed on me from a powerful scene in the film 'Troy'. What made Achilles so unusual, what set him apart from other men? The boy is just being honest. "I've seen the Thessalonian you're fighting. He's the biggest man I've ever seen! I wouldn't want to fight him!" What would 99% of people say to that? "Yeah, this is gonna be a tough fight!" "I'm a warrior, this is what I do." "War is all hell." There's like a million things that different men would've said to that. The boy's telling him, "You're about to risk it all against a very big dangerous opponent! You could die! Maybe you can get out of it! You don't want to die, do you?" Well, what does Achilles reveal about himself in his response? He looks at the boy and he tells him something TRUE but does he does in a very cold way. "That is why no one will remember your name." And he rides away to battle. Why did Achilles react that way to what the boy said to him? Achilles understands how MOST PEOPLE THINK. He was telling the boy, "Great people who leave a name that will be remembered WANT to fight the Thessalonian. That's not you. You will be forgotten." They 'see the Thessalonian' they have to fight and immediately all their thoughts, their mind is bent on GETTING AWAY FROM THE DANGER, they start to plan and plot to ESCAPE FROM THE RISK, and to avoid the POTENTIAL FAILURE. Achilles wasn't WIRED that way. He WANTED to fight the Thessalonian. He WELCOMED the danger, the risk, the specter of failure, because he saw an opportunity for GREATNESS. Those who leave their biggest mark on the world aren't those who run from challenges, stay in the safe zones, wire themselves to steer clear of GREATNESS. Musk understands this. You're trying to make it sound like he's an autistic freak who can't help it. No, he CHOOSES to react this way to failure, to get up and keep going until GREATNESS ARRIVES. He's willing to pay the price over and over again to reach his goals, where many people would have given up after too many failures, too much lost money, too many times being laughed at. Achilles was the same way. He wanted to fight the most dangerous, impressive warriors. How else do you leave a name that will live forever?show more

Viewers Discretion Advice ..... Ever since my parents died,... there has been one question that has haunted me every single day. It is a burden I have carried in silence for years. Sometimes, I wonder if I was somehow responsible for my brother's death. I have replayed those events in my mind countless times, asking myself if there was another path I could have taken. This is the story. It began long before he died. When my mother became seriously ill, she was rushed to Alimosho General Hospital in Igando, where she spent almost two months receiving treatment. While the rest of us were praying, hoping, and doing everything we could to keep her alive, my brother behaved in a way none of us could understand. He would leave all three gates of our compound wide open. He bought alcohol and soft drinks for people as though he was celebrating. It felt as if he had already accepted, or even welcomed, the thought of losing our mother. My father noticed it too. He was already 78 years old, and the fear in his eyes is something I can never forget. When my mother was eventually discharged from the hospital, you would have expected things to return to normal. Instead, it was as though a dark cloud had settled over my brother. Then my mother passed away. After her death, my father repeatedly told us he believed Wale would one day kill him. That fear didn't come from nowhere. They had fought before, and my father genuinely believed his life was in danger. Then, a few months later, everything changed again. Wale suddenly became very ill. But before anyone knew he was sick, his behaviour had become even more disturbing. Almost every night, he would walk around carrying an axe. One night, I asked him, "Do you want to kill all of us too?" He didn't answer. He simply laughed. A loud, chilling laugh that still echoes in my mind. This continued during the COVID-19 lockdown. Night after night, he would leave the three entrance gates wide open. We had children living in the house. I am a woman, and this was a period when stories of kidnappings, rape, and violent crimes filled the news every day. I begged him to stop. I warned him. I even told him that if he opened those gates again, I would deal with him myself. Nothing changed. He continued threatening everyone while carrying that axe. Eventually, I reached my breaking point. I reported the matter, and the police arrested him. He spent four days in detention. When I saw the condition he was in, my heart broke. Despite everything that had happened, I pleaded with the police to release him because he looked so weak. They eventually let him go. Not long after that... He died. That was when everything turned against me. Neighbours. Friends. Even some members of my own family. Many believed I was responsible because I was the one who reported him. But something one of the police officers said has stayed with me ever since. He looked at me and asked, "What if he had killed you first?" "What if he had attacked those innocent children who were only eight and five years old?" Those words have echoed in my heart ever since. I have lived with guilt for years. I still question myself. Could I have handled it differently? Should I have taken another approach? Or did I simply do what anyone would have done to protect innocent lives? That is why I am sharing this story today. Please be honest with me. If you were in my shoes, what would you have done?💔show more

Tamale Mirundi was the kind of man you would... dislike, and at the same time look forward to listening to. He had many contradictions, swinging from one position to another and back. But wherever he stood at a time, he had that gift of the gab to make you feel like he had some point. He laboured to analyse. Much of his analysis was sophistic, and often opportunistic. But you had to be keen to notice the fallacies therein, otherwise you would get carried away by the entertainment in his way with words, metaphors, and fitting examples that were always available to him. Much as his books (pamphlets) were dismissed by many in view of the speed at which they were released, they manifest a desire to reflect and document. He prided in his arrogance. But it was usually an entertaining arrogance, easy to let pass. Towards the end of his life, his vocabulary became more and more unhinged, requiring Parental Guidance. Could the liberty of his tongue have been Dutch courage? As a propagandist, sometimes he sounded far fetched in his conspiracy theories, but his quality was often a bit higher than the new herd of bonehead propagandists deployed by his political club on social media. Many of them are characteristically unimaginative, belly-brained, predictable, petty, and, in summary, stupid. You can detect them from their first sentence. One of the features of philosophical minds is the freedom to think beyond conventions, venturing into taboo topics, pushing boundaries of what is acceptable, and questioning common sense. Much of this he did. He questioned religious beliefs and cultural norms. He lived the way of his mind. In many ways, including when he went off limits of social decency and civility, he was his own man. He dared to use his brain. He hasn’t returned it to the creator intact. May he find rest.show more

YOUR GROK BOT HAS YOUR LOGINS AND ITS OWN... CLOUD COMPUTER. WITHOUT A RULEBOOK, IT WILL SPEND, POST, OR DELETE SOMETHING BY MONDAY THAT YOU CAN'T UNDO. saturday, 8am. i opened the laptop and started counting what a fresh bot had done overnight on the broad task i left him with. signed up for a paid trial in my name. replied to two DM. deleted a file it decided was clutter. none of it was catastrophic. all of it was mine to clean up on the weekend. the bot was doing exactly what i asked. i had just never told him what he was not allowed to do. so i wrote three files before the next task ran. 1. layer one: charter. one page in Bot actions, Description. name, who he reports to, what he owns, and the exact verbs he must park for me. send, publish, spend, delete, sign, sign-up. 2. layer two: rulebook. ten one-line rules he acknowledges before touching anything. rule 1 (if i cannot undo it in a minute, i park it) closed most of the friday-night damage. rule 9 (never paste a password, sign-in goes through the Agent Computer handoff) closed the rest. 3. layer three: routines. five saved jobs, not seven. morning brief at 7, weekly review on friday, end-of-day handoff at 6, silent-inbox catcher, monthly audit. anything else lives in me, not in the bot. the day after i pasted the three files, the same task came back with three parked questions and one finished deliverable. no signups. no DMs. no deletes. your bot is not scary because it is smart. it is scary because it has your credentials and no one told it what stop looks like. paste the charter and the ten rules before the next task runs. the routines can wait until the first parked question comes back the way you wanted.show more

Everybody says they want it… But Few have the... fortitude to do the things it takes to get what they say they want Seneca 2024 & UPJ commit Zyler Freedman - after a long chase- slays the 🐉 dragon 90 mph off the mound tonight Here’s the story 📖 Zyler came to PVS baselining on the mound at 76.2 summer between Frosh and Sophomore year. No great size or mobility gifts… but what he did have- was the heart of a Lion. And that determination and discipline led to some great gains in his first year at PVS. He had a goal of 90 mph on the mound at PBR in Feb of 2023. He came up short in a memorable display of determination : 88 mph @PBRPennsylvania He dusted himself off and put his efforts into pitch design and command. He became one of the WPIAL’s best pitchers in the toughest baseball section. After that- he went to the Youngstown Class B summer league and pitched well there and committed to UPJ. After his commitment - we sat down and devised a plan. A plan most kids don’t have the patience to execute. It was rooted in Alan Jaeger Jaeger Sports principles of Weening off volume and building two weeks for every down week. We are talking 5 months folks. Throw by throw execution for five months. Five months. Along the way- we built him up using several Randy Sullivan MPT, CSCS concepts as well as tried and tested in house methods. Today was his first “Go day”. And he hit that 90. His boys were as pumped for him as they would have been for themselves. Our plan has just begun - More lay ahead. And what’s certain is- he’ll execute whatever it takes to keep moving forward in this game “It Takes What it Takes” has long been one of our mottos- That’s perhaps never been better demonstrated than Zyler these past 10 monthsshow more

Yesterday my dog, Fischer, died suddenly and unexpectedly. I’m... still in shock, blindsided by it all. He was as central a member of my family as any person. I’d like to tell you his story, briefly. 8 years ago, my 12-year old dog, Bandit, died after a long battle with kidney disease. A week later on a fishing trip, my brother encountered an abandoned, starving dog that swam out to his boat. When no owner could be found, I reluctantly took the dog in, and named him Fischer. I’m so glad I did. Along with his older sister, Daisy, he was my pandemic dog, my hiking buddy, and my left armrest while watching tv or gaming. He loved pawing at Red XIII (which we jokingly called him, the counterpart to my other dog, a Torgal lookalike), and he loved play fighting me while I tried to make my bed after he would crawl in it during the night. He loved playing fetch, and especially curling up against me for safety during storms. He was 90 pounds of rambunctious devotion. And God he loved me. We unknowingly spent his final morning on a hike. He chased and ran and played like usual. It was a perfect last memory with him, doing what we loved doing together most. He was “a fine hound,” and one of my favorite blessings. We’re going to miss him so much, but are so thankful for his life. That’s the thing about gratitude. It commingles with grief in such a way that both can breathe. And in that way, I guess I can breathe, too. At least, that’s what I’m trying to practice. Every gasp of sadness is met with an exhale of gratitude. I know many of you loved seeing him on stream. The couch behind me may have a Red XIII-sized hole now, but I’ll always cherish the memories of us in that room. Maybe we’ll do a Fischer stream and talk about grief soon, but I’ll need a minute. Today though, I want to thank you all for loving him, and me, so well. Thanks, everyone, for your prayers and support as I breathe through this.show more

Today, I received a call I will not forget.... I had just woken up after studying through the night. As I prepared to pray, my phone kept ringing. I ignored it at first, but it persisted. When I finally answered, the voice on the other end said: “Pastor… my brother has died.” Silence filled my chest. He had been sick. Sleeping outside in the cold after the rains. Trying to survive in a city that is becoming increasingly unforgiving. His sister visited him with some food. He seemed better afterwards. But then, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. His sister was far away working. Pain does strange things to people. Sometimes it hardens the very heart that needs help the most. By the time his sister returned… he was already fading. And shortly after, he was gone. What broke me even more was this: She said she didn’t call earlier because she knew things have been tight, and I hadn’t been able to meet many of their needs recently. That sentence pierced deeply. This was a man who struggled—yes. He battled alcoholism. He fell, rose, and fell again. But he also believed. Just last Sunday, after a long absence, he came back to church. He said his spirit was restless until he returned. He worshipped. He served. That was the last time. I wasn’t there that day. And now, he lies in a morgue—another quiet casualty of hardship, addiction, and a city that demands more than many can give. But here is what I hold onto: God is not absent in broken stories. The same grace that meets us in our strength also meets us in our weakness. The One who began a work is not blind to the battles fought in secret. We must do better—for one another. We must see more, reach more, love more. Because sometimes, what looks like “irresponsibility” is actually exhaustion. What looks like “resistance” is actually pain. And what looks like “distance” is often a silent cry for help. Rest in peace, Brother Hassan Musa. May mercy speak louder than failure. And may God help us to be more present, more compassionate, and more responsive to the burdens around us.show more

The Man Who Gave Away Patagonia Doug Tompkins sold... his stake in The North Face for $50,000.  He used the money to co-found Esprit. Then he sold that too, and did something almost no one does with a fortune: he disappeared. He moved to the tip of South America in 1990 with a theory most businessmen would find absurd. He believed the best thing a rich man could do was buy wilderness before someone else destroyed it, then hand it back to the country it belonged to. Together with his wife Kris, a former CEO of Patagonia clothing, they bought and conserved more than 2 million acres across Chile and Argentina. For context: that is roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined. Most of it had been degraded farmland. Overgrazed, stripped, exhausted. The Valle Chacabuco ranch alone had been one of South America’s largest sheep operations. They bought it in 2004 for $10 million, then spent another $55 million over 20 years restoring the grasslands.  Pumas returned. Guanacos returned. The land remembered what it was. The Chileans were not immediately grateful. Many locals saw it as a land grab. An American buying millions of acres and telling them to change their way of life. Some accused him of planning to split the country in two. Others claimed he was building a nuclear waste site. He kept buying land anyway. The deal his wife finalized in his name after his death became the largest-ever private land donation to a country. Over 1 million acres handed directly to Chile, triggering government protections on another 9 million. Five new national parks. Three expanded. A conservation corridor stretching 1,250 miles. He died on December 8, 2015, in a kayaking accident on a Patagonian lake, surrounded by friends including Yvon Chouinard. He had called what he was doing “paying rent for his time on the planet.” There is a certain kind of person who builds something great and then builds something greater by walking away from it. Tompkins is the rarest version: he walked away from two fortunes, bought a wilderness, and gave it to strangers. The land is still there. The sheep are gone. If this kind of story is what you read on weekends, you might belong here. Gandalv / Gandalvshow more

In 1504, Michelangelo finished a sculpture that contained a... fact medical science would not catch up with for another 124 years. No doctor noticed it for centuries... The sculpture is the David, in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence. The fact, hidden in plain sight on his neck, was finally observed in 2019 by an American cardiologist named Daniel Gelfman, a clinical professor at the Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Gelfman had gone to the museum like millions of visitors before him. But where most people see a perfect male body carved out of stone, he saw something only a heart specialist could see: the external jugular vein on the right side of David's neck is distended, raised visibly above the collarbone, exactly as it would appear on a real human being in a state of intense physical excitement. In ordinary anatomy, this vein is not visible. It only stands out under specific conditions — adrenaline, fear, exertion, the cardiovascular surge that comes before great physical effort. In other words, exactly the state a young man would be in moments before facing a giant. Gelfman published the finding in JAMA Cardiology, one of the most respected medical journals in the world. He called it the David Sign, and noted that it had been hiding in plain sight for more than 500 years. What makes this detail extraordinary is when Michelangelo carved it... The mechanics of the human circulatory system — the way blood actually returns to the heart through the venous network — were not formally described until 1628, when the English physician William Harvey published De Motu Cordis. Michelangelo finished David in 1504. He had sculpted, with anatomical precision, a circulatory phenomenon that medicine would not understand for over a century. "Michelangelo, like some of his artistic contemporaries, had anatomical training," Gelfman wrote. "I realized that he must have noticed temporary jugular venous distension in healthy individuals who are excited." He had. And he carved it into the marble. His contemporaries knew they were watching something more than a sculptor at work... They called him Il Divino, the divine one. In a letter dated September 1537, the poet Pietro Aretino wrote: "The world has many kings, and only one Michelangelo." If you enjoyed this, I write a weekly newsletter read by over 50,000 people who love rediscovering the beauty of the past. You can join us here: For the full breakdown of Michelangelo's David, check out today’s article: 5 details hidden inside what many consider the greatest work of art ever created by man. And if you'd like to support my work, a paid subscription is what makes it all possible.show more

While many around the league don’t expect any linebackers... to be drafted tonight, if there is one, it certainly could be #TexasAM’s Edgerrin Cooper. Cooper is the most complete LB in the 2024 draft class. He’s shown to be: 1️⃣an elite athlete 2️⃣a consistent and impactful run defender 3️⃣a capable and efficient blitzer, and 4️⃣able to use his size and bend to disrupt in pass protection As a run defender, he finished with an 87.6 PFF grade, highest among any expected draft linebackers in this year’s draft class. That includes 15 TFLs or no gain plays. As you can see (🎥), his downhill force plus balance and control allows him to consistently win in the run game As a pass rusher, he had 7 sacks on the year, 4 of which came from playing on the line of scrimmage. When lined up on the line of scrimmage, he generated a pressure on over 30% of his pass rush snaps. Elite ‼️ And in coverage, he finished with a top-10 coverage grade int eh country last season (per PFF College) among LBs lined up in the box. He’s able to use his length and bend, along with developed vision and timing to disrupt plays from the box. Couple all of that with a 4.51 forty time and would-be impressive athletic testing numbers if he was 100% for the draft process (why he wasn’t able to officially go every day in practice at This Account Has Moved), and it’s hard to ignore his NFL starting potential. There’s a real chance he goes in late round one, but if he’s there on Day 2, he may not only be one of, if not the, first linebacker drafted, but may be one of the first players taken on Day 2 of the draft. #ShrineBowlWhosNextshow more

🙏🇺🇸🙏 In 1942, an 18-year-old rebel with a history... of getting expelled from schools walked into a recruitment office and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. His name was Lamont Waltman Marvin Jr. You know him as Lee Marvin. He hadn't been easy to raise. Restless, undisciplined, bounced between schools his whole childhood. But when America went to war, something clicked into place. He knew exactly where he needed to be. He trained at Parris Island, South Carolina, completed Quartermaster School, and was promoted to Corporal — then demoted back to Private First Class for disciplinary infractions. Some things never changed. What did change him was the Pacific. Assigned to I Company, 3rd Battalion, 24th Marines, 4th Marine Division, Marvin participated in 21 amphibious assaults on Japanese-held islands. He served as a scout sniper — the men sent ashore in rubber boats in the dead of night, before anyone else, to clear the way. Then came Saipan. On June 18, 1944, during the assault on Mount Tapochau, machine gun fire tore through him and severed his sciatic nerve. Moments later, a sniper's bullet hit him in the foot. In fifteen minutes, his company of 247 men was reduced to six survivors. Lee Marvin was one of them. He spent the next 13 months in naval hospitals, undergoing treatment that would have broken most men. He was medically discharged as a Private First Class — the rank still showing the demotion from years before. The Marine Corps was done with him, even if he wasn't done with them. Back in upstate New York, he took work as a plumber's assistant at a local community theater. One day, filling in for an ailing actor at a rehearsal, he discovered something unexpected: he loved the stage. What followed was one of Hollywood's most unlikely careers. The lean, scarred veteran with the gravelly voice and thousand-yard stare became one of the most compelling actors of his generation. The Big Heat. The Wild One. M Squad. The Dirty Dozen. And in 1966, the Academy Award for Best Actor - for Cat Ballou, of all things, a comedy Western. The toughest man in Hollywood won his Oscar playing both a drunken gunfighter and his villainous twin. But Lee Marvin never forgot what he considered his real role. He said he learned to act in the Marines — trying to look unafraid during combat when terror was all around him. When directors needed someone to show actors how infantry moved, how a rifle was held, how a man looked who had actually been shot at — they called Lee Marvin. He died on August 29, 1987, at the age of 63 - of a heart attack in Tucson, Arizona. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. His headstone doesn't say "Academy Award Winner." It reads: PFC — US Marine Corps — World War II. That was the title he chose. That was the one that mattered. Decorated with the Purple Heart, the Presidential Unit Citation, the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, the World War I| Victory Medal, and the Combat Action Ribbon. One of six men who walked away from a hillside on Saipan 🙏🇺🇸🙏show more

To say this has been a month no one... ever imagines is possible in life is an understatement Late June… we find out my wife’s father has the same version of lung cancer she has been fighting/beating and that he can’t handle treatment so he only has weeks to live. At the same time, we find out her cancer is back in her hip socket. Better than in 7 spots like before but still, back. So, the oncologist determines 5 rounds of radiation starting July 20th July 4th comes around and we spend as much time as we can with her dad, traveling down to Delaware every week, sitting on the porch, letting him smoke and talk about anything and everything.. telling us “In 75 years they’re still going to be talking about me.. you know why? Because of how I was always smoking in the alley, in the alley (in his best singing voice)” July 10th, phone rings around 9am… we already knew why.. dad was gone. Quietly, peacefully, at home. But still gone, from the exact cancer she just beat. A complete mindfuck. No way to explain, no explanations, just gone. She asks herself why could she beat it and he couldn’t even handle treatment? Some things, we will never know the why to. Fast forward to today. She completes her 5th radiation session on her hip and get to ring the bell as a sign of completion. But, it’s not the same. She used to call dad right after every session to let him know how it went. But today, there was no call. She fights through the tears to let him know she made it, she did it for him, and she will continue to fight for him, and never stop. She is unstoppable She will never quit She is a saint And quietly, when cancer creeps in, she is a savage and will beat this againshow more

"Walter always said the Fourth of July was for... everyone else. His daughter used to invite him inside before the fireworks started, close the curtains, turn the television up, and pretend she wasn’t watching his hands. Walter hated that part most. He didn’t want pity. He didn’t want people whispering around him. He wanted to sit on his own porch, in his own chair, and act like the noise didn’t still reach places in him he couldn’t explain. He had come home from Vietnam a long time ago, but some nights never seemed as far away as they should have. Most days, Walter was steady. He mowed his lawn, fixed the loose rail by the steps, and waved at every neighbor who passed. Loud sudden sounds were the one thing that could still pull the room out from under him. That night, the first fireworks started before it was fully dark. Walter stayed outside anyway. He sat on the porch steps with his cap low over his face, trying to breathe through each burst like he’d done so many times before. Duke watched him from the walkway. The black shepherd mix had been with Walter for three years. He knew the small things: the way Walter’s shoulders tightened before he said he was fine, the way his fingers curled when the noise got too close, the way silence after a loud boom sometimes scared him more than the boom itself. Another firework cracked over the neighborhood, and Walter covered his face with both hands. Duke came up the steps slowly. He didn’t crowd him. He just walked close enough, waited a second, then rested his head on Walter’s knee. Walter’s hand dropped almost right away. He touched Duke’s ear, then the side of his neck, and his breathing started to slow. The fireworks kept going behind them, lighting the street in red and white, but Walter wasn’t alone with the sound anymore. After a while, he leaned forward and held Duke with both arms. “Good boy,” he whispered. Duke stayed there until the noise moved farther away. What has your dog done when they somehow knew you needed them?show more

Here is a heartwarming story. Ever since Ginger joined... us, Bunsen has REALLY wanted to be her friend. He was curious about her, mesmerized by her movement, and enthralled by her presence. Early on, he followed her and just looked at her as she jumped on things that probably broke his brain. Sadly for Bunsen, Ginger wanted nothing to do with the big guy. She would occasionally bat his face if he got too close or attack his tree trunk legs. One time she tried to bite his tail. Don’t worry, Bunsen is so fluffy he never got hurt. Eventually he gave up and just let Ginger run the house- he gave her a wide berth if she was sleeping on the floor and watched her warily when she crossed in front of him while he was laying down. Yesterday Kris said LOOK and Ginger was in Bunsen’s crate. Perhaps it was to escape Bernoulli’s terror, but Bunsen was thrilled. It only lasted a hour, but Bunsen was happy. He had come off his pain meds and had been crying in pain for a while. When Ginger jumped into his crate, Bunsen stopped crying. You can see his happy wag in the video. He was over the moon she was so close to him. We will never know really what animals think, but I’d like to think they care for each other in their own way.show more