It appears I have a fried hard drive. Well, not me, but my computer.
So says HP. Therefore, I am at an old familiar place just for awhile. Quiet! Shhhhh.
It may be as late as Tuesday before I return unless I sneak in a post somewhere this weekend. Not via cell, it’s a hassle and expensive.
Anyway, I thought you might like to know. So until next time …
A suspect who was wanted in the robbery of three Southeast Texas banks was arrested today while trying to catch a cab at a Beaumont mall.
John Steven Stark, 46, was arrested outside Parkdale Mall shortly after the nearby Prosperity Bank was held up around 9:15 this morning, a Beaumont Police Department news release said. Stark, who was listed on a driver license database as having a Huntsville address, was stopped after entering the taxi at a front mall entrance. Police said Stark was arrested without incident and had a large amount of cash on him.
A tease line on the Beaumont Enterprise Web site this evening said it all: “Talk, Dark, and Handcuffed,” referring to the name given by police and media to the robber of the “Tall, Dark and Handsome Bandit.” The alleged robber was shown in surveillance photos dressed neatly and wearing sunglasses on the top of his head during robberies at the Bank of America on Calder Avenue in Beaumont on Jan. 30 and the Comercia Bank off Southwest Freeway in Houston on Feb. 2.
Beaumont police said an employee at the Prosperity Bank this morning was able to see the silver Toyota Corolla Stark was driving and gave police a license plate number. Officers found the car in the mall parking lot and set up surveillance of the car while other officers searched inside the mall.
A criminal database indicated Stark, who previously resided in Rye, Texas, in Polk County, had previous arrests for forgery and aggravated robbery. Those records showed Stark had been paroled and received and unspecified type of clemency.
Just a note, since I have written about this guy I figured that I would follow-up with his arrest. The clemency found in his criminal records is interesting since the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says:
“The governor has the authority to grant clemency upon the written recommendation of a majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Clemency includes full pardons, conditional pardons, pardons based on innocence, commutations of sentence, and emergency medical reprieves.”
It may be something innocuous but could be as well something to make one say: “Hmm.”
Day 4 of the Unknown Jaw Syndrome. Having not gathered any information whatsoever from my Veterans Affairs medical “provider,” I am left alone to diligently search the George W. Bush Memorial Internets for whatever the hell is making me feel more than a might peaked. I went to work today. That is about all I can say, that and at 4 p.m., I am in my robe. Speaking of GW, I was just briefly watching CNN’s “The Situation Room” and watching it renewed my long-held desire to just slap the living dogs**t out of Ari Fleisher. And that isn’t even for his alleged role in the Susan G.. Komen P.R. nightmare in first deciding to not fund Planned Parenthood and then deciding the foundation will fund it. Ari is just such a great communicator.
Nonetheless, I still feel terrible and am suffering on and off jaw and facial pain. West Nile? Lyme? Lemon-Lime? Orange-Orange? The jaw trouble makes me wonder just how Sampson could have slain 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass? Why that is more folks than Dirty Harry blasted with his S & W Model 29 .44-Magnum and the rest of his arsenal.
That good ol’ Internet.
Don’t know the tall, dark, handsome robber
The bank robber recently dubbed the “Tall, Dark, Handsome Bandit” has now been identified by the FBI
John “Steven” Stark, 46, is facing federal bank robbery charges for the Jan. 30, robbery of my local bank, the Bank of America on Calder Avenue in Beaumont, said an FBI press release. He also allegedly robbed the Comercia Bank, 3135 Southwest Fwy., in Houston, on Feb. 2.
When he robbed the establishment where I bank, I remarked here after seeing a surveillance photo that that the dude looked very familiar. Well, upon closer examination Stark doesn’t look all that much like someone I know.
That isn’t to say I haven’t seen the guy. The FBI says his last known address is in next-door Liberty County. He also is known to have friends here in Beaumont and in Houston.
Check out the surveillance photo of the Comercia robbery. The letter in front of the bandit, while he is fingering a wad o’ dough, looks pretty odd, as if it has a photo in it. He looks looks he has wrinkles in his forehead too, which also seems pretty strange for someone robbing a bank, or so it would seem. I can’t say for sure though. Fortunately, robbing a bank is not on my resume. Then again, an original description noted the bandit had acne scars on both sides of his face. Note, as well, Stark goes for the “shades-on-head” method of parking his sunglasses. I prefer to place an earpiece of my shades in the middle of my shirt. That protects the lenses from oily skin and perspiration. That isn’t to say I have oily skin. I doubt, as well, that whomever makes up these bank-robber names would call me tall, dark and handsome. That is even though I am a half-inch or so under 6 feet tall — the bandit’s height. But I am not dark. Handsome? I do have a protruding belly these days, a gray Van Dyke beard and a shaved head with a light complexion. So if you see someone who looks like me, do not, I repeat, do not, call the law. Instead, ask me if I am having a nice day. If it is really me, I will tell you “$&#@ no. Mind your own @&%$@%! business!”
The FBIs (hey, just doin’ a little Geedubya Bushin’.) give this additional information about the real bandit:
“Stark goes by Steven Stark. He is a white male, 46 years old, 6’ tall, and weighs approximately 230 pounds. He was last known to be driving a silver 2006 Toyota Corolla four-door sedan bearing Texas license plate 699XPW.”
Houston Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the location and arrest of Stark. The feds ask that if you spot Stark, call the Crime Stoppers Tip Line at 713-222-TIPS (8477), or the Houston office of the FBI at 713-693-5000.
What a great Super Bowl weekend. He said facetiously.
My weekend was spent with my jaw feeling as if it had been clobbered by Justin Tuck. It seems as if I somehow developed a TMD, which stands for temporomandibular joint disorder — and not some social disease get your head out of the gutter. That is the initial diagnosis I get having visited my VA “medical team” today. I didn’t even get to see my physician assistant, who is not a doctor, but who plays one in the VA clinic. Take an ibuprofen and see a dentist if it doesn’t get better. Then tell me, if it’s a medical problem, why should I spend money that I don’t have to see a dentist — I am not eligible to see one at the VA because of my patient status — who would likely say something is wrong with my molar(s) one way or another? Okay, rant out of the way. The ibuprofen is really doing the trick. He said facetiously.
The Super Bowl turned out to be a really good game, which was fortunate because the commercials that I really watch the game for when teams I have no interest in play — which has been pretty much the case in all but one game in the last 25 years — fell quite short.
My favorite commercials of all during this Super Bowl and pre-Super Bowl (hype) games were those of GEICO’s. The spot that made me roar in laughter despite a torturous jaw was the GEICO Gecko-meets-Richard Simmons.
Now pretty much anytime you have Richard Simmons “sweatin'” to something or other you can get a pretty good laugh. The poor gecko, in this outing, seemed as freaked as one might expect to see their Las Vegas hotel suite trashed in the morning. Sure you were out saving people money, little dude. Now it is understandable the gecko would become downright alarmed to see a deer wearing a lei come wandering out of the hallway. What a mess, what the deer and … why is Richard Simmons on the big-screen TV? But, wait, Richard Simmons in all his “glory” is in the room, exercising to himself on the TV. He shrieks upon sighting the gecko: “Hi!!! Come sweat with me me.”
Capping the hilarity is how the gecko backs slowly out of the room, away from Richard Simmons and quickly turns tail, fleeing from the little sweaty gay man. That is pure gold.
Maxwell, the GEICO pig, is also back from the zip-line commercial which didn’t do a lot for me. I suppose it is hard to top a supreme performance such as “Weee weee weee all the way home” of the original spot. This SB episode features Maxwell with his traditional “Weee … ” while zipping downhill on a street luge. Pulling up beside a guy also in the downhill race, Max gives the dude a cool upward nod of the head and suddenly yet calmly tells the racer “ah … head’s up” as a sign appears warning: “Reduce Speed.” Ah … ends badly for the other guy.
I give second place to the oldie but goodie CareerBuilder.com chimp trip commercial. And third to the E-trade Baby.
The Chevy “2012 Apocalypse” ads get an honorable mention. Ditto for the Elton John Pepsi commercial. The Bud Light “Platinum” commercials were the most disappointing. You can look all of these up here.
It seems every year since 9/11 the Super Bowl afternoon ads have overall provided less and less entertainment. Maybe it has something to do with a change in the nation’s sense of humor. I give as my example “Saturday Night Live” for the past decade which presents a comedy that appears alien. Plus, all the commercials can’t be “laugh out loud” amusing. I just wish more were clever.
Oh well. Thank goodness there are commercials that can both deliver laughs and effectively but expensively market its products. Kudos to the firms like The Martin Agency! That is with the exception of the Cave Man. He just creeps me out for some reason.
This story might or might not be funny to you. I think it is funny.
It seems some prison inmates in Vermont make decals for state police cars. The prisoners made up a batch in 2008. The insignia includes a spotted cow. The only problem with the 2008 batch was that the cow had a discreet pig placed on its shoulder. Pig is, of course, a derogatory term for police.
The Rutland Herald, a newspaper that I actually bought at a small store in Rutland when I visited there in 1995, reported that the state ordered 60 decals last year and it was only recently discovered that the little pig was on the cow. It reportedly will cost $780 for replacement of the decals, according to the Rutland newspaper.
Of course, the state police and corrections department all are reacting as if they had let a serial rapist drive one of the patrol cars out of the prison yard. One comment to the Herald suggested that the state police take a Sharpie marker and, with a few strokes, can easily alter the alleged “pig” shape.
There are other actions that the police can take, at least in my estimation. One is to get a simpler logo. Just a long banner with “VERMONT POLICE” on it. Another is to not take themselves so damned serious. And, just a thought, but maybe the person who caught the prank should have just kept his mouth shut.
Is there some coincidence that the goofy cops portrayed in the extremely satiric and very ribald 2001 movie “Super Troopers” were Vermont State Police?
