The Sypher vs. Pitino trial is taking place in Louisville at the present time.. The two major participants in this real life drama are both flawed people. I would think that if a novelist sat down to write a fictional account of the story that is playing out here, he would very likely choose people with the same traits and personalities as these two.
Rick Pitino's public persona is that of one who is self assured, talented, aggressive, inspirational, and attractive. He is handsome and out going. As far as his private life is concerned, we know very little but he has shown himself to be compassionate and loving and emotional about the woes of his friends and family. He has suffered great sorrows in his life, he lost a young son and a brother-in-law that he was very close to that was killed in the 911 attack.
Karen Sypher grew up here in Louisville and attended school with neighborhood kids, rode in car pools, packed her lunch, wore uniforms, grew up and married. She did not distinguish herself in any way as far as we know. Obviously she did want to have life a little easier than she had it. She wanted to be somebody and she chose her femininity as her weapon of choice. She married and had a child or two and went to work in an office doing menial tasks. She early on claimed that she was being sexually harassed by her boss and took the matter to court. She was not too successful in gaining much money from that encounter but undaunted she decided to expand her search. Fate, I guess, had her be at Porcino's on the same night that Pitino came there with friends.
His major flaw came to the forefront. He has no resistance, apparently to the charms of a well endowed, floozy. She displayed her charms and he fell victim to them. Obviously fouled by alcohol. How could he be so stupid? That is the age old question. Men have been trapped in the webs of evil since Adam fell victim to Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Karen Sypher was sure that she had trapped the "cash cow" but things did
not work as she had planned. He "kissed and told" when he sobered up and realized he had jeopardized his life as he knew it. He was a victim of extortion he claimed.
Nobody said she was the sharpest knife in the drawer but she continues to display her poor taste and make a fool of herself. It is probably a given that her lawyers told her to lose the low cut tops and short tight skirts and stilettos so she put on a turtle neck shirt sans under garments and stuck with the stilettos. Yesterday she went back to a lower neck shirt but filled in the "vee" with a large cross on a chain. The cross looked to be about three or four inches tall. In the parking lot, as she approached the court house, she stopped and held up the cross and kissed it! I kid you not, this actually happened.
If you are keeping score I think the flaws of one are out numbering the flaws of the other. We are all flawed in some way or another but we have to learn sooner or later to overcome some of the more egregious ones. I will be glued to the news to see how this all plays out. I've just given the bare bones of the situation but will be anxious to see how it comes to a conclusion. Ciao
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
Open Seseme
Life before the Tylenol incident,back about twenty or thirty years ago, was much simpler. At that point in history a deranged man(?) decided to bring down the pharmaceutical company that manufactured Tylenol. He somehow arranged to remove a bottle of Tylenol from a drug store shelf and replace the capsules with a deadly foreign substance and place the bottle back on the shelf for some unsuspecting shopper to buy. As you may well imagine this single act had a cataclysmic effect on the packaging and labeling habits of companies across the entire spectrum of merchandise.
You could no longer simply open containers and go on about your business. In some instances you needed a tool of some sort to do the task. Despite the fact that there were some containers labeled 'child proof' (that only children could open) there were many items that could not be opened even by children! I did lunchroom monitoring for many years and was called upon to open juice boxes, Twinkies packages, Lunchables, and other boxed items. (I found that a push pin was an invaluable tool to carry with me to assist me in opening cheese sticks, yogurt containers and other edibles.) Shrink wrapped foods were, and still are, extremely challenging!
In every day life from that time on packaging became more and more complex. Creative packaging was no longer limited to food and drug items. Things like batteries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and the list goes on, are all encased in plastic. Some things are so tightly packaged that one would think that the fear of the item getting away drives the packager to greater lengths.
As the packaging rage flourished my ability to open things diminished. Gradually my hands lost their strength. I had to have Doc open more and more jars,and when he was not available I perfected the art of opening most small jars with the nut cracker. If the lid was larger than the scope of the nut cracker I had to get help. I have been known to use the pliers to open some of the "squeeze here and turn" bottles like Clorox, Listerine and others. I've been considering asking the bag boy to loosen the lid on the Tide bottle at the grocery. I've had to postpone my laundry duty on days when my efforts to open the Tide bottle have not met with success and my hands hurt from trying. I can come back the next day and give it more tries and finally get it open. The nut cracker can assist me with the milk bottle lids, and condiment lids. The "push down and turn" containers can be very intimidating!
Remember when you could open the cereal box and then pull apart the lightly sealed inner bag that contains the cereal and pour the cereal in the bowl and then roll the bag down to insure the freshness of the rest of the box? Now, I have to resort to the scissors, which I keep handy at all times, to cut open the bag and still try to leave enough that it can be rolled down. Alas, poor me!
It has come to the point that all I can easily open is a book and a bottle of wine. The wine, I have Stephanie to thank for because she gave me an electric wine opener! When frustration and discouragement reach the lowest point it can be very relaxing to open my book and pour a glass of wine and bask in the comfort of my Bogart blue lounge chair and read! Ciao.
Note: if you buy pasta that was packaged in Italy you can easily open it, put it in boiling water and be ready to eat it in record time holding a fork with pain free hands.!Ciao,Ciao
You could no longer simply open containers and go on about your business. In some instances you needed a tool of some sort to do the task. Despite the fact that there were some containers labeled 'child proof' (that only children could open) there were many items that could not be opened even by children! I did lunchroom monitoring for many years and was called upon to open juice boxes, Twinkies packages, Lunchables, and other boxed items. (I found that a push pin was an invaluable tool to carry with me to assist me in opening cheese sticks, yogurt containers and other edibles.) Shrink wrapped foods were, and still are, extremely challenging!
In every day life from that time on packaging became more and more complex. Creative packaging was no longer limited to food and drug items. Things like batteries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and the list goes on, are all encased in plastic. Some things are so tightly packaged that one would think that the fear of the item getting away drives the packager to greater lengths.
As the packaging rage flourished my ability to open things diminished. Gradually my hands lost their strength. I had to have Doc open more and more jars,and when he was not available I perfected the art of opening most small jars with the nut cracker. If the lid was larger than the scope of the nut cracker I had to get help. I have been known to use the pliers to open some of the "squeeze here and turn" bottles like Clorox, Listerine and others. I've been considering asking the bag boy to loosen the lid on the Tide bottle at the grocery. I've had to postpone my laundry duty on days when my efforts to open the Tide bottle have not met with success and my hands hurt from trying. I can come back the next day and give it more tries and finally get it open. The nut cracker can assist me with the milk bottle lids, and condiment lids. The "push down and turn" containers can be very intimidating!
Remember when you could open the cereal box and then pull apart the lightly sealed inner bag that contains the cereal and pour the cereal in the bowl and then roll the bag down to insure the freshness of the rest of the box? Now, I have to resort to the scissors, which I keep handy at all times, to cut open the bag and still try to leave enough that it can be rolled down. Alas, poor me!
It has come to the point that all I can easily open is a book and a bottle of wine. The wine, I have Stephanie to thank for because she gave me an electric wine opener! When frustration and discouragement reach the lowest point it can be very relaxing to open my book and pour a glass of wine and bask in the comfort of my Bogart blue lounge chair and read! Ciao.
Note: if you buy pasta that was packaged in Italy you can easily open it, put it in boiling water and be ready to eat it in record time holding a fork with pain free hands.!Ciao,Ciao
Friday, July 9, 2010
Rock On!
Finally, I think the saga of the Indian Head Rock has come to an end! The dispute has raged on for the last three years. The fate of the eight ton boulder that was the cause of much angst in these three years has finally been resolved. The antiquity is being returned to its rightful owner, Kentucky, in the near future. Thankfully this prevents litigation. Portsmouth, Ohio will relinquish the control of the rock with no further need for the resolution settlement in Federal Court. Portsmouth has agreed to return the rock to Kentucky.
Just to refresh your memory I will review the facts. The rock was on the bottom of the Ohio River when historian Steven Shaffer led an expedition of divers to remove the rock from the Ohio River in September, 2007. Shaffer and one of his cronies was facing criminal charges at one time because they violated Kentucky's antiquities law. Said rock was on the Kentucky side of the river and therefore was owned by Kentucky..
The rock is believed to be a relic of prehistoric Indians. It has a crude carving of a face, possibly done by the Indians but it also has the names of some Portsmouth families from the early 1900's carved into it. (They were probably in an under water carving class.)
I am missing something here because I can't really see it becoming a tourist attraction if it remained on the bottom of the river. Seems to me that Shaffer and his cohorts did Kentucky a favor by dredging this gigantic, eight ton rock up to the surface. Rather than dropping the thing back into the river they(Ohio) are going to remove the rock from their storage place, (some warehouse somewhere) and move it to Kentucky, the rightful owner.
It seems the integrity of the archaeological site has been compromised so the rock will be stored by Greenup County officials until a permanent home can be found for it and then it will be on display for the public to see. Do you see a special trip in your future to travel to Northern Kentucky to view this phenominal chunk? The Heritage Council is gearing up for the anticipated crowds. Kentucky Rocks. Ciao.
Just to refresh your memory I will review the facts. The rock was on the bottom of the Ohio River when historian Steven Shaffer led an expedition of divers to remove the rock from the Ohio River in September, 2007. Shaffer and one of his cronies was facing criminal charges at one time because they violated Kentucky's antiquities law. Said rock was on the Kentucky side of the river and therefore was owned by Kentucky..
The rock is believed to be a relic of prehistoric Indians. It has a crude carving of a face, possibly done by the Indians but it also has the names of some Portsmouth families from the early 1900's carved into it. (They were probably in an under water carving class.)
I am missing something here because I can't really see it becoming a tourist attraction if it remained on the bottom of the river. Seems to me that Shaffer and his cohorts did Kentucky a favor by dredging this gigantic, eight ton rock up to the surface. Rather than dropping the thing back into the river they(Ohio) are going to remove the rock from their storage place, (some warehouse somewhere) and move it to Kentucky, the rightful owner.
It seems the integrity of the archaeological site has been compromised so the rock will be stored by Greenup County officials until a permanent home can be found for it and then it will be on display for the public to see. Do you see a special trip in your future to travel to Northern Kentucky to view this phenominal chunk? The Heritage Council is gearing up for the anticipated crowds. Kentucky Rocks. Ciao.
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