Bear living in New Jersey Man's Basement: How did that happen? by Kate Johns

My husband sent me a story the other day of how a bear was hibernating in a New Jersey man's basement.

Here's a snippet of the story: The 550-pound bear that was found hiding out in a New Jersey basement had been living there for weeks.

Frank Annacone, 85, never imagined that a bear would move in with him.

“I could have ended up lunch for that big guy,” he said, still expressing disbelief.

Annacone learned about his roommate yesterday from Dave Cornine, a cable technician who had come over for a repair job in the basement.

“I heard the growl, I thought what is that noise,” Cornine said.

Cornine turned around and saw an enormous black bear waking up in the corner. He didn’t stick around to make friends with  the bear.

“I just freaked out, threw my tools, ran out of the basement,” he said.

When Animal Control officers attempted to trap the bear he took off, leading them on an hour-long chase.

After reading this story, I had many questions: how can anyone not notice a bear living in the basement? What kind of basement did this man have, that the bear could just walk in?

How could you not hear a bear making noise in your basement? All I can figure is this 85 year old man, was hard of hearing. He must have a basement that leads to the outdoors, or has a very large, loose door leading to the outside. Either that or Frank is this side of senile, and needs to live somewhere a tad bit safer, because if a bear can get into his house, just imagine who or what else can LIVE in his basement----rent free, without his knowledge.

My last question; does Frank ever go downstairs?

Mixed-up Christmas Gifts

One Christmas I remember fondly when my older family members were still alive, and my relatives were still talking to one another was the mixed up Christmas gifts story. My Grandmother and I gave the wrong gifts to other family members.

The mixed up Christmas gift story goes like this:

I was working a job in retail to make money before getting married to my longtime boyfriend. Usually the manager scheduled me to work Christmas Eve. But this year, he must have been feeling his tiny black heart, becoming bigger allowing me to leave two hours before closing time.

Leaving the store, I remembered that I still had several people to buy gifts for. I had not bought anything for my sister's husband or my brother's girlfriend. I figured it would be a nice thing to buy them each a gift.I searched the store high and low looking for a gift for each person. Not having much of a selection  in the clothing department, I selected a more expensive one of a kind ornament from Hallmark for my brother's girlfriend. Realizing that my brother's girlfriend was Jewish did not deter my purchase. I knew my brother and his girlfriend were living together and they put a tree in their apartment. I figured they could use this pretty ornament on their tree.
Moving to the front of the store, I looked through the cologne aisle, selecting a bottle of cologne for my brother in law.
My brother picked up our Grandmother and our Grandfather from their homes, on his way to my parents' home.

When it came time to open presents, my Grandmother who at this time was about 89, handed out similar looking boxes with the same ornamental wrapping paper she lovingly adorned each. All ten of us happy to be together family members opened our gifts. I ripped off the wrapping, opened the box finding nothing inside. As I sat there, kind of stunned, alternately thinking, Grandma doesn't love me anymore, to Grandma is getting forgetful in her old age, I was trying my best to not give away what I didn't get for Christmas. My brother yelled from across my parents large living room, "What'd you get Kate?"
Okay, so what was I supposed to do now? I was holding a box with nothing in it. My brother's girlfriend sat there stunned looking at her ornament acting like it was a hot pan about to light up in her hands. My brother in law, started laughing because he had opened his gift, and as he showed us the gift I gave him, it was aftershave, not cologne. He yanked on his beard, saying "Thanks Kate, but I'm keeping it for awhile."
I apologized saying, I haven't seen you for a year, and my sister never mentioned you had grown a beard."
My brother started laughing very loudly and showed everyone what he got from our Grandmother, he had three black socks in his box, while my brother in law's from my Grandmother had only one black sock.
We all started laughing loudly, and my brother threw Ken his other sock making a matching pair.
At dinner my still red faced Grandmother said, she must have left my gift at home. I told it was okay, that it didn't matter, we all forget things from time to time.

Four Really strange, but true news stories

Has the world gone completely and utterly nuts in the last couple of days?
Here are four really strange, but true news stories:

1. The lady making meth at a Walmart store. When I saw this one on TV, I could not believe it. A woman was spotted on surveillance cameras six hours after she had been making methampethamine at a Walmart store in Tulsa, Oklahoma. What had me perplexed was why didn't anyone notice a person opening drug packages at Walmart, standing in a store aisle for six hours, mixing drugs together? That is sad, that no one noticed this happening. Store personnel did not notice what was going on. Customers did not notice anything out of the ordinary either? Where exactly could this woman set up her drug making shop? Did she grab what she needed on a shelf, sit down in a Walmart store  chair, and start mixing meth?

2.Another incredibly strange story that happened over the weekend, was this one in Pennsylvania. Seems that one guy wanted time off from work so badly, he faked his Mom's death. This guy faked her death , including faking an obituary so he could get some time off from work, for Christmas.(Maybe his boss is Ebeneezer Scrooge.) His mom found out, and walked into the newspaper office, telling the owner to cut it out. She told him she was very much alive. Thinking someone isn't getting any presents from Santa this year!

3. A 94 year old woman left 13 million dollars to her cat. Before she died in December of 2011, in Italy, Maria Assunta told her assistant she was a very lonely old woman. She was so lonely in fact, she scooped a stray cat from the streets of Italy, making Tommasso her soon to be wealthy kitty. Having noone else to give the money to, Assunta left her money to Tommasso making certain her assistant takes care of the cat for the rest of it's life.

This kitty is only one of several lucky pets who became millionaires due to their elderly owners leaving them entire estates due to having no relatives or long lost relatives. The richest pet currently is Gunther IV a German Shepard who was left 372 million dollars by his eccentric, German  Countess several years ago.

4.Strange news stories continue with total strangers paying off K-mart lay aways for other people because they want other people to have a Merry Christmas. When one lady tried doing this in Target, saying, "Pay it forward, " she was thrown out of Target and Walmart due to store employees thinking she was nuts. Oh well, K-mart customers benefited instead! Copyright (c), 2011, written by professional author Kate Johns.

My husband's Thanksgiving thankful list

A friend of mine has been writing Thanksgiving thankful messages on Facebook everyday, during the month of November. She originally started with many new insightful thankful for entries every day. Soon after I noticed many other friends of mine, especially on Facebook, were inspired into writing their burgeoning lists of what they are thankful for this year. Written by Kate Johns

After telling my husband that many people were creating thankful lists during the month of November, he started naming his completely different, humorous list of what he is thankful for.
Considering that he is very busy working his job, and hardly ever appears on Facebook, I told him I would write his Thanksgiving thankful list. My husband's list of what he is thankful for:

1. Chicken wings
2. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
3. Silicone breast implants
4. Beer
5. Donuts
6, Cheese
7. Glenn Beck
8. E Bay
9. Rush Limbaugh
10. Writers-----Robert B. Parker, Lee Child, Vince Flynn
11. Five Guys Burgers and Fries
12. Pulled pork
13  Utz pretzels
14. Heidi Klum

While I was writing this, I made the mistake of texting my hubby, who kept answering me every five minutes with more answers. Therefore, I'm stopping at 14, because now he's thinking of  
Victoria Secret model's names. Copyright (c), 2011, which means you are not to use, steal, or take any of the ideas, or written words on this blog without written permission by the author who is a professional writer---Kate Johns.

Fire all the Penn State football coaches by Kate Johns

Fire all the football coaches at Penn State. Do you remember when you went to school,when one kid did something unintelligent, and the entire class was punished? Do you remember your teacher ever saying something along the lines of: Considering that John, (for example), is eating candy, he needs to share his candy with the entire class?

Considering that 84 year old Joe Paterno was fired for being the coach of the Penn State football team during the time Jerry Sandusky was assistant coach, then yes, I am making the bold, non-liberal, or perhaps it is liberally minded statement, that all of the Penn State coaches should be fired.
Doesn't it make sense to say that every coach who was gainfully employed at the time when Jerry Sandusky was assistant coach and when he was allegedly raping young boys; the coaches that are still working for Penn State should all be fired?

The new Interim Coach of Penn State's football team is Tom Bradley, who worked under Joe Paterno, for thirty years, as did several other coaches still employed by Penn State. While understanding the need to have a coach to finish out the football season, Penn State needed to place a person in the job of coach. But, why would you replace one person who knew what was going on with another person that may have known what was going on? For all any of us know, the entire football coaching staff and several or all of the school personnel,(professors, esteemed vice presidents, etc) all may have known what horrible things were going on.

Therefore the entire coaching staff should be fired as soon as the season is officially over. New staff should be hired with a criminal assessment record completed during the recruitment process.

What I am seeing is Joe Paterno is taking the fall for his inaction, although he did tell his boss, and now  from what I've heard campus police who did not take action. The president of Penn
State did not take action either, and we probably will never know if he knew what was going on or not.

But my main point is all of the coaches who were working at the time Jerry Sandusky was allegedly raping young boys , and the coaches still  employed at Penn State should all be fired. They may know too much. The new current coach is just as responsible for taking corrective action against Sandusky as Joe Paterno was. So too are all the coaches on the staff who knew what was going on. Isn't it said, that what is good for the goose is good for the gander?

Jerry Sandusky was never fired from his job as assistant coach, he was forced to retire, but was still allowed access to the college. In all fairness, Sandusky should have been fired, unless Penn State was just trying to sweep this mess under the rug, as should be all of the other coaches employed at the time Sandusky was committing his crimes. If one person is responsible for another person's actions, by not firing Sandusky, then the entire coaching staff should be held responsible, as well.

Three months after Coach Paterno's firing, Paterno died, and all of Penn State's-- State College coaches were indeed fired. Meanwhile Jerry Sandusky is on trial for raping numerous young boys. Currently he is not allowed to even see his grand kids.