Uncommon Sense: the This is True Podcast

In This Episode: A complaint about last week’s featured story, which leads to why prices online end in “77” (vs “.99” offline), another segment of No Longer Weird, and how to be so stupid you can get busted for possession of marijuana in Colorado — where pot is legal! Plus: why Uncommon Sense doesn’t have “sponsors”. Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * A complaint about the story featured in last week’s episode. * No Longer Weird: faking your own kidnaping to either get away from your wife for a bit, or to get money for drugs. (Example) * The Washington Post article on how legalized pot in Colorado is leading to a reduction in opioid overdoses. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes, Overcast, Stitcher — and, presumably, more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to Uncommon Sense, the Podcast companion to the ThisIsTrue.com newsletter, with the mission to promote more thinking in the world. I’m Randy Cassingham… Clare: And I’m Clare Angelica. Randy: This week we’ll be discussing a story from issue 1218 of the newsletter, which will be included on the Show Page at thisistrue.com/podcast15. But first, I got an amusing complaint about the story featured in last week’s Podcast — or, more specifically, its slug, or title: “56 Varieties”. You can see the story on Podcast 14’s Show Page, which I’ll link to. John in Texas wanted me to know that the Heinz food company offers 57 varieties, not 56 — and attached numerous pictures of “57 Sauce” and such to prove it. John was the only one to not get it — or at least to not get it and also write me about it. Anyway my reply to John is, if Heinz advertises they have “57 Varieties”,

In This Episode: A mostly seasonal segment for No Longer Weird. Then, it seems like just a funny story, but a crusty donation to a food bank maybe isn’t so charitable after all, and — when you think about it — demonstrates the value of thinking about your actions before doing. Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * No Longer Weird: burglars falling through the ceiling, or trying to break in via the chimney or stove vent. The story, from the Columbus, Georgia, Ledger-Enquirer. * And the new collection of No Longer Weird stories on this site. * In case you wonder, “git” is a British word that means obliviot. * If you have an intruder-via-chimney story, tell us about it in the Comments below. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes, Overcast, Stitcher — and, presumably, more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to Uncommon Sense, the Podcast companion to the thisistrue.com newsletter with the mission to promote more thinking in the world. I’m Randy Cassingham. Clare: And I’m Clare Angelica. Randy: As we round the corner into the final stretch before The Holiday Season, I want to get something out of the way. Clare: What’s that? Randy: Another segment in No Longer Weird! And that’s when a burglar or other intruder falls out of ceiling, surprising victims below, or getting stuck in the ceiling, chimney, or vent and begging for help from the people inside. …Or, sometimes, not being found stuck in a restaurant stove vent for weeks, months, or even years. Clare: So they found a corpse? Randy: Yeah. Clare: Ooh! Randy: That’s happened more than once. Clare: Oh my god! Oh, those poor people. Randy: Well, they are burglars. Clare: That’s true. I mean… Randy: So you know: screw ’em! Clare: Starvation and dehydration. Randy: Yeah, not a very good way to go when you get down to it. Plus it’s probably really hot, and greasy, and ehhhh…. But you know,

In This Episode: Hurricane Irma is a major disaster, so how does Florida handle the aftermath? With typical Floridiocy, of course. Plus, another segment of No Longer Weird, and the story of an everyday hero. Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * Yeah, I know I messed up explaining the pool fence issue. Pool fences are safety issues for two main reasons: to keep wandering toddlers away, and to counter the “attractive nuisance” of a place that may be attractive to older kids who want to go swim, but there is no one there to supervise. I find it difficult to believe that any parent is going to let their toddler wander around to fall in accidentally when pretty much everything is dangerous outside in the days after such a storm, and there is no “attraction” to a totally trashed pool — what I was alluding to in the episode. Thus the fence being down is an immediate threat to live that must be fixed within an hour? Hardly. So those are my thoughts, which Clare immediately grasped, but on listening to it later, I see I did a poor job of making my thoughts clear. * The No Longer Weird story: Armed Carjacking Foiled When Teen Didn’t Know How to Drive Manual Transmission, Authorities Say (Birmingham News). * The Arby’s visit was in Elko, Nevada, on September 26. I’d love to know who the shift manager was! How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes, Overcast, Stitcher — and, presumably, more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to Uncommon Sense, the podcast where we delve a little more deeply into the stories and issues discussed in the thisistrue.com newsletter. I’m Randy Cassingham. Clare: And I’m Clare Angelica. Randy: This week we’re discussing a story from Issue 1215 of the newsletter, which will be included on the Show Page at thisistrue.com/podcast12. So this story has to do with Hurricane Irma whacking Florida. …I thought I’d pause to see if you wanted to add anything…. Clare: Whacking! It did,

In This Episode: No Longer Weird: An obliviot trying to pass a 99-cent “$1 million bill”. And it’s Episode 10: you’re darn right it’s time to do a bit of a rant on zero tolerance! Clare and I talk about an older case that was so clearly a case of “Sue ’em!” — that the family did. But it sure wasn’t an easy road, in part because the offending school fought it hard (read: freely spent tax money to defend absolutely outrageous actions!) Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * Damned If You Do, and Damned If You Don’t: Early listeners told me there was too much fluff — banter with Clare. Recent listeners told me they miss the personality of chatting with Clare more. Well, can’t please everyone, so I’m gonna do this the way I want to. So there! * The Associated Press Story (the “No Longer Weird” entry this week) about Dennis Strickland is here. * A Stack of One Thousand $100 Bills measures 4.3 inches thick. A million dollars is 10,000 $100 bills, or a stack 43″ tall, which weighs more than 20 pounds. Obviously, an armored car could easily haul that amount, but in the much more likely event of having a mix of currency (1s, 5s, 10s, and 20s in addition to a much smaller number of 100s), then it’s obviously going to be much larger and heavier. Either way, not even a Super Walmart is going to have that much cash available to give someone that much change. * My Lengthy Writeup of the Savana Redding Case is on this page (from which I liberally borrowed text from court decisions for my mini rants in this episode). * A photo of Savana is included below, in the transcript area. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes, Overcast, Stitcher — and, presumably, more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to Uncommon Sense, the Podcast where we delve a little more deeply into the stories and issues discussed in the thisistrue.

In This Episode: A “new” term is introduced to be the contrast to “obliviot” — and something else really bright (or is that dim?) from Real Life this week: Randy is at a loss for words trying to describe the total solar eclipse. Jump To… We discuss the attached story about Jimmy McCoy of Oklahoma City, Okla., which leads this week’s newsletter. (Click to see larger.) * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * The source story from KFOR in Oklahoma City is here. Mr. McCoy is in a heap of trouble, and is obviously considered innocent until proven guilty in court. * To have a term for the opposite of an obliviot, I “stole” the word “bright” (as in, “He’s not a bright.”) from The Brights, which Wikipedia says is “an international intellectual movement [whose adherents] refer to themselves as ‘Brights’. They hold a naturalist worldview [and] believe that public policies should be based on science…. Brights are likely to oppose the practice of basing public policies on supernatural doctrines. Brights may therefore be described as secularists.” I know there are a lot of Mensa members reading True, but not many Bright readers have made themselves known to me. * I mentioned some “big names” have identified as Brights. According to that Wikipedia entry, “Notable people who have self-identified as brights at one time or another include: biologists Richard Dawkins and Richard J. Roberts; cognitive scientist Steven Pinker; philosophers Daniel Dennett and Massimo Pigliucci; [and] stage magicians and debunkers James Randi and Penn & Teller.” * The video I took of the shadow approaching us as we waited for totality is on my Eclipse Post, which also has a very cool video showing a satellite view of the shadow. * The live Facebook video of my very Bright friend Chris Knight trying to describe his emotion at seeing the total eclipse is inserted here. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes, Overcast, Stitcher — and, presumably, more to come.

In This Episode: We talk about two stories: the new “DUIE” law in Washington state, that was the subject of last week’s “Story of the Week” (right: click to see larger), and this fairly amazing story also from last week, about a minor slap on the hand for an apparently long-term sexual predator. Blame the Victim Tara Yvonne Stumph, 36, a teacher at Arroyo Grande (Calif.) High School, was charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor counts of unlawful sex and child molestation after she engaged in a year-long sexual affair with a 16-year-old student. She pleaded guilty to one felony in a plea bargain that resulted in the other charges being dropped. In exchange, she’ll serve just 90 days in jail, and not have to register as a sex offender. Her teacher’s license has been revoked, and the judge in the case ordered Stumph to not go near any middle- or high schools for the four years of probation after her jail term. The boy’s family was apparently disappointed in the slap on the hand: they have sued Stumph, the school district, and several school officials, alleging that Stumph had victimized another boy previously, and that case was swept under the rug, allowing her to victimize their child. In response, Stumph has sued her victim, claiming he “defamed” her, which damaged her reputation and career. (RC/San Luis Obispo Tribune) …She has a reputation that can be tarnished? Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * I didn’t explicitly mention it during the episode, but most readers know I volunteer as a medic. I’ve written up a number of my EMS Stories here on my blog. * Colorado’s “Drive High, Get a DUI” public outreach program — after a post-legalization of marijuana survey that found 55 percent of marijuana users said they believed it was safe to drive while under the influence — has resulted in a major reduction in marijuana-related DUIs, the Denver Post reported in April: a one-third drop in the first quarter of 2017. The Colorado Dept. of Transportation notes on their FAQs: Cannabis and Driving page that “Colorado law specifies that drivers with five nanograms of active tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in their whole blood can be prosecuted for driving under the influence (DUI). However, no matter the level of THC, law enforcement officers base arrests on observed impairment.” — and that standard applies whether the marijuana is used recreationally or for a medical condition. * Washington’s law appears similar, but not as clearly worded. A driver is presumed to be DUI if the “person has, within two hours after driving, a THC concentration of 5.00 or higher as shown by analysis of the person’s blood made under RCW 46.61.506,” it says, but doesn’t specify 5.00 what! (Though similarly, it says that the standard for alcohol concentration is “0.08 or higher” without specifying units, and similarly, drivers are guilty of DUI if “under the influence of or affected by intoxicating liquor, marijuana, or any drug” without specifying any particular measurement of an intoxicant.) * What is Stumph (pictured) asking for in her lawsuit? “Stumph is suing for indemnity for any judgments rendered against her,

In This Episode: While the stories in This is True usually point out the pitfalls of not thinking (or “obliviots doing stupid things”), the Honorary Unsubscribe holds up the best of humanity. This episode not only features a interesting example, but adds some extra details and commentary. Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * Jones’s Honorary Unsubscribe writeup in the Honorary Unsubscribe Archive. * Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl on Amazon (both for Kindle and in Paperback). * Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking on Amazon (both for Kindle and in Paperback). * Miep Gies’s Honorary Unsubscribe writeup in the Honorary Unsubscribe Archive will be there until the fifth book is published (soon!) — and then it will be in that book. * Randy Cassingham’s book True Stella Awards is still available as an author-signed First Edition or on Amazon’s Kindle. * Details on the Honorary Unsubscribe book collections (there are currently four volumes). How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, Podfanatic, ListenNotes — and, presumably, more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Welcome to Uncommon Sense, the podcast where we get a little deeper into the stories from the ThisIsTrue.com email newsletter. I’m Randy Cassingham, and I’m alone this week, so I’m going to try something a little bit different. I’ll still be digging deeper into a story, but this week, I want to talk about one of TRUE’s sub-features. Some readers actually like the Honorary Unsubscribe more than the stories. While the stories point out the pitfalls of not thinking, or as I sometimes stay, are about obliviots doing stupid things, the Honorary Unsubscribe holds up the best of humanity: it’s an obituary of someone who died, usually sometime in the previous week to ten days before the ...

In This Episode: Politics and religion can’t be talked about in polite society? Randy in Washington says no, there are three taboo topics: don’t forget sex (eek!) So yeah, let’s go there. Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * The story of my 2008 visit to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch is still almost always among the most-popular posts in this blog. * No Longer Weird: burning your house down while trying to kill insects. The straw that broke the camel’s back came from Michigan’s Flint Journal. * If you want to be on the podcast-specific email list mentioned, see the bottom of this page. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, TuneIn, and more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to the Uncommon Sense podcast. I’m Randy Cassingham. Clare: And I’m Clare Angelica. Randy: So last week the concept was “You’re not supposed to talk about politics or religion in polite company,” and you said… Clare: We are not polite company. Randy: Right. So we talked about religion, since we had talked about politics before. On podcast four’s show page we have a comment from Randy in Washington State, who says, “Long ago, I think it was Emily Post, a mannerist, claimed there are three things that are not discussed in polite company: sex, politics, and religion, but what are the most important things in human experience? Sex, politics, and religion. I don’t think I like polite society very much.” So Randy was right, we needed to look for a good sex story to feature. And just by weird coincidence… Clare: Utter coincidence! Randy: Yeah, it’s just the way things happen in the news biz: we have a story that I’ve made the story of the week for this week, about Deborah Thomes, who was arrested in Fort Pierce, Florida. Can you believe this happened in Florida? Clare: Astounding! Randy: You know, it’s like Florida is in the news once in a while, or in This Is True once in a while. So undercover cops in Fort Pierce, Florida, were doing an undercover sting operation looking for hookers. And guess what? Deborah Thomes apparently, or allegedly I guess we should say, stepped into one of the undercover police cars,

In This Episode: “We’re told that in polite society that you don’t talk politics or religion.” Yeah, whatever: as Clare says, we’re not always in a polite society. Episode 2 talked politics, so let’s get to religion! Jump To… * Show Notes * How to Subscribe * How to Comment * Episode Transcript * List of All Episodes Show Notes * Columnist Ken Herman’s column in the Austin American-Statesman was the basis for the story discussed. * I quoted the Freedom From Religion Foundation in my discussion. * The font for road signs is called Highway Gothic Expanded. * Tom Robbins’ book that Clare mentioned: Tibetan Peach Pie (A True Account of an Imaginative Life) — Which Robbins declared was his “un-memoir.” * Malcom Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast, a production of the 121-employee Slate Group, which was created by Graham Holdings Company (of the Washington Post fame) but is now owned by Univision Communications, a multimedia company with 16 broadcast, cable and digital networks; 61 television stations; and online and mobile apps, products and content creation facilities in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami, is here. How to Subscribe Search for Uncommon Sense in your podcast app or on iTunes, or manually enter this feed URL into your app: https://thisistrue.com/feed/podcast Also available via Google Play, PlayerFM, and more to come. Comments and Questions? Your comments on this episode are welcome below. Questions can be added there, sent via this site’s Contact Page, or tweeted to @ThisIsTrue. Transcript Randy: Welcome to the Uncommon Sense podcast. I’m your host, Randy Cassingham. Clare: And I am Randy’s co-host, Clare Angelica. Randy: Yay! We’re told in polite society that you should not talk about politics or religion. Clare: I don’t think we’re polite society sometimes. Randy: Maybe not. Maybe not! Well, a couple of weeks ago we talked about politics, and you know it’s only episode four: let’s go for religion. Clare: All right. Randy: Last week’s newsletter had a story out of Texas. In 2011, Texas legislators passed a law theoretically to raise awareness for motorcycle safety. And what the law does is allow family or friends to buy a sign that the state will put up at a crash site in memory of the person who was killed. The kind of interesting thing about this, and why it’s religion, is the law requires, no matter whether the person was religious or not, and no matter if they were Christian or not,

In This Episode: Now we’re getting up to speed! My brother the recording studio engineer helped with balancing the microphone for my co-host Clare Angelica, and those tips helped with my side too. This is much more the “studio quality” I was aiming for in the first place. Most Politicians Would Be on the Other Side of the Table The Missouri Parole Board was apparently pretty bored with its job, deciding whether offenders who were up for parole would get out, or stay in prison. Parole Board member Don Ruzicka, a former state legislator, admits he came up with a game to make hearings more fun: if a Board member or other employee said one of the “words of the day,” they’d score points. For instance, “platypus,” “hootenanny,” or the Johnny Cash song “Folsom Prison Blues” — say one, and score a point. In one hearing, Ruzicka asked an inmate what he had stolen, and then replied, “That’s a pretty rare item, about like a platypus.” Every time someone scored, it led to laughter from the Board. A report by the state Department of Corrections’ Inspector General concluded from listening to recordings of the hearings that the Board members “were trying so hard to embed the words or song titles into their questions or statements that they were not focused on the proper questions to ask nor were they actively listening to the responses from the offenders.” Ruzicka has resigned. (RC/WDAF Kansas City) …Suggested words to work into the I.G. report: “malfeasance,” “indictment,” and the Green Day song, “American Idiot.” Show Notes * I mentioned Clare’s women-pirate-romance trilogy again: * The Siren’s Sea: Revenge (paperback) * The Siren’s Sea: Redemption (paperback) * The Siren’s Sea: Reawakening (brand new: paperback not out yet). * Tying in to the story above, the Randy’s Random post from last month: the extremely heavily shared meme Term Limits. (And there happened to be a follow-on Wednesday on RR, but made long before it was published there: Control, Alt, and Delete.) Clare made the first one, and I made the second. Notice how hers is much-more shared! * The actual percentages of voters by party affiliation, according to the Gallup Poll (released January 11, 2016): 29 percent Democrat, 26 percent Republican, and 42 percent Independent. In 1988, for comparison, it was 36 percent Democrat, 31 percent Republican, and just 33 percent Independent — but even then, about one-third Independent. (Source) * How is that Independent majority represented in Congress? The current Senate is 52 Republicans, 46 Democrats, and just 2 Independents. The House is 240 Republicans, 194 Democrats, 1 vacancy, and no Independents. (Source) * For those who don’t know the name, Joe Scarborough served in the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 2001 as a Republican from the 1st district of Florida, and is now the co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC. He was named in the 2011 “Time [news magazine] 100” as one of the most influential people in the world. Here’s a news report about him

In This Episode: Say hello to my co-host (and long-time assistant), Clare Angelica. “This is Episode 1 …so we’ll probably flub it up!” I said in the opening. But you know, for our first try, I think it’s a pretty decent effort.