Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Just Give The Man The Money
That said, sometimes you can be a bit too much of a stickler for the rules. Such was the case last Saturday night in Indianapolis.
The Indianapolis Ice minor league hockey team, like most hockey teams, has a contest in-between periods. Last Saturday night, one of the contests was shooting the puck the length of the ice into the net at the other end. Making it even more of a challenge, the front of the net was completely covered except for a three-inch wide slot at the bottom.
Which is the exact size of a hockey puck.
On to the ice stepped a 73-year old gentleman, who stated prior to taking the shot that if he made it, he's donate the $50,000 prize to a local heart center which had performed life-saving surgery on him a few years back.
He made the shot.
The insurance company sponsoring the shot has thus far refused to pay up, insisting he stepped over the line prior to taking the shot. Never mind how this cut the shot distance down from 190 feet to maybe 189 feet. Or that the team mascot was goofing around beforehand and moved the gentleman to the spot from which he took the shot. No, you were over the line, and you don't get the money.
The team, wisely, has thus far declined to name the insurance company in question.
For the record, it was not CSE.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Announcing our 2011 CSE Youth Scholarship Contest!
Youth Scholarship
2011 Essay Competition For Children of Public Employees
ENTRY GUIDELINES
AWARD
To promote driver safety and awareness among young people, in 2011 Civil Service Employees Insurance Company (CSE) will offer a total of $12,000 in scholarships. The competition is divided into three geographic regions: Northern California, Southern California, and Arizona/Nevada. In each region, CSE will offer scholarships in the amount of $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $500 each for third through fifth places to a child of a full-time or retired public employee, based on an essay discussing ways the teenage automobile accident rate can be reduced. CSE, a California-based company, has provided personal automobile insurance to public employees and their families for over half a century.
ELIGIBILITY
- Applicant must be a California, Arizona or Nevada resident attending his or her senior year of high school.
- Applicant must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.
- Applicant must have been accepted to an accredited four-year college or university, or trade school, in the United States, with intent to enroll as a full-time freshman by the Fall 2011 session.
- The applicant's parent or legal guardian must be currently employed full-time by -- or if retired or deceased, must have been employed full-time by -- a government entity. This definition of public employee includes, but is not limited to, peace officers; firefighters; educators; postal employees; military personnel; and federal, state, and local government workers.
- CSE employees, employees' relatives, and its agents and vendors are not eligible.
PROCEDURE
Submit in a single packet:
- An essay that discusses ways the teenage automobile accident rate can be reduced. The essay must be your original work, written by you, and be typed (double spaced) or printed neatly in ink on 8.5" x 11" white paper. It must be in English and must not exceed five hundred words. Enclose two copies of your essay. Write your name, and the name and city of your high school, on one copy only. Do not write your name or the name and city of your school on the second copy. Applicants will be evaluated on the originality, creativity and written proficiency displayed in their essays.
- The signed and completed application form.
- A letter of recommendation stating that you are a senior in good standing for graduation with the class of 2011. The letter must be written on school stationery and be signed by a representative of that institution.
* A letter of acceptance from the post-secondary institution you will be attending full-time by the fall of 2011. The letter must be written on the institution's stationery and be signed by a representative of that institution. - Your official school transcript in a sealed envelope.
Send all materials to Scholarship Contest, CSE Insurance Group, P.O. Box 8041, Walnut Creek, California, 94596-8041. All materials must be received by Friday, April 29, 2011. Regular mail is preferred; avoid certified or other special mailings. No fax or electronic submissions will be accepted. All directions on the application must be followed exactly, and all requirements for submission must be met. Materials must be legible. CSE is not responsible for lost or misdirected application materials. - Scholarship winners will be notified by Friday, May 13, 2011. No other applicants will be notified
ALL MATERIALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY CSE NO LATER THAN APRIL 29, 2011.
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® is required to view or download the Application Form - click here to download it free.
Watching the Grammys (So You Won't Have To)
The other is people trying to figure out what they just saw on the Grammys.
The Grammys, in case you've missed them, is the yearly awards ceremony for the recorded music industry to reward itself over being such good boys and girls. In recent years it has become known as a haven for performances and outfits that, shall we say, defy logic and in some cases gravity. Not to mention defying good taste.
Let's review the... uh, highlights, shall we?
- Lady Gaga arrived inside a giant plastic egg, carried by several muscular young men. It was all rather reminiscent of that scene in Cleopatra when the queen makes her grand entrance aboard a sedan chair carried by slaves. It also did little to squash the rumors that Lady Gaga and Big Bird are romantically entwined.
- Many a parent and/or grandparent were left with the dubious honor of having to explain to members of the younger generation the identities of Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger.
- One of the most widely praised performances came from Mumford and Sons, the English new folk quartet featuring passionate music and lyrics which, when studied, reveal none of the members have a date this Valentine's Day and if they did they'd mess up the relationship before the evening was done.
- Someone named Esperanza Spalding won the award for Best New Artist over Justin Bieber. Considering how most Best New Artists award winners quickly fade into oblivion, perhaps Bieber should be glad. Nevertheless, this enraged his tweener fan base, many of whom are now holding a massive pout-in at the nearest shopping mall food court.
- Arcade Fire won the Album of the Year award. This marks the first time the award has been won by a Canadian rock band. This also marks the first time most people knew there were any Canadian rock bands other than Rush.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Announcing our 2011 CSE Youth Scholarship Contest!
It's time for our annual CSE Youth Scholarship contest!
Youth Scholarship
2011 Essay Competition For Children of Public Employees
ENTRY GUIDELINES
AWARD
To promote driver safety and awareness among young people, in 2011 Civil Service Employees Insurance Company (CSE) will offer a total of $12,000 in scholarships. The competition is divided into three geographic regions: Northern California, Southern California, and Arizona/Nevada. In each region, CSE will offer scholarships in the amount of $1,500 for first place, $1,000 for second place, and $500 each for third through fifth places to a child of a full-time or retired public employee, based on an essay discussing ways the teenage automobile accident rate can be reduced. CSE, a California-based company, has provided personal automobile insurance to public employees and their families for over half a century.
ELIGIBILITY
- Applicant must be a California, Arizona or Nevada resident attending his or her senior year of high school.
- Applicant must have a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0.
- Applicant must have been accepted to an accredited four-year college or university, or trade school, in the United States, with intent to enroll as a full-time freshman by the Fall 2011 session.
- The applicant's parent or legal guardian must be currently employed full-time by -- or if retired or deceased, must have been employed full-time by -- a government entity. This definition of public employee includes, but is not limited to, peace officers; firefighters; educators; postal employees; military personnel; and federal, state, and local government workers.
- CSE employees, employees' relatives, and its agents and vendors are not eligible.
PROCEDURE
Submit in a single packet:
- An essay that discusses ways the teenage automobile accident rate can be reduced. The essay must be your original work, written by you, and be typed (double spaced) or printed neatly in ink on 8.5" x 11" white paper. It must be in English and must not exceed five hundred words. Enclose two copies of your essay. Write your name, and the name and city of your high school, on one copy only. Do not write your name or the name and city of your school on the second copy. Applicants will be evaluated on the originality, creativity and written proficiency displayed in their essays.
- The signed and completed application form.
- A letter of recommendation stating that you are a senior in good standing for graduation with the class of 2011. The letter must be written on school stationery and be signed by a representative of that institution.
* A letter of acceptance from the post-secondary institution you will be attending full-time by the fall of 2011. The letter must be written on the institution's stationery and be signed by a representative of that institution. - Your official school transcript in a sealed envelope.
Send all materials to Scholarship Contest, CSE Insurance Group, P.O. Box 8041, Walnut Creek, California, 94596-8041. All materials must be received by Friday, April 29, 2011. Regular mail is preferred; avoid certified or other special mailings. No fax or electronic submissions will be accepted. All directions on the application must be followed exactly, and all requirements for submission must be met. Materials must be legible. CSE is not responsible for lost or misdirected application materials. - Scholarship winners will be notified by Friday, May 13, 2011. No other applicants will be notified
PLEASE PRINT AND COMPLETE THE APPLICATION FORM
ALL MATERIALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY CSE NO LATER THAN APRIL 29, 2011.
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader® is required to view or download the Application Form - click here to download it free.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Tail... Er, Tale of a Survivor
Consider this moo-ving... uh, moving tail... er, tale of a true survivor.
In January of 2006, a young woman faced execution although she had committed no crime. Pleas of innocence were ignored as her captors led her to her fate. However, this resourceful individual had other plans than going gentle into that good night.
Or at the least, winding up on the menu at Wendy's.
The woman in question was a 1,200 heifer at a meat processing facility -- in other words, a slaughterhouse -- in Montana. Yearning to breathe free as opposed to becoming the one-time only guest at a barbecue, the resourceful cow decided it was time to lay to rest the notion that bovines were nonathletic creatures. And save her own hide (literally) in the process.
How?
She jumped, not over the moon, but over something thought equally impossible for a cow: a 5 1/2 foot tall fence.
That was only the start of the cow's adventures. Danger followed her every step as she ran through town -- well, as much as a cow can run -- with the local police and animal control people hot on her hooves. She dodged a determined German Shepherd who had no doubt never seen a walking T-bone steak before, deftly avoiding being turned into a hood ornament by an SUV, and wound her way through a railroad yard. In a final dash of Old West desperado, she swam across the Missouri River. It took not the usual one, but three tranquilizer darts before the heroic heifer finally let them take her alive.
The meat processing facility were so impressed with her spirit, not to mention having no desire to go through this all over again, they granted her a pardon and named her Molly B in honor of the unsinkable Molly Brown. As sending her back to the herd was nixed due to fears she'd start teaching the other cows extreme survival skills, Molly B was sent off to live at an animal reserve.
Sadly, it fell on hard times, forcing the local animal control people to euthanize many of the animals living there. But not Molly. Although suffering from a sore hoof, she was not one to let this get in her way. A new animal reserve was found, and a few days ago Molly was moved to her new digs where she has no doubt already established herself as the alpha cow.
Molly B, we salute you. With a veggie burger.