ROUND ONE
BONER CANDIDATE #1: IT’S A SHAME ABOUT MR. SISSOKO’S KORA
One of Mali’s most prominent musicians has criticized the Transportation Security Administration after he said his “impossible-to-replace” instrument was destroyed by agents at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport. On Thursday, Ballaké Sissoko told NBC News via email that his custom-made kora — a 21-string bridge-harp used extensively in West Africa — had been “totally destroyed” during a tour of the U.S. “Normally they just open the flight case because of the strange shape of the instrument and case,” he said. “This time, they disassembled and broke it.” Calling it a “terrible situation,” he added that he hoped “to get an apology at some point.” A TSA spokesperson later denied the instrument had been damaged by the agency. “It is most unfortunate that Mr. Sissoko’s instrument was damaged in transport,” said the spokesperson via email late Thursday. “However, after a thorough review of the claim, it was determined that TSA did not open the instrument case because it did not trigger an alarm when it was screened for possible explosives.” Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #2: THEY’VE GOT A REAL NICE SHELTER OVER IN STOCKTON
A suggestion by Robert Rickman, mayor of Tracy, California, that the city’s homeless be bussed to a shelter in nearby Stockton was labeled “pathetic” by Stockton’s Mayor Michael Tubbs. Rickman’s comments came during a February 4 council meeting, during which he was responding to suggestions about temporary cold-weather measures for homeless people. Rickman prefaced his comments by noting complicating factors in any “ad hoc” solution, such as locations of shelters, access, measures for drug addicts, and so on. He then suggested a possible “immediate” solution might be giving homeless people bus tickets to Stockton, where, he said, a “nice big shelter” existed which was “not even close to being filled.” Mayor Michael Tubbs responded on Twitter, saying, “It’s nonsensical for ‘leaders’ like Mayor Rickman to propose allocating 50k from the city of Tracy’s budget to send folks to Stockton. Nah. How about you lead and build a shelter, approve affordable housing, and enact tenant protections in your city. How pathetic.” Rickman shot back, calling Tubbs “so wrong”. He tweeted: “Instead of parading around the country with billionaires, Stockton Mayor Tubbs should spend more time at home where homelessness has tripled according to last counts.” Tubbs responded in turn, rejected Rickman’s figure of a tripling of homeless numbers. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #3: AN OPEN LETTER FROM 100 CATWALK WALKERS
More than 100 models have signed a second open letter to the CEO of Victoria’s Secret calling for him to take action on the company’s ‘culture of misogyny and abuse’. The letter urges John Mehas to end what the group describe as an ‘entrenched culture of misogyny’ at the lingerie chain. The Model Alliance, a nonprofit that advocates for the protection of models, began the campaign five months ago by proposing the company ‘take concrete action to change’, it said. But following an investigation by the New York Times, the group claims the ‘culture of misogyny, bullying, and harassment’ was ‘even more egregious and more entrenched than previously understood’ and so wrote the second open letter to Mehas published yesterday. Signatories of the letter include catwalk stars such as Christy Turlington Burns, Iskra Lawrence, Edie Campbell, Amber Valletta and Felicity Hayward. Models who have worked with Victoria’s Secret such as Karen Elson and Caitriona Balfe also co-signed the document. Read More
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ROUND TWO
BONER CANDIDATE #1: SO THE REBROADCAST REGULATIONS APPLY TO EVERYONE BUT EMERSON ELEMENTARY, I GUESS
The chairman of Disney said on Thursday that the company is apologizing to a California elementary school that was asked to pay for a license after it showed “The Lion King” at a fund-raiser organized by students’ parents in 2019. Robert A. Iger, the chairman, said in a post on Twitter that the company “apologizes to the Emerson Elementary School P.T.A. and I will personally donate to their fund raising initiative.” The event on Nov. 15 was meant to be a fun night at the movies for students at Emerson Elementary School in Berkeley, Calif., with pizza and a showing of “The Lion King.” Students were encouraged to bring blankets and wear pajamas to the fund-raiser, although no children would be denied entry if they could not afford one of the $15 tickets. But on Tuesday, Emerson’s parent-teacher association said it had been asked by Movie Licensing USA, a licensing company representing Disney, to pay $250 for a screening license, a request that pitted the school against a corporate behemoth and set up a broader conversation about public school funding. “We recently were fined by Disney for a movie night,” the group said on Facebook, where it also announced a fund-raiser to help pay for it. “Disney taking money from a public school is completely uncalled for,” another person commented. “They could have just sent a notice and asked that you follow protocol in the future.” Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #2: “WHERE ARE MY RIGHTS?” WONDERS KRISTAL BUTTS.
A court hearing was held Thursday in connection to an Upstate family desperate to get their dog back. Ogie escaped his home in Anderson County on Christmas Day. He ended up at a shelter in Anderson County. Shelter officials said it appeared he was hit by a car. The dog was then transferred from that shelter to Grand Strand Golden Retriever Rescue. His owners, Kristal and Jeremy Butts, are taking legal action because they said the Horry County rescue group won’t give them the dog back. “We were trying to do this civilly and just ask for nothing more than our dog back,” said Kristal. Last month, the Butts filed a claim and delivery lawsuit. On Thursday, the rescue group’s executive director asked for a jury trial in the case. The judge agreed and scheduled it for May. “Apparently, we are going to have to hire an attorney, which is more money and come and fight her,” said Butts. Until the trial, Ogie will now stay in custody of the rescue group. The Butts said they are shocked by this decision. “He plays with our kids. Our little girl, she’s 7. She rolls all over and plays with him and they’re expecting him to come home today,” said Butts. The Butts said they weren’t looking for a lawsuit, they just want their dog back. Read More
BONER CANDIDATE #3: I GOT THE VIRUS
An airline passenger who falsely claimed he had the coronavirus aboard a WestJet flight — and got arrested for it — now feels his prank was “probably not the best thing to do.” James Potok, a 28-year-old aspiring musician from Ontario, Canada, says he made the false claim while trying to film a viral video for “publicity” aboard the flight, which was ultimately forced to divert back to the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday. The plane was bound for Montego Bay, Jamaica. Reports indicate it had already reached airspace over Florida by the time it was forced to divert back to Canada. Potok, who also goes by Potok Philippe, told Tononto’s City News that he got out of his seat about “midway through the flight” with the intention of filming a viral video for Instagram. “I looked around, I said, ‘Can I get everybody’s attention? Please, can I have all your attention?’ And then I followed that by saying, I believe I [said] word for word, ‘I just came back from Hunan province, the capital of the coronavirus… I’m not feeling too well’ … That was exactly what I said.” Potok — who presumably was unaware that the coronavirus was first detected in Hubei, and not Hunan — said the crew soon quarantined him at the back of the plane. “Once I saw we were flying back to Canada, I kinda, you know, I kinda second-guessed what I did was the right thing to do or not.” He added that he was “not trying to scare anybody,” but then attempted to defend himself, saying he never actually said he had the coronavirus. He also questioned the crew’s decision to turn the plane around and go back to Canada, rather than let a plane filled with people — who did not know they were not in danger of contracting the coronavirus — continue on their journey to Jamaica. Read More
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