Funny Stuff Videos

SEATTLE - The little old lady who lives in a little old house is stubborn in a very BIG way.

Edith Macefield, 86, has refused a $1-million offer from a developer to move out of her 108-year-old farmhouse to make way for a commercial complex. “I don’t want to move. I don’t need the money. Money doesn’t mean anything,” she said recently.

Instead, the five-storey project is being built around her, ringing the death knell for her once-thriving, blue-collar neighbourhood.

Macefield’s house is the last on her block, though there’s a restaurant nearby that’s staying put as well. Gravel and cement trucks noisily work around them, and a tall concrete wall stands close to Macefield’s kitchen window. Construction cranes hang over her roof.

“When she digs her heels in, there is no changing her mind. She is set in her ways,” said Charlie Peck, a friend for more than 20 years.

Macefield has lived in the two-storey, two-bedroom house since 1966. It has been assessed at about $8,000 on land worth about $120,000.

She said she has no regrets about refusing to sell and simply drowns out the construction noise by turning up the television or blasting opera so loud you can hear it outside.

“I went through World War II, the noise doesn’t bother me,” she said. “They’ll get it done someday.”

Construction workers watch out for Macefield, particularly superintendent Barry Martin. He takes her to doctor appointments and to the hair salon. He brings her lunch.

“It’s like having your grandmother here,” Martin said. “Once you get to know someone, you can’t just walk by without saying hello.”

Source: CNews

By Brian R. Ballou and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

CAMBRIDGE — Police allege that the stolen parking meters had almost overtaken Thomas Gannon’s Plymouth Street apartment: stuffed into a closet, hidden under a blanket, and sitting in plain view in the living room.

Officers said that when they knocked on Gannon’s door Monday night to serve an unrelated arrest warrant, they couldn’t help but see parking meters piled in his second-floor apartment. In all, police said they carried out 123 meters that had been cut off poles in Cambridge and Somerville over the last year. The find left police shaking their heads.

“This does seem to be odd,” Officer Frank Pasquarello, a spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department, said at a press conference this morning.

Gannon, 38, was arraigned today in Cambridge District Court on charges that included receiving stolen property and breaking into a depository. He was held on $5,000 cash bail.

Investigators said that the meters had been emptied of coins. Most of the meters came from Cambridge, but six were from Somerville.

Police had originally gone to Gannon’s apartment Monday night to serve an arrest warrant for larceny and trespassing that originated with Everett police.

Source: Boston

The man at the back of the Metro bus was older, wore glasses and apparently drew the attention of a group of alleged gang members who reportedly began harassing him.

But when one of them tried to take the man’s glasses, he pulled a knife and fought back, Seattle police said.

“He began swinging at his attackers in self-defense,” spokeswoman Renee Witt said.

When the melee was over, four of the teens had cuts, including some with superficial cuts to their buttocks, and one had a dislocated shoulder. The man was not hurt.

The incident began about 11:15 p.m. on a northbound bus traveling along Rainier Avenue South, Witt said. The five teens boarded near Rainer Beach High School, having attended a football game there, she said.

Police reports described the teens as known to officers and active members of a local gang.

Officers called to the bus after the fight initially believed the wounded teenagers were the victims, until other passengers aboard the bus told officers that it was the teens who started the disturbance.

All were treated at the scene by Seattle Fire Department medics and released to their parents, Witt said. The man was interviewed and released; his knife taken as evidence.

Detectives on Monday expect to review videotape of the fight captured on cameras mounted in the bus, Witt said.

Charges are likely to be filed against at least some of the teens, Witt said, but that decision rests with the King County Prosecutors Office.

Source: Seattlepi

University City — When the University City High School homecoming king and queen accept their crowns tonight, don’t expect a slow dance.

Senior Aaron Zaggy is the queen. And senior Marcel Coleman is the king.

Zaggy, an A-student and athlete, entered the contest as a prank and had the support of his parents and the School Board when he won the title Friday.

“It’s just for fun,” Zaggy said. “I didn’t expect to win.”

His mother, Mary Ann Zaggy, said her son wanted to surprise his steady girlfriend at the dance tonight when the honor is formally bestowed.

“It’s no big deal,” said Coleman, the homecoming king, although he was unsure how the traditional king-queen dance would play out.

The school body voted for Zaggy, but he may have upset some students who consider the homecoming court no laughing matter.

Brittany McNairy, 18, also ran for homecoming queen. And although the dance’s theme is “Our Night in the Limelight,” she feels robbed of her chance.

“I was mad,” she said. “I don’t think he should have run. A lot of senior girls were mad.”

District officials acknowledged that the twosome made an unusual pair as king and queen but said there was a lesson to be learned.

“This situation also presents a life lesson of sorts by demonstrating the importance of voting and knowing that one’s actions at the ballot box can have a lasting impact,” the board said in a statement.

McNairy doesn’t seem to be enjoying the lesson.

“The queen should be a girl, and king should be a dude,” she said.

Source: STLtoday