My Hero Of The Day

New York, New York (Associated Press) — Irene Prusik has been dead for six years. But in April, someone showed up at the Department of Motor Vehicles in Brooklyn to renew her driver’s license. The explanation given by prosecutors rivals the Hitchcock classic “Psycho“: It was her son, in drag.

Thomas Parkin, 49, was charged Wednesday in the bizarre plot to impersonate his deceased mother so he could collect $117,000 in government benefits. He and the man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, pleaded not guilty to grand larceny, criminal impersonation and other charges.

Both men were ordered held on $1 million bail. Their lawyers did not immediately respond to phone messages left on Wednesday. District Attorney Charles Hynes said the scam, first reported in the Daily News, was “unparalleled in its scope and brazenness.”

Authorities claim that following his arrest, Parkin told them that because he held Prusik when she breathed her last breath, “I am my mother.”  Parkin, who lived with his mother, was accused of hatching the scheme after she passed away in 2003 at age 73. He managed to conceal the death by falsifying her death certificate, then collected $52,000 from her $700-a-month Social Security checks over the next six years, prosecutors said.

Authorities say Parkin also got another $65,000 in rent subsidies by falsely claiming he had a disability and that his mother was still alive and was his landlord. Parkin used his friend Rimolo to pose as the mother’s nephew when going to cash checks and do other business, prosecutors said. A security camera photo from the DMV office shows a frail-looking Parkin in a wig and dark glasses, Rimolo by his side, as he fills out paperwork.

The ruse began to unravel amid a dispute over the mother’s home, which was sold at foreclosure in 2003. Parkin challenged the purchase by suing the new owner on his mother’s behalf so he wouldn’t be evicted. As the property dispute dragged out, both sides eventually contacted the district attorney to accuse each other of fraud.

By the time investigators arranged a meeting with the family in May, they already had proof Prusik was dead: a photo of her tombstone in a local cemetery. The investigators played along as Parkin showed up for the interview “wearing a red cardigan, lipstick, manicured nails and breathing through an oxygen tank,” prosecutors said.

My Hero: Amazing! Just being able to look at a police officer in the eye and saying, “I am my mother.”  Awesome.  A lot of the people who make My Hero, on the whack-job side of things anway, often try to do outrageous things and fail.  There was Frank the Tank who drove his lawnmower four miles for wine in a blizzard, the man who wore the tree branches on his head and tried to rob a bank, the hero who started it all by trying to cash the million dollar bill, and the list goes on and on through hundreds of stories of people who have been off-the-wall, loopy, and just plain special, who have tried to do outrageous things.  Thomas Parkin didn’t try, he did.

Thomas wasn’t just cashing some checks saying mum couldn’t make it down to the bank, Thomas became his mother.  He used oxygen, he appeared feeble, he even had a nephew.  But, getting about with $117,000 in cash and bonuses wasn’t enough, Thomas was truly attempting to go for the gold.  Trying to go through a lawsuit to keep the house? Incredible.  What Tommy-Boy lacked in scruples was certainly made up for by his ballsiness.  And when caught, Tom didn’t just go down beaten.  He had a story, and it was the excuse of all excuses… “I am my mom.”  I mean, how can that ever be disproved in court? Especially when the “dying breath” was a magical experience?  Good luck with the jury Tom, and just know that you got a gold medal from me, and the title of, My Hero of the Day.

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(CBS) – On Monday’s “Late Show with David Letterman,” the comedian came out swinging, saying, “One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game. During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez!”

It turned out that many people took offense at the joke, especially the Alaska governor and former GOP vice presidential candidate and her family. In a statement, she said, “Laughter incited by sexually perverted comments made by a 62-year-old male celebrity aimed at a 14-year-old girl is .. disgusting.”

On Wednesday, Letterman tried to quiet the controversy, joking, “I am hardly a celebrity. I am 62, yes!” He insisted the joke was targeted at 18-year-old Bristol Palin, a single mother, and not 14-year-old Willow Palin, who was the Palin daughter at the ballgame.

“These are not jokes made about her 14-year-old daughter,” Letterman stressed. “I would never, never make jokes about raping or having sex of any description with a 14-year-old girl.” Aside from that remark, Letterman was unapologetic about having fun at Palin’s expense.

My Hero: Oh Sarah, don’t you get it? You were made into an action figure. You weren’t allowed to speak at an event for your own party last week.  The GOP is still reeling from it’s losses, and are now trying to appeal to the masses, not the far right. You are isolated S.P., as Letterman said the other night, “in right field… far right field.”  You were an election-year gimmick that was flawed from the start, and then crashed and burned.

Now you’re sinking so low as to actually get upset by the jokes of David Letterman?  Maybe, once again, you’ll appease the far right, since you’re appearing to be a good mother who is standing up for your daughter. But Sarah, oh Sarah, that is just the problem. You’re a hyped-up soccer mom turned governor, not a leader for our country on any sort of federal level.  We don’t want a leader who cries over jokes on a late-night show.  Even ol’ George W. didn’t snap after years of having to deal with jokes about daughter who was a bigger mess then Bristol.  I guess you need the publicity, but Sarah, even in the GOP the far right is on it’s way out, and they are following you out the “national platform door”.

Ah yes, Mr. Letterman… I was laying on the couch when you dropped the joke about A-Rod.  Whoever wrote that one is the man. Thanks for making us snicker late-night. And don’t worry, we know your record, and how many of us even knew she had a 14-year-old? Was she really Bristol’s firstborn?  Once again you prove yourself a distinguished gentleman with poor taste, smooth delivery, and without a doubt, My Hero of the Day.

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London, England (Associated Press) — Defiantly low-tech yet accurate to the second, Big Ben is having its 150th birthday Sunday, its Victorian chimes carrying the sound of Britain into the 21st century.

It’s a birthday the world can share in. The peals of London’s favorite clock are carried globally by BBC radio, and its 315-foot tower, roughly 16 stories, is the city’s most famous landmark.

But getting inside and seeing Big Ben, the sonorous main bell that gives its name to the whole contraption, isn’t easy. Security measures mean few are granted admission, and there’s no elevator, so those who are escorted in must climb 334 winding limestone stairs.

Catherine Moss, who took journalists on a pre-anniversary tour, said that in one year as a Big Ben guide, she had climbed the height of Everest three times over.

“It’s my own private step machine,” the trim-looking 51-year-old called down from the top of the tower.

No special events are planned, aside from an exhibition opening Sept. 19 in the nearby parliamentary offices.

Although the tan-colored tower above the Houses of Parliament is covered in a riot of gilt crowns, sculpted masonry and coats of arms, the interior looks functional. The 4.2 meter- (14 foot-) long minute hand casts a faint shadow over the pale white glass of the dial. The 5-ton (5.6-U.S. ton) clock mechanism, like a giant wristwatch, is wound three times a week. In the age of atomic clocks, its near-perfect time is regulated by heavy old pennies laid on or removed from the pendulum.

The chimes, supposedly based on four notes from Handel’s “Messiah,” ring out every quarter hour from the intricately ornamented belfry. The bongs of Big Ben itself are heard every hour.

It is rare — and a matter of citywide consternation — for the clock to go mute. But wars and accidents happen. Initial construction was one disaster after another, and in 1916 the chimes were stopped for two years lest they guide German bomber zeppelins to the parliament building.

Read the rest of the Associated Press article…

My Hero: “Look kids! Big Ben; Parliament!” – Clark Griswold (European Vacation)

Gotta love Big Ben. Maybe it’s because it’s named after me. Maybe it’s my British ancestory or the fact that it’s just so picturesque. Or perhaps it’s because my brother gave me an engraved glass for Christmas that says, “Big Ben knows what time it is”. But, one way or another Big Ben is one of the most well-known and iconic pieces of architecture that has been built by modern civilization.

Here’s a few things most of us just don’t know about Big Ben…

The clock started keeping time on May 31 1859; the bells began ringing on July 11.

Each face is lit by 27 low-energy, radio-controlled bulbs.

The “Westminster” chimes were copied from Great St Mary’s in Cambridge.

St. Stephen’s Clock Tower was built without scaffolding, from the inside out.

Tunneling for the Jubilee line left the tower leaning 220mm (8.66 in) to the North-West.

Big Ben was named either after the commissioner of works Sir Benjamin Hall, or the heavyweight boxer Benjamin Caunt.

The bell was made in Whitechapel.

The minute hand is 14-ft long, the hour hand is 9-ft long.

The north and east faces of the clock have heaters to prevent the hands freezing.

The clock face is cleaned by abseilers every five years.

You can download the chimes as a ring tone from www.bigben.parliament.uk

Download the ringtone eh? I’m on top of that one, and you should be too, because, after 150 years of letting the bells toll, Big Ben is My Hero of the Day.

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