Schmidt Meister's Grab Bag

[Schmidt Meister]

Lines of farmers bring cucumbers to market for the pickle industry in Mt. Olive, NC in June of 1947.
In 1926 the Mt. Olive Pickle Company was formally incorporated by local business people in Wayne County.
The effort to start the company arose within the community, and the original group of 13 local shareholders invested $19,500 to establish a company to pack and sell pickles.
The shareholders purchased an acre of land for $1,000, constructed a 3,600-square-foot building and hired a factory superintendent and a sales representative. The salesman, Shickrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant, had conceived of the idea for the factory when he saw cucumbers rotting in area fields. Within just a few weeks, the number of shareholders grew from 13 to 21.
Mt. Olive Pickle Company started an employee profit sharing program in 1943, becoming one of the first companies in the country to do so. In the early days, records indicate that most of the work at the plant was done by hand. Since then, it has grown into an innovative and modern facility distributing the country’s bestselling brand of pickles.
Today, the factory complex still includes that original acre and is located at the corner of Cucumber and Vine Streets in Mt. Olive.

We use several Mt. Olive products in our household. Kosher spears are almost everyday snacks around here. We also eat them with several meals. They taste good and the quality seems very consistent. You can't make Southern deviled eggs without sweet relish, hot dog relish is just a necessity for cookouts because the kids don't usually like slaw, and pickled okra is just ... southern snack material.

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

WHOA, that truck is HAULIN' @SS !!

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

Ravens are said to be the most intelligent of all birds. This one is fishing with a piece of bread. But he knows his limitations and removes it when the carp that are too large to eat come after it and waits for a smaller fish.

[Schmidt Meister]

Thank goodness, I was never like that .... rofl.

[Schmidt Meister]

Be careful what you wish for…
When I was 14, I hoped that one day I would have a girlfriend with big boobs.
When I was 16, I got a girlfriend with big boobs but there was no passion, so I decided I needed a passionate girl with zest for life.
In college I dated a passionate girl but she was too emotional. Everything was an emergency; she was a drama queen, cried all the time and threatened suicide. So I decided I needed a girl with stability.
When I was 25, I found a very stable girl but she was boring. She was totally predictable and never got excited about anything. Life became so dull that I decided that I needed a girl with some excitement.
When I was 28, I found an exciting girl but I couldn’t keep up with her. She rushed from one thing to another, never settling on anything. She did mad impetuous things and made me miserable as often as happy. She was great fun initially and very energetic, but directionless. So I decided to find a girl with some real ambition.
When I turned 30, I found a smart ambitious girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground, so I married her. She was so ambitious that she divorced me and took everything I owned.
I am older and wiser now and I am looking for a girl … with big boobs …

[Schmidt Meister]

[Schmidt Meister]

Yeah, when I was younger, I used to have that problem. When your stuff pokes out so far you have to learn how to maneuver around so you don't knock things off of the shelf or in this case, so you don't skin up the trees.

[Schmidt Meister]

I was in lust/love with her back in the day. Donna Douglas aka Ellie Mae.

[Schmidt Meister]

It's really, really sad how racist these b@st@rds have me start feeling. I've got to the point where almost everything I see, I have to rethink it because I see it with my racist eye also. When I first watched this little gif, it was just funny. Now I almost didn't want to post it because of the colors of the cats and the implications. I feel bad, in a small little way, but those b@st@rds made me this way. SMDH. I don't even know if y'all understand what I mean because y'all may not feel this way.

[Schmidt Meister]

Wow, it's been a long time since I got a 1 day suspension. They usually give me 30 to 90 days.

[Schmidt Meister]

Everybody has probably seen the advertisement below. I thought it was funny and I guess I always assumed it was fake or photoshopped, whatever. So I started searching for info on the Crosby's Molasses. As I searched for the product, I came up with a clear picture of the ad, in addition to several others. Obviously Crosby's doesn't mind getting a little risque with Grandma's business. I have no idea if this is real but if it is, it shows guts and has stood the test of time.

And also, it seems like Grandma's muffins got so popular, you could buy Crosby's Molasses in a 5 gallon can.

I've heard they make guacamole with whats left over of the moles after they use the asses.

[railfancwb]

If you have a functional time piece you can tell the time. If you have several functional time pieces best you can do is tell about what time it is. 

[Schmidt Meister]

I was going through the line at Winn Dixie yesterday and I put a box of feminine pads, a bag of Reece’s peanut butter cups, a family sized bag of Doritos, a large jar of salsa, two bottles of red wine and some Midol on the belt. The cute girl bagging groceries said “You want me to wrap up those glass items and put everything in one bag so you can just sling it in the front door and run?"

The “So You Don’t Get Your Ass Gnawed Off” Starter Pack

[Ramjet38]

On 2/26/2024 at 11:31 AM, Schmidt Meister said:

WHOA, that truck is HAULIN' @SS !!

I thought it was the House Democrats going to a hotdog fundraiser.

[Schmidt Meister]

Pet Gila monster bites Colorado man, who dies in what experts call a "rare event.”

The Jefferson County coroner has confirmed that a 34-year-old Colorado man died this month, days after being bitten by one of his two pet Gila monsters.
"I think this case highlights that any venomous animals should be respected," said Dr. Nick Brandehoff, a medical toxicologist and expert in reptile bites with the Asclepius Snakebite Foundation, who was consulted on the Lakewood Gila monster case.
Gila monsters are venomous reptiles found in the southwestern United States. While their bites can be painful, they are normally not fatal to humans. Experts say that the last report of a human dying from a Gila monster bite was in 1930.
"The vast majority of bites cause local swelling and bleeding," said Brandehoff, who said the bites can cause intense localized pain and can cause victims to pass out. But deaths are exceedingly rare.
"The last case I have been able to find," said Brandehoff, "was 1930 and that was not even a medical journal case."
According to several experts involved in the Lakewood case, the man -- who has not been identified -- owned two pet Gila monsters and was bitten by one of them on Feb. 12. It was a juvenile and about 12 inches long. The owner was hospitalized and died the Friday leading into the Presidents Day holiday weekend -- four days after the animal bit him.
The Jefferson County Coroner's Office confirmed the death, saying an autopsy was performed on the bite victim but the precise cause of death won't be known until additional toxicology testing is completed. (WTF???)
Eric Harper, a criminal investigator with Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said CPW was asked to remove the Gila monsters from the home after the bite. He told CBS News Colorado it is illegal to own Gila monsters in Colorado without a license. Harper said the victim also owned tarantulas which are not illegal to own.
Harper said the Lakewood incident may be an anomaly, but it shows "venomous reptiles are hazardous and should only be handled or possessed by people with the proper training."
Harper and Brandehoff both said the reptile that bit its owner will be transported this week to a lab in Greeley at the University of Northern Colorado, where its venom will be extracted and studied to bring a greater understanding as to why its bite led to its owner's death. (WTF ??? 2.0 … are these guys supposed to be experts in toxicology ??)
Brandehoff said experts will "look at the venom components and see if there is some reason this might occur." He said while it's early in the investigation, he suspects the victim may have suffered some kind of allergic reaction to the Gila monster's venom. (DAYUM PEOPLE … IT’S A VENOMOUS REPTILE AND IT HAS “MONSTER” IN THE DAMN NAME … IF IT BITES YOU, YOU COULD DIE …SMDH.)
The Lakewood Police Department says the two Gila monsters were removed from the victim's home and taken to a wildlife rehab center in another state.

https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/gila-monster-bites-kills-colorado-pet-owner-lakewood-man-rare/

[Schmidt Meister]

 Facebook post from one of my friends at my former workplace. He's a Patriot and has an excellent sense of humor ... and a true friend.

[Schmidt Meister]

I’m a classic rock, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Eagles, Boston, Fleetwood Mac, kind of guy. Why does this song appeal so much to me???

0 - Sade - Smooth Operator - Official - 1984

 

[Schmidt Meister]

(You have to skip to the second video, I had no luck in getting a link to just the second one for some reason.)
Excellent advice for all the liberal “I don’ need no man” feministas out there. (Although I’m thinking this was done totally out of a sense of humor.)

 

[Schmidt Meister]

It's another long one ...

Columbia University Hospital DEI Chief Is Serial Plagiarist, Complaint Alleges.
Alade McKen plagiarized PAGES of material from Wikipedia.
Aaron Sibarium - February 29, 2024

The chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer of Columbia University's medical school, Alade McKen, plagiarized extensively in his doctoral dissertation, lifting entire pages of material, without attribution, from sources that include Wikipedia, according to a complaint submitted to the university on Wednesday.
The allegations implicate approximately a fifth of McKen's 163-page dissertation, "'UBUNTU' I am because we are: A case study examining the experiences of an African-centered Rites of Passage program within a community-based organization," submitted to Iowa State University's School of Education in 2021. More than two of those pages are a near-verbatim facsimile of Wikipedia's entry on "Afrocentric education," which is not cited anywhere in the dissertation.
Other pages lift paragraphs from well-known African scholars, including the University of Rwanda's Chika Ezeanya-Esiobu, while making small tweaks to their prose, such as reordering certain clauses or changing a "were" to a "was."
Some of the scholars McKen allegedly plagiarized appear in the dissertation's bibliography but not in in-text citations. Others, like Ezeanya-Esiobu, an expert on "indigenous knowledge" who has worked with numerous international agencies, including the World Bank, aren't cited at all.
"The passages you shared can definitely be classified as plagiarism," Ezeanya-Esiobu told the Washington Free Beacon. McKen lifts pages worth of material from Ezeanya-Esiobu's 2019 chapter "A Faulty Foundation: Historical Origins of Formal Education Curriculum in Africa," published in the Frontiers in African Business Research book series.
Columbia's research integrity officer, Naomi Schrag, did not respond to a request for comment. Iowa State University did not respond to a request for comment.
McKen, who holds a certificate in diversity and inclusion from Cornell University, oversees all DEI programs for staff at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, which includes Columbia's flagship medical school, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and is the largest campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The center's DEI initiatives include mandatory "antiracism" training for faculty and admissions officers, as well as an expedited hiring process for minority scholars.
McKen also works with the Columbia provost's office, according to a fall 2023 bulletin announcing his appointment. That office oversees tenure decisions for the entire university, including the medical school. Columbia did not respond to a request for comment about whether McKen has oversight of faculty and doctors.
Before arriving at the medical center, McKen was the assistant dean of recruitment, diversity, and inclusion for Columbia's graduate school of architecture. His current role was created in 2021 when the medical center hired Tonya Richards as its inaugural chief diversity officer. The new position came as the university was embarking on an ambitious plan to address "structural racism" in health care, guided by a 100-person task force drawn from Columbia's four medical schools: the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as the schools of nursing, dentistry, and public health.
"It is very clear that promotion of diversity or even the presence of diversity is insufficient to counter deeply embedded anti-Black racism," read the task force's 2020 report. "Our self-reflection and actions at this time must be focused on the elimination of racism in all aspects of our work."
The complaint against McKen, which was filed anonymously, marks the third time in one month that a diversity administrator at an Ivy League school has been hit with charges of plagiarism. Other complaints have alleged that Harvard Extension School's Title IX coordinator, Shirley Greene, copied paragraphs and tables from other scholars without proper attribution and that Harvard University's chief diversity officer, Sherri Ann Charleston, took credit for an entire study done by her husband. The allegations against both officials followed the downfall of former Harvard president Claudine Gay, who resigned after nearly half her published work was implicated in a plagiarism scandal.
McKen's dissertation contains some of the most extreme examples of plagiarism thus far. The 50-page complaint, which was submitted to Iowa State University as well as Columbia, outlines nearly 60 cases in which McKen, who assumed his post at the medical center last year, borrows passages from Africanists, education scholars, and diversity consultants without attribution.
One of the plagiarized authors is Kwayera Archer-Cunningham, a "change agent" and "well-being coach" who offers courses on "decoloniality." McKen lifts over five paragraphs from Archer-Cunningham's 2007 journal article "Cultural Arts Education as Community Development: An Innovative Model of Healing and Transformation," in New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education.
As with Ezeanya-Esiobu, McKen makes scant changes to the plagiarized text. One passage simply switches the order of two items in a bulleted list while keeping their contents identical, and without citing Archer-Cunningham's paper in parentheses.
The passages appear to run afoul of Iowa State University's plagiarism policy, which state that "it is a violation for students to reproduce another person's paper, work or artistry, even with modifications."
McKen did not respond to a request for comment. Archer-Cunningham, who founded the Brooklyn-based arts academy on which McKen's dissertation research was based, did not respond to a request for comment.
McKen also lifts a jargon-filled passage from LaGarrett King, a scholar of black education at the University of Buffalo who urges the "dismantling" of "white epistemic logic." King is not cited anywhere in the dissertation and did not respond to a request for comment.
Another paragraph cribs from a 2002 paper by Michael Adeyemi and Augustus Adeyinka, "Some Key Issues In African Traditional Education," published in the McGill Journal of Education. McKen never cites the 2002 paper, though he does include a different article by Adeyemi and Adeyinka—both scholars at the University of Botswana—in his bibliography.
Adeyemi and Adeyinka did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint alleges that McKen plagiarized over 30 authors total, not including Wikipedia. While the allegations only cover his dissertation, McKen has published multiple academic articles, according to his Google Scholar profile, with titles such as "Black Men in Engineering Graduate Education: Experiencing Racial Microaggressions Within the Advisor–Advisee Relationship" and "I Am Because We Are," which explores "how African cultural practices can direct learning toward liberation."
In September, McKen outlined his DEI priorities in a news bulletin for the medical center. "Everyone here," he said, "is committed to doing the work."

Aaron Sibarium’s Twitter thread on the Alade McKen complaint here:
https://twitter.com/aaronsibarium/status/1763192727762509855

The Washington Free Beacon article here:
https://freebeacon.com/campus/columbia-university-hospital-dei-chief-is-serial-plagiarist-complaint-alleges/

I think maybe he's committed to COPYING the work.

[Schmidt Meister]

Here's another one ...

Survivors, families of those killed at Nova festival on Oct. 7 file suit against AP.
(Reuters is also included in that suit.)
Federal complaint filed in Florida against news agency over its ties to freelance photojournalists accused of being embedded with terrorists during Hamas massacre.
A number of survivors of the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel and families of victims of the unprecedented terror assault have filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press, accusing the news agency of being complicit in the Palestinian terror group’s killing spree over four months ago by working with freelance photojournalists they believe were embedded with the thousands of terrorists who overran southern communities.
The plaintiffs are dual Israeli-US nationals and Americans who attended the Supernova music festival at Kibbutz Re’im on October 7, where terrorists massacred some 360 in and around the area, as well as families of those killed.
They filed a federal complaint on Wednesday night in the Southern District of Florida suing the AP for damages under the Antiterrorism Act. They are being represented by the National Jewish Advocacy Center which accuses the AP of “materially supporting terrorism” by purchasing images during and after the October 7 attack, when thousands of terrorists killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 253 into Gaza.
The lawsuit names four freelance photographers whose work was bought and published by the AP and other outlets, claiming they are “known Hamas associates who were gleefully embedded with the Hamas terrorists during the October 7th attacks.”
The four captured some of the earliest images, widely disseminated, of the shock attack as it was unfolding.
AP said the case was “baseless.”
In early November, pro-Israel watchdog group Honest Reporting published a report showing that photographers — including the four mentioned in the suit — used by the AP, Reuters, The New York Times, and CNN provided images taken as the attack was ongoing from the border area and from inside Israel — intimating they may have had advance knowledge of the assault.
The organization listed four photojournalists whose names appear in Associated Press pictures from the Israel-Gaza border area on October 7: Hassan Eslaiah, Yousef Masoud, Ali Mahmud, and Hatem Ali.
The complaint focuses mainly on Eslaiah, who, according to the Honest Reporting report, crossed the border into Israel and took pictures of a burning IDF tank. He also photographed attackers entering Kibbutz Kfar Aza, where dozens of civilians were massacred. The report said that in now-removed tweets posted to his X feed, Eslaiah was seen in front of the tank but not wearing a press vest that would identify him as a member of the media.

Mahmud and Ali both took pictures of people being abducted from Israel into Gaza, the report said.
The report also raised questions about the relationship between some of the photographers and the Hamas terror group that rules Gaza. Eslaiah appeared in a photo from 2020 being kissed by Hamas’s Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar. Eslaiah posted the photo on January 9, 2020.
AP, Reuters and The New York Times all denied having any prior knowledge of the October 7 attack. AP and CNN have also since severed ties with Eslaiah, who has denied any prior knowledge of the attack.
The New York Times said that Masoud, whose photographs of an Israeli tank captured by Hamas were used by the newspaper and AP, also did not know. His first photographs that day were filed 90 minutes after the devastating onslaught began.
After the denials, Honest Reporting said it was simply “raising questions” by publicly wondering whether Palestinian photojournalists who documented the assault and sent some of the first images had been tipped off in advance.
The lawsuit filed this week charges that “AP willfully chose to turn a blind eye to these facts, and instead profited from its terrorist photographer’s participation in the massacre through its publication of the ‘exclusive’ images, for which it certainly paid a premium, effectively funding a terrorist organization.”
“There is no doubt that AP’s photographers participated in the October 7th massacre, and that AP knew, or at the very least should have known, through simple due diligence, that the people they were paying were longstanding Hamas affiliates and full participants in the terrorist attack that they were also documenting,” the complaint alleged.
AP’s vice president of corporate communications Lauren Easton said in a statement Thursday that “The Associated Press has the deepest sympathy for those affected by the horrific Oct. 7 attacks in Israel” and that the “lawsuit filed Wednesday against AP for its reporting on the attacks is baseless.”
“AP had no advance knowledge of the Oct. 7 attacks, nor have we seen any evidence – including in the lawsuit – that the freelance journalists who contributed to our coverage did. Allegations like this are reckless and create even more potential danger for journalists in the region,” she said.
In November, Easton said that “the first pictures AP received from any freelancer show they were taken more than an hour after the attacks began” at around 6:30 a.m. local time on October 7.
“No AP staff were at the border at the time of the attacks, nor did any AP staffer cross the border at any time,” she said. “We are no longer working with Hassan Eslaiah, who had been an occasional freelancer for AP and other international news organizations in Gaza.”
National Jewish Advocacy Center director Mark Goldfeder told the New York Post that “media organizations do not have any special right to act with impunity and pretend that they don’t know whom they are paying.”
“And as other cases have made clear, it does not matter that the people AP was paying, with whom they had longstanding relationships, were freelancers and not employees; the issue is that AP was furnishing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, not in what capacity the terrorists were cashing the checks.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/survivors-families-of-those-killed-at-nova-festival-on-oct-7-file-suit-against-ap/

[Schmidt Meister]

Facebook pulled up one of my memories from the middle of 2023. - LOL

BREAKING: After reviewing tapes and tabulating total wiener consumption, Joey Chestnut’s recent title of Nathan’s 4th of July Coney Island hot dog Championship has been revoked after it was revealed that later that day, Kamala Harris actually bypassed Chestnuts record of 62 wieners. Kamala finished 7 wieners ahead of Chestnut at the last minute by devouring Joey’s wiener along with two judges wieners and 4 close bystander wieners. It has not been revealed how the contest time period was delayed but clocks were unexplainably paused and restarted later that day.