Cleaning out the Inbox

      We clean out the inbox with some interesting articles from around the world.

We begin with the Athletic's piece on former ABA players who are still trying to receive some pension payments from the NBA, fifty years after the NBA absorbed four ABA franchises.

The current list of twenty-three former ABA players who don't qualify for the "recognition payments" that ABA players agreed to four years ago includes Artis Gilmore, Julius Erving, Rick Barry, and Dan Issel, and they won't get the extra payments because the NBA says they already receive an NBA pension.

The four players I mentioned likely don't need the money, but I'd bet some of the others could certainly use the supplemental help.

The Smithsonian writes of an attempt to help the Eastern Box Turtle by radio telemetry.

The strategy is to track, capture, and release turtles to see how far they travel, and what are some of the issues they face in the wild, to try to figure out a strategy to stop the population decline.

I remember as a child seeing box turtles all the time, but I haven't seen one in the wild for years.

My favorite potato chips in the world used to be Jones Potato Chips, located in Mansfield, Ohio, but a 2017 regulation change forced the company to stop using partially hydrogenated oil, and it changed the flavor.

When I visited Ohio after the change, the chip that catered to Jones's fans was Ballreich's, but in recent years, Ballreich's disappeared from the shelves when I visited and was replaced by Conn's from Zanesville, Ohio, which I thought was even closer to the old Jones flavor.

I buy plenty of Conn's to bring home (Original Wavy for the Boss, Salt and Vinegar for me) on trips, but a Facebook post about an article from the Richland Source grabbed my interest.

Commenters on the article said the old taste was back with Jones (as referenced in the article), and I'm anxious to buy some to see if the former champion has a chance of reclaiming their crown as the best chip in the world!

Our next note comes from the Athletic, which discusses the future of the Seattle Kraken as the NBA expands to the Emerald City in the coming years.

The Kraken have missed the playoffs in four of their five seasons and haven't managed a foothold as an organization, as the Las Vegas Golden Knights have done in their existence.

Seattle is a basketball city first, and the Kraken's best chance was to grab success before the NBA returned.

Cleaning out the inbox-Non-Sports Version

Time to get on the ball here and get working on the inbox cleaning!
We have built up so much that we have enough to do a non-sports version!

Goodbye to Alan Young at the age of 96.
Young was best known as the befuddled owner of the talking horse, Mister Ed on the show of the same name.
Young had made his name earlier with his hosting of a variety show on CBS "The Alan Young Show in the early days of television but was best known as Wilbur Post in Mister Ed, the lovable and bewildered owner of the world's only talking horse.
Mister Ed was a show that I laugh at to this day because it is just plain funny.
I like silly shows like that, but Young looked younger than he really was as he was in his mid 40's doing Mister Ed and looked a good decade younger.
Post was also noted for his voice work in his later days including a stint as "Scrooge McDuck" in Disney's DuckTales, which I used to see a lot of when Ryan was little as he was a big fan of the Disney cartoons of that time.

My podcast on Person of Interest with Kaily Russell smashed all of our records for blog hits and podcast downloads.
Now that's more Kaily's popularity and the show more than anything I did, but I'd like to thank the POI fans for such a great response.
Buzzfeed offers a look at the show and its struggles over the last year with the CBS network despite better-than-average ratings.

Joe Plum posted a Facebook link from Atlas Obscura that looks at the hobby of collecting ready-to-eat meals from various militaries.
Oftentimes, many people post their reviews of eating these things on YouTube and there appears to be a decent trading community growing.
Technically, the buying and selling of these items are illegal, but it appears pretty harmless and fun and I would doubt that many if any would go through the hassles of prosecuting.
Looked pretty interesting to me.

My favorite chips in the world (Other than Gibble's Red Hot) will be making a change mandated by the government.
The Jones company in Mansfield, Ohio is changing the oils that made their chips so good as the government is eliminating the use of partially-hydrogenated oil and the company has to shift to corn oil.
My dad brought me a bag of the new version (I favor Salt and Vinegar) and they are good, but missing that thickness that held the excess flavoring in.
I'll miss those chips, the new ones are about as close as one can expect, but it'll never be the same.
Another childhood love goes down hard...

Are you familiar with the phrase "Smoke Filled Room" in political talk?
Time magazine writes about the origin of the term from the 1920 Republican convention in Chicago.
The article discusses the term, the decision-making, and the eventual nomination of Warren G,Harding.

When you hear about invasive species taking over an area, the poster child for this is the Burmese Python establishing a foothold in Florida, but there could be an even more dangerous species entering Florida and this one could be a potentially dangerous animal to man.
DNA testing showed that three Nile Crocodiles have been found in Florida over the last decade and that makes some (including me) wonder if they are in the wild.
The Nile Croc. is known to be a larger more aggressive competitor than the American version and has been known to attack and kill man.
The Nile Crocodile has the biggest bite force in the entire animal kingdom-In other words, he's a pretty bad dude.
National Geographic looks at the Nile, compares it to the American Crocodile and Alligator
Imagine the damage that this animal can do to the ecosystem, other species, and the safety of humans.
I hope that this is a situation that does not get worse...

That's all for now, Back later with hopefully a podcast!!