Dave Cremin from Ireland with an amazing card trick

Dave Cremin from Ireland amazes the crowd....This one is a show stopper.

Everything's amazing and nobody's happy...

A dose of reality for those in our society who need it. Yes, we have serious issues in our country but we also benefit from technology more than anyone can imagine. Our issues are man-made and we can fix them. Leadership like we got from Harry Truman, Winston Churchill and Ike would be helpful instead of the charlatan in the White House or the other POLs that claim to be able to do the job.

I want us to keep working to do better and maybe every once in a while, it is good to stop and appreciate all we are blessed with in our lives.

Bugatti resurrected from the bottom of a Swiss lake after 73 years

It is amazing that the old girl survived this long in the muck at the bottom of the lake...and that they can pull her out in one piece.

I am sure that most of what is there is a loss but I bet that there are parts which will be salvaged and made useful again, especially those made of brass and other non-rustable metals.

Vintage Bugatti to be auctioned off after spending 73 years on bottom of lake
RPMGO.COM

Bugatti is one of the most prestigious carmakers in the world, enjoying a fantastic history filled with bold models, which continue even today, with the Veyron hypercar and the possible upcoming Galibier model. That is why vintage cars made by the company fetch for such high amounts of money.

But the love of Bugatti collectors from around the world will seriously be tested, as auction house Bonhams has announced that it will selling a Bugatti Brescia Type 13. That’s all fine and dandy, but the odd part is the fact that the car has spent 73 years on the bottom of a lake in Switzerland.

How it got there is even more interesting, as it belonged to a young Italian architect, Marco Schmuklerski, from Nancy, France, on April 11, 1925. He then took it to Switzerland, but decided not to pay the taxes at the customs office, and relied on the speed of the car to escape. But seeing as how the customs officers were still searching for his car, and that Swiss law allowed for the cars involved in crimes to be destroyed, he decided to hide his car. A perfectly simple plan, but he decided that the best hiding place, as you might have guessed, would be in a lake. He wrapped the Bugatti in chains and dunked it in the lake, but due to the weight of the car, the chains snapped, and the car was stuck in the thick mud on the bottom of the lake.

And the car remained stuck there until the summer of this year, attracting many tourists. The mud also helped preserve some of the original paint, and even the air in the tires. Of course it isn’t in the best shapes, as you can see in the pics, but I’m sure many people will bid for such a model. Be warned that the starting price is €500,000, but the money will all go to a children’s charity in Italy

GOOD NEWS - Man searches for and finds Grandfather's World War II Jeep

Too often, I've been commenting on the stories of the day - Politics - Afghanistan - Buffoonery - Greedy Unions, etc., etc.

NOW - here is a feel good story about an OLD JEEP that belonged to David Keckan's Grandad during WW2....I am glad to give you a story to read that doesn't involve all of the usual subjects and suspects.

Search for grandfather's World War II past leads to a ride in his old Jeep
Brian Albrecht

AURORA, Ohio -- David Keckan's odyssey into the past started with 523 letters from the grandfather he never knew.

The letters were written by his grandfather, Walter Neton, to Keckan's great-grandparents when Neton was serving as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division in Europe from 1942-47, during and just after World War II.

Keckan, 24, an Aurora substitute teacher and coach, said these missives were discovered by his mother and aunt five years ago. "I started reading them and realized, wow, this is like a love story," he recalled.

The letters traced his grandfather's service from D-Day through Germany, and Neton's whirlwind romance with a Polish woman, Alena Socha, whom he met and married two weeks after his unit liberated the Nazi labor camp where she was imprisoned. (Neton knew how to speak Polish from his immigrant parents.)

Keckan was intrigued. His grandmother died in 1985 and his grandfather died just after Keckan was born in 1986, so he never heard their wartime story.

He started searching the internet and not only found an account of his grandparents' wedding in an old regimental newsletter, but also located and visited their best man in Virginia.

Keckan learned how his grandparents were married at an old church in Austria, followed by a reception in the company mess hall decorated with colored parachutes. Music was provided by a band of Polish soldiers, and the newlyweds left for their honeymoon in a Jeep donated by Neton's commander, dragging empty clanking gas cans behind it.

But Keckan's search wasn't finished. He found a photo of his grandfather sitting in a Jeep, and just for the heck of it, plugged the vehicle's serial number (painted on the hood) into an Internet search.

No. 20185903 came back a hit, owned by Dennis Burns, 63, of Fremont, Calif.
Burns said he bought the surplus Jeep in 2001 after finding it rusting away in a rural barn. He paid $1,200 for the vehicle and spent more than $12,000 restoring it for use in parades and as a tribute to his parents, who both served in the military during World War II.

He said the Jeep was probably rebuilt in 1945, using parts from other vehicles, and the hood may be the only original part remaining from the Jeep that Keckan's grandfather drove during training in the U.S., before shipping off to Europe.

Burns invited Keckan out for a ride in the Jeep in this year's July 4 parade in Fremont, and later let him drive it.

"It was pretty cool. I didn't know how to drive a stick shift, but somehow I drove perfectly," Keckan recalled. "As I drove, I just knew my grandfather was sitting right next to me, holding my hand."

Burns was equally impressed with Keckan's search. "I think we need more Davids in this world to continue the history and not let it be forgotten," he said. "He's fantastic."

Keckan's mother, Cindy Keckan, 54, of Aurora, also was surprised by how far her son got in researching his grandfather's story.

"Oh my gosh, I have two brothers and a sister and we learned a lot that we never knew, and probably never would've known if David hadn't done this," she said.

Her parents never talked much about the war, she added. Her father concentrated on running a service station in Conneaut while her mother was a dedicated homemaker.

She was surprised by her son's discovery of the best man at her parents' wedding. To further find the Jeep was "amazing," she said; noting that now he'd like to locate more information about his grandmother.

"I don't know what his next find will be," she added, "But there's probably something out there that'll surprise all of us."