A NEWS HEADLINE: From Somewhere in This World! 

A guy in China desperate to charge his phone ended up disrupting traffic after he plugged his mobile into a traffic light. Officers found the man had opened the light’s switch box and unplugged the controller in order to charge his phone.

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A man who was notorious for stealing women’s underwear during a series of home burglaries in the Inland Empire from 2012 to 2013 was freed from prison, then arrested on suspicion of committing similar crimes in December and January. 32-year-old Diego Aguirre of Fontana was arrested on January 28th on suspicion of residential burglary in Fontana and violating parole, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reported. Aguirre is also suspected of committing recent burglaries. Aguirre was known to steal women’s underwear as well as other personal items, the Sheriff’s Department said. From November 2012 to January 2013, Chino Hills experienced about 20 residential burglaries with significant similarities. An investigation led to the arrest of Aguirre after he was found to have committed burglaries in Claremont, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Chino Hills and Riverside

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A man who allegedly impersonated a police officer in Las Vegas was arrested after pulling over a real cop in an unmarked vehicle. An arrest report shows that an on-duty Vegas officer in a plain patrol car busted 29-year-old Pedro Franco one day after he allegedly pulled over a driver on US 95 near Sunset Road. The driver told cops a suspect in a Hyundai Tucson – which was outfitted with red and blue sirens on its grill – pulled him over but then drove off. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the alert motorist then followed the compact SUV and took down its license plate before relaying the incident to police. Franco then tried the same scheme the following morning, but this time picked the officer as his potential victim. Like the day before, the Hyundai kept driving after the stop, but the officer followed the SUV to a nearby street where he took Franco into custody. Franco was busted on one count of impersonating a public official and attempted impersonation of a police officer. 

  Share these with your friends... they'll think you're really smart!

1. On average, the typical U.S. household serves Chicken 7 times per month.

2. The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It's like a human jumping the length of a football field.

3. The average guy spends 6½ hours a week playing video games.

Check out more from The John & Heidi Show. Listen every weekday morning from 6 am to 9 am on KCTKRadio.com or at www.johnandheidishow.com.

• On February 9, 1971, pitcher Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
• On February 15, 1898A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard.

“Not all readers become Leaders. But all leaders must be readers.” Harry s. Truman

Customers have questions, you have answers. Display the most frequently asked questions, so everybody benefits.

 Check out more from The Past Week – Next Week Show. Listen every weekday morning at 10 am on KCTKRadio.com. 

By Chris Whiting

    Go Fish can get pretty intense. And an intense game of Go Fish taught me a valuable life lesson at five years old. Well, actually my Grandmother taught me the life lesson, Go Fish was the curriculum, and her kitchen table was the classroom. I was learning to play games with her at the kitchen table, sort of a rite of passage as a grandkid in our family, and I had lost. I began to cry and tell her it wasn’t fair and that I wanted to win. She calmly told me that if I was only going to be happy when I won, I was going to spend a lot of time unhappy, so I better learn to really enjoy playing the game. I’ll never forget that, and many other things I learned at Grandmother’s unassuming green kitchen table.

    Even when family meals weren’t being served, odds were you could find Grandmother sitting at the table working on a crossword puzzle or writing a poem. I was fortunate to have all four of my grandparents alive and functioning until into my thirties. This gave me the opportunity to get to know them both as a child and as an adult. I was close to all of them, but probably the closest to Grandmother. We started playing games and baking cakes together at that kitchen table. Later, when I was in college, she would write me a letter, one every week for five years on that same kitchen table. I looked forward to those letters every week, and still have them in Walmart bags in my closet. After I got married, my first house was a block behind Grandmother and Grandpa. Grandmother talked to the neighbor behind her, and across the street from me, to get permission for me to walk through their yard for me to visit. And visit I would, nearly every Friday night, to hang out at the kitchen table and play Heck, a card game that was really called, “Oh, Hell” but Grandmother didn’t subscribe to such scandalous language. She was pretty proper, and not in the MC Hammer sense. I mean we called her Grandmother after all. My Grandpa liked the Benny Hill show and Grandmother was none too pleased. I, on the other hand, liked to quietly watch it with Grandpa whenever I could. Occasionally you’d catch a glimpse of a real lady boob, and on regular TV no less. Score.

    Having meals and talks, playing games, writing letters, putting in the leaf to make room for more. That kitchen table was always Grandmother’s intimate spot. Grandpa could visit (unless he was eating sardines, then he was banished to their travel trailer because she could not stand the smell) but his domain was the back porch. Make no mistake there was one sage on the mountain of that kitchen table and that was Grandmother Rhoda.

    She was a short, round little thing, always full of love and laughter. My other best memories with Grandmother were camping in their travel trailer. Our extended family would make a caravan of our travel trailers and hit the road for adventure. We’d hit local lakes for weekend trips and take one two-to-three-week trip per summer, usually somewhere in the Rockies. This was way before cell phones so we communicated with CBs, which I thought was amazing. My handle was Quarter Pounder. I suppose if it had been after 1994, I might have gone with Royale with Cheese, if I thought I could pull it off. 

    So, when Grandmother started to go downhill, I got melancholy as I could see I was going to lose my buddy. It started with her physically just being tired. I could see walking getting harder for her. And then I started to notice a far off look in her eyes like she wasn’t really there. Once that look came on it wasn’t long. She had gone to the hospital for congestive heart failure and after several days had slipped into a non-responsive state. 

Grandpa was exhausted one night in the hospital while we were visiting, and asked if me, my sister, and my wife could stay in the room with Grandmother for a while he went down the waiting room. We did. We held her hand and talked to her. We sang Mares Eat Oats and other songs she used to sing to us when we were little. And as all of this was happening, I began to become aware of things happening beyond my physical senses.

    Ram Dass says dying is like taking off a tight shoe. And I could tell Grandmother’s soul was starting to loosen the laces. I could see that her physical body was trying hard to hold on, but I had a knowing that a part of her, far more significant and enduring, was needing to move on. And in that moment, I knew I had to facilitate the parting of the two. It was a moment of stark clarity, with no fuzzy edges. I knew what I had to do, and I knew what the outcome would be. I sat and hesitated, trying to ignore the compulsion to tell her it was ok to move on. It’s certainly not good resume material, that much I know.

    Then I flashed back to a moment many years ago at Grandmother’s kitchen table when I was little. I had lost something, a meaningless possession I don’t even remember today. But I was upset and ran crying into the kitchen to talk to her. She settled me down a little bit and asked if I had prayed about it. I told her I hadn’t, and she said before I get all hysterical, I need to give my problem to God. So, in her kitchen we both got down on our knees and we prayed and gave it up to God. I do not recall if I ever found the item, but I’ve never lost the lesson of that day. 

    So, in that hospital room, with a heightened awareness that made everything crackle, I leaned over Grandmother’s struggling body and related the story of us praying in her kitchen. I thanked her for that lesson, and I told if it was time for us to give her up to God that was ok. She should go and we’d be all right. Maybe 30 seconds after I said this to her, she drew her last breath. It was a sublime and beautiful moment. Certainly, one of the holiest things I’ve ever experienced. She gave me so much during my lifetime, and even her death turned out to be one last gift to me on the way out. Love you Grandmother, until we meet again.

 PACKING TO RETURN HOME: From Tracy Noe

Pack all dirty clothes into the same suitcase then pack all remaining clean clothes in another suitcase. Also, using the Zip-lock bags to pack for your trip, following this tip, pack like-items together on the way home. You can also assign one suitcase to be mostly shoes and toiletries. 

SUPER SPINACH DIP

Ingredients

1. 10 slices   bacon

2. 8-oz.   cream cheese

3. 1/3 c.   mayonnaise

4. 1/3 c.   sour cream

5. 1 tsp.   garlic powder

6. 1 tsp.   paprika

7. 1 lb.   spinach

8. 1 c. freshly   grated Parmesan

9. 1 c. shredded   mozzarella, 

10. 1 baguette

Directions

· Preheat   oven to 350°. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook bacon until   crispy, 8 min.

· In a   large bowl, stir together cream cheese, mayonnaise, sour cream, garlic   powder, and paprika and season with salt and pepper. Fold in chopped spinach,   bacon, Parmesan, and ¾ cup of mozzarella.

· Transfer dip to a baking dish and sprinkle with   remaining mozzarella. Bake for, 25 min..

Check out more Tracy’s Tips & Dips. Listen every weekday at 11:30 am on KCTKRadio.com.   

 How many poets does it take to change a light bulb? 

· Three. One to curse the darkness, one to light a candle and one to change the bulb.