Clyde And His Bonnie

The legend of Bonnie and Clyde is at it again. A married couple from Quincy, MA ; Joseph and Jennifer Carrier, decided to support their heroin habit by robbing banks up and down the East Coast with their seven dogs in tow. Their brazen crime spree started in Ludlow Mass when they robbed a bank and made off with not-enough-cash-to-make-it-worth-it. To make things worse-the couple made their getaway in a stolen brown Buick Encore-that Jennifer is wanted for the theft of.

Living the glamorous life of crime, these two then continued on to Florida where the Bonnie and Clyde act continued. Joseph walked into a Wells Fargo in Palm Coast and demanded "large bills". The teller reportedly gave him $300.00, before he reached in and grabbed more leaving with $800.00 total. I'm not sure these two-with their seven Brussel Griffons dogs-can live a life in the lamb and support a heroin habit on $800.00.

So they would, of course have to do it again. And do it again they did, yesterday. This time they chose a bank in Wilmington, Delaware and took off in the stolen car. Police were called and the couple was spotted on I-95 where a high speed  chase ensued.You know how that goes... the couple was arrested and taken into custody. I'm thinking Bonnie and Clyde didn't have a heroin habit that made them sick, but the addiction is still the same. The addiction the the high. The high that they get from stealing and the high they get from the drugs.

These two had a better ending to the story than Bonnie and Clyde, although they may not think so. They get to continue living-without each other-in prison and have a chance at getting clean and turning their lives around. Bonnie and Clyde didn't get that opportunity-prison or not. They ended up dead. Killed by the authorities that hunted them in an ambush. Although their story went on  o became one of legend the real tragedy is that they never got to live long enough to realize that crime, really doesn't pay.

Just Say No

So Frack went to a concert last night. It was the DJ Avicii Concert at Boston's TD Garden venue. As a full fledged member of the "Moms That Are Overly Protective" club, I had a brief chat with Frack about concert safety and drugs and drinking. It was one of those talks that when finished, the response is ALWAYS...
"Ya, I know mom". I am a strong believer in sharing all the wisdom and warnings to my children so that maybe, just maybe, they will hear their mother's words in their head and think twice.

Well that mother's intuition thing I got going on was dead on....

Today's Boston Herald had this headline:

Dozens hospitalized during DJ Avicii show at TD Garden

EMS: Many teens were being treated

I immediately texted Frack a pic of the story. He was at work. Last night when Frack arrived home safely, I was waiting up for him. We had a pleasant conversation and off he went to bed warning me that he had to get up early for work today. I saw no evidence of hard partying, to which I was grateful. Frick, Frack, My Guy and I have had many a conversation about drug use. My Guy and I shared our experiences with them both, as they don't amount to much, and by that I mean neither of us had ever even tried hallucinogenics of any kind. Call us square, but I'm not completely innocent. I may be part of that 80% of adults that recreationally use marijuana, or I may not. But it always stopped there.Whatever the case, at the ages my kids are, My Guy and I try to have honest conversations about drugs with the kids. 

And Frack's  response to my text this morning?

"Yeah, I know" 

"A lot of kids on Molly. That would suck to be those kids."

I'm glad that Frack is a very good listener. 

George Jung SPRUNG!

Remember back in September I wrote about one of my favorite movies.."Blow"...here? The reality of the story based on George Jung's life was that after serving 20 years in prison, the 71 year old Jung was to be released from prison this Thanksgiving day, 2014.

I awoke this am to my BFF texting me that TMZ.com was reporting that the tittle character in the movie "Blow", George Jung was RELEASED yesterday! I could hardly believe it, but it's true. According to the celebrity gossip site TMZ.com, Jung was released early for "reasons unknown".

Word has it Jung will be released to a half way house in California, where he will begin his transition  back into society. As someone who had followed this story from the beginning, I'm happy for George and I wish him luck on the outside. They say a leopard never changes it's spots, so if that's true let's hope Boston George has changed his spots by now. The alternative is is to BLOW his chance at freedom.

Blow-n Away

After a long day at work, I was sitting on the sofa in front of the TV flipping through the channels. Everyone else had retired to bed. I was savoring the last few moments alone when I came across the movie Blow. I had remembered seeing the movie a while ago and remembered liking it, so I figured I'd watch on for a bit. I became mesmerized with the story again.

Blow, described as a "biopic docu-drama" based on the true life story of George Jung, a huge cocaine trafficker in the 70's and 80's, stars Johnny Depp and Penolope Cruz. Jung in his heyday, was responsible for over 85% of all of the cocaine brought into the United States. The real George Jung who more likely resembles Bella Ligosi than the handsome Johnny Depp, was a major player. The American Part of the Medellin Cartel, Jung started out selling marijuana and was smuggling huge amounts to the US in airplanes he stole from private airports in Cape Cod and other locations. He was arrested in Chicago in 1974 and was sentenced to prison where he served in Danbury, CT. His cell mate while there, Carlos Lehder, was a small time criminal with some big time connections. Upon their release, Lehder introduced Jung to the Columbian Cartel and Jung taught Lehder how to smuggle. It was then that their very profitable cocaine business began.

In the height of their cocaine reign, they were said to be making millions and millions of dollars. Jung lived a life that was enviable by even Hollywood standards and he showed it off. He married Mirtha Jung, played by Penelope Cruz, a beautiful Columbian who had a taste for cocaine and money, and they had a daughter Christina. During that height Jung charged $10,000.00 per kilogram and had 5 planes a day carrying 300 kilograms from Columbia to California. Jung would make $15 million a run. Jung needed to launder that crazy drug money , so he kept it in the National Bank of Panama City.

Then, as the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end", (it's also questionable if this was a good thing) and Jung's wealthy house of cards came tumbling down. The bank in Panama City siezed his money and his wife ratted him out to the cops during a drug-induced traffic stop that sent him to prison. While he was in prison, his wife divorced him and took away his one true love, his daughter. Upon his release, Jung allegedly tried to get clean and worked odd jobs, then decided to reconnect with his old contacts and get back into the business. He was betrayed by his old associates and was arrested for drug trafficking yet again, this time he was sentenced to 60 years.

Jung is scheduled for release in November, 2014, and here's the investing thing: at 71 years old, the guy stands a good chance of making some serious money. In some circles he is considered a celebrity and get this, he has a legitimate website. Check out georgejung.com if you are interested because I think this guy has nine lives for real.

As I said, I was captivated by this story and while doing my research, I found that I am not alone. It's a fact, according to georgejung.com, that interest in this story always spikes when the movie airs on television. To say that he's an interesting character is an understatement. Some believe him to be a legend, others see him as a criminal . I'm not quite sure what I think other than he is fascinating.

And I truly believe that this is not the end of the Goerge Jung story.

O-h No Khlo! Say It Ain't So

I could hardly believe the news when I heard it this morning. 

Lamar Odom is a crack addict??? Stop it. Really? 

Word outta TMZ land is that Klohe Kardashian's hubby of 4 years, Lamar, has been riding the crack train pretty hard for a few years now and I can't beleve they kept it a secret for this long, but they did. When it comes to all things Kardashian, I have to admit to watching the show regularly, as it's a guilty pleasure I won't deny myself. It's completely mindless which makes it incredibly easy for me to step away from my own madness get lost into the madness of their lives. My Guy says they are responsible for the "dumbing down" of America, and I'd be hard pressed to argue with him. Still I watch the show because there is something uncannily engaging about this self-centered, self absorbed, rediculous bunch. 

Khloe was always my favorite because of her honest, in your face approach. When she married Lamar after meeting 4 weeks before, no one thought it would last. Khloe and Lamar beat the odds and became fan favorites in the process. I watched the now defunct series, "Khloe and Lamar"  and followed their first years as newlyeds. They seemed to have it all, but word now is Lamar had been battling the demons of drug use all the while. 

So comes today's report that I read on Sports Illustrated.com that Lamar has been missing for three days and feared to be on a crack-fuled drug binge. TMZ is reporting That Khloe threw Lamar out of their house on Wednesday when Lamar would not coorporate with a planned intervention. Apparently fed up with Lamar's drug use, Khloe gave her husband an ultimatum: Clean up or get out. Odom chose the latter and has not been in contact with anyone since. 

Such a shame, really. It would seem that they had a great marriage and life together, but everything is not always as it would seem. I wish them both strength and peace as they travel this ugly road ahead and Ii will hope for the best. Obnoxious or not, rich, spoiled, entitled, overbearing and any other adjective you can attach to the Kardashian moniker, this stuff is real. And stuff this real is hard and has a 50-50 chance of ending very badly. 

I don't  wish that kind of pain on anyone. 

Witty Wednesday

This is me in a million years......well, maybe not a million.

Crack is Wack Part II

I have to admit that since Whitney's death I have been reading everything and anything that pops up about the tragic and troubled diva. I didn't even know that I cared that much, but apparently I do. What's even more tragic is that I'm about to admit that I have recently been watching YouTube episodes of Bravo's now defunct reality show, "Being Bobby Brown". It's like research and I just need to get a glimpse into what went on in their lives so that I can make sense of the train wreck of it all.

And you do get a glimpse of it, if not all of it on that show. So when Yesterday's news came out about Bobby Brown being homeless, broke and living out of his car, it just didn't sit well with me.

Ok, so Bobby Brown was broke and homeless after Whitney kicked his broke-ass outta her house and went to rehab to clean up her act. Why is this big news? We didn't just go to school to eat lunch cuz we all know where the $$ came from. The fact is that Whitney's fortune, at one time estimated to be $240 million, was dwindling. (cuz $240 mil can buy you a lot of rock for a real long time)Which means that Whitney cut him loose to try and save her sinking ship.

I am not saying that Bobby was the degenerate drug addict in the relationship or that Whitney's life was ruined because of his influence on her drug use. On the contrary, I fully believe that Whitney was the real addict here and that Brown was a man who did what he always did to get by. He smoked, he snorted, he ingested, he drank, he ate and he did it all on his wife's dime. It was Whitney who had the real love affair with the pipe. We may never know what the whole truth is and who says we need to.

But the fact that Brown's money troubles and homelessness after his divorce are big news today puzzle me. We already knew this, and if you live in Boston like I do, its no surprise. In the past decade, Brown has been sentenced to jail for non support of his children who live here at least twice and he was always in the news for being in court to answer deadbeat dad charges. Bobby and the Massachusetts court system are like peas and carrots, so why the sudden, "woe is me" PR. What's his motive?

While Whitney isn't around anymore to tell him to, "kiss my ass!" and refute the crap he will undoubtedly be spewing, I'm betting the business man in Brown ain't no fool. He sees $$$ all over this because of people just like me. We have absolutely no right to know the truth, yet we have the deepest desire to know the truth and we comprise a market that will spend money on it. Sad but true.

I'm thinking that Bobby Brown's homeless days are over, and I think he has his deceased x-wife to thank for a big part of that. I'm also hoping he cleans his act up and does something good beside impregnating women and then leaving them broke and penniless. But that might be too much to ask for a guy who just does what he does to get by. I also pray that his daughter, Bobbi Christina gets the help she needs to clean up her act too. According to Bobby Brown he was her primary caretaker.

Is there a pattern here?

Crack is Wack

We lost another one to the almighty pipe. Tragic, really. But not surprising.

Poor Whitney.

Some wondered what took so long. Some wondered how her drug habit grew to the gargantuan proportions that it was, and some wondered why? She really seemed to "almost have it all"; so much for having it all. Whatever it was that she had, she tried very hard to surpress it and it eventually killed her.

I was curious about the woman, the legend that is Whitney because I remember her. I can mark the important events of my life with her music and she was a big part of my youth. Yesterday I scoured the Internet for answers.

I came across an interview with Oprah and read through to find some answers. What I found was a woman who was deeply conflicted and somewhat regretful that her star shone brighter than her husband's. It was an issue between them and quite possibly the root of her evil. On the outside she seemed to have everything. The money, the fame, the voice, the beauty and deep inside she had the demons. She was deeply religious and she believed in marriage and there is no denying, they abused drugs together. Insiders still blame him for her downfall, yet they split in the fall of 2006 and Whitney continued to use drugs.

One thing we can all agree on, there was no other voice like hers. Her story will always start with her voice, yet end with her drug habit. Her legacy tainted, now cautionary tale for us to tell our children. What we are left with is her music.

And we will always love her music.

Hippie Lettuce

Some people are just hippies.

It's a fact, and it's quite possible that being a hippie is as much about "hippie-ism" being a lifestyle choice, as it is an innate personality characteristic. Some people are pure Bohemian's at heart and the free-spirited hippie speaks to their soul. And if the hippie is in your soul, then the hippie lettuce can't be too far behind. The two go hand in hand. Like the Urban Dictionary says, "weed to hippies is as like lettuce to health conscious, blue blooded, tax paying Americans. Consumed daily it keeps your system clean."

So why should we crucify Willie Nelson for being a hippie?

77 year old international country star, Willie Nelson was arrested on Friday when 6 ounces of marijuana was found on his tour bus and Nelson could face up to six months in jail. Are you kidding me??? Tell me that 6 ounces of Hippie Lettuce on a tour bus full of geriatric, aging musicians is a direct threat to our public safety. And six ounces? That was most definitely Willie's personal stash, of that I can be sure. Heck, here in MA in our up-tight, Puritanical society, if you get caught with an ounce or less it is punishable by a civil fine of $100.00. I'm sure Willie had no intent to distribute that six ounces. It's not like they were roaming the highways looking for middle schools to stop at and sell joints to the kiddies.

For God's sake, leave the man alone and let him just be the hippie he has always been. Sure it's illegal to be in possession of marijuana in most places in our country, but do we enforce this issue on a 77 year old, who is carrying a minimal amount of contraband on his tour bus? Is this really a battle we want to choose? I would bet that Wille is an old dog who's not interested in learning any new tricks and was just as happy to pay his $2500.00 fine and be on his way. Besides, Willie has never made it a secret that he "dallies" in the Hippie Lettuce. That's like DEA agents waiting out on the open road to stop a Snoop Dog tour bus. That's pay dirt, for sure.

Suffice it to say that sending Wille to jail for 180 days and making him "cook and clean like everybody else", in my opinion, is a waste of time and tax payers money. I think Wille and the boys on the bus should have been given a strict warning, his personal stash of six ounces confiscated, and sent on their way. I think the arrest was ridiculous for a 77 year-old international superstar or any other 77 year-old. I'm sure there are proponents of the legalization of marijuana who would agree with me. And I'm sure there are opponents of the legalization of marijuana who would be calling for my head right about now.

My point is that hippie's will always be hippie's, and the hippie lettuce will always be part of the culture. But crucify Wille cuz he's holding?

Must have been a slow week at the police station.

What Would Cheech And Chong Think?

I was watching TV last Friday night and I caught a news story that got my attention.

It was a news piece on the benefits of using medical marijuana as an alternative treatment for adolescents with severe ADD and ADHD. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Fascinated, I watched on. A mother of a 13 year old boy with severe ADHD was talking about how medical marijuana has literally saved her son's life. After years of trying all kinds of drugs and alternative drugs to help her son, the doctor prescribed an unconventional treatment; medical marijuana. The mother reported that her son was instantly able to find his equilibrium and return to school.

While I personally feel like a little hit-off-the-peace-pipe-a-day, may keep the doctor away, I couldn't condone the regular smoking of cannabis for adolescents, as the obvious dangers of smoking anything come into play. The story went on to explain that there are alternative ways to take the pot into the body. Research says that cannabis can be baked into foods and/or made into tea and candy. And that same research is inconclusive. Longitudinal studies are being done to determine the credibility of marijuana as an effective treatment of ADD and ADHD and the findings at this time are undocumented.

Still, people like the mother of the 13 year old feel that she would rather have her son "take a hit" and find his inner balance, then give him large doses of amphetamines and Ritalin which have been unsuccessful in her son's case. Also, proponents of medical dope say there are far too many adults suffering from ADD/ADHD who swear by it. A search of the internets turned up all kinds of pro and con arguments and lots of medical professionals who are either for it, or willing to look at the research on it.

I say if it makes you feel better and works to promote a better life, then I am all for it, as unconventional as it may be. The unfortunate truth is that it's regular use can lead to a lifetime of addiction and other medical problems. But maybe just as much as prescribed narcotics can, and one can argue the "organic" aspect of using marijuana as an alternative treatment. Has society vilified an organic substance that quite possibly could be a "miracle drug" in the treatment of certain disorders? The benefits of cannabis have long been touted as an approved medical treatment in the management of pain and other chronic disorders. Why not now?

Only time will tell, but in the meantime how could we begrudge a teen for using a prescribed substance under a doctors orders, to alleviate a chronic disorder just because society says it's bad for you?