'Domino's delivery man transported pizza, corpses in same car'
From the April 27 post at 'The Smoking Gun' a Domino's delivery man used a car to transport corpses to funeral parlors when he wasn't using the vehicle to bring pies and Cheesy Bread to pizza customers. (Ewww!)
A Lower Southampton Township Police Department officer pulled over a 1993 Buick after noticing the vehicle did not have an inspection sticker. Additionally, William Bethel, 24, was driving with a suspended license, so cops informed him that the vehicle was going to be impounded.
According to the police report when officers began taking an inventory of the station wagon, they noticed a stretcher in the rear of the vehicle (along with rubbish and wet clothing) where "pizzas were sitting to be delivered." Asked about the items, Bethel explained that when he finished delivering Domino's pizzas, "he transports deceased bodies in the same vehicle for a funeral home." Incredibly! a police check with local health officials determined that the use of the car for stiffs and slices did not violate county ordinances. Bethel, who was not arrested, is facing $400 in fines for driving with a suspended license and operating a vehicle without an inspection certificate. The station wagon is registered to Carl Delia, owner of a so-called removal service that delivers dead bodies to Philadelphia-area funeral homes.
ABC's "Extreme" Exploitation
The first story left you grossed out, the next will leave you shaking your head. From the 'why I hate reality television' file or 'what the hell was she thinking?' file.
'WAKE UP! PEOPLE!'
Is the familiar rant screamed by the host of the hugely popular reality show. I think the producers are the ones who need to heed the advice.
Not content with humdrum stories of poverty, heartache, and distress, the producers of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" have compiled a creepy wish list of woe for the next season of the hit ABC television series.
In an e-mail forwarded earlier this month by an ABC employee to network affiliates, the program's casting agent details the exact kind of tragedies and rare illnesses being sought by the Top 20 show. Families featured on the program have their often ramshackle homes renovated for free by a platoon headed by handyman/heartthrob Ty Pennington.
The show is a, tug-on-your-heartstrings television, "Queen for a Day" with finish carpentry. Based on the ABC e-mail, it appears that victims of hate crimes and violent home invasions and families coping with the loss of a child killed by a drunk driver make for good television. And the show would also absolutely love to feature those battling skin cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease, and muscular dystrophy. Oh, and families with multiple children with Down Syndrome would be ideal, whether the kids are "either adopted or biological," the e-mail notes.
And, shooting the moon, the program's "family casting director," Charisse Simonian, would love to locate a kid suffering from Progeria, the rare condition that causes rapid aging in a child (for those unaware of Progeria, the ABC e-mail helpfully describes it as "aka 'little old man disease.'") As if that terrible affliction weren't enough, Simonian is also on the hunt for a child with congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis. "This is where kids cannot feel any physical pain," she notes. But the hunt for a young victim--who will likely die before 30--will not be easy. "There are 17 known cases in US," she writes, before chirpily adding, "let me know if one is in your town!" Such spirit in the face of tragedy.
The March 10 correspondence was written by Phinel Petit-Frere, a network representative based in New York, who passed along the makeover show's wish list to network affiliates in the Southeast. The affiliates were requested to help in locating prospective families for the series, which finished eighth in last week's Nielsen ratings.
Later,
Kenaz
