Odd News

[pesoto74]

'Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers' dies at age 101
Maggie Bailey, known as "The Queen of the Mountain Bootleggers," died of complications from pneumonia Saturday at Harlan Appalachian Regional Hospital. The Kentucky legend, who began selling moonshine when she was 17 and was still selling alcohol from her modest home at Clovertown in Harlan County when she was 95, was 101.

Over and over again, often despite a preponderance of evidence against her, Mrs. Bailey beat charges of illegally selling alcoholic beverages. Juries just would not convict her.

"Everybody knew her and she had helped everybody. Why do you bite the hand that feeds you, as the old saying goes," said Helen Halcomb, who is married to Mrs. Bailey's nephew.

Mrs. Bailey was well-liked and well-respected, and she often helped poor Harlan Countians, buying coal to heat their homes in the winter and giving them grocery money so they would not go hungry, friends said. Mrs. Bailey put several children through college.

Anybody who wanted to get elected went to see Maggie Bailey, Halcomb said.

"She was very influential. She had power," she said.

Former Gov. Albert B. "Happy" Chandler was among the many politicians who paid Mrs. Bailey a visit while campaigning.

During one of his campaigns for governor he told her, "'Mag, if you can help me get elected, I'm going to buy you some shoes,'" Halcomb said. "Sure enough, when he got elected he sent his lieutenant governor in here with some new shoes."
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/13337741.htm

[Tennyson]

Odd................. is that my dad use to tell us stories about her,he grew up in Harlan and i was born at the hospital she passed away in.

[pesoto74]

Do you remember some of the stories he told?

[Tennyson]

I do...I called him and told him that she passed away and then I went to the website you had posted and mailed him the story.He could not believe she was still living. Dad said all the guy's his age bought alcohol from her, Harlan was a dry county and she pretty much had a bar in her living room. He told me the story of "Happy" Chandler , the money she hid in her house and many more. Dad said if Grandpa had ever caught him there he would not be here today. My Grandfather was a southern Baptist Preacher and she was not his favorite person.

[pesoto74]

Harlan County must be an interesting place.  Here is a copy of Maggie Bailey's obituary from the Harlan Daily Enterprise.

Maggie “Aunt Mag” Bailey
Clovertown, KY
December 3, 2005
Maggie “Aunt Mag” Bailey, Clovertown, died Dec. 3, 2005, at Harlan ARH Hospital.
Bailey was a Kentucky Colonel and an honorary member of Gabriel’s Red Hat Club. She believed in the Christian faith.
She is preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Polly Cornett Davidson; her husband, Lora Bailey; brothers: Willard Davidson, Cecil Davidson and Tyree Davidson; sisters: Sally Jones, Maude Hurst, Judy Holcomb and Lovella Halcomb; a nephew, Wayne Halcomb; and a great-great-nephew, Joshua Fee.
Survivors include a nephew, Don Halcomb and wife, Helen, Harlan; great-nephews: Tommy Halcomb and wife, Tracy, California; and Jimmy Wayne Halcomb, Oklahoma; great-nieces: Donna Court and husband, Charles, Texas; Sherri Auld and husband, Brady, Arkansas; Mary Fee and husband Greg, Tennessee; and Judy Caudle and husband, Bob, Oklahoma; a sister-in-law, Ada Davidson, London; and two very special friends: Wanda Ramsey and Carol Jones.
Visitation will be held Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Rich Funeral Home.
Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the funeral home with the Rev. Howard Farmer, the Rev. Joe Howard and the Rev. Joshua Hensley officiating.
Burial will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Resthaven Cemetery.
Pallbearers will be Jeff Brock, Wayne Ramsey and Jim Ball. Honorary pallbearers will be members of Gabriel’s Red Hat Club.
Rich Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Notice entered Tuesday, December 06, 2005.
http://www.harlandaily.com/obituaries.cfm?si=9

[Tennyson]

It is interesting!! And very very beautiful, I love it there, I have pictures and I thought about posting them but I have not done it yet....my grandmother still lives there and I had planned to go last month but things change and I had hoped to go before Christmas but I think it will be after Christmas now. 

[SpiritMan]

Odd................. is that my dad use to tell us stories about her,he grew up in Harlan and i was born at the hospital she passed away in.

Like I said before. Sometimes I think that thing about everyone being connected by six degrees of separation is off  few degrees too many.

[pesoto74]

Let's just call it even, okay?
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - A Turkish villager who ran away with his friend's wife has offered his own wife in exchange, newspapers said on Thursday.

Farm laborer Cengiz Esme said Gulhan, his wife of 18 years, disappeared a month ago after leaving their village to go shopping in the southern Turkish town of Tarsus.

The 36-year-old said his village friend Mehmet Yaksi had telephoned him the next day and said: "I've run off with your wife .... You take my wife," the Radikal daily reported.

Esme pleaded for Gulhan to return and said he was ready to forgive her and make a fresh start elsewhere. The reports said Yaksi's wife, a mother of three, declined to comment on the situation.
Story

[pesoto74]

New Zealand Man Tries to Rob Bank by Phone
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A man who robbed a New Zealand bank was so disappointed with his haul he tried again - this time by phone, police said Saturday.

"He's rung (the bank) and said 'I'm the guy who robbed you the other day and I want the manager to put some money in a bag and go and stand in the street," said Detective Sergeant Chris Winder of the Auckland Police.

"(He said) 'I'll drive by slowly and take the bag from you and drive off.'"
Story

[pesoto74]

Big brains mean 'tiny testicles'
WOMEN have suspected it for millennia, and scientists have finally proved it - men cannot have both big brains and big testicles.
Brainiacs and scholars everywhere may gnash their teeth, but according to a recent study of bats, nature forces the males of a species to make a painful trade-off between mental capacity and sperm production.

Because of the high-energy demands of both brains and sperm, scientists believe males cannot generate large amounts of both.
Story

[Butterfly]

Now that explains a lot !      Give me a man with a big brain any day.    

[Guardian Angel]

I'll second that.......

[SpiritMan]

I would agree that a man with a large brain would be preferable, but I have to also point out a huge flaw in the premise of this story. It ends with a reference to the debate about whether size matters. Being someone who obviously knows more about the male anatomy than the writer of this article, I would like to remind the readers that the debate about size has never been about the size of a man's testicles!

 

[SpiritMan]

I call this fixing the genitals to fit the joke!

[Butterfly]