THE STIG’S IDENTITY REVEALED

ENGLAND – A character shrouded in mystery has finally had his identity revealed!

The Stig has become one of the most popular TV characters in Britain. As the always-anonymous test driver on the television “Top Gear,” his identity has long been a closely guarded secret. His opaque visor on his famous helmet has been his trademark and was as much as anyone knew about him. That has all changed.

On Wednesday, lawyers said the BBC had been refused an injunction blocking the publication of a book revealing the identity of the character. The Stig is a mystery no more!

“Shortly after, publishers HarperCollins said in a statement that a 33-year-old racing driver named Ben Collins “has a great story to tell about his seven years as The Stig, which will appeal to a wide audience beyond just motoring enthusiasts.”

Calling it a “victory for freedom of speech,” HarperCollins said the book will be published in Britain on Sept. 16.

The show has a long-standing policy of not commenting on The Stig’s identity. A “Top Gear” spokeswoman said no decision has been made on whether the character will be back when the show returns.

“Top Gear” is one of BBC’s most successful programs, and is seen in more than 100 countries around the world. Alongside the show’s three garrulous hosts, The Stig is an always-silent presence, fearlessly navigating the show’s test tracks in glamorous cars.

You would think that after such mystery, good old Ben would be a little more intimidating. He should probably keep the helmet on.

CHICAGO O’HARE AIRPORT UFO SIGHTING

CHICAGO, IL – Another UFO sighting has fueled speculation that we are not alone!

A UFO sighting from 2007 has been re-ignited to top new today. The sighting took place at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport and has been mired in controversy – as is the case with any UFO sighting. Whether real or not is debatable – but two items are helping the incident draw renewed news interest today.

An unedited pre-interview discussion of the sighting from 2007 has surfaced. The conversation is between Jon Hilkevitch (the Chicago Tribune transportation reporter who reported the Chicago UFO story) and Jim Wagner, a news anchor with CLTV, a 24 hour news channel in Oak Brook, Illinois.

The other item is the release of Leslie Kean’s book “UFOS: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record.” According to Kean, the Chicago O’Hare incident was addressed by officials, as have countless other UFO sightings around the world in the last half century.

More details on both are below.

MAGNETIC MEGA-STAR RAISES QUESTIONS

NEW YORK, NY – Researchers, theorists and scientists are buzzing over a new discovery in our galaxy!

Our galaxy is one giant puzzle that may never be put together. New stars are always popping up and new developments are always happening that throw scientists for a loop. A new discovery has changed the game – so to speak – when it comes to stellar evolution and the birth of black holes.

A neutron star with an incredible magnetic field has astonished astronomers, who reported on their findings Wednesday. The “magnetar” lies in a cluster of stars known as Westerlund 1, located 16,000 light years away in the constellation of Ara, the Altar. Westerlund 1, discovered in 1961 by a Swedish astronomer, is a favored observation site in stellar physics.

It is one of the biggest cluster of superstars in the Milky Way, comprising hundreds of very massive stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost a million Suns and some two thousand times the Sun’s diameter.

Within Westerlund 1 is the remains of one of galaxy’s few magnetars – a particular kind of neutron star, formed from the explosion of a supernova, that can exert a magnetic field a million, billion times stronger than Earth’s. The Westerlund star which eventually became the magnetar must have been at least 40 times the mass of the Sun, according to the study, which appears in the research journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

STARBUCKS THROWS OUT ENGLISH PROFESSOR

NEW YORK, NY – The irony of this story is through the roof!

English professors are usually walking beacons of perfect grammar and the human incarnation of a dictionary/thesaurus. They may be incredibly book smart, but they have common sense when it comes to placing a food order. They know – as we do – that you order what you want, not what you don’t want. Well, according to Starbucks, they don’t know proper food ordering etiquette.

Lynne Rosenthal, an English professor, was ejected from an Upper West side Starbucks by cops for refusing to order according to the coffee chain’s rules, according to the New York Post.

Rosenthal, who holds a PhD from Columbia, told the paper she asked for a toasted multigrain bagel at the Starbucks on 86th Street and Columbus Avenue – she lost her cool when the attendant behind the counter asker her if she wanted butter or cheese on top.

“I just wanted a multigrain bagel,” Rosenthal told the Post, “I refused to say ‘without butter or cheese.’ When you go to Burger King, you don’t have to list the six things you don’t want.”

“Linguistically, it’s stupid, and I’m a stickler for correct English.”

Rosenthal, whose grudge against the coffee chain also extends to refusing to order by the trademark “tall” and “vent” sizes, next began yelling at the employee to hand over her plain bagel, until the manager finally called the police, according to the Post.

Starbucks employees said Rosenthal incited the face-off by throwing profanities at the individual.

“She called the barista an a-hole,” one employee told the newspaper.

Let this be a lesson to all, swallow your grammatical pride when entering a Starbucks. You have to order by sizes that are in a different language and you might have to abide the chain’s rules that linguistically have no business being rules. Despite it all, you must go in, keep your eye on the prize, and you might leave the coffee chain without a police escort.

STEVEN SLATER OFFERED TV SHOW

NEW YORK, NY – One individual is cashing in on his 15 minutes of fame!

When it comes to quitting jobs, nobody does it better than Steven Slater. Slater has become an instant sensation thanks to his recent mental breakdown. The former JetBlue flight attendant yelled at passengers, grabbed a beer and went down the plane’s emergency chute – opting to go with creative interpretation as apposed to the standard resignation letter when it came to quitting his job. It looks like Slater’s theatrics are paying off.

According to TMZ, Slater is in talks to get his own reality TV show. The premise – which is sheer genius – is to help miserable employees quit their jobs in style. If this goes through, millions are going to hate themselves for not cashing in on this idea earlier.

Citing “well-placed industry sources,” the gossip site claims that reality TV production company Stone Entertainment has offered Slater the chance to star in his own inspirational show, showing unhappy workers how to go out with a bang.

Stone Entertainment’s credentials include past reality shows such as “The Mole,” “NYC Prep,” “Top Design,” and “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style.”

TURKISH AIRLINES BANS FLIGHT ATTENDANTS

TURKEY – According to one airline, some flight attendants were carrying too much baggage!

Society and Hollywood has done a great job of depicting flight attendants as attractive, fit, sexy individuals. The truth is that flight attendants are just regular individuals with their own sets of problems – like weight issues. Well, if Turkish Airlines has its way – and it seems like they have – weight issues should be addressed, immediately.

Turkish Airlines has suspended 28 flight attendants for carrying a few too many extra LBS. The employees have been giving six months to lose the weight, Reuters reports, or else find themselves at new assignments.

“Weight and height are important factors at all airlines,” the airline said in a statement published by Turkish newspaper Haber Turk daily. “These criteria are important both in terms of appearance and the ability to move about.”

The employees, 13 of whom are women, were suspended without pay until they can prove they have dropped the extra baggage. Izzet Levi, one of the grounded employees, told the newspaper he has been ordered to loss 22 pounds to hit a weight of 211 if he wants to keep his job.

The airlines says that each of the employees was previously warned to get in better shape.

This has the potential to be the making of a great TV show – or just an average TV show. With the fitness and health craze sweeping the globe, someone should be jumping at the opportunity to get all of these 28 flight attendants and enter them into some sort of “Flight Attendant Baggage Claim” challenge – you know some TV network would pick up the idea.

ED STAFFORD

BRAZIL – After 859 days and 4200 miles, one man accomplished an incredible feat!

The Amazon river is one of the marvels of South America and it is the second longest river in the world – slightly shorter than the Nile river. The river houses bounties of fauna and flora – some harmless and some dangerous. The thought of walking the entire stretch of river would seem crazy – unless you’re Ed Stafford.

“It’s unbelievable to be here!” Stafford told The Associated Press the moment he entered the sea in northern Brazil. “It proves you can do anything – even if people say you cannot. I’ve proved that if you want something enough, you can do anything!”

Stafford’s incredible journey took him 2 1/2 years to complete. The British man endured “50,000 mosquito bites,” found nourishment in piranhas and stared danger in the eyes in the form of deadly snakes. His journey was the result of two desires – to do the unthinkable as he became the first man to walk the entire length of the Amazon and to raise awareness of destruction to the Amazon rain forest.

“The crux of it is, if this wasn’t a selfish, boy’s-own adventure, I don’t think it would have worked,” the 34-year-old former British Army told the AP. “I am simply doing it because no one has done it before.”

There have been six documented expeditions along the course of the Amazon river, but they all used boats to advance their travel. Stafford traversed the river from its source high in the Peruvian Andes across Colombia and into Brazil before its water are dumped into the Atlantic Ocean entirely by foot.

Stafford began the journey on April 2, 2008 with a British friend. His partner in crime bailed within three months, but Stafford carried on. Eventually, Peruvian forestry worker Gadiel “Cho” Sanchez Rivera, 31, decided to make the journey with Stafford. The British adventurer said that the journey cost him $100,000 – funded by sponsoring companies and donations.

WILLIAM SHATNER TO BE BOYCOTTED

NEW YORK, NY – A longtime TV presence is in danger of being boycotted!

William Shatner is a two-time Emmy Award winner and a Golden Globe winner. His credentials also include those great “Priceline” commercials. Shatner has been a presence on the small and big screen for over four decades. Despite his reputation, the former Star Trek star is in danger of being boycotted.

Shatner is slated to be the lead in the upcoming CBS sitcom “(Bleep) My Dad Says” that is scheduled to air on Thursday nights. Rather than “bleep,” the titles uses a series of symbols that suggest the expletive included in the book title on which the series is based. That is not going over well with The Parents Television Council (PTC).

The PTC sent letters to 340 companies that advertise frequently on TV last week, urging them to stay away from the show unless the name is changed. The group argues that the title is indecent.

“Parents really do care about profanity when their kids are watching TV,” said PTC President Tim Winter. “All parents? No, but something like 80 to 90 per cent of parents. Putting an expletive in the title of a show is crossing new territory, and we can’t allow that to happen on our watch.”

Winter’s letter to companies asks bluntly: “When you advertise on television, do you want your customers to associate your product with (bleep)?”

It seems as though the parent population isn’t exactly on the same page as Winter.

Parental concern about profane language on TV is clearly waning, according to the Rasmussen Reports pollsters. Rasmussen’s survey of 1,000 American adults taken July 27-28 found that 57 percent said there was too much inappropriate content on television and radio. Sex and violence is the main concern, only 9 percent of those polled pointed to profanity as the biggest problem area.

“Do you know what I wish?” Shatner said. “I wish they would call it (bleep)…

“I’ve got grandchildren. I brought up three girls. They’ve all got kids. OK? And you say, ‘Boopy-doo-doo, you’ve got to make poo-poo. Come on. Make poo-poo in the toilet.’ Eventually, poo-poo becomes (bleep). ‘Go take a (bleep), you’ll feel better.’ You say that to your kids. The word (bleep) is around us. It isn’t a terrible term. It’s a natural function. Why are we pussyfooting?”

Shatner opted to use the actual word “bleeped” out.

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