Branded Babies?

Maine’s Superheroes, Moving To A City Near You!

 

 

This fantastic article appeared in the Sun Journal in the Lewiston/Auburn area by Kathryn Skelton, Staff Writer. These people do exist but not in our “conventional” superhero sense.

 

Her mom thought she was doing drugs, slipping out at night, wandering the streets.

Mom didn’t realize her little girl was actually busy atoning and avenging.

As the self-styled superhero “Dreizehn” (that’s the number 13 in German), she’d slip out and look for trouble, interrupting drug deals and vehicle break-ins. Think “Kick-Ass,” but in real life. Sometimes it worked, sometimes the teenager got beaten up, badly.

Dreizehn moved to Maine from a big city outside New England a few months ago to join her similarly self-styled superhero boyfriend, “Slapjack.” Several nights a week they walk Lewiston-Auburn for hours on end as roving Good Samaritans, looking for trouble.

The streets here? Much less mean, in her limited experience.

Most nights their foot patrol means giving bottled water and granola bars to the homeless and maybe yelling at a graffiti artist, all the while costumed and armed with batons, knife-proof protective wear and brass knuckles electrified with Tasers.

Dreizehn and Slapjack are in their 20s. Their parents? They still have no clue.

“You kind of have to be a little unstable to do it,” Dreizehn said. “Going out at 2 a.m. with a mask on and thinking you’re going to save the world, it says a lot about you.”

Origin stories

They got started for different reasons. About four years ago, Slapjack said he read an article in VIBE magazine on the Real Life Superheroes movement, a worldwide community, to which they now belong, of people who dress up, assume names and do varying degrees of charity work and criminal deterrence.

Close friends of Slapjack had their home broken into. Another was hit by a drunk driver, part of Slapjack’s motivation now to hang outside bars. He calls police to report plate numbers when he sees people that he suspects have had too much to drink get behind the wheel.

“I believe in civilian patrols. The police can only be so many places at once, especially at night,” Slapjack said. “I think it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep an eye on their communities.”

He picked his code name from a favorite card game played with his grandmother.

The younger Dreizehn has been going out longer, since 2003.

“I started out, really, just bored, and didn’t want to cause trouble,” she said.

In looking to thwart mischief, there was also an element of making amends for her brother.

“He was robbing and completely destroying our family through his actions,” Dreizehn said. “It made me want to do something so nobody had to go through the pain I had to.”

She dresses to add bulk to her frame — a compressed chest, a man’s trench, men’s boots. Sometimes, in her experience, just walking up to someone is enough to make them stop whatever it is they’re doing, mainly because she appears to be a 200-plus-pound man wearing a full black and red mask with sheer white fabric eye holes.

Once on patrol, Slapjack found an unconscious man collapsed in the middle of the street and dragged him to the side of the road, potentially saving him from being run over.

But it doesn’t always go swimmingly.

“I got hit by a car,” Dreizehn said. And once, in what she believed was a meth buy, “I got ahold of what they were dealing. I ended up really taking a beating. I had my mask taken off. I managed to crawl and bite my way out of it. I had a death grip on (the meth).”

She picked her code name as a nod to her German heritage.

Why the names at all if everything’s on the up and up?

Their reasons are threefold. First, they say they don’t want their workplaces or families finding out, then worrying, questioning or demanding they give it up. Second, the couple doesn’t want to be harassed; they are, occasionally, snitches. A superhero named “Shadow Hare” began showing his face around Cincinnati too much and “the city completely turned on him,” Dreizehn said.

Lastly, putting on the costume, and wearing the name, is like becoming someone else.

“Your fear goes away,” Slapjack said.

Added his girlfriend, Dreizehn: “I wanted to be able to put a mask on so I could be somebody greater and better.”

They met through the Real Life Superheroes group. There aren’t too many others in Maine. He can name two, “The Beetle” and “Mrs. The Beetle.”

You can read more @ http://www.sunjournal.com/city/story/844777

109 Useless Facts

1
Look at your zipper. See the initials YKK? It stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushibibaisha, the world’s largest zipper manufacturer.

2
A duck’s quack doesn’t echo. No one knows why.

3
40 percent of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.

4
315 entries in Webster’s 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.

5
On the average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.

6
Chocolate kills dogs! True, chocolate affects a dog’s heart and nervous system. A few ounces is enough to kill a small sized dog.

7
Ketchup was sold in the 1830’s as a medicine.

8
Leonardo da Vinci could write with one hand and draw with the other at the same time.

9
Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.

10
There are no clocks in Las Vegas gambling casinos.

11
Leonardo da Vinci invented scissors. Also, it took him 10 years to paint Mona Lisa’s lips.

12
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to slow a film down so you could see his moves. That’s the opposite of the norm.

13
The original name for the butterfly was “flutterby”!

14
By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you can’t sink in quicksand.

15
Mosquito repellents don’t repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito’s sensors so they don’t know you’re there.

16
Dentists recommend that a toothbrush be kept at least six feet away from a toilet to avoid airborne particles resulting from the flush.

17
The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley’s gum.

18
Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than the entire Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined.

19
Marilyn Monroe had six toes on one foot.

20
Adolf Hitler’s mother seriously considered having an abortion but was talked out of it by her doctor.

21
The three most valuable brand names on earth: Marlboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order.

22
To escape the grip of a crocodile’s jaws, prick your fingers into its eyeballs. It will let you go instantly.

23
The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

24
The “pound” (#) key on your keyboard is called an octothorp.

25
The only domestic animal not mentioned in the Bible is the cat.

26
Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

27
The average person’s left hand does 56% of the typing.

28
Dreamt” is the only word in the English language that ends in “mt”.

29
It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

30
In Chinese, the KFC slogan “finger lickin’ good” comes out as “eat your fingers off”.

31
A cockroach can live for 10 days without a head.

32
We shed 40 pounds of skin a lifetime.

33
Yo-Yos were once used as weapons in the Philippines.

34
Mexico City sinks abut 10 inches a year.

35
Brains are more active sleeping than watching TV.

36
Blue is the favorite color of 80 percent of Americans.

37
When a person shakes their head from side to side, he is saying “yes” in Sri Lanka.

38
There are more chickens than people in the world.

39
It’s against the law in Iceland to have a dog.

40
The thumbnail grows the slowest, and the middle nail grows the fastest.

41
There are more telephones than people in Washington, D.C.

42
The average four year-old child asks over four hundred questions a day.

43
The average person presses the snooze button on their alarm clock three Times each
morning.

44
The three wealthiest families in the world have more assets than the Combined wealth of the forty-eight poorest nations.

45
The first owner of the Marlboro cigarette Company died of lung cancer.

46
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.

47
The world’s youngest parents were 8 and 9 and lived in China in 1910.

48
Our eyes remain the same size from birth onward, but our noses and ears Never stop growing.

49
You burn more calories sleeping than you do watching TV.

50
A person will die from total lack of sleep sooner than from starvation. Death will occur about 10 days without sleep, while starvation takes a Few weeks.

51
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.

52
The Mona Lisa has no eyebrows.

53
When the moon is directly overhead, you weigh slightly less.

54
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, never telephoned His wife or mother because they were both deaf.

55
A psychology student in New York rented out her spare room to a Carpenter in order to nag him constantly and study his reactions. After Weeks of needling, he snapped and beat her repeatedly with an axe Leaving her mentally retarded

56
“I am.” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language

57
Colgate faced a big obstacle marketing toothpaste in Spanish speaking Countries because Colgate translates into the command “go hang Yourself.”

58
Like fingerprints, everyone’s tongue print is different.

59
“Bookkeeper” is the only word in English language with three consecutive Double letters.

60
Right handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left handed People do.

61
The sentence “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” uses every Letter in the English language.

62
If the population of China walked past you in single line, the line Would never end because of the rate of reproduction

63
China has more English speakers than the United States.

64
Every human spent about half an hour as a single cell.

65
Each square inch of human skin consists of twenty feet of blood vessels.

66
An average person uses the bathroom 6 times per day.

67
Babies are born with 300 bones, but by adulthood we have only 206 in our Bodies.

68
Beards are the fastest growing hairs on the human body. If the average Man never trimmed his beard, it would grow to nearly 30 feet long in his Lifetime.

69
According to Genesis 1:20-22, the chicken came before the egg.

70
The longest place name still in use is: Taumatawhakatangihangaoauauotameteaturi- Pukakpikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenua—anatahu – a New Zealand hill.

71
If you leave Tokyo by plane at 7:00am, you will arrive in Honolulu at Approximately 4:30pm the previous day.

72
Scientists in Australia’s Parkes Observatory thought they had positive Proof of alien life, when they began picking up radio-waves from space. However, after investigation, the radio emissions were traced to a Microwave in the building.

73
Wearing headphones for an hour increases the bacteria in your ear 700 times.

74
More than 40,000 parasites and 250 types of bacteria are exchanged during a French kiss.

75
Men can read smaller print than women, but women can hear better.

76
Coca-Cola was originally green.

77
The most common name in the world is Mohammed.

78
The name of all the continents ends with the same letter that they start with.

79
There are two credit cards for every person in the United States.

80
TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

81
Women blink nearly twice as much as men!!

82
You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath.

83
It is impossible to lick your elbow.

84
People say “Bless you” when you sneeze because when you sneeze, your heart stops for a millisecond.

85
It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

86
The “sixth sick sheik’s sixth sheep’s sick” is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.

87
If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die.

88
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents great king from history. Spades – King David, Clubs – Alexander the Great, Hearts – Charlemagne, Diamonds – Julius Caesar.

89
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

90
If a statue of a person in the park on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle.

91
If the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds received in battle.

92
If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.

93
Question – This is the only food that doesn’t spoil. What is this? Ans. – Honey

94
A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

95
A snail can sleep for three years.

96
All polar bears are left handed.

97
American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by eliminating one olive from each salad served in first-class.

98
Butterflies taste with their feet.

99
Elephants are the only animals that can’t jump.

100
In the last 4000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.

101
On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.

102
Shakespeare invented the word ‘assassination’ and ‘bump’.

103
Stewardesses is the longest word typed with only the left hand.

104
The ant always falls over on its right side when intoxicated.

105
The electric chair was invented by a dentist.

106
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.

107
Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over million descendants.

108
The cigarette lighter was invented before the match.

109
Most lipstick contains fish scales.

Vibration Pillow

Am amazing creation from designer Seung Jun Jeong, the vibration/alarm pillow is a logical advancement to the alarm clock. The user sets the time and is awakened to a rhythmic vibration sure to make the eyes spring open. Check it out over at http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/10/05/alarm-clocks-are-so-redundant%E2%80%A6/

A Boat Built To Sink

Wonders never cease. Artist Julien Berthier, obviously an artist of boats, built a ship looking like its perpetually sinking. It has a fully functional and shipshape bottom. One can only imagine the price it was to put it into fabrication. Here are some excellent photos of it as well as a picture of it docked in a marina (hillarious).

 

Weird Maine Laws Still On The Books

After January 14th you can be fined for still having your Christmas decorations on display.

Augusta: It’s illegal to walk on any street while playing a violin.

Due to a law passed in 1827 there is no February 19th in the state.

Freeport: Mercury thermometers must not be sold in the city.

It is illegal for a teacher to strike a pupil on the head without first saying, “Boo”.

Rumford: It’s against the law to bite the landlord under any circumstance.

South Berwick: It is illegal to park in front of Dunkin Donuts.

You may not step out of a plane that is still in flight.

Boobytown

For some time now I had the knowledge of a mysterious part of Maine’s varied history, this time from Lewiston. I lived almost my entire life in the tri-state region of Massachusetts so upon reading this story I never acted on actually going for an actual visit. I cannot even tell you now that I have been there, I haven’t. What I can tell is the unusual stigma attached to a village in Maine by the name of Lower Dallas.

In the mid 1800’s the prosperous city of Lewiston in Maine had an innovative and at the same time bastardy plan at the same time. The roll call for welfare was quite large during this period. The city needed a way to turn the tide of people depending on the system. Someone, I do not know who, came up with the idea with shipping them off to what is known as Lower Dallas just east of Rangely in the northwest corner of the state. These people were hard up while living in Lewiston and after the move to Lower Dallas things only got worse. Stories of people running off into the fields to eat dandelions raw were the norm. Of all of these welfare afflicted Lewstonians the most prominent family was the Bubiers thus the towns name of “Boobytown” came into being.  The Boobytowners were always known by the people of Rangely as honest and fair trading partners and always had the utmost respect for them. Sad that such a quality of people was shipped away in favor of saving a few dollars (in today’s money mush more).

Today if you can find the way to the location of Lower Dallas you will find a virtual ghost town, complete with newspapers from the period around WW 2 on the floor of some of the structures. It is in these ways that Maine is trully unique as if someone leaves the forest locks it up until later discovery. Last heard, the is only one descendant of the Bubiers still living near Boobytown, Virgil Bubier. If anyone is looking to go there I hear he is one of the best people out there with the history of the place.  It’s an understatement to say that a general feeling of paranormal activity also prevails here according to reports, which can only be imagined with the history of these people stolen from their home. I hope in the future more attention can be brought to this incident in Lewiston’s history and the whole state of Maine in general. I can only hope this article keeps alive the drive for people to find out more about it.

I want to give special credit to Art Sordillo and Yankee Magazine for this other, somewhat related article, definitely a good read.

http://www.outtakes.com/45th/45thnopics.html

Thief In Central Maine Targets Old Telephone Poles

OAKLAND, Maine, Feb. 20, 2009

(AP) Old telephone poles are being swiped right out of the ground in central Maine.

According to FairPoint Communications, about 35 poles have been cut and stolen. The thefts in the town of Oakland began last fall and stopped in the early winter but have resumed as snowbanks have retreated.

The poles had no wires attached to them and were to be removed later. They had been trimmed to 12 feet tall, and were left behind when the company put in replacement poles next to them.

FairPoint supervisor Simon Thorne said the pressure-treated poles aren’t good for burning because they contain preservatives. He speculated someone might be taking them to use for framework.

English Language Inconsistencies And Coincidences

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

12. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

13. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

14. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

15. They were too close to the door to close it.

16. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

17. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

18. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

19. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

20. After a number of injections my jaw got number.

21. Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

Very Strange Japanese Mutton Beef Ad

I was really taken back when I saw the marketing strategies applied to this instruction manual for cooking Genghiskhan Mutton Beef. Japanese people must believe we were taught Ebonics in school. A real eye opener. Fizzle to da sizzle!

It gets crazy hot!

Obviously the Japanese like to inhale beef rather than eat it.

Watch out for the ladies while cooking! (or the next “party”)

It’s a beef hurricane!

Strangely enough? Hmmm….MSG. I think your hooked on the junk, and to boot you have a pan on top of your head.