A Story About - "The True Stella Awards"

So remembering that this is April 1st – “April Fools Day” in the western world… I submit the following.

Often my mind is in need of a diversion. How about you?

When the present Internet and its variety of uses finally developed – I certainly have a good choice of diversion.

My friend Brenda sent me an example of a “fun diversion”. As in most things I get I ask the question – “Really?” or “Is it true?”

Thanks Brenda you made me think this one through.

Well here is what I found out. The email that was sent Brenda’s way and then my way is fabricated. Check out this link and at the end of this posting.

I suspect that the original fabricated email list was sent out on an April 1st date – years ago – because it has been circulating a number of years now.

The author of The Stella Awards – listed as The True Stella Awards – is Randy Cassingham who has written a book (listed below) that is now available.

As I post this today I give Randy Cassingham the full credit.

You can submit your email to his list and receive regular updates to his list as the new court stories appear.

Randy, I read all your postings listed below – very good.

On the more local scene… this again points to the fact of how a rumour can be circulated far and wide – but not be true. (Brenda does not circulate rumours – only really funny emails or ones that make her blood boil).

About 10 years ago now – one old man decided to tell another old man that Pastor Murray(that’s me) had done…yadda, yadda, yadda. None of it was true… absolutely none of it. For 10 years I have lived with a cloud hanging over my head. Not long ago I was in a “social happening” where I met a new couple for the first time. After talking with them for a while I discovered that they had known about me for a long time – at least known my name. They had been told the story about Murray Lincoln – then quoted the “yadda, yadda, yadda”. I nearly died… here was a “brand new friend” that had long ago heard the malicious story about me – and REMEMBERED IT! Yikes!

All I want is the truth. So when emails and diversions come my way – I ask is it the truth? It may be good or funny or whatever… but is it the truth?

So on my jaunt through Web Pages in search of the truth about this… this is some of what I found. This stuff you can believe…

And Brenda – it was a good lead that you gave me…Wahoo! ~

Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com

The 2006 True Stella Awards Winners by Randy Cassingham Issued 31 January 2007

#5: Marcy Meckler. While shopping at a mall, Meckler stepped outside and was "attacked" by a squirrel that lived among the trees and bushes. And "while frantically attempting to escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler] fell and suffered severe injuries," her resulting lawsuit says. That's the mall's fault, the lawsuit claims, demanding in excess of $50,000, based on the mall's "failure to warn" her that squirrels live outside.

#4: Ron and Kristie Simmons. The couple's 4-year-old son, Justin, was killed in a tragic lawnmower accident in a licensed daycare facility, and the death was clearly the result of negligence by the daycare providers. The providers were clearly deserving of being sued, yet when the Simmons's discovered the daycare only had $100,000 in insurance, they dropped the case against them and instead sued the manufacturer of the 16-year-old lawn mower because the mower didn't have a safety device that 1) had not been invented at the time of the mower's manufacture, and 2) no safety agency had even suggested needed to be invented. A sympathetic jury still awarded the family $2 million.

#3: Robert Clymer. An FBI agent working a high-profile case in Las Vegas, Clymer allegedly created a disturbance, lost the magazine from his pistol, then crashed his pickup truck in a drunken stupor -- his blood-alcohol level was 0.306 percent, more than three times the legal limit for driving in Nevada. He pled guilty to drunk driving because, his lawyer explained, "With public officials, we expect them to own up to their mistakes and correct them." Yet Clymer had the gall to sue the manufacturer of his pickup truck, and the dealer he bought it from, because he "somehow lost consciousness" and the truck "somehow produced a heavy smoke that filled the passenger cab." Yep: the drunk-driving accident wasn't his fault, but the truck's fault. Just the kind of guy you want carrying a gun in the name of the law.

#2: KinderStart.com. The specialty search engine says Google should be forced to include the KinderStart site in its listings, reveal how its "Page Rank" system works, and pay them lots of money because they're a competitor. They claim by not being ranked higher in Google, Google is somehow infringing KinderStart's Constitutional right to free speech. Even if by some stretch they were a competitor of Google, why in the world would they think it's Google's responsibility to help them succeed? And if Google's "review" of their site is negative, wouldn't a government court order forcing them to change it infringe on Google's Constitutional right to free speech?

And the winner of the 2006 True Stella Award:
Allen Ray Heckard. Even though Heckard is 3 inches shorter, 25 pounds lighter, and 8 years older than former basketball star Michael Jordan, the Portland, Oregon, man says he looks a lot like Jordan, and is often confused for him -- and thus he deserves $52 million "for defamation and permanent injury" -- plus $364 million in "punitive damage for emotional pain and suffering", plus the SAME amount from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, for a grand total of $832 million. He dropped the suit after Nike's lawyers chatted with him, where they presumably explained how they'd counter-sue if he pressed on.

CASE UPDATE: "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes"
(TSA 19 March 2003, and in my book, page 80) The tragic 20 February 2003 fire at the Station Nightclub in WestWarwick, R.I., killed 96 people and injured more than 200. It was astupid stunt: the band playing that night set off fireworks, setting fire to soundproofing foam. With the nightclub's insurance maxed out and no one else to turn to for the expected $1 billion of liability, lawyers in the case sued anyone they could think of in their search for deep pockets to pick. One unlikely victim of the tactic was Clear Channel Communications, which owns a radio station in the area, on the basis that they helped promote the event. In February, Clear Channel announced a tentative $22 million settlement with survivors and the families of those killed. Rhode Island's "joint and several liability" put Clear Channel on the hook; as long as lawyers could show just the tiniest involvement by the company, it ended up having to pay even though they had no part in the fire. Other deep pockets included TV station WPRI, which was ironically onthe scene to do a story on the dangers of nightclubs when the fire broke out, which paid $30 million on the theory that their cameraman's equipment blocked an exit. JBL Speakers paid $815,000 to settle a charge that its speakers had flammable foam in them; beer maker Anheuser-Busch($5 million) and its local distributor ($16 million) because their beer was sold at the nightclub; Sealed Air Corp. paid $16 million, since its foam was used for soundproofing, even though the foam was not rated for such a purpose; the State of Rhode Island, $10 million, and the city where the fire occurred, $10 million, for who-knows-what reason; and Home Depot (amount unknown), where the foam was purchased. There were also criminal charges in the case; the band's manager and the nightclub's owners pleaded guilty and no-contest, respectively, to manslaughter charges.

SOURCES:
1) "Clear Channel, Fire Victims OK $22M Deal", Associated Press, 14 February 2008 http://StellaAwards.com/cgi-bin/redirect2.pl?108
2) "The Station Nightclub Fire", Wikipedia, retrieved 27 August 2007

~ Murray Lincoln ~
www.murraylincoln.com

Sources to consider…
The True Stella Awards
http://www.stellaawards.com/
http://www.stellaawards.com/2007.html
http://www.stellaawards.com/2006.html
http://www.stellaawards.com/2005.html
http://www.stellaawards.com/2004.html
http://www.stellaawards.com/2003.html
http://www.stellaawards.com/2002.html
and
http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html
an example of how off beat and spreading goofy stuff takes place…
http://www.infoniac.com/offbeat-news/stella-awards-reveals-most-shocking-us-lawsuits.html

not to be confused with the Stellar Awards
http://www.1800gospel.com/2008/10/stellar-award-nominees-for-2009-have-been-announced/

Books by Randy Cassingham
http://www.stellaawards.com/book.html