| A hard road to travel
Getting to the top in the entertainment industry is not an easy road, and it's even harder when you can't see your rocky and potholed road. Despite these tiring obstacles, entertainers with disabilities do not seen to be daunted by them - they have decided to trod on. Sydney Thorpe, keyboard player for Fab 5, has always loved playing the piano and says when he was a child it was one of his few loves. Since then he has graduated to bigger things - namely, playing with Fab 5 for many years. He says throughout the years, the public has embraced him without much bias. "First of all, it was like moving from hot to cold. At that time people started to see me on TV and hear me on radio. They didn't see a blind guy, they saw me, Sydney Thorpe ... If them never know my name, them say 'musician'.
Aquarium old, small ... just right
The little kids only want to see Nemo. They race past the clams, anemones, nautilus and octopus, and press their sticky fingers to the tank searching for the orange-and-white celebrity look-alike. When it darts from the coral, they shriek, "NEEEEEEEMO!" in ear-splitting unison, and their trip to the Waikiki Aquarium is, to them, a rousing success. So why do we need a Kaka'ako aquarium, again? The Waikiki Aquarium is small and old and just about perfect. Its brochures remind visitors that it is the third-oldest public aquarium in the United States, founded in 1904 which makes it old in a venerable, historic way, not old in a crusty tank, stinky hallway sort of way. Sure, some of the ulua orbiting the shark tank look a bit threadbare, but the grampas in their hanapa'a jackpot shirts gaze through pterygium-filled eyes and imagine hooking that big old bugga' with the help of the mo'opuna clinging to their legs.
Walmart Cited for Hiring Dead Door Greeters
Walmart, in a pickle AND a jam since the Cincinnati explosion is now trying to explain why WKYI of Bakersfield broke a story accusing Walmart of hiring corpses to sit in their wheelchairs and greet people at the front door. Ken "Kenneth" of WKYI explained saying,"I entered Walmart. The old geezer in the wheelchair wouldn't tell me for the 100th time where I could find a basket so I kind of lost it. I wheeled the idiot into the main part of Walmart unfortunately tripping over a stray basket (which I was LOOKING for in the first place) sending the Geezer plummeting to the floor next to the McDonald's, dead."Little did Kenneth know that the geezer was already dead .. had been in such a state for over 2 years according to Walmart. After being discovered Walmart issued the following official Walmart statement .."Ok, you got us.
What you need to know if you go on Groundhog Day
Visitors can walk 1.5 miles from downtown to Gobbler's Knob, where Phil does his thing, or take a shuttle bus to the knob. Driving cars to the knob is not permitted unless you are a handicapped person with the appropriate license plate or hang tag. Buses to Gobbler's Knob begin departing at 3 a.m. from three locations and they will continue running to the knob until 6:30 a.m. However, arrival in time to see Phil make his prognostication and to hear the proclamation drawn from the forecast cannot be guaranteed if you're on a bus that departs after 5:30 a.m. The fee for the bus is $5 per person or $10 per family. Locations to board the buses are: _The alley off West Mahoning Street between McDonald's and the Animal Hospital _County Market in Groundhog Plaza (along Rt.
Editorial: Access to the arts
The Maine Arts Commission will receive a well-deserved award Saturday for its work on making the arts more accessible to people with disabilities, older adults, veterans and people living in institutions. The award from the National Endowment for the Arts reflects well on the commission's valuable work and on the state generally for connecting more people to the arts. According to the NEA, Maine is the 2006 recipient of the National Accessibility Leadership Award because several of its accessibility programs have become national models and Maine has made long-term improvements in accessibility. For example, the commission got the state thinking about the topic through 27 forums titled "Art Knows No Boundaries: What is Accessibility?" And it established a panel on the topic, where more than half its members are people with disabilities, to improve access to the arts.
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