FROM THE LONDON TIMES: A WELL PLANNED RETIREMENT

Outside England's Bristol Zoo there is a parking lot for 150 cars and eight buses. For 25 years, its parking fees were managed by a very pleasant attendant. The fees were the equivalent of about $1.40 for cars and about $7 for buses.

Then, one day, after 25 solid years of never missing a day of work, he just didn't show up. So the Zoo Management called the City Council and asked them to send another parking agent. The Council did some research and replied that the parking lot was the Zoo's own responsibility. The Zoo advised the Council that the attendant was a City employee. The City Council responded that the lot attendant had never been on the City payroll.

Meanwhile, sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain, France or Italy is a man who apparently had a ticket machine installed completely on his own and then had simply began to show up every day, commencing to collect and keep the parking fees, estimated at about $560 per day -- for 25 years.

Assuming 7 days a week, this amounts to just over $7,000,000 and no one even knows his name.

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This tale appears to be an urban myth, but your blogger enjoyed the story and felt it worthy of inclusion here. Thanks to Karen Biro Hewson for forwarding it to me.

Adam Sandler showed his Hofstra Pride last night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon! Go Pride!

Hofstra University does not get much national publicity, so I wanted to share this. I graduated from Hofstra is 1964 when they were still known as the Flying Dutchmen. How they go by the name Pride, which bothers a lot of us. The school even dropped football a couple of years ago.

Sandler attended New York University, not Hofstra. But we'll take any plug the school can get.

TODAY IS MY 70th BIRTHDAY. MY BUDDY CLIFF SENT ME THIS LIST

Current Birthdays on June 9th. 2012

By The Associated Press

Actor Johnny Depp turns 49 years old today.

Actor Michael J. Fox turns 51 years old today.

Marvin Kalb, Broadcast journalist, turns 82

Dick Vitale, Sportscaster, turns 73

Frank Barning, Sportswriter turns 70

Patricia Cornwell, Mystery author, turns 56

Aaron Sorkin, Writer, producer ("The West Wing"), turns 51

Gloria Reuben, Actress ("ER"), turns 48

Tedy Bruschi, Football player, turns 39

Natalie Portman, Actress, turns 31

IS THERE SUCH A PLACE AS BASEBALL'S DISABLED LIST?

Eric Chavez in a familiar position and it is not third base

By VIVIAN BARNING

If you go there, you will see Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee, Matt Kemp and Troy Tulowitzki. Dustin Pedroia is trying hard to avoid joining them. Eric Chavez and Mark Kotsay have been nearly permanent residents in recent years.

Where is this expensive piece of real estate? Nowhere. It does not exist as a physical entity. And yet, media descriptions of the disabled list (DL) certainly seem to indicate that there is such a place. It is often referred to as a “trip to the disabled list”. How far is that trip? Is it measured in miles? Is it closer for the East Coast teams or those west of the Rockies? Sounds like a summer vacation spot until you realize how hard most players work to stay away from there.

And this year major league baseball has added a room to the DL. It’s the seven-day DL for concussions. My fantasy league catcher Carlos Santana resides there at the moment while my other catcher Alex Avila seems to have narrowly avoided a recent trip there.

Among the other residents on the current DL are Chipper Jones, Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford, Jered Weaver, Evan Longoria, Cris Carpenter, Andrew Bailey, Brian Wilson, Jonathan Lucroy and many others. Several others play for my favorite team, the San Diego Padres.

The DL is a very expensive place indeed.