#Luke Branson Field | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

tmp-jatp · 4 years ago

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omg garage salesss!!! going garage saleing on your neighborhood’s day of the week every week of the summer, and holding your own for one of those weeks, every year.

fourth of july in the culdesac where they set up fireworks in the middle of the street. the molinas always set up folding chairs in their driveway to watch both their own firework show and also the neighbors’. they eat hotdogs and hamburgers and baked beans and marshmallow jello salad. anything can be a casserole if you try hard enough.

either they live in a small town with a casey’s and a post office as all they need to “be” a town, or they live in a medium to big size town, nearing city status, and they think their town is small bc they compare it to the “big” cities but then small town people are floored by the size of the “small” city.

julie and flynn for sure live in one of the big towns/small cities and the high school is located there, but people like reggie live a half hour drive away from school or more. none of them are strangers to the fields tho, like five blocks away from the high school is a crop field.

alex’s family went on road trips every summer, to colorado springs, to branson, to chicago, somewhere new every year. reggie lives yes at least a half hour away but he also rides the school bus to school every day, he’s the first on and last off and the ride is an hour each way. he does hw on the bus. luke’s family plays “hey cow” every time they pass cows while driving (maybe this was just a my family thing).

and, i cannot stress this enough, MARCHING BAND

britgate? aussiegate? and now canadagate? i do not understand and i cannot relate, but i also kind of love it and want to participate, so hear me out: midwestgate?

(this got longer than i was expecting, so i put it under a read more)

(feel free to add your own)

@penguin-writes-books helped me out a little with this and she insists that they should be from evanston, il because 'vibes' so ok sure why not. what's a 14 hour drive to get some runza?

[id: photo of a green pop mmachin at Runza that says "the debate: pop or soda please note: you are in the midwest and the correct answer is pop. #PopNotSoda"]

the band has definitely almost broken up over pop vs soda. more than once

rose's (now julie's) garden has taken over the molina's backyard. they have so many extra vegetables, they couldn't pay people to take them all away. reggie gets really into helping them can, and especially loves when tia victoria teaches him her salsa recipe (also peeling tomatoes to can them is a fun sensory experience)

the whole squad is now spoiled and refuses to eat tomatoes that aren't home grown

reggie 100% lives on a ranch and thinks that makes him a cowboy (he tries teaching the others how to ride a horse. some of them handle it better than others)

it's like at least half an hour out of the city, and reggie's had a school permit since he was 14 (he's technically been driving since he was 10, but don't tell anyone) (luke is bitter because reggie's a better driver than him)

bobby "i could never hurt an animal" wilson will only eat meat from reggie's family's ranch because he knows the animals there are treated well

anytime they drive anywhere, reggie has to point out every single horse he sees. there are a lot of them

reggie has a fascination with car henge and insists they stop anytime they happen to be in the vicinity (which is like an 8 hour radius)

they go tanking (idk if this is a thing outside of ne actually but whatever) and alex hates it so much but he refuses to let them go without him

similarly, reggie has a "pool" at his ranch that's actually just a livestock tank

luke is That Bitch who drowns everything in ranch. literally everything. and he does not care what ranch. usually it's whatever they've stolen recently from various restaurants or it's like off-off-brand. he considers hidden valley 'fancy'

oh and this shit?

[id: Heinz ad featuring mayomust, kranch, and mayocue sauces.]

luke loves it. he thinks it's the best thing ever invented. alex is personally offended by it because mixing sauces is an art

also their high school is literally in the middle of a cornfield. that's just how it be sometimes

and the henry doorly zoo! look, i know there are other zoos, and if they're in illinois there are almost certainly closer ones, but the omaha zoo is iconic, ok? (my drawing of texas is 100% based off a stuffed penguin i got there) the 14 hour drive is worth it

reggie runs to try to see everything in the one day (literally impossible but go off)

luke's phone background is a picture of julie in the butterfly pavillion surrounded by butterflies (alex calls him a simp, but his is willie staring at the jellyfish)

luke gets spooked when a bat flies over his head in the jungle, and bobby laughs and then immediately gets startled by another one

they lose alex in the aquarium because he simply cannot stop staring at the fish as they swim over him in the tunnel

willie buys him a stuffed shark and he almost starts crying right there (he pays him back at the adler when they go to chicago) (reggie, willie, and flynn are obsessed with the adler but also hate that it's in chicago because light pollution)

willie and flynn shit talk the bean ("cloudgate? he's so pretentious. it's a fucking bean") so much

(i still say chicago doesn't count as midwest but whatever)

#midwestgate #marching band au

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thewebofslime · 6 years ago

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Allison Mack leaves Federal court Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Mack, an actress best known for playing a young Superman's friend, has been granted bail while fighting charges that she helped recruit women into a cult-like group. A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed Tuesday to release Allison Mack on $5 million bond and place her under home detention in California. She'll be living with her parents. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II NXIVM was formed by Keith Raniere and Nancy Salzman in the 1990s and billed itself as a self-help multi-level marketing company. The company ceased operations last year after a New York Times exposé alleged that female members were used as sex slaves within the group. The exposé prompted a federal investigation, and several members, including Raniere and "Smallville" actress Allison Mack, are now facing criminal charges. Visit INSIDER.com for more stories. When NXIVM first formed in the 1990s, it was billed as a self-help multi-level marketing company that offered professional development seminars. But over the last year and half, the organization has fallen apart after a New York Times exposé alleged that female members were branded and used as sex slaves by the group's founder, Keith Raniere. The exposé prompted a federal investigation and the arrests of several members, including Raniere and "Smallville" actress Allison Mack. In recent months three defendants have pleaded guilty and admitted to allegations made in The Times' piece, including blackmail and enslaving members. NXIVM has since shut down, but Raniere has yet to take a plea deal. Here's everything you need to know about NXIVM and the criminal case against the organization: Keith Raniere launched NXIVM as a self-help company in the 1990s. The NXIVM Executive Success Programs sign outside of the office at 455 New Karner Road on April 26, 2018 in Albany, New York. Photo by Amy Luke/Getty Images NXIVM — pronounced like "nexium" — is a self-help multi-level marketing company in Albany, New York. A self-help guru named Keith Raniere, and a former psychiatric nurse and consultant named Nancy Salzman, founded the business in 1998. Over the next twenty years, some 16,000 people enrolled in courses through NXIVM, which describes itself as "a community guided by humanitarian principles that seek to empower people and answer important questions about what it means to be human." Most people enrolled in NXIVM through its Executive Success Programs (ESP), a series of workshops designed to "actualize human potential" that cost up to $7,500. Founder Keith Raniere was born in 1960 in Brooklyn. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York in 1982. The second founder, Nancy Salzman, was born in 1954 in Newark, New Jersey, and later obtained a nursing license. Raniere's website describes him as a "the conceptual founder of NXIVM" as well as a prolific inventor and writer. Salzman's website touts her "thirty years of intensive study and practice in the fields of healthcare, human potential and human empowerment" and her "incredible wealth of knowledge, wisdom and experience." Forbes named several members in a 2003 report, including businesswoman Sheila Johnson and the daughter of former Mexican President Vicente Fox. Others who reportedly attended ESP sessions include Dynasty star Linda Evans and Virgin founder Richard Branson, according to Macleans. Seagram's liquor heirs Clare and Sara Bronfman lost more than $100 million investing in the organization, according to Vanity Fair. The meaning of the company's name, which is pronounced like the heartburn medication Nexium, is unclear. The exterior of the NXIVM Executive Success Programs office at 455 New Karner Road on April 26, 2018 in Albany, New York. (Photo by Amy Luke/Getty Images Last year, a whistleblower offered the theory that it refers to nexum, a type of contract used in the Roman Republic in which a person agreed to offer their body as collateral for a loan. If they defaulted, they became a slave of the person who loaned them money. Journalists started labeling the company as a pyramid scheme in the early 2000s. Attorneys representing NXIVM leader Keith Raniere, Mark Agnifilo, right, and Paul DerOhannesian, II, center, leave following Raniere's arraignment in federal court on Friday, April 13, 2018, in New York. AP Photo/Kevin Hagen Before launching NXIVM, Raniere ran an alleged pyramid scheme that brought in $33 million in a year, Forbes reported in 2003. Raniere had signed 250,000 people up for Consumers' Buyline, another multi-level marketing company. This one claimed to obtain products and services at a significant discount. In 1993, the New York Attorney General filed a lawsuit that accused Consumers Buyline of being a pyramid scheme. Raniere never admitted wrongdoing, and instead settled for $40,000. Forbes' 2003 article, titled "Cult of Personality," investigated whether or not NXIVM also portrayed pyramid-scheme-like tendencies. Seagram's late CEO, Edgar Bronfman Sr., who had previously taken courses with NXIVM, told the magazine: "I think it's a cult." Raniere, Salzman, and Bronfman's daughter Sara were reportedly upset about his remark, according to Vanity Fair. Cult experts told local media that Raniere was probably running a cult in 2012. The exterior of the former townhome of NXIVM founder Keith Raniere at 3 Flintlock Lane in Clifton Park, New York on Thursday, May 3, 2018. Photo by Amy Luke/Getty Images The Times Union, a local paper that serves the upstate New York area surrounding Albany, published an article in 2012 in which it questioned NXIVM's motives. "Some experts say Keith Raniere, the guru behind the unusual training business, is really a cult leader," the article said. The article said Raniere was called the "Vanguard" within the group, while devotees called Salzman "Prefect." The Times Union reported that within NXIVM, there was a "close knit" group of women who "tended to [Raniere], paid his bills," and "satisfied his sexual needs." Cult Tracker Rick Ross told the paper that NXIVM was "one of the most extreme groups [he had] ever dealt with in the sense of how tightly wound it is around the leader, Keith Raniere." October 17, 2017: The New York Times published an exposé about NXIVM’s branding ritual and sex slave allegations. Actress Catherine Oxenberg, left, with Stanley Zareff and Toni Natalie, talks to the press following the arraignment of NXIVM leader Keith Raniere in federal court on Friday, April 13, 2018, in New York. AP Photo/Kevin Hagen The New York Times exposé featured an interview with former NXIVM member Sarah Edmondson and her experience with the organization. Edmondson claimed that Salzman's daughter, Lauren Salzman, had recruited her into a secret organization within NXIVM in the mid-2000s. She claimed she had to turn over damaging information before joining that was held by NXIVM leaders as "collateral." Several women who were in the group told The Times that the organization inside NXIVM consisted of distinct circles, each led by a "master" who would control a number of sex slaves. The name of the organization was later revealed to be called Dominus Obsequious Sororium, which loosely translates from Latin to "lord over the obedient female companions" according to a later feature on NXIVM by The New York Times. The group was called DOS for short. Edmondson showed The Times a scar resembling Raniere's initials, and said every woman in the group had one. Dynasty actress Catherine Oxenberg also spoke to The Times, claiming her daughter had been initiated into the group. The exposé prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice. Attorneys representing NXIVM leader Keith Raniere in a sex trafficking case, Mark Agnifilo, second from left, and Paul DerOhannesian, second from right, prepare to hold a news briefing outside Brooklyn Federal Court. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews Two months after The New York Times released its report on NXIVM, the Justice Department started investigating the group. March 26, 2018: Raniere was arrested and charged with sex trafficking after fleeing to Mexico following The Times' exposé. In this courtroom sketch Keith Raniere, second from right, leader of the secretive group NXIVM, attends a court hearing Friday, April 13, 2018. Elizabeth Williams via AP Raniere was arrested in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and brought to Texas on March 26, 2018, the Brooklyn US Attorney's office said at the time. He had fled to Mexico after The Times story published the previous October. "Keith Raniere displayed a disgusting abuse of power in his efforts to denigrate and manipulate women he considered his sex slaves," FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney said in the press release announcing Raniere's arrest. He was charged with sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy and forced labor conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged that Raniere "created a secret society of women whom he had sex with and branded with his initials, coercing them with the threat of releasing their highly personal information and taking their assets." According to a criminal complaint, prosecutors alleged that Raniere told followers that men need multiple sex partners while women need to be monogamous. The also claimed Raniere had "over 50 sex slaves," NBC News reported. March 30, 2018: "Smallville" actress Kristin Kreuk explains reports that she was part of NXIVM. Kristin Kreuk "Smallville" actress Kristin Kreuk told Elle in March 2018 that she had taken self-help classes through NXIVM, but she was never part of the DOS inner circle. "I took an Executive Success Programs/NXIVM 'Intensive,' what I understood to be a self-help/personal growth course that helped me handle my previous shyness, which is why I continued with the program," she said in a statement last year. She said she was 23 when she took courses with NXIVM, which would have been in 2006. "The accusations that I was in the 'inner circle' or recruited women as 'sex slaves' are blatantly false," she added. April 20, 2018: "Smallville" actress Allison Mack was arrested and and charged with sex trafficking and forced labor. Allison Mack leaves Federal court Tuesday, April 24, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Mack, an actress best known for playing a young Superman's friend, has been granted bail while fighting charges that she helped recruit women into a cult-like group. A federal judge in Brooklyn agreed Tuesday to release Allison Mack on $5 million bond and place her under home detention in California. She'll be living with her parents. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II Mack was arrested on April 20, 2018 on charges of sex trafficking, sex trafficking conspiracy, and forced labor conspiracy. The actress was accused by two unnamed women of requiring them to engage in sexual activity with Raniere, CNN reported at the time. Prosecutors alleged that Mack received financial benefits in exchange for the women's cooperation. The women claimed they were blackmailed into performing sexual favors. INSIDER previously reported that Mack sent cryptic messages to prominent feminists on Twitter, trying to recruit women for "an organization that focuses on empowering women from the inside out." The women she reached out to include actress Emma Watson, parenting expert Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, and singer Kelly Clarkson. Mack pleaded not guilty to charges. Allison Mack leaves Brooklyn federal court in New York, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. AP Photo/Seth Wenig Mack pleaded not guilty to the charges shortly after her arrest. She was released on a $5 million bond. April 21, 2018: The New York Post reported that NXIVM moved its operations to Brooklyn. Clare Bronfman, left, leaves federal court, Tuesday, July 24, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Bronfman, an heiress to the Seagram's liquor fortune and three other people were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the investigation of a self-improvement organization accused of branding some of its female followers and forcing them into unwanted sex. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer NXIVM moved its operations from Albany, New York, to Brooklyn, in April 2018, the The New York Post reported. As Raniere faced criminal charges, longtime member Clare Bronfman — a multimillionaire heiress to the Seagram's liquor fortune — took control of the organization, The Post said. An insider told The Post that the organization's "crisis mode" as Raniere and Mack faced charges. May 4, 2018: Raniere pleaded not guilty and his attorney said "everything was consensual." Actress Catherine Oxenberg, left, arrives at federal court with Stanley Zareff and Toni Natalie, who is Keith Raniere's ex girlfriend, for the arraignment of NXIVM leader Raniere on Friday, April 13, 2018, in New York. AP Photo/Kevin Hagen Raniere pleaded not guilty all all charges on May 4, 2018. After the hearing, his lawyers told NBC News that "everything was consensual" within NXIVM. "There are well-known groups of men who brand themselves," attorney Marc Agnifilo said. "A group of women do that and suddenly they're victims." Following his not guilty plea, Raniere was held without bail. May 30, 2018: Mack told The New York Times that she instituted the branding ritual. Television actress Allison Mack leaves federal court in New York, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018. AP Photo/Seth Wenig Allison Mack told the New York Times Magazine that it was her idea to brand members of the alleged sex cult. She said tattoos weren't intense enough and wanted a stronger brand that would be more meaningful. "I was like: 'Y'all, a tattoo? People get drunk and tattooed on their ankle 'BFF,' or a tramp stamp,'" she told the Times. "I have two tattoos and they mean nothing." The Times said hundreds of NXIVM members were branded with a symbol that resembled a "K" and "R," which stands for Keith Raniere. According to The Times, Mack was once one of Raniere's sex slaves. When she acquired a slave of her own, the slave was branded with both the "KR" symbol as well as an "AM" symbol. June 12, 2018: NXIVM suspended all operations. The exterior of the NXIVM Executive Success Programs office at 455 New Karner Road on April 26, 2018 in Albany, New York. Photo by Amy Luke/Getty Images NXIVM announced it was suspending all operations on June 12, 2018. The organization said in a statement on its website: It is with deep sadness that we inform you we are suspending all NXIVM/ESP enrollment, curriculum and events until further notice. We will be in touch with more information for anyone currently enrolled in upcoming events/programs. While we are disappointed by the interruption of our operations, we believe it is warranted by the extraordinary circumstances facing the company at this time. We continue to believe in the value and importance of our work and look forward to resuming our efforts when these allegations are resolved. July 24, 2018: Four more people, including heiress Clare Bronfman were arrested and charged with racketeering and conspiracy for their roles in NXIVM. Clare Bronfman leaves Brooklyn federal court in New York, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. Court papers say a trust largely funded by Seagram's liquor fortune heiress Bronfman is bankrolling the defense for her co defendants in a sex trafficking case. AP Photo/Seth Wenig Federal authorities arrested Clare Bronfman, Nancy Salzman, Lauren Salzman, and Kathy Russell on charges of racketeering conspiracy for their alleged involvement in NXIVM. Prosecutors alleged that all four women recruited and groomed women into being sexual partners for Raniere. The women are accused of using "harassment, coercion and abusive litigation to intimidate and attack perceived enemies and critics," according to the indictment, published by The Daily Beast. The indictment accused the women of a number of crimes, including identity theft, harboring of aliens for financial gain, extortion, forced labor, sex trafficking, money laundering, wire fraud and obstruction of justice. It described Bronfman as "a member of the Enterprise and a high-ranking member of Nxivm" who served on the organization's board from 2009 to 2018. March 13, 2019: Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty, saying in court that she tracked and monitored women as part of NXIVM Nancy Salzman, exits following a hearing on charges in relation to the Albany-based organization Nxivm at the United States Federal Courthouse in Brooklyn at New York. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy in federal court on March 13. Salzman admitted to hacking emails of NXIVM critics, and said in court that she had monitored women as part of her role within the organization. She said in court that she had obtained passwords and usernames of people who were suspected of leaking NXIVM secrets. "I want you to know I am pleading guilty because I am, in fact, guilty," she told the court, according to The Post. "I accept that some of the things I did were not just wrong, but sometimes criminal." March 14, 2019: Prosecutors alleged that Raniere had sex with a 15-year-old girl and charged him with child pornography. Mark Agnifilo and Paul DerOhannesian, attorneys representing Keith Raniere and Allison Mack, speak to reporters following a status conference where Raniere was again denied bail, at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, June 12, 2018 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images Hours after Nancy Salzman pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors charged Raniere with child pornography. In a superseding indictment seen by Reuters, prosecutors accused Raniere of coercing a child into sexual conduct to produce visual depictions of it and of possessing child pornography between 2005 and 2018. At a Brooklyn hearing, prosecutors alleged that Raniere had sex with a 15-year-old girl who later became a "sex slave," The Cut reported at the time. March 27, 2019: Bronfman fainted in court after being asked if Michael Avenatti was her lawyer. Clare Bronfman, center, a member of NXIVM, an organization charged with sex trafficking, arrives at Brooklyn Federal Court, Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan During court hearing on March 27, Bronfman fainted in court after a discussion about whether she was being represented by lawyer Michael Avenatti. According to The New York Post, Judge Nicholas Garaufis had asked Donna Newman, one of Bronfman's lawyers: "Did she retain Mr. Avenatti to represent her in this case, yes or no?" The question came days after Avenatti was charged with trying to extort more than $20 million from Nike. Newman requested a sidebar discussion with the judge, and on Bronfman's way back to her seat after the conversation, she fell forward and fainted. Paramedics were called, but Bronfman was not taken to a hospital for treatment. April 2, 2019: Lauren Salzman pleaded guilty, admitting she enslaved a woman for just over two years. Lauren Salzman, a co defendant in the sex trafficking and racketeering Nxivm cult, departs the Brooklyn Federal Courthouse, following a hearing in New York. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid Lauren Salzman — the daughter of NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman — became the second defendant to plead guilty on April 2. The 42-year-old pleaded guilty to racketeering and racketeering conspiracy and admitted in court to keeping a personal slave locked in her home for two years, according to the New York Post. "I knowingly and intentionally harbored Jane Doe 4, a woman whose identity is known to me, in a room in the home in the Northern District of New York," Salzman said in court, according to The Post. She also admitted to being a member of NXIVM's inner circle, DOS. April 8, 2019: Mack reverses her not guilty plea and pleads guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy and one count of racketeering. Actress Allison Mack leaves Brooklyn federal court Monday, April 8, 2019, in New York. Mack pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Monday in a case involving a cult like group based in upstate New York. AP Photo/Mark Lennihan Mack reversed her plea on April 8, nearly a year after she pleaded not guilty charges including sex trafficking, identity fraud, and money laundering for her role in NXIVM's alleged sex ring. Mack entered a plea agreement on racketeering charges, according to the Associated Press. Prosecutors alleged that Mack helped procure women for a cult-like group within NXIVM that recruited sex slaves for its leader in upstate New York. "I know I can and will be a better person," Mack said at her hearing on Monday. She is scheduled to be sentenced on September 11.

#TheWebOfSlime

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adambstingus · 6 years ago

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Leicester City and Carolina Panthers: a friendship founded on underdog success

Cam Newton and Co play in the Super Bowl this weekend as the Foxes ride high in the Premier League. And the two teams have exchanged admiring glances

Their bandwagon has beer. Charlotte gets the swag and the bromance, but Leicester Citys true Carolina hearts actually rest two hours north and west of Bank of America Stadium, nestled in a mountain range.

If ever an official mid-south Foxes supporters group were to see the light of day, the odds are good it would probably spring from Asheville, North Carolina, dubbed Beer City USA four years in a row, a soccer-friendly burg of 83,000-plus thats home to more than a dozen craft breweries. A burg where Chris Watts has been preaching the gospel of blue for more than 15 years now.

Its like a dream, says Watts, a Leicestershire native who has called Asheville home since moving to the States almost two decades ago. My brothers a season-ticket holder and he gets to the games. I was over there in October, against Crystal Palace and Watford, and it was just unbelievable to see where we were. And you keep thinking, Is this going to keep going? Its a bit like a dream. At the same time, its brilliant.

Pinch him, he giggles. And why the hell not? Watts has been a Carolina Panthers fan for more than 10 years and a Foxes fan for pretty much the last five decades, through thick, thin, and thinner. Some eight years earlier, he had shepherded a group of US friends back to Leicestershire for his 50th birthday and a series of matches in the Midlands, including a pair at the King Power, then the Walkers Stadium.

Five minutes into the [match], one of those friends, Tim Branson, recalls of his initial Foxes experience, I saw four guys carrying out two.

But he was hooked.

The second game, they got the skybox treatment. Watts landed a program signed by the team which, as it turned out, would become the first Foxes side ever to be relegated from the Championship to the third tier of the English football pyramid.

Ive still got it, Watts chuckles. Ive got a signed program, in a frame, of Leicester at their lowest.

And look whos laughing now.

The Panthers prepping for the biggest single event in North American sport, Super Bowl 50s NFC gatecrashers. The Foxes are atop the most popular soccer league on the planet. First, they were cute. Then a curiosity. Then a fluke. Then a stubborn anamoly. They werent supposed to here, either of them.

The parallels are valid and real enough: theyd finished their previous seasons on an unexpected, almost desperate hot streak. Theyd been dismissed by the experts, were under-appreciated outside their own province, middling brand names turning in gold-caliber performances, week after week, month upon month. Leicester City looked at the Carolina Panthers, 3,924 miles and an ocean away, and saw well, themselves.

The beginning of the year, [Leicester City] didnt have great expectations and kind of the same goes for us, says Panthers kicker Graham Gano, one of four Carolina players to receive customized Leicester City shirts from the surprise Premier League leaders last month. Theyve done really well this year, and so have we. So they kind of thought their season was similar to ours and they pulled for us and thats how we got the jerseys.

Before their NFC Divisional Round test against Seattle on 17 January, Panthers players turned up at work to find that the Foxes had sent over customized blue shirts for quarterback Cam Newton, cornerback Josh Norman, linebacker Luke Kuechly and Gano.

Carolina have had an incredible season, the Leicester left-back Christian Fuchs told the teams official website. Like us, they ended last season really well and again, like us, some people didnt expect them to do what theyve done this season, even after the great start they had.

Leicester City (@LCFC) January 15, 2016

#KeepPounding, @Panthers!@vardy7 and @FuchsOfficial on #lcfc‘s pick for #SuperBowl50 https://t.co/3nAsHdpXzA pic.twitter.com/78I9uVyeE6

Before long, they shared a narrative and a hashtag: #KeepPounding. The Panthers returned the favor, and Leicester shared pictures and videos on social media of striker Jamie Vardy, centre-back Wes Morgan, Fuchs and goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel decked out in Carolina black, tossing and kicking an NFL football around.

They were natural at it, Gano says. It would be interesting to see them kicking field goals and what it would look like. Obviously, their form looks good, but I never saw the ball going through the uprights. Its a little different swing than [it takes] to keep the ball under the posts. But Id love to have an opportunity sometime to have a kick around with some of the pros over [there], and compare how I match up with those guys.

But he thinks theyd probably be thick as thieves, especially after the Foxes posted a video to YouTube of Fuchs attempting a series of keepy-uppis with the oblong American football.

I was in the airport in Chicago and Im sitting at the bar and got talking about football American and English, Watts recalls. And I pulled up [the Fuchs video] to show a few others. Its pretty neat to see an English soccer player, albeit an Austrian, keeping up an American football. They thought it was pretty cool.

In one corner, the Panthers, unloved, slapped with 22-to-1 odds to win the NFC back in May and 40-1 to win the whole shebang. In the other, Leicester, dismissed almost universal preseason favorites to be relegated this term, 2000-1 odds to win the league at the start of the campaign.

Its not quite the same, Watts says of the two franchises and their comparative roads. But nobody was expecting the Panthers to be where they are. A lot of my friends, when they saw the stuff about the shirts [coming over], and then the Panthers sent shirts back the other way, its been neat.

Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) January 15, 2016

.@LCFC pic.twitter.com/Eo8yFJuwtO

Carolina are playing in their first Super Bowl in 12 years; since 2003-04, 13 different NFL teams have qualified for the title game. Leicester are the first squad other than one of the Big Five clubs [Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea] to be leading the Premier League in the last week of January since Newcastle in 1995-96.

Being on both sides, [the more remarkable story is] Leicester City, for me, just because of what theyve had to do, the fight, where theyve had to come from, says Branson. Going down to the third division and going back into the second and having to fight their way back to the top. Ashevilles got a single-A [baseball] club. It would be like them somehow winning and if they did promotions, getting promoted to the majors. In a little city like Asheville, it doesnt happen very often.

Youve got to have respect for them, Gano says of the Foxes rise. I havent been able to catch a ton of their games weve been pretty busy over here, so I havent really had the opportunity to catch up with them.

And, full disclosure, Gano is a Bayern Munich fan, having grown up bouncing from Scotland to Germany to Scotland to Canada as a Navy brat (I used to have a thick accent, he chuckles, without a trace of brogue.) Born in Scotland, he also maintains a bit of a soft spot for Rangers.

But I didnt have a favorite English team, the kicker says. So I guess I can pull for [Leicester] now.

After all, theres plenty of room on the wagon. And in Asheville, the best beer on the continent never tasted better.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/leicester-city-and-carolina-panthers-a-friendship-founded-on-underdog-success/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/181466020937

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samanthasroberts · 6 years ago

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Leicester City and Carolina Panthers: a friendship founded on underdog success

Cam Newton and Co play in the Super Bowl this weekend as the Foxes ride high in the Premier League. And the two teams have exchanged admiring glances

Five minutes into the [match], one of those friends, Tim Branson, recalls of his initial Foxes experience, I saw four guys carrying out two.

But he was hooked.

Ive still got it, Watts chuckles. Ive got a signed program, in a frame, of Leicester at their lowest.

And look whos laughing now.

Leicester City (@LCFC) January 15, 2016

#KeepPounding, @Panthers!@vardy7 and @FuchsOfficial on #lcfc‘s pick for #SuperBowl50 https://t.co/3nAsHdpXzA pic.twitter.com/78I9uVyeE6

But he thinks theyd probably be thick as thieves, especially after the Foxes posted a video to YouTube of Fuchs attempting a series of keepy-uppis with the oblong American football.

Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) January 15, 2016

.@LCFC pic.twitter.com/Eo8yFJuwtO

But I didnt have a favorite English team, the kicker says. So I guess I can pull for [Leicester] now.

After all, theres plenty of room on the wagon. And in Asheville, the best beer on the continent never tasted better.

Source: http://allofbeer.com/leicester-city-and-carolina-panthers-a-friendship-founded-on-underdog-success/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2018/12/27/leicester-city-and-carolina-panthers-a-friendship-founded-on-underdog-success/

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georgiapioneers · 7 years ago

Text

Chatham Co. NC Genealogies and Histories #northcarolinapioneers

Images of Chatham County Wills and Estates

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2CBYOuf

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