SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

BRAVA! – FROM THE NEW YORK POST:   Bienvenue!  The First Couple arrived in Paris this morning and wasted no time attending to their schedule, with First Lady Melania Trump going straight from the tarmac at Orly Airport to the Necker Hospital for children in Paris.  Stunning in a red suit, the first lady met Martin Hirsch, the director of Paris’ public hospital system and posed with hospital staff.  The former model also spoke with children at the hospital in French, one of five languages she speaks. She introduced herself, asked them where they grew up and gave them words of encouragement.  Mrs. Trump read the sick tots a French classic — “The Little Prince” — in a room filled with Legos and other toys, and was given a French-language copy of the book by the hospital’s director.  She was elegant and superb, and spoke in their native language.  Will Melania get credit for the great work she's doing as first lady?  I doubt it, but the public knows what it is seeing.

DEBUNKED! – FROM CNN:   A newly discovered photo that claimed to hold the key to the 80-year-old mystery surrounding Amelia Earhart's disappearance may have been published two years before she vanished, new evidence suggests.  The blurry photo, used in a History Channel documentary, was alleged to show the groundbreaking pilot and her navigator Fred Noonan alive and well on a dock in the Marshall Islands in 1937.  But two bloggers say they have found the photo in a Japanese coffee-table book from 1935 -- when Earhart was safely in the United States.  I've always loved following the Earhart theories.  This one, centered on a newly discovered photo, was debunked within days of being featured on the History Channel.  Read the whole story, which contains the photos.

ESCAPE OF THE YEAR – FROM NBC:    A Texas man who became trapped inside an ATM slipped notes to customers via the receipt slot pleading for them to help him escape, police said Thursday.  The contractor became stuck Wednesday when he was changing a lock to a Bank of America room that leads to the back of the ATM, Corpus Christi police Lt. Chris Hooper said. He couldn't let himself out of the room because he didn't have a keycard on him and was unable to notify bank employees for help.  "Apparently he left his cellphone and the swipe card he needed to get out of the room outside in his truck," Hooper said.
When he realized customers were retrieving cash from the machine, he passed notes to them through the ATM receipt slot. One read, "Please help. I'm stuck in here and I don't have my phone. Please call my boss ..."  Some customers appeared to dismiss the notes as a gag, Hooper said. But one called police, who detected a faint voice coming from inside the ATM. An officer kicked in the door to the room and freed the man, whose name has not been released.   Okay, okay, we all have questions about this story.  The police only heard a faint voice?  How thick are those walls?  The guy passed notes through the receipt slot?  Why didn't he just put his mouth up to the slot and scream?  It's an open space.  But it's a great story.  Always take your phone and keys with you?

July 13, 2017