REALLY??? Mad Mike Hughes to Jump Grand Canyon in Home-Made Rocket Ship. REALLY???

(Editor's Note: Dr. Ango Zango, Ah-Ha Banana Nation's roving correspondent, reported this week Mad Mike Hughes promised to hold a victory parade along Paseo Delicias in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. should he survive and complete the Grand Canyon daredevil  feat.)

Mad Mike Hughes to Jump Grand Canyon in Home-Made Rocket Ship!
”World’s Most Famous Limo Driver” to complete what Evil Knievel failed to do in 1974

GRAND CANYON, AZ  --  “Mad” Mike Hughes, an aspiring, amateur daredevil, plans to jump his home-made rocket ship over the Grand Canyon on Labor Day, September 5, 2011.  The stunt will accomplish what Evil Knievel failed to do during his attempted jump of the Grand Canyon in 1974.  Since 2007, Mike has been building the X-2 SkyLimo, a “super-heated, steam-powered” one-passenger rocket in the backyard of his Redlands, California home.  

“I’ve been working on the SkyLimo for quite a while and now I’m happy to report that all system are go!” says Mike.  “The world has waited 36 years to see someone complete this jump and I’m gonna make it happen.  There’s been numerous technical, financial and governmental obstacles placed in my way, but we’ve got past each and every one.  It’s time to get to the launch pad and blast-off on this JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME!”

Mike hand-built the rocket and received guidance from an impressive group of rocket engineers, including a consultation by Bob Truax who was the original designer of Evil Kneivel’s famous X-2 SkyCycle.  “There is no doubt, technically, that this rocket will make the jump,” says Mike.  “The only question is whether I’ll be able to hang on and what type of condition I’ll be in on the other side of that canyon!”

Mike Hughes has a rich and interesting resume that makes him uniquely positioned to complete this historic feat:

 - Guiness Book of World Records Holder – Longest Jump in a Limousine (2002)

 - NASCAR Insider – Crew Chief (Craftman Series), Top Sheet Metal Fabricator (Busch Series), Racing Innovator (performed first vinyl wrap in NASCAR and developed other advancements)

 - Outspoken “Lightning Rod” – California gubernatorial candidate in 2010 – Ran on the platform of “radicalizing” the government, which includes the pardon of Charles Manson and requiring registered lobbyists to wear pink suits.

 - Controversial Author – “What Does a Limo Driver Know about NASCAR”? – Expose’ on the secret, inner workings of NASCAR, including what really killed Dale Earnhardt, why NASCAR sabotages racial minority drivers and the bi-sexually of a past NASCAR champion.

 - International Playboy (retired) – Dated actresses and models, including Playmate of the Year.

 - National Motorcycle Ice Racing Champion (1979)

- Hospital Regular – Back broken twice, 14 other broken bones

- Professional Limo Driver – To pay the bills. 

Mike encourages all Americans to strive for excellence in their lives.  “Our country was built on men and women who gave us challenging ideas, inspired us with intellectual insight and motivated us to achieve success.  That’s what makes our country great!  Get out of your box and do something fantastic for us all!”

For more information about Mike and the historic jump, please visit:   

www.madmike.org

San Diego Sockers Defeats Guadalajara La Raza to Capture 2011 North American Championship at Del Mar Arena...

The game was a rematch of last year's championship, which the Sockers took 9-8 at Del Mar Arena. In some ways the game was a reverse of last year's game in which La Raza lost their composure and found themselves trailing 6-1 before rallying.

Tonight, the game was close at the half with the Sockers leading just 5-4. The second half is where Guadalajara came unglued and San Diego ran away with the game.

At one point Fernando Camarena pushed Anthony Medina after goalkeeper Eduardo Arevalo fell on a loose ball. Camarena wasn't done, shoving the assistant referee earning himself a red card.

When all was said and done Kraig Chiles put the ball in the net four times and had five goals for the tournament earning the Playoff MVP award, the first time the award did not go to a goalkeeper. Not that Chris Toth, who started yesterday and today's starter Riley Swift weren't deserving.

John Krause had two goals yesterday and used his big body to overpower La Raza with several key blocks and steals. Another standout was Eric Wunderle, who scored maybe the biggest goal in tonight's game. As the ball rolled slowly back to goalkeeper Jesus Flores Wunderle streaked down the side and just kept coming and coming, blocked Flores' clear and beat him in a race back to the goal to knock the ball in on the goal line.

Miguel Vaca was the highest scorer in the tournament with six goals and three assists for nine points.

San Diego, winners of 12 indoor championships, will look to keep the titles flowing on March 19 when they host the Cincinnati Kings in the US Open Final at Del Mar Arena.

About Professional Arena Soccer League and Premier Arena Soccer League 

The PASL-Pro is a professional league which began play on October 25, 2008. Now in its third season, the PASL-Pro consists of US teams, the CMISL (Canada), and the LMFR (Mexico). The Tacoma Stars, Revolucion Tijuana, Wenatchee Fire, Kitsap Pumas, Springfield Demize, and Illinois Piasa have been added for the 2010-11 season. The PASL-Premier is in its 13th season as the nation's top amateur arena soccer league. The PASL-Pro and PASL-Premier are members of Federacion Internacional de Futbol Rapido (FIFRA).

San Diego Botanic Garden presents herb festival, Susan Belsinger, gourd basket workshops

Award-winning cookbook author and herbalist Susan Belsinger to give two presentations at San Diego Botanic Garden's Herb Festival, March 19 - 20, 2011

Award-winning cookbook author and herbalist Susan Belsinger to give two presentations at San Diego Botanic Garden’s Herb Festival, March 19 – 20, 2011

 Growing vegetables, herbs, and flowers organically, harvesting them at their peak, and bringing them into the kitchen to create healthy, good-tasting dishes is a way of life for Susan Belsinger. She is a culinary herbalist who delights in kitchen alchemy—the blending of harmonious foods, herbs, and spices—to create real, delicious food, as well as libations, that nourish our bodies and spirits and titillate our senses.

Susan teaches, lectures, and writes about gardening and cooking, and is a food writer, editor and photographer who has authored/co-authored 20 books and been published in...

One Degree of "Dr. Strangeglove" -- The Jack Cust Story...

 (Spring training is in full swing for Major League Baseball. We'll be following the season from time to time here, especially as it relates to the dozen, or so, players, and others, with Rancho Santa Fe ties. Bud Black, Trevor Hoffman Mike Sweeney, Mark Loretta, even Dick Enberg, and many others...This is a look at Jack Cust's magic between the white lines...Dan Weisman.)

The ghost of Richard Lee "Dick" Stuart was alive and well the evening of Thursday, May 1 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on Gene Autrey Way.Many of you weren't born when Stuart, infamously known as Dr. Strangeglove following the Stanley Kubrick 1964 classic of the same name, held court and, oopsy-daisy, drop-kicked balls from 1958 to 1969. 

Stuart didn't just butcher the rawhide. He stewed, filleted, shaked, baked, folded and otherwise mutilated balls with all the aplomb of a blind elephant in a pottery barn.

Shameless on defense, and almost defiantly so, the good-humored -- Thank goodness, for he was a giant -- Stuart's record 29 errors at First Base set while toiling for the Boston Red Sox stands preeminent even today. Frank Litsky's New York Times obituary for Stuart upon his death from cancer at age 66 in 2002 quoted Bobby Bragan calling old Stonehands -- Stuart's pre-strangeglove moniker -- the worst outfielder he ever saw.

 Add quote Litsky: When the public-address announcer at Pirates training camp once told the spectators, ''Anyone who interferes with the ball in play will be ejected from the ballpark,'' Danny Murtaugh, the Pirates' manager at the time, said, ''I hope Stuart doesn't think he means him.''

Oh by the way, Stuart also hit 228 home runs -- pre- pre-steroids. In 1963, when he set the record for errors, he also led the American League in RBI's with 118. This in the modern dead ball era before the mounds were lowered and the hitters designated.

Which brings us full circle to a fatefully unexpected Thursday this side of Los Angeles where the county turns orange. That awful thud. The shameful bounce. A Bugs Bunny cartoon of a fly ball clank clank, you never gonna get that baby back. And the reincarnation of Dick Stuart incarnate, in the form of Jack Cust, Left(out)fielder, Oakland's A's, committing the ultimate honors in anti-defense.

This brought back long lost memories of ye olde Dr. Stonehands Strangeglove. The sheer audacity of Cust's latest blunder, coupled with that loud thud of a sound similar to a cement block dropped about 50 stories to the concrete ground was like a tornado, hurricane, flood, an unnaturally natural event, unforgettably permeating the moment.

That bitter play! Sweet nostalgia. Not heard nor such audacious non-play seen for so many lonely moments and now this.

Give Cust credit for he probably never heard of Stuart. But Lawdy, Miss Clawdy, he did the greatest Dr. Strangeglove impression possible. First, he looked up to see the routine fly ball drift ever so graciously to Left Field. Ever confident -- and nobody looked more confident than Stuart right before each next gaffe -- Cust held up his glove awaiting the expected result.

Hosanna and look out below, the ball fell flush on a closed glove, bounced about 20 yards away and resulted in disaster, Angels flying around the basepaths. What Cust had done was cover his eyes with his glove. He never stood a chance.

But Cust is a playa, if not a fieldah, per se. Almost nonchalantly, he retrieved the ball, missed the cut-off man -- perfect, if this were Superman's Bizarro World, but here not so much -- and eventually departed the field at inning's end. 

Cust's no love for Mr. Glove did Stuart even prouder then. As Stuart often did, Cust went the distance and then some. Made up for it all with a ringing home run sparking an eight-run Fifth Inning that won the A's the game. So imperfect in the damn field, Cust was perfect at the plate going four for four, walking twice and scoring three runs.

I am not too proud to say this: When I focused on the enormity of the effort, the Dr. Strangeglove resurrection in reflection, I got a little misty-eyed.

Somewhere, this side of heaven, maybe a field of dreams at Dyersville, Iowa, Dick "Dr. Strangeglove" Stuart is picking up that image of Jack Cust on the defensive cusp as he kicks and klunks a routine ground ball into a two-base adventure before hitting a game-winning grand slam.

Somewhere, the A's are playing today. And Jack "The New Stonehands" Cust with Dr. Strangeglove as his wingman -- all props to Pharrell and Snoop Dog -- is dropping it like it's hot.

Police-Fire Miscellaneous from last week: RSF firefighters try to save canyoneer; minor crimes...

Police-Fire Blotter Miscellaneous from last week. For more check out our entry to the North County crime portal here.

Lifeguards and firefighters from Del Mar, Encinitas, Rancho Santa Fe and Vista responding with the Aerial Support To Regional Enforcement Agencies (ASTREA) air support unit tried to rescue a man suspended from his rock-climbing gear on the side of Mildred Falls.

Deputies from the Julian substation received calls about a man yelling for help at Mildred Falls at 5:13 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11. Mildred Falls is on private property in a remote area of Julian.

Matthew Pack, 24, of San Juan Capistrano, was rappelling down a 400-foot waterfall when hikers heard his calls for help and saw him hanging in his harness and suspended by a rope.

The rescue attempt failed as 70 responders, also including Border Patrol agents and San Diego County Sheriff's Office deputies couldn't get close enough to the man on the rock wall in dark and windy conditions.

Friday, Matt left the apartment he shares with three others in San Juan Capistrano and headed to Mildred Falls in the Julian area of the Cleveland National Forest – off on another adventure, ahead of a big weekend. His friend was getting married Sunday, and Matt was the best man.

An experienced climber, Matt planned to rappel down the 400-foot falls, which normally are dry but this February are gushing with cold water from heavy winter storms. The multipitch waterfall rappel is rated 4 out of 5 on a scale of difficulty by Canyoneering Beta, a climbing information website.

Always a free spirit, Matt stopped eating meat in middle school and, at Charleston Catholic High School, he grew his hair long and wore a ponytail.

He dabbled in cross country. But he didn't show a huge thirst for outdoor pursuits beyond biking and spending time at his family's farm in Lewisburg, W. Va.

-- Orange County Register

The drop is 350+ feet. Matt had tied two ropes together and fixed them to the anchor at the top. The ropes were not long enough to reach the bottom. There is another anchor 100 feet down that people use to break the rappel into pitches. Matt had passed this anchor and was over the lip and in a long free-hanging section. It appears he may have been rappelling off to one side and either did not know the second anchor was there or over-looked it.

Matt had some gear on the rope, but it is unclear what type of gear it was. Speculation is that Matt realized his ropes would not reach the ground and attempted to ascend back up. The over-hanging lip and the force of the waterfall combined would have made ascending extremely difficult.

The waist belt of Matt’s harness was positioned unusually high and probably caused the mechanical asphyxiation.

Anybody who has spent time executing an unplanned ascending maneuver on a free rappel knows the difficulty of managing cumbersome gear whilst spinning rope in the air and gradually losing circulation via harness compartmentalization. It’s one thing when you are set up with ascenders ready to go, pack weight rigged appropriately, maybe even a chest harness. Lose that sort of preparation AND throw in a waterfall and a killer lip to get over, and you have a large pile of cards stacked against you. In a situation like that, a harness that’s a little lose could have easily been the final straw. It’s difficult to emphasize enough what a tough position that would be for anyone.

From Kirk’s SAR notes, it seems the critical error was missing the second anchor station 100′ down the watercourse. My guess is he knew about the mid-way anchor (being that he didn’t have enough rope to get all the way down), and he couldn’t find it, either because he misinterpreted the beta OR he just couldn’t see the bolts. He may have guessed the anchor would appear beyond the overhang lip, as it is often difficult to see past such a lip. Once he passed that point, a number of things would have made it difficult to retreat. It’s incredibly scary to imagine being in that situation, trying to remain cool, calm, and working through the steps to self-rescue.

-- Kirk Belles, American Canyoneering Association and member of the Search and Rescue Team attempting to save Matt Pack 

In other police blotter incidents from earlier this month:

ENCINITAS: A 24-year old man lost some teeth during a fight, 12:15 a.m. Feb. 11, on South Coast Highway 101. A 20-year-old man, a 19-year-old man, and a 32-year-old man were arrested.

ENCINITAS: A 75-year-old woman was a victim of elder abuse and neglect, reported between 8:30 and 9 p.m., Feb. 13.

ENCINITAS: A burglar stole a $100 in merchandise from the Healthy Back Store on Encinitas Boulevard between 7:30 p.m., Feb. 13 and 9 a.m. Feb. 14.

ENCINITAS: An armed robber stole $60 and a pack of cigarettes from a 7-Eleven on Encinitas Boulevard, 8:19 p.m., Feb. 14.

ENCINITAS: An armed robber stole $469 from Figaro’s Pizza, 8:03 p.m., Feb. 13, on Encinitas Boulevard.

ENCINITAS: A burglar stole $7,500 in cash from The Kraken Bar, 7 a.m., Feb. 12, on South Coast Highway 101.

SOLANA BEACH: A burglar stole a $2,000 TV and a $2,000 computer terminal from South Coast Copy Systems, 2:38 a.m., Feb. 13 on Genevieve Street.

Immobilized Rancho Santa Fe woman who fell aided by 'You Are Not Alone' volunteer check-u

The Encinitas Sheriff's Office "You Are Not Alone" program is claiming mission accomplished following its rescue of an elderly  woman in the 18000 block of Via de Fortuna on Friday, Oct. 1.

The woman had fallen, couldn't move for almost 24 hours, and couldn't reach a telephone, when two senior volunteers with the Sheriff's Office doing a "You Are Not Alone" check around 9:30 a.m. found her, said Jan Caldwell, Sheriff's Office spokeswoman.

The woman "was in good spirits," when the two volunteers found her, a program official said. She was transported by paramedics to a nearby hospital. No further details were given about the woman nor her possible injuries.

"This is exactly the way it is supposed to work,"said Larry Reisner, the program's administrator. "This is one of the reasons this program exists."

You Are Not Alone is free. Senior volunteers with the Sheriff's Office make daily calls, and weekly visits, to people who have signed up for the program. About a dozen people belong through the Encinitas Sheriff's Office.

Unanswered phone calls prompt personal visitors. Since the program started in 2008, four people have needed emergency visits, officials said.

For more information about the program, call (760) 966-3579.