A rare 'ghost of the forest' deer has been spotted wandering the premises of a Tennessee property, with the homeowner.

Nature’s Hidden Gem: Rare Albino Deer Captivates Tennessee Yard!

Posted on November 7, 2023October 30, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

The Mirror.com | By Alan Johnson | Albino Deer | Start An Insurance Quote Today! | More Blogs

Rarely-seen ‘ghost of the forest’ albino deer spotted in Tennessee yard

Spring Hill resident, Abbey Cabler, has described the moment she and her husband first caught sight of the animal in scenes she said were like ‘something from a Christmas movie’

A rare ‘ghost of the forest’ deer has been spotted wandering the premises of a Tennessee property, with the homeowner.

The Albino Deer

The albino mammal was first seen on Tuesday, October 24, by Abbey Cabler’s husband in their Spring Hill yard. Abbey, who later caught a glimpse of it herself in a sighting, described it as a “surreal kind of almost like mystical experience”. According to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), experts believe albinism in deer is a phenomenon that occurs in approximately one in 20,000 to 30,000 animals.

Recalling her spouse’s experience with the deer, Abbey explained: “All of a sudden I hear my husband go, ‘Oh my gosh babe! Get out here now’, like kind of freaking out, kind of panicky, and I run out there and he goes, ‘There is a white deer. I swear.’ And we look out the window and sure enough there he is – just kind of like right on the other side of our porch, closer to the tree line just eating away on the bushes.”

The Albino Deer near the porch

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Passionate Horror Fan Now Earns Thousands Teaching Creepy Make-Up Looks on Social Media

Posted on October 19, 2023October 10, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

Good News Network | Oct 1, 2023 | Creepy Make-Up | More Blogs by Shield Insurance Agency

Meet the horror movie obsessive who now earns thousands every month sharing her creepy make-up techniques from her home in the UK.

Natasha Jane Wood used to “sneak downstairs” and watch her favorite gory blockbusters when she was a young girl.

“It probably sounds crazy but I used to fall asleep watching ’28 Days Later,’ which is a zombie movie,” said the 28-year-old. “I just found it so soothing.”

Creepy Make-Up and Special Effects

Inspired by Hollywood icons Tim Burton and Stephen King, Natasha had studied special effects makeup at Bolton University in 2019—but the pandemic provided the perfect chance to try new techniques when she was furloughed from her job at a jewelry store.

Honing her skills from her childhood bedroom in Darwen, Lancashire, Natasha found online fame after uploading her sinister looks to TikTok. She has since amassed over six million followers on social media and made her passion a full-time career.

“It all just kicked off in 2020 when I did my ‘Disney Princesses Gone Wrong’ series on TikTok. A video I did transforming myself into Jim Carrey’s ‘The Mask’ has over 100 million views on YouTube.

“My little brother and sister thought it was a bit cringe at first, but now I have the same amount of YouTube subscribers as some of their favorite content creators.”

The Disney Princess series included Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle.

“They were inspired by the Grimm Brothers, who did the original versions of the stories,” she told Southwest News Service. “With Beauty and the Beast, for example, I did one where she actually got scratched by the beast, so it turned quite gory.

“With Disney, it’s all happily ever after, but you don’t really see what would happen if it went wrong.

LOOK: One-Legged Man Turns His Amputation Into the Best Halloween Costumes Ever

When TikTok began cracking down on gore (even fake gore) she turned herself into an unfinished Mona Lisa painting.

Check the link for the full story and some great pics!

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A school bus driver in Berkeley County, South Carolina, has managed to make a profound impact on the life of a kindergartner.

An Angel On Earth: Bus Driver Changes Kindergartner’s Life

Posted on July 20, 2023July 17, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

SunnySkyz | June 17, 2023 | Bus Driver | More Blog Articles | Start A Quote Here

“There’s a reason why Mr. Charles was brought here, and there’s a reason why he’s driving Bus 220, and Kameron is the reason.”

A school bus driver in Berkeley County, South Carolina, has managed to make a profound impact on the life of a kindergartner.

Kameron, a kindergartener at Cane Bay Elementary, was having trouble behaving in class earlier this year. He was in the principal’s office several times a day almost every single day, his mom Kelly Eisenberg said.

One day, Kameron’s teacher Stephanie Williams walked him to the bus early before the rest of the students were dismissed. She asked the driver, Charles Frierson, if he could come on the bus early because Kameron loved school buses.

“He sat down and we started talking, and, it just went from there,” said Mr. Charles, who recently switched school districts to drive for Berkeley County.

From that day on, Kameron’s good behavior in class was rewarded with getting to sit on the bus early and spend time with Mr. Charles.

“He will work all day long and he will behave and follow all directions all day long to have five minutes with Mr. Charles,” Williams said.

“And ever since that day, there’s not been a problem. He’s been fantastic and wonderful,” she said.

Mr. Charles and Kameron regularly have McDonald’s and ice cream dates. He even attends Kameron’s baseball games on the weekends.

“I always believed angles come when you least expect them,” Eisenberg wrote in a letter. “This holds especially true in regards to Mr. Charles, the bus driver of school bus 220 of Berkely County South Carolina.”

“It has always been said that it takes a village to raise a child, yet one to make a difference. Mr. Charles has absolutely made the difference in my son,” she said. “I would like him to know how much we truly and absolutely appreciate him for who he is and what he has done for my son.”

Don’t miss this heart warming video!

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A dog recently found over 150 golf discs in the area.

Posted on July 18, 2023July 17, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

Local Dog Finds Over 150 Golf Discs, Raises Money For Shelter And Park

SunnySkyz | June 27, 2023 | Golf Discs | Pet Insurance | Meet the Agents of Shield Insurance

A dog in Moundsville, West Virginia, has captured the attention and admiration of the community by single-handedly finding over 150 lost golf discs at a popular park.

Unclaimed discs will be on sale, with proceeds going to the park.

Daisy is a four-year-old Labrador Retriever who loves going on walks with her owner, Kelly Mason, at Grand Vue Park.

Every day, they walk about five miles through the park. Sometimes, Daisy goes on her own adventure and returns with a souvenir.

“Daisy, my yellow Labrador retriever has a nose for finding discs,” Mason told WTRF. “We will be walking through the park and her nose will go up. She can smell ’em, and she just goes off. She could go off 30 yards through the multiflorosa, the high weeds. And here she comes with a disc.”

Since she found her first disc about three years ago, Daisy has retrieved 155 of them with no plans of stopping anytime soon.

The park recently teamed up with Mason to create a program called “Daisy’s Discs”.

“Normally when park staff finds them or when our park guests find them, all of them are turned into the into the barn area,” says Ben Bolock, the assistant general manager at Grand Vue Park. “Some discs that have names on them, we call them, and people are able to come and pick them up. During that time, they can make a donation to Daisy’s Discs and that that money will fund the Marshall County Animal Rescue League. If discs are found and there’s no name on them and we’ve had them for a long period of time, and nobody has claimed them, the park will sell them for a very low amount and that money will go back into the disc golf course.”

Watch the good news video below from WTRF Chanel 7

The History of Memorial Day

Posted on May 29, 2023May 20, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

HISTORY.COM | APRIL 20, 2023 | Memorial Day | Shield Insurance Agency | Start A Quote Today!

The Birthplace of Memorial Day and Early Observances

The Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict
in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national
cemeteries.

By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding
springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with
flowers and reciting prayers.

It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities
may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show
that one of the earliest Memorial Day commemorations was organized by a group of
formerly enslaved people in Charleston, South Carolina less than a month after the
Confederacy surrendered in 1865. Nevertheless, in 1966 the federal government
declared Waterloo, New York, the official birthplace of Memorial Day.

Waterloo—which first celebrated the day on May 5, 1866—was chosen because it
hosted an annual, community-wide event, during which businesses closed and
residents decorated the graves of soldiers with flowers and flags.

Did you know? Each year on Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.

Decoration Day

On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan, leader of an organization for Northern Civil War veterans, called for a nationwide day of remembrance later that month. “The 30th of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land,” he proclaimed.

The date of Decoration Day, as he called it, was chosen because it wasn’t the anniversary of any particular battle.

On the first Decoration Day, General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, and 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Civil War soldiers buried there.

Many Northern states held similar commemorative events and reprised the tradition in subsequent years; by 1890 each one had made Decoration Day an official state holiday. Southern states, on the other hand, continued to honor the dead on separate days until after World War I.

History of Memorial Day

Memorial Day, as Decoration Day gradually came to be known, originally honored only those lost while fighting in the Civil War. But during World War I the United States found itself embroiled in another major conflict, and the holiday evolved to commemorate American military personnel who died in all wars, including World War II, The Vietnam War, The Korean War and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For decades, Memorial Day continued to be observed on May 30, the date General Logan had selected for the first Decoration Day. But in 1968, Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which established Memorial Day as the last Monday in May in order to create a three-day weekend for federal employees. The change went into effect in 1971. The same law also declared Memorial Day a federal holiday.

Memorial Day Traditions and Rituals

Cities and towns across the United States host Memorial Day parades each year, often incorporating military personnel and members of veterans’ organizations. Some of the largest parades take place in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

Americans also observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries and memorials. Some people wear a red poppy in remembrance of those fallen in war—a tradition that began with a World War I poem. On a less somber note, many people take weekend trips or throw parties and barbecues on the holiday, perhaps because Memorial Day weekend—the long weekend comprising the Saturday and Sunday before Memorial Day and Memorial Day itself—unofficially marks the beginning of summer.

Visit History.com for the full story and some great photos

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February is Black History Month

Posted on February 3, 2023January 31, 2023 by Shield Insurance Agency

History.com | NOV 30, 2022 | Black History | Get a free quote today! | Shield Insurance

Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history.

Origins of Black History Month

The story of Black History Month begins in 1915, half a century after the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

That September, the Harvard-trained historian Carter G. Woodson, and the prominent minister Jesse E. Moorland founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH), an organization dedicated to researching and promoting achievements by Black Americans and other peoples of African descent.

Known today as the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the group sponsored a national Negro History week in 1926, choosing the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The event inspired schools and communities nationwide to organize local celebrations, establish history clubs, and host performances and lectures.

Did you know? The NAACP was founded on February 12, 1909, the centennial anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

In the decades that followed, mayors of cities across the country began issuing yearly proclamations recognizing “Negro History Week.” By the late 1960s, thanks in part to the civil rights movement and a growing awareness of Black identity, “Negro History Week” had evolved into Black History Month on many college campuses.

President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month in 1976, calling upon the public to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” Today, Black History Month is a time to honor the contributions and legacy of African Americans across U.S. history and society—from activists and civil rights pioneers such as Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Rosa Parks to leaders in industry, politics, science, culture and more.

Black History Month 2023 Theme

Since 1976, every American president has designated February as Black History Month and endorsed a specific theme.

The Black History Month 2023 theme, “Black Resistance,” explores how “African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression, in all forms, especially the racial terrorism of lynching, racial pogroms and police killings,” since the nation’s earliest days.

Not Sure What to Wear on Halloween?

Posted on October 29, 2022October 21, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

Not Sure What to Wear on Halloween? Google Just Ranked the Most Popular Costumes of 2022

Expect to see a few familiar scary faces (and some pop culture favorites!) on Halloween, October 31.

MarthaStewart.com | By Nashia Baker | October 18, 2022

If you’re like Martha, dressing up for Halloween is probably one of your favorite parts of the spooky holiday. And on October 31, you certainly won’t be alone: Your neighborhood’s streets will be filled with trick-or-treaters (and their parents!) in costumes fit for the occasion.

When you do step out in character this year, you might notice a few recurring themes. According to Google Trends’ 2022 FrightGeist report, which highlighted the most-searched Halloween costumes across the United States, a few familiar monsters will prowl the streets, candy baskets in hand—but there will likely be some creative pop-culture references and beloved superheroes, too. As for the look you’ll see in droves on Halloween night? Google users searched most for a witch costume.

The runner-up spot was claimed by a famed movie and TV character: Spider-Man was the second most-searched costume. Rounding out the top three is an ancient, extinct creature that, on any other night, exists in fossil form only: Halloween enthusiasts plan to don plenty of dinosaur costumes in 2022.

Creatures of the past and champions of the present aren’t the only costume themes that have captured trick-or-treaters’ interests this year: Google users are also planning on dressing up as characters from Netflix’s Stranger Things, which clocked in at number four (not Eleven!). And if you were considering being something more fearsome, think again. The fifth most-searched pick, a fairy, proves that ethereal and whimsical options are trending, too.

Want to see how your Halloween costume ranks on Google Trends’ list this year? Discover the 20 most-searched costumes, below—and visit FrightGeist for the full list.

Click here for the full list…

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The job market is still red hot despite fears of a recession, and job seekers continue to display confidence in their ability to take up better jobs.

Interviewing for your next job? Avoid this common mistake

Posted on October 17, 2022October 11, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

CNBC.com | Published Thu, Aug 4 2022 9:44 PM EDT | Updated Thu, Aug 4 20229:46 PM EDT |Goh Chiew Tong @CHIEWTONG_G | Job

The job market is still red hot despite fears of a recession, and job seekers continue to display confidence in their ability to take up better jobs.

“I quite often get this question from my students … how do they choose from the many offers that they get?” said Olivier Sibony, a professor of strategy at HEC Paris.

But as candidates find themselves in power, the “most likely mistake” they would make is allowing their decision-making to be influenced by one interaction, he told CNBC Make It.

That’s also known the “halo effect,” which is the tendency for a positive overall impression of someone or a company to positively influence one’s opinion in other areas.

Quite often, when people are mismatched to a job, it’s because they didn’t do their homework properly … they didn’t ask the right questions.
Oliver Sibony
PROFESSOR, HEC PARIS

For example, if a job candidate’s first interaction with a company representative — which is typically a recruiter — is a positive one, the questions he or she will ask during the interview “will support that initial judgment, Sibony said.

“To all the questions that you ask, you will find the answers satisfying and you will only ask questions that confirm your initial positive impression,” he added.

“You will not ask the tough questions … that would actually get the answers that would make you think, ‘Maybe it’s not such a good company after all.’”

How can you avoid picking a job that you might regret? CNBC Make It finds out.

1. Ask the same questions

To overcome the halo effect, you should “force yourself to ask” every company the same set of questions, said Sibony, who is also an associate fellow at the University of Oxford.

“Whether you actually ask those questions in the interview or get the information from another reliable source is a separate issue,” he added.

“It might be much better to get the answers to your questions from Glassdoor or from people who work in the company — rather than ask the interviewer — who is very unlikely to give you a truthful answer, if you are realistic about it.”

2. Do your job research

It’s “good practice” for everyone to have a checklist of questions or criteria they would like their job to fulfill, said Sibony.

“Quite often, when people are mismatched to a job, it’s because they didn’t do their homework properly … they didn’t ask the right questions.”

The author of “You’re About to Make a Terrible Mistake!” recommended this process for creating a checklist: Talk to five friends who have left their jobs within months or “tell you how much they hate their job every time you meet them.”

“Ask yourself, what could that person have done before taking the job that would have given them the information they needed to make the correct decision? What is the red flag they should have seen but didn’t look for?”

3. Are your potential colleagues happy?

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Financial Exploitation, Scams Have Skyrocketed Since Pandemic Began

Posted on October 11, 2022October 11, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

AARP | October 04, 2022 | By Christina Ianzito | Financial Exploitation

AARP report reveals that criminals are targeting older Americans at record rates. Financial Exploitation.

The financial exploitation of older adults was a serious problem before the pandemic, but it’s ballooned in the years since COVID-19 began its rapid spread in March 2020. A new report from AARP finds that the rate of such exploitation between then and now has more than doubled.

That includes a huge uptick in losses from romance scams, with perpetrators stealing more than $547 million in 2021, five times greater than the amount stolen in 2019.

And these figures probably understate the number of financial fraud incidents, which are woefully underreported: Only 1 in 44 older adult victims tell the authorities when they’ve been financially exploited, according to the report. And they’re least likely to notify authorities when they’ve been victimized by someone they know and trust — something that happens more commonly than many people may realize.

“We need more consumers to report these crimes so we can better quantify how large and impactful they are, but equally important is that we help the industry spot and stop financial exploitation before the money leaves the account,” says Jilenne Gunther, national director of AARP’s BankSafe Initiative™ and lead author on the report.

Some data suggests that family members and trusted others steal more money than strangers do, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau estimating that family members steal more than twice as much money as strangers.

Victims are often too embarrassed to come forward, blaming themselves for the financial loss. Yet “they need to understand that these crimes can happen to anyone,” notes Kathy Stokes, AARP director of fraud prevention programs.“It’s not their fault.”

The report, which AARP developed in collaboration with NORC (an independent research and data analysis organization) at the University of Chicago, examines how criminals’ tactics have evolved over the past few years, and urges the financial industry to work even harder to thwart them.

Other increasingly common crimes include

Thefts from users of peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps — the increasingly popular electronic money transfer apps such as Zelle and Venmo. P2P fraud complaints doubled during the pandemic. Your funds in these accounts are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and if you transmit money to the wrong person (easy to do if they have an @username handle similar to that of a legitimate person or entity) you have no way to get it back. A criminal might pose as someone’s bank, for instance, and request payment through a P2P app.
Smishing — phishing by text where criminals pretend to be legitimate businesses, such as banks, in order to find out personal information to perpetrate fraud or extract money directly. Smishing attempts increased 58 percent in the U.S. in 2021 (meanwhile, in the United Kingdom they increased a stunning 700 percent in the first six months of 2021 compared with the previous six months).

Why financial exploitation has flourished

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22 Kid-Friendly Pasta Recipes to Tempt Even the Pickiest Eaters

Posted on October 10, 2022October 3, 2022 by Shield Insurance Agency

22 Kid-Friendly Pasta Recipes to Tempt Even the Pickiest Eaters

MarthaStewart.com | By Kelly Vaughan | Updated August 20, 2020

If you have little kids, getting them to expand their horizons at dinnertime can be a challenge. It may seem like they won’t ever want to eat anything that isn’t macaroni and cheese or chicken nuggets, but give these kid-friendly pasta recipes a try and they’re sure to be asking for more. From hearty meat sauces to plenty of colorful, seasonal vegetables served with pasta and a cheesy, creamy sauce, these recipes are sure to please.

Start with Pasta with Zucchini, Mint, and Pecorino, pictured here. It’s a delicious dish for summer and a great way to encourage eating zucchini. One of our favorite ways to convince kids to try new vegetables is by serving them with something familiar that they know and love. Take our recipe for Cheesy Asparagus Pasta, for example. The base of the dish resembles a perfect bowl of macaroni and cheese. Short pasta such as penne is tossed in a rich sauce made from whole milk, cream cheese, sharp cheddar, and grated Gruyere. But we managed to sneak in an entire bunch of asparagus, making this the perfect kid-friendly vegetable-heavy pasta dish.

Another healthy green sneaks its way into our rich Prosciutto Carbonara—spinach! Five ounces of baby spinach is mixed with warm, cooked pasta and a silky sauce until it wilts slightly. Plenty of grated Pecorino Romano cheese and salty strips of prosciutto will surely give kids good reason to dig in.

Of course, we’re also serving up classics that everyone loves like Lasagna with Meat Sauce and our Test Kitchen’s Favorite Spaghetti and Meatballs. Next time you’re wondering what to make for dinner, consider one of these kid-friendly pasta recipes.

Pasta Recipes

2 of 22

Prosciutto Carbonara with Spinach

VIEW RECIPE

Enjoy this easy, cream-free version of pasta carbonara—your little ones will love it, too. Instead of spaghetti, we’re using hearty rigatoni pasta, which is the perfect vessel for holding the creamy sauce made from Pecorino Romano, eggs, and pasta water.

3 of 22

Baked Rigatoni with Mini Meatballs

VIEW RECIPE

Here’s a genius take on pasta with meatballs that’s sure to entice your kids. Turn the meat of spicy Italian sausage into mini meatballs. Toss them with cooked rigatoni and cubed mozzarella, then bake until bubbling and golden brown.

Click here for the recipes!