Nicholas Newsome, of Paintsville, Kentucky

[Section 8]

Ughhhhhhhh, and then?

That was a Silence of the Lambs reference, with a tangential South Park reference.

[bludev03]

why didnt dbr collect the money before giving him the ticket?! certainly, if it was serious enough that you must "publish his information and forward this to his local TV stations and newspapers" and that "people who really need medical help in bolivia" will suffer, then why wasnt it serious enough to collect the money beforehand?!

[jlear]

How much was his bid for?

[Lavabe]

Or he's been kidnapped by a 6' 4" Appalachian transvestite in Stilleto heels and garter and is hog-tied and gagged in said transvestite's basement, naked, covered in Wesson oil, awaiting his fate while all the while feeling a relentless, overpowering guilt over not having paid for the tickets.

-EarlJam

First you talk about EarWorms. Now I can't get this image out of my mind!

Thanks EarlJam!
Cheers,
Lavabe

[colchar]

Excuse me? He failed to perform on a contract. Who's duty is it to make a response? DBR must investigate? Give me a break.

My point was that, for all we (and DBR) know, he is in hospital right now after being injured in a car accident (or there might have been a similar emergency) and, without knowing the exact circumstances, DBR has called him out on their front page.

If nothing has happened that legitimately caused him not to be able to pay for the tickets then, by all means, call him out. But that should not be done until the facts are known.

[colchar]

They did have some harsh things to say, but they did leave room for an explanation: "There are a lot of possible explanations for why he would do this, but only he knows."

I don't have a problem with DBR publicly holding a bidder to his obligation to a charity auction. I'm sure that if he has a good excuse, they will publish it as well. If I were the author of the article, I might have worded it a bit differently, but I understand why they are be miffed. Whatever happened, the tickets were wasted and the charity didn't get paid.

But we all know that retractions never get the same amount of attention as the original story. All I am saying is that DBR may have jumped the gun a little bit.

[hondoheel]

Ughhhhhhhh, and then?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vbcbIxyqZps

[Uncle Drew]

Or he's been kidnapped by a 6' 4" Appalachian transvestite in Stilleto heels and garter and is hog-tied and gagged in said transvestite's basement, naked, covered in Wesson oil, awaiting his fate while all the while feeling a relentless, overpowering guilt over not having paid for the tickets.

-EarlJam

"It puts the lotion on it's skin, it does as it's told!"

Earl, did you know JJ, Shav, Paulus and Schyer had Myspace pages dude? Coach K needs one of his daughters to hook him up with Myspace man.

Couldn't help but notice JJ has Tela Tequilla on his friends list. If you people don't know who she is I'm not telling.

[weezie]

I was serious. Nicholas Newsome may be a real person, but the person bidding on the auction may have been someone else posing as him. Clearly someone is wronging Blue Healers, but it might not be Newsome, and Newsome might not be the guilty party here.

Not to mention the insult to the town pf Paintsville, KY!

[Karl Beem]

Not to mention the insult to the town pf Paintsville, KY!

You mean that it's in Kentucky?

[camcraz25]

I'm pretty sure those Duke player myspace pages are bogus. I've seen plenty of bogus ones before. This guy being what it looks like as a Florida fan, being "friends" with Duke players is probably a joke to make fun of them or something. Anyways, regardless, don't take much stock in what's on the Duke player pages.

[SMO]

Or he's been kidnapped by a 6' 4" Appalachian transvestite in Stilleto heels and garter and is hog-tied and gagged in said transvestite's basement, naked, covered in Wesson oil, awaiting his fate while all the while feeling a relentless, overpowering guilt over not having paid for the tickets.

-EarlJam

I bet he went messin' with sasquatch and is never heard from again.

[AluminumDuke]

and he has apologized for the situation. He says that his step-son bid on the tickets using his name and didn't tell him about it until today when his full name was revealed on DBR. The phone number used to register on the BlueHealers site was Nick's cell phone, but his step-son had his cell phone while he was out of town on business for the last two weeks. He states that he does not have the money to make the pledged donation now, but that he will mail in a donation later using the envelope that Medical Ministry International (MMI) will now mail him.

As to the comments about DBR having jumped the gun on this one, trust me that a very thorough effort was made to contact Nicholas Newsome and multiple opportunities were given to clear this matter up before anything was ever listed on the front page.

The auction ended on November 17th, and Nicholas was emailed that evening congratulating him on his winning of the tickets and providing him a link to make an online donation by credit card directly to MMI. He was also provided with the contact information necessary to call MMI should he need to make other arrangements for the donation other than donating by credit card. Although the site states that they will be given 24 hours to complete the donation, we have always allowed 48 hours in case any problems are incurred. Because the auction ended on a weekend, I actually allowed him until Tuesday afternoon, November 20th, before attempting to contact him by means other than email. Both the MMI office and I personally called Nick's cell phone number and spoke to people (one male and one female) claiming to be family members about the situation. In my conversation with someone who said he was Nick's brother, I specifically mentioned the auction, the donation, and the game date.

Unfortunately, due to the Thanksgiving holidays, the MMI office was closed from Wednesday afternoon to Sunday. While I would have ordinarily contacted the next highest bidder, I feared that Nicholas might donate by credit card between Wednesday afternoon and Sunday, leaving me unaware of the donation until the MMI office opened on Monday morning. Nothing would undermine the credibility of the BlueHealers site more than to have someone drive a long distance to attend a game after having made a donation, only to find that the tickets were not at Will-Call as expected. I made the decision, therefore, to leave the tickets at Will-Call under the name of Nicholas Newsome. Messages were left both by phone and email to this effect. Neither then nor at any point until today was any effort made to contact MMI, BlueHealers, or DBR.

Nicholas was emailed again on Monday evening, with Julio and I discussing then for the first time the option of shaming him if he did not respond. We gave him two more full days before the first headline on DBR. While the DBR story gave Nicholas until noon that day, we actually waited until the following day before making his name public.

I hope you will all agree that both Julio and I did everything within reason to give Nicholas the opportunity to make things right before revealing his name publicly. I am going to ask Julio now to announce on DBR that Nicholas has contacted us, apologized for the misunderstanding, and promised to make the donation when he is able.

[AnotherNYCDukeFan]

I'm pretty sure those Duke player myspace pages are bogus. I've seen plenty of bogus ones before. This guy being what it looks like as a Florida fan, being "friends" with Duke players is probably a joke to make fun of them or something. Anyways, regardless, don't take much stock in what's on the Duke player pages.

I'm fairly sure that JJ listed on his blog that he shut down his real myspace page.

[Jeffrey]

He says that his step-son bid on the tickets using his name and didn't tell him about it until today when his full name was revealed on DBR. The phone number used to register on the BlueHealers site was Nick's cell phone, but his step-son had his cell phone while he was out of town on business for the last two weeks. He states that he does not have the money to make the pledged donation now, but that he will mail in a donation later using the envelope that Medical Ministry International (MMI) will now mail him.

Hi,

That young man is lucky he is not my step-son. Why would he do something like that? What's the matter with the boy?

If I were that young man's step-dad, then the donation would be made today with the young man's X-Mas fund money. IMO, kids need to learn responsibility.

Best regards,
Jeffrey

[Turtleboy]

I hope you will all agree that both Julio and I did everything within reason to give Nicholas the opportunity to make things right before revealing his name publicly.

Agreed.

[Lord Ash]

I would KILL my kid. And yeah, every single piece of of X-mas gifts would be sold to pay for it. What was the total they went for?

[hondoheel]

"My kid bid on it when I wasn't looking" is one of the oldest copouts in online auctions.

[Clipsfan]

"My kid bid on it when I wasn't looking" is one of the oldest copouts in online auctions.

Yeah, and the whole thing sounds strange.

As to the Myspace pages, I'm also fairly sure those aren't legit. Jon's, for instance, used a blurb from his bio and only changes some of the pronouns to first person, leaving many others in 3rd person. Right...

[Zeb]

but his step-son had his cell phone while he was out of town on business for the last two weeks.

In the end I don't really care about any of this as long as the pledge is received. But I still feel compelled to ask: Who goes out of town without their cell phone?