Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category

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Short random notes: September 24, 2015.

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

James Mee has his job back.

I feel sure I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find the post now. Mr. Mee was a deputy with the LA County Sheriff’s Office. He was fired because of his alleged involvement in a police chase that ended when the vehicle he was supposedly chasing crashed into a gas station.

At least, that was the claim. So why was he really fired? Well, Mr. Mee was also one of the officers who arrested Mel Gibson back in 2006.

Mee’s lawyers argued that sheriff’s managers falsely blamed Mee for leaking details of Gibson’s 2006 arrest and the actor’s anti-Semitic tirade to celebrity news site TMZ.com. Mee, his attorneys alleged, was repeatedly subjected to harassment and unfair discipline in the years that followed, culminating in his firing over the 2011 crash.

This one’s for Lawrence: Frank Gehry is working on a project to rehabilitate the Los Angeles River. This has some people upset.

(Obligatory. Plus, the video I’ve linked to before has been taken down, so call this a bookmark.)

Posted in Art, Bookmarks, California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Gehry, Law, TV | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: September 23, 2015.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Yogi Berra has passed away.

In 1949, early in Berra’s Yankee career, his manager assessed him this way in an interview in The Sporting News: “Mr. Berra,” Casey Stengel said, “is a very strange fellow of very remarkable abilities.”

I hope he doesn’t find heaven too crowded.

The NYT obit, in my opinion, is unusually good, though I’m sure it has been in the files for a long time.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch and more random notes: September 18, 2015.

Friday, September 18th, 2015

Milo Hamilton, sports broadcaster.

Hamilton called Major League Baseball games on radio and television from the 1950s into the current decade, working for the St. Louis Browns (1953), St. Louis Cardinals (1954), Chicago Cubs (1956-57, 1980-84), Chicago White Sox (1962-65), Atlanta Braves (1966-75), Pittsburgh Pirates (1976-79) and the Astros, joining the team in 1985 and serving as its primary on-air voice from 1987 through 2012.

NYT.

Warren “Remo Williams” Murphy. I’ve never read any of the Remo Williams books myself, mostly because I don’t know where to begin with the series. I am told by trustworthy individuals that they are fun…

New indoor range coming to South Austin. Well. Well well well. Well. I am looking forward to trying this out.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch (for real): September 15, 2015.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

That’s a 74-word lead with a parenthetical clause and a double hyphenation. Welcome to Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Welcome back to TMQ Watch. After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Media, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch: September 15, 2015.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

For the past few days, Gregg Easterbrook has been hinting at a “major announcement” about the future of Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Today was the day. And where did TMQ fetch up?

Would you believe the New York Times?

We almost didn’t believe it either, but, yes, TMQ is now under the purview of the paper of record. We’re not sure how we feel about this yet. But having just finished Public Editor Number One, we are hopeful that Easterbrook will be subject to fact checking, editorial guidance, and possibly even a corrections process; and, that if need be, the current NYT public editor can pull back on the reins and yell “Whoa!”

Does this mean that TMQ Watch will continue? Indeed. We would have already written up a TMQ Watch for today. However, we got stuck into a situation at work. We will not go into details except to say that we were busy all day (including lunch). Our plan is to curl up tonight with about four ounces of Canadian Club 10 Year Old Reserve, some fizzy water, and a copy of Carry On, Jeeves.

So new TMQ Watch tomorrow, probably late afternoon would be our guess.

Posted in Clippings, Media, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

A few random things I found interesting.

Monday, September 14th, 2015

Some by way of the Hacker News Twitter, others from elsewhere.

Nice appreciation of Elmore Leonard from The New York Review of Books.

Brian Krebs goes to Mexico in search of Bluetooth ATM skimmers, part 1.

Fun with software defined radio, or scanners live in vain.

NFL loser update resumes tomorrow.

Posted in Bluetooth, Books, Clippings, Geek, Radio, SDR | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 14, 2015.

Monday, September 14th, 2015

Moses Malone, legendary NBA player with the Philadelphia 76ers, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs (among other teams). NYT. HouChron.

Frank D. Gilroy. Interesting story. He knocked around television for a while in the 1950s and 1960s, then had a huge Broadway hit with “The Subject Was Roses”…and then was unable to replicate that success, and spent the rest of his life knocking around movies and theater.

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#X of a series)

Friday, September 11th, 2015

In the time I’ve been doing the Art (Acevedo) watch, I don’t think I’ve ever put up a photo of the chief. Some of the articles I’ve linked to may have had photos, but I don’t if people click through, and I don’t think there’s ever been one here.

Until now.

Yes, the chief is kind of a geek.

The chief also has a button installed in his office that makes the noise of the “red alert” alarm in classic Star Trek episodes.

Also:

“On the day it opens, do not call me,” he said. “Do not get in my way. I will be at the Alamo Drafthouse with a bucket of buttered popcorn.”

“Do not get in my way.” If someone does, could they be charged with obstruction of justice?

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Geek, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Flaming hyenas update: September 10, 2015.

Thursday, September 10th, 2015

Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow’s trial is set to start November 2nd.

But that could change.

Why?

Six of “Shrimp Boy”‘s co-defendants pled guilty yesterday.

…George Nieh pleaded guilty to every count filed against him, including 146 counts of money laundering and a slew of weapons and drug charges. Leslie Yun pleaded guilty to five counts of money laundering and drug-related charges.
Kevin Siu pleaded guilty to eight of the 24 money laundering counts against him, and Alan Chiu pleaded guilty to 13 of 36 money laundering charges.
Yat Wa Pau pleaded guilty to trafficking in contraband cigarettes and admitted to his involvement in sales of contraband cigarettes worth more than $300,000.
Andy Li pleaded guilty to felony possession of a firearm along with money laundering and marijuana possession.

The judge is considering postponing the trial, I guess so “Shrimp Boy”‘s legal team has time to evaluate the situation and possibly change their strategy in light of the guilty pleas.

As a side note, sentencing for convicted former California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee is scheduled for October 21st.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law, Leland "Uncle" Yee | 1 Comment »

This is sportsfirings.com…

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

…not policechieffirings.com. But I do find this interesting:

Cincinnati Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell was fired Wednesday after city leaders concluded he had belittled his staff, violated rules, destroyed morale and plunged the police department into crisis.

…

The reports portray Blackwell as a poor leader and publicity hound who favored a core group of favorites over the assistant chiefs and district commanders who are part of the traditional chain of command. According to some of those officers, Blackwell badgered them to obtain free tickets for him to sporting events, approved overtime for his friends without going through proper procedures and personally attacked officers who disagreed with him.

He also allegedly took selfies during a funeral procession for an officer who was killed in the line of duty.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 9, 2015.

Wednesday, September 9th, 2015

Joaquin Andujar, former pitcher for the Cardinals and the Houston Astros. NYT. HouChron.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 8, 2015.

Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

Judy Carne. WP. She’s just at the fringes of my memory: I remember watching “Laugh-In” with my parents, and I remember “sock it to me”, but she left the show when I was four…am I inventing these memories?

Martin Milner. “Route 66” went off the air a year before I was born, but I loved “Adam-12” when I was a wee lad. I have the first season on DVD, and you know, it still holds up well.

The FARK thread is actually pretty respectful, and worth reading if you were a fan of “Adam-12”, “Emergency”, and “Dragnet”. It reminds me that I want to write a re-evaluation of both “Dragnet” and “Adam-12”, arguing that what Jack Webb was trying to represent was his vision of how policing in general, and the LAPD specifically, should work. Not the way it really did work, but the ideal that he felt they should strive for; in a way, you might say that Webb was trying to represent on television Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing.

Posted in 1970s, Clippings, Cops, Law, Obits, TV | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: September 3, 2015.

Thursday, September 3rd, 2015

I was thinking this morning: the first movie I have any recollection of seeing was the original The Love Bug at a drive-in somewhere in Virginia. NYT. Nice article in the WP.

Also among the dead: Ruth Newman, who passed away at the age of 113. Ms. Newman was a survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

“She would tell us she remembered my grandmother being upset because they had just milked the cow earlier, and she had separated the cream and all and put it in containers that got thrown to the floor,” Ms. Dobbs said.

There is one known survivor still alive.

Ms. Newman attended a few of the annual earthquake commemorations in San Francisco. However, her daughter said that on some occasions, Ms. Newman preferred to sleep in rather than rise before dawn to attend.

Smart woman.

Posted in Clippings, History, Movies | Comments Closed

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#W of a series)

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2015

The chief is staying in Austin. And getting a pay raise.

In other news, VonTrey Clark has been deported from Indonesia:

Clark, 32, was handed over to 13 agents of the FBI and was flown to Texas on a specially chartered plane from the bureau.

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Oliver Sacks.

Monday, August 31st, 2015

NYT. Michiko Kakutani appreciation. LAT. WP. A/V Club.

“The Oliver Sacks Reading List” from The Atlantic.

I like what Kakutani says, and I don’t think I could say it any better:

The world has lost a writer of immense talent and heart, a writer who helped illuminate the wonders, losses and consolations of the human condition.

Dr. Sacks was a personal hero of mine. Unlike most of my personal heros, I actually did get to meet him once. He probably wouldn’t have remembered it, even if he wasn’t famously “face blind”…

(more…)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Geek, Neuroscience, Obits | 1 Comment »

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