(Subject line hattip, if you needed it.)
(The Chicken Man, in case you ever wondered about that lyric.)
Archive for the ‘Clippings’ Category
…and the gambling commission’s hanging on by the skin of its teeth.
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015Bad politician! No biscuit!
Thursday, January 22nd, 2015Heh. Heh. Heh. Part I:
Mr. Silver’s party affiliation is given early in the second paragraph. This bit of trivia is in the fifth paragraph:
Mike the Musicologist tipped me off to this story a while back, but I’ve been kind of waiting until something happened with it. Something did. Sort of.
The grand jury has also recommended charges of “false swearing” and “official oppression”. Ms. Kane’s party affiliation shows up in the fourth paragraph. And the newspaper in question is the Daily News (paragraph seven).
The problem here is that the grand jury recommendation is only advisory: the decision on actually filing charges is up to the local district attorney (“Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman”), and I’m not sure what the odds are on that actually happening.
I’m going to drop this in here, even though it doesn’t fit with the “bad politician” theme, because I don’t have a better place to put it. You may be asking yourself, especially in the light of past coverage on this blog, “What does it take to get yourself fired as a cop in Philadelphia?”
Well, we have an answer to that question:
Look for the label, the union label…
Wednesday, January 21st, 2015Random notes: January 16, 2015.
Friday, January 16th, 2015I’ve written previously about Al Martinez and the “get the boy his peaches” story.
Recently, some questions were raised about the story over at Romenesko’s site. I didn’t post about this at the time because it didn’t seem link worthy: more “can anybody help me track down the original story” than “it never happened”.
Well, the amazing Larry Harnisch took up the gauntlet and managed to – more or less – track down the original story. Part of the problem seems to be that Al Martinez was working from memory, and apparently combined two stories into one: the dying boy and the peaches did take place, but not at Christmas. But there was another dying boy who craved watermelons at Christmas.
Quel fromage!
I just want to say…
Thursday, January 15th, 2015…this is my favorite John Moltz post ever.
(Well, okay. My favorite John Moltz post as John Moltz at “Very Nice Web Site”. I’m not quite sure it displaces the one at Crazy Apple Rumors where he actually used a question of mine in the “Crazy Apple Help Desk”.)
Norts spews.
Tuesday, January 13th, 2015Well. Well well well. Well. Yes, I am happy about Ohio State winning; as my regular readers know, I have ties to the Ohio area.
Since I don’t have cable, I mostly followed the game on FARK until I dozed off after halftime (yesterday was a rough day at work). From what I can tell, it might be a good idea for Ohio State to spend some time in the off season working on HOLDING ON TO THE DAMN BALL!
I don’t have a lot to say about the John Fox “firing” right now, except that I think it will be interesting to see how things play out after the Superb Owl. I may have more to say once this week’s TMQ goes up.
Obit watch: Roy Tarpley, former center for the Dallas Mavericks. As my regular readers know, I’m not a basketball fan, but the Tarpley story is sad and worth noting:
He was suspended by the NBA after five games in the 1989-90 season after being arrested for driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest. In 1991, he drew another suspension after a second DWI arrest and, a few months later, had a third violation and was banned from the league for violating the NBA’s drug-use policies.
He returned to the Mavericks briefly in 1994 but then was permanently barred in December 1995 for violating terms of his aftercare program.
Obit watch: January 9, 2015.
Friday, January 9th, 2015Jethro Pugh, former player for the Dallas Cowboys.
And yes, he did play in the Ice Bowl.
I missed this one, so I’ll direct you over to Lawrence for Lee Israel.
Quote of the day.
Wednesday, January 7th, 2015Technically, tweet of the day, but who’s counting?
#jesuischarlie pic.twitter.com/N99i5QEq0v
— Josh Weinstein (@JElvisWeinstein) January 7, 2015
The Shipping News.
Wednesday, January 7th, 2015Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Hmmmm. Why, indeed, did “The Last Ship” fail (and cost the show’s producers their entire $15 million investment), even though Sting himself joined the cast?
Could this be…a clue?
Obit watch: January 5, 2015.
Monday, January 5th, 2015Bess Myerson, Miss America 1945, television personality, and political figure, passed away on December 14th, though her death was not widely reported until today.
“a pernicious confirmation of the values of a morally bankrupt middle class.”
Friday, January 2nd, 2015Confession: I have not read all of this yet, but I am linking it here. I think some people will be interested in it.
New Yorker discussion of Michael Moorcock, “The Anti-Tolkien”. The title of this post is a direct quote from Moorcock, as is this:
Obit watch: January 2, 2015.
Friday, January 2nd, 2015Not this crap again.
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014…
Because of the quantity of meat stolen, [APD Detective Ricky] Jones said it was a safe assumption that Avery was selling the meat to a restaurant.
“I have yet to know a person who could eat that much meat in that short of a time,” Jones said.
I was going to offer to introduce Detective Jones to Lawrence, but “that much meat”, in this case, is entire shopping carts full. I can honestly say I have never seen Lawrence eat an entire shopping cart full of meat.
When he is successful, Avery would make off with upwards of $900 in meat in each theft, Jones said.
Previously on WCD. When they catch Avery, I will be interested in seeing if APD manages to track down his customers. Granted, it doesn’t seem like this is pants meat, but I’m sure the restaurants in question had no idea how long Avery and company were driving around with their stolen briskets.
Edited to add 1/5/2015: Avery is now in custody. The briskets are safe.
Down to the sea.
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014I hope all my readers are either enjoying a day off, or a quiet day at work if they have to work.
To fill time, I offer this long but fascinating piece from the NYT, “The Wreck of the Kulluk“.
The Kulluk was a drilling rig that Shell bought for use in the Arctic. Things did not go well at first. Then they started going badly. Then things got really bad.
There are times when I think it’d be interesting to become a seaman. Then I read things like this or Wired‘s story about the Cougar Ace and I remember why I didn’t choose that career.
Obit watch: December 31, 2014.
Wednesday, December 31st, 2014I’ve seen coverage of this elsewhere, but I wanted to note it here.
Christine Cavanaugh, noted voice actress, passed away on the 22nd, though her death wasn’t widely reported until yesterday. Her major credits included the voice of “Babe” in the first movie, the voice of Marty Sherman on “The Critic”, and the voice of Dexter in “Dexter’s Laboratory”.
ETA: A/V Club.