I don’t have a lot that’s profound or interesting to say about WikiLeaks, and much of what I could say has been said better elsewhere.
But as it happens, I’ve got a copy of John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider
I’m increasingly convinced that Brunner got it right. Not the small details of what the society of the Internet would look like, but I think he’s batting close to 100% on the big picture.
Dear members of the Imperial Stars:
Here’s a link to the guitar tab for “Folsom Prison Blues”.
I think you might need that where you’re going.
So what has Gregg Easterbrook up in arms this week? Would you believe Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer?
Cranston, Rhode Island, a town I have a passing familiarity with, has a small problem.
Some of their stop signs were put up illegally.
And when I say, “some”, I mean, “692 out of 2,600“.
Hilarity has not, so far, ensued, but the city council is working on it.
Every issue of Playboy from 1953 to 2010, on a USB hard drive, for $300.
(Hattip: Jimbo.)
I don’t see this on Amazon yet, or I’d throw up a link. In any case, if I was going to get a complete magazine archive, Playboy is pretty low on my list. The Complete New Yorker
This is a general administrative reminder that purchases made through Amazon links on Whipped Cream Difficulties, such as this one
You can also use the new Amazon search box on the sidebar to get the same effect, just by searching for products on Amazon. (I’ll leave that box near the top for now, but I’ll probably move it lower after the holiday season ends.)
To repeat what I said last year, “Think of it as like a PBS or NPR pledge drive, but without all the annoying program interruptions, and not so much Three Tenors or Wayne Dyer.”
More local moms taking placentas home.
Am I evil? Because the first thing I thought of was the SNL “Placenta Helper” skit.
(I am unable to find a transcript online, but here’s a “Straight Dope” column referencing the skit.)
Oh, yes, please! Having Leach coach at Miami would be awesome! However, current speculation seems to be that they’re going after Jon Gruden. Which would leave an empty space in the MNF booth.
Obit watch: the late great Leslie Nielsen. (WP. LAT.)
It is somewhat unfortunate that people of my generation mostly remember him for Airplane, the Naked Gun movies, and possibly for Naked Gun‘s precursor, the short-lived and little-watched but screamingly funny Police Squad!
But before all that, he had a serious dramatic career, as the obits note. He knocked around various TV series doing guest shots, played the Captain in the original Poseidon Adventure, and had lead roles in at least two TV series during the late 60’s/early 70’s.
Back when Austin still had an RTN affiliate, I was able to record episodes of The Bold Ones (which really needs to have a DVD release) on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. For those who don’t remember The Bold Ones, it was an early “wheel” show, where each week was devoted to a different profession; doctors, defense attorneys, police and prosecutors, senators…
Leslie Nielsen starred in “The Protectors” portion of the wheel, playing the police chief of a medium-sized California town. You could see where a lot of “Police Squad”/”Naked Gun” came from, just watching Nielsen act. But at the same time, “The Protectors”, like the other parts of The Bold Ones, was a serious and honest attempt to deal with contemporary social problems in a fictional setting. If you still have RTN in your area, see if you can catch “Memo from the Class of ’76” sometime; you’ll see what I’m talking about.
The last time I saw Mr. Nielsen in anything, it was during the short-lived CBS “Gameshow Marathon”. I remember thinking at the time that he didn’t look good, and it seemed like he was just a touch out of it. I’m actually a little surprised he lived this long, and even more so that he was still working (though, granted, the work he was doing didn’t exactly live up to his talent: “Spanish Movie”?)
Rest in peace.
Mangia Pizza, a local chain that specializes in a pretty good version of Chicago stuffed pizza, filed a Chapter 11 petition on Tuesday.
In my capacity as president and chief operating officer of the Society for the Preservation and Restoration of Classic Cocktails, I hearby declare jihad against the Bubblegum Martini.
In the immortal words of a great philospher:
This came up in a previous thread, but I’m promoting it to a post of its own:
Personal friends of the proprietor are always welcome to pimp things here, within reasonable limits.
The proprietor has an expansive definition of “personal friends” and “reasonable limits”. Basically, follow the Wheaton rule and you should be okay. If you have any questions, drop me an email. (The preferred addresses are on the “Contact the proprietor” page.)
Spammers continue to be cordially invited to die in a fire.
We were somewhat amused to see, on the day before Thanksgiving, the NYT publishing a recipe for “Spaghetti With Sausage Alla Carbonara“. As you might be able to guess from the title, sausage substitutes for bacon in this variation.
We are big fans of a well-done spaghetti carbonara, and look forward to giving this particular variation a trial run.
(We know we linked to this yesterday, but for those who do not understand the significance of spaghetti carbonara and Thanksgiving, once again we link to Calvin Trillin.)
Ah, Thanksgiving approaches. And what are we thankful for this week? TMQ cheerleader photos, perhaps?
Apropos my comments about the gun show, my great and good friend Glen sent me a link to this Cool Tools writeup of the Dillon Precision RL-550B.
I’ve heard a lot of good word of mouth about Dillon’s stuff, but I didn’t realize the 550B was in the price range of a mediocre laptop. That’s seriously tempting. (And, yes, I realize that there’s additional costs for dies.)
Things I wonder about, and maybe that part of my audience that reloads can answer:
Fat, drunk, and escorting nuclear weapons is no way to go through life, son.
(I haven’t checked FARK to see if they used that headline. If they didn’t, they should have.)
Anne Dick and The Search for Philip K. Dick in the NYT.
The City of Austin is paying a police officer – not just any police officer, but one of Art Acevedo’s fired/reinstated by an arbitrator officers – $98,000 a year.
Now, $98,000 a year is good money, especially in Austin. “But,” you may say to yourself, “I don’t want to get shot at, even for $98,000 a year.”
No worries, mate.
Interestingly, the whole thing appears to stem from a domestic dispute:
Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but doesn’t the fact that he was convicted of a crime of domestic violence mean that he can’t own or carry a gun in any case?
The Saxet Shows are back in Austin. (Previously.)
A group of us went yesterday. Things I noticed:
My reaction? I was somewhat amused that I was listening to Was (Not Was) when I found this out. As I’ve said previously, I think the major problem that Childress had was his failure to walk the dinosaur.
Oh, look! The WP‘s “Hidden Life of Guns” is back! Unleash the dagron, as they say on FARK!
I am rapidly coming to the belief that the most dangerous things in the world, in order, are:
Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
I haven’t read it yet, and I’m going to be up to my eyebrows in the Iranian Revolution for the next week, but I did find one rather striking exchange while flipping through the book.
The setup for this is that a group of Suzuki’s students were sitting around with Suzuki talking about some book “about the meeting of East and West”. The students were making comparisons between East and West, and the West was getting the short end of the stick.
As conversation continued in this vein, Suzuki spoke up, obviously upset. “If you want to be a good Buddhist,” he said, “first you’re going to have to learn how to be a good Christian.” Then he got up and walked out.
One of my tipsters pointed out that Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek has died.
For those of you who don’t remember the bizarre saga of the Bembenek case: Ms. Bembenek was a former waitress in a Playboy Club who became an officer with the Milwaukee PD. Shortly after that, she married a Milwaukee PD detective. Shortly after that, the detective’s ex-wife was capped.
Ms. Bembenek was arrested and charged with the murder, but claimed she had been framed by members of the Milwaukee PD, as retaliation for her cooperation in a federal investigation of the department. In spite of this, Ms. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
Eight years after her conviction, Ms. Bembenek escaped from prison and fled to Canada. She was recaptured within three months, but in the meantime had gained a substantial amount of support in Milwaukee.
Edited to add: slightly more detailed WP obit here. Somehow, I missed the whole “lawsuit against Dr. Phil” thing.
Austin Community College has a new mascot.
I want to provide some more substantial comment on this story, but I can’t; I’m laughing too hard.
Today is World Toilet Day. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you how to properly observe this occasion.
Today is also National Ammo Day. As I say every year, if you can’t do anything else, swing by your local big box store and pick up a brick of .22 LR and a copy of Red Dawn.
I wanted to link to this article on the Old Fashioned (hattip: Daring Fireball); I actually think this is a pretty well done take, and I was previously unfamiliar with the American Drink website.
The problem I have, though, is that the American Drink site seems to me to be annoyingly laid out and far more difficult to read than it should be.
I’m wondering if it might be time to revive the Society for the Preservation and Restoration of Classic Cocktails, in blog format; possibly even as a group blog. Glen? Mike? RoadRich? Would you guys be interested if I fired something like that up?