Archive for July, 2011

« Older Entries

Obit watch: July 31, 2011.

Sunday, July 31st, 2011

Frank Bender, noted forensic sculptor.

Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Bender did the bust of John List for “America’s Most Wanted”; that bust led directly to List’s capture.

It is impossible to gauge precisely Mr. Bender’s career success rate, where “success” means identifying a victim or catching a fugitive. Mr. Bender — who, as associates attest, was a larger-than-life character with no small awareness of his own news value — sometimes put the figure at 85 percent.

The correct figure, his associates say, is probably closer to 40 percent. “Not even he knows, because nobody actually tells him,” Mr. Botha said. “The police departments don’t always come back to him afterwards; that’s one of the kind of bittersweet things about what he does.”

That bugs me. I’d like to think that if I ran a police department and asked Mr. Bender (or someone like him) to do work for me, I’d at least have the courtesy to let them know how it came out, wrong or right, as soon as I knew. Good thing I don’t run a police department, eh?

I haven’t read The Girl with the Crooked Nose: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry, but I did read The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases: at some point I should probably write up some longer thoughts on that book. For now, I want to say that it was an interesting but flawed book.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 29, 2011.

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Hideki Irabu.

It is well established that I’m not a baseball fan, and I’m especially not a Yankees fan, but this is just horrible and depressing. I’m sorry for his family and their loss.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

Speaking of D-U-M-B, dumb…

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

You know, if you run a restaurant, it only makes sense to buy your food – things like meat – from respected restaurant suppliers, such as Texas Meat Purveyors (not the bluegrass band, the restaurant supply house). I’m not saying you have to purchase your meat from them specifically, but you should at least purchase your meat from someone with a license and reputation, not from sketchy people on the street.

I know, I know, this is obvious, why do I feel compelled to say this? Some folks didn’t get the memo, that’s why.

The APD conducted a sting operation today that resulted in five arrests, warrants for two more arrests, and the closure of three restaurants. (The article says six arrests, but I only count five names on their list. Likewise, it states three people are at large, but names only two. Edited to add 7/29/2011: the Statesman updated the article late last night with the correct numbers.) It appears that a ring of folks were stealing meat from HEB…

Sgt. David Socha said many of the thieves stole the meat by shoving it down their pants and walking out of the stores. They then sold the cuts to employees who, police said, knowingly bought the stolen meat.

The restaurants had their health permits revoked, and

Each establishment must remain closed until it gets its health permit reinstated following an appeal, said Shannon Jones, acting director of the Austin/Travis County’s Health and Human Services Department.

The three restaurants in question are:

  • La Morenita, which I don’t believe we’ve (that is, the SDC) ever been to.
  • Willie’s Bar-B-Que, ditto.
  • and Sam’s Bar-B-Cue. Sam’s is a local legend; supposedly, it was the late Stevie Ray Vaughn’s favorite barbecue joint. I didn’t much care for it the one time we went. But hey, what do I know?

It’s kind of interesting to see that, of the seven people named, three have the first name of “Willie”. Do you have to change your name to “Willie” to work at a barbecue joint in this town? (Only two of them work for Willie’s Bar-B-Que: Willie Joe Showels and Willie Joe Showels III. Yes, I do wonder about Willie Joe Showels II. The third Willie, Willie Don Mays, worked for Sam’s.)

Posted in Beef, Clippings, Food, Stupid | 2 Comments »

Don’t let the Baddour hit you on the way out.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

In addition to the Butch Davis firing, UNC has also lost Dick Baddour, who resigned his position as athletic director, but will apparently stay on for the next year to “help with the ongoing NCAA investigation into the football program”.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | Comments Closed

The single dumbest song ever written.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Bruce Cockburn’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”, which can best be summarized as “I want peace and justice, and I’m willing to blow people up with a rocket launcher to get it.”

So what brings this to mind?

Liberty County investigators have uncovered a treasure trove of stolen items concealed on a wooded lot off U.S. 59 that also contained a marijuana growing operation, a methamphetamine stash and a rocket launcher.

Here’s a (warning! Slideshow!) “gallery” (warning! Slideshow!) of the seized weapons, which include “numerous firearms, including shotguns, semi-automatic shotguns, rifles, handguns and even a rocket launcher.” Oh, my, shotguns and semi-automatic shotguns!

It looks to me like the cops seized a slightly beat up Browning A-5, and I can’t tell for sure what all else. It looks like there’s at least one older double gun in there as well, and maybe one or two revolvers on that pistol rug. (These are, frankly, really crappy photos. Thanks, Chron.)

The photo of the “rocket launcher'” isn’t half-bad, though. Several of the Chron commenters speculate that the “rocket launcher” in question is actually a spent or demilled LAWS launcher, of the sort you can easily find on the surplus market. I don’t have enough experience to be sure about that; if any of my readers know for sure, please leave me a comment or drop me a line.

(Feel free to comment or drop me a line as well if you dispute my “dumbest song ever” statement, but please be prepared to discuss your own personal choice for “dumbest song ever”.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Music, Stupid | 4 Comments »

For what it may be worth.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

I’m not sure that this qualifies as a “sports firing”, but Bob Bradley is out as head coach of the U.S. men’s soccer team.

Posted in Firings, Sports | 1 Comment »

Time for a Spinal Tap reference.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Of course, it is always time for a Spinal Tap reference, but this one is particularly appropriate.

From the This is Spinal Tap: Official Companion book’s entry on Intravenus De Milo:

It is said to be the only album to have achieved gold status in sales and then platinum status in returns.

You’re probably asking yourself, “Why is this in particular an appropriate reference?” No reason, no reason at all, really, except this one:

After a dismal Q1 in which the company lost $29.6m and “very modest sales” of the Revue were exceeded by returns of the product…

(Hat tip: the Grubes.)

 

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

“How do you say ‘United 93, m———er!’ in Norwegian?”

—Staghounds

Posted in Clippings | 4 Comments »

Then it fell over, burned, and sank into the swamp.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Back in November of last year, we made note of the grand opening of the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, Mississippi.

So how’s the museum doing? The NYT tells us: not so great. As in “almost out of cash” not so great. Major problems:

Posted in Art, Clippings, Gehry | Comments Closed

Two Years Before the Blog.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

Today is the second anniversary of Whipped Cream Difficulties.

You would think that, by now, I would have worked out the whipped cream issues. Sadly, no. The problem is more complex than you might think.

Seriously, though, I’d like to thank everyone who’s made this web log the small success it is. The last time I tried to list everyone, I failed miserably. This time, I’m not even going to try; you guys know who you are, and I’ve thanked many of you privately.

Here’s to another few years of blogging before the heat death of the universe, and here’s to whipped cream and other delights.

(Richard Henry Dana, call your office, please.)

Posted in Admin, Books, Food | Comments Closed

Nice going there, Butch.

Thursday, July 28th, 2011

UNC-Chapel Hill football coach Butch Davis out in the wake of a NCAA investigation.

Davis, 59, had an overall record of 28-23 with three bowl appearances in four seasons, but he steered UNC into what he said earlier this week was the most serious issue the school has faced in decades. A school with a strong track record of rules compliance saw 14 players miss at least one game and seven sit out the entire 2010 season in connection with the NCAA investigation into impermissible benefits given to players and into academic misconduct.

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Sports | 3 Comments »

Today in journalism fraud.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

I missed this last week: the Seattle Weekly published a story by freelance writer Rick Swart, alleging that crime writer Ann Rule misrepresented facts in her book Heart Full of Lies: A True Story of Desire and Death. This is the kind of thing I would have paid a lot of attention to if it came across my radar; my mother is a big Ann Rule fan, and I’ve read a few of Rule’s books by way of her. I like Rule’s writing enough to be distressed at the thought.

Yeah. Well, I’m glad that story didn’t come to my attention until today, because it turns out things are more complicated than that. To start with, Rick Swart is engaged to Liysa Northon, the woman at the center of the case. (Ms. Northon was convicted of killing her husband, Chris Northon. Ms. Northon pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter, and received a 12-year sentence.)

Not only did Mr. Swart not divulge this relationship to the editors of the Seattle Weekly, he argues that he wasn’t under any obligation to.

“It’s a freelance piece first of all. I’m selling you a product. So it’s not like you’re my boss and you need to know my personal life.”

What makes this particularly offensive is that Mr. Swart is an experienced journalist; you would expect both that he would know better, and that he wouldn’t have this kind of arrogant attitude. Apparently not.

(Hat tip on this to The Rap Sheet.)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Noted.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

I saw magazines for these a couple of weeks ago, while I was out shopping, and said to myself, “Hmmmm. I didn’t realize there was such a thing.”

But it does explain why H&K was suing GSG.

The H&K MP5 A5 and MP5 SD in .22 LR.

Since I haven’t seen one for sale yet, I can’t comment on the price (and I didn’t notice what the magazines were going for).  But I expect them to be more expensive than the GSG guns, because you suck and H&K hates you.

Posted in Guns | 1 Comment »

All apologies.

Wednesday, July 27th, 2011

I feel bad about this, especially since some folks like South Texas Pistolero apparently think I’m worth reading. (Thank you, sir.) But there’s just not a lot going on right now that’s worth blogging about. I blame the heat. And the vertical integration of the broiler industry.

I guess I could point to yet another reason to carry your damn guns, people!

Or yet another example of the police being indistinguishable from armed thugs.

Or I could put up a nifty photo of myself in one of Sean Sorrentino’s “Project Gunwalker” shirts, which he’s reopened orders for (and which you can now get with a pocket, even) but I haven’t picked up mine from the PO Box yet.

I could also ask what kind of fascist country we’re living in, when a judge expresses doubts about the credibility of an accused murderer.

I suppose I could also ask if it’s actually legal for mariachi bands to collude over the fees they charge; doesn’t that strike folks as being a violation of anti-trust law?

I’ve got a post I’m working on about the egg roll problem, but I’m still doing research on that.

The good news is, we’re only a week away from DEFCON 19, which I do plan on blogging. In that vein, if anyone has recommendations for places to eat in Las Vegas, please drop me an email or leave them in the comments. A trip to Lotus of Siam is required, of course, but I’m looking for something to eat on the other four nights I’ll be there.

Edited to add: Hey, while I’m thinking of it, I do want to point folks to this discussion at Battleswarm. I haven’t had a lot to say about Breivik, mostly because other smarter bloggers are saying it all. But for some reason I’m awfully darn curious about his weaponry; I think maybe because the gun in that photo is so blinged up I wouldn’t be shocked to find out that it’s identical to the ones carried by Food Court Team Six.

Posted in Admin, California Über Alles, Clothing, DEFCON 19, Food, Guns, IANAL, Law, Music, Shirts, Travel | Comments Closed

Your City of Bell update.

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

The city decided to part ways with Pedro Carrillo as he proposed a tough new set of budget cuts aimed at holding off insolvency, including leaving executive positions unfilled, eliminating the three highest-ranking police officers in the city and requiring employees to pay for half of their retirement.

(I know the linked article makes it sound like his contract expired. But this article calls it a resignation, and includes his resignation letter.)

Posted in Clippings, Politics | Comments Closed

You know what Mexico needs?

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

(This is taken mostly verbatim from a conversation with Lawrence.)

  • Law and order
  • Paved roads
  • A lack of a drug war
  • Better sushi
  • Big-budget movies with lots of special effects
  • A better economy
  • Crime writers
  • Crime writers who haven’t been executed by cartels
  • A gun in every home
  • Stronger gun control…in the prisons.

Posted in Guns, Politics | Comments Closed

Doug Winner, call your office, please.

Tuesday, July 26th, 2011

Emmis Communications owns a bunch of Austin radio stations. Their holdings include KGSR, which specializes in local and Texas music, news talk station KLBJ, and KROX-FM (aka 101X).

Emmis just paid the FCC $12,000 to settle accusations that KROX-FM was involved in a “payola” scheme…

…that netted one of its hosts “valuable consideration” from a music store, a live music venue, a booking agent and a band manager.

The Statesman story is curiously short on details about the host, music store, live music venue, booking agent, and band manager who were involved. A Google search didn’t turn up much more information, but it did turn up a copy of the consent decree.

(Hattip.)

Posted in Clippings, Radio | Comments Closed

A tip of the hat.

Friday, July 22nd, 2011

By way of Jimbo, we’ve learned that Vincent A. Musetto has retired after 40 years at the New York Post.

Mr. Musetto was the Post film editor when he retired. But he is most famous for a headline he composed in 1982 1983. That’s right, Mr. Musetto is the man who came up with this:

As noted in the linked article, Mr. Musetto’s personal favorite of his headlines was “Granny Executed in Her Pink Pajamas”.

We wish Mr. Musetto a happy retirement, and all the best in any future endeavors he embarks upon.

Edited to add: P.S.: The happy decapitator, Charles Dingle, is apparently still in prison. Mr. Dingle denies any involvement in the rape/robbery/beheading spree for which he was convicted.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Media | Comments Closed

The (Double) Eagle has flown the coop.

Thursday, July 21st, 2011

We previously noted the strange legal saga involving the Federal Government and ten 1933 $20 U.S. gold coins.

(Since that time, we have also read Alison Frankel’s Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World’s Most Valuable Coin and we think it is a better book than David Tripp’s Illegal Tender: Gold, Greed, and the Mystery of the Lost 1933 Double Eagle. But we digress.)

By way of FARK, we have now learned that a Philadelphia jury has found in favor of the Government. Here’s coverage from the WSJ Law Blog, and here’s coverage from the Inky.

As we noted at the time, this seemed like a case that couldn’t be won, given the events of 2002 and the attendant publicity. We are not displeased to see our prediction come true, though we will be sad if the Treasury ends up destroying the coins. At the same time, though, we suspect this is not the end of the story, and that this case will probably end up in front of Dianna Ross and the Supremes. Watch this space for updates.

Edited to add: We wish we had thought of this sooner. Here’s the story from “Coin World”, which appears to have been covering the trial in detail judging from the other links.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Coins, Law | 1 Comment »

With apologies to Solomon Linda and The Evening Birds, The Tokens, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011

In the App Store,
the Apple App Store,
the Lion ships tonight.

(I actually don’t care that much. I’m planning to wait on Lion.1 at least, maybe Lion.2. But Lawrence and I were chatting earlier today and that riff came to me; it’s the kind of thing you only get to use maybe once in a lifetime.)

(This is kind of interesting. Especially for $5.99. I haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet, but I have downloaded it: this BBC documentary sounds like it could be worthwhile. Download link.)

Posted in Apple, Clippings, Music, Wordplay | 2 Comments »

Lonesome Roads.

Monday, July 18th, 2011

The Texas Department of Transportation has been building a couple of additional “flyover” connections down south of town; specifically, at the intersection of Loop 1 (also known locally as “MoPac”) and U.S. Highway 290.

Unfortunately, TXDOT contracted with Wiser Construction,  a company based in Nevada. (The Statesman says Wiser is based in Las Vegas, but all the business addresses I found for them are in Moapa, which is about 55 miles away according to Google Maps.)

Why is that unfortunate? Because Wiser Construction declared bankruptcy last week and walked off the job, leaving the flyovers uncompleted. (A search of the two Las Vegas newspapers turned up nothing about this bankruptcy.)

Edited to add 7/19: Here’s a link to another Statesman story. If you look at both that story, and the blog post I linked to yesterday, neither one currently contains any mention of bankruptcy. (The Statesman blog post appears to have been revised sometime after my original post.)

A bond insurance company informed TxDOT’s Austin office Monday in a letter that Wiser Construction Co. would not complete the $8.4 million job, said Tim Weight, TxDOT’s Austin district director of construction. The letter did not explain why the Las Vegas company was quitting the project, Weight said.

However, this story from KUVE still refers to the contractor’s bankruptcy.

Posted in Bridges, Clippings, Roads | 1 Comment »

News roundup.

Friday, July 15th, 2011

By way of our good friend James, we have learned that CNN did a story on Texans purchasing guns to prepare for uncertain economic times. Ordinarily, we probably wouldn’t have said anything about this piece, but the gun shop profiled is Tex-Guns, the official purveyor of fine weapons to WCD.

And the NYT has discovered the Snake Farm on I-35. This is a place that we have not been to yet, but we keep threatening to load up the car and take our nephews there. Perhaps we will arrange that in the next couple of weeks.

Posted in Clippings, Reptiles, Snakes | Comments Closed

Wanna buy a house?

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

Three bedrooms. “Semi-detached”. Conveniently located within walking distance of shopping.

In the interest of honesty, there are some…issues…to keep in mind.

  • The previous owner didn’t do a lot of work on the house; it sounds like a bit of a fixer-upper.
  • The asking price is 320,000 British pounds, which at current exchange rates translates to $515,968. That sounds high for a fixer-upper, but you might be able to talk the sellers down.
  • The house is in England, which may be an advantage for some folks.

And the prestige of being able to say, “Oh, yes, I’m the new owner of the old JG Ballard place” doesn’t have a price.

Posted in Books, Clippings | Comments Closed

Happy Bastille Day, everyone!

Thursday, July 14th, 2011

I’m avoiding the temptation to make cheap jokes about the French this year, especially after spending much of last winter immersed in the French Revolution.

Instead, here’s a link to what purports to be Julia Child’s Beef Bourguignon recipe. I have not tried this, but I would like to: the last time I cooked Beef Bourguignon, I used a recipe from Cooks Illustrated, which is behind a paywall.

Here’s what the site of the Bastille looks like today.

And here’s a kind of neat article from yesterday’s Statesman about a French bistro in Lakeway that has an annual Bastille Day fest.

I got to thinking: hey, what’s the French Legation doing today that I’m going to have to miss, being stuck here at work? The answer is: actually, the French Legation is having their Bastille Day observance on Saturday.

Edited to add: By way of Lawrence, Jerry Pournelle on Bastille Day. I think there’s an argument to be made that the significance of the fall of the Bastille has less to do with the actual prisoners and the release of same, and more to do with the fact that the fall of the Bastille put guns and ammunition into the hands of people revolting against a tyrannical government. Indeed, I made that argument to a certain extent last winter, and boy do I wish I could reproduce that discussion here. (Sadly, it is behind the university’s Blackboard system.)

Posted in Beef, Clippings, Food, Guns, History | 1 Comment »

The NYT travels to the hinterlands…

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011

…where they discover the “Mexican Martini“, two, two, two lies in one!

Seriously, the “Mexican Martini” is a decent drink, and Trudy’s isn’t a bad place to eat and drink. But putting a drink in a martini glass doesn’t make it a martini, and using tequila doesn’t make it Mexican.

At his previous job, at the Eastside Showroom, Mr. Bryan refused to make it.

“I removed the olives from the entire restaurant,” he said, “so when I told customers, ‘I can’t make Mexican Martinis because I don’t carry olives,’ people weren’t as upset as when I said, ‘No, I can’t make you that on principle.’ ”

I wonder what Mr. Bryan’s customers who wanted a traditional martini with an olive garnish thought when he said “I don’t carry olives.”

Edited to add: I also wonder what a “Mexican Martini” would be like with an onion instead of an olive. Hmmmm. May have to try that this weekend.

Posted in Clippings, Mixology | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries