Current TV fires Keith Olbermann.
Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming the moment his hiring was announced. Oh, wait: Ray Charles could have seen this coming.
But it gets better. Would you like to know who is replacing Keith Olbermann? Why, none other than Eliot “Client Number 9” Spitzer himself!
And if you’d like to read Olbermann’s response, you can find it here.
(And subject line hattip here.)
I don’t mind eels
And the way they feels.
—Ogden Nash
(One of our local restaurants has a poster of that poem hanging in the men’s room, which I’ve always found kind of odd. Personally, I’m very fond of eel sushi, and would be very happy to try elvers.)
Obit watch: Harry Crews. (NYT. A/V Club.) I haven’t read any of his work, though I had heard of him. With descriptions like “the unofficial poet laureate of bare-knuckled, white-trash culture” and “a world of hard-drinking, punch-throwing, snake-oil-selling characters whose physical, mental, social and sexual deviations render them somehow entirely normal and eminently sympathetic”, I may have to give the man a try. He almost sounds like a mainstream version of Charles Willeford.
The HouChron has apparently fired society writer Sarah Tressler for the grievous crime of…being a stripper in her spare time.
You know, I’m kind of in agreement with that. Really, what was the point, Houston Press? Page views for your dying alt-weekly?
Setting that to one side for the moment, the HouChron hasn’t had good luck with society writers recently; Douglas Britt, who covered both society and art for the paper, left after he basically went crazy (or was driven crazy by the Art Guys).
Question for the huddled masses: what is the point of having a “society” reporter any longer? I know it sounds kind of class-warfare-ish, but it seems to me that “society” is basically code for “an in-group of rich people who get together and admire each other, and occasionally raise money for their favored charities”. What is the point of continuing to give news coverage to these people? If an event is newsworthy, such as an art opening, let the writers on that beat (art, music, etc.) cover it. Why assign a writer to basically stroke the egos of the “beautiful” people?
Final note: the gun blogger who went by “Newbius” passed away suddenly this week. He wasn’t somebody I knew at all; our paths never crossed (I wish they had), though I did hear him a few times on Vicious Circle. By all accounts, he was a good man, and shall be missed. Jay G. is posting tributes here.
Taxing meat pies? Oh, the humanity!
This should be fairly short, since I’m not sure I have much to say other than this:
If “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” plays anywhere near you, I recommend that you go see it. If you have teenage children, I would seriously consider taking them along.
This is a movie about more than a world-class (as in, three Michelin stars) sushi chef. It is also a movie about finding work that you love, trying to be as good as you can at it, and working hard every day at it. In some ways, I think this is a movie about virtues we as a country have lost, and virtues that may be passing away in Japan as well.
Setting that aside, there’s also a lot of wonderful shots of Jiro’s sushi, the Tsukiji fish market, and raw tuna being prepared. It is a beautifully shot movie, worth seeing on a large screen.
(Jiro talking about his routine reminded me, of all things, of a quote from Don Winslow’s The Winter of Frankie Machine
Apparently, the great science fiction author Norman Spinrad wrote a script for “Star Trek: Original Recipe” that never got used. The script resurfaced a few months ago, and Spinrad began selling copies of it online. He also made arrangements with the “Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II” folks to do an adaptation of it.
At least, all this was going to happen until CBS put the kibosh on it.
Question: the Onion A/V Club describes the script as being about “the Enterprise crew’s encounter with a self-proclaimed messiah”. So how, exactly, does this differ from…well, pretty much every “Star Trek” episode written by Gene Roddenberry? Not to mention “Star Trek V”.
(Feel free to post in the comments and tell me I’m wrong. Especially you, A.T. After all, my hatred for “Star Trek” is a well known fact. But I think it is also a pretty well known fact, pointed out by notables such as Harlan Ellison, that “the Enterprise meets God” was a recurring obsession of Roddenberry’s.)
…Earl Scruggs, that is.
Edited to add: By way of FARK, here’s a nice tribute to Earl Scruggs from the New Yorker.
Edited to add 2: The Onion A/V Club’s very nice obituary.
Speaking of stories that tug at the emotions and then make you say, “Wait…”, there’s another one in today’s Statesman.
We previously noted the fire at a downtown condominium. That was January of last year, and the management is still working on restoring the eighth floor (where the fire was). The process is a little complicated, due to building code and insurance issues.
So there’s this older couple who owns a condo on the eighth floor, and who haven’t been able to occupy it yet. The Statesman notes that they’re somewhat upset because they still have to pay the maintenance fee for the condo’s common areas. (That fee, in their case, amounts to $561 a month.)
At first blush, that sounds unfair. After all, they can’t live in their property; why are they being charged a fee? But wait a minute…
So they’re not coming out of pocket for any rent. The only thing in dispute is the fees for the common area, which they would be paying no matter what, and which covers things they can still make use of while they’re temporarily displaced.
This is news?
Edited to add: I didn’t think of this until now. $561 * 14 (January 2011 – March 2012) = $7,854. So where does the “$9,000 in fees that we dispute” figure come from?
I previously noted the indictments of 11 people associated with Yassine Enterprises, owners of a string of downtown clubs.
Today’s Statesman covers a hearing yesterday in the case, and…better start making popcorn, folks, because this is going to be even more entertaining than I expected:
(I note that today’s article lists 10 people as being involved in the case, while previous coverage specified 11 people, one of whom was unnamed at the time. I’m not sure what is going on with that.)
How often do you read a story in the newspaper that tugs at your heartstrings…at least at first? And then, when you think about it, the questions become overwhelming?
There’s a story like that in today’s NYT. Michael Romanelli was a firefighter until he was injured on the job in 1989. He’s been fighting since then for a full disability pension (which would work out to 3/4ths of his salary, tax free) and took out a full page ad in the New York Post yesterday to continue his lobbying.
At first glance, this sounds awful. Guy was hurt on the job, surely he’s entitled to a disability pension, right? I have a lot of respect for firefighters, and frankly I feel awful for him.
But wait a second…
There’s got to be more to the story than the NYT playing the violin here. If he’s been through the system, and been through the courts, and lost his case for a full disability pension (even though the department found him not fit for duty), I have to think there’s something the Times either isn’t telling us, or didn’t look into.
(“He said he had no job, lived on an annual pension of $22,000 and had no money in the bank. “ So is he getting a pension from the NYCFD, just not the full disability one he wants? What would a full disability pension for a firefighter injured in 1989 work out to, compared to the $22,000 he’s getting now? Are there cost of living increases built into those disability pensions? Who are the politicians who became involved in this?)
In May of 2009, a man named Robert Carroll Gillham set a fire at a Gallery Furniture store and warehouse in Houston. The fire did $20 million worth of damage; fortunately, nobody died.
(For those of you outside of Houston: Gallery Furniture is run by a colorful local character named Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale, and is somewhat famous for their commercials. Especially the tag line: “Gallery Furniture SAVES. YOU. MONEY!” Their YouTube channel is here.)
What, pray tell, is a “de facto loan sharking business”?
But that’s not what I wanted to talk about. You see, Mr. Gillham’s trial has been delayed, and he’s being sent to a state mental hospital.
Why? Is he crazy?
No. He has a brain tumor.
Well, okay. If he’s having cognitive problems, well, part of the foundation of a fair trial is that you be able to effectively participate in your own defense.
So what’s the problem?
He hopes? He freaking hopes that the doctors are going to remove the tumor, rather than letting Mr. Gillham continue to suffer from cognitive issues? Hopes?
What. The. F–k. Dude. I see this kind of thing a lot; as a matter of fact, I was discussing it with some coworkers this morning.
Hope is not a strategy.
It is nice to hope things go well. It is nice to hope everything works properly. But it is much better to plan and prepare and make sure, whether you’re jumping out of a helicopter with jet engines and a kitchen table strapped to your back, or defending a client with a brain tumor. Hope is never a substitute for planning and preparation. Hope is not an effective backup plan. Nor, for that matter, is it an effective plan for much else.
I understand, of course, that Podolsky isn’t going to be doing the operation himself. But…
Yeah, well, if I were you, dude, I’d be asking some pretty hard questions, especially since Gillham has already been in the hospital several times because of this.
I can’t honestly recommend that you use your limited number of free NYT stories this month to go over and read this article. After all, it is about an obscure non-profit hospital in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn; unless you live in that area, why should you care?
What piques my interest about this story, though, is the chain of…shall we say, questionable management decisions by the hospital. For example:
Side note: “The hospital recently sold the stretch limousine for $18,000; it had cost $33,000 eight months ago. It sold the Lincoln Town Car for $9,000 and hopes to get $18,000 for the Escalade.”
I’d really like to know what year that Escalade is. You have to go back to 2006 to find one in the $18K range around here (at least on cars.com). If we’re talking 2008 – 2009 or later, I’d seriously consider flying up to NYC and driving back.
Helpfully, the HouChron story includes an embedded commercial for “Moonshiners”.
Huh? Is he perhaps talking about methanol, not methane gas?
In other news: I really haven’t been paying attention to the trial of John Goodman (mostly because he seems to be FARK’s favorite d’bag, so my coverage would be redundant), but I am happy to report that he has been found guilty of vehicular homicide and DUI manslaughter. More coverage here. I’m hoping he gets the full 30 years and does every day of that time.
Bad news: Karl F. Thompson Jr. still has not been sentenced for beating Otto Zehm to death.
…
Question: if McIntyre is being charged with obstruction of justice, aren’t similar charges justified against the city attorney who suggested she lie under oath? Isn’t that, at the very least, subornation of perjury? And can’t you be disbarred for that, in addition to getting hard time in a federal prison?
(Hattip: the Injustice News Feed, by way of TJIC on the Twitter.)
About two months ago, a class action suit was filed against Yassine Enterprises. The company was accused of not paying wages to employees who received tips: they own a long list of clubs in downtown Austin.
Earlier today, the FBI, IRS, and TABC raided the offices of Yassine Enterprises. 11 people involved with the company have been charged with an interesting assortment of federal crimes, including money laundering, cocaine trafficking, and “transferring a firearm knowing it is to be used in a drug trafficking crime”.
To which all I can say is “Wow”. And possibly “don’t f–k with the bartender”. It’ll be interesting to watch these cases play out.
Edited to add: Second day coverage from the Statesman here.
The NYT would like to explain Wickard v. Filburn to you. If you would like to read the court’s decision for yourself, rather than trusting the NYT, you can find it here.
By way of Jimbo: Wednesday’s Denver Post has a review of a restaurant called “Roam”. “So what?” you say. “I don’t live in Denver, and neither do you.” Yes, but it isn’t very often that a newspaper runs a review of a restaurant that closed before the review ran. The section containing the review was printed Monday night; the restaurant closed on Tuesday, and, according to press reports, the closing was nearly as chaotic as the rest of the restaurant’s history.
(Holy cow, there’s a winery called “The Infinite Monkey Theorem“? I want to at least try their wine.)
…this is a bad day for the Saints.
This is going to be well covered elsewhere, short version:
I may have more thoughts on this later.
Edited to add: Now that I have a little more time to write about this:
The “This American Life” retraction episode went up Friday night. You can download it or read the transcript here.
I listened to the whole thing over the weekend, and frankly I recommend listening rather than (or in addition to) reading the transcript. The transcript does not convey just how Mike Daisey comes across in Ira Glass’s discussion with him:
The Retraction episode of This American Life contains the most excruciating dead air I’ve ever heard.
— Matthew Baldwin (@matthewbaldwin) March 17, 2012
One thing that bothered me about this episode, though (and both Lawrence and Matthew Baldwin have made this same point).
Ira Glass says, “At that point, we should’ve killed the story,” when they found out that Daisey couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give them contact information for his interpreter.
Glass goes on to say “But other things Daisey told us about Apple’s operations in China checked out, and we saw no reason to doubt him. We didn’t think that he was lying to us and to audiences about the details of his story. That was a mistake.”
That’s not good enough. Someone should have been there and asked Glass: “Why didn’t you kill the story at that point? What were your reasons for going on with it? If you felt like it was an important enough story to run with, what were your reasons for going with Daisey, rather than someone like Rob Schmitz or the NYT reporters you spoke with?”
Yankees fan (well, nobody’s perfect) John Gruber has been all over the story since it broke on Friday as well. I’d suggest just going over to Daring Fireball and scrolling down from the top, clicking on whatever Daisey links interest you.
In non-Daisey related news: I gave up on Slate a few months ago. I felt like it had reached the point Salon came to quite a while back (when I gave up on them): saying outrageous and stupid things just to get page views, increasingly dumb writing (“Dear Prudence” in particular seems to have gone nucking futs), and generally not worth the time and effort involved in paying any attention to it.
However, I did see some good word of mouth on one Slate article recently, so I decided to click over. I’m happy that I did, as I can enthusiastically recommend Annie Lowrey’s “Where’s _why?”, a long article that simultaneously covers three things:
This is to note that I owe Lawrence $5 on our Gonzaga bet. (Gonzaga!)
(Actually, I would have paid him on Saturday night, but I needed to break a $10, and forgot to do so because we were all distracted by the bidets at the Turkish restaurant.)
(“distracted by the bidets at the Turkish restaurant” is not a phrase I ever thought I would write on this blog.)
Also, Lawrence has bet me $5 that the Cubs will not win the World Series this year.
I wanted to break this out into a separate piece rather than adding updates.
Marketplace’s story on the Apple/Daisey controversy is now up. Long quote follows:
“I met workers in, um, Hong Kong, going to Apple protests who had not been poisoned by hexane but had known people who had been…”
One great story that is just now breaking, and one sad story.
The great story: remember that “This American Life” episode about Apple’s factories in China? Aired back in January, I think? “#454: Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory
More:
Excerpts are from the press release attached to the story on Jimbo’s website: the TAL website is currently inaccessible (it looks to me like they’re getting hammered).
Mike Daisey has a statement on his website, which is accessible:
ETA 3/16 1:53 PM: TAL website seems to be accessible now.
ETA 3/16 2:05 PM: Selected shorts:
The sad story, also by way of Jimbo: You may have seen the first part of this story earlier in the week. I didn’t cover it because it was well linked everywhere. Briefly, editorial editor Bob Caldwell of the Portland Oregonian died over the weekend. After some initial confusion, it came out that he hadn’t been found dead of a heart attack in his parked car, but had passed away while engaged in a sex act with a 23-year-old woman.
That’s sad, but not the sad part I want to talk about. The initial information (that he’d been found dead in a parked car) was provided by a friend of the family who also worked for the Oregonian. That friend has been fired.
I understand both sides here. From editor Peter Bhatia’s summary of what went wrong:
But I understand the fired editor’s position, too. In a moment of grief and weakness, she chose to try to shield the family from the pain that would be caused by the circumstances of her friend’s death becoming public. I think she was wrong. I think she shouldn’t have lied. But I also think the paper could have had some compassion and sympathy for the position their editor was placed in: a one or two week unpaid suspension seems more reasonable to me. It may be that I’m a wimp. It may be that I’m not a serious journalist. But I feel a great deal of compassion for the fired editor, even though I think she made a mistake.
Ken over at Popehat has a post up about his friend Marc Randazza. I’m not part of Ken or Marc’s group. I’m not a lawyer, I’ve never met Marc Randazza, and I wouldn’t know him if he walked up to me and punched me in the face while using the word “f–k” repeatedly.
But I wanted to pull together some thoughts on the Hon. Marc Randazaa, and why I’d like to shake his hand and buy him a beer.
I think part of the reason for that is one of the small regrets I have in my life. When I was younger, I was inspired by the work of Nat Hentoff: not as a jazz critic, but as a First Amendment activist. My school libraries had books like The First Freedom
I thought seriously about becoming a lawyer. But I didn’t want to be just any kind of lawyer: I wanted to be a First Amendment lawyer. I wanted to fight the good fight for little kids like me who were fighting high school newspaper censorship, and big newspapers and magazines who were fighting the government.
In the end, though, I gave up that idea because I didn’t think I could make any money at it. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t want to get rich, but I wanted to be able to pay off my loans for law school and buy a new car every few years. Just being a First Amendment lawyer didn’t seem like it would lead down that path.
Many years later, I became aquatinted with Mike Godwin. Yeah, that Mike Godwin. I would recognize Mike if he walked up to me and punched me in the face, though it has been about…greeez, 15 years? since I last saw him in person. (He didn’t punch me in the face then, for what that may be worth.) The thing that strikes me about him, thinking back on that time, is that he did something interesting that I didn’t have the knowledge or ability to do: Mike Godwin was one of the people – perhaps the person – who pioneered Internet law. Literally, Mike pretty much invented a whole brand new field of law from scratch as the first general counsel of EFF.
And then there’s Marc Randazza. Why do I think he belongs in the company of people who make me wish I went to law school? Why do I praise a man I’ve never met? “Because that’s just the kind of hairball you are,” say some of my friends. They’re probably right about that. But:
I’ve been thinking about this since last night, and it seems to me that Marc Randazza is a modern day exemplar of the kind of people Melville Davisson Post was talking about:
…
…
“a just man, and honorable and unafraid”. I like that phrase very much. I believe there is a shortage of people in the world about whom that could be said, but I think it fits the honorable Mr. Randazza well.
What do deep-fried Fruity Pebbles look like?
The HouChron has the answer, in yet another go around of the rodeo food (warning! Slideshow!) slideshow (warning! Slideshow!). The Fruity Pebbles photos are at the very start.
You may also have wondered what kind of person comes up with these ideas. The HouChron also has the answer at that same link, in the form of an interview with Ken Hoffman.
Not answered: how do they taste?
Gonzaga!
This is to note that Lawrence has bet me $5, straight across, against the Gonzaga men’s basketball team winning the championship this year. (I have Gonzaga, he has the field.) This is a little late, since the tournament has already started, but Gonzaga has not played yet.
Since I know he follows basketball more than I do (heck, Helen Keller follows basketball more than I do, at least when she’s not hiding from the Nazis) I’m curious to see who his pick is. Perhaps he’ll weigh in in comments.
