Archive for November, 2012

More things that tickle my funny bone, for no apparent reason.

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

Wikipedia’s “List of stoffs“.

Because the two substances were so visibly similar, a complex testing system was developed to make sure that each propellant was put into the correct tanks of the Messerschmitt Me 163.

I wonder if it would have been easier to have different sized openings (and different sized nozzles) for the T-Stoff and C-Stoff tanks, instead of a “complex testing system”. But maybe I’m missing something.

(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter.)

NBA loser update.

Thursday, November 15th, 2012

We’re down to Washington (0-7) as the last team that has a chance to go 0-82.

Not much else going on. Sorry.

Quote of the day: special “nothing to do with Guy Fieri” edition

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

Perhaps they have moisturizer in Hell, sir, although one thinks it unlikely.

—from Lowering the Bar, by way of Overlawyered.

You’ve got questions. We’ve got cats. And Twitter.

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

I honestly did not know, when I wrote this morning’s “Random Notes”, that the Guy Fieri review was blowing up the Internet.  (My link was, however, up before FARK’s.) Even if I had, I probably would have linked it, if only for future reference.

So. Anyway. Questions. So many questions.

Is it legitimate to write a restaurant review composed entirely of questions? (Except for the “Thanks” at the end.)

(I’d say, “Hey, it is a writerly device. If his editor didn’t have problems with it, neither do it. I wouldn’t do it too often, though.”)

So if you give money to charity, that somehow exempts your restaurant from criticism of the food and service? I’ll keep that in mind for the restaurant I never open.

So the fact that a restaurant is in Times Square and caters to the tourist trade should exempt it from criticism? So the NYT should, instead, be reviewing the latest vegan joint in NoHo, or whatever the trendy neighborhood in NYC is these days?

(Edited to add: I wonder if Steve Krakauer feels it was beneath the NYT to review a steakhouse located in a strip club?)

Tourists–most of whom have never heard of Pete Wells or the New York Times– will continue to be sucked into Guy’s neon vortex.

I love the “most of whom have never heard of…the New York Times”. I bet if you asked 100 random people on the street, in any city in the United States, to name a newspaper, the vast majority (I’d go over 90%) would name the NYT.

And, from EaterNY, “The Worst Lines of Guy Fieri’s NYT Review, With Cats“. This just tickles my funny bone; I can’t explain why.

Random notes: November 14, 2012.

Wednesday, November 14th, 2012

I kind of like Guy Fieri. But I’d note this review whether it was of a Guy Fieri restaurant, or some other random place in NYC. Not since Ninja can I recall a review this vicious in the NYT.

Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? When you saw the burger described as “Guy’s Pat LaFrieda custom blend, all-natural Creekstone Farm Black Angus beef patty, LTOP (lettuce, tomato, onion + pickle), SMC (super-melty-cheese) and a slathering of Donkey Sauce on garlic-buttered brioche,” did your mind touch the void for a minute?

(Also, Jacques Pépin wants you to steam your turkey. I thought that was an Albany expression.)

Jessica Tata: guilty of felony murder.

Why is it so hard to get Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army?

Why the well-armed and -equipped foreign troops have been unable to snuff out what little is left of a militia that once numbered in the tens of thousands is explained by the complexities of geography, politics and poverty, historians and human rights advocates say.

In other words, something that’s not easily solved by posting videos on the Internet.

Karolina Obrycka, the bartender who got the crap beat out of her by a Chicago police officer in 2007, has been awarded $850,000 in damages against both Anthony Abate, the cop who beat her, and the city itself.

The eight-woman, three-man jury found that Abbate was part of the conspiracy to cover up the beating and that the Police Department had a widespread code of silence that emboldened Abbate to beat up Obrycka.

Can we have Federal supervision of the Chicago PD now? (Also: LAT coverage.)

Go ahead and tickle me, Elmo.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

In the interest of fairness: various news outlets are reporting that the man who accused Kevin Clash of engaging in underage sex with him has recanted that accusation.

Lawrence sent me a link to coverage from WTOP. The NYPost also has the story.

I don’t feel I have anything to apologize for in my previous coverage. But I wish this scene from “Absence of Malice” was online.

TMQ Watch: November 13, 2012.

Tuesday, November 13th, 2012

Unleash the kraken 1972 Miami Dolphins auto-text! Plus, we all live in a nuclear submarine, TMQ has a new book out, and more, in this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback! After the jump…

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Oh, no. Not again.

Monday, November 12th, 2012

From ESPN.com:

The Pac-12 has agreed to look into allegations made by former Washington State receiver Marquess Wilson of abusive behavior by coach Mike Leach and his staff, commissioner Larry Scott said Monday.

Sampler platter.

Monday, November 12th, 2012

Think of this as sort of like a fruit basket, without the fruit. Or the basket.

This is a headline as it currently appears on the LAT website:



Here is the actual story.
Some things that are worth noting:

There are so many things I could say about this next story, but (with one exception) I am going to avoid saying them:

The puppeteer who performs as Elmo on “Sesame Street” is taking a leave of absence from the popular kids’ show in the wake of allegations that he had a relationship with a 16-year-old boy.

The one exception (and this isn’t snark, just a statement of fact): this was the same thing that destroyed Jeff “Frugal Gourmet” Smith’s career.

Detroit and Washington still have a shot at going 0-82 this NBA season (0-7 and 0-5 respectively).

Yet another election result that amuses us: Cynthia Brim was re-elected to her seat as a judge in the Cook County Circuit Court. Why does this amuse us?

Because Judge Brim is batshit crazy. Really. As in, “can’t be prosecuted because she was legally insane at the time” crazy. Even better:

Judge Brim has been suspended from hearing cases since March, and it’s not clear when she’ll be returning to the bench. During the suspension, she’ll continue to collect her $182,000 salary.

63.5 percent of the vote, folks. (Hattip on this to Overlawyered.)

This next story pushes a couple of my better hidden hot buttons. Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church is located in San Francisco; the church is “the oldest black pulpit in the city”. Bethel’s previous minister, who had been there for twenty years, left to take over the First AME church. First AME is kind of a big deal among AME churches: “It became a regular stop for Democratic political candidates over the years, including Bill Clinton, Al Gore and President Obama.” First AME’s minister, Rev. John J. Hunter, was transferred over to Bethel AME.

But Bethel doesn’t want him.

The next morning, church members said they stood on the steps of Bethel AME on Laguna Avenue an hour before the early morning service to block Hunter from entering. Hunter was not present when the service began at 8 a.m.
Thirty minutes later, Hunter and a bodyguard bypassed the lone guard who monitors the front entrance, church members said. Officials said that when they blocked Hunter from the pulpit, his demeanor shifted.

And why doesn’t Bethel AME want Hunter? Are they just upset at losing their pastor and throwing a temper tantrum?

In 2008, Hunter acknowledged using First AME’s credit cards for $122,000 in personal expenditures on items including suits, jewelry, vacations and auto supplies. A year later, the Internal Revenue Service said he owed more than $300,000 in back taxes. Hunter has said he repaid both debts.

More:

For years, critics of Hunter complained that he was inaccessible, overspent on personal security and refused to live in the South L.A. community where he preached. They said the church’s membership, tithing and its activist profile declined during Hunter’s tenure.

The LAT also alludes to, but does not detail, a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against Hunter during his tenure at First AME. Sounds like something more than a tantrum, doesn’t it?

Saturday night at the movies.

Sunday, November 11th, 2012

Last night, after the SDC, we got together for movies at the home of (friends who shall remain nameless unless they want to out themselves in comments). Thanks for hosting, (friends who shall remain nameless unless they want to out themselves in comments).

We’re still sort of in the Halloween creepy/scary zone, or at least we felt that way, so we kicked things off with something short: the 1941 version of Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart“. I thought this dragged just a little bit (which is odd for a 20- minute movie) but there was a lot of effective creepy stuff going on here. In particular, I liked the way they played with sound to heighten the atmosphere of paranoia and dread. I think Richard Corliss has a good point when he suggests this may have been the first movie influenced by “Citizen Kane”.

(“Tell-Tale Heart” is also significant as the first film directed by Jules Dassin, who went on to direct “Rififi”, “Topkapi”, and “Never on Sunday”, among other films.)

So we figured, after that, we’d watch another early “horror” film: “London After Midnight”. How could we miss? A legendary “lost” film, directed by the great Tod Browning, with Lon Chaney?

Yeah. Well. About that. We figured someone had dug up a print somewhere. Ha ha, no. It turns out that Turner Classic Movies got Rick Schmidlin (who has also worked on restoring “Greed” and “Touch of Evil”) to do a “reconstruction” of the “film”, which basically involves panning over publicity stills from the movie with inserted dialog cards. Apparently, someone liked this, as Schmidlin won a “Rondo Award” for his work (according to Wikipedia). As far as we were concerned, after about five minutes of watching this, punctuated with such comments as “What the f–k?”, “What is this s–t?”, and (my favorite) “Why would anyone do this?”, we shut it off and decided to watch something else.

We settled on “Take Shelter“, a movie I’d heard about in theatrical release but never got around to watching. In general, I like it (though I think it could have been made 10 to 15 minutes tighter, and that would have made it more effective). I could look at Jessica Chastain all day; Michael Shannon’s performance doesn’t have a lot of nuances, but he’s not really playing a nuanced guy. I think he pulled off the lead role very well.

After the jump, I’m going to talk about some things that may be spoilers.

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What can Brown do for you?

Friday, November 9th, 2012

Apparently, coaching the Lakers is not one of those things.

The Lakers were 41-25 in Brown’s first season, losing to Oklahoma City in the second round of the playoffs.

The team is 1-4 so far this season. (And, BTW, Washington and Detroit still have a shot at going 0-82.)

Here. Have some more crap.

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

A/V Club obit for Elliott Carter.

NYT obits for Darrell Royal and influential former wine columnist Frank J. Prial.

Another election result that amuses me:

The referendum in Tuesday’s election asked voters whether Michigan should retain a recently enacted state law that allowed the governor to appoint “emergency managers” with broad oversight of financial decisions, budgets and union contracts for struggling local governments. The law was intended to help municipalities avoid bankruptcy or default, but it has been criticized for infringing on the rights of local governments.

The referendum failed, 53% – 47%.

Emergency managers currently oversee three school districts in Michigan, including the Detroit public schools, and the city governments in Benton Harbor, Escorse, Flint and Pontiac. Now it is unclear what the vote means for their work, as well as for a fledgling financial consent agreement between the state and Detroit, which has wrestled with billions of dollars of long-term debt and nearly ran out of money this year.

And another one: voters in San Francisco actually rejected a proposal “that would have taken the first steps toward draining Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and drastically revamped the way much of the Bay Area gets its water.

The Prop. F initiative was the culmination of a years-long effort by environmentalists to restore Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park. The valley was flooded in 1923, when the city dammed the Tuolumne River to create a water system that now serves 2.6 million people in San Francisco and 29 other Bay Area cities.The measure, supporters said, would have compelled the city to take a much-needed look at its water usage and come up with a plan to replace the water and power now supplied by the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. A separate vote in 2016 would have been required before the O’Shaughnessy Dam could be demolished.

From the Department of Wow: University of Houston cornerback D.J. Hayden is in the hospital. His condition is listed as “critical but stable” according to the HouChron. What happened?

Hayden had surgery to repair a tear in the main blood vessel that leads to the heart, an injury suffered when he collided with a teammate during Tuesday night’s practice, a person familiar with the situation told the Chronicle on the condition of anonymity.

This Statesman “story” is…just…odd.

Edited to add: A little more information on D.J. Hayden and his injury:

In a statement released by UH, [team physician Dr. Walter] Lowe confirmed that Hayden required immediate surgery Tuesday night for a tear of the inferior vena cava, the large vein that carries blood from the lower half of the body back to the heart.

More from Dr. Lowe: “This injury has never been seen or reported in association with a football injury and is more associated with high-speed motor vehicle.” Huh? There’s a photo caption: “…a freak injury normally associated with high-speed motorcycle wrecks.”

Dr. Lowe also apparently said that this kind of injury has a “95 percent fatality rate”. I have no problem believing that.