That’s how the prosecution described two NYPD detectives, Stephen Chmil and Louis Scarcella, at the trial of “a drug-addicted, unemployed printer” named David Ranta:
Mr. Ranta was charged with shooting Chaskel Werzberger, a Hasidic rabbi, during a robbery that went bad. Mr. Ranta was convicted in 1991 and has spent the years since in prison.
Yeah. “Likable scamps” fabricated evidence and put an innocent man away for 22 years.
Back in November of 2011, I wrote about Paul Bergrin, “The Baddest Lawyer in the History of Jersey“. At that time, a mistrial had been declared in Mr. Bergrin’s trial on various charges, including drug trafficking and murder.
Mr. Bergrin was retried, and yesterday…
As someone who has been spending a lot of time with small children recently, as well as being a professional child myself, this HouChron article piqued my interest: “Are moms to blame for stagnant Hot Wheels sales?”
More:
That’s…dumb, at least from my viewpoint. My childhood was a while back, but I don’t think moms ever get the toys their kids play with. At least, the male children. The girls: moms probably get Barbie, and maybe some other toys. But I don’t think moms ever get G.I. Joe, or Spiderman, or, yes, Hot Wheels.
Just for grins, I sent this to a mom I know who has boys and a house full of Hot Wheels. Her response: “Whoever said that at Mattel is full of poop.” As she went on to point out, moms get what kids ask for, within reason. The moms I know don’t buy everything their kids want, but if they’re out at the store and the kids behave reasonably well, they don’t have any problem buying one or two Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars as a reward. Even an unemployed but indulgent uncle can pick up a couple of Hot Wheels just so they don’t come over empty-handed.
(As a side note: my recollection is that Hot Wheels when I was a child sold for about $1, in 1970 money, or $5.98 in 2013 dollars. Today, Hot Wheels at my local grocery store sell for about $1, or 17 cents in 1970 money.)
(Also as a side note: I played with Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars interchangeably. Hot Wheels rolled more smoothly, but Matchbox cars were more realistic.)
More:
Setting aside the incomplete thought at the end of the sentence, I understand what she’s driving at here. I support the idea of giving kids toys that encourage what I’ll call “imaginative play”. But when I watch the kids I know play with Hot Wheels, they are playing with them in imaginative ways. My own childhood memories match that: I remember building tracks, both with the Hot Wheels track sets and with household objects, and playing with Hot Wheels in an unstructured, unguided, imaginative way.
(The HouChron writer mentions things like Magna-Tiles and Legos. Magna-Tiles are before my time, and I don’t know any kids who have those. Legos are great; I loved Legos when I was a kid. But what I see now is that Legos are moving away from unstructured, unguided, imaginative play, and in the direction of structured, guided, not imaginative play. For example, Harry Potter and Star Wars Lego kits.)
Yep. I took Gonzaga, Lawrence took the rest of the field, $5 straight across, again.
This post is to document our wager.
I have a good feeling about Gonzaga this year.
(I also have a good feeling about the Cubs this year. But we’ll wait until closer to opening day for that.)
Well, this is odd. I completely missed the story until I went over to ESPN’s web site. (I was trying to find out when the NCAA brackets will be announced. Again, not that I care about men’s basketball, but Gonzaga!)
Ruth Ann Steinhagen passed away on December 29th, but her death did not become public knowledge until last week.
“Who?”
On the night of June 14, 1949, Ms. Steinhagen lured Eddie Waittkus, first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies, to her room in the Edgewater Beach Hotel. Mr. Waitkus had played for the Chicago Cubs, but was traded after the 1948 season. Ms. Steinhagen had an obsession with him.
Mr. Waitkus survived. Ms. Steinhagen was found to be insane and spent three years in a mental hospital. And if this story sounds very familiar, yes, this was the basis for Bernard Malamud’s The Natural
The “Theodore” in the quote above is John Theodore, who wrote what sounds like an interesting non-fiction book about the incident, Baseball’s Natural: The Story of Eddie Waitkus
Last night, we watched The Killing at the home of my friends who shall remain nameless.
I bow to no man in my admiration for Stanley Kubrick. I will happily engage in physical combat with John Gruber and Jim Coudal simultaneously to determine which of us is the greater Kubrick fan, if it comes to that.
I realize The Killing is early Kubrick. I expected it to be a little rough around the edges, and I think it is an important work to watch, Kubrick fan or non-fan. (The Killing pioneered some tricks that you see in more modern movies, such as the non-linear timeline.)
But there’s one big huge problem with the movie: Marie Windsor.
I feel bad about saying this. I’m sure Ms. Windsor was a very nice woman, and she certainly had a long career. But she sucks the life out of The Killing in Every. Single. Scene. She’s. In. Every moment she was on screen, we were thinking “Get this woman off the screen!” The setup and execution of the racetrack robbery is compelling, but Ms. Windsor’s scenes with Elisha Cook drove me bugnuts crazy. They don’t work well as a couple, and Ms. Windsor’s dialogue in particular is just awful; it shoot for smart and clever, and misses by a mile.
This may not have been entirely Ms. Windsor’s plot: Jim Thompson co-wrote the dialogue, and I can easily believe he was drunk off his hind end the entire time he was writing it. But even if the writing is bad, Ms. Windsor’s delivery of it still sets my teeth on edge. I think Lawrence came very close to pulling the pin on this one, solely because Ms. Windsor was driving him crazy as well.
Spoiler space:
Just noticed in the LAT (sorry): a profile of Jonathan Broida.
Mr. Broida runs a shop in Venice (California, not Italy) called Japanese Knife Imports. But:
Mr. Brodia used to be a professional cook, and caters to that community.
And that’s the key to his shop. He’s less interested in selling you a knife:
This is one of my many character flaws. My father tried to teach me to sharpen knives on a whetstone when I was younger, but I didn’t have the patience to learn. These days, I think I could sharpen a knife if I had to, but I have a lot of trouble holding the knife at a constant angle. I’ve tried various gadgets, but what I end up doing is taking my knives to a local knife shop or the gun show when they need to be sharpened. That’s the lazy man’s way of working; I feel like I should be better than that.
And, interestingly, Japanese Knife Imports has a YouTube channel with sharpening demonstrations.
I’m not going to California any time soon (I don’t have a passport, so I can’t travel outside of the United States), but this place sounds like somewhere I could drop a lot of money fast.
For example, former Harris County DA Pat Lykos, who escaped grand jury indictment once again.
More background is available by clicking the “HCDA” category. Also, Murray Newman has a few words to say.
For the record: Grambling played their SWAC tournament game Wednesday night…and lost, finishing the season 0-28.
Meanwhile, Liberty University (of Jerry Falwell fame) started the season 0-8. But:
(I don’t place bets before the brackets are announced, but I’m thinking this is Gonzaga’s year. Just an aside.)
Lawrence and I are discussing doing an Austin area blog meetup on Saturday, March 23rd. We’ve tentatively discussed meeting at 6 PM at the Mangia Pizza on Mesa Drive. (I can provide directions if anyone needs them.) I think we’d both be open to other venues; however, we do want to stay away from downtown Austin due to SXSW, so we are kind of thinking either somewhat north or somewhat south.
Does this date work for folks? Is there general interest in doing a blog meetup and dinner? Let me know by email (stainles [at] gmail.com works well) or in the comments here.
A while back, I wrote about the case of Robert Carroll Gillham, who set fire to a Gallery Furniture store, doing $20 million in damage, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor while awaiting trial.
The HouChron has an update on the case. Good news: Mr. Gillham’s brain tumor was removed.
Good or bad news, depending on how you look at it: Mr. Gillham probably will never stand trial on the charges.
Summarizing, the damage that the tumor did before it was removed, the side effects of the removal, and Mr. Gillham’s age have left him in a state where both sides agree he’s not competent to stand trial.
Noted:
That’s actually a pretty classy statement for a man who had $20 million worth of stuff burned up.
The jury is still out in the Bell trial.
The LAT‘s “LA Now” blog ran an article yesterday speculating on the possibility of deadlock.
Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head?
Yesterday was day 13 of deliberations, according to the LAT. (It looks like they’re not counting the week of deliberations which ended with one juror being replaced and the judge ordering a restart.)
My celebration is subdued this year, for various reasons, but I hope all of you have a good day. I also hope that you have some pie today, whether you go out somewhere or bake your own. (And if you feel like baking your own, once again I’ll link to the King Arthur Flour pie crust video.)
Also, the good folks at O’Reilly are offering 50% off on “science and math” ebooks today, just in case you see something you’re interested in.
I have often heard the accusation that the Better Business Bureau is more interested in money than protecting customers. That is, if you’re a business that pays enough money to the BBB, you’re guaranteed a high rating, and customer complaints against you might just magically disappear.
I’ve never been able to prove that to my satisfaction. But in at least one case, I don’t have to.
The BBB of the Southland is the branch that covers LA and the surrounding area. Why did they get kicked out? Some folks may remember this:
Ken over at Popehat covered this in more detail at the time. I haven’t seen an update from him, but I don’t blame Ken, as he’s been tied up with the whole Prenda Law saga. (If you haven’t been following Prenda Law, I recommend checking Popehat; the entire saga is way to complex for me to summarize here, and Ken’s done a pretty good job of doing so over there.)