Archive for July, 2013

I went back to Ohio, but my city was gone.

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Well, not really “gone”. I hadn’t been back to Ohio for nine years, and it amazed me somewhat both how much and how little has changed.

For example, there’s an entire grocery chain that I don’t remember from my last trip…that takes the Discover card and cash. No Visa/AmEx/MasterCard/Diner’s Club, not even debt cards with a PIN, just cash and Discover. Who came up with this idea?

On the other hand, the tractor tire store that was a landmark on the way to Grandma’s place is still there, after 40 something years. And Grandma’s place still feels remote from everything, even though there’s major strip centers at the end of her road, and even though much of the land was sold off over the past few years (and now has houses sitting on it).

And the old NASA hanger is still visible from the airport. That was another landmark for us kids. (My dad worked there, back when it was still the Lewis Research Center, before it was renamed “NASA John H. Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field“. Which is a mouthful. Not that I’m bitter or anything over the renaming; by gosh, if anyone deserved to have a NASA facility named after him, it was John Glenn.)

This is shaping up to be a long post, and sort of “stream of consciousness”, so I’m going to put the rest of it behind a jump. Before I do, here’s Grandma’s obituary, just for the record.

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Your loser update: All-Star break edition.

Monday, July 15th, 2013

At the break, Houston is 33-61, with a .351 winning percentage. Straight multiplication projects out to 105 losses. Cool Standings projects “103.6” losses (how do you lose .6 of a game?), Baseball Prospectus projects 101.7, and FanGraphs projects an even 101 losses.

Miami is at 35-58, with a .376 winning percentage. Straight multiplication projects out to 101 losses. FanGraphs projects 100 losses, Baseball Prospectus 97.4 losses, and Cool Standings 99.5 losses.

Random notes: July 15, 2013.

Monday, July 15th, 2013

Early in his career, Stephen King published several novels using the name Richard Bachman. (In 1985, after he was exposed as the real Richard Bachman, Mr. King announced that Mr. Bachman had died of “cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia.”)

And King continued to publish books as Bachman long past the “early” point of his career, including The Regulators and Blaze. Sorry, something about the NYT‘s phrasing here annoys me. As does this:

He then started reading the book. “I said, ‘Nobody who was in the Army and now works in civilian security could write a book as good as this,’ ” he said.

Nice bit of casual snobbery there, pal.

(This is actually the first Rowling book I want to read, though I don’t intend to pay an inflated price for a first.)

My heart goes out to any of my readers who are in LA:

Ignite 8,500 gallons of gasoline in a two-lane freeway underpass just north of downtown, and you have a prescription for another round of Carmageddon come Monday morning.

The fire erupted when a tanker truck overturned in a small tunnel connecting the northbound lanes of the 2 Freeway with the northbound lanes of the 5. Thick black smoke was seen for miles.
The intensity of the tunnel fire has so compromised the roadbed of the 5 that freeway traffic at this point would lead to greater damage, Caltrans said.

Chandler reported that rebar was exposed. “It was so hot that the concrete is now brittle,” he said. “It is like a popcorn ceiling. Crews are chipping away at it with hammers.”
The narrow confines of the tunnel, about 300 feet long and only two lanes and a shoulder wide, magnified the intensity of the blaze.

This is one of the best things I’ve read in the past few days.

And this is another of the best things I’ve read in the past few days: “A Statistical Analysis of Nerf Blasters and Darts” by Shawn O’Neil and Kate Drueen.

As seen on the road…

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

riverstyxroad

Yes, that is a real road sign.

And where does River Styx Road go to? If you guessed “River Styx“, take two gold stars and advance to the next blue square.

We would also accept “the River Styx Bridge” as a correct answer.

(not) Fire.

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

I’m not 100% happy with the way these photos turned out, but it was a hard subject to photograph: I think it would have been hard even with the big camera instead of an iPhone. While they aren’t perfect, I think they’re interesting enough to post.

arcade1

arcade2

(Interior, Cleveland Arcade, downtown Cleveland, Ohio.)

I’ve been thinking about picking up one of the Olloclip lens kits soonish, depending on how things go. Anyone have any experience with these, or anything they’d recommend instead? I’m mostly interested in the wide-angle and macro lenses.

The Bridges of Cuyahoga County.

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Well, just one bridge, really.

I keep thinking of these as “Egyptian”, but they’re not, really: they’re Art Deco.

bridge1

bridge2

bridge3

These are a couple of the pylons, known as the “Guardians of Traffic”, at the ends of the Hope Memorial Bridge in downtown Cleveland. (AKA the “Lorain-Carnegie Bridge”.) We drove across this bridge several times, since it is the best route to the Westside Market. (“The bridge connects Lorain Avenue on Cleveland’s west side and Carnegie Avenue on the east side, terminating just short of Progressive Field.” Heh. My mother observed that everywhere we went in Cleveland, it seemed like we had to drive past Progressive Field. By the end of the trip, she was rather tired of it. In comparison, I think we drove past Browns Stadium twice, and Quicken Loans Arena once.)

The “Hope” in “Hope Memorial” is William Henry Hope, Bob Hope’s father. Mr. Hope was a stonemason who worked on the pylons when the bridge was built.

A reliable source tells me:

When the Cavs were in the playoffs, the city put Cavs sweatbands on the foreheads of the two closest to the Q, where the Cavs play.

There’s really no good place to park near the bridge and the pylons, so these photos were taken either with the iPhone camera or compact cameras, by myself and my mother, out of or through the windows of a moving rental car, while trying not to obstruct traffic. If I get a chance to go back and the weather is nice, I plan to get some better pictures with the big camera.

Happy Bastille Day, everyone!

Sunday, July 14th, 2013

Whether you’re eating Beef Bourguignon and drinking a good Burgundy, or storming a prison to get at the gunpowder inside, I hope your celebration is a happy one.

(More from Lawrence here.)

Ist das nicht eine schnitzel bank?

Saturday, July 13th, 2013

schnitzelbank

Ja, das ist eine schnitzel bank!

Supreme lager, always!

(Poster found on wall at Great Lakes Brewing Company, Cleveland, Ohio.)

Related:

Important safety tip. (#17 in a series)

Friday, July 12th, 2013

I shouldn’t have to say this, should I? People aren’t this stupid, are they?

Apparently, they are. So, safety tip:

If it is hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement, for the love of Ghu, please use a pan.

Dead lawyers don’t lie.

Friday, July 12th, 2013

Sergei L. Magnitsky was convicted yesterday of tax evasion by a Russian court. Mr. Magnitsky was a lawyer: his client, William F. Browder, was convicted as well.

This isn’t ordinarily the sort of thing I’d bring up, but there are a couple of interesting points:

  • Mr. Magnitsky was a prominent critic of the Russian government, and was arrested shortly after he accused officials of stealing $230 million in government funds.
  • Both Mr. Magnitsky and Mr. Browder were convicted in absentia. Mr. Browder is currently in London.
  • Mr. Magnitsky was convicted in absentia because he’s dead. He died four years ago in prison, after being refused medical care.

(Subject line hattip. My linking to this should not be taken as implying any endorsement of the content.)

40 years ago…

Friday, July 12th, 2013

…I spent a lot of time in this tree.

tree

(Yes, I can be a little sentimental at times.)

Here. Have another lizard.

Friday, July 12th, 2013

Or, technically, another view of the same lizard.

lizard2

What can I say? I like lizards.