TMQ is back from his bye week. And we’re back from the holiday. (Yes, we did have a nice Thanksgiving, complete with gun shopping and range time. Thanks for asking.)
Before we jump into this week’s column, we want to take this opportunity to observe that the Washington Wizards are 0-12, and folks are starting to take notice. We’ll come back to that.
Headline in the LAT: “Bounce house injuries rocket; child hurt every 46 minutes“.
Thought: maybe that child needs to be more careful.
Buried in the article:
Transparent excuse to link something that’s technically not a bounce-house, but probably as dangerous:
Noted Russian SF writer Boris Strugatsky.
Widely reported yesterday, but noted here for the record (I wanted to let the press shake out a bit before linking): Gene Chizik out at Auburn.
33-19 overall, 15-17 in conference, 3-9 overall and 0-8 in conference this season. And, yes, he won a national championship in 2010, but what had he done lately?
North Carolina State fired Tom O’Brien: 40-35 and 22-26 in conference over six seasons.
Jon Embree is gone at Colorado after two seasons, during which he was 4-21, and 1-11 this season.
Danny Hope out at Purdue: 22-27 over four seasons, 13-19 in conference. And Purdue is going to a bowl game…
And, finally, as far as I know, Frank Spaziani out at Boston College:
(Loser update: the Washington Wizards are now 0-11, and still have a shot at being the first NBA team to go 0-82.)
Larry Hagman: A/V Club. LAT. NYT. Dallas Morning News.
I have vague memories of “Mr. Food” being on TV in Houston when I was young. Since a couple of people have sent me this, here’s the obit for Art Ginsburg from the NYT.
Edited to add: Hector “Macho” Camacho has passed away after being removed from life support.
One of the joys of Thanksgiving is that I get to subject my nephews (and my nieces, eventually, but not this year) to the classics.
I’m not sure if “Over The River and Through The Woods” is available on any of the major services; I know Hulu only has the first three seasons of “The Bob Newhart Show”, and that’s a season four episode. Fortunately, I was prepared for that. “Woods” does take a little while to build (and I think my nephews were a little bored with the Bob/Emily interplay; perhaps next year we’ll play the “Hi, Bob” drinking game as we watch it), but once Thanksgiving starts, things pay off. (I also want to popularize the use of the phrase “Worst defeat in William and Mary’s history” as an all purpose excuse.
(Someone commented to me once that this episode was just an excuse for Newhart to do his Chinese food delivery bit. To which I respond: So f’ing what?)
I would have sworn that the kids had seen “Turkeys Away”; my sister says she thinks they crowded around the computer to watch it one year, but she’s not sure. Luckily, that is available on Hulu. To be honest, I kind of find the early part of the episode, with the whole “Mr. Carlin wants to get more involved” plot, a little laggy. Once Les gets to the shopping center, though…gold, jerry, comedy gold.
And in that vein, he’s something we hope you’ll really like: an oral history of “Turkeys Away” (and, somewhat, of “WKRP”). Among the people interviewed: the man who inspired Herb Tarlek’s character.
I think I’m also going to have to start working on getting “Look for the smiling face of Archduke Ferdinand on every bottle!” into casual conversation as well.
From this point forward, I propose that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving be known as “Hawaiian Shirt Day”, and that everyone should wear their shirts to the office (or out and about, if you’re lucky enough not to be working).
Okay, technically, Spaghetti Carbonara Day is tomorrow, but I’m not sure I’ll be able to post tomorrow.
Plus, today’s NYT has an amusing article about the dish, complete with recipes.
Obit watch: former senator Warren B. Rudman, of Gramm-Rudman fame.
Jeff Tedford: out as coach at the University of California, Berkeley.
Tedford’s overall record is 82-57, “the most wins in school history by the longest-tenured coach in school history“. The problem was, Tedford went 15-22 in his last three seasons, 9-18 in conference, and 0-3 against Stanford.
And this one goes out to Gregg Easterbrook:
Noted: this commentary from the Kansas City Star about the Chiefs and growing fan resentment:
The Washington Wizards are at 0-9, and remain the only NBA team with a shot at going 0-82.
I don’t think this would be a good SDC destination; while I’m sure you can get food at Buc-ee’s, it isn’t really an SDC sort of place.
However, we’ve had conversations about going to the Cooper’s in New Braunfels, so we could kill two birds with one stone…
According to the study, “18.5% of 12th-grade students admitted to using a hookah in the previous year.” I’m trying to wrap my mind around this:
Maybe I’m stupid, but I just have a real hard time visualizing large numbers of teens either buying hookahs and tobacco off the Internet and smoking with their friends (and all the fuss that entails) or hanging out at the local hookah bar.
Unless by “teens” they mean “18 and 19 year olds”, in which case they need to smoke a heaping hookah of STFU flavored shisha.
Meanwhile, in the LA Unified School District, “student stores” are making money hand over fist selling food to students unhappy with the school cafeteria’s “healthy” options.
Street price for a bag of Flaming Hot Cheetos is a buck, by the way.
My apologies for not noting this yesterday, but I was out with friends from early in the morning until late in the evening. Yes, I did have fun, thank you very much.
Lawrence blogged about our “Night Gallery” watching last night. At least, mostly about “Professor Peabody’s Last Lecture” and They’re Tearing Down Tim Riley’s Bar”. A few notes I want to add:
Almost a year after he was convicted, former Spokane PD officer Karl Thompson has been sentenced for beating Otto Zehm to death. (Previously.)
Nine to eleven years. That doesn’t sound too bad.
So he gets a “downward variance” for being a cop, even thought the crime he committed was in the line of duty and under the color of his authority as a cop, and even though he and his fellow cops tried to cover up his actions? That’s…special.
(Hattip to Balko on this. I missed it earlier in the week.)