Does anybody have a digital version, or a pointer to one, of “Throw Him Down, McCloskey”?
I can find the lyrics and even the sheet music online, but I’ve been unable to find a recording of someone actually performing the song. I will be happy to pay money for a recording, but I’ve been unable to find one in either the iTunes or Amazon stores.
Two things that made me chuckle, and one that didn’t.
Goodnight Dune, the children’s book.
Goodnight Keith Moon, which is probably not for children.
(Hattip: Robb Allen.)
This is an old story, but I don’t think I’ve linked it before: Margaret Wise Brown left the rights and royalties from her books to her neighbor Albert Clarke. Clarke was nine years old when she died in 1952. So what’s happened since then? (I know this was published in 2000. I haven’t been able to turn up anything more recent on Albert Clarke, except a rather mean article on an obscure website calling him a drug addict and suggesting that nobody should ever buy a new copy of Goodnight Moon.)
I went to the fights last night, and a case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy broke out.
Sirhan Sirhan has been turned down for parole for the 13th time. What’s interesting about this article is that it focuses almost as much on Sirhan’s lawyer, William F. Pepper, and Pepper’s previous efforts:
This gives me an excuse to plug Hampton Sides’ excellent (and Edgar-nominated) book Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt In American History
I’m not going to say it deserves the Edgar; I haven’t read any of the other nominated books (I did pick up The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science
This is not a strategy I had considered for driving up page views, but good for the Austin Bulldog.
Edited to add: This is the closest thing I’ve found to a discussion of food items at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this year. No photos. I’d apologize, but I don’t want a photo of the “Pulled Pork Sundae”, which frankly sounds disgusting.
I love a good heist. But it has to be a good one; that is, there has to be an element of panache to it, not just a random smash and grab. Something like this:
From a second LAT article about the heist:
I’ve previously mentioned Where the Money Is: True Tales from the Bank Robbery Capital of the World
Right decision. Westboro is still a bunch of jackasses.
This decision got a lot of press yesterday. I’m kind of hoping one of my legal readers can explain why:
I’m confused because I’ve always understood “dying words” to be an exception to the hearsay rule. (Wikipedia is not a lawyer. Wikipedia is not your lawyer. Neither am I. Contents may settle in shipping.) What exactly does this decision change?
I think the lessons here are:
Sorry. I’ve been a little tied up, and there hasn’t been much to write about. Frank Buckles pretty much got covered everywhere in the known universe, and I don’t have terribly much to say about Jane Russell (well, not here anyway).
Part of what’s been tying me up is the “Introduction to Literary Studies” class I’ve been taking. This weekend was crunch time, with revisions to one essay and a second essay due. So for filler purposes, and to let you all laugh at me, I’ve decided to throw up essay two and essay three.
I wanted to post essay two in particular because Andrew “Shut. Down. Everything.” Wimsatt and I were talking about it one recent Sunday afternoon on our way to Momji; I was describing the subject of this essay to Andrew, and he was laughing hysterically as I talked about rotting buffalo and the cry of the whippoorwill. I don’t think the story is all that amusing, but reasonable people can differ…
Here’s essay three. I doubt that Andrew will find it quite as funny as the other one, but you never know.
Orwell’s 1984 and the “Elephant” In the Room.
Both of these have been graded, so do your worst in the comments. And remember, St. Edward’s uses TurnItIn; plagiarists will be caught.
Apparently, it went well for the Greater Austin Crime Commission and the Jastrow Family Foundation.
It looks like it went well for some other people, too:
The Statesman doesn’t tell us (or perhaps TAG didn’t want to discuss with the Statesman) exactly how many guns were bought for cash. Robb Allen also has a post up on the subject: based on his summary and the linked article, it appears TAG was only purchasing functional guns, so the APD ended up with lots of non-functional clunkers. This fits in with what I saw on the local news last night; it looks like there were a lot of old .22 rifles, some muzzleloaders (!), and not a whole lot of really good stuff.
There’s a mildly funny piece in today’s NYT about Joe Allen Restaurant, specifically about the restaurant’s eastern wall…
Included are posters for such notorious works as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (closed in previews), the legendary “Kelly” (Lewis Lapham was invited to document the production of “Kelly” from start to finish; “Kelly” closed after one performance. Lapham’s story was reprinted in a wonderful book called Second Act Trouble: Behind the Scenes at Broadway’s Big Musical Bombs
If I ever make it back to NYC, I think I’m going to make it a point to stop by Joe Allen’s place.
Sometimes there’s just nothing you can say.
Austin restaurant owners Michael and Yoli Amr were found dead Wednesday morning.
The Statesman touches a little on the history of the Amr restaruants. We (and by “we” in this case I mean the regular Saturday Dining Conspiracy group, as well as pretty much everyone else I know) were big fans of the original Gumbo’s on Bratton Lane, and followed them to the Gumbo’s in Round Rock, Yoli’s Jambalaya, and then Mama Roux, which we thought was a swell eatery. Actually, they were all fine places to eat.
I can’t wrap my mind around this. It looks like they may have had financial problems; I’m sure the economy and the Gulf oil spill hurt them some. But this? It doesn’t make sense. I know things like this aren’t supposed to, and I know we don’t know everything that was going on. But…
Commentary from Rob Balon. Commentary from Statesman restaurant reviewer Mike Sutter.
Edited to add: Lawrence, who was an even bigger fan of the Amr restaurants than I was, adds his commentary here.
There is no way that I can, in good conscience, continue to do this series and not call out Ambulance Driver’s essay “On Teaching, Mentoring, and Stewardship“.
Right now, you’re probably smiling, thinking of just such a person.
Please go read the whole thing. Yes, AD is writing from the perspective of an EMS professional, and there are EMS specific references scattered throughout. But, just as I do with every other “Leadership Secrets” entry, I trust my readers to be able to analyze, synthesize, and apply what’s applicable to their own situation.
The only complaint I feel like I can make about AD’s essay is that he didn’t write it 15 years ago, when I really needed to hear it. Then again, “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”, and I doubt I was ready 15 years ago.
We consider ourselves to be connoisseurs of murder. Not the drive-by shooting or the street homicide (unless Snot Boogie is involved) but more the kind of murders described by De Quincey’s characters.
Anyway, we were previously unaware of the bizarre murder (or was it?) of Lieutenant Hubert G. Chevis until today’s Dinosaur Comics (really!) brought it to our attention, and we, in turn, commend it to yours.
…can be found here. Briefly, they’ve hired Paul Bogaev, who is described as “a veteran musical supervisor and conductor”, to “help improve the performance, vocal and orchestration arrangements, and sound quality of the songs and numbers”.
The NYT speculates that the opening, currently scheduled for March 15th, might be delayed again. The paper also reports rumors that the producers are talking to “script doctors”, and may be looking to hire a “co-director”.
The planned closure of I-35 at Ben White/Texas 71 this weekend is still on.
Even better, the Texas Department of Transportation is also planning to close I-35 the weekend of March 4th as well. Yes, that’s two weekends in a row.
And:
Is there any good news?
The $26 million project and all four bridges should be done by September.
That would be just in time for the start of the UT football season. Anybody think that’s a coincidence?
Marian Elliott-Said is recovering from breast cancer. WCD extends our best wishes to her.
By the way, Marian Elliott-Said is perhaps better known as “Poly Styrene”, front woman for the X-Ray Spex. After the jump, we’ll embed some X-Ray Spex video.
Meanwhile, Lady Gaga claims her new perfume smells “like an expensive hooker”. If someone told her this was an effective advertising strategy, they were wrong.
And something a bit more pleasant to think about than Poly Styrene and Lady Gaga: the NYT has a longish piece about the Internet Music Score Library Project and some of the copyright issues experienced by the site.
We wonder if the growth of the iPad and other tablet devices is going to result in more groups replacing sheet music with electronic devices. Not that we’re music experts – we tend to rely on other people (ahem) for that – but we can see some possible advantages to going all tablet, all the time.
Oh, look:
Yes, once again, the Greater Austin Crime Commission is “co-sponsoring” the event. Oddly, there is no mention of this “co-sponsorship” on their website or in their Twitter feed at the moment. (Edited to add 2: Since I originally posted this at 8 AM, the GACC has updated their website to mention the buyback program.)
Yeah, wouldn’t want anyone hurting themselves by carrying more than two guns. (By the way, they gave out gift cards, not cash, last year. I’m uncertain from the Statesman article if this year’s program is gift cards or cash.)
And where is this money coming from? The GACC is a 501 (c)(3). Might be interesting to get a copy of their tax filings.
I can’t find a website for the “Jastrow Family Foundation”. I sense a need for more research on this topic.
Do they check to see if the weapons were reported stolen as well? The Statesman doesn’t say.
Once again, I’d be tempted to go down and offer $125 cash for each Smith and Wesson, but it looks like I’m going to be tied up all weekend.
Edited to add: Neither the “Greater Austin Crime Commission” or the “Jastrow Family Foundation” show up in Charity Navigator.