More local moms taking placentas home.
Am I evil? Because the first thing I thought of was the SNL “Placenta Helper” skit.
(I am unable to find a transcript online, but here’s a “Straight Dope” column referencing the skit.)
Things you don’t want to read before breakfast.
November 29th, 2010Firing watch.
November 29th, 2010Oh, yes, please! Having Leach coach at Miami would be awesome! However, current speculation seems to be that they’re going after Jon Gruden. Which would leave an empty space in the MNF booth.
Surely you can’t be serious!
November 29th, 2010Obit watch: the late great Leslie Nielsen. (WP. LAT.)
It is somewhat unfortunate that people of my generation mostly remember him for Airplane, the Naked Gun movies, and possibly for Naked Gun‘s precursor, the short-lived and little-watched but screamingly funny Police Squad!
But before all that, he had a serious dramatic career, as the obits note. He knocked around various TV series doing guest shots, played the Captain in the original Poseidon Adventure, and had lead roles in at least two TV series during the late 60’s/early 70’s.
Back when Austin still had an RTN affiliate, I was able to record episodes of The Bold Ones (which really needs to have a DVD release) on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. For those who don’t remember The Bold Ones, it was an early “wheel” show, where each week was devoted to a different profession; doctors, defense attorneys, police and prosecutors, senators…
Leslie Nielsen starred in “The Protectors” portion of the wheel, playing the police chief of a medium-sized California town. You could see where a lot of “Police Squad”/”Naked Gun” came from, just watching Nielsen act. But at the same time, “The Protectors”, like the other parts of The Bold Ones, was a serious and honest attempt to deal with contemporary social problems in a fictional setting. If you still have RTN in your area, see if you can catch “Memo from the Class of ’76” sometime; you’ll see what I’m talking about.
The last time I saw Mr. Nielsen in anything, it was during the short-lived CBS “Gameshow Marathon”. I remember thinking at the time that he didn’t look good, and it seemed like he was just a touch out of it. I’m actually a little surprised he lived this long, and even more so that he was still working (though, granted, the work he was doing didn’t exactly live up to his talent: “Spanish Movie”?)
Rest in peace.
Sad news.
November 26th, 2010Mangia Pizza, a local chain that specializes in a pretty good version of Chicago stuffed pizza, filed a Chapter 11 petition on Tuesday.
- I was previously unaware that those two locations were independently owned.
- “At the Domain”? If there’s a location at the Domain, I am unaware of it. There is a location in a strip center near-ish to the Domain, but not “at the Domain”.
Jihad declared.
November 24th, 2010In my capacity as president and chief operating officer of the Society for the Preservation and Restoration of Classic Cocktails, I hearby declare jihad against the Bubblegum Martini.
In the immortal words of a great philospher:
Policy statement.
November 24th, 2010This came up in a previous thread, but I’m promoting it to a post of its own:
Personal friends of the proprietor are always welcome to pimp things here, within reasonable limits.
The proprietor has an expansive definition of “personal friends” and “reasonable limits”. Basically, follow the Wheaton rule and you should be okay. If you have any questions, drop me an email. (The preferred addresses are on the “Contact the proprietor” page.)
Spammers continue to be cordially invited to die in a fire.
Spaghetti Carbonara day.
November 24th, 2010We were somewhat amused to see, on the day before Thanksgiving, the NYT publishing a recipe for “Spaghetti With Sausage Alla Carbonara“. As you might be able to guess from the title, sausage substitutes for bacon in this variation.
We are big fans of a well-done spaghetti carbonara, and look forward to giving this particular variation a trial run.
(We know we linked to this yesterday, but for those who do not understand the significance of spaghetti carbonara and Thanksgiving, once again we link to Calvin Trillin.)
TMQ watch: November 23, 2010.
November 23rd, 2010Ah, Thanksgiving approaches. And what are we thankful for this week? TMQ cheerleader photos, perhaps?
Gunsmoke.
November 23rd, 2010Apropos my comments about the gun show, my great and good friend Glen sent me a link to this Cool Tools writeup of the Dillon Precision RL-550B.
I’ve heard a lot of good word of mouth about Dillon’s stuff, but I didn’t realize the 550B was in the price range of a mediocre laptop. That’s seriously tempting. (And, yes, I realize that there’s additional costs for dies.)
Things I wonder about, and maybe that part of my audience that reloads can answer:
- If you’re just starting out reloading, are you better off starting with a progressive press? I’ve also considered one of those Lee Anniversary kits as a starting point; there’s a dramatic price difference, but am I likely to get frustrated by the limitations of the Lee, and wish I had gone with the Dillon first?
- How much room do you need for the Dillon or an equivalent press? Those of you who have a Dillon setup: how much space does it take up?
Random notes: November 23, 2010.
November 23rd, 2010Fat, drunk, and escorting nuclear weapons is no way to go through life, son.
(I haven’t checked FARK to see if they used that headline. If they didn’t, they should have.)
Anne Dick and The Search for Philip K. Dick in the NYT.
Pager duty?
November 23rd, 2010The City of Austin is paying a police officer – not just any police officer, but one of Art Acevedo’s fired/reinstated by an arbitrator officers – $98,000 a year.
Now, $98,000 a year is good money, especially in Austin. “But,” you may say to yourself, “I don’t want to get shot at, even for $98,000 a year.”
No worries, mate.
Interestingly, the whole thing appears to stem from a domestic dispute:
Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but doesn’t the fact that he was convicted of a crime of domestic violence mean that he can’t own or carry a gun in any case?
Speaking of the gun show loophole.
November 22nd, 2010The Saxet Shows are back in Austin. (Previously.)
A group of us went yesterday. Things I noticed:
- The show was at the Travis County Expo Center. There was no requirement that sales go through a licensed dealer, and I saw a lot of folks with “Private seller” signs on their tables.
- I did see a considerable police presence, but I’m not sure how many of those police officers were just browsing the show in uniform, and how many were actually working.
- I also saw a lot of folks with what I’ll call, for want of a better word, “wanted” posters with photos of some guys who’ve apparently been running doing purchases at gun shows as part of some kind of Brady Bunch sting.
- No book dealers. Except for that guy who is always at the gun shows, selling survivalist books and weird crank literature about the Trilateral Commission/New World Order/Illuminati connection.
- A fair amount of ammo, including .380 auto.
- Didn’t buy any guns. Someone had a XP-100 in .221 Fireball, which was tempting, but I’d have to start reloading, and I didn’t feel like shelling out $575 right now. (That was with a scope, though I didn’t look closely at what kind of scope.) As I’ve noted before, I have a nostalgic attachment to the XP-100. As I’ve also noted before, nostalgia is a moron.
- Decent assortment of vendors. I’m hoping next month’s show will be even larger, now that folks have had a month to prepare.
- What of the gun show in the old Target building? The web site still shows them with a show scheduled December 18th and 19th. Yes, that is the same weekend as the next Saxet show.
Boom! Boom! Acka lacka lacka boom!
November 22nd, 2010My reaction? I was somewhat amused that I was listening to Was (Not Was) when I found this out. As I’ve said previously, I think the major problem that Childress had was his failure to walk the dinosaur.
The Washington Post makes me testy. (Part VI)
November 22nd, 2010Oh, look! The WP‘s “Hidden Life of Guns” is back! Unleash the dagron, as they say on FARK!
I am rapidly coming to the belief that the most dangerous things in the world, in order, are:
- a software guy with a soldering iron.
- a hardware guy with a programming language.
- a journalist with a database.
- and a government employee with an idea.
Quote of the day.
November 22nd, 2010Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki
I haven’t read it yet, and I’m going to be up to my eyebrows in the Iranian Revolution for the next week, but I did find one rather striking exchange while flipping through the book.
The setup for this is that a group of Suzuki’s students were sitting around with Suzuki talking about some book “about the meeting of East and West”. The students were making comparisons between East and West, and the West was getting the short end of the stick.
As conversation continued in this vein, Suzuki spoke up, obviously upset. “If you want to be a good Buddhist,” he said, “first you’re going to have to learn how to be a good Christian.” Then he got up and walked out.