The NFL loser update will return Tuesday morning.
In the meantime, we wanted to note that the Houston Astros have tied the club record for losses in a single season. 100 losses seems well within reach. But with 97 losses and 16 games left, they only have to win four more games (which would be a .250 winning percentage for the rest of the season; they’re currently at .336) to avoid 110 losses.
Missed posting this yesterday, as I was tied up with other things.
Cliff Robertson, Oscar winning actor and the man who brought down David Begelman.
I generally try to avoid linking to stuff that’s been posted on other blogs more widely read than mine. After all, if someone like Tam’s already written about it, what more can I add?
My excuse in this case is that Tam only covered one very small part of the website in question, and there’s a lot more there that I think is fascinating.
Faded Glory: Dusty Roads of an FBI Era is devoted to the FBI agents of the early 1930s. Quoting:
In addition to Delf Bryce’s employment application, which Tam linked, there’s a lot of other great stuff here. For example:
And all of that is just a small part of what’s on the Faded Glory website. There’s weeks worth of browsing material there. Thanks to Tam for the heads-up.
Na na na na na na na na BAT van!
Okay, context: the Houston Police Department has six special vans for roadside alcohol testing of drunk drivers, called “BAT vans”. But these vans have issues…
Ms. Culbertson used to be an HPD crime lab supervisior…
At least one DWI case involving the BAT vans has been dismissed, and defense attorneys are looking to have more cases thrown out.
In other news, the LAT has an article on the Grateful Dead’s attempt to step up their licensing and merchandising efforts.
The Dead are also releasing a 73 CD boxed set, “Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings
We apologize for the delay in posting this week’s TMQ Watch. We’re taking a class on alternating Tuesday nights; last night was the first meeting, and it appears this class is going to eat up a significant chunk of time. Ah, well, onward and upward.
After the jump, haiku. Not our haiku, of course (we have already made our feelings on that subject known) but TMQ’s annual predictions haiku.
Hewlett Packard is bringing back the HP15C. I was heard to go “Squeeee!” when I read that. At least one of my coworkers will testify to that.
(Bringing back the 16C would be even more cool, though I think everything the 16C did is built into the 50g.)
(Hattip: His Grubes.)
Edited to add: Well, that took me down a rabbit hole. Following the museum link to the HP41C (my first HP) reminded me of the good old days of synthetic programming and the legendary PPC ROM. Googling that turned up this profile of Richard J. Nelson, the man behind the PPC ROM. I was unfamiliar with his modulator/demodulator project, which made me sit up and go “Wow.” (The 41 series of calculators had an optical wand which could be used to read bar coded programs into the calculator. Mr. Nelson came up with a box on one end that the wand plugged into, which converted the bar codes into audio tones that could be recorded to tape or sent over a phone line. On the other end was another box that took the tones as input and controlled an LED, which the wand could read like a bar code. I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal to you kids today, but I find it pretty stunning for late 70s/early 80s technology. Also, get off my lawn.)
Part 1:
I was getting dressed yesterday, and looked at my “Professional Russian” shirt in the closet. I decided to save that for this week’s SDC, but I found myself struggling to make some sort of “In Soviet Russia, egg rolls you!” joke.
Which got me to thinking: is Yakov Smirnoff still around? And the Japanese fiddle player? Last I heard, Smirnoff had his own place in Branson, but that was years ago.
Answer: Yes, he’s still doing the Branson thing. And so is Shoji Tabuchi.
Not that I’m planning a trip to Branson any time in the near future, but you’ve got to love these guys for being able to keep the roof over their heads.
Part 2:
I’ve had a song intermittently stuck in my head for many, many years now: probably since middle school, though I don’t remember watching the movie there. Something (actually, a whole bunch of things) prompted me to do a Google search yesterday, and, well…I give you one of the great insurrectionist songs of our time.
This, in turn, prompted me to check the Project Appleseed schedule. And it turns out they’re doing shoots in Smithville (only about an hour’s drive from my home) every month through December. I think I can make this work; worst case, school should be wrapped by December.
How do you top a college professor accused of pimping?
Would you believe a college professor who led a chapter of the Devils Diciples motorcycle gang, and who is charged with dealing meth?
Damn. A pound of meth?
Edited to add: More detailed LAT article here. In response to Borepatch’s comment, neither of the articles say anything about the tenure status of the professors involved. But the accused pimp has apparently been working for his university since 1969, and the biker/drug dealer has been teaching at his university for ten years, so I’d be a little surprised if both of them weren’t tenured.
We are still a little worn out from the weekend, and can’t come up with anything clever to say. So let’s just jump right into this week’s TMQ after the jump…
The TMQ Watch for this week will probably be up early this evening.
In the meantime, we bring you something we picked up from the Onion A/V Club. No, it isn’t curable with penicillin.
Wire Inspire. Motivational posters based on “The Wire”.
Since we found this over the weekend, we find ourselves asking this question:
A while back, I read Ian Flemming’s book Thrilling Cities
First up: the state Senate has rejected a bill that would have disincorporated the notoriously corrupt city of Vernon. This isn’t the end of the line: the city has agreed to some reforms, and is currently under investigation by the IRS. But it is a major setback for those of us who were hoping for a good disincorporation.
Meanwhile, back in Bell, former fiefdom of Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, it seems that the city issued $50 million in bonds a few years back. (I can’t tell if it was 2003 or 2004 from the LAT article.) The bonds were intended to pay for
Anyone want to take a guess on what’s happened?
Here’s the punchline: even though nothing was built, the money’s gone, and the city’s broke, the new city government still has to go through with the tax increases that were put into place to pay off the bonds.
Of course, the tax increase money is going to the bond holders, not into the general city government fund. And the city residents are upset that their taxes are being increased. But what’s the alternative, guys? Defaulting on the bonds, even if they were issued by a bunch of crooks, is just going to hurt you in the long run. Bell’s best bet at this point seems to be to return the unspent funds (about $20 million, per the LAT), and try to squeeze whatever they can out of Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and his cronies.
Sorry for the radio silence the past few days. Two reasons:
Content will, perhaps, resume soonish. In the meantime, here’s a picture I took Sunday morning, just because I happened to have the book with me at breakfast (I was expecting to be eating alone) and the juxtaposition amused me.
The book is Murder Behind the Badge: True Stories of Cops Who Kill
Per the Statesman, Sam’s BBQ in East Austin has reopened. You may (or may not) recall that Sam’s was one of the three places involved in the meat sting back in July.
The owner is quoted as saying he was able to get his health permit back because “the kind of meat involved in the sting isn’t what’s sold on his menu”. To which we say: ?!
