“Hell yes. We have hundreds of people coming.”
—Danny Payne of III Forks, a steakhouse in downtown Austin, responding to the Statesman asking if he was going to be open tonight, after someone drove a car into the front entrance last night.
Quote of the day.
February 14th, 2011Failure analysis.
February 14th, 2011I have previously written about my interest in failure and failure analysis, so I feel compelled to link to this fine example of failure analysis:
Kirk Bohls and Randy Riggs on why the Texas Longhorns went 5-7 last season.
Some key points of failure:
- the team was consumed with a sense of entitlement.
- they lacked talent (or “on-field competence” as the Statesman puts it), and over-estimated the talent of the players they’d brought in.
- divisions within the coaching ranks.
- a head coach who withdrew from daily coaching.
(Speaking of bad Longhorn seasons, the question came up over the weekend: “What’s John Mackovic doing these days?” The answer to that is…weird, and kind of contradictory. His Wikipedia entry says he’s the head coach of “United States national American football team”, which apparently competes in something called the “American Football World Cup”. However, the Wikipedia entry for the “United States national American football team” shows Mackovic as the head coach for the 2007 team, and Mel Tjeerdsma as the coach for the 2011 team.)
Dear Sven Alstrom…
February 14th, 2011…I live in Austin, Texas.
Spamming the comments in my blog with posts about your campaign for a City Commission seat in Lawrence, Kansas is a bad idea for the following reasons:
- I’m not going to vote for you, since I don’t live in Lawrence, Kansas.
- The vast majority of my readers aren’t going to vote for you, since they don’t live in Lawrence, Kansas.
- Any of my readers who do live in Lawrence, Kansas won’t vote for you anyway because you are a spamming scumbag. Let me repeat that: Sven Alstrom is a spamming scumbag.
- If you keep spamming my blog comments, I will be going to your ISP, Hostgator, and I will be asking them to shut your site down.
- Is there any word in what I just said that you have trouble understanding?
Hugs, kisses, and die in a fire Sven Alstrom you spamming scumbag. Sincerely, your friends at sportsfirings.com.
P.S. Strongly worded message follows.
Notes on Lucky J’s Chicken and Waffles.
February 13th, 2011
Lucky J's menu.
I’ve had a couple of people ask me if I was going to do a review of Lucky J’s once I’d had a chance to eat there. Here you go:
- This wasn’t what I was expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this wasn’t it.
- The “2×2” is actually a pretty hefty plate of food for $9; two waffles and two large-ish pieces of fried chicken. In retrospect, the “1×1” or one of the tacos would have met my needs.
- Not having coffee is a serious strike against any place I’d consider going for breakfast. The selection of non-coffee drinks didn’t impress me much, either.
- I’m not a big fried chicken person, but I thought Lucky J’s chicken was pretty decent, with a dark, slightly peppery batter.
- On the other hand, the waffles are a little thinner than I was expecting. I think I was looking for something more along the lines of a Belgian waffle, thick and with a slightly crackling crust, rather than the thinner waffles Lucky J’s serves.
- Being “out of turkey” when half the sandwiches on your menu have turkey in them is a bad thing.
- I could have lived without the loud 101x on the boombox in the dining room. Also, you damn kids need to get off my lawn.
- There’s not a lot of seating, maybe four tables total. On the other hand, we were the only people there. (Except for one guy who got a to-go order, and one woman who walked in while we were eating, and walked back out after discovering the lack of turkey.)
Would I go back? I think I would, but they need a month or two or three to settle into a groove. It would help some if they had less of an Austin slacker vibe. I’d like to try some of the waffle tacos, but the lack of coffee and the weird 11 AM – 4 PM schedule are drawbacks for me.
Hey! I resemble that remark!
February 11th, 2011This is NEWS?
February 11th, 2011It’s 7:15 a.m. at the Verizon store in Burbank, and tears are welling in Chelsea Northrop’s eyes.
Perhaps I should have sent my story to the LAT.
This is just what we needed.
February 11th, 2011CSM headline: “Scientists discover how to make squids go completely berserk“.
We still have no cure for cancer, or ALS, but we’ve figured out how to drive (some) cephalopods crazy. Go science. I’m sure this will come in handy next time the SyFy channel wants to make a movie.
To be honest, I’m more than a little skeptical about this article. I’m hoping someone with a stronger biology background (like LabRat) picks up on this.
(Hattip: Dinosaur Comics, the go-to comic for biological news.)
Top Gehry.
February 11th, 2011I missed this one until Tam linked to it (with her usual dose of snark):
NYT architecture critic Nicolai Ourossoff reviews 8 Spruce Street, a new residential tower designed by WCD’s favorite living architect, Frank Gehry.
Speaking of Gehry, I can buy Frank Lloyd Wright Legos
One for the Ayoob Files?
February 11th, 2011This story is worth keeping an eye on, especially since it represents a weird intersection on the Venn diagram between the jihad watch and gun crankery.
In brief, Raymond Davis is an employee with the U.S Embassy in Lahore. Davis was out driving around when (he claims) two men on motorcycles tried to rob him. Davis shot them both, and claims self-defense. Pakistani prosecutors claim that Davis killed the two men in “cold blood” and are pressing murder charges against Davis.
More:
And:
CIA, maybe? That would explain why he was carrying a pistol. It would also lead me to give more credence to his robbery defense; somehow I doubt a CIA employee would blow his cover and blow away people in the street unless he had a genuine fear for his life. (This is where you all can accuse me of being naive, which is probably true.)
The bitter, bitten.
February 11th, 2011There’s a guy in Pflugerville who leases out food trucks to independent operators. He had some issues with the way the City of Austin regulated food trucks, and started lobbying for stricter rules “to address health, safety and environmental concerns”. Ultimately, the City Council did make some changes to the law.
Can you guess what’s coming?
More:
For Cthluhu’s sake, why?
February 10th, 2011As much as I like LaRue Tactical and the 10/22, this is one product I won’t be purchasing.
(Hattip: Say Uncle.)
(Edited to add: Video of the product in action here. Thanks to our friend James.)
Mexican Gun Ducks!
February 10th, 2011I generally don’t read Stratfor articles unless someone points me to them. Nothing against Stratfor; it’s just a matter of limited time, and the sort of geopolitics Stratfor usually covers being more along the lines of other bloggers.
However, Snowflakes In Hell has a link to a solid article on the Mexican gun issue.
Interesting fact:
I’m not worried.
February 10th, 2011Interesting article in the NYT about the state of the Houston Grand Opera, focusing in particular on their recent productions of “Dead Man Walking” and “Lucia di Lammermoor”.
Good to know.
Obit watch: February 10, 2011.
February 10th, 2011Emory Bellard, former Texas, Texas A&M, and Spring Westfield football coach.
There’s nothing wrong with breast cancer awareness, but where are the colored mugs and other tchotkes for ALS?
Impressive.
February 9th, 2011Actual HouChron headline:
Actual text of article:
I see the Journalist’s Guide to Firearms Identification is still in use.