Ten years in federal prison for former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin.
…down, down, down, as the flames went higher…
July 9th, 2014This one’s for Andrew.
July 4th, 2014This year is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows bridge.
Earlier this week, the NYT ran a retrospective piece about the young reporter who covered the construction of the bridge; a man named Gay Talese
The Times piece includes links to some of Talese’s original articles, if you want to feel nostalgic for the old NYT, or the Robert Moses era, or…
Happy Fourth of July, everyone!
July 4th, 2014History has shown, Scruff observed, that you can never have too many fireworks.
Indeed. We spent a fair amount of money on fireworks for tonight, but the people of Dyckman Street make us look like pikers.
Of course, this is illegal in New York City. But the people of Dyckman Street don’t give a rat’s ass.
Do you smell that, former Mayor Bloomberg? It smells like…freedom.
Best news I’ve had all week.
July 3rd, 2014Somehow I missed this until today, but: Buddy Cianci is running for Mayor of Providence. Again.
Art, damn it, art! watch. (#45 in a series)
July 2nd, 2014My first thought: what do they mean by “run out of oxygen”? Does the band play until they pass out? If so, how will anyone know, given that the box is soundproofed and opaque? Do they just play until a certain CO2 level is reached? Do they have sensors and an alarm in the box?
My second thought: how long will the band actually play? Or, to phrase the question in another way, how long does it take to use up all the oxygen in the box? Apparently, this isn’t the first time a death metal band has played in the box (though it is the first time this has been done in London). Surely there must be some stats on this, like average length of time spent in the box.
My third thought:
My fourth thought:
Sounds like pretentious bullshit to me.
Flames! Flames!
July 1st, 2014The convicted:
- Lt. Gregory Thompson
- Gerard Smith
- Mickey Manzo
- Lt. Stephen Leavins
- Sgt. Maricela Long
- Sgt. Scott Craig
Long and Craig are particularly interesting: you may remember them as the dynamic duo who went to an FBI agent’s house and threatened her with arrest.
Also:
Ah, yes. The good old “Nuremberg Defense“.
Once again, I say: Ha! Ha! And, Ha! yet again!
June 30th, 2014From the NYPost:
(Previously. Please note that my linking this is more for my own amusement, and should not be taken as an endorsement of the article; while I think it makes a good point or two, I also think it comes close to suffocating itself in the usual entitled whining that seems to characterize far too many (but not all) New Yorkers.)
Obit watch: June 30, 2014.
June 30th, 2014There’s an interesting obit in today’s NYT for Michael Brown, who passed away on June 11th at 93.
Brown (no relation, AFAIK) was one of the major figures in the “industrial musical”, which I have touched on previously.
More:
If that was all Brown had done, this would still be a pretty interesting obit. But there’s another story: Brown and his wife had a good pot of money, and knew an aspiring writer who was living in New York and having trouble balancing her writing and her job.
So for Christmas of 1956, they gave their friend a present:
…an envelope with her name on it in the branches of their tree.
“I opened it and read: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.'”
That writer was Harper Lee. And now you know…the rest of the story.
Today’s update from the Department of You’re Not Helping, Idiots!
June 30th, 2014Geoffrey Hawk, 44, the owner of a gun business called “In Case of Emergency,” was showing a semiautomatic .380 handgun and accessories to Krysta Gearhart, local TV station WNEP reported.
But there was a round left in the weapon and during the demonstration the would-be customer took a slug in the thigh, raising the question, are gun shows safe?
Another article quotes the vendor as suggesting that someone chambered a live round while his back was turned, running background checks. Which raises some questions:
- As the linked article points out, why not use a blue gun instead of a real one?
- If you have to turn your back, why not slip the real gun into your waistband? Or under the table? Or someplace where you have control of it?
But it gets better.
…
This took place in the parking lot, not inside the show itself, and took place late in the day. My guess is that Redacted #2 unloaded his gun before going into the show, and was reloading it as they were leaving. Count the Four Rules violations here.
Happy Gavrilo Princip Day!
June 28th, 2014(And a tip of the Hatlo hat to Guffaw.)
Some advice for those of you who choose to celebrate today:
- Archdukes are somewhat of an endangered species these days. Make sure you have the proper permits and observe the bag limit of one.
- Princip probably didn’t eat a sandwich (as we’ve discussed before) so if you want to maintain authenticity, find a place that serves Bosnian food. That might be hard if you’re not in a large metropolitan area; in Houston, there’s Cafe Pita. In Austin…well, if you’re going to deviate from authenticity, the Noble Pig is open until 5 PM.
- Make sure your cyanide hasn’t expired.
- Also, know the depth of your river before you attempt suicide by throwing yourself into it.
- Consider how long or short your grenade fuse should be. I’m really not in a position to make specific recommendations, but a ten second fuse seems a bit long.
- If you happen to be driving any archdukes on this day, make sure you know the route. (If Franz Ferdinand’s chauffeur had a GPS, or even a smartphone with Waze, would WWI have been avoided?)
- Also, make sure your car is tuned up. There’s nothing worse than backing up and stalling in front of an assassin.
- It may be a little late for this, but it looks like you can pick up a reasonably nice FN 1910 for short money on Gunbroker.
Old advertisements are fun!
June 27th, 2014I didn’t just buy guns at the S&W Collectors Association convention. I also bought some old paper, which I’ve slowly been scanning in.
I thought I’d upload this one, since it touches on two of this blog’s fairly recent obsessions. This dates from 1944: I am not a lawyer, but based on my understanding of copyright law, it is in the public domain unless S&W renewed the copyright in 1972. I am doubtful that they did, but if I receive evidence to the contrary I will remove this.
I have some more in this series if this proves popular, and if I don’t get a DMCA challenge.
(And I apologize for the bleed-through; these were done on fairly thin newsprint. I did try putting some black construction paper behind the pages to see if that would cut the bleed, but it didn’t help as much as I thought it would.)
William Gibson, call your office, please.
June 27th, 2014One of my cow orkers sent me this link. As far as I know, it isn’t proprietary.
Warning note: this site seems to be optimized for Chrome.
The Good, the Bad, and the Obit Watch for June 25, 2014.
June 25th, 2014Even though it has been widely reported (and I had a busy morning), I can’t let Eli Wallach pass without notice.
This brought a smile to my face:
Edited to add: According to (I know, I know) Wikipedia, he graduated in 1936 with a history degree. Assuming he started in 1932, $30 then is about $520 now. If I’m reading this chart right, a history major today would be paying $4,673 a semester if they were a Texas resident.
Not that I’m grinding an axe or anything…
Needful.
June 21st, 2014Headline in the LAT:
Elliot Rodger used knife, hammer, machete in killings, attorney says
But of course what we need are more gun control laws.
Ha!, I say. Ha! And Ha! again!
June 21st, 2014…
…