NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
Fun fact I didn’t realize until today: the Browns do not have a bye until week 13. This seems strange, especially since there are no teams with a bye in week 12.
Your NFL loser update: week 7, 2016.
October 23rd, 2016The Sixth Seal.
October 23rd, 2016Revelation 6:12-6:14:
I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
I’m actually pretty conflicted over this.
On the one hand, as I’ve noted many times before, I have family in the Cleveland area. Some of them are Indians fans. One of my beloved family members who is a fan is also going through some serious health issues at the moment: I won’t go into detail to protect their privacy, but the Tribe winning would give them a much needed morale boost.
On the other hand, if the Cubs win:
1) It would shut up the Cubs fans and their perpetual wingeing about being the hardest luck fans in baseball.
II) Ideally, Steve Bartman would become a very small footnote in history.
c) I would win $5 from Lawrence.
So: family happiness, or $5 from Lawrence? Decisions, decisions.
Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AB of a series)
October 20th, 2016I want to get this up while it is still fresh, but I don’t have as much time to think and write about as I’d like: I’m actually down at the cop shop tonight.
The chief recently had a closed door meeting with his commanders. Apparently, during the meeting, he laid into a few of them about not following his direction, especially with respect to relations with the minority community.
Someone taped the meeting and provided a copy to the Statesman. (Edited to add 10/21: Link fixed. Thanks, Uncle Kenny.)
Quick thoughts, based on a skim of the article:
- Taping the meeting and giving a copy to the press strikes me as questionable.
- I don’t see anything really outrageous in what the chief said.
I may have more to say on further reflection.
Art update.
October 20th, 2016The Jerry Orbach Memorial Art Car is funded.
I’m looking forward to getting my bumper stickers.
Questions: which one should I put on? I’m kind of partial to “My child is a honor student…”, but feel free to argue your case in the comments.
And which one should I take off to make room? Right now, I’m thinking: as much as I liked CHeston, and as much of an NRA supporter as I am, the “My President Is Charlton Heston” one is faded almost to the point of being unreadable. It might be time to let go. (And I’ve got window stickers out the wazoo.)
NYPD blues.
October 20th, 2016Quickies:
Bobby Shmurda has been sentenced to seven years in prison. He does not seem to be happy with his legal representation.
In Quick Response, de Blasio Calls Fatal Shooting of Mentally Ill Woman ‘Unacceptable’
…
…
I could rant about this at some length, especially the “use a stun gun” part. But that’s already been done better by somebody else.
I love this line, which Tam added since I first read her post:
Historical note, suitable for use in schools.
October 17th, 2016Fifty years ago today, on October 17, 1966, members of the New York Fire Department responded to a fire at East 22nd Street in Manhattan.
The firefighters didn’t know where the fire was burning (though the smoke was obvious) so some of them went into the building at 23rd Street. The idea was to bring hoses in and hit the fire from behind.
What was burning in the 22nd Street building, a subsequent investigation showed, was paint and lacquer that had been stored in the basement by an art dealer. What the firefighters who went into Wonder Drug & Cosmetics, at 6 East 23rd Street, across from Madison Square Park, had no way of knowing was that the store and the 22nd Street building shared a basement, and that an interior basement wall had recently been moved to give the 22nd Street building more underground storage space.
That meant that the drugstore’s thick floor was poorly supported, and as the fire burned below it collapsed, sending 10 firefighters plunging into the basement. Two others were caught by the flames that quickly roared up to the first floor through the huge hole left by the collapse.
12 firefighters were killed that day. At the time, it was the worst loss of life in the history of the NYFD.
I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but there’s a short documentary (produced by the department) about the fire on the NYFD Foundation website.
From Wikipedia, the names of the dead:
Deputy Chief Thomas A. Reilly, FDNY 3rd Division
Battalion Chief Walter J. Higgins, FDNY 7th Battalion
Lt. John J. Finley, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
Lt. Joseph Priore, FDNY Engine Co. 18
Firefighter John G. Berry, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
Firefighter James V. Galanaugh, FDNY Engine Co. 18
Firefighter Rudolph F. Kaminsky, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
Firefighter Joseph Kelly, FDNY Engine Co. 18
Firefighter Carl Lee, FDNY Ladder Co. 7
Firefighter William F. McCarron, FDNY 3rd Division
Firefighter Daniel L. Rey, FDNY Engine Co. 18
Firefighter Bernard A. Tepper, FDNY Engine Co. 18
(I can’t find an official NYFD memorial page. There’s a unofficial historical site, NYFD.com, that does have a memorial page.)
(Does anyone remember being in elementary school and having to watch fire safety films? You know, how to behave when the fire alarm goes off and your school is burning to the ground? Was that only a thing in the mid-1970s? Or even just in certain parts of the country? It seems to me in the distant mists of memory that we were always watching one fire safety film or another when I was in elementary school.)
Firing watch.
October 17th, 2016Darrell Hazell out as Purdue football coach.
9-33 in “three and a half” seasons.
Your NFL loser update: week 6, 2016.
October 17th, 2016NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
Don’t have anything witty or profound or perceptive to add here.
As seen at the grocery store…
October 12th, 2016
For when you really want to get hammered.
(7.5% ABV. The label describes this as a “breakfast IPA”.)
(I’ll be here all week. Try the veal and remember to tip your waitress.)
The story you are about to hear is true.
October 11th, 2016Today was pretty much a write-off. You know how it is, one of those days where you end up feeling you got nothing productive done, and all you can do is give up on the day and tell yourself you’ll do better tomorrow.
I was at loose ends for dinner, so I went down to the Mandola’s Italian Market in Bee Cave. (They have some good happy hour appetizer specials, and a soup I like. I wasn’t really that hungry, having had a bowl of noodles from DFG Noodles (one of the few bright spots in the day) for lunch, so I figured a cup of soup and some cheese would do me.)
Anyway, guy behind the counter asks me how my day’s been. It’s slow (this is before the dinner rush on a weekday) so I tell him what I just told you about the whole day being a write-off, etc. I pay, they bring my food out to me, I eat…
…and as i’m sitting there sipping my drink, the guy from behind the counter, Jonathan (not 100% on the spelling there) walks up to me, hands me a chocolate eclair, and says, “Here. This is on me. I hope it makes your day a little better.”
Which it did. What can you say to that except, “Thanks, Jonathan.”? Which I did say, just for the hysterical record.
I’ll also be emailing Mandola’s tomorrow morning, but I wanted to get this up tonight.
Your NFL loser update: week 5, 2016.
October 9th, 2016NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
At this point in 2015, there was only one team left in contention for the Owen Sixteen trophy. At this point in 2014, there were only two teams left standing (and one had a bye that week.)
Do the Browns have a shot? Ask me again in week eight.
Obit watch: October 3, 2016.
October 3rd, 2016Sir Neville Marriner, noted conductor.
Oscar Brand, folkie. I actually do own one of his albums: Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789 – 1996 is kind of fun, if you have a sense of history.
This is one that I also thought was kind of “amusing” (to the extent an obit can be “amusing”): Carroll Wainwright Jr. He was kind of a sensation in 1934.
Wainwright’s mother divorced his father and remarried (“hours later”, according to the NYT) in 1932. In 1934, the family went to Bermuda for the winter.
So, one fine late November day, the young Wainwright stowed away on the S.S. Queen of Bermuda, only to emerge when the ship was out to sea and he got hungry.
What he had not bargained for was the effect his disappearance would have on his mother and stepfather. The terrible fate of the Lindbergh baby, kidnapped and murdered just two years before, was still fresh in the public mind, and the couple, fearing Carroll had been abducted for ransom, called in the Bermuda police.
The police were stymied until someone thought to radio the ship. The captain radioed back that Carroll was aboard, safe and sound.
The ship arrived safely in New York, and Wainwright’s grandmother paid his full (first class) fare. I kind of wonder what her reaction was to a) having an eight-year-old show up unexpectedly at her door, and b) having to come out of pocket for his fare. But reading between the lines, it feels like there may have been more going on than a desire for sledding and Christmas trees: Wainwright’s mother died in 1937 of what the paper describes as “alcohol-related liver disease”.
And this is a nice note to end on:
Your NFL loser update: week 4, 2016.
October 3rd, 2016NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
At some point, I’m thinking I should post an analysis of the loser update. I want to say that I have fairly ready access to about ten years worth of data: I’d like to do an actual breakdown of, on average, how many teams remain standing at each point in the season.
I’ve also been thinking, based on a comment from Lawrence, about doing a breakdown of time between winning national championship and getting fired for college coaches, but that may require more work.
Where there’s smoke….
September 30th, 2016…there may be flaming tax-fattened hyenas. And also, Monty Hall.
I intended to write about Dawnna Dukes and her sudden retirement announcement (too close to election day for her to be taken off the ballot, so we’ll probably end up with a special election next year). Lawrence, however, beat me to it.
But there’s a new development since Lawrence wrote his post.
The DA isn’t commenting on any deal, but she does say Rep. Dukes’ retirement “will affect how we act but it’s not determinative,”
By the way:
Notes.
September 30th, 2016The Chicago Cubs have been eliminated from postseason contention.
Oh, wait. Did I say the Chicago Cubs? I’m sorry. I intended to say “the New York Yankees”. My bad.
Obit watch: The Carnegie Deli. I’m sad for the people who will be losing their jobs, but:
Now I want to spend one night in Bangkok and try her pastrami and cheesecake
Isn’t it interesting how everything is the ex-husband’s fault?
Quel frommage! Seriously, it seems like it would be kind of hard to stay in business in New York City when you have to stay closed for nine months. Even if you also own the building. The one with the janky gas hookup.