I know that Mike the Musicologist had strong feelings about Mazel; perhaps he will comment here or on his own blog.
Nadine Gordimer, noted South African writer.
Obit watch: July 14, 2014.
July 14th, 2014Happy Bastille Day, everyone!
July 14th, 2014You’ll shoot your eye out, kid!
July 13th, 2014This post over at the PJ Media site got me curious: can you purchase a Red Ryder BB gun from the Christmas Story House gift shop?
Yes. Yes, you can.
However:
- $65 is way high.
- It does not have a compass in the stock.
- While a 20 year old man can go down to his local gun shop and legally purchase an AK-47, AR-15, or Winchester Model 70 chambered in .458 Winchester Magnum, the Christmas Story House gift shop appears to want you to be 21 years old in order to purchase a Red Ryder BB gun from them.
- “State statutes and/or local ordinances prohibit the sale and possession of bb guns/air guns in some areas. We are unable to ship bb guns/air guns into New Jersey; Chicago, IL; Morton Grove, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Washington, DC; Buffalo, NY; New York City and its boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Long Island City, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. The NYC zip codes affected are: 100xx-104xx, 110xx, 112xx-114xx, 116xx. Orders with shipping addresses with in these areas will not be processed. An adult signature is required at delivery.”
Rock & Roll #1!
July 12th, 2014Continuing in the historical trivia vein, today is the 35th anniversary of one of the greatest moments in the history of baseball: Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Park.
Here’s some video I turned up. The first one appears to be an ESPN retrospective:
Here’s some local news coverage:
Side note: this is an attempt to compile a complete list of forfeits in major league baseball games.
Flames, hyena, etc. (#14 in a series)
July 11th, 2014George Mirabal, former city council member in the notoriously corrupt city of Bell, has been sentenced to one year in prison and five years of probation. He has also been ordered to pay the city $242,000 in restitution.
Aaron Burr! Aaron Burr!
July 11th, 2014This would have totally gotten past me if not for a retweet from the Popehat, but: today is the 210th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton duel.
Mike the Musicologist and I talked about this briefly over the holiday weekend: if I ever make it back to NYC, one of the things I plan to do is to see the pistols.
Obligatory:
…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.