Did you know that you can find much of the 90s British sitcom “Chef!” (it was all over PBS for a while) on YouTube?
What does that have to do with TMQ? We’ll find out in this week’s TMQ after the jump…
TMQ Watch: October 29, 2013.
October 29th, 2013Firing (?) watch.
October 29th, 2013This is odd, and still developing:
The Dallas Mavericks have, according to reports, “parted ways” with Gersson Rosas, the team’s general manager.
There are two reasons why this is odd:
- Nobody seems to be clear on what “parting ways” means. Was he fired? Did he get a better job offer elsewhere? Did he need to spend more time with his family? Did he jump, or was he pushed? All of this is relevant, in that…
- …he’s been the general manager for three months.
Edited to add 10/30: the second day coverage is spinning this as a resignation…
Basically, the argument seems to be that Rosas expected a bigger role in management, but the Mavericks are, first and foremost, Mark Cuban’s team, and Donnie Nelson is his sidekick. Which leaves little to no room for Rosas.
Pictures of MatchBook men.
October 29th, 2013Interesting.
Why is this interesting? Well, I checked my Amazon account to see what titles were available to me. Right now, there are six: three of them were purchased as gifts for other people.
So, I can get the Kindle ebook edition, at a reduced price, of a physical book I bought for another person. Let me repeat that: for a considerably reduced price, I can get the electronic edition of a book I don’t even own. I’m not sure if this is by Amazon design, or a flaw in their process. I would have expected Amazon to do some checking, such as: did this go to the primary shipping address on the account, or a different address? Was this a purchase off of someone other person’s wishlist?
But hey! I can get Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for 99 cents!
Add the professional narration of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for a reduced price of $12.99 after you buy this Kindle book.
Yeah. $12.99 seems a little steep. How much for the amateur narration?
Down to the sea in cruise ships.
October 28th, 2013NYT headline:
Too Big to Sail? Cruise Ships Face Scrutiny
First paragraph of the article:
So we have an answer: no, they aren’t “too big to sail”, since the Nimitz-class ships seem to be working just fine.
More seriously, the article is the usual naval gazing about whether cruise ships have become so big that the safety of passengers can’t be guaranteed. This seems to be more of a question about ship design, crew staffing levels, and safety equipment.
I was going to say something snarky about how accidents and fires at sea don’t exactly encourage customers to come back, and about how much damage the “poop cruise” did to Carnival’s brand. But, while you can see a dip in the stock in February, it looks like they hit their 12 month low point just a few days ago, and I can’t tie that to any specific event.
Mini golf? I am there, man. (Doesn’t it seem kind of odd that a cruise ship would have mini golf, while mini golf courses all over the country have been closing? I realize that land is probably more valuable for purposes other than mini golf, but as big as these cruise ships are, isn’t their real estate limited as well?)
This is my favorite part:
One result was a set of new global regulations in 2010 called the Safe Return to Port rules. Those require new ships to have sufficient redundant systems, including power and steerage, to allow them to return to port even in the worst emergency. Only about 10 ships built since then comply with this new rule.
“The idea is that a ship is its own best lifeboat,” said John Hicks, the vice president for global passenger ships at Lloyds Register, the largest ship classification society. “The idea is to do everything to keep the crew and passengers on a vessel.”
“A ship is its own best lifeboat.” Where have I heard that before? Oh, yes:
(Yes, I know I’m citing Wikipedia, but that’s just because that’s the first reference I can easily lay hands on. The argument that lifeboats weren’t needed because the Titanic was her own best lifeboat is mentioned in pretty much every Titanic history I’ve read, so pick your favorite.)
Hmmmm. One wonders what percentage of that “35% percent” turnover is among ship’s officers, crew, and other people who are important for safety? And what percentage is among people like cooks, restaurant workers, maids, and other people who are, shall we say, less important to the safety of a cruise ship?
And where did we get such men?
October 28th, 2013Brigadier General Robinson Risner (USAF- ret.) has died.
General Risner spent a total of seven and half years in Hoa Lo Prison, more than three of those in solitary confinement.
One of his major acts of defiance was helping to organize a church service in 1971, even though he knew he would be punished. As guards led him away to yet another spell in solitary confinement, more than 40 P.O.W.’s sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” to show support. He was later asked how he felt at that moment.
“I felt like I was nine feet tall and could go bear hunting with a switch,” he said. In 2001, a nine-foot-tall statue of General Risner was installed at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to commemorate that declaration.
Metal Machine Music.
October 28th, 2013Your Lou Reed obits: NYT.
Why, yes, I actually do own “Metal Machine Music
S’il vous plaît ne pas déranger les canards.
October 27th, 2013I was a little off the grid for the past couple of days, but I’m back now and getting caught up.
In the meantime, this one goes out to great and good friend of the blog (and new dad!) Weerd Beard: ducks!
(I took these with the little Canon SD1000, which is still a really good camera many many years after I got it for Christmas. I didn’t bring the big Nikon because I didn’t feel like lugging it around (and I’m glad I didn’t, as it rained hard last night). I did bring the iPhone and took a handful of photos with that, but I forgot my Olloclip
Your loser update: week 8, 2013.
October 27th, 2013NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Jacksonville
Tampa Bay
Obit watch: October 25, 2013.
October 25th, 2013I nearly missed this one. The only coverage I’ve seen has been on the A/V Club.
William Harrison, novelist and screenwriter, died on Tuesday.
I was unfamiliar with much of Harrison’s work. Apparently, he wrote a lot of novels set in Africa. But perhaps his biggest claim to fame is a short story, “Roller Ball Murder”, which was published in Esquire in 1973.
Norman Jewison hired Harrison to do a screenplay based on the story. The result:
Quote of the day (also, discussion question)
October 24th, 2013Okay. So it sounds like the hierarchy may run something like this:
- Sidekick.
- Henchman. (Or “henchperson”. Or should it be “person of hench”?)
- Peon.
- Lackey.
- Flunky.
- Pawn.
- Toady.
- Minion.
That sound about right to everyone? Discuss in comments. I guess the way I see it, “minion” is the term for both the super-set covering the entire sidekick-henchman-lackey-flunky hierarchy, and the title for the “entry level” position. “Honey, good news! I just got promoted from ‘minion’ to ‘lackey’! Now we can afford premium beer!”
Edited to add: a friend of WCD points out that we left out “toady”, so I’ve added it to the list above. I’m tentatively placing it one step above “minion”.
Also: “pawn” and “peon”. List revised, but the positions given are just starting points for discussion.
Notes from the legal beat.
October 24th, 2013The courts are busy. Here’s a couple of quick things:
- Fred Yazdi has been convicted of murder. I touched on this story briefly back when it was fresh, but mostly ignored the trial: a drunk guy crashed his car, walked away from the wreck, and wound up in Yazdi’s front yard. Yazdi confronted him, and ended up shooting him – according to Yazdi, in self-defense. I have a feeling this is not over yet. In any case, it gives me an opportunity to repeat the point I made at the time (and which has been made better by other people): “Use your gun defensively, and even if it is a good shoot, your life is going to change; probably not for the better.”
- Michael Skakel is getting a new trial in the Martha Moxley murder. Oh, I do love me a circus. More seriously, it seemed to me like there were enough questionable aspects to the original trial that a new one is justified, though I’m not sure I would have ruled that way based on “ineffective assistance of council”. If Michael Sherman was good enough for Skakel at the time (and I don’t recall hearing Skakel, or anyone else, suggest he wasn’t), how was he not good enough in hindsight? (I also have qualms about this because it puts me in the position of agreeing with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: if RFKJ said the sun was going to rise in the morning, I’d start gathering firewood and sweaters.)
- The trial of Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager of Bell, who served under Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, and who Rizzo is blaming for much of Bell’s corruption, started yesterday. So far, we’re just in the opening arguments stage. But I did want to make note of this:
That would be Randy Adams, the former police chief of Bell, who was making $470,000 a year. I thought I’d quoted those emails before, but I can’t find them now. Here’s the LAT‘s quotes:
In an email to Spaccia, Adams wrote: “I am looking forward to seeing you and taking all of Bell’s money?! Okay … just a share of it!!”
She responded: “LOL … well you can take your share of the pie … just like us!!! We will all get fat together … [Robert Rizzo] has an expression he likes to use on occasion. Pigs get Fat … Hogs get slaughtered!!!! So as long as we’re not Hogs … All is well!”Yes, those are out of context, but I find it hard to see any context in which those quotes are not damming, or indicate that Spaccia was trying to get Adams to lower his demands.
- Sigh. Remember “Baby Hope”? Guess what the NYPD taped: yes, the confession. Guess what they didn’t tape? Yes: the twelve-hour long interrogation. Guess who now says their confession was coerced?
Guys, taping interrogations from start to finish doesn’t just protect the suspect: it also protects you. Or would you rather spend your retirement answering questions from NYT reporters?
Annals of law. (#8 in a series)
October 23rd, 2013On September 22, 1985, Roy McCaleb was shot and killed in his Houston home. He was sleeping at the time, and was heavily sedated due to recent back surgery and a heart attack.
McCaleb’s wife, Carolyn Sue Krizan-Wilson (as she is now known) stated that the shooter was a man who had car-jacked and raped her 10 days previously, then broke into her home that night…
Krizan-Wilson went on to claim that, while the intruder was fleeing the scene, he dropped the gun; she said she picked it up and fired a couple of shots at him.
Why am I bringing up this cold case now?
Krizan-Wilson confessed that this whole story was a lie, and pled guilty to killing her husband.
But that’s not why I bring it up.
But that’s not why I bring it up, either.
The courts in the state of Texas are taking pleas from people who suffer from dementia? I realize that there’s not a good alternative (how can a person with dementia effectively assist in their own defense at trial?) but there’s something about taking a plea under these circumstances that make me go “What?”
Norts spews.
October 23rd, 2013- Jackson State is apparently considering suing Grambling. Good luck with that.
- Missed this until Lawrence mentioned it, but: the suspension of the Grambling college paper’s opinion editor has been overturned. And the termination of the online editor has been changed to a suspension, but he’s resigning.
- Miami loses scholarships, but does not get a postseason ban. I mention this here for one sentence in the ESPN story: “But about 20 percent of information that was obtained was thrown out because it was improperly obtained.” What ESPN is glossing over here is that the NCAA made a huge mess of the investigation, and that’s probably why Miami got off light compared to USC. (Edited to add: better story from the NYT.
- TMQ tends to hammer on teams that “run up the score” against weaker opponents. In that light (and because it’s a good post) I want to highlight Ken’s “What Does Mercy Look Like?” over at Popehat. (To be fair to TMQ, in the specific case that motivated Ken’s post, Easterbrook has not complained about the conduct of the team and coach.)
The bishop!
October 23rd, 2013I wanted to highlight this because of the illustration attached to the article:
What the FRACK is this? I don’t think it is a photograph: is it supposed to be an artist’s conception of the new residence? It looks like someone used a fisheye lens to take a photo of a Thomas Kinkade painting.
TMQ Watch: October 22, 2013.
October 22nd, 2013We were vaguely hoping TMQ would address the Grambling State situation this week. We know that sounds weird, but we were hoping he might have an original or interesting take on it. Or, failing that, something we could mock.
We also thought maybe he’d have something to say about Bum Phillips. Or Bud Adams. He’s usually pretty good about doing tributes to significant NFL figures who have passed away.
Nope.
So what does TMQ write about this week? After the jump…