Second because it is hard to replace “Fairytale of New York” in my affections. Hattip to LawDog for this:
This is not suitable for children, or adults who have no sense of humor. And I would buy this in a heartbeat if it was available on iTunes or Amazon.
I’d never heard of Ned Vizzini until yesterday; this isn’t a shot at him, I just don’t read a lot of YA fiction. But this is just sad and awful.
The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 (TALK).
The WP reviews “Chris Burden: Extreme Measures”, a retrospective of his work. I believe Mr. Burden and his work have come up here before, but for those who don’t remember…
Unmentioned because it isn’t really relevant, but: Burden’s performance inspired one of Laurie Anderson’s early works, “It’s Not the Bullet That Kills You (It’s the Hole)”.
More:
The last time I went to Red Lobster, it was kind of a disappointment. And the last two times I’ve gone to Olive Garden, I’ve walked out before even getting a drink. Maybe this is what Red Lobster needs.
Obligatory: the all-you-can-eat crab legs story.
Obligatory 2: make your own cheddar biscuits at home.
You know that comment we made yesterday, about “Start writing or stop talking about it” being pretty good writing advice?
If you must know, I was looking up the “Ding Fries Are Done” meme when I stumbled across this entry at KnowYourMeme: The Family Guy Effect.
You. Don’t. Say.
I don’t know why I find “the Olympic torch has only set people on fire three times” so funny, but I do. It reminds me of the line from the Spinal Tap commentary track about the pods working…maybe 70% of the time, but Marty DiBergi had to pick one night they didn’t work and make a big deal out of it…
Also tickling my funny bone:
“supposedly Greek virgin priestesses”? I’m not sure I want to think about that.
(For folks unfamiliar with Austin, Sunset Valley is an independent municipality located on the south side of town.)
Gee, if only there was some other solution to the problem of coyotes attacking dogs…
Harold Camping. I’m really kind of curious what’s going to happen to Family Radio now; does it survive with a new leader? Do the stations get sold off? I think most of them are non-commercial licenses; is there another religious group that would want to buy them?
Janet Dailey, noted romance author.
You know, “Start writing or stop talking about it” is actually pretty good writing advice.
It is that time of year again.
Stuff you might have heard of:
Pretty much all of these strike me as good choices, except “Roger and Me”. “Pulp Fiction”, I’m sure, will be divisive. More at the LAT link, including the stuff you probably haven’t heard of. On that list, I’m kind of intrigued by “Daughter of Dawn”, “King of Jazz”, and “Notes on the Port of St. Francis”.
Ronnie Biggs, one of the conspirators in the Great Train Robbery and (briefly) vocalist for the Sex Pistols, has passed away at the age of 84.
I have the feeling that Biggs was often viewed as a loveable rogue. This is worth keeping in mind:
As is this:
(According to Wikipedia, Mills died from leukemia in 1970, and one of the robbers who wasn’t Biggs confessed to the beating last year. There does appear to be some question about whether that confession was truthful.)
Edited to add: more from the paper of record. And in case you are asking yourself, “Don’t they have newspapers in England?”: they do, but I haven’t found one I trust that doesn’t have the Biggs obit behind a pay wall.
(Wiki wandering led me to the article on the Big Boys:
Spinal Tap really was a documentary, and we just didn’t know it at the time.)
(Edited to add: Hurrah! The U2/Popmart/giant lemon story is immortalized online! What did I tell you? (Scroll down to “Rock and Roll Creation”.) By the way, I own and enthusiastically recommend This is Spinal Tap: Official Companion
A prominent dinosaur “hobbyist” is claiming “’serious errors and irregularities’ in dinosaur research involving some of the world’s top paleontologists”.
Why is this interesting? Well, scientific disputes of this sort are a topic for coverage on this blog. After all, we do have “Retraction Watch” on our blog roll.
But there’s another good reason: the “hobbyist” in question is Microsoft millionaire, Modernist Cuisine author, and notorious patent troll Dr. Nathan P. Myhrvold.
I’m not a big fan of Dr. Myhrvold, but that kind of answer…well…it stinks.
And now that I have it stuck in your head:
Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions.
Some sheriffs, like Sheriff Cooke, are refusing to enforce the laws, saying that they are too vague and violate Second Amendment rights. Many more say that enforcement will be “a very low priority,” as several sheriffs put it. All but seven of the 62 elected sheriffs in Colorado signed on in May to a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the statutes.
Last week, I asked the musical question:
Does LACSD make it a practice to hire and promote deputies who are dumber than a bag of hair?
Apparently, “dumber than a bag of hair” does not even begin to cover it.
Yes. Not only did they try to intimidate an FBI agent, they recorded themselves doing it. And the prosecution has those recordings now.
(I did give some thought, for just a moment, to the idea that this might have been an ass-covering measure. But on second thought, that doesn’t make much sense; you want to cover your butt on something like this, you record the supervisor giving the illegal order. You don’t record yourself committing the crime.)