The LAT is reporting the death of Alex Karras. More later.
Mongo no longer pawn in game of life.
October 10th, 2012Remember. Whales are a renewable resource.
October 10th, 2012Actually, that wasn’t the part I wanted to single out. This was:
To be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to marry a woman who found “a romantic wading experience” with “the beluga as a de facto chaperon” a good idea. I can live with strawberries (though I think they’re the most overrated fruit) and there’s nothing wrong with champagne, but adding a beluga whale to the equation is not romantic.
Quote of the day.
October 10th, 2012The problem is that Think Progress, Huffington Post, and BoingBoing are full of shit.
—Ken @ Popehat
I commend this post to your attention, as not only does it masterfully dissect the idea that the law should be what we feel it should be, rather than what it actually is, but it also points out gross misconduct by Antinous, a Boing Boing moderator.
More from Ken:
(It is probably worth pointing out that this has some relevance to the Mirkarimi situation. Yes, he thumped his woman. Yes, he was convicted of a crime. But the arguments of the people who opposed his firings are that the mayor doesn’t have the authority to fire Mirkarimi, and that his crime took place before he was in office, so it shouldn’t count. I don’t much like these arguments, but I’m having trouble sorting out whether I don’t like them because that’s the way I feel the law should be, rather than the way it actually is, even if “the way it is” is stupid in my opinion.)
Bad sheriff. No biscuit. No, wait…
October 10th, 2012I’ve written previously about San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who has been convicted of domestic violence.
The mayor of San Francisco needed nine out of eleven votes from the city’s Board of Supervisors to fire Sheriff Mirkarimi.
TMQ Watch: October 9, 2012.
October 9th, 2012There is a quote, commonly attributed to Albert Einstein, (but probably apocryphal, at least in this form) “Make things as simple as possible, but no simpler.”
There is another quote, commonly attributed to an anonymous actor in a commercial, “I’m not a doctor. But I play one on TV.”
What do those have to do with this week’s TMQ? After the jump…
Life imitates:
October 8th, 2012An episode of “Seinfeld”:
Quick followups.
October 8th, 2012Remember the rapist HPD cop? The jury handed down his sentence: life in prison.
And the latest update on the “Rebecca” front: those four investors, including the one who supposedly died of malaria, never existed. At least, according to the producer’s lawyer. Still unclear: what was the motivation to make these people up?
(Darn shame that “Law and Order” isn’t on any longer. This story is starting to read like an episode of that series. And I can’t really see how you’d fit this into “Kinky Sex Crimes” – er, I mean, “Special Victims Unit”.)
Headline of the day.
October 8th, 2012“Commander Squirrel”?
Wow. If you’re a cartel boss:
- How do you get a nickname like “Commander Squirrel”?
- How do you not shoot anyone who calls you “Commander Squirrel”?
- Is there a sub-commander called “Moose”? There has to be, right?
Your loser update: week 5, 2012.
October 8th, 2012NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
I had the Cleveland game going on the background while I puttered around the kitchen and read FARK and Briarpatch
Speaking of playing smarter, I think I’m going to have to add the Chargers to my list of “most consistently overrated teams in the NFL”. Seriously, how do you lose to the Saints, even with the whole Brees record thing?
Random notes: October 5, 2012.
October 5th, 2012Our pals at the NYT have an interesting update on the “Rebecca” front. (Previously. Previously.)
It is starting to look like a certain gentleman basically invented four investors, and the $4.5 million they were supposed to put into the show, from scratch. This gentleman has not been charged with a crime as of yet, but has a colorful history that includes bankruptcy, civil suits, and an unrelated federal investigation.
But why would he do this? What’s his motivation?
In other news, the Pine Ridge reservation is considering legalizing alcohol, because prohibition isn’t working. I missed the fact that the reservation’s suit against the beer dealers in Whiteclay had been dismissed. (Previously.)
Noted:
Abraham Joseph, 28, was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault.
Mr. Joseph was a Houston police department officer at the time he raped the woman, who was a waitress (and, for the record, was an illegal alien at the time; she since has been granted asylum).
I’m not convinced the Austin nightclub trial is going well for the prosecution, though I only have the Statesman‘s account to rely on. The government’s primary witness is a cousin of the two brothers who are on trial. The feds have paid him $340,000 to date, and he seems to be having memory troubles.
No hearts, no flowers.
October 4th, 2012Your loser update: End of the baseball season.
October 4th, 2012The Houston Astros played their last game of the baseball season yesterday.
As you may recall, in 2011, the Astros finished 56-106, for a .346 winning percentage.
This year…it came right down to the wire, but the Astros finished 55-107, losing their last game to the Chicago Cubs, finishing with a .340 winning percentage, and setting a new record for losses in a single season.
Oh, well. There’s always next year; and with the team changing leagues, maybe the 120 loss mark is within reach.
TMQ Watch watch.
October 3rd, 2012From last week’s TMQ:
“Revolution” has “canceled by Christmas” written all over it.
From Deadline Hollywood Daily:
This should not be interpreted as implying that we think “Revolution” is a good show. To be perfectly honest, we haven’t watched it, and have no plans to: this comic sums up our reasons why pretty well.
(“The laws of smashing things into other things WENT CRAZY?!” We cannot lie: that’s an awesome line.)
(And a tip of the Hatlo hat to Erin Palette over at “Lurking Rhythmically”, both for the pointer to “Hijinks Ensue” and for this post outlining some of the logic flaws in the show.)
(There’s a much better SF story based on the idea of electricity not working; in that story, it appears to be an alien presence that’s capable of discriminating between machines and, say, human brain impulses. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the title and author of that story at the moment. It is in an Asimov-curated anthology that I have at home somewhere. I know it wasn’t an S.M. Stirling story, but one from the pulp era. If I figure out the title and author, I’ll update here.)
Edited to add: I’m pretty sure it was “The Waveries” by Frederic Brown.
TMQ Watch: October 2, 2012.
October 2nd, 2012Before we jump into this week’s column, here’s a totally inappropriate 80’s flashback for you.
Random crap: October 2, 2012.
October 2nd, 2012Man, time flies when you’re having fun. The first of the Austin nightclub trials started yesterday. (Previously.) It doesn’t seem that there’s much to report yet, but I’ll try to keep an eye on the trial for any sensational revelations.
Ah, “Rebecca”. We hardly knew you. Ben Sprecher’s attempt to round up additional financing didn’t pan out, and the musical has been cancelled. (Previously.)
Also in the NYT: yet another story about fishing tournament fraud. I really do not get why people are surprised by this, or why the media finds it newsworthy. Where there’s money, there’s going to be fraud. If you’re talking six figure money, there’s going to be six figure fraud. And if someone defrauds someone else of a six-figure sum of money, why shouldn’t that be a felony, just because fish are involved?
I haven’t read any of the new books mentioned by the NYT, but I did read Mr. Rinella’s previous book, The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine
Sorry, but if I’m in Mr. Rinella’s position and someone pulls that <stuff> on me, I’ll take them aside and tell them politely: “This is your one warning. You are a guest in my house. If you continue to badmouth my food and complain about it not being vegan, I will physically throw you out the front door and see how many times you bounce. If you can’t deal with that, walk out now under your own power.”
Anyway, I don’t feel any real compulsion to read Mr. Rinella’s new book, or any of the others mentioned by the paper of record.