A shih tzu called Rocket was picked as the top toy dog at Madison Square Garden.
So? Well, one of the owners of Rocket is…Patty Hearst. No, really: from “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people!” to “Who’s a good dog? Yes, you are!”
Meanwhile, can a bloodhound win “Best in Show”? Maybe. But Nathan, one of the favorites to win this year, is out of the picture.
Arnaud de Borchgrave, journalist and author.
Not really an obit in the conventional sense, but: the Bob Feller museum in Van Meter, Iowa is closing. One of the interesting things about this is that the Feller museum was one of the last remaining “free-standing” museums devoted to one player:
Also interesting: some of the memorabilia will stay at the musueum (which is going to become the new city hall), some of it is going to Progressive Field, and some of it is going to the U.S.S. Alabama:
Gosh, I love writing these.
The recently re-elected governor of Oregon, John Kitzhaber, has resigned.
I started a post yesterday about the Kitzhaber scandal, but I was having trouble finding a way into it. Ace posted a good summary: as I understand it, much of the scandal involves Kitzhaber’s fiance, who is accused of influence peddling, not reporting income, ethics violations, and getting people fired who failed to respect her authority.
Edited to add: this link was broken at the time of the original post, but the Oregonian‘s timeline of the scandal is working now.
Also, quote of the day:
David Carr, prominent NYT journalist, passed away last night.
Carr also wrote the critically acclaimed memoir, The Night of the Gun
Edited to add: nice tribute from Amy Alkon.
Edited to add 2: A/V Club.
Bob Simon, for the record.
Jerry Tarkanian: LV Review-Journal. LV Sun. ESPN. NYT.
(I care very little about college basketball, except for the annual Gonzaga bet. But anyone who ticks off the NCAA gets points in my book.)
Both Lawrence and I are still trying to sort out the implications of this, but I believe it is huge.
Perhaps one of my readers who has something more than an Internet GED in law can comment: does this injunction against enforcing the ban on interstate handgun sales apply only in the district in which the ruling was issued? Or does it apply nationwide unless a higher court voids the injunction?
Edited to add: It looks like David Hardy over at Of Arms and the Law has the same question.
I would pay money to see that.
Hey, remember when Ray Nagin was convicted of corruption and sent to prison for 14 years? Good times, good times. Anyway, Frank Fradella, the granite countertops guy, is going to do one year in the federal pen for his part in Nagin’s downfall.
Fradella is getting off light because he rolled on Nagin.
I’ve written a bunch about the case of Robert Middleton: start here for more details.
Don Collins, the person who set Middleton on fire and started the chain of events that resulted in his death, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for his actions.
Previously on WCD: the University of Alabama-Birmingham shut down their football program.
Now:
The university has appointed a task force to review both the finances of the athletic department and the consulting firm’s report that led to the decision.
And in other news:
Alex Vraciu passed away on January 29th, though his death does not seem to have been widely reported until this weekend.
Mr. Vraciu shot down 19 Japanese planes in eight months, and destroyed another 21 planes on the ground.
More:
I feel an obligation to say something about the Super Bowl. Here it is:
I was burned out on the game and the commercials by Sunday of last week. I had no intent to watch any of it; I was just so tired and frustrated and fed up with the whole thing.
I ended up catching a few minutes of it when I went out for dinner. What I caught was the less exciting part, but I did see a couple of commercials that puzzled me:
I’ve been sort of following the Brooklyn warehouse fire story, and I got to wondering. Seven alarms is a lot. But what’s the largest alarm response ever in the history of the NYFD? And how many alarms was September 11th?
I haven’t found a good answer to either of those questions. According to this Slate article, there has been at least one ten alarm fire. (I defend my decision to link to Slate by noting that this is a very old article.)
As for the second question, that’s also not easy to answer, but for different reasons. According to New York magazine:
But:
Colleen McCullough, author (“The Thorn Birds”). A/V Club.
Rod McKuen, poet. A/V Club.