Another Tuesday has rolled around, and it is time to take a stab at this week’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback. Once again, we’re going to slash our way through the thickets of Easterbrook’s prose, hacking away at logical fallacies when we see them and using our sharp wit to puncture pretense.
After the jump…
In case you were wondering how the paper of record would cover the death of former publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, “who guided The New York Times and its parent company through a long, sometimes turbulent period of expansion and change on a scale not seen since the newspaper’s founding in 1851”, you can find that here.
If you were wondering how other papers would approach this: LAT. WP.
I’d also like to mention the death of noted racing journalist Chris Economaki. Back when I was a wee lad and watched racing coverage on ABC, Economaki and Jackie Stewart were always there. I miss those days…
At least it will be in downtown Austin in November.
“But they aren’t racing in downtown!” No, they’re not. The racetrack is out near the airport.
But the city is considering three applications that involve closing downtown streets for up to a week during the festivities. The closures would include seven blocks of Congress Avenue, the main downtown artery.
The next question: who and why? The people who are organizing the race have requested two of the three pending closures.
…requested lane closures on Trinity between East 15th Street and East MLK from Friday through Sunday of that week for the scores of shuttle buses that will ferry fans to and from the race. There will also be similar operations at the Travis County Exposition Center and at another yet-to-be announced location.
“They’ll be loading 12 buses at a time,” said Gordon Derr, assistant director of the City of Austin’s Transportation Department. “There may be one through-lane open, which we may close intermittently.”
I’m actually semi-okay with this. I’m not sure they need to close the entire street, but I’ve never tried to run shuttle busses for 30,000 people. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Next:
…centered on the Warehouse District west of Congress, will be the site of Fan Fest, which will “celebrate Formula One the sport,” circuit spokeswoman Julie Loignon said Thursday.
Loignon said the Fan Fest, which will run from the evening of Friday, Nov. 16, through early Monday, Nov. 19, will feature music, food vendors and other elements that she declined to specify. Circuit officials plan to announce details of the event in the coming weeks, she said.
If the permit is granted as currently contemplated, Congress between Second and Fifth streets would close in stages starting Thursday evening, Nov. 15, and would open before rush hour on Monday, Nov. 19. Parts of West Second, Third, Fourth and Colorado streets would also be closed for several days.
I’m less wild about this: it seems like fan wankery for the eurotrash that come in for these kind of events. But it is in the Warehouse District, and they’re only asking to close a few blocks of Congress for what amounts to a long weekend. Number three:
The other pending closure application is for Experience Austin, a festival organized by Run-Tex that will run through the race weekend. It would close Congress from Seventh to 11th streets, as well as parts of Eighth, Ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th and Colorado streets. Some of those closures would last almost a week because of the time required for setup and breakdown of the festival.
Alexandra Stewart, community events coordinator for Run-Tex, said it will be “your typical Austin street festival,” with food, drink, music and artists. “Think Pecan Street.”
Pecan Street doesn’t close Congress Avenue for a week, you maroon! And why do we need both this and the “Fan Fest”? I can’t see a good reason, except that “Experience Austin” sees a way to make a few bucks by screwing up downtown traffic for a week.
In case you were wondering:
By comparison, at this year’s SXSW Music Festival, 36 downtown blocks were fully closed, most for four days. Those closures did not include Congress Avenue.
I’ve got some frequent flyer miles on the former Continental Airlines. Cleveland in November is beginning to sound nice.
We are having trouble coming up with a clever introduction for this week’s TMQ, so let’s just jump right into the NFC preview, shall we?
…or does P90X sound more like a product of FN (probably a bullpup chambered in .250-3000) or a Volvo sport-utility vehicle than an exercise program?
I think today is going to be a day for food writing. I have a longer post planned about last night. But in the meantime, here are some random things for you to chew on.
The NYT has made several discoveries:
(Quote from the slide show attached to the article: “The fascination with food on a stick is difficult to explain, but it usually means a 30 to 40 percent increase in sales.”)
(I would really like to know how well the vegetarian corn dogs are selling.)
Speaking of food, today would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday. Expect festivities around the web, starting with the NYT. I kind of like Julia Moskin’s “The Gifts She Gave” and Jacques Pépin’s “Memories of a Friend, Sidekick and Foil“.
(I note, with some bitterness, that our local PBS station is showing something called “Julia Childs [sic] Memories: Bon Appetit” tonight. I say “some bitterness” because a) I expect this to not show any complete recipe preparations, from start to finish, and b) our local PBS station is in the middle of a pledge drive, so I expect constant “give us money” interruptions.)
Something I noticed over the weekend: the French Quarter Grille has opened a second location. In Round Rock. Specifically, in the old Gumbo’s location. Hmmmmm.
Obit watch for the record: Ron Palillo, “Horshack” on “Welcome Back, Kotter”.
The LAT has apparently discovered that used car dealers are…used car dealers.
This is going to be more like a collection of random notes towards an AA report than an actual report. I do plan on a longer more thoughtful blog post later; probably this weekend, if everything works out the way I want it to. (I’m waiting for something to come in, and I need to go out to my mother’s place to take some pictures.)
. At least one person said, “That’s it. I’ve got to get one.” Yeah, I like having the Kindle Fire.
on the way up. Tam has written about this book previously, and anything I could add except “go read it” would be superfluous.
Chandlers calls this “The ’33 Plymouth”; it is, of course, made with Plymouth gin and Nolly Prat vermouth. They do warn you that it takes 10 minutes to make one; I consider it worth the wait.I can’t honestly recommend that you use your limited number of free NYT stories this month to go over and read this article. After all, it is about an obscure non-profit hospital in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn; unless you live in that area, why should you care?
What piques my interest about this story, though, is the chain of…shall we say, questionable management decisions by the hospital. For example:
Side note: “The hospital recently sold the stretch limousine for $18,000; it had cost $33,000 eight months ago. It sold the Lincoln Town Car for $9,000 and hopes to get $18,000 for the Escalade.”
I’d really like to know what year that Escalade is. You have to go back to 2006 to find one in the $18K range around here (at least on cars.com). If we’re talking 2008 – 2009 or later, I’d seriously consider flying up to NYC and driving back.
Before we start in on this week’s TMQ, we wanted to throw up a link to this fine article on the University of Alaska Fairbanks rifle team. Shall Not Be Questioned linked this yesterday, but we didn’t get around to reading the article until we started prepping this week’s TMQ Watch. Now that we have, we commend it to your attention.
And now the jump…
Just not much to write about, and working on a final project for school.
I feel like I should write something about the Austin F1 race, but I don’t know what to make of the situation at the moment. It feels like a huge scam, but I can’t tell who is scamming who.
I also feel like I should write something about the passage of HR822, but:
I also feel like I should write something about the Astros situation. Not that I care about baseball, but I have covered it before. The problem I have is that almost all of the coverage at this point is speculative; ask me again after today’s meeting, when a final deal is (or is not) made.
Edited to add: Okay, it is now official. Jim Crane is the new owner of the Astros.
I feel like I should say something about Dan Wheldon, but I don’t know what.
When I was a little kid, I was a big racing fan; I especially enjoyed watching the Indy 500. I still have a closet fondness for NASCAR: open-wheel racing kind of lost me with the whole CART/IndyCar debacle. But this is still just shocking and awful.
Surprising thing, though: the FARK threads have been more respectful than you’d think (this being FARK and all).
