Archive for November, 2010

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Spaghetti Carbonara day.

Wednesday, November 24th, 2010

We were somewhat amused to see, on the day before Thanksgiving, the NYT publishing a recipe for “Spaghetti With Sausage Alla Carbonara“. As you might be able to guess from the title, sausage substitutes for bacon in this variation.

We are big fans of a well-done spaghetti carbonara, and look forward to giving this particular variation a trial run.

(We know we linked to this yesterday, but for those who do not understand the significance of spaghetti carbonara and Thanksgiving, once again we link to Calvin Trillin.)

Posted in Clippings, Food | 3 Comments »

TMQ watch: November 23, 2010.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Ah, Thanksgiving approaches. And what are we thankful for this week? TMQ cheerleader photos, perhaps?

Let’s go to the video, Warner.

(more…)

Posted in Mixology, Sports, TMQ watch | 2 Comments »

Gunsmoke.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Apropos my comments about the gun show, my great and good friend Glen sent me a link to this Cool Tools writeup of the Dillon Precision RL-550B.

I’ve heard a lot of good word of mouth about Dillon’s stuff, but I didn’t realize the 550B was in the price range of a mediocre laptop. That’s seriously tempting. (And, yes, I realize that there’s additional costs for dies.)

Things I wonder about, and maybe that part of my audience that reloads can answer:

  1. If you’re just starting out reloading, are you better off starting with a progressive press? I’ve also considered one of those Lee Anniversary kits as a starting point; there’s a dramatic price difference, but am I likely to get frustrated by the limitations of the Lee, and wish I had gone with the Dillon first?
  2. How much room do you need for the Dillon or an equivalent press? Those of you who have a Dillon setup: how much space does it take up?

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Random notes: November 23, 2010.

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Fat, drunk, and escorting nuclear weapons is no way to go through life, son.

(I haven’t checked FARK to see if they used that headline. If they didn’t, they should have.)

Anne Dick and The Search for Philip K. Dick in the NYT.

Posted in Books, Clippings, PKD | Comments Closed

Pager duty?

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

The City of Austin is paying a police officer – not just any police officer, but one of Art Acevedo’s fired/reinstated by an arbitrator officers – $98,000 a year.

Now, $98,000 a year is good money, especially in Austin. “But,” you may say to yourself, “I don’t want to get shot at, even for $98,000 a year.”

No worries, mate.

Police Chief Art Acevedo forbade Torres to wear his uniform publicly or take any police action and put the 24-year department veteran on what some fellow officers call $98,000-a-year “basement duty,” in charge of distributing digital pagers to other officers from the bottom floor of police headquarters.

Interestingly, the whole thing appears to stem from a domestic dispute:

Torres’ wife told investigators she found a camera that had pictures of Torres and another woman in bed together. She refused to return the camera, prompting a struggle that left her with bruises on her arms and legs. Torres denied that he hurt his wife, the memo said.

Deputies in Williamson County, where Torres lives, initially charged him with a Class A misdemeanor, but Torres later pleaded guilty to Class C assault by contact and was fined $100, records show.

Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but doesn’t the fact that he was convicted of a crime of domestic violence mean that he can’t own or carry a gun in any case?

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law, Politics | 2 Comments »

Speaking of the gun show loophole.

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

The Saxet Shows are back in Austin. (Previously.)

A group of us went yesterday. Things I noticed:

  • The show was at the Travis County Expo Center. There was no requirement that sales go through a licensed dealer, and I saw a lot of folks with “Private seller” signs on their tables.
  • I did see a considerable police presence, but I’m not sure how many of those police officers were just browsing the show in uniform, and how many were actually working.
  • I also saw a lot of folks with what I’ll call, for want of a better word, “wanted” posters with photos of some guys who’ve apparently been running doing purchases at gun shows as part of some kind of Brady Bunch sting.
  • No book dealers. Except for that guy who is always at the gun shows, selling survivalist books and weird crank literature about the Trilateral Commission/New World Order/Illuminati connection.
  • A fair amount of ammo, including .380 auto.
  • Didn’t buy any guns. Someone had a XP-100 in .221 Fireball, which was tempting, but I’d have to start reloading, and I didn’t feel like shelling out $575 right now. (That was with a scope, though I didn’t look closely at what kind of scope.) As I’ve noted before, I have a nostalgic attachment to the XP-100. As I’ve also noted before, nostalgia is a moron.
  • Decent assortment of vendors. I’m hoping next month’s show will be even larger, now that folks have had a month to prepare.
  • What of the gun show in the old Target building? The web site still shows them with a show scheduled December 18th and 19th. Yes, that is the same weekend as the next Saxet show.

Posted in Guns | 2 Comments »

Boom! Boom! Acka lacka lacka boom!

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Brad Childress. Over. Done.

My reaction? I was somewhat amused that I was listening to Was (Not Was) when I found this out. As I’ve said previously, I think the major problem that Childress had was his failure to walk the dinosaur.

Posted in Firings, NFL, Sports | 1 Comment »

The Washington Post makes me testy. (Part VI)

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Oh, look! The WP‘s “Hidden Life of Guns” is back! Unleash the dagron, as they say on FARK!

I am rapidly coming to the belief that the most dangerous things in the world, in order, are:

  • a software guy with a soldering iron.
  • a hardware guy with a programming language.
  • a journalist with a database.
  • and a government employee with an idea.

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Politics | 4 Comments »

Quote of the day.

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

Over the weekend, I picked up a copy of David Chadwick’s Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki.

I haven’t read it yet, and I’m going to be up to my eyebrows in the Iranian Revolution for the next week, but I did find one rather striking exchange while flipping through the book.

The setup for this is that a group of Suzuki’s students were sitting around with Suzuki talking about some book “about the meeting of East and West”. The students were making comparisons between East and West, and the West was getting the short end of the stick.

As conversation continued in this vein, Suzuki spoke up, obviously upset. “If you want to be a good Buddhist,” he said, “first you’re going to have to learn how to be a good Christian.” Then he got up and walked out.

Posted in Books, Zen | Comments Closed

Obit watch: But what about Thumper?

Monday, November 22nd, 2010

One of my tipsters pointed out that Lawrencia “Bambi” Bembenek has died.

For those of you who don’t remember the bizarre saga of  the Bembenek case: Ms. Bembenek was a former waitress in a Playboy Club who became an officer with the Milwaukee PD. Shortly after that, she married a Milwaukee PD detective. Shortly after that, the detective’s ex-wife was capped.

Ms. Bembenek was arrested and charged with the murder, but claimed she had been framed by members of the Milwaukee PD, as retaliation for her cooperation in a federal investigation of the department. In spite of this, Ms. Bembenek was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Eight years after her conviction, Ms. Bembenek escaped from prison and fled to Canada. She was recaptured within three months, but in the meantime had gained a substantial amount of support in Milwaukee.

A reinvestigation of the case followed, and in December 1992 a judge reduced Ms. Bembenek’s life sentence to 20 years after she struck a deal with prosecutors in which she pleaded no contest to second-degree murder. She was immediately released for time served.

Edited to add: slightly more detailed WP obit here. Somehow, I missed the whole “lawsuit against Dr. Phil” thing.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Riverbats?

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Austin Community College has a new mascot.

I want to provide some more substantial comment on this story, but I can’t; I’m laughing too hard.

Posted in Clippings, Stupid | 5 Comments »

Time to celebrate!

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Today is World Toilet Day. I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you how to properly observe this occasion.

Today is also National Ammo Day. As I say every year, if you can’t do anything else, swing by your local big box store and pick up a brick of .22 LR and a copy of Red Dawn.

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

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