Archive for September 25th, 2012

And speaking of grits…

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

…the breakfast kind, that is, we learn by way of Mr. Henson and the Waco Tribune Herald that there’s an auction this weekend that includes some of Bonnie and Clyde’s guns.

We don’t have that kind of money to throw around, but we are intrigued by the event. The Waco paper’s writing is a bit sloppy; when they refer to “a fine Colt Fitzgerald revolver”, we’re pretty sure they mean a Fitz Special. But we’d really like to know how one of those wound up in Clyde Barrow’s hands; our understanding is that the Fitz Specials were all custom orders for law enforcement, and it is hard to imagine J.H. FitzGerald building one for Barrow. We wonder if there’s a Colt factory letter on that gun…

Posted in Clippings, Guns, History | 2 Comments »

Random thought.

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

If I had a film of SuAnne at Lead (as far as I know, no such film exists) I would study it in slow motion frame by frame. There’s a magic in what she did, along with the promise that public acts of courage are still alive out there somewhere. Mostly, I would run the film of SuAnne again and again for my own braveheart song. I refer to her, as I do to Crazy Horse, for proof that it’s a public service to be brave.

—Ian Frazier, On the Rez

It’s a public service to be brave.

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

TMQ watch: September 25, 2012.

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Let’s cut to the chase.

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Neuroscience, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#O of a series)

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

So Austin’s favorite police chief had a press conference this morning “flanked by two of his harshest critics”. (In case you were wondering, those are Nelson Linder, president of the local NAACP, and Jim Harrington, executive director of the Texas Civil Rights Project.)

Why the press conference? APD policy changes, which Chief Acevedo credits to input from Mr. Linder and Mr. Harrington. Specifically:

It isn’t clear to me if these are the only policy changes, or if there were less significant ones that the Statesman is skipping. One other area that’s been highly controversial lately is photographing and recording APD officers during arrests: Scott Henson over at “Grits for Breakfast” has some good coverage of what’s been going on.

Off the top of my head, none of these sound horrible. I do have a concern that requiring a minimum of four officers to respond to emotionally disturbed persons might, just might, cause problems, if that kind of response looks overwhelming to the subject. However, I think the training requirement may offset that concern. The big issue: does APD have enough people, with the right training, to respond in a timely fashion?

Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Law, Photography, Politics | 1 Comment »

Charismatic megafauna.

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Headline of the day:

Poll: Should the giant panda be allowed to go extinct?

I know at least one person who would answer that question with a hearty “Hell, yes!”

(Said person also needs to update his blog. Badly.)

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 25, 2012.

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

The NYT is reporting the death of Tereska Torrès.

Yeah, I’d never heard of her, either. After the jump, why I’m bringing this up (so to speak). (Strong hint: mature content.)

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Posted in Books, Obits | Comments Closed

Maybe they should have done “Gaslight” (and more random notes for September 25, 2012)

Tuesday, September 25th, 2012

Ben Sprecher is a theatrical producer. Most of his work has been off-Broadway, but he’s trying to put on a Broadway musical version of “Rebecca”. (I know what you’re thinking, but according to the NYT, this was done in Vienna in 2006, and played well.)

Anyway, Mr. Sprecher estimates that he needs $12 million for this. Mr. Sprecher had an investor – a man named Paul Abrams – who was putting up $4.5 million. That’s a lot of money for one person to invest in a Broadway show. But wait, it gets better!

Reports in August of his sudden death in Britain of malaria — yet no obituaries, no death notices. A representative for the Abrams estate surfaces, a person identifying himself only as “Wexler” who refuses to speak by phone and uses an e-mail address created just last month.

But wait, it gets even better: Mr. Sprecher never met or spoke to Mr. Abrams at all. There are questions as to whether Mr. Abrams ever even existed.

“I’ve never heard of a situation where you didn’t at least meet the person raising 30 percent of your show budget,” said Robert E. Wankel, president of the Shubert Organization, one of the big three Broadway landlords and a six-figure investor in “Rebecca” as well as the owner of its intended theater, the Broadhurst.

Mr. Sprecher is trying to raise money to fill the gap. But if he fails and the musical doesn’t open, he’s on the hook to his other investors.

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, bat cave!

Obit watch: Edwin Wilson. Remember Edwin Wilson? Former CIA guy? Convicted of shipping plastic explosives to Libya? Spent 20 years in prison?

A federal judge threw out his conviction in 2003, ruling that prosecutors knowingly used false testimony to undermine his defense.

Yeah. That guy.

Debacle? That seems strong. But I didn’t watch the game. “Debacle” may not be strong enough.

Donuts. Is there anything they can’t do? Well, they can register domains. But Donuts, Inc. has close ties to Demand Media…

Industry watchdogs have long criticized Demand Media as a leading provider of services to spammers and a host to sites that commit “cybersquatting.”…
Garth Bruen of the industry watchdog group KnujOn said Demand Media has not replied to any of the many spam complaints he has submitted to the company.
“They are looking the other way,” he said. “I’ve sent them tons of information. They never respond. They have this one address, legal@enom.com, and you never get a person.”

The current theory on convicted sex offender and fugitive from justice Prakashanand Saraswati seems to be that he’s in India now, having been spirited out of the country by his followers. And the US Marshals don’t have an office in India.

Maybe they could send some BATF guys from Reno to India.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns, Law, NFL, Obits, Theatre | 1 Comment »