Is it IKEA furniture or a death metal band?
I’m not doing well so far.
(Edited to add: 7 out of 20. Either I need to spend more time at IKEA, or more time listening to death metal.)
Archive for October, 2013
Well, it makes me laugh.
Thursday, October 10th, 2013You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! watch (#4 in a series)
Thursday, October 10th, 201328 years in Federal prison for Kwame Kilpatrick.
Apparently, there is one person in Detroit who thinks Kilpatrick is getting a raw deal.
One.
…
Two o’clock Tuesday came and went. No protesters showed up. Not even Captain Protest.
TMQ Watch: October 8, 2013.
Wednesday, October 9th, 2013Offensenitivity! In this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
Stop! You’re doing it WRONG!
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013I had the day off yesterday, so I spent some time with my mother helping her run errands. (One of the disadvantages of those Dyson vacuum cleaners
We decided to check out the new Trader Joe’s and the new Wheatsville co-op, because, you know, reasons. (New! Shiny!) I note that neither store had any sort of “No guns allowed” signage, much less a legally compliant 30.06 sign. But I digress. Again.
I found this at Wheatsville. Click to embiggen.
In case you can’t read it, that’s “Primal Strips” “meatless vegan jerky” in “Texas BBQ”, “Teriyaki”, and “Thai Peanut” flavors.
“meatless vegan jerky”. Couldn’t make this up if I tried. What is it with vegans/vegetarians and the emulation of meat products?
In a related vein:
They held signs featuring photos of animals in pairs: a kitten with a fluffy yellow chick, a puppy with a piglet.
“Why love one but eat the other? Choose Vegetarian,” the signs said.
“Why love one but eat the other?” Oh, I don’t know, Bob: maybe because chickens and pigs taste good, while dogs and cats don’t. (I can’t say for sure: I’ve never eaten dog.)
Or maybe it has something to do with charisma; dogs and cats have it. I’m dubious that pigs and chickens do, though there was the great pot-bellied pig boom of a few years back…
Random notes: October 8, 2013.
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013Why would someone buy a mansion for nearly $350,000, then sell it at a $40,000 loss?
Could it be…Satan?
Nothing matters more — even the horrors that took place — than perception. That’s especially true in the case of Resnick’s mansion, where Bell says no evidence supports stories of ghosts and mob murders.
But people believed what they saw on the TV show, which Resnick says was filmed inside the house without his permission. After the show aired, police calls to the vacant house exploded. Some young troublemakers and trespassers even posted on YouTube their own ghost hunts at the house.
Interesting legal question: if the owner can prove that the TV show was filmed on the property without his permission, and if he can prove that the TV show led to his loss on the property, does he have a course of action against the producers? I’m inclined to say, “Yes, but he’ll have a high bar to prove both those things.” Of course, I Am Not A Lawyer.
Yesterday’s NYT ran an interesting article about the Inverted Jenny re-issue, about which I have written previously. I have actually already received my Inverted Jenny first day cover (it’s very nice – I am tempted to scan it and post it) but I did not order a full sheet of stamps. (Because $2 per stamp x 24 stamps = more than I was willing to spend.)
“We thought, wouldn’t it be funny if some of the inverts came out wrong, and actually got printed right side up?” the postmaster general, Patrick R. Donahoe, said in an interview. “And we started thinking, what a great way to recreate the excitement Robey must have felt when he found that first sheet.”
As a result, 100 of the new sheets actually show the airplane flying upright. Each sheet is individually wrapped, so no one can see the stamps before they are bought. A note is included with the right-side-up rarities, alerting buyers to their true nature. Lucky finders can obtain a certificate signed by the postmaster general.
So, wait. The original stamps were valuable because the plane was printed upside down. So they’re making new rare stamps by…printing them correctly in the first place? Excuse me while I go take some headache medication.
Your loser update: week 5, 2013.
Sunday, October 6th, 2013NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Pittsburgh (bye week)
Jacksonville
NY Giants
Tampa Bay (bye week)
And Cleveland is 3-0 after the trade from hell?
WE’RE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS HERE, PEOPLE!
Obit watch: October 4, 2013.
Friday, October 4th, 2013I was taught you should say only good of the dead.
By way of Lawrence, I have learned that General Vo Nguyen Giap, described by the NYT as “the relentless and charismatic North Vietnamese general whose campaigns drove both France and the United States out of Vietnam”, has died.
(I’ll have to go back and look: did the NYT ever describe Hermann Göring or Erwin Rommel as “relentless and charismatic”?)
Banana republicans watch: more Rizzo.
Friday, October 4th, 2013The LAT‘s second day story on Robert “Ratso” Rizzo’s plea answers a few questions from yesterday.
We already knew that Rizzo was rolling on his former assistant, Angela Spaccia. You may remember that the former Bell city council members who went on trial adopted the “throw Rizzo under the bus” strategy. Now that Rizzo is taking a plea and cooperating, his plan is to throw Spaccia under the bus:
I don’t think Spaccia has anyone left to roll on. Possibly the council members, but if Rizzo’s already rolling on them as part of his deal, why does the prosecution need Spaccia?
And how do the people of Bell feel, now that Ratso’s pled guilty? Relieved and disappointed, according to the paper.
Banana Republicans watch: October 3, 2013.
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013This is a great day.
Somebody (I believe it was Harlan Ellison) once wrote that the most eloquent speech of Spiro Agnew‘s career in politics was “Nolo contendere“.
Robert “Ratso” Rizzo, former city manager of Bell, gave that same speech today.
Longtime Bell city administrator Robert Rizzo, who became a national symbol for public corruption for alleged graft in the small city, pleaded no contest to 69 charges, prosecutors said Thursday.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement that Rizzo had agreed to serve 10 to 12 years in state prison, which she described as the largest sentence ever in an L.A. County public corruption case.
10 to 12 years in state prison. I have only one thing to say about this:
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena!
(The comments at the LAT do raise some interesting questions: is this part of a deal where Rizzo is going to roll on the other council members? Remember, all but one of the indicted council members still have retrials pending. Also, Angela Spaccia, Rizzo’s former assistant, is still facing trial; will he roll on her? And there’s no mention in the LAT that Rizzo will have to pay any restitution.)
Edited to add: The LAT is still updating coverage:
Random notes: October 3, 2013.
Thursday, October 3rd, 2013Tom Clancy obit roundup: LAT. Appreciation from LAT. NYT. Baltimore Sun. A/V Club. WP.
In other news, the Dread Pirate Roberts graduated from Westlake. I’d also like to direct folks to Popehat, where former federal prosecutor Ken White has posted an analysis of the charges.
And it seems that the Brooklyn DA’s office has found at least one witness who says “the police coached him into giving false testimony”.
Scarcella is not accused of being the person who got Mr. Ivory to lie:
Random note from the sports beat.
Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013The Astros lost 111 games this year. Someone must pay!