Archive for September, 2015

TMQ Watch: September 29, 2015.

Wednesday, September 30th, 2015

We apologize for the delay. We had a dinner engagement last night at Rocco’s Grill in Bee Cave. Some things are just more important than TMQ blogging, like dinner with family.

After the jump, this week’s TMQ

(more…)

Your NFL loser update: week 3, 2015.

Monday, September 28th, 2015

It wasn’t a bad weekend. Of course, I didn’t watch any of the games, as I was busy all day Sunday (about which, more later), but the teams I expected to engage in good old fashioned curb stompings did, indeed.

NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:

Baltimore
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans

We’re starting to get down there. But at this point, I don’t think there’s a team that’s really bad enough to go 0-16.

Short random notes: September 24, 2015.

Thursday, September 24th, 2015

James Mee has his job back.

I feel sure I’ve written about this before, but I can’t find the post now. Mr. Mee was a deputy with the LA County Sheriff’s Office. He was fired because of his alleged involvement in a police chase that ended when the vehicle he was supposedly chasing crashed into a gas station.

At least, that was the claim. So why was he really fired? Well, Mr. Mee was also one of the officers who arrested Mel Gibson back in 2006.

Mee’s lawyers argued that sheriff’s managers falsely blamed Mee for leaking details of Gibson’s 2006 arrest and the actor’s anti-Semitic tirade to celebrity news site TMZ.com. Mee, his attorneys alleged, was repeatedly subjected to harassment and unfair discipline in the years that followed, culminating in his firing over the 2011 crash.

This one’s for Lawrence: Frank Gehry is working on a project to rehabilitate the Los Angeles River. This has some people upset.

(Obligatory. Plus, the video I’ve linked to before has been taken down, so call this a bookmark.)

Obit watch: September 23, 2015.

Wednesday, September 23rd, 2015

Yogi Berra has passed away.

In 1949, early in Berra’s Yankee career, his manager assessed him this way in an interview in The Sporting News: “Mr. Berra,” Casey Stengel said, “is a very strange fellow of very remarkable abilities.”

I hope he doesn’t find heaven too crowded.

The NYT obit, in my opinion, is unusually good, though I’m sure it has been in the files for a long time.

TMQ Watch: September 22, 2015.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

TMQ Watch? On Tuesday? Yes, we know it is a bit of a shock, but that is our plan and we intend to stick to it.

TMQ Watch will probably go up late in the afternoon, though: we like to run out to DFG Noodles on our lunch hour. And while the noodles are excellent, and the girls are cute (our two big reasons for going) it does cut into our lunchtime blogging.

But enough administration. After the jump, this week’s edited TMQ…

(more…)

Your NFL loser update: week 2, 2015.

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015

NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:

Baltimore
Houston
Indianapolis
Philadelphia
New York Football Giants
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans
Seattle

Obit watch and more random notes: September 18, 2015.

Friday, September 18th, 2015

Milo Hamilton, sports broadcaster.

Hamilton called Major League Baseball games on radio and television from the 1950s into the current decade, working for the St. Louis Browns (1953), St. Louis Cardinals (1954), Chicago Cubs (1956-57, 1980-84), Chicago White Sox (1962-65), Atlanta Braves (1966-75), Pittsburgh Pirates (1976-79) and the Astros, joining the team in 1985 and serving as its primary on-air voice from 1987 through 2012.

NYT.

Warren “Remo Williams” Murphy. I’ve never read any of the Remo Williams books myself, mostly because I don’t know where to begin with the series. I am told by trustworthy individuals that they are fun…

New indoor range coming to South Austin. Well. Well well well. Well. I am looking forward to trying this out.

Obit watch: September 17, 2015.

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

I didn’t know Frank James personally, though I wish I had. I did tell him on his blog that I wanted to meet him if he ever made it to Texas: he wrote Project 64: The MP5 Submachine Gun Story, a book I like a whole lot.

That wasn’t the only thing he wrote. He was a prolific gun writer and blogger. And everything I’ve read about him says he was a really good guy.

Tam has a nice tribute up that you should go read.

TMQ Watch (for real): September 15, 2015.

Wednesday, September 16th, 2015

That’s a 74-word lead with a parenthetical clause and a double hyphenation. Welcome to Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. Welcome back to TMQ Watch. After the jump…

(more…)

TMQ Watch: September 15, 2015.

Tuesday, September 15th, 2015

For the past few days, Gregg Easterbrook has been hinting at a “major announcement” about the future of Tuesday Morning Quarterback.

Today was the day. And where did TMQ fetch up?

Would you believe the New York Times?

We almost didn’t believe it either, but, yes, TMQ is now under the purview of the paper of record. We’re not sure how we feel about this yet. But having just finished Public Editor Number One, we are hopeful that Easterbrook will be subject to fact checking, editorial guidance, and possibly even a corrections process; and, that if need be, the current NYT public editor can pull back on the reins and yell “Whoa!”

Does this mean that TMQ Watch will continue? Indeed. We would have already written up a TMQ Watch for today. However, we got stuck into a situation at work. We will not go into details except to say that we were busy all day (including lunch). Our plan is to curl up tonight with about four ounces of Canadian Club 10 Year Old Reserve, some fizzy water, and a copy of Carry On, Jeeves.

So new TMQ Watch tomorrow, probably late afternoon would be our guess.

Your NFL loser update: week 1, 2015.

Monday, September 14th, 2015

NFL teams that have a chance of going 0-16:

Baltimore
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Oakland
Philadelphia
New York Football Giants
Washington
Minnesota
Detroit
Chicago
New Orleans
Tampa Bay
Seattle

Lawrence asked me the other night who I thought might be the first coach fired. My gut response was: whoever’s coaching the Jets this year. (Todd Bowles. You’re welcome.) It is his first year, but when one of your linebackers breaks your starting quarterback’s jaw, and people say “Yeah, he was asking for it”, well that’s your dumpster fire right there.

If not Mr. Bowles (the Jets, after all, won) perhaps Gus Bradley in Jacksonville?

A few random things I found interesting.

Monday, September 14th, 2015

Some by way of the Hacker News Twitter, others from elsewhere.

Nice appreciation of Elmore Leonard from The New York Review of Books.

Brian Krebs goes to Mexico in search of Bluetooth ATM skimmers, part 1.

Fun with software defined radio, or scanners live in vain.

NFL loser update resumes tomorrow.