Archive for October, 2019

Well, how do you like them apples?

Saturday, October 5th, 2019

I went over to GT Distributors this morning for Glocktoberfest. Oddly, while it isn’t terribly far from my office, I don’t make it over there that often: they tend to be more police and tactical oriented, and have less on the vintage S&W side. (Bill Orr, the founder, is a highly respected member of the S&W Collectors Association. It’s just that vintage Smiths aren’t their main line of business.)

But I had some Glock related stuff I was kind of looking for, and thought I’d swing by and check out Glocktoberfest.

Of course, they were doing door prize drawings. I went ahead and signed up, even though I never win door prizes. Then I browsed a little and waited for the door prize drawing at the top of the hour.

I’ve got my ticket out and am listening to them call the numbers. As I said, I never win door prizes, but hope springs eternal, right?

Then they called my number.

Well, okay, then. I don’t want to make a big deal about it: this was one of the hourly door prizes, not the big final prize (a new Glock). But the hourly prize was one of those snazzy 5.11 Tactical RUSH 24 backpacks. It’s kind of like walking into some place, hanging out for a bit, and then someone hands you a $100 bill right out of the blue.

(And I did pick up a few relatively small items: they were selling used Glock 22 and S&W M&P .357 SIG/.40 standard capacity magazines for $10 each. At that price, I figured I’d pick up a couple of each as a hedge. I also picked up some of the tchotchkes they were giving away for free, a Glock 42 magazine +1 mag extension for experimental purposes, and some FMJ .380 auto.)

They did take my photo for promotional purposes (with my enthusiastic consent) but I don’t see it on Facebook yet. I hope I didn’t break the guy’s phone…

Firings watch.

Friday, October 4th, 2019

Mickey Callaway out as manager of the Mets. 163-161 over two seasons.

Lawrence tipped me off to this last night, but since it was cop shop night, I didn’t have a chance to blog: Sports Illustrated fired everybody just as hard as they could go.

You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#58 in a series)

Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

By way of Lawrence:

Atlantic City Mayor Frank Gilliam pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to defrauding a local youth basketball program of more than $87,000 instead using the money to purchase luxury clothing, expensive meals, and personal trips.

The Press is kind of obnoxious,but local. More from nj.com:

Gilliam, 49, defrauded a basketball club of more than $87,000, prosecutors said, spending that money on luxury designer clothing, expensive meals, and personal trips to various locations. More than $41,000 was recovered when his house was raided in December 2018.

Mayor Gilliam pled out to one count of wire fraud, and has agreed to pay restitution.

{Harry] Rimm [the mayor’s defense attorney – DB] said Gilliam has already started paying back the money, making a voluntary payment Thursday in connection with his plea.
“To date, and in advance of sentencing, Mr. Gilliam has paid back almost half of the restitution amount that the parties have agreed is owed,” said the attorney.

Now I’m wondering: does that “almost half the restitution amount” include the “recovered” $41,000?

Guess the party watch: paragraph nine of the NJ.com story. Criminal Mayors Against Law-Abiding Gun Owners Watch: status of Mayor Gilliam unknown. I need to dig deeper into that.

But:

Even before the FBI raid on his house, Gilliam found himself in an unwelcome spotlight. The mayor was accused of simple assault and harassment stemming from a 2:30 a.m. brawl outside the Golden Nugget Casino’s Haven nightclub last year.
He was cleared of criminal charges in March by a municipal court judge in nearby North Wildwood, where the case had been transferred to avoid a conflict of interest.

Gilliam, who was released on $100,000 unsecured bond, could face 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 7.

But we all know he’s probably not going to get that, right?

And as far as I can tell, he hasn’t resigned as mayor. Yet.

In a statement following the plea, defense attorney Harry Rimm said the charge to which he pleaded guilty related only to his conduct as a private citizen, and not conduct in his official capacity as mayor.
“He is not charged with taking any public or taxpayer funds,” the attorney said, adding that the mayor “is accepting responsibility for his actions and is genuinely remorseful.”

Edited to add: he’s out now.

Obit watch: October 3, 2019.

Thursday, October 3rd, 2019

Bill Bidwill, owner of the Arizona (formerly St. Louis) Cardinals.

Under Bidwill’s ownership, the Cardinals toiled in mediocrity. They had five winning seasons from 1972 until Ken Whisenhunt was hired as head coach in 2007, Michael’s first year in charge. The Cardinals went to their first and only Super Bowl the next season.

I’m wondering if we’re going to see an NFL team for sale soon, and if that’s going to result in a possible relocation. LA and Las Vegas are off the map…but with the St. Louis Rams gone, and a past history for the Cardinals there…?

John Rothman. Kind of an obscure figure, but interesting: he pioneered electronic access to the NYT archives.

Working on the index led Mr. Rothman to think about how computers could store, sort and deliver abstracts of Times content to users at the paper and other locations, like public libraries, universities and major corporations. He proposed the Information Bank — the Times Index writ large — in 1965 and began working on it with IBM the next year.

In 1972, Times staff members began testing the Information Bank as a research tool. It would soon augment the paper’s archives, known as the morgue, where file cabinets are packed with clippings dating to the 19th century. In Times Talk, the paper’s in-house newsletter, Mr. Rothman assured colleagues that “once the basic methods” of searching the Information Bank were mastered, “retrieving the information is quite simple.”
In late 1972, the first installation of the Information Bank outside The New York Times was made at the University of Pittsburgh’s Hillman Library. Within six months, its 14 customers included NBC, The Associated Press, the State Department, the C.I.A., the Library of Congress, Exxon and the Chase Manhattan Bank.

I’ve been running behind, so for this historical record: Jessye Norman.

Your loser update: week 4, 2019.

Tuesday, October 1st, 2019

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

New York Jets (bye week)
Miami
Cincinnati
Denver
Washington

In other news about minor sports, it looks like I was wrong in thinking there wasn’t going to be a historically bad baseball team this year. At least, depending on how you define “historically bad”.

The Detroit Tigers finished 47-114 (one game towards the end of the season was cancelled and they didn’t have a chance to play a make-up) for a .292 average. Wikipedia’s cutoff for “worst Major League Baseball season records” is .300 or below, which puts them 16th on the list for the “modern” era. (Wikipedia has them at .291, or .001 better than the 2018 Baltimore Orioles. I’m not sure why they give different numbers than MLB.com, but I’m going to blame floating point math.)

Speaking of Baltimore, they finished 54-108, with a .333 winning percentage. 108 losses is kind of pathetic, but…

Orioles GM Mike Elias finds positives in rebuild after 108-loss season

“Hey, we stank. But at least we weren’t the worst team in MLB this year! And we didn’t lose as many games as we did last year!”