Saturday, October 10, 2009

Headline of the day

Dead deer in clown suit left on Iowa porch

"Pirates" lose 11 more

When these thugs figure out that trying to hijack a ship means jail if not death, sanity will return to that part of the world.

11 suspected pirates captured in Indian Ocean

U.S. Navy names ship for Medgar Evers

Long overdue.

Navy honors civil rights martyr Medgar Evers

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The widow of slain civil-rights pioneer Medgar Evers fought tears Friday as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, a former Mississippi governor, announced he's naming a new Navy supply ship for Evers' late husband.

"I think of those who will serve on this ship and those who will see it in different parts of the world. And perhaps they, too, will come to know who Medgar Evers was and what he stood for," Myrlie Evers-Williams said at Jackson State University, where Mabus made the announcement.

Evers was Mississippi field secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People when he was assassinated outside his Jackson home on June 12, 1963. He was 37.

"He gave his life for his country," Mabus told an audience of about 200.
(more via the link)

Living with bobcats IV

California: AV Bobcat Mistaken for Mountain Lion

Friday, October 09, 2009

Plat du jour













Reggie Jackson is back in town?

Thursday, October 08, 2009

This should end all of the health care arguments

It really starts at the 0:48 point.

Semi-random thoughts

● I added the Wall Street Journal's Pictures of the Day to my daily internet read. Some of the pictures are just stunning. It reminds me of Life Magazine back when it was my primary source of news photography.

● I blocked someone on Facebook who said "voting is for suckers." There's a limit to how much stupidity I will tolerate.

Utah has granted 80,000 NON-residents permits to carry concealed weapons? Idiocy.

● My box of Shredded Wheat tells me that the cereal has been around for 117 years. This is very impressive. Then I remember that I have been around for over half that period.

● I notice the radio ads for a couple of Broadway plays mention the length of the shows: 80 or 90 minutes. Both of the plays are serious dramas. I guess they figure people might not come if they thought they had to sit through a more normal length performance.

● And speaking of radio ads, this evening WQXR, NYC's classical music station, changes frequencies and becomes a public radio station, owned by WNYC. No more commercials! Yay! But I have to wonder what other changes are in store. Apparently some of its announcers will not be moving over--including Clayelle Dalferes, who is a continuing source of traffic to this blog. They are being replaced by a couple from WNYC (and one other starting next month).

● One evening last week I stopped for a quick bite at The Modern, the excellent Danny Meyer restaurant in the Museum of Modern Art. There is a row of small, round tables parallel to the bar, with a banquet on one side and a chair for each table on the other. There was a vacant one, right next to a pillar. The chair was missing, so I sat on the banquet, at a 45 degree angle to get away a bit from the adjacent table, which was crowded with four people. I placed my order, and a bit later a bus-person? a bus-man? a busser? (I don't think bus-boy is politically correct these days) brought my place setting. But it seemed to offend his sensibilities that I wasn't sitting on the banquet at a 90 degree angle--which is where he put the setting, instead of directly in front of me. I moved it over. Listen, bus-whatever, the place setting is for the diner, not for the furniture.

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

France 5, Somali hijackers 0

Somali pirates attack French military vessel
I love it. They made a small mistake--they attacked the command ship of the entire French force in the area! But they're not "pirates." They're organized criminal gangs with boats.

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