Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Thursday, July 31, 2008
 
Good Book Hunting: July 30, 2008
Yesterday (yes, Wednesday), my beautiful wife and I sneaked off to a church rummage sale alone together, so we had some prime browse time and a chance to pick up some books. Here they are:

Pile of books from a church rummage sale
Click for full size
Among my purchases, you'll find:
  • The Battle of Midway Island, a paperback history of the World War II battle.

  • Nine To Five, the paperbackization of the movie. I saw that movie within the last two years, I think. Maybe three.

  • A Russian/English/English/Russian dictionary. True story, in the middle 1980s, while in middle school, I tinkered with teaching myself Russian. Just in case they invaded, I wanted to have wisecracks they'd understand as I partook in the street to street fighting in my trailer park. This was before my physics class that would teach me that street to street fighting in a trailer park would not leave much time for the scrappy Wolverinesish middle schoolers to make cracks. Still, I got one now because I didn't yet have one.

  • Wisconsin: Off the Beaten Path just so I can see where I've been and where I should go.

  • Cotswold Mistress a novel about something. It was a fifty cents, that's my excuse. Also, I've been jonesing for some acquisitions, I guess.

  • See, I Told You So, another copy of Rush Limbaugh's second book, ca. the middle nineties. Funny that he hasn't written more, but I guess book royalties might not be a good return on his investment vis-a-vis other things he can do.

  • Buckley: The Right Word, a vocabulary builder, I think, based on the work of William F. Buckley, Jr.

  • Complete Works by William Shakespeare in the Walter J. Black Classics Club edition. Note that I paid fifty cents for it. You Google searchers who inherited a pile from your predecessors and want me to tell you they're worth a lot of money, take note that you can get them for fifty cents each or a dollar each at garage sales and book fairs and about five bucks at used book stores that bother to stock them. They're not old, they're not rare. Get a job.

  • Excessive Joy Injures the Heart. I think it's one of those chick novels. It had a cool title and it was a ha'buck.

  • Bruges and Its Beauties, a guidebook to some city somewhere. I'd better set a bit from a suspense novel I write in it sometime, or I will have wasted this quarter.

  • Several Sunset paperbacks about fixing up your home. I got something about decks, something about wiring, and something about painting and wallpapering.

  • The Great Lakes and Florida, two photographic journey coffeetable books because I've been to both places and because I can probably browse them during baseball games.

  • Five CDs of artwork, including 2 Renaissance collections, 1 Impressionism collection, and the Vatican's collection. I think they might be art history things. They were like a buck each, so probably worth it.

So there I have them. A bunch more books to read when I'm done with 600 page academic history library books.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:01 PM   0 comments
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
 
Crossing Over, With Brian J.
As some of you might be surprised to learn, I have crossed over from time to time when it comes to voting, particularly for state races. Actually, "crossing over" is a bit of a misnomer; I tend to vote for Democrats, Libertarians, and Republicans based on a strange algorithm that only I understand.

This year, I cannot cross over to vote for Al Liese (Dem.) for state representative just so I can see which member of the family runs next time when Liese, who replaced his son using very similar signage for his run, gets term limited out. I thought it was a neat trick, but I was a neophyte in that scam even though I saw The Distinguished Gentleman. Now, though, I realize that Missouri politics is a full employment program for the Carnahan family as well as the other microdynasties-they-hope in the Blunt, Loudon, McNary, et al families.

Still, if Katherine Bruckner (her "blog") somehow gets nominated for state rep, I'd vote for her in a heartbeat. I mean, she's a Democrat proud she's got her concealed carry license? That's tougher than the Republicans vying for the spot on the ballot, word.

Additionally, I'm kicking around voting for Jay Nixon for governor if Kenny Hulshof is elected. I have a new motto: I trust a Missouri Democrat more than a Washington Republican. The difference, of course, lies in that anyone elected to or running for a national office is now a national servant, not the servant of the Missouri people. The money for the race comes from the outlying states, and suddenly the candidate espouses the national party's opinions. It's why I could have tolerated a Governor McCaskill but am not too pleased with Senator McCaskill.

Of course, once I start seeing the Jay Nixon ads and he starts making me sick of him, I might end up going Hulshof after all. Reluctantly.


- posted by Brian J. @ 4:43 PM   0 comments
 
Can You Take Your Children's Privacy Too Far?
You forget to whose blog you've come.

Shredding the coloring
Of course not.


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:07 AM   0 comments
Monday, July 28, 2008
 
Leftist Thugs On Wheels
Another month, another Critical Mass event includes beating a four wheeler, this time in Seattle:
    According to Jamieson, as the Critical Mass group moved down the street, blocking traffic, some riders got in the way of the Subaru and prevented it from leaving. Some bikers sat on the car and were banging on it, he said.

    "The driver was pretty fearful that he was about to be assaulted by the bicyclists," Jamieson said.

    The man tried to back up, but bumped into a biker. "This enraged the group," Jamieson said.

    Several of the bikers bashed up the Subaru, shattering the windshield and rear window, Jamieson said.

    The driver tried to drive away, but hit another bicyclist, Jamieson said. Still, he drove about a block, to the corner of Aloha and 15th Avenue East, before the Critical Mass riders cornered the car again and started spitting on it and banging against it.

    One bicyclist punched the driver through his open window, and another used a knife to slash the Subaru's tires, Jamieson said.

    The driver got out of his car, and was hit in the back of the head, opening a large gash.
Wow, just like San Fransisco.

You know, if they keep at it and this spreads, eventually cities will ban these events. More oppression for the poor, poor bike lovers everywhere, especially the leftist thugs who like any excuse to damage the straights with "cause."

(Link seen on Ace of Spades HQ.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:48 AM   1 comments
 
Conscious Colors for Interpretive Metrics
In case you didn't know it, Missouri is almost on par with the third world, or so this dynamic and purposefully frighteningly colored map would have you think.

food insecurity--the new made up scourge


What is food insecurity? Probably something less than distended bellies and dead children in the streets. But it's a interpretive metric, so those who want more government money in programs designed to combat bad feelings will always have just cause to spend more money. Except, sometimes, I suspect that it's just 'cause that they have.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:37 AM   2 comments
Saturday, July 26, 2008
 
One Cup Of Earl Grey, Hot, Away From Jean-Luc Picard
Godwin's law states that As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.. A lesser known corollary, or maybe something I just made up, states that most disputes can be clarified by using a Picard versus Kirk clarifying analogy.

Therefore, I would posit for your reflection, that Obama is Picard and McCain is Kirk.

Obama lives in a moneyless world where the Federation rules all aspects of its citizens lives, and the military vessel he runs would only use its weapons to make pretty lights as it ferried ambassadors and vaccines all over the galaxy.

McCain, on the other hand, lives in a world where the Federation is an outpost of decency barely clinging on in a galaxy where others would conquer it and it wants to have adventures, dammit. McCain also sings "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran," and he might be bluffing....but maybe not. You can see Kirk doing that, but not Picard. That's my point.

So, friends and three of my four regular readers (excepting my sainted mother, who isn't geek enough for this post), please, let me know in the comments whether the analogy holds up.

Also, please no obvious Obama is Sisko bits. One, I don't know if I've ever watched a complete episode of Deep Space Nine in my life, and two, any Star Trek series with a number in its acronym is a sissy series (and I include ST:V in this assessment even though V is only a Roman number--however, Obama is Janeway comments might be acceptable.)

Get your geek on!


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:19 PM   5 comments
 
When You Read The Spam Subject Lines Wrong
Let's just say that it probably didn't actually say:

Hot sex with Adobe products

But since I deleted them whole stack very quickly, I cannot say for sure, and it's not actually impossible.


- posted by Brian J. @ 1:52 PM   0 comments
Thursday, July 24, 2008
 
That's Just Sad
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch uses the AB-InBev merger as a springboard to launch a series of "damaging" fatuous questions at John McCain, whose wife owns an AB distributorship.

The head of the Washington Bureau "asks":
    John McCain's Straight Talk Express is far less talkative when it comes to beer.

    McCain's campaign is unwilling to directly address questions flowing from InBev's purchase of Anheuser-Busch Cos. in light of his wife, Cindy's, ownership of a large Anheuser-Busch distributorship in Arizona, Hensley and Co.

    — For more than 20 years as a legislator, McCain has abstained from taking positions or voting on measures related to alcohol. As president, would he act on beer-related legislation — or continue to abstain, in effect casting a veto?

    — InBev does business in Cuba, designated by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism. As a candidate, McCain has been tough on the Cuban government. Will his wife now sell the products of a company that does business in Cuba — or even expand her business to include InBev's other products?

    McCain's campaign is unusually tight-lipped on those questions, and wouldn't say whether the candidate's wife plans to separate herself from Hensley.
The paper's really making an effort here to springboard from a rather touchstone local issue into casting aspersions onto McCain's ethics. Particularly creative is trying to cast his recusing himself from voting on things that would benefit him through his wife's company and complaining about how a parent company would do business in Cuba. We're really stretching here.

I mean, for crying out loud, Barack Obama drives a Chrysler 300, and DaimlerChrysler does business in Cuba. Shouldn't Barack have rented a Ford? And what about his publisher's parent company, guilty of using Nazi slave labor at one point? Will Barack abstain from signing legislation in favor of slavery or Nazis?

I mean, I'm just a crackpot backwater blog making sarcastic remarks about Obama here, but the story and the leading questions in the paper is from a "credible" periodical with a (declining) metropolitan audience.

Forget this story, Post-Dispatch. If you need to try to gig McCain based on a narrative of local concern, investigate why he's tight-lipped about trading for a good middle reliever for the Cardinals. Sure, it's not his job, but you can still blame him for with a couple of bullet points.

(Full disclosure: I am actually a citizen columnist for a sort of sister publication of the Post-Dispatch.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:34 AM   2 comments
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
 
When Is A Lobbyist Not A Lobbyist?
When he agrees with the journalist's point of view:
    A rising number of uninsured patients are going without necessary care and are raising medical costs for those who have insurance coverage, according to a report released Tuesday by the Missouri Foundation for Health.

    The report, "The Significance of Missouri's Uninsured," took several recent studies from health care think tanks and federal agencies, located data relevant to Missouri and added analysis. The report was prepared by the foundation's Cover Missouri project, which began earlier this year.

    "I think there is an increasing understanding among Missourians that we're reaching crisis," said Ryan Barker, a health policy analyst for the nonprofit foundation, which conducts health research and advocacy. "This is a problem not just of a few people but of almost 800,000 Missourians.
Spending money on health care for the poor? Not when there's a study to conduct to bolster allocating tax money to a cause!

When it's a special interest group that the paper likes, it's not lobbying, it's advocating, and the special interest group-funded study isn't suspect, it's news.

I know, it goes without saying. But I'll say it anyway because it's as important to make a mystical chant out of the truth as it is the less-than-true that you want to stick in people's heads.


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:01 PM   0 comments
 
Wig Sharing Illegal
A photograph accompanying this story in Popular Mechanics about Area 51 illustrates how federal laws will eventually encompass every behavior on the planet (and, given the subject matter of the story, maybe the universe):

Tress passing is illegal


Where is it in the Constitution that Congress can prohibit passing your tresses to someone else? Eh, probably the Interstate Commerce Clause.

(Link seen on Instapundit.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:30 AM   0 comments
Monday, July 21, 2008
 
Williams Goes For Steelman
Michael Williams endorses Steelman.

No doubt he's getting a flurry of hits from the House of Representatives since he quotes the magic Google term "Kenny Hulshof" in his post. I hope you fellows there in Kenny's office are doing official government work on those computers and not campaign work because I'm under the impression that's naughty.

But Washington naughty doesn't count, right?


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:53 PM   0 comments
Sunday, July 20, 2008
 
Words That Do Not Belong In Country Songs Twofer
Badonkadonk, Donkey Kong, as in Trace Adkins "Honky Tonk Badonkadonk":
    That honkey tonk badonkadonk
    Keepin' perfect rhythm
    Make ya wanna swing along
    Got it goin' on
    Like Donkey Kong
Word to the wise: do not refer to an attractive woman as a large gorilla who kidnaps girls and throws barrels, or any other video game character for that matter. Let's just say that calling a certain beautiful wife "Lara" sort of spoiled the moment, okay?

You can see the video for the Trace Adkins song, along with attendant badonkadonk, here.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:28 PM   3 comments
Saturday, July 19, 2008
 
Good Book Hunting: July 19, 2008
Well, the one church that ran its classified ad last week actually had its rummage sale (not the northern terminology) this week, and that was the centerpiece of our trip this week. This will probably be our last weekend excursion, friends, as the pickings are so slim and the stage management so onerous as to render the weekly scheduled trips less than pleasant. Worry not, though; from time to time, I'll sneak into an estate sale and come up with some books, so I won't starve. Also, my to-read shelves are several thousand volumes, and there's always the library for historical nonfiction.

Regardless, here's what we got:

More books
Click for full size


I got:
  • The Middle Ages Volume III, a Books, Inc., publication about the Middle Ages, which in a couple thousand years will no longer be the middle. Hopefully.

  • The Renaissance Volume IV, a Books, Inc., publication about the Renaissance. In Art, maybe. Perhaps I bought two parts of a series here. I don't know.

  • Aristotle's Selections, a Books, Inc., publication. Selections of Aristotle, or a volume entitled Selections by Aristotle? Hey, they were a quarter each and matched, so I bought them without knowing.

  • The Travels of Marco Polo, a Books, Inc., publication about the Marco Polo, I hope.

  • Pure Drivel by Steve Martin. Comedy or a novella? I don't yet have it, so I bought it.

  • The Practical Handbook of Electrical Repairs and The Practical Handbook of Plumbing and Heating. A series of books detailing easy repairs from the 1960s. I haven't actually finished the one about television repair in a time where you could replace the tubes yourself and run down to the drug store to test them if you didn't know. So I won't jump right into reading them probably.

  • How Things Work In Your Home (and what to do when they don't). I have the How Electronic Things Work book, which looks like a distant relation. I think I'll run through this book for some basics so I can continue to impress my wife with my mad repair skillz. Actually, impress isn't the word; she just assumes that I know or can do it. That assumption is more gratifying than her being impressed every time. Also, it's more pressure. But I have these books!
Also, I got some cassettes of some easy listening stuff and a couple of, get this, design your garden computer program CDs. BECAUSE THEY WERE CHEAP! But you know what would be the killer app? Combining these design your level programs with a first person shooter where you can go in and execute, with a variety of weapons, those damn squirrels who have completely picked your tomato plants clean. Like a 21st century Centipede. I'd pay more than a quarter for that.

Oh, yeah, the wife got some books and cassettes and the Js got some books, but this is my blog, so no loving detail for those acquisitions.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:28 PM   1 comments
Friday, July 18, 2008
 
Book Report: The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler (1953, 1986)
I last read this book, I think, about 14 years ago when I got the New American Library complete novels of Chandler set. I've seen the movie since, although it took me two years to get through it after hanging up on the extended dance remix argument about impotence between the Wades. The film version took certain, erm, liberties with the story, I could tell based on basic WWRCD instinct. Now that I've refreshed my reading, I'm ready to go back to try the film again to set in concrete the reasons why it's inferior.

A later novel in the Philip Marlowe pantheon, this book deals with Marlowe striking up a friendship with a veteran. When the veteran flees after his wife is murdered, Marlowe helps him out and is drawn into the circle of his friend's neighbors and their moneyed misdeeds. It's a typical Chandler sort of plot, for what that's worth: a little convoluted, perhaps, but at least all the corpses are accounted for this time around.

But the texture of the language. There's something to it, of course, something that differentiates it from the other pulp writers and other purveyors of paperback sensibilities. MacDonald and McBain dabble in it, but Chandler mastered it. Parker touched it before writing for the talkies ruined him.

Reminds me why I wanted to write this sort of thing.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:47 PM   1 comments
Thursday, July 17, 2008
 
Dr. Obama Reports To The Operating Room
Dr. Obama plans to spay the economy

When Obama says fix the economy, I expect he means neuter.

PS, Time-Warner: I sort of accidentally resubscribed to Fortune, and your love of promoting service to Mother Gaia and pimping politicians in a "business" magazine reminds me that when this year-for-ten-bucks subscription ends, I ought to go with Forbes.


- posted by Brian J. @ 2:51 PM   1 comments
 
Hulshof Leads In Corrupting Influence
The Post-Dispatch headline is Steelman lags behind Hulshof. What, in votes? No. Projected votes based on a few people reached by phone? No.
    GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Hulshof rode a wave of endorsements to fundraising success this quarter, outpacing his primary opponent, Sarah Steelman, by more than a 4-1 ratio.
That is, he's raised more money than she has. But! Citizen, money is a corrupting influence in politics, which is why (the rationale goes) it must be limited by the government.

But the papers, who cheerlead the limitations because they like all government intervention, especially the ones that increase their influence, report on this as though it's indicative of anything more than who's got the friends with the deepest pockets.

We could expect it to be Hulshof, the Washington, D.C., resident running for the job. I'm for Steelman, of course, because I think going to Washington, D.C., is sort of like a British man going to WWI. Dudes, I'm Mrs. Dalloway in this scenario, and I just want to have a little party here without damaged veterans of foreign wars or DC "politics" (self- and party-enrichment) ruining it.

What's my point, other than I saw the movie of the Woolf novel? Oh, yeah, go Steelman.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:42 PM   0 comments
 
Helping Deb With The Christmas Shopping
Deb of Boondoggled recently became a grandmother, which means this will be her first Christmas picking out gifts for a grandchild. As she lacks experience at this, we at MfBJN thought we'd share a little advice.

Anything on this list would be perfect.

You're welcome.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:38 PM   4 comments
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
 
An Introduction to Brian J.'s Circuit Training Regimen
Courtesy of Life Magazine. Unfortunately, the article is entitled "The 10 Machines You Must Avoid at Your Gym".

(Link seen on Master of None.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:47 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
 
Book Report: A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy (1873, 1986)
It took me three weeks to read this book, which means that it's probably weaned me off of classical literature for the near future, at least until I can get back to reading a couple of hours each night.

That said, this is certainly my current favorite Hardy book, but all I've read is Tess of the D'Urbervilles when I was young (at the university) and Under a Greenwood Tree last year. Therefore, it's currently one of three.

The book details the affairs of the daughter of a rector in West England, Elfride by name. When a young architect comes to draw up plans for the work on the rectory, she falls for him and he for her; he idealizes her and looks up to her after a fashion. They almost elope, as her father discovers that he is of low birth and refuses to approve the match. The young man goes to India to make his fortune. Meanwhile, his educated mentor meets the woman and she falls for him, too. He, on the other hand, does not look up to her, but celebrates her purity and the fact that he's first in her heart. When her past attachment is uncovered, the scholar breaks off their engagement.

It's a simple enough structure, but by presenting the two types of man and how she relates to them, the book delves into male-female relationships well. I thought the ending was a bit of a cop-out, though, but the book is still a heck of a read. The language slows one a bit, but not too much off of the pace you get with current dialogue-laden scripts-with-paragraphs.

The book I read was the Penguin classics edition, though, and it came with a horrid, long introductory essay that I was smart enough not to read before I read the book. I mean, it's a discussion about the themes within the book and has no place ahead of the material it talks about. Also, the introduction did reassure me that I made the right decision in not pursuing a job in academia. It actually has the sentence, "The drama of the plot of A Pair of Blue Eyes is patriarchal," and although it does not use the word phallic, it does use bourgeous. Oh, for Pete's sake. It's a good story with interesting dwellings on the human condition, and the academics sap that power from the narrative through their readings for their own chestnut points. I squirm when I realize these people have moved out of English programs and into government.

Get yourself a good Barnes and Noble edition or a Walter J. Black printing from somewhere and ignore the pretentious pontifications about it and enjoy the story. As Hardy would have wanted it.

Books mentioned in this review:


- posted by Brian J. @ 3:28 PM   0 comments
Sunday, July 13, 2008
 
Some Book Hunting: July 12, 2008
We hit a couple of garage sales this weekend, in a stunning turn of events. We tried to hit a big church rummage sale, but it was in the paper a week early, so we had to settle for a string of smaller affairs. As I'm learning, the number of books available at these yard sales is growing slimmer and slimmer. Heck, even the estate sales offer fewer pickings, which probably indicates how few readers are left. Soon, we readers will actually have to fight and steal from each other to get secondhand books until one of us has all of them. And you know whom I am betting on.

At any rate, I got:

A few books for the middle of July
Click for full size

I got:
  • A three volume biography of George Washington because I didn't have one.

  • A copy of Mutiny on the Bounty in case I don't already have one.

  • Two taste-free comedies, Deuce Bigelow and BASEketball, because they were only fifty cents each for the VHS cassettes and I hadn't seen them since they were in the theaters.

  • A couple of cassettes because they were cheap.
As I said, slim pickings. But I like to think of this as resting up for the Carondolet Y book fair this year, which will not be at the Carondolet Y.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM   3 comments
Saturday, July 12, 2008
 
Brat Favor
Brian's favored resolutions to the 2008 Brett Favre Crisis:
  • Trade him to New Orleans for Mike McKenzie.
  • Trade him to Atlanta for a couple of Michael Vick's rescued dogs. They'll be more loyal and less fickle.
  • Send him to a CFL team, an outdoor one if there's one available, and let him play in the cold all the time.
Ever since he didn't file his retirement papers, I thought he wanted a trade. How quickly can I turn on a favorite player? Less quickly than he can turn on his fans. You can go somewhere else, Favre, but you won't be the Brett Favre you were in Green Bay. You'll be a rented journeyman quarterback.

Excuse me while I go order my Kampman jersey.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:10 AM   1 comments
 
Bizarro World, Redux
St. Charles County cuts spending:
    Less-than-expected sales tax receipts spurred County Executive Steve Ehlmann today to order county agencies to reduce spending by 8 percent and to eliminate discretionary travel.
Whoa. Must be a stop gap measure until they can figure out how to raise taxes, but still. It's the sound of fiscal responsibility, if not the practice (but possibly the beginning of the practice).

Cruising bill hits a brick wall:
    "I am all too aware of the problems facing the areas targeted by cruising. The cruisers, many of whom are not from St. Louis, are terrorizing our neighborhoods," Reed said in a statement. "Something needs to be done, but pushing through flawed legislation, which in this bill only continues to erode civil liberties, is not the answer."
Not passing a poor law just because they can? What sanity-flavored Kool Aid are those alderman drinking? I'd think $4 a gallon gas will curb cruising better than making it illegal, but I'm just thinking back to my young cruising days and shuddering at the thought of putting the whole week's pay into the gas tank on Friday and Saturday nights, before the Kalt's burgers and Jolt Cola.

Maybe there is room for some slight optimism in the country and its governance today.

By today, I mean "this morning." Give me a couple hours and I'll work myself out of it.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:05 AM   0 comments
Thursday, July 10, 2008
 
Husband Has Shotgun, Third of a Bottle of Jack Daniels
Publicist: Ethan Hawke has married girlfriend

I'm not sure I'd have my publicist release this if I were Ethan Hawke.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:57 PM   0 comments
 
The Miniature Dachshund Threat
Well, now that many municipalities have eliminated the pit bull and rottweiler threats, perhaps they need to turn their attention to another nemesis of mankind, the miniature dachshund:
    A dog chewed off an Alton woman’s big toe while she napped earlier this week.
How many innocent toes have to die before we remove the scourge of this dog breed from our cities? If it saves one toe, it's worth any cost.

They were bred to bite toes and feet; look at them! They serve no other purpose. City fathers, I demand you round them up and gas them.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:24 AM   1 comments
 
A License In Time Saves Nine
Some people think the power of licensing can prevent the deaths of children or tragedies of all sorts. What sort of license could have prevented this?
    Adin was already dead, beaten by the defendant at a Motel 6 near the airport because he had wet his pants and was crying, Gabler admitted the next day to police and in court Wednesday.

    Gabler wrapped the body in sheets, stuffed the corpse into a suitcase, and drove to Clyde Hamrick Elementary School, just west of Highway 21, near House Springs, where Gabler grew up.

    Adin was the son of Min Choi of Maryland Heights. She was visiting relatives in New York and left Adin in Gabler's care. The couple had been going together for about two years.

    Larner said Gabler went on a heroin binge that week and took the drug both before and after Adin's death.
  • A license before dating a heroin user.

  • A license before traveling to New York without your children.

  • A license for dumping bodies.

Add your own tasteless comments if you need to. Point is, though, that people lie at the heart of many tragedies, whether accidental or willful, and any license regime will not prevent them.


- posted by Brian J. @ 6:18 AM   3 comments
Wednesday, July 09, 2008
 
A Simple Mistake That Could Have Happened To Anyone
Because of a mistake by an intern in the wardrobe department, the oldies station today featured Judy in disguise with diamonds and Lucy in the sky with glasses.

(That's a joke for you, Charles, since you're the only one who reads this blog who would get it. Not necessarily find it funny, mind you, but understand the attempt.)


- posted by Brian J. @ 11:08 AM   2 comments
 
July 9 Celebration
Let's look at today's calendar:
The Calendar
Click for full size
Is today a national holiday or something?
It's Wyland's birthday!
Click for full size
It is! It's Wyland's birthday! Happy birthday to that great, erm, American, I assume. Who is Wyland, you ask?

Wyland's signature
Click for full size
Why, it's the artist behind the calendar. If you've been living under a rock or, well, anywhere where you've got a life, you probably don't know that Wyland is one of the more popular artists in America now and the official artist of the US Olympic team. To be honest, I had no idea until I googled him and reached his corporation's site.

But the company puts his birthday on its calendars, and I'll be honest, I have to respect that. If my company made calendars, I'd do something similar, except that I'd have them mark my wife and kids' birthdays and my anniversary. Just so I'd be unable to forget to put them on the calendar.


- posted by Brian J. @ 10:52 AM   0 comments
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
 
My Kind Of Hardware Store
I just got my first Ace Rewards gift card, which means I've spent too much enough at Ace Hardware to warrant them giving me five dollars in merchandise because they know I'll buy thirty dollars worth of stuff when I come in.

The restrictions on the back make me wonder if I'm going to the wrong Ace, though.

My Ace doesn't stock liquor, tobacco, or firearms.


Prohibiting me from using this towards alcohol, tobacco, or firearms at Ace would seem to indicate that somewhere there's an Ace Hardware that stocks these things. I'd like to know which one(s) because I'd like to shop there instead of my boring old hardware store.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:09 PM   1 comments
Monday, July 07, 2008
 
Doing It Wrong In The 21st Century
It's not often you see redevelopment plans like this in the 21st century:
    The Stevens family, owners of Sterling Pen Company based in Webster Groves, plan a major renovation to the 1936 "Quonset hut" building that has been unoccupied for more than 15 years. The building would be turned into office space.

    The exterior of the former brick warehouse, 8193 Big Bend, was modernized by the Stevens in the early 1990s, but the interior was never completed. The two-story building also has a basement.

    The development proposal does not call for any new construction, but would create parking for the newly-renovated building by demolishing the building currently occupied by Earth Designs. That property is also owned by the Stevens family, as is the building and property leased by the adjoining Roger's Produce, 625 E. Lockwood.

    Jeff De Pew, owner of Earth Designs, said he has been working with the Stevens family who has "made sure I have a viable and comfortable option" for relocation of his business.

    De Pew said he will move Earth Designs into a residential property at 624 Fair Oaks Ave., located directly behind his current location. The house is owned by the Stevens family, who plan a major renovation to the structure for use as a business. The home's backyard will be converted into additional parking. All access to the new development will be off of Big Bend, and not the residential neighborhood to the north.
What, the development company owns all the properties itself and doesn't need tax money to do the work?

Kudos to the Stevens family and Sterling Pen. I hope the city of Webster Groves doesn't veto the plan simply because it doesn't call for the government to exert undue influence.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:15 PM   0 comments
Sunday, July 06, 2008
 
How To Barbecue Your Tofurkey
Clayton company says it has built a better grill:
    A Clayton entrepreneur is offering a solution for cooks who love to barbecue but find charcoal grills physically or environmentally distasteful. Bryce Rutter, founder and chief executive of Metaphase Design Group Inc., set up a company to produce a novel grill — one that takes up less space and uses up to 75 percent fewer charcoal briquettes than traditional models. Then Rutter went an environmental step further last month by acquiring the exclusive North American rights to import an all-natural charcoal made in the Philippines from coconut shells.
Guys, there's this thing called knowing your target audience, and the people who worry about charcoal grills being environmentally distasteful don't, you know, eat meat much less cook it over a flame. Their total food preparation experience involves leaving their lofts to go for sushi or Thai or Indian food.

But know that you've designed it, you'll discover the flawed business premise.


- posted by Brian J. @ 7:15 PM   1 comments
Saturday, July 05, 2008
 
Instinctive Response
Confronted by Obama nation voter registration creators drivers at the grocery store, my wife's instinctive response, apparently:

McCain fries


Buy some McCain fries, whether we like them or not.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:48 PM   1 comments
 
Book Hunting: July 5, 2008
Well, there were a few garage sales around, so we did about six, and all I got was a book and a cassette:

A book, a cassette, a buck

I'd be making progress on my thousands-of-volumes reading backlog if I wasn't spending weeks reading a book these days.


- posted by Brian J. @ 8:45 PM   2 comments
Thursday, July 03, 2008
 
A Secret Shakespearean Fantasy
Back when I was a shipping/receiving clerk for a local art supply store, I always wanted to recite the Porter scene from MacBeth whenever a delivery driver rang the bell on the loading dock:

    Macbeth, Act II, Scene III

     Knocking within. Enter a Porter 
    Porter:Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of hell-gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Beelzebub? Here's a farmer, that hanged himself on the expectation of plenty: come in time; have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th'other devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could swear in both the scales against either scale; who committed treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock! Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out of a French hose: come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock; never at quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I had thought to have let in some of all professions that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the porter. [Opens the gate.]
Of course, by the time I would have gotten that out, the truck driver would have come in the front door looking for me and swearing. Also, it would have weirded out a commercial sales guy if he was in the warehouse pulling and order or prepping it for the courier, but that would have been a bonus.

Unfortunately, those were busy days. It wasn't until I was a printer, operating a two color offset printing press for hours on end, that I got the chance to spend days memorizing pieces, like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". My recitation of which (or the appreciation of my recitation of which by an English teacher mother-in-law-to-be) and a timely hard drive replacement secured me permission to marry my beautiful wife. The porter scene might have worked in that situation, too, but I'm glad I didn't take the chance.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:22 PM   0 comments
 
If You Want To Be Catholic
Some big news here in St. Louis this weekend: Archbishop Burke, the recent and short-term leader of the Catholic church in St. Louis, was told to take a new position in Rome. The paper and pseudo-Catholics in the region rejoiced, calmly, and the paper helpfully illustrated the things it ran full color spreads on during Burke's tenure in the story Burke's tenure here was never dull:
  • Archbishop Burke excommunicated a couple of women who started calling themselves Catholic priests and offering mass in a synagogue where they could get space. The paper runs their picture with the story about Burke to give a human face to his totalitarian enforcement of actual, you know, Catholic teaching and doctrine.

  • Archbishop Burke reallocated assets of the church, including a Polish parish named for St. Stanislaus. The lay board of the church said no thanks and brought in a rogue priest to run the church. The lay board was shocked to then discover that a priest who would defy the archbishop would also start doing other non-Catholic things, such as recognizing women priests.

  • Burke took actions in support of Catholic anti-abortion, anti-embryonic stem cell research teachings, shocking the "enlightened" society of St. Louis.
In other words, he followed the theological mandates of his church and its hierarchy.

However, some "Catholics" and the anti-churching amongst the journalistic set like to run pieces on the authoritarianism and the non-do-your-own-thing vibe of the Catholic church. They want to pick their beliefs and their attitudes from the salad bar of modern day life and still call themselves members of the group, no matter how few characteristics they share with the group. Or, I suppose, they want to tear down something greater than themselves to prove their own power.

You want the mass without the international heirarchy? Become a Lutheran. You want to control your own church and its funds? Join or start a storefront Baptist church. You want women ministers? Become a Unitarian or a Methodist or any of the other sects that have them. You want to worship by having sex with a priestess of Mother Gaia on Tuesday afternoons? Become governor of New York (or some other political office holder) and pay full price same as in town. But do not think that your inclinations are just as Catholic as John Paul II.

I'm not even Catholic, and the media stories offend me.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:15 AM   3 comments
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
 
Another Country Blonde
All right, all right, GAC and CMT: Julianne Hough is attractive:
You're only playing her once an hour, so I get the point.

She's also a young one, like Taylor Swift. What the heck is going on with country music turning into pop music with its focus on young stars? I wrote back in 2003 about how the charts were skewing younger, which meant that as I grew older, I couldn't connect with the music since I was no longer 20 and in love for the first time.

Fortunately, country and western hasn't gone that far yet. For every Hough and Swift, we still get some Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, or oldsters like LeeAnn Rimes.

Hopefully, though, success will allow Hough to buy something to eat. She's got blue eyes, blonde hair, pretty skin, and functional bones, but it looks like her man will have to do a lot of gratuitous lifting in their relationship.


- posted by Brian J. @ 12:33 PM   2 comments
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
 
The Movie So Bad The Critics Forgot It
In a review of Hancock, St. Louis Post-Dispatch cinema critic Calvin Wilson tosses in this aside critical not of the movie, but of plebes who go to films for their own pleasure and not for edification through serious cinema:
    That probably won't bother the film's core audience, which is happy to see Smith in just about anything except "Ali."
Dude, they didn't exactly clamor for The Legend of Bagger Vance either, ainna?


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:59 PM   0 comments
 
No Accident Unpunished
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch performs its simple hard-hitting journalism in sounding an unnecessary klaxon calling for more government oversight and regulation. This time, again, a tragic accidental death of a child should lead (in a perfect Post-Dispatch world) to more government regulation and intrusion. The accident:
    A year ago last Thursday the Blechas' second son, Nathan, died at age 4 months in a portable crib in Lutz's home, after being placed on his abdomen for a nap. The St. Louis County Medical Examiner's office ruled the cause of death "re-breath," the breathing in of carbon dioxide exhaled by the baby, who was too young to turn his head away from a wrinkle in the mattress.

    The next day, Lutz shut the day care for good.
Here's what we glean from the bits:
  • The death was an accident.

  • The caregiver, riven by guilt, left the profession the next day.

  • The paper is not reporting on an accident; instead, one year later, it's reporting on the parents of the dead child and their crusade to Make Sure Their Child's Death Was Not In Vain.
The call to government control:
    According to state records, Lutz had obtained a license to cut hair and one to practice massage, but when it came to child care, she never applied to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services' Child Care Regulation section. That's the unit that inspects day cares and issues licenses for people routinely caring for more than four unrelated children.

    Nathan's parents say they have been waiting "for the system to kick in." But nothing has happened: no criminal charges, no fines, no outrage and no reform of a child-care oversight system that the Blechas feel did little to prevent or recognize Nathan's death.

    Steve Blecha said he called the Jefferson County sheriff's office early this year and was told the death had been ruled accidental.

    He also learned that the most Lutz could be fined for operating without a license was $200 — a fine so small that Blecha said it didn't matter that prosecutors didn't pursue it.
Of course, the article goes into detail about how the government can only fine unlicensed day care facilities and cannot bring down the wrath of the gods upon them. I suppose the "journalists" and certainly the tragically affected parents would like MURDER ONE charges or something to make the people who've thought twice THINK TWICE about having accidents, but jeez.

A license probably won't prevent every accident. It will, however, raise the cost of doing business as a baby sitter/day care, which in turn will drive out conscientious people who won't pay the money. Then, when the people who cannot afford au pairs need to drop their kids off while they work, they will turn to less conscientious family members, and further accidents will occur.

I hate it when children die, but I also hate it when their deaths lead to knee-jerk statist action that will have unintended consequences worse than the initial accident precipitating the knee-jerk reaction.

But the papers? Man, they love standing up for the outlier since the little guys have already been accommodated.


- posted by Brian J. @ 9:42 PM   9 comments
 
Party Hardy
...it is only those who half know a thing that write about it. Those who know it thoroughly don't take the trouble.

           Thomas Hardy, A Pair of Blue Eyes

It does, however, keep the blogosphere humming along.

- posted by Brian J. @ 9:38 PM   0 comments
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."