Musings from Brian J. Noggle
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Read Me, Seymour
Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis:
- Despite the mass media news blackout, a series of books, talk radio and the blogosphere have managed to expose Barack Obama's connections to his radical mentors -- Weather Underground bombers William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis and others. David Horowitz and his Discover the Networks.org have also contributed a wealth of information and have noted Obama's radical connections since the beginning.
Yet, no one to my knowledge has yet connected all the dots between Barack Obama and the Radical Left. When seen together, the influences on Obama's life comprise a who's who of the radical leftist movement, and it becomes painfully apparent that not only is Obama a willing participant in that movement, he has spent most of his adult life deeply immersed in it.
But even this doesn't fully describe the extreme nature of this candidate. He can be tied directly to a malevolent overarching strategy that has motivated many, if not all, of the most destructive radical leftist organizations in the United States since the 1960s.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:36 PM 0 comments
Good Book Hunting: August 20, 2008
On August 20, 2008, we went to a church rummage sale and lit upon a couple books:
Uh, that's it, but you're almost up to date.
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:32 AM 0 comments
One Quarter Must Refer To The Coin
Instructions for changing the battery on a heart rate monitor:
Click for full size
The coin-slot starts in the horizontal position; notice that the text says "one quarter turn," but the image is actually a one-eighth turn.
It opens on a one-eighth turn, but it will helpfully turn a full quarter turn in case you're wondering. Which passes the point where the little locking things pass through the gaps. One quarter turn results in locking it again.
Technical writers are cretins.
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:24 AM 0 comments
Book Report: Three Volumes of Poetry by Ogden Nash, T.S. Eliot, and American Greeting Card Corporation
Many Long Years Ago by Ogden Nash (1945)
Reflections on Our Friendship by American Greetings Corporation (1975)
Old Possum's Practical Book of Cats by T.S. Eliot (1939, 1982)
If laddie reckons himself to be a poet, laddie really ought to read diverse styles of poetry and, yes, sometimes even poetry that is not very good. Not that I reckon myself to be a poet these days.
The volume of Nash's represents the longest of the five I bought in 2007 (I hope--it's 330+ pages, which is a lot of one poet in a row). Nash's poems are light and easy to read, but sometimes their rhthyms are way off and the words are stretched and misspelled on purpose to make a rhyme, which can be distracting more than truly humorous. But sometimes, he puts a thought or observation into such stark and clear language you cannot help quoting it.
On the other hand, the American Greetings Corporation book is a collection of meh things full of proper rhymes, fair cadence, and imagery like the ocean that washes away from the beach and whose individual waves you cannot remember after the vacation is over. On the other hand, these poets are in more volumes than I am.
The T.S. Eliot book is light and humorous verse about cats, of course. The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is based on it, but I'm not going to run right out and see a musical based on reading this book. Eliot is really good technically, with good cadence and rhyme and use of repetition, but it's only an amusing book about, well, cats, so it didn't yield any insight into the human condition for me. Unlike, say, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock".
If you're a novice looking to broaden your horizons, I rank them Eliot, Nash, and American Greetings Corporation, but you could probably skip the last. Although its lack of availability online indicates it's rare, so in my own interest I should say "You should read Reflections on Friendship, or you'll die ignorant and uncultured (available at MfBJN for $299.98." But I'm not doing this for myself, gentle reader; no, I write these book reports for you. TO KNOW HOW MUCH AND WIDELY I READ!
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:14 AM 0 comments
Book Report: The Lost City of Zork by Robin W. Bailey (1991)
This book brings back the memories. Memories of text-based games I started, but couldn't actually get through. Or far into, for that matter. We bought a number of titles from Infocom for the Commodore 64 (Zork, Zork II, Zork III, Deadline, and Suspended), but I only completed Deadline because I got the hint book and it showed me the important pivot point required to get to the solution.
This book precedes the games and attempts to recreate the odd flavor of Zork. It doesn't do so well. One can approach the book as a rather lightweight, lighthearted fantasy book and enjoy it a bit, though. Plus, it gives backstory for the Zork world, so if you're an aficionado, you probably ought to read it.
Anyway, the plot: a farm boy banished from his village goes to Bophree to seek his fortune, only to find a tyrant newly in power. He's impressed into the navy, survives a shipwreck, and returns with a sidekick and a sorceror to Bophree to find all the other magicians are missing. They've got to find the conjurors and overthrow the dictator.
The book starts out okay, with some nice backstory, but about halfway through its event-driven plot starts to run things, and then things happen, deus machinate, and coincidences occur to solve the problems. Then it ends.
Eh. It ain't Tolkien, but it won't take you a month to read.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:59 AM 0 comments
Book Report: The Pope of Greenwich Village by Vincent Patrick (1979)
I bought this book a couple years ago at the Kirkwood Book Fair because it was a book upon which a movie was based. Funny, I remember seeing the advertisements in 1984 for the film, but I've never seen the film. I'll have to finagle a copy somewhere now so I can compare the two.
Because this book is pretty good. It's a 70s Mob In New York sort of book. All of the characters, no matter how minor, are evil or are crass and ultimately are not good people, but within the Mob milieu, you start residing in an alternate universe where the most sympathetic bad guy is the protagonist you identify with. Mob/grifter books share this with vampire books, oddly enough. In this particular instance, Charlie is a smalltime grifter who, as his position as restaurant manager, cheats by skimming from the top of the vending machine receipts, guzzling free drinks all night, and sometimes keeping entrees off of the bill for a small gratuity. He needs a small score to get out from under hock and to pay for his divorce from a mobster's daughter. His cousin Paulie comes up with a simple score, and they go for it. An off-duty cop dies, and then Paulie lets on it was a mobster's money they stole.
The plot moves along well. There are enough interesting people working together or at cross purposes, and the author cuts between them effectively. However, the ending was a little letdown. Still, I liked the book.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:47 AM 0 comments
Monday, September 29, 2008
Range Report
To be like all the cool kids, I compelled Jack Straw to take me to the local indoor gun range with an assortment of his armaments. I shot:
A Browning BuckMark in .22lr with a C-More Red-dot sight firing CCI subsonic hollowpoints.
A Para Ordnance P1445 in .45ACP with open, fixed sights firing Sellier & Bellot 230gr FMJ.
It's my first time firing those new-fangled semi-automatic handguns, or as they're soon to be known in a House bill and set of laudatory news stories, high-powered assault sniper cop-baby-and-puppy-killer automatic machined pistols. Still, for all the hoopla, they don't always fire a bullet when you pull the trigger.
Not depicted: the Glock G36 in OD Green with fixed sights with a LaserMax guide-rod laser (pulsing) firing Sellier & Bellot 230gr FMJ and the Romanian WASR-10 (AK-variant) with Pentax red-dot sight, folding stock, aluminum quad rail fore-end, AK-74-style muzzle compensator, rear pistol grip & forward folding grip, TAPCO single-hook trigger, and Axis Pin Retaining Plate firing Wolf Military Classic Hollow Point, soon to be known after a House bill, Senate Bill, signature by President Obama, and laudatory news stories as illegal.
Also not depicted: the RehabCare logo on the ball cap.
How did I do? You had to ask that, didn't you? Well, I aimed consistently low. Jack Straw tells me my grouping was very good, but let's be honest, if I used my hand instead of a pistol, it would have been called a groping and not a grouping, okay? I dunno what I was doing wrong; we were shooting at little adhesive targets affixed to the paper target, and I missed consistently low and left when I fired at the right side of the target and hit pretty good on the left side of the target.
I blame the change in my dominant eye in the 20 years since I last fired a gun.
Still, I'm pleased to have gone and will have to do so again. Understanding a semi-automatic pistol and firing one tolerably might not be in Heinlein's list of things a man should be able to do, but it's on mine.
- posted by Brian J. @ 12:23 PM 2 comments
Had Enough of What?
A couple of sign have cropped up in the neighborhood here that say "Had Enough?/Vote Democrat". They've often prompted me to wonder, enough of what?
The obvious answer is the drumbeat of ominous news passed through most traditional media outlets. How bad is the news portrayed? Enough that 33% of a recent poll's respondents say the US is in an actual depression.
Get them some Paxil. I think they confuse the economic term with the clinical psychological term.
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:32 AM 2 comments
Saturday, September 27, 2008
A Band Slam 20 Years In The Making (Almost)
Remember the band Color Me Badd?
Me, either.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:27 PM 1 comments
Friday, September 26, 2008
Two Weekends To Reshape Hollywood?
With Fireproof (only one paper reviewed it? Really? I hear showings for Saturday night here in St. Louis are already sold out) opening this weekend and An American Carol next--both to limited release--will boffo numbers for both refocus Hollywood money men on making films that people want to see that portray Christianity favorably or lampoon the taboo subjects of Liberalism?
Who am I kidding?
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:55 PM 8 comments
Obama Campaign Wants Radio Station Licenses
For airing anti-Obama advertisements:
- The Obama campaign has written radio stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, pressing them to refuse to air an ad from the National Rifle Association.
"This advertisement knowingly misleads your viewing audience about Senator Obama's position on the Second Amendment," says the letter from Obama general counsel Bob Bauer. "For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement."
First, the Obama campaign wanted Justice Department investigations and charges for an opposing political group. Then, the Obama campaign warned broadcasters their licenses were in jeopardy for running anti-Obama ads. Then Missouri prosecutors said opposing viewpoints would be prosecuted.
Is this 21st Century America? Is this the Change Happens on November 4 we were waiting/hoping for?
Whatever you imagine the Bush administration's civil liberties failings were, get ready to be prosecuted for your speech under the Obama administration.
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:30 AM 0 comments
No, Prosecute Me First!
St. Louis prosecutors, Obama supporters, make their preparations to go after people who make false statements about Barack Obama.
Don't forget I made a bumper sticker intimating he's involved with the Communist Party:
Click to buy
It becomes less and less hyperbole every day, doesn't it?
More on this story at Gateway Pundit and St. Louis Metropolitan Area Council of Conservative Citizens.
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
- posted by Brian J. @ 6:42 AM 3 comments
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Read This First
Obama-Ayers: Partners in Revolution
(Link seen on Instapundit.)
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:52 AM 0 comments
If Chavez Calls You Comrade, You're Doing It Wrong
Chavez says Bush is his comrade:
- "I nationalize strategic companies and get criticized, but when Bush does it, it's OK," Chavez said on weekly television program Sept. 21. "Bush is turning socialist. How are you, comrade Bush?"
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:08 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Suing the Dead Guy
You know what this story fails to mention?
- Joan Anzalone’s children blame her longtime boyfriend for the helicopter crash that killed the couple, and filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming he may have doomed them by flying blindly and negligently into a heavy fog.
The lawsuit was filed in Cook County, Ill., where Anzalone and Alan Sapko began their flight back to Kenosha early Sunday morning, after taking in a Huey Lewis and the News concert at the Horseshoe Casino just over the border in Hammond, Ind.
Sapko, 54, reportedly played cards until about 4:30 a.m. before lifting off in his Robinson R-44 helicopter, with Anzalone, 45, a mother of children ages 21, 19 and 17.
Their lawsuit claims Sapko failed to follow federal regulations, failed to verify the weather conditions, failed to abandon his flight plan when he encountered fog and negligently flew into an area with insufficient visibility.
- A helicopter carrying two people crashed into a Kenosha family’s home early Sunday, the rotor blades slicing through the two-story structure like a loaf of bread as the aircraft tumbled down a stairway before blowing out the front door and coming to rest on a neighbor’s driveway.
While the two helicopter occupants were killed, a couple and their three young children survived unharmed as the cart-wheeling wreckage blew their bedroom doors off the hinges just before dawn.
- posted by Brian J. @ 6:30 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Book Report: I'm Glad I'm Not Young Anymore by Clarissa Start (1990)
This is the book you wished your grandmother had written.
Part memoir, part musing, Clarissa Start talks about her youth and living on the South Side of St. Louis, and sometimes Florida, as her parents eked out an existence in the 1920s. Those years and her attendance at University of Missouri during the depression were made adventurous by a father with a predilection for the ponies. Then, Clarissa deals with her husband's getting called up for World War II after they buy their first house (just down the road a piece from here; I went looking for it since there was a picture in the book). She details a bit about her job search and finally her placement with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The book then muses on aging a bit; her first husband dies, she moves out to the country (she lived in High Ridge while I was in House Springs, so we were almost neighbors). It has a wise, even tone to it.
Even retrospectively, Start doesn't apply contemporary standards to history. She mentions internment in WW2 and explains it seemed like a good idea at the time. So that was noteable.
I liked the book enough that I bought another copy to send to my mother-in-law, another UMC graduate. On purpose. So, you know, I liked it.
- posted by Brian J. @ 11:21 AM 0 comments
This Is Only A Test
University City tests out its property condemnation system after a flood:
- The city condemned about 275 properties in the aftermath of the storm, but nearly all of the condemnations have been lifted. City officials said the condemnations were to protect residents from potential electrical or other hazards or the lack of utilities.
- posted by Brian J. @ 11:09 AM 0 comments
Book Report: From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming (1957, 1964)
You know, the book struck me as slightly familiar, and a trip to my library database software confirmed it: I've read this book recently. Well, sort of recently. Between 2000 and 2004: that is, between moving into my house in Casinoport and starting the book report things here on the blog. Oddly, I didn't remember too much about the plot, but certain setups, scenes, and turns of phrase resonated.
SMERSH, a Soviet organization tasked with killing spies, decides to kill Bond. They set up an elaborate trap for him, using an attractive young Soviet for bait, and put into motion the plan to not only kill bond but to also embarrass British intelligence.
The Bond books are straightforward, without the winking and smirking that characterizes the movies. At the same time, they're very pro-Western and anti-bad guys, so red-blooded American readers can enjoy them and hearken back to a time where the West, at least in fiction, hung together.
- posted by Brian J. @ 6:44 AM 0 comments
Internet Conspiracy for the Day
Would a billionaire financier who has spent beaucoup money in the last eight years opposing the Bush administration, someone like George Soros, say, tank the American economy just before an election to help his client party?
Think about it. Ah, nah, don't think about it, that's too complicated. Parrot it to a couple of friends, maybe mention it in an e-mail or two.
- posted by Brian J. @ 6:05 AM 2 comments
Book Report: Murder Spins The Wheel by Brett Halliday (1966)
This is a Mike Shayne mystery without the Castro boosterism. Written in the middle 1960s, it's a throwback to the old style of hardboiled mystery combined with the contemporary laxity in moral values. In it, an underworld associate of Shayne's gets set up. A fixed football game, a horserace gone bad, and a set-up stick-up lead the associate to New York, where he's ultimately set up for a narcotics bust. Shayne has to delve into the complex set of grifters and whatnot to find justice.
It's a good bit of paperback hardboiled mystery. I've read a number of the Shayne series in the past decades, and I'll pick up others I'll find. That's a pretty rousing endorsement from me, except I suppose that I pick up pretty much anything if it's under a buck at a book fair.
- posted by Brian J. @ 5:59 AM 0 comments
Monday, September 22, 2008
Also, Read This
The steady, marching drumbeat of Marxism in everyday life:
- The drumbeat. It's always there. Day and night. Rain or shine. Winter or Summer. Sunday or Monday. It comes at you from every direction. It comes over the TV, the radio, at work, at school, in music, in the newspapers, from the politicians, in conversation with others, even in church. It wears you down. It robs you of the will to resist its message. Even short-lived victories, which stop it briefly, leave you with the knowledge that it will return; each minor victory bound to be lost to the redoubled efforts of this patient and persistent force. You can't escape it. It never stops. It never gives up. It never ends. It rains upon you from every possible angle, from every possible source.
It's the drumbeat of the left. It is political, philosophical, theological, and social. It pervades every activity. It is post-structural, post-modern, post-everything in the parlance of the day. It is tolerant, diverse, non-judgmental, non-discriminatory, egalitarian, politically correct, multicultural, globalist, and collectivist. It insists that there are no rights and wrongs, no moral absolutes. It turns everything upside down in its looking glass world. It denies the correctness of all that produced what our culture revered before the deconstruction of the world in accordance with the tenets of cultural Marxism.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:32 PM 0 comments
Read This First
The Smallest Minority reprints a transcript of Mark Levin explaining the current credit crisis.
(Link seen on View from the Porch.)
Remember, there are 2 parties in this country: The ones who go into government or near government to get rich and the rest of us.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:13 AM 0 comments
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Journalist, Whither The Irony?
Loans came easily, then fell apart:
- While earning a salary of $21,000 a year, Leesa Robinson landed on top of the real estate world in 2006, overseeing nearly $1 million in property.
The 45-year-old single mom started buying houses after watching late-night infomercials and their tales of fast wealth.
Lenders from across the country wrote more than $800,000 in home loans in 2005 and 2006 so Robinson could buy eight north side rental properties, half of which she purchased with no money down. All but one of the loans came with high-interest, adjustable rates.
Today, her credit is shot. She lost all eight houses. She went bankrupt.
Robinson’s story is far from unique.
And whose fault is it? None, apparently, on the person who believed too much in infomercials, reached for the American Dream, and failed. Failure is no longer an option; it's something that The Man or Big Mortgage does to you.
- posted by Brian J. @ 12:18 PM 0 comments
Saturday, September 20, 2008
How Did You Celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day?
Not like this fellow, who celebrated Walk The Walk Like A Pirate Day:
Hoard of gold coins found in banker's home basement
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:22 PM 0 comments
Can't Help Myself, Comrade
You know, I wanted to take the high road this election cycle.
Nah.
Click to buy
Read about Obama's Communist Party connections here.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:14 PM 1 comments
Friday, September 19, 2008
How Cute! Some Books
Kim du Toit starts it up again by showing off half of his book collection.
Me, I don't have time to update it with the new bookshelves, but here's the Noggle Library in February 2008, before book fair season.
I don't know why I bother trash talking when comparing our library to the bibliophile libraries of Porch Girl or the du Toits. I mean, it's clear we (I) have a problem, and we've turned the corner in book collection from book lover and are approaching tenured professor levels.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:34 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
The Noggle/Lileks Video Collection Solidarity Approaches
Today he announces:
- Simply put: my wife got me a collection of 100 Mystery movies on DVD for my birthday, and I’m going to watch them all. This feature will run at least once a week, and will range from the boring – like our first one, alas – to the really, really bad.
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:58 AM 0 comments
Warning: Spore Can Help Terrorists Build Biochemical Weapons
Our nation's defense forces are just spitballing here:
- The American military and intelligence communities are increasingly worried that would-be bin Ladens might gather in a virtual world, to plan a real-life attack. But the spies haven't given many details, about how it might be done. Now, a Pentagon researcher has laid out how such a terror plot might unfold. The planning ground is World of Warcraft. The main target of this possibly nuclear strike: the White House.
There's been no public proof to date of terrorists hatching plots in virtual worlds. But online spaces like World of Warcraft are making some spooks, generals and Congressmen extremely nervous. They imagine terrorists rehearsing attacks in these worlds, just like the U.S. military trains with commercial shoot-em-up games. They worry that the massively multiplayer games make it incredibly easy to gather plotters from around the world. But, mostly, virtual worlds are nerve-wracking to spies because they're so hard to monitor. The accounts are pseudonymous. The access is global. The jargon is thick. And most of the spy agencies' employees aren't exactly level-70 shamans.
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:52 AM 0 comments
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Good Book Hunting: September 10, 2008
On Wednesday, I found a yard sale and received a book I'd ordered off the Internet. Here they are:
- The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico, a book about the conquest of the Mexica written by one of the conquistadores. The bite of the Porch Girl continues.
- The Caretakers by Tabitha King. That's my second book purchase from this author simply because she's Stephen King's wife. Brother, his coattails are carrying the whole family as far as I'm concerned. Maybe I'll read one of them and like it so I'll buy the author in his (Joe Hill's) or her own right.
- The Audobon Society Field Guide to North American Birds including a visual flip guide. So by the time my children pay attention, I hope to know what kinds of birds you see around here.
- posted by Brian J. @ 11:18 AM 0 comments
Book Report: Murder at the ABA by Isaac Asimov (1976)
Isaac Asimov not only wrote science fiction, not only wrote science fact, but also wrote mysteries. This particular bit is one such, and it's one that includes Isaac Asimov as a character. The first person POV focuses on Darius Just, a literary author whose protege is murdered at the American Booksellers Association conference in New York. Just finds the body and determines that, although staged to look like an accident, his tempermental and sexually deviant, uh, protege (I already called him that, but other nouns are not forthcoming) was murdered. Just has, uh, only four days to find the murder. And if he does, he'll let Isaac Asimov write the book.
Asimov has fun with the book and with using himself, going so far as to have footnote back-and-forth with Darius Just. Along the way, it's a whodunit sort of mystery where you could figure it out, sort of, if you looked in the right places. Me, I don't puzzle the book out that way, so it's not ordinarily my cup of tea. But I enjoyed it.
As a side note, I'm actually re-reading this book. I first read it in high school, lo those many years ago. I liked it enough to pick it up for a buck, and all I remembered was the gimmick of having Asimov in it.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:34 AM 0 comments
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Who's Blighting Bel-Ridge?
In Bel-Ridge, a combination of the municipality and a rent-seeking developer are contributing to blight in the area. First, of course, the municipality promised the developer land backed by seizure:
- A couple of years earlier, Bel-Ridge had approved a redevelopment plan for a 78-acre swath of the city. The developer, Clayco, can acquire property by eminent domain.
- Matt Prickett, a development manager with Clayco, says the Bel-Ridge project is on hold because of the soft economy. It was envisioned as a major retail center, and retailers aren't in an expansion mode.
"The market is what it is," Prickett said.
As a result, a landowner who wants to renovate his property is in a bind:
- A year ago, the Hood's store on Natural Bridge Road was an eyesore. The windows were boarded up, the roof leaked and the parking lot was full of potholes.
Mike Hood, the owner, candidly says the city of Bel-Ridge probably could have condemned the building years ago, or at least cited it for multiple code violations. But it didn't, and Hood launched a major renovation after buying the discount home-improvement store in January from his father, Ernest.
Three-quarters of the way into that $1 million project, Hood's has a new roof, new glass, a repaved parking lot and new bathrooms. A shop being built in one corner will cut countertop materials to customers' specifications.
Assuming he's right about the market for discounted cabinets and flooring, Hood's investment should assure the store of a long and prosperous future. But, three months into his renovations, Hood learned of a complication: A couple of years earlier, Bel-Ridge had approved a redevelopment plan for a 78-acre swath of the city. The developer, Clayco, can acquire property by eminent domain.
That means Hood, like owners of other businesses along Natural Bridge and the homes to the north, could have his property taken by force. A court proceeding would determine the property's market value, but Hood might not get back the money he's putting into the store. In all likelihood, he also wouldn't be compensated for what he sees as the store's potential.
- As for the wisdom of investing $1 million in a store that Clayco could buy and tear down, Prickett said he'd impart the same advice he gives to homeowners: "We encourage them to make the necessary investments to maintain the health and safety of their property."
Meanwhile, the area in question will go to seed because macroplanners prevent individuals from sprucing it up. As a result, Bel-Ridge makes its own blight. As do many of these private/"public" deals.
UPDATE: Thanks to gimlet for pointing out I called Bel-Ridge Bel-Nor in the title and intro paragraph. Crikey, what's with the municipalities naming themselves similarly? Bel-Ridge/Bel-Nor, Vinita Park/Vinita Terrace, etc.
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:24 AM 0 comments
Friday, September 12, 2008
When Toohey Runs The Ski Resort
Fed up with the new municipality's continuing red tape with his business, a ski resort owner in St. Louis County plans to close shop:
- The St. Louis region's only ski resort will close after this winter because of a dispute with the city of Wildwood, the resort's owner said today.
"I would basically characterize it as blackmail," said Tim Boyd, president of Peak Resorts Inc., the company that owns the Hidden Valley golf and ski resort in Wildwood.
Hidden Valley applied for a permit to build a snow tubing area and parking lot to accommodate it. But the city's planning and zoning commission last week told the resort it would need to meet additional requirements before it could expand.
The resort needed to get its hours of operation approved by the city, and either pay a nearly $252,000 fee to the city for a new parking lot or dedicate some of its land as public space.
The resorts hours of operation are not currently restricted by the city because it was built 26 years ago, before the city was incorporated in 1995.
- wo City Council members met with the owner of Hidden Valley Golf and Ski on Wednesday in hopes of persuading him to keep the resort open, but the owner says he is still determined to sell the property.
The council members say Wildwood doesn't want Hidden Valley, the region's only ski resort, to close after this season.
On the plus side, at least Wildwood isn't forced to pay businesses to stay in Wildwood, unlike the city of St. Louis.
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:54 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Another Legend Returns
Lance Armstrong returns to bike racing:
- Lance Armstrong is welcome to compete in the 2009 Tour de France, Tour officials have told USA TODAY in an e-mail.
"Yes, if Lance will have a license and if he is in a team that we will choose for the Tour, L.A. (Lance Armstrong) will be at the start of the 2009's Tour de France in Monaco the 4th of July," race director Christian Prudhomme said."But it's a long way until July 2009."
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:26 PM 0 comments
Book Report: The Frumious Bandersnatch by Ed McBain (2004)
This book is one of the last of the series, and quite frankly, it's not of McBain's best. I mean, you've got the 87th Precinct guys looking into a kidnapping, working around the FBI who would use Carella, their liason, as a gopher. Actually, that's it. One crime from multiple points of view. Still, I figured it out awfully early and hoped for a twist that never came. Also, sometime this century, McBain started knocking president by name (Bush). I've mentioned that before, but he brings it out here again as a couple of asides. I could understand a sort of disgust with the Powers That Be in some of his previous books, but now that he's naming names for especial vituperation, I'm saddened and slightly put off.
Also, he probably works to hard to get the title thing working.
Even with those knocks, the book doesn't fall to below the Fair or Slightly Good rating. Better than any Pearson or Randisi novel I've read.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:23 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Permission: Granted
You may now confuse the Primitive Radio Gods ("Standing Outside A Broken Phonebooth With Money In My Hand") with The New Radicals ("You Get What You Give").
If you ever happen to think of either, that is.
- posted by Brian J. @ 12:52 PM 4 comments
Monday, September 08, 2008
Business Owners Volunteer To Collect More Tax From Their Customers
A new taxing district adds its penny of sales tax to your purchases in the University City Loop:
- When Joe Edwards talks, people listen.
So when Edwards became interested in developing a trolley line to serve The Loop, business leaders didn't blink — even when talk turned to creating a Transportation Development District.
The district would use sales tax generated at businesses along Delmar Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue to partially fund construction and operation of The Loop Trolley.By a mail-in vote early this summer, voters approved creation of the district, which will begin collecting one cent of sale tax per dollar of purchase along the 2.2-mile proposed route for the Loop Trolley. The measure passed with more than 97 percent of those voting favoring the tax.
I'd boycott the Loop, but I haven't gone there since I grew up, and, more to the point, since Sheldon's bookstore was gone.
Also, keep in mind, this penny is in addition to the other ones on the ballot. Those two miles of Delmar could have taxes go up as much as 1.75% just this year alone, not discounting any other "districts" sneaking their feather-bedding projects' taxes out of your pocket.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:38 PM 1 comments
I Like Those Odds
Whatever the line is in Vegas that Aaron Rodgers breaks his throwing hand while giving high fives during the introduction tonight, be they like 10,000,000 to 1 or something like that, I'll take that bet. I call him "Mr. Glass."
- posted by Brian J. @ 10:48 AM 0 comments
Sunday, September 07, 2008
The Culture Wars Are Over, And Somebody Won
I'm sitting in my sainted mother's living room, and I flip through one of the innumerable catalogs she gets. It's the Carol Wright gifts catalog, from which I and she have ordered many Christmas presents and trinkets for loved ones in years past. An innocuous piece of cataloguery, or so I thought.
Until I hit the page that had the personal massagers, male enhancement products, and Naked Aerobics/Naked Yoga and Tai Chi DVDs.
Crikey, Carol Wright--Carol Wright!--has a sexual aids section (NSFW, probably).
I mean, I'm not shocked on account that these things are available, but I am shocked that I found them amongst the throw blankets, quilted air conditioner covers, and magnetic windshield covers.
What's next? A Vibrating Touch of Class?
- posted by Brian J. @ 7:41 PM 0 comments
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Twenty Years Later: A Cynical Musical Interlude
The Bangles "An Eternal Flame", their biggest hit, released in 1988:
She's got nothing left, just a mother nearby who has given up trying to console her daughter and a couple of people whom she calls every couple of months, trying not to impose upon them but ultimately proving too morbid for a return to their early friendship, which she sacrificed to her husbands' interests (now, they're married and raising children and don't want to relate to her experience).
Pleasant dreams.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:24 PM 0 comments
Friday, September 05, 2008
The Singular of Data Is Anecdote
Well, not really, but the Sarah Palin thing has really affected the base. How do I know? VenomKate has gone all-Palin, all-the-time (I need room for one more link, so here it is).
Previously, she'd been down on the party and down on Bush, but now she's onboard for Old Dude/Naughty Librarian 2008.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:57 AM 0 comments
Thursday, September 04, 2008
I'm Stuck In The Reagan Years
A bit of perspective from tonight's IM conversation with gimlet:
- gimlet: so are you busy hoping for audacious change?
Brian Noggle: Dude, I'm stuck in the eighties. I want bodacious change.
gimlet: that's pretty rad
Brian Noggle: But I'd settle for gnarly.
- posted by Brian J. @ 9:03 PM 0 comments
Meanwhile, In The Comments
A self-described anarchist/libertarian embraces government mandates when they improve his quality of life.
Once in a while we get real discussions here on MfBJN, and sometimes they don't involve grief-stricken parents.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:59 PM 0 comments
Book Report: The April Robin Murders by Craig Rice and Ed McBain (1958)
This book comes from early in McBain's career, and it's not even really a McBain book. Instead, it's McBain finishing a book started by another author. However, unlike Robert B. Parker taking over a Raymond Chandler novel, McBain's mannerisms and stock characterizations don't appear. Maybe it's too early in his career and he didn't develop the stock. That said, this is a Craig Rice book that Ed McBain worked on.
It's a little pulpy bit about two New York street photographers (who have had other capers in previous books) who decide to move to Hollywood to get rich and famous. Bingo, the brains of the outfit, almost thinks he has control of the situations and is atop things, but he's not. Handsome, the athletic and good-looking part of the duo, seems to follow Bingo's every word, but he has a tendency to go above and beyond his instructions in a beneficial way. Ergo, the characters have a sort of double-effect to them. On one hand, they seem buffoonish, but might only seem buffoonish on the surface.
In a series of events, they're sold a mansion by a con man whose receipt carries the actual signature of the presumed murdered former owner. Then, the housekeeper and caretaker is actually killed in the house. As the duo run through their cash reserves hiring attorneys and whatnot, while trying to figure out who killed the previous owner, who killed the housekeeper, and whatever happened to April Robin, the starlet who first owned the house.
An amusing little book. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind reading the straight-up Craig Rice books in the series.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:53 PM 1 comments
Proud Moments in Cinematography
I lost several moments of Sarah Palin's speech last night and didn't catch the next paragraph after the John McCain uses his career to promote change because the cutaway shot went to a camera focused on a woman's bosom:
Which the cameraman widened as quickly as he could, but ultimately too late to save me from near hysterical laughter:
You can enjoy it for yourself:
I bet that cameraman got a talking to. Or a promotion to the CCTV security team.
- posted by Brian J. @ 1:18 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Voting Maxim
I'd rather be governed by a rich man or a man who married rich who went into the government than a man who went into the government and got rich.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:08 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
The Race to 10% Is On
Three sales tax increases are on the ballot this time around for St. Louis County.
-
Joseph Goeke, Republican director of the St. Louis County Election Board, said this would mark the first time that a county ballot included three such proposals.
"We went back through the records and couldn't find another," he said.
The three taxes, if passed, would apply countywide, not just in the unincorporated areas. Two of the taxes would affect every consumer; the third would affect only those who spend more than $2,000 on out-of-state purchases.
A couple more penny increases each season, and suddenly we're talking real money, I suppose.
- posted by Brian J. @ 8:02 PM 0 comments
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Kim du Toit,
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"Brian J. Noggle apparently forgot that the proper design for a tin foil beanie calls for the shiny side out."
Robb Allen,
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