20 responses to “Busy busy busy.”

1. 

   brian stouder said on April 22, 2008 at 8:36 am

   I call ‘the window’!!

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2. 

   Crabby said on April 22, 2008 at 8:48 am

   Here is an interesting article from the New Yorker about elevators and the guy that was stuck in one for 41 hours.

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3. 

   Danny said on April 22, 2008 at 9:34 am

   Is that the same as “shotgun?” Cuz if not, then I want shotgun!

   One comment revisiting IKEA. We ended up doing a lot of cool things with their tall wardrobes in our place. Though they are flimsy as stand-alones, they are highly customizable inside. So we made them into built-ins in our rooms with runs of them in place of where there would be a closet with the sliding doors. We did crown molding to make up the space at the top where there would be a gap.

   Building them in makes them really stable and they have some cool ideas for the inside spaces: shelves, pullout shoe racks, pullout pant racks, sock drawers, etc. We also did this in a small hallway and used the plastic drawers with little compartments for toiletries and first aid supplies. Plus the full-length mirrored doors we used there helped open up the place.

   I take no credit for any of this. I was the gunskilled labor, my wife was the contractor in our remodel. She’s slightly handier than Bob Villa. And a lot better looking, IMO.

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4. 

   Kirk said on April 22, 2008 at 10:03 am

   That’s a great story, Crabby. I shudder to think what kind of shape I’d be in after such an ordeal. I confess that I skimmed parts of it; I noticed that it dealt with elevator etiquette a little bit, but I didn’t see references to two of my pet peeves:

   1. Idiots who insist on rushing into an open car before everyone who wants to leave it has done so.

   2. People who, as the only person in the car, think it’s OK to cut one in there just before they leave and I get in.

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5. 

   Danny said on April 22, 2008 at 10:44 am

   2. People who, as the only person in the car, think it’s OK to cut one in there just before they leave and I get in.

   Yeah, and then you get in to go up several floors and someone else gets in at the next floor and they think you did it.

   That happened to my wife in the break room at Qualcomm a few years ago. Someone got rank in there and she walked in and about gagged, but then someone else walked in while she was still there and she tried to explain how it was that way when she got there.

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6. 

   Shara said on April 22, 2008 at 11:31 am

   Years ago I was stuck for four hours in an elevator in a high rise in Chicago. It was a hot summer day and there was no air conditioning. The elevator car was so packed you couldn’t raise your arm. Thoughts of falling clogged my mind. We were “saved” and went on our merry way. All this an no one ever had a thought about suing…. Later I ran an elevator to get over my fear of them. However, this didn’t work too well as I couldn’t get the elevator to stop at the proper level. To this day, I ride elevators, but don’t like them and always check the inspection date and weight capacity. After checking the latter, I mentally note the weights of other passengers. Have you ever noticed that when there are several passengers people will stare at the floor arrow? This always amuses me.

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7. 

   baldheadeddork said on April 22, 2008 at 12:32 pm

   Okay – Pennsylvania predictions anyone?

   I’m guessing Clinton 51-Obama 48.

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8. 

   sue said on April 22, 2008 at 12:35 pm

   I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that said “If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates”.

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9. 

   derwood said on April 22, 2008 at 12:39 pm

   My brother works in the elevator biz. When he had a route in Texas back in the mid 80s he took our dad and me on a ride on top of the elevator. People were inside pushing the buttons and talking, they had no idea we were there. Freaked my dad out.

   Stuck in an elevator story: Commerce building in FW on Berry. Took me half way between the basement and the first floor. They got me out in 40 minutes no harm no foul.

   Penn Predictions: Obama 49 Clinton 50

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10. 

    MichaelG said on April 22, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Clinton by seven.

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11. 

    Peter said on April 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm

    Sue, that’s a good one.

    Going on nothing but a hunch, Clinton by ten.

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12. 

    Dorothy said on April 22, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    In December when we visited our daughter in Norfolk for Christmas, we went to her office one late afternoon to get a short tour (The Virginian Pilot). She came down to the lobby after we got our visitor’s badges, and the 4 of us went up only 1 floor in the elevator. CRASH BANG, the damn thing thudded to a stop when we reached the 2nd floor; dust and things rained down on us, and the doors opened. The four of us got the hell out of there as fast as we could, and of course took the steps when it was time to leave. That’s my one and only elevator story, and it scared the crap out of me, but it didn’t put me off elevators for life.

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13. 

    whitebeard said on April 22, 2008 at 1:58 pm

    ah, elevator stories. I was in one elevator that went too far down and the doors opened on a blank concrete wall. I suppose it was supposed to go there when the techs and friends as per Derwood want to get on and check the cable connections and eavesdrop on people.
    The other time, I came back from a meeting and was on deadline so I used the phone on the stuck elevator to call the city desk and dictate my story from my notes.
    When the assistant city editor asked why I dictated it because I still had time to type it up myself for the next edition, I replied that I was in the building but stuck in the elevator and the techs didn’t know how long it would be to get it fixed, so I thought it best to phone in the story.
    Unflappable, I guess.
    One time in Montreal the editor-in-chief commented to the city editor that I didn’t look excited enough to be doing a good job sending reporter/photographer teams in radio-equipped cars in the 70s to language riots breaking out across the city as soon as the police desk gave me locations. The city editor simply replied that is why I was so good because I did it all calmly and was on top of everything that night.
    Pennsylvania — Obama by 12, he pulled out all the stops ,,, and the train whistle (horn) … in the past few days and he looks like he will not have a heart attack and die in office

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14. 

    snarkworth said on April 22, 2008 at 2:04 pm

    I recently got back from voting in PA. Steady traffic, but no lines.

    My guess: Clinton takes it by 4 percent, which means she doesn’t really take it at all.

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15. 

    caliban said on April 22, 2008 at 2:09 pm

    Why is it that Barack can make stuff up like his Granny and the N word, and Hillary is still accused of murdering Vince Foster? Are Americans just stupid? If Barack thinks McCain would be an improvement, or even the most remote departure, he needs to ride the short bus for remedial ed.

    Hasn’t Keith Olbermann become the Goering of the Obama movement? He badgers guests that aren’t properly anti-Hillary.

    Would it be too much to expect anybody in the news bidness actually understood that Republican state legislatures in Florida and Michigan set the primary dates? Did they do this on purpose? I’d hate to ascribe that level of intelligence to people I despise. But the most bitter man in America, you know him, you find him whack, Howard Dean, chose this as his opportunity to strike back at the DNC. Of course, he is the DNC now. So Deanie-baabies screwed Kerry over because the off-shore guy made an ass of himself.

    Isn’t it fascinating how the Barack people squealed like stuck pigs after the last debate? Fair should be fair. Right? The guy’s not Jack and he sure as hell isn’t Bobby. He’s a decent candidate with a misogynistic mean streak. He lies at the drop of a hat about his own grandmother. Hillary Clinton didn’t make him do this. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Barack thinks Hillary ought to stifle herself.

    John McCain, on the other hand wants this to be Bush land in perpetuity. (This hasn’t resonated with young Barack yet, but it might still.) Perpetuity. 100s of years. Question: Does Barack actually think McCain would be better than Shrub?

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16. 

    alex said on April 22, 2008 at 2:44 pm

    Hey, welcome back michaelj!

    Just a feeling, could be wrong, but I suspect Pennsylvania may just defy conventional wisdom and vote for our next president.

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17. 

    brian stouder said on April 22, 2008 at 2:59 pm

    Alex – on one hand, I share that hope with you;

    on the other, I don’t want Senator Clinton to drop out of the race until AFTER we Hoosiers get to cast our (meaningful, for once!) ballots!! –

    and therefore, I want Senator Obama to be, say, 5 points behind HRC in PA….close enough so that his crowds will cheer, yet far enough that Hillary soldiers on.

    (on the other hand, if Barack bests her in PA [by any margin at all!], Fort Wayne might get to make national news, when HRC issues her concession from the Grand Wayne Center downtown….)

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18. 

    brian stouder said on April 22, 2008 at 3:18 pm

    Thinking about michaelj’s riff above, it strikes me that if one slips a straw into the opposition’s anti-Barack blender, the smoothie one would suck up would have elements of the following:

    Barack is married to an anti-American harridan

    Barack attends a virulently anti-American cult/church, where a raving lunatic harangues the congregation, and they (including the senator) therefore cannot possibly think otherwise

    Barack is secretly a Muslim… and an al Qaeda ‘Manchurian candidate’ who no doubt has Ayman al Zawahiri on speed-dial on his cell phone

    etc etc.

    And the funny part is, John McCain’s life story really DOES hint at a “Manchurian candidate” scenario (I think his wife, the “f*&%ing c*&t”, could take the Angela Lansbury role of wire-puller, despite that McCain’s spry mother is still alive!)

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19. 

    LA Mary said on April 22, 2008 at 7:47 pm

    My opinion of surgeons was confirmed when my office was next to the physicians’ dining room at the hospital. There was one small elevator on that wing.The surgeons would be the ones who tried to get in the elevator before anyone got out. Then they wouldn’t move.

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20. 

    basset said on April 22, 2008 at 9:37 pm

    >>don’t make mommy stop this car

    reminds me of our neighbors when I was in middle school, only they called it “junior high” back then… they were from Kentucky and had a slightly different outlook on life. whenever the kids would misbehave the mother would screech out the back door “Ah’m gon’ get me a switch! An’ ah’m gon’ cut the blood on you!”

    good folks, really.

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