Today’s only-in-Detroit story is about hunting pheasant in the ghetto. Money quote:
“You have to watch out for missing manhole covers. People steal them for scrap metal. Last year we had a dog fall into one.”
From the land where you can’t make this shit up, have a nice rest of the day.
brian stouders said on October 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Looks like this is the ‘pheasant corollary’ to the earlier NN.c axiom:
Sooner or later, the earth reclaims everything.
In this case, “sooner”
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Dexter said on October 16, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Gives another look to “be careful, it’s a jungle out there”.
Of course the hunters don’t need to worry about crime there…it is, in a way, like Chicago native artistmac of YouTube fame said about his video-chronicles project in which he taped the systematic destruction of the entire Robert Taylor Homes & Stateway Gardens projects along the Dan Ryan Expy on the south 40’s , “…you should come here and see this yourself; don’t worry about getting robbed…nobody is left, just the squirrels. “
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Dexter said on October 16, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Here’s one of artistmac’s links …they didn’t implode the Robert Taylors, they took them apart one floor at a time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k–Gs1veNYE
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Dexter said on October 16, 2008 at 4:15 pm
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moe99 said on October 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAg5KjnAhuU&feature=featured
a little music interlude for the late afternoon.
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Jolene said on October 16, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Just read a fascinating piece by Rick Hertzberg re the ACORN “scandals”. I’d been wondering why ACORN didn’t have some sort of quality control process to weed out obviously fake applications, but, in fact, it turns out that they are required by law to submit all completed applications. Of course, that makes sense as it eliminates the possibility of tossing out applications from potential voters thought to be unsympathetic to the application-collector’s preferred candidate. I wonder how many of the people worried about ACORN “destroying the fabric of our democracy” know this?
And here’s a more comprehensive discussion of the voter fraud issue. Both of these are by way of Andrew Sullivan.
A lot of people on the right are very upset about this, and it does look bad. But the only consequential fraud that’s occurring is that ACORN is being ripped off by the people it has paid to collect registration applications and who, rather than doing the slow, thankless work, entertained themselves by filling in the names of professional football players, cartoon characters, and whoever was on the first page of the phone book.
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whitebeard said on October 16, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Hmmm, Jolene’s words on the ACORN scandal that “It turns out that they are required by law to submit all completed applications.” if known by the rabid right is obviously ignored in the campaign attack headquarters. Since when would truth stop the slime and smear squad?
It, and the incessant Ayers link accusation reminds me of a joke. How do you tell when McCain is lying? And the answer is when he opens his mouth to speak”
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Linda said on October 16, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Not surprised by the pheasants at all. My brother used to work for the Detroit sanitation department, and pheasants always lived by railroad tracks, attracted to the grain that falls off of rr cars.
Now that I’m in Toledo, I see deer in the damnest urban places. While driving through the inner city at dusk, near downtown, I almost hit a deer on the big street that runs through the old Buckeye Basin, a wooded area between the ghetto and downtown. I also saw deer in the road near the Toledo Hospital. Some species thrive on fairly close proximity to humans, provided there is a little wild space.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 16, 2008 at 10:57 pm
I believe i first heard Lee Abrams’ name cursed in 1982, as the tool who cut the heart out of FM radio, and he’s just kept on keepin’ on, cutting out hearts left and right and suturing arteries into bowel to create the ultimate connection between listeners and their inmost being.
Abrams vs. Tufte — now there’s a debate i’d consider ponying up for pay-per-view to hear get into it. Two enter the octagon, one leaves standing. (Go, Edward!)
And what was the deal with Charley McCarthy eating a stack of biscuits during & behind McCain’s comic turn at the Al Smith dinner?
Eh. Off to here — http://www.thewilds.org — with 160 Cub Scouts and parents on a teacher prep (ha!) day tomorrow . . .
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beb said on October 16, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Apparently Joe the Plumber is not related to Charles Keating. Keating does have a relative with a similar name but they are two different people.
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moe99 said on October 16, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Obama brings down the house at the Al Smith dinner:
http://tinyurl.com/5c47z7 (part 1)
http://tinyurl.com/628ld3 (part 2)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 16, 2008 at 11:36 pm
Sadly, McCain choked on a chicken bone before his time at the Al Smith dinner, and as his head spun around and green vomit spewed from his gaping maw, the organizers chose to move on to the divertissment of Obama’s witty interlude while the Archbishop did an exorcism over the undead grinning corpse of McInsane.
Good news — the movie of the undead threat to America, “Z.” premiers tomorrow, opening at a morgue near you! Et more brains! Tell your fiends to go watch “Z.”!
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Jolene said on October 16, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Actually, Jeff, McCain was funnier than Obama. See http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=WfTdHjLOdH0. Obama was good, but, truly, his best contribution was looking absolutely gorgeous when he was laughing at McCain’s very good jokes.
Also, Hillary was in a shadow, so it was hard to see her, but she seemed to be looking great and having a good time. Nice to see.
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alex said on October 17, 2008 at 12:06 am
And it all goes to show what stupid fucks they take us for.
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Gasman said on October 17, 2008 at 1:55 am
God bless David Letterman (and Paul Schaffer too)! As McCain was entering the stage, the band was playing the Who’s “Can’t Explain.” Brilliant! Of course, McCain was oblivious to that reference. Dave took him on fairly forcefully concerning the Ayers nonsense. Why can’t McCain realize that strategy is popular only with the rabid right wing base of his party (and I do mean base), but is repellent to nearly everyone else?
Two new McCain ads started here in New Mexico. The first trots out the discredited, lame smear of Obama’s association with Tony Rezko, the second seems to be a clone of Obama’s ad sitting in a home talking directly to the camera. The first ad is classical McCain lying b.s., the second is the kind of ad he should have been running for the last six months. The content is still suspect, but the tone is much more palatable. However, he still seems stiff and wooden and totally lacks the natural charm of Obama. He just seems like a pissed off old fart that is mad at the entire world. Too little, too late.
l am looking forward to the various post mortems that will be written concerning the rather spectacular auguring in of the McCain/Palin campaign. I think that many of the staff will try to vigorously make the case that McCain would not listen to THEIR advice and recklessly charted his own foolish course. They have to, that is if they ever want to be employed again as campaign advisors.
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moe99 said on October 17, 2008 at 3:21 am
McCain repeated one major lie on Letterman. He said that Ayers said in an interview on 9/11 that he had not ‘bombed enough.’ The interview occurred prior to 9/11; it simply had the misfortune to be published then, but what Ayers said is that he felt that he did not do enough to end the war in Vietnam. Given that at the time of the interview, he was a tenured professor at a large university, who had received an award from the city of Chicago for his civic work, I am certain that he was not advocating a return to bombing.
As opposed to G. Gordon Liddy, who has advocated violence since his release from prison.
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Gasman said on October 17, 2008 at 3:31 am
moe99,
McCain also indicated that he was somehow a victim of reciprocally nasty comments at Obama rallies. Someone really needs to call him out on that one. I have not heard of a single instance of any comparable behavior at an Obama rally. I did hear some boos from a crowd which Obama quickly stopped. McCain has still not repudiated the calls for violence against Obama. If he were serious, he would walk out, would shut down an event when it happened. He would also instruct his lipsticked pitbull to knock off the hate-mongering.
McCain, ever the victim, never responsible for anything. The man is a sniveling liar whose splenetic attacks against Sen. Obama are unbecoming a man who claims to love and cherish his country.
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del said on October 17, 2008 at 9:20 am
McCain was slightly funnier than Obama (advantaged by the irony that his angry stiff persona provides him with his own straight man foil) at the Smith dinner. Both were good. Obama again called out FOX News, wise. And Hillary looked happy and relaxed as Jolene noted.
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brian stouder said on October 17, 2008 at 9:38 am
Both were good.
Pam and I were watching Rachel Maddow’s show, when they cut to coverage of the dinner; we immediately popped over to C-SPAN for it (graphics-free pictures, plus they tend to linger at such events when they conclude, and you can hear chit-chat)
McCain did one of his google-eyed funny faces when his talk referenced Keith Olbermann, which was pretty funny.
I liked Obama’s reference to his actual middle name (“Steve”), and his actual birthplace (“the planet Krypton”) and his real father (“Jor El”).
These things are always funny; President Bush took grief over one of these traditional ‘hair-down’ events – possibly deservedly. But they do serve as a useful reality-check; they seem to remind everyone that we are all on the same side, in the last analysis.
Oh – and I was very taken with Barack’s occasional chuckles at his own script, almost an “I can’t believe I’m saying this stuff” aside; and I liked McCain’s faux “expectation-building” closing, promising that Obama was going to have to deliver the absolute funniest 15 minutes any audience has ever weathered!
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Jolene said on October 17, 2008 at 9:56 am
I thought the joke Obama made about his real middle name — that he got it from someone who didn’t think he’d ever be running for president — was better. I liked the chuckles too, and so did the audience. I just saw a clip on MSNBC, and sometimes it seemed like the audience liked watching him laugh more than they liked the joke. Lots of fun.
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John said on October 17, 2008 at 10:34 am
For the next cycle, can we add a 15 minute stand up routine to the debates? McCain came across as likeable and articulate which contrasts with his recent forays into the limelight. Obama almost looked like he spent some time in Snoop Dogg’s Green Room before the gig as he was giggling at his own material before delivering it.
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