This year’s model.

If it’s a gorgeous day in midsummer, it must be time for the annual tour of the canals, and Nance’s report on how our wordplay skills are holding up. Your correspondent:

Your correspondent

Yes, she’s one of those jerks who wears mirrored sunglasses, which anyone can tell you is a hostile act. Not every day, however. Self-portrait in the journo-kayak.

First up, a Chris-Craft:

Go Go

Chris-Craft used to make beautiful mahogany boats. Maybe, for enough money, they still do. For everyone else, Go Go.

Detroit fish are so tough, we catch them with wrenches:

The Fish Works

Swan family:

Swan family

These birds are not to be messed with. They are excellent parents and the size of battleships. The one standing guard hissed at me, and I moved away fast. The cygnets are growing their adult plumage, and looked sort of tufty.

Go ahead, leave. Everyone else is:

Let's go!

For all the livin’ left undone on Imalivin II, I suppose:

Imalivin III

When trompe l’oeil is a bad idea:

Tromp l'oeil

At least make it a freshwater fish.

The stern isn’t set up for it, but adding a comma to this name…

Scott Free

…would give it a note of poetry. The comma goes in the middle, of course.

Best name of the year, so far. And it’s frequently open for business. Not today, alas:

Amy's Wine House

That’s it for today, folks. Condolences to Dexter, who left this comment a few minutes ago on the previous thread: My beloved 14 year old Labrador Retriever passed last night at around 8 P.M.
Her name was P-Dogg Princess. She went quietly as I stroked her head.

Sorry, Dexter.

Posted at 1:40 am in Detroit life |
 

42 responses to “This year’s model.”

  1. coozledad said on July 13, 2009 at 5:40 am

    I found a pair of three dollar sunglasses a few weeks ago, and I thought they were suitably nondescript. Usually they make me look like an old school country singer in rehab or an elderly woman. Finding that middle distance is tricky.
    We were starting to walk in a hardware store recently, when my wife said I should probably take them off: they made me look like I had bad intentions.

    386 chars

  2. Dorothy said on July 13, 2009 at 8:59 am

    Condolences, Dexter. We watched “Marley & Me” over the weekend and it wasn’t so great, but the ending did me in big time. It’s hard trying to find movies suitable to watch with one’s 87 year old mother. “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” was plodding, I thought. I didn’t think it would ever end. “Milk” was the best movie of the weekend, though. Highly recommend it.

    375 chars

  3. brian stouder said on July 13, 2009 at 9:05 am

    This past weekend we ‘redboxed’ “Paul Blart, Mall Cop”, and for a buck it was a great movie – plus, the featurettes at the end were pretty funny, too (especially “Sugar”)

    170 chars

  4. Sue said on July 13, 2009 at 9:25 am

    Aww, Dexter, I’m sorry. Is there a story behind her name?

    58 chars

  5. Julie Robinson said on July 13, 2009 at 9:26 am

    Dexter, I’m so sorry, I know it’s just as bad as losing any other family member. Cling to the good memories.
    Speaking of disappointments, we watched Feast of Love and found ourselves wanting to slap the characters out of their idiocies. And I loved the previews for Julie & Julia, with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep, respectively, but ran out of patience with the book.
    Not disappointing was the delicious zucchini, first harvest from our small garden.
    Harry Potter fever is high in our household. Yesterday our son hosted a marathon of the first five movies. These guys have grown up with the books and from the conversations floating up the stairway, they highly appreciate the growth of the female actors as well, especially Emma Watson. I guess the movie will be fantasy on more than one level.

    808 chars

  6. Sue said on July 13, 2009 at 9:35 am

    Speaking of movies, everyone, Fair Warning:
    My daughter called me last Friday to say that she had just gone to see “My Sister’s Keeper”. She said she’s never cried through an entire movie before. She said the theater sounded like a funeral, with sobs and sniffles throughout the movie. Going into the ladies room afterwards, she said there wasn’t a line for the facilities but women were three deep at the mirrors trying to repair completely destroyed makeup.
    And I have a newly acquired affection and respect for Daniel Radcliffe after seeing him happily making fun of his image on that episode of “Extras” and giving an interview to an 11-year-old Scholastic News reporter.

    680 chars

  7. Dexter said on July 13, 2009 at 9:58 am

    Thanks, everyone…Sue, P-Dogg was my nickname for her, I took over her care when she was about a year old and had a name, Princess.

    132 chars

  8. Jolene said on July 13, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Am just listening to the chat preceding the opening of the Sotomayor hearings. Word is that today is for opening statements. A whole day for opening statements!

    No wonder they don’t think they’ll be able to finish a health care bill this summer. I like a good speech as much as the next person and rarely run out of words, but, if there is anything gassier than a senator, I can’t imagine what it would be.

    414 chars

  9. Jolene said on July 13, 2009 at 10:14 am

    Wow, Nancy, I just looked at your GrossePointeToday.com piece. That’s an impressive piece of work. Makes me a little sad that you don’t have a more visible place to publish it. I wonder if newspapers will catch a clue and begin to use sites like yours as sources.

    One quick thing: In your note at the top, you say “the Grosse Pointes and its residents”. Should be “their residents”, no?

    394 chars

  10. moe99 said on July 13, 2009 at 10:20 am

    Dexter, my condolences on your loss. Dogs give us our better selves just through their unconditional love. My lab, Max is 12 and I am dreading the day. I think it’s why I got a miniature dachshund puppy this summer. So that my other dog, Scooter, also a minidox, will have a friend after the inevitable.

    308 chars

  11. LAMary said on July 13, 2009 at 11:11 am

    Condolences, Dexter. I’ve lost a few dogs, but I think when the day comes when I lose my Lab it will be fiercly difficult. He’s my close companion and can read me better than any of the humans in my household.

    209 chars

  12. 4dbirds said on July 13, 2009 at 11:14 am

    Sorry Dexter. Dogs are great friends.

    38 chars

  13. alex said on July 13, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Deepest sympathies, Dex.

    24 chars

  14. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm

    I am very sorry for your loss, Dexter. Our three dogs and nine cats are very dear to our hearts. I know how awful it feels to lose one.

    137 chars

  15. Catherine said on July 13, 2009 at 12:04 pm

    Dexter, I’m so sorry for your loss.

    35 chars

  16. derwood said on July 13, 2009 at 12:23 pm

    Sorry Dexter. Our neighbor’s lab is more our dog than theirs and she is getting older. Will break my heart when she goes.

    -daron

    132 chars

  17. kayak woman said on July 13, 2009 at 12:38 pm

    I once paddled a canoe a little too close to a swan nest and know what it’s like to be threatened by daddy swan (guessing it was the male, don’t really know). Terrifying! Swans or not, I wish I was kayaking today instead of sitting in my cube listening to one of my weirder co-workers warn me about deep vein thrombosis.

    320 chars

  18. mark said on July 13, 2009 at 12:40 pm

    Sorry for your loss, Dexter.

    28 chars

  19. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 1:00 pm

    I’m sorry to interrupt, but:

    I-GOT-A-JOB!!! After eight months! WOOHOO!

    76 chars

  20. Sue said on July 13, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    That’s wonderful!

    17 chars

  21. paddyo' said on July 13, 2009 at 1:34 pm

    1. Job: Congrats. So, details!

    2. Kayak tour: Splendid. Number of boats up or down this season?

    3. Sotomayor hearings: I’ve pledged NOT to listen to a single word of this week’s live coverage. I’ll read dead-tree versions the next day — maybe. There’s been so much bloviating for the past months since the nomination, I simply can’t bear to hear another fathead blah-blahing about “qualifications” or “activist judges” or any more of that silliness.

    456 chars

  22. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Paddyo’, job is technical writer at a defense contractor. Here in SE Michigan, the defense contractors are doing very well, pretty much in inverse proportion to the auto industry.

    I do not support our current wars, but at this point beggars can’t be choosers. I justify it to myself because what I will be doing will actually help the men and women who are serving. Plus, we’ll probably be in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the next 20 or 30 years, so this is a growth industry.

    482 chars

  23. Dorothy said on July 13, 2009 at 2:41 pm

    I’m very happy for you, crinoidgirl, as being out of work majorly sucks. My husband had two long spells of it during the past 27 years or so and I hope to never have to live through that again. And what you said about Afghanistan made me gulp. My son is in the National Guard and that is where we fear he may be assigned when it’s his unit’s turn to be deployed.

    365 chars

  24. MichaelG said on July 13, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    My condolences, Dexter. I know what a loss that is.

    Congrats, C-Girl. Don’t worry about justifying it. Getting a job today is a major achievement and a major need. Have bit of the bubbly tonight.

    202 chars

  25. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    Dorothy, I didn’t mean it as a throw-away line. I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on since my second interview with these folks. Our country is going to be in it for the long haul, as justified or unjustified as this mess is.

    I hope your son remains safe through his deployment, if that’s where regardless of where he ends up going.

    362 chars

  26. Joe Kobiela said on July 13, 2009 at 3:19 pm

    First off, sorry Dexter, I am on my 5th Golden Retriever and it doesn’t
    ever get easier.
    Congratulation C-girl on the job, been in your position, 30yrs in the auto industry will do that.
    I would love to see C-girls job discussed by a panel of conservatives and liberals.
    Question.
    If you don’t support the war, should you profit from it?
    I picture Rush, Ann Coulter and Bill O’Rielly vs Oberlin, Mathews and Maydoff. Man you could sell tickets for that one.
    Pilot Joe

    474 chars

  27. John said on July 13, 2009 at 3:35 pm

    Good point Joe K. Kinda like the folks who scream about the gov’t pork spending but then work like the dickens to get their congressman to get federal money for their district.

    Congrats to you C’girl! I’ve been in the defense industry since the Carter administration and have seen the good days with the bad. Just focus on your work and be grateful for the paycheck and the bennies.

    388 chars

  28. beb said on July 13, 2009 at 3:40 pm

    Most of the people who have supported the Iraq/Afghan wars were profiting from it. The real question is: if you support the work AND profit from it, should you do your best work for the DOD, even though it will eat into your profits? Or do you do take the money and turn in crap work because ‘it’s the government, nobody cares?’

    328 chars

  29. paddyo' said on July 13, 2009 at 3:50 pm

    Well, Pilot Joe, that’s an interesting panel-discussion question there. But I’d also submit that there’s “profiting,” and then there’s simple, honest work. Unless proven otherwise, I’m going to put C-girl’s gig (congrats) in that latter category, especially when it’s “technical writing.”

    I was a newspaper reporter for nearly 33 years. I left my nose-diving industry a year and a half ago when I had a chance for a decent buyout (not the sad “severance” that many of my ex-colleagues are getting now over in Gannettland). Eventually I landed with a federal government agency doing public affairs work (though not on the defense side).

    Like C-girl, I’m not a fan of our current wars, either (and actually, I’ve detested the use of the word “war” in the case of Iraq and the “— on terror” that the previous administration used).
    Some folks might suggest that folks like me “profit” in some way from our government’s involvement in such things. Others would say, nahh, only if you’re working directly in the stuff that ends up on the battlefield or in the Pentagon suites.
    I say that at this level, it doesn’t really matter either way. We’re communicators. We explain, shed light and highlight, make things understandable. No need to defend or apologize for that.

    But yeah, Joe, you could still sell tickets to that dream debate — though you might have to stage it in a steel cage. Or, better, a mud pit.

    1416 chars

  30. nancy said on July 13, 2009 at 3:56 pm

    Congrats, C-girl. First you, then (maybe) me. Is that a ship on the horizon? Is it mine?

    Who asked if there were fewer boats in the water this year? Answer: yes. Many open slips in the marinas, fewer going out on the water (gas is expensive), the usual.

    As for using your mad word-Ninja skilz for the forces of good, I took special pride, when handling war reporting at my old newspaper, in changing “Operation Enduring Freedom” to “the war in Afghanistan” at every opportunity, and ditto “Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

    “Overlord” was a code name. “Desert Storm” was marketing.

    585 chars

  31. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    I’m hoping it’s not “Amy’s Wine House” on the horizon.

    54 chars

  32. Sue said on July 13, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    I think a more pertinent question for debate would be: what has happened in the last 50+ years that war-related work has changed from “doing your part for the war effort” to “profiting from war”? People of my parents’ generation proudly worked in munitions factories etc. and a few generations later, it seems everyone on this site understands exactly why Crinoidgirl is concerned about accepting a technical writing position for a military contractor.
    The debate would go on for weeks.

    489 chars

  33. Dexter said on July 13, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    I just signed on again and I want to again say “thanks” to all you fine dog-lovers who know or can imagine how that “sock to the gut” felt last evening.
    Cremation, I pick up the ashes in a few days, and I have scattering plans.
    I still have our eight year old Jack Russell Terrier, and she has adopted a feral cat which means we have, too.

    343 chars

  34. LAMary said on July 13, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    I have a very right wing brother who is in the opposite position. He’s an employee of NREL, which has been given a huge budget boost. He’s making money off the Dems and renewable energy. He doesn’t seem to have any problems with cashing the paychecks.

    251 chars

  35. MichaelG said on July 13, 2009 at 5:37 pm

    If it’s in my district it’s public works. If it’s in your district it’s pork.

    I’d like to think there’s a difference between someone like C-Girl who is signing on as an employee to do an honest day’s work for a day’s pay and Halliburton, an organization which seems to exist for the purpose of scamming as much money out of its corrupt Govt contracts as possible for as shoddy and as little work as possible.

    412 chars

  36. crinoidgirl said on July 13, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    Dexter, I can tell you that scattering the ashes will involve a LOT of tears, no matter how much you think you will be stoic. My Jasmine (Pom) is in Kensington Metro Park. I can’t believe how hard it was to do.

    Try to steel yourself.

    And I’m crying now that I’m thinking about it.

    288 chars

  37. Dexter said on July 13, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    crinoidgirl: I had a Pomeranian in the early 1970’s. He’s the dog that peed on Plymouth Rock…we were thankful no US Park Rangers or authorities saw that one!
    Thanks for the heads-up. Cloak of steel descending around me….

    229 chars

  38. alex said on July 13, 2009 at 8:44 pm

    Congrats, crinoid. My brother used to work as an engineer for a defense contractor that built aircraft. He’d toil for years on massive projects only to see them cancelled at the eleventh hour. I think this was some sort of stimulus spending under Reagan only they called it something else back then.

    Just visited with my old Dobie who’s staying with my parents. I don’t know how old she is. I was told maybe six or seven when I took her out of a bad situation where she had no human attention whatsoever. That will have been five years ago. She’s good company for my retired parents, who lost a beloved old Labrador. Every now and then I get these pangs of guilt perhaps like those of a mother who sacrifices a child for adoption, but I know she’s better off being around people all day than locked up and alone while I’m working. Also more land to roam on and fewer people to intimidate.

    Her absence might also explain why my garden’s getting ransacked by chipmunks and squirrels.

    988 chars

  39. derwood said on July 13, 2009 at 9:46 pm

    crinoidgirl — congrats on the job. My wife is a technical writer on contract for an “evil” pharmaceutical company. She also has a Journalism degree but never officially worked in the field.

    Take the paycheck from where you can get it.

    -daron

    249 chars

  40. Rana said on July 14, 2009 at 12:22 pm

    Dexter – I’m so sorry.

    crinoidgirl – Congrats!

    51 chars

  41. joodyb said on July 14, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    Isn’t it amazing, my husband frequently muses, that we choose to live with dogs. And there’s a reason for that. You’re in good company here, Dexter. I guess you know that.
    C-Girl, mark the occasion. This is a big deal these days. So happy for you.
    As for the military-industrial complex, we’ve all done it, wittingly or no.

    326 chars

  42. poochlover said on July 14, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    Dexter, so sorry about your loss; it’s a blessing she went peacefully with you by her side. My last dog’s ashes are in a beautiful box on the mantle with an engraved brass plate that says “Beloved Friend.” She had such a gentle spirit and I’m pretty sure she understood English. 🙂

    285 chars