As everybody knows, you can get some extraordinary real estate in Detroit for a fraction of what you’d pay for it anywhere else. I was delighted to see this story in yesterday’s dailies, about the debut on the market of what most people call the Motown mansion, i.e., Berry Gordy’s house. At $1.39 million — and yes, I think you could make an offer for less, and not have the owner spit in your face — I think it’s tailor-made to be the NN.C Retirement Home, where members of our commenting community can spin out their golden years swapping bon mots poolside. Looks like plenty of room for Coozledad’s animals to keep the grass trimmed, and trust me, as a household we will be no weirder than any other in Detroit.
I encourage you to check out the photo gallery and video. It’s quite an edifice. The listing agent is a friend of a friend, a nice guy with his own fabulous Detroit house, a three-story English Tudor he’s been restoring for over a year now. I think it was originally a Kresge mansion, or the Kresge mansion, or some such. When he bought it, it had tatty carpet throughout and silk draperies rotting to pieces in every window. He pulled up the tatty carpet in the foyer and found craftsman-quality tile underneath. Lord knows what we’d find in Berry Gordy’s old house.
I like the tunnels. I bet those came in handy during Prohibition.
OK, enough levity. Anyone see this, about how wealthy mortgage-holders are more likely to walk away from their upside-down houses? They have a higher default rate than any other income group, although there is a certain amount of apples-oranges comparison going on. But overall, you can color me…wow, astonished. Note:
“(The wealthy) may be less susceptible to the shame and fear-mongering used by the government and the mortgage banking industry to keep underwater homeowners from acting in their financial best interest,” Mr. White said.
Ha ha ha. So you see, if the NN.C Retirement Trust finds itself unable to keep paying the taxes and pool boy, we will have much good company.
The other day I heard someone talking about the parallel narratives that the proliferation of news outlets has led to, as people tune in to their favorite echo chambers and listen to their own custom-crafted stories told to them. In the tea-partying part of the world, for instance, the financial crisis wasn’t caused by over-investment in insane schemes peddled by obfuscating, criminal bankers and brokers who then took odds on the outcome, but by Barney Frank, who forced banks to lend money to poor people, who then screwed everything up. It’s comforting to learn the banking/brokerage class is still at it, more or less.
Ah, the coffee still needs to work its magic, I can see. Let’s cut to the bloggage:
Alan showed me this Best of Craigslist ad the other day, headlined Stately Dutch MILF magnet. It’s for a bike. Enjoy.
These remarks by Sharron Angle are getting a lot of attention in the lefty blogosphere — speaking of like-minded echo chambers — but trust me, this attitude is not rare in her circles, not by any measure. Pregnant by your brother? Turn lemons into lemonade, girly.
And now I have to skedaddle. Have a great weekend. I’ll be avoiding the computer, so it’s best to call. Remember, think about that house. There’s room for everyone.
basset said on July 9, 2010 at 9:40 am
Japanese harpoon ships would appear in the deep end if I showed up poolside in swimming attire.
speaking of housing… the flood palace gets windows today and drywall Monday, we might be back in it by September 1.
appliances and most of the major furniture have been ordered or are already in storage, and Mrs. B. has her new old sewing machine. the 1939 Singer Featherweight her mother handed down to her ended up in the front-yard debris pile and got hauled away before we realized it might possibly be fixable, so we found a 1936 on Craigslist and bought it last week.
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Connie said on July 9, 2010 at 9:47 am
Basset, I have a 1947 Singer Featherweight, given to me by my Mother in Law, who tells me she bought it at Uncler Merle’s Singer shop in Cadillac when she was pregnant with my husband. I also have all the attachments including the buttonhole maker. But not the table, upon which she keeps her current machine. She says I can have it when she dies. She’s 88, healthy and feisty so I am not holding my breath.
Speaking of Cadillac, hordes of us will descend on the old family farm outside Cadillac on Pleasant Lake next weekend for a reunion. Many are camping, but I, being a princess, have a motel room booked. This is the farm where my late father in law grew up. The only thing grown there in recent years is Christmas trees.
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brian stouder said on July 9, 2010 at 10:11 am
Basset – very good news, indeed. I’ve got dibs on a bedroom facing the poolhouse (that should be entertaining, at 2 in the morning); and I’ll have to tell my single older brother (who lives a few houses away from us) about the Craigslist bike thing. He just adopted a 3 year old greyhound (a surprisingly sweet-natured dog, in contrast to her ferociously sleek appearance) which has had the neighborhood women coming around with regularity; but the bike thing could be a deal-closer!
I saw this headline on masnbc, and immediately clicked it: Kenneth Starr Sues Martin Scorsese for $600,000. When I clicked on it, I was wondering whether Scorsese had some highly insulting swipe at Starr, or maybe he somehow stole the blue dress for use in a movie, or….but no. This Ken Starr was a crooked financial goomba (is there any other type?) who is in prison for stealing 59 million dollars – who alleges that Scorsese failed to pay him his fee(!!)
Not a Goodfella
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velvet goldmine said on July 9, 2010 at 10:13 am
About Sharron Angle — “lemons into lemonade” is beyond flippant for the situation, and it sounds like she’s similarly insensitive about poverty and joblessness. (And we all know abortion access is part of the package, because while incest and rape happen at all income levels, there are fewer options for low-income people in that horrific situation.)
BUT — I have to admit feeling secretly grateful that I’ve never had a calling to be a pro-lifer. Because if you really feel that you are preventing murders, you’d end up sounding very unsympathetic to anyone but the murderee, right? The babies are your first priority. The best you can do is try to find places for the pregnant teens to stay, and a way out of their incest-ridden lives.
I truly think Angle’s position on this is wrong-headed, of course, but the commenters on the linked blog who think heartlessness is prompting this policy are equally wrong-headed.
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Bob (Not Greene) said on July 9, 2010 at 10:27 am
Sharron Angle, the gift that keeps giving. What, is Bobby Knight her PR director? “Just relax and enjoy it!”
Congratulations on six more years in the Senate, Harry.
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Dorothy said on July 9, 2010 at 10:50 am
You’d think someone would have turned on a few lights in order to photograph the Gordy mansion in a more flattering manner. It looks like the setting for an Agatha Christie-type murder mystery rather than a music maven’s home. And the disco ball in the dance hall that actually looks more like a church altar? Tacky, tacky, tacky. I think we nn.c-ers could have lots of fun brightening up that dark and dreary interior!
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Dorothy said on July 9, 2010 at 10:57 am
Oh and basset – it’s good to hear about progress at your house! Featherweights were the must-have item for quilters when I worked at Quilters Corner for five years. I’m not sure if they’re still all the rage, but I envy anyone who has one. My first eBay purchase was an antique treadle sewing machine in the original wooden cabinet. It looks like this one: http://www.ecrater.com/p/7818198/antique-singer-treadle-sewing-machine-1891
I’ve been waiting about 4 years for my hubby to refinish the top of the cabinet so I can use it as a lovely piece of furniture in our house. I am not really interested in getting the sewing machine in working order. I have a spiffy 14 year old Pfaff that works just fine.
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Sue said on July 9, 2010 at 11:09 am
I seem to remember that we decided our Retirement Home will have separate wings for the potheads and the margarita-drinkers, although the logistics of happy hour were never fully mapped out. Now we have to fight over who gets which tacky wing.
And… ‘paying the taxes and pool boy’… “Boy”? Singular? Who did the budget, Dwight?
As for Sharron, until I hear her version of ‘lemonade’, I just sort of assume it doesn’t include help with health care, housing or daycare while adolescent/teen mom finishes school.
Yay Basset!
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Jeff Borden said on July 9, 2010 at 11:20 am
Sharron Angle previously told a radio interviewer that a woman made pregnant by rape should give birth because it’s all part of God’s plan.
Using this logic, couldn’t a rapist appeal to a jury that he was being guided by the Lord when he assaulted and raped a woman? If Angle was on the jury, the suspect would get her not guilty vote, I guess.
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basset said on July 9, 2010 at 11:34 am
Mrs. B. refuses to get a modern sewing machine – this is the one she knows and that’s it.
We met in Cadillac, both on our first jobs out of school… she had an apartment over the Rexall drugstore on N. Mitchell, and mine was over the Montgomery Ward store up the street. Her parents retired to Caberfae, we get to Cadillac two or three times a year; the farm my (still living) father in law grew up on is in Newaygo County west of Big Rapids and the site of deer camp every year.
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Scout said on July 9, 2010 at 11:48 am
Sign me up for the commune. However, I may have to split my time between the margarita and the herbal delight happy hours.
Sharron Angle sounds like she is living up to her promise as a perfect vehicle for Harry Reid to cruise into his next term, but frankly, after seeing how completely clueless voters can be, candidates like her make me extremely nervous.
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Dexter said on July 9, 2010 at 11:53 am
Dave Barry or Andy Borowitz could not have ghost-written the MILF magnet bicycle advertisement any better. Howlingly funny.
Craig Crawford has already invited his bloggers to retire to the Florida fish camp he swears he wants to buy soon (he was really fed-up with the District of Columbia during the blizzards last winter)…now I am torn between the Dee-Troit mansion on nn.c and Florida…oh my.
About fifteen years ago I went to a recovery retreat at the IHM Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. Basically, it was AA meetings round-the-clock. I thought it was a former nun’s home…but I don’t know what the connection is to the church nowadays. Anyway, if it comes up for sale cheap, it would make for a hell of a retirement commune for us. It has giant rooms for everything, even a huge area full of ironing boards. Amazingly beautiful meeting rooms, comfy sleeping rooms, just a hell (oops!) of a place. Here it is from the front.
http://bit.ly/cPwmeq
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Dexter said on July 9, 2010 at 12:09 pm
for basset, from my friend and Nashville author Patsi Bale Cox’s Facebook page:
http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/up-the-creek/Content?oid=1644234
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alex said on July 9, 2010 at 12:24 pm
My, how “pro-life” politicians have changed. Remember when Dan Quayle was asked what he’d do if his daughter were pregnant and wanted an abortion? He replied that it would be her decision to make, not his, even though he was personally opposed to abortion rights. It was a kinder, gentler GOP back then. I wish all right-wing doofuses could be as benign as Mr. Quayle was, in retrospect, and also as intelligent.
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coozledad said on July 9, 2010 at 12:32 pm
That’s a beautiful place. Reminds me of the Garden of Abdul Gasazi. I wonder if it has a carriage house and a greenhouse for a kitchen garden. You could make up a bit of the mortgage by leasing it to film crews, or a restaurant with full Russian service.
There’s a similar house in Durham, from the days of the robber barons.
http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2008/01/louis-carr-john-sprunt-hill-houses.html
EDIT: There’s another line from Repo Man that I can’t find the clip for: “Rich People are Rich because they don’t pay their bills.” Seems you could take the same approach to the purchase of the Gordy mansion.
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Snarkworth said on July 9, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Alex, I recall that Quayle also said rape victims didn’t need access to abortion because they could just get a D&C.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 9, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Dexter, was that by any chance built by the architect and physician Ivo Shandor?
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Connie said on July 9, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Sue, I remember that as well, and that the potheads got the porch.
Basset, the Cadillac farm has frequent deer sightings and recently had its first bear sighting. My husband’s cousins own The Pines for what it is worth.
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Dexter said on July 9, 2010 at 1:39 pm
17. JMMO: Of course it was! And, as Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), said “they don’t build ’em like they used to.”
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adrianne said on July 9, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Count me in at the commune!
I’ll take the bar on the margarita side…
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 9, 2010 at 2:00 pm
There is no Dana, only Zuul.
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basset said on July 9, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Dexter, thanks for the link… I work for the planning department here and was an (unnamed) source for that story. The first family mentioned lives less than half a mile from me; go west from our lot on this picture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85749853@N00/4587793686/
and they’re down at the end of the peninsula.
Connie, my inlaws have had bobcats up on their porch at Caberfae and a couple of years ago a bear pulled their bird feeder down. and I know the Pines, used to bowl and eat pizza there.
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Sue said on July 9, 2010 at 3:01 pm
basset – planning department? Is your flickr pic a GIS map? We’re just getting our system up and running here. Awesome and frustrating!
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joodyb said on July 9, 2010 at 6:26 pm
IN re ex-Gordy manse, looks like the perfect site for the Retired Wayward Journalists Home to me.
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Little Bird said on July 9, 2010 at 8:34 pm
You could probably make it work like a kind of time-share thing. Everyone could take turns in the house, with Nancy of course as a full-time resident. I could see it working, and it could be fun!
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Kirk said on July 9, 2010 at 8:51 pm
I have the wayward journalist thing down. Now all I have to do is retire.
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basset said on July 9, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Sue, that’s an actual aerial photo, taken a couple of hours after the water started to go down. I am probably in there somewhere if you magnify it enough, look for a camo-painted canoe…
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LAMary said on July 9, 2010 at 10:47 pm
I’m five foot ten, had grandparents from Groningen and I have kids. I am a Stately Dutch Milf.
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MichaelG said on July 10, 2010 at 12:49 am
Wait a minute, Mary. I’m probably your greatest supporter/fan here on nn.c (not, I’m sure, that you need any support) but how can you be your own MILF?
I used to be five foot eleven and a half hoping in my youth to make the other half inch but in my dotage I’ve shrunk. When in Europe I’ve been staggered by Dutch women. They all seem to be 6′ 2″, blonde and beautiful and wearing little bitty, ass shorts and braless tank tops. Makes me want to revert to the fetal position.
Been to West Covina this past week. It’s a totally generic L. A. area place. It’s completely indistinguishable from any of the towns in a 360 degree radius. Civic pride? In what?
The West Covina DMV office is the busiest one in the State of California which must make it the busiest one in the world. The lines, yes, lines plural, for there are multiple lines for different services, and they wrap around the building. The crowds are unreal. Upon arriving one would think that Elvis was in the place. The parking lot is full and that includes all the lanes and the people cursing and yelling and screaming at each other. The inside of the building resembled a sardine can in a pressure cooker.
Anybody who denigrates State employees should come and spend a day working in this place. The weird ass State pay structures are such that the people who work here are paid absolute shit wages. That includes the manager. The manager. She’s an amiable, friendly black woman of about thirty five with the command presence of a sergeant major, the decisiveness of a ship captain and the brains of a professor.
On top of all her problems here I come with sixty six contractors who want to do a pre-bid inspection in her office. The building is going to be totally remodeled next year. My contract alone for HVAC, ceiling replacement and lighting will be a million bucks. There’s a hundred thou in hazmat abatement by itself. The contractors, to be fair to them will need to see what they are going to be bidding on.
So here I am with a herd of folks blundering into her DMV office and Debbie is smiling bravely, saying, “It’s OK, I know you have to do it.” There are only ten bazillion tense people demanding driver’s licenses and license plates and lord knows what else in this place and she’s being nice to me.
And then the contractors are all on the roof where the bulk of the air handling stuff is and I’m thinking of the of the load factor of a bunch of people on the roof (around 12,000 pounds) and telling Debbie that I’m going to wait in the parking lot until they all come down and she’s not sure whether to believe me or not, but she’s not going to leave no matter what and I suddenly realize that my joke was really stupid and tell her that I’m only kidding and that I’m sorry.
In the end I hustled all of the contractors out of there, passed out my bid packages and called it quits for the day. I’ll do another walk in two weeks for qualified bidders in the very early morning so as to give the contractors a fair look and to not burden Debbie any more than I have to.
I worked out all the details of the coming walk through with Debbie and the DMV facilities people. My job is so easy when I get to work with people like her.
Assholes who talk shit about State Employees make me see red. They have no idea of the competence and dedication of people like Debbie and the staff of the West Covina DMV office and the hard work they do under the most adverse conditions. There isn’t enough money in the world to induce me to work in one of those offices. As far as I am concerned those people are heros.
West Covina on the other hand boasts all the conveniences and hotels that a visitor (and I emphasize “visitor” would want). It’s not bad, it’s just not much. Still, there are worse places.
I’ve gotta go to Glendale on Tues, Riverside on Wed. I like Burbank and the Valley. Also other places in L. A. (Silver Lake and the area where Mary lives and Pasadena and other places and parts of Orange County). The Los Angeles area is a wonderful place. This from a guy who truly likes Sacramento.
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Catherine said on July 10, 2010 at 1:14 am
MichaelG, that’s a beautiful & moving description of the W Covina DMV. You do Debbie credit.
As for next week’s itinerary, what’s the line from Mildred Pierce (can’t find my copy on short notice)? “Smells like Glendale…”
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Dexter said on July 10, 2010 at 1:56 am
MichaelG: I was 5’9″ as high school frosh and then I measured 5’11” and 3/4 my last three years when the coaches measured us at the start of the basketball season. A couple years later I measured the same 5’11” + in the US Army.
So how the hell do I come up to an even six feet every time now? Hair has nothing to do with it, believe me. There must have been a different measuring technique used way back them. Now, it’s always “just six feet, exactly”. That would have looked so much cooler on the basketball varsity program. (I scored 92 points in two years of mostly benchwarming…not scholarship numbers!)
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moe99 said on July 10, 2010 at 2:52 am
Well, can I just complain about my baseball team? We have shit for pitching and not much talent aside from Ichiro for hitting. This is turning out to be a very crappy season. And we just traded Cliff Lee for no names from the Rangers….(can you tell I just went to two Mariners/Yankees games?)
End of rant.
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Deborah said on July 10, 2010 at 10:42 am
I’ve been away for a couple of days on a business trip. How about a little graphic design and cat humor? http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html
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LAMary said on July 10, 2010 at 1:25 pm
I think I can describe myself as a milf or at least be optimistic enough to think of myself that way. I guess I could call myself an msmplf. Someone might possibly.
It’s a lot harder to say.
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Dexter said on July 10, 2010 at 1:50 pm
You have every right to, moe99. White Sox fan at heart, I can’t get them on cable here, so I watch the Tigers and Reds almost every night, and all three of those teams are playing very well. It’s been a fun summer, what with the World Cup just finishing tomorrow .
Le Tour de France started a week ago, and tomorrow they’re in the Alps.
I have been doing a helluva lot of recording and fast forwarding to follow all these events.
I am sure, moe, you saw the clip of Ichiro colliding with the 17 year old girl, sending her into a Beatlesque frenzy, and later getting some gear from the Mariners. Over in Philly, Jason Werth, the right fielder, was prevented from recording an out when a dad caught a foul ball, clearly in the seating area, but Werth was caught using the f word at the dad, while the little boy watched and heard, all with a tearful expression on his little face…grow up kid! This is Philly, home of nasty fans and players. Learn to chew tobacco and spit a stream of terbacky juice in Werth’s face next time.
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LAMary said on July 10, 2010 at 2:53 pm
I’ve never had anything to complain about with my DMV experiences. I usually make an appointment through the online system and my wait isn’t bad. I go to the Lincoln Park office.
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Deborah said on July 10, 2010 at 5:27 pm
I submitted a comment this morning from a hotel room and don’t see it now, so maybe it went into the spam folder again? Anyhoo, I’ve been out of town on business and one of my work colleagues sent me this link, humor about graphic design and cats, thought some of you might enjoy it:
http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html
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Deborah said on July 10, 2010 at 5:28 pm
Nancy, please check your spam folder. A couple of comments of mine haven’t showed up again.
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Deborah said on July 10, 2010 at 5:30 pm
In case Nancy’s out sailing right now, I’ll try this again. Humor about graphic design and cats:
http://www.27bslash6.com/missy.html
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Julie Robinson said on July 10, 2010 at 5:30 pm
MichaelG, thanks for your compassion. My sister works for the State of Florida as a WIC manager. Thanks to the crappy economy their office is bursting with clients, no additional workers, and a wage freeze going on five years. These are not cushy jobs; these are the frontlines.
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brian stouder said on July 10, 2010 at 5:53 pm
Well, Mary – I know not what msmplf stands for*, but I think mostly all the folks who gab here – and especially including you – would be fun to meet and gab with in person, which (to me) is the indispensible catalyst in the “ilf” part of milf.
Michael – that was an excellent little essay on government employees. Dexter, I think I’ll have to work on rekindling my long-dormant love for major league baseball. Pam googled up what ticket prices are at Cincinnati’s new stadium (last game I attended was probably in 1992, at Riverfront) – and we found that they are very, very inexpensive; one could easily spend more to watch a Fort Wayne Tin Caps game.
*possibilities for msmplf (leaving aside the ‘ilf’ part): mostly sexy multifaceted people; masterly skilled merry poppets**; midlife single metropolitan palookas; (two more deleted, as they can only get me in trouble)
**”poppet” is one of Nance’s words, that I really like!
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nancy said on July 10, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Sorry, Deborah. Dunno what’s going on with the filter, but your three comments have been de-spammed and approved.
And yes, I was out sailing. A little hot, but mostly ahhhh.
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brian stouder said on July 10, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Deborah – the catty email exchange got me smiling, but the posters made me guffaw!
Nance – there’s plenty of daylight left, and it’s the cooler, more pleasantly angled variety. Arrrrgh!! You should still be anchors aweigh!
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Deborah said on July 10, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Thanks Nancy for rectifying the spam situation. A few words about the DMV… last year when my purse was stolen it took me only 12 minutes to get a duplicate drivers license at the DMV in the Chicago loop, which I had expected to take hours. In contrast it took me about 3 or 4 days to get my phone replaced even though the Verizon store was right across the street from where I work. I went in to the store the next day expecting to get a new phone ASAP but no, of course not, there were all kinds of glitches that made it take way longer. I was super impressed about the driver’s license experience, and so thankful.
Redeeming rain in Chicago right now. The temp dropped considerably. Yay.
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Joe Kobiela said on July 10, 2010 at 9:42 pm
When I flew into Lake Front last night in Clevland,the harbor fest was going on and they had 10 tall ships out sailing the lake front along with a 750ft freighter going out and a 1000ft freighter waiting to come in. Say what you want about Clevland it was really cool looking from 500ft.
Pilot Joe
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Sue said on July 10, 2010 at 10:34 pm
My sister-in-law is driving three hours north to a DMV office in Peshtigo, that was where she could get an exam appointment before her son goes back to school next fall. Her appointment is in August. Wisconsin State employees are getting cut like every other State and our Democratic candidate for governor is promising to “put Madison on a diet” if he’s elected. It makes me furious first that he would say that – he should know better – and second that in this political climate he probably has to.
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Sue said on July 10, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Oh, by the way, I watched “Valentine’s Day” this weekend, on the On-demand channel so I had 24 hours to watch it. It took me that long because I had to keep turning it off, it was that predictable. If you liked “Love, Actually” you’ll like this because it’s the same movie.
Anyway, I wouldn’t mention this movie except for one thing – Taylor Swift takes her little part and runs with it. Hilarious.
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Dexter said on July 11, 2010 at 12:11 am
Some blogs that use WordPress won’t allow multiple links to be posted. This is just an experiment.
http://anamariecox.typepad.com/
http://www.dibache.com/text.asp?cat=51&id=173
I’ll be damned. It seems to work here.
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brian stouder said on July 11, 2010 at 12:28 am
Thanks, Dexter. I liked the Ana Marie Cox link; the JD Salinger one lost me after the fifth paragraph, when I saw how far it still had to meander.
‘Night, all!
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Deborah said on July 11, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Celebrity sighting in Chicago: Sunday morning ritual at our favorite coffee place next to the Drake Hotel, we were lingering over our brew, reading the New York Times, the character actor Mike Star sat at the table next to us. I had no idea what his name was, have seen him in a million movies and TV shows. He often plays a cop. When I got home I googled “character actors” and sure enough he was on the list along with a picture that looks just like him in person.
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MichaelG said on July 11, 2010 at 2:37 pm
Mary, I have no idea what you look like other than you mentioned the other day that you are 5′ 10″ tall. From the wit and self confidence I see here I have no doubt that you are a very attractive woman and are, indeed, a MILF. My MILF comment about you had to do with the location of the perception. That is, my take on MILF is that it means “Mother I’d Like to F…” As such, it seemed to me that a second party would use the term. I’m sorry if you took it as a criticism. I certainly intended none. I wouldn’t dream of down grading you to a mother someone might possibly etc.
Unbelievably only ten or fifteen percent of customers make advance appointments at the DMV. I had to go the Carmichael office last fall. I made an appointment and it was only twenty minutes from the time I left my car until I returned to it.
I have a meeting at the Glendale DMV on Tues. We’re going to close it August 23d for a couple of months. I work for DGS, DMV is the client.
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moe99 said on July 11, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Ok, I have to say that “Despicable Me” is the very best movie I have seen in a long time. Even though it is a cartoon. And I haven’t checked what our favorite movie reviewer had to say yet about it either. So YMMV
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Joe Kobiela said on July 11, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Saw dispicable me Fri, with wife and movie review daughter. Very good flick,not quite as good as toy story 3 but very enjoyable.
Pilot Joe
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 11, 2010 at 5:37 pm
That’s a pretty fine Salinger story, from “Nine Stories.” Suspected to be altogether autobiographical, although . . . who knows? But it fits perfectly what’s known of his bio.
Wife and son away for week, off to see “Despicable” tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to their review.
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Deborah said on July 11, 2010 at 6:40 pm
I’ll probably never see either “Toy Story 3” or “Despicable Me” until they are shown on TV. I don’t think I could convince my husband to go with me, but then again Little Bird might possibly go with me. My husband’s younger daughter and his 2 1/2 year old grand daughter will be visiting next week so we need to do some toddler friendly activities here in Chicago while they’re here. We’ve been thinking about this for months and have all kinds of stuff lined up. It should be fun.
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Dexter said on July 11, 2010 at 6:59 pm
JMMO: (re: Salinger) It took a few minutes to find it, but I am glad I did. If not completely autobiographical, I have a feeling it’s really close.
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Little Bird said on July 11, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Deborah, they are in the middle of filming “Iron Man 3” in Chicago right now. They were supposed to do some sky-diving shot today/this evening. Right now should be a pretty good time for celebrity sightings.
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LAMary said on July 11, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I assume all the women here are milfs to people with an appreciation of intelligence and wit and if they choose to, they can call themselves milfs.
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brian stouder said on July 11, 2010 at 10:05 pm
Here is something I was pondering, and then a fun fact to know and tell. Remember when they were referring to the big gulf spill as an undersea ‘volcano of oil’? This reference struck me as conveying the point that the crude oil that is spewing (and spewing and spewing) in the gulf is itself a natural liquid, and not a man-made toxin; just as a volcano spews dust and dirt and gas and rocks and ash.
While it was human activity that triggered this underwater volcanic eruption of oil, still – presumeably oil under this much pressure must seep naturally, too, yes?
It turns out that, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, spills from human extraction of oil (before this spill, presumeably!) equals about 3% of all the oil spilled into the world’s oceans; runoff from land sources equals another 11%; and human transportation (and spills from that activity) account for another 34%.
Natural seepage of oil into the world’s oceans accounts for 47% of the crude oil that enters the ocean.
Worth noting in the ol’ memory hole, whenever the oil company’s legal defense team get their day in court, and question whether a claimant on the east coats of Florida (or wherever) was affected by oil from Deep Water Horizon – or from oil that was from somewhere else.
or alternatively – the Deep Wisdom of getting BP to agree to the $20 billion remediation fund now, before time and tides begin to obscure the facts on the ground (and in the water)
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Dexter said on July 12, 2010 at 12:42 am
I have had it with HBO’s “Hung” , on Sunday nights. It’s atrocious, a horrid story premise, rotten acting, haphazard direction…it’s disgusting, to boot.
Yes, I am the one who praises HBO all the time, but I am bailing on “Hung”.
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Dexter said on July 12, 2010 at 1:43 am
Mel Gibson lets it all out here, and it ain’t pretty. I think I really hate this prick.
http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2010/07/world-exclusive-audio-mel-gibsons-explosive-racist-rant-listen-it-here
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coozledad said on July 12, 2010 at 2:03 am
Dexter: She’s a child compared to him. He shouldn’t have to do anything else to indict himself.
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