With great anticipation, Alan and I and a few friends checked in at Ye Olde Tap Room, a venerable east-side Detroit bar — across a narrow alley from Grosse Pointe — on Saturday night for their annual celebration of the repeal of Prohibition. The advertised special was five-cent draft beer; the fine print was with purchase of commemorative mug; the even finer print was and the beer is Stroh’s. We opted to go with the pay-full-price-for-something-else plan, and I bet you would have, too.
Guests were encouraged to wear costumes from the roaring ’20s, and many did. Of course the ’20s had been over for some time when Prohibition was repealed, so I’m not sure the true period attire would have been flapper dresses and Tommy guns, but who the hell cares? The place was packed. A fun night, during which I had precisely four ounces too much beer, and abandoned my last round. I used to be able to pound down the lagers like a champ, but they catch up with me quickly nowadays, not in drunkenness but in sheer stomach-filling quantity. All those bubbles. All that sloshing.
This particular bar has a history vis-a-vis Prohibition; for a while it was a speakeasy itself, or “blind pig,” as they’re known around here. I’ve been to one after-hours joint in my life, in Columbus; the scene was very much like the roadhouse scene in “Animal House.” I woke up in bed, fully clothed, between two men, also fully clothed, both of them gay, one of whom was holding a toilet seat like a teddy bear. My last memory was of him wearing it like a necklace; he liked the color. It matched his sweater.
Never again. Now, three is effectively my limit, with some wiggle room depending on the food served. But I don’t begrudge anyone their fun.
What a weekend, even without the excursions. The weather is finally catching up to the calendar, and it’s time to get to work outdoors. Did my first mow of the season, a strange experience on Mother’s Day weekend, to be cutting grass under still-blooming forsythia, but there you are.
My iPad is now in Clinton Township — I’ve watched its progress from China via FedEx tracking — so now it’s time to think a little harder about how I’m going to use it. I read this David Carr story about the dawn of the magazines-on-tablet era with some interest. Especially this part:
Anybody in publishing will tell you that the prices they can charge advertisers for print (and now tablet) subscribers are far above the commodity pricing that rules on Web-based content. As more and more magazines end up in people’s laps, backlighted and without a mailing label, it’s a huge win for magazines, right?
Not so fast, said Robin Steinberg, executive vice president and director of publishing investment and activation for MediaVest. She helps giants like Kraft and Wal-Mart make ad-buying decisions. Ms. Steinberg sent a pre-emptive letter to publishers on April 29 suggesting that she and her clients would not simply go along with the assumption that a digital subscriber should count the same as a paper one.
Although she is on the Audit Bureau board and voted in favor of the changes, Ms. Steinberg made it clear that she wanted her clients to have the flexibility to opt in and out of digital editions. In a tart reminder that these are the early days of the process, she wrote that for media buyers, it was “critical that we determine how copies are qualified and counted when served either traditionally or digitally.”
In other words, same ol’ same ol’. The eyeballs that dollar up are the ones looking at dead trees. Remind me again why we all raced to the web? The rest, well, who can say if they even exist? What’s more:
Getting the kind of data that will satisfy skeptical buyers like Ms. Steinberg will be no small thing. Apple, the clear leader in tablet publishing, has been and will continue to be hesitant about sharing consumer behavior on its device. And no one knows enough about the habits of app readers to say conclusively how engaged they are while browsing through a digital magazine.
So that’s the new metric? I have to be engaged while I browse a digital edition, whatever that means? A while back I made a vow to allow more splash-page ads to run on media sites, rather than clicking them away automatically. I look at it as a small price to pay for free content. Lord knows what the new era will mean.
I’m already a New Yorker subscriber, so I’ll get the iPad edition free. I’ll keep you posted.
A quick skip to bloggage, then:
The anti-abortion crowd frequently plays dirty in its propaganda, although you could point out that that’s sort of the point of propaganda, period. And I know they say the same thing about us. But there’s something so disgusting in this piece, in which the director of one of those “post-abortion” ministries looks at a particular set of facts — the meltdown of a young Steven Tyler, the poor man’s Mick Jagger — and attributes all of it to the fact Tyler’s barely legal girlfriend had an abortion at 16. It’s in his interest to do so, of course; he makes his cheddar convincing women that an elective abortion is roughly comparable to five years in a concentration camp, in terms of how it affects your psyche. But it was nearly impossible to read without fogging the room with the steam coming out of my ears. Mary Elizabeth Williams takes it apart in Salon, so I don’t have to.
Because I don’t want to depart on a bummer note, however, it’s worth reading this short piece, a TED talk by a passenger on Chesley Sullenberger’s miracle landing in the Hudson River. Heartening without being sappy. Take three minutes of your time.
Manic, crazy Monday! I’m gone.
coozledad said on May 9, 2011 at 10:01 am
My takeaway from the Salon article was that little Stevie should be breaking rocks somewhere. Williams did a good job calling attention to what should be a textbook case demonstrating the amorality of the anti-choice crowd.
223 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 10:05 am
Oh I don’t know. We used to put away a lot of Stroh’s in my misguided youth when it was $.99/sixpack at the drugstore where they didn’t check ID. Hipsters in NYC have made PBR iconic, and Stroh’s isn’t as awful as that eyewash. I’d have to see what the mugs looked like, though I prefer nicking mugs, myself.
308 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 10:14 am
How to make a sword.
Tell a teabagger.
Detailed account of the OBL raid. Some of which I hadn’t heard.
House Democrats jobs plan: new programs to train workers in advanced manufacturing, investments in transportation infrastructure, research and development tax credits, and savings accounts for small-business start-ups.
Senate Republics jobs plan: reduce individual and corporate tax rates, prohibit the federal regulation of greenhouse gases and repeal President Obama’s health-care law.
Somebody explain how repealing ACA creates jobs, please. I know what the alleged argument is, but it’s light years from logic.
1036 chars
a different Connie said on May 9, 2011 at 10:28 am
It’s so funny you would say that Tyler ITPM’s Mick Jagger. My husband and I saw Tyler in Logan airport about 15 years ago, and at first thought it was Jagger.
158 chars
Connie said on May 9, 2011 at 10:37 am
As to prohibition: we visited Holly Michigan the other day. It is the home of Battle Alley, to which Carrie Nation once took her ax. Another story from the past.
164 chars
MichaelG said on May 9, 2011 at 10:52 am
Wow, I guess I’ve been living in a bubble. I had no idea about Tyler. Yeah, he should be making little ones out of big ones but so should the girl’s parents. Makes you wonder what else Tyler’s been up to over the last 40 years.
I never thought that Stroh’s was the world’s greatest beer but Pabst was certainly no better and I never had any idea that it was iconic anywhere. When you’re a kid any beer is good and 99 cent beer is excellent. I agree. “Free” mugs are the best.
484 chars
moe99 said on May 9, 2011 at 10:56 am
another worthwhile TED talk on how the internet information we receive is skewed to algorithms that ‘predict’ what we want to see:
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/eng//id/1091
181 chars
Kirk said on May 9, 2011 at 11:03 am
I don’t drink much lager, but there still are some bars that serve nothing else, and Stroh’s has far more flavor and body than most of the crap that passes for mainstream beer. In fact, I downed a few at my hometown Elks lodge last week with my brother-in-law.
260 chars
alice said on May 9, 2011 at 11:08 am
No abortion = No “Dude looks Like a Lady”
I’m curious what happened to the child girlfriend. Did she continue on as a groupie sort? Did her status go up or down? Can you adjust to reality after years in that lifestyle? Did she write a tell-all worthy of comparison to “I’m with the Band” (featured as a “you might also like” in Nancy’s Kickback Lounge, and one of the WORST books ever written)?
Also, is there a “needle in the belly” abortion procedure? Sounds like it was a late term one. I’ve got questions, people.
523 chars
LAMary said on May 9, 2011 at 11:14 am
Didn’t Priscilla Presley’s parents sign her over to Elvis when she was quite young? Shoshanna Lonstein/Jerry Seinfeld?
Here you go, rich show biz guy, take my daughter, please.
179 chars
alice said on May 9, 2011 at 11:15 am
Ted Nugent had a similar arrangement.
37 chars
John C. said on May 9, 2011 at 11:24 am
My recollection of my first trip to the Tap Room is that I did not abandon any beers, and so ultimately abandoned my car on Charlevoix and walked home.
151 chars
brian stouder said on May 9, 2011 at 11:27 am
1. Here’s hoping you all had a pleasant Mother’s Day weekend; we certainly did. Our 15 year old was in charge of cooking steaks on the grill, and he did a very fine job. Then, after he mowed our lawn, the girls and I ran off the gramma’s so I could mow her grass, with (of course) a stop to get some goodies from the C-store (big soda pop and sour Skittles).
2. Anyway, as to beer, it’s just not my cup of tea. Years ago, when Shelby was a newborn baby, we had a company outing at a resort in Chicago-land, and there was free beer in the hotel bar. As it happened, the remnant of a big wedding party was there, or possibly it was an unofficial after-reception of some sort. So I was thinking: a. free beer; b. no driving to do; c. well-dressed, interesting people (yeah yeah yeah – the women were awfully pretty); therefore d. Drink up!
This was an error.
There were many interesting people to gab with, and I lost track of how many of those green glass bottles of Molsens I consumed (I figure it was something like six), and to make a predictable (but pretty funny) story short*, I have never been so sick in my life. And not just sick for a day, but really poisoned for about three days. Blecchh!! (When it comes to alcohol, I have a glass jaw – which is a good thing, all in all).
3. I’m not big on violence, but really, truly – I’d become a vile person if any adult was actively beguiling one of our young’ns.**
*someday I can bore you with it, over some icy cold Diet Coke
** and what’s with adults allowing their young’ns to get tattoos? In the past month this sort of thing has come to my attention three times – involving kids no older than 15. Egad!
1676 chars
Suzanne said on May 9, 2011 at 11:49 am
Young’ns and tattoos. Ugh. My kids are now post college (no jobs, though, yet–grad school for one) so tattoos are their problem, but I have overheard too many parents perfectly ok with giving their kids a tattoo for birthday #16-or younger. These are small town, God fearin’, hard working people. Unfortunately, I also see too many parents for whom their kid being in the “in” crowd is priority #1 and if a tattoo gets you there, or having their underage friends over to drink in the basement, or any other illegal or immoral activity, then that is what you do. Being uncool is worse than just about anything else.
620 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 9, 2011 at 12:01 pm
Nothing productive to say about tattoos. 14 year olds with their starter barbed wire or script (which they sure can’t write) up their neck fill our lobby here, with their parents often well down the same road, saying “I told her not to do it,” and somehow, you sense, meaning it, even as they drove them there, signed the forms, and paid for most of it. And then got a Buckeye logo on their calf. Since they were there, anyhow.
So, ABC numbers were always solid and told/tell you about absolute, definite, real, non-virtual eyeballs that actually, measurably go out and buy product? The problem with the internet is that it’s — as a side effect — posted a large banner headline saying “the Emperor has no eyeballs.” Ad sales has always been smoke and mirrors, mostly smoke, except for the ones we charged the least for, and now have lost to Craig & Annie & all those other lists.
If only direct mail was taking it in the teeth as sharply as newspapers have. But we’ve (corporately) been selling lying circ figures and false assumptions about outcomes for years. Ad people are only helping support the game until they figure out how they can make their nut after blowing the final whistle on print/insert ads.
I’m not saying no one sees any, or that they have no impact, but in general, it’s as false an economy as derivatives.
1346 chars
nancy said on May 9, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I had many of the same questions, Alice. I’m assuming it was some sort of saline procedure, the late-term abortion of yesteryear. Which raises another sheaf of questions-without-answers right there. My main one is the same as yours, though — what about the girlfriend? But then I figured no one bothered to check, for the usual reason: Once you’re knocked up, you’re not the one that matters. Ever.
399 chars
Jakash said on May 9, 2011 at 12:37 pm
Stroh’s was the main beer in my area when I was beginning to discover how to drink too much beer. I’m sorry, though, despite it being cheap and ubiquitous (those were both GOOD things at the time), I just never liked it. “Fire-brewed” though it was, I’d always pick something else, if given a choice. If, as Kirk says, it actually “has far more flavor and body than most of the crap”, that may have been my problem right there. At that time, flavorless swill like PBR or Miller was just what I, with a very underdeveloped palate, would have appreciated. If the alternative was, say, Blatz, then I’d have gone with the Stroh’s by all means…
Now, for me, the quantity is way down, but the quality way up. I can’t even begin to keep up with all the interesting and flavorful choices that continue to hit the market. Seems like anywhere you go these days they’ve got their own local brewery or brewpub, which results in the fact that I almost never end up buying the old-line national brands anymore.
1008 chars
4dbirds said on May 9, 2011 at 12:44 pm
Over the years when I’ve had sincere discussions with women, either one on one or in a group, I’ve been amazed at the number of us who’ve admitted to having abortions and how normal we are.
189 chars
Colleen said on May 9, 2011 at 12:44 pm
“Once you’re knocked up, you’re not the one that matters. Ever.”
Bingo.
78 chars
nancy said on May 9, 2011 at 12:48 pm
At one point, Alan ordered a microbrew from a brewery called Short’s. He didn’t know until then that Short’s is Stroh’s spelled backwards.
The other thing about drinking Stroh’s at the Tap Room is that an almost impossibly vast beer selection is its stock in trade. They have more than 250 varieties in stock, at least a dozen on tap. A very beery place.
358 chars
Jeff Borden said on May 9, 2011 at 12:49 pm
Our long national nightmare may be over. . .Newt Gingrich will officially announce his 2012 presidential run on Wednesday via Facebook and other social media. Finally, our country can look forward to a classy president and First Lady instead of those darned Obamas. I dream of the photos of Newtie, his sausage-like physique swathed in a tuxedo, and the lovely Calista, her hair lacquered into place by the contents of 256 cans of Aquanet, entertaining at state dinners.
470 chars
Deborah said on May 9, 2011 at 1:02 pm
If Newt runs it’s a guarantee that Obama wins according to my right-wing sister. So yippee!
91 chars
coozledad said on May 9, 2011 at 1:12 pm
It’s early yet. Andrew Dice Clay hasn’t even announced.
55 chars
basset said on May 9, 2011 at 1:24 pm
There is no more Stroh’s – Pabst produces some kind of weak generic brew under that name, but when the brewery on 75 in Detroit closed, the real Stroh’s went away, along with the opportunity to take the brewery tour, get a free pitcher and some pretzels on the way in, and the same on the way out.
So, what replaced Stroh’s as the working man’s beer in Detroit? Don’t say Natural Light. Just don’t.
403 chars
Bitter Scribe said on May 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm
As far as I’m concerned, if a consumer pays for content, he or she is a subscriber, no matter what format the content arrives in. This Robin Steinberg sounds like a gouge artist to me, and I hope publishers won’t let people like her push them around.
250 chars
brian stouder said on May 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm
Basset – icy cold Diet Coke after a grueling day (in my rolling chair in a climate controlled office!) is my working-man’s beverage of choice, after quittin’ time!
163 chars
Deborah said on May 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm
Nancy, I’m already a New Yorker subscriber, but when I tried to get it on my iPad I didn’t see anything about getting it free? How do you do that? There didn’t seem to be anything to click on to make that choice? I’d love to have it both ways, on my iPad and the print version, so when I’m in the mood one way or the other it’s there.
334 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 9, 2011 at 2:38 pm
Hey, Brian – http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/movies/abraham-lincoln-vampire-hunter-rewrites-history.html
(Does clicking this way count against your 20?)
157 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 2:56 pm
Does anybody know for a fact that any of this about
steven tyler is actually true. He lived in Marshfield MA when my teenage dayghter babysat for his family. If he’s approached my kid he’d be pushing up daisies. I met him and he seemed alright. I know for a fact my kid would have crushed his jewels like grapes if he’s tried anything
Emily said he’s a gentleman, and he risked his life pulling his kids out of a bad housefire. That catscratch vocal, I can do without. And Aerosmith is no stupider a band name than Led Zeppelin. But some of the songs are alright, and Joe Perry can play, seriously. My point is who can say what about any of that is true? The born-agains could have made the whole thing up. Here ya go cooz, my daughter, when she met the bastard was ridiculously gorgeous. If he’d tried anything, his nads would have been juice. Smart and strong, my kid. Picked a graduate program and got accepted, at Mass
general. She guides people out of the dark tunnel of closed skull brain injuries, and she’s brilliant at it. Takes empathy and intelligence. I am so proud of her doing something most people are incapable of. But it’s tough when therapy doesn’t work. But Emmy keeps at it. Sorry for being so personal, but my kid is doing a very difficult job very well. But when she met Steven Tyler, he had a family, my daughter was ridiculously beautiful, his house caught on fire and he didn’t try anything? So I’m not sure about what’s been ascribed to the guy. Coozledad, pedophilia is
american?
fronch, Deutsche? Russki? How bout Serge Gainsborough? Klaus Kinski? And his daughter. Seriously, you’re right. Nobody else seems to have little beauty queens, but I’d say brits and euros are the scum that find this alluring. Particularly little boys. Pedophilia as some idea of Americans, that is such a crock, bud.
1841 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 3:00 pm
What you say? Whatever. What ever you say. As I said, are you kidding? You have to be kidding.
95 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 3:05 pm
Shit Nancy, are you kidding? Sweet Home. or Tuesday’s gone. Tuesday’s gone, James Blunt is so full of shit, but … Sweet Home Alabama is the way to imagine Warren. James Blunt is hopeless shit and I’d rather hear Buffy Ste. Marie. Seriously are you kidding.
258 chars
nancy said on May 9, 2011 at 3:12 pm
I have no idea what you’re talking about.
41 chars
Jolene said on May 9, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Deborah, apparently, until today, you could only get The New Yorker on the iPad in single issues. But they’ve just released a new version of their app that is accessible to print subscribers.
323 chars
4dbirds said on May 9, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Just read the Tyler articles and if true, he should be in jail, along with the young girl’s parents.
100 chars
Jeff Borden said on May 9, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Referencing comments here a couple of days ago about the change in the once moon-faced Bristol Palin, perhaps she did get plastic surgery. Gawker is reporting some cable channel called Bio is doing a reality show about her, where she will live in L.A. with her former “Dancing with the Stars” partner Kyle Massey and do volunteer work and stuff.
As one of the few teen moms making more than $256,000 per year (for her work as an abstinence spokesperson), she can afford to volunteer, I guess.
And, once again, I am forced to scream into the sky, “Fuck you, John McCain, for bringing this collection of snowbilly grifters into the national consciousness.”
660 chars
nancy said on May 9, 2011 at 4:00 pm
I long ago stopped regularly checking in with my old newspaper, now solidly on the road to shopper status. But the letters to the editors today are weird beyond belief. Here’s one:
Although barely recognized by most people today, historians know that James Polk was one of our greatest presidents.
An intense man of enormous discipline and vigor, he worked incessantly, to the point of exhaustion, to make America a greater country. Though less than 50 years old when he took office, the one-term president died only three months after leaving it.
From Lincoln to FDR, and from LBJ to G.W. Bush, the weight of the presidency could be seen in the faces of the men who occupied the oval office.
Obama, on the other hand, always looks like a kid with a new bike, in spite of challenges today that are every bit as great as those faced by previous presidents.
Could it be that he’s not working that hard? Or maybe he just doesn’t care all that much.
Wade Lerum
Monroeville
I’m used to Obama-hate. But comparing him to James Polk is a new one.
1074 chars
Bob (not Greene) said on May 9, 2011 at 4:17 pm
Nance, regarding that letter: My question is what the hell is it doing in a community newspaper? I get letters like that periodically from insane readers. Apart from the fact that they are bizzaro, they have nothing to do with anything remotely resembling a local issue. You can’t write a letter to the local paper that has to do with a local issue? Then don’t bother sending it, cause I ain’t printing it. Send that crap elsewhere.
432 chars
alex said on May 9, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Read the Tyler piece the other day. My takeaway was that the child was fortunate not to have been born lest it have a mug like his.
131 chars
Julie Robinson said on May 9, 2011 at 4:23 pm
BobnG, there are so few employees that they will print anything. In fact, if you wanted to send in an old blurry photo of your grandkids at the lake, it would go right in. Maybe someone will send in photos of Obama today and three years ago, since clearly Mr. Lerum does not have access to such.
296 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 9, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Hello, Prospero? I don’t mind your incoherence as much as your specificity at times: “The born-agains could have made the whole thing up.”
And white people can’t dance, lawyers are all scum, everyone in Boston says “pahk the cawr in Hahvahd Yahd.” Really? Shall I opine that all liberals are hedonistic elitist eugenic sidewalk revolutionaries?
Or how about this instead: All Muslims are not angry murderous terrorists, and not all evangelical Christians are ignorant canny liars intent on crushing all joy and pleasure from life. The fact that you can find some, even a discreditable herd’s worth of such in either group, doesn’t mean you’ve defined the population thereby.
And the James Polk guy? He’s just an idiot, wherever he goes to church, or doesn’t. He doesn’t even define members of the USAFPAJKP.*
*United States Association For the Promotion & Appreciation of James K. Polk.
903 chars
LAMary said on May 9, 2011 at 4:26 pm
Not only is he saying Obama is not as good a president as Polk, he’s saying Obama isn’t looking old yet. He needs to get old looking if he is going to have any credibility.
How about Eisenhower? He looked old when he started and when he left office. What does that mean? I want answers.
290 chars
moe99 said on May 9, 2011 at 4:28 pm
TLo not only like Treme, they like Game of Thrones. Hoorah!
60 chars
nancy said on May 9, 2011 at 4:29 pm
I think Polk Love would be a great name for a band.
51 chars
coozledad said on May 9, 2011 at 4:33 pm
Or Funk Polk.
13 chars
Jeff Borden said on May 9, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Actually, Obama is following in the footsteps of all his predecessors in looking considerably grayer than back in 2008. When we see side-by-side photos of him as he leaves the White House in January 2013, the differences will be even starker.
I’m not an Obama worshipper, but it does make me happy that we have a president who speaks as eloquently as he did last night on “60 Minutes.” Dropping ‘g’s,’ using silly colloquialisms (“you betcha”), and speaking in horrible, fragmented sentences is no measure of “realness” to me, anymore than Mitt Romney wearing blue jeans makes me think he’s a regular guy.
608 chars
Jolene said on May 9, 2011 at 4:47 pm
FYI: On PBS tonight, an American Experience show about the civil rights movement, as reflected in music.
118 chars
Sue said on May 9, 2011 at 5:03 pm
I dunno, Jeff Borden, I wouldn’t mind watching Obama rock both a South Side accent and a South Side attitude, just once. I know he wasn’t born in Chi, and I know he’s above all that stuff, but wouldn’t it be fun if he would unleash something like that on the world, just for one speech?
I mean, c’mAHHHHN….. Barack going full-bore Daley would be a blast.
361 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 9, 2011 at 5:13 pm
I let myself get so pointlessly irritated at the “born-agains” comment I forgot to say: Obama doesn’t look older and more careworn, just barely three years into getting “the briefings”? You’ve got to be kidding me. The hair, the look, the set of his lips — he’s showing it. And I don’t begrudge him a single half-round of golf; you have to have ways of keeping your head out of the hatch from time to time. Whatever your party or program, you’ve gotta want your leadership to have a rational balance to their life, and enough rest to . . . well, more than air traffic controllers need, even.
593 chars
Jeff Borden said on May 9, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Jolene,
As luck would have it, this is the last week of Daley’s mayoral tenure. He’s been taking victory laps –he was in Welles Park near our house last week when I walked the dog talking about the great energy immigrants and the young bring to our city– but the papers also have been detailing his Achilles heel, to wit, the incredible levels of corruption and cronyism during his long reign.
I will admit to being burned out on Daley. The awful, terrible, horrible deal that leased our parking meters out for 75 years tore it for me. Yeah, the illegal destruction of Meigs Field is right up there and so is the pathetic ego-fluffing that requires his name be attached to every frigging sign in the city. Hell, they’ll need 1,000 people just to paint over all those signs. But the dirty little deal on the meters is the worst: he rammed it through council, got taken for a ride (the deal left an estimated 40% of value on the table) and the armies of ticket-writers are killing merchants dependent on street traffic. In my first 21 years in Chicago, I received maybe two parking tickets. In the last year, I received five or six at $50 per pop.
Rahm Emmanuel is more like Obama. He is articulate and understandable. I won’t miss the dese and dose at all.
But then, you know, I’m your typical urban elitist, lol.
1326 chars
brian stouder said on May 9, 2011 at 5:23 pm
Jeff (Borden) – I don’t think President Obama will be changing addresses until January, 2017 – and I’ll put 2 liters of icy cold Diet Coke on that!
Jeff (tmmo) – that Lincoln vampire movie caught my eye some time back. I guess if an otherwise disinterested person’s only exposure to A. Lincoln is as a vampire slayer – I’d take that as a net-plus (and not as horribly innaccurate as, say, Joe Sobran’s view of Lincoln, but we digress)
I actively looked up the movie called “Lincoln Lawyer” – and immediately found that it was about a guy who operates his law office out of the back seat of his Lincoln. I’ll pass on that one, except to say that it might actually capture something, as A. Lincoln was a circuit-riding lawyer who spent months crossing the prairies and staying in one-horse towns with a changing cast of fellow lawyers and judges (most of whom headed for home on occasion during the season, unlike A.)
And then there’s Robert Redford’s Conspirators movie, which I think I’ll wait for Red Box on; and then the long awaited Speilberg movie, which – if it ever happens – I will pay full price to see.
Aside from all that, I was thinking of you on Sunday, Jeff. A guy named Howard Means was holding forth on his book about John Chapman (aka Johnny Appleseed) at Urbana, Ohio, and repeatedly mentioned your part of the state. I think I shall have to get his book, as he gave a very engaging talk.
http://www.booktv.org/Program/12429/Johnny+Appleseed+The+Man+the+Myth+the+American+Story.aspx
And in other Book.nnc news, after finishing Too Big To Fail (which was interesting and upsetting, all at once), I began Analyzing Intelligence, which is a collection of essays by US intelligence analysts addressing the question – how the hell do you know what matters, and how do you decide what those things mean? I suspect that old fashioned newspaper editors could tell these people a thing or two.
And finally, tonight is school board meeting night, so I’m out of here (I have no grapes to throw – and anyway, we don’t roll that way in the Fort)
2086 chars
Jeff Borden said on May 9, 2011 at 5:42 pm
Doh! I meant 2017.
I fully expect Obama to be reelected and hope it is by an even larger margin. I guess it all depends what floats to the surface over in wingnuttia. We couldn’t be lucky enough to get Newt. Damn, I would help do opposition research on that sac of pus without charge. God knows there is plenty to dig up. Whoever it is will not win.
352 chars
Bitter Scribe said on May 9, 2011 at 6:01 pm
Nancy, did you ever hear of James Thurber’s essay, “Something About Polk”? Read it, if my link works for a change. It’s hilarious.
264 chars
Dexter said on May 9, 2011 at 6:04 pm
I used to follow the beer business closely. basset is right, of course. Twenty-six years and eight days ago the Strohs, under Peter Stroh, closed the I-75 brewery. Stroh’s ended up being brewed in Evansville, Indiana under the G. Heileman umbrella.
These cheap beers are hard to follow, actually. Now, according to some sites, G. Heileman, Stroh’s, Jos. Schlitz are all under the Pabst Brewing Company authority, but today maybe it changed.
Don’t hold me to any of this.
The Pabst brand itself nearly died but quite a few years ago some kids in Portland, Oregon somehow cracked the conscience of America , drinking Pabst at parties and making outlandish statements as to what a great beer it was / is…now you will see actors drinking Pabst in movies. I think Clint Eastwood drank it in that Detroit movie he made in which he played a redneck retired autoworker.
But what is bugging me today is what in the hell did Roger Hargreaves ever do to rate a Google Doodle—even a constantly changing sequence of his moronic cartoons, all day today? Is his work supposed to be uplifting? Please tell me.
1112 chars
MichaelG said on May 9, 2011 at 6:59 pm
I don’t know anything about the movie, but the book ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ was written by Michael Connelly who is a very fine novelist and one of my favorites. I recommend his books to anybody without reservation. His stories are mostly set in Downtown Ellay and the San Fernando Valley. Connelly worked for some years as a police beat reporter for the L. A. Times. Now he’s rich and lives in Florida.
403 chars
Joe Kobiela said on May 9, 2011 at 7:21 pm
Yoo hoo Mable, Black Label!!!!
Pilot Joe
41 chars
Rana said on May 9, 2011 at 7:42 pm
It was worth reading the article just for this. I love a devastating summary.
393 chars
Scout said on May 9, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Rana, I was similarly captivated by the very same paragraph. Sums it up perfectly.
82 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 9, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Bitter Scribe, thank you; I withdraw my acronym in favor of SIAAJKP. If I’d read that before, I’d utterly forgotten it, and wrongly so. Hail Thurber!
149 chars
Connie said on May 9, 2011 at 10:25 pm
So Dexter, you got a problem with honoring the great author of “Mr. Tickle?”
76 chars
basset said on May 9, 2011 at 11:06 pm
>>Stroh’s ended up being brewed in Evansville, Indiana under the G. Heileman umbrella.
believe you’re thinking of a different river city there, Dexter – Stroh’s bought Heileman, not the other way around, and for awhile after the demise of the Detroit brewery Stroh’s was brewed in a former Schlitz plant in Memphis. Wasn’t the same, though.
Heilemann did own the old Evansville Brewing Company from 1972-88, and made a bunch of sub-premium brands – Sterling, Drewry’s, Wiedemann, Cook’s, several more.
516 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 11:16 pm
Obviously, I’m not suggesting anybody should condone any horrendous behavior on Steven Tyler’s part regarding underage girls. My point was only that anybody could have written anything at all about this guy and everybody would believe the worst. I have met him and he seems like a decent guy. Homely as sin. I don’t think he looks a whit like Mick Jagger, but for wrinkles. I’d say it’s entirely possible Steven Tyler had nothing to do with any of this, including the autobiography. Obviously, I have no idea, but I have seen the guy in the company of his family, and I’d take all of this with a grain of salt. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I don’t think so. He seemed like a halfway normal guy, and I think it’s entirely possible he’s getting a raw deal here. Maybe it’s all true, but having met the guy, I doubt it. The abortion story, on the other hand is heinous. I,ve been through one. It is devastating in the long run. I know for a fact that both mom and dad found it difficult in later years, but later we had a superb child together. If you’ve never been through an abortion, please just shut up about the psychological effects of doing this. We didn’t feel we had a choice. And we’re exes now and we both wonder whether we might choose differently in hindsight. But please, if you haven’t been through this, shut the fuck up. It is difficult, if you aren’t monstrous, and if you are actually in love. It does inform relationships way after it happens.
My ex and I have have talked about this many times. We remain good friends. There is nobody in the world other than our kid I care about more. She’s one awesome woman. To this day, I wish we’d just bitten the bullet and brought the child into the world. Am I an asshole? Because, I wish I could revisit the past with some idea of how the future might turn out? My only point is that maybe knowing all the details might be wise before making judgements about others. And recriminations about abortions, for a fact. It was probably still our best choice, and I wish we’d chosen otherwise. My daughter’s mom wishes the same thing. We were scared shitless.
we aren’t happy to this day about the choice we made. Does that make us poster children for shitheel anti-abortion mofos? Not close. Looking back, if we could take back the decision? Yeah, we would. If you haven’t been through this, shut the fuck up. You haven’t got a clue. For people with a conscience that are actually in love, and I’m not excusing Steven Tyler, because I’ve no idea what the truth is, This is a horrible decision to make. Sorry, it is. If you’ve never nade this decision, just shut the fuck up.Recriminations are hell. Give it a try. You really have no idea.
2702 chars
prospero said on May 9, 2011 at 11:44 pm
I wish we’d done otherwise. But it really wasn’t my choice. I was in love and we did what she wanted. Not what I wanted. I would have done whatever she thought was best. So these decisions aren’t always about guys. Whatever any of you all think. Everybody knows the story about Led
Zeppelin and the mudshark. Frank Zappa made it a legend, and it seems like an immense crock of shit.
387 chars
Larkspur said on May 9, 2011 at 11:51 pm
“…If you’ve never been through an abortion, please just shut up about the psychological effects of doing this….”
You say this as if you think that hardly any of us have “been through an abortion”. I had an abortion once, many years ago. The psychological effect on me was relief, big-time relief. I don’t regret it, and I appreciate that it was an option for me. I don’t know what you think I have no idea about. I understand that your partner’s abortion is now a source of regret for both of you, but I don’t understand why you seem to think that should change my mind – or shut me up – about my own abortion. For me, it was not tragic. The end.
662 chars
prospero said on May 10, 2011 at 2:28 am
Larkspur, Not my intention, but it’s a sure thing that people talk a whole lot of shit about this subject that have not experienced it. I apologize if I offended you. I wasn’t intending to change anybody’s mind. Just explaining that in my experience, this is not all cut and dried. I’m not inclined to impose my own situation on anybody else, and I think it’s extremely unfair for you to intimate I did. Just my experience. I didn’t lay guilt in any fashion and you can be assured, my opinion is people do what they must. I wasn’t criticizing anybody’s decision. You seriously do me a disservice to claim that’s what I was doing or that I was moralizing. Nothing of the sort. Not even close. And your assumptions about my ideas about this subject are offensive and ludicrous. If you are trying to claim anything I said had anything to do with that heinous article, excuse me for your lack of critical thinking. Not remotely. I meant the way I felt in the long run, not the way anybody else should feel. I would have thought that was obvious,. Is it alright if I feel recriminations? I mean, these are my feelings, and I’m not trying to impose my feelings on anybody else:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1N8GtDkYfQ
I prefer the Greg Allman version, but I thought you might might prefer Nico,, She ain;t Lou but she has an expressive voice. Please don’t confront me with my failures, I have not forgotten them. You can’t convince me I might have made a mistake, You can’t convince me an abortion is just a woman’s choice, It was mine too. f you think not, you just make a mockery of half the human race. Having had one perfect child , I wish we’d had the first. Am I some sort of asshole? I wish we did and I refuse to think I’m some sort of asshole for wishing we did. Making this idea into some sort of anti-choice shit is just totally loony. And it’s grotesquely unfair.
1880 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 10, 2011 at 6:41 am
Basset, Dex — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdhUE_aViKc
57 chars
alex said on May 10, 2011 at 7:50 am
So it looks like Mitch Daniels’ hemming and hawing has to do with his wife’s ho-ing.
197 chars
Kim said on May 10, 2011 at 8:08 am
I’m thinking the issue is not so much the abortion but the fact that Tyler’s girlfriend was a child herself. And then, of course, the issue becomes that all the adults who make decisions (the girl’s parents, Tyler, the reporter on that story, the Nigel Lythgoes of the world and so on) are too willing to just pass off the experience as youthful error. Would that the girl would get off so easily. Why I feel compelled to explain this to Pros, I have no idea.
459 chars
brian stouder said on May 10, 2011 at 8:58 am
Alex – that was a great link, about a thing I had never heard before, regarding Mrs Daniels and her man Mitch.
Imagine if Mr Limbaugh (for example) could allege that Michelle Obama had run off to California and got herself hitched to some other buck, and then dumped him and came back to Barry, just for a chance at the White House – and telling us (and OUR KIDS!) what we are allowed to eat.
Actually, we don’t even have to imagine the invective from the flying monkeys of the right wing airwaves, since it’s on display every damned day anyway
550 chars
4dbirds said on May 10, 2011 at 9:38 am
Ditto Larkspur, nothing but relief after my abortion.
53 chars
Rana said on May 10, 2011 at 7:25 pm
prospero, it’s one thing to talk about one’s personal experience, and the way that it did or did not affect your life afterward.
But it’s another thing entirely to take that experience and use it to mandate laws to dictate what other people may or may not do. I don’t have a problem with him being upset by the abortion, if he indeed was – but his feelings are being treated as (a) more important than hers, and, (b) presented as a basis for policy-making. Telling women that they can’t have abortions because one dude felt bad after his messed-up underage lover had one many many years ago is fucked up, period.
617 chars