First, a housekeeping note:
Light posting over the next two days. When I agreed to take Kate to see her beloved Vans Warped Tour in Cleveland — the Detroit date came while she was at summer camp — I thought it was possible it would be an uncomfortable experience. I hadn’t planned on an epic heat wave, but oh, well. Summer — what are you going to do?
We leave in two hours. First stop: Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Then a nice air-conditioned hotel, then Blossom Music Center tomorrow. It’s a pretty cool setting — grassy swards and the like — and I’m finger-crossing that we have no sudden fierce thunderstorms, which this sort of weather breeds.
This will be the second of three summer concerts we have planned, and yes, I am the best mom ever. First was Matt & Kim in Detroit, tomorrow this, then next week, yet another date with Anarbor in Pontiac. This is the first headlining show for Anarbor, and they’re offering a special VIP-level ticket. It gets you in early for a meet ‘n’ greet with the band, a signed poster, the usual. The price for all this swag? Twenty bucks. I hear Bon Jovi had a similar pricing level on their last tour, closer to $1,500. I could pass this one off on Alan. It’s his turn and it’s on a night when he could go, but I feel as though Mike the guitarist and I are likethis (see above).
On the other hand? Pontiac.
Matt & Kim was a good show, very energetic. Their greeting to the crowd: How the fuck are you, Detroit?! It went on from there, with f-bombs, mf-bombs and the like dropped into every utterance. I told Kate that the use of profanity is a little like cooking with hot peppers. A little enhances everything and makes the flavors pop, but too much is simply numbing. Matt & Kim, a couple of ex-Pratt art students whom you’d think would know a thing or two about understatement and subtlety, showed very little in that regard. On the other hand, they hardly stand out. Enhance your vocabulary, rokkers.
So I’m taking my last few moments of calm to read more about the phone-hacking scandal. We have careers ending in disgrace and now, a body count. One thing missing, however — how difficult was this, and is it still possible to do? Does anyone know? And just to provide a perfect illustration of how paranoid thinking can always justify itself, the scandal has given fresh life to? Yes, the anti-vaccine crowd. The trail goes: Andrew Wakefield, the author of the original vaccine-autism link study, which has since been discredited, was attacked hard by Murdoch’s Times of London; James Murdoch sits on the board of GlaxoSmithKline, a British pharmaceutical company; ergo, the fix is in!!!!!!
Yappy chihuahua runs off a pair of armed robbers. Good dog!
Not the best mugshot ever, but a contender.
Gotta get dressed for the road. Rok on, all.
prospero said on July 19, 2011 at 10:07 am
One seriously lucky bridegroom. Did the cops get there on cue, i.e.: “forever hold your peace”? If not, I suppose an immediate dissolution of the marriage would be a slam dunk.
As for bad language from rock stages, Robin Tyner did it properly, anything else is an imitative second act,and the rest of these people should consider how much it makes them seem like poseurs.
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Kirk said on July 19, 2011 at 11:09 am
My memory of Blossom is of a wonderful place to watch a concert but a pain to get in and out of. Enjoyed Pink Floyd, Joni Mitchell and Willie Nelson there.
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LAMary said on July 19, 2011 at 11:32 am
That video could almost make me want a chihuahua. Max the dane/boxer mix loves chihuahuas. He hangs with them at the dog park. This big doofus dog seeks out the chihuahuas, french bulldogs and J. Russels to run around the park. The lab looks for other dogs who share his interest in chasing tennis balls, and Poppy, the golden mix looks for shade. She’s not a dog park kind of girl.
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Deborah said on July 19, 2011 at 11:32 am
The way I heard how to phone hack: you have to know the phone number of the person you are hacking, then two people call the same number so that at least one of them goes into voice mail. And then you act as if you are the owner of the phone getting your own voicemail from another phone, most people apparently never change the passcode from the one that comes with the phone, others pick passwords that are really easy to guess, like their current address or something like that. I read this on slate or CNN or ?
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Jeff Borden said on July 19, 2011 at 11:53 am
The phone hacking part of the case is getting the lion’s share of attention –driven by the knowledge that the Murdochians intruded into a capital murder case involving a 13-year-old girl– but the charges most likely to sink the evil Aussie and his swinish clan involve bribery of police. If true, it is straight up corruption and it’s going to roil Great Britain for a long, long time as both public and politicians probe just how dirty Scotland Yard has become. And then you have Prime Minister Cameron, who hired a former News of the World editor to be his director of communications, and who considers Rebekah Brooks a close, personal friend. His coalition government was never really that strong and the drip, drip, drip of this scandal could wind up forcing him out.
I heard a brief radio clip of Murdoch before Parliament, lamenting that this was the most humble day of his life. Fuck you, bastard. Let’s hope there are many, many, many more humbling days in your future. You deserve everything coming your way.
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coozledad said on July 19, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Via Charles Pierce, yet another story about performance enhancing drugs.
I could swear this guy’s statement to the cops is a direct quote from my wife.
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Kirk said on July 19, 2011 at 12:13 pm
The guy trying to throw a pie (or something) at Uncle Rupert was pretty wild. Rupe’s young wife leapt up and smacked the guy. Turns out the attacker is a comedian named Jonnie Marbles. You can’t make up this stuff.
My favorite moment: Right after it happened, a very British voice harrumphing, “It’s an outrage!”
And, after a break of 10 minutes or so to haul the guy out, the hearing before a parliamentary committee continued.
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Kath said on July 19, 2011 at 12:39 pm
Just what every embattled CEO needs: a trophy wife who can throw a punch!
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paddyo' said on July 19, 2011 at 12:39 pm
BTW, speaking of not-quite-best-mugshot-ever-but-not-bad, there’s a fine bunch of them on that page Coozledad linked about the drunk demolition derby driver.
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coozledad said on July 19, 2011 at 12:41 pm
There’s a time and a place for Rupert to get something in his face, and that time and place is 25 years in prison. That anarchist comedian “Johnny Marbles” is the equivalent of the douchehills who marred the anti-war protests stalking around in idiotic puppet costumes. I kept praying for the fuckers to topple and break their damned necks. Oh, and that phrase “anarchist comedian”? Impossible.
Could these fuckers just retire to their parent’s basements and wait for the trust fund to kick in? Sheesh.
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Deborah said on July 19, 2011 at 12:46 pm
Jeff B, so true it’s usually not the crime but the cover-up that gets em. Was it yesterday that they found a bag in a bin in a parking garage near Rebekah Brook’s home? The bag apparently contained a computer and some papers belonging to her husband. What a coincidence, and of course they’re spinning how it ended up there every which way. It seems that Scotland Yard is deeply involved in this whole mess.
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prospero said on July 19, 2011 at 1:04 pm
Did anybody ever drive stone cold sober in a demolition derby? If so, why? Even better question: Why does ESPN fill hours with Texas Hold’em when they could program demolition derby?
Spectacular graphic and visual presentations of fascinating statistics.
For instance, golden parachutes in the economic meltdown. Like the doofus that ran WaMu for 17 days before it went belly up and left with $19mil.
The USA weapons bazaar.
Health care costs.
How in the world can anybody believe Fox News is news?
Wonder what Nancy Grace will say about this. Funky Cold Medusa.
And not to be an pedantic ahole about this, but a sward is a lawn or a field of grass (like a copse necessarily includes trees), frequently used in landscape architects’ jargon to describe a field of grass sculpted for artistic or practical (natural drainage) effect.
And those bold robbers better hope nobody in the ‘hood recognizes them in that video. Laughing-stocks. Do people claim that chihuahuas were bred to be ratters, or that they are the offspring of dogs bred with rats?
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MarkH said on July 19, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Scotland Yard? No doubt. Reminds me of Gregory Peck’s great line to David Niven in Guns of Navarone:
“You’re in it NOW, up to YOUR NECK!!!”
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LAMary said on July 19, 2011 at 1:46 pm
The best line in The Guns of Navarrone was Gregory Peck saying, “Uberleutnant. Don’t forget. I speak German per-FECKT!”
Which he SO doesn’t.
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MarkH said on July 19, 2011 at 2:13 pm
No doubt. That’s why he brought the Krauts down on the raiding party when he couldn’t even say “Yah!” convincingly on the mountain phone to German HQ.
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Halloween Jack said on July 19, 2011 at 2:17 pm
I feel bad for that 50-year-old bride. A two-year-old warrant and they can’t even let her change clothes for booking? Srsly? It’s not like she’s in the league of this bridezilla. Also, TSG’s classics page is always worth revisiting.
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prospero said on July 19, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Anybody remember the promotional parchment maps when Guns of Navarone was released? There were starting point where the touch of a lit cigarette would burn a path. There musst have been a prize of some sort if you burned a path all the way to the target. This was obviously aimed at kid smoker, but I can’t remember whether or not there was a cigarette company tie-in.
Navarone theme song.
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Dexter said on July 19, 2011 at 4:47 pm
I take this as a clarion call to change all passwords to the max number of characters allowed…sometimes 24 now.
Deborah heard it as I did, and apparently it is simple as sugar pie to hack someone’s phone.
I never give out my phone number unless the request is prefaced by a promise that my number will not be sold to a list anywhere.
However, the past two days I have been besieged by robocalls from California, a-c 415. I finally answered and got a message to enter my phone number to go on their no-call list! Right…I mean, they already have my number…
My back hurts. Does ALEVE really work wonders like it does for folks in their commercials? I hurt myself lifting heavy rocks. Well…would you believe I threw my back out watering flowers? I know…unreal….
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moe99 said on July 19, 2011 at 4:54 pm
Dexter, I find a good massage does miracles on a bad back. You just need to find a good masseuse.
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Kim said on July 19, 2011 at 5:04 pm
For all fans of The Wire who remember Snoop’s parting words as she prepared to face her fate, I offer this gem from Nick’s iCarly, where the writers clearly are sick in the way that makes me say, “Come sit by me.”
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Little Bird said on July 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm
Aleve works for me, for various aches and pains. I highly recommend trying it, if you can take the active ingredient. Naproxen (sp?) Sodium. They also make a cold and sinus version (that you have to get from the pharmacy counter because too many idiots make meth out of it) that works wonders for a sinus cold!
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Sue said on July 19, 2011 at 5:27 pm
How big a player is the Daily Caller in right wing politics? I thought they were silly to someone like me, but influential within their sphere. I wonder why they are going after Bachmann’s migraines like a gossip rag?
It’s my increasingly suspicious mind, I guess. I can’t help feeling that the powers that be – on her own side, mind you – are about to step up and derail her candidacy, and this is exactly the kind of method they would use.
Or maybe the Daily Caller is just a small player seeing an opportunity now that Rupert is otherwise engaged.
If you ask me, a perfectly controllable medical condition is the least we have to fear from the head of Michele Bachmann.
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Bitter Scribe said on July 19, 2011 at 5:41 pm
I always thought the Daily Caller was Tucker Carlson’s effort to not seem like a sniveling little drip who got kicked off TV.
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prospero said on July 19, 2011 at 8:27 pm
Aleve is naproxen, and it is effective. When my dad was still around, I used to get Naprosyn samples drug companies sent him in big fucking boxes No joke, like six mos. supply. Is that responsible behavior. My dad published a couple of papers on juvenile Rheumatoid arthritis back during his residency, not knowing I’d be diagnosed with it yeaars later, and that’s why we assumed he was sent the samples. Of course, now the over the counter is tht strength supposedly. It mitigates my arthritis well.I just had the strangest bike ride of my life. To the grocery, to buy brewskis. I was accosted on the bike path by Mormon proselytizers. Guys on vintage raleigh 3-speeds. in black gabardine slacks, short-sleeve whit dress shirts, and ties. And it’s 98degrees. They hemmed me in like a bunch of FokkersMesserschmitt in the engine and he went down in a ball of flames. Messeerschmitt . Which reminds me of the greatest WWI joke ever. The Scot in the RAF. So these Fokkers had me penned in, and then I shot that esserschmidt down in flames. But Fergy, I thought they were Fokkers. Aye said Fergy, but these Fokkers was Messescmidts. So I told the mormon evangelists I was Catholic, that usually makes them just shut the hell up.
Tjhhen I thought about the second WWII joke there is, about the fuckup P-47 pilot that screws up everything and he’s told by his carrier commander he has one mor chance. So he takes to the sky ant knocks down several zeroes bombs a destroyer and whatches it sink, and lands on his carrier to recount his exploits, ending with the declaration, “And I didn’t make a single mistake.” The Admiral says Very well done, you made one ritta mistake.” The actually greatest WWII joke is the one about supplies. The Italian troops are given no actual bayonets. The allies are short of guns. The Italians are trained to say “Sticka, sticka sticka. The germans are trained to hold sticks and say shoota, shoota shoota. The Polish and Russian troops say “Tank.” It’s a good joke.
On my way back from the grocery, I came to a roundabout. It was pretty obvious I should go right and the codger on the other end ought to go left. He didn’t At first I was a bit pissed off. But when I got a mile down the road, it was obvious this bastard was in trouble. I have actually pulled folks out of waters that would most suredly have drowned them. BFD. No joke, going in dangerous water is kinda a joke to meIt’s my firm belief there is no such thing as water I can
t swim in. Including riptides or anything else. I can hold my breath five minutes underwater. . There is no such thing as water I can’t swim in. . What I can’t say. The undertoad? I;m a stronger swimmer than anything anybody could imagine. It’s nuts and I’m a better swimmer than you could imagine. I am not willing to believe I couldn’t rescue from any sort of undertow or riptide. I’m a mightier swimmer than any of that nonsense. I really refuse to believe I’m not a better swimmer. I know for a fact I can just blow away any idea of anything like a ppowerful anti-swim. I am strong as shit. I am the stongest swimmer since Pete Kralick and he only had the kick. There are the duffields, and the girls they loved. Mike Duffield, you were my way good friend, and I sorta loved your girlfriend. That was a mermaid from the best girl swimmers that weren’t Barb Butzzier. .. What up. we were always tight. It was always you one and me third in diving. I could beat you on i/2 twist, but that was about it. I think I was a good coach. I always thought we were a good combination. No shit Chris. I think I was always your best friend. Like holding you out of the hands of the Boston PD when I held your ass out of the shrubbery. I did do that, and there is only one reason. You are my brother and I went to the bullshit to keep you out of trouble. It’s no shit Chris. I went to hell to keep you from having to go there., I held your ass out of the shrubs and talked those cops out of incarcerating you. So they threw my ass in jail. Look Chris, I was always willing to take the hit for you, because I was a decent athlete and you were exceptionable. I had your back for fucking ever. That’s a fact jack. I wish I was extremely good and not just quite good. I ran a serious mile at 4:54. Could you do that? I don’t think so. Then I ran 8 seconds faster. Best I ever ran. I think swimming and running didn’t mix. we were all born good athletes. Daddy was a NYC champion Van Courtland Park runner. Dave was a spectacular little guy football player. Mark was a great college swimmer. Tell you what Chris, Dave as a linebacker was exceptionally good, but he was also a great mini lineman. I’d say, he was more impressive as a lineman than you ever were at any position. You don’t have to buy this shit, but I think I know a decent amount about football, and Dave was ridiculously good. It’s nothing I think, but Dave was awesome and it would be good if you’d let him know. He cares about what you think. No shit Chris. If you care what I think. I hope you do. I care about whatever you think. You are the best friend I ever had. Do you remember when we used to to do the Yanks vs; Dodgers with the boxscores and pitching righty lefty. We were cooler than anybody. Do you recall? We kept boxscores. We were probably closer brothers than anybody that ever lived. No shit Chris. That was serious how much we cared about each other. You are the best friend I
/ve ever had. o shit you dumbass, when spotter went down in the duck pond, fuck this, I was going in the water after the second greatest dog ever. Because Sandy was the freatest dog. But Spotter was beyond question. What lets say what whatever
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MarkH said on July 19, 2011 at 9:32 pm
His other bigger mistake was trying to land a P-47 on a carrier at all. As a USAAF exclusive, it never saw Naval duty, let alone carrier adaptation.
EDIT — Except ONE TIME, Propero! Carriers indeed ferried Jugs to duty at AAF fields in the Pacific. The aircraft carrier Manila Bay was being harrassed by Japanese fighters, and seizing initiative, the captain ordered four P-47s off his carrier deck for combat air patrol (CAP) protection. They were ferried and could take off, but couldn’t land. Too fast, no tail hook. Whoda thunk…
Good info here:
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/p-47-carrier-capable-13506.html
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joodyb said on July 19, 2011 at 11:53 pm
online text reads “to get wed.”
heh.
fairly certain Blossom could indeed contain an actual sward or two.
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Nick Eck said on July 20, 2011 at 7:24 am
Phone-hack how-to: Apparently AT&T and Sprint allow you to retrieve your voicemail from your own cellphone handset without entering your voicemail password. A hacker can spend about ten bucks for a caller ID spoofing service (which has legitimate and legal uses). Then the hacker calls the phone number of the hackee-phone from a number that the voicemail recognizes as its own number, and poof, voicemail hacked. AT&T says that this “feature” can be turned off so the voicemail always requires a password.
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