Potholes.

The week is one pothole after another, but my shock absorbers are handling it. The weather needs to break; somehow I think a few open windows might make everything a little easier to take. (Pause.) Said every cabin-fever sufferer at this latitude since time immemorial.

This is spring-break time for the local schools, starting with Good Friday and continuing through next week. Strange to be divorced from that schedule for the first time in a decade. Of course, the only question I have of Holy Week is this: When is “The Ten Commandments” on TV?

And also, Passover.

Then jelly beans go on sale and the daffodils bloom. Hurry, please.

I can always tell I’m getting twitchy when I start obsessing on certain current events. This week: Trump and Brussels. I wish the world would stop giving these gifts to me, because I’d like to return both to the service desk. However, let’s use them to kick off the bloggage. Neil Steinberg on the Trumpian response to Brussels:

Because really, after the Brussels bombing, short of wrapping himself in explosives and setting himself off in some crowded public place, nobody could do the terrorist’s bidding with such alacrity as Donald Trump, running from station to station to spread the ISIS gospel.

“Frankly, we’re having problems with the Muslims,” he told Fox News. “These attacks are not done by Swedish people. That I can tell you. We have to be smart. We have to look at the mosques and study what’s going on. There is a sick problem going on.”

In other words, “Muslim = Terrorist.”

Which is exactly the reaction terrorists are looking for when they commit these atrocities. Like Donald Trump, they are uncomfortable with the idea of a tolerant Western society that welcomes all faiths. Like Donald Trump, they don’t think it’s wise for the West to include Muslims either. Like Donald Trump, they’d prefer the cultures remain separate and apart.

So eloquent. Ed and Gin and Tacos is a little harsher. Yesterday we talked about word salads? His post is called Word Cannon:

“What would you do?”

“Something.”

“What’s something?”

“I don’t know, I’ll have to ask someone else.”

About a third of the country is really excited at the prospect of this person getting in the White House.

This is reacting to the WashPost editorial-board meeting, of course. I wonder how many more of those he’ll be doing. Based on the reaction to this one? Not many, I’d wager. No upside.

The WashPost is pretty brutal on Belgium’s culpability in failing to spot the vipers in their midst:

BRUSSELS — The bomb attacks in Belgium offer new evidence of its security forces’ shortcomings in monitoring violent Islamist radicals, a failure that has allowed this country at the heart of Europe to become an incubator of terror.

One glaring example: Belgian authorities knew that at least one of the two siblings accused of blowing themselves up in Tuesday’s attacks — Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, 29 — had entered Turkey with the apparent intent of joining Islamist militants in Syria, according to a senior Turkish security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. Bakraoui was stopped by Turkish authorities last summer at the Syrian border and sent to the neighboring Netherlands. But Belgian officials now say that at the time, they did not equate his attempt to join the fighters with a possible terrorist threat.

Pop culture news. Guess who died recently?

Clare Alden MacIntyre-Ross’ death on March 9 in Falls Church, Virginia, might have gone largely unnoticed by the larger world if she hadn’t been a Fresh Air Fund camp counselor in 1960 — and if her parents had let her take the subway.

The Scarsdale native was the daughter of former Scarsdale Mayor Malcolm MacIntyre, who was also the former president of Eastern Air Lines and under secretary of the Air Force under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Clare’s claim to fame was that she inspired Harry Chapin to write the love song “Taxi,” about former lovers who meet after years when he picks her up in his cab.

Finally, I really admire people who can turn Twitter into a form of dada art. Like this woman. Not for everyone, but I laughed out loud.

Man, doing the taxes this weekend is going to feel like a massage. Beginning, middle, end. Enjoy the week’s downslope.

Posted at 12:12 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

43 responses to “Potholes.”

  1. Dexter said on March 24, 2016 at 1:24 am

    In my daily routine I have no potholes to negotiate, so it was doubly jarring when I unavoidable blasted into a giant pothole just before the I-475 split on northbound I-75 in Toledo Monday. I was surprised I didn’t knock the air out of my tire and ruin my rim and tie rods and ball joints because, man, it was wide and deep, deep indeed.
    If Cruz is elected President, I will not be surprised if he builds a detention-camp-worthy fence around Dearborn. He took the lead before The Donald jumped in and seconded that emotion. God, those two hate Muslims. Kasich is becoming more mysterious as time ticks by. It’s still possible strings may be pulled and it will be Kasich v. HRC in November. Many people are ignoring Kasich, who at first read is a hard one to figure out…he is known to be a tool for the Koch brothers but in public the Kochs shun Kasich. I live here barely inside the state line but I don’t follow Columbus statehouse politics at all. The country’s population hears how the party will not allow a Trump ticket but there are a hundred scenarios involved, all different.

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  2. alex said on March 24, 2016 at 6:39 am

    If Kasich (or a kicking and screaming Paul Ryan, or a retooled Romneybot 3.0) gets the nod, it will be heartening to members of the suburbanite professional class who cannot bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, but the nutbags will stay home. I’m not the least bit worried about a Republican victory.

    Trump the businessman would outsource Supreme Court picks to the Heritage Foundation, he says. As laughable as that may sound, it’s a stroke of brilliance, one more wedge with which to divide and conquer conservative true believers who might otherwise relish such a prospect had it ever occurred to them. Trump has singlehandedly turned the GOP primary into a reality TV survival show in real time, again a stroke of brilliance. And while he doesn’t deserve to win the White House, I cannot deny him my admiration. In this election cycle, the GOP primary would probably have been a train wreck even without his presence, but he adds such a fabulously bright ball of flames to the whole affair.

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  3. David C. said on March 24, 2016 at 7:38 am

    Belgium had no functioning government for four years or so in the late aughts and it now has a barely functioning one. Funny enough a barely functioning government is exactly what the RWNJs want for the US. They think it can be made to work with the security part still functioning, but I doubt it could ever work that way. So I wish I had your confidence, Alex. I have no doubt that tRump is exactly who IS wants as pResident and a few bombs in New York and Washington could do it. It’s going to be a long nerve-wracking year.

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  4. ROGirl said on March 24, 2016 at 7:40 am

    In my fevered imagination I was envisioning that at some point, Trump would stand at a podium flanked by his family and declare that he doesn’t really want to be president,he was just doing this for publicity, to make money and promote his brand. He really didn’t think he would end up winning the nomination, he thought it would be a lark, he would end up somewhere down in the pack, and he would get the top candidates to vie for his endorsement.

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  5. Suzanne said on March 24, 2016 at 7:54 am

    David, I had the same thought this morning while listening to a news piece about dysfunctional weak government in Belgium. This is exactly what conservatives say they want, I guess because they see how well it works elsewhere.

    Here in Indiana, the limited government legislature & governor just passes a law banning municipalities from banning plastic bags. Whew! Glad we have a state government that believes in limits and local control! Oh, but wait…

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  6. nancy said on March 24, 2016 at 8:17 am

    And in Michigan, our state government led to this. It’s one thing to advocate less government, but it’s quite another to make it incompetent, too.

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  7. brian stouder said on March 24, 2016 at 8:31 am

    Pop culture news. Guess who died recently?

    Joe Garagiola – of St Louis. (made me sigh audibly, when I heard that news)

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  8. Deborah said on March 24, 2016 at 9:05 am

    “Here in Indiana, the limited government legislature & governor just passed a law banning municipalities from banning plastic bags”, Suzanne, are you kidding me? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. What is wrong with people?

    Santa Fe has banned plastic bags for a couple of years now and maybe for the last year you have to pay 10 cents if you want a paper bag. The money the stores collect for bags goes to some general city scholarship fund. It doesn’t take long for you to remember to bring your reusable bags with you, keep them in the car etc.

    I’m back in Chicago where it’s foggy and rainy.

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  9. alex said on March 24, 2016 at 9:15 am

    I don’t take too seriously anyone who presumes to know what ISIS wants. It’s all political blather. The Republicans say ISIS wants to take away our cherished way of life, our three-car garages and Escalades, our God and our guns, yada yada, and replace the constitution with Sharia Law. The Dems allege that ISIS wants control over the collective American consciousness of the sort that’s being stoked by the GOP. Neither side wants to admit that it has anything to do with Israel and Western interference in Middle Eastern affairs generally.

    If we get hit with some bracing terrorist acts in the near future, I doubt that either party or the public or Israel would stand for allowing a clown like Trump or Cruz to be in charge.

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  10. nancy said on March 24, 2016 at 9:16 am

    How bullshit happens: For some reason unknown to me now, I actually read a Kevin Leininger column. Because he’s a real journalist and believes in facts, he included this line:

    A 2007 Pew study found that 26 percent of young Muslims in America believe suicide bombings are justified.

    Whoa, I thought. That sounds really high. As most of you know, I live in the heart of Muslims-in-America country, and in my experience and observation, their young people are too busy going to med school and hustling the small-business dollar to truck with that. So I looked up the study, entitled, “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.” I dug deep to the chapter on terrorism and found that, as I suspected, “Though Muslims in the U.S. have doubts about the war on terrorism and the official account of 9/11, they are nonetheless concerned about Islamic extremism and express high levels of opposition to both terrorists and their tactics. Indeed, the vast majority of Muslims say that they are either very concerned (51%) or somewhat concerned (25%) about the rise of Islamic extremism around the world. …The overwhelming majority of Muslims in the U.S. (78%) say that the use of suicide bombing against civilian targets to defend Islam from its enemies is never justified. In this regard, American Muslims are more opposed to suicide bombing than are Muslims in nine of the 10 other countries surveyed in 2006; opposition is somewhat greater among Muslims in Germany (83%).”

    The 26 percent figure applies to those ages 18-29, and breaks down like this: 15 percent said suicide bombing can be justified sometimes/often, and 11 percent said only rarely, with 69 percent saying it’s never justified.

    But I know Kevin, and he isn’t the type to dig thoughtfully into Pew studies, so I plugged his sentence directly into Google. No, it’s not plagiarized, but the top hit was a Daily Caller piece, which ignored the middle-class-and-mainstream stuff, all the overwhelming-majorities detail, to fixate on the 26 percent figure, which is presented flatly as “suicide bombings are justified,” with zero nuance.

    Common sense would tell you that Muslim Americans’ relative affluence is in contrast to the banlieu/ghetto life of European Muslims, and this is likely why they’d rather keep living peacefully and not blow themselves up. Common sense, as we all know, is pretty uncommon.

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  11. Deborah said on March 24, 2016 at 9:25 am

    I learned a new term today: les banlieue. I love it when that happens, thanks Nancy.

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  12. Suzanne said on March 24, 2016 at 9:28 am

    Deborah, I wish I was kidding! But no.

    http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2016/03/23/bill-banning-local-plastic-bag-restrictions-signed-law/82183114/

    Because this is way more important than our state’s lead in meth lab busts, right? Or maybe it’s easier to pack up your meth lab supplies in a plastic bag, so it’s good for commerce all the way around.

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  13. Icarus said on March 24, 2016 at 9:50 am

    Decades ago Chicago aldermen banned spray paint as their solution to all the gang related graffiti garages and properties. Because apparently gang bangers cannot travel to the next suburb where there is no ban and purchase spray paint. The wait time for graffiti removal in the summer time can be weeks so obviously it’s working.

    A few years ago the same aldercreatures enacted a ban on plastic bags with exceptions for smaller stores. while I have reusable bags in the car, I often forget to bring them into the store with me thinking I’m gonna only buy one or two items but instead fill a shopping cart.

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  14. Jeff Borden said on March 24, 2016 at 10:02 am

    In North Carolina, which was once viewed as one of the more progressive Deep South states, the legislature stomped on an ordinance passed by the Charlotte City Council that protected the LBGT community from discrimination. The law rammed through by the Republicans in Raleigh –all Democrat senators actually walked out of the chamber– gives the Tar Heel state one of the fiercest and nastiest anti-gay laws in the land. And all at the hands of the political party that embraces small government. . .except when it doesn’t.

    Have I ever mentioned I’ve never regretted for a nanosecond leaving North Carolina for the beautiful weather of Chicago?

    Those of you who continue to insist that Donald J. Trump will never be elected president might consider what would happen if a Brussels style attack is launched in the U.S. this fall. All of our scaredy cats will go running toward the toughest talking lug running for office. It’s a nightmare scenario and one that gives me frequent pause. And there is a very strong possibility this scenario will come to pass. Daesh/ISIS is small, but its leaders aren’t stupid. They know a Trump or a Cruz –maybe even a Clinton– will happily follow their script if they cause a commotion here.

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  15. Deborah said on March 24, 2016 at 10:05 am

    Here’s a good article about banlieues http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/08/31/the-other-france.

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  16. brian stouder said on March 24, 2016 at 10:06 am

    Always bet on the good gals and guys, I say

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  17. Julie Robinson said on March 24, 2016 at 10:55 am

    First rule of sanity: restrict N-S reading to the comics.

    Can you imagine what it feels like to be Muslim in a western country right now? I wish I could apologize to everyone right now for their treatment. Just like I so often have to apologize for living in the state of Indiana.

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  18. brian stouder said on March 24, 2016 at 10:58 am

    And speaking of guys and gals that are “good” or “bad”, it looks like (not coincidentally) an international tribunal has convicted the former head of Bosnia for committing genocide against Muslims – and his numbers (8000+ men and boys) make those chuckleheads in Brussels look like pikers

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/world/wp/2016/03/24/former-bosnian-serb-leader-radovan-karadzic-found-guilty-of-genocide/

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  19. Charlotte said on March 24, 2016 at 11:04 am

    No potholes here — we have washboard gravel roads to deal with, including the alwa-s-terrible Six Mile Road we use to access Himself’s cabin. Seems the county just can’t manage to get a surface on that one that will last more than 6 months.

    The big news here is still Lucky Minerals threatening to build a mine just above Chico Hot Springs. Pretty good piece in the Billings Gazette about it this morning (they’re local reporting is almost always very good): http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/montana/proposed-drilling-near-emigrant-peak-chico-raises-opposition/article_2ecb76b9-afca-5879-991b-2c65ad344cc5.html
    As far as any of us can tell from asking folks we know in both finance and the mining industries — this looks like an extortion attempt. It’s private land, the website looks EXACTLY like a real estate development website, they’re undercapitalized — so how better to raise money than to threaten to mine in a valley where several bazillionaires have ranches, just above a beloved and very successful hot springs hotel and resort? The only legal way to stop it is to buy them out …

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  20. MarkH said on March 24, 2016 at 11:42 am

    Anyone curious about David Letterman these days? Take a look:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3505523/David-Letterman-shows-new-look-baldy-head-goes-walk-tropical-paradise-St-Barts.html

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  21. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on March 24, 2016 at 11:58 am

    “Oh, Moses, Moses, you stubborn, splendid, adorable fool!” ~ Nefretiri aka Anne Baxter

    “The Ten Commandments” will air on ABC stations this Saturday night, 7 pm to 11:45 pm (aiiieeee, say all of us setting up sunrise services the next morning, whose children still want us all to stay up and watch it). See y’all next Monday, and a blessed Easter weekend to everyone.

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  22. David C. said on March 24, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    I saw that earlier this morning MarkH. Dave certainly looks like retirement agrees with him.

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  23. brian stouder said on March 24, 2016 at 12:12 pm

    Jeff – same back at ya!

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  24. jcburns said on March 24, 2016 at 12:49 pm

    She Übered him $20 for a $2.50 fare. The really sad part of that story: “Mr. Chapin died at age 38 in 1981 on the Long Island Expressway when a truck slammed into his Volkswagen Rabbit.”

    Chapin’s brother Tom (apparently still alive) gave some sort of folk music performance/q & a/seminar at my alma mater Grandview Heights High School in the early 1970s. Questions about his way more famous brother were answered politely, if just a bit testily.

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  25. MichaelG said on March 24, 2016 at 1:31 pm

    “Les banlieue”. I’ve got another one for you. Bidonville. That’s a type of shanty town classically inhabited by pied noirs. Pied noirs are North Africans, mostly Algerians who moved to France. Lots of friction and racism there. Now bidonvilles are inhabited by later Muslim immigrants. I got the term from T.

    Plastic bags are banned here in the Big Tomato. So it costs me an extra dime or two to shop. I usually forget to bring an old one.

    And they used to call California the land of fruits and nuts. And Jerry Brown was Governor Moonbeam. I’d sure as hell rather be here in California than in some of the states you all mention with their genuine nutbag legislatures and governors. California looks pretty damn sane to me.

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  26. Brandon said on March 24, 2016 at 1:37 pm

    The Kevin Leininger column.

    The Pew report “Muslim Americans: Middle Class and Mostly Mainstream.” The figures are in chapter seven.

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  27. Dorothy said on March 24, 2016 at 1:58 pm

    Harry died on my oldest sister’s birthday in ’81 (July 16). She was (still is) a huge fan of his and the fact that he died on her birthday was quite a stunner for her. Then again she frequently makes things all about her. Didn’t Tom perform on Sesame Street in the 70’s?

    And I’m positive I’ve shared this here before but I can’t help myself. My dad used to say, about the Ten Commandments airing on t.v.: Five will be on tonight and the other five on tomorrow, right? 😉 EVERY YEAR we heard that. God rest his soul.

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  28. Scout said on March 24, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    MichaelG – as an extremely disgusted Maricopa County, AZ voter, I could not agree with you more. I WISH I could move to CA. I’ll take fruits and nuts (and love it) over the guns and god fetishists in this state any day of the week.

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  29. Sherri said on March 24, 2016 at 2:32 pm

    The ban on banning plastic bags is among the sillier moves, but more conservative state legislatures are fighting back against cities all over the place. Cities pass more progressive measures, like plastic bag bans, transgender access to bathrooms, high minimum wages, and conservatives in state legislatures, in fear that such progressivism might be contagious (and in opposition to their stated principles about how government is best handled as locally as possible), fight back. Since even blue states have large areas of red in them, which means that state legislatures are much more conservative that statewide elections would show, this can happen even in the bluest states (though there you can usually count on the governor to veto).

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  30. Dexter said on March 24, 2016 at 2:49 pm

    Joe Garagiola’s book “Baseball is a Funny Game” came out back in the early 60s as I recall and I read it when I was about 13 or so. He was a baseball TV commentator way too long, and middle age folks remember him from a long tenure on NBC’s “Today”. While he made his bones not as a player but as a funny-guy author and TV color man, he was actually a miserable son of a bitch who hated facial hair and any haircut longer than a crew cut on ballplayers, and he railed on about this ad nauseum. When “Hair” came to Broadway old fuddy-duddy Joe suffered apoplexy when he learned there was a nude scene…he just about died screaming out the inappropriateness of this…on BROADWAY! He was just a right-wing curmudgeon and I was really glad when he got old and disappeared from TV, except out in Arizona. Hey, this is just my observations, as Joe was loved, even revered by many more. Today Dan Patrick told how when Dan was in Dayton, a struggling achieving substitute anchor for local TV, he needed a career jump start and a demo tape to send out to prospective employers…Garagiola came to town and Dan requested an interview, and Joe graciously waited for the studio set-up and Dan got his tape and got a job and now Dan hands out the Super Bowl trophies most years. Just because I couldn’t stand that whiny old bastard doesn’t mean a helluva lot more folks adored him.
    ~ I know nance has gone to places to cover big news events…hey nance? Are you going down the road to Cleveland this summer for first-hand eyewitness reporting?

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  31. Kirk said on March 24, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    Dexter, I must agree re: Garagiola. I liked his first book (which I also read at age 13) and thought him a decent TV guy at first, but as he got bigger, he seemed to be more into being a star and a personality than doing his job. It grew old fast. My wife and I saw him on our way in to a spring training game in Arizona about 20 years ago. He wouldn’t sign an autograph for my wife. I had the misfortune to catch his act in the Diamondbacks booth on the occasional game aired by the MLB network. He was insufferable. It was like listening to the loathsome Bob Feller.

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  32. brian stouder said on March 24, 2016 at 4:21 pm

    Back in the day, before my first job at a supermarket, I loved listening to Nuxhall & Brennaman…and at some point in later years, I wondered off and lost track of them; and in more recent times, it sounded like Marty had lost his mind – or else I did

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  33. jcburns said on March 24, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    Garry Shandling: now non-alive.

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  34. Suzanne said on March 24, 2016 at 5:10 pm

    I read the Leininger column, but I can’t really figure out what his point is. That the rise of Trump is due to radical terrorism? I’m sure you could find 16% of young, redneck guys here in America who believe that state supported terrorism is ok as long as it’s directed at other ethnic groups or religions than their own.

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  35. beb said on March 24, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    As an atheist the prospect of a day of Hollywood-Christanity feels me with nausea and disgust.

    I don’t know why Nancy keeps saying that one lump in Hillary’s breast means President Trump. If before the convention it makes the contest Trump v Sanders, which Sanders has as good a chance of winning as Hillary does. If after the convention it would by Trump versus whoever Hillary selects as her VP. It’s not like that won’t be a Democratic candidate and mostly likely any democratic candidate will beat Trump (unless it’s Debbie Wasserman-Schultz).

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  36. Jolene said on March 24, 2016 at 6:10 pm

    Garry Shandling looked well in one of Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee very recently. He was my age. Also just learned about the death of a grad school colleague’s, who was also my age. This is not a trend I hope to join.

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  37. LAMary said on March 24, 2016 at 6:12 pm

    I have a great collection of reusable shopping bags. Mostly nylon ones that fold and roll up to be very small so you can carry a half dozen of them in your handbag if you need to. I also have canvas Trader Joe bags in different designs going back about 25 years and lots of the recycled plastic woven fabric ones that I got free. My personal favorites are the nylon ones made by RuMe because they have a flat bottom which makes them easier to load and unload. RuMe and Envirosax have nice designs and very durable bags. Everyone needs a hobby. One of mine is reusable bag appreciation.

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  38. Deborah said on March 24, 2016 at 7:26 pm

    We saw Garry Shandling at a cafe on La Brea in LA once. He was having brunch with his mom and he was charming as could be, we were sitting at the table next to us. His mother lived in Hancock Park near where my husband’s daughter lived when she was a student at USC. Garry struck up a pleasent conversation with us, I was very impressed with his manners and his humor.

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  39. Deborah said on March 24, 2016 at 7:27 pm

    He was sitting at the table next to us.

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  40. Dave said on March 24, 2016 at 8:24 pm

    I must have been about thirteen when I read BASEBALL IS A FUNNY GAME, too. I think I read it twice, actually.

    Many years later, I met a great-nephew of Yogi Berra’s, who took us on a brief tour of St. Louis. He took us to The Hill, where Berra and Garagiola grew up, and where we ate in an Italian restaurant. All I could think is, where is this hill?

    I remember reading after Harry Chapin’s death, that his friends said, he was such a smart guy but he should never have been allowed to drive, he just had too much going on and never paid attention to his driving, he was terrible at it. I didn’t realize it’s been so long ago and he was only 38, I had thought he was closer to 50.

    Brian, you probably don’t remember listening to Waite Hoyt broadcasting Reds baseball but I’ll bet Kirk does.

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  41. Kirk said on March 24, 2016 at 10:09 pm

    That I do, Dave. There were nights when, after dinner at my grandparents’, my grandfather and I would go out to his car to listen to the Reds because the radio in the house was broken. As a teammate of Babe Ruth’s, Hoyt was well-known for spinning wonderful yarns about those days during rain delays. I sat next to our bread box-size radio and listened to him for hours. I still love listening to baseball on the radio. Every fall, a bunch of us gather at a buddy’s cabin in the woods of northwestern Pennsylvania on World Series weekend. If it isn’t raining, we sit outside around a bonfire, tune in the Series on a car radio, drink beer, listen and look at the stars.

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  42. FDChief said on March 24, 2016 at 10:50 pm

    Well, when you think of it this way it makes more sense; “suicide bombers” are the B-29s of polities that can’t afford air forces. So phrase the question as “Is area bombing of enemy cities ever justified?” and see how many “sometimes/often” responses you get.

    More in TL:DR form here: http://firedirectioncenter.blogspot.com/2016/03/strategic-bombing.html

    “Brussels is the EU capital, and the EU is and has been deeply involved in fighting in North Africa and the Middle East. The Belgian “air component” (the air arm of the Belgian armed forces) has been bombing the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Obviously, none of that “justifies” blowing up women and kids in train stations and airports. But at the same time let’s be adults; if you’re part of fighting a “war on terror” you shouldn’t be surprised when terror fights you back.

    This is war, the war our politicians have argued for and supported for years now. This is as expected and expectable thing in a war as the sun rising. Innocents die in war. If you don’t like that, your only real option is not to fight one.”

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  43. Dexter said on March 25, 2016 at 3:18 am

    Garry Shandling was one of us 49ers…he was 72 days younger than me. Cigarette-huffing Tom Waits is another of us, and our king is Bruce Springsteen, who is just five days younger than me. Our queen s Meryl Streep, her court has Jessica Lange and Bonnie Raitt and Shelley Long. In our gym we have Larry Holmes & George Foreman. We have The Dude, Jeff Bridges. Of course there are millions of us. I may have crossed paths with Shelley Long when I was in high school because since our small town school didn’t administer SAT tests, we drove to brian stouder’s neighborhood to take the tests at FWSS. Her fans know all about her South Side connection.

    ~ Waite Hoyt was a good one alright, as was Jimmy Dudley in Cleveland, who I am confident Jeff Borden remembers. Hoyt was always hawking Weidemann’s beer, which was a good cheap beer of which I was very fond. A few years ago a craft brewery bought the brand name and turned Weidemann’s into a high-priced specialty brew.

    The men’s NCAA basketball games last night just sucked. I am always stoked for this tourney but last night was so boring I watched the season finale of the Gus Galifianakas-Louis CK project, “Baskets” (FX network). Louie Anderson as Christine Baskets is stunningly great.

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