So I was at lunch the other day, standing in line, waiting to order and pay. Things seemed to be taking a long time, and as I got closer, I could see why: The cashier was a flirt, and sort of all-thumbs. The credit-card swiper gave her problems, but she smiled and cocked her head prettily and seemed very bent on every (male) customer getting a few moments of her intense focus. She was no raving beauty, but she was cute enough, had a nice figure, a tight T-shirt, and the ineffable glow of Youth.
It was my turn. The bill was $9.81. I gave her a $20 bill and a penny. She stood over the cash drawer, staring down at it like she could transform it with the power of her gaze. (After all, it worked on the men.)
“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “What do I owe you?”
“Ten-twenty,” I told her.
“Thanks,” she said. “I really suck at math.”
“You’ve picked the right career, then,” I said.
I offer this anecdote mainly as a tiny glimpse of what it’s like for members of the non-pretty community to confront the realities of life, where a cute face, a snug T-shirt and an inability to make simple change qualifies you to be…pretty much anything, I bet. I guess I should be grateful she was only making change in an inexpensive restaurant and not running a nuclear reactor, but I bet there are a a few of her out there doing that, too.
A bit of bloggage:
Dexter and my other Wolverine fans, here’s John U. Bacon on the ongoing problems with the University of Michigan athletic program, and you might be interested. The football team’s problems have been well-covered, and this week a humiliating ticket-dump was revealed: Two tickets to the Minnesota game with the purchase of two bottles of Coke:
Michigan has somehow created a world where loyalty is punished with price hikes, and disloyalty is rewarded with freebies.
Michigan fans may be irrational about their love for the Wolverines, but they’re not stupid about their money. Their Saturday habit developed over a lifetime, but they can break it in a week.
I hear constantly from fans of other programs that their team is heading in the same direction. The question is, will other schools learn from Michigan’s mistakes in time to avoid Michigan’s troubles?
In case you’re wondering, yours truly was the unnamed colleague accused of lying in this bit of inside Bridge baseball. As you all know, I am a fearless teller of the truth. Yes, your ass looks fat in those pants.
Finally, not exactly an OID story (it happened in the Twin Cities just a couple years ago), but just one of the many reasons I love living here: Non-stop mayhem. Not that it’s good when infrastructure collapses and kills people, but life here is never boring, even for an adrenaline junkie. And OID would one of the first drivers on the scene be the Detroit Lions quarterback.
Have a good weekend, all.
Peter said on September 26, 2014 at 9:27 am
The cashier story reminds me of a Buddy Hackett joke:
A guy is working for a company for several years when out of the blue, he’s promoted to assistant vice president. His first job is to find a secretary. He’s never hired anyone before, so he thinks it over, and comes up with a great idea. He interviews three candidates, and at the end of the first interview, he sets up a second interview and gives each candidate $50.00.
The first question at the second interview is: What did you do with the money?
The first candidate said that she appreciated the money because she goes to night school, and spent it on a book she needed for a class.
The second candidate says that she didn’t feel right keeping the money because it really wasn’t earned, so she donated it to a local charity.
The third candidate said that she’s not vain, but it is important to have a professional appearance, so she spent the money on work clothes.
Which candidate did the man hire?
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nancy said on September 26, 2014 at 10:02 am
OK, I give up. Who?
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adrianne said on September 26, 2014 at 9:35 am
That conservative commenter should know better than to take on La Nall. It amazes me how blithely people lie about stuff that can be easily refuted.
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Connie said on September 26, 2014 at 10:03 am
Her register didn’t tell her how much change to give? I was taught how to count change back in one of my first jobs. You shorted her a penny.
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coozledad said on September 26, 2014 at 10:03 am
The radicalized right goes from bellicose posturing to titty baby, and counts on your memory being shorter than theirs.
Here in NC House District 2, the Republican candidate Larry Yarborough caught immediate pushback for a racist flyer he distributed against his black opponent, Ray Jeffers. He’s disavowed involvement with the flyer, saying he did not authorize the State Republican party to mail it. That’s simply bullshit, especially as he was seen celebrating its release with one of his fellow alcoholic shitsacks at a sports bar downtown.
No wonder they’re having to run ads trying to tell people they’re human beings. Good luck with that.
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Julie Robinson said on September 26, 2014 at 10:43 am
Did she also have talon-length nails? Those things repulse me anyway, but cashiers with them are disadvantaged from the start. Connie, I learned to count back too, but I fear the skill has been lost, and I wonder if it was the penny that threw her. Men (almost) never take the time to give change, whereas women usually do. In my observances, at least.
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Jeff Borden said on September 26, 2014 at 10:45 am
I fear we’ll all be reading about collapsing bridges, overpasses, flyovers, etc. a lot more in the near future. The national infrastructure is falling apart.
The collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi up in Minneapolis-St. Paul was attributed, partially, to a slashing of inspection budgets. Perhaps engineers would not have found the fatal flaw, but they never got the chance. I believe one of the more polite right-wing loons, Tim Pawlenty, was governor up there at the time. While quieter, he’s another of the murder government in the bathtub crowd.
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Sue said on September 26, 2014 at 10:48 am
Speaking of cute enough with the ineffable glow of youth, I’d like LAMary’s opinion on that lovely young lady in Pennsylvania, possibly involved in a mob brawl that put two gay men in the hospital, who got fired from her job as an emergency room tech after subsequent publicity uncovered her history of tweeting photos and comments about patients (un-named, fortunately, whaddaya think she is, stupid?) and their parts.
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garmoore2 said on September 26, 2014 at 11:00 am
Jeff:
Your point on crumbling infrastructure is well-taken (the bridge collapse in Minneapolis-St. Paul was a good example), but the pedestrian bridge in Detroit was brought down by an oversized truck. Someone wasn’t paying attention in the Detroit case.
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Kirk said on September 26, 2014 at 11:02 am
If I, a man, have pennies and the bill doesn’t end in 5 or 0, I give ’em to the cashier/clerk. And Nancy didn’t short that ditz.
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nancy said on September 26, 2014 at 11:20 am
Yeah, I like to travel light, change-wise, and I will always offer a penny, especially when the alternative is to pick up four more. If I can’t use it in a parking meter, I’m not interested. And yeah: She wasn’t shorted, although I should have told her she owed me $50. THEN she’d be short.
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brian stouder said on September 26, 2014 at 11:14 am
Jeff B – amen. That whole “You didn’t build that” hissy-fit from the last presidential campaign just captures the magical “thinking” that some large number of people have defaulted to. I suppose it is logical enough that if one can accept that a lip-flapper on the radio (who is quite literally “irresponsible” – beyond just not being responsible for anything other than filling several hours with drivel and jive) has all the answers, that one can also think that bridges and roads and clean water in our faucets and schools and emergency responders just sort of….appear, and can be taken for granted, forever.
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Peter said on September 26, 2014 at 11:17 am
Which candidate did he pick?
The one with the huge boobs!
ba-da-boom! Have a great weekend everybody!
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Connie said on September 26, 2014 at 11:30 am
You’re right Kirk, I missed the penny in the original post.
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Jolene said on September 26, 2014 at 11:57 am
Those who don’t think that clean water and such simply appear–or who need to learn that it doesn’t–might be interested in this PBS series and the book it’s based on. Starting in a couple of weeks. Saw this guy on Jon Stewart’s show a couple of days ago and thought it sounded good. Since my own aptitude for engineering and other forms of technical problem-solving is so limited, I am always fascinated by the achievements of people who actually figure out how to make things work.
http://www.pbs.org/about/news/archive/2013/how-we-got-to-now/
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Judybusy said on September 26, 2014 at 11:59 am
The bridge collapse in Minneapolis happened in 2007, more than a couple years. It was pretty traumatic for us here. One of our neighbors missed going down by a few car lengths. And Jeff Borden is correct, Pawlenty was governor. A few paragraphs down this article, it notes both state and federal inspections had been behind. Thanks to this being brought up, I also learned about the problems with the new bridge, after just 7 years.
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Dexter said on September 26, 2014 at 11:59 am
Luckily, at my local bodega the clerk is some sort of “Rainman”-like young man who can glance at my forty-six cents on the counter and count it in about 0.2 seconds, and he takes my three dollars and I am good to go. Once at a bar I paid for a beer with a tenner and received change back for a double sawbuck. I had entered with just that ten, to keep myself from playing scratch-off tickets, so I was sure I had given her just that ten-dollars, but the bartender, a lady who was a former neighbor, so I had known her for years, was adamant…she had never made a mistake, ever, she crowed. What to do? Got me…yes I did…I bought forty of those “quarter joes”..and won the only $200 prize in the jar.
The year UM doubled the football tickets price from $25 to a tiered pricing system in which tickets were priced from something like $52 to $65, I realized time had passed me by: my income was not climbing , rather in decline , so I had to watch on TV forevermore. Last week the first thing I noticed was that even clever camera-work could not hid the massive quantity of empty seats, even nearly-empty entire sections !— as verified in the link. I had only seen that before at Purdue and always at Bloomington, and in earlier years at Northwestern and Illinois, but never at Penn State or OSU, and only at Michigan when it was 56-7 and the sleet storm came and made it just miserable that one memorable late September day about 17 years ago.
No students or grad students were alive when Bo Schembechler stormed the sidelines, none remember AD Don Canham the marketing genius, nobody would believe me if I told how it was hard to exit the seating areas for the massive piles in the aisles of pint and half-pint flavored schnapps bottles and nearly a million (or more) empty bottles and cans of beer, and the many wine bottles, because almost everyone got tanked at a Big10 football game.
The memories are comforting; John Kolesar’s amazing touchdown catches and returns and that play where he catches a pass and crashes into the opponents’ band’s tuba player, it was an exciting time way back then. Now, sitting in my comfortable home in front of a big TV,not so much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daXZH8WkuLk
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brian stouder said on September 26, 2014 at 12:48 pm
Well, there used to be a concept called “peak oil”, and indeed, I’ve heard people describing what may be “peak football”.
I think it is (or recently was) as high as it could be, and now is ready to diminish (as ML baseball has been doing for a decade or two)
Regarding algebraic thinking with cash – tonight is my night to sell weenies and drinks and so on at good ol’ Wayne High School (our 16 year old daughter is on the flag corps/winter guard there) – and there is no cash register to do the math…
so if a kiddo wants a walking taco and two Pepsi’s and a bag of popcorn and two things from the candy wrack…ohhh – add a pickle, please…and hands over a twenty, then – you better have been paying attention!
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beb said on September 26, 2014 at 1:02 pm
Speaking of “Only In Detroit” … Atrois links to a story from Arizona
http://www.eschatonblog.com/2014/09/innovative-ways-to-make-shit-even-more.html
Where a used car dealership installed a kill switch on their cars so they can disable if the buyer gets behind on their payments. People are acting like this is news but … The use of starter cutoff devices began in 1999. It was pioneered by former Detroit Lions football player Mel Farr, who owned car dealerships in Detroit. In local TV commercials, he played a “superstar” flying through the air in a red cape, and specialized in lending to people with shaky credit.
Mel Farr went out of business soon afterwards. I think it might have been related to lawsuits over the kill switch, but I could be wrong about that.
Nanncy’s opening story reminds me of a bit from an old, pre-censorship movie featuring one of the “it” girls of the time. Sadly I can’t remember any part of the joke except that is involved the it girl and a matron. The girl says something of a double entendre and the matron scans the woman up and down and says something about looking like that the girl will never have a problem getting through life.
Man, it’s annoying to know that there’s a joke there and not be able to remember a single bit about it.
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Basset said on September 26, 2014 at 1:18 pm
What’s a walking taco?
Meanwhile, our local traffic-and-NFL situation:
http://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nfl/titans/2014/09/25/rob-bironas-dad-refuses-let-final-hours-define-son/16244089/
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beb said on September 26, 2014 at 1:22 pm
Goggle is our friend…
After a little searching I found the joke to the punchline I couldn’t remember. The movie is “Diner at Eight” featuring Jean Harlow as Kitty
Kitty: I was reading a book the other day.
Carlotta (staggering at the thought): Reading a book!
Kitty: Yes. It’s all about civilization or something, a nutty kind of a book. Do you know that the guy said that machinery is going to take the place of every profession?
Carlotta (eyeing Kitty’s costume, breasts and shapely physical charms): Oh, my dear, that’s something you need never worry about.
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Connie said on September 26, 2014 at 1:31 pm
A walking taco is usually made by adding taco ingredients to a small bag of Fritos and then giving you a fork. A plastic fork.
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Basset said on September 26, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Ahh, I see… Have also heard that called a “Frito pie.”
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Basset said on September 26, 2014 at 1:46 pm
With chili instead of taco fixin’s, I should say.
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brian stouder said on September 26, 2014 at 2:31 pm
And – yes I’m an old man now – it mystifies me that a person would pay an extra dollar for (what looks like) a bag of crap!
But – we cannot pop popcorn fas enough, nor sling the other goodies rapidly enough – at halftime!
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MichaelG said on September 26, 2014 at 3:57 pm
Today it was the Thyssen Museum which is pretty much across the street from the Prado. It’s big, three floors, has all the stuff: elevators, potties, café and store and excellent, coherent organization. It develops that, while the Thyssen has it’s share of older stuff, in large part it picks up where the Prado leaves off.
This is not to say that it doesn’t have its share of old masters. I passed through some rooms full of them into a room full of portraits by Dutch masters (not cigars). There must have been 25 of these paintings, all roughly 18 inches square, all seemingly featuring the same subject. He was a 40 or 50ish guy in black clothes on a dark background, wearing a ruff around his neck, a gangsta hat and a severe expression. I don’t care if the guys were past recipients of the Exploiter of the Year of Colonial People award and that the guy who painted some of them was Rembrandt (he was). I backed up, turned and left the room. Normally I’d do anything for my nn.c friends, but spending time in this depressing room was above and beyond.
The progression from the old stuff to the present day was really fascinating. The first thing one notices is the growth in subject matter. It seems like five or six hundred years ago it was all religious and portraits with a few landscapes and still lifes (not ‘lives’, surely) thrown in. Eventually, people came to be painting everything. Something else that occurred to me was that there must have been growth in pigments, paints, brushes and canvas. Altogether, it’s like they finally got the go ahead to use their imaginations.
Jeez, a guy actually got hurt in tonight’s soccer game. Two players went up to head a ball and headed each other instead. One on them got his forehead banged and was bleeding.
I haven’t been a fan of cubists but there is a room with a bunch of Russian cubists of whom I have never heard. Eight or ten of them with four or five women included. Which brings up something else. I don’t recall seeing any other women painters at all. I liked the Russian paintings a lot. They were bright, colorful and cheery, at least to me. And, amazingly, they were all done during the Stalin regime. I liked them a lot.
There was an impressionist painting of a lovely blonde lying on her side facing away from the viewer. No background, just the girl. It seemed like she was the first blonde I’d seen.
The collection of impressionists and other ists from the 19th and 20th centuries is more than worth the price of admission. Lord I love that stuff. The only disappointment is that a good dozen or so were out on loan. That’s great in principle but not while I’m in town. OK, enough. I could bore you a lot more but I’ll give you a break.
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MichaelG said on September 26, 2014 at 4:03 pm
Making change is another of those things I would include in my how to live life class for high school kids. It’s so easy that I’m always surprised at how flummoxed people get trying to do it. How could a person have so little pride in him or herself and in their job that they can’t learn something so elementary and necessary as making change. ” Four Seventy five, five, ten and twenty”. How hard is that? Give ’em a twenty and after they’ve already entered the twenty in the register, give them the two pennies and see them shit. I only do that if the clerk is an asshole.
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Deborah said on September 26, 2014 at 4:41 pm
MichaelG, I remember the Thyssen as being fantastic too. I was going to mention it before but I couldn’t remember the name of it and was too lazy to look it up. They were having a Matisse exhibit there when we went and it was stunning. I hate it when I go to a museum far away and they have on loan a painting I really wanted to see. That has happened to me in FLorence at the Uffizzi and in London etc. A kicker story I always think is the worst situation like that was when a woman I worked with in St. Louis had planned a trip to Washington DC for months in advance just to see an extremely rare exhibit of Vermeers. When she got there the National Museum was promptly shut down because the Republicans had one of their famous government shut downs. Was she ever pissed.
I meant to comment on your Prado visit that one of my favorite paintings there was Goya’s Saturn Eating One of His Children http://akirathedon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/saturn-devouring-one-of-his-children-1823.jpg. Very Powerful. I also loved the Valaquez paintings especially the one of Mars http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Velázquez_-_Dios_Marte_(Museo_del_Prado,_c._1638).jpg
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Sherri said on September 26, 2014 at 6:05 pm
A look at Big Ten revenues and expenses: http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/101073/b1g-numbers-revenues-and-expenses
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LAMary said on September 26, 2014 at 6:08 pm
The Velasquez paintings are wonderful. I was describing one to someone at work a week or so ago and I think I got a little too enthusiastic about it. She was looking at me like I was crazy.
Anyway, my friend Carla had the experience with the Vermeer show in DC. Saved up her money, made arrangements for her daughter to be looked after, everything. Locked museum. She will never ever vote republican.
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LAMary said on September 26, 2014 at 6:12 pm
https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/online-gallery/on-line-gallery/obra/the-fable-of-arachne-or-the-tapestry-weavers/
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David in Cincinnati said on September 26, 2014 at 6:31 pm
beb, thank you so much for reminding me of Dinner at Eight! Marie Dressler and Jean Harlow – comedy gold!
Harlow was one of the greatest comediennes in Hollywood history, and she passed on way too soon. Now to see if Amazon streams Dinner at Eight….
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Kirk said on September 26, 2014 at 9:11 pm
“I’m not talking about hate; I’m talking about eight. Dinner at eight.”
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Sherri said on September 26, 2014 at 9:25 pm
ProPublica and This American Life have collaborated on a story about the New York Fed and Goldman Sachs. They have recordings. TAL has made the episode available for download early: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/536/the-secret-recordings-of-carmen-segarra
Well worth listening to.
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Suzanne said on September 26, 2014 at 9:44 pm
http://theamericanscholar.org/instant-gratification/#.VCYV8_ldUrU
This, too, is an excellent article on the state of the economy and how it got there. I don’t know how long it will be online. I read it in (gasp!) paper copy. It is well worth the time to read it.
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brian stouder said on September 27, 2014 at 12:11 am
WooHoo! Wayne won their big game (against Bishop Dwenger, a perennial power-house Catholic school that usually recruits a team full of talent) – and the weenie-slingers and I had a very, very busy evening.
Aside from that – there’s this:
http://interactives.wane.com/photomojo/gallery/14301/1/
Which is pretty good stuff. Channel 15’s studios are directly beyond our backyard, so I feel connected to them. And – I remember Ann Calone (was she still on the air when you were a Fort Wayne person, Nancy?) – but I’d forgotten just how many genuine “biggies” she interviewed. Scroll the pictures and you’ll see her with (among other folks) The Rolling Stones!
That one made me pause and stare…
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Dexter said on September 27, 2014 at 2:13 am
A friend told me our local HS football team was behind 34-6 with mere minutes remaining, so the opposing coach ran in his scrubs to kill the clock. The local boys immediately scored 4 touchdowns + 2 point conversions each time to win 38-34. I bet that other coach is really feeling the heat!
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David C. said on September 27, 2014 at 7:11 am
What’s this change thing you speak of? The only place I use folding money is the farmer’s market, and I always round up to the next dollar. The vendor’s love you for that.
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Dave said on September 27, 2014 at 8:36 am
Brian, not enough captions on the WANE historical pics. It makes it feel incomplete, surely someone could have taken the time to create captions and identify past personalities. Did any of those folks go on to bigger things. I’m sure I’ve read that Harry Smith spent some time here at 15, if I recall correctly.
I was personally curious about the semi that slammed into the train. Where is that? Not a clue.
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alex said on September 27, 2014 at 9:09 am
Yeah, I think they could have done a better job with captions, identifying people, etc. Maybe it was done this way in the spirit of an old game show: Correctly identify the lezzie, the klepto and the network superstar. You could qualify for the final drawing!
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MichaelG said on September 27, 2014 at 9:19 am
Deborah, I was quite taken with that Saturn painting. It somehow genuinely captures the insanity of the deed. The other one didn’t load and I can’t recall the title.
I remember those spinners too, Mary, although they didn’t have the impact as the Saturn painting. There were a couple of other spinner paintings by various artists.
That’s call snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Dexter.
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Linda said on September 27, 2014 at 11:24 am
Cooze, right wingers see the whole universe as refs that they have to work. But like ex-beauty queens and deposed royalty, they are shocked to find that their sell-by date is here. And was here aa year or so ago.
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beb said on September 27, 2014 at 2:13 pm
From the Washington Post via Atrois:
FBI Director James B. Comey sharply criticized Apple and Google on Thursday for developing forms of smartphone encryption so secure that law enforcement officials cannot easily gain access to information stored on the devices — even when they have valid search warrants.
I love the highlighted part. As if the FBI would ever do a search without a valid search warrant….
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coozledad said on September 27, 2014 at 2:30 pm
Linda:And they’re the ones doing the voter fraud. I hope this results in some jail time for a few white Baptists:
http://www.bluenc.com/content/nc-americans-prosperity-try-register-cat-vote
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Dexter said on September 27, 2014 at 3:08 pm
Congrats to Chelsea, Mark, and Grandpa Bill and Grandma Hillary…it’s a girl! http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/467066111_92083172.jpg
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ROGirl said on September 27, 2014 at 4:44 pm
Saturn Devouring His Children is one of those paintings you can’t forget. When you are studying art history it’s a shocking image, but a lot of Spanish imagery is pretty gruesome and bloody, reflecting the fanatical religiosity. Those Goya paintings of the figures with pointy white hats that look like Ku Klux Klansmen are also really creepy and sinister.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_025.jpg/800px-Francisco_de_Goya_y_Lucientes_025.jpg
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MichaelG said on September 27, 2014 at 5:09 pm
ROGirl, there’s a lot of creepy shit in that old inquisition business. Sad to say, religious fundamentalism hasn’t changed a whit since then.
I’ve been seeing a lot of soccer lately. OK. Futbol. Atletico Madrid has just kicked the shit out of Seville 4-0. A while ago, I was in a bar/restaurant eating a very nice rib eye with some excellent French fries and a bunch of tiny, sweet little jalapenos when ATM scored their first goal early in the first quarter and the place erupted. I have to warn you, in soccer, OK. Futbol, they only play two quarters with a break in between. Some kind of European thing. I don’t know where the second half goes. Maybe they have some kind of deal with hockey which has three halves.
There’s a lot of love in this game, since they are all constantly hugging, grabbing at each other’s clothes, getting their heads together and so on. Another thing: they touch the ref. They’ll put an arm around his shoulder, pat his back etc. In the NFL that would be a certain bye-bye. Now a new game is starting. I swear they have this stuff 24/7.
Easy day today. No museums. I walked around and stumbled into a place that sells sheets and table cloths and so forth. They had some truly beautiful table cloths for about E75. There was one I would have bought in a heart beat if I had had a use for it. As it was, I bought a bunch of six very nice linen napkins for E18. They were marked down from E47. My metro side.
I also discovered a place that sold things for a Catholic church. I have never seen a place like this. Chalices, monstrance’s, ciboria, tabernacles – all the stuff you would need to open your very own Catholic franchise. They had vestments, they had those kits priests take to hospitals to administer the last rites, they had statues floor type candle holders and the whole rest of the kit. There was even a huge six foot by eight foot by a good four feet high shrine to the Virgin. No, not Richard Branson.
None of this was cheap. The prices I did see showed chalices running at E2,500 and up, a tabernacle was E26,000 and so on. The top price was tagged on an organ. It was built, if that is the correct word, in Poland in 2008 and was so dated, burnt into the wood near the keyboard. It was quite large, a full sized, well, not cathedral sized, organ. Maybe ten feet high by eight feet wide by four feet deep. It was gorgeous. Made of the finest wood and metal. The tag was E98,300 and I suspect it was a deal at that price. I wish I could have heard it play but it wouldn’t have sounded vey good in that tiny little shop. It needed a space to spread its wings.
Oh! Nice take down! Yellow card for daddy. And he was the dweeb whining because his shoe fell off. This is great entertainment. There’s something for every body.
That kind of shop, needless to say, doesn’t have a lot of walk in traffic. So as I walked in an old man picked me up and followed me around. Like I was going to steal a chalice. Well, maybe it happens. So I began pointing to things and naming them (not every geek knows what a ciborium is) and smiling and saying that everything was beautiful and so forth. Pretty soon he was smiling and nodding along with me and then he went to answer the phone and that’s when I should have stolen the chalice. Oh, well.
Another yellow card. Maybe it’s really an invite to a party after the game. Now there’s another player down writhing around, holding his knee and no doubt crying out for his mother. Except the replay clearly shows he’s holding the wrong knee. Oh, now he’s up and moving around smoothly. The Lord is merciful, the Lord is good. That’s it for today. Tomorrow is my last day.
My dirty little secret: If I were to do it again for fourteen days, I would book ten days in Barcelona and four in Madrid. If they call people in Madrid ‘Madrilenos’, what do they call persons from Barcelona? Barcelonionians?
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Charlotte said on September 27, 2014 at 5:15 pm
I guess now that Chelsea Clinton named her baby Charlotte, we’re finally going to enter the hip-old-timey-names race alongside the Sophias and Olivias …. Not her biggest fan (she seems fine, just entitled), but good on her for picking such a terrific name!
And Michael — that makes me want to, I don’t know, just open my own church? Think how fun that would be …
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 27, 2014 at 5:54 pm
MichaelG, you are far from boring us. I speak for myself, but I suspect for many others. Keep the travelogue coming!
I went to Wooster today by way of Danville and Shreve. As you go north from Newark, the Ohio autumn becomes more pronounced with each county. Lots of community festivals and as I cut across a corner of Holmes County, black buggies and bearded drivers in profusion. Good thing I was in no hurry.
Can’t discuss art, paint-wise, but I had two pieces of pie that were lovely works of ephemeral art. An apple crumbtop and toasted cocoanut (not a cream pie, but a sort of chess pie base). That’s all the creativity I had contact with today; everything else was church politics. Beautiful it ain’t.
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brian stouder said on September 27, 2014 at 8:41 pm
Some of the 70’s era shots include a very young Steve Corona – who is now the longest-serving member on the Fort Wayne Community Schools Board of Trustees, in their history (30 years and counting)
I wanted to see a photo of Ken Curtz (or maybe it was Kurtz), and/or Bob Speaks. Many years ago, I remember seeing Ken throw up, on the air, during a newscast. Speaks did the Dialing for Dollars afternoon movie.
And indeed, I remember that my mom and dad (and their friends) occasionally discussed (in stage whispers) Ms Colone’s sexual orientation. With that big hairdo, she always reminded me of several of the neighborhood women; they’d get all dressed up and drive to the Sears at Rudisill and Lafayette (no malls, then); whereas my mom would catch the bus (she never drove) and go ‘downtown’ (ie – GC Murphy’s and/or W&D’s)
Aside from that, I attended the 29th annual Lincoln Colloquium at the beautiful Allen County Public Library today, and suffice it to say that it was altogether wonderful. Couldn’t go see Eric Foner last night, which I really, really would have loved – but b’gosh, we definitely slung the weenies at the football game at Wayne (earning about $2,000 for the marching band/flag corps)
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Sherri said on September 27, 2014 at 8:54 pm
My husband once literally bumped into Chelsea Clinton. One Saturday morning we were waiting to be seated at our favorite breakfast spot in Palo Alto, and he accidentally brushed up against someone. He turned to apologize, and it was Chelsea Clinton, who was a student at Stanford at the time, and was there with some friends. About that time, we noticed the nice gentlemen in back keeping a close eye on everyone. If he hadn’t bumped into her, we probably would have noticed the Secret Service guys before we noticed her.
The President never ate there, though we were told by the owners that he used to get food delivered from there when he would stay across the street on his visits.
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Joe Kobiela said on September 27, 2014 at 9:44 pm
Brian if the photoes weren’t captioned to begin with there probably arnt a lot of people at the station who would know who was who.
Pilot Joe
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Deborah said on September 28, 2014 at 12:44 am
Ha ha Charlotte, good comment about the Clinton grand child’s name. I do like the name Charlotte.
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Basset said on September 28, 2014 at 9:15 am
What do they call ’em, MichaelG? Barceloungers, I would think.
Took Mrs. B up to Bowling Green, Ky. yesterday, about an hour’s drive, to visit the new Cabela’s; looked around online first to find somewhere to eat and found a place which claimed to have a breaded tenderloin sandwich. Went there, saw that their stabdRd setup includes lettuce, tomato, red onion and mayonnaise, had my doubts but got one with just pickles & mustard, the way tenderloins are supposed to be dressed. Not bad but… they didn’t pound the meat out flat. What are these people thinking?
High point of the trip for Mrs. B was discovering that a Meijer’s just opened in BG, complete with a “party store” attached. Her being from Kalamazoo (Portage, actually), we had to go in and walk around just to soak up the Michigan vibe.
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Basset said on September 28, 2014 at 9:17 am
Make that “standard setup”… autofill and inattention strike again.
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Charlotte said on September 28, 2014 at 9:34 am
Sherri — my brother knew Chelsea’s secret service guys when she was at Stanford — they were really nice, and quite appreciated the opportunity to sit in on a lot of interesting classes. He worked for the party tent company that did all the White House events in CA and in DC (you need clearance since you’re basically putting up what could be a huge pipe bomb). He did a lot of work for Shorensteins too — said one night after an event, the Shorensteins introduced their Latino caretakers, who had stayed up late and were there with their kids, everyone all dressed up and shiny. Patrick said the thing that impressed him was that the Clintons didn’t just do a meet-and-greet quick photo. They stuck around, and talked to everyone in a really genuine way, especially the kids. Got a bunch of photos. As far as the help goes — everyone liked working for the Clintons. The Bushes, expecially Barbara, were horrible, but the Clintons were really nice. So mazel tov on a new grandbaby — the pics in the paper this morning are quite darling.
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Connie said on September 28, 2014 at 10:28 am
Bassett I did that visit Meijer’s thing when they first opened in Indianapolis when I was living in southern indiana. I bought several things that I hadn’t seen since leaving Michigan: Squirt, Win Schuler’s bar cheese, and windmill cookies come to mind.
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Dexter said on September 28, 2014 at 11:38 am
I have been nauseous since reading about ripping open a bag of Fritos and scooping chili into the bag and eating that shit with a plastic fork.
To combat that sick feeling, my spirits brightened up with a free coffee from McDonald’s and a jelly-filled doughnut from our wonderful donut shoppe here in Bryan. If you ever drive through here on US 15 & US 127, Main Street North, just north of the railroad underpass, top of the hill, east side…John’s Son’s Donut Depot. http://anotherfoodcritic.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/img_1700.jpg
You have never had better unless you have been to New York’s Donut Planet.
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basset said on September 28, 2014 at 12:07 pm
I’m not sure whether they mean this or it’s a troll… “another liberal crybaby,” kiss my butt.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/28/ny-post-chelsea-clinton-baby-cover_n_5895750.html
Connie, we picked up some Oliver’s wine from Bloomington at the Bowling Green Meijer’s – our local liquor store in Nashville just started carrying it, but just the mead and the really sweet stuff, not the full line. I remember when Oliver’s Mead was $1.69 a bottle and sealed with wax…
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brian stouder said on September 28, 2014 at 2:23 pm
Basset – that Rupert Murdoch-owned rag is just doin’ its job, I suppose.
That is to say, there are a LOT of shit-for-brains people out there, and somebody’s gotta keep servin’ up more shit for them (call it right-wing soul-food).
As for me, I’d sooner buy a National Enquirer (et al), since they’re at least not pretentious
And in any case, I bet Jon Stewart (et al) will answer back, thus giving Chris Matthews (et al) a chance to run video and fill 45 seconds with righteous indignation, whilst the pretty blonde at Fox News may have the chance to irritate her employer again, while simultaneously giving providing “fair and balanced”(??!!) cover for them, for a moment or two
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Deborah said on September 28, 2014 at 4:34 pm
We’re canning again today, a couple of qts of pickled beets and a couple of small jars of pepper jam. I’m famous for buying beets and then not using them, so this is a test to see if I like the process and the results. Little Bird is fond of the pepper jam but she usually ends up giving most of it away.
We took a walk up to the plaza in the coolness of the morning and went to one of our favorite places to have breakfast. A couple at the table across from us were horrible, they complained to the waiter about everything and sent a bunch of stuff back. I felt so sorry for the guy who was our waiter too that I gave him a 40% tip. By the way if any of you visit Santa Fe you should check this place out, it’s called Chez Mamou and they have amazing pastries and delicious onion soup etc, just off the plaza on Palace Ave.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 28, 2014 at 10:14 pm
Oliver’s $1.69 Mead . . . that was delightful stuff. Perfect for a bunch of Dungeons & Dragons nerds post-campaign on Saturday nights up state at Purdue.
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