The big news from the Hoosier state is pretty big, as Hoosier news goes: The Republican nominee for mayor of Fort Wayne was indicted yesterday. Nothing like a perp walk in handcuffs to cast a pall on a campaign, I always say. The nominee is a squeaky-clean kind of guy; when he was doing some last-minute primary campaigning at stoplights in the spring, he ran across none other than Alex, our regular commenter here at NN.C. The candidate, Matt Kelty, asked for his vote. Alex said he lived outside the city limits and couldn’t help.
“Pray for me, then,” he said, dashing off to the next potential voter. This is the sort of thing people say to one another in Fort Wayne, but not so much in political campaigns. But that’s Kelty. So to see him indicted on nine counts of various campaign-finance law violations, seven of them felonies and two for perjury (!?!), this picture of a nice young man — well, it’s a shock.
The primary battle was a two-man race, with most of the old GOP guard supporting Nelson Peters, a good ol’ boy county commissioner. He was set to win in a walk when Kelty upset him the old-fashioned way — by running harder and having the luck of a record low turnout. The finance-law violations came up pretty quickly, when Kelty amended his reports to say, Oh, that $158,000 loan I made to my own campaign? Turns out that money came from someone else. See, he loaned it to me to loan to the campaign, and I probably should have made that clearer. No biggie, right? Yes, a biggie. If campaign-finance law has one purpose above all, it’s to make financial issues transparent. Voters have a right to know who’s backing whom with cash. This looked like a pretty bold case of money laundering to conceal a major donor, and it went before the three-member election board, two Rs and one D, which split 2-1 in Kelty’s favor. The D on the board asked the county prosecutor for an investigation, and lo and behold, the investigation turned up the nine counts.
This is a blessing for journalists in a slow news month in an election year, but it was hard to watch the video of Kelty getting into the police car with his hands cuffed in front of him; the man is more to be pitied than reviled, perjury or no. One had the sense of a lamb being led to slaughter, of a guy who just looked up in the middle of the road and saw a bus coming down on him. He’s a political novice (obviously), and he’s in over his head. This is only his second campaign (I think); he gave a scare to a lazy incumbent a few years ago, and I think he spent election night having red-faced men with three bourbons under the belt tell him he has a future in this party. Son, you’ll be mayor one day. He got mixed up with the wrong crowd, i.e., Allen County Republicans. That’ll learn him. Unfortunately.
I have a barn to build and a day to do it, as the Amish say, so scant bloggage today:
Only in Indiana: Deep-fried Pepsi. (Note the picture.)
Isn’t it weird when you find a picture of yourself on Flickr that you didn’t know existed? (I added the notes.)
More maybe later, when I have some time to breathe. I know you folks can take care of yourselves in the comments anyway.
Kirk said on August 15, 2007 at 8:30 am
Not only in Indiana, Nance. I made my third lifetime visit to the Ohio State Fair recently, and deep-fried Pepsi (along with deep-fried strawberry shortcake and similar horrors) was on the menu.
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Dorothy said on August 15, 2007 at 8:31 am
Hey speakin’ of flickr, I was trying to view the pictures of wifeinthenorth, but the link on her blog doesn’t work for some weird reason. Any suggestions?
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Cathy Dee said on August 15, 2007 at 8:46 am
Lamb, right. Wolf in sheep’s clothing.
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MichaelG said on August 15, 2007 at 9:05 am
OK, I give up. What is deep fried Pepsi? I saw the picture of little Courtney and her whatever on a stick. I’ve been to the California state fair (it opens this coming Fri) many times and don’t recall ever having seen deep fried Pepsi. So I’ll bite . . .
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John said on August 15, 2007 at 9:07 am
The picture (enlarged) has an explanation.
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nancy said on August 15, 2007 at 9:08 am
Cathy, I’ll tell you about my sole encounter with Kelty in his former incarnation as an architect: He led the campaign to save the Snyderman house out in Aboite, Michael Graves’ 11th commission. For those who don’t know that story, briefly: In the 1970s, Joy and Sanford Snyderman commissioned the then up-and-coming Graves to build them an avant-garde house in the suburbs, and he did, creading this really eye-catching modern structure with exterior staircases, tons of glass, a deck on the roof, etc. It was beautiful, a real work of art.
Only problem is, the house was a disaster from the get-go. The roof leaked from day one, the balconies drooped, they needed to install a second furnace just to get the winter temperature above 70 degrees, etc. They ended up abandoning it — just walking away — and consoling themselves with the profit they made on the land alone (they had 40 acres in a booming suburban area). It was finally torched by an arsonist 20 years later.
So I tried to engage Kelty on the practical side of architecture. I can draw a picture of an airplane with a swimming pool in the fuselage, but if it doesn’t fly, what’s the point? Isn’t there a point at which form and function have to meet on neutral ground? Shouldn’t a house provide a non-leaky roof and a comfortable bedroom temperature as a bottom-line requirement, before we get into the astonishing design? He really resisted saying anything that would impugn Graves’ reputation at all. He wouldn’t even talk about it theoretically. He blamed it all on the contractors, who just couldn’t grasp the architect’s genius and carry out his design. Which would be fine if this was an isolated instance, but apparently Graves has had this problem in the past; there’s an office building in Oregon that came thisclose to demolition for the same reason — it just didn’t work as a building.
I hung up thinking, “This is a very nice guy, but maybe a little dim.” I know everyone has their grasping, hustling, ambitious dark side, and no doubt Kelty has his, but when you commit perjury before a grand jury to protect the head of Allen County Right to Life, your roof is seriously leaking. So to speak.
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nancy said on August 15, 2007 at 9:13 am
Michael, if you look at the picture, there’s a sign that explains it. Deep-fried Pepsi appears to be plain old fried dough, but with Pepsi used in place of the traditional wet ingredients, i.e. water, milk.
Folks in the Midwest will push a stick into anything, dip it in hot oil and eat it, but this may take the deep-fried cake.
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Marcia said on August 15, 2007 at 9:14 am
Flickr….and tits.
Hey, you told us to take care of ourselves.
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brian stouder said on August 15, 2007 at 9:50 am
Flickr….and tits.
OK, I’ll bite (so to speak)(!!)
I saw the down-the-up elevator pic; are we referring to Madam Telling Tale’s pleasant rack? Or did I miss something?
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LA mary said on August 15, 2007 at 9:57 am
I recall a midwestern recipe for fried fish that used 7-Up as the liquid in the batter. I guess if you like dessert fish recipes, it was fine.
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Julie Robinson said on August 15, 2007 at 9:57 am
My opinion of Kelty has been stated here previously: either a liar or just plain naively dumb. Neither of which qualify him to be mayor. The Graves/Snyderman house was only one of his unsuccessful ventures.
And I’m amazed that no one has brought up Win Moses in all this. Remember Win? Longtime FW mayor (D) who got a little paranoid of his potential competition (R) and contributed to the primary campaign of the other guy. None of which was illegal, if a bit unethical.
However, when asked about all this, Win lied, was subsequently indicted and resigned. I wonder if Kelty is old enough to remember this? Because apparently two of his charges are for lying to the grand jury.
Things turned out pretty good for old Win, though. The Democratic caucus got to choose his successor, and guess who they chose? You got it–Win Moses! I don’t recall how long he was actually out of office, maybe a month?
All of this begs the bigger question, though, which I think is the expense of running for office at any level. $1 million for the FW mayor? How can anyone raise that much money without going into debt of one kind or another? How can you remain open on the issues when you have received so much money from those with an interest in those issues?
If you aren’t independently wealthy, you have to sell your soul to get elected. All the lessons of Watergate have been forgotten.
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Marcia said on August 15, 2007 at 9:58 am
No biting.
Yes, I was referring to the rack. There was a past discussion about NNC with a description ending in “and tits.” I just thought I’d revisit it.
Edit–okay, y’all, I’m losing my editing virginity here to say that my comment was directed to Brian, but that two comments got in the way.
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ashley said on August 15, 2007 at 10:04 am
How gauche to bring up breasticles on Nancy’s blog. I, for one, would never do that. Never ever. Not like yesterday.
And Graves sounds just like Mies van der Rohe: practicality is not an issue. Putz.
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Marcia said on August 15, 2007 at 10:07 am
Why, that’s probably the first time gauche has ever even been mentioned in connection with Ashley.
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John said on August 15, 2007 at 10:21 am
Nancy has the eighth and ninth wonders of the world!
Not that I have ever noticed!
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brian stouder said on August 15, 2007 at 10:24 am
For the record (and thanks to Tracy Warner, the JG editor who was on WOWO this morning) – Mayor Moses (who I detested, back in the day!) struck a plea deal, and pled guilty to misdemeanors, and resigned his office as part of the deal. Cosette (spelling?) Simon, the City Controller, became mayor for 10 days, until the Democratic pricinct heads caucused and re-elected Moses. If Moses had been guilty of a felony, state law would have barred him from public office.
I was very let down, back in those days, when my all-time favorite member of City Council, Vivian Schmidt, moved out of the area. She would have made a great mayor.
Re: editing virginity – lost mine almost instantly! Just yesterday I had to use it to close a tag (damned things!) and fix some spelling
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alex said on August 15, 2007 at 10:33 am
Hey Brian! Edit the past tense of plead to pled.
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 10:44 am
I recall a midwestern recipe for fried fish that used 7-Up as the liquid in the batter. I guess if you like dessert fish recipes, it was fine.
Classic. This is why I love Mary like an older sister who is usually wrong (joking), but sometimes cool.
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brian stouder said on August 15, 2007 at 10:50 am
Alex – I got ‘er done with 6 minutes to spare!
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Peter said on August 15, 2007 at 10:53 am
Well, as an architect, today’s entry has left me speechless:
1. Rotten Republican candidate is an architect? Well, just when the profession needed a boost.
2. Complaining about someone trying to save a Michael Graves house? This from the same type of people who moaned about losing a Louis Sullivan or a Frank Lloyd Wrightbuilding. Yeas ago, they were held in less regard than Michael Graves is today, and now look. Wright’s houses have notorious problems as well, but they seem to be worth saving.
3. “Graves sounds just like Mies van der Rohe: oracticality is not an issue.” SOME of Mies’ buildings had practicality issues – notably the Farnsworth House, but his buildings have really stood the test of time and are very adaptable. Nice painting with a broad brush there.
4. Nancy at the MAM. Santiago Calatrava has been accused of being impractical – tell me Nancy, was the building a disappointment?
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 10:57 am
…when architects attack.
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nancy said on August 15, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Actually, Peter, the Snyderman house was very cool. I think it was a case of the designer not considering anything but the design, not an uncommon mistake for a young architect.
For instance: The house was set in a woods. The roof was flat. If you didn’t get up on the roof and sweep it regularly — and I’m talking weekly in summer, daily in spring and fall — the drains would clog and the roof would leak. (Here’s a winter view.) There was some sort of depression by one of the doors, and nearly every night in summer, critters would fall in and be unable to climb out. The Snydermans’ son told me that was his job as a teenager: Help the raccoons and possums out of the window well, or whatever it was. There were a million stories like that.
It may be true that Graves’ vision exceeded the building materials and contractors’ skills at the time, but is that an excuse? I’m just putting it on the table for discussion. Houses can be many things; I don’t think it’s out of line to ask Mr. Genius Architect to make something that would be more than a nice place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. If beauty is its own justification, then maybe it is. The designers I know says design, as opposed to art, is supposed to facilitate the use of something. Where design and art overlaps you get magic, but if you’re freezing your ass off in bed on a cold winter night, you can be forgiven for getting a little testy.
FWIW, the Snydermans themselves are pretty cool about the whole experience. (Except maybe for the son who had to liberate the raccoons.) They saw living there as a great adventure. Graves himself painted a mural in the dining room, and their son worked as his apprentice, surely not your average summer job. Mrs. S. talked about having a family reunion there, and there was this epic squirtgun fight, with everyone running around the house and up and down those exterior staircases, and she said just that memory redeemed a lot of the headaches. “It was like a Fellini movie,” she said. I’m sure it was.
By the time Kelty got involved, the place had been vacant for years and utterly trashed. The mural had been removed and sent to a museum in Indianapolis, and Nancy Snyderman (yes, the TV doctor) had taken out its central interior feature, a staircase with no railings (the parent in me shrieks in terror), and put it in storage, with an idea toward using it in new construction someday. It would have cost millions to stabilize, much less restore. Hoosiers can be extraordinarily stingy when it comes to historic preservation, and the whole project struck me as one more pipe dream. Then the firebug came to visit, and alas, the 11th Commission went the way of all things.
P.S. I guess putting a wing — an actual, flapping wing — on a museum is impractical, but it sure is cool. On the other hand, it’s not my house, either.
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ashley said on August 15, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Somebody famous said: “Rarely will you find as big an ego as that of an architect. An unnerving combination of artist and capitalist, and in this case, a heavy does of self-righteousness.”
I don’t like Mies, I hope you can deal with that. His buildings are soulless, inefficient, impractical, and hot. Please note that I live in New Orleans, where we eschew anything soulless, so that’s where I’m coming from.
And Marcia, you’re mistaken.
“Where’s Ashley?”
“He went over to la rive gauche to look at the hookers.”
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LA mary said on August 15, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Have you ever had an architect insist you have something that you utterly do not want? I fired one for that reason once. What a jerk.
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 1:44 pm
“Where’s Ashley? He went over to la rive gauche to look at the hookers.”
Avec les plus grandes poitrines d’Isle de France.
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 1:49 pm
All I need to know about architects comes from Seinfeld. George always wanted to be one. And he once had a protege who at first said he too aspired to the vocation, but then decided that he had set his sights too low and really wanted to be a city planner! Hmfph!
My suspicion is that structural engineers (whom I respect) and architects are natural enemies. Us engineers have to stick together agianst the tyranny of art.
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nancy said on August 15, 2007 at 2:06 pm
But we all loves us our Peter. Don’t trash a member of the NN.C community.
Except Ashley and his hookers, of course.
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ashley said on August 15, 2007 at 2:16 pm
We loves Peter. But y’all hates me? I don’t hates me, I hate Mies.
*sniff*
Danny: oui, avec les plus grands tetons
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 2:17 pm
Tongue was firmly in cheek, Peter.
Nancy, we
hatesloves you too. 🙂89 chars
Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Ashley, I hated you even when I thought you were a girl. Things are not lookin’ up for you! Hehe.
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Jolene said on August 15, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Alex:
Whether the past tense of plead should be pleaded or pled is not at all a settled matter. Usage appears to have changed over time and differs across contexts. For instance, “pled” is often, but not always, used in legal settings, but “pleaded” is more common in other situations. To wit: I pleaded with him not to jump off the bridge.
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Kirk said on August 15, 2007 at 2:38 pm
For what it’s worth, AP prefers “pleaded” and considers “pled” colloquial, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
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brian stouder said on August 15, 2007 at 2:49 pm
So, I stumbled into having it right, and then edited it into error? Figures! (people like me should leave writing to the people who know where the trap doors are)
(speaking of colloquialisms, the Lincoln Colloquium will be in Indy this September, and ought to be pretty good. I may not make it there due to scheduling, but I will get to see Doris Kearns Goodwin at the good ol’ Lincoln Museum next month)
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LA mary said on August 15, 2007 at 3:06 pm
My paycheck showing boss went on vacation to big island Hawaii this week. I hear a hurricane/tropical storm hit the island.
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ashley said on August 15, 2007 at 3:18 pm
To LA Mary, in my best Nelson Munch voice: “Ha ha”.
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tgpc said on August 15, 2007 at 3:57 pm
you should consider using a friend of mine’s site for pictures in indiana where possible. I see you had one of deep fried pepsi. i assume it was from the state fair, but i didn’t look.
theindychannel.com
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LA mary said on August 15, 2007 at 4:33 pm
hey…
I just found out I might be going to Ann Arbor next January for a nurse recruiting thing at the university.
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nancy said on August 15, 2007 at 4:35 pm
What a lovely time to visit! Of course, if you come, I’ll show you all around my ex-town. P.S. Pack warm socks.
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LA mary said on August 15, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I will find out when I see if the 2008 budget allows for such extravagances.
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SusanG said on August 15, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Time to set the record straight about the Pepsi __
Indy’s local food blogger blowhard describes them, thus “deep fried Pepsi” (funnel cake dough mixed with Pepsi, then battered and fried.)”
Take that, you Yankees!
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alex said on August 15, 2007 at 5:28 pm
God, to think I’m old enough for proper speech to have become colloquial. I don’t have mine handy — it’s at the office — but I’d bet my U of C Manual of Style says pled ain’t dead and pleaded is crap.
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Danny said on August 15, 2007 at 6:11 pm
God, to think I’m old enough for proper speech to have become colloquial.
Hilarious, Alex.
OK. Hows about swam/swum. I know it is past tense versus past participle, but for the last two summer Olympics it has been quite jarring to the ear hear the correct usage when it just sounds sooooo wrong. I hate swum. And it being right sounds so wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
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Jeff said on August 15, 2007 at 6:15 pm
A few churches ago, the congregation needed to build a new building (something about burning down the former sanctuary), and we hired an architect. He met with the planning committee twice, attended services, and then spent all his time trying to convince us that the building we needed should have a communion table with (i am not making this up, said mr. barry) a plexiglas top, and powerful lighting fixtures pointing up through it, so when we were at the table for communion, it would be . . . well, i thought it would be like at camp when you put a flashlight under your chin to tell ghost stories.
He wouldn’t let go of the light table center of the sanctuary, and wanted lots of skylights (i’ve never met a skylight that didn’t leak), and a flat roof. In Indianapolis. So we let him go . . .
. . . and found that a clause in the contract the denominational office told us to sign meant that we had to pay this goon $18,000 to go away, or we might have to pay him 6% of the building we finally built with a different architect.
I’ve got two more stories much like that one, which is why i like my Frank Lloyd Wrightianism on someone else’s budget, with anyone else doing upkeep/maintenance.
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Julie Robinson said on August 15, 2007 at 7:03 pm
We used to attend a country church where almost everyone was a dairy farmer. A lovely group of people, reminded me of my grandparents, but VERY self-reliant. We had a slew of meetings about enlarging the church; everytime we would take bets on how long it would take one of the farmers to stand up and say, “Archey-teck! We don’t need no danged archey-teck”. I can still hear them plain as day, 20 years later. The addition was never built.
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Dwight Brown said on August 15, 2007 at 9:35 pm
“Only in Indiana: Deep-fried Pepsi.”
Other people have questioned this, but I’d just like to add this: I understand deep-fried Coke is a Texas invention.
http://www.wftv.com/foodnews/9789814/detail.html
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brian stouder said on August 15, 2007 at 9:38 pm
And in Texas, they would call Pepsi (and every other soda pop) “Coke”…
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Danny said on August 16, 2007 at 9:06 am
Brian, I thought they called it “pop.” Or maybe that is a midwestern thing and doesn’t reach down to Texas. I know growing up back in Maryland, everything was a “soda.”
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Connie said on August 16, 2007 at 9:27 am
I’ve interviewed and worked with my share of architects, let’s think, 7 building designs, 4 built, two in the middle of the bonding process, and one that will never be built. For that one we had a proposal from Michael Graves, in partnership with an Indy firm. When we interviewed architects our number one concern was communication and listening. The Graves team interview was all about how famous our town would be if it had a Graves building. We didn’t choose that team.
I have also had the experience of taking a job that included a lovely new building that still had a punch list. The previous management and the architect hadn’t been on speaking terms for some time. It was a mess, and it was the only one in which I can honestly say that the architect bullied and fooled the client into building his building. Somewhere along the way I learned that the lovely dimensional HVAC vents that decorated the two story high walls of the atrium had added $1 million dollars to the cost of the project.
This was the architect who had designed – and we had built – a drive up book return to which our users could not drive up because the turning radius was too tight.
The past two years I have been working on big projects with two different architectural firms and I would not hesitate to recommend either of them.
And I will not bore you further by my librarian’s critique of the Indiana public library designed by I.M. Pei. In which it is too dark to read, but the lights can not be changed because the architect chose them. Which building flooded in heavy rain for years until they built an addition to fix the problem – and used the same architect. STop right now Connie. Or you will go on forever.
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brian stouder said on August 16, 2007 at 9:47 am
At supper just last night, Pam told me that she specifically set aside 3 library books for ME to return at the new downtown Allen County Public Library. She was taken aback by the drive-up return chute there, and despite her descriptions I’m not sure I understand just what the thing does. (I think it involves a conveyor belt and automatic opening and closing door…I assume this is to foil loitering miscreants..??)
I’ll report back after the mission
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