MAKE IT STOP!

Hank alerts us to what he calls Oklahoma’s “de facto state Christmas carol,” a jingle for a local jewelry store that’s been running every holiday season for 51 years. I warn you, click at your own risk. Those susceptible to jingle-sickness — the tendency for these things to burn themselves on your personal hard drive, shoving aside such minor data bits as the names of your children — are urged not to go there. But hey! It’s catchy!

A little background:

Oklahoma is pro-capitalism; some people will buy TV time to sing your jingle:

OK, no more links. The virus has been passed. Soon, crowds will mill around the evacuating helicopters, shouting, “I’m not infected! I’m not infected!” as the rest of us scream and scream “at Oklahoma’s oldest jeweler! Since eighteen-ninety-two!” over the sound of the spinning rotors.

Actually, when you think about it, there’s something about a certain four-syllable state name that lends itself to music, isn’t there? Every night my honey lamb and I sit alone and talk, and watch a hawk making lazy circles in the skyyyyyy…

Since we seem to be off on a YouTube foot this morning, you can waste all kinds of time following the links from this Metafilter post, which managed to dig up a video of Ella no-I’m-not-kidding Fitzgerald singing “Sunshine of Your Love.”

As for me, I’m watching the sun rise on a severe-clear day (Midwest weather-nerd translation: Clear winter skies, abundant winter sunshine, cold as hell) that promises to turn overcast and snowy sometime in the next 24 hours. Fine with me. Bring on the precipitation, bring on the set-dressing for the holidays. Alan is out evacuating the dog; he (the dog) is on a new food regimen, and I’m making sure he has every opportunity to get his innards adjusted to the change before he settles back into his usual daytime routine of sleeping it away. The depredations of age are starting to settle in — the new food is a response to recent weight loss, which the vet says is caused by diminished kidney function.

“And what’s causing that?” I asked.

“Being 16 years old,” he replied.

Oh, well. None of us live forever, and ever since he entered the double digits, I guess I’ve been waiting for the inevitable. The good news: “He’s still got a lot of fight left in him,” the vet says. I’ll say. The little bastard still has a few Easter baskets and trick-or-treat bags to plunder. If the $20-a-case canned stuff allows him to do so, all the better.

Brian passes along a story I’d meant to bring to your attention earlier in the week, and then forgot about (probably because I was reading In Style): Everything a Parent Needs to Know About Theme-Park Rides to Make Them Want to Lock Their Children in the Basement Forever, via the WashPost. Bottom line: Many are not safe and everything you suspected about sleazebag carnies is probably true. And then, buried in the middle, is this gem:

Although the (Consumer Product Safety Commission) regulates children’s toys, strollers, bicycles and car seats, it has no jurisdiction over rides at fixed amusement parks, such as those run by Walt Disney Co., Six Flags, Universal and Anheuser-Busch Entertainment that host an estimated 300 million people on 1.84 billion rides annually.

Theme parks won their exemption in 1981, after a CPSC probe of ride accidents at Marriott theme parks alleged a coverup of safety hazards. Marriott, represented by Kenneth W. Starr, then a young Washington lawyer, and the industry fought back in the courts and on the Hill, where its top lobbyist complained about the “economic hardship” created by CPSC policing. More safety measures lessening risks would “make the ride worthless,” lobbyist John Graff told Congress at the time. “The activities of the commission must be limited.”

We must spare economic hardship to Disney at all costs. What’s a few immature human feet when such great American companies would be inconvenienced:

At Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, 13-year-old Kaitlyn Lasitter’s feet were severed while she was riding the Tower of Power, a stomach-flipping thriller that draws riders up and pauses briefly before plunging at more than 50 mph. A cable snapped and wound around Kaitlyn’s legs like a bullwhip. Surgeons reattached her right foot, but her left was too damaged to save.

OK, that’s unfair. The story is more about rides that should have seat belts but don’t, the ones you see at the church fundraiser on the corner. And also, the lack of consistent inspection of rides, which typically travel the country, in and out of jurisdictions, many of which lack the manpower to even make a passing safety check. Since it’s no longer theme-park season, at least at this latitude, you can probably read this story without getting nauseous. I can’t guarantee anything about next year, though.

OK, that’s it for me. Have a great day.

Posted at 9:43 am in Popculch, Same ol' same ol' |
 

32 responses to “MAKE IT STOP!”

  1. Dorothy said on December 6, 2007 at 10:04 am

    In 1991 my then-ten year old cocker spaniel changed over to canned prescription dog food, and she lived on to the ripe age of 14. It was worth every penny. She was sweet tempered, not a hissing, biting fiend like Mike’s grandmother’s cocker, Taffy.

    I would like to put in a plug for a program that premieres on PBS next week. Keep in mind we have not seen it yet. It’s part of the Independent Lens series, and it’s called “The Paper.” During my daughter’s senior year at Penn State, Aaron Matthews (independent filmmaker) virtually lived at the Daily Collegian. Laura thought he was a pain in the ass. But it chronicled the college newspaper over the course of her senior year. For her personally it was not a great year. She had a roommate who became a real bitch (one kept the rent money two months in a row, while the other girls thought she was dropping it off at the landlord’s office.) Anyway, I thought I’d mention this program. It’s on here on WOSU in Columbus on Wednesday December 12 at 10 PM. But the premier is supposed to be on the 11th at the same time.

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  2. James said on December 6, 2007 at 10:08 am

    I’m still waiting to find a clip of Ella singing “Inagoddavida.”

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  3. brian stouder said on December 6, 2007 at 10:46 am

    See – THIS is what brings me back to good ol’ nn.c; I was vigorously nodding in agreement with the sarcasm of this sentence

    We must spare economic hardship to Disney at all costs. What’s a few immature human feet when such great American companies would be inconvenienced:

    and then completely DISagreeing with Nance when her inner journalist asserted herself, and she said OK, that’s unfair. The story is more about rides that should have seat belts but don’t, the ones you see at the church fundraiser on the corner.

    (the article itself couldn’t resist crypto-editorial comments, such as Kentucky’s inspectors say that state law requires only that they check rides once a year – about as often as they check supermarket egg displays.)

    Agree or disagree with Nance – she is (almost maddeningly!) even-handed!

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  4. John said on December 6, 2007 at 10:52 am

    Who cares if she is even-handed if she keeps finding Advent Boobage and posting hot shots of her new do?

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  5. LA mary said on December 6, 2007 at 11:01 am

    Disneyland does its best to keep stories out of the paper about the number of injuries and deaths that occor in the park. There was a stink for a short time a few years ago when two people died within a short period, but the city of Anaheim loves the Disney folks so things stay quiet.

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  6. Julie Robinson said on December 6, 2007 at 11:04 am

    We never let our kids ride anything at the traveling carnivals, but we always thought the theme parks were safe since the rides are fixed in place, and supposedly inspected every morning before the parks open. Guess that one’s been blown away now, too. Or cut off, or crushed.

    But I thought the real gem was finding the “young lawyer”, Kenneth Starr. How can he live with himself?

    Speaking of earworm jingles, does anyone from FW remember the Yaeger Furniture commercials, circa early 80’s? Every note, every word, every intonation is burned into my brain’s circuits. It’s cycling itself again and again as I type. “Yaeger Furniture in Berne! Quality furniture will cost you less, when you drive to the Berne address!” On, and on, ad nauseum…

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  7. Sue said on December 6, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Assuming your dog’s “diminished kidney function” progresses and is his only real problem, if your vet suggests you learn how to give him fluids at home, please consider it. You could get an extra 6 months, even up to a couple of years, of very comfortable life for him. Plus the “water hump” he’ll carry around for a couple of hours as the fluid is absorbed is quite amusing. He’ll look like a lopsided camel.

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  8. nancy said on December 6, 2007 at 11:15 am

    Well, Brian, I threw in the even-handedness because I’ve been to Cedar Point a couple times in the last few years, and they’ve always impressed me as being pretty on the ball, safety-wise. You can actually see the guys crawling around on the coasters in the morning before the park opens. Don’t know what their safety record is, but I feel about as safe as I ever feel on rides, there.

    Also, I’d like to know what percentage of ride deaths are, shall we say, passenger error. The woman killed on the old coaster in that ancient park in Indiana (the one in Santa Claus, maybe?) earlier this year was drunk and tried to stand up in the car.

    But I also remember a number of accidents at the Ohio State Fair when I paid attention to that event, and the words “metal fatigue” played a big part. Also, the lead of that story spoke of a ride called “the Sizzler,” which I believe is “the Scrambler,” rebranded. And I’ve ridden that one, and anyone who lets a little kid get on without an additional seat belt is simply homicidal. The thing spins and whips with great force, and the deaths/injuries on it have all been from the same thing — small bodies slip easily under the restraining bar.

    I love good investigative journalism that can sum a story up in a single pithy phrase. In this case:

    As a result, critics say, supermarket shopping carts feature a more standardized child-restraint system than do amusement rides…

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  9. Laura said on December 6, 2007 at 11:38 am

    FYI, Cedar point has its (college student) workers test ride each attraction every morning before opening. So, I guess most of the risk comes with being an employee.

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  10. brian stouder said on December 6, 2007 at 11:40 am

    Don’t know what their safety record is, but I feel about as safe as I ever feel on rides, there.

    That’s the crux; what we really need is outside inspection/reporting/tracking.

    I trust Disney completely – but why is it worth a sustained, multi-million dollar lobbying effort to fight Federal oversight to them? My guess would be that smaller operations (not even taking into account the travelling thrill-ride operators!) would be the real ‘losers’ with Federal safety regulation and oversight and reporting….and yet, the mega-corps line right up with the small-fry operators, against standardized safety and reporting?

    I honestly don’t understand that.

    To me, the darkest passage of the article was this

    The legal patchwork complicates investigations and enforcement. When 3-year-old Myesha Roberson was ejected from a Sizzler and crushed by the spinning machine in Las Vegas in 1997, for example, Clark County officials ordered the ride shut down until seat belts or some other restraints were installed.

    Instead, “the ride was removed from Clark County,” building inspector David Durkee said. “I do not know what happened to it [and] I don’t have the means to track it.”

    One can just imagine that the carnies have a score card and know how many little skulls each particular ride has earned

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  11. alex said on December 6, 2007 at 11:57 am

    It isn’t metal fatigue that keeps me off rides these days. It’s the flying puke. This generation of youngsters just doesn’t have the intestinal fortitude mine did. Or maybe they’re just not smoking pot first.

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  12. nancy said on December 6, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    FYI, Cedar point has its (college student) workers test ride each attraction every morning before opening.

    So that’s why they do so much hiring from cannon-fodder nations like Moldova. The last time I was there, I could count the Yanks on two fingers. On the other hand, I still remember the Scottish lad who, when I asked how wet I’d get if I rode the log-flume thing, replied, “Yew…will get…soaked” in a burr worthy of Sean Connery.

    Brian’s point about which companies benefit from stiffer safety regulations is apt. I don’t understand the objection, either. You’d think federal regs would only underline what they’re doing already. Why do the same people who defend drunk-driving snares and enhanced police power always say, “Those who have nothing to fear from the law needn’t worry,” but change their tune when the party under the magnifying glass is a corporation? I don’t get it.

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  13. del said on December 6, 2007 at 12:13 pm

    Off topic but yeterday I laughed out loud at one of the funniest lines ever in crime article reportage . . . “she pleaded guilty in Detroit to conspiracy to commit marriage . . .”

    I’ll try to post the Detroit Free Press link. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/NEWS06/712050318/1008

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  14. LA mary said on December 6, 2007 at 12:15 pm

    Brian, don’t trust Disney completely. They have lots of money and they keep a lot of politicians happy. They’ve been getting away with a lot for a lot of years.

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  15. beb said on December 6, 2007 at 12:35 pm

    The shorter answer to brian’s question why Disney or Six Flags hates the idea of outside inspector is the belief that to justify their existence inspectors will always find something wrong. Thaty’s why manufacturing hates OSHA and meat packers hate the FDA. On the other hand people who have been sicken by tainted foot or lost a limb to an industrial accident disagree.

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  16. Laura said on December 6, 2007 at 12:51 pm

    I loved the BC Clark jingle. But I really miss the Noelco Santa. Truth be told, I’ve got all sorts of jingles on the brain. Call me banal retentive. Yes, I know– funny only when read, not spoken. Maybe not even funny then.

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  17. alex said on December 6, 2007 at 1:34 pm

    Amen, Mary. Just because Disney has a warm and fuzzy public image doesn’t mean that it does business that way. In fact, I think their business practices are worthy of Cruella DeVille.

    I heard an intellectual property attorney at a lecture recently. The reason images, music, etc. no longer enter the public domain after a period of years? Disney.

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  18. Julie Robinson said on December 6, 2007 at 2:21 pm

    Cruella Deville–love it! I saw a story recently about Disney trying to expand its line of princesses. The reason they developed the movie “Enchanted” was to add a princess to the lineup, but they were thwarted by Amy Adams, who wouldn’t sign away her image rights for the rest of her life. Go Amy!

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  19. Howie said on December 6, 2007 at 3:25 pm

    I used to like “A Thousand Miles” by Vanessa Carlton. Then … Zales happened! And now I would consider buying jewelry from a competitor and copying the receipt and sending it to Zales with the explanation that I chose a competitor because they ruined a good song for me. I can’t tell if this approach is Passive-Agressive conflict or just plain Agressive. 🙂

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  20. Mindy said on December 6, 2007 at 3:38 pm

    The Ronettes have been singing “Sleigh Ride” on endless loop in my head for over a week, so I’ve needed something strong to drive them away. I now have a jingle for a jewelry store I’ve never heard of in a state I’ve never been to as a refreshing change of pace. Thanks, I think. Maybe I’ll spring it on a friend who lived in Oklahoma for a while and see if she sings along.

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  21. michaelj said on December 6, 2007 at 7:05 pm

    Mindy. Ronettes rule. I say this as somebody that was a teenager when Ronny(i?) was a teenager herself. In pop music, it seems to me that originals are memorable. I wish the Boss would write a Christmas song, or let Clarence write one and immortalize it. Lord knows what it says for my self esteem that I’ve a weakness for tough girls.

    When I was nineteen and I went to Holy Cross, some friends and I were hitchhiking tothe Drumshambo Pub. (The Irish implications are imponderable.) Three girls clearly tougher than any of us (Two of their names were Whitey, Angel and Blackie. I took them at their word. We were hitching, and some guys pulled up. The ensuing conversation revealed that they’d welcome the companionship of the young ladies, and, as a gentleman, I objected on the ladies’ part. One of the thugs in the Dodge Hornet objected (nice name for a muscle car–sounds like Georgia Tech). He took a swing, I nailed him in the jaw, my friends lit out. Last I remember.

    Next thing, Sunday morning, and it turns out Blackie knocked the guy out for hitting me. I can attest to the fact these were actual young women. Somehow they got me to my dorm room. Since that day I’ve thought, isn’t that sort of experience what college is all about? And a couple of years later, I heard Warren for the first time, and ‘Poor, Poor Pitiful Me resonated.

    For Christmas rock ‘n’ roll music, ‘Father Christmas’ fits my Jesuit liberation theology ass better than anything else. It amuses me that Shane McGowan’s down and out (and spectacularly heartbreakingly gorgeous) Christmas melody and narrative shows up on Christmas cover albums. ‘It was Christmas eve, babe, in the drunk tank’. KT Tunstall does a wonderfully exuberant version of what I think is a Christmas Classic on 2000 Miles.

    Scott Richardson and SRC, for those of y’all that remember late 60’s Detroit music, used to do that ‘Bells’ song, in the manner of ‘Hall of the Mountain King’.

    Actually, aside from all of the wonderful Motown original Christmas songs, and ‘Christmas in Hollis” for the hip hop kid Nancynall readers who don’t know how imaginative rap used to be, ‘Merry Christmas Baby, by Otis, is probably nonpareil, so to speak. You either get Otis or you don’t. Michael Bolton, John Bolton less a finger in the eye. Rod Stewart, much less so:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf4nBYQV17I

    Rod made a couple of disgraceful recordings, and unfortunately they get played on the radio. ‘Maggie Mae’ kind of sucked, after a while. Like ‘Ode to Billy Joe’. Great songs overdone. But, oh my God, if you listen to Faces albums, brilliant. Anyway, there’s the whole idea of Bob Dylan covers, and ‘Only a Hobo’ is so much better than ‘All Along the Watchtower’ it’s not close. ‘Three-button Hand-Me-Down’. (Did you ever stand and shiver, while lookin’ at a frozen river–not a bad couplet.) In the long run, maybe Rod did his best on ‘Ol’ Man River’ with Jeff Beck.

    I’ve always thought of this as a Christmas song:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP5adWrF4qs

    And then there’s Keith Emerson’s, Greg Lake’s and Carl Palmer’s Christmas idea, which seems quite current when the architects of Armageddon are running things. ‘The Christmas we get we deserve.’ Of course the ultimate chickenhawk doesn’t get his apparent Christmas. Nobody’s going to die in Tehran from Mothers of all Bombs.

    I was present at Michigan Dem Party conventions when I was a kid. Every time I hear something about the Republican Party being the party of Lincoln, I get a chill when Abe rolls over in his mouldering grave. Republicans are the party of racial divisiveness in America, and have been since the Southern Strategy was devised for Tricky Dick. Lee Atwater said so on his deathbed.

    When campaigns are launched at Bob Jones U (I’m Catholic, and when some mail fraud criminal several centuries down the road tries to manipulate Constitutional government and calls my religion a Satanic cult I’d like to beat up his no’count children when he’s endorsed by the First Republican) and Arkadelphia (was Raygun’s Oldtimers so advanced even then he didn’t know about the three guys buried and unearthed there?) and butter wouldn’t melt in these assholes mouths, my question is how stupid is the electorate? Of course, maybe the dope is that there’s no hope. Democracy is the form of government in which the people know what what they want and they get it good and hard.

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  22. michaelj said on December 6, 2007 at 8:44 pm

    James.

    You might wait until the devil rises up and drags Cheney into hell before you here Inagadadavida by Ella. Now, Pearli might accommodate you, and that would be just about as good, wouldn’t it. I heard Odetta and Nina Simone sing Bob Dylan songs, in person.

    Saw Iron Butterfly in person do Innagadavida live in Ford Auditorium in Detroit, but they were overshadowed by

    billmates Sly and the Family Stone and , the scenestealing Chambers Bros. For ridiculously long songs from the late 60s, Time beat Inna buy a mile.

    And please, don’t take me the wrong way. Innagaddadavida (and I no longer have my album to check spell) was a terrific song. But the lyrics of ‘Time Has Come’ are pretty amazing. Apocalyptic, actually. ‘I’m thinking about the subway’ and ‘the rules have changed today’.

    I’m not sure which Chambers Bro wrote the lyrics, and I’m not sure whether or not ‘the rules have changed’ had to do with the death sentence the Nixon administration called the draft lottery for those that didn’t have other priorities, and what that meant back then.

    These days, nobody worries about that, since the chickenhawks have created an underclass they can convince there’s something like the GI Bill and the finest generation backwash of gratitude. Check out Lt. Whiteside:

    http://politics.reddit.com/info/621tb/comments/

    In my generation, and I studiously avoided Viet Nam participation, nobody was taken care of when they got home. Well they were. By people like me that were probably on the enemies list. For taaking care of veterans. I didn’t get privileged admission to the Nar Guard and ignore duties, nor did I just make shit up like Cheney. What I did was to prepare for leaving the country to go to college in Montreal, with no guarantee I’d ever be able to return to the USA.

    These chickenhawk bastards have wasted so much cash on Blackwater and Cheney’s portfolio, actually caring for damaged soldiers challenges their bottom lines. When you came home from WWII, you got a house for next to nothing and went to school for zip. When you came out there was a job.

    Could somebody explain to me how W hasn’t lied his ass off about the NIE? Well, no. He may be stupid. But we’re left with two ways of seeing things. He’s either lying his ass off, becaues we’ll all be dead, and we got away with lying our asses off before, edging toward endtimes. Or he’s entirely, a moron, like when he just didn’t get a clue from the 9/11 warning about Al Quaeda. I don’t expect anything better from this heinous war-profiteers.

    I know this isn’t a political site. But holy shit, you people seem to be intelligent commentators on language (maybe), but certainly on calling assholes on just lying.

    I don’t think anybody’s said this. This all makes it clear the administration lied, like flying carpets, to Congress and to the American people about Iraq. Beyond all comprehension, they thought they could get away with it again. I know nobody thought any of the neocons were cool, but these assholes need a whirlie. They tried to pull the same shit twice, who’s dumb enough to buy it?

    People have been buying Cheney’s shit for years.

    Romney trying on JFK? Sorry bud. Where’s Loyd Bentsen when the country really needs him? I’m not big on requiring religios bona is based upon a scam separating secularism from politics. If you’re religion all comes down to the underpants, shut the hell up.

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  23. michaelj said on December 6, 2007 at 9:05 pm

    Something came to me in a dream. Actually two things. Shouldn’t everybody be seriously woried about this bisarre Wizard of Os, and that Jerk behind the curtain, nonsense regarding what the President knows?

    Trying to develop, trying to pursue? WTF and all the way to something like they might have thought about. What the definition of is is? What do you think? Blowing up Iraqis for no good reason? Haven’t these chickenhawk assholes exposed their modus from Iraq. What’s the other argument? There isn’t one remoteley sensible.

    They lied their asses off and they did it for cash. I’m willing to listen to arguments, but you’ll lose.

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  24. del said on December 6, 2007 at 9:26 pm

    michaelj,
    Agreed that W.’s administration lies as a matter of course; but what I really don’t understand is the worldview that would drive such dissembling & the certitude of it all. Cheney exemplifies it. Recall his debate with John Edwards and his Wyatt Earp style disavowal of ever having met Edwards (or something close to that)? Photos surfaced the next day of the two of them attending the same prayer breakfast. ugghh.

    Anyway, Sly & the Family Stone? I once put together a CD for family called Del’s Devolution of Dance and the selections were based on the premise that Sly Stone’s music was at the pinnacle and things have been devolving since . . .

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  25. michaelj said on December 6, 2007 at 10:22 pm

    del

    Well maybe if they think this happens, God meant it to.. This is not reality based.

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  26. basset said on December 6, 2007 at 11:16 pm

    couple of years ago I did a promotional video for a theme-park roller coaster in… never mind where, doesn’t matter. anyway, this place had two mechanics whose whole job was taking care of the coaster. every day before the park opened, they walked the whole track looking for problems, tapping on braces, checking bolts… then one of them and one of the ride operators rode the thing. looked like they were being real careful and everything was safe but I’m still not getting on that thing, some people enjoy speed and being off balance but not boring ol’ me.

    other end of the spectrum was a carnival ride in a town nearby… think of two big hammers turning on an axle through the bottom end of the handles, that’s about how the ride looked with people seats as the hammer head.

    anyway, a few months before we did the roller coaster piece, these redneck carnies had gotten a woman killed by running alligator-clip bypasses around all the safety cutoffs and not fastening her in tightly enough. actually all she had holding her in was a bar across her lap. the seat went inverted, bar came loose and all three hundred pounds of her fell into the motor.

    then when the state inspectors showed up one of them fell ten or eleven feet off the operator’s position because the carnies had pulled the safety rail off… it did not go well for them in court.

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  27. alex said on December 6, 2007 at 11:57 pm

    Ronnettes rule! Yay! I read Ronnie Spector’s bio when I was a bored stoner in college, at the time tired of referring to the Olde Englishe dictionary and Cliff’s Notes every two seconds for all my required reading. (And I fully believe Phil probably murdered that hooker-cum-actress in cold blood in his foyer and probably fucked the corpse before passing out on top of it.) She claimed Cher, her best friend at the time, was held captive by Sonny in the same manner as she was, a diva on a short leash yanked around by an ugly man controlling all the cash flow. They both got the cojones to ditch their hubbies at about the same time. Too bad the one with talent came to nothing while Cher makes bazillions off of philistine fags with tin ears and silicone pectorals. Anyway, here’s to Ronnie and the thumpin’ humpin’ jumpin’ percussion tracks that made her famous during that one brief shining moment circa Camelot.

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  28. michaelj said on December 6, 2007 at 11:59 pm

    del, how the hell do they continue to just lie and get away? With the NIE and the CiA not backing them up don’t they look kike lying shits for years? I mean, were lhey lying their lying asses off about Saddam begore they blew up all those innocent people? Ehen they said they had the slightst clue they knew where he was? Or did they just murder those people? For no reason whatsoever? Wouldn’t that make them war criminals?

    These chickenhawk can’t just make up the rules. They killed people for no reason. Could somebody esplain to me how that isn’t patently obvious? Who dropped the bombs for entirely fabricated reasons, If you think there’s a difference from Nazis and Guernica, show me. The US bovernment commidtted war crimes they’ll never admit to. But they comitted them and continue to.

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  29. michaelj said on December 7, 2007 at 12:14 am

    I never wrote dick been alleged to me, Somebody busted in here and caused intercessions, Assholes, Why
    s anybody bothering with me? Let him face a man. I’ll kill him with my bare hands.

    What sort of dickheads are bothering with my stuff. Why wouldn’t be doing this on the net but it apparently is some sort of internet creep. No balls.

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  30. brian stouder said on December 7, 2007 at 8:38 am

    Here’s a little ripple that went through our office yesterday.

    The 19 year old who committed the mass-shooting in Omaha took the life of a person we have dealt with often over the years; a man who just 3 days ago sent a picture of himself with his own 19 year old son.

    Life is strange

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  31. del said on December 7, 2007 at 11:10 am

    Alex, enjoyed your post’s comments about philistine fags w/ tin ears but Cher does deserve some credit for her role in Come Back to the Five & Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.

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  32. wade said on December 10, 2007 at 10:18 am

    “Mister Jingaling,
    How you ting-a-ling!
    Keeper of the keys
    On Halle’s seventh floor
    We’ll be looking for
    You to turn the key.

    Keeping track
    Of Santa’s pack
    And Treasure House of Toys… ”

    That should be enough.

    wade

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