Kate’s been working her way through “Game of Thrones” in the millennial fashion — watching nothing else for days at a time — and I keep walking into the room just as big things are about to happen onscreen. The Red Wedding, Joffrey’s wedding – you Throne-heads know what I’m talking about. I like the show, but I think the immersion is seeping into my bloodstream; I just asked Alan to bring me a flagon of wine.
He brought me half a flagon. I considered beheading him, but he said there was more in the pantry.
Thanks for carrying the conversation yesterday. As to the burning question of Deborah’s library, here’s my method: Sort by mass-market paperback / trade paperback / hardcover, shove them wherever, and just know, more or less, where stuff is. Or sort by color. Oversize volumes on low shelves, trashy novels up high, classy stuff at eye level.
With all I had to do today, I thought I might stop over at MLive, the statewide online news network that carries Bridge content. I was actually wondering if the chatty, informational op-ed by a high-school guidance counselor, on the advisability of gap years for graduating high-school students, was attracting a sewer full of racist comments. (It was pegged to Malia Obama’s decision, of course.) I couldn’t find it, but I found the story I wrote yesterday, which was briefly on the Top 5 most-commented list. It’s about the movement to make menstrual supplies more affordable and/or free in certain situations, and I figured it would be trailing a long string of… never mind. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to find readers, male readers, saying they supported the idea of free tampons in schools, because they had daughters themselves.
Sometimes the human race can really surprise me. Pleasantly.
And then something like this happens, and I realize we will never change:
An Arkansas judge accused of swapping sex for reduced sentences resigned Monday after a state commission said it discovered thousands of photographs from his computer that depicted nude male defendants.
…Boeckmann’s resignation came after the commission said in a May 5 letter to his lawyer that it was in the process of recovering as many as 4,500 photos.
“They all depict young men, many naked who are in various poses inside the judge’s home and outside in his yard,” the letter states, adding that many of the men had received checks from the judge and had appeared before him as defendants.
Arkansas is sort of another country, isn’t it?
So, want to own a piece of internet history? How would you like to buy the birthplace of this very blog, for the low-low price of practically nothing? Well, you can, because my old house in Indiana is on the market. In the years since we left, someone has taken up the carpet and refinished the floors, and I suspect a bit of staging was done, too, because those pillar candles are always a dead giveaway, don’t you think? The floor Alan put in the kitchen remains, and thank goddess they didn’t paint the kitchen cabinets. Those are some serious wide-angle lenses in some pix, but ah well — that’s real estate for you.
Finally, this may be the only Trump news I have the stomach for at the moment: Speculation on who he might choose as a running mate. Seeing as how he already has a transition team in mind, I don’t see how this is wrong to do, do you? Note how he uses the phrase “take over the White House.” Ha.
OK, outta here. Happy Wednesday.
Jakash said on May 11, 2016 at 12:56 am
Odd that the Listing Agent for your old house is actor Michael Cera. I didn’t even realize he lived in Ft. Wayne…
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Dexter said on May 11, 2016 at 2:22 am
During the height of the Iraq fiasco I was blogging and created in an instant a disgusting moniker “Cornholesleezza” for the one who, today, I kept hearing on New York based satellite radio broadcasts has crept up to top prospect on the upcoming Trump ticket. Rice, how well I remember her “smoking gun” speech, meant to scare the US citizenry, based on more bullshit and disgusting practices of that gang of sleazy creeps who served George W. Bush. Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Tenet, and all the other politicians who conspired to empty the US Treasury into that rat/shithole…they can all go jump off a cliff. We do not need any of them back running the USA again. If the unthinkable happens and Trump wins, all we can do is get down on our old scarred knees and pray that he doesn’t bring back Condoleezza Rice back on board. The very idea that Americans have forgiven or forgotten her role in the invasion and misappropriations and administrative malfeasance in that Iraq War disaster makes me wretchedly mad.
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Brandon said on May 11, 2016 at 4:43 am
Arkansas is sort of another country, isn’t it?
A “country” which had Clinton and Huckabee as “presidents.”
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adrianne said on May 11, 2016 at 5:41 am
My money is on Jodi Ernst for V-P, the pig castrator from the great state of Iowa. She’s a wimmen, she’s incredibly dumb (think Sarah Palin) and she’s a born grifter.
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alex said on May 11, 2016 at 7:15 am
La Palin’s already been promised a cabinet-level post, and I’m not sure what Trump’s planning to do with La Christie, but it’s clear from the caliber of talent prostrating themselves before him that even Cornholeezza and the castrating bitch from Iowa are probably too street smart to give up their current gigs for what may be the biggest losing ticket in American history.
If the best Cruz could do was Carly Fiorina, then I imagine Trump needs to look at Jindal, Huckabee and Santorum, although here’s betting it has already been promised to Carson.
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Jolene said on May 11, 2016 at 7:25 am
Seems unlikely to me that Rice would either be chosen or be willing to serve. To me, she brings no political advantage other than, perhaps, a veneer of seriousness, which neither Trump nor his supporters seem to value. She’s not a proven vote-getter; nor is she an inside player with a history of successful Congressional relations. Toward the end of the Bush administration, she resisted one plea after another to run for office. Now, she has a cushy position with few real responsibilities at Stanford. She’d be crazy to give that up to run with someone she almost certainly views with contempt. Think of how he has treated the Bush family, her political patrons and protectors.
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Suzanne said on May 11, 2016 at 7:56 am
Please Mr Trump. Pick Mike Pence & then lose. A win for all of us!
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alex said on May 11, 2016 at 8:07 am
Pick Mike Pence and lose. Makes “eat shit and die” sound like “God bless you.”
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Deborah said on May 11, 2016 at 8:21 am
I know this is expecting Trump to be consistent but wasn’t he just saying a few months ago when Jeb was still running that the Iraq situation was a disaster? Doesn’t Cornholeeza represent just about all of that? Somehow I think Trump will pick someone to appeal to his base. Pence seems about right:
White, check
Male, check
Asshole, check
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Alan Stamm said on May 11, 2016 at 8:21 am
I see your “take over the White House” revealing audacity and raise you this quote from Trump aide Paul Manafort on “Hardball with Chris Matthews:”
“It’s the ultimate reality show. It’s the presidency of the United States.”
I do not like these guys at all. I would not like them here or there. I would not like them
anywhere. Would you like them in the White House?
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beb said on May 11, 2016 at 8:22 am
The sad thing, Dexter, is that Condi Rice could be the best thing to happen to trump … or thw worst.
As a woman she would shore up Trump appeal to that category. As a black she would shore up Trump’s appeal there. And as a former Secretary of State she would bring more foreign policy expertise to Trump’s campaign than anything he has now. Of course as an educated black women she would scare the poop out of all the white crackers that currently suppose the brillo pad of doom.
Having free sanitary supplies in the school’s nurses office seems like a great idea. Do they still have nurse’s offices in schools?
I can’t wait for the final season of Game of Thrones to be ove so I’ll never have to hear about it ever again…
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Suzanne said on May 11, 2016 at 8:49 am
So was this Arkansas judge a pro-family values kinda guy? Because these sorts almost always are.
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Kirk said on May 11, 2016 at 9:01 am
“Thank goddess they didn’t paint the kitchen cabinets.” I take this to mean that you picked them out, Nance.
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Kirk said on May 11, 2016 at 9:04 am
You being the goddess, that is.
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David C. said on May 11, 2016 at 9:06 am
Looking at our old houses is sad and depressing. At our first house, the new owners built a huge deck on the front of the house without knowing what they were doing. So now, a rather nice looking bungalow style house has not only an ugly huge deck in front, but an ugly huge deck that’s sinking into the ground so it’s a foot lower in front than in the back. Our second hours has had an ill-advised lean-to tacked on. We’re told it’s to enlarge the bedroom and make it into a master suite (thanks This Old House and HGTV for making people think they need such things). It looks as good on the house as a goiter looks on a person and it doesn’t seem to have been worked on in a couple of years. I don’t know why I keep looking. It’s really hard to see things I worked so hard on going to rack and ruin.
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Jessica said on May 11, 2016 at 9:58 am
Subsequent owners actually improved my old house. Took away a pointless front fence, found a way to integrate the former sleeping porch into a bedroom more smoothly than we had (dumping some former exterior wall without collapsing the house), and spiffed up the porch.
Good for them. Unfortunately they also removed a wonderful blooming tree. Their kid was allergic or some silly thing.
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Deborah said on May 11, 2016 at 11:14 am
The house that I lived in with my ex and Little Bird from 1980 to 1987 in St. Louis looks better now than when we lived there. My ex continued to live there after I left, I don’t remember how long but the people who bought it after he moved out really fixed it up and kept it up, they still lived there as of last year when I was in St. Louis and took a walk down the old street. The owner was in the yard so I explained why I was standing there staring at her house. The coolest thing was that a redbud tree Little Bird planted on Arbor Day when she was in kindergarten is taller than the two story house now. It was just a pathetic twig when she planted it.
I’m waiting for the guys to come install the blinds. We put our platform bed together last night and boy howdy is it heavy, but the refinished wood looks great. It’s really foggy in Chicago today, at least it is where we are by the lake.
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Bitter Scribe said on May 11, 2016 at 11:23 am
adianne @ #4: I wouldn’t underestimate Jodi Ernst. She’s kept her head down and put in the work her first years in the Senate as far as I can tell, and I think she has LOTS more on the ball than Sarah Palin. She was a military officer in a war zone. Can you imagine Palin doing that? Palin did nothing more than look good reading sports scores on local TV before she got into politics.
But I agree that she probably won’t want to go under the waves on the Good Ship Trump.
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Julie Robinson said on May 11, 2016 at 11:29 am
Foggy here, too, Deborah.
We put in lots of beautiful landscaping at our last house, with perennial flowers, some of which came from my folks’ house, and theirs before them. We moved in the middle of the winter, and when I drove past in the spring it was all gone. They planted grass right up to the foundation. It made me so sad. I would have dug it up had I known.
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brian stouder said on May 11, 2016 at 11:35 am
Here’s the news that’s the top concern (at the moment) in our house.
http://wane.com/2016/05/10/city-council-votes-no-to-annexation-plan/
In a nutshell, our Republican city council members are apparently more interested in representing people who don’t live in Fort Wayne, than the people who actually do (and who actually elected them)!
‘Course, annexation would bring some of those people into Fort Wayne, so I suppose the argument can be made that they’re being far-sighted (rather than being short-sighted panderers)…… or something!
For the record, when folks who have kids at the suburban schools bitch and moan about losing revenue if they’re in the city, my first impulse (which I continue to resist) is to say “cry me a river”….
but my second impulse, which I have acted upon a few times, is to politely point out that the problem are these property tax-caps, which- now more than ever- seem specifically designed as a battering-ram to be used against urban public schools.
But the Republicans don’t have anything against urban public schools, do they? Errr…uhhhhh…
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Julie Robinson said on May 11, 2016 at 11:53 am
Brian, I confess to deeply mixed feelings on the annexation, since I was worried about my beloved public library suffering yet more funding cuts as a result. Hubby then pointed out that businesses won’t look at relocating to cities that aren’t growing, or above a certain size. But Mayor Henry’s response: let them eat cake (ie, go raise taxes somewhere else) was more than a little troubling to me. And it seems the only ones who benefit from the tax caps are the wealthy tea partyers around Indy who pushed them through.
All of which is to say, it’s good thing I’m not making these decisions!
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brian stouder said on May 11, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Good points, Julie.
I guess if my fate is to be a cranky old man, then so be it! – but it truly does seem to me that those stupid tax-caps (or “circuit breakers”) that our Indiana legislature put into the Indiana constitution, are purposefully malicious toward urban public schools.
So I’ll credit the Donald with that much; I’d not have believed educated men and women would have such malice toward “those people” who live in cities…but now I do
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BigHank53 said on May 11, 2016 at 12:20 pm
That’s not just a wide-angle lens in your real-estate photos, it’s a crappy wide-angle lens. All the staging in the world can’t save you from an incompetent realtor who thinks $350 means he bought a real camera and now he’s a photographer, too. A $19 fisheye adapter from eBay is going to make every image look like it was taken with a $19 camera. Ugh. Don’t get me started on the lighting.
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Dave said on May 11, 2016 at 12:26 pm
Brian, I think they were afraid of a huge group of antagonistic voters.
The tax caps were a terrible idea and maybe someday, they’ll figure out why it should be repealed but good luck with that in Indiana. Meanwhile, Northwest Allen and East Allen didn’t want to get swallowed up into that and can you blame them? Also, the library is a gem, it’s head and shoulders over a lot of libraries, as my daughter continues to discover on her several moves.
Fort Wayne doesn’t have a lot to offer other than, “It’s a great, affordable family town”, always heard over and over.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 11, 2016 at 12:35 pm
Suzanne, it turns out that Arkansas judge was even more confused than you’d think:
“Boeckmann is not known to be politically active. A search of his campaign donations by The Daily Beast revealed one to the 2002 campaign of Rep. Marion Berry (D-AR) and another to the campaign of former Gov. Mike Beebe, also a Democrat.”
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 11, 2016 at 12:39 pm
The real question is going to be who else gets cited or charged in all this. There is NO way he could have done this over time without lots of court staff knowing. There’s a common refrain “the judge wears the robe” [insert joke here] which means there are many times when you just don’t ask any more questions, you just do what the bench says, even if you think His Honor is not quite getting it in a certain case.
But I can’t imagine even a clever and canny operator doing what he’s accused of for more than a couple of years without plenty of officers of the court, LEOs and staff and the area bar, catching wind of what’s in the air. And clearly not saying or doing anything — that needs to be addressed as much as this clown should be disbarred, sanctioned, and criminally charged.
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nancy said on May 11, 2016 at 12:50 pm
Excellent point, Jeff. These guys had to have been out on the street talking about this, and cops hear those things.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 12:40 pm
Paul LePage, the governor of Maine, seems like Trump’s kind of guy.
I don’t think he’s going to pick a woman. I’m sure he could find a woman who would put up with his misogyny for a chance at being a heartbeat away, but Joni Ernst doesn’t look like someone Trump would want to campaign with. Is Trump going to spend time on the campaign trail with a woman who doesn’t look like arm candy?
Scott puts the “goober” in gubernatorial. Carl Hiaasen is unimpressed with his governor.
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Danny said on May 11, 2016 at 1:36 pm
How about Kristi Noem? She has the hair to be on the ticket.
http://www.hoosieragtoday.com//wp-content/uploads//2014/01/Rep-Kristi-Noem.jpg
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adrianne said on May 11, 2016 at 1:49 pm
Even in the bluest of blue states, New York, black men have to worry about shit like this: The journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates said on Monday that he and his family would not move into a $2.1 million Brooklyn brownstone they recently bought because media coverage of the purchase had made them worried for their safety.
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alex said on May 11, 2016 at 1:59 pm
She has the hair to be on the ticket.
But does she have the nuts?
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Dave said on May 11, 2016 at 2:15 pm
Rick Scott is Exhibit One of why we should be concerned that a Trump could win. Oh, and get re-elected, too.
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Sue said on May 11, 2016 at 2:15 pm
I don’t know who’s going to be chosen, but I know who’s auditioning:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ted-nugent-doctors-video-hillary-clinton-shot
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David C. said on May 11, 2016 at 2:18 pm
Good Lord, Danny, those are some of the craziest eyes I’ve ever seen on a human.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 2:28 pm
To give you some perspective on just how nuts Silicon Valley housing is, my old house in Mountain View is about the same size and lot size as Nancy’s old house, built in the 50s, and according to the estimates on Zillow, you’d need to come up with an additional $50K over the full asking price just to make a 10% down payment on my old house. That’s what being 10 minutes away from the Googleplex does.
And going just few blocks north puts you into Palo Alto, and the housing prices are over $2 million. Seattle housing prices are on the rise, but they’re still much cheaper than the Bay Area.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 2:33 pm
Damn, I still want Elizabeth Warren to stay in the Senate, but she’s certainly doing a fine job of filling the typical VP role of attacking the opposition candidate in the meantime. She’s not taking any shit from Trump on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/elizabethforma
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Jolene said on May 11, 2016 at 3:14 pm
I saw that article re the Coates real estate deal too, adrianne. Made me really sad. Also made me jealous; that house is gorgeous.
But I also wondered if he is, perhaps, overreacting. Of course, I don’t know how many death threats he’s gotten, but lots of people with controversial ideas live in New York without incident. What are his alternatives? I guess they’d have to consider a building with a doorman or other security personnel.
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nancy said on May 11, 2016 at 3:55 pm
I think he is, too, Jolene, and I was just telling Adrianne so, via Facebook. He’s not a beautiful, sexy actress, he’s a homely writer like the rest of us. The fan crossed a boundary by showing up at his house, but it’s not necessarily threatening.
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dull_old_man said on May 11, 2016 at 3:20 pm
David C.– they taught me wrack and ruin, but that was a long time ago.
They also told me to avoid a multiple-word phrase that contained a word I don’t use in any other contest. “One fell swoop” is the classic example. One night at dinner I said you wouldn’t believe the fell conference call I was on today, and my kid said nice try, Dad, but you still shouldn’t use fell swoop.
They told me to avoid cliches completely, but then how would I express my ideas?
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Scout said on May 11, 2016 at 3:55 pm
1890 Square feet for $119,500? That same house in Phoenix would be over $300K.
Speaking of Phoenix, people of my acquaintance here are just laughing and laughing at the thought of Bone-Finger Brewer as Drumpf’s running mate. But no way that will happen. He won’t have anyone on the ticket who isn’t “hot”.
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Dexter said on May 11, 2016 at 4:20 pm
For years we heard of the flight from California, as moneyed types built mansions in Idaho and Montana, but of course The Golden State is still the Golden $tate, just read Sherri’s post here on this thread. A friend of mine was a mover and shaker of sorts (he got good deals done for his employer, but it’s been 20 years and I can’t even recall what line of work he was in) and he spent considerable time in the Los Angeles area on business, and he was persuaded to move to LA and just work that area. He investigated living and housing costs and all that, and he told me he knew he’d never make it there, as he had always owned his own home and furthermore (he just had this obsession) when he moved someplace he always had to live in a brand new house , spec’d to his family. In the part of LA he found suitable, a lot, a regular rather small lot for building, was going to cost him $1,000,000. Five years ago he built another spec house here in NW Ohio. I didn’t ask him the cost. 🙂 Kids long gone, it’s a one bedroom small ranch house, he said his final project as he retired last summer.
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brian stouder said on May 11, 2016 at 4:24 pm
Well, if the Oxy-Rush wing of the Republican party never liked “RINO”s (“Republicans in Name Only”), how will they like it when a few million people decide that, rather than being a RINO, they’ll simply become members of the Democratic Party? As it stands, if the Republican party does the Whig-thing, it would be the sensible people who break away, and become something new, leaving an angry pulp behind
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David C. said on May 11, 2016 at 4:31 pm
I wasn’t sure either, dull_old_man. Oxford has “rack (or wrack) and run”, so either seems OK. It’s one of those expressions you almost never see written. English can be a tough sumbitch sometimes, can’t it?
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brian stouder said on May 11, 2016 at 4:49 pm
Speaking of Fort Wayne houses on the market, there’s this one – in the crime-riddled Cherry Hill section of northeastern Fort Wayne
http://wane.com/2016/05/11/inside-the-home-of-former-drug-kingpin-michael-fabini/
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Brandon said on May 11, 2016 at 5:13 pm
This morning I tuned into Spike TV and watched part of a Gangland episode about the Detroit gang, the Best Friends.
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Suzanne said on May 11, 2016 at 5:34 pm
That Ted Nugent thing is scary because I know too many people who wouldn’t find it so.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 5:37 pm
One reason some moneyed types leave California is because of income taxes. The highest marginal tax rate is now 13.3%, and you get to 8% very quickly (~80K married filing jointly.)
My old house is valued at $1.75 million on Zillow. We sold it in 2006 (3 years after we moved) for $800K and bought it in 1991 for $350K.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 6:08 pm
So, Bernie thinks he’s had such a tough time in the primary, because he’s to fight the “entire Democratic establishment. We’ve had to take on senators and governors and mayors and members of Congress.” Remind me again why the superdelegates, the very members of the Democratic establishment he’s still attacking, would flip for him the way he’s claiming they will, despite winning fewer pledged delegates and fewer votes?
Maybe he’s confused about how voting works. All those excited people who show up at your rallies, Bern, still only get one vote each.
The Bernie people keep claiming he’s a better candidate against Trump, ignoring the fact that Hillary hasn’t bothered to attack him at all. He’s notoriously thin-skinned; how’s he going to handle it Trump paints him as a Communist and a pedophile?
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2016/05/bernie_sanders_electability_argument_is_still_a_myth.html
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MichaelG said on May 11, 2016 at 6:54 pm
I was thinking the other day, Sherri, about what you just said. Nobody has gone after Sanders. He has been ignored by Trump and by the right wing noise machine. And Ms. Clinton has treated him with kid gloves. If push comes to shove, he’s in for a very rude, very uncomfortable awakening. It would not be pretty.
Bernie’s stuff about revolution, about free tuition, fixing medical coverage, breaking up the banks is all pie in the sky. It’s absolute bullshit right up there with Trump’s intent to deport millions of people and have Mexico build him a wall. It just ain’t going to happen.
Bernie whines about the super delegates. Why would they go with him? What has he done for a single Democratic state official or candidate in any race in any state in the US? Not a fucking thing that’s what. He’s not even a Democrat. His Democratic identification today is merely a flag of convenience.
I got my absentee ballot in the mail today. There are thirty four (34), count them, 34 people listed as candidates for Barbara Boxer’s senate seat. 34. Only seven running for president as Democrats.
I went to the Dr. yesterday. I’m going to have to have more surgery or radiation. I need another MRI and a CT scan. Then the brain trust will decide.
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Sherri said on May 11, 2016 at 7:03 pm
Oh, MichaelG, I’m sorry to hear that.
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Dave said on May 11, 2016 at 8:40 pm
Oh, MichaelG, so sorry to learn of that.
On a totally unrelated note and only for the handful of people with any Fort Wayne connection, the older lady who occasionally writes for the hostess’s former employer about books is 99. I knew she was old but it never registered that she’s that old. http://www.journalgazette.net/news/local/schools/As-speech-contest-hits-40–founder-honored-13001165
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Jill said on May 11, 2016 at 9:31 pm
Very sorry to hear that, MichaelG.
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Deborah said on May 11, 2016 at 10:06 pm
MichaelG, I’ll be thinking of you as you go through this next round of stuff you have to endure. Sorry you have to go through it.
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Dexter said on May 12, 2016 at 4:28 am
Best wishes, MichaelG, as you progress towards total clear remission and recovery. I thought of you as I was watching a short segment/doc about Peter Guber, CEO of Mandalay Entertainment (movies) and involved in the ownership conglomerates of the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Dodgers. To see this man’s unending, unstoppable energy and amazed me, as he is 74 but I figured him for 50, tops. He said he takes it all in, always aware that this passes by at warp-speed, and is over in a flash, and we’re here to relish the joy of it all. And I thought of your trips overseas and your reaching out and grabbing the world with gusto, and how you seem to not be bitter over all you saw and experienced in Vietnam many years ago, but seem to have been enriched by the total experience there, as well as all the years through your marriage and career.
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Jessica said on May 12, 2016 at 8:33 am
Speaking of Palo Alto, my parents’ starter house there (an Eichler) now costs over 100 times what they paid for it in 1956. Their dream house in the hills sold for only 20 times what they paid for it in 1966 because we sold during a real estate slump. If we could have waited a year to sell it would have doubled in price.
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adrianne said on May 12, 2016 at 1:31 pm
OMG, Betty Stein!!! She was one of my favorite people at the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel. Love her!
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