There’s something about autumn that gets me in the mood to batten down the hatches. Alan took Kate to a Matt & Kim concert Saturday night, and…
…may I just interject something here? I think I’ve mentioned before that Kate’s enthusiasm in pop music isn’t for superstars like Lady Gaga, but these smaller, less well-known artists like, well, Matt & Kim. In the last year she’s been asking to go to their concerts. She doesn’t ask for much, so if certain circumstances are met (parent escort, not a school night), I generally say yes. But these bands don’t play at arenas, or even at theaters, but at clubs. Rock clubs. And while I guess I always thought I might someday sit down with my daughter at a bar, I didn’t think it would be when she was 13. Last night it was Matt & Kim at the Majestic, and next month she has tickets for All Time Low at the Shelter. The Shelter is the basement part of St. Andrew’s Hall, a.k.a. “the most dangerous concert venue in America.” That’s not literally true. It’s just outside of touristy Greektown; the description refers to all the hip-hop acts that got their start there. Still. The accompanying parent on that trip will get the full treatment from me — don’t let them get too close, nowhere near the speakers, no moshing, whatever.
Saturday night they didn’t get home until after 1 a.m. Alan said the show was pretty good. (Although he mentioned that Matt recalled their last gig in Detroit, after which he was robbed at gunpoint.) Kate got her CD signed by Kim. That’s another reason she likes these little bands — the meet ‘n’ greets at the merch tables. Lady Gaga doesn’t do those, methinks.
OK, back to hatch-battening. While they were out, I tackled my home office, where I was losing the battle against the heaps of paper that work their way into our lives. Why so much paper? I’m striving toward a paper-free existence, and the rest of the world is picking up the slack, plus some, it seems. I sort into piles, then re-sort, and by the third time through I’ve usually made my peace with throwing most of it out. It can take me days to clean an office. My final six months at my last full-time employer were the best, because I’d made a resolution: In hostile territory, it’s best to travel light. When I quit, I walked out with my coffee cup, one file folder and 20 years of memories. It. Felt. Great.
Oh, and the ankle’s better, thanks. If it happens to you, follow RICE therapy immediately. Also, praise G-d for ibuprofen. It made all the difference. It’s still puffy and sore, but I was able to go for a little bike ride yesterday without howling in pain. Progress.
The usual crazed week lies ahead, but I have a jump on things — nothing like a mild sprain to get your paperwork done — and I think I’m ready, just as soon as my loins are girded. In the meantime, some bloggage:
Leave it to nerdy NPR for something like this: When everyone in the world is being called a socialist, what does a real, admitted, avowed one say? These people are not socialists. In part 2, what is a libertarian, and why many of the Republicans who claim to be so, are not.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/09/17/129936548/the-friday-podcast-socialists-libertarians-part-1
The Wall Street Journal has its own axe to grind with the web, but I think their reporting on online privacy, or lack thereof, is pretty prize-worthy. Bottom line: Nothing on the web is free, and the price you pay is your personal information. (Except here at NN.C, where all I know about Dwight is that his ISP is somewhere in the Chicago region. Or was. Maybe.) The latest installment is on the worst offenders — websites frequented by children. Lovely.
Only in Detroit: The Guerrilla Marching Band. Watch the video for some great glimpses of Hamtramck — pierogi, For Sale or Lease signs and fat people. Great town.
Out the door, I am.
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 20, 2010 at 8:43 am
Is that the club where Eminem had his rap battles in “8 Mile”?
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 9:01 am
Matt and Kim are actually pretty good. I’d never heard of these characters before, but they are surely an antidote to Disney productions. Only in Detroit? Well, there’s the White Panther Party.
Socialists? Would one person claiming somebody is a socialist actually define the term? What they mean is the President is black, and Kommissar Karl is just shocked that the Southren Strategy has backfired on his ass. Actual racists are running the game in the GOP, and they are full-goose loony, nuts, not to mention the fact they can’t speak English if they ganged up.
I’ll say it again, if you vote for somebody so clearly deranged or stupid, you really should never be allowed to vote again. Birther, tenther? C’mon. It’s racism, purely and simply.
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nancy said on September 20, 2010 at 9:04 am
The club in the film was called the Shelter, and I think the Shelter was ground zero for the rap-battle scene in the ’90s, but I’m not sure whether the one you see onscreen is the actual existing Shelter. With one of us present, I don’t worry so much about her, but the Shelter show parent is going to be someone else. My concerns are not so much creeps as crush injuries, but for now I have to have faith that the other mom is on the job.
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Julie Robinson said on September 20, 2010 at 9:07 am
My secret wish is to be part of a flash mob, and I would LOVE to be part of that band. What joy!
Glenn Beck brought his circus act to a small town north of here over the weekend, and I am pleased to report the venue was only half full. There is hope for the people of Indiana.
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nancy said on September 20, 2010 at 9:09 am
Julie, I saw that. Only half the house in Steuben County? That’s remarkable.
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Deborah said on September 20, 2010 at 9:35 am
Dwight’s from the Chicago area? I’ll keep an eye out for him, and make sure I stay far away.
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basset said on September 20, 2010 at 9:50 am
Paper clutter… back when I worked at the local school district, one of the assistant superintendents used to sort everything on his desk into three piles, “now,” “later,” and “never.” Every six months, he’d sweep all of it into the trash and start over.
Saw an interview this weekend with a big dog at… think it was Google… who said he never answers an email unless he’s the only one in the to: line. See, I retained the important part…
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Jason T. said on September 20, 2010 at 10:05 am
Hey! Watch it! We resemble these remarks.
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A. Riley said on September 20, 2010 at 10:08 am
Gang, I was just in Detroit for the first time this past weekend — a conference for a service org I’m connected to. We stayed at a downtown hotel and did a couple of little field trips around town. Mine was to an urban farm/community garden in central Detroit — a city lot where a house once stood. The block is about one-third occupied houses in various states of repair, one-third badly damaged abandoned houses, and one-third vacant lots. And these big old brick houses — if you could magically shine them up & transport them to Oak Park, Illinois, they’d be half-a-million each.
I had to make a grocery run, so I drove from downtown out to Troy, about 15 miles on Woodward Ave. Same thing except more so. Downtown is shiny & bright, and then there’s this huge swath of near-depopulation.
I love cities. What is Detroit’s future, and how are they going to get there?
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Dorothy said on September 20, 2010 at 10:21 am
In January 1997 Jonny Lang was coming to Pittsburgh. The concert date was about 3 weeks before my daughter’s 14th birthday. All she wanted for her birthday was to see Jonny, but the event was at a bar/nightclub kind of thing in Oakland (where the Pitt campus is). I had no plans to drop off Laura and her best friend there so of course I stayed for the show, too. There was even some drama when I went to buy the tickets and they were sold out. Turns out a friend of mine (a former boss who was co-owner of the quilt shop where I worked) was married to a guy who worked at WDVE in Pittsburgh. He had some tickets and would not even take any money for them. So that was a fun night – I became a Jonny Lang fan that night myself! He’s still playing – we saw him in Columbus last year. Kid plays a mean guitar (and he’s only three years older than my daughter so that made him just 17 when we saw him in Pittsburgh.)
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Julie Robinson said on September 20, 2010 at 10:41 am
Admission for the Glenn Beck rally started at $15 and went up to $400. Maybe that’s why he couldn’t draw a full house. It doesn’t cost anything to see him on the boob tube. Or does it? I don’t actually know which channel he runs on. We are TV Luddites without cable, FIOS, or dish.
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Sue said on September 20, 2010 at 11:03 am
Shit, Dwight’s in/near Chicago? Too close for me.
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LAMary said on September 20, 2010 at 11:13 am
When my son was 14 or 15 I got him a backstage pass to see Elvis Costello. He brought a gorgeous 18 year old girl as his date. My son that is, not Elvis. A few months later I somehow got one very good ticket to the Allman brothers at the Greek theatre and I gave him that too. Ditto on two excellent seats to B.B. King. Aside from liking the music at all these concerts, he reported there were a lot of “old guys smoking weed.”
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brian stouder said on September 20, 2010 at 11:27 am
Well, our (now 12 year old) daughter got to meet and shake hands with Harold Holzer, and Douglas Wilson, and, uhhh, Michael Burlingame, and James K Galbraith (gotta put the “K” in there), and………
on second thought, never mind!
(paraphrasing Mary, I think Shelby thought these were old guys from out of the weeds!)
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ROgirl said on September 20, 2010 at 11:55 am
I’m one of those suburbanistas who hasn’t spent a lot of time in downtown Detroit since I went to Wayne State University in the early 90s. On Saturday I went to an art exhibit at a small gallery called Re:View Contemporary on Willis St. The gallery is in a new building and has been there for about a year. It’s next door to the Avalon Bakery, and there are a few other businesses on the same block.
One block does not a rebirth make, but the area does have pockets of improvement amidst the decay and blight. And the WSU campus is looking better, too.
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coozledad said on September 20, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Re: Old guys smoking dope. That’s one of the big reasons I gave up going to see guitar bands. Kids smoking pot is a rite of passage. The guys with hairy nostrils and ears doing it publicly is unseemly. We knew a guy who was going to construct a four car garage with attic space devoted exclusively to hydroponic sensemilla production. His emotional development seems to have atrophied around the age of seventeen. Heavily into AC/DC and titty bars. Libertarian.
I think his wife must have finally gotten it through to him that the state would remove and rehouse their children if they caught him manufacturing, but who knows?
The last show I went to was Rachel’s back in 2006, at the Carrboro Art Center. Got to sit down and actually listen, and it was gorgeous.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 20, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Oh, I shouldn’t feed y’all this kind of red, or at least very rare meat, but . . .
http://andrewsproblem.blogspot.com/2010/09/delaware-primary-debate.html
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 2:07 pm
The Hideout was a real place, in Harper Woods. I saw SRC play “There’s A Place For Us” there when I’d woofed some Ritalin stolen from an ER at Metropolitan Hospital. I don’t know about the Shelter. Back in the Sixties, the club was the Birmingham Teen Center. Procul played all of Salty Dog there before it was released, and mingled with the crowd. The sort of house band was Teagarden and Van Winkle, and if you don’t know about Smokin’ OPs, Skip Knape and David Teagarden you really have no business commenting on anything to do with Detroit music. Sorry if that seems rude, but it’s obvious.
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 2:36 pm
LAMary, what good taste. I got my kid backstage to meet New Kids, and she’s been a fan of Elvis Costello and the Boss ever since. She thought Donny and Marky were, in her nine-year-old words, “morons”. Somehow, they turned out to be estimable actors.
Boston is my second city, and I’ve actually spent the night in the Charles St. Jail, but it isn’t Detroit. For downtown Detroit, half-pints of Ancient Age in the bleachers at Briggs Field, aka Tiger Stadium, and bagels from the Fabulous Star Bakery on Seven Mile, and the Chessmate, Six and Livernois, searched for weapons before you could enter but no age ID required to see John Lee, that was Detroit. They don’t make ’em like that anymore.
Being a child of privilege from Bloomfield Hills and going to school in the city, free to run riot, we survived and those were the days. Oh, and Empress Theater, on Woodward Ave, where I once drove a brand new Z about 150 mph.
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Jeff Borden said on September 20, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Glenn Beck also appeared in Hoffman Estates, Ill. this weekend and drew about 7,000 to a hall seating 15,000. Tickets ranged from something like $70 to $1,200 for a meet and greet.
Apparently, the walking, talking sausage went after Michelle Obama for arguing that our kids ought to eat healthier. He demanded Ms. Obama “keep your hands off my French fries” and said the next politician to tell him to eat more carrot sticks would get a carrot stick, but not in the mouth.
So, apparently, one of the basic tenets of Beck’s form of patriotism is the right to eat as much shitty food as we want. Cool. I’m sure the ragged band of soldiers who struggled through a harsh winter at Valley Forge were probably thinking, “I’m freezing my ass off, walking on snow and ice in bare feet, barely getting enough to eat. . .but in a few centuries, an slobbish millionaire with a messianic complex will be able to gobble down all the fries he wants. I can live with that. God bless America.”
A small part of me –microscopic, really– admires the ability of this laughable doofus to milk the rubes. It is something of a gift to generate millions of dollars in profits by publicly proclaiming your great patriotism, but charging others to be in your presence. I would not be able to sleep at night, but Glennda is clearly one of those folks who lacks a shame gene.
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nancy said on September 20, 2010 at 2:48 pm
To be sure, Jeff, I would agree with Beck in that we should be free to eat all the shitty food we want. Where we part company is his insistence that even suggesting there’s another way to eat is somehow an affront to his freedom.
What he’s advocating is not freedom from coercion. Any parent could tell you that at the end of the day, you cannot make another person eat anything. What he’s advocating is freedom from disagreement. Which is pretty fucking typical with his gang, when you think about it.
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Jeff Borden said on September 20, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Hey, I like French fries, too. What’s surprising is his reaction. As you note, no one is ever going to shut down Mickey D’s, still the finest purveyor of fast-food fries going. But we also have alarming levels of childhood obesity, levels so high that the Pentagon is beginning to frame our huge weight gains as a national security issue because so many would-be recruits are grossly overweight. You’d think a big-time patriot like Glennda would address that issue if nothing else.
Honestly, I hope Glennda gorges himself on fries, soda pop, cookies, cheesecake, whatever. Once he develops arteriosclerosis or Type One diabetes, perhaps he will vacate the national stage.
I recognize I am wishing ill on Monsieur Beck, which is not a very Christian thing to do. But no one has ever accused me of being a good Christian, so there.
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 3:35 pm
Beck actually said that there would be incarceration. And people believe what he says. He’s an outright liar. This is death panels all over. Nobody should get away with this sort of outright lying. It leads to crap like McCain having to tell a looneytoon Beckish woman that Obama isn’t an Arab. Americans are fucking morons, and they get to vote?
Beck actually told his faithful they’d go to jail if they chose cheese fries over carrots. This may seem silly, but these people believe what this lying sack of ordure says. At this moment, there are 20mil or so Americans that think Michelle Obama wants to put them in jail because they’re obese. He is endangering her life, and he’s doing it willfully.
And anybody that doesn’t think this has to do with race is a downright idiot. Just say Yo, y’all. How’d that work out? Get kids to eat healthier? Must be some sort of socialiss plot. Because, she’s, you know, that Alinsky color.
If a black person said there are oceans on both sides of the US, Glenn Beck would insist that’s code for a socialiss plot. Newt practically came out and said it. What’s he mean by “anti-colonial”? He was clearly talking about Europeans and Africans. I mean, wasn’t Tom Jefferson anti-colonial? So, WTF, Newt?
Why don’t the teabaggers just come right out and say it? George Wallace did. He said “I’ll never be out-niggered in another campaign.” Lee Atwater admitted to the racist strategy on his deathbed. He asked God to forgive him.
And they sure as shit want to keep government’s hands off their Medicare Part B. Dumbasses that should not be allowed to vote. It’s like Bill Nelson said, quoting Rod Serling, if I’m not mistaken. Will the real Martian please stand up?
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Kirk said on September 20, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Nothing Mickey D.’s makes is worth eating, including its horribly overrated grease-tasting fries.
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Bob said on September 20, 2010 at 3:47 pm
“What he’s advocating is freedom from disagreement. Which is pretty fucking typical with his gang, when you think about it.”
My take is that there’s a significant fight inside the tea party groups over whether they ought to stick tightly to financial issues as the core priority or whether they should take on a more conservative social agenda, too. If they drag the social agenda to the right, watch for a tea-party-abducted GOP to define disagreement down — waaay down.
As in, “While some of us have wear black shoelaces, there must be room for well-meaning patriots of good will to wear navy blue. And though many of us swear by vanilla ice ice cream, there must be room under this big tent for those loyal iconoclasts who believe most sincerely that French vanilla is the epitome of ice-cream flavors…”
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LAMary said on September 20, 2010 at 4:08 pm
When you mentioned RICE therapy I thought of the BRAT diet for kids with intestinal upsets. Bananas rice applesauce toast.
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 4:26 pm
For all intensive purposes (my bad on purpose), the Tea Party is Dick Armey, the noted draft-dodger that funded that Swift-Boat bullshit. It is inconceivable and uncoscionable in our alleged democracy that somebody that went out of his way to avoid military service should advance his political career by slandering somebody that came under fire in service. that a totally discredited ex-member of the House. All of the cash and most of the invective, and the charter member of the Ananais Club. What the hell is wrong with people?
This chickenhawk asshole ran the Swift Boat canard with the Koch brothers and Richard Mellon Scaiffe. Ain’t that America? Now he runs the grassroots (ain’t that a hoot?) Teabaggers. John Kerry wasn’t heroic in an illegal and immoral war? Well, he saved his crew and those assholes that criticise him actually dodged the fucking draft.
I think you take what you will from political discourse. You can put up, or you can just say no to everything. Teabaggers are supposed to be about the Constitution. Where does the Constitution say anything about 60 votes and opposition that has nothing to do with anything but “He’s a black guy, he can’t be one of us.” If there were an informed electorate, you’d have to expect them to throw the Republicans out on their asses. Since THEY passed TARP, they’ve obstructed everything that might put the economy on firmer footing. And you Beck idiots? Who passed TARP? Only sensible thing Tweedle-dum ever did.
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paddyo' said on September 20, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Fries, schmies — I’ll have what Jeff TMMO is having @ #17. Talk about red meat. The Thing Which Should Not Be And Yet Is? Couldn’t have said it better . . . it’s inspired.
Any “Mad Men”‘ers out there want to weigh in on last night’s episode? On the heels of the arresting premiere of HBO’s “Boardwalk Empire” (“The Sopranos” in the ’20s, right down to a quite literal case of sleeping with the fishes), the “MM” crew completed my Sunday night viewing enjoyment with the best-written (and funniest-and-most-sobering-at-the-same-time) installment ever . . .
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LAMary said on September 20, 2010 at 6:19 pm
It was a good episode, Paddy-o. I still think two weeks ago was better, with Don and Peggy staying up all night. Last night certainly set up lots of possibilities for new twists and turns, and the scene with Ms. Blankenship being carried off behind the backs of the Fillmore brothers was excellent.
I also liked Don’s response to Sally asking if using rum instead of syrup ruined the French Toast. “Not really.”
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prospero said on September 20, 2010 at 6:33 pm
MC5. Those boys in Iggy’s band could not play like Sonic Smith and Brother Wayne Kramer. And none of them could play like either Quackenbush brother. And here’s And here’s the king of sustain, Gary Quackenbush, with a pretty good bass player, on, tada, Hideaway.
And meanwhile back at the Hideaway that would be Persecution Smith, these days parading in high heels as Mama Grizzly.
Last night’s Mad Men was kinda sorta OK, but it was not as good as Rubicon, which people tend to not like because it requires intelligence.
And just because I figure most of you have never had the pleasure, the only guitar player better than Steve Stills and Jimi. And maybe Doc Watson. It is an indisputable fact this is the greatest motorcycle song ever written, regrets to Arlo.
Then there’s the song Richard Thompson wrote about that idiot W. You know, that asshole that got appointed President by Dickless Cheney’s duck shooting buddy and invaded and occupied a country, much to Cheney’s financial benefit. Xe, nee Blackwater, walked off with untold millions in unscoped cash and only electrocuted seven soldiers.
Sorry, the little chickenhawk pilot did that one without imagining how we were all going to pay for it. He managed to never include the cost of invading Iraq and Afghanistan in the federal budget. Which part of the deficit does revenge for my daddy account for? This would all be hilarious, but these racist assholes are hanging Sheriff Bart.
The question is how motherfucking stupid are people? Republicans talk about tax and spend. They give rich people a walk and spend money like it was all Dickless Cheney’s. And it most certainly was.
This evil piece of shit capitalized on the invasion of Iraq. He stole a US election, as did Scalia. Cheney’s connections to missing millions of bucks and Blackwater? Put this asshole in jail. He’a an undenaiably chickenhawk asshole. His outright lies concerrning Kerry were disgraceful. Unmannly. And the assholes that paid him like the Koch Brothers, they were unmannly too, and Kerry could piss on them. Moronic little cowering women.
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paddyo' said on September 20, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Agreed on the two-weeks-ago episode, LAM — that lingering bit of, um, vomitus on Don’s usually pristine-starched-and-pressed shirt during the aftermath of the all-nighter was just the right out-of-comfort-zone touch, too.
Coulda been a great ad inspiration for, say, Wisk, the first liquid laundry detergent. It was invented in the ’50s but didn’t hit marketing paydirt until the ’70s with the famous “Rinnng arounnnd the colllll-arr!” campaign. Imagine what the minds at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce might’ve done with that one . . .
I, too, loved little Sally’s “Mrs. Butterworth’s” mistake with the rum — and so did Don . . . And speaking of Sally, has the new grown-up hairdo and that kid’s acting made her a mini-me of Betty or what? Same diction, same facial expressions — scary.
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Deborah said on September 20, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I thought Mad Men was excellent once again. I agree LAMary that 2 weeks ago was better though. I loved the end last night where the 3 women Joan, Peggy and Faye stepped into the same elevator and when the doors closed that was the end of the segment. I was trying to figure out what the music was as the credits rolled, anyone know?
Oh, and my Doc called this afternoon with the results of my MRI Thursday night. It’s a fracture. Geez.
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Rana said on September 20, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Bummer, Deborah. I hope it heals up soon.
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Connie said on September 20, 2010 at 7:39 pm
Hey Nancy, did you hear about the bad behavior of your alma mater’s mascot?
Ohio University apologized this morning for the shocking incident of mascot-on-mascot crime which occurred on Saturday, as Rufus the Bobcat viciously tackled and molested the Ohio State mascot, Brutus Buckeye, just prior to the meeting between the two teams at the Horseshoe. http://outofbounds.nbcsports.com/2010/09/post-781.html.php
Somehow the phrase mascot-on-mascot crime cracks me up.
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LAMary said on September 20, 2010 at 8:01 pm
The bobcat does not have bobtail. What is up with that? It’s more like a puma or something.
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coozledad said on September 20, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Basset can probably tell me if I’m out to lunch on this, but I believe I saw a mountain lion one night when my wife and I were camping in the Pisgah Forest. We were staying in a seriously underbuilt cabin with no plumbing, and she stepped outside for a leak. My job was to hold the flashlight so she didn’t go rolling down one of the steep rock escarpments nearby. I swung the beam out into the woods and saw bright blue reflecting back from eyes about a hands’ width apart.
I handed my wife the flashlight and told her by all means hurry up and piss and keep the light trained on those eyes. I was going back to the cabin.
We ultimately scared up a bucket or something indoors.
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Dave said on September 20, 2010 at 8:51 pm
I was in Ohio Stadium for the first time ever on Saturday, thanks to my brother, who attends all home games and thought I’d enjoy seeing my alma mater get stomped. I thought maybe mascots do that all the time, I honestly don’t pay a lot of attention to college football. Banned for life, shows you what I know.
I have to confess, it was fun to see the script Ohio done and, of course, I haven’t seen the 110 Marching Men of Ohio in nearly 40 years.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on September 20, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Don’t know about anyone else, but everything except the hyperlinks are white boxes in place of letters. Of course, once I hit submit, that’s apparently what will happen to these letters, too.
Edit: Yep.
On the brighter side, Prospero makes as much sense as any of us tonight.
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MaryRC said on September 20, 2010 at 10:14 pm
The Peggy and Don all-nighter two weeks ago has been this season’s high point but I liked the Joan-Joey, Peggy-Joey and Joan-Peggy showdowns last week too.
I’m missing Miss Blankenship already. “Would you like me to buy him or her a birthday present?” “Send in Ray Charles” … so many one-liners either uttered or inspired by her.
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Lex said on September 20, 2010 at 10:49 pm
A quarter-century, give or take, after I tended bar at Connells shows in Chapel Hill, I took my 12-year-old daughter to see them after I accidentally put “Stone Cold Yesterday” on her Shuffle and she fell in love with it. She hung in for a good hour, which, considering the cigarette smoke, was about 45 minutes more than I expected.
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Connie said on September 20, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Hey Brian, museum lady claims the odd tool – a froe?- my husband is holding in his hand once belonged to Abraham Lincoln. http://aroundgoshen.blogspot.com/2010/09/froe.html
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coozledad said on September 20, 2010 at 11:03 pm
Lex: You ever meet Scott Carle?
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brian stouder said on September 20, 2010 at 11:20 pm
Connie, it would be interesting to see what sort of provenance that implement has.
The whole subject of woodworking gets a great deal of attention at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial, within that impressive marble vistor center. Indeed, the one thing they had plenty of was wood of all sorts, and walking the nature trail they have informational markers that point out the various trees and how they were most commonly used.
Abe’s dad Thomas was a cabinet maker, and they had tools there (behind glass) that were his. Additionally, they had several pieces of furniture (hutches and desks and so on) that he (Thomas) built.
Interestingly, though, I found several of the displays in the visitor center to be contradictory. One display stated that Thomas had a sort of trademark, which was a star with a falling tail. Another display, describing the same design, stated that it was a leaf with vine, like sassafras, and was fairly common amongst many furniture makers.
I’ve read that when Abe was a teenager he helped out his dad here and there, with his cabinet making, so who knows?
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basset said on September 21, 2010 at 12:00 am
Cooz, in that location it’s entirely possible. never heard of blue reflecting eyes but I’m no expert, will check with my friends at the Tenn. state wildlife agency and see what they say.
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Lex said on September 24, 2010 at 10:29 am
Coozledad: If so I don’t recall it. But then there’s a lot from the mid-’80s I don’t recall.
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