Bad news, which some of you mentioned yesterday in comments — my former colleague Mike Dooley died yesterday, from the sort of health collapse that comes after a life a reporter with an Irish name too often feels compelled to live. In what is perhaps a sad commentary on both contemporary journalism and certainly his last employer, his obit was thin and pallid and captured nothing of the man’s essence, which was robust and funny and unforgettable. Better to read excerpts from his popular column, Dooley Noted, which capture what it was like to sit with him at Henry’s, the bar across the street, and hear his stories. My favorite isn’t in there, about riding the press bus on the Dan Quayle 1988 veep campaign, and schooling the national media on the various smells wafting across the countryside. “They didn’t know bullshit from pigshit, Nall,” he roared at his usual volume, set at a time when newsrooms themselves roared with the white noise of phones, typewriters and teletype machines. “Can you believe it?”
Yes, I can. I also believe the story about the time he passed out drunk at a party, and someone used a Sharpie to draw a map of Ireland high on his bald dome, which he wore for several hours before discovering it. I never like to examine the mirror too closely while hungover, either.
Dooley had been failing for a while, and spent his final days at Parkview Hospital, where his friends and colleagues filled up his Facebook page with notes and stories and Godspeeds. I’m told he read them all, and enjoyed them very much.
And while we’re back home again, more news from the Hoosier State: Hank Stuever put me in his book. My former colleague Robin Yocum put me in his book. Tim Goeglein, if Amazon’s “search inside this book” is to be believed, did not. Damn! What’s a girl gotta do to get some credit up in this joint?
Yes, Tim has written his memoirs. I don’t think I’ll be reading them, or at least not buying them. This is why libraries were invented — to read books by people whose income you don’t want to support, but you still want to see what they have to say. Right? I did the 21st-century version of standing over the table at Border’s — first checked for my name, as well as any indication I might be appearing in a spectral, nameless form (“blogger” isn’t in there, either, and the only Nancy has the last name of Reagan). Then I flipped around via the Surprise Me function. It seems Tim’s mom took some classes at IPFW (that’s the Indiana U./Purdue branch campus in Fort Wayne), where professors described the American family as a tool of women’s oppression. He majored in journalism, because of his love for Ernie Pyle. And so on. (The Ernie Pyle school of journalism at IU has “ivy-covered walls,” I learned. Not plagiarism, just trite and unimaginative.) So what is this book’s cornerstone? Amazon copy:
Goeglein’s unique insider account of why he believes most of the 43rd president’s in-office decisions were made for the greater good, and how many of those decisions could serve as a blueprint for the emergence of a thoughtful, confident conservatism. From a fresh perspective, Goeglein gives behind-the-scenes accounts of key events during that historic two-term administration, reflecting on what was right and best about the Bush years. He was in Florida for the 2000 election recount, at the White House on 9/11, and watched Bush become a reluctant but effective wartime president.
An apologia for George Bush. Just what the world needs. Fie.
OK, some quick bloggage, and then I must fly:
Another horrifying story out of Mexico. It just never stops.
A typo — no, an editing mistake — on the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial. Appalling. And etched in stone, literally.
A good weekend to all, especially Irene-dodgers.
coozledad said on August 26, 2011 at 9:51 am
You wonder if there isn’t some conscious attempt to equate the civil rights movement with the kind of adolescent posturing the radical right finds so fashionable these days. In Durham, they’ve razed the landmarks where King spoke, and protested. You’d be a fool to view this as anything other than white supremacist effrontery. Especially since they erected a personal computer shaped marijuana jail over the ruins of one of them.
I love the picture of the rattrap- mouthed Klansman in the second photograph in this series. He could be any one of dozens of bitter old shits I would have seen picking strands of pork out of their teeth at the barber shop, screaming at the television. He probably drove in from North Durham to get his hate on.
http://endangereddurham.blogspot.com/2008/01/mlk-in-durham-what-is-future-of-civil.html
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 10:18 am
Is there any truth to the rumor that large chunks of Goeglein’s memoir are lifted more or less verbatim from A Million Little Pieces?
And Cooz, you know, if the rightwing ever gets back to the “activist judges” fomentation, they are really talking about Thurgood Marshall, the guy that started them frothing in the first place.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2011 at 10:34 am
Appalling. And etched in stone, literally.
I read the link, and winced.
And, despite my best efforts, I cannot help but view that misleading fragment of a speech as anything other than exactly what Nancy called it: appalling.
And indeed – no one can convince me that this was an editorial error, made by some lowly copy editor somewhere. I mean, for heaven’s sake!, the assignment was to create a stone monument that would stand in the nation’s capital for centuries!!
I bet the vetting process involved committees of scholars and politicians overseeing other committees of scholars and politicians.
So, let’s credit Irene with one good thing, if that out-of-context carved-in-stone thing* gets obliterated (by the stone masons, not Irene!) before it gets dedicated.
*the temptation is to call the out-of-context passage a deliberate swipe at King, even though it was more likely some sort of a bureaucratic cross-up. Still, how hard was it for ANYone in the process, before stone chips began flying, to spot how much of a clinker (at best) that excerpt is?
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 26, 2011 at 10:40 am
To be fair, if the wrong person came up with the mashed quote “I was a drum major for . . .” and it got presented in a committee context, it would have been very difficult to argue against it. This is where a skilled editorial team works so much better than a committee.
I can’t imagine speaking up, myself, to say “Oh, that sounds like cr4p” in a committee room. Just being honest. Might have said “do we really want to rework his words that much to create a punchy, non-verbatim quote?” and if a plurality answered “no, it sums up so much about him” on it would go.
There should be a monument to copy editors somewhere, along the lines of the original FDR memorial in Washington. (And I heard that this little gem, which I took high school groups to for many years on DC tours, was removed when they built the big, honking, unattractive, much debated new FDR memorial; so they could put the copy editor monument there . . .)
Update: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/15493
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 11:02 am
Any portrayal of W as reluctant about invading Iraq is arrant and deliberate bullshit. This view requires denial of the virulent existence of the PNAC. The whole point of getting Incurious George appointed by the Great Canned Duck Hunter was to invade Iraq. And “effective”? Seriously?
“the emergence of a thoughtful, confident conservatism” How’d that work out, Tim? $arah, Bachmann, GoodHair? Which is the thoughtful one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Kh7nLplWo
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Deborah said on August 26, 2011 at 11:37 am
I’m someone on the end of the food chain of a messed up quote getting carved in stone; those kind of things give me nightmares. (semi-colon!). I design the graphics for things like that and specify how they get carved or etched and pick the stone etc. I provide the final art (or one of my supporting production people) and if it’s wrong, I’m done for. Shudder. A project that I’ve been working on for the last four years is a month away from the grand opening, it involves a lot of things being cast in bronze and cut in stone and everyday it seems there’s a crisis. I’m getting even less sleep than usual. It will be like this until October. This project is in Des Moines, IA, it’s the World Food Prize, Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. It’s going to be amazing to see it finished if I live that long.
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Christy said on August 26, 2011 at 11:42 am
This is probably nitpicking and missing the point, but I am not convinced that the Pyle building, or indeed any of the hallowed limestone walls of IU, was covered with ivy when I was there. So not only a cliche but a factually inaccurate one.
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Julie Robinson said on August 26, 2011 at 11:46 am
On a much, much smaller level my hubby gave me a piece to proof and there was one mistake that I didn’t catch until the third time through. It’s mortifying to think there may be another that I didn’t see. No wonder it’s giving you sleepless nights, Deborah.
Tim Goeglein started doing radio and newspaper pieces around here while he was still in high school. Even then he was a sanctimonious little twit. He’s not worth the time it would take to read the book. Still, no mention of Nance? Does that mean he skirts the major issue of his career?
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Bob (not Greene) said on August 26, 2011 at 11:50 am
Yeah, Tim, about those ivy-covered walls on that building? Uh, not so much.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2011 at 11:54 am
Does that mean he skirts the major issue of his career?
Julie’s marvelously veiled reference to our proprietress wins the thread, I say!
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alex said on August 26, 2011 at 11:59 am
How can he call it a memoir if he doesn’t reflect on what he did and why? Tim Goeglein is truly a soulless and gutless piece of work.
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nancy said on August 26, 2011 at 12:15 pm
To be sure, the first chapter deals with That Thing That Happened. It just doesn’t mention me. I did learn that I caused all the blood to drain out of his head, and he fell to his knees praying “God help me,” out loud over and over. Among other squirmy details. Then, in his shame, all his friends gather around and lift him up. (Not literally.)
I’ve said before and I’ll say again: I don’t bear him any personal animus. I’ve never met the guy. And I admire that he didn’t cavil or otherwise make excuses for what he did. The only thing I want to know about him is why he did it, and I don’t think that’s answered. (Or maybe it is. But self-examination isn’t these folks’ strong suit.)
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Sherri said on August 26, 2011 at 12:21 pm
I can imagine speaking up in a committee to say that the quote was wrong and changed the meaning. I can also imagine being told to shut up, as has happened to me in such committee meetings. I don’t work on committees anymore. Life’s too short.
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Sue said on August 26, 2011 at 12:27 pm
For your amusement:
Digger’s Hotline lot-marking work order, under “Type of Work”: ‘getting the lawn air raided’.
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nancy said on August 26, 2011 at 12:35 pm
Oh, and I think Christy is right — only a partial view here, but no ivy in sight.
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Dorothy said on August 26, 2011 at 12:42 pm
I don’t know why but I’m delighted that because of Nancy’s link to the MLK editing error, we got to find out what Deborah does for a living. Or one of the things she does. This is fascinating to me, and the kind of thing one would usually discover at a cocktail party and you happen to sit down next to someone you know nothing about. That’s what this reminds me about some days – a really terrific party with extremely fascinating guests.
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 12:52 pm
Hurricane Irene is pretty impressive viewed from the International Space Station.
Backwash has arrived in SC. We’re getting lashed with torrential cdownpours, and no doubt will lose power sometime today. Also at almost 1pm, it hasn’t reached 80.
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Deggjr said on August 26, 2011 at 12:54 pm
Is the missing ‘if’ the typo? One of our kids was a drum major and it was all about the band. Drum major is a role where, if everyone in the organization isn’t exactly with you with high enthusiasm, it’s publicly obvious and disastrous.
Drum major summer camp joke: The football team has a captain! The cheerleading squad has a captain! You are a drum major! In most western military organizations, you outrank them!
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Julie Robinson said on August 26, 2011 at 1:05 pm
I have no recall of Ernie Pyle Hall being covered with ivy during the years 1974-1979. We have learned that ivy, though charmingly lovely, burrows into mortar and limestone (or at our house, bricks) and causes quite a bit of destruction.
In fact, I don’t remember any of the buildings at IU being covered with ivy. I could be wrong, it was a long time ago.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Check out this great photo of the whole planet from NASA, showing Irene.
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paddyo' said on August 26, 2011 at 2:08 pm
Cool pic, Jolene, and I read somewhere this is the biggest such storm to hit (well, about to hit, anyway) the East Coast in at least a decade. Certainly looks like it from way out there . . .
That atrocity of “editing” with the King quote begs a cogent backstory.
If the quote was so good (and the entire, not-chisel-able-because-it’s-too-lonnnng quote IS good), how come nobody in the room (or wherever they considered the content of the design) recognized it or appreciated it or said, “Huh?” Where were the scholars, the historians, the biographers?
I’m tempted to rant here about the modern tendency to downplay the words for the sake of the image, the picture, the graphic, the online display. I won’t rant further, but I think there’s something to that. It’s of a piece, isn’t it, with the decline of print, the devaluing of really written and spoken language (as opposed to tweets and txt msgs).
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Ivy-covered.
Irene,goodnight.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Two more op-eds re the King memorial–both very good, I think. One by Charles Krauthammer and one by Roger Simon.
I share Simon’s frustration that the sculptor was not American, but I’msure the people who chose this design didn’t overlook this issue. Wish I’d had a chance to see the alternative designs.
Krauthammer’s highlighting of King’s strategy of non-violence if important. It’s so much a part of who King was and what we remember about him that it’s easy to forget that it was a choice. Also like his pointing to the idea that King was, essentially, challenging America to be what it said it was. Have always like that idea of “a more perfect union,” and one of the things I like about Obama is that he occasionally draws on that concept to talk about ways of moving forward. I wish, actually, that he would draw on that theme more directly. With so many people saying that they want to “take their country back,” it would be good to ask more forthrightly what they want to take it back to.
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Jakash said on August 26, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Since the proprietress, as Brian likes to call her, seems to be blogging buddies with Eric Zorn, I thought maybe this column of his today might be showing up here somewhere. I hope I’m not out of line in linking to it, but it seems to fit in pretty well as a companion piece to Wednesday’s college insanity discussion. http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/2011/08/top-12-nuggets-of-advice-for-high-school-freshmen.html#comments
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 2:53 pm
On a less grand note, have to feel bad for all the East Coast beachfront business operators whose end-of-summer revenues have just dropped off the cliff. Between lost income, emergency operations, and damage to property, this is going to be a very expensive storm. Flashlight vendors and sellers of plywood will, I guess, make a bundle.
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brian stouder said on August 26, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Tim Goeglein is truly a soulless and gutless piece of work.
Indeed. He could – at least – have written a compelling chapter or two, regarding his desire to write as well as some of his heroes. The bit that Nancy shared, about the instant when TG learned that NN had rescued (or wrested) the cats from his plagiarist bag (and all the blood drained from his head!), and the resultant personal and professional spiral he went into, should be the heart of the book. One can imagine a soul-searing re-examination of his hopes and aspirations and insecurities – as he resorts to simply taking other writers’ words as his own. He might even have tried a (very little) bit of rationalization, musing about how these other writers needed to be “mainstreamed” rather than formally cited and footnoted (or some such), a style ill-suited to a daily newspaper. He could maybe even play the victim card; a guy stuck in a high-pressure, results-driven world, wherein he was only tryin’ to uplift the masses, don’t ya know? It was the go-go aughts, and we were at war, and he slipped into the world of…ought-nots. It coulda’ been a somewhat compelling book; it coulda’ been a contender, I tell ya! (And if it were my book, it woulda’ had photos in the middle, and at least one of those would be of Nancy Nall Derringer, with a suitably snarky caption)
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Deborah said on August 26, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Jakash, that all sounds like great advice but as I’ve said here before high school was one of the worst experiences of my entire life. If someone had given me advice like that I don’t think it would have made it any better. It was miserable. I get depressed when school starts at the end of summer every year, still. I haven’t been in high school for ages.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 3:35 pm
One more hurricane link: a “hurricane lit” reading list from The Daily Beast. Pretty good list, actually.
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MarkH said on August 26, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Deborah, I’m with you. Let’s just say I’ve had better times in my life than high school. I dread Labor Day, end of summer fun, start of school. Same with Sunday nights, for some reason. That old left over school dread.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 3:58 pm
That is a good list, Jakash. It’s awfully rational given the usual concerns of high-schoolers, but I guess that’s the point. As a former teacher, I endorse #12. My best moments generally involved helping individual students. There’s nothing more satisfying than working w/ students who are (a) interested enough to follow up on something that happened in class or in relation to homework, (b) trying hard enough to ask questions about how to improve their performance, or (c) interested in your broader knowledge/experience as someone who can help kids sort out their interests and goals.
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I’m thinking somebody stole Chuckles Krauthammer’s identity. He actually says in that column that FDR was a great man that matched a crucial moment in US history. If he’s not careful, he’s going to get letters with suspicious white powder in them from teabangers.
Great hurricane song about the 1900 Galveston storm. Killing Mr. Watson by Peter Matthiessen is a very good book with a crucial part for a hurricane.
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Andrew J. said on August 26, 2011 at 4:34 pm
There were times I needed a source, or confirmation of a tip. I would turn to Dooley and I’d wait a few minutes while I heard a hushed Dooley on the phone with some deep throat source, and sure enough, more times than not, I got what I was looking for.
RIP.
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Dexter said on August 26, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Nice photo, Jolene…Current TV showed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and I watched it last night. Stunning visuals , too, in that film.
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moe99 said on August 26, 2011 at 4:56 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrOZllbNarw
For Coozledad. Why not to work for the NSA from Good Will Hunting back in 1997. Mighty bit of prescience there.
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coozledad said on August 26, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Moe: That’s a good one. Does the NSA still fall under discretionary spending, or is that only under Republicans, or was I stoned when we discussed that in my intro to foreign policy course? College is beginning to look like one long false memory to me.
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Maggie Jochild said on August 26, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I was intrigued to see how many of the Hurricane Lit books I had read — who knew I had a proclivity for that kind of literature? I’d even add one to the line-up, “You Are The Rain” by R.R. Knudsen. It’s one of those young adult novels which turns out to be a terrific read for adults, about a folboat expedition of teenaged girls in the Everglades that gets overrun by a hurricane which suddenly changed direction. It is excellent in showing girl-based heroism, geeks and poets as actually interesting, and the deep fears of “mean girls”. It also makes one ravenous for the verse of Emily Dickinson and May Swenson, which you might think would be odd in an adventure story except not if you know how those women related to nature. It prompted me to buy a complete volume of Swenson in 1980, because the title comes from one of her poems. A decade later I found out R.R. Knudsen was her lifelong companion. What a tribute it turned out to be.
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Suzanne said on August 26, 2011 at 5:35 pm
I didn’t know this blog existed until the Tim Goeglein scandal. I won’t read his book. I’m bothered by how often Mark Souder shows up in newspaper editorials and columns. Like I even remotely care what he thinks.
I used to go into depression about mid-August when my kids were school aged. I hated that whole school routine madness. Now that they are grown, I want to dance through the aisles at Target because I know I don’t have to buy any of the school supply crap!
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 5:52 pm
“I’m thinking somebody stole Chuckles Krauthammer’s identity.”
I had similar thoughts. Since Obama became president, Krauthammer has mostly sounded like a cranky old man, but, this time, I think he got it right.
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 5:56 pm
So, we have hurricane lit and hurricane music. How about hurricane (or other storm) movies? Any suggestions?
Some enterprising cable station should host a storm movie marathon. Would be fun, at least until the power goes out.
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Carolyn said on August 26, 2011 at 5:57 pm
Nancy, I didn’t know Mike Dooley as well as I would have liked to. Just one more downside of not enough visits to Henry’s – another of my Fort Wayne-era regrets.
But I take some comfort in the fact that if my newspaper won’t write my obit when I’m gone, maybe you will.
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David C Roach said on August 26, 2011 at 6:03 pm
a couple of links about tim goeglein, plagiarizing, keith olbermann, and pope jokes- poking fun at this as someone else in your blog comments described as a ‘sanctimonious twit( think dana carveys “church lady”)…
please ignore the content warning- it is to keep minors, and other impressionable minds out. the rest of us/ draw your own conclusions…
anyway- on with the “roach show”
Tim goeglein- “worst person in the world”
http://x-wire.blogspot.com/2008/03/msnbc-countdown-keith-olbermann-best-tv.html
tim goeglein- pope joke humor
http://x-wire.blogspot.com/2008/03/tim-goeglein-plagiarized-pope-and-pope.html
I will be the first to admit, that my life in print would rank somewhere in amusing tabloid outrageousness between Hunter S Thompson, and Charlie Sheen; but my point is that people like goeglein, etc, are totally enamoured with their seriousness, and become clowns n the process, while i make no pretext of clowning around and making satirical parody of these people who are totally serious in their foolish ness, while i’m totally serious about my foolishness- mocking the idiots in their idiocy, by being, well, the village idiot savant. If reading my blog doesnt amuse youse, then i’m not doing my job.. But these idiots in DC, and Indy, and Fort Wayne city /county govt are totaly serious, while I, meanwhile enjoy turning the world into a tabloid.. Mike Dooley- RIP. Dooley/duly noted. one of my humorist inspirations, in the footsteps of Will Rogers, and so on.
oh- and hi nancy! glad to see you are still around, and making the fools suffer gladly. and suffering with fools like me. (just foolin’.. lol!)
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MichaelG said on August 26, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Prospero, I have that Leadbelly album.
How about drinking a Hurricane NO Style?
1 oz white rum
1 oz Jamaican dark rum
1 oz Bacardi® 151 rum
3 oz orange juice
3 ozunsweetened pineapple juice
1/2 oz grenadine syrup
crushed ice
Combine all ingredients, mix well (shake or stir). Pour over crushed ice in hurricane glass. Best enjoyed through a small straw. Garnish with fruit wedge if desired.
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Deborah said on August 26, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Dorothy, to clarify I design things that tell stories in places. I’m really excited about this project getting done, it has involved art directing tapestries, mosaics, goldleafing on walls, bronze sculptures, portraits (lots and lots of portraits), paintings, murals, bronze plaques, stone plaques, wood floor medallions, ceremonial bronze bowls, stained glass and leather bound books. Whew.
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Deborah said on August 26, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Isn’t the Tempest about the after effects of a hurricane, Prospero?
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 7:49 pm
Right Deborah. Another hurricane and shipwreck work is the novel The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco, that wrote The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s pendulum.
Jolene, both movie versions of Cape Fear are excellent. The earlier, Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck edition is an absolute classic, as startling and nerve-wracking as Night of the Hunter (the only movie Charles Laughton ever directed). Mitchum was a great noir anti-hero, but as a villain he was even better.
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Deborah said on August 26, 2011 at 8:07 pm
April/Pros, I read Foucaults Pendulum, twice. Loved it. Got Island of the Day Before and it’s one of the rare books I never finished.
Not a hurricane but The Ghost Writer, the fairly recent Roman Polanski movie has great storm scenes.
As a kid growing up in Miami I lived through quite a few hurricanes. We always got out of school and everything seemed so exciting. They often seemed to be in early September right after school had started. We were thrilled, of course our parents were not. The damage to the trees afterwards was fun for us to play around with. Nothing
serious happened to anyone. Of course hurricanes are much more deadly now, thanks to global warming, I presume.
Edit: I forgot to mention that on one of our trips to Paris we went to the place where the pendulum is, it’s in a m museum, it used to be a church I believe.
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I’m one of the only people I know that preferred Foucault to Name of the Rose.
The Ghost Writer is excellent.
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april glaspie said on August 26, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen is a very entertaining book about the aftermath of a hurricane. Like most of Hiaasen’s novels it can be read in a single sitting. The guy is a hilarious writer.
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moe99 said on August 26, 2011 at 9:45 pm
What about the movie with Humphrey Bogart that has a hurricane in it? Hate forgetting this stuff.
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Connie said on August 26, 2011 at 9:49 pm
From the storm book list: I read and enjoyed “Isaac’s Storm”, but didn’t realize it was by Eric Larson until I saw the list today. Must have been before we all learned his name with “Devil in the White City.”
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Jolene said on August 26, 2011 at 11:14 pm
Moe, you’re thinking about Key Largo.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 10:09 am
Of course Key Largo also starred Edward G. Robinson, Lauren Bacall (whom i’d watch in anything at all), and Lionel Barrymore. What a cast. I once rode several floors on an elevator with Edward G. Robinson at the St. Francis hotel in SF. Very short, but very impressive. None of my brothers that were with me recognized him, thank God. One of them would have done something embarrassing.
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Jakash said on August 27, 2011 at 2:53 pm
I was gonna say, like ask “Where’s your God now, Moses?” in response to that Edward G. Robinson shout-out by ProsApril. But I wanted to check to make sure that’s the actual line. Turns out when you put that phrase into Bing, the 9th entry is a link to none other than a post on nn.c from April 1, 2004, “Where’s your Moses now?” Alas, it seems that the line that I thought was such a classic doesn’t even exist. Leave it to nn to be so ahead-of-the-game as to correct me via her blog BEFORE I even made the mistake on her blog. (Though she doesn’t actually discuss this line in the post, the correction comes by way of her titling it with the the real line that I’ve been confusing.) Apparently “Where’s your Messiah now?” was a Billy Crystal invention and was later utilized in a Simpsons episode, uttered by Chief Wiggum.
Nevertheless, I DID know that Key Largo was the movie Moe was thinking of…
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Deborah said on August 27, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Have been reading about Irene and can’t imagine what it would be like to be in a hurricane in an urban area. The hurricanes I experienced in Miami in my youth were in the suburbs where most everyone had the ability to cover the windows of thier houses.
Living in the windy city now on the lake we sometimes get gusts in the 40 mph range and when that happens sometimes windows blow out in buildings. Where I live the windows are floor to ceiling all along the building perimeter, we live on a corner so the north and west walls are all glass, every room in the place has a wall of glass, the master bedroom is in the corner so it has two walls of glass. And on the 27th floor so
no way to protect the glass from the outside. I can’t imagine what it would be like to endure 60+ mph winds in a place like this. We would have to leave and wait it out somewhere else. When I think of all the places on the east coast that are like this it
will be a miracle if there is not extensive damage.
Edit: not to mention power outages… Imagine being elderly and trying to climb up stairs to an upper floor in a high-rise building. I could do it up to floor 27 but I’d have to rest a lot along the way.
Edit again: I should also say that our bathrooms are inboard, no windows there so I guess it would be possible to hold up in a bathroom for the duration, but they’re tiny and that just seems miserable to have to do for hours.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 4:42 pm
WHAT I’D SAY ABOUT WHAT I’D CARW ABOUT THE WAY WE ONAIDER THINGS. RE WE STUPID OR DO WE REALIZE THE consensus is this is bullshit? No. 19 and No. 5, I say we kick they ass. This is my heart’s intention, and we crushed them last time. You folka rw auppoaed ro be my friends. Boise cheats like it is going out of sgtls. They cheat and they know it. Bury that blue, they know they cheat. Wht DIGUSTING BUNXH OF AHITHWWL XHWtera, Hoq xouls you not ADMIT THE weenies just cheated with the blue? Are we that stupid? They cheated like a bitch. They can’t claim they didn’t. Tht is how those assholes got that home record. That;s a fact.
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moe99 said on August 27, 2011 at 4:46 pm
http://www.health.com/health/gallery/thumbnails/0,,20483493,00.html
why does Indiana but not Texas make the list of the ten most depressing states?
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 4:55 pm
There is nothing to consider about what we might make up. What in the world we might make up. Made-up bullshit, you are my no consideration, I am not considering, We can’t consider that shit. No way to figure this as Whatever, I DON’T intend anything like what I might intend. You must intend some semblance of not meaning this like it was going out of style. Are we considering being like for sure?
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Who knows Moe? The way I see it, there is a seriously bad slough. . I think its kinda ridiculous there’s a consideration. It seems kinda no brainer there’s a no shit version of gays loving gays. Is their some question? No way we even consider this shit , and we oxnsider the not even considered whatever. I don’t know what we could consider, These are who qwe believe in. You are obvious, you mean what ever , you evefr mean what you might mweN QHtever you mean. Whay to go.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 5:12 pm
RE YOU KIDDING? WHt NYBODY QOULD BW KIDDING? Serioualy? RW QE JOKING? ON RHW ORHWR QHt rwL FOLKS MWn? Aerioasly? Aorry you fuxking dumbAA.
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Dorothy said on August 27, 2011 at 5:34 pm
Oh boy.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 5:46 pm
NO AHIT? WhT WVWR YOU THINK MKWA AWNAE? QW RHINK QE Hvw rhia qirhout DOUBT. WE KNOW WHAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT, WE ARE BRILLIANT ANS WE ARE NOT NINNIWEA. QE KNOQ WXctly qhT QW
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brian stouder said on August 27, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Moe, I followed your interesting link, and then pondered this explanation of how they determined the ten:
Using data from federal health agencies, Health.com has identified the 10 states with the highest rates of depression, psychological distress, and other indicators of poor mental health. Here they are, in alphabetical order.
They go on the list Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Tennesse and West Virginia.
It strikes me that states that really work to address problems would be more likely to be on the list, as “federal health agencies” means….what? I bet that if there’s an active outreach effort, your state is more likely to make such a list, whereas if there is systematic neglect – a mentally depressed state can sail on, below the radar.
It strikes me that a state like Alaska – especially with seasonally much-longer nights and shorter fair-weather seasons – would surely make such a list, depending on the metric.*
Really, it’s tempting to joke that a state like Texas that doesn’t make the list for being “depressed” should surely be a contender for one of the ten most delusional states in the Union!
*but of course, I say that as a Hoosier – so I have a conflict of interest. So sue me! No ahit! WhT wvwr mkwa awnae? – Qw rhink WE,
indeed!
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Rick Perry’s grotesque idea of properly educating teenagers.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:02 pm
Humor with rue from Ellen Goodman.
This lightbulb disinformation syndrome really bugs the crap out of me. This is glorifying ignorance.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Here’s the deal, for all those progressives. You never delivered the Sente, you assholes. Blame this shit on Obama?
What’s graft, unequivocally, everywhere else in the USA is business as usual in Tejas.
Thoughtful and elegant comment on natural disasters. The comments on this gentle op-ed are fascinating and depressing–paranoiac, venomous and obtuse.
Humor with rue from Ellen Goodman.
This lightbulb disinformation syndrome really bugs the crap out of me. This is glorifying ignorance.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Seriously, what goes on in in Texas is absolute graft, but it;s legal? Holy shit. Rick Perry can legally sell legislation. That;s legal? What sort of shit is that? If DOJ investigated Republicans would claim it was political. How about the Rove trashing of the US attorneys because they weren’t loyal W idiots? Nobody sees this as partisan horseshit? These assholes get away with spectaculr bullcraap.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Really, The nuke waste shit? That’s normal government? The guy is crooked as you could possibly get. How could anybody stand behind this polluting for cash as this piece of shit?
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:25 pm
Stupider than W, if that is possible.
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april glaspie said on August 27, 2011 at 9:31 pm
It’s difficult to imagine being dumber than W but Maybe it’s possible. Dumber than grunt, There;s a possibility you could be stupider,
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Connie said on August 27, 2011 at 10:07 pm
Brian you made me laugh.
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moe99 said on August 27, 2011 at 10:32 pm
Brian, I laughed too.
Here’s some more humor. Rick Perry’s college grades:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/61684192/Rick-Perry-s-Texas-A-M-Transcript
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Dexter said on August 27, 2011 at 11:00 pm
At halftime the hapless Detroit Lions were destroying the vaunted New England Patriots. I hate the exhibition season.
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brian stouder said on August 27, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Moe – is that transcript really real?
One might grant mulligans for the ‘D’s in trigonometry and chemistry (and the Flag in Organic Chemistry), and even the one in Shakespeare; but the D in his Econ class is a tough one to spin.
But he got an A in “World Mil. Systems”, so there’s that.
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april glaspie said on August 28, 2011 at 12:49 am
It’s the most astounding that the most huge windfield of all time has become the climate deniers favorite storm. What is wrong with these idiots?
At halftime the hapless Detroit Lions were destroying the vaunted New England Patriots. I hate the exhibition season. The Pats destroyed Robert Edwards and they deserve everything bad that ever might happen to them, Mr. razor is prettty much the stay at home version of Frank McCourt. an ahole. What that franchise did to Rogert Edwards, What a disgraceful bunch of creeps.
Dex, Matt Stafford is the real deal. Better arm than favre and can actually spell his own name. And it is guaranteed. he will never be such a piece of crap self-centered idiot. Staffford destroyed the Pats. He may be the new Peyton. Better arm. Trashed these oversold assholes, It’s wonderful. Why did anybody ever buy into that Pats bullshit? They always sucked. Pats are a disgrace for what they perpetrated against Robert Edwards. Everything bad that happens to them is well deserved. They screwed the player over big time and just trampled. There is no excuse for their behavior. Stafford’s QB rating is sitting around 150 and are we kidding, he trashed the Pats first team. Ho ho ho. He blew their asses away. Good luck against the packers, with the second best QB in your division. Get schooled again.
Orgo is a beast. I sailed through Biology and I loved it. Trig, not so much, A bizarre little military shit called Colonel Collins that locked his door at 7:99, A total piece of shit. No excuse for this little man pOS, what a jackass. alomg Cheney lines. a freaking liar and an an unconscioable bully,
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april glaspie said on August 28, 2011 at 12:57 am
Wow, it’s the vaunted Pats playing their A-team, and Matt Stafford lights their asses up. Fuck you Tom Brady and Butch Woollfork. Staff trashed your ass.
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april glaspie said on August 28, 2011 at 1:11 am
Orgo is near impossible,hard to deal with, but I made a C even though I didn’t have to take it, But no shit I passed it, hardest thing i’ve ever done and I still have infelicitous dreams, Them Loins can play. I’ve got mu Staff jersey and I’m thinking back tp those days of Jim Gibbons and Nick Pietrosante. Van Patricj is back. And we are hearing footprints,
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april glaspie said on August 28, 2011 at 2:46 am
The greatest Bob Marley song. Mark Sanchez, Sorry Jeyts fans, he ain’t Matt Stafford, by a mile. Lions, this year in the Super Bowl, maybe. Stafford to Calvin. This is a deadly connection. Loins are back. And in Econ, I scored two As. Way easy. Who cares anymore, but Perry is dumber than W. which makes him dumber than grunt. If you’ve proven yourself a fucking moron, how do you run for President? What a maroon. What an ignoranimus, Total dickwad. How about carbon dating you fuckiing idiot?
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april glaspie said on August 28, 2011 at 2:51 am
Old time Detroiters, that remember Norm Cash guarding the bag, do you remember Van Patrick and the Loins, and hearing footsteps? Van was like the Loins version of Johnny Most. Last time they were good. Stafford right now is the best QB in the NFL. Awesome.
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alex said on August 28, 2011 at 8:29 am
Eeeep! Eeeep! Eeeep!
Move over Marcus Bachmann. This guy will choose handbags and heels for your wife that are sure to win her the election.
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coozledad said on August 28, 2011 at 8:43 am
What’s with all the touching his knee for emphasis?
That boy makes Fred Rogers look like Dick Butkus.
I like the music in the background. Isn’t that Aaron Copeland’s “love theme from Harmodius and Aristogeiton”?
My wife just pointed out that the wall o’ books behind him has to be an actual library, instead of a personal one. You can see the little white tags on the spines of the books. Maybe he swiped them.
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Deborah said on August 28, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Wait, how virtuous is plagerism? This guy is in total denial. Sad.
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Julie Robinson said on August 28, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Goeglein lost me when he started talking about moral compasses, since he clearly did not possess one himself. That’s when I called BS and clicked away.
However much I dislike Rick Perry, I’m not gonna pile on about his grades. Several people I know and respect have had similar college careers. There is plenty of time for redemption after college. (At least I’m certainly hoping that for a member of my own family!)
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 28, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Hope and pray that all are well — this turns out to have been a storm that fizzled where the spotlights were trained, and frantically lashed out hard in the obscurer corners of its path.
My wife and I enjoyed a beautiful, sunny, not too warm August day in Ohio in church & afield, and are sitting down to watch “Rebecca” tonight since that’s my birthday wish.
“We can never go back to Manderley again, that much is certain.” Thank you, Joan Fontaine, wherever you are, and I sure wish you and your sister would talk while you still can. You’ve both made so many other people happy, and it would be sweet to know you found a bit of that together.
It was “Rebecca” or “State and Main,” which we might watch together with “Broadcast News” tomorrow night, but we just weren’t quite in a Mamet mood this evening.
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moe99 said on August 29, 2011 at 12:31 am
Julie, it’s part of the whole picture with Perry. He’s the guy holding pray for rain events last spring, who says Social Security is Ponzi scheme that we have to do away with, that the head of the Fed is a traitor, who openly speculated about having Texas secede from the union, who has aligned himself with the Dominionists, who lies about Texas’ record of job creation. On and on. This is another George W. Bush without any of the upsides, such as they were.
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Dexter said on August 29, 2011 at 2:03 am
Oh Christ! Why did I let myself be sucked into True Blood’s vein of complication? Luckily, just two more episodes this season. Larry David’s “Curb…” is crazy-funny, but what is this? A 6-epi season? Rats!
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coozledad said on August 29, 2011 at 8:51 am
Moe:I was just thinking about Rick last night.
Oh they say that Richard Perry’s blown one half of this whole town
from political connections to every oilman walking round.
He was born to take an ag degree
but he thinks a bull has tits
Don’t drink the milk from his farm, babe
cause you can bet that it’s
Impure. Look at his skin for one.
He also slurs and gets confused
then he grabs a gun
because a gun is his piano
and he’s not the only one
who wishes he could be Liberace
The wingers crack like shotguns almost everywhere he goes
He’s got a Ronald Reagan haircut
and Bush the Younger’s nose
And the rumor is his party is ashamed, but says it’s not.
(They also say Shinola’s shit
And Michele Bachmann’s hot.)
But Dick, He works on his smoker’s tan
fills a stadium with tweakers
tells them he’s an humble man
but he forgot the chandelier
or to tell them that he’s queer
and he’d really rather be
Liberace
He freely gave his state the shaft
His Lieutenant Governor, too
They were grateful, cause it’s Texas
And they stuck right to his shoe
So my mind is filled with wonder
when he has the nerve to say
Richard Perry don’t believe his Jesus loves the Gay.
Cause Dick works on his smokers tan
when he isn’t trolling bathrooms
or hanging with the Klan
Cause killing’s his piano
and he’s not the only man
who wishes he could be Liberace.
Apologies to Paul Simon AND Denny Laine.
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brian stouder said on August 29, 2011 at 11:38 am
Question for Governor Rick Perry: Were the so-called “Confederate States of America” engaged in treason when they rebelled against the United States?
And a concurrent question; did the “right side” win the Civil War?
If you say “Yes” – then how do you square that with opposition to the 14th Ammendment – or your interpretation of the Tenth, for that matter, governor?
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Bryan said on August 29, 2011 at 11:42 am
Nance,
You’ll appreciate this Dooley story from his days at the JG.
In the early ’90s, Dan Quayle was that year’s recipient of the Red Coat at the Mad Anthonys golf tournament. (Why they give a red coat to the honoree of a tournament named for a Revolutionary War hero is beyond me. But that’s Fort Wayne for you.)
Quayle was VP, as his handlers called and told Dooley that Quayle wanted Dooley to ride with him from the airport to the dinner downtown.
Sylvia Smith was the JG’s Washington reporter at the time, and she had been hounding Quayle for an interview from the moment he arrived in the capital. But his staff kept rebuffing her pleas.
So Dooley gets in the car with Quayle.
Then Quayle says to Dooley:
“Mike, I’ve known you a long time, and I respect your work. But I mainly wanted you to ride with me to piss off Sylvia Smith.”
The newsroom couldn’t stop laughing over that one. I wonder if anyone ever told the story to Sylvia.
And who would have thought Quayle had a sense of humor?
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april glaspie said on August 29, 2011 at 11:55 am
And Edwin Arlington Robinson, too, Coozledad.
Here’s a version of Richard Cory by Them, back when Van was just a kid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIh978OR7X8&feature=related
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