NOLA Travelogue- Part 1 (of 2) "Son of a Gun, We'll Have Big Fun"
On Friday afternoon, my brother Aaron and I-- the Jose and Ozzie Canseco of the blogging world-- departed on our first-ever trip to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It was not only to be a musical expedition, but a trip that saw us connecting back to the Southern U.S. roots that Aaron believes incorrectly that he possesses. Elvis Costello, Al Green, Tim McGraw, and Cassandra Wilson were among the headlining acts on just the one day of our attendance.
Before we had reached the Missouri border, we were met by a monsoon of rain, and it still hadn't let up by the time we stopped for the night at a hotel in the boothill of Missouri. The accommodations at the Travelodge were sparse, but we were grateful for the brief respite from the road and from the torrential downpour. It wasn't until we were awakened the next morning that we discovered the New Madrid Fault Zone ran straight between our twin beds. (I made that up.) Traveling is then all about loading up on as much free food as possible in the complimentary continental breakfast, but no where that we stopped did a hotel offer even fresh fruit as a healthy alternative. It's all donuts, cinnamon rolls, and sugary cereals in the health-conscious Deep South.
While passing through St. Louis on Friday, we had stopped for dinner at Ozzie's Restaurant and Sports Bar. We were delayed at the start of our trip and wouldn't be returning through St. Louis until Tuesday and I was looking to pass off a pair of perfectly decent baseball tickets for Monday night's game between the Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. The opportunity to play Good Samaritan (or Ed McMahon?) was something I had been really looking forward to, and I knew Ozzie's would present a quality collection of sports fans from which to choose as our two lucky recipients.
Looking around the room, every table offered up either too many persons in the party or its patrons looked too well-to-do to deserve such a charitable gift (a $40 cash value, after all). But there was one father-and-son pairing seated across the dining room, peering intently at the Cardinals pre-game show on the big screen television, with the boy, around 9 years old, wearing a Cardinals cap. "What do you think?" I asked Aaron, and he suggested that the worst case scenario would be that they would have other plans for Monday.
I walked over to their table and asked the man if they were local and if they wanted a pair of tickets to Monday night's game. Quickly and excitedly, the boy replied yes, but then the father said, "No, we can't." and then to the boy "Your sister has a softball game that night." The boy banged his fist down on the table in anger, and I left their table side, another notch in my belt of domestic crisis.
Instead, we gave the tickets to our waitress (who was really cute), either to use for herself or to pass along to someone deserving. As it turns out, she had Monday off, or could get if off anyway, and she told us that we "made her evening." (I put my phone number and email address on the customer service survey card, but have yet to hear a thing.) That was a happy ending. If you can't help out a kid, a hard-working waitress-- on her feet all day and living on tips-- is a fine alternative.
There were still more soggy conditions on Saturday morning and afternoon as we cut through Arkansas and around Memphis, then down through Mississippi and across Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain Causeway into the Crescent City. The full tree-lined stretch of interstate through Mississippi is especially lovely, and we were rarely distracted from the carefully-selected CD and Satellite Radio soundtrack of our push down the continent to the Gulf Coast-- except that every 200 miles or so, our eyes would pop at the sight of gasoline for the price of $1.79 or $2.09 a gallon, only to find out each time that the gas station advertising such terrific deals had been long ago shuttered.
Coming next, Aaron's musical review of the Jazz Festival itself, complete with his customary bootlicking of the artists in profile. Then, Part 2 of my travelogue, "Make Levees, Not War."
Misappropriation
Republican lawmakers in Iowa
pitched a fit during this legislative session about the amount of money spent by the Department of Public Health on anti-tobacco media advertising, but
comes media confirmation today that the state spent the settlement money from the tobacco companies class-action lawsuit on almost everything but.
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Iowans above a specific age will no doubt recall the 1991 mass shooting on the campus of the University of Iowa by a graduate student in physics named Gang Lu. Five people were killed and another wounded before the assailant turned the gun on himself. The story inspired first an award-winning essay written by U of I writer Jo Ann Beard published in
The New Yorker in 1997, and now a motion picture called
"Dark Matter" in theaters this spring starring Meryl Streep.
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The two greatest ballplayers in the history of Columbia, active-playing shortstops Edgar Renteria and Orlando Cabrera, are engaged in an unfortunate feud that may have its roots in the depressed socio-economic conditions of their homeland.
ESPN The Magazine has
a feature that sheds some light on just how much the lives and backgrounds of many Latin American ballplayers differs from their more privileged U.S.-born colleagues. More penetrating though on the topic of Latin American baseball is
this Dave Zirin profile of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, where at least one regional leader has demanded industry protection and regulation for his country's citizens.
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I won't be posting for a week due to the death this week of
my grandfather and then a getaway trip to New Orleans. Keep it real.
The Black Bears?
The publication once widely known as The Baseball Bible,
The Sporting News, claims it has evidence that the Chicago Cubs threw the 1918 World Series to the Boston Red Sox. In a newly-found affivadit, one of the Chicago White Sox famed "Eight Men Out" of 1919, Eddie Cicotte, says that the so-called Black Sox players first got the idea to throw the '19 Series on a train to New York when several players said that the previous year's series had been fixed, leading to a discussion about how many players would have to be involved in the plot. The lost diary of a Charlie Comiskey business associate, and reporting at the time by Hugh Fullerton, the Chicago sportswriter who uncovered the '19 scandal, also suggested a possible plot in '18. (Full details are
here.)
I wouldn't be surprised. Such a plot would be more shameless and dispiriting than trying to cash in at the gate and in the media on a century-long championship drought. Personally, I think there's cause to call into question every World Series outcome prior to the White Sox players' grand jury testimonies in 1920. Gamblers ran roughshod over the game for decades in a way that makes the steroids "scandal" of today look like a drop in the bucket. (At least the steroid users are trying to win.)
There was an attempt to bribe the home plate umpire before the replay of the famous "Merkle's Boner" game in 1908 that even allowed the Cubs to enter the World Series during the year of their last trophy, and the results of an official query into the contest's legitimacy were never made public. (It's distinctly possible, as we begin to look closer, that the Cubs franchise has
never won a legitimate flag.)
"The Miracle (Boston) Braves, " who triumped over Connie Mack's juggernaut Philadelphia Athletics in four straight World Series games in 1914, may not have been a miracle club at all. Allegations have never been proven, but the parsimonious Mack did see fit to quickly trade or sell off the valuable players of the team after the Series, and within two years, in 1916, the team managed only 36 wins.
Rommended reading is 2004's "The Black Prince of Baseball: Hal Chase and the Mythology of the Game," by Don Dewey. While it's principally a biography of the notorious superstar firstbaseman of the early century New York Highlanders (later Yankees), the book is an exhaustive and valuable source as perspective on the underworld element of the game during the period of the oughts and the teens, and about how baseball's publicly "upright" citizens and leaders at the time attempted to wash clean the league's sins through a handful of high-profile scapegoats.
Sound at all familiar?
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This is kind of a nifty website. It advertises "Great movie moments--
one clip at a time." Site administrators posted a memorable
Chuck Heston scene after he died, and my favorite is this one featuring unheralded talent
Larry Miller.
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I forgot Letterman's birthday last week, but
Lyle the Intern didn't.
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Bill Maher "New Rule", HBO 4/18/08-- "You shouldn't have to pay for a stamp to mail your taxes. You are sending your money to the same people who sell you the stamp. It's like a collection agency calling you collect."
The big one
Midwestern Americans were awakened this morning by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake and a series of aftershocks. The quake, centered near West Salem, Illinois and the Illinois/Indiana border, occured at 4:37 am central time and could be felt as far away as Michigan, Atlanta, and Des Moines, where
a former radio colleague of mine was reached by an AP reporter for early morning comment.
The tremor didn't arouse me from my slumber, but a call from a friend in Cedar Rapids did moments after. Staying overnight at my family's house in Coralville, IA, the family dog made nary a peep to warn of the imminent danger.
Arriving on the anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, more than 1,000 Illinois customers of Ameren Energy briefly lost power, and officials began an immediate inspection of all the bridges throughout the region. Vicki Rayborn of Bellmont, Illinois said, "The whole house started shaking and all my whatnots were falling."
A 7.9 magnitude earthquake (one in a series) occurred along the line in 1812, with reports of rattled church bells that day as far away as Philadelphia. That 19th century quake caused severe damage to many homes, including those in the highly-populated urban center of nearby St. Louis, where there was reported ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks. (The Mississippi River may or may not have actually flowed backwards for a short while.) Earthquakes similar in size to the one today were felt in the region in 1891, 1968, and in April 1987, when Tommy Herr hit a walk-off extra-inning grand slam against the Mets on Seat Cushion Night.
The U.S. Geological Survey has projected a 25 to 40 percent chance of a 6.0 magnitude quake along this New Madrid Fault Line within the next 50 years. The fault line covers parts of five states-- Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee, and was formed when North America began to rift apart during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era roughly 750 million years ago, although President Bush believes the world is only about 5,000 years old and thinks children should be taught the same in public schools.
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Another former WHO Radio colleague, Jim Zabel, fellow member of the now-defunct "Drive-Time Des Moines" team (along with Sue Danielson, Jerry Reno, and a series of fine-looking producer/technical directors), is a finalist for induction into the Radio Hall of Fame. "Z" is nominated this year in the local/regional "pioneer" category, along with long-time Philadelphia Phillies broadcaster and baseball HOF'er Harry Kalas, former KBIG/Los Angeles morning host (and an announcer on numerous television game shows) Charlie Tuna, and former WLW/Cincinnati and syndicated host Gary Burbank. (Heavy company indeed.) Nominees in the national category are St. Louisan Bob Costas, Howard Stern (He's not in already?), Dr. James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" (That tripe?), and former nude pin-up star and hypocrite Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who's really had
a lot of work done.
You can vote for Jim online at
www.radiohof.org, between May 1st and July 15th.
A face in the crowd
Iowa Governor Chet Culver signed legislation today that bans smoking in most public places across the state.
The Des Moines Register has
a picture from the signing ceremony on their website that I swear features our friend, Rob S (who worked so hard to bring about the legislation) standing in the background. He says it's not him, but isn't that his partially-concealed face peering out from behind State Senator Janet Petersen trying to sneak into the frame. If you know the guy, you know that's him.
Also, isn't that
his image projected behind former Drake basketball coach Keno Davis at another press conference today?
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Barack Obama says that if he were elected president, he would ask his attorney general to
"immediately review" potential crimes committed by the Bush Administration. Here's some info for the candidate: You can do that now. You're in the Senate. Senator Russ Feingold introduced a resolution in the chamber to censure President Bush for his illegal wire-tapping of Americans and violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, but he's been able to find only three co-sponsors. Obama's been completely silent on the subject of the resolution.
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Despite a virtual blackout by the corporate media and constant attacks from so-called liberal bloggers and Democratic party loyalists, Ralph Nader is making his presence felt in the 2008 presidential race. In a recent poll, a full 10 percent of Michigan residents say they would vote for the long-time consumer and public advocate. A Fox poll taken in March found that 14 percent, one in seven voters, say they would "seriously consider" voting for Nader. And these polls were conducted two election cycles after Nader's political enemies said he would never again be a factor. Does media coverage of Nader's campaign reflect these remarkable-- and growing-- poll numbers? How many polls conducted by traditional news organizations even include Nader in the equation? It's political bigotry to exclude his populist voice from this year's race.
Living With Ed
I'd like to tell you about one of my new favorite shows. It's called "Living With Ed" on the Home & Garden Network. Ed is Ed Begley Jr., former star of "St. Elsewhere" and "Arrested Development." On "St. Elsewhere" during the 1980s, he was one-half of one of the tremendous and underrecognized comedy duos in the history of television-- playing the occasionally clumsy but competent medical internist Victor Ehrlich under the mentor of the hospital's pompous chief of surgery Mark Craig (William Daniels).
"Living With Ed" is a reality show highlighting Begley's home life with his wife, actress Rachelle Carson Begley, and daughter, Hayden, but featuring mostly the home itself. Begley is a ardent environmentalist, and his Studio City, California home is a wonder of "green living." Solar panels on the roof provide all of the energy for the home. The white picket fence surrounding the relatively modest property was built entirely of recycled plastic milk jugs. Ed drives his wife up the wall by timing her showers and by taking up space in the yard for a garish solar oven (and later, a second). The Begleys have both an electric car and a hybrid, but those are fourth and fifth traveling options for Ed-- following foot, bicycle, and public transportation. Ed rides an exercise bike each morning to power his toaster, yet so far, contrary to information he provided in a "Simpsons" episode in 1999, it seems he does
not really own a nonpolluting go-cart powered by his "own sense of self-satisfaction."
"Living With Ed" has some great tips for enviro-friendly living and reducing CO2 emissions, but the appeal of the show with its stars. Unlike other reality shows centered around has-been rock stars and societal burnouts, the Begleys have intelligence, conscience, and a sense of perspective. There's warmth in their interaction and a familiarity for viewers that comes with the Begleys actually living a rather middle-class lifestyle. The family's got plenty of dough, mind you, but the Begleys' efforts to save, conserve, and take careful stock in their consumerism is something the rest of us can relate to; their social consciences, something to aspire to.
Also, their 8-year-old daughter couldn't be cuter. She's not a smart-lipped little snot, like most of your MTV-reality, circus freak adolescents, and she likely isn't headed towards teenage alcoholism. She seems to like and respect her parents actually, even doting on them. This is likely because Mom and Dad aren't as clueless and self-absorbed as the other celebrity-stained reality show nutjobs in your cable box.
"Living With Ed-- Season 1" was released on DVD Tuesday, or catch any of the (only) nine episodes on HGTV.
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In this modern era of exploding cable television stations, internet, and home digital recording, it's rather hilarious to think that there might still be significant political pressure to provide specific television programming for the outdated and paternalistic so-called "family hour" in prime-time network television. It's been over a decade ago now since NBC moved its wildly popular, adult-oriented sitcom "Friends" to seven o'clock central time (and that was far from the beginning), and still we have to read pieces like
this one in today's
New York Times.What's strange is that no critics of NBC's programming schedule are actually cited in the story. Who is it that really cares if fictional network executives portrayed on "30 Rock" invent a show called "MILF Island"? The whole plot is satirical anyway. It's gone above and beyond the level of absurdity when the most important newspaper in America calls a television network to task for "vulgar" programming when the episode writer's point was that network television is vulgar or tasteless.
That being said, I'm not sure if I buy NBC Entertainment's justification that "30 Rock" is family-friendly" because star Tina Fey is "about to become a cultural icon," especially if Jason Lee ("My Name is Earl") is a legitimate comparable. By that logic, "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" would be appropriate programming.
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Speaking of MILF's, what about that
Rachelle Carson Begley? Yum.
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CM Blog loves Dmitri Young, backup firstbaseman for the Washington Nationals. Not only has "Da Meat Hook" heroically been playing (and making the 2007 National League All-Star team) as a diabetic and a recovering alcoholic, but he's
sporting some cool new fingernail polish and told the interviewer in the linked article that, in the winter, he "sleeps like a bear."
The 5 coolest guys on television
5) Jim Rockford ("The Rockford Files" 1974-1980)-- Probably the only private investigator on television who was an ex-con rather than an ex-cop. Rockford, played by James Garner, rarely carried a gun ("I just point it," the character once explained), lived in a run-down mobile home on the beach at Malibu, and "kep' it real" with the criminals he chased ("Does your mother know what you do for a living?") Garner, 80 years old this past Monday, had previously, and would carry the same easy-mannered persona from TV's "Maverick" in the 1950s to "Support Your Local Sheriff" on the big screen in the late '60s to a series of "Rockford" TV movies produced years after the series' end.
4) Sam Malone ("Cheers" 1982-1993)-- Nobody scored with the babes like Boston's own "May Day" Malone, the former Red Sox relief pitcher, now recovering alcoholic bartender, portrayed with underappreciated aplomb by Ted Danson. Pursuing first the prim Diane, then the insecure Rebecca, and a bevy of other knock-out babes in-between, Sam always had the admiring Norm, Cliff, and Carla in the peanut gallery, rooting him on in his amorous quests. His "little black book," filled with ladies' telephone numbers, became legendary. Some men have only one woman their entire lives, Sam "had
two under 'Q.'"
3) Det. Jimmy McNulty ("The Wire" 2002-2008)-- "Bushy Top" had almost a singular focus in pursuing the goods on Baltimore drug dealers, but it was his disdain for the P.D. chain of command ("Fuck the bosses") that made McNulty television's classic anti-hero. Pawned off from one supervisor to the next-- most memorably to the dreaded Marine Unit in Season 2, McNulty (Dominic West) was never above circumventing police protocol-- whether manipulating the legal jurisdiction on 13 discovered dead bodies or allowing his undercover work as a prostitution john to carry too far during the line of duty (causing a bit of extra paperwork). McNulty was a heavy drinker, a rotten husband, and an equally-rotten ex-husband, but was inescapable just the same. "To love Jimmy McNulty," writes
Erika Jahneke, "is to love that which is impulsive, hedonistic, and rebellious, but still self-destructive in our own characters."
2) David Addison ("Moonlighting" 1985-1989)-- "The Ad Man," South Philly street corner doo wop amateurist-turned-high-rent Beverly Hills gumshoe, stands monument to one of those most thrilling, but all-too-rare spectacles in American popular culture. For four and a half hilarious, fast-action, R&B hummin', "blue-eyed soul" seasons, we watched Addison's television portrayer, Bruce Willis, transform himself into a bright, shining star. Never before or since has such self-conscious and self-congratulatory television been so electrifying. During that final moment in history during which a 40 share in the Nielsens was an achievable goal (this year's Academy Awards telecast, by contrast, garnered only a 33), David and Maddie and "Moonlighting" were water-cooler gold, and the show's appeal was due in large part to the irresistible charm of the fast-talking, street-wise private eye who would eventually melt the insides of even a sexy, sophisticated, internationally-renowned cover girl.
1) Larry David ("Curb Your Enthusiasm" 2000-present)-- Portraying himself, Larry David lives according to his own rules-- whether it's showing professional favoritism to a fellow bald man, refusing to play along with the interactive theatrical concept of "Tony and Tina's Wedding," or trying to weasel out of donating a kidney to his best friend. Larry is the personification of cool because he's courageous enough to pursue total purity, at least so far as that purity conforms to his own internal logic. His id is entirely unrestrained. A friend of mine says that a true friend is someone who will tell you when you have a piece of food stuck between your teeth, and if that's the case, then Larry's your man. He'll confide to a blind man that the man's girlfriend isn't really a model. ("I'd like to tell my wife I look like Brad Pitt, but unfortunately, she can see.") Why is his show so popular? Says David: "I think it's because people see elements in me that they see in themselves and that I'm saying a lot of things they wish they could say. Like if there was a show called 'Revenge,' I'd watch it, because I cannot get enough of revenge." Larry's so cool, he scored a date with Lucy Lawless-- Zena the Warrior Princess-- by using the line "I'm not a cool guy." That's cool.
The flame, and other topics
Good for
these protesters. Power to the people, I say. And shame on those who changed the torch route today in San Francisco. The Olympics aren't about politics? You mean like Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler, and Jesse Owens? Tommie Smith and John Carlos? The Olympics are
all about politics and symbolism.
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The state of Iowa goes nearly
smoke-free next week.
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Katie Couric's
on her way out at CBS. A once-proud, integrity-driven news organization has been reduced to virtually nothing by Les Moonves. (Quite literally nothing if CNN takes over.) Does it even matter who sits in the anchor chair? It's over for the traditional evening news.
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Superblogger and former "Cheers" scribe Ken Levine uncovers the answers to five of
the biggest mysteries in the history of the historic series.
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Quote of the day: Tracy Morgan on "Saturday Night Live,"
"Personally, I want to know what qualifies Hillary Clinton to be the next president. Is it because she was married to the president? If that were the case, then Robin Givens would be the heavyweight champion of the world."
Jabba's out
Far too late, the Clinton campaign have reportedly iced their chief strategist, Mark Penn, a man
Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi described as the Democratic version of Karl Rove, only fatter and more disgusting. Penn's list of liabilities was and is extensive, most of them stemming from his position atop the anti-worker consulting group Burson Marsteller, but from the Clintons' standpoint, he didn't cross the line until he met with Columbia's ambassador to the U.S. last week about a proposed bilateral free trade agreement between the two countries, a pact Hillary says she opposes. The lobbyist's involvement in the issue-- and the campaign-- underscores
Clinton's lies on the campaign stump about her support for NAFTA. Don't shed any tears for Penn. He and his firm have billed the campaign for more than $13 billion.
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Here's a handy guide to political phrases and buzzwords to help you translate when politicians are serving up bullshit and the mainstream news media is busy gobbling it down:
superdelegate
means party boss
recession
means depression
death tax
means estate tax
military surge
means military escalation
earmarks
means pork projects
war on terror
means war on the U.S. Constitution
fighting for democracy
means empire-building
Democrat
means Republican
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Seventy-five years ago today, a catastrophic national law called Prohibition came to an end. Now if we could only we could put an end to the equally disastrous and socially-expensive bans on narcotics, gambling, and prostitution.
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If the Cardinals continue to get the performances they've been getting from their contingency pitching rotation, this division race will be over before it even gets started.
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In the new issue of
Esquire, Chuck Klosterman points out that the incorporation of flash-forwards (to go along with the traditional flash
backs) in the narrative of the ABC series "Lost" is a dangerous move on behalf of the show's producers. The central cast members, he argues, now have the strongest negotiation leverage in TV history.
Let's say the actor who plays Sayid (Naveen Andrews) suddenly decides to ignore his current contract. Let's say he demands twice as much money as he's scheduled to receive and won't show up for work without it. What could ABC possibly do? They can't just feed him to the smoke monster and write him out of the show; we already know he definitely exists in an abstract tomorrow. By actively showing the future, the screenwriters have relinquished their ability to control the present. An even greater (and admittedly morbid) problem would be accidental death: What if Michael Emerson (the actor who portrays Ben) died in a car accident? Would the show simply have to end? How could his absence be reconciled?There is no "Newsradio" option for "Lost." Not anymore.All true, but I enjoy the flash-forwards. I've been looking for clues about whether or not gas prices will go down.
News you can use
Last week, I received one of those anonymous chain emails at work. (Not the one with the photo of the heads of Obama, Clinton, and McCain pasted onto the bodies of the Three Stooges. I got that one
this week.) It was a list of gasoline-saving tips from an unnamed individual that works at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline(?) in San Jose, CA.
Until we finally get around to nationalizing the oil industry in this country, here are those money- and gas-saving suggestions-- his/her words, not mine....
1) Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
2) When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.
3) One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
and finally 4) If there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
There you go. I'm hoping that one of my blog posts has once again changed your life for the positive, like that time
I endorsed Paris Hilton's TV show.
A date with Dynamite Jack
My cubicle neighbor at work just finished serving on the eight-person trial jury in
this case involving a Des Moines truck driver who says he was cheated out of nearly $10,000 by Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino in nearby Altoona. It's a colorful case. Said colleague claims that she was
not the lone holdout in the jury room. In either case, she missed Taco Day at work during March.
There's your lawsuit.
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Last Thursday, the heir of the Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien appeared as a guest on the show opposite the outgoing Jay Leno. Slate's
Troy Patterson described it as "a blip of inside-showbiz awkwardness." Alas, the Youtube clip has been removed.
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Moises Alou's conscience has finally gotten the better of him. The former Cubs outfielder
admits he wouldn't have caught the Steve Bartman ball in 2003.
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Former Democratic Presidential Candidate
Mike Gravel may have just become the first-ever Libertarian for universal health care.
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We're headed to the New Orleans Jazz Festival at the end of this month, and between now and then, I'm loading up the Netflix queue with movies that take place or are themed in the Crescent City. So far we've got "A Streetcar Named Desire," "Blaze," "Pretty Baby," "Angel Heart," "The Cincinnati Kid," and Spike Lee's HBO doc "When the Levees Broke." Any other suggestions?
