McKinney by sea
Cynthia McKinney clearly does not plan to keep a low profile during the next four years. The 2008 Green Party candidate for President was the sole American on board
a relief boat en route to Gaza that fellow activists say was damaged Tuesday by an Israeli navy vessel. McKinney's boat was transporting 3.5 tons of medical supplies from Cyprus to the people of Gaza, and was struck (rammed)-- and possibly shot at-- while in international waters.
Israel has had a blockade on Gaza for almost two years, denying food, fuel, electricity, and medical supplies, and their iron-fisted, apartheid government has been keeping journalists out of Gaza since the bombing began. Why? They've constructed the world's largest open-air prison, reminiscent of the Warsaw ghetto of the 1930s, where inhabitants have no rights, can't leave, and have no due process.
In risking her own life, Congresswoman McKinney was attempting to bring much-needed humanitarian assistance, and just as importantly, the world's attention (New York Times, where the hell are
you?) to this human rights massacre being committed by the Israeli government through its blockade of human necessities and its
shock and awe-like
policy of disproportionate, blind retaliation upon the "collective" and the innocents. Nearly one million Palestinians depend on international relief for adequate food and medicine.
And where are President-Elect Obama and Secretary of State-Elect Clinton as Gaza burns? Still fiddling, secure in bed with Washington's Israeli lobby. "We can only have one president at a time," said an administration spokesperson this week. But the bombing assault by Israel may still be in process three weeks from now. Then what?
Culver and Harkin
Last spring, the governor signed into law a legislative bill that banned smoking in nearly all public places in the state, but noticably exempted from the list of public places were the 17 state-licensed casinos. And what possible justification has been presented to the public to explain this casino exemption? To this day, still nothing. That's because there isn't one. But casinos have a lot of campaign dough to toss at the mostly Democrats in power so Iowans are still allowed to light up on gaming floors, even those owned by municipalities.
Governor Chet Culver
was asked about this graft (my phrasing, likely not the reporter's) today in Des Moines, and "the Big Lug" says there isn't likely to be any change in the prohibition measure in the coming year. "I think it's more likely that we'll leave it alone for a while," he said. "I think most Iowans believe it's a good balance right now."
Wrong. Most would like a full ban, and many others want the ban lifted, but no one thinks it's a good "balance" to exclude almost only casinos unless that person has his or her hand in the till.
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One of our state's other "progressive" beacons is Senator Tom Harkin. Today, the Des Moines Register
reports that Harkin, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, had helped the U.S. Department of Agriculture funnel $8 million to Agriprocessors in Postville four years ago to pay for a new sewage treatment plant for the meatpacker that has devastated almost everything in its path. Harkin's spokesperson says the move was designed to save jobs in Postville, but this year's headlines have
given us an idea of the quality of those packing jobs.
In the Register piece, USDA officials say it's not unusual for the department to provide this type of help, but in Postville, we have ourselves a 100%, unblemished corporate giveaway. It wasn't a sewage plant for the community of Postville, it was one that served only the packing plant. A spokesperson says that the Agriprocessors sewage project has claimed $7.8 million of USDA (your) money over the last 5 years while a project in Harrison County finishes a distant second in Iowa at just $1.6 million. Iowa DNR officials say Postville supporters approached them with a request for funds as well, but they wisely denied the request because the sewage plant had only been designed to serve one customer.
Agriprocessors had already been forced to pay hundreds of thousands in fines to settle pollution complaints (not to mention, fines for workplace safety and wage violations) when they came hat-in-hand to Washington, but Senator Harkin gave them $8 million they were unqualified to have. The violations continued almost unabated for another half-decade-- and that putrid wastewater is probably
still flowing into the local stream and down into the Yellow River.
Christmas aftermath
"The Star Wars Holiday Special" has become a subject of show business legend over the three decades. The broadcast product of combining a hit science-fiction film in theaters in 1978 with the entertainment format and sensibilities of "Donny & Marie" was apparently just as awful as one might think. Thirteen million people tuned in to watch the show during that holiday season of '78, but today, only bootleg video recordings from the period still exist, and they're difficult to come by. January's
Vanity Fair describes the catastrophe of that variety hour, which seems to have orbited beyond even the galaxy of satire-- performances ranging from a 10 minute skit with no dialogue involving a wookie holiday party to a lip-synched, special effects-muddled musical performance by Jefferson Starship to a Bea Arthur dance number performed in an alien-inhabited cantina.
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So amusing it's true anecdote from this holiday season: My lady friend sold her Nintendo Wii early this month so that she could buy me a new motorcycle helmet for Christmas, and I sold my motorcycle so that I might buy her a collection of games for her Wii console. We laughed and laughed...
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Salon television critic Heather Havrilesky
declares 2008 the year the medium collapsed. She declares, "The TV industry is badly run, and there's far too much big money flashed around every corner for sustainable efforts to take root."
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Follow-up note on a previous post about the lack of African-American hirings in the coaching ranks of college football: My alma mater, Iowa State, introduced its new gridiron coach on Saturday the 20th, five days after being abandoned by its former coach, Gene Chizek. The new man, Paul Rhoads, is a white Iowa native with no previous head coaching experience. Iowa State Athletic Director Jamie Pollard told the Des Moines Register that minority coaches were considered for the post, but he neglected to provide the paper any names of the candidates considered, and university president Gregory Geoffrey said only that it was "(his) understanding that Jamie did it." Is it possible for the hiring process of a six-figure-salaried public position to have any less transparency than this?
Reading for while you're up waiting for Santa
Merry Christmas a day early, Happy Festivus a day late, and Happy Birthday Ava Gardner.
For your holiday reading pleasure, enjoy...
- this Crown Heights, New York
perspective on the collapse of Agriprocessors in Postville, Iowa. Not all is kosher there either. (Groan)
- Roger Ebert likes
"The Wrestler".
- Slate's Jessica Winter recalls that old chestnut of a television program,
"Newsradio".
30 Rock meets WKRP in Cincinnati, says she. High praise, and accurate indeed.
By any means and transport necessary
Laws be damned, I just can't stomach the injustice any longer. In the quarter century since it left CBS Television's prime-time schedule, the classic American program "WKRP in Cincinnati" has been systematically destroyed by the Philistines who own the rights to the show. The corporate entity that was once the artful MTM Enterprises, the original developer of the series, has been absorbed through so many soulless corporate mergers through the years that the people's access to the series has disintegrated to almost nothing.
The marvelous music of the series was provided by such great artists as Bruce Springsteen, Steely Dan, Earth, Wind, & Fire, Elton John, and Foreigner. It served as almost a ninth member of the cast (with apologies to part-time actors Carol Bruce, who played "Mama" Carlson, and Bill Dial, who played station engineer Bucky Dornster). But that wonderful music eroded as copyrights gradually expired, and the tight-fisted owners of the show's distribution rights have steadfastly refused to spring for re-ups. As a result, even if reruns of the series can be found on television today, they've likely been butchered almost beyond recognition. (One I flipped past a month ago turned out to be "The Six Million Dollar Man.") The so-called "complete" first season of the show, released on DVD to much public ridicule in 2007, had almost all of the original licensed music removed, replaced with generic, industry music filler, and even some of the original dialogue had to be re-dubbed by two of the series' original players, Tim Reid and Howard Hesseman.
Well, no more. I opened my wallet last night for a product available online that promises to be the complete series (90 episodes) on DVD, 12 discs, commercial-free, unedited, excellent video and audio quality, in 100% chronological order by episode, PRESENTED IN ENGLISH, and including
ALL original music. I don't know from where this manna dropped, but I'm positively bursting with anticipation for its arrival by mail in just 7-10 business days. Now, your questions...
Q) Will I share my new discs with all of you?
CM) Absolutely I will. After careful quality inspection, I plan to devote the rest of my life to bringing these classic episodes back to the people by any means and transport necessary.
Q) Will I charge for this service?
CM) Of course not. Can you sell the sun and the moon and the stars? They rightfully belong to all of us.
Q) Are these discs being marketed and sold in violation of our nation's copyright laws?
CM) No. According to "The Berne Act," films unreleased in the United States, including original versions of films altered and/or edited for release in the United States, are NOT protected by the American copyright; and are thus considered in the public domain.
Q) What does all of that mean?
CM) I don't know. I copied it from the distributor's website.
Q) If you had to, though, would you break the law to accomplish your new life's ambition as outlined above?
CM) Yes. First of all, we're only talking about
man's law here, not
God's law. Secondly, corporate pirates have defiled a work of art, and any means necessary to destroy them as a result can be considered justified. What would be the breadth of the public outcry if someone spray painted over Michelangelo's work on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel? What if some butcher hacked off the nose of the Mona Lisa at the Musee du Louvre? Our laws in America for protecting an artist's vision are preposterously archaic. Bean-counting barbarians are allowed to tear the heart and soul from an important social and cultural document, yet inexplicably, if
I were to
kill one of them, (to paraphrase Montgomery Burns)
I would go to prison.
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Elsewhere in media format news, VHS tapes appear to have finally gone the way of the dodo. The last major supplier of VHS tapes, located in Palm Harbor, Florida,
rolled out its last truck on Friday. Oh, what a merry three decades they were as video gave birth to the concept of the home theater. I once had possession of every video taped-- though often edited-- episode of television programs"Newsradio," "Moonlighting," "Taxi," and "Northern Exposure"-- and yes, I still have each taped episode of "WKRP," at least for another 7-10 business days. This accumulation, acquired with great precision and effort ,and coupled with my brother's collection of programs, gave rise to the original Moeller TV Fest, historians will note.
I've still got a VHS player, but it hasn't been plugged in for six months, and my tape collection has dwindled now to just the mighty 'KRP, the final two seasons of "Taxi" (stalled in DVD release since '05), 9-10 tapes of Letterman-related programming, and some classic St. Louis Cardinals-themed videos ("Ozzie-The Movie," anyone?) that were only released regionally.
It would be inappropriate to depart the legendary era of the video tape without one final acknowledgement.
The people's aristocracy
Jesse Jackson's son in Illinois? Jack Kennedy's daughter in New York? Is it safe to say that modern political consultants consider Democratic party voters to be easily starstruck?
Registered Democrats have been trying to resurrect the so-called "Camelot" of the JFK presidency for almost half a century now, falling in line as often as possible behind the polished, young handsome candidate the likes of Kennedy's younger brothers Robert and Ted, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and now Kennedy's daughter in New York. For a country that fought such a well-publicized war for its independence from monarchy, America, Democrats
or Republicans (see also: the Bushes) loves itself some family dynasty.
Voters can't be directly blamed for the recent talk about Caroline Kennedy being appointed to finish Hillary Clinton's New York Senate term, but the governor with appointment power is certainly attuned to the public relations blessing that would result. Everybody likes Caroline Kennedy.
I like Caroline Kennedy. I
promoted her for the position of Catholic Pope in 2005. Her policy statements this week reveal she'd be a much better senator than Hillary Clinton, but it's important to remember that Caroline has less political experience than Sarah Palin, and up to this point, she's lived a life sheltered from the average American to rival an Upper East Side heiress, which of course, she is.
If New York Governor David Paterson is opening up the interview process to candidates of Kennedy's limited experience, he would certainly find other equally-committed activists with lesser names, and ones with much more experience in the front lines of social change. And if Paterson doesn't choose to endorse the Kennedy "brand," he'll have the option of choosing state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the offspring of one of Paterson's predecessors as New York governor. In Delaware, Vice President-elect Joe Biden may be replaced in his senate seat by his son. Where does this affront to meritocracy end? We love our political franchises like we love our restaurant or soft drink franchises.
What this points to though, most of all, is the potential for even more abuse of power by both the executive branch and the two-party duopoly.
No U.S. Senators should be appointed-- anywhere or by anyone. If New Yorkers decide they want Kennedy to be their representative-- and I'm as much a New Yorker as I am a Roman Catholic-- then so be it, but let them go to the polls and elect her as their next junior senator, not have her be given the seat through another series of backroom deals. Will Governor Blago's hijinks in Illinois teach us nothing? Of course, the escapades of that rodent are representative of the very reason political appointments have been so popular with our political class-- they allow the powerful to install subservients in vacant positions of power.
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President-elect Obama has already disappointed millions of Americans with his center-right cabinet appointments, whether it be keeping on Robert Gates, President Bush's Defense Secretary, naming the pro-war Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, selecting the anti-Palestinian Illinois Congressman Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff, or most recently, naming the best friend of ethanol and corporate agribusiness, Tom Vilsack, to be Secretary of Agriculture. But no American constituency has already been battered as badly by Obama as our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.
Candidate Obama publicly opposed gay marriage rights during the primaries while palling around with South Carolina's homophobic black ministers, and now he's selected Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, or should I say,
our inauguration, next month. Warren runs a tax-free Political Action Committee disguised as a "church," might accurately be considered the Grand Wizard of the anti-gay movement, and is a man who has likened homosexuality to incest, rape, and child molestation.
"During the course of the entire inaugural events," said Obama, "there are going to be a wide range of viewpoints presented. And that's how it should be, because that's what America is all about. We are diverse, noisy, and opinionated." Noticably not invited though is any representative of the Christian Identity Movement, a national organization which holds the belief that non-caucasian people have no souls. Perhaps
they aren't "diverse, noisy, or opinionated" enough.
Bigotry comes in all colors and I like to believe that the manifestation of Dr. King's dream for America doesn't end with a would-be president this given to what is either political expedience or outright prejudice.
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Who responds to online spamming? Not many. But
a study unveiled last month shows that it doesn't take much. In a fake offering of a Viagra-like product over a 26 day period, only 28 sales resulted from a mass delivery to almost 350 million, a success rate of 0.00001%. That still translated however into an average sale of $7,000 a day, or $3.5 million a year.
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The mercury in Iowa thermometers did not reach zero degrees today. Winter is off to another brutal start, but fortunately, we're behind last year's
wet pace. I'm ready for a Brown Christmas personally.
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Too bad Iowa can't borrow some mercury (groan) from one of her native sons. Actor Jeremy Piven, who graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, has left the cast of a Broadway play,
claiming illness from mercury poisoning. Piven's doctor says the actor has regularly eaten sushi twice a day for several years.
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Quote of the day: from comedian Phyllis Diller's Christmas card this year, according to online sources,
"Money's scarce,
times are hard,
here's your fucking
X-mas card."
The (Modern) Jungle
In 2000, Harcourt Books published a terrific book by University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom called "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in America's Heartland." The non-fiction book chronicled the changes in a small Iowa town after 150 Lubavitcher Jews moved to town and purchased the local slaughterhouse, transforming it into the largest kosher meat-packer in the nation. During the course of 2008, the plant was raided by federal immigration authorities, its CEO was arrested for harboring illegal aliens, the firm eventually filed for bankruptcy, and the plant ceased production in November.
Who better to discuss the recent developments in Postville than
Stephen Bloom? And he doesn't spare the state's governor in his indictments.
Good ole' boys
My alma mater, Iowa State, lost its football coach this weekend. After only two seasons, the former defensive coordinator for both Auburn and Texas, Gene Chizak, is taking the head coach's job at Auburn. Oh Gene, how will we ever replace your 5-19 record?
Auburn alum Charles Barkley isn't thrilled about this move either, and he's
saying so. Only four of 119 NCAA football programs have an African-American head coach, but why should a premier program like Auburn hire one when they can get the guy who led the Cyclones to a 2-10 record in 2008 and a winless season (0-8) in the conference?
Chizak's departure creates a vacancy in Ames for Barkley's candidate-of-choice, Owen Gill, an Iowa neighbor when he played collegiately at Nebraska.
We don't care if he's
married to a white woman.
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A new tourist attraction has been established in St. Louis. The house in which Chuck Berry lived when he recorded "Johnny B Goode"
has been added to the National Register.
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Superblogger Ken Levine imagines
the conversation in which Jay Leno was given NBC's nightly 10 o'clock (Eastern) time slot.
Detroit's turn
In a bizarro kind of way, thanks are due to Senate Republicans for killing the bailout bill for the nation's wayward automakers. I say "bizarro" because their idea to add greater concessions by the UAW was even worse, designed only to weaken worker solidarity. There's a solid deal to be had here, but we're a long way from it. A "car czar," appointed by the Bush administration, would be a far cry from a real oversight panel, but the biggest bullet the American people just dodged was a preposterous Democratic concession to still allow the automakers to sue individual states that seek tougher emission standards. This alone indicates that the money to be appropriated would have gone directly down the tube.
The fact that automakers are still looking for this type of provision indicates that they're not yet serious about producing fuel-efficient cars, or for that matter, building cars that the American people actually want to buy. Their executives are apparently going to have to be pulled by their shirt collars kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. Furthermore, House Democrats, in drawing up the bill that was rejected by the Senate, had also caved in to the president (surprise!) in allowing that this emergency funding be transferred from an existing loan program that had been designed to promote fuel-efficient technologies. So here we were taking money from a fund designed to clean up the environment, and giving it to car manufacturers so that they can spend it on blocking the mandates for cleaner vehicles. It would be funnier if it were simply stupidity. But it's not. It's also corruption at its deepest level.
Propped up by the oil companies, Detroit has been sticking it to the American people for decades and buying their protection. And yet for all the shit they've landed us all in, you have to admit there's a sense of gutteral satisfaction in seeing their leaders fly to Washington in their private jets only to be rejected outright. The American people should be demanding nothing less in return for a bailout than complete Congressional oversight over the auto-companies, the full parachute-less firing of the three corporations' CEOs and executive boards, and new never-before-seen requirements on fuel efficiency.
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This is an interesting
two-year-old hypothesis on why Chicago politics are so corrupt.
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Quote of the day: "Chicago is not the most corrupt American City. It is the most theatrically corrupt."-- Studs Terkel, 1978
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I simply cannot get enough of
this woman.
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When Greg Maddux broke into the Major Leagues with the Cubs in 1986, I distinctly recall misspelling his name on my scoresheets in APBA board game baseball. The Phillies had very recently still employed an outfielder by the name of Garry
Maddox, a postseason veteran, an eight-time Gold Glove winner, and a Vietnam vet who wore a full beard because his skin had been exposed to chemicals during the war.
It didn't take long to learn the new pitcher's name. Maddux won 18 games in his second full season with the despised Cubs in '88, the first of 20 seasons in a row in which he won at least 13. In a piece of marvelous historical notation, Maddux was allowed to depart Chicago's North Side as a free agent following the 1992 season-- a transaction that would be distinctly "curse-worthy" in itself if the franchise he was departing was not already mired in a number of other, longer-sustained curses.
Maddux's peak years would then come as a member of the Atlanta Braves during the next decade. The best of the best came in 1995 when the right-handed ace delivered a 19-2 record and a 1.63 ERA for the Braves during a year in which the aggregate league ERA was 4.27.
He officially called it quits this week after logging more than 5,000 innings over his career, claiming 4 Cy Young Awards (consecutively, to boot) and winning 355 games, more than any other living player. He walked just 999 batters over his 23 seasons while striking out 3,371, and he pitched in 13 different post-seasons.
ESPN's Gene Wojciechowski
remembers the unique career of one of the all-time greats.
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As we discussed earlier, the New York Mets' new stadium in Flushing, NY is in danger of carrying the embarrassing moniker Citi Field, named for the (one-time) banking giant that came begging to the American taxpayers this year for a costly bailout, and got it. Please indicate your choice below for an alternate name for the Mets' new stadium, as chosen by Mets fans in the New York Times earlier this month. Because even though there's little to like about the Mets-- their team or their fans, you have to feel sorry for the rest of us taxpayers.
Results will be unofficial and non-binding...
Name choice A) Flushing Meadows Park
B) Mets Field
C) Metropolitan Field
D) Shea Stadium
E) Gotham Park
F) Taxpayer Stadium
G) (Jackie) Robinson Stadium
H) Federal Reserve Park
I) Paulson Field
J) (Darryl) Strawberry Field (Forever)
K) Flushing Dollars Park
and my personal favorite,
L) Citi-zen Field
Mid-week items
Ultimately, the sale of the Chicago Cubs won't be impacted by the alleged criminal infractions of Rod Blagojevich, but the Governor of Illinois was attempting to use the sale to gain favorable treatment from the Chicago Tribune editorial board, and Ted Lilly will soon become the next United States Senator from Illinois.
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Our friend, Rob Semelroth, was hanging around the Illinois Legislature as a lobbyist in 2002 when Blagojevich was elected to his post. I worried that Rob's name would turn up in FBI documents this week, perhaps as "Senate Candidate #5", but apparently Rob didn't make much of an impact on the governor.
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Jay Leno has
agreed to start telling your parents' favorite jokes in prime-time.
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Play The Daily Beast's game "Name That Goon"... Who said it?
Rod Blagojevich or Tony Soprano?
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The Chicago Sun-Times'
Roger Ebert on the Tribune's bankruptcy.
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The son of Baseball Hall of Famer Ozzie Smith, Nikko Smith, is releasing his debut CD "Revolution," and if you're planning to be in St. Louis for a Saturday night during December, you can catch him
performing live.
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The 4-year anniversary of this blog passed without incident Saturday. In lieu of flowers, we invite you to make a financial contribution to your favorite charity.
A night with the Bulls
On Saturday night, I attended my fourth NBA game ever and the first since the day Janet Jackson flashed her boob on national television (albeit at a different sporting venue later in the afternoon). The Chicago Bulls battled the Washington Wizards at the United Center in Chicago two nights ago and claimed a 117-110 victory. Hey, did you know Michael Jordan had retired?
I had last attended an NBA game
in Chicago during the 1985-86 season at the old Stadium when Moses Malone and Julius Erving were still in uniform for the visiting Philadelphia 76ers. Jordan was in his sophomore professional season, but was sidelined at that time with a broken leg. The number of banners that hang from the building's rafters has changed dramatically since after six NBA Championships during the 1990s, but one thing that hasn't changed much is the number of banners on the opposing side of the arena. Chicago's Blackhawks of the NHL have still posted only three Stanley Cup championships-- in 1934, 1938, and 1961. (No foolin'-- here's
a YouTube clip of action from their last championship victory.)
NBA scoreboards have gotten really fancy recently. Spectators can now follow the full statistics-- points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks-- of each of the ten players on the court. Like every other professional sporting venue today, the arena features the popular "kiss cam", in which heterosexual couples seated in the lower level seats are captured on video during breaks in the sporting action and must respond to public prodding by smooching with their significant other. The United Center adds the fresh angle of mixing in couples seated together that they must know are not actually together.
In keeping with this theme of embarrassing people who payed upwards of 50 to 70 dollars for a seat at the game, they also employ a device called "the oblivious cam", which focuses its lens on an unsuspecting customer staring off into space and tallys the number of seconds until that person notices everyone in a 16-square-block area is laughing at them.
On the upside, my donut won the Dunkin' Donuts scoreboard donut race so I won a free donut redeemable at any of their Chicagoland franchise locations, and since the Bulls scored more than 100 points and won the game, my game companion and I each won a free Big Mac at McDonalds.
Over all, I had an enjoyable time at the Bulls game. It was a little pricey, but I give the experience four out of six pizza slices on my evening
fun-o-meter.---
There's a new title to rival Carrie Fisher's memoir at the sales counter this holiday shopping season. Stefan Kanfer, who penned a book already on my shelf called "Groucho: The Life and Times of Julius Henry Marx," has
a new volume in hardback called "The Reckless Life and Remarkable Career of Marlon Brando."
If "you want something from an audience," the acclaimed actor Brando is quoted as saying, "you give blood to their fantasies. It's the ultimate hustle."
Great line. I give it five out of six pizza slices on my evening
fun-o-meter.---
The Chicago Cubs are NOT bankrupt. I repeat, the Cubs are
NOT bankrupt.
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It won't be
God that bails out the automakers, it will be you and me.
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Quote of the day: "We are giving them how much money? For whatever it is, we should get the (playoff) tickets for free."-- New York City's then-deputy major Dan Doctoroff, in an internal email from City Hall in 2006, but
disclosed publicly by a state assemblyman last week. Doctoroff is discussing with another city official the luxury perks negotiated for said officials between the city and the Mets baseball club in exchange for the city's multi-million dollar largesse of tax breaks-- a largesse bestowed, to be more precise though, by the taxpaying public. The Mets and Yankees have both received hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies for new stadiums to be opened next year.
The Black Friday stampede
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. should be judged fully liable in the wrongful death suit filed this week by the family of an employee killed on Black Friday. Temporary security officer Jdimytai Damour, 34, was trampled in a mad scramble by shoppers at a Wal-Mart store on Long Island, New York.
Other retailers provided outside security guards and priority numbers to shoppers for use in purchasing popular products, encouraging them to form orderly lines. Such as with rock concerts and sporting events, venues that invite large crowds have a responsibility to provide appropriate and fully-trained security officers. Even homeowners with swimming pools are required to contruct safety fences.
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I was paging through
this book at the box store on Sunday. I can't remember a celebrity memoir that looked so interesting. Great title and jacket cover, too.
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The Cardinals landed a new shortstop, Khalil Greene, in a swap today with the San Diego Padres. Greene is
an adherent of the Baha'i Faith, a religion with 5 to 6 million followers worldwide.
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Bend an ear, fellas.
This 9-year-old kid has all of the answers to your dating questions. Which is all really funny until the kid grows to be one of those self-help assholes on television.
Hall doors crack open again
The 2009 ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame was released Monday, and only first-time candidate Rickey Henderson, the major's all-time leader in runs scored and stolen bases, is a lock to be inducted. The implication that Henderson has retired as a player may come as a surprise to Rickey himself.
The ballot has never had fewer names-- 23. The top returning vote-getters from last year's ballot are former outfielders Jim Rice and Andre Dawson, and of course, the best candidate on the ballot, Mark McGwire, who swatted 583 home runs during his career and posted a .394 on-base percentage (comparable to Henderson's lofty .401.)
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There have been jokes in this space and others about sports stadiums that should be re-dubbed "Taxpayer Field" or "Taxpayer Park" in honor of the people who foot the bill to construct the venues. In New York City, there's a new depth in inappropriate naming rights. The Mets' new Citi Field will
still carry the name of the one-time financial giant that's now been the recipient of more than $45 billion in government bailouts.
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Eight big-leaguers clubbed at least 37 home runs this year, and Albert Pujols was one of them. The National League MVP struck out only 54 times during the season, at least 70 fewer than any of the other seven sluggers.
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Des Moines nightclub "Billy Joe's Pitcher Show" has announced it will be closing its doors this winter, with the owner citing a minimum wage increase, rising food prices, and the state smoking ban as reasons for a loss in profits. Minimum wage increases are familiar boogeymen, as if this particular proprietor can't pony up $7.25 an hour for his employees, but the state smoking ban is even more curious as a culprit. Billy Joe's voluntarily banned smoking in its movie theater a year before the state ban was imposed upon the bar area this spring. A more likely reason for the bar's closing is the mutilated version of "Luck Be a Lady" in their karaoke machine.
My most personal post ever
There's not much in my inbox these days. The Thanksgiving season slows down the news cycle, baseball's on hiatus, this year's film season is dryer than the Sahara, and the public disclosure of Bill Clinton's Rogue's Gallery of foundation contributors is still days away. If All-Pro wide receivers weren't shooting themselves in the leg and Wal-Mart employees getting trampled to death so that mouth-breathing twits can stake their claim to half-price Hannah Montana guitar video games, there wouldn't be any news at all.
So what's new with me, you ask? Well, not just the same old same old. I'm probably two weeks ahead of my normal routine in Christmas shopping. My 4-year-old sister's going to love her new "dress up" clothing trunk. (I can reveal this gift on the blog as she never reads it. She thinks it's "too preachy.") My motor vehicle is currently in the body shop after an unfortunate thumping in my workplace parking lot. My fantasy football team, the St. Louis Clydesdales, are the top scoring team in the league this year, and we're headed to the playoffs. I've been hangin' with a cool chick named Melissa, whom many of you met at the Moeller TV Festival. (She was the one doing the knitting.) We've got plans to be in Chicago this coming weekend, and in New York City for a long weekend early in January. I hope to do a little travel-blogging in relationship to these excursions.
What's new with you?
