quote/unquote ...

"Nowadays, women have more education and enjoy working. Women are scary now."

-- Alex Fujita of Tokyo, in an NPR piece on Japan's "herbivores," guys who are heterosexual but who say they aren't really interested in matters of the flesh and eschew the macho ways of the traditional Japanese male.

"The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators."

-----Thomas Macauley (1800-1859)

"It was not certain. In goalkeeping, more than any other position, you are only as good as your last mistake. Trust is between the coach and the last man standing, and that presupposes that the goalie has the style, the personality and the authority that defenders in front of him also like and trust."

-- NY Times obit for Robert Enke, German national goalkeeper who committed suicide this week

"Get your facts straight, then you can distort as you please."

-- Mark Twain

(editor's note: this was compiled by Wilson in St. Louis.)

CONFIRMED! Parking scam across the street from Cowboys Stadium!!

A reader confirms our report on Oct. 27 that revealed a shocking scheme to trap budget-conscious motorists who attempt to avoid the overpriced parking fees at the fancy new Cowboys Stadium.

In the Oct. 27 post, we revealed that motorists had to fork over $300 to get their vehicles out of hock after parking at the new Wal-Mart across the street from the new football stadium in Arlington -- despite the fact there is no obvious signage warning citizens the lot is off-limits to patrons of Cowboys Stadium.

Today, we received the following e-mail:

Yep, just happened to me last weekend as well. Signs are on arlington streets and not in walmart parking lot. Towed and cost us 244.10. they even towed a shopper that wasn't attending the high school football game.

I asked walmart and they said they don't have anything to do with the towing, its the police department..yes the one that is hidden in the far right corner at the end of the lot. and yes the one that is paid by taxpayers...him, save the real crime of texas..illegal parking.

worst part is that they towed you to a building that a 2X2 shoebox for taking care of business, with no bathroom, no waiting room, number ticket system...and left us to stand in the rain for two hours while the service person took their sweet time taking money. Why would she care... its not her children out in the rain.

I am so over the cowboy stadium at this point, and will not support them in the future as its about the quality of arlington.

***

If I was an ambitious young person in the Arlington area who wanted desperately to do something noble in order to get attention to further my selfish political ambitions, I'd be all over this outrage like stink on shit (excuse my language.)

When football coaches go nuts

Mark Mangino, head coach of Kansas University, needs a chill pill. And maybe a "fuckin' hot dog."

In the ruins of a failing newspaper, a record album is born

As the once-proud flagship newspaper of the Hearst Corp. continues its descent into oblivion, a small story of hope, ingenuity and the creativity of the human spirit has emerged.

It seems Delfin Vigil, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, was laid off last spring, but well before his last day on the job, he discovered an abandoned room in the newspaper's basement that looked ideal for a recording studio.

As Baynewser reports:

It wasn't so much a company-sanctioned setup as it was that Vigil, looking for a quiet place to work amid the ongoing turmoil, discovered in the basement a back room (used to store book-review books) so isolated that one had to pass through another back room (used to store newspapers) to get to it. Nearby was a bevy of abandoned printing presses and vast rooms used mainly for storing long-forgotten detritus.

A perfect place to record rock 'n roll, soundproofing included. Vigil soon took it upon himself to secret bandmates and instruments into the building on nights and weekends for sessions. His only audience: a janitor, a security guard and book-review editor Oscar Villalon, who happily relinquished sole deed to the space.

"At first I just started bringing my guitar in to work, and would go down there when I could get away," Vigil told BayNewser. "Then I started bringing in microphones and recorders. I had a whole studio overnight. Heck, I had a fridge in there. And when it came time to record, Fifth and Mission is such an easy place for everybody to meet."

Vigil's editor, Joe Brown, delighted to see someone in the building actively embrace an alternative form of artistic expression, endorsed the effort. A different editor, however, got wind of what was happening, and, under auspices that the company needed to use the space, kicked Vigil out. "Up until the day I left, they never did use that space again," he said.

Observed Vigil: "The thing about that building is the people who built it had big dreams for the place," he said. "It still has a lot of soul -- it's just that the people who run the place find new and creative ways to suffocate it."

Obama meets Major-Major

The feud between President Obama and Fox News is simmering down, as evidenced by this video, but there's still fence-mending to be done.

quote/unquote ...

"The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors."

----- Marcel Proust, novelist (1871-1922)

"Do not try to live for ever. You will not succeed."

---- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

"The yells and animal noises which the nation listens to on the radio programme 'Today in Parliament' have nothing to do with disagreements about the way the country should be run, or how much fuel should be given to old age pensioners at Christmas time. They are cries of pain and anger, mingled with hatred and envy, at the spectacle of another group exercising the 'power' which the first group covets; alternatively, they are cries of alarm as the group in 'power' sees its territory threatened. Old age pensioners are mad if they think anyone actually cares about their wretched coal."
------- Auberon Waugh as political correspondent for The Spectator

(Editor's note: "quote/unquote" is compiled in St. Louis by Wilson, who is not on Facebook.)

Stimulating nonexistent congressional districts

There are 32 congressional districts in the great state of Texas and not a single on goes by the name of the 91st District of Texas, which received federal stimulus money that could just as easily be given to me, because I, in fact, do exist.

What the ... ?

Watchdog.org reports $6.4 billion in stimulus money has been sent to congressional districts that don't exist.

Texas Watch Dog reports $14.7 million went to phantom congressional districts in Texas.

Government says it's just a paperwork problem, a human error problem, some people don't know what congressional districts they live in when they're filling out forms and such.

Can't wait til the government runs the healthcare system.

Bet John Cornyn can't do this

Bud $250K lighter for double rods display

A quarter million samoleans?

That's a lotta dough to lose for flipping the bird(s) at a sporting event, but when you're a role model like Bud Adams of Houston, who parlayed a $25,000 initial investment in the Houston Oilers into a team in Tennessee that's estimated now to be worth ONE BILLION dollars, it all comes out in the wash.

Bud Adams apologizes to everyone for Double Rods display yesterday

It seems like if you're 86 you shouldn't have to apologize for shooting the bird, but Bud Adams, owner of the Tennessee Titans, did anyway today.

Mr. Adams flashed double rods yesterday at the Buffalo Bills on the way to his team's convincing victory over the upstate New Yorkers, which of course was reported by the media because we all have the right to know such things.

We're not sure if this sinks his nomination for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year, but it probably didn't help.

(We've taken the position that since Ralph Wilson, the Buffalo owner, was approved for the Hall last year, Mr. Adams might as well be, too, even though we realize many Oiler fans don't care for the man. Even so, we blame then-Houston Mayor Bob Lanier for running Mr. Adams and the Oilers out of town back in the day since the powers-that-be eventually turned around and coughed up a lotta public money to build a stadium for the Texans. Oh well ...)

Anyway, Mr. Adams said his behavior was wrong, said a report from the Associated Press.

"I do realize that those types of things shouldn't happen," Adams said in a statement. "I need to specifically apologize to the Bills, their fans, our fans and the NFL. I obviously have a great deal of respect for Ralph Wilson and the history we have shared. I also understand there will probably be league discipline for my actions and I will accept those."

Whatever.

We still say, if you're 86, fuck it, you should be able to do shit sometimes without people clucking about it.

Bud Adams gives Bills a Double Rods salute

From the Titans Insider blog:

Titans owner Bud Adams was mighty happy to see his team defeat the Bills on Sunday at LP Field.

The 86-year-old owner made an appearance on the sideline in the closing minutes, and even did a little dance as the Titans capped a 41–17 victory.

Then he turned toward the Buffalo sideline and gave the Bills the middle finger. Make that two middle fingers — Adams was using both hands.

Earlier, the native Texan flashed a "Hook em' horns" sign to fans in the West sideline seats.

It capped an eventful afternoon for Adams, who watched much of the game with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. It will be interesting to see if Goodell has any reaction to Adams' special salute to the Bills.

At least one Titan thought it was pretty funny.

"I don't know if he did it, but I condone fun things,'' cornerback Cortland Finnegan said. "If he was having fun doing it, then by all means, do what you do.''

Added Titans linebacker Stephen Tulloch: "He is a cool owner and it is good to see him around here supporting us. To have an owner like that, it's cool.''

Women's soccer? No pussies allowed!

[via The Z Report]

"Fake AP Stylebook" may become a book

I've got two or three AP Stylebooks stuck in boxes around here. Not sure why I've kept them all these years. Probably should have paid more attention to them, looks like, cause now a couple of jakelegs have made up entries for a "Fake AP Stylebook" on Twitter that could become a book.

(Aside: What is an AP Stylebook? It's a book designed to answer questions about how to word stuff in a newspaper article. Reporters, in our experience, always have one handy but rarely refer to them, preferring to let editors change their copy "because that's why they're editors and that's what they're supposed to do.")

Anyway, Media Nation interviewed the founders of Fake AP Stylebook, if you want the full story.

What kind of journalistic style advice can you get from the Fake AP Stylebook?

Some examples:

* When referring to Lake Titicaca leave a lot of space afterwards for your readers to just laugh and laugh. (See also: "Ball State")

* For unnamed sources, agree on an attribution that gives the reader an idea of who it is. Ex.: "rhymes with President Bobama"

*Refer to him as "Infallible Supreme Leader of the United Smurflands" when he first appears in the article, then "Papa Smurf." afterwards.

*Always capitalize Satan. You don't want to get dead goats from those people.

* TIP: When covering City Council meetings, the Mayor is often the one wearing a large sash emblazoned with "MAYOR."

quote/unquote ...

"McKee is a longtime football fan. She is from Wisconsin. She had two statuettes of Brett Favre, the former Green Bay Packers quarterback, on her bookshelf. On the wall was a picture of a robust young man. It was McKee's son -- 19 years old, six-feet-three. If he had a chance to join the NFL, I asked her, what would she advise him? 'I'd say 'Don't. Not if you want to have a life after football.' "
--- "Offensive Play," The New Yorker, by Malcolm Gladwell, 10.09.09, referring to Ann McKee, who runs the neuropathology laboratory at the Veterans Administration hospital in Bedford, Mass.

"In the beginning, of course, there was the printing press."
--- first sentence of "Ranters and Corantos" by Richard Byrne, The Nation, Jan. 12, '09

"We're going to have a slow crawl in terms of a recovery. But the reason Warren Buffett is buying BNSF is a 10- to 20-year trend. For us near-term investors, it may seem curious. For him, the trajectory of the recovery over the next one or two years is irrelevant."
--- Matthew Troy, Citigroup analyst, about the 79-year-old Buffet buying the BNSF railroad

"It is most absurdly said, in popular language, of any man, that he is disguised in liquor: for on the contrary, most men are disguised by sobriety."
--- Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) in "Confessions of an Opium Eater"

(Editor's Note: Compiled, per usual, in St. Louis by Wilson, whose #2 son Lou recently was named the city's "Officer of the Year" in District 9. Keep your head down, Lou!)

An omen?

You are familiar, I know, with various religous iconography that sometimes appear in unexpected places.

I never have experienced that personally.

But I swear to you that the above image appeared on the fence a few mornings ago. It's the fence on the east side of the house.

Obviously, the rays of the morning sun were bouncing off something and appearing on the weathered wood of the fence, but upon investigation it was unclear what in the Sam Hill was reflecting the light.

The photo, taken with an iPhone, was not enhanced at all on the computer I'm now tapping on. I do not know how and have never attempted to use the PhotoShop thing.

So I'm taking this as an omen. My life is just going to keep getting happier and happier.

That is all.

Here comes the Texas Tribune

The nonprofit digital newspaper launches tomorrow with a staff of 11 reporters who have abandoned their jobs with established daily newspapers.

Why'd they do that?

Well, some of them are making up to $90,000 per year, far more than the vast majority of their ink-stained brethren, according to this column by Howard Kurtz.