The ConocoPhillips refinery in Sweeny had to shut down its coker unit when a fire erupted yesterday.
They blamed it on a bushing that "gave way" in this report to state enviro regulators.
Environmental upshot: 1,000 lbs sulfur dioxide, 700 lbs of carbon monoxide, etc. released via flare or via fugitive emissions.
Now, why'd the bushing give way?
No idea. Shit just happens maybe.
Scratch the back of Randy Weber, the new state representative from Pearland, and he'll give you a back scratch in return.
The quid pro quo in this case involves the permitting of industries that pollute, reports Texas Watchdog.
The Pearland Republican’s legislation would streamline the permit review process, which would save energy companies the hassle of taking their plans directly to the public –and could save them money on the lawyers and lobbyists who do the day-to-day work of securing a permit. The measure would also make it harder for citizen groups to organize and make their case to state regulators.
For example, Weber’s bill would undo the “the opportunity for contested case hearings.” That’s the main chance the public has to voice concerns about how an aging coal plant has polluted the air, soil and water in their neighborhood. Hearings like this also grab media coverage and catch the attention of citizens who weren’t yet aware that a power-generating facility was coming to town.
All told, Weber collected at least $15,000 from energy-related donors last year, according to records on file with the Texas Ethics Commission.
Other Weber donors include Chevron PACs ($1,000), Texas Oil and Gas PAC ($1,000), ExxonMobil ($2000) and Chevron ($1,000)–all of whom, like Simmons, have a lot to gain from a bill that weakens regulations on energy companies.
Texas Watchdog left a message with Weber’s office Wednesday. We’ll update you if we hear from him.
Now we understand why the Houston daily's new website, 2995, says you have to be 13 or older to peruse it (although the minimum age requirement is an honor system thing.)
So, hit the "sex" tab.
Its principal author is MILF.
We recently learned, during Sarah Paliln's campaign for the vice presidency, that MILF is an acronym for Mother I'd Like to Fuck. Yes, we said Fuck.
Today's offering from MILF is on oral sex and what foods you should eat so that your sexually-produced juicy juices taste good.
Broccoli bad, papaya good.
Shouldn't there be a picket line protest in the planning stages by now? Where's Steven Hotze?
Rick Perry?
Quanell X?
Anyone? Anyone?
The Orlando Sentinel, a fine paper more or less that we think is probably available for the right price by the bankrupt Tribune Co., has included the record album by former KTRK-TV Channel 13 personality Don Seymour in its compilation of Worst Album Covers.
When you work with a sock puppett, like Don did in his heyday, you run the risk of being lumped into such lists.
But after looking at the other list members, we feel that an injustice may have been served upon Don & Seymour.
Here's the whole entire photo lineup of the alleged worst LP covers.
Don and Seymour are ranked at #15.
We can't be sure if that is supposed to mean his is the 15th worst LP cover or not, but so far as we're concerned, Don & Seymour's is a work of inspired (though understated) art compared to these:
#6 "The Handless Organist -- Truly a Miracle from God" (she really doesn't have any hands and she's seated at an organ. Damn.)
#7 "Have Harp, Can't Travel" ( a dwarf in a tuxedo with a harp outside a bus)
#21 "Chicken Coop de Ville" ("Feauring the SMASH HITS "I Seen Her First" ... The LP cover may have been meth-inspired, but can't be absolutely sure; worst mullet ever worn by a singer we're pretty sure [this includes Billy Ray Cyrus])
#25 "The McKeitherns" (a scary-looking family that I think has many troubling secrets; if hitchhiking, do NOT accept ride from them)
#31 "Joyce" (a simple studio portrait, properly lit and in focus, of "Joyce" that reminds me of how Andrea Martin of SCTV fame might have appeared in a sketch of the same name)
#33 "Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay" (cameo mugshot by Howard Cosell w/ Ali in traditional kick-ass boxing glory)
#35 Jonah Jones "I Dig Chicks!"( Females in sweaters with bullet-pointed braiserres, posing, smiling, vamping in the business end of a large earth-digging machine )
#43 "The Best of the Singing Postman" (likely conceived long before the Edmond, Okla., Post Office massacre that led to the current usage of "going postal" ... this LP cover may well have been a omen)
#44 "Country Church" (a quartet, with a barn in the background ... bad haircuts & bad 'staches & V-neck sweaters)
#45 Freddy Gage "All My Friends Are Dead" (Freddy, wearing white dress shoes, white tie, white shirt, squatting by a tombstone, looking contemplative and possibly very very depressed)
#46 "Lots of Love Peace" (8-member band, red vests, an accordion, trumpet, bass fiddle and spectacles that are in fashion even today, and one pair of white go-go boots)
#49 Foster Edwards Orch. "What's Next?" (one guy and two elephants wearing wigs)
************************
What do you think?
Of the recent casualties in the recent 27 percent purging of the Houston Chronicle newsroom, one of the biggest shockers was the axing of the newspaper's style critic, Clifford Pugh.
But the veteran scribe won't be on the mat for long.
The Examiner newspaper group, which produces weekly freebie papers in River Oaks, West University, Memorial and Bellaire, has hired Pugh as its newest columnist.
His first column will be in the April 9 edition, we're told.
Clifford worked for many years at the old Houston Post, then moved over to the Chronicle when the Post was bought out by the evil Hearst Corp. in 1995.
His stuff was in the Chronicle constantly, and most recently he blogged feverishly about the fashion scene. He even jetted off to Europe to do stuff for the daily.
So when he got whacked, it was a bit of a surprise.
Rich Connelly, in his Hairballs blog at the Houston Press, called the layoff of Pugh the most surprising of all the newsroom layoffs:
He's been covering stuff in Houston 4-evah (as we guess they might say in the fashion world he wrote about). He's versatile, witty, productive, took to blogging like he was born to it, even had somewhat of a brand name among the audience. We've got no idea if he was a pain as an employee or was simply overpriced in these grim times, but he still seemed like someone the bold new online Chron world would want onboard.
The Examiner folks have encouraged me to write about whatever I want. It will definitely start with a fashion/lifestyle emphasis. But who knows where it will go from there??
What about a human bean w/ 2 peters?
If only this lad was old eough to tell us if it's a good thing or a bad thing.
(Ed.'s note: Another in a series by Wilson in St. Louis.)
''He had a family member, who is also a cousin of Elijah Johnson, a young man we signed. Elijah and Tyrone grew up in the same neighborhood in Gary, Ind., and there was a family member that was shot and killed this past week, and the services were this morning. So [Appleton] flew home to be with his family, and he'll be back here by, I believe, 7:30 this evening....Last year, we had two individuals who had family members murdered in drive-bys in the same week....It does put a perspective on everything. Because basketball is important -- it's why we're all here -- but it's certainly not life or death, which is what a lot of these guys go through. And we just kind of pass it by, as if it's not that big a thing. But you know that these guys are really, really hurting inside.''
-- Kansas coach Bill Self, quoted in the March 22 Chicago Sun-Times column by Rick Telander after Kansas player Tyrone Appleton had to leave the team to attend the funeral of a family member who had been killed.
"I never lecture, not because I am shy or a bad speaker, but simply because I detest the sort of people who go to lectures and don't want to meet them."
--- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)
"Put somebody on their (expletive) back. Don't let anybody oopsy-doopsy lay up on you and be laughing at you. Have you ever seen me get dunked on? No, because I put (expletive) on their backs. Period. 'If you're going to be a big man, be a big man. Don't be out there (expletive) around. Lay somebody on their (expletive) back. Period.' Wilt (Chamberlain) told me that. Bill Russell told me that. Hakeem (Olajuwon) told me that. All the great big men told me that. . . . That's what I'm trying to teach him, instead of just being out there like a loose tree blowing in the wind. Do something."
--- Shaquille O'Neal, Arizona Republic March 31, on advice to rookie center Robin Lopez of the Phoenix Suns
"I never got to the point where I was having trouble sleeping. At the end of the day, it's bowling."
--- Australian bowler Jason Belmonte, known for his unorthodox two-handed approach, after winning the Long Island Classic bowling tournament and earning a full-time spot on next season's Professional Bowling Assn. tour
Click Here
Ed. Note: Whoops. The #1 best prank on the above link has been removed from YouTube for copyright infringement, but my secretary found the original, which is below ....
Scare Tactics- mutated rat boy
The forthcoming Sacha Baron Cohen movie, in which the actor attempts to seduce Congressman Ron Paul into a homosexual liaison, has been hit with an NC-17 rating by the motion picture censors.
The movie has to have an R rating under its contract with Universal, so Cohen has to rid his movie of the objectionable parts.
Will this mean Our Congressman's unwitting appearance in the film might be cut?
Probably not.
Two scenes from the movie that may have been "over the line" depicted the movie's main character, Bruno, "appearing to have anal sex with a man on camera. In another, the actor goes on a hunting trip and sneaks naked into the tent of one of the fellow hunters."
By contrast, Congressman Paul amscrayed out of a hotel room before "Bruno" could go too far, though "Bruno" did drop trou, which kinda freaked the congressman, as we (and Slate) reported here.
The Bruno movie website said Cohen (pictured above) is appealing the tenative rating given his movie.
The difference between an R and an NC-17 in terms of financial reward is vast. "Borat," which cost a piddling $18 million to make, took in $261 million in worldwide box office. Universal paid $42 million for the English-language rights to "Bruno," but will spend far more than that in marketing the film. Major Hollywood studios almost never release films with NC-17 ratings.
Cohen is currently appealing the decision while simultaneously struggling with cutting the film to suit the ratings board. But the ratings board, a secret panel of parents appointed by the studio-owned movie association, is notoriously inexact about what it requires to move from an NC-17 to an R.
Baron Cohen has butted heads with the MPAA before. Borat was given an NC-17 on its first go-round, and still ended up with a hilarious, outrageous scene in which he wrestled naked with his obese driver, ending up with his face in the man’s genitals and anus.
The spokesman said that Baron Cohen had shot a lot of material, and would be able to cut it without a problem. “With the quantity of material available, I cannot foresee a problem,” said the spokesman. “It's not even April and the film comes out July 10 so it's nonsense to say there's a struggle of any kind."
The Headliners Awards are a big deal every year in the world of media. Here's how Texas media did. For the whole list click right here.
TELEVISION
Continuing coverage of a single news event: 2nd Place, KHOU-TV, Houston, Mark Greenblatt, David Raziq, Keith Tomshe, "Go Army or Go to Jail"
Public service: 3rd Place, KHOU-TV, Houston, Jeremy Rogalski, Keith Tomshe, David Raziq, "A Dangerous Lesson."
Environmental reporting: 3rd Place, KTRK-TV, Houston, KTRK Green Team, "Green to Green."
NEWSPAPERS
Newspaper Photography and Graphics: Newspapers/sports: 1st Place, The Dallas Morning News, Tom Fox, "Usain Bolt Breaks World Record"
Photo essay/story: 3rd Place, The Dallas Morning News, Sonya N. Hebert, "At the Edge of Life."
Newspaper Affiliated Online Journalism: 2nd Place, Austin American-Statesman, statesman.com
RADIO
Documentary or public affairs, 1st Place and Grand Award, Texas Music Matters/KUT 90.5, Austin, Texas, David Brown and Michael May, "Amazing Grace: The Story of Willie Nelson."
(Editor's note: Another in a series; as always, aggregated by Wilson in St. Louis.)
"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."
-- Comedian Jack E. Leonard (1911-1973) to Ed Sullivan (pictured above w/ Michael Jackson)
"Lee (owner of the Post-Dispatch) stock traded at more than $35 a share in early 2007 but on Monday closed at 28 cents a share. On February 20, the day after the refinancing was announced, the stock closed at 52 cents a share."
--the River Cities Reader of Davenport, Iowa , March 18
"A single sentence will suffice for modern man: He fornicated and he read the papers."
-- Albert Camus (1913-1960
"Well, things could be worse. Take St. Louis, for example."
--Kevin Collison, Kansas City Star business columnist, on development in KC, March 23)
(hardhat tip to Chron biz columnist Loren Steffy, who's still employed.)
Meanwhile, for a different account of the bailout, we strongly urge you to read this story in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi.
The layoffs at the Houston Chronicle cut much deeper into the editorial side of the newspaper than the announced company-wide 12 percent reduction that was announced by publisher Jack Sweeney.
By the count of newsroom workers who survived, 27 percent of the paper's editorial staffers were let go yesterday. That amounts to 90 employees, they said.
"Unbelievable," said one writer who managed to stay employed.
Chronicle management has not released any raw numbers regarding newsroom employees who were laid off, an omission that was noted by several readers who reacted to the online offering of reader representative Jim Newkirk, who posted a two-sentence "column" asking for reaction to the newspaper's "reorganization" -- without giving any details of the changes.
Several readers obliged.
"It is impossible to comment when almost no information is provided.
I find it humorous, actually. If another major business in Houston announced a 12% staff reduction with as little information as this, the Chronicle would be all over it like white on rice," said one.
Wrote another: "Funny that you have to read the Houston Press blog to find out the details of what's going on. The Chron is acting just like the TV stations do...they invite you to become familiar with a personality/writer, but give you no information when they're gone."
The newspaper, naturally, soft-pedaled its layoff coverage with a three-paragraph story that was buried. The online story promised readers "more information" in Newkirk's column, which, naturally, provided none.
The good news, at least for editorial workers, is that all the newsroom layoffs were handled yesterday.Today, management will notify employees in advertising, circulation and other departments that will be laid off.
Those who survived were left to ponder how the decisions were made and what it will mean for the future of Houston's only daily newspaper.
Several points stand out, some of them not-so-shocking and a few of them weird.
-- No upper management employees were laid off. Natch.
-- Management told employees no serious consideration was given to invoking wage cuts or involuntary furloughs, two strategies other newspapers are trying in dealing with the newspaper industry's decline.
-- The only two women on the editorial board -- Claudia Kolker and Veronica Bucio -- were laid off, leaving the board composed entirely of five white males. "They're talking about moving somebody up there that doesn't have a penis," snarked one miffed employee.
-- Houston is home to NASA, right? And they lay off the guy (Mark Carreau) who's covered NASA since the Challenger blew up in 1986?
-- The Chon, just a few months ago, brought in Tracy Barnett, the travel editor for its sister paper in San Antonio, to handle the travelogue beat for both papers from her new home in Houston -- then canned her yesterday.
-- The religion writer's gone. The book editor's gone. The transportation reporter's gone. Details to be worked out later, evidently.
-- With this layoff and previous ones, the newspaper has effectively abandoned the suburbs outside Beltway 8, where in past years the Chronicle was finding circulation gains. If you don't count the so-called Neighborhood staff, which puts out the weekly zoned editions (Zzzzzzz) and offers a handful of blogs (but which also suffered at least two layoffs we know of) there aren't any Chron newshounds in Sugarland, Katy, Conroe, Brazosport/Angleton or Beaumont. Ah, they're all hayseeds anyway, right? Good news for the local rags, we guess.
-- Four Chron newsroom couples were effectively "split up," with one getting the ax and the other remaining employed. Lawyers call that splittin' the baby.
-- Medical coverage to those laid off during this reduction will be given only 5 weeks medical coverage; the last layoff extended medical coverage for 3 months and the layoff previous to that payroll reduction provided for 6 months coverage. It has something to do with federal stimulus money now available to laid-off workers that's too complicated for us to fully explain, but it's a money-saver for the Hearst Corp. in New York.
-- Chronicle Vice-President and Editor Jeff Cohen never came out of his office to address the staff during the day-long process of buttonholing employees to deliver the bad news. Instead, he issued a memo. What a leader.
So what kind of newspaper will the Chronicle be with so many employees gone?
"Less a paper of record and more of the quote/unquote Big Picture," opined one.
We'll see.
Good luck to those who lost their jobs.
*********************************************
An Update
*********************************************
Wednesday afternoon --
It's clear now that mid-ranking managers at the Chronicle had no idea the newsroom reductions would be so dramatic.
As one worker bee put it, a management figure told him "he knew they'd be laying off a lot of people, but had never heard an actual figure. He also said that if Dan Cunningham or Jeff Cohen had told him that 90 people were getting the ax, he'd have figured his time had come and would have had his bags packed."
The Chron manager went on to say, " that he's been told the cuts were so deep this time because Hearst wanted to get down to the bare bones in hopes of riding out this downturn. The corporate prognosticators apparently are expecting a really rough year or 18 months ahead, and then a gradual rebound until things turn around at about the two-year mark," the employee told me.
More than one person with whom I once worked at the Houston Post when it was bought out by the Chron in 1995 said that in a way it's better losing your job at a newspaper that entirely collapses instead of watching coworkers get fired by the droves while you, somehow, manage to stay.
"At least back then, we were all in it together. This time, so many familiar faces have just vanished, and we're left with a much bigger workload and a load of survivors' guilt. I'd better stop there. This is getting way too depressing," the Chron employee said.
It's pretty much official now.
The Houston Chronicle doesn't give a damn about covering southern Brazoria County.
The newspaper has laid off Richard Stewart, who covered the county for the "regular" edition of the big city daily (as opposed to the pitiful weekly zoned edition that only covers Pearland.)
Mr. Stewart, a veteran journalist who's been with the Houston paper for as long as we can remember, is among a whole bunch of people who were let go at the monopoly Houston paper today. More layoffs will come down tomorrow.
We refer you to Hairballs, the blog operated by The Houston Press, for further coverage here, here, here and, yes, even here.
Best of luck and vaya con huevos to all the newspaper folks laid off.
The local Clute paper says Brazoria County is losing one of its most reliable contributors to our area's emissions events.
The Equistar plant over by Alvin is shuttin' down.
Here's "the facts" from local daily:
LyondellBasell announced today it will permanently shut Equistar Chemicals’ Chocolate Bayou complex Aug. 4, ending the company’s presence in Brazoria County.
Equistar is a LyondellBasell subsidiary.
Spokesman David Harpole said the decision will result in about 30 additional job losses. In November, officials said the site staffed more than 400 people, both full-time employees and contractors.
The site has been shut down since December, but officials hoped demand would pick up and the site could come back online. In January, the site was shuttered indefinitely due to a lack of demand. The following month, 220 employees were cut.
On Jan. 6, LyondellBasell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The Austin daily newspaper is for sale (still) with no apparent buyers offering enough money yet to make a deal.
The Houston Chronicle is fixin' to do a double-digit reduction in force. It's been the same story with the San Antonio Express-News. Same story with the Fort Worth daily. And in Dallas.
But there's one paper in Texas that appears to be doing something right -- the weekly in Austin.
Or at least there doing enough things right to get NY Times media writer David Carr to write this glowing report.
The Austin Chronicle, a weekly newspaper as funky and idiosyncratic as the town it covers, continues to thrive with a relentlessly local news agenda — state government, the school board and the City Council, along with deep coverage of the arts — and a willingness to lead, as opposed to simply criticize, in artistic matters.
At a time when daily newspapers seem to be going away at the rate of one a week and weeklies are madly cutting to stay afloat, The Chronicle, which has revenue of approximately $8.5 million a year, has not laid off anyone, has no plans to do so, and its business is off just 7 percent in the last three years.
(Another in a series from St. Louis by Wilson.)
"Half-truths, obfuscations and apparent deceit -- these are the wages of a world in which newspapers, their staffs eviscerated, no longer battle at the frontiers of public information. . . .There is a lot of talk nowadays about what will replace the dinosaur that is the daily newspaper. So-called citizen journalists and bloggers and media pundits have lined up to tell us that newspapers are dying but that the news business will endure, that this moment is less tragic than it is transformational. Well, sorry, but I didn't trip over any blogger trying to find out McKissick's identity and performance history. Nor were any citizen journalists at the City Council hearing in January when police officials inflated the nature and severity of the threats against officers. And there wasn't anyone working sources in the police department to counterbalance all of the spin or omission. I didn't trip over a herd of hungry (Baltimore) Sun reporters either, but that's the point."
-- David Simon (pictured), writer/producer of The Wire, in an oped piece in the Washington Post, March 1, '09
"I want the president to succeed. I love my country a lot more than I love politics. I'm not going to spend my time criticising. There are plenty of critics in that arena....If he wants my help he can pick up the phone." -- George W. Bush answering a question in Calgary, Canada, as demonstrators outside threw shoes
"What's next? Will they mandate that I can't have more than three cheeseburgers next week at McDonald's?"
--- Ivy Walker, New Hampshire restaurant owner, about his state's move for mandatory seat belt laws
“I think always, in the end, the better team will win, whether it’s the better team for the season or the better team that night. If you play solid, execute and play hard, the better team will always win, and I think tonight, whether it’s for the season or just tonight, the better team won.”
---Ron Artest, who had 18 second-half points Tuesday after going scoreless in the first half in a Houston win over New Orleans when Yao Ming was out with the flu.
“Ronny’s a funny fellow.”
--- Lakers Coach Phil Jackson about Ron Artest’s trash talking while guarding Kobe Bryant last week
Sacha Baron Cohen, an actor/comedian who lures people into seemingly legitimate interviews or situations in the guise of someone he most definitely is not, has ensnared our own congressman into his web of comedic deceit.
This comes with the territory when you get as beloved and/or reviled as US Rep. Ron Paul. We're certain he can "take it" and believe it will only add to his legend.
HOWEVER, it is a bit embarrassing. By now, if you don't know you're getting punk'd by the guy who made a feature movie impersonating a Kazakh journalist named Borat or a popular HBO series portraying a British numbskull named Ali G., your finger ain't exactly on the cultural pulse.
The latest prank will be in movie theaters in July. Cohen is in the guise of Bruno, his gay Austrian journalist character (see photo), and has managed to lure our congressman into a hotel, ostensibly for an interview.
As described by an article in Slate, one of the lights illuminating the interview set blows out, so Congressman Paul is invited into an adjoining room to wait while the light is replaced.
The other room, it turns out, is a bedroom. The lighting is low, and the film is now grainy—not unlike a sex tape—as it cuts to a hidden spy camera. There's a spread of Champagne and strawberries and caviar on a table.
Bruno tells Paul to make himself comfortable. Paul sits down on the bed. Bruno turns on some music and starts dancing. Paul is visibly uneasy but doesn't say anything at first. He picks up a newspaper and pretends to read it. "You can tell at each weird gay detail, he [chalks] it up to, This guy is European," says one of the attendees.
Finally, Paul asks what's going on. "Don't worry about it, Dr. Paul," says Bruno, who then unbuckles his belt and drops his pants. At that point, Paul snaps up and storms out of the room.
As Paul is walking away, you can hear him say, several times, something like, "This guy is a queer!" "The word queer comes out of his mouth three or four times," says an attendee.
Here's a shot sent in by a reader during the latest emissions event at Dow. Thanks, reader.
We've always liked the vernaclar employed by the petrochemical industry to explain what goes on behind the fence line.
When there's a "plant upset," it conjures up the mental image of a case of mild indigestion. A few belches, a shot or two of Pepto and it will pass.
Maybe the nomenclature is apt, but, c'mon, there's a difference between the after effects of last night's pepperoni pizza and what went down beginning at 4 a.m. this morning at Dow Chemical in Freeport.
The three-hour plant "upset" is under investigation, and the flares are still burning like sumbitches last we heard.
A random sampling of the emissions:
-- 6,000 pounds of carbon monoxide
-- 1,600 pounds of ethylene (gaseous)
-- 400 pounds of toluene
-- 800 pounds of nitrogen oxides
-- 58 pounds of benzene
(Another in a continuing series, as compiled by Wilson in St. Louis, an alleged "dying city" that once hosted the World's Fair.)
"If Chuck couldn't rebound, he would be that funny guy with all the opinions driving a forklift."
------- commentator "Ratatat" on Boston Herald website after Charles Barkley was released from a Phoenix jail after serving 36 hours on a DUI charge
"The British are islanders who conquered and colonized throughout their history. After the Roman Empire, Italians have always been invaded and dominated, so we had to learn how to defend ourselves. We developed a very shrewd mind set where I defend myself but in the meantime I quietly move my pawns underground."
-- Gianluca Vialli, former Juventus striker and Chelsea coach, on the stylistic differences between English and Italian soccer, on the new Wall Street Journal sports page, March 11, '09
"Liberals feel unworthy of their possessions. Conservatives feel they deserve everything they've stolen."
--- Mort Sahl
"I could see Numero 57 lying crumbled up on his side, his face sticking out over the side of the bed, and toward me. He had died some time during the night, nobody knew when. . . . . . There you are, then, I thought, that's what is waiting for you 20, 30, 40 years hence: that is how the lucky ones die, the one who lives to be old. One wants to live, of course, indeed one only stays alive by virtue of the fear of death, but I think now, as I thought then, that it's better to die violently and not too old. People talk about the horrors of war but what weapon has man invented that even approaches in cruelty some of the common diseases? "Natural" death, almost by definition, means something slow, smelly, and painful."
--- "How the Poor Die" essay by George Orwell, circa 1934
"If you are gonna owe money, owe more than you can pay, then the people can't afford to foreclose." --- Clint Murchison, Texas oil baron, in the book "The Big Rich: The Rise and Fall of the Greatest Texas Oil Fortunes." by Bryan Burrough
"I've tried Spanish male, Spanish female, Asian female and Southern. I"ve even tried my own voice, and it didn't work very well."
--- Victor Patenaude, a specialist in debt collection, commenting that the best response he gets from the debt collection calls his company makes is when they use a British female voice. (Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, March 3rd).
“In the beginning, we didn’t want our daughter to play. We were worried that it would affect her posture, her character, even her sexual orientation. We put her in volleyball, in track, but nothing could stop her. Now her father is a fanatic fan.”--Selmin Odabas, mother of Selin Odabas, a player in Turkey's women's pro soccer league (NY Times)
“Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats.” -- George Orwell
Crime never sleeps, not even in Alvin, where there's a statue of Nolan Ryan, who left town several years ago.
As Bill Crider, a novelist known to some as The Bard of Alvin, explains it:
A guy I know lost his wallet in Kroger yesterday. Dropped it while looking for a coupon or something. When it came time to pay -- no wallet. He called his credit card company immediately to cancel his card. The helpful person on the line said, "Did you charge gas at Wal-Mart about five minutes ago?" He hadn't, of course, so he called the station there. The cashier said there was no way she could identify the purchaser, who'd paid at the pump.
End of story? Not quite. About fifteen minutes later, the cashier called the guy and said, "He's back. He just filled up another car with gas."
How'd she know the guy was back? Because he came to the window to tell ask her for help because the pump wouldn't accept his credit cart. The cashier told him to go back to the pump, and she'd see what she could do. He left, and she called the cops, who swooped down and caught him, still waiting at the pump.
The guy I know lost about 60 bucks and has to get a new credit card, but it could've been worse.
So says Quality Health.
It's the Live Music Capital of the World, brimming with well-stocked bars, clubs, and dance halls. So, is it any wonder that Austin earns a high spot on our list? The city ranks sixth for heavy drinkers, eighth for binge drinkers, and tenth for overall drinking.
From NYC's Craigslist comes this classified.
We quote, in full ...
Is your hedge fund in dire financial straits? Are you totally screwed and now realizing that someone has to take the fall? Has your ponzi scheme enveloped numerous celebrity-endorsed charities benefiting Laotian children with AIDS and been discovered by the SEC?
I'm your man.
I will take the reins of your hedge fund for as long as necessary to establish credibility, then present a dramatic "mea culpa" to the press declaring that my poor decisions have saddled your company with mounds and mounds of "toxic assets" and "ponzi schemery." I will personally apologize to anyone and everyone I [you] have wronged and swear I had only the best intentions for your clients and shareholders. Death threats do not phase me. If necessary, I will go to jail. I will look Bernie Madoff in the eye and say "Hey bro, I feel you" on national television. You and the rest of your company can shake your heads and say "for shame" and then continue on your merry way losing money and what have you.
Minimum compensation one million dollars. Serious offers only.
The Sporting News predicts a dismal season for the Astros, saying "Cubs, Cardinals and Brewers are better than the Astros, and the Reds also should pass them by this season."
The teams gets a grade of C in every category, says TSN.
Offense: C. Houston finished in the bottom half of the N.L. in runs, on-base percentage and slugging in 2008, and it added no impact players in the offseason. Because Tejada isn’t what he once was, Berkman and Lee have a heavy load to shoulder.
Pitching: C. Without Oswalt, Houston would have the weakest rotation in the division, even if Rodriguez and Hampton stayed healthy (far from a safe bet). The bullpen is solid with Geoff Geary, Doug Brocail and LaTroy Hawkins setting up Valverde, but it needs to reduce the homers allowed (MLB-high 70 last season).
Bench: C. Aaron Boone, expected to platoon at third, and fourth outfielder Darin Erstad bring experience and leadership, but their best days are behind them. Blum also is the club’s most versatile infielder. Fifth outfielder Jason Michaels drove in 53 runs in 286 at-bats in 2008.
Manager: C. A full season of experience will help Cooper after a commendable rookie season. He is a players’ manager who still is learning how to balance all of his responsibilities. He seems to be a quick learner, as evidenced by the Astros’ strong second-half showing.
For all his bluster and bombast, Dow Chemical Co. Chairman Andrew Liveris lacks a little sand in the pants when confromted with the cold, hard facts.
Dow caved in today and made a deal to complete the poorly conveived merger with Rohm and Haas, and now Dow "plans to lay off 3,500 workers, on top of 5,000 already announced by the company," says the Wall St. Journal.
We can only hope the additional cuts don't hurt the working men and women of B'port too much.
For all the media attention the bad eggs in pro sports receive, there are others we rarely read about, like Corey Smith, one of the two NFL players lost at sea last week in a storm.
He didn’t live his life in the flashy way that so many pro athletes choose to do. His house, for example, didn’t reveal the wealth of a man who spent seven seasons in the NFL with the Buccaneers, 49ers, and Lions.
“I was there three weeks ago,” (Smith's agent) Del Duca said. “He’s got eight, nine rooms in there, but he’s got furniture in three. And he’s had the place, like, six years! I said, ‘What are you doing?’
“Corey said, ‘I only live in three rooms, I don’t need furniture in the other six. I’ve got my big room with my big TV, got my kitchen, got my study, got my bedroom. That’s all I need, thank you. I’m saving my money.’”
Alan D. Mutter attended a conference that discussed how to save the print media.
One of the suggestions he heard was "use fewer words."
I'm not kidding.
Read his blog report here.
On Thursday we posted an old Dylan song via Blip.fm and passed along a comment from Jay Rosen, new media savant. wondering whether the title character in the song was a journalist.
Turns out "Mr. Jones" was a journalist at the time he interviewed Bob. And his surname was Jones (no relation to me.)
Oh, and he also passed away late last year, but it sounds like he led an interesting life.
A reader sent us this info and you can read it here.
Gawker, Nick Denton's flagship blog in New York, has passed along the rumor that the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News are going to combine into ONE newspaper.
This sounds ludicrous and we don't buy it, but we wouldn't be surprised if the two Hearst dailies decided to share more resources, content, etc.
But just for fun, here's what Gawker said:
We heard a downright bizarre unconfirmed rumor that Hearst's flailing newspaper division is considering merging the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News into one operation. Bizarre, we say, for two reasons:
1. San Antonio is 200 miles away from Houston.
2. San Antonio is 200 miles away from Houston.
According to our tipster: "In theory, each paper will still have a base of operations in each home city. There hasn't been an official announcement yet, but everybody knows and all the staff at least suspect it."
Hearst has already threatened to shut down the money-burning San Francisco Chronicle, and they cut 75 newsroom jobs in San Antonio just a week ago. And don't forget the imminent death of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer! So this rumor could certainly be true, as a new frontier in cost-cutting. Still: two failing papers combine to form... a larger failing paper. [Details or denials? Email us]
Looks like the Hearst Corp. is going to put out an online version of its Seattle paper after it fails to find a sucker to buy the damn thing.
They're making offers to select staffers now for the online operation, but they're cheap bastards, as illustrated by this reporter who said he declined the offer.
He said the offer increased his health insurance cost, cut his salary by an unspecified amount, matched his 401(k), required him to forgo his P-I severance pay, reduced his vacation accrual to zero and required him to give up overtime.
The most famous son of Wharton, Texas. A helluva screenwriter -- To Kill A Mockingbird, Tender Mercies, Trip To Bountful. [NYT]
The head of Hearst newspapers (which include the Texas dailies Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, Beaumont Enterprise, Laredo Morning Times, Midland Reporter, Plainview Daily Herald, etc.) plans to erect a pay wall for some of its online content, but Ken Doctor asserts those newspapers don't produce enough "proprietary content" to convince readers to cough up some dough (though he does commend the Hearst bloggers.)
New Hearst News head Steve Swartz' leaked memo talks about charging for access to some online content, to be determined. Hearst execs have been told, since the announcement, not to erect any paywalls yet. In fact, they've been told to reach out and lasso more community content, another (better) idea newly regaining attention all around the country.
Odds of Happening: 4-1. It sounds good, but Hearst newspapers have little proprietary content that readers are going to be willing to pay for. Business content still merits, and rewards, walls, witness the WSJ.com and FT.com successes. But business content doesn't drive Hearst newspaper sites. Where they are strong is in staff and community blogging, in fact, led by strong editors, ahead of the industry as a whole.
The Houston Chronicle's resident Pentecostal blogger, Ken Gurley of Pearland, asks his readers today, "Can You Go One Week Without Cussing?"
Responds commenter TexasRed55, "F^@& Yeah I can!"
Well, he asked.
It was the first commercially successful video game.
Manufactured by Atari in 1972.
Two-dimensional graphics.
Now for what you may not have known, via the NYT blog Bits:
The first Pong system was installed at a Sunnyvale, Calif., bar called Andy Kapps, which used to be the site of the first bus stop in the city. The lines to play the game would stretch out the door, and the system had to be shut down often to clear out the coins blocking the over-filled payment slot. Today, the site is host to the Rooster T. Feathers comedy club.
Paul Harvey, the radio legend, died over the week, as you know.
When anyone dies, the temptation is emphasize the good and soft-peddle the not-so-good.
J.D. Allen, a Vietnam vet who writes the Mouth of the Brazos blog out west o' the river, resists the temptation in this post:
I remember Paul Harvey, too. I remember how pro-Vietnam war he was. I remember his ranting and raving about how we were doing such a fantastic job, saving the Vietnamese, fighting for freedom and if you weren’t pro-Vietnam-war you weren’t worthy to be an American. I remember hearing him spouting that bullshit on the radio every time he came on. (Good AM radio stations were few and far between in the daylight hours in 1960’s Magnolia, Arkansas, so we were a bit limited. WLS and WNOE at night. FM? Forget it, even after it came around.) Yeah, he was a stone hawk, all right. After I got back from Nam I could not stand to listen to him, because then I knew without doubt that he had no fucking idea what he was talking about. Then, one of his or his relative's kids got KIA, or WIA. Or maybe it was a close friend’s kid. I don’t remember that. What I do remember is his conversion. Suddenly, it didn’t seem like all that good an idea to be over there at all. He completely switched sides. Changing your mind is fine - it's WHY you change your mind that matters. Long as it wasn’t somebody he cared about getting maimed or killed, it was fine, heroic, necessary. Well, fuck him. And now you know the rest of the story.
The Hearst Corp., owner of the dailies in Houston, San Antonio, San Francisco and smaller places, is going to start requiring its online readers to pay a fee to access some of its Web content.
This is not shocking in the least to us (it's already been reported a pay wall plan was afoot for the San Francisco Chronicle) but the odd twist is each Hearst newspaper will change what's kept behind the pay wall on a daily basis.
In a memo to employees, Hearst President Steve Swartz explained:
Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day.
We must do a far better job of reaching out to prominent citizens in our communities, those who already have a blog and those who don’t, and providing them a prominent platform to state their views. We must develop a rich network of correspondents to help us grow the deepest hyper-local community microsites in our markets.
The Houston Chronicle is having problems, like most big-city dailies, but it might get a whole lot worse.
One of the latest rumors sweeping the San Francisco Chronicle would have the deskies in Houston handling headline writing, copy editing and layout for their ailing sister paper by The Bay.
The other option is India.
This is bound to raise the grumbling in the Houston Chronicle newsroom a few decibels as Chronistas await the next layoff wave of layoffs of 10 percent or more.
The situation in SF is decidedly more grim, but being lumped with India as a cost-saving option may not do much for the self esteem of Hearst's Houston-based serfs.
Alan D. Mutter, who writes the authoritative Reflections of a Newsosaur blog, enumerated all the options on the table to keep the San Francisco Chronicle afloat (massive layoffs, major union concessions, etc.) before floating the Houston bombshell.
One possibility would be to send copyediting, headline writing and page layout to India.
Alternatively, according to one rumor making the rounds today, those duties could be handled at the Chronicle’s sister paper in Houston. Not only would labor costs be lower in Houston than San Francisco, but the difference in time zones would keep the Texas editors busy in the slack time between editions of their own publication.
The chief operating officer at Newsday, the daily paper that serves mostly Long Island up in New York, says the paper is going to start charging a fee for access to its Website. [AP]
I've been wondering lately why all the big metro dailies around the country don't get together and agree to do the same thing, since many of them are teetering on the brink of financial disaster. (Everyone pretty much agrees it was dumb for daily newspapers to give away their content for free via the Web, in case you didn't know.)
So here's the question I'd like you to answer in our New Poll: Would you be willing to pay a reasonable monthly fee to read your local paper?
By "local paper" we mean whatever nearby paper you prefer to read, ie., just cause you don't live in, say, Houston, you can still consider the Houston Chronicle your local paper if you wish. Likewise, if you live in Brazosport and only read the Clute paper, that can be considered your local paper. We realize "reasonable monthly fee" is vague, but don't let that stop you from voting; for discussion purposes, let's say the monthly fee would be around $8 -- around $2 per week, less than you spend on Cokes, coffee or whatever in a day, most likely.
Look to the sidebar on the right to vote in the poll. ------>
(Of course, it doesn't matter where you live to vote in our poll. We have readers all over the the place.)
(Another in a series by Wilson from The Gateway To The West [St. Louis, MO])
“If they can spend all this money on movie, why can’t they take can’t they take care of the children? No one taught us how to speak English like those guys in the movie.”
--- Kiran Jaiswal, 21, of Dharavi, the Mumbai slum where “Slumdog Millionaire” was based, commenting on how Dharavi needs schools and jobs, not “rags-to-riches” dreams
"And there I sat, silently ranting: There is nothing funny about this black man in pantyhose. And where is all of this cross-dressing-black-man stuff coming from, anyway? First, comedians Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence star in high-grossing movies as the fattest, ugliest black women that Hollywood makeup artists can conjure up, and now here's Perry with his gussied-up version of the same butt of the joke."
--- Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, Feb. 25, about tyler perry's Madea movies
"My mind is like a spin-dryer at full speed, my thoughts fly around my skull while millions of beautiful words cascade down in my lap. Images gunfire across my consciousness and while trying to discipline them I jump in awe at the soul-filled bounty of my mind’s expanse."
--- Christopher Nolan, Irish author who was quadraplegic and mute. He died at age 46 by choking on something caught in his airway. He typed his books by using a "unicorn" stick strapped to his head.
"Their learning is like bread in a besieged town: every man gets a little, but no man gets a full meal."
---- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) talking about the Scots
We know this is getting old.
For years now we've tuned in to the annual State of the Union address to make sure that U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Tx, of the Fightin' 18th Congressional District in Houston, gets up next to the President, be he Democrat of Republican.
We depend on this. When it stops happenin', we're fairly sure it's time to gather up all the firearms, round up all the ammo, batteries, gold bullion and freeze-dried food, and descend into the underground bunker. 
But that's not necessary after tonight, for Sheila again made her annual appearance alongside the president. She caught him comin' in and goin' out (see photos.)
Nevermind that she didn't support Mr. Obama til he won their party's nomination.
Nevermind that the economy's splitting at the seams or that we're still mired overseas in two wars.
At least one thing remains the same, unchanged. Praise Sheila.
The people who supposedly look out for our health advised us against eating king mackerel fish caught along the Texas coast way back in 1997.
The warning signs to let fishermen (and fisherwomen like the happy lass pictured above) about the advisory just got posted a month ago, reports John Tompkins in the Clute paper.
The delay in putting up the signs is because money never was allocated for them, said Kirk Wiles, manager of the seafood and aquatic life group for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which issued the warning...
Regular readers of The Brazosport News will remember a while back that we called for the head of Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris.
Now comes Jim Cramer, the wild man/stock picker on CNBC, taking up the call.
We realize that some stock market experts advise investors to listen carefully to what Cramer says, and then do the opposite.
Be that as it may, Cramer isn't always wrong.
So we pass along Cramer's view of Dow/Liveris:
When another viewer asked Cramer about Dow Chemical, Cramer pointed to Dow CEO Andrew Liveris on his Wall of Shame; “He told us repeatedly the dividend wasn’t in doubt – and then he got rid of the dividend. So my take is, until they get rid of Liveris, we’re not recommending Dow Chemical.”
(editor's note: another in a series from Wilson of St. Louis.)
"I was offered 'The Godfather' before Marlon (Brando) was in it. I was offered 'The Godfather' when Danny Thomas was the leading candidate for the Godfather. And I passed. Jack (Nicholson) passed, also. And I remember something else. I was offered 'The Godfather' to produce and direct. Charlie Bluhdorn was a fan of 'Bonnie and Clyde' and sent me the book...I read it. Sort of. And I said 'Charlie, not another gangster movie.' "
-- Warren Beatty, in "The Godfather Wars," Vanity Fair, March 2009
"The thing about Charles is that, universally, he's been so nice to everyone around him, the people who work in the building, he joshes around with them, people out on the street, the fans, everyone, a lot of people don't like that kind of contact, but Charles always has. And I think that will serve him well when he comes back. Charles, he'll find a way to embrace this. A lot of guys hide and might not want to deal with it all, but Charles will. Fans are very forgiving and understanding."
-- Marv Albert, commenting on Charles Barkley's return to "Inside the NBA" on TNT Thursday after his DUI. Since he was off the show, ratings have dropped 38 percent
"No one who ever passed through an American public high school could have watched William Jefferson Clinton running for office in 1992 and failed to recognize the familiar predatory sexuality of the provincial adolescent. The man was, Jesse Jackson said that year to another point, "nothing but an appetite." No one who followed his appearances on 'The Road to the White House' on C-SPAN could have missed the reservoir of self-pity, the quickness to blame, the narrowing of the eyes, as in a wildlife documentary, when things did not go his way: a response so reliable that aides on Jerry Brown's 1992 campaign looked for situations in which it could be provoked."
------- "Clinton Agonistes" by Joan Didion, New York Review of Books Sept. 22, 1998
"It's a game at a time. . . just like it's a day at a time. When you've come through the thing that I've come through, it's a day at a time. Every morning I wake up I check to make sure to see if I'm alive and I start thanking God and I hope I can do something good with that day because I don't know how many days I have left. None of us does."
------NPR, Feb. 18, '09, Don Meyer, the winningest coach in college basketball, at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. He lost a leg in a car wreck last year, and now has inoperable cancer and coaches from a wheelchair.
So we were watching CNN this morning, catching up on world events.
There's a story about the son of Martin Luther King Jr. laying a wreath at the memorial of Mahatma Ghandi, the progenitor of social change through nonviolent means.
The camera pans the King delegation, standing solemnly, hands clasped before them.
There's a cutaway shot of the Ghandi memorial.
Then there's a closer shot, from a slightly different vantage point, of the King delegation and ... BAM ... there she is -- Sheila Jackson Lee, US representative from the Fightin' 18th Congressional District of Texas ... in INDIA!!
Sheila Jackson Lee. Hot Damn. She's a force of nature, blessed with an uncanny ability to detect the presence of news cameras, no matter where they are, no matter what the news event, come hell or high water, and then suddenly appear right in their viewfinders.
For her dogged tenacity and her irrefutable gift of self promotion, we salute her.
She is, we dare say, one of a kind.
The situation at Dow Chemical Co. seems to get worse everyday.
Word comes from Indianapolis that Dow may sell Dow AgroSciences, its ag-chemicals-biotech firm.
The Indianapolis Business Journal reports Dow needs to raise cash and that Aussie-born CEO Andrew Liveris has a dozen or so assets on the table.
“We are very proud of the [AgroSciences] business. It’s a high earner. In the last five years, we’ve invested in it. It generated a great R&D pipeline … a lot of great niches and, in fact, good positions around the world in various crops and in various chemical markets,” he said.
“But having said that, I would tell you that all options are on the table.”
The Houston Chronicle will cut at least another 10 percent of its employees, the publisher said in a memo distributed late Friday.
The Chronicle has been reducing its payroll the last four years. In 2004 it cut 240, in 2005 it cut 100 and last year it cut 70.
Here's the memo from publisher Jack Sweeney:
February 13, 2009
Dear Chronicle Colleagues:
As our newspaper continues to report the condition of the economy, we read about companies in all business categories adjusting their size to match current and projected revenues. The Houston Chronicle must do the same in spite of your diligent efforts.
Consequently, over the next 60 days, we will be reorganizing our employee base in all divisions around a reduction in force of at least 10 percent. As we restructure the Chronicle, rest assured that we are planning and researching many other cost saving initiatives so we can keep job eliminations as low as possible. I ask for your help, in that regard, so please keep submitting your cost savings ideas through our new program.
I hope you understand that difficult decisions must be made in challenging times and I ask for your patience as we work through this period of unprecedented change.
Sincerely,
Jack Sweeney
We posted an item a few days about the Dallas newsman who took an early retirement buyout and ended up managing a "high end" strip club.
It got the attention of at least three of you rednecks, who took the trouble to post comments.
It got the attention, too, of some editor at The Wall St. Journal, who decided maybe the first piece it published about people gettin laid off or bought out (which included a mention of the Dallas newsman-turned-titty-bar-manager down way low in the story) might not be as interesting as a full-blown story on the Dallas newsman-turned-titty-bar-manager.
So they had the same reporter write a full-blown piece on the ex-newsman-turned ....
Good call.
Rupert Murdoch ain't runnin the WSJ for nothing.
Here's a taste of how the ex-newsman-turned-yadda-yadda got his new job at the Lodge in Big D:
"It seemed pretty clear that people of my vintage weren't going to get through retirement," says Mr. Precker, now 53 years old.
Around that time he found himself seated at a charity dinner near the owner of a Dallas strip club, Dawn Rizos. Hearing him mention the newspaper industry's travails, she offered him a job. "I like smart people. You could do communications," she told him.
He laughed it off. "I thought, 'I couldn't stoop to something like that,'" he recalls.
Soon afterwards, he was visiting Israel when the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon broke out, and to his surprise he found himself disinterested in covering it. "As much as I loved my job and was proud of what I'd done, I didn't have the urge anymore to run up to the border and explain it all to the American people and then come back and brag about how I'd been shot at," he says.
Mr. Precker's career change was mentioned earlier this week in a column written by Mr. Helliker.
For him, that experience made it all the harder to ignore the industry's deepening financial travails. In his mind, he says, "the lines on the graph crossed. It got to be more ridiculous to hang on at a newspaper and less ridiculous to take this leap."
Upon returning to Dallas, he called Ms. Rizo, who made the offer contingent on the approval of Mr. Precker's wife of more than two decades. "I talked to her myself and made sure it was okay with her," says Ms. Rizos. [WSJ]
We were too, sort of, but we don't follow state lawmakin' like Burka, who's the go-to guy when the National TVs want something about Texas explained.
Burka wrote this about how Our Man in Austin and other solons fared in the new committee assignments doled out by the new speaker:
"Bonnen. Frankly, I’m surprised that he got a chairmanship (Land and Resource Management). He was a very controversial chair of Environmental Reg with little patience for the other side. But he is a good legislator and a shrewd observer of the process. He may go from the frying pan into the fire if his committee gets Eminent Domain."
Karl Rove, who looks likes he's lost some weight, has been tweeting on his hunting trip.
The new Texas House committee assignments were announced today in Austin.
We've been wondering how our favorite whippin' boy, State Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, might fare in the reshuffled committees now that there's a new House speaker who apparently is not as right-wingy as the last guy.
Anyhow, Bonnen is OUT as head of the House Committee on Environmental Regulation. This is good. He was way too unpleasant a fellow for the job and handled the concerns of environmentalists with a heavy hand. We respect the right to disagree and, yeah, some enviros are a little loopy, but Bonnen didn't have to be such an a-hole toward them. It reflected poorly on Brazoria County, which we love.
But now he's IN as chair of the Land & Resouce Management Committee. Does this mean he can still browbeat conservationists during committee hearings? Kinda sounds like it. But we really have no idea what this committe does exactly.
We are now faced with the vexing question of whether these changes enhance Bonnen's vow to have the Texas Toad named as the official state amphibian (after his failed effort last session to have the Texas Blind Salamander named as such.)
If anyone knows, let us know.
=====================
[pdf file of new committee assignments, via Tx Monthly]
The other shoe finally fell for the Dow Chemical Co.
It cut its dividend for the first time in the company's history -- dropping it from 42 cents to 15 cents.
Cutting the dividend was hardly surprised, as Dow Chief Executive Andrew Liveris had cooled his defense on the subject in recent weeks. Top priority in times of economic uncertainty has to be the company's investment-grade rating, he said. [marketwatch]
The so-called derivative lawsuit, made public Tuesday in Wilmington, Del., also seeks damages from some board members on behalf of Midland-based Dow.
The Rohm & Haas takeover plan, and a foundering joint venture with Petrochemicals Industries Co. of Kuwait, put Dow "on the precipice of an unmitigated financial disaster," because officials failed "to bring rational business judgment to bear," stockholder Michael D. Blum said in the complaint...
...Dow "now perches on the horns of a dilemma," Blum contends. If it completes the Rohm & Haas merger, it will "careen into almost immediate insolvency," and if it doesn't, "it will be liable for astronomical damages," he said.
Besides removal of Liveris, the lawsuit calls for "corporate reforms at Dow" to allow more input by shareholders and "safeguards for the conduct of mergers and acquisitions."
"Dow believes that this litigation is defective" and will seek to have it dismissed, said Patti Temple Rocks, a spokeswoman for the company.
I watch Letterman practically every night. Sometimes it disappoints and I'll end up reading with Dave in the background. Sometimes there'll be a great musical guest; a few months ago Kanye West performed and I was surprised how much I liked the number he did. And sometimes, like last night, there will be a classic guest appearance by an actor hawking his or her newest movie.
Check out Joaquin Phoenix here via The Huffington Post.
(Or, treat yourself to the full 10 minute 49 second clip on YouTube here.)
It was funny and uncomfortable all at the same time. I think maybe Joaquin is under the influence of something. What I don't know. I hope he'll be OK.
The Wall Street Journal today published a story about successful people who have a hard time coping with getting laid off or taking early retirement.
Loss of self esteem and so forth ...
But It Doesn't Have To Be Traumatic, various experts opined.
One fellow doing fine is a former prize-winning reporter/editor for the Dallas Morning News.
Michael Precker took a buyout from the paper in 2006. He was real worried, too, about what would happen to him.
"But it has been easier than I thought. I feel lucky," Precker told the paper.
He now manages a "high-end strip club," reported The Journal, apparently straight-faced.
The joke about the head of Dow Chemical Co. goes like this:
“What is Liveris spelled backwards? Sir Evil.”
The most ominous quote in the YouTube viddy below is some newspaper editor telling a TV reporter that making the newspaper accessible via computer is, apparently, completely altruistic.
"We're not in it to make money," he said.
Yup, guess not.
(Another in a series, capturing the zeitgeist, so to speak, as compiled by Wilson in St. Louis.)
"Somebody sent me a quote from Plato: 'Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.' That kind of approach helps you deal with everything, really, and that's how we tried to behave in Mumbai. Hopefully in the long run people will appreciate that."
------- Danny Boyle, director of "Slumdog Millionaire" in Newsweek, fw, 9, 09
"If money isn't loosened up, this sucker could go down."
-- G.W. Bush, #43, on Sept. 24, 2008
"My feet hurt, my back hurt and I'm extremely tired."
-- Morgan Collins, worker at Denny's on Hampton, where 750 free "Grand Slam" breakfasts were served during her 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift.
"I know of no cause for this conspiracy against me, except that I am the natural enemy of all rotten politicians...I am for the Union as it is; and for that Mr. Calhoun denounced me as a traitor to the South...and signaled to all his followers in Missouri to go to work upon me..."
--Thomas Hart Benton, Missouri Senator in the 1840s, quoted in Profiles in Courage by John Kennedy.
The politics of Mike Huckabee may not be your politics, but here we give you at least one reason to cut the guy a little slack. Check out this 55-second clip from the award-winning Fox News Channel program Redeye.
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