I’m getting close to my first fillup on the Grand. Since it’s a bigger tank, it will probably cost me more, even though it gets me further down the road. After one week, I’m even happier with the Grand...
Blog
AirBeagleThe Return
An historic moment: « the first US passenger jet to land in Vietnam since 1975 lands at Ho Chi Minh City ». Oddly enough, it was flown by bankrupt United Airlines, and odder still, carried as a...
As I Keep Saying …..
Rain all week ….. the occasional patch of blue sky ….. even eerie fog and gloom on Tuesday (I think it was Tuesday). But no snow. Aargh! It’s supposed to snow 1 to 3 inches tonight. I’ll believe...
Stuck in the Basement
Sadly, I haven’t actually ridden the bike in a month. What with the new drug for the arthritis, and the subsequent nasty allergic reaction to aforementioned drug, and the onset of cold and rain, the Bobcat is in...
An Education
So Ann Arbor middle schoolers today tell explicit jokes about incest during their lunch periods.
Who knew?
Putting Them Down Like Horses
Apparently, « Imperial troops are putting wounded Iraqis out of their misery by shooting them in the head », kind of like you’d put down a horse: ‘A U.S. soldier pleaded guilty at his...
Positively State Street
What did I hear this afternoon wafting from a window of a classroom in Mason Hall but Bob Dylan’s “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue,” not as the soundtrack to an anti-war protest in the Diag as it...
Back to Normal
Ah, yes. Today it was back to the Ann Arbor I know and love. I was on the bus coming home tonight, sitting next to the window. A woman on a cell phone sat down next to me and started yacking. This went on for five...
Bizarro World
As often as I complain about etiquette and rudeness, it would be downright impolite of me not to include acknowledgment when a day happens like today, in which not only was the town of Ann Arbor socked in with fog (...
The Smell of Napalm in the Morning
Looks like the « ‘how I love the smell of Napalm in the morning’ boys are firmly in control » of the Imperial military: ‘The US has already admitted that it used napalm during the...
The Price of Books
An excellent commentary from a reader of the Los Angeles Times named G. Llloyd Helm appeared in today’s edition: The other day I was in Barnes & Noble and an ugly fact came home to me. I can’t afford to...
Random Michigan News
Thieves steal DVDs from public libraries in Macomb County and sell them to pawn shops. A candidate for a spot on the Lapeer District Library Board was denied a spot even though he was the only candidate running. He also...
Tale of Two Governors
Not to beat a dead horse. But I will anyway. On September 13, Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 2208 into law. The law in California now requires insurers doing business in California to treat domestic partners the same...
Not Dead Yet
Thanks for checking back in with me; I’ve been sick for two weeks (I won’t bore you with the details). I hope to start gearing up the postings back to a more readable level soon.
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
Some fascinating reading is to be found in « The Assassination of Danilo Anderson » ‘I remember on September 21, 1976 the FBI vacuuming the broken glass on Embassy Row’s Sheridan Circle, after...
Adjusting to the New Reality
« Molly Ivins is freaked out ». It’s a great column, but the ending is … a tad naive, I’m afraid. ‘In the name of Jesus Christ Almighty, why are people representing our government...
First They Came For the Books …
‘Where one burns books, one will soon burn people.’ —Heinrich Heine « Alabama Fascist calls for ‘gay’ book purge » ‘A bill by Rep. Gerald Allen, R-Cottondale, would...
Worth Quoting
Bill Moyers, « in a speech to People for the American Way »: ‘Of this, I am sure, you can be fearful or free, but you cannot be both. If you are fearful, you put yourself at the mercy of priests and...
Amendment 2 Aftermath
The clever and — you have to give this to them, tactically and strategically brilliant — proponents of Amendment 2 spent hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars in the months leading up to the...
Only in Ann Arbor
Q. Who would you rather be run over by? (a) A driver behind the wheel of a Cadillac Escalade sporting a “KEEP HONKING WHILE I RELOAD” bumper sticker. (b) A bicyclist with a gray crate tied by bungee cord to...
Liberty = Girly Car?
So, « this forum pretty much addresses my whole ‘Isn’t it sort of a girly car?’ » problem. One example: ‘I am 32, male, living in the city of Chicago. I used to be a VW Jetta driver...
What I Want
If I go with a new Liberty, here’s what I want and what it would cost: 2005 LIBERTY RENEGADE 4X4 D Pkg . . . $23,560.00 » Primary: Dark Khaki Pearl Coat . . ...
Where We Stand
I’ve had three Jeeps before: a ‘92 Black Cherry Cherokee Sport; a ‘98 Dark Green Cherokee Sport; and an ‘01 Patriot Blue Wrangler Sport (my current vehicle). I love them all, but was especially...
So That Happened …
FYI: Visit the UM Medical Center Emergency Room on a holiday weekend Saturday night and you should feel lucky that you’re only there a mere eight hours for a relatively minor complaint. See, this sulfa drug that...
First Snowfall
First snowfall of the season Wednesday night when I was at work ….. it was nice walking in the semi-sleet/semi-snow combination from Hatcher to the bus stop, though I admit it was equally nice that the bus showed...
Almost Done
I never write about or identify my family on my website. They absolutely hate that and have raked me over the coals numerous times, pouring out their venom and anxiety if I so much as dare to mention them on AirBeagle...
Dreaming and Aching
Lots and lots of dreams lately. Mainly induced by Vicodin, perhaps, or the new Sulfasalazine I’ve been on for just over a week now. The pain still continues. Yesterday was a pretty good day, but today has been...
On This Day
Other than Jack Ruby’s live TV murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, 24-Nov-04 was a pretty boring day in history: 1926 KVI-AM in Seattle WA begins radio transmissions 1947 John Steinbeck’s novel “The...
Duly Noted
’[Reinhard] Heydrich reported 7,500 Jewish businesses destroyed, 267 synagogues burned (with 177 totally destroyed) and 91 Jews murdered during Kristallnacht. Heydrich then requested new decrees forbidding Jews...
Annihilation
I’m watching Shoah again. Haven’t seen it since it aired on PBS in 1986 or so. Just as shattering as I remember. From « Shoah Film Handouts »: ‘Henrik Gawkowski (Malkinia) —...
It Was Bound to Happen Eventually
I’ve been pretty lucky thus far in my largely pedestrian life in Ann Arbor, because I have a vigilant attitude about vehicular traffic, honed over the years as a pedestrian in the notoriously high-traffic Bay Area...
Late November Weather
Snow today in Joshua Tree National Park, Twentynine Plams, and Yucca Valley … and up to 12 inches of snow in the San Bernardino Mountains … But it was sunny and mild here today. It’s supposed to be...
No Surprise
You mean he’s not just this way on the written page? I took this class because of Prof. Wallace’s reputation as an author. What a mistake! This guy just likes to hear himself talk, and he won’t shut up...
Hideous Opacity
I can see that Ashbery might stake a claim to being the most influential poet since 1955, though, given how many of his poetic descendants fall over themselves to be even more willfully inscrutable and opaque than...
Radiator Archive
I had some time to kill this afternoon, so I did some reading in one of the carrels on the third floor of Hatcher. I turned to look out the window and saw a fascinating display on the radiator below the window. The...
Tipping Point
I went into Ambrosia twice today, once at 11.30 and once at 3.15, and both times it was too packed to find anywhere to sit down inside. I realized that the place has hit its tipping point of popularity, although...
Registration for Final Term
Tomorrow is my final registration appointment at the University of Michigan. Hard to believe. Damn, these 15 months have gone by fast! I am pretty sure what I’m going to take, including the dreaded 502 class that...
I Get It … More So Now
I was taken to task (well, gently corrected, truth be told) by a couple of natives for the previous dumb-headed post. I humbly apologize (and also to any other Michiganders I may have teed off). Like I said in the...
Whither Winter?
Weather has been creeping toward winter, but (I could be wrong) less steadily than last November. The evenings and nights have been in the low to upper 20s. But the days are still getting up to the high 50s. Today was...
An LIS Program (and Much of a Library) Destroyed
There are some heartbreaking photos here of the October 30 flash flood that destroyed the ground floor of the Hamilton Library at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, wiping out the library’s map collection...
All Those Footnotes
David Foster Wallace wrote a long-winded review of a new Jorge Luis Borges biography in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. And it was filled with – what else? – copious, runny, unnecessary...
Threats and Jokes
So the backlash mounts in intensity: evangelical Christians in Westland (just 20 miles from Ann Arbor, as the crow flies, which says nothing, really, because evangelicals interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle in...
Winter on the Way
Supposed to go down to 22 degrees tonight … I definitely felt walking home tonight the fact that I hadn’t brought gloves or cap with me … it was a quiet, beautiful, starlit night, so still you could...
Zapping the Passengers
In news from the h.S.S. today, we see that « the first Taser stun guns will be allowed on airliners »: ‘Stun gun maker Taser International Inc. on Monday said it won U.S. government approval to use its...
