I guess I’m still shaking my head over the blurb in the Ann Arbor News police blotter yesterday: A motorist who stopped to allow ducks to cross the road in Ann Arbor Saturday evening said a passenger of a nearby...
Blog
AirBeagle10 Miles, Woo-Hoo!
Today, I took the longest ride yet: 10 miles roundtrip on the Bobcat. We won’t talk about what it did to my hands, even though my splints took most of the shock and I really haven’t had much trouble, post...
They Found the WMDs …
… except that they’re not in Iraq, but in « North Korea »: ‘North Korea is likely to be producing nuclear bombs even as it conducts negotiations with the United States and four other...
Pleasant Saturday Ride
We took a very nice five-mile roundtrip to the library today, the first time we had done a double ride together. The M30 is rougher and tougher on me than the Bobcat, but performed fine, wonky crank and all. I need to...
Afternoon Bike Ride
Not having biked in almost five years (my last bike rides were through rough neighborhoods in East Oakland, and while nothing ever happened to me there, I came to realize that there were probably smarter things to do...
The Rock on Which It Was Built
From The Reformation by Diarmaid MacCulloch: ‘They had no chance of knowing the strange tangled history of the Christian Church: how a small Jewish sect had separated from all the other Jewish identities of first...
T Minus Less than a Week
Much more temperate today than it’s been the past few days. I enjoy the sunlight and the warmth as long as there’s a dip in the humidity and there’s a breeze, or even a wind. I had lunch at...
Bush in the UP
Bush was today driven in a campaign bus around the UP. The first appearance of a president in that part of the state since Howard Taft visited in 1911, according to the Washington Post. (Fact-checked though that factoid...
Another Reason I Listen to the BBC
The announcer deriding the American pronunciation of the word “soccer” (“sah-kuh”), a word which is already in itself apparently an object of derision because the word the rest of the world uses...
The Michigan Hate Amendment
According to a brief article on the back of the front section of today’s Ann Arbor News, a recent poll by EPIC/MRA found that 61% of Michigan residents favor amending the state constitution to ban same-sex...
Summer Crowds
Whoever said that Ann Arbor is deserted in the summer? If anything, it seems more hectic during the summer than it does during the winter, when everybody’s indoors unless they absolutely have to go outdoors. There...
Traffic No-Nos
Like I said, I’ll never understand Michigan drivers, no matter how long I live here. This afternoon I was waiting to cross the street (at Division and William, I think) and a driver of a sports car stamped his...
Archive List is Up
A list of all posts since April (when we switched from Movable Type to Textpattern) is now up and running. Now if I can salvage all the MT entries from April back through last August, we’ll be in bidness.
RSS/Atom Returns
RSS and Atom feeds are working again; you can find links to them in the ‘Remember’ section of the navigation list on the left. Let me know if there’s a problem with them. I’m still working on the...
Dog-Day Cicadas
Southeast Michigan seems to have missed most of the Brood X periodical cicada event, but the regular “dog day” Tibicen cicadas, which are apparently more of a loner species than the Magicicada, are now...
From Zero to Two
I was over in Ypsilanti today, taking the Michigan Test for Teacher Certification at Willow Run High School, and had almost three hours between the morning and afternoon sessions. So I went to explore Ypsi, where I...
Signs of Cultural Acclimation to Michigan
The other day I startled myself by referring to a carbonated beverage as “pop” without thinking about it. Today the heat was in the 80s and the humidity was in the mid-to-high range, weather that would have...
The Truth from the Pollok Estate
This one caught my eye for two reasons: First, and most importantly, it’s a ringing denunciation of the bloody Cabal over the body of a 19-year-old Scottish Fusilier from a true Man of God and Peace. Second, it...
Strategic Retreat Regrettably Necessary
With a great deal of sadness and regret, I withdrew from grad school classes yesterday morning, deferring my enrollment/involvement with the program until next June. I’ve had tendonitis for 3-5 years now and had...
Up to Speed
Bought a cheap little odometer for the Bobcat that works really well and was easy to install. Nothing fancy or expensive, just a way to tell how far I’ve gone …
Michigan Goings-On
Interesting Michigan developments ….. According to a story in Entertainment Weekly quoted by Daily Kos, the GKC Theatre chain, which owns 13 movie houses in Alpena, Traverse City, Battle Creek, Big Rapids, Fort...
Shorter <em>New York Times Book Review</em>
A little late this time ….. A glowing review by Larry McMurtry of the Bill Clinton memoir that covers the front page and two pages inside besides (“Some people don’t want Bill Clinton to have written a...
Mildness Continues
It’s been amazingly temperate for at least the past week, if not the entire two weeks since summer began. There have been a few days of mid-80s temps with some high humidity, but those days have usually been...
“Enjoy the Show”
We finally saw “Fahrenheit 9/11” this afternoon. An amazing piece of work, in many ways, and also infuriating in other ways (as everything Michael Moore does is). This isn’t going to be a review of the...
One Step Closer
The magical check arrived at 2:30 this afternoon, so I hotfooted it over to Ann Arbor Cyclery to make a certain purchase. Curses. Foiled again. AAC closed today for the long holiday weekend. I’ll be bike-less for...
Best Slogan Yet
Best slogan for the Boy Emperor’s campaign I’ve seen yet:
‘Bush-Cheney ‘04: Don’t Change Horses in the Middle of an Apocalypse’
Still Waiting
Still waiting on the magical check to fund my bike purchase. Feeling very under the weather with an infection, so it wouldn’t matter anyway. But looks like Wednesday might be the day!
NPR: Hipper than Thou?
I love this, and I’m not sure why: NPR’s ombudsman scolding NPR for producing and airing music commentary that’s too “hipper-than-thou.” The ombudsman (Jeffrey Dvorkin, whose last major...
The California Syndrome
Would we ever move back to California? Sometimes I fantasize about it, I admit it, despite being in complete agreement with Steve that there is much more room to breathe here in Michigan. I think of places I love in...
Sunday Driving
We took a little drive to Saline, where we noted that the Dairy Queen is much nicer than the ones in Ann Arbor. We then went over to Curtiss Park and sat by the river for awhile. It was most pleasant … the nicest...
Getting Closer
I’m making progress on getting all the various pieces of AirBeagle working with new layouts. I added the new photo galleries portal page today as well as a new gallery. Here’s what works from the nav menu at...
Perfect Day, No Bike
It was a beautiful day and would have been perfect for riding, if only my first bike wasn’t still in San Francisco and the new one wasn’t still in the store, unpurchased. The nice man at the UPS store here...
Selfishness
From the movie Born Yesterday, starring William Holden: ‘The whole history of the world is the story of the struggle between the selfish and the unselfish … all that’s bad around us is bred by...
Mild Summer So Far
It’s been a very nice, temperate few days in southeastern Michigan. The high humidity of a week or so ago seems to have abated for the moment. No rain in the past few days. The highs have been mild, in the low to...
Cart Put Before Horse
So, let’s see if we’ve got this straight. Virgin USA has its corporate headquarters in New York, but its flight ops headquarters will be clear across the country in San Francisco. They need to hire 3,000...
Contrasts, Revisited
From the Jack Ryan 2004 Website: ‘Jack Ryan on the Defense of Marriage: ‘I believe that marriage can only be defined as that union between one man and one woman. I am opposed to same-sex marriages, civil...
Flying the Blutfahne
A group of right-wing ‘bloggers, responding to President Gore referring to them as ‘Brown Shirts,’ have proudly donned the mantle and are featuring a logo on their sites which has a photo of...
Overexposed
I honor his accomplishments, but for god’s sake can we shut up about Lance Armstrong already?
Irritating Jacket Blurb of the Month
This appears on the front cover of the hyped-to-death Karen Joy Fowler novel The Jane Austen Book Club (Miss Austen would be most amused by her post-mortem fan club; or maybe mortified). What does this even mean...
Shorter <em>New York Times Book Review</em>
Reading it so you don’t have to ….. A full-page ad hawking Toni Morrison’s new line of handsome paperback editions of her novels “with deeply personal forewords reflecting on each work.”...
Northwest Threatens Employees
‘Northwest Airlines is threatening to discipline, and possibly fire, union employees if they proceed with picketing that questions the safety and security of Northwest flights, according to a letter the airline...
