The man who exposed serious security flaws in airport security was « sentenced to probation this week »: ‘A college student who says he hid box cutters on airplanes to expose weaknesses in...
Blog
AirBeagleSmells Like Desperation
United is reporting that « it lost $94 million in May alone »: ‘United Airlines said in a bankruptcy court filing Thursday that it posted a net loss of $93 million in May its efforts to...
Private Screeners Return
So after all the wrangling and expense, not to mention the Republicans’ largest expansion of the federal government in American history, « airport screening is being returned to the private...
In Agreement
Just when I thought I’d never agree with anything Dale Peck said, he goes and says this in an interview with Ellen Heltzel: Why does literature have to be so boring? And why, when it is funny, does it have to be...
A Confederacy of Fixtures
It’s somewhat amusing to see that John Kennedy Toole’s A Confederacy of Dunces, a novel that was on Stanford’s Summer Reading List for incoming freshmen when I was getting ready to enter college, is...
A Swooshing Sound
An Okie brings new meaning to the term ‘Activist Judge:’ ‘While seated on the bench, an Oklahoma judge used a male enhancement pump, shaved and oiled his nether region, and pleasured himself, state...
Lighten Up! Because I Said So!
I’d never really listened to the lyrics of Sheryl Crow’s “Soak up the Sun” before (it was playing in the Village Apothecary when I went in yesterday afternoon). Not bad for a pop song, but what...
Lollapaloser
Lollapalooza 2004 has been cancelled this year due to crappy ticket sales. Perry Farrell, in a message posted on the festival’s official site, wrote, “It is with heart gripped despair that I inform you of...
Go Big Red
People like to refer to places like San Francisco, Austin, Ann Arbor, Madison and Berkeley, etc., et al, as leftist bubbles … Ann Arbor is often described as something like ‘50 square miles surrounded by...
Busy Ann Arbor
June is much busier in ASquared than May, I’ve noticed. Besides the usual skateboarders and bike riders and summer students, there is now also an abundance of elderly polyester-wearing gawkers making their way...
Like the New Spiffiness?
So how do you like our new clothes? Much better, I hope. Here are some notes about the new design/location: You might not have noticed, but our URL is now airbeagle.US; thanks to our new Textdrive hosts, I can finally...
Like the New Spiffiness?
So how do you like our new clothes? Much better, I hope. Here are some notes about the new design/location: You might not have noticed, but our URL is now asquared.airbeagle.NET; thanks to our new Textdrive hosts, I can...
Pardon Our Dust
Pardon the mess around here, but we’re getting very close to finishing this one off. As of today, you can read the main posts, but other things may be wonkiy or not work. I still have to work on archives and...
An Open Letter to Michigan Weather
Yesterday, I left work and it was raining, and it was even approaching cold out. Glad I wore a long-sleeved shirt. Today, on the way to work, it was back to high 70s and high humidity. Glad I got my hair cut today...
The Cicada Hype Machine
Re the recent cicada infestation, the eminent arbiters of the New York Times have pontifically decreed that it was all a huge hypefest: This article is based on the latest available scientific information, which is: If...
Can You Shut Up Now?
Fair warning after visiting two Targets in two days and being fed up: Next time I’m in a store and I hear some fool idiot shouting on her cell phone screaming, ‘Can you hear me now?’ I shall do...
Cicadas in Matthaei!
A nice day (again). Perfect for a drive out to Matthaei Botanical Gardens, where, as you can see in the photos in the previous post, I finally got my cicada fix. We saw tons of cicada wings littering the pathways, a...
Beautiful Day in AA
An incredibly beautiful day ….. and surprisingly temperate given the last several days of high humidity. The most amazing thing I saw today was outside the kitchen window, along with the usual array of...
Shorter <em>New York Times Book Review</em>
Reading it so you don’t have to ….. Laura Miller thinks I’m OK – You’re OK and Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships, which were on 85% of the bookshelves in California...
Outdoor Sauna
Very humid today (though not that hot). But I have a feeling this is just the beginning. The real pressure-cooker heat days haven’t even started yet. It’s days like this that places like Juneau start looking...
Not Here, But There
I was wrong when I wrote a while back “Nothing in Washtenaw.” Apparently the cicadas are all over Superior Township. Weird.
Respects to Mr. Joyce
There’s a thread over at LISNews about Bloomsbury and James Joyce and Ulysses and the whole hundred-year mark thing. I’m greatly enjoying the history. It’s a nice break from non-stop Reagan worship and...
We Have Returned
We’re back, it seems. Thanks to some hard effort by David in San Francisco and advice from Jason at TextDrive, the Beagle is back. Did you miss us?
Switching …
There will be some sorta higgledy-piggledyness on airbeagle.com today and maybe into tomorrow; I’m switching the site to a more sane and less snarky, less corporate hosting provider. Had enough of LunarPages...
Switching …
There will be some sorta higgledy-piggledyness on airbeagle.com today and maybe into tomorrow; I’m switching the site to a more sane and less snarky, less corporate hosting provider. Had enough of LunarPages...
Cicada Update
The funny thing is that the Ann Arbor News ran an article today indicating that the first Washtenaw cicada sightings have occurred: The emergence of the periodical cicada in the past week in northeast Ann Arbor and Ann...
Cheaper Than Water
From the ‘Sorry we tortured your uncle, raped your wife, blew your kid’s legs off and destroyed your home and livelihood, but at least we’re giving you cheap gas!’ Department: We’re paying...
“Patchy” Cicadas
No cicadas in Philadelphia this year. The Philadelphia Inquirer theorizes that it’s possible that an increase in concrete in areas where cicadas may have laid their eggs in the past 17 years may account for the...
By The Numbers
The hagiography being written (presumably with an eye to sainthood and a spot on Rushmore, as well as his name on everything that will sit still and some things that won’t) claims the dearly departed had the...
66 For The Gipper
He’s gone; I’m sorry I voted for him, but admire his commitment to public service; my extreme sympathies to Nancy (and every other family who has to deal with Alzheimer’s like my family did); and sure...
Post-Skunk Report
Post-skunking, the dog is asleep here in the basement with me, exhausted but otherwise okay. The spraying was unpleasant, but it could have been much worse; it seems that the bugger only got the side of the poor...
In Which the Prospective Teacher Learns a Lesson
Tonight’s lesson, boys and girls: When the geriatric dog suddenly comes up off the floor like a rocket and runs over to the screen door, fur a-bristling, and howling like a banshee, don’t simply shine a...
Creative Solutions Department
And then there’s bulldozing the library as a solution to life’s problems.
Still No Cicadas
According to Cicada Mania, cicadas in southern Ohio and Indiana, eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Long Island ….. still nothing in Washtenaw. The weather’s supposed to warm up significantly this coming...
The Wave of the Future
Amazing (at least to those of us like me who have not yet figured out that phones are more than phones) but true.
Ah, Only in America
….. would Jennifer Granholm fall (for nine minutes) for a radio “morning crew” stunt in which the person supposedly on the other end of the line was Ahnold Schwarzenegger but really wasn’t...
Truth in Advertising?
No strange critter sightings today, but it was mordantly amusing (then completely irritating, then vaguely humiliating) to stand waiting for over 15 minutes for a Link bus to come by. They’re supposed to come by...
Ypsi Gets Cool Cities Grant
Ann Arbor didn’t make the first wave of Cool Cities grants; Ypsilanti, however, did.
Hearty congratulations, Ypsi.
Sum up Your Personality with 5 Books
Stolen from I Love Books: Ambrose Bierce: The Devil’s Dictionary [1911] Greil Marcus: Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock’N’Roll Music [1975] David Nasaw: The Chief: The Life of William Randolph...
Summer Is Icumen In
Signs of approaching summer everywhere. The temperature was up in the high 60s today. Robins aplenty, but a strange and unsettling squirrel hiatus. Humidity rising. Blue sky. Roofers getting ready to lay new roofing in...
Home Is Where It Begins
They were in the back of the bus this afternoon, two off-duty AATA drivers, exchanging war stories about belligerent passengers, snotty passengers, or moronic passengers who ring the stop bell and then change their...
Mysterious Critters
Michigan’s full of them. What was that strange, frightened critter (light brown, about the size of a small dog but very rodent-like, resembling a squirrel on unbelievable doses of steroids) I saw dashing across...
Still No Cicadas
Almost a month later and still no cicadas ….. A quick check of Cicada Mania shows there have been sightings in Cincinnati and southern Indiana, but nothing here yet. There is a moderately amusing photo at Cicada...
Question of the Day
Question of the Day while subbing at one of Ann Arbor’s two high schools:
‘Hey, Mr. Sub Man, Sir? What’s a Baroness?’
