For those of you not familiar with Rickrolling, explanation here. Actually, I wasn’t fully informed on the matter either.But...…the White House says President Bush has "no plans" to see the movie.
White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said she's not sure that Bush has seen any of Stone's earlier films, which includes "JFK" and "World Trade Center."
One thing she's clear about: Oliver Stone has no credibility to chronicle the Bush presidency."Oliver Stone is an accurate historian like Gilligan was an accurate navigator," she said.
That would be Gilligan, as in "Gilligan's Island," the CBS sitcom from the 1960s about seven castaways shipwrecked on an abandoned island. The show featured Bob Denver, above, playing Gilligan, the hapless navigator.
Now, I endured the extreme cold in February 2007 to watch his campaign kick-off speech and was very uncomfortable and cold. My feet were frozen before it was all over. But I was glad I did it. This time, the day is going to be hot (at noon everyone is going to be in the sun). I’m not sure I’m up for that.The Democratic National Committee has invited some high-ranking officials from Barack Obama’s home state to speak at the party’s convention in Denver next week, but not Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Those invited include Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Comptroller Dan Hynes and Attorney General Lisa Madigan. All three are potential rivals of Blagojevich, should he run for re-election. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley also has been invited to speak.
I got this in my e-mail box yesterday:Dear Blogger,
Bloggers play a vital role in helping Illinoisans get their news.
That’s why I want to make sure you receive information from the Treasurer’s Office at the same time as traditional media outlets. This information includes press releases and news advisories about events, information about office programs and news about state investments.
Having access to these up-to-date materials will help you track developing news and keep tabs on the services and programs that the Treasurer’s Office offers – instead of having to wait until other media outlets file reports.
To receive these documents, you must respond to this e-mail. In addition, please indicate if you would like all documents the Treasurer’s Office sends to media outlets or just information pertaining to certain subjects (e.g. Bright Start, environmental programs, investment news, etc.) or geographic areas within Illinois . We’ll do our best to satisfy your request.
Thank you for your time. I hope this will help you continue to provide independent news coverage and insightful commentary.
Sincerely,
Alexi Giannoulias
Illinois State Treasurer
Obama is coming here to make the announcement. The town in which Davlin is mayor. Not a coincidence.See! It's inevitable.
Davlin led the way in implementing the city's smoking ban long before it was Kool to do so. Obama who has, or is trying, to stop smoking will need someone with a proven track record to keep him off the butts.
Davlin is an overt Irish Catholic and has not ever been suspected of being a Muslim.
The sudden announcement that Davlin's brother, Kevin, will soon be divesting himself of Chantilly Lace is evidence of the Veep vetting process. No one wants Chantilly's notorious past brought up during the campaign. The Attorney General's position may then also become available to Kevin Davlin.
What campaign could pass up the slogan "Vote For the Boyz From Illinoiz"?
Davlin was seen in the Simpsons "Real Springfield" contest video in London, solidifying the mayor's foreign policy cred.
Now, I said the first time I was in Chantilly was about 17 years ago and, technically, that’s true. However, I used to go in to that building a lot some 40 years ago when it was Shakey’s Pizza. As kid we went there all the time, for birthdays a lot as I recall. They had wooden benches and long tables, a piano player and a huge window into the kitchen where you could see them making the pizzas. They also gave the kids these styrofoam hats which we would have broken and in pieces before the end of the night there.
Personally, I can see both sides of the issue. It seems to me that once you are an adult at 18 you should be allowed to drink. On the other hand there seems to be some demonstrable benefits (less DUI, etc.) to the higher drinking age.[Bar manager] Sam Mrofcza said he does not have a problem abiding by the ban, but does not approve of more personal restrictions.
"If they're going to take it this far, (they should) just make (cigarettes) illegal, and while they're at it, they might as well make alcohol illegal," Mrofcza said. "And we all know how prohibition went."
Yeah, OK. I think you answered your own question, Sam, as to why no one is proposing an outright “ban” on cigarettes. Like the crazy war on drugs, it would be counterproductive, putting strain on law enforcement and creating a huge black market. Strict regulation and taxation works much better and still allows people to engage in their vices while not hurting anyone else. So just relax Sam.
It is true that there's absolutely no reason for 15,000 media people to show up to the [Democratic] convention, except the real reason they all show up which is that they see it as one of their proms. It's the big party.And there will be tons of media folk heading off to the Republican convention, the other prom, too.
... a Frisco [Texas] man says his truck is being targeted simply because his homeowners association doesn't think it's classy enough.
Jim Greenwood said he never dreamed his HOA would have a problem with his new Ford F-150 pickup. Then he received the first of three notices threatening him with fines.
"Mr. Greenwood, you're violating a subdivision rule that prohibits pickup trucks in your driveway," the notice reads.
Stonebriar HOA rules allow several luxury trucks on driveways, including the Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Avalanche, Honda Ridgeline and Lincoln Mark LT.
But most Ford, Dodge or Chevy pickups are restricted.
"It's very frustrating and confusing. It's hard to imagine how an HOA would try to dictate what type of vehicle you can drive and park in your driveway," Mr. Greenwood said.That's just idiotic. Maybe I'm biased because I own an F-150 and park it in the driveway during the warm months (in the garage during the cold months). Thing is, my truck is eight years old and is a fine, fine looking pick-up. It's not in anyway an eyesore. Judge for yourself; here's my son holding the business end of a power washer we were using to clean my beautiful truck a few weeks ago, in my driveway.
Fortunately, the HOA in our subdivision isn't as dickish as the one in the story. Although, we do have some restrictions on boats and RVs. I actually serve as a representative on our HOA and I think we've only sent one "please move your boat or RV" reminder in the five or six years I've been involved. And even that made me a little uncomfortable despite the fact that the notice was agreed to because some a-hole had long had an RV parked in the driveway in such a way as it forced any car parked behind it to block the sidewalk.
For the first time, scientists have proven that "beer goggles" are real - other people really do look more attractive to us if we have been drinking.Surprisingly, the beer goggles effect was not limited to just the opposite sex among the ostensibly straight volunteers recruited for the study - they also rated people from their own sex as more attractive.
Scientists in England gave 84 heterosexual college students chilled lime-flavored drinks that were either non-alcoholic or given a dose of vodka equivalent in alcohol to a large glass of wine or a pint-and-a-half of beer.
After 15 minutes, the volunteers were shown photos of 40 other college students from both sexes. Both men and women who drank booze found these faces more attractive, "a roughly 10 percent increase in ratings of attractiveness," said researcher Marcus Munafo, an experimental psychologist at the University of Bristol in England.
The researchers also asked volunteers to rate their mood, "and there were no differences on those measures in the alcohol group compared to the no-alcohol group," Munafo added. "This suggests that the effect we observed wasn't due to a general change in mood."
It did not escape Munafo that the results are rather obvious.
"Everyone knows about beer goggles," Munafo said. "But some of our results suggest that there's more going on than we might have thought."
The discovery that the effect is not specific to the opposite sex was surprising. One possibility is that alcohol generally makes us see things as more attractive, but when this occurs in social situations, such as at a bar, "this might become targeted at opposite-sex faces," Munafo said. By repeating the experiment with video clips shot at bars, the scientists hope to recreate those social cues and see what happens.
"The main question is whether these effects are specific to faces, or whether we would rate anything as more attractive after a drink," Munafo said.
Future research could expose people who have been drinking to landscapes or the faces of puppies and other animals, "to see if alcohol has a more general effect on perceiving beauty in the environment."
All i can say about that last part is, WOW! Think of the possibilities. We could save all the money spent on keeping the environment clean and just buy beer instead. Bye, bye EPA; hello EBA (Environmental Beer Agency). Ooooooh yeah!
And I know this will work becuase my unmowed yard always looks better after a few brews. Or at least I don't feel as bad about not mowing.
The best drink on the fairgrounds has to be the Mango Smoothie at the Indian both in the Ethnic Village.See you Friday for some beer blogging.
Vose's corn dogs and the nearby "butter" dipped sweet corn didn't seem as good to me this year.
Could the Lt. Governor's tent be more out of the way. It's more inconspicuous than the office itself.
I wish I had gone into the Illinois Wine building, but I didn't.
And hey here's a little secret that might come in handy. If you're looking to cool off after a few hours of wondering around the fairgrounds, go to the Grandstand and catch some horse races. When you do, stop at the beer stand, pick up a cold Bud then go all the way to the top of the grandstand seating. They have vents right behind the last row of seats that create a comfortable breeze even on the hottest day.Better yet, get one of those Mango Smoothies, hop on the skyride to the Grandstand (so the smoothie doesn't completely melt/get consumed before you get there), and head to the back row.
WATERVILLE, Maine — After stepping down from the pastorate last month after fifty years in ministry, Albert Finley did something no one expected: he had his first beer.OK, my take on this is that he wasn't really unfamiliar with beer. Instead, he came out of the beer closet and used his retirement as an excuse. I say this because I don't know anyone who tries beer for the first time and thinks it's great. Beer is an acquired taste.
"I was curious what it actually tasted like, after all these years of preaching against it," he says.
The results?
"What a marvelous drink," he says. "It tastes much better than it smells."
The Sierra Nevada Pale Ale he chose delivered "surprisingly complex and satisfying tastes."
"I actually said ‘Praise God’ right in the middle of it," he says.
But people in his former congregation are not happy.
"He’s tarnishing the reputation of himself and this church," says one woman. "I always pointed to the pastor and told my kids, ‘See? There’s a man who has chosen not to drink.’ This puts a big question mark after everything he has preached."
Another says Finley reminds her of Noah, "a righteous man who ended up a worthless drunk," she says.
But Finley says he no longer has to be an example. He is also upset that he has held misconceptions about beer for so long.
But I'm willing to suspend disbelief and become BFS Dan long enough to think that Sierra Nevada Pale Ale could actually cause an epiphany in a former clergyman.Extremely muggy conditions invaded much of central and southeast Illinois on Monday, August 4th. The dewpoint temperature is commonly used in meteorology to describe atmospheric moisture. It is the temperature to which air must be cooled in order to reach saturation (assuming air pressure and moisture content are constant). In general terms, the higher the dewpoint, the more oppressively humid the air feels. Dewpoints often reach into the low and mid 70s over the eastern half of the U.S. in summertime.
A rare set of factors may have combined on August 4th to produce widespread dewpoints in the upper 70s and lower 80s across central and southeast Illinois. Much above normal rainfall so far this year has led to abundant soil moisture. This has helped local vegetation which usually peaks in evapotranspiration (moisture loss) from mid July to early August. In addition, a warm front established itself across northern Illinois on the afternoon and evening of the 4th. This allowed southerly winds to supply moisture-rich air to the region. Other small-scale effects and local factors may have played a role in producing extremely high dewpoint readings.
Springfield IL established a new dewpoint record of 83 degrees F at 6:52 PM on the 4th. This broke the old record of 82 degrees from August 19, 1993 at 5 PM. The period of hourly records at Springfield dates back to 1948.
But it’s just George Bush – PASS.
Costas had a talk show on TV in the late 80s and early 90s and he proved to be a tremendous interviewer. Before that, I only knew him as a sports guy. But he proved to me that he was much more versatile and could speak to almost any topic. Costas is definitely the best in the biz. I guess he has a show on HBO now, though I’ve not seen it yet (we just got HBO).Lewis seemed to struggle with the higher notes in his songs.
At first, it seemed like there was a problem with his microphone or the sound mix, with some lyrics not coming through the PA system.
But soon it became clear that whenever Lewis would have to hit a high note, like in singing the title phrase from "This Is It," he would quickly and subtly slide the mic up from his mouth to his right cheek, next to his nose.
The mic he was using, which appeared to be a Shure SM-58, is designed to pick up sound directly in front of it, so it would seem that Lewis knew he would hardly be heard when he moved the mic away from his mouth.
“Our interchanges there are obsolete. As that traffic count continues to grow, you start exceeding capacity. Your interchanges get clogged up, then people start having accidents trying to get onto the interstate,” said Bill Frey, program development engineer with the Illinois Department of Transportation.
Frey also explained why the roughly six-mile section of I-55 between Sangamon Avenue and Interstate 72 was not six lanes when design work began for the U.S. Interstate 55 Bypass in the early 1960s.
“At that point, Springfield was a departure and destination community. Everybody was coming to Springfield and not going around Springfield,” said Fry.
Finally, they're going to look into adding an additional lane around Springfield. That's good news. (But 6.5 MILLION dollars to just study the idea?)
I guess some highly visible people actually get away with having affairs and so everyone thinks they can too, or something. It just doesn’t seem like running for president with a recent affair under your belt (and lying about it) is a practical thing to do to your political party or your family. What if Edwards had gotten the nomination?
The site was excavated and the artifacts stored away at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale for all these years. Now, they are being studied and some will soon be on display.
A few weeks ago when I was at Brewhaus celebrating my birthday, Former Wingman SK and I at one point were having a hard time deciding on what beer to get next off the menu. So many beers so little time. Finally, I suggested Stag. Ha, ha. Not when there are so many good beers to choose from. But later that night (and many beers later) we found ourselves at The Corner Pub to grab some wings and nacho fries and, of course, one more beer. Well, we spied Stag on the menu and we had our first Stags in over 25 years. It's still forgettable after all these years.
Stag is part of the Pabst family of beers and can be found online here.
Long ago, Mr. Magoo was the beers spokesman (view old TV commercials here).
By the way, today (I assume it's still there), the world's largest Stag can resides in Greene County, Illinois.
Have a great weekend! And don't drink so much beer you STAGger.
Actually, my friend has, as far as I know, never written another song, but he wrote this one so that makes him a songwriter.
Anyway the song:
On McCain's Web site, visitors are invited to "Spread the Word" about the presumptive Republican nominee by sending campaign-supplied comments to blogs and Web sites under the visitor's screen name. The site offers sample comments ("John McCain has a comprehensive economic plan . . .") and a list of dozens of suggested destinations, conveniently broken down into "conservative," "liberal," "moderate" and "other" categories. Just cut and paste.Well, that sounds like a swell activity. Hours of fun for the whole family!
…
People who sign up for McCain's program receive reward points each time they place a favorable comment on one of the listed Web sites (subject to verification by McCain's webmasters). The points can be traded for prizes, such as books autographed by McCain, preferred seating at campaign events, even a ride with the candidate on his bus, known as the Straight Talk Express, according to campaign spokesman Brian Rogers.
Consider this post a good place park those comments and run up your point total. Here’s some stuff to rebut to get you started:Paris Hilton is smarter than John McCain
McCain’s middle name is Sidney
McCain = Bush and/or McCain = Grampa Simpson
…the governor is considering installing speed cameras in each direction of every interstate in the 20 State Police districts across Illinois to raise $50 million a year in revenue -- enough for 500 more troopers. The money could support an "elite tactical team" and bolster everything from crash investigations to cold-case murder probes, Trent said.
Currently, camera-equipped vans nab speeders in construction zones, but state law does not allow speed cameras on interstates, Trent said.
In Arizona, 50 speed cameras will be deployed on highways by September with another 50 by January at a cost of about $20 million. The state hopes to raise $90 million a year by imposing $165 fines on vehicles going 10 mph over the speed limit or faster.
Asked what speeds Illinois motorists would have to hit before they would get nailed with a camera violation, Guerrero said, "It would have to be egregious -- 80 or 85 mph. We don't know yet."
Well, even some of my idle mental musings turn out to be real.Sir Paul McCartney has hit the road with Nancy Shevell, touring the legendary US Route 66.
The former Beatle, 66, and Nancy, 47 will travel in the classic 1989 Ford Bronco in which they were first spotted kissing.
Their trip takes them from his holiday home in The Hamptons, New York, across country almost 3,000 miles along the most iconic road in the country. They will pass through St Louis, Oklahoma, Amarillo and Albuquerque before ending in Santa Monica, California.
Since leaving last Thursday, they have travelled almost 1,000 miles, and ended up posing for photographs at a service station in Springield, Illinois.
And by the way, if you like butter on your corn-on-the-cob, get one of these things. They make life so much easier.
The irony is that J. Sidney McCain decided that he would try to tie alleged air-headed celebrities like Hilton to Obama. Instead, it seems that it is working the other way around.
The other thing that’s humorous to me, in this day and age, when I can look on the internet at the swing set in my backyard from a satellite photo, is that anyone could not notice 125, 000 gorillas. That’s more gorillas than Springfield has people. Although Rod Blagojevich has successfully overlooked/ignored/not noticed that many Springfieldians. So I guess it is possible.
You can zoom in or out, turn around, or move on down the road to the exit Paul McCartney took to get the hell back out of Springfield.
Look at his belt. Same one. I'm not sure even a dedicated imposter could get that detail right.
So I say go ahead and lift the ban. It’s not going to do anything at all for the price of gasoline but it gets the silliness off the political table and will stop the ridiculous demagoguery by the usual (Republican) suspects. In the end, there will be little drilling because there isn’t much to drill for and the local states have minimal interest in the undertaking anyway. The whole issue will die and we can move forward with real solutions to our energy needs.
Locally, it seems to only come in 4-packs. I know Party House sells it, not sure about other locations but I would be surprised if Friar Tuck didn't have a stock of it.
Murphy's also has one of those carbonating widgets in the can like Guinness so you get the rich foamy head when poured into a glass.
I will say that I do still prefer Guinness by a hair, but Mrs. TEH, whom I have taught to like the Guinesses and kin of the world, likes Murphy's slightly better. You be the judge.
Have a great weekend! And remember Murphy's Law: ummm, have a Murphy's Irish Stout.
