Weather Woes

teh
With the tornados out of the way, surely we can look forward to some nice spring weather tomorrow, the first day of Spring.

What's that? Oh...

Monday Night: Occasional snow with areas of blowing snow. The snow could be heavy at times. Low around 27. Blustery, with a east northeast wind between 17 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.

Tuesday: Occasional snow with areas of blowing snow, mainly before noon. High around 33. Breezy, with a north northeast wind between 14 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

OK, but after the blizzard things will be just fine. Right?

Copycat

teh
I claim franchise infringement. Radio people, sheesh.

Blogging for Fun and Prophet

teh
Jerome Prophet is back blogging again. Not even tornados keep a good blogger down.

Die Young, Stay Pretty

teh
I’m not saying this just to be contrary but I have never thought Marilyn Monroe was particularly attractive. And don’t get me started on her truly annoying voice.

I recognize M.M. is still one of America’s leading sex icons for whatever reason. What a country, semi-ugly girls can be sex kittens too! Truly the Land of Opportunity.

Anyway, I’m watching A&E Biography and it’s on none other than Marilyn Monroe. What struck me is that she was born in 1926. That means, had she been sane enough not to have killed herself, she would be 80 years old now. Yet even I have a hard time thinking of her as possibly ever being that old. There will never be picture of her with a wrinkle or an age spot. Her boobs will never sag. How fortunate for her. She'll be beautiful (to some) forever.

Storm Experiences Blog

teh
Randy of Photos Et Cetera has put together a collaborative blog dedicated to telling the stories of those who experienced Sunday’s tornado. It’s called Storm Experiences. Not much on it yet but feel free to leave your story in the comments or e-mail one of the contributors for a guest posting.

Chimbos

teh
Fresh off Kristi Yamaoka’s 15 minutes of fame comes this piece in the Guardian that is beyond hilarious. Steven Wells, who I’m guessing is British, has a unique and very insightful perspective into cheerleading as part of American culture. Like I said, it is very funny even if you don’t give a shit about cheerleaders. I’d highlight the best parts here but I’d have to paste the entire article.

Governor Topinka to Live Here?

teh
Maybe Judy Baar-Topinka has already been asked this question and I’ve missed it, but if she becomes governor will she live in the governor’s mansion? Based on this quote in the SJ-R today, I think she will:

"Springfield has really come to be a home for me," Topinka said. "When you see this kind of destruction take place, it really has a personal impact on me."

Topinka was referring, of course, to the damage caused by Sunday’s tornado.

As I’ve said before, I don’t really care where the governor lives but Topinka might pick up a few votes in Springfield in the general election if she makes it clear she intents to live here as governor. Of course, that assumes anyone in Springfield would otherwise vote for Blagojevich, which might be a big assumption.

I'm Such aTease

teh
A local blogger is about to get a lot more exposure in another medium. It’s not me and no I’m not going to be in Police Beat…hopefully.

Friday Beer Blogging: Green Beer Edition

teh
‘Tis the season for beer o’ green. With a mug of suds tinted with a touch of food coloring I will soon be seen.

Say isn’t a Miller Lite left in the fridge for a few months naturally this color?

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!

The 183rd Rail Wing

teh
TEH has learned, exclusively, that the facilities soon to be vacated by the 183rd Fighter Wing at Capital Airport will be utilized by a new experimental program financed by jointly by the railroad industry, Halliburton and the Air Force. Do not be frightened if you see this flying over the city:

The new facility, I have learned, will be called Area 66 and will be off limits to the public and its existence will be officially denied.

I just can’t resist stupid, badly Photoshoped pics.

Evans

teh
Rich Miller has a post up this morning about Congressman Lane Evans declining health and how it may be affecting is ability to represent his district effectively (he’s missed many House votes of late due to his Parkinson’s disease).

My first thought is not to pass judgment on his fitness for the job; the voter’s in his district can do that. Rather, I wonder about the psychology of wanting to stay with the job given how uncomfortable it must be for him. Is it pride? Stubbornness? Courage, misguided or otherwise? Does Evans think his illness doesn’t impact his effectiveness? Does he feel “irreplaceable” (i.e. best man for the job)? Is he afraid to retire because it would be admitting he’s losing the battle with the disease? I can imagine all of these factors potentially playing a role.

Again, I’m not passing judgment, just curious about the motivation. I think if it were me, and I’m speaking only for me, it would be the not conceding to the disease that would motivate me the most. And that, admittedly, would not necessarily be in the best interest of my constituents.

One More Salvation

teh
I’ve thought of an addition to this list of things that prevented a bad tornado from being much worse: the trees had no leaves.

Seriously. Had the trees in Springfield had leaves they would have been far more susceptible to the power of the wind since the leaves would have acted like little sails capturing the wind and surely dragging down many, many more tress. These additional falling trees would have cut more power lines, smashed more cars and houses, and maybe killed someone. As it happened, many trees were spared as the wind simply blew through their bare branches.

Civil War

teh
For those who choose (and I emphasize choose) to continue to buy the President’s rosy (i.e. bullshit) picture of things in Iraq, check out this story:

Ordinary Iraqi families getting ready to fight They're stockpiling weapons, food and fuel

Baghdad -- Om Hussein, wrapped in her black abaya, lists the contents of the family's walk-in storage closet: three 175-pound cases of rice, two 33-pound cases of cooking fat, six cases of canned tomatoes, three crates of assorted legumes, a one-month supply of drinking water, frozen chicken livers in the freezer. And in the garage, jerry cans filled with fuel are piled floor to ceiling.

Om Hussein, who was reluctant to give her full name, and her Shiite family are preparing for war. They've stocked up on food. They bought a Kalashnikov rifle and a second car -- so that there is space for all 13 members of their extended family should they need to flee in a hurry.

Or this one:

Shi'ite clerics fear cannot prevent civil war

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi'ite religious leaders' restraining influence on militia groups is waning fast and senior clerics fear they are dragging Iraq into civil war, a source close to the clerical authorities said on Wednesday.

Clapping louder and rooting out “traitors” here isn’t going to change a damn thing.

Springfield Bloggers Arise From the Rubble

teh
Just heard from Jerome Prophet. He’s fine. His garage is not. Of course he’s taken “hundreds” of photos.

Also Marie at Disarranging Mine has checked into her blog. She is also garageless in Springfield.

Storm Track

teh
The SJ-R has some good post-tornado coverage this morning. Especially check out the map on page 6. It illustrates the exact path of the tornados (there were two, they say) through the city and where the damage occurred. There’s also a map showing the larger path of the storm from Kansas to Michigan. Very interesting.

Serious Choices

teh
It just occurred to me that the Illinois primary election is less than a week away (March 21). Now I have to choose what ballot to take. As usual, the Republicans have more going on statewide.

On the Dem side, Blagojevich has only nominal opposition in Edwin Eisendrath and there is a contest for State Treasurer (the winner will likely succeed Judy Baar-Topinka who is running a losing campaign for Governor).

The Repubs, of course, have a bunch of candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor, most of whom are JPN (Just Plain Nuts).

I’m not worried anymore about having to declare a party by taking one or the other ballot. I figure I’m done working for the state, or any government entity, at least for a while. So, I guess I’ll go ahead and take a Republican ballot and make mischief there.

By the way, you can find who and what are on the ballot in Sangamon County here.

The Ides of March

teh

Hey, well I'm the friendly stranger in the black sedan
Oh won't you hop inside my car
I got pictures, got candy, I am a lovable man
I'd like to take you to the nearest star

I'm your vehicle baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go
I'm your vehicle woman
By now I'm sure you know
That I love ya (love you)
I need ya (need you)
I want to, got to have you childGreat God in heaven, you know I love you

- Vehicle, The Ides of March

Storeless Mall?

teh
Before all of the excitement of Sunday night’s tornado, I was preparing (in my mind, always the first step) a post about how there seems to be a real increase in the amount of vacant storefronts in White Oaks Mall.

I was in White Oaks Sunday afternoon and the large number of shuttered stores and those having going out of business sales really struck me. I know the Mall has had its ups and downs in it’s 29 year history and their have been large chunks of time I’ve not lived in Springfield and been able to visit the mall but I don’t think that I, personally, have ever seen it this empty.

I was really surprised to see Gloria Jean’s had closed. A store next to it is also gone. Sam Goody’s is having a closeout sale and one of its neighbors is history too. At least one other shop is having a close out and there are maybe half a dozen other dark spaces throughout the mall.

What gives? Is rent to high relative to the other strip malls? Has Springfield finally reached retail saturation?

I don’t think the economy is any worse than it’s been and new retail space is opening all the time. So, I’m not sure what’s going on at the mall. If businesses are struggling there, the interruption in commerce in the mall area due to the tornado and its clean-up isn’t going to help anything.

Tornado Postscript

teh
Hey, we made the big time: The Weather Channel actually sent a reporter to Springfield yesterday to cover the tornado and its aftermath. It doesn’t get any better than that.

On the a serious note, the reporter made an observation about how lucky we really were. The fact that we had no fatalities can largely be attributed to these factors:

We had 35 minutes warning – a rarity with tornados.

It occurred in the evening when most people were still awake to hear the warnings

The tornado skimmed the city mostly at tree-top level rather than along the ground.

Absent any one, much less all, of these factors things would have been a lot worse. A lot worse.

Headless

teh
Ghastly!

WICS had pictures this morning of the Lauterbach Tire Man headless. The tornado ripped it right off and deposited it in a nearby business. The cruelty of nature.

Tire Man before losing his head:

Update: The SJ-R has the gruesome results of the decapitation here (note: the loading time for the SJ-R site is still rather long, so give it time).