Polar Bear Yacht Club

Welcome news from the SJ-R:

Lake Springfield will reopen to boating on Sunday

Last Updated 11/24/2007 3:33:03 PM

Boating may resume on Lake Springfield starting tomorrow at daybreak, City Water light and Power officials announced today.

The lake had been closed to boaters as a result of clean-up efforts following the Nov. 10 explosion and fire at the Dallman facility.

Because there's nothing I want to do more in 40 degree weather than go boating!

Seriously, I understand why they had to officially close the lake, but are there really people who go boating this time of year? I've wondered that through this whole thing. I guess maybe if its a warm day. I don't live by the lake or even see it much, so I have no idea how many boaters there are this time of year. All I know is I have no desire to be one of them.

So is Australia the New France?

Conservatives suddenly have a new foreign country to hate now that they like France again. Because, you know, you're either with us or against us, no in between. And now it looks like Aussies must hate the troops.

SYDNEY -- Australian Prime Minister John Howard suffered a humiliating defeat in national elections Saturday, according to preliminary results, most likely ending the political career of one the Asia-Pacific region's most enduring conservative leaders and a key ally of U.S. President George W. Bush in the region.

Voters were ready to hand control of the government to Australia's opposition Labor party, headed by former diplomat Kevin Rudd, who has promised to boost relations with China, pull some troops from Iraq, and re-make Australia as a leader in the global effort to stop global warming.

Time to boycott Outback Steakhouse and Ned Kelly's (if it hasn't already left your town). Those are obvious actions. What else can we do to show our childishness, er, patriotism. You know, something along the lines of Freedom Fries. Should we now refer to "kangaroo courts" as "freedom courts"? Any ideas?

Friday Beer Blogging: Turkey Day Break Edition

FBB is taking the week off but will be back next week.

In the meantime, relax and enjoy a cold one.

Or more than one...

Gobble.

Merry Thanksgiving

I'm in the blog-free zone today. Enjoy your family, friends, and food.

Letters From France

This story in the SJ-R about the Springfield man who was among several Illinoisans honored by the French government for their part in the liberation of France in WWII reminded me of something I had not thought about in years.

Back when I was a child, my father, who worked for the State here in Springfield, had a boss who was a veteran of the Normandy campaign in WWII. I can’t remember if he landed on D-Day itself or shortly after but he was there. I think I remember the man’s name, but I’m not sure so let’s call him Mr. Vet. While in Normandy, Mr. Vet befriended a French man. This man would write to Mr. Vet fairly regularly. In French. Well, Mr. Vet didn’t know French, but he found out that my mother did (she was a French major in college). So Mr. Vet would give the letters to my father who would bring them home for mom to translate. However, I don’t remember her ever writing replies for Mr. Vet. Maybe she did.

While she was transcribing the letters, I can remember my mother reading them out loud. The French man was very expressive about his gratitude toward Mr. Vet and the United States for liberating France. I remember one reference where he compared the effort to the French assistance given to the Americans in the Revolutionary war. I was amazed at this guy’s enthusiasm even 25 or 30 years after the war.

Anyway, I have no idea if either man is still alive. A quick look in the Springfield phone book for Mr. Vet doesn’t reveal anything, but I may have the spelling wrong or the wrong name altogether.

As the WWII generation dies off, I sometimes find it hard to remember those days when they were everywhere, working the jobs and running the world. When I was a kid, WWII seemed like ancient history but the guys (and women!)who were there were all around and no more than middle aged. That seems strange now.

Stop the Presses, I Want To Get Off

I agree with Marie. Top management folks at a newspaper don't up and quit collectively just because. There has to be a reason related to the workplace. That is, unless they were standing around the water cooler one day and decided they really all need to spend more time with their families. It could happen.

The Awesome Power of My Blog

Just a reminder that anything you see here is the equivalent of having it shoved down your throat. If only you had free will. Resistance is futile.

Rudy Can’t Fail

Well this should put him over the top.

CHICAGO (AP)—Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has won the backing of another former Illinois governor.

Giuliani’s campaign says former Governor Jim Edgar is endorsing the New York Republican. Giuliani has two campaign appearances in the Chicago area this afternoon.

I think I heard Giuliani say something about having personally pulled Edgar out of the 9/11 wreckage. He was going to elaborate but had to take a call from his wife.

Tuesday Beer Dogging

Cuz I got nothin’ else, beer dog from Jacksonville.

Oh, and my top three favorite Blondie songs:

Rip Her to Shreds
Hanging on the Telephone
Union City Blues

Dead On Head On

Note to Suiciders:

Please get help. Short of that, if you are really bent on achieving your goal, please leave the rest of us alone. There are plenty of inert, non-living objects that you can crash into. And this goes for those of you wanting to do it with a gun. Noone wants to go with you and you have no right to decide otherwise.

After Shock

I must say that I’m enjoying Bernard Schoenburg not letting Aaron Shock off the hook for his kooky “let’s give nukes to Taiwan” plan. I just wish the corporate media would focus on this sort of nuttiness more often. Granted, Shock’s bizarre foreign policy musings were particularly ridiculous, but in the world of wingnuttia this kind of cartoonish and simpleminded rhetoric is both common and rarely taken apart by the “serious” media. I‘m, hoping this trend will reverse itself in light of the disasters the Cheney administration has wrought. But I’m not holding my breath.

Really Bad Taste

So he thinks this is funny? The last two are particularly offensive. I mean who the fuck would make fun of this picture? They must have a different sense of humor in Kansas. But he's a great guy!

Update: BriBlog does the right thing and removes the pictures (see comments). And golly folks, we got through this without even one dismissive wave of the “politically correct” accusation hand.

Also, if your interests lie in humorous historical recreations by older people, try this.

Meet the Dogs

I guess I've never introduced you to the dogs in the TEH household. It's actually hard to get pictures of them together as they are usually constantly in motion when they're awake.

That's Augie on the left and Molly on the right.

Augie is a seven years old toy poodle and Molly is a teacup poodle who is less than a year old. This picture was not set up. I walked into our dining room this afternoon to find them just sitting quietly together on a chair in the corner. I have no idea what possessed them to do this, but I was quick on the draw with my iPhone camera and was able to catch them in the act of...doing nothing.

The World is Like Junior High

You don't have to be so smart to read my blog! This site magically determines the reading level at which you must be to read a given blog. Here's my certification:

I'm guessing it's all the immature swear words.

Note: The image is not a link, use the link above.

Most Brilliant Weight Loss Plan Ever

Here. I’d copy the important bits here for you but I’d have to repost the whole thing.

For me, if I were to enter into this and fail, the Giuliani campaign would benefit.

Local TV News is Shitty

But you knew that. This Illinois Times article highlights how much it sucks for many of the people bringing you the TV version of the news.

Although I never did TV news (never wanted to), my experience with radio broadcast news wasn’t much better, even two decades ago. The hours sucked and the pay sucked even harder. You have to either be really ambitious (and, sorry, self-centered) or just really, really like the work itself. I fell short on both those counts. I moved on and I’m happier for it.

The thing I liked the most was doing a talk show. It was kind of fun have an audience when I spoke my mind. I find blogging satisfies that same desire (with a much smaller audience) while allowing me to hold down a job that actually pays a decent wage and doesn’t require me to cover a fire at 2:00 AM.

I never ventured into TV news because I really didn’t want to be recognized on the street (although that’s a feature, not a bug for some people). I also didn’t like the idea of having to base all stories around some visual. That just seemed like extra work that often didn’t add anything to the “news” aspect. In fact, the visuals often made a story “newsworthy” when in fact it wasn’t, it just looked good on TV. And it’s still that way. It just wasn’t for me.

Friday Beer Blogging: Elephant Edition

Boy, when the story about Paris Hilton wanting to save beer drinking elephants in India came out earlier in the week, I was all set to use it as the basis of today's beer blogging. A problem cropped up along the way though: the story wasn't true and the Associated Press retracted it.

Well, I never let facts get in the way of a good beer blogging buzz, so I am reprinting a version of the story here in all its falseness.

Socialite Paris Hilton is spearheading a campaign to stop a herd of elephants killing themselves - after bingeing on alcohol. The hotel heiress was horrified to discover 40 of the animals were electrocuted after drinking rice-beer, which is brewed by locals in north-east India. And Hilton is now urging Indian residents to lock up their booze.

She says, "There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad. The biggest problems are in Assam and Meghalaya. The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them."

The AP retraction goes like this:

GAUHATI, India (AP) - In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.

Have a great weekend! And please don't feed the elephants Indian rice beer.

I Need a Thanksgiving Equivalent of Bah, Humbug

Why do so many people feel a need to travel long distances on Thanksgiving? I’m not that into the whole Thanksgiving thing anyway, but to put up with the congestion, delays and other headaches associated with air travel during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend seems just nuts to me.

We will be traveling on Thanksgiving but only because we can do it by car and are only going less than two hours away. Otherwise, we would be staying home.

I understand wanting to get together with distant family, but why does that have to happen on Thanksgiving? If the point is to be with loved ones, you can do that any time of year.

What’s really odd is that this happens all over again just a few weeks later at Christmas.

Shutup and Sing (Crappy Tunes)

Donny and Marie sort of endorse Mitt Romney.

A) I assume the frothing hoards of wingnuts that decry Hollywood celebrities getting all political will be voicing their objections promptly.

B) Who gives a shit.

Now a Moment of Silence for the Moment of Silence

Buh-bye.

A federal judge today issued a preliminary injunction barring a suburban school district from implementing the state's new law mandating a moment of silence at the start of classes, calling the statute too vague and "likely unconstitutional."
...
Gettleman asked the parties in the case to return to the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse Thursday when he could consider making the injunction statewide.

Look, this idea was not well thought out before it became law, and its spirit, if not the law in its entirety, is routinely being ignored by schools across the state.