Category: Potpourri

On gas prices, traffic bottlenecks and Buckeyes’ weaker schedule

Posted by dcrim – November 30, 2010

Random thoughts:

• Is WikiLeaks responsible for gas prices jumping 12 cents a gallon during the noon hour today in Quincy? Or is it time to change to the late fall/early winter blend? Or was there military unrest in Turkmenistan?

• Why does the stoplight on Maine at 14th turn red at 6:05 in the morning when there is zero north-south traffic?

• Is there a single city block more congested than the 800 block of Maine? Does everybody have to try to maneuver through traffic to try to park directly in front of the Salvation Army Thrift Store to drop off their donations? Or risk becoming a hood ornament by walking across the street in the middle of the block? Would it really hurt to drive another half-block, properly parallel park in an open space (not stall traffic by waiting for the closest car/truck/van to pull out) and tote those bags up the sidewalk?

• A daughter with a boyfriend means buying extra food and soda, but it also means the outdoor Christmas display is up,  all the lights have been checked and replaced and hung, and the tree stands in its decorated glory in the living room — all with minimal work required of Dad.

• It seems as though Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee may have to eat his words. If you remember, Gee said last week that the likes of Boise State didn’t deserve to play for a national college football championship because they play the “Little Sisters of the Poor” compared to the “murderer’s row” teams like Ohio State face each week. Well, it seems Boise State’s schedule is tougher than Ohio State’s this season. Boise State strength of schedule is ranked 62nd in the Sagarin ratings, while Ohio State is 64th and Big Ten champion Wisconsin is 71st. We can always look forward to the mighty Buckeyes’ annual bowl beat-down by an SEC opponent.

Hangover Helpers, beware of the cane and costly telephone call

Posted by dcrim – November 27, 2010

• Your head aches, you’re hungry and your house is littered with sticky plastic cups. Who ya gonna call? Hangover Helpers.

The Boulder Daily Camera reports two University of Colorado graduates are marketing a new business by that name in Boulder, home of CU’s main campus. They’ll bring in breakfast burritos and Gatorade the morning after a party — and clean up the mess.

The Daily Camera reports that Marc Simons started cleaning party houses about a year ago for extra cash and realized he’d found a niche, despite the bad economy. He teamed up with high school friend Alex Vere-Nicoll and started Hangover Helpers. They charge $15 per roommate.

• Authorities in Callaway, Fla., say an irate 84-year-old man hit a deputy in the stomach with his cane when the officer warned him to leave a clinic where he had been cursing at an office manager.

The News Herald newspaper reports that the northwest Florida man was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. Bay County sheriff’s deputies were called to Callaway Clinic on Wednesday night because the man was yelling and cursing at an office manager.

According to a police report, the office manager asked authorities to remove the man from the clinic. Once outside, the man’s rant grew louder. When the deputy warned the man he would be arrested if he didn’t leave, the man allegedly hit the officer in the stomach with his cane. Deputies say the man also hit the officer in the leg as he was being handcuffed.

• Eugene, Ore., police didn’t have to go far to find a bank robbery suspect. They say 23-year-old Nathan Alan Bramlage was spotted after walking into the Eugene police station Wednesday to use a public phone in the lobby.

The Register-Guard reports an officer recognized the man from surveillance video of the bank robbery the day before. Detectives followed and arrested him about two blocks away. Detective Ralph Burks says Bramlage apparently assumed police wouldn’t recognize him.

Bramlage was booked into Lane County Jail on a robbery charge and told police he had used the phone to call his parents.

Leaving $3 million in trust fund for dogs worth barking about

Posted by dcrim – June 28, 2010

A problem most of us won’t have, courtesy of the Associated Press:

Conchita, Lucia and April Marie are used to a luxurious life in an island mansion. With a $3 million trust fund from the will of an heiress, they’ll never have to worry about a thing. What sets the three apart is that they’re Chihuahuas.

The three little dogs are part of a bitter battle over the estate of Gail Posner, daughter of late corporate raider Victor Posner. Gail Posner’s only surviving child, 46-year-old Bret Carr, is challenging her will in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, contending she was coerced into changing it by several employees while suffering from cancer and drug addiction.

Carr was awarded only income from a $1 million fund in his mother’s will. But employees including maids, a personal trainer and bodyguards received $27 million, according to court documents. Some of them, including a caretaker of the pampered pooches, are being allowed to live in the $8.3 million, seven-bedroom Sunset Island mansion with the Chihuahuas.

When she was alive, Gail Posner made such a fuss over her Chihuahuas that she hired a publicist for Conchita to promote her as one of the world’s most spoiled dogs. In a 2007 interview with The Miami Herald, she said Conchita had a $12,000 summer wardrobe and a $15,000 diamond necklace that the dog simply refused to wear.

Hope my almost 10-month-old cocker spaniel remains content with food and water every day, the half-dozen or so toys, the regular chew bones and the run of an air-conditioned house on hot and humid days.

Not a good start to the postseason for Missouri

Posted by dcrim – March 11, 2010

The one good result of Missouri’s ignominious flameout against last-place Nebraska in the first round Wednesday is that I won’t have to waste any time this weekend following the Big 12 postseason tournament. Another consolation: Maybe the Tigers will fall to a 10 or 11 seed in the NCAA tournament, which would mean they would avoid the top seed in the second round — should they get that far.

(Mizzou’s last two losses also mean I need to avoid Dr. Jim Nuessen for a while. The football victory over Kansas is a distant memory.)

Oh, well. Baseball’s opening day is around the corner and the Masters tees off in four weeks.

No David Letterman, but see how you would rate these lists

Posted by dcrim – February 14, 2010

Like lists? Time magazine has lists. Here’s a sampling:

• Top 10 embarrassing things that didn’t stop people from getting elected.

• Top 10 unfortunate political one-liners.

• A cheapskate’s gift guide to Valentine’s Day. (OK, so this is a little late. But you can see how you did.)

• Twenty-five athletes to watch in the Winter Games.

All this guy needed was a little imagination and 50 tons of ice

Posted by dcrim – January 24, 2010

2968037646Getting a cold one at an eastern Pennsylvania restaurant is no problem: Everything is on ice — and under it, and surrounded by it.

The Citizens’ Voice reports Damenti’s Restaurant in Butler Township, pictured at right, has set up a temporary freestanding bar with a pirate theme in its backyard that is almost completely made of 50 tons of ice.

To keep the ice from melting, air conditioning brings the mercury down to about 20 degrees. Owner Kevin McDonald says he’s hoping the novelty will bring in the crowds.

According to the newspaper account, about 40 people can fit in the 480-square-foot structure. The decor includes a skull and crossbones that covers an entire wall and pirate motifs and sayings etched into the walls both inside and outside.

McDonald said he wasn’t sure what he would do when the ice begins to melt. I suspect it would be prudent to develop an exit strategy.

Sometimes people overreact to the little mishaps in life

Posted by dcrim – January 6, 2010

Some random musings:

• Kansas City police say a woman caused thousands of dollars in damage to a McDonald’s restaurant on Dec. 27 because she didn’t like her hamburger and became upset that the restaurant wouldn’t refund her money. Employees had offered to replace her hamburger, but the woman refused and demanded her money back. Police released a video showing the woman throwing a bucket of water over the counter and pushing off a glass display case and three cash registers. She then cursed and fled. Good thing she didn’t get mad over the toy in a Happy Meal. No telling what she would have done.

• It was interesting to watch how Iowa was able to shut down the Georgia Tech triple option. The coaching staff should be commended for using their month of preparation for the Orange Bowl wisely. Makes me wonder why the Mizzou coaching staff, with 26 days to prepare, offered no clue on how to stop the Navy Triple option in the Texas Bowl? Or figure out that running against a two-man defensive front might be more productive than trying to throw into a nine-man secondary?

• Quincy native James Stewart, writing for SmartMoney, writes that conventional wisdom suggests the new decade will be better for stock investors than 1999-2009, which he labels as arguably the worst decade for stocks. Click here for the full article.

Long Island man pays tribute to military with song, slideshow

Posted by dcrim – December 24, 2009

Matty Kaspak, a regular Joe living on Long Island in New York, put together a song and slideshow to honor past and present military personnel. He wrote the song “We Owe It All To You” and received permission from AnySoldier.com to republish the photos. (He also added photos of his late father and his 90-year-old father-in-law, who both served.) He has sent his work to military sites around the world “just because I wanted to do something for them.” And he asked some newspapers to help get the word out. So here you go.

Can’t get your kids to mind? Just call 911 and have the cops do it

Posted by dcrim – December 22, 2009

Now I’ve heard everything.

The Boston Herald reports a woman called 911 at 2:30 a.m. Saturday to say she couldn’t get her 14-year-old son to stop playing video games and go to sleep. So two officers who could have spent their time doing something constructive went to the house and persuaded the kid to obey his mother.

A police spokesman said the mother’s 911 call over video game obsession “was a little unusual, but by no means is it surprising — especially in today’s day and age when these kids play video games and computer games.”

Calling cops to get your kid to mind? C’mon. My Mom had a different approach to get my attention during those rare instances when I may have stepped over the line and become a bit unruly. She would quietly say, “Wait until your father gets home.”

The threat of gettin’ whupped. Worked every time.

It’s always a good thing to double-check phone numbers

Posted by dcrim – December 4, 2009

Here are a few Friday follies to ponder while we wait to see if the Alabama-Florida game lives up to its billing:

• In an embarrassing blunder, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist mistakenly directed parents of uninsured children to call a toll-free sex line.

The Palm Beach Post reports people calling the governor’s office heard an on-hold recording of Crist promoting the toll-free Florida KidCare line. Except two numbers were transposed. Anyone calling the number Crist gave out was told to call another number. The recording on that second phone number begins, “Hey there sexy guys” and says the caller can have a more graphic conversation with a woman for $2.99 a minute.

Crist quickly fixed the mistake after the newspaper discovered it.

• Customs inspectors at Dulles International Airport say they have arrested a man from Guatemala who was carrying a cooked chicken stuffed with more than $4,000 worth of cocaine.

Customs and Border Protection spokesman Steve Sapp told the Associated Press that agents decided the fully cooked chicken that 32-year-old Wagner Mauricio Linares Aragon brought with him on a flight Saturday from El Salvador warranted closer inspection.

Inside the chicken’s cavity they say they found two small, clear bags that contained about 60 grams — about 2.3 ounces — of powder cocaine. Linares Aragon is being held awaiting trial on felony drug charges.

• A man dressed as an elf is jailed after police in Georgia say he told a mall Santa that he was carrying dynamite.

Police say Southlake Mall in suburban Atlanta was evacuated but no explosives were found. Police arrested 45-year-old William C. Caldwell III, who was being held without bond. He was not part of the mall’s Christmas staff.

Police say Caldwell got in line Wednesday evening to have his picture taken with Santa Claus. Police say when Caldwell reached the front of the line, he told Santa he had dynamite in his bag. Santa called mall security and Caldwell was arrested.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Caldwell faces several charges, including having hoax devices and making terroristic threats.