158 thoughts on “April 10, 2012: Thud”

      1. Apparently I was in a play based on that book when I was in preschool (or so my mother has told me for the past 25+ years).

      2. My son loves that book. I think he relates to the desire to pull a hat off of your head and throw it on the ground.

        It really speaks to him.

            1. `spose so. i used to get into fist-fights with cats before, so that also might be why the book resonates with me.

            2. I have always wanted someone to make a short film out of this book. Maybe a feature-length collection out of shorts of this, the Funny Thing, and Nothing-at-All (or Snippy & Snappy). I love how her books are sortof dark and sortof creepy, but not entirely so, and that there seems to be little of a useful lesson or moral in any of it.

              I mean, I guess in Millions of Cats, the lesson is "Don't pick everything good, only what you need and can use." but it works out for the best anyways. Or the lowly cat's lesson of "Be meek and humble until everyone else eats each other."?

              I think my absolute favorite thing in Millions of Cats, though, is the background in their house, pictures of the couple on their wedding day (or thereabouts). I also imagine that the hills the old man walks are the MN River Valley bluffs she and I both grew up between.

          1. My favorite was actually Polly's Oats, an unheralded book about a replacement-level lefthanded relief pitcher workhorse that was neglected by the manager farmer until the three proven closers on the staff show horses all get really sick.

            Man, I've been me forever.

          1. That there is a quality story.
            See also Katy and the Big Snow and Stewey Stinker from the same author.

          2. Mulligan was awesome. But for existentialstic greatness, you can't beat Ferdinand the Bull.

            1. Love the cork tree.
              Monro Leaf's self-illustrated "How to Behave and Why" and "How to Talk Politely and Why" were very cool as well.

      1. So far the best aspect of Matt Capps' season career has been this book discussion thread.

        I can't think of anything that has topped it, nor can I think of anything that will do so.

    1. They never won last year. This year, they are never going to win.
      Therefore: again. QED.
      (Which reminds me, I never got in on the nation's problems yesterday.)

  1. Anyone have any experience with critters in their ceiling? Could be a squirrel. Hopefully it's not the still-beating heart of that body that I - well, never mind all that.

    I am definitely a big supporter of leaving this sort of thing to professionals, but wanted to tap into the wisdom of the nation.

    1. When I was about 15 the guy across the street had a trio of squirrels figure out how to get into a little space in his attic from the huge tree by his house, and he got a permit from the city to shoot them down. I ended up watching it from my front window - he hit all three on the first try. I decided if I ever lost a frisbee on his roof, I'd let it go.

            1. You guys are treading oh so closely to the humorous climax of Rustler's Rhapsody. If you haven't seen it, it's got some pretty snarky comedy in it.

    2. We had squirrels about 3 years ago. After a couple of my homemade attempts failed, we hired somebody and it took about 3 weeks but finally got all SIX of 'em out. Crazy.

      1. Would you recommend the people you hired?

        We only started seeing/hearing signs in the past couple of days, which is why I suspect squirrels rather than mice (which I'm just guessing would have showed up when things got cold in the fall but what the hell do I know).

        1. Absolutely. He set a few traps and then kept coming by every few days to check the traps on the perimeter, remove the trappd ones, and continue. Unfortunately, I have no idea who the guy was because Sheenie hired him (I'm sure using Google).

    3. I lived in a brand new apartment building once that ended up having pigeons living in the wall. That was bad.

        1. They left two bricks off of the wall when they did the exterior. Just skipped 'em. So the pigeons just nested in our wall for a couple months. Thinking it was rats, the apartment drilled holes in the wall and used poison that they recommended I "stay away from because we weren't supposed to use that much." The scratching noises didn't go away and eventually mites started crawling out of the holes. At that point they cut out a huge segment of the wall to reveal tons of poison and bird crap and three live birds, two of which left via the outside hole, one of which left via the inner hole. It was pretty awful.

          Also, if name-dropping itself isn't forbidden, this guy lived in that apartment building too.

          1. When I moved into my last apartment in Crystal City, the giant rental jerks who ran the place neglected to tell us that they would be doing some "asbestos abatement" on the radiators and window frames beginning three weeks after our lease started and lasting for two months. The work required them to create a giant bubble with plastic tarps that took up approximately 1/3rd of the apartment and also required workmen to be going in and out of our apartment M-F from 8-530. My roommate at the time worked overnights and I worked 3-1130p. We ended up getting about 2 months of rent returned to us, but it was still a disaster.

            1. If it makes you feel any better, I routinely dealt with those landlords in court, and almost always got what I wanted. They were sissies.

              1. Well I ultimately got what I wanted (2 of the 3 months I lived there were free!), but they still were a giant pain. I can only imagine most tenants didn't bother to fight them.

        2. been there (pigeons in the attic). Ugh. I'm guessing that there is a dessicated pigeon carcass somewhere up there still, after we got the itty-bitty hole screened shut.

      1. The apartment building I lived in in Mankato saw a family of birds make a nest right above the door we all had to use to get in. The mother had chicks, and from then on, every time we attempted to enter our building, the mother would dive-bomb our heads in an attempt to keep us away. It scared us all crapless every time, but our landlords didn't feel the need to do anything about it.

        The upside of our landlords' apathy is that in the two years I lived there, I skipped out on rent five times (not because I didn't feel like paying, but because I'm extremely forgetful) and they never noticed. Never. Noticed.

        1. I very much want to know who your landlord was and how many times I've had cases against them.

          1. Can't remember names. Someone was fired (I think I can guess why) near the end of my time there, and someone else took over.

            Their office was on Broad street, though I'll be damned if I can remember the cross street. I had to walk no more than a block to get there, and if I walked in the other direction I'd end up at Ember's.

      2. My fraternity house in St. Cloud was infested with bats. Winters were fine because they hibernate, but during the spring, summer and fall we all slept with racquetball rackets next to our beds. The best technique is to swat them from behind as they circle the room. That takes their sonar out of play and makes them much easier to hit. If you try to hit them head on, they do a dipsy-doodle around the racquet and just keep flying.

        1. We used to get bats in the house when I was a kid. My brothers and I would run around with tennis rackets while my mom laid on the floor with a towel over her head and screamed.

          Good memories.

          1. One of my earliest memories is my dad swinging at a bat while my brother and I hung out under the table.

            I also once slept on the couch, and when I woke up, noticed what I thought was a mouse sleeping on the table about a foot from my head. My dad dealt with it, and told me years later it was a sleeping bat when I reminded him of the event. I couldn't have been more than about four.

    4. We had squirrels in our roof/attic a few years back. They would wake up very early and make quite a bit of noise scurrying around directly over our bedroom. They were usually out and about during the day, so one day I just denied their access by fixing the screen over the soffet vent. They cursed me out for a few days, but it seemed to keep them out of the attic. Luckily they hadn't had time to raise a group of lil'uns yet.

      1. If I were confident that I could find their access point I might give that a shot. We had people out this past fall to put in insulation and new windows (thank you airport noise!). I wonder if they failed to cover something back up.

        1. Yeah, we could see them coming and going so we knew exactly where they were getting in. Arrogant little bastards they were.

        2. thank you airport noise!

          they're still doing that? my pop's place is close to where 35W and 62 meet, and i think they redid his house back in `95 or somesuch.

          1. I think we were the last wave. I believe that we are literally on the edge of the zone. Looking at the map, I don't think the guy kitty-corner from us got anything. As it was we got enough for new windows and a bunch of insulation. And maybe a squirrel door.

        3. Airport noise is the greatest. We got free central air, a new front storm door, and new storm windows for nearly every window in the house. We live one block from the cutoff and had no idea when we bought the house.

    5. Hopefully it's not the still-beating heart of that body that I - well, never mind all that.

      No sweat. That would be under the floorboards.

  2. The one thing I wasn't really that worried about with this team, as it sits currently without injury, was scoring runs. I kind of liked the lineup. Oh, well.

      1. Or you could be correct and this is just a small sample size anomaly. Four games is still a SSS, correct?

  3. Spooky or sean or whoever else that can help- there's a day game on Thursday that I'm going to need publishing rights for.

  4. It looks like I'm going to be taking a trip to the Adriatic this summer, sailing on the Croatian coast and then bopping around northern Italy for a while.

    Has anyone spent any time in Italy recently? Specifically in and/or around the Venice area? I'm trying to figure out how expensive it is and what my budget will look like.

    1. Sheenie and I were in Venice about 4 years ago. VERY OVERRATED (and costlier than the rest of Italy - especially in the summer). However, there was an absurdly great "restaurant" (more of a dive-bar) about three blocks from the Rialto Bridge with no sign or windows. I read about it in Frommers and we were the only Americans there and the passed seafood (no tables inside) was stupendous.

      1. Ugh, this is what I was worried about. I only really have to be in Venice for 1 of the five days I will be in Italy, since that's where I am flying out from. I might end up spending the rest of the time in the small towns along the coast or something.

        1. Venice is pretty much a tourist trap. Everywhere else in Italy, Sheenie and I were able to immerse ourselves and rarely hear English. In Venice (the great hidden restaurant notwithstanding), we might as well have been in NYC given all the rude Americans nearby. Murano was interesting, but I think you would Padua, Verona, or Vicenza more even though all three are nearby.

        1. I felt largely the same way. Worth seeing, maybe buy some glass, if you can find a great seafood place, eat there. Then get out. It should take a half day.

          1. Oh, we also had the tasting menu here (a family friend said they would pay for our dinner there as our wedding present) and it was one of the best three meals of my life.

    2. All I know about the Adriatic, I learned from Cheers.

      httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_tT-q8EF0

  5. the Twins have 20 hits so far this season. Willingham (5), Morneau(4), and Span(4) have combined for 13 of them.

    1. i really hoped that smith would have corralled that ball at the end of the 4th. that would have been awesome.

  6. The CEO of my company resigned today. If knowing there were 50 mostly-nameless stores closing wasn't enough to push me out the door, this sure is. I wish we'd get final word about the show, but in the meantime, I may need to go somewhere - anywhere - else.

    1. Heh. I was just reading Sunday's Strib that said he should be okay for a little while. Guess it's the same as in sports; vote of confidence = fired soon.

      1. It's hard to get any information from the press release, which has always been true of our company.

        I'm not going to badmouth the company until I'm gone, but in short, this company has gotten in the way of its own success for years now by continuing to go back to the well of harassing the customer to buy things they never asked for.

        1. Listening to MPR this morning, and all the debate were about Big Box stores vs. On-line shopping. There was no discussion as to whether or not people felt Best Buy was actually a good business itself.

          However, one caller did call in and say small-timers get in the way of themselves beating the big boxers because they don't promote very well the fact that even though they can't sell things as cheaply, they can theoretically make the customer feel safe by offering real customer service, helping the customer make the best decision for their needs and not just getting the most stuff.

          1. What's interesting with what I've been reading is that people are all over us for the wrong reasons.

            A guy at Forbes related the story of how he was blindsided by an employee in one of our stores years ago, which informed his entire "Best Buy has horrible customer service" opinion. It's always killed me when customers use a sample size of one to decide whether or not a store is a viable place to shop.

            I've had customers get angry with me, and indeed the company, because they asked me a question about refrigerators that I couldn't answer. These are the people who go home and tell people that nobody knows anything there, because they don't understand the concept of departments. A certain type of customer thinks every employee should know everything about every one of our store's thousands of products.

            1. I sometimes get hesitant to ask people questions in stores if they don't work in the dept. I have a question about. Of course, any decent worker will say, "I don't know, but let me direct you to the right person."

              My personal experience shopping at Best Buy has always been fine, even when people used to make commission. And you know, there's nothing wrong with somebody approaching you and asking you if you need help with anything. It's the coming up to you every five minutes thing that makes me want to leave, and I tend to get that more at Ace Hardware or Pearle Vision (or Circuit City for that matter). I also do my research before I go to the store, so at least I know what questions to ask so the employee doesn't have to completely guess as to what I might want.

              1. The whole "everyone goes up and bothers the same person" thing is unfortunate. Customers assume we're breaking them down, but the reality is that we just don't know who's spoken to them.

                We do, of course, have relentless salespeople that try to break customers down. They're the guys who want to high-five me after I sell a DSLR, or whatever. I do not want to high-five people because I sold a camera. I want to high-five people because they saw me on TV. I'd high-five someone if I hit a home run, too, but even if I was playing these days the situation would never come up.

                1. I had the very opposite situation when I went in to buy a laptop a few months ago. There were about 5 or 6 people in the laptop area talking to no one and I couldn't get any of their attention. I ended up getting helped by the 7th guy when he finished with the customer he was helping. It was weird.

                  But to be fair, when I bought my wife's super nice camera a while back, the guy working that section was really knowledgable about cameras (and into the whole photography thing as a hobby) and helped us immensley.

                  1. Sometimes that happens when a bunch of employees congregate in a department that isn't theirs. I'll admit I don't even see customers who aren't in my departments. Of course, this doesn't excuse them from congregating there (we call these congregations "Blueberry patches") or from failing to say anything to you.

                    1. My favorite part of it was that I made eye contact with every single one of them at one point or another. Of course, I think they were all college kids, or nearabouts that age, which would explain it.

            2. Isn't that how it always has been? It's only recently we've even been able to move beyond a few personal interactions with anything to form an opinion to the interactions of thousands of people.

        2. Like a $30 service plan for a $30 headset or somesuch thing (this actually happened to me -- the offered service was the same price as the item. Uh, no, I'll just come back and by a new one if the old one breaks)?

          1. Yeah, I never understood how we'd do something like cover accidental damage on a $1400 camera for $100 for three years - these are almost always cashed in - and then have $8 plans on $12 ear buds, or whatever. I guess that's why I don't work at corporate. Of course, corporate's about to employ 400 fewer people...

          2. That, and constantly asking for not just my zip code, but my phone number (maybe this is a California store thing). I always answer 612-382-5968 (I'll let others figure out the reason).

            1. That's only because it's the quickest way to find you in the store system for orders and the like. We do a lot of weird things, but that's not one of them. We don't call anyone unless they ask us to.

                1. It depends on the store, but if they weren't putting in your phone number to get you your Reward Zone points or enter information for a replacement plan, I honestly have no idea why they'd be asking for it.

                  I will say that the people who work the front lanes are considered the lowest on the totem pole by management (besides the inventory team; most management types simply cannot understand inventory's contribution to the store since it can't be quickly measured) and you may frequent a store where the management is forcing them to do a lot of harassing.

                  I'll tell you what: when I went in for my first shift back at the store yesterday, I was dumbfounded by the lack of management going wild asking us to bother customers about the credit card. Now that I've seen so much feedback on our issues, I'm guessing it's not a mistake that they're being asked to pull back focus on that.

    2. I'm fascinated by Best Buy's failures and successes. I learned a fair amount about them in a leadership training series I was part of, and they seem to do a lot of corporate culture things right. It's too bad that not more of that has trickled down to the customer.

      I would say that in the past 5 years I've gone from being a regular best buy shopper to an "avoid the store if I can" shopper. Customer service being the absolute central factor in that decision. They cut me off of their rewards program for not spending enough with them (never mind that I was just under their limit anyway), they push the financing stuff which I had no interest in, and their product selection got severely disappointing (seriously, not much better than Target's media selection... that's sad).

      1. Our in-store media selection has really taken a dive as more and more people do that stuff online, but I too questioned the sanity of slashing our movie selection by half or more. Some people only come into the store because of that selection.

        I will say that Corporate says a lot of the right things...publicly. What's enforced on our end is invariably different. Our company welcomes and rewards a lot of people whose values are at extreme odds with the company's stated values. That has been going on since I joined the company. The worst three people I ever worked for are now in corporate. I've seen a lot of great people go there, too, but a non-random number of assholes end up there.

        1. You know the media thing is definitely something I've noticed. I'm willing to pay a few bucks more if I could go pick the movie up the night I want to buy it rather than ordering it online. It seems like this is never an option, though.

          One thing I've definitely noticed about the store is that the quality differs greatly on a store-to-store basis. The Fargo store is horrible in pretty much all ways. One time they collected money from my card, but swiped my card twice in a row so they got a decline on the second swipe. They didn't see the initial "authorization" and they refused to help me at all for several days. I had to get my bank to call them eventually to sort it out. When they finally got it sorted, they told me I could come pick the item up. I didn't get an apology or anything of the sort.

          On the other hand, when I've been to stores in the Twin Cities, I've had pretty much nothing but good experiences any time I was there. My friend bought a TV there when we were on our way back a few years back, and they not only pointed him to a TV similar to what he wanted but on sale, they then let me log into my email so I could print out a 10% off coupon I had. I was very impressed, and also very jealous that the Fargo store is not nearly as good as this.

          1. The Twin Cities stores are generally considered very good because corporate visits are frequent for obvious reasons. Corporate visited the Apple Valley store probably twice a week, so people just got used to the idea that they were going to be there all the time.

            Then I went to the Yakima store. It was...not like that.

            The one I'm in now has more in common with Apple Valley, which is both good and bad. I'm glad it's not a wasteland, but...seriously. Hand-slapping 19-year-olds. I have no need for these company men.

    3. @StarTribune: UPDATE: An investigation into personal misconduct led to sudden departure of Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn, company says.

      Illicit misuse of customer phone numbers. That's my guess.

      1. Wow. My last company went south because of "personal misconduct" at the top.

        I've met Brian Dunn. He shopped at our store occasionally. I'll say I'm not surprised.

  7. Alright, there's a ton of Hold Steady fans here. I just got an email that they're playing a really tiny venue in Fargo in June for $20. I've not loved their records, but it seems like the type of band that needs to be seen live to be appreciated. Should I do it?

      1. Absolutely. I didn't really like Craig Finn's latest solo album, but his live show made it approximately 10,000 times better. He's a phenomenal frontman.

        1. I really enjoy the Hold Steady live. They know how to rock a room apart, and if the crowd is into the show it can be a really memorable concert experience.

          1. They may know how to rock a room apart, but it can't be overstated that their best quality is how they bring a room together. I generally dislike concertgoers, and keep to myself as a rule. During the Hold Steady show, I was sucked in by the climate the band cultivated, and found myself actually joining in with people I didn't know. A very different kind of show from the ones I normally attend - it's really sort of a communal thing.

    1. A couple years ago, I brought some friends to see the Hold Steady co-headline with Drive-By Truckers and no one went away disappointed. I enjoyed the Hold Steady's studio recordings, but I also thought they were a little better in person. I am also a big fan of tiny venues, so that sounds like a great opportunity.

  8. The other day someone (I forget who... a lot of you still run together for me... sorry.) mentioned that the Pillow/Blanket War episode of Community was the funniest thing on television this season.

    Watched it over the weekend. They were right. Especially since my wife and I are the kind of nerds who own The War.

      1. it probably reminded you of that parody because the wrote who wrote/produced that also wrote the Community episode

  9. Somehow Mario Balotelli is not getting sanctioned for this:

    The FA can be such a joke when it comes to its seemingly arbitrary punishments. Their standard line is they don't want to undermine the officials. From the article:

    "Where at least one of the officials has seen the coming together of players retrospective action is not taken, regardless of whether they have seen the full extent of the challenge."

    To me that is just refusing to help the officials, for whom it is impossible to see everything. For example American football has 22 players as well, but use 7 officals instead of just 1 (with 2 assistants). And it comes at the detriment of the players' safety.

    1. The idea that this is coming from FIFA is some kind of farce. MLS has in the past (and I'm sure will continue to) give additional sanction to fouls (or non-calls) that were seen by an official. Just as two Sounders-related examples: Servando Carrasco with a fine and one-match suspension for a yellow-card challenge deemed by the disciplinary committee to rise to the level of a red-card challenge, and Alvaro Fernandez for grabbing his face when he wasn't struck in the face. (Both cases being pretty good examples of challenges where the official didn't see "the full extent of the challenge.")

      This seems like an awfully poor decision from the FA. I know some have complained this year about MLS' disciplinary committee being inconsistent, but they are catching more than the officials are on the field, and in my book, catching more is better than catching less.

      1. If you read the follow-up story, he was released without being charged after spending the night in the cooler. The Camden Yards folks are displeased, as they should be.

        I'm ok with The Wave and with beach balls in the stands, contra certain Citizens around here. I'm not ok with @-holes (drunk or otherwise) jumping onto the field during a game. Prosecute to the limit of the law. Every. Time.

        1. 100% agree.

          If it were up to me, any fan running onto a field of play (in any sport) spends a year in jail (minimum) and a lifetime ban from the stadium. Is it excessive? yes, but this kind of behavior has no place in sports.

          1. A year in jail is absurdly harsh. Most convicted felons don't spend a year in jail. Now stopping to avoid approaching the forbidden zone...

          2. I'd prefer a bunch of community service. They aren't really a danger to society (as long as they aren't a Ligue anyway), make them give something back for taking away everyone else's time.

          3. A year seems excessive. I say that any of the athletes who get their hands on the intruder have carte blanc. I'd love to see more of these:

            httpv://youtu.be/YLt4wTtOQPo

        2. I have no idea what sort of "miscommunication" could have occurred to prevent him from being charged. I'm both flabber and gasted. My only guess is that the police treated him very badly and reached a mutual settlement to pretend the whole thing didn't happen.

            1. Meh. He sprained his ankle jumping onto the field. Methinks nothing happened to him in the pokey. He's just a dumbass that somebody cut loose because it was his birthday.

                1. Right, it just makes absolutely no sense not to charge him (it's a "dunker" as the Baltimore PD homicide unit would call it) unless there's some crap they really don't want to come to light.

  10. Ugh...off to work. I'm sure customers will ask about what happened today. I'm even surer that our company will have some ridiculous script for me to read from.

  11. The Twins didn't lose today!

    Puppies!! httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAxRozTgoXM

  12. By winning 4 out of their last 6 games, the Wild ended up with 81 points. They'll pick 7th in the NHL draft in June, bypassing Montreal (78), New York (79), Toronto (80) and Anaheim (80) to get to that spot. Each of those four teams managed only 2 "W's" in their final 6 games...

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