55 thoughts on “October 15, 2016: The New Low”

    1. Allen, Wright, Stein and the informant met multiple times at Wright's business, the G&G Mobile Home Center in Liberal.

      I don't think it is too difficult for the three men arrested to figure out who the unnamed informant is. He's a real hero in this in that he not only saved many innocent lives, but he did so at the cost of his own way of life considering he will undoubtedly have to go into a witness protection program for the rest of his life.

  2. So Lady Friend and I are going to Duluth next weekend. (First time for both of us) Any suggestions about which restaurant or cafe to visit?

      1. Agree with these.
        Also, also, if you're at Canal Park, check out Canal Park Brewing - excellent beer and great menu.

    2. Hopefully, you're smarter than I was. I didn't realize that Canal Park could be 30 degrees colder than the rest of Duluth.

    3. Betty's Pies is great, but is half way to Two Harbors (maybe 12 miles up the road). The Scenic was our special night out place, but I see that it's the new Scenic, so I have no idea if it's good or not. Fitger's Brew House does excellent pub food. Pizza Luce is always great, and it's conveniently located just across the highway from canal park. Across the bridge into SoupTown lies the Anchor Bar. Their burgers are legendary, and worthy of the high praise. NBB's recs are also solid.

  3. First night home from surgery and I slept like a baby -- up every 2-3 hours 🙁 First it was to use the bathroom, then the ice pack was leaking, etc etc. I can't wait until I get the okay to ditch the compression cuffs on my calves so that I can take care of some of this without waking up Mrs. Runner for help.

    Seeing the home nurse later this morning for the first time, so we'll see how she thinks it's going. Disconcerting news of the day: my weight is up 6-7 lbs -- what the heck, did he put in a concrete hip?!

  5. Last night I went to a high school football game for the first time since I was in high school (and in the pep band). The jalapeño and I have been taking nighttime walks for a few weeks now, and he'd been intrigued by the lights at the high school field. Since it was relatively warm, it was a good night to go. After halftime he'd had enough (and our team was losing 28-0 at that point), but I had more fun than I would have expected. The cheerleaders were throwing mini footballs into the crowd and an older teen gave one to the jalapeño. He is currently outside playing catch . . . by himself because he's just so excited about the ball.

    Parenthood is such a trip.

    1. Enjoy it now. My boys are old enough that when we go their school's football games, my wife doesn't see them until it's over. (I'm the PA announcer for the games). They are off hanging out with their friends the whole time and basically have no clue how the team did.

    2. Cool.

      We took the 10 year old to the high school game last night. The marching band did a Prince tribute and a pro sax player that has played with Prince did a solo on Purple Rain. It was pretty cool.

  7. I watched ESPN's documentary on Steve Bartman yesterday. It reminded me of why I will not be rooting for Cubs fans to end their drought or "curse." I rarely root for teams in the Twins' division (not easy to go from rooting hard against a team to suddenly rooting for them), but I would love the Indians' to end their own drought with a World Series victory over the Cubs. Just realized the Marlins have destroyed the most recent hopes of both the Cubs and the Indians. Both have been in the playoffs more recently since playing the Marlins, but both teams lost late leads vs. the Marlins that either cost them a chance to win the World Series (Indians in '97) or to advance to the World Series (Barman game). In both cases, the Marlins won the World Series.

    1. Huh. I don't think I've ever considered the fans when rooting for or against a team. After all, Twins fans once threw beer at Knoblauch

      2. Bartman was just a fan and one of numerous fans that was reaching for a foul ball and he just happened to be the one that touched it first. For this "crime," he had an entire ballpark and streets full of fans chanting "a--hole!" and he had to be escorted out by security after having beer, pizza and many different kinds of food thrown at him. While being escorted out, he had many, many fans shouting angrily at him. He had to have a sweatshirt covering his face while being escorted out. Even with security's help, they couldn't just escort him to a cab. They had him go into the security office and then they had him change his appearance by having him take off his headphones, hat and glasses and put on a security jacket. The security then took him out a back way to get to a cab, but someone recognized him, so they hurriedly took him to one of the security officers' nearby house where he could wait till later and they could arrange for one of the security officers to drive him to his hotel. In the days to follow, the Little League team he coached had to make a public plea to tell what a great guy he was so people would stop making death threats. Remember, this was a fellow Cubs fan who was in a crowd of people just trying to catch a foul ball.

        1. What bothered me most about the whole thing is how the Cubs themselves used Mr. Bartman as their excuse for losing. They made numerous mistakes and had many other chances to win. In fact, it's an open question whether Alou could've caught that ball even if Mr. Bartman hadn't been there. But no, they blamed him rather than own up to their own failures.

          1. Cosine. That always annoyed me. To be fair, though, by the time I started working in Illinois back in 2012, the Cubs fans in the office had come to grips with the fact that the team blew it.

            1. all of the above. How many zillions of fans have/would have reacted similarly to a ball hit their way?

              one only has to watch a little bit of tv coverage to see grown men practically assault each other to get a $7 baseball in the stands to realize the hypocrisy. And to blame a fan for on-the-field failures is loser behavior, by both fanatics (the root of "fan", after all) and club personnel.

              1. What I try to keep in mind is that much of the Cubs' personnel – from owner, to front office, to coaching staff & players – has turned over since 2003. There are Cubs fans who were too little in 2003 to know about Bartman but are loving the current team.

                Meanwhile, every ownership group & front office in Cleveland has embraced a racist caricature as the emblem of their team, and they happily sell that image to kids who want to like their local MLB club.

          2. If Alex Gonzalez turns the double play instead of an E6, they get out of the inning with 1 run allowed leading 3-1. Gonzalez' error put a runner on base and prevented 2 outs from being recorded. The Bartman play only prevented 1 out from being recorded and did not put any runners on base. It was Mark Prior who ended up walking Luis Castillo after the foul ball to bring the tying run to the plate with the heart of the order due up. Plus the Cubs intentionally walked two batters in the inning and both ended up scoring.

    2. Cleveland has had chief wazoo front and center this series. That's reason enough for me to hope they miss the World Series in the most heartbreaking way possible.

        1. I think I would dislike them even more if that were the case. That'd be lIke them saying "fine, you whiners , we'll get rid of the embarrassing caricature. But f*** you first."

          That's the kind of thing you just do away with right away.

          1. *resists drawing FZ connections.*

            *willingly draws NFL connections*

            the commitment by various sports franchises to racially charged caricatures is a sad commentary on our national state of emotional development.

  8. Against my protests, my wife turned on an episode of diners, drive ins, and dives. Listening to that idiot try to describe what he's tasting is kind of hilarious.

    "Oh man, it's got the thing, with the thing. And the you used some spices. "

    1. Fiero's personality is outrageous. That said, whoever scouts locations for that show is on point; every place I've been to that's been featured on his show has been winner winner chicken dinner.

      1. That auto correct on his name is on point.

        But yeah, I agree. I like the idea of the show , but it needs to be hosted by pretty much anyone else on the planet.

            1. I'd eat that on a flip flop.

              Fieri doesn't bother me that much. Yes, he revels in his douchery at times, particularly later in the series. But there are a LOT of moments of what I see as genuine appreciation for the businesses and people he's featuring, and a lot of moments of genuine, good-natured fun. Plus, I really like that the show still shows, you know, actual cooking and recipes (albeit in fast-forward).

              the thing I dislike the most about Food Network is the MTV-ing of the network. Back in my day, it was chock full of studio cooking shows with talented, interesting chefs. I miss those days.

              1. I agree that his enthusiasm for the restaurants featured on the show seems pretty genuine, as genuine as Jane & Michael Stern's Road Food segments on The Splendid Table.

                As for the "talent" on the Food Network these days, I knew it was time to drop the channel as the reality mentality set in and folks like Mario Batali & Emeril were shown the door.

                1. Yep. I used to watch Food Network all the time, but any time I happen upon it now, I very quickly change the channel. I can understand why the step-by-step studio shows aren't as popular, but that's really what I'm looking for in a cooking show. I don't watch to learn about the people that are cooking, I watch to learn how to make the food they are cooking.

                  Watching cooking shows was a large part of how I learned to cook, so knowing that those sorts of shows aren't really on any more is a bit disappointing to me, as if a school I went to has closed, or at least gone way down hill, in the time since I left.

                  1. sadly, my PBS station has really cut back (or relegated to odds times) their cooking shows too. I loved Julia Child's show and Jacques Pepin's various shows, but also Master Chef, Michael Chiarello, Nick Stellino, Martin Yan, Cooks Illustrated, Two Fat Ladies, BBQ University, Eric Ripert, Daisy Martinez, Rick Bayless, Ming Tsai, etc. I learned a ton and was entertained.

                    1. When I was a kid, I loved watching Justin Wilson's show.
                      I still sometimes try to measure out a teaspoon with the palm of my hand, but mostly I just don't measure.

                  2. I'm really looking forward to the "sequel" to Good Eats that Alton Brown is putting together for release online. I'll bet Netflix or Amazon could get their money's worth out of a studio cooking show.

                    I don't have a problem with personality-driven programming per se, provided the personality is tolerable and is in support of the actual content. (This is probably why I can tolerate Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives occasionally.) Food Network has beaten the charisma of Chopped into the dirt with overexposure, but I don't dislike it in the abstract. But when the content takes a back seat to a telegenic mediocrity, that's a recipe for junk food TV. I suspect I'll be sharing YouTubed episodes of The French Chef or Good Eats on Netflix with the Poissonnier long before she ever watches a show on the Food Network.

                    2. We cancelled our cable subscription several years ago. They might have added that channel since then, but I can't begin to tell you how nice it is to never watch a commercial or get sucked into distraction viewing. I wish it were easier to get some kinds of content, but I have no regrets about eliminating broadcast or cable TV from my life.

                    3. We went back to just local channels on our cable package for a couple of years, then switched to Uverse and backslid. I like my NBA, damnit.

                2. Usually at seven on weekdayals I'll flip over to the create channel on the bunny eats and watch Lidia Bastianich (or sometimes Martha Stewart depending on what day it is) and Cooks Country for my studio cooking show fix.

                  Also, because ten years ago Alton Brown convinced me I should finally learn how to cook, I was able to come up with a breakfast of Butternut squash and sausage hash glazed with maple syrup and mixed with scrambled eggs. It was delicious.

      2. I agree.

        One thing I love about the show is that I can get the kids to try new places based on the show.

Comments are closed.