Infinite Monkeys
"...a sparkly blog..." - James Lileks"Read them only with extreme caution."- Hugh Hewitt
Infinite MonkeysI've never much liked Halloween. Never really got into it, even as a kid. Maybe it's because of that time some punk teenager grabbed the staff I hand-carved as a young Boy Scout to go along with my wizard outfit, snapped it in two, and cackled like Scut Farkus in "A Christmas Story."
But I digress ...
In our old place in Riverside, Mrs. Zaius and I were really put off with the caliber of trick-or-treaters who showed up at our door. When the bell would ring, we'd go to the door and be too-often greeted by sour-faced and greedy little monsters. We'd hold out the bowl and say, "Take a few of the things that you like." And, invariably, one kid in the scrum would take a huge handful of 20 tiny candy bars. Then the others would join in, like sharks to the chum. Saying, "hey, hey, hey, take it easy," didn't have much effect. And the parents were either oblivious to such rudeness, or approving of it. Every kid for himself, I guess.
Then there were the teenagers. Seriously. Someone should make a sign that says, "If you're taller than three stacked pumpkins, you ain't gettin' any damn candy." (Note to self: Market such a cynical yard ornament for grumps like me next year). Anyway, later in the trick-or-treating period, we were graced by several teenagers approaching the door wearing the requisite slacker outfit — ratty jeans and long-sleeved shirt with a novelty tee on top — accessorized with a "Scream" mask. And, needless to say, they rudely stabbed their paws into the bowl and grabbed even bigger, more gluttonous handfuls.
Yet, now we've experienced our first Halloween Pasadena, and it couldn't have been sweeter. Every child — and there were no teens — was just as cute as a button. And as polite as if they were addressing a minister.
I'm now starting to come around on Halloween.
Feel free to share your own experiences in the comments section. I'm curious to know if Riverside's "gimme, gimme gimme" attitude was an aberration, or the norm these days and we just got lucky this year.
The Boston Globe has run an obituary that, well, let's just say gets a few facts about the Cold War wrong. The "most costly and dangerous confrontation in world history" was not ended by Ronald Reagan. Nor was it the doing of Gorby. No. The world was pulled from the brink of Armageddon by modest New England activist Randy Forsberg (a woman of such modesty that she doesn't even warrant a Wikipedia entry).
Anyway, here starts the fawning obit (and the reason it raises an alarm is that it was written by the "executive director and principal research scientist at the MIT Center for International Studies."):
RANDY FORSBERG, who died this month at age 64, left a remarkable legacy: She helped end the Cold War, the most costly and dangerous confrontation in world history. This singular achievement was not hers alone, of course, but she spurred the massive social movement in the United States and Europe that convinced the superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - that they had to stand down from their nuclear rivalry.
How generous to not give this previously unknown woman sole credit. But the laughs are just beginning ...
The nuclear freeze idea, and the citizens' campaign that galvanized the world to embrace it, gradually altered the opinions of the public and then the policy makers in the United States and elsewhere. In America, the quickly rising popularity of the freeze collided with the equal popularity of President Ronald Reagan, who accelerated the arms buildup in the early 1980s. But the freeze movement changed Reagan's own calculations, driving him toward arms control negotiations and softer rhetoric toward the USSR by 1984.
Yeah, the idea galvanized the media and the world's myopic idiots (granted, those categories tend to overlap a smidge). So let me get this straight: The no nukes movement "collided" with Reagan's reckless arms buildup, but magically, by the force and volume of the unilateral surrender crowd, he started to "change his calculations." Um ... no.
Of course, Reagan wasn't driven to any arms control negotiations. Gorby was driven to negotiate after he realized that his collapsing economy could never keep up with the capitalist might that could churn out nukes -- and even "Star Wars" -- with the ease that we churn out Big Macs. Reagan softened his rhetoric because a gracious winner does that when a proud opponent is meekly admitting defeat, but wishes to retain some dignity. We continue ...
When Mikhail Gorbachev became the Soviet premier in 1985, the possibility of dramatic action to reduce the nuclear danger suddenly seemed feasible. Gorbachev was influenced by the freeze idea and other arms control proposals. When he began a series of unilateral steps to demonstrate his willingness to end the nuclear rivalry, most policy and political experts in the United States were skeptical, and rejected his overtures.
Rejected his overtures? That was Reagan's plan all along. Force the USSR to surrender -- and from a position of maximum weakness. Gorby entered his position of ultimate power with the full intention of vanquishing the U.S. Only he was hit smack in his birthmark by reality.
But the public was increasingly adamant about ending the nuclear arms race, and they responded with cautious but unmistakable support for such disarmament measures. Reagan, a master politician, also recognized this opportunity. Buffeted by the Iran-Contra scandal that was revealed in November 1986, he immediately moved to engage Gorbachev and the relatively radical ideas for stopping the nuclear rivalry.
Cautious support? Is that what you call labeling Reagan a war-mongering nut in the press, holding massive rallies and burning his image in effigy? And this professor, with great influence over his skulls full of mush, posits that Reagan engaged with Gorby to get some good press after the Iran-Contra scandal? Good grief! As Jonah Goldberg would say, that's nonsense on stilts.
This sudden turnaround in US politics could be explained by one factor above all others - the public had become convinced, by the freeze movement particularly, that something substantial had to be done, and soon, to end the nuclear peril. The politicians, news media, and experts followed suit.
Ugh. This reads like a parody of history. Like saying the Japanese surrendered in World War II because we arrested Tokyo Rose, or the Emperor was smitten with Betty Grable and had a change of heart, or a butterfly flapped its wings and ...
Mrs. Zaius, just for kicks, searched on the Craig's List for job listings for restaurant wait staffs in Pasadena. In addition to a resume and an application, the restaurant required prospective plate haulers to provide ... head shots.
I suppose they don't want their diners to be put off their food by ugly people.
[Cross posted from an entry on BikeJournal.com's Forum. I've been meaning to start posting here what I write there. El Tour de Tucson is a 109 mile huge charity ride that many treat as a race. Qualifying as a Platinum rider by finishing in under 5 hours gives one special starting line privileges in next year's Tour and other Perimeter Bicycling events for the next couple of years. When events are attended by thousands, getting a reserved place at the front of the starting area is rightly coveted. My BJ account is under the name DecafBeanBoy. The story behind that some other day.]
What? You only just registered?
Yep.
But we've been planning this for months!
Yep.
Dude, what were you thinking? You could have saved beaucoup bucks by registering early. Why the delay?
Well, I'll tell ya. I have this bad vibe about El Tour. It's a pressure cooker. Lot's to coordinate and about a million things to go wrong. Worth it? Well, if I were in better shape, definitely. But my fitness keeps me firmly in the maybe category. I know I can complete the course, sure. But can I make the Platinum, like I was so confident about back at RAGBRAI [7-day ride across Iowa during the last week of July]? Definite maybe not.
I'm out of shape. I got sick, got an ear infection, got off balance, and missed 21 days of riding. Then I was out of rhythm and only rode sporadically, alone, getting marginal workouts. I missed the group ride for about 6 weeks. I'm back inthe routine now, and am beginning to see improvement, but I have slipped so far...
Let's not talk about the madhouse of crashes at the beginning of the event.
Let's not talk about the liklihood of a mechanical, or a cleat problem from the riverbed crossings. One flat and I'm likely out of the running.
Let's not talk about how ill prepared I am with regard to knowing what combination of caloric products will work for me on the 5 hour ride. Past years have been horrible in this regard, despite buying books on the subject. I have not been able to get any long rides in for experimenting recently. Well, okay, we could talk about that. I'm considering a Camelback for water, and bottles for ??? (Ensure? Spiz? HEED? A Dirty Cosmotinijito?)
My wife will be out of town and I'll have the kids, by myself for a week and a half before the event, through it and past it. Not only will I have to arrange for their care while I go to Tucson, but I'll have to work out a safety net for them as I go out and train in those mornings as a single parent. I'm thinking I'll have a deal set up with their aunt. She will assume I am dead in a ditch alongside the road each morning and come get the kids unless I call her after I return from the ride. Any other ideas?
I don't want to hold Howard [coming in from Colorado] back, or miss the chance to ride with the increasing number of BikeJournalers at El Tour [many coming from as far away as Canada]. I am on the fence about going for Platinum versus taking a casual tour of the support stops. (Yes, there are some testosterone fueled personal rivalries I'd hate to look bad in, but those are a whole different post.)
Anyway, that's the update from the BeanBoy. If you read this whole post, you either know me, or are a thoroughly kindly soul. Sorry for the whining.
Decaf out.
Oh, good grief: "Trick?... or Treat? Children's Staggering Sugar Consumption Unmasked in Time for Halloween."
First Five California, the brainchild of Rob Reiner, wants you to know that too many M&Ms will make your kids fat and rot the teeth out of their heads. Well. No kidding. Whatever happened to the good old days of poisoned candy and apples with razor blades?
Our old nemesis Col. Slanders is offering a delectable prize for any caller he deems a turkey who ducks hard questions and chickens out of voting for the GOP standard-bearer in the coming donnybrook with Hillary Rodham Clinton. I'm surprised he hasn't been flooded with calls.
Personally, I think Mitt Romney is a phony and a fraud and I really like cornbread and pork rice dressing.
“'I’M NOT A ZOMBIE!' you shout into the darkness." Sure. Sure you aren't.
Zombie.
Curious news from the UK: "Human race will 'split into two different species.'"
According the Daily Mail, evolutionary theorist Oliver Curry from the London School of Economics suggests, "the human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures."
I read at the dentist's office today that David Lee Roth is touring again with Van Halen. That can only mean that Eddie and Alex (I presume to address them by their first names because, well, I can) are really hard up for cash. Out of morbid curiosity, I Googled "David Lee Roth + Van Halen", and I was surprised at what I discovered.
Would the wildfires this week have been as destructive if firefighters had the air support they needed earlier? Maybe. Maybe not. According to the Associated Press:
"The weight of bureaucracy kept these planes from flying, not the heavy winds," Republican U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (said). "When you look at what's happened, it's disgusting, inexcusable foot-dragging that's put tens of thousands of people in danger."
But with all due respect to the gentleman from Orange County, this is a perenniel gripe. It might be legitimate. I suspect it is. But Rohrabacher's lament is neither unique nor new. In the nearly three years I worked at The Press-Enterprise, I think I witnessed four or five major wildfires, including the deadly Esperanza Fire last year. The most common complaint I saw from readers was the air support sat idle while property burned. But there are several reasons why the tankers remain grounded in the early hours. Wind is the most common concern. Turbulence and downdrafts put fixed-wing aircraft at risk of crashing.
Another reason is cost. Airplanes are expensive to fly. The famed DC-10 supertanker costs $26,500 an hour to keep aloft. The rationale often seems to be, don't fly the planes when engines and hand crews will do. Of course, when wildfire costs exceed $1 billion, the expense of putting a supertanker in the air is nothing at all. After the complaints from Orange County this week, I would expect to see some changes in the way the state deploys its air assets in the future.
Forgive the break from fire coverage, but the world continues to turn. Among the news I almost missed: Stephen Colbert's "campaign" for president may actually be illegal. In other news, Pat Paulsen is spinning in his grave.
The call came just before 5:00 p.m. A neighbor in Running Springs, an official with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department, phoned my dad to report the house on Spring Oak is safe. The fire crews have done an incredible job under horrible circumstances -- wind, smoke, heat, little food, little sleep. We owe them a great debt of gratitude, and then some.
The Sun's fire blog has the latest vital statistics on the Grass and Slide fires. The battle remains fierce:
Slide Fire
Homes destroyed: 200
Acres: 10,800 acres
Containment: 0 percent
Cause: Under investigation
Direction: Burning southeast
Resources: Seven handcrews, three helicopters, 160 engines, 28 water tenders and 1 bulldozer.
Personnel: 564Grass Valley Fire
Homes destroyed: 100-plus
Acres: 1,100
Containment: 30 percent
Date of expected full containment: Sunday, Oct. 28
Cause: Under investigation
Direction: Burning north
Resources: 17 handcrews, 99 engines, seven water tenders, three helicopters, 1 bulldozer.
Personnel: 548Source: U.S. Forest Service
The smoke doesn't seem so thick tonight, but the rhetoric is. President Bush is coming to survey the damage tomorrow. Two years ago, political opportunists criticized the president for waiting too long before visiting hurricane-stricken New Orleans. This year, political opportunists are criticizing the president for not waiting long enough before visiting the fire-stricken areas of Southern California. And the clowns keep marching.
An amazing story in the LA Times today. Cops in San Bernardino shot and killed a fleeing arson suspect. (HT: Hugh)
The confrontation that ended in the shooting death started about 6 p.m. Tuesday when San Bernardino university police spotted a man in a rural area of flood channels and scrub near the campus. University police tried to detain the man, but he got into his car and fled, authorities said. When he began to ram officers' vehicle, they shot him.
How bad would it have been if the suspected arsonist been successful? Very, very bad.
The area near the campus had been affected by the massive Old Fire of 2003, Patterson said, adding that "it's very fire-prone. It's an area that would be very devastated if a fire were to start there."
In related news, from the same LA Times story, another arsonist was foiled by a passerby, and the fire he started put out by local residents.
About three hours later in Hesperia, a man was seen by a female motorist squatting along the side of Highway 173 just south of Arrowhead Lake Road. Sheriff's officials say John Alfred Rund, 48, of Hesperia had just started a fire along the flat, isolated, scrubby road.The woman called police, and Highway Patrol and sheriff's deputies were soon looking for the suspect, who witnesses said took off on a Honda motorcycle, wearing a red-and-white-striped helmet.
Four residents grabbed shovels and put out the fire with clods of dirt, said sheriff's spokesperson Jodi Miller.
Oh, how different this natural disaster is from Katrina — especially from the way local agencies and residents are reacting (a subject that will warrant its own post when the flames die down ...)
But for the tell-tale odor, from my perspective in Rialto the thick haze surrounding the San Bernardino mountains could be mistaken for the clouds and fog that often shroud the local peaks. It looks like just another smoggy day in the Inland Empire. Closer to the blaze, the smoke is thicker, more pungent. The city of Highland, whose residents remain wary of the Slide Fire descending on their foothill homes, was fully enveloped in a noxious cloud this morning. Four years ago, firefighters lost the Old Fire in the fog and mist. This morning, for a moment, some reporters questioned whether firefighters would lose the Slide Fire in the smoke. But they are seeing more clearly with the aid of the latest surveillance techology.
Officially, the Slide Fire remains at zero-percent containment this afternoon and has grown to more than 10,000 acres. By every account I can find, the firefighters in Running Springs have begun engineering an extraordinary reversal of fortune. Only 10 homes were lost in town last night -- a tragedy, yes, but it could have been worse. At 3:17 this afternoon, The Sun reported, "Firefighters have successfully - and repeatedly - held off the Slide Fire from Running Springs' downtown. They are now moving to the other end of town -- closer to Lake Arrowhead -- to Pine Cone Drive, where the fire is burning." All honor to the guardians of Live Oak Drive and their comrades. They're doing the best they possibly can.
The weather is much more amenable, too. According to a Press-Enterprise report:
Today is expected to be the turning point in the battle to contain the mountain blazes, which still threaten an estimated 10,000 homes. The optimism is based largely on forecasters' belief that the Santa Ana winds are gone, and even the blustery uphill wind that could kick up to 10-12 mph, with 25 mph gusts, are expected to diminish by afternoon. Tomorrow's forecast is even better, with winds dropping to light and variable and temperatures dropping from today's expected 70-75 degrees. That means that air tankers and water-dropping helicopters should be able to fly unimpeded by the weather, unless the currently calm winds allow smoke to obscure the pilots' view of their targets.
Meantime, in Lake Arrowhead, the Grass Fire is at 30 percent containment.
More shortly...
Even celebrities had to flee their homes. According to the Associated Press:
Kelsey Grammer was among those who fled Malibu, the celebrity-favored oceanfront town that also is home to Mel Gibson, Cher, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Aniston, Mel Brooks, Ryan O'Neal and more.Grammer made light of the evacuation for the sake of his 6-year-old, Mason.
"My daughter was nervous in the beginning," he told the E! entertainment channel Monday. "I said, 'Oh, honey, it's nothing. Just relax. Come on, we're going to have some fun.' So she shined the flashlight around and we got out. ... We're safe. We got the dog, we got the kids."
His house remained untouched Tuesday, said his publicist, Stan Rosenfield.
Well, that's good news. But I bet Grammer is secretly wishing he hadn't given up his little house in the Valley. The schools in Malibu are probably much better, though. When they aren't under a mandatory evacuation order, that is.
Many of the smaller blazes in San Bernardino County have had, well... suspicious beginnings. There were at least two fires along Interstate 15 at the 210 freeway within the past 24 hours. Also, the Little Mountain Fire started suspiciously. Says San Bernardino City Fire Chief Mike Conrad: "These fires are going to be human caused, yes... Unfortunately, we do sometimes have arsonists, and carelessness." In the midst of a firestorm, there are no coincidences.
If you have any information about the origins of the fires, here is the contact information you need:
For additional contact information, visit the Mountain Area Safety Taskforce.
Vigilant citizens get results.
Nothing surprises me anymore. Especially coming from the fever swamps of talk radio. According to Air America host Mike Maloney (whom I've never heard of):
This is a perfect example of where the National Guard is vital, but the National Guard in, I don't know what the, how many units have been called up out of the California, maybe none, you know, but I do know this -- there are enough National Guard units in Iraq fighting Bush's filthy war and occupation to put different areas of the country in serious peopardy over when issues like this or natural disasters like this develop. Another part of the Bush legacy.
No doubt Karl Rove personally set the fires at Bush's behest. Dick Cheney probably laid down covering, er... fire.
And Harry Reid might be a bigger boob than Glenn Beck. According to The Hill:
"One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.
Six questions later, Reid denied he said what he said. Lovely.
Perhaps Sen. Reid believes the government can change the weather, just as another Democrat believed politics could "force the Spring."
It's my dad's birthday today. He just turned 76, but he looks about 10 years younger. Seriously. But when I spoke with him this morning, he sounded down. Matter of fact, dad had even forgotten it was his birthday. No wonder: To hear the news, it seemed likely he was going to lose his house in Running Springs today, assuming the place hadn't burned down overnight.
We don't know whether the house still stands or not. All we can do is hope, pray and maybe catch a clue from the news. Television has broadcast images of houses burning to the ground since the wee hours, but the official reports remain weirdly static. An hour ago, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Forest Service was repeating information I'd heard at 11:00 this morning: The Slide Fire is stuck at 4,000 acres with roughly 250 structures destroyed and zero percent containment. The Sun's fire blog confirms: "It was announced less than an hour ago by the U.S. Forest Service that more than 300 homes have burned up in the San Bernardino Mountains." Seems highly unlikely and not very helpful besides.
Other reports at Rim of the World, The P-E, and The Sun offer fragmentary data at best. But the data starts to paint a picture. A recent cryptic message from Rim of the World's scanner monitoring page relays the following:
07:16 PM Source: scanner Live Oak north of or past Knoll View - the fire is making a run at those homes there; moderate rate; you should have time to get there and get set up
That's just about three-quarters of a mile from my parents' street. And a perimeter map of the fire puts my parents' place in the thick of things.
But we might divine a few possibilities from some simple observations: Most of the early morning reports focused on neighborhoods north of Highway 18. Additional reports noted flames north of Highway 330 and east of Live Oak -- a broad area. There were confirmed reports of destroyed homes on Easy Street, just south of Highway 18, maybe 1,000 yards from where my parents live as the crow flies. But the news reports say nothing beyond that. And the winds have died down. Sikorsky S-64 tankers were still dropping water at dusk. Smoke is lingering and slowly rising. The fire is still moving, but slowly now. Lives and property remain in grave peril, but nature is relenting a bit -- perhaps enough to let the 2,000 firefighters on the line gain an upper hand.
Sounds overly optimistic? Maybe it does. But giving a father a little hope on his birthday sounds like a pretty nice gift to me. When I spoke with him tonight, he spoke confidently, even defiantly. "Until I hear otherwise, the house is still there," he said.
That's the spirit. And either way, I'll deliver the 18-year-old scotch on Saturday.
The photo above is a NASA satellite image of the Southern California wildfires -- from October 2003 (not 1993 as I had earlier -- duh). The photo below was taken yesterday by the European Space Agency. The Chinese should be getting a whiff of our wood smoke in a few days.
The helicopter pilots doing water drops are these fires are truly amazing...LA's channel 9 has been showing a helicopter picking up water from a local community pool and dropping in to save houses in Running Springs. Amazing. I will try to find video to post.
The most wonderful of all vegetable farms, Chino Farms, appears to be threatened based on the latest fire maps.
For those of you keeping an eye on the various and sundry walls of flame descending on Chula Vista, some good news. The built-in fire break to the north of the San Miguel Ranch area has been held, with firefighters not having to use a drop of water. The major power artery that fire officials have been concerned about is also now considered to be in the clear.
Some of the recent images we've been seeing of that area were fairly harrowing, showing a long line of fire marching uniformly toward the residential area. Fortunately, most of the newer developments down this way have been built with wide strips of cleared brush surrounding them. They're billed as walking trails, but apparently they also make pretty damned effective fire breaks.
The images we're seeing now are of smoldering brush, with only small pockets of flame left. With the wind calm, and live, green brush on the other side of the break, it looks like the houses there are safe. Considering how many of those fire breaks exist around Chula Vista and Eastlake, that's great news for the whole area.
Even without the fires, the destructive winds gusting throughout the Southland would be a story. Downed trees and powerlines, ruined fences, and twisted roadsigns litter the landscape. The dust is blinding. Along Interstates 15 and 210, big rigs roll over and die.
But combined with human wickedness, the winds become murderous. The numbers tell the tale:
An editorial in the Orange County Register today decries the circumstances behind the Santiago fire near Irvine: "If anything is evil, purposely setting a fire in Southern California in October in a drought year certainly qualifies. It is difficult to overstate the disgust one feels at a person who would commit such a malevolent act, or to contemplate the punishment that seems appropriate for a Southern California arsonist."
Well, it's a small consolation to know that arson qualifies as a "special circumstance" in murder cases. But it is a sorrowful fact that the wanton destruction of memories does not qualify as a capital offense.
It's too windy to sleep. The Santa Anas don't just blow here; they roar.
Firefighters are battling a 10-acre blaze in Fontana south of Interstate 210 and alongside Interstate 15. According to the San Bernardino Sun's fire blog, the fire is threatening homes and businesses near the Village of Heritage, which is where my wife works and where I've been getting my coffee every morning for the past two weeks.
Things are looking pretty grim in Running Springs. According to RimoftheWorld.net, which updated at 2:25 a.m.:
Multiple homes are reported to be on fire in the Rowco area of Running Springs near Wilderness Drive and Valley Ridge Drive....According to the California Highway Patrol, the fire has jumped Highway 18 in Running Springs. The fire has reportedly reached Pali Camp. Heavy embers are reported to be falling near Fire Station 51. Eyewitnesses in the Crestline area report that the fire has not advanced much toward Dart Canyon. However, the flame activity has appeared to increase.
And the Sun's reporters add:
As of 3:33 a.m. multiple structures were burning on City Creek Road at Highway 330 in Running Springs."Everything is burning north of Highway 330 and east of Live Oak as of right now, " said Steve Seltzner, U.S. Forest Service battalion chief and incident commander.
The Slide Fire is burning in a southwesterly direction through the western portion of Running Springs.
"The way the fire is lining up the eastern section is in jeopardy as well," Seltzner said.
Not good. I called my parents' place on Spring Oak. The phone just rang and rang. It would be a pity to lose that house, but at least my parents have another place to live. So many mountain residents have lost their only home over the past 24 hours.
Also, law enforcement and fire personnel evacuated Green Valley Lake last night. It's just too dangerous. Rim of the World has an evacuation map. In Lake Arrowhead, more than 3,000 acres of brush and timber have burned. Nearly 2,000 homes are threatened in the area, and at least 139 homes have burned down.
Oh, and there is yet another fire in the Cajon Pass near Devore. That makes three -- or four? -- over the past 36 hours.
Update (4:44 a.m.): Rim of the World reconfirms that the fire has jumped Highway 18 in Running Springs. According to a report posted at 4:36 a.m.:
Overnight Firefighters have been making mixed progress with the fires. Numerous spot fires have been reported in the Grass Valley area. Firefighter have heroically contained many of these spots. There are reportedly stuctures involved along Walnut Hills. Also, the fire has reportedly jumped Grandview Road near Augusta Drive. There is little news out of Running Springs where the fire reportedly made its way into a handful of neighborhoods with reports of homes lost in the Rowco area.Earlier, multiple homes were reported to be on fire in the Rowco area of Running Springs near Wilderness Drive and Valley Ridge Drive. In Lake Arrowhead, a structure protection task force had been assembled and responded to a flare up that was reportedly threatening homes in the area. Two residents had called 9-1-1 reporting fire at their house at Cypress Drive and Augusta Drive and in the 400-block of Violet Drive in Twin Peaks.
Little news in this instance is bad news.
Update (10:26 a.m.): According to KCAL Channel 9 News, 238 "structures" have been destroyed in Running Springs. Officials will not say how many of those structures are houses, but the unofficial tally is around 150.
Also, a small correction: According to Rim of the World, Tanker 910 made three drops on the Grass Fire yesterday, not one as I had noted.
The Eastern slope of Mount San Miguel, visible from my upstairs window, is in flames. Not much up there but a small city of antennae, but even that's bad news for anybody relying on broadcast TV tonight. Google Earth tells me what I'm seeing is 5.45 miles away as the crow flies. Rest assured, I'll be keeping an eye out for any flaming crows.
I'd immortalize the moment with a picture, but I suspect that if you've seen one indistinct orange blur in a sea of blackness, you've seen them all.
Mrs. Zaius — Jackie Lakely in the real world — is going to donate 5 percent of her revenue from art sales at Saturday's Claremont Village Venture to victims (two-legged and four-legged) of the wildfires. We'll be looking for a worthy destination for the funds, so keep your eyes out for a good place in the days and weeks ahead.
For more information about Jackie's involvement, see her website, here.
The Press-Enterprise reports that the fires spreading across Southern California are severely taxing existing resources. "Riverside County Fire Chief John Hawkins, a CAL FIRE unit chief, said there are enough firefighters and equipment to manage any incidents in Riverside County, but extra resources have been almost completely drawn down. Local and federal agencies have recalled almost all of their off-duty personnel."
Also, the winds are so severe that most firefighting aircraft are being kept grounded. That's bad news for mountain homeowners, where several houses in the Arrowhead area have burned and thousands more are threatened. According to P-E reports, "Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for North Lake Arrowhead, Running Springs, Arrowbear, Twin Peaks and all areas north of Highway 189. Voluntary evacuation orders are in place for the rest of Lake Arrowhead, Cedar Glen, Rimforest and the Dark Canyon area north of Lake Gregory. As many as 1,500 homes are threatened in the Lake Arrowhead Area and 400 in Green Valley Lake, said Richard Thornburgh, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman."
Finally, the P-E has some striking images of the wildfires and high winds. See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Update (1:47 p.m.): Topix has a newsfeed on Running Springs and other communities threatened or hit by fires. Most useful. I'm going to head out again in a minute to get more images of the I-15 fire.
Update (2:24 p.m): Good news. Fire crews more or less extinguished the fire at the Interstate 15-215 interchange in the Devore area about 30 minutes ago. But the freeway remains closed for the time being. According to news reports, the CHP might re-open the freeway any minute. Most of the smoke is gone. I will post more pictures as soon as I hunt down the battery charger for the camera.
The news isn't so good in the Lake Arrowhead region, however. KCAL Channel 9 News is showing live video of yet another house burning down. At least 1,500 homes remain threatened, according to the KCAL report I'm hearing now, and aircraft are still grounded.
According to KCAL, the homes most threatened in the Lake Arrowhead-Blue Jay area right now are located near the Lake Arrowhead Country Club and Grass Valley Lake. Here's a map.
Update (2:39 p.m): RimoftheWorld.net is an excellent source of news and information on the mountain fires.
Update (2:47 p.m.): Sounds like the air cavalry is on the way. At least one helicopter -- a big one -- passed overhead just now.
Also, via PE.com: "San Bernardino County Supervisor Dennis Hansberger, in a televised interview, said he would not disagree with reports from a TV helicopter reporter that more than 70 homes had burned in the Grass Valley area west of Lake Arrowhead. 'I wouldn’t dispute that number, and there are a large number of homes still in the path of the fire,' he told KABC-TV."
Update (3:07 p.m.): "The problem with resources is there are so many fires in Southern California that everybody's pretty much on their own," says Orange County Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather.
Update (3:17 p.m.): Interstate 15 is open again, but northbound traffic is heavy.
Update (5:21 p.m.): OK, I'm confused. Interstate 15 was open. Now it isn't. KTIE 590 AM (Hugh Hewitt's Inland affiliate) reported 20 minutes ago that a brushfire kicked up around Glen Helen again, in Devore. I drove up to the freeway at Sierra Ave. at the 15 and, yes indeed, northbound traffic is at a dead stop. But I could see no smoke from Glen Helen. I'll post more information as I collect it.
Update (5:27 p.m.): Kithbridge has a first-rate wildfire news aggregator up and running. (Via Hugh.)
Update (7:17 p.m.): Per David's comment, KFI reports that Interstate 15 is closed in both directions because of downed powerlines in the Glen Helen area. Northbound I-215 is a mess, too.
Update (8:44 p.m.): The Press-Enterprise has a comprehensive Inland fire page. Check it often for the latest news.
Update (10:31 p.m.): The San Bernardino Sun is blogging the fires here.
Update (10:32 p.m.): Kithbridge readers, please scroll down for more photos, news, and observations about the Inland and San Diego fires. And take a minute to peruse the rest of the blog. Thanks.
Living within a couple of miles of the Mexican border can be an exercise in media frustration during these massive firestorms.
During the 2003 Cedar Fire, we were treated to constant images of the burns near Kearny Mesa and Scripps Ranch, where the situation was admittedly dire. Meanwhile, however, another wall of flames was descending on the good folks here in Chula Vista. Any attempts to check in on the status of our local blaze were fruitless; occasionally we would receive the hugely helpful information that "flames also threaten Chula Vista", but that's about as detailed as things got.
Today has been much the same. As Rancho Bernardo and climes North have gone up in flames, the South Bay has been stuck in a virtual media blackout. This time, though, it's been difficult to determine just exactly what's burning anywhere in the county. The scope of the fire, coupled with clogged transportation arteries and the inability to get air support aloft, has made reporting, to put it lightly, a bit of a challenge.
As a result, maps of the affected areas have been few and far between, and even when they're shown, they're basically the equivalent of a big red blotch covering the whole county, with the legend, "Here Be Dragons!"
Thank God for bloggers like Rich Knitter then, who are tuned in enough to be aware of immensely useful resources like the MODIS Active Fire Mapping Program. What you'll find there is satellite data collected within the last few hours, indicating exactly where burns have been detected over the last 12 hours, 24 hours, and in the days since January 1. Even cooler, if you have Google Earth installed, you can follow this link to superimpose that data over a whizbang 3-D model of the area.
This, at last, explains why I'm seeing that funny, orangeish glow over the hills a couple of miles east of here.
On the drive home after retrieving my wife from work tonight, we spotted a brushfire along the shoulder of eastbound Interstate 210 at the I-15-210 interchange in Fontana. I've seen or heard no mention of it yet. I have posted some really bad, really blurry photos below. I'm no photographer, obviously.
Update: The San Bernardino Sun's city politics blog reports: "The transition road from the eastbound 210 Freeway to the northbound 15 Freeway was shut down for about an hour Monday night, said San Bernardino County Fire Department dispatcher Bonnie Owen. The closure was from a three-quarters of an acre fire that started about 6:50 p.m. but caused various spot fires before the blaze was extingushed about 8:50 p.m., Owen said." Good news. But I eagerly await news of the fire's cause.
Fire brings out the best and worst in people.
Glenn Beck, for example, is a boob.
Some Hugh Hewitt readers/trolls are little better.
And some nasty Angelinos really want to see Malibu burn. There's a special place in Hell for such people.
Evidently, yes. Parts, anyway. I just called my parents' house and got their answering machine, which I take as a positive sign. Take that, Richard Minnich!
The Redlands Daily Facts has a gripping tale of the ordeal of some Running Springs evacuees.
Eileen Johnston had just made it down Highway 330 with some of her prized belongings and assumed she would be able to make the trek back up to her Running Springs home to her 16-year-old son, Mark. But the roadway was now closed, and deputies stopped everyone from going back up.Her packed SUV parked on the side of the road, Johnston screamed and begged with deputies to waive her through. "All I want to do is go up and protect my son and they won't even let me do that," she said.
About 10 minutes later -- in what seemed to Johnston like days -- deputies allowed her husband to drive up the hill. It was a happy ending, but representative of the panic that struck many Running Springs residents who are used to fires but did not think the flames that roared through their town on Monday would move as quickly as they did.
My former colleagues at the Press-Enterprise published a prescient editorial on Oct. 13. Two key paragraphs that state and local officials should heed once the smoke clears:
People who live in fire danger zones need to recognize the public consequences of their lifestyle choice, and ease the burden as much as possible. Homes in high-risk areas drive up fire protection costs, by forcing firefighters to defend expensive structures instead of letting a fire burn across open land. The threat to homes also pressures firefighters to make dangerous last-ditch stands. And fire that destroys houses creates far greater recovery costs than a fire that burns open space.The 100-foot clearance zone is only one strategy for curbing fire danger. The state approved tougher building codes for fire-prone regions in 2005, requiring that homes be more resistant to burning embers. And local governments should be far more careful about allowing unchecked development in high-risk areas.
Those of us in LA aren't getting much coverage of the terrible fires in San Diego, because we have our own fires, but those in San Diego (or those of us who used to live in San Diego) certainly know Larry Himmel, and it's sad to see him report from his own destroyed home.
Update from Ben: And check out Nate Ritter's Twitter page updating San Diego's fires. Check back often.
The moon is red...
...and that most definitely is not snow falling.
The Santa Ana winds have stymied firefighters' efforts to knock down the flames throughout Southern California today. But the tide is turning. The Press-Enterprise reports that Tanker 910, a modified DC-10 fire tanker, dropped one load of fire retardant on the Lake Arrowhead fire this afternoon. The supertanker, which flies out of Victorville, can drop 12,000 gallons of water or retardant in a single run. The standard C-130s and P-3s drop between 3,000 and 7,000 gallons at a time.
Unfortunately, there is only one DC-10 for all of California. And it is expensive to fly. But what the plane can do is most impressive.
Correction (Tuesday, 10:26 a.m.): According to Rim of the World, Tanker 910 made three drops on the Grass Fire yesterday, not one.
What's that smell? Are those sirens? Uh oh. There's a new fire in Devore, at the Interstate 15-215 interchange near the Kenwood offramp. KFI AM 640 reports that the 15 freeway is closed in both directions around Glen Helen Parkway. That's about 5 miles from here. It's impossible to go outside and not hack and gag. I went to the gas station at 15 and Sierra to fill up the Honda and get a better view. My eyes were watering from the smoke. And the wind is very, very strong.
Pictures below...
The sky over Rialto is a burnt orange. It's hot and the wind is unabating. About 20 miles to the northeast, smoke pours over the San Bernardino mountains. Two fires burn near Lake Arrowhead and Green Valley. According to local news reports, at least 13 wildfires are burning from San Diego to Santa Clarita. The top priority for state firefighters at this hour is the massive blaze near Canyon Country, but much of the world remains focused on the Malibu fire, which has burned a church, a castle, and a number of multi-million dollar homes.
We are safe here, it appears. My parents' place in Running Springs is in jeopardy yet again. I just spoke with my mom, who spoke to a mountain neighbor. Fire is spreading rapidly up the hill below their street and appears to be burning homes nearby. They've skirted disaster many, many times over the years; they might not be so lucky this time. UC Riverside fire ecologist Richard Minnich told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin: "If (the fire) reaches Running Springs, that whole town is in trouble." We'll see.
Yesterday, fires scorched the hills near Devore and, more alarming, the scrub-filled field two miles west of our house. I don't believe there is enough fuel to create the sort of firestorm that drove us from our home in 2003, exactly four years ago this week. Of course, that year I thought we would probably be fine, "if the wind doesn't shift." I won't make that prediction this year -- or ever again.
The Press-Enterprise, as always, has the most comprehensive coverage of the Inland fires. The Los Angeles Times, KABC, and the Orange County Register are on top of the L.A. and Orange county fires. And here is a comprehensive site for Southern California wildfire news. Another site called Inciweb seems to be overloaded today. And for a general explanation of the conditions that make wildfires so prevalent here, the Southern California Wildfire Hazard Center, a joint project of UC Santa Barbara, Cal State Long Beach and NASA, is impossible to beat.
I do not envy members of the Writers Guild of America. Nor do I pity them. Like most writers, they're shiftless and lazy. Unlike many writers, however, they're overrated and overpaid. It looks as though television and motion picture writers are going to strike. And some studio execs couldn't be happier.
It's been a lousy TV season, at least as far as the numbers go. Most of the new shows are tanking in the Neilsons. The writers, as always, are to blame. But there is, as they say, a silver lining. According to the vile Nikki Finke, at least one "mogul" said: "We can get rid of the overhead and regroup and rethink everything. If we were having a great year, it might be different. But we're not, and this is like an automatic do-over."
Well, that's certainly one view. Mr. Hollywood Studio Exec seems to think the slack-jawed audience will tune in for more reality programming. Super. The suits did not seem to learn from the last baseball strike. Audiences are seeking -- and finding -- entertainment elsewhere. My guess is that the writers will eventually win short-term concessions -- royalties for Internet sales and the like -- but the medium will inexorably decline. Too bad TV is irrelevant. But contempt does not pay.
When that ineffable compound of depression, sadness (these two are not the same), anxiety, self-hatred, sense of failure and fear of the future begins to steal over you, start telling yourself that what you have is a hangover... --Kingsley Amis, "On Drink"
Monkey David and his bride Carrie hosted a party for the ages at their homestead on Saturday night. I helped tend bar. Over the course of 10 hours, we served 203 champagne cocktails, 91 Mai Tais, 87 Manhattans, 42 Cuba Libres, 14 Bronxes (Bill W.'s first drink, you know), 4 Sazeracs and 3 bone-dry vodka martinis. Also, the guests availed themselves of a 5-gallon jug of Fish House Punch, about which more below. Oh, and there was food. Lots of food.
By 10 o'clock Sunday morning, the carnage could be seen far and wide. I had a six-inch gash on my right forearm (origins hazy; possibly self-inflicted), which required emergency stiches from my wife. David's head swelled up three times its normal size and turned a sickening shade of overripe tangerine. A Vietnamese man emerged from the rear patio naked, gleaming with sweat and painted with the blood of what might have been a goat. My new old friend Oliver, who served as glasswasher, barback and bon vivant, wandered the neighborhood in a daze, wearing nothing but a bathrobe and just narrowly skirting arrest. Carrie, as always, looked radiant and unflappable, even though she drank the rest of us under the table, under the chairs, and under the house.
Hours later, I'm nursing the remnants of a fierce hangover, and I find myself wanting a more effective cure. The only real cure for a hangover, of course, is water and time. But who has either?
What I really want right now is a Corpse Reviver. There are two good recipes that I know of. One comes from Harry Craddock's immortal Savoy Cocktail Book. The other is an updated version that appears in Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology.
Corpse Reviver No. 1
(the original 1930 recipe by way of Harry Craddock)
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; Crocker warns: "Four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again."
Corpse Reviver No. 2
(by way of Gary Regan -- although he lists this in his book as "Corpse Reviver No. 1"; Regan thinks this is the better version of the two; I defer to tradition and chronology)
Stir and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Either would be a fine pick-me-up at any hour, although Crocker suggests the cocktail is most effective before 11 a.m. Absinthe barmen Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwartz offer a useful survey of hangover cures in their beautifully constructed book, The Art of the Bar. "Folks at the restaurant frequently ask for a strong, spicy Bloody Mary," they confide. "But a glass of champagne, a Death in the Afternoon, or even a plain old Screwdriver may do the trick just as well." A Screwdriver sounds nice, but how about that middle thing?
Death in the Afternoon
Pour the Pernod into a champagne flute and fill with champagne; so easy, even a half-revived corpse could do it.
Hollinger and Schwartz offer another remedy, for which I cannot vouch: "If you're feeling particularly masochistic, you might want to try an Ernest Hemingway speciality known as Death in the Gulf Stream. This is a mixture of crushed ice, 4 dashes of Angostura bitters, the juice and peel of a whole lime, and an oversized shot of extra-dry Holland gin. As he said of the drink, 'It is reviving and refreshing; it cools the blood and inspires renewed interest in food, companions and life.'" I'll take Papa's word for it.
Now, a word or two about the Fish House Punch.
I don't know what it is about the Fish House Punch, but it's all but guaranteed to make imbibers disrobe. The mystery is why. According to Gary Regan, "The Fish House Club in Philadelphia was founded in 1732 when a group of fisherman formed a society dedicated to gastronomy as well as angling. Although the club is officially known as the State in Schuylkill, it's often referred to as the Schuylkill Fishing Company or the Fish House Club. George Washington dined at this club, and some historians say that three blank pages in his diary reflect the effects of the Fish House Punch that he indulged in during his visit." No word whether the Father of Our Country got naked. But the recipe, which is older than the Republic, is simple enough:
Fish House Punch
(Gary Regan's version, which makes 10 to 12 five-oz. servings -- extrapolate as needed)
Pour all ingredients into a large nonreactive pan or bowl; stir well; cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least four hours; place the large block of ice in a large punch bowl; add punch
David says he mixed a "modified version" -- I think he left out the peach brandy. The legendary outcome was the same. I've heard stories about the Fish House Punch, but I'd never seen the effects. One time, years ago, a Claremont College security arrested an opera singer who was wandering naked through campus. She'd imbibed the punch. Last night, our Vietnamese friend stripped down and jumped into the hot tub. He later said, "I don't know why I did it." But when I asked him what he had to drink, he replied, "Nothing but punch." Bingo. And David's pants "fell off" late in the evening after he downed two or three glasses of punch in quick succession. Coincidence? I don't think so.
We left David and Carrie's house shortly before noon. David was lolling on the couch, wondering how all 15 of his drinks last night had been spiked with alcohol. As I sit here sipping cheap cabernet in the low light, with the wind howling outside, I wonder much the same. And I look forward to the next party.
I wouldn't vote for John McCain for all the bourbon in Kentucky, but I sure did like this segment from tonight's debate in Florida:
"Civilized decline," Mark Steyn writes, "can be so charming you don't notice it's about to accelerate into uncivilized decline."
He's talking about Quebec, alas, not California.
Proof that even the beautiful people are not exempt from the laws of physics!
http://view.break.com/384709 - Watch more free videos
Well, son of a gun. The last of the Rat Pack is dead. Joey Bishop was an underrated talent, one of the last of a nearly extinct breed of comics raised on vaudeville and burlesque. Sinatra called him "the hub of the wheel."
Bishop dispelled much of the mythology that grew up around the group of loungemen and crooners. They were, at bottom, consummate professionals. "Are we remembered as being drunk and chasing broads?" he asked in a 1998 interview. "I never saw Frank, Dean, Sammy or Peter drunk during performances. That was only a gag. And do you believe these guys had to chase broads? They had to chase 'em away."
Raise a martini glass to Frank, Sam, Dean, Peter and Joey tonight.
Evidently, the authorities in Scranton, Pa. are unfamiliar with the latest research from Great Britain. I can't help but think that had Dawn Herb let loose with her "potty mouth" on the job, she wouldn't be facing disorderly conduct charges. But I could be wrong.
I liked the ACLU lawyer's quote in the story: "You can't prosecute somebody for swearing at a cop or a toilet." Hey! I know that reference!
Distressing news from USA Today.
WASHINGTON — Security screeners at two of the nation's busiest airports failed to find fake bombs hidden on undercover agents posing as passengers in more than 60% of tests last year, according to a classified report obtained by USA TODAY.Screeners at Los Angeles International Airport missed about 75% of simulated explosives and bomb parts that Transportation Security Administration testers hid under their clothes or in carry-on bags at checkpoints, the TSA report shows.
On the positive side, not a single Polish grandmother was able to sneak knitting needles onto a plane last year. Thanks, TSA!
Egad! It's difficult to make a blog as boring as editorials, but I should have known that the NYTimes would be up to the challenge. And, naturally, the Times' arguments are just as lame and poorly reasoned in the blogosphere as they are when put down on dead tree. But why all the "editorial board" signatures? Isn't part of the new blog's purpose -- as stated by the Times -- to pull back the veil of institutional secrecy/isolation? Oh, well.
I did, however, enjoy this suggestion/trap from a reader who posted in the comments section after Feinstein indicated that she'd let Judge Leslie Southwick get through (it was in response to the Times' first substantive post):
May I make a small suggestion for this obviously excellent idea for a blog?Many of the most-read blogs use links to bolster the major quotes they use. It would be helpful, for example, to be able to read the above quotes from Judge Southwick’s opinion on the bisexual mother in context through a link to that opinion.
Doing so often helps in keeping many discussions in focus.
— Posted by Brent Ayotte
Of course, copious linking is a hallmark of blogging, something that the smug schmucks on the New York Times editorial board do not grasp -- undoubtedly because of their contempt for the "pajamas media." Yet as we know, in blogging, you link to original sources because that is the key to establishing your credibility. That way, readers can judge for themselves if you're making an honest argument, and not just take your word for it. But the NYTimes has been making dishonest arguments for so long, they figure they can slide by again. Wrong. A fair reading of Southwick's decision (which took me all of 2 minutes to find) puts the lie to their editorial and blog post, so it is not in their interests to link to it and still defend their work.
At any rate, welcome to the blogging age, New York Times. If you don't quickly figure out how this game really works, expect to have your milk money regularly stolen and your underwear frequently pulled over the back of your head. That's how we treat lame poseurs around here.
This just in from British researchers: Swearing 'is good for the workplace'. Since my workplace is currently my house, I can attest to the validity of the study's findings. My morale has never been higher.
(Hat tip: K-Lo at the Corner.)
And speaking of swearing...
...how about a Monkey Flashback from July 28, 2003:
Working Blue - Parents Strongly Cautioned!
Okay, today's update from The Smoking Gun includes a "f***ing" hilarious story of a Colorado state public defender trying to justify his client's use of "the eff-dash-dash-dash word" when referring to school principal. Start with this page, which includes many instances of the word, along with great sentences such as:
"Andrew Dice Clay, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Robin Williams and countless others have used the F*** family to entertain audiences across the land, enriching their lives with the entertainment and comedic value of F*** and its progeny."
"Literally millions of F***ing recordings have been distributed by national recording artists..."
"...there are roughly eight thousand six hundred words in the English language that begin with the letter F. . . . F*** has the unique distinction of being the only word commonly known as the F word."
So "get the f***" over to The Smoking Gun and take a gander.
Current Song: "F*** School" from the album The Replacements Stink by The Replacements
posted by RobbL at 1:22 PM
You Drop the F-Bomb on Me, Baby
F*** all, Robb. You f***ing beat me that f***ing Smoking Gun piece.
If you can find it (because it is, sadly, out of print), I recommend The 'F' Word, edited by Jesse Sheidlower. Believe it or not, it's a serious etymological treatment.
posted by Ben at 1:36 PM
Oh, dear. Looks like Pinch Sulzberger is in a bit of a pickle. At this rate, he might need to hold another yard sale.
As Bloomberg News reports: "Morgan Stanley, the second-biggest shareholder in New York Times Co., sold its entire 7.3 percent stake today, according to a person briefed on the transaction, sending the stock to its lowest in more than 10 years." The reason? "Hassan Elmasry, managing director of Morgan Stanley Investment Management... has pressured New York Times Chairman and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for more than 1 1/2 years to eliminate the special class of stock that allows the Sulzberger and Ochs families to appoint nine of the company's 13 directors. During the campaign, Elmasry also called on Sulzberger, 56, to relinquish one of his two titles at the New York-based publishing company."
Newspapers in general are suffering and investors are clamoring for change. But the Times in particular has long been out of touch with readers and with Wall Street. In a word, the Times' management stinks. As Ed Lasky at the American Thinker observes, "The running (or running down of the newspaper) by 'Pinch' Sulzberger, descendant of the family which had purchased and remade the paper generations ago, has progressively destroyed the value of the Times."
I love newspapers, but I wouldn't buy stock in one if you put a gun to my head. Not until they get their act together again. The New York Times might survive the transformation from Gray Lady to a reliable news source in the digital era. But not with Sulzberger in the publisher's suite.
Incidentally, one of the many links above leads to a blog called Reflections of a Newsosaur. Written by Alan Mutter, a principal with Silcon Valley-based Tapit Partners and a former managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, the blog offers some of the keenest insights around on what's afflicting the newspaper biz today. Well worth a bookmark.
Captain America is back... and this time, it's personal!
You might remember that Steve Rogers was assassinated earlier this year, a casualty of the Marvel Universe's Civil War. (Our own Dr. Zaius wrote a pretty good editorial eulogizing Captain America at the time. I'd link to it, but it seems to no longer exist on the Press-Enterprise website. Ah well.)
When Captain America returns to the pages of his comic book in January, it won't be his star-spangled new duds getting all the attention. Instead it will be what he's wielding in his right hand, the one once reserved for pummeling the jaws of evil. Come next year, he'll be gripping cold, hard steel.That's right, Captain America will be packing heat.
Actually, as the story notes -- and as any real comic book geek knows -- Cap carried all kinds of guns when he battled the Hun in WW II. The new and improved costume was designed by Alex Ross (the artist, not the music critic). Sweet.
But I would be remiss if I didn't point out this silly bit from the Post story:
Captain America, however, believed (a superhero registration law) was a violation of his civil liberties to be forced to reveal his civilian identity and led the rebellion against the law. Talk about a metaphor for the battles of our day. Can anyone out there say Patriot Act?
"Patriot Act." There, I said it.
Update: James Taranto said it, too.
AnonyMonkey asks: "Is there a case to be made for flavored vodkas?"
Absolutely, yes. In brief, it's all a matter of taste.
Most everyone knows that the faux-martini craze fueled the market for orange, lemon and ever more outré flavorings over the past decade. But as the Beverage Tasting Institute notes, flavored vodkas are as old as the spirit itself, dating to about the 11th century. A quick survey of Hi-Time Wine's vodka section turns up at least 50 different flavors. If strawberry, melon or peach-flavored vodka strikes you as unmanly, try okhotnichya -- an ancient "hunter's vodka" infused with ginger, cloves, lemon peel, coffee, anise and other herbs and spices then blended with sugar and white port. Stoli makes one, but apparently it's no longer available in the United States. Pity. It sounds delicious.
Fact is, flavored vodkas do add another dimension to cocktails. Orange- or lemon-flavored vodka works well in a Cosmopolitan. And what would the Lemon Drop be without lemon vodka? A few weeks ago, I tried a tasty tipple consisting of Van Gogh Oranje vodka and Pama Pomegranate Liqueur. And, in my opinion, the very best Bloody Marys are made with Absolut Peppar. (Here's a dumb recipe. Here's a better one.)
A number of creative bartenders have mixed some truly innovative cocktails using high-end vodkas. The indispensible Gary and Mardee Regan have a great online recipe book that includes several drinks based on Belvedere Pomarancza and Cytrus. (By the way, if you are not familiar with Gary Regan's Cocktailian column in the San Francisco Chronicle, check out the archive. Lots of good stuff there.) I generally like the recipes at Van Gogh's site, too.
Personally, I'm more of a gin and whiskey guy than a vodka fan, although I kept several flavored vodkas in my home bar until just recently. I don't much care for Absolut's or Stoli's offerings -- they taste artificial to me (Peppar excepted). Skyy is terrible, but it happens to be inexpensive and it mixes well enough. Grey Goose and Belvedere are infinitely better, as one would expect of pricey super-premiums. But I would much rather spend my hard-earned booze money on really good bourbon or rye. That's a subject for a different post, however.
Below are five flavored-vodka recipes that I recommend. A few are a bit girly, but they've all been hits at parties I've hosted. I encourage the other monkeys and our three or four regular readers to add their own favorites in the comments.
Five First-Rate Flavored Vodka Drinks
1. The Blood Orange Cocktail
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; garnish with an orange twist
2. The Billie Holiday
(from the Time Cafe in Manhattan, by way of William Grimes)
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; garnish with a lemon twist
3. Citron Lemonade
(from Lever House in Manhattan)
Shake the vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and crushed mint; pour into a tall glass and top with club soda; garnish with mint
4. Chaya Candy Apple Cosmo
(from Chaya Brasserie in San Francisco by way of Gary Regan)
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
5. Dapper Apple
(from the Infinite Monkeys-approved Absinthe Brasserie & Bar in San Francisco, by way of The Art of the Bar by Jeff Hollinger and Rob Schwarz)
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; garnish with a lime wedge or a thin apple slice
Everyone's had a whack at Gore in the last week. But Tony Blankley's column is a real gem. An excerpt:
It is hard to say which of Mr. Gore's awards seems more improbable: His Academy Award, although he does not possess a single skill required for filmmaking, or his Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming, although he has no technical skills in that area and he has profoundly misled the world as to the danger. It just goes to show how good life can be once you are officially designated a victim of George W. Bush. Once Mr. Gore lost the 2000 election (before which he was scorned and mocked by the liberal world), the world fell over itself showering him with wealth and honor. If only he could arrange to lose another election to a Republican he could be chosen pope, homecoming king and champion of the Soap Box Derby.
It's worth reading the whole thing, especially for Blankley's explanation of how carbon offsets work.
Is there a case to be made for flavored vodkas?
Hey! It was National Boss Day today! (Is that correct? Or should it be National Boss' Day? Or Boss's Day? Maybe Bosses Day? Only Henry Fowler knows for certain.) Happily, I no longer have a boss upon whom to lavish cheap, perfunctory gifts or empty sentiments. Technically, I guess I'm my own boss now. What do you give the boss who has everything and nothing?
Gift cards would be nice.
According to the New Yorker: "The Internet may be killing the pop CD, but it’s helping classical music" -- and thank Seigfried for that!
Courtesy of music critic-cum-blogger Alex Ross: "For a little while the other day, a surprising name appeared at the top of Amazon.com’s Top MP3 Artists, outperforming even Kanye West: Richard Wagner."
Cool.
The Klein Bottle. It looks like a bong, but where do you put yer weed? Where do you put the water? Well, you can't. But it'll still blow your mind. Click on the picture of the glass one. Pick a point to imagine moving from. Remember that the bottom (the part it's resting on) is open. Keep going and your imaginary point will go from outside to inside back to outside.
It's a three dimensional object with only one side and no edges. Duuuuuuude.
What else have I been reading about on Wikipedia? Cross Cap, Hermitian manifolds, Almost-complex manifolds, Lie groups, complex projective space, Grassmannians (nothing to do with weed), complex manifolds, torus (did you know a donut shape is a torus?), Riemann surfaces, string theory, grand unification theory, J/? particles, charm quarks, elementary particles, bubble chambers, and neutrinos. How much did I understand? Have I mentioned that the Klein Bottle looks like a bong?
And what have I learned? Three things: (1)The atom is no longer considered anything close to an elementary particle, (2) I'm damn glad I don't have to take science today. How do these college math and physics guys do it? Once they get in the door, it must be like a drug for the ones that really have the calling. (3) The science geek put-down du jour is probably "You electroweak boson!"
Apparently suffering from something of a Messiah complex ("a message that I think only I can deliver"), Condi Rice says now is the time for the creation of Palestinian Terror State. (Well, she didn't actually say "terror" state.)
According to the AP story, she is urging both side to drop their contentious demands.
Both sides?
I get it. Israel has to drop their "contentious demand" to be left in peace and their "contentious demand" that that Hamas, et al, stop killing them.
And the Palestinians need to give up . . . ?
And to think, she was considered Presidential timber.
Three years ago, give or take, I wrote my final post for Infinite Monkeys. Well, nothing is ever final except for death and circumcision. Funny thing is, newspaper work sometimes feels like a little bit of both.
After 35 months, I concluded that editorial writing is not a career path with much long-term growth potential. (I should have gone into television, obviously.)
Moreover, I couldn't stand to see this blog descend further into mediocrity. Ever since Monkeystein went missing and that pretender H.L. Monkey started posting, it's been a long, sad slide. And I'd much rather blog for free than toil in anonymity for a princely sum*.
But, mostly, I didn't like my job all that much. H.L. Mencken, writing early last century, identified the underlying malady afflicting the editorialist:
What fun can it be to write editorials that must always fall between fixed lengths, and go into columns that have no more typographical charm than the death-notices and stock-market reports, and then be buried at last on an inside page, as flat and deadly as the Congressional Record? That formula harms back to the Mousterian Age of journalism. ... It is hard to imagine a man of racy and instructive ideas doing his work in any such death-mask. A fellow of that kidney is not content to write: he also wants to be read, attended to, discussed, applauded, denounced. Well, try to imagine anything printed in English that is more savagely designed to put readers to flight than the orthodox American editorial page.
I can relate, brother. So I'm back. God help us all.
* This is a bald-faced lie, I am unashamed to confess. Any lunatic fool can rant for free. I want to be paid, and I'm well worth the price. If you are interested in hiring my services -- I can also edit copy, I have some graphic design skills and I'm also a semi-professional bartender available for parties -- please contact me at bboychuk_at_dslextreme.com.
Last week I was listening to a current member of the Republican side of the House of Representatives give a radio interview. His name isn't important, but his lamentations are. He was complaining about how the Democrats' new push for expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) amounts to little more than a big, likely irreversible, step forward in a larger nationalization of all health care in America. I'm sure he's correct. The comp