We spent the worst part of the storm in my wife’s office, which is built like a bomb shelter and might be one, for all I know. It’s old enough. We could hear nothing from the inside, despite hours of wind and a gust nearing 100 mph recorded a couple hundred yards from our location. …
Author: Matt Mullenix
Weather Today in Baton Rouge
Hoping for smooth sailing but hunkered down for now and prepared for a Kunstler-style existence. At least for a couple days. Obviously, we still have power at the moment.
Cheetah Girl
Steve writes of our friend Lauren, the falconer, world traveler, writer, old-school adventurer: “After her expedition to the Red Planet, Lauren went on to Savannah World to work with cheetahs. “Real. Hunting. Cheetahs.” More to come, I hope.
A Humane Society
For a guy who claims not to value television, I watch a fair amount of it. It’s a reward and sometime pacifier for my kids and helps my wife wind down after her long days. I frankly enjoy cooking shows, home repair and sci fi. The television is a part of our household and a …
Natural Cycles
What happens to water after we’re done with it? Is it wasted? My kids want to know because I keep yelling at them to turn off that tap while they brush. But actually, I came to terms with this question a while back, finally deciding that if a hydrological cycle was good for anything, it …
Roger Ebert on the National Debt
Does anyone read Roger Ebert? I used to watch him on TV, reviewing movies with his svelter pal Gene Siskel, and I enjoyed their show. But its simplistic trademark “Two thumbs up!” rating system and geeky banter didn’t give me any reason to suspect either host might be a great writer. I don’t know about …
Decline & Fall
From one terrible speller who nonetheless would not like to be let of the hook, I bring you this: “Fed up with his students’ complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept ‘variant spellings’ as legitimate…“ If the English are contemplating this, they must truly …
NIMBY (except it isn’t your back yard!)
You’ve probably see this one: Man plants cars to stake claim on farm property. It’s funny, and it’s meant to be. But the larger issue surrounding it is not so funny. New suburban residential developments continue to invade rural areas, despite the higher costs of commuting that may ultimately make the McMansion an untenable concept. …
All News is Local
Our friend Annie in Virginia shared a story today about the outsourcing of copy editing services by American newspapers to companies in India. Like much such outsourcing, the reasons for this seem logical: there’s more and cheaper labor available and no cost in product transport. For their part, Indian company reps seem typically polite and …
Top 10 Dumbest Lists
Reid forwarded a link and a wink with this story: 10 Dumbest and Smartest Dog Breeds Needless to say the list itself (a silly, rehashed non-story) deserves no comment; and equally needless to say, we all jumped in eagerly to comment on it. Steve wrote in first: I don’t even have to LOOK. Oriental sighthounds, …