A foolish young blogger over at Urban Cincy is under the naive impression that the "place to be" for New Year's Eve is downtown....
:-)
As everybody knows, the place to ring in the new year is obviously scenic Northside.
The Comet serves up the Blue Rock Boys.
The Northside Tavern hosts The Bad Veins.
The Gypsy Hut brings you the Rumpke Mountain Boys.
The Art Damage Lodge dishes up Sylvester Kunstvereen Familie Montex for your listening pleasure.
The C&D will be celebrating the "Alcoholidays" as only they know how.
Sidewinder will be serving coffee and tea til 10PM to keep you awake and thoroughly cranked til well into 2009.
And, unlike downtown, Northside has a WHITE CASTLE !!!!!
poor poor sad downtowners.....

The International Council of Shopping Centers reports that holiday sales at mall & shopping center stores had it's worst season since 1970.
But were sales and gift giving down ?
For the most part, on my end, it wasn't. A lot of the gifts given and most appreciated were handmade by local artists, craftsmen and family members.
For some time the "shop local" mantra has been trudging along and gaining some traction.
This article from the Noose Son describes the popularity of knitting these days. In Cincinnati there are several knitting groups including CinCity Stitch and the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library offers a knitting program at some of it's branches.
Add to that the local galleries and craft shows/fairs in Cincinnati like the annual Holiday Arts Fair in Northside early every December and The monthly open houses in Oakley and OTR, one has to ask himself how much these individuals making and selling unique items are affecting the sales at big box stores selling generic electronics and stuff.

The animated movie, The Tale of Despereaux, was recently released after 2 years of work at the British animation and special effects house, The Framestore.
have you ever downloaded a file to your computer and you just couldn't find it ? You know you have a funny picture of a cat you would love to send to aunt Minnie, but, wherethehellizzit?
The Framestore had over 200 artists, working together to generate 90 million files taking 200TB of storage to make the movie.
One of the most cpu intensive things to render is hair but cartoon makers love furry critters so ya gotta do things like go out & buy 1,000 servers.
From The Framestore's website:

• There are 40,089 individual assets in the film
• 25 hero characters were modelled, surfaced and textured, as well as 12 secondary characters
• 60 hero environments were modelled, surfaced and textured
• There are 413,138 hairs on Despereaux's head
• he film has 126,248 frames altogether

c'mon, no polygon counts ?
The result ?
It looks kinda cheesy. But it's mice, so what the hell ?

El Reg story (a fluffed out press release of which this is a streamlined version thereof) here.

The Junky's Christmas

Part 1

Part 2
Merry Christmas !

Telstar by Evan Johns & the H-Bombs

9

From 06

Due 09

OK, I think I have found a pattern here.
The NAACP objects to a streetcar system in Cincinnati.
In the last election they fought technology to help police gather evidence against traffic crime and they proposed a return to an old voting system that they felt would be better implemented with laborious hand counting of ballots rather than using electronic mechanisms. Before that they objected to a new and improved jail.
The common thread ?
A fear of technology. A fear of progress. A fear of, ironically, advancement.
Odd.

Click To Play

The Holidays on Ludlow
12/19/08 celebrate the holidays on Ludlow Avenue in Clifton with

• Free carriage rides
• Strolling carolers
• Prizes
• The Fairview German Choir
• Crafts workshop
• Santa Claus

Parking in the merchan's lot will be free after 5 PM.
And afterwards, (you knew this was coming) head on down to Northside for even more shopping, fine food and entertainment !

Art Damage Lodge
4120 Hamilton Ave.

Banner and Ross Gallery
3841 Spring Grove Ave.
513-861-4333
hrs: 8:30 AM - 8:00 PM Mon-Thurs, 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM Fri

The Blue Jay
4154 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-0847
hrs: 8:00 AM - 3:30 PM Mon-Sat

Blue Rock Tavern
4221 Hamilton Ave.
hrs: 5:00 PM - 2:30 AM Mon-Fri, 6:00 PM - 2:30 AM Sat

Bonomi
1677 Blue Rock Ave.
513-541-7501

Boswell Alley
1686 Blue Rock Ave.
513-681-8100
hrs: 11:00 AM - 10:00 PM Mon-Thurs, 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM Fri-Sat, Bar til 2:30 AM Mon-Sat

Bug House Video
4170 Hamilton Avenue
513-541-3700
hrs: 4:00 PM - 10:00 PM Mon-Thurs, 4 - 11:00 PM Fri, noon - 11:00 PM Sat, noon - 9:00 PM Sun

Bullfishes
4023 Hamilton Ave.
513-79-4999

The C & D Cafe
1714 Hanfield Ave
513-541-9881

Club Bronz
4029 Hamilton Ave.
513-591-2100

The Comet
4579 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-8900
hrs: 4:00 PM - 2:30 AM Sun-Sat

Gajah Wong West
3937 Spring Grove Ave.
513-591-3935
hrs: 5:30 PM - 10:00 PM, bar open late

Ginger's Bar
1701 Blue Rock Ave.
hrs: til 2:30 AM

The Gypsy Hut
4231 Spring Grove Ave.
513-541-0999
hrs: 8:00 PM - 2:30 AM

The Hideaway
44163 Hamilton Ave.
513-542-2444
hrs: 5:00 PM - 9:30 PM Tues-Thurs, 5:00 - 11:00 Fri-Sat, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM Sun

Honey
4034 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-4300
hrs: 11:30 AM - 9:00 PM Tues-Thurs, 11:30 AM - 10:PM Fri-Sat, 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM Sun

Junker's tavern
4156 Langland Ave.
513-541-5470

Marshiella's
Hamilton Ave.
11:30 AM - 2:00 PM Tues-Fri

Melt
4165 Hamilton Ave.
513-681-MELT
hrs: 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM Mon-Thurs, 11:00 AM - 10 PM Fri-Sat

NYPD Pizza
1566 Chase Ave.
513-681-NYPD
http://www.nypdpizza.com
hrs: 11:00 AM - 11:00 PM Mon-Thurs, 11:00 AM midnight Fri-Sat

Northside Bar
Hamilton Ave.

Northside Tavern
4163 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-3603
hrs: 5:00v PM - 2:30 AM Mon-Fri, 8:30 PM - 2:30 AM Sat-Sun

NVISION
4577 Hamilton Avenue
513-542-4577
hrs: 2:00 PM - 9:00 PM Wed-Sat

Park Chili
4160 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-9902
hrs: 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM mon-Fri, 7:00 AM - 2:00 PM Sat, 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM Sun

Portofino's
1609 Chase Ave.
513-542-5808
hrs: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM Mon-Sat

The Serpent
4042 Hamilton Ave.
513-681-6969
hrs: 9:00 PM - 2:30 AM

Sidewainder Coffee & Tea
4181 Hamilton Ave.
513-542-8321
hrs: 7:00 AM - 9:00 PM Mon-Fri, 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM Sat-Sun

Slim's
4046 Hamilton Ave.
513-681-6500
hrs: 5:30 PM - til he food's gone, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM Sun

Taco Bell/KFC
4147 Hamilton Ave.
513-541-7861

Take the Cake
4137 Hamilton Ave.
513-241-2772

White Castle
3940 Ludlow Ave.
513-542-7291
hrs: 24/7

SCIENCE !

ok, actually, uh, model making ?

The Phoenix Cafe, at 641 Walnut St, had the reputation of being the only bar to be open in Cincinnati continuously since the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Their policy of enforcing ladylike behavior by not allowing women to sit at the bar drew the ire of the feminist movement in the 60s. It was a place where the working poor could get a longneck for a buck. It was a place a guy could squander his welfare check. It was a dive. The Cincinnati Business district used to be a welcoming place to the poor. White Castle, The Phoenix cafe, The Belmont Cafe & The Milner hotel and lounge all catered to the lower economic classes and were happy to serve the wealthy as well.
They are all gone now as the area has gradually become an exclusive playground for the affluent. The business district always had it's havens for the affluent like The Palm Court and The Maisonette. But the yuppies have decided to set the cultural tone and those places were too stuffy for them and the low class dives were not only beneath them but an affront to their sensibilities.
After finally shutting the Phoenix Cafe down after 70 plus years in business, it will be replaced with the Righteous Room, another in a chain of bars owned by a group of investors known for their yuppie frou frou establishments. I would guess that 70 years in business on the same location would merit the designation of institution. Will the Righteous Room become an institution ?
Doubt it. Probably last a few years as a trendy meatrack & then change hands, names and do it all over again and again in an endless cycle. It won't be a cycle of failure, of course, because nobody expects the places to last.
I realize that money talks, but sometimes it just steamrolls. I fear the era of institutions is coming to an end.

Springfield Stones the Crows
Springfield, has become, apparently, the Bodega of the midwest. With an increasing number of crows roosting in the city, crews have set to dealing with the growing murder problem with bangers and screamers.
I wish 'em luck. Might as well try building a "rabbit fence".
Still, crows, like all birds, are pretty much just flying shit machines, so I understand the annoyance. Watching them and listening to them usually isn't a problem and be quite entertaining, tho.
Cats might disagree.

Noose Son story here.

bye

Looking at the budget woes of Cincinnati, Hamilton County and the regional school systems, I am frequently amazed at how much money they seem to be throwing away using Windows and standardizing on other Microsoft products. Hamilton County seems particularly dependent on the buggy, bloated overpriced OS and office suite. With OS prices ranging from approx $180 - $300 and Office ranging from $300 to $400 per seat, it seems like supplying 6000 employees with computer access would be a lot cheaper paying $0 for the OS and $0 for the office software (yeah, I know they get bulk discounts). Add to that the licensing for Windows Server and Exchange Server and the customer support needed, solutions like Red Hat Enterprise probably start looking pretty good. But, still we have the slow buggy websites the various county departments post. The County Auditor's being a prime example.
In looking for web hosts, the price for Windows service usually entails a premium charge. I assume the costs of mintaining a server internally would reflect the same cost difference.
From my experience with Linux (Fedora and Yellow Dog) and Open Office as well as using Mac and Windows, the big difference between the commercial systems and the open source systems is that the commercial systems support more proprietary media and gizmos like iPods and Zunes and frequently demand newer more powerful hardware.
For some years, governments, worldwide, have pushed for and even legislated the use of open source software.
In SW Ohio we just hemorrhage more money to Washington, tho.......

Krampusnacht

December 6th is Krampusnacht. It is a Bavarian celebration commemorating St Nick's demon dude, Krampus, who gave the bad kids a good thrashing, leaving St Nick to be the good guy and leave presents and treats.
Today it is pretty much a chance for modern day folks to get weird and have a party.
Anyway, it's good enough for Cincinnati's sister city, Munich, so I say we oughtta go for it here. We have missed it this year but now is probably the time to start planning for next year.
C'mon folks, let's take some Christ out of Christmas !
I am sure the local bars and breweries wouldn't argue.

I am frequently asked, "What's going on in Northside this Saturday ?"
ok, not really, more often than not, if I'm not being asked for money and/or cigarettes, I'm being asked to leave.
This Saturday, Northside Arts hosts another Winter Art Fair featuring locally made arts and crafts just in time for your holiday shopping. Some of the folks who will be there are Mary Faith Colon, Rachel Jones, Rose K. Brenner-Schwartz, Michael Isaacs, Andrea Vetter, Anna Collins, Carol Ann Newsome, Gillian Thompson, Heather Jerolaman, Jessica Ring, Amanda Carlisle, Karen Boyhen, Bill Williams, Mary Faith Colon, Ted Jeckering, Mike Smith and Mike Newman.
Also, this Saturday, we got:

• 9AM-noon Northside to Findlay Market bike ride
• 10A Decorate (presumably) Hoffner Park for the holidays
• 11A-5P Northside Arts Winter Art Fair
• 1P-4P Local Fair Trade Holiday Boutique at the Cincinnati Family Enrichment Center
• 8P The NVISION Fashion Show

And, as usual, lotsa fine food, drink and entertainment at Honey, Take the Cake, Bonomi, Ginger's, Boswell Alley, The Northside Tavern, The Gypsy Hut, Park Chili, The Blue Jay, The Hideaway, Melt, Portofino's, The Comet, Gajah Wong West, NYPD, Sidewinder, Bronz, Bullfishes and more.

I always hate agreeing with the inmates over at the Beacon. Never know if my iron grip on reality is slipping out of it's velvet glove or if they are just good examples of the broken clock theory. I have learned to take their numbers with a grain of salt but regardless of any exact number, the Cincinnati mayoral primary is a stupid idea. Primaries make some sense, especially with the 2 party presidential races in the US. You are dealing with people and communities and industries and even cultures that can be very different from Rhode Island to Hawaii or from Alaska to Missouri. Many people in the US will never see or know anything about vast regions of the country.
In a city the geographic size of Cincinnati and with it's population of less that 400,000 and with the non-partisan nature of the mayoracy, the primary is pointless and wasteful both in time and money.
I doubt the cost of campaigning is much different.
I guess there might be something to say for the mayor's getting a larger number of votes through a 2 way race, thus giving the elected mayor a little more legitimacy, but it is just not necessary.

All I want for Christmas...

Is an Elizabeth Bathory Action Figure !
This way cool toy was released in 2004 and went under my radar til I found I shared my birthday with the forward thinking countess. I can't believe the folks at Mattel haven't come up with a Barbie Bathory playset. Lord knows a household with kids is a household with headless dolls.
McFarlane Toys
Elizabeth Bathory

Springfield Navistar Hopeful
Folks at Springfield's Navistar facilities are hopeful that production and sales will improve in what is, currently, a pretty bleak market for trucks.
The are pinning their hopes on military sales to the US & the UK and the hybrid trucks that are produced exclusively in Springfield.

Noose Son article, here.

Angert's RIP
This sucks. I bought a stove and refrigerator from Angert's Appliance Store almost exactly a year ago. Their prices compared to the big chain stores and their service was superior.
They had just advertised a big warehouse sale - nothing uncommon - dunno if that's where this guy in the WLWT video made his purchases or not.
Anyway, it sucks losing another local business that had to compete with big national chains and it is another blow to the College Hill business district that just recently lost the Visconti pharmacy only a couple doors down from the appliance store.
WLWT story here.

Social Studies Champion City Style


How would you teach kids about ancient Egypt in a town that hosts a leading mortuary supply company like Champion ?
duh
You'd mummify some Cornish hens of course !
Emmanuel Christian Academy social studies teacher, Alicia Kidder did exactly that with her class of sixth graders and some help from high school honors students.

When King Cluck, Queen Winney and Cleopatra ZuZu are properly mummified, they hope to bury the hens and then disinter them at the end of the school year to see how good a job they did.
Noose Son story here.
Check out The Modern Embalmer.

Some Remaining Talibanders on the Loose

Click on the image for a larger picture.
Report to 888-352-3040 or 513-352-3040.

Quimbob's Crush de Jour


Julie McNiven in Supernatural
What can I say ? I'm just a sucker for spooky red headed fallen angel types.....

Cincinnati Unchained
Saturday, Nov 22, the biggest local shopping event of the year goes down.
BuyCincy is sponsoring a citywide event to promote "shopping local", featuring deals at 44 Cincinnati stores.
In Northside, Shake It Records, Melt, NVISION and Shoetopia are participating.
Up north in College Hill, American Heritage Flooring, College Hill Coffee, Bacall's Cafe and the ever cool St Theresa's Textile Trove are participating.
Up the other hill to the south, the Mustard Seed Boutique and Duttenhofer's are offering discounts.
For more information and to see wnat other stores and neighborhoods are participating go here:
www.buycincy.com/unchained.html

The Numbers
On Monday, 11/17, the Cincinnati police performed a sweep of a violent criminal gang mostly residing in the Northside community. The police claim the gang had about 100 members.
That night I went to a Northside Community Council meeting to hear Councilwoman Qualls discuss Form Based Zoning Codes and got an earful about the big bust. I also heard the Community Council's Membership Secretary, Melody Smith, report that the number of citizens active in the Northside Community Council topped out at just over 200.
The population of Northside is a little over 9,000 with about 6,600 adults. this means roughly 3% of the population are officially active in the community. Obviously you don't have to be a member to be active and not all the members actually do anything. From what I have seen, probably less than 2 dozen people are actually doing 99% of the work. From what I have heard, Northside is one of the most involved communities in the city.
So, how the hell can our communities improve when the numbers of people who give a pooh are so close to the numbers of people who want to tear the community apart and establish a warlord type rule of fear and violence ?
My level of community involvement works out to about an hour a week (woopteedoo). I am not a member of the NCC but I think I might just go down and plunk down the $5 membership fee. If Northside's 9,000 residents each put in an hour a week toward their community, the neighborhood would put wealthier communities in the area to shame. Just communicating and being aware of what is going on is incredibly important.
I am probably preaching to the choir, but -GET INVOLVED.
Here are links to other neighborhoods websites councils in Cincinnati.

Camp Washington
Clifton
College Hill
Columbia Tusculum
CUF
Downtown
Hyde Park
Kennedy Heights
Madisonville
Mt. Adams
Mt. Lookout
Mt Washington
North Avondale
Oakley
Over the Rhine
Pleasant Ridge
Roselawn
Sayler Park
University Heights
Westwood

Northside Population Quickly Shrinks
41 members of the "Taliband" arrested in gang sweep.
Will they be out in time for dinner ?
Channel 12 story here.

Fido

I really liked this movie. It takes place kinda after Night of the Living Dead and depicts a world where the living just have to deal with the fact that when people die they come right back to life with a hankering for living human flesh.
Actually, if it weren't so ludicrous, the attention to detail would be fine for a serious story.
Early in the movie, children sing during school firearms instruction, "In the brain and not the chest. Head shots are the very best."
Describing a couple of the other facts of life -er- death -er- reanimation.....
"Well, she is over sixty-five, Helen, and old people can't be trusted."
"Get your own funeral. Timmy and I are going zombie !"
Anyway, control collars have been developed that allow for the domestication of zombies but they tend to fail a lot. Mrs Robinson (Carrie-Anne Moss) desperately needs a zombie to "keep up with the Jonses" and brings home the zombie her son, Timmy, names Fido.
The movie has about a zillion period and period media jokes. The Lassie parody is pretty obvious and you realize you just have to wait for it. While the movie could have been a one joke thing it actually has a few.
One of the things that really makes the movie stand out is the soundtrack with music by Kay Starr, Tom Maxwell and the Squirrel Nut Zippers and Ian Whitcomb & His Bungalow Boys.
The movie is big on laughs and not a gore fest at all.

IMDB entry here

Buying An Election Part II
In the 2008 presidential campaign, Obama spent $573,000,000.00 and received 66,495,305 votes. That comes out to $8.62 a vote.
McCain spent $293,000,000 for 58,123,414 votes, coming in at $5.04 per vote.
If these guys had done no campaigning and had just stood outside the polling stations offering the cash directly to the voters, who would you have voted for ?
And if that had been the extent of their campaigning, would the media have even mentioned a presidential race ? Doubt it. That would, of course result in fewer votes overall, meaning the candidates could have offered us even more money per vote.
Campaign finance reform, indeed.

Hospital buys Savoy for $450,000

OK, Let me describe it this way. I have been to some horrible, horrible bars in my life. The Savoy Lounge is one I was always afraid to enter.
The Springfield Hospital Group, Community Mercy Health Partners, has decided they want to own this health code violation waiting to happen. This is not testimony to what hard asses the Springfield medical community are, and the place isn't worth $10,000. They just want to tear it down. Bad.

By Kelly Mori
Frogtown Noose Son
Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Community Mercy Health Partners, parent corporation of Springfield Regional Medical Center, has taken ownership of the Savoy Lounge property for $450,000.
The property, which abuts Ohio Valley Medical Center, the soon-to-open downtown surgical hospital, was originally purchased for Community Mercy by a third party. However on Wednesday, Nov. 12, Community Mercy spokesman Jim Senese said "a decision was made in the spirit of transparency to take full ownership of the property."
The purchase intensified the tension between Community Mercy officials and Ohio Valley surgeons, who announced nearly two years ago that they were going to build their own hospital.
The Turner Foundation had promised to try to acquire the land for Ohio Valley when the surgeons agreed to build downtown. However Ohio Valley officials, said on Wednesday the property is not critical to their operations.
Community Mercy, which is building a $230 million acute care hospital about two blocks north of Ohio Valley, has no immediate plans for the property, Senese said.

A protest in favor of equal marriage will occur at Cincinnati's City Hall on Saturday, November 15 at 1:30 p.m. Local students, activists, and community members lead this event as part of a day of national protests in reaction to the passage of Proposition 8 in California, re-banning equal marriage in that state.

www.jointheimpact.com/
Cincinnati contact queercincinnati@gmail.com

The church is supposed to operate outside the political arena. Recently, in California, Catholic groups backed with Mormon cash (not from CA) promoted a law banning same sex marriage. This circumvents the authority of religious organizations (churches) and prevents them from doing what should be in their sole domain.
That specific religious groups would force their beliefs on others is anti-American.
This is not much different from previous bans on inter-racial marriage that most of us would consider un-American and racist.
Churches should be allowed to marry who they want and should not be compelled to marry same sex couples or inter-racial couples or inter-faith couples or people who just don't conform that faith's beliefs. Churches should create standardized marriage contracts that can be modified to regional standards as they see fit and can have leeway for individual concerns as well. The first line for divorces should be through the church that performed the marriage and the courts should not be enlisted but as a last resort.
The only role of the government should be through the courts to enforce the contracts.
ok, I'm not a lawyer and I am sure real lawyers can bollox the whole thing up, but that's my plan. :-)

While most of SW Ohio goes blue, Clark County gets redder.
Democrats are at a loss to explain (surprise) & cite, possibly, independents. That is kinda weird, since the Dems were the ones "Getting Out The Vote" and the Republicans spent all their time "Consolidating The Base" (whatever that is in the splintered party).
Republicans appeared similarly clueless (more surprises) as to the results, citing the great job Republicans have done over the last eight years having influenced the outcome.
Final unofficial results for the county were 31,821 McCain and 29,122 Obama.

Noose Son story here.

The Damn Dog
One of Obama's campaign promises was to get a family dog, primarily, at his daughter's, Malia's, request.
Thanks to Bush's pup, Barney, biting a reporter, this promise has been brought to light. Thanks, Barney, for holding the press' feet to the fire to hold the president elect's feet to the fire on this burning issue.
Now they just have to pick a pup.

....oh god....
Because many people would refer to Mr Obama as a "half breed", he has to be careful about his choice. Because he is a liberal and has to appease crazed liberal animal rights groups, he needs to decide if he should get a traditional purebred dog or a new combo breed or a mutt. because Malia has allergies, does he get a hairless or.....
Apparently, Malia wanted a Cockapoodle, which is supposed to be a good choice for owners with allergies. Animal rights activists, who hate, despise, and loathe the notion of purebred dogs and consider anybody who breeds them to be the embodiment of Cruella De Vil, have succeeded in convincing Mr Obama to get a "rescue". No idea if this means a Cockapoodle is out. I would hate to see the kid's hopes dashed by cockamamie political correctness run amok.
I feel sorry for these guys and the hoops they are going to have to jump through and the BS that is going to be slung at them over what should be a very personal family decision.
FWIW, I like "mutts". I have allergies and like dogs - LOVE cats. You get used to 'em after awhile allergywise. In a place that will be as impeccably maintained as the president's, 16 cats and platoon of pups shouldn't be much of a problem.
I am sure Malia will grow to love whatever she ultimately gets. I would only suggest a female, so the kids can experience their pooch having a litter of puppies. Shouldn't be too hard to give away some presidential puppies.
oh wait - HSUS & PETA will need to stick their noses into it.....

LA Times story here.

The Cost
Ohio votes Dem and America gets it's first non-white president.
But at what cost ?
Toledo is nothing but smoking ruin in the aftermath of the election.
Tooleedoo Blade story here.

Happy Guy Fawkes Day
Or as it was referred to in colonial America, Pope's Day.
Colonial America was almost entirely Protestant Christian. Anglicans to the south and Puritans to the north. One of he things they had in common was hatred of the Catholic Church. On the 5th of November they celebrated the failure of Catholic terrorist Guy Fawkes to murder the royal family of England in 1605. The celebrations included bonfires and burning the pope in effigy.
During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington needed every man he could muster to defeat the British army and Catholic recruitment was kinda rough with a majority of the soldiers being as openly anti-Catholic as much as anti-British and going around burning the pope's effigy on 11/5 every year. Washington forbade the practice amongst the soldiers and that was pretty much the beginning of the end of the celebration of the day in America.
Even, after the Revolution, Catholics didn't have full rights in America. Today, Catholicism is largest Christian denomination in the US and Catholics enjoy all the rights any American might enjoy.
John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic president of the US. Yesterday we elected Joe Biden as a Catholic vice president.
Right wing fundamentalist politicians have stacked the Supreme Court with a majority of Catholics, largely in a singular effort to restrict women's reproductive rights. Catholic politicians generally gain much support from these groups, too. In California Catholic groups have banded together to deny homosexuals marriage rights under Proposition 8.
Boy, have we have come a long way !
Happy Guy Fawkes Day, everyone !

Independnts & 3rd Parties Need Not Apply ?
Linda Johnson of Urbana writes about how her efforts to be a Champaign County poll worker were stymied since she refuses to be a drone of the corpo-political system.
"I was politely informed that each precinct was bipartisan, staffed by two Republicans and two Democrats.
Never content with, "No." I tried logic, "As an independent, I would have no agenda, who could be more fair?"
The board employee could not sanction my reasoning.
I tried a slightly different tact, "What about the other parties? The Green Party, the Libertarians, the Socialists or Communists? They aren't represented?"
"Nope. Just Republicans or Democrats.""
Moral: Don't Think For Yourself.

Noose Son story here.

Quimbob's Endorsemens
This is primarily for the 45223 zip.
For President of the US - None of the Above
No presidential candidate deserves my or your vote.
US Congress, Dist 1 - (holding nose) Steve Chabot
Driehaus doesn't offer much more than Chabot and Chabot has some seniority ranking at this point. A major sticking point with Chabot is reproductive rights but I don't see any improvement with Driehaus. Chabot voting against the bailout and for the Delta Queen are pluses.
State Representative Dist 32 - (in the category of anybody but Dale Mallory) Theo Barnes
Theo Barnes seems to be a goofball but Mallory seems to be a ghost when he is not getting impeached or having charges filed against him. He couldn't even be bothered to fill out the LWV SmartVoter form.
Judge Court of Common Pleas - (in the category of anybody but Pat DeWine) Norma Davis
County Commissioner - Ed Rothenberg
County Commissioner - Chris Dole
Pat DeWine, Todd Portune and Greg Hartmann are all part of the unholy pact made by the local Republican and Democrat parties to rig the elections. I endorse all their opponents. Rothenberg is a joke, Davis seems ok and Dole actually looks pretty good. Honestly, is the county being served best by the 3 Cincinnati lawyers on the Hamilton County Commission ?
A Crosby Twp trustee and a Realtor® sound like good alternatives.
issue 1 - NO
Issue 1 makes it harder for citizens to get initiatives on the ballot. (notice I am voting against most of those - go figure)
Issue 2 - (holding nose) YES
Issue 2 issues bonds to fund environmental projects that need to be done. We will still have to pay back these bonds in the future. Here's hoping the economy is better when they are due.
Issue 3 - YES
Issue 5 - NO
Issue 5 The restrictions on
"Payday Lenders" are too severe. This is too lenient. A compromise is needed.
Issue 6 - NO
Issue 6 Casinos are no answer to anything.
Issue 7 - NO
Issue 7 Red Light Cameras are a use of technology that frees up valuable human resources and deals with people with bad to malicious driving habits who threaten the lives of people daily. Concerns about their implementation can be addressed.
This is not a vote to use or not use the cameras. This is a vote to amend the city charter to disallow the use of a technology for all time. This is an inappropriate bit of legislation to be added to the city charter.
Issue 8 - NO
Issue 8 Instant Run off voting is not needed, it is expensive and the effort to implement it is pushed by people with racist and fringe social agendas. It might have been valid when we transitioned from a ward based government to an at-large government but it provides no benefit today to the general public. The efforts by non-residents to promote this and the not too ethical methods used in the campaign are also disturbing.

Information about the cndidates and issues can be found at the LWV's Smart Voter.

Halloween Gone Wrong

I received this in a recent newsletter:
Mother Holle’s Halloween Adventures
$40 per day/per child
Halloween can be a very confusing and even scary time for the young child who is completely bombarded by Halloween hype.
Miss Chris and Miss Vicki are offering a lovely alternative experience to this based on the story of ‘Mother Holle’, a classic Grimm’s Fairy tale. Children 4-6 year old will travel on a magical journey that frees the imagination and gives a sense of accomplishment for their good work at the farm during this time of harvest. The children will engage in an artistic project, gather apples from the orchard, collect firewood to feed the dragon (oven), and bake a feast of apple dumplings and pumpkin bread to share as a reward for their service and hard work.
OK, here's the story of Mother Holle.
The story cites a great work ethic, even in slavery is rewarded with material wealth.
It also equates physical beauty with good values and ugliness with poor values.
First of all, that's weird and second of all, it has nothing to do with Halloween.
Since the Holle sisters are charging parents to submit their kids to slave labor, I guess it all kinda makes sense. Dunno what it has to do with Halloween, tho. Seems like more of a neocon indoctrination drill.
Folks, there's a reason for the season. Take your kids to the cemetery and celebrate your ancestors. Celebrate the harvest and eternal life.
Halloween isn't about Mother Holle - it's about the Queen of Disks.

Zombie Hop - Zombina & the Skeletones

It's All Gray on the Inside

Zombie Pinup Calendar
Zombie chicks are just hot !
ok, technically more like ambient/room temperature or something like that.
The whole zombie scene is hot. A search on Blockbuster.com's website for "zombie" came up with several pages and over a hundred hits for zombie movies. Many were made in the last few years. It's amazing and amusing. One of the the aspects of the zombie craze is it's popularity amongst the womenfolk. Girls, all over, are taking to painting themselves ghastly shades of blue and gray and spattering themselves with blood and gore.
And curse me for being a weird-oh, BUT I LIKE IT !
Probably the closest thing to a zombie Miss Kitty was Ed Harris' comic book character, Grub Girl, published by Glenn Danzig's Verotik Comics.

Grub Girl was a drug addicted STD infected hooker who, after being zapped with radiation, died and came back to life as an de-addicted, disease-free zombie and proceeded to take charge of her new life. She crushed her pimps skull with a toilet tank and ate his guts. Later she went on and found a nice zombie boy and settled down. As hollywood likes to use comic books for movie projects, a porno house hired Brittney Skye to take the part and totally fucked it up. Skye seemed to actually like the concept and was the only thing good about the movie.
I am fairly baffled as to the popularity of the shambling brain craving zombie and why itseems to appeal to girls so much but, hey, I am all for it.
So, if you are an exsanguinated, semi-rotten female zombie who enjoys quiet groaning and long shambles in the moonlight, eating brains and drinking blood
and are interested in a long term relationship or just dating a warmie, please contact me.
kids - ok
especially if they are milk fed

West Hollywood Misogynist Out in the Open

LA Times is reporting his name as ChadMichael Morrisette.
Link
There are no words that can express my level of disgust at this "man". I wonder if he went to the Obama rally and was welcomed?
Yes, Cincinnati, there is open sexism in West Hollywood. Yes, there is open sexism in the city too, just nothing we've seen this bad. What I fear we will get from many from the left wing is not defense of what he says, but his right to say it. All of that without forcefully condemning the pure hate Morrisette has.
Related Story

VOTE NO ON 7
Well, after nearly getting clobbered by a red light runner at an intersection I was crossing, I decided it was time to make another post about red light cameras and Issue 7
Red light running is rampant from my perspective. I see people run red lights every time I go out at almost every intersection I cross. Something needs to be done.
The cameras are pretty good at recording violations and the photographic evidence is always reviewed by a police officer before a citation is issued. Citations can always be challenged. Dangerous police chases are avoided.
10 cameras operating 24/7/365 vs paying police to do the same task ?
The cameras are installed for free and maintained at a set rate. They catch every violation. Valuable trained, skilled police officers and their expensive to maintain vehicles doing the same task would cost over $3,000,000 a year and wouldn't catch even half of the violations since they have to chase and write out citations on the spot - taking them away from their monitoring position. Their patrol cars burning gas the whole time.
Since the cameras were introduced, their use has improved.
Evidence suggests that a minor increase in rear end collisions may result from the use of the cameras as motorists have last minute second thoughts about running the light and slam on their brakes causing the driver behind them (who, presumably has not left a safe and assured distance between himself and the guy in front of him) runs into him. Blaming the camera for this would be the same s blaming someone crossing the street and causing the motorist, intent on breaking the law, to slam on his brakes.
Other arguments against the cameras tend to involve paranoid fear mongering.
Overall, the majority of studies show the cameras lead people to modify their behavior and the instances of very dangerous "T-Bone" collisions are reduced.
The damage wrought by collisions caused by running red lights are more extensive, cause more injuries, permanent disabilities and death than by any minor increase in low impact rear-end collisions one tries to blame on the monitoring devices.
Vote for safety. Vote for fiscal responsibility.
Vote NO on issue 7.

Fuck China
As much as I dislike Micro$oft for crappy business practices regarding competition, they certainly have the right to profit from their work and should not be ripped off. China is probably one of the worst countries in regards to rampant piracy and ignoring intellectual copyrights. They can bitch about M$ofts anti-piracy measures all they want. They need to crack down on criminal, unethical behavior amongst their own people. If they think the price of the Windows OS is too high, well, welcome to the club. But if they paid their workers a decent wage and charged American companies, like Wal Mart, a logical price for goods, then, maybe, more Chinese could afford the product. If they still don't want to pay, load up Ubuntu and make do.
To actually sue Micro$oft is insane. Sue the charlatan who sold you the pirated software, dumbass.

El Reg story here.
Yahoo story here.

I dunno, maybe I will vote for Nader. This is pretty cool. There's gotta be a reason Halloween, elections and Guy Fawkes day are all at about the same time.

The Porktown Fishwrap has a page, here, dedicated to explaining how to watch a political debate.
They have tips for what to do before after and during the debate. They explain what a debate is and offer some blather about the importance of the political debate in American history.
Here's my advice. Get drunk. Get fucked up as hell. Use whatever ya got. Get wasted and sit in front of your TV in your underwear and scream and holler at the damn box. Feel free to heave empties at the thing. You might consider putting some chicken wire up in front of the screen if you have an expensive set or just use a cheap old TV that you won't mind smashing or throwing out the window.
It's just not that difficult.

Faith and Politics forum at Wittenberg University
"On Sunday, Oct. 26, representatives of the local Christian, Muslim and Jewish community will join a multi-generational panel to discuss how people of faith form political world views, frame issues and support candidates."
I guess it's just for mainstream religions. I can't imagine Wittenberg won't have a Luthie rep & being held in the Shouvlin center, a Catholic rep would be in order.
I guess that, even with the rise of India and China as major economic world powers, there is no reason to invite Hindus or Buddhists. Considering how Martin Luther's split from the Catholic church kinda opened the floodgates on a lot of occult teachings previously hidden from Catholic scrutiny, there is still no reason to have any occultist/Kabbbalist types. Hell, just the timing being so close to Halloween, you'd think they would want a witch.....
oh well, it's free and open to all.

Noose Son story here.

Avetec opens in NextEdge Applied Research and Technology Park in Springfield, Ohio.
On Oct 20, Springfield business leaders gathered to watch Congressman Dave Hobson (OH-R) cut the ceremonial ribbon on the doors of Avetec’s new $9.9M National Center for Advanced Modeling and Simulation.
Avetec's goal is to conduct modeling and simulation research that aims to reduce the cost and time it takes to design, develop and test new jet turbine engines for commerce and the military.
Rep. Hobson claims it is probably the only place in the state that has a similar technology park, connected to the national labs and doing high performance modeling and simulation.

Noose Son story here.

Has the "Bailout" ushered in a new socialist era in America and signalled the end of capitalism as we know it or is it just another step along the way ?
The "10 Planks" from Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto:
1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communications and transportation in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labor. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries, gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.
Looks like we were well on the way already.
1. 30%
2. 100%
3. 30%
4. 50%
5. 70%
6. 100%
7. 50%
8. 30%
9. 30%
10. 100%

OpenOffice 3 Native on Mac OS X
OpenOffice.org has been released to run natively on Mac OS X Intel computers with the release of version 3. There is also a PPC version but it seems kind of unofficial. Previous versions of OpenOffice required Mac users to use X11 and it was slowernHell. NeoOffice worked natively just fine, tho. A quick and dirty startup test had OpenOffice 3 running a tad quicker than NeoOffice 2.2.3 on an old 450 G4 x2/1G RAM.
OpenOfffice is an office suite like Micro$oft Office with a word processor, spreadsheet, database and presentation application. It opens and saves most of the MS file formats and has PDF and Flash export built in. It is freely available for Linux, Mac, Solaris and Windows.

You can download the Intel and PPC versionshere

Wall Street Investments That Pay Off
An article in The American Conservative outlines how Wall St's FIREmen (Financia, Insurance and Real Estate lobbyists) investment in our elected officials paid off.
The hard lesson here will be that hard lessons are for chumps who can’t afford otherwise.
and
The finance/insurance/real estate (FIRE) sector has given approximately $180 million to House and Senate candidates in the current election cycle, and $116 million to presidential candidates, including $25 million to Barack Obama and $22 million to John McCain.
yeppers, we got the best democracy money can buy. it's no wonder the legislators who voted for the initial bailout plan were the ones receiving the most FIRE money.

American Conservative article here.

Baymiller Bridge R.I.P.
The pedestrian bridge over Central Parkway at Baymiller is slated for demolition this weekend. The bridge has connected Central and McMicken for decades.
This demolition was instigated by the citizens of the West End to curtail loitering and vice activity. Walking over the bridge there is plenty of evidence to these accusations. The discarded condoms, drug and alcohol containers and paraphernalia and general litter are all evidence of this behavior.
This demolition is shortsighted to the development of these areas, however, because a strong point for them is their pedestrian accessibility. Destroying this pedestrian conduit is, to a great degree, cutting off the nose to spite the face.
On the other hand, with the upcoming development of CityLink, it's demolition will probably be of greater benefit to the residents of Over the Rhine and CUF.
Some pics from the bridge.
Looking east from the bridge towards McMicken
Looking south over Central Parkway
Same view circa 1940 (Hamilton Co Library)

Springfield Civic Theatre, one of the oldest theater groups in the state, begins it's 77th season with "Into the Woods".
For many years the theatre was on Main Street.

That place was later (rightfully - although with many fond memories) demolished and the theater group moved to the Turner Studio Theater at the Clark State Performing Arts Center.
"Into the Woods" ushers in a new era of "less quantity and higher quality," board president, Ed Sisler said.

Noose Son story here.

Batman Theme Composer Dies

Batman by The Jam

Trumpeter and composer Neal Heft died at the age of 85. Hefti wrote numerous film scores and played with Woody Herman and worked with Count Basie but boomers probably know him best for his theme to the TV show, Batman.
It was, Hefti later said, the hardest piece of music he ever wrote.

LA Times story here.

Black Cemetery Vandalized
Black Cemetery, Clark County's oldest cemetery, was recently vandalized.
A $500 reward has been offered for the arrest of the culprits who desecrated this small and old cemetery.

WHIO story here.

The Trouble With Trees
The Fishwrap reports Spring Grove Cemetery an Arboretum has lost 300 trees this year due to drought and the havoc wreaked by the recent windstorm (Ike) on the weakened trees.

Spring Grove loses 300 trees this year
By Rebecca Goodman
Spring Grove Cemetery & Arboretum lost 300 trees this year - 151 of them on Sept. 14, when an unprecedented windstorm swept through Greater Cincinnati. The rest have slowly succumbed to thirst after last year's record-breaking heat and drought.
One of the trees damaged by the storm was named a national champion tree by the nonprofit conservation group American Forests.
At about 40 feet tall, the two-wing silverbell was the largest known specimen of its kind in the country.
It cannot be saved, but horticulturists at Spring Grove will attempt to propagate the tree, according to Whitney Huang, manager of horticulture at Spring Grove.
Also damaged in the storm were more than 50 monuments - about a dozen of which were shattered. Those that were merely toppled from their bases will be uprighted by cemetery workers. Those lost or damaged are the responsibility of the owners, according to Gary M. Freytag, president and CEO of Spring Grove.
The Davey Tree Expert Co. was hired to help clean up the debris at Spring Grove. Huang said she hopes the cleanup will be finished by year's end.
Some of the trees are being sold for lumber. Others are being chipped and will be used as mulch for the cemetery's flower beds, Freytag said. So far, $150,000 has been spent on the cleanup.
"That doesn't include our own people's time," Freytag said. "That's just outside services."
The winds "did a lot of damage in areas that are in the 100- to 150-year-old age," Freytag said. "There are areas of the cemetery where there's a big open space now and open sky because there used to be a canopy of trees and it just isn't there anymore."
Spring Grove had two national champion trees. The two-wing silverbell won't be removed while the cemetery tries to propagate it.
"It has three main trunks and two of them are just stubs, and one has just a little small branch on there that is still green," Huang said.
The other national champion - a little silverbell that stands about 15 feet - is unharmed.
Thirty-four species of trees were lost in the storm, Huang said. Most were red oaks, which tended to be tall. Their trunks snapped in the middle. Also gone are many maples and ash trees. The drought-damaged trees were mostly evergreens.
Huang estimated the cost of replacing the 151 trees lost in the windstorm at $60,000.
"We're not going to be able to replant all of this in a year or two," she said. "We want to bring back native species and shade trees because we lost a ton."

Fishwrap story was here.
Pictures I took shortly after the storm here.

WBC

When Bloggers Collide
Met up with Geebee and Djinn in Springfield this past weekend. Hit the Westcott House, Groeber's Lounge, O'Connor's Pub, Leonardo's, Schuler's and John's train set and patio where we caught up with John and Giles and got a chance to reacquaint ourselves with some of Mary's beautiful paintings.
Rollicking good time for a bunch of old geezers. It sounds like Portland's Mississippi district and Cincinnati's Northside neighborhood have a lot in common. I don't think I will be converting Djinn to libertarianism any time soon, nor will she be converting me to communism any time soon. My driver and I left the Portland commies stranded in suburbia with nothing but a bottle of orange juice and a New York Times due to Springfield's archaic blue laws. Hopefully they will make it back home and not have to resort to squatting in a foreclosed ranch in Greenlawn Village.

Buying an Election
In what is shaping up to be the first billion dollar presidential campaign, Obama has outspent McCain almost 2 to 1 overall. McCain has outspent Obama in Minnesota and Iowa.
Obama has outspent McCain 3 to 1 in Pennsylvania. Obama has outspent McCain 3 to 1 in Virginia. Obama has outspent McCain 3 to 1 in Florida. Obama has outspent McCain more than 8 to 1 in North Carolina. Obama has outspent McCain almost 9 to 1 in Indiana. Obama has only slightly outspent McCain in Ohio on TV spots, Obama's being largely positive to McCains being almost entirely negative.
Selling a candidate is like selling a can of beans. A can of beans is a can of beans. We all know the famous Bush dog who plots against his loyal master to reveal the "secret recipe". This piques our interest and while our first and only can of Bush beans might result in us spitting out the first mouthful, we have purchased a can. The first purchase is always done through advertising and salesmanship. Subsequent purchases require the product to be worth a crap. More and better advertising can lead us to purchase one product over another once.
The thing is, our choosing a president is something we only do once and then we have to put up with the goombah for four years. And we have to swallow - repeatedly.
Obama and Palin are clearly the exciting personalities of this race. Similarly, do you purchase Joe Camel, the Marlboro Man, the Virginia Slims chick, the White Owl chick (I'm really dating myself now...), or do you just roll up some dried weeds, stick 'em in your mouth, set 'em on fire and suck ?
Ultimately, they all make you gag.
My recommendation ?
Choose none of the above.

Queer as a Clockwork Orange
Shades of A Clockwork Orange in Urbana
Champaign County Municipal Court Judge Susan J. Fornof-Lippencott sentenced a guy to listen to classical music (Beethoven, Chopin, Bach, DeBussy) for 20 hours as an alternative to paying a $150 fine.
After 15 minutes, Mr Vactor opted to pay the fine.
This seems a lot like the "therapy" young Alex received in the book/movie A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

As you may remember his treatment had unintended consequences and his penchant for classical music only heightened his appreciation for his lifestyle which included activities much worse than blaring obnoxious, vulgar and misogynistic music from his car.
I guess we can file this under "life imitates art".

Noose Son story here.

FATBURGER EST ARRIVE !
My crack team of roving reporters have just informed me the Fatburger at Madison and Brotherton in scenic Oakley is now open.

Subprime Crisis Explained

Northside just rules.
This weekend, starting Saturday, October 4 at 9:00 AM, folks can meet in Hoffner Park for a ride to Findlay Market and back.
At 1:00 PM, the Northside Branch Library will be showing The Blob and When Worlds Collide.
Later, beginning at 5:00 PM, The Spring Grove Cemetery (ok, technically not Northside) will host it's 4th Annual Lantern Lighting Ceremony. It's an afternoon of music and crafts, then, at dusk, people float little illuminated rafts out onto a pond. Hopefully the Cincinnati Klezmer Project will be there again this year.
On Sunday, from noon to 5:00 PM you can tour some cool Cincinnati homes at the Hidden Treasures of Northside House Tour.
"Peek inside to see what homeowner elbow grease, ingenuity and sweat equity can accomplish !"
10 houses in Northside ranging from large to small, majestic to cute, houses that have been well cared for for years and houses rescued from the wrecking ball. There will be shuttle buses to help people get around and your Passport will entitle you to discounts during the day at select Northside businesses.
At 7:30 PM The North Presbyterian Church hosts "Kick Up Your Heals", featuring Appalachian music by the Rabbit Hash String Band.
As usual, there is great music and food at The Comet, Northside Tavern, The Gypsy Hut, Gajah Wong West, Boswell, Alley, Melt, The Hideaway, Honey, Art Damage Lodge, Club Bronz, Blue Rock Tavern, Portofino's, NYPD Pizza.......
whew !

To find out more about what is going on in "Cincinnati's Most Eclectic Neighborhood", click, here or subscribe to Bits & Pieces.

Search the 2001 Google Index
www.google.com/search2001.html
Some of the old pages are there under View old version on the Internet Archive
But just the descriptions are pretty funny
Some results:

Strata 3D Pro v3.0 gains AltiVec support

Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan, through his Washington attorney, complained late Monday that Palm Beach officials had not notified him of details of a ...

During a keynote speech where Steve Jobs unveiled the online Apple Store, the then interim CEO lightheartedly threatened that Apple was "coming for Dell. ...

Scitex knows that printing processes evolve. The company makes high-end information systems geared for the image-heavy printing and graphic arts markets

Apple was not the only major player taking the podium at Seybold. Executives from Microsoft, Macromedia, Kodak, and Sun Microsystems participated in the ...

The Image Proof of Deposit Document Processing System (IPOD) brings the advantages of imaging technology to organisations that process machine readable....

30 Days of Night
I have new respect for Sarah Palin. The leadership, versatility and sheer tenacity of these Alaskans was awe inspiring.
This movie also explains why she wanted to be protected "from all kinds of witchcraft".video
OK, granted, most everybody got killed, at one point the monsters were all standing around a 50 gal tank of oil & nobody thought to shoot the barrel, they thought of using crucifixes because they had seen that used in movies but they had forgotten about McLelland's Directive - "shoot 'em in the head", nevermind that the monsters had super hearing but couldn't hear people yelling and hollering when they got in fights, nevermind they had super blood smelling powers but missed a roomful of sweating warmies in the attic....
Alaskan cheese probably looks like a spider web.
Still, the scenery was beautiful with the cloudy skies and the snowy hills offering a monochromatic study of textures.

Sherriff McLelland from Night of the Living Dead (1968)
"Well, there's no problem. If you have a gun, shoot 'em in the head. That's a sure way to kill 'em. If you don't, get yourself a club or a torch. Beat 'em or burn 'em. They go up pretty easy."

This weekend's Tours
This weekend in Cincinnati, there are a couple interesting tours available.
Downtown, there is the Downtown Tour of Living from noon to 5 PM.
The homes are apartments and condos and go from 4th to 14th streets.
In Northside Great Outdoors Weekends presents a Northside Tour of Death, What the Dead Can Tell Us at Wesleyan Cemetery from noon to 4 PM.
The gravesites of veterans of every war the U.S. has been involved in will be visited and tombstone symbolism will be discussed.
These tours offer a glimpse of where we came from, where we are today and where we are going.
heh, the graveyard......
Anyway, sounds fun.

The Wesleyan Cemetery tour has been cancelled due to wind damage from last week's storm

Wittenberg opens center for civic engagement
Wittenberg University opens The Center for Civic and Urban Engagement to help coordinate faculty and student service projects into four areas of engagement in Springfield: Renewing the Core and Creek; Strengthening After-School Programs, Preparing for Future Jobs, and Improving Housing Quality.
Springfield mayor, Warren Copeland, claims the program will help set the university apart from other liberal arts colleges by highlighting the advantage an urban setting provides for practical applications in majors from the sciences to social services to the arts.

Noose Son story here.

I can't believe Jeff Beck is still not in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. What the hell are they waiting for ? He is on the list of potential inductees for 2009.

• Jeff Beck


• Chic


• Wanda Jackson


• Little Anthony and the Imperials


• Metallica


• Run-D.M.C.


• The Stooges


• War


• Bobby Womack

Metallica ? ugh.....

Story here.

Pope condemns 'pagan' love of money, power
oh, this is good,
"Pope Benedict XVI condemned unbridled “pagan” passion for power, possessions and money as a modern-day plague Saturday as he led more than a quarter of a million Catholics in an outdoor Mass in Paris."
Perhaps he wants to go back to a kinder gentler time, like When King Philip the Fair pretty much bought and sold the papacy under Pope Clement V.
Or maybe he is thinking of getting back into the lucrative indulgence racket.
We have,
"The pope urged the faithful to “shun the worship of idols."
ah, but then,
"The late-morning Mass ended peacefully, with followers pressing for a chance to touch the pontiff’s robes"
uh, yeah-
About that.....
I don't know as this love of money and idols is so "pagan". Seems to be a pretty traditional Catholic pastime.

Story here.

All full up !

If you had any plans on getting interred in the Bushnell family mausoleum, forget it. The last grave has been filled.

Noose Son story here.

Science Debate
The front running presidential candidates are asked a set of questions bout their stance on science, technology, energy, environment and education.
The gist of their answers ?
Obama - throw money
McCain - incentives
For the most part, they agree on all the issues, it's just a matter of how to deal with them. The difference in their strategies is basically the same difference between Democrats and Republicans we are only too used to.
Still, after Bush's recent jog back to the middle ages, these guys seem refreshing.

Story here.

Spring Grove Cemetery 9/16/08
Headed over to Spring Grove Cemetery today to check out the havoc. The smashed monuments were much scarcer than I had feared. There were a good number of trees down but they were a minority. Just happened to be a bunch of big old ones. The crew have a real job on their hands. As of Tuesday afternoon they were still without power.
One uprooted tree right by the road revealed a marker it seems to have completely grown over. The name on it was Ike !
Well, ok not really.
 
As I was walking around the cemetery, standing under half felled trees, I started to realize how dangerous my adventure actually was. Well, nobody ever had a problem accusing me of stupidity.
There was a funeral coming in as I left. Death goes on.