Steve Graham Update

Mmmm. So much happened between posts.

I totally missed this:

http://www.joplinglobe.com/editorial/local_story_229120304.html

The comments are very much worth your time.

I particularly like how 30,000 page views is made to sound like this insane number.

For perspective, however, I should remind myself that this blog gets about 10 per day.

Tomorrow is September 1. And it's been three weeks since I've posted. Things change in three weeks. I read a lot, as usual. The Tigers haven't exactly been playing their best. I finally hooked up the battery backup to the PC at home. The weather's cooler. Not like 65 degrees or anything, but it's only supposed to be 85 today. Now that's progress.

Two big news conferences will be held by US Senators today, and I guess I have opinions on both.

The first is Larry Craig. While this one isn't 100 percent certain to even happen today, he's going to resign. He has no choice at this point. I am not famous. If I hid an arrest and guilty plea from Mrs Original, my mailing address would quickly change and I probably wouldn't see her or the youth for several years. And that leaves the type of arrest totally out of the equation. It is bizarre to me that Senator Craig thinks the problem here is that people think he's gay. I would guess that a majority of Americans, even in Idaho, which people seem to think of as some radically Conservative bubble, care more that he lied to them. As the arresting officer told him, "People vote for you." We pay his salary. He's accountable to Americans, specifically those living in Idaho. Conservatives LOVE the story about the $91 nail. Even though it's about 25 years old, it gets dragged out a lot as an example of the irresponsibility of the federal government. Guess what? There's a new nail in town.

The second news conference will be held by John Warner, and this one seems pretty likely. And I think he'll announce his retirement. Which means my intrepid Representative Tom Davis will run for the seat. And his wife will probably run for the House seat. And suddenly I regret not getting involved with the Fairfax Democratic Party when I was 22 and starting the climb up the ladder. I could be the 11th District Representative! Or at least receive a few thousand votes! Seriously, Warner is one of the most respected members of the Senate, and although I don't always agree with his views, generally feel that he has done a good job representing me and my state in the Senate.

These press conferences are national news. America should take the time to watch them and carefully think about our country. Senior citizens are an important demographic in America, but not five-sixths of the country. Why are our lawmakers largely elderly? Is this a good idea? They may have the experience needed to lead, but in terms of American culture, they're somewhat irrelevant. I don't want my grandparents deciding whether to lay new fiber optic lines between North America and Asia. It helps that they often have younger staffers, but ultimately, decisions rest in the hands of the Members of Congress. People who probably have pill trays labeled with the day of the week on the outside. As our life expectancy increases, it will be socially acceptable for older and older Americans to run for office. John McCain is 71. 50 years ago, he would have likely been near death. Today, he can run for President.

The Larry Craig situation is bizarre, and everything you can possibly say about it has been said. I leave you with what I think is the clear and decisive winner of FishbowlDC's Craig-inspired T-shirt design contest:


Um, yeah.
Proceed to laugh hysterically.


2pm update: Warner's not gonna run again.

No Sympathy, Just Laughs

The title references this story, which ended up on Drudge this morning and is one of the funniset things I've read in the real, legit news in a long time. This is about one quote away from an Onion story. I'm not sure what I'd do if Mrs. Original and I were "having troubles," but I probably wouldn't live in the Saturn with an extension cord connected to the house.

I don't usually do much with "news of the weird," but this one was fantastic. La Donna Graham? "Trying my best to get a job and get up out of this rut?" Listening to Rush Limbaugh every day? 89 Century? This story is like a Mad Lib. I wish I lived there.



Globe/T. Rob Brown The Waring family poses in its back yard at 612 S. Olive St. in Pittsburg as Steven Graham stands near his car on the adjoining property. The Warings are among the neighbors who have signed a petition urging the City Commission to adopt a resolution that would prohibit people from living in their cars on private property.

The "domicile" of Steve Graham as seen from the Warings' yard Tuesday evening, Aug. 7, 2007, in Pittsburg, Kan.
None / T. Rob Brown / The Joplin Globe

Unfortunately, there's no video anywhere online. This saddens me. He looks a little like Sasquatch in the first picture.

A Post of Whimsy and Pretention

Yesterday, while reading a very sad article about the demise of the delta smelt in Central California, I missed my homeland. See, in Michigan, we eat smelt. To most of the world, I think they probably look like bait fish. But to the discerning Michigander, they're food. So off I set on a web journey to find a smelt recipe (never mind that we don't have them here in the seventh ring of the Inferno).

I came across this story in the New York Times, which shockingly acknowledged the presence of land west of Syracuse, albeit in a very pretentious, condescending manner. Montmorency cherries, yum. Blueberries (not those mammoth ones from New Jersey, either - these are real ones with flavor), fresh potatoes, corn, and all the fish you can eat. Whitefish and fries is a good call, but smelt are just as yummy. They're an all-time favorite of mine, and go on the can't miss Michigan food list.

1. Lemon rice soup (avgolemono if you want to be classy) - because you can get it at almost every restaurant in SE Michigan, I didn't even know this was Greek until we moved away. Almost impossible to find in other parts of the country, even at Greek restaurants.

2. Smelt - just get a big plate of smelt and fries. No need to put anything on it. Mayonnaise and lemon juice for your fries if you want.

3. Greek omelette - Gyro meat, basil, onions, feta, and whatever else. Accompanied by a side of patates (the Greek-style roasted potatoes).

4. Coney dogs - Not Nathan's, which as I've covered previously, are horrid. Typically, an authentic coney will have mustard, chili in some form, and depending on where you are, sometimes sauerkraut and/or pickles. Here's why they're called coneys in Michigan. Or you can choose to believe one of the approximately 86,000 other stories about their origin. My aunt used to be the manager of an auction company, and the snack bar at her events inevitably served coneys and polish dogs - bun-size polish sausages with pickles/relish, mustard, and sauerkraut. Also tasty. I have brought these to Virginia to rave reviews. Come visit sometime for a Michigan football game and they will be served.

5. Unlimited fish and chips at Whitey's - For about $14, you get the salad bar (done in true Midwestern style - iceberg lettuce, salad dressing that'll clog your arteries almost instantly, cottage cheese, and other delicacies), and unlimited whitefish and fries. Last time in, I ate 8 pieces. That's a lot. Well worth it.

6. Little Caesar's/Mr. Pita - to most of America, Little Caesar's is disgusting and cheap (and sadly, out of business). To Michiganders, it's a way of life. Revolutionizing America's pizza landscape with innovations such as chocolate ravioli, Crazy Bread, and Meatsa! Meatsa! since 1959. And the owner, Mike Ilitch, owns the Tigers and Red Wings. Previous Tigers owner Tom Monoghan was Domino's CEO and President. Domino's IS NOT Little Caesar's :-) Michigan - the pizza-basket of America. Mr. Pita co-locates with LC and serves up over 80 different pita sandwiches. It's awesome.

So those are my can't misses. There are probably more, including picking blackberries on the side of the road, but this is a blog, not a dissertation. maybe next I'll do a tourism post.

Theater of the Bizarre

I missed Barry Bonds' 756th home run last night. I was washing dishes. Didn't have the game on the radio in the kitchen for some reason. But it's OK. I had replays.

In 1998, I missed McGwire's 62nd because I was taking out the trash. Not sure why I picked that exact moment to take a walk to the dumpster. Maybe it was foreshadowing the events of the next decade. I was kind of upset about missing history at the time, but I moved on.

In retrospect, these are probably the two biggest moments in sports of my lifetime. Personally, the '97 Stanley Cup finals was more important, and the '87 division race where the Tigers came from behind and won that final game 1-0 (on a masterful complete game six-hitter by Frank Tanana) to avoid the one game playoff with the Jays - that was probably more important to me. But on a grand American scale, 62 and 756 were monumental. Nothing in sports is bigger or more powerful than the home run records. And today, they feel dirty and unloved; definitely not sacred.

It doesn't matter if Hank Aaron stayed home, or if Bud Selig wasn't there. The presence of either, or both of them, wouldn't have made the night, or the record, any more legitimate. Bud Selig has had an absolutely horrific tenure as commissioner of MLB, and this was just another butt in the ashtray. Arms raised upward, Bonds stood and watched as the ball went out, and then pointed skyward as he gleefully (I guess) stomped on home plate. Reggie-esque.

Andy Van Slyke. Bobby Bonilla. Will Clark. Matt Williams. Jeff Kent. These are the guys Bonds hit before or after for most of his career, and probably owes most of his home runs to. Pretty good players in their own right. All but one are retired now, and none were at the game. To be fair, they are all in baseball, so we can assume they all had other responsibilities. The exception is renowned baseball genius Bonilla, who was at home in Connecticut, where watching the home run was "very exciting."

After the 2004 Presidential elections, a Washington Post columnist noted that this was the first election in history where people didn't remove signs and bumper stickers for either Bush or Kerry, almost not acknowledging that an election had taken place. Will this be the pattern baseball will follow? An interesting question, since Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's record legitimately and Ruth is still revered by many as the greatest slugger of all time. I think it's weird to see Bonds' name on top of the career home runs list, but it's there and it isn't going away. Baseball's last gasp of a chance to preserve the record for Hammerin' Hank is gone this morning. Many thought this day would never come. In the words of the illustrious Emeril, BAM!
By the way, the asterisk just means he's an active player. Smirk.

The record falling doesn't bother me. Strangely, the record falling to someone suspected of steroid use doesn't even bother me that much. It's Bonds' personality that seals the deal for me. When Aaron broke the record, it was a great day for BASEBALL. I would encourage everyone to read the chapter on the 1974 season in Roger Angell's Five Seasons, where Aaron's record is detailed in words from memories just weeks old. Listen to the call by Vin Scully. This was a profound social moment and a great sporting moment. From that, we went to a moment where nobody cared about the race of the athlete, or what he'd been through, or even the record he broke. Just Barry Bonds hitting another home run, presumably for Barry Bonds.

35W

It's a dark day in the Twin Cities. The death toll from last night's events will certainly rise, and even if it doesn't, for four people to die and dozens more to be injured from something this horrific is still a tragedy.

What I will never understand is the need for people to have someone to blame. In this case, "people" are the news networks and media in general. Bad stuff happens in our world. The way we deal with it is what makes or breaks us as individuals and as a human race. New Orleans, for better or for worse, has managed to host some major events in the last year and get some cash pumped back into a city that nearly died, and remains dead to many. The Twin Cities must, and will, move on.

This is not Governor Pawlenty's fault. This is not the fault of lower taxes. it's not the fault of the city of Minneapolis or of county government or of the NTSB or any of those groups. A bridge broke, and some people got hurt and some died. The cause of the collapse will (hopefully) be found in the coming days and weeks, construction on a new span will begin, and life in the Twin Cities will resume. Maybe not as fully, and people will always remember, but life will go on. Having someone to blame isn't going to help that process.