The booster comes a bit early today, as we’re going toget screwed get our taxes done. To that end, enjoy the QTBS while I’ll be suffering through the indignity of getting depantsed in public…
– Because nothing says, “Hey, we’re in Denver” better than a demonic stallion with a giant blue horse cock.
– We need a new setting for Google Maps: CFS or Common Fucking Sense directions. In the options box, you can pick to avoid tolls and avoid highways, but that’s it. I had it print up directions for me for a recent trip when it sent me on about nine turns in about a four-block area like I was trying to avoid Sherriff Roscoe P. Coltrane while I was hauling moonshine. Turns out, if I had stayed on the first road I was on, I could have found my highway on ramp without a problem, but it would have taken me about two extra blocks worth of driving. Look, I like saving gas as much as the next guy, but ease of use counts for something too.
– Speaking of the Dukes of Hazzard, tip of the cap to the first person who can (without looking it up) name the two substitute Dukes who showed up in 1982-83 when Bo and Luke (Tom Wopat and John Schneider) were holding out in a contract dispute.
– From the“Scumbaggery has no bounds” file: Apparently the hot new industry in collections is hitting up the relatives of the dead to pony up. The tone of this piece is more than a little disturbing in that it seems like the writer says, “Hey, this is a neat idea and it’s pretty natural.” I imagine the guys who created this firm to feel that it’s perfectly acceptable to go to the funeral, shake the change out of the dead guy’s pockets and then hit on his widow. Hey, she’s single again, right?
–So stealing is… gasp… wrong? Look, I’ve had this argument about a million times when I was working with student media. The kids would get a great shot of something, put it up on the web and several scummy local TV stations would copy the image, give the kid no credit (or in one case spell his name wrong) and then post it to their website. The best instance I had of this was when we were the only ones shooting an event in which Chelsea Clinton came through town. No fewer than six places stole the photo. He called them up and their reaction was the same each time: But this is great for your portfolio! You’re being published in a professional media outlet. Uh… No… you’re stealing, dude. In five of the six cases, they pulled the photo. The sixth paid him a freelance fee. The world would be so much nicer if people didn’t steal stuff.
–Totally sweet waste of time, but it at least has the illusion of being ecofriendly!
– If you haven’t been following the drama in Oregon, the student newspaper went on strike earlier this week after an attempt by the paper’s board to install a non-student publisher as a form of oversight. The price? $80,000 and this was with the paper on rocky financial ground. The staff issued four edicts to the board and threatened a walk out unless they were met. Their last act before walking off the job was to issuethis editorial, which is amazing. The paper staffagreed today to come back to work after this was thwarted and after one issue of the paper was published using mainly wire copy and such. Once again, it’s the kids who have the guts and a better understanding of reality than the administration under which they work.
Thanks for letting me share your air. Be back next week.
Doc