"Shut Up" he explained

The President's press secretary treats Newt with the contempt he deserves:

Gibbs Dismisses Gingrich Comments As "Blog Of A Former Lawmaker"

Me, I'm glad Newt piped up, because I've been waiting for a chance to use this:

Now batting, Judge Sotomayor

Further evidence that the universe may revolve around baseball.

This was pointed out on, all places, WFMT. It will no doubt become a talking point during her confirmation (and she will be confirmed):

"On March 30, 1995, she issued the preliminary injunction against Major League Baseball, preventing MLB from unilaterally implementing a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and using replacement players, thus ending the 1994 baseball strike."

Shocking news

This has 'trainwreck' written all over it:

Michael Jackson's London Shows Already Delayed

It remains unclear if the delays are due to new plastic surgery catastrophes.

We had a barrel of fun; plus, Beer of the Day

Behold the rain barrel. Net cost of materials was about $50, including the new flexible downspout, and labor time was about two hours, spread over yesterday evening and this morning.

No injuries were sustained in the making of this rain barrel.

After finishing the barrel and mowing the lawn, I relaxed with a tasty Leinenkugel Berry Weiss. As its name indicates, it tastes of berries. A lot of berries. Not that I mind, as I have a weakness for fruity beers, but this makes it none too popular among the beer cognoscenti. Never mind what they say, though - this is a good summer beer.

Lunch thoughts

It would be ungracious of me to complain about free pizza for lunch. But, one would think that in a city with a legendary pizza tradition, the choice would not be Sbarro.

Barrel Roll

Motivated in small part by my green-ness, and in greater part by me being cheap, one of this coming weekend's projects will be building a rain barrel. Rather than seeing my water bill double during the summer months in an attempt to keep the gardens verdant, a rain barrel offers the chance to both save money and use rainwater for watering, which gardening gurus recommend.

The actual building of the barrel seems simple enough. Acquire a barrel or drum, cut a hole the top and install a screen, put a spigot in the bottom and an overflow hose near the top, place it under a downspout, and get that warm fuzzy Al Gore-like feeling of self-satisfaction.

Via Craigslist, I found a food distributor not far from my house that sells 55-gallon drums for $25. When adding the cost of the remaining parts, it means the entire operation will cost me around $50 in all. Assuming no self-inflicted injuries occur.

Beer of the Day

SKA Pinstripe Red Ale

Aroma is okay, appearance is okay, taste is okay. Spectacularly average in every possible way. The very definition of an ordinary beer.

Won't someone listen to me?

Jose Canseco holds a news conference, and (almost) nobody shows up.

"Only one reporter from The Associated Press, Canseco’s lawyer, a photographer and four camera crews attended the news conference. All but two of the 100 seats were empty."

And there are pictures:

How not to interpret data

Story in the local papers today:

Naperville ranks second in state DUI arrests

Naperville happens to be the fifth largest city in Illinois. The city with the most DUI arrests (excluding Chicago) is Rockford, which is the third largest city in the state.

Sensing a pattern?

The actual data, available at the web site of the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, is better, as it ranks the municipalities by arrests per officer. Don't drink and drive in Carol Stream or Barrington.

Manny being Manny

Regarding his 50 games off - perhaps he was using Pud Galvin's monkey juice.

[UPDATE] I was closer than I knew...

followup

Dear Mary,

The show last night was magnificent - hope you made up your mind to go. Either way, thanks for not writing another 750 words about the subject.

Regards,

Tracy

Make up your damn mind already

This Chicago Tribune column has been on my nerves for about two days now.

Setting aside for a moment the absurdity of calling a 3600-seat theatre with immaculate sightlines “a large space,” the wishy-washiness on display is stunning. It doesn’t seem to be a difficult choice. Here is a legendary artist on what may be his final concert tour, performing in a splendid theater, with tickets that are expensive for the best seats, but certainly within the budget of a Tribune columnist, to say nothing of a DePaul statistician. Cough up ~100 dollars as I did and go. You won’t regret it.

So why spend 750 words on the subject, without any sort of conclusion?

Beer of the Day

This was actually a beer I had several months ago, but I just got around to rating it elsewhere.

Leinenkugel Fireside Nut Brown

Quoting myself: "Had this several months ago on tap at FitzGerald’s. Berwyn IL. Poured a deep brown with little head. Aroma was overwhelmingly sweet and artificial, and it was served far too cold. Taste was artificial as well. Couldn’t finish it. Ugh."

Shocking news of the day

Here's a surprise:

Prior reports shoulder soreness to Padres

Now, I'm being a little snarky here, but given that Prior hasn't pitched in a major league game since 2006, said snark is understandable.

For a much better discussion of the reasons Prior has gone from"can't miss prospect with perfect mechanics" to "he'll be lucky to be able to brush his teeth when he's 40":

Mark Prior's Pitching Mechanics - A Different Perspective