tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28090513638807216892012-01-26T08:09:57.761-05:00New and archival material from the justly infamous pre-blog era newsletter. Plus other random nonsense from J. Francis McLuggage, Kaptain Equinox, and the staff at Domaine Ste. Melange de Berger. Libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. All content Copyright by the Author except where noted.J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.comBlogger4731100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-16908177089311640052012-01-26T08:09:00.000-05:002012-01-26T08:09:57.773-05:00

I said I was going to try to get somewhere with polenta this winter, and here's mark III -- cheese polenta, sliced and stuffed with a cold chicken, steak, and Lancashire mince and fried. Oh, and a duck breast with some orange sauce.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-47119480053703947732012-01-23T14:00:00.001-05:002012-01-23T14:01:21.747-05:00

Do not, ever, under any circumstances, show up in my office for an interview, dressed like this. Just don't. And for God's sake, see somebody about that edema around your knees! It can't be healthy!

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-63909065414065727712012-01-21T16:18:00.000-05:002012-01-21T16:18:51.202-05:00

Rick Perry is out. That leaves Newt, Paul, and Santorum, plus the other guy, oh, what's his name? Romnix? Something like that. The score so far. "Stay off, Cazzo!"

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-30643391300887794012012-01-19T09:04:00.000-05:002012-01-19T09:04:32.194-05:00

All over the map, as per usual. Just a few highpoints: Italy Dish to Dish Monica Sartoni Cesari and Susan Simon; A handy pocket-sized reference to Italian menu terms, by region, with a scattering of recipes as well. A present from friends, and lots of fun to work through: "Huh. So that's what that means." The Fox Wars: R. David Edmunds and Joseph L. Peyser; a very well-researched chronicle of

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-3192378710709974532012-01-17T12:22:00.000-05:002012-01-17T12:22:01.734-05:00

Even the craziest of the crazy-right Republican candidates can't stomach the Ron Paul "tear it all down and don't replace it" approach to life. The photo in this article shows Gingrich with his patented "I'm way, way off my meds," grin, watching Paul make a fool of himself again. Takes one to know one, I guess.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-33015993443253954562012-01-16T07:53:00.000-05:002012-01-16T07:53:18.234-05:00

Jon Huntsman is out of the GOP race. The link is to my score card, posted here previously.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-57992099183086276922012-01-12T12:20:00.001-05:002012-01-12T12:26:59.807-05:00

Rick Perry, apparently forgetting which party's nomination he's trying to win, cost himself a big-bucks supporter in SC. But he doesn't think it's a big deal, any more than Newt's crew believed the VA primary fiasco was anything more than a minor Pearl Harbor. "It's unfortunate and disappointing. But at the end of the day we are marching on," Dawson said. "It won't have any impact." (Dawson is

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-56820150152786258642012-01-12T11:50:00.000-05:002012-01-12T11:50:52.407-05:00

A while back, I was listing the various Michigan pols who were at risk of a period of free public housing, and I mentioned Mark Siljander, an outstanding example of our West Michigan public servants, who was accused of representing and lobbying for a terrorist organization. This week, he got his year-and-a-day in jail for doing it and (of course and as is customary,) lying about it afterwards.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-5231774124092315192012-01-11T11:27:00.001-05:002012-01-11T12:24:34.054-05:00

As I said to our long-suffering friends at dinner, this weekend, here I go with another note about snakebite as a global disease, ignored by everybody except po' folks in the third world. The link is to a previous post of mine on this subject, and this one is just a quick update on one pair of numbers. Namely, the annual number of snakebite deaths officially stated to occur in Bangladesh (2000)

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-11807773071171300532012-01-11T10:13:00.001-05:002012-01-11T10:58:04.336-05:00

So Romney stomped two out of the three weapons-grade lunatics in New Hampshire. It was disappointing that Ron Paul did as well as he did, but it was a GOP vote, after all, and they still have a large number of mentally deficient voters, apparently, just not deficient enough to back Newt and he who must not be named. Paul is not giving up, saying "We're nibbling at his heels." This is a superb

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-26844375359275020172012-01-08T16:40:00.000-05:002012-01-08T16:40:16.000-05:00

"By A.D. 1150, in the latter part of a severe 15-year drought, the Richland farming complex was mostly abandoned, eliminating an integral part of Cahokia's agricultural base. At about the same time, a 20,000-log palisade was erected around Monks Mound and the Grand Plaza, indicating increased social unrest. During this time, people began exiting Cahokia and, by the end of the Stirling phase (A.D.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-31559415471191994392012-01-04T12:46:00.000-05:002012-01-04T12:46:43.768-05:00

Michelle Bachmann, holder of the coveted "Not quite as misinformed as Sarah Palin" award, dropped out of the GOP race after being told by the citizens of her birthplace to sit down and shut up. See here for my ongoing scorecard.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-72927751762090686802012-01-01T23:17:00.000-05:002012-01-01T23:17:30.831-05:00

I recently purchased my semi-annual new pair of jeans. I was aware that it was necessary to specify waist and inseam, but I never knew that gender preference figured in the sizing of mass market clothing.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-52334036739010483142011-12-31T15:42:00.000-05:002011-12-31T15:42:49.333-05:00

... to be overlooked in the great scheme of historical commemoration, 2012 (coming right up, here -- a matter of a few hours) begins the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812. For a good summary of this clumsy little sideshow of the Napoleonic wars, see John Elting's Amateurs to Arms!. For an even more abbreviated and less readable summary, look it up in Wikipedia. And for a completely abbreviated

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-63078218222643578792011-12-30T18:08:00.000-05:002011-12-30T18:08:07.212-05:00

Lake Superior State University has published its annual list of "banned" words. It should be noted that the words are not really "banned," in any sense at all (for example in the sense that kids saying "naked chimichanga" in schools seems to be banned -- don't ask) except the opprobrium which appearing on the list brings to the utterer. Nevertheless, although using them won't get you an

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-22279009321957585022011-12-29T15:12:00.000-05:002011-12-29T15:12:34.860-05:00

I don't often agree with the Manchester Union Leader, but this time, I couldn't have said it better myself. Come to think of it, I did. Over and over again.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-6072584392854832052011-12-25T18:27:00.000-05:002011-12-25T18:27:39.525-05:00

Over and over again, the same refrain: no matter what you think of Newt Gingrich, he's brilliant. Maybe so. Maybe there's a method to the madness of a candidate who can't even staff his campaign with people smart enough to get him on the VA ballot. Of course, others didn't, either. In fact, only Mitt Romney and Ron Paul did. As far as I know, none of the other losers called for write-in votes

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-53014073888115098752011-12-24T14:51:00.001-05:002011-12-25T17:48:59.617-05:00

Sketchy linguistics and a vast amount of wishing-it-were-so are leading a couple of under-qualified researchers to claim that a Maya city existed in -- wait for it -- Georgia. At least they're referring to the US state of Georgia, and not the eastern European country, but the chances are about as good, either way. Perhaps this is the 2012 apocalypse that was supposedly predicted by Mayan

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-52128234005271935642011-12-22T08:33:00.000-05:002011-12-22T08:33:29.605-05:00

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-70572231360291133312011-12-13T19:37:00.000-05:002011-12-13T19:37:32.699-05:00

The first issue of a whole new scholarly journal, focusing on things not previously discovered, described, named, or frankly, cared about. Previously Undescribed: The Journal of Abstracted Breaking Research Worminster's Monkey First reported in 1879 by the Reverend Thomas St. Jude Worminster, this small creature was thought to be extinct, primarily because no one but Worminster ever subsequently

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-56946818061671942312011-12-11T12:35:00.000-05:002011-12-11T12:35:14.549-05:00

... why this comes to mind now, but it did and you're gonna hear it. In government contracting, there is the concept of the Woman-Owned Small Business. To paraphrase the legalese, " ... the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program authorizes contracting officers to set aside certain federal contracts for eligible Women-owned small businesses (WOSBs) ..." A laudable provision,

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-91093294736531067822011-12-04T12:54:00.000-05:002011-12-04T12:54:14.587-05:00

Herman Cain "suspended" his suspenders campaign yesterday as he contemplated the number of women he knows of who have not yet accused him of improprieties. The link is to my previous post, updated to show the current headcount.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-45763340804821115312011-12-02T22:49:00.000-05:002011-12-02T22:49:21.916-05:00

Is the use of personally-owned devices in the workplace inevitable? The author of this article is the husband of an old colleague of mine. Given my desire to see Android pads take over from laptops as the working-and-worrying-in-Starbucks tool of the future, it's of interest.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-12136347816721131472011-11-16T20:02:00.000-05:002011-11-16T20:02:33.394-05:00

... the idiocies of the past are unable to avoid the gross irresponsibility of repeating them, apparently. The GOP-ridden led congress, at the mercy of the junk food industry, it would seem (along with all the other industries at whose mercy they seem to be,) have channeled the spirit of the Reagan administration and are attempting to define pizza as a vegetable for school lunch purposes. Not

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-21371898841793361822011-11-08T14:14:00.000-05:002011-11-08T14:14:03.863-05:00

That icon of fine dining, the Flim Flam Restaurant, has closed its doors. Many's the time I ate lunch there (well, once or twice, when someone else proposed it,) watching one of my PhD colleagues from CPHA eat a pork chop, in public, with his fingers. The saddest part of this whole episode is the number of people who commented on the AA.com story with phrases like, "... one of the best diners in

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-53887767269660344672011-11-07T12:13:00.000-05:002011-11-07T12:13:08.483-05:00

Nice summary piece about the guy who is prominent in snarking at the loonies who believe something more than usually important will happen in 2012, based on so-called Maya traditions. Short of a Republican victory in the Presidential election, don't look for any special cosmic events, since in this guy's thesis, the whole 2012 thing was a syncretic mashup of European mysticism and mis-understood

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-23247011811281726062011-11-06T14:58:00.000-05:002011-11-06T14:58:47.543-05:00

Something about that 'ol veil of obscurity ... I continue to be fascinated with the remote and poorly-understood corners of history -- as well as those that are being debated fiercely by academics. My recent reading is following this path. A Mojave War Reminiscence 1854-1880, Ed. A.L. and G.B. Kroeber, 1973, University of California Press, re-released in 1994 by Dover Books. The executive

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-51792373510649146822011-10-29T17:52:00.000-04:002011-10-29T17:52:23.157-04:00

Of the "Occupy this or that" thesis concerning global control of economies. It boils down, it turns out, to about 140 corporate entities. I've read the summary in New Scientist, but not the full article, here. I'll delve into it in the next day or so, I hope. Note that you may not be able to see the New Scientist link unless you're a subscriber, but the full article is on PloS One, and freely

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-67345700195142164312011-10-29T17:18:00.002-04:002011-10-29T17:25:42.451-04:00

Apparently, centuries(1) of non-stop war is good for snow leopards. Let them run the place -- couldn't do worse than the humans have. And here's a more general piece on Afghan wildlife. (1) The article's statement that Afghanistan has suffered "30 years" of war is absurd. Somebody's been fighting somebody there as long as anyone's been there.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-39711952014192352642011-10-29T16:07:00.000-04:002011-10-29T16:07:20.404-04:00

We need a ruling on that question, I'm afraid. Too sad to be funny, I guess. But here it is, anyway. See earlier post on conservation of idiots -- we're in no danger of running out.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-29854086908680943972011-10-28T10:46:00.001-04:002011-11-08T11:53:15.324-05:00

Rejoice! We're not the only country with insane politicians. Not by a long shot. Although I have no problem with her proposal about polar bears. 2011 11 08: Update: The Bears are winning! This article is even sillier than the first one.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-81555409383792651872011-10-25T10:33:00.001-04:002011-10-25T10:38:04.497-04:00

Ok - hypothetically, work on the Stadium Bridge will start in November, of this year. Personally, I'll believe it when I see the work being done. But that's what they're claiming. I think I'll go out and get a few "before" pictures, just so we remember what poverty looks like (inside joke.) Oh, here's the city's official site. Wood-Charles is not responsible for anything you might read there (

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-42095299128788197812011-10-21T21:08:00.000-04:002011-10-21T21:08:43.280-04:00

What's wrong with this picture? On the next page of the catalog, they featured an authentic George Washington helmet with horns and a nasal.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-79408776496797022942011-10-20T10:57:00.000-04:002011-10-20T10:57:43.062-04:00

Nothing I can say, except perhaps it serves us right. Damn Margaret Thatcher!

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-25750514809623686682011-10-15T09:25:00.000-04:002011-10-15T09:25:01.343-04:00

In this story, a two and half million dollar yacht sinks upon launch. Notice the high tech launching ramp, made of logs. And here, a JH-7 craters at an air show.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-16224987780171253662011-10-15T09:16:00.000-04:002011-10-15T09:16:59.241-04:00

Serves 'em right.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-63473805131994025882011-10-13T15:31:00.001-04:002011-10-13T15:31:17.102-04:00

From the 10/08 edition of New Scientist:"Brain dead in one country but not in another""It's the job of us (sic) theorists to bash out all the possibilities, like monkeys on a typewriter""What was it like, sleeping like a chimpanzee?"Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-56916596484260543042011-10-12T14:54:00.000-04:002011-10-12T14:54:06.257-04:00

One of Ann Arbor's old, original (not the original, but close) Internet Service Providers was ic.net. We were DSL customers of theirs for many years, but a bad acquisition by 2020comm.net ran them into the ground, and they eventually sold (or gave, for all I know) the broadband business to AT&T. There was the usual hell you'd expect in such a changeover, but we limped along with it for another

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-16541179422708813672011-10-12T12:30:00.000-04:002011-10-12T12:30:55.941-04:00

I went to high school in Perry, but this is probably the most excitement they've had since I escaped graduated myself.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-39552444169724494882011-10-10T15:36:00.000-04:002011-10-10T15:36:51.839-04:00

"Tigers, Lions create jobs, boost sales for Ann Arbor restaurants" Although you might not suspect it, having large carnivores roaming the Detroit area can be a boost for local economies. "After you've been bitten by, say, a lion," said an Ann Arbor restaurant owner who spoke on condition of anonymity, "a nice dinner out can be restorative." The Department of Natural Resources issued a

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-59332183115299685412011-10-10T10:55:00.000-04:002011-10-10T10:55:00.401-04:00

The law of conservation of idiots appears to be operating as theoretically proposed, as demonstrated by experiments carried out at the Large Idiot Collider, located near Geneva, in Switzerland. "With several important idiots having vanished or 'decayed' from the GOP Presidential ticket, it was theoretically necessary for an equivalent mass of idiocy to enter the race in order to preserve the

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-38490098333501715492011-10-10T10:31:00.001-04:002011-10-13T08:20:20.932-04:00

2011 10 13: Update the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council speaks out! And the article doesn't say if ketchup or mustard were. But someone flung a hot dog at Tiger Woods. "Just an idiot," said an official, but it was unclear who he was referring to, the sausage terrorist or Woods. See this post, from many years back, on another public figure being assaulted with food.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-54108286298794033222011-10-09T14:00:00.000-04:002011-10-09T14:00:53.359-04:00

A right-wing, socially-conservative pizza company president tries to influence national and international affairs, funds off-the-charts activism ... sound familiar to Ann Arbor people? What is it about the pizza business that attracts (or produces) people like Herman Cain and, yes, Tom Monaghan? I wonder if they've met. By the way, Tom isn't resting on his laurels. He's decided to take another

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-70912741043966037322011-10-07T09:45:00.004-04:002012-01-21T16:17:19.516-05:00

Updated 2011 12 04: So even though his staff jumped through hoops to flesh out a campaign plan, just in case, Chris Christie isn't running. And, alas, neither is Sarah Palin. So this leaves the GOP with Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, now that Thad McCotter is out. I know, I know, they aren't the only ones running. Would you like to see a list of who still is, right off the GOP's national web

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-10812181068909752072011-09-22T22:18:00.000-04:002011-09-22T22:18:48.658-04:00

At least one of them is over. Footnote-to-history Thad McCotter, has dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination. I try to keep a sense of humor about this sort of thing, especially given the caliber of other, more serious, candidates (like there are any,) but McCotter I found to be a more than usual insult to the intelligence of the public (like there is any.) Anyway, he's gone, crawling

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-52752012376520516582011-09-22T16:17:00.000-04:002011-09-22T16:17:24.796-04:00

A camo beanie! From Cabela's, who else? From their mannerist collection, after Parmigianino's Moron with the long neck. Besides all else, consider that someone got paid to model for that photo, someone else got paid to take it, and a catalog editor selected it for use. The wonder of it all. What's that? You say it's not a real model, it's a dummy? Oh, I agree. I agree. One way or the other.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-30554067908199462532011-09-19T14:28:00.000-04:002011-09-19T14:28:24.599-04:00

No, this is not a current political cartoon, representing Republican members of congress. It's one of many, many '40s era comics mocked on the web site, Stupid Comics. I grant you, the guy in the middle does look like Dick Cheney, but no ...

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-43466692440185496762011-09-19T11:27:00.001-04:002011-09-19T18:22:00.171-04:00

Detroit is the worst dining city? Hard to argue with. Let's just all hope that Kwame Kilpatrick doesn't opt for the food service business when he finally wriggles away from the feds (hopefully not in my lifetime.) Seriously, this take on Detroit food brings to mind the Firesign Theater bit about Mayor Noche's Bamba Shelter: Hey, Jose', order up our special-a sandwich, a sleepy Joe. One's

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-76153072989350104212011-09-18T21:48:00.000-04:002011-09-18T21:48:02.903-04:00

"One and a half million people per year are poisoned by snake venom in Sub-Saharan Africa." Turns out the estimates were way under-estimated. I particularly like the cycle of ignorance, poor outcomes, and under-reporting described in the article. Ain't it the way? Another article says, "Most victims of snakebite are among the poorest, least empowered people in the world..." but at least holds

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-49774287883448407962011-09-16T09:08:00.000-04:002011-09-16T09:08:19.722-04:00

We've all heard about food deserts -- areas, typically in inner cities, where all you can buy is fast food and convenience-store crap. No specialty food stores, no farmers' markets, no Walmarts or Whole Foods -- apparently the margins on groceries, traditionally razor thin, just don't mitigate in favor of locating in the hood. Other causes exist, including racism, probably, but simple lack of

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-6624967111966914402011-09-15T09:40:00.001-04:002011-09-16T10:41:38.948-04:00

... to see just how, in legal terms, a "terrorist group" is defined. The Tea Baggers are trying really hard to make the cut. They were also lining up to call each other "treasonous," too. And making Rick Perry eat every bite of his words about social security. Hey, here's an idea: what if the Innocence Project looked into every one of those 233 executions that Perry says were all guilty (the

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-58572982864880068812011-09-12T09:46:00.002-04:002011-09-12T10:17:31.684-04:00

... but that's not the right answer. Thank you for playing. "But we have to recognize that not all medicine is evidence-based,” he said. “Some of it is anecdotal, and some doctors use their own evidence. That doesn't necessary mean that it's wrong." Yes, actually it does. Especially when you're talking about this load of criminally negligent nonsense. And then there's this gentleman. He "...

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-86785217275054773312011-09-01T14:14:00.000-04:002011-09-01T14:14:36.460-04:00

A couple of meals, recently, with a distinctly fishy theme. Absolutely beautiful Florida Keys Yellow Snapper, before and after. The after demonstrates a recipe from the huge Dorling-Kindersley Seafood book Linda got me, essentially baked fish in a rustic tomato sauce. Below, vitello tonnato, lifted from Sam Sifton in the Times -- veal eye round covered in a tuna-mayonnaise sauce and served

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-39028983867360461742011-08-29T12:02:00.000-04:002011-08-29T12:02:53.976-04:00

Genetic research is rapidly overturning a lot of preconceived notions about the human background. Three recent changes in what we think about our fellow members of genus Homo include: There were two hominin contemporaries of Homo sapiens (1), not just one. H. neanderthalensis we all know about, but now there appears to be another -- species, subspecies, strain, breed, race? -- that hung out

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-35776469222358978192011-08-26T09:38:00.002-04:002011-08-26T09:38:59.731-04:00

Cooking is a big deal. Makes your brain big (if you're a pre-Sapiens Hominin, that is (or was)).

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-31517249670570572082011-08-23T13:24:00.001-04:002011-08-23T13:28:27.404-04:00

The bad ideas: Cloud computing for your government. Newt Gingrich boosts Six Sigma for your government. Maybe there really is a conspiracy to destroy America from within. And a good analysis of the GOP 2012 field. Couldn't have said it better myself. "When will they ever learn? When will they ... ever learn?" -- P. Seeger

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-77777928604541002172011-08-14T10:15:00.002-04:002011-08-16T13:50:59.781-04:00

The law of conservation of idiots is showing itself as Pawlenty gives up and Perry (apparently) steps in. One candidate with no ideas replaces another. Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless 2011 08 16: And our local political nonentity newcomer, Thad McCotter, did either better or worse than expected in Iowa, depending on your point of view. Since he wasn't invited to take part in the GOP

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-9058259772092771042011-08-05T10:19:00.000-04:002011-08-05T10:19:45.806-04:00

9:00 AM on a bright Friday morning, we drove past the entramce to a development or a very large house or something. It had just been paved with with shiny black asphalt Most organizations would fling a few orange cones around and call it good enough. But in this case, the cones were replaced by a proud American worker, in a tank top, with a beer, and sitting on a cooler. UsA, USA, USA!

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-48775925711310181632011-07-29T22:28:00.006-04:002011-07-29T22:41:45.886-04:00

For a long time, I've been cranky about the limited delivery food in town -- some nights, even your humble food snob Editor is too tired, grumpy, or medicated to cook or drive someplace. Like a good progressive, the answer is to throw money at the problem, but I was living under the impression that essentially all you could get was Pizza or maybe a sub. But I see by the simple means of browsing

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-74258867015196189042011-07-23T20:48:00.001-04:002011-07-23T20:48:24.284-04:00

Sitting at our picnic table on the shores of Black Lake, watching the local gang of mallards getting fed cheesey poofs or something by one of the neighboring campsites - a seagull swooped in to take part, and the ducks mobbed him. He couldn't even take off again.  I've never seen aggressive ducks before.Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-8387527375541763262011-07-23T09:54:00.001-04:002011-07-23T09:54:32.240-04:00

Of course, we know virtually nothing about the Oslo incident yet - It'll be interesting, in fact, to see how long it takes for even an official, let alone an accurate account of motives and scope emerges. But whatever was going on, you gotta remember: this apparent blend of extreme religion and extreme politics isn't an isolated position. It's the far end of a range along which lie gradations of

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-30732050834152409282011-07-21T08:53:00.000-04:002011-07-21T08:53:59.905-04:00

We did our obligatory quick run through the State Street Art Fair last night, and over by Rackham, there was a large, sparsely staffed set of tables from Applegate Farms. They were doing nothing at all that I could see except giving away free samples of their hot dogs, along with brochures and the pin shown here. The translation they were trying for, I assume, is "I love meat," a marketing

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-4331710794497640972011-07-13T18:40:00.002-04:002011-07-14T17:13:00.428-04:00

Ron Paul, the Libertarian wacko from Texas, has announced that he will leave Congress in order to focus on a run for the Presidency, Since he has less chance of being nominated, let alone elected, than I do, that means effectively one fewer incumbent jackass in Washington, giving TX an opportunity to elect a new one. Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless For your entertainment, here's a classic

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-55481424862545675322011-07-10T10:58:00.001-04:002011-07-14T17:04:29.432-04:00

2011 07 14: Yay! The FBI took my advice! Or they're operating independently. Whichever. As a long time believer in the efficacy of kicking a man while he's down, this strikes me as a really great time to open investigations into any potential coziness between Rupert Murdoch's US enterprises (can you say Fox News?) and our own gummint. Whether there's anything to be found is hardly the issue --

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-23596778804429773452011-07-08T12:46:00.001-04:002011-07-08T12:46:24.206-04:00

"It is sufficient that we understand clearly the strategic lack of logic of the fundamental idea of the crusades and that we understand their genesis. The mystical-transcendental trait of mankind is capable of developing a gigantic force, but the ability to direct this force to practical, down-to-earth goals is lacking, and the force is consumed fruitlessly,"Hans Delbruck, writing in 1923, in

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-47700510159960691262011-07-07T09:28:00.000-04:002011-07-07T09:28:08.465-04:00

The Japanese official who resigned after a week for, essentially, being a jerk, claims it's his blood type that made him do it. His wife reminded him of it, he says. Incidentally, I'm a type O. See what the article says the Japanese think about that.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-84020016021294868242011-07-06T14:48:00.000-04:002011-07-06T14:48:53.541-04:00

Back and forth, back and forth. The content-industrial complex against which President Eisenhower warned us continues to trade execs in a pathetic effort to avoid obsolescence.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-10180642942722681692011-07-03T09:01:00.001-04:002011-07-03T09:02:08.919-04:00

... one small casualty has been the video link on Bob Sparrow's web site to some Ann Arbor interviews with Anthony Bourdain. I took a few minutes this AM to poke around the net and came up with one video and a blog entry. In the first one, you'll see fleeting glimpses of Bob and also Mike Monaghan, the Fish Market king. Bourdain eats smelt, disses Food Network Ok ... that appears to be all

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-71474371848342149422011-07-01T15:26:00.000-04:002011-07-01T15:26:00.134-04:00

You go, 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. In yo' face! Some alert readers may recall that I posed this question, some time back: what's the difference between the Taliban and people who voted for Proposition 2? One group is hiding in caves in Afghanistan and the other one should be. Among people who were pleased: the Mayor of Grand Rapids, for some reason. He said, "Wow, wow, wow!" in fact. Not

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-44423069009175770172011-07-01T06:41:00.001-04:002011-07-01T06:41:24.331-04:00

,,, for being a vegetarian,"I'm not a vegatarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants,"  A. Whitney BrownConnected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-1369964318886654892011-06-30T13:44:00.000-04:002011-06-30T13:44:30.563-04:00

I think this guy did most of his Sci-fi reading in the sixties, too. But nice to see someone optimistic about contact, in the good old fashioned Heinlein and Clarke style, instead of the Hawking, "We should hide from aliens" point of view.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-85222477388402772282011-06-28T13:40:00.001-04:002011-06-28T13:41:14.645-04:00

Doing some medieval reading these days, and ran across this view of cultural dispersion. Think Texas, Montana, cow country, the cowboy ethos. Ever wonder where all those Anglo-Saxon whities got the cowboy life style from? Well, pardner, they got it from the Spanish, who brung it with 'em when they conquered Mexico and the Southwest. And where did they bring it from? Spain. And where did

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-62032736771841271932011-06-21T07:52:00.003-04:002011-06-27T08:06:16.191-04:00

Having done some time in the world of software test, I have trained my mind to reject coincidence as an explanation for anything. If something breaks, look first for what changed last. Simple and almost always right. Almost. I guess. Two weeks back, I cancelled a long-standing ATT cell phone account, moving to Verizon. All was well (very well, in fact -- best move I've made in years,

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-68685225010848924602011-06-14T17:47:00.001-04:002011-06-21T09:06:03.128-04:00

The opening of a WalMart in Saline has been reported as impacting the local stores (huge surprise,) which prompts me to repost my shop-locally list, with some additions suggested by others. Wine, Deli, Chocolates Morgan and York 1928 Packard, Ann Arbor 48104 734 769 9770 http://morganandyork.com/ As we say in Ann Arbor, "you know, the old Big Ten Party Store." Repeatedly voted Best Wine

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-74202447384709299482011-06-09T08:05:00.000-04:002011-06-09T08:05:24.869-04:00

Spring food. Clockwise from top right: corn, soaked to steam itself on the grill; Caprese in its easiest form; frogged chicken, barded with bacon, again for the grill; shells with (local Michigan farmed) shrimp and duck sausage, nostrani, asparagus, and oyster mushrooms; Campari and soda with blood orange. This is what I wait for, patiently (more or less) throughout nine or so months of the

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-12843468374236968132011-06-09T06:59:00.000-04:002011-06-09T06:59:45.818-04:00

Another triumph for the free market. I think I'll dig out and re-post the shop-local list, even though the Saline stores weren't on it. Maybe somebody will rant about diapers again.

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-1316801884543107842011-06-06T11:26:00.002-04:002011-06-06T11:42:06.094-04:00

Mercs in the hood. Palmer Woods is hiring private security to patrol and interact with the cops. Of course, at some point the hired soldery will realize their advantage, depose the current leadership, and appoint an emperor of Palmer Woods of their own. Or am I thinking of Rome? Why does the word, "Janissary" come to mind? Oh, here's the next municipality who'll doubtlessly be looking into

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-17432759601017606572011-06-03T14:00:00.000-04:002011-06-03T14:00:04.210-04:00

As a response to the growth of other markets around the area (e.g., Zingerman's Thursdays at the Roadhouse, the Ypsi market, etc.,) the Kerrytown Market is experimenting with a Wednesday afternoon opening, in addition to its Wednesday and Saturday hours. We took a run by, just to see who was there on day one, and the answer was not all that many people, vending or buying. I have the sense that

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-3613880555575809522011-05-31T18:39:00.002-04:002011-05-31T18:39:41.109-04:00

Can you believe this guy?

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-33430390721431760062011-05-31T18:13:00.004-04:002011-06-08T14:21:04.243-04:00

A traction trebuchet is not the giant, dead-horse-flinging, counterbalance-powered siege engine you frequently see pictured. It's smaller and powered by humans hauling on ropes to whip a stone up and out of a sling. I saw a reproduction in action at a Medieval Congress years ago, and recently said, "I bet I could build a scale model of one of them." Judge for yourselves. This is from the

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-46025277574741486042011-05-30T12:40:00.001-04:002011-05-30T12:41:12.213-04:00

I was a bit cranky with the young man in his pickup truck. He'd come into the small, L-shaped parking lot at the west side of Kerrytown the wrong way, the clearly-marked wrong way, and was sitting waiting for a space to open up. This is one thing on a non-market day, but there were four other cars who'd been driven in the right way, also waiting. So I walked over to him, pointed out the error

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-70921140127752122792011-05-30T12:32:00.003-04:002011-05-30T12:48:33.888-04:00

Bowing to what should have been the laughably obvious for decades, Germany says, "No more nukes." Wonder how long that'll last? Commercial fission power is one of those horrible binds that we seem to get ourselves into. Day to day, it's greener than coal -- you don't see smoke and smog and slag heaps and decapitated mountains as evidence of it. But most of our plants were designed with the

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-39843943160754330932011-05-26T11:01:00.001-04:002011-05-26T17:57:42.435-04:00

A funny looking guy, previously unheard of, who says he may run for President in 2012. He's Thaddeus McCotter, a Livonia, Michigan Pol, and has some fairly hard things to say about the Republican Party. Which will be a problem for him, since he's thinking of running as a Republican. Here's a quote: "Because of our inability to get our message and principles across, we do not appear to be a

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-20320094144969344622011-05-26T10:50:00.000-04:002011-05-26T10:50:19.952-04:00

After Ann Arbor approved a summary plan for the Packard Square Georgetown Mall fix, I asked a local merchant what odds he'd give for it coming to fruition. His answer: zero, since the owner has no money. Apparently, he leveraged the damn place to the hilt, back in the pre-crash days. Surprise, surprise, the owner went to the county (another entity with no money) for help, and "...several

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-77397335545277806602011-05-26T10:45:00.003-04:002011-06-07T10:26:57.779-04:00

2011 06 07: update Well, all is not completely well. Blogger still behaves oddly, especially switching between preview and editing. Keep your eyes open, or you may lose typed text. 2011 05 31: update As of this PM, the problem is apparently fixed. Amazing. A vast number of people are hammering their help desk because of being locked out of posting, designing, etc. No info is forthcoming, but

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-21671223740946467182011-05-25T13:58:00.000-04:002011-05-25T13:58:24.429-04:00

First, something I put together in sheer exuberance over the presence of actual fresh produce. Linda named it Shells and Morels, and along with fresh asparagus spears and squash blossoms, plus garlic, oregano, and basil in hot oil, that's what it is. And then, of course, there's breakfast. Clockwise from the top, magnesium sulfate (in the bottle), tacrolimus, prednisone, actigall, ranitidine

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-82037645776044155902011-05-24T08:38:00.008-04:002011-06-07T10:40:27.410-04:00

2011 06 07 update: here's the form-mail response I got from Debbie Stabenow's office, missing the point by a mile and a half.  Tip: don't use one of the pre-canned "topics" that the "send mail to your congressperson" web pages provide.  It just helps them ignore the actual content. Thank you . . .  . . . for contacting me about the role of religion in politics.  I understand your views on

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-80970796572110402622011-05-21T23:17:00.006-04:002011-05-24T08:26:49.876-04:00

Watch the ultimate videographic comment on the end-o-the-world idiots. 2011 5 26 Update: Sigh. 2011 5 22 Update: The failure of the world to end yesterday or for the second coming to occur or for, apparently, anyone to be raptured calls out for explanation(s). As usual, the Wood-Charles News Service is prepared with an unordered list of possibilities: Harold Camping, the radio preacher

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-69586818419069451872011-05-20T07:35:00.000-04:002011-05-20T07:35:47.351-04:00

Told you so. Irrational devotion to a questionable proposition. Tithing. All that's missing is violent evangelism, and ... well, you saw the physiotype that was promoted in those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. Not exactly your Seljuk Turk or Moro Tribesman, now was he?

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-46078350090073423142011-05-19T10:14:00.000-04:002011-05-19T10:14:16.608-04:00

Over the years since we first heard his amusing name -- like something out of Doctor Seuss -- someone in the media or the pundit class has been around to assert that whatever else you might think of Newt Gingrich, he's really smart. And over all those years, I have been completely unable to figure out why. As John Cleese says in the cheese shop sketch, "Explain, pray, the logic underlying that

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-45174544320193843622011-05-18T15:15:00.001-04:002011-05-18T15:19:19.418-04:00

... to the list of rogue Detroit-area politicians. Courtney Owens is a dapper Inkster city councilman who, like many riders, appears to believe that a motorcycle is actually faster and better handling than a police car. The only other facts you need, beyond what's covered in the article, are a) that Inkster is a small Detroit suburb, uglier and more desperately blighted than Detroit, even,

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-19704671406546804082011-05-18T14:39:00.002-04:002011-05-18T15:16:01.833-04:00

... today, since I just came back from one of my favorite procedures, a bone marrow biopsy, in which they ram a needle into one or another of the bones in your pelvis and aspirate (that's a medical term for "suck") out some marrow. Sedation or no sedation, the whole process sucks, in my (by now well-experienced) opinion. So all I have to say today is to note for you, in case you missed it, John

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-63864003178081892552011-05-15T18:55:00.004-04:002011-05-18T15:06:38.823-04:00

Mike Huckabee has decided not to run for President in 2012. He's apparently doing well enough in the private sector that he chooses not to be indicted for any of the various things that would certainly be identified by the press if he did run put his family through the stress of proving that he was actually born in the US and not in a cave in the Pakistan / Afghanistan border area a long and

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-55576747164784664142011-05-15T12:45:00.000-04:002011-05-15T12:45:42.435-04:00

When I met with Governor Rick Snyder shortly after his election, he asked for my recommendations on the reform of Michigan's tax structure. Now that the legislature has passed the version he presented (more or less -- they dicked around with it a bit,) I can reveal the suggestions I made, which were not included in the current bill. Snyder has promised that if the economy of the state doesn't

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-16060430309563208442011-05-09T11:53:00.000-04:002011-05-09T11:53:33.442-04:00

Werner Herzog's 3D chronicle of the paleolithic art in Chauvet cave is worth seeing, simply because it's as close as you're going to get to the art itself. I do not, personally, believe it's all 30,000 years old. The set of four horse heads imposed upon one another looks far newer -- but other images, yeah, I can believe. Some of the work almost looks like a sketch pad, with the artist

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-72441164790022959212011-05-06T20:20:00.000-04:002011-05-06T20:20:49.751-04:00

But never fear, Ann Arbor's prime spot for grease is back on line today, according to Annarbor.com. TFS is, of course, the Parthenon Restaurant, one of the last great Greek artery-clogging establishments left in downtown A2. Along with a few other places, we used to go there on Friday nights, after the Old Town, simply because you could always walk in with a crowd and get seated -- I don't

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-88944157594536010592011-05-03T13:40:00.001-04:002011-05-09T12:33:23.760-04:00

This weekend, we hope to see Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, filmed under extreme conditions within Chauvet cave. Besides the remarkable images themselves there is the equally remarkable claim that they are in the realm of 30,000 years old, twice the age of other dated cave paintings. This is being hotly disputed by at least one expert who says, in effect, "no they ain't!" He

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-40221360491161196382011-05-02T14:28:00.013-04:002011-05-06T20:32:31.527-04:00

Since Thursday, April 28th, we have seen: The long-anticipated birth of my grandson, Orion James The unexpected death of an old, old college friend of mine The rendering for hog fat of Donald Trump at the White House Correspondent's Dinner Followed by an encore: the long-anticipated death of Osama Bin Laden Mixed emotions would seem to be the order of the day. Orion James is (as far as pictures

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-1042345491965570532011-04-26T09:17:00.001-04:002011-04-26T09:18:23.062-04:00

Dispelling the myth that midwesterners, outdoorspersons, and those-who-need-to-deceive-ducks are anti-literate, the 2011 Cabela's Camping catalog I've just received contains one entire page of books. They include: Lovin' Dutch Ovens Cookbook Beer-can Chicken Cookbook A Texas Treasury of Dutch Oven Cooking The All-American Cowboy Cookbook Barbecue, Biscuits, and Beans Cookbook John McLemore's "

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2809051363880721689.post-13688448068748613912011-04-23T15:13:00.001-04:002011-04-23T15:16:33.843-04:00

Unlike most of you whippersnappers, I can remember when this paragraph, taken from a piece by Jared Spurbeck in Yahoo's contributor network, would have had the xxxs replaced by the word "Microsoft" or even "IBM." xxx has almost $60 billion just sitting in the bank. Consider that, before voting for politicians who offer tax cuts for the wealthy so that companies like it will "create jobs." But

J. Francis McLuggagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04094626591141439224noreply@blogger.com0