Fog in the woods.

Today, in Blue Mounds, we walked 7 miles on what is a mountain bike trail.

“I, as a New York City police officer, request that Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito refrain from attending my funeral services..."

"... in the event that I am killed in the line of duty... I believe that their attendance at the funeral of a fallen New York City police officer is an insult to that officer’s memory and sacrifice."

"It's OK when SP makes fun of God, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha, etc...."

"... but reference a rock star who blew his brains out 20 years ago and everyone goes crazy..."

"To you listeners, its another murder mystery, crime drama, another episode of CSI."

"You weren't there to see your mom crying every night, having a heartattck when she got the new that the body was found, and going to court almost everyday for a year seeing your mom weeping,crying and fainting. You don't know what we went through. Especially to those who are demanding our family response and having a meetup... you guys are disgusting. SHame on you. I pray that you don't have to go through what we went through and have your story blasted to 5mil listeners."

From "I am Hae's brother - Do not AMA."

Via "Serial nears its end, but the Reddit detectives keep working/Podcast’s runaway success has inspired online commenters to carry out their own investigations – a phenomenon which at last seems to have been acknowledged by the show."

"That reminds me of a joke about a young man, a whorehouse, a tree and a squirrel. You don't suppose the young man was Prince...."

"Anyway, I came here to use your Amazon portal for important stuff, and more time wasting..."

Said Tim in Vermont (in the previous post).

Thanks for using the Amazon Portal!

The Fruit Formerly Known As Apple.

AND: As Meade points out in the comments, the image from the Super Bowl is more apt:



Something about the directionality of the phallic extension.

How to sue Bill Cosby long after the statute of limitations has barred your claim for sexual assault.

Have him call you a liar for accusing him of sexual assault.

Former model Tamara Green... sued Cosby for defamation yesterday in the U.S. District Court in Springfield....

“It’s an innovative legal method to do this, and it’s perfectly proper under defamation law,” said Terry Gross, a defamation attorney not involved in the suit. “The fact that Cosby said she was lying gave her an opportunity to bring a suit that would normally be barred.”...

Cosby, of course, could turn around and countersue Green for defamation. But... “If Cosby was to bring a defamation suit against this woman, it would open him up to discovery about any other instance where it was alleged that he was involved in sexual abuse,” Gross said.

St. Patrick's Cathedral washed clean for the first time in decades.

"The venerable house of worship unveiled a brighter new pressure-washed Fifth Avenue facade on Friday — tearing down the scaffolding that masked it for more than two years."

The exterior was last cleaned in 1978 with a water solution — but the results were “not as dramatic” because it wasn’t pressure-washed, [Kate Monaghan, a spokeswoman for St. Pat’s].

After my first year of law school, I had a job in a law office in Rockefeller Center with windows at the level of the cathedral towers. Throughout the summer of 1979, I looked up from my work and gazed at the men on scaffolding washing the cathedral. How strange to see the before-and-after photographs in the news today! The "after" picture is just like the cathedral I saw back then.

And that new "before" picture? What a profound depiction of the passage of time in my life! It says: That's you, now. (And the "after" picture — years of grime removed — represents me at 28.)

IN THE COMMENTS: Paco Wové said: "Amazing how much cleaner the surrounding buildings got."

I said: "Good eye, Paco." And: "now I feel pretty!"

I'm skeptical (yet amused). [UPDATE: It's real!]

An ice-cold whisky dispenser, sometimes found in offices. (1950s) pic.twitter.com/J2vkEniVRT
— Old Pics Archive (@oldpicsarchive) December 12, 2014

Texas state legislator files a bill prohibiting schools from punishing students who engage in pretend gun play.

"Rep. Ryan Guillen... said he filed the bill after a second- grader in suburban Maryland was suspended for two days in March 2013 for chewing his Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun."

"Texas students shouldn't lose instruction time for holding gun-shaped Pop-Tart snacks at school," said Guillen. "This bill will fix this."

This bill will fix this. That's what they always say. This will fix that. There's a problem, so accept the solution I have right here. Don't look at my solution and imagine new problems. Just look at the problem, the terrible problem, the thing that happened that one time in Maryland...

When a house deserves the death penalty.

"The overwhelming response we got from the survey is just to have the land taken over by woodland... to raze the house and have nothing there."

Last sentence of "Newtown Weighs What to Do With Adam Lanza’s Home."

"There's another national anthem playing/Not the one you cheer/At the ball park."

"It's the other national anthem, saying/If you want to hear/It says, 'Bullshit!'"



A song lyric, from the musical we saw last night.

(2 more performances, tonight and tomorrow. Buy tickets here.)

ADDED: As I was playing the song at the link — "Another National Anthem" from "Assassins" — Meade said: "What is that, 'South Park'?" And he saw the play last night! I said, "Yeah, it does sound like 'South Park.' Now you know where 'South Park' gets its inspiration.'"

AND: From a review in yesterday's NYT of a production of "Assassins" in London:

Some are fired by political ideals, like the magnetic John Wilkes Booth... the naïve anarchist Leon Czolgosz... the Depression-era firebrand Giuseppe Zangara... and the failed Communist Lee Harvey Oswald... taunted into taking his fatal shots by the commanding ghost of Booth.

Others are narcotized by the cult of celebrity: the sniveling John Hinckley... clutching his tattered photo of Jodie Foster as if it were a religious relic, or the sweat-begrimed Samuel Byck... ranting with grim earnestness into the tape recorder hanging around his neck, composing an urgent bulletin for Leonard Bernstein. (A reeling snatch of “America,” from “West Side Story,” is heard.)

And then there are the lost souls like Charles Guiteau... outraged when he was denied a job at the White House of President James A. Garfield; Lynette Fromme, a.k.a. Squeaky, a frail flower child...  whose perorations on Charles Manson are delivered with the moist-eyed innocence of a teenager mooning over a boy-band member; and her companion in delusion, the much-married, dithery and unhinged Sara Jane Moore....

"We measure our breasts in cups. We pour ourselves into dresses. Men drink us in, tall glasses that we are."

"We spill our secrets and intoxicate with our wit. This parlance is often obtuse, but what it conveys is clear as crystal: whatever pockets of fluid and fatty tissue comprise the female body are liminal and liquid, and they are for others' consumption. Especially our jugs."

From "Myth Busts: The Enduring Legacy of Breast-Shaped Glassware/No, that glass probably wasn't modeled on Marie Antoinette's assets. But that doesn't mean the story doesn't matter.."

"Why is it OK for Sesame Street—a children's show, for goodness' sake—to make this kind of jest, but not Best Buy?"

"Well, even though Sesame Street is a business, it's also a nonprofit with plenty of accrued good faith and a long history of engaging in cultural commentary. Best Buy is a big company that sells electronics and exists to make money."

"A Designer’s Guide to Gift Giving."

"Identifying an unknown need requires curiosity and empathy — just like design research."

What do they value? Why? Look for patterns in the stuff they buy or own — what are they not getting for themselves? What will their experience be like once they have this gift? Can you imagine and feel how enriched their life will be once they have it?

"Charming guy charms reporter, later writes letter explaining he was trying to not be charming lest he be accused of trying to charm reporter."

A 1-sentence summary of the new episode of "Serial," which people seem to be getting tired of.

BUT:

In a week that has resurfaced the Rolling Stone UVA story and condemnations of reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely who appeared to fudge her handling of sexual-assault allegations, [Sarah] Koenig shows us that she’s a journalist, first and foremost. A story can be sensational by nature, and can be a source of intrigue, but in the end, there are real costs. There are humans involved, with emotions and livelihoods and reputations. It's a journalist's frighteningly awesome job to collect these stories and tell them without bias, insofar as that’s possible. We're reminded that this sometimes means a story entails just plain, dry facts.