Archive for March, 2005

Once again I give you Steve Grant…

Wednesday, March 30th, 2005

This week’s Permanent Damage asks the questions I’ve been wondering about: why aren’t (and haven’t) the Democrats acting like they stand for something?
Scroll down in this week’s column until you reach the With Democrats Like These header:
Since losing the election and seats in both the Senate and the House, the Democrats have been on the [...]

Eostre Traditions

Tuesday, March 29th, 2005

We have a new Easter (or Eostre if you prefer) tradition in the McLaren household. Since we’re mostly areligious (i.e. I’m a die hard athiest and Trish is agnostic) the traditions have nothing to do with chocolate jesus or egg-laying bunnies or anything.
Our new tradition for this weekend is Sunday Brunch with the traditional Easter [...]

End of an era

Saturday, March 26th, 2005

I mentioned in my maudlin St. Patrick’s Day post that I had reason to believe that things would be very different next year.
Well, the cat is out of the bag.

Hey kids: Science!

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Let’s do a little mini-roundup on the theme of science.
Let’s start with something that I want to see on CSI (and mean real CSI–not CSI:Orange Filter or CSI:Blue Filter):
Researchers develop fingerprint detection technology


MXRF actually detects the sodium, potassium and chlorine elements present in those salts, as well as many other elements, if they are present. [...]

What’s even more retro-focussed than Conservative?

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

I know I said I wasn’t going to say anything about this, but damn…
Canada’s Conservatives Show Deep Cracks On Gay Marriage


Going into the weekend convention in Montreal Harper tried to show a unified party for a national TV audience. It was not to be. Former Alliance members forced public debate on issues that Harper [...]

Possibly not worth dying for…

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Note to self: bring own beer supply on next flight.
Death of airline passenger subdued by other passengers probed - Mar 21, 2005
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are investigating the death of a man who was subdued by several fellow airline passengers after he became disruptive on a New York-bound flight, a spokesman said Sunday.
William Lee [...]

Deus vult?

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2005

Well, time for me to blow off some steam that has been building up at the increasing tide of ridiculous religiously-motivated tomfoolery.
I’m not going to write anything about Terri Schiavo and Bush’s religio-pandering, except to note the potentially pleasing fact that apparently the Administration has actually pissed the people off. (Well, maybe one thing–if you [...]

Danger High Voltage Slacks

Monday, March 21st, 2005

I love Tom Waits. Old hipster Beat Waits, and new batshit-building-instruments-out-of-farm-equipment Waits–I love it all. I can have my heart ripped out by San Diego Serenade just as easily as by The House Where Nobody Lives. I think I’d title my autobiography “You Don’t Meet Nice Girls In Coffee Shops”–or at least in my mental [...]

We live in science fiction

Monday, March 21st, 2005

I keep seeing little things that remind me that we are in fact living in the future (despite the best attempts by the Republicans and Stephen Harper, et. al., to drag us kicking and screaming back into the Dark Ages–but more on that later).
For example, we can now apparently make concrete that sucks the carbon [...]

London Characters And Crooks

Monday, March 21st, 2005

I spent some time this weekend rereading Henry Mayhew’s London Characters And Crooks. Mayhew was a reporter in the 19th century who had something of a specialization in writing about the seedier parts of London life. London Characters And Crooks is a work that covers Mayhew’s time among the criminal and entertaining. Googling Mayew will [...]

Pointing to CommonBits

Friday, March 18th, 2005

So, let’s take a moment to talk about CommonBits. What, you may be asking yourself, is CommonBits?
Well, let’s pinch the answer straight from the site:
What is CommonBits?
CommonBits is a free community directory of progressive political media that anyone can contribute to.
Search for audio, video, photos, reports, transcripts and other files in the directory.
Submit links and [...]

The Parting Glass

Friday, March 18th, 2005

One last St. Patrick’s Day themed post:
The Parting Glass
The Parting Glass is a resource page for fans interested in the literary, historical, political, and personal references found in the lyrics of the Pogues and of the related projects of the band’s members. It’s also got some other goodies connected to the Pogues.

“I never bin lost..”

Friday, March 18th, 2005

So, while I’m talking about my Minneapolis friends, let’s shine the spotlight on Adam Stemple. (Those of you not reading this in an RSS aggregator will notice I’ve added a link to Adam’s new web site to the link list on the right–head over there and give him some love.)
In addition to his myriad musical [...]

St. Patrick’s Day

Thursday, March 17th, 2005

So, it’s St. Patrick’s Day and I’m not in Minneapolis.
This is the second year in a row that’s happened, after more than a decade of seeing the Boiled In Lead show at First Avenue every year. And, for reasons which I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention, I suspect that things may be very [...]

Wine Tasting (Part I)

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

Last weekend I lead a wine tasting for people from Trish’s work. 18 people, and 8 different wines.
We’ve done this before with people from her office, and most of the people this time were repeats.
Since we’ve done this before we decided to get away from the more common varieties and try to illustrate some interesting [...]