Regarding John Hockenberry

NPR's John Hockenberry is accused of sexual harassment. Two issues: one, he's paralyzed from the waist down so there is no physical threat that can be associated with the charges. Not that that would excuse boorish behavior  Second, from the sample that was read on the radio, the accusation stems from benign emails he sent asking a woman out on a date. Unless there's more, how is this charge be taken seriously?

Sounds Pretty Spot On

Healthy adult Bay Viewer:  *I* don't drive a car.  I choose to take the bus, or my bike,  even in subzero temperatures.  *I* care about the environment. 

Everyone who hears it: So you're a drunk and the state pulled your license. Be proud. Hope you didn't kill someone first,  you f'ing  lush.

Jim Nabors

RIP Jim Nabors. He died today at age 87.

Stunning News from NBC

NBC has fired longtime Today show host Matt Lauer for inappropriate workplace behavior.  Wow.

Why Cokie?

Cokie Roberts, longtime ABC reporter, said it was well known among female reporters that it was dangerous for a woman to get in an elevator alone with some members of Congress (alluding to Conyers and Franken, if her comment related to the conversation.) Uh. . . You are REPORTERS. Why did you choose to suppress that story??

Grrrrr

By their own admission,  our mortgage company mistakenly deleted records of our homeowner's insurance coverage,  resulting in a pissy little letter that they have since apologized for sending.  None-the-less I am spending part of my morning having to obtain proof of my policy so they can correct their own mistake.

Small Business Saturday

Much as I would have loved supporting Small Business Saturday here in Bay View, none of the kid's wish lists include twenty dollar burgers or pot grinders. So I took LuLu to Big Lots to spend some of my dough.

100 Years On, We Remember

A Post from the Milwaukee Police Department: 

NINE OFFICERS, TWO CITIZENS KILLED IN STATION BOMBING

The Milwaukee Police Department never forgets those members who paid the ultimate price in service to the community. Today we honor the members killed November 24, 1917.

Prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, the single deadliest event in national law enforcement history occurred in Milwaukee on November 24, 1917, when nine officers and two citizens were killed in a bomb blast. The bomb exploded inside the assembly of the Central Police Station at Oneida Street and Broadway. Police were not the intended target.

The 20-pound bomb was discovered in a passageway between the Italian Evangelical Church located at 355 North Van Buren Street and the neighboring mission house by the 10-year old daughter of the church cleaning lady Saturday morning. In the evening, a young man named Sam Mazzone, a member of the church and an unnamed man, brought the device to the police station.

Station Keeper Henry Deckert took the device from the young men and brought it to the lieutenant’s office and then into the assembly. A number of detectives who had just answered to roll call were in the room. Several of them were examining the infernal device when its hell wand fury was unleashed.

Of the ten officers who were in the police station assembly room at the time of the explosion, eight were killed and two were injured. The names of the eight men killed are: Detective Stephen H. Stecher, Detective Charles Seehawer, Detective David O’Brien, Detective Albert Templin, Detective Paul Weiler, Detective Fred W. Kaiser, Detective Frank Caswin and Station Keeper Henry Deckert.

Injured were Detective Louis Hartman and Detective Herman Bergin.

A watch on one of the men stopped at 7:57 p.m.

Above the assembly was the operator’s room where Operator Edward Spindler was killed by shrapnel blasting through the floor. Killed near the entrance were citizens Catherine Walker, who was making a complaint in another matter, and an unidentified Italian man who, along with another young man that was uninjured, brought the infernal device to the station. In the Lieutenant’s office, off the assembly, were Lt. Robert Flood and Detective Bart Maloney. Both escaped injury. Also uninjured were the eighteen prisoners in the cell room.

It was believed that the bomb was placed at the church by sympathizers of the anarchists who were arrested in connection with the Bay View riot of September 9th, 1917. An Italian gang attempted to disrupt a patriotic rally led by the pastor of the church. The anarchists had been threatening the group when one man pulled a revolver and shot at a detective. Another detective drew his weapon and killed the man. Then several members of the gang drew guns and began firing. In the end two alleged anarchists were killed and five persons injured, including two detectives.

We remember.

A Radiator/pot warmer (found on the internet; not my pic)

This is neat

Thanksgiving 2017

Thanksgiving brunch at Old Country Buffet went well - the food was unusually good, the place clean, the staff courteous. Alas, on the way in Lisa bumped someone and, not seeing her with her man, he started mouthing off. So I got in his face and twas a bit awkward. Equally awkward: when the kids bickered at the table I lost my cool and said I was abandoning the family and moving up north. That venting did not sit well with the mother-in-law. But percentage wise, both scenes were 06% of the meal, and overall it was a hit.

Thanksgiving dinner was at my parent's place.  They said to be there by 3 with mashed potatoes and deviled eggs (Lauren peeled 10lb of potatoes. LuLu mashed them and boiled the eggs). But I knew they run late,  so we arrived at four. Even so it was an additional two hour wait for the dinner (!) but to my surprise the kids largely got along and the wait passed peacefully and, in fact,  was rather relaxing and enjoyable.  Good vittles in the end too!

Happy Death Day

I just watched this with Lisa . Groundhog Day but with murder. This was a hoot - fun, chill, and a classic in the making. See it!!

The Season Has Begun!

Today we received our first Christmas Card of the season, courtesy of Sybil W! Just an hour before that Lisa and I were discussing the very thing! Thank you Sybil!

Good Riddance

Charles Manson has died at 83.

Justice League

A very good movie,  IMO, and bordering on great when it wasn't involved in cosmic fisticuffs.  Affleck is the perfect Batman,  like it or not,  and thank Poseidon we finally have an Aquaman that doesn't look and act like he enjoys the spandex a little too much.  Spoilers prevent me from saying more,  but it looks like Zach Snyder finally got it right.

Please Help

Entourage's daughter Meadow has run away. If you see her, or have any information, please contact her family or us. 

Stop Nuffliying the Horror

Enough with calling everything  "sexual assault." It seeks to nullify the horror of rape. I was watching a crime show where a victim was abducted,  tortured,  "sexually assaulted", and killed.  She was not,  I presume, merely groped on the subway.  Words have meaning,  and we are letting that power be diluted.

My Thoughts

If you objected to Bill Clinton using an intern as a humidor and felt the known accusations of forcible rape in his past precluded both his place in office and your respect,  I'm cool with you despising Trump's locker room talk.  (seriously).

By the way, in all this furor over sexual harrassment, why has no one brought up the Rolling Stone interview where Jon Stewart said that when Bill Clinton was a guest on his show he zeroed in on an attractive intern and Stewart had to order his staff to keep Bill busy and away from her? Stewart treated the anecdote as LOL, but he's no better than every other Hollywood enabler.

Thanks Sis!

Thanks to my sister Katie the youngest three and Lisa got to see a promo showing of The Man Who Invented Christmas!

Fun with Smley at the Theater

Wow. And here in Milwaukee!

1.85 million

TrainFest 2017

Sunday Smiley and I went on our annual trip to Trainfest with my friend Tracy and his son. It's not my cuppa, but it has a comforting familarity and the company is good. I'm glad it's become tradition.

A Dream

Last night I dreamt that we took possession of my paternal grandparents' home, fully furnished. When Lisa and I toured it it was huge, a product of the dream, but the whole night I was keeping quiet about the fact that the next day was a mandatory bar exam (which I went to on a few hours sleep). 

Then I was at an outdoor lumber yard and involved in something shady, and spent part of the dream in a police interview. Don't worry, I ain't no 🐀. 

Then back to a dinner party at our "new" house, where I confronted my Dad's friend Jim, absent forty years, about his long silence. In the dream he claimed to be the mayor of Mequon and we discussed a predicted demise of Toys R Us.

On Takei

You can't take a media-approved "listen and believe" approach to sexual harassment claims then decide to abandon that stance when the target doesn't suit you (George Takei.) I'm sure 80% of the complaints coming out about Hollywood are true, but it's that 20% that should worry you. At some point this hysteria must cede to the standards of a civil or criminal courtroom, or else we surrender both our rights and our conscience.

Honestly.

WTH Zuck!

Facebook put an anti-Semitic sponsored ad in my feed (alleging Jews tricked us into WWI.) Get your damn act together Zuck.