Thanks, Ocker.
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Delightful!

The Post Intelligencer weather staff is apparently downright giddy with spring. I've never seen them use the word 'delightful' before.

TODAY		FRIDAY		SATURDAY		SUNDAY		MONDAY
A shower this afternoon		A shower in the morning		Mostly sunny and pleasant		Delightful with sunshine		Partial sunshine
HI: 60° LO: 46°		HI: 54° LO: 40°		HI: 60° LO: 42°		HI: 66° LO: 46°		HI: 64° LO: 46°

Daddy's got it goin' on!

This is a mini-van I was behind in SoDo the other day.
Love the two decals - a clown and two li'l babies. And then there's the antenna with the naked stripper chick on it.
First day of school: "And what's your daddy, Amber?"
"My daddy's a playah."
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Bone of Boeing

Did anyone else hear the NPR coverage of China's president Hu visiting the northwest? After meeting with regional business leaders, he was rushed to surgery to have their noses removed from his upper GI tract.

It was embarrassing.

If there is an ass-kissing bone, Boeing's Alan Mullaly broke it today. Compound fracture with torn ligaments.

Boeing very recently got a $3 billion order for aircraft from China, and the Chinese are making noise about moving from an 80 aircraft order to a 2,000 aircraft order over the next 15 years. This is patently absurd, but it was enough to get Alan writhing on his belly as if he were a person who makes millions in bonuses.

Oh, wait. He does make millions in bonuses.

Howard Schultz of Starbucks was just a few strokes shy of a happy ending for Hu, but also weighed in as a person who has given up any real shred of self respect. I'm sure he was thinking, "hey - we have shade grown coffee. Haven't we done enough for the world already?"

Free Tibet. Free speech. Free noodles. Free your currency. ($200 billion trade imbalance with the US.) Free something. Show a backbone, people.

Sonics - why are we listening?

The Seattle SuperSonics are holding the city to ransom right now. Pay $200 million for renovations to the Arena, or we're leaving.

The latest round came out today: commit to paying the $200 mil in the next 12 days, or we're gone.

You know what? Get the hell out of town. Go away. Continue your worst-ever losing streak somewhere else.

The Arena was renovated at your command less than ten years ago. This city is so desperately in need of repairs elsewhere, sports funding should be right up there with strip clubs (another topic this city and city council seem to spend WAY too much time talking about).

I don't know shit about sports. But I know some other things - one of which is this: negotiate from a place of strength. The Sonics have a rotten record, they have numerous players in deep, hot shit with the law, and they got the aforementioned renovation a few years back.

My advice: shut up, get some Mormons on the team, win some games, then come back and hold a gun to our head.

Now if you'll excuse us, we're going to go fix the viaduct and the schools now. But thanks for calling.

More CSI San Andreas

This from the police blotter of the hometown paper, the Calaveras Enterprise.




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"It takes a smart guy to play a dumb one." -Laurence Tureaud

When I was about 25 I was on a business trip in Toronto. I was going through the airport on my way home, and there was a big guy wearing ragged, garish weight lifter pants (remember those?), a big baggy coat with a hood, pushing a shopping cart filled to overflowing with an assortment of random crap.

I looked at this guy shuffling along, his cart with clothes and paper bags, a piece of PVC plumbing, stuffed animals. I remember thinking how different Canada was. Here was a homeless guy just hanging around the Toronto airport concourse. Minding his own business, maybe just staying warm.

A while later I got on my flight. Passing through first class on my way back to the more compact seats, I found this guy. The same guy. In first class. He was in one seat, and a bunch of the crap from the shopping cart was in the seat next to him.

Eventually curiousity won, and I went back and talked to a flight attendant - about the guy and his stuff in the other seat. "He paid for two seats" she told me. "It's Mr. T."

And that's what I get for pityin' the fool.