I should also say that I'm not all that hooked into the community grapevine, nor am I remotely observant: I noticed the mural last weekend, but managed to walk past the building for three days without registering that it was gone (look, mornings going to work I'm pretty stuck inside my own head). I didn't know about this until I saw a link somewhere last night.
And of course, "Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall down an open manhole cover and die." Police misconduct obviously gets much worse than this -- I'm disproportionately angry because they're messing with my stuff. I walk past that wall, I get pants altered at that drycleaner, and I'm personally offended that they're censoring an artist who's been making my mornings more pleasant for years, and frightening a businesswoman I deal with. The fact that police misconduct is affecting me, however, probably isn't the best measure of how severe it is objectively.
No, that's pretty fucking outrageous, I'd be pretty upset by it too - and I am, albeit without the added personal dimension to it. I'd suggest the next mural be a group portrait featuring Eleanor Bumpurs, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, et al.
Is that insane "Martyrs of Belfast" or whatever it was mural still up in East Harlem? It was certainly up, unmolested, for a couple decades.
Dunno -- I'm not really familiar with it, but who's a pro-IRA statement going to offend in NYC?
5: Right. I was just sniffing around the analogy ban.
The police hate the hot-stepper!
There are still pro-IRA murals all over Belfast. They take the tourists to gawp at them.
In any event, I take it all back. The mural was painted in 2001! I just assumed it had to date to the 80s. That's just nuts.
(I only ever saw it while trying to get to the Triboro from 3d Ave.)
the landlord has told him that future murals have to be cleared by the NYPD, because the landlord doesn't want trouble with the police.
But I thought the supreme court had roundly rejected prior restraint? Is everything Walter Sobchak taught me a lie?
10: No, the preferred nomenclature really is "Asian-American," nosflow.
featuring Eleanor Bumpurs, Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, et al.
Diallo doesn't deserve to get lumped in with those two. Bumpurs was a huge batshit crazy woman waving around a very large knife who was only shot after attempts to subdue her with non lethal means had failed and an officer was on the verge of getting stabbed (this was pre taser times). The Bell verdict from Justice Cooperman indicates just how reliable the Bell group was with their accounts. The guy in the back seat decided for some reason that it would be a good idea to get up on the stand and just concoct a story out of whole cloth about how he was shot in the back while running away down the street.
Say what you like about the IRA, but it's an ethos.
12: What on earth does one witness the judge didn't believe have to do with whether the police were right to shoot an unarmed man who hadn't done anything criminal trying to get away from them? The cops were acquitted of criminal conduct (which is probably right, I'd agree that they probably killed Bell out of incompetence rather than malice), but the fact that the cops involved were fired tells you what the NYPD thought of their actions. (Which, kudos to the NYPD.)
And yes, Eleanor Bumpurs was a huge batshit crazy woman. She was 66 years old, 275 pounds (according to wikipedia), and had a whole lot of health problems, and she was in her apartment not endangering anyone until the police showed up. Not being able to handle a fat old woman, however crazy, without killing her, under circumstances that weren't an immediate emergency before the police got involved, suggests that the situation was managed poorly. (Now, that's thirty years ago, and I'm not blaming today's NYPD for it. But it's still an incident to be ashamed of.)
There's also anti-IRA murals all over Belfast. An important part of British working class culture etc etc. (If I had the guts for it I'd write the book that ties them, football imagery, and trade union banners together. But I can't face the looking involved.)
It would be nice for an outcome here that's more than just an apology? The NYPD have to help the guy to paint whatever he likes on the wall again or wevs.
This kind of thing baffles me. Even assuming the police only care about their own self interest, what in the world could make them think that doing this would reduce the number of people who see the mural, or anti-police sentiment? Almost no one outside of that neighborhood would have seen this otherwise.
But I can't face the looking involved.
No. I'm sure you can do something better. Also, those aren't anti-IRA murals so much as pro-UDF, which is subtly different, and much closer to the football thing.
18. But the kind of people who rise to the top in authoritarian organisations do this (and the police are going to be a relatively authoritarian organisation even when they're the people's militia in Natilo's anarchist free association). I think it's a form of keeping on digging when you're in a hole - you can tell them till you're blue in the face to leave it and it'll go away, but they respond to the least provocation as predictably as night follows day. Ultimately this is why people don't trust the gubmint. The idea of a light tough is entirely alien to them.
And don't get me started on "Community Leaders", a breed for whom the expression, "Who died and made you king?" was probably invented.
Like other groups whose powers depends largely on public perceptions of their power, police are prone to developing enormous and fragile egos. The NYPD is such a baby.
Interesting to watch the hegemony revert back to dominance.
But watching Heimat last night, I noted that first they came for the commonists. Zip my lips, bye-bye.
15 and 16:
I don't think the Bell incident was handled well but getting into drunken altercations and then intimating you're going to get a gun is a very different scenario from Diallo who was legitimately just standing around minding his own business. I'm not sure how Bumpurs could have been handled differently. She was being evicted and had made prior threats to housing authority people. They tried going in with the non lethal equipment (plastic shields, standoff tool, etc.) and the situation went to hell.
I sounds like no one involved is really up for causing more trouble, but they really should litigate this. Get the ACLU involved.
She was being evicted and had made prior threats to housing authority people.
Did she have anywhere to go? Is this another case where the underlying cause is our failure to care for the mentally ill?
Did she have anywhere to go?
The wiki article says supposedly it was part of a plan to have her committed. I'm not sure on that aspect, I've only heard of it as a type of case where a taser would have been useful.
Get the ACLU involved.
And nominate the NYPD for a Jefferson Muzzle!
intimating you're going to get a gun
This is really not well established -- the cops who shot him said that he threatened to go get a gun. No one else did. He didn't have a gun, any altercation was verbal, and he was trying to leave when they killed him.
On the Bumpurs thing: I wasn't there, you weren't there. But "Despite the riot shield, I didn't have any way to get away from the crazy old lady with the knife without killing her," is not impossible, but it's not immediately convincing.
The whole question of how to create public order in a society where there is no government/monopoly on violence is certainly a fraught one. Personally, I would tend to lead toward the idea that no organization for violence would be preferable. But then you have to deal with the occasional lynch mob forming. If we were talking, however, about a society which had made significant strides towards eliminating historically oppressive institutions and ideologies, AND one which had come through some kind of revolutionary period with a means of democratizing the use of violence, I am confident that people could create structures, rather than organizations, which would severely inhibit the ability of small groups to accumulate that much power over others. If we didn't, then we'd just be back here where we started, but with one more example of how not to do it.
Less theoretically, the stuff that went down this week in the PNW is pretty chilling to freedom of speech and freedom of association as well. Once again, grand juries, which were historically (allegedly) created as a check on prosecutorial authority, are being used as tools of state repression in and of themselves. While I realize that many of you are ambivalent about expressing support for people who engage in self-defense or property destruction during political protests, I think there is a strong case to be made here that the level of government response seen recently is massively disproportionate to the annoyances that some of the people who claim the same ideologies as I do may or may not have committed.
On the other hand, it is the case that when we see lynch mobs forming historically, it's usually because there IS a police force, which is acting in a way that the mob (or indeed, a majority of the community) feels is undemocratic and unjust. So perhaps a directly democratic method of public order keeping would engender fewer cases of mob violence.
the cops who shot him said that he threatened to go get a gun. No one else did.
The reason I think that he likely said it is that Guzman (Bell's friend who supposedly threatened to get a gun) testified that the other party also intimated he had a gun and that he (Guzman) believed him.
"Despite the riot shield, I didn't have any way to get away from the crazy old lady with the knife without killing her," is not impossible, but it's not immediately convincing.
Supposedly one of the guys went down. Kind of hard to back off if you've lost your footing.
The police commissioner is claiming that they painted over the mural at the behest of unidentified community leaders supporting him in email.
This story has popped up a lot in my fb feed, folks in the neighborhood. I guess I find it pretty unsurprising.
Just as likely that the police (who'd been drinking in service of maintaining their cover) lost track of who'd made the threat. The police testifying here, in my lay evaluation as well as in the more informed evaluation of the department who fired them, were a bunch of fuckups trying to excuse the fucked-up mistakes they made: I really don't see why you'd treat their story as authoritative as against the unarmed citizen they'd shot.
Mistakes happen, and some of them are tragic -- like I said above, the Bell shooting sounds more like incompetence than malice to me. But all Sean Bell did that night was go to a bar, get drunk, and get involved in an argument which he disengaged from without doing anything violent. Saying that it was somehow his fault when the police shot him as he tried to leave because the same police who shot him say that a friend of his said something about having a gun seems to me to be really unfair to him.
|| I, too, am spitting with rage. NPR just had John Stossel on to explain how unemployed people were just too lazy to find jobs. Must remember to turn off the radio after TAL.
|>
32: Are you seeing any sign of community leaders supporting the police on this one?
I find the OP story pretty extremely shocking, as well as very illegal unless I'm missing something important. Sounds like a fun case (though not a financially successful one); I can think of some folks who might be interested in bringing it pro bono.
The LA mural conservancy is a pretty cool organization if your criteria for charitable giving is protecting things that I like.
when we see lynch mobs forming historically, it's usually because there IS a police force, which is acting in a way that the mob (or indeed, a majority of the community) feels is undemocratic and unjust. So perhaps a directly democratic method of public order keeping would engender fewer cases of mob violence.
You have a different understanding of the role of lynch mobs in American history than I do.
What kind of damages could one expect in a case like this, where one's Constitutional have been flagrantly trod upon but there is no meaningful harm to person or property? Pressing charges seems pretty clearly a waste of time except as a matter of principle.
36: But it's no win, because the landlord and the tenant don't want to be fucked with by the cops until the end of forever.
37: I had trouble unpacking this too. In the Jim Crow South, murdering Blacks was the "directly democratic method of public order", no?
|| My connections to youth become more tenuous, and yet I try: Ryan Lochte! Still too old to be my prom baby! |>
38 -- probably not much, except for punitive damages, which could be meaningful here. Not worth it as a money making venture for a lawyer, but could be worth it if the landlord were mad enough.
39 gets it right. They'd be fools to complain, let alone sue. There best course of action is to put up some pro-NYPD murals until it all blows over.
42
... but could be worth it if the landlord were mad enough.
I doubt the landlord was all that happy with the mural.
The same artist has been painting murals in the same place, at the request of the business owner, for about five years and the landlord's been just fine with it. Your grounds for thinking the landlord has a non-police-harassment reason for having a problem with the mural are obscure.
43 Reminds me of Havel's greengrocer.
It would be great if we could organize a rotating crew of people to stand on that sidewalk holding "NYPD=Murderers" and "NYPD=Crybabies" placards. The dry-cleaner owner wouldn't have to have anything to do with it.
There is a little framed photo of the mural hanging on the fence in front of where it was.
45
The same artist has been painting murals in the same place, at the request of the business owner, for about five years and the landlord's been just fine with it. Your grounds for thinking the landlord has a non-police-harassment reason for having a problem with the mural are obscure.
How many of the previous 5 years of murals were comparably likely to offend people?
Do you mean people, or do you mean the police? If you're talking about the people who live in the neighborhood, all of the murals have been comparably likely to offend people. That is, not likely at all.
If you mean, how often are they detectably political? Maybe three times a year? Could be more, but I don't read graffiti easily -- lots of them I just process as a splash of color.
Feeling embarrassed is incompatible with being a cop. They can be embarrassed when you're off duty, but not when they're being a cop. This is even more true for a police force or other law-enforcement organization.
So instead there's this substitute concept of being disrespected. Being disrespected is something cops can do something about, for instance by harassing or using violence against the disrespector. But because they can't feel embarrassed, cops can't recognize when they're being crybabies. At best they will sometimes decide they're on the losing end of the situation and back away, but then only grudgingly. Often they'll double down on the behavior that any normal person would be embarrassed by.
(Cops can sometimes admit they are wrong, but only when a court or civilian review board forces them to. Have you ever seen a cop apologize?)
51
Do you mean people, or do you mean the police? If you're talking about the people who live in the neighborhood, all of the murals have been comparably likely to offend people. That is, not likely at all.
I mean people a pragmatic landlord wouldn't want to annoy without a good reason. Whether the NYPD, bank executives or the NAACP.
54: Fearing the reaction of the police, the landlord opposed the painting completely voluntarily.
Thing is, cops not really meant to get annoyed about that sort of thing.
Feeling embarrassed is incompatible with being a cop. They can be embarrassed when you're off duty, but not when they're being a cop. This is even more true for a police force or other law-enforcement organization.
Are there cops that aren't part of a police force or other law-enforcement organization?
I've got to say, based on the photo, what surprises me most is that anybody at all even bothered to take offense at the mural. In terms of calling people "murders", the artist certainly took a kitchen sink approach. Bank of America? EPA? T.V., for fuck's sake??? I'm surprised he didn't include "the Establishment" and "the Man." (Though he did include "War." Can't leave that one out, after all.)
I mean, so what if the NYPD got a shout out in that long list? Somebody must be awfully thin-skinned.
It was really just the old cathode ray tube TVs that were killers. The new flat screens might harass you or rough you up a little, but that's it. It isn't like the old days, when a cathode ray TV would hurl itself out of a dark alley and smash some random person in the head.
Wait aminit, "Shell Oil" "NYPD" "Capitalism"...these are all the names on the tombstones. They aren't the murderers; they are the victims! Everyone is totally talking this the wrong way. It is really a work of art about how liberals have torn down once great institutions.
57: Well as classes: cop-outs, feels copped,
58: That's kind of it -- this isn't anything particularly pointed, it's sort of vaguely leftwing posturing. That the NYPD feels like it should control something this generalized and vague is really creepy.
37: You have a different understanding of the role of lynch mobs in American history than I do.
Could you elaborate? I'm not sure what you mean.
Obviously, most of the time, lynch mobs are Not A Good Thing. That doesn't mean that they're necessarily undemocratic. Quite the contrary, I would say. A preference for representative democracy is an invitation to the kind of demagogues who like to whip crowds into a bloodthirsty frenzy.
Now, admittedly, there were lynch mobs that were essentially winked at, and even tacitly encouraged by elected officials. Some of the more famous ones had to physically destroy jails and assault and even kill LEOs to get to the object of their fury.
Anyhow, that's all a digression from my main point, which was that of course, modes of ensuring public order, if there was such a thing, in an anarchist society would have to be qualitatively different than those we've seen in hierarchical, capitalist, patriarchal societies.
@65. I imagine 37 was referring to the un-euphamized sense of the word lynch as in" the mob lynched him." My own sense of a lynch mob would have that process in mind.
OP: Is it bad if I don't post a congratulatory facebook message for someone who met his current partner while we were fucking (non-monogamously) and was kind of shitty to me about it? This person has otherwise been a good friend since meeting this person, but I strongly dislike her and the circumstances that led to them meeting. Am I a petty shithead?
The main point of the message that I forgot because I am drunk is that they are fucking engaged like assholes. Congratulations, people?
I guess congratulations. Fuck everyone.
Hmm I would say congratulations is socially exemplary but not obligate. If you don't they probably won't realise, unless you make it super obvious.
But I would anyway.
I did, because it would have been looked for. I still hate her, not because of jealousy, but because she's a cunt whom I despise.
My sympathies, Hillary. I was actually in the position of your friend, though I never went as far as marrying the other woman, and it's absolutely reasonable to not be all "woo I'm so happy you're happy!" about the whole thing. I certainly handled the situation badly, and even handled perfectly... ugh. Yeah. My sympathies.
Would a really slutty profile picture serve as a subtle rebuke to her?
Wake up everybody! Wake up! Wake up!
I woke up at 10am and then basically at a pint of tomatoes and a burrata and now I have a tummy ache.
Hmm. I don't believe I've ever eaten a pint of tomatoes in even the course of a whole day. That may have been something of a tactical error.
I woke up around 7, took a shower, did a bunch of cleaning, started the water for making greengage jam, and finally started getting dressed.
A pint of whole tomatoes or a pint of squished ones? The former might be feasible, but I wouldn't instinctively measure it in pints rather than pounds; the latter would be instant tummy ache.
OK, dividing by the oudemia storytelling factor, maybe half a pint of grape tomats (w sweet onion and basil) accompanied by most of a burrata and a hunk of baguette. It was yummy and my tummy ache was worth it!
Slept in because I was up late dealing with this. Remember kids, just because someone's a longtime friend doesn't mean he won't snap and without warning walk out and shoot you in the face, so be on your toes (meth psychosis possibly a factor, the first guy really did take one right in the face, DRT).
We finally have tomatoes ripening (including cherry tomatoes), but I am too damned tired to do much of anything with them as yet. The bookshop has 2-3 days left to get out of our current digs completely, and my entire body hurts, so that I'm creeping about in slow motion. This morning I unloaded the car preparatory to loading it up again on Tuesday.
Also I'm attempting to broker a one-month rental of my mom's house on the lake for August.
It would be best to have an omelette now, with fresh basil in't.
I have had two (2) of my own cherry tomatoes ripen so far. I have eaten each very ceremoniously.
82. No, they were fighting about theoretical semantics.
I did, because it would have been looked for. I still hate her, not because of jealousy, but because she's a cunt whom I despise.
This rings hollow. It still totally sucks to be in that position.
Sign me up for some sympathy hating on her on your behalf. I hate that bitch.
I just don't like her, especially the way she treats my friend. She's bossy and demeaning. Apparently that is what he is into, though.
Hillary probably needs to let him go.
Go where? I haven't prevented him from doing anything.
Do you mean stop being friends with him? That seems rather harsh.
As long as the friendship is a net positive, why give up on the friendship? Plus, he will get divorced in a couple years anyway.
92: Fingers fucking crossed, dude.
Will always looks on the bright side of marriage.
94:
Maybe I just love those Buddhist thoughts of impermanence.
I mean stop being mad at him for the partner he's decided to be with.
Or, you can continue to be mad, or annoyed, if you can't help it, but what do you think to do about it? Sabotage their relationship? Decline to support him in the future? Since it seems like you don't actively hate him, there's no choice but to accept it, as it is.
Sorry, but I didn't really like my ex's choice of wife (and she absolutely hates me, to the point that it can't be known that I ever talk to him, which means I basically don't more often than every few years), but it's his life, and I had to respect his space enough to withdraw. That doesn't mean I don't miss his friendship, but I'm not tearing myself to bits over it.
"Tearing myself to bits" is a bit strong. Jealousy isn't my bag here. I just don't like her. My friend makes a lot of stupid choices, and she's one of them. He's entitled to his dumbass decisions, sure. I just don't enjoy being pressured to celebrate them.
Speaking of marriage, bad decisions, pressure, and celebrations, you should try to talk him into serving champagne with Pop Rocks at the reception.
I can only imagine how rough it is knowing that Bill and Monica are engaged, Hill. Thing is, if monogamy wasn't a part of the original deal, you aren't actually in a position to complain publicly. Any public snark will just lead Monica start singing "If you liked it, you should have put a ring on it."
If Bill is circumcised, putting on a ring is very difficult.
Is it? I've never used these things.
Not all kinds, but circumcision is the best protection from involuntary infibulation.
As somebody who last night let fly with a low dose of bitchiness to the husband of a friend to whom I have every right to be bitchy, and this morning feels anxious and as if a bit of moral high ground has been surrendered, my strong rec is to fulfill all superficial social obligations and vent away pseudonymously.
Success! My cottage on the lake (aka my mom's house) is rented for August. My brother is being sort of flaky about getting the key to them, meaning that I have to pester him about whether he actually told them that he'll be there this weekend to hand over the key, but otherwise this is good.
106: Ah! So this means flaky cousin is gone, I guess. I am behind.
Flaky cousin is not just gone, but is completely unwelcome, and I don't know how I'm going to avoid a flat-out "Fuck you" when I eventually see him to his face.
He's as gone as we can make him right now. We were told recently by the neighbors that he's been going there anyway (he doesn't have access to the house, we changed the locks), but he still keeps a canoe there and goes to use the dock. NO.
Anyway, we're renting for August to the neighbors, who made this offer a few weeks ago. They can keep the cousin away, at least. My brother has been talking about calling the cops on the cousin for trespassing, which on the one hand I'm fine with, but on the other hand would make the not-talking amongst the family even worse.
This is the beginning of a solution. Also the septic tank has been replaced, robustly even, so yay.
You mean a regular sewer attachment or a really strong septic tank?
A really strong septic tank. I have pictures of its installment into the ground, but I thought surely the unfogggedtariat would not be interested in that.
It's weird: I'm not sure I've ever been so angry at someone as I am at my cousin, former tenant. He "moved out" (meaning abandoned the place, with a bunch of his stuff still in there) without telling us. The place has oil heat: he ran the tank dry, then left, when the pipes could easily have frozen without heat.
I'll leave it at that. I have never been this angry with someone that I can think of. It might make a difference that I know him, and I sort of don't know what to do with that.
I am trying to think this through, for when I do have to see him face to face.
He's my mom's brother's second wife's kid. That sounds complicated, but it's really not. My mom's brother, my uncle, beloved, remarried some 20 years ago, and his wife has some of her own children, one of whom is this cousin. Basically I've known him since he was 8 years old, and he was one of the good ones (I thought, but obviously he's a fuck-up). I'm just completely shocked that he would do this.
Meanwhile, I've had Christmas after Christmas after 4th of July and cookout and whatnot with him and the rest of the family over the last couple of decades. We've sat side by side and bonded -- over Phish, even. I want to spit in his face now.
I think I'm going to have a talk, a speech, with the whole family, about it. Clearly I can't ask my aunt to disown her son. I can't sit in the same room with him as things stand.
A speech with the whole family while you're spitting mad sound likely to backfire even though you are completely in the right. Still, you are righteous and spitting mad. Tactics and strategy seem required... is there some chain of relatives between you and your aunt who have been useful in negotiating so far? Though if they weren't very useful in forestalling actual bad behavior, who knows if they'll be useful in extracting an apology. If that's what you want.
What *do* you want?
Congratulations, Parsimon, on progress with the house, and it does sound like the interaction with your cousin is completely on topic to this post title.
is there some chain of relatives between you and your aunt who have been useful in negotiating so far?
Yes, and you're completely right. I need to talk to my uncle, and my aunt (who is extremely angry with her son). I know that. We need to see how on earth I, as well as my brother who's equally angry, will manage in the future to share family gatherings with the cousin. Who is a complete fuckup and should make good on his debt to us, by the way, because we're not the fucking family money bags here, no matter how much that branch of the family apparently thinks so.
113.last: What I want is for the cousin to pay the over $5000 back rent he owes. I'd be able to forgive the rest if he did that.
Back rent is a nice clear obtainable goal. Will you be able to... put it down... if your aunt and uncle actually pay it? (Just imagining.)
I wouldn't care who paid it. There's no way I can ask my aunt and uncle to do it. Don't you think? I mean ...
Well, that idea was floated by a friend of mine at one point, but really: it's not my aunt and uncle's responsibility. The cousin is 28 years old, and I had clear talks with both my uncle and my aunt when the cousin became a tenant that this was a formal landlord-tenant relationship, aunt and uncle were not involved. I can't ask them to pay the debt.
I've mentioned to my aunt that the cousin owes us $X amount, anyway. She nods and says that things are tough all over.
I was assuming that your cousin would ask your aunt and uncle, not you! Or that they'd pay it out of family pride. Do they really think of you & your brother as moneybags? Because you have the cottage?
Did your cousin's bowels cause the untimely demise of the previous septic system?
Getting back to the OP for a moment, wow, this just seems so small -- I mean, why does the NYPD care about a tombstone painted as part of a larger work of graffiti? It's so minor, so inconsequential, that I just don't understand why this is worth their time.
119: I believe so, yes.
I had a semi-dream a while ago in which I felt strongly that that branch of the family is toxic. (There are other money-lending situations in the past, which my brother and I are clear of now, finally. My mother felt the same, and I'd brushed it off, but I see what she means. Or meant.)
I don't think we're going to be paid that back rent, ever. The question is how to deal with that for future family gatherings, if there are any.
Sign at Thanksgiving:
"You must be current on all accounts in order to get whipped cream on your pie."
121
Getting back to the OP for a moment, wow, this just seems so small -- I mean, why does the NYPD care about a tombstone painted as part of a larger work of graffiti? It's so minor, so inconsequential, that I just don't understand why this is worth their time.
Why do people get shot for looking at someone the "wrong way"? Because in some circles failure to respond forcefully to being "dissed" labels you as weak. Some police officers have (or pick up) a similar attitude.
I suppose in theory I disapprove of the police actions here but it is far down on the list of things I care about. A bigger problem in my view is that New York City judges seem rather reluctant (perhaps afraid) to convict cops in bench trials which makes it harder to prosecute police misconduct.
120: Did your cousin's bowels cause the untimely demise of the previous septic system?
I think not. For you, Moby, I have put up a picture (shocking! true!) of the old septic tank which keeled over and died.
It's pretty hilarious. Good thing we fixed that situation, eh?
That's pretty bad. Next time I try to ask a question that lends itself to a visual answer, I'll try not to involve anything related to fecal matter.
That's not a septic tank, it's a septic colander.
he still keeps a canoe there and goes to use the dock. NO.
Is it feasible to have the canoe removed? Send him an email or call him or however you communicate with him, give him a date by which he has to remove it, after which it will otherwise taken care of.
I know a guy who had his canoes removed by laser. It took six visits because the canoes were vividly colored.
Wow. Everyone is just, like, doing their jobs and shit today, huh?
I'm having my department secretary over for lunch today. In my last place of residence, I was too passive in my friend-making. I've decided that here, I am charming and hospitable, goddamn it.
131: I'm not. I just don't have much of an opinion on septic tanks or dissolute cousins. We need some inflammatory topic or other to get things rolling.
You didn't leave the house wearing that shirt on purpose?
132. Left-overs from the Mexican dinner?
135: That's what I had for every meal this weekend. Tomato-poblano velouté and a frittata this time.
I made three batches of hummus last night, giving the first two away to people who came over to learn how to make hummus. Perhaps I can start a hummus-based pyramid scheme.
I just don't have much of an opinion on septic tanks
I think parsimon's septic tank is a crock of shit.
I was going to email this to heebie to save for when she needed a frivolous post topic, but while I was on vacation I took the girls to the (Buffalo) zoo. There was a sign as we entered that Lorikeet Landing would be closed for construction, which surprised me since our home zoo also has a Lorikeet Landing and I've rolled my eyes at the name before. I'm curious what other things people have been surprised to learn are franchised rather than one-off.
The Cleveland Zoo has a lorikeet exhibit that i think is called a Lorikeet Landing. On this the website though they just call it the Lorikeet Aviary.
Its a fun exhibit either way, although I bet the 'keets would prefer more room to fly around.
Wrong link. Here they call it an aviary.
http://www.clemetzoo.com/tour/exhibit.asp?exhibit_id=17
On the other part of the site they do call it "Lorikeet Landing"
I believe Clemet Zoo was the original name of Clement Atlee, before he decided to rebrand himself for a viable political career.
That can't be an actual franchise, can it? Like somebody from the central office comes around to check the lorikeets and be sure nobody is buying seeds from a non-corporate source.
This restaurant in south west London?
I have spent more time than I care to contemplate at the Lorikeet Landing at the Louisville Zoo. Had no idea it was a franchise. Must be the work of Big Nectar.
while I was on vacation I took the girls to the (Buffalo) zoo
Is it true what they say, that Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo?
144 is pretty great.
potchkeh, I hadn't known you were ever a Louisville person! I can admit that we didn't even see the Buffalo (zoo) buffalo, and so I can't confirm with my own eyes or anything.
We need some inflammatory topic or other to get things rolling.
The Colosseum is falling down.
Random question for the legal types: Would it strike you as typical or as unusual if a federal agency refused to consent to the assignment of a magistrate judge in a legal challenge to a regulation?
Would this be likely to annoy the subsequently assigned District Judge, if s/he was a former magistrate?
Not enough experience litigating against federal agencies specifically to speak to that. In my experience generally, very unusual, to the point where I couldn't say whether it would annoy anyone because I don't have any basis for speculation.
127: ...How far from the lake?
Erm, yeah. I know. About 100 yards? There is a leach field between it and the lake. We've known for years that the tank had to be replaced, and given the state of affairs once it was dug up, I'm ... let's say amazed ... that my mom hadn't done it before. It's done now, though.
As for the cousin's canoe, sure, we can have it removed (or, hell, I'd like it myself), but we didn't even know it was still there until about a week ago. The new tenants will be able to keep the cousin away now.
An aside: people who have no email address, indeed no home computer, as well as no telephone landline, are very difficult to get hold of. We communicate with the cousin by texting him, since he rarely returns our voicemails. It's hard to know whether he even reads the texts. Jerk.
You could hold the canoe for ransom, but I doubt you'll get the full $5k for it.
Interesting. The case involves LGBT issues and the initially assigned magistrate is the only openly LGBT judge in the pool.
148.1 -- assignment for all purposes? Not really, and not very likely to annoy the District Court. It depends on the specific district, of course.
hell, I'd like it myself
I am all for you keeping the canoe.
Parsimon, is your cousin seriously depressed? That all sounds like the sort of behavior that might be symptomatic of mental illness (in addition to being, in itself, assholish).
I wouldn"t read anything at all into a refusal to consent to jurisdiction of a magistrate. I almost never do it myself, unless there's something really compelling going the other way.
"In the lake resort system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the plumbers who maintain septic systems and the magistrates who sentence the canoe-storage offenders. These are their stories."
Some US attorneys will decline nagistrate jurisdiction if the case is either precedential, and/or is likely to reach the Court of Appeals. Havng a District Judge on the first round is more efficient. I don't think a District judge would be annoyed unless it's a small and boring case.
I try to decline nagistrate jurisdiction but my wife grants cert to whatever nagging comes to mind.
156 is my thought, too. I certainly did some things that read as assholish when I was in the pit of depression. Usually things like failing to meet obligations of various sorts. I wouldn't pull something like not paying my rent, but I could see screwing up the heating oil.
156: I think he's just a fuckup who takes advantage of people and barely escapes with his skin intact. It is slightly odd, given that he was great friends with my mother and had rebuilt a stone wall for her at the house (the wall looks great, so I thought that his past relationship with her plus his care in doing the wall meant that he would be a good steward).
I find the whole thing incredibly disgusting. He put the wicker porch set (two armchairs with cushions, coffee table, endtable) out in the yard over the winter, where it was snowed and rained upon and iced over in various ways, as would be typical over a winter in New Hampshire. Asshole. He broke off the shower head thing before he left - the pipe was broken just inside the wall -- which we have just had fixed. Shithead.
Etc. 'nuff of this now.
On the other hand, a year ago the furnace went out, and he determined, on his own initiative, that it needed a fuse (or something, I forget), which he purchased and replaced, then phoned me to explain it and sent me the receipt.
So I don't know. This is why I'm so shocked and disgusted now. It doesn't matter why it's happened -- I'd like the back rent to be paid, that's all.