Funmurphys: the Blog

In Local News

In local news, our ambitious Attorney General, Jay Nixon, is leading the charge for legislation to create a no spam list just like the existing no call list for telemarketers. All I can say is, good luck. Jay seems to think he can track down the emailers; I'm not so sure. I've had automated anti-virus software send me emails telling me that my computer is infected with the Klez email virus, even though I use a Mac, because of a simple email header spoof.

Julie Bushue, the founder of the Angel Tree in St. Elmo, IL, which collects gifts and then distributes them to the needy, is in hot water because of a letter. It seems a few years ago half the recipients didn't bother to collect their gifts, so this year as she was handing the reins of the organization to another volunteer, as a joke to the new leader she tacked the following line on to the letter describing the program to the recipients: "So if you decide to sit on your fat a---- at home, too lazy to pick them up, you lose." Needless to say, some recipients were miffed. And the letter of apology Ms. Bushue sent them didn't put them in the Christmas spirit. Some lady wanted Ms. Bushue fired. If you're really that upset, lady, why don't you return all the gifts you've gotten over the years? Some people are just ungrateful and unforgiving, no matter what they've been given and how many times they've made mistakes. It was a lousy joke, she shouldn't have put it in the letter, but she apologized, it's a volunteer organization that she's run for 15 years -- which shows her true feelings on the matter, so get over it.

The Amazing Race 11/26

We watched the Amazing Race right after getting home from Harry Potter. It was one of the better episodes, as the teams were bunched together the whole time, and it went to a couple of places my wife and I have been - the Rheinfalls, and Grindelwald. Before kids, we had the opportunity to take a tour in Europe, and we did. We started in London, crossed the channel to Belgium, took a cruise down the Rhine river, visited the Rheinfalls, spent a couple of days in Lucerne, got off the bus and spent a week in Interlaken, Switzerland, got back on the bus and went to Paris, returned to London and flew home. So it was a lot of fun to see the teams at the Rheinfalls, get our photo album out, and show the kids that their parents did some fun things when they were young. The first day in Interlaken we went to the Jungfraujoch which is a railway station on top of the Jungfrau, the mountain two over from the Eiger. On the train ride up, you stop and look out a window in the Eiger. Here is a picture of the two Murphy Fearless Leaders atop the observatory atop the Jungfrau:

After we went up the Jungfrau, we came back down to Grindalwald, which sits at the foot of the Eiger, and spent a delightful afternoon. It was neat to see the contestants running through Grindalwald, and when they were going down the main street all crowded with shops, it brought back happy memories. As the contestants ran past, I recognized the hotel where we sat out on the terrace and ate soup while relaxing and admiring the view; they surely went past the little shop where I bought the deer leather dress shoes. One thing the show hasn't protrayed is how unstandard the plumbing is in Europe. By that I mean in the US, when it's time to flush, the handle is obvious and located in the same spot everytime. In Europe, the handle was rarely obvious and never in the same place twice. More than once I had to walk away from an unflushed urinal because I couldn't figure out how to flush it. It's the simple things in life.

OK, time for a snarky comment - what's Flo thinking? She's annoying, whiny, complaining, Zach puts up with her for no apparent reason, but Drew gets her all hot? Honey, you'll see the difference the first time you come between Drew and his mirror.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Last night we saw the latest Harry Potter movie. I thought it was a very good movie, better than the first. I've enjoyed the books by JK Rowling, the kids have loved them -- for a while they were the only books my son would read until my wife took them away and hid them. I've read them all at least twice, but I have a hard time keeping straight which stuff is in which book, and I forget plenty of it -- I think because they are such fast reads. I think the movies are geared to the same audience as the books -- it's not really a little kid (6 and under) movie, although it seemed there were some pretty young ones in the theatre with us. If you have a spider phobia, you should be prepared to close your eyes a lot during the movie. Other than that, it's more exciting than scary, and while on the long side, doesn't seem long. With the exception of Harry Potter himself who seems a bit stiff, I'm impressed with the casting of the movies. I think they did a really good job, especially with the villains. Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy is perfect - the understated but clear menace, and both he and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape have deliciously oily sneers. The special effect standard of movies has gotten so good that great fantasy movies can be made now - like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I'm thankful for my wife and children, for family and friends, and for living in such a wonderful country. I'm thankful that God has granted me so much, not just the enormous quantities of food I expect to consume today, not just all the material riches I have, but above all His love which has seen me through good times and bad.

My Absence

Last week during the day I was in class learning C++. At night I worked on the bathroom. That's pretty much what I did all week. The C++ class was a lot of fun to start with, but all day learning is hard on an old man. By the end of the week I was mentally ground down and having trouble with the in class excercises.

We had our bathroom redone - new tile floor, new countertop, new shower enclosure. I was going to do the easy part of removing the old paper and replacing it with venetian plaster. The paper had already curled at every edge and looked like no problem to remove the rest of the way. Twelve hours later, it was gone. The previous owners of our house had expanded the bathroom. When they did, they put up the wall paper before finishing the bathroom, so it goes behind the countertops, cabinets, mirrors, the window and door trim, and even the jacuzzi tub. I had to take a utility knife to it to remove it cleanly. Then came the venetian plaster -- the first coat didn't match the color we wanted, so the second coat was a different, lighter color (which was a closer match, but no where near exact). It took about 6 hours for one coat, since it wall all applied by trowel. Yes, my wrists have stopped hurting. At least the third coat (the top coat) took only one night. Saturday morning I started the sanding and burnishing. Forturnately I stepped back to examine my handiwork before doing too much of it. Imagine the agony of disappointment when my work looked only vaguely like what was in the brochure. Yes, in certain locations it had that polished marbled look, but only if you were about six inches away. If you were at a reasonable viewing distance, it looked like a very poor paint job. There was no joy in mudville. So now we're considering what color paint to use. I like our bathroom a lot, but I want to spend a lot less time in it.

J-Lo, Modern Woman

J-Lo (Jennifer Lopez to us midwesterners) has just revealed that she and Ben Affleck are engaged. I don't usually comment on the doings of celebrities, but I have to make an exception in this case. J-Lo is a thoroughly modern woman, so modern in fact that she and Ben are engaged even while J-Lo is still married to Cris. I guess she prefers weddings to marriages, or perhaps marriages to husbands.

Smallpox Vaccine: Good News and Bad News

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports good news and bad news about the results of a pilot study on the Smallpox vaccine carried out right here at St. Louis University. The good news is that it would appear diluted vaccine does confer an immune response in people who were vaccinated previously (the general public hasn't been vaccinated since 1972 in the US). Since there are only 15 million vaccine doses and more than 280 million Americans, that's good news. Some scientists worried that the old vaccination would confer enough of a response to require an even larger dose of the vaccine, let alone not allow a smaller dose to work. The bad news is that the old vaccination doesn't appear to provide an immune response after more than 30 years - 10 years is apparently the accepted length of time, so for all of us who were once routinely innoculated and have that weird looking scar to prove it, we have no increased immunity to smallpox. A larger study is now being started to determine just how diluted the vaccine should be. If you're worried and were once vaccinated, then call the Center for Vaccine Development at 314-977-6333 and see if you can sign up - although I warn you that people do have adverse repsonses to the vaccine (beyond the two weeks of a pus filled sore at the vaccination site).

Pow Wow

Saturday was the Cub Scout Pow Wow here in St. Louis - which by the way is the second largest Boy Scout Council by number and first by percentage of eligible boys in the program. Pow Wow is a day long event that provides Cub Scout adult leader training. So I spent Saturday being entertained, informed, encouraged, and otherwise edified by fellow scout leaders. This was my second year attending and I do have to recommend it to any leaders who can attend -- I will be able to improve the program of my pack with what I learned.

The typical attendee at the even is a middle aged white man with a bit of a paunch. So I fit right in. But by no means were we the only attendees. There were plenty of middle aged white women with a bit of a paunch. Okay, my fellow attendees came in all shapes, sizes, races, genders, and weight classes, the only thing we shared was our desire to do our best for the boys in our packs and dens. There were a couple of people who deviated quite a bit from the norm - I noticed a gal at the opening ceremony who was out of uniform - the big bleached blonde hair was fine, but the open shirt over the lace body suit top was not regulation. Eye catching, but definitely not regulation. Still, she had nothing on the guy who had a Mohawk haircut -- shaved on the sides and extra-long on the top and back -- with a tattoo of a brain on each side of his head. Something tells me he has no trouble getting the boys attention, but I don't think it's for me.

Barbarians Within The Gates

City Journal has a depressing and scary article about the failure of immigrants to assimilate in France. From what little I know, this same article could be written about most European countries, which took in immigrants in the 60's and 70's at a time of low unemployment but are now stuck with a lump of locally born yet unassimilated foreigners who have by and large never known work. They form a sort of Islamic Horse. Europe has very high unemployment due to "enlightened" work policies, unassimilated immigrants due to "enlightened" multiculturalism, and the breakdown of society within these immigrant communities due to an "enlightened" welfare state. After reading the article, I have to wonder if America won't be called upon again to fight in Europe if these communities become centers of terrorism or even go to war against their hosts.

Home Improvement - Begin Again

For the last week I've had a nice concrete floor for the room addition, and nothing else. Work was halted because the roof trusses had to be re-ordered because of the measurement snafu. Today, the framers are supposed to show up and start. I have no idea what will greet me when I get home tonight. I guess that's the exciting part of home improvement. The giant ruts in the yard from the bobcat hauling concrete for the frost walls and floor is, I suppose, the lousy side of home improvement. Now I can relate when I read histories of WWII that talk about the overwhelming tide of mud in the Russian spring, since my backyard has turned into a vast expanse of churned up mud. I just can wait to get out there and re-grade and re-plant (hah!).

Yesterday work started on the bathroom. We are having putting in a new shower, new floor, and new countertop in the master bath. When I got home, I had a shower without walls and a floor of nothing but plywood. Frank Bielec would paint the tiles right on the subfloor, but I'm foolishly paying to have tile installed. Last night we began taking the old wall paper off the wall, mainly on the theory that with the toilet in the tub and the mirrors taken down, we could get to places we couldn't ordinarily get to (nor want to, for that matter). I have come to hate stripping wall paper off the wall so much, I have sworn to never again put any up. The prior owner put up some sort of plastic paper that has to be taken down twice - first the plastic front and then the paper backing. No doubt this was felt necessary because it was going up in a damp bathroom. After 3 and a half hours, I have a majority of the paper off. Needless to say, it's mostly the paper that's hard to get to or that stubbornly clings to the wall that is left. Tonight I have a cub scout leader's meeting, so I'm off the wall paper hook for tonight. I have a feeling the remaining paper is going to remain up until after the room is finished and I've regained my good humor enough to continue.

It's A Beautiful Morning, National

President Bush won big on election night. The Republicans picked up enough seats to control the Senate, and increased their margin in the House. Jim Talent beat Jean Carnahan - yeah! I think the election was in part a referendum on Bush's conduct of the war, and the American people endorsed it. The odd thing about Bush is, he keeps his word. He said no assault on Iraq before the elections and we haven't. He said the US would act with or without the UN, so if you're pinning your anti-war hopes on Russia and France, don't. Saddam's days are numbered.

On the domestic front, I hope the Republicans don't repeat the mistakes of the '92 Democrats who had control of both houses and the Presidency. They then lurched to the left, fought with themselves on pet projects like universal healthcare, and passed idiocy like a big tax increase, all of which PO'd the electorate off so much the Republicans swept into power in Congress in '94. So my hope is that instead of fighting over the whole loaf, or continuing to compromise at half a loaf, go for three-quarters of the loaf. Pass what you can, reform and revise existing programs rather than start new ones, don't split between moderates and extremists, govern well, in other words, act like you expect to be in power for a while and don't get in a big rush to get big changes rammed through during your moment in the sun. I'm hoping for more and sooner tax cuts, a ban on partial birth abortion, partial privatization of Social Security, a permanent elimination of the estate tax, a rein on spending, judicial nominees getting a fair hearing, and better copyright and internet law.

Thoughts While Removing Wallpaper

Last night while stripping wallpaper, the name Saxby Chambliss kept going through my mind. I think that's the real reason he won (Senator from Georgia) -- once you hear the name, you can't get it out of your head. And it kept echoing off Boothby - the groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy played by My Favorite Martian, Ray Walston. Saxby, meet Boothby. Boothby, meet Saxby. Now get outta my head (and stay outta my car, too)!

I Suck Up, Big Time

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit ran a selection of his email today, and by the looks of the small excerpt he provided, he could run one of the best blogs around just by running reader email. I guess it just goes to show you, those that have, get. It also demonstrates to me what a genuinely nice guy he is based on the his replies to the couple of dopey (compared to the one's he published) emails I've sent him.

James Lileks publishes a bleat every weekday that should be read by every man, woman, and child in the world. He consistantly delivers great humor, insight, and interest; often his work is outstanding. How he does it should be under intense scrutiny by all the J-schools. Instead, the profession is too busy scratching it's head over why people are getting less of their news from the news media and more from late night comics. People, its not hard - your product is lousy. The editor of USA Today commisioned a study and discovered that half their stories contained at least one error -- and those were factual errors that could be easily discovered. A writer for AP was canned when it was discovered he made up quotes from made up academics relentlessly in his stories. And it's downhill from there. You want more readership - syndicate Lileks in every newspaper, and watch your sales go up.

I was embarrassed to discover that I hadn't linked to Susanna Cornett in my permanent links after she so kindly linked to me in her blog after I gave her a heads up on story she's covered in her blog. So sorry Susanna, and I've taken care of the problem. I didn't want to leave such a fine, must read blog off my list.

It's A Beautiful Morning - State and Local

Yesterday's election went well IMHO, both nationally and locally. Sadly, Al Hanson (convicted felon) wasn't voted Missouri's State Auditor, but then I didn't expect that. But all the Amendments, Propositions, etc. actually went the way I voted, something that hasn't happened before. Some of them were very close, what were people thinking close in some instances. Some people wanted to send the tax on cigarettes through the roof, and that was only narrowly defeated. It might have passed if they had only proposed to hike them to the roof I suppose. The logic on this was classic Catch-22 (which, BTW, I saw at the Kirkwood Theatre in my yute) -- not only would the tax stop a whole bunch of smokers from smoking, it would also generously fund a bunch of Good Programs, some of which were, natch, anti-smoking programs. How it could raise money if people actually stopped smoking (or forced people into the black market, more likely) was never explained.

The only sadness in the results was that Craig Borchelt lost to Buzz Westfall for county executive, even though I expected it. The only thing that Buzz ever did to recommend himself to me was to call a judge a liar, although the trouble was it involved a case he badly blew as county prosecutor (Dennis Bulloch - which, having occured pre-internet doesn't exist as far as Google is concerned, but you can read the book). After he was first elected to county exec, it was like he joined the witness protection program, which was fine by me, except he has a propensity for scandals that somehow never seem to matter.

Missouri, fine bellweather state it is, now has a Republican House and Senate for the first time since, ah, oh, Harry S Truman was still a state legislator. Our current Democratic Governor is wildly unpopular, even with yellow dog Democrats who wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher (that's a direct quote from an acquantance who has never, and I mean never voted for a Republican, not even once). Missouri, like most states, got into a budget crunch earlier. The same day Governor Holden announced a new initiative to improve math education, he also announced that a 3 percent reduction in expected revenue would require an 18 percent cut in state expenditures. So in a couple of years we won't have Holden to kick around anymore, although it could easily be a different Democrat.

Murphy-Shafer Conclave Reconvenes At Home

My brother's family has returned home today, so now my life returns to it's reguarly scheduled paths. Yesterday we capped off the visit with a trip to Dave and Buster's, a Chucky Cheese's for grownups. They had sent me a coupon for $10 in the mail; when I bought a power card, it was my lucky day and doubled. So I raced, blasted, shot, and otherwise engaged in testosterone laden activity, until my gun hand gave out before the money did. So now Max and Mark return to their planet where everything is familiar, unlike this strange planet where so many things are different.

I Voted Today

It's not often you get the chance to vote for a convicted felon, so I didn't pass up my opportunity and voted today for Al Hanson. You get ample opportunity to vote for people who will go on to commit felonies, some of whom will be convicted later, but in this case it was all out of sequence so I got to vote for somebody after they had already been convicted and paid their debt to society. Amazingly enough, neither the Kansas City Star or the St. Louis Post Dispatch bothered to point out Mr. Hanson's felony record until after he won the Republican primary, but afterwards they were all over the story.

After that I followed a simple proceedure - vote Republican in competitive elections (e.g. Jim Talent), Libertarian in laughers (e.g. Darla Maloney AKA somebody other than Todd Akin who's going to win) - I've voted for so many who've lost over the years I kind of enjoy it now, nobody if it was an unopposed Democrat (e.g. Robert McCulloch, who I won't vote for because in Kinkogate he signed off on a search warrant of Kinko's to catch somebody who sent a non-threatening but wistle blowing fax), against judges if I didn't know anything about them or didn't like the sound of their name (as good a system as any IMHO), against taxes, and against changes to the Missouri Constitution except for St. Louis Home Rule (I figure any change has to be for the better).

I'm one of those people who know how I'm going to vote before I even leave for the polling place - heck, my mind is pretty much already made up for the 2004 elections already and I don't even know who's running or what the amendments and propositions are. I'm generally not swayed by personality or advertising. Last election when MSNBC kept following a focus group of undecideds who couldn't make up their minds until apparently the were in the voting booth, I thought they were out of their minds. I would shout at the TV, "If you can't tell the difference between Bush and Gore, stay home you idiots!" So contrary to the get out the vote message you'll be bombarded with, my message is if you're not sure, don't vote.

I won't be glued to the TV watching the returns tonight if only because I have Cub Scout Roundtable and so will be otherwise constructively engaged. But I'm sure I'll pay close attention to the 10 O'Clock news and pore over the paper in the morning. It's my duty as a citizen, after all.

Halloween on Planet Murphy

Halloween was cold this year, and we didn't get many visitors. Most of the kids were neighbors, so I waved and chatted to the parent who was walking with them. Only two groups I didn't recognize. In St. Louis we have the custom that the kids need to do a trick to get their treat; almost always they tell a joke. After the hundredth house, that gets tiring for them, so the clever ones learn a couple.

My nephews Max and Mark went trick or treating with the Fruit of the Murphy Loins this year, and so were introduced to this custom. When they got back from entertaining the neighbors, Mark told us that in our world, we have square pizza with no crust, but in his they have triangles with crust; in our world, you have to tell a joke to get candy, but in his, you don't. Mark hasn't just travelled to a different city; the contrast between San Jose and St. Louis apparently is great enough, he feels he's travelled to a different world.