Mysterious Mercedes Benz Killing Me

I've been seeing this mysterious Mercedes Benz around my neighborhood for a few weeks now. I can't figure out who owns it. Possibly an invisible man. It reminds me of Richard Dreyfuss in American Graffiti, (two effes one tee) trying to figure out who the woman was in the 56 White T-Bird. Turns out it was Suzanne Somers, before Three's Company and Thigh-Master. American Grafitti would have been a lot more enjoyable if a) they hadn't made the sequel, and b) Richard Dreyfuss had to deal with an unusually large shark instead of a bunch of dick head gang members.

See I'm off topic as usual. I want to know who owns this Mercedes and its keeping me up at night. I could die. I think its from the early to mid 60's, and it has a manual transmission shifter on the steering column. I really picture it being owned by a wealthy political mover with his own driver named Chauncey. This cries out for a dramatization.

In Act 1 of our three part drama, Sir jumps in the back of the Benz and heads off to the Tory party bunker.

Chauncey: To the Bunker sir?
Sir: Yes Chauncey.
Chauncey: Another problem with the boss sir?
Sir: Yes yes.
Chauncey: Big boss is a cool one ain't he sir. A real iceberg. A Cyborg.
Sir: Chauncey, what did I tell you this morning.
Chauncey: This morning sir...em...you said Sir, don't run over any children or else the Calgary Sun will photograph their bloody little booties and it will be bad for us..
Sir: No Chauncey, before that.
Chauncey: Oh sir, about not talking about the boss before you've had drinks sir?
Sir: Yes. And do look out, you nearly hit that child.
Chauncey: Well if you ask me he's a pretty dimly lit bulb.
Sir: Chauncey!
Chauncey: Yes sir.

(I can see the need for developing a strong female character in this story.) Please recommend this post

Mayhem at Big Valley

Big Valley Jamboree is an annual Country Music Festival in Camrose Alberta. Just before the last set of the day a huge storm blew through the area and flipped the stage over. There are unconfirmed reports of a few deaths, people trapped under the rubble, and people missing or injured. The details are still emerging. (8:30 MST).

The news rolled out fairly quickly on Twitter with Musicians and fans Twittering live accounts. The main stream media, radio and newspaper web sites took a while to get into the story.

Simon Ostler, an Edmonton radio journalist, posted this picture on Twitpic:

Please recommend this post

More on the Carrington Fire

(Please see additional update at bottom of post)

I haven't heard anything about how the Edmonton Police are progressing with their investigation into the fire at the Carrington Seniors Residence, apparently considered an arson.

However, I did receive an email from a man who claimed to be a first responder at the fire and he made some interesting observations backed up with pictures. It seems that the sidewalk immediately outside one of the fire exits was being replaced and there was an excavated trench about 8 inches deep. For seniors with various levels of capabilities, to exit down 3 or 4 flights of stairs, then to try to cross this trench at 3am seems a bit scary. Many of them just couldn't get across the trench without help. It raises an obvious question about the fire code which I'm not qualified to answer. The rule of thumb is you do not block an escape route in any way. The details were forwarded to the Fire Inspector for consideration.

Immediately after the fire, the entire complex was sealed off and fenced. The author of this email claims that he went back the next day and the trench had been filled in. Its a strange allegation. If true, what would be the reason for filling in a hole on a condemned building?

Please keep in mind that the photos are somewhat inconclusive and there are no photos at 3am, at the time of the evacuation. I have no way of knowing if this story is true, but it does concern me.

I would definitely like to see these buildings made easier to get out of. I'm very grateful to these people who responded at the time and prevented loss of life. But some things about the evacuation plan still don't seem right to me.

Update (July 30,2009)

I misconstrued some of the details Jim had sent in previous emails, so here is his latest email point out a couple of my errors:

I read your latest blog and have to point out some errors...

"the sidewalk immediately outside one of the fire exits was being replaced and there was an excavated trench"

not true, there was no work being done, the sidewalk/trough was built to funnel water to the sewer, now the system wont work because the sidewalk is above the sewer feeder trough. It was built that way and had been there for approx 10 years.

"The author of this email claims that he went back the next day"

not true, I went back 3 days later (Wed June 3rd/8:30pm) to find the sidewalk/trough had been back filled and the courtyard had been soden,by 11am Friday there was a sidewalk installed and the staircase had been changed from a wooden one to a concrete staircase.

I just have to keep the facts straight.

Please recommend this post

Brief Moon Landing Thought

Once my Mom gave me a present. It was a copy of the Edmonton Journal of July 21 or 22, 1969 with the breathtaking picture of Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. It seemed an odd juxtaposition with the Journal's banner in old style Gothic font.

I took it out to show it to someone one day only to find out that my nephew had found it and had used it to color and scribble on. I wasn't really mad. My nephew was quite young and didn't understand the importance of the paper.

The irony of the moon missions is that it forced humans to look inward and ask those big questions about our purpose and place in the universe. To think about those kind of questions while also looking at the scribblings of a child is not a bad thing.

PS Could have been my niece. Still doing the chronology with my slide rule. Please recommend this post

Boutilier Should Resign

I wasn't planning on blogging about Guy Boutilier getting punted by Big Daddy. To be honest I find the internecine feuds of Alberta conservatives to be as about interesting as potatoes with no gravy.

There is a tangential issue relating to populism and the basics of what elected official are supposed to be doing for us. However, we've known for over two decades or more that the Alberta Progressive Conservatives are not a populist party. There are far more glaring examples of Alberta's need for democratic reform than a feud between these two C students.

If I were Guy Boutilier, I would resign my seat immediately and force the Premier to call a by-election in Ft. McMurray. Also, I would tender my resignation over the phone. Maybe even by text or Twitter.

Think about it. The Party would have to go into Ft. McMurray and would have to confront an angry riding association. They would no doubt have to disband Boutilier's riding association and create another one loyal to Big Daddy. Good luck with that. That town is pissed off. The entertainment value is unlimited.

In the lead up to the by-election the Health Minister could go to Ft. McMurray, hold a Town Hall and explain why they don't need a long term health care facility, and he could make amusing segues in the Q&A about how he didn't go to Harvard and didn't graduate with Barack Obama. *Sneer*. Assuming there was no riot or heckling by seniors.

I always hate to be the one that shrugs my shoulders and say, Hate to say it but I told you so. We need some change here.... Please recommend this post

Irregardless

I just heard a man on the radio use the word irregardless, an evil word used more and more these days. Worse, the man was an instructor from Mount Royal College. He may be a full Professor by now given the recent regulatory changes and the College's elevation. Nonetheless I regard the use of this word as careless and perhaps even illiterate.

Since the early 1900's the word was flagged by dictionaries as incorrect. Over time this has eased a bit to now where many dictionaries describe it as merely non-standard.

Language, like Lutefisk, is dynamic and organic, not static. So I won't be surprised if eventually irregardless becomes a first class word. Even if that does happen, I would hope that teachers will mark down use of the word on the grounds of poor style.

Wikipedia claims that irregardless is a portmanteau of irrespective and regardless. This might be true, but I hope not because generally I find portmanteaus very clever and they've often been very good to me.

Irregardless is a double negative and the prefix adds no value to the word at all. Its main appeal is that when spoken it sounds more sophisticated than regardless.

I demand that this word be put under house arrest. Please recommend this post

Cronkite: Dignified and Professional

Everyone is reflecting on their memories of Walter Cronkite. I'm not surprised by the massive outpouring of respectful grief. My main impression is that he was an incredibly poised man who dealt with massive social upheaval in the 1960's, assassination, Watergate, a violent and unacceptable war in Vietnam - in a calm and dignified way.

My own vivid memory is being home from school sick when JFK was killed. I remember sitting in the dark living room on a typical Edmonton November day. I remember Cronkite reading the death announcement and he was barely able to hold it together.

I don't have much of an appetite for nostalgia - the 1960's and 1970's were horrible in so many ways - however, I do think journalism has really gotten smaller, more reactionary, and in some cases more hysterical. Please recommend this post

American Health Care Debate

I'm not an American yet I'm getting fatigued by the ongoing debate over the American health care system. So much stupidity and prejudice on parade. I hope Americans get a better system under President Obama so the average person doesn't have to choose between a simple procedure or owning a home. Or suffering silently then dying.

Here's a video of NY State Senator Tom Duane giving an impassioned and angry speech about people dying needlessly. Via Blabbeando.


Please recommend this post

Shocked But Not Surprised

When you have a radio station that caters to middle age guys who are predominately conservative, what could go wrong when you start a drive home show conversation about aboriginal issues?

On the way home I tuned in briefly to hear the tail end of a conversation about aboriginal property rights and the Indian Act. The two hosts made a segue to the story about the makeshift border crossing re-opening on Cornwall Island. One of the hosts made the comment, and I'm paraphrasing, that the Mohawks obviously don't want armed guards because they're afraid they'll be shot trying to smuggle cigarettes.

Even for talk radio, I found this unusually inflammatory. I guess this is why these people want to end the Human Rights Commissions, so they can make this kind of talk normal and mainstream.

The background to this, I think, is the fact that the Tsuu Tina nation recently rejected a half billion dollar offer from the City of Calgary and the Province to build the south-west ring road through the Nation's land. This rejection has certainly led to a lot of negative commentary about Tsuu Tina, and aboriginals in general. Please recommend this post

This Just in...Woman's Tennis Sexist

This article about woman's tennis was making the rounds on Twitter today, and to be honest it didn't surprise me much. It seems the centre court matches at Wimbledon are not decided on seeding or talent so much as the looks of the players. I was looking at this picture of Serena Williams and I couldn't help but think what a wicked athlete she is. Those biceps...

If you remember, Anna Kournikova was never ranked higher than 8th in the WTA, and never won a Grand Slam, a Major, or an Olympic Medal. Yet she was always on centre stage courts, got huge endorsements and transitioned into a successful modeling career.

I want to see the best players in the marquee matches. I want to be challenged and to think about what athletic excellence means.


PS. ESPN still holds a hottest female athlete online constest every year. Seems a little outdated to me. Frat boys, what can you do. Please recommend this post

Download This

Download the MP3 and share it. Pass the link around to all your friends. Maybe even your ex-friends. Not to mention future friends, casual acquaintances, parole officers, one night stands, and so on.

Update: Forgot to mention the MP3 has no DRM. It is intened to be shared freely. Please recommend this post

Carrington Fire Apparently Arson

My 80 something mother had been living at the Carrington Assisted living apartments in Edmonton. She lived in the building on 106st and 40th avenue. On May 31, in the middle of the night, the building went on fire and over 200 seniors were out on the street. Miraculously, none of them were hurt. The EFD, EPD and passers by did a great job in making sure everyone got out in time.

The western wing of the building went up in flames and was destroyed completely. The east wing where my mother's suite was, was thoroughly damaged by water. None of these seniors will return to the building as it is condemned and it is unlikely any personal effects can be recovered.

The Carrington facility at Riverbend was under capacity so they took in most of the displaced seniors on short notice. However, imagine the circumstances of having no personal possessions, no furniture. This was a highly traumatic event for people who shouldn't have to deal with something like this at their age.

TV's and couches can be replaced by insurance. But family bibles and love letters from the 1940's are gone forever.

The City of Edmonton announced this morning that the fire is believed to have been deliberately set and the EPD is investigating. The fire was briefly discussed in the AB Leg QP a few weeks ago, relative to fire code adherence and evacuation protocols. As expected, the Government said everything was fine.

Check with the Salvation Army or Red Cross in Edmonton to see if they still need donations of money or personal effects. Or phone Riverbend facility at (780) 433-2223 to see if they still need anything.

Update: Edit for Clarity. The Whitemud facility burned down. Most Seniors were relocated to the Riverbend facility which was under capacity. Please recommend this post

Unintended Widget Side Effect

I've been using the newest version of blogger templates for a few months now. Generally I like them better. These templates support some custom xml tags that allow easy integration of generic widgets. If you look to the right you will see a widget that displays a list of blogs and their latest post, with the leading text. I like this widget and don't mind promoting other blogs. I you want your blog over there drop me a line and tell me I'm the sexiest person you've ever seen.

The side effect is the text from other blogs gets built into my html on the server side when the page is built. Then google ends up indexing it as if it were my content. So if you google some phrase you may end up on a blogger site and be mystified why you were sent there. The widget updates content quite frequently.

I'm not sure if this is considered a bug or not, or just a weird side effect of dynamic content. Depends on your viewpoint. Please recommend this post

Lying For Jesus. Part...Sorry Lost Count

I was surprised when I mistyped my blog URL and found out that a wacky Christian cult had registered www.rwmcbean.blogpot.com to host their dubious bible studies. The web site titled LIFE IS A TEST.ORG looks a bit suspicious to me. It could be a spam/spyware repository, or maybe there's even a back door to child porn. You never know these days. You never know with these type of people.

Anyway, I dropped them a note in their contact form and like clockwork their Jesus-bot responded:

Dear rwmcbean,

We want to thank you for your guestbook message.
The administrator has to revise your message first, therefor it is not visible yet.

Your entry ( Today at 03:08 ):
---------------
your choice of URL makes you a liar and a thief.
---------------

our guestbook:
---------------
http://www.bibledesk.com/cgi-bin/firebook/firebook.cgi
---------------

best regards,
i-dreams.net Gästebuch Team

It raises some ethical questions, but I'm not really angry. I just think its kind of ironic unethical people are cranking out bible studies.

Do you think I'm being too hard on them? Please recommend this post

Eds new BFF

The one and only sentence in the press release: Premier Ed Stelmach met with His Excellency Lan Lijun, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Canada.

In keeping with the opaque operations of the GOA, God only knows what Ed is discussing with the Ambassador of China. After Bill44, I may be better off not knowing. But they do look happy together.

Could be they're discussing China's stake in the Alberta Oil Sands.

Maybe Ed is reassuring the Ambassador that he will never ever be in a photo op with the Dalai Lama.

Maybe they're discussing ways to subvert human rights, environmentalism, or how to kill citizen engagement. China does a pretty good job of terrorizing people into silence. Maybe they're not discussing the Tiananmen Square massacre that didn't occur.

Or maybe, with the Chinese Government taking over the GM Hummer division, they're discussing plans to build a Hummer that runs on Bitumen.

All lame sarcasm aside, the fact is we'll never know what goes on in that office. Ed Stelmach campaigned on a new era of transparency, but it turns out he has a different dictionary than everyone else.

Please recommend this post

Ashamed

I stayed up late to listen to the final reading of Bill 44 in the Alberta Legislature and to follow the Twitter feeds from #ableg and #bill44.   About 1:30 MST the bill was passed 35 to 7.  Half the PC Caucus didn't bother showing up. The Premier came in late just in time to vote and didn't listen or participate in the final debate.  As an additional insult to the Opposition members they invoked closure, which may have saved them a whole ten minutes.  Petty and undemocratic.

The 7 opposition members raised one compelling argument after another against this horrible law. The government provided nothing useful, and tossed out brainless cliches like the silent majority and severely normal Albertans.  That's the problem when you govern on the advice of special interest groups, you pretty much have to turn your brain off.  

When they started talking about natural families it was a dead give away they were pandering to homophobes, but homophobes who chose to stay in the shadows.

Bill 44 is indefensible and I'm ashamed.

Please recommend this post

Time to test Torture Theory

The alleged murderer of Dr. George Tiller, who is now in custody, may be part of a larger terror cell planning more killings. Presumably the supporters of torture in the war on terror would agree that torturing this suspect would be prudent, and would help settle the debate over whether torture is an effective tool.

I say waterboard the man. See if there are any other ticking time bomb snipers out there.

Yes, I'm in a *great* mood today, thanks for asking. Please recommend this post

Children of a Stupid God

...he's our child and is a very very bad boy...

Please recommend this post

Dear Brain

I really hate it when you walk by some thing 20 times a day and your brain chirps at you we really ought to do something with that thing,  and you talk back to your brain ok ok,  maybe tomorrow. Then tomorrow comes and you remember and you say to your brain,  where's that thing we were supposed to do something with and your brain says,  what thing?  and you say that thing we saw 20 times yesterday.  And your brain say, no idea what you're talking about hummina hummina hummina....

I also hate it when I wake up at 4am with a brilliant idea that's going to revolutionize some software project I'm working on. Before noon the next day I will have mentioned it to someone only to have them tell me what a completely shitty idea it is.  I know they're right.  They know I know they're right.  They know I was up at 4am "thinking".  I vow never to be a visionary again, and to only do dull and repetitive work.

Thank you for your forbearance.  Please proceed to the next item in your reader. Oh,wait. The McGarrigles and Emmylou Harris:

Please recommend this post

Karma and the Prop 8 Ruling

On the same day that the California Supreme court released its ruling on the request to overturn Propisition 8, the Alberta Legislature continues to debate Bill 44.  There is some irony there and both Twitter feeds are fascinating and highly emotional.

The key issue in the California ruling is the sad reality that referendums can be used to alter the State's constitution, even in areas that affect minority rights.  This is basically what the Reform/Alliance party wanted for Canada. 

If there's any sunshine in this ruling, its that payback is a bitch.  The precedent has now been set and can actively be used by liberals just as well as conservatives.  If a referendum is passed demanding all Christians die their hair read, so be it.  No recourse.  

And I'm sure they wouldn't try to overturn such a thing in the courts, because as we all know they're against judicial activism.

The other good news is that gay marriage will be legal in California eventually, definitely within 5 years. Its too fundamental to be held back

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