- Today is an overcast day with little seeming threat of rain. Just cloudy and gray, a light wind shuffling the falling leaves around the yard and the streets. It finally feels like Autumn.
- Jim, over on Facebook, posted a link a few days ago to a puppy cam. The camera seems to be set over the bed of six adorable Shiba Inu puppies, who rarely stray from their enclosure (though it doesn’t appear that they can’t just walk out at will). I found myself watching it for about five minutes then, after slapping myself out of a Hallmark trance, decided to embed the puppy cam feed on this site. There it is, in the upper right corner of this page. I think this particular puppy cam will last another two or three weeks, after which the puppies will locate to their new homes.
- I get really fed up with the RSS feed to Paste Music’s website. It is constantly giving out error messages, so that, as often as not, what you see on Spitball Army is an html script meaning nothing. That is purpose-defeating. I have replaced it with an RSS feed to No Depression‘s news listings, which are probably more interesting, anyway.
- Speaking of No Depression, I was really sad when they “folded” late last year. Not only was their bi-monthly publication consistently interesting and well-written and filled with good humor and enthusiasm, but the small staff was a joy to deal with, from a retailer’s viewpoint. They have revived their website (http://www.nodepression.com/) and have just resumed publication. I can guess that the cost of running a website is infinitely less expensive than printing and distributing a paper magazine (besides the fact that is infinitely more “green”). And readers don’t have to wait two months between fixes. For example, this morning’s update featured a review of a John Doe/Kathleen Edwards concert that had me feeling green (“green with envy,” that is). The new publication format – the paper version – is being called a “bookazine,” a 144-page thicker version of the magazine. It can be ordered at http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/ald76p.html, or purchased from an independent bookseller near you (I ordered my copy from Little Professor – (205) 870-7461 – in Homewood just this morning, and their stated turn-around time is only a couple of days).
- After visiting Little Professor and the Homewood post office, I stopped by Tria Market to grab a quick lunch. If you live in this area, you probably already have heard of the disappearance of Nadia Kersh, who has been a cashier and deli server there practically since the store’s opening two or three years ago. I talked to a couple of the long-time employees who were working today and asked how it’s been since she vanished. One of them told me that it is a constant topic of conversation; at least every other customer seems to want to ask about or talk about her. I was no exception, as you just found out. I used to go into Tria nearly daily, as my shop was separated from the market only by a parking lot. Nadia was a fixture there, and always greeted me by name, and would pull the newest photograph of her baby out of her pocket to show him off to me. I’m really hoping that she returns safely, but it has been over a week now since she was last seen and the hope supply is beginning to run low.
- Tonight is the season premiere of Top Chef, one of my favorite shows. This time around, the competition is based in New York City and, rumor has it, the challenge tonight is themed around the ethnicity of The City’s many boroughs. Top Chef is not the usual mindless reality-competition show, and there is ample opportunity for the contestants to show off some culinary brilliance. I recommend it.
- More food news: local star chef Frank Stitt has just published his second book, Bottega Favorita, named after his restaurant of the same name. Bottega is my favorite of his Birmingham restaurants, so it may be fun to attempt to duplicate some of the meals I’ve had there from this new book. I’ll let you know how it works. There is a big-ass pile of these books at Little Professor, as well, but I resisted today.
- At the risk of getting beat upside the head by someone, I would like to very loudly protest the premature idea of an “Obama Holiday,” which the mid-day announcers on MSNBC are describing as a proposed holiday to celebrate the election of America’s first African-American president. C’mon…we’re talking about this before he even takes the oath of office? Let’s allow him to fix the ailing economy, get our troops back home and shut down these endless wars, put a wind turbine in every backyard…you know, DO SOMETHING!! Then, once he’s proven to be the great president that we are hoping he’ll be, let’s talk about an Obama Holiday. But at this point in the timeline, we ought to just as well propose a George W. Bush Holiday, since he’s the main reason we were fortunate enough to get Barack Obama elected. Or a Clinton Holiday (first president from Arkansas), or a JFK Holiday (first Irish-Catholic president),…you get the picture. Those guys were Arkansan and Irish-Catholic before they were President, and imagine how immensely proud their fellow Arkansans and Irish-Catholics must have felt, and still do feel. Maybe we should just finally make the annual Fall election day a national holiday (we could call it Obama Day, since it was, in essence, his coming-out day), and treat that day with the focused respect it deserves.
Spitball Army
Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space.
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