:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Sunday, May 29, 2005 ::

If I was in charge... Part 3

Manufacturers of digital clocks would be required to include capacitors enabling them to retain their settings through a brief power outage or accidental unplugging -- violation punishable by several years of hard labor.
:: Ray 6:14 PM [+] ::
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Promotion overload

It's not every day that I get to work only to see Don King bloviating on a podium outside my office, weighing in a couple of boxers in front of a gaggle of press. Meanwhile, across the street, Crunch Gym is leading a scantily clad co-ed aerobics class. Don King, heavyweight boxers, skinny guys in boxers, and chicks in sports bras, all in a light drizzle...an unusual day, even for Michigan Avenue at the Chicago River.
:: Ray 12:42 PM [+] ::
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Brownie update

To ease a craving (not a pregnancy one) of Mary's, over the weekend I again baked the organic brownie mix that I screwed up so badly the first time I tried it. This time I got it right, and they turned out pretty darned good. I will buy the Up Country Organics box again.
:: Ray 11:10 PM [+] ::
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Plumbing woes

As time goes by, I have fewer and fewer nice things to say about whomever did what passes for plumbing in my house, which is at an age where I find myself replacing things like drain pipes as they rot away. However, simply swapping in new parts doesn't always fix the problem, or if it does, a new problem is revealed, caused by the sheer stupidity of the Rube Goldberg-ian assemblages of plumbing hardware that this person installed (not to mention the hot and cold water taps in the shower that both turn the wrong way). The result in the current case is that I now have to make my third trip to the hardware store to fix the kitchen sink drain. Gah!
:: Ray 10:54 PM [+] ::
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Ummm....

I know there can be different angles on a story, but this is ridiculous:
Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2005: Emmett Till kin blasts exhumation plan
Chicago Sun-Times, May 5, 2005: Till's relatives back exhumation

I hadn't heard of Emmett Till before this. He was beaten to death in Mississippi by racists in 1955, and his mother insisted on an open casket funeral so that everybody could see what had happened to her son. Photos of the body played a major role in sparking the civil rights movement.

An autopsy was never performed, and now investigators want to exhume the body to see if it might reveal new clues about additional participants in his murder beyond the two who were acquitted but later confessed. Apparently, his surviving relatives are divided on the issue, along with Chicago's newspapers.
:: Ray 1:12 AM [+] ::
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Call me a cynic

Is it me, or did the Postal Service conspire with Hallmark this year to make most Mothers' Day cards require extra postage?
:: Ray 4:45 PM [+] ::
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