Michael Vick, the quarterback you want on your team if you can't figure out how to get rid of your coach, has finished serving his 23-month federal sentence for running a dog-fighting ring. And now he gets his NFL sentence.
It's not as though he's been out on the field these past two years, but commissioner Roger Goodell has decided that, if he turns out to be the fine, upstanding young man rehabilitated criminals are supposed to turn into, he can start playing long about Week 6 this year.
To put that in perspective, Donte' Stallworth got in a car drunk at 7:00 one morning and hit a construction worker who darted out in the middle of the street, killing him. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and served 24 days of a 30-day sentence. Technically, he's suspended from football, but he's expected to play most of the year.
The thinking goes, Vick was running an interstate gambling ring, while Stallworth wasn't really to blame, he probably would have hit the worker even if he was sober. Stallworth is only a few years younger than I am; I'm guessing he had pretty much the same driving instruction I did, which means he spent a lot of time with people yelling, "don't drink and drive!" at him.
Drinking and then getting behind the wheel is pretty close to the worst thing you can do as a human, we were more or less told in driver's ed, high school, youth groups, college, you name it.
I'm not saying Vick's a good guy for fighting pitbulls and killing the weak and the old ones. That's despicable, too. But he's paid a debt to society and to his career. This additional suspension is going to damn this season for him, too.
Anybody willing to spend Michael Vick money probably needs a quarterback now, not in Week 6. Sure, he can practice now, which means a team could sign him and start working with him, but he'd miss the first few games. Enough games to put a team out of it, if they have to go with their second- or third-choice quarterback.
Now that Brett Favre has actually retired (we think), maybe the Vikings would be willing to live with Tarvaris Jackson for a few weeks and then look at Vick to bail them out the rest of the way. I can't see him going anywhere else.
Any team willing to take him would, of course, have to deal with the protests from animal rights groups, who always turn out in force when they're angry. Personally, that's a headache I'm willing to deal with as an owner—sure they're loud, but it's not like they're football fans. Ticket sales aren't going to suffer.
Fighting pitbulls? Bad. Spending 18 months at Leavenworth and another 5 under house arrest? Adequate punishment. Further keeping him out of the career he has made for himself? Really, you're just giving him a month and a half to get back into trouble.
I mentioned a couple of months ago that one of the first voices I ever fell in love with was that of Margo Timmins of the . I had taken a copy of the out of the library.
Trinity turns 20 this year, and they're re-recording it and taking it on tour, , the whole bit. I didn't know then that it would be a seminal album, the way I knew Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" would be loved by millions of people across decades. I thought it was my little secret.
It wasn't.
Margo and brother Michael, who did much of the writing on that album (although not for "Sweet Jane," above, which was a Velvet Underground tune), are on To the Best of Our Knowledge this week. You can online if your local public radio station doesn't carry it.
The summer is a difficult time for the . Not only is there an elevated need for blood – there are more accidents and people are out of the house more – but there's a short supply: the blood drives that take place at high schools and colleges don't occur in the summer, and even regular donors go on vacation, so maybe they give every 12 weeks instead of every eight.
I had a really busy spring, and didn't make it for my eight-week donation, so they started calling me. Daily. Sometimes twice a day, six days a week.
Eventually, I complained via , just throwing it out there. A couple of people said they had the same problem. And while the Red Cross didn't respond via one of their Twitter accounts, the phone calls stopped.
Then, today, in the mail, I got a letter from Barbara Wheeler, the Manager of Operations for the Regional Telerecruitment Department for the New York-Penn Region. It started like this:
Please accept our sincerest apologies regarding the excessive number of recruitment calls you have received for blood drives in your area. We deeply regret the inconvenience these calls have caused.
The letter goes on to say they've taken me off their recruitment call list, and that they're looking at their system for calling people.
What this means is, not only did they listen to me, they heard me on a medium I wasn't sure they were using and took the time to look me up in their system. After they found me, they drafted a letter, but waited to be sure they had an actual solution in place to send it.
That's some really good customer service. I'm impressed.
You're sick? You're broke? No energy? You wish someone would just make you some chicken soup?
Quit your whining. Here's how you do it, on a budget, and quickly.
You'll need:
• 6 drumsticks ($1.42) [You could splurge $5 and get a whole chicken, but I'm trying to keep it cheap for you].
• 1 can of chicken stock (69 cents)
• 1 large onion (99 cents)
• 1 large potato (79 cents) [optional]
• 4 carrots (50 cents)
• 2 celery stalks (30 cents)
[With the drumsticks and the potato, we're at $4.69.]
Put the chicken in a pot, skin and all. Pour the chicken stock in there, put some water on, put it on high heat.
Peel the onion, and chop it into quarters (it will separate), and drop it in the water. Peel and chop the potato, add it to the water. Chop the carrots and celery, add them to your soup.
With me? We're at, what, 6 minutes, and less than $5?
Here's the tough part: wait until it comes to a boil. Stir.
Turn the heat down to medium and cover, then go take a 2-hour nap (seriously, you're sick, you need the rest).
When you wake up, pick up each drumstick with some tongs, the skin and meat should more or less fall right off the bone (you may have to encourage it with a fork). You can toss the bones, and it's up to you whether you leave the skin in the soup or not (it's got kind of a strange consistency, you might want to pull it out).
You're all set to eat, now. Get better.
Last week's Weekend Edition puzzle was awesome. It was the 20th anniversary, and the whole crew turned out.
I've been cleaning house lately, organizing, reorganizing. So far it's netted me two trash bags, three recycle bins, and a dining room that is definitely a fire hazard. But it's getting better. It's all in an effort to help me reorganize some of what I'm doing these days.
In reorganizing, I found something from my days at , where I edited a bi-weekly newspaper and wrote for several weeklies before I moved to Syracuse. Here it is, typos, grammar errors and all:
Notes from the belfry
By Josh Shear
Editor, The Journal BravoHere's tidbits, observations, and ruminations that have crossed my mind and eyes in recent weeks.
*** First, a little correction. Cindy Bow got her tattoo in Vermont before the art of tattooing was legal in Massachusetts, not before it was legal in the U.S.
*** Hershey's wins the Big Spender award for the summer sweepstakes contests. While some companies give away CDs, concert tickets, and trips to amusement parks, the Pennsylvania-based confectioner is offering a first prize of a $10 gift certificate.
Two out of three contestants, though, will win a bag of Hershey's candy – but to get their coupon, winners will have to send a three-by-five card in a Number Ten envelope to the company. I foresee a lot of people not bothering.
*** While I doubt there were actually 5,000 people at the Cracker concert at Stearn Square in Springfield July 10 as reported in the daily paper, the show was a blast, with frontman Dave Lowery tipping his hat to a youngster in the front with a sign. Also, kudos to the band for doing "Pictures of Matchstick Men," which was long a favorite cover of Lowery's former band, Camper Van Beethoven. Apparently, they're getting along now – they were on a co-bill in May when I was in Hollywood.
*** If you were one of the people Tim Owens ("TimmyT") handed a CD at the Cracker show, check out track two. Good stuff, buddy!
*** I like my music, and on occasion, my TV. Even though I work in an office with two people hooked on reality television, neither has ever come in raging about last night's programming – and I just don't get why some people do.
Check out (click on "archive") for letters about Ruben and Clay from American Idol. While I admit to having missed every single second of the show, I can't imagine why people put so much time and effort into the show. The Smoking Gun printed 10 letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission complaining about what they believe was a rigged election to make Ruben Stoddard this year's winner.
One woman wrote that she and her husband spent three hours trying to get through to vote and couldn't. Three hours? There has to be something better that could ahve been done with that time. But they're not the only ones – TSG printed a letter from a 56-year-old businesswoman from Colorado who also spent three hours trying to get through to vote for Clay.
And a man and his niece spent a lot of time actually getting through in weeks prior – the two one week made over 800 calls, and the next week, he made 621 on his own. THey only managed to get in a few dozen between them for the finals, though.
Ah, what people will do to amuse me.
*** This business has its ups and downs, but I have to say for the past four years, I've enjoyed being a part of the Reminder Publications team and, just as important, the role journalism has played both in my life and in the communities I've covered. It's off to the ivory towers for me, though, and I head soon to the graduate program at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Communications.
You can find me at my desk until August 8, but as this issue reaches stands, I pass the editorship of The Journal Bravo into the very capable hands of Sarah Corigliano, who has spent the past two years here at RPI as assistant editor of The Reminder.
It occurs to me that was a hopeful look. We're talking about mid-July of 2003.
We all know the newspaper industry has had more downs than ups since then, but that journalism is blooming – you no longer need a printed byline to practice good reportage.
I also found something entirely different when I moved to Syracuse. I expected to do a masters program, pretend to look for a job, then just do a PhD and lose myself in those towers. Instead, I have found people, communities, and a job in media, and I won't even think about a PhD for a long time, if ever. I'm getting so much more out of connecting with people and communities.
Beware of the possibility of more of this, by the way. My saintly father snipped and saved everything I had published over my four years on the newspaper, including the spaghetti suppers I reported on. I'm moving them to a more portable packaging method, and so memories are being stirred as I do so.
Unless you live in New York, you probably never hear what the state senate is doing. In fact, if you live here, there's a good chance you rarely hear about what's going on in the state senate. Until now, when it's been all over both local and national news.
It's got some playground bullying going on. Bear with the bit of background here; it gets funny, in a sad sort of way.
Last November, in keeping with what's been going on across the country, the face of the state senate shifted when Democrats were elected to 32 of the 62 seats.
Things started to get rough right off the bat, when three of those democrats had to be bribed with committee chairs in exchange for voting a democrat as senate leader, rather than a republican. The bribes were extended, then retracted, then I'm not sure, but democrat Malcolm Smith became majority leader, and the dems had a 32-30 majority.
Until June 8, when two democrats, Hiram Montserrate and Pedro Espada, jumped ship and 32 republicans voted Dean Skelos majority leader. The dems refused to recognize the change in leadership, and over the next two days, Montserrate returned to the dem camp and left the senate in a 31-31 deadlock.
Maybe this is a good time to mention that Montserrate is under indictment for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend, while Espada has been accused of violating some ethics something-or-other relating to campaign financing.
So at 31-31, with no clear leadership position and no quorum possible unless people from both parties show up, nothing's getting done. Here's where it gets fun.
One day early on, both parties decided they'd hold their own sessions, so they met separately in the same chamber.
Another day, they agreed on a 3 p.m. session. But the republicans had a secret plan to to meet at 2 p.m. and take the leadership positions so at least they'd appear to have the leadership roles. But the dems got wind of it, showed up at 12:30 (walking in through a back door) and took the podium. When the republicans walked in, they brought their own podium and gavel, and held session as if the democrats weren't sitting there.
They've had their ongoing disputes since then, and no business has been conducted. Gov. David Paterson has ordered a special session every day, so the senators can't go back to their districts; rather they tend to gavel in meetings then just gavel them out again.
The dems pulled another fast one last week, locking the front door to the lounge so that if any of the republicans wanted a cup of coffee, they'd have to walk through chambers. When one finally did, the 31 dems sitting in the senate chambers signed him in, making it 32 people present – a quorum. They began passing legislation by a voice vote (even though the republican by now was in the lounge having some joe).
Needless to say, Paterson opted not to sign the legislation.
So, we're still locked at 31-31, and senators get a $160 per diem when they're in Albany – which they've been required to be every day until this thing gets straightened out. The state comptroller isn't sure he's going to sign off on the paychecks, since they're not actually working.
I haven't been able to find a recall provision, and I haven't heard of anybody else having found one, so we might just be stuck with no movement and spending lots of money on nothing through the next election, which is in November of 2010.
In case you're wondering, this is what it takes to for a seat.