Today’s Daily Snippet

Incident Type: Traffic Hazard - Loose Animal
Location: SB BIRD LANDING RD JSO 113
info as of: 2/13/2007 8:21:04 AM

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

7:33AM RP ADV HER EMPLOYEE WHO WAS DRIVING TK CONTINUED, DID NOT SEE WHERE COW LANDED
7:31AM UNK IF COW IN RWY
7:31AM RED 3 AXLE WORK TK VS COW
7:31AM LEFT TURN AT STOP SIGN TOWARDS COLLINSVILLE 2-3 MILES ON CURVE TOWARDS JERICO

Don’t you just love how it sounds like a Mortal Kombat event. Truck vs. Cow. Choose Your Destiny! Animality! Truck WINS! Waaaa ha ha ha ha!

Apparently the truck driver hit the cow so hard it flew and landed somewhere outside their field of vision. Who hits an animal on the road and doesn’t stop to see if it’s ok??

I remember one evening in college, I was driving home from work, and at the time, I lived about 10 minutes away, down a long dark highway…THUMP THUMP!

What the hell was that? Turns out it was a rabbit…I could have cared less about any damage to the car, I was just sick that I’d hit something and probably killed it. Unfortunately, it was so dark that I could not see into the ditch areas to see if the animal was there. There wasn’t any evidence on the highway, other than what I had seen as it ran in front of the car.

A cow is a bit different. I would venture to say that if you hit a cow, there’s going to be significant damage to your vehicle, and there’s no way you could “lose” the cow in the process. There will be plenty of evidence, and likely the cow hasn’t gone very far, given the fact that most of them weigh enough to not remain airbourn long.

I’m the kind of person who saves drowning worms in a rainstorm…call me crazy (and you probably just did), but if I hit something, I’m sure as heck gonna stop and do something about it.

For those of you hip and cool bloggers out there, I’m sure you are familiar with the wildly popular NPR show, Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me - The NPR News Quiz. Well we had the fantabulous opportunity to attend a taping of the show on Friday night, at UC Berkeley, in cold, wet, and rainy California. (sacbee coverage of the event)

Since Berkeley is only about 1.5 hours from Sacramento (assuming moderate traffic), there was no way we were going to miss out on this opportunity, especially given that Paula Poundstone was going to be on the show, and who doesn’t adore Paula Poundstone?

So way back in November, Rachelle’s friend Victoria notified her that the show was going to be taping in Berkeley. Rachelle immediately contacted me, because David & I had introduced her to the show, and she knew that I would want to get in on some tickets. Within an hour, we had four tickets, and even with purchasing them months ahead of the program, we were up in the nosebleed seats. The hall sold out in no time! You know all those liberals in the bay area :-).

Anyway…months went by, and finally it was time for us to go to the Friday night show, 9 February 2007. So off we went. Traffic was pretty light on the highway, and we actually arrived well ahead of time, giving us an opportunity to check out the local cuisine.

David noticed a falafel place just down the way, and we made a bee-line. Victoria is a vegetarian, so this was a perfect spot for everyone. Hummus, babaganosh (which they were out of), falafel, pita, and diet coke for good measure - made for a delicious and healthy meal before the show.

Then we were off to the show, to pick up tickets at Will Call, and find out just how nose-bloody these seats were going to be. The show was at Zellerbach hall, on the campus of the university, and it turned out to be a very nice venue for the show. Unlike many halls of this nature, this place was not very deep, but very steep, so we actually didn’t have too bad of seats.

The real issue, was that they did not have the speakers turned on that were above our heads, so there were times when the audience was laughing so hysterically, we couldn’t hear some of the things that the panelists were saying…and believe you me, there were times when the audience simply couldn’t stop laughing - unfortunately, you’ll probably never hear it on the air due to editing for time.

One new thing for this show, were two sign language interpreters. Obviously, that’s not typical for a radio show, but there were hearing impaired folks in the audience, so it was a nice touch. One of the most hilarious parts of the evening involved the panelists saying things that were somewhat awkward for the interpreters to sign…mostly “that was like crapping a pineapple” - a Ronald Reagan quote…you’ll have to listen to the show to understand.

Anyway…the panelists this time were Sue Ellicott, Adam Felber, and Paula Poundstone (you can read about the panelists on the website) - and the special celebrity guest to play “Not My Job”, was Linda Ronstadt. How cool is that? But honestly, Paula Poundstone was the one I was there to see, because I’d emailed with her manager (the wonderful Bonnie Burns), and knew she would be doing a book signing after the show.

The theatre was set up with the production crew right on the stage, the three panelists, a fancy chair and rug for the celebrity guest, two podiums for Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal, and chairs for the interpreters. Plus a big sign in the back with the show logo.

The program began with a swirling ball of colour and exciting music as the cast members appeared on stage. Peter worked the audience for a bit, explaining how the show would run, and then it began, and taped for about 90 minutes, then they went back and re-taped a few of the audio segments that needed clearer audio. (I won’t give away all the secrets - you’ll have to listen to the show)

The audience provided quite a bit of laughter in the background (which was not fake - the show is incredibly hilarious), and of course the panelists throw in their thoughts now and then. After the show, Peter and Carl went out into the audience, and allowed people to ask questions. Mostly the questions were about how the show works, how they pick guests, and what kinds of answering machine messages Carl records for game winners (they even played an example of one, where Carl sang a little song - apparently the winners can basically have him say anything they want on their machine).

And speaking of the game players/winners - Rachelle had emailed the producer of the show ahead of time asking about venue and directions, and was subsequently picked to be the audience player/contestant for this show. That meant that if Linda Ronstadt got her questions right, Rachelle would win Carl’s voice on her voicemail. Unfortunately, Linda only got one question right, and so tragically, Rachelle’s only fame is having her name called out by Carl.

After the show, we went downstairs where Adam Felber was signing copies of his new book, and Rachelle had a quick chat with the producer. We then went into the theatre, and got Paula Poundstone to sign copies of her book that we’d brought with us…both of them had already been signed with “book plates“, but we wanted to actually chat with her, and get a live signature. I had actually told Rachelle before we left, that my expectation of the entire evening was to get a chance to chat with Paula and have her sign her book. Expectation met!
But that wasn’t were we stopped. Rachelle quickly found Carl, and informed him that she was indeed the player/contestant from the evening, and begged him to do her voicemail. He was very gracious, and told her she’d have to work that out with the producer…and Rachelle was only too happy to do so, since she’d already spoken with the producer, and had one of those “day-relationships” with her - you know where you meet someone for the first time, become best friends, then never talk to them again :-).

Anyway…after Rachelle schmoozed with the producer a bit more, still working the “please let Carl record my voicemail” card, we headed home around 11pm, filled with laughter and glee from the evening performance. We’re not sure when they will air the show, as this one is one that they play when the cast is on holiday…we’ve got the Easter holidays coming up, so be on the lookout for a show featuring Linda as the celebrity guest - you’re sure to hear some of us laughing in the background, and you’ll hear Rachelle’s name called out.

[ratings]

Now that you’ve watched the video, what do you think? (not about the horrendous interview capabilities of Paula Z, but about the F word, although I was about to smack her for constantly saying “The Gays”…it’s not a surname Paula dear.)

Personally, I’ve used the word. Probably in the same way that the black community uses the “n” word. I use it amongst my friends, because I don’t use it in a derogatory manner against someone. Besides, it would be a little bit of pot, kettle, black for me to use it that way, since I fall into the same category :-).

But in all seriousness - I’m curious whether people who are both in and out of the community find this word to be offensive, derogatory, or nothing really much to talk about?

If you’d also like to provide some commentary on the outlandishness of the video, that’s fine too…

This disgusts me.

The right to blog and the right to remain private or face consequences because of a blog or MySpace page is coming into sharper focus in Amarillo after Tejas Broadcasting officials fired a KBZD Energy 99.7 disc jockey Monday morning for sexual content on a MySpace page created for the station and on another for himself the company said was “inappropriate and inconsistent” with the company’s policies.

[...]

Vicki Wilmarth, an Amarillo attorney who specializes in employment law, said this was the first instance that an employer-employee conflict concerning a MySpace page had erupted so publicly in Amarillo.

For Wilmarth, the debate centers on two issues.

The first, she said, was Pascullo can’t claim that anything he posts on the Internet is private.

“(Employers) have a right to look on the Internet just like anyone else,” Wilmarth said.

The second issue is that homosexuality isn’t a protected class for discrimination.

“They are not breaking any law by discriminating against somebody on the basis of their homosexuality,” Wilmarth said. [Link]

First off - she’s right. Employers do have that right, and I’ve personally used it when doing hiring evaluations. I google people’s name, and see what comes up. More often than not, they have already given me their website address on a resume, but I always like to check to see what’s out there, especially if I’m looking for skills related to web design.

Second off - she’s right again. In most states it is still completely legal to discriminate based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity. There are only NINE states that protect GLBT employees. That’s right, NINE. You can be a superior employee, and be fired just because you are gay, whether it has anything to do with your job or not. Comforting isn’t it? For those of you who live in the multitude of states that permit that…what are you doing there??

Third off - apparently saying you are gay is now “sexual content”. But I suppose for all those folks on myspace.com who have “straight” listed as sexual orientation, that has no sexual connotation at all, so we can just ignore them. But if it says anything else, bi, gay, questioning, unsure, well then we better just fire them because that’s naughty and perverted and condoning sex! (Can’t we take the sexual out of homo, and hetero, and bi?)

Fourth off - he wasn’t flashing about his naughty bits on myspace, and he wasn’t soliciting people for sex. Did they actually READ the profile? The news/media seems to be able to report the “concerning” text of the profile, and there’s nothing there that’s all that troublesome, but then I forget…we certainly wouldn’t want the good god fearing citizens of the planet to have impure thoughts, now would we?

I’ll let you in on a little secret…I’m having an impure thought about this stuff right now and it has nothing to do with the word “gay“.

Last night, a murky blueish haze began to form across the midtown and downtown Sacramento area. We did not have a lot of wind last night from the delta breezes, so the gas stayed where it was. Unfortunately, this wasn’t gas that we really wanted to have.

Sacramento filled with poo gas last night.

We’d had a wonderful evening of food and merriment at Tapa the World, in midtown Sacramento, enjoying a wide variety of yummy dishes like kobe beef, filet mignon, garlic mushrooms, rosemary foccacia, etc. We went back home to enjoy some dessert and wine, when suddenly we began to smell poo gas. It wasn’t 100% a poo smell, but it was poo mixed with toot, mixed with chemical.

At first, I was sure that it was Siobhan. She’d had some shots the previous day during her comprehensive exam at the vet, and sometimes that tends to make her gassy. And besides, I was sitting near here, and so I just made the assumption that the gas smell was coming from her. But soon, we realized that it was not Siobhan making that smell.

Our guests left, and as we walked outside, the smell intensified to epic proportions. There was a blueish haze across the landscape, and we realized there was a much bigger problem here. Was our sewage backing up?? Had there been some type of chemical spill in the area?? Were we under attack by some radical Poo-Terrorists??

We ran back inside and David started scanning the news for any reports on the issue. I checked all of the news stations online and could not find anything. Soon, it was late and I needed to get to bed, but David decided to stay up and continue investigating. He called news stations, and got nowhere. They thought it might be the smell of rotting leaves in the system.

Then he tried the fire department non-emergency line, but was redirected to a voicemail. Then he got fed up and dialed 911 from his cell phone. This routed him to the highway patrol who then routed him to the West Sacramento 911 service. They then routed him to the downtown fire patrol. It was then that he finally reached a wonderfully rude woman who advised him that they were getting numerous calls about the smell.

At first, she lied to him, and told him that it was the smell of leaves rotting. Then she revealed the true nature of the problem. Sacramento’s sewer system had backed up, and they had been forced to do something they hadn’t done in over 10 years. They had to activate “the grinders“. I don’t even want to know.

If Sacramento is creating so much solid waste that we have to activate “the grinders“…something that hasn’t been done in 10 years…what on earth are the people in midtown eating?? It must have been a huge party weekend to create so much poo that we had to activate a decades-old system to deal with it.

Anyway…the system causes a lot of gas to be released when it grinds the waste, and since there was no wind last night, it went the only place it could. All across the landscape, settling into our streets and homes.

And that is the story of Poo Gas in Sacramento, on 2 December 2006.

MSNBC: The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that bloggers and participants in Internet bulletin board groups cannot be sued for posting defamatory statements made by others.

In deciding a case closely watched by free speech groups, the court said a federal law gives immunity from libel suits not only to Internet service providers, like AOL, but also to bloggers and other users of their services. [Link]

Looks like you can haul out those old letters from people saying bad things about others…you can’t be sued now, but the original author can. So blog on and repost away!

Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they’ll get hurt and hold the school liable. [Link]

I’m sorry but this is just ridiculous. Apparently, our litigious society has now taken all the fun out of even being a child.

I remember the best (and worst) days of elementary school being those when the weather was cool outside, and everyone rushed out to beat me to the ground with the big rubber dodge ball…or the three legged races that ended with me having a face full of dirt and sand…or sliding down the metal slide after a warm morning and having 3rd degree burns on the backs of my legs (this didn’t really happen to me)…or chasing all the cute girls around the playground trying to kiss them…

Gosh…I might have fallen! I might have gotten a cut! A piece of metal might have blown into my eye requiring a magnetic drill to get it out (this one really happened to me)! I might have *gasp* been a kid!

“I’m sorry Mr. Principal, we’re suing you and the school board for $18 million dollars, because our little Sally got dirt on her nose today while swinging on the jungle gym. Dirt is unacceptable in society, and you and the school board should have taken measures to clean it up so that children would not be smudged.”

I want life back…