Month: September 2004

Has your employer asked you to relocate, but given you a choice between Piscataway, New Jersey, Kochi, Japan, and Zhuzhou, China? Have I got the site for you!

Last call for Louisville tourist advice. I’m flying out there tomorrow night and get back Sunday evening.

No Wilmer-Hutchins story in today’s paper. To commemorate this unusual event, I share a tale of fast food.
Three times in the last month or so, I’ve worked late and skipped dinner. Each time, I’ve woken up the next morning hungry and in a rush. So, against the medical advice of generations of physicians, I’ve stopped at a McDonald’s downtown.
Three times I have stopped at this McDonald’s for a quickie breakfast. Three times they have screwed up my order.
My order is not complex. Each time I have requested a bacon, egg and cheese bagel and a water. Nothing outrageous there; it’s on the frickin’ menu. For my three attempts, I have received:
– A bagel with a slice of cheese on it, an unordered hash brown, and water.
– A plain bagel, a single slice of bacon loose in the bag, and water.
– (Today) A bagel with roughly one quarter pound of bacon and an unexplained cup of coffee.
Is there a global egg shortage I’m unaware of? I was under the impression that the ingredients list of my order was fairly direct: a bacon, egg and cheese bagel consists of bacon, eggs, cheese, and a bagel.
I keep waiting for new variations. Perhaps next time the bag will include an egg, but it will be soft boiled. Or instead of cheese, I’ll get some old milk in a leather pouch, along with instructions on the curd-making process. Or maybe they’ll just hand me an ovulating chicken. Perhaps the bagel will be magically transformed into a donut. Or a rubber tire. Or a baby marmoset.

Illinois voters — if they have both a libertarian and lefty bent, or perhaps problems reading the ballot — will have the opportunity to vote for both John Kerry and Jerry Kohn.
No word yet on whether Kerry John will face Kohn Jerry for state comptroller.

Stolen shamelessly from Kristin: Twinkies sushi.

More Wilmer-Hutchins, today’s front page: “An administrative assistant to Wilmer-Hutchins’ maintenance director said Tuesday that she watched her boss destroy a stack of purchase orders that he asked her to assemble. She said he was acting on direct orders from Superintendent Charles Matthews. The district’s police chief confirmed that he found a stack of torn-up purchase orders in a trash bin behind the district’s maintenance building last Wednesday.”
Also, this sidebar, on the district’s attempts to shore up its image before next week’s election.

Mad props to Friend-of-Crabwalk (and too occasional commenter) Kim, who snagged herself a young Minnesotan fiance over the weekend.

Two stories from Sunday’s paper: a piece on the politics surrounding the upcoming Wilmer-Hutchins bond election, and a follow-up to the W-H lawyer story Saturday.
Also, watch Sunday’s paper for a (long-delayed) Zambia story of mine.

A rare three-pronged sports update:
– Alas, Chanda’s aged wiles proved too little to take down the mighty Venus. But she put up a good fight, losing 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. In the first set, Chanda broke three set points. I’m telling you: give her two functioning knees and she can still compete.
– Did you know you have to be a jock to be a Rhodes Scholar? I knew the Rhodes used to have a reputation for having a preference for athletes (e.g., Whizzer White), but I never realized it was one of the four stated requirements. (“[E]nergy to use one

YAWHS. I’ll let the opening speak for itself: “The Wilmer-Hutchins school district’s chief attorney was suspended by the State Bar of Texas last year, and at least once during the suspension he used the state bar identification number of a lawyer who has been dead for 20 years.”