Brilliant Beagle

Any dog this clever deserves to run free: See Andrew Sullivan's Why I Love Beagles.

Weird Events

In the last few weeks some weird things have been happening in the New Orleans area, or not far from it:

KKK Reappears
A hitherto unknown enclave of the Ku Klux Klan was discovered about 60 miles northeast of New Orleans, a group of eight or so cretins who had gathered to induct a new member. The leader of the group ended up shooting and killing the new member because she got cold feet and wanted to back out of the deal and go home. The other members of the group helped him try to cover up the evidence and dispose of the body. The whole thing was done so clumsily police had little problem in finding the evidence. All was revealed within a short time. Police were tipped off to the shady doings when a clerk at a nearby convenience store told them two people he/she recognized had asked how to get blood out of clothing. Despite having signed an oath of secrecy to protect their fellow Klan members to the death, etc., the Klanners couldn't talk fast enough once police found them.

Neo-Nazi
Police in a New Orleans suburb arrested a man they saw walking down a street in full Nazi uniform, carrying a loaded 8mm Mauser. He told them he was planning to kill a neighbor with whom he'd argued about a dog. Subsequent news article say his family members say he has mental problems. No sh*t, Sherlock.

Mad Bomber
A car exploded in uptown New Orleans and police were able to determine the bomber lived nearby. They found his home was a stockpile of explosives. What do you want to bet his family members also will soon be reporting that he has psychiatric problems?

Handcuffed D.A.
Two judges at a local court had simultaneous hearings that involved the same assistant district attorney. One was in the middle of a several-days-long murder trial; the other had a pretrial hearing in a murder case that had been repeatedly postponed. Each insisted the A.D.A. had to be present in her or his court immediately. One judge came to the other's chambers and they argued. Finally, the judge with the pretrial hearing ordered the A.D.A. placed in handcuffs to keep him from going to the other courtroom. It was eventually settled when a higher-up in the D.A.'s office came down and pledged to handle the hearing while the targeted prosecutor was uncuffed and allowed to go back to the ongoing murder trial.

Scary things--sometimes kinda funny, except for what they portend.

Meming a Return: 6 Random Things

Nola over at NOLA Notes tagged me for a meme, and I thank her for the kick in the *ss to get me started back blogging again. Following the advice of my semiguru, Leo of Write to Done and Zen Habits, I won't explain or apologize for my absence, but jump back into the game. Here's the SIX RANDOM THINGS ABOUT ME meme:

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So, six random things you don’t already know about me:

1. I once worked as a decorating consultant in a branch store of a well-known national paint company. This was the early 70s and we decorating consultants were the first women who had ever worked in their stores. The idea was we would advise female customers on their choices in paint, wallpaper, and carpet-- i.e., sell the products. We were trained to know the products, but received no training in actual decorating or design. They hired pretty much any woman who was willing to work in a paint store around a bunch of male chauvinists who were alternately panting with lust over having an actual female in the store, or sneering at her for having the nerve to work in a male milieu. (Ah, how things have changed in the past 30 years.) I'm not noted for skill in interior design. Lucky for them I could coordinate colors, at least. I soon tired of mixing paint and lugging around wallpaper and carpet swatch books, and moved on to an office job, much more my preference.
   
2. I learned to play the piano and the clarinet in grade school. I haven't touched either in years, but I'd kinda like to get back to the piano. The clarinet, nah. I don't mind listening to good clarinet (yeaaa, Pete Fountain), but I'm not gonna tongue any more reeds myself...heh heh.
   
3. My great-grandfather on my mother's side was married four times and sired 24 children, of whom at least 20 lived to adulthood. (The wives kept dying off, either from childbirth fever or other disease. Those were hard times.) My great-grandfather was conscripted into the Confederate army during the Civil War and dodged bullets from Yankee snipers while on picket duty during the siege of Vicksburg. Best we can estimate, he was in his seventies when he was siring those last five children in the 1890s...heh heh.
   
4. For several years now I've had a secret desire to attend a monster truck rally.
   
5. In sophomore year of high school I scored the highest grade in the school on a nationwide Latin examination. Got a medal for it. It must have astonished my Latin teacher, since I hadn't shown any special aptitude for Latin in class. I still like Latin, and am glad I know a little about it. I think it would be cool to learn conversational Latin--it would be funny to start chatting in Latin at a party, say. Well, I'd find it funny, but I guess everyone else would consider me a total dork. Or sadly insane.
   
6. In high school and college I sewed a lot of my own clothing. I even made my own wedding dress, appliques and all. I haven't touched a sewing machine in years, but maybe I'll get back to it someday. (Yeah, like I'll get back to playing the piano.) I have the patience now to do a much better job on that stitching.
   
7. Here's a bonus 7th thing: I don't like to cook, but I love cookbooks. I have a lot of them. Every now and then I open one and peruse the recipes, saying to myself, "Hmm, that doesn't look too difficult...I could probably make that." I especially like the ones that include commentary such as the background of the recipe, or anecdotes about the author's life.
   

I expect most of my usual blog buddies have already been tagged for this meme, but I'll name them anyway. If any of you have already done it, just send me a link to your post on it. And, of course, any of you who haven't done it and don't want to, c'est la vie.

1. Shauna of For Love of Words
   
2. Charles of Razored Zen
   
3. Candice of C.S. Harris/Candy's Blog
   
4. Roz of The Ninth Muse
   
5. Farrah of Farrah Rochon
   
6. Rae Ann of Rae Ann Parker
   

Hey--it feels good to be back.