February 2008 Archives

27 February 2008

WFB (1925-2008)

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008) (Kathryn Jean Lopez, NRO)

I’m devastated to report that our dear friend, mentor, leader, and founder William F. Buckley Jr., died this morning in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.

He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.

As you might expect, we’ll have much more to say here and in NR in the coming days and weeks and months. For now: Thank you, Bill. God bless you, now with your dear Pat. Our deepest condolences to Christopher and the rest of the Buckley family. And our fervent prayer that we continue to do WFB’s life’s work justice.

May this giant of American conservatism Rest In Peace.

MORE: Orrin Judd.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/27/08 10:52 | American Politics | Technorati | Comments (3)

21 February 2008

Priceline rocks

Here's how to get a 4-star hotel at a low-star price (Laura Bly, USA Today)

The desk clerk at Honolulu's Hilton Hawaiian Village leaned across the counter, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper.

"How did you get that price?" she asked, noting that the $75 per-night tab for my ocean-view room was about 60% off the best Hilton .com rate and even lower than the kamaaina (locals-only) discount.

My secret: Priceline.com.

The article goes on to provide all sorts of good tips for scoring wonderful hotel rooms on Priceline. It's a great primer, and points to sites with more detailed info. We use Priceline and Hotwire all the time for the long weekend trips we take, and have scored some fantastic deals on hotel rooms (and also on rental cars) -- stretching the travel budget (and making more trips possible).

Nice hotels make a trip a lot more fun, but there is no damn good reason to pay ridiculous rack rates. If you have a little flexibility, you can win nice four-star hotel rooms for two-star prices. I haven't managed any deal quite as good as the author's ($75 for the Honolulu Hilton is nice), but our stays at the Edmonton and Calgary Westin hotels for $50/night a couple of years ago were pretty sweet (and we got a few extra perks thanks to my Starwood Preferred Guest membership).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/21/08 21:48 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (0)

19 February 2008

Outstanding

Man Puts Out Girlfriend's Cigarette with Fire Extinguisher (Spiegel)

With smoking bans in effect across much of Germany these days, lighting up a cancer stick in a restaurant will, at the least, result in some nasty looks and a request to extinguish your cigarette. But even smoking at home can be rather dangerous.

Such is the lesson learned by a woman in the German city of Bielefeld on Sunday evening. She lit up in the apartment she shares with her 42-year-old boyfriend, only to see him flip out and begin cursing her. Not completely satisfied with his tirade, the boyfriend then grabbed a fire extinguisher and sprayed the entire apartment with the fine, white powder inside.

"He just sprayed it all over the flat," Bielefeld police spokesman Michael Waldhecker told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "With that kind of a fire extinguisher, it looks like it just snowed in the apartment. It's hellish to clean up."

Fearing for her safety, the girlfriend called the police. As the man continued firing off choice insults at his girl in the presence of the police, the officers took him to the station to calm him down.

"We didn't want the situation to escalate," Waldhecker said. But he said it is unlikely the man will be charged with anything. "It was his apartment and his fire extinguisher." And, he pointed out, the girlfriend was unharmed in the attack.

But the relationship may have suffered.

Ya think?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/08 10:57 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

16 February 2008

All I know is their lamb kebabs are the best in town...

A party gone awry (Mary Vuong, Houston Chronicle)

Luanne Novak says her daughter and 16 teenage friends went to Mary'z Mediterranean Cuisine to celebrate her daughter's 18th birthday.

A party gone awry

"After placing their orders, the waitress came back and told them that, because it was such a large group, each person had to order at least $10 worth of food," Novak says. "They were not told this when they made reservations (or) when they first ordered. At this point, with everyone there and having ordered, and it being a Saturday night, they didn't want to leave and try to find some other place, so they ordered more food, and ended up with much more than they needed or wanted."

Manager Jimy Fakhoury remembers the incident. He wouldn't have minded had it been a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, he says, but the large group took up six tables — about half of his downstairs dining room — on one of the busiest nights of the week. Some just ordered drinks, he adds.

Fakhoury says he felt it would have been rude to discuss the minimum charge over the phone. He also hadn't realized not everyone planned to order food.

"I think it's fair," Fakhoury says. "I can't keep people waiting for three to four hours, making $80 from six tables."

Novak says her family has been dining at Mary'z, 5825 Richmond, almost since it opened.

"We have always been treated well and love the food, and were pleased that the ghost of Sammy's (the previous restaurant) seemed to be thriving. Now, they have lost us forever as customers, not to mention the families of the other 16 guests at the party."

Most of the commenters on Chron.com rip Luanne Novak a new one, while sympathizing with Mary'z.

Undoubtedly, it would have been best if the restaurant had made it clear to the group up front that there would be a minimum per-person charge. But given the fact that many of the partygoers were underage (and thus not drinking alcoholic beverages), I can't blame Mary'z for expecting people occupying valuable dining space on a Saturday night to buy something other than iced tea or soda.

I go to Mary'z all the time. Their lunch menu is full of bargains, and their lamb kebabs are the best I've had in town. Plus the staff actually acts like they are pleased to have me there (and I like to reward businesses that act like they give a damn).

I tend to agree with the Chron.com commenters (scary!) -- if the tea and soda drinkers don't return to Mary'z for future parties, I'm not gonna be missing 'em!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 15:58 | Houston | Technorati | Comments (5)

Tubbs on today's college hoops

Tubbs says today's low scoring games are a yawner (Scott Wright, Daily Oklahoman)

If scoring gets much lower in college basketball, Billy Tubbs believes the Food and Drug Administration will have to get involved.

"They're going to have to put warnings on these games,” the former Oklahoma coach said. "Warning: Watching this game could make you drowsy.”

The days of Billy Ball — which regularly produced 100-point games — are mostly a thing of the past. And not just at Oklahoma but all across the country.

Scoring jumped immediately after the addition of the 3-point line in 1986, but it has been in a downward trend over the last 17 years, falling nearly seven points per game since 1991.

When Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma at 3 p.m. today in Lubbock, Texas, the game will feature two teams that, on average, score fewer than 71 points per game and allow fewer than 66. Their last meeting was a 63-61 OU victory in Norman.

And similar scores are being posted nightly throughout college basketball. Games like that are becoming hard to watch for the old run-n-gun coaches of the 1980s and ‘90s.

"If you can't score 60 points in a basketball game, you ought to quit,” Tubbs said. "Who wants to see it? There are games that get down to the last three minutes, and they're exciting, but they're boring as hell for the first 47 minutes.”

Even the teams that try to run the floor today don't produce points the way Tubbs did at Oklahoma — or Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV or Nolan Richardson at Arkansas. The biggest difference is that the current teams are using defense to get the ball back and set up their offense, where the teams of the past used defense to get easy points.

It's the difference between scoring with jump shots and scoring with layups.

Those high-flying Tubbs' teams at Oklahoma were really fun to watch (as were Tark's and Richardson's teams, and even Tom Penders' teams at Texas).

I had lost interest in college hoops before TP came to Houston for exactly the reasons described by Tubbs -- so many teams just play a gawdawful boring style of ball. As much as it pains me when Lanny or Fluff clangs a crazy three pointer from well outside their range with only 8 seconds run off the shot clock, I'd rather have that than some variant of the run-out-the-shot-clock-weave as a team's main offensive set.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 12:48 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)

14 February 2008

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is upon us once again.

Here's hoping everyone enjoys the holiday (preferably away from restaurants that are overbooked, overcrowded, and generally annoying on this day).

It's looking like a nice day to grill some Angus strip steaks to me.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/14/08 08:30 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

10 February 2008

Continental enhances mobile website

Several days ago, Scott O'Leary (aka CO Insider), a customer service exec with Continental Airlines, posted some information on a nice (beta) addition to Continental's mobile website:

Starting today, we’re proud to offer our FlyerTalk community a preview of our new Gate Information product, which will first be introduced via our mobile site using the link above and will ultimately be available via continental.com and LCDs installed in our gate areas starting later this year. Like our current Flight Status functionality, this feature will be available for flights scheduled to depart current day, yesterday and tomorrow.

New features include:

* Expanded Flight Status, including the aircraft number (that’s for you, rkkwan) and a new “Where is this aircraft coming from” feature (great idea, cigarman)

* Seat Maps, including a full aircraft view

* Upgrade Standby Lists, including real-time booking totals, the list of customers who have been upgraded (including via our Elite Upgrade Automation), and the list of those who have been added to the upgrade standby list. In the future we plan to add an “estimated upgrade rank” for those customers standing by, but that piece is still in development

* Flight Standby Lists, including high-level availability information, the list of customers who have been cleared, and the list of customers who are still standing by

* Inflight Amenity Information, including flight and aircraft-specific information about what food, beverages, inflight entertainment and in-seat power (no need to keep memorizing those aircraft numbers)

I hope you’ll agree this is a good start, and we’re proud to be the first airline to offer this information beyond the gate area. We look forward to your feedback, and to our public launch later this Spring. You’re welcome to post your feedback here, or via email to insider@coair.com.

This addition may not seem that exciting to casual travelers, but frequent travelers (and especially those who are elite members of the airline's OnePass program) CRAVE this sort of information. The working preview site has been very well received on the FlyerTalk forum. For some time, fellow SkyTeam member Delta has posted this sort of information on some gate displays, but Continental's adding it to the mobile website is a nice step forward -- and should result in an improvement in customer service, since travelers can check more information themselves and free gate agents to handle more complicated requests. It's a nice move by the hometown airline.

Crossposted to blogHOUSTON.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/08 14:07 | Travel | Technorati | Comments (0)

A sick whine

It's been a beautiful weekend in Houston -- mid 70s shorts weather. In early February!

And Callie and I have been inside most of the weekend, sick with nasty colds. Blar!

*grumble* *whine*

But it's not this bad, at least. Blar.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/10/08 13:52 | Other | Technorati | Comments (2)

08 February 2008

Danger Train hits, drags cyclist

A bicyclist rode into the Danger Train today, and was dragged 50 feet.

I don't think this sort of thing happens nearly so often in cities that segregate their rail lines from busy streets.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/08/08 22:41 | Danger Train | Technorati | Comments (1)

03 February 2008

TP gets #600, Kevlar completes his staff

Tom Penders notched his 600th career victory last night, on the road against Central Florida.

Congrats to TP!

Up next: Tulsa, at the Hof.

In other UH news, Kevlar completed his staff with the addition of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, formerly of Texas Tech. Holgorsen learned the Hal Mumme/Mike Leach offense from both Mumme and Leach, so you could say he knows as much about it as anyone not named Mumme or Leach (or maybe Morriss). This is a really nice staff Kevlar has put together. UH football should be fun this fall.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/08 21:52 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)

Wow

Despite the low scoring, that was a GREAT Super Bowl.

And as it turns out, those old annoying Dolphins effers get to pop the champagne after all.

That must suck to go perfect till the last game.

Ah well, nice to see an NFC East team win the thing if the 'Boyz couldn't pull it off.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/08 21:09 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)

Ugh!

Because I was out of town so much in January, a rather BLAR annual event has gotten pushed all the way to... today, Super Bowl Sunday.

It's time for the periodic sorting of clothes, shoes, and other assorted junk that is no longer used, to be dropped at Goodwill. Eventually.

And it's well past time to deal with the clutter that's been accumulating in the place since before Xmas. The clutter has a way of multiplying after a while. Evil clutter! I wish the clutter would exercise its "reproductive rights" but noooooo....

It will be nice when the cleaning is done, and we get around to the Super Bowl (and junk food, in the form of carryout from Frank's Pizza... mmm!)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/08 15:15 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

02 February 2008

Gorgeous weekend

It's shaping up as a gorgeous weekend in Houston so far.

And since I'm actually here, it would seem to demand grilling.

No Angus steaks today -- we're going with Central Market peppered sirloin patties (buffalo is the usual choice, but it looked a little... rough today).

Sometimes, a guy just needs a good burger to go with his Greek salad. :)

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/02/08 13:23 | Other | Technorati | Comments (0)

SITE MENU

» Weblog
» About Me
» Archives
» Disclaimer
» Flickr Gallery
» Syndication
» Twitter