crunchtastic

Thank you, Corn Lobby and Wal-Mart. I would have liked to have been a fly on the wall for this pricing meeting.

Surely someone is near to perfecting homemade injestable explosives, right? If drug mules are willing to swallow balloons filled with uncut heroin for a little cash, committed jihadists will swallow worse for their God.

Does that say tenderloin-tini ?

You're only as strong as your weakest link. The problem with screening technology is that it cannot keep up with the human propensity to find new ways to blow each other up. We're spending trillions to get beat by cavemen with IEDs in the desert. I think the single weakest link is lack of coordination among intelligence agencies, both ours and foreign. Ideally there would be just one 'list', and it would be international. But there again, intelligence is often faulty and worse, corruptible. Maybe some meaningful changes in the intelligence agency structure will come about because of this.(putting it all under "homeland security' and considering that meaningful: fail) An old Army BF of mine used to work on a lot of joint task force stuff with the DoD/ DEA and CIA, and he always complained that nothing got done because they were all more interested in a pissing match over jurisdiction than anything else.

The government is entirely capable of controlling entry via plane travel. It would involve, among other things, profiling, severe travel restrictions, and other tactics usually associated with police states. The question is, how far are we willing to go? And how much are we willing to spend on that level of security expertise in sufficient numbers? Don't discount the political influence of the airlines and associated businesses, who are in it to make a profit, not defend the borders of the US. I'm too cynical, but IMO when it comes to politics, money talks and a few hundred dead on a blown-up plane will never trump the pursuit of profits. Regarding security--the Israelis are not just experts in tactics but considered innovators in security technology, and their lobby in Washington is quite powerful. I expect we'll be hearing much more about profiling. At the risk of being indelicate, if you want to disarm and marginalize a Muslim threat --which is what this is all really about--they pretty much wrote the book. Policies and technology are only as good as the people paid to implement them, and $10 an hour employees aside, TSA policies are reactionary and useless--the result of beauracrats scrambling to come up with 'solutions' after they get their asses chewed following an incident.

Bryan just totally ruined my warm Snuggie buzz. Kenny Loggins, now that's a shame to the human race. The Snuggie rules. I spent a whole afternoon last week on the sofa rocking my Snuggie, with some bourbon, Christmas cookies and back-to-back episodes of Jersey Shore.

Or maybe the reverse. In a shocking expose of the working conditions at strip clubs, Dominique Sachse will go undercover on the pole.

Are you saying that Dave Ward is outta here??

Big plus 1. With bonus points since you stopped me from having to type a reply, which was going to be what you clarified--that live music is weak as a category next to dining and retail in a mall, and for the large part, there is no crossover appeal to the daytime retail consumer. I predict one of the newly opened resturants will be toast by year end, and at least one of the 'coming soons' won't open at all. Few capital-intensive, high-concept restaurants can survive on those razor-thin margins. With regard to your number 2--there was a really good segment on NPR a few days ago about highly concentrated shopping districts, ala the jewelry district in Manhattan. PPS. Live Nation (ands Ticketmaster, etc) is Pure Satanic Evil. MegaStreisand Evil. Just had to get that in there.....

Here's an interesting story of the reverse of petty parking lot crime: A couple of month's ago I had finished shooping at the West Gray Krog's and was driving toward the lot exit. I saw a cart by itself at the end of the row, with a purse sitting in the the little front compartment. Figuring a lost purse really sucks, I stopped and got it. I rifled around in it and decide to check to wallet for the owner anme and address, then used the cell phone to call someone with the same last name and told them I would leave the purse with the store manager. The thing is, the ladies grocery receipt was in there, and her purse had been sitting alone in the parking lot for nearly an hour! And she had an i-phone, a jillion credit cards, and about 200 in cash. I was just amazed that in an hour's time no one took the bag.

I wish there was more thought put into pedestrian mobility, and by that I don't mean pedestrian-to-train, but for people like me who prefer to park in one spot and have walking access to stuff within a quarter mile or so of the intersection. Especially at the intersection of Westheimer and Post Oak. How nice it would be to park, then have a ped skywalk on all sides of the intersection. That wasy I can buy shoes at DSW, go over to Barnes and Noble, over to Galleria 1/2, Neimans or Dillards, and back over to eat at the deli without delays at lights, and without risking life and limb at street level. Transit planners should focus more on people who are just walking, and not herd them through the same intersections as trains and cars. Do the uptown line plans account for this, and I just didn't look closely enough?

Someone's happy hour was better than ours: remember the girl in the very small gold dress who made such an entrance? Apparently she was doing her best Sharon Stone impersonation at the bar.

You mean Mom and Baby time.

how awesome would that be? Years back there was a bungee crane set up at Richmond and the loop where the Best Buy is now. Not as scenic as a river gorge, but hey. I loved jumping out of a perfectly good plane, so I'm definitely down for the balloon. I miss Astroworld. I love rides.

My neighbor across the street travels frequently and he always uses the HPD watch service. The patrols come by regularly and will usually sit for a few minutes before driving on. Our constable will also do courtesy patrols if requested, but I don't beleive it is a formal program.

Kinky is pulling out of the gov race, and will instead run for ag commish: http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2009/12/friedman_switch_1.html A good move, it seems. He won't take votes from Bill White, and after all, if a notorious populist like Jim Hightower can make it as ag commissioner, maybe Kinky can, too. I like the idea of being able to vote for an outsider for a major post and still support White for guv. post above was for the blog, here's the actual peice from the Austin reporter: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6769521.html

With a confit of cow eyeball on the side. The smallpox dessert is a nice touch, Attica, since Feast appears to be more in the European tradition. On that note, it's lunch time. My low sodium microwave soup sure doesn't sound very exciting now.

I haven't been over there in quite a while with McGowen all torn up. Wonder if business was hurting because of the construction.

yum. barbacoa is the best. I ate it a lot in San Antonio but don't see it as much here. You know how tamales are done by boiling down a hog head for the meat? I think the traditioal barbacoa method is burying the cow head in a pit. I remember years back, most places only sold it on weekends (like cabrito) because it was a time intensive dish. It's great when people think barbacoa is just mexican 'barbecue' tacos. Always fun to explain what it was after people ate it. I like the idea of what Feast is doing, but can do without the skull as a garnish.

that's what those little plastic things were that fell out of my sweater when I got home. It was great to meet Lockmat. I'm glad he took the plunge!

Shockingly, my chocolate/rum treats made it all week in the fridge uneaten. Now I just have to remember to bring them.

After wussing out last week on the weather, I'm soooooo ready for a good HH. And boy can I use a stiff Warren's drink. Holidays at the office are such a tragic parade of nasty potluck luncheons and passive-aggressive assistants and forced group recreation. Bleh. It's worse than dysfuntional family Christmas. If I get one more URGENT!!!!! email from the admin with the jingly hat, setting a microwave schedule for potluck casseroles ( yes, for real) or decorations detail, or white elephant gift exchange, blah blah blah, I'm going to lose it. By 5 pm tomorrow I will have had to politely decline at least my 5th crock pot of cheesy potatoes and bad grocery store pie. No, I don't want to go 'elevator caroling.' And for the love of God, please, please, no more Secret Santa Anything. Arrghh!!!!!! OK, rant over. Sorry. Thx for listening. See y'all tomorrow!

Was he banned? Thought he left of his own accord. I've never complained about anyone. Although, Vines is the only person I've blocked (temporarily.) Then I grew to love him. Maybe there's a future for me and Marksmu, who knows?

Chamo must really get around!

clearly you're not busy, so sanitize them nasty hands and come to the happy hour Friday.