Day: March 24, 2011

Slushy, then sunny, Thursday

I could swear it was still snowing a little this morning, and slushy in the streets on the way to the train station. And the station platform itself was, of course, neither shoveled nor salted. (For all their incessant reminders to “mind the gap,” the Long Island Railroad doesn’t seem to care if you slip and crack your head open before the gap is even in your sight.) But then something happened during the day. I don’t know what they call it in your parts, but around here, I’m pretty sure we call it the sun.

So the snow — what little there was — all but melted, and the weather warmed up considerably. March has that whole “in like a lion, out like a lamb” business going on, but you don’t usually expect to see it over the course of a single day. I woke up this morning to winter, and came back home this evening in spring.

Which is nice, and I hope it continues. I’m taking off tomorrow, not for any particular reason, but just because I thought it might be nice take a long weekend around my birthday. I have a couple of things planned, but none of them much more stressful than sleeping late and maybe doing some reading. You know, real wild and crazy stuff.

Thursday various

  • Today is Harry Houdini’s birthday. In honor of that, here’s a look at his Scene and Prop List. [via]
  • I don’t know… ordering the removal of a mural depicting your state’s labor history from the lobby of your state’s Department of Labor seems like kind of a dick move. [via]
  • As, frankly, do these new farm “protection” bills discussed by Mark Bittman — although, there, there’s some dangerous precedent being set:

    The Florida bill would require anyone wishing to photograph a farm to first secure written permission from the owner. And what if they don’t? First-degree felony. The implicit goal here is to deter and criminalize damning undercover exposés….The bill would also make it illegal for an agenda-less passerby to snap a picture of a farm from the side of the road, but my best guess is that those “crimes” might not be prosecuted quite so diligently.

  • The Phantom Menace in 3-D? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me…oh, god, what is this? Like the at least the sixth or seventh time? Shame very obviously on me, George Lucas, but I will not be going to see this. [via]
  • And finally, an interview with Terry Jones. He discusses, among other things, Monty Python‘s less than certain start:

    I mean, even right up until the middle of the second series John Cleese’s mum was still sending him job adverts for supermarket managers cut out from her local newspaper.