Why do I never get to write a story like this…?

From the Orlando Sentinel:
LAKELAND — A man who was attacked by an alligator this morning was naked and smoking crack at the time, Polk County deputies who rescued him said today.

Considering Britney

CNN is talking about Britney Spears hanging out with Paris Hilton.
CNN.
It would be easy to scapegoat television news here and pretend that we’d rather be watching (or that we really should want to be watching) news about Iraq, in-depth process stories about the shake-up in Washington, even the alarming new projection that AIDS may become [...]

"The past is gone/but something might be found/to take its place…"

I’m writing today and listening to the Gin Blossoms’ breakthrough album, New Miserable Experience.
Man, I always forget how much I really like this album.
I know I’m turning into that guy who’s always going on about how much he loves the music that was playing when he first started getting laid…but it’s just so hard to [...]

Sips redux

The new James Bond movie and a Bourbon company’s holiday cocktail suggestion have led me to add two new entries (both with recipes) to the all but abandoned Sips Blog.
Haven’t been doing the Sips column for Go Triad since I left the Life section for cops, and so had made no new entries at the [...]

Bourbon + Candy Canes = Holiday Goodness

The good people at Woodford Reserve sent me the following recipe, noting that they know I’m a Knob Creek fan but figuring they might win me over with a holiday cocktail suggestion. Sounds simple and delicious and I’m going to have to try it. Will let you know how it works out.
Woodford Candy CaneIngredients:
1 Liter [...]

Black moods, black eyes, black Friday

Braved the Black Friday crowds all night and into the morning. My first time ever. I was in the thick of it from 1 a.m. at the Four Seasons Mall to standing in the cold outside Circuit City and Staples starting at 4 a.m.
Exhausting, frustrating, comic and strange – but, estimating conservatively, I saved $300 [...]

I am Thankful for the Hot Light

Here’s a strange thing:
If you aren’t at your family’s dinner table carving into a turkey, it’s nearly impossible to find so much a sandwich anywhere in the city on Thanksgiving.
My family split into a few different Thanksgiving parties this year, none of them close to where I am. As I was one of the last [...]

"The Vesper" martini deconstructed

In the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, Bond creates a drink he will come to call “The Vesper.”
Esquire took on the drink in their November issue, essentially saying it hadn’t aged well for reasons that have nothing to do with author Ian Fleming’s initial invention and everything to do with the way booze has [...]

Bondage

Here are the opening titles to all of the James Bond films. And here are all of the trailers. And here are all of the theme songs.
Saw Casino Royale last weekend. Enjoyed the film and title sequence, though the title song by Chris Cornell didn’t really do it for me.
Though I would have preferred [...]

Bart vs. The White Stripes

Great China story

From the NYT:
DOLKA, China — At the two glacial lakes that give birth to the Yellow River, a Tibetan nomad named Tsende stands at the river’s edge and rolls up his pants. He says a dragon lives in the lakes, a god of rain. Two decades of drought convinced him the dragon is angry.
Tsende [...]

Embracing non-believers

GREENSBORO — The young man rose from the pews.
“I’m atheist,” he said, “because I believe in only what I see.”
Those around him didn’t try to shout him down or use the rest of the day’s sermon to convert him. Actually, as many as 15 percent of the surrounding congregation are like-minded.
This is Sunday morning service [...]

The sound of silence

This is going to be a hellacious work week. I’m coming down to the wire on some stories I’ve been writing, have the regular workload plus some weekly/bi-weekly things coming due.
Very little bloggery this week.
Very little sleep.

Bloggers are merciless

Though I have no great love for Rick Santorum I still got an awful feeling in my stomach when someone e-mailed me this photo, which has apparently been floating around the net and been spied on some of the crueler blogs.
It’s not as though any of us can help who our fathers are…

What I’ve been up to

Have been away from the blogging for a little while – mostly because things have gotten a little nuts at work. But a quick catch up of the last few weeks for me:
I was one of the N&R reporters on the fire at Eastern Guilford High School. The cause of the fire is still unknown, [...]

Are…are you sure?

Jesus Christ.
It’s like I woke up in some sort of alternate dimension.
The Democrats control the House.
They’re one senate seat away from controlling the Senate.
They are, in all likelihood, going into a recount for that last seat ahead in the vote.
Donald Rumsfeld, in the wake of an editorial by Armed Forces newspapers calling for his resignation, [...]

"Vote for Mr. Rhythm, let freedom ring…then we’ll all be singing: ‘Of Thee I Swing…’"

Went out in the drizzle to vote today only to find that, since I moved, I had to haul it over to a new polling place.
The volunteers where Ann Coulter votes may be asleep on the job, but in Guilford County (or at least my little piece of it) they’re keeping it straight.
This meant I [...]