the twin cities uses a lot of gas [pipress] # (0)
"the twin cities, which is the 16th largest metropolitan area, had the 11th highest fuel consumption." bonus: article includes quotes from my favorite met council employee, nacho diaz.
« July 2005 | Main | September 2005 »
the strib's state fair blog is a total embarrassment [strib] # (0)
the state fair blog - like pretty much every other blog the strib has launched this year - is a joke. you have an event like the fair, steeped in history and tradition, and the idiot writers choose to write - nay, bitch - about a different food product every day. genius! (note: the pipress effort is maybe even worse.)
the mall of america's 4th floor 'nightlife area' is a wasteland [strib] # (0)
the article points out that "the [rest of the] mall continues to attract more tourists each year than disney world, the grand canyon and graceland combined." is that really true? that seems insane.
fun on a stick
august 30, 2005 @
22:05
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Another big year at the fair. The weather was epic, the crowds were tolerable, the foot longs were running at least 13 inches, Princess Kay made eyes at me, and I smuggled junior onto the giant slide without buying him a ticket. All in all I'd call that a success.
smooth jazz out, wacko talk radio in at 100.3 [strib] # (0)
am1500 manager dude says he's ok with the new competition because it jives with "[1500's] biggest goal -- to have a radio station that is live and local during the day, with little or no syndication." i think he said that before, too. i'm still waiting for that whole money/mouth thing.
recap of armstrong's larry king live appearance [cyclingnews] # (0)
armstrong seems extra fiesty since he's retired.
the city of hopkins is being sued for their 'small sign' ordinance [mnsun] # (0)
i guess the city has a rule that says that no sign can be larger than 250 square feet. some giant billboard company is suing, saying the rule is unconstitutional. hopkins thinks they'll win, and i hope they do. big signs are stupes.
the national hurricane center has an rss feed for 'katrina' updates [noaa] # (0)
way to go government weather geeks! now all i need is a feed that publishes a message everytime some doof makes a 'hurricane katrina and the waves' joke. on second thought, i'm not sure i'm ready for that kind of volume.
i built a little app with google maps api and it was a pleasure to work with [google] # (2)
yes, we're [still] looking for a new place. in the meantime i built a little app that scrapes the 'new listing' web pages our realtor sends us and plots all the listings a google map with pictures and addresses and stuff. i'd link to it, but it's brutal slow to do the geocode lookups, so it's not really worth it. here's a screenshot using test data.
fans cry foul at latest twins bobblehead promotion [strib] # (2)
i don't really understand the whole bobblehead thing. is there a reason the twins don't just order 100,000 of each one instead of limiting the supply so severely? it's not like they don't know people are going to fight and claw and hire homeless people to stand in line for them. you'd think it would be better to just flood the market and end the nonsense. i guess the twins must prefer media buzz over fan safety.
nytimes on wait times at the doctor's office [nytimes] # (1)
i especially liked the graph that showed e.r. wait times. and i still say the whole freakin' system is broken.
nobody in the twin cities listens to angry talk radio anymore [strib] # (0)
the article contains a lot of big talk from program directors about how radio needs to change. i have a few ideas about that as well. too bad i already took my shot at greatness. and seeing as it's been like 6 months and i haven't been invited back, i guess i missed.
idiot in st. paul complaining about the city hanging minnesota wild banners around town [strib] # (0)
"dozens of hockey-themed signs hanging on skyways and lampposts throughout downtown violate the city's own rules against using public property to advertise a business".
pastrami jacks is apparently the hot new place for deli food # (0)
i still can't find good deli anywhere in town. word on the street is that this is the best new contender in over a decade. eventually i'll get there and when i do i'll report back. if you've been, speak up.
a new study ranks america's most liberal and conservative cities [votingresearch] # (1)
the study says minneapolis is the 23rd most liberal city in the nation. (direct link to study [msword])
water you think you're doing?
august 12, 2005 @
00:24
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A week or so go I was standing around talking with KC about how hot and dry it'd been lately and how my lawn was starting to suffer a little bit and he happened to mention that over the month of July, the crew out at Hazeltine National needed to use 9.6 million gallons of water to keep the course in it's breathtaking championship condition. "Whoo-wee!" I thought, "that’s a lotta damn water!"
Then the other day I got my water bill from the city. I opened it and saw that we owed a little more than usual this time, a fact I immediately attributed to my recent lawn watering and/or habit of beating the heat by taking 6 showers a day. After I cursed and vowed to keep it under 5 from now on, I turned to the larger, more obvious issue: how much water do I use compared to fancy ass golf course? Grab your rifle, it's time for some class warfare!
Here comes the stastics:
Dave
-------
May - July Usage: 11000 gal
July Usage: 5500 gal*
* - assumes July was 50% of usage, probably high, but whatever
Hazeltine
-----------
July Usage : 9,600,000 gal
Membership : ~400
Gal/Member : 24,000 gal
A little quick math shows that even if I maintained my July level of usage all year round, it would still take me 1750 months (145 years) to burn through the same amount of water that Hazeltine used in a single month. Or better yet, look at it this way: with only 400 members, the course's water usage equates to each of the members having more than *four extra houses* worth of water usage. That's outrageous! Let's storm the gates! And play a free round! And then we'll call it even!
Those numbers got me interested enough that I wrote to Edina's water chief guy and asked him for our citywide data. Here's what he wrote back with:
Edina ------- July : 401,752,400 gal March : 164,016,000 gal Note 1: March numbers provided for 'non-hotter-than-hell' reference. Note 2: All the golf courses in Edina have their own wells and are therefore not included in these numbers. (Notes mine)
Whoo-wee again! 400 million gallons was way more than I was expecting! Year 2000 census data claims there are roughly 22,000 households in Edina, which would mean that each one is using like 18,000 gal/month, over 3-times more than I do. Huh? There are [naturally] a lot of in-ground sprinkler systems in town, but come on, that's a lot of water. In reality I'm sure the local businesses account for a ton of usage, but I have no way of accounting for them because I'm too lazy to look for the data. In any event, in the interest of fairness I'll politely back off and say it's actually like each Hazeltine member owns one and a half additional houses, not 4.
Does that make it better? Maybe a little, but they're still an easy target, so I'm gonna remain somewhat flabbergasted - and maybe even a tiny bit outraged - by the numbers.
Seriously though, a free round and I'm totally over it.
Edina Demographics [areaconnect]
Hazeltine National Golf Club [hngc]
blue note won the rights to release the newly discovered '57 coltrane/monk show [bluenote] #
"the concert, which took place at the famed new york hall on november 29, 1957, was preserved on newly-discovered tapes made by voice of america for a later radio broadcast that were located at the library of congress in washington dc earlier this year." the album drops 9/27.
dino's gyros opening soon in edina [dinos] # (0)
i guess they even finagled a beer/wine license for this new location. finally, my dream of gyro/fry/beer combo will be realized. then i'll cross the stripmall to patrick's bakery and eat a whole baguette.
a calculator that figures out how different size tires effect your speedometer [miata] # (0)
i just put new tires on my jeep. according to this calculator, my speedo now reads about 4.6% slower than i'm actually going. that probably explains why i'm passing everyone.
geonerds have detected some seismic action in the new madrid zone [usa] # (0)
as everyone who took geo1001 knows, the new madrid area of missouri was the site of the most powerful earthquake in american history. uh oh.
he's still gone and i'm still totally over it
august 09, 2005 @
23:54
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Today was the 10th anniversary of Jerry's death. In those 10 years I've seen a couple of Ratdog shows, the first year 'Other Ones' reunion, and the monster full band reunion festival, both at Alpine. The one Ratdog show at First Avenue was without a doubt one of the best shows I've seen ever, ever, ever, but it wasn't anything like a Dead show. Even near the end, when the music was bigtime hit or miss and the scene was being ruined by fence jumping jackasses, a Dead show was still absolutely worth getting to. You'd sit through bullshit song after bullshit song and then they'd turn a corner and blow you away. Witness: the total pandemonium during the 'Unbroken Chain' breakout in Charlotte in March, arguably a sad attempt to recapture lost magic, but forever positioned in my top 10 concert moments. Witness: Jerry's 'Visions Of Johanna' in Chicago later that July - he was crutching along with a teleprompter and I'm pretty sure he didn't so much as shuffle his feet for the entire second set, but good lord he could still turn it on when he wanted to. Almost spooky.
I'm hardly one to sit around and pout that he's gone. But it's the 10th anniversary and that feels like a good enough reason to crank up the tunes and remember for a minute.
To the haters: save it; I've heard it all before. Seriously, all of it. My dad still sings "Truuuuckin" almost every time he sees me. Genius.
the dead's "complete fillmore '69" box set is available for pre-order [gdstore] # (0)
the fillmore '69 run is one of the greatest series of shows in the history of the dead. i played my tape of 3/1/69 deep deep into the ground. (remember tapes?) i'll admit that i skip most of the 'official' live releases, but i will absolutely be buying this one. not to be missed.
garrison keillor on the future of 'good neighbor' radio [nation] #
"after the ipod takes half the radio audience and satellite radio subtracts half of the remainder and internet radio gets a third of the rest and clear channel has to start cutting its losses and selling off frequencies, good-neighbor radio will come back." i can't wait.
caribou coffee has filed for a $90mm ipo [y!] # (0)
after the ipo, all outlets will be replacing their faded alaska vacation photos with pictures of mom and pop selling out to a giant bank from bahrain. (full disclosure: i live a couple of blocks from the original caribou. i used to go there a lot. now i drive by it on my way to dunn bros. if you ask me, caribou is teh sucks since about 1999.)
going to the corner grocery has never been more fun
august 04, 2005 @
22:34
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Check out my new scooter. It's awesome. It's light blue. It's a 2002 but it only had 348 miles on it when I bought it from this nice girl in St. Paul. (It has more now.) You can store stuff under the seat. It has a horn that goes 'beep!' in this really funny scooter kind of way. Chicks dig it. It's keeping me busy during my annual late summer blogging slowdown.
Vroooooooooom!
the twolves have agreed to a 1 year deal with kfan radio [strib] # (0)
nostradoodle predicts the deal was only for one year because kfan plans on making a run at the twins next season.
an interview with sarah vowell [identitytheory] # (0)
it's mostly about her new book 'assassination vacation', which i haven't read but i probably will.
preview of new dylan movie available online [amazon] # (0)
"directed by martin scorsese, no direction home: bob dylan is an intimate portrait of the singer-songwriter during his early musical career, from 1961-1966."