Things are going to get kind of hectic for the next couple of weeks, so blogging will be light or nonexistent until I can get out from under everything.  I have a deadline this week at work which means I’m likely to be working late almost every day.  I will also be painting the house on Friday night and over the weekend.  Next week I’m going to be packing and the move will commence on Thursday.  The bulk of the move will be on Saturday the 18th, when I’ve got some friends coming over to help move the big stuff.  Provided everything goes according to plan, I should be safely ensconsed in my new house by the end of the day on the 18th.  Maybe I’ll have a few spare moments by then.

You should be careful before making an offer that your customers can’t pass up¹.

Darden Restaurants Inc. Wednesday said it had replaced the head of Red Lobster, its biggest chain, after an all-you-can-eat crab promotion went awry.

Darden President and Chief Operating Officer Dick Rivera will succeed Edna Morris as president of Red Lobster.

Morris, who had been in that job just 18 months, left to pursue other interests, the company said.

Darden executives said Red Lobster management had badly miscalculated how many times customers would refill their plates after paying $20 for an “endless” crab entree. Meanwhile, crab prices were going up, sending the profit margin crashing.

“It wasn’t the second helping on all-you-can-eat but the third,” said company chairman Joe R. Lee on a conference call.

“And maybe the fourth,” added Rivera.

¹ If you like that sort of thing.  I don’t eat anything that has an exoskeleton, but that’s just my personal hang-up.

A coworker sent me this today.  It sounds like something I’d do, although I don’t need the massive quantities of alcohol to get me started (I can wreck things just fine without any outside assistance).

How To Assemble An IKEA Computer Desk

As usual, our esteemed legislature has been very busy this year.  Another new law (registration required) passed this year affects those license-plate frames that most dealers like to put on cars.

About $10,000 worth of brass and chrome license-plate frames will stay in a box and off the stylish backsides of Aston Martins at John Eagle’s dealership in Dallas.

“I’m sending them back,” said a flustered Sonny Morgan, managing partner of the dealership.

Like dozens of area dealers, Mr. Morgan this week learned about a new state law that may render most license-plate frames illegal. Although the law affects anyone whose automobile has frames, lights and film coverings that obscure a license plate, it is hitting car dealerships especially hard.

Many dealerships automatically attach license-plate frames touting their stores to every vehicle they sell, and all of those frames – hundreds of thousands of them in this area alone – may now be deemed illegal by police, said Drew Campbell, president of the New Car Dealers Association of Metropolitan Dallas. The law went into effect on Sept. 1.

The result could be a ticket and fine of up to $200, and some area cities are already “vigorously enforcing” the new law, said Mr. Campbell, who also represents area dealers in Austin.

“If you drive around, about half [of the frames] out on the street are illegal as I interpret the law,” he said. “That includes Texas A&M frames, University of Texas frames, Mothers Against Drunk Driving frames and ‘I’m a Grandpa’ frames.”

Why am I not surprised that certain cities are already “vigourously enforcing” this law?  That $200 fine probably looks like a T-Bone steak to some revenue-hungry police departments.

So why was this law passed?

The bill, written by State Sen. Jon Lindsay and co-sponsored by State Rep. Peggy Hamrick, both Houston Republicans, was intended to assist toll-road authorities in their use of optical scanners to read motorists’ license plates, Mr. Campbell said.

It would seem to me that stopping and seizing the cars of toll-booth runners might make more of a dent.

I’d been expecting to have to replace the tires on my Avalanche soon, since it is approaching 40,000 miles and the kinds of tires it uses generally have a life of 45,000 or so.  However, this morning I noticed that one of the tires had some kind of mass that appeared to be protruding from its shoulder.  The local Goodyear dealer found that two others also had this problem once it was put on the rack (although those had it to a lesser degree).  He advised me that they could replace them and give me a small discount on the new ones (since the old tires were down to about 20% of their life).

Even with the discount, the price per tire was still $149.75.  When you add in mounting/balancing ($39.00) and taxes ($47.51, soon to be higher thanks to DCTA) it came to $699.51.  I mention this as a cautionary tale to those of you contemplating the purchase of a truck or SUV with large tires (Goodyear Wrangler AT/S in P265/70R17 in this case).  Expect to spend quite a bit for new tires at or before 50,000 miles.  I was expecting it to be around $600, which was correct for the tires themselves.  As always, I tend to forget the other frictional effects of labor and taxes.

That giant sucking sound was the money being hoovered out of my wallet and into Goodyear’s pockets.

It’s Monday, so a bit of levity is needed.  I squirreled this link away last week and found it again this morning.  At the end of the Dave Barry column on telemarketers, I found this bit about September, 19th.

IMPORTANT REMINDER—Mark your calendar with a big ‘‘X’’ on Sept. 19, which is the second annual National Talk Like A Pirate Day. This is the day when everybody is supposed to talk like a pirate for very solid reasons (see www.talklikeapirate.com).

Last year, the first National Talk Like a Pirate Day was a huge success, as measured by the number of messages on my answering machine consisting entirely of people going ‘‘Arrrrr.’’ So if you’re feeling depressed—if you think the world is in terrible shape, and one person like yourself can’t make a difference—remember this: You’re right. So you might as well talk like a pirate. It’s easy! For example, when you answer the phone, instead of ‘‘Hello,’’ you say ‘‘Ahoy!’‘

Then you hang up. Scurvy telemarrrrrketers!

I was all worked up to post my September 11th rant here, but my hosting service is being DDOS’d.  It finally seems to be recovering (the post below was written a few minutes after the one before it, but I was just now able to post it), but I’m in no mood to write it now.  Perhaps I’ll do it in the morning.  I’ve been in kind of a belligerent mood of late, so perhaps I’ll still have something left to say then.

Eugene Volokh points out that Neal Stephenson’s latest novel, Quicksilver will be available on 9/23.  I put the book on order, and while I was there I got to wondering about some other upcoming releases that I’ve been interested in.  Barenaked Ladies will release their new album, Everything to Everyone on 10/21, and I put that on order as well.

I also found that Sarah McLachlan is releasing her new album (Afterglow) on 11/4 (although it’s not yet available for order).

This item in the Denton Record-Chronicle caught my attention yesterday.  A former school bus driver was arrested Thursday on charges of posessing child pornography.  The pictures were discovered when he was being evicted from his apartment.

But this guy was a disgusting filthy pig in more ways than one.

Denton County Precinct 1 deputy constables found computer equipment Tuesday and stacks of photographs, tapes and compact discs piled amid trash and human waste when they arrived to evict Mr. Emenhiser from his apartment in the 600 block of Texas Street. The deputies called Denton police, who began an investigation.

Detective Sgt. Lenn Carter said he and Officer Lee Weber donned hazardous-materials suits and masks before entering the apartment.  emphasis added

They carried away three trash bags full of evidence, he said, including numerous discs and pictures depicting nude children in sexual poses.

“The items were infested with live and dead roaches, and the apartment was completely cluttered with trash, magazines, computer equipment and soiled clothing,” Sgt. Carter said.

Mr. Emenhiser was not at the apartment, he said. Detectives learned Mr. Emenhiser rented a storage unit, and they obtained a search warrant Friday. They found a great deal more pornography and computer equipment in the storage unit, officials said.

Mr. Emenhiser had Internet access until about a year ago, Sgt. Carter said. Since that time, investigators believe he may have used public access computers. He carried a small keychain computer drive that he could use to store information and photographs, Sgt. Carter said.

In case the horrendous condition of that apartment didn’t come through from the above, consider this.

Layers of clothes, paper plates and food scraps covered the entire floor. Maggots lived in the refrigerator. Grease clung to the stove. Used toilet paper covered the bathroom floor, Mr. Killian said.

“The four or five times we knocked on the door to try to get him to pay his rent or to work out some kind of payment schedule with him, he would only crack the door,” Mr. Killian said. “I could smell it, but I had no idea it was that bad inside.

What kind of person could live like that?  I can understand clutter, but unsanitary filthy conditions are just beyond my comprehension.  How could he stand the smell?  Damn.  Even an animal wouldn’t willingly live like that.

One of my pet peeves when I was in school was the amount of money spent on college athletic programs.  I was always of the opinion that colleges were supposed to be about academic pursuits (imagine that!).  But whenever I would bring this up I was told to shut up because the athletic programs were bringing money into schools.  Having better things to do with my time than argue with football players, I never bothered to pursue the matter.  However, it was never far from my mind during the times I lived in the dorms, since it was hard to miss a bunch of drunk, loud, obnoxious, and destructive idiots in the lounge or running rampant in the halls.  Not that I’m bitter or anything.

Now comes evidence that I may have been correct.  The NCAA has released a study on the effects of funding on athletic programs.

Spending more money on college sports does not lead to more victories or alumni donations, according to a study released Thursday by the NCAA.

The two-year project, billed as the most thorough of its kind, also said that out of 117 schools in Division I-A, only seven make money.

That’s considerably lower than previously believed. The new NCAA study did not take into account state and public subsidies.

“It is myth breaking,” NCAA president Myles Brand said of the study, initiated before he took office in January.

(emphasis mine)

I don’t have a philosophical objection to college athletics, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking it makes money (at least for anyone besides the “student athletes”).

More links:
   NCAA press release
   Full report (PDF file)