The Undisputed Truth "Smiling Faces Sometimes" (1971)

A favorite song from the terrible days of our move to San Diego in 1971.

Heisenberg Hats

Everyone in Manhattan wants the chapeaux:

Mr. Percoco had taken the day off work at Rutgers University so he could ensure he was at the front of a line of about 40 customers waiting outside the Goorin Bros. Hat Shop on Bleecker Street in the West Village on Thursday, when the hat went on sale for the first time in New York.

...Goorin Bros. has produced only 1,895 Heisenbergs....  The company has made this number because its business began in 1895 ,when craftsman Cassel Goorin started creating custom-made hats in Pittsburgh, Pa.

The Heisenberg, which retails for $212, was first released during the Comic-Con event in San Diego in July and sold out immediately.

...Marc Rosenzweig, 49, from Long Island, said he had tried to buy the Heisenberg online several times when it was available earlier this year, but the Goorin Bros. website kept crashing due to the high demand.

“I’ve been waiting for this hat for months,” said Mr. Rosenzweig, who runs a pet hotel in Deer Park, N.Y., and had been waiting since 9:30a.m.

“I bought a cheap knock-off from a street vendor a year ago, but it’s felt. This will be a nice wool hat for fall, and I’ll wear it for Yom Kippur,” he said.

King Tommy Au-Yeung, 33, from Astoria, purchased the Heisenberg, the Captain Cook knit hat and another hat inspired by “Breaking Bad,” a baseball cap for $30.

“I’m all about ‘Breaking Bad,’ I’m completely obsessed with the show,” said Mr. Au-Yeung, who compared the narrative to an American classic such as J.D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye.”

“I own 12 ‘Breaking Bad’ t-shirts, some mugs and the DVDs on Blu-Ray,” he said.

...On Friday morning, there were three Heisenbergs left at the West Village store after Thursday night’s rain saw the queue disperse, said Goorin Bros. shopkeeper Alex Mroz.

“This is the one and only time we’ll have them, it’s a brief love affair with these Heisenbergs,” said Mr. Mroz.

People In NM Getting Agitated About The Flooding

Rain totals:

2:56 p.m. — The National Weather Service has released new rainfall totals from across the state, and they show that the wet weather system that moved into New Mexico a few days ago still packs some punch.

Here are some of the more noteworthy totals of rainfall collected in the last 62 hours:
•Pecos at 7″
•Tijeras at 3.84″
•Roswell at 5.46″
•Bonito Lake at 5.27″
•Los Alamos at 6.1″
•Tucumcari at 4.04″
•Farmington at 3.24″
•Jemez Springs at 3.39″
•Rio Rancho (Idalia and Rainbows) at 2.17″
•Socorro at 4.59″

Also, in Albuquerque:
•Montgomery and Moon at 2.24″
•Indian School and Wyoming at 2.21″
•Aztec and San Mateo at 1.99″
•Sage and 98th Street at 1.63″
•Zuni and San Mateo at 1.63″
•Constitution and Girard at 1.43″
•Central and Coors at 1.28″

More on the details:

Much of Albuquerque was preparing Friday evening for the impact of floodwaters headed down the Rio Grande. The flood was raging past dams at levels rarely seen since the 1960s.

The river was expected to flow into the bosque and potentially reach Albuquerque levees, officials said at a late afternoon news conference. But the flow was not expected to rise above any levees, according to Mike Hamman of the Bureau of Reclamation.

...The flooding continued Friday in the San Felipe Pueblo, where flood waters inundated areas along the river and tributaries. Water levels rival those of the late 1930s and early 1940s, according to the National Weather Service.

Homes near the rivers are being flooded, and other structures in the “old pueblo” are also in danger. Flooding of the magnitude in that stretch of the Rio Grande have reached 17,400 cubic feet per second, the highest observed since 1955.

...Dams that usually divert water from La Union, south of Las Cruces, burst yesterday, leaving many roads completely washed out and homes flooded with dirt and water. A water tank that sits atop a mesa southwest of the town was also damaged, adding drinking water to the deluge, residents said.

“We’ve been the ones who have been shoveling since yesterday,” said resident Irene Ortiz, who rushed home yesterday from her job in El Paso to find access limited and widespread damage. “We’ve just been out there getting wet.”

...Between 100 and 200 people are stranded on the west bank of the Animas and Las Palomas creeks in Sierra County, and they’re under voluntary evacuation.

...At Santa Clara Pueblo, a voluntary evacuation is under way for residents who live in the west side housing area, according to Pueblo Gov. J. Bruce Tafoya. He said about 12-14 homes are affected.

...Tafoya also said he’s asking Los Alamos National Laboratory workers to bypass N.M. 30 today because of fears that the surging waters from Santa Clara Creek might endanger the bridge passing over it.

Also, the Frijoles Canyon section of Bandelier National Monument was closed today because of anticipated flooding, according toa recorded message at the visitor’s center there.

Both Santa Clara and Bandelier are affected by rapid water runoff from land scarred by fires in recent years.

Meanwhile, flood warnings on the Rio Grande:

THE FLOOD WARNING CONTINUES FOR THE RIO GRANDE AT ALBUQUERQUE.

...

* AT 7:15 PM FRIDAY THE STAGE WAS 5.2 FEET.
* FLOOD STAGE IS 8.0 FEET.
* FORECAST...RISE ABOVE FLOOD STAGE BY EARLY SATURDAY TO NEAR 8.1 FEET
SATURDAY MORNING. THE RIVER WILL FALL BELOW FLOOD STAGE BY SATURDAY
AFTERNOON.
* IMPACT...AT 8.0 FEET...DIKES AND LEVEES CONSTRUCTED AFTER THE FLOODS
OF 1942 PROTECT DEVELOPED AND PERSONAL PROPERTY NEAR THE RIVER IN
THE ALBUQUERQUE METROPOLITAN AREA. LEVEE HEIGHTS RANGE FROM 8 TO 12
FEET. FURTHER UPRIVER AND DOWNRIVER FROM THE DIKES AND LEVEES...
WATER IS FLOWING OVER NATURAL BANKS FLOODING AGRICULTURAL AND
GRAZING LOWLANDS. SUSTAINED FLOWS OF 8000 TO 10,000 CUBIC FEET PER
SECOND OVER A PERIOD OF 24 HOURS WOULD LIKELY RESULT IN SOME
BANK EROSION OUTSIDE OF LEVEE PROTECTED AREAS.
* FLOOD HISTORY...THIS CREST COMPARES TO A PREVIOUS CREST OF 7.9 FEET
ON JUN 10 1983.
...

* THERE WILL BE A SIGNIFICANT RISE OF WATER ON THE RIO GRANDE
RIVER THROUGH ALBUQUERQUE...AND POINTS SOUTH TO BERNARDO.
THE WAVE OF WATER WILL REACH A PEAK IN ALBUQUERQUE LATER
TONIGHT INTO SATURDAY MORNING...AND POINTS FARTHER SOUTH
LATER SATURDAY INTO SATURDAY NIGHT. DURING THIS TIME LOW-LYING
AREAS ALONG AND NEAR THE RIVER MAY EXPERIENCE SOME FLOODING.
THIS WOULD INCLUDE WATER FLOWING OVER NATURAL BANKS...FLOODING
AGRICULTURAL AND GRAZING LOWLANDS.

Richard Vission vs Luciana - PRIMITIVE!

The Pussycat Dolls - Bottle Pop

As I mentioned to Michael, we live in a Golden Age.

Friday The 13th Train

Earlene The Nurse Welcomes Josh Back To Work

90th Anniversary Of The Great Kanto Earthquake Of 1923

Frank was telling me today of a Japanese documentary he recently watched, discussing memories of the Great Earthquake in Tokyo, 90 years ago this month. One particular event stood out for him:

Some fires developed into firestorms that swept across cities. Many people died when their feet became stuck in melting tarmac. The single greatest loss of life was caused by a firestorm-induced fire whirl that engulfed open space at the Rikugun Honjo Hifukusho (formerly the Army Clothing Depot) in downtown Tokyo, where about 38,000 people were incinerated after taking shelter there following the earthquake.

Basically, an entire open urban square crowded with tens of thousands of people was subjected to repeated fire tornadoes that swept burning people off the ground and pitched them into the sky. A prospect too horrible to contemplate!

Here is a little video about those bygone days:

Retrieving Some Blue Jeans With Joe The Plumber

J.: You want some chips? Corn chips, tortilla chips, potato chips: whatever you need.

M.: I'll take them all. (Hi Bella!) Too bad we can't find those blue jeans.

J.: Maybe I gave them away. I give everything away.

M.: Makes you a better person.

Spokesperson For "Shittens"

Videoed a fake ad for a fake product that seems to be the favorite of the Howard Stern crowd. With any luck, my face will brand the product.

Living The Life

Bin O' Panties

I'm on a roll! Second week in a row on B3ta's "Best Answers" page for "Question of the Week"!

The question this week was:

Lurid Work Stories

"I know a railwayman of 40-odd years' service," says Juan Quar, "and he tells me a new gruesome yarn each time we meet. Last week's was of checking the time on the wristwatch of a severed arm he'd just collected after a track fatality."

Tell us the horrible stories you tease the new hires with, or that you've been told.
(NB By definition, these are probably all made up. Roll with it)

My story:

Bin O' Panties

Way, way back in the day, I was a part-time janitor in a women's clothing store. Inventory Day came, and I was given the job of counting all the panties in the "Bin O' Panties".

At first, it was delightful fun, but after an hour, I realized I had basically made no progress. So, I began counting handfuls of panties - about ten panties per grab.

Hours later, little progress. Panties compact small, so removing the weight of panties from the bin just allowed the others below to expand into their place. No one had any earthly idea how many panties were in the bin.

My memory is that I never finished. No one had ever succeeded in completely-counting the panties, and I just joined their number.

Big Sinkhole Opens Up On I-40 Near To'hajiilee

Ooooweeeeoooo!

Meanwhile, In Boulder

(Photo by Aly Nicklas)

Tropical Storm Ingrid

They now have a name for the storm - Ingrid - but current thinking is that it's going to dive into the Mexican coast before it poses much of a hazard. Which is good, because as long as it exists it is a threat to the US.

Rains Continue Falling In NM

Good.... Good.... 0.60 inches in ABQ yesterday, where it never rains.

It's raining more elsewhere, though, and there's some flooding. The Berrendo River near Roswell is flooding. But at least it's not as bad as Colorado, where this same moisture is going, and causing no end of problems.

New Mexico is getting most of its annual rainfall in just a few days. Lunge for it! Rain, rain, rain, while we can get it....

"Joking Bad" - Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

The GIFs are amazing too!

Joe South - Walk a Mile In My Shoes

This was one of my favorite songs, back in 1969.

California Cow Singing Swagger Jagger in the Shower

Lots Of Nice Rain In New Mexico Yesterday

More rain is forecast in various parts of the state today, and Thursday as well. Wonderful!

The weather station at the Albuquerque Sunport (which storms seem to dodge and dance around, so it seems to rain there last and least) logged 0.85 inches of rain. Excellent!

They had trouble with some street flooding and road closures. C'est la vie.

The storm went directly up the Rio Grande River Valley, then fanned northeast - precisely the driest areas of the state, the places hit the very hardest by the unrelenting drought. It was like the storm was expertly designed to relieve the most stress.

Reminds me of the freakish rain that arrived second week in October, a couple of years ago, when I was there. Maybe these tropically-derived rains are a monsoonal feature of very-late summer. Wish they'd happen more often and were more reliable.

As far as relieving the drought is concerned, it's a start.

Getting Nervous About The Potential For A Gulf Of Mexico Hurricane

Forecast still shows development of Bay of Campeche storm over weekend, which then stalls just off the Vera Cruz, Mexico coast. The storm doesn't exist yet, but forecasters are now discussing the possibility. That's a dangerous scenario, if it happens, because it's upwind of Tampa, and the storm may eventually move towards Florida.

It's one of the quietest storm seasons since 1966. Would like to keep that.

Nevertheless, the very latest forecast suggests a northward trajectory, coming into the Texas coast at a shallow angle near Corpus Christi, which is almost guaranteed to cause maximum damage there. Wherever it goes, it won't be pretty.

Will keep watching.

Fireball XL5

For a time in the early Sixties, this was my favorite TV show. My memory is that it got canceled just as I was really getting into it. (The cartoon is 1962, but I really didn't get into Space until 1965, or so).

Domo Picks Up a Guitar

Fierce Four Class

Representin' the top row.

(Photo by Jennifer Lang)

Death Of Another White Woman

As they slowly fade away into the sunset:

On the night of May 23, 2012, which turned out to be the last of her life, Crystal Wilson baby-sat her infant granddaughter, Kelly. It was how she would have preferred to spend every night.

...She is one of a demographic—white women who don’t graduate from high school—whose life expectancy has declined dramatically over the past 18 years. These women can now expect to die five years earlier than the generation before them. It is an unheard-of drop for a wealthy country in the age of modern medicine.

...White men without high-school diplomas had lost three years of life expectancy, but it was the decline for women like Crystal that made the study news.

...The last time researchers found a change of this magnitude, Russian men had lost seven years after the fall of the Soviet Union, when they began drinking more and taking on other risky behaviors. Although women generally outlive men in the U.S., such a large decline in the average age of death, from almost 79 to a little more than 73, suggests that an increasing number of women are dying in their twenties, thirties, and forties. “We actually don’t know the exact reasons why it’s happened,” Olshansky says. “I wish we did.”

...Another mystery emerged from the lifespan study: Black women without a high-school diploma are now outliving their white counterparts.

...Something less tangible, it seems, is shaping the lives of white women in the South, beyond what science can measure. Surely these forces weigh on black women, too, but perhaps they are more likely to have stronger networks of other women. Perhaps after centuries of slavery and Jim Crow, black women are more likely to feel like they’re on an upward trajectory. Perhaps they have more control relative to the men in their communities. In low-income white communities of the South, it is still women who are responsible for the home and for raising children, but increasingly they are also raising their husbands. A husband is a burden and an occasional heartache rather than a helpmate, but one women are told they cannot do without. More and more, data show that poor women are working the hardest and earning the most in their families but can’t take the credit for being the breadwinners. Women do the emotional work for their families, while men reap the most benefits from marriage. The rural South is a place that often wants to remain unchanged from the 1950s and 1960s, and its women are now dying as if they lived in that era, too.

...In the final months of her life, Crystal complained of chest aches, but when she went to the emergency room, the doctors assured her it wasn’t a heart attack. She said that she felt like she had the flu or allergies. In hindsight, it was after Terry’s death—he died a week after Kelly was born—when Crystal really began to suffer.

...Julie knows a lot of young women who will never break the cycle. She has her own thoughts about what might be dragging down their life expectancy. “Desperation,” she says. “You look at the poverty level in this county—I love this place. It’s where I’m from. I don’t want you to think I’m being negative about it.” But she gestures toward the highway and notes how little is there: a few convenience stores, a grocery, and a nursing home. You have to drive north to the county seat in Ash Flat for a Walmart, or you can negotiate traffic in Batesville, where you might get a job at the chicken plant or a fast-food restaurant. “If you are a woman, and you are a poorly educated woman, opportunities for you are next to nothing. You get married and you have kids. You can’t necessarily provide as well as you’d like to for those kids. Oftentimes, the way things are, you’re better off if you’re not working. You get more help. You get better care for your kids if you’re not working. It’s a horrible cycle.

“You don’t even hear about women’s lib, because that’s come and gone. But you hear about glass ceilings, and I think girls, most especially girls, have to be taught that just because they’re girls doesn’t mean they can’t do something.

¡COLORES! Episode 1927: Brian Cranston & The End Of "Breaking Bad"

Winner Of The David Lynch 'Good Day Today' Contest

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Diplomacy

Beats concentrating on the details of the sausage-making:

The Russians immediately jumped on the impromptu proposal, calling Kerry to check if he was serious before going live with their proposal to lean on Syria. An hour later, they trotted out Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Mouallem, who said he too was down with the proposal, which was a strange way to get the Syrians to finally admit they even had chemical weapons to begin with. Before long, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, the English, and the French were all on board, too.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the White House was just as surprised as anyone. Asked if this was a White House plan that Kerry had served up in London, Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken was unequivocal. "No, no, no," he said. "We literally just heard about this as you did some hours ago."

So that's good. At least everyone's on the same page.

Worrisome Gulf of Mexico Forecast

The long-range forecast looks disturbing. The NVG model is showing the possibility of a hurricane forming in Mexico’s Bay of Campeche over the weekend, then crossing the Gulf of Mexico, with landfall around Tallahassee a week from now.

The long-range outlooks are often very wrong, so this could be a false alarm. The best interpretation is that IF a storm develops around southern Mexico over the weekend, it will pose a big hazard to Tampa next week. But that is IF! So, keep an ear open for any news.

Sudden Surge Of Moisture Into New Mexico

From the south. Rare, and unexpected, and likely productive.

Amtrak Accident Near San Onofre

Leighton was aboard the Amtrak train when this happened, which delayed his arrival in San Diego:

One person was killed Sunday night after an Amtrak train plowed into a vehicle that veered off Interstate 5 and onto train tracks in the North County near San Onofre.

Officials say the fatal collision happened just after 9 p.m. and involved a sedan that was driving on southbound I-5 at speeds in excess of 100 mph.

CHP Officer Jim Bettencourt said witnesses reported the vehicle weaving in and out of traffic. As the driver attempted to switch lanes at the same time as another vehicle, he veered off the roadway and down an embankment.

Bettencourt said the vehicle wound up on the train tracks below.

Seconds thereafter, an Amtrak train traveling southbound on the tracks plowed into the vehicle, killing the driver of the car instantly.

Bettencourt said no one else was injured in the crash, including passengers aboard the Amtrak train.

Weird Al Understands True Love

"Breaking Bad" writer George Mastras:

"You’re not really playing with a full deck if you have a crush on Lydia."

Well, society may not approve, and the UBBFT may not approve, but when Lydia comes into the room, something tingly happens all up inside me (something about the Christian Louboutins, or something). Our love will live on, and endure (well, at least until Episode 516, or so).

From Weird Al's Song "Albuquerque" and the craziest Breaking Bad mashup video ever:

I ran out into the street
With these flesh-eating weasels all over my face
Wavin' my arms all around and just runnin'
Runnin', runnin', runnin' like a constipated wiener dog
And as luck would have it
That's exactly when I ran into the girl of my dreams
Her name was Zelda
She was a caligraphy enthusiast
With a slight overbite
And hair the color of strained peaches
I'll never forget the very first thing she said to me
She said, Hey, you've got weasels on your face

That's when I knew it was true love
We were inseparable after that
Aw, we ate together
We bathed together
We even shared the same piece
Of mint-flavored dental floss
The world was our burrito
So we got married
And we bought us a house
And had two beautiful children, Nathaniel and Superfly
Oh we were so very, very, very happy, oh yeah.
But then, one fateful night, Zelda said to me
She said, Sweetie pumpkin?
Do you wanna join the Columbia Record Club?
I said, Woah!
Hold on now, baby!
I'm just not ready for that kind of a commitment!

So we broke up, and I never saw her again
But that's just the way things go

In Albuquerque!
Albuquerque!

The 12-Year-Olds Said His Name Was "Domo"

I bought this cap last Christmas at 'Hot Topic' in Sunrise Mall. I liked the look. I didn't know what valence the character had in popular culture. No idea at all. I figured it wasn't need-to-know information, similar to the 'Boyfriend Challenged' bumper sticker that someone slapped on my car, apropos of nothing. Not everything in this universe needs explanation.

At Celebrate Natomas, two 12-year-old girls standing in one of the food lines pointed at my forehead and informed me the character is named "Domo". Still don't know who the character is, but at least I have a starting place....

The three of us nodded together and agreed that they have cool stuff at 'Hot Topic'.

Next Week - Ozymandias!

Fierce Four Fitness Flagellates A Flabby Follower

The picture looks promising, no?

Pepper Von and Janis Saffell, introducing the Fierce Four Fitness concept for the first time west of Colorado.

What's not to like?

I was a bit woozy after being in the heat all afternoon over at Celebrate Natomas, so I was leery about even taking the class.  Nevertheless, I left the class feeling stronger than when I started.

Because I understood Pepper's standard syllabus, I had little trouble there, but I had never taken anything from his kick-boxing teaching partner, Janis, and so I was lost in a swimming sea of flop-sweat for awhile.

Janis Saffell, Pepper Von, and Jenn.

Steph wins a raffle prize.

Celebrate Natomas 2013

Annual Sierra Research Dinner

Cardboard Pavilion

Building a cardboard pavilion at 20th & J St. for the Launch Music Festival.

More Trains

Iggy Azalea - Work

Continuing on the Australian theme, it's interesting how some Aussies have a philo-American streak so strong that they feel they were simply born in the wrong place. So, they come to the States.

Iggy Azalea comes from Mullumbimby, New South Wales, but wanted to rap with serious people so bad she came to Miami, alone, at sixteen, and spent five years learning her craft in the South:

The lyrics hark back to Australia:

Two feet in the red dirt, school skirt
Sugar cane, back lanes
Three jobs, took years to save
But I got a ticket on that plane
People got a lot to say
But don't know shit about where I was made
Or how many floors that I had to scrub
Just to make it past where I am from