No, Seriously. Go the Fuck Away.

My house flooded tonight - just a little. But we had this really major rainstorm at around 10:30 (Kirsten and I were already in bed; thank heavens the hailstorms woke me up) and it overwhelmed the storm drain system in the neighborhood. So I'm downstairs looking to unplug Kirsten's computer and I hear this rushing water noise - I open the door between the basement and den to see....rushing water.

I woke Kirsten up and lickety-split we managed to lift everything in the laundry room and the vicinity of the basement/den door from the ground (including my computer, which currently sits on my desk chair). Then I grabbed the shop vac and started sucking.

With the shop vac.

Luckily, the rain stopped long enough to allow the drains to clear and the basement drain started to help with the process, allowing the water to trickle down into the storm drains again and out of the house.

I bleached the floor in the basement and we're busily soaking up the water from the carpet near the door on the den side - we've gone through three rolls of paper towels so far, but things are looking up. And as far as I know, this was just storm sewer water - it wasn't sludgy like sanitary sewer water, so that's good. All in all, a close call was avoided for certain.

We're placing a call to the insurance agent to get sewer backup protection tomorrow. Anyone looking at buying a house: you aren't protected if the sewers back up, and you aren't allowed to sue the city or other local government (Act of God). BUY SEWER INSURANCE.

The Saint Louis Economy is Still Struggling

Rumors are starting to swirl that American Airlines, still one of St. Louis's largest employers, will be removing St. Louis as a hub for its system and slash the number of employees here.

So...let me get this straight.

American bought out TWA in 2001 and everyone was thrilled because American said job cuts would be minimal. There were parties at the airport, because TWA was about to go into bankruptcy, which would certainly have been bad.

But in 2003 American cut the number of full-time former TWA jobs from 20,000 to 10,000. They closed a 500-person reservation center in the St. Louis area (the old TWA center, in fact). They fired every single former TWA flight attendant. Every single one, regardless of seniority.

Now they're slashing flights (again), and jobs (again).

Why were we all so happy in 2001?

You can say that American gave employees (well, not flight attendants, and not flight crews on overlapping flights - something like 3/4 of them lost their jobs) time on the job that they wouldn't otherwise have had. You can make that point, and yeah, you'd be right-ish enough to build a platform on it.

Frankly, I think that the age of flight is over. I think we've really reached a point with petroleum product prices that is going to force the airlines to cut routes, cut employees, and raise prices in order to remain competitive.

Good riddance. It sucks that people are going to lose their jobs, but the industry is in an unsustainable position now. Maybe some airlines will find a way to grow - JetBlue, Southwest, other discount carriers will expand to take over the open niches in the market. I honestly don't know. But lines like American, with their 40 different kinds of hardware, and their incredibly inefficient hub-and-spoke system, are probably doomed.

And St. Louis just got a little bit dimmer.

Stylin' and Profilin'

So I just left the Staff Day luncheon here on campus, and ran into Cecily while I was there. She was wearing a Yale shirt - a reminder, dear reader(s): we do not work at Yale. Nor do we work at Brown, which probably wishes it were Yale almost as much as it wishes it were Harvard. I gave her an earful, she gave me the finger. All in all, a very productive discussion.

Anyway, yesterday the wife and I were watching The Soup, and Joel McHale was wearing a thin blue tie. I pointed it out, and said, "Apparently, they're back in fashion."

Kirsten, without even looking at me, said, "You're too short."

Not, "It's a fad this time, too."

Not, "I don't like them."

Just, "You're too short."

On the flipside, a barista at Starbucks this morning was wearing a Utilikilt, which I'm proud to say I have no interest in trying, regardless of how enduring a fashion they are.

Do I Make Myself Clear?

I am fucking sick of all the fucking rain and the fucking wetness and the fucking puddles every where I try to take a fucking step. This rotten fucking weather is flooding my fucking basement and leaking through my recently-fucking-repaired roof. My fucking pansies that I just fucking planted are going to fucking drown, my sunroom is fucking useless, and my hoosier neighbor's yard smells like fucking wet dog shit.

FUCK.

The Month in Review

Early in April, I lambasted the Cardinals' decision to pick up Troy Glaus as a replacement for Scott Rolen. My specific complaint was, in actuality, the number of errors he's committed or has committed to committing in the course of the season.

I brought that up on the St. Louis post-dispatch boards today, to hoots and hollers from people who believe Glaus was the right choice. He might very well have been - though his power numbers have dwindled (maybe because he stopped taking steroids), he still leads all third basemen in doubles this year and is near the lead in RBIs through the May 4th games.

In fact, he's doing pretty well overall when it comes to both statistics.

The problem, though, is his fielding. Glaus is a historically bad fielding third baseman. Among a sample of 23 third basemen selected because of the high number of errors committed at 3rd base:
Since 2002, Troy Glaus is 6th-worst in errors/game (.125 E/G), behind Casey Blake (.138), Aaron Boone and Brandon Inge (.135), Ty Wigginton (.132) and Shea Hillenbrand (.126).
(minimum 325 games at 3B)

Since 2005, Troy Glaus is 5th-worst in errors/game, although he's slightly better (.113), behind Mark Teahen (.143), Aaron Boone (.132), Brandon Inge (.130), and Chone Figgins (.126)
(Minimum 200 games at 3B).

In fact, only Adrian Beltre has committed more errors at 3B than Glaus (102 to 87) since 2002, although Beltre has played in 259 more games over that timespan.

Glaus has only committed two errors this season. I fear that he will return to form before the year is out.

It's Like They Have Alzheimers

I'm not entirely sure why anyone is surprised by the news that came out today that the Chinese have built a nuclear submarine base on Hainan Island. The facility has been a naval base for the Chinese for years - they've even berthed vessels there in plain view of Google Earth (and I've posted one on this forum).

But here's the thing: I can see at least a dozen tunnels on Google Earth, and I don't know how old the image is, but it's at least several months old. Why is this sort of thing a surprise to anyone?

Heck, this story actually broke back in 2006.

I'm guessing that the CIA and Pentagon intelligence have actually known about the site for far longer than that. But a note to the Daily Telegraph: if it's on Google Earth, it's not really a secret to anyone anymore.