In my hometown of Iowa City, Iowa, there is a well-known and well-loved breakfast/lunch diner-type joint called the Hamburg Inn No. 2. It has great cheap food (scores of different omelets, including my favorite, the Iowa Omelet), and is always crowded. Two U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan, have eaten there. You can see pictures of Clinton here (oh my, Bill, you are seriously overdressed for the Hamburg Inn); […]
A very interesting recent study evaluated the “lifetime energy usage” of various vehicles, by looking not only at their fuel economy, but all energy costs associated with the design, manufacture, delivery, and disposal of those vehicles. The surprise? Hybrids don’t fare especially well in this analysis. For example, the Honda Accord Hybrid has an Energy Cost per Mile of $3.29 while the conventional Honda Accord is $2.18. Put simply, over […]
We went to Tahoe for 5 days over Spring Break, and spent two of them hunkered down in our cabin waiting out an incredible late winter storm. It dropped 25 inches of snow between Saturday and Sunday, with horrendous winds (60 mph on Saturday at the top of Alpine Meadows, which convinced us not to ski that day). It was fun in a way to be forced to stay in […]
The Grump must confess that he has not followed the Valerie Plame/Libby Lewis leak story in detail. But one thing the Grump recalls firmly is the absolutely unequivocal statement by George Bush shortly after the row started, to the effect that leaks were wrong and that if someone in his administration leaked something, well then he was going to bring the hammer down on them. Now we hear the President’s […]
This has been the longest, most gloomy winter I’ve experienced since moving to California … holy crud, it’s almost 19 years now! Here’s pretty much what it’s been like all the time: Want a bigger view of gloom? Click here. No wonder the Grump is grumpy. He’s wondering why he ever left Seattle.
My friend the Grumpy Moderate has had too hard a time figuring out how to use his own blog (he’s been very busy lately besides), so I have generously offered to let him share the SSSBLOG for the time being. Whether someone as incredibly upbeat and optimistic as SSS can bear sharing space wtih someone as, how do I say this, well … as grumpy as the Grump remains to […]
Basketball season ended on Saturday, with Andrew’s fifth grade school team going down to a tough defeat in a hard-fought game at St. Francis in Sonoma. Poor kid got knocked down twice, with no foul ever called, but he played great defense and scored 2 points. He has 19 kids on his team, so no one gets a lot of playing time. Full size picture here.
Following heated debate over the Kinnick Stadium’s pink visiting locker rooms, UI President David Skorton abruptly ended the university’s involvement and said the school will not further investigate the issue. For now, it appears, the locker room will keep its pink walls. Skorton on Thursday announced his decision to take no action toward investigating alleged sexism and homophobia in the locker room’s hue, after meeting with the University Steering Committee […]
There weren’t many readers before, I suspect, and not posting for three weeks won’t increase their numbers. But boy do I have excuses … the kids, their homework, my work, French classes, bills, chores, etc. So, some updates: Regarding this post, sure enough, there has been a ton of heartbreak among Hawkeye fans. A painful 23-3 loss to in-state rival Iowa State (aka Moo U), followed by a crushing 31-6 […]
Those of you who know me know that I’m a bit of a computer nerd, or maybe more appropriately a computer nerd wannabe. As further evidence, I discovered the other day that it is possible to download and burn a bootable CD that will run the free Linux operating system on your computer. It takes a little bit of work (the download is over 650 MB and I had to […]