Category Archives: off the record

sometimes there’s just no categorizing

more proof: perception is reality

TSA as it's known to passengersfast company’s quick out of the box on the spectacle we’ve come to know as TSA, joining the growing chorus of adults clamoring for a better solution to the critical need for effective, efficient security screening techniques.

Nitpicker and general pain in the ass Christopher Hitchens weighed in with a surprisingly on-target dissection of the agency’s shortcomings in a snarky even by his acerbic standards takedown of TSA’s latest security strategy.

By now it’s pretty clear how the government (for these purposes defined as grandstanding politicians) will react when there’s a crisis, starting with armflapping that’s quickly followed by flapdoodle. I’m simply gobsmacked that the country that won World War II, built a coast to coast interstate highway and then sent humans to the moon’s surface in machines designed with slide rules – for those unfamiliar, just google – and ‘computers’ less powerful than the Timex Ironman watch I wear, is made to look foolish and ineffective in this paramount effort to thwart evil.

Public relations professionals instantly recognize the need for crisis management in the wake of unsympathetic coverage of airport shutdowns and agonizing replays of Continental’s for want of a nail flying episode last summer. We need better. We want better. We deserve better. As fastco clearly points out, “They employ people making $9/hour to defend our national security.”

cinco de may-O-mayo

acambaro_001CW Trek pal Steven Soto (second from left) sends his warmest Baja de Mayo regards after a quick weekend spin south of the border. Though not a doctor, and he doesn’t play one on t.v. either, Soto reports that swine flu was easily kept at bay by constant replinishment of the essentials: great trail, good friends, warm hospitality and tequila. As in margarita.

don’t look now, but…

loading up the belgium eye cameraNews from north of the border includes Canadian Rob Spence’s plans to secretly tape (sic) documentaries using his newly developed bionic eyeball, which replaces the one that was shot up in a childhood hunting accident and removed three years ago.

Turns out, Rob’s a fan of the nin-in-nin-na-na-na series “The Six Million Dollar Man” which featured Lee Majors running in sloooow-mowwww-shuuun but not talking that way. I’ve always wondered why that was.

Anyway, Rob wants to open everyone’s eyes, as it were, to the spread of urban surveillance, which in and of itself ain’t so funny. So the next time you’re in the mall shopping with the wife and kids and the hairs on the back of your neck begin to tingle because, you know, it feels like someone’s staring at you. Well, it’s probably because someone is.

Thanks to imaginginfo.com for this update.

home teams double up

Sunday night a little over a week ago I was in one of my top five eating, drinking and hanging out spots, the bar of Sammy’s Grill in Zachary, Louisiana, busily gettin’ down on a plate of catfish and crawfish.

On the hi-def screen in front of me the Tampa Bay Bucs were shoving the Seahawks around on Sunday Night Football. Over my shoulder the (Tampa Bay) Rays, mercifully shortened from the previous God-awful Devil Rays coined under former no fun allowed owner Vince Naimoli, were sewing up the ALCS with a final game whuppin’ of the Red Sox that would match them up in a series setup against the Phillies, which – as luck would have it – train just up the road in Clearwater

Continue reading →

busted flat in (baja) rouge

Riding a quick night solo down the coast on his fave XR650R yearly riding pal Steven Soto stepped in it big time over the weekend when, headed for a Baja rendezvous with Big Red champ Steve Hengeveld, he discovered the down side of a blown clutch, moonless night and way remote location.

Steven’s adventure came to an abrupt halt around 9:30 p.m., along with the instant realization there’d be no sweep, no cerveza, no shower. He spent the rest of the night stoking the fire and keeping critters at bay before setting out at dawn for the 18-plus mile walkabout to Rancho El Coyote and help. We’re glad he’s in one piece. Probably no need to mention why riding with a buddy is suggested.

want fries with that?

cover your eyes and don’t read the rest

Harley’s Hog Club notwithstanding, snorting pig brains might cause, among other things, numbness and weakness in the extremities.

According to a story in the Washington Post, some of the folks working at Quality Pork Processor’s “head table” reported the symptoms after, um, using compressed air to remove the deceased porker’s former thought processor, a process referred to as “blowing brains” which researchers now think may have atomized some of the material that was subsequently inhaled.

Everything but the oink? You betcha. The product is shipped to, among other recipients, Korea and China.

a really super bowl

one take and we’re done

I’m still enjoying the aftermath of LSU’s whuppin’ of Ohio State so the lure of the Giants finishing a come from behind season to topple the Pats wasn’t that much on my radar. Until I heard who the halftime entertainment was.

Over 20 years ago I got a gig shooting Tom Petty in the most unlikely setting; a penthouse balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. You can read about it over on the web.

yeah – what about jobs?

Timing’s everything. The Michigan primary has the current crop of politicians stating the obvious: the state’s in trouble, and promising the banal: the plan out of unemployment is retraining. Okay so far, we don’t disagree.

But. In case you didn’t know, and I sure didn’t, the leading black hole darlings for investor capital continue to be dot coms, like, well, YouTube. Purchased by Google in 2006 for $One-with-a-B billion. Spread out over about 60 employees. No, I can’t do the math.
Continue reading →

should britney be tasered?

can the media be trusted?

Between the primal scream “Leave Britney Alone!” and the primal duh! “Don’t Tase Me, Bro!” it’s clear the water’s a lot murkier when it comes to intellectual content these days. The screaming momos starring in both these YouTube hits are obviously twin sons of different mothers.

My alma mater is the University of Florida, so it’s understandable I’m a little miffed at seeing a journalism student – senior no less! – get the lead role in what looks more and more like a setup with the sole purpose of recasting Whitey as Rodney courtesy of the campus cops. During my stay in Gainesville, they were favorably compared to the Keystone Kops, for reasons obvious and otherwise.

As a communicator, it’s troubling when so much bandwidth is consumed eyeballing these whacked out vid bits – extreme street racing, anyone? – at a time when the majority of the population readily admits to virtually ignoring newspapers and of treating reading in general as something last practiced during Victorian times.

So what’s this doing on a powersports site? If we agree there are only so many moments during the waking hours for information to be consumed and interpreted, then it follows that with content like this on the buffet it’s less likely your message gets heard. Or viewed, as the case may be.

Right now there’s increasing concern over the rise in motorcycle fatalities, and a fair amount of disagreement as to cause. Industry leaders are pretty well informed on the subject though views vary. But we’re left wondering if the actual at large biking audience has any inkling there’s a serious discussion going on. Web forums notwithstanding, the issues that intersect our lives need to be communicated in a fair, accurate and efficient manner by those involved, for those involved. If not, it’ll be the realtor turned legislator who happens to hate bikes that’ll do it for us.