Sean Means, who has assumed the mantle of “culture vulture” in addition to his usual movie-critic role at the Salt Lake Tribune, made a nice observation today in response to the news that yet another venerable SL institution, Squirrel Brothers Ice Cream (which used to be Snelgrove’s, before it was infected with the “cutesy name syndrome” that runs rampant in this state), is closing down:
Okay, since it’s becoming obvious I’m not going to manage to do any actual entries today…
Yeah, it’s a commercial, and it kinda sucks that the dread gargoyle that haunted our collective childhood has become both a spokes-Sith and a punchline… but this still made me laugh. So there.
Speaking of Indiana Jones, here are a couple of items I meant to post a month ago but didn’t get around to:
You know, everybody thinks it’d be so awesome to live a life of adventure and derring-do, but have you thought about the practical considerations, the real-life inconveniences of having Nazis, commies, aliens, zombies, and indigenous tribespeople always trying to punch your timecard? Consider how your simplest daily activities would change if you really were Indiana Jones…
What a pain, eh?
Via.
Here’s something I’ll bet most people — especially we younger folks who grew up hearing the term in question on a regular basis — have never considered:
WE hear constantly now about “our commander in chief.” The word has become a synonym for “president.” It is said that we “elect a commander in chief.” It is asked whether this or that candidate is “worthy to be our commander in chief.”
But the president is not our commander in chief. He certainly is not mine. I am not in the Army.
…
The president is not the commander in chief of civilians. He is not even commander in chief of National Guard troops unless and until they are federalized. The Constitution is clear on this: “The president shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States.”
When Abraham Lincoln took actions based on military considerations, he gave himself the proper title, “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” That title is rarely — more like never — heard today. It is just “commander in chief,” or even “commander in chief of the United States.” This reflects the increasing militarization of our politics. The citizenry at large is now thought of as under military discipline. In wartime, it is true, people submit to the national leadership more than in peacetime. The executive branch takes actions in secret, unaccountable to the electorate, to hide its moves from the enemy and protect national secrets. Constitutional shortcuts are taken “for the duration.” But those impositions are removed when normal life returns.
But we have not seen normal life in 66 years. The wartime discipline imposed in 1941 has never been lifted, and “the duration” has become the norm. World War II melded into the cold war, with greater secrecy than ever — more classified information, tougher security clearances. And now the cold war has modulated into the war on terrorism.
Just a little food for thought as the echoes from the Fourth of July fireworks fade and the campaign rhetoric returns to full volume. Original source here, via.
Sunday afternoon driving around, weather pleasantly warm. A sign in front of Arctic Circle, a local burger chain, advertises “SW Salad with Jalapeno Dressing.”
Says I: “Look, hon, Star Wars Salad.”
Says The Girlfriend: “What do you suppose would come on a Star Wars Salad?”
I: “Ewoks.”
She: “You didn’t even miss a beat with that.”
Continues I, again without missing a beat: “Charcoal-grilled Ewoks. They’re quite tasty with that Jalapeno Dressing.”
She: “You scare me…”
Created by OnePlusYou
Seriously, no Gog and Magog? Or Huey, Dewey, and Louie? Not even Old BOB?
Amateurs.
I’ve seen this site, which enables you to make maps of places you’ve been in your travels, a couple of times before, but I’ve never really played with it. Ilya’s map this morning has inspired me, though, so here’s my own map of all the states in the U.S. I have visited:
create your own personalized map of the USA
Not very impressive, is it? Certainly not for a guy who fancies himself a big traveler, anyway. According to the helpful statistics provided by MyWorld66.com, I have visited 11 of the 50 states, or only about 21% of the country. (I’ve actually set foot in several more states, but I figured passing through an airport doesn’t count as actually visiting.) Ilya has done much better. However, in my defense, I would note that I have seen large tracts of many of the states I have visited, rather than just one or two cities or sights. I’ll elaborate a bit below the fold (and explain the title), if you’re at all interested…
…so, in lieu of a proper entry, here’s a silly Internet quiz!
Which Star Wars Character Are You? |
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You are Luke Skywalker. You are adventurous and love to be where the action is. Your curiosity runs wild and you have to seek out the answers to all your questions or else you will not be at peace. People see you as a great leader, although you are uncomfortable with this because you don’t see yourself the same way. You just believe in being honest and focusing on the good in the world. You are sweet and lovable and have many friends that would be lost without you. |
| Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com | |
What do y’all think? Does that sound at all like me? I do have a curious streak…
Over the past couple of days, I’ve noticed some items in the Tribune that may be of interest to my local (or formerly local) readers.
The first is a feature story about the handful of drive-in theaters that still operate in Utah; it focuses primarily on the Motor Vu in Erda, which I briefly mentioned in an entry a couple weeks ago.
The other, somewhat more exciting news concerns the Road Island Diner in Oakley, Utah, which I first wrote about just over one year ago. This is the authentic 1940s-vintage prefab diner that was shipped cross-country from the east coast to a small town at the edge of the Uinta Mountains. To cut to the chase, the renovation is complete and it opened for business this weekend. Details are here. According to the linked article, it’s one of only about 1,200 diners left in the country.
I’ve also found an official website for the Road Island that includes an extensive photo gallery of the renovation. In classic-car terminology, it was a complete “frame off restoration,” i.e., it was stripped right down to the bare bones and rebuilt from the ground up. It looks fabulous now, like a time traveler from the Greatest Generation plopped down right here in the 21st Century. I’m very pleased to see that the new owner went for authenticity after all. (I heard a rumor a while back that he’d planned a huge, two-story addition that would’ve completely overshadowed the original structure, but that was either untrue, or someone talked him out of it.) Of course, it’s not entirely authentic. The Trib article notes that the there are flat-screen TVs, which I could’ve lived without (I realized today just how ubiquitous video displays have become in our society, and how distracting they frequently are; it’d be nice to escape them once in a while), and the tabletop jukeboxes are described as “remote controls for iPods in the back,” but I guess you can only go so far in recreating another time period.
Oh, and it wouldn’t be a Utah attraction if there wasn’t some element of cheesiness to it: all the employees have been given “diner names.” Oy. What is it with this state anyway? It’s like people just can’t help but find some way of being cutesy.
Still, I’m pretty eager to try the place out, even with TVs and cutesy-ness. The Girlfriend and I plan to take a little road trip within the next couple of weeks…
One final note: if you’re interested in reading those articles, don’t hesitate: in only a few days, the Tribune will drop them behind a pay-wall… I really wish they’d follow the New York Times‘ example and quit doing that…
