Random notes

Just some random notes:

• Do you write “dammit”, or “damn it”? And if you stick God into the mix, do you compound the word into “Goddamn”? How about, “Goddammit”?
• Megan Seling of The Stranger noted, “[A]re there any other words in the English language that have three consecutive pairs of letters like the word bookkeeper does? I can’t think of any. Then again, I suck at Scrabble.”
• To this day, the word “misled” bothers me, because when I was a kid, I read an Encyclopedia Brown story in which the solution to the mystery was a badly-written note. According to our hero, there is (was) no such word as “misled”. Did common vernacular somehow change this rule sometime in the last forty-five years? Or was I reading a subversive pinko Cold War-era counterfeit Encyclopedia Brown book?
• I feel like introducing you to one of my most enduring pet peeves: The word “transition” is a noun, damn it!
• Oh, yeah, another pet peeve: The phrase “pet peeve” is annoying and unnerving, much like children singing off-key for the amusement of sitcom viewers.

Happy Hallowe’en

Happy Hallowe’en, rock and roll, and all that jazz. Er, I mean ….

Wow, it’s been almost a year since I posted anything about the return of Tacoma’s legendary garage band The Sonics. But it’s time to catch up, and if e’er there was a testament that rock and roll will never die, it will be the band’s Seattle triumph. The Sonics are playing the Paramount. And I have a ticket.

Meanwhile, over in more diligent pastures, the News Tribune‘s Ernest Jasmin has been faithfully following band-related developments. Some of those posts, from Bring the Noise:

• “The Sonics’ Jerry Roslie laments taking four decades off, works on new songs“, October 21, 2008
• “Happier Sonics thoughts“, October 27, 2008
• “Girl Trouble’s Bon Von Wheelie on the greatness of Bob Bennett and her favorite Sonics song“, October 28, 2008
• “Mudhoney’s Mark Arm on how he fell in love with the Sonics“, October 29, 2008
• “In case you’re wondering what the Sonics look like these days“, October 31, 2008

Fellow Tacoma band Girl Trouble, by the way, an enduring fixture of the Northwest rock scene that turns twenty-five this year, is slated among the openers for tonight’s ass kicking. Kate Tucker & The Sons of Sweden are also on the bill.

If I’d bothered to write this sooner, I might have said, “See you there”. As it is, nobody’s going to read this before showtime. Although, in truth, if there is anyone at the show who has ever read this blog, I would be surprised, so it doesn’t really matter, anyway.

Trick or freakin’ treat; I’m seeing The Sonics tonight. Only now, as the day creeps onward, is it really setting in.

Happy Hallowe’enie. Enjoy the candy.

Trenchtown Keystone? The great sand heist

Excuse me, but how do you steal a beach? Okay, Rory Carroll explains this for us, courtesy of The Guardian:

Thieves in Jamaica have embarrassed police and triggered a political row by stealing a beach – and making a clean getaway.

Hundreds of tonnes of white sand vanished from a planned resort on the island’s north coast in July but three months later there is no sign of suspects nor sand.

An estimated 500 truck-loads of sand were removed from the Coral Spring beach in Trelawny and were believed to have been sold to rival resorts, a hefty logistical feat which has stumped police.

“It’s a very complex investigation because it involves so many aspects,” Mark Shields, the deputy commissioner for crime at the Jamaica Constabulary Force, told the BBC.

“You’ve got the receivers of the stolen sand, or what we believe to be the sand. The trucks themselves, the organisers and, of course, there is some suspicion that some police were in collusion with the movers of the sand.”

And while Carroll notes that Jamaican police have received much criticism of late, especially for its investigation of cricket coach Bob Woolmer’s death, he also notes that last year thieves stole a Hungarian resort.

So it’s not just Jamaica, jah?

(A tip o’the hat to Jonah at Slog.)

Quote of the Week — Steel on the financial crisis

Mark Steel on the international financial crisis. Or, at least, the English share of it:

So all these inquests about why the banks have failed society seem pointless. They didn’t fulfil society’s needs because that’s not their aim. Their aim is to make as much profit as possible for their shareholders. You might as well ask a sportsman why he failed to defend the near post at corners, and wonder why you get the reply “Because I’m a tennis player”.

Maybe it’s just one of those things; I adore Mr. Steel’s television and radio lectures, and his weekly column for The Independent makes for regular reading.

Nizza leaves The Lede: Good night, good luck, and all that

Even though I haven’t been doing my job as a blogger of late, one who has is Mike Nizza, who finished today his seventeen months over at The Lede, and with it eight years at the New York Times.

It is impossible to overstate how much fun it has been to follow the news along with you, and the many amazing reporters and editors at this newspaper who pitched in on The Lede — especially the names that close readers will recognize: Patrick J. Lyons, John Schwartz, Micheline Maynard and the good folks from the Moscow bureau.

As I leave The New York Times after eight years to work for Atlantic Media, I want to offer a big thanks, for reading, for commenting, for correcting, and for playing along with the jokes (even some of the bad ones). It’s truly been an experience of a lifetime.

So while it is far too soon to declare victory for The Lede, it will be up to my successor to continue the mission. As for me, I’m about to do something extremely unusual: I’m finishing up a post, but I won’t be looking for the next one. That is something that I’m really, really going to miss.

Okay, I admit it, Mike, I wasn’t a regular reader of The Lede, but I did recognize your name whenever I saw it or heard it here and about. Good luck, man. I’m as sure as I can be this isn’t your last appearance in the realm of the blogosphere.