THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Various stuff


1. Barbara Bullock was sentenced to 9 years in prison for stealing about $9 million from the DC teachers union (she was its President). Apparently very little money is left for restitution. Also apparently, the Union had gone without an audit for 4 years in violation of its charter. She pleaded for mercy on the basis of 'my bipolar personality made me do it'. The judge said he would have sentenced her to 10 years if she had been younger (she is 65)

2. Elevated lead levels were found in about 400 homes in DC. A tells M to start using bottled water at work.

3. Bravo channel had 8 hours of 'Queer eye for the Straight Guy' and 10 hours of 'Gay Marriage' on today's schedule.

4. At work, I commented to someone that after JLo and Ben officially broke up, I had expected to feel pleasure in their discomfort but instead I found myself wishing they could have made it work. One lady said to me, "that's the Christian in you" (I think this was a compliment)..

Cold up North

A number of stations in ND and MN recorded minimums of below -35F this am with some as low as -50F. Some were all time records. Yesterday and the day before there were record low maximums in the -20F area. Some of these were also all time records.

Two dead mice

In our office today we had two dead mice. One, formerly a live rodent, one formerly a live interactive computer tool. One was carried away by maintenance, the other was replaced.

Icky cold and strange news

It was 2F above this am at Dulles (4th time this month the temps have been in single figures). Ted Leonsis, owner of the Capitals ice hockey franchise in DC, was fined $100k and suspended for attacking a fan. The fan was one of several who were booing him for, among other things, trading star Jaromir Jagr and for general discontent (the team is 15-29-5). Leonsis was told by his biz partner, Abe Pollin to take criticism better. Pollin is co owner of the Capitals and majority owner of the Wizards (who are 13-33 which is worse than the Caps)

Former star of NBC, Jack Paar, who preceded Johnny Carson on the tonight show died. The NBC TV eulogy mispelled his last name "Parr".

More Icky Weather and some sports news

A thick layer of ice was on the car this am. I had to use the car because I'm coming back late from a GW-Xavier bb game that I'm going to with Stanley Cohen. It took about 15 minutes to get the ice off the car.

Aaron Boone, 3B for the NYYankees (and a hero of the previous AL LCS), is in a interesting contract dispute. He injured himself playing pickup basketball. The Yankees say this voids his $5.75M/yr contract because the contract says you can't do certain enumerated things (one of which is pickup basketball) without permission from the team. Boone's lawyers say that the provision in the contract is illegal because it exceeds the constraints of the standard MLB contract. I remember that in Brian DePalma's "Phantom of the Paradise" Philbin's opening soliloquy includes a complaint about a judge who voided a singer's lifetime contract.

Ick - Weather

We had about 6"of snow overnight - very cold, in the teens; now we have a freezing drizzle and its still in the teens. The ride on wasn't running (at least the 530, 600, 630 or 700) so I drove to the metrorail lot. It was nicely plowed. The metrorail itself was pretty bad, however. A lot of waiting at platforms.

Lots of Babies???

I went to a bris (circumsion) today. The mohel was driving a BMW convertible. Hmm. Baby biz must be pretty good - at least the male baby biz.

Turkey Wings

Friday evening (1/23) we had turkey wings. I didn't have time to debone them like I do sometimes. However, they we cooked once and then refrigerated and then reheated with aluminum topping the ceramic heating dish. The turkey was tender enough that it didn't need deboning.

Beth was in Baltimore Friday and Saturday and this am. We are trying to get her back because of an impending snow storm.

New Bus Route home

I took the 37 home instead of the 38. The 37 leaves from Grovenor rather than White Flint. I have a 25 minute walk instead of a 1 minute walk. I saw the 38 while I was walking home from where the 37 dropped me. People who ride the 38 have been complaining about the irregularities of the 38 - it frequently comes late.

Jan 19-21 Trip
Ann and I were in Atlanta for a few days, mostly to visit Ann's mom. Some interesting things since our most recent trip. First, the nitroglycerin patch KL has is working out well and so are most things at Limbrook square. KL got a new computer monitor magnifying system and a new bookshelf (Beth assembled the latter) and some other neat stuff, for example a green, red and gold nightlight where the gold part moves around.

More Cold

Temperature is falling quickly tonight and we expect below 10F by dawn. It is already cold north of here. Maine was declared a cold emergency with temps below 0F in the day. At 851pm it is only 3F above in NYC with a -14F wind chill. Former VP Al Gore was in NYC today. He gave a speech about how awful global warming was - really!. Mt Washington NH reached -44 yesterday with a -100 wind chill.

Last Night's Research Session

I was chairing a session of the Transportation Research Board yesterday evening. The session was from 730-945 pm (yes pm) because the Board has more sessions than can fit into all the conference rooms if they only use day sessions. Anyway there was a decent sized crowd.

I knew all the speakers (after all I had invited them) and made jokes about each of them. The first speaker was a student at the JFK School for Govt. at Harvard. I got her a grant to do some highway research. She had worked for Sen. Moynihan and had gotten a highway designated as an Interstate while an intern. I introduced her as being like Reece Witherspoon in Legally Blond 2 except that something had been accomplished, the accomplishment has actually led to certain improvements and the screenplay of her story is much better than the wretched writing of Legally Blond 2. The second speaker is a fellow who uses the word 'dialectic' in casual conversation when talking about how one policy led to another. I introduced him as a fellow who will show how synthesis proceeded by antimony to antithesis and a new synthesis over and over. Then I said that there were some differences between Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Greg. For one, Hegel used an ideal history that didn't really correspond with reality and Greg deals with situations that are all too real. A second important difference is that Greg has a powerpoint presentation. Greg got up and said, "I think Hegel is turning over in his grave about now". Someone in the audience said, "and that's a third important difference". Later one comment from the audience was that we should enhance our dialectic. Another speaker had done some economic development work in Nigeria and I introduced her as saying her work must have been successful because I get email from Nigeria at least 3 times a week with investment opportunities based on the untimely death of a rich person and all I have to do is give my credit card number and bank account numbers. I had some jokes in my own presentation about the word 'erstwhile' because in highway work our multiyear authorizing legislation expired and hasn't been permanently renewed yet, so the old act of Congress was our erstwhile legislation and we get to use the word every 6 years or so. I said the word means ‘former’ and implies ‘recent’ as in “Jason Alexander is Brittany Spear’s erstwhile husband.” It got a big laugh as did almost all my jokes. I think people respond better to humor after dinner. When I was playing cards a few days ago, my friend Gerry Berg corrected me on the use of this word so I had it fresh in mind.

The only good thing about an evening session is that after 1030pm, the metrorail lot I used stopped collecting a parking charge.

COLD!

When I got the newspaper this am, our outside thermometer was 4 degrees above zero. During the day, the temperature never got above 20 degrees. Last night the LA Lakers were without Shaquille O'Neal or Karl Malone and played the Atlanta Hawks. LA had lost 4 in a row but won this one 113-67. It was the worst Atlanta loss since a 132-85 loss to Philadelphia on December 8, 1982.

Noticed that G's first week in Ephrat corresponds to the week the bible mentions Ephrat is Jacobs' end of life recollection before the Ephraim/Menashe blessing.

The Car looks different

Earlier this evening, I drove Ann to Montgomery College for a seminar (went shopping while she was in the seminar). I parked under one of the sodium vapor lights. The car, which is maroon in daylight or under mercury vapor light, is grey in the sodium vapor light. Weird.

DC to Newark to Morristown to DC

We left DC in the am. Ann or Beth had disabled the cell phone message receipt code. George made a call to customer service which fixed the problem. The phone call ended just before we entered the Harbor Tunnel (under Baltimore harbor) where the cell phone reception would have been lost. We met Beth at Neward airport. While at Neward Intl., we were on the air train. One of the doors won't work and we got to see it fixed while we were on the train. Then George went to the gate and we went to Morristown to visit Paul, Judy and Teddy Droar (Judy is a cousin on my mother's side, Teddy is their son). Then we drove home arriving about midnight.

Beth in NY, NJ

I received an email sent Jan 2 that Beth had visited my cousin Herbert and his friend Ruth while she was in NY and NJ. She had left for that area on Jan 1. We plan to pick her up at Newark Intl Airport on Jan 5. George is departing there for a year of study in Israel.

Long Schaufskoft game

We had a 4 hour game at Berg's (Sackman, Shaw, G and I) on the eve of the 1st. No cracks, no revokes caught in the entire night. Sackman won 3 leasters in a row.

Status as of the end of 2004

Weather: wet year with record precip at Dulles and BWI and almost a record at National. Record snowfall in February. 3 wind knocking over trees related power outages during the year the worst of which was after Isabel. Much cooler than normal May, June and July (at least 4 degrees each month on average).

George: Did some good intern type work for Arlington office of Virgina Parole Board. Now a junior at U of Md. Going to Israel to study talmudic subjects for a year starting in a few days.

Beth: Variety of intern and temporary jobs. Still teaching Sunday school. Getting prepared to move permanently to Israel in July.

Ann: Still doing variety of volunteer jobs in the neighborhood. Completed medical records training. Considering a paid job in that area.

Martin: Still at Federal Highway. Not as much travel as last year probably. Biggest accomplishment of last year was this (and two related blogs).