Raised a little too much cain: A “Lipstick Bandit” menaced female workers in a city welfare office – chasing them around desks, smearing red lipstick on their cheeks and even pulling down a woman’s blouse to expose her breasts, a federal lawsuit charges. The scandalous accusations leveled yesterday by three female workers from a Bronx office of the Human Resources Administration cast supervisor Serena Reaves-Cain as a pervert who constantly

Sometimes one doesn’t have to look very far for something to post about. I open up my intarweb thingie this morning, and one of the very first things I encounter (after scouring the webs for paeans to me) is this AP headline: Despite Economy, Malls and Stores Jammed Just the latest in a proud history of AP “despite” headlines, such as “Despite Failure of Surge, Civilian Deaths in Baghdad Down.”

You all know that both Jeff and I disagree philosophically and practically with the whole baggage and rigamarole regarding hate crime penalty enhancement, but if anybody deserves to get smacked with that stick, these sub-moronic white boys are the guys. One of them sees his daughter leaving her job at Sonic Burger with a black man. So they follow them to the parking lot of IGA, and attack the guy,

Heh. People who live near the museum in West Los Angeles oppose plans for a two-story cultural center that could be rented out for private events, such as weddings. The museum also wants to expand its hours to midnight, when such events are held, and to reduce its 100-foot buffer zone from homes to 20 feet.

In the late Sixties, early Seventies, there was an access of what I think of as “Swamp Rock,” a kind of Southern Gothic genre for which I still have intense affection. Here’s one of my favorites, by Jerry Reed. Here’s another, by Tony Joe White (superb natural gruntilator). I’ll compile a little more for your Friday evening delectation. Brains! Beatles from my favorite of their albums.

h/t N. O’Brain, who has a terrible son serving on the Kearsarge: The amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), as well as elements of Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 8 and the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable) arrived off the coast of Bangladesh today to support ongoing disaster relief operations. At the request of the Government of Bangladesh, Kearsarge and 22nd MEU (SOC) are coordinating with government officials, military

Some of them seem to me truly awful, and others seem to display a lack of humor.  I’m sure you’ve got some of your own. Disco is not at all represented.  “Someone left the cake out in the rain.” “I’ll call you Jag-u-ar if I may be so bold.” Here are the lyrics to Gene McDaniels’ “Hundred Pounds of Clay”: He took a hundred pounds of clay And then He

Are any of you crazy enough to go shopping in meatspace today?  If so, please share the tale.

John Chappell at PJM, reporting from Spain on a Springeresque program having a Jenny Jones moment:  Ricardo Navarro called up the producers because he wanted to surprise his ex-girlfriend, a 30-year-old Russian woman named Svetlana. He told them he wanted to ask her to come back to him, and that he would propose marriage to her on the air. Naturally, the program jumped at it; they contacted Svetlana and informed her

The adoptees in our midst might be interested in this piece by Scott Glover in the LA Times, depicting his encounter with his birth parents, one of them departed. Excellent piece.