A hitherto unknown advantage of blue laws

I went to the store this morning (milk, etc.) because I was up, dammit. And on the way out, I got panhandled. Now, as a bleeding heart liberal, I am a soft touch and gave the guy some change. Anyway, as a bleeding heart liberal, I feel bad because I know that the guy really doesn’t need the money to buy gas. Except that since it’s Sunday, there are no alcohol sales allowed, so it’s not that. But I’m still guessing it’s not for gas.

Calamari all around!

My Way News - New Zealand Fishermen Catch Rare Squid

It’s a great big squid, supposedly 39 feet long and 990 pounds. (I am guessing that those oddly precise numbers have been converted from metric measurements.) It’s about half again the size of the next-largest squid ever caught.

(Via Meryl.)

I don’t think Bettye Fine Collins knows the rules of football

Collins sees football, events if arena built

It is very hard for me to understand how you could build a 40,000 seat enclosed arena in a way which would allow for a regulation football field. It seems to me that what you have there is, well, a dome. It’s the Stealth Dome.

It would be a cinch

Riley urged to finish beltline

One thing that might do something about all the truck accidents would be if the I-459 loop around Birmingham were made complete by the northern (really, northwestern) beltline connecting Bessemer and Trussville. Over the last 20 years, 26 trucks have dropped steel coils on Birmingham-area interstates. A lot of these, including the most recent, are dropped on I-59/20 at one of the interchanges. With a loop, through truckers would be forced to go around the city.

Weird line in this story:

“Birmingham is the state’s largest city without a bypass loop.”

Well, of course it is, because it’s the state’s largest city. By far. Do they mean the nation’s? The South’s? Are they just brain-locked?

Hay is for horses. And cattle.

Hay crisis makes some farmers bail out

So last summer — you remember summer? — there was a drought. And because of the drought, there was less hay for farmers to store, and now many of them are out of hay, which is forcing them to sell off their cattle. It’s rough on horse owners, too. Many farmers are going out of business.

If global warming existed — which, of course, it doesn’t — it would be a good thing, right?

What can I say?

Driver believed killed in fire as propane truck and train collide

Truck accidents are on my beat, so I guess I should cover this. This wasn’t, apparently, a race-the-train incident. The driver just went off the road and into the side of the train. I am guessing that we will eventually find out that the driver or the company was doing something profoundly unsafe, and that the company will get some sort of piddling fine.

Das Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras came to Birmingham, shivered, vanished in Victorian era

Okay, Birmingham had a Mardi Gras in the late 1800s, but it was run by the German Society. “Pretzels were thrown.” However, it’s often fricking cold in Birmingham in February — twice, it snowed — so eventually the event was cancelled.

I doubt it

Gallup red-state, blue-state poll paints Alabama purple

If Alabama turns purple, the Republicans are in real trouble. But seriously, even if a lot of people say that they’re Democrats the independents trend Republican big time.

Help the Domeless

Kincaid, Collins support new arena

The Mayor and the President of the County Commission have agreed to support a BJCC expansion that instead of a domed stadium would build a 40,000-seat basketball arena. (Or, possibly, expand the current 18,000-seater; I’m not sure.) I’m not entirely certain what this would accomplish, considering the low demand for basketball in the area. Maybe they’re going to try for an Arena Football team or something.

It sucks

McFarland mall goes on market

Really, it does. Wherever you live, you know McFarland Mall. It’s the depressing mall with a few second-tier stores and several empty spots, the mall nobody goes to anymore since the new mall opened — twenty years ago. Blow it up and start over.