deej

Wish I still had that bugger! There's actually a website out there that takes old typewriters like it and converts them for use as computer keyboards. It's cute. It's a novelty. And no way in hell do I want to go back to typing on that keyboard!

Sounds like an unresolved leading tone. They call them leading tones for a reason: your ears DESPERATELY NEED for them to lead to tonic. (Edging is an excellent way to describe it, except edging is usually a lot more pleasant!)

The one with the two open spools of ribbon on the top? That's what I learned to type on too. When feeling nostalgic, I can still hear the "ding!" when I got to the end of line.

Two spaces after a period was an affectation of typewriters that used mono-spaced fonts. It was NEVER a practice of good typography. In the early days of computer-based desktop publishing, I read an admonition in a font package I purchased to drop the two spaces after a period (and to use "smart quotes", etc.) around 1985 or so. So, yeah, it should be well and fully dead by now but isn't. Now that we've matriculated to the HTML-driven world, the gods of rendering forgive us our sins because the HTML "rules" say that extra spaces are to be disregarded. The problem has "gone away" because the computer machines are smart enough to ignore our mistakes (at least in this one way).

But dictionary.com agrees with me, as does every working musician.

That's one of those widespread language constructs that is completely wrong but often repeated. Nobody ever reaches a crescendo. The crescendo is the act of increasing volume, it is something that is ongoing. The pinnacle of a crescendo is not itself a crescendo, and once that pinnacle is reached there is no longer a crescendo in process. (Sorry, Nate, not picking on you. Just pointing out the mis-use.) And when I was a kid we had vintage records too, but they were 78 r.p.m.

"Tap a number" doesn't have as much panache, I guess. We called it "dialing" through the entire era of the touch tone phone. The confused looks you'll get when you admit to once hating people that had 9's and 0's in their phone numbers can be amusing.

+1 I particularly snickered at the "sociopathic thug" part. There is nothing to support this claim. The dead kid was reportedly a well-regarded college-bound kid in his community. But just as happens in other redneck/Jim Crow regions, one of the good 'ol boys got hisself in a fix and they circled the wagons to cover his sorry ass. And make no mistake about it, that area of Missouri/southern Illinois/Kentucky are every bit as redneck/Jim Crow as anything you'll see in Mississippi or Alabama. There is nothing about this story that passes a basic sniff test.

It puts them on the TeeVee machine during prime time. Best coverage. Personally, I'm betting they wanted to let the protesters assemble and get all rubbed up. After they react, authorities can say "SEE? SEE HOW THEY ARE?" and send in the troops. It's all strategery.

You might want to rethink that. He's rumored to have the physique of a body builder hiding under all that fabric.

Time to resurrect this beast. After quite a while around/over $4/gallon, I paid $2.99 in Ventura County, CA today.

Yours too?

That's the way I feel about Trader Joe's dark chocolate covered dried blueberries. The antioxidants in the dried blueberries and the dark chocolate are good for you (oh, stop snickering!) and when you store them in the freezer? BOOM. It only takes a couple of them to feel TREATED.

Well, now we know WHY we haven't seen the incident report. The officer (and only surviving participant) didn't file one. Ferguson police did release AN incident report that is dated TEN DAYS after the incident and basically says "an incident happened". I'm tempted to spend some time on the phone calling local police departments to ask whether filing an incident report on an officer-involved shooting fatality is optional. This seems like it would be a good thing to know about the police where you live.

It's not being discussed in this thread because it isn't the topic of this thread. I've actually heard it discussed quite a bit in news coverage.

I am sympathetic if the officer has an owwie. I really am. But that doesn't justify executing unarmed citizenry.

Yeah, I mentioned that earlier in the thread. The one eyewitness other than the shooter hasn't been interviewed. As I also said, this is being bungled in every possible way to bungle and the people doing the bungling don't seem to be aware of it. Not only is the witness consistent across interviews, his story is consistent with other people at the scene (who are also consistent across interviews). As Daddy always says, bullshit moves. The truth never does. The story offered by local authorities has morphed several times.

It's deja vu all over again. We had the same discussions after the Trayvon Martin killing. If the black kid had been the shooter he never would have seen daylight again except through the bars on his cell window, and he'd probably be tried and convicted by now. Instead, we haven't even seen the official incident report. (But we've seen the incident report on the convenience store shoplifting.) I saw a report from CNN today where people "close to the case" <wink wink, nudge, nudge> leaked details of the official report, but WHY THE HELL HASN'T IT BEEN RELEASED? I think everyone sees the whitewash in progress.

Or you need to get better witnesses. The ones I saw were all pretty consistent that the kid was facing the officer, hands in the air, and saying "don't shoot".

John Oliver on the militarization of police forces: [video=youtube_share;KUdHIatS36A]

Six times and no gunshot residue on the skin. That likely means he was not shot at close range, such as during a scuffle. And he was shot in the front. Testing might show different results if there is residue on the clothing but they weren't made available. (Nor were the results of the local coroner's autopsy.) A lot is being kept under wraps here. It MAY exonerate the officer. Keeping it under covers does not serve that goal.

Ayup. It's interesting that the town quieted down when they put a local state trooper in charge, but it flares up again every time the state or local officials do something new and stupid. Ferguson, unlike some communities, does not require that their police force reside locally. They're outsiders. It seems to make a difference.

How many of those killed were teenagers shot six times by the cop they were actively surrendering to? Protect and serve should not include shoot to kill with teenagers in the act of surrender.

So the shooting is justified because the officer didn't know how to roll up his car window? (Which was probably already rolled up because it's MISSOURI in the summer. They're in A/C 24/7.)

So it would be OK if it was a white kid (like me)?