Bill Lee, Montreal Expo, in 1979.

Bill Lee, then on the Montreal Expos, is interviewed after pitching a complete game shutout against the Phillies. All was going well with the Expos, back in 1979.

I attended the Montreal Expos' first game ever, in 1969, as well as their last game ever, in 2004. Both games were at Shea Stadium in New York. After the 2004 season, the franchise was relocated to Washington DC.

Pipeline

Alright you guys, we're gonna take shifts guarding this thing. Eric, you take the Towers tonight!

Gentile Meets With Buckeye Pipeline Company

City Hall – Council Member Vincent Gentile, along with Council Members Sara Gonzalez and Domenic Recchia of Brooklyn and Joe Addabbo of Queens met with representatives from Buckeye Partners to discuss the safety of the fuel pipeline that runs to JFK airport. They went over the security measures along the pipeline, the map of the route of the pipeline, and the relationship Buckeye has with FDNY.

The pipeline across New York City transports nearly ten million gallons of fuel every day and for forty years they have run without any serious injuries or fatalities. The pipeline is monitored with sensors electronically, as well as with employees of Buckeye on foot, in vehicles and with aerial cameras. The pipeline is buried at least three feet below ground and the visible white pipes are merely markers and are not connected to the fuel pipeline. The Council Members were told that walking, driving, hanging out, or even barbequing directly over land along the pipeline will have no effect on the pipeline. Shutoff valves are in place at every mile and can be accessed by FDNY in case of emergency. Lastly, no part of the pipeline goes underneath any homes or private property; the pipeline in Brooklyn runs along the waterfront and then mainly goes along LIRR track or public streets.

“I have been assured that the pipeline is well regulated by Federal Law and well protected against accidents or terrorism. Buckeye Partners carefully addressed the safety of our constituents and they will continue to discuss their security measures with us. I am pleased that they have been receptive to our concerns and I plan to keep the dialogue open with them so they can address any additional concerns I have,” Gentile said.

Councilman Recchia added, “I was pleased to be able to discuss the security of the pipeline with Buckeye Partners. It is important to be able to assess the situation and work with the appropriate people to ensure the safety of Brooklyn residents.”

Council Member Gentile is looking to hold town hall meetings in the future to address concerns the community has about the pipeline.

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Eric Kuo of Councilman Gentile's office advises that the pipeline consists of two separate piipes--one for heating oil and and another for jet fuel. Mystery solved.

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From The Brooklyn Paper
A masked intruder broke into a Bay Ridge Avenue apartment and sexually assaulted an off-duty NYPD officer at knifepoint — setting off a manhunt Wednesday night through the normally quiet residential neighborhood.

The attacker, whom cops identified as a white man wearing a mask, broke into the female officer’s apartment near Colonial Road {and 69th Street] at around 7:30 pm on Wednesday, entering through a door or window, police said.

The manhunt was still underway Thursday night.

Update from Friday's Daily News
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/06/22/2007-06-22_coprape_creeps_sick_plan-1.html

Thriftee's, Suicide, and the Dumbest Blogger in America

I went past Thriftee's on Fifth Avenue and was surprised to see it was still open. The man behind the counter said that they'll be open until the end of July, maybe until August. Then, that's it.

Some activity in the store in Kirk's building, on the NW corner of 68th Street and Fourth Avenue. It will be a gyro-type restaurant. Good.

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Suicide
If you want to read conversations of high quality on a topic noone talks about, see these threads from Ireland's Balrog and A Tangled Web

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The Dumbest Blogger in America

Who's the dumbest blogger in America? Why, its William K. Wolfrum, that's who!



Wolfrum's An Apology to Mike Nifong (really! ) begins with

"As the game of pile-on continues for Durham County, North Carolina, District Attorney Mike Nifong, and the ethics trial over his words and actions in the Duke lacrosse case comes to an end, many triumphant conservatives want little more than his head on a stick to be used as a cautionary tale for rape victims looking for justice. Of Nifong’s sins - of which there are obviously several - his representation of a black woman against white college students is by far the worst to authoritarian crowd"

One, the bolding is mine, and two, I am not making this up.

If you care to read the comments, you will see stuff like this from something called "Meowser"
"Yeah. “Those poor kids.” Get the fuck real, dude. “Those kids” are ROCK STARS now, get it? This case was the best frigging thing that ever happened to them. They will move to the top of the class for every job interview. One of them will probably be President one day.

Meanwhile, their accuser will never ever have anything approaching a “normal” life ever again, if she is allowed to live at all. More likely, though, she’ll eventually be assassinated. But these “poor kids” should be thanking her. Thanks to her, they have all the power on earth and can go on to screw whoever they want, literally or figuratively, forever."

Don't laugh. The person who wrote this believes this stuff. There are more like him, at a college near you.

Congratulations, Mr. Wolfrum. For you to draw these bizarre conclusions, after all we've learned, and to actually put them in print, you are truly The Dumbest Blogger in America.

Great Firewall of China

Every so often you see something truly interesting on the web. Today, I ran into
Great Firewall of China. It can tell you if a given website is blocked in China. Looks like I'm blocked!

Why pick on little me? Must be that they block all "blogger" sites, or those with "blogspot" in the URL address. But lots of political sites, including conservative sites like www.redstate.com are not blocked. Go figure.

Rancho Grande

Back in the 1970s we used to like Freddy Fender's version of "Rancho Grande". This is the song in the original Spanish, as a commercial for some restaurant. Lets visit there sometime.

Hawaiian Internet TV Station Coming in the Fall

In an effort to link Hawaiian communities around the world with island residents, Hawaii filmmaker Edgy Lee will launch Pacific Network.tv, a nine-channel Internet television portal with a native Hawaiian theme

I've thought for some time that one of the best uses of the Internet will be for the transmittal of radio --and TV--signals. Pacific Network could be a very interesting idea. There aren't immense numbers of Hawaiians living outside of the islands, but there might be enough to make this channel a successful venture. And there are so many friends of Hawaii -- I'll count myself as one of those-- that there may be as many non-Hawaiians as there will be Hawaiians tuning in.

Pomaika`i, Pacific Network!

Mets Win Game Four of 1969 World Series!

Well, it took me 38 years to see the game in its entirety, but I've just watched the Mets beat the Mighty Baltimore Orioles in Game Four of the World Series. The SNY Sports Channel is replaying the 1969 Series on days when the Mets are off, and good for them.

The color was a little faded, the images not so crisp, but this was beautiful to watch.

These were days long before the big money came into baseball--Curt Gowdy mentioned that players on the winning team would get $15,000.

Baseball was absolutely a better game then--no Designated Hitter, no "pitch counts", no constant insertion of relief pitchers to get a batter or two out. It was a crisper, more exciting game.

Plus a lot less advertising--no ads painted on the outfield fence, no electronic ads interfering with the image of the batter and catcher on TV. No booming music between innings and between pitches- Jane Jarvis at the organ once in a while, and thats that.

A crisp, well played World Series baseball game, and nothing but a baseball game, played on a beautiful fall day. It'll never happen again.

Lets go Mets!

JFK Plot and Bay Ridge

The FBI and NYPD have just broken up a plot to blow up the pipeline that runs from Linden NJ to JFK Airport.

Jet fuel, gasoline, and heating oil are transported through these pipes. How the hell to they do this? Heating oil is very heavy, while jet fuel is basically kerosene. Are there multiple pipes? Do they run the different fuels thruough the one pipe?

This pipe cuts right through Bay Ridge. It enters Brooklyn at the bicycle path at 77th Street or so right by the water. There's a warning sign down there, saying not to dig or drop anchor by there.

Not sure where it does so, but the fuel pipeline turns north and then east, so that it runs directly underneath the Bay Ridge Towers apartments. And it runs right underneath the R and parallel to the N subway lines, taken by huge numbers of Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst residents daily.

The good news is that the authorities caught this plot before anything happened. The inferno that these sons of bitches envisioned may not have even been possible--pipeline officials said that they could have minimized any fires by means of cutoff valves.

But pipeline security in Bay Ridge is inadequate. There has been a small homeless camp underneath the Bay Ridge Towers for many decades. The homeless enter the camp through holes in nearby fences or via the Bay Ridge Avenue R train station, walking north along through the southbound tunnel for about four blocks, after which they can walk down the hill to the camp--where the pipeline is located.

If groups of homeless have at-will access to the pipeline area, where they basically sleep right next to it, then you can bet the house that the Islamic terrorists can have access to that pipeline. Anytime they want. Sleep well, Brooklyn.

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Reminder to file: don't forget to bring extra toothpaste on the trip to China.