Things To See At Gate 9, Providence Airport

There was a TSA agent with an acrid body odor that punished you for choosing a line in which a person in front of you held things up for any reason. I have nothing to show since taking pictures of the security operation is not allowed. But I was not surprised to see he was assigned to the one position that put him at the greatest distance from his coworkers and yet next to every single passenger being checked--the magnetic detector.

Sparrows foraging in the carpet.
Employee decorated equipment.
Art.
And the only baggage handler for whom this look truly works.

That's My Boy

Almost two weeks ago, I read about a web site called ismycreditcardstolen.com suddenly being blacklisted as a phishing site. It was supposed to be a site to educate people about phishing and it in turn was blacklisted for allegedly being such as site. I didn't pay much mind to the story and certainly didn't pay attention to the details.

Come to find out my first born was involved. You can read the story about him and his friend's involvement on his site.

Now if you go to ismycreditcardstolen.com using the Firefox browser, you'll be warned it's a bad, bad site. Go ahead and go to it. It won't hurt you. Then click the About link. Then go back and click the "Check if my credit card is stolen" button.

What a hoot!

Bloomsday Update

As you may remember, my finishing time is not available in the official results. I sent an email asking about it. I received a reply from Don Kardong saying this was a clerical error and that it will be remedied soon. Good deal. I hope their time is lower than mine.

It's a good thing I stopped to have my picture taken holding the Bloomsday Finisher sign. Otherwise I'd only have one mismatched photo and a lot of general race photos to choose from.

Also, I can't read a digital watch. The finish time by my watch was 1:00:39. (The display changes back and forth and confuses me.) Now had it been an analog watch...

Serious Pandering

Senator John McCain, of all people, should know better than to say something like this. From an article on the The Hill.

It would have been a serious mistake to have read the suspect in the attempted Times Square car bombing his Miranda rights, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday.

McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a longtime leading Republican on national security issues, said he expected the suspect in the case could face charges that might warrant a death sentence if convicted.

"Obviously that would be a serious mistake...at least until we find out as much information we have," McCain said during an appearance on "Imus in the Morning" when asked whether the suspect, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan.

"Don't give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it's all about," McCain added during an appearance on the Imus show, which is broadcast by the Fox Business Network.

Having personally suffered at the hands of a country that set the rule book aside, you'd think his belief in protecting rights would supercede his desire to get re-elected. You'd think.

Happy Independence Day

It turns out Rhode Island--actual official name is The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations--was the first of the original colonies to declare its independence from British rule (May 4, 1776) and the last to ratify the U.S. Constitution. What did I do to celebrate? I spent the day listening to various presenters read their Powerpoint slides to me.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

And I went for a run and had a beer with dinner.

I'm at a hotel next door to the state capitol building. Atop the fourth-largest self standing dome is the statue of Independant Man. Cool!

A Fun Place In St Louis

The St Louis City Museum got a writeup in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend, mainly about the lawsuits stemming from injuries incurred within.

"We like to be the devil's advocate for society," says Bob Cassilly, the museum's 60-year-old founder, a self-described "idiot savant" with wild gray hair. "When you have millions of people do something, something's going to happen no matter what you do."

The City Museum, housed in 10-story brick building, shows none of the restraint or quiet typical of museums. A cross between a playground and a theme park, it recycles St. Louis' industrial past into such attractions as slides made from assembly-line rollers. Just about everything can be touched or climbed, including dozens of Mr. Cassilly's sculptures, among them a walk-through whale on the first floor.

Despite the whiff of danger, or perhaps because of it, the City Museum is one of St. Louis's most popular attractions. Its 700,000 annual attendance is roughly twice the population of St. Louis and dwarfs the turnout at refined destinations such as the St. Louis Art Museum.

We've been there twice and it's a blast for kids and for grownups who remain kids at heart. So, yes, I had fun. It's definitely a place to go to if you're ever in St Louis. There's a hint of danger as well, but it wouldn't be fun without it.