It's Only Fair

Some Jets fans are suing Bill Belichick for cheating. AP:

The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Newark, N.J., by Carl Mayer of Princeton Township, N.J., stems from the Patriots being caught illegally videotaping signals from Jets coaches in New England's 38-14 season-opening win Sept. 9.

"They violated the integrity of the game," Mayer's attorney, Bruce Afran, told The Associated Press. "This is a way of punishing Belichick and the Patriots."

Mayer is seeking more than $184 million in damages for Jets ticket holders.

Sounds like trouble for the Pats, huh?

Mayer and Afran, who consider themselves public interest lawyers, have been thorns in the side of New Jersey politicians for years, filing lawsuits and demanding investigations to advance their grievances. They are well known in the state but generally have had little success in their causes.

Both have lost bids for elected offices, and Mayer once served as a presidential campaign adviser to Ralph Nader.

Their demand in March for a probe of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's gifts to a former girlfriend was rejected by a federal prosecutor. In 2006, a judge vetoed their effort to block Corzine's appointment of Rep. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to fill the governor's seat in the U.S. Senate.

They also failed to get a court to order a special election to replace Gov. James E. McGreevey when he resigned in 2004.

That Nader thing's worrisome, though. Maybe Bush will end up winning the AFC East this year.

- posted by Don Porges @ 9/28/2007 09:48:00 PM |

 
Slight Misinterpretation

Bloggers have recently noticed copswritingcops.com, a web site in which police officers write in and complain when other cops give them, or their families, traffic tickets. All of the "offending" job-doers are identified by name and location in a way that's not at all threatening. One entry in particular got a lot of attention -- emphasis added:

I really didn't mind the ticket once I knew I was getting one. I've written thousands and is it really that bad?? The thing that bothers me is 1) she showed no respect for me. All the years I have worked, the different units I've been on, the shitheads that I have arrested didn't mean squat to her. I've given breaks before for people doing 19 miles over the limit. I have even let one go for doing 150+ on LSD. She didn't know this and that's the whole idea! She should have given me the break knowing that I go out there everyday and risk my life. I wouldn't have given her a ticket! 2) Now as a training instructor, she was is the danger zone. She wasn't paying any attention to what was going on. She was just writing the ticket. She looked to be well over retirement age and probably was just sticking around to get those few more percents on her pension. She didn't even see my duty weapon.. :( In plain view...

Wow...that's some serious professional courtesy! Unfortunately for my first interpretation, there's a clue to the real meaning in a previous paragraph:

I then realized that I was getting a ticket. After stopping hundreds of cops on Lake Shore Drive, some state, I was getting a ticket.

So...no free acid trip. Just a free ride at 150 MPH.
- posted by Don Porges @ 9/28/2007 12:18:00 AM |

 
Everything is Connected: Constance Cummings Edition

I decided to watch one last random movie from the TiVo before clearing my head for the new TV season, and I picked the 1945 Blithe Spirit, which I've probably seen before. I was looking up the lesser-known (to me) cast members, in particular Constance Cummings as Harrison's wife. Here are the surprises:

-- Born Constance Halverstadt, she married the writer Benn Levy, suggesting that she may have been MOT.
-- Between 1931 and 1934, Cummings appeared in 21 films, most notably the Harold Lloyd picture Movie Crazy, and American Madness, which was directed by Frank Capra.
-- After the couple moved to England, Benn Levy was a Labour MP from 1945-1950.
-- Later in life, her stage roles were more significant than her film roles, culminating in a Tony in 1979 for her role as an aviator recoving from a stroke, in Arthur Kopit's Wings. Which I saw in its first run at the Yale Repertory Theater. But did I see the actual, legendary Constance Cummings in that early performance?

Looks like it.
- posted by Don Porges @ 9/23/2007 01:29:00 PM |

 
My New Favorite Web Site

This is gonna kill my productivity: tvtropes.org, a summary of every recurring element of every fiction ever. Most of them will have you just nodding your head in recognition, but how can you not love a site that labels the idea of "planet where everyone shares a single defining trait" as Planet of Hats?

UPDATE 1: "The failed resurrection of Crossroads, a British Soap Opera, ended by revealing the entire series had been the dream of a supermarket worker."

UPDATE 2: They're right: TvTropes Will Ruin Your Life.
- posted by Don Porges @ 9/18/2007 06:13:00 PM |

 
"In The Year 2000"

The xkcd guy found this in a newspaper from December 28, 1900:


- posted by Don Porges @ 9/07/2007 09:18:00 PM |

 
Hadda Share

Commenter at Bill Bickel's Comics I Didn't Understand:

There’s a Japanese movie I saw once, I do not remember the name, where the main character disguises himself as an easy chair and lives inside this woman’s apartment so she’ll sit on him. Very weird and creepy.

- posted by Don Porges @ 9/04/2007 04:42:00 PM |