First Looks category archive

Now on Tuesdays for Norfolk (still Thursdays for Virginia Beach) to make it easier for persons with commitments on either day to catch at least one per month.

Drinking Liberally is a gathering place for liberals. Socialize and laugh in a friendly atmosphere.

When: 6 p., Tuesday, September 8.

Where:
Uno Chicago Grill
5900 Virginia Beach Blvd
(Janaf Shopping Center) (map)

Details here. Meetup page here.

Excerpt:

“You hate the government, yet you wail like banshees whenever the . . . services you like are taken away.”

Via Raw Story.

She needs the shutdown to stop. She’s starting to get silly.

A new wrinkle in scams, this one trading on Publishers Clearing House:

Victims receive a call or text message from “Publisher’s Clearing House” telling them that they have “just won”, according to a Sheriff’s Office news release. They are instructed to go to a Walmart or Kmart to purchase two $500 Greendot cards, a prepaid credit card. They are told to then call and provide the Greendot credit card numbers, to be used later as verification.

The scammer then transfers the money from the giftcards to himself.

It’s appeared California and likely is on its way to a cell phone near you.

I’m so old, I can remember when PCH was primarily a purveyor of publications and did not offer how-to sex DVDs.

Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source.

What: Monthly TWUUG Meeting.

Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.

Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk Training Room. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.

When: 7:30 PM till whenever (usually 9:30ish) on Thursday, October 3.

Directions:
Lake Taylor Hospital
1309 Kempsville Road
Norfolk, Va. 23502 (Map)

Pre-Meeting Dinner at 6:00 PM (separate checks)
Uno Chicago Grill
Virginia Beach Blvd. & Military Highway (Janaf Shopping Center). (Map)

Join us for a special meeting where F. L. will report on the Living Liberally Leaders conference recently held in Madison, Wisconson.

When: October 2, 6:00 p. m.

Where:
Gordon Biersch
4561 Virginia Beach Blvd (Town Center)
Virginia Beach, VA (map)

Off to drink liberally.

I don’t drink much beer (any Sotch is better than every anything else), but I’m tempted to go buy some Yuengling (if I can get it here–haven’t looked) to celebrate the resurrection of Yuengling Ice Cream:

The ice cream will be produced at Leiby’s Premium Ice Cream in nearby Tamaqua. It will come in 10 flavors – including black and tan, a chocolate and caramel mix that’s a clear nod to the Yuengling beer variety of the same name.

Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us and talk about anything in a relaxed atmosphere.

When: Thursday, September 26th, 6 p.

Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)

More here.

It seems to be a Thing. First there was this (picture at the link):

A seagull, tangled in power lines, had been stuck for days high above the water near the Lesner Bridge in Virginia Beach.

On Thursday, about 8:40 a.m., a helicopter swooped in beside the lines so a man perched on the edge of a platform could grab the bird.

Then they flew away together.

Now there’s this:

A great blue heron flew away on its own after Rural-Metro firefighters and city of Yuma animal-control officers fabricated a long-reaching tool to free the entangled bird from a power line.

(I was tempted to file this under “wingnuttery,” but decided that would be cruelty to animals.)

Afterthought:

What is a heron doing in Yuma?

Donna Sciulli is one of the most photographed women in Pittsburgh.

On Aug. 30, they snapped shots of her picking up groceries at the Pennsylvania Macaroni Co. in the Strip District. Two days earlier, shutters flew as she drove past the U.S. Steel Tower.

And outside her Beechview home, she’s been pictured nearly a dozen times.

Ms. Sciulli is not a celebrity. She is, however, one of the 80,000 Pittsburgh drivers whose license plates had been scanned multiple times in August by the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, which is using cameras mounted on cruisers to record a massive database of where and when everyday people go about their business.

Cars are photographed ostensibly to determine whether they have outstanding parking tickets.

And, since the Parking Authority considers its snapshots to be a public records and keeps them on file and on line for at least 30 days, whether or not outstanding violations are found (in the great majority of cases, they are not), anyone can track anybody.

Somewhere to go, something to do.

For a little while on Thursday, United Airlines was giving away airplane tickets for free, or close to it.

Passengers reported buying tickets for $5 to $10 before United shut down the bookings on its website and phone centers to prevent more tickets from being sold or given away.

Not even that fare would get me to willingly fly that airline.

Via PoliticalProf.

Because there are enough empty pro forma remembrances.

Off to drink liberally.

Now on Tuesdays for Norfolk (still Thursdays for Virginia Beach) to make it easier for persons with commitments on either day to catch at least one per month.

Drinking Liberally is a gathering place for liberals. Socialize and laugh in a friendly atmosphere.

When: 6 p., Tuesday, September 10.

Where:
Uno Chicago Grill
5900 Virginia Beach Blvd
(Janaf Shopping Center) (map)

Details here. Meetup page here.