March 17, 2005

On This Day - Norfolk and Western History

Sure it's Saint Patrick's Day, but I'm primarily of English heritage, and we don't need to celebrate a saint from a land we conquered. Tee hee. Top of the mornin' to ye, Mr. Adams. Life's no fun when even Ted Kennedy is raining abused upon you, is it? But enough of that. I apologize for earlier outages; something went wrong with the CGI on the server end, and I can't fix that.

On 17th March 1883, the first load of Pocahontas coal arrived at the Norfolk & Western Railroad's facilities in the city of Norfolk. The company name is significant; the N&W RR was a corporate predecessor to what would become the Norfolk and Western Railway (i.e. N&WRy) in an 1896 reorganization. By the looks of it, the trip from "Pocahontas Mine No. 1" to Norfolk took five days, as sources indicate that the first load from No. 1 departed on 12th March 1883.

"Pocahontas coal" is the term given to coal extracted from a certain area in Virginia and West Virginia. At one time, the area's coal was some of the best available in the United States; moreover, the United States Navy chose this type of coal to support the coal-fired warships of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet was probably fueled by Pocahontas coal.

Pocahontas Mine No. 1 is in Pocahontas, Virginia. A brief search indicates that this mine is still in existence and, more importantly, can be toured as a museum. Now that I know it exists, I'll have to detour over there the next time I'm in the area, and see what we have. Representative Richard C. Boucher (D-9th) introduced legislation in 1994 that would have created the "Appalachian Area Coal Heritage Act" in support of the Pocahontas area; relevant Thomas links are here and here. Whether it passed, I don't know.

Three railways served the Pocahontas area, the Norfolk and Western, the Virginian, and the Chesapeake & Ohio. It is worth noting that all three of these railways were strong financial performers, primarily due to their position as coal haulers. Indeed, they were strong enough to become the modern-day Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation, the Virginian being merged into the Norfolk and Western on 01 December 1959.

At any rate, 122 years and probably a couple billion tons later, the Norfolk Southern Railway continues to haul coal eastward to Lamberts Point, Virginia, for outbound consumption. Hooray for coal and its employment.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 429 words, total size 3 kb.

March 08, 2005

Jennifer Granholm from Outer Space

I was just channel surfing when I saw Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm on Lou Dobbs' CNN program, and I decided to watch for a second. After all, she apparently was one of the so-called babes of politics after her election, and I heard a lot about how we ought to amend the Constitution to allow this Canadian-born woman to run for President.

I don't think amending the Constitution to allow for aliens to run will do unless we consider aliens from outer space. Why's that?

WARNING: The following is a cheap shot based solely upon her appearance.

Miz Granholm's got a five-wrinkle forehead that looks like a lobster's back when she frowns. I'm not talking about little lines, but rather folds. Wow. If anyone ever needs to get a real politician to play Azetbur from Star Trek VI, I think we'll have someone in mind.

Ew, ew, ew.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 158 words, total size 1 kb.

Tartan Day 2005 Announced

Ith over at Absinthe & Cookies has announced the second edition of Tartan Day, a Scottish thing that she first aired in 2004. This time, she's doing a few administrative tweaks in order to deal with increased numbers and so forth; I anticipate greater operational efficiencies and the like.

See the 2005 organizational post here. Get in early and get yer haggis on.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 11:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 71 words, total size 1 kb.

The New Blue?

NYPD Blue is gone, and I shall miss it. My father and I had agreed yesterday that Tuesdays were going to be something less now that we didn't have Blue to watch and discuss. We'd also agreed that the follow-on Blind Justice wouldn't be the replacement.

At seven minutes after ten tonight, we reversed the decision and watched the pilot episode of this new Steven Bochco police drama.

Having done so, a few observations:
-It certainly isn't Blue. I miss Mike Post's opening theme, and then the usual cues for the series. I also miss Bonnie Somerville's Detective Laura Murphy, who was exceptionally easy on the eyes.1

-Had Detective Jim Dunbar been employed by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (part of the Virginia State Police) and received his injury, he would have been sent home on disability. No ifs, ands, or buts.

-What's with the quasi-infra-red imaging that Det. Dunbar uses to figure things out? It reminds me of the xenomorph's view in the Aliens versus Predator series of games.

Nothing further, your Honor. Pop and I have decided to give this program a chance to replace Blue, but it'll be hard. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 242 words, total size 2 kb.

Pronunciation, Please

I was examining the referrer logs just now, and it appears that someone's looking for the way to pronounce the last name of Sean Connaughton.

In service to our readers, I offer the following observation: After consultation with my best source for Virginia political news, the answer is "Kuh-nawt-un". I'd use the fancy pronunciation symbols that I learned back in first & second grade, but I've forgotten them. An alternative pronunciation might be "Kuh-naw-ton". (Either way, it sounds like Kanawha, the name given by the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway to its class K-4 locomotives of the 2-8-4 wheel arrangement.)

Representatives of the Connaughton campaign are invited to enlighten me on the proper pronunciation; I want to be accurate around here. For what it's worth, his platform announces spending for rail freight and passenger operations in the Commonwealth, so this could be good from my POV. Just so long as the Trans-Dominion Express is included in that budget.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 08:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 161 words, total size 1 kb.

NASCAR Nation - 08 March 2005

Jesus God Almighty. NASCAR defies comprehension at times. It's a damned motorsports competition, not an avenue for Jeff [expletive deleted] Hammond to go to some wrestling venue and act like a fool. Professional "sports entertainment" wrestling (contradistinguished from Greco-Roman wrestling, which is what schools and the Olympics do) isn't worthy of watching, and why should my motorsport be sullied with wrestling?

In related news, NASCAR Nation has put Krista Voda in the female anchor's slot tonight, apparently moving Courtney George to the roving anchor spot. This is not a bad thing. If this ponderous exercise in low-grade television journalism (or is that "extreme reporting"?) is going to continue, then we might as well see Speed Channel's best blond.

Note to wardrobe, re Krista Voda: Black shirts & pink pants match for Lisa Robertson on QVC when she's hawking cubic zirconia. They do not work for motorsports broadcasting. That is, unless you want to put Ralph Sheheen in a black shirt and pink pants. That could be amusing.

NOTE: The Speed Channel website hates Firefox. Pages will render, but the text is way down below. Just scroll down.

UPDATE: It appears that others don't like NASCAR Nation, either. From various referrer links, I got to something called The Frontstretch, wherein angry NASCAR fans (Geoffrey Norman's fundamentalists speak, I suppose) voice their dislike for the program. As for me, I'd like to know where this whole "nation" thing got started for fans of a sport or team. Even "Red Sox Nation" barely makes sense.

This post, aside from mistaking Courtney George for a beautiful woman, seems to be on-point. Exactly why do I need to be told how to be a NASCAR fan? I spend money, I watch the races, I buy the stuff. End of story. What's a racing lifestyle show, anyways?

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 311 words, total size 2 kb.

March 03, 2005

Things that Go Bump in the Old Dominion

While looking for a news story that didn't exist, I found the following:

Haunted Places in Virginia

I've heard some of these stories, and others seem to be jokes, or something. Nevertheless, they're interesting reading to hear about what goes bump in the Commonwealth.

NB: The Chemical Brothers are weird.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 03:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 66 words, total size 1 kb.

March 02, 2005

Norman on NASCAR

I am generally pleased by the fact that the National Review prints columns by Geoffrey Norman on sports. I generally read every column that is posted of his, which is more than I can say for Stephen Moore, Bruce Bartlett, Randy Barnett, or Cathy Seipp. (You've ranted at length against most of those authors, haven't you? I vaguely seem to recall you swearing you'd read Meghan Cox Gurdon before you'd read those guys.--Ed.)

Full disclosure: I've been a NASCAR fan since I was able to comprehend fast-moving hunks of metal around a large oval. My father has been going to races since the early 1960s, and I've been going with him since the Reagan Administration. I go to at least two Winston Cup races per year, and you'll always find me clad in a driver's hat and Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses, both firmly clamped to my head by a pair of David Clark Model 10A hearing protectors. I've stood in line for drivers' autographs, I've cursed a variety of drivers---some of whom no longer live, alas---and I've sat through interminable delays, all for the chance to watch vehicles race. It's a fantastic feeling to stand with over a hundred thousand people for hours on end watching a race. If you don't understand it, I simply can't help you. more...

Posted by: Country Pundit at 02:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 1537 words, total size 9 kb.

March 01, 2005

01 March 2005 Sci-Fi Babes Voter Guide

JohnL of TexasBestGrok has mercifully ended the poll wherein Katee Sackhoff was getting slaughtered by Grace Park. Thus, here comes the new issue of the TCP Voter Guide:

A. I recommend a vote for Captain Shane Vansen, United States Marine Corps. She flies, she shoots, she's accustomed to zero-g. What more could you ask for, other than S:AAB on DVD? (See here for some photographs of Captain Vansen.)

B. Special Agent Dana Scully, Federal Bureau of Investigation, is in the regrettable position of playing second fiddle to a fighter pilot. I'm a sucker for fighter pilot gals (see Deering, Wilma) and she's too bloody short to overwhelm a woman in uniform. Besides, I was more interested in Marita Covarrubias for a season or two.

I'm sorry, Dana. Visit the Order of the Blessed Saint Scully the Enigmatic for your Scully needs. Geez, it's been years since I've typed that name.

C. Jessica who? Sister, you're no Susan Storm Richards.

Click here to vote for Captain Vansen. After all, we support our troops. At least, those who will be our troops. Or something.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 196 words, total size 1 kb.

Bother

Tonight is the final episode of NYPD Blue. Well, there goes the remaining television program that I once used to watch. It's been an impressive decline since the 1990s, when I used to eagerly watch The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, The Practice, NYPD Blue, and probably a lot of other programs that I used to watch.

Hrrm. ABC and Fox seem to have been my television homes, but sadly for them, no more. Why's that? Because I'm in their coveted demographic.

Television becomes even less important now than ever before. Cultural disconnect? Oh yeah. Do I mind? Not so much.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 09:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 103 words, total size 1 kb.

JGA NASCAR's Gone Nuts

I'm watching NASCAR Nation again, and what is this:

1. Courtney George's shirt is buttoned. Hooray; they listened.

2. A NASCAR fashion show. Jesus God Almighty. What are they thinking?

More later, if I recover from the shock of this.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 07:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 48 words, total size 1 kb.

WFB on HST

To continue with our slight coverage of the death of Hunter S. Thompson, here's a piece from William F. Buckley on the man.

It's kind of harsh, but it's what I'd expect from someone so far on the opposite end of the writing field. I'm amused by WFB's recounting of the San Francisco Chronicle's statement, that Thompson served as a hero to an entire generation of American students. I suppose that would be a generation not my own; if it were a generation that was forming some time in the 1970s, it might explain why literature is so boring these days. When you resort to either David Halberstam on baseball or Walter Russell Mead on foreign policy for page-turners, the American novel is well on the decline. (Or even a book on diesel locomotives of the Norfolk Southern Railway...--Ed.)

Read the whole column.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 04:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 149 words, total size 1 kb.

A Look at Joel Osteen

Call it divine provision. My mother's been recently reading a book by a fellow named Joel Osteen. Mr. Osteen purports to be a preacher of some doctrine of favor, one that holds that the Almighty wants to bestow favor upon Christians and so forth, such that simply proclaiming one's right to (or claim upon) such favor will grease the skids for whatever it is you're after.

This is probably a monstrous oversimplification of the Osteen Doctrine, but I'm not writing to kick the man. Rather, I am writing to point out something that more or less wandered onto the radar scope last night, and I thought it interesting that, within a week of my dismissal of this man, the blog of a Methodist was addressing him.

Anyways, the discussion of Mr. Osteen is put together by a fellow named John at Locusts and Honey, and you can read the whole thing here. I recommend that you do.

John's article sent me off to a lot of other sites (cursed trait of the blog world!) where I read various articles by other authors. I can say this: A lot of high-grade neurons were burnt discussing Mr. Osteen. This is a good thing, because I don't have the theological background to do much more than have my suspicions about him.

In my case, it seems that Mr. Osteen is simply the latest individual/movement to tall within my perpetual complaint of effectiveness versus 'bad idea'. Me, I'm a country Christian with a simple faith, but I've got a hankering for a fancy church and an ornate service. I don't do the whole charismatic worship thing, and contemporary services leave me cold. I've grumbled and griped for years over the increasing tendency of my weekly service to resemble something seen on television, but there's a catch: I am not inherently hostile to other means of worship and evangelism, so long as they are successful. In this instance, success is defined as success in the Christian mission, i.e. the winning of souls to the cause of Christ.

In this instance, I don't know if Mr. Osteen is turning a profit in that regard, which is the only thing I really care about. From all appearances, he is turning a personal financial profit, but the people upstairs do not seem to be concerned about that sort of thing. Their performance metrics do not take into account the personal fortune when determining success, and perhaps Mr. Osteen should remember that.

In any event, it does appear that he'll have to go into the great gray area of my religious viewpoint dubbed "Effect Uncertain", since I don't divine any specific negative effect, only generalized concerns.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 10:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 457 words, total size 3 kb.

<< Page 1 of 1 >>
39kb generated in CPU 0.0275, elapsed 0.156 seconds.
56 queries taking 0.1386 seconds, 163 records returned.
Powered by Minx 1.1.6c-pink.