Baltimore in NYT

Dear NYT,
Thanks for featuring my hood. While that is not the abandoned house next to my house, it's one that's on my block. I love how Baltimore always gets positive press: "The Wire," "The Corner," high murder rate, the O's stink.... People must really want to come visit!!!
Sincerely,
Pubs

Orioles

Dear Orioles,
You suck. This is ten years in a row of sucking. I feel really sorry for your marketing department. They have a hard sell. What slogan are you going to use next year? Hear are some suggestions: "Come watch us make it eleven in a row;" "Cal Ripken used to play for us;" "It could be worse;" "Lots of seats to choose from;" "Got money to burn? Come buy overpriced beers;" "You have a good chance of catching a ball, no-one else is around." And what happened to Jay, I used to be the most awesomest player in the world, then I sucked, then I got caught doing roids, but I'm still sexy, Gibbons???? He has fallen of the face of the earth. Hey if this baseball thing doesn't work out, male modeling might be an option.
Sincerely,
Publius
PS- feel free to suggest your own slogans for next years O's.

My new plates

Department of Motorvehicle (Mondomon Mall)

Dear Department of Motor Vehicles,
I don't understand why you are so bad at what you do. Your job is to help people with their motor vehicle related issues and yet I find that 4 out of 5 times that I come to your office you find a lame excuse not to fulfill what I need to be done. Of course this would not be so bad except that you make me take a little number and wait on a metal bench for an average of 1 to 2 hours before your reject my simple request. It is generally a bad sign when you are so bad at what you do that you need an armed police officer wandering among your patrons at all times. At first I thought this was excessive, but after dealing with you several times I realize that it is perfectly practical. If I owned a gun I would have been tempted. I understand that you hate your job, but please don't take it out on me. If you work in a place where you need bullet proof glass between you and the customer you should try and get a new job. The DMV sucks.
Sincerely,
Me.

Pam and Jim

Pam and Jim are together. That's nice.

post pour wren (and everyone else)

Dear Wren, loyal reader,
Thanks for the nudge. I have attempted to post a few times this month and ran into some technical difficulties that pissed me off, and made me storm off yelling "forget it!" at my computer. Hence, few posts. Also new dog and new graduate school have taken up more time than anticipated. Shockingly you can't play with a puppy and read "The Creation of the American Republic" by Gordon Wood, at the same time. (BTW...name the movie where they reference this book, and yes I am currently reading it and it is really really long.) So my leisurely life as a student isn't a. leisurely or b. restful. But I think I am learning stuff and I do love my puppy...see shameless picture posting below. In other news I am now driving an SUV (boooo....hisssss) its a long story and I am a little shameful, but basically the car was cheap enough that my thriftiness overruled my environmentalism and our dog is getting big. Anyway there you go and thanks for caring.
David
PS- The link to your website when someone searched for runts, probably came through my website.

Labor Day

Beautiful weekend at the beach. Good friends, good weather, good subs, and a bad dog. Quinn is still learning her manners and pretty much wants to bite you constantly. She is very cute but we have to find a way to bite this biting problem in the bud. We are definitely going to puppy training classes.