Category: Just Ramblings

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Andy Furman, 700WLW Good Riddance

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Andy Furman, to know him is to either love him or hate him, there is no in-between.

He’s been on 700WLW for a long time. The Enquirer says 18 years. I don’t think he’s been ‘the’ personality for 18 years but he’s been around for a long time.

(pull)I know he’s been aggravating me and making Sports-Talk hard to listen too for a very, very long time(/pull). Sports fans listen to sports shows to talk about sports, not racial conspiracy theories.

Andy wasn’t always a bigot and a racist but he’s always been at or over the top obnoxious. That was just his style. Over the last few years however he’s really turned it up a notch or 10.

I completely understand there are sport figures and teams (the lowly Bengals who hadn’t won in 10 years would be in that group) who deserve to be dug into from time to time.

Talk radio is about stirring the pot. But Andy’s style was far too aggressive, far too obnoxious, and far too vile.

I don’t know if it was simply jealousy, or what. But it was always clear; Andy had no respect for anyone, except those who kissed his butt. No matter what the issue, Andy it seemed would turn it into a racial issue. I mean it really didn’t matter. Certainly there was a time and place, during the Cincinnati riots, where race was an issue and a top ‘button’ to push. But I never really understood how that affected our sports teams? Once in a while, there might actually be a race related story out there. But with Andy, playing the race card was a weekly occurrence.

People like to try and compare Andy to Bill Cunningham. Bill Cunningham is an entertainer, he’s also borderline obnoxious. But that’s his style. A style that was in place long before Andy came around. When Willey was on during the night time, he too was often controversial, the difference was, Willy made sense most of the time. Rarely did he reach beyond common logic.

Andy it appeared to me, tried to steal from Cunningham’s play book, only in a more vile and hate spreading way. Andy simply went way too far, too often, and I for one am surprised it took this long to get rid of him.

Nope, Andy you won’t be missed by many. Only those whose butts you’ve kissed along the way and somehow avoided offending. After all these years, I don’t know how many people that could be, maybe 5 or 6?

Good luck to you in your future endeavors.

Enquirer Story

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Moes Southwest Grill vs Chipotle

moes150 VS. Chipotle150

It’s no secret that we love Chipotle, heck who doesn’t.

We’re certainly open to new and exciting options, heck Chipotle is always busy. A co-worker told me about Moe’s. His descriptions went something like this: “It’s like Chipotle, only better. Everything is milder, and there are more options. They have a salsa bar and give you free chips too.???

Well I’m in the camp that Chipotle is as spicy as you let them make it. Their mild salsa is tasty but isn’t spicy at all. I love spicy, I love their HOT stuff, I just can’t eat it anymore. I can’t handle what it does to me. But that’s beside the point.

I know my mother in law thinks Chipotle is spicy too, don’t know how or why but she does. So when we had the opportunity to go out today I thought we’d try Moe’s

I heard it was milder, and figured what they hey.

Let me tell you, it’s milder all right, so mild it’s almost tasteless. At Chipotle, one of the beautiful things is you see them cooking the chicken, and steak behind the assembly line as well as sautéing the peppers and opinions, etc. At Chipotle, the chicken is seasoned, and flavorful, and it’s clearly chicken, the steak, is steak.

At Moe’s, the chicken, well, its mush, it’s barely distinguishable from chicken of the sea out of a can. When was this cooked? Is it really chicken? At Chipotle, its pieces of chicken and you can watch them slice it up. The Chicken at Moe’s kind of looks like it’s been through a blender so you can’t tell what it is.

I had a burrito bowl; I looked at the chicken, couldn’t recognize it as chicken and opted for the steak. That too was a mistake. I think they get the parts that Chipotle tosses aside. Rice, black beans, sour-cream, cheese, salsa, all the fixings I’d get at Chipotle. It looked comparable.

I got chips too. In the back you can see big plastic containers full of chips. The same plastic containers we keep clothes in under the bed. I don’t know if they make their chips like Chipotle does. But they don’t put lime on them, nor does it appear salt. I figured, they have a salsa bar, so that might make up for it. I do know Chipotle has been getting a little cheap on the salsa with chips lately at least the last couple times I’ve been there.

I gathered a couple cups of salsa from the salsa bar, their gold standard, and the green salsa. Both were weak. Mild is even too strong a word. I could have just smooshed a tomato on the chips and that would have added more salsa flavor if you ask me.

Thier medium and hot sauces…  No…  Not good either.

The Burrito bowl? No good.

Moe does not know burritos. My wife ordered hers fajita style, yet got no peppers or onions. What?

Moe’s Blows, Moe’s does not know burritos. Moe’s does not know flavor nor value, Chipotle forever, Moe’s Never.

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So when is leather not leather?

When it’s plastic that’s when.

OK so it starts like this:

I buy and sell things on ebay from time to time. Yes, it’s true, you can get decent deals on some things on ebay. But you have to know what you’re looking for and be patient. There is a lot of ‘crap’ on ebay.

I do some pretty routine searches for things like, FJR1300 for things for my motorcycle. Occasionally I’ll look for other motorcycle gear too. I ended up getting a great deal on a used Joe Rocket Jacket. A $250 jacket for $65 bucks plus shipping was $80 and it was like new.

So once in a while I’ll search for something like “Yamaha Leather” or “Yamaha Leathers” or what not.

Well, one day this turned up:

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Now, I need another jacket like I need a hole in the head. But this is a Valentino Rossi replica GO!!!!!!!!!! ‘Leather’ jacket with CE armor (good stuff) and I could use it on a track day with appropriate pants. Two piece zip-together.

It was advertised as:
Go ! Team Yamaha Moto GP leather Jacket in Size L & XL
and it was cheap, $115.00 US buy it now.

What in the world? So now if something is too good to be true it usually is. I have bought a couple XL things from over seas and their XL people are not the same size as our XL people. So I was a little concerned about that. But no, the fine print says an XL should fit me.

Hrm…

I kept looking. Now if this was a single item from an individual I wouldn’t be so skeptical but it isn’t, there are a few of these things.

Then I find it. In the fine print:

Features: AAA synthetic leather.

Just what is Triple-A synthetic leather anyway? Sounds like plastic to me.

So I asked the seller: Hum, You say leather in the title, but synthetic in the fine print, that’s a little miss leading don’t you think?

The response? “There are lots of different type of leathers. The one we are selling is synthetic PU leather which provides better breatheability and advantages over other leathers such as : Easy to clean with a sponge and water. Impervious to absorption (sweat won’t cause rotting). Highly flexible in cold weather.”

Yeah, that’s plastic. While that’s fine, it’s not good to crash in, which is what this jacket is supposed to be for, to keep you from getting road rash. It’s made from PVC and is very dangerous stuff for motorcycling. This stuff will more than likely melt to your skin in the event of a crash. No good.

Leather is animal hide, like from a cow or better yet a kangaroo if you’re going to drag across the asphalt.

Thanks but no thanks.

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Reds Opening Day!

Wow, it was cold.

I had the pleasure of attending the 2006 opening day game with my buddy Victor. (Thanks Vic) The weather was supposed to be, err, well somewhat poopy. I knew that when I looked in the morning, a slight chance of rain and windy. But I neglected to check the temperature. So I grabbed a jacket, a simple pull-over.
Cincinnati has a huge tradition for opening day. We also had the pleasure of having President Bush throw out the first pitch. What that meant was increased traffic and the land of the free wasn’t so free. We all but got strip searched to enter the stadium. Vic and Michael got relieved of their pocket knives. Micheal’s was especially dangerous, seeing how he was carrying the famous swiss knife “champ”.

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While I somewhat understand this threat on an airplane. I don’t think you’re going to hold a stadium full of people hostage with one of these. What was he going to do trim the Presidents nails or give him the hair cut of death with it? Highly unlikely given all the secret service around.

So on top of the ticket prices, and parking, both had to fork over $15 knives to get in. Where do all these knives go? People also couldn’t take in bottled water. I don’t get it.

President Bush was visible for all of 4.6 minutes. At least he wasn’t embarrassing.

The Reds on the other hand, sheesh.  5 runs in the first inning, it was brutal, but at least they battled back.  But Adam Dunn, Wow.  All I can say is Wow.  Now the official scorrer was a homer that’s for sure and he only notched one error, but he should have had at least 2 maybe 3.

Sure the wind was swirling (rolling my eyes).  That didn’t stop the cubs from robbing us from 3 home runs.  He dropped or didn’t catch 4 catchable balls.  (FIVE) Two in front of him, the one he fell down on, one he didn’t even reach for on the warning track, and one along the line.  He looked bad, very very bad.

All and all though we had a GREAT time.  Great American Ball park is amazing.  The restrooms are not capable of handling a crowd of 40,000 people.  At least not the mens rooms.  In the later stages, all hell broke loose, and if it looked like it would hold liquid it was being used as a urinal.  This included sinks and trash cans.  In one restroom the janitors closet was open and there was a line in there at that sink and the mop basin.  Amazing.  Still the line outside the restroom was far too long considering all the options that were now available.  Who designed this mess?  As a tax payer I want some money back.  Oh wait, I don’t live in Hamilton County.
Did I mention it was cold?  Way cold.  But I’d go again in a minute!

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Zed Lives

Ahh, today was a good day…

I took a mental day from work today. Finally a day without conflicts and a day warm enough for me to put Zed’s rebuilt carburators back on. It went remarkably well. I even managed to get the running lights working again.

Zed runs good, pretty darn good, though not 100% perfect. Which reminds me why I should have just taken the whole bike to the shop in the first place. While I do enjoy tinkering, and am mechanically inclinded. There are some things, like carburators, that I just HATE to screw with. It would have been far better off if if I had simply take the who bike to Randy instead of just the carbs.

You see I thought I’d try and save some time and money by just taking the carbs themselves and having them rebuilt, which mostly worked. But now if after a new tank of gas more carb work needs to be done, well Randy will get the whole bike, and the costs I’ve saved will be for not.

Sometimes some things just don’t work out as planned.