This morning I was listening to the KDVS science show that's on tuesday mornings (which is really good) and they were talking about a whalfin. I had this memory of seeing a creature called a whalfin at a seapark in Hawaii when I was a young teen and no one ever believed me, but it's true! So there, all you doubters! A killer whale is actually in the porpoise family (or genus?), so it can have a baby with a dolphin. They were saying that this whalfin was in the movie "50 first dates", which I hopefully will never see unless I am forced to watch it on an airplane.
Today Diana Griego Erwin has a column about that local businessman who was beaten to death after a King's game. She talks to people who think the other guy who ran away is a coward. I don't know what to think. Those guys were probably bigger and running away was probably the smart thing to do, but then again I don't know if I'd leave my friend to fight alone. I probably would stay (I'm just saying that to reassure my friends who are reading this). This whole thing started over a traffic dispute, and you may remember that when I went to that Kings game recently I was amazed at the lawlessness of the parking lot after the game. Not that that's directly the cause of this altercation, but I bet there are all kinds of accidents and road rage incidents after games. Somebody needs to make some improvements in signage and security. But not that Maloofs. They're tapped out after actually making a payment on their loan from the city.
The locally produced NPR programs have been talking incessantly about the housing market in Sac and how fucked it is. I was getting sad again about how I'll never ever ever never buy a house and then I was cheered up when I was thinking about all the millions who live in New York and how none of them can ever afford to buy. Families, everybody, just rents forever and that's the norm. There's all this pressure here from constant media bombardment about how if you don't buy a house RIGHT NOW you'll be living in a cardboard shack in a few years and you are always hearing anecdotal stories about this or that person that bought in at the exact right time and made a million bucks. I will just have to find some other way to get ahead financially, because as long as I want to live in Sac (which I do) I can fuhgeddabouttit. Maybe I can make potpourri at home to sell. Or breed long-haired weinerdogs.
i have this key chain that's basically a ball of lead with Folsom Prison etched on it. I got it at, you guessed, the Folsom Prison Museum. Anyways, a swift hit to the noggin with this thing would probably cause enough pain for whoever was beating up my friend to stop long enough for a kick in the groin. i'm not saying i'd be able to pull any of this off in the heat of the moment, but i'm pretty sure i'd at least attempt.
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, I am optimistic that the market will cool down. Prices may not go down, but they will stabilize. Income growth in the region has been basically flat relative to housing price growth (except for the suburbanites in El Dorado and Placer, as mentioned in today's Bee). Big problem. A word to the wise -- just wait, there is a wave of foreclosures coming. Many new homeowners bought in a panic at the top of the market using higher-risk variable rate / interest-only type financing, and you can't help but wonder how many of them will be scrambling to keep up with astronomical payments once interest rates rise above the 6.5 to 7 percent mark.
ReplyDeleteI like your thinking Erik!
ReplyDeleteHeather
That's what they were saying on NPR about those sketchy mortgage plans. It's so funny, the title of the Sac NPR seried is "locked-out, the dying dream of home ownership" (at http://www.capradio.org/news/specials/housing/default.aspx)
ReplyDeleteUnless I imagined it, I think the ad for it is accompanied by an ominous clanking cell door sound effect.
whalfins are dolphin and false killer whale mixes.
ReplyDeletethe false killer whale is actually a dolphin, that looks like a whale. that's why they can mate.
i love This Week in Science....
This discussion seems to be over, but I really need some more information on the wholphin. It seems like katymonster is partly right: the wholphin is is a cross between a dolphin and a FALSE killer whale. But I can't see why the false killer whale is any closer than the regular killer whale to the dolphin (both are family Delphinidae). So presumably a REAL killer whale could reproduce with a dolphin! Maybe I'll apply for a grant.
ReplyDeletei saw a whalfin yesterday.
ReplyDeletewhat were those caretakers thinkin? it's crazy to leave a whale and a dolphin in the same tank.
it's big.