{"id":2889,"date":"2013-07-13T09:50:33","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T15:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/?p=2889"},"modified":"2023-07-20T21:00:05","modified_gmt":"2023-07-20T21:00:05","slug":"thanks-mr-lalley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/thanks-mr-lalley\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks Mr. Lalley"},"content":{"rendered":"

First off, apologies for being so tardy this week. I finally went to a couple favorite places that usually clear my head and provide inspiration; the outside deck at Brandon Golf Course and Dunn Bros. Coffee. For some reason, though, my laptop wouldn\u2019t connect to the WiFi networks at either place. After making doubly sure that it was my machine and not their signal, I concluded that in my zeal to speed up my computer, I clicked a wrong button and disabled its ability to hook up to all wireless networks except for the one at home. \u00a0I know just enough about computers to be dangerous. I figured that I\u2019d go to Youtube and follow the instructions provided by geeks in their basements demonstrating ways to delete certain functions that may be slowing my machine down. I try to be wary of those evil geniuses who also lurk there in hopes of planting viruses \u00a0just for the fun of it. In the past, I\u2019ve used Youtube videos for instruction on how to properly carve a turkey, improve my putting, shuck corn and, just last week, how to recharge the air conditioning system on our Camaro. (Which, by the way, worked great.) \u00a0But some internet nerd has done it to me this time which I need to undo before our tour leaves for Alaska on the 19th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I can\u2019t go without a working computer so there might be a new one in the budget if I can\u2019t get mine fixed by then.<\/p>\n

A few things in the news caught my attention recently including two incidents that\u00a0 involve the media. One was an ad distributed by AAA called \u201cGreat American Vacations\u201d which was distributed across the East Coast.\u00a0 Notice anything amiss?<\/p>\n

\"north<\/a><\/p>\n

Of course an apologetic AAA says it\u2019s embarrassed at the faux pas.\u00a0 North Dakota\u2019s Attorney General has capitalized on the error posting an ad on his Facebook page thanking South Dakota for the generous gift.<\/p>\n

Speaking of major screw-ups, this one strikes close to home and makes me embarrassed for some in my profession. San Francisco television station KTVU was first on the air to announce the names of pilots at the helm of last week\u2019s Asiana Airliner that crash landed killing two passengers and injuring several others.\u00a0 Trouble is, the information came from a Bart Simpson-like crank caller using racist Asian references including \u00a0\u201cCaptain Sum Ting Wong.\u201d\u00a0 Apparently somebody at the station did have the common sense to double check their validity and received confirmation from a kid at the National Transportation and Safety Bureau. Eventually, a KTVU staffer realized what was going on and had the anchor apologize for the erroneous report later in the same newscast.\u00a0 Now, the NTSB is also apologizing for confirming the fake pilot names to KTVU, citing the handiwork of an overzealous summer intern. Good Lord.\u00a0 Journalism 101; never let being \u00a0first <\/i>take precidence\u00a0over the importance of being right.\u00a0 Just ask the Chicago Tribune editor who okayed the 1948 headline \u201cDewey Defeats Truman\u201d or those TV stations who reported, prematurely, the deaths of presidential press secretary, Jim Brady in the 1981 Reagan Assassination attempt and Congresswoman, Gabby Gifford who also survived a Tucson assassination attempt two years ago.<\/p>\n

And, finally, let\u2019s talk about smoking, shall we?<\/p>\n

I must say it was refreshing to read something by Argus Leader managing editor, Patrick Lalley, that didn\u2019t directly have something to do with his obsession about riding bicycles. No, this time his weekly column was a call to arms to close a perceived loophole in state law banning smoking in public establishments. In order to accommodate customers who smoke, many restaurants and bars have constructed outdoor \u00a0patios for them to enjoy during the short summer season. \u00a0In his typical snarky fashion, Mr. Lalley recounts a recent unpleasant experience he and his wife had while opting to dine on one of those patios and occasional wisps of tobacco drifted into their nostrels.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.argusleader.com\/article\/20130707\/COLUMNISTS0111\/307070024\/Lalley-Loophole-smoking-laws<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t smoked cigarettes for years and really wish others could quit but I reject the notion that they be shunned like a\u00a0 rebellious Amish teenager or painted with a stereotypically wide brush that suggests all smokers are knuckle dragging insensitive clods who, along with restaurants and bars that accommodate them, must be forced into conforming to more acceptable behavior.<\/p>\n

There was a time, during his days with the irreverently funny \u201cTempest\u201d magazine;(in which Keloland TV and me personally were skewered on a regular basis) \u00a0Mr. Lalley would have made a mockery of such pomposity. No more.<\/p>\n

I wonder what\u2019s next. \u00a0Maybe an Argus Leader campaign to force business places to provide more bicycle parking space?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First off, apologies for being so tardy this week. I finally went to a couple favorite places that usually clear my head and provide inspiration; the outside deck at Brandon Golf Course and Dunn Bros. Coffee. For some reason, though, my laptop wouldn\u2019t connect to the WiFi networks at either place. After making doubly sure…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2889"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11650,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2889\/revisions\/11650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}