For your information - LeslieWilber's Blog

For your information - LeslieWilber's Blog - Victoria Advocate http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber The never-ending quest to find stuff out! The never-ending quest to find stuff out! en-us Where's the money, you silly, stupid old fool? http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9795 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9795 In the spirit of the holiday season, I'll go off topic here to point out <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/movies/19wond.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc">this </a>excellent New York Times piece about "It's a Wonderful Life." I especially enjoyed the notion of prosecuting George for theft. In my minds eye, I can't help but see Jimmy Stewart, eyes downcast at the defense table, while the prosecutor rolls through his closing arguments: "Mr. Bailey's friends get on the stand and they tell us what a nice guy he is. They vouch for his character. Let me tell you what we know about Mr. Bailey's character. Mr. Bailey hangs out so often at Mr. Martini's bar, they know him by name. Not only does he regularly associate with a cheap floozy, but he gives her money, without his wife's knowledge. Money the family could use to patch up their drafty house, or get Janie piano lessons, or buy real paste, to fix Zuzu's petals. What does that say about George Bailey's character? And those are the very children Mr. Bailey subjects to terrifying verbal abuse. He asks his wife 'Why do we have so many children?' Why indeed, Mr. Bailey. "It's not enough for the defendant to torture - those are his wife's words - torture his family with erratic, irrational behavior. But he's used his professional standing to create a business built on lies and shoddy business practices. The defendant would ask, 'is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath?' "I would submit to you, the jury, that when that rabble can't afford to pay for a couple of decent rooms and a bath, when those working men are almost guaranteed to default, it is too much to ask. The defendant would have you subsidies his poker buddies' lifestyles. Is that what you want for your community? "Today, as jurors, you are the conscience of your community. I ask you, when you go into that jury room consider what is right for your town, your community. Bring back a verdict for your community." The defense lawyers, of course, have an easy job. As the Erie County prosecutor points out, could you convict Jimmy Stuart?  Christmas presents http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9776 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9776 Are you a box shaker? Do you hold presents up to the light to try to look through the paper? (I'm not saying this works, by the way. Nor am I saying I tried this when I was 10, or anything.) I'm still looking for people to talk to about gift-opening traditions. Do you let the kids open a present on Christmas Eve? Or does your whole family keep well away from gifts until Christmas morning (albeit 4 a.m. Christmas morning)? If' you'd like to talk about how your family opens presents, call me at 361-580-6521 or e-mail <a href="mailto:lwilber@vicad.com">lwilber@vicad.com</a>. Thanks and Merry Christmas! Leslie Wilber Election day on the wide, wide world of web http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9398 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9398 How did democratic process even work before the dawn of the interwebs?  A time when we were unable to stare at the <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/">Washington Post</a>, <a href="http://nytimes.com">The New York Times</a>, <a href="http://www.cnn.com/">CNN</a> and <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/">Fox News</a> all at once? Wait, they did this before cable? Before TV? Elections pre-date the radio? Are you kidding me? Now, of course, we can find out a whole bunch of stuff about the elections really fast. But that doesn't mean everyone's questions about elections have been answered. So I present, for your edutainment,  the Leslie Wilber Election Web Site Guide.  Ok, how do I cast my vote? <a href="http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/847/story/349943.html">The Advocate's Robert and Julie Zavala made this handy how-to guide.</a> How does the electoral college work? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF2N4SDGklQ">Like many of my generation, I use cartoons explain and give context. Schoolhouse Rocks! Handled this subject best.</a> Where can I get more information about local elections? <a href="http://www.victoriacountytx.org/elections/">The County Election Web site, of course.</a>  And you can check out <a href="http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/electioncentral">the Advocate's Election Central.</a> So when does the new guy move into the Whitehouse? <a href="http://inaugural.senate.gov/2009/">This site has all the official inauguration information needs.</a> But how can I amuse myself until the returns come in? <a href="http://www.jibjab.com/originals/time_for_some_campaignin">Jibjab, of course, has political parody animation.</a> <a href="http://cartoonbox.slate.com/hottopic/?image=0&topicid=28">Slate has this compilation of election-day cartoons.</a> By that you mean? http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9030 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/9030 Every time I get a letter from the Attorney General's Office, I'm pretty excited. After all, it could mean information I requested months ago is soon to follow. But on average it takes me about five hours per paragraph to read an AG's ruling. Here is some sample language from one:  "You have not indicated the district attorney , as the investigating agency, has adopted a rule that governs the release of this type of information; therefore, we assume that no such regulation exists. Giving that assumption, the district attorney must withhold the requested prosecution information under section 552101 of the Government code in conjunction with section 261.201 of the Family Code. See Open Records Decision No. 440 at 2 (1986) (predecessor statute). As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your argument against disclosure." Now I know what dispositive means here, but honestly, is that a real word people use? People who aren't writing legal documents? My media law professor would go on and on about how bad legal writing is. But truly, you can never understand this language's capacity for opacity until you read legal documents every day. I do hereby affirm that asserted fact has been strenuously verified through personal optical inspection of certain criminal-justice oriented documents in a professional, journalistic capacity in conjunction with an accute personal curiosity. Yo.   Film meets public record http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8828 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8828 I finally got to watch<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905979/">"Chicago 10"</a> last night. The movie follows the MOBE and Yippie protests at the 1968 DNC, and the trial of eight men accused of organizing the demonstrations. Actors actually read portions of the court transcripts providing the voices for animated Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and the rest. Although I didn't love the animation (it reminded me of an in-flight safety video) this was a great way to bring to life recent history using public records. At 27, my grip on events from the 50s through the 70s has always felt tenuous. The history text books seemed to do a good job right up to the end of WWII, but then there was a big blank. In college, I learned more specific stuff -- like how the media covered Vietnam, or how U.S. - Russian relations affected underground publishing in the Soviet Union.  But never the general U.S. history. "Chicago 10"  has (whatever yummy sauce you like) on the healthy vegetable that is a bite-size history lesson. But there wasn't much context or ballance. So, yes, if you feel absolutely no empathy toward the protesters, you will HATE this flick. Beer, bannanas and veg-friendly soups http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8771 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8771 What's more fun that rifling through the dregs at H-E-B for hurricane provisions? Rifling through the dregs at H-E-B looking for vegetarian-friendly hurricane provisions. If you google <a href="http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS274&q=vegan+emergency+provisions">vegan emergency provisions</a>, the results are mostly tonge-in-cheek: like tips about surviving dinner at a steak house. Now Victoria isn't exactly veg friendly. The highlight, so far, of my Ike experience has been all my vegetarian canned-food choices were laid bare on the grocery shelves by Wednesday night. Soups with meat had been taken. Organic vegetable Thai curry and vegetarian vegetable? Still there. The bad news was the beer section was picked over and cheap playing cards, my boyfriend noticed, were sold out. So we have Pearl Beer, mancala and whatever other games we already own. Election season is winding up http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8658 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8658 Which means it's time for me to plug <a href="http://opensecrets.org">Opensecrets.org</a>. The site has easy-to-search databases so you can look up who's donating money and who's getting it. I searched recent donations in Victoria and was not too surprised that most went to the Republican Party or Republican candidates. According to the site, Victorians have given $123,172 this campaign cycle. Just when I thought I had figured out http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8533 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8533 I was really beginning to pride myself in my ability to search records in the district clerks office. That's not really saying much -- it just means that for the past few weeks I didn't have to bother the extremely patient staff for help in EVERY search I made. Just most of them. But now, they've gone and switched everything from Heart (which I almost knew how to use) to Odyssey, which I officially can't find anything in. I'm sure it's a very nice system, but darn it, I'm a little put out at having to learn a new system just as I thought I was getting used to the old one. Ah, well. I guess I should apologize in advance to everyone at the clerk's office for all the extra time I'm going to take up. When you can't get wetter http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8508 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8508 Squish. That was me, putting on my helmet this morning. We went for a ride yesterday and got stuck in the downpour. We tried to wait out the rain under a downtown awning. After 30 minutes or so, we got antsy watching gutters burp up streams of water. So we headed home. There is, naturally, a point at which you can't get wetter. And at that point, riding in the rain would have been almost fun -- save a couple of factors. The water splashing up from the streets is gross. Seriously. And the water getting filtered through the sweaty foam inside my helmet is even grosser. And it stings the eyes. And gets in your mouth. And now I want a new helmet. Leslie If you want to whip up a souflet or thwart Nazis, Julia's your girl http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8472 http://community.victoriaadvocate.com/home/Blog/LeslieWilber/8472 Maybe Julia Child taught you the secrets of french cooking: making hollandaise that doesn't separate, flipping an omelet or constructing a sugar cage for a cake (spectacular, but tricky). But it turns out, Child kept a few secrets from us..... Oh, like, she was a SPY. In WWII. <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/13/AR2008081303105.html">According to the AP</a> Child's name among those listed as spies for the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA. Considering Child's husband was a diplomat, I guess it's not THAT surprising. Also on the list are Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg, Ernest Hemingway's son (how's THAT for machismo papa?) and the father of the drummer for the Police. This solidifies Child's high rank on my list of famous people living or dead I'd like to have over for dinner. Though I should sharpen up my knife skills a little first.