No idea who this is (although she looks/sounds very familiar) but her profile page says she lives in Jefferson City and we have reason to believe she fuels up at the Coffee Zone.
Panty Mython
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Category Archives: Miscellany
Tour of the old Missouri State Penitentiary
I spent a chilly two hours this morning touring the old Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. The prison was decommissioned in 2004, replaced by a new facility east of the city. I took a similar tour several years ago when the prison was still being used. Not sure which was more interesting. I was lucky to get in on this one, since they don’t do tours. Thanks to Jeff City Mayor John Landwehr for making it happen.
The old facility is rich in history and our guides –Charlie Brzuchalski and Mark Schreiber– shared one fascinating fact and story after another. It was the oldest prison west of the Mississippi (opened the same year the Battle of the Alamo was fought?) and, at one time, was the largest prison in the world, with 5,200 inmates. Former inmates include James Earl Ray, Pretty Boy Floyd, Sonny Liston and Stagger Lee. Plans for the old prison and grounds include redevelopment and restoration.
I’ll be posting some photos here in coming days but you can check out the flickr set and slideshow now. Titles and captions to come.
UPDATE: Mark Schreiber is the author of “Somewhere in time : 170 year history of Missouri Corrections.”
Suffering from latent anglophilia
“An Anglophile is a person who is fond of English culture and England in general. In some cases, anglophilia represents an individual’s preference for English culture over their own; the belief that English culture is superior; or an appreciation of English history. American anglophiles will often use English spellings, such as ‘colour’ instead of ‘color’, ‘favourite’ instead of ‘favorite’, ‘centre’ instead of ‘center’, and ‘realise’ instead of ‘realize’. (Wikipedia)
I love getting email from Keith Povall, author of Sturdy Soapbox. But I really wish he’d send me an MP3 file instead, so I could enjoy what I’m certain is a charming accent. Same goes for Phil Powell and James Smith, charter members of the Order of the Fez. I’d love to hear those lads read the back of a cereal box.
The newest members of the OOTF are John, Andy and Clive (Clive! How perfect is that?). They’re in a band I think. Brits all, but I’ve never heard their voices.
If you’re reading this, mates… how about recording a little something and sending it along. I don’t care what. I just want to hear that music that is the Queen’s English (or whatever you happen to speak). You can reach me at SteveMays@Gmail.com
Post number 4,000
In February smays.com will be seven years old. I have not posted every day since that first one in 2002, but I’ve been reasonably consistent. This is post number 4,000. A nice, round number of absolutely zero significance. But we bloggers must make note of such things.
If I had to guess, I’d say fewer than 10 percent of those 4,000 posts were in any way original. The rest were comments on, and links to, other posts, stories and articles.
The tools have gotten better since I began. There was no YouTube or flickr when I started. Social networking was still more of a concept than a web reality. And you pretty much had to be in front of a computer since phones weren’t smart enough or fast enough for surfing and blogging.
Can’t wait to see where we are at post number 5,000… or 10,000.
The Tribal Fez
Seth Godin defines a "tribe" as: "a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea. A group needs only two things to be a tribe: a shared interest and a way to communicate."
One my favorite tribes is The Order of the Fez. A short bus full men who like to wear fezzes. We communicate via blog and email. The notion of a "leader" is somewhat antithetical to fezorocity (our defining Force), but since I maintain the blog I perform that role as needed. More of a recording secretary.
This weekend two of our members sent a music video that nicely captures what the OOTF is about.
Demolition of state lab in Jefferson City
Demolition of the State Lab in Jefferson City. I should point out I was there during the noon hour a couple of Saturday’s ago. The guy resting his eyes had probably worked all morning and was catching a few winks before going back to work.
David Brazeal receives strange machine
Just resting his eyes
Maple Tree
This is why I always have my little Casio with me. This maple tree is on a street I drive everyday. Yesterday the fall color was perfect. Probably not today. More images here.
Too busy to post
Spent most of Saturday morning at the Coffee Zone with George, Tom and assorted pals, while George migrated files from the old Mac Book to the new one. There are Windows utils that will copy a lot of your stuff from one PC to another, but then you have to go back and reinstall all the apps, one at at time. Yes, I know there are ways to avoid this but not for Joe the Dumbass (me).
My my first hands-on impressions of the new Mac Book Pro are extremely positive. Too soon for me to try to share much here but once I stop stroking the case, I noticed the new multi-touch pad is amazing. WAY better than even the most tricked out mouse. I’ll show you when I know enough to do so.
And the new NVIDIA graphic cards make everything damned fast and beautiful.
From the Coffee Zone it was out to the Prairie Garden Trust to work with Henry on a little video project. We’ll post it here when it’s done (assuming it doesn’t suck, in which case you’ll never hear another word about it). We had a beautiful fall day for.
So no post on Saturday. A rarity. Sometimes life just gets in the way of blogging.