We Don't Have Adventures Like This

And I, for one, am glad that we don't.

A man who was riding on the hood of a car that crashed into the First Insurance Building on Beretania Street last week caused the crash when he punched through the car's window with brass knuckles, hit the driver in the head and grabbed the steering wheel, deputy prosecutor Vickie Kapp said....

Witnesses told police a man and woman were arguing before a car left the parking lot with a man clinging to the hood. The car traveled west on Beretania Street, weaving across all five lanes, before crashing into the First Insurance Building at the Ward Avenue intersection.

Witnesses said the crash pinned the man between the car and the building.

Ouch. Apparently he is a former boyfriend, and just as well, I guess. Maybe he learned that it is a really bad idea to hit the driver with brass knuckles when you are riding on the hood.

More here.

Read It and Weep: Islam Respects Women

As exemplified by treatment of Bangladeshi 14-year-old rape victims.

The reports said (14-year-old)Hena was raped by her 40-year-old relative Mahbub on Sunday. Next day, a fatwa was announced at a village arbitration that she must be given 100 lashes. She fell unconscious after nearly 80 lashes.

Fatally injured Hena was rushed to Naria health complex where she succumbed to her injuries.

The High Court has ordered officials to explain. I suppose that is something. Of course, the explanation may prove satisfactory.

There seems to be a pattern here, and here, and here, and here.

The Greatest Art Vandal of All Time?

I've long thought that the Chinese emperor Chien-lung (transliterated today for some reason obscure to me as Qianlong) had a shot at that dubious title. While Holland Cotter of the NY Times doesn't make the same statement, he does note in a column on an exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

As an art connoisseur, he had an uncannily sensitive eye, yet he insisted on incising his name into precious ceramics and writing it repeatedly on priceless paintings, effectively defacing them.

He defaced great art works in jade as well, including many archaic pieces.

The cretin seemed to think his possessing was the most important thing which had ever happened to them, carving and painting his poetry and name on thousands of the most important Chinese art pieces that a dynasty of emperors could accumulate.

Chien-lung (1735-1799) seemed to accumulate for the joy of vandalizing: Perhaps he had so little respect for the truly great creations of China because he had no self-respect. Who knows? Today his psychological perversions matter less than the results. Whether or not he was the worst art vandal or all time or not, he ranks among the worst. More at Wikipedia. Look under "Artistic Acheivements."

Bulgarian Minimalism Meets Manhattan

I have to admire Malena Georgieva. It looks like she did quite a nice job with a bitty apartment in Manhattan

The fourth-floor apartment, for which she pays $1,750 a month, consists of a single room, just over 200 square feet, with a bed, a desk, a dining table and a couple of swivel chairs.

Apparently it is a fourth floor walk up, as the story says she had to cut down a picture a few inches to get it up the stairs. Gotta love New York prices. Thankyou, rent control. What a disaster that has been.

My first apartment in Manhattan, on West 108th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, was a 275 square feet two bedroom, so I can relate a bit to her 200. I did have a studio apartment in Madison for a while around 1974 which would have been around 200 square feet. It was actually quite nice. Since it was in a mid-19th century house built in what was then a very affluent neighborhood, it had very high ceilings, two big windows facing south, yellow walls with white trim, and between the windows, a Murphy bed.

The kitchen, which was built into what was perhaps once a closet, was a bit on the tight side, though: in order to open the oven door I had to stand in the main room, as the oven door took up the entire floor space. When I moved in I had to use a screwdriver to chisel the mineralization off of the bathroom sink, but other than that it was a cheery place.

I Realized I Was a Cheapskate When...

...I went to Goodwill and was appalled at how expensive the used clothes were.

This morning I realized I had crossed a line of some kind when I needed my pick up truck to haul home the stuff which out neighbor Ed had tossed in his dumpster.