Greg Mitchell's Blog, page 132
February 14, 2014
Sex at Sochi: Cold Mettle
You've heard the rumors, now the proof that the Sochi site is one big sex orgy, of Olympian proportions. Of course, the proof comes from The Onion:
My Sunny Valentine
At the Cloisters, upper Manhattan, last autumn. Picture perfect?
'Not Your Standard Well Fire'
Friday: The Greene County well site that exploded Tuesday morning is still burning, leaving one man injured and another missing, was cited in December by the state Department of Environmental Protection for laying a production pipeline without proper permits, according to DEP data. Meanwhile, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that crews cannot even move in and finally shut down the wells that have been spewing natural gas for the past three days until they remove all the metal and equipment from the well pad--which gets superheated and acts as a match for the fire. I cannot imagine how the family of the missing worker must feel reading this sentence:
While they're removing the metal and equipment, the crews have been keeping an eye out to see if they can locate an employee of one of the subcontractors, Cameron Surface Systems, who was working on the site when the explosion occurred. The employee has been missing since then and is feared dead.
Thursday: We'll want to keep an eye on this one: Officials from Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, Chevron, and the appropriately named Wild Well Control are trying to figure out how to contain and put out a massive natural gas fire that erupted at a well pad owned by Chevron on Tuesday, about 50 miles south of Pittsburgh. One worker was injured and another is missing and feared dead.
DEP spokesman John Positer said: "Our biggest concern is the environmental impact of what they're going to do. ..This is not your standard well fire. It's bigger. We want to know what they are going to use to put out that fire and how they're going to contain it and prevent it from spreading and possibly getting into a stream."
Always interesting in these well fire stories to read, as in this AP story quoting the DEP spokesman Positer, that a site "isn't near homes or businesses and appears to pose no threat to public health." Reading the comments section of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story gives a slightly different perspective, such as Virginia Eberhart describing her house as "a little over 1,000 feet" from that well. She writes: I am all for energy independence but I can tell you that this is not anything but a nightmare to live by. My house was shaken to the core. It felt like a 747 was outside our house and the flames reflected in all the windows on the one side of the house. We felt like we were living next Mt St Helen's with tremors and booms all night long.I am all for energy independence but I can tell you that this is not anything but a nightmare to live by. My house was shaken to the core. It felt like a 747 was outside our house and the flames reflected in all the windows on the one side of the house. We felt like we were living next Mt St Helen's with tremors and booms all night long."i am allI am all for energy independence but I can tell you that this is not anything but a nightmare to live by. My house was shaken to the core. It felt like a 747 was outside our house and the flames reflected in all the windows on the one side of the house. We felt like we were living next Mt St Helen's with tremors and booms all night long.II am I "I am all for "I am I "I am ""I am "I"I am all for :I am all for "I am all "I am all for energy"I ""I am all for energy independence but I can tell you that this is not anything but a nightmare to live by. My house was shaken to the core. It felt like a 747 was outside our house and the flames reflected in all the windows of one side of the house." A Chevron spokeswoman could not estimate how long the fire might continue to burn. Updates from the Greene County Messenger here. -- Barbara Bedway
Health Care With Heart: France vs. USA
Today's must-read, via Reuters: Anya Schiffrin's account of the cancer care her father--renowned editor and writer Andre Schiffrin, who died last December--received in France. Anyone enmeshed in the U.S. healthcare system will weep with longing for the humane and thoughtful way the French receive healthcare. Imagine this: quiet waiting rooms with no billing departments. Contrasting the ordeal of getting care in New York with their experience in Paris, she writes:
When my dad needed to see specialists, for example, instead of trekking around the city for appointments, he would stay in one room at Cochin Hospital, a public hospital in the 14th arrondissement where he received his weekly chemo. The specialists would all come to him. The team approach meant the nutritionist, oncologist, general practitioner and pharmacist spoke to each other and coordinated his care. As my dad said, 'It turns out there are solutions for the all the things we put up with in New York and accept as normal.'-- Barbara Bedway
Every time I sit on hold now with the billing department of my New York doctors and insurance company, I think back to all the things French healthcare got right. The simplicity of that system meant that all our energy could be spent on one thing: caring for my father.
NFL Report Vindicates Martin
Official report for NFL on the Incognito/Martin bullying scandal just out. It's here but here's key excerpt from press release:
“Mr. Wells: "The Report concludes that three starters on the Dolphins offensive line, Richie Incognito, John Jerry and Mike Pouncey, engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only Jonathan Martin, but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman and an assistant trainer. The Report finds that the assistant trainer repeatedly was the object of racial slurs and other racially derogatory language; that the other offensive lineman was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching; and that Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments.”
“The Report rejects any suggestion that Martin manufactured claims of abuse after the fact to cover up an impetuous decision to leave the team. Contemporaneous text messages that Martin sent to his parents and others months before he left the Dolphins--which have never before been made public—corroborate his account that the persistent harassment by his teammates caused him significant emotional distress. The Report concludes that the harassment by Martin’s teammates was a contributing factor in his decision to leave the team, but also finds that Martin’s teammates did not intend to drive Martin from the team or cause him lasting emotional injury,” said Mr.Wells.
Looking Ahead to the Dimming of (Valentine's) Day
Surely, one of the great songs for this day, albeit about a (temporarily?) lost love, written by Richard Thompson, first recorded with his wife, and now a standard. See a fine version below, with Richard joining Bonnie Raitt. I guess we will not be posting his equally great, "When the Spell Is Broken."
Card-Carrying Comedy
Mashable stacks the deck for today's debut of second season of "House of Cards." But joker no longer wild. Sample at left.
Immortal, Beloved
For Valentine's Day, Gary Oldman as Beethoven reads part of his immortal "Immortal Beloved" letter in so-so (at times ludicrous) film of the same name. With magnificent slow movement from his Piano Concerto No. 5. Note: Our new book and film on Beethoven's Ninth.
February 13, 2014
Tennessee, Down So Low
Always a good day when you can quote one of the great singers on politics. Today it's my Facebook friend Tracy Nelson who knows something about her Mother Earth, Tennessee: "Another proud day in Tennessee lawmaking, two bills up for consideration in the legislature. One to allow folks to carry guns in public parks and the other to'make the gays go away, making it legal to refuse service to gays. These ass-wipes need a good horse-****ing." Below, one of the great vocal performance of all time (she also wrote the song):
