Street scene: Police and Suspect

Cops and Allegedly Very Drunk Woman

"Allegedly" added for all the very usual legal reasons.

I was standing at the intersection of 3rd Ave and Bell, waiting for the bus that takes me home from downtown Seattle. It's not the nicest of neighborhoods; there's a divy Irish bar across the street and one block up is a rehab center that attracts sellers looking for those ready to fall off the wagon and buyers looking for the sellers.

A bus pulled up. It wasn't mine so I didn't pay much attention to it and went back to fiddling with my ipod. That is, until two bicycle cops came flying by, stopped at the bus and got on. Interested, I pulled out my camera.

They were talking to a little middle-aged woman sitting in the front section. I couldn't hear the conversation, but then the cops had her stand and, taking her by the arm, escorted her off the bus. As she was walking down the bus's steps I heard one of the cops say, "Whew. You have had a few, haven't you?"

The story came out in drips and drabs as I listened to them. The cops were loud, but the woman almost never said a word, she just leaned against the chain-link fence of the dog park. Allegedly she had walked out of a bar, I don't know which one, without paying her tab. The woman in the green coat was making the complaint, loudly. The cops were talking about having the grey-haired woman either pay up or be arrested for theft. While I was there another bike cop showed up, then a cop car. I never did hear the end of the saga because my own bus showed up. When I left they were still trying to get an answer out of her.

Expelled: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Far be it for me to reward naughty behavior, but PZ Myers, the biologists interviewed and ultimately expelled from a viewing of the crypto-creationist film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, has really crashed the party this time.

As reported last week, Myers was interviewed for the film a year ago under false pretenses, and then kicked out of a pre-release viewing. He had legitimately jumped through all the rather simplistic hoops necessary to sign up, was recognized by the producer, and told he wouldn't be allowed to see the film. Rather than be upset, Myers (and the rest of us all) had a fit of laughter at the ironic hypocrisy of the moment, especially when he revealed that his wife, daughter, and guest had gotten into the theater and watched the film anyway. That guest being Richard Dawkins.

They've been in damage control mode ever since. One of their ways of dealing with it was to have a teleconference with the press. Now, in your normal press conference, the press is allowed to ask questions. In this one, though, the questions would have to be submitted by email and the moderator would get to pick and choose which ones to ask. The press would not be allowed to speak; their mics would be muted. Only the movie's principle participants would have active mics.

Myers was invited to participate. Nobody really believes they invited him directly, but he is a member of two active blog press websites (Science Blogs and The Panda's Thumb) and they received invitations to have a member of their group listen in. Myers elected to be one.

He called in early, before the conference was scheduled to start. Apparently unfamiliar with the process, these Kreationist Keystone Kops had their outbound, "listeners only" circuit live, and while they were talking, they gave out the number for the "speakers" circuit.

Myers logged out, then logged back in with the other number. He listened for just about as long as he possibly could stand it, then opened his mouth, accused the Expelled people of lying, engaging in deceitful propaganda, and basically reading them the riot act. He then said that if any of the reporters on the line wanted his story, they could come talk to him.

He's going to have a very busy weekend.

Now, we should be up front about this: Myers crashed this particular party. He wasn't invited to speak, just to listen. But I think he's got every right to stand up in a moment of civil disobedience, especially when the other side is both bloody incompetent and freakishly obsessive about their contra-reality worldview.

And I'm just having a giggle over the whole to-and-fro.

(Almost) Burnin' down the house!

Today, I ate too much dessert, spent too much money, and almost burned down a school. Tonight it was Kouryou-chan's school's annual fundraiser, and I gotta tell you, the fundraisers for private schools are utterly bugout insane. People spent thousands of dollars on class craft items.

While I was having dinner, though, I put down our bid card and started to eat the salad put in front of me when Omaha noticed that I'd put it down on one of the decorative candles and it was going up in flames. We put it out, and then immediately noticed that the guy at the next table had done the same thing. It was mildly dramatic. I drank a coke, because other than water and wine it was the only thing they had. I am paying for that now. One person had a bag that read, "Someday, Coke and Pepsi will be remembered as the cigarettes of our era, another cheap drug made to look great by advertising."

I received a very nice compliment from a beautiful grey-haired woman about my kilt. Omaha looked devastating in her formal blouse and jacket and her vinyl skirt.

One of the items we bid on is the table's dessert: the table with the lowest bid, in a random and silent bid, ends up with the twinkies. Everyone else gets picks, in order, of what they want from a great table. We ended up with a delicious white cake with chocolate frosting. It cost Omaha and I $38 a piece. Hey, it all goes to Kouryou-chan's school, I know.

But I ate too much of the cake. It was... stunning. I'm not a cake person, but I just couldn't stop. Now my stomach aches and I feel awful. That's probably the Coke, too.