Shuttin' 'er Down!

Takin' a break...a loooong break!  Will be tweetin' now and then.  That time-waster's here.

In the meantime, I'd greatly appreciate it if y'all could spare just a few bucks to help support the Ontario-Yates Hospice.

A group of us will be swimming a one-miler across Canandaigua Lake on August 10.

Main page for the swim is here.  My sponsorship page is here.

This site's always been ad-free, so how about kicking in a little dough for a great cause and we'll just call it even?

Thanks in advance for your support of hospice and your loyal readership.  Catch y'all later...

Quote of the Day

Our great weariness comes from work not done.

 

(via Hoover Institution)

 

Eric Hoffer

Quote of the Day

In times of change, learners inherit

the Earth...while the learned find

themselves beautifully equipped to

deal with a world that no longer exists.

 

(via Hope Pubs)

 

Eric Hoffer

Quote of the Day

 

It ain't bragging if you can do it.

 

(via Los Angeles Times)

 

Jay Hanna "Dizzy" Dean

It's not paranoia...

...if they really are out to get you.

If you think this out-of-control police chief is unique, you've got another think coming.  Cops are now doubling as tax collectors.  Read more here.

Hanners blew the whistle on the department’s tactics and was eventually fired for refusing to comply and keep quiet. He says that each officer was required to make 100 contacts each month, which included tickets, arrests, field interviews, and warnings. This equates to 72,000 contacts a year in a 50,000 person town. His claims are backed up by audio recordings of his superiors he made. The Auburn police department declined requests to be interviewed for this story.

“There are not that many speeders, there are not that many people running red lights to get those numbers, so what [the police] do is they lower their standards,” says Hanners. That led to the department encouraging officers to arrest people that Hanners “didn’t feel like had broken the law.”

Not hard to imagine this:

"These danged red light cameras jest ain't generatin' nuff rev nu.  I gots a idear!  Let's just shorten tha yeller..."

Yeah, we were once the land of the free...

Quote of the Day

 

It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.

 

(via scott & zelda fitzgerald)

 

Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald

Anatomy of a Failed Cover-Up

(via Tor's Take)

The Rutgers Dodgeball scandal (in more detail) is here.

Pernetti and Purcaro met numerous times with Wolf and sometimes with outside counsel in late November and early December and decided they didn’t have legal cause to fire Rice, though Wolf never advised them that was the case. But Purcaro, the report says, still believed Rice should be fired “for cause.” (While Barchi maintained even after he fired Rice that he didn’t have legal cause to do so, a close reading of Rice’s contract suggests otherwise.)

Instead, Pernetti devised the following plan, on which he briefed Barchi: suspend Rice without pay for 10 games, mandate anger management for the coach, and tack an addendum onto his contract “stating that Coach Rice would be terminated for cause if specific incidents occurred.”

But Rice and his lawyer “reacted negatively” to the suspension, and later that day Pernetti finalized a more expensive but less visible punishment: a three-game suspension without pay, a $50,000 fine, mandatory anger management training, a daily practice monitor paid for by Rice, and a “zero tolerance probationary period” for the entire season.

Quote of the Day

 

You're expected to be perfect the

day you start and then improve.

 

(via stltoday)

 

Edward Paul "Ed" Vargo

Another Monday Morning Misc.

TAGS parking info has not been posted.  Keep an eye on the event page (here) for that.

Having to pay for admission to TAGS has ruffled a few feathers.  Ticket info here.

TSA site shows LC TAGS is scheduled for Austin in 2014.  Parking and admission costs will surely be a hot topic at this fall's TSA meeting in San Antonio.  If you're attending that, hotel info is here.

Recruiting crisis in San Antonio appears to be over, as AAAA has removed the reminder from their home page.  Catch up here.

Correction on the sponsor of the Texas Wife Carrying Championships.  Correct one here.  Catch up here.  No harm, no foul, right?

Two high school position have been reposted on the THSCA site:

Southwest HS (use Southwest Head Swim in subject line)

Stony Point HS contact Craig Chessher at 512-428-7202

If you're looking for LC Sectional info, visit TWST here.  Online entry deadline midnight tomorrow!

Meet the FINA World Champs mascot, Xop:

(via Facebook)

Read about the Title IX fight going on in Stephenville ISD here.

Stephenville ISD has agreed to satisfy 13 of McCully's grievances with a fourth junior high girls' coach being hired and new uniforms, changes to practice schedules, changes to the school's student-athlete handbook and more on the way for 2013-14. So clearly, the school district views the grievances as a serious matter.

And because I don't believe for a second that Superintendent Dr. Darrell Floyd and Athletic Director Joe Gillespie are the type of guys who waste time fixing things that aren't broken, it's clear there were indeed violations.

The Potpourri (Tomball Edition) has named Shayne Gregson's 100 free win at the 2013 state meet as it's #2 sports story of the 2012-13 school year.  More here.

District 22-4A champion Shayne Gregson reached the UIL State Swimming Championship in Austin, and in the 100 meter freestyle, she made history. After finishing third in the preliminaries to make into the Class 4A finals, Gregson swam her way to the state championship by finishing .28 of a second ahead of Analise Diener of San Antonio Alamo Heights with a time of 51.72 in the 100 meter freestyle.

We've all gotten used to the media substituting meters for yards by now, right?

Quote of the Day

 

You can't get mad at weather because

weather's not about you.  Apply that

lesson to most other aspects of life.

 

(via FT Magazine)

 

Douglas Coupland

Quote of the Day (Thanks DJA!)

 

The easiest way to build an incredible team is

to build an incredible team.  Thoroughbreds

don't want to run with donkeys.

 

 

David L. Ramsey III

Quote of the Day

 

The attempt to silence a man is the greatest

honor you can bestow on him.  It means that

you recognize his superiority to yourself.

 

(via Taki's Magazine)

 

Michael Joseph "Joe" Sobran, Jr.

Quote of the Day

 

Behold I do not give lectures or a little

charity, When I give I give myself.

 

(via the guardian)

 

Walter "Walt" Whitman

Skipper & Gilligan Not Included

If you're in California for the US Open and/or Junior Nationals, you might want to go on the USA Swimming Foundation's Gold Medal Cocktail Cruise.  Info here.

You'll get to rub elbows with Cullen Jones, Janet Evans, and Jason Lezak.

Upon arrival at at the Mariners Mile Marina in Newport Harbor - Newport Beach, Calif. you'll be welcomed with a chilled glass of bubbly champagne by the staff and crew of the Mojo. A keepsake photo will be taken as you step aboard the sleek and sensational "Mojo" a 100-foot, custom designed Ditmar Donaldson motor yacht. This elegant, European style yacht has been featured on many televsion shows, including Hells Kitchen, The Bachelor, Date my Mom, For the Love of Ray J, The Tyra Banks Show, Columbo, Baywatch, VIP, and Blind Date.

Mojo?

(via Canada Cool)

Dang!  If it ain't the SS Minner, count me out!

Quote of the Day

 

Any word you have to hunt for in a

thesaurus is the wrong word.

There are no exceptions to this rule.

 

(via Idle Thoughts and Fevered Dreams)

 

Stephen Edwin King

Quote of the Day

 

You have no control over what the other guy does.

You only have control over what you do.

 

(via The New York Times)

 

A.J. Kitt

Swim for Hospice

Doing the annual lake swim for hospice on August 10th.

It's a one-miler across Canandaigua Lake.  If you can spare a few bucks for a great cause:

Home Page

Donation Page

Thanks!

Quote of the Day

Maybe you have to know darkness

before you can appreciate the light.

(via Blackbird Studio)

 

Madeleine L'Engle

Quote of the Day

 

You may be disappointed if you fail,

but you are doomed if you don't try.

 

(via Artist Quote of the Day)

 

Belle Miriam Silverman, a.k.a. Beverly Sills

Quote of the Day

 

People without firmness of character love to make

up a "fate" for themselves;  that relieves them

of the necessity of having their own will and

of taking responsibility for themselves.

 

(via RUSNET)

 

Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev

Quote of the Day (Thanks, DJA!)

 

My job is not to be easy on people.  My job is

to take these great people we have and to

push them and make them even better.

 

(via CNNMoney)

 

Steven Paul "Steve" Jobs

Quote of the Day

 

Even good opinions are worth very little

unless we hold them in the broad,

intelligent, and spacious way.

 

(via tumblr)

 

John Morley

1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn

Quote of the Day

 

Society honors its living conformists

and its dead troublemakers.

 

(via 1930BYCHRISJACKSON)

 

Mignon McLaughlin

Quote of the Day

 

Take care to get what you like or you

will be forced to like what you get.

 

(via The Rich Life)

 

George Bernard Shaw

404

Tried to rate recent purchase at SwimOutlet and got this:

Was going to give item a five-star rating.

Only complaint was with shipping.

If the guy that delivered it was actually a gold medalist, he's really let himself go...

Quote of the Day

 

If Columbus had an advisory committee

he would probably still be at the dock.

 

(via History Central)

 

Arthur Joseph Goldberg

Communication: Non-Verbal

RT sent me this video.  Very interesting stuff!  According to her research, Amy Cuddy found that:

Our nonverbals govern how we think and feel about ourselves.

 

Worked with a teacher/coach for a few years that would always say "Fake it 'til you make it."

 

Didn't like the saying/concept.  Definitely prefer Cuddy's "Fake it 'til you become it."

So what if it don't rhyme?  This ain't the Poetry Corner...

Quote of the Day

 

Ill habits gather by unseen degrees -

As brooks make rivers, rivers run to seas.

 

(via Wikiquote)

 

John Dryden

Quote of the Day

 

Conformists don't make

it to the top of the heap.

 

(via Radio Survivor)

 

Michael Christian Berry

Quote of the Day

 

One thing you learned as a Cubs fan:

When you bought your ticket, you could

bank on seeing the bottom of the ninth.

 

(via centerfield maz)

 

Joseph Henry "Joe" Garagiola, Sr.

Breaking the Monotony

Don't you get tired of looking at those band-aids on the black line?

Isn't it nice when there's a change of scenery in your lane?

Had one of those days today!

After the lawn crew mowed and the clippings mixed with the hair balls, currents sent the combinations rolling across the pool bottom.

Kind of looked like wind-blown tumbleweeds.

Guess the main drain'll round 'em all up, kind of like barbed wire does to them tumblin' tumbleweeds.

Quote of the Day

 

If you have to be in a soap opera

try not to get the worst role.

 

(via Dr. Macro)

 

Frances Ethel Gumm, a.k.a. Judy Garland

SwimScam Update

In case you're just tuning in, catch up here.

While we were all anxiously awaiting "the real story" from Stanley the Manly it looks like Braden & Co. just threw Morgan under the bus.

Tony at SCAQ actually got his apology, along with this:

'SwimSwam’s Contributor Agreement is clear on this point, and each contributor must agree that anything he or she publishes on SwimSwam.com is their original work; in this instance, it was not.'

Haw haw haw!

The 'in this instance' might lead you to believe this was just an isolated incident...

Quote of the Day

 

A man without ethics is a wild

beast loosed upon this world.

 

(via Ordinary finds)

 

Albert Camus

SwimScammers

(via Bradford VTS)

What is wrong with some people?

They know SwimScam steals material from other sites.

They know SwimScam buys "friends" and "followers".

They know SwimScam has a ready, fire, aim mentality.

Still, they gobble up SwimScam's garbage as fast as they can shove it down their danged gullets!

What touched off this rant?  Check out Tony's SCAQ blog for SwimScam's latest round of thievery here.

SwimSwam obviously plagiarized and the person that plagiarized from Swimming World should issue an apology as soon as possible and the article should be taken down with said apology in it's place.

...um...don't want to mention any names...but that person's initials are MP...

FYI:

For purposes of the Stanford University Honor Code, plagiarism is defined as the use, without giving reasonable and appropriate credit to or acknowledging the author or source, of another person's original work, whether such work is made up of code, formulas, ideas, language, research, strategies, writing or other form(s).

via Student Affairs/Stanford

Don't hold your breath for the apology, fans.

About the best you might hope for is what they did on Gold Medal Mel's "article" back in February.  They had posted - word for word - a release from the Virginia SID.

When they were called on it (catch up here), they eventually added "This is an unedited press release".

Some get their news via The Daily Show and keep up with celebs via TMZ. Guess it just makes sense that some folks now get their swimming news via SwimSham...paaaa-danged-thetic!

Quote of the Day

 

The only reason some people get lost in thought

is because it's unfamiliar territory.

 

(via NNDB)

 

Peter Paul Fix