Letters (to the On the Street Penthouse Suite)
#1 $10 Million Down the Toilet?
Somehow I forgot to post this amazing letter last week. The letter is in regards to the article two weeks ago about unusual museums.
flickr user: lindseymorrison
I'm not sure what happened to the fotos I took of the musuem. Luckily, I found several interesting ones by flickr'er lindseymorrison.
Pam Morsi writes:
Hi Mark - - I read your article in the SA Current about the DHS $10 million to protect Barney Smith's place from the terrorists. (The writing btw was excellent, as always. Simultaneously entertaining and enlightening.)
I live a few blocks from Barney and as a writer myself, I keep my eye on the street here in AH (mostly to avoid actual writing) and to date have not noticed our police or fire department exactly living large. So I got curious about this money and who got it.
I went to Alamo Heights City Council last night and read a portion of your article into the minutes with the question Where is the money? Nobody at the city appeared to be aware of this DHS funding increase.
Naturally, I agree with the premise that the money should have gone to NYC. But if it didn't where did it go? To the state of Texas? The city of San Antonio? I don't really think that there will be an attack on Barney's place. But if one were to assume, as apparently DHS did, that an attack were to occur it would be our AH police and firemen who have to show up, so certainly some of that money should have come to us.
I have asked the Chief of Police and the Fire Chief to check into this. And I gave them your name. If I hear anything, I will pass it on.
Thanks for the work that you do. P
#2 Ghost From the Past
Former Current Editor Keli Dailey writes in from San Diego with this message:
Hey,
Barack has accepted the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.
I just made a contribution to the Obama campaign. Please join me in celebrating this historic moment. Join this movement and make a donation right now:
https://donate.barackobama.com/thebeginninginvite
Thanks!
#3 Five Rejected Austin BBQ Names
OTS Domestic Correspondent (from San Luis Obispo) Steve writes in...
August 19th, 2008
The Saltiest Joint
Suck the Bone
Unexpectedly Covered in Sauce
Bar-B-Q*bert
Texas Pete's Rootin', Tootin' Pulled Pork â??n' Fellatio Funfactory
More here:
http://www.5ives.com/
#4 Obama/McCain Animated Madness
The brief letters can often share the most goodness, such as this one from Tiana.
Enjoy...
www.peteyandpetunia.com/VoteHere/VoteHere.htm
#5 Michael Finley Cialis Conundrum
Chuck (also from North California) writes this intriguing message but with no link to substantiate...
is that Michael Finley in the current Cialis ad campaign? Just wondering... didn't see that in the off-season Injury report.
Terrible Twos
Downtown Highlife had its 2 year anniversary ride. I was semi-prepared for extemporaneous stump speaking, but luckily that never was allowed to happen. Various head counts gave a variety of numbers as to how many actually showed up. The low estimate was around 55 with the high number being closer to 75/80.
Several new people showed up such as a fotojournalist from NYC Brian McGloin who took several fotos of the ride. For his images look here: www.brianmcgloin.com
Pro flickr users often protect their images so that jackalopes like me don't go in and try to use them. Brian gave permission, but they seem to be blocked or I don't know what I'm doing. The answer could be a yes to both, or a yes to just the latter, but either way - no images.
Perhaps its best there is no visible proof for me to present. The statute of limitations on certain issues may still be in play, especially with a loophole about bands playing on the river, though a discussion was raised about the tips not going to the band but laundering it through a juggler. I can't explain if I tried, or should I. I've said to much.
(passage of time)
It now looks like I've found a way to post a slideshow of the ride. Here it is...(fingers crossed, this new blog format is a total shot in the dark, and a shot in the head)
The ride began at normal time but was later found to be derailed when someone rode off on Carlos the Carpenter's bike and never came back. This brought an impassioned speech by CTC when we met up with him later on the ride at the metal drum circle in the middle of Brackenridge Park. More on that in a bit.
The ride left the Alamo and went through some empty streets of the Eastside and make a brief stop outside one of the cemeteries. We headed north to Government Hill and then east towards the non-legendary Rock n Roll Bar, which never seems to be open, yet its hand painted sign outside has captured my imagination on more than one occasion.
From there we went down Grayson by the Quadrangle and Bettie's Battalion Lounge, which oddly didn't serve liquor. At Broadway we made our way north to Brackenridge Park. And to take a step back, the race down Grayson Hill didn't cause any pileups of fixies, thankfully. Not having brakes still hasn't captured my imagination.
After CTC alerted us to the would be bicycle thief, we went up the Feral Cat Hill behind the Sunken Gardens Theater. Amazingly, there was no complaining about all the hills this night. It was at this moment that I thankfully didn't give some sort of speech out of a bad war film, something along the lines of some of us might not make it back. I hardly had finished yelling out to slow down at the bottom of the hill for the gate and already 40 people had already left. It's a good think I didn't make any effort towards an impomptu awards ceremony, though it was a hilarious thought.
The ride ended down on the river, as the slide show may or may not be revealing.
In all, it was a glorious moment with more than one person exclaiming it to be one of the top 5 best times they've ever had in San Antonio. It's not confirmed but to make that distinction we may have beat out legendary San Antonio activities such as doing laundry, a trip to the dollar theater, and late night bowling. If that's the case, then I'll take that as progress.
And so goes another week on the streets of San Antonio. As always, to be continued...
