“That’s where it’s at. That’s where it’s at.”
One doesn’t have to love the late Steve Marriott and Humble Pie to appreciate those words, but it helps.
This is a rare Saturday version of EFD. I’ve got my laptop fired up once again and am being fueled by Rao’s House Blend as I try to throw out a few odds and ins.
Rao’s coffee rocks
Rao’s in Beaumont has atmosphere and one pays a little more for it. But their coffee is worth it and the fact they have free Wi-Fi seals the deal. Rao’s, which has been waking folks up with a cup o’ Joe and filling them up with with baked goods and gelato since 1941, has two locations.
When I lived on North Street in Beaumont, I lived around the street from their shop on Calder and 10th Street. A lot of people go there, especially in the mornings. However, I didn’t visit that location much. The cafe on Dowling is where I sit at this moment. This store offers Wi-Fi and the Calder site doesn’t. Quite a few folks are sitting around playing chess right now and a few using their laptops. It’s definitely a cool, laid-back coffee shop. It makes Starbucks seem like, well, Starbucks. If you visit Beaumont and need Wi-Fi and some coffee and pastries or gelato, come see.
Hero in our midst
When I have the spare time on a computer — which is rare these days — I like to check out the Web site for the paper in one of my adopted hometowns (one of three adopted hometowns — Nacogdoches and Beaumont, Texas and Gulfport, Miss.) In this case it is The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches. I once worked there and have friends working for the Sentinel who still put out a great little paper. Of course, the college students there and some of the contrary old geezers call it “The Daily Senile” as people sometimes do in mocking their local paper’s title.
Back on topic, I read a story this morning by Sentinel reporter Kyle Peveto (whom I do not know) about a particularly gruesome automobile accident. The angle applying to the Beaumont or Golden Triangle area where I live is that the a man from Groves, in mid-Jefferson County, rescued a teen from a burning vehicle after a collision. Kudos to Pitts and people like him. A true hero, Pitts shook off the H-word, but not everyone would risk life and limb to rescue someone in such a situation. A reluctance by some would stem, obviously, from fear or even someone worried about liability. Yes, there are people who would concern themselves with getting sued in an occurrence such as that. So Danny Pitts, you (are) the man!
Corruption, wrongdoing, evil, fear and loathing in the Bush administration. It seems as if everywhere one turns the fit is hitting the shan with respect to Gee Dubya’s bunch.
Valerie Plame Wilson told Congress that her outing as a CIA operative ruined her career and caused worry for her family and other agents. As most of you know, her name being revealed as a spook, led to the conviction of Vice President Deadeye Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter “Trash” Libby.
Of course, the true-believing Bushite GOPs buy or at least pretend to believe Libby’s story, which was he was so busy he forgot talking to someone about Plame-Wilson’s job in the CIA. It seems like a defense. Not particularly a good one, but nonetheless a defense. The Bushie cult wants Dubs to pardon Libby right now. It seems as if it is something he might do. If he is going to do it, perhaps he should do soon because there remains the outside chance his smug little ass might be thrown out of office due to impeachment. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, just that it seems a possibility. A chance of impeachment has existed for a long time, but didn’t seem within the realm of honest-to-Gosh possibility until the Democrats seized Congress.
One must remember though that scandals plague every administration. Well, maybe not William Henry Harrison’s because his administration had a short shelf life because of his untimely death.
Certainly U.S. Grant had his share of scandals. I finally finished the biography of the general and president I had been reading. He had a lot of bad things go wrong both as president and in his life before and after his triumph as commander of Union forces during the Civil War.
It stretches the imagination to think Grant could be as naive as he seemed about the scandals during his presidency and prior to his failures as a businessman. At least from reading about him, he seemed honest to a fault, and perhaps he was.
Most interesting in the Grant biography which I read was the description of the cancer-ridden, almost destitute ex-general and president, racing against time to finish his memoirs before he died.
He sought the completion of his memories of the Civil War so his wife and family would persevere financially. He was helped, strangely enough by Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens in getting a generous book deal. And he beat the clock and produced well-selling memoirs which, according to biographer William McFeely, were extremely well written by the president alone, at least for the most part.
Well it’s time for me to go. I’ve typed as much as I can for the time being. I don’t know what I will do the rest of the day. I start my new part-time job Monday as a, well, I don’t think I can reveal that until I figure out my ability — as someone employed by my new employer — to blog about anything I desire. Until next time, keep the sunny side up and the top side open. Or just talk among yourselves.