Category: News

Fashionable millennial men are all about nail art:

While iconic rock stars such as David Bowie and Mick Jagger started embracing color nail polish decades ago, a new generation of A-listers are bringing high-fashion nail looks to the mainstream: Singer Bad Bunny gets a manicure with black polish in his 2019 “Caro” music video and actor Ansel Elgort rocked a white nail look at last week’s Golden Globes.

The trend of men showing off their nail art has just begun to skyrocket, says Britney Tokyo, an LA-based celebrity nail artist. Her client roster (Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, FKA Twigs) now includes actor Luka Sabbat and heartthrob Harry Styles, whose fruit-themed nail art design, inspired by his “Fine Line” album and “Watermelon Sugar” single, went viral last month.

Uhm, yeah, not seeing the potential to skyrocket here. We have the word of a nail artist to the A-listers promoting her business, and a bunch of people I’ve never heard of and whose importance and appeal lies in filling column pixel inches on celebrity-sniffing Web sites (like NYPost.com) who paint their nails for attention on such Web sites.

I am not sure this will catch on with your average millenial.

(Hey, Brian J., didn’t you once paint your nails black? Well, everybody has a Goth phase. And I won my category in the costume contest, so there.)

UPDATE: Weeks later, Kim du Toit agrees.

The Very Last Volkswagen Beetle Rolls off the Production Line:

This is finally the end of the road for the long-serving Volkswagen Beetle as the very last third-generation model rolled off the production line in Mexico today, having sold more than 1.7 million copies worldwide since its debut in 1998.

. . . .

Although the air-cooled Beetle disappeared from the U.S. market in the late 1970s for a multitude of reasons, it seemed at the time that a new Beetle was inevitable; we just didn’t think it would take until 1998 to get one. After several years of rumors and teasers, the New Beetle arrived just as an entire generation of buyers of growing affluence realized they were suffering from a debilitating case of nostalgia.

Although it might be that the generations we’re raising now won’t have a sense of nostalgia to resurrect automotive styles. If they bother to buy cars at all.

That marijuana should be referred to in newspapers and news stories as ‘weed’?

These states now have legal weed and what states could follow in 2020
(OzarksFirst, which is KOZL, KOLR-10, and KRBK in Springfield)

Long lines in Collinsville greet first day of recreational weed sales in Illinois
(St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

Wisconsin will soon become an island surrounded by legal weed
(Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Nearly $3.2 million in legal weed was sold in Illinois on the first day of sales, marking one of the strongest showings in the history of marijuana legalization
(Chicago Tribune)

Springfield News-Leader

I noticed this with the breathless (I think we know why the journalists were holding their breath) coverage of the whole sorta legalization thing in the Springfield News-Leader, but I’m hard-pressed to think of another thing referred to consistently in slang terms in the news media.

The score on my New Year’s Eve PSA for St. Louis has increased to five dead in shootings, but in Cleveland, someone festively firing rounds killed his girlfriend:

Illegal celebratory gunfire turned deadly just after midnight on New Year’s Day, according to Cleveland Police.

Detectives are investigating the death of a 31-year-old woman who was shot.

Officers responded just after midnight on New Year’s Day and found the woman with a gunshot wound. She later died at MetroHealth Hospital.

While investigating, police learned the victim’s 38-year-old boyfriend was “popping off” rounds to celebrate the start of 2020. At some point, the woman was shot.

Uh huh. That sounds exactly like what happened.

Also, apparently, Cleveland saw 11 shootings between 6pm New Year’s Eve and 3am Christmas day, a total greater than St. Louis (whose fifth shooting was apparently later on New Year’s Day, but added to the total to make the story More Deadly).

A Missouri lawmaker is setting himself up to be the next exemplar of religious fanatics in the Republican party: State representative says there shouldn’t be a “false god” on the capitol building:

A local lawmaker is asking state officials to prevent putting up a statue of a [R]oman goddess back on the [C]apitol building.

State Representative Mike Moon, from Ash Grove, wrote to Governor Mike Parson claiming the statue of Ceres Is a “false god” and should not be displayed on the capitol dome. [capitalization corrected]

What does he think of having a town not far from his named after a Roman goddess?

Since my first castle is here in town, I guess I’ll have to use this British castle as a summer home.

It took Anton Jones 15 years to buy what was known locally as Llantwit Castle from the Vale of Glamorgan council and another five years to transform the medieval house.

No cranes or cement mixers were used and all the materials were mixed and constructed using traditional methods.

Lime mortar was used and the solid oak beams were cut and constructed on site.

Anton was fascinated with the building since he was a child where he used to play but was also “scared to death of it.”

He said: “It was very, very creepy in those days because the ruin was totally covered in ivy.

“It was always very gloomy even on a summer’s day and there was always an eerie presence here and I actually got chased by horses here once.

“I can still hear the hooves hitting the stones now when I’m working here.”

When he bought the property for £5,000 the “conservation builder” feared he had bitten off more than he could chew when the extent of the restoration project became fully clear.

Anton said: It was completely ruined, in fact it shouldn’t really have been saved because it was too far gone.

It looks nice.

Unfortunately, it is in Britain.

The Current Local, the Van Buren, Missouri, weekly paper, recently ran a piece on a local resident who once was a state trooper in Alaska.

The text, though, doesn’t think many people reading it are from Milwaukee.

In July of 1968, Stan Kaziczkowski (pronounced kozziKOWskee) stood at the unlikely doors of the Alaska State Trooper Academy in Sitka, a small city on Baranof Island south of Glacier Bay National Park.

I know how to say Kaziczkowski, for Pete’s sake. Just like it’s spelled. And, yes, Kaziczkowski is from Wisconsin.

(See also Finalists for Most Milwaukee Wedding 2017 Announced.)

In July, Rip Torn passed away, leading to a post here entitled Know Your Rips, in which I said “Only one of them is R.I.P. now, and strangely, it’s Rip Torn, who was the older of the two, although Rip Taylor seemed old in the 1980s.”

Well, that is no longer true: Rip Taylor, Comedian And Confetti-Enthusiast, Has Died At Age 84.

(Link via Ace of Spades HQ.)

I always find stories like this interesting: Fugitive lived in isolated bunker for 3 years to evade arrest in Wisconsin:

His hideout was near the Ice Age Trail, a 1,000-mile footpath that winds through Wisconsin woodlands. It’s a rustic trail, still partially in development, and in remote places like Ringle sees very little foot traffic.

Button began digging out the bunker, lining the walls with cardboard and tarps. He made a roof out of tarps and logs. When it was finished, he started moving in supplies one backpack load at a time. He bought half a pallet of canned food and brought in a TV.

When it was time for Button to finally disappear, he said he left his car, wallet and ID at his mother’s house in Richfield, along with a note that he was moving to Florida. He hopped a train in Stevens Point and covered himself with coal in one of the coal cars to avoid detection. He got off the train in Wausau, and it took him two days to walk to his bunker.

Over the years, he was able to ride a bike to the landfill to collect food, clothes, tools, electronics and other supplies.

Tennessee escapee: Affidavit says fugitive Curtis Ray Watson strangled, sexually assaulted Tennessee corrections employee

Button attached a TV antenna to a tree outside the bunker and used a system of eight solar panels and numerous car batteries to power the TV, other electronics, lights and fans. When he needed more electricity, Button pedaled a bike attached to a homemade generator.

He did better than that kid in Alaska.

I dunno why the stories of fugitives hiding out in the woods fascinates me more than kids wandering into the woods and dying. The relative success (that is, the fugitive lived)?

Hackers can turn headphones into ‘acoustic weapons,’ cybersecurity expert warns:

According to Wired, cybersecurity research lead at the technology consulting firm PWC UK, Matt Wixey, demonstrated that everyday speakers can be infected with malware that makes them emit dangerously high or low frequencies.

When I’m at the gym, I’m pretty sure you can hear the metal when I open my mouth.