Headline of the Day, “It’s the cheese” edition

“Handle with care”

And no, it’s not from The Onion:

Norway goat cheese fire closes tunnel

A road tunnel in Norway has been closed – by a lorry-load of burning cheese.

About 27 tonnes of caramelised brown goat cheese – a delicacy known as Brunost – caught light as it was being driven through the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord, northern Norway, last week.

The fire raged for five days and smouldering toxic gases were slowing the recovery operation, officials said.

The tunnel – which is said to be badly damaged – is likely to remain closed for several weeks, they added.

“We can’t go in until it’s safe,” geologist Viggo Aronsen told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Police officer Viggo Berg said the high concentration of fat and sugar in the cheese made it burn “almost like petrol if it gets hot enough”.

I understand that fondue pots were flown in from around the world to deal with the crisis.

Though, when you think about it, flaming goat cheese could be considered a weapon of mass destruction. We’d better get UN inspectors involved.

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Headline of the Day: “Sources: Cross-dressing meth priest liked sex in rectory”

Amazingly, this wasn’t in San Francisco:

The Catholic priest busted for allegedly dealing crystal meth was suspended after church officials discovered he was a cross-dresser who was having sex in the rectory at Bridgeport’s St. Augustine Cathedral.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin was relieved of his duties in May, but the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport had continued to pay him a stipend until his Jan. 3 arrest — a day he was planning to fly to London on vacation.

Now dubbed “Msgr. Meth” by some, Wallin seemed to live a life that easily could have been ripped from the script of “Breaking Bad,” the popular AMC series about a high school chemistry teacher turned crystal methamphetamine producer. At one point, Wallin was selling upwards of $9,000 of meth a week, according to his indictment.

I predict this winds up either as an episode of “Justified” or its own show on the FX Network next year.

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We put a lander on Titan in 2005?

This lifelong space-program geek is ashamed to say he missed that. You may be shocked, too, which can only mean this was a government conspiracy to conceal our reconnaissance of the secret alien base on Titan! When will the government come clean about the methane-breather threat!?!?!?

Sorry. Got a bit carried away. I’m better, now.

Still, enjoy this neat infographic page about Titan from Space.com, a sample of which tops this page. (“Nitrogen smog.” Probably would remind me of Los Angeles, circa 1978.)

And be sure to bookmark Space.com!

Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

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49ers: How sweet it is

Yeah, you can say I was cheering last night:

Just call it “Harbaugh’s vindication.” 🙂

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I do not celebrate Ray Lewis’ career

It’s not my style to praise thugs and possible murderers:

On the day Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis announced he would be retiring after this season, my thoughts drifted back to a bitterly cold winter day in a cemetery in Akron, Ohio.

That’s where Richard Lollar was buried and where his bespectacled grandmother, Joyce Lollar, showed me his grave more than a decade ago.

As I wrote then, she crunched through the snow with leafless trees etched against a gray Midwestern skyline. A frozen drizzle fell from above. With her shoe, she scraped the snow and the ice and the dirt from her grandson’s grave site and said a short prayer that ended with: “We miss you, Richard. We love you.”

(…)

Joyce raised Richard Lollar, who was left dead in the street in the early morning hours on Jan. 31, 2000, — a few hours after the Rams defeated the Titans in one of the most thrilling Super Bowls in history. And then came one of the most chilling post-Super Bowl scenes in history. A brawl outside the Cobalt Lounge, an upscale Atlanta nightclub, turned into gory spectacle of steely knives, mangled flesh and a river of blood. The 24-year-old Lollar and his 21-year-old boyhood buddy from Akron, Jacinth Baker, were both stabbed multiple times in the heart, the knives savagely twisted into their vital organs. The killers knew exactly what they were doing.

Lewis, his two good friends — Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting — and nine others sped away from the crime scene in a 40-foot Lincoln limousine. Lewis, Oakley and Sweeting were charged with the killings and cleared in a controversial court decision that still leaves many questions unanswered.

At the very least, Lewis knows what happened that night. Until he comes clean and owns up to his part, he can go to Hell.

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“A Seat By The Fire’s” 2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 5,800 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 10 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Anthony/Barliman adds:

I don’t post here nearly as often as I should; I spend most of my time writing about politics and other un-fun stuff elsewhere. This blog is for more fun stuff. One resolution for 2013 (among many sure to be broken) is to post here more often about writing, TV, and the weird, odd, and amusing** things one runs across in daily life.

That should make it all the way to January 2nd.

**(And I have to say that a post about marijuana and Jeff Spicoli being the most-hit post kind of amuses me.)

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Happy New Year!

I hope you had a helluva party last night and that you have a helluva good year to come. 😀

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