Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Caption Contest #1, and Links


If that's not enough inspiration for you on a grey Tuesday which feels like a Monday, see the already inimitable Len Boselovic.

Don't you people want to comment any further on my sewers post?

If you wish to learn more about the responses and what is driving the continued debate over Clint Eastwood's RNC speech ("got together a group of deeply disaffected voters"), you can read the always surprising La Times.

If you'd rather learn about Romney's post-convention bounce, what it means for key states and who is looking more likely to win, see everybody's favorite FiveThirtyEight.

If you missed the latest in the riverfront / URA / Buncher saga, see the new boss, Jeremy Boren.

Photo credit - Roxanne Tuinstra

17 comments:

  1. I am really sorry to have to ask, but who are those people? Seriously.

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  2. The one on the left is City Controller Michael Lamb. The one on the right is an official with the Service Employees union, I can't recall his name at the present time.

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  3. I can't find the PGA handicapping website that Len referenced. What's Corey's number?

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  4. Here's the website: http://www.ghin.com/lookup.aspx I can't find a Corey O'Connor or anyone else offhand.

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  5. Vannevar - A wittier answer might have been, "Exactly."

    It's a little tricky finding decent footage of Lamb in action. Here is a clip from a forum in March of '11. As a bonus it was moderated by Jeanne Clark. His audio quality is much better than hers.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUjLFBYMOrU

    States that he believes many employees are ready to accept setting higher retirement ages and higher contributions to their defined benefit plans.

    Describes many proposed solutions to major problems seeming either to be "right wing privatization schemes" or "worried too much about what the pinstripe patronage is getting, rather than what the taxpayers of this City are getting."

    Touted Open Book Pittsburgh, which I've never much used or noticed (for a while it hadn't seemed to be very current) but it might soon see its day in the sun.

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  6. Sorry, but I don't really see anything interesting about the photo. A potential mayoral candidate talking with a union representative at the Labor Day parade. So what's your point?

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  7. My point is that there is an election on the horizon and labor is probably especially involved in making judgments about who is a "potential" candidate, as you say, and who might be real ones.

    It's only interesting because of all the funny captions that just keep rolling in here.

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  8. "Is that a campaign contribution in your pocket, or are you just happy to be seen with me?"

    You mean like that? Or how about,

    "Like a Lamb to the slaughter, Democratic apparatchik and perennial candidate mulls entering crowded field in hope of unseating 32-year-old blockbuster-movie-extra divorced father of one and former youngest big city mayor with a sub-7 golf handicap."

    Or maybe

    "Hee, hee. You said 'Peduto'... which I'm very disappointed to hear."

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  9. "The higher you lift your shirt, the more beads you get."

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  10. apparatchik and prolitariat!!

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  11. "I got the necktie from PennDOT."

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  12. Caption attempt #1

    Bedecked, But Bedazzling? Can Lamb still appeal to Labor despite his calls for employee concessions to compensate for fanciful pension return rate projections?

    http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/opinion/perspectives/its-time-to-fix-city-pensions-318838/

    http://wesa.fm/2012/08/24/city-pension-board-keeps-assume-rate-return-8

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  13. I am barely a casual observer, but Lamb today practically reeks of confidence and experience compared to his younger self.

    Long ago he once tried to skeedaddle in my church parking lot when I approached to shake his hand and wish him well in his campaign. Granted he did not leap over cars to get away from me and I was younger and faster then, but he seemed so stunned that someone even recognized him in my neighborhood.

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  14. Is it possible you've just gotten less scary over the years?

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  15. I'm telling you, people know that Lamb is an Irish name and will vote for me.

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  16. I'm half Irish and half Italian so I don't know how I'll vote.

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  17. Bram, yes, yes, I know, I can hear your secret thoughts about my caption now:

    tl;dr

    ;)

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