Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Hey Rick, its only the media's fault if "Media" is the pet name for your penis.

So Rick Pitino decided it would be a good idea to have a press conference to attack the dreaded "media" for reporting "lies" about him as stated by Karen Sypher. In the course of the press conference he whined about how unfair all of this was for his wife and said that breaking into normal programming to air excerpts of her interview with police was shameful on the day Ted Kennedy died.

It is becoming clear from Pitino's press conferences that Karen Sypher isn't the only one who has some psychological issues that need to be worked through. If you read between the lines at both of Pitino's press conferences, it is clear that he has zero clue why anyone in the community is disturbed by this. Let me lay it out for you Rick:

  1. You cheated on your wife. Yes, these things happen and it is really none of our business, but let's move on to the rest.
  2. You did it in a local restaurant after hours. Maybe this is something that happens every day in the fast-paced world of college coaches, but many of us here in Yokelville find it a bit seedy and a tad gross. You've got a lot of money, surely you could have ponied up for at least a Motel 6.
  3. You were drunk. No sin there, but the fact that you have an assistant there to help you find your way home indicates that maybe this isn't the first time you've been inebriated. Is that one of the "choices" that your book says you have to make to be a "success"?
  4. You did it while an assistant kicked back and waited. When you have a staff member who is willing to do this and doesn't find it the least bit odd, that would sort of indicate that this thing has happened before and that it was probably common knowledge among your staff. Again, this is something many of us in Yokelville have trouble relating to.
  5. Sypher was the wife of a staff member who apparently knew all about your trysts. Can you see how we might find that one a bit troubling as well?
  6. You gave her $3,000 for "health insurance" and/or an abortion. Abortions aren't exactly smiled upon in this part of the world and the fact you didn't have an issue with it kind of shoots what little remaining shred of that "Devout Catholic" thing you had going for you all to hell.
  7. You fired Winston Bennett from your staff saying, "Winston is a tremendous young man, but he just has one terrible weakness. He’s a womanizer. And we’re trying to help him with that problem, to keep his family together and to turn his life in the right direction." Pot, meet kettle.
  8. You have preached all about the "character" of your young men on your team. I'm guessing that these same men got to witness or at least hear about your behavior a time or two.
  9. You have portrayed yourself as a model of "success", writing books and giving speeches. Can you understand why both of these things seem suspect in light of your character during this incident?
  10. Finally, in your apology, you evoked 9/11. Yes, Rick, we understand that you lost your best friend in 9/11 and like anyone else who lost friends and loved ones that day, it must have been terrible. But can you understand why evoking it when you're apologizing about an affair might seem odd to those of us in Yokelville considering the person you lost was THE BROTHER OF THE WIFE YOU CHEATED ON!?!?!?!?! If you're worried about your wife's feelings, why bring this up at all?
Rick, we understand your wife and family don't deserve this. But YOU need to understand that the reason they're facing this is YOU. No, you didn't ask Karen Sypher to blackmail you or lie about you, but you are the one who cheated on your wife. You are the one who did it in an incredibly unseemly fashion. You brought shame on yourself, your family, and your employer. Be glad that you still have your job and your family to fall back on. Let Karen Sypher continue to dig her hole and keep your mouth shut. That is the only choice that will be a success for you in this matter.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Who would have thought it would be hard to get info from the Louisville Free Public Library.

If I had to pick one resource in Jefferson County/Louisville that I could NOT live without, it would be the public library. Since moving to Jefferson County I'd estimate that I've checked out at least a 1000 or more books from the library for the family, including dozens for my daughter, an avid reader.

Because of this, the news of the library flooding during our heavy downpours in Louisville two weeks ago had me feeling pretty blue. I was angry that the library put all of these things where a flood could damage them, but realized that this was such a freak accident that the library probably assumed they were safe.

That said, I am worried at what appears to be some real issues with disaster planning at the library. From what I've been able to gather from the kind people at my local branch, the following issues exist:

  • There is no/limited ability to access member accounts. My library indicated they were using every available space to store returned books because they couldn't check them back in.
  • Account backups were done once a month. WHile I'm not sure if this is accurate, if it is, it means that a month or more of account info about every patron could be completely wrong. Books that should be checked in could be listed as out, those that are out could be listed as having been returned, etc.
  • Library workers have been told NOTHING. They are frustrated at the lack of information.
  • There appears to be a huge looming problem for the library once they get back online of not having anywhere near an accurate accounting of what is out and what has been returned, nor what people owe. This could result in hours and hours of work to fix the issues manually, lost fines, customers being overcharged, and worst of all, more lost books for the LFPL.
  • Disaster planning for returning operations to normal seems to be lacking. Perhaps there were redundancies built into LFPL's systems in case of catastrophic failure, but it seems as though if there were, they would be up by now.
As a taxpayer and library lover, I think that once this is over, the public deserves a full accounting of what went wrong and why. It also deserves to know what steps are being taken (or are recommended) from preventing or minimizing the effects of such a disaster in the future.

I wish the library and its workers the best of luck in dealing with this mess. Mostly I want everything back up for my own selfish needs.