LSJ Blogs: John Schneider

Texting ban is a half-baked cop-out

The state’s new ban on texting while driving — the one Gov. Granholm so ostentatiously signed into law Friday on the Oprah Winfrey show — is nothing but a cop-out.

Stop the cover-up, Sen. Levin

On TV,  Sen. Carl Levin, leading the Senate investigation into the Goldman Sachs financial scandal, is posing his penetrating questions, and I’m thinking …
Somebody near and dear to the senator should take him aside and say, “Carl, buddy … that comb-over … ?  It’s just not working for you. Nobody really thinks hair is growing on top of your head.   Do yourself a favor, and let it go.”

Green glass, anybody?

Yes, my household occasionally manages to empty a green bottle. OK, we drain them like teats at a dairy farm. As fairly diligent recyclers, it pains us to throw those bottles in the trash.
Any suggestions? And, no, giving up wine is not on the table.

‘FIEGER … If It Comes To That’

In 1998, when Geoffrey Fieger last aspired to become governor, East Lansing’s deepest died-in-the-wool Democrat, Mark Grebner, passed out bumper stickers that said, “Fieger, I suppose.”

Obviously Grebner had to hold his nose to offer even that tepid endorsement of his party’s candidate.
This week Fieger is staging a one-man play called, “I’m not really going to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, but I haven’t gotten much media attention lately, and I’m feeling neglected.”
But, just in case, Grebner says he has a pile of “Fieger, I suppose” stickers all ready to go.
When you peel off the backing, he added, they’re good for removing cat hair from sweaters.

Smile! You’re on Facebook

Remember when snapshots taken at, say, house parties only got passed around to a handful of interested people?
And, if, say, you were feeling a little, uh … expansive … when the shot was taken, it was no big deal, because only a few people would see it anyway …?

Don’t blame the pothole

I think it’s safe to say that any driver who has ever blown a tire, or bent a rim, or lost a muffler in a pothole, feels like a victim. Not John Ruge.

How, exactly, does the Twitter drum beat work?

I’d love to think all you peeps are regular readers of my blog, but I realize that’s unlikely. Obviously the electronic-smoke-signal system was in operation on my City Market blog.

Can the City Market get its vital juices flowing?

I stopped in at the new Lansing City Market on a recent afternoon, and found the place to be withering on the vine.
Maybe it was just a bad day.

What’s next at Troppo — drop cloths under the chairs?

I had a fine salmon dinner at Troppo, in downtown Lansing, Tuesday night. With drinks and tip, the bill came to 90 bucks for my wife and me.
The food was good, as was the service — in most respects.

It would be like a mortgage on a credit card balance

Thanks to the new credit  card law, the VISA statement I received this week informed me of how long it would take me, making the minimum monthly payment, to pay off my $3,200 balance.
The answer: 18 years.