38 Studios Post-mortem

Boston Magazine had a sobering article about 38 Studio, the video game company started by Curt Schilling, the baseball player.  In a nutshell, the never-say-die, positive thinking which served him so well in sports doomed his company.

I passed the link to the prof who teaches the entrepreneurship course.  It might be required reading for sports stars.

The point is made that fame and expertise in one field does not presage business ability.  The article made clear that those in the trenches didn't now how dire things were until checks started bouncing.  In one of the tougher ramifications, one employee found himself with two mortgages, a pregnant wife, and no income.  (He was hired with the understanding that a firm hired by 38 Studios would arrange for the sale of his house.  When 38 Studios stopped paying the firm, the mortgage then became the employee's responsibility.)
All very sad.
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/2012/07/38-studios-end-game/

A Body at Rest Stays at Rest

Woman charged with cashing mummified friend's checks

In brief (http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/07/26/12970220-woman-charged-with-cashing-mummified-friends-checks?lite):

A 72-year-old Michigan woman [ Linda Lou Chase] who authorities say kept the body of her longtime companion [Charles Zigler] in her house for more than 18 months after he died is being charged with cashing more than $28,000 worth of his benefit checks

 Now the really interesting thing about the case is that she didn't do anything other than cover the body.  Cashing the checks was illegal, but:

Most of Michigan’s current laws concerning bodies deal with inappropriate disposition by a licensed mortician or removal to interfere with a criminal investigation.
“She literally did not move the body – so moving a body before the medical examiner could examine it doesn’t apply,” [chief assistant prosecutor] Blumer said.

A mental competency exam is scheduled.

50 Shades of Grey Reviews

Gotta love the comments.  "50 Shades of Grey", the current erotic bodice ripper favorite, has terrific comments on Amazon:

Identifying himself as "a male senior citizen, a semi-retired gynecologist whose customary literary fare is spy novels and military techno-thrillers", david shobin/thatch pond corp wrote, "At my age, my arthritis flared up just reading about Ana's sexual gymnastics. And for some reason, I kept thinking about her contracting genital warts."

"DS from LA" used the Kindle search function, to tabulate the repetitive physical references to eyes rolling (41), lip biting (35), lips "quirking up" (16 and, no I don't know what it means either), "cocks his head to one side" (17), etc.

 edenae  pointed out that when " characters speak to each other they have to remind themselves who they are talking to 'Hello Mrs. Steele', 'How was your day Mr. Grey', 'It was fine Anastasia', 'Oh good, mine was great Christian.'"

 Elly Abs had some quibbles: "EL James has very limited vocabulary and frankly if a man screamed my name every time he reached climax i would have to slap him into next Tuesday."

 DocKaren "dockaren" : "The best thing to come of this book are the multiple cleverly written reviews posted here that describe how repellant this book is much more eloquently than I could ever hope to."

I Flunk Celebrity Trivia - Again

There was an article about Lindsay Lohan getting a new half-sibling because her father's girl friend, Kate Major was pregnant.  Who is Kate Major?

You may know who Ms Major is, but I'm clueless. Celebrity magazines at the supermarket trace the amorous exploits of bold faced names I don't recognize.  It doesn't make a real difference, but I usually feel that there are two stories: the one which is written and the one about the implications of the story.

For example, the latest biggest Hollywood bust up between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes has fascinating legal plotting behind it.  Ms Holmes ability to get sole custody of the child will have matrimonial lawyers doubler checking the custody arrangement clauses in their prenups.

Anyway, about Ms Major: a web search found this mug shot (http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/gallery/kate-major-mugshot/):

Kate Major's mugshot from early 2012. Not to be confused with her other recent efforts.

It made me wonder if fans argue about which mugshot made the object of their obsession look the most or least wasted.  "Oh yeah, the DWI mug shot in Santa Monica was so much better than the DUI in Maryland."

It reminded me of an article in the local college paper from a student who stated that the best way for her to control her drinking was to think of her mother's reaction to her mug shot.

Morse: Before

Yesterday, Sunday July 1^st, marked the first American appearance of Endeavour the prequel to the popular Inspector Morse series. The episode had a well turned praise which started as an insult: One of the secondary characters says to Morse, "Poor old Morse. You were never Oxford material. Too bloody decent by half." (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/endeavour-morse)

A thought about forensics occurred to me.  A death appears to be a suicide because of the powder marks on the skull, but nothing was said about gunshot residues on the deceased hand.  Is this classic misdirection?