The various

Common nonsense

Based on early reports, it seems that one easy way to violate probation is to be issued a faulty ankle bracelet. More on this later, but for now, a probationer friend whose ankle bracelet alarm went off while he was riding the bus to work yesterday is sitting in jail on $15,000 bond. The prison industrial complex is a hungry beast and many are the traps it lays to stock its larder.

12/29 update: Notwithstanding the beast, the traps and the larder, which are quite real, my probationer friend was at fault, not his ankle bracelet. The rules are simple and he broke two of them. Argh.

Slow reveal

Some in the UFO research community believe that last week’s bombshell admission by the Pentagon that it spent $22 million studying unidentified aerial phenomena during the period 2007-2012 is but the first in a series of planned mini-disclosures being orchestrated by To the Stars Academy of Arts & Science founder (and former Blink-182 band member) Tom DeLonge. According to this theory, the next volley will be fired just as echoes of the first one begin to die out. Which they have not yet done.

Cat culture

Greenville now has a bonafide cat cafe, emphasis on the “cat,” and a more or less cat-themed restaurant. These are, respectively, The Organic Cat Cafe and Biscuit Head. I didn’t noticed the latter’s theme until I was stepping away from the counter and the lady at the register said, “Don’t forget your cat!” She gestured to my order number card, shown here, clipped to the little stand. Looking up from the cat photo on the back of the card, I saw cat stuff everywhere … a giant cat’s paw mural on one wall, a chalk cat face drawing on the wall opposite … and of course the restaurant’s signature “cathead biscuit.” I haven’t been to the cafe yet, because I’m still working through feelings of disloyalty, as any married man might when contemplating a trip to the new strip club in town.