Contracts for City towing services used to be bid out competitively, with the City divided into districts and the bids let out accordingly. From a lifelong experience around the process of competitive bids (father and brother were contractors), I have known it to consist of several steps. 1) Specifications, blueprint, etc., for the project or service are issued; 2) A date and time by which bids must be submitted are set; 3) Bidders usually are required to have insurance and performance…

   Sheila Kennedy, a friend of The Show and one of the best bloggers in Indianapolis, had an interesting blog yesterday about Margaret Doughty, a woman who has lived in the United States for 30 years and recently applied for citizenship. When asked what apparently is a "standard" question on her application for citizenship, about whether she would take up arms to defend the country, Doughty answered:

  "I am sure the law would never require a 64-year-old woman like myself to bear…

   Once information is in the system, it is gone.

   The shocking news yesterday was that someone or some country had hacked into the computer syste4ms and taken designs of the latest spiffy fighter developed by the United States, the F-35. (ABC News.) Why anyone in the military would place design plans for anything of a classified nature on computers accessible by the internet gives one an indication of military intelligence. I knew a computer sciences guy at Purdue who, in 1985,…

   "100% Reimbursement for your trade ... Any customer trading in a 2002-2012 model will receive 100% of the factory full base model MSRP when new." [FN1]

   The 8 1/2" x 14" envelope had required no signature. The postal carrier had folded it and pushed it through the slot of the front door. I saw it on the rug when I got home. The word "URGENT"---yes, in caps---appeared three times on the front of the envelope, although the letters were slightly smaller on one "urgent." There was no…

   John Sandford is the pen name of a St. Paul-Minneapolis journalist who writes novels. Most of the novels he has written have been in the "Prey" series. Perhaps John D. MacDonald started this method of titles/series with his Travis McGee novels. Each book included, in its title, a color. The series was about a self-described "marine salvage" expert who, in return for half the money a person lost to a con artist or thief, retrieve the monies lost. MacDonald started the McGee series in the…

   On Saturday, June 22, from 11 am to 1 pm we shall stream live from the Road Dog Saloon, 4861 Southeastern Avenue. Road Dog is one of the Indianapolis bars that has been hit hard by the ill-conceived smoking ban enacted last year that took effect June 1, 2013.

   Also, Happy Nomad Girl will be in town. Usually she has phoned into The Show from wherever she happens to be. This weekend we shall have a chance to meet her, talk with her in person, and get a look at the van in which she…

   Every Thursday, we do a 20-minute or so bit with Gary Snyder on his "The Gary Snyder Show."

   Gary Snyder started the "Indiana Talks" internet network of Indiana-based talk "radio"---although few are terrestrial radio---shows at the start of the year. The network is carried on Live365 under "talk," and also at several places on the internet. Since sources for local news coverage have expired with great frequency in recent years, thanks in large part to the internet, it only seems…

   Join us from 11 am to 1 pm on Saturday, June 15, as guest panelists Clarke Kahlo and Dan Sockrider discuss plans for development in Broad Ripple---and other matters of local, state, national, and international importance.

   When I lived in Chicago, just off Fullerton and Clark on Arlington Place, no one I knew who lived in the neighborhood owned a car. If one owned a car, there was the problem of where to park. To park on the street was a crap shoot as (1) spaces were rare and (2) if one left anything of value in plain view---a paperback book on a front seat, for example, there was the risk a wino would smash in a window to sell the paperback for a quarter. (Such is the price one pays for existence within a…

   Last weekend was DePauw University's alumni weekend. Because I was on a special five-year program for my degree at DePauw, I have two "reunion" years---anniversaries of graduations divisible by the number five.

   Putnam County, in which Greencastle and DePauw are located banned smoking in 2007 in public places. I spoke with a lot of people about the Indianapolis ban and the litigation over it. I was (pleasantly) surprised by the reaction of the alums with whom I spoke. Generally,…

   On June 13 an important decision will be made in regard to the edifice proposed to be erected on North College in Broad Ripple where now reposes the old Minton Shell station.

   First, I would like to address media coverage of the May 23 meeting the Broad Ripple Village Association held to let the public know about the plans afoot for development. I previously commented about coverage that seemed to avoid the absolutely worst comment of the evening. A lawyer for Feagre Bakers and…

   On Saturday, June 8, we will stream live from downtown. Since we go on at 11 a.m., the Gay Pride Parade will be over by the time the podcast starts. However, "Civil Discourse Now" will be downtown where people will mill about after the parade.

   Perhaps Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey will blow an opportunity to (1) gain political good will by (2) doing the "good thing" when he names a temporary replacement for the late United States Senator Frank Lautenberg. Lautenberg not only was a "liberal," but was "very liberal." He still was to the right of me on most positions, but he was elected by the people of New Jersey. In other words, the majority of registered voters who voted in the election in which Lautenberg won voted for…

   A few weeks ago I responded to an ad in the Broad Ripple Gazette in which volunteers were sought to help determine the direction that should be taken in regard to a system of residential parking permits in Broad Ripple. That such a program was under consideration was news to me. I e-mailed the Broad Ripple Village Association and signed up. I was sent an invitation to the committee meeting and a confirmation e-mail.

   Last Thursday, May 30, about a half dozen folks showed up for…

   As I have posted this week a couple of times, The Show today will focus on Belle Gunness. Belle was one of those Hoosier "success" stories that did not quite make it to the commercials they ran during timeouts of IU and Purdue basketball games in the 1980s. Belle croaked quite a few people, and was unique amongst serial killers who have been caught or otherwise identified. She did not have a "type" or category of people whom she targeted. Ted Bundy killed women with medium-length brown…

   Hoosiers are sensitive to other States laying claim to famous people born in Indiana. That always seemed to rook Indiana. Benjamin Harrison was born in Ohio, but made his political fame from Indiana. He was elected to the United States Senate, then served one term as President, sandwiched between the two terms of Grover Cleveland. His grandfather William Henry Harrison's month in office as President still holds the record for brevity and stands as a lesson to all those who would bore the…

   At last Thursday's Broad Ripple Village Association (BRVA) meeting, at which the proposed development on North College Avenue was the scheduled topic, several people on behalf of BRVA gave presentations. Elizabeth Marshall, a BRVA member apparently involved in plans related to TIF monies, advised that TIF would not be a topic for discussion, but would be a subject of future discussions and there would be opportunities to weigh in on the TIF then. (At least that is what the minutes of the…

   In an episode of "M*A*S*H," Hawkeye is court-martialed for assault of a superior officer (Frank Burns, of course) while they were in the operating theatre. After Major Burns delivers, to the general officer, his version of what occurred, Hawkeye says something to the effect of: "I agree with Major Burns. We were in Korea. And we are in the Army. However, the rest of it..." Needless to say, the rest of what Major Burns had said was no accurate.

   Broad Ripple Village Association…

   The ONLY item on the agenda for tonight's meeting of the BRVA Land Use Development Committee, at 6 p.m. at the former Broad Ripple Library, at the entrance to Broad Ripple Park, is a vote on whether to recommend the development. This is kind of a surprise and probably something worth attending, particularly for those who oppose Whole Foods's invasion of the Village.  

   A few weeks ago I spotted "The Broad Ripple Gazette" at Kroger's in Broad Ripple. A photo of the Rainbow Bridge, then under repairs, was on the front page. I grabbed a copy to see the projected date of completion. I understand construction projects take time to complete, but I was anxious to know as this project caused me to detour on my ways to and from work. Unfortunately, there was no such information. There was a statement that announcements of current events was on the back page, so…