8 Ways to Sunday

Google has thrown their hat into the online map ring. It makes a surprisingly good combination, allowing you to type in searches like “malls in Wichita, KS” or “pizzerias near LAX” and get meaningful results.

Some results are still pretty random. I changed one of the links above — which used to be for “gas in ponca city, ok” — when I realized that what it had found was a bunch of oil and natural gas companies. Changing it to “gas stations in ponca city, ok” suddenly “narrowed” the map down to the entire north-central Oklahoma area, which apparently only has ten gas stations to its name. It’s a promising start, however, and I’ll be interested to see where Google takes this.

(Props: Stopdesign’s linklog)

The concerned citizens of Salem, SD have banded together to combat sinful nakedness and Communist smoothies:

SALEM, South Dakota (AP) — The mix of nude dancers, orange juice and black-and-white independent films wasn’t in Bob Rieger’s original business plan.

But it has helped his Racehorses Gentlemen’s Club survive amid the cornfields of McCook County and fend off a two-year barrage of challenges from politicians and outraged members of Citizens Against Nude Juicebars and Pornography.

“I’ve been to court with them four times, and I beat them every time,” Rieger says.

When the county denied Rieger a liquor license for a bar, he opened a strip club with a juice bar in 2003. When it served a stop order saying a commercial business could not operate in area zoned for agriculture, Rieger went to court and won.

And when 74 percent of the county’s voters passed an anti-nudity ordinance in June, Rieger found a loophole that exempted movie theaters. After a two-week hiatus, the club re-emerged as Racehorses Gentlemen’s Club and Adult Movie Theatre and has been operating ever since.

I would add some kind of pithy comment here, but right now I’m almost laughing too hard to type.

(Props: Donna, Obsessed Collector and eBay Fanatic)

Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.

With the white-hot intensity of a thousand burning suns.

I’m seriously considering ditching my plan to save up enough for a down-payment on a decent vehicle, and just shelling out $1,000 or so now for a shitbox that’ll take me back and forth around town.

“No,” I tell myself. “That will only cost more in the long run.”

Fuck.