The Leopard's Limb 07/26/11

Good AM to all. News notes:

Gun control
This was exercised by a Days Inn employee yesterday in Orangeburg, SC. An unnamed woman in her 50's, described as small in the news report, was attacked by a large, knife-wielding career criminal about 6AM. He held a knife to her throat, then set it down so he could tie her up, with sexual assault his objective. He was inattentive enough to miss her producing a handgun. It was a fatal oversight.

Richland County sheriff Leon Lott said about the incident,

“She did the correct thing — she protected herself. The lesson for robbers is, you never know when you are going to encounter someone who is armed and will protect themselves. The bottom line — he is the one who caused him to get killed."

“She did the correct thing — she protected herself.”
“The lesson for robbers is, you never know when you are going to encounter someone who is armed and will protect themselves,” Lott said.
Lott declined to give some details, such as the kind of gun the woman had and where she had it concealed.
“The bottom line — he is the one who caused him to get killed,” Lott said.
http://www.thestate.com/2011/07/25/1910809/hotel-clerk-kills-robber.html#ixzz1TD9ezvvm

A tasteful remembrance
Fans and well-wishers have been leaving tokens of their emotions outside the late Amy Winehouse's residence. According to an NPR report this AM, in addition to the usual flowers and cards, some folks are leaving cigarettes and (no doubt empty) liquor bottles. Nice.

Same old news
Some news is necessarily repetitious. The budget debate has been ongoing for an irresponsibly long time, thus it has been in the news for a long time. What is unnecessarily repetitious is the verbiage from news readers and news commentators. I have cited other examples in previous gripes ("in the tank for" being an example). The budget issue has spawned another tiresome verbal convenience, "kick the can down the road," referring to proposals for a temporary debt limit increase. Surely there is some other, if less jazzy, formulation that these copycats could employ.

Oops, just heard two NPR correspondents use the word "narrative" in referring to controversy and discussion after a Chinese train derailment. And we blame teens for corrupting the language.