The latest from Scott Turner, Rocky Sullivan's quiz man and weekly OTBKB contributor.

Greetings, Pub Quiz Puzzlistas…

There's a lot going on, globally and locally.  David Carradine continues to be the tawdriest celebrity death since Bob Crane…the Brazilian navy is finding, then isn't finding, then is finding debris and people from the Air France crash…the Mets continue to suffer the ill-effects of wearing the color black and playing in a stadium that is everything but a baseball stadium…the final three episodes of Pushing Daisies are finally being aired — wonderful for new adventures of the Pie Maker and Dead Girl, sad that the show continues to be cancelled…and the great new Green Day album, 21st Century Breakdown.

this little corner of News of the Day…

Oh, and the Atlantic Yards project just keeps on sinking to new depths none of us could have imagined.  It's not finished — as one wag described it, Bruce Ratner is a zombie who doesn't know he's dead.  If you want more info, see below.

This week, feast your eyes and shortly thereafter your minds on these five items:

1) The Most Unsettling Cassette Tape Ever Released:

I have this cassette in my possession, and will be making the Grand Prize of a special flash-answer Quiz Mail contest in the next few weeks.  In the meantime, mull over the cascade of bewilderments:

• that's Lou Reed?!
• why does an Italian record label have a nondescript shamrock for its logo?
• is Tutto Tutto Tutto ("All All All") the best translation of "greatest hits"?
• Who is the mysterious "David" who seems to have owned this stunning edition?
• no…really…that's frakkin' Lou Reed?!!!

2) One of the best new blogsites in the Internet tubes is Puzzling New York.  The brainchild of Morgan Doninger, PNY is a Gotham-centric blast of quizzes, puzzles, riddles and brain-twisters geared toward Sporclists who want to dive deeper than listing the titles of every Julia Roberts movie.

Morgan's PNY picks up on an obvious construct — New York City
is so interesting, historical, nomenclatural and multi-layered that
it's the perfect endless font of fun facts and challenging
confoundments.  There are already five puzzles up, and more to come.

To this end, Rocky Sullivan's Pub Quiz is honored to have Morgan as this Thursday's Extra Special Guest Quizmaster. 
In this order, visit Puzzling New York and, on Thursday, come to
Rocky's to see the man, the puzzlarian, the legend in person — Morgan
Doninger.

3) Paul Lukas' and Kirsten Hively's wonderful research-project-cum-mystery-story-cum-museum-installation on the evasive, ghostly Candela Structures, the 1964 World's Fair's oddest remnants, is a must-see at The City Reliquary in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

It's
one of those moments where the journey became the story.  In this case,
Paul and Kirsten's tireless pursuit of a simple quest — who designed
these little structures at the edge of the Flushing Marina.  The quest turned quixotic before finally striking paydirt at the elevenest of all hours.

The Candela Structures exhibit runs through June 28th.  Catch it while you can.

4) It's not every day that Rocky Sullivan's has a retired U.S. Army general come to speak about the Bush Administration's policies on torture — never mind comparing those abhorrent practices to the British government's disgraceful tactics against Irish republicans during the 30 years of war in the north of Ireland.

It's not every day, but it's one day — this Wednesday, June 10th.  The O'Donovan Rossa Society, which meets every second Wednesday of the month, presents Brigadier General (Ret.) James Cullen, speaking on State Terrorism, From Torture to Murder from Abu Ghraib to Castlereagh.   The talk begins at 7:30, free admission, and all are welcome and encouraged to attend.  Here's the press-release:

Brigadier General Ret. Cullen will discuss
lessons learned from the torture/enhanced
interrogation methods used in Iraq
and Guantánamo under the Bush Administration. He will draw parallels with the
experience of Iraqi detainees under Cheney/Rumsfeld policies and interrogation
methods used during the height of the recent conflict in Northern Ireland,
drawing out the lessons learned from the murder of Irish Human Rights Lawyer’s
Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson, both of whom died at the hands of state
sponsored death squads.

 

James Cullen was part of a group of retired Generals
and Admirals who lobbied all of the candidates during the 2008 Presidential
elections to put a halt to the use of torture in Iraq,
Afghanistan
and at Guantánamo. He was an invited guest in the Oval Office of the White
House when President Obama signed the executive orders to stop the use of
torture in January 2009. James P Cullen is a retired Brigadier General in the
United States Army Judge Advocate General's Corp, and last served as the Chief Judge
of the U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals. He has also served as
Secretary/Treasurer of the New York Construction Industry Disaster Relief Fund.
In 1980, Mr. Cullen became the founding president of the Brehon Law Society,
working closely with the late Paul O'Dwyer and other civil rights attorneys on
cases related to the conflict in Northern Ireland. He currently
heads the real estate and construction department of Anderson Kill and Olick,
and was the subject of a recent New York Times feature by Jim Dwyer on
January 29, 2009, entitled, “An Honor Guard Comes Out for Obama’s Ban on
Torture”.

5) Last, but certainly not least, a  message from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn:

Atlantic Yards is not dead, which is why we are holding Tuesday's meeting.

It's
Crunch Time: The coming months of 2009 will be the most critical time
in the nearly 6-year old fight against Atlantic Yards. The approval
process will be re-opened, the political environment will change, and
the clock will continue ticking on the developer's plans.

It's
time for all hands on deck so we can all succeed in defeating Atlantic
Yards and moving forward with responsible, community-based development
over the Vanderbilt Rail Yards.

DDDB Community Meeting with Updates on the Fight and Planning for Action:
Status Report, Planning, Q&A and Discussion

June 9. 7pm.
Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church
85 South Oxford Street
Fort Greene

With:
Councilmember Letitia James
DDDB Board Member and Pratt Professor Ron Shiffman
DDDB Co-founder Daniel Goldstein
and invited guests

We look forward to seeing you there.