Comments by djdiablo
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Posted on April 13 at 4:13 p.m.
Once again...7 to 9 commissioners from districts around Emporia...the Commission should reflect the needs of the entire community, east, north, and "the other side of the tracks," not just one or two "exclusive" neighborhoods. Demand it. Make it happen.
S. C. DIXON
On Thanks
Posted on April 13 at 4:10 p.m.
I saw one of these Saturday night, check it out...
http://www.greensmoke.com/1000.html
It packs a nicotine whallop, "hits" like a cigarette, glows at the end, releases vapor instead of smoke, is perfectly legal to use in any non smoking area because it has no fire, no tobacco, and no smoke, yet the smoker gets the nicotine. The nicotine cartridges come in several strengths...They are expensive to buy, but after the initial purchase are cheaper than cigs. The "tobacco" flavor didn't quite make it, they also offer foo-foo flavors. By the way, no smell whatsoever. The fellow who had it said so far, so good...he bought it on the internet.
Posted on April 9 at 12:23 p.m.
I've said it before, here it is again...Emporia has numerous laws that are never enforced, so even if the ban passes I doubt enforcement---or for that matter, compliance--- is going to be an issue.
There is a law prohibiting really loud music from cars, but it’s not enforced. It never has been.There is a law against littering, never enforced; I don't recall EVER seeing a littering ticket listed in he local paper.
Jay-walking is illegal and has been for years, burning rubber, running red lights, speeding, making “J” turns, drinking in public, graffiti, etc.
Remember after we were forced to build a skateboard park the then-acting chief of police saying that from that point on there would be zero tolerance for skateboarding on the sidewalks downtown? Yeah. Right. The only problem a skate boarder is going to have is dodging the bike riders...(also illegal).
The irony is that other cities are proving that ticketing violators existing laws, without using any Gestapo tactics, are a cash cow for revenue. But in Emporia and Lyon County its just easier to raise property and sales tax.
Posted on April 6 at 4:24 p.m.
Honestly, though, I think it would be a valid story discussing what this whole issue has costs the two leading organizations...if nothing else, it would put to bed the ludicrous innuendo that EOB had "big tobacco" money behind it. Instead I would like to know just where the truly big money spent in the seemingly endless ads and publicity for CAE came from. Those are some d-e-e-e-p pockets, friends...my bet is that they've spent more than many (most?) local political campaigns.
Posted on April 6 at 3:41 p.m.
To the folks of CAE, words of wisdom by Fredrich Nietzsche....
"The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments..."
Posted on April 5 at 11:21 a.m.
In all fairness I'm not down there all the time either, but so far I have not seen them, nor has anyone, friends or staff, told me that anyone from CAE had been in, and I'm sure that they would have let me know had it been the case.
My band played Friday and we (finally) had an impressive crowd, but I personally did not see anyone from CAE.
When all this came up, I heard from a lot of people, in fact including family members, who assured me that they would be regular fixtures if we would go smoke free. The sad truth is it ain’t been a happenin’ thang, folks…
(Several cliché’s spring immediately to mind: conspicuous in their absence, staying away in droves, etc.)
I have been more inspired by our smokers, some new faces and a very few of our old crowd who have returned to the fold, who step up to the plate and admit that they don’t mind popping outside for a smoke, in fact some have actually said that they prefer it. Of course we’re lucky enough to have had the space to build a covered designated smoking area while other venues, like the Town Royal don’t have that option, which hardly seems fair.
But in our case, however we look at it, it still boils down to “choice,” which I believe is a wonderful thing. Good bad or indifferent, WE made the decision and if it succeeds we will take the credit, if it fails we will take the blame. CAE had nothing to do with it, which, in a democratic republic, is how it should be.
Vote “NO” on Tuesday.
S. C. Dixon
Posted on April 4 at 3:01 p.m.
I was surprised to see this printed, I wrote it almost a month ago. Nothing wrong with that, and it seems a bit of it was excised in the web version, possibly accidentally, but its fine and I stand behind every word of it.
I hope that everyone clearly understands my reasons for writing it…this has become a personal issue for many, many people. In three decades of running a business here I cannot remember such a contentious topic, from both sides.
At the time I wrote this article I was nonplussed at the reaction that we were getting from close friends and former regulars that we had somehow, strangely, “sold out.”
Making a decision to run one’s own company as one thinks best suits it is not “selling out.” It is, rather, making a commitment to do the right thing, the American thing, as we see it, and to follow through with steadfastness. Some of our regulars have not come back. So be it. That is their choice in this nation that, hitherto at least, allows free decision(s).
The important thing, as stated, is that the thief-in-the-night approach of the original ordinance, the instructions to the commission by an arbitrary group to pass it, pass it fast, and pass it without abridgement, was shameful, pure and simple.
This issue should actually of course be decided by the actual business owner, but the next best thing and---with this scenario the only fair thing---is to let the people speak. Do so. Tuesday. Those of you who are fortunate enough to be “allowed” to vote, make do excuses, do it.
It is sad that so many people have become so emotional about a business issue…from the owners side I can empathize perfectly, it is they who have invested their own sweat and money and who have fought intervention every step of the way.
As for myself, I'm done with it. I am not allowed to vote in the election because of where I live, although I recently had to get a city permit to re-roof my house, I pay taxes in the city, I own two businesses in the city, the powers-that-be have judged I am not qualified to express my opinion via the ballot. I have tried to speak fairly and honestly for some of you. Return the favor by voting.
This little battle has cost a lot of us dearly…friends, treasure, faith in the future of their community. After over 30 years of creating memories for Emporian’s, my photography studio is suffering because people cannot separate my passion of my politics from my skill as a portrait artist. Alright. As crusaders that was the choice we made. So be it.
But we have achieved what I and many others have fought long and hard for…that is the opportunity for this to go to a ballot to be decided by the people. Alright, people.
Your turn.
S. C. Dixon
Posted on March 31 at 1:19 p.m.
part two:
In my original logo drawings I depicted a rope and a running rabbit and we considered the very English name, "The Noose and Hare” or “"The Noose and Snare…”
Both had the potential for great trademarks and a classic rural appeal, plus I have a soft-spot of English pubs, having studied a very great many of them up-close and personally.
Knowing full well that whichever name we used that people would instinctively shorten it to "The Noose™,” we just went with that, not the pub image I wanted to project, but still an representation that was at least in compliance with the original name of the place and again, posessing a certain rustic panache.
(Incidentally, we found a great many rope/noose/lariat related gee-gaws stored away in the old club, including a stiff old hangman’s noose knotted by a man named Curry, one of the regulars back in the day, and the thing is hanging on the wall as I write…beside a perching, china raven and a framed portrait of Edgar Allen Poe…I hope that doesn’t offend any of you literary types. Or bird lovers. Just so you know, to my knowledge none of the owners or staff of our establishment has EVER hanged a raven, or a crow, for that matter…and none of us knew Edgar.)
Did we foresee that the tag, “Noose,” might be distasteful to certain types? Yes! Certainly we were cognizant from the onset that this appellation might possibly be misconstrued as offensive to the ancestors of English pirates, hundreds if not thousand of whom were dispatched by the knotted noose depicted in our logo.
Observably the decedents of a few horse thieves doubtless cringe at the image as well, but that’s about as far as it goes. (For those of you historically impaired or suffering from terminal political correctness, Kansas and a great many other states {and countries} have used the hangman’s noose as a way to dispatch evil-doers and footpads for many, many, many centuries and I reckon that some might consider it a penultimate sign of justice, kind of like that blindfolded cutie holding the scales.
So let the word go forth from this day onward, anyone drawing any other “inference” is, by my reckoning, pretty much an idiot trying to make one thing that is into something that it is not, looking for attention or trouble or both.
Consider yourself educated. There is no longer an excuse for continued stupidity.
p.s.
A purely personal note for those of you who were incapable of understanding my elucidation: consider yourselves cordially invited to stay out of our nightclub in perpetuity. I imagine you are already quite comfortable there underneath your damp little rock, you insipid toad(s).
Your pal:
S. C. Dixon
Posted on March 31 at 1:18 p.m.
part one
My dear, dear friend D. J. DiAblo has acquiesced, allowing me use his moniker to clear the air about some palpably asinine implications dispensed on this and several other blogs.
Some of you intrepid busy-bodies have an intense need of an education, so let’s get to it, shall we?
Let us learn about the origins of one of Emporia’s brighter night spots, "The Noose™,” and how the naming of it came about. I will do this in an earnest attempt to stem some of the short-sighted, thumb-sucking, hog-blathering “logic” floating around among various paranoid morons living in the community.
The bar at 323 Commercial is said to be the oldest continuously operating nightclub in Emporia, and it has been called “The Lariat Lounge” probably since the early 1960’s.
The logo, as depicted in neon on the front of the building for decades, was a silhouette of a desert scene with a mounted cowboy throwing a lasso around the words “The Lariat Lounge.”
Over the years many, many people affectionately referred to the place simply as “the Rope.” (It is common knowledge that folks like to give their friends, pets, and favorite hangouts {pun fully intended} nicknames.)
In March 2007 the club abruptly closed. The owners were weary after 30 or so years in the place, the liquor license was up for renewal the following April and it seemed to them an appropriate time to move on.
I didn’t want to see the place close down, I didn’t want to see another “blind eye” downtown, and so I negotiated with he former owners, friends of mine, and a deal was struck. Three of us formed a company called The Lariat™ LLC when we bought the club.
We wondered at the time if it would be best to keep the old name, as a matter of tradition, or to change it. We considered changing the name to “The Rope” because, as explained above, that’s how many Emporian’s already referred to it.
The building was in pretty bad shape, a lot worse than we’d anticipated, we hadn’t borrowed much capital and we all had the feeling that perhaps we’d bitten off a bit more than we could collectively chew. While meeting at another local watering hole to discuss this, a trade’s person walked by our table and said, “Hey, I hear you guys got yourselves into the Rope…”
Being an inveterate smart-aleck and lover of odd words and puns, I blurted out, “The way this is going it might be that we’ve put ourselves into a noose!”
Everyone present burst out in laughter and, in private conversation, the moniker stuck.
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Posted on November 19 at 3:18 p.m.
Mr. Dixon says,"Thank you," it seems that your story and his are not too far apart...he tried the dish on a dare and LOVED it...It just shows to go...
On On Hominy