Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

Beethoven's 6th
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TXvE-mbFK0

Beautiful photos, Craig -- thanks!

I cannot tell you how stupid I think it is that people are talking about Rove as if he is a buffoon who is out of touch with reality. This man engineered what was basically a takeover of this country. I didn't underestimate him then and don't now. (Was just watching Shuster's show...)

http://tinyurl.com/cgoc5k

Happy Easter Time.

My high school senior grandson is home from military school and we will see him Sunday in Toledo. He's a mean lacrosse player.

the sixth.....one of my favorites......i like it when he does that sun coming out bit.......during the peasants' picnic after the storm............it's no Mustang Sally, but awfril good, nonetheless..........

Rove...........il bufone............stupid people can ascend to power......buffoons can rise to power..........just because someone gains power does not mean that they are not buffoons.............. their buffoonery usually will out.....sooner or later........Rove has used up his goodies......

battle in iraq
we figured it was over
but now more money

you gotta walk that lonesome valley
you gotta walk it by yourself
aint nobody else can walk it for you
you gotta walk that lonesome valley by yourself..........

Lovely pix of DC.

Don't forget to video yourself this morning.

tt

but not necessarily because people get ready there's a train a-coming.......

I'm going with the damn train......lonesome valley's ass........

haiku to you too,
sturge, our man of early morn.
train dont stop here anymore.

anybody taking james c up on his raffle? and which would you choose, the day in nyc with the big dawg, am idol finale, or hanging with mssrs carville and bagala in dc?

http://features.csmonitor.com/politics/2009/04/10/loyalty-on-display-with-carville%E2%80%99s-fundraising-pitch-for-hillary/

probably more laughs in a weekend with james and paul.
plus you get a free lunch.

never saw where they put you up.... maybe our gracious host has a spare couch. am pretty sure the lincoln bedroom is no longer available.

my choice would be the big dawg

sturge, was it you that pointed out sometime back how we tmrs are much like the canterbury pilgrims?
our very own crawfordbury tales.

Music was a delightful for waking up this morning. My morning eyes thought it said Beethoven's 5th so I thought it would be a little more of a jolt. Du du du dummm! The 6th was much better for starting a day off.

I have a question. Is something a work of brilliance if many do not read the material to see how brilliant the writer is because it is too damn long? Just a question.

Oh yes, beautiful photos to accompany the beautiful music this morning.

Rove is a masterful manipulator. So are many of my inmates in jail. I tell them all the time that if they could use their talents for a better purpose, they would be rolling in dough instead of rotting in jail.

ct, here are 6 minutes of spring for you before the storms blow thru again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSw7CcAXPWk

oldsea, maybe you can profit from this latest research that's come out on brown fat. you kknow, advertise

brown fat's good for you
dark chocolate is even better

and oldsea, since the pres and family will be visiting you soon, maybe you can have some special goodies to sell in honor of his entourage and campfollowers a.k.a. media assigned to the white house.

chuck todd = choco terd (nah, won't sell... how bout choco turtle?

Good appearance Craig.
He is not only one of the last journalists remaining, he is one of the last television pundits who's face still moves. Love the eyebrow action!

Thanks Pat for that 6 minutes. I will bookmark it to watch again and again.

Got most of my chores out of the way yesterday and today is the day I am to try and prepare a garden spot for my blue corn. I looked around for a place that gets enough sun since I have so many trees. Most of those places have some pretty narly grass and I have only my tiny tiller that kicked my ass to get started again after 2 years of neglect. I am a little ambivilent about this next stage of the project. I can't let C-bob down so I will do or die trying.

Hey Patd. Thanks for thinking of me, but am already on it. I stopped making milk chocolate 2 years ago and only use 70% cacao. No milk chocolate bothers a few but most people are just looking for a good excuse to eat their chocolate.

question for you military tech typse:

why (and maybe they are and aren't telling us) not tap, track and translate all those cell phone calls the pirates are supposedly making in their piracy plotting? surely if they are tapping you and me, they can make some effort to alert the ships of oncoming scurvy scalawags.... or at least block the calls.

btw, is it possible that the disappearing young somali men from america are winding up on these pirate ships?

Sea, I would recommend you make some dark chocolate coated arugula for the pres. We know he likes arugula so you are half way there. Peeps for the rest of them.

Patd- Jack & Jamie have helped me with that. In store for his visit is Yes I Candy,, Baracky Road Fudge and can't make the others without Hillary Rocks (clusters). Always appreciate more suggestions though!

Ct- Lol, good to see you!

Oh, they have also helped with Holy Mole which is still in development. Got to come up with just the perfect amount of Chile.

Holy Mole was also in reference to him, but we are keeping that a secret.

Chile in candy? I usually chase my chile with my chocolate candy. I found some dark chocolate gold brick eggs this year. I know they wouldn't touch your candy Sea but they were pretty good. Good enough that after eating the entire 6 pack I went back for more.

Ct- It's an old combo- Aztecs. Please describe, what is a gold brick egg?

OSH: Love the candy ideas!

Sturge: Am hoping you are right that Rove is done...but doubt it. I got complacent about that crowd a few times and was always jerked back to reality....

Hey Miss Patsi- Craig was the one that taught me to keep an eye on him. I'm sure they've got something up their sleeve.

You guys have asked about my owls. I am out at the camp for the long weekend and I have been watching for some action. That papa owl has been very descrete in his comings and goings to feed the fly. He must be eyeballing me and waiting for me to go in to make his moves. Only occasionally I see a shadow fly over. It will be better when the babies come out to sun.

You also asked for cajun recipes. My mother was a yankee, born in Chicago, and much of what I cook came from her. Also most of what I cook I just throw in this and that and don't have a recipe.

I make a killer spinach manicotti. I made up that recipe, and also throw in this and that. It is a real hit with my friends but a big messy job to make and very full of fat grams.

Sea, gold brick eggs are one of the common commercial Easter candies. Chocolate with pecans in it. I just love Chocolate covered pecans. Except for the gold brick eggs, when I want that kind of candy I have to make it for myself.

lil pro-peeps
come grow your corn
one more cow's in the meadow
and jack's watching porn.

Good point today Craig, if Obama was really confident about the ecomony he would have made that glimmers of hope comment on a day the market was open.

I would like to invest again but Susie Orman says it will be 2015 before full confidence returns to the market. Greenspan said when the housing market comes back.

Just saw Craig's Today segment in Central time zone...great!

Missed the Today segment...
Hope it comes on a video..!

Is Craig in DC?

Does anyone else here think that the new wax figure of Michelle looks like a cross between Michelle and Condi?

Too much Earl Grey last night and little sleep...so this is what it looks like early in the morning, eh?
My dog told me to get up and enjoy the day.

Pete Seeger says:

"

My Get Up And Go Has Got Up And Went

How do I know my youth is all spent?
My get up and go has got up and went
In spite of it all, I'm able to grin
When I think of the places my get up has been

Old age is golden, I think I've heard said
But sometimes I wonder as I crawl into bed
My ears in a drawer, my teeth in a cup
My eyes on the table until I wake up

As sleep dims my vision, I say to myself
Is there anything else I should lay on the shelf?
But nations are warring and business is vexed
So I'll stick around to see what happens next

When I was younger, my slippers were red
I could kick up my heels right over my head
When I was older my slippers were blue
But still I could dance the whole night thru

Now I am old, my slippers are black
I huff to the store and I puff my way back
But never you laugh, I don't mind at all
I'd rather be huffing than not puff at all

I get up each morning and dust off my wits
Open the paper and read the obits
If I'm not there, I know I'm not dead
So I eat a good breakfast and go back to bed."

I'm one of the people with good credit who has a Bank of America credit card. This week, I received a notice that my interest rate would be going from 4-pct to 12.24-pct.

For the sake of liquidity, I keep about a $10k balance in that account. Yesterday, I opened a new account at USAA and transferred that balance.

Then I wrote a (polite) email to Bank of America telling them to shove it.

So, the real question is, how do they think trying to screw customers with excellent credit is going to help their bottom line?

Dex, does that poem come with music? Also I wouldn't recommend eating and going back to bed because along with age comes esophogeal reflux(GERD)

A vicarious thought about the hostage situation off the coast of Somalia.

What happens if the pirates demand one of our destroyers in exchange for their hostage?

ct, here's a cover version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-M7ughBxVE

I don't think they'll like a destroyer. Especially if it's used against them.

Back in the 40s and 50s, DC was absolutely the most exciting American city to visit. Little traffic, virtually every door open, no crowds, people universally polite.

Back in 47 or 48 we stayed in a small trailer park not far from the tidal basin. The Jefferson Memorial was in clear view. We were there in early April--just before Easter. When we visited the Lincoln Memorial, there was a patch of snow in a shaded spot next to the stairs leading up to it.

I was fascinated by the two red lights blinking out the windows of the Washington Monument. So, my brothers and I climbed the stairs and took a look see. The lights weren't that interesting after all.

I remember a lot about the couple of days we spent there; much more about them than the Florida vacation that preceded our stay.

Answer to Flatus' question: we'll ask the French to rescue it back for us.

The only place the majority of the country wants to see Rove is on the witness stand not all over the papers & t.v. like some celebrity. He should be jailed until he is ready to comply. Naturally he thinks his bull&^$# is taken seriously, naturally he thinks he is above the law . I would have one big ego if I had snubbed the U.S.officials requests for an explanation for my actions & they did absolutely nothing about it. Fox news mainly tries to make Karl Rove important. I think he is just as responsible for the country's shape as Bush . If he is so smart why didn't he advise Bush to reel in the out of hand bankers & ceo's? Why doesn't Hannity (of the comedy channel)ask him that question? Personally I saw enough of him & his mouth the last eight. George Bush is at least acting smarter than any of the sore losers running their mouths. I think George is finally realizing the people around him during his presidency that he took advise from are the very ones who are responsible for the mess we have today.

I wanna see Rove re-start that rapping career of his. When's the last time "MC Rove" was seen with a mic in hand?

I think this might be more noteworthy than when Rove start a rapping tour. I'm not sure everyone gets the difference between Democracy and "Liberal Democracy" (not that anyone here doesn't get it)

http://www.rr.com/home/home/article/9000/7377281/Afghan_cleric_defends_contentious_marriage_law

And for you Flatus

What China is selling http://www.military.com/features/0,15240,188787,00.html

What Gates is selling (not that he is all that crazy)
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/04/10/dod-identifies-key-themes-for-qdr/

Its raining here in NYC, but you all have a great Easter where you hail from.......................

Dead update:

http://tinyurl.com/c79g76

http://tinyurl.com/c79g76

hmmm...tiny url not connecting

flatus...never found out for sure, but when i climbed the steps 42 years ago, at age 17, we were told 898 steps...now some sites claim it's 897 steps inside the Washington Monument.

It was a memorable experience for a high school kid, as i was...I could never do it today!

Thanks to Dale for the photographs. The beauty and power of her work is amazing.

On the HIllary auction, I would have to go with lunch with Serpenthead & Begala. That would be so much fun.

I'll probably just settle for buying their book

http://tinyurl.com/ddjeff

Sorry ladies this is just to funny not to share.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Woman-driver-crash_547809.htm

"I'm sure they've got something up their sleeve."

They always do, OSH. I don't trust them or underestimate them.

TIR

How about just labeling it really bad drivers. I'm sure an equally stupid chain of male drivers could be amassed.

Cities Turn to Fees to Fill Budget Gaps

By DAVID SEGAL
Published: April 10, 2009

After her sport utility vehicle sideswiped a van in early February, Shirley Kimel was amazed at how quickly a handful of police officers and firefighters in Winter Haven, Fla., showed up. But a real shock came a week later, when a letter arrived from the city billing her $316 for the cost of responding to the accident.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/11/business/11fees.html?_r=1&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1239458590-Bs1o1i1dlmF3uUAxLgIOig

and the not just accident response...everything from elk hunting in Wisconsin to dog licenses everywhere are going to cost more.

PS

The photos are lovely. My favorite -the upper right corner

Max, this line from your DoD Buzz link kind of sums up the inappropriateness (I was going to say idiocy) of Mr Gates designing future forces in isolation of military professionals:

"He also made it clear that he wants a return on investment from the $25 billion DOD spent over the past few years buying MRAPs, and expects the Army to find a place for the vehicles in its future formations."
http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/04/10/dod-identifies-key-themes-for-qdr/

The MRAPs are a kludgy solution for a problem largely isolated to places such as Iraq. The damned things, while saving numerous lives in Iraq, are so damned heavy that they would monopolize our limited airlift in deployment situations.

Mr Gates must absolutely realize that these vehicles fall into the category of sunk costs. Put them in mothballs saving them for the right time--which may never come.

I've mentioned several times our limited airlift and sealift capabilities. The Navy doesn't want to be in the sealift business. I can understand that. They don't want to spend a dime on something that doesn't fight as part of their fleets.

The situation is so bad that the Air Force went out and bought its own ship to carry ammunition from the United States to the Middle East. AF realizes the absurdity of trying to supply a theater of operations by air; it simply can't be done.

And it wasn't the Navy that purchased the troop ships that carried our troops around the world back in the 50s and 60s. It was the Army. Indeed, the situation was so parochial that the Army finally ended up with more boats than the Navy and more airplanes than the Air Force. Go figure.

Dex, damn, those days were fun!
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218682

I remember a visit I made to the Pentagon back in '82 or '83. While I was there, I made a courtesy call on the AF director of Studies and Analysis. He was a major general.

His office was like a ten by ten cube stuck in the basement of the building. I had better digs, courtesy of the Army, at Ft Leavenworth, Kansas.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/gop-recount-demand-unlike-2000.html#comment-218475

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/gop-recount-demand-unlike-2000.html#comment-218495

Hi Solar and all
Oh boy I got really behind and just now got caught up.Its been an amazing ride through the last thread and now on this one with the beautiful photo's of DC,thank you Craig! SOLARMAN you continually amaze me with you insights and knowledge! I am in total agreement with your comments regarding abortion. I wish we could find some peace on this but because of some in organized religion and others on the very right I rather doubt there will ever be a resolution that's satisfactory to them.Thanks for the personal shout out and making me smile with some of your jokes....Judy must be continually amazed by you as well,lucky her because its never boring....

Flatus, I'll keep it brief. You are right and MRAPS which are not a panecea (they can be destroyed) won't work on Afghanistan terrain. Gates fails to address air refueling, but more important, sea and air lift capacity. Also, in light of what China is selling (and all please look at the air borne threats China has already sold to terrorists)) why no rush for missile defense? While US and Russia are not going to war, Russian systems protect our adversaries. Please look at both comment threads Flatus. 20 years ago we had more than 600 ships, now less than 300, so much for piracy prevention or interdiction of illegal traffic.

Last, understand all that Sharia law does not consider terrorism, terrorism. We, people, are fair game by the letter of their law. Instead Sharia only considers what we call criminal, terrorism and applies capital punishment for robbery, drug use and traffic, etc. (leaving out abuses of women and children (IN MANY CASES) Pakistan has already agreed in priniciple to extend Sharia law. This is a huge problem for Congress and the President. And also pirates have a far deeper connection to Islamists. The French appear to have a far better grasp on action than we do.

Another women not much talked about is below.

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/025592.php

The pictures above are beautiful and I will suspend any depressing comments Sunday......

P.S. I deplore some of the pathetic comments at the bottom of the last link. I will say "words" however don't match deplorable "actions"........

Ms Dale Brown's pictures are indeed amazing....
ssshhhhh..... don't tell anyone..... but if you ever get to Massachusetts.... Cape Ann (where she lives) is THE place to go..... Cape Cod is waaaaay toooooo crowded nowadays....

TiR...... LOL!.... I LOVED that video.... and being a short woman...... it's only by the grace of god that I haven't banged into anything yet trying to get those stupid tickets....

Max.... I almost kiddingly posted for you and pogo to go get a room the other day..... thanks for understanding about the long protracted exchanges.... email is the perfect place for that....

your lordship.... I LOVE Beethoven..... did you pick that video just for the music and the pictures.... or are you connected with the Baha'i Faith?....

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/gop-recount-demand-unlike-2000.html#comment-218615

corey, or the 37,313 highway deaths last year

sorry, forgot the backup link
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j3CLA6G5GFI_WwuCSwAMad1DqpawD97D6Q100

They said those highway death totals had dropped to the levels of the 1960's, although it is still a lot of people!

lard, thanks for the blogger list.
looks like some of us suffer from multlple personalities syndrome. phases of the moon probably.

corey, yeah a lot of families too. wonder haow many wars we've seen that many deaths year after year for decades.
understand that some of the drop was because of price of oil keeping people off the roads and the reduction of speed of those on the roads.

wonder too if all these highway deaths are just nature's way of pruning and solving the overpopulation problem

"...on Thursday afternoon, we saw this odd confluence of events. There were old campaign rivals Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama sitting together at a picnic table next to the Obama daughters’ swing set on the manicured lawn outside the Oval Office on a warm spring day."

Patd, Thanks for linking that fund raising story. I probably would never have seen it.

"Also I wouldn't recommend eating and going back to bed because along with age comes esophogeal reflux"

.. well then, you're born with it (at least most infants have some type of reflux problem), then you die with it I guess. I've been noticing how similar the beginning and the end are.

Dexter, very cute poem.

Tony, It's about time you showed up here. :)

Max, I did read the first link in your comment. Quite frankly, I distrust analyses provided by think tanks on either extreme of the ideological spectrum. It doesn't mean their information is incorrect, it's simply that they have their own axes to grind.

When I spout something without attribution, it's generally based on my own knowledge, albeit 'tainted' by my personal experiences in the intelligence and combat development businesses. Pedants may find me wrong in trivial details, but, I think my recollections are generally accurate.

Personally, I consider most think tankers little more than camp followers.

patd

Unfortunately, the human race is now breeding at a rate that even a monumental tragedy such as thousands wiped in a typhoon only slows things down for a few months until all those bodies have been replaced.

You can watch the births and deaths tick by here

http://www.peterrussell.com/Odds/WorldClock.php

Thanks for the Washington memories. As long-time Marylanders, we took our children annually to see all the museums and monuments. Our routine would be to drive to the New Carrollton station of the D.C. Metro, take the train and spend the day walking. We’ve seen them all over the years and touched the cherry blossoms. The Vietnam Memorial is always a beehive of activity. There are no adequate words for the overwhelming emotions of the Holocaust Museum. Most striking is the underappreciated and haunting Korean War Memorial. My favorite is the park-like setting of the FDR Memorial and the bronze Fala who’s nearly as tall as me. Long walk but worth it. We’ve not visited Washington since moving south in 2002, therefore have not seen the newest, the World War II Memorial. Hope to remedy that this summer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt_Memorial

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_War_Veterans_Memorial

I've lost 2 cousins and a Uncle to car accidents. One of those cousins was killed by a drunk driver.

Max, you defeat missiles by using the equivalent of counter battery fire. You simply can't provide an all protective shield, although point defense of key targets such as airfields can be accomplished.

Formations and C3I facilities should be protected by dispersion and remedial protective measures such as bunkers.

The best protection for troops remains the hole dug 'two by two by you'. And shame on the NCOs that don't force their troops to dig them.

Personally, I've never been scared of missile threats--I thought the air-to-ground threat of the Cold War was much more formidable.

"understand that some of the drop was because of price of oil keeping people off the roads and the reduction of speed of those on the roads"

I also would imagine that the seat belt laws have help lower the rate of highway deaths. In the 60's, no one was using them.

Corey, Sorry to hear about you losing so many loved ones from driving accidents. They are so quick and unexpected. Can't be easy to deal with.

Dex and Carol

Here is the Weavers / Pete Seeger reunion version of Get Up and Go complete with political commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuAUG-AxweQ

Corey....
I bet everyone on this blog has lost relatives, friends, and/or co-workers to car accidents.... it's one of those universal things.....

patd.... nah.... I think nature works more along the lines of bacteria, viruses, and big ass storms (water, wind, fire)......

everyone have a great Saturday.....

My Uncle Ken died Dec. 22nd, 1964. That was before I was born. He crossed the center line and hit another car head on. My cousin Antoinette (Tony) was killed by a drunk driver on her way home from work in 1973. My cousin Vic fell asleep while driving home late one night in 1982 and hit a tree. There have been a lot of tragic car accidents around Holland in the time I've lived here. Lots of high school kids have died. Very sad. Not to mention that professional baseball player and his 2 friends who were killed by that drunk driver a few nights ago.

.. someone elses point of view. I saw the post where Flatus was displeased (sorry Flatus, I can't remember the word you used) with Obama's genuflecting before the Saudi Arabian king, and have read plenty since from others who weren't happy about it either. Maybe there's others here who don't think any mistakes or misjudgments have been made, but ... but then they are to be expected from any new leader.

Surviving in Obama's Post-US World
Caroline Glick, Jerusalem Post
"Somewhere between apologizing for American history - both distant and recent; genuflecting before the unelected, bigoted king of Saudi Arabia; announcing that he will slash the US's nuclear arsenal, scrap much of America's missile defense programs and emasculate the US Navy; leaving Japan to face North Korea and China alone; telling the Czechs, Poles and their fellow former Soviet colonies, "Don't worry, be happy," as he leaves them to Moscow's tender mercies; humiliating Iraq's leaders while kowtowing to Iran; preparing for an open confrontation with Israel; and thanking Islam for its great contribution to American history, President Obama made clear to the world's aggressors that America will not be confronting them for the foreseeable future."
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/04/surviving_in_obamas_postus_wor.html

"Tony, It's about time you showed up here. :)"

Hi Chloe
I'm so glad to finally catch up.I have been enjoying your links,where are the photo's of Hill and the President at the picnic table? I read and I want to comment but I hate commenting till I'm caught up,oh sometimes its like being on one of those spinning wheels! HA HA .How's little Emma doing? Are you and the family doing any traveling this summer? I would love to get back to Australia/New Zealand this year but I'm so busy(thankfully) I don't know,its very hard to find someone to fill in for me..I'm looking forward to the constant 90 degree weather coming are way in a matter of weeks now...I'm doing house work today and I'll soon be off to the gym and the Atlantic for a walk ....Oh I have a tip.I have had some art work that I brought from my house in Michigan that was framed in brass but everything thing in my house is stainless steel or pewter so I sprayed the frames with this silver metallic paint I got from Home Depot.They turned out great and now fit in here just perfectly and all it cost was 5 bucks.....Have a wonderful weekend

Sorry for my interruption to your serious discussions but I just completed the second leg of my C-Bob's Hopi BCE. I found a spot that hasn't seen a garden in over 10 years but at least it did have gardening experience in the past. That area was covered with a hardy St Augustine grass. I had to dig it up with a shovel with my one good leg since I broke my little toe last weekend trying to put on my underwear with damp feet. Long story.

I then put the tiny tiller to work. It sputtered and spit after awakening from it's two year coma. It did less of that than I did. The ground was still a little damp from recent rains but I have to hurry because we have a storm brewing due to arrive mid morning tomorrow.

My site looks like a small grave and I figured if I didn't make it thru the second leg I could just drop in there and someone could cover me up later. I called a friend to let her know where I could be found.

I went to Wally World to get three bags of Miracle grow garden soil and three bags of potting soil to build the area up some. Not bad for about 2 hours of work. It helps to still be a little hyperthyroid.

I have one guestion, should I plant in a row or make two round mounds? Pics will be sent to C-bob so you guys won't just think I am just BSing.

Carol

Hi Tony,
I know they've done some unbelievable things with paint in the last few years. Glad to hear you're busy and things are going well with your company. Hope you can fit in that trip you're yearning for though.

Emma is doing well. I feel so lucky to get to look into the face of total innocence (almost) every morning. I'm learning and rethinking a lot of things, while I look at the world through her eyes. And what a different world it is from a few decades ago.

They did have that picture of Hillary and Barack on the net the other day, but I purposely didn't look for it. Because I thought the writer of that paragraph described it so beautifully. Sometimes I actually like words more than pictures.

Keep in touch!

Carol, I read that each seed (or 2 seeds per hole) go in a row 12-18 inches apart. Not sure that right though.

I haven't planted mine yet, because we have moles and gophers, so I need to go buy gravel for the bottom, then build it up like you did. Then put something around it to keep the deer out of it. It's like putting up a fort to plant food around here.

Carol, if you followed the old system of fertilizing by putting a fish in the hole beneath the corn, then a mound would seem appropriate. With the system of fertilizer you've adopted, I would plant in a row.

But, as I'm not a real farmer, I'll defer to anyone who claims superior knowledge.

Chloe, See Ben Smith at Politico on this kow tow mistake of Obama. The White House added to the terrible error in judgement by claiming Obama had to bend over and shake the King's hand with BOTH of Obama's hands. The evidence clear to any viewer is that was a foolish lie. Please everyone, the evidence is in plain view and I have made my comments about this bad move already. I won't be argueing it here again.

Flatus, given the high precision weapons the Russians and Chinese are selling, the threats are much different today. Yes, carriers, bases, strategic assets all need point defense and there is nothing better than speed of light defense. rail gattling guns are pretty good, but a 1000kw laser would take out everything for many miles including ALL air craft and the countermeasures would be expensive, add weight and likely not be of much help as mirrors etc cannot take the heat no matter how reflective. As for lasers and rail technology in general, the F-35 was designed to hold a laser. Interesting yes? And speed of light will provide coast lines, theaters and civilian centers a system fast enough against rogue strikes from clandestine areas. One ontop of the new WTC would be nice. For instance Texas could zap any missile Quds hands off to militants eventually working with the drug cartels, or against missile and drone launches from small sea platforms off the coast of NYC. The present plan is have these laser plug into the third rail of subways, local energy producers or even mobile generators DARPA has been working on for years. Remember, critics claimed we would never reach the benchmarks we have already.
ABL is primarily a look down system to guard against rogue or adverserial fire near theater parimeters. You mentioned NAVY vunerabilities and this would be great. Carriers have the power to fire them. I read that certain spectrum lasers can even be used underwater as supersonic missiles will present a threat. In anycase, as I have mentioned before, such a revolutionary defense would forstall the quickening pace towards crisis in the Middle East. Iran doesn't have ICBMs with nukes yet and an announcment by Oabma to put a defensive dome over Israel would be a huge blow to the symbolic advantage Ahmadinejad thinks he has by chasing the bomb. The US and Israel can counter Iran by claiming by the time they get one or two, Israel will have the capacity to zap them down, perhaps over Iranian territory which was another reason for the ABL. It makes adversaries worry that their own nukes will fall down on their own country.

that was extremely nize to get home from the crabfest and meet with "The Sixth" as first post and all the pictures reminding me of mein own DC visit as a chile, probably around '59 or '60.......me old da took me to meet L. Mendel Rivers and J. Strom Thurmond.......
(or J Sperm Thurmond as he was sometimes referred to around yeah.......)

Patsi.....i dunno.....Rove still has his little ferret brain same as before, i just hope a greater number of people have come to realize what a little pasty hunk of jerk he is.....

Dang Flatus, I did buy some big Canadian night crawlers to fish with yesterday but don't have time to fish right now and if I did I would prefer to put them down my hole rather than in a garden hole.

Well back to the house to plant corn and take my pics. May the Hopi's be with me.

i hopi grow right......

Maize your wishes come true

is an "acorn" someone who doesnt believe in corn?

the blogging world, by nillson:

Everybody's talking at me.
I don't hear a word they're saying,
Only the echoes of my mind.
People stopping staring,
I can't see their faces,
Only the shadows of their eyes.

I'm going where the sun keeps shining
Thru' the pouring rain,
Going where the weather suits my clothes,
Backing off of the North East wind,
Sailing on summer breeze
And skipping over the ocean like a stone.

Or a unicorn someone who will only eat Libby's canned sweet corn in 12-oz cans?

I love chili con cornie

Kernal Corn in the Cornservatory with a sharpened cob.......

Sturg, keep this up and you'll have me looking some good old fashioned corn. Here's to you.

I make a mean chili con Turkey...lol

And Flatus once upon a time, I think Hillary would have agreed:

http://www.slate.com/id/2215820/

It is very interesting that Russia is buying Israeli drone technology and is allowing a partnership between Israel and the country hosting their present space launch facilities. Despite Pogo's [implications](and perhaps I mistake them), if China, EU and Russia strongly backed up their limitations on Iranian nuclear programs with smart sanctions, Iran would heed the cry. Perhaps it is time for some GRAND treaty between the major powers to curtail advanced weapon systems aimed at each other, the selling of technology to rogue regimes and a unified and shared effort to contain the madness.....

See? I can dream too......

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2215

Corn Palace, Mitchell, S.D.

People often have corns or bunions. Personally, I never thought bunions went well with corn.

hey, we posted the Today show segger above for you lazy mixers who weren't up at 7AM :-)

Despite what others may say, I have no beef with corn.

Mark Your Calendars
OHIO CORN FESTIVAL
http://www.swantoncornfest.com/
... oops, wrong color

How about these:
Dinner Diary: Blue Corn Crepes
http://dailywd.womansday.com/blog/2009/04/dinner-diary-blue-corn-crepes.html

or
Blueberry and blue corn pancakes
http://saraskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/03/blueberry-and-blue-corn-pancakes.html

The Ohio is at the cornfluence of the Monongahela and the Allegheny.

Good thread .......

Max have a cracker .

Dex -
Lacrosse ? Isn't that hockey with a little basketball net on a stick ?

Blue Corn is a self-pollinator , hence the practice of planting in hills, or blocks.
I put 7 seeds in a circle about a foot diameter.
With lots of bunny pills in the bottom, but any source of nitrogen will do.
CT - Crawdad shells & heads. You already get an "A" for effort.

Blonde Wino - Has written to say her planting was dismembered by ants, she tells me they are not like the industrial form of ants in Australia. Otherwise, South New Mexico would be devoid of all plant life. See we've learned something already. Will be restocking the South New Mexico experiment station asap.

Making 15 bean soup, shiny side up, rubber side down.

Oh , and it just might rain -
http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/southplains_loop.php

http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/cornponetwain.htm

Corn Pone Opinions, Mark Twain.

Ree, the guest clearly had no answers but then Cavuto didn't either. I think both are wrong. Cavuto is wrong in saying the Republicans aren't pushing this issue more that Democrats and the guest is wrong in her denial of reality. What troubles me the most is the merry-go-round we Americans must endure.

Just an opinion that goes well with corn.....

Chloe, the pancakes sound really good--the crepes really not so much so. I don't think they'd make good corn fritters.

Have a cracker? I don't get it.....

Thanks for the clip Craig. And thanks for putting in the word to lower our credit card rates! You covered a lot of territory.

Flatus, Since I like pancakes and don't like crepes, I agree with you. :)

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218716

"I broke my little toe last weekend trying to put on my underwear with damp feet. Long story. "

Carol, ouch...!

Chloe

Blueberry pancakes my favorite,,,with blue corn,,,gonna have to try it,mostly I just put honey on them,,,,the ancients used honey for healing and preventive medicine,,it's t he purest food that there is I think?give E. N. a Solarhug for me tomorrow,on Bunny day,,,and Patsi,,one for Little M..ok?

Tony thanks,,going to get some exercise,,,,you should adopt,,,you would make a very good father/buddy for some little boy,,or girl,

Ps,,,a solarhug goes out to all of the TM grand chillin,,,, like Sturg says,,,and that includes the little space cadets of B B :-)

Fresh report from N.M. -

I am headed to work, but I have checked on the corn and found the two stalks are still kicking! No sign of the ants and perhaps, the chile powder worked.
--------------------------
Chile powder cures a lot of sins.
- Bob

"Blonde Wino - Has written to say her planting was dismembered by ants,"

Glad you mentioned that CBob. The fire ants here are awful. I'll surround my planting are with a few inch wide barrier of sevens. That usually works.

I'll give Emma that hug Solar. Thanks.
Enjoy your work out and have a great Easter weekend.

Chile powder?

Carol

Now think about this before you say no,,,,,find some kid in the area to do some of the heavy lifting for you around your house and your camp,,,maybe a little less fractured bones,no? every time that you mention one of them I get sympathy pains,,,and I don't want them any more,,so go get some nice looking kid to help,,,,but don't want to hear your name in the msnbs ( mathews show) about some young kid and a somewhat older short blond Jail warden is getting married. (^_~),,,but I am (~/|\~)about the kid for helping out

gotta go, but Solar, I forgot L&L :)

Solar I looked around and again no one to help but I have learned to do things the smart way. Maggie, the pup would have helped but she didn't have any gardening experience so she had to stay in the house.

I planted my seeds about three inches deep so if we get that deluge we may be expecting tomorrow, my seeds won't wash away.

And BTW Solar, I am older ,yes, blonde, no, it's gray, and short no, I am about 5' 9.5" Also NO way I would hook up with any inmates.

I sent C-Bob my first pic for his blog with my little sign, a cheap Walmart dry erase board, identifing my project site.

I am waiting for high period to go try for my fish. C-Bob already got my pic. Anyone want some of my excess thyroid hormone?

Chile powder?
Anything that has mouth parts, can and does have a problem with the capsaicin in chili. This why deer never eat burritos.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsaicin

------------
Capsaicin and several related compounds are called capsaicinoids and are produced as a secondary metabolite by chili peppers, probably as deterrents against certain herbivores and fungi.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218737

Craig, If you think I'm going to drag myself out from under the covers at 4 AM on a Saturday even for you, you've been breathing the Foggy Bottom air for way too long.

Max -
You must have missed my cracker barrel post the other night. have to go now , will explain it later.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218713

corey, it's interesting how we get so incensed and panicky and shut down whole industries if that many people in a specific area/family had died from (take your pick) spinach/tomato/peanut butter salmonella poisoning instead of car accidents.
what's so screwed up with our psyches that we make a fuss over the comparative few and ignore the many?
one would think that with over 100 road deaths a day, day after day for year after year, we might concern ourselves with better regulation when it comes to autos....
maybe limiting number of cars allowed on the road or distance between like airplanes,
maybe banning the sale of any vehicle capable of going over the speed limit,
maybe providing more mass transit.

as alluded to before, if these were war deaths, political heads would roll and there would be rioting in the streets.

Ct,,,,,,i meant short blond hair,,,I know that your not short in size,,,and I meant,,,don;t get married to the kid int the neighborhood,,not the inmates,,,LOL,,,

AC,,is the real TM farmer,his farm is in the D C area,,but he hasn't been around for a some time,,,keep looking for him,,,but I guess that he got a little put off,,or just got busy?

What gets me about the tea bag troops is that most of them are getting a tax cut, but they are protesting higher taxes. Nothing quite like just following a leader slack jawed and dumb.

jamie, which are the slack-jawed and which are the dumb? the leaders or the followers. hard to tell them apart

pirates redux

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/04/11/Sources-US-tugboat-hijacked-by-pirates/UPI-79411239450083/

Think I'll take a drive out to the lake. Maybe take some photos. Although none could compete with that "phallic" photo of the Washington Monument. LOL!

Corey

How do you think he became the "Father of his country"

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Whats-So-Hot-About-Chili-Peppers.html

If this was posted earlier, my apologies for any redundancy.

We've been long-time Smithsonian members. Our annual D.C. trips always included a tour of one of the museums. Needed a place for pit stops anyway -- those are the hardest things to find when walking around our nation's capital (with kids).

I know that he slept everywhere! LOL!

Today's windowsill friend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Wren

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218737

"Up, sluggard, and waste not life; in the grave will be sleeping enough." -- Ben Franklin

As coincidence would have it, today's Ben almanac quotation.

Ivy,

I have trouble believing this phrase in your wiki:
"...with birds in northern areas singing more slowly than those in southern areas." :)

We love our wrens!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218751

I live on a massive ant hill (I'm convinced.) I've had success in keeping them at bay in plant- and pet areas with this stuff that claims to be organic and not harmful (except to the bugs.) I've resorted to harsher measures when necessary.

http://www.saferbrand.com/

Once in Florida we had a pet wiener dog who got attacked by fire ants. We had to rush him to the emergency for cortisone shots. He never dug in those ant mounds again.

Where do you live Ivy? I thought that it was just La. that had all those repulsive bugs. Do you have mosquitos also? How about love bugs. Love bug season is coming soon and they find a way to get in my camp. I come out and the floor is covered with their little carcuses.

We use Amdro against ours. It's a bait that the critters carry back to their nests. Works well for us. We follow the label instructions carefully because they are different than most insecticides. Although the price per ounce is high, we find it very effective and, if used properly, a little goes a very long way.

If I get bites, I'll still be showing signs of them a year or more later. Some people say putting vinegar on immediately will help.

Flatus, make a paste with meat tenderizer and water and put that on your red ant bites and they won't make the little pustule.

And your leg will also be nice and tender a few hours later.

Thanks Carol, I'll try that. What's in Adolph's (we don't have any), is it papaya? Well, I'll find out our next grocery day. :)

Bromelain is the tenderizer. You could also mix it with come hydrocortisone cream.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218775

Flatus, I can believe it. Birds have regional "accents." In northeast Maryland, we had Carolina Chickadees and Black-Capped Chickadees overlapping. In addition to an almost indiscernible difference in size, with the Carolina being smaller, there is a difference in the cadence of their calls. The Carolina's call is faster and higher-pitched.

Does seem counter-intuitive, doesn't it? Like it should be the other way around with that "southern drawl." (^_~)

don't ask what bromelain is cuz I don't know. I have tried it often and it keeps it from making the pustule.
That keeps it from making as much of a scar. I don't always stop what I am doing to do it.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218777

Carol --

Since 2002, just outside of Birmingham. But we're like Johnny Cash, we've been everywhere, man.

Bromelain comes from the stem of the pineapple. Just found out. Bet you already found out also.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218777

Carol --

We live by water and boy, do we have mosquitoes! We don't allow any standing water and we put those mosquito control pellets in any questionable spots.

How about the love bugs?

I know Florida has love bugs. It seems I read they started there.

"Papaya fruit extract, natural sugars and sea salt gently tenderizes meat while infusing it with premium flavor."
http://www.lawrys.com/Products/Adolphs/Meat-Tenderizer/Adolphs-Original-Meat-Tenderizer.aspx

Carol, what brand do you use?? The bromelain, says wiki, is extracted from pineapple. Unfortunately the Lawry's doesn't provide any more information than from the above quote.

It's an important enough 'treatment' that I don't want to use substitutes that may not work.

You could always tell the newly arrived Yankees by the love-bugs covering the front of their cars. At least the poor bugs died happy.

Flatus, right now I have McCormick. I'm not sure if it makes a difference but then I have not done any controlled double blind experiments.

Those love bugs love heat or carbon monoxide because they follow you around the yard when on a riding mower. You can't even open you mouth to breath or you would have a mouth full. Also like the highway. Fortunately they are only around for a couple of weeks but it is a miserable couple of weeks.

Damn I have been cooking my little brisket for an hour without the little convection oven plugged in. I could hear the little timer and smell the garlic so I thought it was cooking away. Oh well just salad for supper.

Flatus, those red ants have helped me establish a few new dance routines when out fishing the rice canals in the Spring. I had on boots and by the time you realize they are all up your legs it is too late. Good thing Candid Camera doesn't hang out in the woods.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218788

Carol -- No love bugs here in north central Alabama. We sure do remember them from our years in Florida. I don't know if they occur in L.A. ("Lower Alabama) but I think I heard some friends saying they do.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218794

Carol --

You CAN put up a candid camera in the woods! My friend in the Pennsylvania has one at her mountain cabin. It is motion detected at night and you wouldn't believe what she gets pictures of. She's hoping to capture a mountain lion ("Nittany Lion') whose existence there is denied by wildlife authorities, but my friend had seen one. As a biologist, she's bound and determined to get some proof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_lion

"make a paste with meat tenderizer and water and put that on your red ant bites and they won't make the little pustule."

Flatus, Just a little tip. Get the unflavored tenderizer or you smell like a cheap steak all day. I learned the hard way. But Carol is right. Tenderizer works better than anything else we've tried.

Finally (for the moment), just think about this: in a little more than one day from now, Peeps will be at half-price.

(^_~)

Ha Ivy!
Just what you need, some more peeps!

Carol, Correct me if I'm wrong, but you can also use tenderizer on Jelly fish stings, bee stings, mosquito bites.

Chloe, I haven't had either of the other two stings in many, many years so I don't know.

Never tried on mosquito bites either.

"Those love bugs love heat or carbon monoxide because they follow you around the yard when on a riding mower."

... which must be why they seem to follow moving cars around. Good luck getting them off your windshield for those couple of weeks. We will have tons of them here in Houston. Of course, which insect don't we have. And 'Super Sized' to boot.

What's it like to be a pirate? In dirt-poor Somalia, pretty good
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/58111.html

"There's at least one job these days that's recession-proof, if you can handle shark-infested seas, outrun some of the world's most powerful navies and keep your cool when your hostages get antsy."

That pirate story was written in an almost humorous way. I don't know why they say crime doesn't pay. It often does.

More bugs! Just got to cleaning out a ceramic planter I'd left unattended on my porch since who-knows-when, and I found the remnants of an "adobe hut" on the inside. It crumbled into dirt particles the minute I sprayed water. Hubs says it was a "mud dauber." Sure enough, there was a wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_dauber

Well, I'm back from supper. Carol, it was one of Stinky's special salads, left over pizza, and a granny smith apple. I'm well nourished. :))

Here's more on 'the cure', the patent for a therapeutic soap that addresses all the issues we've been discussing:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6696396/description.html

Now, all we have to do is discover if anyone is making it. That just jogged a memory. At the farm when I was a youngster, my grandmother always had one of those great big bars of Fels-Naptha soap. When we got into the poison ivy, that was her remedy. Worked for me!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218807

From wiki:

"Mud daubers are rarely aggressive. They do however pose a special risk to aircraft operation, as they are prone to nest in the small openings and tubes that compose aircraft pitot-static systems. Their presence in these systems can disable or impair the function of the airspeed indicator, the altimeter, and/or the vertical speed indicator. It is thought that mud dauber wasps were ultimately responsible for the crash of Birgenair Flight 301, which killed 189 passengers and crew."

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218804

Chloe --

For 6 + years we lived next to Mission Bend and I worked downtown. I used to say the bugs in Houston cast shadows across the room.

Yes using any good soap and warm water to get the poison ivy oil off before it has time to cause it's reaction is good. I really don't think you have to use any special soap but it is a good marketing plan.

Flatus, how did Stinky get her name or is it a secret?

We call them dirt daubers here in La. They also like to make their little dirt nests in your air intakes on power equipment or holes where the bilge pump drains the water. Problems with equipment can indicate a dirt dauber has plugged a hole. They look like a wasp but don't sting.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218809

Lord Blog --

Wow! I wasn't familiar with that crash, so I wiki'd it, and for sure...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301

http://www.soapsgonebuy.com/Fels_Naptha_Soap_p/d1001.htm

Flatus, Is this the soap? I have allergies to some insect bites and of course, a bad reaction to poison ivy or horse nettle. I may order some to try if this is it.

""The pirates are the hottest men in town," Abdi said. "Girls from all over Somalia moved here to marry pirates. But if the girl isn't cute she's out of luck, because the pirates only go with beautiful girls."

Pirates are the new rock stars.

Thanks for the meat tenderizer tip! I've never heard that....

This story about a 28 year old female Sunday School teacher murdering a litle eight year old girl is baffling.

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=7313938

"I used to say the bugs in Houston cast shadows across the room. "

.. never seen anything like it Ivy.

Carol, she and I are usually close to each other. So, Flatus and Stinky seemed an appropriate way to partner up.

That is a weird story Patsi.

Do you both eat a lot of garlic and broccoli?

Lots of cabbage

Well, hubs was supposed to get together this evening to play guitars with his buddy. It was their first get-together for this purpose even though they've been talking about it for months. Well, the buddy just blackberried. He told his wife he was going out to play guitar, but she announced she wanted to go to a movie. After much discussion, the buddy and his wife compromised. They're going to the movie.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218822

How do you feel about brussels sprouts (aka "little green men's heads")?

http://uvalde.tamu.edu/herbarium/soel.htm

The link above says it grows in Texas, but at least one of its relatives is in California and the underside of the Silver Leaf Nightshade is an instant polstice or later tea for dealing with the effects of poison oak and poison ivy.

Jamie, did you do your corn today little girl? Too cold I suspect. Will corn even grow up your way?

looks like there might well be a cornucopia..........

"How do you feel about brussels sprouts (aka "little green men's heads")?"

Well, that pretty well sums them up.

Oh how corny Sturge

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218799

Chloe --

I figure the day after Easter is the time to begin the next year's vintage. :)

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218813

Lord Bloggington learned something today himself, thanks to you, Ivy. Those nests used to adorn the eaves of his former manor, which he would leave there because he thought they looked 'cool'. He figured they were made by some type of 'bug', but didn't know they were called "mud daubers" until this very day. Lord Bloggington had to power-wash the nests off before the sale. He couldn't have the new Lord and Lady of that particular manor thinking the place was bug-infested.

Re: brussel spouts- cut them in half lengthwise, marinate in vinaigrette and black pepper, and bake in self-made aluminum pouch. Good stuff.

This is a bonafide Willie Nelson joke:

Elvis's last words:

"Corn?"

Sorry in advance.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218831

Most 'umbled, M' Lord.

Good Afternoon Craig and all.

I thought something I had posted elsewhere might be informative here as we wish the captain our best. I don't piracy was a conflict topic here, so perhaps the following might be helpful in thinking about how we got here and the options Obama has before him. Probably nothing new here for you all, but what the hell. I'll post the first half and the second half to meet link limits.

The sun has come out on the city but Max is all OUT of crackers...OUT of crackers...OUTof crackers.

Piracy and International Justice

Clinton found in his dealing with Pakistan, Serbia, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Somalia, Rwanda, Yemen and elsewhere the concept of universal justice enforced by a world body was a hope, not a policy. Even after 9/11 the actual commitment by the international community of manpower, hardware and investment hasn’t come close to dealing with increasing problems with the US leading most efforts and expenditures. The nexus of terrorism, dangerous regimes, piracy and criminal activities (slavery, drugs, money laundering, arms, etc.) is evolving at a faster pace than a cure. The ongoing fiasco off Somalia is just a part of the inability of the G20 to either accept an honesty system of international justice or share in the responsibility to enforce it (piracy is just element of the nexus) or begin rather quickly to shape unilateral action. Given the history of the last two decades, as Boot explains in the second to last link, the latter seems the better option and a priority for defense spending

1996 to 2003
http://www.cfr.org/publication/6504/pitfalls_of_international_justice.html

2004 Warnings and the continued crisis of international enforcement
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/60266/gal-luft-and-anne-korin/terrorism-goes-to-sea

2005 Strait of Malacca
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GD09Ae02.html

2008 A recommendation to the new administration
http://smooz.4your.net/asisonline/files/piracy.pdf

2008 International injustice in the Obama era
http://www.cfr.org/publication/17942/pirates_terrorism_and_failed_states.html

2009 Looks cool, but then; where ARE they?
http://www.recaap.org/index.asp

Interesting idea for cooking brussel sprouts, blog...they are one of my favorite vegetables. When I was a kid I called them baby cabbages...love them dripping in butter.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218826

Carol,

I'm waiting for next weekend to try the ground. It's only in the last few days that we have had anything resembling spring temperatures and the last snow was less than ten days ago.

If it stays cold or we get sleet during the week, I'll start them in a planter and then move the whole thing to a nice well composted hole in the ground.

Jamie I am having a little bit of Washington State visit in a couple of weeks. My sister who lives in Seattle is visiting and hoping for some really warm weather while she is here. I prefer to keep the Spring around for a while longer.

Carol,

Your sister will probably be overjoyed at seeing the sun without a cloud cover in between it and her eyes.
It has been positively gloomy for weeks.

But Jamie you guys have a wonderful summer season. I call a nice Spring or even winter day here a Seattle summer day.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218839

Carol --

I hope you get to enjoy Spring for a little while before it rushes headlong into the blazing heat and humidity of Summer.

Jamie - the story re Sandra Cantu is just horrific. This woman gave several individual interviews to reporters, and answered some with text messages.

She also apparently told one of our local reporters that she had been in the hospital in the icu - for bleeding.
I'm wondering if she's trying to cover for her grandfather who is the pastor of the church where they did all the searching.

She also has a little girl of her own who should have a mother.

Carol - btw, that movie Solar told you about, In the Electric Mist, is based on one of James Lee Burke's books. I may have to see it myself.

Bethy,

That occurred to me as well. Women do kill children, but it is almost always their own not one belonging to someone else.

Good evening all
Just got home from the gym and put the dog(Jessie) out in the yard and came back inside.As I was going to retrieve him a few minutes later I noticed the pool enclosure door was stuck open by a piece of mulch and right on my lanai just outside the slider door lay a Coral snake(red and yellow beautiful bands of color maybe 24 inches long).Wow its the closest I've ever come to stepping on one...I went and got the shovel and killed it...That's Florida for you.......

Yuk Tony, they are deadly. What is it, red on yellow, kill a fellow? I can't remember. My saying is see a snake and run like hell. There is a king snake that is easy to confuse with the coral snake, similar colors.

I think everyone here evacuated or are doing their Easter Eve meditation. I was stuck on the phone with a whinning nurse for a good while. Not something I wanted to do on my holiday.

One of our rare trailmixers, Border Explorer, has a blog up that you really need to read. Someone really needs to scream in the PResident's ear. We don't need eight more years of being sold down the river to the oil and gast industry.

http://borderexplorer.blogspot.com/2009/04/felony-charges-for-young-activist-who.html

Bethy that movie does look interesting and I plan to rent it when it is out on DVD. It is also interesting to see movies that were filmed around here.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218849

Yes Carol Yuk! I know the King snake I have seen them too,they have black on red instead of yellow.I just saw another snake in the yard the other day as I was racking and I just quit and come in..I have this lake in back of me with plenty of brush and its just a breeding ground for snakes and those gators..While they were putting in my pool those Water moccasins were terrible that's why I have the pool enclosure but tonight a little damn piece of red mulch under the door sweep and stuck on the cement kept the door open maybe 10 minutes...Oh and those fire ants I'm always getting bit by those and your so right about the dance!! HA HA

""Girls Gone Wild" Ad Interrupts Good Friday Service Broadcast."

someone has a sense of humor, I mean, uh, how irreverant.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/11/girls-gone-wild-ad-interr_n_185877.html

Carol - I love that man's books - I can feel the humidity when I read them. That way the humidity isn't so bad-HA! Tommy Lee Jones seems to be a good choice for Dave Robicheaux, too.

My niece is at a vampire party! The drinks are blood red, and the cookies b eed when you bit into them!!!!!!
I am having trouble with this - she is a magnificent young woman, but ......vampires??????????????????
Frankly, I think they are so ridiculous, they are boring!

Tony those red ants may have started the disco craze.

I hope you watch Jessie well. Gators like little dogs. I only walk my Maggie on a leach especially here at the camp and I rarely see a gator. If one does show up he will have to get me first.

Bethy who wrote the book?

"Tony thanks,,going to get some exercise,,,,you should adopt,,,you would make a very good father/buddy for some little boy,,or girl,"

Hey Solar
Nice of you to say that. I can't adopt the State of Florida doesn't allow gay people to adopt.Its ok ,I raised up my niece Ashley and I kinda feel like a father to her rather than an uncle especially since her dad died when she was 3....Ashley lives in Michigan and I speak with her a few times a week.

Tony -- you are one of my heroes for what you did for your niece...you know that...

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218859

Carol
Oh yes I do watch Jessie.I put up a white vinyl privacy fence around the yard to keep those gators out...In my subdivision were always having to have the baby gators removed from the community lakes but they have to be a certain size before they will take them out.The lake in back of me is a real in the wild Florida lake with all the critters...I might have posted this but back before x-mas I was in New Smyrna Beach about to get on I-95 and I had to stop to let a 6 ft gator go across the on ramp to a swampy area just off the road..Florida....

Whoa! A six-footer!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218862

Yes I do Patsi...Thank you
Ashley is so funny and a beautiful girly girl.I'm still laughing about this, last year when she visited for ten days she came with 4 large suitcases and I think 20 pairs of shoes..Ashley put everything away neatly folded in all the drawers and hung things in the closet ,shoes lined up all in row...Comes time for her to leave and i had to give her another suitcase(she loves to shop) and take them all down to Publix grocery store and weigh them to save her all the over weight fees from the airlines.Plus I ended up shipping a box also..Its partly my fault as she used to love for me to take her school close shopping and try on all the clothes. I would put everything she liked on hold and go back and get what I could live with her wearing....Love her she's a good kid...

I'm really happy that I haven't seen all the snakes that have been around me. I have come face-to-face with a cobra, sidewinders, fer-de-lance and assorted other venomous snakes.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218864

Ya Patsi
I was like is this for real..I come from Michigan maybe Deer but gators..HA

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218866

Flatus
Me too! This is the closest I've come to stepping on one,usually they just move away and I go elsewhere..Cobra,I shudder!! I don't even like National Geo. on snakes....Oh I did run over a Rattler coiled up in the middle of Coral Trace Blvd. last year....

Happy Christians off to do the " Lord's Work " ......... 43 springs ago :

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/9459/scan0001j.jpg

I was always tall an skinny.

Yes, that is my mother's 65' Corvair in the lower right of the frame.

Rained a grand total of 1/4 of an inch at Lake Slappy tonight, we take every drop here, so no complaining, others got more. You're always happy when "others" get rain on the Southern Plains.
Planted California Poppies tonight just before it, on Buddy Holly.

Let the birds try and eat that.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218865

Tony --

I did a similar thing last summer when my niece was here for a month. She lost her mom when she was 7. Spoiled her completely with shopping, pedicures, lunch, movies, the whole bit. You can't help but pamper them when they are so needy for love even though you are powerless to give them the one thing they really need and you can't replace - their parent.

Silly birds .......
I am man, I have opposable thumbs.

Nothing like a raindrop beating a California Poppy seed in the ground.

When it happens in Death Valley the results are breathtaking -

http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/JPG/CA/NRCSCA01046.JPG

Do dogs go to heaven?

A theological debate by church sign.
http://nancyrommelmann.typepad.com/nancy_rommelmann/2009/03/holy-dog-war.html

With that I going to bed
night all have a joyous, happy or fun what ever you are celebrating this weekend

Jack

MAX -
Heads up son, because this is the last time I'm typing this.

Young Crawford here is from the Ohio River. His kin are from Owensboro , on the Kentucky side. So when he made good, that is when his first book was published, he released it at a general store in north Kentucky. There was his first book signing.

The post that day was on a platform long gone, and the words are long forgotten , but the thread had a picture of Craig's kins place. And he was a happy boy, we all opened a cracker barrel, put our feet up and enjoyed every crumb.

Have a cracker Max.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218873

Ivy
What you said is so true.You never can take the place of the parent but you can be the next best thing......I did that and it was worth every bit of effort.......

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218870

C-Bob--

Who's the little cutie-pie?

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218878

Tony --

Yes, I believe every bit we can do helps in ways we don't even know. I hope my niece will come again this summer. I realize at 14 there's maybe only another year that her old auntie will be able to compete for her attention.

Since U-Tube has disabled the audio on every cool clip I've ever made, I have to write 8 minutes of dialog for the latest one . It's a lot easier to throw up Jerry Garcia for 3 minutes, but those days are gone.

Here it is with no sound what so ever , it ain't Ken Burns, but it tells a story -

My Friends Build an Art Truck I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc2L4JlJQqU

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218870

C-Bob --

I am admiring the little girl's gloves and the purse she's holding up. Wondering why there's no hats, but then we didn't like squashing our hair-do. Still, couldn't go to church with uncovered head, so we bobby-pinned little lace doilies, or lacking one, it would be a piece of kleenex, to the top of our head. !!

Ivy -
That little girl threw a missionary bound for China. He's already been once, but this time maybe for good. I gave him my mule deer shirt to carry. The bible runs strong with baby Elizabeth.

It missed me by a mile.

Ivy -
That little girl was born before Pampers, I washed every diaper , and hung them on a wire to to dry.

My first experiments with solar energy.

Ivy -
Hats ?
It's West Texas, and West Texas eats hats. But Aqua Net ....... West Texas couldn't defeat Aqua Net.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218885

I could see she had a great story there.

Remember kids! In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant.

---stephen colbert
7:20 PM May 13th, 2007 from web

again......above quote not applicable or in relation to any other post, I'm just fond of nice quotations.

I made cole slaw with just a cutting board, a sharp knife, a head of green cabbage, and some slaw sauce. Rough cut but great.
Later today , off to Toledo for ham dinner. I am looking forward
to playing with daughter's two Weimaraner doggies.
My old Black Lab ate some rotten garbage and has stomach distress, but she's gotta take the 75 minute ride no matter what. I do everything I can to keep her away from all garbage...walking her, she spots something and swallows it before I can do anything.
And if you can make a damn bit of sense out of this recipe, you're a better person than me!

EGG RECIPE

Elmira, N.Y.
Eggs a la Canton, Williamsport, Trout Run and Way Stations.
Divest two genuine eggs of shell and claws, being careful to avoid breaking the same.
If you break 'em, begin again at the top of the recipe and proceed anew.
Lay the plumage and cackle on one side, roll the remainder very thin, add baking powder, and boil in a pudding bag over a slow fire for a week.
Tie with baby ribbons and serve cold.

- quoted in "Ways of Cooking Eggs," New York Times, April 4, 1909, p. X12 from the cookbook of actress Fanny Davenport

have to hand it to handel

from aetheist to pope in training and whether in a chorus, choir, glee club or biergarten gang singing to the top of your lungs, tis downright fun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI

btw, slainte! cheers! prost! budem zdorovy! l'chaim!

CBob,

The poppies this year have gone nuts, I've never seen anything like it in my 16 years of living in Cali. There are always a lot of them, but this year there are jillions of them everywhere, they're even growing from cracks in the sidewalk. Not just the Cali poppies, but the Mariposas, too (pale yellow).

No photograph can ever do that shade of orange justice, because they are more orange than oranges are, the color is so bright and clear and ALIVE...if you've ever seen a California poppy, you know what I mean, and if you haven't, get on a plane and get on out here, because seeing that color is worth it.

That orange comes directly from The Power(s) That Be.

dex, pulled up the article where you saw the recipe with the "genuine eggs" and saw that mark twain had contributed it (cool..one of my favorite people). my guess would be that they were referring to a fertilized egg which incubated long enough to form a chick but not yet hatched.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=980CEFDA153EE733A25757C0A9629C946897D6CF

julia, thanks for reminding me of how beautiful those fields of flowers can be.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8b0x93UTG8&NR=1

Carol - the book is written by James Lee Burke, who must have led quite a life himself. He's a recovering alcoholic and maybe a lapsed Catholic - his books can get pretty violent but in a way that doesn't bother me the way Arnold's movies do.

He has written a lot of them and the main guy, Dave Robicheaux, has had many changes in his life. One of his latest biggies was Tin Roof Blowdown, re New Orleans in Katrina. Someone else here mentioned it, with a reasonably good review.

Does anybody have any idea of the worthiness of old computer books, or sets like quicken that are out of date?

I love James Lee Burke's writing...met him at a book signing here in Nashville years ago. His wife was with him and seemed to be almost a manager. He was very quiet...she more talkative. This was just when his career was starting to take off and he seemed genuinely touched that people came to the signing.

Ok Jack so you want to know if dogs go to heaven. I will tell you. I have pondered it all out. Yes dogs go to heaven. If you have treated your pets with kindness and decency, that pet will become one of your angels. If not watch out. Trust me. I know.

If you die and get to where you are going and don't see your pets, oops you went the wrong way.

A moment of seriousness, do I really want to do this? OK, but just for a minute. News says stress tests are not in but top talent already fleeing banks. You know what I think? There was never any top talent to begin with. NONE. Not at the banks, not at these corps., NONE, NADA. They were perk jobs. We have been fooled. If there was ever any talent, all this wouldn't have happened. OK, I got that over.

Hilarious Calvin Trillin piece in the Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12trillin.html?ref=opinion

And what we thought, that shit rolls downhill. Maybe some of it does but mostly it floats to the top.

That was a very cute article. You know it is humor that keeps us sane in this totally insane and crazy world. Yesterday here was fun. Didn't solve any of the world's problems, if we really could, but it was a nice respite.

"One of his latest biggies was Tin Roof Blowdown, re New Orleans in Katrina. Someone else here mentioned it, with a reasonably good review."

bethy, hi
i cannot tell a lie
it was i

you've a good memory. that critique was a year ago during the throes of the primary.

look how far we've come, fellow travelers in these crawfordbury tales, full circle.

And what is the Craigster doing today? Where are ought thou, Craig?

circle the wagons.........pass out the flagons......

Best job in the current economy: partisan advertising copywriter

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21134.html

The Burke books look interesting. I did find the authors name last night by googling it. I wish I could read some good stuff but I am already so behind in my continuing ed material that the guilt would overwhelm me if I tried to read anything for pleasure except maybe a magazine at bedtime.

Anyone else been there were you won't let yourself do anything fun until the chores are done and you don't feel like doing the chores so you don't do anything, except maybe come to this blog?

round like a circle in a spiral
wheel within a wheel

Carlos Santana to Obama --legalize pot
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/04/carlos-santana-marijuana-obama.html

Legalizing pot hits the main stream
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/11/MNF0170FPU.DTL&type=politics&tsp=1

Hope the Easter Bunny was good to all the bloggers here...

couldn't find that wheel within a wheel song to post for your enjoyment of our repeating ourselves..... looked and looked on youtube

Can you just imagine if we were all loaded and hit this blog? We could solve the worlds problems, at least we would think we could and really that is all that matters. Reality is just what you happen to be thinking at that moment.

Posted by: ct Author Profile Page | April 12, 2009 7:42 AM

that might work if everyone was on mushrooms (the magic kind)

I don't know KGC. I heard mushrooms cause hallucinations and it might be difficult to concentrate on this blog if there are things dancing around the room.

around here the hallucinatory mushrooms grow straight out of......you guessed it.........a cow patty. (which are circular, for the most part.)

A friend of mine, years ago, told me she made some kool aid laced with mushrooms and put it in her frig at home. Her mother drank it. She said she watched her mother read the same paragraph of a book for several hours. She never did tell her mother.

I met her mother years later and there must have been lasting effects cuz she was nuts.

Sturge, what is a flagon? and does Walmart carry them.

heah yar.....couple of flagons of grog comin' up:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/43358-large.jpg

Winds picking up. Storm's a brewing. Talk of possible tornados. I am out at the camp, essentially a tree house, up on piers, high in the trees, windows all around.

It is a little scary here with a serious storm. Too easy to see something bad coming. I still have another day off and I am trying to decide, do I go home, or stay. If today is my day to go will it matter where I am?

Ct

Of course seeing things might improve the posts too

Do you fill those flagons with something? Beverage of choice?

a flagon full of beverage of choice will get yas thru that storm coming up.................

I am just trying to fill some dead air space with my trival posts so if you guys want to debate anything serious just write the word and I will drop back to my lurk and learn mode.

I kind of want to stay at the camp to see what happens to my little bass boat I just got back into the water for the first time in three years, since I took it out before Rita hit us. It is tied to the wharf.

I had a friend clean it up and put in a auto bilge pump but that hasn't been tested. The bilge relief hole may be full of roach eggs and dirt dauber mud. If so it could sink if it fills with water.

poor Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg
cannot catch a break
http://gawker.com/5207239/caroline-kennedy-demands-more-embarrassing-attention

Vatican just sez no
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/5138135/Vatican-blocks-Caroline-Kennedy-appointment-as-US-ambassador.html

i doubt that any post i ever made could be classed as anything other than "trivial" so post away, from my point of view....

and I'd stay with the boat.....storms are great as long as they arent hurricanes........

ct
what sturg said

thank goodness our long national nightmare is over and the Obamas have picked a pooch

http://gawker.com/5207731/a-nation-sighs-as-obama-puppy-crisis-finally-ends?skyline=true&s=i

KC, maybe that wasn't the best job to give her. Kind of a set up for failure don't ya think? After hearing their displeasure in her selection for the job she just might be the one who scheduled the girls gone wild commercial to interrupt the Good Friday service. Or God, She, does have a sense of humor.

and are they going to keep the name Beau for the pup? I like that name and I had a Beau also.

ct
good point ..first folks made a big fuss about her not being "pro choice enuff" to be a senator and now she is too pro choice to be the ambassador to the vatican...
she was better off when she was being talked about as an ambassador to England or France.

Apparently it's Bo as in Bo Diddley...

This could be one of the greatest descriptions of all times

The Washington Post has published a detailed, massive report on George and Laura Bush's post-White House life, and it's like Revolutionary Road with war crimes.
http://gawker.com/5208042/sad-criminal-president-settles-into-a-life-of-suburban-desperation?skyline=true&s=x

the post article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/10/AR2009041002714_pf.html

Shrub has learned nothing...I hope the rest of us have

My dog was Beau as in Beauregard. The cajun version.

I was going to tell Max yesterday that we had a famous pirate who haunted these parts years ago. Jean Lafitte. He is rumored to have buried treasure somewhere in the area and every time I dig in the dirt I look. Probably as good a choice for finding extra money as my mutual fund investment was.

We even have an annual festival called Contraband Days where pirates take over the city for two weeks. They even hold the Mayor hostage for money. The idea of pirates used to be romantic but I guess not anymore. Somehow I don't think that would have been what he might have expected in his pirate discussion, huh?

"I think everyone here evacuated or are doing their Easter Eve meditation."

"I rarely see a gator. If one does show up he will have to get me first."

"Girls Gone Wild" Ad Interrupts Good Friday Service Broadcast." "someone has a sense of humor, I mean, uh, how irreverant."

Carol, For someone who has had more than her share of problems recently, you sure do have a fun way of looking at things. I very much enjoy reading your posts. That last one 'really' made me laugh. (an your nurses are very lucky to have you to go to with their complainin'.
................
"i doubt that any post i ever made could be classed as anything other than "trivial""

... Sturge, 'trivial' things are my favorite things... and all things you say are important, imo. Remember, you and I used to disagree every so often about whether what we say here is or isn't important. I say it's all important and we are accomplishing something. I know I always say we aren't going to change the world here, but 'who knows?'. :)

My cat was Bo, as in Bo Maverick.

Julia,

There was an old, old book about pioneers coming to California through the Santa Fe Trail. After incredible hardships in the desert they come over the last crest and view the wild flowers of California leading down to the sea. I still remember the sentence that described it.

The man said, "Oh my God!". You knew he wasn't swearing.

I second Julia's motion. If you have never seen a California Poppy field in full bloom, get on the next plane. Move fast, the cement is winning.

Chloe, thanks girl. Sometimes the worse things get the more you have to find things to laugh about. It is why I am still kicking. Stop laughing and die.

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

"I am out at the camp, essentially a tree house, up on piers, high in the trees"

I think maybe that's the safest place to be. It sounds glorious with all those windows and the high up view.. I think when there's lots of trees right around you, it seems to deter the hurricanes. We've never had one on our property. (although lightning did strike the same tree right next to our house more than once. Lightning seems to have 'favorite' trees).

.... there you go, Sturge.
You've got me hooked on Friedrich Nietzsche.

Another horrible health care story
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/give-me-post-office-any-day-by-digby-in.html

"Stop laughing and die. "

.. I agree. Either die or go crazy.

chloe.....yeah, but ya gotta watch him.....sometimes he was not so woman-friendly.................

I always just skip over those parts........lol

The owls are up there even higher in the cypress tree even though this weekend I haven't seen hide nor hair of them. If the weather gets too bad here we might be sharing the same space.

I will keep my eye on Maggie. She always knows, way ahead of me, when things are going to get rough. One night as I was watching the weather radar, I said to her, things are getting ready to get rough here. I looked around and no Maggie. I called and no one anwsered. I found her deep under the bed.

Yes Sturge, Nietz is good and I bet he probably smoked a lot of pot.

patd

Thomas Crown Affair - Windmills of your Mind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAGGTVft5Lk

"sometimes he was not so woman-friendly................."

Ha Sturge, By my age you're used to that.

.. sorry, I'm just sorta haphazard catching up, and not hitting posts in order..

"Reality is just what you happen to be thinking at that moment."

... too bad it doesn't last. On second thought, sometimes I'm glad it doesn't

"I know I always say we aren't going to change the world here, but 'who knows?'. :)"

Good morning Chloe and everyone
Yes who knows! I know his place has changed my world for the better...Just getting away from the MSM cable talking heads has done wonders for me....Thank you TMixer's....

Jamie, You don't happen to have a picture of one of those poppy fields, do you? I haven't seen one in over 15 years now.

Hey Tony. You cookin' today?

KGC -- thanks for that Gawker link -- I have got to start reading that more often...funny, funny writing...like this:

http://gawker.com/5207182/magazine-editor-denied-entrance-to-his-own-awful-party?skyline=true&s=x

"Vatican just sez no
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/5138135/Vatican-blocks-Caroline-Kennedy-appointment-as-US-ambassador.html"

You know, the Catholic church has just about got on my last nerve.

Bored?

http://fantasticcontraption.com/

And Sturge, I have accomplished the laughing this morning, will you give me the pleasure of sharing the next dance?

Teen's texting troubles

In our local newspaper yesterday---teen sent 10,000 messages & received another 10,000 in a month's time-- cost---almost $5,000---more than 300 texts in 8 hours every day for a month.

http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_12102095

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218957

Yes Chloe
I'm cooking a wholeTurkey breast with my corn bread stuffing.Of course I'm also having deviled eggs and my cranberry dish..I made a Cherries Jubilee(my grandmother's recipe) very good..What about you?

Chloe,

There is a you tube of the poppy reserve up above, but here is a still photo of them.

http://www.greenfoothills.org/calendar/NaturesInspirations06/art/Cardinal_CaliforniaPoppies.jpg

Here are the death valley spring flowers

http://www.pattybrdarphoto.com/EmailPhotos/CaliforniaWildflowersLarge.jpg

Patsi,
I saw a link for the new Russell Crowe movie off that Telegraph article you posted. It looks very good, and I've been waiting for a decent movie to come around. In a " newsroom thriller 'State of Play' makes a compelling case for the importance of reporting in exposing lies".

Now I just have to find out when it will get to Houston.

Patsi
Yes Indeed!My friend Tom and I were talking yesterday at the gym about the Pope's most recent visit to Africa and his silly stance on condoms and birth control...Peoples lives are at stake here..................

MG, I'd forgotten how beautiful they are. (and how beautiful California is). Thanks Jamie!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218959

oops, Patsi forgot to link your comment....

You know Patsi what I find strange is that the
Catholic church is the only church who really recognizes the importance of Mary, the virgin, and her significance in the holy hiearchy. To do that and also be so anti-woman doesn't make sense.

I, personally talk to both Marys. the virgin and the one who was wrongly accused of being the prostitute. That rumor was started by a Pope, years ago. Mary Magdeline is one of my favorite saints.( I am not Catholic but did attend their church for a while) I named my little Maggie after her.

Oh God! Patsi. Who was that 2009 version of the 1962 Lolita

http://nga.gov.au/FirstImpressions/IMAGES/LRG/5974.jpg

Tony, That's the only part of the turkey I like. That meal sounds heavenly.

Tony, we'll be going out to eat. We're very 'nontraditional' people. (I don't enjoy cooking like I used to, but I do love to eat). :)

"but I do love to eat). :)"
Me too! Enjoy..I'm off for a little cardio at my local gym Nautilus by The Sea...Beautiful day here sunny and 80 currently...Lovely as Baz would say...Oh those Australians....

"Nietzsche"

Hilarious...one of the longest half drunken arguments I ever was in with one of my best friends was over Nietzsche. I despise him. She loves him. The next day we realized we couldn't really remember any specific points we had made pro or con. We decided to never bring up his name again.

That's funny, Jamie...I well remember Sue Lyon. Now you've made me want to google and see what happened to her.

In a mood for an Island vacation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru2tsT32pHA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VME2TirLM9E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rBjpjEAi24

Hilarious..Sue Lyon's last film appears to have been in one of my favorite cheesy movies: 1980's Alligator, where she played an NBC newswoman. There's a certain symmetry in that....

The original link to the UK article came from KGC -- and I am still shaking my head over the audacity of the Vatican to try and dictate American foreign policy. OR to insult the President over this Notre Dame speech.

I share Katherine's relief about finally having an official first pooch. I hope the pita people don't learn that he's wearing a natural fur coat.

Our favorite dog was a dachshund. She was absolutely wonderful. Didn't have any idea in the world that she wasn't a human being. When we went to England, we had to leave her with Toots. She crossed the rainbow bridge while we were gone.

Her name was Dame Faden von Rotwurst, but everyone knew her as Faden.

She was so proud, almost regal, when she took Stinky for walks. And, on the way home, after going perhaps a little too far, she would grant Stinky the privilege of carrying her the rest of the way in her arms.

i read neetch for the fun of trying to follow his arguments and perambulations,,....that, and he was a very sharp wordsmith and philologist......he was a goofy old dude and it's surmised by many that he suffered from syphilis, which caused the brain deterioration which resulted in his being committed in '88.......then his sister got his work, which ya also gotta watch out for what she did.....and there be many questionable translations.....Kaufmann says Thos. Common was fulla crap, for instance.....I like the kaufmann but have a fondness for the Common translation of Also Sprach Zarathustra because it's the first one i ever encountered, and it's also kinda cute.......

he also had a passion for ridiculing the catholic church and its priests......and got in lots of historical trouble in that the nazis took his stuff out of context and ignored the rest in their quest for the triumph of the "blond blue-eyed beast".......etc.

also that he wrote of The Genealogy of Morals and the Birth of Tragedy.....interesting stuff..........

On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain: either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

Morning Flatus. I was wondering when you guys were going to get your smelly butts up.

Patsi, re the Holy See, what goes around comes around. We've certainly been very vocal about what they, and the rest of the world, should do.

Me, I'm just a simple Buddhist.

flate....my dad had a dachsund, Fritz, which wound up digging his own grave.......he dug a hole to lie in under the privet hedges and it got deeper as he grew older and finally it was a cave into which he crawled and in which he subsequently died......couldnt reach him to get him out and after being sure that he was certainly dead i just filled in the hole......

Carol, we've been up for more than four hours. I've been doing the laundry (the fifth load is ready to go into the dryer) and Stinky has been out in our woods looking for wild bracken sprouts which are a spring-time staple of Korean diets. Or at least of older Koreans who depended on what grew wild for a significant portion of their food.

Your treehouse sounds marvelous!

Flatus -- loved the dachshund story...my sister had a dachshund and I loved that dog! She burrowed in uunder the covers and warmed your feet on cold nights...

Jimmy Stewart reads his own poem: an ode to "A Dog Named Beau".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUNJjIwlHk8

Flatus you will have to describe those wild bracken sprouts since it ain't in Wiki. Is it an entire class of sprout sor is it a specific sprout?

RE: Catholic posiiton on women...I can still hear the wind being sucked out of the room when the professor in my college Reformation class started talking about patterns in the Church, and how prostitutes became nuns in Avignon...LMAO! The class was made up of some athiests, some nuns, and me.

"The class was made up of some athiests, some nuns, and me. "

and Patsi, how would you describe yourself?

Sturg, what Fritz did seems absolutely in character. But, what a sad chore that he left for you.

Oh -- and if you read this Gawker story about the Beautiful People party in NYC...

http://gawker.com/5207182/magazine-editor-denied-entrance-to-his-own-awful-party?skyline=true&s=x

I can attest to the awfulness of one of those types of things. An NBC producer (very young and hip) dragged me to one during a music biz trip to New York in the '90s. I almost had a meltdown. It was in a three story club that was about fifteen feet wide. People packed in like sardines and talking inanities. But it didn't matter because the loudest metal music I ever heard was blaring over mega speakers. When someone said there was a line waiting to get in, I took that opportunity to grab a cab and open up some space.

jamie, many many thanks for wheel within a wheel...love those lyrics.

ct, chloe, my dog's name is bobo. she's half golden and half chow. sweet golden personality in the beautiful lush furry body of a chow.

Shakespeare's pun in Hamlet telling Ophelia to

"Get thee to a nunnery" uses both meanings of a place for holy women and a brothel

http://www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/get-thee-nunn-ry

I'm glad the First Family didn't take the shelter dog route. That's a Catch 22. Raising the chic-ness of shelter dogs would result in increased demand that could put pressure on shelters to create a supply. The supply comes from irresponsible breeding and/or incompetent pet ownership both of which should be discouraged.

The best place to get a dog or puppy is from a responsible breeder who screens potential owners for willingness and ability to take on the considerable responsibility and expense of providing for the needs of their pet.

Carol, bracken is a leafy fern once it has grown much more than 8-inches tall. Stinky finds them shortly after they emerge in the spring, before the leaves start emerging. She'll boil what I called the sprouts and then season them.They are served as side dishes, or as a vegetable in soups and stews. They're basically Korean Seoul food.

Sounds good Flatus.

Where is our favorite hot tamale this AM. I hope that doesn't sound racist. I love hot tamales.

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-218992

Windmills of You Mind is beautiful in the original French as well.

"Les moulins de mon coeur"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWDDgsN7z6o

"Anyone else been there were you won't let yourself do anything fun until the chores are done and you don't feel like doing the chores so you don't do anything, except maybe come to this blog?"

LMAO Carol!! Finally got back here to catch all the stuff I missed and caught this one that I missed before.

The answer is yes, yes, yes!
.............

"The poppies this year have gone nuts, I've never seen anything like it in my 16 years of living in Cali."

Julia, I just noticed that you got to California the exact same year I left (after a lifetime of living there). Coincidences.

"my dog's name is bobo. she's half golden and half chow. sweet golden personality in the beautiful lush furry body of a chow."

.. sure wish you'd post a picture of her.

him

.. oh well

Thought for the day :
" Only the doctor can suffer from good health. "

"Me, I'm just a simple Buddhist."

flatus, it's a gift to be simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i-X4IJzkNM&feature=related

chloe, she's a she and was named "bobo" because as a puppy she looked like a clown.

bob....ha.....that brought this one to mind......

Doctors are the same as lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.

--Anton Chekhov (1860 - 1904)

Flatus....i figure old Fritz saved me some work....he was a good little feller that way.........

Hello Happy Easter,Ostara,Spring to All.
I've fixed the lads their Easter breakfast and will close the shop shortly. Then it is off to watch the Candy Hunt at the Portuguese American Club (where they filmed Stuck On You) bolstered by Bloody Marys. Then I can come hope and pack away the bunny molds for another year. Woo Hooo! Am thinking of you all and hope you are enjoying the day.

Yes Chloe, I started that behavior pattern when I was a kid and mom told me I couldn't come out of my room until I cleaned it. So I just stayed in there. I had enough food stores until my bed to keep me for a while.

I have always been the type to buck authority. The dumb thing is now that I am grown up, the only authority I seem to be bucking is my own.

1777 Henry Clay [the Great Compromiser] US politician
1923 Ann Miller [Lucille Ann Collier] Houston TX, dancer/actress (On the Town)
1923 Maria Callas opera singer (Carmen)
1940 Herbie Hancock Chicago IL, pianist (I Thought it was You)
1947 David Letterman Indianapolis IN, comedian (Late Night)

1204 4th Crusade occupies & plunders Constantinople
1606 England adopts the Union Jack as its flag
1787 Philadelphia's Free African Society forms
1811 1st US colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment WA
1844 Texas became a US territory
1857 Gustave Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" published
1858 1st US billiards championship is held in Detroit (Michael J Phelan wins)
1861 Fort Sumter SC is shelled by Confederacy, starting the Civil War
1862 James Andrews steals Confederate train (General) at Kennesaw GA
1862 Union troops occupy Fort Pulaski GA
1863 Gunboat battle at Bayou Teche LA
1864 Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest captures Fort Pillow TN
1864 Battle of Blair's Landing LA
1869 North Carolina legislature passes anti-Klan Law
1872 Jesse James gang robs bank in Columbia KY (1 dead/$1,500)
1892 George C Blickensderfer patents portable typewriter
1934 Highest velocity wind ever recorded on Mount Washington NH, 231 mph
1935 "Your Hit Parade", debuts on radio
1945 Harry Truman sworn in as 33rd US President
1954 Bill Haley & the Comets record "Rock Around the Clock"
1954 Joe Turner releases "Shake, Rattle & Roll"
1966 Rocker Jan Berry crashes his Corvette into a parked truck
1966 1st B-52 bombing on North Vietnam
1987 Texaco files for bankruptcy

Several years back when I went to Beliefnet.com to take the test to see which religion I was most compatable with, I seem to remember that Buddhist was my most compatable second only to Universial Unitarian.

I hope you guys are patient with my spelling. I get tired of going to the Wiktionary to find how to spell a word and then can't find out how because I can't spell the word.

"the only authority I seem to be bucking is my own. "

... me too CBob. I've been the original rebel without a cause, at times. You think it's just a sign of the times?

Morning C-Bob. You just crawl out of your garden? I bet ya'll caught a rain yesterday.

One addition to the list...

On April 12, 1961,Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, became the first human in outer space and the first to orbit the Earth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin

C-Bob, where is your thought for the day or do you think we have already got that covered?

In a farewell address to the staff of Focus on the Family, James Dobson conceded that evangelical conservatives had lost most of the recent so-called “culture war” battles. Attributing the right’s recent failures to the “internet” and the election of Bill Clinton, Dobson said, “Humanly speaking, we can say that we have lost.” He added that the nation is now “absolutely awash in evil“:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/12/dobson-defeated/

Carol, I went to Belief Net at took their test. Surprised myself with a 100% with a religion I know almost nothing about. But the top scorers (Anything over 65%)

1. Liberal Quakers (100%)
2. Neo-Pagan (98%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (91%)
4. New Age (89%)
5. Taoism (86%)
6. Mahayana Buddhism (86%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (77%)
8. Secular Humanism (76%)
9. Theravada Buddhism (73%)
10. Reform Judaism (68%)

It's there ct .... The line about doctors.
Yes we got a 1/2 inch total .......... Planting the Buffalo grass today.

Spelling tip -
Open google , paste in the word in question, no matter how poorly it's spelled. Click.

Google comes back with "Do you mean ?' , and the correct spelling.

Jamie, all those choices weren't there when I went. They must have gotten more sophisticated since I visited. Will have to try again.

The Google Tool Bar has a spell check. I don't always agree with it or accept its recommendations, but at least it gives me a second opinion and quickly.

Now, the New York Times reports, Morano is leaving Inhofe's office to found ClimateDepot.com, which he says will be a "one-stop shop" for anyone interested in the global warming -- just as Congress gears up to finally tackle the issue.

The site is being financed by the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, an extremist anti-environmental group that is funded in part by the Exxon Mobil Foundation.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/inhofe_aide_to_launch_new_global_warming_denialist.php

Oh boy Bob. I'll have to bookmark that one.

Happy Easter or whatever you celebrate, my friends....

I got up very late this morning..... that's cuz I went to bed late..... had a great time watching Yul playing Ramses last night.....
boy those ancient people talked really funny...... ;0)

Carol....you've been a virtual philosopher lately..... keep it up.... I LOVE reading your posts....

LOVE the pictures of the poppies..... gorgeous!

Rick and I are leaving soon to go to a cherished restaurant with an awesome Easter brunch.... we're meeting friends there....

I do prefer big dogs..... but there are 2 smaller dogs I'd consider owning....
one being the Cardigan Corgi (the one with the tail) and the other being a dachshund......

Thanks RR. That is what three days away from the hell hole will do for you even though I have spent about a third of my day on the phone with the place.

It wasnt so much that I was quarrelsome when I drank as that I forgot not to be.

--Dashiell Hammet

Carol, I just realized that last post I made to CBob was supposed to be to you. I was responding to your post, but read the name wrong.

Have a great day everyone! I've been in and out of here one to many times, and need to get some things done for a change.

"Patsi, how would you describe yourself? "

The only one in the class without an agenda....:)

any excuse to post one from that great greek callas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuEmJZzuG9U

oh, those eyes......

C-Bob -- a bit of space trivia for you...

Scientists have finally pinpointed the so-called edge of space — the boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space. With data from a new instrument developed by scientists at the University of Calgary, scientists confirmed that space begins 73 miles above Earth's surface.

Carol

Who U callin a tamale ?

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219001

I would love to be at your tree house,,put on some Cajun music,,,and some rain,and lightning,a creaking door,,and some candles,,,and some shadows that come and go,,,I love getting scared,,,add a cple of witches (nun's ) and it will feel just like Church

I went to Mass yesterday just cos Judy is in the choir,( I don't tell her to do as I do,,or believe or not,,it is her choice,and she doesn't try to convert me,)they did a lot of Gospel music (Elvis like) it was great,,,,but I found myself looking at all the good looking women,,all in their fine dress,,,and guessed at their personalities,,,I got cought by one women,,(I can tell her name was Sue by her looks),,she seemed to know what I was doing, and smiled,,gave her a smile back,,and looked for Judy,,,she looked great in her suit,,of earth tone colors,,,,I would have gone to confession right there and then,,for all the thoughts going thru my head,,,,but the priest looked like he needed confession more than I did....HA!

Patsi I read and liked that article,,,,,but what would be truly impressive,,,it they could measure the ending of space,,,,trick question,,cos it's still forever expanding,,,but with all of this new information,,,makes me wonder if we really landed and walked on the moon,,,some times I think that we did not have all of the tools,,that it took to get us there,,,not even an adequate space suit ???

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219036

Solar, if you found it to be an insulting term for me to use, it wasn't you I was talking about.

You just kill me Solar. I figured you might be hiding the Easter eggs for the nieces and nephews.

Also if you come over I will pull out and crank up the karaoke machine and we can preform in front of the windows overlooking the river. The universe will be our audience. Don't get no dirty thought there man.

Carol

Nothing that anyone says (IMO) about someone else,,,,is insultling,,if it is used in a humorous way,,,,the tone,,,and the topic clarifies it for me,,,,,,and,,you kinda hurt my feelings,,,,IM not a hot tamale??? Dang

I won't see my nieces and nephews for a cple of weeks,,,they mailed me,,a bunch of colorings,,to hang on the refrig,,,and to replace the ones that I have leaning on a shelf by my desk,,,I*n between exercises now,,,I did not get it in yesterday,,,out for a run,,,later

"Also if you come over I will pull out and crank up the karaoke machine and we can preform in front of the windows overlooking the river. The universe will be our audience. Don't get no dirty thought there man"

Too late,,,Ill stop by and get Sea on the way,,,she loves to dance by the moonlight,,,,,Im going to stop there,,,can you read my mind??? SLAP,,,ok,,,back t good Solar,,,,but U should not make it so easy to SIN,,,hehehe.

He added that the nation is now “absolutely awash in evil“:

And it's about damned time!

Captian freed, hurray!

Captain, I mean

Nonprofit Wash. farm produces tons of food

"Today, we're the center of the universe," Little said Saturday, ignoring the gently falling rain. "This is the convergence of horse and earth."

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/6420ap_wa_mother_earth_farm.html?source=mypi

I ttok one look at the weather radar, grabbed purse, laptop, and the Magster and we ran, ran like little girls. We were skert.

On the way home, one and a half miles to my house, that warning noise came on the radio and our local weather guy said hunker down, it's on it's way.

We are now officially hunkered. We also have cable tv to keep us company. Sorry if you may have thought I had any balls and Solar didn't bring his over in time.

Ok so I ran everyone off again. Whew, I think the worst has passed and as soon as the rain lets up it is back to the tree house.

Shit Carol, what is going on there? Tornados?

I sure hope you are safe and sound now.So who is the hot tamale you were referring to? I thought you were talking about Solar too.

Carol,,,,,,back and wanted to check in,,,,,,keep us posted on what is going on with you out there,,,,,,Hi Sea,,,,having a great day?,,,hope so.

CT -

One more line to go .

http://radar.weather.gov/Conus/southmissvly_loop.php

Hello Solar, Happy Equinox!!!! Hope you are having a grand day, the choral performance story was great too. L & L

Got Carol's plot posted , a leafy little spot .........

http://cbhopibluecornexperiment.blogspot.com/

ct........some storm music for ya courtesy of LB's posting of the sixth sym.

IV. Allegro

Fourth movement: allegro

The fourth movement, in F minor, depicts a violent thunderstorm with painstaking realism, starting with just a few drops of rain and building to a great climax. There is, of course, thunder, as well as lightning, high winds, and sheets of rain. From Beethoven's injunction that the symphony is meant to be "a matter more of feeling than of painting in sounds," one might guess that the movement depicts not just the storm itself but the feelings of awe and fear experienced by a witness to the storm.

The storm eventually spends itself, with an occasional peal of thunder still heard in the distance. There is a seamless transition into the final movement, including a theme that could be interpreted as depicting a rainbow.

Sturgeone

YOu wanted the eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOuri0VY74s

oops.....wiki article

Great photos, BoB...

ma.....she's makin' eyes at me...........

I was reading yesterday that the pirates don't like it when you call them pirates, they think of themselves being more of a coastal patrol.

With that in mind

It looks like it is
US navy , 1
Somali coastal patrol/joint venture company, 0

Our Brave Captain is free to go home to his wife and family.

The families of the coastal patrol are not so lucky. 3 dead and one captive.
That is the risk you take when you look more like a pirate and less like a coastal patrol.

To our Navy folks , Ya done good!

Jack

good news for a change......bravo navy.......

OK, I am back to the camp. Feeling a little like a big ninny for running. I see there is another one coming but this time I am going to ride her out.

I just finished making my late mothers yankee/Jewish Kosher potato salad, yum. A little Tony's Chachere's cajun seasoning on top of that, to mix ethnicities.

Boat still riding high but that guy who put the auto bilge pump in put it on a little hill in the back of the boat so it will have to fill up pretty high to see if it is going to come on.

Thanks for posting the pic of my garden C-Bob. The garden is hidden by the sign but I did need to give proper credit for the project.

Thanks for worrying you guys.

Sea, the "hot" tamale is Solar only if he is not offended. It is my term of endearment for him. We back woods people down here in the south do not always know what is PC.

Poor pirates, ran out of ammo.

Cbob
Thanks for the link about the Seattle farm experience

Anyone else wanting to get a sign to identify their garden can get it at Wally World for 5 bucks. It is a dry erase board and can also be used to make a grocery list or play pictionary.

Ct- so relieved to know all is well. Ha! I thought so! This ole yankee finds hot tamale nothing but a compliment, but what do yankees know.

You all will be happy to know that I napped all through Carol's tornado--didn't hear a thing. Which goes to prove, all's well that ends well!

Yes, three cheers for the Navy, especially the SEALS! Can't wait to see the CATS again this summer when Obama is here. They are so hot. Dressed all in black, black leather boots,machine guns by their side. Ummm.

Boy it is a good day here for a nap but don't want to waste a minute of my precious time off. Maggie, my little bad weather early warning dog, never even raised an eyebrow during our little weather scare so there must have been nothing to fear but fear itself.

Sea,

There was your own private island off Cape Cod advertised in yesterday's Journal. Don't have the paper in front of me, but I think it was only $2M, including dock.

The Obamas picks Episcoplian for Easter this year.

Do ya'll think this great Naval success will deter some of the other pirates from doing the same thing again? Of course they don't have cable news in their pirate ships do they?

Super glad that the pirate saga,,turned out well,,,,Obama just passed one of the test that the R's made up for him,,,,if thing did go wrong,,,I can just hears Tir,,,Dex, Jax and Lex luthor,,,all saying that if he couldn't get the pirates to give up the one Hostage,,,how can we expect him to -----------,,,lets see if they give him any credit,,,I feel safer than ever before,,,,,Cheney would have sent all of our remaining forces,,and decided that our cpt..was collateral damage,,,,with a shock and awe lol.

Sturg,,,,thanks for explaining the fourth movement allegro,,I did bookmark Champs 6th---thanks LB---and liked it very much,,,,could you explain that to me also,,,,the true heart beat of a human being is more like a symphony,,than any other thing,,,read it in scientific America long time ago.

Carol,,,you can say whatever you want to me,but expect back an adequate answer,, if you throw me a high inside one,,,,wham out of Wrigley field,,,the right field wind helped HA,,,,hey you lived in Chicago,,,where at?

KGC

I saw they attended "The Church of the Presidents"
for Easter

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jn4ZlxW24L322-0sC7NftpnM_YZQD97H3V0O0

St. John's has quite a history.

http://www.stjohns-dc.org/

Solar, my mom was born and raised in Oak Park. I visited up there several times when my uncle was alive. That was way back when I was in my teens.

My nephew, mom's favorite grandson, has lived up there since shortly after mom died. If I ever got enough time off and someone to take my calls I would go and visit him and his wife

"Yes, three cheers for the Navy, especially the SEALS! Can't wait to see the CATS again this summer when Obama is here. They are so hot. Dressed all in black, black leather boots,machine guns by their side. Ummm."

Mae West ,,would have put it sorta like this,,,,,is that a seal in your pocket...or are you just happy to Sea me, (^_~)

Maybe we could get Obama to do the beliefnet test and see how he scores. I did it again and I am still a buddhist. A Christian one. I still believe in Jesus, and Mary and Mary et.al. I will pray to anyone up there who might be listening. And because of what you get when you spell d o g backwards, when in real need I tell Maggie to ask for help.

Carol,

One of the other historical churches in DC that I like is the one Lincoln attended

New YOrk Avenue Presbyterian

http://www.nyapc.org/history/

Patsi..like many life-long Catholics, I simply ignore the Vatican..

osh

Did you get my email?

They don't have any pics of the church Jamie.

I was born and raised a Methodist. Shortly after mom died, as part of my grief work, I started attending the Catholic church with my stepfather. For some reason, unknown to me, I decided I would join that church. To do that I had to go to those classes.

After a few classes I got wind that the church ladies, one who was teaching the classes, were doing a novena to get Bush elected. Well that did it. It finally shocked me back to my senses, I quit the classes and returned to being a heathen. Back to the church on the river.

Oak park,,,I know the area well,,its not quite the Suburbs,,,but not like the city,,,just like where I live now,,,,when I first got out of the service,,,a bunch of us (we all went in to the military together,10 of us,,all diff branches) rented a house on 33rd and Oak Park ave.,,,,huge houses in that area,,,this one had 3 and a half bath,,it was right in the middle of the stairs,,,,funny,I guess it was just in case that you couldn't make it all the way up the stairs,,,we made our own furniture for all of the rooms,,,sorta hippies style ,,,,great times there,for about ,a year and a half,,I,never lived with my parents again,,,,let me know when you are going to visit please!!!!!

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219080

the half bath was in the middle of the stairs,,,that is,,,

The rain has stopped and there is the smell of minty freshness in the air, as C-Bob would say. All is well in the world.

Flatus- Wished I had 2 million, I'd buy it in a heart beat.
Jack-Yes I did, sorry I didn't reply- package will be in priority mail tomorrow. Thanks for your clever input.
Ah Solar, did you have to go there? I know he is the all knowing and powerful O, but can we please just for a few hours, before MSNBC gets on it, give the credit to where it is due? The extraordinary mighty SEALS!

Ct- ozone, love it!

Ct- ozone, love it!

"before MSNBC gets on it, give the credit to where it is due? The extraordinary mighty SEALS!"

I didn't think of that ,,,,but now that you mention it,,,lets see what happens tomorrow,,,,and yes the Seals did an extraordinary job.

the navy captain deserves some credit as well for knowing when to say "fire" and for saying it .......

solar....heartbeat is one rhythmn but walking gives rise to another in the footsteps......not sure about the heartbeat as symphony though........I figure music is mostly conceived by people walking......

Pritzker Prize Architect: Zumthor of Switzerland......

http://www.pritzkerprize.com/laureates/2009/photobooklet2009.pdf

Food Porn
homemade division

http://www.tastespotting.com/

It think that it said that the rhythm of the heart beat was not what we thought is was,,,a nice steady ,,beat,,,one after the other,,,and that in reality it was like a symphony,,,even when sedentary??,,,and what you said about music conceived by people walking,,,is very interesting also,,, thought about it a little before posting,,,and it feels right,,,,diff paces of walking,,short long,,,etc,,,etc,,but you did know that,,,Im sure,,,made me do the thinking,,,thanks

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219097

but then again, try walking in a waltz beat..........lol

CT

Picture of NY Presbyterian

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2361/1889292937_e5a98da3f9.jpg

Picture of the church following the Civil War

http://www-tc.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/faith/images/sf_churches_21.jpg

Sturg,,in a book by Alan Watts,,,he gives a quote that you made me think of,,,with your 5:50 post,,,by G. K Chesterton,,,"It is one thing to be amazed at a gorgon or a griffin,,creatures which do not exist, but it is quite another and much higher thing to be a amazed at a rhinoceros or a giraffe,creatures which do exist and look as if they don't"

I guess this oddity and your post made me wonder of the sense of things!

Patsi,

Thanks for the Trillin article @ 7:09 AM. It occurs to me that only cultured oafs know who among us are cultured oafs and who are uncultured oafs.

Whskyjack,

Thanks for the dueling Church Marquees.

California poppies, Antelope Valley, southern CA:

http://www.lockett-photography.com/200304%20Antelope/2%2011-18%20California%20Poppy%20panorama%208x44%20l.jpg

I don't understand why we have diplomatic relations with the Vatican anyway. It's a waste of a perfectly good diplomat.

"this one had 3 and a half bath,,it was right in the middle of the stairs,,,,funny,I guess it was just in case that you couldn't make it all the way up the stairs,,,"

Solar, A place I lived as a child was like that. It was a home that belonged to my Aunt's mother in law. It was a home from the early 1900s that during WW II had been divided into four apartments. Installing a central staircase up the middle of the house to the top floor that had been divided in half sort of left that bathroom cut off from everything half way up.

the USS Halliburton??

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219106

Julia, You saw that banner too. I lifted it to use for a while at the top of my blog.

ah.....uss halyburton.............dotsa relief..........

Sturge-Of course the Capt. is great, just getting the seals on the boat in the middle of the night amazes me but I think the SEALS are in charge- it was such a short opportunity, would imagine they don't have much more time than to confirm that they each had the sight. My son just commented on how twisted it is that I am so fascinated by it all. So much for my dove stand earlier in the week.

Jamie,,,,,it was a signal family home,,,but it could have been two units at one time,,,that makes sense,,,it was a tight little room with just a sink and toilet,,,,and believe me,,,a cple of times,,,a few people thought it was in a pretty good spot,,,there was about 30 steps to get up to the others :-)
Big fireplace,,,we made with piano hinges,,,plywood,,,paint and nails,,tables and chairs (benches) room for all,lot of bean bags,,we actually had a few dances in there it was so big,,,the living room and the dinning rooms where connected,,,it was the cheapest way to go,,at that time,,,no one wanted to buy furniture that would be taken by a single person later on,,,it would have been all busted up any way HA!

" Back to the church on the river. "

Carol -- if there is a church better than than the church of the river, I'd like to know what it is.....

Sturge:

Following one of yesterday's status reports, I had wondered who or what the Halyburton was named after. Thanks for motivating me to check it out...it appears to be this WWII hero...

USS HALYBURTON (FFG-40), an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, is a ship of the United States Navy named for Pharmicist's Mate Second Class William D. Halyburton, Jr. (1924-1945). Halyburton was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism while serving with the 5th Marines, during the Battle of Okinawa.

http://www.halyburton.navy.mil/site%20pages/history.aspx

Just got back from borrowing a grease gun to grease the stearing cable on the boat. God is ending the day with sunshine and calm water.

little boat attached to little wharf. Pic didn't come out too well because the sun is starting to set.

http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu286/cithorn/100_0104.jpg

Sweet Ct! Are those birch trees on the other side of the river?

"Mae West ,,would have put it sorta like this,,,,,is that a seal in your pocket...or are you just happy to Sea me, (^_~)"

LMAO!

Carol -- that looks like paradise!

It is farther over there than it looks in the pic. I know there are pines, cypress and lots of others. Sorry to say I don't know if there are any birch. Have to bring a tree book and get closer.

He's a pisser!
Ct- whatever they are, it looks idyllic.

"ike many life-long Catholics, I simply ignore the Vatican.."

I think that makes you a Presbyterian.

"I think that makes you a Presbyterian." m'lord

Ahhh the frozen chosen

Ah...sorry. Lord Bloggington is doing his best to restrain himself on this holiest of holidays. Can't the infidels save their blasphemy until Tuesday?

Headlines at ESPN and CNN tonight:

ESPN: Pittsburgh Pirates lose!

CNN: Somali Pirates lose!

I am in love with this story:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/04/10/woody.harrelson.zombie/index.html

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219100

KGC --

I thought I was full, but now I'm hungry again.

No one else playing "Fantastic Contraption"? It's awesome. Difficult, though.

Ivy

I love that site and spend too much time there

Patsi,,,,how was the little toculla today?did Maria have a nice day?
toculla means friend ,,,sometimes when a man sees another Mexican man,,that share the same names,,,they call each other tocallo,,,little Maria met a lady that shares her name,,,and called her toculla,,,that means that they are already good friends,,,it sounds more like tokio,,tokia.

Carol,,,,,very nice place,BUT,,you are missing just ONE thing tho.

What is that Solar. A hot tamale?

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219138

KGC --

I was wondering about the recipes, but then I saw you just click on the photos until you get there. I'm not much of a cook, more of a heater-upper, but I could be tempted by these...or get hubs to make them, he's the chef in our family and he loves to try things.

tokio,,tokia.is not right,,,that should be tokaio,,,,tokaia,,,,,,

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219142

I haven't actually made anything from the site but I've seen somethings that have given me ideas and I love the photos.

It's good to have a chef in the family especially one that likes to try things

http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2009/04/dc-spring-in-photos.html#comment-219134

Should have driven a stake through the zombie. It's one thing to stalk a celebrity, but not when they have their children along. That is one aread where I believe there out to be a law. The children didn't do anything to earn that kind of harrassment.

Those gnocchi look good. Too bad the recipe is in Italian.

Solar aka Hot Tamale -- My friend Rosa Maria says it's "tocalla" -- and I haven;t had an update about little Maria's Easter....but she's been on a roll lately.

Wishing you all a good night. I am headed to bed with my Birds and Blooms. Maggie is bushed. I really enjoyed your company today. All you eggs made my Easter happy.

Patd - you're right. I do have a good memory for a lot of things. It has scared people at times. A guy I knew once told me that he had some money hidden away cuz he figured he and his wife might get divorced some day, and he didn't want to share. Several years later they did split up, and I asked him (rather jokingly) if his wife ever found that money. He became very very pale and his eyes almost fell out of his head.

Patsi - glad to know you share my belief that Burke is a strong writer. I so enjoy Cletus Purcell - wish I had just a tiny dash of his insanity. Not much, granted, just a tiny tiny bit.

Carol - I understand what you mean about having too much work stuff to read, but this is truly a worrisome
situation. Every year the percent of the population that reads for enjoyment goes down, and that is a terrible sign. I watch our kids at work and building their homes and families and positively cringe. They do not have time to read, but they have to.

I borrowed three paperbacks from a friend when I had nothing at all to read last week, read one, and got news that one of my reserved books had arrived at the library. By the time I got there, I had three waiting. I'm reading one, have 2 more left, plus the two I borrowed, and I'm in hog heaven.

My sisters read a lot, also. I have discovered in me a tendency to become mean and nasty - and I really mean that - when I go for more that a day without reading. I snap and growl at people.

Please, please, Carol - give it a try. You tell me any kind of book you would like to read and I'll find it for you.

Sturge = that reminds me. I suggested a book to you and you said you might give it a chance. I'm waiting with bated breath to see if you have and, if so, what you thought of it. It's historical fiction in medieval Scotland, and a few other countries, by the name of Game of Kings. I would suggest it to everybody here, but I have a hunch that Sturge might like it best. I am in thrall to this series and would love to find anybody else who loves it too - it is not your average book.

Well, I've been trivial enough myself, I guess. Carol - I'm glad you ran from that storm. We did all the time in St Louis!

Carol -- I think you were smart to head out away from the approaching storm. You just never know about those things. Problem is, they can turn in an instant.

Sea - did you notice that I sent you an email re the packages and their success?