The New Era of Partitionship

Caves of Steel over American cities, I kind of remember reading about that...I think there is a movie too.

You don't see the elephants in the room : the Northern border and the coasts. But hey, the US Coast Guard has twin-barrelled machine guns on their boats stationed in Great Lakes, we should all feel safer.

Reminds me of Maxwell Smart's Cone of Silence.

TBG, I think of the cone of silence often, my active 5 year old could use a cone of silence at times or me I am not picky.

Thanks TGB
The thought of the Cone of Silence made me almost spit up my coffee.Was that the first glimpse of the comic genius that is Mel Brooks.

Plus I always had a secret crush on 99.

You know, this is a pretty funny* Kit, considering the past two days' Canadian Boodle.

________________________
*Or not.

Re. the Cone of Silence, the good news is you can now get the entire Get Smart series.

The bad news is it's $200US.

Excellent ideas, Joel, and every one is urgently needed. We don't have time to go through the process of putting the projects up for bid; we better just let Haliburton handle the whole deal.

I propose a National B-2 Alarm Clock, to be built in D.C. It will be invisible and very large, and set to alert only Congress at 3:45 a.m. every time someone proposes to restart the draft. They will rush down to Congress, cut taxes for the top 1%, and vote for 50 more B-2 bombers, which nobody asked for, and then the following day assure everyone the military is now "more prepared."

As well, I propose a MegaBoom generator. Located in West Virginia (there you go), it will go off about once a year at 4:30 a.m., and while everyone is asking "what the heck was THAT?" Congress will know to rush down to vote for another government-paid pension buyout so another bankrupt airline can quickly become robust and buy its largest competitor - that is, right after the FOLLOWING megaboom.

The thinking behind "The Wall" reminds me a bit of the thinking behind the Reagan-era "Strategic Defense Initiative." Much like The Wall, SDI was a simple solution to a tricky problem that probably wouldn't have worked very well. Nevertheless, both sound good to many because of the irrational isolationism that is a big part of the American national consciousness. I've always blamed this on those big oceans we have on both sides, and the fact that many people who came here did so to get away from the rest of the world, and are a bit paranoid about being followed.

At least the R&D related to the SDI project (or the Star Wars project as it was aptly nicknamed) most likely led to some great technological advances.

What are we going to get from wall building? New Uses for Cinder Blocks Besides College Dorm Shelving?

>are a bit paranoid about being followed

I thought there was something funny about the nice Jehovah's Witness ladies who just came to the door...

Hey Joel, you forgot the Mississippi Canyon project that removes essential building material for the walls from right next to the Mississippi river, building a big back-up canyon to divert the Mississsippi from the Gulf (located somewhere north of Baton Rouge) in case of hurricanes or just politics.

This is projected to be the next wonder of the US. What Nature did to the Grand Canyon, we can do better. If only if it wasn't just so darned muddy out there.

Texans however are trying to lobby for the Mississippi canyon to redirect water to Texas. Oklahomans will support this if the canyon is dug AROUND texas, following its borders, saying that Texas is as great or a greater danger to America than Mexico, citing certain politicans as evidence.

Some Texas republicans think waterboarding all illegal immigrants coming over the border is a great idea, so they are lobbying for a Great Wall of America AND a Great Ha Ha* of Texas to be formed along the Tex-Mex border.

------------------
* A Ha Ha is a ditch dug as a barrier, to avoid ruining lovely views with pesky fences or intruders.

TBG, the Mississippi Canyon project would enable us to study how wildlife exploits a new niche. It'd also provide freshly turned earth for a lot of species that depend on natural disturbances to germinate. We'd have vertical habitat for wildlife. It'd be the upside-down skyscraper for critters.

Not to mention the nice touch about taking the pressure off the dams and dikes in New Orleans altogether.

Of course, this is the "up side"-- the reality would be much muddier, less pretty, and a depressing display of our so-called power.

But we'd learn how to terraform Mars from working out Texas way, for sure.

Can we create some sort of permanent tidal wave off the east and west coasts, say at the international waters limit, to discourage approaches by sea? We could cut passes through, like Moses, for sanctioned shipping, since all our manufacturing is overseas now.

No worry about the northern border, guys. We're just going to annex Canada, with a second wall around Quebec. Carry on.

Seriously, I fear the Wall will mean more illegally-entering workers will die of heatstroke hidden in the backs of trucks, which as we all know, are waved through customs unchecked on a regular basis.

The idea of the wall is full of holes, from the simple idea of the 13-foot ladder to tunnels to the fact that motorboats also exist in Mexico. An expanded guest worker program, some amnesties granted under condition of turning in document forgers to our authorities, (greencards for tattletales?) and some adjustments in what American businesses must do to verify workers' legality; these are needed more than the danged wall.

Not to mention some changes in the habit of Mexican authorities of killing their local labor activists.

Ivansmom, that's actually one of our conditions for joining the Union.

I could have swore we were taking them over, SofC. Did I miss a memo?

Phase 4 dr, lull them into false sense of superiority. :-)

Good evening, friends. We just got back from the lake, and of course, made the stop at Burger King. Just a little tired and sleepy. My grandsons wanted to fish, and did not catch anything.

It would be nice if perhaps in all this fencing in and isolating ourselves, perhaps we might be able to put up a decent system in New Orleans so the next time we have a hurricane, just maybe we won't have a disaster like Katrina. I suspect it will be business as usual even with the fence.

Pat, it really is beautiful out today, and warm, although there is a slight breeze. Sky is Carolina blue as far as the eyes can see.

Hopefully we can go to church tomorrow if everyone is still around. I need a nap, so sleepy. I truly hope everyone is enjoying their weekend, long weekend. Peace and joy, blessings and gifts, love and kindness, all part of God loving us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

I must admit that there is an attraction to technological solutions. Problems such as immigration, global warming, parallel parking, and the alarming fecundity of certain celebrities who clearly lack any parental aptitude doubtless have non-technical solutions. But the technical ones seem so much more compelling to me.

Maybe it's a guy thing. I mean, I once sketched out a sensor-activated motorized toilet seat because in some weird sense designing and building such a contraption would be "easier" than remembering to put the seat down.

dr, that was just a lead in to see if we could get a cut rate for a wall.

I mean, the Russians are out of the game; all of their wall specialists are in oilfield technology in Kamchatka now.

If the U.S. is going to be the centre of excellence in wall and associated containment strategies, we might as well see if we can get some spin off benefits.

SoC, perhaps we could corneer the market on the spray paint that will be used for graffiti on the wall?

>I must admit that there is an attraction to technological solutions.

You know, I have one simple request...and that is to have sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads.

TBG - You mean you are only supposed to use cinder block shelves in college?

No wonder my wife gets so testy whenever I redecorate.

Here we are with almost failsafe plan for the Canadian invasion (piece of cake, anyone?), and you all go talking about it!

RD, as long as you use that kind with the flower shape inside I don't see why she'd mind.

Although this does bring back memories, doesn't it?

http://www.utexas.edu/student/housing/images/1986Carothers16.jpg

What's the difference between a fort and a fortress.

Sorry Yoki, I will hand in my membership in the Laura Secord Society of Ordinary Citizens for Espionage.

Too late, Yoki! Last summer I took a class in animal communication and my labs told me the whole thing . . . right after a visit from the pizza delivery guy.

It might have been wise to choose a less-forthcoming breed as your advance troops.

Boko... I think a fortress is a female fort.

"If We Did It," built a wall along our southern border, why not go for the least expensive, low-tech solution? Why should members of Congress have to roll up their sleeves and take off their Armani jackets and go trouble of creating a workable immigration and/or guest worker plan?

Why not gardeners instead of guns, agaves instead of video surveillance, fleshy brambles instead of border patrol agents?

Let's plant a half-mile swatch of the meanest cacti or succulents known to the devil along our southern borders. Surely this would be doable along the length of the Rio Grande, muy agua aqui. The wall need not be more than five feet high, naturally.

If only politicians would consider historic precedent: How do you think southern Natives kept members of their communities who came down with smallpox in quarantine? It's a stickler of a solution to those Mexicans who have become, politically, such terrible thorns in our sides.

there were some good cartoons about the wall - http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/2006/01/cartoon_roundup_walling_off_me.html

my favorite:
http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/12/21/PH2005122100513.html

TBG - Those shelves certainly do bring back memories. Although the presence of potted plants and the absence of beer bottles make them look far more feminine than any shelves I ever owned, the essential cinderblock spirit shines through.

Further, I cannot help but notice those odd flat rectangular thingies. If memory serves, those were called "records" and encoded music in some archaic way involving scratched plastic. (Although, unlike some so-called "modern" musical storage media, these "records" did economically use both sides.)

Alas, although cinderblock may be eternal, I fear records have passed from the scene.

Which is a real shame because those anti-static guns were a great way to torment snoring roommates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112401369.html

Dutch designer dumps Santa at department store, introduces new direction for December decorations

You know, I read that today Linda, but I saw Santa ALL OVER Target today.

It seems like that article was one big Target press release. Kinda weird for the Washington Post--more like the Today Show.

I am a hero. Tonight at 5 after 11 the bat returned. He's been lurking somewhere in our house for a week or so, and a little while ago started flying around again. My daught er was upstairs in the kitchen and started shrieking, as only she can do. My wife was in bed asleep (until the shrieking, that is), and I was in the TV room reading Joel's kit and watching the start of the movie "Grand Prix" (note to bc: are you watching? Why the hell would they start a 3-hour movie at 10:45, fer cryin' out loud). I opend ths sliding door to the patio and styarted trying to wave him out the door but he wouldn't go for it. My wife joined me, with both os us waving newspapers at him (the pen is mightier than the stake through the heart) but to no avail. My bought a big fishing net for just this emergency, and I ran out to the garage to get it. The bat had stopped flying and was perchec on a curtain rod over my computer. I managed to get the net over him and with the newspaper kept him in it. But then he escaped and started flying around again, but almost immediately I snagged him in the net againand floppd it so he was trapped. Then I took him out back and laid the net down on the table on the patio. If he's still there in the morning, I'll get animal control to come get him to test him.

There's nothing quite like snagging a bat at 11:05 on a Saturday night to get the ol' adrenaline moving and the cardio doing its thing.

We were up in the Napa Valley at my daughter's for Thanksgiving, and I've finally read most of the boodle that I missed.

BigCranky, nouveau beaujolais has been our family's Thanksgiving wine of choice for at least 14 years. But this year was different.

Our daughter and her husband gave us a bottle of Dom Perignon for our anniversary in the summer when we were last up at their house. They didn't GIVE it to us, they just placed it in the room where we were sleeping. Since we are neither one sparkling wine drinkers, and since they didn't say it was a gift for us, we left it there.

They brought it back down to us in September. Again, it was unopened, this time because we were all so busy.

So we took it back up this trip! And finally, it was chilled and opened and became our Thanksgiving wine of 2006.

The dessert was pumpkin cheesecake from "Joy of Cooking" -- the edition with the white cover -- most recent, I think. The cheesecake was fantastic, I recommend it to everyone, no reservations, just make it.

I love Thanksgiving with my kids, my son and daughter do most of the cooking anymore, and I step in and shape the rolls we have made for 40 years or so, and then I make the gravy. I love to make gravy. My son cut all the giblets up fine and we put some in the gravy and divided the rest up between my daughter's cat and our dog --- our dog has not eaten well since, I think he is waiting for another bowl of neck meat.

I will make Yoki's Red Cabbage for my husband, whose entire background/ancestry is pure German, altho he and his parents were all born in the US. Just lived in the SE corner of Nebraska where many, many German aliens lived.

I am happy that all my imaginary friends had a good Thanksgiving, and that Curmudgeon captured the bat at last.

Mudge - Sounds like you were involved in some real acro-bat-ics.

Ha! Ha! HaHaHa!

Sheesh.

Where'd I put that darn coffee.

What, no recipe for Bat?

I too thought the Great White North Menace was just a rumor until my wife and I did some Christmas shopping in Bryant Park behind the world famous New York Public Library. Overlooking the ice skating rink, they have constructed an outdoor bar and restaurant called Celsius: A Canadian Lounge. The menu features such Canuckistani regional dishes as chili, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken pot pie, and mac and cheese.

Inside a small seating area, they run continuous loops of Canadian tourism videos and all the waitresses wear ice blue fleece jackets. The coffee drinks came with maple leaf swizzle sticks. The horror, the horror. At least they were ice skating on the rink and not curling.

We need to build that northern wall now before the cultural hegemony from across the Great Lakes is complete.

Back-boodling:

Mudge,
Bat-nabbing doesn't sound like a particularly safe activity. I glad your flying critter is gone, but be careful of the ticker.

dr,
Congrats on the anniversary. Those high-20 numbers are rare nowadays.

yellojkt, what no POUTINE? Thank you for your kind wishes.

Mrdr is going to get a copy of your bat story mudge. I think we may save it for future reference. The use of a fishing net was brilliant, just brilliant. I think it would work for those pesky flying squirrels too. Which is a whole other story.

Yello, that cafe doesn't exactly promote Haute Cuisine from Haute Maine - and no DONUTS?

yellojkt, you need to become a weedguru---that will change you're whole perspective on the Great White North :)

Let's just admit that the new wall is a corporate "make-work" project. I bet you anything, Bechtel has won the contract---to make-up for those projects to re-build Iraq which have little chance to materialize.

note to self: purchase "Stupid White Men" for stocking stuffers!

Mudge, congrats on throwing the bat from your fair territory. It is clear to me that you made the correct call of interference, and ruled it out. A difficult call, but netted the correct result.

If you want to catch what you missed of "Grand Prix", you're welcome to borrow my new 40th anniversary 2-disc DVD set (newly remastered, with lots of nifty featurettes). You can't have too much unmuffled Ferrari V-12 or Eva Marie Saint, IMO. That opening shot still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, particularly in full Surround.

I'd written something on the Adobe Curtain myself, awhile back:

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/?p=72

Gotta admit, the "America Dome" really works, no matter which way you look at it.

bc

The Celsius Lounge is pushing GOURMET Canucki comfort food. The mac and cheese came in it's own crock and covered with bread crumbs. The grilled cheese was panini-style. The pot pie was loaded with chicken. We didn't try it, but they also had fondue. Fondue is classy, right?

Your mention of the small crock pot, reminds me of my moms homemade Onion soup, with french bread and cheese on top. She would prepare the bread and cheese at the end in individual pots and grill them under to boiler. Wonderful on a cold day.

Speaking of cold days, we've got one here. A little mixed rain and snow is coming down, but I don't care because I don't have to go anywhere (else) today. When I took my kiddo to the airport at 4 am, it had just started to rain/snow.

Didn't our intrepid Sara catch a bat with a waste basket? Good thinking. My sister wound up with a cracked window when her neighbor helped her evict a bat with a broom (her 3 cats were no help whatsoever).

We have the opposite today mostly, sunny and close to 60F, not typical November weather, it is supposed to last until the end of the week and then reality - closer to what you are experiencing now.

-26F here today; it would be snowing, except instead we have ice fog - clouds really are hard!

Well, we are home again, having survived the holiday and then a trip to the mountains to get a Christmas tree. Hubby is keen on cutting his own, and he likes to get there early. (We have been known to go the weekend BEFORE Thanksgiving, to ensure we have the best selection.)

We picked a farm not too far from town to visit. One parks, checks in at the barn, and takes the hayride to the mountainside where trees are being cut. This one was 150 yards down the hillside, steep enough that going down was just as bad a coming back up. Hubby found a nice tree and cut it. Fortunately no one injured a limb or fell out from cardiac distress during the adventure, so all was well.

We kept the twins yesterday so that brother and sister in law could go to a football game in Raleigh. The energy with two six year olds is about ten times what it is with one. We went to the Christmas parade (always a hoot in a small town) and out to supper, then found a movie on the Hallmark Channel on Santa getting married, and stayed up way too late. As a result, I'm way tired...will sleep well tonight!

Slyness that sounds like a wonderful time.

I think Loomis's idea is brilliant, cheap and workable -- even without using illegal immigrant labor (who's going to build that wall again?). A cactus fence is perfectly suited to the southern border. Either the Canuckistanis will insidiously invade us (if they haven't already) or we'll annex them, fixing the northern border. We'll have them build giant ice walls, assuming global warming allows, on their Arctic rim. With the permanent tidal waves and the America Globe, we should be covered.

Or perhaps we could just wall off the White House and the Capitol, and the rest of us could go about our business.

In Boodle comment, Cassandra, I'm so glad you got to see your grandsons for the holiday. RD, we still have a bunch of those round scratchy things -- called "vinyl". The Boy is about the only kid in his age group who has heard "vinyl" played on a "turntable" (yes, we have one of those too). Curmudgeon, many congratulations regarding catching the Bat. That's a real accomplishment, and one I'm sure you'll be using again. What, you didn't think it is permanently gone, did you? After all, it got in once.

Sky report: Peculiar. The sky is gray gray, and it feels damp. The wind is strong, but not fierce. What with the bare branches and hanging leaves, it LOOKS very cold. However, the temperature is temperate, almost 70 degrees, and we're not going to get any rain. It is actually quite pleasant, if breezy.

Slyness,
We used to go cut our Christmas tree, too, but haven't done that for quite awhile. Glad no one got hurt! I remember falling into a stream when we did that when I was a little kid. Last year we had a small, live tabletop tree, that's now in a bigger pot outside. I'd be satisfied with a fragrant wreath, but my husband likes having a tree (but we have no room for one).

I saw the last part of that movie too - it was kind of cute. I like the sappy Hallmark productions, and I tear up at the commercials, although I forget about the channel most of the time.

If the government just has the good sense to Google fencing ---

Great Aluminum Fence
Wholesale pricing! Ships direct. Lifetime Warranty. Online Store.
www.GreatFence.com

Gates - Automatic, Manual
Wrought iron & wood Gates and Fence Driveway - Front House - Garden etc
www.ATDlock.com/gates.php

Jerith at wholesale price
5% price Guarantee on Jerith, Free Shipping to the East or West Coast
www.Fences4Less.Com

A few years back I would have killed for the wrought iron fence franchise in DC as the gummint busily built fences around every piece of land it owned. I heard an urban rumor that the major supplier was South African. Not idea as to the veracity.

Out on our high-priced barrier island, the utterly tasteful polo community of Windsor (which has actually been visited by one or more members of the Windsor family) has a new neighbor: a pseudo-Tuscan monster house painted dump truck orange, surrounded by a massive masonry fence, also dump truck orange. I would have preferred Xterra Yellow or maybe Element avocado green. Or maybe Real Tree (TM) custom camouflage to make the whole thing disappear.

Some of those massive single-family-home gates are pretty impressive. I'd love to see a Land Rover impaled by a malfunctioning gate. Preferably at the hood, not the passenger compartment.

Good evening,friends. Just got in, and got my crew on their way back home. I still have the g-girl. I have been so busy running around doing stuff, just so tired, but happy tired.

Slyness, I know exactly what you're talking about. I, too, should sleep good tonight.

The weather here today was almost hot. I needed a fan at church.

Once again, I do hope your holiday was good, and loving, all those good adjectives. G-girl and I are ready to hit the sack. For many of you, it's back to work tomorrow. A long weekend, long gone, but we have those lovely memories. Peace, love, joy, and only good things to all, knowing that in this life, and the life to come, God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Mudge, I'm glad you were the hero, and caught that bat.

Thanks, Ivansmom.

Perhaps it doesn't rate up there with the significant technical achievements highlighted in the kit, but today I put up the outdoor Christmas lights. My wife and I have several long-standing philosophical disagreements regarding this matter.

First is the question of quantity. She is of the "tasteful accent" school of thought. I advocate "visible from space." That my preferred level of season illumination occasionally results in a massive circuit breaker failure seems reasonable and prudent to me. She disagrees. We have compromised on a quantity that, while strikingly conspicuous, is still entirely consistent with the electrical constraints of our home. (Although, to be safe, simultaneous operation of multiple hair-dryers is strongly discouraged.)

Then there is the vexing issue of chromaticity. My wife feels that white lights would give the house a sophisticated look, while I feel that in this context the term "sophisticated" would mean "resembling Macy's." I feel that the season demands brightly colored lights. Preferably blinking. We have reached an uneasy truce. I decorate the tree in our front yard with white lights, while the house itself is festooned with multicolored merriment. (She refuses to budge, however, on the issue of blinking.)

And the animatronic glowing Santa Claus is right out.

RD, I am laughing, I did our lights last week, we were second on the street with them on, there is not a lot, just a string on the front balcony and a red ligh highlighting a clump of trees. This weekend with the nice weather about five or six neighbours put up their lights, we look like scrooge in comparison - we shall take up the challenge!!

FYI - we have heavy pressure from the kids for one of those inflatable globes that spray fake snow on the inside and have a revolving carosel- so far I am holding out. You would think they would be happy with an interior that looks like a Christmas store - I need to learn restraint - good thing I make most of it so it keeps costs down.

RD... we have some favorite houses that, year after year, outdo themselves in holiday merriment. I think we'll have to add yours to our tour this year.

There is a house out Braddock Rd, in the Hampton Forest neighborhood, whose yard is completely filled with air-filled Christmas characters.

If you happen to see it when the air pumps are turned off, the one expression that comes to mind as you gaze on the deflated population is, "oh.. the humanity."

TBG, there is one particular house in my town we visit every christmas, their estimated hydro bill for the month is 1000-1500 dollars. The house is cover and they have a series of animations that work on a time secence so that each display gets its moment to shine and then fades off for a few minutes, it is always very busy in front of the house but brings a lot of happiness to people (other than the next door neighbours).

This is really embarrassing

SCC dmd re 7:37

TBG - I think I know where you mean. Also, I am always impressed with that large illuminated tree along Braddock close to the Pizza Hut.

My neighborhood does have some nice displays. In comparison mine is quite tame. I wonder if some of these people hire professionals?

Hmm, professional Christmas people. Makes you think. I could just hire someone to do those those traditional, though exhausting, Christmas things like putting up the tree. I could just sit back and sip eggnog and let somebody else get the stinkin' thing straight. Of course, I imagine arguing with my wife about proper ornament location would probably run extra.

RD, I tried a new tack this year, the children placed a great many of the ornaments and my husband put most of his own on the tree (our tree is entirely made up of the ornaments we pick each year or ones that have been given as gifts). After the three became bored I finished, and if something was really out of place I readjusted - but for the most part I left them where they were placed.

It was a great step forward in resolving my christmas tree control issues. Not entirely my own choice, my youngest is always rearranging my Christmas decorations, my life is much calmer if I don't stress about it too much.

That is about the division of labour in our house too. Himself does all the hauling and straightening of tree, stringing of lights, etc. and I offer helpful comments like, "I think the tree might be leaning a little to the left," and "Are the lights on the house evenly spaced?" and "Don't spill water on the hardwood floors."

I just flew in (and, boy, are my arms tired!) so I haven't yet caught up on th comments, but:

I'm completely in favor of any policy that leads to more of "Bob's Fences"!

After all, $6B large is only about 20 bucks each, right?

Ooops, "Bob's Barricades".

RD, the displays I like best mix white with color. I'd probably go for at least one colored light masterpiece surrounded by white stuff, then backed up by your merry house.

I like blinking lights, especially those that alternate colors. Just as long as you can't hear the music looking at them (I understand that gets annoying after a while).

One year I didn't even bother with a tree, I just hung a long string of tiny, blinking Christmasy lights on the wall in the shape of a tree and enjoyed.

It's very nice hung all around the room if the tree is already up with lights, too. It's just so cheerful, which counts for a lot more than chilly taste.

(My favorite setting is the one that plays a variety of songs rather than one song over and over again).

rd, i have to endorse your wife's no blinking policy.

however, i would make exceptions for certain forms of madness:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LqExHV99iPQ
(wizards of winters xmas light display, if you've never seen it)

if any of the geeks among us would like to know how the light display was done, or are looking for a new hobby, read more here:

http://www.wonderlandchristmas.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=45

The house across the street from where we had Thanksgiving dinner already had Christmas wreaths underneath each window on the front of the house. We all expressed our disapproval of such an early display. They are pretty wreaths, though.

RD,

There are a couple of houses near me that go for a highly ostentatious display of Christmas lights. One sets them up on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. I knew the family that lived next to them and they hated the damn thing. They are on a corner lot and have lots of lights as well as blow-up dolls. ("Oh Santa, I never knew you cared....") The other house has long lines of lights covering the tall trees in the yard and along the ground as well as the from the roof of the house down to the lawn. The entire lot glows. Their neighbors must worry about getting sunburned.

I haven't been by there yet this year, but the house on the corner of Memorial St. & S. Kings Highway (I guess that would be in southwest Alexandria, VA) has always has a fascinating display. I'll check it out sometime in the bext couple of days and give you a report, if no one else has done it first.

(A Google-Map link to the place is below)

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=6634+S+Kings+Hwy,+Alexandria,+VA+22310&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=38.77851,-77.089005&spn=0.016828,0.042915&iwloc=addr

There's a mill town in the next county over that does Christmas in a big way, with the mill paying the electric bill for the whole down in the month of December. All the lights are red, green, white, and yellow. It's a destination, and you'd better go early or be prepared to wait an hour in line to drive through. Best display I've ever seen.

Hubby is so into Christmas, it's amazing. I've alluded to the quest for the perfect Christmas tree (in NC it is ALWAYS a Fraser fir). That is but one of sixteen he puts up. Twelve 2 foot trees line our front walk, two four foot trees flank the front door. He also has a special four-foot tree for the den (the perfect Christmas tree goes in the living room). On that one are red lights and the ornaments from his home town. Lighted wreaths hang from each window, and a single candle shines below them. The wreath on the front door is illuminated by a Moravian star. I must admit it looks lovely, and he's gotten many compliments on it.

And then there is the Snow Village. It currently is put up on a four by eight piece of plywood and is about to overwhelm that space. I have to move all my plants in the sunroom for it. I don't so much mind putting it out, that's creative and fun, but putting it up is a royal pain...

No wonder Christmas wears me out!

Slyness that sounds just beautiful, I am envious. I love Fraser Firs as well, my whole life finding the right tree was a big family ritual. But over the years I had increasing problems with allergies to the trees, the needles would leave welts when I put the lights on and decorated and eventually I ended up getting brocchittis almost every Christmas. The last few years I bought Fraser Firs as the needles didn't irritate my skin, but the allergies persisted.

When I got the dog I bought a fake tree, I bought the nicest one I could afford, and it already has the lights on it.

I still miss a real tree but am healthy so the trade off works and the tree has fooled a few people. Outside I use real greenery, evergreen bows in urns until spring and cedar garlands.

We don't put up outside lights, but I like them. A few blocks away, there are a number of RV's parked on the street that people decorate. And I like to go by the marinas to see the lights on boats. Bellevue Botanical Gardens has a beautiful display of lights that look like flowers, butterflies, etc - and rain just enhances their effect.
http://www.bellevuebotanical.org/events/fmevents_current.htm

BTW, we've got a couple of inches of snow in the yard, nothing in the streets so far. Farther north and in the mountains the snow's been quite a mess.

dmd, I love the thought of greenery in urns till spring! The decoration that pleased me the most last Christmas was a couple of sprigs of holly with berries and a couple of sprigs of rosemary in a vase on my kitchen table. The rosemary sprouted and I planted it in a pot for my younger daughter.

Both of my next door neighbors have their lights out already. One has a reindeer drinking from a pond. I can't compete with that. Here's my blog post from last year:

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2005/12/light-peer-pressure.html

The guy on the end moved and I have no clue if the new owner will keep up the tradition, but I hope not.

I feel like Scrooge next to all of you!

I haven't decorated for a few years inside, but last year I bowed to neighborhood peer pressure and strung lights on the trees in the front yard (both of 'em). I liked them, but as I drove around tonight and saw massive displays I thought, "How much energy could we be saving here?" I do plan to decorate inside this year.

A few years ago, when I had a Victorian, I thoroughly decorated the interior. One year I got persistently sick in January. I didn't have the energy to take it down until July, and then I figured *what the heck* and left it up. People thought it was my decorating scheme, and I was astonished when one friend who'd been over a lot came over on Thanksgiving and excaimed, "You've already got everything up! How did you do that?" After a year, I was tired of it, and decided I either had to redo it all or just take it down in January (which I did).

Today was my birthday. I saw some friends, talked with more, made a lot of jewelry for the show next week. My car wouldn't start, yada, yada, yada, but it's working again. I think I'm going to use a lot of bath salts and relax.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. It's nice that so many people are back!

happy birthday, dbg!

your xmas decorating story made me lol.

Good morning, friends. Happy Birthday to you, dbg, and many more, but not that they show. I feel like Scrooge too. Last year my sister allowed me to use some of her Xmas stuff so we could put something up for the g-girl. I like looking at the Christmas decorations, but loathe putting that stuff up and taking it down. When my children were young, I did it every year, with a passion, while working crazy hours.

Have to head out early this morning. I have to get my walking back in form. With the company, have not been able to walk much, just a little.

Have a good day, folks, even though it's Monday. God is good, even more so on Mondays, and always remember that God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

I've read that a groom in New York was killed by the police, and a neighborhood seems to be in an uproar about it. According to the news, he was shot so many times, and so were some others. And Rev. Sharpton is marching with protestors, calling for the firing of the police commissioner. It has to be a sad thing for a bride to have her husband-to-be killed on their wedding day.

Morning all! *wave*

Haven't even backBoodled yet, so I'll just say hey, and hope this holiday weekend was a good one all around!

:-)

RD says, "I could just hire someone to do those those traditional, though exhausting, Christmas things like putting up the tree."

Those people are called your "grown children." That was my job for years. I would say that it was unpaid, except for the raising me part.

Oh yeah.. and the college education, the free daycare for my kids, the dinners and groceries when I was poor, the lifetime of love.....

Every year "S" and I drive around looking for the worst Christmas light display we can find, the tackier the better. Our current favorite is a house we saw two years ago. It was a large house in an upscale neighborhood with a big palladium window over the front door. Situated in not quite middle of it was a big, inflatable Santa. All of their windows were outlined on the inside with white lights, but the outlining was crooked. The effect was rather sad in a way.

I'm old fashioned when it comes to decorating the outside of the house with lights. I like white ones, can't stand blinking ones and think that less is more. That said, I don't think we will do any lights outside and we don't have enough windows to make a candle display interesting. I will decorate the inside, but finding suitable new places for things will be a challenge. We are debating where to put the tree, as we don't really have a good spot for it. My favorite thing to decorate is the mantel. There will be nutcrackers, snowglobes,greenery and tiny white lights, and of course, stockings.

Looks like the stores have almost all red poinsettias this year, plus a few whites. The odd lavendars and purples are gone. Evidently, they didn't sell.

These varieties were all developed for the seasonal trade. I wonder if anyone's bothered to develop a poinsettia specifically for use as a yard plant.

In Jacksonville, Fla., some houses in older neighborhoods had masses of big poinsettias. Every year, it was sort of a game to see if they'd freeze before Christmas. Of course they usually froze to the ground by the end of winter, then regrew the following spring and summer.

Perhaps, in a seasonal twist on Loomis's suggestion of barrier cacti, we could create an impenetrable wall of Poinsettias along the southern boundary. (Maybe accented with some lovely Amaryllis for a nice bi-level effect.)

And not too expensive.

Dave, I was at the a store yesterday that had a good selection of pointsetta, not sure if it is a regional thing or not, but lots of varieties here. The splash ones are popular, also saw a gold variety, I like the burgundy ones myself.

I have never seen lavender ones, they sound nice, I love lavender flowers

Over the weekend I started reading a book called "Fifty-Acres and a Poodle," by Post writer Jeanne Marie Laskas. I usually don't read much fiction; especially what some might consider "chick lit," but I enjoy her columns so I am giving it a shot. Besides, after the gruesome "11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month" I read just prior (over 10,000 killed on the last frickin' day of the war - *after* the Armistice had been signed) I needed a change of pace.

Anyway, in her book Ms. Laskas mentions something called a "multiflora rose," a plant originally propagated as an impenetrable living fence. This made me think, assuming one accepts the wisdom of a southern barrier, that maybe there really is something to Loomis's notion of an organic barrier.

Emergency Retraction! I suddenly realized that I may have slandered Ms. Laskas by calling her book fiction and "chick lit." Her book is a memoir.

Couple of quick items here:

I heard about that shooting in New York, tragic.

Any Christmas lights display can be made better by blasting music from the Trans Siberian Orchestra, IMO. Hey, I liked those guys when they were called Savatage.

I think we missed an opportunity to sell the naming rights to the America Dome.
But to who?
"The McDonald's America(n) Dome"?
"The ExxonMobil America Dome"?
"The Hummer America Dome"?
"The Chevy Thunder Dome"?
Oh, wait -- I think I've got it:
"The Phizer Viagra Lipitor GeodonDome"

bc

bc - I think the "Rogaine Dome" might have possibilities.

Interesting article on a study about clouds in the arctic and climate change.

Apparently these clouds are not as hard as scientist thought.

http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/27/tech-cloud.html

As far as hiring professionals to install christmas lights, there are compaines that do just that:

http://www.christmasdecor.net/index.php

I prefer the small but tasteful display rather than becoming a visual navigation beacon for interstellar travel, but I have children and a wife who are into profligate displays of photon generation.

At least the weather was nice for crawling around the roof.

bc

bc... That website is great! I love the testimonials and the sample displays.

It almost looks like a parody.

The Canadian link

http://www.christmasdecor.ca/

Found this program the CBC is hosting, Canada reads,

"The CBC Radio One series features five panellists, each a winner in one of the past five years, who have suggested a book they believe all of Canada should read.

Musicians Steven Page of the Barenaked Ladies, Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo and John K. Samson of The Weakerthans, author and broadcaster Denise Bombardier and novelist Donna Morrissey will face off against each other to defend their book choices."

Battle of the books!

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2006/11/27/canada-reads.html?ref=rss

About ten years ago I was in Ft. Lauderdale right after Thanksgiving and was amazed by the Christmas light displays on houses, boats and apartment buildings. I know there are companies down there that design and set up the lights. My theory was that because they don't get the type of weather that puts one into a holiday mood, they overcompensate with gaudy lights. But that's just my opinion.

bc, great website, some aren't too overdone, but still wonder what's wrong with simplicity.

About ten years ago I was in Ft. Lauderdale right after Thanksgiving and was amazed by the Christmas light displays on houses, boats and apartment buildings. I know there are companies down there that design and set up the lights. My theory was that because they don't get the type of weather that puts one into a holiday mood, they overcompensate with gaudy lights. But that's just my opinion.

bc, great website, some aren't too overdone, but still wonder what's wrong with simplicity.

"Rogaine Dome" - that's good, RD.

SCC, 9:26 AM: please replace "generation" with "emission".

I tried to throw Heisenberg into the argument, saying that my family could see a lot more Christmas photons if they just collapsed the probability waves and just believed they were there, but my wife refuted me by reminding me that since photons are massless, Heisenberg's Uncertainty equations do not apply.

She handed me a couple of armfuls of outdoor lights, pointed me towards the ladder (with a swift kick to the backside) and reminded me that I was risking Pauli exclusion from the Fock state and that she and she alone would determine the Bose-Einstein statisics for determining the number and behavior of said Christmanic photons.

bc

Agave thorns as perforators:

http://archaeology.asu.edu/tm/pages2/mtm16.htm

Also:

http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH200/women/kahlo.html

In Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, Kahlo mixes indigenous Aztec tradition with Christian imagery. The thorn necklace echoes Christ's Crown of Thorns while at the same echoes Aztec practices where priests performed self-mutilation with agave thorns and stingray spines. (Crickey!)

Of course, an agave barrier may have an outcome similar to a well-known Joel Chandler Harris story, but who knows? I say give it a try.

Maybe we can blind our enemies with holiday lighting. I enjoy seeing other people's outdoor light displays but feel no need to have any on our house. Ivansdad thinks we should have lights. The last couple of years he has snuck up on the roof to outline the front part of the house with one of those cascading things of white light. It blinks. He did it again last week. I don't really mind except for the blinking part.

This is funny because Ivansdad is not much of a Christmas person, and over the years I've had to drag him into Christmas traditions. Next week (Advent, folks, it starts next week, no decorations before then!) I'll get the poinsettias for the entryway divider and put out some other decorations. We won't put up a tree until much nearer Christmas. Ivansdad is allergic to cedar, so has to come along and make sure we choose something he won't sneeze at. I like to keep the poinsettias all year with the other plants; usually at least one lasts through, but never turns red again. This is because I'm a very poor gardener.

Speaking of poinsettias, one has yet to think of a third Joel: Joel Roberts Poinsett, much discussed in Nathaniel Philbrick's "Sea of Glory."

Mrdr always waits for the coldest day before Christmas to put up the outdoor lights. I'm not sure how he does it. apparently the -25C of this weekend was not cold enough.

Indoors, I rule. Some years I do a lot of decorating, and some years, its just the tree. I do fake trees for convenience. We travel over the holidays and there is nothing sadder than coming home to a dried up spruce. One tree is all colours, gold, red, lots of little family ornaments and things the kids made me, and one is red, silver and white, with lots of fancy schmany crocheted ornaments. My mother in law gave me many ornaments over the years made by herself, and I'm just expanding on it.

I wish I had the time to put up the Christmas light yesterday. I think I will go for the light tree this year; I haven't done it for a couple of years. I use those diode-illuminated tube you can attach together to make long strings. Then I tie-wrap the strings on the main branches of a deciduous tree to reproduce the shape of the tree in colourful lights. I eschew the China-made reindeer, candy cane, snowmen and the like. One guy in a nearby McMansion has made a Home Depot run and bought five of everything they had in the store including those inflatable things. This is ugly beyond belief but this is strangely appropriate for his expensive and soulless home.
But ya know this was a regular weekend for us on the other side of the Smirnoff Ice Barrier (TM), slogan "It Float!", so time was limited. I choose to put up the temporary shed, put the hoses and garden furniture away, mow the lawn/pick-up the leaves a last time, planted the drive-way posts for the snow plow, installed the winter wheels on one of the cars, drove a kid twice 40km to a volleyball tournament and another one once 25 km to a tetrathlon, etc. The usual.

Please let me snugly announce that my alma mater now reigns supreme in Canadian college football. Making those kids play in -20°C/-4°F temperature (chilling factor was officially pegged at "ball freezing") seemed like a cruel and unusual punishment though. This hardy crowd also missed the show usually offered by Laval's spectacular offence. The kickers said it was like booting a rock. http://www.universitysport.ca/e/story_detail.cfm?id=8130

SCC It Floats, the ice barrier that is.

thought I'd poke my head in and drop this link from NYTimes -- relevant to a few boodle discussions a few weeks ago.

cheers everyone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/27/opinion/27Shweder.html

Bob S.,

Your 9:24 post last night is one of the two houses I was talking about. The other is on Collingwood Road about a quarter mile west of Ft. Hunt Road.

dr, I too have known the joys of putting up exterior decorations in the bitter cold. I try to pretend that the festive ambience of the proceedings is in some way enhanced by the threat of imminent frostbite.

Yes. We've lost more lives in some imaginary vengance than in the original incident.

I was going to post a comment about how I really hope nobody decides to hire christmas light decorators AND firework experts to set up big fireworks display on Xmas eve (forget New years' ;).

A foreign friend once asked me if there were fireworks for Christmas. Thank god, the answer is still no right now.

(Visualizing a santa statue shot out of a chimney with a flaming tail, and reindeer with firecracker hooves launching a sleigh off the roof....)

Wilbrod, I can't tell how much the visual of the shooting santa amuses me.

Sky report in southern Oregon. Mostly blue sky with the sun shining through thin clouds that are letting down fluffy white snow flakes.

So when do the retailers start putting their Christmas, oops, I meant Holiday stock out on the shelves. The day after Thanksgiving? Halloween? Labor Day? 5th of July yet? Do the stores still call them Christmas trees or are they called Holiday trees?

I don't get out much.

Good Morning to all. I hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend.

Yoki here's Kerrics Mud in your Eye pie recipe.

1 bunch of bananas(5-7 banana's)
1 litre whipping cream
1 cup 1% or 2% milk
2 large chunks of chocolate, I prefer milk chocolate
3 tbsp sugar

mash bananas, mix in cream and blend. add sugar. heat to boil, add milk 1/8 cup at a time. In a separate pot heat chocolate to melt. add 1/8 cup of milk to prevent burning. once cream is thick let stand 5 minutes stirring once. cut in chocolate sauce. place in fridge for min. 1hr. cover with cool whip (I got lazy at this point). Serve chilled. Can be made with chocolate pudding if you want but I like real chocolate.

I'll email it to you at the end of the day Yoki.

Pat, Christmas mania, used to be the day after thanksgiving, although you'll see some stores starting setting out stock a bit early-- there's often not enough seasonal personnel to handle putting out all the merchandise AND dealing with the shoppers. I saw candy canes out right after Halloween. Okay.

Trees tend to come out after thanksgiving, rarely before-- real trees are perishable.

Fireworks for Christmas...hmmmmm. Why didn't *I* think of that? *smacks forehead*

The scene: a quiet manger. Cows lowing in the starlight fields by night. A mother and a sleeping newborn. A single bright star in the east. Three suspicious-looking dudes in turbans and caftans on camels being stopped and frisked by Homeland Security before being rendered to some third-world dungeon for "questioning" (bring your own surfboard). And then...

BAM! KAPOW! BAM-BAM-BAM! POWIE!BOOOOOOOMMMM! KA-BLOOOOOOIE!

INCOMMMMINNNNGGGGGG! Hit the deck!

* people running like hell and diving into trenches and foxholes. A baby wailing and screaming its head off. Homeland Security troops firing machine guns at anything that moves. Camels winnying and bolting, running off into the dunes, one of them dragging a screaming Wise Man whose foot is caught in the stirrup. Elves cowering in workshop shelters and bunkers. Reindeer going berserk and bolting off a rooftop leaving involuntary reindeer poop and Santa cursing a blue streak at them...*

Nothing quite says peace on earth, goodwill toward men as a couple of hundred precision-made Chinese munitions being electronically detonated sequentially from rows and rows of mortar tubes.

Somebody call Michael Eisner. I think we've got ourselves a movie-of-the-week here.

I had something like that flashing through my head when my friend asked me that, yes, minus the guy being dragged by foot in the stirrup.

He's not a christian. But wouldn't that make the Best Christmas Pageant Ever?

And when you think of the mummers tradition, a firecracker or two would definitely add to the mummery script;).

http://www.christmas-time.com/mummers.html

Actually we should update the mummer's script, anyway.

Let's see there's a George that claims credit for killing people, who hates somebody called Bill; A gallant knight called Hector who was slain by George...

Yes, Yes my Lord, I will obey,
And with my sword I mean to win the day
If that be he that does stand there,
That killed my master's son and heir,
Though he be sprung with royal blood,
I'll make it flow enormous flood.

Hmm, nah, this script couldn't possibly be updated to be relevant to American audiences.

Even if the doctor's speech about:

"I have in my pocket crutches for lame ducks
Spectacles for blind bumble bees
And plaisters for broken-backed mice
I cured Saint Harry of an agony
A hundred yards long
So surely I can cure this poor man"

is kinda cute.

Being born and raised in Philadelphia and it suburbs (Philly being home of the Mummers), Wilbrod, I've often thought that the one thing the Mummers needed was...massive doses of lithium. And music lessons. And perhaps counseling or intervention. I don't mean this to sound insensitive, Wilbrod, but until you've heard massed glockenspiels backed up by banjos being played by drunks from South Philly, you just don't know what a blessing it is for you to be hearing-impaired.

I used to have agony from hearing any vocal music growing up when I was only partially deaf-- many deaf people can be more sensitive to loud noises in certain frequencies than people with healthy hearing. (It's called recruitment hearing)

Now I'm stone deaf, I'm very happy indeed that I can be in places with loud music and not continually suppress the urge to take the axe to loudspeakers everywhere. It made school functions sheer misery for me as I had to fight down pain roughly equalivent to the gentle whirring of a dentist's drill in my ears.

At last, I can smile at parties.

I don't understand why hearing people don't take noise pollution more seriously-- it's the leading reason why 1 in 10 Americans have some sort of hearing impairment.

I am of course speaking sheer volume of sound, I can't help you with the lack of musicality of mummer "music" though.

If it's any comfort, I can sing rather badly so anyday you're overcome with homesickness for Philly.

Mind you, there is the distinct chance I might actually sound better than the drunks you remember.

Hmm. There appears to be a new kit. AND it's posted on WaPo home page.

See you all there.

Silly question of the day, what are mummers?

Wilbrod, I think you set something off with your Christmas fireworks idea. I'm seeing Santa rockets, elves with sparklers coming out of their head and ears, exploding packages, flares out of Rudolf's nose that change colors, and think of the fun you can have with one of those toy soldier nutcrackers and a bottle rocket.

If someone can market it, my kids will beg...

THe english tradition is to fill cardboard tubes with a snap (saying), a joke item, and a paper party hat.

(I guess tinfoil could do instead).

http://www.oldenglishcrackers.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1&zenid=745f1a6972592fda18d386d6065675d6