A World on Fire

Surely not first?

Back in sec, going to get everyone.

CP-in response to handwriting query in the last boodle, D'Nealian. Perhaps it was a Dominican order convention that all the nuns at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel were Mary Something.

And BB guns and lawn darts and waxed nostalgia.

reposting from the the previous Boodle:

Morning, all. Thoughts to Martooni.

Cassandra, your 7:50 had me laughing out loud. Though I must say, for me, there can never be enough napping. I would happily spend days and days in bed. Actually, a film-maker friend wants to do a movie of someone spending 5 days in bed, and has determined I am possibly the only subject fit for the experiment. It remains to be seen whether he ever really makes this doc, but I'm up for the challenge if ever he does. No wonder my handle is Yoki!

CP, have you ever read the ingredients list on the box of Magic Erasers? Formaldehyde, melamine -- yikes. I use them, very occasionally, and then wipe every surface again with soap and water and wash my hands. Do *not* want the dogs licking that.

A good (and very funny) history of attitudes in the 40s and 50s can be found in the new Bill Bryson book.

The sunscreen anecdote, fyi, comes from the classic book by Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb.

Tell me who are You in such a fierce form? My salutations to You, O best of gods, be merciful! I wish to understand You, the primal Being, because I do not know Your mission.

The Supreme Lord said: I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy. Even without your participation all the warriors standing arrayed in the opposing armies shall cease to exist.

Therefore, get up and attain glory. Conquer your enemies and enjoy a prosperous kingdom. All these (warriors) have already been destroyed by Me. You are only an instrument, O Arjuna.

Bhagavad Gita, chapter 11, verses 31-33

Remember that most of the proposed answers to the Fermi Paradox (yes, *that* Fermi) tend not to be cheerful ones.

Superpox. Strangelets. Gray Goo. Killer Robots From The Stars. Etc.

Jumper-the library of congress "Treasures" web site has pictures of the test explosion and a quote from Oppenheimer of the Ghagavad Gita
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/trm126.html

Did anyone else love the mid '80s TV series Crime Story with Dennis Farina? Here's the only synopsis I could find of the episode where Pauli (comic relief character) aids the mob boss only to court true disaster-
"After his murder mistrial, Luca clashes with a crime kingpin over plans to split up control of the sinking Luca gambling empire. Pauli changes his mind and rescues Luca from Torello as they hide in a house in the desert, a target site for nuclear testing."

The show was set in '63.

SCC Bhagavad

Off topic, but sort of related.

On April 22, 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres, chemist and future Nobel Prize winner Fritz Haber introduced poison gas to modern warfare, calling it 'a higher form of killing.' Upon his return home, he was promoted for his success (unprecedented for a scientist), and threw himself a party. That night, Haber's wife Clara (also a chemist as well as the first woman PhD at Breslau University) went out into the garden and shot herself.

Perhaps she couldn't accept calamity as a norm.

This just in: Dog food recall extended to Alpo brands.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070331/ap_on_go_ot/pet_food_recall;_ylt=ArBxcYNrexdEWP3.LFSTEBas0NUE

Already noted: Cat food (dry) with wheat gluten as an ingredient may be a problem as well, and I assume dog food as well (plus dog food usually has more grain in it than cat food)

Yeesh.

SCC: the second "as well" (one's enough)

If I had Joe Biden's luck all our pets would be dead.

DDT, no helmets, unsupervised play and yet we had 'duck and cover' and air raid drills at school. I remember the sound of the air raid siren, it turned my 6 year old blood to ice. We filed down to the basement of our 100 year old school. This place was the definition of creepy. With that traumatic experience as a catalyst, I developed schoolphobia which eventually led to my skipping the last half of third grade. But that's another story.

Hope your hands feel better soon Cassandra. The suggestions of applying heat sound good to me. Busy weekend cleaning, cooking and baking for company tomorrow. Grapenut custard in the oven right now. Need to take the dresses I'm sewing to my daughter's house later on to check for fit. Nice and sunny here, not super warm but the porch has heated up enough to leave the door to it open.

Here's a change that the internet hath wrought: before the blog, Joel's rough draft, eh I mean Rough Draft columns never had to have footnotes and bibliographies!

Re: Not my fault, that is what I always say about my own death. I know I have to die, but I just don't want it to be my fault when it happens. Don't let me do something STUPID like drop the hairdryer in the bath water or step in front of a truck, or jump headfirst off a high place with just a bungie cord to keep me from crashing into the ground. I want people to be able to say yeah, she died but hey, she did everything she could, it's not her fault. As far as the end of the world is concerned, I'm not worried about getting blamed for that. There are lots of people ahead of me in THAT line.

This whole thing makes me think that there are a lot of people, particularly people in some form of so-called "leadership" who remain perpetual adolescents -- that is, "nuthin's gonna happen to me, man! I can SO drive fast on a road, even if I've had a few beers, 'cause nobody's gonna tell ME what to do. Don't hafta think ahead, 'cause the world revolves around me, you know?. . ." And so it goes.

It reminds me of Inhofe's bout with Gore at the recent hearing about global warming. Inhofe's palpable anger at even the suggestion of using one's imagination to project into the future (should there be any) -- simply head-shaking amazing!

I remember when I was in law school in New Hampshire ages ago, the story which got the eyebrows raised the highest was that about the former governor Meldrim Thompson (who listed waaaaaaaaay far to the right) -- apparently, he wanted to use nuclear weapons against (peaceful) protesters at the Seabrook nuclear plant in Portsmouth. We used to go by there to get up to Maine for cheap lobster.

What the #$^%#**% is it about people? Geez.

Some people really hold on to their stupidity for an inexorably long time. If only they would do it in private, within the confines of their own caves, and leave the rest of our beloved planet alone. Oh, and us, too.

Gonna go make some lunch.

My Tune Cootie for the Day (again):

Queen's "Hammer to Fall."

"For we grew up tall and proud
In the shadow of the mushroom cloud
Convinced our voices can't be heard
We just wanna scream it louder and louder

'What the hell we fighting for?'
Just surrender and it won't hurt at all
You just got time to say your prayers
While you're waiting for the hammer to fall"

LiT, that's a good story. Illustrates the difference between technical brilliance and real understanding.

For those of us who grew up in/around DC (aka Ground Zero), we spent a lot of time learing about what to do and what not to do in the event of an attack (Rule #1: Don't look).

And reading Hersey's "Hiroshima."

Is history ready to clear us away to make room for new agriculture? I wonder.

bc

['nother try without the naughty word]

Rhodes' book is great. His one about the H-bomb is also pretty engrossing, although depressing in an Edward Teller kind of way.

One of my professors worked on the Manhattan Project. He was a chemist, and asserted that the chemical problem of refining the U235 from the U238 was the tricky part and that the physicists had it easy. To which the physicists said that the separation wasn't really a chemical problem at all since the two isotopes are chemically identical. Then hair pulling would typically break out.

Anyway, my understanding is that the notion of setting the world 'afire had been pretty decisively discounted. After all, Bethe was know as a pretty sharp guy what with figuring out how the sun worked and all. Yet, there is always fear when the stakes are so high.

I imagine it must have been like the feeling I get when I have installed a ceiling fan and first turn it on. Oh sure, I have followed the directions, and attached the blue wire to the black wire as instructed. But there is always that moment of mindless fear. Will it fall? Will it refuse to spin? Will it explode into a fireball of incandescent energy and incinerate the earth and all of humanity? This kind of thinking is why I find home improvement projects so invigorating.

And regarding Hans - in the fall of 1984 I recall seeing a smallish elderly man speaking to a professor at the University of Washington. Another grad student, in an excited whisper, informed me that this gentleman was the famous Hans Betha. I remember thinking, "Why, I have a Siamese Fighting fish named after him!"

A fact that I decided it was best not to share.

Lostinthought -- Oh my. Science without thoughtfulness scares me. I recall seeing great great uncle E, who was gassed in WWI -- he looked like a combination cancer-emphasyma patient. He hated the Germans forever.

Thanks, JA. Now I can write the complete history of sunscreen. I recall PRESCRIPTION sunscreen -- PreSun brand -- that we were doused with starting circa 1973. Compliant soul that I am, I used it faithfully. My sibs rebelled and slap-dashed it. My skin looks better than half of my sibs and I am the oldest! We are the first generation in the huge family TO NOT be plagued with skin cancer by midlife. My children have never had a sunburn, so they have no idea about the awful sickness and blistering.

Frosti -- I think that is my handwriting system too. I sport a modified scrawl, but can imitate this on command.

DR -- if you find an easy lacey pattern, that is what Mo needs. Your pix shows the utilitarian model. Mo needs the fashion sort, so her look will be complete.

Yoki -- thanks for information. I am dashed, because they work well and save the hands since you don't have to scrub so much.

I usually read labels and use mostly vinegar, dilute bleach, baking soda to clean....I had not thought to consider the solid sponge....I was hoping this was just some wondrous microfiber....

Doglet grabs it when I let my hand up on while doing on the floor.

Better living through chemistry?

I've found hyaluronic acid to be a lifesaver in terms of hand pain (I think I have arthritis). Taking it daily means I don't have to take anything else, even if I've been fabricating jewelry (sawing, twisting, hammering).

It was one thing when I started taking it and it worked. When the old lady lab couldn't get up the stairs, I talked to her vet and she started getting it too. Within a few days she was galloping around again. Likewise as the younger one aged. Since I assume dogs don't experience a placebo effect, proved its power to me.

The only problem I have with it is I get it from a place called "Purity Products." Kind of embarrassing to get those boxes in the mail. :-)

Those quantum mechanical calculations always end with the statement of a probibility. Events with sufficently low probability are believed not to happen. At least not to happen often.

Probabilities as low as one in ten million are adequate for airline operations. Yet, from time to time an airliner is lost.

Most of the dinosars are gone too. That very unlikely meteorite strike was apparently to our (and the birds too) advantage. Of course we can't know how things would have turned out if the dinosaurs had been able to evolve for another 60 million years. Maybe they would have got smart and invented quantum mechanics.

So the atmosphere didn't chain react--not much of it, anyway. I've not seen the account of how much nitrogen oxides are produced by an atmospheric atomic blast. If my car can make objectionable amounts, surely a 20 Kiloton blast will make much, much more.

Enough!

RDP, I used to have a tabby named Bruce Catton. When my ex and I met his son at a conference, we were similarly discrete.

Kim O'Donnel can't find rhubarb yet either.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/

G'afternoon, everybody.

This getting old is a pain, isn't it? As well as painful...I need to learn how to stretch. I exercise faithfully by walking, but ooooh, getting up after I've been sitting a while is difficult.

Bob S, my husband once missed the ramp from I-85 onto I-285 and stopped in the median, trying to merge with traffic. Which was difficult, since traffic was moving at 70 mph. I hunched down into the floorboard with my eyes shut. And I've been on that section of I-75 that 16 lanes wide (that would be 8 in each direction). Scary, positively scary.

Cassandra, there are mountains and then there are mountains. Mt. Mitchell, which is the highest in the Appalachians, is 6600 feet or so. No big deal. Personally, I get lightheaded and have to move slowly at 10,000 feet and above. But you have to go to the Rockies or the Alps or the Himalayas to find that kind of altitude.

The most scared I've ever been in the mountains was riding shotgun in a 15 passenger van up a road without shoulders or any barriers in Rocky Mountain National Park. I could look out and down several thousand feet, with nothing to stop a fall.

I remember the fogger trucks, but IIRC, they only came around at night, so we weren't around to chase them. Does anyone else remember going outside at night to watch the satellites go by?

dr, your handwarmers are beautiful - love the colors. And you converted the pattern from knitting to crochet? You are awesome.

When I had tendonitis in my wrists, I wore wristbands (like tennis players wear) and those seemed to help alleviate the aching. Cutting the foot off old socks would work.

I'm glad New Mexico didn't get obliterated.

The Journey of the Dead Man (I mention this because somewhere in my brain, stuck in a recess, is a factoid I learned--I don't remember from what speaker or book, and remember Googling it thereafter to learn that it was correct--about how Texas tried to recruit scientists to work on the bomb in the Lone Star State. Could have been pre- or post-Trinty. I wonder if I can find it in one of my books...if I can dredge this up somehow...I'm thinking a Texas college or the location of Austin...):

The selection of this remote location in the Jornada del Muerto Valley for the Trinity test was from an initial list of eight possible test sites. Besides the Jornada, three of the other seven sites were also located in New Mexico: the Tularosa Basin near Alamogordo, the lava beds (now the El Malpais National Monument) south of Grants, and an area southwest of Cuba and north of Thoreau. Other possible sites not located in New Mexico were: an Army training area north of Blythe, California, in the Mojave Desert; San Nicolas Island (one of the Channel Islands) off the coast of Southern California; and on Padre Island south of Corpus Christi, Texas, in the Gulf of Mexico. The last choice for the test was in the beautiful San Luis Valley of south- central Colorado, near today's Great Sand Dunes National Monument.

Based on a number of criteria that included availability, distance from Los Alamos, good weather, few or no settlements, and that no Indian land would be used, the choices for the test site were narrowed down to two in the summer of 1944. First choice was the military training area in southern California. The second choice, was the Jornada del Muerto Valley in New Mexico. The final site selection was made in late August 1944 by Major General Leslie R. Groves, the military head of the Manhattan Project. When General Groves discovered that in order to use the California location he would need the permission of its commander, General George Patton, Groves quickly decided on the second choice, the Jornada del Muerto. This was because General Groves did not want anything to do with the flamboyant Patton, who Groves had once described as "the most disagreeable man I had ever met."[1] Despite being second choice the remote Jornada was a good location for the test, because it provided isolation for secrecy and safety, was only 230 miles south of Los Alamos, and was already under military control. Plus, the Jornada enjoyed relatively good weather.

The history of the Jornada is in itself quite fascinating, since it was given its name by the Spanish conquerors of New Mexico. The Jornada was a short cut on the Camino Real, the King's Highway that linked old Mexico to Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico. The Camino Real went north from Mexico City till it joined the Rio Grande near present day El Paso, Texas. Then the trail followed the river valley further north to a point where the river curved to the west, and its valley narrowed and became impassable for the supply wagons. To avoid this obstacle, the wagons took the dubious detour north across the Jornada del Muerto. Sixty miles of desert, very little water, and numerous hostile Apaches. Hence the name Jornada del Muerto, which is often translated as the journey of death or as the route of the dead man.

http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/atomic/trinity/trinity1.html

A number of the American physicists working on the Manhattan Project were evidently very good at doing rough calculations--the sort of estimating that engineers used to do all the time. So the first explosion's size was pretty accurately predicted.

By the time of that first explosion, the US was already sending the last of the college kids, the ones kept at home to get an education so they could serve in occupation forces or whatever else the country needed at the end of hostilities, and putting them in infantry units in western Europe. The mortality rate was extremely high. Author Paul Fussell was among the survivors.

Good afternoon. Thanks, Cassandra, for your comments about sleep on the last Boodle. I laughed and laughed. I only wish I could sleep all day; I always seem to wake up.

This Kit reminds me that, for most of my life, I've lived in either a big city likely to be a target for nuclear war, or near a major air force base ditto, so I figure I won't have to worry about a nuclear strike for long. Not my fault!

It is a lovely day here, blue sunny and cool, though muddy. We're about to slog through the mud at the Medieval Fair. Avaunt.

Oh, and RD, you didn't list my common fear regarding home ceiling-fan installation: the whole ceiling will come down.

Kbert:

Wasn't it your stepson who was mugged? How is he doing?

Rhodes' 1986 "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"

page 663:
Norris Bradbury's instructions for bomb assembly as of Saturday listed "Gadget complete"; for "Sunday, 15 July, all day," he advised his crews to "look for rabbits' feet and four-leaved clovers. Should we have the Chaplain down there?" Rabbits' feet would turn up but even chaplains would have trouble finding a stem of clover on the Jornada.

Page 668:
"We were told to lie down on the sand" Teller protests, "turn our faces away from the blast, and bury our heads in our arms. No one complied. We were determined to look the beast in the eye." The radio went dead again and they were left to watch for the warning rockets to be fired from S-10000. "I thought the blast might be rather bigger than expected. So I put on some suntan lotion." Teller passed the lotion around and the strange prophylaxis disturbed one observer: "It was an eerie sight to see a number of our highest-ranking scientists seriously rubbing sunburn lotion on their faces and hands in the pitch-blackness of the night, twenty miles from the expected flash."

Thanks for the advice concerning the hands, and Slyness, the mountains. I have braces for the hands, but they're in the car, got to get them.

I'm glad you enjoyed the small rant on sleep. I laughed while posting, thought someone else might get a laugh too. I suppose I should have used the words, facially(?) challenged, if there is such a word?

forgot

Concerning the kit, I've never understood the making of something that we now live in mortal fear of. My dad says that man never makes a weapon that he doesn't at some point use, so what does a country do when everyone has that weapon? I can think of a couple of countries that will give all of us no amount of rest if they had nukes. Some of these folks are about as stable as jello. I can just imagine some of those countries in the Middle East with nukes at their fingertips, and it is not a pretty sight.

Did anyone think of the consequences of this technology or was it just the blowing up of the world for the moment, not the future that worried them? And I suspect most people consider these folks highly intelligent individuals, no? Man does not need the world of aliens or space to consider for his demise, he will gladly do it to himself, and of course, the environment ain't even a consideration. What does one need with an environment when there is no one to enjoy it or benefit from it?

I know, I know, we have to do this to save ourselves, right? We want to be an equal opportunity employer. Everyone gets to burn.

Cassandra,
Our local paper carries a syndicated column by a medical doctor, Dr. Gott. Many people have written that they've gotten relief from arthritis pain by using Castiva Cream. Here's a link:

http://castivabrands.com/

I spent the Cuban missile crisis on a Strategic Air Command base on Puerto Rico. It was sobering.

The crisis did provide an opportunity to watch U2 aircraft taking off.

The Cuban missle crisis is the first international event I remember with clarity; I remember the fear. I was in the third grade.

oldbam:

Didn't mean to leave you in suspense. I made my personal assessment of the damage on Thursday--head wound looking clean with six staples holding it together, no discharge from ears, pupils the same size, no personality changes, no excessive sleepiness. His attitude is very good. I am satisfied that he will make a full recovery and maybe not even have post-traumatic stress. That would be a testament to his normally placid personality, I guess. As I like to say, "living well is the best revenge"--the terrorists won't win this one.

Cassandra... I said a few days ago that you would be the first person I would let know if prayer did the trick -- I'm happy to report that it did.

I made it through and haven't felt this good (physically or mentally or spiritually) in years.

I also owe all of you who sent up the prayers and good thoughts and vibes and well wishes.

I'll post more details later, but I have a promise I made to myself and Little Bean before I went in that just can't wait -- she's getting a wagon ride around the neighborhood with her newly and happily sober dad.

martooni

Prayers of gratitude replacing prayers of petition this afternoon. Welcome back and best wishes from my whole heart.

Martooni... it's so nice to hear such good news from you. You've been in my thoughts since you signed off.

Have fun on that wagon ride... and make sure you don't fall off!

with love,
TBG

Martooni,

Little Bean is one lucky child to have you. Good for you. Your hard work elevates all of us.

God bless. Wagons, hoh! Gee yup.

leowen, good point.

I would add that the sighs of relief heaved by the sunscreened purveyors of wholesale destruction were undoubtedly premature. The chain reaction that was set off that day may well end in the extinction of the human race. Those guys all got to live out their lifespans but our children and/or grandchildren may not be so fortunate.

Welcome back Martooni!!

Martooni -- Congratulations.

One day at a time.

Martooni, it is so good to hear from you, and give God the praise of that victory. Oh, I am so happy for you, and will keep you in prayer. Little Bean is so lucky to have you for a dad, and good thoughts and prayers for you and your family. Martooni, I think I speak for most of us here, we love you dearly.

40

bags

mulch

Lowe's

cedar-type

from Canuckistan

has Spanish writing on bag

don't know y

Bluebelle (my truck)

groaning

me groaning

gutted bags

with knife

too tired

to spread

time for

black russian

sorry, martooni

(but happy for you)

(and the Beaner)

thus ends

world's longest

haiku

From Wikipedia sunscreen history:

"It was not until 1944 that the first effective sunscreen was invented. At that time, World War II was in full swing and many soldiers were getting serious sunburn. A pharmacist named Benjamin Greene decided to create something that would save the soldiers from the sun's harmful rays. In his wife's oven, he created a sticky, red substance which he called "red vet pet" (red veterinary petrolatum), which worked primarily by physically blocking the sun's rays with a thick petroleum-based product similar to Vaseline. Greene tested it on his own bald head. It did not work nearly as well as modern sunscreens, but it was a start."
--
I was imagining the scientists lathering themselves in baby oil or Coppertone oil. Wonder if they had this stuff.

So much knowledge to pursue, so little time.

It's a real blast reading about Trinity, ain't it? Forty years ago, as a high-school physics student, I became aware of the potential of nuclear weapons, and (quoting Cassandra) "that man never makes a weapon that he doesn't at some point use". I've lived my life based on that fear; no wife, no children, lots of fun, minimum responsibilities and baggage. It's been a good life, but hey, y'know? Sixty years without nuclear war so far! It's a fact I recite when people get too despondent about the human race.

I differ from Cassandra in that I am at least as fearful of our home-grown fanatics re-opening the nuclear window as I am of any mid-East country, or Asian country, doing so. After all, patriots want to conquer Iraq; real patriots want to conquer Iran. We shall see.

Kbert:
I'm very happy to hear that your stepson will be OK. What a frightening experience for your whole family.

CP-that's the type of stuff I had in mind when I said the sunscreen anecdote was probably apocryphal. But perhaps overstatement would have been a better choice of words. I can't imagine they had anything like what we would consider effective sunscreen. I know when I was a kid my dad brought all manner of army stuff home-the lip balm was like waxing your mouth with sealing wax, the insect repellant was probably worse for us than the fog from vector control.

Onkit comment (not on-topic)...."thus you should feel free to detonate atomic weapons so long as you've done well enough on the math portion of the SAT."

Hmm, I wonder how Scottynuke did. Uh-oh....

Ivansmom, ceiling fans will NOT bring the ceiling down unless you have an adventurous couple who chooses to... never mind. Never mind.

Martooni, glad you got out of rehab bright and bushytailed. I dreamed you would. It'll take many stages to get your new life built, but an carpenter like you can do it. Play a tune for me later.

Martooni, I can not tell you how happy I was to see your post, it has been a roller coaster week here, and your post gave me some much needed cheer.

Best wishes

Welcome back, Mart... Er, Danged Hippie!

Richard Feynman has written a bit about his time in Los Alamos. (As an aside, I love him talking about a colleague getting the computer disease.)

As for the explosion, Feynman notes that he didn't want the dark glasses, as he wouldn't really see anything. Figuring that the ultraviolet would be the worst part, he goes into a pickup truck to watch through the windshield. He figures he was the only one to actually see the explosion.

On the topic of destroying the world, just about everyone there was so intent on the work and getting there before the Nazis did, that they didn't think of the consequences. After the successful explosion, the same person that got him on the Project, tells him how worried he is about the world, now.

For quite a while after rejoining the rest of the world, Feynman felt that people were deluding themselves, building bridges, houses, etc.

I get this from "Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman".

The thing is, Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) actually worked. It kept the peace. Anyone who thinks that without nuclear weapons the world would not have descended into a third devastating world war is, I assert, being naive.

That said, I believe that their time has passed. Conventional weapons can now achieve just about any legitimate strategic goal, including deterrence.

Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

Considering my condition going in (and my past experience with hospitals when it comes to the treatment of addicts of all kinds), the last four days were a huge surprise.

At this rehab (Neil Kennedy Center), almost all of the staff and counselors are recovering/ex-addicts themselves. In other words, they treat the patients with the respect due a human because personally understand the disease -- so unlike the docs and nurses at the hospitals I've been to where they treat you with contempt (at best) or simply ignore you.

More later... gotta run to meet my old sponsor for coffee and then off to a meeting after.

I'll try to catch up on the past Kits and Boodling later... might even try to post something on topic!

I made salmon for dinner tonight. The family likes it when I just poach it in butter, water, lemon juice and a little wine if there's a bottle open.

I didn't have any lemons, lemon juice or wine. I can do without the wine, but no lemon? I looked all around the pantry and fridge for something to add to the water.

I think mostlylurking and anyone else from Western Pa will appreciate what I found: Reymer's Blennd lemonade concentrate!

I must say, it worked great--may even be a new G family recipe. I think I'll call it Blennd Salmmon.

http://www.hometownfavorites.com/shop/candy_cat.asp?c=23&p=3&id=1515&newp=

Welcome home, Martooni. You have indeed been in my prayers, and I too will have a prayer of gratitude for you tonight.

God's blessings upon you and Little Bean (and the longsuffering Mrs. M). Keep up the good work!

That's great Mudge. I used to write Haiku during boring meetings. My favorites were a series about breakfast foods. They were supposed to be a menu from the fictitious Haiku Diner. Two examples:

Blueberry pancakes
Served with syrup, piping hot
Butter on the side

Fresh eggs served all day
Scrambled, boiled, poached or fried
Try them with some toast

Good deal Martooni, Welcome back

Martooni, I thought of you a lot these past few days, but I thought about the Little Bean more. Reading of the wagon ride made my heart smile; I find it beautifully poetic. I'm so very happy for both her and you.

Also, I'm with Maggie. I like Danged Hippie.

Battle scars notwithstanding, it's got a past-tense ring to it.

Mar...Danged Hippie, darn fine to hear from you. I am so glad to see you.

Joel says "All of human history had been a headlong dash." I just hope that we are going to take some care with this dash and get somewhere good.

Cp, does mo crochet? Mo did I miss this? You crochet? Will go looking for and or develop patterns for lacy gothy handwarmers.

And now for something completely different...

Your first Achenblog curling report from the 2007 Ford World's Mens.

The opening began with the playing of a single horn. Its timbre and tone went right through us. Unfortunatley, I could only hear it in the concourse. The R's were running just a little bit behind schedule. Once the R's had taken their seats the dignitaries began their speechifying (they probably could tell we were late and waited, wasn't that nice). Then all the athletes were walked in to a full regalia Scottish BagPipe band. They were accompanied by mounties, and the crowd of well over 10,000 cheered and clapped, and shouted. The first rock was thrown by a junior champ, a long past mens champ, and the sweepers from Randy Ferbey's amazing past world champion team. Then we checked out the beer garden. Yes it its there, and it is open.

The first draw was amazing. Canada won over the Finns in an rather lopsided game. The Finns were just not quite on. The Finns will be back in top form shortly.

The Swiss won over the Norwegians in a tight game going to an extra end.

The Danes won over Sweden in a woser of a game, extra ends. They are young but they are going to be tough.

And the US team vs Australia, the Aussie's won, but I must tell you it went down to THE last shot.
http://www.usacurl.org/events/07WMC/d1-rel.html

The real reason the Aussies won was a large and loud cheering section. There seemed to be a large group of family and friends chouting 'Aussie, Aussie, Oy, Oy, Oy' or something like that, whenever the Aussie made a good shot. It seemed like they had a mascot, a very cute little girl with a dinousaurian hat. Had the R's taken a camera, we'd post a picture. Maybe it was the bright green pompons the cheering section for the Aussie team sported. They made the rest of the teams flags and hats look pretty conservative.

It was a wonderful day, and though the R's are not attending the evening draw, we will be looking forward to tomorrow.

Oh, oh, and we have it on good authority that a lady from Texas is attending as a volunteer worker for the games. She was on the news the other night. I missed it but the people behind us told us about her. I will try to find out more.

That does it. I'm buying tickets to the '08 men's finals in Grand Forks, ND! Thanks for the link dr, I actually understood every word.

Mr. F put us in for the women's final four lottery in '08 to be played here in Tampa, but if I am here for that final I can fly back to MN and make the 3 hour drive to Grand Forks. It will be a real sportasm week to be sure!

Somebody wanna tell me why a basketball game that TV Guide says starts at 8 p.m. doesn't start until 8:46? Jeez. OK, it's UCLA versus the Gators. WEho are we rooting for here? Oh, right. Sorry, Joel. Never mind. Go Grators. I mean, Gators. Gatorpersons.

Rah.

Great to hear from Martooni.

At various times in the past, it's been a bit difficult for me to connect with friends with alcohol/opiate/tobacco problems because, for whatever reason, I've never overused much of anything other than chocolate. So I'd be a disaster working at a rehab place.

Wow, 4 to 2! This game's all over! (Sorry, Joel.) No way Florida comes back being this far down. Guess I can change the channel now. Good game, guys. Guess it just wasn't meant to be.

Howdy everyone. Welcome back, MarDangHippie (MartianDangHippie?)! I was thinking of you and the Bean this week, I'm very glad that everything went well. Keep on this road, and don't hesitate to holler for help if you need it.

dr, we heard bagpipes and a single horn today at the Medieval Fair. Jousting (with Percherons, no less), a poor imitation of stage combat, but no curling. The Boy actually acquired a horn which he is still learning to blow. When he gets it right, it puts one in mind of Robin Hood in Sherwood. When he gets a near miss, not so much -- it is more like a sick cow. I'll encourage him to practice more. This is actually a pretty good Fair, as they go. Attending reminds me of my first year at college, when we toured three medeival plays at the Texas Renaissance Festival for six weekends. The clearest memory: free mead.

After a childhood of Duck & Cover, I spent so many years with worry about a nuclear "event" in the back of my mind. Then, for a long period, it seemed as if everyone had come to their senses and we might even get rid of the darn things. I mean, I think this is just an unreasonable weapon, even for world domination. One of the things I most resent about the last few years is that worry creeping back. I had hoped the Boy wouldn't have to experience that fear.

Dave, don't feel bad... I long concluded I'd be a disaster working anywhere that required me to empathize with people on a routine basis.

Now, if you walked into a rehab clinic for chocolate abusers and I was there...

I'd just do my Snickers and lecture on you how compulsive chocolate abuse is just nougaty, and will land you into nothing but truffle.

Martooni/DangHippie, from what you say of the staff at your recent residence, I feel confident that you had a good experience. I cannot imagine going to a place to detox that doesn't have "recovering" staff. A good part of the treatment for me was the inspiration gained from some of the counselors. Anyway, you sound very much 'together' and going to a meeting is the right thing to do. I have thought of you a lot this past week and that brought back memories of my two times in rehab, hard work but worth the results. Keep it simple.

Glad you're home 'Tooni.

I noticed a basketball game on this evening and expressed surprise that Georgetown was losing (I always thought they were good). Ivansdad kindly pointed out that yes, Ohio State had pretty much won everything for the last month (at least). I decided that was enough basketball for me.

I have no objection to rooting for alligators, though, or indeed any carnivorous amphibian. Go Gators!

Time to settle down with the Boy and (shudder) watch the remainder of the Kid's Choice Awards. Okay, I won't watch, but I'll be in the room. Ah, the sacrifices we make for family.

Fondue, all. Vaya con queso.

martooni, I'm glad you're back and feelin' good. We've all been sending good thoughts your way.

I've also been thinking "D. Hippie and the Bean" would make a good movie.

kbert, glad to hear your SiL's going to make a full recovery.

This FL/UCLA game is a heck of a defensive struggle. Well, it was for the first 15 minutes, anyway.

I'm thinking about Prometheus; he meant well, but did he really do us any favors? (though he was right to warn his brother about his sister-in-law, as it turned out)

bc

bc, You're right, Prometheus is the guy to blame for all of it. I'm pretty sure if I'd been there at the time, I would have argued against bringing that highly dangerous technology anywhere near the kids. Hey, he would say, worst case scenario, the neighborhood burns down, it clears space to plant crops. Ha, I would answer. Very funny. Now get that stuff away from me.

martooni, glad to hear you're back and doing well.

You've been in our thoughts all week.

Now get to work on my chair ya danged hippie! :-)

dr, I didn't have a chance to check if the curling was on Canadian TV...I will tomorrow. BTW, I'd love the handwarmer pattern - probably more realistic than a sock for me at this point. I'm still not actually knitting or crocheting, just thinking about it.

My kid is halfway through Crime and Punishment. His review - it's all right - a good train book. I don't think he'll be taking the train again, though. I leafed through the book - glad I tackled it when I was younger.

Welcome back, Dang Hippie! Glad rehab went well. I have a friend who had alcohol problems for years - he's now a counselor and seems to have pulled himself together. He enjoys what he does - and of course, knows all the tricks.

Welcome back, Dang Hippie, and many more.

You're referring to the myth of Pandora, bc? I hadn't realized the "first man" was Epimetheus ("hindsight") and his brother.

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

What I see in Promenthus is the best example of a Greek trickster-god.
Hermes is also a putive inventor of fire and tricky, but worshipped as a God and loyal to Zeus, while Promenthus is just so much more like Loki or Coyote, there's no comparsion.

BTW, am I the only one who thinks being called a "Psychopomp" sounds like a killing insult?

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

In Silverlock by John Myers Myers, Silverlock does get to see Promenthus tortured when he is being guided around Hell by Faustophelos (or was it Meisteophelos?) who attempts to undermine his confidence. The demon sneeringly says, behold the source of all your misery and explains what Promenthus did-- in short give reason to man.
Silverlock looks at the giant being attacked by an eagle and muses, and he decides it is actually worthwhile being above the level of a beast with no forethought (literally Promenthus' name), and no worries. YMMV.

Hooray!! Canada has exported another right wing, liar, stalker, criminal, to the States. They gave her a job as a pundit on a TV network. ROTFL. You guys will love this one. Enjoy!

Fox's Ann Coulter 2.0
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/29/marsden/index.html

Funny, kbertocci.

I think there was a recent book about J. R. Oppenheimer called "American Prometheus." Not sure that really fits, Teller was more the tricky type, I think.

Yep, Wilbrod, Pandora was who I was thinking of.

bc

Dang Hippie, everyone deserves their own theme song. Far be it from me to decide yours, so this is just in your honor as a person in motion.

Prior to a few minutes ago, I hadn't realized Scott McKenzie was in the Journeymen with Papa John Phillips, or that he'd co-written the Beach Boys hit *Kokomo*.

http://www.scottmckenzie.info/clips.html

If you're going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you're going to San Francisco
You're gonna meet some gentle people there

For those who come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there
In the streets of San Francisco
Gentle people with flowers in their hair

All across the nation such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation with a new explanation
People in motion people in motion

For those who come to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

If you come to San Francisco
Summertime will be a love-in there

dmd, everything okay? :-)

Y'know, I've been thinking about the Kit and how much faith the scientists and physicists and mathematicians had in their theories and calculations to have the cajones to gamble blowing up the whole earth (especially the miscarried "1" part).

I know that it all worked out okay (the earth didn't turn into a mini sun or anything).

But what about the folks working on nanotech and self-replicating molecular machines? How sure are they that they won't accidentally create some self-replicating molecular machine that will convert everything on earth into a global mass of "gray goo"? I mean, I've seen how quickly natural things like mold and mildew can take over a bathroom (or entire homes, for that matter).

Of course, we might be able to fight them off with Tilex(tm) bombs or something to hold it off, but still.

btw... thanks again, my Boodle friends for all the support and encouragement -- five days now and looking forward to tomorrow.

Yes everything is OK dbG, just a tough week with Dad.

Boko, all I can say is at least that it one less nutcase up here, couldn't figure out why I hadn't heard of her until I saw the paper she worked for - then realized why. Is she any relation to Pat Marsden?

Martooni! You *sound* great. I'm pulling for you and it's clear I'm not alone and neither are you.

dbG,

Thanks, that's one of my favorites. Was that on the Monterey discs?

There was recently just a bit of concern that a new atom smasher could end the world.

The biological equivalent would be what happened to Hawai'i after its Polynesian inhabitants arrived (loss of a lot of native birds), then after Captain Cook and others arrived (near-loss of Hawaiians, loss of most native plants and birds at lower elevations, invasion of all sorts of plants and animals from elsewhere). It's a biological apocalypse with the present situation being something short of a New Jerusalem.

I saw this story, and I was kind of hoping Mudge doesn't wait around until we're all 96 before he coughs up his next book.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070401/ap_on_en_ot/first_book_at96;_ylt=At1_GW219ijqMh5J7hCy9T_QbbUC

No idea, Error, unless I web-searched it and then came back all falsely knowledgeable. One of my favorites, too.

That version was on Scott McKenzie's page, but I found this, and like it better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKWiwfOhI6U

Have to say, it's very strange seeing footage of SF that doesn't include the Palace of Fine Arts. While it's one of my favorite places, gotta admire those dang hippies for not going with the obvious.

Yup, there's a version on the Monterey Pop Festival box set, but the recording I remembered is on the Spirit of The 60's stuff.

What is the Palace of Fine Arts? I've visited the city but never had it pointed out to me.

I thought the Golden Gate Bridge was the de rigeur shot of San Francisco, it's what I tend to see on TV shows. And that chinese theater with the stars in the sidewalk. And Chinatown. And Alacatraz. The trolleys and the steep, long hills.

And the touristed-up docks with those huge TV displays (you could probably watch the superbowl while sailing 100 feet offshore, that's how big they are), and the sea lions barking and squabbling for room to sleep.

And the persistent damp fog and chill that rolls in suddenly as soon as dark falls.

Guess I didn't go with the obvious, either.

Next book, Wilbrod?
I'd love to read a 'Mudgetome. Please forward a list to boko999@hotmail.com
Thank you and goodnight. Gotta get a panhead that's cluttering up my garage out of there tomorow. er today.

Alas, he wasted his considerable talents on a book on shipbuilding.

I'm sure the chapters on shellac are the best dang written chapters on shellac ever written since snails were ground up and slapped on tarred shipwood, but he admitted the book is now so rare that you might have better luck scoring an original of the Rosetta stone nowadays.

I think he's just afraid to tell-all as he should because of all these families who still remember the trouble their ancestors got in thanks to Curmudgeo~ and any of his multiple aliases.
See, when you're nursing a family grudge, a mere thousand years is nothing.

Wilbrod, it's so beautiful, it's often in the movies. *The Rock* had a pivotal scene there, I'm sure other boodlers can meet the challenge of naming more. It's a landmark equal to those you've named.

http://www.terragalleria.com/california/california.sf-palace-fine-arts.html

Good morning, friends. I'm up and drinking the coffee, getting ready to hit the shower. It's Sunday school and service this morning. Hope your weekend is going okay.

The pollen is so bad here, if one stands outside for a few minutes there's a chance of looking like a bumblebee. In my case the yellow and black looking good, but not the breathing. That stuff is almost toxic.
I was covered in it yesterday. My neighbor and I sat outside yesterday evening. She's ninety-four years old, and having a birthday this month. She's sharp as a tack. Talks trash to everyone, an equal opportunity employer. She wants her neighbors that smoke, to stop smoking at her place when they come to visit. She says they leave cigarette butts and ashes and she has to clean it up. And don't like the smoke. And this is outside, they don't get to come inside.

Got to move, it will take me awhile to get dressed. Thanks for the advice about the hands. I read Dr. Gott, but never saw the hand article. I slept with the braces on last night, so they feel a little better, still swollen. Have a great day, everyone.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

Prayers, martooni, keep praying.

Morning, Mudge, Slyness, Scotty, and all.*waving* How's Mrs. Mudge? Kbert, hope your stepson is on the mend. dmd, I hope you're getting a break from the pollen and outside stuff.

Joel, good kit, as always.

*stretch stretch*

Happy Sunday, all!!! *vigorous Grover waving*

Dang Hippie!!! EXTREMELY good to see you!!! *faxing a dozen gross gold stars and a full marching band in appreciation for a task very well done* And I like Dang(ed) Hippie, I really do.

DangHippieDangHippieDangHippieDangHippieDangHippieDangHippieDangHippie...

Nice ring to it. :-)

Wilbrod... *wagging finger* Peaceful uses only, thank you. Especially since my SAT verbal was about 130 points higher than my math... :-O

I remember watching satellites from far northern New England, 'zat count?

Kosher Dunkin' Donuts... Who knew?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/31/AR2007033101171.html?hpid=topnews

Frothy cherry trees everywhere. Phlox about to riot, more daffies blooming, green-white dogwood flowers gathering themselves, clematis shoots rising skyward, PJN azalea-rhododendron purpling out....

DHippie -- Ohio is behind us springwise, but is coming none-the-less. You are my Easter story this year -- rebirth.

Scotty, at least there's still Krispy Kremes:

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/kosher/krispy_kremes.php3

Good Morning All

Happy April 1st, Make you sure you play a trick on all the people you love today. My family and friends are so hip to my pranks, they will never answer the phone today. So I must be more creative.

Happy Palm Sunday, all! Now here's an informative, if schizophrenic, service: begins with the palms waving, entry into Jerusalem, all Hosannas, then abruptly segues into the betrayal in the garden and crucifixion. The day tells, in microcosm, half the Easter story, omitting the resurrection part. It is like a newsbill for the congregation. The entire rest of the week, until halfway through Holy Saturday, is all gloom (liturgically speaking). However, traditionally the Holy Week music is excellent. When I sang for the Catholic church, all churches turned the organ off at the close of Holy Thursday and left it off till midway through the Holy Saturday service, relying on voices only. I always liked that.

There's probably a parallel somewhere between the disciples on Good Friday and the scientists waiting to see whether, despite all their best calculations and beliefs, the world would blow up. I'm not a good enough theologian or scientist to do it, however, so I throw it out there to the ether.

Whoops, I put the Boodle in a coma. Sorry! The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are singing. . . .

ivansmom, good analogy! I'd like to meet the Christian minister who is comfortable enough talking about science to preach that sermon, linking the two events.

Listen, everybody who doesn't mind clicking a link once in a while (remember the Achenblog motto: "We Click.") Here's a newly launched blog by a gifted, original writer, Terry (T.M.) Shine. He has a weekly column in a South Forida alternative paper, and apparently the plan is that he is going to put the un-edited version of the column in the blog each week. I guess that might be a little too daring for the Washington Post, but it's a good idea--this week he has included comments from his editor and his reaction to the comments. It's kind of fun. Shine has had feature articles published in the WaPo Sunday magazine, so he's not just a local yokel. He used to write for Tropic magazine, but he was never on staff; he was one of Weingarten's discoveries, I think... I wish a bunch of A-bloggers would check out his blog and leave comments. As enticement, I will just mention that his comments allow *HTML* so knock yourself out--format like crazy!

http://blogs.southflorida.com/citylink_tmshine/2007/03/post_5.html#comments

Psychopomp! I love it.

http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/2006/06/duck_and_cover.html
recalls the impact Leo Szilard had on the conception and urging forward of the A-bomb. It's been rumored that Kurt Vonnegut used him as a model for Dr. Felix Hoenikker in Cat's Cradle. But Vonnegut has claimed it was Irving Langmuir, who worked for General Electric, that inspired the character.

Here are a few interesting links on today's fun!!!

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools'_Day

I once snuck into my parents house the night before April 1, I borrowed their car keys. Later that night, I moved their car around the corner. The next day I invited myself for lunch, asked them where the car was. In the pannick that followed, I had to fake a knee injury as I was racing to the phone to call the police.

But as with everything fun with pranks, I have been burned several times myself. One time actually being handcuffed by a fake policeman for unusual odors coming from my apartment!!

Morning everyone!
Frostdottir and I just got back from the Iron Girl 5k in Clearwater. Nice to run on a Sunday morning after wimping out all week with my cold/allergies whatever it's been that has my head clogged with green viscous crud.

MacDill's annual (except for last year when it was cancelled) Airfest ends today. The Blue Angels fly right over our house and we can see most of the show from a second floor balcony so I'll skip the crowds.

Kbertocci-your link was indeed worth a click.

Even the WaPo's in on the April Fools' advice...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/29/AR2007032901936.html

(It's Mr. G's birthday today. When Son of G was a little boy, he thought playing tricks was a birthday thing--not just an April Fools' thing.)

OK.. it's April. Do you know where your Weingarten chat is?

Interesting TBG, but a little sad that people need advice on executing April Foolery. Time to lay the traps for Frostdottir and Mr. F...he,he,he.

Good morning all. Welcome home, danghippie.

I think Liz Kelly said on her chat last week that Weingarten would be back in two to three weeks, so late-ish April, rather than early.

http://nsm1.nsm.iup.edu/rgendron/Caminalcules.shtml

'Morning, boodle. Cassandra, Mrs. Mudge is doing fine, thanks for asking. Got her to eat TWO scrambled eggs this morning. Along with her giant-size Dr. Pepper. (Don't ask. The woman is an enigma.)

I don't know if it's just an April Fools thing or what, but if you haven't seen the Post's Book World today, I think it may be the annual flamethrower issue. Starts off with a cover piece on two books about de Toqueville and L'Enfant by calling them our "Founding Frenchmen." Yes, they used the banned F word referencing the censored F country. Sure to inflame true patriots everywhere. Moving right along, there's a book review by a journalist who says black street culture and rap are destructive and counter-productive. And the piece de resistance is a book review that asks the question, Was Judas right to betray Jesus?

Glad they aren't into anything controversial.

Curmudgeon - from yesterday - I'm in Lewisburg, home of the Bucknell Bison! It's very pretty here... although we miss Maryland something fierce (moved to PA in November after 17+ years in the DC area).

Hey gang, I'm having trouble accessing some WaPo stuff. I can see most articles linked to on the home page, but every now and then when I go to a link, such as Book World, or some (but not other) opinion pieces, I get that damned pop-up screen that makes me sign in for the umpteenth time. And when I try to do that, I get a message saying I can't sign in because my cookies aren't activated (but they are). And of course the advice it gives me on how to activate the cookies is wrong.

Anybody else having trouble? Is it my computer, or the new redesignerd homepage, or whut???

Obviously, Mudge, you lost your cookies. Ha, ha - ewwww. A thousand apologies.

I would blame the new homepage - but I'll check it out, in the interest of the scientific method.

I haven't had any problems. The guy in charge of the redesign seems to be in "de Nile":
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2007/03/29/DI2007032901313.html

Yes, mostly, I read that link and agree he's in de Nile, especially on the two subjects of not listing discussions, and the totally idiotic notion that viewers and advertisers have mutual interests. A couple responders smacked him upside the head over the advertising thing, but even then I didn't see any sign that he's "gotten" it.

I'm sorry I missed that chat; I'd have submited a comment that the Web side of WaPo (as opposed to the dead tree side) is in desparate need of good copyediting. Compton himself made several goofs. I think the online team needs to gather together everybody who posts content and give them a quick one-hour briefing on basic style rules, such as not putting periods and commas outside quotes". like that.

I understanbd that a re-design can't please everybody, but I have to say I don't much like it. Yes, the old page might have been pretty cluttered, but I knew where everything was and how to get there. Now I've got to re-learn everything. I hate it, too, when m local supermarkets do a re-model, and I can't find anything for three months. Same thing.

Afternoon All...

I'm still trying to get used to this new alias -- my fingers keep wanting to type "martooni". Still not sure if I'm going to keep the new one. Change is good, but I'm thinking that people don't change their "real" names just because they're making a significant change in their lifestyle (except for celebrities, of course, which I'm not).

Speaking of change, I'm with 'Mudge on the new WaPo homepage. Sure, it looks purty and all that, but the new organization has me all kerfluffled or flurkuffled or... dangit... discombobulated.

I'm sure I'll eventually get used to it. Of course, the minute I do, they'll just go and change it all around again.

btw... one of the many things I've been neglecting during my last three-month bender is my own blog. Finally got around to posting something new. Basically it's an account of last week's adventure in rehab and a big "thank you" to the clinic that saved my life. If you're interested (or just feel like clicking something): http://www.danghippie.com/

I've been thinking more about Joel's Kit and about how dangerous that miscarried "1" thing can be. Particularly, I'm thinking of our reliance on computers to do the heavy mathematical lifting and that computers are only as reliable as the programs (written by people) and the hardware components (designed by people) and -- especially -- the trend where programmers from different parts of the world are involved in most projects these days. Think of the Mars lander that burned up because a program that needed metric data (or was it imperial data) was fed the opposite and burned up on entry. What if that was software that controls a nuclear reactor?

Even the boodle lies down on the couch on a lazy Sunday and takes a nap.

Hey, danghippie. Thanks for the link!

You know, as another point of view, I think people do change their "real" names to signify life changes. Some people change their names when they marry (not that there's anything wrong with that). People grow up in some way and invent a new nickname or introduce themselves with a different variation when they go to college, start a new job, and somehow almost everyone tags along. They add titles, honorifics, shorten their first name to a letter and go from there. And here, of course, we have the wildly spontaneous Yoki, *Tim, Boko and Achenfan. It can be a way of trying on a new life.

I've been through 3-4 myself during my life, and while one of my cousin's acquaintances who never knew me a child insists on calling my childhood name, I at least also have the pleasure of mangling her name back when she does it. The look on her face is priceless.

As delighted as I am to see any former supporter disappointed in Bush, this guy sounds like a serial disappointee, someone from _Men Who Love Too Much._

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/washington/01adviser.html?hp

San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts is a reconstructed relic from an early 20th century exposition intended to show off the city's recovery from the big fire (earthquake was downplayed).

The Palace is sort of an architectural riff on a Piranesi etching of a circular, domed Roman ruin. Architect Bernard Maybeck got his start by working on grand hotels in St. Augustine, Florida.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/palace/index.html

This Palace is not to be confused with the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, an art museum at the other end of the Presidio. It's a wildly out-of-place re-creation of a grand Parisian building
http://www.thinker.org/legion/about/subpage.asp?subpagekey=12

>They add titles, honorifics, shorten their first name to a letter and go from there.

Well, you've got me nailed. I got "Right Reverend" at a discount price and use my first initial and middle name - it changes the whole thing. I don't use it very often, but I've got these nifty certificates to prove it, so....

It just cracks me up that I'm legally entitled to officiate at marriages.

That would tickle me as well. Just remember your wedding insurance has to be paid up in some states, Right Reverend E.Z. Flynn.

I think my church had an April Fool's Palm Sunday today, for many reasons too long to go into, but at the start we got handed cedar branches instead of palm fronds....

Thanks for the pics-- I looked for "Palace of Fine Arts" and I got lots of hits, none that seemed to link to San Francisco.

It's nice-- looks like DC landmark architecture, only in actual color. Lovely.

As we all know, all that white greek and Roman classical stuff was originally painted, not in white, but guess what we do in DC, us Yankee Doodle Dandies? We do lots of white columns and put a feather in our hat and call it Macaroni.

Of course all that white marble/concrete etc is now a dingy grey thanks to smog and acid rain. Still, it does show off the bright spring colors of the landscaping rather well, especially the pink cherry blossoms, so it's not a dead loss.

For some real color class, St. Matthew's Cathedral in DC has the same sort of imported Italian marble I spot in that palace. Absolutely nice.

The link about the Palace of Legion of Honor includes this:

In 1948 Mr. and Mrs. Moore S. Achenbach created the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts and presented their entire collection of works on paper to the city of San Francisco. Initially housed in the Main Library, in 1950 the collection was moved to its permanent home in the Legion of Honor.

Did you know there's a site that deals with how to tie your shoes?

http://www.fieggen.com/shoelace/tying.htm

I read the chat about the homepage redesign--talk about "drinking the Kool-Aid!" Compton redesigned the page to better display the advertisements. Bummer.

I never go to the homepage so I wouldn't know if it was redesigned or not. If there had been a clear link to Achenblog or to blogs in general, I might have bookmarked it but I never could find that link so I've always been coming straight to the blog and then going to the magazine from here. (Never could find the magazine link on the home page either...) If I'm looking for a specific topic I use the search feature from the A-blog or I might use the tabs at the top of the page. Really, if I'm looking for news I'm more likely to read the Times. But you probably already knew that.

Hi Ltl-CA,

Yes, I point students to that site when we write instructions and SOPs. But I also enjoy looking at this site for instructions:
http://www.peepresearch.org/surgery.html

The Palace of the Legion of Honor and lovely grounds are part of my romance history, back in the day. I went to the University of Santa Clara, graduating the same year as did Kurt Rambus, he of the big-brute basketball physicality. KR was a gentle giant who wore Buddy Holly-escue black glasses. Even in class, he wore the elastic strap to keep them on his head on the court. Quite big, he had to fold himself into the lecture hall seats.

I DID NOT have romance history with KB.

Train ride from SCU to SF = 0.75 cents one way. Best way to contemplate the universe: study to and fro, enjoy SF in between.

The other famous grad of that year was DeeDee Myers, of the Clinton press years.

Note: No romance with KR, the basketball star.

Hey KB, no romance with you either, but we both adore books. That would make us bibliophiles or bibliomanes.

Bibliomania is one of the better madnesses to have. Phytomania is not bad either.

Worse than just displaying the ads, kb... the goal is to make us click through more pages, meaning seeing more ads, to get to what we want.

I think one thing that really sets the WaPo site apart from other papers' sites is the Live Discussions. I am often lured into clicking on links and reading articles I never would have gone to because a discussion link prominently displayed ON THE HOME PAGE leads me there.

Not any more, apparently.

Of course, my take on it is from an unusual viewpoint--maybe I'm not alone among boodlers in believing that the Washington Post exists primarily to showcase Mr. Achenbach's work, or that Achenblog is the main page and everything else revolves around it. But in any case, I do perceive the Post as having a unique blend of hometown paper folksiness/accessibility and National Newspaper Gravitas. The friendliness of the staff combined with the South Florida connection has led me to this place where I feel I have a personal stake in the newspaper although I've never subscribed and don't even read it that much. I do buy and/or read a lot of books written by WaPo staffers and their friends...

(Remind me to finish my blog entry about how I met Michael Grunwald and Marc Fisher AND bought their books AND got them signed, all in the same day, two weeks ago.)

I was over on petconnection.com and somebody agrees with me about mandatory country of origin labelling.

Incidentally the FDA order to detain and prevent export of wheat gluten from the Netherlands or a specific chinese company mentions "unsafe food additive". food, not petfood.

http://www.petconnection.com/blog/2007/04/01/pet-food-recall-what-have-we-here/#comment-19441

Cheers... certainly there are a few dozen investigative reporting stories that could be unearthed from this mess. There is no doubt such toxins could well be in the human food supply.

KB -- Marc Fisher is our favorite local muck raker. He responds quite intelligently to information or stories.

Many of my colleagues at UMCP are regular stringers for WaPo. We who love the paper keep watching out, because of the shakeout in the print press generally, but also because of a blood bath a few years ago about seasoned editors and beat reporters.

Will Hal now flag my comments and mess with me?

Well, CP, did you know that Marc used to write for the Miami Herald's Sunday magazine? I recently added some of his Tropic articles to the tropicfan site:

tropicfan.com (Browse by author--I guess the website design is defective because I can't link you directly to Marc's page. What can I tell you, I guess the person who designed the site is a moron.)

DR -- Mo may crochet. I am not sure. She does covet a nice knitted accessory or two. I think that black knitted lacy mitts are just what a styley-goth gal needs for certain occasions. I can crochet a chain and am good at reading directions. If you point me in the right direction, perhaps I can make some for her. Yours are thick for warmth. She would need the peek-a-boo kinds.

I guess that lacey ones can be knit, but then I would have to read a hard pattern and drop, twist, increase back, etc. I usually knit to slough off stress, so the more idiot-proof the better.

We have till next fall or winter to figure this out, as warm weather and knitted mitts break so many fashion rules.

Paging Mo: we are talking about you but in a good way.

I stand by my earlier evaluation that the new WaPo homepage is more appealing, to me, than the previous incarnation. However, I do come directly to Achenblog most of the time. I visit the homepage only in the morning when I click on "Today's Newspaper" formerly "Print Edition" before exploring any web only content.

I've tried to wean myself off the digitized version of the WaPo dead tree edition but the Minneapolis Tribune does not get to Chez Frostbitten North until 10:00 AM, with the USPS letter carrier. Then I must trek out to the PO to get it. After dealing with such hardships I feel that clicking past a few more ads is a small price to pay for not feeling like I've dropped off the edge of the world.

Another Sanjaya-related article in a local paper:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/artsentertainment/2003645910_sanjaya01.html

And this:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialcartoon/

Bob S, the only way I know to vote for American Idol is by calling the phone numbers or texting after the show. Please note that I have never felt compelled to do so.

I find it oddly annoying that the text is scrunched up on the left side of the screen while the adverts are on the right. I think I would like it better if it were reversed. Perhaps this is a right-brain/left-brain thing.

Or in my case, a no brain thing.

So I'm putting the Moonflower seeds into two pots and my wife inquires as to what I am doing. She pauses a minute, gives me a well practiced look of tolerant bemusement, and reminds me that we are going to be gone for most of next week.

She's good at remembering little details like that.

I am hopeful that the neighbor girl who feeds the bunny and fish while we are gone won't mind keeping the pots damp. Course, I imagine it'll cost me.

This young lady drives a hard bargain.

SCC: That's *bunnies*, of course. There are still two.

Sorry for scaring you all like that.

That bunny-and-fish business is sure hard. Glad there's still bunnying, plural.

All a crocodile's wishes should become fishes, not fish.

RD, I know - I have decided to hold back from starting new seeds till after my vacation. I'm hoping that the seedlings I've already got going will survive after I put them in larger pots and water them well. I transplanted sweet peas into the outdoors yesterday...just in time for "rain mixed with snow" tonight...sigh.

Thanks for the clarification on the bunny population.

Whew, thanks for the swift correction RD, I was a little slow on the scroll and was quite concerned.

I too, RD, am glad you still have two bunnies. The Boy continues to agitate for a rabbit, given Ivansdad's complete lack of interest in keeping a lizard. I say, "We'll see."

All this talk of seeds. I passed BigBox'oPlants today and mightily resisted the urge to stop in. I know that, planting this early, I court almost certain disaster. Perhaps that will be a good project for Holy Saturday -- oh no! eggs! I almost forgot about dyeing eggs! Ah me. I did buy the chocolate bunny early this year (and hide it); I discovered last year that one simply doesn't wait until the day before Easter to purchase the chocolate bunny.

I don't seem to understand the Home Page anymore but I can still find my way to Achenblog, so I'm content.

This is a pleasant story about a new International Peace Garden - at Tulip Town, in the Skagit Valley of Washington state. Tulip Town sounds tacky, but the fields of tulips and their indoor displays are lovely. I have some tulips I bought from them growing in my yard.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003645889_tulips01m.html

Belated Happy Palm Sunday everyone. In my youth I greatly enjoyed the annual Passion Play. Shrieking "Give us Barabbas!" was a most satisfying liturgical experience. For it wasn't often that we got to yell in church.

I spent today fixing the lawn mower and installing a new under-sink water filter.

The mower repair went well in that it now works marginally better than before. As to the water filter, well, don't those really tiny slow leaks sometimes, you know, fix themselves?

Cassandra... "Concerning the kit, I've never understood the making of something that we now live in mortal fear of." -- Well, Cassandra, I'm sure that you can think of several substances which we manufacture in great quantity, which we maybe OUGHT to fear!

mostlylurking... "My kid is halfway through Crime and Punishment." -- You can only hope!

mostlylurking - that link brings back some nice memories. And in the "it's a small world" department, I went to school with twin boys who were closely related to the family mentioned in that article. They raised tulips and daffs in the Puyallup Valley. Nice people. And they turned me on to Dutch Licorice.

Salted licorice RD, love that stuff.

*breaking out my wooden clogs for a nice hornpipe*

dmd - Yeah, it's that ammonium chloride, which is also the active ingredient in soldering flux, that keep bringing me back.

It's an acquired taste.

I had a dutch friend growing up and they had two jars of diffrent kinds in the house all the time - I also acquired the taste big time.

I think you need to be exposed to the stuff as a child before your brain stiffens up. My success rate at introducing others to the wonders of "Salmiak" has been abysmal.

I planted three pairs of moonflower seeds ("Mammoth", 7-12 ft) a couple of feet apart and they're up today, just barely. I'll thin them to 2 or 3 solos like flagpoles for the veg garden.

Hitler was afraid of "Jewish Physics." Not destruction. We have the same choice with nuclear power that we do with guns and just about every weapon. We can build a society that will be able to live and work with this power or we can try to ban it without success. I had rather have a society like Switzerland where people own guns and they live in peace than in a disarmed (by law) New York where they are a problem.

"Guns don't kill people, people with poorly controlled anger impulses (and a lack of long-term planning skills) with guns with bullets kill people!"

*aside to TBG*... it's a good cause and every little bit helps. I'd hug ya, but people might talk. ;-)

WaPo IS my homepage. With the wonders of IE 7.0, I can have the homepage and Achenblog up at the same time. This I like. I'll adjust to the redesign. I probably won't look at many more ads, though.

I always liked the dead tree edition of the Post. One of the perks of a trip to the National Fire Academy (Emmittsburg, MD) was the ability to buy and read it. With the newspapering background, I could see the quality and enjoy it.

RD, I feel your pain concerning new plants. I bought two tomatoes and a green pepper two weeks ago and put the little paper cups in bigger pots. It's supposed to be down in the 30's here mid-week, so I won't put them out till next week at the earliest. One tomato has already grown so much I've had to stake it in the pot. Yikes!

I've carefully avoided this observation thus far, but... Didn't they redesign the homepage to look MORE like it looked a couple of years ago, the last time people complained abot the redesign?

LtR-CA -- You win, with the first seedlings of moonflower through the ground.

MostlyLurking -- At the Sons of Italy Hall in a central CA town, sweet peas grew on a trellis in January and February -- oh the honey-scented air. They were tended lovingly by a grizzled Sicilian whose sons were dairy farmers so he had tons of manure for these butterfly-beautiful flowers. Nearly impossible to coax here although Henry Mitchell, now gardening in the sky, gave directions in his WaPo "Earthman" column. I did it once. Worth it, but the vagaries of spring weather here....

RDP -- cover the pots with plastic wrap to make a hot house, which will keep the humidity just right.

Wilbrod -- I don't think the Dutch dance to hornpipes. It is not an instrument so much as a metered dance. But Irish kidlings sure knew hornpipes, in church basements long ago and far away. You can dance to a jig, a hornpipe, a strathspey, a set (like square dancing) but must listen quietly to a lament or air. We were taught to recognize what the pattern was so you could dance the right steps.

No TV, in those days.

Bob S, I don't recall reading about anybody ever being killed in a drive-by fistfight.

About 25 yrs ago Sci Am published a study based on ER records, comparing people knifed vs shot in an attack or fight. The fatality percentages were 3 and 30, respectively.

Aaahh... but I wasn't talking about guns, I was talking about anger control, and some of the substances which Cassandra knows so well!

About using the weapons we make and the weapons we have: I've probably mentioned earlier how much I dislike private gun ownership. It is all very well to say that we can live in peace. However, most of the casual homicides and severe injuries that come my way happened because someone had access to a loaded gun. In my experience, virtually any strong emotion, including surprise, when combined with a loaded firearm can and often will produce a result which was unanticipated only moments earlier. Add in drugs (legal or not) or alcohol and there's a real problem. Just remember, malice for murder can be formed in an instant, as you pull the trigger. Ever thought "I'd like to kill that guy!"? But you didn't, because it wasn't convenient, and the moment passed. We have a whole generation of folks with the ability to act on the thought, without the ability NOT to act on it. With any luck, they don't have counterparts in the countries or former countries with access to nuclear weapons.

Well, Dutch sailors would dance to hornpipes. The second paragraph in this link suggests the sailor's hornpipe was in fact derived from a Dutch dance, nothing to do with the British pastoral dance.

http://www.ceolas.org/cgi-bin/ht2/ht2-fc2/file=/tunes/fc2/fc.html&style=&refer=&abstract=&ftpstyle=&grab=&linemode=&max=250?Sailor's+Hornpipe

It's just that the hornpipes were awfully small, cheap and easy for sailors to use onboard.

Mudge would know for sure, though. He was there.

Bob S., my gun rant was directed at Gary Masters, not you. I was responding to the part about a society like Switzerland where folks own guns and live in peace. I'm not disputing that assertion, by the way; it is just, alas, my experience that for whatever cultural reason, widespread gun ownership in the U.S. doesn't have the same result. I truly do worry that some of the people who have little regard (for whatever reason) for others' lives, or for their part in taking others' lives, will have access to nuclear materials.

Ivansmom-Gary Master was just trotting out one of those dumb "If you criminalize gun ownership only the criminals will have guns" arguments. I contend the Swiss aren't peaceful because they have guns, but in spite of it. (Assuming gun ownership is that widespread in Switzerland, I didn't check.)

While I have enjoyed shooting sports much of my life, I don't understand how people can believe it actually makes law abiding citizens safer to have a significant number of their neighbors carrying concealed handguns. I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with a man whose primary job is US Senator deciding if someone he sees approaching him in the dark in a "suspicious manner" is a threat to be shot at or just me walking to my parked car.

My heart is touched by, first, dr's description of the curlers being piped in, and second, CP's talk of 'dancing a set.' Dancing a set is not exactly, but very close, to the dances in the fantastic BBC rendition of Pride and Prejudice with Colin Firth (who did not think he dances, but would rather like to try). And CP knows laments. The Flowers of Forest, on pipes, causes me to projectile weep.

I do believe I shall have a piper at my funeral.

Thanks for that info about covering the pots with plastic CP.

I've posted about guns before. Although I understand the fear of home invasion, the risks inherent in gun ownership, especially in a family with children, make it a non-starter for me. Further, it is my assertion that the two best things things for home protection are a good lock and a yappy dog. And I got them covered.

We now present your Random Pop Culture Reference Of the Day.

Is it just me, but didn't the final scene of the most recent movie version of Pride and Prejudice seem like a subtle homage to the final scene of Sixteen Candles?

This concludes your Random Pop Culture Reference of the Day.

Now I need to go figger out where we keep our plastic wrap.

The reason gun-ownership is widespread in Switzerland is that all majority-age males in Switzerland are permanently on-call for the military. Each adult male has a military rifle in his house. Where it is locked-up, ammunition separate, in a steel locker.

Note: no Swiss household has guns to "defend the family against crime." When a household in Switzerland is threatened by a B&E, they call the police. They do not think they should deal with it on their own.

You know who pays the price for gun-ownership in paranoid societies? Family members. Kids shoot their friends ('just horsing around with the family gun') and spouses shoot each other when drunk and angry. Because it is there. If guns were really controlled, the opportunity to shoot family-members would be much reduced. Spouses would duff each other up with their hands (also not good!) and kids would skateboard instead of fooling around with guns. Feh! The whole thing makes me sick. No guns. Simple.

Meant to say, no loaded pistols in bed-side tables. No loaded guns in desk drawers. Not no guns, but no stupid guns.

Actually, I've probably mentioned this before, but: I am both genetically and philosophically in favor of fairly open access to guns. I'm enough of a "guy" that I think that the flash-and-bang are pretty cool, and tried to talk my dad into letting me buy a buddy's 20-20 rifle as a teenager. My dad (quite wisely, in retrospect) pointed out that we lived in fairly crowded suburbs, and nothing good could come from the presence of a firearm in the household, even while pointing out that he'd had one as a kid in a much less-crowded (and less angry, but that's a different story!) neighborhood and household in California a few decades earlier.

Philosophically, I think that it may very well be a good thing to have a populace which is sufficiently well-armed to give the latest butthole-of-the-month (think McCarthy, Rove, but [unfortunately] also Lincoln, Roosevelt) pause when they get casual about ignoring rights.

Ultimately, however, I'm a pragmatic kinda guy, and I know that there's a substantial difference between fun fireworks, theoretical armed power, and the consequences of actual handguns. The numbers are in, and handguns are well worth limiting greatly.

Silly me, just call me practical! I've had no limits upon my ownership of guns for several decades now, but have felt no need to actually own one. (It IS kinda fun to shoot one occasionally, though!)

Ivansmom, your comments are very apropos for us tonight. Last night, two police officers were shot and killed while responding to a domestic disturbance call. A 25-year-old suspect has been charged with first degree murder. He has a lengthy arrest record. One of the officers leaves a pregnant wife.

I wish I knew the answer. I also wish I could bring them back.

Actually, anyone acquainted with the laws in question will be amused with the following personal trivia -

The only time that I've had a gun in my household for more than a few days was in England! The next-door neighbor was leaving town for a few months, and felt somewhat uncomfortable leaving his shotgun at home with his relatively young and fairly recently-moved-in roommate. This was a fairly rural community, and hunting was common. That he felt comfortable asking me (the somewhat odd, "known-to-barbecue-in-any-weather Yank") to keep an eye on it was fairly flattering.

I found a quiet spot at the back of a closet.

Handguns, no. Rifles, yes. Drunk people with guns, no.

I had a cousin shoot himself in a fit of depression caused by a drunk driving accident-- he was an alcoholic and struggling with it. He drank, he blamed himself, he picked up a gun.

I arrived at my uncle's house the morning a few hours after he had shot himself and I had to be told what had happened. So silly. So stupid an action in a moment of despair which could not be taken back ever again.

Wibrod, Amazing about the hornpipe origin. DUH to me. Sailors get around. Mudge will confirm and expand.

Yoki -- The Blackbird's Lament. Shivers and tears. Just think: you were just a few latitude lines North of that church basement. Set dancing....very fun. When I lurched into CA my senior year of high school, I had to take senior PE, which included a unit on square dancing. I endured it for about ten minutes until I realized it was set dancing with a twang and they called out the steps and motions.

Here in DC-land, you can ceili about once a month. What has taken over, however, is the overly fancy Irish dancing that RiverDance made popular.

And Michael Flatley, he dances without his shirt upon his back, well, such a shocking and bold boy.

(Sorry to offend, but I hate Riverdance.)

I like Riverdance, it's like watching music, and you gotta love how they fuse step dancing with ballet, flamenco, and so many other dance styles. It's kind of hilarious.

But I HATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE with a capital, gut-retching H:

Mr.-Puffy-Pirate-shirt-with-neckline-to-the-navel Michael Flatley with that dopey smile. Fortunately he got jettisoned and/or decided to go off on his own. Honestly, that lead redhead lady dancer was ten times more talented than he was.

I happened to see and hate Lord of the Dance- all that flashing lights ruined what I wanted to see-- the beat of the step dance.

I've always wished they did Riverdance II-- without Mike Flatlus.

Slyness - The crappiness is neverending.

When I was a tiny tot, a woman in Savannah Beach (it's still a small community, but it was MUCH smaller then) was awoken one night by what she took to be a prowler. When she called out, the prowler withdrew from the front door, but shortly thereafter she heard an attempted entry at the side door...

[second view of same events] When I was a mere babe, a long-time police officer in Savannah Beach was patrolling one of the quiet neighborhhods, and noticed moving shadows in the dim lights of a property that he knew was usually vacant between December and February, unless there was a renter. Since there hadn't been any notice that there was a renter, he was concerned. He carefully approached the front door, gave a quiet knock, and heard no response. He apparently decided to go to the side door to see if he could get a better idea of what was happening...

The story (you may have seen this coming) ends up with a dead policeman, and an elderly woman whose life is shattered. There was obviously no intruder.

Fewer guns = more room for non-fatal misunderstandings. Handguns, in particular, nibble at the margins quickly.

Glad to see DangHippie back and full of pi$$ and vinegar. Very good!

About the front page design. WaPo is my home page, and has been ever since we could have a home page. Began with it because I missed the paper, and the area, when we moved to CA. But I confess I don't "use" the home page, and can't tell new design from old.

If someone in the Boodle mentions an article of interest, I will follow the link.

I have Achenblog on my desktop, and when I go to my home page, it is just to check the headlines and see if anyone has lit the fuse on a medium sized A-bomb.

And the kit was well written, as always.

The Home Page: the Home Page annoys me for so many reasons I won't even explain, and I when I read the Editors Note: About the Note Page, I noticed the second bullet point,

//To better highlight our award-winning video and photo content, we've added a multimedia strip to the page. This band will be comprised of videos, photos and interactives, and by using the scroll arrows or the iTunes-like buttons, you can scroll to see more multimedia features. We've also created a similar strip for features content, allowing us to better showcase all the content we have in that area.//

Shouldn't it be "composed of" not "comprised of?"

I admit it's a small quibble, but it's been uncorrected for several days.

I do assume that it's a true mistake, isn't it?

maggie - you make me ashamed!

scc: "awakened", not "awoken".

: )

Martooni/Danghippie,

I appreciate your honesty and wish you the best...one day at a time.

Joel, you have always worried too much. But thanks for the tip on the latest Bryson book. How do you (and others here on the Achenfest) have so much time for everything (working/blogging) plus raising your daughters, marriage, eating, sleeping, exercising, cooking, etc? That's why I usually only read (often skim)the Achenblog at night, after reading your kit. On the laptop. While watching TV or talking to my family members, or eating... I just finished watching Before and After...Plastic Surgery while writing this. Gory but interesting. And before that Planet Earth on Discovery.

Oh, right, ...multi-tasking! We are all obsessed.

BTW, I will never, ever submit another comment. Nope. Nada. Not gonna do it.

April Fool's! :-)

I was trying to think of an amusing comment to post today, but at the mention of "Riverdance," my brain locked up solid.

bc

Not to me, but I've never lived in the days of Pure English, Maggie O'D.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/comprise

http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/comprise?view=uk
http://www.bartleby.com/61/72/C0537200.html

The distinction would remain if the verbs were used in the active voice, but it makes equal sense in the passive voice.

Personally, I think the shift in "comprise" is developing because "compose" is itself shifting in its general meaning; How often does anybody say "50 state compose the Union; The Union comprises 50 states?

There is a strong drive to say "of 50 states", following so many other verbs that we would use to say the same thing:

"The Union is made up of 50 states"
"The Union consists of 50 states"
... and so on.

"Of" itself indicates a state of belonging between the two words, which serves to buttress the sense meant by the verbs.

In "The Unfolding of Language" by Guy Detscher, the author maintains that language is continually in flux-- evolving, and one thing driving language is that people tend to extract rules where none existed before when a certain pattern becomes particularly common.

He uses a lot of examples from semitic languages, but also some tasty tidbits from English itself.

For instance, he mentions that "ing" comes from the Old English for "in-go", which became abbreviated with regular usage.
We used to have "a-do" and "a-think" which died out, likewise for most constructions with "be" such as be-come, be-think, be-gin (which is actually from be-going, I believe).

Unfortunately, it looks like "I coulda, I shoulda, I woulda" (aka "of") could be the next wave, unless we take steps to stop it from of happening.

I recommend the book for those interested in the secrets of grammar quirks and why every generation seems determined to bust up their parents' grammar.

Good review here about the book, and a comment on "gonna" and "going to"

http://www.mitadmissions.org/topics/misc/miscellaneous/the_unfolding_of_language.shtml

Bc, you mean to say, your brain locked up solid, and your feet began a-tapping, right?

I hope you're not still wearing that gladiator outfit from a few boodles back.

Variant language usage, wierd music, stupid clothes, funny haircuts, body piercings, various forms of chemical abuse, self-destructive bonding rituals...

What will the youth come up with next, just to annoy their elders?

World peace would be nice, Bob S.

Well, that WOULD be disconcerting!

And extremely annoying too. It's said, "Old men send young men off to war."

Well, given that (despite the delightfully unburdened-by-knowledge-of-the-past opinions of each new generation) all of the other things are pretty old hat, that "world peace" thing really WOULD be something new under the sun!

CP, if ever I had a summer-home (cottage, cabin) I would name it Céilidh.

This is wildly off topic, but it deals with punctuation, so I thought I'd share it. My sister emailed me, and among other things, told me that after living in a rural area for years, with a box number and RD route for an address, she is getting a street address. It is:
### Somethings Run Rd

She says:
"There does not seem to be an apostrophe where there should be one."

I'm cracking up. G'night all.

Ah yes, She must live down around Harpers Ferry.

Personally I'd go with
"Some Things Run Road",
connecting with those roads:

"Some Things Fight Street"
"Some Things don't Fit Route"
"Some Things Die Alley"

And a cul-de-sac called "Alas, All Things End"

It took me a couple of years, but I eventually got the signs (at the bowling alley on a USAF base) on the "convenience" rooms changed from, "Men's" and "Ladie's", to something more appropriate.

It's apparent that apostrophes' usage is sometimes tricky, and its finer points are uninteresting to many!

The apostrophe is a mystery to many, apparently, as is the word pair its/it's. The two problems combined on a large billboard that I have to pass every day, regarding storm safety--I can just picture the head scratching that produced this gem:

LIGHTNING: KNOW ITS' DANGERS!

(Ack.)

Light rain through the night leaves the morning fresh and dew-pearled.

Robert Browning used 'dew-pearled' in his spring poem, "Pippa Passes."

I like what Ivansmom said about music and Holy Week. The shrouding of the statues and images in dark purple cloth is such theater, mirroring the brokenness of the groaning world.

I also think of Persephone and her mother Demeter:lost innocence and violence that is part of the Greek myth of how the seasons came to be.

Carl Sagan and others explained some of the awful possibilties about atomic and nuclear power as the longest winter from which spring would be forever changed, if possible at all.

I end on topic. Two stars for me.

'Morning, boodle.

So...nobody's interesting in putting a period after "Rd" in Something[']s Run Rd.?

Morning all!! *caffeine-poor and therefore somewhat restrained Grover waves*

You mean this site has REAL ads, not just the Google kind???

:-)

Good Morning everyone! It was a lovely sunrise over the mountain this morning. Mist rising from the river mingled with the dew left from last night's storm. It kind of makes a Monday a little easier to take.

greenwithenvy, yes the sky was beautiful here too. Starting with a bright moon that made me do a double take--it was on my left as I came out of the driveway but I had to turn right, so I hesitated a little. Then the view from my "sunrise bridge"--we aren't far enough into spring for the sun to be rising there but I can see yachts lit up with twinkling lights and the water rippling as a warm breeze rustles the palm trees.

I was thinking about mountains this morning, but traveling through a totally flat landscape, realizing how long it has been since I climbed a real hill. We have some very spectacular freeway overpasses*, but somehow it's just not the same...

*"The Flyover" on "The Golden Glades Interchange"--it even sounds pretty, doesn't it?

This should be interesting...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/02/business/02xprize.html

:-)

Kbertocci, didn't someone once say that Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A pretty sunrise anywhere can make the day very easy to take. Yes it does sound pretty.

Oh, I forgot to mention. Today is opening day for most baseball teams. My O's open on the road in Minnesota, I think the Nationals open at home against the Florida *fish*. Opening day is a new begining when every team has a chance.

I wish both the Orioles and the Nationals a very sucessful year!!

Play Ball

Morning! Hey Cassandra!

Cloudy and humid here, after a little much-needed rain last night.

Kber, you wanna climb a hill, I got one you'll like! And...of all the grammar mistakes that drive me crazy, misuse of the apostrophe in it's/its is the worst!

100 miles per gallon? I'd buy that vehicle!

Off to be staff at the place where people can say while they have family in the hospital. My first time...

Morning all. I have been on the front lines of the proper apostrophe usage battle for some time. Its and it's appear on my students' spelling lists repeatedly throughout the school year. It is a rare year indeed when all my students can use its and it's correctly in addition to:

there, their, and they're
could've, would've not could of, would of

Morning all! One of my grammar peeves is the 'everyday,' 'every day' mixup. At one time, Kmart stores were littered with signs that said things like:

Real Savings Everyday!

Wasn't there one person along the chain of design/ad agency/approval process who noticed the error?

And on a wee bit of boodle on-topicness (not Kit), the first Google ad below says:

Coffee Exposed
A shocking secret coffee co's don't want you to know.
www.coffeefool.com

"Punctuation should not be used unless it is part of a proper name, (ST. JOHN'S). However, mailers may wish to use punctuation due to individual preference or other considerations. " This is the adressing standard from Canada Post. All that excess puncutation, such as periods at the end of RD. and Ave. means it has to go outside the highly automated sorting process. In signage, the punctuation clutters things up, but I will consult with new person in office who used to make signs for roadways.

Maybe it's all an evil ploy.

CP, I will go looking for patterns. I'm pretty sure they are out there, knit and crochet. Its a matter of yarn as to how thick looking the final product would be. CP, maybe we'd best conduct this with some sneakiness. Could you email me at drennebergatyahoodotcom, and I will give you my better and way more used email address.

There is something so wonderfully decadent about making cofee at home on a Monday. I really should be grinding beans, but that has proven to be unpopular when I am the only person in the household up and about.

This vacation is going to be all about decadence in local time and space. I am going to the yarn stores, to the new needlework shop, to coffee shops for an afternoon coffee. I might even go to Starbucks. Considering that outside of curling, I am looking forward to this vacation more than any other vacation I have ever had, should tell you the pitiful state of my little corner of the world.

I mentioned that it was my mom's birthday yesterday. We took her out for brunch at a fabulous restaurant on a beautiful golf course. Since it was a bit of a surprise for her, the crowd of us went to the restaurant, and waited for dad and mom to arrive. And waited. And waited. It seems we forgot to tell dad where he was supposed to take mom. The only fool's this April were us!

Good morning, all.

I like to think that I've moved beyond the need for such things as correct punctuation and grammar, in the same way that the visual arts have moved away from photorealism.

I remain the Jackson Pollock of the English language.

As far as that X Prize for a 100 MPG car, I have some skepticsm regarding the stipulation about a business plan showing that 10,000 cars could be built at a cost comparable to today's cars. That can be rather subjective, and subject to a lot of variables such as where the plants happen to be...

Having said that, I think this is a good thing for giving the auto industry (from the small innovators to the big companies) incentive to shake out new technologies for mass production. At first, I thought 100 MPG was too low, but it makes sense in the context of the X Prize. IIRC, the first X Prize was awarded to the SpaceshipOne folks (Advanced Composites?) for getting their vehicle to 100 km altitude.

I'm going to leave the question of using imperial units of measurement to set the performance criteria for someone else to answer.

bc

Noses Run Road

I'd be happy if Thing 2 (the brilliant child) stopped using 'like' incorrectly. Also, I can't remember the day my name became Dude. ('Dude, that's like, so cool!' or 'Dude, I did not, like, see that coming.')

Dear Child is running around this morning saying "Hello. My name is Innego Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." and yet she's never seen The Princess Bride (but she has seen her cousins lately).

And they wonder why I'm insane.

At least Dear Child is quoting from a great movie! Could be worse.

dr, your vacation sounds wonderful can I join you?

LiT- Put your hand up as if making a shadow puppet swan, move thumb and fingers as if the swan is squawking-say "This is what you are doing." Stop the swan's squawk with a bit of a head shake and sudden clamping shut of the mouth, then say "This is what I want you to do."

Or just say "never get involved in a land war in Asia." If nothing else, the stunned confusion will give you a few seconds of peace.

Humm, that would be 100 miles per US gallon in US customary units or 2.35 L/100km. Or 2.83 L/100km if the larger imperial gallon is used. Motto:
Canada, our gallons and footballs are bigger.

Over the weekend, I commented on a Post story on visiting London affordably. Either the comment system ate my apostrophes and other punctuation, or I was sleepy.

Within 10 years, apostrophe's will be universally used for plural's. Then people will tire of them.

My current grammar bete noir is misusing "that" for "who." I hear this all the time in radio commercials and it makes me crazy [read: crazier]. There's an ad for the Wash. Nationals out at the moment that says something about "fans that come out" to the stadium, or whatever, and I'm yelling at the radio, "IT'S FANS WHO COME OUT, YOU BLITHERING IDIOTS! WHO! WHO."

In the nicest possible way, of course.

Pardon me while I go look up "blithering." I just realized I have no idea what it means.

Well, whaddaya know. "Blither" is a variant of "blather,' to talk nonsensically. And right below it was this lovely noun, which has apparently lapsed into history: blatherskite: a contemptible person, and/or one who blathers.

Watch this space for "blatherskite," an insult coming soon to a boodle posting near you, most probably in reference to either Arbusto, Gonzo, or Darth.

Dave, the Post comment robot is voracious for punctuation. That's why I have vowed never to darken their comment boxes again (cruel punishment for them, I know.)

I just hang out here at the A-blog where we can punctuate promiscuously.

Here are some gratuitous punctuation marks, just for you, Dave -- and "b 'Jackson Pollock' c"

,',',',',""",""",,',",'',','''

Tip: commas are allowed in the WaPo comments, so some people, in desperation (I hope I will never be this desperate) use commas in place of apostrophes: ,,I can,t stand it!,,

kbertocci,

"punctuate promiscuously" could

be another motto for

the Achenblog.

b
c

So, what's everybody talking about? Why the sudden embarrassed hush when a physicist enters the room? Everybody's acting like I scare 'em or something. What's up with that?

It has nothing to do with the physicist part. ;)

Inverted apostrophe,s, then.

My comments got into purchasing and subsisting on 2 kg of Madagacar lychees, which are to fruit about what sashimi is to fish. I think I could live on them and mamey sapote (the creamy pink national fruit of Cuba).

*Tim, your presence would be less obtrusive if you didn't have that marching band preceding you into the room playing "Hail to the Chief."

And if people only knew what it was All About...

bc

Morning!

danghippie, so glad you're back home and healing.

Still haven't caught up from last week, so I apologize if this was addressed before:

Where the *&^%# did they move the links to discussions on wapo.com???

Happy Post April Fools Day! I've been away, slaving over a BIG assignment. Very big. Huge. Did I miss anything? I'm writing a new story involving Karl Rove (of course), Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales, and Antoine Scalia (pardon spelling). The prez makes an appearance. Just have to finish it. I don't know how people like Joel Achenbach do this EVERY DAY. Cheers.

The last two Mondays (last Monday there were horrible rains) there have been no meetings at Helotes City Hall. Ernest Cruz, Helotes City Hall file clerk, suggested that there may be a last one tonight. I suggested to Ernest that there should be a cake and champagne celebration to end it all. I always knew this would be the last thing I would write about our three-month event. How convenient that the Kit topic is "A World on Fire."
***

The artist is unknown. Female or male, old or young?

The movements made by the black pen are bold and few--much like the limited yet expressive lines at Lascaux in southwestern France, where the cave painters used only a few strokes of their brush to communicate much. It is the scene of a mountain or a mesa, with giant flames leaping upward. It is the sky on fire, the world aflame.

Below the scene are the words "You Are Here." As if the viewer, in the first three monhts of this year, would have any doubts. The drawing sits on a oversized map and a string connects the drawing to its cartographic location. It has a companion piece of art on the map, one of those 50 cent postcards of springtime bluebonnets and other colorful wildflowers, a souvenir one would find in any gas station or tourist curio shop throughout central Texas. The postcard sits atop the map and is connected by string to the same speck as the fire artwork--to Helotes, Texas.

The giant map of the Lone Star State is on a wall of the teachers' lounge at O'Connor High School, the public institution that sat closest to the 91-day-old, now-extingished Helotes mulch pile fire.

During the first few weeks of the fire, in January, in the dead of winter, the high school's principal, Lawrence Martin, would--certainly out of concern, but no doubt with a sense of fascination--climb the steps of Building G, near the center of campus and near its clock tower, for a close-up view of the blaze. He would make his solo journey to the building's second floor early in the morning, before dawn, when he would arrive on campus, or late at night, before leaving for home.

He would look across the chasm of the Vulcan Industrial Quarry (Somewhat ironically, Vulcan is the Roman god of fire, especially destructive fire.) and almost directly into the fire, to see its flames and the progress the firefighters hired by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality were making in extinguishing the inferno. He came on board as assistant vice principal in the 98-99 school year, when the school opened, and wasn't aware of the Zumwalt mulch pile at the time.

The Northside Independent School District was very aware that it was building its newest campus at the time within the block-letter "L" shape of the adjacent quarry, the open mining pits on the school's west and south borders. The blasts occur on a regular basis--almost daily, Martin said--and the the quarry operators have been wonderful to work with, he added, always calling to forewarn the school about the impending blasts. (Boom-Boom O'Connor, anyone? The humorous twist on the name comes to mind, since the school is named after the black-robed, serious former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.)

Nothing in his past employment history prepared the educator from Devine, southwest of San Antonio, for the three-month debris fire. "It's like having having a big campfire in your front yard," Martin said.

Although the school was built for 2,500 students in 1998, it now has 3,250, of whom 480 have asthma or respiratory problems. Although the school has modern air conditioning wizardry that can transform the air flow from open circulation to closed circulation in 45 minutes, Martin had to be concerned with the seven passing periods during the school day when students would walk outdoors from one class to the next. On his teaching staff was a person experiencing asthma-like symptoms and another who is pregnant.

Although smoke never closed the school, there were days of high student absenteeism. Because of increased referrals to the nurse's office a second nurse was brought in. The district's own environmentalist spent many hours monitoring the air at the high school as well as other district schools impacted by the smoke.

Martin met with some parents on an individual basis, had to transfer some students to another campus because of the constant air pollution, moved the many animals being raised as part of the agricultural program to a safer location and hired a guard to watch them, since animals at San Antonio's Madison High were recently slaughtered by a vandal.

On red-alert smoke days, outdoor physical education activities were cancelled. The roster of athletic games had to be changed so that no home-games were played on the O'Connor campus.

In his 35 years as an educator, principal Martin has experienced nothing of this magnitude, he said. "It's not business as ususal." Previously his difficulties occurred in the wet season--short-term problems with ice and snow days.

What has the fire taught him? Marin compares the fire to life, that we as individuals just don't know what will happen next and that we must be prepared to deal with whatever comes our way.

Now that the fire's effects are no longer part of their everyday lives, is the fire completely out of the minds of those at the high school? Not by a long shot, Martin wagers. While the fire burned, a table had been set up by the senior class to begin to collect suggestions for the 06-07 school motto and song. Someone suggested the old tune "When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes." Martin guesses that the motto the senior select may be "I Survived the Fire of '07."

Martin said that he would bet his bottom dollar, though, that the senior class will pick a mottto and a song about smoke. If they do, the blaze that set the sky on fire for many hazy days and illuminted nights will always be part of their memories, their history, part of their 10-, 25- and 50-year reunions.

Good morning, friends. With all the talk of grammar, my post will be light this morning. I make tons of errors. Some I am aware of, most I am not.

Slyness, saw that on the news, but did not realize it was a domestic violence call.

bob s, I was speaking about the "big-ness" of the nuke situation in terms of how it impacts others, and of course, the burning part. I agree, there are other agents that fall in that category.

Hope everyone had a lovely weekend, and just biting at the bit for the week to get started, right?

As a teenager,me and some of my friends went to this night club (off limits), and a couple of guys, we knew them, pulled a pistol out on me. They were playing, just to see my reaction, and I fainted. It scared me so bad. They had to pull me up off the floor. I have never cared for guns, and still don't. I don't know if the gun was loaded or not. Another time, my boyfriend and I were sitting in the car in front of a hang out for young people and a friend of ours came out the club with a shotgun, and pointed it at the car. I ducked, but he did not shot. Later that night he shot a friend of ours while he slept in a chair. The guy never knew what hit him.

There are a lot of guns on the streets in America, and now that we have laws that allow people to carry them, one is literally taking life in hand when leaving home, and sometimes, at home.

Martooni, hope all is well with you.

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

Cassandra, as far as why physicists went and invented nuclear weapons and whether they thought about the consequences:

Yes, they thought about the consequences of nuclear weapons... in the hands of the Nazis. Almost any alternative seemed preferable. A rapid end to the war, with overwhelming power in the hands of the Allies -- well, really the Americans -- seemed the best way to stop them. No one could be quite sure what a nuclear weapon would do, but it was obvious that it would be powerful. Unlike the U.S., the Nazis would have zero moral qualms about using it, without limits.

Most of our leading physicists were from countries that were at that time under the control of the Nazis. It seemed unlikely that every one of the most talented and knowledgeable fellows in the world had escaped to join us. The Nazis definitely had Heisenberg and Hahn. Heisenberg later claimed that he had intentionally misled the Nazi leadership with an erroneous calculation that falsely proved that a practical nuclear weapon could not be built -- thus attempting to salvage both his moral and his intellectual reputation. The German system was sufficiently rigid and hierarchical to make it plausible, but not utterly convincing, that no bright young Edward Teller-like character brashly stepped forward to show that the great Heisenberg was wrong. The play "Copenhagen" is built around history's ambiguous judgment of Heisenberg. Heisenberg maintained to his death that he had prevented the Nazis from obtaining the bomb, rather than failing to deliver. Even so, we had no way to know that the German bomb effort had halted, rather than becoming better hidden from our spies.

Anyone else PO'ed that Bush won't be throwing out the first pitch today at the Nats' opening day?

It would have made a great sound bite, don't you think, with all those boos?

The chats have been renamed "Discussions" - there's a link on the home page, on the left, in the middle. Or you can try bookmarking this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/liveonline/?hpid=discussions

Glad that everyone was amused by the apostrophe remark. It will annoy my sister for all time, although it's pretty common to drop it from place names, I think. I try to remember not to use contractions on the Post comment pages - it is horrifying to see a proper "it's" turned into "its", I tell you. And I can't imagine why apostrophes are gobbled up.

Must be the Canadian influence that makes me drop the abbreviation periods from mailing addresses.

CowTown, glad you could drop in!

Am I the only one that has wondered about Oppenheimer's quote ("I am become death" etc)? That always struck me as the kind of quotation you come up with when you know you're about to be making history and want to come up with something better than "holy ford".

In addition to ScienceTim's excellent explanation, I'd offer this. I don't know about the scientists, but I don't think that, during the 1940s when the decisions about the bomb were being made, leaders clearly considered the option that (Nazi Germany aside) countries other than the United States might also get the bomb. This is particularly true of enemy countries. It was so difficult, and took so many smart people so long, and the supply of relevant scientists was so relatively limited. We knew we would try to use this power for good, as it were, and perhaps assumed that nobody otherwise inclined would have the chance. At that point, of course, Soviet Russia was our uneasy ally, not our enemy.

Use of the atomic bomb against Japan was always an ambiguous point in our house. We thought it was wrong. However, at the time my dad was an Army first lieutenant in the Pacific, on his way to Japan. The life expectancy of officers at that point was about six months and dropping. Did it shorten the war and lengthen his life? Probably.

On "How Sweet the Sound", the singing group Chanticleer recently recorded a gospel song from the '50s, "Jesus Hits like an Atom Bomb", with the chorus:

You know everybody's worried 'bout that Atom Bomb.
Well, no one seems worried about the day my Lord shall come.
You better set your house in order, he may be comin' soon.
And he'll hit like an atom bomb when he comes.

I still haven't gotten around to reading Rhodes' book -- it's so thick! So, maybe I've been drinking the physicists' Kool-Ade. We used to talk about Heisenberg and the bomb and all that when I was in grad. school. I'm sure there's a lot more to be said, with greater accuracy, about the philosophical history of the bomb.

It was a sobering moment when I realized in my first year of grad school that our mathematical physics class had used, as an example, the neutron-diffusion calculation that lay at the heart of a fission bomb. You will be pleased to hear that I don't recall any of that stuff. I realized, then, that any decent physics graduate student these days knows the basics of how to build a nuclear weapon. Only the details remain, as an exercise for the reader. There is no question that Iran and North Korea and Lichtenstein, even, have all the intellectual capital they need to go nuclear. As the existence of Edward Teller demonstrates (my second invocation of his name for the day), being scary-smart does not prevent being a narrow-minded crazed ideologue.

Tim, perhaps the mass spectrometer hanging oput of your fishing vest has an intimidating effect.

Cassandra, it was well known to the Allies that the Germans where actively assembling bomb material; they had occupied Norway, which means they took over the Norsk Hydro Electric facilkities at Trondheim, Norway, which had been producing "heavy water" for physicists in London ever since 1934. In February of 1944, Norwegian resistance fighters sank a cargo ship carrying a shipment of heavy water to Germany--the project was THAT important and had to be stopped. The Allies also bombed the Trongheim plant to put it out of action. But even so they remained uncertain how much stuff Germany already had, or whether there was some other facility making bomb material. So it was a race against time.

The problem with asking an otherwise seemingly reasonably question such as "Did they [Allied scientists] consider the consequences" is that there is a tremendous amount of background information needed in this question, the bulk of which concerns what those scientists knew at the time, and how much they were able to speculate about in the context of the early 1940s. Today we have WAAAYYYY too much 20-20 hindsight, and it is diffficult to remove all that hindsight before coming to a conclusion about those folks. The stories about how they put on suntan lotion, and did or did not wear sunglasses when they watched the tests, etc., gives a good picture of how little they did know about some aspects of the bomb. But the biggest piece of the equation, as Tim rightly points out, was what would have happened if the Germans got the bomb first.

The controversy really doesn't start very much until early 1945, when it became apparent Germany was going to fall, which it finally did in March and April 1945. It was only about then that the scientists could "relax" about German, but then had to turn their attention to Japan. At this point the terms of the debate shifted. It was known Japan's rudimentary nuclear project was stillborn and no threat. At this point the debate now centered on a strictly practical question, whether it was better to use one airplane to deliver just one giant bomb, or use hundreds or thousands of airplanes to deliver millions of smaller conventional bombs, and take losses accordingly. This was more a question for the military and political people rather than the physicists, and rightly so, in my view. In part, the Manhattan Project people were too busy doing the actual work on building the bomb to spend very much time schooling themselves on the nuances of tactics and strategy. And even if they had, nobody would have listened to them -- and rightly so. It wasn't their job to figure that stuff out.

Of course, this is where it all gets really complicated and highly controversial--whether the U.S. should or should not have dropped the two bombs on Japan. I don't think this will ever be resolved, nor is it "resolvable" in any meaningful sense, because both sides of the debate are not about what DID happen, but only speculation about what "might" have happened.

For what it is worth, I've read a very great deal about this decision (the best book, IMHO, on the subject is Paul Fussell's book "Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays," 1988. First published as "Hiroshima: A Soldier's View," in the New Republic in August 1981. Fussell was an Army office who saw a lot of combat in Europe and was about to be shipped to the Pacific to invade Japan, and his argument is that he and hundreds of thousands of fellow Americans would have died in that invasion, so he's damned grateful they dropped the bomb and saved his skin. For what it's worth, I think he's absolutely right.

To be fair, there are a lot of arguments on the other side, but I don't find many of them reasonable. To me they all boil down to one overall idea: that the U.S. should have knowingly and deliberately sacrificed an unknown number of OUR OWN soldiers so we could AVOID killing an unknown number of the enemy. I find that an unacceptable trade-off. But that's basically what the pacifist side wants when you boil all the rhetoric (on both sides) down to the nut of it.

It may sound extraordinarily callous, but I've always thought that there was a huge "silver lining" in the dropping of those two bombs. I contend that if we hadn't dropped them, we would never have had a very realistic and visible idea of exactly how horrible the effects were. I think Hiroshima and Nagasaki scared the crap out of a lot of people (as they should have), and taught the world a lot about restraint. It's my belief that if we HADN'T dropped the bomb on Japan we would have dropped it on Russia or China, id not during the Korean War than after during the crazy 1950s when you had idiot Air Force general like Lemay talking about nuking Moscow. So yes, it took something like 180,000 martyrs (and you can double or even triple that if you want to account for survivors and cancer victims) to get that restraint. But in the long run I think it was "worth it." But of course others may disagree.

Excellent points Mudge. Let's also recall that the US really didn't want to nuke Nagasaki. The assumption was that Japan would surrender after Hiroshima. Of course, they didn't. And, depending upon who you talk too, the Emperor still didn't want to surrender even after Nagasaki. Many feel that he was forced into it by those around him.

SciTim - Yes, Rhodes' book is daunting. But it will make you a better person.

Less exhausting is the sequel "Dark Sun" about the H-bomb. And personally, I think a vastly more relevant lesson for modern times is the path to the "Super."

Actually, making a bomb isn't that hard. It's getting the parts that is so tricky.

Hey, Joel, you watching the wires? The Chicago Tribune, LA Times, and Balt. Sun have just been sold to a real estate buffoon -- make that typhoon, no, meant tycoon -- named Sam Zell. And the Chi. Cubs baseball team will be sold later this year as part of the deal. Frank Ahrens (who usually does a pretty good job) has a really half-a$$ed story on the sale at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040200385.html?hpid=topnews . For instance, read the story and ask yourself, who did Zell buy the company from? Who founded and owned the Trib and the Cubs for the last thousand or so years. Does the name Wrigley ring a bell anywhere? Are the Trib, Times and Sun, like, major papers or anything? Or just little shoppers and throw-aways? Does the sale have any consequences for, like, yanno, journalism?

Padouk, the think that irks me the most about the A-bomb/Hiroshima debate is that we now know a tremendous amount about what was going on inside Japan at the time, but back then we knew NOTHING. NO THING. ZIP, ZERO. DE NADA. We had WAGS (wild-a$$ guesses) about this and that, but as to the internal politics inside the palace, and who was caving in and who was a die-hard death-to-the-last man person were pretty much unknown and unknowable. This was a country that launched suicide attacks, and fought to the last man on Iwo Jima and Saipan, and there was NO reason to assume they'd do anything different, and EVERY reason to assume we'd lose 50,000 or 100,000 or more of our guys subduing the place. To me sacrificing 50,000 or 100,000 of our troops instead of using the bomb is/was simply unconscienable.

I loved Rhodes' book, in part because of the first 220 pages. It takes Rhodes this long to simply get to the point in time (in 1933 or 34, forget which) when Leo Lzilard was crossing the street in New York at a stoplight, and has this sudden revelation that building a bomb was technically feasible and theoretically possible. In that first 220 pages, Rhodes gives a stellar/bravura performance setting the scene of the development of physics from the 1700s or 1800s right up to that moment in 1933/4. I didn't find it hard going; I though it was terrific. Was especially fascinated to learn about Chaim Weizman's early work during WWI.

Since it is opening day for baseball, did you all see the story by Sydney Trent (yes, *that* Sydney, Joel's editor):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/27/AR2007032701838.html

She's also got a chat, er, discussion going...

I'm glad to read the comments on Rhodes' book; I picked it up but haven't started it yet.

This morning, I read the Outlook piece from yesterday about the secretary-ship of the Smithsonian. It railed against the scholarly cowardice that has afflicted the Smithsonian under the last two Secretaries (ignoring the fact that this is just an intensification of a long-standing and deeply-entrenched Smithsonian problem), and specifically cited the Enola Gay exhibit -- a point of decision at which the Smithsonian gave up on scholarly examination in favor of feel-good platitude. I have never seen the original script for the exhibit, although I have heard it labeled as an example of the worst kind of historical revisionism. The actual exhibit became an example of the worst kind of jingoistic boosterism -- "Isn't it wonderful that we dropped the bomb!" Both fail to serve the public and fail to present historical perspective.

(Yes, I realize that there was a somber component at the end of the exhibit. Too little, too late).

No, it isn't wonderful that we dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But that doesn't mean it was unnecessary to do it. No, it wasn't an act of racist evil that sought to obliterate "little yellow monkeys." But that doesn't mean that there's no significant moral price. Yes, it's true that we blew up Nagasaki, at least in part, as a demonstration to our "uneasy allies" in the Soviet Union that we had more weapons available to us. The consequences of that last action are still being worked out -- it showed that we had the power to act more than once, but it also convinced others of the value and practicality of obtaining such power for themselves.

Personally, I think that Truman decided rightly, given the information available to him. He had to act as commander-in-chief, meaning that his first responsibility was to his own troops. He knew the bomb was mighty, but perhaps lacked the perspective we now have, from the photographs -- he might not have ordered the bomb on Nagasaki, had he known, but accepted a demonstration detonation instead. He knew that the Japanese military was willing to accept horrendous losses without surrender, so surrender could only be compelled by the fear of total cultural erasure -- heroic sacrifice only counts if there is someone left to believe that you were a hero. And he had the example of previous centuries, that peace between two comparable powers almost always led to friction and resentments that blossomed into more war -- and this time, it would have been a fresh war between powers at least one of whom would begin the war with nuclear technology. He chose to go with a demonstration of utterly overwhelming power, and thereby ended the war within days.

The fact is that we are the only nation that ever has used a nuclear weapon in war, the only nation that has killed people with nuclear weapons. That should be an unpleasant truth. We should always feel a bit uncomfortable about it. I have heard it said that police officers who have shot perpetrators, even when they are vindicated by investigation, remain profoundly unsettled by the knowledge of taking a life. I feel that that is how we should feel, as a nation.

Funny about technology. Maybe if we built a really powerful light, a billion billion lumens, it could be the light at the end of the tunnel in Iraq. Or maybe it would blind everyone. In the land of the blind...

Yes, and we also should feel pretty dang uncomfortable about THIS war.

By the way, it's time to demand country of origin labelling on our food. We have "made in china" etc. on our glasses and silverware, we should have them on the stuff we put IN them.

The FDA continues its job tracking down what exactly happened to the shipment of wheat gluten between its origin in China to its killing pets.

RDP, the received wisdom that was handed down to me suggested that the Emperor had been dragged along by those around him and it was only the profound disaster of the bombs that enabled him to resume control of his government as actual (rather than merely titular) autocrat, and tender Japan's unconditional surrender.

At most, only one of us can be right. I won't falsely promise that I'll look into this matter further, but I will refrain from passing-on what I had heard until I gain more confidence in a single solid answer about the Japanese polticial situation at the time.

Speaking of the state of journalism these days...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/magazine/25ednote.html?ex=1175659200&en=f9576d0fe2ca0562&ei=5070

The Pandora's Box analogy is helpful. We did not know the extent of the problems that would arise out of the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Many of us would not be here, if fathers and grandfathers and a handful of female forbears had not survived what was WWII and returned to love and family, which often results in the begetting of children.

Now that I am here, I like it. By a quirk of timing, my risks in the family tree seems more profound during WWI. Two granddas survivied WWI. One granny was still surprised in her 90s that she did not succumb to the Spanish flu when so many around her did. She losts sibs and cousins, and watched the havoc it played in the Ft. Leavenworth barracks. My father could have been sucked into Korea or even Vietnam except he signed-on to head over to Germany.

Cultural note: my neighbor collects china and fabric from the 40s-50 era. Some china patterns were called names like

Atomic
Space Age

The patterns resembled sketches of two protons orbiting a nucleus, star clusters, and other depictions of the age of

Better Living through Chemistry.

Insert 'Physics' or 'Material Science' if you prefer one of these fields.

CP, when I went through my Mom's trunk full of linens from her early married years (1946-1953) I found some flowered chintz with the label along the selvage "Happily Married Chintz." I really liked that - that you could insure your state/status by your purchase of some cotton. How about "Safely Graduated" prints, or "Finally Fertile" flannel?

Thanks for the information. I need to read more history concerning that. I will say this, and not armed with information, that we should feel uneasy about dropping those bombs, although we were justified in saving life. Too much loss, and too much blood. And the fact that we are the only country that has used the bomb, should give us plenty of sleepless nights now that most countries are armed with these devices.

I am sticking to my original comment. We don't need any help in sealing our demise. We're certainly on the job in that respect.

Mudge,
Your post reminds me of the Wrigley Mansion in Pasadena, Calif. Walked by it several times as a kid, those New Year's Eves we camped on South Orange Grove Boulevard waiting for dawn--and the Rose Parade to begin.

http://www.tournamentofroses.com/aboutus/house.asp

My good friends at the CIA provided me with this article describing the Japanese surrender. *Waving* Hi guys! Sup.
Unfortunately the article doesn't address Hiroto's support of the military pre-Hiroshima.

https://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/docs/v46i3a07p.htm

SciTim, our own War Museum here has recently run into problems with one plaque that makes a statement that is not sitting well with the Legion.

The plaque in questions mentions that there is some controversy concerning the "strategic bombing that was done in Germany".

I do not agree with the Veterans standpoint, from a historical perspective how can you not look at the difficult situations and discuss them if nothing else then to try to prevent a similar event future.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070313.MUSEUM13/TPStory/Entertainment

And Rhodes points out that Hitler *joked* with architect Albert Speer about the possibility of an A-bomb blast setting the world's atmosphere on fire.

Nathan Lane

(reverting to a previous post)

Re: The sale of the Cubs. I heard on the radio today that one of the potential investors in acquiring the team is George Will. Wonder how that would go down in Toddlin' Town?

Glad to see Curmudgeon note again that it was Szilard who conceived the bomb. Accuracy is important.

In hindsight, we know that dropping the bombs was wrong. The terms of surrender we accepted were terms which had already been offered. At the time it was perhaps unknown if those offering those terms were sincere. History however indicates that those terms of surrender were sincere, and made before the bombs were dropped. Others note that a demonstration of the force of the bombs, used NOT on any substantial civilian populace, would have led to the Japanese surrendering unconditionally(which is not the offer we decided to accept.) Defenders of the bombs use claim that at the time, there was neither suficient uranium 235 nor plutonium ready for further bombs: the three were all we had ready. Some suspect that this is fudging the truth and that there was sufficient plutonium for a series of further (demonstration) bombs. The proof remains in classified papers.

As far as Oppenheimer's comment, this is a myth. What he actually said was, "It worked." It was later he wrote that the quote from the Bhagavad Gita was one that passed through his mind.

Mudge, *Tim, folks; I remember some estimates of Operation Olympic (the southern invasion of Japan) involving the loss of up to one million American lives.

Probably not a realistic number in hindsight, but with the knowledge of the Japanese defenses of Okinawa and other islands fresh in their minds, the American leadership had to take into account the possibilty of a horrifically bloody struggle on the Japanese homeland.

I'm no military expert at all, but I can understand the rationale for using the atomic bombs then, just as I understand why we don't ever want to use them again.

bc

Cassandra, if you look at Richard Erdoes book, "A.D. 1000: A World on the Brink of Apocalypse" or James Reston, Jr.'s second in his four-part series, "The Last Apocalpyse," folks at the last millenium were concerned that the end of days was near. Is there something about a millenium date that rattles us so?

Science has come a long way in 10 centuries, and the fire power of an atomic or hydrogen weapon is enormous. Uh, what was the SPF number of that sunscreen at the Trinity test site, Joel?

I'm more concerned about a burgeoning world population and scarcer resources, species elimination, and a cruel Darwinin fate for many living things in the coming centuries.

From a review of Reston:
With the turn of the century approaching, talk of the apocalypse runs rampant. In The Last Apocalypse, James Reston reminds us that such talk is nothing new. At the previous turn of the millennium, Vikings, Moors, and Hungarian Magyars beseiged Europe with wanton cruelty and violence, spreading fear and destruction wherever they went and leading many to believe that the end of the world was near. Such colorful characters as Sigrid the Haughty, Svein Forkbeard, Ethelred the Unready, and Al-Mansor the Illustrious Victor were the heroes and villains of the era.

CP- Not to be a stickler for detail, but protons do not orbit nuclei, they are in it. Electrons do the orbiting, if it can be called that.

Loomis; funny, and it ended up being the Van Allen belt that caught on fire. Talk about Global Warming!

Come to think of it, where are Walter Pidgeon, Peter Lorre, Frankie Avalon, Barbara Eden, and the Seaview when you need them?

Imagine, using nuclear weapons to solve a Global Warming problem...

bc

The question of whether Hirohito was just a puppet, or an actual driver of Japanese wartime policy, is hotly-contested. My own thinking is heavily influenced by the biography "Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan," by Herbert Bix. Yet I know the "figurehead" theory is still the dominant one. I don't think the truth will be fully known until Hirohito's personal papers are finally released. If they ever are.

El-Arbusto the Illustrious Victor-- That's the one I think he is going for. Who would want to be known as Shrub the Unwise?

I miss Admiral Nelson. And Crane. And that irascible Kowalski.

Gomer, thanks for the save. I will take an error on this. I was off too soon looking for a link or two to these patterns. Perhaps later.

Wheezy -- very funny about the title on the print edge. Finally Fecund? That was quite the intent of the 50s and 60s, to be fruitfull, etc.

The Eames design duo of husband and wife were very influenced by the zeitgeist of the era.

Anonymouse's 1:42 link is most scholarly. And RD's noting of the controversy over the Emperor's true status is up-to-date.

Style question: was it Mama Cass' ham sandwich or Mama Cass's ham sandwich?

RD, have you ever wondered why the crew never bothered to batten down that hatch from which all kinds of sea monsters emerged?

Jumper, to my way of thinking, it's Mama Cass' ham sandwich. There will certainly be other opinions.

I am a firm believer in Mama Cass's ham sandwich -- or at least in the punctuation thereof.

O Shrub, thou hast venged thy patrinomy to no boot. Once thou were humble fruit of a proud house.
Now thou hast mutilated multitudes;
Now you wreak wrath e'en further in your o'erweening pride, and upon silk sofas and velvet carpets you lounge, musing on thy handiwork with languid smirks and scoffs.

As the gallant walls of New Orleans brust forth in tears against the surge, so did our honorable offices and ways crumble against thou, the Shrub.

Once you would captain the juggernaut of collective grief and siege our foes. Those days are past. Afghanistan is won, but roughly held. This our odd sulky enemy Iraq, writhes and twists in thine hands like a thousand demons from hell, seeking to rend and tear in infinite torments as thou grippest even harder.

What victory is this?

Thousands of gallons of blood have been split on the unforgiving desert sands in the name of vengance, yet thou guzzle and gulp yet more blood of our fair forces anon.

If this be leadership, let us all be anarchists and cast our vote for puppies that follow us, tails wagging.
I can only speak, as long as my tongue attaches to my body. I cannot undo thee, Shrub, but I fear thou wilst undo us all.

-- (I could not find a shakespearean speech to paraphrase, so if this comes across oddly, that's why.)

Jumper, it was Mama Cass' heart attack. The ham sandwich was mine. I've been looking for it everywhere.

Didn't get all that, but I got one important message:

Wilbrodog for president!

FYI, I'm in Utah and won't be back in the blog HQ until Wednesday. Have done a wee bit of spring skiing, which is a slushy business, except when its icy and crusty and scratchy. Did have a couple of good days. I do only double-black-diamond slopes as you know. Jumps. Aerials. Back-country bowls accessible only on foot or helicopter. I take it as a point of honor never to use a chairlift.

Anyway, my bracket is back from the dead. Seriously I was in last place for a long time, but, though still not within shouting distance of first, I've ridden the Gators and OSU to the final and am picking (shockingly) the Gators to take it all in a squeaker.

http://asap.washingtonpost.com/tourneytracker/bracket.html?U2fx

First attack ad of the season features video of Wilbrodog peeing on a hydrant and then watching & doing nothing as a kitten walks by him.

Wilbrodog: Hard on the environment. Soft on cats.

Hm, guess I was getting the mountain vibes from Utah, then. Or possibly Aspen, where my co-worker is currently skiing. But really the mountains I was thinking of this morning were the Blue Ridge Mts, much closer to the one Slyness offered me (wish I could take you up on that, Sly)

Here's what Elements of Style says about possessive form of nouns ending in s:

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/possessives.htm

Disagreement in apostrophe usage abounds even in this vast hall of learned minds. It was Mama Cass's sandwich as well as Cass's heart attack (although I read that the sandwich is an urban legend). Since she possessed the offending sandwich (in addition to the offending infarction), the possessive (but singular) apostrophe is used. Contrary to popular belief, Mama Cass was a single person, not some plural individual that would require the use of the -Cass'- form. In my opinion.

Jumper wrote: "In hindsight, we know that dropping the bombs was wrong." No, we DON'T know it was wrong. Many (most?) of us still regard it as correct, if tragic and horrendous. And in everything we've learned since about what was going on inside the palace, there is NOTHING conclusive one way or the other. The military faction was still holding out for a last-ditch death. It all came down to the opinions of a very small handful of people, and could have gone either way. And suppose the militarists had decided to kill the emperor or depose him, so they could continue fighting? You forget that Japan had very publicly REJECTED the Potsdam surrender terms on July 27. What the &%$#^$#@ were we supposed to think after that?

bc, yes, I've seen the million-casualties estimates (which I think are high), but chose to use the minimum numbers rather than the maximum. The minums are sufficient to win the argument, in my view. What I want to know from the other side is, how long do ytou think Truman would remain in office if it became known he committed 50,000 American soldiers' lives to be lost IN LIEUE of killing x thousands of Japanese? Two minutes? 4 minutes? Would they impreach him, or simply drag him out onto Pennsylvania Ave. and hang him? C'mon, do the math. It's a very simple us-or-them equation. Who the bloody hell picks "us"?

Whether it is Cass' or Cass's depends on whose style book you use. Outside of that, there is no "right" or "wrong" answer. (Of course, some of us would point out that ham sandwich story is a myth.)

Boom goes London, and boom Paris.
More room for you and more room for me.
South America stole our name!
Let's drop the big one there'll be no one left to blame us...

- Randy Newman

Nats are loosing 6-1 in the bottom of the 6th.

S'nuke-Your link to the NY Times confirms my thoughts on the so-called widespread sexual assaults of female service members serving in Iraq, or elsewhere. Too many stories are printed without adequate verification of the alleged victims' stories. Are women being assaulted by their fellow service members? Statistically it's almost certain some are. Are their fellow soldiers so detached from their own humanity that a significant minority have somehow tapped into their inner rapists? I think not.

'Mudge writes:
"Whether it is Cass' or Cass's depends on whose style book you use. Outside of that, there is no "right" or "wrong" answer."

Yes! Style guides rule. Which one? The one that operates in your organization. Don't have one? Borrow or write one.

Two good fall-back style guides include the tome-bible, _The Chicago Manual of Style_ or the smaller but elegant _The Elements of Style_ by Strunk and White.

At the least, be consistent in a document, for the sake of Jesus. Should this be for "Jesus's sake" or "jesus' sake"?

One work-around for the biblical, historical, mythical, and philosophical names is to develop the posession in a phrase:

works of Socrates
thunderbolts flung by Zeus
charms of Isis
laws of Moses
teachings of Jesus

and how about this one

books by Suess

Otherwise, you have a mouthful to say of sibilant sounds at the end of word. Believe it or not, punctuation is to help us and does relate to the sounds.

---
Here is a hard two-parter question:

a)write the posessive of Kansas
b)write the posessive of Arkansas

Compare them.

Hint: say them out loud. Answer will be posted in a few minutes.

SCC: Oops -- capitalize Jesus, always.

At least they scored on D-Train, 'Mudge...

frostbitten;

For a magazine piece (read: LONG, LONG deadline), it's absolutely inexcusable to leave ANY substantive fact-checking (let alone basic things like where was the person and was the person actually injured) until three days before printing.

*SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

Vellllly velllllly interesting pic of the day...

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/1750;_ylt=Ag3mSvuFF4ONT3rIh_BkDA9paP0E

I particularly like the last line of the caption.

:-)

On the point of nuclear annihilation, I have been thinking about that old saying, "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." Would a viewing of nuclear tests be enough to cause a nation as committed as Japan to surrender? I doubt it, as the Japanese leadership might have made the point that the tests were faked. The same would be true if results of tests were only published and given to the leadership. I think that at the time, there was only one choice, to let the Japanese FEEL the effect of this terrible weapon. The rest of the world has had the opportunity to live (or die) vicariously through Japan's experience. This has allowed us all to see why these weapons must never be used again.

Funny, maybe I missed it in my boodle catch-up today, but I haven't seen anyone writing about anything good that has come of the nuclear age. Where would we be today without nuclear reactors and barium enemas?

Paying a lot more for electricity, for one thing, Gomer.

Agreed. Frostbitten. I looked at a general study once (sorry a few years ago, can't cite) and it was clear that most crimes are significantly lower in the military than in the general populace of comparable age, given the strong discipline overall.
Rape is lower as well, although not *as low*, statistically speaking, as it could be in relation to the other statistics, so the mechanisms in place may not be as effective for that-- yet.

Oh ^*#%^(#&)#^(%^...

That link is to a slideshow, not to the specific pic I thought it was...

I am so mortified...

:-(((((((((((((((

THIS was the photo I meant...

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070402/480/96f1c995e1d949348fcbf3b1c8e351b4;_ylt=Ah7CqmtwbKabt853QyqI.2FpaP0E

That is a kewl photo fer sure, Snuke. Not supersonic? Which one? (Ha!)

Scotty you were referring to the "not Supersonic" comment? I got the same picture both times.

*peeking head above desk*

I clicked on the link and saw a very different photo in the "Most Viewed" slideshow...

:-O

*ducking back down*

There are actually two that are not supersonic. The A-10 is a tank killer without supersonic ability. An awesome, tough, machine though. These things can be shredded by gunfire and still limp home.

Scottynuke, the photo of those two injured Iraqi girls broke my heart like nothing else could. Oh. My. God.

'Zactly, CowTown...

I just wanted to make sure everyone knew I was NOT referring to that Iraqi photo...

:-O

___________________________

And this caption's mention of supersonic is interesting because it's WRONG!!!

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/070402/480/756df30233714d86899ac72b67532090;_ylt=Ag2X7pWroB7Io2luWhVG7B5paP0E

Recycling a two-year-old Rough Draft about skiing--it's a good one:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1880-2005Jan11.html

I didn't see the picture of the girls but did read an article about the bombing, what a mess.

Can't fool the Boodle for long! It was indeed a red herring sandwich, not ham. Kudos for all those who knew the sandwich was an urban sort of legend.

Yes, I read the stylebook on words and names ending with "s" but not finding an entry specific for "ss" then for Slyness'ss'ss's sake I will agree with her.

S'nuke-

I don't think that they would have any planes flying at supersonic speeds at an air show. Too much bad stuff could happen. Besides, you don't need to go supersonic to have clouds forming around your plane. You just gotta turn real fast.

kb, you are a regular Achenencyclopedia. That was a funny column (love where he starts to baa). And look at the note at the end:
"Joel Achenbach is a staff writer for the Magazine and Style. His new blog will start Tuesday at washingtonpost.com/achenblog."

Kewl.

Gomer;

I agree with you on the A-10, I was always happy to see them overhead when I was in the Gulf. But I do think that F-22 is just going supersonic. There appears to be some afterburner action, and it's the classic "pose" for such a photo. I would think if the plane was headed out to sea the crowd wouldn't get too loud a boom. But whadda I know, I was a tread-head.

:-)

Scotty, to me the really interesting thing about that airplane photo was how the P-51 Mustang was able to keep up with those other planes without its propeller turning.

(Just lyin' here in the tall grass waiting...)

Gomer, you probably agree with me, but you know what always struck me as totally absurd? The notion of a demonstration test. There they are, U.S. and Japan locked in the largest, most devastating war in world history. They hate us, we hate them. One day President Truman sends a Western Union telegram (what's he gonna do? Call him up on the phone? Dial Tojo-1-9000?) to Hirohito that says, "We've just developed this top secret bomb, but we don't want to drop it on you. We just want to scare the living crap out of you. Accordingly, we're gonna invite you to a test of our latest super-dooper top secret weapon, at XYZ Island in the Pacific at noon on August 3 [or whatever]. Please be there with all your top military advisors, and bring a box lunch. P.S. We really promise this isn't a trap or an ambush, and you can trust us, OK? We're really not going to try to kill or capture you or any of your top military people, even though we did kinda ambush and shoot down Adm. Yamamoto that one time. And by the way, since you now know that all our top scientists will be setting up this test on XYZ Island, please don't send any submarines there, or try to sink our ships and stuff, OK? And don't try to capture our top secret weapon or our scientists. Because we're willing to trust you, in spite of that sneak attack at Pearl Harbor. Because we're really gullible and stoopid. Hah hah.

Signed

Your pal,

Harry Truman"

Searching for AP stylebook, I quickly found this
http://www.bu.edu/com/writingprgm/ap_styleguide1.pdf
which says: hostess's party, but Decartes' theories.

But, Mudge, wouldn't the demonstration bomb have been in a large, isolated area (mountainous, perhaps?) somewhere in Japan? That's what I always thought. Just drop one on a remote mountain peak (not the most holy one, please) and let 'em see what it means.

The pics of those Iraqi girls...

*deep slow breath*

bc

See, Jumper, you are dealing with English. There are no consistent rules. Just be yourself and hope for the best!

Or a single bomb on a couple of warships several miles out in a harbor.

On another note, the P-51 sounds 1000% cooler than any of those jets.

I see that the Nats pretty much got whomped by the Marlins today, 9-2. Only 161 games left in the season.

bc

Now quickly searching for New York Times style manual, I find it's copyrighted and not obviously available for free on the net. I picture hoards of scofflaw teenagers downloading illegal copies of the Times stylebook on Bittorrent...

Ha, if it were only the case!

Seriously, there is an entry on Wikipedia on the NYTimes Style Manual, but it's not filled out - just a stub inviting further contributions...

Wait, wait. *Shaking head vigorously as if to clear cobwebs* There's a party going on and Decartes' theories will be served with the little cocktail weenies? And WHO is the hostess? God, I need to get out more.

Gee I learn something new about AP style everyday: "For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: Descartes' theories, Kansas' schools."

I don't like it.

How else would you be able to tell if "The Williams' mom-and-pop business" refers to the William family (in the plural) or the Williams family?

I use Williams's for plural-appearing singular names. I don't care if it all sounds like Williamz nowadays.

If newspapers are skimping on the actual rules, no wonder so many people are becoming more and more clueless about why formal writing has more apostrophes than in the newspapers but not WHY it exists.

Yeah, Mudge, that was kind of the invite that I had in mind, too. Even if we just did the test and showed them the results, they wouldn't have believed it. I guess my point was that nobody would've believed it without a body count to back it up. And now everyone believes it so much that the only nukes cooking off today are on "24."

Remember - as I posted before - even AFTER we nuked Hiroshima Japan refused to surrender. And some think a remote demonstration would have been effective?

I guess I should have mentioned the Washington Post Deskbook on Style. My sources (2 minutes of skimming) tell me it's one of the Big 4 Professional Guides.

Duke University says:
The United States boasts four major journalistic style manuals.

Goldstein, Norm. The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual : Including Guidelines on Photo Captions, Filing the Wire, Proofreaders' Marks, Copyright. Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books, c1998.
Ford Reference PN4783 .A83 1998b. Earlier edition in Perkins.

In wide use among newspapers, this manual features a dictionary format and includes instructions on everything from setting up a box score to filing a story on the wire. Contains the usual rules for punctuation and such.
New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. New York: Times Books, 1999.
Perkins Reference PN4783 .S57 1999
Law Reference PN4783 .J6 1999. Earlier edition in Ford.

Similar in arrangement, but different in content, from the Associated Press Stylebook.
Washington Post Deskbook on Style. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
Library Service Center 651.7402 W319 LSC

Entirely different in format from the above two manuals, this one includes essays by such luminaries as Ben Bradley and Charles Seib, plus helpful information on writing in general and for the Post in particular.
MacDonald, Ron. Broadcast News Manual of Style. 2nd ed. New York: Longman, 1994.
Perkins Reference 808.02 M135 B863 1994

This manual pertains to broadcast rather than print journalists. It addresses script layout, writing and presenting news, pronunciation, and word usage.

Joel is off skiing in Utah? Is that legal for a Gator fan?

No, CowTown, it's the weenies' party, it's Decartes' wife's horse's theory, and its hooves's fault the hordes are hoarding the ors doovers.

Joel's overconfidence in the Gators may be their undoing.

If they lose, it's his fault.

bc

Jumper, thank you for that fine clarification. I think I'll take a nap now.

I have a style guide at work. It says we should only use small words.

Hmm, may I beg to say instead that:

It's the weenies' party. It's actually Decartes's wife's horse's theory, and furthermore, it's its hooves' fault the hordes are hoarding the hors d'oeuvres.

It's really simple once you know how.

CP.. your line, "a mouthful to say of sibilant sounds at the end of word" reminds me of one of my favorite David Sedaris stories:

http://www.twbookmark.com/books/49/0316777722/chapter_excerpt10135.html

Wheezy, the trouble is, there ARE no sparsely populated parts of Japan. It is/was one of the world's most densely populated countries, even then. If we tell them in advance we're going to blow up their version of Hooterville, are they supposed to come and watch? Are they supposed to evacuate Mount Whatsis first, on our say-so? Do we ask them to try to NOT shoot down our planes? We're going to wind up killing some people no matter what. What you're saying is it's preferable to blow up a handfull (dozen? hundred? thousand?) people in a demonstration-- while Hirohito and his people sit in the grandstands a few miles away. (And we're going to have to know where they are, so we don't hit them by accident. And they're going to willingly come to a few miles away from Ground Zero?) Or do we not tell them? And then when Mount Whatsis blows up, we tell them afterward that it was us and our new magic bomb, and not a volcanic eruption? And when their scientist determine the explosion equalled 20,000 tons of dynamite, how do we convince them we didn't just drop 20,000 tons of dynamite? And do all this on a "rush" basis, because meanwhile soldiers and sailors on both sides are still dying like crazy, and our POWs are dying in their prisoner-of-war camps like flies? And then Truman goes before the American people (as he must, sooner or later) and says "Yeah, we had this gigunda bomb, and we dropped it on Hooterville to try and scare 'em into quitting. And yes, we bombed the livin' hell out of the Germans, but we decided to stop bombing the livin' hell out of the Japanese, because...well, because. So yeah, we had only two bombs, and I wasted the first one blowing up an oyster bed in Ryuku. But you shoulda seen it; it was way cool."

The offshore test. We don't tell them, we just nuke one of their fleets. Of course, it being at sea, there are no survivors to tell the tale. Or maybe we do it closer to shore, where somebody on the beach will see it. Right up until the resulting tidal wave/tsunami comes ashore and drowns all the eyewitnesses. Or we tell them ahead of time, and ask them to anchor some ships offshore so they can watch...and they'll do that because they trust us...and Truman holds a press conference and says, "Yeah, we deliberately dropped 50 percent of our top secret arsenal that we spent five years and 90 gazbazillion dollars developing, on Charlie the Tuna and little Nemo. Cuz we didn't want to hurt anybody."

But just for argument sake, let's say we did some sort of test, and it works, and Japan surrenders, and Truman's a hero. And there are no horribly burnt survivors, and no lingering cancer deaths 20, 30, 40 years after, and nobody has any clue about all those horrible images John Hersey documented. And along comes the Korean War, and we are faced with ten gazillion Chinese streaming across the Yalu River, and very nearly over-running all of South Korea. And Gen. LeMay wants to nuke Peking. And nobody has a very good idea how awaful that would be.

Or let's say we do the test scenario--and the Japanese are unconvinced. They don't believe what they've seen. It's a trick. It's propaganda. Or they believe it -- and realize they are backed into such a corner that there's no way out except to die to the very last man, woman, and child rather than submit to some vague "threat." And they know that we've only got a small number of these things, and they can dig shelters (like we did in the 1950s and 1960s) in some deluded belief that they can withstand a couple of hits, and keep on fighting? (Because that's EXACTLY what people believed in the 1950s and 60s, when we were talking about H-bombs instead of puny little A-bombs, and even more absurd notion than the idea of surviving a couple of A-bombs.)

Jumper, broadcast journalists don't use style books. They use mousse and skin conditioners.

The part I don't like about just nuking some Japanese mountain is the fact that most of their mountains are volcanoes. Being situated on a tectonic plate boundary and prone to both earthquakes and volcanoes, this would be one of the worst places on the planet to blow up a bunch of earthshakers. I often wonder if man is powerful enough to set off volcanoes and earthquakes, and I guess we missed our chance to find out.

I was taught in an editing class that the two approaches to using the apostrophe reflect 1) the most formal style embodied in _The Chicago Manual of Style_ and 2) other, less formal style-guides.

About the apostrophe to show posession for words that end in 's' here is what CMS says, and I quote:

"...use s's except for Jesus and classical names."

Journalism style-guides reflect both speed and tight production space. They may have "grown up" separately or perhaps reflect another style-tome called _Words Into Type_. About apostrophes to show posession for words that end in s, WITT calls for "sportier" uses, and I quote: "Use the apostrophe alone whenever the apostrophe and an s would make the word difficult to pronounce, as when a sibilant occurs before the last syllable."

----
More later on what Strunk and White says. I suggest that when in doubt -- aka your org does not use a style guide -- follow Strunk and White, since the guide is small, cheap, and full of authority.

I have a handy display table on Kansas and Arkansas with six style-guide presciptions, but I can't make the table work. Perhaps I will post a link to my website, with the table posted on a display page.

Boy, could we use some html comment structure here. Italic type would help here, too.

Gomer, that's another reason why the "test" scenario is such a non-starter. It's one of those "humanitarian" things that sounds good on paper...and only if it works. Trouble is, it just doesn't work.

Running for the bus. Cue theme from "Seabiscuit."

CP writes "I suggest that when in doubt..follow Strunk and White, since the guide is small, cheap, and full of authority." Amen! I don't know how many times I have been the lone voice in the wilderness asking "Why are we spending all this money when _Elements of Style_ is still in print?"

*Cough* Monday night quarterbacking the A-bomb drops is just a tad on the macabre side. I'm all for a new kit.

Like Mudge says, they did the best call they could, once they did decide to use it. It might not have been the perfect call once worked out to 5 zillion places in 42 dimensions, but hey, it could have been worse. And it wasn't.

That David Sedaris story is good-- and sums up a lot of why I never learned to say "Sedaris". (I could try, but it'd be more like "seedee or "seedaoo", or "see da risseeeee" delivered in a flat, dawn-of-the-living-dead zombie accent. (maybe it'd be 'see wa rrrise.' Who knows?)

I love "Many a river". Necessity is the mother of creativity.

Strunk and White, co-authors of the classic _The Elements of Style_, are formalists.

They list one rule, which you can find on page 11 of the charmingly illustrated 2005 edition whose text is based on the 4th edition published in 2000 by Allyn Bacon press just before it was gobbled by Pearson Educational (part of Prentice Hall) CP ENDS AND QUOTE BEGINS HERE:

1) Form the possessive singular of nouns with 's.

Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,

Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice

Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for conscience' sake, for righteousness' sake. But such forms as Achilles' heel, Moses' laws, Isis' temple are commonly replaced by

the heel of Achilles
the laws of Moses
the temple of Isis

The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and ours have no apostrophe. Indefinite pronouns, however, use the apostrophe to show posession.

one's rights
somebody else's umbrella

A common error is to write it's for its, or vice versa. The first is a contraction mean "it is." The second is a posessive.

It's a wise dog that scratches its own fleas.

---
CP AGAIN:
Somewhere between 1918 and 2000, this line was lost:

"This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press."

Cite:
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION DATA
Strunk, William (1869-1946).
The elements of style / by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White; illustrated by Maira Kalman.
p.cm
Includes index.
ISBN 1-59420-069-6
Pub: 2005 The Penguin Press Group (USA)

Go Frostie! Cheep and good. Strunk was White's English prof....amazing.

My head hurts and I know this stuff! Off to check out the lake in this radiance that is spring...soft air and everything risking that tentative green.

No--- I forbid anybody to bring pronuncation into the apostrophe equation. That is not what it is for when indicating the possessive case.

The 's indicates an abbreviation of the now unvoiced genitive singular (-es/-is).

The genitive plural in English actually DROPPED the S from the nominative plural.

Bat = boat batas= boats
bates= boat's bata = boats'

With vowel shifts, the ending shrunk to a nearly uniform s or lack thereof.

They were still written the old way, and then a compromise between the old way and the modern way was found by indicating the omitted sound changes.
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/english/fajardo/teaching/eng520/oldeng.htm

(Scroll down to morphology: nouns)

The apostrophes indicate MEANING not evident by the modern sound or spelling.

Strunk and White has it correct. Thanks, CP. Their form is the most traditional form.

Omit needless words.

Mudge's version:

"Omit, damnit."

So do I say "It is one's own fault" or "It is ones own fault?" That is, is there any exception at all for pronoun possessives? As the majority are irregular, it's somewhat obscure, (his, hers, theirs, but: ours (regular!) its (regular!).

Jumper-CP's 5:39 quotes Strunk and White on that matter.

I don't remember which stylebook or grammar guru said it, but one of my favorite pieces of writing advice is: If the correct word is "whom," rewrite the sentence.

It is one's fault, Jumper. see
CP at 05:39 PM.

One's rights to an apostrophe is clearly delineated in that excerpt.

But to whom would one address that selfsame sentence, TBG?

Hi all (*waving*) -- feeling very "Monday" today and I don't really know why. That being said, I was able to collect some furtive brain cells together and craft a lovely article on trademarks. Tomorrow, a new lovely article is on my plate for copyrights. Sometimes I like "down" time and sometimes I don't. I'm sort of in-between right now.

Actually, truth be known, I would really like to start that novel that's been chunneling around in my head for awhile. But, alas, one must needs make a living. At the very least I could start drafting an outline, I suppose. My biggest problem is that once I start writing I find it exceptionally difficult to stop. Ah, well.

The Detroit Tigers lost their opener in 10 innings. But it's only the first game, of many, many, many more. Gotta get the bugs out of the system early, ya know? My beloved Pistons and Red Wings won (on national television yet) their games yesterday, so I'm very excited about the playoffs.

And so it goes. . . .

TBG-When I started teaching "Language Arts" to middle school students my second thought was "How am I ever going to teach who and whom?" (My first thought was to buy malpractice insurance.) I soon learned that teaching in an alternative school meant that I'd have plenty of time to review who and whom while we tackled much more pressing issues like "an is not the same word as and."

RDP -- ONW is a mantra in my class. Students are are just now starting to submit. Sorta. We can hope. Spring and all.

Wilbrod -- The traditionalist have a point about the ease of applying one rule and limiting the exceptions to the archaic. But the sound thing does come into play, especially for those who believe that usage trumps rules. These practical sorts have a point.

If you try to say Achilles's heel, it comes out syllabically sorta like this:

a * Kill * ease * a * sez * ez

Recall Arkansas and Kansas? They look alike at the end, but sound differently in the singular form and as it turns out, posessive form too.

ar * can * saw
can * sasz

For the posessive:

ar * can * sawz

can * sasz *e *sez

Forming the posessive with sibiliant sounds or their cousin zzzzzezzzzz- sounds, is tricky linguistically. The mouth, tongue, and brain try to add an additional syllable: sorta a half syllable to avoid what feels like a tongue-twister.

But TBG is right to suggest the work-around. Work-arounds save us every day.

...the heel of Achilles that was not immersed into the River Styx, and hence became his undoing....

He. His ball. It is his.
Her. Her ball. It is hers.
They. Their ball. It is theirs.
I. My ball. It is mine.
Several different levels and layers of irregularity here, and we all know how to navigate.
So there's a rule that there IS no form written: anyones'
and we must instead say: everyones' except we don't. It's: everyone's instead. But because of the irregularity, no clear instinctive rule seems to emerge, so we have stylebooks and also discussion. So modeling one's usage by examining everyone's, I will gladly (very much so at this hour) cede the point and be relieved we have gotten to the heart and indeed explored nearly every branch of the apostropheic tree of rules and usage.

Toon:

Well then Fido got up off the floor an' he rolled over
An' he looked me straight in the eye
An' you know what he said?
Once upon a time
Somebody say to me
(This is a dog talkin' now)
What is your Conceptual Continuity?
Well, I told him right then
(Fido said)
It should be easy to see
The crux of the biscuit
Is the Apostrophe(')
Well, you know
The man who was talkin' to the dog
Looked at the dog an' he said: (sort of staring in disbelief)
"You can't say that!"
He said:
"IT DOESN'T, 'n YOU CAN'T!
I WON'T, 'n IT DON'T!
IT HASN'T, IT ISN'T, IT EVEN AIN'T
'N IT SHOULDN'T...
IT COULDN'T!"
He told me NO NO NO!
I told him YES YES YES!
I said: "I do it all the time...
Ain't this boogie a mess!"
Zappa

One might think, or one's thought might be, that my students' trouble with an and and was the dropping of the d which Frank did so masterfully with the ' to show a missing letter. Not so, I found. "And iceberg sanked the Titanic."

Reminds me of another peeve. The unthawing of the glaciers is not causing rising sea levels. Unthawing being freezing after all.

Well, if Reagan won the Cold War with his military expenditures in the 1980s, when he caused the Soviets to shiver in fear and then self-destruct in terror, then I'm sure a demonstration of the power of the atomic bomb would have caused the WWII Japanese government to shiver in fear and self-destruct in terror also.

Maybe not.

Now, you wanna hear me about apostrophe use?

Frostbitten, Maybe it's due to a portmanteau of sound-- thaw and undo.

Or simply, your students up North don't believe that myth about snow and ice thawing actually exists ;).

Figuring out why people make mistakes on such simple words can be pretty interesting. But let us continue to correct said students to the way of the upright man.

CP, all you have to do is point out that all plurals end with the Z sound, but for words ending with a S sound that take the plural, you need to add the -ez sound. Awkward?

Yes, but it's a world where we have the busy bees' buzzes. Life will limp along somehow.

I'm familiar with why sz is a hard combo-- s is soft, z is voiced. You need to have a syllable in between or use a new sound altogether.

By the way, You spell it "built" instead of "builded" according to the rule of softening out prolonged harsh (voiced) consonants patterns-- from d-d to t.

(Hmm, by that logic, buzzes (buzzez) may get collapsed to buss'. Does that happen in speech?)

You may spell it "walked and talked"... but you actually say it "walkt an' talkt."

The tendency to make a normally voiced consonant voiceless (or insert an extra vowel sound in between) when immediately following a unvoiced consonant is an uniform pronuncation rule noted as far back as 4,000 years ago when they were designing the aksaras for devanagri (the script for Sanskrit.)

The aksara system is syllablic, incidentally. To use it properly, they had to codify how pronouncation changes in reality when words are spoken together and spell words as such. It's challenging but logical in its way. The Indians did the first books on phonetics.

http://www.advaita.org.uk/sanskrit/sanskrit_intro.htm

I agree, we need a new Kit!

And I will point out that in Wichita, the Arkansas River is pronounced ar-KAN-zus. If you pronounce it AR-kan-saw, they know you're not a local.

I have to confess I had a real problem reading parts of the boodle today. I agree with the last part of ScienceTim's 1:05: //That should be an unpleasant truth. We should always feel a bit uncomfortable about it.// Whether it was the only thing we could have done or not isn't the point--that's just arguing a concept. //There is a significant moral price.//

My discomfort lies in the fact that my father came back from the war, married, had 2 children, then died shortly thereafter of complications from having been in the wrong place at the wrong time during the bomb's testing. He'd just turned 42. Perhaps it makes me ultra-aware of the other families, of whatever nationality, for whom this discussion is personal, not a concept.

I wonder about Iraqi families who have been torn apart by the fighting--without their consent, likewise American families. Asserting that it's the best thing we can (could) do misses the ultimate humanity the question should be addressing.

mostlylurking - excellent point.

My wife comes from LAN-caster county. Anyone who says LAN-CAS-ter is obviously not from those parts.

I wonder if this would be the proper time to point out a stroy from the other day, about the Arkansas legislature officially passing a law that says its possessive is Arkansas's, not Arkansas'. See http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7006658673.

Frosty, American education started going to hell in a handbasket the day they changed "English" to "Language Arts." And then teachers became "educators." And arthimatic and/or math[ematics, which I can tolerate], became "Computational Skills" or some such fol-de-rol. And health class became "hygiene." And gym became phys. ed. And Civics pretty much disappeared into thin air, as did Social Studies. And "Shop" became Industrial Arts." And god only knows what they did to Home Eck. Does it still exist? Don't tell me; I simply do NOT want to know. I'm sure I'll be angry and/or disappointed one way or the other. They probably call it Residential Maintenence and Management. One shudders to think of what they did to "Art" and "Music." (Besides abandon the poor orphans, that is.) bc, please tell me they still fix cars, at least. Even if they call it Transportational Corrective Prestidigitation.

dbG -what a tragic story. Clearly the immediate horror of war is all that comes through under such circumstances. But I think the point being argued about the dropping of the bomb on Japan is that without it vastly more men would never have come home from the war at all.

dbG, thanks for your post, it is a good reminder of what the weapons can do.

In my son's school Home Ec is called "Teen Living."

Should we be expecting the imminent arrival of the other horsemen?

Yes, RD. LAN-caster County, PA but Lan-CAS-ter, SC. I picked up The Story of English today, and it's full of pronuncation issues like that.

RD, I really do understand your point and those of the others, but I will say that in either situation there would have been great loss of life, but it still makes me uncomfortable that it is more important to save some lives over other lives.

Rather than debate whether the bombs should have been dropped - how about why were bombs ocntinued to be manufactured.

Seems to me it would have been a good time for a non-proliferation treaty - now there was a lost opportunity. Think of all the money that all the various governments could have saved.

Yes I know its unrealistic - but it would have been nice.

RDP, thank you. I understand the point that's been made. My point is *ancillary* deaths still count in all but academic contexts. I'm not sure if the American lives saved were worth more than the (ancillary) Japanese ones which weren't. But even if one is sure, feeling uncomfortable about the cost isn't a bad thing.

Well, the argument is that many, many more Japanese lives would have been lost if we had invaded than died from the atomic attacks.

dmd - I agree that it would be nice if there were vastly fewer nukes around the world. Frankly, the things scare me.

Slyness... how was your day at the new (I'm assuming) volunteer gig?

"...but it still makes me uncomfortable that it is more important to save some lives over other lives."

Isn't that the fundamental problem with war? Even if the other side started it there is seldom a completely moral way to victory. It is possible that to use a nuclear weapon was the only way to victory, and saved thousands upon thousands on both sides, but was still morally wrong. The ambiguity of that is what keeps museum exhibit controversies, and this discussion, alive.

dbG, I feel the same discomfort you speak of, for the same reasons. The theories are spun, the hindsight is analyzed, and conveniently for everyone, the consensus is that the United States of America did the Right Thing. Lucky for us, that we happen to be citizens of such a righteous country.

Except that we're not really all that righteous. Among all the unknowns that were faced back in 1945, there were a few things that we knew for sure. That thousands of people would die, thousands of innocent people, when the bombs were dropped. And that it is wrong to kill innocent people on purpose. Justify all you want, in hindsight, but be sorry too. Even if it was the right decision (and I'm far from certain of that), it involved great evil, and for that we should be heartily sorry. The same goes for Vietnam and Iraq and every place in between where someone decided that the political goals of the USA justified the murder of innocents. And of course I feel the same about other countries who kill people to further their political agendas. But it hurts me more when it's my country doing it. And when it's ongoing, and we don't seem to have learned from our past failures. Maybe it's because we haven't learned to admit that we were wrong.

kb, I'm sorry but they did attack us. It wasn't exactly a matter of divergent political beliefs. We were legitimately fighting forces that could have taken over our country.

There is no parallel whatsoever with Viet Nam or Iraq.

"Cry ' Havoc ' and let slip the dogs of war". Julius Caesar Quote (Act III, Sc. I)

--
War is wrong. Murder is wrong. With all our bright baubles and beauty, something dark about humanity engages in these sins still and again.

As I have said before, rigid pacifism elevates the evil of war above all other evils. It implies that nothing is ever as bad as war.

Slavery, genocide, self-determination, and even the right to defend our homes and families are all acceptable if the only option is to take up arms.

I eagerly look forward to a world in which war is obsolete. But I reject the simple dichotomy that war is always evil and peace is always good.

SCC: What I meant to say in the second sentence above is that under strict pacifism, such things as slavery, genocide, a lack of self determination, and even the inability to defend our homes and families from attack are all considered better than armed conflict.

RD inflexibility in anything is not good, there are times regretably where war/conflict are necessary and peace isn't much good without dignity, respect and tolerance.

War in my opinion should only be used as a last resort, and only to create a greater good, what constitutes the "greater good", (and I apoligize for that wording just can't thing of a better expression at the moment), if always debatable.

If riding the world of evil dictators is a cause boy will we be busy, for thousands of years we have tried war I hope we get to a place where we find other resolutions that do not cost so many lives.

We -- humanity -- often engage in acts that are wrong because of serious trade-offs about the reality of evil.

But, even if we could do no other, we should admit to ourselves and others, that what we did is -- well, for lack of a better word -- sin. Offense against humanity.

I believe I could hurt others, to protect those vulnerable and precious to me. But I should be clear-eyed about what I do.

Pardon the theology again -- call it psychology if you must -- but "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

Somehow in statecraft, the victors elevate themselves. We move closer to peace if we admit our grievious harm to others. The truth commissions in South Africa, however flawed, impressed me because of the emphasize on admitting wrong -- horrific wrong -- as a move toward ownership and apology....and reconcilliation.

Here's what The Economist's style manual has to say about apostrophe's (oops) --

Use the normal possessive ending 's after singular words or names that end in s: boss's, caucus's, Delors's, St James's, Jones's, Shanks's. Use it after plurals that do not end in s: children's, Frenchmen's, media's.

Use the ending s' on plurals that end in s--Danes', bosses', Joneses'--including plural names that take a singular verb, eg, Reuters', Barclays', Stewarts & Lloyds', Salomon Brothers'.

Although singular in other respects, the United States, the United Nations, the Philippines, etc, have a plural possessive apostrophe: eg, Who will be the United States' next president?

People's = of (the) people.

Peoples'= of peoples.

Try to avoid using Lloyd's (the insurance market) as a possessive; it poses an insoluble problem. The vulnerable part of the hero of the Trojan war is best described as an Achilles heel.

Do not put apostrophes into decades: the 1990s.

I am bugging out tomorrow. Perhaps while I am gone you can work out this whole war thing. The dependents and I are about to commence a Spring Break adventure of Debauchery and Wild Abandon. For we are going to Philadelphia.

I have been informed that there are many sights of historical significance in this city, including an old broken bell of which they are terribly proud. As I have never been to Philadelphia, I am concerned about getting lost. Especially since it is my understanding that there are certain areas of the city in which tattoos and nose rings are mandatory.

We are driving up to my in-laws in Lancaster County tomorrow. There we shall drop off our dog and consume the many calories needed to survive such an exhausting trip. Wednesday through Friday we will be frolicking in the City of Brotherly Love. On Saturday we shall return to the in-laws to recover from all this frolicking, for they have a well-stocked bar. Sunday we shall celebrate Easter and consume many more calories before driving back home.

I have made peace with the notion that this trip, like others before it, shall have its moments of fear and loathing. I just hope that we will all return with at least a few pleasant memories. And absolutely no tattoos.

RD, if you get through Spring Break with no tattoos, you will definitely be ahead of the competition. Best wishes for a restorative and educational journey. We'll need the full cheesesteak report, of course.

Getting to the Japan discussion much too late, IMHO the potential loss of life in an invasion is a red herring. The soldiers could have been brought home. Japan was totally destroyed, and would surrender at some point as starvation grew, the cities were destroyed one by one by the airmen, and the ships bringing food and fuel were sunk by the sailors and airmen. Whether the cities were destroyed by incendiary or atomic bombs was not that important.

Another mis-framing of a military situation, IMHO, is calling the situation in Iraq a war. The *war* ended a long time ago. Now it's an *occupation*. Presumably GWB calls it a war to stimulate support for whatever he dreams up next (which seems to work to some extent, although it's wearing off).

RD, Monk's Cafe is always good.
www.monkscafe.com

Termini Bros. Bakery in Reading Terminal Market has not-to-be-missed cannoli.

Forget the tatoos, avoid the parts where guns are de rigeur.

Just as I pushed the "submit" button on that cheesesteak comment, it came to me that tonight is the first night of Passover. So: sorry to bring non-kosher food items into the discussion on this night of all nights. And I wish everybody a Happy Passover. And to all, a good night.

Have a great time RDP.

We had this discussion at work today, wondering if Friday was a holiday in the US or parts of the US?

Writing in 2003 for the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute, Jeffrey Record criticizes the administration's Global War on Terrorism because it "... has subordinated strategic clarity to the moral clarity it strives for in foreign policy and may have set the United States on a course of open-ended and gratuitous conflict with states and nonstate entities that pose no serious threat to the United States."

Interesting thought that pursuit of moral clarity is what got us here.

The full text of Record's "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism" is available at:
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/Pubs/Display.Cfm?pubID=207

dmd, yes in some (many?) places. I'm off work because the big board is closed (NYSE), but banks are open, some schools are closed.

As we used to say in Philly, Padouk, "Vaya con scrapple."

LTL, regarding your 9:42, the notion that someone -- anyone -- could or would pull their armies AWAY from the battle when they were just on the verge of victory is so ludicrous as to leave me speechless.

Yes, Mudge, they still fix cars.
But somtimes they hook them up to a diagnostic computer first...

Have phun in Philly, RD.

To those of you celebrating Passover, a happy and healthy holiday to you.

bc

Calm down, Mudge. No need to withdraw, just stay where they were -- could have vs should have been withdrawn. The point is, an invasion wasn't necessary, as proved by events.

Mudge-I was meaning to comment earlier that I wondered if you had ever witnessed a combatant withdraw on moral grounds even though it meant losing the battle or war. Not the strategic withdrawal to fight another day which you noted in re: The 300.

CBS keeps displaying numbers for "points in paint," even though the free throw lane is unpainted.

(Does that comma go in or outside the quotation?)

Well, there was always Snoopy vs. The Red Baron. Merry Christmas, my friend!

LTL-always inside when there is no parenthetical reference.

It's a bit ho-hum watching all those replays of shots where the same thing happens on every one. It would be more interesting if the ball would bounce out on the fourth replay. That would keep my attention better.

I just love Mr. Curmudgeon. He expects that when he tells us "how it really is (or was)" and the "truth" that we will walk away. Shop-steward at work! Step away from the argument.

Um...

Hi Yoki -- use the Moon Pie in the recipe book. The moon tonight, so full, reminded me to tell you.

You spelled Ceili correctly. Good for you.

I am glad to greet you before I tuck in the dog, etc.

I will send a cherry pie recipe, sour-style, and hope that 'Mudge sends his faux sour cherry pie recipe.

Passover greetings to all; upcoming, this year Orthodox Easter and Roman Easter coincide. My two Jain students tell me that all days for them are equally holy. We should try that posture.

But LTL, if the Allies just "stayed where they were," they'd be subject to constant (but slowly diminishing) attack. Are you not aware that the Japanese had launched the kamikazes, and that the Japanese would have kept on coming until they had nothing left? Do you not know that on one single day (Oct. 26, 1944), the Kamikazes hit SEVEN U.S. carriers and 40 other ships (5 sunk, 23 heavily damaged, 12 moderately damaged)? Seven carriers hit in one day. And that was while "playing defense," as you suggest. Are you not aware that the Japanese Navy sent out the battleship Yamato, the largest battleship in the world, accompaniued by a light carrier and 8 destroyers, on a suicide mission in April 1945 during the Battle of Okinawa?

If we had -- for some inexplicable reason -- halted all offensive operations and just sat "in place," after Okinawa, what do you think the Japanese would have done, LTL? You absolutely HAVE to answer this question, LTL: what would the Japanese have done? How would they have interpreted our lack of further offensive action while we just "sat" there doing nothing?

(And never mind what the generals and admirals on OUR side would have said and done--other than go stark raving berserk at such a "stand fast" order. What would the American public have said, after four years of war, if we'd just stopped? What would the politicians have said? What would they have done to Roosevelt or Truman had either of them sanctioned such a move? Please tell me what sort of argument could have been constructed in 1945 to put forth such a notion?

dbG, where was your father exactly...that he would be impacted by the fallout?

Would like to tackle the Fuchs spy scandal tomorrow--in a strange six degrees of separation way, the connection just having dawned on me this evening.

Well, Florida's up by 12 with a 1:33 left.

Even the Wizards couldn't blow that kind of a lead. I think.

bc

CP, I thought I posted my faux sour-cherry four-cherry pie recipe, didn't I? Yoki? Do you folks want me to re-post it or e-mail it?

// If we had -- for some inexplicable reason -- halted all offensive operations and just sat "in place," after Okinawa, what do you think the Japanese would have done, LTL? You absolutely HAVE to answer this question, LTL: what would the Japanese have done? How would they have interpreted our lack of further offensive action while we just "sat" there doing nothing? //

Starved for a while, as their cities were steadily reduced in number from the air, then surrendered. Which is what happened. There never was an invasion, because it wasn't necessary. Your point seems to be, The atomic bomb was so much spectacular compared to incendiaries that it caused a surrender that would not have happened otherwise, making an invasion necessary. I question that.

Hey, bc, I'd like your opinion. I've been watching the game and listening to the announcers, and they're making me crazy. Up until about 2 minutes ago, it seems to me all they have done is talk about Ohio and Oden, ad nauseum. What a great game he's having, and their four come-from behind wins, and how many points he's scored versus three guys on Florida guarding him, and just on and on and on--all the while totally ignoring the fact that Ohio is a one-player team--AND IS GETTING IT'S A$$ KICKED. I mean, what am I missing here? Ohio hasn't been "in the game" for the last 25 to 30 minutes. Jeezey-peezy.

Well, congrats to the Achenbach household--the suds must be flowing big time.

SCC -- remove much. A vestige of an earlier version.

// Well, congrats to the Achenbach household //

Are they responsible in some way?

Well, FL did it. Congratulations Joel and all of you Gators out there.

LTL-CA, I don't know that the Japanese would have surrendered as you suggest. They knew they could fight the Americans face to face, and would be willing to do so, men, women, and children, I think. Also, air warfare and bombing campaigns were not as precise and/or sophistcated 60+ years ago. Also, what of the humanitarian toll of the Japanese civilians as they starved? Desperate, hungry people can do some very unpleasant things...

bc

LTL, you have sooooo distorted anything I have said that once again I am speechless.

I NEVER compared the bomb to use of incendiaries, or even mentioned them. (But now that you bring them up, perhaps you can explain how it was morally OK to firebomb Tokyo and kill 100,000, bit somehow NOT OK to a-bomb Hiroshima and kill 70,000.

Your only answer is that the Japanese would have starved. That's simply not an acceptable answer. It implies they would have stopped offensive operations, which is patently absurd. And it assumes we'd have sat "in place" and continued to absorb losses, and done nothing about it. That's somewhere beyond absurd. You think in any real world that MacArthur would have sat still for this plan? That Adm. Halsey wouldn't have gone berserk over it? That ever single general and admiral in the Pacific wouldn't have gone freaking NUTS over such an idea?

In the entire history of warfare, at any time, in any place, under any circumstances, have you EVER heard of a military force doing anything remotely close to what you propose? Because I never have. It'd be like Sitting Bull seeing that Custer and a dozen of his men were still alive on that knoll--and telling his 6,000 warriors it was time for a siesta and to go back to the village and let Custer catch his breath and maybe take a potty break.

Mudge, Oden is the big media star of the tournament. CBS going to push him, trying to keep people interested in the game.

You're right though; Oden had a pretty good game, but OSU didn't get enough from the other guys on the court. Florida is a better team, and they played like it. Even the Gators' bench contributed almost as much as the starters.

Oh, lord they're doing "One Shining Moment" now. Where's my bucket of animal entrails to throw at the screen?

bc

Congrats to all the gator fans everywhere, What is next for Florida?

greenwithenvy, the NCAA baseball national championship?

I'm tired, goin' to bed.

G'night all.

bc

just stopping by to say howdy and congrats, joel, on the gator win.

hope everyone is doing well. have been too busy to boodle the last couple of months, but have mostly kept up on the kits.

i'll be back after i finish up this here schooling thing.

Would you all listen to Curmudgeon, in all this "what if?" about WWII? He really is correct in the way the public thought. (Besides his encyclopediac knowledge of the actual events/battles, etc.)

"The people" sacrificed almost from day 1 of that war --- rationed food, gas, tires. There was no bubble gum! That sounds silly, but it shows how deep into every family sacrifice extended. All this was sincere. Victory gardens -- my neighbor raised chickens -- we collected tinfoil and grease (!) and ate margarine because there was no butter.

There were also no metal implements -- no bikes for the kids. No new cars. Clothing itself was limited. Winning that war was a tremendous personal battle for most Americans. They were in to win, and would never, ever have accepted less.

Tim - re: "Yes, they thought about the consequences of nuclear weapons... in the hands of the Nazis. Almost any alternative seemed preferable."

That's a good try, but not quite right. Actually, Cassandra was closer. It wasn't fear of nuclear weapons that caused such a gigantic push for nuclear weapons, per se. It was fear of (insert bad folk) with lots of REGULAR weapons [and the proven wherewithal to use them effectively], and the idea that they might soon have no fear of nuclear weapons. THAT was, hmmm... disconcerting.

Has anybody EVER said "The United States' president" instead of "The President of the United States"?
Anybody American, that is?

Yea Wilbrod
I think Leslie Nielsen said that in one of the Naked Gun Movies, or Maybe I heard that in a Mel Brooks movie.

No interenet or phone in West by god tonight, I think some kids cut the string between to 2 tin cans as a belated April fools joke.

Ah, comedy movies. :). Still not exactly the common usage.

http://www.mid-tokyo.com/

This elaborate website, sponsored by a big Tokyo developer, shows the extent of destruction from the 1923 fire and the fire bombings. Maps of damage from archives are available online from the Japanese government. In many areas, the fires were spotty. In a few, destruction was total. In any case, compared to the 1923 calamity, the destruction is breathtaking.

Nellie, I realize what people thought about WW2 at the time. I lived through some of it myself. Some people appreciated Japanese culture and the Japanese people who lived in the US, as distinct from their military -- some of my father's chemistry students were Nisei made to live in the stables at Santa Anita, and he went there to continue their classes. I was hoping to suggest that if you have atomic weapons at your disposal (such as the US today) it's a good idea to step back and consider other factors as well as the urge to destroy the enemy.

I'm wondering, why hasn't some enterprising Democrat (this would probably work better coming from a southerner) used HRH Bush's rhetorical device, and referred to him regularly as the "Republic president"?

The more I think about it, the more I like it!
---
"The Republic president Bush says that he'll veto..."

"We're trying to empower American workers, while the Republic president Bush is empowering business..."
(etc...)
---
Oh yeah, this could work!

I think it's a false argument to suggest that there was a calculation at the time of Hiroshima and Nagasaki over whose lives "counted" more. Truman made his decision based on the only lives that he was permitted to consider -- the lives for which he was directly responsible. Our troops. Hirohito was responsible for those other lives, the Japanese lives, and he (and his government) had already made the decision to piss them away. If the Truman could find a way to defeat the enemy and limit enemy casualties in the process, then that was his moral responsibility; but preserving American lives was his first and greater responsibility, because of the oath of office he swore to fulfill his role as commander in chief. If you don't like it that way, you'll need an amendment or a constitutional convention to change it.

Events certainly did not come to prove out that an invasion was unnecessary, in any case. The article provided by Anonymouse999 earlier today ( https://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/docs/v46i3a07p.htm ) makes for fascinating reading about what was known and not known and what was going on in the Imperial Palace. The Japanese military, at least, was perfectly willing to continue wasting Japanese lives, and willing to overthrow the Emperor in order to do it, rather than admit to losing and lose honor. The Japanese government had not accepted the terms of the Potsdam treaty prior to Hiroshima. SOME of the government leaders voted to accept it, but it was not government policy to do so.

The Japan of 1945 was not the nonmilitary, high-technology, allied nation that we know today. It had been, until recently, one of the world's preeminent military powers, a harsh and brutal regime that conquered Manchuria on the Asian mainland, brutally abused the populace, enslaved Korean women as prostitutes to serve its army, and committed a variety of other atrocities against civilian and military personnel. Defeat of that nation required the obliteration of that military tradition. To allow it to survive would be to risk a return to its earlier adventurism.

The world of 1945 was not the world of today, as we know it in North America. War had been a constant practice for centuries in Europe. World War I, a fantastically horrifying war, had concluded less than a generation before. From that war, Germany came back strong and ruthless, itching to reverse its earlier humiliation. You can choose to interpret the lessons of the Treaty of Versailles how you like, but I believe that the way it was interpreted at the time was: it is not enough to humiliate and beat the enemy. To win lasting peace, you must destroy the enemy, obliterate every vestige of the prior political order and separate the people entirely from their previous might and power. Sure, you can argue that there were more-humane options available (and LTL-CA apparently is arguing that mass starvation is more humane than a bombing that forced a quick capitulation -- you can bet that the decision-makers were not starving, and how would the starving compel them to do anything?). The Allied powers had tried "more humane" options with Germany after World War I, and it had come back to nearly obliterate the world's democracies and tried to exterminate multiple peoples for no crime beyond their mere existence. Japan had a demonstrated track record of similar (though lesser) brutality against "lesser" peoples. I believe that Truman was unwilling to gamble with the result of a surviving Japan, recovered and with its pre-war traditions intact. Who would want to be the cause of World War III, by virtue of wimping out on the end of World War II? I believe he made the choice that he felt he had to make. History suggests he made the right choice: Japan has resurged, not as a military state, but as an economic power. There has been no world-spanning conflict for 60 years. The knowledge of what even a "small" nuclear weapon can do has been with us for 60 years, cautioning against their use.

What is scary is that now, we face enemies who view Hiroshima, not as a caution, but as an attractive notion. Not a dream of the enemy's cities -- though that would be "nice" -- but as not a bad result for their own cities. Who cheerfully sacrifice their own lives to kill a pitiful handful of "enemies" -- by which they mean us, or any civilians who happen to be standing nearby. They have no qualms about the slaughter of children. They encourage their own children to die as suicide bombers. There was that woman in Jordan who took her baby with her as she blew herself up, in order to achieve the strategic victory of horrifically disrupting a wedding celebration. These are the really scary guys, because bringing on a worldwide chain reaction, that wipes out everything, must seem like a pretty good idea to them. The grave offers the ultimate in moral certainty, and these are people who are untroubled by choosing the grave for others.

Hi, L.A.lurker. I figured you were deep into the dissertation. As I was going to say to CowTown, you haven't missed much but we missed you. There was a good discussion about books last week or so - lots of Russian authors (of course).

Not sure why we're re-fighting WWII. War is hell - all sides (even our side) wind up committing horrible acts - unintended consequences ensue.

Curmudgeon seems to have a vested interest in the rightousness of the Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuclear events. Perhaps he co-piloted the Enola Gay? Maybe he was a member of the Japanese war cabinet? He should tell us, some time.

I'm no fan of nuclear weapons, or the military, or wars, or occupations (like the one we are currently losing), but I gotta admit that I agree with Sci Tim and Mudge. I don't see a big moral issue in the dropping the new military toy on Japan. Maybe it saved a million American lives, and maybe millions of Japanese lives. Maybe it provided the Japanese government an excuse not to fight to the last man. Maybe it induced a fear that has kept nukes from being used in warfare for 60 years.

Then again, maybe not. What we do know is that the war ended shortly after the new weapons was used. The guys that started that theatre of the war--started it to get control of the petroleum in southeast Asia--lost. Things got a lot better for most of the people on both sides afterward.

I'm just hoping the latest petroleum war doesn't end in same manner, and I see little hope that the aftermath will be as promising for the people involved.

I also gotta agree that "War is hell - all sides (even our side) wind up committing horrible acts - unintended consequences ensue."

Morning all!! *slowly-coming-up-to-caffeinated-speed Grover waves*

I'm not even going to offer a bet on what today's Kit will be.

:-)

And HI Medallion! LTNS! :-)

With this, I am out of this discussion.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=46qcd3plfns&mode=related&search=

"Nuclear Film Declassification Project - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has embarked on the Nuclear Weapons Film Declassification Project to make available to the public and many users films that contain historically significant events in the development of the U.S. nuclear weapons program. This is being done under the Department of Energy's Openness Initiative. The film project is being carried out by DOE's Albuquerque Operations Office (AL) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

Coming out of World War II, the U.S. and its allies realized they were in a Cold War with the Soviet Union. The first atomic bomb had been tested successfully at the Trinity Site in southeastern New Mexico in July 1945 and the second and third bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, bringing about a speedy end to World War II. U.S. officials knew that the Soviet Union was on a fast track to develop the "bomb" and that they must develop more sophisticated nuclear weapons to stay ahead of the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

With the backing of the Executive Branch and Congress, the Army's Manhattan Engineer District (MED), which designed, developed and tested the first atomic bomb, embarked on a nuclear testing program in 1946 at the newly established Pacific Proving Ground in the Marshall Islands area. The MED was dissolved in 1947 and its duties and functions were given to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The DoD joined the AEC in Joint Task Forces which continued the atmospheric testing program. This program allowed rapid gains in knowledge about weapons development, military effects, fallout and radiation effects, biomedical science, nuclear science, and delivery systems.

AL, a field office of the AEC, opened the Nevada Proving Ground northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, in 1951 to reduce the cost of nuclear testing. The cost of transporting supplies, scientific gear, and materials for housing and testing, and for keeping a work force in the Pacific was monumental. The name of the Nevada Proving Ground was changed in 1957 to the Nevada Test Site.

In hindsight, the AEC and the DoD made many mistakes in the testing program, such as underestimating the effects of fallout and deploying troops in areas of excessive radiation. Despite the errors in the early testing efforts, the U.S. surged ahead of all other nations in nuclear weapons capabilities, and gained the expertise which now sets the standard for what is "safe."

Although the Soviet Union mounted a massive attempt to gain a distinct advantage in nuclear military power, the U.S. maintained a deterrent to nuclear aggression. The U.S. now has a smaller but more sophisticated nuclear weapons stockpile, which the DOE manages jointly with the DoD. Through treaties, nuclear testing has been discontinued."

Something to do with very large lizard like creatures I bet!!

Good morning all!

Not Named Godzilla!!

Good morning, friends. Up and moving about, have been since five. A really good discussion about the war. I really want to read the books suggested, if only I can find the time. Mudge, you have a point, but so does Tim and dbg. I don't believe the points are better, just varied, is that a word?

For me, I cannot see war, I don't believe I can, as a good thing. Too much blood, and too much loss, on both sides. Yet I believe that a country has a right to defend itself. Does that make me a crazy person? I would rather have peace, as I'm sure most people would, but do I want that peace at the price of those things that RD mentioned? The Bible tells us that "we are counted as sheep for the slaughter", but it also teaches love at the very core. Every commandment in the Bible is based on love. Love to God, love to our fellow man. I don't know about you, but I'm crazy about the "love thing".

Time to jump in the shower. Have much to do today, and need to make an appearance at that laundry room. Have a good day, folks. And to those that are celebrating Passover, does one say "Happy Passover", I'm not sure?

Martooni, prayers your way.

God really does love us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

The dogwood blossoms up and down the block are the size of silver dollar, but sporting such a lovely, soft green hinting at ivory and chartruese.

'Mudge, Yoki needs you to send an MSWord file of the pie recipe. She is completing the book soon, I believe. I will send my pie recipe but since she cooks each offering to both test (enjoy) and photograph, the timing of sour cherries won't quite work. Your faux cherry pie may be the only cherry she picks. Sorry, there, some puns are quite pushy, aren't they?

Can she bake a cherry pie?
Billy boy, Billy boy
Can she bake a cherry pie?
Charming Billy.

Well, of course war is a terrible thing. But that film footage of the nukes going off can be kinda cool!

Morning all. Frostdottir is taking placement testing at St. Petersburg College this AM and I am enjoying a real grande 2 pump mocha extra hot in a downtown St. Pete location with awesome people watching potential. If I were to choose FL as a permanent home, not likely, St. Pete would be the place. Just 18 miles from Chez Frostie South but what a different vibe.

Love that the progeny of so many boodlers are getting into 1st choice, and very selective, institutions but the fact that Frostdottir is graduating from high school on schedule is somewhere near miraculous.

Good luck to Frostdottir!

'Mudge, I think you did post the faux-cherry pie on one of the Boodles recently. If you have time/inclination to email it to me, that would be splendid.

She is twice six, twice seven,
twice twenty and eleven,
But,
She is too young to leave her mother.

Billy Boy was once of the songs my Dad sang to me regularly, when I was little. Along with "There's a Hole at the Bottom of the Sea," "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly" and, shockingly, "Seven Old Ladies Locked in a Lavatory."

Though when I wanted to sing to him he always requested "Sweet and Low" or "Over the Hills and Far Away." Can't think why.

Curling curling curling. If all was settled by curling, the world would be a better place. Or basketball.

Yesterday there was some extremely good curling. The French are playing very well, and have several nail biters in the win column, the Koreans had a tough day, but make some fantastic shots. When, not if, these guys get a really good handle on the ice, they are going to be great curlers. And then there is the very very sharp, Swedish team.

The daily tourney newspapaer had an article about the Worlds. It began as an excuse for the Canadian Brier winner to go to Scotland and play, tour and have some beer in 1959. In 1961, the US team showed up and wanted in.
After that a few others started arriving for the spiel too, and pretty soon you had the grand event sporting a world title.

Having Brad Fenson, the most sharp dressed team at the Olympics not make it out of the US this year, I must admit that I was worried about the style aspect of the game, but team Norway is filling that slot nicely. Dr.McDreamy eat your heart out.

The Team Australia cheering section has now infected the rest of the stadium, and there are Aussie cheering sections breaking out all over the place. There is one corner dominated by cheering Swiss, but they will be converted shortly.

And the whole stadium, no matter who you were rooting for, was rooting for the Koreans, who suffered a devastating loss against Canada. Every curler in the crowd has been in those shoes, and they took our hearts home with them last night.

Good morning!

The dogwoods are in full bloom here, and the oak blossoms are just about all fallen. Thank goodness for that!

I agree with Mudge and SciTim about the use of the atomic bombs to end WWII. Great discussion, folks!

Thanks for asking about the new volunteer gig, TBG. It was a very quiet morning, just what a newbie could hope for. My church has facilities for housing folks from out of town who have family in the hospitals nearby and no other place to stay. It's a wonderful ministry. They have to have someone on site 24/7 to keep the place open, so I was glad to fill in for another volunteer who had an emergency arise.

How was Son of G's visit to Queens?

dr... thanks for the excellent reporting from The World of Curling. Where else could I read such a fine recap of events?

I love this place.

dr, I echo TBG's thanks love your reports.

It seems there was another special hero at the Worlds. The nurse who saved a man who went into Cardiac arrest, similar to an event that took place at the Leaf's game on the weekend.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070402/curling_aid_070402/20070403?hub=TopStories

Seems that Gatorborn did OK in the Tourney Tracker:

Total Points: 288
Current Rank: 717 (91.12%)

Son of G had a great visit to Queens, Slyness. Remembered why he loves it there. Even picked his classes and his roommates. He and his new friends claim they are the first clique of the Class of 2011--always open to new people, of course. Facebook allows them to keep in touch until they are together again in the fall.

dr.. I think what I love about your curling reports is that they tell us of the heart of the competition, rather than the statistics.

Great curling report, dr. Though, having lived in Switzerland, I am bemused by the phrase "dominated by cheering Swiss." Usually the Swiss are too busy congratulating themselves on the excellence of all things Schweiz to actually cheer.

In the New Yorker during the last soccer World Cup there was a very funny exposition on the contrast between the American fans (very small but loud contingent) and the French (very large but quiet). The paragraph concluded, of the French, "Of course, it is difficult to cheer while smoking a cigarette and talking on a cell phone." LOL!

Ok... I just can't let go of this alias. Consider it my way of saying "My name is Martooni and I'm an alcoholic".

Cassandra... thanks again. Some may call it coincidence or serendipity or whatever, but I've been working on that "prayer thing" and it has been paying off in big and small ways. Higher Power willing, today will be 8 days sober.

On the war stuff... I've said before that I subscribe to the "War Is Not The Answer" school of thought. That said, I have nothing against the use of force in self defense.

Gotta run... off to Home Depot again, then a meeting, then a day full of remodeling work.

Peace out, my friends.

Martooni, you make my eyes fill with tears. May all your days be sober!

Martooni.... I'm so glad to hear from you. Eight days sober. That's great. I know it's one day at a time, but that's already more than a week!

Enjoy your day. You've made mine.

:)

*gasp* *wheeze*

Hi, all. I'm back from umbrage-ville (I think I got pretty umbrageous yesterday).

I love this place, too.

G'morning, everyone.

An interesting and somewhat chilling column by Eugene Robinson this morning regarding Guantanamo Bay and [REDACTED]:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR2007040201260.html

bc

Go Frostdottir -- make us all proud, but especially yourself.

Curling, knitting, flowery flower sightings, cooking, history reviewing, etc.

Umbrage taken.
Umbrage attenuated.

Subjects changed.

Eventually, kits are posted.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Klaus Fuchs was an aquaintance of Hans Bethe, Bethe recruited by Oppenheimer from Alfred Lee Loomis' MIT Rad Lab. Jennet Conant, who wrote the book on Alfred Lee Loomis, delves into Fuchs' spy story in her 2005 "109 East Palace."

Given that I wrote last week that Mexico's former president Vicente Fox is a grandson of the Cincinnati Fuchses, it's not so much of a stretch in my mind to wonder and ask if there is family relatedness--Vicente Fox's (Fuch's) clan hailing from Strasbourg on the Rhein, and Klaus Fuch's family coming from Russelsheim, in the Rhein-Main area, the two cities not too geographically distant from each other.

Klaus Fuchs was found to have been passing atomic secrets to the Russians from Los Alamos from 1942-1949, through the courier Harry Gold. Fuchs' activities, among other alleged transgressions, seem to have put Oppie afoul of Joe McCarthy. Historian Oshinsky from Austin who was in town last Thursday, to talk about his book about polio, had previously written a book about Joe McCarthy.

However, by this time, the nuclear scientists affiliated with the Berkeley cyclotron and the Manhattan Project had divided into two camps about the wisdom of building a hydrogen bomb: Ernest Lawrence and Alfred Lee Loomis and others in one camp, and Oppie and Conant and others in the opposing camp. In addition, Lawrence wanted to set up a second lab, devoted to hydrogen research, in Livermore; Oppenheimer wished it to be located at Princeton.

Note that Harry Gold was running another operative inside Los Alamos, David Greenglass. The New York City writer Stephen Dubner came to Louisville while we were living across the river in Indiana to talk about his latest book "Turbulent Souls." His mother was Veronica Greenglass, who was cousin to the David Greenglass of Los Alamos.

Dubner explains the family connections early in his book and focuses on the Los Alamos angle on pp. 74-75. The family connections go like this: Dubner's mother was Veronica Greenglass (who married Sol Dubner under her stage name of Veronica Winters). Veronica's dad was Harry (Herschel) Greenglass, who was the first to come from Russia in 1898. Those who hadn't starved to death in Russia came later, Harry's brother, Barney, their three sisters and their old uncle Moishe. Barney had several kids, including David--who had gone to Los Alamos in August 1944, Bernie, and Ethel, who married Julius Rosenberg.

It seems that Jennet Conant mangles or twists the Greenglass family connections on page 246, having David Greenglass of Los Alamos married to Ruth Rosenberg. Dubner says David Greenglass of Los Alamos married his longtime sweetheart, Ruth Printz, so one Rosenberg too many in Conant's account.

David Greenglass, spy and technician in the machine shop in Los Alamos, was arrested in June 1950, six months after Fuchs, and received a 31-year sentence. Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and her husband Julius were executed in 1953.

I lingered so long after Dubner's talk in Louisville, so that I was the last person to have his book "Turbulent Souls" autogaphed that night. His was a powerful family story, and I wondered about his research methods and wanted to talk to him beyond the normal "meet and greet." It was he, Dubner, who really encouraged me to investigate my own family tree and lit the spark within.

I look at how he signed my book, "Linda, Whose journey hasn't been so unlike the one herein." I must have spoken of my paternal grandmother, without doubt.

It was Vader Loomis, the first Loomis I spoke to after contacting the Loomis-Chaffee school in the spring of 2003, who recommended so highly the book, "Tuxedo Park." Little did I know that night in Louisville when I approached Dubner to talk, that the Greenglass and Loomis family stories would cross, indirectly, over the atomic bomb.

Unfortunately, that realization didn't dawn on me until last night until I looked in Conant's book about Fuchs, and remembered the name Greenglass associated with Dubner's family and book, part of Dubner's moving family story about how he was raised as a Catholic and returned to his Jewish roots.

LOL Mrs. Parkian. You are on a roll.
Mr. Truman considered all the facts that were known and the gaps in knowledge, took advice from everybody who was anybody and made a difficult decision that was his to make. Everyone has a right to second-guess him but he was the one who had to make the decision and he did it to the best of his "reality-based" knowledge. I personally think he made the right one given the set of circumstances but it doesn't matter.
Nukes are one of the many reasons the guy/gal in the funnily shaped office got to have impeccable judgment and good advice. Now wait a minute...
Bc,
re. El-Nashiri, this is more than chilling. And it shows the foolishness of using torture.

Don't I recall that Senator McCain gave the names of football players to get the North Vietnamese to stop torturing him? Jeez, there have to be better ways to get good information.

How about going at about half the speed of sound (578km/h or mach 0.47) on a train ? Woop Woop Woop! That is a little faster than the WWII fighter aircraft Hawker Hurricane could go on the level.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040300509.html?hpid=moreheadlines

Good morning! Happy Passover, and congratulations Gator fans.

I have enjoyed the discussion about dropping the bomb. While I agree with ScienceTim, Mudge and Nellie on the history, I also appreciate all the points. I particularly am pleased at the universal recognition of the moral and ethical points, and the difficult and ambiguous nature of the decision: it may have been what we had to do, but nobody is suggesting that, knowing the consequences, we should do it again. I understand that fine distinction appears to be missing from some Adminstration advisers' view of warfare.

And of course, I too am terrified by some of the Iranian leaders' expressed viewpoint that taking a nuclear hit would be an acceptable price to pay. This deterrent has worked for 60 years. We don't want to use the bomb. If its use is not a deterrent, and we don't want to use it, we'd better work a lot harder on diplomacy or other means (nothing sinister intended here) of communicating with others.

On a completely different note, I hope to send Yoki a picadillo recipe for the Boodle book, but don't think I've ever put it out here. This is my "casual company" dish, easy, tasty and filling, and adapted from Huntley Dent's New Mexican cooking book. It started out as my New Year's Eve dish, but it travels well for potlucks, looks good and festive on the table with the little side condiment dishes, and smells enticing. Good accompaniments include beans (refried or black) and green rice.

In short (I'll put it in the right form in the email, Yoki): In large skillet, wilt a small onion and a few cloves of garlic in oil. Remove, and brown a pound of ground beef. Add the onion/garlic mixture. Add a can of tomatoes, mostly drained, reserving liquid for moistening as necessary. Add a tablespoon of brown sugar and two of cider vinegar. Add about a teaspoon of cumin (I use a lot more), one of cinnamon, and between half and a quarter teaspoon of cloves. Salt & pepper. Cover and cook on low about half an hour, stirring occasionally. Add a cup or so of raisins and a half cup of sliced or chopped almonds (I recommend more raisins). Cook covered about five more minutes, then uncover and cook until liquid cooks off and mixture is moist. To serve, roll the meat in hot tortillas (flour works better). There is no reason not to add some roasted green chile, if you have it. In any case, you can serve it with condiments of shredded cheese (yellow or white, Mexican or grocery store), salsas, diced tomato, chile, and sour cream.

ivansmom, yum! The Cuban version that's served 'round these parts usually includes black olives; I think it would work with your version, too--just a "variation" suggestion for those who like that sort of thing.

Ivansmom, it's just plain cruel to tempt us with that recipe at lunchtime, yanno...

:-)

Ivansmom -- is this called Picadillo? I want to call it Armadillo Dish by Invans mom.....but that is only to charm the CP boy who is quickly leaving the realm where mother is charming simply by existing....

Your picadillo does make stir-fried veggies&tofu leftovers look pretty bland.

If you are interested in becoming an iron-crotched Shaolin monk there are some openings left.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/men/article1603649.ece

It is indeed called picadillo, CP, but feel free to rename it Armadillo. Many hispanic-type cultures have a picadillo recipe, which varies from place to place. The basics are ground meat of some kind and spices. I like the idea of adding black olives, kbertocci. I say to roll this in tortillas, but it can be used as a meat filling for chile relleno or eaten on its own.

SD, what a wonderful article. I am still laughing at his father apologizing for whatever he had done to make his son want to do the iron forearm on trees in Kansas.

He seems very refreshing...I am undecided about having my son read this, though. He's 16 and as much as I appreciate this young man's approach to life, I can't get excited about Mattman moving to China for an iron crotch.

Omigosh, I didn't kill the boodle, did I?

Whatever wretched punctuation mistake I made, I'm sorry!

'Salright, Kim, it's just the Boodle's post-picadillo siesta...

:-)

Great article SD. Iron Crotch... frightening.

JA I think everyone here is waiting for a nice shiny new, interesting topic to not talk about.

I have this vision of boodlers sending JA the Glenn Close/Fatal Attraction vibe...

We won't be IGNORED, Joel!

But then it wouldn't be the boodle that I enjoy!

Hey, this is a B. Tuchman quote from the new kit:

"...to resist the insidious spell of wooden-headedness."

The Times has an interesting article about the Baghdad market trip by McCain and some other Republican congresstypes. They went in with 100 soldiers, helicopter and sniper support, and the area was restricted, so they could wander around the market. All said that it was safe and peaceful and proves the surge is working and things are getting better. Afterwards, merchants who were interviewed essentially said the politicos had lost their minds. Locals noted the security was abnormal, that the visit paralyzed the marketplace and it was a media event. Merchants said that usual security provisions include the restriction of traffic and blast walls around the edges, and have made the market safer than before but not safe. They also said that, given the security problems and lack of shoppers, most stalls close in the afternoon.

So: did our politicians not notice the uniforms & helicopters accompanying them, or did they really believe these resources are deployed every day, for the benefit of the Iraqi citizens and merchants?