Endless Search For the Right College

Joel, you're a national treasure.:)

I love this essay. Flashes of recognition all the way through.

joel: //The second is a place where I believe clothing is optional. //

And that would be Oberlin.

Joel, if they didn't grow up, you'd spend (ha!) the rest of your life supporting them.

Here in Philly, though, supermarkets have begun offering limited choices. They pick the top x sellers and ditch the rest. It makes it impossible to get the Woolite Black fabric detergent in the same store as the kosher pastrami or lowfat kefir.

I think it has something to do with those database mining thingies.

Wonderful Joel, I frequently comment to my girls that they are not allowed to grow up and further than the point they are at - but rather than missing things as they grow it just seems all the better - well except right now while the 8 year old is freaking out over math homework.

Good luck to your eldest.

Great, great kit.

dbG, the answer to your question in the last is La Traviata, by Verdi.

Great kit, Joel. Congratulations to the eldest Achendaughter on her many options and on having successfully whittled them down to two. Few enough to be decided by coin flip.

For my part, choosing a college wasn't so bad. Having to fill out the paper applications certainly motivated earlier culling. (I ended up where my parents had gone, and where they had met, but I didn't choose it because of them! No, no, no! I liked it of my own volition! Really!) Choosing a major wasn't bad, either -- I happened to take a class freshman year that I liked, so I majored in that.

The abundance of options that I found difficult was after college graduation. "You can do anything you want!" Oh, that's nice. Someone tell me what I want? I know how to do school, but what's this life thing?

I managed it for a number of years, but (as most of you know) eventually found my way back to the comforts of the ivied halls. (Well, there's no ivy here, but it's still a good image.)

The current options on our personal table are all about housing -- should we buy? And if so, which house? For the moment we've settled on "maybe." In this case, though, we have the comfort of limited options. There are seven houses in town in our price range that meet our basic criteria. We'll go see them, and if we fall in love with one, buy it. If not, we'll renew our lease on our not-so-great rental and look again next spring. (Everything in town follows the academic calendar, including leases.) I'm really liking not having to worry about missing out on the perfect house because we didn't visit the next place on the list. We don't have to decide anything until we get to the end of the list, an hour or two after we started.

Thank you.

engelmann, dmd, CqP, all listening recommendations will be taken seriously.

Yoki????

Funny thing, mudge, I was going to post the exact same thing.

The very same.

Yoki????

"National treasure" - I like the sound of that. Nice, and a big howdy to mfigel-kreuger. This is indeed a fine Kit, Joel. I plan to force (no, persuade) (suggest) it to the Boy. Perhaps I'll just casually leave the laptop lying around open, tuned to this piece.

Really, it validates many things we've been sayng as the Boy grows older. Things like "despite YMCA baseball rules, not everyone wins every time" and "you can do whatever you want, but not all at once" and "if you want to go into a science profession, or even get into the university you keep talking about, you better get those math & science grades up". Stodgy parent-type things.

I think one of the great myths of feminism as I was growing up was the idea that we could have it all, all at the same time. Whatever your definition of "all" is, that's not really true for women or men. Every decision forecloses an option. I spent much of the Boy's early years telling him to enjoy the day he had, rather than the day he could have had if he'd done something else. I think after five or six years I maybe dented the surface.

Of course, so far our college options are "please let us into one" and "please let's complete seventh grade". I see that multiple joys await.

I see, I see, Ivan getting into the college/university of his choice on a fencing scholarship.

Psychic. Remember?

Joel, I hope you are taking advantage of these visits to take a lot of pictures, because I know you have some other offspring in the queue. Just think of the time and money you can save in a few years by simply treating the younger daughters to an informative slide show.

Also, you do realize, do you not, that my son has accepted an early admissions slot from one of the educational institutions on that list. Which means that he and your daughter might be sharing a campus. But fear not. For a very modest stipend I can guarantee that he will never get closer than 100 yards.

And even though we did not have to endure the endless college road trips, substituting a quick jaunt through central Virginia to consider some back-up schools, your words about the nearly infinite choices available to these kids today struck a chord. For me, the most salient example is television.

I mean, we had three networks, the local station that showed naught but Star Trek and Gilligan's Island reruns, and PBS. Even worse, my brothers and I had nothing but a 13 inch black and white television to watch. Heck, I didn't even realize the Enterprise had that cool bluish sheen until I was almost in high school. Further, we watched television programs when the highly-paid television professionals told us to. And this was how it should be. This rigidity imposed discipline and good time management skills. Besides, the lack of choice freed up our young minds to do important stuff like figure out how many firecrackers it took to propel an empty soup can over the neighbor's fence.

But do our children know such things? Of course not. They are too busy programming the DVR on the flat screen HDTV to record "House" so that they can watch it at *their* convenience.

Pitiful.

It breaks one's hear to know such valuable opportunities for productive deprivation are lost. For my own sweet little boy is now a strapping lad with facial hair and hormones who is just itchin' to get to college and meet pretty young women.

And Joel, small unmarked bills would be best.

Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT has a clothing optional dorm. Don't ask me how I know this....

It's so true, RD. We were also limited to four channels - the Big Three networks and local PBS - and watched when the television overlords said we should. Life was simple then.

Let me know whether you and Joel work something out on the college choice front. I'm thinking, the Boy may be roughly the same age as one of the younger Achenoffspring, and if he just happened to choose the same college, I might use your experience as precedent.

I'm still trying to build that retirement fund.

Back in the day I went to a few 'interesting' weekends at Wesleyan (what I remember of them, that is), saw Otis Redding there, not too long before he died.

On a happier note, that was a wonderful Kit, Joel - very sweet. Things sure have changed a lot since my girls went to college!!

Perhaps as Vonnegut suggested the secret to finding happiness in love is "luck," the answer no one young or old really wants to hear, also applies to finding the right school.

I still can't believe JA didn't take advantage of all the N.H. primary trips to totally scope out Durham.

Or maybe he did...

:-)

Jumper... you say "luck" and I say "crap shoot."

I've done this spiel before, but the most important thing, in my view, is finding a college that a kid is excited about. For college works best if the attendee really, really, really wants to be there

And the basis of this excitement isn't typically about getting into the "best" school, it is about getting into the "right" school.

Maybe that means big and busy, maybe small and intimate. Maybe this means Community College close to home. Maybe this means Ivy League far away. All of these, and the many other permutation, can and frequently do, lead to success.

It's about knowing your kid, (or helping the kid know him or herself), knowing the school, and then playing matchmaker.

It's a lot like marriage. So yeah, it helps to be lucky.

My mother said that she enjoyed all the stages my brother and I went through (except the rebellious tween years, I'm sure), but that she liked us best as adults. When I look at my two, I have to agree. What's not to love about a kid who got through high school, college, and is now (mostly) self-supporting? (My two live together in Elderdottir's condo, to cut expenses.)

Our approach to college options was simpler than Joel's. When they were young, we explained to them that they could go to any college they desired, as long as they found their own money. If they wanted us to pay tuition, they had to pick one in the University of North Carolina system. That limited them to sixteen, but I consider East Carolina to be too far to drive and therefore eliminated it from consideration.

When she was in the seventh grade, Elderdottir told me she wanted to attend Appalachian State (ASU 34, Michigan 32). Her first acceptance came from Western Carolina (also too far, IMHO), but when the letter from ASU arrived, that was the end of the matter. It came the day after Thanksgiving.

Geekdottir was beyond blase about the whole admissions effort. Since she graduated from the North Carolina School of Science and Math (an affiliate of the UNC System), she could afford to be. She was accepted into the School of Engineering at NC State, but ho hum. Her acceptance to UNC Chapel Hill came The Very Last Day acceptances were mailed. That was the end of that.

As I say, I'm delighted to be done with tuition and college calendars.

You had PBS?

They're obviously younger than we are, dbG. I was thinking the same thing. We didn't get UHF, which featured "Educational TV" for quite awhile.

Oh, right, now I remember!

TBG I don't think anyone really got UHF, it was always snowy, you had to play with the circle antenna that did now want to cooperate.

Thought of Reading Rainbow? the other day, we used to watch it in school - made me really want to read the books they previewed - PBS show?

UHF was a myth. Nobody actually could get a decent UHF signal because they didn't exist. It was all a big scam to get government grants. Or so I've heard.

You got UHF? We were so poor we only got the test pattern.

I'm pretty sure this is the wrong audience to use the technical term "rabbit ears" with.

Joel, you are both sweet and sentimental... love your article... now you can go out and rent my favorite movie 'In Good Company' :)

The first one is hard to let go of, but it is the last one that really hurts.

Great Kit Joel.

You got test patterns, Maggie? We had to draw a picture of an Indian and hold it up in front of the goldfish bowl.

Haha, I like where this is going Maggie and Mudge!

UHF? No, man. I don't believe in flying saucers.

I have a set of "rabbit ears" and they are sitting on top of my cable box. The rabbit ears work pretty well; the cable box doesn't work at all.

I only applied to one college. [Sadly, it isn't on Joel's list. I'm going to sit in the corner and sob quietly for a moment. There, I'm all done now.] Luckily (and neither the first nor last time I survived an act of abject self-inflicted stupidity), I got in.

The only thing I remember from my freshman orientation was one of the speakers, a senior, who said most people don't graduate in the subject they came to study. He said he changed his major five times. I felt good that I only changed mine three times. Or maybe it was four. It's easier to do that kind of thing at a big university.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. My printer now works (just one at a time, please. I'll deal with the second printer over the weekend). I just got a call from a one-level-up guy (named "Jack") in Bangalore, who fixed the printer issue, and now it works.

I must say, that I am pretty exhausted by all this computer stuff. May the computer gods (we all know they are *not* goddesses, because the goddesses would make sure that everything was in working order *always* and have some nice hot soup waiting for when times are the wee-est bit trying) make sure eons go by until the next computer melt-down.

So, I thank you for your patience and for your good wishes and wonderful suggestions. I suspect I will be my "old" self by tomorrow, perhaps by 10:33 a.m., or thereabouts.

Nighty-night.

Good evening, all.

I've had a busy, busy day.

Joel's piece is utterly familar to me, especially as we just finished the last of the little c Collegiate Universal Grand Tour this past Monday evening (OK, it was local).

Posted this to JA's Outlook piece's comments:

" Joel, I, too an sending my oldest daughter off to college in the fall. Thanks for capturing the process - and our fatherly reactions - so well.

I'm pretty sure mine will call once she realizes that money doesn't grow on trees.

[Incidentally, this is why I'm selling my duplicate organs - I'm scheduling the Freshman Year Tuition Kidney removal for July, I think.]

Have fun at graduation bash, and don't forget to volunteer to chaperone the "safe & sane" party afterwards. And then there's the travails over the off-to-college laptop selection...

bc"

I could have done a far better job writing that comment had I not been trying to call my daughter and laughing at the same time.

And perhaps shedding a tear over the kidney that I'm sending off into the world.

bc

We didn't have the money to apply to zillions of college per kid. Joel must be broke already just from the applications.

I think a lot of "right" colleges will be a good fit in many ways, and the right kid will just learn how to retrofit what doesn't fit, or transfer.

It is not as important to be educated well, as to learn how to be educated well.

Even at the best college, you could still wind up somehow shunted into the worst classes one after the other, with an advisor that refuses to approve anything if it clashes with a rule from 1930. When you try and tell her it ain't so, the rules right now are this and that, it bounces off her thick skull, because she believes on principle that all students lie and are out to slack off and so on-- even honor students.

Sadly, often the first lesson in college is to learn how to fire a randomly assigned advisor for a more simpatico one.

Wait, that comes after the very first, ongoing lesson: how to feed yourself on a diet that consists of college cafeterias, luncheon malls, and/or takeouts as far as your budget, willpower, and waistlines stretch.

Yes, getting yourself educated well is worth it. Don't expect lollipops pointed out to you; keep eyes open and don't be afraid to find out, you know, like an investigative reporter or something.

I applied to one place; so did my dots. I am a bit of an outlier about the whole process. But, we do our children a disservice to make them feel so singular in some ways. This elevation can burden them. Our children are one of many; we love them deeply and singularly as we should. However, their journey requires that they be flexible, kind, respectful, and in many ways, ordinary. Lots of children out there. Let the call to being one of many not so, well, boring.

Ordinary is quite blessed and to be desired. I am also a bit odd in that I see work as one of many aspects of a life. My goodness, I wanted to marry and raise children. That is truly my main focus in life. Not sure that young people feel that they can say that is a goal. They are rewarded for aiming at astronaut, policy innovator, green financial wizard, social justice anthropologist -- wow. Makes me exhilarated and tired at the same time. What about selling life insurance and coach soccer? That could be a sweet life.

I think that the idea of one college fit per child can be oversold. Like love and family, we are capable for forming fine families with many people. Chance plays a part as does proximity.

Two young people on my block must decide by midnight this evening and "click" a box on line. I have told them both that there is not a mistake here, but an adventure that begins with a specific step.

bc, what college will that kidney attend?

And hey, we didn't even have a goldfish bowl. We drew zigzags on a cardboard box and stared at it for hours. One of us hummed on a kazoo.

Dear DR, I am watching two, the dots, amble out away from me. Tis good but I miss them. However, when CPboy leaves, I will need a heart transplant because he is the last. And, he was a fragile being at times. I will need five dogs, lab and Berner too, when he goes. Do not speak of such days...I will think about that tomorrow. I am feeling a bit Scarletty, just now.

We are just beginning that journey of sending kids off, eldest attends High School next year and I know that those four years will go by so quickly.

We went out for supper tonight each of us celebrating our our victory. Looking at my eldest she seemed to have aged two years over night, we had a great discussion and she spoke about her conversation with a fellow student - US politics - even said one of the best students was on hand to make sure what they were saying was accurate. Today was career centre day for them - one small step forward.

Younger child received one of the monthly Principal awards today, each month has a theme, this month the virtue of Joy - she was a no brainer for this award but even better she shared it with her best friend.

Days to celebrate and remember.

CqP, some young people do feel that way about family life. I've heard at least one classmate comment that she just wants to have loads of kids.

Think about the classmate coming from a dysfunctional background who has decided families suck, listening to her talk about her large family. Think of the friendships and new experiences that might come.

Who are we to say that the greatest lessons of college is not, in fact, the opportunity to learn from your peer so many new ways to dream, even humbly?

CqP, when children move on, it's a loss and it's not a loss. But it is an adjustment, when one has invested so much in them. Balance, balance, balance.

I have a good friend who must talk to each of her four children every day. That is too much for me. My girls call me when they need to, I call them when I need to, it's not a daily thing usually, but we each know generally where the others are.

It cracks me up that Elderdottir requires Geekdottir to call when she gets to the boyfriend's apartment, seven hours away. *I* may not know she's making the trip that particular day, but by golly Elderdottir is going to make sure her baby sister is okay. Elderdottir insisted that she pay for the AAA membership that includes 200 miles of towing.

My job is done, and I'm generally pleased with the outcome.

SCC: college are not... peerS...

Aw, never mind, I'm all over with sores anyway.

Wise friend CP. I think you speak a lot of truth. But... it is a matter of sample size and self-selection, mostly. I always felt lucky to have lived in that tiny town in the forested mountains, because I saw that many young people are aiming to work a trade and coach baseball, and doing so happily and are respected for it.

It is also true that because of who Himself and I are, our girls did not so aspire, but to a more professional-type occupation and other pursuits.

slyness... when I see my two depend on each other for support, love, friendship and laughs I know that I have done my job well.

great kit, joel! love the mixture of wit and sentiment.

great boodle comments as well.

CP, my mom can give you lots of notes about the last one going off to school. I was the last one off. But it sounds like you have it already figured out. Buy stock in Kimberly-Clark.

I say luck, you say crap shoot. Chance favors a prepared mind, however.

Breaking news - Supreme David Souter said to be stepping down at the end of the term:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043004347.html

Three more school districts in Guadalupe County, adjacent to our Bexar County, to close their doors tomorrow, to reopen May 11--Seguin, Marion, Navarro ISDs. Guadalupe is also the home to the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISD, the first to shut all of its schools in Texas.

San Antonio Mayor Phil Hardberger to hold a press conference tomorrow.

The local big buzz around these parts is a e-mail written by emergency room physician Dr. Marcus Gitterle from Wimberly, north of here, who wrote his comminique to family and friends about his concerns regarding swine flu. Unfortunately for the doctor, the e-mail was forwarded beyond his intended distribution list and has now gone viral (receiving wide attention) locally--if you'll pardon the expression.

http://www.journal-post.com/2009/04/dr-marcus-gitterles-e-mail.html

We just went through the first of many Dear Jane letters. Our daughter didn't make the cut at either of the Governor's schools. the competition at the Arts school was fierce: eleven spots were open to a pool of, by my estimation, 60 to 100 students. On the bright side, she is most assuredly the better for having been through the application process. It'll pay off down the road. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself. It's been a long month or three. Prom night tomorrow. We set up the room this evening, and it's ready to rock. Er, grind. Yeah.

Oh, jack. Oh dear. Yeah.

Wow. We're all direct descendants of the San people. Too close to Tatooine for me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043002485.html?hpid=moreheadlines

I can't dance. But, I know dancing when I see it. High schoolers dance consist of rather interesting gyrations, ringing new meaning to the words slam dancing. Kind of like Suffragette City, only up in your grill.

SCC: bringing. Dang it.

Then why can't I say ! properly?

check your message box, Yoki.

nothing yet, jack.

it might be there now.

Thanks, jack.

Yoki, did you check it earlier today? I'm curious (use my work address), please.

CqP, when you get dogs of size and enormous affection, you may not require 5. Two + College Barkian should do it. Many labs are velcro and will follow you everywhere.

The midnight train just passed, reminding me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHRRjt2lU_4

The lyrics are kind of dark, but if you can get past that, the imagery, particularly that of the train, is fantastic.

Not to mention sit right down next to you on the couch and lean in or on you.

Evening all,i stopped at the overlook to watch the midnight train roll through the valley,it was nice with a little fog cover here and there.Many frogs out again tonight,i missed everyone of them.I'm sleepy tonight.

i go to court tomorrow and get to speak my peace,looking forward to it.

Night dear boodle,sleep tight,Pleasant dreams.

NukeSpawn is barely through the 8th grade and already picking colleges and such... I dunno how I'll get through another 4 years of this. :-)

Kazoo, Ivansmom?? You were lucky! We had to inscribe perfect concentric circles on the window with the morning's oatmeal and spin a bullroarer.

Don't ask where we got the bullroarer...

And Wheezy, if your hard drive was the source of the overheating, PLEASE get a replacement tout suite!! You can probably double your storage along the way, too.

*working-at-home-to-facilitate-a-doctor's-visit Grover waves* :-)

While I'd be glad to see my fellow Granite Stater retire gracefully, I can't help but be disappointed in the journalism behind the article.

"A friend who ran into him last summer in Concord said he was surprised by just how strongly Souter spoke about wanting to leave Washington. 'He said, "If Obama wins, I'll be the first one to retire," ' said the friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because Souter had not yet announced a retirement."

I mean, really now, anonymity for a comment that adds next to nothing to the story... *shaking my head*

Oh, and Front Page Alert too...

Plus Rockville High is closed today because of H1N1 (hinie?) flu worries. A little close to home (work, really) there. *SIGH*

{BSG SPOILER WARNING}

Scotty,
We are all descendants of Hera the cylon-human hybrid. Ron Moore said it. I believe. That settles it. So say we all.

{/end SPOILER}

How time flies. We are on the annual boodle hand wringing about college selection and my son takes his last exam of his freshman year today. I saw him Tuesday when I was in Atlanta on business and he spent a long time explaining how he is naturally a B-student and that we expect too much of him. I'm not sure whether this was softening us up for the report card or a genuine existential crisis.

Come Monday he parks himself on the couch for the summer until the nagging to get a job or take some classes becomes too annoying.

'Morning, Boodle. Yes, Scotty, even the tease of the Souter retirement cannot resist the contradiction, that this gives Obama a chance to begin "reshaping" the court, except that it really won't. C'mon. Jeez.

I cannot possibly bring myself to read Krauthammer, who appears to be suggesting which particular times torture is OK.

**************
Today in Nautical and Aviation History

May 1, 1898: “You may fire when ready, Gridley,” says Commodore George Dewey to the captain of his flagship, USS Olympia. Capt. Charles Gridley and the rest of Dewey’s fleet oblige, devastating Spanish Adm. Montojo’s eight ships in the Battle of Manila Bay. Dewey’s ships have no fatalities, he is promoted to admiral, and becomes an overnight American hero whose welcome-home naval parade in New York Harbor was an extravaganza of historic proportions.
********

TGIF. What's that I smell for breakfast in the Ready Room?

My 6:11 was for Jack, not Scotty, as is this:

Somehow I suspect your daughter will be fine with or without the Honors school.

As for teenage 'dancing', I have a don't ask-don't look policy. Grinding has been around in some form or another at least since Baby was put in the corner up at Kellerman's Resort.

It's a vertical expression of a horizontal desire. As long as they stay (mostly) vertical and keep their clothes on, I can grit my teeth and turn my head.

I'm crushed, yello. What makes you think I don't follow BSG from afar? Not parsec-afar, but many-AU-afar anyway...

Chuckie K for the squeamish:

He starts with the assumption that the 'ticking time bomb' scenario is a valid use of torture. He asserts it as axiomatic, which it isn't. Then he lunges like an Olympic ski jumper down a black diamond slippery slope:

"The second exception to the no-torture rule is the extraction of information from a high-value enemy in possession of high-value information likely to save lives."

There are enough weasel words in there to justify torturing Mother Theresa if you were so inclined. Sorry Charlie, back to your nose-deep pool of monkey vomit. The demons are off their coffee break and want to get back to water skiing.

Totally off-kit but a very cute and interesting story for a I-don't-want-to-think-about-anything-serious-Friday.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/01/birds_boogie_away_the_notion_that_rhythm_is_reserved_for_just_us/

JA WRITES: When a parent sees a fully blossomed child, he or she also sees all the stages of the efflorescence. The little girl. The toddler. The baby. JA END

Sigh. This is true. Children are like flowers, the sort we plant but then those seedlings in the next season defy where we place them in the garden. I love the flowers that do that: feverfew, verbena on a stick, blackeyed susans, nigella...

Thanks, JA.

Good morning boodle!

Replacing Souter with the centrist Obama is likely to pick won't seem to change the court much, but a youngish woman couldn't help but have at least a subtle influence.

It never ceases to amaze me that conservatives, who are so quick to decry the supposed ruin of society because of the disappearance of a "black and white" right and wrong, can find gray areas in torture.

For your Friday Fun- "Henson's 11" (sorry, no transcript)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1Q7f-fPXcM

When I was a young boy the First of May was an informal holiday when we made construction paper baskets in school so as to present our mothers with beautiful May Day flowers.

As I got older I realized that it was the Russian New Year. A fact that I will always associate with the creative team of Zucker and Abrahams.

Now I realize that the true significance of the date is as "Decision Day," when those budding young scholars who have multiple acceptance letters need to decide which college to favor.

I have heard that Rock Paper Scissors is sometimes involved.

Except for those considering technical schools, in which case one must also include Lizard and Spock.

Here is some progressive news; Britain now has it's first female Poet Laureate ever, Carol Anne Duffy.

I'm sure Dirda doesn't find her work appealing, but I do.

Have you seen the great typo on the WaPo homepage?

"Hedge Funds Cast as Villains

Protesting criticism, infestment firms say..."

Those nasty hedge funds, infesting our financial system.

Good morning, all.

Scottynuke, I was thinking of your office and the proximity of Rockville HS when I heard the news this AM. Er, how's the commute this morning (note: this has been a rather sore subject to riders of the MARC service over the past week or so, and is clearly a leading question)?

As to where my kidney's going to matriculate in the fall, I'm waiting on the presser before I say anything else.

'Rock, paper, scissors' is fine, but I preferred 'eeny meeny miney moe' at that age. Now that I've gotten older and wiser and more affluent, I rely on tools and technology. And by that I mean the Magic 8 Ball, the Ouija board, though Mom's always good for a round with the Tarot deck and palm readings. Tea leaves and chicken bones are good, too, but I don't know anyone who can read or operate them well. Without paying for it, anyway. [I'm such a do-it-yourselfer].

bc

Morning and happy Friday, all.

I couldn't log in at 6:35, the helpful Earthlink lady told me an AT&T router in the Washington area had been down since about midnight, causing problems all over. Glad to find it's fixed now that I'm back from the walk.

So. Sorry breakfast is late, Mudge, we'll have to make do with simple country ham biscuits this morning.

Good for Souter, taking off at the advanced age of 69. I recommend retirement, it's a good life, especially, when like the SC justices, you have a good pension.

When playing against Sheldon, always pick Lizard. You can usually win Geek Twenty Questions in just one as well.

Who can name all the Supreme Court justices without cheating? I missed two yesterday. One I missed was in the paper today, and the 9th came to me, but then I forgot one I had remembered yesterday.

Blood bath at the Sunpapers:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZUXzvKlS14K7pm2khW0xxijpOnA

A couple of sportswriters got pink-slipped in the eighth inning of the Angels game. I hope their return flight tickets are still valid.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-offbeattraveler9-pg,0,91031.photogallery?index=1

Hobbit Hotel, and other wacky suites.

Anthony Scalia, Douglas Souter, Allen Ginsberg, Eric Roberts, Anthony Edwards, Dave Thomas, Warren Buffett, Breakfast at Brennan's, Burger Court, Dopey, Sneezy, Doc, Donner, and Blitzen. And Rudolph.

What did I win?

Sneaks, you absolutely made my day with that link! Now I'm set to boogie the day away myself!

Dang, I checked my answer and I missed John Paul Jones and Baskin-Robbins.

Good morning, Boodle!

As winter approaches, each morning, fog gets thicker and lasts longer. Today being a holiday, the sun burned the fog early and the forecast is for a warm day.

Good. I forgot the holiday and now have to wait 'til Monday to buy a comforter.

Jumper - You did better than I did. I only got 6 at first, bumping up to 7 after a cup of coffee. I totally missed the one appointed by Ford and the guy appointed by Clinton. Which was embarrassing because the Clinton fellow made something of a splash when he was nominated.

Actually yello, as I recall Reagan was forced to withdraw his nomination of Justice Dopey.

Stevens, Stevens, Stevens. Perhaps now I'll remember him as the guy I always forget. Had to think about something else for a moment to call up Alito, but I got 8. Better than I do with American Idol finalists, and proud of it.

CP, the trouble with the metaphor that "children are like flowers" is that some of us are parents of dandylions and snapdragons.

slyness, you *never* (where's that damned italics? and I could use some underscore and boldfase, too) have to apologize for your plain ol' ham biscuits. Not ever.

Blitzen was never a Supreme Court justice was he? I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered.

Agnew and Nixon?

Happy May Day, y'all. Workers of the World, Unite!!!

We taught the Boy that for kindergarten. It is always good to shake up the teachers.

Yellojkt, nice job. Don't forget Impeach Earl Warren and Milli Vanilli.

Since I've been teaching some of their recent decisions, if I couldn't name all the current justices by now, the fine law school with which I have been associated this term would have to try and claw back my paycheck.

It is too bad, really. Judge Robert Henry, currently chief judge of the 10th Circuit, would be an outstanding pick for the Court. Relatively young, very smart, learned, and of open and inquiring mind, a true Renaissance man in the best sense of the phrase. However, he's a white male. Timing is everything.

The cheerleader from Heroes is auditioning for the Footloose remake:

http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/marc_malkin/b121537_hayden_panettiere_wants_footloose_with.html

I think some ScienceSpawn should try out.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, advocating (jokingly?) on air, moments ago, the elbow bump as the new form of greeting in the United States, to replace the traditional handshake.

On to truthiness...

The local paper today reporting about swine flu, of course, the front-page story showcasing that our local health official is slightly more forthcoming with information--and honesty. The remarks by Dr. Fernando Guerra, director of the Bexar County Metropolitan Health District, certainly gives more credence to one of the statements in the viral e-mail sent out extremely recently by Wimberly emergency room physician Dr. Marcus Gitterle (see my post around 10 p.m. CDT last night).

Let me add that I first met Dr. Guerra when I spoke in spring 2002 about my experiences of being smallpox-vaccine injured as a child at the last of four nationwide meetings held by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the last regional meeting held in downtown San Antonio. You may recall my reamarks about him in conjunction with the more recent Helotes mulch fire.

Lede graf in the San Antonio Express-News:
San Antonio claimed five probable swine cases Thursday but health officials admitted a bottleneck at public health laboratories might be masking a true picture of the disease here and across the country. ...

Guerra acknowledged a backlog of several hundred specimens at the city's lab at Brooks City-Base, which is screening some--but not all--local flu cases to see if they might fit the swine flu profile. If they do, they're sent to federal labs for confirmation.

"As they're being processed, chances are we'll see a significant number of swine flu cases," Guerra said.

LL: It goes back to the questions I posed several days earlier on the Achenblog about how well-equipped the CDC is to handle the number of swine flu samples sent from various states to the CDC: How big the CDC lab, how many samples can be processed in an hour or a day, lab staff working overtime, backlog of samples to be tested?

CDC's acting director/spokesman Dr. Richard Besser shared yesterday that the CDC had very recently hired 50 individuals to staff phone lines and had invested in a new computer server, but he didn't mention the lab situation. Is the California lab in Richmond now online? Is the CDC's inability to process swine flu cases the reason that Besser announced yesterday that he will no longer provide a tally of each day's swine flu cases, the information to appear only at the CDC's website? Tracking cases is one of the main tenets of basic epidemiology.

More reporting, given the administration's "message control," is certainly needed.

Brag, maybe you could get the Boodle knitters to supply you with hats, scarves, afghans, socks - whatever. Something to help you withstand the coming winter.

I say, chuckling, as we move into full spring and peek at summer. Really with the weather this week we have stormed into spring. I think we should reinvent "tornado" as a verb, possibly confined to use in Oklahoma. We are tornadoing into spring. You won't mind, will you, Mudge?

Ivansmom:
Happy May Day, y'all. Workers of the World, Unite!!!

Some workers, of course, will want to unite viturally, since many of the traditional May Day rallies in past years were held in Mexico.

i agree that souter's retirement is not a big story. obama will replace souter with a liberal. it will be good to have more diversity on the court. it will be annoying to see what stunts the republicans will pull to be obstructionist. that's about it, i predict. maybe there will be drama, but unless obama makes a bad pick, i don't see how the republicans can do anything about it even though they won't like anyone he picks.

badsneaks, i love the dancing cockatoo videos. i have come across them on youtube before, but the fact that they've led to an actual scientific article is really fascinating.

Ivansmom,
Thanks. I knew a fine legal scholar mind like yours would know all seven deadly sins, eight wonders of world, ten commandments and the twelve signs of the zodiac. But I didn't know that old Impeach Earl Warren could still serve on the bench while starring in that Jaime Pressly show.

I was talking to some folks from Brussels by conference call yesterday and they were very eager to get an early start on their May Day weekend. I don't think any trips to Mexico were planned, though.

*hauling out the May pole* Today is pole dancing day isn't it?

It is for Britney Spears, jack:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1175463/Britney-requests-strippers-pole-London-hotel-room-upcoming-tour.html?ITO=1490

Wonder if MotP is making a trip to a Lei Day program today. In our first year in Hawaii I had no idea of the importance of this prepare-all-year event at frostdottir's school and did not attend-thus marking myself as an uninvolved parent. I knew better her second year but did not allow enough time to find a seat where I could see much. Still, I got some fine photos of her singing a solo about the history of whaling in the Pacific as the mock ship sailed around the gym.

Ivansmom, if you want to verbiate "tornado," I think the verb form would be "tornade," hence "We are tornading into spring."

Brag, I understand it gets pretty Chile down there in Santiago. Har har! Oh, I got a million of 'em.

The first fatality from swine flu in the United States, the boy from Mexico, now has a name: Miguel Tejeda Vazquez.

Also from today's paper:
Greg Compean, owner of the Compean Funeral Home in Houston, said, "This was a very nice family, a family of means, a well-to-do family."

The boy's father is an architect. Compean says the date of birth for the boy puts his age at 21 months, not 22- or 23-months, as has previously been reported.

As for the naming of past flus, including Spanish influenza, as found this past week in Bradshear's reporting at the NYT, I see that the error in Kevin Bradshear's reporting has been corrected online, without the correction NOT noted at the bottom of the page.

So, as far as nomenclature, swine flu is out, and we certainly can't call swine flu the Mexican flu--since the geographic origins swine flu found in numerous instances in Mexico haven't been as yet determined. H1N1 sounds so clinical, so removed from the animal (including human) origins of the this flu. Perhaps I should change my handle here on the Achenblog to be my case file number from Dr. Norman Levin's office when I was smallpox-vaccine injured as a kid?

Barry, on how the 1918 Spanish influenza received its name, from "The Great Influenza" (p. 171):

Spain actually had few cases before May [1918], but the country was neutral during the war. That meant the government did not censor the press, and unlike French, German, and British newspapers--which printed nothing negative, nothing that might hurt morale--Spanish papers were filled with reports of the disease, especially when King Alphonse XIII fell seriously ill.

The disease became known as "Spanish influenza" or "Spanish flu" very likely because only Spanish newspapers were publishing accounts of the spread of the disease that were picked up in other countries.

Yes, mudge, but it'll be hot tamale!

Someone should send a note to Obama to remind him to check the tax status of the people on his short list for SC nominee.

In response to Weingarten this morning, my reply titled "Fruity Panic":

Just remember, down in old San Antone, when the smallpox scare was rampant a few years ago, a local public health official had nurses practice giving the smallpox injection (bifurcated needle apparatus) on oranges! Because the thought was that terrorists would unleash variola on the world.

Hey, at least we have CONFIRMED cases of swine-flu-from-Mexico-but also-from-birds-and-humans-but we-can't-really-say-it's-from-Mexico-can-we? in about 17 states in the United States.

Wait, your kids never learned about telling people what they want to hear? You must have heard a lot of uncomfortably honest disclosures from them, huh? :-)

Obama should nominate Judge Judy and then be forced to pay Chris Buckley royalties.

I'm so relieved that lateness with breakfast wasn't a problem for you, Mudge.

Ah, May Day! I've got windows open as I make cheesestraws for the bake sale portion of the youth mission auction at church on Sunday. I thought Sunday was supposed to be a day of rest. This one won't be. Thank heavens I can rest on Monday.

From the NYT's swine flu story this morning:

"Japan’s sumo wrestling authority will distribute antibacterial liquid hand soap and face masks to athletes and their families, media reports in Japan said."

Eeeeww! Eeeewwww! EEEEEWWWWWW! Can you imagine a big, burly, fat guy--now MASKED and SLIPPERY--in a diaper-like thong?

Just edited an item containing the word "strageties." (Word.)

Dutiful editor that I am, I of course changed it to "strategeries."

You don't have to tell young people life is hard; we already know. We had to deal with the shock and sadness of 9/11 as schoolchildren, remember? I see baby boomers fretting all the time that instilling their kids with a high self-esteem and a "you can do anything" line was a mistake--it wasn't. If course Gen Y doesn't believe it can do literally ANYTHING. I didn't believe that even when I was 5. But being told that you can be something pretty great if you try is far from a bad thing. The kids are going to be fine.

Of course life is about options! Life is nothing but constant options. Having a lot of options doesn't mean you never make a decision, it just means you make a better one. Keep looking for unobvious, keep developing plans all the way to Plan Z. That's what really carries you through hard old life.

Same NYT article:

"The Roman Catholic Church in New Zealand instructed priests Friday not to place communion wafers in worshippers’ mouths because of transmission risks, The Associated Press reported, and indigenous Maori were urged to stop using an ancient greeting that brings people nose-to-nose."

No more wafers! Lots more wine--individual cups, please! Let's PAR-TEE!!!

mudge,
Hilarious. Do you have to pay Dubya royalties every time you use 'strategeries'? Or since it was coined on government time, is it public domain?

Only when I look in the mirror.

But thanks for asking.

How do pigs meet?

I had read two, perhaps three days ago--I'm losing sense of time--that there was a Eurasian source for this latest swine flu. I see that NYT's Don McNeil Jr. is today providing, yet again, some good science reporting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/health/01origin.html?hp

First two grafs:

The flu that is moving through humans appears to have a combination of genes from two normally separate sets of pigs, those from the Americas and from Eurasia, scientists say.

However, it is unknown how those pigs met, and there is not yet any genetic proof that this particular flu was ever in a pig.

What does the future hold?

Swabbing pig snouts!

McNeil writes that scientist now say that the hunt is on for what is jokingly being called Pig Zero.

eHarmony?

SCC: eFarmony

"Hey, baby, come here often? What's your swine?"

Mudge -- snapdragons are lovely flowers that sometimes over winter here. I adore the chimney-tall old fashioned ones. Alas, BoxofPlants,etc-stores only stock the shin-high ones. And dandelions are the jaunty brass buttons in a lawn. Somebody among my knowing older cousins said that dandelions came from whizzing on the lawn at night. I imagined some of my teenaged and cool cousins doing that.

More lines overheard at the Bacon Bar:

"Talk about a meat market!"
"That guy is such a pig!" "I know, isn't he dreamy?"
"Give a guy a flash of your ham hock and he wants to pork you."
"Do you think she wallows?"

Well, I'm off to New York to mingle in large crowds and engage in strenuous physical activity. Possible ingest liquids that have been handled by others. Any other risk factors I can add?

Have a good May Day Weekend, you federal workers that don't get the international socialist holiday off. Yet.

Breaking:
FDA now reporting one death, as well as instances of serious adverse health effects, in the U.S. from the over-the-counter dietary aid Hydroxycut. People with Hydroxycut are advised to stop taking this product immediately.

Unfortunately, the cessation of ingesting the drug will not stop the spreading obesity epidemic in the United States.

You want an example of bad timing for someone who could be the next Justice? How about Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, or Barack Obama? Couldn't get fair consideration for any of them, plus B.O. has a prior commitment.

Sci Tim-I prefer to think of it this way-That we have so many capable people tied up with other high profile commitments just means there's a deep bench in the women/minority arena. No need to think there is only one of any variety who would make a superb SC justice.

Actually, I should think that the "ticking time bomb scenario" could be resolved rather easily. Place the suspect in a closed windowless room, with observation cameras, and a clock. Send interrogators in every now and then, displaying increasing desperation, playing to the vanity of the suspect, as well as interrogators who play it cool and use traditional interrogation techniques. Keep the population of interrogators changing so that there are no clear shift changes. Meanwhile, rig the clock to run fast -- say, 40 seconds to complete a minute on the dial. Keep an eye on the bad guy and observe his reaction to the clock when there are no interrogators in the room. When he gives sign that the bomb has gone off, send one of the loose cannons into the room to rant and rave about how terrible it all was and the bad things that will happen to this guy now (all without specifying any particular target). Then get him out of the room and get a sober professional guy to interrogate some more. Once the time-bomb has "gone off", the suspect has met his deadline and he can relax and spill the beans.

From their website:
-
"Hydroxycut is an effective weight loss supplement that can help you achieve great results when combined with your diet and exercise weight loss program."
-
Well, duh! I think that chewing on a pencil is an effective weight loss supplement, when combined with your diet and exercise weight loss program.

"Ronald Reagan: vengeful, score-settling, Hard Left ideologue" - Greenwald
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/

writing about Krauthammer's latest weaselry
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043003108.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Well, not YOUR pencil, obviously. It's probably infected with flu. Although that might help with weight loss!

MY pencil should be safe enough, though.

Good soggy Morning All
It is a Happy day in west by god.I went to court for a traffic violation and said my speech and beat the wrap. No Fine,no court cost,no points Nothing ,nada,zip.I was always told by the cops pulling me over to never challenge it,because you will never win.I guess they weren't actually telling the truth.

Oh and on my drive to the court,I helped my first springtime turtle across the road.
I am thinking bloody Mary's for lunch,well maybe not today,but definately sometime this weekend.

I beat the wrap, wahoo!!!!

Good soggy Morning All
It is a Happy day in west by god.I went to court for a traffic violation and said my speech and beat the wrap. No Fine,no court cost,no points Nothing ,nada,zip.I was always told by the cops pulling me over to never challenge it,because you will never win.I guess they weren't actually telling the truth.

Oh and on my drive to the court,I helped my first springtime turtle across the road.
I am thinking bloody Mary's for lunch,well maybe not today,but definately sometime this weekend.

I beat the wrap, wahoo!!!!

Poblano seeds planted, Better Boys and Better Yellows (never heard of 'em - we'll give 'em a try), crooknecked yellow squash and some warty cukes purchased. A few drops of rain have begun here but it (the "it" that rains) may move on.

It beats going on the lamb, GWE.

Give us your speech, gwe. It might be helpful in future for those of us (me) who are driving-challenged.

I used to work with a former state trooper who said he and others let off anybody who made him laugh. In the city, once, when stopped for going through a red light (the yellow was 10 milliseconds long, honest) I told him I was late for an appointment with my shrink. He looked at me, blinked, and let me go. I must've really looked like I needed that appointment.

I'm glad Souter's retiring while a Democrat is president...just think if he had thrown in the towel while Bush was in office. I'm hoping that Stevens will resign within the next 4 years...he's 89 and sharp as a tack, but I want Obama to pick his replacement. Of course, I'd love if some of the conservative justices retired, too.

Happy May Day! I prefer the flower/pagan version to the military parades. And I don't think it will snow here now.

Plus, pencils are a good source of fiber.

Hey, just sayin'.

The speech was too long,but once when driving fast in merlin,I open my wallet like a trekkie communicator and spoke into it softly"Beam me up now Scotty" and that got me out of a ticket.

According to Wikipedia, there is this on May 1st:

"1778 – American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania."

My beloved high school, Hatboro, is located right smack dab on the site of this "battle" (I put "battle" in quotes because only about seven people were hurt, and only about 18 even participated. It makes the word "skirmish" sound overblown.)

Sky Report: double ring sun dog here today.

Have a good day, all.

Comrades Workers Unite! Marxism is the solution to this crisis!

Believe it or not in Canada we are having a debate over the name of the new Mexico-originated influanza. The farmers backed by our Agri Dept people want our health officials to follow the US/WHO lead and call it the Influenza A(H1N1) virus. Health officials insist there is plenty of other A(H1N1) viruses (which is technically true) and still want to call it novel human swine influenza A(H1N1) virus to distinguish it from the others.

I'm watching from the bleachers and having a great time. I'm quite sure the human swine label won't make it to the end of next week.

"human swine" would never go over here SD, too easily confused with most major and minor celebrities and politicos.

>I'm watching from the bleachers and having a great time.

This is what happens to francos when the Habs are out of the playoffs.

Gripo de puerco.

I consider myself a Marxist.

I may resemble Harpo (and occasionally behave like him, too), but Groucho is my spiritual guide.

bc

Well, what did I miss?

Misery and despair. In the rain.

Virus are often named from where they come, such as Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic virus, Ebola, Guanarito, Hendra, Kyasanur Forest, Russian Spring – Summer encephalitis virus, etc

I submit Manure Lagoon flu virus.

Come on, it doesn't rain and it's Friday.

SoC, I'll be an honorary Caps fan for the time they last in the play-offs. Back to the Habs next fall.

Oh, it rains, Shriek, yes it does...

*SIGH*

My money is on Elaine Kagan, now a member of the administration, until recently the highly respected dean of the Harvard Law School.

I don't suppose too many people are rooting for Harriet Miers...

Elana Kagan would be a great choice, and has been on speculation's short list for some time. She was in my class at law school. She worked for the government during the Clinton administration and taught law school before being named Dean of Harvard Law. She was very successful in that position and the law school was sorry to lose her. She couples academic rigor and knowledge with administrative ability, and is also very diplomatic - helpful on the Court.

Of course, there are some other good people on that list too, including former Harvard and current Stanford law professor (and past Dean) Kathleen Sullivan.

If any of those folks are nominated, Ivansmom, we get to claim 3 degrees of separation. I trust President Obama (How I love writing that!) will find and nominate people who will do excellent work.

Torqueberto will make the short list, fur sure.

On cable news, where is Besser's presser? The one originally announced for 1:15 Eastern?

And pssst, Melody Barnes, the guy's name is Besser, NOT Bessimer. Maybe you folks in the administration should have a party where you're introduced to each other, toss back a few drinks, shake hands, the libations to be followed by a healthy round of hand sanitizer.

Joe Biden can't come though. Kept under tight wraps for the first 100 days of the Obama administration, and released yesterday only to stick his foot in his mouth, the gaffe-prone Vice Prez is now being shipped off, in a enclosed-container aircraft, to Yugoslavia for an undisclosed amount of time.

In my evolving opinion, Besser could be doing a whole lot (auf Deutsch) besser.

The future of Chrysler/Fiat:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-hy-fiat-gallery-pg,0,3933422.photogallery

I hope to see more Alfas on the road. I miss the GTV6.

Laughing at the 1:22...

Manure lagoon virus it is!

News this morning is that the WHO has changed its international-health-agency mind on the naming of swine flu from H1N1 to A H1N1. A teachable moment, since there are also B and C influenza viruses, but still much too Campbell's alphabet soup for me. Mmmm, mmmm, BAD!

Mudge, I meant to mention earlier - I happen to like the word "stragedies."

Er, if it's a word.

As far as a name for this flu goes, since I understand it to be a mish-mash of other viruses (virii?), I'd like to offer "sausage fever," "scrapplenza," "Spam flu," and "Devil's Ham."

The version North of the USA might be called "Canadians Bakin'."

Good thing there isn't an intestinal aspect to this porcine predicament, I'd hate to call in to work complaining of the "poutine p00ps."

If anyone regards considers this comment to be in bad taste, I'm sorry.

In absence of widespread treatements and vaccines for this virus, I'm hoping that a little laughter might be a medicine in these tense times.

And if you feel compelled to skip my post on GPs, that's OK too.

bc

Happy Birthday shout-outs to the Duke of Wellington, Calamity Jane, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Louis Nye ("Hi-ho, Steve-a-rino"), novelists Joseph Heller and Terry Southern, Chuck Bednarik of the Fulldullfya Iggles, Judy Collins and Rita Coolidge, and just for you Canukistanis, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, Governor General of Canada (1911-16, succeeding Earl Grey), who was also the longest-lived offspring of Queen Victoria, at 92 years.

This is also the 6th anniversary of Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech. No doubt Olberman will have commentary this evening.

This also happens to be Walpurgisnacht, as well as Nationa Love Day in the Czech Republic (boy, I could tell you some stories..)

You may want to check out the very last item in the Wikipedia entry for today under "Holidays and Observances," which needs some editing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1

Mudge, thanks for the Peter of Chardin, last name Teilhard. Pronounced tay YAR. Hero of mine.

No mention of Beltane, 'mudge?

Joel's on the homepage with an article about swine flu. I've rapidly skimmed only parts of it.

NBC's Robert Bazell was on-air this morning with a caution about calling the virus "mild." We still don't know how this completely new strain of virus will behave next week, or in six months, or a year from now. If it behaves as a more common coronavirus (this virus is your eveyday virus as well as SARS), then it still could kill--roughly--36,000 in the U.S.

What's atypical about this new swine flu virus is that it's breaking out almost off-season or out-of-season (garden variety flus taper off markedly in the spring), as Bazell pointed out.

Bazell also commented out that it's way too early to give credence, yet, to the WSJ story this morning that the virus may have originated in California, as people in Mexico who were interviewed and who appeared on television during this past week maintain. Don't forget the hunt for Pig Zero!

The mortality curve for everyday flu virus is a U; in 1918, the mortality curve (with age on the horizontal axis) was a W, as Barry writes in his book.

Back to Joel's article...

Hey, where's ol' omni been, anyway? And dammit, we haven't had a quiz in a coon's age.

That's good bc. I feel silly myself.
I just completed one of the most inner focused (i.e. gunmint navel centered) task ever for me. Our organization is mostly outward focused, we talk ansd write to the public at large and I like that.
But today I answered comments by an external government body addressing comments made by another external gunmint agency regarding the public consultation that will follow the publication of a risk assessment document adressing the risk-benefits of the actual safety standard we are responsible for. It's a wonder that anything actually gets done. But is does, although at slow speed.
"Le bonheur des uns c'est de voir les autres se casser le cou/One's joy is to see someone else break his neck, Félix Leclerc)

I think you buried the lede, bc: Spam Flue stands out head and pork shoulders above the rest.

Put Chardin in just for you, CP.

SD, is this

One's joy is to see someone else break his neck

Félix Leclerc's version of schadenfreude? How do we say this in French?

Hey, what happened to Taser Lady?

Never heard of Beltane until just now, Yoki.

Back after a busy day and caught up on the backboodle, thanks for the giggles.

Just returned from kids school Talent Show, eldest was a co-emcee and did well - course I am more than a little biased. Favorite moment of the day, just after I arrived eldest ran over to me and yelled Mommy you are here and hugged me - at thirteen I cherish those moments, appreciation for mom quickly waning at this stage.

Show was good - a one point a few young Jr. Kindergarten students were air guitaring along with an older student who as playing - so cute.

CP thanks for rushing to the aid of Snapdragons.

I am tempted to become a temporary Caps fan as well - enjoy the way they play, but I do like Sidney Crosby.

I don't think that even George Bush or Harriet Miers thought that Harriet was a serious candidate. I think she was a sacrifice so he could say "well, I *tried* to nominate a woman, but the mean liberals wouldn't let her on the court", allowing him to then name the (male) ideologue that he always had wanted.

I had been thinking that relative youth was the number 2 criterion for a Republican appointment (number 1 = ideological purity), with demonstrable jurisprudential competence as a distant third. However, Wikipedia reveals that the age of Bush's appointments was 50 to 55 when they began their terms on the court -- both Bushes, with the dramatic exception of Silent Clarence. Ginsburg and Thomas are the outliers -- Ginsburg began at 60, Thomas at 42. So, the truth is that the age of Bush's appointees is no different from the age-at-nomination of Clinton's, Reagan's, or Ford's appointees. Except for Clarence Thomas.

Silent Clarence stands alone as a brash attempt to impose a particular conservative viewpoint on the court for a period as long as it takes a baby to grow from birth to the age of the youngest President ever (42, Teddy Roosevelt). We are gonna be stuck with Clarence Thomas for a good long while, yet. When Scalia goes, I wonder what will happen to Silent Clarence. Will he just flop over and lose all animation? Will he grow his own spine and learn to speak for himself? I wait with bated breath.

Joel's not quite up on (in the article, at least) the genetics of the new swine flu virus. I was really surprised to find national news tackling the flu's genome in prime time, but Charlie Gibson at ABC did an outstanding job last night in his long segment about the flu, including having Dr. Tim Johnson on the program. Dr. Sanjay Gupta also provided the same information this morning on CNN.

The new virus lack an amino acid, a protein, which appears to inhibit somewhat its ability to replicate--that's what Johnson and Gupta said. (Don't ask me to delve into replication. It's incredibly humid and I'm thinking of a short nap.)

That said, how or if it will mutate in the future is unknown. It could remain stable, but that's not the characteristic of influenza viruses, known for their rapid mutation. It could strengthen; it could weaken and disappear (let's hope).

Stated slightly differently than Johnson's and Gupta's comments:

http://www.mcknights.com/CDC-releases-guidance-for-long-term-care-on-swine-flu-infection/article/135917/

But closer inspection by scientists has found that this H1N1 strain of the flu lacks a great many of the characteristics that made the 1918 strain so deadly, reports the LA Times. For example, even though both strains are of the H1N1 variety, today's swine flu is missing a particular amino acid, which scientists say helps the virus infect the lungs, making it more fatal.

SD - your 2;36 is hysterical - although sadly I know it is not ment to be.

Call it what you please. I don't care.

Happy Beltane, Yoki and all.

Silent Clarence will change his tow boat Science Tim. Roberts looks like a good replacement tug for him. Roberts was quite young too, wasn't he?

Mudge, *snort*.

I don't know CqP, I don't think that schadenfreude translate directly in French either. But yes, Félix wants to express the same thing, the guilty pleasure to see someone fail. Or at least to find sizeable obstacle on their path.

SCC:

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/

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

Hello, friends. For some reason my computer just wasn't working right this morning. I could only get Yahoo, and nothing else. I've been up since five o'clock, and ready to go back to bed.

I'm glad you like saying "President Obama", Slyness, because for some reason the early morning anchor(female) on WSOC seems to have problem doing that. She says Mr. Obama, and she's not the only one.

Yoki, Scotty, Martooni, Mudge, and all the gang, it's Friday, May Day! Have a wonderful weekend all.

It's trying to rain here. Not having much success at it.

Loomis, there has to be something in you that is very strong, and I don't know if that is a good thing or not, yet I acknowledge that it is there. Hope all is well with you and family.

The Republicans aren't going to be pleased with any name thrown out there, unless it's someone from their camp. And I don't see that being the case.

a mild case ...

that Achenbach fellow has been busy. Excellent "group effort" article on the swi - I mean Influenza A (H1N1):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101777.html

Also, I see Joel has another article out there on African genetics that I found very fascinating:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043002485.html

One of my favorite search terms is "animation." For example hyperspace animation gives about the best illustrations of higher dimensions that have been crafted. Today I was looking for some Gulf Stream animations and found them. While there I followed to this page on the "cryosphere."
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a003300/a003355/index.html

Minutes ago from the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/health/02flu.html?hp

HONG KONG — Swine flu spread to Asia on Friday, as Hong Kong authorities announced the continent’s first case, a 25-year-old traveler who came from Mexico via Shanghai, and immediately quarantined an entire hotel where the traveler had stayed on Thursday night.

Thanks, Cassandra. I'll address the strength at a later date.

Cassandra, the problem this morning was a malfunctioning router belonging to AT&T in the Washington area. At least that's what the Earthlink helpdesk lady told me at 7 ayem. She said it had been down since about midnight.

Mudge, you're asking for it.

Yeah, I know. And I'm withdrawing from the field.

I for one am a big, big fan of crapola.

Sd -- thanks for the info. Yes, universal, this oddly satisfying pleasure at another's troubles.

Apropos of spammers, my newest stupid emails claim that the Spanish Flu was dealt with successfully by, ta da

homeopathy.

Links, etc, to the protective and mythically small suspensions of the thought imprints of molecules. I guess we can discuss whether or not water has a memory.

Thanks, Mudge for the doselet of Teilhard.

Not only is it Friday and May Day (visions of rustic Hardian revelry dance in my head), it is the day the report on a project that has plagued me for more than six weeks was.... approved! I'm done with it! And I am heaping hosanas on the head of the Board member who championed a) the project and b) the report.

Congrats, Yoki. I know the feeling!

Tossing confetti in Yoki's honour.

There is a new Hayao Miyazaki movie being released in English this August, "Ponyo." Woo-hoo! Although, I may be in Hawaii on that date.

I just back boodled. Mudge was baaaaaad.

Now I'm off to workout having spent time on the job securing front.

Happy May Day. My favorite month even if it includes another year older day.

DMD -- let's toss snapdragon petals too. That is a great way to end the week, Yoki. I am responding to student papers but look forward to a visit at the local watering hole: think Cheers but without the Boston r's and a's.

Happy Uno de Mayo everybody.

Still going through life kicking and screaming here (and muttering to myself pretty much constantly), but otherwise okay.

Just wanted to pop in and say "hello", so "Hello!"

Looks like lots here to catch up on, but I doubt that'll happen so I'll just try to jump in upstream.

Peace out... :-)

BTW, I believe the media has made much more of the H1N1 flu than necessary. Guess it was time for a diversion from the usual gloom and doom of the economy and wars. Mexico is getting a bad wrap big time.

Il n'est rien, CP. Un jour sans Teilhard a lieu comme un jour sans soleil.

Mudge, pig latin is better.

Any of the DC locals going?
http://www.sheepandwool.org/
You know I depend upon you all for my vicarious thrills. Baa!

Martooni!

Good to hear from you. Hope you'll drop in from time to time...

Windy, lucky you, to have a May birthday.

Mudge, will you please explain Teilhard to me?

As an official OCD weenie (wienie?) I feel compelled to say: It's "bad rap" (an unfair condemnation), not "bad wrap" (which refers to the swaddling of gifts). Similarly for "beat the rap".

Also: just how crazy-making is it to hear an educated person say "hone in on", when the idiom/cliché is "home in on"? Very crazy-making, that's how much.

And "out of pocket" means "paid your own money for an expense that should not be your responsibility". It does not mean "out of contact" or excommunicado.

Ohhh. Whew! Oh my goodness! Glad I got that off my chest.

Carry on. As you were. But, you know, more grammatically and syntactically correctly now, if you please.

I get it. Transl.: A day without a hard tail is like a day without sunshine. I had no idea that you were a motorcycle enthusiast, 'Mudge.

While Obama or another Democrat is in office, Scalia will never leave. J. Marshall used to say he'd be carried out in a box. I think Scalia will be the same way. About Thomas - we'll never know.

Like, I'm sure, many other Boodlers in similar situations, I feel fortunate to be (a) employed and (b) working in a job which allows me to let my brain work on the problems for which I'm employed while I break from reading or writing to check in with the Boodle on my own personal computer. I know not everyone is so lucky and I appreciate it on a daily basis.

*running for the prom*

Congratulations to Yoki - what great news for a Friday.

A big Howdy to martooni.

Enjoy overlooking that grinding, jack.

And ScienceTim: a new Miyazaki??? Be still my heart! This will be great news for the Ivansclan. Add in the eventual promise of Alice in Wonderland with Johnny Depp and Tintin, and I'll be seeing movies again!

I am not sure I have heard "home in on before" and certainly not out of pocket referring to being out of touch.

Just so I am clear, the Hubble sight uses hone in in this circumstance - but it correct right?

http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1996/24

Tim, GeneW had a bit in his chat, maybe in the Gene Pool too, about those kind of phrases. I had never heard "out of pocket" used to mean "absent" till Joel used it that way. I figured I was the one who didn't know that usage.

The ones that bug me the most:
chomping at the bit (horses champ at the bit, when they're impatient and raring to go - although some dictionaries say chomp is ok)

squash instead of quash

Oh, water has a memory. Many thousands of years ago, a north African goatherd shook his fist at the rainy sky, and said something to the effect of, "Give it a rest, won't ya?"

SCC that would be the Hubble site.

Tact instead of tack drives me mad. Much adieu about nothing! A mute point. Oh, I gotta million of 'em. The great thing, though, is even when we get these things wrong, we stlll understand each other.

"Hone in" is one of those mistakes that is (sadly) being accepted. "Home in" is the traditional usage.

Sorry, Tim:

"OUT OF POCKET - "Used in the Southwest for 'absent, unavailable.' 'I'll be out of pocket awhile, but I'll call you as soon as I can." From the "Happy Trails: Western Words and Sayings" chapter in the "Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms: Local Expressions from Coast to Coast" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000)."

"out of pocket* has come to mean 'unreachable, absent, unavailable'. Lurking on the Internet discussion group "alt.usage.english," I'm convinced that this "newer" meaning is at least 25 years old, originally not too common, but now increasingly used over a wide area. In fact the *Dictionary of American Regional English* promises *out of pocket* as a "coming attraction" in the forthcoming Volume IV. Their draft entry is labeled "Chiefly South and South Midland," a regional distribution that includes southern states (such as Georgia and Alabama), and states just above this region (such as Tennessee and Kentucky). However, I would add that *out of pocket* is also used in Hawaii (thank you!), on the West Coast, in the Midwest and West (especially in Texas), and even in the Northeast (such as in the financial districts of New York City). ...
The phrase *out of pocket* also means 'out of place; out of order', and often describes unacceptable behavior or situations. This meaning has its roots in Black English of the 1940s, and refers to the pockets on a pool table. An example from a recent edition of *The Los Angeles Times*: "Any outsider who would attempt to engage in that conversation would be out of pocket."
From The Mavens' Word of the Day (May 22, 2001)"

I hate a bad wrap once. The consequences were ugly.

We have TULIPS! The Ottawa Tulip Festival opens this weekend, right on time.

Things which don't "jive" with other things are guilty of japery, methinks.

We have tiny little leaf buds on some trees. Which is pretty good, considering that it snowed some last night.

"That doesn't phase me" leaves me, well, fazed. Also "these figures don't jive." The jive figures don't jibe. Don't get me started on mbillion or phenomenong.

Now THIS is one for the diary!

"A couple was arrested Sunday for stripping off their clothes and having sex on the lawn of Windsor Castle."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050102322.html?hpid=moreheadlines

I thought everyone said "out of pocket". I grew up hearing it all the time.

Of course, I also heard "icebox" for "refrigerator", and "Coke" for "soda", and "paper bag" instead of "paper sack". I love regional variations in language.

I told my assistant I'd be incommunicado for a while. He said, "where's THAT?" and I said it's down there near Cognito.

Oh, ouch. Pain. No, the Hubble site is guilty of a crime against language.

The worst one, however, is when I hear it on NPR. Those people are supposed to be skilled practitioners of speech. At least I can forgive the Hubble folks on the thin grounds that they are science geeks (even though the EPO people do not generally have that excuse), and thus are expected to be nearly incapable of spelling properly nor understanding normal human speech.

"Hone in on" is a usage that I have been hearing increasingly over the past 10 years or so. It is "home" as in "homing pigeon", not "hone" as in "sharpening a blade." "Honing pigeons" would be an interesting sight, but I worry lest they should become angry, what with their sharpened beaks and talons. How embarrassing to be felled by vicious pigeons. Although it would be a valuable incentive toward individual exercise, exorcising our national epidemic of obesity. One way or another.

"Squash" and "quash" have somewhat similar meanings, assuming we are not talking about gardening, so it is more forgivable as an example of linguistic drift rather than blatantly erroneous usage. We can both "squash" (utterly destroy) and "quash" (thoroughly repress) a rebellion, although a rumor may only be "quashed", never "squashed".

I had thought that I had seen "out of pocket" used for "out of contact" only here in the Boodle. I hadn't spotted Joel using it. But I am afraid I must declare it to be wrong, wrong, wrong, no matter who may be the guilty party.

I never use the phrase "champing at the bit", so that is probably the only thing that has saved me from abusing that phrase myself. The thought of chomping on a piece of steel with one's hard molars, instantly communicates the understanding that whatever the phrase might be, the verb could not be "to chomp."

SCC I hate bad wraps but I ate one.

Yoki, we have not only tulips but some small new leaves too. Mrs. D made herself a bouquet of hyacinths and muscari, purple and fragrant. I think the grass may need a haircut this weekend on the southern slope. Yes, Spring is here.

Hey Yoki -- YAYYYYYYY to you. Congrats and all thats.

And let me add to the "good to hear from you" to Martooni.

When I went out to pick up a sandwich at the local Corner Bakery today, I noticed about a 1/8th inch layer of yellow-green pollen on it. That's what's left after lining my lungs. Not gonna get the car washed until the trees stop exploding. That being said, it is lovely to see all the new fresh green on the trees, with a bunch of lovely tulips spread around on the ground. Spring does go fast around here, I must say.

BTW, not to be a grammatical Nazi or anything, but I think the word is "rap" and not "wrap" as in "bad rap". But however anyone wishes to express it is fine with me, nevertheless.

Man, is it nice not to be cranky about my computer any more (this week, anyway). Whew!

Have loverly weekends, all and sundry.

Oops. Shrieking your bad wrap I'm sure wasn't as bad as Mexico's bum rap. My bad. Tiptoeing away....

I googled the following:
"...The correct form is "bad rap."

Alright, there you go. For those of you only looking for the proper phrase to use before moving on with some project or another, that's the short and simple answer. However, if want to use super "proper" usage (if there is such a thing), what you really want is "bum rap" instead. My beloved 2200-page Webster's Unabridged Dictionary lists both ways, but looking up "bad rap" only points you to "bum rap" and thus gives the latter priority in my eyes. In case you care, the definition is listed as follows: "1. an unjust accusation, verdict, or punishment... 2. An adverse opinion or judgment considered undeserved or unjust" (277). So there you go, if that's all you needed then enjoy and good luck on your letter, article or essay."

Ooooghh. Alright, I'll have to yield on "out of pocket." But it just doesn't sound right. Must be my Yankee upbringing.

FTB-you are correct, too. :-)

Save yourself SciTim, do not google "hone in on", the Hubble site was but one I could have chosen.

Must say thought home in on sounds goofy to me even if it is correct.

Who says paper sack? And everybody knows fizzy drinks are pop, not soda.

What I've been hearing more of in Canada is the term "cash cow" used to mean "money pit." This is so illogical on its face that I cannot account for it.

Also, and this is not a matter of mixed up homophones, way too many people say "I could care less" to mean I couldn't care less.

Whew. Explain Teilhard to you, slyness? I'd be lyin' if I said I understood him very well at all. CP is your go-to person on that. I studied him in college, and he made my head hurt -- and I was possibly on pharmaceuticals at the time, too.

But I'll give it a shot. First off, I admire him quite a lot more as a person, and for the life he led, more so than purely as a theologian (a class upon whom I am not especially in agreement in any event). And he was Catholic, and I am not and never was, so I have that problem as well.

But be that as it may, he was quite a "Renaissance man," in the best sense of the word. He was in on the discovery of Peking Man in China, where he traveled around extensively. And he always gave the Vatican major heartburn, so I have to admire that, too.

OK. Everyone debates whether he was a theologian, philosopher/metaphysician or mystic; he himself preferred "phenomenologist" (see also Henri Bergson, whom I like; Heidegger [yuck], Husserl [really hurt me poor brain], Merleau-Ponty [huh?], and of course J.P Sartre [whom I do understand: bring in voices of two cockney charmaids proclaiming, "We had the Jean [Gene] Paul Sarts over for dinner the other night."]).

In a nutshell, he believe that all evolution was goal-driven with the "intention" (my word) of evolving into high and higher levels of consciousness, which were bing steered toward some future point he called the Omega Point, which essentially was where consciousness merged with God to become one. Or something very close to that. This Omega Point was bit like "The Force," which was not only a destination but also a force that kind of dragged evolution from the moment of the Big Bang [or whatever] along behind it into these higher and higher levels. Atoms to compounds to molecules to viruses to single-cell animals to multi-cullular, to complex, to mammals, and finally (to this point) mankind, with consciousness, etc., all moving up the line toward the Omega Point. (Called orthogenesis.)

more

I like cash and cows.

Love that you talk French to me, Mudge. Cannot make heads or tails of it save the sweetness.

New WaPo flu blog:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/swine-flu-report/?hpid=artslot

Scroll down, Windy, to see an article on that blog about what you comment on.

2

He also thought there were three levels of...existence, I guess. The first was the geosphere, which was the earth, the planet, rocks and dirt and land and oceans, etc. The second was the biosphere, all the various and sundry life forms that lived upon the geosphere. So far so good. The third was the noosphere, a kind of higher form than the geo and bio, which was sort of the world of human thought, a collective consciousness, almost what we'd now make fun of as "the Borg."

I might have understood some of this better back in 1967 if we'd had concepts like the Force and the Borg around to help me, but we didn't.

Teilhard had a great influence on culture (which I also like about him) and pops up in weird places, such as the haunted Oskar Werner priest in a movie I rather like, "Shoes of the Fisherman" (by an underrated novelist I like, Morris L. West), and in places such as Flannery O'Connor's "Everything That Rises Must Converge." Ya just never quite know when you're gonna stumble upon a small piece of Teilhard in unlikely places. Which I like.

Gotta run for le bus.

I've never heard "out of pocket" to mean "inaccessible" but would probably understand in context.

I was going to let "wrap" meaning "rap" pass, as there but for the grace of God go I, but agree both uses should be rap.

I was once ganged up on by two Brits on the proper use of "no end". Apparently in the UK you say "it bothers me no end".

Laurels to Yoki, and belated laurels for coming home from the hill with fresh meat for the solicitors.

Goldarn Yankees. It's okay, ScienceTim. You can't help it. My dad, from Indiana, thought blackeye peas were cow food until he got to Arkansas in the Army and was served them at Sunday dinner (officers got farmed out to area homes). When I moved to Boston I learned that iced tea was a seasonal drink. Local variations in phraseology pale before this horror.

firsttimeblogger, you had pollen on your sandwich? Did they charge you extra?

I will try a Teilhard 101 lesson later. I agree with Mudge with the exception that the Omega point means union with God or the Godhead, not really a merger. Union would preserve the notion of individual identity or personality. Christian eschatology or teleology (study of endness) call solidly for the personal angle. This is a major demarcation between Xtians and Eastern mind thought.

Teilhard's thinking is in line with European phenomenology and what is now called continental philosophy. He is not, was not, could not be, etc. an analytical philosopher. Simply put, British and North American philosophy became commentary on Wittgenstein, with a heavy dose of analysis of language and both linguistics and ontological "grammars." Save at Catholic Universities, primarily Jesuit, and both Toronto and MaGill, philosophy now is analytical.

Gotta go meet some peeps; will practice some Teilhard on them. Got yer two Unitarians, a Christic atheist, perhaps a liberation theology Catholic and likely a few radiacal Mennonites...report back in later as I will be
out
of
this
pocket.

That reminds me, Ivansmom, of touring the Maritimes years ago. There was a Southern family in the cabin next to ours, who at dinner ordered tea and were shocked and puzzled to receive a ceramic pot containing a steaming infusion.

I am sure the other Canadians will agree to the quizzical looks one receives when they go the the US and request a serviette.

Once asked for Hawaiian Pizza in Baton Rouge, the person on the phone laughed for a little bit, they had never heard of it but did offer to purchase canned pineapple to put on the pizza - we decline.

You know, the borg were searching for the Omega particle in ST: Voyager, Mudge. A perfect crystalline molecule which held insane amounts of energy.

Unfortunately it destroys subspace...

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Omega_molecule

But I have to wonder if Buddhistic nirvana was closer to what ol' Teilhard was thinking of...

Thank you for that, Mudge. I will consider it at length later, when I have time to absorb it all.

Iced tea seasonal, Ivansmom? I shudder at the thought! I drink it, like, 365 days a year.

I was talking to a fellow yesterday who is quite sure that when CERN flips the switch on The Large Haldron Collider a black hole will be created.

He recommended that we all spend the next couple of months going to the beach or for drinks.

SCC: Hadron, duh.

Yoki, I was planning to chat with a couple of women tonite--none are my wife.

BTW, that's one of the best lines I have heard. The world will end, lets get together for drinks.

In fact, I might try that one.

Slyness and Ivansmom, is that sweetened Ice Tea you drink all the time? Please be gentle I am from the north.

Never knew there was unsweetened until I attended a lunch in DC and took a large sip of the the Ice Tea in the glass at my place. Didn't dislike it just took me by surprise.

Glad to help, RT!

Ahem, Crapola is "The cereal that makes weird people regular." Made not far from our fair city it is cranberry+apple+granola
More here: http://www.crapola.us/

"Out of pocket" for unavailable may have southern origins but is widely used by military types, probably because so many bases are in southern states. It is a near synonym for "out of the net" which means absent and often incommunicado as well because you are out of "comms range" not to be confused with "down range" which usually means deployed.

I dabbled in some home improvement forums before discovering the kit and boodle. The frequent use of "rod iron" when people meant "wrought iron" was more than I could abide. "Could of" when "could have" is meant brings out some serious homicidal tendencies.

Off to simonize my watch, I'm traveling inmagneto for the rest of the evening.

I still cringe at the incorrect use of "repeat" in military contexts in movies and on tv.

I believe that I am just about done for idiomatic expressions whose proper form is misused widely or clean forgotten. I reserve the right to get tetchy in the future should a relevant example rear its head. I would have gone after "could care less" (an abomination), but Weingarten has pretty much claimed that territory. Perhaps "reserve the right" is not quite correct' I think what I mean to say is that you may as well expect it of me.

Engelmann, could you provide correct and incorrect examples of what you mean? I am trying to figure out how to misuse "repeat."

I washed my car today (at the insistence of Mr seasea - he would make a great supervisor). The pollen has made its way into every tiny crevice - as in the window molding - and is dang near impossible to get out. When I drove home the other day, I swear I could see a heap of yellow pollen underneath the Norway maple. Not sure if there is more this year, or if I'm just noticing it more. Luckily, it doesn't bother me, nasal or allergy-wise.

frosti, ha!

Yes, engelmann, I'm puzzled too about "repeat". Should they say, "to reiterate", when they repeat a message? I wasn't sure about the misuse of "no end", either. Although I would say "to no end" - is that it? Those Brits!

Repeat has a specific meaning and is used only for "repeat fire mission". The replacement for other uses is "say again".

The most egregious error would be something like "cease fire, I repeat, cease fire!" because the artillery may hear "crackle crackle repeat crackle crackle".

At least in the US military you will seldom, if ever, hear "repeat." When you ask someone to repeat, you could bring down a rain of additional artillery fire (after the initial "fire for effect" which can be used in so many crude ways I won't recount them here). Although it drives Ma Frostbitten to tears, like Frostdaddy and Mr. F, I always say "say again?" if I need someone to restate something.

I see engelmann was much faster, and concise.

I work with an ex-marine who says "Say again" all the time. I never realized how susceptible I was to the power of suggestion until found myself using the phrase myself. I fear I have picked up several expressions from ex-military people. Not all of them suitable for public use.

frosti -- I almost washed my computer with grapefruit juice when I read about Crapola! Very, very funny.

Yep, that pollen gets in everywhere. I've gotta find out how not to let it bother me (and moving to Antarctica is out of the question, even though I'm very fond of penguins).

I must say that I do like idioms, but not when misused (although, if they turn out funny I really do love them).

Off to cough over what to make for dinner.

Toodley, boodley. . . .

Frosti, I would be a big fan of that crapola was well, granola, vanilla yogurt, fresh fruit - Yum.

On days when the discussion turns to proper English usage on the boodle I ponder if I should post again. It is like having all my faults displayed at once. :-)

I had a boyfriend from Looziana who said "Do what?" instead of "Say what?" or "Huh?"...which I continue to say to this day. I'm not sure if it's southern or stoner, as he was both.

Is say what equivalent to Pardon Me?

Isn't that funny? When my parents lived in England, they learned that when you want someone to repeat what they've said, the upper-class said "What?" instead of "Pardon Me?" and taught us to do so. I know it sounds terrible to anyone outside England, and am still trying to condition myself to stop. Don't always succeed. Early conditioning runs deep.

I trust the Brits (upper class - such a yucky term for me), do not say What in the same inflection as certain teenagers can.

My kids have a few Froggy books, in the book Froggy often replies WHAAAAAT,took me a while to stop changing that part of the story. When I would read Junie B. Jones books to the eldest I was often changing the wording to improve the grammar as the story is written as a kindergarten/grade 1 might speak. Didn't want my child picking up that.

surfing the internet at work makes you more productive:
http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/news/5750/

also, anyone who has actually been full-time writer or editor knows that you absolutely have to take breaks because it's not possible to function otherwise.

so there.

mr. curmudgeon, please embrace your productivity-enhancing boodling.

in fact, let me add, as a tax payer, that i insist all of you who are working for the gummint adopt these productivity-enhancing practices...

To placate Ma Frostbitten as a substitute for "say again" we frostsisters would often adopt an RP accent and say "what what" as if we were talking to Bertie Wooster. She found this only a slight improvement.

dmd, sweet tea is found in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. I suppose it may be available in Tennessee, but I have no direct experience. You might be able to get it in northern Florida, but not south Florida, nor Alabama, or so I've heard.

At my house, tea is sweetened with Splenda. Twenty packets to a gallon is my recipe. That's not sweet enough for Mr. T, so he adds three more packets to his glass at the table. If it were not for artificial sweeteners, we would both be dead of diabetes.

When I travel, I have to remember not to specify unsweet when I order my tea. Around here, sweet tea is the default.

Mr. T gets annoyed when I say, "what, what?" so when I need something repeated I have to say, "I'm sorry..." or "say again?" or "what did you say?"

Well, I don't say it like an old RSM from the Raj! And I never never say "Capital! Capital, old boy!" when I agree with someone. Well, almost never.

I just finished watching Quantum of Solace with the family, and gosh darn it, that Mudge is correct. There is an extended DC-3 scene in it. There is also a quite striking redhead. Alas, both, I fear, came to a bad end.

One odd affectation I have picked up in recent years is I often end letters with the phrase "Cheers."

I drink iced tea 24/7/365, too (unsweet, with extra lemon and Splenda), but when I was a kid in Philly it was a summer seasonal drink. Sometime soon after Labor Day my mother switched us over to milk (this was back in the day when everyone (or every kid, anyway), was required by law, Act of Congress, by Walt Disney, and God himself that you MUST drink two glasses of milk a day to build strong bones and a healthy body, and otherwise live a proper, wholesome life. There was no such thing back then as milk allergy or lactose intolerance, so I don't know how those people ever survived those years, but I feel sorry for them. Schools sold exactly one kind of liquid at lunch: milk. A few really progressive places sold chocolate milk, but no school I ever went to. It was either drink milk or suck down chalk dust; no third alternative.

It was only after I met/married my wife, a tennessee gal, that I even learned of the existence of sweetened tea, which I find an abomination and an outrage. How DARE someone decide I have to have sugar in my tea, let alone a prescribed x amount of it? That's insane. It's like forcing every coffee drinker to have coffee ONLY with two lumps of sugar and a hit of half-and-half. It's absurd and fascist and authortarian.

I've heard/ued "out of pocket" for 20 or more years. I think I first came across it in a novel, but can't recall if the novel was Brit or American. I think it was a spy novel, but it may have been a police procedural or crime novel.

Thank you, LAL.

Never did a "Cheers" thing, but I went through a pretty long "Ciou" period. No idea why. Everyone in the "gang" did it, not just me.

My daughter is going through a Robin Williams-inflected "Toodle-ooo" phase, via Mrs. Doubtfire.

Translation for CP: "A day without Teilhard is a day without sunshine."

I'm an "Excuse me?" person, except I usually sound like Scooby Doo making that "Huuuhnnnnhhhhh?"

I don't think I have any speech affectations.

Indeed, not.

I may come back to Teilhard, but I will say that I think his work has had a huge influence on western thinking and art from WO Staplelton to spirtual philosophies like the Integral Institutes.

And heck, even AC Clarke's "The Nine Billion Names of God" owes Teilhard something...

bc

I remember the first time I heard "say again" it was my 9th grade Algebra teacher. We thought it sounded hilarious.

Then we heard another teacher always say "come again?" which we thought was even funnier.

And of course, there's always a well-pronounced "excuuuuuuuuuse me?"

"Do what?" is indeed an alternative, though colloquial, to the more common "Say what?". I myself use "I beg your pardon", not when I fail to hear something correctly, but when I hear it all too well and want to give the speaker a chance to reconsider the question or statement.

I myself no longer drink sweet tea as a general rule but it was the mainstay of my childhood and college years. Now if family gathers we have to label the jars "sweet" and "unsweetened". There's nothing like getting one when you expect the other. In much the same way, we labeled the coleslaw at our wedding (tamales and barbecue), since my Oklahoma family embraces vinegar slaw while Ivansdad's Texas family eats sweet slaw (shudder). My mother-in-law had to teach me how to make it.

I use both Excuse Me and I beg your Pardon in the manner as Ivansmom.

Haven't heard the terms tamales and barbeque in reference to coleslaw before.

I remember supper at a friends house when I was in high school lined up down the table were bottles of pop/soda/coke/pepsi. Coming from a home where milk was the only option for those not yet of legal drinking age it was very surprising.

The first time I heard "out of pocket" in other than a monetary sense was from a military guy at my church. This was at least 20 years ago. He said he was going to be "out of pocket" for a couple of weeks and I asked what he meant by that. He meant that he was going to be out of the area and difficult to get in touch with. I don't know the derivation of it. I thought the derivation might be that he was going to be off the base and therefore responsible for his own expenses, but I'm really not sure. And I may easily be totally wrong that the construction is military in origin.

Here's a Slate article on sweet tea:

http://www.slate.com/id/2171917/pagenum/all/

And here's recipe for it:

http://www.answers.com/topic/sweet-tea

There's no way I could drink that stuff.

Whole milk was the only option when I was in elementary school too, Mudge.

Mr. T says tea comes in three flavors: sweet, real sweet, and d@mn good. For the latter, the ratio would be about a cup of suger to a gallon of tea.

Ivansmom, vinegar slaw with mustard? That's the standard for Mr. T, and it is good. My aunt makes a sweet slaw that I always enjoy; I must check to see if the recipe is in the church cookbook. I think it's based on a cooked sauce. Obviously it's not good for you.

Recipe? for sweet tea? It is just tea with sugar in it. Discernible sugar. Detectable sugar. For those who prefer it, delectable sugar.

Actually the slaw was labeled "sweet" and "vinegar" (rather than "normal" as I preferred). I threw in the tamales & barbecue to explain why we were serving coleslaw at a wedding party.

Here's an optimistic take on the recent problems in Mexico: Because there has been an inordinate amount of very violent behavior connected with the drug cartels and the government's war against them, many people stayed away from Mexico who would have been there during March for spring break or vacation. Thus, many tourists were not exposed to the swine flu, when they might otherwise have been. There you go. Good from bad. Always look on the bright side of life.

There was no such thing as milk in school when I was a kid, and pop? Only in our dreams. Pop was only for when your parents went out for the evening and if you were good the baby sitter was allowed to give you a glass. Pop was a distant second even then, to baloney bowls and pork and beans with potatoe chips for dinner.

Koolaid, specifically orange Koolaid was the drink of choice on hot summer days. I recall quite clearly, taking him Koolaid. Mom filled a quart sealer with koolaid, stuck into a pail of ice and we took it out to where dad was haying.

My sister and I couldn't have been very old, probably 4 and 3, when we were first allowed to take it out to him. We were strictly cautioned to stay in the ditch. Dad was cutting the hay right close to the yard, and it didn't matter that we hardly walked 30 feet to get to dad. What I remember is how very grown up it made us feel to be trusted with the job. there still isn't anything that quite quenches my thirst like orange koolaid.

Now if you are talking tea, which you are, really cold with lemon, sweet or not, so long as there is lots of ice.

If you didn't have milk in school, dr, what did you have?

Living in New England and having British roots I find this whole conversation about phrases and dietary practices fascinating. I often use the phrase ‘no end’ and ‘out of pocket’ is common here. Of course until recently all our soda/pop/coke etc., was referred to as ‘tonic.’ This was very confusing for everyone not from here. We seem to have switched to ‘soda’ for some reason. Ice(d) tea is a summer drink that comes unsweetened, that recipe pj linked to sounds way too sweet for me. Of course I am now addicted to diet green tea with citrus, I think it’s made by Lipton. Milk was the only drink we had in school and at home for meals. I disagree with the current practice of kids drinking other things with meals. they need the calcium.

Busy day tomorrow, it’s the youngest granddaughter’s first communion. I’ve made a cake and some cookies and I did get the dress finished. She’s wearing the veil that her sister wore that was originally made by my mom for #2. The weather is iffy, just hope it doesn’t rain before or after church. There will be a cookout at #1’s after the service and I hope my back holds out. It’s better but gets fatigued towards afternoon. I am trying to set up some PT and I have some new meds (Valium) that I can only take at night.

Enjoy the day tommorow badsneakers.

You bring to mind the picture of my sister at her first communion - her veil slipping off her head. After that mom began a campaign against veils - I did not have one even though I wore the same dress as my sister. It must have been instilled in me as I skipped the veil when I got married as well.

I will be heading off to bed soon. The Boy is signed up for a speech tournament at an unreasonably early hour so my Saturday morning will begin pretty much like my weekday mornings, except I'll have on jeans. At least I'll beat the rush at the grocery store. Feh.

Oh I'm sure the veil will be off as soon as the pictures are taken, dmd. I agree that veils, hats, anything that needs to 'grab' the head, are very uncomfortable and hard to manage. It's the 'history' of this veil that makes it a necessary item, I know my mom will be smiling down on us.

And what a nice history it is badsneakers.

This discussion makes me remember Zarex and Junket, the two most despicable things of my childhood. Being from Boston, I remember tonic as well as frappes. Even today, I have to concentrate in order to order a milkshake rather than a frappe.

I also remember that my mother bought my First Communion dress (on sale of course) at Saks in New York on her honeymoon when I was but a twinkle in her eye. It was lovely, but I hated it because it wasn't nylon with a bunch of petticoats under it. I remember the white plastic purse and the white rosary beads that twined around my fingers.

Of course it helps that I'm looking at a picture of me on that day while I'm typing this.

We had water, Mudge and that was it. Unless your mom packed you a thermos with juice or heaven forbid milk (heaven forbid because it never stayed cold in those plastic thermos). A cafeteria was unheard of. Indeed, the school still doesn't have a cafeteria.

I was washing a fleece today and I feel gritty and greasy and mildly sheepish. I'm off to a good hot bath and a large glass of something that isn't tea or koolaid.

Oh, rickoshea0, this is both the funniest and sort of tender thing I have read. You rock.

Evening all,home from work,the ride home was uneventful.Still cloudy here in west by god.

My back is a little sore,I am going to watch Iron Man and rest me ole back.Probably catch a little nap too, once the back medicine kicks in.

dr, mildly sheepish - ha! I don't have the inclination to spin yarn myself, much less wash fleece. More power to you. I am really frenvious about the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I like to look at sheep, and fleece, and such.

I am proud to say that I finally finished knitting a scarf that I started almost a year ago, and am almost done with the first sock of a pair, and well on my way to finishing another scarf for me that's been languishing. Before long I may have to take up the afghan from h e l l.

I completely forgot about Labour Day, because we don’t have one here. Anyway, I'm going to labour a cheese cake to celebrate.

If you are served tea in a home, it comes sweetened. If you are serve a cup with a tea bag in it, sugar will be on the side. However, Chinese tea never comes sweetened. There won’t be sugar on the side either.

I was awakened by chipping of sparrows a little before 5 AYEM. They sounded like they were in a major gossiping session. One was particularly loud. It was probably “NEWS BREAK!!! We birds are finally off the radar!” “Thank you, thank you, thank you swine.”

We were playing with lance/spear in our tai chi class. Someone asked me what’s it call in English. I had lance in mind but another answered spear. Is lance and spear the same thing? My dictionary gives almost the same description.

Frosti - you may not even see my post tonight it's so late, but no, we did not have May Day (Lei Day) today. Alohagirl's school will hold theirs on May 22. Hawaii State Assessment testing and the 4th grade Big Island trip (from which AG just returned tonight) took up the past two weeks so May Day got bumped. The pageantry and flowers will show up towards the end of the month. Good for me, lei prices will be down by then!

Look! Farmers are worried that people will give pigs the swine flu! http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090502/od_nm/us_flu_hogs

A discussion of the Oversoul. Emerson said " that Over-soul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all other; that common heart," which is close to it. Like Paramatman in Hinduism or in Inuit mythology, Silap Inua or Silla, similar to mana or ether, the primary component of everything that exists; it is also the breath of life.

Hi, Rainforest. As I understand it, a spear is thrown but a lance is used defensively and is not thrown.

So Teilhard got a bum wrap while trying to hone in on the Borg, who were chomping at the bit to find the Omega Man (soundtrack by Sumner, Summers and Copeland), who was using a spear to fend off offers of unsweet tea? Say again?

'TOON!!!

Well done Yoki!!!

Zarex? AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! *screaming-into-the-growing-dawn-for-the-weekly-jaunt-to-the-supermarket-for-tonic-and-sweet-slaw-but-sadly-next-to-no-chance-of-comparing-shopping-lists-with-Ivansmom Grover waves* :-)

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

Morning, friends. There's freshly squeezed orange juice, and hot coffee or tea. Fresh baked blueberry muffins, western omelette(eggbeaters, of course) and whole wheat toast. Please enjoy. And Mudge, you need a change from those ham biscuits. Those things can be lethal, but they are mighty good.

Martooni, glad to hear from you. I hope the missus and Little Bean are doing great, as well as yourself.

I have a missionary meeting this morning, and need to find out about Vacation Bible School. It's that time again. It is so warm and humid here, almost like summer. The rain goes around us, but the flowers and gardens need rain.

Yoki, Mudge, Scotty, Martooni, Slyness, and everyone here, have a fantastic weekend, and enjoy that best of all comforts, family. *waving*

Time to get started.

'Morning, Boodle. Blueberry muffins? Oh, Cassandra, you spoil me so!

We're off to the Montpelier Wine Festival to replenish our stock. Forecast calls for rain intermittently. But it was drizzly last time we went, so what's new? And this is the monsoon season in this part of the world.

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Today in Nautical and Aviation Crapola

May 2, 1982: At about 3 p.m., Cmdr. Chris Wreford-Brown, skipper of the British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror, fires two torpedoes that hit and sink the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano (ex-USS Phoenix, CL 46) 40 miles outside the British-declared Falklands Islands War Zone, killing 363 “Argie” sailors. This was the first time in history a nuclear sub torpedoed and sank an enemy ship, and it was the most controversial act of the Falklands War.
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Morning all. This is the beginning of the weekend I've dreaded. It will all be over on Monday! Nothing bad, just lots going on so I need to get a move on.

Ivansmom, you know I had tongue firmly in cheek in commenting about a tea recipe.

I loved your first communion story, Rickohsea0. Do you still have the dress?

I'm with you, Cassandra, it would be nice to get some rain. It's cloudy here now, but the golf tournament, and a wedding this afternoon, and a funeral...after supper would be a really good time.

OMG Zarex! I'll defend it to the extent that if you mixed green Zarex with a can of frozen lemonade, it was a very nice summer drink. Years ago in another lifetime our inground pool was built using that drink as fuel for the workers.

Rickoshea0, your mom was very good at planning ahead!

I have to google Zarex as I was getting it mixed up with Xanex, and Xanex Frappes for kids just seems so wrong.

Zarex sounds like it would have been a good slushy, anything like a Blue Mr. Misty from DQ - loved those when I was young and still on occasion - Arctic Blast is the name now?

BUZZZ!

Dawn Patrol sez a new kit's up.

Good morning boodle! Busy day ahead, but all on a schedule of my own devising. Nothing like having to go somewhere called work 5 days a week to make one appreciate the weekend. It's not like I'm putting in any more hours than last year when I did all my work from home, but there's a lot more TGIF feeling.

MotP-AG's big island trip brings back fond memories of the dott going off on class trips in our Hawaii years. Sending her off with a disposable camera and paying to develop pictures of the floor of the plane, the inside of her backpack, all her classmates in some unidentifiable room...The good old days.

Thanks, Jumper, for the clarification.

'morning all. Another gorgeous cool day in the other capital.

Factoid that may interest only me about Mudge's Belgrano story: the RN Nany sub crew didn't trust their modern Tigerfish torpedoes because of their relatively small charge of explosives against the heavily armoured battleship. The Tigerfish had other issues as well (it was a lemon of a torpedoe). So the sub fired 3 Mark VIII topedoes, 55 years after the 21" VIII entered service with the RN. 2 of them hit the Belgrano right in the a**, a location with very little armour. The Mark VII has the strangest engine starter I've seen. The torpedoe being pushed out of the tubes by a slug of compressed air trips a little lever that triggers 2 12-gauge size blank cartridges to shoot. The cartridges fire in an inlet of the passing torpedoe's rotary engine and start it.

Now, imagine yourself firing a side by side 12-gauge gun to start your car's engine in the morning. I think that would please some.

New Kit!