Houston in summer

Downtown empties out (really no different from Wall Street or most business districts) but you don't have to go too far southwest to Montrose or West U or out Westheimer for a very vibrant restaurant scene. Houston is probably the fourth best restaurant city in the country behind NY, Chicago and San Francisco.

Just don't get a table on the patio between May and October--no mater how crowded the restaurant.

We used to live there in the 90s, and it is really amazing how sweating just becomes part of your life in the summer. That said, I'm not at all certain that it's appreciably more humid or miserable in Houston than in DC. They are both pretty miserable in the summer--especially for someone comfortably residing in the low humidity Rocky Mountains.

I was in Houston only once, maybe 16 years ago, for a mediation in one of my cases. I have no intention of going back. Nevertheless, my all-time favorite place was the Rothko Chapel, housing Marc Rothko's gorgeous panels. The panels (maybe 8 of them?) were all in black, yet they were incomparably different from one another. I do adore Rothko's works, and that place was the most peaceful place I've ever been (apart from my African venture). When I was down there, my mother had an aspiration episode at the nursing home up in Michigan. She recovered, but did die about 8 months later. Nevertheless, Houston holds a combination of sorrow and Rothko wonderment for me.

I would still be happy enough not to step into Texas ever again, Rothko passion notwithstanding.

Joel, you are not supposed to walk out of doors in the summer in Houston. I have, in recent years, shaken a hotel concierge to his core by asking the best restaurants within walking distance.

Speaking of restaurants, I wish we'd known you were in Houston. I'd direct you to Niko-Niko's for Greek food (near the museum district), Ninfa's on Kirby for Mexican food (have the green sauce), and Hungry's in the Village.

There's a great accordion store just off the Loop near Bellaire.

Rice University has a lovely campus and the shade trees can almost make you think it is cool - except for the moisture condensing and dropping on your head. Watch out if it rains, though, as the water table is actually above ground in most of downtown-area Houston.

I have relative from Houston and my Dad spent a lot of time there, he used to describe going out to get the morning paper and it being wet from the humidity.

Stay cool Joel.

Wow, those pics make me feel all woozy. I mean, all you can eat pork ribs?

Oh, they would rue the day.

Given the local temps I too question if it could be more miserable in Houston than it is in DC. But then again, it is Texas. Maybe their degrees are bigger than our's.

In any case, I hope this is a productive trip for you, Joel.

Man, you get sent to the most interesting places. Heck the only places I ever get sent to are - um - well- considerably less interesting.

I lived in DC for four years without air conditioning. I wouldn't even consider it in Houston. As a young college student I tried to walk from my apartment to a nearby summer job, well within what in a normal climate would be walking distance - I walked that far to the subway in DC. In less than a week I was back to driving to work; even a leisurely stroll in the morning made me keenly feel the lack of a shower in the office.

The best hamburgers in the world were to be found at the late lamented Burgerville #2 in the Village. Hungry's is a reasonable substitute.

RD, they'd be ready for you. Barbecue in Houston can be a spectator sport.

Oh, and Joel, if you're hungry late at night hit the House of Pies on Kirby. Really good homemade pie, decent diner food and a genuinely motley collection of patrons.

I know a psychiatrist from Karchi. A couple years ago, she moved to Houston from Portland; she said she liked the weather there in Houston, complained it was always too chilly in Portland, even in the Summer.

I've only driven through Houston twice. Big.

What amazes me from the air is the rights-of-way for expressways in various stages of materialization. There might be just a two-laner, or service roads, or other configurations short of the Texas-type expressway with service roads.

Then there's those horizontal traffic signals. Florida is nervously installing small numbers of them in hurricane-prone areas. My town is a haphazard mess of horizontal and vertical.

Portland hits 100 or close to it once or twice each summer, but with desert-like dryness. One such afternoon, the driver of my commuter express bus brought along a cooler full of canned soda. He fairly quickly got a promotion to serve the nicest part of the city's Northwest.

Shrink2, I can't recall a central photo depositary for the Boodle, although I could be wrong. Generally people post links to their photo sites.

Tastes like the chef added some lavender to this marinated chicken salad. Yum!

About to head into a 1230 weekly phone meeting. Have I mentioned that I believe people who schedule meetings over lunch (or after hours) are all petty dictators with an inflated sense of their own importance? Emergencies excepted, but double that if it's regularly scheduled or they schedule then don't attend themselves.

Reposted since there is a new kit:

Thanks for the welcome everyone, I feel like I should be replying to everyone individually, but that would be such a long comment that no one would read it.

@slyness I told you yesterday that I'd looked at the oil spill articles! now all of achenblog knows exactly where I got my memory. ;-) The photos were great.

@yellojkt I'm actually not too worried about you guys and gals knowing about me- slyness has excellent taste in friends. Though she does have a tendency to brag on me, so I do hope you guys and gals don't think I'm 7 feet tall and destined to win a Nobel Peace Prize. ^_^

@DNA_Girl Thanks for the link, I love Sinfest but hadn't seen that one before! It's amazing how many really strange problems a reboot will fix.

Not that I'm bitter or attend more than half the time anyway.

Dave, from you last kit answer... yes. I think that those are all good reasons that the Republicans should discuss at length in public. Those are all bad bad bad things.

dbG: we are in agreement. Lunch time meetings are the worst: Oh, look everyone's calendar is free from 12 to 1! I'll just slip this right in. How perfect!

Yes, they will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

Lol. Nsfw, was it Country Joe who sang that song?

Joel, you'll never be hired as a member of the tourist board for Houston. Years ago I spent a night at an airport hotel in Houston. People seemed friendly until they heard the 'Yankee' accent, then they were not. I couldn't live anywhere that flat and hot - need the ocean and some hills and trees. Stuffing my face with ribs in that heat seems an agony filled way to die ;-)

It would probably be pretty easy to set up a Picasa album for boodlers. We'd have to share the password by e-mail for uploading, but anybody could view the album.

I'd take Portland over Houston, even with the super-dry summers and super-soggy winters.

The nights are so pleasantly cool, and really, what's the 4th of July without a crackling fire sweeping through the dry forests?

"It would probably be pretty easy to set up a Picasa album for boodlers."

It would probably be pretty fun too.

Ahhhhhhh. A/C back on.

*crankiness coefficient petering out*

so to speak. . . . .

Best sign I've seen driving up north....

Losing Weight? Fight Back!
The Sweets Shop
20 km

Glad your AC is back -ftb-!

ftb, glad you're cool again - not that you aren't always 'cool'...

Still hot here but dew point not nearly as bad as yesterday. We only have window units for A/C so only certain areas get cooled off. Today the windows are open again and it's only 83 inside the house.

Here I am rejoicing that the temp Chez Frostbitten has finally crept up to 67, still just 65 outside.

If you're not listening/watching the SCOTUS confirmation hearing Franken is up now, and very funny.

Badsneakers--

Houston is only 20 miles from salt water (Galveston Bay) and 30 miles from the Gulf itself. That's part of the reason that it doesn't get quite as hot as Dallas.

East Texas is also quite tree-covered. There are immense pine forests just outside the Houston city limits.

It is hot, however. No denying the heat. But, as mentioned above, the proximity to the ocean moderates things a little. My memory of Houston was that it didn't often have those 108 degree days like they'll have every summer in Dallas, but it was constantly 98 degrees with 80 percent humidity from May through September.

SCC-MPR is replaying Franken from last night.

Yup, awal. A friend of mine still living there described recent exercise as running in soup.

It's obvious that you have a soft spot for Houston, Awal, so I'm sorry if I sounded too negative about the city. I'm used to being 5 minutes from the ocean. And being from New England, flat terrain just feels odd and exposed to me. But YMMV, no harm meant.

OK, it's a done deal. I've created a Google account - boodlestuff at gmail.com

The nickname for the account is Achenboodle. The gallery is here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boodlestuff/

Why really should we care anymore what other people think of our town? Or Texas for that matter? Apparently antipathy towards Houston and Texas is a bonding tool for other Americans, the way some people talk about baseball or movies.
As Houstonians we've all had that feeling on vacations where we daydream a bit about moving to another place, and then there comes the moment where we realize that as wonderful or beautiful or tasty as another town is, that it wouldn't feel like home for us. We need the wide space and the big sky, we need the Mexican food, we need the huge storms, we need the solitude we have driving around town, we need year round green, and we even need the sort of thick wet air that you can bite down on. It's why women look younger for their age here than any other big town I've been in.

Oh, one other thing that I remember vividly from living in Houston. Houstonians have something of a persecution complex.

Well played Awal.

Good afternoon, y'all.

Ice tea (non-sweet) and iced orange cookies on the table.

I attended a 3-day conference in Houston during the summer back in the 1980s. At the end, we all had to troop outdoors for group photos. In business suits. For half an hour. Sweating. Melting.

Yeah, it was hot. But MrJS and I moved into our first house together in TWC on a 105 degree day back in 1988. That was sweltering. I've always been grateful no one keeled over.

"Stuffing my face with ribs in that heat seems an agony filled way to die."

It could be worse: they might be out of ribs.

There's something about the Texas coast that makes the Atlantic coast of Florida seem a bit uneven.

Houston's climate is moderate enough that locals can grow several kinds of palms and lots of cycads. The Cycad Society met at Mercer Arboretum recently. I hear the auction had several impressive plants, ready to decorate front yards.

But, but, Bob. I thought you were going to load all the pictures too!

A small reminder from your local computer buddy: practice safe Internet picturing because sometimes we all b antelopes.

Ah, there are lots of hot places out there. DC holds its own. I still remember feeling like I was under a heat lamp in Orlando one summer. And I once spent an hour sitting on metal bleachers in Tombstone, Arizona in the middle of July while they slowwwwly reenacted the Shootout at the OK Corral. Lost alot of brain cells that day . . . .

Locally, a vigorous seabreeze. I need to check the ocean temperature--it might be down to 70!

What a whiner! Probably wearing a three piece suite, starched shirt, under shirt. Check the weather channel next time moron!

What a whiner! Probably wearing a three piece suite, starched shirt, under shirt. Check the weather channel next time moron!

-dbG- truth. We once had to deny a guy even tightly screened internet access because he kept finding seemingly innocuous stuff on YouTube, like peoples' little kids bouncing on the bed until they fell down in a pile. Yeah, he is a guy who would drool on the window of the transport bus when it passed a park with lots of kids playing.

On that cheerful note, thank you so much Bob. So, how do we upload pictures?

Why thank you, Commodore1. It's so nice to hear from you. Would you like some ice tea to cool down that attitude?

The Plant Heat-Zone Map,© American Horticultural Society:
http://www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm

The map counts days over 30˚C (86F), so there's no extra-added points for getting really hot. I like pale blue.

The handy thing about wearing a "three piece suite" in Houston is that you always have the bathroom right there so you can shower off after getting sweaty.

Carrying all that weight around, however, is definitely going to make you perspire even more.

I am trying to imagine Joel (or any reporter/newsroom denizen I've ever met, really) in a three-piece suit and tie. Business-casual is pretty much the uniform, isn't it? Now, columnists and editors, maybe.

Well, you can e-mail pictures to that boodlestuff address, and I (or anybody who wants to sign in) can upload them. Or shoot me an email at hotmail (using my name below), and I'll send you the password, and you can do it! (I'll also send instructions, gleaned from my ten or fifteen minutes of experience.)

Sales, don't forget sales Yoki.

It'd be hard sitting on a hotel conference room chair in a three-piece suite as well, Awal.

Lawd help you if you ended up in the middle seat on the plane trip home.

Thank you, Commodore, for reminding me that there are far too many humor-deprived people in the world. Far too many in this country, in fact.

That being said, a three piece suite is plenty suite, dontcha think?

Comin'atchya Bob

Not to be That Guy, but the technical term is 'unsweet'. Or perhaps 'unsuite'.

Or "une suite", but then how could there be three pieces in "une"? Perhaps "en suite"?

I didn't know that, yello. I'm from the nawth and ice tea comes only one way. You want sugar, you add it yourself.

Admitedly based on somewhat limited experience, I think the issue down south is that it gets hot and stays hot. At least here in DC for the most part when the sun does down, the temps do to, at least a bit. Down there, the nights seem to be about as hot as the days. I've been in 100+ heat that was pretty dry, and I'll take that over the 100 degree F/95% humidity any time.

I agree that it is silly to think of Joel wearing a three piece suit. It would, like, totally clash with his new fedora. You know, the one with the press card stuck in the brim.

I have no doubt that Joel is wearing comfy clothing that will not wrinkle, stain, or, one dearly hopes, sublimate.

Oh and for those who are missing snuke's World Cup play-by-play, Paraguay and Spain advanced today.

Seven of the eight group winners advanced, the exception being the Ewe-Ess. Oh well.

Our first (quite gorgeous!) submitted picture is up, courtesy of Shrink.

http://picasaweb.google.com/boodlestuff

That from a week ago, the Oregon antivenin for Houston in the Summer.

And Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters join Andy Roddick in being dismissed from Wimbledon.

Very pretty picture.

Thanks for the map link, DotC. I knew I was wise with my move a couple years ago -- went from palest orange (4 1/2 months of hot) to yellow (3 1/2 months). And the hot here is less hot, though more humid. Works for me. I like my hair curly.

Shrink that picture is so lovely.

Punny headline for a kitty tale.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100626/ap_on_sc/eu_britain_bionic_cat;_ylt=AiZPo2P.oKaoMOwQFraUAkKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFlODE3YWVoBHBvcwMxMDUEc2VjA2FjY29yZGlvbl9zY2llbmNlBHNsawNiaW9uaWNicml0aXM-

Wow, that heat zone map is a bit depressing, especially this year when we've been lucky to get to 75 degrees. Although, I do prefer the cool to Houston's climate - lived there for 3 years without air conditioning (except at work). Thank goodness for the big pecan tree in the back yard.

Gotta be photoshopped. I mean, seriously, does anywhere really look that perfect?

(We're tentatively planning a vacation for later this summer in N. Ca. and Ore. -- I'll call it a research trip and go check this spot out.)

After spending all day eating ribs and drinking the necessary cheap beer, I bet there would soon follow a lot of toot de suite.

Hey shrink, could you schedule a rainbow for my visit?

It is very interesting, to me at least, that several elected political leaders would use the opportunity in front of the camera given to them at a SCOTUS confirmation hearing to publicly badmouth Thurgood Marshall. Thurgood Marshall. Wow.

The calendar date that I will begin anew to consider voting for any Republican candidate has now slipped at least a year. I'll call it my personal "time out" for them.

What bothers me is not that several GOP leaders decided that they would attack Thurgood Marshall. What bothers me is that some Republican strategist or strategists sat down and decided that this was the best thing for them to do. This, they thought, would help us in the short and long run. What bothers me is that these same Republican strategists will be in positions of huge influence if/when the Republican party regains power again. These people will, in essence, steer most of the decisions made by the ascendant Republican party.

They will get no enabling by me.

Hey steveboyington, you bald moron, you forgot to log in with your new handle. And what of that liberal/libtard/Democrap blather about that commie, Thurgood Marshall?

Hey, this split personality thing is kind of fun.

Interesting how the Reps have been shy to criticize a particular decision of Thurgood Marshall's, instead going after his philosophy as a jurist. Makes for plausible deniability when called out for opposing things like basic human rights.

Dog whistle politics translation:
"We are against uppity liberals in power."

They are playing to former fraternal associates of Robert Byrd circa 1940s.

Thank you dmd3.

-bia- if you check this spot out and you'll be having some liquid refreshment with me. That was taken on the deck out in front the kitchen window of our country house. The Columbia Gorge is the photoshop. Do stop by, but there won't be any rainbow's in the late Summer, just way too many tomatoes, peppers, melons and so on.

Love the photo, shrink, it's a winner!

MsJS, we've had the discussion about iced tea, but it was probably before you joined us. Sweet tea is a phenomenon of NC, SC, GA, and maybe northern FL.

Made a run to the airport this afternoon, to pick up Elderdottir and her dad. A thunderstorm here delayed them, so a trip that should have been an hour and a quarter max actually took two and a half.

The local airport is careful about thunderstorms, having had a plane go down in one in 1994. It ended up being a three and a half day event for the fire department.

Just watched the 2-minute highlights of the Paraguay-Japan match. If the Japanese had scored off that backwards-through-the-legs pass late, it would have been a sensation.

If folks just want to share a pic or two, they can also use tinypic.com. It lets you upload a picture and gives you a unique URL to point to it.

It's nice to have a boodle repository, though, although making it password protected for uploading is a little cumbersome.

Well heck, I obviously need to keep commentating on the World Cup to get the scoring going again! *L*

For those who may not have visited Gettysburg in the last few years, all three of us highly recommend the multimedia-enhanced cyclorama!! The prologue 20-minute movie (M. Freeman narrating, natch) is a great overview, but they've done an ab-fab wonderful job restoring the painting, with excellent lighting/sound effects and narration to really make it pop.

Having now really looked at Pickett's Charge and Little Round Top up close and personal, with a veteran's eye, I'm staggered once again by what can be wrought by man's courage under fire.

Geekdottir got 'Mudged!! She's been truly initiated!! *tee hee* :-)

GOP Haiku to Marshall:

we don't like you now
we won't like you tomorrow
hmmmm... sound familiar?

I have not been to Gettysburg since my Grade 8 trip, I remember a high tech system of bulbs show displayed the battle lines.

Are you telling me it has advanced since then Scotty. :-)

"I'm staggered once again by what can be wrought by man's courage under fire."

This is big medicine.

Quietly, circuitously, Achenbach stalks the Bluebell ice cream. He finds it! Craftily, he speaks of it no more. More for him.

Evenin', y'all.

Well, it's been a long hard road without a hard drive since 9:03pm last Friday night. Glad to be back. (Even back-boodled through the last few days so I wouldn't be completely at a loss.)

Snuke, are you in Gettysburg? This weekend is the reenactment. Mr.tal is going but I'm not due to a combination of heat and houseguests. dmd3, they dismantled the light-board of the battle when they rebuilt the new visitor center. Snuke is right about the restoration of the Cyclorama . . . it's supurb.

Hi, Geekdottir!

Boy, did I miss you folks for the last four days.

"It's nice to have a boodle repository, though, although making it password protected for uploading is a little cumbersome."

Well, some people already know what everyone is talking about. If I could see Willbrodog, the bear, Mudge sailing, your art, the dead or thrumming plant, it'd be good. Boodlers your words are worth the price of admission and I'd bet all my winnings on that bet, your pictures are too.

Hi talitha! Good to have you back. Yeah, Achenblog is a real addiction. I've even given it to my kid!

Talitha! So glad to see you back here!

It works.
If this old man can do it,
anyone can.

I put up a picture my friend (well he is a human guide dog, don't do this at home) sent me a month ago from Denali and also, a news image.

Shrink, my blog's now closed
For privacy against spamm
in languages I can't read.

-Wilbrodog-

Beautiful pictures, thank you.

Later this week I'll download the drivers to my laptop and put some up myself. Rainbows at Niagara Falls, my garden, other gardens, dogz. Um, jewelry. My repertoire is focused (like a laser beam).

Worked all day, dinner (monkfish, key lime pie) with the cuz, just got in. I'm trying to get to bed before 11, but the Boodle is seductive, unsweetened tea and all.

And it's always open for business.

Vanity's my name;
added a picture for Shrink.
(Watch out, I smolder...)

-Wilbrodog-

Wow, shrink2, your 3:41 may be a cautionary tale and all, but is also way too much information for the non-weird of this world. I mean, dbG's and our careful web-presence is good, but detailed creepy is skeevy. It is as though you see pathology everywhere, no matter what.

Steveboyington, alternate log-in is tricky. I used to post once in a long while for an appropriate joke as faultyflappervalve, but Yoki now overrides that identity every time. So I am forced into my genuine self whether I wish it or not. Probably a good thing. Since jokes now seem verboten, or at least unwillkommen.

Welcome home, Talitha. Willkommen!

Er.

http://picasaweb.google.com/boodlestuff/Wilbrodog#

I missed Key Lime pie! Going to sob myself to sleep.

This just fabulous. Gotta love Bittman. I do about half of these already (with variations on the theme), the rest are pure culinary gold to me.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/dining/30mini.html?ref=dining

"It is as though you see pathology everywhere, no matter what."

This is true.
It is also true evil, like beauty and everything else everyone likes, is all around us.

No argument there, shrink2. I see it up close.

Jokes are welcome, Yoki.

You're right-- we too easily get haunted by the gruesome lurking in others at times.

Midway through my anatomy and physisology course in college, I was sitting at lunch one day and suddenly realize I was involuntarily imagining dissecting people as they walked past. I saw myself slicing, then the layers, like 3-D. I had never experienced anything like that before.

It was like I didn't see their faces at all anymore.

I concluded that my imagination and artistic training was a very bad mix with all the dissection I was doing, and I made a decision to step back and fill my imagination with healthier things.

I currently keep my detailed scientific knowledge at a dessicated, abstract, happy level.

When I let myself get fascinated and too close, good things don't happen.

i guess the daydreamer comment that followed me through grade school isn't so bad after all.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29tier.html?hpw

And then there's this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/29/AR2010062902787.html

*Snort* How else do we get through meetings?

Bladder control?

Thanks for posting that Jack, I got in trouble for daydreaming a lot when I was in school.

seasea saw that story in the G&M and it included two Canadian winners, they both won for worst Romantic writing - really funny.

Scroll to the bottom for the Canadian entries, don't know whether to be proud or cringe.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/thirsty-gerbil-simile-wins-2010-bad-writing-contest/article1623047/

Woo Hoo! I just got my pass to the Sled Island festival. I'll go on Thursday, but that last Sunday is perfect. The Melvins! Why, they're nearly as old as I am and still cool.

http://www.sledisland.com/festival-schedule.html

I kind of disagree that daydreaming while reading is a bad thing. I do it more and more as I age, but I notice I'm often making new connections and ideas, which can be handy when I'm working on a knotty problem.

Not a problem, Wilbrod.

seasea thanks for reminding me to go back and read the other entries in that contest, so very funnies entries.

The one about the smart car made me laugh the most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykV1YGWhW8c

dreamin man.

My ability to type has sunk to a new low, I am off to bed.

Night all.

I've posted this link before, jack, but just can't resist doing so again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zhg44XrvSCg

I like the one with the porkypine...

Nice pic, Wilbrodog.

Have a great time at the festival, Yoki!

like i haven't posted repeated links before. good one, yoki. i remember.

I'm fairly sure I will, seasea1. What could be better than rocking in the city under a clear sky?

jack, thanks for article

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2uohP4gk0wU&feature=related

corny and dated, but oh well!

The fairies made me laugh. The Bakersfield bit is too true to be purple prose, or so I hear from people who have lived there.

no. i watched the monkees, without fail, every saturday morning. i always thought that boyce and hart penned that song. wrong. mike nesmith was one of the pioneers in the realm of the music video. this always fascinated me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfoSnXbh5tE&feature=related

Even though it is early here, gotta rack.

What we learned today? Tragically, not much.

But I do know Wilbrodog better than before. Not like when Bush said of Putin, "I was able to get a sense of his soul." Just better.

check this out. the monkees *were* cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNJy-OgCzB0

Oh, I love that song, Talitha!

Here's a funny thing. I was living in Switzerland when Here Come The Monkees! was on TV and that song got play on Radio Lichtenstein (our only current-music feed). The recitative was dubbed in German (Hier Komm der Monkees!) but not the songs, so in my mind I always hear them speaking Deutsch. Even cute Peter in his tuque and adorable Davy (in an other-species way, too short to be attractive to coltish-me, a nearly-six-foot 12-year-old). It messed up my fandom.

Thanks jack, for correcting my memory. Mike! In the tuque!

And Shrek revived this classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfuBREMXxts&a=L46eIsn_kdo&playnext_from=ML

And that, by a long but logical train of thought, brings us to the offical road-trip-with-#1-#2-before-they-were-old-enough-to-drive-soundtrack Theme Tune,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuMciNIzDtM&feature=related

and from the same album the one we all sang out loud over and over,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yRE8VEVwgI

Good night, dear boodle.

and michael nesmith produced one of my favourite films of all time.
little big man, diva, the incredibles and nearly anything by mr. eastwood are right there too. paint my wagon and any of the any which way pieces are right out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IzCyp-dwbs

Monkees were second only to the Beatles in the foursomes of my youth. Mind you, I was big into Dylan, Baez, Joni and Judy . . . . folkie, donchaknow.

I'm a believer for many reasons, not the least of which is that I share a birthday with Nesmith and Davy Jones . . . . December 30th. (I'm old enough to remember Dolenz as Circus Boy.)

Joel, you probably feel hotter in Houston than the Houstonians because your body haven’t got adjusted to the temperature yet. I remembered it took me a whole month to get adjusted to the temperature in this part. During that month, my body became bloated and I sweated like a pig.

You wanna know what's genuinely unwillkommen to me?

Artificially induced tension caused by folks pretending that they genuinely believe that their conversational counterpoints are necessarily stupid or evil.

In the words of one or more Gershwins, it ain't necessarily so.

I did some quick math. The Duggars let their higher power determine how many children they are to have. They have 19 and counting. They have raised their children with similar beliefs.

I think that in less than 6 generations, their family will outnumber the population of China.

Perhaps we can look forward to all those manufacturing jobs coming back to America? The spawn of the Duggars will have to work somewhere.

Talitha, welcome back!! We're a day trip away from Gettysburg, visited there yesterday. We thought about waiting for the anniversary, then remembered those two magic words: traffic and parking. :-)

O yes, the Monkees were da bomb back in the day! *L* Still are, actually, any time I have the chance to watch. Even before I knew what "breaking the fourth wall" meant, I knew they were intentionally acknowledging us on the other side of the TV screen. :-)

And speaking of TV, it's only about a decade late for Larry King to "hang up the suspenders," IMHO.

Here we go with another reboot for an entertainment franchise:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/books/30wonder.html

Two whole days without a World Cup match?? *twitch* I'll be fine. *twitch twitch*

*rather-enjoying-this-vacation-thing-even-with-not-getting-the-"sleeping-late"-concept Grover waves* :-)

Oh my, the Monkees. Five of us went to the concert at the Charlotte Coliseum. It was a sellout, of course, hordes and hordes of tweenagers and lots of screaming. I remember nothing about the music, just that my mother was not thrilled about letting us go. Like she could have kept us away...

Morning, all. Light rain here, so Mr. T and I didn't get the walk in. I'll ride the exercycle after breakfast, but it won't be the same.

Hi Cassandra! I hope it will be more comfortable in your part of the world today, and mine too.

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

Good morning, friends. Just wanted to stop by and say hello. Slyness, the rain, the thunder and lightening, we had all yesterday. And this morning, looking like rain again, but a lot cooler!

I'm at the Center this summer and trying to survive that with all these ailments. Grandsons are suppose to come after the Fourth. And we had the pizza feast yesterday for the kids from the after-school program. That was nice.

Have a great day, folks. And much love to all.

Good morning everyone, spectacular blue sky here, cool and refreshing, Last day of work before 5 days off, time to celebrate both our countries holidays.

Might be working at my other job but it is fun so doesn't really count as work.

Dmd, it was very good klp but I've had better in Ft Lauderdale, where my sister buys it from a local family business thAt makes a semifrozen whipped version.

Maybe I'll try to work that out this weekend.

Have a good day, all.

Cassandra!! *HUGSSSS* :-)

Good Morning Everyone!

Wow, it is nice to step outside in the morning and not feel like you should be basted with butter.

For those who haven't read it, check out Gene Weingarten's latest chat. It is produced by Rachel "Friend of the boodle" Manteuffel who puts her own blissfully eccentric mark on the proceedings. Rachel is filling in for Liz Kelly while she does that whole baby thing.

Also be sure to check out the pic of Liz and young Desmond. Liz looks exhausted, relieved, proud, joyful, and just a wee bit terrified.

Yep. That's a mum.

'Morning everybody. Perfect day here too. And the whole weekend looks just as good, if getting a bit warmer every day. Lots of fun things coming up this weekend. A concert tomorrow night (Boz Scaggs), fried clams Friday. Romeo and Juliet Saturday night (performed by an all male cast a la Shakespeare's time), possibly dog sitting on Sunday night.

Today I will take advantage of the weather to get the vegetable garden weeded again. I have never seen a year like this for weed growth, but it's been great for the veggies too so I won't complain - much.

How many weeks to football season?

Good morning, y'all.

Warm muffins and zucchini-walnut bread, coffee and OJ on the table. The z-w bread is from the local farmers' market and is certified tasty by MrJS.

Welcome back to the boodle, talitha. Cassandra, stay cook and comfy. sneaks, I hear you on the weeding. The local allotment gardeners are saying the same thing. But wow, their gardens are booming this year and it's still June.

I'm watching men's quarterfinal action at Wimbledon this morning. Federer's having a bit of a struggle early against Berdych, while Djokovic took the first set from Lu.

Good news, teddy: Regular season starts *tomorrow* with Argos @ Stamps, Als @ Riders, Ticats @ Bombers and Lions @ Eskimos.

It's a good day to be Canadian, n'est-ce-pas?

Morning Al! Welcome back talitha. Belated welcome back, TBG. *waving*

Scotty, having attended the grand opening of the restored Gettysburg cyclorama, I say "good call" in not attending the 150th anniversary of the battle.

It was sooo nice to walk the dog this morning without feeling like I was breathing underwater.

The Monkees! How our pre-middle-school selves swooned over them! (I have to remind myself of that whenever I want to trash the Jonas Brothers.)

'morning all. Her Majesty the Hat Lady is visiting us on this beautiful, cool day. She was busy yesterday celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Navy (formerly known as the Royal Canadian Navy in the Red Ensign flying days) by doing the International Fleet Review in Halifax. Even that Rebellious Colony to the South sent a ship, and a nice one at that, the AEGIS cruiser USS Gettysburg.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/News/9017020.html

Hey, byoo BPH, Argo / Ticat game? If Mrs. Byoo is will always an interesting experience at Ivor Wynne :-)

Good morning everyone.
My mom's morning glories are well in their glory,I counted 26 blooms this morning,most are deep blue with a few purple ones for a nice contrast. Mom told me something interesting that I never knew about morning glories. They are the only North American plant that goes up the trellis counter clockwise. I said "how come you are so smart" she said it was "the final question on Jeopardy"

Stupid work scheduled an 11 am meeting today,so much for a hike in this glorious weather.

Have a great day everyone

dmd, that would be brilliant! I've never been to Ivor Wynne, but I'd love to see Angelo Mosca play. ;-)

The Lovely Mrs. byoolin and I have tix to the Argos' home opener two weeks from now - looking forward to that, too.

Can't guarantee Angelo Mosca playing but much of the crowd will resemble him.

Lovely morning, y'all. This cool, breathable air should be vacuum-packed and made ready for use in August.

Thanks for the welcomebacks. I found that I didn't miss much (other than convenient bill-paying) while the 'puter was down but I missed you all, and worried for you and was curious about you so much that it surprised me. I did read two very good books during the downtime, a luxury I rarely indulge.

By the by (just to clarify), the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg battle will be in 2013. The crowd this year will be small comparitively, especially since the reenactment is held far outside of town on private property. National Park Service restrictions prohibit full-fledged reenactments on actual battlefields. (State-owned and other battlefields don't have those restrictions.)

Mr.talitha is a member of the band/orchestra that plays for the Saturday evening balls at major CivWar reenactments and I have more of these events under my belt than I care to count. One happy exception is that we were married at the 140th Gettysburg event.
*smile*

Slyness, you didn't mention that Jimi Hendrix also supposedly opened for the Monkees at that concert.

Ah, Nesmith also wrote & produced, but didn't appear in, a nice little science fiction movie called Timerider I haven't seen in years. W/ Fred Ward. Spoiler alert:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timerider

The careless nephews lost my tape of it. Recommended, although it's light viewing.

*smacking my forehead* I shoulda known that, talitha! Sometimes (heck, most times) my fingers get ahead of my brain. Or my brain just goes MIA.

Hey, Raysmom, no prob. Hah! I can only keep track of our wedding anniversary by remembering CivWar events. ;)

Question for the science boodlers, what would be a young sun/plant - in relative terms?

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/06/29/Scientists-find-planet-with-sun-like-star/UPI-38331277840254/

I would like to post and view a boodle picasa.

dmd, stars like our sun are middle-aged at about 5 billion years. Very massive stars can burn through their hydrogen in a few million years, though.

Driving home from lunch this song came on the radio, there is only one way to listen to it really loud so I can sing along and not have to hear myself singing.

This should start the annual Canada Day takeover of the boodle,

Blue Rodeo, Lost Together - a song made for a great summer day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8JGk6Y6N3Y

Every time I weed the vegetable garden, I swear I won't do it again, three hours of work and I'm sure the weeds are growing again already. But it looks neat and that makes me happy. We have a birdhouse that "S" closed up because it was inhabited by English Sparrows and they are pesky and messy. There's been a Downy Woodpecker tapping away at the side for two days now. He's making a perfectly round hole. It will be interesting to see if he turns this into a home.

sneakers, I'll post a photo of a simple garden weeder I made that works really well.

teddymzuri - Check them out here: picasaweb.google.com/boodlestuff

And feel free to e-mail pics to: boodlestuff@gmail.com
(include any appropriate caption text)

The picture is up. This weeder is made from a piece of scrap metal, four bolts and a long wooden handle. It allows you to stand up and still get everywhere you need to get. Bending the tang at just the right angle for your height helps as the blade should be parallel to the ground when you are holding the tool comfortably.

It works so well I can weed talking on the phone to my work breathing normally, so efficient.

You'd need a grinder to create the bevel and the edge, which should be quite sharp, as some roots don't like to get with the program and some soils are tough to work when they are not soaking wet.

dmd3, thanks for the music!

Shrink, could you caption the relevant pictures? I think I've found it, but I don't see the blade on it.

Black dog, not blue dog
Thus, no soul needed; just jazz
while hula hooping.

-Wilbrodog-

Gotta be this pic, right?

http://picasaweb.google.com/boodlestuff/S2#5488614412294093714

It is that T shaped thingy with a rose bush behind it, not Gorge Bush, not the Macondo fire, not the Denali ridge and not the sunset. The blade is dirty, but it is sharp.

It is really tought to discourage English Sparrows and Starlings from birdhouses. They winter here, and they begin nesting quite early. Any birdhouse with a hole bigger than for a wren is fair game. Folks who have tried to put up birdhouses for Bluebirds have had some success by blocking the hole until the time (later March, IIRC) when they begin arriving in the area. By this time most of the nuisance birds have already nested. But it is hit or miss.

Starlings...an ongoing, unmitigated disaster.

They have taken over the niche left vacant by passenger pigeons, I sometimes think-- only not as tasty.

I have a pair of bluebirds nesting in a birdnouse in my back yard. And, a pair of eastern phoebes nesting in a big bush. I've never seen them around here before...they are bold little birds.

Really, Jumper? That I do not recall. Jim Morrison came to UNCC while I was there and I missed that too. Figures, in both cases.

We have been under a gullywasher for the last hour and a half. In a little while I'll check the rain gauge. It wasn't fun, driving home at 30 mph on major roads with a couple of inches of water on them.

We have a space between our back door and the storage room with a window and a potting table. I leave unused pots on it, and a pair of small birds nested in a cachepot. Unfortunately, we come and go too much and I think the birds don't stay around. There are four eggs in the nest. I wish I could think of a place to move the pot where they wouldn't be disturbed. *sigh*

While I've never heard of the devil liking AYCE pork ribs, rumor has it he likes it particularly hot outside. Think there's any correlation between that and BP America's headquarters being in Houston?

For years I have believed agnosticism was the only honest position on faith. Skepticism is the the embrace of collective anosognosia, living happily in the semiotic house of mirrors that is the human mind and...I couldn't find any mitfarhers.

But now there is this,

http://www.slate.com/id/2258484/pagenum/all/#p2

and I just have to celebrate. Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes I will Yes!

I feel like Molly Bloom.

Manon, we have a nest of eastern phoebes at the country house. They built it on the downspout right next to the porch right next to where we and the dog often sit. It didn't bother them in the slightest. When I locate it, I'll post the picture of the five younguns in the nest.

Interesting tool Shrink. I'll show it to "S" as he's my resident handyman. dmd, I am blaming you for my gardening frenzy ;-). I just went out and bought two more rosa rugosa, a different variety of daylily and an echinacea. I had just gotten all cleaned up and now it looks like I'll be digging in the dirt again. I love summer!

ebtnut, "S" put pieces of wood where the birdhouse holes were and painted them black. I think some sparrows got concussions before they figured out that they needed to find a new home.

I certainly hope you don't, shrink2!

Thanks for the link to the Slate article, shrink. Very interesting.

Most years little birds make a nest on top of our porch light (we took the bulb out). This year, they made the nest. It is about 6 feet above ground, next to a brick wall. Several weeks later, over the span of a few days, something came and tore that nest up. In the past snakes have climbed the brick to get to the eggs, but this wasn't snake work. I don't think squirrels or larger mammals could get up there and stay there long enough to cause that kind of damage. Perhaps it was a bigger bird which then disappeared. It's a mystery.

Well. Well. Hmmm. Well.

I've decided *never* and I mean *NEVER* (sorry for shouting) to click on comments on any WaPo site. It is entirely too depressing to recognize that there are far too many stoopid people in this country.

Okay, then. Time to have some fun. Got any, anybody?

{yoo-hoo}

Well, agnosticism is the most intellectually honest, most logical position. It's not always the most emotionally honest position.

I say this as an agnostic who has studied religion and occasionally veered into faith.

The best thing Aquinas said is that by reason, we can only deduce all the ways in which God is not. That's close to how science works, really.

The riddle of the first cause isn't to be solved without another leap of mathematical and logical understanding-- and presumably, more insight into this universe.

WHen I was studying philosophy I noticed they all ran up against the same problem of an infinite series trapped in the finite-- which took Newton and calculus to solve. Mathematicans are now working on transfinite math now, in fits and starts.

It may be there is no first cause because the universe is circular in a way we don't understand (but like how Hinduism sees it)-- but that wouldn't disprove God.

Solving that riddle, though, wouldn't explain why something exists instead of nothing. Understanding zero may be the next frontier.

Interesting article, shrink.

*wondering whether "Bridge of A$$e$" is available as a boodle handle*

Agnosticism is a legitimate position on the existence of god(s), but it isn't faith. Faith is belief without proof. You're not characterizing those of faith as intellectually dishonest, are you? Maybe talking about faith with one who doesn't have it is like talking with a fish about quantum mechanics?

I see it is time to make my semiannual pitch for Apatheticism. I'm certainly not among the faithful (though if you must turn your back on a faith I like to think I was raised in the right one-Catholicism), but I can't qualify as an Atheist (lack the certainty) or an Agnostic (would have to care enough to question to qualify there). The bottom line is, if the existence or lack thereof of some grand design, supreme being, God, dog or FSM will make no difference in your life feel free to join me in radical Apatheticism. Our motto- "Be nice and do good work" and our response to the question "What is the meaning of life?" "Don't know, don't care."

I have a sense that there are more practicing Apatheticists than will admit it. But, spending too much time in trying to figure that out would defeat the purpose of being one.

Congratulations to those firm in your faith, non-faith, or pursuit of the answers, but for those not comfortable in any of those camps I suggest liberation through Apathy.

Interesting article. Yeah, if I were forced to define my religious beliefs, I would toggle between agnosticism and atheism, if I -- you know -- really cared. I figure it this way -- nobody's gonna ask me if I'm a believer before they try to kill me because of my religious origins (so to speak). I also figure that if indeed there is a god, (or, God or indeed G-d), he/she/it has a wicked sense of humor. Much of the time I'm not laughing.

Makes for an interesting discussion, though. I've never been a fan of absolutes or absolutism, much less the anthropomorphism of an entity purported to be the so-called lord of and over us all. Bores me to tears. And that which has been done and continues to be done in its his/her/its name was and is entirely too abominable for my taste. But, well, that's just me, I suppose.

*searching for a peaceful island with plenty of fresh air, food and water and all of my friends and created family (created by me, you see) and great music, good books, and freedom -- no stoopidity allowed*

Hmmm. I read Milbank's column this morning. Obviously, I refrained from commenting on it there, since the comments are such a cesspool that I doubt anyone actually reads them. Ever. Life is too short.

Anywho, I find that Milbank's approach is wearing thin on me. He substitutes snark for analysis. There are subjects where snark is an appropriate expression of analysis (in addressing blatant hypocrisy, for example), and subjects where it is merely snark for its own sake. Today he snarks at Kagan for providing an exemplary display of self-control and bland, vapid platitudes in her confirmation hearings, contrasting it with an article she wrote a decade or so ago in which she derided the pointless spectacle of confirmation hearings in which the nominee says basically nothing. Seemingly ripe for snark, except -- while I have not read her actual article, the second-hand sources all seem to basically agree that her beef was not with the candidates, who were simply doing what makes sense. Her beef was with the nature of the hearings process, in which intellectual honesty is strategically unwise because it provides a hook on which to hang the foregone conclusions of opposing senators, through willful misinterpretation if necessary. Even there, how hard should we be on the senators? Are they really evil trolls, or are they ideological warriors, or are they trying to survive a similarly stupid test by the voters of their home district? Voters have the freedom of ideological purity, because they never have to weigh their notions against actual reality. Lucky stiffs.

Snarking at Elena Kagan as an individual doesn't seem to take us any closer to a day in which Judicial nominees can afford to be honest and forthright. As an individual, she has no power to change the system to be more sensible; the best she can do is to survive it.

Something about the angry atheists gives me fear and loathing. I view things as I understand Feynman did, relishing the unanswered questions.

I know enough, however, not do tend my garden with a wrench, nor tune up my truck using flowers.

Ooh, ooh, I know the answer, Tim!
A: evil trolls
is correct!

"Be nice and do good work." That's a motto for everyone, I think, regardless of one's position on faith, religion or the Mysteries of Life.

Why not Yoki, just 'cause she was kinda pathetic and crazy?

Ivansmom, cats and possums often get to birds' nests in places like that.

Frostbitten, that is the agnostic position. A person can't really get militant about feeling comfortable about not being able to know something. People who are certain of their faith, yeah, they scare me.

ftb, you expressed my position regarding religion exactly. So it's not *just you*.

Actually I am torn between "evil trolls" and "preening narcissists" in describing the Senate Judiciary Committee. What the process really needs is a moderator with a gavel to smack and say "Asked and answered! Move on or yield your time to the next in line."

"our response to the question 'What is the meaning of life?' 'Don't know, don't care.'"

frosti, I live by those words. Lots of others, too--like "stop thinking and *do* something" and "I want to make new mistakes." (Sometimes that first thought leads inevitably to the second.)

Surely you won't believe me but I have a fully articulated religion called Confusionism. Its core belief (apart from my own deification and relentless need for your money in exchange for hope) is this: The more you care about a question, the less likely you are able to know the answer.

Its patron saints are my dog, my 40yo half-sister with a five word vocabulary and any number of loving caring idiots who have no idea why they are so loving and caring, nor why they give so freely of themselves.

And, Frosties, as GK of the Writer's Almanac says:

keep in touch (and good work, etc.)

I am in LiT's camp on this one. Come on, people: faith is not a logically reasoned arena. Something else. If you don't want to be in that part of the Venn diagrams that draws circles labeled:

Reason-based stuff

Belief-based stuff

and then overlaps then,....

Then, well ok. Fine with me and most of us beleefy-peepies.

Fundies in any camp, 'specially the avenging ones scare me.

Recall, I occupy space in higher ed, which is rather populated with fundie-atheisties....dreary people who

KNOW.THEY.ARE.RIGHT.

Blechies on that.

LiT, you have hit the nub of it; faith cannot be reduced to logic.

Ergo, the proposition of whether one should believe or not cannot be logically analyzed or argued.

Therefore, only honest intellectual position to take is that we can never know for sure whether we should believe or not: this is that of agnosticism.

But this is in turn dishonest to ourselves, in pretending that we only exist by intellect and logic alone.

When I believe, I also keep in mind God is unknowable, and that what I believe could be wrong in many ways. This doesn't stop me from believing that he probably exists, just that I don't actually know for sure from a logical viewpoint.

I'm fine with that, but others, emotionally, need more certainty in their lives to live by. God is that, and I see the transformation it gives them-- and not only through the Christian faith, either.

I simply haven't experienced that, and I've looked.

frostbitten, I propose you as a candidate for Popess of the Apathetician Church. I'm a card-carrying member. The candidate who doesn't dodge, dart and evade enough ends up being elected Pope or Popess, as the case may be.

The boss has a nice spread in Nat Geo. I saved myself for the dead-tree version, I like the fold-out maps. One map made me laugh out loud, showing the 4 electrical interconnetions that connects all of Can-America: Western, Eastern, Texas and Québec. The weirdos are standing out.

I'm starting this 4 days weekend with a cold beverage after a right-sized work week, 2 days including a 2-hour group lunch today. It doesn't happen often anymore, unpaid overtime has become a lot more common than 2-hour lunches.

CqP, yeah, I find the fundie atheists much harder to be around than the ones who believe in something; in my experience, those who believe deeply are much happier and less induced to spread misery around.

I just think agnosticism is too often confused with atheism; I've been called that often enough to get really ticked off when somebody tries to twist my words for the sake of winning a "point" for their own world-view.

"Might as well be kind."

Another good motto, which I associate now with yellojkt. It is right up there with frosti's. I think we're building our own belief system here:

Be nice and do good work.
Might as well be kind.
Clouds are hard.

Frostie,

My three children worship upon the Apathy altar. And, remain focused on and practiced in good works.(Huzzah, I done good with this as they are net givers, rather than net black holes of entitled energy sucking people) There are other types of people, but I think you get my drift....

The Catholic culture of works, works, works, (Jamesian epistle) is very helpful in raising up children to serve each other and their community.

I somehow remain in my faith, along with about half of the 64 of my clan (we are all first cousins). Those who are not in faith now, say two things:

Being a lapsed Catholic is a great place to be from in a number of ways.

Children often need to be something, if only to reject it.

So, we keep at it, with varied levels of belief. Sorta like my non observant Jewish friends who deeply identify culturally and ethically with their religious heritage.

"Might as well be kind."

Another good motto, which I associate now with yellojkt. It is right up there with frosti's. I think we're building our own way to live:

Be nice and do good work.
Might as well be kind.
Clouds are hard.

Another Boodle motto: *!*@*?! Moveable Type.

The wording change came from my realization that it isn't really a belief system; if anything I'm describing an ethical construct. "Way to live" seemed like a nice simple description.

The 2010 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton contest are in! I haven't read them yet but I am looking forward to doing so.

http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/

Imom!

Also,

Plan for error (BP, I am looking at you!)

CqP, I agree totally regarding the lapsed Catholic bit.

There are many valuable gifts inherent in belonging to a religious community, especially one with a well-reasoned theology and a spirit of intellectual inquiry.

I am fine with Atheists as well as people of Faith dispensing with logic, reason, proof. They can make it up, whatever they like, magic miracles, imaginary friends and lovers, or nothing at all, no problem.

I just don't think they should have access to weapons of mass destruction, or access to school boards. What is it about Faith/Atheism that causes people who have it to want to force it on everyone else? A militant agnostic is an oxymoron.

Killing in the name of being pleasantly confused, that just doesn't happen.

LiT, CQP, I don't think we're saying different things at all. You are believers *because* you have faith, not because it has been emperically proven.

LiT, CQP, I don't think we're saying different things at all. You are believers *because* you have faith, not because it has been emperically proven.

*!*@*?! Moveable Type

Well, sometimes people who are uncertain in their faith actually are the most aggressive about defending it.

Tim - While I generally find Milbank pretty amusing, I certainly understand your point. But that's the tone of his "Sketch". Keep an eye out for his other articles, they typically lack most or all of the snark. The guy can write.

Many years ago, my grandfather lived near West Point, NY out in the country. The house had a big front porch, and one summer barn swallows built a nest in the inside corner up under the roof. The eggs got laid and hatched. We woke up one morning to discover the nest torn out completely, and my grandfather said it was most likely a racoon's work. In the case of the nest in the bushes it could have been o'possum, racoon, weasel, even a rat.

If faith were easy, it wouldn't be faith. The mystery makes it wonderful.

I am grateful for all of you and your good works and ethical behavior, regardless of religious stance. You are all on the right track.

For me, it never made sense that logic and reason are all we have. I suppose I simply have a need for God; I don't know why *I* should be the lucky one, but there you are.

Fundamentalists *are* scary, CqP, and so wrong. Regardless of their camp, they are wrong. We cannot know everything or much of anything, except that loving our fellows is always the right answer, and exclusion and violence never are.

I wish I could remember the name and author of the book; I gave it to my ex 20 or more years ago. But at the end, it said: astronomers are trying to get to the summit of knowledge and find theologians already there.

Raysmom:

This is the sentence that makes me post thusly:

For years I have believed agnosticism was the only honest position on faith.

From shrink....maybe he is using this rhetorically, but the statement is big and begs a polite but firm:

I beg to differ. Many positions on faith. Many of them coherent and in some way "honest"....

can we stop now? Hey? Yes. I can stop now.

------
Back to BP: a connection in NOLA says that Joel's stories about the debacle are among the clearest out there. Her family has oilers AND fishers both. Thanks JA!

ebnet!
opossum but 'possum or possum but never o'possum.....unless they hail from the old sod:

O'Possum

CQP, yes it was a joke, a lame joke, a bad word play perhaps. Surely one can't "believe" anything about faith, in particular relative to honesty, if one is agnostic. Now that Confusionism post, that was as serious as a heart attack.

ebtnut is right, bird eggs are a prize for any number of species.

"Well, sometimes people who are uncertain in their faith actually are the most aggressive about defending it."

Surely aggressive, but are they really defending? This is an important question, since everyone, no matter how pious, no matter how observant, is uncertain in their faith.

But I am quite sure that weeder works and that if you play with fire, you are going to get burned and that a stitch in time saves nine and that even monkeys fall from trees.

Hi all! Kind of a drive-by boodling since I'm off to have dinner with my sister and pick up a shipment of long-awaited jewelry supplies.

On aggressive defenders: I wonder if it's not so much defending their faith but defending their worthiness to be accepted. I associate the most fervent people I know with using their religion to constantly assure themselves that they are worthy individuals. The more times and louder something is said, the more people believe it to be true.

My private belief is that many of them believe they are inherently "bad" people who have to struggle for worthiness and to be "good." They use their faith and religion as a yardstick to measure their "goodness." So, if they don't defend their faith, then the whole built up construct comes down and all that built up "goodness" means nothing.

Shrink -- the quote "... sometimes people who are uncertain in their faith actually are the most aggressive about defending it" -- brings to mind the aggressiveness of those who think that allowing (i.e., "allowing") homosexuals to marry will somehow destroy marriage between heterosexuals (i.e., between a man and a woman -- you know that's what I meant, but I felt I needed to explain (*snort*)).

My view is that if someone else's relationship -- between and among absolute strangers -- is going to have an impact on these people's marriage, then much, much more is wrong with that marriage than anything the marriage of homosexuals can do.

It is the willing and breathless embrace of absolutism that makes me yawn. I've always preferred curiosity and discovery.

I believe in the positive value of doubt and uncertainty. Without these core principles, there is no reason to live. Possibly.

I perceive the Universe, without a doubt; but what it is that I perceive, and whether I perceive it accurately, and to what extent -- these all are in doubt. The endless discovery of new facets of the Universe is why I get up in the morning, why I do anything. Do I know what will happen if I do ... this? ... I am uncertain. I am certain to a high degree that the Sun will "rise" (to be non-technical about it) each day, sufficiently so that I know that IF IT DOES NOT, then something fundamentally new to me has just happened. How exciting! My certainty that the Sun will rise under normal circumstances enables me to understand the meaning of my uncertainty about whether it will rise each and every day. On the other hand, there are things about which I am so uncertain that I must monitor the situation vigilantly and be prepared to shift my understanding and my attitudes. Have I equipped my children to lead happy lives? Will I enjoy this piece of fruit? Am I a good person? Am I driving my car safely? If I remain uncertain, then I must constantly re-evaluate my understanding of the answers to my questions, and I can bend and change as necessary. Circumstances change; if I do not change, if I remain certain of what is true and right without evaluation, then I will be wrong and false and I will fail to achieve what I want to achieve in life.

Is there a God? I do not know. I doubt it, but I might be wrong. Do I need to know? I doubt it. "Do not do unto others that which is hateful to yourself. That is the whole of the Law. All else is commentary." -- Rabbi Hillel. Of that, I am pretty certain.

Of the things shrink is sure of -- at some point in childhood I mixed up a stitch in time with A Wrinkle in Time, and it took me many years to connect it to normal everyday sewing. When I hear it, I still picture a big hand stitching time together.

"It is the willing and breathless embrace of absolutism that makes me yawn. I've always preferred curiosity and discovery."

"I believe in the positive value of doubt and uncertainty. Without these core principles, there is no reason to live. Possibly."

Heh, heh, I think there are more Confusionists than I thought.

A meaningful, faithless existence? Is it possible? I believe (that word again) it is. Jung said no. He said it was impossible. Many believe we are wired to believe, for lack of a better word, magic myths.

Why do you think we are wired that way, shrink? I ask in all sincerity because I'd like to hear your opinion.

"I still picture a big hand stitching time together." I like that.

All day in between boodling I have been working on the crazy/sane good/evil Venn diagrams, how they overlap and fold and then express the result.

Talking about love and meaning and gardening with good people actually helps my focus on getting work done. Imagine, boodling, good for productivity.

"Why do you think we are wired that way, shrink?" I'll work on this, it will be interesting, I am pretty sure. I can't right now. Tonight I will.

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=194

After years of joking (especially when filling out forms asking for "religious affiliation") that I was a Zen Baptist, I finally found a quote that pretty well sums up my something-new-every-morning outlook on life -----

Joy in the universe, and keen curiosity about it all - that has been my religion.
-----John Burroughs

'Love thy neighbor as thyself' and 'keep the peace' ain't bad, either.

Boodling: good for productivity.

Yep.

And thanks to CqP for Plan for Error. A big part of the Boodle Way of Life.

Boodle Tao?

It's interesting how a nice lunch, new shoes and premium ice cream is somehow a reasonable reward (in advance) for spending a couple hours at the DMV, ensuring proper resolution of a small matter involving a numbered sticker found on stamped metal symbols attached to vehicular conveyences.

My motto?? "I'm fine, what's a motto with you?"

*ducking to avoid the incoming tomatoes of uncertain ripeness* :-)

To be clear, the reward went to the two top women in my life, as I was the fuddy-duddy insisting we cease flouting the law with such impunity. :-)

Baptized in Zen. Hmm.

What is the sound of one hand dipping in air?
Does a dog have a Baptist nature?

(Yes, just watch one at work among the cypress trees)

I prefer taoism myself; the religion that can be named is not the true religion.

DNA_Girl, that Sinfest has now been printed and posted below the Rebirth Sinfest. Thanks!

Where's Mudge?

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=736

!

Turns out Mudge was an exceedingly good looking deep mole from Russia trusted to seduce influencial American women. You might have been one of his targets I-mom, you the judge-to-be. He's been discovered and carted off to Gitmo. Good riddance.

SCC influential? I need an editor.

Some thoughts from James Fowler's Stages of Faith:

"Faith is not always religious in its content or context....Faith is a person's or group's way of moving into the force field of life. It is our way of finding coherence in and giving meaning to the multiple forces and relations that make up our lives. Faith is a person's way of seeing him- or herself in relation to others against a background of shared meaning and purpose." p.4

Boodle Tao!

Mudge is the redhead, huh? I always knew he was a master of disguise.

"Frostbitten, that is the agnostic position."

As Frosti pointed out, one has to care to have a position, and furthermore.....

............boodle tao..............

.........////////////////////////..........
........../////////////////////............
...........//////////////////..............
.............///........\\\................
.............///........\\\................
............////........\\\\...............
...........////..........\\\\..............
........./////............\\\\\............

If I had the capacity for faith or religion, it would be Shinto-Buddhism. Follow the forms, rattle that coin-grate loudly, contribute both financially (well, not now, but before and after) and with works, meditate, be peaceful and content, and hope for the best. No need for the supernatural.

Instead, I'm in the here and now, in the richness of nature and le monde's fine human pageant, and enjoying it tremendously. Comfortable with death as the end of my story.

Nobody cares about the Catholic missionary position anymore?

"As Frosti pointed out, one has to care to have a position..."

everybody cares

太極圖

Boodle -tao-

A path with no beginning - and no end -

Speaking of Catholic positions the Archbishop of Quebec city expressed opinions on women and birth control that were retrograd and misogynistic enough to be recruited in the brass of the Vatican. Way to go Monseigneur Ouellet. Keep on the good work and you might end up Misogyn in chief.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Quebec+cardinal+appointed+Vatican/3220615/story.html

"everybody cares" about something, yes, about the great existential questions of life the universe and everything-I think not. 42 is as good an answer as any for an Apatheticist, if an Apatheticist were to ask, which she wouldn't.

And the Procrastinist will think it about it all tomorrow.

No dodging, no darting, no evading. You are the Popess of Apathicism now Frosti.

thank you, -tao-

I have images of 'the gateway' in dreams and find the shape manifesting in my design work often, hence the lame ascii.

snort

There's always Frisbeetarianism.

Maybe frosti is thinking about dodging, darting and evading her Popess candidacy, being a Procrastinistic Apatheticist.

you can't fool me frosty, you care as much or more than anyone, sorry to out you, but it is obvious you care about what really matters, the big picture, you have staked out your apathetic position and you are going to defend it, by apatheticgod.

We could get a good battle going between Apatheticism and Confusionism. Your army flies the We Don't Care banner. Mine, We are Confused. It would end up like Babylon v Israelites. But without all the dashing children's heads against the stones.

"Comfortable with death as the end of my story."

Well, no one who loves you is, though they might say they are, defensively.

The tragedy is, everything about us that is valuable, all of it, is an amalgamation, an accretion or some other geological metaphor of all of the love and caring that created what we are and all of the love and caring that we gave and helped to create.

that snort was for TBG's 8:48, but works as well for shriek's 8:54

There are times I think I want to care about the great existential questions of life the universe and everything. I'll spend a few minutes trying to care... and then realize I really don't.

I don't think I need some great motivator or end game incentive to make live enjoyable. I think I am too boring. I don't have any demons that need to be contained, I guess. I like simple things. I appreciate stuff. There is so much to enjoy every day.

"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'" - Kurt Vonnegut

Albicelestes
or Mannschaft--ohhhh, I do care;
'86? '90?

And Paddy O'Possum will just play dead...

dodging, darting

SD, isn't that a car? I drove one for six months in high school. The car was a neighbor's; she needed groceries once a week. I think the year of the car was 1963.

But, I wanted a baby blue Ford Fairlane with a push button transmission....

I liked that and the stitching hand of God a lot.

I care about the big picture, if it's mostly about bears.

Speaking of bears, they've put a radio collar on Hope the orphaned cub
http://www.bear.org/website/lily-a-hope/live-den-cam/528-a-new-hope-strategy.html

Gaudy fireworks
outshine fireflies right now,
but the night is long

Fireworks may outshine fireflies but the bears are there in the background, going about their bear business. Illuminated by insects.

DNA, gaudy is a good word, which makes me think of this drinking song:

Gaudeamus igitur
Juvenes dum sumus
Post jucundum juventutem
Post molestam senectutem
Nos habebit humus. Let us rejoice therefore
While we are young.
After a pleasant youth
After a troublesome old age
The earth will have us.

Mario Lanza, The Student Prince, the opera was based on this old song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbLl2C3ChYY

The dodge Dart was a car, and not a bad one at that. My 79'dodge Aspen was a proud successor to the Dart. They shared the Slant Six.

It looks like my raiding bear was killed (finally!) by game wardens after wandering in schollyards. I'm putting up the birdfeeders again tomorrow, we'll see if it was the "right" bear.

SCC In schoolyard, the O gets the double bill.

We had a Plymoth with a push button transmission. It sounds better than it actually was.

We took that car, about six months old, to 18 months in Hawaii and two years on Guam, and left it there. You never saw such rust!

SD, Dodge Dart in common. Well met, sir.

Frosti, sleepy Asian sun bear cub. Resistance is futile:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5c0X4MW_zE

nellie4, in re rust. Boston in the 60s, I remember looking down and seeing the road go by as an ordinary experience.

So, where is Mudge?

Awesome possum tale from bulwer-lytton:

Winner: Purple Prose

The dark, drafty old house was lopsided and decrepit, leaning in on itself, the way an aging possum carrying a very heavy, overcooked drumstick in his mouth might list to one side if he were also favoring a torn Achilles tendon, assuming possums have them.

Scott Davis Jones

Valley Village, CA

That reminds me of my first new car, the '71 Pinto. The floor on the driver's side wore through. It never bothered my ex until he drove it in the rain. Then he put cardboard down and my legs never got splattered again.

I was rearended by a drunk driver a couple of weeks after I took the car to have the problem with the gas tank fixed. Kept it for 22 years, although it was in reserve for about the last five or six.

yeah, Shrink, we had that Plymouth in the 60s. I wonder if that was just a bad decade for cars. Of course, we had bad cars in the 70s, too --- ever own a Gremlin?

To be fair, I don't think the Gremlin ever broke down, it just fell apart. Bit by bit. Daily.

speaking of bears . . . . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjaxRpvf0OY&feature=related

promise you'll let me stay after this, okay?

You're wrong there, shrink2. All the people I love who love me are comfortable with this secularism. The world is enough, more than enough richness. Beauty, truth, good human love, kindness, touch, landscape, courage, life, dark thoughts, overcoming pettiness, nightmares, all experience, fear, hope. It isn't denial of evil, but recognising the sinkholes and jumping over them willingly and mindfully. My best friend and I once spoke of this conundrum; agnosticism vs secularism. He, a lapsed doubting kind Catholic, me a pure nothing raised-in-Presbyterian-denial-of-all-sensual- pleasure (hatred). We're both fine in the world as it is.

Lolz for realz. I just love being in the world, and will be fine when I'm not.

I believe I'll have another beer.

Are you in Yurup, yello?

If it is Germany, you better have two.

Yoki, me too, with some Jimmies of faithie-ness and bells and smells on top. Thank you, dear heart. And cuz.

God is huge and defies our definitions as well as our slings and arrows.

And, dear Shrinkie, your profession is amazing. I am happily in debt but to borrow from Wil:

Hamlet:
And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Interesting to parse all our varieties of agnosticism/indifferentism/backslidism (I have my own convenient "culturally Christian" version). Somehow I think the important point of any situation is always just to one side of our vision, so that if we reach for it directly, we drop it. On the other hand, there are times we can't shy away from a fight. Then beliefs gain solidity and impel us, and any possible or impossible help is sought and implored.

Minister of Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker, from "Yes, Minister": Tell me, Bernard, if the chips were really down between Sir Humphrey and me, whose side would you be on?" Bernard: "Minister, my job is to make sure the chips are never down."

Of course, CquaP. Love you, love you, love my young ladies and all my friends. Just, no pronouncements. We can't know, only imagine, and that will be imperfect but let us approach.

Represent!

And, may I say again, JA's writing on the oil debacle in the Gulf informs and pings and stings and edifies and warns and teaches and chastises all at once and all apace?

I build part of a summer school class with his pieces.

Oh, JA, if only we were talking about the coolness of space and probes and cryogenic MEMS (microelectronic machines) that power our probes...

Ah, woofin! My favourite bit from Yes Minister.

Minister, "I cannot stand these delaying tactics!"

Private Secretary, "No, Minister. That would be to confuse lethargy with strategy."

Yello! Scream at a screen in a biergarten for me on saturday willya?

Woofie,

Tis very quicksilver this:

just to one side of our vision, so that if we reach for it directly, we drop it.

For 'drop' I say 'evade' (it)...but recall, I have been writing a dissertation on the entropy of economics since about 1984...what do I now, not even ABD in this....Chapter three: a definition of entropy evades me constantly, consistently, most charmingly, and even charismatically.

Perhaps "it" is what does the evading, CQP, making us do the dropping, but here... I just dropped it... damn...

Am I the only boodler watching SYTYCD this season? Frosti? Raysmom, others??? Interesting group this season, but Alex's hip-hop routine at the end was a scream -- he's an accomplished and fantastic ballet dancer and just tore up the stage on this one. He was indescribable -- just terrific.

Luv you, too, Yoki. And you, too, CqP. I have no conflict with those who have faith and who don't want to kill me to show just how faithful they are. It's the others who make me have my bags packed and my track shoes on (bad knees and back notwithstanding).

Time to go fall asleep over a book, methinks.

Cya tomorrow.

I imagine he's doing well, shrink, and hope to see him soon, with or without radio collar.

Confusionist about says it. Be kind. Celebrate everything. Treasure unexpected joy even though it can be found everywhere. Stay as far away as possible from bad people (insert your own definition of "bad" here).

Talitha, I don't think you have to worry.

Aahh, yes. Plymouth in the '60s. Good times. Of course, that was before King Philip's War.

ftb-tonight is the first night I've seen a full SYTYCD since the auditions. What a night to finally manage it. Alex knocked my socks off. I don't care what he does from here out, he's my fave.

Ooops. Channeling 'mudge there.

I am watching as well ftb, but evening events made me miss the first part and only half watch the later part, I adore Alex. There are some great dancers this year.

This evening was one of those where lots of little things went wrong but everything was wonderful at the same time, plus there was cake so that always makes for a good evening.

I am with Frosti, Apathy is calling my name but since I am a procrastinator I keep putting off doing anything about it.

Mudge in Chanel?

CqP, may we get your professional take on this?

OK, frosti, I'll bite. You've impressed me as a person who doesn't fritter away your leisure time lightly. I've never seen even a moment of SYTYCDance.

Should I give this thing a shot? For reasons I've never bothered to identify (a general resistance to the celebrity-fish-out-of-water "reality TV" concept, probably) I've always assumed I wouldn't care for it.

Every one of you deserves a beauteous star tonight --------

http://www.korthalsaltes.com/decorated_solids_pictures.html

Again I will state Alex is Canadian :-)

Bob if you like dance you might enjoy it.

What clips here and decide if it is worth the time.

http://www.fox.com/dance/contestant/alex-wong/index.php

Mudge could work Chanel. BUT he is a gold braid NAVY man, in serge (summer) or melton cloth (winter). Anchors away...man in uniform. Think Gene Kelly, only shorter.

Talitha - I do love me some polyhedra. Thanks!

Your welcome, Bob-S. Check out the whole site for some less frou-frou but fabulous paper models.

Of course you won't be sorry when you're dead. It's others who will be sorry. They will.

Isn't that what we all think when stomping out in a fit of childish rage to die out in the barren wilderness of our yard, alone, sad, unwanted? When we're dead they'll ALLLL be sorry they were so mean to us.
Thank goodness most of us grow out of that drama.

CqP, 'tis a good old drinking song. I learned it long ago. The translation of /molestum senecuteum/ was given to us as "the indignities of old age," but I never liked that.

/Nos humus habebit, nos humus habebit.../

The English verb "to have" has a broader idiom than that of Latin /habere/, which means simply, "to have, hold."

A less ambiguous translation might be "the earth will keep us" (or hold us)

The earth will keep us, the earth will keep us...

I personally prefer "keep" over "hold" because it rhymes with words such as sleep/weep/deep/reap/heap/creep--
all words associated with death.

This makes "keep" a closer parallel with the latin verb used: habere

The latin /Habere/ rhymes with /labere/ (to totter, fall, sink, be loosened) and /tabere/ (to rot, decay, waste away).

So to me, "will keep" evokes a mood closer to the original.

My translation (ignoring the tune).

Let us (always) rejoice thus
while we remain young
For after youth's revels
and old age's travails
the ground will keep us,
the ground will keep us,
the ground will keep us,
the ground will keep us.

Incidentally 'tis time for my bed to keep me until my dawn flight.

Good night/week, Boodle, and fondue.

"I imagine he's doing well"

I do two, but does anyone know?

"And, dear Shrinkie..."

You meant that in the best possible way.
I still had to put a little ouch X bandaid shape on my cheek. Nevertheless, whether you like it or not, I agree, yes, there are way more things than dreamt of, that is the point.

Still working on the magic belief wiring, kids brushing, story to tell,

W_G, I saw that, you people are wearing me out. Gotta stay up late, after the story.

BobS-dmd nailed it. If you like dance, SYTYCD may hold your interest. The cheesy reality TV bits are totally overcome by the complete joy of dance.

No, they won't be sorry. There will be nothing for them to be sorry about. The only reason to be sorry is to have withheld oneself, not to have been honest, sincere, not apologised when an apology was due, to have not spoken truth. That will not happen in my intimate circle, because we've said true love and self-knowledge and anger and forgiveness, over and over.

What they will do is grieve their loss and that will be fine; they will be healed by the flowing tears.

It's just occurred to me how incredibly flawed my reasoning has been. I really liked "Battle of the Network Stars" (who can forget the epic showdown between captains Gabe Kaplan & Robert Conrad?) and "Circus of the Stars" (Tom Cruise can say whatever he wants 'bout Brooke Shields. For several years, she was there every year, doing whatever they asked of her. "Walk across broken glass? Sure!" "Do the twirly-rope pole-dancing act thirty feet off the ground with no net? Sure!").

I guess I could forget Gabe Kaplan vs. Robert Conrad (a distant cousin on Pa Frostbitten's side). Off to search Youtube and then to sleep.

Toodles boodle and sweet dreams.

The annual Canada Day quiz, this is difficult, I got 7 out of 20, couple I second guessed and would have been right had I gone with my first selection.

On a happy note the band I saw recently made the quiz.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/06/30/toughest-canada-day-quiz-ever/

"What they will do is grieve their loss and that will be fine; they will be healed by the flowing tears."

Are you joking?

Now I miss Mac-Jack, my late lamented beloved Father-in-Law, who challenged first me and then his granddaughtersmto the Canada Day and New Year Giant Cryptic Crossword in The Grope and Fail. We always did it, in record time.

Now I miss McJack, my late lamented beloved Father-in-Law, who challenged first me and then his granddaughters to the Canada Day and New Year Giant Cryptic Crossword in The Grope and Fail. We always did it, in record time.

Now I miss McJack, my late lamented beloved Father-in-Law, who challenged first me and then his granddaughters to the Canada Day and New Year Giant Cryptic Crossword in The Grope and Fail. We always did it, in record time.

No. Why do you ask?

wow.

dmd, I took your Canada Day quiz and scored 5. I correctly answered the same 5 questions that the rest of the respondants aced so does that make me a quasi-Canadian? Wish I were on Cape Breton this summer - I spent many happy summer weeks there during the 80s and 90s.

Happy Canada Day to all!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uppJfEmye58

Perfect, jack.

the first time i heard this, laura nyro sang it. it was many years ago, on wmms, when fm was pretty much commercial free. interesting pairing of songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt9TVU_cvnY&feature=related

the video in the first link was taken during that infamous train ride and musical tour across Canada with The Band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u50IoS2nY7I&feature=related

Eric Dolphy said, "When you hear music, its gone, in the air, you can never capture it again." I am sure he was wrong, but I can't get that out of my head. Live music is so special, but recordings are pretty good. Being confused is the perfect condition, so long as the question is very important.

I've got the tract on the magic wiring of the brain written. We need magic, we create magic and we need it, like water. We'll get to it. It will come together with Rilke's piece.

I have in-laws in Cape Breton and my husband spent many of his summers there.

Happy Canada Day, Talitha I think more than two correct answers on that test should confer quasi-Canadian status - questions were tough and not something you would know off the top of your head.

For Talitha, loved this Canadian band in the eighties, listened to the album countless times during university.

Rational Youth,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQOEEve_-xA&feature=related

and this,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwXyQ8XOzGk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZXBw-9gyc0&feature=related

My caffeine and sugar overload is waning have a nice night everyone.

I'm hoping that the civility and respect we practice here will help.

thanks, dmd, for the music!

Yes, Yoki, Yes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCuHAyrelBo&feature=related

Talitha, I own, completely, the bagpipe and harp and Gaelic gene. Beautiful!

My youngest brother was piped out of this world, while we sang The Flowers of the Forest, Lament, for him.

This evening's stroll turned up another person wearing a plastic shirt to keep the sweat in. The humidity was near 90 percent.

At the piano practice house, an evidently difficult phrase, not yet mastered.

Yoki, I love the pipes so much that I cry at the very sound. This is fiddle here, though, from Cape Breton. Very traditional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny2beJky_KM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6Oq3ZFVjAk&feature=related

Sleep well all.

For Yoki and her kin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLSlEna0rlI&feature=related

I wonder whether Florida was too humid for fiddles to survive, before air conditioning.

This comes to mind because the church where I'm a member replaced its sanctuary doors, roughly 55 years old. A structural wood panel on a new one split shortly after installation.

Canada is looking not only like a nice country, but a well-run one. Two Canadian banks, RBC and TD, are expanding fast in the Florida retail market.

DotC, that's a good question about the fiddles. Most musical instuments do acclimate to their environs, but I've never heard of traditional fiddle music coming from Florida. The Scotch and Irish fiddlers inhabited the Appalachian range from Georgia northward. I'll have to ask some of my oldtime music friends who have more knowledge of the historic migration of American song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sB0McDpAjM

Good morning and Happy Canada Day! And special thanks to all you Canadians for having sent such a refreshing blast of cool air down here. Goodness knows we needed it.

One of the accused Russian spies has skipped bail in Cyprus:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7-czCmVaUIvFjMeulzIGN4L2FWAD9GM50MO0

Three words: Master of disguise.

Just sayin'.

'morning all. You're welcome RD Padouk. We need to warm up a bit now here though. Wearing a jacket at Canada day celebrations would not feel normal.

Witch no.1 has landed in Dulles 30 minutes ago and will soon depart for the last leg of her trip. She'll be a tired puppy when she gets home. Although at that age it may be that the red-eyes are not such a terrible thing and they are certainly cheaper. With witch no. 2 gone to the Socialist Paradise of Cuba we were positively witchless for a little while. The dog missed them too.

*still-waiting-for-the-caffeine-to-kick-in Grover waves*

Hey, who hit fast-forward and plopped us in the delightful no-humidity middle of September? I'd like to thank that person... :-)

Hmmmm, where IS 'Mudge? I wonder if he still keeps the spare key for the Shop Steward Office in that Hummel on the secretary... *checking* Yep, there it is.

*turning the key and taking a quick step back at the 20's-radio-serial-style creaking noise as the door swings wide*

Hmmmm... half-eaten bagel with a schmeer and some lox, mostly empty wide-bottomed coffee mug by the computer...

Wow, how many tabs did he leave open? Lesssee, there's Bing, Google, Yahoo, AskJeeves (is that still around?)... They all have the same search term: "Nani"

OK, this is gonna take awhile... *putting on my deerstalker and grabbing a meerschaum*

My favorite Canada Day tradition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKvVX9HbC_I
Many happy returns of the day!

Greek yogurt, mixed berries and granola with coffee while you wait for a cooked breakfast.

Later gators, on my way to St. Paul for a couple meetings.

Knew we could count on you, Scotty.

Tell him the Food Lion has a sale on sirloin.

“Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot,” instructed Holmes, then he whispered in his friend’s ear, “Just bid only minor suits, or double with a good hand. Try to make yourself dummy — that shouldn’t be too hard.”

Yes, dbG, I can see that we have the right man on the job. *waves back*

Good morning, y'all. I'm tempted to break out into "Just Because it's June" from Carousel, except it's now July. This weather is beyond delightful and we deserve it, by gollygoshdarn. Wish I could send some to those folks in the Gulf who are feeling the aftermath of the hurricane.

A good day to all . . . . .

ftb, I'm watching SYTYCD along with frosti and dmd. And yes, Alex knocked my socks off last night. (This from someone who usually has a "meh" reaction to hip-hop.) He's clearly the best dancer--which, given past history on the show (see Danny, Brandon, Katee) means he won't win.

*Thanking Canada for the clear, crisp air that doesn't make me feel as if I need gills*

So, what ABOUT the healing of flowing tears, shrink? I ask because you are the second mental health professional to seem aghast at the concept. I have imagined that experienced pros must have seen too much wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth and yet no healing, somewhere. But in my life it's about the only catharsis I know that is personally helpful emotionally, for me. (By that I mean lots of things are helpful, but other forms of catharsis itself - such as anger or blow-ups, etc. - seem like illusory relief, where crying does not.)

Nous avons un kit nouveau.

Dude: Forget the grass. It's not dead, just asleep. When the weather cools off and it rains it will perk up. In the meantime you can enjoy not having to cut it.

What the hell were you going to "hit it" with anyway?