We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
Sipp says this is his favorite version - whorehouse-piano style:
Wilbert was good on Let's Stick Together too (1962):
Buddy likes Joe Morello's drum solo here on Take Five:
For people like me who know nothing about drums, this is fascinating: Around the Drum Kit by an older Joe Morello. (It's mostly introductory after his initial solo). After watching it, I can sorta get what he was doing on the previous Youtube. Drums do talk:
And for something completely stupid, here's a Boston Christmas (h/t reader):
Since 1498 - the Vienna Boy's Choir. They have four touring groups of 25 kids each. They sing like angels. We caught their Christmas in Vienna concert at Carnegie Hall today with Mrs. BD's music-loving parents after a very pleasant brunch at Petrossian down the block (the prix fixe, friends - but festively with caviar and blini, and champagne). Mrs. BD got us good parterre seats.
As a reprise, they sang the beloved but cornball Leise rieselt der Schnee. Give the tune a listen if you don't know it. You might end up humming it for 48 hours. With all of our German-origin Christmas songs (eg Stille Nacht), it's a wonder we English never took this one. Maybe because of the bland lyrics (but this translation stinks - I can do better even though my German is not very strong anymore). Here's a version of it.
Sippican found some Flame Birch, and finally figured out what to do with it - photo. "Flame Birch" is just birch with ripples in its meat. Birch's desire to be like Tiger Maple.
It’s a week before the biggest day of her life, and Anna Williams is multitasking. While waiting to hear back from the Ivy League colleges she’s hoping to attend, the seventeen-year-old senior at one of Manhattan’s most exclusive private schools is doing research for a paper about organic farming in the West Bank, whipping up a batch of vegan brownies, and, like an increasing number of American teenagers, teaching her dog, José Saramago, to use an iPad.
Language trivia: Greeks use two words for wine. "Oinos" of course, and "krasi." Hence "crazy," or so I am told.
Pic is the East Haddam, CT, Congregational Church. 19th C. Congo churches do tend to have a similar look. They are the old meeting house, basically, with a steeple, and sometimes a portico, tacked on. I don't know why or how they decided that steeples were acceptible.
Luke 3:1-6
3:1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene,
3:2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
3:3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
3:4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
3:5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth;
3:6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"
Since when does the federal government control school lunches? When I was a kid, my Mom made my lunch and I carried it in a lunchbox. Mom controlled it. Apple, banana, or plum, a sandwich on white bread, a couple of cookies. Usually baloney sandwich, Fluffernutter, or PB&J as I recall but sometimes ham and swiss as a luxury. With four of us kids, it was the early morning lunch-box assembly line. School provided only those little cold cartons of milk, chocolate or plain, with a straw. I turned out just fine.
And since when does the federal government control school curricula? Catcher is a dumb book and not worth the read, but who decides these things?
Since when do the feds have anything at all to do with local education anyway?
Today, I am doing layered winter clothing, which is only of interest if one is spending more than just a few hours out in the weather.
Dressing for spending hours out in cold weather is a tricky business, because it depends so much on what you are doing and how active you are. If you dress too warmly for a day of aggressive skiing in 10 degree (F) weather, you can easily get soaked with uncomfortable and chilling sweat. On the other hand, underdressing for a 6-hour stint sitting in a Maine duck blind can ruin the entire experience. When it's cold out, you want to be cool enough to enjoy the weather - and maybe just a little bit cold. It's all about layers.
I have spent many hours cold, wet, and happy in Yankee winters, but I have become more of a pussy as I get a bit older. It's impossible to get it right, because if you are hiking uphill at 15 degrees, you get too hot, and when you are sitting, you get too cold. But that's why you aren't being a sloth, sitting by the fire.
None of these are particularly worthy of their own post, but they add up to a fun little collection. Well, except for that horribly sad thing that happened to Bird Dog.
Bring a tissue.
First, some really good news from the political front:
That should only eliminate about 90% of this liberal dishrag's readership. Like the NYT, the news will still be open to the public, but to read the op-eds is going to cost a little something, and the only people who'll shell out the bucks are such ardent Lefties that we don't care about them, anyway. But it's a very good thing to keep these creeps away from the average reader.
Next, kind of good news/bad news story. First, the good news:
Johnstown, PA (GlossyNews) – Local and state police scoured the hills outside rural Johnstown, Pennsylvania, after reports of three animal rights activists going missing after attempting to protest the wearing of leather at a large motorcycle gang rally this weekend. Two others, previously reported missing, were discovered by fast food workers “duct taped inside fast food restaurant dumpsters,” according to police officials.
"Something just went wrong," said a still visibly shaken organizer of the protest. "Something just went horribly, horribly, wrong." The organizer said a group of concerned animal rights activists, "growing tired of throwing fake blood and shouting profanities at older women wearing leather or fur coats," decided to protest the annual motorcycle club event "in a hope to show them our outrage at their wanton use of leather in their clothing and motor bike seats."
“In fact," said the organizer, "motorcycle gangs are one of the biggest abusers of wearing leather, and we decided it was high time that we let them know that we disagree with them using it, ergo, they should stop."
According to witnesses, protesters arrived at the event in a vintage 1960?s era Volkswagen van and began to pelt the gang members with balloons filled with red colored water, simulating blood, and shouting "you’re murderers" to passersby. This, evidently, is when the brouhaha began.
"They peed on me!!!" charged one activist. "They grabbed me, said I looked like I was French, started calling me ‘La Trene’ and duct taped me to a tree so they could pee on me all day!"
Still others claimed they were forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs under duress. Those who resisted were allegedly held down while several bikers "farted on their heads."
Forced to eat hamburgers and hot dogs? The horror!
The bad news is that it's just another urban myth, as Snopes debunks here. It's to note, though, as Snopes does, just how easy it was to believe.
Below the fold, two very similar topics. First, one of the most disgusting, foul-mouthed rappers you've ever heard, then a note on Bird Dog's reputation.
My pic is a Nantucket "3/4 house." December is a good time to throw on a sweater and a scarf and stroll the streets of downtown Nantucket to admire the early 19th C. architecture with the leaves off the trees and the limousine Liberal vacationers off the streets.
Einstein, Newton, and Pascal are hanging out one afternoon.
Einstein is bored, so he suggests, "Let's play hide-and-seek. I'll be it!"
The others agree, so Einstein begins counting. "One... Two... Three..."
Pascal runs off right away to find a place to hide.
But Newton merely takes out a piece of chalk and draws a mid-sized square. He finishes and steps into the square just as Einstein shouts, "Ready or not -- here I come!"
Einstein looks up and immediately spots Newton standing right in front of him. He says, "I found you, Newton!"
Newton replies, "No, you found one Newton per square meter -- You found Pascal!"
23.8 percent of men, and 19 percent of women, between the ages of 35 and 44 have never been married. Tick back a cohort to the people between 20 and 34—the prime-childbearing years—and the numbers are even more startling: 67 percent of men and 57 percent of women in that group have never been married. When you total it all up, over half of the voting-age population in America—and 40 percent of the people who actually showed up to vote this time around—are single.
What does this group look like? Geographically, they tend to live in cities. As urban density increases, marriage rates (and childbearing rates) fall in nearly a straight line. Carville and Greenberg put together a Venn diagram which is highly instructive. Of the 111 million single eligible voters, 53 million are women and 58 million are men. Only 5.7 million of these women are Hispanic and 9.7 million are African American. Nearly three-quarters of all single women are white. In other words, the cohort looks a lot like the Julia character the Obama campaign rolled out to show how the president’s policies care for that plucky gal from the moment she enrolls in Head Start right through her retirement. You may recall that because of President Obama, Julia goes to college, gets free birth control, has a baby anyway, sends her lone kid to public school, and then—at age 42—starts her own business (as a web designer!). What she does not do is get married.
Is this a general cultural phenomenon, or class-related? I understand that Julia feels married to the government, but don't most people feel the need for a loyal human partner and helpmeet anyway? Marriage may be fraught with challenges, but I cannot even imagine trying to run my complex life single-handedly. Even four hands often do not seem like enough. Speaking just practically, romance and friendship aside.
The picture of this disadvantage is dramatic. Based on 2007 - 2010 data from the 76 institutional members of the six largest athletic conferences, black men were 2.8% of full-time undergraduate students but 57.1% of football teams and 64.3% of basketball teams. 50.2% of black male athletes graduated within six years, compared to 66.9% of student-athletes overall, 72.8% of undergraduate students, and 55.5% of black undergraduate men overall.
We should just do an open thread on the topic of the big-time college sports industry.
My guess is that you know a very special someone who uses a computer. Someone who's using it right now, in fact, and you'd like to give that special someone a really nice computer gift for Christmas. And, honestly, who knows that special someone's needs and tastes better than you, right? That's why you're the perfect person to make this decision.
Following are twelve gift ideas that I think would spruce up anyone's rig.
1. The Disc Carousel
Find the disc you want in the computer database program, click 'Eject', the carousel spins around and out it slides. Holds 150 discs. Price usually lists for $129, sometimes they go on sale. Home site is here, much more info here.
"Hey, Doc, this 'shopping for someone special' stuff is great! My own special someone is going to be so appreciative!"
Buddy sent this comment regarding the vid below on the topic of "Why Brubeck's guys never move their feet":
Watch the insane stop at 3:00 and the double stick whirl at 3:38 --this is 1945, and the war was peaking, spilling into popular culture through the second channel --the meta story, not on screen, not under director or even actor control. You see that in Krupa's despairing eyes (as he apes the opposite attitude) in the close up at 3:20 to 3:25 --ten years later the avante garde model will have passed on to Paul Desmond, world war in a wood wind, played standing straight up and stock still (note the Krupa crouch attacking the vertical plane) without moving a muscle, the kinetic continental killing now scaled down to chromatic vs diatonic, a new mankind saying, "reed my lips, no new praxis!"
A friend sent his pic of "Hurricane" - really post-tropical storm Sandy, over a Bridgeport power plant. I think that's the Port Jeff ferry in the harbor.
We occasionally feel the need to share the Sierra Trading Post with our readers. It's especially relevant in hunting season, winter, skiing season, and at Christmastime.
They have all sorts of good stuff. For example, it's the only place the men in this family buy shoes and boots including white-collar work shoes, sneakers, and hiking boots and shoes. For a sampling (their stuff changes constantly as they sell out) here's their hunting boots and their work boots.
At their prices, can you have too many pairs? Best to let shoes and boots dry out before using two days in a row, and, if you do, good ones last a lifetime. They will be sitting, waiting in your closet when you are dead and will end up in the dumpster but still willing to walk a mile for a Camel.
From The Crisis of American Self-Government - Harvey Mansfield, Harvard's 'pet dissenter,' on the 2012 election, the real cost of entitlements, and why he sees reason for hope:
'We have now an American political party and a European one. Not all Americans who vote for the European party want to become Europeans. But it doesn't matter because that's what they're voting for. They're voting for dependency, for lack of ambition, and for insolvency."
and
(The) project began at the turn of the previous century by "an alliance of experts and victims," Mr. Mansfield says. "Social scientists and political scientists were very much involved in the foundation of the progressive movement. What those experts did was find ways to improve the well-being of the poor, the incompetent, all those who have the right to vote but can't quite govern their own lives. And still to this day we see in the Democratic Party the alliance between Ph.D.s and victims."
and
Mr. Mansfield is optimistic. "The material for recovery is there," he says. "Ambition, for one thing. I teach at a university where all the students are ambitious. They all want to do something with their lives." That is in contrast to students he has met in Europe, where "it was depressing to see young people with small ambitions, very cultivated and intelligent people so stunted." He adds with a smile: "Our other main resource is the Constitution."
Is it possible that Harvard University, whose entire existence is dependent on capitalist benefactors, has only one non-Marxist on its faculty? Or is there a psychological issue about feeling dependent on the production of others which drives faculties to Leftism as a way to maintain a bit of pride? After all, it must be a little humbling to have to feel that one's career is built on the charity of others, however interesting or useful that career may be; "on the kindness of strangers" as it used to be said by, or of, high-class hookers like Blanche DuBois?
I admit, even knowing what's coming, I find it a bit unsettling.
The other day I'm re-reading an old article on my site and notice a link to the computer DVD player, PowerDVD. I click on it just out of editorial habit and the site had changed something so the link is broken.
I go to the PowerDVD site, grab the address, update the post, and figured that'd be the last I'd hear of ol' PowerDVD for a while.
I cruise over to Hot Air and click on a link leading to the ABC News site. I glance at the banner after the page loads.
I read the article and go back to Hot Air. I scroll down the page and glance in the sidebar.
This is taking place literally minutes after my visiting the PowerDVD site, so, yeah, it's a bit unsettling.
And consider the irony of a site like Hot Air railing against governmental intrusion into our Internet lives, only to turn around and give everyone a marvelous example of real-time Web tracking. I guess all that 'invasion of privacy' stuff is okay as long as it makes you money with effective sidebar ads.
This is all being done by means of 'cookies', which are small text files that web sites place on your computer which other web sites can then read.
The problem is that cookies can provide a very valuable service when it comes to remembering who you are on certain sites. For example, if you check the 'Remember info' box when leaving a comment here, it places a cookie on your computer so you won't have to enter your personal info next time.
So if you delete them all as part of some regular maintenance regimen, much less outright turn them off, you have to do the name/password routine every single time you go to certain sites, a major pain.
A happy compromise is reached by using CCleaner. It'll clean out your cookies but retain the valuable ones. Details are below the fold.
Pleasant place. You can do Cabo rustic or grand luxe. I sorta prefer the latter. Some folks prefer Puerto Vallarta, but some feel PV has gotten too commercial, too popular. Either, I think, are preferable to the Yucatan tackiness and drunk students.
Cabo has the good fishing.
Took a carload of Mexican fellows to Dunkin Donuts today, mid-day. They were felling some ornery post-storm trees for me which were more than I could handle alone, and turning it all into firewood for me for next fall. White Pine and Maple. Wonderful fellows. All from around Mexico City, but they all love PV as a place to visit. They love DD too. Carlos has lived here 25 years. They are all legal, and work like fiends. Ambitious. He owns his own tree bucket-truck, but he also does masonry and driveways. The American Way. His wife does house-cleaning and their kids are in college.
Real estate investing, small scale: 
Sippican 
Today, I am doing layered winter clothing, which is only of interest if one is spending more than just a few hours out in the weather.
None of these are particularly worthy of their own post, but they add up to a fun little collection. Well, except for that horribly sad thing that happened to Bird Dog.
My pic is a Nantucket "3/4 house." December is a good time to throw on a sweater and a scarf and stroll the streets of downtown Nantucket to admire the early 19th C. architecture with the leaves off the trees and the limousine Liberal vacationers off the streets.
From 
Gov. Lincoln Chafee: 
We occasionally feel the need to share the 
Today is 