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.
“I’ve just completed Mike’s [Mann] Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e. from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith’s [Briffa] to hide the decline.” Dr. Phil Jones, Director of the Climatic Research Unit, disclosed Climategate e-mail, Nov. 16, 1999
Mrs. BD gave me an early Father's Day/Anniversary present two weeks ago, and it pleased me greatly. It was five (legal) strong and energetic Mexican yard guys for 9 hours to clean up various unpleasant outdoor messes which had gotten out of control around the semi-elegant but rusticated Maggie's HQ.
If you knew me personally, you would know that I naturally worked alongside of them all day (with chain saw mostly, and some carrying of firewood, rocks, and branches), tipped them with $20 each, and gave them cold Coronas with lime slices at the end of the day. They arrived at 8 am with chipper, giant dumpster, tools, grass seed, hay, weed-whackers, an industrial tiller, etc.
Among other tasks, we cleared out almost 1/5 acre of weeds and dying shrubs and trees, removed roots and stumps, removed evil porcelain berry vines, thinned out some of my older spruce and cedar plantings, cut firewood out of some trees and large branches fallen from Sandy, shrunk my vegetable garden by 1/2, tilled, raked, and planted grass. While I tend to be opposed to lawns on principle, it was the only way to make this particular area not look like crap. Luckily, it has been cool and rainy almost every other day since we finished and the grass is coming in nicely. Thanks to global cooling, it's cool, windy, and rainy yet again today. Grass loves cool and wet.
Feels like Ireland up here. I like it. Got a sweet-smelling fir-log fire going right next to me as I type.
What a good present that day was. Thanks, Mrs. BD. These guys work as hard as I do, but they have bigger muscles. Well, I spent most of this past weekend trimming all of the hedges and misc. gardening, weeding, log-splitting, and transplanting at the direction of Mrs. BD. Are gardens ever done? Never. I do all of the outdoor work I have time to do. It's good exercise and the results can be gratifying. Next weekend, I plan to do the necessary lawn plugging but not, of course, on the new area.
Owning properties is an endless war against nature and her insidious Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Now I just need those 5 guys for one more day because I still have a to-do list and I need a dump truck load of mulch and a truck load of fresh driveway gravel. Maybe next Spring?
You Won’t
Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America -
See more at:
http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf
You Won’t
Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America -
See more at:
http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf
You Won’t
Believe What People Think is the Leading Cause of Poverty in America -
See more at:
http://menrec.com/you-wont-believe-what-people-think-is-the-leading-cause-of-poverty-in-america/#sthash.bfLkA6Mk.dpuf
“In order to train for this method of Jihad, you must consent to being sodomized for a period of time, so that your anus becomes wider, making room for the explosives."
Few summer drinks are more refreshing than the Cape Codder.
I think it tastes best with a little lime squeezed into it, like this recipe. (Come to think if it, most things taste better with a little fresh lime.)
Try a Cape Codder tomorrow, at breakfast.
When you add some grapefruit juice, that's a Sea Breeze. That's healthy too. It would probably be just as tasty without the vodka, but what would be the point?
My mixology research revealed that the Cape Codder is one of a family of cocktails known as "New England Highballs." I didn't know drinks had formal categories. I am still learning about the world.
It's the end of April, the Bluefish are beginning to show up and the Spring Spawn stripers cannot be far behind.
East Coast stripers (called Rockfish on the Left Coast) are an anadromous fish meaning that they spawn in fresh water, but live their adult lives in salt. There are four breeding stocks on the East Coast - Chesapeake Bay, Delaware River, Hudson River and Cape Cod. These four main schools provide most of the striper population along the East coast.
Recently, there has been some investigation about the Thames River (New London and Norwich, CT) over winter school being an addition feeder school to the Cape Cod stock. It is not unknown for the Thames River school to reach tremendous populations over winter and spawning up the Thames into the Yantic and Shetucket Rivers in the Spring.
Striper fishing is one of my passions - fresh water impounds down south or inshore in New England, stripers provide me with the best and the most honest type of fishing. I say honest because striper fishing isn't a case of chasing down a fierce predator like any of the bill fish or tuna. Stripers are basically lazy and thus require patience and knowledge of the bottom structure to obtain the best size.
A few of my favorite spots and techniques are below the fold -
College grads are waiting on tables. Is that a bad thing? Is it a result of the terrible Obama economy? It's been decades since a college degree guaranteed a good career. BAs are commonplace now, and are not as elite as they used to be in the job market. Many graduate degrees aren't worth the cost in cash or time either.
Americans are using restaurants and take-out more than ever. It's a cultural shift in which home cookin' becomes something special and in which diners, McDonalds, and Thai take-out becomes the American middle class routine.
If it's not all about the Obama economy, some of it could be about what Cowen calls economic resets. Not enough work for the cognitively-talented, but I hear that a good chef can always find work. Cognitive talent is not rare, and probably never was. Social class and lack of opportunity kept a lot of it hidden and invisible.
As far as I'm concerned, if you don't know Calc and Stats, if you don't know the Gas Laws and Avogadro's Number, if you don't know about mitochondrial RNA, if you can't discuss Haydn's role in Western music and can't write a brief but elegantly-structured essay on any cultural topic at the drop of a hat, you have a degree but you ain't "eddicated." That's why people like me, who have risen in new businesses to the point of interviewing new hires, ignore resumes and ask probing questions. We want people who know a lot about everything because we are a pioneering business with, as yet, no annoying HR Department.
"...... if you drink coffee, drink red wine, and have lots of sex, you should live a longer, healthier life. Luckily, these are some of my favorite things to do anyway."
My recent linking problem is tending to link many of the same things which our friends Insty and Vanderleun do, but entirely independently. Is Maggie's part of an "echo chamber"? I sure hope not. Maybe great minds think alike...
Cleta Mitchell: How to Investigate the IRS - Cleta Mitchell, the attorney who helped expose
the tax agency's abuses, has a road map for identifying the culprits. It
doesn't stop in Cincinnati.
Stephen Collins Foster (1826-1864) wrote "Oh, Susanna," "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)," "De Camptown Races," "Old Black Joe," "Beautiful Dreamer," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," "Hard Times," - and lots more.
Where would the American songbook be without him? Nowhere.
Here's his Wikipedia listing. It's the usual: made pennies from his songs, died drunk and alone in New York City. Only visited the deep South briefly, once, on his honeymoon.
Photos of his German piano teacher in Pittsburgh, his first guitar, and the first piano he played, here.
Why the Swanee River? It fit the meter and the feeling. Here's "Old Folks at Home," a true heart-breaker of a sentimental popular song, with a lovely simple tune, as Foster wrote it in NYC for the minstrel shows.
A small hilltop village in Umbria in the foothills of the Apennines, a couple of years ago. Mrs. BD and I were driving our Lancia to Norcia for lunch and to meet the Monks of Norcia. Naturally, we explored this place (forget the name) and, naturally with Italians, we were met with suspicion.
Never, ever try to tell me that big government is benign. The road to hell is paved with the best of intentions; power corrupts; etc etc. Everybody knows this even if they hope government could be a benevolent parent to them. Our Dr. Bliss considers that notion to be a naive, infantile fantasy.
George Washington said that. He was a big-enough man to reject power and a truly reluctant public servant. Most of our so-called "leaders" are arrogant and ignorant. "Don't follow leaders, watch your parkin' meters..."
I was taught that even Karl Marx planned for the eventual dissolution of The State.
Duh. That's been mostly true since Woodrow Wilson. There is no "trust in government" crisis. Old-time Americans have always viewed government as a necessary evil and always subject to distrust.
Everybody understands that big-time college sports are a big business which has little to do with a university's mission. Indeed, they can corrupt the university's mission.
Like so many things in life, it's about money and status. Big Division 1 athletics brings in big bucks from contracts and from alumni which is why the coaches are paid so well. Everybody working at a sports university gratefully feeds from that trough and are rightly grateful to the coaches and teams.
Status, too. It's called "marketing." How often do you hear kids say that they only want to go to a Big Ten School, or a Southern Conference school? I hear that often. Sports powerhouses attract students. UConn is a perfect example with its booming athletic program (aka sports franchise) in recent years. TV college sports put humble UConn on the national map.
Education is an industry, and Higher Ed is a big industry with crony relationships with TV and government.
Mrs. BD gave me an early Father's Day/Anniversary present two weeks ago, and it pleased me greatly. It was five (legal) strong and energetic Mexican yard guys for 9 hours to clean up various unpleasant outdoor messes which had gotten out of control around the semi-elegant but rusticated Maggie's HQ.
Manliest 
Few summer drinks are more refreshing than the Cape Codder. 
808 Cities, 2,503 Shows, and 1,007,416 Miles
Foster (1826-1864) wrote "Oh, Susanna," "Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)," "De Camptown Races," "Old Black Joe," "Beautiful Dreamer," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair," "Hard Times," - and lots more.
Democratic Senator: