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 informed our readers recently that it's a good idea just to toss a little bleach into your vases of cut flowers.
Here's another tip (also via Mrs. BD's garden club). When you force Paperwhite bulbs, always throw in a shot or two of vodka or gin into their water once they sprout up a few inches. It stunts their growth just enough to prevent them from getting leggy and falling over. It has no impact on the bloom - or the scent.
One might like to imagine that it cheers them up, too. Grey Goose, of course.
It is indeed true that our posture, along with our general comportment, attire, manners, speech, and capacity for chat are what others base their initial impressions on. Rightly or wrongly, those things matter to me too.
To stay strong and upright, I do deadlifts. Like squats, they are highly unpleasant but highly beneficial for leg strength and back strength. If we spend 15 hours per day sitting, we must do what little we can to remain vital and to delay physical decay.
Physical and mental decay begins, according to the experts, in our late 30s.
Two weeks ago, I questioned if we were in another bubble based on the (then upcoming) IPO of King Digital Entertainment, makers of the highly addictive Candy Crush game.
Well, the IPO has been launched, the early returns are in and... you can decide on whether we are in a bubble.
Or maybe it's just a Buble and everybody is feeling good...
When to Put Crabgrass Preventer Down. In the northeast US, crabgrass thrives in dry lawn with full sun. These are also the areas where regular lawn grass naturally goes dormant in the summer - unless irrigated. I only apply it in the full-sun hot areas.
When to put Preen on flower beds? Anytime. Just don't put it on bulb areas or on lilies.
Joseph Bottum ... examines post-Protestant secular religion with empathy, and contends that it gained force and staying power by recasting the old Mainline Protestantism in the form of catechistic worldly categories: anti-racism, anti-gender discrimination, anti-inequality, and so forth. What sustains the heirs of the now-defunct Protestant consensus, he concludes, is a sense of the sacred, but one that seeks the security of personal salvation through assuming the right stance on social and political issues. Precisely because the new secular religion permeates into the pores of everyday life, it sustains the certitude of salvation and a self-perpetuating spiritual aura. Secularism has succeeded on religious terms. That is an uncommon way of understanding the issue, and a powerful one.
There is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. However, none of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level. In addition, the Standards Development Work Groups did not include any members who were high school English and mathematics teachers, English professors, scientists, engineers, parents, state legislators, early childhood educators, and state or local school board members.
Every small-to-medium-sized business in America pays quarterlies, as do all Maggie's Farmers. It's simple: you just write a check to the US Treasury, and they pay it to the Chinese as interest on our national debt.
Necessity isn't the mother of invention, incentives are. Necessity, at times, is an incentive to invent or improve.
Speaking of incentives, is virtue inalienable? Are there situations which can mitigate morally reprehensible behavior? Broadly speaking, I'd say no, not usually. However, context is important and always useful in developing a justifiable opinion about some very specific situations. Along these lines, what represents an unfair advantage in making an exchange? Would the person purchasing this egg be wrong to not disclose information he had about it? After all, we do have laws about not disclosing information about what is being sold.
These same laws should apply to the buyer, should they not?
The astonishing wealth of the West, more widely distributed than in any other civilization, the abandonment of religion as the foundation of morals and virtues, the transformation of political freedom into self-centered license, and the commodification of hedonism that makes available to everyman luxuries and behaviors once reserved for a tiny elite, have made self-indulgence and the present more important than self-sacrifice and the future.
Declining birthrates, a preference for spending on social welfare transfers rather than on defense, and a willingness to beggar our children and grandchildren with debt in order to finance these entitlements– all bespeak a people whose wealth deludes them into thinking that they can imprudently ignore the future and indefinitely afford these luxuries that in fact insidiously weaken the foundations of our social and political order. This process is more advanced in Europe than in the U.S., but we in America have been steadily moving towards the same mentality.
A patient of mine sought admission to a small psychiatric hospital. He was feeling depressed and anxious and wanted to be cared for. The hospital had no beds and placed his name on a waiting list. He was admitted to the emergency department holding area of our local hospital and after two days felt well enough to return home. The next week the psychiatric hospital called to say they had a bed. He told them he didn't require admission at this time. They asked if he had a doctor and he told them he did. Then they asked if he owned a gun. He took offense.
"They want to know if I own a gun so they can take it away."
"You don't own a gun," I said, "and maybe they were asking because they were concerned you might be suicidal when depressed or violent when angry. They know your moods and behavior, you've been at that hospital in the past." This is a middle aged man with autism spectrum, what used to be called Asperger's.
I'm sure most people say "Advertising doesn't work, I've never bought anything because of advertising." Perhaps, though this ignores the fact that advertising is designed to inform, entertain, draw attention to a product, and drive interest or motivate purchase. It also helps maintain brand loyalty. There are many things advertising cannot do, as well, and one is assure business will be driven to the cash registers, particularly if the advertising is ill-considered.
But this is a good example of how advertising can not only entertain, but co-opt a message which is designed to hurt a business. It may not drive business, but God bless the owner who realized how to turn a bad situation to his favor.
Many people believe corporations and businesses are strong, particularly if they are large and have huge profits (as many car dealers often do). It is my view advertising is proof businesses are weak and competition is intense. Finding new and useful ways to get your message to break through the clutter is good for business. Done poorly, it can annoy, distract, and possibly hurt business. Done well, it can keep your consumer base intact or grow the foundation of purchasers. Or keep your opponents off balance.
In the northern hemisphere, it's time to prune the heck out of your paniculata types of Hydrangeas (but not macrophyllas or oakleafs - prune them in late July or early August because they bloom on old wood). If you have hydrangeas, it's important to know what general types they are, if you want blooms. There are only three basic types, macrophylla, paniculata, and oakleaf. It's not rocket science.
This season of Lent naturally has me thinking about the theme of sacrifice. I wondered when Jews gave up ritual sacrifice, and was interested to learn that the tradition was to eat the sacrificed animal - sharing it with the priest who no doubt got the filet, and to let the guts burn to ashes. In Christianity, Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God.
Those are the roots of Christ's instructions about what we now call "Communion." "This is my flesh, take of it and eat."
4:5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
4:6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
4:7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
4:8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
4:11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
4:12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"
4:13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
4:14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."
Spotlighted at Forbes: 
I informed our readers recently that it's a good idea just to toss a little bleach into your vases of cut flowers.
A book: 
A recent study has shown that 
This season of Lent naturally has me thinking about the theme of sacrifice. I wondered when Jews gave up ritual sacrifice, and was interested to learn that the tradition was to eat the sacrificed animal - sharing it with the priest who no doubt got the filet, and to let the guts burn to ashes. In Christianity, Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God.