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.
Who is to blame for this? Weenie Dads? Tort lawyers? Government? Mom-headed households? Truth is, when I was ten I would disappear all day on bikes with friends, exploring woods, swimming illegally in reservoirs, building forts (snowball fights in winter, rock and stick wars in summer), shooting BB guns, fishing, sailing a Sailfish, playing vacant-lot baseball, shooting hoops on the asphalt-covered schoolyard, enjoying occasional fistfights, stealing candy from the candy shop, smoking cigarettes stolen from parents, teasing girls (mainly the ones we liked). Home by dark of course. That was the rule.
Normal stuff. The wife says I turned out fine.
If your kid doesn't come home dirty and bruised, with a mouth full of lies and the occasional broken bone, it's a shame. But I guess the boys play video games all day now and rot their brains.
I posted about the Cumberland Swing a few weeks ago. The good guy who makes those heavy swings for covered porches is excellent but has trouble finding time to make them. The Porch Swing Company makes similar ones for half the price. Perhaps not built for a 200-year life, but pleasant. Made by Amish.
In England, they call it "garden croquet" as opposed to formal croquet on a graded, manicured court.
We have neither a backyard pool nor a backyard tennis court, but we have an outdoor ping-pong table in the barn and, of course, a good English croquet set.
A fun town to visit. Historic and salty. Been there a number of times. Excellent seafood restaurants, jolly pubs, comfortable antique hotels and B&Bs, and interesting architecture. Interestingly, also the oldest synagogue in America as was noted by George Washington. People like to visit the grand old "cottages" but they aren't too interesting to me although I guess you have to do it once.
A few friends of ours have recently bought weekend homes there. I don't want one but it is a pleasant location with plenty of good social activity around clubs and boats.
Salt Water New England - whoever she is - was there this week. Nice boat. Good photos. Too bad she didn't stop by the important and elegant Newport Flower Show where she might have met Mrs. BD and her good pals. Mrs. BD would have stayed longer for the parties, etc. but we have a wedding today. That magnificent show attracts people from all over the US and Europe and they even bus them in from the airport.
“Normative
sociology, the study of what the causes of problems ought to be,
greatly fascinates us all” - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/06/normative-sociology.html#sthash.I4faI8Ij.dpuf
Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat; But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth, When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends of the earth!
Kamal is out with twenty men to raise the Border-side, And he has lifted the Colonel's mare that is the Colonel's pride: He has lifted her out of the stable-door between the dawn and the day, And turned the calkins upon her feet, and ridden her far away. Then up and spoke the Colonel's son that led a troop of the Guides: "Is there never a man of all my men can say where Kamal hides?" Then up and spoke Mahommed Khan, the son of the Ressaldar: "If ye know the track of the morning-mist, ye know where his pickets are. At dusk he harries the Abazai -- at dawn he is into Bonair, But he must go by Fort Bukloh to his own place to fare, So if ye gallop to Fort Bukloh as fast as a bird can fly, By the favour of God ye may cut him off ere he win to the Tongue of Jagai. But if he be past the Tongue of Jagai, right swiftly turn ye then, For the length and the breadth of that grisly plain is sown with Kamal's men.
In Germany, the Autobahn between Stuttgart and Munich is used by the auto industry for their high speed test tracks. The Germans have three types of divided highways, limited access, freeways, and the Autobahn. All have speed limits except the Autobahn. The thing that surprised me was, at least the last time I was there, you are not allowed to pass on the right, which both the motorcycles and the Audi did in the video. The highest speed traffic is to be in the left lane and if you are overtaking another vehicle you are to flash your lights and the other vehicle is to move to the right allowing you to pass.
This will give you your Go Fast high for the day. The guy in the Audi is nuts and the guy on the bike makes the Audi guy look sane. It's worth visiting Germany just to enjoy the freedom of the Autobahn, but you can do the same in Italy if you feel like it.
In Italia, you ignore the speed limits and all of the other rules. Nobody cares. In fact, the road is considered a place for fun.
In America, most people want to look good and to feel good. It's not narcissism so much as it is a cultural standard and a cultural expectation. Nobody likes to look in the mirror nude and think "I look like a mess," or to go on an adventure and feel tired.
It seems to me that decent, spirited people always aspire to improve their souls, their brains and knowledge, their fitness, their appearance, their skills, their morals, their relationships, etc. etc. Giving up is not cool and shows no respect for God's gifts - and surely nobody wants their teeth to indicate that they might be from England or Bosnia.
I considered butterflied lamb, and considered short ribs. Finally decided to keep it simple - burgers on the barbie. I haven't done burgers on the grill yet this Spring.
We'll have three Dads (including me) and 10-12 people for lunch. I'm cooking. Fathers grill meat on Father's Day to signify their masculine hunter-gatherer role in life.
I like to server burgers with hard rolls, chips, and a platter of pickles, sliced onions, and sliced tomato. If somebody wants a cheeseburger, I'll use a slice of Saga Blue. Bowl of German potato salad from the market. Male cooking.
I'll probably grill up my usual platter of veggies too as a side: red peppers, onions, scallions, eggplant, mushroom, summer squash, all with browned or slightly-burnt parts and splashed with olive oil. People love my simple grilled vegetable mix and it makes excellent leftovers. I grill with charcoal + firewood.
When I do burgers, I never use lean meat. What's the point? I put the meat in a big bowl, stir it up with a little Worcestershire sauce or Soy sauce, plenty of ground pepper and Kosher salt, some garlic powder or dried onion soup mix, or sometimes a little herbed bread crumbs to hold the juices. I like them to come off the charcoal crunchy and dark on the outside and pink in the middle. Ten minutes or so, depending on the heat.
Beer, wine and bubbly water with some lime. Ketchup? You betcha. Made a batch of hot pepper jelly/relish for thems as got the nerve to try it. Hot as hell itself. Tasty on a burger. Some of my peach chutney too from last fall. Those condiments are good with anything.
We'll have a birthday cake for dessert, because we have one of those to take note of this week. Yellow cake with Mocha frosting. Except for the birthday, I would have cooked up a big Blackberry Cobbler for dessert. Even men can make that.
"He headed back to Woodstock when the tour wrapped and continued to work on the piece. "The first two lines, which rhymed 'kiddin' you' and 'didn't you,' just about knocked me out," he told Rolling Stone in 1988, "and when I got to the jugglers and the chrome horse and the princess on the steeple, it all just about got to be too much."
CHARLIE HEBDO WAS UNAVAILABLE FOR COMMENT: Obama on Charleston shooting: “Let’s be clear —this kind of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.”
How to make weddings fun even in cheesy catering halls.
Crazy, bawdy lyrics of C'e La Luna Mezz'o Mare. "Marry the guy with the cucumber. " The singer has the real rough southern Italian peasant accent - wonderfully bad.
I'll confess that I do not greatly enjoy wedding events, and this season has been, and will be, heavy with these weekend social duties. Of course, I am always pleased when people find life partners, though.
In youth, attending friends' weddings was great fun. Drinking, smoking pot behind the church, getting dressed up, guys meeting new gals and vice versa, making out on the club porch with a new person after too many champagnes. Many youth meet their future mates at weddings, for good reason: they have been socio-culturally vetted.
I also understand that parents like to throw lavish weddings to entertain their friends, families, and business associates. An excuse to check that box. But only the youth really enjoy these things because it's new to them. As an adult, I do not really enjoy attending (although I feel hurt if not invited). They interfere with your whole day and go on too long.
An inconvenience, in fact, but showing up is an obligation to people you care about. It's important to them that you show up. A brief ceremony with sandwiches and drinks after would be fine with me, same as a funeral. Two hours, max, go through the receiving line, leave your gift on the pile, and then get to your tennis game. I've been to enough weddings (and enough funerals too). Throwing a wedding need not be a major imposition on your guests' lives.
- People do not realize that your wedding is not the only one they are obligated to go to this year. For them, it seems like a Big Deal.
- You get seated with people you have to make small talk with. Dull, usually. You keep wondering "Can we leave yet?"
- You have to pretend to have 'fun," and to be grateful for the abundant food, drink, loud music, and the opportunity to dance like a teenager. I do not need any of those things but the youngsters might.
- Old Yankee Rules: Excess and display are tacky. Old Puritan Rules: weddings are not religious matters. Marriage is not a Protestant sacrament but is a solemn, witnessed vow, and a secular contract.
- 67% of American marriages end in grisly divorce
- Weddings without children attending are just no darn good.
- Weddings are an industry today. $10,000 for flowers? For one afternoon?
I don't mean to sound like a curmudgeon (or do I?). Marriage is an essential institution and God bless all who partake and whose vows are deadly serious.
My idea of a wedding event for my kids would be old-time, slightly post-Puritan New England. Bring a fiddler and an accordionist to the town green with a pig roast, with kids crying and running around. Don't even get me started on beach weddings, mountaintop weddings, black tie weddings, and golf destination weddings. But we have boys so I will be mercifully out of the loop.
The wedding was performed at home by a magistrate in a simple civil ceremony. There were no holy vows or wedding rings---which the Puritans disapproved. A single question was addressed to the bride and groom; when they freely answered in the affirmative, the event was over. The couple was required to register their marriage in a civil book kept by the town clerk. Then a small celebration followed---not a great feast, but a modest wedding dinner with bridal cakes and a cup of sack posset.
The sober settlers of Massachusetts did not approve of wild wedding parties. The clergy condemned extravagant display as "vain marriage." The most important part of the dinner was the singing of a psalm. Dancing was sternly forbidden; so also were excessive dining and drinking.
The percentage of pregnant brides is said to have been quite high amongst the puritan Congregationalists, maybe 50% or more.
Why do jerks like Obama jump on a tragedy to try to score political points? It is disgusting. My prayers for the families and for the congregation of the church.
Our recent trip to Italy complete, my wife and I began wondering "What's Next?" almost immediately. On a particularly rainy day, she suggested we watch "The Way" which she had saved on VOD. I wasn't expecting much, and as movies go I didn't really get much. It was a pleasant, if not bittersweet, story of a widower coming to grips with the loss of a child who had reached adulthood and passed.
What caught my attention, though I'm not sure if it caught my wife's, was the trail itself. I was an avid hiker/camper in my youth. My wife is not. El Camino is roughly 800 km, or about 500 miles, if started in Roncesvalles, France.
The history of El Camino is quite lengthy, a pilgrimage which preceded even the Christian era. With the growth of the Church, and the incorporation of many pagan rituals and groups within the Church itself, El Camino took on new significance as a means of penance. The attraction of Santiago de Compostela is related to the belief that St. James the Greater's (Santiago) tomb is in the church at that site. The belief was, for years, that the path offered an opportunity for penance and spiritual growth, as any pilgrimage seeks to provide.
There were, and to some degree still are, many paths to complete the pilgrimage. Which is one reason given to the rise of the symbol of El Camino, the scallop shell, with many routes ending at a single point. Other reasons for the shell include the belief that to 'prove' one completed the trip, a scallop shell was required to be taken as a token. Scallop shells also happened to provide other traveling purposes, such as acting as a plate for food, or large enough for a small drink of water. All the stories about the shell relate back to some myths about the arrival of St. James' body to Spain's shores.
According to psychologist David Lisak, “the vast majority of sexual assaults on campuses, in fact over 90 percent, are being perpetrated by serial offenders.” These people, Lisak suggests, are not only “prolific” but calculating, too: “They’ve perfected ways of identifying who on campus, for example, are most vulnerable.”
Jindal went right to the top, taking aim at President Barack Obama."Find me an enemy he can name," Jindal said. "He won't say radical Islamic terrorist. He goes to the Coast Guard, at this military graduation, warns them about climate change. Now he can agree he's going to protect us from microwave popcorn and french fries.
"I've got a deal for the president," Jindal said. "I'll protect my kids from the Oreo cookies if he will do his job as commander in chief and protect us from the terrorists."
One of my degrees from college was in TV/Film Production. I never used it, but it was a strong interest of mine when I was younger. I wanted to make documentaries.
Today, the documentary world is full of nonsense. Outside of Ken Burns, whose work usually captures my eyes and ears, there aren't many documentary works which are interesting at all. Most documentaries today seem to be paid for by either corporations or left-wing nutjob organizations. They are more propaganda than documentary.
Which is a shame. The term documentary used to mean something, and not just mean "telling you a story I'm paid to tell you because it's what my paymasters want."
"Nanook of the North" was one of the first documentaries, and this work comprised at least 3 full classes in one semester of documentary study. Even then, much was known about how much Robert Flaherty had scripted, rather than actually documenting 'Nanook's' life. Flaherty defended his position, pointing out the issues a producer has in trying to recreate reality. As a class, we agreed that Flaherty's limitations, based on the bulkiness of his equipment and limited capacity for being in the right place at the right time, gave him some leeway to play somewhat fast and loose with the generally accepted rules of documentary film-making. Even so, his work perpetrated and reinforced some stereotypes, rather than helping to inform people about how accustomed to modern life Eskimos really were.
Most people, of course, don’t really care if partially hydrogenated oils fall out of the food supply. What they do care about is the unremitting efforts of politicians to micromanage their lives.
"Even if you never plan to consume a smidgen of trans fat ever again, note well: many public health advocates are itching for the FDA to limit allowable amounts of salt, sugar, caffeine, and so forth in food products."
A few suggestions from a reader on what things to promote to reduce material poverty around the world:
work ethic showing up on time frugality saving investing for profit enforceable contracts freely entered independent arbitration of disputes rule of law in which all persons are equal secure private property rights good education to high standards
All the same, I believe the Pope' s job is to worry about spiritual poverty, not material. St. Francis took a vow of poverty and rejection of secular matters to assist his spiritual development and preaching mission.
Old log cabin is older (1876) than the young Sequoia gigantea (c.1895) - note c.1885 photo before the sequoia was planted.
Giant sequoias grow to an average height of 250 to 275 feet (76-84 m) and 15 to 20 feet (5-7 m) d.b.h. Record trees have been reported to be 310 feet (95 m) in height and 35 feet (11m) d.b.h. The leaves are awl-shaped,sessile, and persistent. Seed cones are 2 to 3 inches (5-8cm) long, serotinous, persistent, and may remain green up to 20 years. Bark is fibrous, furrowed, and may be 2 feet (0.6 m) thick at the base of the columnar trunk. The oldest known giant sequoia based on ring count is 3,200 years old.
Were I to dare to write a note to His Holiness, it would include some phrases like these:
...putting aside your concerns about nature and the weather, which I think the Creator may control in some way which is beyond our comprehension...
...instead of trying to be an amateur meteorologist or amateur economist, why not focus on Christ and His offer of salvation? That's what people need.
...if money is one of your major interests in this transient earthly existence, one constructive path of inquiry would be to focus on and to promote what makes people prosperous instead of blaming others...not that has anything to do with your job or your expertise, but the sources of prosperity and material abundance are well-understood...while the sources of religious abundance always need instruction, guidance, support and help.
In England, they call it "garden croquet" as opposed to formal croquet on a graded, manicured court. 
“Normative sociology, the study of what the causes of problems ought to be,
Photo: 
I'll confess that I do not greatly enjoy wedding events, and this season has been, and will be, heavy with these weekend social duties. Of course, I am always pleased when people find life partners, though.
What caught my attention, though I'm not sure if it caught my wife's, was the trail itself. I was an avid hiker/camper in my youth. My wife is not. El Camino is roughly 800 km, or about 500 miles, if started in Roncesvalles, France. 
Photo from Sipp's 
