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.
Interesting collating lightning with church bells. Bruuuuce does Dylan's 1964 song, with the lyrics, at Am. Digest.
Yes, poetry from a NYC thunderstorm. I've been in those, in a doorway with a gal. What sort of musical soul could write such a soulful tune? Bruuuce does not do all of the verses, but the following thing is the real Dylan.
The Maggie's List of Basic Life Skills is from some old post that I can't find, but let's note managing watercraft today.
Here's an idea for the no-foreign travel era: Learn at the Helm at Chapman School. It's a 5-day hands-on course, based in Florida. They claim that, by the end of the course, you will be able to back a 40-ft boat into a slip. I can not do that.
Clearly, if you have been a Naval officer or a Coastie, attended the Maritime Academy, etc, this might be redundant. Studying Charles Chapman's classic Piloting and Seamanship is good, but it's not hands-on.
Bleak House is my most memorable Dickens novel, maybe partly because an underlying theme is an endless legal case. Yes, I am a Dickens fan.
From Amazon:
As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but often comic, indictment of a society that is rotten to the core, Bleak House is one of Dickens's most ambitious novels, with a range that extends from the drawing rooms of the aristocracy to the poorest of London slums.
Thanks for most depressing post of the day. I doubt that that is the average Democrat, though but I am not sure. I tend to avoid political chats unless with people with whom I might be on a similar wavelength.
16:21 From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
16:22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you."
16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
16:24 Then Jesus told his disciples, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
16:25 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
16:26 For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?
16:27 "For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay everyone for what has been done.
16:28 Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."
Full of pungency and wit, this luminous work is Bulgakov's crowning achievement, skilfully blending magical and realistic elements, grotesque situations and major ethical concerns. Written during the darkest period of Stalin's repressive reign and a devastating satire of Soviet life, it combines two distinct yet interwoven parts, one set in contemporary Moscow, the other in ancient Jerusalem, each brimming with incident and with historical, imaginary, frightful and wonderful characters. Although completed in 1940, The Master and Margarita was not published until 1966 when the first section appeared in the monthly magazine Moskva. Russians everywhere responded enthusiastically to the novel's artistic and spiritual freedom and it was an immediate and enduring success. This new translation has been made from the complete and unabridged Russian text.
And some Democrats, nervous about condemning the looting because they said they understood the rage behind it, worried that what was happening in their town might backfire and aid the president’s re-election prospects.
I consider the book to be equivalent to a college introduction to music. It is serious, but written in a friendly style.
I make a rough distinction between Folk music (including things like traditonal folk music from wherever, Country, Rock, Blues, Rap, Jazz, Hymns, Gospel, Broadway, etc), and music which demands more attention. Right or wrong, that's how I think but I love a lot of it.
There is a large grey zone between those rough categories. Copland's Appalchian Spring, for just one example. For another, Verdi's operas were what gondoliers and street-sweepers sung at work.
The only music that truly annoys me is Rap and Praise Music.
When we left you in June to enter our annual state of aestivation, Nikole Hannah-Jones, the principal author of the New York Times’s malignant fantasy known as “The 1619 Project,” had just won a Pulitzer Prize. The world was looking forward to the end of the shutdown caused by the Chinese virus—remember “Fifteen Days to Slow the Spread”?—and the return of normality...
The new test does not adjust scores for age or gender, unlike the current test. It also adds exercises including dead lifts, sprints with 40-pound weights, power throws and a 2-mile run, among other new tasks.
I think I can pass the Army test. NOT the SEAL test. Can't bang out 100 pushups right now, or carry a man on my back for five miles.
A Century Later, 
Image: Not sure there is any solid data behind it, but whatever