Maggie's Farm

That was the New York Times' opinion of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey series of nautical novels, set during the Napoleonic wars. You might have seen the Russell Crowe movie about the first book of the series.

Royal Navy Master and Commander Aubrey and his ship's physician/spy Dr. Maturin are quite a pair. Maturin is the more interesting character, with his estate in Spain and his passion for natural history and for spying (for free). Aubrey is a skilled seaman and lucky warrior. The two men connect mostly by playing Handel on strings after dinner.

One theme of the series is that living on land is just too complex financially, romantically, socially, politically, and practically, while going to war at sea is comfortably simple with the possibility of becoming wealthy by seizing prizes. This series offers a similar delightful escape.

The sailing details are said to be remarkably accurate. You can learn a lot about topgallant sails. I had to look up quite a few antique nautical terms. I've never sailed on a square-rigger, but I would love to.

O'Brian died recently. We owe him many thanks for his efforts. Writing novels that anybody is willing to read, given limited free time to do so, is always remarkable.

The captain discusses some of the challenges in landing on a high-altitude airport like Nairobi's. Also interesting to hear about the cargo. I love this stuff. English seems to be the international flight language.

What pilots do. Like ship captains, these guys (or gals) have to have their wits about them. What a cool job.

This is the not-so-beloved MD 11. 

Image via Never Yet Melted 

I wasn´t supposed to like George H.W. Bush -Then I got to know him

Radio station drops "Baby It´s Cold Outside" over #MeToo concerns

What? Is seduction off the table?  It's a charming song, the romantic dance.

Gun Sales So Low At Dick’s They May Yank All Hunting Gear

 Results of Colorado Marijuana Legalization 4 Years Later

Why your state is smaller than you think (video) 

It's about federal land 

Wage gap: "... if capitalists could actually hire women at half the cost of men for the same work, men would never hold jobs again."

 MEDIA SUDDENLY INTERESTED IN JEFFREY EPSTEIN

Mueller Racks Up Yet Another Process Crime with Michael Cohen's Guilty Plea

Process crimes are lame without a real crime 

Powerline:  A MUELLER UPDATE

Donald Trump Jr Responds To NPR Finally Retracting False Story About Him "I guess this is as close as I’ll get to an apology where yet another 'bombshell' bites the dust."

 Italian Deputy Premier and Interior Minister: New Global Compact on Migration Makes it Criminal "Hate Speech" To Criticize Pro-Immigration Policy

Are you kidding me? 

 Sixteen FBI Agents Raid Home of Clinton Foundation, Uranium One Whistleblower

It's dangerous to be a whistleblower 

 Blue State Blues: Democrats Stole the Election in California — Legally, Through ‘Ballot Harvesting’

 Democrats find the secret sauce: No more 'pandering to white people'

Establishment Media Admit Caravan Migrants Looking for Jobs, Not Asylum

Duh 

 CNN FINDS A QUARTER OF EUROPEANS ARE ANTI-SEMITIC. 

 Revealed: Emptying of the Iranian “Atomic Warehouse” at Turquz Abad

 The Iranian Regime's Transfer of Arms to Proxy Groups and Ongoing Missile Development

 For Israel, a rearmed Hezbollah in Lebanon is top concern

Shakespeare probably wrote this sonnet in his late 30s, making it, I suppose, a creation of sentimental imagination. It seems to be addressed to a younger man. Here are some thoughts, etc about Sonnet 73. Interesting to me that John Berryman believed it to be the best poem written in English, despite its flaws.

That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day,
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by-and-by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
  This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
  To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

Photo: FYI, Advent begins this Sunday 

Gerard sees what is left of his home in Paradise

Betsy retires from blogging. It went from a hobby to a chore 

 Payless sold its discount shoes for $600 a pair at mock luxury influencer event

How overparenting backfired on Americans - Being raised indoors might the reason young Americans struggle in the adult world.

First world war paintings go on show for first time since 1919

Wow 

Is Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer “Problematic”?

Is the US really so racist?

No. There is almost no racism in America today. 

 Chinese scientist's gene-edited babies have opened Pandora's box. Brace yourselves.

 Brazil Cancels Hosting Of 2019 UN IPCC Climate Change Conference

The ACLU Declines to Defend Civil Rights - The civil-liberties organization has taken a stand against stronger due-process protections in campus tribunals that undermines its own principles.

 Is New York's "Safety Net" A Success?

 Jerome Corsi explains the perjury trap Mueller's team sprang on him

 Why Trump will look back fondly on the Mueller probe

 Joke of the day: Obama takes credit for oil boom

 CNN’s Chris Cuomo Compares Criminal Illegal Aliens to Baby Jesus 

 Tijuana Official Slams Caravan Organizers: Not 'Coming Through' on Promises to Migrants

 The Russians and the Kerch Bridge: What Would Reagan Do?

ICC Takes Anti-Israel Bias to New Heights - A betrayal of justice.

Tracking China’s Muslim Gulag

From that Thompson piece: "I'd wager dollars to donuts they cannot identify one single aspect of their lives which has changed for the worse since January 22, 2017."

The Myths of Troy

Mass. Pot Shops Ring Up $2M-Plus in Sales in 1st Week

 Mysterious, paralyzing disease has now spread to 31 states and Canada

 Why GM CEO Mary Barra killed Chevrolet cars, approved likely plant closures

 A researcher’s claim that two CRISPR-edited baby girls have been born has been met with widespread condemnation from scientists and ethicists alike.

Different culture over there 

Lord of the Rings Slammed for Perpetuating Racism through Depiction of Orcs

We need more masculinity, not less

"Ah, another article about “strong” women. That is, women who become emotional wrecks and lose all self-control"

Unstable women are not good feminist role models. BTW, Thompson can be quite witty when he has the time. 

 ‘I’m Broke and Mostly Friendless, and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life’

Sheesh, Polly. She should be an artist? Unleash her inner Picasso?

 Twitter Has Gone Full Trans-Activist

 On November 15, I woke up to find my Twitter account locked, on account of what the company described as “hateful conduct.”

She actually said what? 

 White Liberals Dumb Themselves Down When Talking To Blacks

Dem politicians sure do 

 Berkeley prof wants to nix student evals after white male profs score higher

 OUR ROTTEN LIBERAL ARTS COLLEGES

 Students at Williams College Demand Freedom from Speech

Except their own 

 Why do so many academics dislike the market?

New Orleans looks underground as parts of city slowly sink

 Martha McSally campaign says it's not, not, NOT her fault she lost to Kyrsten Sinema

Blaming others is neither attractive in adults or children 

 The Continuing Lunacy Of The Neocons

 If government unions have a choice, why shouldn’t workers have it too? Janus and the Free-Rider Myth

Sorry Lib Media: Bill Clinton Took 26 Junkets with Deviant Epstein—Trump Banned the Perv From Mar-a-Lago

 New York Times Columnist on Trump Supporters: ‘Maybe They’re Just Bad People’

 IT WAS A HOAX: Guardian Report Blows Up – Manafort Passport Shows NO UK TRIPS – Never Met with Assange

What's up with The Guardian?  The Guardian’s Desperate Attempt To Connect Assange To Russiagate Backfires

Libel time 

 Dershowitz: Number of ‘Credible’ Witnesses Mueller Has Are ‘Shrinking by the Day’

USA Today:  As American troops install razor wire in Arizona, images of the Berlin Wall resurface

The whole world wanted to move to the East German paradise 

 The problem with those in favor of ‘illegal’ immigration

 Poll: 7 Of 10 Mexicans Have Negative View Of Migrant Caravan Marching Through Their Country

Racists 

 What Hillary got right (and wrong) about Europe’s migrant mess

 A Sobering New Report on the State of US Military

 CNN poll reveals depth of anti-Semitism in Europe

 In Dramatic Reversal, Theresa May Will Allow Parliament To Change Brexit Deal

The great thing about the "lower body" powerlifts is that they are complex movements which train your entire body, not just legs.

I am talking about squats (barbell squats especially) and deadlifts. Here's 8 Reasons to Do Squat Exercises. Did I forget to mention that squats are hard? With weights, they are f-ing miserable. Body-weight squats are good fitness calis, but the weights are a bitch.

Lunges and step-ups are more purely leg focused, and in the calisthenic category even when done with dumbells. And the stair machines are great stressors, but mostly cardio and endurance.

I have found that doing five tough sets of barbell squats and 5 of deads (different days), plus, on different days, a set of goblet squats, of dumbell lunges, and a set of dumbell high step-ups, have improved my energy and ease of movement remarkably. Serious lifters would do those things twice weekly, but that's not me.   

I can't credit at all to those, though, because I do other sorts of workouts each week too. Still, when you see progress with the weights you know it's all working. 

 Predictably, Donald Trump was attacked both by the establishment and the media as “crude,” “unpresidential,” and “gratuitous” for a recent series of blunt and graphic statements on a variety of current policies. Oddly, the implied charge this time around was not that Trump makes up stuff, but that he said things that were factual but should not be spoken.

From Bob Dylan 2018 Is One of the Greatest Shows in History of Rock - Master paints new masterpiece every night by revisiting past in new ways.

 "Bob Dylan in 2018 demands that you be in the moment. If you go with him, you will experience 120 minutes as intense and rewarding as any Dylan-trip you ever went on as a teenager — when you first discovered the magic of his eternal poetry and his American exceptionalism..."