Tuesday, August 29. 2006
One of our old hayfields has been over-run with Goldenrod. It makes for a pretty sight in August, but there is no hay there anymore, and the upper part is all Milkweed, to the delight of the Monarch butterflies. Rather than trying to rehabilitate it as a hayfield by deep-plowing, re-seeding for a couple of years with red clover, and plowing again and re-seeding with good hayseed, the current low-cost plan is just to mow it every two years, and to let the animals and birds enjoy it - which they do. Don't need more hay. Sparrows, snakes, and Wild turkey like it as is. And deer, of course, by the bushel. And I have noticed that the beaver come out of the marsh to eat stuff in the meadow at night. I have planted junipers next to the rocks, because with high growth you cannot see the rocks when you mow. Also, putting Bluebird houses on each rock, which the Tree Swallows seem to take over. Last summer I stupidly drove a tractor right up on one rock, about a 3' item I forgot about, and not only did it scare the bejesus out of me, but it also took another tractor to pull it off. Picture the front wheels of a Farmall four feet in the air, and a boulder jammed under the crankcase. Three Stooges. Mark the rocks before you mow. A good adage in rocky Yankeeland, where glacial boulders are one of our main crops. Like measure twice, cut once. You can see how the dang White Pines had been invading that field about 15 years ago. That process has been halted by aggressive border patrol, but it's a big job to roll it back. Cannot get a logging truck over the bridge, so it's sweat and chain saw. One step at a time. It's an excellent work out. 
Monday, August 28. 2006
This came in over the transom: 1. The first German serviceman killed in WW2 was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. . . . So much for allies. 2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.) 3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika." All three were soon changed for PR purposes. 4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance of being killed was 71%. 5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane. 6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy.Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down. YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE THIS ONE.... 7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act). found the photo (hand tinted black and white) 8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort. 9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet. 10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans.They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army. AND I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST.... 11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island.
Preparing for crime, from Alphecca: You're awakened in the night by the sound of someone breaking into your home. Do you know what you would do first, second, etc. Does your spouse know what to do? Your kids?
Well, in my opinion the first thing you do is to get a loud dog. Second, either wire your house for security, or at least just get some security company stickers for the doors and windows. Third, be armed, because anyone who gets by those needs shooting. It's a guy's job - or a gal's, in some cases - to protect your castle. Anyway, read the whole thing.
Sunday, August 27. 2006
 Cold and wet today in Yankee-land, in August. Good day for the first fire in the fireplace, but we are still awaiting the chimney-sweep. Where is all of that warming we keep hearing about? Perfect weather for putting in all of the wierd new hostas that the Mrs. Bird Dog has been finding via the Hosta Society. (Never plant hostas in the sun.)
A few end-of summer, goin' back to school notes: 1. We have added (or are in process of adding, due to some technical glitches) a bunch of new sites to our blogroll - read 'em, if you don't. Here's just a sample of our additions: Sister Toldjah
Solomonia
Jerusalem Post Blog Central
Dust My Broom "Dust my broom," as our literate readers surely know, is a line from a Robert Johnson song. 2. Last chance for the Yankee Farmer: As soon as technically do-able, we are going to blend him into our archives. 3. Food and Drink: Considering a new Category. Dr. Bliss seems like she'd rather write about food than shrinkology: maybe she needs a break from deep thought. Our rule is this: Write about whatever you want. 4. News Junkie: Since so many of us all check at leat a number of blogs and new sites daily, we are urging the NJ to focus on obscure stuff. He won't, because he never does what he is told to do, but we assume everyone checks Drudge, Powerline, and Instapundit daily, without our help. 5. We wonder where blogging is headed. Maybe nowhere, but it's an interesting ride for us. Like magazines, there are too many interesting ones to have time to read, but I find the blog collectors, like Pajama's fine site, a bit dull to look at. I think we will stay independent, and maybe mediocre, and just a strange brew, for now. The eccentric, Yankee way: we do what we want, and if you don't like it, you can leave us alone. None of us has the time for intense writing or reporting, but our readership is growing steadily, which is gratifying. Time, intelligence, and creativity are our limiting factors. For some reason, we don't have the commenting culture here that I would enjoy, but the handful we get are pretty intelligent - and we do not mind criticism, no matter how harsh - if it responds to points - because we know we are far from perfect, and sometimes lazy. Money? We do not want money from the internets, unless it's Big Money. Small money is of no interest to us. We all get that from our day jobs. Why the cheesecake? Many email about that. The female, like a flower, is art. Period. We love art, with or without frames. We also love cold weather - the colder, the better, which is why we are happy to hear about the new global cooling data.
 Do we love hydrangeas at Maggies Farm? Yes, we do. And the mini- version of Snow Queen, Wayside's patented Pee Wee, is the best darn plant. Even the leaves are good lookin'.
 These guys need serious pruning, this winter. About 15' tall, but these are old-fashioned, and they bloom like crazy, with no care whatsoever. These are very happy with full sun, but they do not require it. Half is enough, for most varieties. But some seem to desire sun, despite the labels, and others wilt. I see a huge weed, though. A baby tree, pushing up through the bush. Missed it, somehow, but the photo makes it clear. Its fate is sealed, at a time of our chosing. Gardening is war against wild nature. Nothing "green" about it. Most of gardening is plant-murder (aka "weeding").
Saturday, August 26. 2006
 Crossing 66
You came to my door in the dawn and sang; it angered me to be awakened from sleep, and you went away unheeded. You came in the noon and asked for water; it vexed me in my work, and you were sent away with reproaches. You came in the evening with your flaming torches. You seemed to me like a terror and I shut my door. Now in the midnight I sit alone in my lampless room and call you back whom I turned away in insult.
About Tagore (1915-1941) here.
Friday, August 25. 2006
Shamelessly right-clicked from Right Wing Howler: 
Thursday, August 24. 2006
 From the mouth of Mr. Sunshine, via Reuters:
Bob Dylan says the quality of modern recordings is "atrocious," and even the songs on his new album sounded much better in the studio than on disc. "I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past 20 years, really," the 65-year-old rocker said in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. Dylan, who released eight studio albums in the past two decades, returns with his first recording in five years, "Modern Times," next Tuesday. Noting the music industry's complaints that illegal downloading means people are getting their music for free, he said, "Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway." "You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them," he added. "There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like ... static." Dylan said he does his best to fight technology, but it's a losing battle. "Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it."
Good fun. Never heard his voice before. The guy is a natural for radio.
The wild Autumn Clematis is in full bloom all around Maggie's Farm. The highly aggressive and fast-growing wild version lacks the fragrance of the cultivated variety, often called Sweet Autumn Clematis. This one, covering a fence, has a wild morning glory growing amongst it. 
Wall Street has a knack for taking their experience and your money, and converting them into their money and your experience. Anon.
Wednesday, August 23. 2006
James Q. Wilson's The Moral Sense made plenty of sense to me: the notion that moral considerations are hard-wired parts of human nature. Harvard's Marc Hauser is working on the inborn "moral grammar," and he is interviewed here, in Am. Scientist. He even gets into the animal precursors of moral behavior: In many ways, our understanding of animals is not even ripe for the picking, because almost all of the work that is relevant to morality entails studies of what animals do as opposed to how they judge what others do. Thus, we have beautiful accounts of how animals behave during cooperation and competition, including observations of how individuals respond to personal transgression, such as taking food in the presence of a more dominant animal. But what is missing are observations and experiments that systematically address what counts as a transgression or expectation for helping or harming, when the observer is not directly involved. In the same way that we can judge an act as gratuitously violent even when it doesn't concern us directly, we want to understand how animals perceive violations of social norms, including what they expect and what they consider anomalous.
The object of art is to give life a shape. Shakespeare
Tuesday, August 22. 2006
Galaxies collide, separating dark from "normal" matter. Science Daily
Nothing can come of nothing. Shakespeare
A favorite of the Maggie's Farm hummingbirds, Jewelweed likes it damp and sunny. Its delicate orange flowers are in bloom right now. 
Monday, August 21. 2006
7 million of them, and, when you read their stats, you will see that not only are they happily breeding at a rapid pace, but they are doing well in other ways too. For example, 46% have a post-college degree, and their family incomes are close to the American average. Their top 3 occupations are, in order, Student, Engineer, Physician. Read the stats at Tangled Web.
August is a prime time for New England wildflowers. This little island in the stream has Joe Pye Weed, Goldenrod, Purple Loosestrife, and a white aster that I cannot identify. Plus some good-looking grasses. 
I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves. Ronald Reagan
Sunday, August 20. 2006
Sorry about the wierd infestation of codes and symbols into our text, including lots of "?"s. Our magician is at work on it. And speaking of magicians, here's a saucy one- a stripper magician.
Saturday, August 19. 2006
 Delacroix's (1798-1863)Diary and Letters are excerpted at Roger Sandall. Learned about his work in art history about 90 years ago, but knew nothing about the man himself. What a tender, strong, determined, and honest fellow.
On life: Think of the blessings that await you, not of the emptiness that drives you to seek constant distraction. Think of having peace of mind and a reliable memory, of the self-control that a well-ordered life will bring, think of health not undermined by endless concessions to the passing excesses that other people's society entails, think of uninterrupted work, and plenty of it. Nothing is better than having some task to perform each day.
On painting: The enemy of all painting is grey. To speak truly, there are neither lights nor shades. There is a color mass for each object, reflected differently on all sides. I discovered one day that linen has green reflections and violet shadows. I notice that it is the same with the sea: I expect this law applies to everything. The special charm of watercolor, beside which any painting in oil always appears rusty and yellowed, is due to the inherent transparency of the paper.
On l'amour: To the studio at nine o'clock. Laure came. We continued with the portrait. It's an extraordinary thing, but although I wanted to make love to her all the time she was posing, as soon as she began to leave rather hurriedly as a matter of fact I did not feel like it at all; I suppose I needed time to collect myself. I need a mistress to keep my flesh in subjection. I'm terribly worried about it, and struggle with my better self when I'm in the studio. Sometimes I long for any woman to come along. God grant that Laure comes tomorrow! Saw Cogniet, and the picture by Gricault, also the Constables. It was too much for one day. Came home about five o'clock. Spent two hours in the studio. Great want of sex. I am utterly abandoned.
Read the selection here, with some comments. You will like him better afterwards.
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