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.
Our stream at the Farm, foggy and drizzly evening. iPhone pic.
Yes, we need a MA fishing license to fish on our own stream. You cannot "own" a stream. The government owns it. We have this stream, one creek, and two smallish marshes. I love them all. They are filled with life. Annoying beavers too which we must constantly kill - or do I mean "cull"?
When everything was fine And the notion of sin had vanished And the earth was ready In universal peace To consume and rejoice Without creeds and utopias,
I, for unknown reasons, Surrounded by the books Of prophets and theologians, Of philosophers, poets, Searched for an answer, Scowling, grimacing, Waking up at night, muttering at dawn.
What oppressed me so much Was a bit shameful. Talking of it aloud Would show neither tact nor prudence. It might even seem an outrage Against the health of mankind.
Alas, my memory Does not want to leave me And in it, live beings Each with its own pain, Each with its own dying, Its own trepidation.
Why then innocence On paradisal beaches, An impeccable sky Over the church of hygiene? Is it because that Was long ago?
To a saintly man --So goes an Arab tale-- God said somewhat maliciously: "Had I revealed to people How great a sinner you are, They could not praise you."
"And I," answered the pious one, "Had I unveiled to them How merciful you are, They would not care for you."
To whom should I turn With that affair so dark Of pain and also guilt In the structure of the world, If either here below Or over there on high No power can abolish The cause and the effect?
Don't think, don't remember The death on the cross, Though everyday He dies, The only one, all-loving, Who without any need Consented and allowed To exist all that is, Including nails of torture.
Totally enigmatic. Impossibly intricate. Better to stop speech here. This language is not for people. Blessed be jubilation. Vintages and harvests. Even if not everyone Is granted serenity.
We are freeing ourselves of the impediments of memory, association, nostalgia, legend, myth, or what have you, that have been the devices of western European painting. Instead of making “cathedrals” out of Christ, man, or “life,” we are making it out of ourselves, out of our own feelings.
Which
states are in the best and worst fiscal condition? - See more at:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/07/which-states-are-in-the-best-and-worst-fiscal-condition.html#sthash.9XV2mNk1.dpuf
I am happy to be called a redskin. Flattered. I have a lot more injun blood than Mrs. Warren, and my sis looks just like an injun squaw. My grandma, totally. I am 1/8th. Or 1/16th Iroquois. I think it's cool. We were called redskins here in New England because we used old bear fat for winter skin insulation, but that was a bit before I was born. It looked reddish. Had to kill a bear with an arrow to get that stinky stuff.
OK, those ancestors were stone-age lunatics, but so what? I tan readily in the summer sun, I like warfare, and I have good eyes for wildlife. Interesting genes to have. Mayflower Christian fanatic-types on one side, some injun blend on the other. It's no wonder that I am half crazy. Call me "Chief Bird Dog."
I think I did some good by blending that with some Irish-Italian sauce for my kids. More American mongrels.
Done with perfect technique, the deadlift is a perfect example of why the use of major multi-joint exercises is superior to a collection of smaller exercises.
I "enjoy" the exercises which involve multiple muscle groups. Not only are they extremely stressful and fatiguing, but they seem to be more useful for life than fussing over small muscle groups. For another example, combining squats with military presses is another hell of an exercise. Also, lunges with heavy hands - and ropes. You know it's tough when your grunts turn into 4-letter words.
July is Hydrangea bloom around here. A wonderful thing.
Gardeners want their shrub and/or perennial borders to have fun blooms to look at for as long as possible, and that takes thought and planning. (May is Azaleas, June is roses, etc). Hydrangeas want more sun than is often claimed, but too much will give them daytime wilt which weakens them. As their name indicates, they like some water (but the Oakleafs don't need it). It's complicated.
Even the pros get confused about how to grow the hundreds of cultivars of the beloved Hydrangea family of flowering shrubs. Each Spring, I renew my confusion - especially when it comes to the topic of pruning the different categories. Not to mention the newer ever-blooming types.
Most nursery plants are Asian in origin (obviously with plenty of genetic engineering applied to them for blooming purposes), but the old-fashioned Arborescens group derives from the North American wild plant. My favorites are the lacecap types, but I admire them all.
Here are a few things I have learned, none of which applies to all Hydrangeas:
- Hydrangeas like water, and generally do not prefer full-day sun. At least half-day is fine, preferably in the morning. Full shade does not work.
- The pink and/or blue hydrangeas are indeed acidity-sensitive in flower color
- Planting them where they are free to attain their full size without normal pruning (other than that all deciduous shrubs, once they are established and healthy, benefit from removal of 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant down to the ground, or at least the leggy or woody stems, each year) eliminates a lot of complexity.
- Save the dang plant label in a file (best to do with any new plant)
- Hydrangeas do not like much nitrogen fertilizing: it makes them grow leaves, not blooms.
- If you trim or prune your plant wrong, or at the wrong time, you won't get any bloom. Some bloom on new growth, some on last year's growth, and some seem just to do their own thing.
God puzzles me. I can see him creating a lion or a butterfly, but why such a mediocre thing as humans? Perhaps he was lonely, but he could have done better.
..., to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.
12:8 Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me,
12:9 but he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
12:10 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
Ives' dad was a Civil War-era military bandleader and was practicing in the town park on the 3rd of July ... another military band, playing another patriotic song, marched through the first band ... the sound electrified little Charlie's brain, all his music tries to recapture that mystical strange eerie American song.
"Give Me Jesus - you can have all the the world, but give me Jesus."
Do boys still learn to box at the local Boy's Club? Man, I hated to get hit but I liked the hitting. Do Boy's Clubs still exist? Are they even legal? Teddy Roosevelt's stories about boxing as a child are hilarious. He was determined, despite asthma, to toughen up. He did.
A bad bad war, crazy. I mostly blame Lincoln but, in general, the northern Republicans. Any union ought to be voluntary. Slavery? That was going away anyway in the Western world. Today, we would say "negotiate." Result? 600,000 Americans dead, and a federal government with more power than it was ever intended to possess.
Tragic, all around. Liberia was a good solution and a good recompense, but I am glad for most of the African-American influence in American culture. Better off here than slaves of Moslems in Africa, but better if none of it ever happened.
“It might be more harmful to consume lots of carbohydrates than saturated fats. If you fear cardiovascular diseases, most types of fats are better than carbs,” says the professor. Svihus thinks that in the worst case all the focus on taking fats out of the diet might have raised risks for heart disease. This is because we drop fats and exchange them with a lot of carbohydrates.
Politico: "As I noted last month with a link to an AEI infographic, if Clinton patiently endures her falls from public popularity she’s almost always rewarded with a rise."
It’s easy to dismiss Greece as a dead beat country full of oily grifters. In theory, the Greek people have only themselves to blame for electing crooks and liars. That’s an argument against democracy, but the people never voted for bankruptcy. They were misled by their leaders, who got hooked on the heroin of global finance. They supported joining the Euro because they were told it would avoid these problems.
Get all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum...iPhone pic sent from a BD daughter yesterday from the Muir Woods in Mill Valley. A magnificent country, isn't it?
A Teddy Roosevelt quote: "When I am here in California, I am not in the West. I am west of the West."
I'd say it's a handy expression, or query, or response, for the verbal toolbox, but it does not work as a response to many pleasant things (eg, "Mrs. Sippican, would you like some Strawberry Shortcake?" or "Mrs. Sippican, would you, the Mr., and the boys like to take a ride to Nice on my new G6 for a week at my villa in Cap d'Antibe?").
America's 10 biggest cities,
Image from Eratosthenes' 
Americans 