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.
When to Put Crabgrass Preventer Down. In the northeast US, crabgrass thrives in dry lawn with full sun. These are also the areas where regular lawn grass naturally goes dormant in the summer - unless irrigated. I only apply it in the full-sun hot areas.
When to put Preen on flower beds? Anytime. Just don't put it on bulb areas or on lilies.
There is no official information about who selected the individuals to write the Common Core standards. However, none of the writers of the math and English Language Arts standards have ever taught math, English, or reading at the K-12 level. In addition, the Standards Development Work Groups did not include any members who were high school English and mathematics teachers, English professors, scientists, engineers, parents, state legislators, early childhood educators, and state or local school board members.
In the northern hemisphere, it's time to prune the heck out of your paniculata types of Hydrangeas (but not macrophyllas or oakleafs - prune them in late July or early August because they bloom on old wood). If you have hydrangeas, it's important to know what general types they are, if you want blooms. There are only three basic types, macrophylla, paniculata, and oakleaf. It's not rocket science.
This season of Lent naturally has me thinking about the theme of sacrifice. I wondered when Jews gave up ritual sacrifice, and was interested to learn that the tradition was to eat the sacrificed animal - sharing it with the priest who no doubt got the filet, and to let the guts burn to ashes. In Christianity, Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God.
Those are the roots of Christ's instructions about what we now call "Communion." "This is my flesh, take of it and eat."
4:5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
4:6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
4:7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."
4:8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)
4:9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)
4:10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."
4:11 The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
4:12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"
4:13 Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
4:14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."
Everybody is a felon. There are 40-50,000 federal crimes, but even the government cannot count them all, but they can do a legal search and find one that fits you. Do you know what they all are?Ignorance of the law is no defense.
This inventive and rollicking organ piece is embedded in Western civilization's collective memory, and cannot help but influence anybody on earth who has attempted to make music since he (we think) composed it. It must be fun to play, especially with the footwork on the pedals:
In recent years, we have had authors and commenters come and go. We're a voluntary commune. (nb: We encourage commenters. Please comment, readers, if you have anything to say even if it's not brilliant. Just show good manners, please. Polite disagreement - with hard facts - is always welcome.)
Our collective favorite Commenter was Marianne Matthews, a wonderfully-reflective Texan, a Barnard grad, a Taurus (the handy-dandy firearm, not the car) owner and a Greenwich Village folksinger in her youth who died in her early 80s with a pulmonary embolism. We miss her. She once mailed me, at my request, a CD of her recordings with a photo of her lovely self playing guitar. She loved NYC, but she loved her Columbia-trained oil-engineer husband more. She always wanted to come back from Houston after he retired, but was responsibly and lovingly caring for him there when I believe he developed a dementia.
Also missing - our old irascible pal Dr. Mercury. No mystery there. He's a ramblin' man, and rambled on to other things after a while (I do not know what) but left behind the useful Dr. Merc's Computer Corner.
Missing in Action: Buddy Larson, a popular and frequent Texan commenter who always brought something to the table, either deep, witty, or usually both. That's a mystery. I hope he is OK, and I hope we didn't do anything to piss him off.
Capt. Tom: He wrote posts for us for a while, but seems to have lost his writing desire. Writer's block? Perhaps the muse might return. I hope so, because he has lots of experience to share, and can write about photography, fishing, boating, engineering, guitars, and all sorts of things if he wants to. Maybe he is too busy living. He does find time to comment on occasion under his real name, Tom Francis. A Yankee, moved to the Carolinas.
Roger de Hauteville? Not to worry. He is around and healthy, but locked in the uninsulated attic for the moment. Those Norman barbarians need time-outs on a regular basis. He'll be back after the next war. In fact, we have planned a job of work for him which naturally involves Sicilia.
Bruce Kesler, our San Diego/New Yorker. He's sort-of on Sabbatical, but he is in touch with me almost daily and (among other emailers) contributes to our morning links, for which I am quite grateful. At some point, I think he may be back on the payroll unless he gets a better offer (he has had many newspaper op-eds published). And he has a day job plus young kids at home. Anyway, always take the better offer if you can get one!
Here's a poor recording of Marianne in New York, in her younger days (1950s), probably in some folkie den in the Village, long before Joanie, Bob, Phil Ochs, Sebastian, and all the others:
The only poverty this girl suffers from is a poverty of the soul–made plain by her obvious disregard for all those who love her and who have sacrificed to give her every advantage in life.
... But Miriam Weeks will never escape the choices she has made, never be able to leave it all behind. Friends, relatives, neighbors, future relationships. These memories and images will live on forever – following her and the ones who love her for the rest of their lives.
Deciphered Roman Soldier’s Papyrus to Family Complains: ‘You Never Wrote Back to Me’
- See more at:
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/barbara-boland/deciphered-roman-soldier-s-papyrus-family-complains-you-never-wrote-back#sthash.5P9I7Zl5.dpuf
John Gardiner's wonderful new Bach bio spent three or four pages on this piece. It's a cantata on death - Gottes Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit (God's time is the very best time) - ending with joy. Bach wrote it at 21. The musical structure and the key changes are complex, and over my head despite reading the pages twice and listening to the lovely and emotional piece around ten times.
Bach was rarely, if ever, satisfied with his singers. He was a singer himself. I suspect that he would be thrilled by the skill of our singers today.
- Thomas Sowell loves Amy Chua's “The Triple Package”. Who knew that Nigerian immigrants did so well?
- Krauthammer's Things That Matter: Three Decades of Passions, Pastimes and Politics. I am halfway through it, and it is a delight. Not much politics in it, but lots of life, with Charles' impeccable prose. He writes pretty well about baseball, which is one measure of a writer in my view.
- Our friend did a brief trailer for his book about Ethiopian kids in Israel, Sheba and Solomon's Return:
Life insurance benefits can be tax-free. Inheritances over $5.3 million are taxed — with rates going up to 40 percent. That's why the life insurers lobby like crazy to save the estate tax.
Guessing Games And Climate ‘Science’ - They seem so certain when predicting what long-term weather has in store for us, but don't be fooled. Read the fine print in their pronouncements and the truth is revealed: those much-quoted experts admit they don't have a clue
The European Union’s characterization of the Crimean vote to join Russia as “undemocratic” is laced with stunning hypocrisy given that the EU ignored its own citizens when they rejected the European Constitution on numerous occasions.
A recent study has shown that 
Sultan: Cosmos and 
This season of Lent naturally has me thinking about the theme of sacrifice. I wondered when Jews gave up ritual sacrifice, and was interested to learn that the tradition was to eat the sacrificed animal - sharing it with the priest who no doubt got the filet, and to let the guts burn to ashes. In Christianity, Christ is the unblemished Lamb of God.
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New dinosaur 
Here's How