Friday, September 19. 2008
The trout get active and hungry again at this time of year in New England. This unique and wonderful stream on Long Island, about 1 1/2 hours from New York City, has sea-run Browns, Rainbow and Brookies - some quite large. Not many places where sea-run trout are found: if readers know of other streams that do, let us know about it. Of course, this stream holds hatchery fish too. It is a very special place. The rule is barbless flies only, and first-come, first-served for assigned beats. This photo of one of our Maggie's Farmers on the stream is from a couple of years ago. 
Thursday, September 18. 2008
When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. Anon.
From Ed Driscoll, on the smiting of God, and hurricanes and the like, with guest appearances by Michael Moore and others:
Wednesday, September 17. 2008
Online Literacy at Chronicle. One quote: In the eye-tracking test, only one in six subjects read Web pages linearly, sentence by sentence. The rest jumped around chasing keywords, bullet points, visuals, and color and typeface variations. In another experiment on how people read e-newsletters, informational e-mail messages, and news feeds, Nielsen exclaimed, "'Reading' is not even the right word." The subjects usually read only the first two words in headlines, and they ignored the introductory sections. They wanted the "nut" and nothing else. A 2003 Nielsen warning asserted that a PDF file strikes users as a "content blob," and they won't read it unless they print it out. A "booklike" page on screen, it seems, turns them off and sends them away.
I think I agree that people do not read online material the same way they read books. However, that could be because so much online stuff is thinner in content than books.
I am under 45 years old,
I love the outdoors,
I hunt,
I am a Republican reformer,
I have taken on the Republican establishment,
I have many kids,
I have the VP spot on the ticket with less than 2 years in the governor's office.
Continue reading "Who am I?"
Here's Helmand Province. Here's Michael Yon's Death in the Corn, Part 1, if you haven't read it yet. He is going to be in Afghanistan for quite a while, it would seem, and deserves our grateful support for his remarkable reporting - and for his courage. Photo below is from Part 2. I want this guy on my side. 
Re-posted, from The Barrister.
Our editor asked me to do a little piece on wellies, as hunting season and wellie season is arriving - snow, slush, mud and muck. I have gone through many pairs from many makers, and I own many pairs now - more than I will ever need. They will probably bury me in one of those pairs, but not soon, one would hope.
Wellies are, of course, Wellingtons, named after the Duke of Wellington who was copying Hessian military boots. Only later did the term refer to rubber, rather than leather, muck boots. History of wellies here. (We have been corrected on one detail - that Wellies were invented by Aigle in 1853, not Hunter in 1858.)
Different sorts of wellies are made for gardening, walking in the rain, European hunting, and American hunting. Ladies look great in them. I am mainly interested in the rugged, uglier varieties which are suitable to northern climes where mud, snow, slush, muck, streams, and marshy areas abound.
Much as I may admire and love the idea of the venerable LL Bean Maine Hunting boot, I tend to return to my rubber boots for all-purpose hunting, wet hiking, snow, marsh work, bird watching, and barn-work: they make you feel that you can go through almost anything. Over the years, the material has improved, and so has the design, so that they are more comfortable, and grip your heel much better so they don't pull off in muck and leave you waving a socked foot helplessly in the air like an idiot.
There are several considerations with rubber boots. (Continued below)
Continue reading "Boots and Wellies Update"
Tuesday, September 16. 2008
I wondered whether conservatives and right-liberals understand left-liberals better than they are understood in return because many of them used to be left-liberals. Peter Risdon, via Thompson. So true. True of most of us here at Maggie's.
Prior was an itinerant folk artist from Maine. Some of his work here. This is The Burnish Sisters, 1854: 
 Farms aren't really farms anymore, are they? They have become meat, egg, and milk factories.
California's Proposition 2 seeks to regulate the confinement of these factory animals.
Monday, September 15. 2008
h/t, Theo 
Best, clearest summary I have seen yet. The article basically claims that the investment banks are an obsolete business model.
“Zoom!" What was that? That was your life, mate. Oh, that was quick, do I get another? Sorry, that's your lot. Basil Fawlty, as quoted by Gagdad Bob in a piece on the 10th Commandment
Sunday, September 14. 2008
Dylan's Visions of Johanna is one of his many masterpieces, in my opinion. You cannot really absorb the flavor of the song unless you have lived in NYC, used the subways, and lived in non-comfortable quarters and old lofts where the heat pipes cough. The version on Blonde on Blonde is excellent. This is an acoustic live performance from 1966, just audio. The remarkable late-night lyrics are here.
18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" 18:22 Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times. 18:23 "For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. 18:24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him; 18:25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. 18:26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.' 18:27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. 18:28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, 'Pay what you owe.' 18:29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, 'Have patience with me, and I will pay you.' 18:30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. 18:31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. 18:32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, 'You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 18:33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?' 18:34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt. 18:35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
Saturday, September 13. 2008
That's from 2002. A good verse from this tune: Politician's got on his joggin' shoes
He must be runnin' for office, got no time to lose
Suckin' the blood out of the genius of generosity
You been rollin' your eyes, you been teasin' me The lyrics begin like this: Summer days, summer nights are gone Summer days and summer nights are gone I know a place where there's still somethin' going on I've got a house on the hill, I got hogs out in the mud I've got a house on the hill, I got hogs all out in the mud I've got a long haired woman, she got royal Indian blood Everybody get ready, lift up your glasses and sing Everybody get ready, lift up your glasses and sing Well I'm standin' on the table, I'm proposin' a toast to the king I'm driving in the flats in a Cadillac car The girls all say "You're a worn out star" My pockets are loaded, and I'm spending every dime How can you say you love someone else, You know it's me all the time Entire lyrics here.
 We may be a Yankee website, but we love the South - and the West. The Mid-west too.
We are a bit ambivalent about California, however, except for their wines, because it seems they put something strange in the water out there. THC or LSD or something. Luckily, it doesn't get into their grape juice. A reader alerts us to this site for interesting stuff: Southern Culture and History. "Veritate Superare." By the way, there is nothing racist about that flag. That was the battle flag of a proud but short-lived nation. "Insurgents," as the MSM might term them today.
 The Falling of the Leaves
Autumn is over the long leaves that love us,
And over the mice in the barley sheaves;
Yellow the leaves of the rowan above us,
And yellow the wet wild-strawberry leaves. The hour of the waning of love has beset us, And weary and worn are our sad souls now; Let us part, ere the season of passion forget us, With a kiss and a tear on thy drooping brow.
Friday, September 12. 2008
Dem politico Mark Penn says: I think here the media is on very dangerous ground. I think that when you see them going through every single expense report that Governor Palin ever filed, if they don't do that for all four of the candidates, they're on very dangerous ground. I think the media so far has been the biggest loser in this race. And they continue to have growing credibility problems.
There's a glut in the tiger market. People can't give 'em away. One or two might be good for catching mice around the barn? Or maybe not.
This came in over the transom: .
At VANDERBILT: It takes two, one to change the bulb and one more to explain how they did it every bit as good as the bulbs changed at Harvard. At GEORGIA: It takes two, one to change the bulb and one to stabilize the rolling beer cooler the bulb changer is using for a ladder. At FLORIDA: It takes four, one to screw in the bulb and three to figure out how to get stoned off the old one. At ALABAMA: It takes five, one to change it, three to reminisce about how The Bear would have done it, and one to throw the old bulb at an NCAA investigator. At OLE MISS: It takes six, one to change it, two to mix the drinks and three to find the perfect J. Crew outfit to wear for the occasion. At LSU: It takes seven, and each one gets credit for five Semester hours. At KENTUCKY : It takes eight, one to screw it in and seven to discuss how much brighter it seems to shine during basketball season. At TENNESSEE: It takes ten, two to figure out how to screw it in, two to buy an orange lamp shade, and six to phone a radio call-in show and talk about how much they hate Alabama. At MISSISSIPPI STATE: It takes fifteen, one to screw in the bulb, two to buy the Skoal, and twelve to yell, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS". At AUBURN: It takes one hundred, one to change it, forty-nine to talk about how they did it better than at Bama and Georgia, and fifty to get drunk and roll Toomer's Corner when finished. At SOUTH CAROLINA: It takes 80,000, one to screw it in and 79,999 to discuss how this finally will be the year that they have a decent football team. At ARKANSAS: None. There is no electricity in Arkansas
Now, at the Metropolitan Museum. I will go. The show is titled Beyond the Portait Studio. This is Man and Pool, Florida, 1917. 
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