Maggie's Farm

"A pint of sweat saves a gallon of blood."

Gen. George Patton

from Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord is God!
It is he that made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

A Work of Art

1965 Farmall Model 605.

A fine, elegant machine; a masterpiece of industrial design. Other appealing items in background.

Rubber looks in decent shape.

As I sit looking out of a window of the building
I wish I did not have to write the instruction manual on the uses of a new
    metal.
I look down into the street and see people, each walking with an inner peace,
And envy them--they are so far away from me!
Not one of them has to worry about getting out this manual on schedule.
And, as my way is, I begin to dream, resting my elbows on the desk and leaning
    out of the window a little,
Of dim Guadalajara! City of rose-colored flowers!
City I wanted most to see, and did not see, in Mexico!
But I fancy I see, under the press of having to write the instruction manual,
Your public square, city, with its elaborate little bandstand!
The band is playing Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov.

from The Instruction Manual, by John Ashbery. Read entire: Click here: [minstrels] The Instruction Manual -- John Ashbery

"Constitution Not a Living Organism"

says Scalia. Funny figure of speech, brings odd images to mind. But of course he is right. It's a legal document - a contract between the people of the states and the federal government. As is said about the Ten Commandments  - "It's not the Ten Suggestions." Without that contract, there would have been no real union, just a confederacy. Piece on Scalia's speech here.  How did so many get hoodwinked into thinking that a contract was a living organism, anyway? Surely not lawyers? If you want to change it, you amend it.

The Coming Showdown

Please remind me again...Who won the election? The coming showdown over judges and the courts, and of course, the Supremes. HH gets the real story here.

More France and the EU

Chirac defends EU as polls turn negative:

"Mr Chirac said the treaty was needed to keep the EU "strong and organised" and defend its interests against the power of the US or of India and China." Read entire here. 

Doug TenNapel:

"Life would be so much easier if I could just ditch this religion crap and swallow atheism...but I'm not a man of faith. "

Read his short but pointed piece here

"Diplomacy is the art of letting the other fellow have your way."

Lester Pearson

France and EU

More on the possibility of France rejecting the EU. Good post by Belmont Club here.

Eider, R.I.P.

Dear Bird Dog,

Wanted to let you know I finally had to put Eider down. I know how fond you were of him, and some of his best points on grouse were birds you shot. Lots of fine memories.

Here's the painting.

Best,

Craig F

(note from Bird Dog - Eider was a Large Munsterlander who wouldn't quit, and a sweet guy too. Many fine hours in the Maine, Ct, NY, Saskatchewan, So. Dakota, etc. fields, marshes, and woodlands.)

Cost of Living

"WASHINGTON, DC—A report released Monday by the Federal Consumer Quality-Of- Life Control Board indicates that the cost of living now outstrips life's benefits for many Americans.

"This is sobering news," said study director Jack Farness. "For the first time, we have statistical evidence of what we've suspected for the past 40 years: Life really isn't worth living.""

Read entire here.

I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more,
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.
Well, he hands you a nickel,
He hands you a dime,
He asks you with a grin
If you're havin a good time,
Then he fines you every time you slam the door.
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more.

Dylan, from Maggie's Farm
Buy the book

Quick Thinking

"...thinking, Gladwell tells us—or, more precisely, thinking too much —can trip us up. Consider the curators at the Getty Museum who were offered the opportunity to purchase a rare sixth-century Greek marble statue of a young man. After a year of sophisticated archaeological and geological analysis that included core sampling and electron spectrometry and X-ray diffraction, they handed over nearly ten million dollars, cer-tain that the piece was authentic, a find. Meanwhile, two leading art historians, Frederico Zeri and Evelyn Harrison, and Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, each came to a different conclusion after simply eyeballing the piece: even in the face of such compelling scientific data they felt it was a fake. And they were right:

In the first two seconds of looking —in a single glance—they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months. "

Thus begins Susan Halpern's review of two books which deal with "intuition" and unconscious thinking, one by Malcolm Gladwell and one by Elkhonon Goldberg. The point, I suppose, is that we don't know what we know..but you already knew that, right? We bring much more to bear on decisions that we are aware of, so that quick decisions - not impulsive decisions - can be pretty good ones. An example from relationships:

"as Gladwell reports, there is speed dating, where unclaimed singles scurry around a room sizing up potential mates in a couple of minutes. Gigerenzer's work shows that most people need not spend a lot of time, or encounter a tremendous number of new prospects, to find a suitable partner."

Re the latter - duh. How about anyone who would talk to you. Read entire interesting but long piece in NY Review of Books here.

"A man's pride will bring him low, but he who is lowly in spirit will obtain honor."

Proverbs 29

Romantic and graceful, the Mute Swan is an elegant but unwelcome pest in areas of the country, such as southern New England, where it thrives.

Originally introduced from Europe to ornament ponds on the estates of the wealthy, they are highly aggressive towards our native waterfowl, and turn vegetated bottoms into bare mud.

They are reputed to be delicious to eat, and there are efforts to control their populations in areas where their numbers are destructive.

Mute Swan's orange or yellow bill distinguishes it easily from North America's two native swans, the Tundra Swan and the Trumpeter Swan. Plus the fact that it is mute. Read more: Click here: All About Birds

Canadian Politics and Missile Defense

"Condi has just handily taken one of those butt-kicking, knee-high leather boots of hers, sunk it into lil’ Paulie Canuckistan’s back bacon, and drop-kicked him into a state of irrelevancy. By adopting his position against the missile defense program, the Prime Minister has essentially guaranteed that Canadian business will be his cell mate in passive-aggressive hell."  Read entire here.

Mondovino

The movie is said to be the anti-globalist Fahrenheit view of the wine world. Kerry Howley reviews the documentary on US and French wine, which opened last week in NY:

"Almost thirty years ago, nine French wine critics gathered in Paris to preside over a face-off of French and American wines. Chardonnays battled with white Burgundies, Cabernets sought to displace Bordeaux. The French had always said fine wine was primarily a function of place—and that place was France. But following the blind tasting, the critics found they had chose a Californian Cabernet as the top red and placed three Napa Valley whites within the top four. As he downed a 1972 Napa Chardonnay, one critic reportedly gushed, "Ah, back to France." " Read entire here.

Sierra Club Sells Out

Is this called "The ends justify the means?" How the SC determines it's position on immigration here.

"We are a nation that has a government - not the other way around."

President Ronald Reagan

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Too cool. Thanks, CL, for retrieving the link. Every edition of the famed Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1841-1902, on line, thanks to the Brooklyn Public Library. Back then Brooklyn was its own town - an NYC suburb with farms. You could easily waste hours on their site. Remember how difficult it used to be to review old newspapers? Microfiches? Awful things. Ain't the internet grand?

Osprey

My neighborhood Osprey is back - as of yesterday. I don't see it, but hear the screechy call. He/she/they will be screeching out my window for the next few months, and the babies will be crying for fish all day long. Will need to do an Osprey Bird of the Week...As annoying noises go, what could be better? Twenty years ago, you would never see one in these parts.

"Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man."

Francis Bacon

from Psalm 19, a Psalm of David

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
   and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
   and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
   their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
   and their words to the end of the world.

Finally, an email from a young reader who gets it:

Hey Bird Dog,

I can't tell whether this is some East Coast liberal intellectual blog or a Christian conservative blog, or what it is.

What is your identity? What and who are you guys or gals? You seem so random.

Why can't you be a straight-forward one-dimensional brand, so you can be comprehended and get better traffic? You are too complex and diverse, probably, for the average hot-headed blog-reader. But I always do check in to see what you're doing.

Sincerely,

Susie (at Antioch College)

Dear Susie:

We are flattered to have undergrad readers like you. Glad you found us. Actually, our traffic is OK with plenty of international, which we like. We are just ordinary Yankee folk who like to write - and writing makes us think a little, because when you begin a sentence, you have to finish it. World affairs and politics are just one facet of life - it's good to be engaged, but it's not important in the end. Life is a big thing, and we are into it. L'chaim. Worrying about identity is for the young and the neurotic, and worrying about marketing is for salespeople. I don't think we will ever be uni-dimensional or easy to categorize. Listen to Maggie's Farm. We'll just be ourselves, and if you don't like it, you can leave us alone.

Good luck with your finals, and thanks for writing. And don't forget to take Geology before you graduate, or you won't know nuthin.

Sincerely,

Bird Dog

Masked and Anonymous (2003)

This is no immortal movie, and was panned by the genius critics, but it is a must for Dylan fans. The casting is notable, probably because everyone wanted to meet Bobbie: John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penelope Cruz, etc. Goodman does his usual amazing job, but Dylan cannot or will not really act. He is just there, with his strangely charismatic, ageless, Chaplin-like presence and his cryptic comments. The sound track is worth owning, with the best Grateful Dead version of Baby Blue. Dylan's version of Dixie is haunting and beats any previous version hands-down. In fact, it replaces all prior versions.

The picture itself is a dark surrealistic ramble through a mythic nation torn by pointless civil war and egomaniacal politicians. Dylan's musings about the state of affairs are quotable and Dylanesque, whether he wrote them or not.

Eaglets

3 chicks at Blackwater - too bad it's the reloading type of live video: here

More info on the chicks here. One of them might be taking a trip to Vermont to help restore populations up there.

Photo courtesy of P. LaTourette - his link to left.

The Pan Am Building

The architectural story of "New York's ugliest building," and the plan that almost destroyed Grand Central Station: Click here: BOOKFORUM | apr/may 2005

Tone Deaf

Music and the mind, with music: Click here: Cognitive Daily

A Case Against Ideological Diversity

"I'm sick of the old cliches. Bring me some new cliches."

Sam Goldwyn