Maggie's Farm

If you choose to hand-address Christmas cards (as they should be), but are too lazy to write "Mr. and Mrs. P. Chuffington Badlington-Smythe III" on your cards, but opt instead to write "The Badlington-Smythes" - how do you write it? With or without an apostrophe in "Smythes"? If an apostrophe, where? Or do you just dodge the entire grammatical issue by using the overly-casual "The Badlington-Smythe Family"? There is no implied possessive that I can find, so why any apostrophe? Unless it is short for "The Badlington-Smythe's House." But you don't send a card to a house.

Depending on how you count it, Maggie's Farm is either one or two years old today. Our first year was under the radar - no sitemeter, no stats, etc. - invisible, in the womb.

So we could call this our First Official Birthday. All of us farm slaves spend all of the time we are not busy plowing and pruning fruit trees and milking the chickens and feeding the cows and sucking the sap out of Sugar Maples and popping rats at the dump, chained to our PCs in the Maggie's Farm unheated basement amidst squealing mice, flaking asbestos, toxic molds of all sorts, an oil-soaked dirt floor, and dripping pipes, illuminated only by smoking lamps fueled with old recycled tractor oil, required to either Think or Link for our daily allottments of gruel. Yep, "Think or Link." That's what the sign says that hangs from the creaking, termite-infested rafters. Consider that setting when you read us. Those are not tear stains on these pages - they are spots from leaks from the water pipes overhead. Well, most of them.

The best present we could receive: Call the SWAT Team and get us out of here Let all your friends, enemies, neighbors, bosses, underlings, kids, colleagues, etc. know about Maggie's. A shame for them to miss out on this pretty good thing. And if you are a blogger, throw us a blogroll. It's a vanity thing. If you are a reader, please leave comments. Sometimes our comment threads contain certain glimmers of humor, and indications - if not proof - of human intelligence. Thanks to our current regular commenters (all highly bribed paid for their work). Other readers: don't be shy. If you have a minute, pitch in. We will pay you equally well.

Our mission is simple: To provide a steady stream of stuff that interests or amuses or enrages or delights us, with no ads, with complete free speech and total indifference to the political correctness of the moment, with total independence, with irreverence towards all, with a dose of skepticism towards everything except the US Constitution, and with a deep gratitude for the founders, the traditions, the foundations, and the blessed but shrinking freedom from state power in the USA - and most of all for the God of our Fathers. The official Maggie's Farm hymn (midi music file on link) was written for the Centennial celebration of July 4th:

God of our fathers, Whose almighty hand
Leads forth in beauty all the starry band
Of shining worlds in splendor through the skies
Our grateful songs before Thy throne arise.

Thy love divine hath led us in the past,
In this free land by Thee our lot is cast,
Be Thou our Ruler, Guardian, Guide and Stay,
Thy Word our law, Thy paths our chosen way.

From war’s alarms, from deadly pestilence,
Be Thy strong arm our ever sure defense;
Thy true religion in our hearts increase,
Thy bounteous goodness nourish us in peace.

Refresh Thy people on their toilsome way,
Lead us from night to never ending day;
Fill all our lives with love and grace divine,
And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

Thanks for visiting us, and thanks to Green Mountain Boy Chris for keeping us up and running. Onward and upward.

Physicists at Harvard have been able to play all sorts of games with light.

Astonishing, but I guess the math predicts it. NYT Science Times.

The Pakistan steam railroad, over the historically critical Khyber Pass,  between Pakisatan and Afghanistan. You can do it. Margaret Vladisova did, and posted her photos here.

 

"Pre-posterous." Literally, the front following; that is, the cart before the horse.

Chundering - barfing

Chuntering - bitching

Sonia Szajnberg is the daughter of our (recently truant) Aliyah Diary author. I remember when she was born. She looks like her mother.

She's a jazz singer now in NYC. Try I Remember April. Absolutely lovely.

Here are some dynamite short stories. Commentary's Contentions.

Why is this day different from all other days? I'll go for the Colts +4, but I'd be just as happy to see Chicago win.

As Seinfeld said: "You are rooting for laundry." Watching TV is not sport...well, I guess getting to the bean dip after 14 Coors Lights is a bit of a sport.

Anyway, for real sport, try Tucks - Tuckerman Ravine on Mt. Washington. No lifts. You hike up the trail, and ski down the natural snow (or ice).

Image: Tuckerman Ravine skiiers in 1937. Same as today. Not for yuppies. For other old-timey skiing (but with lifts) we recommend Mad River Glen ("Ski it if you can"), and the Dartmouth Skiway. Yes, we love Stowe, - the home town of our webmeister Chris - but it's not really fully old-timey anymore.

Gian Carlo Menotti has died, at 95. (h/t, Villainous)

From stem-cell harvesting, to abortion on demand, to triage (as in the UK: "too expensive to bother treating"), to physician-assisted suicide for the terminally-ill, we see the steady march of a soul-less scientific rationalism.

I believe it is fear of that march which energizes the "crazy fundamentalists" who are not comfortable with treating human life as a disposable object.

Now we see the practical Swiss planning to add mental illness to the list of diseases which will have physician-assisted suicide available. "Suicidally depressed? Hey - we can help!" Who's next on their list? Diabetics? Drug addicts? The unemployed?

Sometimes a slippery slope is a slippery slope. How soon until Denmark and Holland have suicide teams roaming the hospitals (now often called "Death Services"), urging ill people to unburden society of their expensive and inconvenient problems? I can even see the ads: "Do it for the greater good", with some sort of happy, serene image of a smiling middle-aged lady floating on a fluffy cloud. Harp music, of course.

A Bristol, Rhode Island lawyer built Janet in 1903.

This 50' yawl was designed by Fred Lawley and built by George Lawley and Sons. She won the NYC Mayor's Cup in 2000.

Yes, she is for sale.

We post the photo to please Chris, who has worked overtime for Maggie's Farm this past week, and who finally subdued - or outlasted - the Botnet beast.

Chris loves sailboats and hates stinkpots - even old wooden ones.

This is a 26' triple cockpit runabout with a 425 hp Chevy V8. Mahogany, of course.

Pefect for Lake Champlain or Lake Winnepesaukee, if you don't mind being noticed. Or Long Island Sound, in nice weather.

You can buy it here.

Edwards' sleazily-earned wealth, and his 28,000 square-foot house for which he clear-cut many acres of woodland, convinced me that there truly are two Americas: He is in one, and I am in the other. But this house takes the cake. Wow.

Details

Roger won the Aussie Open. He is on a roll.

He is 25, and he likes Heineken.

Visions of Sampras.

An older lady gets pulled over for speeding...

Older Woman: Is there a problem, Officer?
Officer: Ma'am, you were speeding.  
Older Woman: Oh, I see.  
Officer: Can I see your license please?  
Older Woman: I'd give it to you but I don't have one.
Officer: Don't have one?
Older Woman: Lost it, 4 years ago for drunk driving.
Officer: I see...Can I see your vehicle registration papers please.  
Older Woman: I can't do that.  
Officer: Why not?  
Older Woman: I stole this car.  
Officer: Stole it?  
Older Woman: Yes, and I killed and hacked up the owner.  
Officer: You what?  
Older Woman: His body parts are in plastic bags in the trunk if you want to see...

The Officer looks at the woman and slowly backs away to his car and calls for back up. Within minutes 5 police cars circle the car. A senior officer slowly approaches the car, clasping his half drawn gun.  

Officer 2: Ma'am, could you step out of your vehicle please!

The woman steps out of her vehicle. 

Older woman: Is there a problem sir?
Officer 2: One of my officers told me that you have stolen this car and murdered the owner.
Older Woman: Murdered the owner?  
Officer 2: Yes, could you please open the trunk of your car, please.

The woman opens the trunk, revealing nothing but an empty trunk.

Officer 2: Is this your car, ma'am?
Older Woman: Yes, here are the registration papers. Officer 2: One of my officers claims that you do not have a driving license.  

The woman digs into her handbag and pulls out a clutch purse and hands it to the officer. The officer examines the license. He looks puzzled.

Officer 2: Thank you ma'am, one of my officers told me you didn't have a license, that you stole this car, and that you murdered and hacked up the owner.

Older Woman: Bet the lying SOB told you I was speeding, too. 

DeNiro clip, at YouTube

Great example of how the the press mis-reports science. Altruism in the Brain.

I can list ten reasons why this report is misleading.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: "abstemious" and "facetious."

(h/t, reader)