Words

Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
-Gene Fowler

Did you ever have one of those days when you just cannot think of anything to write about?

Yeah, me too.

The Great Melting Pot Is Leaking

In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing - antihumanism.
-Shirley Chisholm

The bigots have come out of the woodwork this election year.

McCain- to old.

Romney- wrong religion.

Obama-to black or not black enough.

Clinton- wrong sex or to much like a man.

Then there are the groups that should know better. The New York Chapter of NOW ( National Organization for Women) has released this statement after Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy came out for Obama. The president of NOW released this statement yesterday pullling back from what the New York chapter had said.

What the heck is going on? The hatred, anger, and lack of tolerance surrounding this election is off putting and somewhat scary. Is this a symptom of the hatred, anger, and lack of tolerance that we as a country project out to the rest of the world?

Poopy Weather

One of the things I do not like about winter is picking up dog poop. I'm not too fond of it in any other season but doing it in the winter is the worst. This winter picking up dog poop has been more unpleasant than usual. With three big snowstorms hitting us one right after another added to the wind and the freezing temperatures I have not been able to go out and do poop scoops as often as I normally do. Any time there is snow on the ground dog poo removal is a little tricky.

First, a dog's normal body temperature is anywhere between 100.5F/38C to 102.5F/39.2C which means when he or she has defecated into snow that poop sinks into said snow almost as soon as it hits. If you are not right there to pick it up (which I never am since I am not going to follow my dogs around waiting for them to do their business) it freezes into the surrounding snow. Later when you try to pick it up you have to use the pooper scooper like an ax and chip around the frozen poopcicle.

Second, sometimes poop is covered by another snowstorm which means you don't find it until that snow starts melting. When that snow is melting the poopcicle is also thawing and absorbing the water produced by the melting snow. This you must not and cannot pick up. I would explain why but I think you have a good enough imagination to figure it out yourselves. Let's just say it's not a pretty sight.

Third, some of the melting snow hides poop that will not be exposed but will be encased in ice once the snow freezes again. This poop you will not see again until the spring ice melt- especially if it is on the north side of the house.

Finally, there is the poop under the snow that has slid off the roof and slammed into the ground in a compact mound. That poop is also out of sight until the spring thaw if it's buried under north-side-of-the-house snow.

Yesterday after three days of warm temperature and brisk winds I went out on poop patrol. The brisk winds were important since they help remove moisture and firm up the poop. I concentrated on the areas of the yard with no snow cover. That mission was a success. This morning, after a night with the temperature down to 15F/ -9.4C, I did another sweep and picked up all the poop that was in but not of the snow. After waiting so long to get this done I felt a great sense of accomplishment as I scooped up the last lump of poop.

I have got to get a real life.

Where The Wind Comes Sweepin' Down The Plain

My husband and Duke out hunting yesterday. It was a beautiful day with temps up to 66F/18.9C by mid afternoon. In town the warm weather has melted most of the snow, leaving behind rivers of swift moving water in the gutters. Out in the country- lots of mud.

(Duke in photos with his tongue out is beginning to be a trend. See here and here. )

Saint Clint

I find this image breathtaking. I have no idea who the photographer is but I found it at if charlie parker was a gunslinger, there'd be a whole lot of dead copycats.

Since Every Death Diminishes Us A Little, We Grieve-

not so much for the death as for ourselves.
-Lynn Caine

The cult of celebrity has turned actor Heath Ledger's death into a media feeding frenzy. When I did a Google name search under News I found 8,849 news articles listed. Part of this frenzy is because he was so young (28), but a major part is because he was an actor. This phenomenon is not without precedent. When silent screen star Rudolph Valentino died in 1926 at age 31 an estimated 100,000 members of the public showed up at his funeral and there were reports of at least one fan committing suicide.

I find the voruristic, looky-loo*, aspects in all of this news coverage very disturbing.



*A Looky-loo is a person who slows down to look at a car accident in the hope of seeing something gory.

Copy From One, It's Plagiarism;

copy from two, it's research.
-Wilson Mizner

I am amazed to learn from my stats that the most requested post of mine is the one on the song The Battle Of New Orleans. And I've noticed that the interest in that post always increases when school is in session. No one out there is "borrowing it" for a school paper, are they? As you can see it was written in 2004, which means your chances of getting caught are pretty good. Do the research, OK? It's safer.

Anyway, if you are going to cheat at least cheat big like Mizner brothers did. Click on the Wilson Mizner link above to find out what I am talking about. They have been dead over seventy years and people are still talking about them.

You Say Tomayto And I Say Tomahto

One of my most favorite actors is Anne Bancroft. What most people don't know is she had a great sense of comedy which she displayed brilliantly in her Emmy wining 1970 television special, Annie, the Women in the Life of a Man. I was lucky enough to see it when it aired and still remember bits of it to this day. Imagine my surprise when I discovered someone had put pieces of video from this show on YouTube. I searched though the listing hoping that a skit which had made me fall to the floor in laughter (at the silliness and slyness of it) had been uploaded.

Yes!



For those of you who do not recognize the lyrics from Cole Porter's Let's Call The Whole Thing Off:

You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!

The other segments from this show now on YouTube include:

1. Anne Bancroft singing I Don't Want To Walk Without You, Baby. Wonderful.

2. Yma Dream, my second most favorite skit, with Lee J. Cobb.

3. A take-off on Broadway musicals with very 1960's Peter Gennaro style choreography.

4. A skit with Jack Cassidy.

Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory Of The Coming Of The Lord!

Today is Martin Luther King Day.


Ending of the speech Dr. King made at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee on April 3, 1968- the day before he was asasinated.

Recognize This?

It is a photo of the aircraft that this model replicates. Thanks to my nephew I now know it is a Vickers Vedettee . The Vedettee first appeared in the 1920's and was built specifically for use in Canada. It was mainly used by the Royal Canadian Air Force for surveying and photographing forests. Most of the topographical maps of Canada are based on the photos taken from these aircraft.

Knowing one of the photos I bought is based on a real aircraft gives me hope for the other two photos. I'm still trying to identify which aircraft those models represent.

Go here and here to view those photos.