and the world seems fairly benign.
This was a wonderful week for me, and sometimes life stops serving you lead pies and cooks up a fabulous feast instead. So feeling rather speechless [thank your lucky stars, ed.] I will let pictures do their geometric trick on words, and speak volumes for me.
The iceberg approacheth …
I don’t know why I love Cape Spear so much!
Like she said …
That is Signal Hill, not the farthest east part of North America.
And then some …
As it should be …
The iceberg cometh … closer!
I mean, really …
You can see the horizon through the hole!
And that’s all she wrote …
you nailed those photos Xty. i love pictures of nature.
i was surfing the web today and found this picture of a falcon nesting in a tree. since we are all over 40, i think you guys will remember and appreciate the beauty of such a sight. unfortunately anyone much younger than our gang here has probably never even seen a falcon.
i am having trouble posting this picture, so i am just going to post the link…
http://i.imgur.com/YW6Fufm.jpg
“Janesville, Wisconsin, had the oldest General Motors car factory in America, one that candidate Obama visited in 2007 and insisted would be there for another 100 years. Two days before Christmas that year and just before Obama’s inauguration, the plant closed forever, throwing 5,000 people out of work. This devastated the town, because you either worked in the plant or in a business that depended on people working in the plant. The new president and Congress quickly paid for a two-million-dollar Janesville retraining program, using state community colleges the way the government once used trade schools built to teach new immigrants the skills needed by that Janesville factory a century ago.
This time around, however, those who finished their retraining programs simply became trained unemployables rather than untrained ones. It turned out that having a certificate in “heating and ventilation” did not automatically lead to a job in the field. There were already plenty of people out there with such certificates, never mind actual college degrees. And those who did find work in some field saw their take-home pay drop by 36%. This, it seems, is increasingly typical in twenty-first-century America (though retraining programs have been little studied in recent years).”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175851/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_a_rising_tide_lifts_all_yachts/#more
this is where i live, and also Rep Paul Ryan.
tough crowd.
retouched.
Two days before Christmas was a nice touch. If one could get more cynical, one would. Your beautiful picture of the falcon in the tree reminded me of simpler times, and I think I can get it to post:
Maybe Janesville could adopt it as their logo!
Not meaning to make light of that story … it is undoubtedly playing out all over America. It isn’t good to maintain dying industries in a big picture sense, and creative destruction, etc., etc., but there needs to be a compassionate plan of exit. Nortel was like that for a section of Ottawa. Highly paid jobs one day, supporting a huge service industry, and nothing the next, including most retirement savings. But the second to last CEO got a bonus of something like 4 million dollars … like inverse second mouse getting the cheese, second last asshole gets the golden parachute.
Song of the day made me nostalgic and I am just having a brief love fest with Tim Curry, one of the all time great actors.
I love the interwebz:
Almost 800 babies buried in septic tank at Catholic-run Irish home for unmarried mothers
If one could get more cynical, one would. I am not a fan of the catholic church and really think that people who preach about burning in hell almost deserve to find out they were right.
Whew, almost forgot my password. Briefly from a friend’s computer a road story- saw this sign for firewood on the way down in Alabama- far wood 4 sale.
How do you find a way out of dead babies and unemployed hell … far woods indeed.
I think inappropriate word association football is as good as I can come up with, and sad to say, this song has been in my head ever after reading EO’s link.
Baby’s on fire
better throw her in the water …
I wonder if this will post:
Cool. The whole album. Possibly my all time favourite.
Adobe flash is fugging with me again. Hi to all.
tracked me down once more.
hi Xty, …planted begonias today, tomorrows plan is : petunias, dienthus, snapdragon and some speedweell http://home.howstuffworks.com/define-veronica-speedwell.htm
http://www.wikipeetia.org/Dienthus
My wife got a 1943 silver quarter in her change at a restaurant yesterday. Just thought this crowd would appreciate that.
dammit
my sister has one of these, crappy condition but pretty rare. http://1916dmercurydime.com/
You can retire! When’s the cruise and where’s my ticket?
Pete – I looked at those beautiful flowers, although the speedwell looks a little invasive, like Purple Loosestrife. It must be nice to have the warmer climes, and man is mr green better than Mantracker! I do like begonias if I can get them enough sunshine so they don’t go mouldy. It is very lush outside right now and we are due for some warmer weather and it is going to be steamy. I have begun to do a lot of container gardening and was able, with proper spectrum light bulbs, to keep something blooming all winter. The dining room looks naked right now!
And good morning.
Here’s a true strange connection, like the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon thing. My hubby’s best friend lives on a farm north of Toronto and one of his buddies is actually the original Mantracker’s cousin. He is a handsome fellow who both used to model and race dirt bikes as well as farm, and he broke his ankle or lower leg somehow and couldn’t get anything done because of the crutches. So he invented this peg leg with a knee rest, so his broken limb just stuck out backwards, and he walked around like a pirate but able to keep the farm going. It worked so well that he managed to make a prototype. This was maybe 5 years ago or more. And then last summer in Toronto someone walked by us on the street wearing one, all cool with proper manufacturing and it was his design!
iwalk-free
Rick Santelli is yelling again on CNBC. What a worthless douche. Time to turn to “Leave It To Beaver”…again.
It is partly what keeps me away from media these days … fake outrage, or at least profitable outrage. Paid to rant.
“D’eggs?,” he said,
“D’eggs?” he said,
“What in the world are d’eggs?” he said.
“Scramble d’eggs,” said Billy.
I remember this nonsense poem from a book from my distant youth and it comes to mind whenever I am about to make scramble d’eggs, as I am about to do. It also contained this lovely little verse, I think, or maybe dad just liked to say this to us when we sneezed. It turns out it is from Alice in Wonderland when she is in the kitchen with the pepper.
`Speak roughly to your little boy,
And beat him when he sneezes:
He only does it to annoy,
Because he knows it teases.’
just a quick post to catch up…
moved hostas and spider wort around this morning to fill holes. lost some stuff this winter, even yucca plants, which i had thought were invincible. the spider wort plants i moved were volunteers, and i was able to divide several hostas. zero cost is good, especially since my wife still insists on moving, despite the recent setback that you all know about. my landlord here is begging me not to leave. will i ever be able to break free of the gravity that is the economic black hole called Janesville? either my wife or i need to find an anchor job so we can get out of here. that means finding a job in Madison (or Milwaukee) first that pays enough to pay all the bills, then finding a new home, then moving, which will give the other time to also find work. i have little left to sell.
Adobe Flash! @#$%&*!!! i use Firefox. everything is purposefully designed only to work well with Microsoft. kudos to Apple for throwing off the shackles. anyway, it is a constant battle with Adobe, and so much of the other software. antitrust laws… Sherman Act? 30 years of deregulation and no one even remembers the bust up of Ma Bell anymore. what a freaking joke. our founding fathers need to come back as poltergeists and rage in the halls of congress and the White House.
don’t hold on to that quarter EO. if you wait too long it will only be worth a quarter again.
it is six degrees of Kevin Bacon. one of my favorite concepts. that is why the internet is so powerful. anybody can reach anyone in the world. this power can be used for good or bad. net neutrality is so freaking important, but no one knows or cares. the latest battles for free exchange on the internet have all been lost by the good guys.
fuck Rick Santelli. if he was for real, he would do what Dylan Ratigan is doing. Santelli is what is termed controlled opposition.
d’eggs… i had three eggs, toast, and pork jowl for breakfast. 99 cents a pound for smoked pig cheeks. slice off the skin, chunk it, and fry. tastes just like bacon. and you throw in the eggs when the pork is almost done, so no butter needed. my grandpa was pretty smart and got through the last great depression unscathed. he lived his entire life afterwards quite frugally. glad he taught me a few things before he departed.
wow. i can toss out a few hundred words in a heartbeat. sorry as usual for grammar, caps.
gotta go.
The following market update, submitted in an only slightly tongue in cheek style:
After a brief moment in the sun early this year, Gold has now reverted to it’s rightful place, sucking hind tit on the chart, steamrolled by the juggernaut of the US stock market, which is obliterating all who stand in it’s way.
But wait! What is that yellow line, soaring like an eagle of freedom above all below? Why, it’s the US long term Treasury Bond, of course! Pity the Austrians, last seen spinning in their self dug graves!
And now, a tune…
can’t believe you didn’t have anything to say about the smoked jowl. i no longer believe you are German or even Polish. but that doesn’t mean we can’t both enjoy a Bier.
Sorry, I never had the, um, pleasure of smoked jowl.
I had eggs for breakfast this morning too, fried in bacon grease that I had saved. But I admit, that is looking pretty wimpy in comparison.
well, here is what i’m working on now. it will take two posts.
and this…
i have had a few Biers and my aim is off.
so it’s a group challenge. first one to get Namu through the hole wins.
That’s what she said!
I win!
you cheated! next time try to bring your A game.