Whining again.

I really do apologize for being such a craptastic blogger of late. It’s not going to get better for a while, but it will get better. This has truly been the week from purgatory, and simply unrelenting. Lots of tasks, normally something I like, but it was a big pile and I didn’t get the most important ones done, which means – well, you know what it means. More work.

But it’s purgatory, not hell. Like wearing an itchy sweater. Although it didn’t help that I got rained on during my afternoon dog-walk. The sun stayed out the whole time, but it rained pretty hard. Hollywood rain, but no rainbow.

So, then:

Here’s Charlotte’s neighbor, the famous poet. Boy, does he look every day of his 75 years or so. I’ve grown exasperated with Jim Harrison in recent years, but there are some good lines in a breezy read. Worth a click.

We have a proposal on the August ballot, what should be a simple approval of an allegedly revenue-neutral change in the tax laws. There’s no opposition, both D’s and R’s agree, and? It’s not doing so well. I liked this comment from a local expert:

The fact that almost all the politicians in the state are supporting the proposal might have been valuable 40 years ago, when many people genuinely trusted state government. But today, it’s more like hearing that all the mafia families have gotten together and are hatching big plans.

And that’s about all I have. Let’s get through the weekend and see what happens.

Posted at 12:30 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

76 responses to “Whining again.”

  1. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 1:16 am

    Indeed, some great quotes in the Harrison piece. I particularly liked, “You end up missing your dogs.” Direct and true. If I had the choice if having my dog back having, say, my parents resurrected . . . well . . . I should probably stop there.

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  2. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 1:45 am

    ” of having my dog back and having”

    Unwise to try to be clever or to plumb my psyche late at night.

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  3. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 1, 2014 at 7:09 am

    All too often I have to tell people who are telling me their adult guilty feelings, that when the Bible says “honor your father and mother,” it doesn’t mean you’re required to like or even enjoy them. Honor that they brought you into the world, do right by them on that score, but it doesn’t mean (pulling a for instance out of the air) that you have to succumb to their guilt tripping over how you should come every Sunday afternoon for dinner and racism, or take them with you on every family vacation so they can tell you how you’re raising your children all wrong right in front of them. You can honor them yet still avoid them in large part. YMMV.

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  4. alex said on August 1, 2014 at 7:54 am

    Spot-on examples pulled from thin air, MM Jeff. I hear stuff like this all the time and wonder why people feel so powerless. But then I’m gay, so I learned a long time ago not to let family members bully me into living my life on their terms. For the most part they have learned to relate to me on mine.

    I overheard a water cooler conversation the other day about Perdue chickens that makes me want to swear off commercially produced poultry forever. Not sure how much of this is apocryphal, but someone who supposedly has firsthand knowledge claims that chicks are raised to maturity in six days on the hormones they’re being given and that the flies feeding on their turds grow to massive sizes as well.

    So this item on Walmart ice cream can’t top that, I’m afraid, so I won’t be sharing it at the office.

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  5. Heather said on August 1, 2014 at 8:04 am

    I had a tough time with the “honor thy parents” rule–after a lifetime of alcoholism, my father died, sick and alone, in a nursing home in a foreign country last year. I always felt terribly guilty about not being able to help him more, but he got great care (thanks to his Irish citizenship) that none of his family would ever be able to afford for him here, and his choices in life brought him to where he ended up. That’s the saddest thing–knowing that nothing you could do would make a difference, and still feeling heartsick about it.

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  6. beb said on August 1, 2014 at 8:20 am

    My parents never pulled any of the crap Jeff mentions up @3. I should honor them more than I already do.

    The Bridge article on Prop 1 was interesting but I was determined to vote against it the second I heard that it would be a tax cut for business. Businesses already pay too little in taxes and every time someone’s taxes get cut that means someone else’s has to go up. And you know who that means – the little people who already pay too much in taxes. Also, I see the state government as an infestation of grifters. Why give them more money and power to mess around with. I’d probably feel differently if the state was run by Democrats, but it’s not.

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  7. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 8:56 am

    Well said, Beb.

    And I’m sure all of us would agree that Nancy has absolutely nothing to apologize for, with regard to this blog/oasis in the vast electronic Bad Lands that is the internet.

    Just sayin’

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  8. coozledad said on August 1, 2014 at 8:58 am

    A NC Boy has done took the ALEC turdsnuffler prize agin.
    http://www.wral.com/nc-lawmaker-wins-top-alec-award-/13858212/

    Looks like someone’s been a’ puttin some of that hormone laced chicken shit in his sammiches. Full metal blowfly.

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  9. LAMary said on August 1, 2014 at 9:20 am

    I’m with you on the dogs Jolene, and Heather, you and a I are in the same club for daughters of alcoholic fathers. When I reach back to think of my father I get too much, too complicated at the same time I get nothing.

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  10. Julie Robinson said on August 1, 2014 at 9:35 am

    Oy! Parents! Mom turned 82 on Tuesday and somehow managed to pass her driver’s test. This should not have happened, and now I fear that the lovely apartment being built for her here in the Fort will never be occupied. That she’ll stay five hours away because “moving is too hard”. That she’s going to hit someone with the car. That she’s going to fall down the stairs in her house and no one will find her for days. Sometimes it’s really hard to figure out how to honor. Oy!

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  11. Connie said on August 1, 2014 at 10:01 am

    My dad is also 82 and is going blind from macular degeneration. Yet still insists on driving himself daily to his favorite coffee spot. The downtown spot where he has gone for coffee every week day since 1960.

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  12. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 10:03 am

    My parents were actually very nice people. Throughout my life, my friends always enjoyed meeting them, and I’m sure you would have too. And, they were, to me, amazingly capable and productive. They personified various American postwar trends–lots of kids, a remarkable rise from more or less nothing to substantial prosperity, pillars of the community and all. I admired them, and still do.

    But it was a family, as perhaps any family of that size (or maybe any family) would be, of lots of emotional complexity, and partly because of birth order and partly for other reasons, the consequences of a lot of that complexity hit me in the neck. They’re now both dead, and I’m well past the age where it’s at all reasonable to spend a lot of time focusing on their faults. But the line about missing your dogs made me think that, yes, some relationships are easier to recall with equanimity than others.

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  13. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 10:09 am

    At the end of yesterday’s thread, Dave indicated that Ted Nugent is addressing (regaling? Joining hands with? ‘Shooting’ his mouth off to?) the Big Horn Basin Tea Party, on a ranch 15 miles from Greybull, Wyoming.

    When the young folks and I were way-West last month, we spent an afternoon with some close friends of Pam’s parents – ranchers near Haswell, Colorado. The ‘town’ of Haswell is basically a cross-roads, with a closed-down gas station and sometimes-open sandwich shop (which sells only pre-packaged mystery food) – and some other abandoned buildings, and that’s it…truly the middle of nowhere….and the ranch is 20 miles away from there!

    We had advised the young folks not to engage in any political talk (nod and say “Oh – uh huh!”) – and I was more or less braced for anything.

    And – the folks were as nice as they could possibly be, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the whole visit. The one time that politics came up was when the old gentleman indicated he was on the local school board – which immediately resonated with me! What is more important than preparing the next generation of citizens for all the responsibilities coming their way? (‘Course, their whole district – from K through 12 – amounts to 32 kids! Fort Wayne’s school district is literally 1,000 times larger – but still – the dynamic is the same)

    The old rancher (he and his wife are in their mid-80’s) doesn’t get around so well anymore, but his mind is sharp, and he is a story teller. He mentioned that his formal education never got past the 4th grade, but he was clearly a very intelligent person. Two common factors that came up again and again in his stories were lawyers and surveyors (suh-VEYs) – and it struck me that THAT is (again almost literally) as American as apple pie.

    I’m pretty sure he and I haven’t voted for the same president for the past 8 decade, but I respect his POV – and indeed, he tacitly returned the favor.

    By way of saying – overstatements aside – it is refreshing to be reminded that reasonable people may disagree reasonably.

    (unless you’re related!)

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  14. Julie Robinson said on August 1, 2014 at 10:22 am

    Reasonable being the key word there. Not seeing it in the public debate right now.

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  15. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 10:30 am

    Julie, a health crisis made it necessary for my parents to move into assisted living, but we were delighted when, at several years past eighty and walking with a cane, she passed her driver’s test. Because she no longer lived at home, she no longer had access to a car, but having a valid license was very important to her. If she had failed the test, there would have been hell to pay.

    She would occasionally argue that there was no reason she couldn’t have a car parked at the assisted living facility to use when she wanted, but, for the most part, it was a perfect arrangement. She was eligible, but not able, to drive.

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  16. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 10:38 am

    Julie – too true!

    It is beyond absurd that the Congress is setting a record for how little they’ve done – and that they specifically are shirking the border crisis and saying that the president can act without them – even as they authorized a lawsuit against the president for….presiding!

    The very least one can say is – those folks are unreasonable.

    And Sebnator Raphael Cruz – the ignorant immigrant his-ownself – seems to think he’s Speaker of the House!

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  17. Julie Robinson said on August 1, 2014 at 10:38 am

    Ah, compromise. Mine doesn’t know that concept.

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  18. Bob (not Greene) said on August 1, 2014 at 10:57 am

    My dad is 87 and he drives all the time. I don’t like being a passenger when he’s driving, but I don’t generally like being a passenger and the way my dad drives has driven me nuts for decades, so it’s not because he’s old. He’s too aggressive when he drives. He also refuses to believe he’s aging, which is great from his point of view and it has kept in incredibly active, even though for the last seven years he’s been battling through prostate cancer. Actually, he’s pretty amazing. He only stopped working full time when he was 83 or so, because he finally got laid off. He’d still be working otherwise.

    My mom is 79 and still works full time at the job she’s had as a school secretary for the past 35 years. My dad just bought her a new car.

    We live about two blocks away and either have them over for dinner or go over there to make dinner three or four times a week, sometimes more. I know that would drive many people crazy, but it works for us. We just kind of all look out for each other.

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  19. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 11:09 am

    BobNG – superb!

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  20. Suzanne said on August 1, 2014 at 11:17 am

    As I get older, I more and more realize how sheltered and parochial my upbringing was, which makes me sad. I was well loved and cared for, for which I am eternally thankful, but knew almost nothing about the bigger, broader world because my parents didn’t know and didn’t want to know. They grew up in NE Indiana, just like their parents and grandparents and great grandparents, attended the same church as their parents and, you get the picture. We all attended a Christian school with all our cousins who were of our same ilk. I’m sure I never even met a Roman Catholic until I was in high school, or even anyone who was not white and Christian. I was raised on a steady diet of not driving in downtown Fort Wayne because it was too busy and the South Side, well, you simply didn’t go there. Ever. It was a big step, really, for me to go away to college, but even that I was pretty much on my own to fund and figure out how it all worked. I remember once mentioning applying to college in Chicago and was told in no uncertain terms that they would never drive in Chicago, so they didn’t know how I’d get there.
    Maybe it’s middle aged dreaming, but I often wonder how much richer my life could have been, and how much more I might have accomplished if I had had any concept of the broader, bigger world and the possibilities that were there. Nonetheless, I honor and love my parents and tried to do better for my own children, which I guess is all any of us can do.

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  21. Connie said on August 1, 2014 at 11:32 am

    Suzanne, I feel the same way about growing in my west michigan dutch small town. Before college the only Catholics I met were at my older cousin’s wedding mass in Grand Rapids. Every one attended one of the Dutch Reformed churches, the only right place to go. I knew plenty of Hispanics, many of whom were the children of Cuban refugees. I had one black person in my entire high school. (He won the state heavyweight wrestling championship his senior year.) Going off to MSU was truly an eye opening experience.

    My fingernails have become so long I can barely type but i can’t bring myself to cut them.

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  22. Bob (not Greene) said on August 1, 2014 at 11:46 am

    Suzanne,

    I also had a pretty parochial upbringing, even though it was in an inner-ring Chicago suburb. Chicago has always been made up of tribal areas, so to speak, and my parents were part of the tribal system for sure. My mom grew up in Austin and her life revolved around Austin and Oak Park, and for a time in McHenry. I always give her grief when she complains about, for example, seeing business signs in Spanish, saying that never happened in the old days. I point out to her it never happened in her particular tribal area in Austin, where everyone was an Irish Catholic and that she’s most comfortable being around white people, because that’s how she spent every day of her life for her first 50 years. There were entire swaths of Chicago where people spoke, did business and displayed signs in foreign languages — Czech, Swedish, German, Italian. It’s just that she never saw those places. Until our neighborhood started really changing in the 1980s and 1990s, she continued to be surrounded by white ethnics (who still spoke Czech and Polish and Italian, but their business signs were in English because they had fled their traditional Chicago ethnic enclaves).

    My dad got around a bit more in his youth than my mom, since his parents sent him to a military high school (where he boarded) and he was in the Navy during WWII. But once he got back, he lived in Austin with his parents until the day he married my mom — when he was 33 years old. Just like them, we all went to Catholic grammar schools and high schools, went to church every Sunday and spent a lot of time with the extended family (my mom was one of 12 kids, and several of those people had nine or more kids, so to say I have a lot of first cousins would be putting it mildly; I have close to 80).

    I have to give my parents credit, though. As their six kids grew up, went to college and introduced them to different people and points of view, they more or less went along for the ride. It really opened their eyes and even though the old parochialism can still shine through, they continue to grow as people. I’ll never forget when they went to Europe for the first time (in their 70s). It was like another universe opened up for them, and they went back two or three more times — Italy, Sicily, Greece, Turkey.

    We certainly don’t see eye to eye on everything, and we still bicker about stuff, I hope I age as gracefully.

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  23. Bob (not Greene) said on August 1, 2014 at 11:49 am

    One shining example of just how much things have changed: Last summer, my youngest brother got married in my parents’ backyard. Officiating the ceremony was another one of my brothers, who got his license to perform marriages from some website. It was pretty much fantastic.

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  24. alex said on August 1, 2014 at 11:56 am

    Connie, don’t know if you heard that Jeff Krull is retiring from the ACPL. Here’s an announcement regarding his replacement: http://journalgazette.net/article/20140801/LOCAL/140809954

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  25. Judybusy said on August 1, 2014 at 12:40 pm

    Love reading all the family histories. I really resonate with the thought of how my life would have been different had I had more educated, broad-minded parents. In some ways, I am very glad to have grown up on a farm: the freedom during summers was amazing. I was never in any organized summer activity except swimming lessons till about 4th grade. With all the lakes around, you have to know how to swim! As the oldest girl, I was inside help all the way, so learned to cook and wash clothes. It still astounds me when I meet people who don’t know how to cook.

    But I also grew up with mostly unstated but sometimes blatent racsim from my father. For some reason, it never took with me. Sure, I’ve had to unlearn a lot of automatic thinking, but the truly ugly stuff I just never bought into. My mom taught me optimism and not dwelling on negative things, for which I am eternally grateful. She also intended for all of us kids to go to college, which all did in varying degrees.

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  26. Suzanne said on August 1, 2014 at 12:52 pm

    Ditto that unscheduled summertime! I read during the summer. Schlep to the bookmobile or get someone to drive me to the nearest branch library and check out whatever struck my fancy that day. Read classics because I wanted to (imagine that!)– Brontes, Hawthorne, others I don’t even remember.

    And, yes, I learned to cook and cook well, because my mother was a fairly lousy cook, so if I wanted something different, I made it. Sadly, kids now don’t get much of that because by even high school, everybody seems to want to know what you’ve done.

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  27. coozledad said on August 1, 2014 at 12:58 pm

    Openly pro-genocide state, funded by the American fundamentalist right: this was just a trial balloon, but it offers a deep insight into the criminal cooperative that is Bibi Netanyahu’s government and the protestant apocalyptic movement.
    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/times-israel-genocide-permissible

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  28. Judybusy said on August 1, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    Oh, yes, reading! I may have portrayed myself as a modern Laura Ingalls up there, always willing to pitch in. The reality: “Jodi Renee, get your nose out of that book and come empty the dishwasher!”

    I still get teased about this, even by my partner–just came up yesterday! (She also has a phrase: It’s not mean if it’s true. Courtesy of David Sedaris.)

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  29. Charlotte said on August 1, 2014 at 1:12 pm

    Hey — Jim’s looking pretty good in that photo! Poor guy has had a hell of a time with post-shingles pain, which has been a misery, but even cranky and smoking and peering at one out of his one good eye, it’s a pleasure to run into him around town. His wife Linda, who I adore, and I have been trying to get our puppies together. Such a joy having a new dog, (and the weight that crept up through the old dogs’ decrepit years is starting to come off too).

    Jeff, thanks for sticking up for those of us who have had to put limits around the parent thing. The social opprobrium is really difficult, and don’t get me started about the Mother’s Day/Father’s Day sorrow. Saddest thing about cutting my mother off this last time is that even the holdouts told me it was time to let go. And Alex, one of the great gifts of the gay rights movement to us all has been the way it modeled fighting for one’s right to be who one is. That you’re not owned by your family …

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  30. alex said on August 1, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    If Republicans threaten impeachment, that’s okay, but if Obama brings it up it’s shameful opportunism for political fund-raising. And if that weren’t bad enough, he drops his g’s, a privilege reserved only for white Texans with Yankee pedigrees. How dare that black sumbitch says Peggy Noonan, the irrelevant hack f/k/a Ronald Reagan’s Brain.

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  31. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    Alex, that Noonan article is a humdinger!

    Ms Noonan has the same sort of delivery as the neighbor women of my youth; somewhat soft-spoken, gently pushy, and sincerely sincere (in their prodding), so that it would just be rude if anyone replied with a succinct “Bullshit, ma’am”

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  32. Deborah said on August 1, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    I guess I’m lucky, I’ve got Deborah for a mother! We get along pretty well, and she’s pretty amazing for putting up with me and my myriad of health issues. If it weren’t for her, I’m not sure I would still be around.

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  33. Little Bird said on August 1, 2014 at 2:06 pm

    And I forgot she used my phone to comment here last….

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  34. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 2:17 pm

    Peggy Noonan is absolutely the most tiresome person on earth. That Salon piece is very funny. I particularly liked this sentence: A real president – like Ronald Reagan, to pick an example entirely at random – knows that a shared sense of national unity begins with good posture.

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  35. coozledad said on August 1, 2014 at 2:44 pm

    Every Republican shill was forced to come out this week and bitch about Obama discussing the impeachment they’ve been threatening him since 2009. They are incapable of embarrassment or self reflection.

    If they could make sex tapes of people’s fantasy lives, the one with Peggers and Rongo would be like Triumph of The Will
    mashed up with Gunsmoke. In short, it would be a director’s cut of the RNC, but with more horses and slightly fewer dicks.

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  36. Cathie from Canada said on August 1, 2014 at 2:45 pm

    I enjoy reading your blog very much and I especially like your photos and the links.
    I have one request — please stop with the apologies! If you looked over your posts for the last year, you would likely find that every third or fourth one starts with you apologizing to your readers for not posting more frequently. Hey, you don’t need to be sorry that you have a life! And an interesting life it is, too.

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    • nancy said on August 1, 2014 at 3:05 pm

      Thanks.

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  37. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 3:43 pm

    If they could make sex tapes of people’s fantasy lives, the one with Peggers and Rongo would be like Triumph of The Will
    mashed up with Gunsmoke. In short, it would be a director’s cut of the RNC, but with more horses and slightly fewer dicks.

    And only “real” ‘mericans; good fellas who are white, and who will shoot you (if they’re male) – or women who, if they’re smart, are good hearted prostitutes (like Miss Kitty)

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  38. Dorothy said on August 1, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    What Cathie said!! (Wish I’d thought of it first)

    On the encouraging news side, I have an interview here next Wednesday at 9 AM – on campus. Two other jobs I’m qualified for opened up in the past 10 days so I’m hopeful I won’t be losing my job, but transitioning to another one elsewhere on campus. Thanks for all the encouragement. You all have NO idea how much it means to me.

    Happy Friday.

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  39. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 3:51 pm

    And happy Friday right back atcha – Dorothy!

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  40. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 4:11 pm

    Posting a couple lists to add to your weekend fun. First one is a page on the NYT web site with samples of recently released albums.

    http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/arts/music/pressplay.html?smid=nytimesarts&_r=1&

    Second one is a list of places that stream TV shows about what the author calls British Women Getting It Done, it being, variously, catching crooks, solving mysteries, delivering babies, and ruling Britannia. Some likely very familiar, others less so.

    http://www.vulture.com/2014/07/best-of-streaming-tv-shows-about-british-women.html?mid=twitter_vulture

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  41. Jolene said on August 1, 2014 at 4:14 pm

    And here is a story about Khaled Mashaal, the political director of Hamas, who the Israelis once tried to kill by spraying poison in his ear. A fascinating story.

    http://time.com/khaled-mashaal/

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  42. Wim said on August 1, 2014 at 4:31 pm

    ‘Honor thy father’ was the one commandment my father knew, and he used it as his trump card in any argument with me. I never once heard him use the word ‘god’ without it being inevitably followed by ‘damn,’ and never in my lifetime did he darken the door of any church, but in this one narrow particular his faith was absolute and he clearly thought all-powerful. In my wretched youth, I read the Bible, and I tried once to show him where it said just a little further on that fathers shouldn’t provoke their sons to wrath. ‘It’s not a get-out-of-jail free card, Dad,’ I said. It irritated him; it was changing the subject.

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  43. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 4:35 pm

    Given Netanyahu’s rhetorical question – what would America do if their cities (all across the country) were under threat of rocket attack every day –

    I’ll concede to the Israelis this much: their actions toward the civilian areas where these attacks originate is just like the way we treated Native Americans back in the day (ie – genocide)

    Was it Little Phil Sheridan who said “The only good Indian is a dead Indian”?

    And he made lots of Native Americans into “good Indians”

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  44. Deborah said on August 1, 2014 at 5:44 pm

    OMG, I just realized that I have crossed paths with Ted Simmons the catcher that was mentioned in Sherri’s Nichols Law! He ran an advertising firm in St. Louis and they were the ones who hooked up the company I worked for to design the bourbon museum in KY. Ted invited me to a lunch in a private room in a hoity toity private club. It was ostensibly to talk to me about doing an exhibit at the club about racket ball or squash, I forget which. I sorta got the feeling that maybe the lunch was meant to turn into something else if you catch my drift. I played innocent and nothing happened but it was a little creepy. I had never been in a private dining room like that before and later found out that a lot of the members used it for liaisons. He never followed through on hiring me to design the exhibit either. This memory came to me just today, I kept thinking that the name Ted Simmons was familiar. When I looked it up on Wikipedia, voila!

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  45. Deborah said on August 1, 2014 at 6:20 pm

    I’m in Granby, CO tonight. Tomorrow we’ll be back in Santa Fe.

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  46. brian stouder said on August 1, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    If I get your drift – you’d ‘a got that job, and probably a few others, if only….

    Sounds like the guy is a pig with manners (so to speak)!

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  47. Kirk said on August 1, 2014 at 6:48 pm

    Good story, Deborah. I’ll be sure to pass that along to the Cardinals fans I know, who probably worship him.

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  48. Sherri said on August 1, 2014 at 8:38 pm

    Since I’m on vacation, I’m kind of behind on the Internet, so I’m amused to tune in today and see that Ira Glass has decided that Shakespeare sucks, no stakes, isn’t relatable, etc. Fascinating. In the meantime, we enjoyed Richard III so much, we dropped by the box office and picked up rush tickets for tonight’s performance and are going to see it again!

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  49. MarkH said on August 2, 2014 at 12:02 am

    Deborah — Soooo, you didn’t see Wilford Brimley. Dang.

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  50. MarkH said on August 2, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Brian – What Sheridan supposedly said was “The in good Indians I ever saw were dead”. But he vehemently denied ever saying it. Scroll to the bottom of the list in this link:

    http://listverse.com/2008/05/15/top-10-famous-historic-misquotes/

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  51. MarkH said on August 2, 2014 at 12:16 am

    “The ONLY good…” Dang autocorrect.

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  52. Dexter said on August 2, 2014 at 2:19 am

    Ted Simmons had extra long , extremely thick, floppy , mop-top hair that flopped up and down when he ran to first base or chased a foul pop up. He was the rare guy who could have gone to his barber and asked for a hair-thinning job. He was also a great hitter and the successor to John Bench as the best National League catcher for a few years, the way I saw it.

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  53. brian stouder said on August 2, 2014 at 9:12 am

    Mark – I’d deny saying such a horrible thing, too – but the fellow said (and did) a whole bunch of other things consistent with that sentiment.

    He was what he was, and (both before and after the Civil War) dead Native Americans was his stock in trade

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  54. coozledad said on August 2, 2014 at 9:36 am

    The current sentiments of the Republican congress echo those of Colonel John Chivington, perp of the Sand Creek Massacre.

    Nits make lice is adaptable to either the situation in Gaza or the US border. The curious thing is the Republicans have based their claim to morality on the protection of nits, so the revised congressional phrase should read The sanctity of nits is conditional. And then there’s your lice.

    Erik Loomis over at LGM has an interesting discussion of the role Ronald Reagan played in the Central and South American diaspora, and how it comes back to regime destabilization and backing the militant right throughout the 1980’s. Reagan’s right-wing utopias are like red states here, loss centers- beggar states that have dissolved into feudalism.
    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2014/07/u-s-responsibility-central-american-child-immigrant-wave

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  55. coozledad said on August 2, 2014 at 10:55 am

    Read your bloody book, you grotesque gibbering monkeys.
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/01/nc-eatery-rejects-separation-of-church-and-plate-with-discount-for-praying-in-public/

    “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.…

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  56. Deborah said on August 2, 2014 at 12:35 pm

    Coozledad, yesterday on our travels through Wyoming we went past where the Sand Creek massacre happened. What an atrocity that was.

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  57. MarkH said on August 2, 2014 at 1:42 pm

    Deborah, it was in southeast Colorado. They even named a town nearby after Chivington.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_Creek_massacre

    You likely passed by the site of the Fetterman massacre. It happened near old Ft. Phil Kearny near Buffalo, Wyo. in the Powder River country through which you travelled. It was still an atrocity, but you may be confusing Chivington with Co. Henry B. Carrington, who reluctantly engaged the Indians at the prodding of his subordinates notably Capt. William Fetterman. Even Jim Bridger couldn’t put a stop to the engagement.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetterman_Massacre

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  58. Deborah said on August 2, 2014 at 6:15 pm

    Mark H, I think this is what we saw and thought it was the site of the massacre:

    From wikipedia: The Sand Creek Massacre Trail in Wyoming follows the paths of the Northern Arapaho and Cheyenne in the years after the massacre.[51] It traces them to their supposed wintering on the Wind River Indian Reservation near Riverton in central Wyoming, where the Arapaho remain today. The trail passes through Cheyenne, Laramie, Casper, and Riverton en route to Ethete in Fremont County on the reservation. In recent years, Arapaho youth have taken to running the length of the trail as endurance tests to bring healing to their nation. Alexa Roberts, superintendent of the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site, has said that the trail represents a living portion of the history of the two tribes.

    We went through Riverton and followed the Wind River through a gorgeous canyon.

    We’re back in Santa Fe, exhausted. Ten days in a car is a lot. I’m the only one who did it for the whole 10 days. Little BIrd flew back to Santa Fe from Chicago and my husband was only along for the trip back. Really it only hit me as too much the last night and all day today. We got stuck in a horrendous situation early this morning in Colorado near Copper Mountain. There was an enormous bike event, thousands of bikers sharing the road for many miles from I70 to Leadville. It was really poorly managed and I will be surprised if there aren’t a few deaths as a result. We held our breath for about 40 miles as bikers were next to us on winding mountain roads. There was no information about it before we got on highway 91, if we had known about it we would have taken a different route, once on the highway there was no way out, mountains on both sides. It was scary as hell, I was afraid we or some car near us would kill someone if they fell off. It’s called the Copper Mt. Triange or something like that. The thousands of bikers doing it had to be extremely fit to make it up the mountains. It was a 78 mile route for them.

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  59. Deborah said on August 2, 2014 at 6:23 pm

    Here’s a website for the Copper Triangle http://coppertriangle.com. It brags that it’s the best organized event by some standard. That’s a joke. There were no signs telling motorists beforehand what they were getting themselves into and we only saw 1 State Trooper the whole 40 miles we were in the midst of it, and she wasn’t paying the least bit of attention to the traffic, she was busy talking to a couple of cute guys. It’s not that we were upset about having to drive slow, we were upset because it was super dangerous for the bikers and they didn’t seem to have anyone minding the store. It was crazy.

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  60. brian stouder said on August 2, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Deborah – that sounds like no fun! Much as I admired the great beauty of the mountains as we whipped around the bypass at Denver, I found it nerve-wracking doing the big up-grades and down-grades (especially near Mt Rushmore/Rapid City) – and that was without bikes all over the place!

    Although I will say that when we were out in the middle of nowhere (east central Colorado), I was quite taken with the number of bicyclists we came across, here and there. I bet in the course of our trip, we saw more than a dozen – often pedaling in pairs – and laden with bags (water, presumably)

    I can only imagine how taxing you must have found navigating through a whole racing field of these people

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  61. Kirk said on August 2, 2014 at 11:13 pm

    Sounds like driving down after watching the sunrise at Haleakala crater on Maui with a bunch of cyclists on the road. A bunch of them got wiped out a few years back, and I think they might have put an end to letting bicycles on that road.

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  62. Dexter said on August 2, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Mother Nature kicked California cyclists right square in the ass as well… http://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Cyclists-suffer-hypothermia-in-California-storms-5664811.php

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  63. MichaelG said on August 3, 2014 at 12:34 am

    Wow. And Friday it was 107 here in Sacto.

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  64. Dexter said on August 3, 2014 at 2:00 am

    My buddy in Roseville told me it was 101 there today (Saturday) , earlier. We’re at 62 here in Ohio.

    Toledo still has no tap water and Kascih declared a state of emergency…half million people have no potable water. Stores are getting a few truckloads in at a time but customers can only buy one case per family…bad scene…we’re taking water to daughter Sandi in the Library Village section at noon. Algae bloom, toxic as hell, boiling the water only concentrates the toxins.

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  65. David C. said on August 3, 2014 at 9:06 am

    “ice-downed samples”?

    http://www.toledoblade.com/local/2014/08/03/Toledo-water-test-results-face-extended-delay.html

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  66. alex said on August 3, 2014 at 11:17 am

    Looks like a beautiful day here. I’m hosting out-of-town company and throwing a dinner party late this afternoon. On the menu are paella with sausage, chicken, mussels, shrimp and lobster, a big bowl of watermelon salsa and a cucumber salad. If there’s any room for dessert, we’ll have grilled fruit over ice cream.

    Leaving shortly on an ice run. The fridge just can’t keep up with us.

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  67. brian stouder said on August 3, 2014 at 12:26 pm

    Sounds marvelous! We’re having pork chops on the grill, plus salad – plus Nathan’s hot dogs ($2 more than the regular…we’ll see if they’re any good)

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  68. Dexter said on August 3, 2014 at 2:23 pm

    My daughters’ Weimaraners are guzzling all her bottled water, and she has used her case of rationed water already, so we’re heading back over with another carload of gallons and bottles of water.

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  69. Minnie said on August 3, 2014 at 2:24 pm

    Depending on rain, we’ll grill or broil chicken thighs brined and rubbed with homemade Cajun seasoning. Got crowder peas, butter beans, and corn from the farmer’s market. Made gazpacho from the garden. We’re a couple of days late celebrating Lughnasadh (Lammas), the beginning of harvest.

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  70. Kirk said on August 3, 2014 at 2:57 pm

    Grilled steaks (one strip, one filet), corn on the cob, redskins and cabernet.

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  71. brian stouder said on August 3, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    The sweet corn has been marvelous this summer.

    Just got back from seeing “Get On Up” – the James Brown movie.

    It was tremendously good, and the actor who plays Brown was the hardest working man in that picture; very, very good stuff

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  72. Connie said on August 3, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    We made sauteed zucchini last night and it was so good that when dinner was done we made some more/

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  73. Connie said on August 3, 2014 at 7:42 pm

    A massive cave under China. I am particularly impressed by the way the presentation is put together, http://www.nationalgeographic.com/china-caves/supercaves/

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  74. coozledad said on August 3, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    Connie: That’s one huge cave. I wonder if the Communists ever hid there during the Civil War (although they were probably much farther north).

    I like that it’s called the Miao room. Sounds like a strip club.

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  75. brian stouder said on August 3, 2014 at 9:13 pm

    Connie – thanks for the superb link; the 3-D scan images are marvelous

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