Peachy August.

I know I’ve said cruel, cruel things about California peaches in the past, but I’d like to make a qualified walkback today.

(I know, I know: EDGE OF YOUR SEAT.)

My fruit guy at the Eastern Market warned me a while back not to expect much during peach season. Their whole crop was KO’d by the crazy spring weather. But they are offering an alternative – white peaches from Cali. This would normally leave me cold, but I trust my fruit guy. They were hard, but had a nice peachy fragrance. I took them home.

Thirty-six hours later, they were soft and people? These were some seriously good peaches. And white! What will they think of next.

This is my super-favoritest time of year, foodwise. Every breakfast is peaches, blueberries and melon. Every lunch is vegetable frittata. Dinner is…well, today it was a tomato-corn pie, made with the last of Saturday’s fresh mozzarella from Zingerman’s. What a life. It doesn’t take much to make me happy.

Which is, perhaps, one reason I can’t even say how many shits I do not give about Chick-fil-A. As we all know from the occasionally updated Gay Agenda, fast food is tacky and fattening, and many of my gay friends and acquaintances are superb cooks. Nevertheless, if you didn’t see the slideshow Cooze unearthed yesterday, of politicians enjoying fried chicken products, it’s worth a look. Huckabee is showing the difficulty of lasting weight loss, it seems. Mike! Stop digging your grave with a knife and fork! Grilled chicken, no bread, and lose the waffle fries.

And now that we’ve switched to politics, a very good column by Brian Dickerson at the Freep, who’s been gone too long this summer. It’s about the stealth endorsements of Michigan’s Right to Life, and two Oakland County judicial candidates who say they forgot to mention the endorsement when directly asked:

Because all judicial races are nominally nonpartisan, all voters participating in either the Democratic or Republican primary next week will be able to cast their vote in the circuit court contest. My surmise is that Christ and Sakwa want conservative Republicans voters to know they’re in Right to Life’s corner, but would prefer that Democrats and independent voters remain ignorant of the RTL connection.

But let’s not go into the weekend with thoughts of single-issue voting! Let’s do it with Animals talking in all caps. This one.

Happy weekend, all. I’m going to a Tigers game.

Posted at 12:49 am in Current events, Same ol' same ol' |
 

83 responses to “Peachy August.”

  1. Suzanne said on August 3, 2012 at 7:33 am

    Wow. I didn’t look at the Chick-fil-A pics yesterday. I feel kinda greasy now and I just took a shower.

    103 chars

  2. alex said on August 3, 2012 at 7:46 am

    First there was Bill Bennet’s Book of Virtues, then there was Huckabee sticking a fork where he oughtta stick a cork. Wonder if he’s any better at the other kind of abstinence when he can’t even control his mealy little yap or what he puts in it.

    In politics, here in the Fort you gotta pay to play. Specifically, you must kiss the ring of this batty harridan if you want to hold elected office in these parts. No stealth allowed. You gotta wear that endorsement like an ugly Christmas sweater from Crazy Auntie.

    Speaking of our town’s beleaguered reputation, a Taco Bell employee has put us in the national headlines by posting images of himself pissing on an order of nachos.

    897 chars

  3. Deborah said on August 3, 2012 at 8:00 am

    This is my last comment about Chick-fil-a (chick fellatio as one of my gay friends calls it) http://mlkshk.com/p/I7KO

    117 chars

  4. coozledad said on August 3, 2012 at 8:26 am

    The PR people for Taco Bell have got this. “Our chips are so crunchy, you won’t notice they’ve been saturated in whizz.’

    Nah. More likely they’re removing “golden” from any description any of their menu items.

    212 chars

  5. Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2012 at 8:57 am

    I ate at Taco Bell, once. From what I remember, the special sauce might have improved the meal.

    95 chars

  6. beb said on August 3, 2012 at 8:59 am

    Those crazy Chinese! A woman, concerned about the number of motorists speeding through a pedestrian crossing came up with an idea to slow them down. She tied asex doll to a tree next to the crossing.
    http://boingboing.net/2012/08/02/traffic-hacks-elderly-woman-i.html
    Picture included. My thought is that while drivers will slow down to look at the apparent woman in bondage, they will be rubbernecking through the croossing and not watching out for people trying to cross.

    475 chars

  7. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on August 3, 2012 at 9:33 am

    The movie getting heavy daytime advertising on the Olympics’ coverage looks to be a NN.C sort of story: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/01/sundance-2012-bradley-cooper-gets-naughty-in-the-words.html

    210 chars

  8. coozledad said on August 3, 2012 at 9:42 am

    Why doesn’t this guy have Luke Russert’s job? Oh, sorry, I forgot. Luke was born with Cokie Robert’s shit-eating grin. And that’s all you need, innit?
    http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/08/03/harrys-game/

    204 chars

  9. brian stouder said on August 3, 2012 at 10:04 am

    So, leaving aside the politics of sitting in a drive-through to buy heavily processed chicken parts, here’s a tale about horse meat that turned my head:

    http://www.chem.info/News/2012/08/Regulatory-News-Horse-Owners-Support-US-Horse-Slaughterhouse/

    an excerpt:

    ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (AP) — A group of horse owners and clubs is urging the governor of New Mexico to support a proposed horse slaughterhouse, saying the closing of domestic facilities five years ago has caused “needless suffering under the cruelest of conditions.” The New Mexico Horse Council, which represents more than 200 horse owners and 30 horse clubs, sent the governor a letter, saying an informal survey of its members showed 94 percent favor humane slaughter….

    (Governor) Martinez spokesman Scott Darnell said the governor received the letter, but her opposition to the facility has not changed.

    Meantime, Valley Meat Co. owner Rick de los Santos said he has hired an attorney and is working with Sen. Jeff Bingaman and Rep. Steve Pearce to push for action from the USDA on his application to convert his former cattle slaughterhouse into a horse slaughter plant that would package meat for sale overseas.
    He said the USDA initially told him last year that it would move quickly on his application, but he has since been told that because of the controversy over domestic slaughter, the agency won’t make a decision until after the election. His business, he said, is now sitting idle because horses cannot be slaughtered in the same facility as other animals under USDA rules. “They have turned it into a political game instead of food safety,” he said.

    “A political game”? The meat-packer shoulda’ said something like “This is horse shit! Here we are, tryin’ to do business, and the governor is engaged in pointless political dressage”…

    But we digress

    1893 chars

  10. Deborah said on August 3, 2012 at 10:43 am

    Hey, it’s New Mexico [shrugs]. That’s what the locals say.

    58 chars

  11. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 11:50 am

    See now? Our Cali peaches aren’t bad. I’ve been eating wonderful peaches for over a month, and they are especially good now. Nectarines too, although the last bunch of white nectarines I bought were sweet and juicy but that’s all. They just tasted like sugar water. The seedless red grapes are excellent this year as well. Also canary melons and santa claus melons.
    Now I’m hungry. It’s only 8:48 here and the lunch I brought from home is calling to me from the fridge. Cut up melon and a prosciutto, tomato and arugula sandwich on sourdough.

    544 chars

  12. Laurie said on August 3, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    I don’t find the food at Chick-Fil-A all that much better than other options out there but I do feel it is a better experience for me as a patron. The staff at the outlet I go to once in awhile are—this is unusual around my major metro area–unfailingly courteous, helpful, and willing to personalize orders if needed. I do like their chicken-salad sandwich on whole-grain bread, a nice idea in fast food. I also actually liked that they give their staff a day off on Sunday. As Colbert has said, do I now have to know the political persuasion behind every piec e of food I buy? That seems ridiculous. And I say that as someone who supports gay marriage.

    664 chars

  13. paddyo' said on August 3, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Yes it IS the “super-favoritest time of year” for food, Nancy. I’ve been gorging this summer on early-to-ripen (because of all the heat) Palisade peaches, named for the town in Colorado’s Western Slope “banana belt” on the banks of the Colorado.

    And now our other great regional fruit, the Rocky Ford cantaloupe, is rolling into Denver grocers and farmers’ markets. And although a bad spring may have clobbered your Michigan cherries, the Pacific Northwest apparently is glutted with cherries, so we gobbling those now, too.

    Palisade peaches, blueberries and cherries for today’s breakfast, and Rocky Ford melon and cherries with lunch. Mmmm. . .

    652 chars

  14. beb said on August 3, 2012 at 12:12 pm

    What is it with porn stars and Mitt Romney? First the Hedgehog, Ron Jeremy says Mitt’s a good guy and now “retired” starlet Jenna Jameson endorses him, too.
    http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/retired-porn-star-jenna-jameson-says-she-supports-143703925.html

    However she does say “When you’re rich, you want a Republican in office,” which is BS became historically the stock market has done between during Democratic administrations than Republican.

    452 chars

  15. coozledad said on August 3, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    beb: Jenna and Ron were basically employees of Romney when he served on the board at Marriot, so they owe him. Marriot subsidized a pretty fair chunk of of the porn industry.
    Don’t know if they’re still doing it.

    214 chars

  16. Julie Robinson said on August 3, 2012 at 12:46 pm

    Besides the Taco Bell urinator, our morning paper had a couple of other tidbits. First, Costco wants to open here (where Seyfert’s was located), which is very good news indeed. If we could also get a Trader Joe’s, I wouldn’t even mind the long drive to an IKEA.

    Second, an OID story, I think, about how abandoned streets make the perfect dumping ground for hiding bodies: http://www.jg.net/article/20120803/NEWS03/308039975/0/SEARCH. Since Detroit has further cut its police force, little can be done, they say.

    514 chars

  17. alex said on August 3, 2012 at 12:48 pm

    The Big Three Big Box DIY stores — Lowe’s, Home Despot and Menard’s — have all been identified as contributors to offensive far-right causes as well. I must say I like them much better when the economy is down, however. They have a lot of overqualified, knowledgeable electricians, plumbers and other laid-off construction workers there who are very helpful when it comes to choosing the right tools or materials for a given project. Quite a contrast to what I recall in the late ’90s when the economy was booming and the store windows were plastered with desperate help wanted signs. In those days I recall dealing with some incredibly dim-witted salespeople. They’d be sitting around carrying on with each other and act all put out if a customer interrupted them with questions, and none of them knew the first thing about any of the merchandise anyway.

    Because they hold a monopoly on home improvement, it’s hard not to shop there. Much easier to boycott anti-gay restaurants. Cracker Barrel is the other one and it’s execrable enough that I’m not missing anything by not going there.

    1093 chars

  18. Prospero said on August 3, 2012 at 1:10 pm

    Apple is emailing me about Mountain Lion. Do I want this? $20. JC?

    Jenna Jameson? That’s not even good Irish whiskey. Y’all are gonna grow hair on your palms. I’ve heard the name, so I looked her up:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenna_Marie_Massoli

    They all be Lyin’ for the Lord.

    I love the way Ann Telnaes draws Scalia, and she’s got a good ear for more his most ridiculous statements.

    I’m a fan of John Crowley, and I take all sorts of grief for it, but Little, Big is nonpareil.

    How many Canadians use US Health Care?

    Jenna, 10-ft. pole? I’ll pass. Nasty.

    921 chars

    • jcburns said on August 3, 2012 at 3:12 pm

      If you have a machine that will run Mountain Lion (the list of ML-able machines is smaller than one might expect), it sure seems worth the upgrade.

      147 chars

  19. Prospero said on August 3, 2012 at 1:14 pm

    Wow, links bomb unintended. How did that sneak past?

    52 chars

  20. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 1:16 pm

    I had to buy something at Home Depot this morning. A colleague’s mother is a patient here where I work and I wanted to pick up some flowers or a plant for her. I leave for work very early, and the only place that was open and on my way was Home Depot. I got a lovely white orchid plant in an acceptable red laquer pot. I would have rather bought an orchid at Trader Joes, but those slackers don’t open until 9 am. Well, the one in Silver Lake opens at 8, but that’s still too late for me. A half dozen helpful day workers in the parking lot offered to help me with my orchid plant.

    581 chars

  21. brian stouder said on August 3, 2012 at 1:53 pm

    Mary, I have no doubt that if I chanced to see you lugging an orchid plant across the parking lot, that I’d offer you any assistance that I could, too!

    151 chars

  22. Linda said on August 3, 2012 at 1:56 pm

    Deborah:
    My Christian ex-sister in law helps at food banks, etc. But she’s also in favor of gay rights.

    104 chars

  23. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    Thank you for the compliment,Brian, but the day laborers at Home Depot tend approach everyone to see if they need help. Last week I had to buy a halogen light bulb and at least six guys asked if needed help. My son was asked if he needed help when he went in to buy a new washer for the kitchen faucet. I know the home depot parking lot guys are desperate, and I feel bad for them, but I can handle changing light bulbs myself. If I need my whole yard dug up, maybe I’ll hire one of them but I have two able bodied sons whom I can guilt into doing it free. Call me cold hearted.

    579 chars

  24. brian stouder said on August 3, 2012 at 2:26 pm

    Hah!

    I completely misunderstood the subtext.

    There is a somewhat dodgey McDonalds that I occasionally visit; right next to a truckstop, with lots of transient individuals.

    I’d always thought that if one of them approached me and said they were hungry, that I’d buy ’em a burger (or whatever).

    But then I figured out that many of them were simply tired travellers stretching their legs (as opposed to tetherless rolling stones).

    Still, I wouldn’t visit that 24-hour McD at (for example) 3 am…

    508 chars

  25. Judybusy said on August 3, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    We can’t all avoid shopping/spending money to places with bad ties (I found out two weeks ago Charles Schwab give lots of money to Rebublicans.) But here’s an angle about CFA I don’t think anyone here has brought up: Supporting truly gay-hating measures via their donations to the Family Research Council.

    Also, if I let myself think too much about it, it’s really depressing to see so many people lined up to staunchly defend the right to discriminate against me. It matters in so many ways that marriage equality become a reality. This week, a gay man won the right to inherit assets that his partner of 25 years left behind when he died suddenly of a heart attack. More info. What’s important to note is that no one from the partner’s family was fighting for the assets: they wanted him to inherit. It’s just that the law wouldn’t let him. God, I have REALLY got to get around to making a will.

    1140 chars

  26. Charlotte said on August 3, 2012 at 2:54 pm

    The closure of horse slaughter facilities has been a huge problem in the industry. Sale prices fell precipitously in the aftermath — just as the recession hit. Montana (and other states) has seen a huge problem with abandoned and starving horses — folks just couldn’t afford them anymore (I know, I know — how do you just let your horse starve?). And it’s led to horrific accidents like this one in my old stomping grounds:http://tuesdayshorse.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/15-belgian-draft-horses-killed/
    Unscrupulous breeders are packing horses they can’t sell into trailers to send to Canada or Mexico, the closest slaughter facilities. And my aunt, who has a barn on our family farm, says that the EPA has also made killing a horse on your own property problematic. For instance, she had to put down a horse a year ago on Thanksgiving in an emergency situation and there were all sorts of restrictive rules about how and where she could bury it. It’s kind of a nightmare.

    974 chars

  27. Dorothy said on August 3, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    Speaking of discrimination, there is a lovely mile long path that runs through the center of this town/campus where I work. It’s been around for ages, nearly 200 years. It’s not paved but has a gravel surface. In the wintertime it can be an absolute mess, with muddy puddles, bare spots that have iced over, etc. It’s been suggested that we pave it to make it more accessible for students who are (1) either permanently in a wheel chair or use crutches, such as some who have cerebral palsy; or (2) are injured and are temporarily using crutches or other impairments which make it difficult to navigate. Many alumni are mightily peeved that their beloved path is going to be changed and threaten to withhold donations, support, yadda yadda yadda. I heard today that a recent email exchange (where a current employee mentioned he has seen a current senior who is in a wheelchair have difficulty on the gravel) offered this heartfelt suggestion from someone just two years younger than I (and I’m paraphrasing): “Why should we go to all that expense for one person in a wheelchair?! Get them a hoveround and move on!”

    You might not be surprised to know this person is a senior v.p. at a major banking institution in the USA.

    1231 chars

  28. brian stouder said on August 3, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    Dorothy – I keep leaning on Pam to post about her recent trip to Pittsburgh. Our niece is getting married this fall, and this was her bachelorette party.

    From the train ride there, and then a scenic trip out on the river, plus lots of good food – it sounds like she was thoroughly impressed with your (very hilly! she says) town.

    332 chars

  29. MichaelG said on August 3, 2012 at 5:39 pm

    Are you folks back east not familiar with the day laborers looking for work in Home Depot parking lots? There are a lot of them at each location; they’re immigrants and hard workers, not transients and bums.

    208 chars

  30. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 5:40 pm

    Peachy August sounds like the name of female secret agent show from the early seventies.

    88 chars

  31. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 5:47 pm

    They’re good guys and they’re out there in the heat or rain looking for work. When I hear someone say that immigrants are stealing American jobs I tell them I’ll believe that when I see white guys standing the the 100+ heat looking for laborer jobs outside Home Depot.

    268 chars

  32. Suzanne said on August 3, 2012 at 6:45 pm

    I’ll believe immigrants are stealing American jobs when I see American employers refuse to hire them. None of this would be anissue if American employers would just say no, we won’t hire illegals. But they don’t.

    213 chars

  33. coozledad said on August 3, 2012 at 6:48 pm

    LA Mary, Michael G.: I hope some of those folks track eastward.I would kill for day laborers of some other ethnic extraction than white Southside VA or northern Piedmont NC. I’ve got plenty for non-English speaking, non-goddamned Baptists to do.
    I can draw instructions if necessary.
    If obnoxious Republican racist trash is all I can get, I’d just as soon do it myself.

    372 chars

  34. LAMary said on August 3, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    Suzanne, if they stopped hiring illegals here in California, all the restaurants, auto body shops, farms and commercial laundries would have to raise their prices a lot. I’m not defending the practice of hiring illegals, but it’s an integral part of the economy here and I think that reality has to be dealt with.
    I work in a hospital and we are extremely careful about hiring only people who are authorized to work in the US. We have to be because we deal with governmental agencies (medicare, medicaid). But smaller businesses, especially if they don’t have government contracts, fly below the radar.

    603 chars

  35. Suzanne said on August 3, 2012 at 8:08 pm

    LAMary, I agree. It’s really the market at work. Employers hire immigrants because they choose to. It’s cheaper and makes the product cheaper. No one is stealing anyone’s job. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they want to pay more for goods & services to stop immigration.

    287 chars

  36. basset said on August 3, 2012 at 9:08 pm

    Totally off topic, but you could not make this up. You just couldn’t.

    http://spitalfieldslife.com/2012/08/01/viscountess-boudicas-domestic-appliances/

    154 chars

  37. coozledad said on August 3, 2012 at 10:16 pm

    basset: That’s great stuff. Thanks for that link.

    49 chars

  38. JWfromNJ said on August 3, 2012 at 11:41 pm

    why basset, why?????

    20 chars

  39. basset said on August 4, 2012 at 12:51 am

    where else are you gonna see a cross-dresser who’s obsessed with antique stoves? I mean, really?

    97 chars

  40. Prospero said on August 4, 2012 at 8:32 am

    Basset.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrOgYjp20j0

    Them shoes are all wrong. And that’s a pretty homely woman.

    And Nancy, go to more Tigs games:

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/baseball/mlb/gameflash/2012/08/03/42066/index.html#boxscore

    What genius invented the boxscore? My brother Chris and I spent summers playing Dodgers vs. Yankees whiffle ball, based on Free Press box scores. Batting and throwing lefty, righty. Only thing I was ever better at. And badminton, and croquet. And guitar playing. Chris had a try with the Jets, went to UVA Law instead.

    573 chars

  41. alex said on August 4, 2012 at 9:37 am

    Basset, that site rocks. Thanks for the fun diversion.

    112 chars

  42. Deborah said on August 4, 2012 at 9:40 am

    Yeah thanks Basset, Spitalfield Life is newly bookmarked on my iPad.

    68 chars

  43. Minnie said on August 4, 2012 at 11:12 am

    Basset, thanks for turning us on to Spitalfields Life and further on to Viscountess Boudica’s blog. Prospero, thank you for sending us to Van Morrison’s “Madame George”. These were a perfect soulful start to a Saturday morning.

    229 chars

  44. brian stouder said on August 4, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    Rachel had yet another great Michigan update on her show last night. She reported that the Michigan Supreme Court ordered that the recall measure for the Emergency Manager law be placed on the ballot, despite the font size on the petitions.

    She further reported that the pro-recall side is polling behind the anti-recall side, which tells me that I’m missing something critical about this issue.

    By way of saying – I eagerly await Madam Telling Tales’ take on the whole thing, from Ground Zero, as we head toward the fall, and the elections. (Not to sound like a troll from under The Bridge, mind you)

    If nothing else, it will be a very nice palate cleanser, from the endless news about Mitt’s feckless, crash-prone (No New Taxes – and No Old Tax Returns Either, Dammit!) campaign

    796 chars

  45. jcburns said on August 4, 2012 at 4:53 pm

    I’m wondering what percentage of the current village of commentors here even knows what the ‘Madam Telling Tales’ reference harkens to.

    135 chars

  46. MichaelG said on August 4, 2012 at 5:02 pm

    Is that what the old Ft. Wayne column was called? I seem to recall some reference to that. I visited Ft. Wayne once back in about 1975 or so when I worked for IH.

    164 chars

  47. MichaelG said on August 4, 2012 at 5:55 pm

    Does it seem to anyone else that those gray outfits the American Olympians are wearing to the medal ceremonies are just plain drab?

    131 chars

  48. Prospero said on August 4, 2012 at 6:11 pm

    Labron sin’t Larry, And Lochte sure as shit ain’t Phelps. And Missy is way cool, but she ain’t Mairy T. The greatestst female swimmer ever lived?

    145 chars

  49. Julie Robinson said on August 4, 2012 at 6:39 pm

    I’ve been thinking that all along, Michael.

    Telling Tales it was!

    68 chars

  50. Deborah said on August 4, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    Big storm rolled through Chicago around 4:30 cdt. Supposed to be another one stronger around 9. It went from 92 to 76 in a very short time, but very welcome.

    We’re going to Lollapalooza tomorrow to see the Icelandic group Sigur Ros and later Jack White, the high is supposed to be 80 so hopefully it won’t be brutal.

    319 chars

  51. MichaelG said on August 4, 2012 at 8:02 pm

    I don’t understand this concern with who might be the “best ever”. And Missy Franklin is only seventeen years old for heaven’s sake.

    133 chars

  52. brian stouder said on August 4, 2012 at 8:40 pm

    There was a column or two (maybe the Saturday one? wherein she did reader mail?) in which our heroine took the role of ‘Madame Telling Tales’ (Think Carnac the Magnificent, as in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnac_the_Magnificent
    the great seer, soothsayer, sage and former financial adviser to the Greek government, Carnac the Magnificent), and this always got me laughing.

    Even after Nance writes her best selling book (whether novel or non-fiction) or becomes ‘soothsayer and sage’ on some cable network, still, at least a part of her will always be Madame Telling Tales, as far as ‘we, the people up in the cheap seats’ are concerned!

    658 chars

  53. brian stouder said on August 4, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    And by the way, I only just clicked the ‘animals talking in all caps’ link, and viewed the photo there of the (lioness?), and if you ask me it is captioned all wrong.

    Instead of TELL JAMIE IF HE DOESN’T SHOW UP IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES WITH MORE BATH SALTS I’M GOING TO FLIP OUT., I’m thinking the blood covered face and the arched eyebrows call for something much sharper from her.

    I’m thinking Joe Pesci – (with thanks to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/quotes )

    “NO, NO, I DON’T KNOW, YOU SAID IT. HOW DO I KNOW? YOU SAID I’M FUNNY. HOW THE FUCK AM I FUNNY, WHAT THE FUCK IS SO FUNNY ABOUT ME? TELL ME, TELL ME WHAT’S FUNNY!”

    674 chars

  54. Dexter said on August 5, 2012 at 1:28 am

    How a young man spent the summer of 2011…on a motorcycle, couch-surfing and camping, and seeing all 48 CONUS in 100 days.
    It’s a reddit thing, lots of links, so if you are even just a little interested, check out the 28 photo album of the trip.

    On the radio interview the author mentioned the couchsurfing website, but he didn’t get into the part about getting laid that way, as much as he desired, and how he could have had a lot more action. It is an interesting story, and I supposed the young author may have possibly been inspired by Paul Theroux and maybe by that book by Jan Kerouac, “Baby Driver”.
    http://www.topiama.com/r/130/i-quit-my-job-and-rode-my-motorcycle-through-48

    693 chars

  55. jcburns said on August 5, 2012 at 1:58 am

    I was going to link back to this post to show you the Telling Tales column name on the News Sentinel rack card, but memory plays tricks on you. It’s just ‘Nancy Nall’ in a jaunty slanted Avant Garde font on this particular picture.

    306 chars

  56. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 6:02 am

    Missy Franklin may be the next Mary T. but she doeesn’t swim fly. Backstroke is lame. And Mary T. and Janet are the greatest female swimmers ever. But that’s just a swimmer’s opinion. That was one hungry lion. But Michael G, here you go:

    http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/olympics/2012/writers/tim_layden/08/04/mens-10k-british-olympics/index.html?eref=sihp&sct=hp_t13_a0

    I think competing gets built in. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.

    453 chars

  57. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 12:16 pm

    Oscar Pistorius into the semis.

    My man Reese Hoffa only won bronze. But imagine how cool that is. He actually won the WC in the shot back in 2007, so I suppose he’s getting a little long in the tooth. Anyway, this is a superb story about the guy.And Allison Scmitt is ripping it up:

    http://www.georgiadogs.com/sports/c-swim/mtt/schmitt_allison00.html

    And I said that wrong about Mary T. Amy Van Dyken is cooler. Janet Evans, on the other hand, is flat out awe inspiring.Wonder what in the world those young ladies are doing these days. Coaching swimming, I hope. At least part-time.

    And Joe Pesci, it’s your voice you mutt. And My Cousin Vinny is one of the best movies ever made. Hilarious. Fred Gwynn? amazing.

    And for my money, Paul Theroux is a much better writer than Jack Kerouac. In fact, I think Jack Kerouac is wretched, just bad.

    986 chars

  58. Judybusy said on August 5, 2012 at 12:30 pm

    Nicely done, Brian, @ 53!

    I’ve been up since 5:45. Made the mistake of picking up Hiaasen’s Trap Line, from ’82. I thought I was sleepy enough ten minutes’ reading was lull me back to dreamland. Nope. Read till 7:30, when I finished it and just began the day. So, it’s a gripping good yarn.

    293 chars

  59. Dexter said on August 5, 2012 at 1:09 pm

    Does my memory also play tricks? I remember the column heading as Nancy Nall
    …and then the sub-header “Telling Tales”

    121 chars

  60. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    Janet Evans:

    http://espn.go.com/olympics/swimming/story/_/id/7459454/janet-evans-qualifies-us-olympic-trials-400-meter-freestyle

    People think 400 free is a long race. Not really. My brother Mark swam 1650, and he was very good at it. Swam it in college at Holy Cross. In the great Church pedophile scandal, has there been a Jebbie? Nope, they were busy with the girls from Immaculata (that’s a Detroit joke, for which I’ll take some shit.)

    And that Chinese girl swam a faster 100free relay split than Lochte? I don’t think so. Women cannot swim nor run as fast as men at world class.. I have no doubt there are women here that can run faster than I, but swimming, no way in the world. Wyomia Tyus could not outrun Bob Hayes. Mary T.Meagher in her prime was going to finish half a lap back (that’s 25 meters) to Phelps in 100 fly. Something was way screwy about that race.

    Judybusy, I love that guy. Kinda Dutch light. I’d say Road Kill is my favorite. Hilarious. Mitch Albom wishes he could write with that facility. I mean, it’s almost like he’s not even trying. I don’t think he is, actually. He’s just funny as a Mofo. Like Pynchon, or McGuane, or DeLillo those guys are trying hard. John Gardner and all that Book of the Dead shit. Damn, he’s busting his ass. Then you have Foster Wallace, who is trying so hard to be Thomas Pynchon, it almost hurts to read it. I’ve only gotten through Broom of the System, dreading Infinite Jest. I know I’ll like it, But I could reread V in the time it will take me, and there is no way it’s as good. David Foster Wallace never wrote a book as good as V. I feel confident saying that without reading Infinite Jest yet. Broom of the System was about halfway entertaining, half tedious. Actually, crappy. I’d never read it again, for a fact. Water Music, by TC Boyle, I’ve read that several times. Little, Big, five. V, Oh I’ve read that about seven times. Gravity’s Rainbow three. Tolkien? I don’t know. Many. Sunlight Dialogues? Twice. Mighty intense.

    2006 chars

  61. David C. said on August 5, 2012 at 2:57 pm

    Oh shit, not again. There has been a shooting in a Sikh temple in Milwaukee.
    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-shootings-at-sikh-temple-near-milwaukee-20120805,0,936719.story

    Seven dead, so far, including the shooter. Likely some idiot who thought he was shooting Muslims.

    300 chars

  62. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 3:08 pm

    Undoubtedly the murderer thought they were Muslims. People do think this, because Sikhs wear turbans. What that has to do with Mohameddanism, you got me. But people have actually said this to me.

    Think this guy might have the credentials to put an end to that Koch Brothers Kriminal Konspiracy bushwas about climate change? Their own guy says it’s real. So can that be put to bed?

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/climate-change-is-here–and-worse-than-we-thought/2012/08/03/6ae604c2-dd90-11e1-8e43-4a3c4375504a_story.html

    536 chars

  63. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 3:26 pm

    Happy IPA Day:

    http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/food/blogs/99bottles/2012/08/happy_ipa_day.html

    Red Hook is my favorite, although a good ole Bally would hit the spot.

    171 chars

  64. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    If I awoke tomorrow morning believing RMoney didn’t say he’d do another W, and I decided he had a secret formula to set the economy right, I still wouldn’t vote for him. The anti-Obama crap is so decidedly racist, I couldn’t side with those mofos, no matter what. I was reared to believe racism is the greatest evil up to which mankind has ever gotten. And butt stupid GOPers can go on all they want about the race card, you can simply compare Romneycare to Obamacare. Identical, you fracking idiots. Born in the Koch Bros. think tank. So what part of Obamacare do they not like? First five letters, that’s what. And, you know, he and his wife are uppity. And Rush says says she’s a fat welfare queen.

    702 chars

  65. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    Wow, RMoney makes a major league errror:

    http://slatest.slate.com/posts/2012/07/31/harry_reid_speculates_romney_didn_t_pay_taxes_for_10_years_.html?from=rss/&wpisrc=newsletter_slatest

    He maight have had people on his side befor, but if he’s claiming Obama had something to do with Reid’s comments, he has stepped in it bigtime. What a fracking moron this guy is.

    372 chars

  66. Danny said on August 5, 2012 at 5:33 pm

    Suzanne, I am very willing to pay more for goods and services and I want to see wages increase for legal workers.

    When I moved to San Diego as a young man back in the mid-80’s, I literally starved because the wages for construction work had been driven so low by the influx of illegals. Even with two and three roommates, I found it very difficult to make ends meet because I could not compete with someone willing to sleep in the bushes.

    Construction jobs used to be good-paying, blue-collar jobs. Some people could even send their kids to college working such jobs. Now, it’s a laugh. In fact, if you are non-Latino and try to get a job as a framer or concrete worker here in San Diego, you will get your ass kicked and be driven off the job site by Mexicans telling you how it is their job and not yours, gringo. I kid you not. Several of my friends in the construction industry have related these stories.

    And I don’t know who these people are that seem to get all of the television coverage because all of my Hispanic friends are dead-set against illegal immigration. Most of them had to sacrifice to do it right and the illegal immigration issue just made it harder for them. My friend from Guatemala derides the hypocrisy of Mexico. She explains that on the one hand, Mexico is pushing for amnesty laws in the U.S., while on the other, they guard their own southern border with machine guns. Swell, eh?

    1428 chars

  67. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 5:41 pm

    Romney’s tied up with the same oil trash Bush and Cheney were, because Republican investors, due to their limited imaginations and their fundamental hatred of American manufacturing inevitably follow extraction industries, i.e. oil, coal, timber, whore diamonds, cash colleges, investment banking, payday loans, etc.
    The Saudi hand is well deep up Romney’s accommodating asshole, which means the Bin Ladens have been jerking his colon and making him squeak in uncomfortably recent times.
    The larger picture is going to be the most significant: he’s thoroughly amoral, and while that will endear him to his “Please hit me again, sir!” base, it’ll be apparent he doesn’t give a fuck if he’s vested in anything from narcoterror to illicit arms sales.
    What’s in those taxes? Bitch is a traitor.

    793 chars

  68. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 5:53 pm

    I found it very difficult to make ends meet because I could not compete with someone willing to sleep in the bushes.
    Well, if you can’t pull yourself up by your own bootstraps properly, perhaps you should consider hiring someone to do it for you.
    Have we gone so far down the path of prosperity gospel that Horatio Alger is now a fucking communist?

    357 chars

  69. Danny said on August 5, 2012 at 6:08 pm

    So what are you arguing in favor of, Derek? Destruction of the living wage and the middle class? What a dickhead…

    117 chars

  70. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 6:33 pm

    Nah. I’m more amused at people who talk about the golden age of Reagan who conveniently forget there were no fucking jobs, unless you were deep throating in some whitebread network.
    I’m suitably impressed by your detective skills, Daniel. May I call you that, DANIEL? My mission has been thwarted by your discovery of my name. Once you determine the original spelling, I’m truly fucked.
    Sheesh.

    I’ve been trying to find something to sell wingers, since they’ll buy just about anything. Decoder rings, man. Decoder rings.

    525 chars

  71. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 6:49 pm

    Danny, Funny you should bring up living wage. What a freaking goood idea. Unless you believe that Mickey D’s is just employing all those flippers for the halibut, Maybe the Feds ought to make them pay enough to shop at Mickey D’s. They don’t, and you know it. Gee whiz, that just might put some more bucks in the economy. Instant influx of dough. What a concept.

    362 chars

  72. David C. said on August 5, 2012 at 6:51 pm

    I don’t know if it’s still believed within winger gun-nut circles that the gummint is implanting chips to track them (“like they do to dogs”). My idea of something to sell wing-nuts was to set up a booth at gun shows with a device to detect and destroy the chips. I figured something simple would do. A colander with wires attached to put on their head, a lot of bells and whistles, and in the end a mild, but memorable, electrical shock to the ass. I could have cleaned up. Want to go into business, Cooz?

    511 chars

  73. Danny said on August 5, 2012 at 6:56 pm

    I (mis)appropriated the spelling from your own website a few years ago and mentioned it in a comment at that time. It apparently wasn’t a big deal then. My original inclination would have been “Derrick,” but I figured I go with the spelling on the site.

    254 chars

  74. Prospero said on August 5, 2012 at 7:06 pm

    Minimum wage? Seriously? Anybody want to try living on that? Fracking hilarious. Mitt doesn’t remotely pay his fair share of taxes, and everybody knows it. He’s hiding the cash all over and writing off the ballet horse. My dad paid monstro taxes and he was a pediatrician. Screw hedge fund managers. and cosmetic surgeons. Ahole politicians wrote the tax code so the rich arseholes that keep them in business don’t have to pay taxes. And RMoney is one of those guys, without a doubt.

    484 chars

  75. Deborah said on August 5, 2012 at 7:46 pm

    Let’s just say I’m way too old for a venue like Loolapalooza. We left after Sigur Ros, which was great, but it was hot, sweaty and most surprising was how bad it smelled. Like raw sewage. We couldn’t imagine staying until Jack White is on at 8, much as I would have liked to have seen that. I had my sandled feet mashed by way to many stoned frat boys. My husband was smart and wore his Doc Martens. We were by far the oldest people there, by a lot.

    449 chars

  76. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 7:58 pm

    David C. I’ll be happy to kick in a few shekels, but my life’s work is spying on impure communists. It’s how I met my wife.
    In this old stasi footage, I’m the guy with the unobtrusive Soviet built copy of a Nikomat with a telephoto and about three dozen filters. That’s my wife in the Tam o’ Shanter.

    391 chars

  77. brian stouder said on August 5, 2012 at 8:36 pm

    Deborah, if you and your husband were the oldest there, still I bet you were also the most stylish.

    The girls and I went to the zoo again today – always a marvelous thing to do in Fort Wayne – and I was (once again) taken aback at how many young women had tattoos on their shoulders and legs and chests and arms.

    It was encouraging to me that our girls quietly commented on how silly some of that stuff was, on two different occasions. If I don’t accomplish anything else as a parent, if I can deliver our kids to their 20’s without any body art on them, I’ll feel like we at least got them to the starting-line of the race of life.

    Danny, I hear what you’re saying about illegal immigration.

    Possibly we could agree on a few points:

    1. If there are 12,000,000 women and children and men living here who could be called “illegal immigrants”, there is no practical way that these human inhabitants of the earth are going to be driven from the United States.

    2. If we agree on the first point, then the hard problem is systematically dealing with that reality. At the risk of sounding like the guy who says “There is no Santa Claus”, I believe there is no solution that cannot be called “amnesty” by those who are NOT in favor of reaching any practical resolution of the problem.

    3. If we can find a way to systematically accept the people who live and work here now, and/or for some number of years past, and if we want to regularize how future people might legally come here – then wouldn’t we need to take a very hard look at large employers – farming operations and meat packers and the like – who do the cash-payment thing? Aren’t THESE the people who are profiting from our current ambiguous “system” of serfdom for certain classes of people?

    1768 chars

  78. brian stouder said on August 5, 2012 at 8:54 pm

    Cooz – I didn’t understand the video at the link you posted, but it somehow pulled me in anyway. It looked like Dick Cavett in a trenchcoat, working in opposition to the old CIA guy from North by Northwest (who also played the boss in The Man from UNCLE, if memory serves), and with lots of attractive women around (for whatever reason)

    336 chars

  79. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 9:05 pm

    Brian: It’s just a “Quality control” video from the old days. Let’s just say my contradictions were heightened.

    Actually I found it because the Czech composer of the score is enjoying some modest critical approval now that he is… dead?
    The movie reminds me of what I thought the goings on at a bar would look like when I was about nine years old.

    352 chars

  80. coozledad said on August 5, 2012 at 9:21 pm

    Twat.
    http://veracitystew.com/2012/08/05/lindsey-graham-contractors-should-lay-off-workers-before-election/#.UB7OuN2C8kl.twitter

    129 chars

  81. Deborah said on August 5, 2012 at 9:49 pm

    Sue, what’s going on in the Miwaukee area? Another tragedy, with guns, of course. I have read that they are calling it domestic terrorism, what does that mean?

    Another day, another dollar in America.

    202 chars

  82. Kaye said on August 5, 2012 at 10:54 pm

    How I wish there were day laborers at my Home Depot. My lawn mower guy broke his leg and I cannot start the mower myself. Not to mention I don’t want to mow the lawn 🙂

    Deborah, you are a far better woman than I. I gave up festival concerts (and tent camping)when I turned forty.

    284 chars