Saturday morning, early spring.

I was as surprised as he was. Nice camouflage.

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Posted at 10:56 am in iPhone, Same ol' same ol' |
 

79 responses to “Saturday morning, early spring.”

  1. beb said on April 6, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Looks to be a week late and an egg short.

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  2. beb said on April 6, 2013 at 11:09 am

    Easter, you know.

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  3. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 11:15 am

    Delightful photo.

    Regarding overland pipelines for petroleum products in the USA. When the pipeline ruptured and dumped oil into the Kalamazoo river, the company submitted cleanup plans to the EPA and other fed agencies as the law requires. The “experts” pegged the projected cleanup cost at $5mil. Now the pipeline company is whining that they have spent more than $750mil and aren’t finished yet, though they have exceeded what the insurance carrier will pay. If I were threatened with eminent domain process to take land for Keystone XL, I’d fight it to the bitter end. And there have been three pipeline breaches in the USA in the past week. Apparently, the oil and gas concerns have no better knowledge of how to operate safely than does the nuclear power industry, which has been charging consumers for R&D costs beyond the cost of power consumed for 60 years and still have no better idea what to do with nuclear waste than to put it in kiddie pools atop reactor containments, as at Fukushima. Answer? Grow rapeseed on land currently cultivated with grain that draws federal subsidies and run cars on the clean fuel it will produce:

    http://www.teagasc.ie/energy/research/pdf_files/PurePlantOilProduction.pdf

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  4. MarkH said on April 6, 2013 at 2:11 pm

    Prospero, from yesterday —

    Here’s Ebert’s review of Raising Arizona, one and a half stars. You can also see his surprisingly lukewarm reviews of other Coen films here, like Barton Fink and The Big Lebowski. He definitely liked Blood Simple and was kinder the Coens after Fargo, though.

    http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19870320/REVIEWS/703200302/1023

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  5. Dexter said on April 6, 2013 at 2:12 pm

    wha…? I don’t see nuthin’.

    Big day…Michigan is playing in the semifinals against big bad Syracuse. I can’t wait.

    Also, my blogging pals Craig Crawford and David Blank of Washington, DC are getting married right now. This is the first time any gay people I have known are legally marrying.
    Craig’s blog went down for a few hours but is back up. I hope they post a lot of photos. A federal judge is officiating the ceremony.
    I “know” Craig and David just like I “know” you nn.c ers. It’s just as “real” as my little circle of eople I know face to face. It does seen a bit odd. Oh well, that’s how I feel.
    If I had a healthy budget, I’d be there in the middle of the cherry blossoms. Again, oh well.
    http://craigcrawford.com/

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  6. Deborah said on April 6, 2013 at 2:58 pm

    I know what you mean Dexter, about it feeling “real”. I’ve even had dreams about nn.c people and most of them I’ve never even seen pictures of, but there they are walking around and talking to me face to face. It’s weird. Am I the only one who has had nn.c dreams?

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  7. Connie said on April 6, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    I thought we were all friends even if we’ve never met. Sometime ago I posted about injections of synthetic joint fluid in my knees. Dorothy posted later something like I told my doctor that my friend tried that and recommended it.” And then she said, wait, I guess we’re all friends here even if we haven’t met. Although I have had the pleasure of meeting Brian and Alex.

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  8. Jolene said on April 6, 2013 at 3:59 pm

    I feel that way too. If I refer to something someone here said in a real world conversation, I just say, “A friend told me . . .” Seems both straightforward and natural.

    When Moe died, I really felt that I had lost a friend. In fact, I still miss her.

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  9. MarkH said on April 6, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    Jolene, I agree. I also felt that way about Whitebeard, too. When Nancy linked back to an earlier post about Ebert yesterday, some names from the past were there I hadn’t thought of for some time.

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  10. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 5:08 pm

    I’ve thought for a long time that Jim Webb hit on an absolutely gorgeous chord progression with this song, and over the years, I’ve written several songs approximating it. But I just came across this version of the original by Maria McKee, one of the greatest female vocals in rock ‘n’ roll history:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t8y7bUF5b0

    She does pretty well with a brilliant, lovelorn Richard Thompson song too:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOu3yhwz-qM

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  11. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 5:15 pm

    Maria McKee can also kick ’em out, and I think Fogerty would like this rip roarin’ version:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyAATgzDg8c

    And, knowing I’ll get grief for commenting on a woman’s appearance, a lot of grief, this woman is a babe, with a rocker’s soul and a lot of talent.

    And she can belt with the best of ’em:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6NP8KFcLqo

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  12. Linda said on April 6, 2013 at 5:22 pm

    My sister’s American Bulldog lives to chase squirrels and rabbits, and she can see them before I do, even with the best of cammo.

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  13. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 5:28 pm

    I relate things y’all have said in conversation a lot, and always ascribe it to a friend of mine. And I’m the asshole. Even though I have no idea what I said that was assholish. I guess telling me I was Swimmer Boy that was always picked last in dodgeball, when I never played dodgeball because I was a football player, nah! that wasn’t assholish at all. I’ve been waiting to be called an asshole again for picking up on the neocon Freudian typo about anti-CLIMATIC, even though that is hilarious coming from some Shrubco acolyte that totally denies climate change. And Hope y’all are feeling better after that whipsaw yesterday between Kid President, single mom Michelle and Horreur!!!! Caroline Kennedy, that Beverly Hillbilly as Ambassador to Japan. The right thinks she isn’t well educated enough. Or deferential. I think Japan is supposed to be deferential to the USA, you vacillating hypocrites. Maria McKee in a Major Barbara dress/uniform:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=J8L_TXMx1U4

    Her godfather was Lowell George. Speaking in the fat man’s tongues.

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  14. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 5:45 pm

    Linda, the German Shorthair, Jamie,whose leanness and unadulterated speed I have to ascribe to some sort of whippet genetics, that was my mom and dad’s companion as they went ungentle (like getting thrown out of the UGA Coliseum for riding a ref that allowed Pitino to wander to center court while play went on, in his Guccis) into that good night, Jamie, they got him from a kennel at a silent auction for my twin nephews’ school, became Jamie. They had about 3 acres, and that dog could be locked inside behind double panes, if one of those deer moved he was howling and he was sure he could catch them. I’m glad he never did. They would have made mincemeat.

    One time, a fawn ran at Deion speed into a slider in the back of my parents’ house. He was terrified and headed the exact opposite direction, which landed the 80-lb toddler right in my arms in the swimming pool. Let me say without fear that anybody is better informed than I on this subject. a baby deer’s hooves are sharp as box-cutters. I got his legs under control and his hooves where they couldn’t draw blood, and I thought I managed to convince youung bambi I was his friend. I walked up the steps out of the pool. That little bastard kicked me in the nads hard and lit out. What I learned? Dear are dangerous animals.

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  15. Prospero said on April 6, 2013 at 5:48 pm

    That dear wasn’t really a typo

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  16. Julie Robinson said on April 6, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    Some of my friends are near and I get to see them frequently. Some live far away, and while we don’t see each other very often, the bonds are no less dear for the distance. Y’all are definitely my friends, in yet another category. Just like love, who doesn’t have room in their heart for more friends?

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  17. brian stouder said on April 6, 2013 at 9:05 pm

    It was great meeting Connie, back in the day. On the one hand, you feel like you know the person and you want to just talk and talk; and on the other, you have to remember not to act like a psycho/stalker!

    Today was essentially the last big day of cleaning/moving at my mom’s house. The last big hurdle was the garage, and by gosh – we got ‘er done. If I ever meet any of you again, I’ll tell you some of the funnier stories about some of the material decisions others in my family made…over an icy cold Diet Pepsi, perhaps. And, some of the finds! (who knew how much 40-year-old porno was stashed, amongst boxes of other things in the rafters of the garage? And indeed – ’70’s porno is just plain different…at least in terms of body- and hair-style….and bodily hair!…but we digress)

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  18. Dexter said on April 6, 2013 at 9:12 pm

    Trying to make this photo work…if not, I’ll quit trying.
    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152712826435398&set=at.298574885397.317988.883975397.100004209014069.713677825&type=1&relevant_count=1&ref=nf

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  19. Linda said on April 6, 2013 at 10:47 pm

    Brian:

    We had to clean out an apartment our Mom had when she moved in with my sister. Speaking of finds! We found her baptismal certificate, and found that the name we had called her all her life? Was not her birth name. She had “reinvented” herself, and changed what my sis would call a “honky name” (ethnically European sounding) to Lorraine. When we called her Lawrencia to her face, she looked like a murderer who had failed to kill all the witnesses.

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  20. Jolene said on April 6, 2013 at 10:51 pm

    she looked like a murderer who had failed to kill all the witnesses

    What a great line! Made me laugh out loud.

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  21. basset said on April 6, 2013 at 10:57 pm

    Basset Jr. took out a deer with his mother’s Camry on the way to work Friday morning, two-thirty am on a state highway right next to a 1700-acre park that’s full of ’em. (Della, that would be 100 right by Warner Park.)

    $3200 damage from about a 120-pound button buck, best part of the whole deal was that the insurance is paying every bit of it, no deductible, and not raising our rates because they figure you can’t really do anything about a deer strike, no way could it be the driver’s fault.

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  22. MarkH said on April 6, 2013 at 11:57 pm

    Hitting an animal puts it under your comprehensive coverage basset, not collision, for the reasons you said. No deductible. Another quirk (sort of) in insurance claims: if you ever hit a rock in the road that does damage, always tell them it just rolled right out in front of you, not that it was there and you just came up on it. Stationary rocks come under collision, rolling rocks are “unavoidable”, therefore under comprehensive. Go figure. Personal experience with this last year.

    Another Rolling Rock please…

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  23. Maggie Jochild said on April 7, 2013 at 9:11 am

    A deer once hit me as I was driving by a very urban mall after midnight. I never saw it approach, was going only 30 mph but it banged in a quarter pamel and took off my side mirror. I got a glimpse of its antlers, came to an immediate stop and got out of my car, only to find it had vanished in that sea of concrete. All the damage was on my side. Did it panic and collide with me in a headlong run or what? Really spooked me.

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  24. coozledad said on April 7, 2013 at 9:51 am

    Looks like Dwight has found a new site to troll. This time he’s calling himself Dennis.
    http://alicublog.blogspot.com/2013/04/roger-ebert-1942-2013.html#disqus_thread

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  25. Dave said on April 7, 2013 at 10:21 am

    Brian, the cleaning you speak of, although I don’t expect to find any racy magazines, my parents have lived in this house for 57 1/2 years, as we speak. You can only imagine. Just yesterday, my niece came and got a bicycle that she was afraid would disappear. It was her childhood bicycle that was kept here because there was room to ride it. We were looking at all the out-and-out junk that is in the garage, wondering what in the world we could do with it. Then there’s the basement. We’ve all been thinking dumpster but I was dismayed when she told me that one of my sisters and her husband were here and then comparing prices of items on Ebay. Am I wrong to be dismayed? Perhaps they’re thinking auction (I hope). I’ve gone on long enough about that.

    I haven’t had any dreams of nn.c’ers but I’ve discovered that I must dream all night long, or perhaps it’s the interrupted sleep, because with the frequent wakenings during the night with my parents, I seem to have some vaguely remembered dream every time I wake up. I find that interesting, I know that studies show we dream all night and most folks don’t remember most of it.

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  26. brian stouder said on April 7, 2013 at 10:57 am

    Dave – similarly, my mom lived in the same house for more than half a century, and regarding extended family… we could talk! (and indeed, we did the dumpster thing)

    Linda, it was news to me that my mom had Americanized her name when she was in the US Navy. She was born Catarina DiPolo, and in her Navy papers she’s Catherine Paul…and then sometime early on in her Fort Wayne life, Catherine becomes Katherine.

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  27. Dave said on April 7, 2013 at 11:41 am

    Names, I learned that my grandfather was born with the name Charley and he changed it himself to the more formal Charles. My other grandfather was born with the first and middle names Percy Victor and he changed it to Victor Percy. True, not last names but I know that my maternal grandmother’s family was named Bradbury but in West Virginia and Virginia, there are extended family members that spelled it Bradberry and it was a point of dissension for many years. Family legend says it has something to do with the Civil War but it’s so obscure, what is known is that some of them went and lived in the woods during the Civil War, rather than serve in the Confederate Army. Yet, my great grandfather was named Robert Lee Bradbury but he was born in 1865, near Christiansburg, VA. I find that curious, I suspect the birthrate was down in Virginia in 1865.

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  28. Connie said on April 7, 2013 at 12:11 pm

    When she died I learned that the grandmother I knew as Agnes was really named Akka. She grew up a Dutch girl in New Jersey, just like LAMary.

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  29. Dexter said on April 7, 2013 at 2:25 pm

    My grandfather also changed his name. He was born Jonas Claude. He hated Jonas, so he legally became Claude J. He killed Jonas off.

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  30. Charlotte said on April 7, 2013 at 4:38 pm

    My brother changed his name in his 30s — took my mother’s surname after he discovered that our dad had started “borrowing” his identity as a toddler and using it regularly to open store accounts, take our car loans, and get extra credit cards.

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  31. brian stouder said on April 7, 2013 at 7:58 pm

    non-breaking news: Pam discovered Downton Abby, and has been hooked in, and has watched I-don’t-know-how-many episodes today.

    So in the event any combination of folks from this community meets Pam and I, I’ll sit quietly and smile, as all y’all go over the finer points of that series

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  32. brian stouder said on April 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    Oh, and non-breaking news 2: If Michigan beats Louisville in the championship game, I will win our office’s tournament pool – TWENTY THREE whole United States dollars…woo hoo!

    And, I’ll have backed into it, as this would be on my sheet that I had picked Ohio on!

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  33. brian stouder said on April 7, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    (skip one of the “on”s, above)

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  34. Deborah said on April 7, 2013 at 8:35 pm

    After I got divorced I still kept my married name but felt weird about that so about two years later I changed my name at some expense legally since I hadn’t done it at the time of divorce, because I wanted to make sure it was OK with my daughter who still had the last name of her father. I kept my first initial of my married name and added it to the new name which became “Beckett” which is similar to my maiden name (Puckett), same ethnicity (Irish). I even kept it after I remarried because I had established myself professionally with my new name and also my husband’s last name sounded horrible with Deborah (Brubaker) and he had no qualms about my keeping my name. Now my husband, daughter and I all have different last names that start with B. My rightwing sister refuses to call me by my legal name she addresses letters to me with my husband’s name and has told me that she thinks it’s sad that I changed my name. Now you guys know way more about me than I ever expected to reveal.

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  35. brian stouder said on April 7, 2013 at 8:54 pm

    Deborah, I am certain that the whole name thing would bother me, if I had to deal with it. As a married guy, my name just rolls merrily along, and it wouldn’t have bothered me if Pam had kept her very fine original surname (Hardy).

    I suppose, really, that marriage should be a civil/legal thing first, and then have whatever religious overlay that the folks involved want.

    And with that in mind, maybe on marriage day both the bride and the groom should legally adopt new and/or customized names. It would certainly be at least as good as the proliferation of hyphenated names (and in all likelihood, a whole new industry would be born. I can see it now: “Call New Beginnings today, and see how easy it will be to Rebrand yourself and your new spouse on the big day!”

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  36. beb said on April 7, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    The only horrible name secret in our family was that my grandfather on my father’s side had “Bushrod” was his middle name, which he was embarrassed about. Bushrod apparently is the name of a relative of George Washington. I don’t see the embarrassment but that’s our only dark secret.

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  37. Jolene said on April 7, 2013 at 9:34 pm

    My father had an elderly German relative named Wilhelmina Frederica Nenneman. No secret. In fact, it was such an imposing name that he enjoyed saying it just for effect.

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  38. Jolene said on April 7, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    On disposing of stuff: We had to empty out my parents’ house (after more than sixty years of marriage and more than twenty in their last house. My father could have lived with all the possessions he brought with him to the marriage–in other words, not much. My mother, on the other hand, spent all those years collecting things, so . . . lots of stuff.

    Best thing we did in clearing out the house: My brother went through the house taking digital pictures of every significant item–furniture, sets of dishes, silver. One of my sisters attached the photos to a spreadsheet, and we all marked the things we wanted. She then color-coded the entries to indicate items wanted by only one person, items wanted by more than one person, and items no one had chosen. This saved an enormous amount of conversation, as only the items wanted by more tan one person had to be discussed.

    Then, when we all got together to do the work, we used Post-it notes numbered by birth order to indicate interest in smaller items. For those we allowed the grandchildren to choose numbers, but added a decision rule. Any item wanted by a child and a grandchild went to the child, unless she or he decided to relinquish it.

    I hasten to add that it was my engineer sister who came up with these systems, and we were all grateful. It wasn’t so much that we expected unresolvable disputes–more that it would simply take forever to go through everything if we had to talk about every item, all the while being concerned about protecting our interests without hurting each other’s feelings.

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  39. Sherri said on April 7, 2013 at 10:04 pm

    Cut government spending, as long as it’s not spending on me: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-sequester-west-20130407,0,5412062.story

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  40. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    My great-grandfather died when my grandpa was only two, and when his mom remarried, little Dickie Fruesmer became Dick Hanken. He married, voted, bought and sold land under that name, only to discover very late in life that his stepfather had never formally adopted him, and technically all those contracts were void. I don’t know exactly how his lawyer worked it all out, but I believe he took a very nice vacation with his fees.

    Deborah, we were up your way today–or are you out west? We drove up to Chicago to see the pre-Broadway production of Big Fish. What a lovely, lovely day it was–as we walked around we felt the sun warm on our faces!* This was my Christmas present, and what a sweet gift it was.

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  41. Julie Robinson said on April 7, 2013 at 10:33 pm

    Jolene, I just read about Aunt Wilhemina. That was one of the same grandpa’s sister’s name, and they were as German as they came. Except she was a sweetheart of a lady and everyone called her Wilmie.

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  42. Deborah said on April 7, 2013 at 11:30 pm

    Julie, I head back to Chicago on Tuesday, as always I have mixed emotions while I look forward to being back in that great city, I also know I’m going to miss New Mexico for awhile.

    I just watched the season premiere of Mad Men: Meh.

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  43. brian stouder said on April 8, 2013 at 10:30 am

    Pam is very (very) taken with Downton Abbey. We have a 30-day trial of Amazon’s hulu-like tv deal, and she’s watched all of season one, and begun season two.

    I watched about 20 minutes, here and there, and told her that all the folks in NN.c-land loved that series in the early seasons –

    and she said “Shhhhhhhhhhh!”

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  44. brian stouder said on April 8, 2013 at 10:33 am

    And speaking of English dramatic serials, Maggie Thatcher, RIP

    I always liked her, back in the day; especially after she made her stand at the Fukkin Islands (or whatever)

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  45. Charlotte said on April 8, 2013 at 10:50 am

    Ding dong the witch is dead: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/world/europe/former-prime-minister-margaret-thatcher-of-britain-has-died.html?hp

    I was studying in Ireland when they nearly got her in Bath. There are very few people I’ve wished dead, but she and Reagan are two of them. I hope they’re having a lovely time touring Dante’s circles together ….

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  46. coozledad said on April 8, 2013 at 12:12 pm

    Charlotte: Tramp the dirt down.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhOcR5QwmLk

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  47. Prospero said on April 8, 2013 at 12:18 pm

    Peter King on Roger Ebert:

    In 2012, the last full calendar year of his prolific life, film maven Roger Ebert, who died Thursday, reviewed 306 movies. That’s more reviews than he wrote in any year of his Pulitzer Prize-winning life.

    There is something inspiring about that.

    And good riddance to Margaret “That Cow” Thatcher. A real asshole. The Falklands War wasn’t quite as asinine as Raygun’s foray into Grenada, but it was close:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10377114

    Dumbass chicken-hawk warmongers, like the Shrubco clowns. Thatcher was apparently great buds with the psychopath Augusto Pinochet. You lie down with psychos…

    http://maddsuspicions.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/margaret-thatcher-a-nasty-cow-typical-conservative/

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  48. Dexter said on April 8, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t4-zDem1Sk

    Huzzah!

    Charlotte…you are 100% right in your observations and perceptions. Cheerio!

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  49. Dexter said on April 8, 2013 at 12:58 pm

    And Charlotte, you are also right about Reagan. God DAMN his filthy rotting carcass, that poisonous lying creepy son of a bitch. From a PBS website: “Battling the Cuban-backed Sandinistas, the Contras were, according to Reagan, “the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers.”
    God damn him all to hell. The Contras were some of the most gruesome abusers of human rights this side of Idi Amin. The worst, and Reagan applauded them to benefit his legacy.

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  50. coozledad said on April 8, 2013 at 1:17 pm

    One of the commenters out at Gawker is aghast that the Brits are pretty much universal in their condemnation of her. She’s been a Republican totem ever since she struck what they consider the correct shrieking tone with the poor and working class.
    What Republicans don’t care to read about or recall is how much she began to alienate all but the most radical right in Britain when she demolished the nation’s core strengths. Turning the educational system to a puddle of liquid shit even turned Kingsley Amis against her.
    But that’s how the right always is. They don’t mind heaping misery on others, but when it intersects with their putrid little lives it’s the Via Dolorosa.
    She did bring Britain into line with the US, though. They’re just as fucking stupid and apt to kill each other over a sporting event as we are, these days.

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  51. jwfromnj said on April 8, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Prospero @47

    There are plenty of reasons to dislike Thatcher but I would not agree with your take on the Falkland’s War. Those islanders were soverign British citizens with a tacit understanding that the U.K. would defend them as such. I doubt we would surrender Guam or St. Thomas without a fight. Britain’s status in the world community was being challenged as was their ability to project power.

    In Ronnie’s excellent adventure in Grenada there was little risk to the U.S. students there and while they did have a Cuban presence it wasn’t a great threat to our nation, at least in my opinion.

    I recently watched a great documentary on the Brits raid on the Falklands airport with aging Vulcan bombers _ quite a feat and risk of failure.

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  52. alex said on April 8, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    Just read of the passing of Annette Funicello. Now we really do have something to mourn this date.

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  53. Scout said on April 8, 2013 at 1:45 pm

    When I told my S.O. this morning that Thatcher had died, she thought I meant Meryl Streep. (This was before she had her coffee.) I said, no, if it was Streep I would have been much, much more horrified to give the news.

    I am always talking about the things people here have said and after a few times of trying to explain the on-line community thingie, which was met with raised eyebrows, I just refer to you all as “friends.” As in, a friend of mine was saying…, or, a group of us were discussing… And anyway, it’s true, I do think of you all as friends.

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  54. Jolene said on April 8, 2013 at 2:00 pm

    People, at the risk of tiresomeness, there has never been a better week to let people in Congress know that you support efforts to reduce gun violence through background checks, limitations on magazine size, an assault weapons ban, halting straw purchases, increasing access to mental health care, or whatever combination of these measures (or others) floats your boat.

    It is, of course, unlikely that such a broad range of measures will pas, but, as I understand it, there is still hope for the background check and straw purchase measures. President Obama was in CT today to speak on this issue, and family members of the Newtown victims are traveling to Washington today to lobby on behalf of these changes. Let’s lend our support.

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  55. Bitter Scribe said on April 8, 2013 at 2:00 pm

    What I liked most about the Falkland Islands war was watching wingnut heads explode. They had a real crush on the asshole dictator, named Galtieri or something like that, who had ordered the invasion, but of course they loved Thatcher too. Their little heads just couldn’t handle it.

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  56. coozledad said on April 8, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    Republicans will bone anything with a whiff of Pinochet.

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  57. Hattie said on April 8, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    Good work, bunny!

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  58. Jolene said on April 8, 2013 at 2:07 pm

    ICYMI, here are links to the two-part conversation w/ Newtown families from last night’s 60 Minutes show.

    Part 1: http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=relmfu&v=vUXLA5BFdtY

    Part 2: http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=plpp&v=DNnCn_FHKMI

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  59. Sherri said on April 8, 2013 at 2:20 pm

    One of the worst reasons to go to war is in order to “project power.”

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  60. Prospero said on April 8, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Jw@511: Maybe not Guam or St. Thomas, but the USA handed over the Solomons and the Marianas to Casino Jack Abramoff with no fight at all.

    Brits are in bad need of realizing their Imperial days are long gone. They had no more bidness in the Falklands than they have in Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Londonderry.

    Annette Funicello, and banging’ a tambourine with the Beach Boys, on a tune penned by Bobby Sherman. The power of perky.

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  61. LAMary said on April 8, 2013 at 3:36 pm

    That bunny looks a little motheaten. Still cute, though.

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  62. LAMary said on April 8, 2013 at 4:25 pm

    Mike Love was already balding in that Annette clip. I believe shortly thereafter he started wearing a Greek fisherman cap at all times and getting ayurvedic scalp massages. And Dennis, the drummer, once bummed a Marlboro off me.

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  63. brian stouder said on April 8, 2013 at 4:30 pm

    The British could easily have lost that war – or suffered such a catastrophic blow that the ‘victory’ would have been empty.

    I recall reading that an Argentine submarine hit a British aircraft carrier – not once but twice – and both torpedoes failed to detonate.

    Not for nothing, but it also raised eyebrows in the US Navy (I used to subscribe to Proceedings magazine) when the RN lost the very modern Sheffield to..was it the Argentine air force? Or maybe that was a sub, too.

    That was thing about that war; it was such an anachronism. Two or three weeks of ultimatums, the ponderous assembling of a fleet and then a trans-Atlantic voyage, and then the fight.

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  64. brian stouder said on April 8, 2013 at 4:35 pm

    Mary – you gotta tell us the Marlboro story!

    And indeed, I’ll show my ignorance and ask – wouldn’t it have been unusual for a woman to smoke Marlboro? (Akin to a man smoking Virginia Slims?)

    Or is this yet another example of how you were one step ahead of the social calculus (my wife is always a step or two ahead of the curve)

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  65. jwfromnj said on April 8, 2013 at 4:38 pm

    And the Falklands – Malvinas scuffle was decades before anyone knew about the oil deposits. It was an interesting skirmish _ showed the value of a carrier battle group even with a pocket carrier as a power projection tool , had the first sinking by a nuclear attack sub, and also the need to defend against air-launched anti-ship weapons.
    The shell game with us helping the brits with satellite images to hide the QE 2 and most of their fleet was interesting too. From an intel standpoint we were very much involved in the Brits corner.

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  66. LAMary said on April 8, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    A friend of mine was a roadie for the Beach Boys so I was backstage at a big stadium concert. I believe Dennis was supposed to have quit smoking, but whenever he had a break he would come backstage for a smoke, and yes, I smoked Marlboros then. I was living in Colorado and ladies in Colorado smoked Marlboros. He bummed smokes from me and would hand them to me if anyone who cared was looking. Brian’s shrink was there too, in a fur coat in July. And Mike was wearing his fisherman cap and hitting on any attractive female under 25.

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  67. Catherine said on April 8, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    The Falklands war figures significantly in a lovely book I just finished, Black Swan Green, by David Mitchell, the author of Cloud Atlas. It’s a coming-of-age story of a 13 YO boy in England at the time of the war. Jessica Roake in Slate touted it as the new Catcher in the Rye, and I would have to say I enjoyed it much more than Catcher in the Rye, which I found kind of a letdown. I’m working my way up to Cloud Atlas…

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  68. Dave said on April 8, 2013 at 5:51 pm

    Once again, LAMary has celebrity contact. Al Jardine was born in Lima, OH, and so were my two oldest children. That’s about as close as my celebrity contacts come. Goodness, I’m boring. All in jest, Mary.

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  69. JWfromNJ said on April 8, 2013 at 6:10 pm

    Brian S,

    The Sheffield was sunk by an Exocet anti-ship missile fired from an Argentinian jet. The Gen. Belgrano was sunk by a British hunter-killer sub. There was some discussion in the British leadership about strikes on military targets on the Argentine mainland but they wanted to contain the conflict.

    The documentary, which would appeal to any war, history, or aviation buffs, is here. It’s 47 min long but I enjoyed it from all of those perspectives:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40knj0qg_Us

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  70. LAMary said on April 8, 2013 at 6:54 pm

    I think the illustrious Hugh Downs was born in Lima, Ohio too.

    I found out about a month ago that bubble wrap was invented in my home town. Bubble wrap and Debbie Harry.

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  71. MarkH said on April 8, 2013 at 6:58 pm

    The German F1 Grand Prix is no longer held at the Nurburgring, so no matter. But they had to close it down today to normal public access to remove some interesting grafitti. As Nancy would say, someone made a dick move.

    http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/iconic-racetrack-closed-due-naughty-graffiti-122415141.html

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  72. Judybusy said on April 8, 2013 at 7:02 pm

    I came across this video today. It’s the brief story of a woman who was an air traffic controller back in the early ’40’s. Perfect for today’s conversation on names, as she’s got a great one! The video is from a site about insects, and one of the women who runs the site is the woman’s granddaughter.

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  73. LAMary said on April 8, 2013 at 7:08 pm

    We have a new winner today for best job applicant name. You may remember Pee aitch ay tee Aitch o? Today we have:

    Ay en eye tee ay Aitch o.

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  74. MarkH said on April 8, 2013 at 7:08 pm

    Hugh Downs was born in Akron, attended high school in Lima. Also went to Wayne State U.

    Other actual Lima natives: Phyllis Diller, Helen O’Connell and everyone’s favorite clean cut stand-up guy, Ben Roethlisberger.

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  75. Dave said on April 8, 2013 at 7:18 pm

    Ben Roethlisberger was born in Lima the same day as my daughter. There are two hospitals in Lima and so we don’t know if she and Ben were nursery mates. I tried to research that via the Internet once but got nowhere, I’m sure that if I were ambitious, I could look at old Lima News files.

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  76. Bitter Scribe said on April 8, 2013 at 7:31 pm

    A thoughtful analysis of Thatcher’s economic success from a Canadian commenter. Basically, the guy argues that Thatcher lucked out because Britain started gushing North Sea oil right about when she took office. It was that resource, not her soak-the-poor tax policies, that turned the UK around economically.

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  77. David C. said on April 8, 2013 at 7:32 pm

    Elvis Costello has been a good boy.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K-BZIWSI5UQ

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  78. Sherri said on April 8, 2013 at 8:03 pm

    Remember Tater Peeler Road? It was the location of a tragic shooting this past weekend, when a Wilson County Sheriff’s Deputy was showing his guns and left one in reach of a 4 year old, who picked it up and shot the deputy’s wife.

    http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130408/NEWS03/304080039/Wife-of-deputy-shot-and-killed-in-Wilson-County-accident?gcheck=1

    But guns don’t kill people, remember.

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  79. Jolene said on April 8, 2013 at 8:34 pm

    Joe Nocera, who’s been tracking gun deaths in his NYT gun blog, said that he finds an incident such as the one on Tater Peeler Rd. almost every day. Kid too young to understand picks up loaded gun, pulls trigger, someone dies.

    He argues that guns should have biometrics lily controlled trigger locks so that only their owners could control them. Of course, this could only apply to new guns, but that would be a start.

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