Saturday morning market.

Amid the throngs of suburbanites, a demonstration. Because sure, there’s PLENTY of parking.

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Posted at 10:44 am in Detroit life, iPhone |
 

63 responses to “Saturday morning market.”

  1. alex said on May 25, 2013 at 11:10 am

    Expirements?

    Were they teabaggers? Just guessing given the apparent level of literacy.

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  2. beb said on May 25, 2013 at 12:23 pm

    Is this related to the Koch Brother’s coke residue (pet coke?

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  3. Deborah said on May 25, 2013 at 12:51 pm

    We went to the farmers market here this morning and a bunch of signs were piled up so there had been a protest earlier or it was to happen later. The signs were about GMOs. We are going to Abiquiu today and will car camp tonight. I love it out there.

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  4. Sherri said on May 25, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    Even lefties can be illiterate, scientifically and otherwise.

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  5. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 1:16 pm

    Looks like anti-GMO foods to me. When the US Congress is pulling ripe horseshite like this:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/monsanto-protection-act_n_3322180.html

    It may be time to start worrying about the food supply, or it will all end up Soylent Green. When Monsanto makes ads claiming to be a benevolent force for the good of mankind, I hold on to my nads and try not to think about the Canamids serving man.

    http://www.myspace.com/video/o/the-twilight-zone-to-serve-man/37635576

    There is something about bee decline on the other sign. It astounds me this issue does not get more attention. I mean, no bees, no pollination. No pollination, no fruit. That is a drab and horrible world.

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  6. beb said on May 25, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Only in Michigan…
    http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/05/22-year-old-failed-fake-michigan-democrat-cody-bailey-now-running-a-for-profit-charter-school.html

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  7. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 1:42 pm

    Tim Curry has had a stroke.

    I hope he’s back healthy as soon as possible and up doing the rock. I love that sax, and namechecking Maravich is very cool. I still have this on vinyl album, Fearless, which also has a smoking cover of Bowie’s Putting Out Fires song, and a breathtakingly gorgeous song called SOS (a Curry original, I think). Dick Wagner (Rock ‘n’ Roll Animal Sweet Jane intro, Alice Cooper, the Frost) plays guitar. A great album.

    And how obvious is it that Sen. Blunt is on the take? When will Sen. ChopShop start that investigation?

    I’m not worried that GMO food might cause me bodily harm. I’m worried about the entire world food supply. They are screwing with things without considering consequences. Consider the proliferations of new strains every day of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. FUBAR.

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  8. Sherri said on May 25, 2013 at 2:01 pm

    The problems to worry about with the food supply have much more to do with the effects of industrial scale food production than with GMO per se; if GMO had never come about, we’d still have all those problems. My main problem with GMO has much more to do with patent law and Monsanto’s resultant power than with any lack of safety of GMO.

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  9. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 2:06 pm

    Sherri, GMO in the wind is like farm-raised salmon in the ocean, or snakeheads in Chesapeake Bay and zebra mussells in Lake Michigan. And the patent horse is out of the barn and galloping hard. And until the US Supreme Court has a major overhaul, nobody is tracking it down.

    I heard about this Lone Justice cover of Sweet Jane while reading about Tim Curry. Thoroughly awe-inspiring, but I’ve been in love with Maria McKee for a really long time. Force of nature.

    And this tune with VanDyke Parks on piano, just exudes sexuality, innocently.

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  10. Deborah said on May 25, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    I’m mixed about GMOs, my project for The World Food Prize lead me to believe it’s a really complex situation. If Norman Borlaug hadn’t bred a special strain of wheat they think billions of people would have died in Asia. Borlaug was great at being able to look at and listen to all sides. On the ther hand Monsanto has been exploiting the problem rather than solving it. Monsanto was my client on a project many years ago when I lived in St. Louis. At the time thier big claim to fame was Nutrasweet.

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  11. brian stouder said on May 25, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    I’m with Sherri’s sentiments on genetically modified crops. Humankind has always tinkered with genetic modifications, and the results are that more and more people are able to eat.

    But patenting this stuff needs to be reigned in; maybe give the developers a decade (or two) of exclusivity/royalties, ,to recoup their investment – and then that’s it….or something.

    Because, indeed, if the math was done, we would (I strongly suspect) see that every dollar Monsanto (et al) take in contains a sizable portion of government money already (federally guaranteed crop insurance, in the wake of last year’s almighty drought, for example, leaps to mind) – so their claims to being the champion of free market dynamics ring a bit…hollow.

    Beb – I’d place Monsanto (et al) further down the list of threats to our society than these damned voucher schools. I really view them as organized vandals, lead by people who genuinely have a very troubling (to put it kindly) social agenda

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  12. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    The science fiction scenario for the Monsanto patent power play is to get the whole world on it’s blight-resistant crops, develop a blight that kills the crops, with a cure in hand, and hold the cure hostage. No multinational would ever do anything like that, though, would it?

    All anybody knows for sure right now about GMO seed in the real world is, if it blows into your fields, return it. You have no right to use it. Don’t you dare, we’ll sue your ass, and we have more lawyers than God. And it’s hard to imagine there is any scientific model for predicting longterm effects on the human food chain, and particularly that Monsanto and other Frankenfarmers have undertaken anything so sensible and expensive. As I said, look what stoking up the cows and pigs with medicine has accomplished. And a lb. of ground pork that was about a $buck five years ago is now $4. I used to buy big fat juicy mussells for 13 cents the lb. at the J. Hooks Lobster Company on Ft. Point Channel in Boston. Now all the mussells are farmed raised and they cost more than swordgish or lobster. And natural species in the wild are probably in decline.

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  13. Deborah said on May 25, 2013 at 3:00 pm

    Other

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  14. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 3:05 pm

    Humankind has always tinkered with genetic modifications Tinkered, sure, but not by introducing genes from other species. Gregor Mendel wasn’t mixing in chemicals and genetic materials from crop diseases. And when Monsanto has to buy US Senators to protect their products from being labelled GMO, they protest too much for my comfort.

    Sailin’ Shoes. Maria McKee, VanDyke Parks and Stevie Ray cover a great, great Lowell George song. This is ferocious. SRV cuts loose.

    Solo, on a funny song she wrote for herself.

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  15. brian stouder said on May 25, 2013 at 3:07 pm

    Deborah – I was gonna ask what ‘car camping’ means, but I think the mystery is more fun

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  16. Deborah said on May 25, 2013 at 3:31 pm

    Well Brian, car camping to us means we sleep in the back of our Jeep instead of a tent. We bought a nice mattress from Cabella’s on-line. It’s 3″ thick and fits nicely. Comfy. We tried it with only those mats for under a sleeping bag and it was painful. I have tried tent camping but the flapping in the wind is a problem for me, plus in the jeep you’re off the ground and critters seem less of a concern, in my mind anyway. I can only camp for a day or two at a time. I just love being out on our land, that’s what makes all the hassles worth it. Hauling a bunch of stuff (food, bedding, etc) is the worst part. I will be so happy when we finally get something built there. We are having some timing issues with our structural engineer though which is causing a bit of a delay. “New Mexico time” is frustrating.

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  17. Sherri said on May 25, 2013 at 3:52 pm

    Usually, as I understand it, GMO refers to altering the genetic makeup of an organism in the lab by manipulating the genes directly. That is not what Borlaug did; that was not possible when Borlaug did his work. Like most things, what Borlaug did had positive and negative consequences; whether the positive consequences outweighed the negative consequences depend on your perspective. I tend to think they did.

    However, whether the genetic makeup of an organism is changed by breeding, grafting, genetic drift, or direct manipulation, the result is still a change in the genetic makeup. Even if GMO is outlawed, the problems Prospero refers to are still possible. Companies can and do get patents on plants they’ve created through breeding and grafting. It is possible to create more blight and insect resistant plants through breeding and grafting. And, if the seed is patented, no matter how it was created, you don’t own it, you only license it.

    Look at new apple varieties. Most of them are patented, and most are not GMO. Here’s an article about the restrictions placed on growing SweeTango: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/102597659.html

    It’s not about GMO. It’s about patent law and industrial scale farming. GMO is but one tool for creating organisms.

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  18. Sherri said on May 25, 2013 at 3:56 pm

    Tinkered, sure, but not by introducing genes from other species.

    What do you think a mule is?

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  19. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 5:17 pm

    No shit Sherri. And Ligers. Nobody’s eating those animals, unless it’s French people. We were talking about plants and food. And I specifically referred to Mendel. The monk/scientist wasn’t blending Pea genes with Black Leaf or root rot. Monsanto’s great innovation is combining plant diseases with crop plant genomes to make them resistant to the diseases. What awful unforeseen consequence could possibly result? I sure can’t think of any. Trusting that multinational corporate scientists have put in the time and cash to anticipate all the potential problems in this program seems exceptiaonally naive, to the point of childishness, to me. The damage done by farmed slmon escapes into the wild is pretty well-documented, and I think that’s a valid point of reference for Frankenfarming. Many of the “new” apple varieties are restoration of old varieties nearly done in by homogenized big Ag.

    Monsanto’s plant genetic tinker-toying could devastate some insect populations. What will that do to songbird populations? Anybody have a clue? Nope. Screwing with any part of the food chain or the biome is screwing with the whole damn thing, and there is no way anybody is spending the time or money to figure out what bad things might happen. That’s basically my point.

    Car camping always reminds me of Tremors, a favorite in our house.

    Nancy, I had forgotten you cowrote Wars of Other Men. Well done. And that red-haired female officer looks like Julianne Moore. I hadn’t really expected the high quality of acting throughout the cast. The guy that plays the LT. is superb.

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  20. Prospero said on May 25, 2013 at 5:23 pm

    Obviously I never met the guy, but I feel pretty secure in being right when I say that Tom Coburn is an asshole that talks out of both sides of his mendacious mouth.

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  21. David C. said on May 25, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    I don’t have a problem with all GMO foods. Golden rice is GMO rice designed to create beta carotene which is metabolized into vitamin A. It has saved the eyesight of countless people in Asia. The roundup ready and BT corn is worthless in the long run. There is roundup resistant pigweed in every Mid-west state as well as BT resistant corn borers. Because of the resistant weeds, they are developing 2,4-D resistant corn. 2,4-D is nasty shit and expanded use will add to the already horrific cancer rate of farmers. You can’t fuck with nature, she always wins in the end. GMO plants with pesticides built in are like DDT. It seemed like a miracle 75 years ago, but then it became clear that using it was a deal with the devil. Every year required heavier and heavier application rates until eventually it stopped working at all and we were left with the side effects that are still with us to this day.
    We also have a problem with neonicotinoid pesticides. They have been implicated in colony collapse disease in bee colonies. Europe has banned them. No doubt, the manufacturers of doubt are ginning up the “the science isn’t in” campaign right now. It’s not difficult. They take the “the science isn’t in on smoking” campaign and substitute neonicotinoid pesticides.

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  22. brian stouder said on May 25, 2013 at 8:50 pm

    Here’s a question: is there any need at all for OSHA (et al)? Because government regulation is job-killing, right?

    http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/neighbor-teen-cut-arm-off-in-saw-accident

    A neighbor told NewsChannel 15 that the incident happened at a small company that makes pallets. The neighbor said a teenage Amish girl was working in an area where notches in the pallet are cut out when she got caught up in a saw. He said her arm was cut off above the elbow.

    Duuno about you, but this sounds like criminal recklessness to me, regardless how small the business, nor how devoutly religious the people may be

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  23. Dexter said on May 26, 2013 at 12:36 am

    Deborah, I used to work with a man who was the cheapest man I ever met who still did things, and didn’t just sit at home counting his money. He bought an ancient Toyota pickup truck, crammed his wife and kids into the cab and IN THE BACK (it was a small truck, very small) and drove the Alcan all the way to Alaska. Every night they ate camp-fire grub, and every night they flapped down the tailgate and they slept in that truck bed. Some of the four kids probably slept in the cab, I would guess. The trip lasted 35 days. When the truck needed fresh oil, this guy broke every Alaska law and found a remote area and drained his crankcase onto the ground and added fresh oil. He’d have paid dearly for that caper if he had been caught. I wouldn’t take a trip like that for a million bucks. This is the same guy who refused to buy soda pop for his family but would guzzle two Pepsi Colas himself on the way home from work every night. What a cheapo!

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  24. coozledad said on May 26, 2013 at 8:08 am

    Virginia Republicans are more Home Shopping Network than anything else. I can remember when folks were talking up Bob McDonnell as a possible successor to other great Republican snake oil greats. He and Cooch are filthy with patent medicine money, and they have a toddler’s understanding of the law.
    http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2013/05/maureen-mcdonnell-anatabloc/

    http://waldo.jaquith.org/blog/2013/05/cuccinelli-foia-kerfuffle/

    Same shit is going on in NC where the Republican majority is directing revenues into the pockets of their family members and subscribers. The general assembly here just voted to give one of the legislator’s parents a few million in perpetuam, guaranteed.

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  25. coozledad said on May 26, 2013 at 8:12 am

    Here’s the NC grift:
    http://www.bluenc.com/brawley-tillis-and-bail-bondsmen

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  26. Bob (not Greene) said on May 26, 2013 at 11:25 am

    Coozledad, that’s straight-up Cook County! Well played, NC GOP.

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  27. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 11:32 am

    We began Memorial Day with a long bike ride to lay a wisteria wreath S. made on the grave of Thos. Frazier and share a brandy toast to African-American Civil War vets with some friends, followed by a picnic breakfast of cold fried chicken, devilled eggs and biscuits with pepper jelly. Here on out, it’s a beach day. With shrimp salad rolls made from yesterday’s early morning cast-net harvest of fresh brown shrimp. Delicious little bugs we also use for trout and spot bait, although we catch more croakers than either.

    cooze@24: The industries of choice in GA are “outdoor advertising” and title pawn, the latter one of the most odious and pernicious cons ever devised. Current Goober-nor Nathan Deal made money in both. But not enough, God help the poor man. Now mean people are picking on him. Wah, wah, wah.

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  28. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 12:27 pm

    Haynes Johnson, RIP. A great reporter.

    Wisteria wreaths are common cemetery decorations down south.

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  29. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 12:45 pm

    Steampunk as autism therapy.

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  30. coozledad said on May 26, 2013 at 12:47 pm

    Bob(not Greene)The old line Jim Hunt Democrats in NC can be pretty crooked, but they’re more creative, and a bit more discrete.
    The Republicans dick you up the ass while they’re warbling the Broadman hymnal and planting a Christian flag on every mons- they’re thoroughly corrupt shitsacks, and no fun at all. The federal government is the only thing that keeps them from starting a slate of witch trials and decorating the interstates with the occasional picturesque auto-da-fé.

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  31. basset said on May 26, 2013 at 3:59 pm

    Indy 500 results: Brazilian winner, Colombian second, Americans third and fourth, Englishman fifth.

    The women were fifteenth, seventeenth, twenty-sixth and thirtieth; every one of ’em has Danica beat, too.

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  32. MarkH said on May 26, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    basset, that was the most exciting 500 In a LONG time. Right up until Buzzkill Franchitti robbed the actual finish of drama by hitting the wall with two laps to go. Oh, well. All those leaders and lead changes. Good win for Kanaan, though. Not sure if all those women have Danica beat, but at least three of them do. Was watching Simona closely, or as closely as you can given ABC’s coverage. A bad break pit penalty set her back. She will be back and definitely out-perform drama queen Danica, now a prostituted NASCAR backmarker forever.

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  33. brian stouder said on May 26, 2013 at 4:53 pm

    A very fine race indeed; and – I gotta say (since I don’t hesitate to criticize NASCAR’s idiosyncrasies) maybe Indy Car oughta look at a green/white/chex rule, instead of a finish-under-yellow.

    Still, the fan fave won…although it would have been nice to see Marco win the thing, too.

    And F1/Monaco was wonderful beacuse…because it was in Monaco! Viva Nico! (conspiracy theory alert! Mercedes has gotta be sandbagging McLaren now, eh? Especially with Honda in the wings for McLaren again)

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  34. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 5:36 pm

    Wow. Worst. Movie. Idea. Ever Conceived. Ever. Some studio plans a “reboot” (Oh, moronic neologism!!) of The Rockford Files, according to the latest number of the Atlantic. In for James Garner? Vince fracking Vaughan. That decision had to be made by one of Louis Gohmert’s fetuses with no brain function brought to term. Let’s “reboot” Dirty Harry and cast Russell Brand or Ben Stiller as Harry Calloway. What sort of cretin would pay for a movie in which Vince Vaughan plays Jim Rockford. Nobody that was a devotee of the TeeVee show, I don’t think. Not me, with an Uzi muzzle under my chin. NFW.

    We spent the PM watching Hobie Cat races out on the Sound. Thrills and Spills. Some pair of guys managed to cartwheel a 16 ft catamaran. Never seen that happen before. Wouldn’t have thought it possible, even sans keels. It’s easy to tip ’em over, but this was ridiculous.I suppose it was dangerous, but it was pretty damned funny anyway. God knows what it did to the boat.

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  35. Sherri said on May 26, 2013 at 6:11 pm

    The downside of living on the west coast: I sort of wanted to watch some of the Monaco Grand Prix, but not badly enough to get up at 4:30 in the morning to do so.

    (I’d still rather the events be shown live instead of tape-delayed, even if means showing them at 4:30 in the morning. I can always tape-delay them myself…)

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  36. MarkH said on May 26, 2013 at 6:19 pm

    Prospero #34. Couldn’t have said it better. When the icon is set, there’s no improving it. Wait a minute…Russell Brand as Dirty Harry, hmmm….

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  37. MarkH said on May 26, 2013 at 6:22 pm

    Was pulling for Marco all the way as well, Brian. And, yes there oughta be a law against any race finishing under yellow.

    Missed Monaco because we Tivoed something else, looking for NBCS to re run it though.

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  38. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 6:31 pm

    Mark H.: Garner is the embodiment of charm, rascality and a brutally honest personal code of honor, in every role. Vince Vaughan is a spineless, selfish weasel. And Russell Brand has the dirty part down. The guy looks like chlamydia personified.

    Never watched Arrested Development. Always figured I wasn’t missing much. Just saw the first 21 minutes of ep. 1 on Netflix. Assumption confirmed. It’s supposed to be funny, right? I mean, there is Portia De Rossi and Jeffrey Tambor, but Michael Cera? Jason Bateman? Will Arnett? Spare me, there wasn’t a role for Stefon? Bill Hader is exactly the sort of funny-as-a-crutch jerk that would fit this cast perfectly. Damn, that was bad.

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  39. Dexter said on May 26, 2013 at 8:21 pm

    Too bad it was Dario Franchitti spoiling a green finish, but it was a fun, methodical race to watch, very British in nature “say, old chap…why don’t you lead this lap, I led the last one!”~ “Oh you are so kind; I’ll lead just this one and then let one of the Andretti boys lead for a while, you are too kind.”
    Winning under yellow is still sweet when it’s your first winner’s circle in Victory Lane.
    Congrats to Tony Kanaan. And great accurate quote: “Now my ugly face can be put on the trophy!” You said a mouthful there. 🙂

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  40. Joe K said on May 26, 2013 at 8:34 pm

    No one wanted to lead the 500 due to fuel economy, but 68 lead changes in 200 laps.
    WOW, so glad T.K. Won it, would have liked to see if Tony could have held them off, but we will never know, would have hated to see him lose it on a caution but glad to see him win it.
    Pilot Joe

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  41. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 9:51 pm

    The TeeVee listing for Mad Men for tonight says, portentously, “Joan goes to the beach.”

    Don’t really follow racing but I do like the confrontations in the pits. I’m assuming Kanaan got the hell out of Dodge before Danica showed up throwing hands.

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  42. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 9:55 pm

    Try some Leinenkugel’s Shandy. Ice cold on a hot day, it’s preternaturally refreshing. I’s a summer lager (weiss), brewed with lemonade. Yum.

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  43. Prospero said on May 26, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    That’s brewed with lemons. And it’s only 4.2% alcohol by volume, compared to more like 6% for the IPAs we frequent in the wintertime.

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  44. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 26, 2013 at 11:18 pm

    Prospero @34 – No, if I had an Uzi under my chin and a Hollywood producer cum terrorist screaming at me, I’d watch a “Rockford Files” reboot with Vince Vaughan in the lead. It would take that, but all things considered, the choice between death and watching lame attempts at injecting humor into a classic means I could stomach the latter. (And if Jim Garner got a cameo, and there was a good recurring answering machine/voice mail bit in the production, I might even watch it willingly, but with low expectations.)

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  45. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 26, 2013 at 11:19 pm

    And no, Christian Hendricks was at no point seen in a bathing suit, two piece or otherwise. But you did see . . . ahhhh, folks are so touchy about spoilers. Nevermind.

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  46. Dexter said on May 27, 2013 at 12:58 am

    Who are these Indiana Pacers anyway? They really woke me up with two outstanding games down in South Beach , then they came home to a super-charged crowd and they absolutely soiled the bed.
    I am not a Pacer fan; I follow the teams that didn’t make the playoffs, Pistons and Cavaliers. My ‘A Team’, meaning a team to root for in the playoffs because my teams were awful, was OK City. My man Kevin Durant, my favorite NBA star, donated one million dollars of his salary to help tornado victims. That’s class.
    Back to hockey tonight. I can’t take too much basketball these days when I hate most of the teams that are left.

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  47. Danny said on May 27, 2013 at 10:48 am

    All this talk is of the Rockford Files must unfortunately mean a reboot is in process, but while we are on the topic, I have to give a shout out to possibly my favorite character actor portrayal of all time: Stuart Margolin, who played Angel Martin.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAivpss-irc

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6PO14J_pW4

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  48. Danny said on May 27, 2013 at 10:49 am

    Another clip and an IMDB quote:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8nCpLDoJoM

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071042/quotes

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  49. Danny said on May 27, 2013 at 10:51 am

    And Deborah, thanks for the compliments on my wife. She’s a keeper!

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  50. Bitter Scribe said on May 27, 2013 at 12:34 pm

    Russell Brand has never particularly appealed to me as a performer, but I have to give the man mad props for his writing. He can turn out an essay. A piece of his in The Guardian about Margaret Thatcher’s death startled me with its depth and profundity.

    Regarding GMOs: I think many of their opponents are too quick and casual in dismissing their potential. Ag tech has played a big role over the decades in keeping the increasingly hungry world fed with decreasing farmland. GMO is the latest big thing. Restricting their use could have real-world repercussions in food supplies.

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  51. Prospero said on May 27, 2013 at 12:41 pm

    Scribe@50: Who is trying to restrict use of GMOs. People simply want foods labelled so that they can be aware of when and when they are not consuming GMO foods. Monsanto finds this burdensome. I find that fishy.

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  52. Bitter Scribe said on May 27, 2013 at 1:02 pm

    Prospero: If you require such a label you will effectively ban GMOs because people will automatically suspect there’s something wrong with the stuff. It’s like if we required meat from cattle born through artificial insemination to state that fact on the label. It makes no difference at all in the actual product, but people would just assume that they’re being warned about something bad.

    Not to mention that there are logistical problems involved, all along the supply chain, in segregating GMO products. It would have the potential to raise food prices across the board.

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  53. Prospero said on May 27, 2013 at 1:28 pm

    Danny@47: As usual, we agree about television. Stuart Margolin was a buddy of James Garner’s from way back. The Angel character was reportedly largely a product of improvisation that Garner encouraged on the set. The Noah Beery Jr. Rocky-centric episodes were also great, as were Dennis in trouble episodes, Beth Davenport episodes, Gandolph Fitch episodes, Vern St. Cloud and Lance White episodes, the ones with Bo Hopkins, the disappearing girlfriend, and the two masterpieces with Lauren Bacall. Oh, and Anthony Boy.

    And when I say fishy about Monsanto, I mean fishy as all hell. Something’s rotten. Companies that buy their own pocket Senators are usually up to no good. Right, Roy Blunt? Food producers have done just fine raising food prices across the board in the last five years. Knowing the origins and the character of food products has been considered a right of Americans since Upton Sinclair talked sausage. I expect meat to be produced by artificial insemination, but I certainly don’t want antibiotics with my ribs, and I have a right to know about that. When the USA is overcome by an antibiotic-resistant gonnorhea or syphillis epidemic, people will be wishing that Big Ag hadn’t had carte blanche and that more beeves had expired short of the packing plant. Tuberculosis is already back. Labelling as banning is a weak argument, I think. Most people don’t even realize it when they are consuming petroleum products like trans-fats, and those labels are all over packaging.

    TaDa. Governor Moonbeam minimizes GOPers, produces budget surplus.

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  54. Bitter Scribe said on May 27, 2013 at 1:38 pm

    Oh please. I know Monsanto is supposed to be synonymous with Hitler, but they happen to be the No. 1 private ag tech company in existence today. They do aggressive R&D and they aggressively defend their patents. What’s wrong with that? There’s a reason that this SCOTUS, one of the most bitterly divided in history, voted 9-0 that Monsanto had a right to protect its patents.

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  55. Dexter said on May 27, 2013 at 1:38 pm

    James Garner’s life has been a storybook like few others. Terrible, abusive up-bringing, never finished high school, left the Merchant Marine due to seasickness, and later became a double purple heart recipient while becoming a battlefield hero in the Korean War.

    This day is always the saddest day on the calendar. Most people my age knew one or many men or women who died in Vietnam.
    It’s all proper, to be sure, to remember the fallen and reminisce a bit about how and what they were in life. Intense feelings about that war subsided for me years ago and life progressed stress free. This one day, though, it surfaces, and I get mad once again. Our mantra was “It don’t mean nuthin.” That proved to be another big lie about our generation’s fucked-up war.

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  56. Bitter Scribe said on May 27, 2013 at 1:59 pm

    I never knew anyone who died in Vietnam, but I know several who came back totally fucked up, including my sister’s fiancee. A bad, sad experience all the way around, that war was. (This is one reason I could never entirely like or trust James Webb, who seems to think he fought in the Revolution and the Civil War put together.)

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  57. Prospero said on May 27, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    If anybody could reprise the Rockford role, it might be Jeff Bridges. For a younger actor, I’d think John Corbett, who could have made some of those Vince Vaughan movies watchable rather than drivel, or dribble, as the loosers say on the interwebs.

    As far as eschewing food labelling, does this mean I’m free to open my guaranteed to succeed frozen yogurt chain and not identify my secret ingredient, diazepam? A little dazzle in every slurp. Return patronage a forgone conclusion.

    Did I compare Monsanto with Hitler? Damn, I don’t think so. Do I trust any Big Ag multinational? Not as far as I could throw one of its offshore accounts. Is Roy Blunt, by words and actions, apparently a bought and paid for creature of Monsanto? Seems to be. Should US Congress be in the business of legislation that benefits a single legal entity? Nope, that’s illegal. Is something wrong when a corporation has its pet Congressman defending such legislation. Probably.

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  58. Rana said on May 27, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Labeling certainly has not cut back on the sale of products with corn syrup in them, but it’s really nice for those of us who dislike the stuff. What’s Monsanto afraid of, if its GMO products are so harmless?

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  59. Bitter Scribe said on May 27, 2013 at 3:43 pm

    Rana: As I said above, they’re afraid that people will see a GMO “warning” and interpret it is “I better avoid this stuff.” That’s unfair. Corporations may not be people, but they have a claim to basic fairness, one of which is that the government will not stack the deck against them undeservedly.

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  60. Prospero said on May 27, 2013 at 3:47 pm

    NBC Sports channel is reshowing Monaco Grand Prix at midnight est tonight.

    Todays Island paper says HHI hotels are all full up. This is remarkably good economic news. I know the Bi-Lo was crowded like a madhouse yesterday. They also had beautiful local maters. And our big pool is packed with visitor kids.

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  61. Prospero said on May 27, 2013 at 4:09 pm

    So the anti-labeling argument is “American consumers are too stupid for Monsanto’s own good.”

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  62. brian stouder said on May 27, 2013 at 11:51 pm

    Memorial Day.

    There is a man who has lived in the house next door to where I grew up, and where my mom lived out her life; he and his family have been there for more than 40 years, and in fact he’s going to buy my mom’s house – I think for his extended family (and for the additional garage).

    He’s always been a salt-of-the-earth, work-a-day guy, and his wife, too. He retired from GM (Defiance) years ago, and he recently had a hip replacement – but he still gets out and around. He’s a Vietnam war combat veteran, and he’s spoken of that war with me on maybe one or two occasions, over all these years. (said that – from the moment he got off the plane there, the place smelled like garbage; jungle rot, presumably? – and that he ALWAYS took his salt tablet; and that when he had to walk point, he carried a pump shot-gun)

    He always flies an American flag, and he always follows flag etiquette. A decade ago, when the United States invaded Iraq, his American flag flew upside down for a week. It took me awhile, but I eventually had the opportunity (and the effrontery!) to ask him about that, and he blew the subject off, saying it was just an accident.

    Another neighbor, at a later time, referred to him as ‘crazy’, which I found deeply incorrect (and upsetting), and could not hold back from flatly, emphatically disagreeing with that person.

    A slight non-sequitur: there are some who would call that fellow a “low information voter” – and – upon extensive review that charge might possibly be sustainable.

    But I’d say that A SINGLE OUNCE of the ‘information’ that that guy bases his vote on is worth a freight-train load of horse shit from some draft-dodging oxycontin-addled half-deaf radio lip flapper…period.

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  63. MichaelG said on May 28, 2013 at 11:18 am

    A couple of late replies for yesterday – sorry. I think are a bit hard on Danica. She’s a pretty fair driver and certainly better than most of them out there. While she was with Andretti the cars weren’t so good. Nobody on the team was making strong finishes. Now the cars are good and the team is doing fine. Now it’s Stewart’s cars that aren’t so hot. As I said the other day, the jury is still out as far as I am concerned.

    I like DeSilvestro and I was also very impressed by Legge.

    Prospero, I agree totally about The Rockford Files. Also I have always been a fan of Garner’s. He came to Vietnam once while I was there and flew right out to the field. He spent a good hour just walking around, hanging out and talking to the troopers. Great guy, very pleasant, modest and unassuming. I really respect him.

    Also, Pros, Governor Moonbeam? C’mon. That’s so stupid and so seventies.

    “It don’t mean nuthin.” Boy, I haven’t heard that in a long time, Dexter.

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