A chill Fourth.

Seventy-one degrees as I write this, on July 3. I’m lovin’ it. I think I said here before that I wanted to live someplace where you sometimes need long sleeves, but it’s never terribly cold. Didn’t we agree I was made for the California coast, the expensive part? I think so. (Just as soon as I monetize this thing.)

Anyway, after a day of overcast drear, the clouds have cleared, the sun emergeth, and all looks in order for a bandbox-perfect Fourth of July. For which I have planned…nothing. I guess I’ll make some potato salad and throw some protein on the grill, but beyond that? Maybe sail around in the boat, maybe go to the pool, where the city traditionally springs for an all-day DJ to spin the tunes.

All you really need for the Fourth is a good attitude. One of my favorites.

The only sour note is one of my neighbors, currently in the midst of an extremely loud ad hoc fireworks show. When we got Wendy she was very cool about these things, but this shit is so off the chain she just came upstairs and hid behind my office chair. This guy is a jerk — he’s the one who shoots squirrels for target practice — and I’m thisclose to calling the cops.

Oh, well. Smiles! Three-day weekend!

I’m thinking Dahlia Lithwick is my favorite SCOTUS writer:

I find myself worried about a court in which five members are convinced that we sorted out all those pesky race problems in the ’60s, and that women need to be “gently counseled” before they can make a medical decision. (We don’t need “sidewalk counselors” to tell us about “botched abortions.” We have Google.) I worry that this court finds women’s health concerns so unserious that it won’t even engage in a meaningful discussion about them. (It does not afford me great comfort when the court assumes, without explaining, that women’s health care is probably important for argument’s sake, the way Ricky did with Lucy back in the day).

I’m afraid that’s the shape of it.

Happy holiday, all, however you choose to spend it.

Posted at 12:30 am in Current events |
 

51 responses to “A chill Fourth.”

  1. Sherri said on July 4, 2014 at 1:41 am

    I once again make my plea to the heavens for the NYTimes to hire Dahlia Lithwick. I find Slate mostly not very useful, but I have an email notification for Lithwick’s work.

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  2. coozledad said on July 4, 2014 at 8:59 am

    bspencer at LGM: …the court has all but come out and said that the beliefs of believers carry more weight more than non-believers

    And that’s the problem. Most non-believers are accused of having their own religion or belief structure, until such time as it’s convenient to dismiss their sincerity.

    I walked down to the front of a Southern Baptist church, took that ceremonial dunking and entered the company of people whose god demanded absolutely no discernible probity.
    They were all the more dangerous and silly for their god being on their side when they were trying to dick you.

    This is the Bush court’s definition of sincerity. Negotiating with them is like negotiating with the white settlers of Georgia in the early nineteenth century. They really don’t give a fuck.

    I figured this out at twelve. The Cokie Roberts “center” of this country won’t get it until their pockets are empty.

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  3. coozledad said on July 4, 2014 at 9:17 am

    And speaking of god, we had us a tor-nater yesterday.
    My wife was trying to shut the storm windows on the east facing porch when a shear wind dumped a couple of gallons of water on her. The cyclonic winds were pretty impressive, too.

    We lost power for awhile because a pine snapped the power line on the neighbor’s slice of land out by the road. We saw the cars backed up when we drove out to get groceries.

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  4. brian stouder said on July 4, 2014 at 9:26 am

    the court has all but come out and said that the beliefs of believers carry more weight more than non-believers

    I think this misses (but only by a little) the central point.

    The Cokie Roberts “center” of this country won’t get it until their pockets are empty.

    THAT comes a whole lot closer, I think.

    The Hobby Lobby lobby* would skip the argument about the beliefs of believers, and advocate for the belief-of-believers-who-have-MONEY!

    “Believe what you want, but I’m not paying for it”, etc., seems to be the faux-secular argument.

    But even that will evaporate, if given the chance, with employers strongly suggesting how you “should” vote.

    It really is all about money, and the belief that if I have more money than you, then I should win – on any and every question that arises. Almost like ruling by divine right; the fact that I have more money validates the idea that I simply know – or believe – better than you do – even when it comes to whether or not you should have a baby (and that I don’t know anything at all about your life or your goals or your dreams).

    Afterall, God His-own-self graciously showered all this cash on me, right? Surely my soul knows more than yours does

    *The Hobby Lobby bastards have a full-page ad in today’s paper, with a big flag in full color, and lots of conveniently edited and culled remarks from the infallible(!) Founding Fathers (who seem to rank with The Father in Heaven, if they don’t outrank Him outright) which illuminate the FACT that this is a Christian nation, and really an Old Testament theocracy (wherein you can forget about “forgiveness” and you should concentrate on punishment)

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  5. brian stouder said on July 4, 2014 at 9:29 am

    Cooz – good to hear that you and yours are OK!

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  6. Jeff Borden said on July 4, 2014 at 9:34 am

    The most damning thing about the Hobby Lobby horseshit is the company’s dependence on cheap crap made in China, where abortions are practically state mandated. The Greens are perfectly happy to make their millions by selling products produced in a godless by decree nation where family planning is demanded, not suggested, but they get all skeevy over a few forms of birth control over here.

    Fucking hypocrites. And damn the Roberts Court for enabling them. And double damn Scalia and Thomas, whose wives are prominent in anti-abortion and anti-contraception activities. Way to remain unbiased, guys.

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  7. Heather said on July 4, 2014 at 9:50 am

    Just wanted to stop by to wish you all a happy Fourth. (We are at the cabin in northern Wisconsin, where there seems to be a new cell phone tower giving me service for the first time up here, but I’ve been trying to unplug anyway.) That SCOTUS decision is one of many things that make me despair for this country, but I can’t help getting caught up in American pride on this holiday. I try to think of the Framers and not the many dolts we have in office today.

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  8. Jolene said on July 4, 2014 at 10:07 am

    The NYT has a lovely article on the new documentary, Life Itself, re Roger Ebert. In theaters today, though perhaps not everywhere.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/04/movies/life-itself-reminiscences-of-roger-ebert.html?rref=arts&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Arts&pgtype=article

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  9. alex said on July 4, 2014 at 10:11 am

    Absolutely gorgeous day here. We’re just playing with our gardens. I need to figure out a dish to take to a party this evening that I’m really not even all that interested in attending. I’m not going to waste my lovely garlic scapes on it, which right now are ready for harvesting.

    I think I’m down to two finalists for the rental house, and I’m really torn. One family has made it clear they’re only willing to sign up for one year because they’re planning to buy or build. They’re coming here from out of state and just sold a twenty-acre wooded property and that’s ultimately what they’d like to have again. They have lotta moolah and are totally self-sufficient and would be very easy to please. They also want to put their children into this school district and we’re the only rental in said district. And they’re such nice people I feel like I really want to help them out.

    The other couple are willing to sign a two-year lease and want to dig up their most prized garden plants and move them here. Something about that I find very agreeable. They really love the property and aren’t just looking at it as a temporary crash pad while they oversee construction of a new McMansion. They strike me as very responsible in the way they go about planning their lives. He recently got his MBA and has a good job. She is in her senior year of college getting her accounting degree. They don’t want to consider buying until both know what they’ll be doing professionally in a couple of years.

    Both couples have big dogs that will probably ruin the carpeting. But they’re still heads and shoulders above any of the other serious applicants. There were two in particular that still have me totally creeped out. One family is in bankruptcy and the wife had absolutely no compunction about divulging the most sordid details of her family’s effed-up lives. And it’s possible that was just the edited version. In any case, there’s no amount of security deposit that would protect the house or the neighborhood from the bad juju they would bring. The other was a relatively young guy on disability who’s not so disabled he can’t do an off-the-books car repair business in his driveway as he’s doing currently; he evidently thinks he’ll get into my good graces somehow by offering to pay out of pocket to pave the driveway here. And don’t even get me started about his horrid personal life about which I’d rather have remained ignorant.

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  10. beb said on July 4, 2014 at 11:52 am

    The Freep reprints this article from USA Today. Sobering.
    http://www.freep.com/article/20140704/FEATURES01/307040034/American-dream-cost-4th-of-July

    Also Detroit’s getting a lot of bad publicity over it’s get-tough policy towards people behind on their water bills. A damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

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  11. Deborah said on July 4, 2014 at 12:05 pm

    Alex I’d go for the couple who are willing to sign a two year lease, but you never know.

    At about midnight a neighbor behind our place started lighting fireworks, but he spread it out, one every five or ten minutes before the next and they were LOUD. Our cat was a basket case. This went on until about 1am. We called the cops. What an asshole.

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  12. Charlotte said on July 4, 2014 at 12:08 pm

    Brian — we had that Hobby Lobby ad as well! Enraging. However there’s a photo going around my Facebook feed of folks using the alphabetic stamps to spell out “All Women Deserve Birth Control” on Hobby Lobby shelves.

    And Nancy — what’s with the water situation in Detroit? They’re turning off municipal water to whole neighborhoods?

    Our parade was on the 2nd — and there’s 3 days of rodeo and an art fair in the park, so by the 4th, we’re all winding down. My kids are going on the river, then to the rodeo — I’m going to a party of geezer types after a day of gardening … so far, so fun. For those of you who like talented young girl musicians like Nancy’s Kate — check out “my” Sophie, formally known as Alaska Reid and her band, Aleyeska (http://alyeskaband.com/). The loud stuff they’re playing as a group is really fun.

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  13. Dave said on July 4, 2014 at 12:09 pm

    Pave out the driveway? Yep, and then drip oil and other fluids everywhere doing the shade tree repairs, leaving it looking ugly, ugly, ugly.

    Poor old Pros sometimes used to tell more than I wanted to know but it was Pros. Never been a landlord but I would have thought folks would try to paint the best, most glowing picture of themselves. Guess that isn’t true.

    Happy Fourth, everyone.

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  14. David C. said on July 4, 2014 at 1:21 pm

    The fireworks started here yesterday afternoon and went on until 1:00 am. Our normally skittish cat had no problem, but our usually brave cat hid under the bed all night. We couldn’t even bribe him out with tuna this morning. He’s out now, but the booms have started again. Poor little guy jumps every time either gets out of a chair. Is everybody 14 years old? That’s about when I stopped finding fireworks interesting.

    Alex, I’d go with the two year lease couple because a) gardeners are almost always good people, and b) people with lots of moolah are never easy to please. They are usually self-sufficient, though, in that they will help themselves to anything they think they deserve.

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  15. Snarkworth said on July 4, 2014 at 2:04 pm

    What Dave said. If you’re a prospective renter, you have to accept that the landlord will obtain all sorts of information about your credit and finances and such. But it’s not the time to vent about your psychotic ex and how you like to host weekly meetings of Stormfront fans.

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  16. MichaelG said on July 4, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    I totally agree, Nance. Dahlia Lithwick is far and away the best SCOTUS writer. I’ve loved her stuff for years. However, don’t forget Nina Totenberg on NPR. She’s equally great as a radio reporter specializing in SCOTUS. Her lucid, knowledgeable and to the point reports are a lesson in how such reporting should be done.

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  17. Sherri said on July 4, 2014 at 2:42 pm

    Richard Mellon Scaife is dead. My condolences to anyone who will miss him.

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  18. coozledad said on July 4, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    I wonder if they’ll bury his ass the way they buried Pullman: in a room sized block of concrete to zero out the chances of the earth puking him back up.

    http://graveyards.com/IL/Cook/graceland/pullman.html
    Pullman was so hated by his employees that when he died in 1897, his heirs feared that the body would be stolen and held for ransom. The coffin was covered in tar paper and asphalt, and enclosed in the center of a room-sized block of concrete, reinforced with railroad ties. Ambrose Bierce said “It is clear the family in their bereavement was making sure the sonofabitch wasn’t going to get up and come back.”

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  19. Deborah said on July 4, 2014 at 3:27 pm

    Happy 4th everyone! We’ll be going up to Abiquiu for a picnic with some neighbors up there, they might be riding their horses up to our land from their house. Weather is great but rain is predicted. No one believes it though, it never rains when they say it will. We have tons of food for our picnic, the usual stuff for the 4th like grilled chicken, potato salad and slaw, beer and wine, Mexican wedding cookies for dessert. We don’t want to grill up on the land because of the fire hazard, we did it yesterday in our side yard here. Our cat is not over her ordeal from last night, poor thing. Fireworks should be banned in New Mexico, it’s crazy to allow them here with the drought conditions. Apparently Gov Martinez has been trying to ban them, to no avail, and she’s a Republican.

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  20. Minnie said on July 4, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    We propitiated the hurricane gods by buying a case of bottled water, bringing in the bird feeders, and tying down the lawn furniture. Minimal as they were, those must have been acceptable offerings as Hurricane Arthur didn’t even make the house sway.

    On Thursday evening we celebrated Independence Day with a sort of geriatric hurricane party with an old hand from SW Louisiana. We’re taking today off before participating in a gathering tomorrow. Good food, good company. Trying to temporarily stuff down feelings that our 239-year-old country is headed 180 degrees away from the right direction.

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  21. Judybusy said on July 4, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    My partner and her family are at the Twins game–I had a narrow escape by offering my ticket to my sister-in-law who actually wanted to go. Whew! I went on a short bike ride; many bike paths are still flooded. However, this means egrets are enjoying the flooded creek. I stopped and watched one from 30 feet away for about 10 minutes as it gulped down minnows.

    Everyone will return afer the game and then it’s grilling and all sorts of other good food. Friends gave me cachaca for my birthday, so I’ll be making caiparinhas, too. Yum!

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  22. beb said on July 4, 2014 at 5:24 pm

    The fireworks in our neighborhood, there in the ‘hood, started … so far back that it sort of merged in with the nightly gunfights. You never know how far away those people are popping six shots in a row, you just hope it’s nowhere’s close. But yeah, there has been a lot of fireworks and my sympathizes to Wendy and any other gun-shy pets. Also children.

    Charlotte, as far as I can tell, the water department is only turning off water to specific, delinquent customers and not whole neighborhoods.

    Richard mellon Scaife – a boil that has finally been lanced.

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  23. LAMary said on July 4, 2014 at 10:21 pm

    Currently at our usual banh mi sandwich and Chinese fireworks extravaganza, Listening to a local Beatles cover band and ducking soccer balls.

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  24. LAMary said on July 4, 2014 at 10:57 pm

    Just posted a photo of the park. In the foreground on the right are my son Tom and his girlfriend Zoe.

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  25. MichaelG said on July 5, 2014 at 1:08 am

    beb, you’ve captured the feel of the hood with your comment about the nightly gunfights. Some of them are a tad close and some are interesting as you listen to the cars moving down the street on the block behind you and the shooting moves off into the distance. I guess if you hear enough of that stuff and it’s at a certain distance you become numb to it.

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  26. Sherri said on July 5, 2014 at 1:24 am

    We got together with friends and grilled salmon and vegetables, with an apricot cobbler for dessert. Our friends live in an unincorporated part of the county where fireworks are legal, so our meal was accompanied by the steady noise of the neighbors setting theirs off. In Redmond, fireworks are illegal, but that didn’t stop my neighbors, who had blocked off the end of the cul de sac and were shooting off fireworks when we got home. I don’t really care, as long as they don’t set my house on fire.

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  27. Dexter said on July 5, 2014 at 1:32 am

    Well, the fireworks just never happened here. The town’s party was last Sunday, and for the 4th the locals just never fired up a celebration in my ‘hood. My daughter in Toledo, just off Lewis Street on the edge of some rough territory, is suffering with her nervous dogs as the barrage continues through the night, never stopping.
    Here the bain is the damn “firepits”. Ever since Walmart and places similar began selling these goddam backyard fire pits the locals have been using them to navigate around the no burn-barrel law that has been in effect since the late 60s or so. These creeps simply burn their trash in the fucking firepits…it doesn’t take a super-spy to see them doing it. Oh yes, I have called the fire department many times, they always sent someone, once they were doing a training session and I called to report some wrongful burning of trash and the fire chief brought down a big ol’ f’real big ass fire engine and the firemen blasted an open pit fire with a forceful hose. Very nice. Next night: fire again.
    I just walked the dogs and put them to bed. My hands and arms and my shirt smell like smoke…it’s thick in the ‘hood.

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  28. Basset said on July 5, 2014 at 8:30 am

    Kayak fishing in the morning, first time out in my new used boat, a beer with friends and the remastered and cleaned up “Hard Day’s Night” in the evening followed by a Beatles copy band – see that movie if you can, audio mix alone is well worth it . Jr. went to the fireworks downtown, an estimated 150,000 there in a city of 625,000 and it took him two hours to get out of the parking lot.

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  29. coozledad said on July 5, 2014 at 8:45 am

    http://gawker.com/for-profit-corinthians-colleges-to-sell-85-campuses-cl-1600253314/all

    Cantor’s support of for-profit colleges is nothing new for the GOP. Republicans wrote a defense of the industry into the party platform in 2012, and presidential candidate Mitt Romney was the top recipient of campaign funds from for-profit education in the 2012 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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  30. Deborah said on July 5, 2014 at 10:00 pm

    We had a delightful picnic yesterday with our neighbors in Abiquiu. It threatened to storm but only spitted a bit, lightning off in the distance but that made it cool, because we didn’t have to contend with the hot sun. We didn’t know these neighbors that well and they turned out to be people who know how to party. Lots of wine was had. They invited us to go horseback riding with them sometime, which sort of terrifies me. Little Bird and a friend of hers joined us, but they drove back to Santa Fe earlier and partied with other friends there. My husband and I car camped last night up on our mesa and it was comfortably breezy. It was a nice 4th all in all.

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  31. basset said on July 6, 2014 at 12:21 pm

    Well, that was useless. Took a road trip to Louisville to go to Cabela’s and the flea market, which was about a third the size it used to be and mainly plastic Chinese junk… went looking for a tenderloin, figured since the city has both Meijer’s and Culver’s there was enough Midwestern influence to allow for pork someplace, drove way the hell out on the edge of town to a sports bar I found on a restaurant review site and they haven’t served tenderloins in eight or nine years. Ah well, at least Trader Joe’s up there has wine.

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  32. MichaelG said on July 6, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    Cabela’s is an interesting place and worth a stop if one is in the area but I wouldn’t make a special trip. I’ve been to the one in Verdi, NV (I-80 at the CA-NV state line) a couple of times when passing by on my way from Susanville or Alturas.

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  33. Dexter said on July 6, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    http://www.mlive.com/news/muskegon/index.ssf/2014/07/notorious_murderer_timothy_spt.html

    Releasing this former teen-age monster , and the fact that the other murderer has been free for decades blows my mind.

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  34. Jolene said on July 6, 2014 at 2:25 pm

    The NYT has a great article on Zingerman’s, the deli (and much more) that Ann Arborites love. Really interesting story about a creative and humane way to build a business. Would be interested to hear if the article rings true to people who’ve seen it up close.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/business/at-zingermans-pastrami-and-partnership-to-go.html?action=click&contentCollection=Magazine&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&region=Marginalia&src=me&pgtype=article

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  35. basset said on July 6, 2014 at 2:58 pm

    Cabela’s is a big deal for me, we drive an hour out of our way to go to the one at Dundee, Michigan when we go up to see Mrs. B’s family. Cabela’s is getting away from building huge stores out on the interstate like that one (250,000 square feet) though and has been adding smaller stores in malls or retail areas, I think the one in Louisville’s about 110.

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  36. brian stouder said on July 6, 2014 at 2:59 pm

    Dexter, that is a crazy article – and I learned something, from this passage (which amazed me):

    But in 1982, the Michigan Court of Appeals reversed both convictions. The court ruled that “burglary” under Michigan common law could only be committed at night, while Spytma and Saxton had broken into the Doctor home in the daytime.

    This mystified me, so Uncle Google lead me here

    http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/burglary

    where I found this:

    Nighttime The requirement that the breaking and entering occur at night was an essential element of the offense at common law. Sunrise and sunset were not the means of determining night and day. The proper test was whether the countenance of a human could be discerned by natural light.

    Many jurisdictions no longer require that the offense occur at night. Some states have retained it for higher degrees of the offense, but do not require it for all degrees. Under statutes retaining the nighttime element, it is defined as occurring 30 minutes before sunrise or 30 minutes after sunset. It is not necessary that all acts be done on the same night. If the breaking and entering is done one night and the felony is committed a few nights later, the offense is committed.

    which made me say “Huh!”

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  37. alex said on July 6, 2014 at 3:09 pm

    Never knew there was such hairsplitting over night and day where burglary’s concerned.

    Speaking of which, tonight I plan to take a leisurely drive back down a country road where earlier today I spied huge patches of garlic scapes along the roadside. I’m taking a pair of scissors and a big bag. Funny, I was on my way home from the grocery store with all the stuff necessary to make garlic scape compound butter and infused oil for dipping and sautéing.

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  38. Kirk said on July 6, 2014 at 5:31 pm

    When I covered small-town cops many moons ago, the charge was often spelled out as “breaking and entering in the night season.”

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  39. Dexter said on July 6, 2014 at 6:33 pm

    I just got back from the banks of the Tiffin River where I took the dogs for a walk. The skies quickly turned dark and the wind began to howl. I was walking past a dead birch tree which I noticed someone had sawed a limb from probably to burn in the campfire pit which sucker fishermen use all the time. This tree had a large branch about six inches in diameter hanging over the area where we walk. Some sonuvabitch had sawed 2/3 through it and left it hanging there. The next wind will take it down, and if it had gone when I was there it would have been manslaughter, right? I am surprised it didn’t fall because that wind materialized as if it was targeting me. Upon leaving the riverbanks, a deer and her fawn emerged from a field and ran directly in front of me. I have good brakes…no contact.

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  40. Basset said on July 6, 2014 at 6:46 pm

    Here on the banks of the Harpeth River, I was about to go for a long walk till I realized it’s 97 degrees out there. The hell with that, think I’ll stay in the a/c and make pickles.

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  41. alex said on July 6, 2014 at 7:25 pm

    Just finished two batches of garlic scape compound butter, which are now solidifying in the fridge. One has fresh basil and parsley from the garden; the other has dill. Great stuff for sautéing, or putting pats on steaks or grilled fish. And it freezes and keeps well for use during the winter, if you can resist eating it all at once. Planning additional batches until the scapes are used up. Think I’ll try tarragon in one, lemon in another and cilantro in yet another.

    A prospective tenant today gave me access to his credit history online and it’s letter F for the most part, with creditors including an apartment complex that’s owed several thousands of dollars. And he thinks this is going to clinch the deal? The people who wanted to dig up their plants and sign a two-year lease looked good on the surface but I discovered that they have lots of history in the small claims court including some serious wage garnishment going on, so I decided to offer the house to the squeaky clean couple relocating from out of state, but they haven’t returned the call I made yesterday and I suspect they may be considering other options. So back to square one.

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  42. brian stouder said on July 6, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    Alex, I envy your garlic scape butter, but I don’t envy your rental thing.

    Dex – Chloe and I went to the wonderful Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo this afternoon; we always go late and then the crowds are down and the animals are up and hungry…and the weather – although overcast and foreboding -was basically free air-conditioning.

    In short, another wonderful little visit! We probably go there at least once a week – and amazingly enough we almost always see something we hadn’t seen before.

    Today, as we were leaving, the Canadian Lynx decided to come to the front of her area and growl “Hello” (or else “Go to hell!”) at us – I think she was definitely hungry. In all our other visits, she’s barely visible at the back of her area, usually fast asleep. She looks like a tall kitty cat, except she has very big feet, and a stubby tail.

    Bill and Ina (the lions) never disappoint at late day; they were animated and….communicative? The come right to the glass and lock eyes with you (I think they’re thinking “I don’t see our usual supper…but these morons would hit the spot”.

    If they were the only animals there, we’d still get a membership – but the orangutans and the sea lions and the giraffes and the red pandas* and the leopards and kangaroos are definitely major draws, too!

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  43. brian stouder said on July 6, 2014 at 7:51 pm

    forgot the *

    *the female red panda had a baby three weeks ago, and last I knew, it’s still alive. Newborn red pandas have a very low survival rate (both in the wild and at zoos), and last year one was born and lived only 3 days), and if the baby survives, it is a major big deal. The display is blocked from where Gorgon the komodo dragon and the lemurs hang out, but you could see ‘dad’ down there, chillin’.

    No news, from there, is good news!

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  44. Connie said on July 6, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    Bassett, would the new Cabela’s in Grand Rapids be more convenient for you?

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  45. Basset said on July 6, 2014 at 8:51 pm

    Probably would, depending on whether we go Indy-ft Wayne-Lansing or Indy-south bend- Grand Rapids as we head north -wasn’t aware they had one there, will have to try it. And there’s one under construction in Bowling Green, Ky, small compared to the others but only an hour away.

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  46. brian stouder said on July 6, 2014 at 8:59 pm

    I forgot to mention that, while Nance wouldn’t watch the new Melissa McCarthy comedy (Tammy) “at gunpoint” – we DID catch it at the theater in Logansport this past weekend.

    And, truthfully? – the funniest part was an out-take during the credits; that was uproariously funny.

    The movie itself, was OK. As Nancy’s remark indicates – you know what you’re gonna get when you see that it’s a Melissa McCarthy movie. I found it occasionally jarring, and worth a chuckle or two, here and there – but good enough. I suspect they had a hell of a time editing/postproduction; making the movie punchy and within the 100 minute running time and still-coherent. Still, the plot was by turns reasonable enough, and then completely ridiculous.

    Anyway – Susan Sarandon did steal that movie, period!

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  47. basset said on July 6, 2014 at 9:22 pm

    I had no idea who this Melissa McCarthy was until someone left a copy of Rolling Stone in an airport bathroom while I was waiting on Mrs. B recently. Loud fat woman, right? Kinda the modern Roseanne without the meanness? That was the impression I got, anyway… her publicity people are sure earning their pay, though, she’s all over the grocery store checkout aisle.

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  48. brian stouder said on July 6, 2014 at 9:44 pm

    Basset – I hadn’t thought of the Roseanne parallel…which is almost exactly it!

    Rather than Roseanne without the meanness – I’d say she portrays the Roseanne ‘loveable loser’ only WITH loads more meanness/hostility/profanity

    Her police movie (I forget what it was called) with was on one of the premium channels on a free weekend sometime back, and we saw THAT (so I was prepared for much worse with Tammy). In the police move almost every other word out of her mouth was the f-bomb – for 90+ minutes. But she had Sandra Bullock in that one, so THAT kept me there.

    Maybe that is the MM secret; always pay whatever it takes to get A-list female actors to star in her movies; sort of a “spoonful of sugar helps the Melissa McCarthy go down”…or something

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  49. basset said on July 6, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    Well, if I didn’t see any meanness I guess her PR people really ARE doing their job. And if she was in the same movie as Susan Sarandon I wouldn’t hear a word she said anyway.

    Went to pick up a prescription the other night and the pharmacist asked if I was doing anything fun over the weekend…

    “Well, yeah, going to a movie.”

    “‘Tammy’?”

    (Blank stare from me, I had no idea what he was talking about)

    “It’s a movie.”

    “Oh. No, not familiar with that one. ‘Hard Day’s Night.'”

    (Blank stare from him, he had no idea what I was talking about)

    (I picked up my… never mind what I picked up, my medicine anyway… smiled, thanked him, and left)

    And that’s the last time I’m gonna mention “HDN” for awhile. Just go see it, OK?

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  50. Jolene said on July 6, 2014 at 11:30 pm

    Basset, there’s a Cabela’s in Louisville, KY. Is that helpful.

    Saw Melissa McCarthy on Letterman last week, and she was reasonably charming. I haven’t seen any of her movies; the trailers are so off-putting. Crudeness isn’t the same as humor.

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  51. Basset said on July 7, 2014 at 8:12 am

    We were just there, see 31… bought some jeans and a shirt, a size smaller than I’ve been wearing… yes!

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