tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84385662024-02-28T03:05:27.781-05:00Theo's Impressions & SuchMrs. Glegg paused, for speaking with much energy for the good of others is naturally exhausting. (George Eliot, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-25418027169498171912012-08-14T06:08:00.002-04:002012-08-14T10:06:57.044-04:00Everyone Will Start to CheerWith the Presidential candidates visiting Iowa, I am reminded of then-candidate Barack Obama's visit to Iowa in the 2008 campaign. Obama was mocked as being elitist and out-of-touch with ordinary Americans for having the audacity to talk about arugula prices with an audience of arugula farmers. Those of us who watch Food Network programs, particularly the competition shows, know that chefs Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-88677638238973958612012-05-04T12:09:00.000-04:002012-05-10T10:23:57.253-04:00Greeny & Pena
Peter Green
Guitarist Peter Green (Wikipedia) is possibly my favorite guitarist, eventually emerging at the top from a crowd including the likes of George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Duane Allman, Carlos Santana, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. And I like him best when he's playing in the style of the great B. B. King, which limits my listening to Green's John Mayall and Fleetwood Mac gigs.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-73162218120962942672008-05-08T02:00:00.000-04:002012-05-04T06:22:40.373-04:00We Love You, Dad
My dad died 10 years ago today. Prior to his passing away, my psychiatrist was asking me about my upbringing, my relations with my parents, etc. My
mom was a big influence and I said a lot about her, but, when it came to my dad, I drew a complete blank and mumbled an inconsequential, "He was there." After the appointment, I went "Doggone it!" - I actually used a harsher word - as I thought Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-58334209427066190192007-06-17T09:17:00.000-04:002007-06-25T15:24:57.668-04:00Happy Fathers Day!On a card from my kids:Oh, yeah? Well, my Dad would chuck more wood than your Dad would chuck, even if your Dad could chuck wood, which I doubt! © Hallmark CardsI laugh every time I read it! (The actual card has a funny picture of a cute woodchuck looking like it is yelling over at some other woodchuck.)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1152905812870707912006-07-14T10:14:00.000-04:002006-07-14T15:41:55.540-04:00Happy Bastille Day!Gregg Allman's "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" (Allman Brothers Band, Eat a Peach) has been running through my mind a lot lately:Well by and by, way after many years have gone,And all the war freaks die off, leavin' us alone.We'll raise our children in the peaceful way we can,It's up to you and me brotherTo try and try again.Well, hear us now, we ain't wastin' time no more'Cause time goes by like Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1147990937960183742006-05-19T00:00:00.000-04:002010-06-16T19:25:31.421-04:00Voting Their Consciences ...... or not, as the case may be. Project Vote Smart has posted "Disabled American Veterans Ratings", a chart showing how our senators and representatives have supported issues of importance to the DAV organization. (I found the link via Alternate Brain, who got it from One Pissed Off Veteran.) Unlike the other bloggers, I did not find the ordered-by-state chart easy to read. I downloaded the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1141257150627112422006-03-01T03:34:00.000-05:002006-03-10T15:42:43.323-05:00Even Hate My Rock and RollIn John Lennon's song, "Yer Blues" (tab), he's got the blues so bad he even hates his rock and roll. Six years into the Bush administration, with every day bringing a brand new outrage, I sometimes even get tired of reading the political blogs I like to frequent. How long can this go on? As one commenter asked on a blog, this is the worst presidency ever - how can the Democrats not find an Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1122675861054510042005-07-30T02:11:00.000-04:002005-07-29T20:01:07.996-04:00Jumping At ShadowsA couple of weeks ago, The Washington Post reviewed Peter D. Kramer's latest book, Against Depression (see "There's Nothing Deep About Depression", an essay adapted from the book). The reviewer (and, I guess, the book) made an important point:The opposite of depression is not happiness, but resilience."Obsessions Rule Compulsions' Fool, a song ostensibly about Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1121901992966989312005-07-20T05:22:00.000-04:002005-07-22T15:44:13.046-04:00Double TakesThe unlikely juxtaposition of things often gives pause for thought, if not a little confusion and comedy at times.My psychiatrist has a photograph of two adjacent shops in a strip mall:"SOUTHERN SEAFOOD" restaurant"tropical fish" storeA recent HealthyPlace.com newsletter had these two headlines, one right after another:"Antidepressants May Improve Heart Attack Survival""FDA Re-Warns Adults About Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1117582280827908022005-06-01T00:30:00.000-04:002005-06-16T19:31:34.166-04:00We Love You, MomMy mom died 10 years ago today. I was reading one of her high-school English essays and came across this passage, "Round and Round - February", written when Mom was 14. It struck me as very much in the style of George Eliot:Such brilliance as was gazed upon in the assemblies, week of February 24, when the "pride and joy", the "apple of good old Catonsville's eye" (i.e., the Honor Roll and MeritUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1115925026185923022005-05-12T16:23:00.000-04:002005-05-12T15:10:26.216-04:00New Worlds for NellieOne of my favorite books - possibly my favorite book - as a child was Rowland Emett's New World for Nellie, a story about a steam locomotive that rode the rails, flew through the air, dove under the sea, and mined for gold. (It wasn't until 30 years later that it finally sank in that "World" was singular! Now that I think about it, perhaps the book was about Nellie coming to the New World - Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1115425300711974942005-05-06T23:20:00.000-04:002005-05-06T20:29:57.686-04:00Doctor Who's Blues?Dr. Alexey Agranovsky, that's who! Biochemist by day, bluesman at night.I was channel surfing on cable TV and came across Born in the USSR, a Russian talk show, featuring an acoustic guitar player and a harmonica player doing a blues song ("Good Ole Wagon"?).Frantic searching on the Internet the next day revealed that the singer/guitarist was Dr. Alexey Agranovsky of the band Chernyi Bhleb (Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1112999042705364832005-04-08T22:37:00.000-04:002005-04-11T20:14:13.913-04:00The Reverse Lake Woebegone EffectAll of our economic figures are below average!Four years after the recession of 2001 ended, the economic recovery remains just around the corner. Every month, the Labor Department reports anemic growth in the number of new jobs. March was no exception and produced a report typical for the Bush administration. The number of new jobs in March:was half of the predicted number,even after revising Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1107458435722349752005-02-04T00:10:00.000-05:002005-02-03T14:20:35.723-05:00What A BringdownFrist's Hair Ball comments at Eschaton:
... I never in my wildest dreams thought the United States of America could fall so quickly, with so little outcry.Perhaps we need this lesson to understand why peoples throughout the world live under religious insanity and fascism without rising up.The outlook is bleak.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1104036206945224492005-01-20T22:11:00.000-05:002005-01-31T16:54:55.256-05:00Wild Assertions, Flagrant Fallacies, and Incredible BlundersTurn right for the fiction-based community and left for the reality-based community.
While composing an earlier posting, I visited some Rumpole web sites and learned that Rumpole's appellation for his wife, "She Who Must Be Obeyed", came from H. Rider Haggard's adventure/fantasy book, She. In which - coincidentally? - two of the three main characters are Leo (as in McKern) and Horace (as in Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1104359676188001492004-12-29T17:21:00.000-05:002004-12-29T17:34:36.186-05:00Give for Tsunami ReliefBenjamin Rosenbaum compiled a valuable table of charities - with ratings and comments - to help people decide how best to direct their contributions to the many relief organizations. The comments in response to his posting provide more information about some of the listed charities and about some additional organizations.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1102980607742376702004-12-13T21:30:00.000-05:002004-12-13T18:52:26.713-05:00Treading Upon Life's Banana Skins"[A]ll the same I was exercised about the poor fish, as I am about all my pals, close or distant, who find themselves treading upon Life's banana skins." (Bertie Wooster in Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse)I've been out of commision for several weeks because of a blood clot in my leg (below my knee, fortunately, so it was not potentially lethal). I couldn't stand sitting at the computer for Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1100203205125119802004-11-11T18:00:00.000-05:002004-11-11T15:00:05.126-05:00Worthless Twice Over ...is James Grimmelmann's assessment of Alberto Gonzales, the Shrub's nominee for Attorney General: "[Gonzales] lacks both competence and conscience." Via Oliver Willis comes Grimmelmann's excellent, in-depth critique of Gonzales, "Worse Than Ashcroft":
An Attorney General must be an excellent lawyer, capable of representing the United States with skill, of enforcing its laws effectively, and of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1099948148240715302004-11-08T19:10:00.000-05:002004-11-08T16:09:08.240-05:00I Don't Do NuanceOn last night's Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork, a clip was shown of Jock Ewing telling J.R. he should learn how to be subtle. J.R. didn't see the need. Jock explained that lack of subtlety "turns competitors into enemies, and enemies into fanatics". For some reason, I was reminded of our newly-elected President swaggering around the world like a bull in a china shop.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1099508495216115542004-11-03T17:00:00.000-05:002004-11-08T23:45:20.900-05:00The Long National Nightmare ...of peace and prosperity will not be resuming. Welcome to the "Confederate States of Moronica", as a poster on another blog so aptly put it.
Before the election, I had one major concern:
When was my 55-year-old brother, on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan with his Army Reserve unit, coming home? and three minor concerns:
How much havoc could the Bush administration still create Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1099116279590004752004-10-30T05:05:00.000-04:002004-10-30T02:04:39.590-04:00Cue & ReviewSteve Gilliard's "Why is he still around?" zeroes in on the heart of the matter of Osama Bin Laden's new videotape (emphasis added by me):
In the single worst week for Bush since 9/11, Bush's rank incompetence has exploded. Hundreds of tons of highly deadly explosives spread around the country, killing Americans.
The Lancet accusing the US of killing 100,000 Iraqis in 18 months.
Halliburton Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1098399311656851662004-10-21T22:18:00.000-04:002004-10-21T19:28:03.740-04:00Bully PulpitWhen I first saw Bush, Jr. in the 2000 GOP primary debates, he struck me as a follower, not a leader. Despite his "mano a mano" threat to his financial keeper (Bush, Sr.), Bush seemed like someone who wouldn't/couldn't himself knock a man down, but would happily join in kicking the man after he was down. The ensuing years have not changed my opinion, but have added the knowledge that Bush was andUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1097531328672666512004-10-11T20:40:00.000-04:002004-11-11T15:09:41.333-05:00In a Groove ... or In a Rut?Musically, I'm stuck in the late-1960s/early-1970s era - for example, the John Mayall, Cream, and Derek & the Dominos years of Eric Clapton. Not many artists since then have interested me, except for Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Healey, and, I guess, a few others. Last year, I finally got a car with a working FM radio and I've been listening to WTMD in an effort to modernize my musical tastes. I've Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1097089707560645072004-10-06T18:07:00.000-04:002004-11-11T15:12:06.510-05:00No ResemblanceMr. Burns smiles too much - he could never be a stand-in for VP-select Cheney. From The Columbia-Union:
No, I think Davis X. Machina nailed it at Digby's Hullabaloo:
My wife the sometime Spongebob fan:
Vice President Plankton.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8438566.post-1096520659478157182004-09-30T04:15:00.000-04:002004-09-30T01:08:43.420-04:00Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,Big John Debated and Made Georgie CryWe can dream, can't we? Xan at corrente posts his hope for John Kerry at Thursday night's debate:
I'll tell ya the line I would most like to hear Kerry say and don't expect to: "Mr. Bush says he will do better at protecting America from terrorist attack. I hope that means that the next time he gets a memo saying "Bin Laden Expected to Attack Inside US" he will do something other than go on Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1