5.07.2011

Wait, the trees have a committee now?


Dude, we are way too organized.

Priorities

Hullabaloo

While the news media continues to obsess over the bin Laden operation, an epic disaster is unfolding in slow motion along the Mississippi river....

5.06.2011

Ooops, back under the bed

Al-Qaida vows revenge for Osama bin Laden's death - Yahoo! News

CAIRO – Al-Qaida confirmed the killing of Osama bin Laden and vowed revenge, saying Friday that Americans' "happiness will turn to sadness."...

A Saturday in spring

 

Bustling downtown GFD.
PS. Friday, actually, but who's counting. Obviously not me.

Or, for that matter, what

Your Online Information Source

GREENFIELD — The town will have a discount department store on French King Highway — it’s just not clear how soon.

Back in the early 90s, shortly after I arrived here, Greenfield became famous (in a modest way) by defeating the zoning proposition for a new Wall-mart. Now Wall-mart has us pretty much surrounded, a store within a 20-minute drive in every direction, I think, and don't tell me a lot of people from hereabouts don't drive to Wall-mart to shop, but the citizenry is still holding out against having one here. Even in the present case, where the "big box" in question must might be a Wall-mart—nobody's saying although the rumors abound. So, no.

Me, I fit right in. With the exception of chocolate and hot showers I make it a principle to be against everything. No matter what. This is New England, after all. Might as well get into the spirit of the thing. 

A whole new dimension in work avoidance:

The Kentucky Derby vs. the Royal Wedding: Which event boasts crazier hats? (PHOTOS) - By Elizabeth Weingarten - Slate Magazine


There's always somebody

Kentucky Derby 2011: debunking myths about America's favorite horse race. - By Tommy Craggs - Slate Magazine

Somewhere along the line, the Kentucky Derby became known as "America's Race," which seems a bit of a misnomer given that the Derby is not a) America's best race, b) America's oldest race, c) the Daytona 500. But so it is with the relentlessly hyped Derby, where undeniable bunkum runs stride for stride with quaint nostalgia and willful anachronism. You can see all of that in the name alone. Since 1896, when the mile-and-a-half race was shrunk to a mile-and-a-quarter, the Derby hasn't been, strictly speaking, a derby.

I myself once neglected, due to sheer laziness, to place my bet on a long-shot Derby winner and that right there is why I'm so grumpy, now you know.

Easily the most evil, soul destroying, humanity wrecking invention ever...

...is the paper milk carton. Really. When's the last time you tried to open one of those? I bought some buttermilk yesterday for corn pone (corn pone with black beans and cheddar cheese, thank you NYTimes) and decided, stupidly, to pour a little on my oatmeal this morning and had to stab the carton with a big knife just to get at the stuff. Also yell a lot. There oughta be a law.

Can't wait for the movie

German mayor rescues man trapped in women's prison - chicagotribune.com

BERLIN (Reuters) - A mayor in Germany helped rescue a man who became trapped in a women's prison after mistaking it for a shortcut to a nearby park, police in the northern city of Hildesheim said on Wednesday.

Hildesheim Mayor Henning Blum heard the man's cries for help...

No, but maybe

Amazon.com: Wicked Plants: The Weed That Killed Lincoln's Mother and Other Botanical Atrocities (9781565126831): Amy Stewart, Briony Morrow-Cribbs: Books

I don't plan on reading this book so it won't wind up on the official book list but still, of you're into that nature stuff, you might find it interesting.

5.05.2011

Thursday, Thursday


Watching the Reef


iPhone photo: Phil Compton

Noted

UNDERNEWS: Entropy update

Blackwater's (now XE) new ethics chief is none other than the notorious Bushie, John Ashocroft. As Wired notes, he's  " the official who vigorously defended the Patriot Act’s sweeping surveillance powers; told civil libertarians that their dissents “only aid terrorists,” and covered up the Spirit of Justice’s boob.

From the Arcata police log

Oozing, Boozing, Bruising, Infusing, But Snitty And Spitty Abusing? Confusing – May 4, 2011 | The Arcata Eye

8:54 a.m. The egging of a house in Blake Court appeared to be someone’s idea of a yolk.

5.04.2011

Back to the 50s

And no, I'm not talking about the decade here. Also it's raining again. Wait! Stop! According to the long-term forecast this kind of thing might go on for quite some time. 

No head, no license, says mayor in Evanston

Evanston rejects Tilted Kilt sexy uniforms - chicagotribune.com

For Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, the decision to deny Tilted Kilt's application wasn't all that difficult....

"The final straw was at the end of the liquor commission hearing," she said. "I was given a business card from the owner that shows a picture of one of the entertainers — that is what the waitresses are called. She had no head — it was just breasts, a shrug shirt, a bare midriff and the kilt, that little skirt."

5.02.2011

The red post


A matter of tactics

UNDERNEWS: Flotsam & Jetsam: Controlling Obama’s birth

Barack Obama’s curiously tardy release of his long form birth certificate...certainly illustrates that if you want to get Obama to move on something the best approach is to call in a Republican politician. He responds to them more favorably than he does, say, to liberal Democrats.

So now can they all come home?

US kills Osama bin Laden decade after 9/11 attacks - Yahoo! News

"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama said...

First we have a White House Correspondents' Dinner and then we have...

...wait, a White House Correspondents' Dinner Party? Really? Is that sort of like where everybody goes after the prom?

Photos: The 2011 Vanity Fair/Bloomberg White House Correspondents' Dinner Party | Politics | Vanity Fair

Apparently it is.

5.01.2011

Around the corner, down the block


Classy

Killed in NATO airstrike | The Raw Story

TRIPOLI - SAYF al-Arab Gaddafi, embattled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son, and three of his grandchildren were killed in an airstrike on Saturday, a government spokesman said.