SEND YOUR ANSWER BY EMAIL
It has been a long time since we've had a Tuesday Evening Quiz. Felix has been asking for them. So, he was challenged to propose a theme and this is what he proposed.
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Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Tuesday Evening Quiz, 12/09/08
FELIX proposed this quiz. Here are pictures of famous Secretaries of State. Starting at the top and numbering them 1-7, can you tell who the President was when each was Secretary of State?
SEND YOUR ANSWER BY EMAIL
It has been a long time since we've had a Tuesday Evening Quiz. Felix has been asking for them. So, he was challenged to propose a theme and this is what he proposed.
========
SEND YOUR ANSWER BY EMAIL
It has been a long time since we've had a Tuesday Evening Quiz. Felix has been asking for them. So, he was challenged to propose a theme and this is what he proposed.
========
some notes
1. THERE WILL BE A TUESDAY EVENING QUIZ THIS EVENING,
posted here on BIRCHES
2.The world according to Tom McMahon: CLICK
System for determining if a recount is needed:
posted here on BIRCHES
2.The world according to Tom McMahon: CLICK
System for determining if a recount is needed:
Monday, December 8, 2008
Monday Morning Friends Report, December 8, 2008
We under the BIRCHES have been concerned about the health of a number of people lately.
Bad weather is in the works for the next couple of days. Most people are willing to sustain the onslaught as we approach the holidays because who doesn't love a White Christmas?
Let's all of us who have more than enough find ways to share with those who don't This year, the number of needy is very high. Give some food, or a coat, or toys for kids you don't know. Try not to lose that impulse in the rush of the holidays.
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December Birthdays we know of among our Birchies
SANDY - Dec 7
CHRIS - Dec 9 (10?)
IRISH MIKE - Dec 14
JOE - Dec 23
TRASE - Dec 31
Travelers
IRENE - has arrived in Michigan from Australia for the holiday season. She and her husband have two small children who are seeing snow for the first time. The boy went out in the snow and built a fort. It's a male thing you know.
MARSHA - has gone to Cancun. She'll be traveling for Christmas to Ohio and Michigan, also. Her team, South Carolina will be going to a bowl game and she'll be traveling for that as well.
SUPERINTENDENT MIKE and his wife, SUE - are back from New York.
PAT C - will be traveling to Iowa and the Chicago this Christmas. Then it's on to Florida for much of the winter.
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What's happening with some people we know:
MARGARET - is holding a family Christmas at her house this year.
TRASE - gets ever closer to that due date. December 18.
LINDA - says that she has an all-purpose year-round wreath and that she has hung an ornament from it, and now she's decorated for Christmas. She claims she won a tree and when it was sent to her, she plugged it in and the lights didn't come on, so she has a dark tree.
STEVE - knows where to get a free tree, but says he hasn't any ornaments. If you know him, you could chip in. Maybe you could trade for an elk burger.
MIKE almost from CARROLLTON - is demanding an explanation from lawmakers for why the price of natural gas is so high. Everyone watch your bills! Don't let them cheat you.
FELIX - reports that he and PILOT have been together for ten years now. December 6 is that anniversary.
PAT W - has been decorating for the holidays with a real enthusiasm this year.
SANDY - has gifted many friends with her homemade fruit cake. Despite all the jokes, lots of people like fruit cake, and especially hers, which she says is a traditional family recipe.
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What some folks are reading or talking about:
SPARTY recommends an article about Hillary Clinton that compares her with Eleanor Roosevelt. It's really very good. CLICK
ALICE - who has written before about the evils of the "Blackwater Group" sent a reference to this story about 5 of those guys getting indicted for murder: CLICK
DASHMANN - says: I wanna go somewhere warm!!!
JIM THILL - reports on his reading lately of Charles Dickens, an author he's come to like. Check out his blog for his comments, which we think are very well stated: CLICK
SCOT - is talking about the Michigan win over Duke. For basketball fans, it is well known. What it may mean is that the U. of Michigan is returning to a respectable basketball team. Letr's hope that means decent and fair play which hasn't -- unfortunately -- always been the case for this team.
meanwhile, SPARTY and IRISH MIKE and AMY - are gloating in the success of Michigan State's basketball team again this year. Their latest victim was Bradley. And their football team will be going to a New Year's Day bowl game against Georgia.
BRENDA - sends this picture which she calls "Born to the Cult":
MIKE almost from CARROLLTON - recommends this inspirational story of good deeds at Christmas: CLICK
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a bit of humor from the readers:
JERRY - why you should send your good used clothes to Goodwill for recycling:
SCOT - "Truly we live in an age of wonder ..."
{YouTube site} CLICK
JOE - forwarded this list of things to do to maintain a proper level of insanity:
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With
Sunglasses on and point a Hair Dryer At Passing Cars.
See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't DisguiseYour Voice!
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, ask If they want fries with that.
4. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks . Once Everyone has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions,
Switch to Espresso.
5. In the Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write 'For Marijuana'
6. Skip down the hall Rather Than Walk and see how many looks you get.
7. Order a Diet Water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.
8. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is 'To Go'.
9. Sing Along At The Opera.
10. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can' t Attend Their Party Because You have a headache .
11. When The Money Comes Out of The ATM, Scream 'I Won! I Won!'
12. When Leaving the Zoo, Start Running towards the Parking lot, Yelling'Run For Your Lives! They're Loose!'
13. Tell Your Children Over Dinner, 'Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go.
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A Light Through the Leaves
It is better to sleep for no reason than to work for no reason.
pithy Scandinavian droplet of wisdom
add to your day: a little down home religiosity
Especially for
the Catholics
among us.
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You were wondering what the hell those dour Protestants were doing in their dens?
Check it out. CLICK
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday silly Sites
These are things stumbled upon or run across or tripped over while coursing through a bunch of stray vacuum tubes on the internets. If you run across any that seem to fit the category, please pass them on to BIRCHES.
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A quiz/game: Where on earth? CLICK
Information on how to live in your car. Hey! The way things are going, you could wind up there. If you still have a car. CLICK
What people wore in the 'Gay Nineties': CLICK
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A quiz/game: Where on earth? CLICK
Information on how to live in your car. Hey! The way things are going, you could wind up there. If you still have a car. CLICK
What people wore in the 'Gay Nineties': CLICK
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Wacko-of-the-Week, December 6, 2008
Covenant Medical Center, Saginaw, Michigan -
(warning, this time it's personal)
Thursday, Covenant Medical Center right here in mid Michigan, sent me a bill saying that I was in danger of being referred to a collection agency if I didn't immediately pay my past due bill.
Friday, I received the bill.
Note: I received the bill one day after I had received notice that I would be sent to a collection agency for not paying it. Moreover, the bill is not due until December 15. I was a clever enough math student to figure out that December 15 is 10 days away. How does this happen?
This is not my only set-to with Covenant billing, this brick of the American health system which is so-o-o much better than any other health system in the world, like Canada or England or someplace socialistic like that -- (wink-wink). Covenant are serial annoyers and do it with a sense of haughty aplomb. When people like me feel offended and huffy, the supernumeraries at Covenant want to slip into that old "treat him like a crackpot" mode.
They have threatened me before even though I pay all my bills in a timely fashion, I have health insurance (which is after all, a form of socialism), and am responsible for only a small portion of the bills ---- and they have a competitor right here in town, another hospital that I could use. Before I get done dealing with these people on any given transaction, they have managed to screw themselves up thoroughly, and then they blame me, and then they threaten me, and then they say "oops!"
Thank God the doctors who send me there are highly competent.
This is really the old problem of the bureaucrat who walks into her office each morning feeling something like a sleepy God, annoyed at the prospect of having to deal with the unwashed public, and who, with caffeinated nectar in her cup, can wreak darkness on anyone who passes in her purview, like a squid spreads ink.
Enjoy your award.
(warning, this time it's personal)
Thursday, Covenant Medical Center right here in mid Michigan, sent me a bill saying that I was in danger of being referred to a collection agency if I didn't immediately pay my past due bill.
Friday, I received the bill.
Note: I received the bill one day after I had received notice that I would be sent to a collection agency for not paying it. Moreover, the bill is not due until December 15. I was a clever enough math student to figure out that December 15 is 10 days away. How does this happen?
This is not my only set-to with Covenant billing, this brick of the American health system which is so-o-o much better than any other health system in the world, like Canada or England or someplace socialistic like that -- (wink-wink). Covenant are serial annoyers and do it with a sense of haughty aplomb. When people like me feel offended and huffy, the supernumeraries at Covenant want to slip into that old "treat him like a crackpot" mode.
They have threatened me before even though I pay all my bills in a timely fashion, I have health insurance (which is after all, a form of socialism), and am responsible for only a small portion of the bills ---- and they have a competitor right here in town, another hospital that I could use. Before I get done dealing with these people on any given transaction, they have managed to screw themselves up thoroughly, and then they blame me, and then they threaten me, and then they say "oops!"
Thank God the doctors who send me there are highly competent.
This is really the old problem of the bureaucrat who walks into her office each morning feeling something like a sleepy God, annoyed at the prospect of having to deal with the unwashed public, and who, with caffeinated nectar in her cup, can wreak darkness on anyone who passes in her purview, like a squid spreads ink.
Enjoy your award.
Friday, December 5, 2008
a thought in passing
Just a whimsical mental bloom:
I see the wacko righties are trying to disqualify Obama from the Presidency on the grounds he's an alien, and Hillary from the State Department on the grounds she was a senator. This doesn't seem cricket. I mean, no one disqualified Bush on the grounds he's an asshole.
I see the wacko righties are trying to disqualify Obama from the Presidency on the grounds he's an alien, and Hillary from the State Department on the grounds she was a senator. This doesn't seem cricket. I mean, no one disqualified Bush on the grounds he's an asshole.
Barney Fife Award #11, Massachusetts State Police Department
Trooper decides to ticket lady in labor by roadside. Jennifer Davis was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Nov. 18, her contractions just 3 minutes apart. Her husband, John, was trying to appear calm for his wife's sake, driving in the breakdown lane of Route 2. They pulled up behind a state trooper to ask whether they could continue using the lane to reach the next exit, near Alewife Station.
Not only did the trooper say no, he gave them a $100 citation for driving in the breakdown lane, made them wait for their citation while he finished writing someone else's ticket, and even seemed to ask for proof of pregnancy, Jennifer Davis said.
Read all about it, it's great! CLICK
Thursday, December 4, 2008
recommended by Sparty
EXCERPT-- from an article entitled: Car company lawmakers envision could be a money-losing operation
But the car company ... lawmakers envision for the future could turn out to be a money-losing operation, not part of a "sustainable U.S. auto industry" that President-elect Barack Obama and most members of Congress say they want to create.
That's because car manufacturers still haven't figured out how to produce hybrid and plug-in vehicles cheaply enough to make money on them. After a decade of relative success with its hybrid Prius, Toyota has sold about a million of the cars and is still widely believed by analysts to be losing money on each one sold. General Motors has touted plans for a plug-in hybrid vehicle called the Volt, but the costly battery will prevent it from turning a profit on the vehicle for several years, at least.
The entire article can be found here: CLICK FOR DET. NEWS ARTICLE
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Goodbye Odetta Holmes
Died today, a voice and a face with more soul than all the rest of Birmingham from where she came.
CLICK to listen
CLICK to listen
To Hell in a Herd
In this time of peak oil and declining standards of living, the idea that American life can go on as before, with the automobile redesigned to operate on electricity, is very alluring. If this can be done, then Americans in the near future may still run all over the country at leisure. They can still go fast. They can still have the privacy and freedom that individual vehicles bring. (Well, that is, if we are willing to reinvest in a bunch of bridges and roads that are crumbling all over.) This is what we all are hoping for, isn't it?
Think of how much less planning for your daily life is entailed in knowing there's a car sitting outside, and whenever you want, you can go ten miles or a hundred. No concern: just go.
One of our occasional readers, who prefers not to contribute in writing, has suggested that we will be reliant on rental cars, probably mostly electric ones, for much of our travel in the future, because paying for and maintaining private cars will become prohibitively expensive. And Jim Thill from Minneapolis wrote in an entry below (Fri. Nov. 28) that in the future people who are not rich won't be able to drive much at all.
Lots of people are suggesting that we will return to more public transportation, maybe buses and trains, where we'll have to bump elbows with droves of other humans.
All of this will require a readjustment in our national psychology. We are a footloose people, trained by time and circumstance to be free roamers. We can do it with minimal exposure to all those other idiots out there. Now, they may cut us off in traffic, but we don't have to listen to or see and smell them in the confines of our little mobile cubicles. We can keep them at arm's length, the distance between the car window and the little sliding door from which a hand delivers a Big Mac.
As we wean ourselves from private cars, I'm seeing a nationwide attitude readjustment in the works, made necessary by a rising of tensions when we rub against each other more often. How can we accept the idea that in order to get a bag of groceries we not only have to endure all the fools pushing wheeled baskets through narrow aisles, but now we have to get on a bus and sit next to an alien who smells like some strange food. Are we going to accept traveling to the Grand Canyon in the same space with some guy from Yonkers who's snoring like hell in a seat behind us? Someone else's rotten kids running between the seats? A bigot propounding fascist thoughts across the aisle? Someone else passing gas? Are all the routines of our lives to be shared with strangers, herding around like tourist groups in Hollywood? Yikes!
And remember, we'll all have guns!
Think of how much less planning for your daily life is entailed in knowing there's a car sitting outside, and whenever you want, you can go ten miles or a hundred. No concern: just go.
One of our occasional readers, who prefers not to contribute in writing, has suggested that we will be reliant on rental cars, probably mostly electric ones, for much of our travel in the future, because paying for and maintaining private cars will become prohibitively expensive. And Jim Thill from Minneapolis wrote in an entry below (Fri. Nov. 28) that in the future people who are not rich won't be able to drive much at all.
Lots of people are suggesting that we will return to more public transportation, maybe buses and trains, where we'll have to bump elbows with droves of other humans. All of this will require a readjustment in our national psychology. We are a footloose people, trained by time and circumstance to be free roamers. We can do it with minimal exposure to all those other idiots out there. Now, they may cut us off in traffic, but we don't have to listen to or see and smell them in the confines of our little mobile cubicles. We can keep them at arm's length, the distance between the car window and the little sliding door from which a hand delivers a Big Mac.
As we wean ourselves from private cars, I'm seeing a nationwide attitude readjustment in the works, made necessary by a rising of tensions when we rub against each other more often. How can we accept the idea that in order to get a bag of groceries we not only have to endure all the fools pushing wheeled baskets through narrow aisles, but now we have to get on a bus and sit next to an alien who smells like some strange food. Are we going to accept traveling to the Grand Canyon in the same space with some guy from Yonkers who's snoring like hell in a seat behind us? Someone else's rotten kids running between the seats? A bigot propounding fascist thoughts across the aisle? Someone else passing gas? Are all the routines of our lives to be shared with strangers, herding around like tourist groups in Hollywood? Yikes!
And remember, we'll all have guns!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
The Loyal Opposition (#6)
Keeping an eye on what the other side thinks, graphically, of the winners of the election. Don't you appreciate it?
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Monday, December 1, 2008
Monday Friends Report, Dec 1 2008
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STEVE - has returned from his elk-hunting trip to Montana. Yep, he got an elk. Either he shot it, or he found a store that sells elks, because there are hundreds of pounds of meat he came home with. We're hoping to get a picture, hint-hint.
DASHMANN - sends this:
SPARTY - whose scorn for the University of Michigan is one of life's constants, sent this:
"I read this in the Free Press this morning - can't resist forwarding it to y'all."
"No statements on 'he said, she said.' No drama on lawsuits -- you know, accusations. I mean, it was absolutely ridiculous, and y'all know it. Y'all have been there for the last 10 months. I never seen nothing like it. You can have consultants talk to you, all that, but what prepares you for something when somebody throws something out there that's completely untrue, not even close to being factual? You got to respond to it, (but) you can't.--Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez
BILL - recommends this video about the Brazil plant of Ford Motors. CLICK
DASHMANN - "Please be patient and wait for the 30 second ad to play.
You may be surprised at this summary of the people involved in the outgoing Bush administration. Happy Thanksgiving everyone." CLICK
BILL from WNNCO - has sent a Christmas card with topless young ladies as ornaments. The message says, "Breast Wishes."
FELIX - sent a picture "of some 'graveyard vandalism' that took place over 4 or 5 nights around Halloween at the graveyard where I'll be planted someday. The sheriff's department recently got two signed confessions and believe they'll get two more soon. At least four juveniles were involved."
Sunday, November 30, 2008
'Marvelous Doings' Awards (Nov. 2008)
"This is Marvelous in Our Eyes"
1. To the Russian Navy, which managed to get a squadron of their fleet all the way over into the Caribbean Ocean to rendezvous with whatever it is the Venezuelans have for a navy. None of the Russian boats sank on the way over, none of them blew up or leaked radioactivity. So far, none of them has run into anything! Congratulations!
2. To the unidentified 4 year-old boy in Detroit who pulled out his daddy's gun and shot him in the stomach with it while pops snoozed on the couch. The little boy's sister said she'd warned daddy of how dangerous it was to leave his gun loose like that. This is a man who has learned a lesson, and he's home-schooled. Congratulations!
3. To Plaxico Burress who successfully shot himself in the leg with an apparently illegal concealed firearm he was carrying. The man is worth millions in his uninjured physical condition, but nothing at all when crippled. He's never been known for his mental profundity, but he was careful to miss his gonads, thus insuring that his talented DNA will remain in the gene pool. Congratulations!
4. To Wal-Mart a cheap-shit company which promotes rampant consumerism and a hogwash patriotism, for losing only one employee during their post-Thanksgiving stampede, an unfortunate fellow who was trampled to death in their Long Island store on Friday morning. This is a very good crowd management record for this year. Congratulations!
Sunday Silly Sites
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Wacko-of-the-Week, November 29, 2008
Universityof Minnesota
Police Chief
Greg Hestness
He arrested, cited, and ejected from a football game, two celebratory Iowans who had come in peace to join in the festivities at Minnesota's Metrodome. Many people had gathered to cheer on and encourage the couple who were fornicating in the restroom. It was the best show in town, and the cops cut it short!
This brutal act of coitus interuptus was justified on the grounds that what they were doing was "indecent."
The real indecency was happening on the football field where Minnesota was screwing up even worse than the lovers on the toilet. The team lost 55-0 to the Iowans, but no one bothered to arrest any of them.
Where's the justice?
The real indecency was happening on the football field where Minnesota was screwing up even worse than the lovers on the toilet. The team lost 55-0 to the Iowans, but no one bothered to arrest any of them.
Where's the justice?
Friday, November 28, 2008
after the collapse
Thanks to Jim, for contributing these predictions for how our society will have changed in the wake of the financial and economic crisis we're now in. Jim has long had a much more interesting prescription for how ordinary people might live their lives better in a world of declining resources.
Some of these are themes BIRCHES has promoted as well. I agree with Jim that much of the means of production are likely to go much more local, and we're going to see more consumption of locally and family produced foods. Beyond that comment, I'll resist stepping on this contribution, and just set down his list to let people react to. (Please do)
In ten years ---
* common, non-rich people will not drive cars, at least not very often.
* more of us will be growing more of our own food. This will be a necessity, not a hobby.
* air-travel will be, for most of us, a thing of the past. When we take long trips, which will be rare, it will be on a train or a boat.
* In ten years, if not sooner, the idea of the stock market as a reliable source of wealth will be thoroughly debunked. The 25 years of hyper-growth we've recently witnessed will come to be seen as an anomaly rather than business-as-usual.
* barter will be a popular way to transact business. Cash, checks, and credit cards will not be as universally honored as they are now.
* with our manufacturing base all but dead and our ability to import hampered, we will enjoy a reuse/repair/recycle economy rather than a consumer economy.
* we will have to come to terms with mortality in the medical system. We won't be able to allocate limited resources to the prolonging of the lives of really sick people.
* the world will be a smaller place, and many of us will come to identify ourselves with our family, local community, or city more than we identify with a broader region or nationality. Sort of a post-modern tribalism.
* small, rural towns located along railroads or rivers will be re-populated. The family farm will experience a rebirth.
* the federal government will have lost control over parts of the country. State governments will be much smaller than they are now. Local governance will become the way we keep order and provide basic services.- Jim Thill
Some of these are themes BIRCHES has promoted as well. I agree with Jim that much of the means of production are likely to go much more local, and we're going to see more consumption of locally and family produced foods. Beyond that comment, I'll resist stepping on this contribution, and just set down his list to let people react to. (Please do)
In ten years ---
* common, non-rich people will not drive cars, at least not very often.
* more of us will be growing more of our own food. This will be a necessity, not a hobby.
* air-travel will be, for most of us, a thing of the past. When we take long trips, which will be rare, it will be on a train or a boat.
* In ten years, if not sooner, the idea of the stock market as a reliable source of wealth will be thoroughly debunked. The 25 years of hyper-growth we've recently witnessed will come to be seen as an anomaly rather than business-as-usual.
* barter will be a popular way to transact business. Cash, checks, and credit cards will not be as universally honored as they are now.
* with our manufacturing base all but dead and our ability to import hampered, we will enjoy a reuse/repair/recycle economy rather than a consumer economy.
* we will have to come to terms with mortality in the medical system. We won't be able to allocate limited resources to the prolonging of the lives of really sick people.
* the world will be a smaller place, and many of us will come to identify ourselves with our family, local community, or city more than we identify with a broader region or nationality. Sort of a post-modern tribalism.
* small, rural towns located along railroads or rivers will be re-populated. The family farm will experience a rebirth.
* the federal government will have lost control over parts of the country. State governments will be much smaller than they are now. Local governance will become the way we keep order and provide basic services.- Jim Thill
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
one vision of tomorrow
I followed a link from Jim in Minneapolis (CLICK) to check out a writer whom I know Jim likes to read. I found this, although probably it should be added to the "contribute" article I posted yesterday.
"The current occupant of the White House, however, has sedulously prepared for his successor the biggest shit sandwich the world has ever seen, and there is naturally some concern that Mr. Obama might choke on it. The dilemma is essentially this: the consumer economy we all knew and loved has died. There will be pressure from nearly every quarter to keep it hooked up to the costly life support machines even though it is dead. A different economy is waiting to be born, but it is nothing like the one that has died."Jim Kunstler
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
contribute
You have considered this carefully, haven't you?
The largest banking institutions in the United States are going under, and most of the industry has already left here. What remains, like a few raggedy car companies, are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Do you think that life in the United States as we have loved it, will recover and go on like it was 20 years ago? Or even 5 years ago? Do you think we will all still be well off?
Then you're seriously deluded. When this economic crisis is over, the country will be very, very different.
Help me count the ways. Send an email or make a comment.
The largest banking institutions in the United States are going under, and most of the industry has already left here. What remains, like a few raggedy car companies, are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Do you think that life in the United States as we have loved it, will recover and go on like it was 20 years ago? Or even 5 years ago? Do you think we will all still be well off?
Then you're seriously deluded. When this economic crisis is over, the country will be very, very different.
Help me count the ways. Send an email or make a comment.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Monday Friends Report, Part I, November 24, 2008
It is snowing enthusiastically in mid Michigan today and roads are slippery from Jackson to the Thumb. In winter, weather is always a topic around here, and some people think this looks lovely. They are the 'glass-half-full' people. The other big topic of conversation, bigger even than Thanksgiving, maybe, is the economy and the prospect of saving ourselves from a GREAT DEPRESSION. Everyone is waiting for Obama and finding the long transition period to be horribly painful.
Because this is car country, the fate of the Big-3 is a topic of hearty conversation. Should companies as irresponsible as these have been, as treacherous to American society as these have been, be rescued by the same people they have been vigorously screwing all these years? The current answer around here is, "Yes. For now. But they should be on a very short leash." Truth is, we need what's left in this country of the car industry to support lots of families. It's the sort of self-centered attitude that G.M. would understand.
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Known Thanksgiving Plans
GIGI and SPARTY - will have a large family gathering in Saginaw, requiring two turkeys and maybe a ton of spuds.
SKUZZA - reports that for the first time in 40 years, she doesn't have to cook the turkey. The kids are going to do it.
DASHMANN- doesn't care where he eats as long as no one makes him anything strange like cranberries, yams, or fruit salad.
AMY and IRISH MIKE - will be hosting family from Colorado and the kids will be home.
BUD and PAT - will be going to Grass Lake for a gathering of one half of the clan.
LINDA - is going to Port Austin for the feast.
BRENDA - is going to be with family in the Grand Rapids area.
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Other things on people's minds
THE TRIVIA TEAM - was known last spring as "Seven Teachers and a Creature" --- and it placed second in the competition. This year, we came in first, scoring a 93! But we were renamed -- in honor of some recently discovered bones. We were the Copernicus's Stars. Our most valuable player was Sharleen! When she was sure, we didn't go against her.
SPARTY - had some exciting stories to tell about his journey to Washington with a pack of eighth graders. He took pictures of protesters hanging banners, and tried to forward them for printing here, but they're lost in the mists out there somewhere. He says that they kept counting the kids, afraid they'd lose some, but it always came out at 43.
ALICE - wants to know if you can guess how to keep lions out of your yard? Put up goal posts!
STEVE - has disappeared into the Montana wilderness with an elk hunting party and not been heard of since. No one is worried yet, and he's expected home on the weekend. These guys are talented wilderness wanderers.
MARSHA - the inveterate game player has moved on to the very hard Sudokus that require specialized knowledge and strategies to solve. She's out there in the ether somewhere, drifting around by herself, muttering numbers.
SCOT - recommends: "...one of the more devastating critiques you'll read of a music star. It's most effective because it's not immediately obvious that he loathes the star he has to review. He destroys with his stiletto, not a sledge hammer. Marvelous." We, also, thought it was very good writing. Give it a look: CLICK
PAM - forwards this site giving Garrison Keillor's reaction to the election of Obama (of which he approved): CLICK
GIGI - recommends this from Andy Borowitz. One funny slap at Bush and one approval of Obama who can speak in whole sentences. Is this a threat? :) CLICK
BILL from WNNCO - refers you to this very funny Scandinavian humor. Safe for everyone, by the way, nothing nasty. This might be akin to calling for help and reaching someone in India.
CLICK
JERRY submits this question and answer, which is not based on personal experience, but he seems to have it nailed:
Q: What can a man do while his wife is going through menopause?
A: Keep busy. If you're handy with tools, you can finish the basement. When you are done you will have a place to live.
Monday Friends Report, Part II - Some pictures
FELIX - a picture sent by a hiking friend of the Appalachian Trail marker on Mt. Washington, New Hampshire last week. Felix has hiked it all, Maine to Georgia, but not in this weather. See more here: CLICK
Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Loyal Opposition (#5) The Obama Anthem
When I find examples of the looney right depictions of Obama in the election's aftermath, I'll post them for you to make your own judgments.
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If you're a conservative you'll applaud.
If you're a liberal, you'll either laugh hysterically, or shake your head in utter disbelief.
CLICK
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If you're a conservative you'll applaud.
If you're a liberal, you'll either laugh hysterically, or shake your head in utter disbelief.
CLICK
Sunday silly Sites
Here you see some interesting, strange, weird, unusual things discovered by serendipity, just wandering around the internet. If you have some to share, send them along.
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See the biggest tree in all the Carolinas CLICK
Watch a green monster swallow most of America. CLICK
Go here to play with a spider. Fascinating. CLICK
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See the biggest tree in all the Carolinas CLICK
Watch a green monster swallow most of America. CLICK
Go here to play with a spider. Fascinating. CLICK
Saturday, November 22, 2008
the Wolverines
How honored are we Michigan football fans! 
This is one of the oldest and most storied football programs in all the world. Our very proud university has been playing the game continuously for longer than anyone: 130 years. For those who have followed it in recent generations, there have been so many successes that we can scarce remember them, and we choose to forget the bitter disappointments.
Our stadium is legendary, our helmets are unequalled, our band is famous, and our fight song is recognized in all the world. Our brave sons have gone on to fame and fortune. There have been so many famous highlights, so many tremendous victories, so many happy Saturdays. And, now we, the Wolverines, have lived to see another such historic moment.
This has been the worst season in Michigan football history, a season of superlative failures; probably it will never be equalled. This has been a year to tell the kids about. And, WE WERE THERE!
This is one of the oldest and most storied football programs in all the world. Our very proud university has been playing the game continuously for longer than anyone: 130 years. For those who have followed it in recent generations, there have been so many successes that we can scarce remember them, and we choose to forget the bitter disappointments.
Our stadium is legendary, our helmets are unequalled, our band is famous, and our fight song is recognized in all the world. Our brave sons have gone on to fame and fortune. There have been so many famous highlights, so many tremendous victories, so many happy Saturdays. And, now we, the Wolverines, have lived to see another such historic moment.
This has been the worst season in Michigan football history, a season of superlative failures; probably it will never be equalled. This has been a year to tell the kids about. And, WE WERE THERE!
The Loyal Opposition (#4)
As I come across examples of anti-Obama or anti-Democrat or "far-out there" displays, I will bring them to you. You can be the judge of their credibility. Feel free to send in comments.
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The President-elect as a Communist
Wacko-of-the-Week, November 22, 2008
THE MOTHER OF STORMY PETERS:
The father, Richard Peters, shot his daughter Stormy, aged 6, to death with one of his handguns. There is nothing unusual in this. There is nothing unusual at all in any of the behavior of the man who (by his own account) blew away his kid. Like any good father, Richard was simply drinking in the presence of his children, "multiple double shots of vodka."
There was nothing unusual about a gun owner, inebriated or not, 'cleaning' a loaded gun. They seem to do that regularly. There was nothing unusual about a gun owner having the gun around incompetent children. There was nothing unusual about letting kids handle guns.
These are things that the home-grown bang-bangers so often seem to claim rights to.
There isn't anything, so far as we know, that's unusual about a father suggesting that his child may have been the cause of her own death.
So, daddy behaved the way you'd expect a moron to behave.
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But what about Mama? Where was she?
She was there in the home, living with a drinking man who owns multiple guns. Living with a man who leaves his guns around small children.
CLICK FOR NEWS STORY
AND SO: Congratulations to you mom, whatever your name is: You have won this week's very competitive WACKO AWARD! If you decide to chuck out Richard when he gets out of prison, or if you decide to get rid of those guns while daddy is away, we would understand. But, don't do anything rash. Think it over for awhile.
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RUNNER-UP:
Adam Ballingall, arrested in the parking lot of the Big Head Bar in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, for possession of illegal substances. This is how he came dressed. Convenient.
The father, Richard Peters, shot his daughter Stormy, aged 6, to death with one of his handguns. There is nothing unusual in this. There is nothing unusual at all in any of the behavior of the man who (by his own account) blew away his kid. Like any good father, Richard was simply drinking in the presence of his children, "multiple double shots of vodka."
There was nothing unusual about a gun owner, inebriated or not, 'cleaning' a loaded gun. They seem to do that regularly. There was nothing unusual about a gun owner having the gun around incompetent children. There was nothing unusual about letting kids handle guns. These are things that the home-grown bang-bangers so often seem to claim rights to.
Peters reportedly told police all of his children handle guns, including his 3-year-old. He said the handgun that fired Sunday has a "hair trigger," and he thought his daughter could have been able to pull back the slide, loading a bullet into the chamber.
There isn't anything, so far as we know, that's unusual about a father suggesting that his child may have been the cause of her own death.
So, daddy behaved the way you'd expect a moron to behave.
=====
But what about Mama? Where was she?
She was there in the home, living with a drinking man who owns multiple guns. Living with a man who leaves his guns around small children.
CLICK FOR NEWS STORY
AND SO: Congratulations to you mom, whatever your name is: You have won this week's very competitive WACKO AWARD! If you decide to chuck out Richard when he gets out of prison, or if you decide to get rid of those guns while daddy is away, we would understand. But, don't do anything rash. Think it over for awhile.
====
RUNNER-UP:
Adam Ballingall, arrested in the parking lot of the Big Head Bar in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, for possession of illegal substances. This is how he came dressed. Convenient.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Letter from Felix
Excerpt from an e-mail from FELIX, our friend in Indiana. Note: Felix has never been, in my experience, very "political." But I always appreciate his observations on the world and the people he meets in it. (Bud)
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To me, one of the highlights, if not THE highlight of the entire thing, was seeing Jesse Jackson cry. For the first time I was able to look at him for what he should be. To me, he was closer to what he wants to be and what he wants people to think he is. "
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