To go along with the Kit it is Clean Air day in Canada today, part of Environment week.

www.cleanairday.com

Oh yes, I remember Hugo. When it got to Charlotte, 200 miles inland from Charleston, it was still packing winds of 92 mph. The power grid was destroyed. Fortunately, it came in the middle of the night, so there were no fatalities, but schools were closed for six days, the Fire Department ran three times the normal call load for ten days (no false alarms either), and the tree canopy was devastated. Debris removal took six months. The saving grace was that it was September, and people could survive without HVAC. I hope I never go through anything like it again.

You're *almost* always right, Achenbach.
(Penultimate line: "Also, thank you for reminding me us [sic] that . . .")

And I'm guessing Mike posted his "censored" comment in an old 'boodle and then went looking for it in a more current one -- that seems to happen a lot, especially among the cross and cantankerous.

Half-mile thick? Bah, that's merely a late May stowstorm.

SCC: "snowstorm" of course. "stowstorm" is what happens immediately prior to your parents visiting during college.

Check out the comments to the Scientific American blog re: The Tempest. What a miserably mirthless lot.

Thanks, fixed it.

Hey Joel did you cover any hurricane stories at Herald? If you did post it, because I know Id get a laugh out of reading/picturing what you wrote on the matter. I can imagine you taking a windy day story and turning it into a category 5 hurricane that you courageously endured.

great line:
"Hell, I couldn't write a better piece if given a month, five naked research assistants, and a crate of whippets."

Oh Hunter S. Thompson, where are you when we need you?

Mike, I prefer the term "Ouroborosian", but that's just me.

bc

The ice had oil which had cholesterol? Doctor, doctor!

Those of us of a certain age remember when Hurricane Hazel visited the D.C. area (maybe September, '54?). Came right up the bay and Potomac. By the time it hit here, it was probably about a category 2, but I do remember my mom taking my sister and I out on the back porch to look up at the stars as the eye went right over us. I remember the sort of hollow moaning sound of the storm all around us while it was dead still in the middle of it all.

Your software filter must have achieved sentience for not only did it remove Mike's post it removed two more that gently chided him for it. These responses would make little sense to a human without the original post, to a "mindless software filter" they would have been innocuous. Some human removed Mike's post.

Apple is a perfectly legitimate rhyme for camel. Canadian is a three sylable word, just ask Miss Trawna. Add an and, take a breath like a human.
A gang that treats limericks like they were sonnets or Haiku is too b-anal for me.
Good day to you sirs.
You too 'Nuke '-)

I have a question for you science types: Even if we didn't burn fossil fuels with mad abandon, wouldn't the body heat of 6.5 billion humans raise the temperature just a little? (Especially if some percentage are having hot flashes at any given time.)

Just askin' is all.

I may have previously mentioned riding out Hurricane Bob on Cape Cod back in '91. Von Drehle's article made me realize what a puny storm Bob was. "Nails and screws groaning," now that is truly scary. If/when we get another hurricane up here in MA, I am not going to be that foolhardy again. Thanks, Joel, for the heads up. Meanwhile we are having another big rainstorm. It has rained an awful lot in the past month, starting with floods up north of Boston on Mother's day. Is this connected to global warming? I am looking for someone to blame besides the weatherman. Any chance the current administration is punishing us for our liberal ways?

Bad Sneakers, you could send some of that rain south. We need it here!

Pure guess on Pixel's question of human body heat contributing to global warming...

Probably it wouldn't make a difference. I suspect the Earth's biomass is relatively constant, barring mass extinctions. So, if it wasn't 6.5 billion humans, it would be 60 billion rats, or 600 million bison, or 6 bajillion flies.

Fortunately, though, blogs are typed rather than spoken, because THAT much hot air...

The heat 6.5 billion folks put off represents the heat that went into them, so the temp wouldn't increase (conservation of energy)... but they do generate a lot of methane, or at least I do, so you might have something in terms of contributing global warming factors. New U.S. Energy policy -- don't fart.

Don't forget all the heat generated by the server farms that run the 'Net, Dooley. Gotta cool those CPUs and disk drives...

:-)

Just checked the CPU temperature on my iBook.

111 degrees F

distant lurker, the SciAm blog comments are dry, but lack the vituperativeness of the others, particularly the political blogs.

It just serves to remind me how nice a place the Boodle is.

bc

People always think methane leads to Global Warming.

In the Boodle, it's just the opposite. *L*

a re-post from the previous boodle - not to bring anyone/everyone down - but as a kudos to good fathers in the boodle!

"i guess you guys are right about the father figure - i never had one, my father left when i was a little over a year old so i really never knew him. he drifted in and out of my life several times in my 34 years but always with empty promises and excuses for his wrong-doings... i spoke to a mentor/father-figure of mine recently and he said "some people get dealt shi$$y fathers, it's not your fault" - that's when i decided to tell my father that i would like to sever all future ties with him and his side of the family (we were never close with them anyway) - one of my pet peeves is being lied to and unfortunately, that's my fathers M.O. so... i feel like i've cut a sickly appendage off of my body and feel much lighter and better about myself for doing it...

and my secret (well, one amoung many that i'm willing to admit to the boodle) - i still sleep with a teddy bear...

and that being said (about fathers) - all the fathers out there, i'm proud of you for sticking around and actually being a father to your children! i'm lucky that i had a fabulous mother (so don't feel bad for me!) but your kids are lucky to have great dads! (and happy father's day in advance as i'll be outta the country on fathers day)"

THE POLITICS OF CHEESESTEAKS

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/

Scroll down a bit.

mo, your post and Cassandra's on fatherhood are inspirational for a new dad such as I. Thank you both.

If anyone's interested, I did another bactrian camel poem at the end of the last boodle.

Without doing any serious calculations, I expect that Dooley is right -- if it weren't us composing the biomass, it would be bison or flies or bears or somesuch critter, leading to approximately the same heat production. One could argue that we have increased the biological carrying capacity of the planet, at least in the short term, through technological agriculture. I think the primary effect of this, however, has merely been to shift the weight of biomass towards stuff we can eat (like wheat, for the gluten-tolerant, or corn, for the corn-tolerant) and away from stuff we can't eat very easily (like bamboo and pine trees).

Of course, we use petrochemical fertilizers in our agriculture. This is using up stored chemical reserves faster than they would be used on their own, thus this is a short-term injection of additional energy into the system, energy which eventually shows up as heat.

Slyness, do I remember Hugo! At the time I was in Raleigh with my parents. When I got home, a big mess. Power was out for days, and the grocery stores had a mess. People were eating whatever they could find. It was unbelieveable how that storm came up the middle like that. Hurricanes are so dangerous, and before Katrina, I don't think people realized just how dangerous, except the folks in Florida.

KB, good for your dad. At his age, I think that is fantastic. Puts me to shame talking about my walking.

I got carried away and I now have done some calculating to estimate the heating effects of all our technological doodads, which certainly produce more power than our puny little bodies. Relatively little power is radiated out into space as radio or light, so most of the energy that runs our electronic and mechnical luxuries turns into heat.

I looked up the world energy production for 1998 on the USGS web site (latest year that they had). It came to a total of 3.3X10^10 Watts at any given moment. That's a lot of Watts, but about 30 times less than the power in the Earth's aurora, for comparison. Meanwhile, sunlight deposits 1.37 kWatt/m^2. Multiplying by half the Earth's surface area (for the half that is in sunlight at any given time), the Sun delivers 3.5X10^17 Watt to the Earth at every moment. About 60% of this is absorbed, 40% reflected back to space. The portion that is absorbed stores energy in chemical bonds as part of its work, but efficiency is very low, so just assume that all of the 60% is turned into heat energy that radiates back to space as infrared radiation. Our heat output from all worldwide energy production, combined, is 3.3X10^10 W/(0.6 * 3.5X10^17 W) = 1.6X10^-5 % of sunlight. Our energy production is trivial by comparison to the instantaneous input from sunlight. Our primary influence on the planet is by changing the factor of 40% albedo (reflectivity) through the action of our technological byproducts -- that is, pollution. A 1% change in albedo, from 40% to 39%, increases the world's energy input from sunlight by 3.5X10^15 W = about 100,000 times the world technological energy output. A 1% increase in absorption, from 60% to 61%, increases global temperatures by about 0.004 * 296K = 1.2K = 1.2C (K = Kelvin temperature scale, C = Celsius temperature scale). This, by pure coincidence, is similar to the temperature increases predicted for global warming. Thus, you may deduce that our pollution is on the order of 100,000 times more effective in screwing up our planet's climate than our direct production of heat energy. Conversely, correcting our effects on our planet's climate will take something like 100,000 times more energy than humanity currently produces. We will have to use subtle and slow means to correct our mess, because we can't muster the juice to change things quickly..

That 6th plank could be an Atlas style program to bring us energy indepedence in ten years.

Joel's piece reminds us that cliches are not worth the paper they are written on and thus should be avoided like the plague.

An observation: The temperature back when icesheets covered the earth must have been colder than a witch's t*t in January.

As it happens, my birthday coincides with Fathers' Day this year. The best birthday presents I ever got were not on my birthday, but on the ScienceKids' day of birth. I already have the best possible present for Fathers' Day, and for my birthday. Not that I would MIND getting some additional toys, but it won't take one bit away from the day if I don't get anything more.

ScienceTim not sure what is more impressive you post on global warming or the sentiment you expressed about your children. It wonderful to see so many outstanding fathers out there.

Thanks folks for the ideas about activites for the kids. My grandsons love the lake, not swimming but finding tadpoles, turtles, that kind of stuff. They say they're fishing but that's not what they do. They pick up insects and everything. I don't mind, but we're in snake country. Poisonous snakes, water moccasins, especially near the water, and we don't want to spend the day at the hospital. And I'm sure their mother would be very upset.

I think Hurricane Katrina made people more aware of nature, and the power of nature. Some of us knew these facts, but so many times we ignore stuff. A hurricane cannot be ignored, as some other things in nature can't be either. Hurricane Katrina was, and sitll is, bad, because of the damage to people and to place. I'm glad people are paying attention to nature and the environment, that's good.

OK, this is going to be a long one. So get a cuppa coffee, or just keep on scrolling, either way.

entnut, I remember Hurricane Hazel much, much too vividly (Oct. 14-16, 1954). I was 8 years old. My mother took my younger brother and me to Strawbridge's department store in Jenkintown, Pa., to buy us our very first Cub Scout uniforms (we had just joined our newly created pack, and my mother was assistant Den Mother); Strawbridge's was the only authorized dealer in the area. Since weather forecasting (and public communication of same) back then wasn't remotely what it is today, we'd never have gone shopping if we'd known. So it was a normal, sunny day when we took a taxi to the train station and took the train to Jenkintown (my mother didn't drive, as many housewives back then didn't) for a day of shopping, culminating in a special treat, dinner in the top-floor glass-walled restaurant before walking back to the train station to go home.

By mid afternoon it had started to rain, but no one seemed to think it anything out of the ordinary, as near as I recollect (if anyone knew, there was no sign of it). By about 5 p.m. when we went up to the circular-glass-enclosed rooftop restaurant, though, it was blowing pretty well, lightning was popping all over, and branches were flying by. Halfway through dinner, the power went out, and that's about the point when people began to realize we were in deep doodoo. We left Strawbridges and had to walk about six or eight blocks through Jenkintown to get back to the train station. About two blocks from Strawbridges, as we walked past the big stone Presbyterian church (doing the "mime walk" into the wind and rain, as von Drehle says), lightning hit one of the big (maybe 2-foot diameter) oak or maple trees next to it, and the tree fell over. I think it was the first time in my life that I understood the possibility of death, and how fragile is our hold on life. It probably was my very first adrenaline rush. And I was s---scared.

A block further on, the big plate-glass windows of the Rexall pharmacy had blown out, and the street and sidewalk was covered with broken glass. We made it to the train station, and to this day I remember every step of the 6-8-block trip, clutching my soaked paper bag with my soaked Cub Scout uniform in it, with my mother and younger brother. (I cannot for the life of me decide if that walk was suicidally stupid and foolhardy, but my dim recollection is that staying at Strawbridges all night wasn't an option, and that they closed the store and made everyone leave. But perhaps I'm doing them an injustice. Or maybe not.)

So that was The Night We Walked Through Hurricane Hazel (and of course, since humans have zero capacity to learn the proper lessons from their mistakes, I've been a crazoid adrenaline junkie storm-and-lightning-loving foolish-thrill-chasing newspaper reporter type of the von Drehle school ever since; I wonder why?).

I want to talk about that von Drehle story a bit. OK, a lot.

First, I admired the story. But in my long, checkered career in the news biz (all of it working for either small, mediocre newspapers [because ALLLLLL small newspapers are mediocre, at best] or several medium-size mediocre newspapers [ditto], and one large mediocre newspaper [ditto; all but maybe a dozen large papers are, at best, mediocre or worse, and I got distracted into the Dark Side before I was able to work for any of the Chosen Few], I never ran across a remotely competent editor who would have had the intelligence (much less the authority) to run a story like von Drehle's hurricane piece. (The one exception was a guy named Mark Isaacs, may he rest in peace, a crusty curmudgeon who was my role model for editorial crusty curmudgeontude. Mark, you taught me far better than you ever knew.)

Most editors at 99% of the newspapers in this country would have tossed von Drehle's piece back at him, and told him to cut out the first-person stuff. Most would have wanted a who-what-where-when-why-how lede. Almost all (unless it was a day with a huge news "hole" to fill--which it wouldn't be, in a hurricane) would have said it was way too long; cut it by 30% and get some *&%#$@*^ quotes from the chief of police and the Red Cross, you rookie retard (sensitivity training not being a quality a lot of editors have much of). Oh, and do it in the next 10 minutes. (FYI, von Drehle's story was about 1,600 words, not counting the subheads. 99% of editors go into apoplexy after 800 or 900 words, because "people don't read long stories." I once had an editor - one of the worst I ever had, and who coincidentally was Mark Isaacs' boss--tell me, "The entire story of Creation was told in only 125 words!" (referring to Chapter 1 of Genesis, which I assume he thought was originally written in King James' English.))

So one of the lessons of this passion play is that I sometimes wonder if writers like Joel and von Drehle and several dozen others realize exactly how lucky they are to work in the environments they do. (By and large, I think they do realize, because they, too, have once worked for the 99% who are maroons instead the 1% who aren't, so they, too, carry the scars and battle wounds of the rest of us ink-stained wretches.)

Next problem: I have been on both sides of the coin (the reporter who [willingly] gets sent out into a potentially dangerous situation, as well as the editor who sends somebody else out into danger), and sometimes it gives me qualms. It is one thing to be (or to send out) a reporter in a war zone, because war is serious business, and somebody needs to cover it, and there are known and accepted risks, and known and accepted results (some journalist gets killed). But then there are times a reporter goes out into a situation that isn't so serious or so earth-shakingly important. We tend to make fun of those TV "journalists" (to me, an oxymoron right there, but maybe that's just me) who go out to do hurricane stories, when they stand there in their slickers in 70-mile-an-hour winds to show the viewers how macho they are (or I guess macha in the case of the women reporters? mo?), Geraldo of course being the worst and most ridiculous. So where is the line between sending a self-aggrandizing Geraldo out into the storm, and sending out a von Drehle? Is there a difference? If so, what? Suppose von Drehle and Kral had been in that hotel room when the window went, and been killed? Would that have been worth the risk and loss, on a comparable basis to being in Iraq or on the beach at Normandy on D-Day? I don't think so. But I don't know where the line is. And of course, I'd have done it myself, in a NY minute, but then, I'm as crazoid as any of the rest. But it is a problem. Maybe it's only something that happens when you get older, and start thinking, jeez, you know, I've done some pretty dumb things in my life....

So as much as I admire von Drehle's story, there's part of me that's thinking, you know, that was a pretty dumb thing to do, and I'm not at all sure the risk was worth it. And I'm damned glad you didn't get killed, and I'm even more glad I wasn't the guy who sent you out (or allowed you to go, because you were champing at the bit), especially when we both know you could have written a perfectly serviceable (if pedestrian) story by staying safe in a bunker somewhere and interviewing the police chief and the Red Cross people. I don't know how I could have faced von Drehle's grieving widow or parents, had it come to that, over a stupid hurricane story.

Of course, maybe you only start to think this way when you get to be an old fart. (On the positive side, I'd have never cut or butchered von Drehle's piece in a million years, (i)pace(i/) Mark Isaccs.) (Dammit, Hal, what's holding up that italics? Starting to get testy here!)

Next problem: clichés. Shafer's analysis of the von Drehle piece praises it for its lack of clichés--but then criticizes it for too many similes and "magenta" prose. This is utterly bogus on Shafer's part. First, VD avoided some of the clichés precisely BECAUSE he substituted some of his own similes, metaphors and magenta prose in place of them. Well, you can't have it both ways, Jack. What the hell was VD supposed to do? If you strip out the clichés and THEN strip out the colorful writing, you know what you've got left? The boring, dull, straightforward 5W news story/snorer/thumbsucker.

Those of you who are writers/editors here in the boodle know what I'm talking about: there are plenty of Web sites and blogs, style manuals, and how-to-rite-gud books that talk about eliminating clichés--but notice that NONE of them ever offer an alternate example. (Reason: if they offered an alternate example, somebody sure as hell would jump on it and ridicule it. Guaranteed.) There is a prominent Web site for copy editors that I'm not going to bother naming, because I've stopped visiting it, and on that blog copy editors are merciless in their ridicule of newspaper reporter clichés. But not once, in all that ridicule, do those copy editors ever suggest a better phrase or a better way of putting it. (Because they can't. Which is why 98% of them are copy editors instead of writers.) (And only the other 2% know better, and shut up.)

Final observation: It is all well and good to hold up the example of a von Drehle piece, or an Achenbach piece, or a Weingarten mag article (his Pulitzer-worthy Great Zucchini piece, for example), or a Sy Hersh expose, or a Stephen Hunter review, or a Mencken essay. But remember: these people are the crème de la crème, and in a way it's like saying, "You, too, can learn to paint like Rembrandt," or compose music like Copland, or play guitar like Django Reinhardt or Charlie Byrd, or dance like Martha Graham, or write like Updike, or even edit like Tom the Butcher, because, no dear, you probably can't. Those folks are all a little bit (or maybe a lot) better than you and I will ever be or ever hope to be, and though we may aspire, and copy, and steal from and/or learn from them, we probably aren't quite on their level. Every writer (and editor) can learn from that von Drehle piece, but almost none will be able to match it. (Which doesn't mean we shouldn't try.)

We return you now to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

SonofCarl, I've saved your Bactrian camel poem from the last Boodle. I'm gonna polish on it.

For a fabulous story/poem/song in a similar vein (education through silly poetry), I highly, HIGHLY recommend Bill Harley's recording Cool in School, which has the story "Zanzibar."

Zanzibar, Zanzibar
Zanzibar is very far.
You can't get there in a car,
it's too far to Zanzibar.

In Zanzibar, they grow cloves
What they're for, I don't know.
Maybe they stick 'em between their toes.
In Zanzibar, they grow cloves.

There's a lot more, but that's all I can remember right now.

Related to Cassandra's comment--I hope people did pay attention to Katrina, because we haven't seen any REAL natural disasters in recent human history, compared to what the Earth is capable of throwing at us (Discovery Channel sensationalism aside).

Mt. St. Helens, for example, was barely even a burp by volcanic standards, even though it killed 56 people (I think) and wiped out a huge area. Krakatoa and Tambora in the 1800s were dramatically larger (Krakatoa killed over 30,000), and even they were not unusually large. About 12 million years ago, there was a huge volcanic eruption in Idaho, more than 1000 times more powerful than MSH--it dumped 10 feet of ash in Nebraska!

Sometime in the not too distant future, half of the island of Hawaii is likely to slide off into the ocean in a giant landslide. Likely death toll if this happens in the near future--greater than 50,000.

If a meteor only 25 feet in diameter landed in Manhatten, it would leave a crater halfway across the island. Likely death toll--greater than 1 million.

Katrina and the Indian Ocean tsunami were terrible events, but they appear even worse because we've been lucky for the last 100 years or so with respect to natural disasters. In addition, as populations continue to grow, each disaster will kill more people--the tsunami wouldn't have killed nearly as many people 100 years ago--there weren't as many people living there.

If you're depressed now, remember than when I say "not too distant future" for Hawaii, I mean "maybe in the next 100,000 years or so". "Soon" has a different meaning to geologists, and as soon as I can afford it, I'm taking a vacation to Hawaii, giant landslides or not.

Science Tim,

I am glad you liked my little poem. I used to write quite a lot of poetry as well as a few novels. I am proud to say my artistic efforts have never been sullied by financial compensation.

"Those folks are all a little bit (or maybe a lot) better than you and I will ever be or ever hope to be, and though we may aspire, and copy, and steal from and/or learn from them, we probably aren't quite on their level. "

Mudge, as I sit here in my office, struggling to write a one-page children's article on Virginia glaciers, I especally appreciate your statement. Every word is punctuated with the knowledge of how much better Joel could write it.

You haven't missed much, Padouk. The financial compensation I've received has usually been sullied by its meageratudinousness. Go figure.

Thanks for your perspectives, Mudge.

I've been thinking a lot about the future of news organizations, good writing, and the ways we'll communicate in the future (and Bob Wright's plans to dominate the Internet without visible means of $upport).

I don't have any solid answers yet, but the news biz *is* in a transition phase.

I have my suspicions about how things will go, but I am concerned about the future of Real News.

bc

>I am proud to say my artistic efforts have never been sullied by financial compensation.

Padouk: That is a nice sentence. It's close to being iambic pentameter. Thanks for posting it here, for free, on the internet.

When I realized I hadn't signed at 3:21 I had a strong temptation to stay anonymous. Do other people feel that way, that you'd just as soon comment anonymously? It's a lot easier. Or do you feel that pseudonymity is the same security as anonymity? Is it because I'm using my name that it feels like an effort every time? I could never be a professional writer. I'd definitely have a nervous breakdown.

I'm sorry for the cut-and-paste here, but in honour of our Canadian boodlers, I must share today's Onion "man on the street" responses to the question,

"Canada Terror Plot--Canadian law enforcement arrested 17 Muslim men this weekend who allegedly tried to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and bomb-making components. What do you think? ":

Cheryll Weidenbach, Housecleaner
"Apparently they wanted to blow up a city that, on screen, passes really well for New York."

Frank Jennings, Systems Analyst
"See, when folks aren't all consumed by how they're going to pay for their operations and stuff, they start getting notions about blowing up landmarks."

Will Foley, Mountie
"I was shocked to hear on the news programme that some of these men were living in the centre of my neighbourhood, about 20 metres from my favourite theatre."

See? Those who can't write, just cut and paste!

The ban-gay-marriage amendment died in the Senate, failing by 11 or 18 votes, depending on how you want to score it. (McCain voted against it, as did 6 other Repubs, and Hagel didn't vote.)

Stupid effing charade.

kb, personally I don't really care for completely unsigned posts, so I always correct that when I do it.

kb - The use of a consistent pseudo allows a dialog instead of just a drive-by shooting.

I think it's fair to say that Unsigned Post is an available Boodling handle at this point.

:-)

I would prefer not to have to sign my posts mostly due to an inability to edit my words, and poor typing skills.

Re Gay marriage, we will be going through the farce again this fall, when the current government in their stupidity will reopen the issue knowing it will fail miserably. Politics at its worst.

You need to have some love and appreication for (your native language here) to even begin to be a decent writer. And one of the best ways to start doing that is read good writing--a lot of it. As some of you have probably noticed, I've got this thing for trains. Had it since I was a pup. I eventually got introduced to the writings of Lucius Beebe, who traveled in high society back in the 30's and 40's, but also had "thing" for trains. His writings were something of a throw-back to the Victorian, but it made for something well beyond who-what-where-when-how. To some extent, I think you need to be able to evoke the time and place you're writing about, and use the words that help do that. We all probably have our favorite authors, and they are the ones that take us to that other place, whether it's sailing grandly down the steel highway in a chrome-and-glass parlor car of the 20th Century Limited, surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden in an old slaughterhouse, or witnessing the wars of Middle Earth. I realize that newspapers in general don't have the time, space, or circumspection to indulge "real" writing, and in most cases it is just who-what-when etc. Just the facts, ma'm. But pieces like VonDrele's do need to see print if for no other reasons than to one, help encourge those who can write like that to keep at it and, two give the public something they can appreciate sooner or later.

Mudge, I took the time and read that long piece, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed every word of it. I've said this before, and will say it again, you write beautifully. And my untrained eye cannot offer a professional opinion, but I like it, and that's enough for me.

I do not consider myself a writer of any kind. Just try to throw some word together so folks can pretty much understand what I'm saying, and sometimes that falls flat. I do enjoy reading the comments here, and I'll say it again, it's a learning experience.

Thank you, Cassandra. I'd marry you, if only my wife would allow it, and the chance of any of the three of us becoming Mormons is less than zip. But it's the thought that counts.

(No, I haven't forgotten you, either, Nani.)

I know you have all heard me talk about the used book place down the street. It was kismet, since just before leaving, I had read Curmudgeon's piece about writers and writing. Today I found a book titled "Don't Forget To Write" by Art Buchwald. He was shelved between William Makepeace Thackeray and Pope John Paul II. It seemed right somehow that I found him there.

I laughed at the part 'Tourist Diary Form'. I laughed harder at 'Fulfilling Requests". I pretty much was in control all the way through to 'The Officers Memoir Club' but by the time I was finished that part I was crying for laughing so hard. In the process I dripped the sauce from my oyster chicken all over my shirt.

So if you happen to see a middleaged woman with a dirty shirt, laughing like a loon, you will know she is reading Buchwald and having a whale of a time.

Thank you, Mr. Buchwald. It does not get better than this. I KNOW why you are still here.

Hey, where's everybody been ?!!?!?

I totally ignored that Gay Marriage Ban Ammendment debate and vote in the Senate.

Perhaps I shouldn't have; I'm finding its quick death an encouraging sign.

If Rove et. al. can't whip up the Milky Base into a froth with this kind of mixdirection anymore, maybe he's unable to cook elections the way he used to.

Perhaps there's a little too much discontent fomenting (foamenting?) in the breadbasket of America over the poor preparation and incontinence of the Bush Administration and the GOP for the creamy center to swallow such obvious trifles any longer.

And I say, mmm, mmm, good!

bc

i HAD to post this from gene's chat cuz it had me in tears:

"The subject of shopping cart shame provoked a deluge of anecdotes, a rude, unstoppable torrent, like the contents of a overstuffed cart in a 12-items-or-fewer line. Here is my favorite, from Sarah Gaymon, an old friend:

I had a foal with a recurring case of diarrhea and the vet had me giving her 60 ccs of Kaopectate twice a day for quite a while. This meant that I was going through an 8 oz. bottle of Kaopectate every two days. I'd usually buy a number of bottles at a time -- it's pretty expensive when you're buying a lot of it. (The foal loved the flavor so I stuck with the same brand for ease of administration.) Many cashiers would say something like, "Oh, my!" when a half-dozen bottles of Kaopectate came down the conveyer. I'd say, "It's for a horse," and the cashier would look relieved.

One day I found it on sale at a local grocery store and swept about a dozen bottles into my cart and headed for the express checkout. The guy ahead of me, who only had one or two things, glanced at the small mountain of Kaopectate bottles, picked up his items off the conveyer, and said, "Please. You go ahead."

I replied that it wasn't necessary, but he insisted, "Really. Go ahead."

I did."

Here in MA gay marriage has been legal for a couple of years. The state is still standing, families have not fallen to pieces and I think we have the lowest or second lowest divorce rate in the US. Why this issue is an issue at all just astounds me. What is that quote about not caring what people do as long as they don't do it in the street and scare the horses? These neocons/fundies spend way too much time worrying about matters pertaining to s#x. I just wish congress would debate something that matters to us as a nation, such as healthcare, the environment, the war, torture of prisoners, the erosion of our privacy, etc. But that would mean they'd have to have cojones, and principles - certainly too much to ask of most of them. We used to have "statesmen," people who put themselves above partisan politics for the good of the country, I can't think of anyone today who fits that description. But I could be wrong. I am so darn sick of this administration.

Pardon my rantings, I haven't been keeping up with the news in much depth lately and after reading some stuff today, I am spitting mad and frustrated.

And Mudge, as usual, I love what you said and how you said it.

"the ... incontinence of the Bush Administration"

I guess that all Depends.

(Pee humor is so much more sophisticated than poop humor.)

Mudge your 4:31 almost made me require depends. Loved your earlier post as well.

Boy, was that a really BAD BOOO, or a really GOOD BOOO? Timing is everything.

'mudge (or curmdugeon - i LOVE that!)... i guess it just means you are way more sophisticated than i... as if THAT were in question!!!

This headline just in from The Onion:

NSA Wiretap Reveals Subject May Be Paying Too Much for Long-Distance

mo, they don't call me the Fred Astaire of pee humor for nuthin'.

Mudge, you're #1 in my book.

bc

HAR HAR bc!

>These neocons/fundies spend way too much time worrying about matters pertaining to s#x.

The real qeustion is why some people spend so much time thinking about people and things which supposedly disgust them. Ahem.

The real problem is that what they're concerned about can't be legislated, and passing any law you like against gays won't magically put every kid in America in a nice mom-and-pop household.

Most sentient beings would concede that not all mom-and-pop households are actually nice places to grow up, and the kids might be better off without the offending party, male or female.

If you want to legislate two parent male/female households you need to OUTLAW DIVORCE, and you need to mandate marriage upon childbirth. The percentage of gay households is probably orders of magnitude less than either of the above scenarios, thus proving they are not really interested in the problem in the first place.

So the polls should ask the real question: Should there be a constitutional amendment to outlaw divorce and mandate shotgun weddings?

bc, would the name of that book be "Old Yeller"?

I'm finally 100% converted to those screw-in fluorescent bulbs here at the casa. Nice to do something that actually shows me a real, tangible savings on my electric bill.

I wonder how much energy the U.S. would save if everyone in the country did this?

Mudge, you're in good company. (get it? I'm trying to work on subtlety)

"Old Yeller"? Only if you're not getting enough fluids.

If I have read the Constitution correctly, marriage is a STATE issue, not a Federal issue.
I personally am all about the Constitution, think its a pretty important document, especially those whole parts about fair and speedy trials by jury, right to free speech, you know, the basics.

Yeah, I'm leaking into my Poise pad since you guys are so funny...

http://www.merck.com/mrkshared/mmg/sec12/ch99/ch99a.jsp

Eight to 34% of community-dwelling elderly persons suffer from urinary incontinence; rates are higher in women than in men, and urinary incontinence affects > 50% of elderly patients in hospitals and in nursing homes. Yet, urinary incontinence is abnormal regardless of age, mobility, mental status, or frailty. Moreover, incontinence often causes the affected person to feel embarrassed, isolated, stigmatized, depressed, and regressed; incontinent elderly persons are often institutionalized, because incontinence is a substantial burden to caregivers.

Excessive urine output is caused by high fluid intake, diuretic use (including caffeine and alcohol), and metabolic abnormalities (eg, hyperglycemia, *hypercalcemia*).

My doctoral alma mater's professional press, Johns Hopkins University Press, had a surprise bestseller on its hands some years ago with a medical book on adult urinary incontinence. I don't know how many they really sold, but the report was that they got up into numbers that would be considered acceptable in commercial publishing -- practically unheard-of in university press publishing. As Loomis notes, there is a huge audience of persons who are unwillingly concerned about this issue, but who do not speak up commonly.

At the other end of the age spectrum, diapers are so good now that they have specially designed "potty training" diapers that are less absorbant to assist in the learning process.

I'm sorry but we cannot just leave this boodle hanging like that.

Live da**it, live, boodle.

'Mudge, as always, you are so right about writing. When I was in college, my ambition was to be the next Great American Novelist. The spring semester of my junior year, I took Milton and Literary Criticism. When I read "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity" (written when Milton was 21), I gave that ambition up. I have some talent but I'm not the genius that he was. So I went on to be a perfectly competent public servant; every job I ever had I got because I could at least write grammatically.

Now, now... It doesn't take a whiz to know that this boodle can make a big splash--we can blow the lid off this subject.

We can even eliminate it if you want!

I believe anticipated global warming shall prove beneficial overall to the U.S., and particularly Canada. Climate shall become more temperate in the colder regions. I suspect the panic expressed by some fail to take this into consideration. There are winners and losers. Despite protestations to the contrary not all will be losers.

There we go. TBG, I can now leave the office, knowing that the boodle will not only live, it will thrive. A job well done, TBG.

You know, if actress Elizabeth Glaser can tell the world that she was HIV-positive at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, I figure I can say, "I am Linda Loomis. I come from a distinguished family, I am mutant, and I am incontinent."

If you only knew how many times I've been poked and prodded...I am old before my time with certain organs. The urologist thinks my rare genetic disorder affects the smooth muscle function of my bladder. If you'd like four or five grafs on what it's like to be incontinent, I'm more than happy to oblige.

No new news today with the three additional blood tests concerning my left eye--results were all normal for the two prothrombin tests and the one for homocysteine.

Loomis, I cannot know what you experience but my young daughter lives with a similar incontinence issue, she is young and hopefully will adjust. Its difficult for her and sometimes gets her down, but she faces it head on and that makes me proud and while we never laugh at her sometimes we share a chuckle over situations that may arise.

Bill Wood, you are right climates may moderate in the US and Canada, unfortunately so will the extremes in weather and storms will be more frequent and intense, droughts will be longer not sure that will make up for overall warmer temperatures the economic costs of the damage done will be high.

I second dmd's comments. Even if North American weather and climate was to simply shift northward (extremely unlikely), things will not be the same, just farther north. The muskeg of Northern Manitoba will never be Iowa without the geological timespan that created the soil conditions further south.

SoC, just think what will happen to the mosquitos and black flies on the muskeg when its warmer longer!

Bill Wood, I don't agree with you, but thank you for speaking reasonably on the subject. As you note, temperate climates will move north, followed by tropical climates moving north. The Arctic climate will basically disappear, along with its biota and the human way of life that depends on them. Tough noogies, I guess. Most of the world's food is grown in temperate climates. You should keep in mind that the Earth's surface area decreases substantially as you move towards the poles, just because the Earth is a sphere (almost, for you nit-pickers out there). Thus, a temperate zone 10° farther north than at present suggests substantially decreased land area available for agriculture (approximately; I haven't concerned myself with the precise distribution of land area).

Regardless, times of transition can be chaotic -- what's good for species (including our own) rarely is good for individuals. The difference between the transition posed by global warming vs. the transition of the Industrial Revolution, or the transition of the Information Revolution, is that you can't retrain biology. Adaptation does not happen within one generation, to a great extent, it happens by killing off those biota that are incapable of handling their new environment. This has happened before, of course, and life goes on, but it is unpleasant while it transpires, especially if you are one of the less well-adapted individuals. You can imagine rites of passage in which the successful live, and go on to reproduce, while the unsuccessful are killed and composted. Not a pleasant prospect if you are on the losing end of the deal, even though the species may benefit from selecting for smarter/tougher/more athletic individuals.

At this very moment, dramatic botanical change already is happening. The tundras are melting, because the yearly average temperature no longer is enough to maintain permafrost. Canadian forests are being destroyed by insects that previously could not stand the cold winters, because the average winter temperature has been sufficiently warm for the past several years that the bugs' eggs survived the winter. It's a temporary boom in the lumber economy, as the dying trees are lumbered out before they finish dying and rot naturally. The boom is strictly temporary, however, as the trees inevitably will go -- the current forest can't survive, the beetles won't let it, so it all has to go in order to be replaced by other tree species or by agriculture.

No one is protesting that there will be all losers. The point we are making is that losers will dramatically outnumber winners, until a new equilibrium climate is established. If we stay on the road we are pursuing, that may be centuries to millennia from now. It is one thing to accept tough times for a decade or so. It is another thing to argue that we should embrace the prospect of tough times for the next 33 human generations.

Can we get back to "the five naked research assistants, and a crate of whippets"?

Hey, nottamember!
How long's it been -- a year? Good to see ya.

I still remember this one particular afternoon -- almost a year ago -- when nottamember, fdg31, and I were pretty much the only three people in the 'boodle, exchanging drivel with one another. Later Achenbach stopped by and said, "This blog is like Three Lonely Dudes in a Bar." By that time, *no-one* else was around, until nottamember popped back in to respond, "Or maybe just one." Zing!

Ah, those were fun times. Very different times to now, of course -- back then, it was quite common for the number of comments in any given 'boodle to stay within the single digits. Also, everyone who posted was assumed to be a dude.

Loomis, my wife has a cold and coughs and sneezes constantly and tries to convince me that she is unlovable because she has turned into an icky, sticky creature, but the fact is that she is soft and tender, and I fear the night she won't be there when I turn over and reach out for a hug.
Mo, teddy bear? My favorite is 18 years old and he is missing the same eye as I do. I think I have the softest bed in the world, sleeping with babies, stuffed bears and alligators. And I love to dream, - it's the only time I get to see things. I have lots and lots of fears and nightmares; however, global warming for some reason, never enters into the picture. Goodnight!

Well, Achenfan, you're not the only one in here at the moment.

SciTim, I'm with ya. The earth's climate is changing, and I don't think anyone can predict exactly what the results will be in terms of weather conditions anywhere in the long term. The computer models are getting better, but they're not there yet.

If you don't like the weather, wait a decade.

bc

I certainly couln't write like Hiassen ot Van D, naked assistant and whippets or not. BTW, which gender are those assistants? I wouldn't want to add to the serious problem of gay nuptiality this country is experiencing. I saw on the news page that the constitutional amendment barring gay marriage died in the Senate, so the problem may get worse, At least the degenerate godless wastrels who voted against it twill be properly exposed in TV ads in the next election cycle.
Another thing that is bothering me, are we talking whippets as in chocolate covered marshmallows or whippets as in really fast skinny dogs ? Frankly, I can't see how overly sweet cookies or a crateful of frantic dogs could help me write anything.
I enjoyed your Hazel story Mudge. This was before I was born but this storm hit the East coast so much North as to have an effect in southern Ontario where a few people died in floodings caused by Hazel.. The Van D piece is indeed a masterpiece that the local rags would never publish. A rare twister landed around my place a few years ago, all the local papers got busy reporting the same tired clichés for about a week.

Ha, ha. Some of the UW folks say that Seattle will be even cloudier (inconCEIVable!) due to the predicted climate change - less snow pack in the mountains, so we'll have less water, too. Not less rain - but less water in the reservoirs that collect it from melting snow in the mountains. Well, that's just peachy, isn't it? And why can't we collect the rainwater, for Pete's sake? I have a rain barrel, but that only lasts a couple of days (and it has a very slight drip).

Enjoyed the camel poems - but I had to look up "Bactrian" - had no idea what it was. I am scum.

Bactrian camels are very large surprisingly cold hardy animals. The Quebec City zoo had a pair living outside all year around and it's a darn cold place in winter. Their sunken pen would fill with snow during the winter, so you could actually feed them from your hand over a wall that would have been 6-8 feet tall in the summer. They have a beautiful coat in winter but it turns ratty in sunmmer, pretty much the same as the prairie bison.

Where was your rare tornado a few years ago, Shriek? We had one in LaPlata about five years ago, 6 miles from my house. (actually it was a path about 25 miles long, all across Charles and Calvert counties in Merlin.

Did somebody already post this video of "The Evolution of Dance"? Because it is hysterically funny. (Apologies and self-effacements galore if this was a re-post.)

http://gorillamask.net/evdance.shtml

*apparently talking to myself*

&^%$#&^%, "Long, Hot Summer" just started on AMC and it's time for bed.

Ahhh...life is good. School has been out for two weeks. We took our annual family foray to Wrightsville Beach for a week and are now in the throes of home projects. The cable system here does not carry any station that televises the NHL playoffs, so I've been in this state of withdrawl for the past three weeks. Thank goodness for the internet for now I've discovered the pleasures of blogging and listening to NHL radio online at the same time. I thought that our computer was LD or something as it has trouble handling more than one task at a time. The global climate must have affected the Carolina Hurricanes, 'cause they're red hot. Of course it helps if the opposition lses their first line netminder. I haven't read the Shafer/VonDrehle article about Hugo, but I was rousted by the storm, with rain coming through my window horizontally, at about 1 a.m. the night it passed thruogh Charlotte. I lived in Plaza-Midwood at the time with my brother. Long story short, we had no idea what was happening as the local news forecasted only gusty winds for that evening. I went back to bed at about 3 and was lucky enough to see the eye pass amongst all of the fireworks from the pole transformers that were failing about the city. I awoke again after sunrise to get ready for work and I thought it would be a good idea to see if the opening of school was delayed. I had no luck reaching anyone with the Char-Meck SD and finally got someone on the lint at a local radio station. The DJ was incredulous at my query and asked me if I had been outside..."School is cancelled, along with everything else...".
When I ventured outdoors, three 4 ft. dbh oaks were down within a block of our house. The roads into the city were impassable. I got 60 lbs. of ice on 26th street, we packed a couple of coolers and bought all of the camp food we could at an outdoor store in Myers Park. By then we were quite aware of the devastation. My Dad and stepmonster were out of the country, fortunately, as a tree bisected their roof and sent a 4x8 piece of sheetrock onto their bed. We spent Monday through Wednesday cinching things up. On Tuesday I temporarily liberated a pump from around the block (while nobody was home, I thought)to pump out the crawl space. When I returned it, I discovered that everyone in that house was deaf. I couldn't have explained myself better. On Thursday I packed a Playmate with enough entertainment to take in qualifying at North Wilkesboro. The trip was like driving through Mecklenburg County as there were countless trees down. So much for my two bits. My wife and I are off to a Havanese dog specialty show this weekend near Harrisonburg, Fishersville (the Skyline K.C. is sponsoring the event at Expoland) and the Rockingham County Fairgrounds to be exact. I'm off to finish the mudding job I started in the kitchen, in order that I may paint on the morrow.

Maureen Dowd wrote the following in the op-ed that appeared on May 31 in the NYT, and tonight there is an answer about who the unnamed soldier is:

"An American soldier was killed in the blast that killed the CBS cameraman and soundman and injured Ms. Dozier. But more than a day after we knew everything about the CBS victims, no information had been released about him.

"There is a tragic anonymity about this war. Kids die but we don't know who they are, other than their names, which turn up in small print. They do not touch everyone's lives because, without a draft, they are not drawn from every part of American society. The administration tries to play down any sense of individual loss; the president has not attended a single funeral, and the government banned pictures of their returning coffins. The Iraqi civilians who die don't even get their names in the small print."

The soldier is James Funkhouser from Katy, Texas. The family had hoped to settle in New Braunfels after Funkhouser was through with his military service. Funkhouser will be buried with full military honors on Friday morning in San Antonio's Ft. Sam Houston cemetery.

http://www.katytimes.com/articles/2006/06/06/news/01news.txt

Linda: Some of my students have already served in Afghanistsan and Iraq. One of them took a head shot and will never be the same. I can't begin to state my outrage over this episode. I always thought that war was much too serious to have reached the state of affairs we now witness on a daily basis.

SCC: Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/06/science/sciencespecial2/06dawk.html

SonofCarl,
A new book, a collection of essays, about Richard Dawkins and his grounbreaking 1976 book, "The Selfish Gene." Nick Wade wrote the article.

Dawkins wrote some intriguing grafs about Colin Powell and race in his latest book, "The Ancestor's Tale"--intriguing in the fact that Powell agreed to be photographed with a group of Black men and one young Black boy for the newest, year-long series at the WaPo about what it means to be a Black man in America. Perhaps I'll share them tomorrow, as they're food for thought.

Cassandra, ment to post this earlier when you were looking for inexpensive ways to entertain children. One of the best solutions in my house is a big empty box. If the box is large enough and strong enough we can get months out of it. The kids decorate them with paint, markers, stickers, play in them, use them as slides. I could not buy a better toy.

Big news from Iraq. Maybe we now declare victory and leave?:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/08/AR2006060800114.html

One would think this will merely redouble insurgent efforts to tear apart this artificial country.

Bush will make a big deal about this, but all it will do is draw attention to the terrible mess he has made.

He doesn't know what he is doing.

dmd--

Your comment reminded me of how, when I was a child, children used to amuse themselves and each other with NO EQUIPMENT WHATSOEVER. Not even a park. We played in the neighborhood, we had elaborate fantasy-based games ("you be Batman, and I'll be the Joker!") Red Light Green Light, Mother May I, Freeze Tag, Wall-to-Wall Tag, Hide and Seek. And if you had a jumprope or a ball, then the possibilities expanded (remember Chinese jumprope?). If you had "woods" well, then, you were set. (And didn't most people used to live within walking distance of woods? Everybody I knew did) Clubhouses from found materials, endless exploratory expeditions, secret hideaways. It all seems impossibly quaint and old-fashioned now.

War by assassination? Keeping score by body counts? I'd rather mark progress by more positive signs. Number of days without a death? Number of homes with electricity and running water? Number of Iraqi security forces employed effectively to police their own country? I know I'm not alone among Americans in being so sickened by this war that I can barely think about it. Declare victory and leave, it would be okay with me.

(sorry for the previous BOOO)

>>Bush will make a big deal about this, but all it will do is draw attention to the terrible mess he has made.

He doesn't know what he is doing.
<<

Bush actually was very un ebullient about the matter in his speech this morning. I think he realizes that the american people are tired of receiving false hopes, such as the cherade he put on after entering Iraw and declaring victory on an aircraft carry...he's a little more skeptical these days. No doubt this is an important achievement, but the war on terror is like any other war on an ideology, ie the war on drugs, because the more people you kill the more slots there are for people to fill. There is never any progress.

Joel see if you can find out how on earth the military went about identifying Zarqawi's body. Did you see the images of the sight post laser guided missles? There is no way you could have found a finger, recognizeable scars, or any of the other means of identification. I guess they were pretty confident he was there and blew the place to hell assuming he was in there thus assuming he is dead. I guess the answer that answers all questions will answer this one. Only time will tell....whether or not he is dead.

P.S. Imagine having the job of looking for fingers to identify among rubble, maybe it's a dog's duty these days. Im going to be checking ebay all day to see if Zarqawi's finger comes up for sale, it would go for more than his wanted ransom of $25mil im sure.

kb, you're making me smile here! Summers seemed to have "themes" when I was a kid. The summer of the jumproping, the summer of the fort, the summer of the troll dolls (elaborate houses made from shoeboxes and mom's sewing scraps), the summer of the bamboo sticks (someone's dad brought them home one day and they became everything imaginable for a couple of months).

I declare this year to be the Summer of the Boodle! But try to get a laptop and at least go out on the Porch.

He's dead.

In fact he's not merely dead he's really most sincerely dead.

I just had a talk about metrics of the global war on terror (GWOT). There are several competing ones. The first is body count as in Vietnam. This is as unsatisfactory now as it was then. The second is days without a terrorist attack. In regard to the US we are doing well. In regards to Iraq, the reports speak for themselves.

What is the true defacto criteria used to assess progress in the GWOT?

Money Spent.

Thanks for the 'official' word, RD.

(And please forgive my BOOO at 8:31)

Mudge,
the twister was in Aylmer, near Ottawa, Canada. Summer of 89, I think. The "path of destruction" was only about 3-4 miles long, so it was a pretty mild twister but they are a rarity here. It "carved a swath of destruction" too. "Golf ball-size hail" was also spotted. "Cars were damaged" but nothing I read indicated if they were finned or not.

And since I'm in a ranting mood, let me express an assessment of Ms. Ann Coulter. She is not a missionary since she will change no minds. She is not an apologist since she doesn't admit mistakes. What her books (and I have read them) do is help conservatives who are suffering from a crisis of faith. They are like those self-help books sold to religious people who suddenly question the existence of God. In the past her brilliant spins were akin to those of the most talented propaganda ministers in history. Her strategy of making the liberals seem either stupid or part of an evil conspiracy was an effective way to keep conservatives in the fold. But I believe she has over-reached. Cognitive Dissonance taken too far yields absurdity. She is starting to make Baghdad Bob look subtle.

Perhaps we both should switch to decaf.

It's fine that we got Zarqawi.

If he's really as reponsible as we've been led to believe for death and destruction in Iraq, then good riddance.

But I'd like a 90-day probationary period to gauge any changes in Iraq before declaring "Missin' Accomplished" or anything.

On a side note, I see that I'm not the only one thinking about the state of the Internet these days.

For example, these guys and Congress:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

bc

For all my cavalier comments on vacation near the Hawaiian landslide, I take tornadoes seriously. I'm a tornado magnet. Nine times I've had to take shelter (or should have), and many of those were not in the midwest. The closest--50 feet over my head in upstate New York (1 tornado every 50 years)! Took out my father-in-law's car right in front of me. The one that tore my tent apart in Oklahoma (while I was in it) was exhilarating, too, and the one that dropped a tree beside my car in Iowa.

I've read how storm chasers sometimes have trouble actually getting to a storm. I've thought of volunteering--just set my in a Kansas field with a video camera. But I'm old enough now that my immortality complex is gone.

It's fine that we got Zarqawi.

If he's really as reponsible as we've been led to believe for death and destruction in Iraq, then good riddance.

But I'd like a 90-day probationary period to gauge any changes in Iraq before declaring "Missin' Accomplished" or anything.

Speaking of "Missin' Accomplished", who do you think we're closer to finding: Jimmy Hoffa, Amelia Earhart or Osama Bin Laden?

On a side note, I see that I'm not the only one thinking about the state of the Internet these days.

For example, these guys and Congress:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/07/AR2006060702108.html

bc

Wow, weird activity with Moveable Type this AM.

Sorry for the two-version post.

bc

I'm getting whiplash from posts about war news to summer fun memories but here are my summer ideas, we took grass blades pulled tight between our thumbs and blew air to make whistles and used pine needles to weave box chains into little bracelets. No, I didn't walk four miles in the snow to school with no shoes, this was Florida folks.

I watched the breaking news about al Zarqawi on TV this morning. As one commentator pointed out, there was huge jubilation after Saddam Hussein was extricated from a hiding place, a hole in the ground, three years ago. Yet, for all the political hoopla made of Saddam's capture, the events in the ground war in Iraq have only become worse in the 36 or so months since. Ignatius' and Friedman's most recent opining on the topic of the Iraqi war paint the country as close to anarchy. The significant question is whether al Zarqawi's death will be a pivotal point in quelling both the insurgency and the sectarian violence in Iraq?

More disturbing were Bush's televised remarks this morning and his announcement that he would meet with his war cabinet on Monday at Camp David, to the effect that the group would discuss how to "best maximize the troops." More than 400,000 armed services personnel are in Iraq and a large number were recently brought in to western Anbar province. What have they been doing up until this time, playing tiddlywinks?

Caution about the meaning of the death of al Zarqawi seemed to be the buzzword of the day at NBC News' morning show. Good word. And Matt Lauer seemed to ask the hard questions immediately after the show kicked off. Does al Zarqawi's death forbode the springing up of another leader to replace the Jordanian mastermind, or perhaps a dozen Hydras in his place? Our Herculean might is stretched pretty thin, as the situation new stands. Caution.

Re: Twisters. I've lived in the D.C. area all my life. We've had more tornados around here in the last 5 years than we've probably had in the previous 40. I think climate change is happening, and it is going to be apparent only in little bits and hints. Have we met the enemy, and they is us? Pretty likely, but as noted the Tempest kit, there may be other global factors at work too. I suspect we will probably only really be sure in retrospect, and maybe observing the problem from the Mars colony.

kb, my first 11 or 12 years were spent exactly the same way. We had a lot more freedom to romp and explore , the only expectation being to come home in time for dinner.

Caution indeed Linda.

But on to summer fun. Does anyone else have fond memories of summer jobs? When I was a lad I worked picking raspberries. We were paid by the flat. I earned enough money to blow on the Western Washington State Fair despite being constantly distracted by female teenaged pickers in halter tops. Although it was hot work, the simplicity of it seems so pleasant to me now. The smell of the berries. The perpetually stained hands. And did I mention the halter tops?

This news alert came across my desk this morning concerning climate change and how some experts may be being silenced by the government.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_4759358,00.html

RD, when I was old enough, I did the summer camp counselor thing. That's why I didn't go into elementary education; I knew I wouldn't do well there.

As a kid, I enjoyed playing in the park that was a couple of blocks from home. Like many urban parks, it was created from land that wasn't deemed suitable for buildings houses. There was a creek running through the property, and playing in it was the most fun of all. Of course, the Parks and Rec Department has now put the creek in a culvert and covered it up. What a shame.

I'll take a stab and say we're closer to nabbin' OBL. It's hard to find bits and pieces of human remains that have likely disintegated or have been incinerated. And no internet tolls - cool. Congress recently rescinded the Fed Communications Tax slapped on landline toll calls which was instituted in 1898 to fund the Mex-Am War - so we got that going for us too...

Good morning, friends. Boy, am I late. RD, your take on Ann Coulter is one of the best I've heard so far. I truly believe that woman needs some sugar. Thanks, dmd, I have a huge box, now if I can just get the grandchildren here. Mudge, what a sweet suggestion, but I'm content just talking and admiring. Been for the walk, now I'm getting ready for a meeting and I believe I'm going to be sooooooooo late. Today is the day I talk to the elderly gentleman about times past. I am looking forward to that. Please remember today, and always, that God loves you more than you can imagine through Him that died for all, Christ Jesus.

Will the death of this enemy in Iraq improve George Bush's numbers? Did anyone hear the interview of Nicholas Berg's father on CNN this morning where he compares Bush to Sadaam, using the criteria of violent deaths? I believe he smoked Soledad.

Wow - Linda Loomis. Haven't heard from you in a long time but it's been a year since I've blogged this blog. Joel once told me, via blog, "You're no Linda Loomis". I took it as a compliment...

Anyone remember the tornado that passed through Fairfax in 1973? April Fools' Day to be exact.

Tore the roof off our high school and we completed the year sharing a neighboring school: they went early in the day and we got the afternoon shift. Heaven for teenagers.

One of the best cliché images all the papers loved was the picture of the Fairfax Christian School bus plowed into the glass window of the state liquor store ("The ABC Store"). Churchgoers thanked Virginia's blue laws for saving lives, since nothing was open on Sundays back then.

(RD and his neighbors will complain that it was the last renovation my old high school has had.)

Since we are in buckshot mode let me relate another silly anecdote similar to what slyness posted. Across the street from our house was a wooded shallow lake caused by a slow moving creek. We called it "the swamp." My two brothers and I spent many a happy summer afternoon constructing rafts made mostly of old doors and cardboard. The stupidiest of us always ended up testing these rafts. The worst part was explaining to my mother why my shoes were always soaked.

TBG. You mean there was ever any renovation?

Our neighborhood street flooded when it rained. We'd tie string to sticks and "fish" in the gutters; have "boat" (scraps of wood)races and wade and slosh through the water. We played Tarzan, cowboys and indians (oleander bush branches are pliable and made great bows and arrows) and "Lucy and Ricky". Mother made us stay out of the sun from 1:00-3:00 p.m., so we'd sit under the weeping willow tree and wait for the ice-cream man. A nickel bought a popsickle that came in two sections for sharing. I once declared "pickle day" (stealing an idea from Tree Grows in Brooklyn). Everyone got a pickle and sucked on it until the insides came out and the skin was tough and leathery. We put on variety shows on the back porch, lip synching from Mother's Andrews Sisters records, tap dancing (the nuns at Ursuline taught us the Tea for Two Soft Shoe)and doing impressions of movie stars - my Marilyn Monroe was a real hoot).

Bush's words about the upcoming war cabinet meeting: "Together we will discuss how to best deploy America's resources in Iraq and achieve our shared goal of an Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself and sustain itself."

Or, in other words, how many troops can we bring home before the midterm elections?

I remember my first summer job home from college. It was a job I got through the Mexican janitor at Atlantic Richfield, where my father worked, just about the time despair set in about not finding a summer job to pay for college expenses. I worked in a sugar beet testing lab for Spreckle's Sugar. From 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. The East Bakersfield operation took place in a tin shed. A truck would start at Los Banos and collect beet samples at many stops south and so on to Bakersfield. Guys with machetes would top the beets and each batch would be pulverized to form a mash. We women would have to bend over, from the low point where the mash got blasted out onto a small tray and pick up enough of a sample to attain a certain weight. There were 10 samples per tray, and the trays would be cooked in boiling water for a given amount of time, then each sample measured for its sugar content. The farmers would be paid for their yield based on this representative sample.

The first hour on the job I wanted to quit. After four hours on the job, I wanted to quit. After the first night I wanted to quit. After the first week I wanted to quit. But the job paid union wages. After the first month I wanted to quit, especially when the nitrate in the beets was starting to turn all the lines in my hands black. I was tired of the rubber hip boots and apron in the 90 degree nighttime heat. But I wanted college more. I learned perseverance and stick-to-itiveness, that's for sure. It made college all the sweeter.

I hate to think of the summer memories of my own children.

"Well, one time I got to level 12"

I've tried locking them outside, but they always find a way to sneak back in.

re: Berg. Sad story indeed but one wonders why, outside of military and diplomatic assistance, one would travel into harm's way in the first place. Can't blame W for one's own actions which resulted in catastrophe. Reminds me of Harry Truman of Spirit Lake, WA. And I suppose his death was Jimmy Carter's fault.

I guess I could still be considered a kid, in part b/c i do have a summer job (the still in school thing also helps). Unfortunately, it has been raining for the last two days, and I had jury duty the day before, so the summer job (mowing lawns) has been on hold this week. Which is unfortunate, because no work means no money, and college loans loom.
I love working though. I get to be outside all day, I have flexible hours, and the pay (for a summer job) is pretty good.

re: Ann C. what a --fill in your word of choice here--. Reading her comments about the 9/11 widows, I find it hard to believe that someone could be that heartless. I noticed that Hillary ripped her a new one yesterday. Good for her. i'm not sure that a switch to decaf would really help, but it couldnt hurt. maybe she should spend some time at Gitmo, help her gain a new perspective.

For Cassandra and the kids:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze_Tag

Perhaps clouds will become a little less hard:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cloudsat/main/index.html

One of my favorite memories involves a game with a politically incorrect name: Smear the Queer. At the time we all just thought queer meant a little weird. The story: Only one friend in the neighborhood had a football and he went on vacation one summer and took the ball with him. My father overheard us that Saturday morning talk of putting together our allowances to go buy a football but alas we didn't have enough. A few minutes later my dad came outside with a small towel rolled up and tied tightly together with a soft twine. At first we thought this was just stupid but we decided to give it a try. There weren't enough of us that day to play a good game of football, and we were an odd number, so smear the Queer it would be. We had more fun that day than we ever had before playing that game that forever after we played football with the football (when friend came home from his holiday) and Smear the Queer with bath towel. That put a really big smile on my fathers face.

More ideas for Cassandra. Get enough boxes so that each child has his/her own. Let them decorate their own individual box, using pictures cut out of a magazine, drawing an outline of their hands with a colorful marker, or drawing anything they like on it, rainbows, flowers, trees, sun, paste on gold stars, etc. An empty Quaker Oat Meal box and a wooden spoon. Poke a hole in each end of the box, tie a string through the box and around the child's neck, voila! You've made a drum.

whipping out my lifetime membership SCC card.

Was on an Achenvacation... I saw two questions in the flyblog I wanted to answer:

A bea C, testesterone doesn't get "cooked out" because it's a steriod hormone-- it's structured similarly to fat, and is much more heat-stable.
Stuff that degrades during cooking tends to be protein and, if burnt/blackened, carbohydrate (sugar).

And how did Joel's article improve your ability to do the smackdown on a fly? Simple, you have to go right over the fly's head at least 1 foot above-- flies still are bugs which mean they're as nearsighted as damnit.

In position? The fly still rubbing his hands in glee at the feast around him? Now bring your swatter right down. You have to be very careful not to move it laterally at all or the fly will sense the motion and take off to the opposing side.

BAM!

Another way is to sneak up as above, fake the fly with one hand and deliver the coup with the flyswatter as the fly launches to the side.

Or you could just get a halogen light. Seems like flies love to land on those. But then you have to endure the smell of fly fricassee.

You mighht consider letting the flies feast on pig testicles, though, then they'll be too macho to steer right and zip around until they smack into windows and expire of their own accord.

I was 8 years old when I was tasked with my first summer job, delivering the Washington Star. My brother and I put the stack of papers on a wagon and pulled them through a townhouse development as we delivered the papers up to the porches. The wind suddenly kicked up and blew one of the papers off the top of the stack. We both went to chase it. As we were putting the separated sections together about 50 feet from the wagon, we both watched helplessly as another gust of wind ripped off the rest of the stack. there was a swimming pool right next to the wagon and the 8 foot chain link fence litterally got wallpapered with the Washington Star. What a mess!

Now back into my cozy cupboard, to ponder why anybody would ask for whipped cream in spanish when they could just ask for flan.

Adios.

omni: The best STC games we had were always in deep snow. Better to stuff down the victim's collar and any exposed parts.

re: Berg. What comes around goes around, probably will be my head someday, but not in Iraq but some other modern-day Babylon. Cassandra S - thanks for being a witness unto Him, 9:29 AM.

Has anyone read the book Roxaboxen? It's about the "town" a bunch of kids built in their neighborhood.

The ending isn't exactly sad as it is emotional. When I first read this book to my daughter she was around three. It actually made her cry at the end.

It was the first time she'd found a book emotional like that. I knew then that I had a real reader there. Even at such a young age she really "got" what reading is all about.

http://www.alicemclerran.com/rox.html

omni, back in my day "Smear the Queer" was, as you said, the name for tackle football without equipment (later in college called "Animal Ball"), and "queer" just menat strange or weird, like you said.

It sure was a different world back then.

New kit on Zarkawi's demise.

I listened to part of Bush's address this morning, concerning al Zarqawi. I believe he thought that he was delivering an indictment to justify the use of lethal force. He spoke of the many U.S. soldiers killed by this one man, plus the afterthought of the thousands of Iraqis that he did away with; how he had eluded our forces for years; and single-handedly stymied all our efforts to rebuild Iraq, which only now could proceed, now that he is dead. And then he spoke of the "remarkable accomplishment" and "courage" of our soldiers who defeated him.

Let's just consider how this plays in the sticks: he has declared al Zarqawi to be such a mighty and puissant foe that only the unified might of the U.S. military, using technologically advanced weaponry, was sufficient to kill him, and only then after years of tracking him and planning for this moment. Furthermore, it was a remarkable accomplishment that took real courage to kill him with bombs dropped from supersonic aircraft, since he is so mighty that presumably he could have reached out with his mighty pinky and slain our soldiers at any closer range, if they had attacked with any smaller weapons.

It seems like a wiser move would have been to keep it short and simple, to declare him a heartless terrorist and criminal with no regard for the lives of the Iraqi people. A fanatic so bent on taking the lives of U.S. soldiers that he sent young men on suicide missions into crowds of children, murdering Iraqi civilians who hoped for a better life, solely to try to kill one or two American soldiers.Portray him as a rabid animal that had to be put down. Instead, we have made him into Robin Hood. How stupid are we?

Linda, thanks for the story on perseverance - sure beets the alternative.

Just fyi, I tracked down a story I wrote in 1999 about Hurricane Floyd:

ALONG I-95, Sept. 15 -- A woman paces in the rain, her hair a wild, soaked mess. She's frantic, talking fast, gesticulating. She says she and her buddy ran out of gas, they got trapped in the storm, she's been trying to call a cab. But, of course, there are no cabs running in HurricaneFloyd country--you'd more likely catch a ride on a flying carpet.

The woman's buddy is a lanky, hard-looking man who just bought a beer at the only gas station open for miles. They accept a ride from a reporter driving north through Jacksonville, Fla., on I-95, and in a spasm of gratitude the woman admits the truth: "We just got out of jail."

She says one of the Jacksonville jails got spooked by Floyd and decided to allow a mass exodus of the work-release inmates. The jail gave them each a $100 bill. After that they were on their own.

"They put us out in the storm!" the man says. "They don't want to be responsible for us!"

Floyd has changed everything along the coast, altered the rules. The storm acted like a filter, sending the most practical folks into exile, leaving behind a lot of what might be called characters. It has turned people a little bit crazy and desperate, and in some cases made them generous and kind.

It felt like a different society altogether, not better or worse, just entirely foreign. In this alternate America the most precious commodity is gasoline. You would trade your last cold sandwich for a couple of gallons. There are abandoned cars everywhere, nice sedans, yuppie cars, but with too many cylinders in their engines and not enough fuel in the tank to make it across the vast stretches of pine woods and swamps.

Police block roads into major cities. Dump trucks are parked nose-to-nose to form a barricade on the exit ramps into Savannah, Ga. The government wants everyone to leave--as most have done--and an officer says: "There's not a vacant room between here and the other side of Alabama."

Almost true. A few rooms are here and there. A clerk says up front: "We have no clean rooms." And knows that this is perfectly acceptable.

The only food for sale is at gas stations, and it is not even the best of the gas station food, only the detritus, the "gourmet hot pepper beef jerky," the fried pork rinds, the Reese's Pieces and the sticky buns.

On a road near here, Soon Larsen kept her convenience store open, but the only real food was frozen. "They cleaned me out," she says, the "they" being the fleeing masses. Two men who stayed in town survey the depleted racks with the care that might go into buying a new suit. They finally go for the Hershey's.

"It's just so strange, like a ghost town," says one of the men, Dobson Washington, who works for the board of education. "It's like in the Western days, when they're about to have a gunfight at noon, everybody out of the street."

Floyd came barreling directly at Florida at the beginning of the week, then turned northward Tuesday afternoon. It came close enough to land to dismantle the fishing pier at Daytona Beach.

At Jacksonville Beach this morning, Eric Freeman, a waiter, had braced himself on an old wooden pier as the wind toppled signs, sent palm fronds skittering across the roadways and stripped the siding from a beachfront condo. Freeman had come with the vague thought of attempting to surf. He turned to a friend and said, "If we go out now, we'll wind up in Miami."

That pier lost 40 feet by noon--great footage for the camera crews--the timbers washing through gaps in the dunes, onto the low streets of the barrier island. Old wooden piers seemed to be the official sacrificial objects for this storm.

But it appears that, at least in coastal Florida and Georgia, the hurricane will be remembered not for its destruction, but for the unprecedented and problematic evacuation.

So many people left their homes that Interstate 10 was backed up nearly from one side of the state to the other. Motorists stranded in their cars, barely moving, continuously called radio stations with nightmare stories of overheating engines and increasingly insane children. The typical two-hour drive on any east-west interstate became a 10-hour ordeal. Many motorists gave up their dream of finding a distant motel room and slept in their cars on the sides of the roads.

But throughout this, Interstate 95 remained wide open, largely deserted. The storm moved parallel to the highway from south Florida to the South Carolina line.

The water rose alarmingly close to the low bridges crossing the remote, grassy marshes, the tidal flats, places with names like Cathead River and Elbow Swamp. But if you could find gas, you could keep driving, two hands on the wheel.

On Highway 17 near Savannah, there's a sign of life, a man walking outside his home, the dominant--indeed the overwhelming--feature of which is a 15-foot high fiberglass cow on his front yard.

The man is Robert Simons. He won't budge. He's 59 years old, retired from construction and has 50 acres, with a pecan orchard in the back. It's the cow that everyone notices, smack dab along the roadside. Breed: Holstein.

"Five and a half feet through the belly of the cow, and it weighs fifteen hundred pounds," he says. Proudly, he adds, "I started collecting cows in the 1960s--back before cows were popular."

He has cow coffee mugs, cow napkin holders, cow canisters, cow towels, cow everything. Why cows? "Why not cows?" he answers.

Floyd is coming hard, the wind and rain getting fierce. The cow collector takes the porcelain cows off the shelves and stores them in hampers. The big guy outside will have to ride it out.

Ha! entertaining story. By the way on an off topic tangent, how are you adjusting to the washington life or the chocolate city with a marshmallow center and a graham cracker crust of corruption as Stephen Colbert put it? Im not sure when you started working at the Post since I still feel to be a new kid in town at this blog, but I assume your lifestyle in FL was a little more laid back...Your article "disciplined sloth" would lead me to belie