Writer's Block

No mention of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker sighting in Florida?

Nice item, JA.

bc

Is it just me, or is this Kit a little ouroborosian?

[I fully expect the Achenmanipulator to eat this comment.]

[I'm assuming the singular "knicker in a knot" isn't a typo, on the grounds that the mysterious bot is one-legged.]

Tom fan -

your knicker comment reminds me of my favorite observation by George Carlin:

Why are panties plural but a bra is not?

DestructoBlog?

Who brought Weingarten into the discussion?

:-)

That's a good question, lurking in london.
Another one that boggles my mind is the phrase "a scissor" to describe a pair of scissors. [Keepin' it clean here, since I know I can count on bc to flesh out the bra issue.]

Tom Fan I pondered this at length and gave the bot the extra knicker. But I may yet take it away. Thanks.

Be careful, Joel--if you give somebody knickers and then take them away, you'll get a reputation as an undie-en giver.

Mudge ...

ooooo ... that was bad

Tom fan ...

if we're keeping it clean, why are they "apartments" when they are clearly all together?

(and I thought this was a family blog ... BC is going to "flesh out" the bra issue? sounds like NC-17-rating-worthy to me)

Mudge is laughing so hard at his joke he's about to pee in his pantaloons.

"Ideally it would be a blog that would not only terminate your web surfing but would actually blow up your computer. The DestructoBlog.

The URL of Doom. "

Please tell me that it's not the blog that is destroying your computers. Have we already arrived at the DestructoBlog? (Battening down hatches, backing up my hard drive, just in case.)

Someone in the last boodle asked 'mudge to summarize 'Studio 60'. I had done that a few days ago in my blog. For grins I also threw in a drinking game. The drinking game has gone viral after I deliberately went around coughing on a few high profile blogs.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2006/09/studio-60-drinking-game.html

As an Achenboodle exclusive (and judging by the terms of service, WaPo wants it that way) here is my summary for the second episode:

[bold]SPOILER WARNING[/bold]

Josh and Chandler get introduced to the press corps and Josh mentions that since he failed a drug test, he won't be available for the Tour De France this year. Matt decides he wants Lorne Michaels office as well as his paycheck. He also meets with his writing staff. They look like they were just released from the lock-up at a Phish concert, but they all probably used to write for Harvard Lampoon or The Tiger.

D. L. Hughley gets a scene where he gets to explain why his character is so much smarter than the entire Wayans family. Some sort of cat-fight among the female actors gets avoided.

In a brilliant piece of recycling old West Wing bits, Matt decides that nothing says hip and cutting edge like a Gilbert and Sullivan parody. Never mind that Savoyards are the only type of geeks that people who can recite 'Monty Python and The Holy Grail' from memory look down on.

The last scene is a grim reminder to the audience that we have to put up with another show of pretentious showboating by a 'shroom abusing self-important auteur in just 6 days and 23 hours.

I don't look down on ANY geeks, FWIW.

:-)

Pat, it's amazing how some MommyBloggers attack anyone and everything to make themselves feel better, no? *shaking my head*

Pat, great article on the mommieblog!

After reading your article, I looked at the comments, and remembered why I stopped reading that blog. Those are some bitter people over there!

You're a bigger man than I am s'nuke. As soon as I hear a line from The Mikado or HMS Pinafore, my eyes start rolling. Of course, that I can recognize when someone is quoting S&G or MP tells too much about me as it is.

This was a comment from Bad Sneakers (sent to me by email) that the bot held for review (let's see if I can get it through):

'
Wilbrod, my original reply to you is lost in the blogminders file. I
didn't save the darn thing unfortunately. Mostlylurking is right,
Steely Dan's music tends towards jazz but they incorporate other genres
as well. Not being a musician, someone else could do a better job of
explaining their sound. Their lyrics tend towards the esoteric. In
2000, they won Grammys for Album of the Year for their first studio
album in 20 years, "Two Against Nature," and Best Pop Performance for
"Cousin Dupree." The lyrics to this song are a good example of their
writing, check them out. They are known for their insistence on
technical perfection in their music and when they record or tour they
recruit the best musicians to play with them. I have loved their sound
since I first heard them on the radio back in the '70's. '

Yello: While I was posting about band competitiions yesterday, it suddenly occurred to me that you probably aren't any where near our area. Regardless, it was coincidental that your band and our band had quite a few things in common.

Slyness: Electronic touches aren't likely to be a remedy for arranging the presentation by you colleague. I may try to call the CFD switchboard directly and see if that strategy would be any better.

URL of Doom...hahahahahah

There's Tomfan putting me on the spot again. Twice.

Pardon me while I continue to rack my brain filling up couplets for the Curmudgeon Challenge. I'll make a point or two, I promise.

JA, I thought Mudge was a Scottish Kilt/Depends kinda guy.

Everybody's making me laugh on here today.

bc

Good summary, yellojkt. I think Joel just mis-remembered that it was you who wrote the last one, not me. On behalf of the boodlers local #467, you hereby have permamanet Studio 60 Tuesday morning summary duty.

I like the rules of your Studio 60 drinking game. By my unofficial count, last night's episode would put Hunter Thompson in a coma.

It occurs to me it should have been "undie ungiver."

The bot rejected my post this morning with Latin in it, so I shall substitute Our Mother Tongue (I wonder if it's Rome the bot doesn't like, or is it the Middle East?):

Yesterday's sky was like rare and expensive Persian turquoise--without blemish or matrix. Today promises to be the same. Seize the day!

yello ...

I think it's the ultimate irony that it's now considered "elitist" for people to reference (or even LIKE) G&S - two men who wrote what was considered "pop" comic operas.

Me, I like anyone who writes well and exercises the language, be they Gilbert, Cole Porter, John Lenon or Aaron Sorkin, 'shrooms in hand. :-)

Wilbrod,
nirvana isn't heavy metal either, it's grunge. I will do my best, although my powers of description are less than stellar:

(it appears i have no nirvana on my mp3 player, so i shall have to do this from memory, and it's been a while.)

Grunge is actually a good place to start when describing it. it's grimy, unpolished, and dirty in a way that won't go away. there is emotional depth, but it's all pain, angst, and depression. it has a sort of droning quality; the lyrics tend to be dragged out, along with the music.

I think this is probably inadequate, but it's the best i can do without hearing it. it's been about a year since i've listened to them.

Joel's right: I laughed so hard I wet my codpiece.

We need a little housekeeping here:

S&G= Simon and Garfunkle
G&S= Gilbert and Sullivan
S&M= scotty and mo
M&S= McCormick and Schmick's
SOS=only palindromic song recorded by palindomic artist (Abba)
PDQ= first name of PDQ Bach (1807-1742)

Knotted knickers elict few happy snickers.
(Better than stickers near your family-jewel prickers.)
Bot holds bad comments, stops blog bickers.
Any harm done to those with faulty tickers?
All's lost when your clever post flickers.
(For Clinton, who confessed to boxers...)
C'mon now, do you *really* wear knickers?

*conferring with mo on possible umbrage-taking*

:-)

I enjoyed watching the Saints go marchign downfield last night, no studio 60 for me.

Though I flipped over to "Dark Angel" every so often (no surprise, eh, A-fan).

Shouldn't this Kit be called "Writer's Blach"?

bc

Pat, just read your guest blog, and i thought it was great. i hope you have the sense to have a chuckle at the fools who think you could be so callous as to fake blindness for sympathy...as though electronic sympathy for an imagined condition could bring anyone satisfaction. I can't imagine how miserable it must be to live those people's lives, whereas you seem to be happy despite all your hardships.

and since we're talking about monty python today, i'd just like to remind everyone: Always look on the bright side of life.

Speaking of undie un-givers..., yes, Cassandra, I agree to bury the tomahawk. By best friend's distant great-grandfather was apparently involved in the first occasion on American soil, according to this source.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mburyhatchet.html

European missionaries and settlers took note of the tradition in the seventeenth century. French records from 1644 relate that the Iroquois visiting Quebec "proclaim that they wish to unite all the nations of the earth and to hurl the hatchet so far into the depths of the earth that it shall never again be seen in the future" [translation from Thwaites' monumental Jesuit Relations].

The first mention of the practice in English is to an actual hatchet-burying ceremony. Years before he gained notoriety for presiding over the Salem witch trials, Samuel Sewall wrote in 1680, "I writt to you in one [letter] of the Mischief the Mohawks did; which occasioned Major Pynchon's goeing to Albany, where meeting with the Sachem the[y] came to an agreemt and buried two Axes in the Ground; one for English another for themselves; which ceremony to them is more significant & binding than all Articles of Peace[,] the hatchet being a principal weapon with them."

If the phrase is of Indian origin, why "hatchet" and not "tomahawk"? It wasn't always. In 1705 Beverly wrote of "very ceremonious ways to concluding of Peace, such as burying a Tomahawk." Tomahawk variations remained popular for over a century, but eventually "hatchet" buried "tomahawk." That's not inappropriate, since tomahawk is an Algonquian word, not Iroquoian.

Though the practice was familiar early on, the exact phrase "bury the hatchet" didn't crop up until 1753. On September 18th of that year, the Lord Commissioners of Trade and the Plantations in London wrote a letter to the Governor of Maryland that reads, "His Majesty having been pleased to order a Sum of Money to be Issued for Presents to the Six Nations of Indians [the Iroquois] and to direct his Governour of New York to hold an Interview with them for Delivering those presents [and] for Burying the Hatchet ..."

Stand by--we may be getting "company." We're now on the WaPo home page.

bc,

When and where is Dark Angel still on the air? I nearly made it through both seasons during the original run, but lost interest after they killed off Kira Nerys.

Jessica Alba is easy on the eyes, but her wooden delivery would just suck the oxygen out of the room. Like Ahnold, the fewer lines you give her, the better her 'acting' is.

Pat, great guest blog over on the Mommyblog. I always enjoy reading your posts.

Please pass on well wishes to Wife of Fo4; it looks like she grew tired of the Mommyblog tantrums.

Omigosh! The Mommy Blog is SO MUCH FUN.

Pat's Guest Blog appeared at 7:00 a.m. By 7:49 someone was questioning his consistency re other posts he's made on the Blog.

By 8:59 his blindness was being questioned.

By 9:09 he's being ridiculed for his credit card debt.

By 9:25 he's called a liar.

At 9:36 he's called "a lonely exhibitionist, who likes the attention he gets here."

Here are my two favorite posts so far in response to Pat's Guest Blog:

==
Father of 4 is worse than Hitler.

Posted by: | September 26, 2006 09:59 AM
==

Drivel like this is *seriously* harming the credibility of the Washington Post. Online producers, editorial board, Len Downie ... everyone pay attention. Creating a forum for the ignorant masses to foist their weird fantasy lives on others will *not* save the newspaper industry. You are harming your reputation as a credible, intelligent source of information.

Posted by: rebecca | September 26, 2006 10:22 AM
==

Next time we have a little spat here on our Achenboodle, let's remember Pat and the Mommy Blog (another good name for a band).

A recent news story said that a historical researcher has found that Mozart took notes on musical ideas that came to him, and that he kept something of a library of this material, drafts of his compositions, etc. He regularly drew on this stash. So a lot of his "genius" was in fact attributable to his being superhumanly well organized. Maybe he could have been a fine writer. Perhaps Mozart's modus operandi was less different from that of Beethoven (an energetic reviser) than had been thought.

Several weeks ago, Science magazine's cover image was from Mars, taken by a rover.

I still want to write something about my Uncle Chet, but it will have to wait. In the meantime, I'd like to offer a quotation of his which was mentioned in his funeral service. I think Pat may find something in Chet's attitude with which he can identify: "Blindness isn't a handicap. It's a damned nuisance!"

Hey.. did you all see this? Pretty cool....

Washingtonpost.com Wins National Emmy Award
From Staff Reports
washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, September 26, 2006; 8:59 AM

Washingtonpost.com won its first national Emmy award Monday night for its video coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

The award was accepted by Travis Fox at a ceremony in New York. Fox, senior video journalist at the Arlington, Va.-based Web site, explored issues including life in flooded New Orleans and the return of residents to Jefferson Parish, a suburb of the city.

The award, for "outstanding achievement in content for non-traditional delivery platforms," was the first of its kind for original video journalism created specifically for new media. Other nominated documentaries were produced by the Web sites of the New York Times, MTV and National Geographic.

The award affirms the "power and potential of multimedia storytelling on the Web," Jim Brady, washingtonpost.com executive editor, said in a statement.

Washingtonpost.com video journalist Ben de la Cruz won a local Emmy award earlier this year for a series of video reports about homeless people in Washington, D.C.

Pat, nice post over at the mommy blog.

Didn't they ever hear of the concept of imaginary friends?

Truly great writing is distinguished by the lack of words in print . . . I really like this idea. I may try to sell it to my boss. Actually, the longer I write professionally, I've found, the fewer words I use, and the simpler my choices. Obviously this doesn't hold true for my posts, however, which may explain why the Bot randomly holds my comments. It is for my own good.

Pat, great job on the MommyBlog. Those folks are unbelievable. While I expected some kind of sniping, it never occurred to me they'd accuse you of making up being blind. Interesting that they have no problem believing in the four kids.

Please don't use the DestructoBot on the Boodle while I'm at work. Our IT guy already insists that anything wrong with the computers is our fault -- I'd hate to justify this bias.

Speaking of which, all you Computer Scientist Friends, two different employees in our office, with two separate computers, each had a different computer problem last week. IT guy came up, tried a couple of things on each computer, couldn't figure out what was wrong, and told both people that he'd need to take apart and rebuild their computers. Is it reasonable to do that as anything other that a last resort? Is it likely that two completely separate machines with different problems would both need this at the same time (we have about thirty-seven computers on the system). Although one computer handles all the documentation for one judge, and the other does payroll, he didn't want to back up each computer fully before starting. It is reasonable that our entire office has lost confidence in this guy?

dr:

"Imaginary friends" on the MommyBlog? No.
"Imaginary fiends" on the MommyBlog? Oh, yeah.

Please don't use the DestructoBot on the Boodle while I'm at work. Our IT guy already insists that anything wrong with the computers is our fault -- I'd hate to justify this bias.

Speaking of which, all you Computer Scientist Friends, two different employees in our office, with two separate computers, each had a different computer problem last week. IT guy came up, tried a couple of things on each computer, couldn't figure out what was wrong, and told both people that he'd need to take apart and rebuild their computers. Is it reasonable to do that as anything other that a last resort? Is it likely that two completely separate machines with different problems would both need this at the same time (we have about thirty-seven computers on the system). Although one computer handles all the documentation for one judge, and the other does payroll, he didn't want to back up each computer fully before starting. It is reasonable that our entire office has lost confidence in this guy?

Test post. I wrote an IT complaint and the bot stopped it. They're all in this together.

Pat, great post but having read some of their comments, I'm not sure why anyone would want to be associated with that group. Makes the Boodle even more special by comparison.

Apologies. Having eaten my submission and found it tasty, the Bot posted it twice.

That Mommyblog is vicious place. You would think that Pat was The Lone Mule. But then again, nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion...

Now you know why I don't go to the Mommy Blog.

Ever.

No offense, Pat. Posting to the Mog is a bold move.

bc

Thanks Mostly and Joel for the description of Steely Dan, although I'm a bit more confused than before.

1) What instruments does Steely Dan play? I was thinking it was guitar music, with drum back-up. However jazz implies (to me) at least a horn or two, as well as a syncopated beat.

I didn't see that in the first line of the parody lyrics, whoops. (Greenies in the sky), what I did see was DEE dum dum dum DEE first line.

Reminded me of "ghost riders in the sky", without the first DEE, of course, and a few other songs I know are played on guitar.

It's interesting that Scottynuke says it starts off with a discordant chord in the original, but I just realized there was a flub the meter in the original.

"Officers of the law" would be DUM dee DUM dee dee DUUM!. Different meter, and I do see the syncopation there.

I doubt Nirvana would appeal to me if the beat is very slow and unvarying.

man, oh man - that mommy blog is vicious! i'm so glad we are civil here!

and snuke - no umbrage cuz i snortled at the comment - if i'm not being accused of s&m i'm accused of drapping myself all over bc during the bph! jeez you guys! i'm a good girl, i am!

ivansmom - i am of the IT persuasion... we don't always know what's wrong with a computer - we can try this and that and after a while it's just easier to rebuild (or reimage) the machine rather than wasting too much time looking for a needle in a haystack - a lot of this work is a shot in the dark - something just "happens" to fix something... the fault could be in software, hard ware, corrupt files, the registry (where you DON'T want to go stomping around else you crash the whole darn thing!) - i imagine all the information the user has is stored on the network where it gets backed up daily so re-imaging the machine should be a quick fix... (no one should store there vital info on their hard drive - or c: drive - hard drives crash all the time and sometimes for no apparent reason or with no warning - if you have a network, use that for storage)

oh, and pat - great guest submission on the estrogen blog!

this morning the sky was an endless sea of blue! not a cloud to be seen! everything looked bright and fresh and sharp. the potomac river was at high tide when i drove over it and the water was gently murmuring little waves...

and yes, it's likely two computers could go down at the same time for a different reason - these things are like celebrity deaths (always happen in 3's) - the last place i worked at, every couple of months one computer would go down and then 4-5 more would go down the same week - since all the computers are purchased from the same place at the same time, the theory was that there could have been a bad batch of hard drives that crashed at the same time...

(and yes, we usually blame the user for crashing their machine - we call it the ID-10-T error or a short between the user's seat and the keyboard)

and now i'm just being a shameless achenbloghogger!

About time the heat was taken off me for being the ONLY regular achenbloghogger ;).

I suppose the reason we assumed our IT guy must be making the wrong choice is based on past experience. He was hired, because he had a degree and was older, over someone who was (a) a programmer and (b) was familiar with the basis for our system, unlike our guy. When he first started, his response to almost every problem was that he didn't know what was wrong but would see what he could do. When he couldn't fix something, we either had to work around it or he'd call the old IT guy (who wrote the system and is now a consultant) and ask him. He had to stop that (state contracting rules, you don't want to know). He won't take advice from the other person here who used to work with the system. As problems have piled up his default response has become that there's nothing wrong with the system, it is working fine. When actual proof of a problem is presented, it is our fault. Last time we had email problems (can receive but not send, can't receive, sometimes can do one or the other) he called the old guy, had him fix it, then told everyone he himself had done it.

BOO: it should wait until Global Warming Thursday but chances are I will have forgotten the whole thing by then.

Those bloody facts keep propping up that silly global warming theory. From the NASA:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0606291103v1

The entire article is available as well.

mo, why have they named your country for a silly looking hat ?

From Tuquenistan,
SD

yeah, ivansmom. sadly, the easiest way to fix the majority of computer problems is to reimage the machine. this causes no end of frustration to me when i take my broken computer to best buy (which i have done now several times). no matter how many times i explain to them that my problem is a hardware problem, i am an it professional, etc, they simply wipe my hard drive and give me my computer back. ARGH!

the error mo refers to is commonly referred to as a PEBKAC error (problem exists between keyboard and chair). another major problem we often encounter is the RTFM error (read the freaking manual)

reimaging or rebuilding a computer usually is a last resort, but it often won't take a helpdesk employee more than 10-15 minutes to exhaust all other possibilities, depending on the problem you are having. the reason they don't backup the machine before reimaging is that doing so will often cause the same problem to reappear at a later date.

wilbrod, it's not that the beat is slow and unvarying, but that the enunciation of the lyrics is stretched out. i will try to remember to listen to some later and do a better job describing it, although i may forget as i have to go to class after work today.

Wilbrod, the bot grabbed my post to you regarding Steely Dan. I sent it to Joel so either it should be posted eventually or it's gone to that black hole leaving a trace of syncopation behind.

sparks - we have roaming profiles here so technically there's absolutely no reason to back up the harddrive if the user is saving data to the network where they should be... your problem sounds like it may be a problem with the motherboard, no? have they tried new harddrives (not just wiping the same old one?)

we also have the users that should just pack the computer back up in the box that it came in cause they clearly don't know how to use it...
(working a helpdesk can be a very interesting experience!)

I am far from a techie, which is why I have a Mac. Easy to operate, more than adequate for my uses, and rarely (never, in my experience), do the whole crashing bit. They tend to be more expensive, but I contend that if my Mac lasts 3-4 years, and your (general) PC lasts 2, I actually save money. Plus, the people in the Mac store are always friendly, and some (ahem), are kinda cute...

Just read over the mommy blog. Vicious stuff. I understand caution, but unwarrented, cynical, skepticism? The Achenblog rocks, be it grunge, or heavy, or goth, Steely Dan, or whatever.

From the article that SD linked to:

"...the planet as a whole, is approximately as warm now as at the Holocene maximum and within {approx}1°C of the maximum temperature of the past million years."

The second part of that statement (about the last million years) is unlikely, I think. During the major interglacial periods during the Pleistocene (10 thousand to 1 million years ago), temperatures were very warm. Sea level was actually so high then that much of DC was flooded, and the Rappahannock River at Port Royal (just below Fredericksburg) was 4-5 miles wide (flooded like Chesapeake Bay). You have subtropical invertebrate fossil faunas in the VA Pleistocene, comparable to what lives in Florida today.

Mind, I agree with the general conclusion--the Earth is getting hotter. (Although I still have doubts about the relative effects of human activity vs. natural processes.)

hey yello - was that you in the gene chat? Fo, MA?

I hate whiny lyrics... church music is whiny so I absolutely refuse, point-blank to sign church songs remotely like the music. The problem is sign is slower than speech but still faster than most sung lyrics. When you slow down signs to musical speed it's already slow, and if you slow to a church music whine it looks like you're really drunk.
Many church signers choose to repeat a sign's motion slowly in time to the music, which is soo visually annoying I can't begin to describe it.

I'd rather add in an extra sign to keep the rhythm rather than whine a sign, or just ignore the music altogether and rebuild the rhythm from the translation I do of the lyrics. This is just my stylistic preference.

Also, I have a motto-- if I forget the words, I just keep going.

I've done jazzy syncopatic renderings of church music that I don't think were intended to be jazzy to begin with.

So yes, your descriptions will be meaningful to me, although I really only know the beat or rhythm of any given music.

Please give me some tips on safe sites (no viruses etc. and I can give a shot at visualizing the music--
http://www.musanim.com/player/

I am fond of Music animation machine, they have upgraded it so it can play with any clip rather than a list of clips they had created-- that's nice, but it now requires a download, which means I can't use it at work ;).

As for Nirvana-- I had to endure "Smells like teen spirit whoooa aaahh ahahhhoooo." in HS when it was popular.

Good catch, mo.

My Chatological virginity is gone forever.

Wilbrod,

One of the coolest things I've seen recently was a big group of hearing-impaired folks (and their companions) at a Billy Joel concert all happily signing the words, "We didn't start the fire: it was always burning since the world's been turning..." in unison, "singing" along with the band like the rest of the folks in the MCI Center.

Wilbrod;

Actually, it's "Agents of the law," which I think helps the meter. And, being sheet-music illiterate (seriously, I cannot read music), I take the inital blast of sound on "Don't Take Me Alive" to be a slowly strummed dissonant chord. SciTim, bc, any comments?

mo, if you're good with S&M, who am I to object? *replacing the gag*

:-)

ah, yes. we have roaming profiles here, but only where there is a business need, as we have over 1300 employees, and the vast majority of them always use the same computer.

the problem with my computer (laptop) is in fact a motherboard problem. the power supply has gone bad (this is the third motherboard that i've fried in this thing, the processor is a 3.06 GHz P4 w/HT..runs way too hot for a laptop, honestly.) they don't believe me though. they probably have tried replacing the hard drive as well, but the problem is on the board, so that doesn't do any good.

wilbrod - i am cracking up at your description of "whining" signs. never thought about how voice modulations translate to sign language, but i sure have now. that's probably as obnoxious to you as whining is to those who can hear.

sparks;

Have the company buy you some dry ice to put the laptop on...

:-)

sparks - that sounds like a processor meant for a pc with extra heat synch capabilities - they did that for a while to make laptops more popular, but like you said, it runs far to hot for the smaller laptop enclosure and a tiny little fan...

Well, I tried to start a Mommy Blog-style flame war with my global warming post, but there were no takers.

I was one target of Scottynuke's question: " I take the inital blast of sound on "Don't Take Me Alive" to be a slowly strummed dissonant chord. SciTim, bc, any comments?"

Man, don't ask me questions like that! I can barely distinguish, uh, let me see now... 16 notes, I think. This week, I need to start learning about flats and sharps. I don't know any chords. I haven't gotten around to getting much Steely Dan on CD, yet. I think I have one disc, maybe two by now. My iPod will make it possible for me to listen to Steely Dan without corrupting my ScienceKids, so I can go there, now.

My favorite Steely Dan lyric, for the bravery to record and market a song that cannot possibly be played on the radio:

"Show business kids,
makin' movies 'bout themselves;
ya know, they don't give a (hoot)
about anybody else."

i didn't know steely dan was so controversial - the only steely dan song i know is "hey 19"... it sounds pretty much like pop to me...

Ah mo, you and your virgin ears... *L*

And I'm never going back to my old schoooooooooooool......

Dooley writes, "I still have doubts about the relative effects of human activity vs. natural processes."

Dooley, do you think the warming is not anthropogenic but natural variation? I know you've posted on this many times but tell us again what your argument is. Do you doubt that the rise in CO2 from 280 to 380 ppm is caused by human industry? Also, what do you think our policy should be in terms of carbon emissions? Trust in innovation? Think our way out of it with gadgets? A carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system, something that takes damage to the atmosphere into account when we do the books, or do we just sit around and hope for the best? Discuss.

The comments aren't working right. I apologize to everyone. Bot gone mad.

My sister said this in an email today:

A virus ate all the files on my laptop on Saturday night. It's a bummer, yes; but it runs so darn fast now!

I've been talking to some folks today about that DOE technology report that came out last week that we linked to here on the blog. It doesn't address culture. It doesn't address how people behave. And that kind of raises the broader question of whether people can and will change anything about their behavior in response to global warming. My impression is that the guiding principle of the Administration is that nothing should be done, ever, to slow the economy in the slightest or ding anyone's profit margin, and there must never be a suggestion from the government that people make any sacrifices whatsoever.

[this comment twice held for review by crazy bot.]

Sparks, imagine William Shatner doing "Rocket Man" at half-speed while swaying from a few whiskeys.
It's roughly that annoying.

I'm a latecomer to Steely Dan music. When you listen to as many classic rock stations as I do, you don't really need any of their albums. Here is what I do know and I welcome corrections:

"Hey Nineteen" is about an older guy hitting on a young college student. I don't see the scandal, but maybe that or the drug references were shocking back then.

"I.G.Y." stands for International Geophysical Year and brags about all the cool exhibits at the Worlds Fair. I'm still waiting for my flying car too.

The band is named after a sex toy in William Burroughs's 'The Naked Lunch'.

In summary: smutty, smart, literate rockers.

I hate to take us back into the religion thing too much, but when you go to church, wilbrod, consider yourself lucky that you can't hear. I don't think church music is inherently whiny -- but the way it is sung in most (white) churches is just abysmally bad.

I was "forced" to go to church as a kid, up until about the age of 17 (usually a Methodist church, not that it makes any difference). And when I was first married, I used to go to my wife's church, just for the sole purpose of keeping her company (that was//still is a Methodist church, too). And of course, I've attended any number of (obviously mandatory) weddings, christenings and funerals, where attendance is socially required. And I have to say, nobody, *but nobody,* sings worse than your average whitebread Christian, I don't care what the denomination is. Talk about your self-inflicted wounds.

I understand that many churches must necessarily rely upon some dedicated volunteer to play the organ or the piano, and but still, there's is only so much aural goodwill I'm willing to put up with. Horrible accompaniment, for whatever reason, is the norm.

Next is the selection of hymns. For probably more than 50 years it has been a mystery to me how the pastor/minister/priest selects which four or five hymns are to be sung every week. Maybe they get trained in seminary how to pick the slowest, most mournful, most poorly written, unsingable 18th century dirge, then slow down the tempo even further, and then have a hundred people who can't sing and apparently don't even WANT to sing stand up and murmur this horrendus piece of worship. (And in ever church there are always one 65-year-old blue-haired battleax soprano who belts it out several octaves and a dozen decibels louder than anybody else.) And repeat this madness, oh, four or five times in an given hour of a Sunday morning. What kind of all-merciful supreme being wants to hear this?

Now, if you want to hear SINGING, go to a black church. Black people know how to sing hymns in church. When black people go to church they have passion. They SING. They call out. Their ministers know how to preach--not some whiny, anemic homily delivered in a monotone. It has nothing to do with the theology, or the content of the sermon--presumably those are similar whether the church is black or white.

If somebody passed a law and said that I HAD to go to church every week, I'd go to a black church, absolutely no question, even if I was the only white guy there. Among other things, it'd be the only way I can stay awake for an hour under those circumstances. (When I go to a wedding or a funeral, and among the crowd there happens to be one or two black people, who are there because they are friends of the family, or the bride or groom or whatever, I often wonder what they must be thinking about white people's church services: "What in the world can these people be thinking?" And they'd be dead right.)

Yes, somebody here will surely point out that sometimes some hymns are keyed to an event in the church calendar--Easter or Christmas, for instance. Fine--that's maybe 10 percent of a year. So how are hymns chosen the other 90 percent? I figure it can only be the dartboard method.

I used to go to my wife's church's Christmas Eve 11 p.m. or midnight services, partly to keep my wife company, but also because -- religion notwithstanding -- I happen to like Christmas, a lot, and I especially like Christmas carols (caveat: if performed less than 10,000 times in a 24-hour period). But you know what I mean. "Silent Night" is beautiful. "O Holy Night" is probably my all-time favorite carol --sung properly by a solist (male or female, doesn't matter to me), it never fails to move me. Most Christmas carols are inherently bright and cheerful, and generally pleasant to listen to, whether one happens to agree with the theology or not.

One year, my wife's church retired its pastor (the guy who married us), who was pretty popular and who had been there a long time), and got a new guy named Bob (I quickly nicknamed hiom Maximum Bob, because of his interminable, droning sermons, 25 or 30 minutes long sometimes). I went with my wife that year to the midnight Christmas service--and ol' Maximum Bob had canned all the usual "traditional" Christmas carols, and substituted a bunch of new/different/obscure ones nobody had every heard of. Yes, they were all in the hymn book; they were clearly the "B list" carols, the second string, the stuff nobody sings, for the obvious good reason. What was this man thinking? I've never gone back on Christmas Eve, even for my wife's sake, because what's the point of me sitting there next to her and grumbling and cursing under my breath for an hour.

I don't agree that church music is inherently whiny or bad--jeez, just listen to something magnificent like Handel's Messiah. The song "Amazing Grace" is, well, amazing, and it's actually pretty hard to sing it badly--it's almost church-proof. About 30 years ago, a group called Missa Luba put out a record singing the Catholic Mass set to Congolese rhythms that just knocks your socks off.

That's the kind of stuff I'm truly sorry you are missing, wilbrod. But the Podunkville Presbyterian Church droning out "Whither Hast Thou My Shepherd Passeth By This Way Thithereth And Yon" --not so much. Waaaay not so much.

OK, end of rant.

Nice try at rabble rousing Dooley and Joel, but to get a really vehement reaction the better way to phrase the question is:

Do rising carbon dioxide rates mean that working mothers love their children more or less than SAHMs?

One of my favorite Steely Dan lyrics, from "Cousin Dupree" spoken by the young girl (cousin) that he is trying to hit on, "the dreary architecture of your soul." They do have a way with words.

Rabble rousing?

I don't think yellojkt is either yello or a jkt.

I think he's just trying to gain sympathy from the Tarheel contingent here by pretending to be something he's not: a rambling wreck.

Hey, I finally got one past the bot!

I agree with you on the music selection. I know there are actual hymns out there with decent lyrics. I have preacher friends who probably just pick songs based on relationship with the readings or sermon (as the sermon goes, so does the songs). One is a third-generation preacher so has a fondness for the songs learned growing up. I just assume a lot of these white churches have pastors from preaching families back to when codpieces were fashionable.

I got handed a song about coming to harvest home, and I signed it ever-so-slowly with a lot of operatic mouthing (basically making fun of how a hearing person would look singing it-- you know what I mean), and glory be, I didn't have to sign it after all.

http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/c/c349.html

This, I see, could probably be sung quicker, but who wants to be jolly about the wicked tares being thrown in the fire?

There are many newer hymns out there, but you know-- royalties, etc.

In fact there's a hymn-writer that a friend likes that actually isn't too bad.

I just rewrite hymns as I like 'em. And I agree with you about black churches vs white churches for singing and sheer spirit.

Buried, Loomis. And thank you for your answer to my question, JA and KB.

And how 'bout them Saints!

*not having watched one second of the game, I thought I'd just jump on the bandwagon*

:-)

OK, I finally broke down and tried to look up "ouroborosian" in the on-line dictionary, and it wasn't there. Achenfan or someone will have to let us in on it. Never was a big Steey Dan fan. Kinda jazzy/New Age stuff that didn't really stick. I really don't pay much attention to today's "rock". Guess I'm stuck with my Big 100.3 "classic rock" stuff. I know, I know! But then again I remember Bill Haley doing "Rock Around the Clock" on the Milton Berle TV show, too.

Scottynuke,
When the Saints come marchin' in...

;). Good for them playing in N'awleans, although I suspect they'll eventually wind up being the Baton Rouge Saints eventually.

"Good for them playing in N'awleans, although I suspect they'll eventually wind up being the Baton Rouge Saints eventually." Actually,they are more likely to become the Los Angeles Saints. The NFL desperatly wants to get back into the LA market. The Saints, and some other teams in small markets, are considered fair game.

I'm still trying not to panic over sd's link. I mean I own an ocean front property, and I might have to panic and sell fast.

I always liked church singing. It was the one place where no one ever looked at you funny no matter how bad you were. They might think you should shut up, but hey it was churh and people usually have manners in church. The song I always remember? A recessional hymn, a joyous celebration of a song, called "Now Thank We All Our God" I used to think it meant that we were happy to finally leave.

ebnut--
ouroborosian is an adjective based on the Ouroboros-- that mythical greek serpent-like creature that eats its own tail, like a mobius strip, and that encircles the world.

For some reason I want to say Midgard, not the world, but that's Norse mythology (banging brain to reboot it-- going offline now.)

John Finstein did a whole riff this morning on WaPo radio to the effect that even though Ted Benson may want to move the Saints to another city, due to the Katrina thing he's pretty much stuck there. And, says Feinstein, the NFL is extremely image-conscious, and wouldn't let him move; they'd let somebody buy him out first. In short, the Saints are irretrievably tied to the city for the foreseeable future.

Cursing under your breath in church Curmudgean ? That's bad. You will burst into flame one day.
I would suggest you to wear asbestos undies nexty time you go to one of Maximum Bob' marathon.
Speaking of which, from Elmore Leonard's website, a bit that should bring much merriment to LindaLoo.

bold/Is it Elmore or Ellroy?/bold
This happens from time to time:

In the Petaluna Argus-Courier

Cinema toast

By GIL MANSERGH
New releases

The Black Dahlia (R)

Josh Hartnett, Scarlett Johansson, Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Mia Kirshner. Directed by Brian DePalma.

A-list actors and director raise the bar on this one -- perhaps a bit too far. Based on an Elmore Leonard novel about a real murder case, it wants to be this millennium's "Hollywood Confidential," but even doused in the director's signature gallons of blood, L.A.'s most famous unsolved murder remains confusingly unsolved:

Thanks, Wilbrod. I thought the term had something familiar about it. Been way too many decades since I studied any Greek mythology.

ebtnut, perhaps you can help me. Hubby and I were disscussing train speeds the other day, and the question came up, how fast did the old steam locomotives go?

tbg, those are fighting words.

I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech, and a hell of an Engineer
A Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva, Helluva Engineer
Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear.
I'm a Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an Engineer

Oh, if I had a daughter, sir,
I'd dress her in white and gold,
And put her on the campus
To cheer the brave and bold.
But if I had a son, sir,
I'll tell you what he'd do--
He'd yell: 'TO HELL WITH GEORGIA!'
Like his daddy used to do.

Oh, I wish I had a barrel of rum,
and Sugar three thousand pounds
A college bell to put it in,
And a clapper to stir it round.
I'd drink to all the good fellows,
who come from far and near.
I'm a Ramblin', Gamblin', HELL OF AN ENGINEER!

I know a woman in college that would regularly switch the genders in the second verse and yell "HELLUVA PSYCHOLOGY MAJOR!"

And the comment bot must be a Ramblin' Wreck as well, because every single "helluva" made it through.

First thing, hats off to the Boodle. Many of us visited the Mommy Blog to support Pat. I keep telling you those people are crazy. You can't even call it umbrage, what they take. There does, finally, thanks to the Boodle, seem to be a consensus that maybe Pat is actually blind. Very funny, yellojkt -- just watch out your face doesn't get stuck like that.

All right now. I admit the truth of Mudge's rant on church singing. That said, I've been a professional church musician for a long time and it IS possible to find good music, even in a white church (yes, black church music as a whole is better). Hymns are often chosen to match the readings or sermon topic. Although there are many lovely hymns in most denominations it is sad, but true, that there's a lot of lousy stuff out there. Same with choir anthems. I call a lot of it "people of God" stuff; that is, stuff that sounds like pop music which, theoretically, anyone can sing. Gosh darn it, people could sing the good old hymns with melody, too, and what's wrong with having a choir that can learn something good? Grumble.

Mudge, if you're ever in Oklahoma City, I'll sing you "Oh Holy Night" unaccompanied in the Capitol, under the dome. I do it every year. There's a significant reverberation, about like the National Cathedral or Shrine (I used to sing both places) and it sounds great, if I say so myself.

I've tried to post this a few times:

Wilbrod, I love it -- "if I forget the words, I just keep going." That's my motto too. It is easier when you're not singing in English, but in a pinch any combination of vowels and consonants will do.

The worst thing is, it isn't rejected or held for ransom; the Bot just says "you must post a name and comment".

I'm invisible!

I must use this power only for good.

I'd really like that, ivansmom. Don't get out that way much, unfortunately. You've sung it here in the Nat. Cathedral? Any encores planned?

One of the nice things about attending a synagogue is that the music is led by a professional, the cantor, so all us bad singers who don't even speak the blasted language can do our best to sort of hum along. That said, it can occasionally be a bit hard on the ears to those of us who grew up with Western European pop and classical music. The musical "assumptions", for want of knowing the proper terminology, are different from the music I grew up with. Chord progressions go someplace different, and more surprising, than what I expect. It takes a little getting used to. A lot of the liturgical music is modern (Craig Taubman's music for many of the prayers is particularly popular with our cantor), but there's still a substantial heritage from Eastern Europe and from the Mediterranean. I've come to love it. Among singing by non-gifted amateurs, I don't think that I have heard much that is more beautiful or haunting than the Shema, the Call to Prayer.

The Achenhog seems to take umbrage at starting a post with the name of another boodler. I've had to rewrite a lot of introductory sentences to tackle Soc, etc. at the end of the first sentence.

I think Mudge gets a free pass by the AchenHOG though. Yes, ivansmom it's so important to keep the rhythm and flow going.

While living in Portland, Oregon, I had the good fortune to be a member of a church full of musicians--professional and otherwise. There was some badly sung music, but hardly any bad music.

On an entirely different subject, Nature magazine just published this online:"IsUS hurricane report being quashed? NOAA scientists say political appointees blocked climate change message." I don't have access, but I bet the Post's diligent reporters are already making phone calls.

Back to the Mommy Blog for a minute. That place is unreal. Can you imagine Joel saying this?:

"Thank you, Fo4, for taking some of the vitriol usually directed towards me.

Scarry says it best: some of you people would crucify Mother Theresa.

This blog offers a fascinating and at times absolutely horrifying glimpse of what's really going on in people's heads."

And Pat.. please remember that what we LOVE about you here in the Achenblog is your smugness.

And when it was starting to go better, come along another a**hat, too. I'm trying to get the blog off-topic, alas.

Mudge I am with you on church music, I grew up in a suburban, white, catholic church. Not an old Catholic church with a pipe organ (I happen to love pipe organ music and drove my university roomates nuts with an album of pipe organ music I used to listen too), but a sixties era, modern, souless church. The only saving grace was that due to Vatican 2 they started having folk masses. Unfortunately some time in the late 70's there was a backwards slide in the church and they reverted to what I would call old style music, dull and depressing. Pretty much ending my church going then.

I still love some of the church music, the selection at my moms funeral was perfect, she had been in the choir and they choose the songs she liked, Ave Marie (lost it during that as it was sung by a women with a beautiful voice), Amazing Grace, and one song to the tune of Danny Boy but with different lyrics.

I am a Christmas nut and would go just to hear the music, unfortunately Catholic services on sing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day.

Ivansmom I would love to hear you sing O Holy Night, it is one of my favorites.

Let me apologize in advance for the length of this comment. Yesterday, Mudge asked for a version of Joel's "Captured by Aliens" set to music, so here's the first draft of my entry:

Universal Pi: A CosmiComic Odyssey

A long, long time ago...
I can still remember
How that Cosmos made me smile.
And I knew that if I took a chance
That I could make some neurons dance
And, maybe, they'd be thinking for a while.

But Drake's equation made me shiver
With every theory I'd consider.
Bad news in from SETI;
We humans just aren't ready.

I can't remember if I cried
When I heard the words from his widowed bride,
But something touched me deep inside
The day the Space Age died.

So bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
Enrico Fermi and Dan Goldin drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

Is science an act of love?,
Can you prove faith in God above?
Does the data tell you so?
Do you believe in Faces on Mars,
Is our destiny really out there in the stars,
Can we ever get there goin' so slow?

I can't help being in love with him
`cause the things he says make my head swim.
Callin' Arecibo for Deep Field news.
Man, I've got these Earthbound blues.

I was a lonely teenage Gainesville buck
With a Smith Corona and a pickup truck,
I knew I'd have to make some luck
The day the Space Age died.

I started singin',
bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
Henry Harris and Gil Levin drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

For 4 Billion years we've been on our own
Smell of life sharp on this wet stone,
But we still haven't learned to just let it be.
While we watched ol' Kirk and Spock
And Armstrong punched the lunar clock
The Prime Directive applies to you and me,

Oh, and while ol' Neil was looking down,
Proxmire stole Drake's starry crown.
The search was adjourned;
No Andromeda Strain was returned.
And while I watched him say "billions" in the dark,
Lennon lay dying in the park,
And we sang with candles, a time so stark
The day the Space Age died.

We were singing,
bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
McKay and Gibson drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

Helter skelter in the Vegas swelter.
The Do and Ti made a run for the fallout shelter,
Are They finally coming to us at last?
Are They landing in the back yard grass?
I looked for saucers as they went past
Unarians, Venusians, it's quite a cast.

We meditated in the crowded room
Words were spoken in and out of tune.
We all got up to dance,
Oh, but I never got a trance!
`cause the Starseeds tried to flip the field;
The logic in me refused to yield.
Hard to say what was revealed
The day the Space Age died.

We started singing,
bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
The Grays are in Roswell drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

Oh, the Humanity all in one place,
Clever monkeys adrift in space
Tryin' not to make ourselves start again.
So come on: evolution's nimble, extinction's quick!
Einstein thought about a candlestick
Ignorance is the devil's only friend

Oh, and as I watched him winding down
His body breaking but mind unbowed.
He looked for answers
And considered clues
As the conversation went into the night
Trying to get the Big One right,
He still looked at Everything with delight
The day the Space Age died

He was singing,
bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
Robert Zubrin and Mike Griffin drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

I met a Gray who sang the blues
She Assumed I'd heard some Mediocre news,
Then she laughed and flew away.
I went down to the Carbucks store
Did lots of thinking there years before,
But I didn't seem have any answers today.

In the observatories, telescopes gleamed
Physicists cried, and exobiologists dreamed.
In the cathedral his words were ringing
Made us all keep thinking
Our fragile life in the ocean of space
Looking for miracles in another place
Mirror's reflections are harder to face
The day the Space Age died.

bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
Newton and Galileo drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "Look around the Universe and it comes back to Pi"
"are we all alone in this sky?"

They were singing,
bye-bye, cosmic scientist guy.
Drove my Shuttle to the Hubble,
'cause I still want to know why
On this Pale Blue Dot I'm drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "are we all alone in this sky?"

bc

Funny stuff.

I'm gonna take a crazy guess-- Bob Dylan, "the day the music died?"

Nice!

"ebtnut, perhaps you can help me. Hubby and I were disscussing train speeds the other day, and the question came up, how fast did the old steam locomotives go?"
dr, the fastet documented speed for a steam-hauled train is about 125 mph, set by a British loco in the 1930's. The Pennsylvania RR claims 127 mph for one of its trains from about 1928, but it wasn't "officially" timed. Speeds in excess of 100 mph were not uncommon in the late steam age (1920's - '40's). The first documented train to exceed 100 mph was the No. 999 of the New York Central RR, which surpassed the century mark in 1893.

i'm a recovering catholic, as i've mentioned before, and i was never a big fan of church music, but there was a deacon at the church we went to when i was younger who had the most incredible voice. my dad (who only went to church on easter and christmas to appease my mother) used to say he could listen to that man read the phone book.

wilbrod - the ouroboros is a common theme in mythology. it is any serpent eating its own tail. in norse mythology it manifests as Jormungandr the world encircling serpent, one of the sons of loki.

This ... FASCINATING ... press release has just come down the pike from our masters:

Sept. 26, 2006

Michael Braukus/Beth Dickey
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1979/2087

MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-151

NASA ANNOUNCES NEW SECURITY PROCEDURE FOR NEWS MEDIA

Effective Oct. 1, 2006, all news media entering the access controlled area of the NASA headquarters building in Washington must be escorted.

News media accredited by the Office of Public Affairs and issued a media badge do not need to sign in at the visitor's desk, but they do need to arrange an escort from the Office of Public Affairs. Non-accredited media will be badged as visitors and escorted.

News media will be escorted to their business appointments by a NASA public affairs employee. Escorts will not be necessary for news media attending events in the auditorium.

Previously, news media representatives had unlimited access to the NASA headquarters building. This policy change makes the security procedures at headquarters consistent with those of NASA's field centers.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/home

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having escorts for non-badged persons is pretty standard. NASA is, after all, an agency of which the U.S. government and citizens are proud. That makes it a potential target, more so than merely being a government agency. But I'm a bit bothered by the precise designation of which personnel are to be escorting members of the press. Ordinary employees are not allowed to do it, the way they would be with anyone else; it has to be a member of the public affairs office.

that would be don henley, "american pie" wilbrod.

Wilbrod - Dylan by way of Don McLean.

bc

bc;

You had to sustain that a WHOLE lot longer, my hat's off to ya...

SciTim, we've had that "escort" stuff going for years, even before I joined the agency years ago. *SIGH*

I knew that once I guessed it, it would automatically be wrong, bc. American Pie, oh right that is what Weingarten analyzed a month or two ago.

Lady Chance says the dice will always roll opposite from what I choose, when it comes to music.

Whoa, bc. Great stuff!!! *Bowing my head in deference*

bc, that's great!

Ivansmom, I'd love to hear you sing O Holy Night too! The music is what makes Christmas for me. Like you, I grew up in a church with a strong music program. Although I'm not in the choir now, I always enjoyed it. We had one music minister whose tastes were a bit far out, but our current one does well. Some modern hymns are wonderful - I love 'I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry' and anything by John Rutter. I rang handbells in high school and still do it now when I get a chance. Now that is a blast!

Our 65-year-old organ is completely worn out, so we've just signed a contract (with a Canuck company, no less) for a new one. The price of a good pipe organ to last the ages? $814,000. But they promise it will be good!

bc... as Mr. Burns would say (fingers tapping against each other), "Egggscellent."

SCC: mclean, not henley. i don't know where my head is.

off-topic (isn't everything here?) the other day someone posted a link to an old boodle with a long discussion of philly cheesesteaks, and it made me want one badly. what luck! a friend of mine is visiting from philly this weekend, and has agreed to bring me my very own genuine certified philly cheesesteak! it's been probably 2 years since my last.

I think the next BPH should include live renditions of these CPA ditties...

:-)

snuke, M&S probably doesn't have enough beer for that. about the only thing that can make me forget i'm tone-deaf nowadays is whiskey, of which i steer clear for that very reason.

That was so good, I could cry, bc.

Casavant, perchance, slyness? A superior pipe organ.

Only if I get fair time for rendering Christmas carols in ASL, Scottynuke.

I guess I could even do a parody for Halloween--"Silent Night, Haunted Night" and nobody could tell, up to the "infant so tender and dead" part.

Yes, I'm going to a VERY bad place when I die.

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

Not sure if I could do Universal Pi justice, but you should hear me do "Bohemian Rhapsody" acapella. Solo.

Remind me to bring a flashlight for the full effect. (ha!)

bc

bc,

I could have saved the hours I invested in reading CBA if I had heard that song first. What a great musical summary. It reminds me of the Gilligans Island musical version of Hamlet.

Bravo!! (to bc)

OK, the boss left the room, so I can discuss global warming now.

My issue with anthropogenic global warming is not that the idea is inherently flawed--the science behind it is very solid. My issue is that none of the observed facts about today's climate is unique--they have all occurred in the past without human influence.

The Earth, right now, is almost the coldest it has been anytime in the last 300 million years. From a long-term standpoint, we're essentially still in an Ice Age; we're absolutely frigid, compared to, say the Eocene. It's almost freakish for the Earth to even have polar ice caps--during most of our history we haven't. So from an historical geology viewpoint, it's no surprise that the Earth is getting warmer--we had almost no place to go but up.

Incidentally, this means that the Pleistocene is probably a terrible time period to use as a model for the Earth's typical "climate behavior" because it is so atypical of the Earth's history.

Moreover, temperature fluctuations in the past are generally associated with CO2 fluctuations, to the extent that it's possible to examine these fluctuations in ancient rocks.

The rate of current temperature increase is apparently also not unprecedented. A glacial geologist (I think Richard Alley from Penn State, but I'm not sure--don't have it in front of me) found temp increases comparable to modern rates coming out of the most recent glaciation. He saw this as evidence that we may (now) have triggered a rapid temp increase--I see it as evidence that a rapid increase can occur under natural conditions.

So, we have what I consider a set of observed facts--the Earth is getting warmer simultaneously with other measurable changes (like CO2 increases). We have two competing (and not necessarily mutually exclusive) theories to explain that fact--anthropogenic warming and natural warming. I contend that both theories fit the facts almost equally well, within their limitations. The rock record shows lots of past warming events that are consistent with modern warming (within the limits of our ability to measure past events), while on the other hand climate modelling based on anthropogenic models fit the observed data very closely. Which to choose?

As a scientist, I say it's not yet possible to choose. Both models work very well so far to explain the observed data, and I've seen nothing that solidly rules out one or the other.

As a citizen, I say "How long are you going to wait to do something?" It could be years (or decades) before someone comes up with enough (or the right kind) of data to reject one theory or the other--if it's even possible. One thing you get used to in paleontology--sometimes you just can't tell for sure. In this case, we have choices of action:

1) Do nothing (bet on natural change). If the Earth wasn't getting warmer this might make some sense. Since the Earth IS getting warmer, this choice is essentially saying "We're all gonna die, so let's party!".

2) Assume that we are causing the warming, and try as hard as we can to change it. Maybe we can slow or stop the increase if it's anthropogenic--maybe we can even slow it if it's natural (my guess is that the warming is a combination of natural and anthropogenic causes). At the worst, we make our air cleaner--is that such a bad thing?

Note that choice A "Doing nothing" is not the neutral act it sounds like. By taking that course of (in)action you are picking a theory--natural warming. But as I already said, in my view we can't currently choose reliably between the two theories. So global warming opponents who who oppose emissions-controls based on the argument that anthropogenic warming is "just a theory" are logically inconsistent; natural warming is "just a theory" too.

As for specific policies, I think we should do most or all of the things that Al Gore has talked about (as an example) and do them NOW. Carbon taxes and cap-and-trade are good starts, but I consider them stopgaps to give time for technology to catch up. A solution to controling transportation emissions is critical, as is a move away from fossil fuels, the sooner the better (big economic and foreign policy gains here too).I think energy production needs to be diversified so we don't rely on one energy source (avoid new problems down the road). Whoever develops alternative energy methods needs to make either the energy itself, or the technology to produce it, available to the rest of the world--it's not enough to have the US and Europe be emissions-friendly if the rest of the world isn't.

I think at this point we have to have both the long-term and short-term solutions. Short-term won't help us down the road, and we can't wait on long-term solutions--if the climate models are right, we don't have that kind of time.

Wilbrod;

I'm sure you'd get a standing O for the Halloween carol! *L*

ebtnut, thanks for the info on trains. We live about half mile thorugh the forest from the main east/west track and the road home runs parallel to the track, so we see a lot of trains. There is just no more haunting sound than a train blowing its horn (albeit not at full blast) as it goes by late late at night.

yellojkt, don't think I wasn't humming the "Neither a borrower, nor a lender be; do not forget - stay out of debt." aria from that fantastic Harold Hecubah musical during breaks from writing Pi.

bc

That was stunning, bc! You've set a nice high bar for Boodle use of words, and as a rule our Boodlers use words very well.

Maybe that's why we're so nice -- we know the words.

Maybe it is just a secret code, transmitted when we were captured by aliens.

Ivansmom, I try to live up to my rep as The Jackson Pollock of the English Language.

Gotta run, folks.
Good evening to you all.

bc

There's a Gilligan's Island version of Hamlet? How do I get there?

Found that 'musical' version done by the castways in episode 4, I think. Ivansmom, enjoy.

Still haven't seen a single episode captioned, but my siblings used to fill me in on who was who.

http://www.gilligansisle.com/hamlet.html

A Casavent Organ slyness ? it will last forever if it is one of those. They make everything themselves, mostly by hand. I think they cast and roll their own pipes.

dr: re. Steam engine speed. The 100mph+ engines were rare and those were the for passenger train only. They hardly exceeded 80mph in service though. Your typical freight engine of the 1930s and 40s was designed for efficient work at 40-50mph, no more. The typical speed in the 1860-1880 (say when the transcontinental lines were established in North America) for heavy freight engines was more along the lines of 30-45mph. By 1880, some heavy engines could make "a mile a minute" but the track quality was such that it couldn't be reached in most cases.

ivansmom, oh, oh, oh. One of my Achenblog hobbies is trying to figure out what we all have in common that makes us so interested in this conversation (when, as some of us have experienced, most outsiders have absolutely no urge to check it out even after we've told them how great it is...)

My number one theory is, it's all about Joel.

My second theory: we're all mutants. Linda Loomis knows she is, and I have known for a long time that I am. Most other people are slow to realize their genetic reality, but it's very possible we have that bond here.

Now you've given me a third theory: the alterations that were made to our brains while captured led us here and keep us occupied here, who knows, maybe the very messages we exchange are codes, indecipherable even to ourselves...

Or, more likely, it's just all about Joel.

Uh, oh, time to go home! (Good, no time to reflect before hitting the submit button...)

(bc: loved that song parody)

With the greatest respect, is it possible that it is all about Joel because he is the head alien? Or the alien ambassador, grooming innocent minions? I briefly considered the possibility that he was also captured by aliens but that just seems unlikely.

Dooley, When you say we don't have that kind of time, do you mean, don't have time, period, or don't have time to adjust and adapt to the new reality?

I'd like to think we could adapt, but that life as we know it may be gone in the not too far off future.

Slyness, if you click on the Casavent link on the page you get one of our famous/infamous Canadian minutes, in this case it tell the story of the pipe organs.

http://www.histori.ca/minutes/theme.do?id=10012&className=ca.histori.minutes.entity.ClassicMinute

kbertocci -- I too have often wondered what draws the boodlers to the boodle. But today, I am also preoccupied wondering what draws *anyone* to the Mommy blog. Here are my theories so far:

1) Their regular lives simply don't deliver enough in the way of drama, angst, and rage.

2) They have deepseated insecurities about some -- or every -- aspect of their childrearing and thus have a powerful, even irresistable, urge to displace and project that self-doubt onto other parents.

3) The Mommy blog is but a flash point in the broader culture wars.

4) They are all so sleep-deprived from having small children that they are cranky on their best day, *this close* to a complete psychotic break on their worst.

5) The transient nature of the DC area means that most of these people are from someplace else, their extended families are far away, and they are suffering because their own moms and grandmothers aren't around to provide practical support (with babysitting) and moral support (with the all-important assurance that it's all going to be OK). It's one thing to know in your head that it's probably going to all be OK. It's quite another to hear your mom say it's all going to be OK. People need that. I'm guessing parents especially need it.

Though I have *zero* desire to drop in on the Mommy blog ever again, I still have great admiration for parents. I can barely take care of self, home, and dog.

Slyness: E-mail is proving to be a slow vehicle for booking a guest speaker. I'm going to try The CFD switchboard, and hope for the best. Tried to post this earlier, but was held up by the owner for review.

Halleujah! I just nailed the Asian tiger mosquito that has been buzzing in the room for the past two days, and it's a male. Good hand lens fodder.

Shriek: Just a minor quibble. Most passenger locos built from about the 1890's on were capable of hitting 100 or more. Granted, railroads did not publish schedules that required such high speeds, and factors like train length and track maintenance was certainly a factor. But railroads such as the Milwaukee Road, Pennsylania, New York Central, and Santa Fe could and did run that fast, especially if they needed to make up time. Freight trains were a different story--speeds in the 30 to 40 mph range were the norm until late in the steam age, when shippers began demanding better delivery times.

Really great job on the song, bc. In fact, so good it's completely daunted my own efforts.

Good thing I'm not a member of your church, slyness. I think I'd have a major problem with spending $814,000 for an organ. (No offense to the company [and the Canucks who build them]; I'm sure it's a fine organ. But $800K? Nobody starving in your town? No poor people's houses need rebuilding?)

bc we will have to put that in the next edition of Captured. That's better than the original lyrics by whatsisface. It's a shame the Post now owns your work but we will give you a cut of the royalties, I vow.

Karen, the boodle's exceptionalism is so NOT about the J-boy. I rarely get involved here and the whole thing self-assembled. My guess, though -- just a guess -- is that by casting itself as both humor and observations, and making humor acceptable even in dark and troubled times, this blog necessarily has attracted people WITH a sense of humor, and such people cannot long sustain or put up with nastiness. Not that we can't be obstreperous, but it's not the default position. I'm amazed when I peek into some of the political blogs how the rage becomes a constant and mind-numbing drumbeat.

Slyness.. looks like we're taking another look at Queens!

The G boy is very interested and they are interested in him.

Most recent hoop to jump through is another visit, so it looks like Little G and I are heading your way again in early November. This time he gets to spend the night on campus.

Of course, the biggest hoop (or I guess I should say the smallest as in it will be the hardest for him to jump through easily--even though it shouldn't be at all) is to pick up his grades this semester.

A quick pop-in for kudos distribution:

Dooley, your 3:44 was very well said. That's a very good way of presenting the issue for doubters. I also like the approach I've seen that takes the whole issue and changes the debate from a Cassandra's warning (not Boodle Cassandra, the other one) to a proactive "how can we make the Earth the best possible environment 100 years from now".

bc, great song!

KB... if you ever meet the other members of the family I grew up in you'll know that I am most definitely a mutant.

I love my family and all, but it's a good thing I found another mutant with which to create new mutants.

(Now, on the Mommy Blog would that be considered sexual innuendo?)

hey tbg - if gorging yourself on oysters at a christmas party is sexual innuendo than i just can't trust anything that comes out of MY mouth on the mommy blog! best just to stay here - (even tho bc just gave me a MOTHER of a tune cootie!)

TBG, ohhh yeah! Everybody knows mommies don't actually do that kind of thing that actually creates kids sometimes. ;).

Thanks again ebt and SD for great info. We were talking about the west as it was settled. Out west, I would venture to guess that less traffic, and less people equalled slower speeds on lesser tracks. At the same time, for an ordinary person, anytime from 1880-1910, 50 miles per hour would have been pretty mind numbing compared to a horse and buggy or wagon.

...thanks to all who saw my "inet sos"
and thanks joel for inquiring with
sam hill...
...it is night here and being governed
by the sol/luna celestial orbs i am now
just peering into the syncmaster 152s
screen before me...well...here goes
another attempt for blog owner approval...

Of course, the other side of the coin about the railroad business in the 1870s-90s and beyond was how often they had train wrecks, killing off 10, 15, 20 people at a clip. The shipping industry tended to kill off a really huge number of people, sometimes 500 or a 1,000 or more at a time--the General Slocum disaster, paddlewheelers blowing up on the Mississippi, the Titanic, etc., all of which got the major headlines. But railroads definitely killed more people than ships, just in much smaller but much more frequent numbers.

Kind of like autos and planes, Mudge.

Wilbrod, regarding family your history from a couple of weeks ago, I had said to check out Red River settlements, but duh...for French Canadian you need to search in and around ST. Boniface Manitoba. I've been watching a series, 'Canada - A People's History" early in the morning, and found the correct info there. And silly thing is I knew this.

Hopefully it will help you if you ever search for your Canadian roots.

http://www.shsb.mb.ca/englishindex.htm

...one final loading of the my most
fearsome comments throwing trebuchet...
which in ability to cast stones of
comments over very great distances...
...is sovereign to that English
"WarWolf" of misty lore...

I have no need to search for my roots, at least on one side of the family the genealogy goes back almost as far as Loomis' does-- 1600's. There it deadends somewhere in France. I'm more curious about modern-day cousins. By my accounting, I should have HUNDREDS if not over a thousand second cousins from my mother's first cousins alone. I vaguely recall meeting a couple hundred or so as a kid, but those reunions are no more.

I just figure I'm related to half of Canada and leave it at that ;).

If I could track down all those second cousins, that'd be a hell of a genetics project. Our mutal great-grandparents survived the 1918 flu panepidemic--- my great-gran was seriously disabled and so weak from the flu she couldn't sweep the floor for over a year without pain. She was also ambidexterous.
The descendants I do know of range all over the map-- physicists, electronic geeks, autistic, opposite of autistic, ambidexterous, split-handed, autoimmune diseases, etc.
I'd love to do a genetic trait tree for those, but will have to sound up my grandma's niece etc. for the genalogical information and the fine and long-term project of contacting perfect strangers for nosy questions on their medical histories and personality/neurological traits. ;).

I seem to remember that railroad opponents claimed that the human body couldn't survive speeds above 35 miles an hour (I'm sure Mudge has some personal anecdotes to share, since he was there).

btw... can someone post a link to the "Mommy Blog"? I swear I've seen it, but haven't been able to locate it again (WaPo only has about 5000 different blogs/columnists/whatevers). From what I've heard, they'd probably think I was Satan incarnate (we allow our daughter to watch television, we smoke in our home, we eat red meat, etc.).

There's something wrong with this picture: Achenblog finally becomes a portal and it turns out to be a portal to...

The Mommyblog!

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/2006/09/father_of_four_tells_all.html

Here go: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/

Talk about service!

:-)

Remember-you asked for it ;)

Thanks, SoC.

dr, what I mean by "We don't have that kind of time" is that new technologies take decades to be developed and implemented. If we want to avoid widespread social upheaval on an unprecedented scale, we probably have less than 1-2 generations to work with at current warming rates. Whether natural or anthropogenic, warming will cause all kinds of problems for human civilization, which has evolved for current climate distributions and sea levels. I think that, for society to survive in something approaching it's current form, we need to either slow down the rate of warming (if we're causing it), or plan how we're going to adapt to it (if it's natural). Current leaders seem unwilling to do either of these.

I don't think the effects of global warming will result in the extinction of humans (unless we wipe out everything on the Earth). But it could be very, very ugly.

Look at sea level rise alone. If you melted all the ice in Antarctica and Greenland (the condition prior to 35 million years ago), and incorporated all of that water into the oceans (not all would be) you would raise global sea level about 180 meters (IIRC). It should take thousands of years to melt that much ice. But suppose we have a rapid rise of only 1-2 meters.

In the US that puts much of the US east coast underwater. Most of New York City, Boston, Baltimore, VA Tidewater, and much of Washington DC. Also all of Louisiana south of Baton Rouge, Mobile, Pascagoula, all of south Florida, Galveston, Houston, San Francisco, and Seattle. All of these areas, which are a substantial portion of the US population, would be underwater without massive civil engineering projects. And that's just the US. How about all of the Netherlands and Bangledesh?

That's just land loss, not climate change (changes in fertile regions, spread of malaria, etc.) Another issue I've not heard discussed--35 million years ago, there was an explosion in ocean diversity and productivity. This has been pretty well linked to changes in ocean circulation due to plate motions and the development of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Loss of the Antarctic Ice Sheet could result in the collapse of the ocean fauna to a much lower diversity and abundance, and it's not clear how fast that could happen (I suspect more than a generation, but who knows). A huge part of the Earth's human population depends on the ocean for food.

Entirely off-topic...

51 Down of Balt. Sun's crossword today: Butt bit

Answer: Ash

...and in my mind I heard Sean Connery saying, "Ah yesh, ash.."

Okay... so I went to the Mommy Blog...

Holy Crappolla!

I hope my post there doesn't drag a pile of "perfect parent" invective and scorn over here, but I did kinda come down hard on them. We survived the French, but I have a feeling the "mommies/daddies" that hang out on that blog have nothing better to do than take offense and actively look for things to be offended by.

Here's what I posted as "martooni (an achenblogger)" (I'll turn in my union card if necessary, Mudge):

I'm sure that all of Fo4's detractors have guaranteed first-class seats on the "Hummer Ride to Heaven" because they're all so perfect and above reproach. I'm also sure that not a one of them ever "inhaled" or did or said or injested anything in their Wisterian-gothic lives that could even remotely be misconstrued as immoral, fattening, or otherwise politically incorrect. In fact, I'm thinking that me and Fo4 and all the other imperfect people in America should just kill ourselves so that we can placate all of you perfect parents.

I happen to be familiar with Fo4 from another blog where the participants aren't such a bunch of catty judgementalists who have nothing better to do than eat each other for breakfast. He has consistently shown through his posts there that he's a real father -- not the "corporate attorney" type who uses his kids and wife as "proof" that he's human, but a Real Dad who routinely, willingly and eagerly gets his hands dirty with his kids, because of or in spite of his disability.

But who am I to say anything? I'm just an imaginary "internet personality" you've never met who's defending another "internet personality" neither of us has met.

Based on the posts I've seen here, many of you would consider me as good a Dad as Satan.

My "better half" (how sexist is that?) and I are not married -- we live in SIN. ESS EYE ENN. No paperwork. No preacher. No vows. No more benefits than the gay couple down your street who adopted an "AIDS" baby. But we'll probably be together longer than you and your spouse.

We own our home and have a child together who we dearly love, yet, we are evil enough that both of us smoke inside our home, eat red meat, have credit card debt, and flaunt local zoning ordinances by running an eBay business and a woodworking shop out of our residence.

So sue us. And while you're at it, hurry up and call children's services because we're not perfect like you. Our USED minivan is FIVE YEARS OLD FOR GOD'S SAKE! There must be some kind of prison sentence for not keeping up with You and the other Perfect Mommies/Daddies.

Otherwise, get a grip.

Please.

Fo4 may not be the perfect fairy-tale father you're married to (not married? you shameless hussy!), but he does comes across as a pretty damn good one. I like to think I'm a decent Dad as well. I don't have the cojones to even imagine I'm perfect (and I don't think he does, either), but we try.

We try.

That said, my daughter thinks I'm Superman, and that's more than good enough for me. I'm sure Fo4's kids love him to death as well.

Do your kids love you? Or are they in it for the money and keeping up appearances?

Actually, your post was pretty standard for the Mommy blog. You fit right in, judgmental-wise! Feel better? :-)

As others had written, I think the invective against Father of Four's article was more directed against the sense we've gotten of him over these many months. He could well be a great dad, but his method of presenting himself annoys a lot of people. Nothing to do with his disability--a jerk is still a jerk.

Yes... I guess I'm just as judgemental as anyone.

My bad.

(Not that I won't do it again, but at least I can recognize my own faults)

I do get a lot more crap thrown at me because of appearances... long-haired hippie driving a 30+ year old VW Bus, tattooed, (mostly recovering) alcoholic, etc... yet I have this amazing daughter who is happy and well adjusted and at (or above) par for her age intelligence-wise and yet people (not all, but often) seem to question my parenting abilities based on my appearance -- when I read through that blog (and knowing Pat from here, and how much he loves his kids and really tries to be the best Dad he can), I suppose I did go judgemental on their asses. Not proud of it, but it did feel good.

;-)

Martooni, now I'll always imagine you as Herman Hesse on "WKRP in Cincinnati" whenever I think of you.

Oh boy. So Fo4 is annoying, therefore you have the justification to flame him, doubt his disability, and call him a welfare cheat, a bum, a loser, etc. (the gist of those posts if not the actual words)?

We don't do that here on the Achenblog. We listen to dissenting opinions and disagree, or ignore blatant trolling.

Joel, can we get "Jerk" added to the AchenHOG filter?" It's so unimaginative a word that any writer using it deserves to have their posts yanked. ;).

bc, that American Pie/AchenAlien song is just great, on so many levels.
It captures "Captured" perfectly.

I toyed very briefly with doing something with David Bowie's "Loving the Alien," but I quickly nixed that idea when I realized it might offend people's religious sensibilities (the song isn't actually about aliens). Plus I was too lazy to come up with any alternative lyrics beyond the obvious "Believing the strangest things . . . captured by aliens." In sum, my idea just plain stunk. Achensongwriting is *hard*! So, in the words of Scottynuke, tip o' the hat to yer, bc. :-)

Did you maybe mean Howard Hesseman?

I have a copy of Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha" (which is one of my favorite books, btw, though I did thoroughly enjoy "Steppenwolf").

Howard is way cool in my book, but I look much more like the bum on the cover of Jethro Tull's "Aqualung". Or "Animal" from the Muppets. Or more likely, the "overfed long-haired leaping gnome" of War's "Spill the Wine". Don't leap much these days, but I do have the long hair and belly going.

Absolutely no need to turn in your union card, martooni. Give 'em hell, kid.

martooni:
I think you may have even missed some of the worst of the comments posted on the mommy-blog. I noticed that wapo.com had deleted some of the more provocative comments, as well as those that refered to them (including mine). Just to give you an idea: think equating Fo4 with that guy a couple years ago with the funny black mustache, who didn't so much like Jews. probably shouldn't even be alluding to this...oh, and don't apologize for being judgemental. Defending your (imaginary) friend from unwarrented attacks seems to me to speak more to "loyal" than "judgemental."

Oh boy. So Fo4 is annoying, therefore you have the justification to flame him, doubt his disability, and call him a welfare cheat, a bum, a loser, etc. (the gist of those posts if not the actual words)?

Didn't write any of those posts. Not one. :-) Gotta go. My hearing dog needs a walk.

Indeed, martooni --
I just checked the photograph of Hermann Hesse on my copy of "The Journey to the East," and it shows a short-haired -- perhaps even bald -- guy wearing a straw boater and John Lennon-style spectacles. That's not the martooni *we* know!

tangent... you're right. I missed those posts. Probably a good thing as I've been riled up and looking for a fight all day after seeing the fallout from Clinton's interview with Wallace on Fox this weekend and reading Froomkin's posts yesterday and today. I just hope that Clinton's "expenditure of political capital" by calling a "spade a spade" lights an appropriately hot-enough fire under the asses of the fence-sitting Dems and Repubs whose votes will be needed to get our Houses back on track this November.

Mudge... thanks... really didn't want to have to turn my card in, but I did kinda stretch even my own bounds on that one. But Pat's one of us, so "damn the torpedoes", as they say.

Zackly.

I don't doubt that Clinton knew exactly what he was doing when he "got angry." He may have consciously let out some real anger, but I'm sure that the moment was a calculated one. I don't have a problem with that -- the thing that the Democrats most lack, since the 'Publicans beat them up with the Contract on America, is the ability to express passion. Clinton has absolutely nothing to lose in electoral politics at this point. He is a plausible free agent, a disinterested party. His only vested interest is in making the country a better place -- he's not angling for a political job (at least, not an official one). so he can afford to overtly attack the Republicans and their Fox News public-affairs wing. The Republicans are denied their favorite method of deriding a political opponent, because Clinton can't really be accused of "just playing politics", since he cannot expect any immediate personal gain. He's Teflon, now. His political pronouncements are based on doing what he actually thinks is right. Maybe they always were, but now there's no reasonable way to accuse him of pandering. He can carry the banner for the passionate lefties in the Democratic party, and tell them why they should continue to support the Democratic candidate, at the same time that the actual candidates can avoid scaring the moderates and the wobbly Republicans who can't stomach their own party's policies any longer -- "Oh, that Bill Clinton. He's such a loudmouth. Vote for me: I'm stable and moderate."

Interesting paleontology article in NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/26/science/26dino.html

The idea that the dinosaur Coelophysis was cannibalistic has been tossed around for a long time. This was based on some specimens collected 60 years ago that appeared to have baby Coelophysis skeletons in their stomachs. Turns out in the original specimens the little skeletons weren't from dinosaurs at all.

Those people on the Mommy Blog are nuts! Sure hope they never have to deal with making the "wrong choices" in their well planned lives. Talk about cannibals!
Sheesh.

Pat, that was cool that your piece got published - well done. You know you're always welcome here, and your lovely wife, too. How did the anniversary go?

yeah, martooni, lure the mommy-out-of-balance-bloggers over here. great idea! ;-)

pat, nice article. i skipped the comment section.

bc, great song.

dooley, i liked your global warming summary. for the life of me, i can't understand why the "natural theory" folks can't at least allow that we should play it safe and take protective measures anyway. it's one helluva gamble.

as for the achenblog-gene, i think people have to like (and understand!) the humor of joel's articles and the boodle in order to stick around as well as have broad-ranging interests. and civility helps...

i forgot to add that silliness is an achen-requirement. when i was still more of a lurker, i remember being like "mr. stripey, bacitrain camel, wtf?"

Good morning, friends. Pat, I read your post on the mommy blog, and I thought it was real good. I think you are a fantastic dad, and I cannot think of a better gift to give your children than your love and affection.

That said, I could not believe the sheer hate and animosity of the posters over there. I felt those arrows, and I didn't post anything.
Wilbrod and martooni, you did good. The information and the stand-up you did was great.
I don't believe I would last long on the mommy blog, that place is too rough. I've been to "holes in the wall" that were nicer than some of the posters over there.

Mudge, I read your comment concerning the music in black churches. I agree, but since I wear a hearing-aid now, I have to turn the aid completely off in order to listen to the music. If I don't, my hearing-aid goes crazy.
Wilbrod, so much of what you talked about on the mommy blog about assistive devices, I did not know. I don't have a phone for the deaf, just the regular phone. I priced them, and they are so expensive. I pay through the nose for phone and internet access. And I don't have a paying job! I tried, but no one would hire me. What you posted was really an eye opener for me.

I took the lip reading session, but did not fully understand how to do that. It was a one time deal. I wonder if I could go back and do it again? I have the hearing aid, but sometimes I'm still lost. Some days it's okay, others, not so good.

I find the biggest obstacle for me is frustration. Not being able to understand what is said, and getting really frustrated by that. I'm just sitting there, but not really getting it. And it happens so much of the time. Meetings, church, everything. And with the hearing aid there is feedback, and wow, that can be so awful. I appreciate the fact that I have this device, but sometimes it does not help much.

I'm up so early, could not sleep. I have much to do today, and I will probably be tired before lunch. Because I'm up so early. Pat, hang in there. My mother was blind, and some days were really hard, but like you, my mother did not give up. She fought back. She had her cane, and lets not forget the pistol, dressed really nice, and held her head up. She moved forward, never backward, and hardly ever talked about being blind.

I have prayed this morning, and sought the blessings and gifts of the Holy Spirit. And for you my friends here, and everywhere, it is my sincere hope and desire that I, along with you, and everyone else, come to realize that God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

And to the folk here at the Achenblog, thanks again for the books. Everyday I'm getting books, and from my heart, I thank you so very much. Your gift of books is a blessing and an expression of your love.

More about Emily Perez, this time on the front page of the Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092601765.html?sub=AR

I think one thing that amazes me about the Mommy Blog's treatment of Pat is that because he didn't mention that he is blind at the onset of his joining the "group," then he must be making it up.

It seems that they think that being blind means not living a normal life and sitting around moping about your disability.

So Pat can't see anymore. That hasn't stopped him from having a pretty normal-sounding life and that just doesn't seem to fit into their picture of what a blind person's life is like.

There goes the polar ice cap:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-09/uoaf-isd092606.php

Touching link Joel, she sounded like a remarkable woman.

dr, dmd, SD, the new organ is being built by LeTourneau. They are a young company and IIRC they started out with Casavant and broke out to form their own in the early 1990's.

Mudge, the exchange rate brought the project in pretty much on budget for us. US firms were bidding upwards of $1 million and one company could promise a delivery in 2010. LeTourneau's contract calls for completion in May 2008.

We are dealing with an aging building (the sanctuary was constructed in the late 1920's) and recently spent over $150,000 to fix a leaky roof and redo the drainage, so this doesn't seem out of line. I guess this project is an indication of how important music is to us. The church's goal is to spend 10 percent of its income on local missions and 10 percent on global missions. We're not quite there, but we're trying. Health insurance for the staff is getting us every year.

TBG, let me know when you're going to be in town and we'll get together.

jack, if you try the Website, charlottefire.org, you'll find phone numbers. Did you get my email?

Slyness, my dad volunteers on his local church construction committee, they too are dealing with an old building that needs fixing, the costs are high, but it is important to the parishoners (sp?).

This morning's sky has tiny clouds scattered over an icy blue. It looks like Mother Nature's paint job left 'holidays' behind. Some trees are tipped with red while others look like their paint has faded to a tired brown-green. Yes, I've been looking at paint chips again. Will this house ever stop being a work in progress? The kitchen is at least three weeks away from completion and our kitchen outpost on the porch is getting mighty chilly these last mornings. As if there wasn't enough upheaval, we discovered that all the clothes we had stored in the cellar (on pallets or hanging racks) are mildewed. I have washed everything I could and the rest are going to the cleaners. I did have to throw out a bunch of shoes, but then, I had too many shoes anyway. It's also an excuse to go buy new ones, and what's not to like about that?

Rare thing happened this morning, I slept until the alarm went off. I appreciate those of you that went over to the Mommy blog and gave a few words. I got hammered. I didn't expect it and was concerned that I may have written a lame blog. Now I know who my friends are, though I didn't know I was disliked by so many.

Pat, I wouldn't worry about being disliked by the mommybloggers. They are an apoplectic group anyway. We're so cool in comparison.

Face it, Pat. You're just a smutty horndog with a fake disability, and you're a financially irresponsible cad as well. Tricking that nice woman into marrying into a life of destitution and poverty and bringing four (thank goodness you're not devout Mormon or Catholic or it would be more) unneeded children into the world where they will just become wards of the state and drains on my tax dollars.

And you can't possible be blind because canes aren't strong enough to push bicycles. Come up with more coherent lies next time you have a pathological need to get complete strangers to pity you.

/sarcasm

btw, the sky this morning is a soft carpet of light steel blue.

Pat, your writing was beautiful. You could not please the folks at mommyblog.

I read the story of the young woman that died in Iraq from West Point. A beautiful story, and it sounds like a beautiful life cut so short. Can you imagine what could have been reached by this young woman if she had lived? All of our resources (young people) and money being spent in Iraq and it just not seem to get any better. I don't anything about national defense, and so I am hesistant to speak at all, yet I cannot be quiet when our young people are dying and it does not get better. I know it's war, and not suppose to be pretty, but can't we do something, can't we move forward in a positive way, can't we win this war? What is needed, don't we have it? Is there somebody, someone, that knows the answer? Can we pay them, can we bribe them, can we threaten them? What? I don't know about you folks, but I want an answer. I have grandchildren, and some of you have children, we need to step up to the plate because we have a lost to lose here. The time for quiet has come and gone.

Thanks, Slyness. I'll pop in for a look directly. Your e-maiol didn't get here; a probable victim of the spam blocker.

I'm excited at the prospect of the G boy taking a second look at Queens, TBG. It's a great institution. Maybe we can get together. I might suggest at Lupie's; Slyness, take note.

It's our 14th anniversary today. My dear wife gifted me with a compilation of music from the last performances of the Grateful Dead at the legendary Fillmore East. A great collection. I discovered yesterday that the 14th anniversary is the ivory anniversary. The closest I got was ivory coloured roses that will be delivered this afternoon. I had half a notion to get a bar of Ivory, as an attempt at levity, but thought the better of it when calculating the probabilities of the bar ending up in one of many possible oricifes.

Thanks, Slyness. I'll pop in for a look directly. Your e-maiol didn't get here; a probable victim of the spam blocker.

I'm excited at the prospect of the G boy taking a second look at Queens, TBG. It's a great institution. Maybe we can get together. I might suggest at Lupie's; Slyness, take note.

It's our 14th anniversary today. My dear wife gifted me with a compilation of music from the last performances of the Grateful Dead at the legendary Fillmore East. A great collection. I discovered yesterday that the 14th anniversary is the ivory anniversary. The closest I got was ivory coloured roses that will be delivered this afternoon. I had half a notion to get a bar of Ivory, as an attempt at levity, but thought the better of it when calculating the probabilities of the bar ending up in one of many possible orifices.

geek...double post

Lupie's works for me, jack! Great food. Wish she could expand to accommodate the crowds, tho.

OK, Slyness. I've been to the site. I'd have to guess that you're in the communications division. This almost feels like "What's My Line"...

No, jack, I'm in Fire Planning. Yeah, I've spent 27 years planning fires.

scc- "I don't know anything"

And don't know much about anything else. Excuse the spelling, and the rant, just get so tired of reading the kinds of headlines and news about Iraq. My heart just goes out to the parents of these kids. You don't want to belittle their effort or make it sound as if it is not valuable, because it is, but the killing and death has gotten to the place where we hear it and move on, and that just isn't right. We have to put ourselves in that parent's place, and think how we would feel if that was my child. Oh, folks, you just don't want to go there, you don't, because that is a hurt that never stops hurting, that is place that is so dark and lonely, you may never find your way out. The only way this war is going to get addressed and done differently is that we speak, and speak loudly. We have to do something, and what, I just don't know, but we got to move folks, and move fast. I don't mean to be a doomsday person, but we need to renew and revamp. Alone is not a good place to be in the world.

Pat, I wouldn't worry about what they think of you on the mommyblog, I hesitate to think what they would think of me. You wrote once of your fear in taking your little one to the park, I have been a fan of yours every since. I have a five year old, who is non stop active from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed, when I read your post I tried to image what it would be like to take her to the park if I could not see, or for that matter look after her.

Martooni, I am still chuckling at your reply to the mommyblog - love your honesty.

Cassandra your reply about the war is so true. I just wish I knew what winning the war would mean. Is success eliminating terrorism, is that possible. Setting up democracy in the Iraq, and by whose definition of democracy, is it what we want them to have or what they want. My heart goes out to the troops.

Amen, Cassandra, Amen!

Catching up from yesterday evening:

Joel, *when* there's another edition of Captured, you're welcome to the "bc's Notes" version here. In looking at that first draft now, there's a lot I'd like to change/add, but I'll let it stand for the moment. And thanks again for all the kind words, folks.

Mudge, buddy, I never intended for this to take the wind out of your sails for completing "Aliens by the Dashboard Light". Finish it. I double, nay, *triple* dog dare you. If scotty and I can, you can too.

*Tim, while Bill Clinton's managed anger program may or may not have been a bit of Talking Head Punch and Judy theater, I hardly think he's a completely disinterested party at the moment. Some could consider him an avatar of sorts for Hillary, who has an election for her seat coming up soon (sorry), and appears to have been quietly laying some foundations for a run at an executive office in '08.

Pat, I'm sorry you had to be subjected to that madness in the MommyFlog. As I've said before, I just don't belong in the Ladies' Room.

Dooley, thanks for the science updates.

bc

"Aliens by the Dashboard Light" -- ha!
(I can feel a tune cootie coming on already: "They were barely four feet high and felt no need to dress . . .")

Nice piece of writing by Partlow and Parker on the Emily Perez obit.

Pat, it was a lovely post. I guess anytime we reveal oursevles to the world, even virtually, we become fair game. Without facial expressions, and body language, its a whole different kind of communicating.

It was really hard not to post there yesterday when everything in me wanted to use that famous Dave Barry line, "Bulletin Bulletin, Bulletin' which is, in my very humble opinion, the best shorthand description of the vapid foolishness that sometimes inhabits that blog.

Hmm, that seems incomplete somehow.

Pat, the thing is, you know how it is to communicate without those other things, only with words, and vocal inflections. They just have no idea.

Dooley, thanks for the additional info.

That is how I feel about it, with no scientific background. Our species may survive, but our society will be very different. The whole thing just makes me feel like going out and buying legumes. Since I am still working off the legumes stocks from the last time I felt society was threatened, I shall rationally and reasonably desist.

Pea soup anyone?

sadly cassandra, winning the war will require (and was always going to require) a lot more troops and money than we were willing to put into it. occupying a country is no easy task, and putting down an insurgency is even harder. if there weren't people who wanted saddam in power, he wouldn't have been in power, and it was naive of our leaders to believe that those people weren't going to continue fighting once he was gone. unfortunately, we are now in a place where we can't send more troops without angering the american public (although they are already angry so this may be the best option), and even if we could, i'm not sure we have enough, they are spread so thin already. we also can't remove our troops, or the country will collapse in civil war, and we will be responsible for having created a terrible situation that will arguably be as bad as any of the wars in africa in the past few decades.

A-fan, I've had the same tune cootie since I thought of it.

'"They were barely four feet high and felt no need to dress . . .")'
That's a funny line.

bc

Martooni, Yeah I meant Howard Heeseman-- I tend to confuse the name with that Siddharta dude (good book).

"Animal" with some shaved body hair to show tattoos, got it ;).

Cassandra-- yes there are many products out there and a TTY is just not worth it unless you want to call 911. Because you can speak I would recommend you get a free 911-only cell phone, take that to the police station and see if they can program that into their 911 system.
http://www.securethecall.com/securethecall/

You can use relay for free if you have internet-- go to iprelay dot com and also goggle "relay services."

I do agree with you I hate paying for phone when I only use DSL most of the time.

Also, if you are doing a job search, you may want to check out your state's vocational rehabilition dept (specific for disabilities).

You generally can get internet access, fax, resume help, etc. needed to search for a job, similar to an unemployment office, merely focusing specifically on helping disabled people find work. Maybe you can contact them for further information on local associations for the deaf, etc.

http://www.scvrd.net/

For instance, in VA, the NVRAD (north VA resource center for the deaf-- deaf-run and for the deaf) lends out TTYs to in-need deaf residents for a few months at a time.
I donated an old TTY to the NVRAD as my sister found she preferred relay calls once she had a child to try and control while talking on the phone, so hers was gathering dust. I can't find out if there's something in your area like that that recycles old TTYs.

Pretty interesting story from AP about two miners who survived the Sago mine accident who have committed suicide since then. Both had something to do with mine safety. There's a lot "between the lines" in the story, though it's not at all clear what that is. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/26/AR2006092600785.html But it's clearly a tragedy that needs a Sebastian Junger type to ferret it out.

Sparks, while I agree with you it's going to take more troops and a lot more money in Iraq, I'm not so sure it was "always" going to require that. I think we now know that Paul Bremer and his CPA made a massive mistake in judgement when it disband the Iraqi army and the Baathist infrastructure and police. Had they not done so, we might have been able to pull out a long, long time ago, perhaps even within weeks of capturing Hussein. A little pre-war planning might have helped, too--another massive failure of leadership.
(Not that we should have ever gone in in the first place.) This gang just can't get anything right -- even an occupation. No wonder they were all so opposed to "nation-building"; they suck at it.

Sparks, do you think an outside party can prevent a country from sinking into a civil war? Personally I do not. If we (as in the western democracies), want to encourage democracy to spread we must realize that we did not get to where we are as societies easily, there were many wars, civil wars, terrorist acts. To believe that other nations could implement democracy easily seem to me naive.

I am not sure what the right solution is, and I would say Iraq is not far from civil war already.

Hello there, intelligent Achenbloggers! Just reading the mommyblog for the last few days has given me a headache. I don't even know what to say, so haven't posted anything over there. (And really, it was a waste of time to read those comments!)

Pat, I admire your honesty (and bravery) - I would be terrified to author a guest blog over there. My virtual skin isn't thick enough.

fyi, new kit coming in about 15 minutes.

Cassandra, Mudge, et al, the Ricks book, "Fiasco," has a good summary of what happened: The Administration used the worst-case scenario when discussing WMD etc., and the best-case scenario when contemplating the occupation.

Howdy all! I was pondering last night the differences between Achenland and the Mommy Blog (besides better topics and more interesting people) and hit on what I think is a good example. Those of you who stuck a toe in over there, can you imagine the Mommy Blog initiating and embracing Cassandra's AchenBoodle Achenbook Project or whatever we're calling it? From the tone yesterday, they'd doubt Cassandra, they'd doubt there were kids. Feh.

Pat, again, I admire your writing, your humor, and your bravery for sticking your neck out over there. A handful of folks might have learned something.

Today all is clear windy blue, but oh boy! last night was great. At sunset the sky was like a big bowl, light blue on top, pink at the edges and gray at the rims. In the east small sheeplike clouds were a soft grey. In the west the round ball of yellow orange sun sank into a bank of big puffy clouds that were astonishingly bright with pinks and oranges and just aglow. It was a real blaze of glory.

I think the problem with winning the war, Cassandra, is that although we started it it isn't our war anymore. We may be inciting more people to fight by our presence, or we may be keeping the violence down (a frightening thought) or both, but I have the clear sense that now the fighting will continue whether we're there or not. It is hard to know what to do.

Those people at the mommyblog would probably even question me being 1,400 years old. (I keep forgetting the actual number--anybody been keeping track of it?). Or my whale story, or the sonic disruptor story. Sheesh. Who needs that kind of skepticism?

martooni, I thought your Sept 26 8:25 pm post was great, except this:

"[Pat] has consistently shown through his posts there that he's a real father -- not the "corporate attorney" type who uses his kids and wife as "proof" that he's human, but a Real Dad who routinely, willingly and eagerly gets his hands dirty with his kids, because of or in spite of his disability."

I take it you were just using "corporate attorney" as some kind of expression for a stereotype you were setting up, but it's a smear. I happen to know lots of "corporate attorneys" with kids, and they're all "Real Dads".

i don't know that an outside party can prevent a country from sinking into civil war, but we are not an outside party. we are an involved party, and becoming a disinvolved party might very well precipitate a civil war.

mudge, i just wanted to disagree with you on whether or not we should have been there in the first place. we shouldn't have been there in the first place for the reasons that we went in, but we (meaning the UN, not just the united states) should have been doing something about saddam's failure to comply with sanctions long ago. it was a failure to do anything about that that is encouraging north korea today (and possibly iran, although i am not entirely certain that they are in fact working on a bomb.)

dr wrote: "We were talking about the west as it was settled. Out west, I would venture to guess that less traffic, and less people equalled slower speeds on lesser tracks. At the same time, for an ordinary person, anytime from 1880-1910, 50 miles per hour would have been pretty mind numbing compared to a horse and buggy or wagon." That is certainly true. The railroads literally built the America we have today. Those early iron ribbons opened up half a continent. Some lines never made it much past the "streak of rust", but some of those other lines I mentioned prospered along with the lands they opened up. The Union Pacific had the biggest steam locomotives in the world, for mountain work on the legendary Overland Route of Golden Spike fame. If you ever get the chance, take a ride on the Durango and Silverton line in southwest Colorado. Antique steam locos, open platform passenger cars, and spectacular mountain scenery. Nothing else matches it in North America.

ebtnut: Narrow-gauge railroad trivia: they used that Durango-Silverton line when filming Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid.

eek! wilbrod, i just realized i entirely forgot to make a second attempt for you. my apologies.

it's interesting to note that lunch time rolls around and the blog DIES. i'm the only post in over an hour...