I think it might be fair to say that a great many things treat US as lumber, too...

:-)

Complications ensue indeed.
"Just a source of lumber" -- yes!

"Thousands of years ago, man lived in harmony with the rest of the natural world. Through what we would today call Telepathy, he communicated with animals, plants, and other forms of life -- none of which he considered 'beneath' himself, only different, with different jobs to perform. He worked side by side with earth angels and nature spirits, with whom he shared responsibility for taking care of the world.

". . . But, gradually at first, and then with increasing intensity, man's Ego began to grow and assert itself. Finally, after it had caused many unpleasant incidents, the consensus was reached that man should go out into the world alone, to learn the necessary lessons. The connections were broken."

-- from "The Te of Piglet," by Benjamin Hoff

And speaking of E. O. Wilson, Achenbuddy Bob Wright's interview with him can be found here:

(scroll to the bottom of the list of speakers)

http://meaningoflife.tv/

Great Kit, Joel. Reminds me of younger days when we would descend on "The Teagues" with two coolers each, but ours were filled pretty much only with beer.

I don't think it was wiser heads that saved Assateague. I think it was the hurricane in 1933 that created the inlet between Assateague and Ocean City. Until then it was one long peninsula.

Love the transition from Sauterne to saturnine.

Re. the Bone Wars, I am familar with Cope's Law, which is alive and well in America, that's for sure.

It must have been tempting for Marsh and Cope to consider a "Piltdown man" somewhere along the line.

bc

I never ponied up the bucks for Sauternes. Wikipedia tells me the nice substitute was Loupiac. Neither ever showed up at the supermarket.

New Scientist has a story on Harvard anthropologist Dan Lieberman's theory that we're built(the story mentions large buttocks)to run long distances to get to carrion or to run down live animals, sorta like Scott Carrier's book on "Running After Antelope." Having run with pronghorns observing me, I'm certain that no one in their right mind ever tried to run one down to eat it. Just won't work. You see them only because they're curious. It was disconcerting to sit in alpine vegetation on a mountain south of Cody, hear a snort, and find that a pronghorn had come up from the rear just to check me out.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19225724.800-food-was-prize-in-early-marathons.html

The Jurassic dinosaurs still are in Wyoming, according to a remarkable story by the Post's Guy Gugliotta. Scientific times have really changed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/08/AR2006080800983.html

"...the kind of dark you rarely see anymore." We have that kind of dark in many parts of the county. When the double tailed comet (Hale-Bopp?) was visible a few years ago, I drove out toward my SIL's home to observe every night that I could, contemplating what the ancients would have made of it. Likewise, we could observe the Aurora Borealis outside of Potsdam. You'd expect something like that to make noise. The silence was deafening. NOw if I only had someone to help me with those star charts so I could recognise more that just the Big Dipper, Venus, Mars and the few other major features out there. The coolest thing I ever saw through a telescope, set up in a city park of all places, was Jupiter and five of its satellites, lined up neatly in a row. You could even make out the red spot, although the entire field was like looking at a sepia tinted photograph. Ah, but we are collectively so many bits of intelligent dust.

Are we not men? No, we are Devo!

I feel like an embodiment of Cope's Law myself. On the other hand, it seems Europeans were big and well-fed during the Dark Ages and kept shrinking until about 1800. At the time of the Revolution, people raised in America were apparently quite a bit bigger than the Redcoats who came to subdue them.

Cope's Law seems to apply to plants as well as to animals. Here's a technical-but-fascinating article on palms by Barry Tomlinson, illustrated with the huge Chilean palm at Kew. Charismatic megaflora, for sure.
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1095-8339.2006.00520.x

Whip it good, yellojkt... *L*

Dave: Thanks for the link to the Jurrasic Park piece. I remember seeing it in the magazine, but never got around to reading it then. Great stuff. Sky report from central Montgomery County--the sky is essentially a pewter grey, with patches of slightly lighter color interspersed. There's just a bit of breeze. Probably no rain imminenet.

jack, I was lucky when the comets came through. I could see them by just walking out my front door.

Joel writes: "We know from science that we are but a twig on the tree of life (an interesting twig, to be sure), but we treat that tree as though it's just a source of lumber."

Hmmm. I think that tree of life is more of a picnic table set with a buffet.

AFAIK, all animal life on earth is heterotropic, meaning that animals consume organic matter (other animals, plants, etc.) for energy. This makes sense, because it's more efficient for an organism to extract carbon that's already bound up in an organic compound than to synthesize carbon from minerals. The more efficient production of energy for heterotropic organisms has provided them with excess energy for things like flagrant and wanton reproduction, specialization and evolution, colonization and societal structures, complex thought, communcation (verbal, visual, and written) and technology, culminating in the apex of western culture, YouTube. To this point, I'm not aware that any plant has actually understood Newton's Principia Mathematica, no matter how many times I've read it to them.

When you think about it, heterotropism reigns at the highest level of our petroleum based culture. The big problem is that we're living in our litter box.

Perhaps a compromise for not chopping Haeckel's tree down completely would be to consider it a fruit tree?

bc

Muscles in the legs and hips and hindquarters when dormant for years at a time, shrivel to the dimensions of piano wire.

Gee, Joel, this means that your buns are probably flat or nonexistent? *w*

I guess I'm headed off on this tangent after seeing a big naked baboon at the breakfast table this morning (no, not my husband):

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/medical/stories/MYSA101106.01B.fatbaboon.351af4e.html

A few years ago, scientist Tony Comuzzie saw something that roused his curiosity as he wandered past the baboon enclosures at Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. [Used to drive past thir cages every day on the route to work. Nothing like pungent baboon urine to shock the senses--right up the nose and into the brain. For waking up, better than two or three cups of coffee.]

Some of them had, well, beer guts. One of them, in fact, was twice the size of some of his leaner cage mates. Even his tail was larded with fat.

That observation led to research that now shows promise of providing insights into human obesity and the diseases that often follow.

It turns out that fat baboons, like fat people, can develop diabetes.

Must read the Cope/Drinker saga some day soon. Anyone know if Lasky's ("The Bone Wars") telling of the story surpasses Wallace's?

Thanks, bc, for the set-up...

The more efficient production of energy for heterotropic organisms has provided them with excess energy for...(list follows)

Too much excess energy or too heavily larded coolers at the beach...turns to lard.

Found some of those rarely used and mostly atrophied muscles myself over the last week. Nothing like ripping out and replacing windows to make you feel prematurely 92 years old. Went over to the rental property this morning and got another one out, then realized I forgot my pencil -- can't measure/mark/cut properly without one -- so I just had to come back home to get one (and put on another pot of coffee, read the boodle, give Little Bean her morning hug, etc., etc.).

btw... if anyone ever needs windows replaced, I've now got it down to a science. Have toolbelt, will travel.

dreamer... I'm gonna have to check that Benjamin Hoff book out -- Piglet is well known and quite popular in this house. I suppose even Very Small Animals have something significant to teach us lumber-ish types.

Re being lumber: I know I sure feel like I've been weathered by the elements and termite-ridden some mornings.

There is now "Plant neurobiology". Research seems that plants, whether genetic or not, do seem to have different abilities to adapt to the environment-- more effective in growing to the sun around obstacles, etc.

And of course, we do know some trees live in symbiosis with rabid ants that devour pests that would threaten them.

It's not much, but if trees are plotting to take back the world, we had better know before we see an oak sniggering in the wind while it unleashes armys of carpenter ants into the nearby house to make room for itself.

Re being lumber: I know I sure feel like I've been weathered by the elements and termite-ridden some mornings.

There is now "Plant neurobiology". Research seems that plants, whether genetic or not, do seem to have different abilities to adapt to the environment-- more effective in growing to the sun around obstacles, etc.

And of course, we do know some trees live in symbiosis with rabid ants that devour pests that would threaten them.

It's not much, but if trees are plotting to take back the world, we had better know before we see an oak snickering in the wind as it unleashes armys of carpenter ants into the nearby house to make room for itself.

I enjoyed that picture of the big naked baboon, Loomis.
He looks so . . . human!
Pictures like that always make me wonder, How could anyone *not* believe in evolution?

Yes, martooni, why are we endowed with Sequoia gigantea attitudes?

Martooni, "have toolbelt, will travel", HOW FAR!!. Boy do I have a list for you. I too spent most of the last week, doing projects around the house, the worst was dealing with emptying and moving the remaining boxes that were all stored in the crawl space, about 4.5' high. It was like a three hour squat workout.

dmd, if Martooni is indeed a long-haired leaping gnome, he won't have to squat much in a space that size.

You're welcome Linda.

Any chance that Baboon will retain his House seat in next month's election?

bc

I dunno, Loomis... I think we're just programmed that way -- of course, the source code for our programming is proprietary and only available in a carbon-based format, and therefore very difficult to be inspected, peer-reviewed, debugged, or otherwise looked at. God (or whatever you want to call Her) is apparently not a fan of Linux.

dmd... I feel your pain. Unfortunately, I'm limited to a 40 mile radius of Youngstown, Ohio ("Stella" the Very Old VW Bus is not rated for extended highway travel).

"To this point, I'm not aware that any plant has actually understood Newton's Principia Mathematica, no matter how many times I've read it to them."

bc, I am heartbroken. Are you saying Mr. Stripey didn't understand?

"Wellingborough Redburn." What is a Wellingborough Redburn?
Dwelling in a borough....is it "everyman."
A simple life lived, finding ones way, questions abound and answers remain elusive, society is harsh, who rules the pack and who calls the shots entered mankinds realm from the first "budd" Billy boy.
Wellingborough Redburn is the title character in Herman Melvilles novel, "Redburn."
It's a story about a young man searching for answers and his place in the woods and it's as relevant in todays time as it was in Melvilles, it's an easy read, yet pointedly psychological, it incorporates dominance and submission correllaries from scenes set in New York to Liverpool, England and on board the sailing vessel "Highlander." Borough, highlander, so whats in a name? Status, influence, prestige, finery. Or not.
I'm two-hundred pages through a four-hundred page book and if you think you know American Literature and it's best, yet you've never read "Redburn" well then, me hearties, you don't know squat.
Your local libraries a great place to swipe a copy.

Wilbrod... even overfed long-haired leaping gnomes sometimes find themselves in uncomfortable positions. For instance, I've noticed that I break out in a rash whenever seated next to a conservative Republican (could be the cologne they wear, but who knows?).

dr, you'd have to talk to RD about the late Mr. Stripey's reading level.

Loomis writes: "Too much excess energy or too heavily larded coolers at the beach...turns to lard."

Depending on where you are in Assateague, you're only part of a cooler away from Assawoman, just on the other side of Wallops Island, IIRC.

Just thought I'd point that out before Mudge pounced on it.

bc

Or it could be the soon-to-be-banned-due-to-carcinogenicity-drycleaning stuff on their suits, martooni.

Mr. Stripey possessed all knowledge. But much like Sir Isaac, he was just woefully bad at communicating.

I think we are all transcendent twigs.

This weekend I discovered some of those exotic muscles myself. I took the Boy and Visiting Boy to our local rock-climbing center, in a converted silo. They climbed while I belayed. My shoulder and arm muscles were initially bemused, then downright annoyed at the unfamiliar demands placed on them. They're still complaining.

bc;

'Mudge is the pouncy type, isn't he? Must be a corollary of perky or something.

:-)

Pouncy= perky + bouncy portmaneau. Yeah, that could work.

Indeed, Scotty.

RD, you did eat of Mr. Stripey didn't you?

Presumably at the behest of the Mrs...?

bc

Well, finally an explanation about why so many of us humans have lower back problems: lumber vertabrae.

bc, if you think I'm going anywhere near that Assawoman set-up, you're crazy. My momma didn't raise any maroons. (Well, actually, she did, but he's a year and a half younger than me. And the bald one in the family, too, which I point out to him as often as possible.)

Normally I'd be umbraged to the max, but Sen. McCain's claim that the N. Korea problem is all the Clintons' fault just has me laughing. If I understand it correctly, he contends that Clinton talking to and negotiating with N. Korea was a dismal failure, so this administration's refusal to talk and negotiate FOR THE PAST SIX YEARS has been ... uh ... um ... er ... ah ...

Anyway, now it's all Hillary's fault. I think that's what he said.

When I was a boy in the Pacific Northwest we used to visit Ocean City State Park. The water was usually way too cold to swim in, but the coarse sand made for some truly epic Sand Fortresses. These were best made at low tide so that they could be defended by my brothers and me against the incoming deluge of the Pacific. Not surprisingly, these heroic battles always ended in defeat.

Our desire for valiant combat also led us to bare-knuckle clamming. (No wimpy clam guns for us.) We would get on our knees, dig down into the sand, and attempt to extract a tenacious razor clam by hand. It was a classic battle of man verses mollusk. And in these battles sometimes we actually won. Of course, we always let the poor clams go. We were just in it for the glory of the sport.

Sadly, the beaches I visit nowadays are embarrassingly unsuitable for catch-and-release clamming. But, to me, the sand still yearns to be transformed into a majestic Sand Fortress. (On rare occasions, my children will actually help.) And after I have spent an afternoon moving around large quantities of wet sand, I can confirm that, as Joel reports, the middle-aged anatomy is just chock full of underutilized muscles. Muscles that are just waiting to take an awful revenge.

RD, you are my hero -- you and your brother won against the ocean. . . oh. You meant your defeat. Well, I still admire you for the battle.

Girl Scout camping was the only kind I did as a child. After boyhood on a farm and years overseas in World War II my dad wasn't interested in tents or the great outdoors, unless you could come in at night, sit in a comfortable chair, and sleep in a bed. We rented a camper one summer, which convinced him (and me) that RV living was not his destiny. I scrupulously follow this family tradition, though I may take the Boy out in Colorado sometime. From Girl Scouts, I remember cooking that hamburger-potato-carrot thing in foil. Very tasty, especially after the backbreaking labor involved in gathering wood and the suspense of starting a fire itself.

Pat, I thought of you on my drive to work this morning. Most of the sky this morning is a bland layer (ha ha Freudian typo - I typed lawyer) of cloud with a clear area off to the east.

Anyway, for about two or three minutes the angle was right and the whole cloud layer was a glorious shade of orange. It was truly a marvel. Then, just like so many things, it passed and the cloud layer returned to slate gray.

Attn. parents of children attending public schools in northewest Mongomery County, MD:

There was some unspecified gun threat overheard at a school bus stop at or near Germantown this AM, and there's a limited lockdown:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101100528.html

For any of you who this may affect, my heart's with you. Hopefully, this will turn out to be idle chatter or a misunderstanding. There's *nothing* more wracking to me than worrying about my kids (who are attending schools a few miles north of there).

bc

Funny you should mention my well-known pounciness. Just last night going through a family photo album I found an old photo of me in one of my perky, pensive, pouncy moments. You can see it at http://www.dreamstime.com/catnap-image4166

Just trying to refresh myself what this kit's topic is about. I haven't see anything about clouds today, so I'm lost.

Speaking of clouds, the maple tree next to a brick building is being illuminated by the white cloudy sky in a manner that reminds me of one of those Hudson river school paintings, or something.
I expect to see somebody in knee pants, stockings, a jacket, and a tricorn sleeping under the tree with a grey mare grazing nearby. Maybe a kid or two running down the cobblestone lane with wooden hoops being controlled by sticks.

Of course, this probably says more about the mental landscape in my head today.

I just got the raspberry from somebody who loved my resume but not my disablity today, and gave me a song and dance about how difficult it would be for *gasp* to work with hearing people. "Oh an interview would be a waste of time."

I guess I better go back to my cupboard because I'm obviously unfit for the Big Bad World without a nanny. ;).

(Rolling my eyes big time). Not by the hair of my chinny-chin. Okay, vent over.

Life's a beach... uh, a beech full of beechnuts and nuts.

slyness: strong bad (of www.homestarrunner.com) wrote a nice song to deal with the its/it's problem. oddly enough, i never really had problems with its/it's until i heard the song:
If it supposed to be posessive
It's just I-T-S,
But if it's supposed to be a contraction
Then it's I-T-apostrophe-S!
Scalawag!

okay, now reading today's posts.

I apologize. The grammar, she leaves when I get verklempt.

I've NEVER understood why people have problem with its. You don't say "her's" or "hi's."

Although I HAVE seen overuse of apostrophes to that degree, especially in flyers plastered inside government buildings. I blame the DC school system, myself. When I was 16 I worked in the same building with a sweet girl from a DC public school, who wanted to be a lawyer. Her command of basic punctation and the finer points was so awful, that I was like "you're not gonna be a lawyer unless you get a REAL English teacher to teach you."

I felt kind of sad for her, and I do hope she learned what she needed for her dreams.

Apparently they need to clone a few Curmudgeons and strew them around where they can clean people's grammar clocks, in the DC school system (the horror!) as well as in the government buildings.

Still verklempt. SCC:

Apparently they need to clone a few Curmudgeons and strew them around where they can clean people's grammar clocks in the DC school system and the government buildings. Quelle horreur!

Apropos of of bc's note, I note the following from Dana Milbank's piece in the Post on the School Violence summit:

"President Bush has always been a disciplined man, but yesterday he set a new standard for self-control: He moderated an hour-long discussion about the rash of school shootings in the past week without once mentioning the word 'guns.' . . .

"This was no misfire. The White House, hastily arranging yesterday's forum to react to shootings over the past fortnight at schools in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wisconsin and Missouri, neglected to invite any gun-control advocates. . . .

"The Bush administration has for years been known for its use of human props to make its points: middle-class 'tax families' to pitch for tax cuts, victims of Saddam Hussein's torture to pitch for the Iraq war, and friendly partisans to pitch soft questions at 'Ask President Bush' sessions. The technique is not new; Bill Clinton did much the same when hosting events about race.

"Still, yesterday's forum was unusual. While experts dispute how much blame to place on children's access to guns, even the invited guests found it a bit odd to banish the topic entirely from a school-violence forum."

*sigh*

End school violence: arm kindergarteners and give them sniper training to take down the baddies. Then lower the military enlistment age.

Jeez, Wilbrod, did they actually say "Oh an interview would be a waste of time." Wow. Even if they didn't say that verbatim, I'm amazed at the attitude.

I think it was Dave Barry who said that nowadays an apostrophe just means an "s" is coming up.

Aw, Mudge, you're lyin'.

That's a picture of a female. And before you ask, I have no idea if she posts on the mommy blog.

Here's a better picture of you from a recent BPH (I hope this works):

http://www.imdb.com/gallery/ss/0220099/Ss/0220099/3?path=gallery&path_key=0220099

bc

"It's" is spreading. Within a decade,"its" will be confined to the New Yorker, a genteel anachronism.

RD Padouk wrote of Ocean City State Park. I think that's where I made it to the Pacific, having driven from NW Wyoming via the environs of Mt St Helens, which had blown up less than two months previously. Mt Rainier's campgrounds were nearly empty. I'd planned the trips months before,intending to camp at St. Helens to avoid the crowds at Rainier.

My favorite Oregon beach was Otter Rock, excellent spot for incompetent surfers.

That's an intriguing solution, Wilbrod, and the kindergartners would probably take their duties VERY seriously. [Parenthetical umbrage taken on your behalf re: foolish job person. Would it be worthwhile to contact Fool's superior in HR, or even company CEO, re hiring policies, just for fun?]

I like the way the Attorney General deflected the question by agreeing that kids shouldn't have access to assault weapons. The issue being, of course, that adults have access to assault weapons with which to enter schools and shoot kids.

Ah Wilbrod, for you, a link. I know it does not address your specific disability, but you may find these kind of on the money, particularly second row, last one.

http://homepage.mac.com/karin.schwier/copestone/illustration.html

Prideful parental moment alert: if you click on the link to Books, and scroll to the bottom, you will see a book called Keith Edward's Different Day. This book was inspired by my number 2 son, and the fact that he could not wink. She used it to help illustrate that different is not bad, it's just different. On the cover, little Keith Edward is the guy in the green shirt. Keith Edward is now fully grown, and occasionally reads and posts here as just another imaginary friend.

Behind at work and can't catch up on the comments from last kit and this one, but wanted to give Pat a quick sky report:

When we woke up, the sun was just hitting the mountains, tinging them with pink and a big fluffy cloud above them was that impossible shade somewhere between gold and pink. By the time I set out to drive down to Colorado Springs, the sky was clear blue to the south, a few wispy clouds on other horizons, but perfect visibility in the direction I was going - the sun highlighting the ridges and shadows on Pikes Peak's snowy summit and a clean, clear shot all the way down the front range.

Hope everyone has a great day!

That IS a much better picture; thanks, bc. (But you have to admit my haircut looks much more like the photo I posted than a lion with a full mane.)

Wilbrod, I wouldn't blame the DC school system; I'd blame all school systems everywhere. One might like to think the situation is better in the suburbs, but I don't see much sign of it.

As for strewing the contryside with curmudgeons, that's what they used to do back in the "good old days" --and they were called "schoolmarms." They eventually transitioned into "teachers," but I believe the breakdown started when the "teachers" became "educators" and "grammar" transitioned to "language arts." But don't get me started. (Well, I guess you already have.)

I like and respect teachers. I don't much care for educators. And as for pedagogic professionals....

Dr, thanks for the chuckle. I was briefly one of the massive wheeled forces of America as a kid, and some of the issues are not that different, including the violin cartoon. That is SO on target.

*waving to the different (but aren't we all?) KE*

bc;

So in that pic, I'd obviouly be Owl, right?

Not sure about Eeyore, though.

Wilbrod is Piglet? *ducking and running*

*L*

You know, Mudge, I could understand folks blaming Clinton for things he did while in office IF he was running for President. He is not running for President and will not run for President again. These folks need to get over whatever they need to get over. Let us talk about the folks that are holding down the job now? And what was so wrong in talking to North Korea, isn't that what the present administration is doing? I don't have kind words for the leader of North Korea, starving all those people just so he can have new play toys, and destructive ones at that. You see how hateful and mean some can be in this world?

Joel, I laughed out loud at your description of muscles hollering and screaming from lack of use. And there are some places here that are so dark at night it's like living in another century. I try not to get caught anywhere near those places at night. They even have the animals to complete the picture.

Your description of man as a twig slightly coincides with Scripture, which calls man dirt,in the sense that he came from the earth, and it also states that man tries hard to get back to whence he came, the dirt, all while living a life sometimes that could be called "dirty".

You know, Mudge, I could understand folks blaming Clinton for things he did while in office IF he was running for President. He is not running for President and will not run for President again. These folks need to get over whatever they need to get over. Let us talk about the folks that are holding down the job now? And what was so wrong in talking to North Korea, isn't that what the present administration is doing? I don't have kind words for the leader of North Korea, starving all those people just so he can have new play toys, and destructive ones at that. You see how hateful and mean some can be in this world?

Joel, I laughed out loud at your description of muscles hollering and screaming from lack of use. And there are some places here that are so dark at night it's like living in another century. I try not to get caught anywhere near those places at night. They even have the animals to complete the picture.

Your description of man as a twig slightly coincides with Scripture, which calls man dirt,in the sense that he came from the earth, and it also states that man tries hard to get back to whence he came, the dirt, all while living a life sometimes that could be called "dirty".

Wilbrod, I think you should pursue College Parkian's idea of online teaching. You are a natural.

We've all learned so much from your knowledge of so many things. You explain clearly, you write well and you're interesting.

And you certainly won't need a nanny.

Only superfically, Scottynuke, although it is a little-known factthat Trespassers W. actually stands for Trespassers Wilbrod, not William.

I like the "Te of Piglet" myself.

I find I have slightly misquoted myself in an earlier post. The phrase that set me off was "an intensive experiential learning process" and I changed it to "the class." The sentence was "During an intensive experiential learning process participants will..." etc. You can be sure the DC school system didn't produce this abomination.

Glad you liked that, Wilbrod. Her work has been been largely with the mentally handicapped, but issues is issues if you are different at all. The same goofy suppositions keep coming up.

wilbrod, I am shocked & appalled that in 2006 you have to put up with such boorishness.

dbG, thanks for telling me/the boodle about your jewelry. It sounds very cool. I like minimalistic things as well. I am visualizing your bayleaf cast in silver with a citrine... very nice.

TBG, thanks for the grafitto update yesterday. I'm sorry that it is gone.

Sounds at Assateague include the booms and blasts from Wallops: rocket scientists at play.

My son and his buddies, on the first of three day trips to Assateague this summer, wondered if were we being bombed. Children coming of age-post 9-11 still show such scars.

Best picture from the beach, any beach, would be William Carlos Williams as he describes foam patterns on water thusly:

Flowers by the Sea

by William Carlos Williams
1883-1963, written in 2004

When over the flowery, sharp pasture's
edge, unseen, the salt ocean

lifts its form--chicory and daisies
tied, released, seem hardly flowers alone

but color and the movement--or the shape
perhaps--of restlessness, whereas

the sea is circled and sways
peacefully upon its plantlike stem.

scotty, I can't be Eeyore but he is my favorite Milne character. Nobody else is so completely original and integral. His emotional content is completely authentic. And complex. He is great.

I'm going to ask this about Eeyore, somebody tell me, how stupid am I, it took me 45 years to figure out how Eeyore got his name. Is it obvious to everyone else right away?

Late sky report today as I was trying to figure out a new way to say cloudy and blah. Pretty much white to flint gray clouds. Even the river appears as just a white stripe slicing the brown marsh grass in two. Occasionally the sun tries to burn through, but it seems a half-hearted effort. The foliage is becoming more intense, bringing patches of color to an otherwise dreary day.

kbert;

He's not names for the Eeees of yore???

*confused*

:-)

SCC: named

*applying extended forefinger and thumb to forehead*

:-)

Now all I need is an advanced degree, TBG, something I've been putting off for years.

I'm not sure, but I think I'm having a family emergency. My daughter called to say she cut the grass this morning, and is making dinner for my wife and me this evening (spaghetti). Clearly, my "real" daughter has been kidnapped, and some space alien has taken her place.

I may or may not report the kidnapping to the police, depending on how this imposter works out.

Curmudgeon, it is possible that your daughter is not kidnapped but perhaps has her eye on something that financial assistance from Mom and Dad might help facilitate?

Think onomatopoeia, Scotty.

I think in one of the Disney cartoons Eeyore Has Some Cause For Great Excitement, and runs around braying his name. However, kbertooch, don't feel bad.
I did not actually recognize this until I was in college, watching it over a girlfriend's house.

bc

No, dmd, if it was money she wanted, she'd just steal it from us. This is clearly an alien abduction. I have no doubt.

dmd, I'm tracking with you.

You and the Mrs. keep a tight grip on your wallets this evening, Mudge.

I's also recommend not signing any papers, either.

bc

I've always wondered about that. i know he spells it eoR, and I thought maybe it was from a donkey's bray.

Personally not a fan of his constant negativism, although he is certainly more complex and the sacrasm is good.

I saw a donkey in the rain once, hunched over and standing still to keep warm, ears splayed irritably, a perfect picture of equine misery. Ee-yore!.

Hmm. It might not be too bad, Mudge.

I'm thinking "My Favorite Daughter".

Geez, I think both Ray Walston and Bill Bixby have passed to the great SAG in the sky...

bc

Maybe (shudder), she wants to move back in. Or she has some big news to break to you.

Hope the sphagetti is good, anyway. You use any authentic Italian recipes in your family?

I will have you know that at this moment I am drinking green tea from a purple Eeyore mug. Eeyore is my hero.

Just don't let it get around.

Mudge, check the garage when you get home.

If there's a car-sized bubble-topped interplanetary space ship in there, I think you know what's up.

BTW, try not to get abducted yourself. They've got a hazing ritual that'll put a hitch in your giddy-up for *days*.

bc

bc: OK, thanks for being nice--the masochistic part of me hoped there would be a chorus of "you moron! of course it's obvious!!" but that would be against the Achenrules, I guess.

But listen carefully:

**DISNEY POOH IS NOT POOH.**

I'll spare the extended rant--I know I posted it already sometime in the past.

That should be a momentous dinner. My personal gut is she has big news. I hope it's good news such as a job in California, rather than an declaration of enlisting in anything but the Merchant Marines.

Hope the sphagetti is good, anyway. Do you use any authentic Italian recipes in your family?

Never let "its" go into that good night of obsolete words, but rage, rage, against the dying art of the word nerds.

That should be a memorable dinner, Mudge. My gut says that your daughter is setting you up for some "big news." May the food and news be good!

Okay, nobody click here except RD Padouk

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/B000H2NB0W/ref=sib_dp_srch_pop/102-4327779-0220102?v=search-inside&keywords=what+color+was+it

I was on jury duty yesterday and missed most of the boodle as well as Gene's chat and want to know if anyone has 'fessed up to baiting GWeingarten about his blog being better than Joel's.

Unless Gene fabricated the question just so he could use the word Hackenbach in a sentence.

RD, one thing that bothered me about the Tao-through-Pooh books was how negative the author was about Tigger and Eeyore.

It's very obvious to me that you can definitely see the pair as yin and yang in so many ways.
I'm a little surprised to find that in the books that Kanga is the only "girl."

Rabbit always sounded like a really bossy older sister to me, and of course the Disney cartoons accidentally draw him as a female rabbit.
(Males have an arched skull, females don't.).

RDP;

I can rest easy now knowing that vital personal fact.

If I'd been drinking anything when I read that, my PC would also be resting now. Permanently.

*LOL*

onomatopeia, bc? the restroom's over there-a...

:-)

SCC:

REALLY nobody click on the link, it didn't work out. Sorry RDP, I was just trying to give you a little present, like the balloon Piglet gave Eeyore, and ironically my present met a similar fate and "fell flat" so to speak.

THIS is why we love Eeyore, because we understand what his life is like!

kbertocci, I didn't make the eeyore connection till just now. But I cheated, I wikied it.

JA wrote :This weekend they were conscripted, and ever since they have been filing protests and formal grievances and generally making a ruckus." I feel your pain, literally, I still hurt from pretending to remember how to dance. And that most unfortunate incident happened last June.
I'm happy to see that somebody still can afford Sauternes. These bottles must have come by ways of JA's romp in the Old Europe. Back in the days when the product of the noble rot could be purchased without getting into payment plans involving a bunch of "easy payments" I enjoyed it a few times. In my recollection it was good with fruit and fruity dessert but shined the brightest when served in opposition with a slightly acidic shellfish or fish dish. Kids, mortgage and car payments got in the way of my epicurean life I say.

Dave of the Coonties, there is a wine that is the poor man's Sauternes. A good Vouvray "moëlleux" i.e. sweet may not be the complex delight that a good Sauternes is but it is a most satisfying wine as well. Again, its sweetness sets off nicely against a fish or shellfish meal. The boss could have picked up a few bottles during his car epic in the Loire valley. Further down the river the valley does not grow castles only but grape wines of chenin blanc too. The chenin blanc grapes turned into Vouvray can be sweet (moëlleux), semi dry (demi sec) or dry (sec), depending on the vintage and location. The dry and semi-dry are good wines, a little like white Bordeaux, but it is the moëlleux that is special. I am told that the moëlleux was produced in 2005 and it means that it should be available in a good wine store near you. OK, back to your regular programming.

Just for those wondering what we should do in Iraq and whether there's any good option and whether Bush will listen to John Warner and if the Baker-Hamilton group can come up with a magic bullet, here's Bush today in his news conference (translate as you see fit):

QUESTION: Senator Warner says Iraq appears to be drifting sideways. And James Baker says a change in strategy may be needed.

Are you willing to acknowledge that a change may be needed?

BUSH: We're constantly changing tactics to achieve a strategic goal. Our strategic goal is a country which can defend itself, sustain itself and govern itself.

The strategic goal is to help this young democracy succeed in a world in which extremists are trying to intimidate rational people in order to topple moderate governments and to extend the caliphate.

The stakes couldn't be any higher, as I said earlier, in the world in which we live. There are extreme elements that use religion to achieve objectives. And they want us to leave. And they want to topple government. They want to extend an ideological caliphate that has no concept of liberty inherent in their beliefs.

BUSH: They want to control oil resources and they want to plot and plan and attack us again. That's their objectives.

And so -- and our strategic objective is to prevent them from doing that. And we're constantly changing tactics to achieve that objective. And I appreciate Senator Warner going over there and taking a look.

I want you to notice what he did say is: If the plan is now not working, the plan that's in place isn't working, America needs to adjust. I completely agree. That's what I talked to General Casey about.

I said: General, the Baghdad security plan is in its early implementation. I support you strongly but, if you come into this office and say we need to do something differently, I support you. If you need more troops, I support you. If you're going to devise a new strategy, we're with you. Because I trust General Casey to make the judgments necessary to put the tactics in place to help us achieve an objective.

And I appreciate Jimmy Baker's willingness to -- he and Lee Hamilton are putting this -- they got a group they put together that -- I think it was Congressman Wolf's suggestion -- or passed into law.

BUSH: We supported the idea. I think it's good to have some of our elder statesmen -- I hate to call Baker an elder statesman -- but to go over there and take a look and to come back and make recommendations.

Somebody said he said, "Well, you know, cut-and-run isn't working." That's not our policy.

Our policy is to help this country succeed, because I understand the stakes. And I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes about what life is like in the Middle East.

It is conceivable that there will be a world in which radical forms -- extreme forms of religion fight each other for influence in the Middle East; in which they've got the capacity to use oil as an economic weapon.

BUSH: And when you throw into that mix a nuclear weapon in the hands of a sworn enemy of the United States, you begin to see an environment that would cause some later on in history to look back and say, "How come they couldn't see the problem? What happened to them in the year 2006? Why weren't they able to see the problems now and deal with them before it came too late?"

And so Iraq is an important part of dealing with this problem. And my vow to the American people is I understand the stakes, and I understand what it would mean for us to leave before the job is done.

And I look forward to listening to how -- what Jimmy Baker and Lee Hamilton say about how to get the job done.

BUSH: I appreciate them working on this issue, because I think they understand what I know: The stakes are high.

And the stakes are high when it comes to developing a Palestinian state so that Israel can live at peace.

And the stakes are high when it comes to making sure the young democracy of Lebanon is able to fend off the extremists and radicals that want to crater that democracy.

This is a real challenge of the 21st century. I like to tell people we're in an ideological struggle. And it's a struggle between extremists and radicals and people of moderation who want to simply live a peaceful life.

And the calling of this country and in this century is whether or not we will help the forces of moderation prevail. That's the fundamental question facing the United States of America beyond my presidency.

BUSH: And you can tell I've made my choice. And I made my choice because the most solemn duty of the American president, in government, is to protect this country from harm.

//bc: OK, thanks for being nice--the masochistic part of me hoped there would be a chorus of "you moron! of course it's obvious!!" but that would be against the Achenrules, I guess.//
Posted by: kbertocci | October 11, 2006 01:47 PM

Kbertocci, if you want people to mistreat you you, there is always the mommieblog.

Never read those Tao books. I just like Eeyore. His worldview is so refreshingly consistent.

Regarding wine - check out this Slate article about the new bargain basement French wines.

http://www.slate.com/id/2151272/

Well, in 1972, I got a vinyl album (I know some of the younger boodlers are probably wondering what vinyl albums are) of Winnie the Pooh and the honey tree which was a read-along book. And yes, it is one of the Disney mutations, but I love both the Milne books and the Disney mutations. On the recording, Eeyore actually says his name like a donkey bray and so I knew pretty early on how he got his name.

Hmmm...I think I still have that album in storage somewhere. Having moved six months ago, I know where many things are, but there are still a few things that have not yet shown up.

I clicked. I love those classic pre-Disney drawings. Alas, my mug is Disney, but the spirit of Eeyore surives.

That quote from Bush sounds like he wrote out a bunch of phrases on a deck of cards and then dropped them.

Joel, that reminds me of the Kerry-Bush debates when Bush kept using the phrase "it's hard work", refering to the presidency/nation-building/whatever.
Did he really say "crater that democracy"?

I have 76 seconds today. Just wanted to say I loved RD's "catch and release clamming" line. Still chuckling. Enjoy the day.

//That quote from Bush sounds like he wrote out a bunch of phrases on a deck of cards and then dropped them.

Posted by: RD Padouk | October 11, 2006 02:26 PM //

Exactly. I wouldn't be surprised if you were onto him.

"Our policy is to help this country succeed, because I understand the stakes. And I'm going to repeat them one more time. As a matter of fact, I'm going to spend a lot of time repeating the stakes about what life is like in the Middle East."

Does someone write this for him, or is that his own words? Can someone explain the last sentence?

Being out here in the boonies, I had never heard of the Iraq Study Group, the Baker-Hamilton group, until last Sunday's morning's ABC talk show.

One writers's take on the effort--love the term consigliere and Trojan horse, used pretty much in the same breath:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/popupsubscribe.html

Amid the highly charged political infighting in Washington over what to do in Iraq, you might be excused for not noticing that a bipartisan commission quietly started work last spring with a mandate to help the Bush administration rethink its policy toward the war. Of course, anything labeled "bipartisan commission" seems almost guaranteed to be ignored by a highly partisan White House that is notoriously hostile to outside advice and famously devoted to "staying the course." But what makes this particular commission hard to dismiss is that it is led by perhaps the one man who might be able to break through the tight phalanx of senior officials who advise the president and filter his information. That person is the former secretary of state, Republican insider, and consigliere of the Bush family, James A. Baker III.
Since March, Baker, backed by a team of experienced national-security hands, has been busily at work trying to devise a fresh set of policies to help the president chart a new course in--or, perhaps, to get the he11 out of--Iraq.

But as with all things involving James Baker, there's a deeper political agenda at work as well. "Baker is primarily motivated by his desire to avoid a war at home--that things will fall apart not on the battlefield but at home. So he wants a ceasefire in American politics," a member of one of the commission's working groups told me. Specifically, he said, if the Democrats win back one or both houses of Congress in November, they would unleash a series of investigative hearings on Iraq, the war on terrorism, and civil liberties that could fatally weaken the administration and remove the last props of political support for the war, setting the stage for a potential Republican electoral disaster in 2008. "I guess there are people in the [Republican] party, on the Hill and in the White House, who see a political train wreck coming, and they've called in Baker to try to reroute the train."

The fact that Baker is involved has sent the Washington rumor mill buzzing with the theory that the commission is really a Trojan Horse for the views of Baker's friend and former boss, George H.W. Bush....

The Wapo's Dana Milbank;s article on the bipartisan group headed by the consigliere was far funnier and tragic:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/19/AR2006091901341.html?nav=rss_print/asection

Wednesday, September 20, 2006; Page A02

If President Bush and the Iraqi government are hoping for some solutions from the congressionally commissioned Iraq Study Group, they might want to start thinking about a Plan B.

Former secretary of state James Baker and former congressman Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), the study group's co-chairmen, called a briefing yesterday to give a "progress report" on their activities. A dozen television cameras and scores of reporters filled the hall -- only to discover that Baker and Hamilton had revived Jerry Seinfeld's "show about nothing" format....

Nice article. We started noticing the very different and trendy bottle, and labeling this spring on French wines. The article is incorrect, the cheesy labels and eye catching colours have their place. If they can make you pick up the bottle at the store, the battle is half won. If they can make me laugh, I'll try it. Not sure about elsewhere, but up here, goofy is as good a reason to buy a wine without tasting it as any.

When I was young, the liquor store was in the back of the hardware store. It stocked only the most basic of wines, things like the dense heavy sherries and ports that old men drank whilst standing at the bar (so that they could answer truthfully to their wives that they were not sitting in the bar, and which was familially referred to as porch climber), a lone Canadian made white that had the temerity to call itself a sauterrne, and lastly, Manischewitz Kosher wine.

And then there was Baby Duck.

"Baby Duck represents a non-threatening entry into the sophisticated world of wine drinking. This sweet, pink, fizzy wine is modeled after Mateus, the world's most popular wine. Like the spritzers and wine coolers that would follow, Baby Duck eased the transition from soft drinks to alcohol for many new drinkers." (the Quote is from the blurb at CBC.ca)

Good times.

dr, that description of Baby Duck excludes one pertinent detail, it eased the transition for underage female drinkers.

FYI here's a link to CBC's "Sweeping the Nation" collection of audio and video related to curling in Canada.

http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-41-550/sports/curling/

OK, I am sorry, but you want to know (of course you do, don't be shy) that bothers me much more than the promiscuous use of apostrophes in these degenerate modern days?

The use of the nominative case following a preposition by people who think (and would no doubt term it thus)that it's classier.

"I have written to both he and his boss." "I thought it was a present for my wife and I."

We all have our irrational obsessions. That is mine. (One of them, anyway.)

Thank you for listening.

annie, the funny thing about that is that if you drop the noun out of the subject and leave just the pronoun, it's glaringly obvious that the pronoun is in the wrong case.

Breaking news: a small plane has apparently just crashed into an apartment building on 71st St. in NYC.

Long ago I used to be modestly knowledgeable about wines. I bought futures and read Kevin Zraly. Then priorities changed and my favorite variety of wine became something called "House."

Once the children are all educated and everything, I am looking forward to such joys as the double-blind wine tasting. I am hopeful that a rediscovery of wine will be a way to ease the pain of getting older.

Or at least make it so I don't notice so much.

Now they're saying it was a chopper, and not terror-related.

Wag the Dog.

dr:
Riunite, back when I lived back of the liquor store and laundromat.

Shrieking Denizen:
Vouvray "moëlleux" (sweet) sounds worth looking for. Maybe findable in Palm Beach County? I'm taking a med that doesn't work if you consume alcohol, so now it's worth looking for celebratory wines that are good in small quantities. Dessert wines are perfect. No more cheap sherry on the ice cream. In fact, essentially no more ice cream or other calorific stuff. I've gotta become a lettuce and greens lover. Might even try swiss chard for the first time.

Next week, the menus will be Japanese. Hotel breakfast buffets, munchies from 7-11 and undoubtedly mochi at Ichinoseki, once the home base of the Fujiwara clan.
http://www.infocreate.co.jp/hometown/ichinoseki/tabe-e.html

dr, dmd, please do not associate the alcoholic beverage Baby Duck with wine. Baby Duck was the cooler of the Canadian baby boomers. BTW I have a bottle of a related product, Bright's President Canadian Champagne that was offered to us by the realtor who sold us our first house, ca 1990. I'm keeping it for a really important occasion, my funeral maybe. LOL
GWB "And the calling of this country and in this century is whether or not we will help the forces of moderation prevail. That's the fundamental question facing the United States of America beyond my presidency"
Hum, so this is a decision to be made AFTER his mandate. He cannot make his own mind, torn as he is between extremism and moderation. What a strange turn of phrase, his brains must be scrambled.

Dooley,
This is for you...

The painter Frederick Church is a Loomis descendant. Church was a childhood friend of railroad magnate William Henry Osborne, who was brought up in Connecticut. Henry Fairfield Osborne was Osborne's son and J.P. Morgan's nephew.

Henry Fairfield Osborne, went to Princeton as an undergraduate where he studied paleontology (graduating in 1877). He did graduate work at Princeton, Columbia and in England and he worked under T. H. Huxley and even met Charles Darwin.

He earned a doctorate from Princeton in 1880 and taught comparative anatomy at that school until 1890 when he became the head of Columbia's Biology Department. He also served as curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History. In 1908 he became president of the museum. He married Lucretia Perry, a descendant of Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew Perry.

Weren't you, Dooley, at the American Museum of Natural History in the past month doing some work? Sorry to be so late with this question...

Church-Osborne link:
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_3_114/ai_n13665007

Osborne's link to the museum (Under Henry Fairfield Osborn, founder of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1892 (and later museum president), the Department's collection became the largest repository of fossils in the world.):

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_3_114/ai_n13665007

Yikes! My mom grew up in a very modest apartment building near where that aircraft crashed into a highrise condo on East 72nd Street near the East River and near New York Hospital.

Froom Froomking today and topping SonofCarl's jw letter:

Monty Python member Terry Jones writes in The Guardian:

"Dear President Bush,

"I write to you in my capacity as secretary of the World League of Despots.

"It is with great pleasure that I am finally able to extend an official invitation to you to join our ranks. . . .

"[Y]our unstinting efforts to make torture an internationally accepted aspect of human life have surpassed everything we could have ever hoped for. I don't think there is a single member of the league who could have imagined, six short years ago, that our activities in tormenting our fellow creatures would once again be recognised as acceptable, civilised behaviour, as it once was in the middle ages.

"Despite these achievements, we had, until now, felt unable to extend our invitation to you because you had been unable to fulfil one of our basic requirements: the ability to carry out arbitrary arrests, imprisonment without trial, secret torture and executions at will."

Shrieking, I am laughing, I do not like champagne, good or bad. I will say the Baby Duck was a popular with some friends of mine back when we were young and silly. I like white Bordeau/Chablis, I do not have a particularly broad range of preferences in wine. As long as it is at least moderately strong tasting, dry and not fruity and white I can drink it.

Shrieking perhaps you could recommend some Ice Wines for DOTC, as I am not that familiar with them.

Footage on TV indicates a very small aircraft. Not clear yet about casualties.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101116.html

re: Bush's ramble...

*Jimmy* Baker? Well, that and everything else he said. I'd call him a maroon if he didn't scare me so much.

Loomis, I was in New York at the American Museum a couple of weeks ago (was it really that recently?). Huge fossil collections there. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see everything I had planned--the area where the tapirs and rhinoceroses are stored are closed for asbestos removal.

In the morning, I'm off to Cleveland (where it's supposed to snow), then Buffalo (more snow), then Hamilton (more snow), and finally Ottawa by Tuesday. All the snow is really going to put a crimp in my plans for Niagara Falls, the Buffalo Naval Park, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum, and the HMCS Haida, all of which are at leaast partly outdoors. Of course, I have been known to visit airplane museums during snowstorms in the past.

For Ottawa boodlers, the Canadian Museum of Nature reopens on October 20, and includes a new gallery on dinosaurs and early mammals. From what I've heard, it's supposed to be a nice exhibit. (I get to see it on Oct. 18--they're hosting a reception for the conference I'm attending.)

aircraft story, no real details:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101116.html

took me a long time to catch up. real work to do today.

Dooley you will be safe for Niagara and Hamilton, NO SNOW, I REPEAT NO SNOW, it will be perhaps wet and cool. Seriously it is in the low 60's today. Since you are in the area, I am close to Hamilton if you need weather predictions.

Dooley, all kidding aside, are you driving? If you are on your drive from Niagara Falls to Hamilton, take the detour and go down the Niagara Parkway to Niagara on the Lake. With the leaves, the parkway will be beautiful, might add 30 to 45 minutes but it is all parkland along the river upto Queenston Heights/Niagara on the Lake. Depending on if or where you are staying in Hamilton you may then want to venture up the escarpment to travel one of the lesser highways, great views of the lake on a clear day, and a few parks with some of the remaining waterfalls that are left on the escarpment.

Man, I'm getting an ulcer from 2 days on the mommyblog.

First some kid (I think) who supports voluntary eugenics and has no conception whatsoever of medical genetics, disabilities, or anything.

And now some "ex-teacher" complains about IEPs and all and blaming the ADA, which has nothing to do with the IEPs by law, actually.

I want my own blog.

Thanks, dmd. Current plan is to be in the Hamilton area on Sunday and part of Monday. HMCS Haida has to be Sunday (closed Monday), and Monday morning I have to deliver some specimens to a casting company in St. Catherines.

Since our schedule is light on Sunday, I think I'll take your suggestion and take the Niagara Parkway. I kind of wanted to see Queenston, anyway--Stan Rogers did a song about the battle there.

I had a real Achenbloggy lunch experience today, many of you Boodlers would have appreciated it far more than I. The head of our planetarium here came and gave a slide talk on the Cassini expedition, focusing on Saturn and its moons and with a little time left over for the rest of the solar system. It was amazing. Several of my fellow lunchers asked intelligent questions (several asked not-so-intelligent ones as well) but I just sat there in childlike amazement. It was completely fascinating and I learned a whole bunch of cool stuff. I would have been sad to return to work but, fortunately, I have the Boodle.

Dooley, you're embarrassing me - I didn't know that Stan Rogers did a song about the Battle of Queenston Heights.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/s/stan+rogers/macdonnell+on+the+heights_20252142.html

Info on Queenston Heights:

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

Sheesh, Wilbrod, any idiot can have their own blog. I do.

Here's a nobel effort I whipped up over lunch today, from an idea that had been baking for week or so:

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/?p=128

Now getting *paid* for this kind of nonsense, that's the trick.

bc

I should clarify here that I don't think you're an idiot, Wilbrod. I am the idiot that I refer to in my 4:39 PM post.

bc

One last thing before I go: this *is* the month for Achenbloggy experiences.

Zeptember is over, we're well into Achtober now.

bc

Thanks SoC, now I don't feel so bad not knowing who Stan Rogers is, and he grew up next door to me (as in city next door).

Dooley, if you want to put songs to places, and you are familiar with Rush, the song Lakeside Park is referencing a park in St. Catherines. While I am at it may I say neither St. Catherines or Hamilton are the best representatives of Canadian cities. I grew up across the water from Hamilton and the spouse is from St. Catherines, trust me we have done better!

Dooley we will expect a full report on all the Ottawa vertebrates.

Dooley

One of my favorite restaurants anywhere is near Ottawa. On the Hull side of the river, west of town. Called "Eschelle du Jacob" -Jacob's ladder - (not entirely sure of the spelling). It's been years, but I believe it's still there. French cooking. A small (maybe 15 tables) place. Romantic. Was taken there the first time with a (small) business group. Went back with my wife. Better with the spouse.

Dooley, are you taking specimens across the border? Just curious, is it more of a hassle these days.

Just remembered a funny story, last summer the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) had a mobile dinosaur exhibit parked at our lakeside park. One evening when we were walking by our five year old asked if she could see the dinosaur, but it was closed. Rather than be good parents, we choose to tell her that the dinosaur was sleeping and my husband walked up to the door and made noises like a dinosaur might. Not sure if she fell for it but it amused us greatly.

Just came back from reading the rest of yesterdays boodle. I write magasine rather than magazine, because I have a lazy little finger and typing it is such a pain.

Then there is the other big thing, spelling. And that other thing, editing. Ok, its all too much.

Wilbrod and your very own Wilblog. Nice.

Lots of free blogware or nearly free-platforms. I like www.squarespace.com best. Little hard to set up, but you get greated customization of the look and pages, etc.

I wonder if the deaf community is active on blogs.

Again about the teaching online. I wonder if you could also create a job for yourself on helping online educational "thingies" market distance learning or e-learning to deaf professionals.

I often had deaf people in my USDA Grad School technical writing courses. Great interpreters made for such a good experience for all. Best interaction, however, with this students took place online, in email and with MSWord document sharing. Technology is a boon for so many.
----
Thank you all for the edification on what Eeyore means. I still think this paraphrased line at the close of some Pooh-venture is best:

"Everyone is all right, really, Pooh."

Edward Shephard? Earnest Shepherd? Beats Disney hands down. But I do like Paul Winchell's voice as Tigger.

Off to soccer. Hoping the rain holds off.

JA: Dooley we will expect a full report on all the Ottawa vertebrates.

Oh Achenbach, you naughty boy, tempting me with set ups like that.

yankees pitcher was the one that hit the bldg in nyc!

someone brought in pastries this morning, and now that everyone has gone home, i can eat all the leftovers! hooray!

I checked into the "On Balance" 'blog. I found Pat's guest post and read through most of those comments, and then read through today's.

Wow! Those kids DO NOT play well together!

Ooops! The most recent "On Balance" that I had read was yesterday's, not today's.

I just glanced over today's comments there, and they were much more congenial.

Joel,

Nice kit but why o' why do you usually write about "man" and something? Is it because you are the only male in your household? Or could it be because you have a wo...man boss? Or maybe you want to feel more man...ly? Hmmmmm. Or is it possibly the 'woman is the rib' thingamasuperior gingee and you don't want us wo...men to forget?

Oh, what the heck. Frederick Church's painting of Niagara Falls, pretty much full-screen:

http://sunsite.icm.edu.pl/cjackson/c/p-church3.htm

If, Dooley, you're delivering specimens to a casting company, what movie are they trying out for? *haha*

Random Commenter, the J-man hardly ever answers /our/ questions, which usually have at least some intellectual merit, what makes you think he's gonna take your bait? especially when your premise is flawed.

Yup, Random Commenter has stumbled across the thing that has held Joel back from that Pulitzer for all this time. It's the misogyny with which all his work is imbued, which alienates all of the potential female readers (except for the pointy-science types here).

Random Commenter -

In this case I think the gender neutral interpretation of "Man" is justified.

"People and Nature" sounds silly.

"Man and Woman and Nature" sounds like a porn flick.

"Dooley we will expect a full report on all the Ottawa vertebrates."

Well, with Mrs. D. and son of D with me, I'm not sure I can check out EVERY vertebrate...but I'll do the best I can.

I'm not giving a talk this year, which means I can relax and listen to other talks, instead of trying to get my own prepared.

Typically there are around 500 talks and posters at the meeting, which lasts 4 days. There are always 4 or 5 specialty seminars (this year there's a seminar on whales, and another one on marine reptiles). Each day there will generally be 3 concurrent sessions in different broad areas (often mammals, non-mammals, and paleontological techniques), plus a poster session.

bc's obviously a better idiot than I am...

*contemplating my bloglessness*

:-)

___________________

mo, it's a tragedy, and I do mean that.

Random Commenter: I don't write the headlines.

Oh, wait, I do write the headlines. Never mind.

I think there are situations where "Man" sounds right and has a gender neutral ring to it. This would be such a situation, to my ear at least. "Humans and Nature" is awkward, and "People" doesn't sound right -- sounds too much like a specific group of folks rather than a species.

And sparks is right, I don't answer very many questions directly, because this isn't a chat, and I think the boodling is better when I'm way in the background (or shunned altogether). Go find Weingarten. He answers questions 24 hours a day. He lives to chat.

And the beat goes on...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101050.html

I particularly like the "Eff you" the guy wrote in reply... *rolling my eyes*

SN, I think he meant "formerly unblemished career".

20 employees for his nephew's high school video project! Someone has to get that video for Youtube.

Dooley, since you have a military theme going you may also want to see Fort George in Niagara on the Lake, from the waters edge in Niagara on the Lake you can look across the mouth of the river to see the fort on the US side.

You will also be going through the heart of Ontario's wine country.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/fortgeorge/index_e.asp

http://www.oldfortniagara.org/

I hope you and your family have a good and safe trip, I have heard really good things about the War Plane Museum in Hamilton, and the Haida is now in an area of Hamilton bay where they have worked really hard to improve the waterfront, there is also a Marine Discover Centre and a large park. There are many good things about Hamilton, unfortunately parts of it have gone done hill since I was a child, despite many attempts at improvements they struggle with getting a strong enough economic base to keep the city vibrant. I grew up looking across the bay at Hamilton and went there a lot, but now I don't go very often, my husband however works downtown Hamilton.

SoC, scary thing is, I don't get the impression he thinks of this as a blemish... *SIGH*

Dooley, if Son of Dooley is traveling with you, stop by Niagara University and the power plant (they are across the street from each other). Both are wonderful places.

Niagara University is in my son's top four college choices right now. Let's just see if he's in their top 400.

While we're Monday-night quarterbacking your headline decision, I need to say you have guts to write a blog that attracts so many editors.

That said, "Hairless Apes in Nature" has a ring to it. Or "Naturally Achenbach."

I was interested in Joel's blog, but astonished to find that everyone was talking about their own thing. Three points of information: Assateague stopped being a major shore real estate development as a result of the nor'easter of 1962 which washed away the "street" and much of the early construction. Wallops Island is south east of Assateague, across Chincoteague inlet. Assawoman Bay lies along the north end of Ocean City, considerably north of Assateague.

We know, John, we know. We're nerds here.

Cool painting, Loomis, but since I'm on three diuretics I can only look at it for about ten seconds before...well...you know...

uh, gotta run. Back in a minute...

Wilbrodog,

Do you know how to open the refrigerator? If you do, can you teach us?

We thought that, as domestic animals, we should learn how to cook. We're sure dbG would appreciate coming home to a dog-cooked meal every night!

Wags!

Show me anothger blog with this much inter-species communication!

Meow...

Well, you know. Canines at my house, space aliens at yours.

Thought she'd never leave!

To continue, what would be the harm if one night dbG got our food and we got hers? We're sure she'd love the salmon kibble topped with cooked rabbit, baby peas and diced carrots as much as we'd like the tortellini with marinara sauce. . . Maybe more!

I think I can figure it out, but the kitchen is too small here for me to do it, and Wilbrod's watching me.

Cooking-- too much work, trust me.

I already work hard in the kitchen by alerting to teakettles, boiling water, microwaves, toasters, kitchen timers,

And, once in a while if I'm in the mood and not asleep and dreaming of nigara falls, I will tell Wilbrod of overflowing water in the sink.

And I am trained to point or touch food on the floor but not bolt it immediately, unless it's REALLY, REALLY good and I think Wilbrod wants me to. Or that God wants me to.

I will alert when the meat is about done or ready to burn, too. I'm supposed to say when the gas goes out but I'm not really sure what the difference is yet. I do know smoke is definitely bad in the house.

Wow, listing all this makes me tired. I better go back to bed.

I was thinking of the previous boodle when I commuted in today, specifically about Mudge's dislike of he/she. As an invisible woman, a la Yoki, I agree with Random Commentator's post today (if I understood her correctly).

Why are masculine pronouns always the English standard? I'm not very interested in other people's rules, so I use feminine pronouns instead. One small step for woman, but a giant step for womankind.

P.S. Re: inter-species communication. You boodlers give great silly.

Jeez, dbG, between your 9:28 and Evangaline Lilly on "Lost," I think I need a cold shower.

Thank you, I think.

It's really hard taking those giant steps in heels, though!

I think Curmudgeon's dirty copyeditor side took over for a moment there, dbG.

kb, you made me laugh when you mentioned you didn't "get" Eeyore's name! Equinophile (is that a word? - sounds better than horse nut) that I am, of course I knew why he was named that. I was a tomboy, though, and thought Christopher Robin was a sissy, so I wasn't really into Pooh. My kiddo liked the books. It's weird - I knew things about horses when I was 3, before I could read, that I don't know how I picked up - no one in my immediate family had much experience with horses, although my grandfather was supposed to be a good judge of horses (he farmed with them).

dbG, I see lots of examples in writing these days that use she rather than he. The he/she formation is awkward.

Barbaro update (he's doing ok):
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/newsandevents/news/Barbaro_Update10-10.htm

mostlylurking,

The revolution will not be televised.

Now that tune cootie will be in my head tonight!

Oh, and I reread Misty of Chincoteague over the weekend. It's about kids and the wild ponies of Assateague Island. In all the years I lived near DC, I never made it to those islands. Sigh.

dbG -
You mean that Winnie the Pooh song? It's kb's fault - or Disney's, I guess. I recommend heavy metal - or Steely Dan - or yeah, Gil Scott Heron.

I was watching some commercials tonight when I kept being interrupted by "Lost." I finally started timing it all around 9:25. There were three segments of six minutes each with four minutes of ads in between. I think the last segment went a bit longer, but I was laughing at the Red Sox World Series reference (that was brilliant!) and forgot to check. Looks like Hurley and Locke will be back next week, thank goodness, Jack is becoming tiresome. I guess I'll keep watching for a while as I only wanted to scream at the TV once, when Sahid and Jin were watching the jungle for the Others while right behinds them, if they'd bothered to turn their heads just once, the might have seen the boat being borded. And Sahid is supposed to be so smart. Duh. (I know, it's a TV show and the plot requires certain things, but it was d. u. m. dumb.)

mostly, perhaps you were a horse expert in a past life.

I'm reminded of this excerpt from Tom Shroder's book:

"A young boy in Virginia had been obsessed with cowboy boots and blue jeans from a very early age. He refused to wear anything else, and constantly talked about 'his' farm. One day his mother was driving with him out in the country, and he started yelling, 'That's my farm.'

". . . 'What was the first time where you thought he might be talking about a previous life?' I asked.

"'It began as a joke. My husband and I would be out in public and Robert would always be talking about, "My farm," and people would say, "Oh, you live on a farm," and we'd say, "No, that was in his previous life." So we would joke about it -- literally joke about it.'

"Robert was about two then. The Lentzes lived about a half hour to the north of their present home in an older suburban area. 'There were some farms around, but Robert never had a reaction to them. It was always "at my farm."'

"'The older he got, the more his vocabulary improved, the more he'd say. At three, we learned that he smoked at age thirteen in the shed. That came out of the blue: "Mama, on my farm, when I was thirteen we were smoking." But it hit me. Ever since he could walk, he would pick up a stick, he would pick up a pencil, he would pick up anything, and pretend to smoke. Neither my husband nor I smoke. We won't even be around smoke. And at day care he's not around it at all.'

"'What else would he talk about? He'd talk about tractors, he'd talk about farm things, working on the farm, waking up on the farm, cows . . . There were always cows on his farm. Oh, and he said that a shed had been blown down in a storm.'

"'Not too long ago, maybe this past winter, he and I were sitting there watching TV and my husband made a fire and it got real quiet, and all of a sudden he said, "My mom used to stand by the fire when she was pregnant." And he said, "Mama, let me show you." And he went over and he stood there and he said, "She would rub her tummy and it would be real big and she'd stand and warm herself on the fire." And then we'd ask him, "How many children did she have?" And he'd say, "Six."'

"'At one point, the lady who takes care of him out of her home said, "Debbie, what is with this farm?" . . . So we sat down for about an hour and our notes were identical. He had a mother who "left him" and he had a mean sister, and a green tractor, and a black pickup truck. Everything was identical. And that's what's so interesting. You can talk to kids and the story changes all the time, but when you have one story since birth that never changed, it was almost incredible.'"

-- from "Old Souls: Compelling Evidence From Children Who Remember Past Lives," by Tom Shroder [THE Tom]

Remarkably, it takes more than Ms. Lilly to keep my interest in "Lost".

As soon as Sahid said the dock was "safe", they Lost me. Too contrived for my taste.

To John L's point, there is the popular Assawoman Bay up there in DE, north of Ocean City MD as he points out. IIRC, there is also an Assawoman in VA, south of Wallops, as I suggested.

bc

SCC: I should have said "near" Wallops, don't remember exactly if it were north or south of Wallops Island. It's not too far from Assateague, I do remember that much.

Oh, and good morning, Dreamer. I do enjoy those nuggets from Tom the *.

'night, all.

bc

Yeah, agreed, Bad Sneakers. I'll watch another week, too, but I've about had it with the plotting. In particular, I'm pretty disgusted with the bgratuitous sadism of the Others. Speaking as a writer, their characters lack motivation--we have no more clue why they are doing what they're doing than the castaways do, and I've lost what little trust I had in the show's writers. It's clear beyond argument that Ben and the Others are bad guys. So what's the point in trying to convince us (or the castaways) that they are the good guys, as they claim? I really just don't care what their motivation is, or what the island's and/or the Others' secrets are.

It just isn't fun watching any more.

Tom the *surgeon*, bc. Tom the Surgeon.

Hello all, I've been for awhile, trying to spend less time in front of the computer (and I have been managing to use my muscles more lately).

Checking in now to recommend an article to the boodle. It's in that other paper, the NYT mag, titled "An Elephant Crackup?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?em&ex=1160712000&en=0d17a29fe50b61e5&ei=5087%0A

I clicked on it expecting to read another enjoyable analysis of the breakdown of the republican party. Instead, I found the most interesting thing I've read in awhile,
this engaging, disturbing, and enlightening account of breakdowns in elephant social structure. I can't do it justice, just give it a read. It'll make for a good discussion for this group.

Those stories of past lives are interesting, especially the age range they tend to occur in with children.
Saw a thesis the other day-- "DNA has memory", meaning that sometimes you experience unconscious memories and behavior patterns tracing back to ancestors.

The bible also says "the sins of the father extend unto the 7th generation" and psychologists think that may be accurate and that the effects of trauma last several generations, from studying Holocaust survivors, their children, their grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren etc.

There's something transmitted between generations that is unspoken.

On an unconscious note, I also find the continuity of certain dream sequences interesting. I've had dreams refer back to memories of previous dreams and so on.

That said, I rather like the idea of reincarnation, if only because it makes for good stories.

I was once told that in India, the belief is a man who is unfaithful to his wife gets reborn as a street dog. There are quite a few of them about in India, I must say.

Silvertongue, it's a good article. Scottynuke mentioned it as well, and it draws the research together in a wonderful general picture of what is going on with elephantkind.

Ironically it dovetails with what I was talking about just now with Holocaust survivors.

SCC: wonderfully written picture. Sorry.

Sigh. I swore I wouldn't bore all y'all any more with my ramblings, but I've been *drawn in.*

Ernest H. Shepard was the Pooh illustrator. And what a superb illustrator he was. Also, Pooh has nothing to do with p**. P**r GW. I think I always knew where Eeyore's name came from. I have a beautiful first edition of The House at Pooh Corner signed by Shepard. It was given to my stepfather the year he was born and it was published.

I am now reminded of the great Flanders & Swan turn, "Pee Po Belly Bum Drawers." I think it was Michael Flanders who interjected, "People now say in public words I would hesitate to say in private!"

dBg, I cannot tell you how flattered I am to be referenced "a la Yoki," but I have never felt