The Al Gore statue alone would have been worth the price of admission. One assumes it would have been solar.

winters = cold. summers = hot.

Did Raysmom alert everyone without claiming first? How honorable.

First?

Oh, and, FIRST!

from the last boodle, and apparently Weingarten chatters will understand-

Button fly jeans are all about chemistry, methinkgs.

*slinking away in shame* for not being as honorable as Raysmom.

OMG, SCC methinks.

A thousand pardons dbG for appearing to cast aspersions through praise of Raysmom. I was neither criticizing nor behaving very honorably myself as the comment count still read 0 when I hit submit on my 4:07.

If that was in response to me, frosti, no worries. I'm truly not big on guilt and/or shame.

Just procrastinating from what they pay me to do.

>*slinking away in shame* for not being as honorable as Raysmom.

Don't you dare. It was delayed, and the solar crack was excellent.

It was actually a great comment, and Raysmom totally deserved it. My experience has shown Raysmom is far more civilized than I, as are many people here. And that's okay because I like myself just the way I am. :-)

Solar crack?

Not slinking, but back to work. Thanks, Error!

dbG, obviously I am not doing a good job at showing my true self here. I've been known to have sharp elbows at times.

The Smithsonian will open a new hall of coevolution next year, focusing on butterflies and plants.

http://persoon.si.edu/sbs/

I don't know whether the Republican candidate for President will hold a rally against the new exhibit on the mall in front of the National Museum.

I wonder what the Smithsonian is going to do about all those exhibits that claim the earth is more than 6,000 years old. They've got dinosaurs claiming to be millions of years old, and of course there's skeletons and diramas about Neandertals and Cro-Magnons. Gotta find a way to split the difference there, too, I guess.

Wildly off-topic and parochial to boot, sometimes David does not slay Goliath:

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070522/SPORTS03/70522035

God, I hate the fording Cowboys.

When we were working with the exhibit designers for the exhibits in our new museum building, our scientists and educators represented the museum in the planning meetings, and remained involved right up through construction.

When I described this to other paleontologists at a conference, they were amazed that our scientists were even invited to participate in the exhibit design, much less play a leading role. Apparently at many museums (especially big ones), exhibits/education and research are completely isolated from each other. Scientists may be questioned on a particular point of fact, but that's all.

Nina Burleigh's book about James Percy Macie Smithson and the founding of the museum in Washington, D.C. named after him has a nifty cutline associated with a reproduction of a lithograph (I believe) of John Calhoun (you decide if there are parallels to the Kit):

John Calhoun, the senator from South Carolina, was a slave owner adamantly opposed to any expansion of federal power, including the creation of an institution to diffuse knowledge. He argued that to accept money from an anonymous Englishman was "beneath the dignity" of the United States. [Heaven forbid that the federal government should diffuse real knowledge!]

Interesting to Google and learn that William Blaine Richardson I (the first) was a Boston biologist affiliated with New York City's American Museum of Natural History. Wonder what the Democratic governor of New Mexico thinks of this Smithsonian brouhaha, given his past experience as energy secretary?

Thanks for your article on Richardson, BTW, Joel, and his background. Without your coverage, I wouldn't have realized that Loomis descendant James Stillman was most likely indirectly reponsible for giving WBR II a job as bank manager down in Mexico.

Demo presidential contender Bill Richardson makes much of his "La Raza" connection and is really playing that race card, but a closer reading of the article by the Albuquerque Journal reporter earlier this year reveals that Bill Richardson is the son of privilege and wealth. Richardson is clearly a White Hispanic or White Hispanic-American, much like our own family's Raquel Welch.

Clearly you're working for a pretty dysfunctional organization, Dooley, allowing for the free flow of information and ideas. I don't know what this world is coming to.

Actually, I do know: the fording Cowboys are hosting the 2011 Super Bowl. I'm as ticked off as bill everything.

Gagging over Gene's poetry-sense, especially in the "marked" difference he sees in the poems he listed. Sure right.

I also gagged at having to read Blake again. Vorgon poetry would be an improvement.

I like Ozymandias, and Lake Isle of Innisfree suffers because it's not Yeat's best poem.

I put in a vote for Browning's the Duchess because it's an amazing feat, it reads like prose and poetry at the same time. You could skip the line breaks and it'd read even better.

And as Andy Kaufman the comic pointed out in a play analyzing Shakespeare, that flowing effect composed of extending long sentences across more than one line can create a sense of unhinged madness.

http://www.professorandy.com/Shakespeare.shtml

But to say "The Road Not Taken" is opaque and therefore worse than "the Tyger" (which made me retch), shows that he's an a**hat.

It made perfect sense to me from the start. Just because he can't suss why the poet called it "the road not taken" means nothing.
My entire life is the road less travelled, and indeed I wonder about the road not taken. Simple as that.

That said, I believe the "The Hired Man", "The mending wall" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" to be better poems.

If it's any consolation Bill Everything my absence from the 2011 Super Bowl will now be a true boycott. Had Indianapolis been chosen to host it would have been more like not being able to go.

Scotty, I know you've had a rough couple of weeks at work, P.r.-wise. How'd you like this headache: apparently USA Today has a photo of Bush driving on his ranch without his seat belt. DOT has just kicked off its annual major "Click It or Ticket" campaign.

Perhaps instead of "Commander Guy" Bush can get a new nickname: "The First Offender." (It works on oh so many leveles.)

By the way, found this "Ballad of the Girlie Man". Far more hip than claiming Frost is inferior to Blake.

http://www.milkmag.org/CHBERNSTEIN6.html

Here it is:

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/05/president_bush__2.html?csp=34

I am glad Joel chose to remind us of climate change. It helps me delude myself into believing that gasoline at $3.15 a gallon is actually a good thing.

Speaking of SUVs...

Breaking news about a Starbucks that was accidentally retrofitted into a Carbucks.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/13367348/detail.html?rss=dc&psp=news

It's unsetttling to learn that a member of the Loomis family is guilty of promulgating the Creationist carnard that humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

Censorship is alive and well in the museum world. It happened all the time at the institution I used to work at. Donors often had an unofficial say in what curators put into the exhibits. So much for academic freedom.

You should trademark that phrase, Mudge.

Gas at $5.15 or $6.15 would be a better thing. In the future, when it's unavailable to anyone except Bill Gates and USAF, We'll look back and ask ourselves, What do we have to show for using it up twice as fast as we needed to? We got to go to the store in a car twice as heavy. Whoopee.

I find it suspicious that the unsigned blank posts appeared in the last boodle just before Joel posted his new kit.
I tried to mess up omni's timeline by posting one myself but was thwarted.

I fear that if gas gets too dear too fast, the shock may exceed what we can absorb.

My museum has also taken the route of plastering the names of big donors on various rooms for a sponsorship fee (although they don't get any say as to what goes in the rooms). I can't say I'm really opposed to that, since we need the money. I like to believe that if Discovery Institute offered us gobs of money we would turn it down. Personally, I'm hoping that Viagara or Enzyte will sponsor my lab.

If I win the lottery, I think I'll sponsor the lab of someone who doesn't like me, so they'll always have to work in a space named after me.

Dooley, a most tasteless joke about old bones just occurred to me, but I am far too sophisticated to pass it along.

Two theories on Bush sans seat belt:

1) saw Corzine approval numbers soar after accident and is waiting for the right moment to get back that all important "mo."

2) just another proof that he is a pontiachead.

Sorry, that automotive kit has me still thinking of cars.

Mudge, your five something comment had me laughing out loud. I suspect there are lots of people that don't wear their seat belts, especially in that crowd that tells everyone else to wear theirs. Someone reported that the governor that was in that bad accident, when he left the hospital he did not have his seat belt on.

I don't quite understand why museums would want to keep the science out of an exhibit. I mean are we talking good science or is the science kind of iffy? Is the science on global warming iffy or is it good science? I don't know a lot about that, but I'm thinking that humans impact the environment in lots of ways and many of those ways are not good. So why would they not have some impact in the global warming question? And what's the point of not telling people, does that not make it so? I feel like I'm living in the century where people thought one could walk to the edge of the earth and fall off, when someone finally said, hey it's round or something to that effect.

Why would the Bush administration be offended with good science? I am really perplexed by this. I don't know science that well, and I know that man cannot answer all the questions, but there are some things that have been answered.

This is too hard. Someone suggest some good books about global warming, please.

Boko999 writes:
It's unsetttling to learn that a member of the Loomis family is guilty of promulgating the Creationist carnard that humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

Sorry to inform you, Boko, that I never saw the film One Million Years B.C., but your disappointment is as great as my own. If it's any consolation (I checked my distant cousin's work--he the true genealogist), she comes down on the White line (Mary White marrying Joseph Loomis and settling Windsor, Conn., in 1638--it is from Mary's brother, John, that Raquel is descended). But it does make Raquel and Richard Gere very distant cousins!

But you have to admit, Raquel did look rather fetching in those animal skins, long before PETA ever existed.

I liked the Yeats poem for the boodle because of the sometimes-mentioned worry and longing for bees.

(Who sent a great link -- promptly lost -- about a kind of bee set-up we could could buy and keep in the yard? Resend?)

Bird report, especially for Raysmom: along the Anacostia today, near Bladensburg, I saw TWO HUGE, absolutely huge Great Herons. They were not together: one was flying very low along the creek channel; the other stalking the backwash of high tide. (My father calls them "Needle-nose Plyers of Death." Pliers works too.)

Also:
an osprey
a green eyed vireo
either two killdeer or the same one twice

For Frosti: the "penned" wild rice is finally up and looks fine. Arum and arrowhead looking green, too. Still, many geese waddle about, hoping the net will disappear and they can eat the tender shoots.

I was thinking of all the fine Indian names along this stretch:
Potomac
Mattaponi
Piscataway
Patuxent
Tiak
Accoceek

Beautiful sounds in the mouth. These tribes are so deeply buried in colonial and slave history that I don't think a casino movement will arrive soon.

Oh, 'Mudge! Lots of Naval history here too:

Battle of Bladensburg (we lost, Washington overrun, Dolly Madison saved some paintings

Stephen Decatur was shot in a duel near this bike trek at Dueling Creek

Ft. Lincoln includes a monument to one Marine Barney, who was valiant, etc., and died.

Loomis |Your distant cousin can wrap my mangy pelt around herself anytime she likes.

I have finished Shakespeare's biography.
I am ready, I hope, to read his plays.

CP I live along the Cacapon river here in West by god. Cacapon is the Shawnee word for healing waters. I feel like I am being healed everytime I get in for a dip.

Oh dear, RD. WATCH ONE. GO STRAIGHT TO VIDEO....meant to be watched.

Ken Branaugh's Henry V

is great and your son may like it to.

Try the Carter Baron Free for All this month: LOVES LABOUR LOST

LLL is my favorite all-time Shakespeare play. The theme? love, including love of words.

GWE -- well, here is a secret: W VA is simply MT, east-coast outpoint. This is a compliment, you see.

You dip into the river? How lovely! The Anacostia is not for dipping, for a number of chemical and biological reasons.

But my brain burns: S.K.I.N.N.Y dipping? Oh my!

RD, which bio of dear Will? UMCP is Sam Schoenbaum-land, regarding Shakepeare studies.

Oh, I have acheived lilacs. The first blooms erupted yesterday four years after transplant and today there were two honey bees and a bumble serviceing(e?)them.
On our morning walk Buddy999 paddled through the wetland adjacent the road and disturbed a huge passle o' frogs. My concerns vis a vis the bees and frogs may have been a bit premature.
On our drive home from Ottawa yesterday I spotted 30-40 wild turkeys in a field a mile from the house. I'm sure Buddy999 was wondering what they tasted like. We'll find out this fall with a bit of good luck. Good luck for us, not the turkeys.

CP - It's "Shakespeare: The Biography" by Peter Ackroyd. I have no idea if it is reputable or disreputable. But it's gotten me all psyched over iambic pentameter.

I hear that Falstaff dude is quite the card.

RD, you might like this about how Shakepeare is a pivot for Western literary tradition:
Harold Bloom, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1999).

I also like Stephen Greenblatt, Will in the World (2004)

But Sam Schoembaum's bio IS THE SCHOLARLY REFERENCE:
S. Schoenbaum, William Shakespeare, A Compact Documentary Life (Oxford U. Press, 1977

Boko: Bravo on your lilacs. Can I visit ? I'll stay outside and simply smell them.

I'll seconfd CPs recommendation of Branagh's Henry V.

That delivery of the St. Crispin's day speech is worth the price of the rental all by itself IMO.

bc

Yes CP, I dip in the river a lot, as much as I can. No not skinny dip though. I would be afraid to scare all the fish away. I also fish, kayak and float down on innertubes. Nothing finer then floating down a lazy river on a hot summer day.

I should add that I'd meant to see "Titus Andronicus" in town this month, but I never got round to it.

Hopefully there will be some video of it available at some point.

bc

>Oh dear, RD. WATCH ONE. GO STRAIGHT TO VIDEO....meant to be watched.

RD, anything with Lawrence Olivier.

RD.. I second that suggestion to watch Henry V. Excellent movie; the kids will like it too.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone who can do Shakespeare like Kenneth Branagh. He makes it sound like everyday language. After seeing his Hamlet I tried to watch Olivier's and it was just plain comical.

After you see Henry V, make sure you also watch Much Ado About Nothing with Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton... etc... even Keanu Reeves. Lots of fun.

Skinny dipping - I'm all for it.

But then, I'm likely to be mistaken for some sort of river grass. No danger from fish, but I gotta keep an eye on the ducks.

bc

Sam Schoenbaum's obit from 1996. He was a truly kind and loving person, as well as a scholar. Frosti collects news of notsuing. I am collecting news of kindness among the accomplished. (John Mather is one such exhibit.)

http://calbears.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19960403/ai_n14051454

Sure CP but you don't have to stay outside, you can come in the garage, I cleaned that up today. If the house caught fire I'd be embarrassed to call the fire dept. because they might come in and see the mess.
Your post reminded me that Niki told me to thin out the rhubarb patch to keep them growing.

SCC it growing

I hear "The Twelfth Night" is quite the bawdy romp.

Seriously, after hearing all you sophisticated literate-type folks just go on and on about this Shakespeare feller's plays, I felt I needed to check them out. But I wanted a little historical context first.

Further, my younger brother and his wife are obsessive patrons of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland Oregon, and I am getting tired of being the Philistine Eastern Bumpkin.

For I fear I have never seen a Shakespearean play, either on stage or on film, with the exception of Baz Luhrmann's "Romeo and Juliet" which I really liked. But I am a big fan of the "Red Curtain Trilogy" so I was probably appreciating the visual splendor more that the Bard's prose.

Okay, so I shall rent Henry V with Kenneth Branagh and view it on my trusty laptop post haste. Then I shall be all cultured-like.

RD -- Branaugh's Hamlet too, with the most gorgeous Julie Christie in full middle-aged glory as Gertrude.

She is lovely, crows-feet and all.

I like KB's Loves Labor Lost, but the critics panned it.

Fun to pair Taming of the Shrew with broadway Cole Porter's Kiss me Kate.

And, RD (then I exeunt, as in the manner of a bear), do see Franco Zefferilli (sp?) Romeo and Juliet...Olivia Hussey at 15. First movie I ever saw with a brief suggestion of her nether and plether regions.

Done.

>Henry V with Kenneth Branagh

When I lived in NYC on 25th St. and 2nd Ave., the guy upstairs with the vibrating foot massager was a bus driver named Will Shakespeare.

RD, for grins and giggles, see if you can find the Julius Caesar that was done late 40's with a galaxy of stars...it was old when I saw it in high school after studying the play. We chanted along with the actors. If you can stand the mannerisms it's quite the movie.

"plether regions"? Man. Just when you thought you thought you had it all figured out.

CP- Thanks for the rice and other aquatics report. I think there is great hope in the Anacostia. Our little river, part of the Hudson Bay watershed, is considerably cleaner than it was when I was young.

Monarch butterflies arrived today, probably helped along by the 35mph winds. Big box 'o plants called to me yesterday and I bought, gasp, yellow orange marigolds, purple petunias, and red salvia to plant in great garish drifts with the tomatoes and basil. I'll stick some in pots on either side of the garage door with trailing chartreuse and not quite black ipomoea and make the excuse that the hummingbirds love the salvia and petunias. This twin planter homage to auto storage is required to prevent gossip about one's dedication to "keeping a nice place."

Wow. I'm stuttering with the keyboard. Time to herd the bunnies back into their Palatial Bunny Habitat and head upstairs.

Oh, please not done, neither CP nor Error.

Weingarten is a idiot. He thinks, because he is an arbiter of humour, that he is an arbiter of everything literary (ha!).

He is a idiot.

I will tell you (without in the least thinking I can influence anybody else) that of the four pomes he gave us, The Tyger and My Last Duchess are the greatest of them. All the others are just fine. Just fine. But that is my aesthetic. There is no right answer. I wish Gene would pop in here and answer, in real time, to some equally-comfortable critics. He is not the arbiter of all things great.

And he'd already telegraphed that he loves Ozymandias more than other pome. Remember when he wouldn't discuss his own views on abortion-on-demand, because he thinks he carries too much weight as the chat host? Well, he has fallen into the same trap as the host of the potry poll. I don't care what he thinks! He's just wrong about it.

Gene Weingarten cannot, and will not, appreciate Augustian or Justinian rhetoric. I cannot help him with that, because he cannot hear what I have say about writing.

I love him as a humourist, but not so much as a thoughtful reader of everything else. He is not right just because he says something, anything, and assures us that he knows more than we do, about what we know.

How cow! I took some time to compose a thoughtful critical post, and found you'd all moved beyond me!

G'night friends.

greenwithenvy,

Our family and friends canoed the Cacapon several times and loved each and every trip. It's a fun river with some challenging parts and just beautiful countryside. That is a lovely area and I'm getting a bit green right now. Thanks for bringing back those memories!

I'm still here, Yoki. You don't have to leave yet.

:)

Yoki, no one has moved beyond you. That is impossible.

Weingarten was a fish out of water today. For the first time I can remember, I didn't even read, let alone vote, in the poll and, as you know, I can at least cut and paste, if not fully appreciate, poetry.

Hi TBG! *hugs*

On my first real date we went to see Olivia Hussey in Romeo and Julliet. There must have been other actors in it but I couldn't tell you who. It took years of reading other playwrights and watching movies of Shakespeares work before the scars of the high school Shakespeare experience could heal enough for me to enjoy reading his plays.

I apologize for the number of commas in the prior post, approx. one per word, (there I go again) and will not let it happen again.

CP - I loved Will in the World. I listened to that on CD during a period when I was doing a lot of driving. Excellent. The narrator was riveting.

Have to go back and read the Weingarten chat...I did the poll, which I kind of enjoyed because my daughter's 8th grade class recently had a Poetry Alive Cafe and 3 of those poems were recited by exuberant, although slightley self conscious tweens...very fun, but it was nice to read them so soon after the event.

SCC - slightly....must start previewing.

Uh, that's "exeunt, pursued by a bear."

Ahh, that bear is the one shakespearean role I would love to snag.

I was first introduced to Shakespeare through what must have been Zeffirelli's 1967 film of the London stage version, shown on public television. Chock full of now Sir this and Dame that, it was captivating. I loved Shakespeare, until '77 when a high school teacher sucked every breath out of the bard. The love returned, but it took years and half a dozen good movies and stage productions to wash away the pain.

bill everything, yes.

SCC-should read "Chock full of actors who are now Sir this and Dame that..."

Boko999-we were typing of our highschool Shakespeare scars at the same time. I fear the antidote to murdering Shakespeare has often been ignoring him.

Then again, perhaps it's just as well. When the movies are good enough to keep him alive in pop culture, why kill him at school.

I'm still undecided as to who is the better Shakespearian actor, Mickey Rooney or John Cleese.

Wilbrodog, just keep auditioning. We are bear-like, and know you would totally pone that role.

Oh Yoki, clearly Weingarten crossed the line with you, but I hope you manage to forgive him. I read Gene as a very self-deprecating and genuinely sensitive guy. Part of his "shtick" is this arrogant claim that he is infallible in matters of humor and taste. Sure he's full of mulch sometimes (like when he tried to improve on the lyrics to "Your Song"), but that's all part of his charm.

Besides, he's a dog person.

Cleese! That vicious, vicious, Bustard.

>Boko999-we were typing of our highschool Shakespeare scars at the same time.

I guess I lucked out. I had a h/s Shakespeare class with a guy who really brought it to life. A real ham, but it was good.

I know this, RD. I like him. That is why he disappoints me so. I think he really gets most of it. I like him! And I know he is being sardonic (ironic, sarcastic) when he lays-down-the-law. And yet he is faithless. That is with which I have a problem.

Gosh thanks! I've also considered playing Hamlet, but in movies only.

Admit it, what human can look remotely as depressed as a black dog can while having his chin between paws? And there's a reason why Prince is a common dog's name, no?

Also, I live by the motto that if "'tis to be done, 'twas better done quickly", especially when it comes to getting ready for walks. I know the agony of indecision all too well.

I posted about the Orchard Mason Bees awhile back:
http://www.knoxcellars.com/

Ours came out, did their job, and are now back in their house, covered by mud. I haven't seen any praying mantises yet. frostbitten, you have Monarchs! I don't get to have Monarchs here.

After my Austen marathon, I'll have to get some Shakespeare movies. I loved Zeffirelli's R&J, and The Taming of the Shrew with Liz Taylor and Richard Burton - very funny.

I thought GeneW's poetry poll was ok - of course he's not absolutely right, but he's got some good points. You can always comment on the chat. Personally, I can't make any sense out of the Browning, and I think he's overanalyzing the Frost.

A hit! A very palpable hit!

As usual, RD says it best. That's Weingarten's schtick, but I have to confess to feeling like he may be off his game and overdoing that particular schtick...

Don't give up, Yoki! I can't help thinking that anyone who has a piece like The Great Zucchini has to be worth waiting out the rough spots.

SCC...sigh...can write a piece like....

It is that to which I object, mostlylurking. He called out some very banal sentiments; the thing is, is, that most poetry deals with banal sentiment. That life is short and uncertain is not a new insight, and so Ozymandias is not more original in subject-matter that any other pome. I think Gene was seduced by romanticsm. Ozymandias is not a better pome than any of the other three, Weingarten simply prefers it for reasons of his own.

That we've made irrevocable choices is not new, either. That we love our home-place is obvious.

I think the wonderful thing about the Browning is that it broke new ground, literally. My Last Duchess deald, for one of the first times, with an ignoble spirit rendered in fine language. Shocking! And Frost used, in one of the original forms, a uniquely American language and cadence. Excellent!

What is poetry for, after all? I think and believe and feel that it is meant to encompass, very compactly, human experience. How to express that experience in the fewest possible words? Pomes.

Speaking of mulch, you mulch-happy folks might want to read Adrian Higgins' chat from today. Specifically about mulching too close to trees - it's too long to post here (basically, he's agin it).

Wilbrodog and Yokisdogs-If you haven't already, you need to round up the Wishbone version of Romeo and Juliet. Wishbone is the Jack Russell Terrier featured in the PBS children's series and he could have been called the dog of a thousand faces.

I shall have to check out the Weingarten chat. I rarely see Ozymandias noted at all, much less as a great poem. Sister Mary Patrick assigned it for memorization in 4th grade, and it was well worth the effort.

Yes, Kim. And I think I loved the Josh/violin story even more than The Great Zucchini (and that is saying something). That is why I am so very very angry with him. I waited, yearning, for him to come back. And what do I get for my faith?

But note that I still put all my work on hold to read his chats, and post here about my ponderings. I love this man.

Not as much as I love all of you (because I don't know him) but quite a bit.

mostly-Higgins is so right about mulch and trees. It's not only not good for the trees, but nothing looks sillier than a perfect little circle around a tree.

One of the best reasons to read Willie The Shake is to better appreciate modern classics.

Like "Queen of The Barbarians 2".

My favourite poet is Ed Sanders. I've never read any of his poetry but I loved his band The Fugs. Ah, the hours I spent curled up next to the pilot light listening to "Golden Filth." *wipes away tear*

hahahahaha!

Frostbitten - Wishbone! I had forgotten him! How my kids loved those videos! Ok, me too.
Thanks for making me smile.

Yoki - isn't it funny how we know our imaginary friends? At least, some aren't imaginary to you since you've been to a BPH...I have to laugh when something reminds me of something a boodler has said. Happens a lot!

It is truly amazing you can appreciate both "The Tyger" and "the Duchess" as great poems, Yoki. They are so different.

I'd take your opinion over Gene's anyday, then. I already gave my opinion on the Duchess.

OTH, I've always hated Blake with a visceral hatred, and the Tyger is the one poem I can stomach, but don't love.

Of course, Poetry can indeed be lost in translation even within the same language.

How can a Bronx-born boy appreciate nature imagery as well as, for instance, somebody living out near wolves and elk would?

The murmuring of bees under immemorial elms would speak to my bee-catching soul far more than it would speak to the heart of a guy whose only acquaintance with striped insects would be avoiding the yellowjackets buzzing around garbage cans and inside empty soda cans.

So this is a roundabout way of explaining why Gene is a twit, and also why I loathe the Tiger, even with the beautiful imagery.

I don't have that ear-savoring tradition of enjoying music and songs with what appear to be mindless repetition-- (and I do like some ballads, but they come with a different structure).

What is poetic about repeating words at all?

Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, Tiger, dread, dread, dread, dare, dare, dare, hand, hand, hand, hand, eye, eye, eyes, and...

FOURTEEN "what"s.

IMO, the poem would be better without that. And what's with all the questions? What, he's asking the reader for advice on how to rewrite the poem?

So, no matter how wonderful it is, I couldn't in honesty rank The Tyger as "great", because it grates rather than treats me, what with all those dread "what"s.

Yoki's yammering, "Yikes! Yearning... now yawning."

Mostly's mulching; missing monarchs.

CP's picking peonies, parsing papers, placating parents.

RD's begging a bard's best.

Frosti's finding favor with flashy flowers.

Kim's keeping cozy; commenting coherently...

Caught Yoki and RD's discussion. All good points.

Hey... remember that column in which gene outs that he routinely mispronounces "what" as "wat" instead of whut or wot?

Imagine Gene reading "The Tyger" and mispronuncing all the fourteen WHATS in a loud voice. Beautiful, no?

NEWSFLASH!! NDP wins in Manitoba.
Socialist hordes chalk up victory in Manitoba with third straight majority government.

TBG's twittering bright gems
And the boodle keeps grinding...
This Gene bashing is fun, indeed.

Yoki, Weingarten = comedy provacateur.

He forgot the title to his chat "Funny?" today. Imagine, though, the burden that creates.

It is an unspoken covenant that those who submit comments are subject to the most sarcastic criticism if they fall outside the ambit of his "all-knowing being."

Which he would readily tell you is all a joke.

This difficult for most sane people to accept.

TBG, you're making me dizzy!

Boko-whopping majority, CBC Manitoba has called it a night already and is going back to NHL coverage.

SCC: >This difficult for most sane people to accept.<

This is difficult for most sane people to accept.

Hmmm, I preferred it when he would pompously dissect banal subjects, Bill everything. That in itself was very funny.

Nowadays, he's trying to tackle things that are kind of personal, with strong cultural biases involved.

If he keeps this trend up, he'll be comparing holy books to each other, and starting a religious war on his chat.

On the other hand, he should totally do a chat about Freud and dream interpretion and solicit dreams (real or made-up).

That would be funny.

"He called out some very banal sentiments; the thing is, is, that most poetry deals with banal sentiment. That life is short and uncertain is not a new insight, and so Ozymandias is not more original in subject-matter that any other pome."

Mozart, Brahms, Mahler and Richard Strauss used the same instruments, same scales, and wrote pretty much in the same forms. Nothing new there, and nothing to criticize, either. Some of the pieces I like more than others, but that doesn't mean the ones down the list are bad.

Exactly, LTL.

Wilbrod, the 'Whats' are like downbeats in conducted music. They give the piece its rhythm.

I am *so interested* in how you and I read things (or hear them?) differently. I am very glad to know you, and be given some insight into this difference. Thank you.

This runs a bit long but the Stephen Colbert/Sean Penn "Metaphor Off" has a priceless use of Ozymandias. Frost gets a mention too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dtqYYnNvOo

Catching up after a long (fun) day. Random thoughts...

TBG...good. very good. That mind of yours just twists around into weird shapes sometimes, doesn't it?

Wilbrod...(or maybe Wilbroddog)...ya made me laugh. Andy Kaufman the comedic. As opposed to who? Andy Kaufman they guy at Starbucks? What other Andy Kaufman is there? (Sorry, but to those of us a tad older, there's just the one).

Boko..Cleese? Now there's someone who would do it justice. Thanks for making me giggle like a fourth grader.

bc...I saw Titus Andronicus. Messy, bloody, violent. Yet an excellent play. I kept thinking of Medea...the way a woman in that position acts (no mercy), and of Mo (Queen of Goth).

ScienceTim...are you out there? I've got a science question, and (as you know) I just don't have a science mind. I'm hiding out at The Cabin in West Virginia, and the FM radio is WAY screwy. I mean way. I only really pick up two stations here, and the occassional pilot heading to Dulles, but lately I'm picking up stations from left field. My neighbor picked up a Nebraska station yesterday, I've been getting Chicago and somewhere with a deep deep drawl. Sunspots? Aliens? Government experiments? What's the deal?

cancelling my smithsonian mag subscription at this very moment

SCC: way too many for me fix. If you could just blip over my errors, that would be cool. Thanks.

And ScienceTim...let me know if I should head for the hills. Oh wait. That's where I am.

LostinThought- Your unusual radio reception is probably from "tropospheric ducting." FM signals are affected by weather, and when you have a temperature inversion they can be bent and travel upwards of 1,000 miles beyond their usual range. Or so says Mr. F, the Signal Geek.

When I was a kid, I would listen from LA to KSL in SLC, KDKA Pittsburgh, and the one in St Louis that carried the Cardinals (KMOX?). SF stations were easy to get sometimes even in daylight, esp KGO and KCBS (before the LA station took that call sign). Strongest of all was "the ring man" from Del Rio, TX (transmitter in Mexico). Probably too much electro-noise to do that these days.

Ah, LTL those "border blaster" stations were very powerful, didn't need help from the weather. We used to listen to WGN (AM)from Chicago at night up here near the Canuckistani border.

Evenin' all...

A very long day here and I promised myself I would go straight to bed when I got home, but I see that potree is being discussed and I just can't pass up a potree discussion. Wouldn't be natural.

Yoki rhetorically asked and then answered herself... "What is poetry for, after all? I think and believe and feel that it is meant to encompass, very compactly, human experience. How to express that experience in the fewest possible words? Pomes."

I agree to a degree, but compactness is only one aspect of poetry -- and not necessarily a requirement in order for the form to achieve its purpose. It is true that concise is generally better, but that path ultimately leads to really bad haiku.

I think the purpose of poetry is to not just express, but give life to the human experience via the inherent music and imagery of language. I suppose you could say the same for prose but while good prose is often called "poetic", good poetry is rarely (if ever) called "prosaic".

I would also add that poetry has the double (and many would think self-contradictory) task of describing something, yet leaving that something open to interpretation (which brings up one of my poetic pet peeves -- inordinate abuse of obtuseness).

--

Off the top of my head, some thoughts on poetry:

Poetry is the only contagious mental disorder known to humankind, but not everyone is susceptible to it -- you either get it, or you don't.

"I write poetry" is the perfect thing to say to a publisher if you don't want to be published.

Poetry is an excellent psycho-chick/dude magnet.

"I write poetry" is basically an admission that you don't have the attention span required to write complete para

--

(oh... 57 down... must have missed a tic)

Peace :-)

Ann Scott Tyson's story on Iraq strategy in the Wed. Post looks interesting. Not sure that any Iraqi nationalists would like the US sacking "excessively sectarian" officials. 'night.

For the mess in that Lebanese "camp" for Palestinians, Christopher Dickey at Newsweek seems to have figured things out as well as anyone, by finding a French sociologist who actually knows one of the camps.

Well, it seems obvious that the subhead here was written by a man...

==
Birth Control Pill Stops Periods
FDA approves contraceptive designed for women who find menstruation too painful or unpleasant.
==

I wonder if there is a woman alive now--or ever--that doesn't find it unpleasant.

On that count, TBG, I suspect many men would raise their hands too.

LiT... What are you doing up? I'm still at work. Just put our newsletter to bed and am going home to do the same soon.

:)

Just got done talking to Sis-On-the-Coast. You're still at work? Dear L0rd woman, you are dedicated. Sleep well. I plan on doing the same (once I pour more benedryl into Dear Child...oh, the pollen!)

Yoki - I don't really know you (except I kinda do, a little, in a strange way!) but I feel like I could trust you in many situations.

I've got a feeling that (smug sarcasm and all) Weingarten would also be someone that I could trust.

From pomes to the unpleasantness of menstruation is but a single post.

Martooni apparently channeled the boodl

Yoki, you will best understand how I see poetry through discussing Lord Tennyson and ASL.

ASL poetry relies on changing of handshapes, motion, rhythm, inflection, expression, tone, etc. You never have to use a sign exactly the same way twice. Unfortunately "what" is not very poetic in ASL.

Here's a selection from "the Princess" (Tennyson) that I completely love.

The splendour falls on castle walls
And snowy summits old in story:
The long light shakes across the lakes,
And the wild cataract leaps in glory.
Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying,
Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying.

First of all, I love the kinetic imagery of this. Internal rhymes, check. But note further the varying S-consonant clusters-- the Spl, ls, stl, ls, sn, s_m_t, St-r...

I developed a new way of looking at poetry in ASL and English by translating this into ASL.

/the splendor falls on castle walls/

Splendor=(Wonderful + light shines), They both have the same handshapes so the pattern is like 5-o-5 (finger five, small o handshape, finger-five again).

Wonderful climbs up in a single shallow arc with a double beat '-' . The o handshape starts above my head and spreads open into rays of light falling to where the castle walls are, in front of me. It's like an oì sort of... long falling tone, with a very slight tremble (shine) at the start which calms down.

The light's shine stops at the imaginary walls and then changes plane as I close the fingers of that hand flat, to sign on another flat hand- "ON" A short -' beat.

Then with a short move to a different handshape, I draw my hands apart to sign the castle's turrets above with downwards arcs, '-'-'

Then I do the same kind of motion to sign walls with flat hands (as used in ON) without any "beat". -- Walls rhymes with Castle-- but not perfectly.

So in a five sign sequence, I've created the sun, shown how the sunlight shines down on castle walls, then its turreted outline and the flat walls, and also did a serial partial rhyme (assonance) with castle-walls, and handshape consonance between "wonderful light, and "on" and "walls".

RHYTHM '-'oì-''-'-'--

Note: Hands can be used together, singly, or in alternating pattern inside a sign itself to create a new level of pattern.

HANDSHAPE PATTERN:
(wonderful) (light falls) on castle walls
2A (bA) 2C D 2C

..And snowy summits old in story

1(AE)-' (slow) And
2(A)'-- (weak flutter beat) Snowy
2(FA)'- (strong, slow, rising) Mountains
1(BG) (weak flutter beat, similar to 2A)
Old
2(E/H)-' In
2(AF,AF,AF) '- '- '- (strong, slow)
Story
L/R(F''') Handed down, inherited (L/R= left and right hands moving alternatively for a total of 3 beats.)

STORY is also a partial rhyme to CASTLE or WALL, but the rhythm is longer and more circular.

It's sorta like the CaSTLe and SToRy sound pattern in English, actually.

The long light shakes across the lakes...

This time, the light hits the lake surface before it trembles across the lake in a long motion-- very similar to ASL for waves compounded with the motion for "shine", and "spread". So in one sign, it indicates the appearance of light spreading across the waves in a broken, glittery pattern. Then bingo, I got the image in my head.

I had to do this before I understood what the heck Tennyson meant by "light shaking across lakes". I liked the rhyme, sure, but light doesn't shake like coins or a spear.

Short point: repeating words unnecessarily merely to create rhythm without sense is overkill in ASL-- and in English, too. Tennyson proved that to me.

Blake does make some use of assonance and consonance, but he ain't Tennyson.

From the Idylls of the King:

And indeed He seems to me
Scarce other than my king's ideal knight,
`Who reverenced his conscience as his king;
Whose glory was, redressing human wrong;
Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it;
Who loved one only and who clave to her--'
Her--over all whose realms to their last isle,
Commingled with the gloom of imminent war,
The shadow of His loss drew like eclipse,
Darkening the world. We have lost him: he is gone:
We know him now:

Like the light shaking across lakes, his rhythms are spread out into glimmers of sounds instead of full rhymes.

Indeed, Ideal, knight, wrong, king, to it, slander, nor, her, over, war, isle, eclipse, gone...reverenced, conscience, redressing, loved, clave...

Martooni is absolutely right, so in his honor I commit bad haiku-karu and go to bed.

Beware, psycho chicks
dig Aphrosadiacal
Pseudopoetry

Morning, friends. Poetry. I used poetry during a trying time in my life, and by that I mean I attempted to write poetry. Not good at that, but it helped me. It pulled me through a dark place. I think I sent a poem to a newspaper once, but I'm sure they totally disregarded it.

I read the story about the movie made by Jolie on Daniel Pearls' life. I would really like to see that movie. Daniel Pearls widow seems to be an exceptional person, and people like that are always interesting. I also think Angelina Jolie is one good actress.

Have a busy day ahead, and I want to get started early. I hope your day is just fantastic.

I will ask again, can someone lead me to a good book or place to get the right understanding about global warming? Not too in-depth, just the basics if possible. On the surface it seems to be important.

Morning, all.*waving*

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

Missed the poetry chat. TBG -- parsing papers! Love it! I will say that to the peeps whose papers I parse....have not spoken to a parent yet. But sent my standard email to three students: I need a week without looking at papers, if I am to think clearly about a grade adjustment. In the next phase, I ask them to write me, arguments appearing in paragraphs, a detailed letter arguing for the higher mark.

What so many of you said, re poetry. Oh Yoki! Yes. Yes. Yes. About Gene W. and poems. I was disapointed and very confused.

Wilbrod -- from what you said, I now know that I must see poetry in motion. During my oldest child's communion preparation, much of it was signed because two siblings also preparing were deaf, as were their parents. Theology and liturgical terms, signed, are deeply moving.

Martooni -- poetry can speak about ideas and feeling that resist being put in to words.

TBG and Frosti -- still, this morning late in May and peonies....an anemic set for blooms, overpowered by a holly, wafting scent in the moist, cool air.

Happy email from two students, civil engineers, who arrived hale and whole in Thailand yesterday. They will be buiding low impact sewage drainage ponds in three rural communities.

Engineers Without Borders is a fab student/professional organization.

MostlyL: No Mason Orchard bees are shipped in the spring, so I will try this in the fall. You know, I would like a "bee-loud glade" for flowers and so that I can channel William Yeats.

Poetry and Peonies: I am one lucky gal.

Also would like to be able to talk to the children about global warming in simple terms for me and them. Thanks.

We have a meeting tomorrow to plan the summer fun program for the children, and I am interested in all ideas. We did the sunflower seeds last summer and the children loved that. Feel free to offer any and all suggestions.

I hope you don't mind, JA. Some science stuff would be really good. Not complicated, but just simple stuff. The children really do like that.

Cassandra:
Try this link, for starters:

http://www.nrdc.org/globalWarming/f101.asp

Also these:

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/globalwarming/primer/primer.html

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/

Cassandra -- tomorrow, I will post a note with links to a few web exhibits about climate change. I think you can find a range of information on the web.

The short answer here is that the vast majority of scientists in earth science and biological science believe that the burning of fossil fuels is of such a volume and duration that these pollutants in the atmosphere are changing our climate.

Weather is what happens every day; climate is the patterns of weather and seasons we expect based on a record of observations.

Our climate patterns do vary over time, without the greenhouse effect factored in. Scientists have ways to tease-out this "background variability." Most scientists -- atmospheric chemists, geologists, oceanographers, climatologists, and the like -- see evidence that our climate is shifting in response to increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

Does this mean warming everywhere? No. Climate change will look more like regional variations away from the expected pattern of day and night average temperatures, growing seasons, rain fall, storm intensity, wind and jet stream paths.

www.realclimate.org is a blog authored by many climate scientists. Some of the discussion is complex, but lurking there and using the search engine might be helpful.

But you may like to start with some exhibits at this NASA site:
http://terra.nasa.gov/About/

I think the most important work at NASA is not about space (sorry buds and JA). NASA studies EARTH, too. Hey, we are a planet and worth some time.

O the pain! the agony! My Comcast Internet link has been down at home for the last day, and only came back up overnight--and what do I find but that I've missed major, major threads on petry as well Shakespeare and Shakespeare movies! O I die! I swoon! *clasps back of wrist to forehead, collapses in theatrical lump upon greensward*

Morning, Boodle and Cassandra. I feel like there's been a big party here last night and I couldn't go because my parents said I had to finish my trig homework. Yuck.

Cassandra, Corzine was actually correct not to wear his seat belt when he got out of the hospital. Doctors generally recommend you don't wear one for a while right after most kinds of chest surgery. He'd broken, I think, 12 ribs and his sternum in the crash (when the damn fool SHOULD have been wearing the belt), and was probably still wired up like a Christmas tree. When I had my quad bypass, they also told me not to wear my belt for a few weeks afterward. But other than recovering chest surgery patients, you're quite right about seat belts -- and the hypocrisy of those in high places who don't wear them.

OK, let's see, what's next? Gotta pretty much agree with Yoki on Weingarten. I understand the infallibility schtick, but it only works under humorous situations, and I'm pretty tired of it in his normal discussions. I, too, voted for "My Last Duchess" and Innisfrtee, and I liked the Frost; he just doesn't get it, for some reason. And while I raved about the "Great Zuchini" piece I was one of the first critics of the violin thing as being snobby and elitist. I was so far out front on that one I thought I was alone on it, but after a while other people said the same thing.

OK, the Shakespeare. Have to endorse what everyone else has said, Padouk; I've boodled before about my esteem for Branagh's Henry V and Zefferelli's R & J masterpiece. I also want to throw in "Shakespeare in Love," which is a great movie, mainly because of Finnes and because of Tom Stoppard's fantastic script. And I liked Paltrow in it, too. And the secondary characters in were wonderful, especially Geoofrey Rush and Tom Wilkinson. (Wilkinson is really an amazing actor, especially when you count the number of roles he's had where you never really who it is until the credits roll at the end.) Critics will say that historically "S. in Love" is poppycock about the R & J play, and they may be entirely correct. But ultimately they miss that S in L captures the spirit and "truthiness" of R&J. And Fiennes' Shakespeare is utterly believable as a writer.

Also second the referral to the Harold Bloom book. (I'm a Bloom fan from way back.)

I own a three-vol. set of audio lectures on Shakespeare from the Great Courses tape from "The Teaching Company" people; this one is by Prof. Peter Saccio of Dartmouth. He is really outstanding and I listen to them over and over. In vol. 2 lecture 17 his discussion of the death of Falstaff in Henry V is just mind-blowingly good. It is amazingly simple and quite moving, and then when you see the Branagh movie it is that much more meaningful. If you could buy just that one cassette from them it would be worth it.

In Branagh's Henry V, during the death scene, Falstaff is played by the great Robbie Coltrane (alas, from Harry Potter fame); Mistress Quickly is played by Judi Dench (what more can one say?) and Pistol is played by a great but somewhat obscure actor named Robert Stephens, who played the Prince at the end of Zefferelli's R&J, when he he does the great "all...all...all are punish-ed" speech.

Oops -- I posted that second one twice. I meant to include this one:

http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200612/tows_past_20061205.jhtml

RD, can you think on this question? (I often wonder about the lack of core knowledge in my darling, nerdy, sci-tech-engineering students.) How did you miss Shakespeare in your edumacation? Harvey Mudd? The other Claremont schools? Please don't prickle as I am asking, with a sort of courtsy-bow. (Recall that you can now earn English degrees at UMCP and Georgtown without one IOTA of time spent with Wil-the-Whisp Shakesbear)

One left-handed compliment I get from my tech writing students (am also reading their evaluations of the course...and me :o !!!! ) goes like this:

very practical class, no Shakespeare or poetry or other irritating topics

instructor knows her stuff, makes grammar and comp useful for the scientist; does not dwell on metaphor and symbolism

best English class ever; very practical; helped me with my lab reports; did not have to fake my writing and pretend to care about poetry and novels

(perhaps later I can say what they say about me....funny, actually, and a bit one-dimensional)

I want to cry, at these evals. Somewhere, there are scientists who love Shakespeare and Einstein, nearly in equal measures. Here.

I'm here, really... *quick wave*

:-)

Hey, I've noticed some really weird radio reception over the past couple of days myself.

Since there's been a decent high pressure system over the eastern US (clear blue skies, mild/warm temps) I wasn't thinking about inversions for radio "skip", but it could very well be.

I checked some of the space/solar weather sites, and the forecast is for relatively calm solar activity, though the magnetic component of the solar wind is on the high side. They're keeping an eye on a sunspot that could toss up a flare, though.

Or it could be that big alien starship that quietly slipped into orbit this past weekend. Rove must be ready to go on summer vacation, his ride's here.

bc

Morning, everybody. Quite a discussion overnight. I'm in a rush to get to the volunteer opportunity so I'll catch up with everybody this afternoon.

CP, Maybe in some act of cosmic karmic balance another teacher somewhere is reading reviews that say things like:

very practical class, no Einstein or cosmology or other irritating topics

instructor knows her stuff, makes addition and subtraction useful for the non-scientist; does not dwell on trigonometry and logarithms

and he/she is back

what is it with the fourth minute???

bc: Your Rove's ride is here comment was timely. I watched "Night Skies" yesterday, a film about the mysterious 1997 lights over the Arizona desert. It includes snippets of John McCain's comments at the time to lend credibility to the dramatization of a creepy encounters tale told under hypnotic regression.

I'm backBoodling as best I can, so forgive any BOOOs... :-)

'Mudge, even though I always wear my seatbelt, I can't complain if a guy (even a Commander Guy) does his own thing on his own proprty. Further deponent sayeth not, since he likes his job very much indeed, thankee.

And speaking of John Cleese, it's good to see him and Eric Idle getting plum gigs in "Shrek the Third." Yep, it was derivative but enjoyable, particularly with NukeSpawn giggling next to me.

<om>

MISSED,SNAP!!!

Instead of dealing in real science, the Smithsonian has adopted the old TV Network goal of "Least Objectionable Programming". The idea is not to educate an audience, but to avoid offending it.

In this case, the main audience is not the American people, but the Bush administration's loathing of scientific facts. It would be a shame for them to risk their funding just to maintain their integrity.

In the long-run, the Smithsonian's exhibit will be like old TV reruns: quaint, boring pablum that people 20 years from now will regard as naive and irresponsible.

Instead of dealing in real science, the Smithsonian has adopted the old TV Network goal of "Least Objectionable Programming". The idea is not to educate an audience, but to avoid offending it.

In this case, the main audience is not the American people, but the Bush administration's loathing of scientific facts. It would be a shame for them to risk their funding just to maintain their integrity.

In the long-run, the Smithsonian's exhibit will be like old TV reruns: quaint, boring pablum that people 20 years from now will regard as naive and irresponsible.

Instead of dealing in real science, the Smithsonian has adopted the old TV Network goal of "Least Objectionable Programming". The idea is not to educate an audience, but to avoid offending it.

In this case, the main audience is not the American people, but the Bush administration's loathing of scientific facts. It would be a shame for them to risk their funding just to maintain their integrity.

In the long-run, the Smithsonian's exhibit will be like old TV reruns: quaint, boring pablum that people 20 years from now will regard as naive and irresponsible.

Morning!

I'm sorry I missed a good discussion last night. I have to admit to an entire evening devoted to reality TV. I'm so ashamed...

CP, great bird report. We saw a green heron last night, and the ducks are still regulars every evening, looking for a handout. They're almost ready to nest, and I'm doing my best to discourage the geese from staying here. They are sometimes cruel to duckilings.

Like RD I was not exposed to Shakespeare in high school. I think I've mentioned the great experiment in English "electives" that resulted in most teens not electing any course that contained literature.

Yoki, RD, great dissection of Weingarten. Where do you stand on the merry, marry, Mary issue?

LiT, no need to remind me to blip over errors. Many times I don't see them until someone SCCs. My mind just sees what the writer intended, vs. what is actually there. I am a terrible copy editor.

Mudge, I keep forgetting to tell you that I quite enjoyed Motherless Brooklyn, especially the wording of his tics and the thought process leading up to them.

To my shame, as I quite pride myself on the clarity of my enunciation (arctic, not artic, etc.) I think I pronounce merry, Mary and marry exactly the same.

But whole wat/what, mirror/mirr elision has me stumped. How can that occur?

Only 607 more days of this awful administration. But how long will it take to undo the mess? The Smithsonian story adds to my impression that we are living a real life version of "1984." Goodling's testimony today should be very interesting, wish I could hang around to follow it closely.

The bad and good about being out of work is the time I have to do other things. Babysitting this morning for a few hours, then off to the cemetary to visit my parents. I never got there last year as I moved just before Memorial Day weekend and then it rained for a month. Tomorrow is the funeral for my cousin, I will be gone all day. I did buy tomato plants yesterday and hope "S" and I can get them in the ground tonight. I have one Mr. Stripey. Based on last year's results, I'm not super hopeful for him, but everyone deserves a second chance. I did make one expensive purchase yesterday. I bought an everblooming hydrangea. The only way I could love those flowers more would be if they smelled like lilacs.

My condolences on your cousin, Sneaks. Many *hugs* headed your way.

Quick comment on Weingarten, now that I've caught up on the last two weeks' columns and chats: the infallibility thing, it has the power to irritate me, especially when Gene is blatantly WRONG. But the more I think about it the more amused I am; I think it's great as a schtick, an ongoing inside joke. The man posts a "poll" and then after you give your honest opinion, which is what he repeatedly begs for, he reveals the "correct" answers, as if it weren't a poll at all, but an IQ test or the GMATs or something. That is funny.

Incidentally, I picked "My Last Duchess" for some of the reasons GW cited, mainly its complexity of tone. And I picked "Tyger, Tyger" for second place for sentimental reasons--as I mentioned in this boodle many moons ago, I once had a class of restless fifth graders, it was a hot Friday afternoon. We were coming to the concept of symmetry in math, and I got out this poem, thinking I'd be lucky to get through it before the spitwads started. I was amazed by the class's reaction. The kids were mesmerized, they were stupefied, they absolutely loved that poem. I wasn't a fan of it before, so it's not a matter of salesmanship. The poem sold itself. It has some kind of magic in it, and that is the essence of great poetry.

I also like that about 30% of the Weingarten chat occurs over here on Achenblog; and I think it would be a hoot if he stopped by here, especially in light of Dave Barry's guest appearance on Chatological Humor yesterday.

Ouch, did I say this was going to be a quick comment?

CP - I don't know how I missed Shakespeare. In high school we focused on Greek plays, like that one where this guy gets all weird over his mother. And in college we seemed to focus more on novels than plays. I think Will just fell through the cracks.

Raysmom - Regarding merry, marry, and Mary. I'm from the Pacific Northwest. To me the three sound pretty much alike.

But then again, I also think "Dawn" sounds like "Don."

Fate has temporarily set me amongst twenty some odd students that are finished with their exams, and for all intents and purposes, school for the next two hours. I feel like...singing...

I'm seeing a lot of triple posts on the fourth minute...surely a sign of the end

             ...
             ...
             ...

I'm seeing a lot of triple posts on the fourth minute...surely a sign of the end

             ...
             ...
             ...

I'm seeing a lot of triple posts on the fourth minute...surely a sign of the end

             ...
             ...
             ...

Yoki - I have been accused of sounding Canadian, which I take as a great compliment.

Yeah, reluctantly gotta agree, Scotty, that Bush being on his own private property sansabelt, takes all the fun out of the umbrage. The man is just a total let-down, even when he screws up.

This may explain, in part, the large number of lawyers and lawyer jokes...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201405.html

Then again, maybe not.

DLD

RD, I also think dawn sounds like don, I do have a question any views on the correct pronounciation of clematis?

CP you inspired me to purchase a lilac, and a peony, I also purchased one of the dwarf hydrangeas that Jack purchased for his wife (before I read his comment).

dmd - I'm going with CLEMatis. I'm not sure, but after that whole "You mean it doesn't rhyme with Lavoris?" incident I'm not taking any chances.

buttercup

RD -- you channel your English forebears with that pronounciation. Most here say cle MAT is...
(and last time, we all giggled about how words and special body bits sound so lascivious....frills and furbelows....no go wash your hands, RD, as we know that you are blushing, English-style)

I have no idea about Canoochis.... sometimes they are with us rebels and other times with the Mother Tongue...

Boolie -- so fair about the high math profs....laughing all the way to a meeting with another prof so we can deconstruct the year. (recovering AA sort and my greatest achievement is that he says that laughing with me is like being on the sauce....I think this is good.)

Raysmom/RD: the experiential cafeteria of electives must be like the new math stuff....marks a generation and leaves gaps.

Since I went to plaid school mostly, we always were served up the cannons.....classics, old-school, thought for the ages, great books, etc.

Really have computer probs now...may need boodle support....I HATE MICROSOFT. That is all.

RD -- you channel your English forebears with that pronounciation. Most here say cle MAT is...
(and last time, we all giggled about how words and special body bits sound so lascivious....frills and furbelows....no go wash your hands, RD, as we know that you are blushing, English-style)

I have no idea about Canoochis.... sometimes they are with us rebels and other times with the Mother Tongue...

Boolie -- so fair about the high math profs....laughing all the way to a meeting with another prof so we can deconstruct the year. (recovering AA sort and my greatest achievement is that he says that laughing with me is like being on the sauce....I think this is good.)

Raysmom/RD: the experiential cafeteria of electives must be like the new math stuff....marks a generation and leaves gaps.

Since I went to plaid school mostly, we always were served up the cannons.....classics, old-school, thought for the ages, great books, etc.

Really have computer probs now...may need boodle support....I HATE MICROSOFT. That is all.

I had a great teacher for all my high school Shakespeare. The very first play he did with the class was Taming of the Shrew. We spent a lot of time talking about definitions of words followed by a lot of giggling. Then we dived into he more serious stuff.

Shakespeare filmed in the 50's and earlier seemed to treat the very words as reverential, as something to be put on a pedestal. It was Shakepseare after all, man, Don't mess with it.

Branagh is the single brightest thing that has happened to Shakespeare in decades. He loves it as a living breathing thing. He shows us all again how Shakespeare was a man of the people, a man who did not hide from the smutty, grimy sides of life even as he sees the sublime, the silly, the refined. Branagh reminds us why, after all these years Shakespeare remains relevant.

Besides he played a great foppish fellow in Harry Potter.

Robbie Coltrane from Harry Potter. You wound me. Cracker, always Cracker.

CP you have nailed the reason for my confusion completely, I hear both pronounciations of clematis, I too would say cle MAT is.

CP, it gets worse. Instead of individual classrooms, we had "lofts," which were big open areas with clusters of desks for "classrooms." IIRC by the time I graduated, many mobile dividers had been purchased and deployed.

Jack, through the wonderful invention of the hyphen, perhaps we may deduce whether you are dealing with:

1) 20 students, some of whom are odd;

2) 20-some students (a number not precisely known but somewhere between 20 or 21 on the low end and 29 on the high end), all of whom are odd;

3) or 20-some-odd students, odd being a redundant amplifier of "-some" (as in "20-odd" students), meaning you have an unknown number of students where the quantity is guesstimated to be between 21 and 29, but in any event, none of them are in any way peculiar (so far as is known).

I'm guessing you meant the third choice, but statistically, I'm sure that at least a few of them are bound to be "odd." Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Yes, DLD, I just KNEW that shark story was going to turn into a lawyer joke pretty durn quick. Of course, when you think about it logically and from the point of view of Darwin and natural selection...who the hell would want to boff a hammerhead? Do you have to cuddle afterward? Who gets to sleep in the dry spot? It is a situation just fraught, fraught I say, with complications.

It's the 300th birtday of Linnaeus, the founding father of the system of scientific names for plants and animals, and the most famous Swede.

http://www.linnaeus2007.se/

He named a surprising number of North American plants, including the magnificent Magnolia grandiflora L. (That L. is the abbreviation for Linnaeus).

Knowing nothing of the landscape architecture, aside from what I've seen on DIY shows, I think the dwarf hydrangias will find a place along the low side of the porch. The framing sits on a block wall that's about three feet tall, so the plants wil reach their mature height at three-four feet and still not hide the balusters and handrails on the porch.

Speaking of plants, GCC will mean the demise of many crop plants. This article makes the case for establishing seed banks. I didn't think about this until I first read about these repositories a number of months ago. They are the means by which crops get reestablished in areas wrecked by natural or anthropomorphic phenomena.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/wire/sns-ap-climate-change-crops,1,1420380.story?coll=sns-ap-science-headlines

I thought Britt Eklund was the most famous Swede.

How can one trust the Smithsonian if it wants to be manipulative and deceitful. Maybe the Board thanks that pretending to be ethical is a satisfactory substitute because if they give the appearance of being ethical then they can get away with their lies.

If it quacks like a duck then they must be honest.

Mary Goodnight

On the global warming front, Ford announced today that Florida will be the first state to receive a fleet of hydrogen fueled shuttle busses. They will be deployed in Orlando at the airport and convention center and refueled at an existing hydrogen refueling station in Orlando.

In keeping with the Shakespeare comments, just read this article on Canadian Actor Graham Greene, a native Canadian who is playing Shylock at Stratford this year. His viewpoint on the role is interesting and is in keeping with the way I was taught the play. Our teacher stressed the situation for the Jews at the time, it was taught with a great deal of sympathy for Shylock.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/theatre/grahamgreene.html

Will Chapter 823, "Public Nuisances," Florida Statutes have to be amended to add hyphen violations in addition to apostrophe violations? The punctuation police will be hard-pressed to enforce new laws without a major budget increase.

Clematis? CLEM a tis

http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/pronunciation.html

Thanks Dave, apparently clematis was not the only plant I was mispronouncing.

Shakespeare subject to political pressure (not unlike the Smithsonian) in writing about my distant great grand-pappy Duncan?

http://shakespeare.about.com/od/characterprofiles/p/duncanprofile.htm

Usurping a divinely appointed ruler was always the most serious of crimes, but to usurp a valiant and benevolent monarch was wicked beyond comprehension. Thus, for reasons both dramatic and political, Shakespeare had to make notable changes to the historical Duncan. The real King Duncan, according to Shakespeare's sources, was your regular nasty warlord; nastier, it appears, than the actual historical Macbeth. If Shakespeare's Macbeth planned to kill this Duncan he would be justified, and hence there would be no play. So Duncan morphs into a delightful and much beloved ruler, kind to the point of annoyance. With his 'silver skin' and 'golden blood' (2.3.97), Shakespeare's Duncan epitomizes the perfect ruler. Shakespeare's changes to Duncan's character are also in keeping with other changes he made to his sources, all seemingly intended to cater to his king and patron, James I.

Morning all.

Another good rain last night and my CLEMatis should find its way into the ground this afternoon.

I can hear the difference between Don and Dawn, but say them in a way that Minnesotan's can't seem to differentiate. From Tennessee south my speech problem seems to disappear, so I think my neighbors have a hearing problem.

CP-very funny comments from your students.

KB writes about reading Blake's, Tyger Tyger: "The kids were mesmerized, they were stupefied, they absolutely loved that poem. I wasn't a fan of it before, so it's not a matter of salesmanship. The poem sold itself. It has some kind of magic in it, and that is the essence of great poetry."

I firmly believe that children need to hear lots of poetry and be allowed to love it, or not, based on their own tastes and without having to analyze it to death-to find every metaphor, and instance of symbolism. I don't know if it is still on the 3rd grade SOL in Virginia but the poetry selection was always a nightmare. In '05 kids were asked to identify what the poem was about, the correct answer was "spring" but the other answer choices weren't seasons. Hey, these are third graders-if you talk about leaves sprouting, things turning green, and then ask them to choose which season is being described they'll get it right. Ask them if a poem is "about" spring, chickens, weather,or gardening and every word but spring actually appears in the poem, you get hands raised with this question "Is this one of those questions where they try to trick you into picking wrong?" To top it off, the poems on the 3rd grade test seem to be specifically chosen for their lack of appeal to young people.

Ok DotC how about some expert opinion on this issue - the great "Worm Poop" lawsuit. I note with humour what inspired this upstart product.

http://www.reportonbusiness.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070523.wrworms23/BNStory/Business/home

Dave: What I know of Linnaeus' life is fascinating to me. I'd put his work right up there in the top 10 scientific works of all time. The one that takes the cake for me was Newton and his treatise on the calculus that he completed, IIRC, at the ripe old age of 21.

...and a bit of disconcerting news: bubonic plague at the Denver Zoo...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/us/23zoo.html

Y'all probably know this. Ring Around the Rosey is about the pneumonic plague, I think..."achoo, achoo, we all fall down"...

Einstein biographer on the Diane Rehm show as I type. Is it unkind to be glad when she has a guest host?

Jack, that is bad news. I saw two dead birds on my way to work this morning, and the sight of any dead animal that isn't obviously roadkill never fails to remind me of the opening pages of _The Plague_ by A. Camus. Now, of course, the dead birds also lead directly to thoughts of avian flu.

dmd, I followed the link in your post, and am surprised Scott isn't suing every detergent manufacturer in America because the product packaging looks identical!

I suspect there are more than a few CEOs in the world whose major job perk should be unlimited worm poop.

Yeah, kb. The article mentions that transmission from the zoo animals to humans would be pretty unlikely and that bubonic plague, if detected early, responds quickly to an antibiotic regimen. Regardless, I would rather pass on the plague, particularly the pneumonic iteration. It's nasty.

Ack! I mean, good morning. I missed the Shakespeare. I am compelled to two comments. First, RD, this year is officially Shakespeare year in DC. All kinds of arts organizations are doing plays, dances, music, museum exhibits etc. Surely you can find a play to attend. Most of the DC theater is pretty good (and of course you do have the Folger Shakespeare) so go see something. In addition to renting the Branagh. Then try reading something, occasionally aloud to the rabbits, just for fun. Don't start with "Troilus" or "Titus" though; try a comedy.

bc, about a video of "Titus Andronicus": look for Julie Taymor's "Titus", starring Anthony Hopkins. It is awesome. Bloody, violent, emotional, moving -- all the stuff "Titus" should be. Not for children, though, even ones steeped in Shakespeare.

About 10 years ago, I was deeply amused to see a career ad in Canada's National Newspaper, placed by a prairie University, for a "Manure Management Expert." Of course, we are all that, at work, aren't we?

dmd, *DotC*? Have I been gone that long?

byoolin, thank you. I was thinking something along those lines myself and you beat me to it in an eloquent fashion.

CP, even technical people hate Microsoft too!

While Weingarten's taste a decidedly debatable, I too despise Frost. I find h