Rachael Ray uses her husband for moisturizer.

Her own words. Disappointingly, she is pimping for Obamacare, and pimping hard, starting with buttering Biden like a free-range chicken.

Don't watch the video. Why would you when the preferable text is right there ? And watching energizes two attention seekers telling you shit sandwiches are delicious, now  buy one for $5,000 right now and each year forever, and stand in line for a broken down website, and like it. Something is wrong with you if you don't love it.

Rachel, do you love the idea and bless Obama for reaching deep into all  pockets and keeping his hands there? Making them buy something they already made clear they do not want? Taxing them when they fail to comply? Is that what you're thankful about? Because you left that part out. And DON'T repeat yourself in answering or this board automatically smacks you. You don't get to drill.

Her yakkity sax 20 minute meals is altogether smarter muted, 100% improved without sound. She is on to other things now, but she did set the unfortunate template for continuous prat on that network, 'no dead air,' 'silence is golden-death,' 'repeated catchphrases are everything' attitude  prevalent throughout now thanks to her. So now they are all smarter muted. They seriously are  improved muted.

In the voice of Bugs Bunny with Hairy Monster in the hairdresser's chair. "Oh, I just loooove being a hairdresser, I just adooooor my profession, I meet the most i-i-i-i-i-nteresting people doing the most i-i-i-i-i-nteresting things.

“I really want to know what moisturizer you use. I love moisturizers, my husband is a moisturizer as well. Would you tell me what moisturizer you use?” 

She meant her husband uses moisturizers not her husband is a moisturizer, of course, but sperm is a protein moisturizer and she did say it.

In ASL the mistake is not possible, the sign for "agent" is two karate chops straight down. Used all the time. It signifies the trunk of a human body. It is the "er" added to English words to turn something into a person using that thing, or being the agent of the thing. Thus law + er  two karate chops personification = lawyer. Paint + parallel karate chops = painter. Dance + er  personification = dancer and so forth.

I notice on spreadtheisgn site the other countries do this more eloquently with one hand, they show the trunk of a human body with with a zip of index finger and thumb signifying the trunk the same way ALS does with two hands, so a thin human agent of whatever and a better sign. Some noun + the zip down sign indicating a body. Very eloquent.  When I saw them all doing it that way on the page, and the US being different from most, I realized I have seen this before and thought it a lazy shortcut, as a cocktail glass or beer bottle is currently occupying the attention the hand needed for the complete sign.

Michelle did say Obama intended to provide no escape from one's comfort zone. A way of saying you will be affected one way or another like it or not. Politics is now inescapable, so tune in to whatever your escape and there they will be making your pastime and relaxation political and escape from them impossible from their noise their obsessions, their opinions on everything from your health, your privacy, down to breathing and farting of cows. Take a bow, Rachael Ray, dutiful drone.

Michael Lewis: "The Market Is Rigged"

Via Zero Hedge...

"With Lewis' appearance last night on 60 Minutes to promote his book Flash Boys, and to finally expose the HFT (High-frequency trading) scourge for all to see, we consider our crusade against HFT finished. At this point it is up to the general population to decide if this season's participants on Dancing with the Stars or the fate of Honet (honey) Boo Boo is more important than having fair and unrigged markets"

"Customer shoots, kills gunman at Orrville Dollar General"

"One person is dead after a customer at the Dollar General in Orrville began shouting and waving his gun in the air."

Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman said the incident appeared to be a case of self-defense and no one has been arrested in connection with the shooting Thursday afternoon.

The incident occurred when Dallas County resident Kevin Mclaughlin entered Dollar General reportedly waving a pistol in the air, Huffman said. Mclaughlin then ushered a group of people inside the store into a break room.

“It appears that once the cashier got inside the break room, a customer that was walking into the break room shot the individual, the white male, with the pistol,” Huffman said. “There was only one shot fired and that shot struck the individual with the pistol causing the disturbance.”

District Attorney Michael Jackson confirmed the customer who reportedly shot Mclaughlin was Orrville resident Marlo Ellis.

Huffman said Ellis used his own weapon in the incident.

This is the kind of incident that makes the case for why a legally armed citizenry might be a good thing. If it wasn't for the internet, the incident would have appeared in the local paper and later archived at the local library, likely to be forgotten. Instead, it is made generally accessible so that citizens can make up their own minds, based on all relevant information and not just the prevalent, one sided media narrative.

MLB Opening Day Public Service Advisory

Today is the official start of summer - Major League Baseball's opening day.  The first game of the new season.  The day on which the Cubs are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.   The day on which the Red Sox fans get drunk and vomit and scream unintelligible things.  The day on which Yankees fans gloat about the trade for Babe Ruth, because the Yankees haven't made a decent trade since then.  The day on which Rockies fans light up spliffs at the stadium and wonder when the concert will start.

And millions of tailgating fans will cook bratwurst in stadium parking lots.  Most of them will do it the wrong way.  In the interest of public service........



Wear your baseball cap today, but not like this guy.

Here's one of the best and funniest MLB Hall of Fame induction ceremony speeches ever presented.



ADDED:

Sooner or later this had to happen.  Hu's on first.

Batman premiered in 'Detective Comics' 75 years ago today

"Batman’s come a long way since that first appearance in issue #27 of Detective Comics, with a cover date of May of 1939. At that time, the Nazis hadn’t even marched into Poland to unleash World War II. Superhero comics consisted of only a small handful of other characters, the most significant of course being Superman, who made his own entry into pop culture history the previous year in the April-dated first issue of Action Comics. Batman borrowed a great deal from the tradition of the Shadow and Zorro, as well as a few of the early superhero characters like Superman and the Phantom. And there was some influence taken from the feature film The Bat Whispers, too."

"In those early years, Batman was dark and violent, carrying a gun and willing to kill criminals without a second thought. Even after his sidekick, Robin the Boy Wonder, was added to the mix a year later for additional appeal to younger readers, Batman stories remained darker in tone and full of plenty of violence and death. But after several more years, the youthful nature of readership coupled with a great deal of censorship and absurd public hysteria forced the publishers to tone down the violence and resort to increasingly silly plots aimed mostly at child readers."

Picture from a 75 Images Album

cilantro

There is little point to it beyond satisfaction of having green things sprout up temporarily because cilantro is so inexpensive by the bunch, but as it turns out I did want some green things sprouting up temporarily to grow into a potted arrangement. The whole thing took off better and faster than I imagined, due, I think, to the power of inexpensive 40W Chinese fluorescent twisted tubes. Large, unsightly, and bright.

My first attempt at growing cilantro did not germinate so easily. That was from packaged seeds. I discovered whole seeds from the spice cabinet worked as well as seeds bought from seed companies.

I wondered, why do two separate plants always grow out of the same spot?  Was I carelessly dropping two seeds in each hole?

Each tiny seed ball is two seed hemispheres. They call them germs. Broken in half they become monogerms and they germinate more reliably broken apart this way, that is monogerms planted together germinate as a crop together rather than it taking various lengths of time for water to work its way into individual doublegerms,  to get through the outer shell and moisten the two inner germs.  Bound together they tend to germinate irregularly, sometimes skipping a season, but when they do, two plants come out. It takes time for moisture to work through the undamaged shell.

I'm thinking of the plants as an arrangement. One that grows. Chiles are growing, and so are tomatoes, twice this height behind what is pictured. New cilantro is coming up beneath this. The random transplants and seed sprinklings went fast, and all from seeds right there in the kitchen. Tomatoes are particularly surprising. The tomatoes marketed as vine tomatoes -- aren't they all? -- still on the vine, are fastest of all three types planted, and all three types are surprisingly fast.

Cilantro is a cool weather plant. Its signal to bolt is when the soil becomes greater than 75℉.  That is rather cool for summer. Not a summer plant. Successive plantings recommended.

Brussels

Has the worst tasting sprouts.

I made a salad tonight of half-burnt Brussels sprouts that immediately became my favorite salad. The only dressing is salt / pepper and aged balsamic sprinkled at the very end, the fat already on the sprouts from singing. Halved Brussels sprouts are grilled with pork chops on an imperfectly cleaned grill pan, or better an outdoor grill, and the smoking that happens and cross contamination from remnant previous fried meat knocks the edge off the bitter Brussels sprouts while encompassing them with smoky wonder and sinful primal animal fat. They are denatured just so.

If I would volunteer to make a salad for a dinner party, of say ten, and then produce this singed Brussels sprouts salad, somebody in the party would upon reminiscing feel compelled later to mail me a $100 out of gratitude.

No brag. Just fact.

I know because that happened last year.

I did not do it for money nor for love of making salads nor to win the admiration of my peers, no, I volunteered, insisted on making the salads for the second dinner party within a few weeks. The first dinner party I was served a salad so limp and drowning in dressing that no part of it could be eaten. I know they know better than that. I sat there actually feeling sorry for myself because the whole thing was obviously neglect.

Gawl.

When another invitation came along within a short time I insisted allow me to handle the salad. I'll load up a cooler and bring all that's need for the whole party of twelve. No problemo. That stuff comes out of me effortlessly that's why I was so offended.  It was a very basic iceberg wedge, but with unusual things you do not usually associate with blue cheese dressing collected on the plate, and not mixed, so there is purity of watermelon and other such sweet innocent light fruit things, until the person allows blue cheese touch the items themselves. It is a salad-control thing that leads to pleasant surprises when they realize, wow, that really does go together, and by that discovery feel they contrived that combination themselves, because they did.

The next week I was sent a gift certificate for 100.00 at Whole Foods and that is the same thing as 100.00.

Laugh if you like. Snort. Cluck. I don't care. Somebody sent me $100.00 just for doing what I usually do -- be a bitch about my own salad. That is the only reason I did that. Had they made a decent salad the first time I'd not have volunteered. 

And since I like Brussels sprouts salad a lot more than that ordinary iceberg wedge with delicious homemade blue cheese dressing made with top ingredients, that is how I know the outside accolades would match or be even greater.  

The wedge combination is more amazing at hand than it looks from afar because the blue cheese is loaded and strong and satisfying and that contrasts with light sweet things, and dull things like avocado, and crispy sourdough croutons.

The Brussels sprouts intrigue is better than that. This is a masculine salad. I love it more than any salad before. This salad will get me a man!

Wait I don't want one of those around here! Best to forget the whole thing. Forget I mentioned any of of this. It can lead to no good, gifts from strangers and and like, gift cards to upscale places like Whole Foods, the salad invites trouble. I'm sorry for mentioning. 

What Is Happening Beneath The Surface?

12 Signs That Something Big Is Happening To The Earth’s Crust Under North And South America

h/t Michael Haz

The author isn't talking astrology.

I posted that account yesterday about how the famous Portola Expedition encountered numerous daily earthquakes as they traversed the LA Basin on foot 245 years ago this summer. It's not that earthquakes were more frequent then -- it was a fluke -- it was a "swarm" of earthquakes.

"Dazed And Confused" in 10 Minutes

Instapundit has a link up right now about Richard Linklater's "Dazed And Confused."  It is one of my all time favorite movie comedies because it hits so close to home in so many ways (class of '78 here).

Great soundtrack, too.

KLEM FM

h/t Sixty Grit

Art Building and Car Dolly

"Paint Peeling" Google Image Search

 

The remaining paint has been peeling off this second floor (below) for quite some time now. At some point it must have been discovered that leaving it that way was aesthetically pleasing, or whatever. Because Art.

 

Paint Peeling through Noah

What are the chances the building in owned by a fellow named Art? Or maybe the owner, is a woman married to a guy named Art? I'm just looking for Art in the picture.

Here is Google maps drive-by picture of the same building. Paint Peeling for the People.

Paint Peeling captured by Google

Coincidently, back in October 2013, I happened to have walked by the parked Google camera car, that might have taken the picture above, when I decide to take it's picture. I even made a post of it here.


Utility car waiting to peel off

WLEM AM

Where all shall be well.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

  And indeed there will be time 
To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" 
Time to turn back and descend the stair, 
With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—                               40 
[They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"] 
My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, 
My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin— 
[They will say: "But how his arms and legs are thin!"] 
Do I dare 
Disturb the universe? 
In a minute there is time 
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse. 

  For I have known them all already, known them all; 
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,                       50 
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; 
I know the voices dying with a dying fall 
Beneath the music from a farther room. 
  So how should I presume? 

  And I have known the eyes already, known them all— 
The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase, 
And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin, 
When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall, 
Then how should I begin 
To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?                    60 
  And how should I presume? 

  And I have known the arms already, known them all— 
Arms that are braceleted and white and bare 
[But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!] 
Is it perfume from a dress 
That makes me so digress? 
Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl. 
  And should I then presume? 
  And how should I begin?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Go.

Wurlitzer

It is in the Place de la Musique, in Barrington, Illinois.  Website here.

The nucleus of the theatre organ, which was previously installed in the old music room (Wurlitzer opus #1571, built in 1927 for the Riviera Theatre in Omaha) has been expanded to 80 ranks of pipes. The overall result is the most versatile orchestral theatre pipe organ ever built. Behind the scrim are five chambers containing pipes, percussions, wind regulators and controls in a four-story-tall area. The console is patterned after the original from Chicago's Paradise Theatre; it is mounted on the original Peter Clark lift from the Granada Theatre, which raises it from the lower level cage enclosure up to concert playing position. Mounted on the wall to the left are the 32' Diaphone pipes, and to the right are the 32' Bombarde pipes. A 32-note set of Deagan Tower Bells, the largest of which weighs 426 lb., hang on each side of the room.

They are activated by huge solenoids from their own console, the organ console, a roll player, and even the doorbell button. To the rear of the room, the 'Ethereal' pipe chamber in the attic echoes softly from the skylight area, while the brass 'Trumpet Imperial' and copper 'Bugle Battaglia' speak with great authority from the back wall. The organ is connected to a computer, which records the playing of the organist on computer disc, ready to be played back at any time. Spotlights and other lighting effects may also be recorded, so the lighting changes during a concert can be 'played back' with the music. The grand piano connected to the pipe organ is a 9' Knabe concert grand with an Ampico 'A' reproducing player mechanism.

To the right of the console is a rare Deagan Piano-Vibraharp, which can be played by its own keyboard or from the organ console. Toward the rear of the room is a Spanish art case Steinway model A.R. Duo-Art reproducing piano, veneered in walnut with boxwood, pear and ebony inlay. A remote Duo-Art Concertola roll changer has been adapted to play Ampico rolls on the Knabe, or Duo-Art rolls on the Steinway, at the touch of a button on its control panel.

Charles Murray's List... (yes that Charles Murray)

It's more than kind of refreshing to come across a couple of big thinkers, respected, who show some interest, at least in writing, about religion. Even if, as I suspect with Malcolm Gladwell, it might only be as a ripe source material.

The other is Charles Murray, who has written a book called "The Curmudgeon's Guide to Getting Ahead", from which he plums a Wall Street Journal piece, giving me an opportunity to partake ;)

I particularly liked #4 in a list of "Advice for a Happy Life".

4. Take Religion Seriously

Don't bother to read this one if you're already satisfyingly engaged with a religious tradition.

Now that we're alone, here's where a lot of you stand when it comes to religion: It isn't for you. You don't mind if other people are devout, but you don't get it. Smart people don't believe that stuff anymore.

I can be sure that is what many of you think because your generation of high-IQ, college-educated young people, like mine 50 years ago, has been as thoroughly socialized to be secular as your counterparts in preceding generations were socialized to be devout. Some of you grew up with parents who weren't religious, and you've never given religion a thought. Others of you followed the religion of your parents as children but left religion behind as you were socialized by college.

By socialized, I don't mean that you studied theology under professors who persuaded you that Thomas Aquinas was wrong. You didn't study theology at all. None of the professors you admired were religious. When the topic of religion came up, they treated it dismissively or as a subject of humor. You went along with the zeitgeist.

I am describing my own religious life from the time I went to Harvard until my late 40s. At that point, my wife, prompted by the birth of our first child, had found a religious tradition in which she was comfortable, Quakerism, and had been attending Quaker meetings for several years. I began keeping her company and started reading on religion. I still describe myself as an agnostic, but my unbelief is getting shaky.

Noah

[The elevation of the highlands] together with greatly increased snowfall on the northern mountains caused unprecedented floods each spring throughout the Euphrates valley. The spring floods grew increasingly worse so that eventually the inhabitants of the river regions were driven to the eastern highlands. For almost a thousand years scores of cities were practically deserted because of these extensive deluges.

Nearly five thousand years later, Hebrew priests in Babylonian captivity tried to trace their lineage through Abraham back to Adam and finding the task impossible decided to flood the world for its wickedness instead and trace Abraham back to a surviving son of Noah.

Traditions of flood covering the earth are universal among cultures. But there never has been a time when the entire earth was covered with water. Hebrew priests made up the story Noah and the flood during the period of Babylonian captivity.

But there really was a man named Noah, and he really did live.  The real Noah was wine maker who lived by the river and kept records of the annual flood. The real Noah brought ridicule upon himself by going up and down the river urging all houses be built of wood in the fashion of boats and that the animals be brought into the boat houses each night as flood season approached.  He went to neighboring settlements every year to warn them to expect flood within so many days, and finally there came a season augmented with unusually heavy rainfall that wiped out all the houses in all the settlements except Noah's .

paper 78 violet race after the days of adam  (874.8) 78:7.3 

That is an interesting take. According to this, whatever contribution the Hebrew priests made to existing texts they encountered in their captivity it sure is a ripping tale. And it is better than Darren Aronofsky’s reinterpretation of the story of Noah.

Nevertheless the film is doing great although not everybody is crazy about it.

Nine Problems with Aronofsky’s "Noah" Breitbart
Twelve Things Wrong with Darren Aronofsky's 'Noah'  Vice (mostly silly)

* sin of primitive fracking
* sin of overpopulation
* sin of animal cruelty
* weapons
* Noah homicidal

Viewers who are not particularly politically-minded when pursuing film entertainment are more forgiving toward insertion of leftist ecology messages and lack of Biblical fidelity.

It is fantastic mythology. Perfect for storytelling. A perfect natural for all kind of things.

Sergio Bustamante has a place in Canada Verde at Puerto Vallarta. Google Images do not show in any way what the place really looks like. It is more akin to an Escher drawing of stairs going through cubical  buildings.  Don't mention this to anyone, but SERGIO BUSTAMANTE DOES NOT LIKE GRINGOS. And although based out of Guadalajara has some three very nice shops in Puerto Vallarta so his art is obvious and spread all over the city.

I am amazed. Amazed I am telling you, when I hear someone say they don't notice.  You cannot not notice Sergio Bustamante's art even if only there a short while and not really looking. Because it jumps out from display windows and smacks you. His favorite subjects are people and beings from myth and Noah is right up his alley. It is a perfect subject.

These photos are from a repair done to a Bustamante paper mâché.  jefferymeyerart restoration

Above is a particularly beautiful Noah, I think. I admired this one in the shop. It blew my mind. The thought of it needing repair is a bummer. The Bustamante Noah I stood in awe of was quite large. The largest thing in the shop.

Below is an earlier Noah. There are other versions. 

And of course pop-up books galore. It is the perfect subject for pop-uppery. You don't even have to think about that one, just do it.

Noah pop-up book, Tim Dowley

The Ark, a pop-up Matthew Reinhart. I have this one. I show it to people, they love it. Leave with people then pick it up later. They tell me they pass it around.

You can have it for 1₵  + shipping.


Noah (bible pop-up)   1 ₵


Noah's ark full of animals: a pop-up playbook    1.10 used

Homemade pop-up book

Quotable Chickelit: "Chardonnay is a great way to get sauced!"

Come to the Detroit area and I will treat you to Chicken Chardonnay. You'll be back. pic.twitter.com/6DZUOu4kiD
— Tari (@uncommentari) March 29, 2014

your brain

This breakthrough swept the world as you know. 

If you could bundle the energy that people wept and focus it, she'd be healed on the spot. Don't you think? 

Because her experience is inconceivable even when you try. Have you attempted at one time or another some kind of experiment that tests yourself for awhile what it is like? 

She's led into a room, she trusts completely, how to dress, what to put in her mouth, everything.  She is sat down and handed a page that she sets on her lap. Her fingertips tell her the test will involve familiar things; days of the week, months of the year. Those are the words she'll be hearing. She refers to the page for reference. And this one personal scene as she takes in a new reality moves the whole world on a deeply personal point. 

And isn't your impulse to leap through the screen and hug her body and keep talking? I felt the whole world feeling that.  And we've seen this before with the little kids and it gets me and will get me every time. 

WLEM AM

Where you takes your chances.

By yon bonnie banks an' by yon bonnie braes

Whaur the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond

Whaur me an' my true love will ne'er meet again

On the bonnie, bonnie banks o' Loch Lomon'.

      -Wiki

"The Value of a Life, Though Toxic and Tiny"

"Bringing home a toad from the science fair, I think, must feel like getting a sister and having a baby all at once — something ritualistic, something that transforms your role and your view of yourself. That is, if you are 11. If you are not 11, bringing home a toad from the science fair is something you’d rather avoid doing, especially if you’ve just buried the fish from the carnival. In the backyard, with a headstone. Here lie Leila and Lu."

He was glistening and green, hot orange underneath.

“Look at his stomach,” my daughter said from the curb, lifting the box to the car window. “Fire-bellied. Look.”

“Wow,” I said. “What a color for a belly. Very exciting.”

“You have to spray him with this water bottle and feed him crickets,” she explained, raising up the bottle and arranging herself and her new companion in the back seat. “Ten a week.”

“Ten, really,” I said, calculating the mileage to the pet store.

“Ten live ones. They don’t eat them if they’re dead.”

A Brief History of Earthquakes in Los Angeles

A while back I blogged some excerpts from a wonderful book called The Discovery of San Francisco Bay:  The Portola Expedition of 1769-1770.  The book is a translation of the diary of Miguel Costanso who was a soldier/engineer along that historic expedition up the coast of Southern California.  I love the book's vivid description of the physical geography of Southern California, which must count as the first written description. Costanso wrote a description of the valley where we live which I already blogged about here.

We been having more earthquakes than usual lately. They have been medium-sized and located quite a distance from here.  Nevertheless, I decided to revisit the Portola Expedition because I recall how vividly he described the earthquakes in the L.A. basin as they passed through that summer in 1769. Turns out earthquakes occurred daily.  Here are his descriptions; the notes are partially from the book and partially mine.

Friday,  July 28 1769--From Santiago we went to another place of which the scouts gave us particulars. It was not far, in truth, since we arrived after an hour's march. It was a beautiful river, and carries great floods in the rainy season, as is apparent from its bed and the sand along its banks. This place has many groves of willows and very good soil, all of which can be irrigated for a great distance.

We pitched our camp on the left bank of the river. To the right there is a populous Indian village; the inhabitants received us with great kindness. Fifty-two of them came to our quarters, and their captain or cacique asked us by signs which we understood easily,  accompanied by by many entreaties, to remain there and live with them. [He said] that they would provide antelopes, hares, or seeds for our subsistence, that the lands which we saw were theirs, and that they would share them with us.

At this place we experienced a terrible earthquake, which was repeated four times during the day.  The first vibration or shock occurred at one o'clock in the afternoon, and was the most violent; the last took place at about half past four. One of the natives who, no doubt, held the office of priest among them, was at the time in the camp. Bewildered, no less than we, by the event, he began, with horrible cries and great manifestations of terror, to entreat the heavens, turning in all directions, and acting as though he would exorcise the elements. To this place we gave the name of Rio de los Temblores. [17]

[17] "Earthquake River" The river became known as the Santa Ana river.  Their campsite was east of Anaheim, near present day Olive.

Sunday, July 30--We left Los Ojitos, [18] where there was another earthquake of no great violence, at half-past six in the morning.  We crossed the plain in a northerly direction, steadily approaching the mountains. We ascended some hills which were quite rugged and high; [19] afterwards we descended to a very extensive and pleasant valley where there was an abundance of water, part of it running in deep ditches, part of it standing so as to form marshes.  This valley must be nearly three leagues in width and very much more in length.  We pitched our camp near a ditch of running water, its banks covered with watercress and cumin.  We gave this place the name of Valle de San Miguel. [20]  It is, perhaps, about four leagues from Los Ojitos.  In the afternoon we felt another earthquake.

[18] "Little Springs" Present day La Brea Canyon, north of Fullerton.
[19] The Puente Hills, probably on the route now followed by Hacienda Boulevard.
[20] Now called the San Gabriel Valley. The camp was near the community of Bassett.

Monday, July 31---We left the camping place at seven o'clock in the morning, and crossing the ditch over which we had to lay a bridge on account of the depth, we traveled for two leagues to the west-northwest through fields of dry grass and thickets, which detained us for a long time as it was necessary to clear a path at every step. We crossed a very muddy stream and camped farther on in an open clear spot in the same valley, and close to a gap which was seen to the west. [21]  At half-past eight in the morning we experienced another violent earthquake.

[21] They camped north of the Whittier Narrows.

Tuesday, August 1---We rested today, and the scouts went out to explore the country.
At ten o'clock in the morning there was an earthquake, which was repeated with violence at one o'clock in the afternoon; and one hour afterwards we experienced another shock.  Some of the soldiers asked permission to go hunting mounted on their horses and others to go on foot, with the intention of killing some antelopes, as many of these animals had been seen.  They are a species of wild goat with horns somewhat larger than those of the goats. These soldiers, on their return, said that they had seen a river of fine water--from sixteen to seventeen yards wide--that rises near the gap of the valley to the south, and at the foot of a low hill that was in sight of our camp, and, at the most, half a league distant.

Wednesday, August 2--In the morning we broke camp, and travelling towards the west, we left the valley by an opening formed between low hills.  Later we entered quite an extensive canyon containing many poplars and alders, among which a bountiful river flowed from the north-northwest, and turning the point of a small steep hill it afterwards continued its course to the south. [22]
To the north-northeast one could see another watercourse or river bed that formed a wide ravine, but it was dry. [23] This watercourse joined that of the river, and give clear indications of heavy floods during the rainy season, as it had many branches of trees and debris on its sides. We halted at this place, which was named La Porciuncula. Here we felt three successive earthquakes during the afternoon and night.

[22] They were at the Los Angeles River, approximately where North Broadway bridges the river. The "small steep hill" is the southeastern portion of Elysian Park--about three-fourths of a mile east of Dodger Stadium.  Elysian Park as is looks today:

[23] Arroyo Seco
Juan Crespí, a Franciscan padre along on the trip, named the river El Río de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula, which translates as The River of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula. This the origin of the name Los Angeles.  There's an interesting story behind that name which goes back to St. Francis of Assisi which you can read about here.

Thursday, August 3---We forded the Rio de la Porciúncula, which descends with great rapidity from the canyon through which it leaves the mountains and enters the plain.  We directed our course to the west-southwest over high level ground and, after a march of three leagues, we reached a watering-place, to which we gave the name of the Ojo de Agua de los Alisos. [24] This was a large spring situated in a marshy place where there stood some alder trees of very large girth; the marsh was covered with grass, fragrant plants, and watercress. Hence the water flowed through a deep ditch towards the southwest.  All the country that we saw on this day's march appeared to us most suitable for the production of all kinds of grain and fruit. On our way we met the entire population of an Indian village engaged in harvesting seeds on the plain.

In the afternoon there were other earthquakes; the frequency of them amazed us.  Someone was convinced that there were large volcanoes in the mountain range that lay in front of us extending towards the west.  We found sufficient indications of this on the way that lies between between the Rio de la Porciúncula and the Ojo de Agua de los Alisos, as the scouts saw, adjoining the mountains, some large swamps of a certain material like pitch which was bubbling up. [25]

[24] "Alder (Sycamore) Springs", approximately at La Cienega Park, on La Cienega Boulevard between Olympic Boulevard and Gregory Way.  The phrase ojo de agua (eye of water) was often used in naming springs: an eye in the ground, whence water flowed or seeped.
[25] The La Brea Tar Pits. "Brea" means tar in Spanish.  While there aren't any active volcanoes in L.A. there are other natural oil and gas seepages like Coal Oil Point just offshore.

"If We Can Pick Our Gender, Can We Pick Our Age? Our Race?

"The new news is that Maryland is next on the hit parade of states (it will be the 18th) to pass legislation claiming to protect transgendered individuals from discrimination. It’s due to happen today in fact (if it hasn’t already). If you haven’t yet heard about the Maryland law, that’s because there appears to have been a pretty strict media blackout on it."

Your gender identity – in case you didn’t know – is your perception of yourself as either “male, female, or something else.” And that’s official, according to the American Psychological Association. Many LGBT activists will say that gender identity means your perception of yourself as “male, female, both, or neither.” In any event, most such legislation, including the Maryland bill, define gender identity as: “the gender related identity, appearance, expression, or behavior of a person, regardless of the person’s assigned sex at birth.”

But a big part of the audacity of the legislation is that it goes by the devious name “Fairness for All Marylanders Act.” What it really means is “Fairness for Some Marylanders,” only those who perceive themselves to be a different gender from the sex “assigned” to them on their birth certificate. (read more)

The Federalist

Earthquake: Near La Habra, California

"Authorities were tallying damage from a magnitude 5.1 earthquake that struck Southern California Friday evening."

Fullerton police said early Saturday that up to 50 people had been displaced because of home damage.

The quake, centered near La Habra, caused furniture to tumble, pictures to fall off walls and glass to break. Merchandise fell off store shelves, and there were reports of plate glass windows shattered.

We have friends there, Chickl and Bags. I hope they are doing ok. If you are so inclined please say a little prayer for them and for the rest of the people there.

Earthquake Map

When you catch a frog

Don't be surprised if it screams.

Smoky Jungle Frog this is the shortest least annoying video. One of the videos on YouTube is thirty-three screaming frogs. Think you can take it?

why I don't fly

Gnarly. The man has a knack for clearing a private area. 

Speaking of gnarly, I was afflicted with callus in the wrong places due to not walking the right way so I tried a lot of different things to correct that and they all failed. Soaking, lotions, scrubbing, pumice, soaking more, lotions for severe things, application, inserts, two canes instead of just one, correcting my gate, thinking of every single step when I walk, and all of that failed. And the thing is I am not walking enough to have those things. If I walked on my hands they wouldn't be callused. Possible exaggeration.

So I go, think of something else. What would an old fashion home remedy be? Probably hot soaking in baking soda or something so I tried that. Dumped 1/3 box baking soda into water hot as I could stand and soaked for a long time. Significant progress in two such soakings, and cleared up entirely in three. And the hot soaking feels so good I keep doing it even though the callus is cleared. I told this to an office of ladies and they all jumped in at once with similar anecdotes and remedies including other ingredients, epson salt whatever that is and scented oils and the like such as that purple one, I can not think of it, wait, I made fun of it, vender, that's it,  la vender. 

I have some of that too, but I'm not going to use it. I'd have la vender smelling hoofies and an oily basin. 

"When I confronted Rhonda about her being a transsexual woman"

Dear Prudie,

"Several years ago I dated a woman named “Rhonda” for three months. I broke up with her after her sister “Amy” revealed to me that Rhonda was born “Ron” and showed me ample evidence. When I confronted Rhonda about her being a transsexual woman, she broke down and confessed that she was going to tell me, but only after we had been intimate! (Luckily we hadn’t been yet.) It wasn’t her transsexuality that ended the relationship, but her deception; I am not a transphobic person. Rhonda took the breakup badly and stopped speaking to Amy, and on top of that their parents took Rhonda’s side and accused Amy of trying to ruin Rhonda’s life out of jealousy. Later, Amy and I began dating and eventually married. Her parents refused to attend the wedding as a show of solidarity with Rhonda, despite Amy’s attempts to reconcile with all of them. Now we are expecting our first child and Amy’s parents have expressed tentative interest in being a part of their grandchild’s life. I, however, want these people to have nothing to do with my child or my wife. They are a toxic influence and their enabling of Rhonda’s deceptive behavior is appalling to me. My wife disagrees. How can I help her cut ties with these horrid people?"

—Trying to Protect My Family

For the response click this link (Via Instapundit)

Every TV Ad Cliche Compressed into a Single Video

Video: A woman hears for the first time

 

"A video captured the moment 39-year-old Joanne Milne’s cochlear implants were switched on, allowing sounds to flood unchecked into her brain for the very first time."

 

"Hearing things for the first time is so, so emotional, from the ping of a light switch to running water. I can't stop crying," Milne told The Independent.  read more

NYT: "Report Says Mother Warned Queens School to Watch Autistic Boy"

"The mother of a teenager with autism who disappeared from his school in Queens last fall and whose remains were found in January had warned a teacher that he needed to be watched at all times because he “likes to run” and would leave the building."

But the note the mother wrote about her son, Avonte Oquendo, was never shared with administrators, according to a report released on Thursday by the independent investigator for the New York City school system.

On hindsight, a note seems like an insufficiently expressive way to communicate the extra concerns a special needs student could, given the amount of time the child would be under the school's care.

On Oct. 4, the day Vanessa Fontaine’s 14-year-old son did what she most feared he would do, a security guard saw him running in a hallway and yelled out, “Excuse me!” Avonte, who was mute, did not respond. Another student approached the guard and hugged her, distracting her.

I suppose one should not be expected to turn down a hug.

Around 12:37 p.m., the same guard noticed an unguarded exit door was open — someone had left it that way around noon — and closed it. A review of video later showed that Avonte had gone through it a few minutes earlier.

The series of errors and oversights were laid out in a 12-page report by the special commissioner of investigation for the school system. Its findings, on just how a vulnerable teenager could leave a school building undetected, vanish and die, have been sent on to the schools chancellor and the Queens district attorney, said Richard J. Condon, the investigation commissioner. read more

Tragic. The story goes on to say the mother plans to sue the city. If you were on the jury what would you consider and or recommend?

WLEM AM

Where everything's coming up roses and daffodils.



Question:

salmon

The amazing fish they tell you about in school, you go out and snag them before they embark upon their ordeal that wears them out and kills them. 

Were you expecting a video that shows salmon swimming upstream and gathering in a shallow pebbly clear pool and spawning there, as if performing a religious ritual with ineluctable consequences but that brings forth new life? 

Nah. You can ship your catch home. It's all set up. They anticipate the need and provide service to clean and vacuum package the fish and ship it to your home fast in coolers so you don't have to deal with all that.

This is my ideal excursion. My younger brother and younger sister already went fishing in Oregon, already lived the dream, and that is not fair because this is my ideal excursion, not theirs. 

pork chop

I walked a mile for this pork chop and then had to cook it. Then clean up the mess I made cooking. So I totally deserved it. And I was starving. Starving, I tell you, starving. Always starving. I do not know why I keep doing that. Unless maybe it is the walk-a-mile, cook, and clean up part of it, if the whole thing were not so involved I would probably be fatter. 

Insty on Norman Borlaug

Plus, note this from Borlaug: “(Most Western environmentalists) have never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for 50 years, they’d be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists in wealthy nations were trying to deny them these things.”

Boy, I sure do. I know what that is like. It occurred to me a long time ago at the FRB where they feed a young guy steadily and reliably without any gaps that I had forgotten what hunger feels like and so did everyone else. Nobody there missed a meal in decades. So I tried it, and it hurt. It reminded me of being a little kid and feeling that all the time. 

Statue unveiled March 25/2014 at US Capitol. 

Statue by Ben Victor.

Just a few days ago when I saw this I bookmarked a page, this one

http://www.senate.iowa.gov/democrats/who-will-design-the-borlaug-statute/

They were looking for an artist to design a statue. That is what my post was going to be about. Maybe they want a statue for another place too. I don't know, but I do not think they could do better than this. I do like this a lot. 

I had not heard of Norman Borlaug before this. Looking for information, his name is associated with wheat so Google images page fills up with photos of wheat. I look for wheat photos all the time. I keep a file of wheat photos to use for projects, paintings and pop-up cards. I'm especially interested in how a whole field looks when it is green. 

There is one early photo of him proudly holding up a wheat specimen, and I've looked at so many photos of wheat now that I can tell the specimen is not that great compared to modern day wheat. It' is a thing with them to get the wheat stalk to hold as many kernels as possible, as many as 60, I think. It showed me how far they have come. 

One of the pages I just left said the statue is placed next to the statue of Rosa Parks, and isn't that fitting that...

Stop!  How so? Don't tell me. Let me guess. Food is a civil right and he fought for civil right of having food. Thus, it is fitting they are next to each other. Right? Do I win? 

Or perhaps Norman Borlaug  had a team of activists set up a dramatic episode in advance with media ready and legal teams prepared, and with protection and support through the produced ordeal and with determination all the way through until significant legislation is passed, politicians flipped, and the general modus operandi of an entire political party reversed in the process to one of clear cynical power grabbing. Together in perfect harmony because they are so similar, bookends if you like. Or maybe that was the best open spot for a statue. 

I love the wheat in that statue. 

I am convinced grain abundance is the reason Americans are fat. Sugar too. But not dietary fat. Feedlots prove it to me. A cow is out there eating salad all day, then grain feedlot, boom, fat cow. Same with people. But that is not Norman Borlaug's fault.

At the pork chop store today right off a fat girl was digging into alluring display avocado dip. As I mentioned  I was starving, she said something to somebody else, "I'm back" dipped a chip then disappeared, then reappeared and dipped a chip, disappeared, reappeared and dipped a chip and disappeared and reappeared and dipped a chip and disappeared, and I'm thinking "..." 

Berkshire pork chop. Finest of all the chops. That guy is a convincing salesman. The pork chop is good but not that good. But I figured, hey, after all that, what the heck. My meal is incomplete. It lacks something apparently basic.

WLEM-FM Cowboy Troy Country / Hip Hop Mash-Up

Ice Formations In Lake Michigan

Icebergs in Lake Michigan sometimes have stripes, formed  by layers of snow that react to different conditions.  Blue stripes are often created when a  crevice in the ice sheet fills up with melt water and freezes so quickly that no  bubbles form.

When an iceberg falls into the lake, a layer of  water can freeze  to the underside. If this is rich in algae, it can form a green stripe.  Brown, black and yellow lines are caused by sediment, picked  up when the ice  sheet grinds downhill towards the lake.

The water  froze the instant the wave broke through the ice.  That's what it is like in Lake  Michigan where it is the coldest weather in decades.  Water freezes the instant it comes in contact with the air.

AllenS: Poll Question

Add your own caption

Hey Joe... leave me some, will ya?

Weekly Standard: "Obamacare penalizes the ‘wrong’ insurance 18 times more than no insurance"

"Would President Obama prefer that you have health insurance of which he doesn’t approve, or no health insurance at all?  Well, based on the penalties in play under his signature legislation, it would appear that he prefers for you to have no insurance at all than to have the “wrong” insurance (as defined, of course, by his administration)."

As those who have been following the Hobby Lobby case—argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday—know, under Obamacare, the “wrong” kind of insurance includes policies that don’t provide “free” coverage of, among other things, the abortion drug ella, contraception, and sterilization (but only sterilization for women).  (Coverage of cancer or heart disease—apparently being less essential—need not be “free.”)

Unfortunately, the post doesn't go into how the "18 times more" calculation was arrived at.

So, why Am I re-posting it?

Easy... because paying 18 times more for something is either a sign of theft/fraud, or, Americans have deeper pockets than previously thought.

What an intriguing phrase, something more or less, "than previously thought".  

In Colorado people seem to have money for pot... so maybe they have some left over for Affordable Health Care, 18 times more worth, than previously thought.

"How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation"

"A New Jersey lawmaker wants to legalize marijuana, tax it and use the revenue to pay to fix the state's roads and bridges."

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari announced his plan Monday, acknowledging that opposition from Gov. Chris Christie could seriously hinder it but pointing out, "He's not going to be governor forever."

Scutari, a Democrat, said allowing adults to legally buy marijuana to use recreationally would curb the drug sales-fueled crime that grips several New Jersey cities and reduce the number of people who get criminal records for pot possession. He also said regulators could ensure the safety of the pot people buy legally.

Part of his argument is also fiscal: It would save, he said, more than $100 million annually if police and courts didn't have to deal with marijuana as a crime. It also would bring more money into the state coffers through a 7 percent sales tax, he said. He did not know how much money legalization would generate but said he expects it to be more than $100 million annually.

What about the other side of the argument, which has held sway for generations? The argument inherently expressed in a question the Governor of California Jerry Brown asked NBC's David Gregory on Meet The Press.

DAVID GREGORY: 40 years ago, we weren’t talking about legalizing marijuana in states either. Is that a good or a bad idea for California?

GOV. JERRY BROWN (D-CA): Well, we have medical marijuana, which gets very close to what they have in Colorado and Washington. I’d really like those two states to show us how it’s going to work. The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay, but there is a tendency to go to extremes, and all of a sudden, if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? World’s pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we needed to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the pot heads might be able to put together.

What is going to be our future?