Ketchikan is “the southeasternmost sizable city in Alaska”, with a population of 7,400 frozen souls.  It contains the world’s largest collection of totem poles, and America’s highest ZIP code, 99950.

~~~

Late Night Jokes

You can tell gas prices are going up in California. Prius owners are getting that smug look again.

Happy Presidents Day. We have a lot of Presidents Day sales. Mitt Romney got a little confused. He thought the presidency was for sale.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates attended a fundraiser for President Obama on Friday. He wasn’t invited, but in typical Microsoft fashion he crashed it.

CNN announced that instead of using podiums at Wednesday’s debate, the GOP candidates will be sitting at a table — which could get awkward when Newt Gingrich asks to see a menu.

A new survey found that most hairdressers don’t like listening to their clients’ stories. On behalf of clients, I’d just like to tell hairdressers, “Ditto.”

A man in China discovered a new kind of fish that looks like it has wings and legs. The discovery has led to questions from biologists — and a bidding war between KFC and Red Lobster.

~~~

“Who is that strange little man in the bow tie?”, I asked myself.  Is he really an economist and why is he selling copiers?  Here’s why.

~~~

Yesterday was a strange day.  First, we had 60 MPH winds at night that blew all the plastic chairs off the deck down onto the lawn (at 80MHP they get blown over the back fence).  Then, it warmed up to 60 degrees, and I rode my bike to the Y.  Today, it’s supposed to get to 35, maybe.  Maybe time to make Becky’s banana bread.

~~~

The brain cannot, in fact, do multi-tasking.

~~~

Mitt and the teleprompter:  “The head raise is almost sweet. He leads with his nose and stretches his neck out a little vulnerably. Willard Mitt Romney becomes, simply, “Mallard Romney,” some fatherly duck spooning food up to the audience with his bill. What’s captivatingly terrible about this process is that every time Mitt delivers his “winner” line, he spoonbills some nourishment at the audience and pauses just a moment. Then, he winces.”

~~~

Sure, cavemen had fruit:  figs, oranges, apples, dates.  Vegetables?  Not so much:

“Vegetables are a different story. Many of the ones we eat today have undergone profound changes at the hands of human farmers. Consider the brassicas: Between8,000 and 10,000 years ago, humans took a leafy green plant and, by selecting for different characteristics, began to transform it into several different products. Modern kale, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi are all members of the same species, derived from a single prehistoric plant variety. Wild carrots may predate human agriculture, but they’re unpalatable and look nothing like the cultivated variety. ”

~~~

Lentil tacos, dinner, vegan.  I wish Tearful Dishwasher and Woman On The Verge would give us a nice coherent ingredient list, so I could print it out and head to Safeway.  Oh, well, it’s not so bad picking through the instructions, and the dishes are so far just delicious.

~~~

Google Glasses will include a built-in camera and a heads-up display to overlay pertinent information about your surroundings.

Navigation will be unique, to say the least. According to 9 to 5 Google’s Seth Weintraub, “The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click. We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.”

~~~

Ha, ha.

~~~

Scott and the Tube Plane:  “My idea is that the entire passenger cabin would be separate from the rest of the plane, like a shotgun shell waiting to be put in the shotgun. Passengers would take their seats in the cabin “tube,” located in the airport terminal. When the airplane arrives, it lines up with the terminal and smoothly ejects its current passenger tube, along with their checked luggage, to the terminal area. The new cabin tube is lined up and smoothly inserted into the airplane shell. The entire process should take about two minutes.”

~~~

Jordan on that take-the-top-of-the-head-off feeling:  “I want to think for a poem to trigger this reaction it has to be unwilled, accidental, but then how would I classify speaking the unwanted truth. The whole stadium identifies with the left fielder, everyone jumping to their feet. The audience, or rather the reader, feels what the poet is feeling while she’s writing.”

~~~

That actually sounds like fun.

Toulouse, France resides beside the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean.  It is the headquarters of Airbus and site of the largest space center in Europe.  Archaeological evidence dates human settlement in Toulouse to the 8th century BCE.

~~~

Direct TV has these channels where you can see 10 channels, all at once.  Maybe the cable guys and Dish have them, too, I don’t know.  I watch the News channel and flip among Morning Joe, Imus in the Morning, some CNN person, Bloomberg, the Weather Channel, some other financial channel, and I don’t remember the other ones except Fox and Friends.  Fox and Friends is where two guys and a blond lady sit on a couch and announce headlines that are usually meant to disparage Democrats.  Or they play a clip from Hannity or O’Reilly.  It’s the most self-referential world you can imagine, like being in a Fox bubble.  Sometimes — actually pretty often — I’m looking at the 10 channels, trying to figure out where to move to, and every single one has a commercial on.  Sometimes the same commercial is on two or even three channels.

~~~

I drove up to Nederland yesterday.  It’s that small town up the mountain from Boulder that has the Frozen Dead Guy Days.  Which, come to think of it, are coming up in the next few weeks.  I was actually going up to check out Eldora, the nearest decent ski resort.  You can’t see from the picture, but the sky is blue and the temperatures were decent.  Ten minutes away, Eldora was gray and cold and windy, so I took one look at the lift lines and crowded parking lot and turned around.

On the way back, I stopped again in Nederland to look at the fossils and amethyst forests and such.  They also had these switch plates made out of stone for ten bucks and I was tempted.

~~~

A road is not a street is not a drive is not a boulevard.

~~~

Rebecca is in Bedlam.  And Hercules Road.  And Westminster Bridge.  And . . .

~~~

I had just been chatting with my biking/snowshoeing buddy Jean about Bellingham, where her daughter lives, when I ran across this article in the ever-fascinating TYWKIWDBI about enclaves, and Point Roberts in particular:

You’ll notice that it’s not an island, yet it is a completely isolated piece of America.

~~~

Intelligent, Condescending Life Discovered in Distant Galaxy:  “Members of a highly arrogant alien species responded, saying it was “nice to finally hear from [our] quaint planet” and that it “certainly took [humanity] long enough.”

~~~

Coffee ring art.

~~~

I awoke a few nights ago in the VERY early morning and read Harper’s to get back to sleep.  There was a fascinating article on fasting — one of those articles where the author intersperses descriptions of his fasting experience with sections on the history of fasting.  More on that over at Elisa’s place.

~~~

I have twice run across Joe Wenderoth’s poem, “Twentieth-Century Pleasures”.  Once was in a micro-review by Ron Silliman (he didn’t care for it), and once in a recent posting by John Gallaher.

A woman has two children:
one is seven, a girl with Down syndrome,
and one is five, a deaf-mute boy.
Every day, the woman’s husband beats her
and calls her a lazy whore.

I am a poet, not a poetry critic.  I have engaged in those online arguments where people say, “but, that’s not even a poem”, and listened to countless people explain what a poem is and  isn’t.   I have my own criteria, but the last of them is “it’s a poem if the poet says it is”.  This is one of those poems that only survives as a poem because of that last criterion.  You know, to me.  And yet, I liked many of the other poems in Wenderoth’s No Real Light.  It makes me think that I’m missing something, that I should be more open-minded somehow.

Flower Mound, Texas is named after a large mound of wildflowers that is in the center of town.  Native American habitation dates back to at least 4000 BC, according to archaeological surveys by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. European settlement in the Flower Mound area is reported as early as the 1840s

~~~

About once a month, I go to Big Think and see if their articles are still inane.  Like this one:

“His analysis suggests that if your language’s syntax blurs the difference between today and tomorrow (as do, say, Chinese and German) then you are more likely to save money, quit smoking, exercise and otherwise prepare for times to come. On the other hand, if you have three dollars in your IRA and a big credit-card balance, it’s a safer bet you speak English or Hausa or Greek or some other language that forces speakers to distinguish present from future.”

~~~

The Schrödinger’s Cat Decision Maker

~~~

Not an Onion headline:  Boob Truck Raises Awareness Of Breast Feeding

~~~

Another important study:  “In a test of this hypothesis, participants read passages from either a book about wizards (from the Harry Potter series) or a book about vampires (from the Twilight series). Both implicit and explicit measures revealed that participants who read about wizards psychologically became wizards, whereas those who read about vampires psychologically became vampires”

~~~

Rebecca pointed me to Plate & Fork, and in particular to this cabbage soup.  The recipe is very ramble-y, and you have to figure out the ingredients by reading through the text twice.  At least I did, but I had printed out the whole thing and then ran over to Safeway.  There’s absolutely nothing exotic in the soup, and it is vegetarian.  One thing I loved about it is that it had to cook for 3-4 hours, which always makes me feel virtuous in the waiting.  Another thing I loved about it was that it filled the whole house with an absolutely fabulous smell.  The only changes I made to recipe were

I substituted diced fire-roasted tomatoes for whole
I used only half the recommended brown sugar
I used a Cuisinart on the carrots, until they were pea-size
I added the lemon juice in the last half-hour of cooking

It was completely delicious, down the dollop of sour cream.  Next time, I might try half and half green and purple cabbage.  Thank you, sweetie.

~~~

George Washington loved coffee.  Also:  “Wine from the Canary Islands; double Gloucester cheese from England; brandy and olives from France; pickled mangoes from India and lots of Mediterranean anchovies, capers and currants.  Coconuts, limes and turtles from the West Indies, and my favorite: pickled walnuts.”

~~~

The Love Competition “follows seven contestants as they are placed in an fMRI to have activity in their brains measured as they try to love someone as hard as they can for five minutes”

~~~

This is an interesting article on ending money.  Well, cash, anyway, and particularly coins.  When I moved to Europe in 1987, I adopted the habit of having a fair amount of cash on me — somewhere between $100 and $400, depending upon how recently I’d been to the ATM.  In Europe, at the time, credit cards were not as ubiquitously accepted, but cash-dispensing ATMs were easy to find.  I still use credit cards, of course, but there are certain activities and items that I almost always pay for in cash:  wine, restaurants, kids who come to the door selling discount books, and back when I smoked, cigarettes.  I like the anonymity of cash.   There is no way to maintain that anonymity with digital money — without doing what they have tried in Europe, having credit cards that you front-load with cash balances.

~~~

Apparently, not everyone likes The Artist:  “So… basically The Artist is about this chick who meets a much older guy like three times for all of 30 seconds each and then she devotes her life to stalking/saving him, despite him being a married, entitled, pitiful, self-serving alcoholic, and despite her being a smart, savvy, talented, sexy professional, and then also the only black people in the film are literally carrying spears and wearing loincloths? ”

~~~

It’s not only that they found a million dollars worth of gold coins in the ceiling.  It’s “Half the find will go the workers and half to the owner.”

~~~

It’s funny, because that’s exactly what I was thinking of it:  FBI Breaks Up Latest Terrorist Plot That It Created. “The FBI is masterful when it comes to thwarting their own baroque terrorist plots in dramatic fashion at the very last minute, just as their scripts instruct them to do. The Feds found today’s lucky arrestee, a 29-year-old Moroccan, about a year ago and thought, Sure, this one looks Muslim enough to me, he’ll do… now let’s start brainstorming a plot and getting him all the fake bombs and training and support he needs so we can arrest him in a year.”

~~~

From Harper’s Index:

72% of the 2010 political ad spending would have been illegal before Citizens United.
Amount spend by Homeland Security on Sno-Cone machines:  $6,279
There are approximately 3 parking spaces for every car in America.
The average white D.C. resident makes 3 times more than the average black resident.
Most recent date on which a Saudi woman was executed for sorcery:   12/12/2011
Chances that an American employee works in the service industry:  6 in 7
Percentage of Americans who believe Romney’s first name is “Mittens”:  2

Harnes is a commune in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region at the tippy-top of France.

~~~

Come snowshoeing, they said.  You’ll like it, they said.  That’s Nick, Pati, and Jean. They’re my biking buddies.

Jean checks to see if I have them on backwards.

“How do you like it?” Jean asks. “It’s like walking with a small dog humping each leg,” Jeff replies.  That’s my dreadlock-y ski hat hanging out of my pocket.

After 3 or 4 miles of this, one of us looks a little tired.  Eventually, we all went to The Med and one of us drank wine, and all of us ate tapas.

~~~

More funny stuff at Neatorama.

~~~

How to fight 20 children at once:  “Your best bet is to stay on your feet and use striking techniques. Karate is one good choice – it was originally designed in the 1600′s for use by unarmed Japanese day care workers.”

~~~

More random pictures stuck in my Droid:

The Pâté Sample at Lou’s, only three bucks during Happy Hour.

A colorful array of snowboards at Boulder Ski Deals.

The dressing rooms at Boulder Ski Deals are converted ski gondolas.

~~~

Woman grabs President’s butt.  President smiles.

~~~

I was watching Up with Chris Hayes this morning — which is almost always great, you should try it — and there was the usual group of four intelligent, interesting people.  One of them was introduced as Wallace Shawn, author, playwright and actor.  I looked and looked and then laughed and yelled “Inconceivable!”

What’s funny is I had just told my dermatologist that morning how much he looked like Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride.

~~~

I would love one of these.

~~~

Shkodër is one of the oldest and most historic towns in Albania.  The town was known as Scodra (Greek: Σκάρδον)  during antiquity, and was the capital of the first kingdom of the Illyrian tribe of the Ardiaei, since the middle of the 3rd century BC

~~~

Bill Maher:

Poor Mitt Romney, he’s got the money, he’s got the organization, he’s got the name recognition. He has one weakness: an inability to get votes.

The other weakness is an ability to find a candidate he can beat. If there was just some way he could run against Mitt Romney.

You can tell that this Santorum surge has Mitt Romney a little rattled. He was at the CPAC Convention today, and he showed up in a sweater vest with a fetus in a jar.

Santorum made a speech and said, ‘If we follow the path of President Obama and his overt hostility to faith in America, then we are heading down the road to the guillotine.’ The guillotine, really? This is why he’s ahead. In one sentence, he hit on all the things they love at the Republican convention: logical fallacies, Obama paranoia, and f*ck the French.

~~~

Where a $5K loan ends up costing $40K to pay back.

~~~

The equation that caused the crash:  “Black-Scholes underpinned massive economic growth. By 2007, the international financial system was trading derivatives valued at one quadrillion dollars per year. This is 10 times the total worth, adjusted for inflation, of all products made by the world’s manufacturing industries over the last century.”

~~~

The Tournament of Sitcoms

~~~

Late Night Jokes

China’s vice president was in Los Angeles today. When he got off the plane, he apologized for his problem with the language. Apparently, his interpreter doesn’t speak Spanish.

There are 8 million dead people who are still registered to vote. As a matter of fact, they’re the group that’s most passionate about Mitt Romney.

Kim Jong Il would have been 70 years old today if he hadn’t died a couple of months ago. But don’t worry. Osama bin Laden threw him a surprise party in hell.

Mitt Romney is sinking in the polls. That is the magic of a Donald Trump endorsement right there.

The band Megadeth has endorsed Rick Santorum. I think I’m going to wait and see who Metallica likes.

President Obama’s approval rating is up to 50 percent. Only half the country dislikes him. Apparently his strategy of not being any of the Republican candidates is paying off.

Last night Jeremy Lin led the Knicks to their seventh straight win. Soon he’ll be getting all the benefits of being an NBA star: He’ll get a salary bump, an endorsement deal, a Kardashian.

CNN is letting viewers ask the candidates questions at its next Republican debate. It’ll be awkward when they’re like, “This question’s from Mark in Texas.” Mark asks: “What else is on?”

~~~

That’s me, making my girl some soup.

~~~

Well, that will certainly simplify things:  “The battle centers on something called “ICD-10.” That’s insurance-speak for the Tenth Edition of the International Classification of Diseases, a laundry list of thousands of billing codes that health insurance plans use to categorize various medical conditions. Get injured by a flaming water-ski? There’s an ICD-10 code for that. Have an unfortunate encounter with a parrot? ICD-10 has not one but nine codes to categorize parrot-related injuries (“W61.01” refers to being “bitten by a parrot” while W61.02 denotes being “struck by a parrot.”)

~~~

Yum!  “The delicacy is created by first preparing a seal skin: all the meat is removed and only a thick layer of fat remains. The skin is then sewn into a bag shape, which is stuffed with 300-500 little auk birds. Once full and airtight, the skin is sewn up and seal fat is smeared over all over the join, which acts as a repellent to flies. The seal skin is then left under a pile of rocks to ferment for a minimum of three months to a maximum of 18 months. ”

~~~

NUKEMAP:  “It allows you to choose a city, any city (I chose the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where I live), an atomic or hydrogen bomb of any size (whatever kiloton level you like, or you can pick from a list of historically specific bombs).”

~~~

Wire

~~~

Uh, no. “During the dinner, photographs of the horses which we were eating were handed round, and the appearance of one of these was, I think, the turning point of the argument.”

~~~

In 1915, a new post office was built near Port Richey, Florida, and was called New Port Richey.  Shortly thereafter, the name became official.  Virtually all employment is by hospitals and other health care providers.

~~~

Fijian cannibal forks.

~~~

Late Night Jokes

You know a really sad thing about Valentine’s Day? Some people can’t have the person they really love, so they settle for someone else. But enough about the Republicans and Mitt Romney.

The vice president of China showed up at the White House today. That’s what happens when you get behind on the rent. The landlord shows up, starts looking around.

Yesterday Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Mitt Romney all said that if elected president they would eliminate porn. In a related story, President Obama has already been re-elected.

Each year, Mitt Romney celebrates Valentine’s Day by spending a romantic evening in front of the mirror.

Newt Gingrich is against same-sex marriage. Well, actually, he’s against same-marriage sex.

This year, I gave my girlfriend her gift for next Valentine’s Day. I gave her a pack of seeds. That way, she can grow her roses the old-fashioned way.

On Valentine’s Day, Americans spend $367 million on their pets. That seems like a waste. You don’t need to wine and dine your dog. Either way, he’s going to hump your leg.

~~~

One of my overly excitable friends on Facebook posted ‘Today’s Organ: The Kidney.  How cool is that?”

~~~

ESPN Reporter Doing Linsanity Story In Chinatown Runs Into ESPN Reporter Doing Linsanity Story In Chinatown, Interviews Her

~~~

Don’t miss this!  President Palin battles the Nazis!  In Outer Space!!

~~~

In other Facebook news, I refused to accept a Friend request from Kismet FullCircle and Lacanian Foothold.

~~~

The “adventure-themed wedding ceremony“.

~~~

What movie had a cast that included Annette Funicello, Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa, Terri Garr, the Radio City Rockettes, Victor Mature, Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper?

~~~

From Cute Overload.

~~~

Alternative movie posters.

~~~

In a story about Jeremy Lin, it was noted that Harvard has produced more presidents than NBA players.

~~~

The Heartland Institute, funded by the Kochs, Philip Morris parent Altria, Microsoft (!), and Eli Lilly, has a new project:

“The climate change education project is funded so far by an anonymous donor who has given $13 million to the Institute over the past five years. Proposed by policy analyst David Wojick, who holds a doctorate in epistemology and has worked for coal and electricity generation companies, the project would create education “modules” written to meet curriculum guidelines for every grade level.”

The Microsoft “funding” is relatively benign:

“As part of our global nonprofit software donation program, Microsoft provides free software licenses upon request to any eligible non-profit organization. In Fiscal Year 2011, Microsoft donated $844 million in software to 44,000 nonprofits around the world.”

~~~

I saw this over at TYWKIWDBI and thought it looked so much like what I’ve come to expect on Rebecca’s blog.

~~~

The Onion horoscope for Virgo:  “You’ll receive hundreds of unsolicited estimates from eager housepainters when you mention your love of Jackson Pollock while walking past a Home Depot.”

~~~

The most expensive home in America.  Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

“It was part of the divorce settlement between Texas billionaire David Saperstein and his wife Suzanne. In 2008, David abandoned his wife for their 32-year-old Swedish nanny and now Suzanne is sharing the mansion with her 33-year-old former soccer playing boyfriend until it is sold.”

At the edge of Hibbing, Minnesota is  the largest open-pit iron mine in the world.  The town was founded by Frank Hibbing, who was born in Hannover, Germany.   Famous people from Hibbing include Gary Puckett, Robert Mondavi, Roger Maris, and of course, Bob Dylan (Robert Zimmerman).

~~~

During all the ruckus over contraceptives, and the GOP’s current inane stand even after the compromise, it still remains that 28 states ALREADY require contraceptive coverage with exceptions for real religious institutions (which doesn’t mean “Catholic” hospitals filled with Jewish, Lutheran and Presbyterian doctors).  So, who are these states?  All blue and librul, I bet.

Uh, no.  They comprise two-thirds of our nations population, and span the political spectrum from conservative to liberal:

Arizona,Arkansas,California,Colorado,Connecticut,Delaware,Georgia,Hawaii,
Illinois,Iowa,Maine,Maryland,Massachusetts,Michigan,Missouri,Montana,Nevada,
New Hampshire,New Jersey,New Mexico, New York,North Carolina,Oregon,
Rhode Island,Texas,Vermont,Virginia,Washington,West Virginia,Wisconsin

~~~

This is a real bird.

~~~

No love for V-Day:  “Every year, Saudi Arabia’s infamous morality police force, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, raids shops a few days before Feb. 14, instructing owners to remove red roses, red wrapping paper, teddy bears, and gift boxes. On the eve of the holiday, they raid stores and seize symbols of love.”

~~~

Late Night Jokes
It’s been projected that Americans will spend over $13 billion this Valentine’s Day. And guys who forget Valentine’s Day will spend over $100 billion.

Last night Adele won six Grammys. The wins made Adele so happy, she now has nothing left to sing about.

The Beach Boys reunited at the Grammys. They’re headed out on tour for their 50th anniversary. Now when they sing about surfing, they mean surfing the Internet for discounted prostate medication.

Today in New York City is the Westminster Dog Show. It’s the Oscars of dog shows. The Westminster Dog Show and the Oscars are very different, of course. One’s nothing but yapping and butt-sniffing. The other one’s the dog show.

Valentine’s Day is weird. A nude flying baby that shoots arrows isn’t a holiday. It’s a horror movie.

Here’s a good tip. If your girlfriend or your wife gives you that speech about how she doesn’t care about Valentine’s Day and how it’s a holiday invented by corporations, don’t fall for it.

The Grammy show lasted 3 1/2 hours last night. Before it was over, Kim Kardashian married half of the L.A. Clippers.

Jay-Z and Beyoncé just released five pictures of their month-old daughter. Hear that, Facebook friends with babies? Only five pictures.

Some election news. This weekend was the Maine caucuses. And here’s the crazy part — Adele actually won that, too.

Rick Santorum said women might not be suited for military action because their emotions aren’t suited for combat. Which can mean only one thing: He’s never seen an episode of ‘The View.’”

~~~

Quick.  Which one looks more like Newt Gingrich?

~~~

Another great post by John on sentiment, irony and a lot of what’s between:

The problem with a word like emotion, though, is that it’s a wider landscape and implicates ALL emotions, including the cool and cold emotions of Stevens in winter as well as Eliot walking through certain half-deserted streets.

~~~

Scott on simplicity:  “On a related note, I also think trusts and corporations and LLCs need to be simplified or eliminated while somehow keeping the protections they provide. Likewise, insurance and banking need to be simplified. The free market favors complication over simplicity, because confusopolies are profitable. So the market isn’t likely to simplify anything on its own. While I oppose overlarge government in principle, I think battling complexity on behalf of consumers is a legitimate role. That’s doubly true when the government itself has created the complexity.”

~~~

The Rosette Nebula, “one of the largest, most symmetric emission nebulae in the entire galaxy.”

~~~

Charlie Pierce cracking me up as usual:

Santorum:  “You wanted help out there on the frontier, you formed groups. You formed societies and associations, and little schools, and organizations to help people. You didn’t look to the federal government.”

Pierce:  (Excuse me? The Morrill Act? The Homestead Act? The railroads? If you wanted help stealing the land from the original occupants, and then protection when they got all cranky about it, you sure as hell looked to the federal government, which had an army, and not to the local Grange, which had pie contests and quilting bees. To say nothing of the Louisiana Purchase, a big government program without which the “frontier” would have ended somewhere outside of Louisville.)

~~~

Hey.  I just heard that Boulder is going to get the first Trader Joe’s in Colorado.

~~~

Kyle and Eileen met me at Lou’s early, so we ate lots of really cheap Happy Hour appetizers and I drank a Corpse Revival #2.

~~~

Jean referred me to Carhenge, an art installation in Nebraska.  Apparently, it was put up for sale for $300,000 last year.

Bergschenhoek is a Dutch town of 16,600 inhabitants which covers 15.52 km²,  of which 0.63 km² is water.

~~~

The one-time conservative, David Frum, offers up a convincing and eviscerating 5-part review of Charles Murray’s Coming Apart:  The State of White America, 1960-2010.   Murray is a conservative pundit and fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, and co-author of the (notorious) Bell Curve.  In the first part of the review, Frum quotes Murray:

“Data can bear on policy issues, but many of our opinions about policy are grounded on premises about the nature of human life and human society that are beyond the reach of data. Try to think of any new data that would change your position on abortion, the death penalty, legalization of marijuana, same-sex marriage or the inheritance tax. If you cannot, you are not necessarily being unreasonable.”

I actually had to read this twice.  It so perfectly encapsulates the mind of the ideologue, I don’t know how it could be better said.  I often forget that there are people — important, highly-paid, listened-to people — who are simply faith-based.  For whom no amount of evidence or life-experience or argument would change their mind.

~~~

Angry Birds come to Facebook.

~~~

New Breeding Program Aimed At Keeping Moderate Republicans From Going Extinct

“The most difficult task we have is preserving members of this disappearing breed before the desperate need for votes forces them to begin parroting borderline racist anti-immigration ideologies and accusing their opponents of being socialists,” tracker Phil Gandelman said. “We thought we had captured and tagged a truly exemplary specimen a few weeks ago, but when we studied the creature more closely, we realized it was just John McCain.”

~~~

The Stone Age restaurant:  “The idea for the restaurant is part of the Paleolithic diet movement. Its members eat only food that was available to people from the Stone Age. This organic raw fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, nuts, seeds, and herbs.”

~~~

This is the second time James has gotten hold of me.

Darn.  Should I send dollars or Euros?  What to do, what to do.

~~~

Elizabeth Bishop’s Brownies.

~~~

I was listening to (Dr.) Jeffery Sachs debate Steve Rattner this morning, both of them trying their hardest to keep Joe Scarborough from butting in.  Again and again.  Sachs is a distinguised professor at Columbia and Rattner is a financier and former “car czar” under President Obama.  At one point, Sachs said something interesting — that entitlement spending was not expected to go up as a percentage of GDP, only as a percentage of the Federal budget, because other expenditures (military, agricultural subsidies, etc) were going down.  Everyone is so up an arms about the rise in “entitlements”.  What if most people would simply prefer to fund health care over foreign wars?

~~~

Hey, Der.  Hand-tooled leather pickguards.

Now.  What’s a pickguard?

~~~

I’m all for the President’s compromise.  But, when I heard arguments that “98% of Catholic women use contraceptives”, I instinctively thought:  bullshit.  98% of no large group does almost anything.  Are we including the elderly?  The sexually inactive?

Turns out I’m right.

~~~

Late Night Jokes

Have you noticed Romney doesn’t even blow dry his hair anymore? He dries naturally from Rick Santorum breathing down his neck.

According to geologists, about 100 million years from now, Asia and the Americas will smash together to form one giant supercontinent. The good news: Maybe all those jobs that went over there will finally come back.

I love the Grammys. It has songs I don’t know performed by people I’ve never heard of.

One time Lady Gaga showed up wearing a dress made of meat. One time she showed up in a giant egg. One time she showed up strapped to the top of Mitt Romney’s car.

There are a bunch of movies opening. So many that I might be overwhelmed and spend the whole weekend on the couch eating ice cream.

The 3-D effects in “Star Wars” are so realistic, you can actually see George Lucas reaching from the screen and taking the money from your wallet.

Rick Santorum is being criticized for saying women might not be suited for military combat because of their emotions. Yeah, Mitt Romney was like, “That comment is unacceptable — also, what are emotions?”

Donald Trump is criticizing the Scottish government for trying to build a wind farm near his golf resort. That makes sense — I mean, if you look at Trump’s hair, wind is clearly his worst enemy.

A new study found that students who are taught abstinence end up with better math scores. Of course, if you join the math team, the abstinence takes care of itself.

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I have a question.  If Chinese next leader, Xi Jinping, is pronounced “Tsee Tchinping”, why don’t they spell it that way.   It’s not like it’s pronounced with clicks or gargle-y sounds that aren’t known in English.  His name is actually

习近平

so why not spell it any way you want in English?

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German zoologist Sabine Begall reviewed thousands of Google Earth images and determined that cattle and deer regularly align themselves in a north-south direction.

“It boggles the mind that no one — herdsman, rancher, or hunter — had noticed this before,” writes ethologist Jonathan Balcombe. “What else are we failing to notice?”

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I don’t often love the poems that Linebreak emails to me.  But, this one touched and tickled me:  In the Gardening Section of Home Depot:

The question is, of course, how could one not
Think of Romeo and Juliet (as cliched as that
May sound) — with you, high atop an orange ladder,
.
.

The town of Drezdenko was raised to the rank of a castellany during the reign of Bolesław III Wrymouth, and then the subject of fighting between the Duchy and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, which took control of it after 1296. It was sold by the Brandenburgians to the Monastic Order of the Teutonic Knights in 1317. However, in 1365 it became part of Kingdom of Poland, during the rule of Casimir the Great, to be lost again, to the Teutonic Knights in 1402. In 1455 the Knights sold it back to Brandenburg.

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Darth Maul Lightsaber Nightlight.

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Here’s something I don’t understand.  The approval rating for Congress is at a historical all-time low.  Like 10-15%.  Meanwhile — the Tea Party phenomenon notwithstanding — incumbents are increasing likely to get re-elected, a trend that has been accelerating for decades.  Part of it is the gerrymandering of safe districts, part of it is name recognition and/or money.

So does mean that everyone in America hates all the legislators except their own?

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Something I learned today:  Though they are arachnids, Daddy longlegs are actually in the order Opilones and are not spiders, but harvestmen.  They’ve been around hundreds of millions of years.

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Gratuitous dying star photo.

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The judge throws the book at him:  “And then, José Manuel Miguel Xavier Gonzales, I further command that such officer or officers retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing shall remain but bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, copper-colored, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, chili-eating, sheep-herding, murdering son of a bitch.”

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This was on Facebook.  It had 17 likes.  I have no idea why it’s funny.

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I think reverse chic is back.  Ky and Eileen wanted to try Lou’s Food Bar.  It’s the latest in a series of restaurants we’ve looked at with simple names.  Of course, this one sounds like a Philly Steak walkup, but others aren’t far from it.  The funny thing is that once you get into Lou’s, here’s some of the line-up:

Grilled Artichoke & Madras Curry Aioli
Escargot with Garlic, Parsley Butter & Gruyère Gratinée
Salad with Lyonnaise, Fried Farm Egg, Confit Duck Legs
Sausage of Pheasant on Spaghetti Squash
Braised Rabbit Stroganoff

Under “Spuds and Sides”, there’s Potatoes Lyonnaise with Chicken Velouté.  I’m surprised they actually call it a menu, and not “Our Grub”.

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A kitten-oriented tribute to American poet and winner of the Yale Younger Competition, Richard Siken.

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I’ve been thinking about the inequality argument on the left.  It’s certainly true that the gap has grown.  I think I read this morning that 80% of all income growth in the country for the past 25 years has gone to the top 1%.  I don’t think that’s a good thing.  At all.  And I tend to think that various policies since Reagan have exacerbated it.

But, other than pointing out the reduction in marginal tax rates for income and capital gains, what else has caused this?  After all, the top 1% got 80% of the income gains, and a somewhat higher marginal tax rate (like 39% instead of 35%) really wouldn’t have put much of a dent in that, though it would have (and would still) provide greater Federal revenue.

I think that if you wanted to really understand what’s going on, you’d have to get past slogans and really look hard at the data.   For example, one-fifth of the 1% are physicians.  Do they make too much?  Do they exercise monopoly power over wages?  The average salaries in the financial sector have risen dramatically in the past 40 years, as has the percentage of national income from financial products.  Is this a bad thing, or just a shift from manufacturing?  Compensation to top management of our largest companies has risen rapidly over the past 40 years — from about 40-to-1 to the current 200-to-1 (approximately). Are interlocking boards of directors a problem?  Is the affordability of college a growing discriminator?  What middle class jobs have been lost?  Which are conceivably coming back?  Are student loan programs just loading up a lot of people with debt without credentials that can earn them sufficient income?  Etc.

And even if you figured all this out, what actual policies could you enact?  Just raising taxes isn’t enough.

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The earliest cave paintings — actually the earliest human art of any kind — may have been found in Malaga, home to my buddy Alejandro.  They may pre-date the famous paintings of Chauvet by 10,000 years.

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The latest from Facebook.

Cynthiana, Kentucky was named after Cynthia and Anna Harrison, daughters of Robert Harrison, who had donated land known as the Public Square.  The town of 6,400 inhabitants is divided by the Licking River.

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I just heard her talk on Morning Joe, and now I know why Wonkette calls her Duchess Peggington Noonington.

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I am intrigued that The Golden Days of Burlesque Historical Society is in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.

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Cricket explained, finally.
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I mentioned skiing to my father and he was so excited that he wants to buy me skis.  Actually, I was going to just ask him for his old pair, since he quit skiing only 2 years ago and he always bought very nice, expensive skis.  Turns out that my brother was one step ahead of me and already has possession of them.  Dad felt bad enough about it to give me a budget and call it an early birthday present.  I drove down to Christy’s in Boulder and looked over all the snow-related gear.  One thing I noticed was the vast array of helmets, which were rare on the slopes 10 years ago. Apparently enough people have run into trees to finally convince everyone that head gear is desirable.  The various pants and coats and shells and other outerwear were really expensive, but I have enough of that stuff in a big suitcase upstairs.  The snowboard area was very large, but the coolest room was the ski parlor.

The first thing I noticed was how short the skis seemed.  When I quit skiing a few years ago, short skis were just becoming popular.   Back then, I had skis that were a bit taller than I was.  Most of these skis were 6 to 12 inches shorter than that.  The skis are also flared at the tip and rear, which is apparently why they can be shorter and still perform well.

I recognized the old names — Atomic, K2, Salomon, Volkl, Rossignol, Fischer, Nordica — but there were some new manufacturers, too, like Ski Logic, Icelantic and Line.  Many were stunningly beautiful, like the Dynastar 6th Sense:

Some were comical, even cartoonish:

There’s a lot to like about the ski line names, too:  The Line Afterbang, the Salomon Suspect, the Head Kiss of Death, the Ski Logik Bomb Squad.  I was able to whittle down the selections some:  They have to be under budget and I don’t want Telemark, Powder, Freeride or Carve skis (at least, I don’t think I do, not sure what the last two are anyway).  Ditto Park & Pipe.  I think I want All Mountain, but I’ll find a sales guy and tell him my story and see what he says.   I’m a decent skier who wants to go down long blue and green runs and avoid breaking anything.  I’m not going back-country, and I’m at no risk to cause an avalanche.  I’m not going to be impressing any girls.  I’m not going to jump off hills and do 360s.  I’m going to avoid moguls.  When I get cold, I’m going in for hot chocolate and a cookie.  That should be enough information.

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About that recession:  “Corporate profits now account for the largest share of gross domestic product since 1950 — 12.6%. Wages and salaries account for the smallest share of GDP since 1955 — 54.9%.”

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What weighs 16 million pounds, could bench-press the battleship Iowa, and has made parts for every military and commercial aircraft?

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Zebras may have their stripes because it confuses horseflies.

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Mwahahahah.  I did get a big-ass shower head.  It’s the size of a cake plate and just rains down on me like a downpour.

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John on creative writing programs:

Here’s a helpful redirection from Anna Leahy: “That’s what novelist John Irving said to John Stewart on The Daily Show, namely that a creative writing program and his mentor Kurt Vonnegut showed him, ‘You do these things better than those things. Why don’t you do more of these things and fewer of those?’”

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I finished de-grouting and re-grouting the kitchen.  Yuck, what a mess, but now it’s pearl gray grout which pretty much doesn’t stain, instead of “vanilla” which everything on earth seems to stain, including water.  I was using the reciprocating saw for hours, so my elbows tingle a bit.  Also, I had to sponge off a lot of the grout, so my hands feel dry and sandpapery.  Oh, well, now I can have a glass of wine to celebrate.  And figure out something for dinner.  Maybe eels?   Just kidding, but I was listening to KUNC for a change, the other NPR station that isn’t on pledge week, and up came Bob Edwards Weekend, that isn’t on the main Denver NPR station, and he was interviewing some guy from New Zealand who was talking about giant eels that barked and enchanted eels that the Maori, who eat eels all the time, wouldn’t eat under any circumstances, because their entire family line would be cursed.  I did have eel once or twice in Belgium I think, where it’s no big deal.  I think it was in one of the Flemish regional dishes, Waterloo.  I also had eels once in Barcelona when somebody told me to order this really expensive menu item on a dare.  I did and I ended up with this small terra cotta bowl with what appeared to be vermicelli in olive oil.  It was actually baby eels (angulitas) and a great delicacy.  I should have known it wasn’t pasta because each strand had a set of teeny, tiny eyes.  OK, going to Google.  Found it.  It looked like this: