It is difficult
To read Shakespeare
On an airplane
The Spider and the Fly
Here is a video I shot a few weeks ago on the job site. I noticed the movement beneath the bottom step of a step ladder and bent down for a closer look.
Although the spider does not seem all that appreciative of the spin the fly creates, I am not convinced that the spin isn’t counterproductive. I don’t think one can tell from the video, but it would seem that the spinning could lead to more web wrapped around the fly’s legs. Now I wish I had watched/“filmed” more than I did.
I did check on it awhile later and the fly was completely wrapped up and stowed safely tight up against the bottom of the step.
In the background on the radio is NPR’s Talk of the Nation.
This was shot with my Nikon Coolpix L5.
My apologies for the inconsistent focus.
Facts?
It is interesting to me how often people I talk to do not believe in “facts”. Maybe it is true, maybe it isn’t. Who’s to say? That there is no shortage of talking heads out there with no more agenda than ratings and a willingness to just make stuff up (or repeat what someone else made up) certainly contributes to this phenomenon.
But there are facts. Jonathan Chait has a nice post up over at The New Republic talking about some facts.
One example is it is a fact that in England, the government owns the hospitals and the doctors are government employees. It is also a fact that this kind of arrangment is not even being considered by Obama and the congress. More at the link.
Increasingly the right side of the political spectrum seems to be spending its time with hands over the ears chanting “no, no, no, no”.
No, we do not accept evolution.
No, we do not accept man caused climate change.
No, we do not accept that the currant health care system is in crisis.
It would be nice if there could be a discussion of facts instead of rants.
56 Hope Rd.
There is so much music out there. So much of it might be good but not to my taste.
I just discovered 56 Hope Rd. At the website, just beneath the “56 Hope Road” at the top of the page is “Hope Road Radio”. Click the play button and enjoy.
Well, I am enjoying it.
Hat tip to Railbird Central.
Town Brawls
It is hard to know just how disruptive the protests have been at various town hall meetings that congressmen and women are having around the country. Some of the video I’ve seen is edited and it isn’t clear whether a town hall meeting was allowed to go on or not.
The video of Texas Congressman Doggett’s town hall seems to be at the end as he is preparing to leave. The video could easily have been preceded by a productive town hall meeting.
Still, I suspect there have been some town halls that have never gotten off of the ground due to the disruptive protests. I think you can see more evidence in the video posted at TPMDC. I don’t know much about Rachel Maddow, and I believe she is guilty of being strongly biased to the liberal side of things, but I do think that some of the video she shows counts as protests that disrupt the town hall.
Is that a bad thing? It is not as evil as many commenters are making it out to be. When the congressman needs a police escort to get safely to his car, that may be over the line a bit. But from what I’ve seen, I’m betting that there have been many such protests in the history of this country from many different sides of the political spectrum.
The tactic of shouting down the other side in a forum designed for discussion is often used by those who have no good argument to make.
Neat Packer Tradition
I am a life long Green Bay Packer fan. I have only learned of this tradition in the last year or so. During training camp the players have to get from the locker room to the practice facility. The method of transportation is bicycle. Kids show up with their bikes and each player borrows a bike and “rides” the bike to practice while the bikes owner walks along beside him carrying the player’s helmet.
Jeepers!! To have your bike chosen and to carry the players helmet!! I can only imagine.
Wedding Observations
Debby and I attended a wedding on Saturday.
The couple was almost giddily happy. Most couples getting married are happy, but these two were joyous. It was cool.
The caterer was very careful to serve the salad to every seat at every table. Even the empty tables. There was an empty seat at our table and we tried to stop the server, but no “We have to set every chair”. And, of course, charge for every chair. But only the salad gets served. The rest of the food is in a buffet. A bit of a racket, but then, they had to have enough of all the food just in case everyone showed up.
When it was time for our table to go through the buffet I was not yet done with my salad. By the time we got back to the table, my salad plate had been cleared. This is a pet peeve of mine…wait staff removing stuff from the table before I’m done with it. I am amazed how often the server wants to take my plate before I’m done eating. I have become very paranoid about it.
It hit me (and I may be the last person on earth to figure this out…) that the throwing of the bouquet and the garter actually serves a useful purpose. It allows the single people to see who among the opposite sex is single.
Two girls wrestled over the bouquet leaving a lot of petals on the floor. I was wondering if I was on a movie set.
The reception dance floor was not at all slippery. It was non slip. Presumably this is to reduce liability? I would think I’d be more likely to get hurt trying to “dance” on a non slip surface than I would on a slippery surface.
“Dance” is in quotes because…you’ve heard of the TV program You Think You Can Dance?…well, when they come up with the show You Know You Can’t Dance But You Don’t Care…that’s the show I’ll be on.
Obsessive Compulsive Not!
This is my guitar:
I bought it in 1974. If memory serves, it cost in the vicinity of $300. So that conservatively comes out to at least 25 minutes of playing for each penny spent (figuring an hour a day playing on average). Reasonably well spent money.
This is my can of guitar polish:
I bought it in 1974. I don’t remember what I paid for it.
Yesterday I put new strings on the guitar and I took the opportunity to polish it up a bit. Judging by the feel of the can of polish, I think it must be close to half empty. So I only have a 35 year supply of guitar polish on hand.
A Time I Spoke Stupidly
I can not believe I did not think of this a couple of days ago.
My senior year at Indiana University (1977), I managed a job as a part time supervisor in the MRC/LLC dorm cafeteria. There were a few less than kind things that could be said of me back then (and to this day?), but the pertinent info for this story is that I was a bit of a fascist in so far as that means I did not yet understand that rules were meant to be broken.
I was a hard ass, always trying to enforce every rule at all times. It is not beyond the pale that students were making fun of me behind my back (I don’t think they were, but it’s possible).
Of course, the students, being college students, pretty much never heard of a rule that they didn’t think existed so to be broken.
In spite of that set up, my memory of that job is not dominated by conflict between me and everyone else. In fact, I only remember a couple of times that things got out of hand. Once was when some students were attempting to smuggle food out of the cafeteria to eat on the ride home. In my memory, one student attempted to toss a bag of food over my head to another student waiting outside the dining hall. I intercepted the bag, but the activity led to the door (a beautiful old wooden door) sustaining some damage.
I do not remember what led to the second incident. I remember a couple of students on the other side of the counter and I was becoming exasperated with whatever the situation was. After some “discussion”, I finally said “You people!”, meaning “students.” The problem was the students I was talking too were African-American.
They understandably reacted a bit negatively to my statement and asked what I meant by it. I responded “Students.” One of them started accusing me of bringing race into the discussion and I promptly replied that I was not the first one to bring up race. Apparently my sincerity shined through because they let it go pretty quickly (more quickly than I deserved…I may have been sincere, but it was still stupid of me).
I’m just happy that for talking stupidly I did not have to pay the penalty of having to drink a Bud Light. Gaaa!
Wilson Farms Jam
I forget what it was Debby and I were doing in that part of Indiana earlier this summer when we happened upon Wilson Farm Market. Well, we were driving around to see what we might see when we happened upon the market. I simply do not remember why we were in that part of the state.
Anyways. We stopped at the market and looked around, Debby looking for fresh fruits and vegetables and I, seeing food in jars started looking for the jams.
I bought one jar of Red Raspberry Jam with No Granulated Sugars Added. It has only five grams of sugar and the ingrediant list shows red raspberries (always nice to see the fruit come in first!), white grape concentrate, pectin, and water. And it cost $4.99 for 18 ounces!
And the next time we are down that way, I’ll buy more. Excellent jam. Not at all too sweet. The bulk of the jam consisted of bits of raspberry still intact and had a good flavor of red raspberries. If you like red raspberries, I don’t know how you would not like this jam.
The only nit I would pick is the amount of water added. Not that the product is thin particularly, but I think it could be thicker than it was.
