Weight of the Nation

I am watching Weight of the Nation that I DVR'ed from HBO, but you can watch it for free here (link) online.   It's both fascinating and depressing.  Childhood obesity at record levels in the US.  Fatty liver disease, in CHILDREN, found in autopsies... a disease that didn't exist 30 years ago is not found in 38% of obese children.  30 year longitudinal studies on entire towns.  It's incredibly factual, stark, and enlightening.  I'm only on episode 1 of a 4 part series..  but wow...  should be required watching for ever American school child and every parent of a school aged child.  I've never seen so many fat people on TV before... one after another after another..  in the school yard, on the bus, in the cafeterias, at the Dr's office, at buffets....  yikes.  It's worse than a German vacation spot in Italy or the Canary Islands!

I hope being "the fat kid" that I was (3rd fattest kid in my parochial grade school class, from 2nd to 8th grade) didn't damage my heart and liver substantially in the long term, and that the almonds, red wine, desert mountain climbing, swimming, and stationary bike riding I am doing are reversing all that artery clogging franken foods my parents fed me as a kid.

Hold On, I'm Comin'

Sam & Dave Classic.  Donald Duck Dunn, the white guy playin da bass in the back ground  died this week, at the age of 70.  RIP Donald

Swedish Knife Wielding Eagle

It's well known that chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins, and crows use tools - sometimes natural, sometimes human made - to get what they want or make their lives easier... but this is the first I've ever heard of a Golden Eagle stealing a knife.  I just hope the eagle doesn't come back, wielding it in it's claws. (link to story here).

This is not photoshopped.

Sad Cellos - Game of Thrones

I purchased the box set of Game of Thrones at the Worst Buy big box store near my home late Friday night.  Dr Desert Flower was in London at a conference, and I did not want to go out drinking alone - staying home with a full liquor cabinet was a much better option.  Over Friday night, Saturday, and this morning, I've watched all 5 DVDs.  The sadness of the cellos at the opening credits is haunting.  It played in my head as I sculpted ocotillo Saturday, trimmed bougainvilleas, picked up carelessly discarded Marlborough cigarette butts in my driveway from my neighbors, trimmed lavender, wiped out spiders' webs, truncated aloe stalks, refilled hummingbird feeders, re-directed palm tree growth (I've just about got the technique perfected to steer the growth of pigmy palms), cleaned up the garage, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and pulled weeds - who needs a "honey do" list when your honey is gone and all these things are bugging you?

The cellos provide a resonating sadness, that when combined with the driving deep percussion behind it, tend to latch onto one's mind like almond butter to the roof of your mouth.  Filmed in Malta and Northern Ireland, it's visually brilliant, well written, superbly acted, and deliciously presented.  Add to that a few glasses of Tullamore Dew, and it made for excellent television.

If you'd not watched it yet... the end of Episode 4, Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things...  Katherine Stark does a masterful, spectacular, powerful, beautiful rallying speech that had me cheering Saturday morning the first time I watched it - and the replayed it thrice, to see it again and again (something that the clumsy Netflix interface doesn't do well, in streaming video, but on DVD works as it is supposed it).

North Carolina Buch Learnin

I spelled "Book" as "Buch" because that's how some twenty boxes of "Books" were marked by the corporate movers when Dr Desert Flower and I moved out of South Carolina fro the first time in 1994.  "Ya(h) shore dew have allodda booooks" the movers said.as they dollied out the boxes into the moving truck.  South Carolina and North Carolina have similar demographics, economies, income distributions, and education levels.  So when I saw this graphic today, I could relate on a personal level, having lived in South Carolina for 16 years of my adult life, and knowing, working with, and befriending many Tarheels from North Carolina.  The whole state is not full of fearful idiots, but the rational thinkers are far out-numbered.

Stay in school, kids.

Bond Girls Over Time

I wanted this to be a Mother's Day related post..  but it's more of a Father's Day subject matter I guess.  The following compilation are all the James Bond girls, updated over time.  Time has been kind to some, cruel to others.  In my personal perspective, Dr Desert Flower is even more lovely today than she was when I met her in the 80s, so time has been very kind to her..  =)

If the image doesn't show up in your screen large enough to be discernible, look here (link) for a larger version.

WTF is CISPA?

WTF is CISPA, and why is it much more insidious that SOPA threatened to be?  Why should you care?   (well, you're looking at this on the internet..   aren't you?)

Follow this handy link to "Let's Look 4 Treasure" to find out how evil CISPA is:  link here.

Cetacean Mother's Day

A mother humpback whale, helping her baby to surface & breathe.

Questions Are Better Asked With A British Accent

Last Sunday I had a nice long face to face chat with my Godfather, Uncle Joe, as he baby sat my cousin's kids up in the NW Phoenix suburbs.  We discussed books, politics, taxes, guns, travel, designing, engineering, tooling, and pattern making, to name a few subjects.  We both watch The Daily Show and Colbert, devotedly.  He asked why people continue to vote against their own self interests, and I posed Steinbeck's temporarily embarrassed millionaires theory to him.. which he pondered for a while, rolling it over in his head.

My Uncle and I agree on our progressive media personalities & journalists, though as a retired pattern maker he has more time to listen to progressive radio & watch MSNBC than I do.  We concurred on the following:

Rachel Maddow - very smart, excellent journalist, but sometimes takes Forever to get to the point, and from time to time, tries to turn molehills into mountains.

Ed Schultz - an angry bear.  The left's answer to Sean Hannity.  Too angry and indignant to listen to for any extended period of time.

Al Sharpton - much better as a Progressive TV show host than he was as a politician or activist.  His show can be humourous. 

Lawrence O'Donnell - snarky, snide, biased, great as a "fill in" host for Olbermann and others, but now that he has his own show, too snide & acerbic to stomach.

Keith Olbermann - stuck on Current TV, in a under-funded, hardly-watched, low production value environment that he has trouble not showing how annoyed he is by the dimming lights, lack of satellite feeds, and very unrehearsed / inexperienced support staff.  He was good when he was on MSNBC, but now on Current, he's an "also ran" second or third tier show.

Dylan Ratigan - sometimes spot on, other time rambling or ranting... Ratigan provides a mixed bag that can lack consistency.

Meet The Press's David Gregory - a weak willed, easily bypassed, mostly soft-ball lobbing Sunday interviewer who lets his guests wiggle away and talk fluffy talking point circles around him without trying too hard to get a meaningful answer from them.  (We both miss Tim Russert, tremendously).

and then... Uncle Joe mentioned:

Martin Bashir - I'd not heard of Martin (he's on at noon here in Phoenix) but Uncle Joe said that Bashir doggedly pursues the answer to his questions, in the mode of Tim Russert, drilling down, and latching on, until the guest answers or refuses to answer, but without a dodge or deflection.  So I started DVR-ing Bashir's show.   He's very good, and very determined.  He had a fundamentalism tool, the smug "Rev" Jeffers on his show this week.  Jeffers who wanted to cherry pick and reinterpret New Testament Bible quotes, and Martin corrected the narrow minded Baptist with quotes from the Apostle Paul that shredded Jeffer's arguments.  I thoroughly enjoyed Bashir's interview with a pious religious leader who I normally can't stand. 

I think I have concluded that questions sound best, when asked with an educated, intelligent, British accent. 

I told my uncle how I sometimes record O'Faladel, Hannity, and used to get a kick out of crazy Glen Beck, but I only set the DVT to tape them when Faux News gets all whipped up over nothing.  He shuddered at the thought. 

I'm glad I've got a very cool Godfather, with whom I can discuss a wide range of topics.

Obama Lets Go Of His Fear

I was on my way home from the hardware store yesterday afternoon when I heard NPR interviewing Andrew Sullivan, reacting to President Obama's statement yesterday that he supports the rights of gays and lesbians to get married, and that civil unions won't bridge the inequality gap.  It was a moving interview, and Sullivan said he was 'at a loss for words' which by his own admission, almost never happens =)

As a straight man in a long term monogamous relationship with my wife Dr Desert Flower, I do not understand the ideologues who insist that marriage must be between a man and a woman because their 'sacred' text says that.  Yes, their sacred text also says that polygamy is fine (in the Old Testament), slavery is fine, daughters can be sold for cattle and dowries, and that pork is forbidden (it does not chew cud) for human consumption (Leviticus Chapter 11, vs 3-27).  The sacred text also says to shun menstruating women as unclean, and to stone homosexuals... maybe the so called christians[TM] wish they still legally could?

Marriage is about love between the people entering the marriage.  No, it's not about marrying a dog or ice cream as Republican Congressman has stated, on the House floor, nor is it about marrying fruit salad, as Pee Wee Herman once did.  If your religious beliefs want to add more to that, for your own church and your own family, that's fine, add all you want, but don't hate or fear others in society who do not share your same beliefs.

Dr Desert Flower said it nicely this morning to me when we spoke on the phone:  "It's like racism.  If you don't speak out against it when you see it, then you are condoning it.  What if President Obama had said he supported the right of couples of different races to get married?  Many in the right[TM] would have reacted just as hatefully."

Over at JoeMyGod, Joe lists the various hate groups who masquerade as as religious and family christians[TM] organizations (link here).  The American Family Association, the Family Research Council, Alliance Defense Fund, Tradition Values Coalition, and the increasingly fanatical Catholic League are all calling their members to arms, to arms! To Arms! .. to fight this terrible assault on their paradigm. 

Yeah, the committed, monogamous gay couple who Dr Desert Flower works with, who adopted two small children when they were babies from their abusive and destitute single mother who gave them up, and are now raising them in a loving, nurturing, stable, middle class household are just terrible, terrible people.  Everyone knows that all 'the gays' want to do is all those things good christians[TM] have tried to bury the urge to do, deep deep deep inside, and if not for a good christian's[TM] devotion to limited excerpts of their sacred text, they'd be having 1000s of sexual partners, visiting bath houses and park rest rooms for anonymous sex with strangers, preying upon congressional interns, marrying dogs, marrying ice cream....  well... maybe not marrying the ice cream.

Clearing The Air In China

Diane Rehm had Atlantic contributor James Fallows on today, promoting his new book about how China is spending 1/2 a TRILLION dollars on developing their domestic commercial airline industry (link here).  Interesting, Fallows and his wife lived in China for 3 years, and in his words "was sick all the time" due to the massive air pollution in Shanghai and Beijing, where he lived & worked.   I found many of Fallows comments and the remarks of callers-in to be in-line with my own first hand observations of visiting China.

Coincidentally, the large wall calendar my employer issues to each employee to hang in their offices has a night image taken from the tallest building in Pudong Shanghai, the Jinmao Tower, looking at the 2nd tallest building next door, and showing the Pudong Shangrila hotel where I often stayed on my trips to China.  The calendar photo is ridiculously clear and crisp, which means it was photoshopped, doctored, to remove the smog, haze, and chocking atmospheric particulate.  To get a geographic perspective of "where" the calendar image was taken, I google-earthed the hotel and area of Pudong where I had previously stayed.  At the time, the Jinmao was not yet built, so I thought that perhaps the night calendar image was taken by an aircraft with extremely fast film.  But no, in the 9 years since my last visit, the Jinmao Tower was built & dwarfs its neighbors.

Interestingly, the air has been "cleared" by Google over the highest rent district of Pudong (see the image below).  The top part of the image is not a "refresh" error.  It's the natural appearance, on a cloudless but smog ridden day in Shanghai, with air quality that would have made 1980s Los Angeles air quality look absolutely pristine in comparison.

With terribly polluted air, undrinkable water, widespread political corruption, glacially slow internet speeds (which are all run through government monitored proxies), a 30,000 character alphabet that resists digitization, nation-wide travel restrictions that require average citizens to have travel visas to go between provinces, and 20 main dialects spoken, it will be a long time before China catches up to the West or surpasses any modern country in livability indices, quality of life, or technological advances.  Sure, there's more Chinese billionaires than there are American billionaires... but there's also many more Chinese peasants with pitch forks too.

Ride A Shuttle SRB

This video was shared with me today by 2 friends who retired several years ago from the company for whom I still work.  Both of them are excellent engineers, good human beings, and I am a better man for knowing them both.  As engineer myself, I found this video (and it has sound too!) fascinating!   Velocities, altitudes, the entire journey... in 400 seconds, from zero to nearly Mach 4 at 41 nautical miles up, and then back down again, to "sea level". 

If you watched this video, and it had absolutely no effect on you, and you're not an engineer... then you made the correct career choice.  If you watched this and it had not effect, and you are an engineer.... I hope I don't use any of the products you've ever engineered.  It thrilled me. I've watched it 4 times now, (the 4th as I post this).  Wow. And I used to think Solid Rocket Boosters were boring stuff, made in Utah.

No other country in the world (so far) has had the technical ability, and political will power, to build, launch, maintain, and run a recoverable, re-usable, re-entry space vehicle.  Discovery spent 365 days in orbit, ran a 100 missions, and massively contributed to the ability to construct the international space station.  The Soviets designed a space shuttle, but never launched one.  The Russians can't afford it.  The Europeans could never reach a consensus in 'real time' to ever get a viable shuttle program off the ground.  The Chinese.... lol... I've flown on Chinese aircraft and visited several of their aerospace their factories... they won't have a viable shuttle program in my life time.  This video is truly impressive. 

It almost makes me want to sing along with Lee Greenwood  =P  ... but I would sing along with Beyonce.

Rush Freewill - Time Machine, 2011 Cleveland

Dr Desert Flower DVR'ed "Rush Time Machine 2011" for me the other day off of VH1.  Very nice concert, with a very strange video beginning.  One of my favorites (I've lost track of how many times I've played this with head phones on), below:

DTW Mediterranean Grill

I had the pleasure last week, of dining at the Mediterranean Grill in the Detroit Airport A Concourse, on the North West sidem not far from Gate 64A.   The food is always fast, delicious, and hot there.   The service, provided by Scott the bar tender, is friendly, efficient, and personable.   I told Scott he's the happiest bartender I've met, and in the last 4 years of occasionally going through the DTW airport, he's a pillar of consistent quality, always enthusiastically greeting customers, selling "doubles for $3 more", and providing excellent service.  

I had the lentil soup (of the day) and it was warm and tasty - but came in a LARGE bowl, when I as expecting a small cup.  Then, the dinner sized portion of lamb stuffed grape leaves - exquisite!  It could come with a side of starch, or grilled veggies, and (of course) I elected for the veggies.   Far too much food to consume, but I ate most of the okra, zucchini & sweet peppers (with a beano chaser).  In, and out, in less than 30 minutes... again, putting the Desmond to shame.  I slept well on the flight from Detroit to Phoenix.  =)

Il Bastardo Bistro

Il Bastardo Bistro, Jay Street, Little Italy, Schenectady NY

For lunch last Thursday, I foolishly tried to go to "Cornel's" on Jay street in Schenectady.  I'd heard it was good - but sadly they are not open for lunch.    Across the street, I saw "Il Bastardo's Bistro" - and I thought... 'wonder if they are open?'  ...  they were just opening at 12.  I surprised the bar tender, who was unlocking the front door.  It was a quaint little place.   They have live music on Thursday, Friday & Saturday nights.  I asked if they serve lunch, and the bartender assured me they did.  I ordered hot wings and a chicken salad - which EITHER would have been a full meal, so I left stuffed.  Sadly, they don't take Corporate American Express, so I had to cash it out with Andrew Jackson and Alexander Hamilton.  They had an Australian Lindeman Shiraz, so I started with that.  It was good, a little fruity, but typical Lindeman.   1/2 way through the enormous grilled chicken salad, I asked for a taste of the Il Bastardo.  The bottle has a caricature of a portly Italian man, who the bartender said "coincidentally looks like the owner" .  It was a Sangiovese, and it was not bad, so I ordered a glass.  2 glasses of wne with a BIG lunch is the max safe alcohol intake for me if I am driving.  It was a $26 dollar bill ($33 with generous tip) and kept me full all the way to Detroit. 

CODE 22, MALE!

CODE 22 Male! or... The TSA's Inane & Arbitrary Bureaucracy

I arrived at the Albany airport nearly 3 hours ahead of my flight yesterday.  I'd gotten my work at the plant done early, lunch went faster than expected, and I thought I might get on an earlier flight.  Silly me, no earlier flights were available..  but Albany DOES have free wifi, so I thought I might get a little work done.  After getting my boarding pass for the glamorous coach embraer jet seat, I approached security to find only one screening line open, and they were sending nearly everyone though the PROVISION ATD full body scanner.  There was a functioning metal detector next to it, but apparently only women of child bearing age who the female TSA screener arbitrarily selected could go through the metal detector.  I always try to "pick the line" that has the metal detector, and not the full body high energy scan.  "It has no more energy than a cell phone" - yeah, right, I don't think you understand electromagnetic theory and energy density as well as I do, under-trained and low-paid TSA employee.   The amount of energy necessary to penetrate through clothes, and skin, and render a USEABLE image to a screener, is 10X to 100X that of what a "normal cell phone" puts out, and I don't typically expose my genitals and entire body to 2 second high energy bursts of my cell phone at FULL POWER.  

But physics aside, I decide that I will ask them to be metal detector scanned, or go through the manual pat down.  Carla-from-Cheers, the arbitrary TSA screener in Albany Thursday afternoon, tells me NO, I can't be metal detector scanned - after letting 2 women just go through it, in their socks, since their shoes were being x-rayed on the adjacent conveyor.  I tell her I don't want to be full body scanned.   She then launches into her pre-prepared speech, about how benign the full body scanner is, how it is such low low levels of radiation, "no more than a cell phone" (yeah, a cell phone on crack with a flux capacitor driving it'd power source, maybe) and that a physical pat down will involve close hand inspections of my buttocks and genitals.   Do I still want a manual screening?   Carla asks me.  "Yes, I do not want a high energy scan of my entire body, I'll take the humiliating and unnecessary manual pat down" I tell her, loud enough for the next 10 people in line to hear me. 

"CODE 22, MALE!" Carla barks into her walkie talkie, and tells me to "take a seat" at the pre-appointed 'naughty boy' chair they have, back of chair facing ID screening podium  I choose to stand.  5 or 6 passengers later, Louie CK ambles slowly up to the far side of the metal detector, and asks for my boarding pass.   I begin to walk through the metal detector - OMG NO!  NO!   I CANT go through the metal detector!!!  That would show I have no metal objects on me..  and reveal how futile and wasteful the manual pat down really is!  "Boarding pass please!" Louie barked at me, and forced me to use a glass & metal gate, to go AROUND the metal detector.  Yeah Louie, the guy at the podium obviously didn't do his job earlier...    I thought maybe I was in India again.

SO now, the Florist from The Town, his body guard Rusty, with blue rubber gloves on, is the poor 60 yr old TSA employee who has to pat me down - apparently Louie CK can only look at boarding passes and let trouble making passengers through the glass/metal bypass door.  that's all his puny little cerebral cortex could handle.

The Florist's body guard explains to me the technique he is going to use, and that if I want a private room screening, that is available.  "No, I'm not overly modest. Do it here please."  Florist body guard hesitates..  saying "I will run the back of my hand over and between your buttocks, and next to your genitals...  are you sure?"  "I have nothing to hide, let's get it over with, here."  He then begins my pat down.   Pretty much every inch of my bare skin and clothing were touched, felt, gently massaged, except for the center of my testicles, anus (but not for lack of trying), top of my head, and bottoms of my feet  "Do you have any sensitive areas?" Florist bodyguard Rusty asks me.  "Not anymore more sensitive than any other human" I replied.  He delivered a firm, but no overly harsh 'karate chop" to what would have been my bikini line, if I was wearing briefs - jostling the boys inside my boxers.   Thanks TSA!   Not since being felt up in China 10 years ago by an enthusiastic airport screening lady have I been this close with a complete stranger.  Florist body guard Rusty made sure I did not have a prehensile or vestigial tail - though I wonder what happens to the small percentage of the public who DO have vestigial tails?   He politely asked me to spread my legs more, as he continued to feel me up.  And then, he did something interesting...   he swabbed his gloves for chemical residue!   I've had my carry on and shoes swabbed before, since 2002, more than once...   but I've never seen someone's gloves swabbed.   I wonder what would have happened if the gloves had been contaminated prior to Florist Bodyguard Rusty inspecting me?  Would they have dragged me off for a "private screening"?  Makes me wonder.

So, the next time you are traveling through a US airport, and you want to not get a massive dose of radio waves penetrating your clothes and body, basically "'cooking" you for 2 seconds.. and you want to "opt out", now you are aware of what the experience might have in store for you too.  =)

Woodford Reserve Bourbon

Since Delta does not accept cash, and I tend to eat very frugally while on business travel, I've adopted the habit of getting a double Woodford Reserve on Delta flights, neat.  It's a very smooth Bourbon, and goes down nicely - facilitating blog post writing, as it did last night!   I'd open up my company Dell laptop, but the screen is So Large that the woman who has reclined her seat in front of me prevents me from doing any meaningful work - and besides, that's what work hours are for.   It's after 1030pm east coast time, and my flight was delayed "for weather" in Detroit - no, it's not weather Delta & Detroit, it's call very very very poor planning.  Really, only a 20 mile spacing over Fort Wayne is allowed?  Yeah, it sucks that there's only one way to fly from Detroit and Phoenix, and that is over Fort Wayne. No Other routes are possible, with all tose military bases and restricted fly zones all over northern Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan.  Heavens to Murgatroy if we try to take off in some other direction! The pilot actually shut down the main engines and ran on APU for the air conditioning and lights, as we SAT on the ground for nearly an hour, in a line of 10, then 20, then 30 other planes, waiting to take off.  Note to self, never fly through Detroit in March-April-May if at all avoidable, in the future. 

 I did score the rare, lucky bonus of having No One sitting next to me in the middle seat.  Looking back at the whole 757, there appear to be 3 seas empty in the middle, and I've got one of them... probably one of the lucky bastardos who got bumped to first class was supposed to sit beside me.  I was 17th on the upgrade list, with 5 openings, according to the helpful Delta Customer service agents in Detroit.  So that empty seat beside me offered a tray table on which I can easily place my Woodford while typing on my tiny, incapable, low memory Asus Eee book.  I'm glad Delta offers a high quality bourbon n flight.   =)

Sour Chicken Marsala?

In most delicious chicken Marsala dishes, vinegar is not used.   The Marsala wine might be sweet, it might have a curry texture to it, but it should not be sour.  At the Desmond Hotel in Albany NY, Wednesday night, I had the unpleasant experience of eating luke warm, sour tasting, chicken Marsala, that took more than an hour to arrive.  Bleh.  Company was paying, sure, that helped, but a unpleasant meal is still an unpleasant meal, regardless of who is paying.  The wine was Rodney Strong - too expensive at $10 a glass, but ohhhhh, it was "The Desmond".   Desmond-shesmond... if I wanted a 1950s dated room that overlooked the Interstate and acoustically reflected all the passing truck tire and engine noise, Id have stayed a a Motel 6 or Red Roof Inn for 1/2 the price.  Sour chicken Marsala with all of 3 small mushrooms hidden in the sauce.... very paltry, and accompanying "vegetable du jour" which were shoe string green beans and wax beans,  the size and consistency of actual shoe strings, with very thinly cut carrot slices - all of which amounted to enough beans to tie a dozen shoes and a 1/4 of a large carrot.

I do not think I will be back at the Desmond again in my lifetime.  I was there 15 years ago when I was just a contractor for my current employer, visiting the NY head quarters.  I should have stayed at the Hampton Inn instead.  Lesson learned.

But if you are looking for sour chicken Marsala and prefer your food service to be abysmally slow, then the Desmond is for you!!

Alasdair Neale & the PSO, Extremely Impressive

Last weekend, April 21st, after a delicious birthday dinner, Dr Desert Flower and I went to the Phoenix Symphony to hear Brahms & Beethoven.  We'd exchanged tickets form an earlier concert where we were visiting our son & out of town, and when I saw that there would be a guest conductor, I was really looking forward to the performance.  Alasdair Neale has an impressive conducting resume, and I was delighted to hear him describe the three works that were going to be presented in a warmth, welcoming, non-pretentious, relate-able manner before beginning the first piece. 

The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra started with a Jennifer Higdon work, Blue Cathedral, dedicated to her deceased brother's life.  Dr Desert Flower enjoyed the piece.  I quietly endured it, as I've never warmed to Higdon's works - this being the 3rd or 4th I've heard performed live.  It was fine, just not to my liking.  But then the Brahms work, Schicksalslied Op 54, Nanie Op 82 were played, and they were beautifully presented.  Neale is a tall, thin man, with long Jack-o-Lantern from Nightmare Before Christmas proportioned limbs.  During the pianissimo parts of the work, he keeps his elbows close to his sides, and makes very small gestures with his hands.  Then, during fortissimo, he leverages his long arms and bends his knees, not just conducting, but directing, demanding, inspiring the orchestra before him.  I enjoyed the Brahms works tremendously.

Intermission passed quickly, and then the focus of the night's performance, Beethhoven's Symphony No 7 in A major, Op. 92 was played.  Wow.  Neale knew the work by memory, and did not use any sheet music.  On the conductor's stand he was animated, joyful, full of life, pointing to specific principals & second chairs to draw them forward, engaged, vibrant, fine tuning this German Engineered masterfully constructed and harmoniously presented work.  Neale appeared to be having the time of his life, smiling broadly when the orchestra responded with precision, admonishing them immediately when they over or under performed with a slight scowl and Immediate, definitive hand gestures, often specifically pointing to individual players to encourage or rein in their instrument's output.  Like an inventor who has personally hand crafted a 600 horsepower supercharged V8 adjusting each valve's clearances, each spark plug's gap, each cam's rise, and shifting the spark timing and biasing the flue-to-air mixture precisely to get the exact dynamometer readings his calculations predicted were possible.  And Neale showed such joie de vivre, such masterful engagement, that even the most stoic of PSO players appeared to be infected by his dynamic leadership and responded with a performance that stands out in my mind as one of the best I've ever heard the PSO put on.  I lead the standing ovation at the end of the Allegro con brio, and enthusiastically and loudly continued the applause for 3 curtain calls.  Neale, ever the humble gentleman, shook the individual hands of of the Orchestra's most impressive strings and winds who wowed him as much as his conducting wowed the concert hall. 

The next time I get to San Francisco, if I've got the chance, I am going to try and attend a Alasdair Neale conducted performance there.  Highly recommended.

Mr Garrison Lectures on Game of Thrones

The most recent South Park episode was pretty funny, but what had me rolling on my yoga mat Thursday, was how Mr Garrison was lecturing the class about how Game of Thrones parallels ancient Greek & Roman political structures.  It's right around the 2 minute mark (link here).  "Now everyone Pay Attention!" LOL!

Gray Would Be The Color

This was the sound track, running through the dream I had, just prior to waking up 3 hours ago.  I don't always have music in the background of my dreams..  but when I do, it's often memorable, and keeps playing through my head during the rest of the day.

Teeth Brushing As Snacking Deterrent

I've got a dentist appointment early tomorrow morning, and as I like to bias my health care provider feed back in a positive sense, I've been brushing and flossing and mouth washing many times a day for the last 2 days.  One things I've noticed, is that having a freshly brushed, flossed, and minty freshly rinsed mouth is a major disincentive to snack.  As I was eating a few stalks of organic celery with pine nut hummus this afternoon, I noticed it had been 6 hours since I sauteed organic leeks, organic orange sweet peppers, and organic spinach before I added them to two organic brown shelled eggs, and I'd not had a single 75% cacao chocolate square, or 72% dark chocolate covered almond, or a cup of (teeth staining) tea throughout the morning as I worked. 

I'd wanted to eat a dark chocolate square here and there, as I refilled my water glass in the kitchen, sure, but the thoroughly flossed, fastidiously cleaned set of teeth dissuaded me from breaking off a square, pouring any tea, popping an almond in my face hole.  I think I'm going to try and brush and floss more often than my normal "once a day" every week day - not just excessively, obsessively, repetitively during the 3 days preceding a Dentist visit.    And the "wanting" was not because I was HUNGRY, it was because the chocolate is yummy,  psychologically addictive, and present / visible in the kitchen.  As long as I stay away from the carbs, I don't get that DRIVEN HUNGER I used to always have when I started this blog.

I'm better off snacking on organic celery rather than chocolate covered almonds anyways.  =)

Smells Like A String Quartet

This made me chuckle.  It didn't send me to Nirvana... but did bring a smile to my visage.

Pascal Jolivet Sancerre 2010

(I do not like the new google blogger interface... it's cumbersome, and tries to "fix" that which was not broken)

Last Saturday night, for Dr Desert Flower's 32nd birthday, we went ot one of her favorite restaurants, Elements, at The Sanctuary, on the north side of Camelback Mountain.  The service was awesome, the food delicious, and the wine...  ahhh..  the wine.... superb.

DDF had the "butter fish" (aka escolar - don't eat too much of it!).  I had the duck.  White wine was appropriate.  Element's wine list had this wonderful Sancerre on it, in both 1/2 bottle sizes and full bottles.  Since we had symphony tickets for later that evening, I chose the demi bottle from the Loire Valley. Mmmmm. 

We sipped the wine with dinner as the sun set over Paradise Valley AZ, through salads and main courses.   It was gone by desert. 

Pascal Jolivet's winery is only 49.50 acres in Sancerre, near the villages of Bue & Verdigny France.  100% Sauvignon Blanc, grown in 50% limestone, 30% chalky clay, and 20% flint (it had a very descriptive label).   Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sins, NY NY.  If you're looking for a delicious white and you spot Pascal Jolivet on the wine list, it's truly worth it.

French Splits

It will be interesting to see which way the xenophobic & nationalistic La Pen supporters throw their support.

Pause Café Cognac

My dear friend Francois in France gave me a bottle of private label Cognac last year in March 2011 when I visited him & his family in Belfort.  Francois told me the Cognac was made specifically for a small cafe where he knows the owners as friends.  It was a truly delicious bottle filled with l'eau de vie (water of life). 

















I truly enjoy Cognac.And the Pause Café bottle was exceptional.  I savoured it, and it took me over a year to slowly, finally,take it all in. 

Daniel & Joanna Bouffard's magnificently crafted beverage, 17520 St.Heurine France.  Truly delightful.  If you're ever in St. l'Heurine, be sure to have a taste, or buy a bottle.

Popocatepetl, Location, Location, Location

The Popocatepetl volcano outside of Mexico City is not just spewing ash, it's making loud noises (loud enough to wake sleeping children in the middle of the night) and spewing burning rocks and lava (link here).  There's 20 million Mexicans in the possible ash / lava / devastation zone, but they don't want to evacuate and leave their homes.  Location, location, location.  Mt St Helen's ash cloud blanked under a million people.  Pompei was less than a million people (at the time).  Pinatubo affected 200,000 people.  Popocatepetl might be the biggest volcano of a lifetime...  ya veramos. 

If there are any Mexico City citizens who die from this eruption, it will be from their own choosing.  When the mountain shoots fire out of the top, move away, proactively, regardless of real estate interests.

Vieux Chateau Grean

Total Wine's European Buyer Alfio Moriconi has pretty good taste in wines.  We picked this one up around Christmas, and enjoyed it this Winter with a nice meaty dinner.  Vieux Chateau Grean, mise en bouteilles du Chateau by Danielle et Richard DUBOIS, St. Sulpice de Faleyrens France.  It was like a $12 bottle of Bordeau.  Not bad at all.  If you're looking for a nice bottle of Bordeaux, it would not be a bad idea to this selection.

Hooded Arizona Oriole

Last weekend, Dr Desert Flower and I spotted an immature male Hooded Oriole at our hummingbird feeder..  The Hooded Oriole (not a Baltimore Oriole, no, they don't come to Phoenix) has a curved beak that let's it dip into the crevice of one of our nectar feeders between the glass bottle and the metal base.  The mass of the Oriole seriously shakes the feeder, and the red sugary liquid was dripping all over our patio deck, so I had to move it much further away from the patio as the ant intrusion was more than annoying.

Later, on Monday night as I was catching up on Game of Thrones on our DVR near sunset, with a bottle of Monte Ducay, I saw the same Oriole drinking from the flowers atop the sculpted ocotillo just outside the living room window (and about 4 feet from the edge of the LCD Sharpe Aquos). Visually, the Oriole slightly resembles a mocking bird in size, shape, and coloring somewhat, but is not as vociferous as a mocking bird.  

It's nice to be able to see a wide variety of species in my own back yard.

Berneroy Calvados VSOP

Back around Christmas, I was shopping at the liquor store, and looking for Cognac.  I'm always annoyed at how Total Wine puts the Cognac behind a locked glass case, and you have to WAIT and WAIT for them to come unlock it, and then when you just ask for a cheap bottle of Hennesy or something, they get all huffy and exasperated that they had to come all the way over to the Cognac / Whiskey aisle just for That!  So I saw a bottle of Berneroy Calvados VSOP.  VSOP is a typical designation for Cognac, and the Berneroy was immediately next to the locked Cognac case, so I figured it was some kind of Cognac I'd never heard of.  I was mistaken.

Calvados is a French Brandy, made in the north west (Brittany) region of the country.  It is not bad, with a mild cherry flavor, but it does not taste like cough syrup.  It took me about 2 months to finish the bottle.  If you like Brandy, try it.  If you're looking for Cognac, don't settle for a bottle of Calvados.

Dear Rosemary

Our Rosemary plant in the front courtyard has surged in growth, to become a bush.  In many places in Downtown Phoenix and Scottsdale, landscapers have used Rosemary as hedges.  It's quite pleasant.

As I was running out of "eco friendly" chrysanthemum pyrethrine spray, I picked up a can of "green" bug spray at target, whose primary ingredients are Rosemary & Peppermint oils.  I tried it on the Argentinian ants that plague our kitchen and WHOA! Did the house smell like peppermint for a week, from just 2 small sprays next to the dishwasher! Very pungent stuff.

Then, last weekend, as I was pulling out more weeks, trimming the palm trees, bougainvilleas,  & shaping the lavender hedges, I noticed how over-grown and massive the Rosemary bush had become in the front yard, and I used 12 inch Fiskars garden shears to lop off large handfuls of Rosemary.  I put it in the trash dumpster with the rest of the clippings, and my goodness, did it make my garage smell nicely herbal!  As the other clippings decomposed, they provided heat and moisture for the rosemary, which continues to effervesce its fragrance even 4 days later.  (if our yard was bigger, I'd compost, but there really is no place "away" from the house in this tiny lot to build a nice compost heap where the smell and critters would not be unpleasantly close to our home's structure).

In honor of the usefulness of  Rosemary, I've placed this nice Foo Fighter's clip from the inter-webs.   Enjoy.

Heat Resistant Snapdragons

Heat Resistant Snapdragons, or anti-endothermic antirrhinums.

You see, the flower pot on the patio, in the foreground of the photo, with the blue glass watering bulb, has nearly dead, very shriveled snapdragons that Dr Desert Flower planted last Fall.  They bloomed over the winter, and then this month, as the ambient temperature climbed above 90, they inexorably wilted.  We had a pot on the patio table, pots near the corner, and some snapdragons in the ground, next to the living room window (seen on the right, here). 

Dr Desert Flower planted all red snapdragons.  No yellow ones this winter growing season. the previous winter (2010-2011) she did plant some yellow snap dragons.  And looky, looky, what Mother Nature did with the yellow ones?  They are growing feral, all around the back yard.  The ambient heat doesn't bother them, even in the center of a brick patio where they are growing up between the bricks.  Dr Desert Flower's theory (and I trust her theories on biological things) is that the potted plants cannot cool themselves off, and they not only dry up and shrivel, but their roots get cooked as well at intolerably high temperatures.  The flowers in the ground however, can send roots Deeper into the soil where it is cooler, and still be able to fix nitrogen, take up nutrients, and aren't getting slowly cooked (braised actually) in the pots. 

Eventually, every flower in the back yard will be burnt to a crisp in the July and August infernos at 5 to 10% relative humidity, and 115F temperatures, except for the lavenders, lantanas, and bougainvilleas which seem to thrive on the scorching heat.  But next Fall, when it cools off again, I am looking forward to a back yard full of wild flower feral snapdragons.

Chianti Pietro 2010

Are you ever looking for a good, inexpensive Chianti to go with a pizza, or pasta dish, or some other Italian or spicy food?  Well, the Pietro Chianti (D.d'I.O.C.G.), 2010, bottled by Filli Bellini, Rufina Italy and imported by Saranty Imports, Harrison New York might fit the bill at less than $6.  I picked up a bottle at Trader Joes, and it was a good Chianti. I am glad I did not have my glasses on when I bought it, as the back label "boasts" of "mushroom, berry, and dried herb aromas".  Um, no, I didn't taste or smell any "mushroom", and I am glad I didn't, since mushrooms are typically grown in wet, moist, decomposing areas, and like "old shoe", baby diaper, tobacco, and "smoke box" are not appealing flavors or aromas to me or those I share with at dinner. 

And yes, my eyes are old enough now, that small print looks like ants to me if I am not wearing my reading glasses.  but bifocals are a royal pain, and since my non-reading vision is perfectly fine, I tend to keep my glasses in my shirt or coat pocket, and only take them out to read a menu. 

Money For Nothing

I was in a video conference today at work, and several of my colleagues in Atlanta kept going on and on about how the commercial aspects of certain technical issues should not be interconnected... and this Dire Straights classic kept playing in my head. 

The corporation I work for has an intranet instant message system run through Webex, so employees can message other employees on the intra-web, so I began messaging several of my team mates who are also in their 40s:
"We've got to move these refrigerators"
"We've got to move these color TVeeeeees"
"That ain't workin', that's the way you do it"
"Get your money for nothing"

Ora Montepulciano D'Abruzzo

A few weeks ago, at Fresh & Easy, I bought some wine on a Sunday evening.  F&E had this Ora Montepulciano D'Abruzzo on sale for $5 a bottle, and I always enjoy a good Montepulciano.  It's a cheap man's Bardolino, at 1/10th the cost (typically) but still with acceptable quality.

This Ora Montepulciano D'Abruzzo was impressive.  It went fine with meats and spicy sauces - I don't remember exactly what we had with it, but it made a good impression.  If you see a bottle of this Ora Montepulciano D'Abruzzo, I recommend trying it.  You'll be pleasantly surprised as well.

Titanic v Lusitania

This week, on NPR, there was a non-stop homage to the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic.  The "Edwardian" stoicism and restraint that the passengers exhibited as the ship took 2 and a half hours to sink, 'women & children first' in the life boats.  Millionaires and 3rd class paupers listening to the sound of the string quartet playing until the ship sank and they all (except for 15 who were helped into life boats) froze or drown in the icy water off Newfoundland, nearly 2 miles deep in the ocean..

Then, there was a radio story about how the Lusitania sank in just 20 minutes off the coast of Ireland in just 300 feet of water, after being torpedoed by a German submarine (U-20) in 1915 during WWI, and how everyone panicked.  The radio reporter was crediting the mayhem to how people act in their own self interest and self preservation... but what the story ignored was the fact that the Lusitania was torpedoed during war time, AND it sank just 3 years (and 2 weeks) after so many people perished on Titanic.  A Loud, Large, Nearby Explosion will cause mammals to panic.  The recent memory of nearly all the men dieing during the Titanic sinking would have accelerated the panic, even if there was no explosion. 

It's the same type of Homosapien behavior as to why there will never be another successful plane hijacking in the western world where the hijackers have only box cutters, or a light-it-yourself shoe bomb.  No cockpit will ever be successfully taken over again, in flight.  Humans will nearly always act in their own self interest, and the more severe the stimulus is, the more severe the reaction will be.  The recent mentally unstable Jetblue commercial airline pilot Flight 191, who tried to take over his flight for Jesus[TM] after coming back from the rest room was tackled and sat on by large passengers as the flight attendants used the fat-person seat-belt extenders to bind the ranting pilot. 

The passengers of the Titanic were not "better" people than the Lusitania passengers.  They were ignorant, and in a state of disbelief.  They did not have a war going on, and they were not shaken up by a violent explosion.  The passengers of Flight 191 were not better than the passengers of the 9-11 flights that plunged into the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon.  They were more informed, and reacted according to instincts.

Villa Pozzi Nero D'Avola

Along with the nasty Jacob's Creek, I picked up 2 bottles of Villa Pozzi Nero D'Avola from Sprouts earlier this month.   I'd never tried Villa Pozzi before, but I am very glad I bought 2 bottles.  The first bottle was wonderful, especially for just $5!  Produced and bottled by Cantine Francesco Minini S.P.A. Verolanuova Italy.  Villa Pozzi says that the wine has a perfume of blackberry liqueur, white flowers, vanilla and a hint of fig.  I did detect the vanilla and some berry flavors, but I could not small any fig or flowers.

If you see this under-rated southern Italy wine, I recommend trying it.   If I'm wrong, you're out a whole $5.  If I'm right, you can thank me later.

Rachel Maddow's Ginger Twins Producers

I sometimes watch DVR'ed Rachel Maddow shows while doing yoga indoors., and last month, I saw something that made me do a double-take.  Rachel Maddow was reporting from Mexico, where the US Department of Energy was removing the last of the highly enriched uranium (HEU) from Mexico that the Eisenhower Adminstration.  The DOE, you know, that agency most Republicans want to defund and dismantle?  Well, they're removing HEU from countries all over the world, and considering the massive crime, corruption, and mass murder in Mexico, it's a good thing the Department of Energy is actively working to reduce the threats to the US and the rest of the civilized world there.

But aside from this really excellent reporting on this very significant national security threat, I noticed something very strange in the back of the SUV in which Rachel Maddow was driving around Mexico.  The lady in the front is DOE Threat Reduction Director Sarah Dickerson.  The two ginger twins in the back seat, are Rachel Maddow's producers... or at least one of them is Vanessa Silverton-Peel.  I am assuming the other lady is her twin sister, or her emergency organ clone?  If they are not twins, the resemblance is uncanny. 

I've tried googling "Rachel Maddow" and "twins" and "producer" but all I got were hits of angry Republicans and / or bigoted lesbian haters and Russian websites that embedded "Maddow" and "twins" in their meta-data, so I gave up.  But I did take this screen shot of my TV before deleting it from the DVR.

Chateaux La Croix Pomeral Assists Octogenarian Felines

Way back in December of 2008, I mentioned Chateaux La Croix Pomerol (97) and how 10 years ago, Dr Desert Flower and I got a personalized tour of Chateau La Croix in Bordeaux.  I purchased a 1/2 case of the delicious wine at the time, and I took it as carry on - back when an airline passenger used to be able to carry on sealed wine bottles, and brought the wooden case in through Detroit customs in a small duffel bag thrown over my shoulder/  "1/2 cas red wine" my customs form read - and I was waived through by the customs official, since we were coming in from Paris simultaneously with a flight from Mumbai & another from Amsterdam, where the food sniffing and drug sniffing dogs (respectively) were eagerly waiting.  Anyone from Paris was uninteresting the humans and canines in customs.

Well, our older cat is now not-so-confident in her ability to make it up to the couch in the living room or futon in my  office, so I put a copier paper box on the floor in my office as an intermittent step for her to get 1/2 way up.  But in the living room, I knew Dr Desert Flower would not like a Big Red Staples box, glaringly visible between couch & television.  So I looked around the house, and found this old wooden Bordeaux wine case.  Our Octogenarian Feline loves this wooden box, and since she 'owns' the couch, she uses it to get up and down many times daily.  And it looks stylish in the living room, reminding us of how we spent our 15th wedding anniversary enjoying truly delicious wine and company of the some of the nicest people we've ever met who opened their home to us for a whole week.  And now, this wooden artifact of that visit, has a new life in helping our aged feline in her sunset years.

Tullamore Dew Does It

Triple Distilled Tullamore Dew (established 1829) has become my preferential Irish Whiskey.  It goes down smoothly, and has no after-taste.  I've also found that Tullamore Dew gives me no hang-over, even when I have 2 or 3 glasses of it.  I like it much better than John Powers or Jameson.  Bushmills comes close, but Tullamore Dew - in my perspective, tastes better.  And while I still love Cognac, a good Irish Whiskey is 2/3rds to 3/4rds the price by the bottle, often 1/2 the price by the glass, and usually is not served in a fru-fru snifter glass in public. I just wish more bars carried Tullamore Dew.  I've had multiple waitresses & waiters say 'we have the best, Jameson' ... to which I think... 'you've fallen for the elaborate marketing campaign, haven't you'?

Tullamore Dew, neat, please.

Not A Fan Of Team Jacob

I bought a bottle of Jacob's Creek Syrah and a Merlot from Sprouts last Sunday night. (I always try to purchase my alcohol on Sundays, to 'vote with my wallet' and counter-act the hordes of tea-totalers who put a misplaced reference on Sundays [pssst.. the 'Sabbath' was Saturday, christians]).  The wine was on sale, 3 for $10.    I'd had Jacob's Creek many years ago, and recalled it was not bad.  They've moved to screw topped bottles, and I unscrewed the Syrah Monday night.   Eww.  It intially had a "fragrance" of "old leather shoe".   Not so good.   It matured to a hint of cough syrup, and a strange "full blandness" that was not appealing.   For $3.33 I am not that worried about the financial loss, but I am disappointed that Jacob's Creek did not begin to live up to expectations.  I hope the Merlot will do better...  but I doubt it will.  I am not a fan of team Jacob's Creek.

Italian Linguistics

What is the one foreign language that Italians study more than any other?  Why, it's Italian, of course!

Original post here (link to let's look for treasure).

Women's Asses

Back Yard Deck Is Better Than A Hotel Carpet

For the first time in almost 3 weeks, I was able to do yoga in my own back yard, and not in a hotel room.  There was a light breeze Friday afternoon with 10 percent relative humidity, in the upper 70s (F).  I'd gotten my work email inbox down from 1200 to less than 800 emails, and called it quits for the work week. 

The bees didn't care about me, as they were ga-ga over the fully blooming Spanish lavender, and mildly interested in the hybrid and French lavenders, snap dragons, petunias, violas, and honeysuckle.  The achey-ness caused by sitting in cramped coach seats from Atlanta to Houston, and then Houston to Salt Lake and onto Phoenix was still in my neck, and the hour+ yoga Friday helped to banish the remaining tension.  No hotel carpets of questionable cleanliness, no cramped quarters, no pre-dawn darkness, no Joe Scarborough (but the only down side, there was no Mika either).  Lots of fresh air, a clear blue sky with a few contrails in it, lots of birds flying by, children playing next door and laughing (that IS a very refreshing sound), lots of male birds calling out to potential mates "hey baby, I'm a great nest builder!" and "Hola chica, this is my territory.  Come on over, come on over, and Look at my plumage!".  Maybe, when I stood on one leg, some of my avian neighbors were calling to each other to chortle "what, he thinks he's a stork now?!? lol!!!" ... but I doubt it. Single male birds, looking for compatible species mates, don't have time to mock middle aged, bipedal apes.  Spring is awesome in Phoenix. I am very happy to be home, especially after such a trip as I just had.

Inchworm, 2 and 2 are 4

This inch worm song has been going through my head for the last 3 days.  Maybe because so much of my job has become metrology and dealing with dimensional data on millions of parts, repaired in dozens of global shops.  When I used to go to afternoon kindergarten, walking one block down the street from my parnets' home to the elementary school that is now a "christian" church, I used to sing this to myself from time to time, having just watched Sesame Street, with a stomach full of white bread peanut butter & jelly.sandwich and a glass of Pleasant View Dairy whole milk.  I dunno.  Maybe, when under severe stress, the human mind reverts back to comforting things from childhood, from the past, to help re-ground, re-establish a foundation on which to face the challenges of the present?

An inchworm once told me:
2 and 2 are 4.
4 and 4 are 8.
8 and 8 are 16.
16 and 16 are 32. 
(if the data is taken & entered & uploaded correctly on the marigolds, where it can then be analyzed...  sure)

Chateau de La Rivierer, 2007

Last Saturday night, I had the privilege of eating dinner with my buddy Ryan and his family.  From Trader Joe's, I'd brought a variety of bottles of wine for the weekend.  An Epicure Nero d'Avola that we opened Friday night  A Port de Bordeaux tht we opened Sunday night.  and a delicious Fronsac, Chateau de La Rivierer, 2007, that cost more than 3 of the other cheap Trader Joes bottles combined.  It was a wonderful pairing for the seasoned New York Strip steaks that Ryan grilled on his outdoor gas grill.  He seasoned the with a coat of extra virgin olive oil, and then rubbed salt and pepper in.  The NY Strips came from the Dekalb Farmer's Market, and were juicy, flavorful, and succulent.  Ryan's wife Alix made a organic three bean chili to go with the steaks (as she is a herbivore), and we dined together in their kitchen with their adorable 22 month old daughter Annabelle. 

The Fronsac had no shortage of tannins, and some sediment in the bottom of the bottle..  A truly impressive Bordeaux, it had some oak to, but not overwhelming like many Californian wines.  It was the Very First wine I ever had that had a definite bouquet of roses as soon as it was uncorked.  It was very pleasant, and I asked Ryan and Alix teach confirm that these were roses my nose were smelling, and concurred.  It was really a delightful bottle.

If you're looking for a higher-end red to go with a hearty meal, I recommend picking up a bottle of Fronsac at your local Trader Joe's, and celebrate its opening.

Reich's Aftershock

I just finished Robert Reich's AFTERSHOCK book, written at the end of 2010, after the Republicans took control of the house and the Democrats lost their super majority in the Senate.  I've heard Reich for years on Marketplace and as a guest on various NPR and PBS shows, but I'd never read on of his books before.  AFTERSHOCK was part of the God father Book Exchange program I have with my Uncle Joe.  I gave him DEMOCRACY MATTERS and Gun, Germs, and Steel back n January when he visited Arizona, and he gave me AFTERSHOCK.  I need to drive up to my cousin's house and exchange the books, as GGS I've not yet read.

But back to AFTERSHOCK.  In the work, Reich postulates that if continuing trends of increasing the divide between rich & poor do not reverse, that an "Independence Party" will emerge that makes the Tea Party look tame by comparison.   They'll run a fire brand candidate who promises to limit immigration, tax those companies who lay off workers, and drastically reshape (and in the process turn even more anemic) the US economy.  In the future scenario, Chelsea Clinton and one of the Bush progeny lose to his upstart, and the next day, the stock market crashes like it's 1929.  as America begins a slide towards a third world economy.

While AFTERSHOCK was written after the Nov 2010 elections and after Citizens United, it was also published prior to the Detroit Automakers' rebound.  It doe not account for the ending of war in Iraq and withdrawal from Afghanistan, which are bleeding the US of talent, blood, treasure, and patience.  So it is a little dated.   It DOES accurately characterize the haves & have nots, the rich Walll Street bail outs while leaving Main Street to grasp for the lowest common denominator of mediocrity and regressivism.  Reich spends alot of time theorizing, but not too much time backing up his theories.  He provides cock-sure statements that are rife with unjustified hope that I find hard to swallow.  I WANT to agree with him, but he doesn't give me too much substance to back up his theories.  He's obviously a Very smart man, I just have grown too sardonic and jaded to give his plan for the future much chance of getting started.  Corruption and well funded greed are too significantly ingrained in American politics for the pendulum to swing back, in my life time.  Maybe in my son's or someday, my grand childrens' life times... il faut voir.

Danthai & No Longer a Red Robin Virgin

My buddy Ryan took his family and I to Danthai in Lawrenceville GA this evening.   I raved about Danthai back in November (here) and it was once again, really delicious. We were (unfortunately) the only diners in the restaurant until 5 minutes before we were finished eating, when a lone diner came in and sat by himself.   They did do a brisk Take-Out business, throughout our dining experience.

Earlier in the day, Ryan introduced me to Red Robin.   Now, there's a Red Robin in Phoenix near the Costco that is within walking distance of my home, but I've never been to it.  It was 12:30 on a Sunday, and the Red Robin was hopping busy.  I had a sauteed mushroom burger, which was "bunless", wrapped in lettuce.  It was delicious.  So I am no longer a Red Robin virgin, and I will enjy taking Dr Desert Flower to the ones near us in Phoenix.   There were however, no thin people in Red Robin, other than Ryan and I.  Girth prevailed amongst the customers - though some of the wait staff were not obese.  Supposedly there are "unlimited fries" but we did not partake of this aspect of high carb dieting. 

Some Weeks Are Better Than Others

Some weeks are better than others.  This was not one of them. 

When I don't know what to say, I look to music for inspiration.

Completely germane to the last 72 hours, is this classic from that Texas Surfer punk band I enjoy listening to:
link here
NOTE:  DO NOT listen to this if you have youngsters nearby who  can hear it & who are impressionable, and who do not yet have a colorful vocabulary. (lyrics here).  But I did not win the megamillions lottery...  so c'est la vie.

Also, relevant, are here, and here (both of THESE are 'child friendly' unlike the link to Texas gold above).

Time for another glass of wine (and it's well afternoon for me already... so it is not morning drinking).

Netbook Biting the Dust

My Asus Eee Netbook is biting the dust, rapidly.  Just 3 years after I got it, it's bogging down in a quagmire of limited memory, infinite Adobe updates, Windows XP updates, and (I think) just plain ole obsolescence.  I type this blog posting froma lenovo 'business center' desktop in the Holiday Inn Express in which I am staying.  It is disheartening that my formerly useful little netbook now takes FOREVER to load even justjoep, and then wants to download so many updates it is rendered useless.  I've tried clearing the memory, but to no use.  It just doesn't have enough "oomph" for today's network browing needs.  Firefox, IE, Google Chrome, none has worked on the anemic Asus Eee book.   I considered chucking it out the window of my hotel, to the asphalt parking lot below, but the windows don't open... so my attempt was thwarted.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Looks like I will have to learn to use (and possible like, someday) the evil jobs device at home.  Grrrrrr.

Key & Peele

Key & Peele on Comedy Central are HILARIOUS!  I've been watching them this season, and they make me laugh heartily.  I heard interviews with them on NPR, and they sound like very nice guys.  Their material is very racially based, and (in my opinion) as funny or funnier than Dave Chappel.  Since both Keegan and Jordan are both mixed race, with white mothers, they straddle the line between white and black humor.  I am sure haters out there will say Chappel is/was MUCH funnier... but haters will hate.  Chappel was indeed funny, but I really enjoy Key & Peele.  I've seen their show sober, with a glass of wine, or with an entire bottle digesting in me, and it is consistently very funny.  I've caught myself laughing even at their re-runs, anticipating the next line.  I think they are very under-rated, and under-appreciated.  I'm looking forward to seeing many seasons of their sketch humor for years to come.

SCOTS on Isle of Palms

Dr Desert Flower, Nathan Jr, and I went to the Wind Jammer on Isle of Palms, East of Charleston SC, last Saturday night. The Royal Tin Foil were opening for SCOTS (Southern Culture on the Skids).  Nathan Jr had never seen SCOTS before, though he's heard them 100s of times on our stereo at home.  We'd never seen SCOTS on the beach, so it was a evening of firsts.

The Royal Tinfoil were a hoot!  Very silly, and very enthusiastic musicians and showman / show-women. If you ever have a chance to see them, you should take the opportunity.  The last song about Nun Whore Zombies had me laughing heartily.  Then SCOTS took the stage and played many songs off of Kudzu Ranch, and Zombiefied.  But when the crowd did not respond so enthusiastically.  they became to play more of their classics.  When they played Daddy Was a Preacher but Momma Was a Go Go Girl, Dr Desert Flower got up on stage and danced behind Dave the drummer.  Then 8 piece Box, and  she threw chicken to the audience.  But there was a new twist.  One of the fans had made banana pudding, and when they played Banana Pudding, they handed out three tupperware containers of banana pudding and wooden spoons to Dr Desert Flower and 2 other women, who fed the crowd.  It was a hoot!   Our son had a great time too, and we

Light Saber Revolution

Why are the colonists using red light sabers and the British using green ones?   Seems somewhat paradoxical.

Not Herding Cats

Walking them, probably in France...  as it's been in France where I've seen more than one cat on a leash.  I bet this is one queue of disgruntled pussies on leashes.

Commode Serpent

Commode Serpent, AKA "Snaking the Toilet".  Always look before you sit down.  I do like the solution used in the last frame.