Sunday, September 30, 2007

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Amazing grace (?)

Will he be declared "just another legislating, liberal judge?"

Will I have to drum up some faith in pendulum paradigms and/or "you just need to sit tight and believe in ____-edness?"

I espere NOT.

(insert smiley face iconographic representation of "emotion")

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Winged things

Porch proximity. Glass attracts.


Nesting wasps in the Chinese lantern.
I didn't know the life cycle was so long.
Our truce may be ending.



A Pleiades of houseflies collected themselves here last night.
Enticed by the cranberry juice, they jumped in, got drunk and died.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

But do you trust him

I am not sure I would buy a book written by James Frey.

Ostensibly, the Murdoch empire would have checked things out this time - oh, wait, that's right, this one is being marketed as fiction right off.

Lisa Simpson hates phonies.

Stealing glances

Steeling as well:

Seher Shah

Las chicas

Mary Kay


I ask her, would she be proud?

All our initials can stand for so much. Mine, in English and minus the middle one I never use, are obscene.

My paternal grandmother used to say that if your monogram didn't spell anything meaningful, you were destined to failure.

Of course, she named my father DAL (monogram)/DLA (initials).

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Graham crackers



Also called "digestive biscuits," they go well with marshmallows (clouds) and chocolate (not included).

Northeast Fall Festival

This will probably make you dizzy, but I have not read any iMovie instructions and don't know how to cut things up. It's only about a minute.





Carneys of the future make sure they have everything they need. If you are ever lost, remember the satellite dishes grow on the north side of the trailers. A few years ago, there was a trailer fire at this festival that took out half of a living space, and this year, though I didn't photograph it, there was a couple arguing over "repairs" he was making to the flappity end of a mobile home with a caulking gun.

Bees are so cute

Birdchick does more than love things with feathers, she is raising honeybees; in this post, there is a super-charming shot of a bee lifting one wing while another takes off her pollen pouch, and a surprising homo sapien/apis mellifera interaction that does not involve stinging.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

Labor shortage

Let's pick up the shovels and call things by their real names.

Immigration enforcement debate muddies farm bill
The Associated Press
HUTCHINSON, Kan. | Consumers could see the price of fruits and vegetables double if the nation does not address a looming farm labor shortage in the wake of tightening immigration enforcement, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson said.

Peterson, D-Minn., told producers attending the Kansas State Fair this weekend that the agriculture committee will focus on the immigration issue as it strives to do its part to make sure there is adequate labor. He said some crops will not be harvested this year unless something is done. . . .

Farmers need a realistic guest worker program, he said. . . .


. . .because, we don't have people? (Yes, it would take some "work" to get them to job sites, but what are/were the migrating legal/illegal Mexicans doing that can't be copied?)

"The number of unemployed and the unemployment rate held at 7.1 million and 4.6 percent, respectively, in August," according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And if cheap is what is needed, I suggest some of these debtors to society filling up prisons.

We have more than nine million people authorized already to work in the United States who aren't, so I don't want to hear any more fake reasons for why food is too expensive.

Or, if you really can't run an American food production program while paying living wages - meaning you have to have desperate people willing to work their fingers to the bone for a few dollars - then why isn't the Congressman just saying that?

Fact: the true cost of most things Americans eat, wear, drive, plug-in is masked by the continued complicit reliance on the poor who are willing or forced to accept low wages.

(Isn't it funny how poor people in America (including the middle classes who feel pinched) shop at Wal-Mart to save money for other things (like health insurance, for example), when the place is loaded with goods produced by people who are even poorer and who don't have televisions, cars, educations, health insurance or Wal-Marts to go to?)

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Cat pot

Katrina proving a point about how hard it is to live without earth.


(*also, fur makes basil taste better)

Monday, September 03, 2007

Irish disturbance

Some of my friends had me go to the Irish Fest on Sunday. I got sunburned but only ran into one human I knew, so it was a balanced affair. A scant selection of the most "interesting" things I caught are here.


Isn't this the color of the stuff that comes out of the
Springfield Nuclear Plant where Homer Simpson works?


Some of the "some friends" pretending to be tourists.


The Fuscia Band, which was not scary or creepy or horrible at all. This shot makes Mairtin De Cogain look like a crazed drunk, but it was the end of their set and he was getting ready to do some kind of broom dance. Their traditional music was catchy and made even slugs like me want to dance (I didn't), and since most of their work was tinged with irony, I enjoyed it. Hence, beer and broom.


I know that "nature" has already come up with some of the best engineered designs, but couldn't someone invent an exit to this inflatable train that would not result in sudden, explosive and inappropriate laughter (on my part)?
. . .and who knows what on his. . . .


Men swinging a child. . .

Good night.