Doom 'N' Gloom

Today's Funny is from Lisa Benson and it ain't so much funny as it's frickin' TRUE. The House passed this dumb-ass legislation (that they probably didn't read… again…) this past Friday with a 219-212 vote, as most of you Gentle Readers know. But there is hope the bill will fail in the Senate… and I'll quote from a piece written by Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics:

Despite the narrow victory, the distribution of the House vote actually suggests that the climate bill will have a tough road ahead in the Senate, as the following analysis will show. To start, let's break down the House vote by state caucuses. The following map does this. If a state's House caucus voted in favor of the bill on Friday (i.e. a majority of House members in the state voted yea), it is shaded green. If its caucus voted against (i.e. a majority voted nay), it is shaded red.

If the vote in the House on this bill had been calculated like the vote for President in the case of no majority winner in the Electoral College - where each state gets one vote - the climate bill would not have passed. Twenty-two state caucuses voted in favor of it while twenty-eight voted against. The bill passed in large part because of strong support from California and New York, which accounted for more than 26% of the total votes in favor of the bill.

Let us pray. I know MY senators (Texas) will vote against the bill, but those of you who live and vote in the green-colored states in the illustration above should be writing your senators early and often in opposition to this bill. Or call them up.

―:☺:―

Are you ready for another round of stagflation… last seen during the first Jimmuh Carter presidency? You better be, coz it's coming. Here's David R. Burton and Cesar Conda, writing in last Sunday's Washington Times:

Both the money supply and federal spending have increased at breathtaking rates over the past year, unprecedented in peacetime. The policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve Board and Congress virtually assure we will enter a period of 1970s-like stagflation.

The recovery, when it comes, will combine slow economic growth, unusually long un- and underemployment, stagnating real incomes, rising interest rates and inflation. There is little that policymakers, having made colossal mistakes, can do to prevent such an outcome. However, there are steps that can be taken to shorten the period of stagflation and return to an era of robust economic growth, good jobs and stable asset and consumer prices.

The money supply is measured several different ways. They all show alarming increases. The monetary base (coins, currency and bank reserves) has doubled over the past year. It is increasing at a rate 12 times the average since 1981. M1 (the monetary base plus checking deposits) increased last year by roughly 16 percent, a near record and three times faster than average since 1981. M2 (M1 plus most savings deposits and money market funds) increased 9 percent in the past 12 months (a rate more than 50 percent higher than the average since 1981).

[…]

Instead, the Obama administration seems bent on doubling down and making a bad situation even worse with massive increases in business and individual taxes, nationalizing or taking control of major industries (including automakers, banks, insurance and health care), hidden but huge energy-cost increases in pursuit of the chimera of global warming and ever greater entitlement spending. The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the Democrats' health reform plan would increase federal spending a further $1.3 trillion over 10 years.

Stagflation is baked in the cake. The question remains whether policymakers take the necessary steps to shorten the period of stagflation.

Read the whole thing, as it's said. Ain't I just FULL of sweetness and light today? But… let's inject a lil levity in this doom and gloom screed… in the form of parody:

Umm… the answer to "who's watching" would be ME. And YOU.

New Mexico Linkage

Blog-Bud Sharon... the proprietress of La Casa de Towanda... recently had her brother-in-law as a house guest for a period of time and entertained him by taking a drive around The Enchanted Circle, which features some of New Mexico's most brilliant and photogenic scenery. Sharon is treating her readers to an extended series of posts featuring photos of a lot of the stops on New Mexico's Grand Tour.

I dropped a comment on one such post saying something to the effect that she and I have MANY of the same photos, but hers are more impressive since she's made them accessible in a sequential series of posts, whereas I've doled (some of) mine out piecemeal over the course of three and a half years. You should drop over to Sharon's place to see the best of what New Mexico has to offer in the way of scenery.

In the meantime... here's one of the pics Sharon and I share. I think. The St. Francis de Asis church in Ranchos de Taos:

And here's a New Mexico pic you won't see over at Sharon's place... shot in the bar at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, NM.

Here's the back-story.

A Couple O' Fun Things

I think a couple of o' few things have led to the explosion of craft breweries (read as: GOOD beer) in these United States, foremost among them being our exceptional standard of living and the general mobility of our society. Relatively well-off people who move around a lot… for whatever reason… are exposed to different people and things, not the least of which is beer and people who appreciate good beer. So… tastes change and evolve and almost always for the better. But there's something else in play, too. Snobbery, as manifested by the appearance of "beer reviews" and the like.

I used to think this territory was reserved for oenophiles, who tend to be among the most obnoxious folks in the world. But no longer… as we beer drinkers are beginning to encroach upon their territory. Hell, even YrHmblScrb has written a beer review… and if I can do it, anyone can. There's even a "how to" to get ya started, if'n you wanna get into the biz for fun or profit. And here it is… "How to Rate a Beer," by Jim Armstrong. Just a couple of excerpts:

When tasting and comparing many different types of beer, it is helpful to have a standardized way of rating them. If you’re serious about your suds, start taking tasting notes and build a profile of what things you like and dislike about different beer styles. This doesn’t have to be a complicated endeavor, but you have to go a bit further than “I liked that beer” or “that one sucks”.

A good place to start is by breaking down a beer’s rating into several categories. I use the same categories as the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) scorecards – those guys know what they’re doing, and their criteria works for me.

Works for me, too. Well maybe except for this bit:

When you start out, everything will smell like beer, but after doing this for awhile, you’ll be amazed at how many different aromas you can pick up. Eventually, you’ll be able to pick out specific varieties of grain and hops!

It all mostly smells like beer to me. There are exceptions, of course… any fool can smell the difference between stout and lager… but I'd sure like to meet the guy or gal who can differentiate between the different varieties of hops used in the brewing process. Then again, I'm quite sure my senses of taste and smell have been whacked by 40+ years of cigarettes. Still and even… I find that particular statement a bridge too far.

That said… the article is interesting and (I think) useful, if only to explain and differentiate what separates good beer from swill. And while we're on the subject... if you love beer and you've never heard of Michael Jackson (no, not that MJ), you've led a deprived life. The man literally wrote the book on beer.

―:☺:―

So… how did I miss this?

"Did You Know" is only this year's ninth most popular video, according to Viral Video Chart. Number One? Susan Boyle, with a staggering 174,923,055 views since April 11^th of this year. And we've ALL seen that one… right? Which kinda-sorta closes this "Did You Know" loop…

―:☺:―

Today's Pic: A re-run that's in keeping with the lead-off theme of today's post: beer. As in, ♫♪ "These are a few of my favorite things…" ♫♪. Heh.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

Turn and face the strain...

So... Playing with the new 'puter continues, in my spare time. And we have complaints, Gentle Reader, oh yes we does! From an e-mail I sent to a friend this morning:

A stream of consciousness litany of complaints follows...

I don't like the views in Windows Explorer, which is to say I cannot see the entire directory tree... I can only see the folders that Vista wants me to see, and only ONE directory at a time. Arrgh.

I lost all my bookmarks in Firefox, even though I made sure to copy the entire Firefox directory from the old box on to my external drive. The bookmarks document is there... but no bookmarks.

Vista doesn't like my external hard drive, refusing to boot when that drive is connected to the box. I had a moment of sheer terror the first time THAT happened... just a blinking cursor (a la DOS) in the upper left hand corner of the screen and nothing else. Disconnect the external drive and Walla! Boot as normal...

The latest edition of Word has completely rearranged all the menu items and it's NOT frickin' intuitive. At ALL. I have a 60-day trial version loaded on this box and just might reinstall my six year old version rather than upgrade.

My ancient version of MS-Money (circa '97) won't run on Vista and the downsized version provided on the new box ("Money Essentials" - hah) will not import or recognize the old files. This is a critical problem... my entire frickin' financial life for the past 12 years is in that program, with the exception of my tax files... which I haven't got around to messing with. Yet.

There's more but leave us not bore you. The upgrade will proceed slowly as I intend to spend as much time with SN1 as possible while he's in town. I can putz around with the 'puter all I want (and probably more, but let's not go there) once he heads back out to South Carolina tomorrow.

Today's Pic: Take Two of yesterday's beer and cigar extravaganza… a wider view with roughly the same poses. Buck is sitting differently, I ain't. I have but one stock pose for all occasions/circumstances, yanno?

And now, back to our day... already in progress.

Right Now...

SN1 is visiting and we just came back into the AC after burning a cigar and downing a couple of beers, as illustrated above. This, BTW, is our first post using the new box (which arrived today and fired up rather unremarkably... which is a Good Thing) and before we've migrated all our apps and data over from the old drive. There are SOME things I'm not liking about Vista, but we'll save our critiques for later. In the meantime... there's beer to be drunk.

Life is good.

Today's Funny

... is from Lisa Benson:

Heh, as we say in these parts.

Apropos of nothing... I went to Viral Vids to see if there was anything amusing to post and saw the entire Top 20 was nothing but MJ. I shoulda known...

Screw This

So... I turn on my teevee for the prime-time news hour (three, actually, if one counts all the news shows I watch on a daily basis) and what do I see? Wall-to-wall Michael Jackson. First he's been taken to the hospital, then he's dead. And now it's nothing BUT... man-in-the-street interviews, MTV video clips... the whole nine yards.

Forgive me my pique, Gentle Reader, but Dang! He's only a frickin' entertainer. It ain't like Ghandi or JFK died. As the title sez: screw this. I'm gonna mix up a G&T and go sit outside with a cigar, heat or no.

RIP Michael and thanks for all the great tunes.

This Says Nothing...

... other than the fact I eat out waaay too much.

Two days worth of dishes in the drainer,* taken but ten minutes ago after consuming the morning's last cup on the verandah. It's HOT outside, Gentle Reader. Happy Hour will be delayed until late this evening as a result and will more than likely consist of Gin & Tonics. Plural.

*added much later in the day

Sagas

The F-22 saga continues… three items from today’s Air Force Association Daily Report:

Hollow Threat: Just last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not yet ready to invoke a "veto threat" over the addition of 12 F-22 Raptors in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the 2010 defense authorization bill. Now, it appears he is ready. A just-released statement of administration policy on H.R. 2647 states the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto if the final bill still contains funds to take the F-22 program of record beyond 187 aircraft. Last week, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, chairman of the committee's air and land forces panel, said he believes the full House will find money for 20 additional Raptors in 2010. Talking with defense reporters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning, the head of the House defense appropriations panel, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), also lent his weight to the notion that Congress will approve buying more Raptors (see below). Saying it wouldn't be easy, Murtha pulled a list from an inside coat pocket that he would not share because it constituted "personal conversation" between himself and Gates, but which he said was a list of program decisions that Gates' considers "not negotiable," and from Murtha's subsequent remarks, we concluded the F-22 is on that list. However, the SAP and Gates' notional list are the not the last word. In Abercrombie's view, "The President is much too shrewd [not to realize] … that, should a veto come over adding a few planes into the defense budget, that that wouldn't be overridden in a nanosecond?" He added that a veto threat is "not a productive way to go about having this conversation."

Murtha for More F-22s: House Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) supports further buys of the F-22 and is optimistic that more will be bought, but he said that it will take some wheeling and dealing in Congress to make it happen. Speaking with defense reporters Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Murtha said, "I think we can reach a compromise" on Capitol Hill that would allow the F-22 to go forward. Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its defense panel, "feels very strongly about it, and I do, too," Murtha added. Murtha said he wants the decision to be based on the threat, not on budgets, but that the decision to end the program at 187 aircraft "I think … was made based on cost." He said that on his panel, "we know the Air Force believes it does not have enough airplanes to train people, deploy people, and have enough spares available." (see below, The Sustainment Numbers Game) Murtha said Defense Secretary Robert Gates is "adamant" that no further F-22s be bought. He also said there is "strong sentiment" in the House to continue the production line "but not a majority." Murtha said that the F-22 debate is complicated by the fact that the airplane is still having maintenance issues—although he acknowledged it is still early in its deployment—and by questions about whether the F-35 will perform as advertised.

The Sustainment Numbers Game: When Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the Air Force's acquisition military deputy, told lawmakers earlier this month that the smaller F-22 Raptor fleet would pose long-term sustainment challenges, he was referring to a wide range of issues, from depot requirements to unscheduled maintenance and repairs and the need to upgrade the older Raptors with enhanced capabilities. Air Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Karen Platt told the Daily Report Tuesday that Shackelford was comparing the sustainment of larger fleets with a sizeable inventory of backup and attrition reserve aircraft where there is less difficulty in removing aircraft from operational squadrons to undergo maintenance, repairs, or retrofits, to the sustainment of a smaller fleet—in this case, only 186 Raptors. Platt said, "The F-22 fleet, however, has a small backup aircraft inventory and no attrition reserve aircraft," so taking Raptors from an operational squadron for critical maintenance and upgrades has a greater impact on readiness and must be more carefully planned to mitigate impacting mission requirements. And any further losses, due to accidents or combat, would increase this effect, she added.

And then there’s this about recapitalizing the tanker fleet:

Tanker Verbiage: Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said Wednesday he wants to introduce language during his panel's forthcoming markup of the Fiscal 2010 defense spending proposal that would call on the Pentagon to acquire new Air Force KC-X tanker aircraft from two suppliers vice just one and build them at a higher annual rate than the Air Force currently projects. However, he told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., his language would not go so far as to mandate this dual tanker buy approach—although it is the one that he clearly favors—but instead would retain the option for DOD to select a single supplier in a winner-take-all competition. The latter has been Defense Secretary Robert Gates' clear preference, but Murtha said he thinks it would be a mistake, given the failed attempt to advance with a single supplier last year. "You are not going to have a [new] tanker if you don't divide [the buy]," he said, recounting a recent conversation he had with Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's new acquisition executive. Murtha continued, "If you don't split it up with two, there is going to be a protest. It will be years before you settle it." Murtha said not everyone on the defense appropriations panel will support his measure, but, in the end, he predicts a compromise. "I think we will get legislation through that will say, we need to have tankers sooner rather than later," he said. Ideally, he'd like to have three new tankers assembled per month (see above), more than the Pentagon and Air Force leadership have said would be fiscally possible each year. Murtha acknowledged that earmarking the extra money to support a larger annual buy would be a challenge, but he didn't characterize it as a show-stopper.

There’s background on this particular flap… including a lot of useful links… here, if’n you’re at all interested. For what it’s worth, the average age of a KC-135 in today’s air force exceeds 46 years. How would YOU like to fly in an airframe that old, day in and day out?

―:☺:―

The computer saga... So, we’re preparing to receive the new computing box tomorrow and part of that effort is to do a complete back-up of the current box’s hard drive. On Tuesday it came to my attention that my El Cheapo back-up program that came bundled with the outboard hard drive I bought a couple of years ago has been… umm… less than effective. I run incremental back-ups on a nightly basis and supposedly had a full back-up scheduled once a month. Investigation… i.e., comparing the contents of my external drive to that of the internal drive… revealed significant discrepancies. So… we wiped the external drive and launched a complete back-up last evening around 1730 hrs. As of this writing it’s still running and is only about half complete. It takes a long time to back-up 130 GB over a USB connection.

Oh. I also bought a full-fledged back-up program… no more El Cheapo solutions in this (ahem) space. I’m damned lucky my internal hard drive hasn’t failed.

―:☺:―

The Nanny-State Saga... Today’s Funny, from Gary Varvel:

The “anti-smoking legislation” refers, of course, to the FDA regulation of tobacco legislation The One signed into law last week. Which, of course, is a stunning act of hypocrisy on Obama’s part. The President’s smoking habits remain one of the most closely guarded secrets of this administration, but rumor has it he’s “95% successful” in his effort to quit. Now I have NO idea what the Hell that means… in MY world you’ve either quit or you haven’t. But Hey! I don’t live in that “reality-based community” like he does… so what do I know, anyway?

For the record: I quit cigarettes two and a half years ago. Completely. None of this “95% successful” bullshit. Yes, I still smoke a cigar a day... sometimes two. One doesn't inhale that smoke, though.

Whither Afghanistan?

If you're interested in the subject question and have about 30 minutes to invest, there are no better opinions on the subject than what you'll see below. This is from last night's Charlie Rose program and features discussion with David Kilcullen, David Barno, and Tom Ricks... two leading counter-terrorism experts and the former commander of forces on the ground in Afghanistan. It's great good stuff.



Bonus: minor digressions on Iraq and Iran.

Typical Stevie Y

After all he's done... here he is being modest to a fault. If you're looking for a role model for your kids... there's none better than Mr. Yzerman.

(h/t: Kukla's Korner)

A Parable

A friend sends this along…

An old country preacher had a teenage son, and it was getting time the boy should give some thought to choosing a profession. Like many young men his age, the boy didn't really know what he wanted to do, and he didn't seem too concerned about it. One day, while the boy was away at school, his father decided to try an experiment.

He went into the boy's room and placed on his study table four objects;

1. A bible.
2. A silver dollar .
3. A bottle of whiskey.
4. And a Playboy magazine.

"I'll just hide behind the door," the old preacher said to himself. "When he comes home from school today, I'll see which object he picks up. If it's the bible, he's going to be a preacher like me, and what a blessing that would be! If he picks up the dollar, he's going to be a business man , and that would be okay, too.. But if he picks up the bottle, he's going to be a no-good drunken bum, and Lord, what a shame that would be. And worst of all if he picks up that magazine he's going to be a skirt-chasing womanizer."

The old man waited anxiously, and soon heard his son's foot-steps as he entered the house whistling and headed for his room. The boy tossed his books on the bed, and as he turned to leave the room, he spotted the objects on the table. With curiosity in his eye, he walked over to inspect them.

Finally, he picked up the Bible and placed it under his arm. He picked up the silver dollar and dropped it into his pocket. He uncorked the bottle and took a big drink while he admired this month's centerfold.

"Lord have mercy," the old preacher disgustedly whispered. "He's gonna run for Congress."

Along the same lines…

But, then again... there ain't no such animal.

Apropos of Nothing...

Taking a short break from Happy Hour... we decided to play a bit with the camera while pouring a refill. The results:

The first pic is a 40% re-size; the second is a crop of the full-size image (full manual... f/4.5, 1/30 sec, ISO 400. As ever, click for larger.). I think I'm beginning to get this focusing thing down. Exactly why it's been SO damned difficult is beyond me... seriously.

And now back outside... to continue as we've begun. Oh... another thing... Mothership Wit is rapidly becoming the beer o' choice for these warm summer days. It goes down SO easy it's almost like pop. That's a compliment.

Heh

A lot of folks I read have posted about the exchange SENATOR B. Boxer (D - LaLaLand) had with Brigadier General Michael Walsh recently. But this is the best thing I've seen on the subject:



Heh. It's a good ad and I wish Chuck DeVore all the luck in the world. He'd have MY vote if I still lived in California.

(h/t: Susan)

Some (Very) Light Reading

The Hockey Hall of Fame will announce its 2009 selections sometime today. The general consensus of opinion is that Steve Yzerman, a guy who has long been in the B-Rank of my heroes, is a no-brainer for induction in his first year of eligibility. From Fox Sports:

The easy decisions are for three of the four openings in the players category. Steve Yzerman, Brett Hull and Brian Leetch are clearly shoo-ins and make this year's class one of the most memorable in decades. All three are first-time eligible this year and the debate among the 18 selection committee members won't be long or spirited.

The fourth opening is the one that will spark plenty of dialogue. The other first-time candidates, who are retired three years from hockey, are Luc Robitaille, Alexander Mogilny and Dave Andreychuk.

The fans agree, too:

Here’s Stevie Y’s CV, from NHL.com… where you’ll find thumbnail bios of the other leading HHOF candidates:

Steve Yzerman -- Yzerman was Hull's teammate on the 2002 Stanley Cup-winning Red Wings. Yzerman also won the Stanley Cup in 1997 and 1998.

Yzerman was the fourth overall pick of the 1983 Entry Draft and went on to play 22 seasons with the Red Wings. He was only 21 when he was named team captain in 1986-87. He retired as the longest-serving captain in North American professional-sports history.

Yzerman retired in 2006 as the sixth-leading scorer in NHL history. Yzerman had 692 goals and 1,063 assists for 1,755 points in 1,514 NHL regular-season games. He had 70 goals and 115 assists for 185 points in 196 Stanley Cup Playoff games. He received the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1998 as the most valuable
player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he led all scorers with 18 assists and 24 points.

Yzerman also won the 1989 Lester B. Pearson Award and the 2000 Selke Trophy as the NHL's best defensive forward. He was awarded the 2003 Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance.

Yzerman was named to the NHL All-Rookie team in 1984 and the NHL First All-Star Team in 2000. He played in 10 NHL All-Star Games.

Yzerman broke the 50-goal mark in five seasons, with a high of 65 goals in 1988-89. He had 62 goals in 1989-90 and 58 goals in 1992-93. He ranks eighth all-time in goals, seventh in assists and sixth in points.

Yup: no-brainer.

―:☺:―

In other hockey news… this pains me:

Detroit -- The news wasn't surprising but no less significant.

The fact the Red Wings parted ways with Chris Chelios on Monday was expected. But it screamed attention, nonetheless.

Chelios, 47, didn't play much last season and had become an extra defenseman. But he's a surefire Hall of Famer. And when a team parts ways with a Hall of Famer, it's news.

General manager Ken Holland met with Chelios on Monday and officially told him the Wings wouldn't be bringing him back after 10 seasons.

"It was kind of understood last summer that the 2008-09 season would be the last one for Cheli as a Red Wing," said Holland, noting the need for the Wings to bring in young players such as Jonathan Ericsson. "Cheli wants to play another season, and I believe he can still play."

Bothered by a leg problem early in the season, then put in a reduced role when he returned, Chelios played in 28 games. He didn't have a point but was plus-1 and had 18 penalty minutes.

Chelios was in six playoff games, didn't score and had an even plus-minus.

He didn't return phone calls Monday. Chelios also didn't speak to the media after the Wings cleaned out their lockers after the playoffs.

He said late in the regular season he didn't expect to be re-signed by the Wings, citing the need for players such as Ericsson to get playing time.

There will be lots of talk over the summer about Chelli’s next team, if there is one. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him playing for Chicago next season… and I suppose that would only be fitting. It’s interesting how things change: Chelios used to be my… and most other Wings’ fans, as well… favorite “guy I love to hate” back when he played for Chicago and before he came to Detroit. I’ll miss him.

―:☺:―

In local news… we had an organizational transfer ceremony out at Cannon Airplane Patch this past Friday. From the Clovis News-Journal:

The “game changers” officially belong to Cannon Air Force Base.

Flanked by two of the AC-130H Spectre gunships it flies and maintains, the 16th Special Operations Squadron transferred its flag Friday from Hurlburt Air Field in Florida to Cannon.

“The arrival of Spectre is a game-changer,” said Lt. Gen. Donald C. Wurster, commander of AFSOC. “If you’re a good guy, you will win. If you are a bad guy, you will perish. It’s as simple as that.”

Prior to the transfer, crews of the 16th at Cannon were operating as a detachment unit while the official squadron was stationed at Hurlburt.

Now, it is Hurlburt with the detachment unit.

“It’s a important step for (Air Force Special Operations Command),” said Lt. Col. Sean Farrell, commander of the squadron. “As we grow our continental base and we build the capabilities of this wing to match the capabilities of our wing in Florida. “We deliver an important element to the AFSOC mission.”

That element includes close air support, armed reconnaissance, interdiction, night search and rescue, and airborne command and control.

Welcome to the High Plains of New Mexico, 16^th Special Ops! We’re glad you’re here, even though you may feel otherwise… given the radical difference between here and your old home. But, Hey! It ain’t all that bad…

Decisions, Decisions

The political war over the F-22 is heating up. From the Air Force Association’s Daily Report:

Gates Has a Big Problem: Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he has "a big problem" with the House Armed Services Committee addition of 12 F-22 Raptors to the 2010 defense budget. He told reporters at the Pentagon June 18 that the reason is "because it continues the F-22 program, which is contrary to the recommendations I made to the President." However, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), who as chairman of the committee's air and land forces panel put forth the additional Raptors, says we need them to provide "breathing room" to keep F-22 production going while debate continues on national strategy as the Pentagon works through the Quadrennial Defense Review. For Gates that debate is obviously over. In a direct slap at the professional opinion expressed recently by Air Combat Command boss Gen. John Corley that the current national military strategy requires more than 187 F-22 fighters, Gates told the reporters: "Frankly, to be blunt about it, the notion that not buying 60 more F-22s imperils the national security of the United States I find completely nonsense." With that statement, Gates not only derides Corley's judgment but also that of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, who has acknowledged the fiscal constraints that make a smaller F-22 force necessary, but who has stated publicly that the current military requirement is for 243 Raptors. Asked when he would recommend a presidential veto, Gates said, "I'm not going to go that far at this point." Abercrombie, however, meeting with reporters, openly ridiculed the notion of a veto, claiming that President Obama would be uncharacteristically foolhardy to veto a defense bill over the issue of a few airplanes. Abercrombie added that, in any event, a veto would be met in a flash with an override by huge supermajorities in each chamber. (Gates press briefing transcript)

Corley's Rationale: In making his unvarnished military assessment of the high risk he sees in halting F-22 production at 187 aircraft, Air Combat Command boss Gen. John Corley upheld his sworn duty to Congress to "provide his unbiased opinion on all matters of military importance," according to a June 19 statement from ACC. It's important to note, too, that in Corley's written response to a direct request from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) about the F-22 risk factor, Corley noted that USAF leaders had asked for and received ACC views, but he also acknowledged that they and DOD leaders were faced with "tough choices … in balancing current warfighting needs against fiscal realities." That, in our view, shows integrity. Among the factors, ACC says Corley used in making his assessment were the need for homeland defense, combatant commanders' requirements, opposing air and ground threats, ongoing reductions in fighter force structure, and the rapidly aging fighter force—all part and parcel of the Defense Strategy Force Planning Construct. For Defense Secretary Robert Gates to dismiss Corley's assessment as "nonsense" is nonsensical.

Between Proverbial Rock and a Hard Place: Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz issued a joint statement last week, acknowledging that they had considered the views of Gen. John Corley, who leads Air Combat Command, on the F-22 risk factor (see above and here High Risk). The bottom line, as they have said before, is that other needs trumped continuing F-22 production beyond 187 aircraft when they had to work within a fixed budget. They said: "We assessed the F-22 by taking into account competing strategic priorities and complementary programs within the context of available resources. After carefully considering a full range of views and alternatives, including those expressed by General Corley, we recommended to Secretary Gates that other priority Air Force programs should not be reduced in order to fund additional F-22s beyond the program of record." That, in our view, is an honest presentation of the situation and in no way denigrates Corley's military expertise.

We tend to go on about the F-22 quite a bit here at EIP.

―:☺:―

Update from Saturday: We decided on a computer, Gentle Reader, and we should have a new Gateway LX 6810-01 in our hot lil hands by the end of the week. One of the more interesting things about computer shopping is reading all the customer reviews. Someone always gets a lemon and they are NOT shy about telling the world about it… it doesn’t seem to matter what brand or model computer you look at. So… we have our fingers crossed here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington in hopes our previous good luck with computers holds. That luck has been substantial, too. We’ve bought every single one of our computers over these inter-tubes, with the exception of our first two. And the only reason we didn’t buy those online is online shopping didn’t… ummm… exist at the time.

Speaking of our first computer… it was one of these. I bought my XT in early 1986, and it was the model that did NOT come with a hard drive; it had two 5.25” floppies. I bought a 10 megabyte… yes, MEGAbyte… Seagate hard drive from a mail order firm and installed it myself. The drive only cost about 300 Yankee Dollars, if I recall correctly. The XT itself was about $1500.00, if memory serves. As far as connectivity went, I had a 9600 bps outboard modem to access BBSes and the like. You cannot imagine how impressed I was when I upgraded to a 19.2 Kbps modem. Oh, the power and the glory!

We’ve come a long way, Bay-bee. But ya know what? I miss those clickety old IBM keyboards. Those things were built to last, in addition to having the best feel of any keyboard I've ever used. They were heavy enough to have made damned good weapons, too... and I'm sure someone, somewhere, beat the snot out of another person using one. I wouldn't take odds on anyone surviving a determined attack with that keyboard.

Happy Father's Day

Today is the day we celebrate the Ol' Man, Dad, Pop, or whatever name you apply to your father. He’s the guy who is our earliest impression of what it means to be a man... and the guy who is primarily responsible for molding boys into men. Here's my role model:

Dad in his Army Air Corps lieutenant's uniform, me, and Mom... around 1949.

The Wiki has an interesting article on Father's Day... including the proper spelling as opposed to common usage... which includes this lil bit:

Where Mother's Day was met with enthusiasm, Father's Day was met with laughter. The holiday was gathering attention slowly, but for the wrong reasons. It was the target of much satire, parody and derision, including jokes from the local newspaper Spokesman-Review. Many people saw it as just the first step in filling the calendar with mindless promotions like "Grandparents' Day", "Professional Secretaries' Day", etc., all the way down to "National Clean Your Desk Day."

Heh. That describes the earliest time period when a movement was on to make Father’s Day a national holiday… or during the very early part of the 20^th century. I think it’s interesting to note that all those ersatz holidays actually have a day named for the occasion now… even though they may not be officially recognized holidays.

But anyhoo: call yer Ol’ Man.

A Few Minor Irritants and One Good Thing

First things first: an apology.

I’ve had to enable word verification for comments. I was spam-bombed again last evening with another 44 character-based comments… from the same asshat that nailed me night before last, no doubt. I’m also a lil bit ticked with Site Meter in that I wasn’t able to correlate the date/time stamp on the comment e-mails with a specific visitor as recorded in SM. The reason I’m ticked is I seriously wanted to send an abuse report to the spammer’s ISP but I can’t do so without a smoking gun.

I’ll run word verification for about a month or so and then try and remove it again. Once again: apologies.

―:☺:―

I used to think buying a house was one of the worst experiences in modern life, what with trying to find something that meets your needs and desires, is within your budget, and in a neighborhood that’s safe, attractive, and within reasonable distance of things you need/places you have to be. Then comes the offer process, the negotiating, inspections, the closing, and frickin’ paperwork out the wazoo at each and every step. It's misery personified.

As far as negative experiences go, buying a house is closely followed by buying a car, but for different reasons… most of which revolve around car dealers and salespeople, who are the slimiest people one will ever meet in an ostensibly legal endeavor. I think drug dealers are more honest and respectable than car salesmen. (Minor digression: let’s not consider divorce lawyers, who are in a category unto themselves and have a special place reserved in Hell. Except for mine, of course. He was OK. That said, I remain amazed more of those bastards aren’t shot dead in the street on any given day.)

But we’re talking about negative experiences… or we started out that way. I’m thinking of adding “buying a computer” to my short list. I’ve had my first two experiences… ever… with the dreaded “blue screen of death” phenomenon this past week, followed up with the curt but scary “Windows needs to examine your hard drive for errors. Run check disk now.” message (or words to that effect) upon the subsequent start-up. It doesn’t help matters that I’m nearly a year beyond the usual, customary, and reasonable three-year refresh period, and that fact contributes greatly to my angst. Along with the heretofore unknown Blue Screen events.

So… we began our day looking at various desktops in what we consider to be our current price range. And…

Too much frickin’ choice.

I suppose that’s a good thing… and really, it is. But I have “issues.” I don’t like what I’ve heard about Vista, but there aren’t any real alternatives for a technically-challenged individual… read as: don’t say a frickin’ thing about Linux. I don’t wanna hear it. And Macs are out of my price range, so don’t come at me with the wonderfulness of Mr. Jobs Magical-And-Oh-So-AWESOME products. I don’t like white or cream-colored computers, either. Nope… I want a garden variety PC that’s as close to plug and play as possible and costs less… preferably much less… than a thousand dollars. There appears to be at least 1,463 boxes in that category and we have begun the arduous task of sifting through the alternatives.

The good news? My current box… which is within a whisker of four years old… has an older Pentium processor (duh), a 180 gig hard drive and a gig of RAM. Contemporary boxes have much faster quad-core processors (Intel only, please), four times the RAM, and six times the hard drive for a couple o’ C-Notes less than I paid for my current El Cheapo Gateway… AND they carry brand-name nameplates, too. I (heart) progress!

But I hate making choices.

We’ll keep you informed.

―:☺:―

Just an observation: I think we’re going through the wettest Spring I’ve experienced here on The High Plains of New Mexico, but that’s only going back six years. It pretty much rained all night and well into this morning… and the skies remain overcast and leaden gray as we speak. Our forecast is for scattered showers all day and moderate temps, something I most definitely can live with. This would be our third consecutive day of rain, an event unknown to me since I’ve been in these parts.

Maybe The Goreacle was right about climate change. If so, this is the kind of change I really can believe in. And like. As opposed to… well, you know.

―:☺:―

I don’t get today’s Ramirez:

Please enlighten me if you have any idea what he’s on about, Gentle Reader. Never mind... I didn't see the caption below the drawing. It doesn't pay to post before you're fully caffeinated. I'll learn this lesson... someday.

Retro

A friend sends along a link that can be a most serious time waster if you let it. It might only be so if you’re “of a certain age.” Or have an eye for the strange and unusual… like these LP covers from 1955 and 1967:

Heh. I’m sure all good Trekkies have the latter… but as for me? I’d be more into Gracious Living… without the apron. But ya know what? I never saw Mom and Dad looking like that, nor did we have such a kitchen. I must have led a deprived life.

So… you are directed to Bills’ Retro World, where there’s more than album covers. There’s TV, movies, and sports, too. And cars! You just know those people above (who were living graciously) had one of these:

And there are more… mostly ad copy from the '50s… but there are some '60s images as well. My parents owned a few of those cars and I owned at least one myself.

Dang. I must be old.

Back to the record covers for further proof:

I remember this one all too well. It was the first record I ever bought with my own money, and I bought my copy in 1957 at the ripe ol' age of 12. This particular gem was released in 1956 but sales were still going strong a year later. Or maybe it's because my Dad was stationed in Ankara, Turkey and we were a year behind the times. Whatevah. "Blue Suede Shoes" was a revelation to my 12-year old mind and probably was what set me off on a life of depravity and dissipation.

But that's another story altogether.

Right Now...

... well, OK... ten minutes ago. The view from under the awning during Happy Hour, just concluded. You'll have to twist the second pic in your mind's eye, coz I'm too lazy to (mess) with the eccentricities of Blogger and my photo editing program to fix what should NOT have to be fixed to begin with. Suffice to say the photo appears in its natural landscape format in my photo editing program, but refuses to display appropriately in Blogger. (note: fixed at a later date because I upgraded my image management program and the upgrade WORKS!)

All that said... that's one of those exquisite Acid Deep Dish cigars... nearing the end of its natural life... in the company of a New Belgium Sunshine Wheat. It was the most unusual of occasions: a passing thunderstorm without accompanying gale-force winds. So we sat our Old Ass under the awning and leisurely finished our beer while drinking in the sights, sounds and smells of rain on The High Plains of New Mexico. I'll have to admit, Gentle Reader, that yes... it does get better than this. But not lately.

Postscript, 1700 hrs.: Dinner is served... garlic shrimp linguine and a big-ass salad. I told you it gets better, didn't I? ;-)

PPS, 1805 hrs: Dessert. German chocolate cake with a bit of Häagen-Dazs butter pecan on the side. No coffee though. What a Philistine, eh? (Am I scraping the bottom of the blogging barrel... or what?)

The Early Bus... Now Departing

We're on the Early Bus again today. I’m not quite sure what’s up with my sleeping habits of late but we’re not all that worried. What woke me up this morning was a brief but somewhat noisy thundershower that rolled through P-Ville just before 0530. Rain on an RV’s roof creates quite a racket, ya know, enough to wake even the heaviest of sleepers… and maybe the dead… and that would be me, Gentle Reader. So we rolled out, fired off the coffee pot and took a peek out the window to see there were some great cloud formations and the beginnings of what looked like a brilliant sunrise.

It was.

I took 68 pictures, most of which are throw-aways as I’m still having focusing issues with the SLR. This is beginning to piss me off.

For Ann and others who may be interested… All shots were taken with the 50 mm lens in shutter priority mode, f/1.4, at ISO 100. Image 17: 1/250 sec., Image 31: 1/160 sec., Image 34: 1/320 sec.

―:☺:―

Customer service is NOT dead. Witness the following, which is pretty much self-explanatory (addresses redacted):

From: Buck Pennington
To: Tim Blythe
Date: Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 3:13 PM
Subject: Order

Hello Tim,

Today must be a busy day for all y'all. I placed a call to you about an hour ago and left my callback number and haven't heard from you yet. I've tried to contact you a couple of times in the interim and got an "all reps are busy" message.

Anyhoo. I want to place an order for a box of Acid Deep Dish 5.0x58 @ $XXX. Please use the regular credit card (Master Card ending in 8473) and the usual method of shipping... i.e., second-day air.... to my Portales, NM address.

The last time I ordered the representative screwed my order up and sent me a box of Def Seas which I kept rather than return, mainly coz I have yet to meet the Acid I didn't like. That said... I really WOULD prefer the Deep Dish this time around.

Thanks,
Norman (aka Buck) Pennington

Tim’s reply:

From: Tim Blythe
To: Buck Pennington
Date: Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 8:29 AM
Subject: RE: Order

You got it, Buck. Sorry for being so hard to get a hold of. I'll get this shipped out so you have it tomorrow!!

Thank you and enjoy!

Tim Blythe
Cigar.com
(800) 357-9800

OK… I kinda-sorta figured Tim was using a little bit of poetic (i.e., marketing) license when he said “so you have it tomorrow.” He wasn’t. My cigars arrived yesterday afternoon, shipped out from Cigar.com via next-day air AND including a three-cigar Acid sampler thrown in, gratis. It really is a pleasure doing bid’niz with Cigar.com, and most especially Tim.

Yes. This IS a testimonial.

―:☺:―

As noted in yesterday’s post, we were anticipating our 100,000^th visitor here at EIP. And so it came to pass at 1934 hrs last evening:

A googler… looking for the ever-popular MC-12W.

―:☺:―

I'm thinking it's a good day to cruise out to the base. We need to do a beer and commissary run, anyway.

Rather Random

We might hit a milestone late today… EIP’s 100,000^th visitor. We’re at 99,941 as of 1038 hrs. Which, of course is significant only to YrHmblScrb. The Big Dogs get that much traffic every day; it’s taken us over three and half years to get this far. Still and even, I remain amazed we have any traffic at all… especially lately.

Thank you, Gentle Readers.

―:☺:―

So… I drug out the soapbox a couple of days ago and whined about folks who use Word Verification in their comments. True to form, karma rose up and bit me in the ass last night in the form of a spammer who dropped unintelligible character-based sex-site spam… “SEX” being the only readable word… in 44 separate posts. It took me about a half-hour to kill them all. By hand. Swearing all the while. But I won’t enable Word Verification unless the asshat revisits me.

You’re welcome.

―:☺:―

Oh-so-briefly: Here’s the requisite “something happened” mention… 31 years ago today. And I long for the day when this date becomes just another day in the life. Something tells me if it ain’t happened yet… it ain’t gonna happen. And they say most men don’t remember dates. (sigh)

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: In keeping with the above, a random shot of The Second Mrs. Pennington and SN3 taken in Perinton, NY... July, 1998.

Unaccustomed As I Am...

... to holding VERY young children... I did. Proof:

That would be YrHmblScrb and great-granddaughter Mya, taken yesterday afternoon.

Here are the members of the SN1 family, less SN1 hisownself (who remained in South Carolina due to a previous committment with the Inspector General, in the form of an Operational Readiness Inspection [ORI]):

Left to right: grandaughters Natasha and Felicity (holding Mya), daughter-in-law Erma, and grandson Sean.

Erma and Co. are in P-Ville visiting Erma's Mom. They stopped by yesterday afternoon for a visit and a couple of beers. Well, Erma and I drank the beer; the others didn't. A good time was had by all none the less... Erma and I getting the best of the deal.

This Just In

“This” meaning me and “just in” meaning I’ve retreated into the air conditioned splendor of El Casa Móvil De Pennington after burning a cigar and partaking of two of New Belgium’s finest… a Mothership Wit and a 1554. We called Happy Hour early today in anticipation of record heat in these parts… which was billed by The Weather Channel as approaching 100 degrees. We’re not there yet… as of this writing... but we’re close enough for Gub’mint Work, to my way of thinking. To wit:

Or… Baby, it’s freaking HOT outside. While we didn’t break a sweat sitting out under the awning with our beer, we felt much like we were sitting inside a giant convection oven… awash as we were in HOT breezes. At any rate, I feel a nap coming on. Life is just SO danged hard, of late. Make of that what you will… I’m gonna sleep on it.

Kandahar In the Fall

If you perused EIP’s comments yesterday you may have seen this:

Got word last night it's official: Afghanistan in September. Secret's out BTW, so it's fair conversation when Erm comes 'round.

That would be SN1 speaking. Here’s a short lil vid of his new home come September:

The video is way old, having been shot in 2002… but this is Afghanistan, a place not known for rapid change, to put it mildly. Things are different on the base, of course:

Looks like Big Fun, don’t it?

―:☺:―

So… while doing the research for the lil blurb above, I came across this:

Note the ad on the right. Maybe I can get Buck to do some “on the ground” interviews and put in a good word for me. She's a cutie... but they always are, in the ads.

Clouds

The title kinda makes one think of a Joni Mitchell song, but that's not what we're on about, Gentle Reader. Nope... we're just in from Happy Hour and we had ourselves a grand ol' time watching our favorite brand o' cloud scud across the bright New Mexico sky whilst enjoying a couple of New Belgium's finest. To wit:

Yup. Big Ol' puffy cumulus clouds, viewed from the same angle as this morning's sunrise pics in the post just below. And these same clouds make intriguing images when viewed in reflection of the Green Hornet's still (sorta) immaculate paint. Again, the images:

The first pic is just to give you some perspective, the other two are rather interesting abstract sort of images. Which just goes to prove that I'm easily amused, if nothing else.

Now that we've done that... we should probably end where we began... with Joni.


I LOVE this woman.

A Few Minutes Ago...

... as opposed to "right now." In sequential order, top to bottom...

This is the first time in a long time I've caught the sunrise... but there's a method to my madness. We have to run over to The Big(ger) City^TM for to do some errands, and we wanna do it early. Why? Coz of this:

And it ain't even summer yet. It's gonna be humid, too... we had more t-storms roll through the area early this morning and it's wet outside. But it sure does SMELL great!

Coffee's ready... want a cup?

Right Now

Well, sorta... the pics were taken about 45 minutes ago. Above is the little ranchito that sits just behind Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park. I don't think there's a pot o' gold in there, but I know there are four or five peafowl on the premises... and I also know they are noisy suckers. But we digress, as is our habit.

We had a pretty good thunderstorm roll through P-Ville this afternoon and I took a walk outside after it passed. A walk immediately following the rain is a Good Thing anywhere and everywhere, but it's particularly pleasing here on The High Plains of New Mexico given the hot, arid nature of our climate (read as: desert, kinda-sorta). The air is just so clean and sweet-smelling it's incredible, which is a "you hadda be there" kinda thing... most literally. I also played around with the camera a little bit, and here's one such snap:

The foliage on the ornamental cherry tree that stands just outside my door. It ain't only the blossoms that makes this tree distinctive... its foliage is quite interesting, as well.

As always, click for larger. And you just might be viewing tomorrow's post, today. I've been pretty lazy lately.

Flag Day

We seem to be developing our traditions here at EIP, and here's another installment of same. This looks like it will be the "traditional" Flag Day post... or at least it will be until I come up with something better.

Flag Day

Old Glory on the stern of the USS Mason (DDG 87), Port Canaveral, Florida.
April, 2003.

I don’t have a “flyable” flag any longer… and no place to really fly one, even if I did… which is a break from long-standing tradition. I still have two flags in my possession, but neither is suitable for display. Or rather, I choose NOT to display them. The first is the flag that draped my father’s casket; the second is a small flag in a shadow box with mementos from my USAF career. My father’s flag is folded and put away for safe-keeping, the shadow box flag is…well, in the shadow box.

But I AM celebrating Flag Day. I hope you are, too.

Modifications to the above: Make that three flags vs. two. You've seen the flag I have draped just below the upstairs-bedroom-cum-music area... just four days ago, in fact. You may not have read the story behind that flag, though. It's a well-traveled Star Spangled Banner, that one.

Apropos of Nothing...

The Blog Goddess, she speaks for ME:

Random Friday night thought; I hate Blogger. The whole thing is a slow, unwieldy bastard for the user and pure hell for the reader trying to leave a comment. I wish all bloggers who do this hobby with some passion would change platforms to something more user friendly. Throw away your training wheels and start flying down the road, writer people. Let’s face it, comment windows that open in a little corner without the full post, suck big time. Comment windows that open without the full body of the post sitting right above, really suck. Making me key in random letters and numbers to leave a comment is the worst.

Well, she sorta speaks for me. Daphne is off on a generalized rant against Blogger as a platform. I don't agree completely about that, as Blogger is VERY easy to use and is relatively hassle-free, compared to other platforms. And I HAVE considered moving to another medium, but have always stopped when I read of the hassles encountered by others with platforms such as WordPress. As a matter of fact, Lex's top post today is a cry for help concerning some arcana associated with the latest iteration of WordPress. We don't need the hassle... no, we most certainly don't.

But about that capcha thing, otherwise known as the Security Word... I responded to Daphne thusly:

Making me key in random letters and numbers to leave a comment is the worst.

That's MY pet peeve about people who use Blogger. If you're one of the Big Dogs who gets thousands of hits an hour, using capcha will keep spam-bots away. But if you're small fry with 200 hits or less a day, what's the frickin' POINT, other than to irritate your audience?

That said... I know from reading other people that Wordpress ain't all THAT easy. Blogger, for all its faults, is largely hassle-free. I like that.

I feel the same way about comment moderation, too. Moderation kills spontaneity and conversation among commenters and bloggers... especially when it isn't used in a timely manner. I understand some folks, like Blog-Bud Cynthia, get anti-military Leftards dropping perverse and obscene comments in their blogs on a routine basis. But that would be the ONLY reason I can see for comment moderation... that being you have a history of stalkers and idiots haunting your blog. Otherwise? Not so much. Not at ALL, in most cases. But, Hey! To each his own, and all that. Your blog, your choice.

The Last Hockey Post…

The Detroit Red Wing bench and goalie Chris Osgood are dejected after the Pittsburgh Penguins defeated them 2-1 in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, Friday June 12, 2009 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI. (MANDI WRIGHT/DFP)

… of this season. About last night’s loss: I’m still not over this. You might could say I’m obsessed or that this kind of reaction isn’t normal for a grown man. That may be true, but I’m not alone in my obsession. Go read the more than four pages of comments at the Abel to Yzerman blog if you want proof. Said comments began immediately following the game and kept coming into the wee small hours… and I DO mean “wee.” They’re still posting comments, as I type. And you’ll note… if you go… that there are some real class-act fans posting there. A few idiots, yeah, but class… for the most part.

I think hockey fans are different (to crib a line from the infamous NHL ad campaign). Below are a few from last night… note the raw emotion on display.

Julianne Sabon, 30, of Roseville puts her head in her hands while watching Game 7 of the NHL Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Hockeytown in Detroit, on Friday, June 12, 2009. The Wings lost 2-1. (KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP)

Eva Gratz, 21, of Southgate watches Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins at Hockeytown in Detroit, on Friday, June 12, 2009. (KIMBERLY P. MITCHELL/DFP)

Red Wings fans Chris Hering, 24, Nickie Harting, 23, left, and Genevieve Hinkley react to the Pittsburgh Penguins win over the Detroit Red Wings in the Stanley Cup Finals at Mr B's Pub in Royal Oak. The Wings were trying for their 12th Stanley Cup. Its the first time the Wings hosted a Game 7 title game in more than five decades. (WILLIAM ARCHIE/DFP)

I'm NOT the only one, Gentle Reader.

So. I was up to all hours this morning, reading…reading…reading. I tried to go to sleep on two occasions, once after midnight and again at 0200 hrs. I just couldn’t do it. And so I got up and read some more. Here’s one of the better pieces, from the inimitable Mitch Albom:

The last 6 minutes could have ripped out your insides. Fans on their feet, screeching their vocal cords. The Red Wings surging, their lungs burning, as they chased the only thing that mattered. One goal. One goal. One goal could make up for the whole night and turn this thing from hopeless to hopeful, reverse destiny, roll the stalled parade floats. Music blared in the breaks: “I want it all, and I want it now!”

Then Niklas Kronwall fired and HIT THE CROSSBAR! The whole building groaned! Valtteri Filppula shot! It was caught by Marc-Andre Fleury. The Wings pulled their goalie. They chased and chased. Thirty seconds. Twenty seconds. Six seconds. The puck came off a rebound and there was one final shot, so close in, Nicklas Lidstrom stepped into it and fired and Fleury dove in the air as the fans gave one last collective scream …

And then.

And then, moments later, such quiet. In the tunnel. In the stands. In the dejected locker room. Quiet, as if the devil might hear you whisper and make it worse. Quiet is not what you expect in a Game 7 to determine the Stanley Cup. But quiet is what you get when the home team watches it slip away. Quiet is what you get when you are Lidstrom, who saw that last shot blocked by Fleury. Quiet is what you get when you are Marian Hossa, who watched the other team celebrate last year, and had to do it again Friday night, with the uniforms reversed.

Quiet is what you are left with on a night to forget, in a series to remember.

A night to forget, indeed. But it most certainly was a series to remember. Read the whole thing.

No excuses, but… (George Malik from Snapshots)

Per the post-game shows from WDIV, WJBK, WXYZ, and a few observations of my own...

Bernie Smilovitz and Mickey Redmond suggested that Tomas Holmstrom, Kris Draper, and Mikael Samuelsson were significantly banged up, that Dan Cleary wouldn't have been playing if it was the regular season, that Pavel Datsyuk was hurt a little more significantly than he let on, that the same could be said for Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski, and Henrik Zetterberg was "at 70%."

That much, I can confirm from looking at his equipment. Zetterberg usually wears a pair of 14-inch Easton gloves with "floating" wrist protectors. During the Blackhawks series, Zetterberg adopted a 13" Dan Cleary glove (you can literally see the "Cleary" stamped onto the glove in pictures), which has almost no cuff and a flexible, on his top hand, and his "normal" bottom hand glove had two extra stiff plastic slash guards affixed to its cuff. Something got torn or broken there.

Much was made about the Wings being “old and slow” during the Finals. I’m quite sure there’s much more to that particular story line than will ever be revealed, but some of the story will come out in the days to come. Part of hockey culture is NOT acknowledging injury and playing through pain when humanly possible. I’m thinking a lot of the Wings did exactly that in the Finals— they played on, regardless of their injuries — and to the unenlightened or unknowing it looked like they were old and tired, rather than hurt. Yet another case in point: Lidstrom admitted he had surgery after getting speared in the testicles during Game Three in Chicago. And he came back to play after that? Amazing.

Well. It’s over for this year. But we’ll begin again in October. I’ll watch when I can and I’ll be obsessed again come April. And possibly well into May, and hopefully June again. There’s this about that:

DETROIT – If you liked what you saw from this year’s Stanley Cup final – and if you didn’t you’re either a Detroit Red Wings fan or you might want to check to see that you have a pulse – you might want to consider getting used to seeing these teams steal the show at the NHL’s annual spring dance.

There’s no reason to believe the Pittsburgh Penguins and Red Wings won’t be treating the hockey world to lots of deep playoff runs in the next couple of years. And who knows? Perhaps we’ll all be back here watching the Red Wings wrest the Stanley Cup back from the Penguins?

[…]

Don’t laugh, it could happen. After all, who’s going to challenge these two teams in the next couple of years? The San Jose Sharks or Washington Capitals? They might want to try getting halfway through the playoffs without losing one of these times. The Boston Bruins? Maybe, but they have some holes to fill and need to find some playoff courage somewhere along the way. The Vancouver Canucks? Come on.

The fact is the Penguins and Red Wings were in the Stanley Cup final for a reason – something about them being the class of the league. Both teams face some excruciating decisions this summer – perhaps not such a difficult one for Detroit after watching their No. 81 look more like Maid Marian or Marian Cunningham than Marian Hossa during their playoff run. They will both lose players and they will be important players.

That’s Ken Campbell, writing in The Hockey News. Getting to the Finals three years in a row might be too much to ask for some folks, but not around here. I’m thinking Pittsburgh fans feel the same way.

Update, 06/13/2009 1220 hrs: The CBC's End of Season tribute. Lotsa faces and places you know in this one. Lotsa heartbreak, too.

Yeah... it was a great season, all things considered. (h/t: Kukla's Korner)

Sigh

Congratulations Pittsburgh. Stanley Cup Champions 2009.

Penguins 2, Wings 1.

A Little Light Linkage

Something from earlier this week I should have linked, but didn’t: From ReasonOnline… The Top 10 Most Absurd Time Covers of The Past 40 Years… Mr. Luce's mag does satanism, porn, crack, Pokemon, and more! There are some doozies in there, like this one:

8. August 6, 1984: The Population Curse

Why So Worried? Using an upcoming U.N. conference in Mexico City as its hook, Time engages in some Paul Ehrlich-style doom-mongering about overpopulation.

Cue Ominous Music: "The consequences of a failure to bring the world's population growth under control are frightening. They could include widespread hunger and joblessness, accompanied by environmental devastation and cancerous urban growth. Politically, the outcome could be heightened global instability, violence and authoritarianism."

Oh, Just Settle Down: Since Time's 1984 cover story, the world's population has increased from 4.75 billion to 6.78 billion people. This year, the World Bank's Poverty Analysis reported, "Living standards have risen dramatically over the last decades. The proportion of the developing world's population living in extreme economic poverty...has fallen from 52 percent in 1981 to 26 percent in 2005.... Infant mortality rates in low- and middle-income countries have fallen from 87 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 54 in 2006. Life expectancy in [low and middle-income] countries has risen from 60 to 66 between 1980 and 2006." According to the peace advocacy group Ploughshares, the number of armed conflicts across the globe has generally been in decline since the mid-1990s (PDF). As for "authoritarianism," with the fall of the Soviet empire, a far greater percentage of the global population lived under such regimes in 1984 than do today. Even the massive population in China is freer (if not actually "free") than it was in 1984.

The format remains the same for the other nine articles, only the crisis du jour changes. Drugs were gonna kill us all on at least two occasions in the past 40 years… the tsunami of porn, also appearing twice… three times if you count the culture being cheapened by profanity… was only slightly less bad. Yet not a word about Islamic fundamentalists. Go figger. And print media wonders why their revenues keep dropping. I guess the answer to that is there aren’t enough waiting rooms in the civilized world to support all those magazines no one reads any longer.

The supporting links in the various items make for some good reading. I know I killed about an hour with this article.

―:☺:―

As you might expect, hockey fans are being overwhelmed with reading material (and videos!) on the eve of Game Seven. The three hockey blogs I follow… Puck Daddy, Snapshots, and Kukla’s Korner… have been instrumental in keeping me up to the minute, but MOST especially George Malik of Snapshots. The man is a veritable Red Wings information-gathering MACHINE. He was still posting stuff at 0315 hrs this morning. And I was awake to read it, as well. Both of us are jes a lil bit crazy.

The winner in the “most different take” category has to be the Wall Street Journal’s profile of the Red Wings… which draws parallels between the team, the city of Detroit, and the plight of auto industry. The lede grafs:

As the ailing Motor City rallies around the Detroit Red Wings, who face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, there is one tiny bit of irony: Michigan’s top team is powered more than ever by European imports.

Less than half the Red Wings’ roster comes from North America. The rest, and most of the team’s top talent, hails from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Russia and Finland. In all, five players are from the U.S.

Years ago, when the Big Three auto makers were allowing overseas competitors to pull ahead, the world was getting flat inside Joe Louis Arena. Starting in the 1980s, the Red Wings began building a dynasty by recruiting talent from Russia and adopting a new, European style of hockey.

The Red Wings’ success—they have won four Stanley Cups since 1997–paved the way for the rest of the league to follow. Today 30% of the NHL’s players hail from outside North America. The Red Wings are still the most international team, with 54% of their players hailing from overseas. This season, more than 80% of the Red Wings’ goals were scored by players born outside North America, up from 41.5% in the 1996-1997 season.

At the same time, the pool of available talent at home seems to be thinning. In Michigan, one of the nation’s top junior-hockey states, the struggling economy—and the high cost of junior hockey—is taking a toll on participation. USA Hockey says youth participation in the state has fallen 14% in the past three seasons.

It’s really a good article… the perfect read for the combination of Bid’niz Guy, Automotive Division and hockey fan. Who’d a thunk it?

―:☺:―

Today is The Second Mrs. Pennington’s birthday. She’s 53 today, and I have no compunctions about publishing her age. Real Women are proud of their age… the experience it brings and both the inner and outer beauty of maturity. I think TSMP falls into that camp. Or strides resolutely into it… whatevah.

So… in honor of the birthday girl… here’s a pic from the Way-Back; March of 1998, to be exact:

Happy birthday, Paula.

―:☺:―

Oh! One more thing…

GO WINGS!

This, That, and the Other

I think this is pretty cool:

The first MC-12W Liberty aircraft in-theater taxis out of an aircraft hanger at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, June 10, 2009, for its first combat sortie. The first of the Air Force's new manned intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance platforms, designed to bolster real-time ISR support to ground forces, arrived in Iraq on June 8. US Air Force photo/SrA. Tiffany Trojca

I snagged the photo from the AFA’s Daily Report, which had this to say on the subject:

Liberty Enters the Fight: The MC-12W, the Air Force's newest intelligence-reconnaissance-surveillance platform, flew its first combat sortie yesterday, a four-hour mission from Joint Base Balad, Iraq, over the Middle Eastern nation. "It feels good being out here and doing something good for the warfighter," said Capt. Jason Goodale, the pilot, after the historic mission. Manned by a four-person crew, the MC-12W is a turboprop aircraft equipped to collect signals intelligence and provide overhead live-streaming video in support of ground troops at the tactical level. The Air Force is acquiring 37 of these "Liberty Project Aircraft," under an accelerated acquisition initiative, to bolster overhead ISR in Afghanistan and Iraq. Seven will be trainers and the rest will constitute two operational units. The aircraft arrived at Balad June 8 in fully-mission-ready status. It is assigned to Balad's 362nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, which activated on June 9. "This is the first combat mission for the 362nd ERS, and it was a huge success," said Col. Mike Fantini, 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group commander. He added, "The milestone continues the extraordinary program to push more ISR capability to the joint-force commander." (Includes Balad reports by SSgt. Dilia Ayala on the MC-12W's arrival and inaugural combat mission)

The principal reason I think this lil aircraft… and the entire project… is noteworthy is because the Air Force took this thing from concept to combat in a little over a year. Granted the platform uses a proven “off the shelf” commercial airframe as its basis and starting point, which cuts development time considerably. But that doesn’t diminish the success of the project, which includes modifying the aircraft and integrating the ISR suite, a non-trivial task in itself. I dunno if this is some sort of record for getting off the drawing board and out into the field, but I’m sure it’s close.

―:☺:―

An AAR*, of sorts… The American Masters episode on Neil Young was excellent last evening and met my high expectations for both content and production. I don’t want to get too maudlin or anything, Gentle Reader, but you just would NOT believe how many memory-buttons got pushed… and pushed hard… last night. Music is a powerful memory stimulant for us all and particularly so when we associate certain tunes with certain events of great magnitude in our lives. The dormant synapses that fired off last evening went all the way back to shortly after Son Number One was born (think: Buffalo Springfield)… and that, Gentle Reader, is over 42 years ago. And the hits just kept on comin’… not a few of which left me rather… ummm… misty. Stuff happens.

I should note the program ended on a spectacular down note for YrHmblScrb… concluding as it did with Neil’s latest efforts, which include a not-so-clever little ditty entitled “Let’s Impeach the President.” I might could (and did) buy into moonbat politics back in the ‘70s. But nowadays? Not so much. Not at ALL, actually. Mr. Young won’t get any of my money for crap like that, no matter how much I love him.

*AAR: after action report.

―:☺:―

Your oh-so-brief hockey update for the day comes from Christine Brennan, writing in USA Today (egad!). Excerpts:

You know what they say about hockey being much better in person? It might be time to amend that statement, because it's actually much better on high-definition TV.

Due to HDTV, hockey is now watchable and even understandable for people who didn't grow up in or near Canada. Thus, it's entirely possible that better times are ahead for this sport, due in large part to technology.

"High definition has been a great benefit for all sports, but it has been a unique benefit for hockey," said sports television consultant Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports. "Hockey is a very fast sport; the puck moves very quickly. Given the difficulty that people have had watching a hockey game compared to watching a baseball or basketball game, high definition can have a big impact. It allows you to see on TV what you see in the arena, with great clarity."

[…]

Hockey has always been known as the world's fastest game, a description the sport should play up at every turn as the attention span of the U.S. sports fan lessens year by year. Not only is there more beautiful passing and skating, and less fighting, in hockey's playoffs than its regular season, it also should be noted that the NHL doesn't hog your time like the NBA.

When there are five minutes left in an NHL game, that means it will take about five minutes to finish the game, give or take a 30-second timeout or two. When there are five minutes left in an NBA game, it's time to order a pizza.

No new technology is needed, though, to accentuate hockey's best attribute: Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals, traditionally the best Game 7 in sports. For the first time in three years, the NHL gives us the ultimate finale Friday night. At the end, we can only hope it's close, that someone is pulling the goalie, that an empty net looms ominously at one end of the ice.

Yeah… a paean to Game Seven. Ms. Brennan takes a lot of time contrasting the NBA and the NHL… and the NHL comes out favorably. As it should. One other thing… let’s hope that empty net during the last minute of tomorrow night’s game is at Pittsburgh’s end of the ice.

―:☺:―

Finally… your daily dose of Michael Ramirez:

I’m not one to go on about gub’mint-provided health care, seeing as how I’ve lived under the military’s variation of same my entire life, less those (approximately) 16 years I was in private industry and had employer-provided health insurance. That said, I’m of the opinion that health care as provided by the same sorts of folks who bring you the Department of Education and the IRS probably isn’t a great good thing.

Right Now

Watching The Silk Road Ensemble (on Live From Lincoln Center) to kick off an evening of music on PBS...



Next up: Neil Young. That's something of a leap... and anything but boring.

Clutterf!cked

There’s an old saying that work expands to fit available time and I do believe there’s a corollary that applies to junk and clutter, as well. I took a look around El Casa Móvil De Pennington recently and am simply amazed and mortified at how my available space has been consumed with clutter. A lot of it has to do with the rash of deliveries we’ve taken from The Brown Truck O’ Happiness lately (in the form of yet-to-be-discarded boxes), but by no means all. I’ve slowly but steadily expanded my collection of “stuff” since I went off the road… adding a scanner, a printer, a couple of boxes of old photos that I fully intend to scan but haven’t quite got around to (yet… I tell myself), a larger TV, a desktop PC (vs. the old laptop), a larger monitor… and the list goes on.

Photographic Evidence:

Compare those shots to my early days in El Casa Móvil De Pennington:

Being overcome with clutter is but one example of how men absolutely require the presence of a woman in their lives, as things tend to get out of hand when we’re left to our own devices. All that said, the routine cleaning… vacuuming, dusting, taking out the trash, doing the dishes and the other mundane daily chores… (mostly) gets done without fail. It’s a merciless purging I’m in need of… which is to say I need a field day* in the worst sort of way.

Soon. But more than likely mañana. It's time for Happy Hour.

* military slang for those days spent entirely on cleaning and policing the area.

Yet Another PSA... But Serious This Time

From left, Emmylou Harris, Neil Young and Pegi Young perform in the second half of the concert for the film Neil Young: Heart of Gold by Jonathan Demme. This photo was released to the press for promotional purposes by Paramount Classics and Paramount Home Entertainment.
(Image and caption from Wikipedia)

Ex-hippie alert… tomorrow night on PBS (check local listings, as they say… it’s on at 2030 hrs here in P-Ville):

Neil Young
Don't Be Denied

A resolutely private artist who seldom looks back, Neil Young has never before unfolded his career on camera. With unprecedented access to one of the world’s renowned music legends, American Masters presents Neil Young: Don’t Be Denied premiering nationally Wednesday, June 10, 2009 at 9 p.m. (ET) on PBS (check local listings). The film explores how Young’s unbending dedication to the muse has created an awe-inspiring body of work and bruised a few egos along the way.

Told in Young’s own words, the film weaves hours of exclusive interview, shot in New York and California, with previously unseen performance footage from the star’s own extensive collection. The documentary also features long-time collaborators Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, David Crosby, Nils Lofgren and James Taylor.

“There’s no denying Neil Young as music’s most uncompromising rock royalty,” says Susan Lacy, creator and executive producer of American Masters, a six-time winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Primetime Non-Fiction Series. “He’s an irreverent poet with a rock and roll heart. His music embodies the arc of American experience, challenges authoritative views, defies industry pigeon-holing and continues to have an impact on musicians and fans worldwide.”

Charting Young’s musical journey from his suburban Canadian childhood to his Hollywood superstardom, an intimate camera captures the critical benchmarks and personal pitfalls of the godfather of grunge. In the late 60s, he achieved early acclaim with the short-lived yet influential psychedelic garage band, Buffalo Springfield, which launched his solo career. During this creative streak, he founded Crazy Horse and collaborated with Crosby, Stills and Nash. Adding fuel to his already rising success, these bands also shot to meteoric fame. The intensity of mega-stardom, mixed with frequent bouts of artistic differences, led to Young’s departure from both groups. He later explained his anti-star status, “I didn’t spend 10 years in the 60s and 70s creating something so I could be a prisoner of it … You know if you’re trying to stay in the favor of the public, you’re a loser – you’ll never get there.”

I dunno if you’ve ever watched any of PBS’ American Masters series, Gentle Reader, but I think they’re VERY well done and highly recommend any and all them. I’ve yet to see a clinker in any of the episodes I’ve watched… they’re phenomenal, each and every one. It’s with that in mind that I’ll be in front of my teevee tomorrow night, thankful there’s not a hockey game on at the same time.

Neil Young is a long-time favorite of mine, going all the way back to the ‘60s. A quick search reveals I’ve mentioned him and his music in seven different posts here at EIP, and here’s an excerpt from one such:

In the beginning…during our courtship… The Second Mrs. Pennington and I spent a lot of time at this little coffee shop not far from her apartment in Musashi-Koganei (a Tokyo suburb). Like most Tokyo coffee shops at the time, this one had a really excellent, state-of-the art stereo system and a huge collection of albums. Patrons were encouraged, and I mean encouraged…it was almost demanded…to let the owners know their preferences in music. It was customary for the shop to play an entire album side of whichever artist you requested. Early on…within hours, if not minutes…TSMP and I discovered we both had a mutual love and admiration for Neil Young. And the help at “our” coffee shop learned this pretty quickly, as well. From about our third or fourth visit it became standard procedure for the help to put Neil’s “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” (side one) on as soon as we walked in, no questions asked. With big smiles all around, especially from us.

Yup. Ol’ Neil’s very, very special to me… and a few million others.

―:☺:―

A host of Red Wings and Penguins crash the net for a failed goal shot attempt by Detroit's Johan Franzen during the final seconds of the third period of Game 6 between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals, Tuesday June 9, 2009 at Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.
(ANDRE JACKSON/DFP)

The oh-so-brief hockey update: there will be a Game Seven this Friday night. The Beloved Wings lost to the Flightless Birds last night, 2-1. Broke my frickin’ heart, that did… and SN1’s, too. We were both rather despondent in our post-game telephone wrap-up. But it’s only a brief sort of heartbreak, yanno? I fully expect the Wings will be triumphant Friday. The loss last night only adds to the drama of the series, which has been one of the best Finals in recent memory.

Enough about that.

Under the WX and One Other Minor Moan

I had a restless night and didn’t sleep well at all. I finally figured out what the Hell was going on around 0530 hrs this morning: I hurt. This wasn’t a dreadful, all-encompassing sort of pain but more of a low level deal centered in my lower back and thighs. So… I rolled out, took a couple of Aleves, fired off the coffee pot, and waited for the Aleves to kick in. I drank half the pot before the pain went away and then thought it a good idea to return to bed. And so I did.

I was awakened from a moderately good sleep about 20 minutes ago by the sound of my awning flapping and banging in the considerable breeze. Our wind subsided quite a bit yesterday, which allowed me to put the awning down and keep it down until just a few minutes ago. Alas, the wind has returned and it will be another 90-degree sort of day. But there is a silver sort of lining: it’s completely overcast. Ergo, no direct sun on El Casa Móvil De Pennington this afternoon.

Thank God for small favors.

I shall now return from whence I came: au lit. I hope this ain’t the flu or something like it. I kinda doubt it, though. More than likely it’s just simple creakiness due to Old Age… which ain’t for sissies.

Just so your visit here today isn’t a complete waste, here’s another photo from times past, specifically 10/20/2006:

Today’s Pic: Riotous color in a Santa Fe outdoor market - June, 2004. As always, click the pic for the larger version. In this case, you most definitely should look at the larger pic.

I need to get back up that way... soon.

What? Another Re-Run?

Umm, yeah. It's summer, for starters. I'm just not feelin' it today, for seconders. Maybe it's coz I'm not fully caffeinated yet, for thirders. We shall ponder the circumstances while taking our coffee. In the meantime, from 11/22/2006...

The Horror! The Horror!

Today’s Pic: From a slender volume titled “Little Known Horror B-Movie Out-Takes, vol. VII.” “The happy couple stood on the valley floor, blissfully unaware of their impending doom as The Blob silently but inexorably approached…”

YrsTrly and Friend at the Valley of Fires, aka the Malpais Lava Flow. April, 2004.

Do ya think I might have some potential as a copywriter? Nah, I didn't think so. Me neither, for that matter.

♫♪ What Else Can I Be? All Apologies... ♫♪

With apologies (heh) to Kurt Cobain (RIP).

Is Ramirez right, or what?

―:☺:―

And now we'll complain about the weather... for which I apologize, coz apologies are ALL the rage.

Yesterday was not a particularly nice day here on The High Plains of New Mexico, what with the evil combination of mid-90 degree temps and the gawd-awful wind. I don’t mind one or the other, but I DO mind both. The primary reason I take exception to the combination of wind and heat is I cannot put my awning down when the wind is high; otherwise I wouldn’t have an awning. For long. And that means El Casa Móvil De Pennington sits in full-sun for the entire afternoon, which in turn stresses my air conditioning. Think of a car sitting in a parking lot on a hot summer’s day and you’ve grasped the problem.

We’ll have more of the same today, unfortunately. Here’s what we look like right now…

And here’s what the kind folks at the NWS in Albuquerque tell us:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Albuquerque, NM
9:43 am MDT, Sun., Jun. 7, 2009

... wind advisory remains in effect until 7 pm MDT this evening...

A wind advisory remains in effect until 7 pm MDT this evening.

West to southwest winds will increase by early afternoon over much of eastern New Mexico. Wind speeds of 25 to 35 mph with occasional gusts up to 50 and 55 mph will be possible. These strong winds will create areas of blowing dust which may briefly reduce visibility at times. Winds are expected to decrease in speed by sunset.

(sigh) Every region has its weather-crosses to bear… wind and heat are ours. There are redeeming qualities, given the wind dies down after sunset and that’s a Good Thing. We delayed Happy Hour yesterday until after the game was over… and then we went out into the cool of the evening and enjoyed four fingers of single-malt and a cigar. Our hair was only slightly mussed when we returned indoors.

Yes!

(graphic from NHL.com)

Now that’s more like it. Here’s Bob Wojnowski from the Detroit News:

Detroit -- They skated as if their reputations were on fire. They attacked as if insulted by the insinuations of creakiness and fatigue. The Red Wings blasted through a wall of growing doubt as if it wasn't even there, and after this performance, maybe it isn't.

The Wings played as if they'd been here before, and we know they have. The Penguins played as if they had no idea how to handle it, and frankly, acted idiotic at times.

This was a champion's response on a Saturday night of danger, as the Wings pounded the Penguins 5-0 to grab a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup Finals, one victory from a repeat championship. So, the old red-bearded warriors have something left, eh?

Suddenly, all the questions about the Wings' composure can be transferred to the Penguins, who started hacking and whacking once the game got out of control. Pain doesn't hurt now, isn't that the theory? If the Wings indeed are wounded, they have plenty of fight left, and they'll need it because as impressive as this victory was, you know the series will go back to intense when it resumes in Pittsburgh on Tuesday night.

The Wings got home after a poor performance in Game 4 and inhaled fumes of desperation. Oh, it also helped that Pavel Datsyuk leaped over the boards in the first minute after missing seven games with a foot injury. When he hit the ice, the Joe Louis Arena crowd erupted and the Wings had the boost they craved.

Later in the first period, it was Datsyuk controlling the puck, carrying it into the Penguins' end and flipping it to Dan Cleary, who fired it past a startled Marc-Andre Fleury for a 1-0 lead.

And then it was off to the races, Gentle Reader. The Wings only got stronger as the game wore on while Pittsburgh’s composure completely disintegrated, as evidenced by the numerous penalties the Flightless Birds took. “Disintegration” is putting it mildly while being kind. Other words come to mind… chief among them “idiotic,” as Bob notes. The Wings made the Pens pay for their whacks, hacks, and other cheap shots… going three-for-nine on the power play. It was a thing of beauty for Wings fans.

I had my moments during the first seven minutes of the game when Pittsburgh came out like a house afire. Most of the play was in the Wings zone during that time but the game turned when the Wings killed off a Pens power play, denying them even a single shot on goal. Datsyuk and Cleary sped down the ice a couple of few minutes later and opened up the scoring, making it 1-0 Wings. I didn’t have one single anxious moment after that. Not one. Like I said: a thing of beauty.

So. Back to Pittsburgh on Tuesday. No one is counting the Pens out and one could say their pride has been severely injured with this embarrassing loss. But I’m thinking there’s a MUCH better than even chance we’ll watch the Wings skate the Cup around Mellon Arena Tuesday night. After all… Pavel’s back and we’re looking pretty danged good at this moment in time. The Pens? Not so much.

―:☺:―

Here are the game highlights… ALL the goals and a few of the hits… especially for SN1. He had a social function some Mandatory Fun to attend this evening and missed the game. What’s worse is he left specific instructions for the game to be recorded so he could watch when he got home… and it wasn’t. I filled him in as best as I could, but there’s NO substitute for seeing it yourself.

There ya go, Buck.

D-Day

Sixty-five years ago today. All images as captioned in the Life Magazine photo archives.

Tracer fire from many different ships lighting up the night sky over the English Channel during opening phase of D-Day, the Allied invasion of France. (no credit)

American B-26 Marauders with special D-Day markings make a bombing run over Cherbourg around the time of the Allied D-Day invasion of France. (Frank Scherschel)

Aerial view of American troops and tanks coming ashore as landing craft continue to unload on the first day of Operation Overlord, the invasion of France, aka on D-Day. (no credit)

Massive landing and deployment of US troops, supplies and equipment in the days following victorious D-Day action on Omaha Beach; barrage balloons guard against German aircraft while scores of ships unload men & material. (no credit)

Bodies of 8 American paratroopers lie outside the wreckage of their glider near Hiesville, France on the day of the invasion of Normandy, aka D-Day. (no credit)

Chaplin saying mass aboard HMS Scylla, laying at anchor off the Normandy coast shortly after the D-Day invasion of France. (no credit)

As always... click for larger. And spare a thought and a prayer today for those who made the ultimate sacrifice 65 years ago. There were many thousands who gave their lives for freedom on this day...

Beer

A friend sends this along via e-mail today... and it's well and truly MY vision of what lies at the end of the rainbow (click for larger):

Speaking of beer... you ARE visiting Beer Haiku Daily, right? Today's offering:

With beer in my face
I can’t put my finger on
What I said to her

Heh. I've been there, unfortunately. But not often. And not lately.

Woe Is Us

Penguins fans celebrate at the final buzzer of a 4-2 series-tying Pittsburgh victory in Game 4. (Detroit News photo)

Well. We are NOT Happy Campers here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington today. The game last night got off to a bad start, had its redeeming moments late in the first period and early in the second, but was otherwise all downhill for us Wings fans… especially during a certain 5:37 timeframe in the second period. I was on the phone with SN1 (and SN2, as well) when the Flightless Birds scored their third goal during that span and I wanna tell ya… the language in play wasn’t pretty. Here’s Bob Wojnowski, writing in the Detroit News:

Again and again, the Penguins attacked, skating in swarms, rushing the net. And for the first time all series, the Red Wings buckled.

And now, the Wings look strangely vulnerable. Full danger has arrived, clamped to the backs of Penguins stars Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, who are finding more and more room to roam. The Wings were backing up, even frazzled at times, and they have some issues that aren't going away.

One issue is that the Penguins are as skilled and swift as advertised, and it was all on display in their 4-2 victory Thursday night at Mellon Arena, which tied the Stanley Cup Finals at 2-2.

The Wings can match almost any team's firepower, but they're having a harder time doing it without star Pavel Datsyuk. And as these games are progressing, they're having a harder time keeping up with the young Penguins. After a decent start, the Wings looked weary, playing their fifth game in eight nights.

Heavy minutes for Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom are piling up, more pronounced without Datsyuk, who skated in warmups but was out for the seventh straight game with an apparent foot injury. The Wings aren't buying the fatigue angle, and the truth is, a 2-2 tie between these teams is about right.

But in a stunning stretch of the second period, when the Penguins scored three goals to seize command, the Wings were careless with the puck and slow to recover. They must recover quickly now, with Game 5 on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

This was the fourth consecutive game where the team that was outshot won (the Wings had last night's shot advantage, 39-31). It was also the first time in over 20 years where the home team has won the first four games. As for that last… I’m more than OK if that particular trend continues, as the Wings have home ice advantage. And finally… I’m with George:

I'm not suggesting that looking at this loss as anything other than colossal is unacceptable. The Wings made some egregious mental mistakes and got out-worked, out-hustled, and, perhaps most disturbingly, out-willed. Nicklas Lidstrom admitted that the Wings made far too many lateral passes through centre ice which ended up on Penguins sticks, and their penchant for giving up odd-man rushes was plain old disturbing.

I'm just saying that the self-flagellation going on in Hockeytown is equally disturbing.

Worried? I'm worried, just like you are. I think that the Wings have to stem a tide of all-too familiar mistake-making before it catches up with them. But I'm not giving up hope as of Thursday night/Friday morning.

There will be… and is, at the moment… lots of second-guessing, teeth-gnashing, doom-sayers, and folks jumping off the bandwagon. That’s par for the course when your team drops two games in a row during an important series. But it’s far from the end of the world. The series is tied right now and nearly everyone said going in that this would be at least a six… if not seven… game final.

The end of the world as we know it would be if the Wings drop tomorrow night’s game. It would pretty much be over then. I don’t expect that to happen.

Still More Random Notes

So. Yesterday… being close to the first of the month… was filled with the banal yet essential trivialities of life. Bills were paid. I completed the bi-monthly commissary and beer run with minimal drama and maximum efficiency. I got my quarterly haircut. So on and so forth.

The usual, customary, and reasonable Happy Hour was my reward for completing the necessary tasks but with the advent of warm weather we’re deprived of our soundtrack, seeing as how we keep El Casa Móvil De Pennington buttoned up tight when the AC is running. Our neighbors doubtlessly appreciate that… even though I try to keep the music at a level that’s sufficient for my ears only. We do live in close quarters here in Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park, though.

―:☺:―

I always get my hair cut out at the base barbershop (of late… more on that below), which tends to be more economical than the civilian shops in the area. There is a downside, though, as employee turnover is high out at the base and I’ve never quite understood why that is. I have theories… well, one theory. Most of the barbers, and they are ALL female, are probably married to GIs… and when the GIs leave, so does the help. I don’t like that. I prefer to go to the same person each and every time for my four-times-a-year barbering experience. Build a relationship, and all that. But if that’s what I TRULY wanted, I’d go local… as the barbers in the old shop I patronized a few years back were steady in their employment… being owner-operated.

Still and even… I wish there were establishments that provided services such as this in my neck o’ the woods. I’d pay good money for this…seeing as how it only happens four times a year:

We then walked down an alley and into a barber shop. There waiting for us was an old man, the barber, and two young Japanese maidens, all three smiling broadly. The old man waved me into one of the barber chairs, and I dutifully sat. The old man reclined the barber chair and I stretched out, fully supine. One of the girls then proceeded to take off my shoes and socks, while the other fetched a large handful of steaming towels from a container. She artfully wrapped my entire head in those towels, leaving a small space for me to breathe through. All the while this is going on, the other girl is washing my feet. After a few minutes, the second girl unwraps my face and the barber proceeds to shave me. The first girl is still working on my feet, giving me a pedicure and ending up with a prolonged and wonderful foot massage. After the barber finished shaving me I was escorted to a wash stand where the first girl washed and towel-dried my hair. Then it was back to the barber chair for the actual haircut while the two girls gave me a manicure. The whole experience ended with both girls massaging my entire upper body. I walked out of that place feeling like a million bucks, and I’ve never had a “haircut” like that, ever again.

Ah… but that was in Japan, in the ‘70s, and all that was had for the princely sum of around 15 Yankee Dollars, if memory serves. But the haircut was a birthday present and I didn’t pick up the tab. It could have been more, but I doubt it. (You’ll also note, if you follow the link and read the whole thing, that I was “going local” when that piece was written a few years back. We’ve since changed our habits.)

―:☺:―

Blog-Bud Kris is back from her cruise vacation and has posted interesting narrative and pics of the experience. Some of the pics she’s posted are of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor… which resulted in me posting the following in her comments:

Seeing the Statue of Liberty at this level is awe-inspiring. People go mad taking pictures - myself included - and there typically isn't alot of conversation. Respect for this iconic image is obvious - the experience is treated with reverence by everyone.

The family spent five consecutive years overseas when I was a child... with no trips home... and we returned to the US via sea (the ol' Military Sea Transport Service, out of bid'niz now that everyone goes to and fro by air). The ONE thing among many I'll never forget about that trip... and it was epic, as we embarked in Istanbul and made many port calls in the Med on the two week journey home... is my Mom bursting into tears when the Statue of Liberty came into full view as we sailed into New York harbor. It was a defining moment for me, and something I'll NEVER forget.

So... I know exactly where you're coming from with this.

S’true, that. I’ve spent some time today remembering that experience… of standing on the ship’s rail in the morning’s summer sunshine, watching the coastline get steadily larger… from the thinnest of thin lines on the horizon to the point where it began to fill our view, further enlarging to the point where one could make out buildings and such… and then my Mom’s hand gripping mine so hard it hurt when Lady Liberty came into glorious full view. It was then I was going to say “Mom!” when I looked over and saw the tears streaming down her face and my father’s arm around her shoulder. Things just don’t get any more poignant than that, Gentle Reader. I was 13 years old at the time.

Just as a short digression… I’ve also wondered a bit this morning about the navigation skills of the master and crew of the ship… and just how they managed to end a two week voyage across the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean so as to arrive in New York in the morning daylight… not to mention to facilitate the disembarking process in a manner that would allow all aboard to either make other transportation connections or get to their hotels in a timely manner. A small miracle that was.

But… let us return to our reminiscing… Five years is a long time to be away from home. Our consecutive tours in Paris… three years, followed by a two-year stint in Ankara, Turkey… were probably a LOT harder on my parents, particularly my Mom, than they were on my sister and I. Keep in mind this was in the 1950s, and we went five years with no TV and no telephone, just for starters. My family went entirely without a lot of the things we take for granted today… like fresh iceberg lettuce… for an extended period of time. While the experience was wonderful for my sister and me it was doubtless much less so for Mom. The support mechanisms our troops take for granted today… big-ass commissaries and base exchanges, just to name two… existed only in rudimentary form “back in the day.”

Another memory I have of our return is what Mom ordered for dinner our first night home. She instructed the waiter in the restaurant to cut a full head of lettuce into quarters and bring her a bowl FULL of Thousand Island dressing. And that was IT… all she had for dinner, period, full-stop. I remember that very well, as it became part of the family lore… a tale told and retold throughout the remainder of my childhood whenever the subject of homecomings came up.

I suppose you hadda be there. I'm glad I was.

Do Me a Flavor...

... if'n ya would, Gentle Reader. I have it on good authority... the best, actually... that today is Blog-Bud Jesse's 27th birthday. I think it would be pretty cool if you'd drop by and wish her a Happy. Just for grins and giggles... and because she deserves it.

Here is the birthday girl herownself, in a picture I stole off her blog in the dead of night:

What a cutie, eh? I'm thinkin' that if I were 35 years younger (or thereabouts) I'd make a serious run at her. I mean... what's NOT to love in a woman who's not only gorgeous but is into photography, has her own mo'sickle, and loves to travel? I've heard she has a way with words, too. All in all, quite the package. (Minor digression: I'm seriously deluding myself if I think for even a moment that Jess would be interested in a young underachieving USAF Staff Sergeant... assuming I could go back 35 years and Jess would stand still. Awkwardly worded, that, but I'm sure you get my drift.)

So... I'll repeat myself: Why don't you take a moment and drop by her blog to wish her a Happy Birthday?

More Blog-Fodder From the In-Box and An Explanation

Yet another friend comes along to rescue this blog from my less-than-inspired day...

A little known fact....

The first testicular guard "Cup" was used in hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974.

It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important.

Heh. And let us not speak of goalies and face-masks.

Speaking of hockey...

Pittsburgh Penguins players surround goalie Marc-Andre Fleury after their 4-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, June 2, 2009.
(JULIAN H. GONZALEZ/DFP)

The prime reason I'm less than motivated today is my Beloved Wings lost a near-run thing last night, 4-2 (the last goal being an empty-netter). But Hey! It's only one game. We still lead the series 2-1, yanno.

PSA

A friend sends this along...

Virus Alert!

If you get an email titled "Nude photos of Sarah Palin," don't open it. It could contain a virus.

If you get an email titled "Nude photos of Nancy Pelosi," don't open it. It could contain nude photos of Nancy Pelosi.

Heh.

Right Now...

The Brown Truck O' Happiness pulled away about ten minutes ago, after leaving me with this month's shipment of cigars... to wit:

So, here we have yet another episode of "Broadening Our Horizons" where the cigar department is concerned. The Hefeweizen was already in the fridge, but will be uncapped and poured just as soon as I hit "publish." But before I go... I'm pleased to report that Lil Brewery in Shiner, Texas does a MUCH better job at creating a hefeweizen than those folks up in Santa Fe do.

Happy Hour!

The CBC and Hockey

One of the things I miss terribly about not living in Detroit any longer is the CBC (Channel 9 in Windsor, just across the river), which all Detroiters get as part of their basic cable packages. NO one does hockey better than the Canadian Broadcasting Company, aka the CBC. Both Versus AND NBC should have their executives, play-by-play guys, and color commentators watching tape of each and every CBC airing of the SCF... or even run-of-the-mill broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada. A lot could be learned there and the American networks certainly NEED schooling when it comes to broadcasting hockey.

Part and parcel of CBC's brilliant hockey coverage is commentary from the quirky (heh... at best!) Don Cherry, who's a legend throughout Canada and in certain parts of these United States. Did I say quirky? Well, yes I did. Here's Coach Cherry's entrance into The Joe just before Game Two this past Sunday:



Heh. Apologies to the Dos Equis people, indeed. Cherry has a whole helluva lot more credibility as "the most interesting man in the world" than the actor hired to flog that second-rate beer, or the persona the actor is supposed to project. (Just in case you've never seen the Dos Equis ads... two [among many] are here and here.)

More CBC stuff... here's the intro they did for Game Two, the first 1:30 of which features some GREAT highlights from SCF Game One set to an amusing soundtrack provided by Creedence Clearwater Revival ("Just got home from Illinois/ Locked the front door/ Oh Boy""... OMG!):



Now do you see why I miss 'em?

(h/t: George Malik, who's becoming my Go-To Guy for all things Red Wings)

Irony

In light of the post immediately below... this was in my in-box this morning (click for larger):

OK. I'll get right on it.

On GM

And so it's come to pass... the largest industrial bankruptcy filing in American history went down today, as dreaded and expected. I can't come close to expressing my sorrow and dismay over this horrible, terrible turn of events... so I'll let P.J. O'Rourke speak for me. Here are the first few grafs from a piece he wrote in the WSJ last week:

The phrase “bankrupt General Motors,” which we expect to hear uttered on Monday, leaves Americans my age in economic shock. The words are as melodramatic as “Mom’s nude photos.” And, indeed, if we want to understand what doomed the American automobile, we should give up on economics and turn to melodrama.

Politicians, journalists, financial analysts and other purveyors of banality have been looking at cars as if a convertible were a business. Fire the MBAs and hire a poet. The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of financial crisis, foreign competition, corporate greed, union intransigence, energy costs or measuring the shoe size of the footprints in the carbon. It’s a tragic romance—unleashed passions, titanic clashes, lost love and wild horses.

Foremost are the horses. Cars can’t be comprehended without them. A hundred and some years ago Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Ballad of the King’s Jest,” in which an Afghan tribesman avers: Four things greater than all things are,—Women and Horses and Power and War.

Insert another “power” after the horse and the verse was as true in the suburbs of my 1950s boyhood as it was in the Khyber Pass.

Horsepower is not a quaint leftover of linguistics or a vague metaphoric anachronism. James Watt, father of the steam engine and progenitor of the industrial revolution, lacked a measurement for the movement of weight over distance in time—what we call energy. (What we call energy wasn’t even an intellectual concept in the late 18th century—in case you think the recent collapse of global capitalism was history’s most transformative moment.) Mr. Watt did research using draft animals and found that, under optimal conditions, a dray horse could lift 33,000 pounds one foot off the ground in one minute. Mr. Watt—the eponymous watt not yet existing—called this unit of energy “1 horse-power.”

In 1970 a Pontiac GTO (may the brand name rest in peace) had horsepower to the number of 370. In the time of one minute, for the space of one foot, it could move 12,210,000 pounds. And it could move those pounds down every foot of every mile of all the roads to the ends of the earth for every minute of every hour until the driver nodded off at the wheel. Forty years ago the pimply kid down the block, using $3,500 in saved-up soda-jerking money, procured might and main beyond the wildest dreams of Genghis Khan, whose hordes went forth to pillage mounted upon less oomph than is in a modern leaf blower.

And Mr. O'Rourke continues on in a manner that I cannot even come close to duplicating. Except perhaps for the same sort of sadness bordering on despair that I think we share. I'm older than Mr. O'Rourke, but not by a whole helluva lot (a mere two years, actually). Mr. O'Rourke... at the risk of giving away the entire thrust of his most-excellent piece... argues that America fell out of love with the automobile, and that's what killed the automotive industry. Not the credit crunch. Not the "bad" cars GM-cum-Detroit made all those many dismal years after the first gas-crisis. Not the bean counters. Not the Japanese, and now the Koreans. Us. You and me.

Well, you, maybe. I never lost my love for cars... in that I never bought an econo-box, a minivan, or a "practical" car. Nope... all my purchases have been affairs of the heart, with only one or two exceptions... which were driven (heh) entirely by financial circumstance. If I had the wherewithal I'd be Jay Leno II... and I'd need a warehouse to shelter all the rip-roaring automotive goodness I'd own. But I'm an anomaly... an exception to the modern day automotive zeitgeist. And more's the pity.

I rarely use this tone of voice... read as: attitude... in my postings, but I can't help but think GM would still be a going concern if there were more like me out there. Make of that what you will and feel free to call me any sort of name you choose. Or even posit a rational counter-argument if you feel the need. But this ain't about rationality, Gentle Reader... this is nothing but pure, raw emotion.

I mourn.

(h/t for the WSJ article: Gordon)

The Third In an Occasional Series of Guest Posts

Every so often we put up a Guest Post written by SN3. The last was on February 26^th of this year; prior to that we published an essay on October 21^st of last year. And here’s the latest, forwarded on to us by The Second Mrs. Pennington this weekend. This time Robert has ventured off into the realm of poetry, this particular piece written for a Society for Creative Anachronism event in South Dakota. “Robert the Brave” is Robert’s SCA name, so that explains the by-line. Further notes as provided by TSMP are below the poem.

Doomed

by Robert the Brave (©2009)

Ten are doomed to die in ages future as in ages past.

One will be smite by cold metal far from home;

One is to feel cold winter’s bite out near the edge;

One is to die fighting for what he thinks is right;

One will fall in chasms deep;

One will die weeping for a loved one lost;

One has died creeping past a treasure guarded;

One shall die old and wise;

One to be dead for boldness shunned;

One has died with no will to live.

The tenth one shall die last, before and after the end.

Notes as provided by TSMP:

(1) He (Robert) wrote it to tell at the bardic campfire at Quest for Camelot in South Dakota and published in the local SCA newsletter.

Also, he was inspired by the Poetry Slam we went to last month. You can take off "the Brave" if you like, but on the other hand, with the topic as it is, being brave fits.

(2) Robert’s poem echoes the expressions in the late 10^th century poem The Fortunes of Men, also called The Fates of Men or The Fates of Mortal. This gnomic poem, translated from Old English is found in the Exeter Book, fols. 87a–88b. A gnomic poem includes phrases that are maxims or words to live by. This genre of poetry goes back to the ancient Greeks and was a popular form in early Medieval England. Robert had no knowledge of this poem before writing his own version of fates of men. The poem starts out with how a child comes into the world and is nurtured by both mother and father until grown. Then the fates take over…

The Fortunes of Men

Very often it happens, through God’s might,

that man and woman bring into the world a child by birth and clothe him in colors,

teach him and tame him until the time comes, after a number of years,

that the young limbs become quickened and the child is grown.

So the father and mother fare along, trying, they give and prepare.

God alone knows what, while the child grows, the winter will bring.

To one it happens that the final letter sadly comes up; there is suffering in youthtime.

The wolf, the hoary heath-stepper, will eat him.

Then afterward the mother will mourn.

Such things are not man’s to control.

Hunger shall devour one; one shall be driven by weather.

The spear shall get one and war will destroy another.

One shall be deprived of the light of his eyes and will have to grope with his hands.

One will be lame in the foot, sick with sinew-disease, sorely lamenting and mourning against fate, troubled in mind.

One, featherless, shall fall from the high branch in the forest.

One needs to walk along the far-ways, has to tread the track of the alien roads, the dangerous earth, carrying what little he has with him.

One shall ride the crooked gallows, hang at death, until his soul-hoard, his bloody bone-coffer, becomes broken.

Fire shall kill one, the brands consume the perilous life of the fated man.

One at the mead-bench is deprived of life by the edge of a sword. The angry ale-swallower, the wine-sated man — his words were too hasty.

One shall, by the steward’s hand, become intemperate by beer and mead; he will know no moderation, no measuring of his mouth, but will mindlessly yield up his wretched life, endure the anger of his lord, be deprived of joy.

One shall, with God’s power, spend all his misfortune in youth.

Afterwards in age he will become wealthy, dwell in joy days and indulge himself with riches, treasures and mead cups, in the house of his kin — as much as any person may hope to hold and keep.

So diversely the mighty Lord, around the surface of the earth, deals out all, declares and ordains the shape of things that are.

To one, wealth; to one a share of miseries; to one glad youth; to one glory in war, mastery in battle; to one skill at throwing or shooting and glorious fame, to one dice-skill, talent at chess. Some become wise scholars.

To one wonder-gifts become furnished through goldsmithing.

Full often he tempers and well-ornaments the mail-coat of a mighty king, who will give wide lands to him in return. He will accept it with eagerness.

One shall amuse men in the hall, cheer them at beer,

the bench-sitters will be drinkers — there will be great joy.

One shall sit at his lord’s feet with the harp, he will always receive his fee,

and always keenly wrest the strings, let the nail pick the strings to ring sweetly,

their voices leap forth with great desire.

One shall tame the wild bird, the proud hawk on his hand,

until the savage-swallow becomes a joy.

He does on the jesses, feeds him while in fetters, deals out little gifts to the air-swift, feathered one, until the slaughterer, in decorations and trappings, becomes subservient to his provider and is hand-trained for the young warrior.

So with beauty, the savior of peoples, around the middle-earth, the strength of men, shaped and decreed and guided the shaping of each of humankind on earth.

Therefore, let each man thank him for what he in his mildness has ordained for us all.

(3) Text and an audio reading of this poem in Old English can be found here: The Fortunes of Men.

―:☺:―

While I don't intend for a moment to take anything away from Bobby's Robert's poem... which is serious, quite good, and should be the sole focus of this post (and your comments, Gentle Reader, if you should choose to comment)... I have to admit the SCA thing is not a shared interest. I've never been to an event of theirs of any kind whatsoever, and what little I know of SCA has been obtained strictly through reading and second-hand accounts from TSMP... of which there have been few. That said, this is what comes to MY mind whenever the subject of SCA comes up:



Dang me, anyway.