Summer's Here and the Time Ain't Right...

... for dancin' in the streets.  Unless the dancin' begins sometime around 2100 hrs.  Witness:

No outdoor Happy Hour today.  Hell, no outdoor Happy Hour for the rest o' the frickin' week, from the looks o' thangs.

―:☺:―

In other news... we did the deal with Cafe Press, choosing the middle photo as the one for our tee shirt, to be silk screened on the back (of course), with a small Caddy logo on the left breast.  Well, we THOUGHT we did the deal until this morning, when we found this in our in-box:

Dear Norman E Pennington,

We regret to inform you that we are not able to fulfill your CafePress.com order at this time. Your order has been canceled because items in your order contained content which violated our Content Usage Policy (CUP). You have not been charged for this order. 

The content in question is all that Cadillac stuff, like the crest, et al.  Just as well, as I was having buyer's remorse about paying 44 gotdamned Yankee Dollars for a frickin' tee shirt.  Thanks, Cafe Press.  Srsly.

My Father's Air Force

From the Usual USAF Source...

The last active B-17 Flying Fortress in Europe performs a fly-over above the former Knettishall Airfield, England, July 14, 2012. The fly-over was part of the 388th Bombardment Group memorial re-dedication at Coney Weston, England. (U.S. Air Force photo/Staff Sgt. Megan P. Lyon)

Eternally Grateful: A B-17 trailing smoke overflew US airmen in World War II flight uniforms at the former Knettishall Airfield in Coney Weston, England—home of the Army Air Forces' 388th Bombardment Group (Heavy) during the war—to salute the group's members killed in raids over Europe. More than 200 guests attended the July 14 rededication of the monument to the group's war dead. That date was the 70th anniversary of the first 8th Air Forces crews arriving in eastern England, according to a July 23 Air Force release. "It's an incredibly moving experience to see the incredibly warm relationship that still exists between the local British people and the Americans," said Olivia Leydenfrost, daughter of a former 388th BG bombardier. First erected in the 1980s, the monument recently saw the addition of two stones listing the names of the airmen lost in the war. During its time at Knettishall, the 388th BG operated B-17s. (Coney Weston report by SSgt. Megan P. Lyon)

The Ol' Man was part of the Mighty Eighth during The Big One and flew his 20-something missions in B-17s over Der Vaterland.  It's good to see him and his comrades-in-arms remembered and memorialized.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack...

Leon Redbone...

I want to be seduced, I want a woman to take me out to dinner for two
I want to see her eyes gettin' moody,
Flirtin' with the thought of what flirtin' can lead to
I want to act real cool, have her think about gettin' little me in bed
Have a chat about Magna Charta, or Puerto Vallarta, or somethin' Gandhi said

I might demur politely, falter slightly, if she starts to fondle my knee,
But I'm relatively certain I'd compromise if I know me

I want to be seduced, I want a woman to talk to me suggestively
I want to hear her say she'll be with me tomorrow morning,
Drinking hot jasmine tea

I want her to make me laugh, make a point of touching me when she talks
Leaving all the jealous guys in the joint to mumble in their beer and gawk

I LOVE the lyrics to this tune.  It's funny, and not funny ha-ha, but I never got the sorta of reaction I WANTED when I played this lil ditty for the then-object-o'-my affections in the wayback.  Unless you consider uproarious laughter "desirable," which I did, on occasion.

Well... the heat o' the day has passed and now it's time to retire to the verandah and think about gettin' seduced. 

More Plane Pr0n Than You Can Shake a Stick At

Courtesy of Comjam, posting at The Lexicans, a most remarkable library of historic military aviation film... including this:

Well, there goes most of THIS week.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

... in which we take our cue from comments to our previous post.

Heh.  In that same vein, daughter-in-law Erma was in P-Ville this weekend and she dropped over last evening to tip a few beers and fix the world, in general.  Part o' the fixin' that was required was the inevitable post-mortem concerning our debacle of a trip to ABQ in the recent past.  In so doing it came to pass I was informed that The Second Mrs. Pennington is a wino now, having left behind her prodigious thirst for beer in favor o' the grape.  We're not talkin' out o' school here, but I have it on good authority that Erm and Paula stayed up fixin' the world until 0330 hrs the night after I left.  I always miss the best bits...

―:☺:―

Artsy-fartsy...  We went lookin' for a simple black Cadillac tee-shirt earlier today and were right disappointed in the paucity of selections in that space, what with there bein' sumthin' like elebenty-hundred tee shirts depicting Corvettes, Camaros, and Mustangs, yet only about six o' the Cadillac variety, almost all of which I wouldn't be caught dead wearing.  Now I understand that Cadillac owners don't usually fall into the tee-shirt demographic, bein' more of the "blue blazer" type o' folks.  Still and even, you'd think there would be ONE tasteful design for us déclassé Caddy types.  But... noooo.

So we got to thinkin' "Cafe Press," wherein we'd design our very own tee shirt... in black, of course.  And we took some pics (14, to be exact) for our prospective tee:

I like the last one best as I think the clouds add a lil sumthin'.  Do you have an opinion, Gentle Reader?

The Sunday Re-Run

Blog-Bud IT and I were doin' a lil reminiscing about our experiences with Nipponese alcohol and he happened to mention whiskey.  And it occurred to me I'd posted sumthin' along those lines a while back, so I went lookin' for it.  Sho' nuff...

Interesting

I'd try it.  And that's saying a LOT, since I've long had nothing but contempt for Nikka's products.  But my contempt is based on my experiences with Black Nikka, the most common well whiskey in Japanese bars. That was true during my stints in Nippon in the way-back; things may have changed.  Black Nikka is one of the roughest, nastiest whiskeys I've ever had (except maybe for Mekong) and is comparable to Ten High in quality but not taste (Nikka is scotch-like).    But then again we're talking lowest common denominator rot-gut swill.  Nikka is thinking about importing their good stuff... and I'd try it.  One thing I've found in my whiskey explorations is price and quality ARE directly related... you definitely get what you pay for.

Well, it's been two and a half years since I put that post up and I still haven't seen any examples of the product.  But then again, it's unlikely that I would see any here in P-Ville.  Mebbe I'll look the next time I traipse off to ABQ.

The Usual Saturday Post

I was gonna post the Olympics greeting from London's Lord Mayor, but it's too Brit-centric for us Muricans.  I didn't get a lot of the references which tells me I'm too long removed from Ol' Blighty.

But I DO get all of this:

Heh.  Speaking of the Olympics, I finally turned on my teevee last evening to watch the Opening Ceremonies (which, if you're not keeping track, was the first time I've switched it on since June 9th).  I lasted all of about 20 minutes until the inane NBC commentary made me switch it off and go out to the verandah for more illuminating activities.  The experience was most certainly illuminating... the sky was crystal clear and the light from a Waxing Gibbous moon was astounding in its brightness.

The vid is from the Usual Source, of course.

Seriously In Our Cups

We've been outside on the verandah since 1900 hrs and we're at the point where we're dangerous.  Like this:

So put me on a highway
And show me a sign
And take it to the limit one more time 

Dangerous would mean three iterations o' "two fingers" o' scotch, followed up with three Rusty Nails.  It's taking every fiber in my rational being to avoid getting in The Tart, setting her cruise control at 80, pointing her in a southerly direction, and tuning the XM to a blues station, the upshot bein' I could be in Ciudad Juarez before last call (Heh.  There's never a last call there.) if I left right now.  God bless us everyone for the ... ahem... wisdom that comes with old age, coz I think I'm gonna put it to bed rather than hit the highway.  But there WAS a time...

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack... Chirps

Today we changed up after two days of Matchbox Twenty... two days of self-abuse, which we did mainly to see if we could.  Stand the pain, as it were, coz most of the tunes on that Pandora station are from our personal Apocalypse Now period.  So, we withstood it... Hell, we actually enjoyed it.  Kinda-sorta.  But today we're off to kinder and gentler music, which is to say the Joan Osborne station, which never fails to make me smile... mainly coz we loves us our chirps.  First of all, this:

I find it magical (hey)
I feel like I'm loving you in 1963 (hey)
Flowers in my hair (hey)
Little bitty hearts upon my cheek
Baby, you'll be on my mind
'till I kiss you next time

My first thought:  Hell, YES!  Love me like it's 1963... when I was 18 and at my sexual peak, according to experts who claim to know about these things.  My second thought was 180-out... as in Hell, NO!  1963 was the year I graduated from high school, had my heart broken by the lovely but clue-free Roxanne, ran away and went through basic training, and was otherwise similarly indisposed and going through massive changes.  If I wanna go back and be loved in a certain year I'll take 1976, thankyaverymuch.  THAT was a year of good lovin', but we shan't digress.  And then there's this...

Lay your body down, come and let me bring your body down
Listen to my voice, the only sound
As I lullaby you, lullaby you down

Dang, I love this woman's voice (she's a hottie, too).  Yeah, I'd let her lullaby me right down.

And then there's THIS...

Wherein we're renewing an old acquaintance.  We drank more than a few of these when the Lights Went Down In The Sit-tay (ed:  You DIDN'T.  me: Yeah, I did and it hurt me, too.  Sorry.), once upon a time in the near-way-back.  And now it's back outdoors to continue as we've begun.

Who Do You Trust?

No, not that ol' game show (if you're of a certain age)... statistics.  Blog stats, to be specific.  Consider:

That's what Blogger sez happened here at EIP over the past month.  Here's what SiteMeter sez:

There are some serious disconnects here.  Note that Blogger sez I received over 600 page views on 7/24 and SM sez I got 473.  I've never received 600 or more page views in a single day according to SM, ever.  (There are more daily disconnects, too... just look at the delta between the two systems for today and yesterday.)  What's even more curious is Blogger Stats claims I got 13,543 page views last month, as opposed to SM's count of 11,079.  And then... total lifetime page views according to Blogger: 287,201.  What does SM say about my lifetime page views?  433,038.  That's one helluva difference and is counter-intuitive, based on Blogger Stats' monthly and daily counts over the past few months.

I'm SO confused.  Not that it really matters, but we do tend to look at this stuff from time to time... just for grins and giggles.

So Then There's This...

That's a screen shot of this article at NBCNews.com and I chose to post the screenshot because of the poll at the lower right.  Granted, this is a VERY small sample and the poll is unscientific at the very best.  But: suspicions confirmed, eh?

I have other issues with this study, as well.  While I feel the findings are more than accurate for hip-hop and its various permutations (i.e., too frickin' loud and sounding the same to the point of serious monotony) I feel that comparing Led Zep or The Stones to anyone from Motown or the Beach Boys, even, is a bridge way too far.  By that I mean the study allegedly examined pop tunes all the way back to 1962, so you'd have to include artists like Sinatra, Herb Alpert, and Tony Bennett in that mix, too. They sound the same as Snoop Dog?  Yeah, right.

YMMV, of course.

h/t: Shoebox blog.

Heh

I LOVE the donkey's expression.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack... Owning the Gray

The Grateful Dead...

The shoe on the hand that fits, there's really nothin' much to it
Whistle through your teeth and spit, 'cause it's all right
Oh well a touch of grey, kinda suits you anyway,
That is all I had to say, if it's all right
I will get by, I will get by, I will get by, I will survive. 

Heh.  I bought this album and really liked the song when the album first came out these 25 years ago.  That was about the time when those first touches of gray began to appear and they most certainly "kinda suits me, anyway."  That was then... this is now, when we're ALL gray.

So... fast forward to yesterday when we made our second visit to the lovely Renee, exactly two months to the day since our first visit.  I still love the girl dearly, mainly coz she sez all the right things, at exactly the right time.  Case in point:

She:  I can't get over how beautiful your hair is... it's so thick and so healthy!
Me:  Yeah, in places.

The "in places" bit is in reference to my widow's peak, which is getting quite thin, of late.  (Interesting term, that.)  But we digress, and we shall digress further.  My quarterly visits to the barber shop will likely devolve into bi-monthly or even monthly visits in future, mainly coz Renee cuts my hair like I want it to be cut... which is to say longish.  We did quarterly visits to our barber in the past, coz it took at least that long for our hair to grow out after past barbering butchering sessions.  No more, however.  This most recent visit, at two months, might have erred on the two-weeks-too-long side.  But we'll see.

Digressions aside, Renee recommended I stop by Sally's and pick up a bottle of Shimmer Lights shampoo, all the better to bring out the "stunning silver" in my hair (her words... like I said: she sez all the right things at all the right times).  I demurred on the Sally's bit, mainly coz a trip to Sally's in The Big(ger) City™ would have resulted in a 40 mile side-trip on my way home.  But I WAS interested enough to go out to Amazon and check out the recommended product, which is sorta spendy.  I don't mind "owning the gray," coz I earned all of that.  OTOH, if shimmering gray silver hair is considered sexy in some demographics it MIGHT help my campaign to avoid sleeping alone for the rest o' my life.

I'm tempted.

Not Your Father's Air Force XVIII

From the Usual USAF Source...

Can't We All Get Along?: Reflecting on the fact that the Air Force—and no other service—has seen three top leaders fired, one resign early, and one publicly reprimanded over the last 20 years, outgoing Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said he doesn't think the service has a problem getting along with civilian leadership. In none of those events was there any suggestion of "malfeasance" or a "criminal context," said Schwartz on July 24 during his final meeting with Pentagon reporters before his retirement ceremony on Aug. 10. "We work for civilian masters in this country, and that's the way it works," observed Schwartz. "All I can do is tell you is that in my own experience, there are lots of reasons for leaving a position . . . and not all of them are what they appear to be," he added. As for the current "trust" issue with Congress, Schwartz said, "we all know what the remedy is" for that. While he declined to name the cure, he said, "let's just say . . . making force structure reductions is not for the faint of heart." (Schwartz transcript)

—John A. Tirpak

I didn't know USAF had had THAT many leaders fired.  Or perhaps I did... it all depends on how you define "top leader."  To me that term means Chief of Staff or perhaps MAJCOM leaders, but if you broaden it to include the various Assistant Secretaries and Under Secretaries, then yeah... I suppose I knew that.  General Schwartz was also being somewhat coy with his "we all know" remark.  Hell, the man is retiring next month and he SHOULD be able to call a spade a spade.  There ain't a congresscritter alive who'll support force reductions or base closures that affect HIS constituents.  Ain't never gonna hoppen, Gee-Eye.  And Today's Modern Air Force is just like Yer Father's Air Force in that particular regard.

―:☺:―

And then there's Ramirez...

If I got the plot to Thelma and Louise right, there was a REASON they drove off that cliff... no other choice.  Not so with our gub'mint.

Earlier This Afternoon

It began raining around 1600 hrs today...

...and it still hasn't stopped.  It hasn't been a steady rain, more of an off-and-on, stop-and-go sorta thang, but there has been a lot of it.  So much such so that the 17th Street Canal and Inter-City Waterway is beginning to reach navigable status.  Yays!

It's nice and warm outside and the rain is mostly in a vertical plane, which is to say the verandah is reasonably dry.  I do believe we'll tap that new bottle of JW Green I bought today, fire up a cigar, and go enjoy the show.

Is This ME... Or What?

Heh.  And this is SHE...

Blog-Bud Loosy-Anna Andy doesn't think this is one of her best.  But, Hell... Sunny on a bad day is better than most political pundits at their best.

Heh

There's this...

From the Usual Source of such things.  And then there's this...

From My Buddy Ed In Florida.

Tonight's After Dinner Whiskey Hour Soundtrack...

So... there we were, sitting out on the verandah, getting quietly and pleasantly in our cups, listening to Pandora's Matchbox 20 station.  And then this came on:

Tonight was the first time I'd ever heard this tune, but it ain't the first time I've ever heard this speech.  I heard it (again) just recently, as a s'matter of fact... like this:

She: I'm VERY liberal.
Me: I know.  What I don't understand is how a good conservative girl like you could go so wrong, so quickly.
She:  I used to follow directions well; I don't any longer.
Me:  What does that mean?
She: (Standing up abruptly... and departing, leaving me with my mouth hanging open)  I shared too much and I don't want or need YOU to tell ME about me. 

So we were thinkin'... did The Second Mrs. Pennington write this tune?  Is she getting royalties?  And why am **I** not getting a piece of the action?

Sigh.  I guess the theme is much more universal than I wanna believe it is.  But the song DID make me grin.  In an evil sorta way.

No Surprises Here

My results from the I Side With test:

Wait.  I agree with Obama 53% of the time?  WTF?  Where?  When?  How did THAT happen?

h/t:  Professor Althouse. 

I (Almost) Got Nuthin'

We had a bad night last evening, the upshot of which was we didn't get to sleep until after 0500 hrs.  We've only just now finished our first cup and had seriously considered blowing this whole blog thang right the hell off for the day.  But just then the Brown Truck O' Happiness pulled up outside and the friendly driver hands me this package from Cadillac.  "Hmmm," sez I, "I wonder what this could be?"

It's a box o' Firsts.  "Hunh?" sez you?  No, really.

Each little compartment is labeled "Open after..." or "Open before..."  Some of these events have already transpired, so the Caddy people are just a lil bit late.  If I led a normal life I'm quite sure ALL of these things would have happened already, coz The Tart has been with me for a lil over a month now.  Be that as it may, I chose to open the compartment labeled "Open after first road workout."

I should have known.  My "road workout" was on the super-slab, not in the twisty-turnies.  I HAVE taken The Tart into a few corners at speed and she reacts well... which is to say she holds a line well, gives good feedback from her steering (which is heavier than I like, but not bad), and minds her manners.  My only criticism: the StabiliTrak system comes on too early sometimes and cuts power just when you wanna hang the rear end out a lil bit.  But the good news is you can always switch the system off.  Oh.  What was in that compartment, you ask?  This.  Heh.

So.  My customer satisfaction index is pretty high right now, especially with all these nice lil surprises from Dee-troit I keep getting in the mail. 

Posted Without Comment

 

h/t to My Buddy Ed In Florida.

Nostalgia of a Different Sort

I went searching in my back pages a lil while ago looking for a specific item relating to my dental history and came upon this lil blurb and a couple o' pics:

Today's Pics, Self-Indulgent Division: Well, Hell… Virtually ALL my pics are self-indulgent in one form or another. But today I'm posting the full-sized, unedited version of the pic I use on both my Blogger and Twitter profiles, plus an outtake from the same session.

Both pics were taken at an RV park just outside Oklahoma City in the Spring of 2000 (in April, to be exact). Note the old technology… which is to say humongous… cell phone sitting on the picnic table. And speaking of old technology, both pics are first-generation digital pics... taken with my old one-megapixel Kodak point and shoot, with a quality commensurate with the age.

These pics were taken back in the day when the view from the verandah changed on a frequent basis… like every week or so… sometimes more, sometimes less. It all depended on how much fun I was having wherever I happened to be…

I remember taking those pics (since replaced on both referenced profiles) and I remember all TOO well that life on the road was one whole helluva lot o' fun, at the time.  But I'm thinkin' it would be much less fun these days.  I'll take... and love... today's fixed view from the verandah.  That said, I'm glad I had that year when I ran away from home.  It was good to get away.

Well I always say, it would be good to go away
But if things don't work out like we think
And there's nothing there to ease this ache
But if there's nothing there to make things change
If it's the same for you, I'll just hang 

Yup, we did hang... on the road.

Former Happy (Mo'sickle) Days

I got a note from SN2 last evening, thusly:

Dad,

I'm looking forward to meeting your friend tomorrow.  I was surfing the web, researching some parts for the RD and came accross these two pics... I was moved.  I thought you might want to enjoy them as well.

ILY,

S

These are the attached pics:

I replied:

The cafe racer is cool, but that RED bike hit me where I used to live.   Yours could look just like that with a lil work.
Ily,
d 

And he came back with...

Yes... it will look like that.

ILY,

S

It's just a matter of time and priorities.  Long-time Gentle Readers know I gave my RD to Sam after the maid quit and when I was in the process of downsizing life as we knew it.  He's had the bike since about 1999 or so and managed to get it running but not fully restored.  That bike has been in the family since 1979 and has a long and storied history of back-road Hell-raising.  Some history:

YrHmblScrb and the RD, c. 1979

The Complete RD as We Knew Her

I spent the winter of 1978 in my garage working on that bike.  Most of the mods were bolt-ons, which is to say after-market shocks, new handle bars, rear-set foot pegs, a brake/shifter kit, electronic ignition, and better tires.  The cognoscenti will note the expansion chambers on the bike and those were part of the minor engine mods I did.  I didn't want to build a hand-grenade motor so I just added expansion chambers, larger carbs, and K&N air filters to improve the bike's breathing.  I also polished all the cylinder ports to improve air flow.  And that was it... but the finished product really wailed.  I should also mention coastal Oregon was a danged fine place to own a back road burner like the RD, too.

The top pic is YrHmblScrb and the stock bike, the bottom pic is as described above.  That's the state the bike is in today, except for the general decay brought on by being in storage and rarely ridden since about 1985.

I do believe she'll wail again someday.  And I'm gonna ride her, too.

Seen This?

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

How VERY cool.  The nighttime and northern lights bits are especially spectacular.  From the Vimeo site:

Every frame in this video is a photograph taken from the International Space Station. All credit goes to the crews on board the ISS.

I removed noise and edited some shots in photoshop. Compiled and arranged in Sony Vegas.

Isn't it GREAT to be alive in this day and age?

Seen In the Finest Establishments, Everywhere

That's apropos of the following exchange in comments to the post immediately below:

VX:  (Hey Buck--remember when the old USAF GEEIA Squadrons meant --according to one GEEIA tech guy who jokingly told me--"Get Every Electronic Idiot Available?" Were YOU a GEEIA guy? lol)

No, I wasn't a GEEIA guy. But I WAS an AFCC E&I team chief, and I was also in possession of about a dozen sheets of those old "Installed BY GEEIA" stickers. I'm CERTAIN you saw those things everywhere in Nam, every little bar and whorehouse in all of SEA had at least ONE of those stickers, somewhere. Usually in the latrine, on the toilet or on the mirror. Or on the mirror behind the bar, if the establishment was up-market enough to HAVE a mirror.

We were issued "Installed by AFCC" stickers, but NO ONE used the things. We were still too close to the GEEIA days, and most of the Old Heads were GEEIA types.

Paul Harvey Voice

And now ya know the REST of the story.  For the uninformed, GEEIA actually stood for Ground Electronics Engineering and Installation Agency.  (The exchange above was edited slightly for clarity.)

/Paul Harvey Voice.

Saturday Redux

This was yesterday's runner-up in the Viral Vid sweepstakes.

"You shouldn't have done that.  I can hear yourself freaking out."  Heh.

Rain and Linkage to More Rain

I just stepped outside for about four minutes to witness the briefest of cloudbursts, which is about all the rain we seem to be getting, of late.  This is what I saw...

Note the sidewalk in front of The Green Hornet is barely wet yet the car park area is sufficiently damp, as is the road.  Or, just enough moisture to dampen down the ever-present dust and raise the humidity level, which will make our Happy Hour something of a sweaty affair later on today.  I think it rained for all of four minutes, if that, but it WAS enough to scent the air with the sweet, sweet smell of damp earth.  I'm thankful for that.

What we REALLY need here on The High Plains o' New Mexico is rain that looks like this:

The rain is heavy this morning, and big. The drops looking like a badminton birdie when they hit the street. I like it like this, and it’s full of memories. 

That's what we call a teaser, Gentle Reader, wherein we hope to entice you into reading Andy's musings on rain.  And other, not so pleasant things.  So go for the rain and stay for the other bits which are equally good, if not as uplifting.

The Usual Saturday Post, With Cookies (And Stuff)

The Guardian is back with their picks o' the week and here are the two I liked best:

Yeah, a cat.  AND a big-ass Doberman that is oh-so-gentle.  Amazing, eh?

And now for dessert:

I still haven't heard "Call Me Maybe," and I'm prolly one of only eight people who HAVEN'T.  I'm not losing sleep over this, however.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack...

The Duo-Tones with a remake of a 60's classic:

There's some nice surf footage in the video and that brings back memories of Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach, c. 1962 and 1963, when YrHmblScrb was in his surfer-boy phase.  But, we'll not go there... let's focus on the music, instead.  It turns out that "Apache" was originally written and recorded by a British band around 1960 or so, but their version of the tune is virtually unknown in the US.  Here's the version I remember, made popular by the Ventures in 1962:

You don't need to remind me that the time period we're talking about was 50 years ago.  50!  That got me to thinkin'... my 50th high school reunion would be next year.  Aiiieee!  Not only do I not wanna know... I don't wanna GO, either.

Olympics and Shirts

Why, I believe we were talking about nekkid Olympians just yesterday... over here.

And yeah, Susie... where IS yer shirt made?  My 501s are made somewhere near Cairo, an offshoring decision I'm thinkin' the Levi Strauss guys MIGHT be regretting about now.  And no, I'm not taking 'em off, or otherwise givin' 'em up.

Tonight's ADWH Soundtrack...

... Bela Fleck playin' some fine, fine Bluegrass guitar banjo:

I dearly love the album cover illustration... almost as much as I like the music.  

Ain't that just COOL?  We're such suckers for nostalgia, we are.

Oh, Noes!

We had a lot o' fun with that Facebook IPO back in May, as did the political cartoonists who provided EIP with a LOT o' blog-fodder during that time.  Most of our fun centered around the immediate loss in value of FB shares, which left a lot of investors holding the proverbial bag and it's getting worse.  From Reuters:

(Reuters) - Shares of Facebook Inc (FB.O) fell about 1 percent on Tuesday, extending the previous day's losses after an investment analyst reported a decline in U.S. users for the No. 1 social network.

Capstone analyst Rory Maher said he used proprietary software to track user numbers by country over the past six months across more than 200 countries and worked out that the social network had shed users in both the United States and Europe. U.S. users declined by 1.1 percent, he said in a research note.

RTWT, as we citizen-journalists say.  What?  People are leaving FB?  Color me surprised.  Heh.

I should've posted this yesterday but didn't.  My Bad.

Vets...

... there are a lot of us.  About 21.8 million of us, according to the Census Bureau.  From the Usual USAF Source:

A Snapshot of the Nation's Veterans: There are 21.8 million veterans in the United States, 20.2 million of which are males, according to the US Census Bureau's veterans' snapshot, issued on July 17. Some 1.3 million veterans have served in more than one war, including more than 100,000 who have been in three wars, according to the data. California leads the nation with two million vets, followed by Florida and Texas with some 1.6 million vets each, states the snapshot. Killeen, Tex., is the city with the highest percentage of veterans in its population: 28.9 percent. Veterans have a median income of $35,367, nearly $10,000 higher than that of the average American, according to the Census Bureau. They own 9 percent of all US businesses, states the snapshot.

I find that median income statement suspect, as far as the "average American" is concerned.  This table from USA Today sez the US per person average income was $40,584 in 2010 (Aside: I found it interesting NM ranks 43rd in average income.  We be PO'.).  But there may be a plausible explanation, aside from the statistical difference between "median" and "average:"

Median income refers to those who are 18 years and over with income in the past 12 months. Income includes not only wages and self-employment, but also Social Security, retirement pensions, VA payments, and other forms of income.

That's from the Census Bureau's snapshot graphic.  Still and even, that's a lot of vets, eh?  OTOH, that's only 7.3% of the population, assuming we've got 300 million people in the US.  And yeah, we could split hairs on this subject (demographics) from now until the cows come home.  But we won't.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

New-to-me artist Alejandro Escovedo, with a Rolling Stones cover...

Hey, hey, hey now
One day I woke up to find
Right in the bed next to mine
Someone that broke me up with a corner of her smile, yeah

Its just that demon life has got me in it's sway
Its just that demon life has got me in it's sway

I heard this tune on my way back from Cannon Airplane Patch earlier this afternoon and I'm SUCH a sucker for Rolling Stones tunes, even covers, of which this is one of the best I've heard... mebbe even eclipsing the original.  So let's compare...

It MIGHT be heresy, but I think I like Alejandro's version better.  Check him out on the Tube o' You.