A Road Trip of a Different Sort, Part Deux (and Last)

Where we left it:

“The five of us paid our respective bills and were off into the night, destination unknown but hopefully warm. We had a place to stay.”

If you’d like to begin at the beginning, just scroll down… 

It was just after 2300 hrs when we walked out of the wine bar and one of the guys told TSMP we had to hurry as the busses and trams quit running at midnight. We walked up the street to a trolley stop and stood… huddled and freezing in the cold night air… waiting for a trolley. 


We didn’t wait long. A nearly empty trolley soon arrived, but not nearly soon enough for my liking. It was COLD, Gentle Reader! We rode the trolley for what seemed quite some time…possibly 25 minutes or so, with very few stops… until we reached the end of the line. The city had faded into a suburban landscape and we were on the outskirts of town, in the foothills that surround Kyoto. We got off the trolley and followed our hosts as they quickly walked up a small road that led into the foothills. The road was narrow and quite steep and our pace was quick. I was nearly out of breath when we reached the top of the hill. One of the young men opened a gate, walked into a small yard, up a few stairs, and opened the door to a small house, gesturing for TSMP and me to follow. We left our shoes in a small entry way and went into the house.

It was a very small house…consisting of perhaps three rooms but I only saw two, one of which was the bathroom. All five of us were in a common room which was maybe 12 x 12 feet…if that. The room was traditional Japanese, which is to say it had tatami mats and was very sparsely furnished. The dominating feature was a low table in the center of the room (quite similar to the illustration, but not nearly as elegant), covered with a large quilt. The rest of the room was bare for the most part, and TSMP and I put our knapsacks against one wall and waited for a brief moment for what came next. One of our new friends went over to the table, pulled the quilt back to expose a rather large red light bulb affixed underneath the table, and switched the fixture on. I was semi-surprised to see the table was positioned over what looked like a footwell…which was exactly what it was. Our two male friends then sat down at the table with their feet in the small footwell and motioned TSMP and I to join them. The young woman had gone into the kitchen upon our arrival and was still there… so TSMP and I took our places at the table, which was large enough to sit at least six people. Once we were seated with our feet in the footwell… quite comfortably, I should add… we pulled the large quilt covering the table around our upper legs. It was then I noticed it was quite cold in the room and our friends hadn’t taken their coats off. TSMP and I left our coats on, too… she in my borrowed USAF parka, and me in my field jacket. It couldn’t have been more than 45 degrees in that room, if that.

It was about that time our young lady friend returned from the kitchen, carrying a large lacquered tray with five cups and a large steaming pot of green tea. She kneeled at table side and poured five cups of tea, passing each one to its recipient and took her place at the table. Conversation began almost immediately between TSMP and our three new friends, rapid and punctuated with lots of “So’s!” and “Ah’s!” and little bits of laughter here and there. Every so often TSMP would translate some of the conversation for me but I sat silent and smiling for the most part, largely oblivious to the actual content of the discussion. But it all seemed good…there was a great deal of smiling and nods of approval being passed around amongst and between the five us…among “other things.” 

It turned out our hosts were students at a university in Kyoto, so TSMP and they had lots in common. It also turned out that I didn’t mind the chill in the room, even though the room didn’t get any warmer during the course of the night…at all. But everyone’s feet were quite warm. That red light bulb (which was actually a low-intensity source of radiant heat), in conjunction with the shared warmth from our five pairs of feet under the table and the quilt around our thighs made for a very warm and intimate experience. TSMP later told me such an arrangement was quite common in Japanese homes, and this wasn’t the first time she’d “been there and done that.”

Conversation continued on into the night until the tea was gone and most of the company began to yawn and nod off. It was nearly 0200 hrs when TSMP and the young woman rose from the table and went into the other room, returning with a couple of heavy quilts. TSMP explained we were going to sleep in the common room. And we did just that…. on the tatami mats, with folded clothes from our knapsacks as pillows, fully dressed and under heavy quilts. It was wonderful.

We awoke in the morning around 0700 hrs to more green tea as we each took our turns cleaning up in the small bathroom. TSMP and the other girl had some semi-intense conversation, which resulted in TSMP jotting down a few notes in her small notebook. And then…less than an hour after we woke up… the five of us were off to the trolley line where we caught a trolley back into the city. Our friends got off the trolley before we did, and the good-byes were brief but intense and heartfelt. TSMP and I were grateful indeed for the kindness and hospitality our friends showed us. I only wish I had thought to take pictures…

It’s at this point the tale turns conventional in most all respects. The notes TSMP had taken while she and our young woman friend were talking were all about finding a hotel, and that was our first order of business after we ate breakfast. We were very fortunate. We found a small, inexpensive ryokan in a fairly nice neighborhood in the central city. The first thing we did after checking in was bathe… in a proper Japanese tub, with lots and lots of hot water.
 

It was good to get clean, not to mention getting warm. And one does get warm, both during and after a Japanese bath, let me tell ya, Gentle Reader… You emerge from the bath looking for all the world like a main course at Red Lobster. The Japanese bath and its rituals could be the subject of a separate and lengthy post all on its own (this will do, for now), but suffice to say most Americans are stunned at the temperature of an average Japanese bath, which is many degrees above what we consider reasonable and comfortable. Like the saying goes: “you get used to it.” And once you no longer have access to Japanese baths…you miss it, too.

And then it was out into Kyoto to do touristy things. And there are many, many touristy things to do in Kyoto. This was TSMP’s second or third trip to Kyoto and she knew where the high points were…and so we went, concentrating on the architectural treasures of ancient Japan, without forgetting or ignoring the food, the beer, the sake, etc., etc.!
 

These pics are from Kiyomizu-dera, which means “Pure Water” in Japanese…

Main Gate viewed from rear

Fountain of health, longevity and success in studies. I forget which stream I drank from...probably "health." It sure wasn't "success in studies..."
 

Monk praying inside shrine

I did mention we were traveling “on the cheap,” didn’t I? Proof…

Mickey Dee's

We stayed in Kyoto for three days or so, IIRC. Then it was on to Nara, which is even more ancient than Kyoto. Here’s TSMP surrounded by one of Nara’s most endearing attractions… the tame deer that roam Nara Park.

TSMP and some very pushy deer

From The Wiki:

Tame deer roam through the town, and especially in Nara Park. These deer might be considered "tame" if the visitor does not have any "shika sembei - Deer Biscuits" when they see them.

The people at the ryokan in Kyoto helped us find accommodations in Nara and we arrived in Nara with reservations for another ryokan, thanks to the friendly and helpful owners of the place we stayed in Kyoto. I might be slow at times, but never let it be said I don’t learn from experience. Our stay in Nara, lasting for perhaps two days but no longer, was uneventful and ordinary. We did lots of sightseeing, ate lots of good food, and generally enjoyed ourselves.
 

We didn’t hitch back to Tokyo… once was enough for both of us. No, we caught the milk-train back to Tokyo instead, a journey that took an incredible 12 hours… in third-class accommodations…which is to say hard, upright plastic seats. The Shinkansen, by contrast, makes the same trip in little more than four hours. And costs four to five times more than the milk-run. So, in keeping with our economic status at the time, we opted for the cheapest way out.
 

TSMP at Nara Station

We arrived back in Tokyo in the early evening and took the local train back to TSMP’s apartment, where we immediately and unceremoniously fell into bed. We were beyond tired…we were exhausted. We didn’t bother to eat, we didn’t bother to do anything…except sleep. We unpacked the following morning while sharing our adventure with TSMP’s room-mate (another Sophia U exchange student), who had to be extensively back-briefed.
 

All told, TSMP and I did a week in Kyoto and Nara, food, lodging, and transportation included, for around $200.00. That doesn’t sound like much today…and it really isn’t, in fact. But keep in mind: the year was 1975, and 200 bucks in 1975 is equal to about $770.00, today. Still…that’s pretty danged cheap for two people spending a week on the road in Japan. You couldn’t do that for that price today. I wouldn’t even want to try…

We still had a day or two of Christmas vacation left, but that was soon over and it was back to school for TSMP and back to work, for me. But, Wow! What a great time we had…

I'll close with this... just a simple street scene, taken in Nara.

A Road Trip of a Different Sort

So…here’s that girl I used to know again, this time in Kyoto during late, late December of 1975, or perhaps New Years Day of 1976 or shortly thereafter. Memory fades, and it has been over 30 years, ya know. That’s her traveling companion immediately below, taken in much the same spot as the first pic, from a slightly different angle.

As it is with most things, there’s a story here.

Long-time readers know The Second Mrs. Pennington and I met in Japan. She was on her second foreign exchange student tour, this time as a sophomore at Sophia University (photos) in Yotsuya … a borough of Tokyo. I was on my third tour of Japan with quite a different institution, stationed at Yokota AB. Just how we came to meet is a story in and of itself, but I’ll save that for another time.

It came to pass that TSMP, like all college students, had an extended break over the Christmas and New Years holidays that year. The Air Force, in its infinite wisdom, granted the troops nearly as much time off over the holidays as the college kids received. The usual drill was married people got Christmas week off and single folks got the following week off. So it was we found ourselves with a week or so off, and so it was we decided we’d go to Kyoto for New Years. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and we broke every rule there is about traveling in Japan, or anywhere else, for that matter. We had no reservations. We had no specific itinerary. We didn’t have any means of transportation, save for my very used 350cc Yamaha, and it was winter…not the time of year for an extended road trip on a bike. We had very little money. So… we did what any poor but adventurous couple would do: we decided to hitchhike.

And that, Gentle Reader, is simply not done in Japan. Never. Ever. Except by Americans who don’t know any better.

I should note this wasn’t the first time I’d thumbed in Japan…my Buddy Dan in Florida and I hitched from Wakkanai to somewhere around Sapporo and back to Wakkanai a few years before this lil adventure. And we had had a great time. So, after recounting my story to TSMP, she agreed to go with the flow.

Early one morning we loaded up a couple of knapsacks with all the warm clothes we had (it was cold, Gentle Reader… in the high 30s or so) and set out for the train station. We took the train from Musashi-Koganei (where TSMP had her apartment) to the end of the line, which was near the main road between Tokyo and Kyoto. Our trip would take about three and a half hours, by express train, had we decided to take the train.  

Drive-time would be slightly longer, and we estimated we could make it to Kyoto in about six or seven hours. We were fairly accurate on that count… we made it to Kyoto in about six hours, catching just three separate rides. Our last ride was from a young guy who went completely out of his way to drive us into the heart of Kyoto instead of letting us out on the highway on the outskirts of the city. Our driver vigorously and intensively chatted up TSMP in the process, I should add, during the entire two hours we spent in the dude’s car. All in Japanese, of course, of which I understood only about every 97^th word or so…but I knew what was going on. Some things don’t require words to understand…

So… after we exchanged addresses and such our new friend dropped us off in the middle of Kyoto in the late afternoon. We went and got something to eat and set about on our first task: finding a place to stay. What I didn’t tell you, Gentle Reader, is it’s tradition in Japan to return to the ancestral home for New Years… it’s the biggest travel-time of the year. With predictable impact on the hotels, any hotel, every hotel. As in: “no room at the inn.” Remember, we had no reservations of any sort. Afternoon turned into evening, evening turned into night, and our door-to-door inquiries at each and every hotel were fruitless. Everyone was booked solid. We were starting to get a bit concerned, as you might imagine.

Digression. We wandered into a part of downtown Kyoto which seemed simply loaded with small hotels, and I thought we’d struck gold. TSMP, OTOH, was highly agitated and refused to enter the first of about six hotels we encountered on this block. She simply exclaimed “NO, Buck! I’m NOT going in there!” with little or no other explanation. So… I went in this little hotel and was greeted by an elderly woman who gave me a big smile and vigorous north-south nods when I asked, in English, if she had a room for the night. “Cool” sez I to myself, and stepped outside to get TSMP. TSMP and I re-entered the small lobby and the old woman’s demeanor changed completely, as in: she threw us out. Quickly. Unceremoniously. Pretty damned close to rude, for a Japanese woman.

Rinse, repeat, for the next three hotels on that block. Then it finally dawned on me what was happening, and what TSMP was too embarrassed to tell me. I was trying to get us a room in a whore house. Three of ‘em, to be exact. And TSMP was furious that I couldn’t read in between the lines. So much for my perceptional abilities at the ripe ol’ age of 30. We left that neighborhood most ricky-tick, and by the time we were three blocks away we were both doubled over with laughter at the situation, the reactions of the whore house madams upon seeing TSMP, and the whole delicious irony of my absolute thickness. But the situation was anything but funny...

It was late by this time…around 10:00 at night, and we still had no place to stay and our prospects were pretty bleak. We spotted a wine bar cum coffee shop and went in to get a cup, warm up, and think about our options… which at this point were “slim” and “none.” Or so it seemed. And then our luck changed.

The coffee shop we were in was small, consisting of a small bar and perhaps three tables in the room…total seating capacity of 12, or less. There were two young, long-haired guys and a girl drinking coffee at the bar, and we took seats next to them. TSMP struck up a conversation with the girl, asking if she knew of a hotel near by where we might find a room. The answer was “no,” there weren’t any…and if there were, they’d be all booked-up, what with this being the holidays, as she implied we should damned well know. And then it struck me…perhaps we could make some sort of arrangement here. I just might have something I could trade in return for accommodations. I made some discreet inquiries of the two young guys through TSMP and my hunch was rewarded. One of the young guys took a used matchbook out of his pocket, scribbled something on it, and slid it across the bar to me:

I smiled, TSMP smiled, and our three young friends smiled. The deal was done. The five of us paid our respective bills and were off into the night, destination unknown but hopefully warm. We had a place to stay.

To be continued…

A Sunday Starter...

Milwaukee gets its ass kicked by a blizzard…and you are there… Time-lapse Video: Winter Storm. The vid isn’t available for embed…sorry… so you’ll have to chase the link. Here’s the description:

HOW IT WAS DONE: JSOnline set up a camera in a fourth-floor meeting room at the Journal Sentinel and captured one image every 10 seconds from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday, producing this time-lapse video of the action along 4th and State in downtown Milwaukee.

Fascinating. (h/t: One of Wired’s blogs)

Back in a few. I was up late, I slept late, but the first cup has been consumed and now it's off to make the rounds and think about what I'm really gonna put up today for your edification, illumination, and general amusement, Gentle Reader. Doubtless my subsequent sentences will have fewer words... I make much more sense when I'm fully caffeinated.

Around The Horn

Via Blog-Bud Barry… “Nectar of the demigods: B-list-celebrity-endorsed foodstuffs.” I went through the list and was surprised to find I’ve consumed more than one of these items. And no, Paul Newman’s stuff ain’t here, coz Newman is anything but a B-List kinda guy. (Full disclosure: there are three bottles of Paul Newman’s salad dressings in my cupboard, and one bottle of his Sockarooni spaghetti sauce, which just happens to be the best store-bought sauce there is.)

Back to the subject at hand… This seems right up my alley:

Sammy Hagar Cabo Wabo tequila

He's every Van Halen fan's second choice for lead singer, but Sammy Hagar doesn't need to slog it out on the road any more—in a way, he's getting the last laugh. His VH partners invested in his Mexican bar way back when, but when it faltered, he bought them out. Fast forward a few years, and Sammy's got an incredibly successful tequila—Cabo Wabo—to go along with his place. Last year, he sold an 80 percent stake to Campari, and presumably got even more stinkin' rich. In a related note, former VH bassist Michael Anthony has his own line of hot sauces.

Level of celebrity: Unusual. Drinkers still love him, but a VH tour with Sammy wouldn't generate nearly the excitement that last year's David Lee Roth-led tour did.

Appropriateness of product to celebrity: Hagar and tequila go together like Roth and Van Halen, which is to say very well.

Likelihood of consumption by non-fans: Drink enough, and you'll be a fan.

Marketing hyperbole: Sammy pimps like a madman for Cabo Wabo. Bikini chicks onstage with his band, the Waboritas, serving tequila? Oh yeah, he's got that.

Buy it at: Many liquor stores.

I think I’d try a shot or two in a bar before I laid any money on the table. I tend to be rather very picky about my likker.

―:☺:―

Another pick-up… this time from Jeff, aka FHB. Is this Morgan, unmasked? (You gotta stick with it to the very end to get the reference.)

Nah. I forgot. Morgan is in Kallie-forhn-eee-ya, not Tennessee. Unless it’s umm… maskirovka on a grand scale. Could be. That beard looks sorta fake.

―:☺:―

This concerns me just a wee bit:

I know the risks of an “always on” network connection…my previous 384Kb connection was also of the “always on” variety. But I seem to be getting a lot more intrusion attempts ever since the fiber connection came through. It could very well be coincidence, and I suspect it is. But that doesn’t lessen the pain of re-booting an XP system a couple of times a day just to ensure you’re rid of various and sundry Trojans and such.

There’s a VERY special place in Hell for the folks that write this malevolent crap. Too bad we can’t send more of these folks to The Big House. Hell may be eternal, but Bubba is immediate and often. And the sort of punishment I have in mind, informal though it might be, would be just.

Just sayin’, ya know.

Today's Pics

A girl I used to know.

Later that same day.

Summer, 1977.

Back to Normal... or As Normal As It Gets Around Here

Well, now. Yesterday was certainly… interesting, eh? Speaking strictly about politics, of course. I’ll freely admit to getting a lil bit wrapped around the axle because of yesterday’s events, and I’ll also admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. To be blunt: yesterday was the first spark of enthusiasm and/or excitement I’ve felt in this primary season. Perhaps it’s because we (the Republicans) apparently have a nominee and we can concentrate our energies and resources on the national campaign. There’s just one lil problem, though: no one has told Mike Huckabee (or that doctor from Texas, mentioned only because he’s…well, still there) that the Fat Lady is done singing and has, in fact, left the building. About which: this.

JUDY WOODRUFF: What does Romney's getting out mean? And how hard is it going to be for John McCain?

RICHARD LAND: Well, Romney's getting out means that the most likely challenger to John McCain is now out of the race. And I've known Governor Huckabee for 28 years. He's a great guy. But I don't think anyone but Governor Huckabee and his wife think that he has a realistic chance of beating John McCain to the nomination, given the delegate counts that are currently in place.

And so it effectively means John McCain -- barring some health catastrophe or barring some unknown scandal that no one knows about -- he's going to be the Republican nominee.

And I think that -- look, John McCain is pro-life. Now, if Rudy Giuliani had been the nominee, it would have split the party. But John McCain has a reliable pro-life record that goes back to his days in Congress. It's not spotless, but it's pretty reliable.

And, you know, the conservative rating groups give him an 80 percent to 85 percent rating on his voting record. He's a pretty conservative guy.

Which seems to be the received wisdom across the board. I cannot remember hearing one single talking-head saying “this ain’t over” last evening…not one… unless you consider Huckabee himself to be a “talking head.” I do not. There’s interesting analysis at the link, by the way, from Richard Land (the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission) and David Bossie (president of Citizens United, a conservative nonprofit organization). Neither of which were McCain supporters, but both of which admit, somewhat grudgingly, that McCain is acceptable. It’s a start.

I think the remaining GOP primaries might could be interesting, if the “anyone but McCain” group decide to mount an intensive campaign for Huckabee. Or, God Forbid…Ron Paul. Yet: it’s still VERY early days and approximately half the states have yet to hold their primaries. It could be interesting, in the Chinese proverb sense.

We’ll see.

―:☺:―

In the meantime, look for a whole helluva lot of articles like this one in the very near future. Excerpt:

The Republican Party spent decades building its brand as the party of small government, free enterprise and fiscal discipline. That brand put Ronald Reagan in the White House in 1980 and gave Republicans control of Congress in 1994. When it became clear two years ago that Republicans had abandoned those principles, voters swept them from power.

The path back requires re-establishing the GOP as a party of limited government and economic freedom. This is essential to Mr. McCain's political future, the fortune of his party, and the economic well-being of the nation. And the first big indication that he intends to bring back the party of Reagan will be who Mr. McCain taps as his running mate.

The WSJ talks about some of the usual suspects and some unusual ones, as well. One intriguing name I heard mentioned last night is Kay Bailey Hutchison. I could buy that… OTOH, either Romney hisownself or Fred wouldn’t upset me, either.

More ideas here, here, and at The Weekly Standard, whose article concludes with “This list will grow like kudzu.” No kidding. Ya think?

―:☺:―

A lot of folks have been dissing Peggy Noonan of late, but she has a block-buster of a column in today’s WSJ… “Can Mrs. Clinton Lose?” Excerpt:

If Hillary Clinton loses, does she know how to lose? What will that be, if she loses? Will she just say, "I concede" and go on vacation at a friend's house on an island, and then go back to the Senate and wait?

Is it possible she could be so normal? Politicians lose battles, it's part of what they do, win and lose. But she does not know how to lose. Can she lose with grace? But she does grace the way George W. Bush does nuance.

She often talks about how tough she is. She has fought "the Republican attack machine" that has tried to "stop" her, "end" her, and she knows "how to fight them." She is preoccupied to an unusual degree with toughness. A man so preoccupied would seem weak. But a woman obsessed with how tough she is just may be lethal.

The bits about Hillary are good, but it’s Noonan’s observations about Obama…and you simply cannot discuss Hillary without talking about Obama… that grabbed my attention. She’s very, very astute on that subject, and the GOP had best begin working on this lil problema toot sweet. I’m sure McCain’s folks already are.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pics: Motorcycles Past. I may have mentioned that there was a time in life…an extended time, like four years or so… when I didn’t own a car. At this particular point in time (1975 - 1977) I owned three motorcycles, two of which you see here, and another RD-350 that served as a “parts bike” for the gold motorcycle in these pictures.

The gold bike is a Yamaha RD-350B (it might could be an RD-350A but I doubt if anyone can tell the difference, not that it matters a whole helluva lot, anyway) and that was my “daily driver” for nearly two years. That bike took The Second Mrs. Pennington and I all over Tokyo and quite a few other places, most notably the mountains and vicinity around the Kanto Plains. I kept it basically stock, primarily because I didn’t have the money to build it out at the time. But I told folks it was all about “re-sale value” and other white lies.

The bike with the red tank is a DT-1, or perhaps a DT-250, which I purchased for the princely sum of $50.00…if memory serves. The guy I bought it from told me it didn’t run and I was welcome to it…make an offer. So I did. The day I went to pick it up I took a brand new spark plug with me, a new set of points, and an assortment of tools. I replaced the plug, kicked the bike through twice with the ignition off, switched the ignition on, kicked it again…once… and it started right up. I rode it home, finished the tune-up, kept it for about a year and sold it for three times what I paid for it the week before I left Japan. That bike was one of the most cost-effective, not to mention FUN, motorcycles I’ve ever owned, bar none. I wish I had it today.

The pics were taken in the parking lot outside of the Single NCO Quarters at Yokota AB, Japan, where I lived after TSMP left Japan in late 1976. Note the cherry blossoms in the second pic... Yokota was a beautiful air force base…as far as air force bases go.

THIS is News!

Romney drops out. Film at eleven right now. I'm watching all the talking heads pontificate as I peck this out.

Stunning, in every sense of the word.

Update, 2/07/2008 1247 hrs.: Lotsa links and Romney video at Wizbang. And Taylor Marsh sez "Bet on it. It's McCain. Things just got tougher for Democrats." S' true, that.

Something else that's true: I just gained a whole helluva lot of respect for Romney, something that was previously lacking. The handwriting was on the wall, true. But it takes a very BIG man to recognize that fact and concede gracefully. And I SO like the way Mitt put it: "In this time of war..." Good on ya, Governor Romney.

Update 2/07/2008 1350 hrs: Well, I just finished watching McCain's CPAC speech. He hit all the right points and... surprise of surprises... was roundly cheered by the crowd. There were some isolated boos, but not all that many. As I said: surprise. Michael Steele, the Republican former Lt. Governor of Maryland, said McCain "hit it out of the park." I tend to agree. We'll see what the rest of the conservative world has to say as the days, weeks, and months unfold...

Minor Embarrassments

Today’s Pics: The Boys might could object to the first pic in this posting, but they’ll get over it. I threw in the second pic just for whimsy’s sake. The first photo was taken in Lompoc, CA either in 1970 or 1971. SN1 is on the left, SN2 on the right. They were five and three years of age, respectively… if the pic was taken in ’71. Subtract a year if otherwise.

The second pic is of granddaughter Anastasia and two of my three pups (Bōgus Dōgus on the left, Fifi La Bonne on the right) at my dining room window in Ferndale, Michigan. The Second Mrs. Pennington… a less-than-amused TSMP, BTW… sits on the right. She’s slightly irritated because the dogs are barking their heads off…and I set ‘em off just to get this pic. How did I set ‘em off? Simply by suggesting there were squirrels out in the yard, and they should take notice. Thus, barking…and lots of it, too. Anastasia is also desperately looking for said squirrels, as well. You can barely see our third dog, Fritzi Ritz (a German Shepard mix), at the bottom of the pic. Fritzi didn't fall for the "get the squirrels" ruse because she was a whole helluva lot smarter than the other two dogs. Sometimes.

I might be back later, but in the mean time there are errands to run and stuff deferred from yesterday because of weather nastiness. Today, OTOH, is gorgeous but slightly cool. Yesterday’s weather was anything but nice. It was pretty ugly, when you get right down to it.

Super Fat Tuesday? Fat Super Tuesday?

So. It might could be a long night tonite. I might have to take a nap this afternoon just so I can stay awake and catch all the reek surrounding Super-Duper Tuesday. Does anyone else besides me think it’s sorta ironic the largest collection of state primaries, ever, is happening on Mardi Gras? It’s probably a great good thing Louisiana isn’t voting…

―:☺:―

Speaking of Fat Tuesday… This is interesting. To some folks anyway, including YrHmblScrb. Do a google image search on “Mardi Gras,” with “safe search” off. There’s not as much silicone as you’d think, but there is some. Titillating, it is.

Dang. I wish I were in N’Awlins today, but tonight would be even better.

―:☺:―

So. Major crescendo today from the McCain Derangement Syndrome folks, beginning with that Illustrious Spokesperson of the Right, Mr. Limbaugh. From Michael Goldfarb, writing at The Weekly Standard:

Over the past few weeks, Rush Limbaugh has emerged as the conservative movement's most prominent casualty of McCain Derangement Syndrome. Yesterday his condition deteriorated further:

On Mr. Limbaugh's program today, he said people should not be rushing to back Mr. McCain over issues of national security. The talk host said America's direction in Iraq would not be substantially different, even if Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama were elected. "They are not going to surrender the country to Islamic radicalism or the war in Iraq," Mr. Limbaugh said after mentioning the two Democratic senators by name. "They are not going to do that to themselves, despite what their base says."

"The idea that we've only got one person in this whole roster of candidates, either party, who is willing to take on the war on terror is frankly, absurd," Mr. Limbaugh said.

Unfortunately, Limbaugh's personal animus towards the Senator from Arizona seems to be blinding him to the fundamental issue--that this election, first and foremost, is about America's national security. How else to explain this flailing effort to persuade primary voters not to worry so much about what are, in fact, very real and profound difference between the candidates--differences not over how to prosecute this war, but whether to prosecute it at all.

{…}

I understand that some conservatives are uneasy about a McCain nomination, that he isn't their first choice to carry the party's standard. But there's something truly unhinged--and at times spectacularly disgraceful--about the response of some on the right to this increasingly likely prospect.

Ummm… yeah. All that, and a bag o’ chips. I’ve noticed lots and lots of normally rational people are taking leave of their senses where McCain is concerned. But then again, if Ron Paul were in the same position as McCain (i.e., the front-runner) going into today’s primaries, I’d be apoplectic. But he’s not, and I’m not. What I am is confused (very) at all this “eat your own” stuff. I have the same sort of feelings about our side as I had about the ‘bats when they went nuts about Joe Lieberman late last summer and on into early Fall.

It’s not a good feeling, Gentle Reader.

―:☺:―

So…this video is Number Two on the viral vids list today. Way-cool.

In a not-so-amazing coincidence, last night’s American Experience (on PBS, here) was all about Grand Central Station. Wonderful show, that was, and the gallery at the link has some great photos of this American architectural icon. Rumor has it you’ll be able to watch the show on-line sometime later this month. Or, you can catch it in re-runs. PBS does that a lot, and that’s not a bad thing.

I was 13 years old the first time I set foot in Grand Central. I exasperated the living Hell out of my Mom, who was trying to drag me and my sister to a specific platform to board our train that was set to leave for Atlanta within about 20 minutes or so. But, no… I had to drag my feet, just staring at the wonder of it all. I had never, ever been in an enclosed space that large in my life and have been in danged few others as large, since. Stadiums and domes excluded, of course.

Just Not Feelin' It...

We all have days like this, I suppose. But, as my post title states: “I’m just not feelin’ it” today. In spades. But…like all things… “this, too, shall pass.”

That said, I did come across an editorial in today’s WSJ I want to quote and link. First, the excerpts:

We believe that the nomination of John McCain is the best option to preserve the ongoing restoration of constitutional government. He is by far the most electable Republican candidate remaining in the race, and based on his record is as likely to appoint judges committed to constitutionalism as Mitt Romney, a candidate for whom we also have great respect.

We make no apology for suggesting that electability must be a prime consideration. The expected value of any presidential candidate for the future of the American judiciary must be discounted by the probability that the candidate will not prevail in the election. For other kinds of issues, it may be argued that it is better to lose with the perfect candidate than to win with an imperfect one. The party lives to fight another day and can reverse the bad policies of an intervening presidency.

The judiciary is different. On Jan. 20, 2009, six of the nine Supreme Court justices will be over 70. Most of them could be replaced by the next president, particularly if he or she is re-elected. Given the prospect of accelerating gains in modern medical technology, some of the new justices may serve for half a century. Even if a more perfect candidate were somehow elected in 2012, he would not be able to undo the damage, especially to the Supreme Court.

{…}

Conservative complaints about Mr. McCain's role as a member of the Gang of 14 seem to encapsulate all that is wrong in general with conservative carping over his candidacy. It makes the perfect the enemy of the very good results that have been achieved, thanks in no small part to Mr. McCain, and to the very likely prospect of further good results that might come from his election as president.

Emphasis mine. Most of this you may remember, Gentle Reader, was exactly what I was on about here. And despite the fact “the perfect vs. the good” has become something of a 21^st century cliché…the sentiment is so very apt when it comes to the GOP nomination. But we’ll see what we see tomorrow, eh?

In the meantime…read the whole thing editorial, as it’s said. One editorial probably won’t convince die-hard conservatives, but then again…there’s absolutely no harm in trying.

Update 2/04/2008 1900 hrs: Very few bloggers had weighed in on this editorial when I put this post up this afternoon. That's changed now. But of all the folks weighing-in on this subject, no one... and I mean NO ONE... says it better than Gerard. He hit the ball out of the gawdamned park. Just an excerpt or two:

Still, it is instructive to follow the heft of the arguments that shore up the ruins of the Republican party. These seem mostly to stem from McCain's real or imagined positions on "The Big 3 Issues" -- abortion, immigration, homosexuality -- plus -- just for fun -- some sort of running around outside his marriage a decade or more back. The latter is often thrown in because it just wouldn't be politics as usual without some mud in the mix.

Why the blow-up on the Right. It's not really about McCain. The conservative rage to my mind is powered not by the actual prospect of McCain candidacy itself. The looming reality of McCain's nomination brings a deeper failure into focus. That knowledge is powered by the unconscious awareness that, on "The Big 3 Issues", the culture war is over. And the conservatives have lost. Reaction? Consume your own.

Here's the news on "The Big 3 Issues:"

{...}

Reversing Illegal Immigration: Done deal #3. I know that, like visions of sugarplums, visions of some sort of "fence" protecting America from the hordes of marching Mexicans dance in the heads of Americans who just want them all to turn around and march back. But, alas, that too joins the previous two issues in the category, "It Ain't Gonna Happen."

I know, believe me, all the designs for a kinder and gentler fence that will have hi-tech detectors and some sort of ready interdiction corps sitting on helicopter scramble pads across the southern border. I know all the arguments for expanding the ever-so-effective techniques used to stop the flow of illegal drugs to stop the flow of illegal aliens. None of these will prove any more effective than "The War on Some Drugs" we've be squandering billions on over the decades.

What would work would be some sort of East German wall 1,969 miles long. This monstrosity would have guard towers, mine fields, attack Dobermans, armored cars, and about 100,000 armed border guards with a shoot on sight policy (3 shifts of 17 guards per mile). After around 500 Mexican civilians were shot dead, this might have some effect on reducing the flow. I'm not quite ready for this draconian a solution. Are you?

Then there is the extended policy of finding those illegals here and, well, just deporting them. Another 25-watt idea.

Okay, let's follow that one home with the vision of hundreds of buses chock full of thousands of illegals (rounded up in armed swoops through the US barrios) departing daily for Tijuana and all points south. The first problem is finding and then imprisoning the illegals. That would mean raids into homes and apartment buildings around the country as well as stop and frisk identity checks on the street for "looking Mexican." Then you'll have to refurbish those Japanese internment camps in the Owens valley and elsewhere as holding pens. Think the Manzanar Concentration Camp to the 10th power on the outskirts of every major city. You start opening those up and armed Mexicans are going to be the least of your problems.

And there's much, much more... you'll note I began the excerpt with Done Deal Number Three. Two items precede that one, and the analysis is spot-on. Forget that WSJ editorial if you're pressed for time. Just go read Gerard. And then come back and tell me how you're gonna stay home, or vote for some third-party candidate with less than the proverbial snow ball's chance in Hell. I particularly like Gerard's close. If that don't raise the hair on the back of your neck, well...you're pretty much a lost cause. Or a Democrat.

P.S.: Read Rachel Lucas, too. Oh my, yes. Please do.

P.P.S.: Eugene Volokh is on-board, too.

Sunday, Tacky Sunday...

Apologies to U2 concerning the post title.

Via Blog-Buddy Becky (kinda-sorta, with absolutely unintended alliteration), here’s an older (2004) but still relevant video... Chris Anderson of Wired Magazine speaking on “Technology's Long Tail:”

What’s particularly interesting about this video is we have the luxury of hindsight with which to judge the value or accuracy of Mr. Anderson’s prognostications (interesting to me, that is, Gentle Reader. YMMV.). I think he was remarkably accurate.

Further… when I say “kinda-sorta” about this video and associated links, it’s because Becky posted a much different (and arguably much better) vid from TED.com. About which: a waaay-cool site. Lotsa good stuff here, and the site is an hour- or day-killer, if you let it be. Situations like this are where a wife would come in handy, as in “Are you STILL on that @!!$#&% computer?” Coz I spent much more than an hour here this morning. MUCH more.

Which goes a long ways towards explaining why it’s after 1400 hrs and I’m just now getting around to posting.

―:☺:―

So. Ready for the Snoozer-Bowl? I’m only half-jesting… “half” because the ads are usually always much more entertaining than the… uh… actual game. At the risk of offending 66.6% percent or more of America I think the NFL, in general, and Super Bowl Sunday…in particular… represents the absolute worst of 21^st century America. That goes for 20^th century America, too, if you want to get historical. Ya gots yer tacky, yer bling (oops. That was redundant.), yer crass commercialism, yer over-paid self-important athletes, yer over-priced every-frickin’-thing, yer fascination with the bottom of the triviality barrel, yer… I’ll stop now. The list is endless.

But there are cheerleaders, so all isn’t lost.

Puzzlements

There’s at least one thing that has puzzled me (ed: only one?) about the GOP primaries: McCain seems to have many, many more endorsements than Romney, particularly from GOP governors (there’s no equivalent list on Romney’s site: I looked. And Romney’ site is sloooow.). The Politico has one opinion on why that is. Excerpt:

As chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2006, Mitt Romney crisscrossed the country to elect GOP governors and broke the group’s fundraising record by hauling in $20 million.

Yet just two of the 16 governors he worked to elect then are supporting his presidential bid.

In fact, just three of the nation’s 22 Republican governors have endorsed him.

[…]

One reason, said a Republican consultant familiar with the thinking behind some of the governors’ decisions, is that Romney rubbed some governors the wrong way during his tenure at the RGA.

“Everything seemed to have strings attached to it,” the consultant said. “If they were going to make a donation, they wanted a quid pro quo like an endorsement or a donor list or a volunteer program. There’s no interest like self-interest in politics. So when [governors] think their political lives are in a do-or-die situation, that’s not the time to offer help with strings attached.”

The article contains counter-points to the points enumerated above. But Romney’s relative lack of endorsements from his fellow governors should be a warning of some sort to Republican voters. Or at the very least, something to think about.

A small note: Add about a buck and a half to any given endorsement and you can buy a cup of coffee nearly anywhere, including Starbucks. In other words, most folks don’t give two hoots about which poohbah likes which candidate. But… IF you checked the link to McCain’s endorsements, and IF you scrolled down that list, you may have noticed this lil line item:

Colonel Bud Day, MOH USAF (ret), Florida

That endorsement, Gentle Reader, cuts some serious ice with me. Col. Day is one of my biggest real-life heroes and I respect his judgment. Read why here.

―:☺:―

A Bleg, Gentle Reader, but not of the monetary kind… I occasionally chase up Site Meter hits to various EIP posts if the search term used doesn’t exactly ring a bell for me. In so doing I’ve noticed all the pics (seemingly) I put up on a third-party hosting site have gone missing from the blog. I first discovered this phenomenon when I linked the “When I was Eight” series in a comment. Today it was this post (which has been fixed).

Sooo… here’s the bleg. IF you happen to read something, anything in the archives (ha!) and IF you encounter broken images or images that do not display in a particular post, would you please let me know? All you need to do is give me the date and post title. I’ll fix it promptly.

Thanks.

―:☺:―

OK… I know all y’all have seen this, coz just about every milblog under the sun and moon has posted on it. I’m not in the habit of piling on, in the sense of writing about stuff others have written about and who most likely have done a much better job of the writing, as well. Which is all too true in this particular case. What could I possibly add to this story of moonbat madness?

Well, maybe this. I’m here to tell ya, Gentle Reader, Berkeley is every bit as nutty as you’ve read… and then some. As most of all y’all know, I lived in Berkeley during my first year in SFO. I’m probably lucky to have escaped Berkeley unscathed, especially since I was in the habit of wearing one of my more…umm… blatant military tee shirts when I went browsing the record stores (which are among this country's VERY best) and hanging out in the coffee shops, better dive bars, sushi joints, and the like on the week-ends. Shirts like this one:

And of course... my ol’ BUFF shirt, which is long gone. But it was similar to this one, except for the verbiage, which was limited to a simple “B U F F” on the top of the shirt and “Boeing B-52” on the bottom. But the ‘bats got the message. Oh, yes. They certainly did. My tee shirts had a habit of initiating spirited conversation... and that's putting it a bit mildly.

It seems like Berkeley has upped the moonbat ante of late, though. Which isn’t surprising at all to this former resident.

I know there's such a thing as secession, and I don’t think many of us would object if Berkeley were to secede from the Union. We’ll need to rescue the engineering and computer science departments at UC Berkeley first, though. They do good work there.

Update 2/02/2008 1800 hrs: From Zombie, one of the very few sane folks in the Bay Area, an Oldie but a Goodie: photos... taken at the "How Berkeley Can You Be?" parade in Berkeley on Sunday, September 19, 2004. CAUTION: This being Berkeley, there is some full-frontal nudity of the non-erotic type, including an example of a micro-phallus. I'll pass on the "suspicions confirmed" sort of snark. Oops. Too late.

(h/t: Wretchard)

Musical Interlude II

A couple of tunes from artists I heard this morning on Radio Paradise while making the rounds…which I’m still doing. In the meantime, a lil musical interlude… featuring one upbeat tune and one not so upbeat.

The Isleys. Dang, they’re good. And so is Phoebe…

Phoebe Snow has a terribly, terribly sad life story and is just now returning to performing following the death of her daughter in March of last year. It’s SO very good to have her back.

I was looking for Phoebe’s “Shaky Ground,” which was the specific tune I heard on RP. Alas, these here inter-tubes can be SO incomplete at times. So you’ll have to make do with a recycled Lennon-McCartney tune.

You could do a lot worse, ya know.

Hey! Gitcher Foot OFF My Car!

Alternatively: "Need a ride?" She'd be just the thing to spiff up The Green Hornet jes a lil bit, eh?

No, it's not my Miata, although it is the same color. Nope... Just a pic of a Euro-Miata I found while reading some stuff about Miatas.

Guilty Pleasure

Somewhere, carefully hidden, I’ve got a small notebook where I have written down the names of all the men I’ve ever slept with, in the order I slept with them. There’s a little coded dot beside each name for “serious relationship”, “someone I really liked but didn’t last long”, or “one-night stand”. When I married, it seemed important to put that book out of reach, although I never felt I should destroy it. In any case, when I slipped on the magic gold band I seemed to become invisible, and it seemed unlikely I would be making any new additions to the list. There were just a couple of dozen names, but, with the notebook now lost, I find I’m no longer sure of the precise order in which they followed each other.

That would be a quote from “Desperately seeking satisfaction; A 44-year-old woman writes about a lifetime of sexual highs and lows,” which is a book review of sorts.

I was originally inclined to dismiss this article in The Times (UK) as simply another in a long line of tacky tell-all confessions… from yet another woman complaining about the insensitivity and boorishness we all know to be inherent in men, as the received wisdom has it. In a way it is all that and a bag o’ chips, yet in another way it’s not…it’s fascinating. To me, anyway. YMMV.

At the very least you have to marvel about something like this appearing in (arguably) the UK’s flagship paper.

About Right, I Suppose...

…and this is a jpeg, coz the embed code is just totally hosed.

Via Lex, who is also an Eagle. Makes me wonder, coz Lex is a real fighter pilot, and I’m not. But we’re both Eagles. Go figure…

You can take the quiz here, if’n ya wanna. Some other possibilities include the EA-6B, F-16, C-5 (?), F-22, and the C-21, a militarized Lear Jet. Lear Jet? Who’d wanna be a Lear Jet?

TGIF, and This Time I Mean It...

Today’s Quickie…

Senior Class Prank

Who says Today's Kids aren't smart?? (Well, some of them are)!!

I wish I'd thought of this...

At a high School in Montana a group of high schoolers played a prank on the school. They let three goats loose in the school.

Before they let them go they painted numbers on the sides of the goats… 1, 2, & 4.

Local school administrators spent most of the day looking for #3.

From a Bud, via e-mail.

―:☺:―

Occasional reader Doc has put up a new blog to complement the U.S. Air Force Academy’s “War, Literature, and the Arts,” a professional journal published by the Academy’s Department of English and Fine Arts. The WLA blog is fairly new and only has two posts at the moment, but I’m thinking it’s gonna be a hit. And if you’ve not visited Doc’s blog or the WLA, I have to ask “Why not?” Good stuff be there…

In other blog news… I’m a little concerned about Occasional Reader and Commenter Abraham Lincoln. His blog has gone missing with absolutely NO explanation, and it's been at least two days. Just here one day, gone the next…with only a 404-error to show. I hope everything is OK.

―:☺:―

Well, at least Colmes gets it, “it” being the supreme irony demonstrated by Coulter’s rant in the vid below. Who’d a thunk it?

H/t to Allah, who has it right when he says “madness.” I thought I kinda-sorta understood politics. It’s plain to see I don’t. Certain types of politics, just to be clear. Dang. This is the most bizarre US election cycle I’ve ever seen. Bar none.

James Joyner has more. Excerpt:

Thankfully, this over-the-top stuff is being rejected by most conservatives.

AllahPundit calls Coulter’s statement “Madness” and Sean Hackbarth, late of the Fred Thompson campaign, says she is “officially an idiot.”

RedState’s Leon H Wolf warns commenters that they may “complain vociferously about McCain, Bush, or anyone else’s position on immigration” but they will be banned from the site if they do so in racist terms.

Even Jonah Goldberg, hardly the voice of rational discourse while hawking a book about how American liberals are Fascists, thinks “the notion that, variously, conservatism, the country or the party are doomed if he’s the nominee or the president is pretty absurd.”

A.J. Strata has still more on this particular angle, while Ed Morrissey brings up McCain mud-slinging of a new and different type.

And the Left? They’re just eating this up…predictably. Our little inter-familial squabbles are giving the ‘bats false hope, to wit:

Just about everything has gone the wingnuts' way for close to thirty years. In that time we've had a few glimmers of hope and a few more false dawns. The result is that they're brats who demand everything they want, all the time. We're not like that. And right now, that makes us seem like the grown-ups, and maybe it means we'll win one.

Well, not really, Mr. Steve M., but like all stopped clocks, you’re right at least twice a day, ya know. I’ll concede the “makes us seem like the grown-ups” point. To my great embarrassment.

“Interesting times” doesn’t even come close to describing this mess.

―:☺:―

Today’s Pic: My mother in a formal, hand-colored (which was “the style” at the time and has since gone out of favor) portrait, taken sometime in the 1940s. I may or may not have been more than a gleam in the Ol’ Man’s eye when this portrait was done. In other words, I don’t know exactly when the pic was taken. But I DO know it’s one of my favorite shots of Mom.