Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

... is mostly Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush.  Well... all of it, in fact, but more Kate than Joni.  We know that Ms. Bush is... umm... an "acquired taste," but I acquired my taste for the lovely Kate about 30 years ago, back in Former Happy Days when we lived in her native land.  That taste has never left me and we pull her albums out every so often just for the joy that's in it.  And, truth be told, to recall Former Happy Days... because we're like that.  So here are a couple o' items from today's soundtrack...

I could have been anyone.
You could have been anyone's dream.
Why did you have to choose our moment?
Why did you have to make me feel that?
Why did you make it so unreal?

Oh! To be in love,
And never get out again.
Oh! To be in love,
And never get out again.
Oh! To be in love,
And never get out again.

I don't think Kate thought that one through... mainly because there just MIGHT could be a time when one would want to "get out again."  Just sayin', yanno?

And then there's this about that:

"If I only could, I'd be running up that hill.
If I only could, I'd be running up that hill."

It doesn't hurt me.
Do you want to feel how it feels?
Do you want to know that it doesn't hurt me?
Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?
You, it's you and me.

And if I only could,
I'd make a deal with God,
And I'd get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh...

You don't want to hurt me,
But see how deep the bullet lies.
Unaware I'm tearing you asunder.
Ooh, there is thunder in our hearts.

I sure do love this woman.  I mean, aside from bein' oh-so-lovely, she touches me in places few others can.  Of course there's also the fact her music was once a shared experience with someone near and dear.  But let's not go there... any more than we already have.

Around Here He'd Get His Ass Beat

Just sayin'.

Apropos o' Not Much

Starters at tonight's dinner...

That would be a plate of green chile/cheese fried won-tons, a salad, and a very watery martini... for starters.  I asked the bartender "can you make a GOOD dry martini?" before I ordered and he responded in the affirmative.  I suppose "good" is entirely subjective, but the lesson learned here is to order a double the next time I order a martini at Cattle Barons.  If there IS a next time... coz it's prolly best to stick with beer in this neck o' the woods.  Or whiskey, straight up.  Just sayin'.

Dinner on the whole was good, though.  We followed up the hors d'oeuvres with a beef kabob dish and a glass of house red, which turned out to be a very good Merlot, followed up with coffee (and two fingers o' single malt and a cigar, taken on our verandah).  All in all: a very enjoyable dinner out. 

Farewell and Following Seas, Captain LeFon

Carroll LeFon, CAPT, USN (ret) is being laid to rest at this very hour in Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, CA.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the LeFon family; our gratitude continues for Lex's service and the significant contributions he made in this world.

Godspeed, Captain.

Well, Let's HOPE So

From CNN earlier today:

The sticks seem to be falling as they should.  There's hope, especially when Obama's House Organ is this pessimistic.

Good and Bad

First the Bad...

So.  We're all waiting for the Supremes now.  Ain't nothing like suspense, eh?

―:☺:―

The Good, Part I...  The Wings made the playoffs last night for the 21st consecutive season by beating Columbus, 7-2.  That's the current record for making the playoffs in all the major sports, but it ain't even close to the NHL record for most consecutive playoff appearances.  Note (h/t to Paul at Kukla's Korner):

MOST CONSECUTIVE STANLEY CUP PLAYOFF APPEARANCES, NHL HISTORY:
29 Boston Bruins, 1968-96
28 Chicago Blackhawks, 1970-97
25 St. Louis Blues, 1980-2004
24 Montréal Canadiens, 1971-94
21 Detroit Red Wings, 1991-present
21 Montréal Canadiens, 1949-69
20 Detroit Red Wings, 1939-58

Now there's a record I prolly won't ever see, even if the Wings make the playoffs every year for the next nine years and break the record.  I'd be 76 years old when and if that happened and that looks like a bridge too far from where I sit.  For ME, not the Wings.  

―:☺:―

The Good, Part II... Do you believe in omens?  This is the first song I heard this morning when I fired up the peesee:

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window
And the traffic wrote the words
It came ringing up like Christmas bells
And rapping up like pipes and drums

Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it 'till the night comes

I think it's gonna be a great day.  I'm gonna talk in present tenses.

A Memorable Day...

... for Wings fans.

Fifteen Years Later, Infamous Wings-Avs Brawl Still Fires Up Fans: MyFoxDETROIT.com

From FoxDetroit:

(WJBK) - Fifteen years ago today, the Detroit Red Wings beat the Colorado Avalanche 6-5 in what was one of the most memorable games in team history.

The fight between Darren McCarty and Claude Lemieux still fires up fans. It also helped the Red Wings turn the corner and launch their dynasty, winning the first of four Stanley Cups in 15 years.

The Red Wings of this season have struggled of late, but with some players back from injuries, they're hoping to change their fortunes.

I SO remember that game... and like the article sez, it marked the point where the current Wings dynasty began.  That, and the fact that Darren McCarty kicked the hell outta Claude Lemieux.  No one in hockey... at that time... deserved it more.  Highlights:

That was the BEST gotdamned brawl of the modern era, bar none.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

It's another good day here on The High Plains o' New Mexico... not brilliant, coz the wind is a bit to the right o' breezy... but good enough that we have our windows open and are listening to our own stuff once again, as opposed to Pandora.  

Our selections today span a good amount o' time, from my high school days up until about two or three years ago.  Specifically: Volume Six of Atlantic's Rhythm and Blues Compendium, Robbie Robertson's eponymous album, Dylan's "Blood On the Tracks," Elvis Costello's "This Year's Model," and Lyle's "Live in Texas."  We have our CD changer in "random" mode and that makes for some rather jangling segues... like having Elvis' "I Don't Wanna Go (to Chelsea)" follow Aretha's "A Natural Woman."   But it is what it is and I'm enjoying what it is... immensely.

I bought four of those five albums in Former Happy Days and a couple o' those albums featured prominently in the soundtrack of our life (lives?) during that time.  Music bein' what it is... and by that I mean the power it has to transport us to moments both happy and sad... we've had quite a few "interesting" moments this afternoon.  But we shall resist the temptation to get all maudlin on ya once again.  So.  What to choose from all o' the above?  Let's go with this:

Who else is gonna bring you
A broken arrow
Who else is gonna bring you
A bottle of rain
There she goes, moving across the water
There she goes turning my whole
world around

Do you feel what I feel
Can we make that so it's part of the deal
I gotta hold you in these arms of steel
Lay your heart on the line ... this time

I wanna breathe when you breathe
When you whisper like that hot
summer breeze
Count the beads of sweat that cover me
Didn't you show me a sign, this time

I think that's one of the best love songs ever penned, not so much for the emotion expressed in the lyrics, but for the sheer geekiness of it (and the emotion, too).  Those of us of a quirky nature really appreciate the broken arrow and bottle o' rain aspects of the lyrics.  Coz we've been known to bring our beloved a bottle o' rain or sumthin' like it, yanno?

Better Than Roseanne Barr

Operatic soprano Measha Brueggergosman got slagged by hockey bloggers for her renditions of the Canadian and US national anthems at Saturday night's game in Ottawa.  This is long, but whattayathink?

I watched the whole thang and, like Paul at the Usual Hockey Source, I thought Ms. Brueggergosman did a bang-up job.  Her version of the anthems may not be everyone's cuppa, but like the post title sez: better than Roseanne.  But then again, even **I** could sing The Star-Spangled Banner better than Roseanne.  You could, too.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

... is from Lyle:

He’s pulling out for Reno
He hopes a tire don’t blow
Up near Albuquerque
He’ll fuel and get some coffee
Cline’s Corners truck stop
A waitress with a wet mop
Telling him to don’t walk
He tips his hat and don’t talk

He knows it’s nothing but a good ride
No there’s nothing there he can’t slide
No there’s nothing that he won’t spin
No there’s nothing to it do it again
No it’s nothing but the big show
No there’s nowhere that he won’t go
No he never has to ask why
He knows it’s nothing but a good ride

New Mexico associations aside (we ALWAYS stop at Cline's Corners on our way west)... it's truck drivin' as a metaphor for life.  Works for me.

This tune is from Lyle's "My Baby Don't Tolerate" album and it sure was hard to pick ONE tune from this album to represent today's Happy Hour Soundtrack.  On account o' because there's just SO many.  Like this... which was a close second... mainly coz I live in my own mind, too.

Bye-Bye, Poo Poo!

Ah, those inscrutable Nihonjin!

Ah, Politics...

THIS week's campaign meme was "kids toys."  Like this:

There's a brief explanation here (in case you live under a rock), which focuses on perhaps the ONE group of people who find this shit amusing.  Or, in this case, profitable.

Yet Another Study to Ignore

From the Beeb:

People living alone 'are more depressed'

People of working age who live alone increase their risk of depression by up to 80% compared with people living in families, says a Finnish study.

It says the main factors are poor housing conditions for women and a lack of social support for men, who are both equally affected.

The study tracked the use of anti-depressants in 3,500 Finnish people.

A mental health charity said people who lived alone must be given outlets to talk about their problems.

The study authors highlight the fact that the proportion of one-person households in Western countries has increased during the past three decades, with one in every three people in the US and the UK living alone.

The participants in the study, published in BioMed Central's public health journal, were working-age Finns; 1,695 were men and 1,776 were women, and they had an average age of 44.6 years.

[...]

Researchers found that people living alone bought 80% more anti-depressants during the follow-up period, between 2000 and 2008, than those who did not live alone.

Well, dang.  Do beer and single-malt count as anti-depressants?  That's a rhetorical question, btw... no answer required.  It seems to me I read yet another study a few years back that claimed the Finns were the most depressed group of people in all o' Europe, what with their long winters and lack o' sunlight.  I nodded north-south when I read that study, not so much this one.  Ya think THAT might have sumthin' to do with the number o' depressed single people, at least in Finland?  Mebbe?

I tend to be pretty satisfied these days, but I can only speak for myself.  Beer and single-malt, yanno?

It's Nice That Laura and Dubya Are Stayin' In Touch

I got this in yesterday's mail:

That was part of a solicitation for money to support the George W. Bush Presidential Center, a piece part of his presidential library.  About which: times are tough, George.  Forgive me if'n I don't send along any money but... well, you know.  But thanks for the photo! 

And then there's this, apropos o' everythang:

Hell yes.  I've been missin' ya since around noon of January 20, 2009.  I ain't alone, neither.

Yesterday's GOML Moment

I received this very important communication from Hewlett-Packard yesterday (click to embiggen):

That's for stock options granted to me back in 1997... and note the exercise price: $67.73.  This is what HPQ looked like yesterday:

In point of fact... the options granted back in 1997 were for Electronic Data Systems (EDS) stock and those options were under water almost from Day One.  The stock didn't do any better once EDS was acquired by HP and EDS stock was converted to HP common.  

So... will I exercise the options?  Yeah, right... sure I will!  We're ALL about losing money, aren't we?  So much for corporate "performance incentives," which makes me think we have yet another potential target for my Midnite Firebombing career.  But hey... those options were a gift (even if they were part of my "total compensation" for 1997), it's not like I paid anythang for 'em.  Still and even:  GOML!

This Warms the Cockles...

... o' my hard lil heart:

Bloody Hundredth turns 70: The World War II emblem of the 100th Bomb Group—a four-headed eagle—now adorns the 100th Air Refueling Wing's KC-135 flagship at RAF Mildenhall, Britain. On the unit's 70th anniversary, airmen at Mildenhall "share a bond with the men who flew under this emblem in one of the greatest conflicts this world has ever seen," said Col. Christopher Kulas, 100th ARW commander, during the unveiling ceremony on March 14. "This airplane now serves as a visual reminder of that bond," he emphasized. The 100th Bomb Group was known as the "Bloody Hundredth" for its staggering losses in daylight raids over Germany during World War II. Its "square-D" marking, worn by its B-17s, is now painted on the flagship tanker's tail. "It's great to have tail [number] 0100 back in the 'Bloody Hundredth' as we celebrate our heritage year," said Kulas. (Mildenhall report by SSgt. Austin May)

That's from the Usual USAF Source.  I just love it when Big Air Force gets in touch with our history (there are five hi-res photos at the Mildenhall link, as well as expanded narrative).  Speaking of history... the history of the 100 Bomb Group is here, courtesy of the Eighth Air Force Historical Society.  This is the aircraft the Bloody Hundredth flew in the Big One:

Sixty of those B-17s went down in a single raid on Schweinfurt on Black Thursday... and about 650 airmen either lost their lives or wound up as POWs when their aircraft were shot down on that day... hence the nickname "Bloody Hundredth."

Broadening Our Horizons XLIV

We're only broadening ourselves technically speaking, as we have some experience with today's brew o' choice.  But it IS broadening in the sense that La Fin du Monde (another World Class brew according to The Bros) is now available in more user-friendly packaging, which is to say a 12 ounce bottle, instead of the one liter size... which is the way we always bought it.  Note the difference:

The other issue with those one-liter bottles is saving what's left after you're done... assuming you don't drink the entire contents of the bottle, which further assumes you'll be flat on your ass if you do.  With that in mind we'll do one of these and move on to something less prone to put us in the bag at this early hour; I can't handle too many bottles of nine percent ABV beers in a single session.  It sucks to be a lightweight and I mean that from a physical weight perspective.  Only.

In other beer news... It seems as if SN1 and I completely wiped out Portales' supply of Rogue Mocha Porter, at least until Friday.  I bought the last sixer of that brew during my beer run today; SN1 bought two yesterday, and I bought two a couple o' days before.  The beer attendant was semi-amazed; I'm semi-amazed it was that easy to exhaust the city's entire stock.  I use the term "city" loosely, of course.

Well, Damn

It kinda hurts to find out I'm just average... one of the crowd... as far as cars go.

As a stubborn recession made drivers wary of new purchases for several years, the average age of vehicles on the road in the United States stretched to a record 11.1 years in 2011, according to the research firm R. L. Polk, which tracks vehicle sales and registrations. 

Multiply that number of years by the annual miles driven — the E.P.A. uses 15,000 for the cost calculation on fuel economy labels — and it becomes evident that one pearl of conventional wisdom has become outdated. 

In the 1960s and ’70s, when odometers typically registered no more than 99,999 miles before returning to all zeros, the idea of keeping a car for more than 100,000 miles was the automotive equivalent of driving on thin ice. You could try it, but you’d better be prepared to swim. 

But today, as more owners drive their vehicles farther, some are learning that the imagined limits of vehicular endurance may not be real limits at all. Several factors have aligned to make pushing a car farther much more realistic. 

That's from a NYT article called "As Cars Are Kept Longer, 200,000 Is New 100,000."  The Green Hornet might be 11 and a half years old, but her odometer says she's still young.  She only has about 57,000 miles on her clock... so it's entirely possible she'll be the last car I ever own.  That's a comforting thought, innit?

Related, but not... I got this pop-up when I went to the Times' site that said beginning in April non-subscribers will get free access to only ten articles a month instead of 20.  So?  I'm still not gonna subscribe.  You can take away my access entirely, for all I care.

Me Too

I like this Kelley guy... a lot.  Still and even, six years?  That show will be on for six years?  The apocalypse ain't comin'... it's here.

It's That Time o' Year

"Because he's a magician you get to watch every night..."  Well, not EVERY night, but close enough.

Bring it, Bay-bee!

Just a Couple o' Thangs

I turned the heat back on this afternoon... it was off for well over a week.  But no more: it was downright chilly in the house when I woke up from Sleep, Part II sometime after noon.  About which: we went to bed at 0130 hrs this morning and laid there until 0300, eyes wide-open and brain runnin' full-tilt boogie with ridiculous thoughts I simply could NOT shut off.  So, we got up, fired off the coffee pot and stayed up until 0830.  I hate it when that happens, but we digress.  We were on about the return o' winter, here on the very eve o' Spring.  Note:

Snow.  It won't stay long, but just the thought of it hurts me.  You'll also note we're considerably below normal... temp-wise... today.  Suffice to say there will be NO al fresco Happy Hour.

―:☺:―

Screw Milquetoast Romney, Sanctimonious Santorum, Newt "Desperate Housewives" Gingrich, and Crazy Dr. Paul... I've found MY candidate:

David Burge ‏ @iowahawkblog
I will legalize pot and light bulbs, and ban AutoTune. #Iowahawk2012

David Burge ‏ @iowahawkblog
I will send the US Postal Service pink slips - via FedEx. #Iowahawk2012

David Burge ‏ @iowahawkblog
When private companies come asking for goverment investment, the only lever I'll pull is the trap door. #Iowahawk2012

 You GO, Dave!

―:☺:―

I thought I had sumthin' else, but I forgot what it was.  Gettin' old sucks.

Update, 1525 hrs:  I stand corrected.  We're not on the eve o' Spring, Spring is Here.  Huzzah!

Vernal Equinox 2012: First Day of Spring Celebrated Across the Northern Hemisphere [PHOTOS]

The first day of spring arrived Tuesday with the 2012 vernal equinox, heralding the end of a winter that, for most of us, wasn't. The United States experienced the warmest winter of the 21^st century so far and the fourth-warmest winter in 117 years of record keeping, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

New Mexico was the only state with temperatures below its long-term 20^th century average this winter. Most others were well above, with typically snow-capped locales like Grand Rapids, Mich., Grand Forks, N.D., and Green Bay, Wis., boasting their second-warmest winters ever.

Note the quote about New Mexico.  It might have been below the 20th century average somewhere in New Mexico, but here on the High Plains it was right warm.  And we LIKE that.

Hey! Look!

Baby lawn ornaments*!

I like the adults better.  But you know: production takes time.

*Not really... it's NatGeo's "Photo of the Month," from this article.

Today's GOML Moment

I'm just in from running my errands, part o' which included goin' to Wally-World where we dropped well over 60 Yankee Dollars... that would be $68.98, exactly... on six new ink cartridges for our printer.  I've owned this printer for about four or five years now and I swear I've spent three times as much on ink cartridges as I did to buy the gotdamned printer itself.  I sure do miss that old HP LaserJet I had for ten or 15 years.  It didn't do color, but it was as reliable as a brick and toner cartridges were cheap.

What makes the situation doubly irritating is I used to be able to print in grayscale... black and white only... when one of the color cartridges went dry.

But no more.

I've spent a couple o' few hours trying to figger out exactly why this is so, all to no avail.  It's possible that I'm mis-remembering, but I swear I used to be able to do that.  And we must print, now that we have finished our taxes.  (No e-File this year; I have a ream of supporting documentation I have to mail.)

Which might could be yet another GOML moment.  I'm still not quite sure how a guy who lives on Social Security, a military pension, and a pittance of a civilian pension (which barely keeps me in beer and cigars) manages to owe the gub'mint money every single year.  Don't tell me to withhold more, coz I already have the Air Force hold back an extra $50.00 per month.  Add to that the fact that I have to send the state of New Mexico a check for a couple o' hunnert Yankee Dollars, and you have a situation that's just two ticks to the left of GET OFF MY LAWN!

Too Close to Home

Yesterday was a total loss, and I mean total.  We woke up... the first time... at 0815, but only to take two Aleves, drink two large glasses o' water, and then it was back to bed... err... couch.  Four hours later we got up, opened the blinds, and saw our patio furniture was halfway to Clovis.  So we went outside and retrieved the stuff and rearranged it in a wind-proof manner.  In so doing we noticed that we had left the porch light on all night and the door unlocked.  This, in addition to spending the night on the couch.

Yeah, I'd say we had a good time.  My very brief post yesterday mentioned the fact hangovers hurt worse than I remember.  I'd also forgotten about that semi-nauseous, off-center feeling that accompanies every hangover, AND the fact that said feeling remains long after your head quits pounding, which is the very worst part of a hangover.  Aleve mitigates the headache, but there ain't nuthin' you can do to right a listing ship... you just gotta wait until the bilge-pumps finish doin' their thang. 

We're better today, thank ya.  This particular experience was mild-to-moderate as hangovers go and didn't even come CLOSE to crackin' the Top Ten Hangovers of All Time, just to keep thangs in perspective.  We gave thanks to The Deity At Hand.

Hangover

Dang.  They hurt.  I haven't one of these damned things since I don't remember when, but it's been a couple o' years at the very least.  You'd think that one would get smarter as one grows older... but, noooo.

Ouch.  And owie.  Lotsa owies.

In other news... we'll be driving up to Leavenworth at the end of this month for to visit with the SN1 fambly and catch the Wings-Blues game on 4 April in St. Louis.  We were pretty well-oiled by the time SN1 went looking for tickets on the web and we dropped over 500 Yankee Dollars on two tickets for this game... on the glass.  SN1 sez this will check off an item on his Final To-Do List, to wit: See a Wings game "on the glass."  I've got that tee shirt, but I bought mine at The Joe.  Another one won't hurt anything except my wallet.  This otta be a great time, assuming we don't get the shit kicked out of us for wearing Wings jerseys in the enemy camp.

I can't wait.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

...which spilled over into the inaugural edition of After Dinner Whiskey Hour, 2012.  That prolly should be "ADWH Lite," because we won't be sitting out on the verandah after dark, doin' that star-gazing thang like we usually do during that time.  But it WAS ADWH by strict definition, coz it was (a) after dinner and (b) we were drinkin' whiskey.  But we digress, coz we're supposed to be on about the music, which was Da Blooz for the most part.  Like this:

You don’t have to explain baby
Don’t you worry about it
Cause I’ll be okay
You see, pain ain’t nuthin new
Well it’s sure not the first time
And it probly won’t be the last

OTOH, it might could be the last (time), given our current outlook and attitude.

Apropos o' Da Blooz... Blog-Bud Ivan put up a tutorial on singin' the blues which every good blues aficionado should read.  It's mostly all true, too. 

STOP PRESS!  THIS JUST IN!  Just got off the phone with SN1, who's rolling into P-Ville as we speak.  Let us now make American Noises, like Woo-HOO! and such!  Hockey Night In Portales!  Beer!  And lots of it!  I can't say this is totally unexpected, as we knew he was comin'.  But we thought he'd be in tomorrow, not tonight.

Best news I've had today.

She's No Sunny...

...but she does say "fuck" a lot.

So there's that, and the microwave thang.  We have a lot in common, actually.  Or mebbe I'm just projecting.

For Strength!

What a fine ideer.

Happy St. Paddy's Day. 

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

... is from our music collection coz it's yet another day where we have our windows wide open and we're able to listen to our own stuff... which included Greg Allman's "Laid Back," Paul Simon's first US album (the eponymous album), Etta James ("Her Best"), Joe Cocker's "Sheffield Steel," and Lyle Lovett's third album.  You might say we're musically confused; I say we're eclectic.  

So... what to choose out of all that?  This:

That's Gregg's cover of the Jackson Browne tune and it's the best version, for my money.  Rolling Stone (and others) tend to agree:

The For Everyman liner notes thanked Gregg Allman for the arrangement. Allman decided to record his own version of "These Days" for his debut solo album, Laid Back, released like For Everyman in Fall 1973. Allman's version kept to Browne's revised lyric until the end, when he changed "Don't confront me with my failures / I had not forgotten them," to "Please don't confront me with my failures / I'm aware of them." Rolling Stone praised the treatment, saying Allman "does full justice to the quietly hurting lyrics, double-tracking the vocal over a sad steel guitar," and calling the vocal quality "resigned" and "eternally aching." In 1999, writer Anthony DeCurtis called Allman's version "definitive".

Yeah... "definitive" works for me.  The Laid Back album is my absolute favorite among all of the Allman's works and has been for years and years and years. It's the sorta CD that has a tendency to live in my car, yanno?  Coz that's where all the best music seems to wind up, either temporarily or permanently.

Yet Even More Thievery

Stolen from Blog-Bud Morgan, at whose place I said:

Hockey fans.  We're like that.
And we know the words to "O Canada," too.

S'true.

Plane Pr0n

From the Usual USAF Source...

Air Frame: A newly manufactured MC-130J special-mission aircraft arrives at Kirtland AFB, N.M., from Lockheed Martin's production facility in Marietta, Ga., March 13, 2012. This aircraft is the second MC-130J delivered to Kirtland's 58th Special Operations Wing, a training unit. (Lockheed Martin photo by Todd McQueen) (Click on image above to reach wallpaper version.)

Interesting whorl-effect from the props, eh?

Heh

Yup.  Fits and starts, but mostly fits.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack...

... is SO very '70s:

Yeah, she could drag me
over the rainbow,
send me away
Down by the river
I shot my baby
Down by the river,
Dead, oh, shot her dead.

I thought about it but it was that "send me away" bit that stopped me.  Crime, time... and all that.

Morbid thoughts aside, it's a brilliant day and we are takin' FULL advantage.

We're almost at the point where we'll re-institute After Dinner Whiskey Hour, but not quite yet.  We're SO impatient!

Acme-Certified Primary Results

A smoking hole in the ground and anvils.  We can only hope.  Meep-meep.

Good, Bad, and Fugly

This is cute:

That's from the Shoebox blog and that's the "good" in our title.

Speaking of "upping your game..." Let's talk about the bad.  I got a call from SN1 last evening right after the Ducks scored their fourth unanswered goal against the Wings during the game in Anaheim.  "I'm done," sez he, "it's late, I'm tired, this ain't doin' NUTHIN' for me, and I have a headache.  I'm turnin' it off and goin' to bed."  I wasn't far behind him, where the game was concerned; I switched it off, too.  I rarely do that sorta thang and last night was only the third time this year.   The Wings have played 71 games this year, I've watched all but two, I've switched off during the debacles in Washington (loss: 7-1) and Montreal (loss: 7-2).  And last night.  How bad was it?  Here's George Malik, Red Wings blogger:

Poor defense, little offense and a power play that has now gone 0-for-30 over the Wings’ past seven games, all combined with occasional lapses in, “I will at least try to salvage the game and save all of your asses” goaltending by Joey MacDonald, who looked very vulnerable at times against the Ducks, and Jimmy Howard, who was understandably rusty against the Kings, and my friends and fellow Wings fans…

It does not get any worse than this. 

What he said. 

It's downright fugly and the signs ain't good.  The Wings have sunk from first overall in the league a few weeks ago to fourth (both in the league and West) while going 3-8-1 since setting their home win record back in mid-February.  The biggest part of the slide can be written off to injuries, what with starting defensemen Lidstrom, Ericsson, and Kindl out (both Lidstrom and Ericsson are out indefinitely), Jimmy Howard (Number One goaltender) just getting back up to speed after missing four games, Pavel Datsyuk out after knee surgery (back on Saturday?), and various and sundry other maladies.  But it is what it is and what it is ain't good.

The Wings will make the playoffs for a record 21 consecutive seasons; I have no doubt about that.  Their playoff run may be pretty danged short, though, what with a potential first round match up with the Nashville Predators, who have been hot of late.  Speaking of... here's ESPN's LeBrun and Burnside:

BURNSIDE: The Wings’ road woes continued, as they were beaten by the Kings. It wasn't a good day for GM Ken Holland, who wasn’t pleased with the league’s decision to allow Alexander Radulov to return to the Nashville Predators without having to clear waivers. The Wings and Predators seem destined to meet in the first round, and the fight for home ice in that round looms large given how poorly the Wings play away from Joe Louis Arena. They need to get healthy, and that series would be dynamite, but it's hard not to like the Predators, especially if they continue to struggle. They play in Anaheim on Wednesday night, and their lead over the Preds is a single point, with Nashville having a game in hand.

LEBRUN: Amazing, really, to see the Wings seven points back of St. Louis in the Central. That race is over. And now Detroit faces a likely first-round matchup with Nashville. Talk about a conference finals-level series right off the hop. One of those two teams will be incredibly disappointed to go home that early after the first round. But the high-end matchup is a result of the excellence of the Central Division this season. The Blues got hot, the Wings got injured, and the Preds hope to get Radulov. Quite the script. 

It would get a whole lot worse should the Wings survive the first round... coz we'd have to go through St. Louis to get to the Cup Finals, assuming we survive either Vancouver or Chicago in the second round.  That may a bridge too far this year, based on what I've seen of those Blues.

Fugly.

Brackets and... Sunny!

My brackets look a lil different, but still...

―:☺:―

"Black Power, Dudes!"

ESPECIALLY For Blog-Bud Andy

Click to embiggen to full size.  The tune played for all of 30 seconds, but that's only coz I was in the other room when it began.  Normally it takes about 75 milliseconds to give this tune a thumbs-down.  That's just a guess, though.  It could take LESS time.

Political Science... and Physics!

Heh.  Via e-mail from Occasional Correspondent Lin.