Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Now that I have vented, I would like to announce that I have found berry nirvana in the northern panhandle of WV: The Wood Doctor Garden organic farm where you get to pick the berries.
Strawberries are 2 bucks a pound, and dad and I are going to go later on this week and then make a metric ton of strawberry preserves. He also has all sorts of raspberries and blackberries and blueberries coming in…
A quick picture of the garden:
Mostly tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, and broccoli in that shot, because let’s face it- little bean and pea sprouts aren’t all that photogenic.
And here is a picture of the ferocious guard dog watching my front yard while I relax on the porch:
No one gets by without a very stern barking.
I have mixed feelings about Christopher Hitchens. He’s always seemed to me to be sort of a drunk, English, belligerent version of Tom Wolfe. The writing is wonderful though the ideas are wrong and stupid, the rhetoric is convincing though the arguments lack evidence and logic. If that sounds harsh, read Hitch’s assertion that Ahmed Chalabi broke the Iranian codes or Wolfe’s explanation of why he voted for George W. Bush, each of which is as silly as anything I have ever read on RedState or the NRO. They’re both entertaining but it’s a real shame that either’s opinions are ever taken seriously.
I’ve got to count this in Hitch’s favor though:
Maybe now that Hitchens is 60-something and says he drinks “relatively carefully,” he’ll run this one through his (his Iraq war views) little gray cells one more time. By the way, “relatively carefully” to him is terribly spartan: just a Scotch and Perrier at lunchtime, followed by half a bottle of wine, and then the same again every evening.
A bottle of wine and two scotches a day, and that’s when he’s being careful.
Via Twitter, this:
Look- I have no idea whether or not this will work or if it is a viable solution for the crisis or not, but I loved watching it. I hate it when politicians do the “Americans are the most innovative and greatest people on the planet blah blah blah” spiel (usually by a politician who has never been outside the country to a group of people who have never been outside their state), but at the same time, I do love the fact that there does seem to be a kind of “git r done” attitude to Americans at large. And even better, I love the fact that if something like this DOES work, people will just say “I’ll be damned” and start using it without much fuss.
I swear it has to be 90 degrees here, with nasty humidity. I am completely soaked after mowing the grass and weed-eating. Also, earlier, I said “It’s too hot,” and of course this has been going through my head for three hours:
BTW- my pansies crack me up. I went out this morning and they were all bent over hanging over the side of the pot, looking like they were dead. I dumped some water in them, came back out twenty minutes later, and they were all standing at attention, looking beautiful.
Also- does anyone have any experience with this indoor compost keeper?
Hat tip to commentor Scav for tonight’s fireworks:
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From the link: “ArcAttack employs a unique DJ set up of their own creation to generate an ‘electrifying’ audio visual performance. The HVDJ pumps music through a PA system while two specially designed DRSSTC’s (Dual-Resonant Solid State Tesla Coils) act as separate synchronized instruments. These high tech machines produce an electrical arc similar to a continuous lightning bolt and put out a crisply distorted square wave sound reminiscent of the early days of synthesizers. i filmed this video @ makers faire san mateo expo center…. web site: http://www.arcattack.com”
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Spent a pleasant afternoon at the garden center, arguing with the Spousal Unit about how many plants we could actually squeeze into the gaps in our front yard. The rest of the weekend involves mowing, moving bags of dirt & mulch, and laying down landscape fabric — much less pleasant. I have always lived by the credo Life Is Uncertain — Eat Dessert First!
Early Morning Open Thread: Geek ShowmanshipPost + Comments (27)
This story is a little old, and it’s possible that it’s already been discussed here, but it made made me laugh out loud:
Vaughn Ward, the Republican congressional candidate from Idaho, has the dubious character trifecta of the Palin brand: bone-headed, defiant and willfully ignorant. When told that Puerto Rico was not a country, he said, “I don’t care what you call it.”
