To all you ladies of the ‘motherly persuasion’!
Without y’all, none of us would be here!!!
May your breakfast in bed be edible, and the kitchen be NOT totally destroyed!!!
An ‘interesting’ situation is coming to a head in France…
“Every Frenchman, whatever his belief or non-belief, should everywhere be at home in continental France [l’Hexagone]; there cannot and must not exist any city or district where the laws of the Republic do not apply.” — From an open letter signed by 20 retired generals, a hundred senior officers more than a thousand other members of the French military, April 21, 2021.
Full article, HERE.
When you look at areas in Paris and Marseilles that are ‘off limits’ to not only the police and military, but the French population in general, it appears the resentment is getting closer and closer to boiling over into…something… And that something could be a civil war, either openly or covertly.
And Sweden is now pushing back against the immigrants, HERE.  From the Brookings Institute, we have the Polish take, HERE.
And we know Turkey has ‘threatened’ Europe with flooding them with muslim refugees. What I’ve always found interesting is that NONE of the middle eastern countries have taken in ANY significant numbers of ‘refugees’… Especially none that were outside their particular sect of Islam.
I’m thinking we’re gonna need a LOT of popcorn if the top blows off over there. Just sayin…
Didn’t we see this once already??? CHAZ/CHOP or whatever the hell they were calling it in Seattle?
Article from December 2020, HERE. March 2021, HERE, and then there’s this…
The Minneapolis Police Department apparently will not enter the so-called “Free State of George Floyd” to respond to crimes.
In the early morning hours of April 29, a woman was pushed out of a window during a domestic dispute on the corner of East 38th Street and Elliot Avenue, sustaining multiple injuries, according to a police scanner watchdog. The woman dialed 911 to get help but was told that police would not come to her aid because she was inside George Floyd Square, an autonomous zone which has designated itself “cop-free.”
Full article, HERE.
Four dead so far due to inability of LEOs/EMTs to get to them…
But I’m thinking MPD’s bosses are so hinky about anything happening, they have given up and are ‘letting’ the Crips run the zone. I truly feel for those who live and/or work there. What kind of lives/businesses do they have now, if any?
Edit- Apparently it has now expanded to 4 square blocks that includes a predominantly black area with a mix of businesses and homes.
Murphy from Lagniappe’s Lair is alive and well, stayed with me last night. He’s on the road, travelling, but is having problems with his laptop.
He said to let everyone know that as soon as he gets that unscrewed, he’ll be back on the net. He’s travelling with Merida on this trip, and she was a good puppy last night, to everyone’s amazement. She’s also an attention… well, you know what I mean. And lurves her some treats! She and Obi even got along, surprising all of us!
Bottom line, he will be back…
A few more ads the likes of which we’ll never see again…
And this one from the 70s brings back memories of beating on the DEC terminal at work as we tried to solve the maze in the Adventure game. 🙂 
A prescient ad??? From the 80s…
We had a lot of fun with a couple of these when we were kids… Until the adults found out and…shall we say a couple of the dads had a ‘slightly’ different reaction!!! Sigh
I wonder what we’ll think of the current ads thirty or forty years from now?
What ads stuck in your head from the past???
For me it was the Mean Joe Greene Coke ad from 79, and the 84 Apple ad…
Sooo, apparently there has been a significant drop off in ‘work force’ in the last year…
The link is HERE, with some interesting comments, and more comments, HERE. No, there isn’t a further breakdown on WHO is actually being let go, but I’m betting the ‘administrators’ are still there, along with the HR types… Grrrr…
The reality is that many of the ‘tenured’ professors seldom teach, instead a graduate assistant does the teaching, so you’re not even getting the ‘benefit’ of the actual professor’s knowledge.
In many cases, education, especially at the higher levels, has become a publish or perish situation, so many of those ‘professors’ actually use those GAs to do their research, write up a rough presentation, and present it to the ‘Prof’ for grade, while s/he runs it through the ‘system’ for publication with her/his name on top of the list. If the GAs are lucky, they might rate a mention as an ‘assistant’ in the final credits.
And the number of useless degrees continues to proliferate, even as costs rise yet again. Something like 55% increase in costs in the last 20 years, leading to more and more debt for those useless degrees that will have those people paying back that money over an entire lifetime, while the ‘dummies’ that go to tech school are making six figures within a year or two, and little or no debt.
Is the bane of an author’s existence, especially if you ‘want’ to get the details right. And trying to do westerns ‘right’ means research…
An 1880s cowboy on the range. Probably in the Dakotas.
Noted western photographer O’Sullivan actually had a wagon he drove around with his darkroom in it.
Yes, there really were 20 mule team BORAX wagons crossing Death Valley… Cannot imagine driving one of those in temps well over 100 degrees for 20 days round trip… Link HERE.
And another picture of cowboys… Turns out the one on the left is ‘semi-famous’…
Charlie Nebo has been called the Forest Gump of the old west…
Charley Nebo had a knack for showing up where the action was—driving Longhorns for Charles Goodnight, tending cattle for John Chisum, hobnobbing with Billy the Kid and riding amid the Sioux at the time of Wounded Knee.
Full article, HERE, a rather interesting read! Especially his relationship with Billy the Kid!
So you get humor… I think this guy escaped from the CDC…
Gotta love this Doctor
Q: Doctor, I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life.  Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it… don’t waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. So have a cup now and then!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.
Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Can’t think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain…Good!
Q: Aren’t fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!! ….. Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they’re permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?
Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.
Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans ! Another vegetable!!! It’s the best feel-good food around!
Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.
Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.
And remember: ‘Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways – Chardonnay in one hand – chocolate in the other – body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ‘WOO HOO, What a Ride’
AND… For those of you who watch what you eat, here’s the final word on nutrition and health. It’s a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.
- The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
- The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
- The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
- The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.
- The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans
CONCLUSION
Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.
I would ‘like’ to mow my yard before I have to hire somebody with a brush hog…
This was yesterday afternoon as the dry line started up. The black line is the dry line.
Rain, rain, and more rain this last week has, of course, caused the grass to jump up (and yes, the weeds too)! They’re tall enough that they’re going to seed! Sigh…
We’re ‘supposed’ to see the rain drop off on Monday… supposedly…
Granted we need the rain, but 6 inches in less than a week is a ‘bit’ much, but it will make it easier to dig out the dead shrubbery next week.
Edit- I said screw it… Did I mention how much I HATE mowing wet grass? Grrrr… But it’s done.
Is at it again! Stratolaunch Roc flew for the second time yesterday!
Stratolaunch Corporation Photo
The world’s widest plane featuring two separate fuselages had its second test flight Thursday, marking a successful venture for Stratolaunch’s Roc carrier plane.
The giant plane features a wingspan of 385 feet and six engines. It took off from Mojave Air and Space Port in southeastern California on a data-gathering flight that lasted three hours and 14 minutes.
Full article, HERE.
That is one HUGE airplane! Burt Rutan started Scaled Composites and designed a number of innovative aircraft, including the VariEze and LongEze. His brother, Dick Rutan was a Misty FAC in Vietnam, and test pilot for many years, including setting numerous records, including flying Voyager (Burt Rutan design) around the world with Jeana Yeager. That’s a helluva aviation family!!!