The Watering Hole: September 30 –Autumn in New York

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These stately trees stand along the eastern side of NYS Route 22 here in Pawling, at the base of a hill crowned by the Trinity Pawling School. (For baseball fans, Trinity Pawling is Mo Vaughn’s alma mater.) The campus overlooks a convoluted area of Pawling with swamp and low hills, close to the Appalachian Trail, near which Wayne and I reside. Our own little piece of Pawling rises between a small pond and a swampy stream leading into The Great Swamp to the west. The Great Swamp…sounds like it should be on a map of Middle-Earth, doesn’t it?

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to add your thoughts on this, or any other topic that comes to mind.

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86 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: September 30 –Autumn in New York”

  3. Beautiful picture Jane. That fall color will soon be coming my way.
    The O’Keefe story is disgusting. While it shows the profound disrespect this worm has for women, it also indicates that he really has no clue how to get a woman to consider an intimate relationship with him.
    This story about Alaskan native corporations, and how they’ve been ripped off by large corporations on federal contracts is also disgusting on many levels:
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/29/AR2010092906318.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010092907225
    Finally, please forgive me if this sounds like bragging, I’m just happy about it and want to share. I got a letter yesterday informing me that I have won the Clean Water Farm Award for “outstanding contributions to the cause of conservation and environmental improvement in our five county district”. OutstandingInMyField really is outstanding and I have proof.

  4. Congrats, Outstanding! That is definitely something to be proud of.

    That O’Keefe story is beyond disgusting. What utter slime. It really is amazing that he even thought such a scheme would work. It’s like he mentally never made it past the age of 13. First the pimp suit, and now this. Who thinks this way? Oh yeah…repugs.

    Lovely picture. :-)

  7. Great work, Outstanding. I wonder how much better a place the world would be if EVERYONE involved in farming and agriculture would follow your lead.

    The aspen are in full “bloom” on the front range of the Rockies. Even from 8 miles away, where I live, I can see huge swaths of brilliant yellow on the slopes. Drove up there last week to an elevation of around 9000 ft and there was yellow at every turn. Amazingly beautiful.

    And the chill in the air is inviting too! Summer here has been long and extremely persistent, although the 47 degrees this morning cause hope to spring eternal once again!

  8. …close to the Appalachian Trail, near which Wayne and I reside…

    Any Mark Sanford sightings lately???

  10. Nope, no Mark Sanford sightings, RUC. But I might not recognize him if he was disguised as a ‘hiker.’ ;)

    About a mile north of where the photo was taken is a sign for the trail, where it’s pretty much at its closest point to the western side of Route 22.

    It’s raining like crazy here this morning, I started to head to work but my car had trouble with the ponding on the roads, so I came back home for a bit.

  11. Thanks, Zooey, the photo was actually taken a couple of years ago, but those particular trees are starting to turn now.

    I just hope that all of the rain and wind we’re expecting for the next coupla days don’t bring down the leaves before they have a chance to turn!

    Later, all, I have to head for the office.

  13. Outstanding, bragging isn’t always a bad thing. In this case, it’s wonderful news and I appreciate you sharing it with TheZoo enormously. You’re doing the Good Work out there.

  14. I thought the O’Keefe story was pretty funny, really, in a thoroughly pathetic fashion. He reminds me of the TP trolls: delusions of grandeur met with complete failure.

    Abbie Boudreau is not only a beautiful young woman, she’s a whadyacallit, oh yeah, a fucking journalist. Unlike the little taint sniffer, O’Keefe:

    Abbie Boudreau has received a national Emmy nomination and won seven regional Emmys. Her reporting exposed misuse of Hurricane Katrina rescue supplies which were subsequently directed to their intended recipients. One month after reporting on a controversial military rule in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense eliminated the policy. Her investigation of Cooper Tires got the company to recall thousands of tires. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s prestigious Medill School of Journalism.

    And good on the young woman in O’Keefe’s camp who blew the whistle ahead of time. She sounds like she has the makings of a hero if she can just get away from that pack of losers.

  16. Making a difference – and that you have Outstanding.
    A most appropriate moniker for our farmer!

    —-

    I love fall. My favorite time of year. The crispness in the air. The colors.

    Zxbe, until this year – autumn has been my favorite. Never thought I’d say this but 90 degrees feels cool (compared to the high 90s and low 100s of earlier in the week). So am awaiting the real ‘feel’ of fall.
    Avian migration has begun, in earnest, at the National Wild Life Refuge so despite the heat that is a sure sign autumn has arrived!

  18. Ah, Gary, I was going to dig for that quote but got sidetracked. If I recall correctly, it was Janet Leigh who taught him how to speak without da Bronx.

    No question about my favorite role for him: Some Like It Hot. Well, that’s easy enough because it’s one of my all-time favorite movies, period.

  19. Congrats, Outstanding. If one is going to be out in the field, tis best that it has clean water. And that wasn’t a brag, it is definitely something to be proud of.

    Frugal, if you are about, your comment about the cost of a two iron reminded me of my golfing days when I met an old duffer who had one in his golf bag. Never used it. When I asked him why he said it was for protection against lightning since even God can’t hit a two iron.

  20. Hooda, I had one as well that always went unused. Every time I tried it I immediately wished I wouldn’t have. Today, no matter. I gave up golf years ago. Wish I had the cash I spent on it over the years, though. I could probably retire.

    Oh, wait. I am retired. Make that, I could probably buy something I really need.

    Hmmm. Don’t need anything, far as I know.

    I suppose I could take up golf or something.

    It’s a bitch to get old. Someone said that once.

  21. Gettin’ old ain’t for ANYBODY!

    Reminds me of the old story of the three old guys in the nursing home, complaining about old age and its problems. First guy said, “Worst thing for me is that every morning a two AM I’ve gotta get up and pee. I hate that.”

    Second guy says, “That ain’t bad, wait till you get a couple of years older. Like me. Every morning at one AM I have to get up and pee, then at five I’ve gotta get up and crap. Talk about no fun. I ain’t had a good night’s sleep in ten damn years.”

    Third guy says, “You guys got it easy, lemme tell you. Me, every morning at exactly six AM I take a crap, and exactly at six-thirty I pee.”

    “What the hell’s wrong with that?” the other two asked.

    “I don’t wake up till seven.”

    • Getting old is better than the alternative! :D

      There’s another joke I vaguely remember. Something about a 90 year old man who’s married to a hot 25 year old, and has mind-bending sex with her every night. But he’s crying his eyes out because he can’t remember where he lives.

    • Have you been keeping an eye on the whacked out crazy deputy AG in Michigan, and his “Chris Armstrong Watch” blog? TP linked to it, but I won’t. There is something seriously wrong with that guy.

      This stalker is totally concerned with his own rights to free expression blah blah blah, but doesn’t care about Armstrong’s rights, or that Armstrong is unable to conduct his own life peacefully — BECAUSE OF HIM.

      He calls the site a “blog,” but it’s just an ignorant hate-filled rag that doesn’t allow comments.

  23. So far, I don’t mind getting old, I mind all the messages society sends to women that try to make me feel as though I should mind getting old.
    I’m glad Rahm is gone. I was glad when he was selected due to his reputation as an attack dog, I wanted to see the D’s bite back when attacked. It sure hasn’t worked out that way, he’s been worse than useless as near as I can tell.

  24. Zooey, I read his blog. I think he’s insane, and dangerous. He is seriously obsessed with that poor young man.

    • Such behavior is horrifying. I’ve only scanned the blog so far — I was looking for the comments sections.

      Obviously, with a nutcase like this in the AG’s office, and with an AG who won’t discipline him, the gay community is definitely not being served well in Michigan.

  26. While I am overjoyed by Rahm’s departure I am puzzled by the abruptness. Coupled with the President’s recent spate of public appearances I would suspect that Rahm’s back room horse trading may have come up against Obama’s desire to be more direct.

    I just hope he picks a replacement that will focus on regaining his base over playing politics as usual.

  27. OIMF: “I was glad when he (Rahm) was selected due to his reputation as an attack dog, I wanted to see the D’s bite back when attacked.”

    Y’know, me too! I was so tired of the Dem’s rolling over and pissing on themselves in the hopes that the repugnantcons would finally be nice to them.

    But the only people Rahm attacked were other democrats. Maybe I could have/should have seen this one coming, but I really did not. So good riddance to the feckless prick.

  28. hoodathunk: “While I am overjoyed by Rahm’s departure I am puzzled by the abruptness.”

    I read some time (a few months) back that he was leaving, and that this had been the plan all along, that he would depart after the midterms.

  29. Nice to know that some who occupy MN aren’t bereft of senses:

    Dear Friends,

    Thirty years ago, when I started telling stories about Lake Wobegon, I put it smack in the middle of Minnesota – in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District, in fact – where staunch Republicans and loyal Democrats know how to live together without yelling at each other and do what needs to be done to work out our problems.

    It’s embarrassing to me and a great many Minnesotans that Michele Bachmann, a politician who is so busy grandstanding and giving interviews on Fox News that she doesn’t have time to serve the people who elected her, represents the 6th District in Washington.
    That’s why I’m proudly supporting Tarryl Clark – and I hope you will join me by contributing before today’s midnight deadline.

    Minnesota’s 6th District has some of the highest foreclosure and unemployment rates in the state, but in an interview with the St. Cloud Times, Congresswoman Bachmann was unable to name any “substantive” legislation she had passed.

    Michele Bachmann may still be counting on sliding through to re-election on November 2nd, but this year she is running against a smart and hard-working State Senator, Tarryl Clark, who is determined to make the talking heads of Fox News sit up and take notice.

    Tarryl founded Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity and served as youth minister of her church for nearly twenty years. She grew up in a Navy family and has worked on behalf of veterans, families and children in the legislature. Service to her community is a part of who she is, and that spirit of service is sorely needed in Washington these days.

    
I hope you’ll join me in making a financial contribution to her campaign – $25, $50 or $100 – before midnight tonight!

    Tarryl Clark will never embarrass our state in Congress. Let’s restore some respect for the Minnesota tradition of working together sensibly by electing her this November.

    Thank you,

    Garrison Keillor

    P.S. Instead of working to solve problems, Bachmann talks about us as a “nation of slaves” and about the need for smaller government even though she knows better – the biggest part of big government is military spending, Social Security, and Medicare. Which would she do away with? Bachmann’s so-called policies are just the old Bush economics that Alan Greenspan characterized as “disastrous.” Help Tarryl defeat her by donating today.

  30. I think Rahm’s departure was in the books for a while and confirmed when Delay opted out of another term.

    I agree that Rahm was a good choice that didn’t pan out as expected.

    Garrison Keillor is a class act and has been his whole life. I loved the movie about his radio show.

    And now for one of those “Opps” moments:

    A phone number on a cereal box endorsed by Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco connected callers to a sex line instead of the intended charity.

    • You know, I just came back here to make the observation that a housewife in Cucamonga could actually have a sex line, but I see the peanut gallery has weighed in. ;)

      I love you guys.

  34. Sex chat lines: only the ego has to be stroked – the caller does the rest…

    [naughty ebb,where the hell did that come from?]

  35. What on this earth would make you think that, Zooey?

    Ebb has lived a very sheltered life (bus shelter; homeless shelter).

  41. dyker I doubt anyone would confess to such goings on, I mean calling a ‘sex line’.

    —-

    TtT: charity begins at home…so yes, engaging a voice for succor would be charitable, would it not?!

  44. ebb, your probably right. Imagine a co-worker in the lunch room, “You wouldn’t believe what happened last night…..”

  46. Congratulations, outstanding! We are a better planet for having someone like you on it. Thank you for helping all of us live just a little bit longer. :)

    Dycker, that was hilarious! You never hear about that happening. Of course, if you did, someone would be admitting that they tried to call a sex line.

    An old woman in a nursing home says to one of the older guys, “I can guess your age just by feeling your junk.”

    The old man says, “I don’t believe you.”

    She says, “Open your fly and let me in there.” He does and she reaches in and starts feeling around. After a couple of minutes she pulls her hand out and says, “You’re 83.”

    He said, “That’s amazing! How could you know that?”

    She says, “You told me yesterday.”

  49. OMG Wayne, that is funny.

    When I see you or Jane post, I always hear in my head “Jane Wayne”. And it cracks me up.

  52. Hi Guys and Gals

    What a day -
    Bernie Schwartz, aka Tony Curtis died.
    James O’Keefe gets punked by himself.
    Meg Whitman sued by conservative group.
    Christine O’Donnell caught in another lie about schools she attended.
    Christine caught breaking IRS rules
    Joe Miller caught measuring for drapes
    Sabxy Chambliss apologized to Joemygod

    Other than Bernie’s passing I’m ok with these events.

    Question, with what we know about Christine’s ability to tell the truth, who is it that she stays chaste with?

  55. Who in the heck would want to be invited to read Shrivell’s stalker blog? I’m glad he was banned from campus, given that he makes such a big deal out of being an alumnus. Surely some cause will be found to punish this sick sick man.

  57. Zooey: “So frugal, you’re married again, right? ”

    Well, no, not really, not “legally,” whatever that really means. But yes, approaching 13 years with soulmate, with never a harsh word, in a relationship based on genuine love and mutual respect, a relationship where caring and concern for the other supercedes all else in both directions, a relationship even our respective children understand and enjoy, and appreciate.

    We ‘live in sin,’ in the concept of some. And continue to ‘love’ every minute of it!

    Life can be sweet.

  58. “a relationship based on genuine love and mutual respect”

    There cannot possibly be any sin involved in that frugal.
    Don’t lose heart Zooey, a friend of mine married for the second time at 80.

    • Thanks, Outstanding & Frugal.

      After one truly shitty marriage, I hope you’re right. :)

      I better hit the hay. Goodnight, all.

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