Monthly Archives: November 2010

Sunday Roast: Celilo Falls

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Celilo Falls (Wyam, meaning “echo of falling water” or “sound of water upon the rocks,” in several native languages) was a tribal fishing area on the Columbia River, just east of the Cascade Mountains, on what is today the border between the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. The name refers to a series of cascades and waterfalls on the river, as well as to the native settlements and trading villages that existed there in various configurations for 15,000 years. Celilo was the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent until 1957, when the falls and nearby settlements were submerged by the construction of The Dalles Dam.

…

For 15,000 years, native peoples gathered at Wyam to fish and exchange goods. They built wooden platforms out over the water and caught salmon with dipnets and long spears on poles as the fish swam up through the rapids and jumped over the falls. Historically, an estimated fifteen to twenty million salmon passed through the falls every year, making it one of the greatest fishing sites in North America.

And then the white men decided they needed hydroelectric power, irrigation, and improved navigation on the Columbia River — and the falls disappeared behind a dam.
This is our daily open thread.  Feel free to chat about any topic of interest to you.

Thank you, Sir! May I have another?

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All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

(Immediately after the Republican Party gained a majority in the House of Representatives, President Obama offered to work with them in a sense of bipartisanship. Like that worked so well the last two years…)

MSNBC president Phil Griffin: This week’s WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!!!

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Phil Griffin suspended Keith Olbermann indefinitely, without pay, for …. gasp … making private contributions to Democratic candidates!!!

Reports are emerging that others employed by Griffin who gave campaign contributions to… Republicans, were not similarly treated.

This brings to mind an even more onerous implication: Your Boss may be monitoring candidate’s campaign disclosure statements. Give to someone your Boss doesn’t support, and you could get fired! We may well be entering an era where, if your name doesn’t show up on certain campaign donation lists, you could find yourself unexplicably passed over for promotions… or downsized out of a job.

Welcome to new Corporate America, where making a campaign donation can get you canned. And Phil Griffin, for starting us down this path, you are this week’s

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD!!!!

At least it’s Friday! Music Night!

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Admittedly, it hasn’t been the jolliest week for many of us. Discouraging, depressing, dire… Let’s make a little effort to cheer up and get back in the fray.

If this doesn’t earn at least one smile, I’m fresh out of ideas. (Resolution on this video is very good and it can handle full screen.)

And a little bonus (not so great with the video resolution):

The Watering Hole: November 5 – Guy Fawkes

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Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night, is an annual celebration, traditionally held on the evening of 5 November in England. Fireworks and the lighting of bonfires mark the occasion. The celebrations mark the anniversary of the failed November 5th, 1605 Gunpowder Plot. The date was made a public holiday by law in England in 1605. That law was repealed in 1859.

Discovery of the Gunpowder Plot

Guy Fawkes was assigned to guard gunpowder in the cellar of Westminster Palace. An anonymous letter prompted authorities to search Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November and Fawkes was found with the explosives. Fawkes and fellow plotters met an early end. Judicial appeals did not seem to be in vogue at the time.

This plot, while foiled, represents the Tea-Bagger solution to solving political differences. We can only pray that they cannot carry something out.

This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on this or any other topic.

Campaign 2012 has begun: The Countdown to Armageddon-outtahere

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Shortly after President Obama signaled a willingness to work with the new Republican majority in the House, Senator Mitch McConnell indicated that his party’s primary goal for the next two years will be to see to it that Obama does not get re-elected.

He and other Republicans have vowed to blame Obama for shutting down the federal government if they don’t get their way, starting with the total repeal of this year’s health care reform act.

Look for Articles of Impeachment to be filed shortly after Republicans are sworn in in January.

As always, your comments are welcome…

The Watering Hole: November 4 – King Tut

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On 4 November 1922, Howard Carter’s water carrier came upon the steps leading to the tomb of Tutankhamen (1341 BC – 1323 BC) an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who ruled from c.1333 BC – 1323 BC during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. Tutankhamen who has been immortalized as ‘King Tut’ became pharaoh at the ripe old age of nine and died at 19 from what appears to have been from a leg injury(sepsis?) and malaria.

The burial mask of Tuthankamen

In subsequent years a curse associated with the find has became part of modern folklore. Carter died on 2 March 1939 at the age of 64 which would indicate that he, who had actually opened the tomb, was seemingly unaffected by the curse as based on actuarial tables of the 1930s.

This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments on this or any other topic.
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The Watering Hole: Wednesday, November 3, 2010: There’s got to be a morning after…

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Well, the election is over and most races have a declared winner and a concession from the loser(s). Slighty more than half the votes will be pleased. And those who sat this one out, well, they’ll just have to take whatever they get, or give up whatever will now be taken away.

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