The Watering Hole: July 9 – Photography

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This is a repeat of the subject from a prior thread. I repeat it because not all critters may have seen it:

Photographer to the Tsar: Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii

I read about this guy somewhere and was immediately intrigued. I think that it was from an article in the NY Times. This photo is entitled: The Emir of Bukhara

The Emir of Bukhara

If you want to see more of these color renditions from Tsarist Russia some more beautiful then others, try this site.

For a look into the process used, look here.

This is our Open Thread. Please feel free to present your thoughts on any topic that comes to mind.

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148 thoughts on “The Watering Hole: July 9 – Photography”

  3. Thanks walt, I haveobviously missed the prior post on this. What fascinates and saddens me at the same time when I see photographs that old is this feeling of a lost world. Man has destroyed so much of his. The landscape, the villages. The social structures were tyrannical and deserved to be destroyed, the tsarist rule was no paradise, but now there’s Putin and the oligarchs. Not really an improvement.

  5. I had posted this on yesterday’s open thread, but given that it’s photography today, it seems worthy of a repost.

    Found a photographer names Jason Powell, who is a self-proclaimed history buff. He takes old photos of recognizable places. Goes to that spot. And holds up the photo and takes a photo blending the old with the new. Hard to describe, you just have to see it at his site.

    • Edit: the word “names” should be “named.”

      (Spell check is great unless you just type in the correctly spelled wrong word. lol)

    • zxbe – I am apparently not getting all of the new Zoo posts. Those pictures really are nice. Now a century ago.

      • Walt , thank you for posting.
        My grandfather was a professional photographer. I have several pictures from the latter part of the 1800′s. All of family. I think he’d really be facinated with today’s digital photography. Not to mention just about everything electronic. Sadly, he passed in 1934. Way before I was even thought of :-)

      • crypto,

        This was last posted in 2008.

        TheZoo will be 4 years old next month.

    • I don’t have the TV on – is Tony a commentator today for the USA?

        • As I posted the other day – I went to high school with Tony and his younger brother was in my graduating class. I commented that he looked “old”. and guess I should look in the mirrior! ;-)

  7. Another law named for a child:

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2011/07/09/legislators-introduce-caylee-s-law.html

    My only concern is what the time frame should be for reporting a child missing, and how do you enforce it? Hypothetically, if parents went away for a month and left their children in the care of a trusted person (a nanny or relative), and returned home to find them missing, when does their time limit start? From the moment they got home, or from the moment they left to go on vacation? I agree with the spirit of the law, it’s the details that concern me.

    Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying it shouldn’t be a crime to fail to report your child missing, but I don’t want to see innocent, grieving parents charged with a crime because of a technicality.

    • You can’t legislate common sense.

      Not reporting a child missing is not a realistic problem.
      I’ve watched parents flip out when their kid was missing in another aisle of the grocery store much less wait a month to report them missing.
      Legislation like that is a feel good political maneuver

    • Mostly, I think this law is a political stunt. Cheap political points being scored with the populist outrage over the verdict.

    • While we all are very upset at the verdict in that case, this seems to take it too far.
      You have brought up some valid points to think about with regard to this “legislation”. If it does get any further, it *must be re defined.

      I can just see that Nancy Grace creature jumping up and down – probably frothing from too much excitement……

      • I have actually been to that town. I don’t get it. Perhaps it is in the Canadian paper because of the close proximity?
        That “ticket” crap would never happen in this area – OMG people keep cattle and other livestock in their front yards. Yes. really.

    • I wish my front yard looked that good. Of course, my water oak and maple tree make growing grass difficult.

      I guess the wording of the local ordinance is the key to the case. I still don’t see how having your day in court should get you more than a small fine and a court order to change the yard back. It’s not like she’s ignored prior court orders to change it, already. Usually, with code compliance, the first step is to appeal to the code enforcement board, not go before a judge.

      Anyway, this looks like a neighborhood nazi type complaint.

    • Two things about this:

      First, what are the standards by which this official was allowed to call her yard “an eyesore”? It looks very neat to me.

      Second, why is this being reported in a Canadian news medium?

  9. Re: a loose kid in a store –
    I had a friend whose little son slipped away from her and he was found quite quickly. The store has CAMERAS everywhere.

  10. I’m having lots of fun with the Twitter while taking full advantage of my First Amendment rights:

    @BarackObama
    Barack Obama
    President Obama: “We can meet our fiscal challenge. That’s what the American people sent us here to do.” OFA.BO/k4Wk4j

    @WayneASchneider
    Wayne A Schneider
    @BarackObama Yes, but we sent YOU there because we didn’t want Republican policies running the country. So stop giving them what they want.

  11. Wayne thanks for the little “tweet” here. I don’t do Twitter.

    • I do it mostly so I can see funny stuff tweeted by funny people, but I also found out that you can reply to someone, someone who doesn’t follow you, and they’ll see it. But you can’t send a message to someone unless they follow you.

      I’ve gotten replies to my replies from John W. Dean (yes, that one), Lawrence O’Donnell, and actor Michael Hitchcock (who was in many of Christopher Guest’s movies.)

      I’m still waiting to hear replies back from some political types I’ve replied to, like Speaker John Boehner, Newt Gingrich (love being snarky to him), and President Obama. Biding my time to reply to Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin.

      • I’m glad you’re having so much fun with it. I recall you seemed a little iffy on the whole idea of tweeting at first. :)

        • So far, the one I’m getting the most laughs out of is @common_squirrel. If you don’t already follow it, do so. I think you’ll like it. It’s cute and funny in its simplicity.

          But I’m also enjoying the fact that I can reply to people and, as far as I know, they can see my replies. That they respond to me at all is kinda cool :)

    • Halliburton is a bully and they are not going to let anyone forget it.

      I saw this yesterday and sadly, I wasn’t shocked.

      • The news of this probably got a smile out of Dick Cheney. For the first time in a while.. at least since he got away with drunkedly shooting another person in the face.

  15. I have posted to ISSA’s page and he doesn’t even see it. His little asshole press secretary Curt (from Escondido) got fired a few months ago. I have been banned from posting to Issa’s FB page, after posting links to some factual and non biased articles about (Issa). One was about Curt also. Most of the FB posts and tweets on Twitter can come from one of their employees.

  16. Does anyone know what the criteria is for being a ‘Top Commenter’ at TP?

    I just noticed I now have that title added to my screenname, and I’m wondering how it got there.

    • I wish I knew. When I first started commenting there, I didn’t have that “title”. Now I do and I don’t know why. I don’t know if it’s TP doing it or FB. It might have more to do with FB because on other sites that use the same commenting system as TP (I forget which), my “Top Commenter” label shows up there, and I don;t comment there much. (It might have been Breitbart’s blog Big Government, which would be ironic since everyone hates me there.)

      • I’m signing in with Hotmail, so I know even less about the Facebook connection. I did one test comment at TPM using my Facebook ID, the one that doesn’t work at TP, and it worked there, but I don’t spend any time at TPM

      • TP, sigh….

        Yesterday, I tried AGAIN. I created a Yahoo email and logged in as TheBadmoodman. I did a “test” post and it seemed to work. A few hours later I went to post something for real and TP demanded I log in to my FB account and didn’t even acknowledge the Yahoo account. WTF?

    • Honestly? I think they applied that to the people whose names they recognized when they did the switch because I stayed as “Spencers Mom” when I created a fake hotmail account, and I was labeled “top commenter” within a few days despite the fact that I had only posted a few comments, and am still labeled as one although I’ve probably only posted less than a dozen comments in the past month.
      badmoodman, I suggest creating a hotmail account, and what happens is when the login screen comes up, even though it says “facebook” you simply enter you hotmail email address (the whole address, not a user name) and password and you are signed in to TP. What I did was use “Spencer’s” as my first name and “Mom” as my last name so that’s how I appear.

  17. I saw that also and you are not the only one “view all posts by _____________”

  18. Meanwhile…. I am getting 18-24 Mbps today and YET ESPN3 refuses to load the World Cup stream!!!

    GNAARGH!!!

    Instead I’m having to follow on Guardian’s live blog. It;s been a tough tough match it seems. After England had a major scoring opportunity int the,first 30 seconds (!) France took control and as the first half ended goal-less the French/English shooting ratio was about 9-1–howeverth the French going from long range ( 35 yards).

    That seems to be a characteristic of Women’s soccer now, the ladies have the confidence to shoot from distance, and a few of them have the strength—still not as powerful as the men typically are in that respect, but that’s just a difference in general physiology, and the women have obviously stepped up the standard of fitness and strength (whilst I would add, having usually full time jobs and some being mothers as well).
    In earlier years (NOT very long ago) womens’ goals it seems to me were scored at close range, quite often due to a scramble in front of the net, shuffled in from a low cross or else tidily by a striker outmaneuvering a goalie.one on one.

    Now there’s much more variety in their attacks, and I see lots more goals from headers which is a particularly tricky skill that from what I can see the ladies are now highly adept at.

    Anywhoo, England just took the lead 8 minutes into the 2nd half. and now it;s still England 1 France 0 at 80 minutes—10 to 15 minutes left.
    This match is a big deal for both sides—I am sooo pissed I’m being denied the live stream for no good reason. .

    • 5th,
      I remember women in our neighborhood who had quite powerful physiques during WWII. They built the machines and devices for their men who were at war. They also made high quality stuff for their men. Defect rates were nearly zero. They tried for a six sigma product even before the term was even a dream.

      • Walt,,
        My mum wired B-29s though she never developed any muscles from it.
        One of the keys to the Allied success in WWII was the mobilization of women, which Hitler never considered (apart from an insane breeding program).

        Apart from taking over manufacturing jobs, there were also the female test/training and ferry pilots, Ack -Ack crews (who out permed the male crews), cryptographers, the nurses in the field, spies, Russian female snipers ( with hundreds of kills each, mechanics, and engineers ( Miss Shilling Orifice —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Shilling%27s_orifice ) and Lise Meitiner who correctly calculated that the the critical mass required for the fission of Uranium was actually small enough to produce a practical, air transportable bomb—Oppenhiemer’s subsequent fame had much to do with Lise Meitner’s work.

        Women still don’t get the credit they deserve for what they did in WWII nad how they shaped they therefore shaped the world.

        Oh, and “Six Sigma” IMHO is just a pile of the bleeding dressed up as some mystical corporate Shao-Lin Monk business kung-fu qualification—-its a PowerPoint religion.
        .

  19. BTW…the BBC was going to show re-runs of some 1970′s sitcoms instead of this live match, but in lone day the Guardian (and the public) demanded live coverage, and the BBC complied.
    The BBC is without doubt the greatest media organization in the world, but how the fuck they came up with the decision to NOT show England v France,live is beyond me.

  20. GAARGjH!!

    90 minutes, France scores! 1-1, 4 minutes of extra play, then this will have to go into overtime ( another half hour. At stake is the semi-final slot.

  21. eeek, HOUSE! I’;; try, it;s too tense right now.!

    I;m getting ESPN3 finally, with some halting…in the OT . France is palying VERY WELL. England are defending well. Kelly smith injured is a major issue. V Exciting!

  22. ohhhh, a great match. Eng. seems to be tiring more quickly than Fran. —-
    come on Eng…

  26. “He took his recipe to the grave.” This is SO Americana:

    “Before he died this spring at 81, Gus Koutroulakis came to work every day since he took over Pete’s Famous from his uncle in 1948. Gus fixed so many hot dogs, for so many years, that it permanently bent his back in that position, difficult to sleep but easy to ladle on his sauce. Nobody but him knew the recipe. He worked the day he died, just like he’d done every day for 63 straight years. He closed the shop, went home to his chair. That’s where they found him.”

    http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6710324/on-whiskey-grease

    • I would like to have met Gus – just to listen to his stories.

      Was hoping the interviewer would snag a customer for a review of the hot dog – just to give a clue as to what type of ‘sauce’ it was:
      spicy? mild? tomato-y? sweet?

      True we’ll never know the recipe – but I want to know the ‘flavor’!

      (I don’t really care for hot dogs – just that the story piqued my curiosity).

      • hot dogs = BEEF LIPS. no thank you. Not even the ‘kosher’ stuff………………….
        read the package labels……I did years ago

  27. Goddammit!

    Raferty totally fucked that one up! Not that . Not that I’ve ever been in a world cup penalty shoot out, but at least point the ball towards the fucking goal, dear!
    As far as I’m concerned that was an inexcusably pathetic effort, BUT it didn’t really lose England the match ( nor the miss afterwards, which was also inexcusable in my book).

    The England manager Powell should NOT have used expended all her subs in one shot as she did, and her subs were both defenders. I swear to DOG that playing defensively, simply defending a one goal lead for HALF the match is a losing strategy 9 times out of 10. It gives the initiative to the other side and its especially stupid when the other side is a strong one.
    Using the subs all at once ignored the possibility of injury in a game where injury was VERY likely.
    England played very well, heroically even, but France were the stronger team and my impression was that they were consistently the most skillful.
    The English players didn’t deserve to lose, England didn’t deserve to lose, but the French were the better team and the French management was smarter.
    Great game, well done England, very well done France.

    • Great comments. I wholly agree. Possession of the ball, just ask Spain, is a huge key to the game. Defending a lead is not an easy task when you let the other team come after you. Mind you, maintaining possession is not as easy as it sounds.

  28. Dear President Obama and the Democratic party,

    You once again appear to be giving into republican demands. Are you really this spineless and clueless or are you just really good at playing the scripted role of good guy verses the villain, a script that always has the villain winning as the people and the country sink farther into the abyss?

    Do you not own your own propaganda machine? Can you not use think tanks and powerful public relations firms to get your message out while equally exposing the lies and agenda of the republican party? Are the republicans really that much more organized and smarter than you?

    Here is something you might want to start repeating over and over and over and over and over again from the bully pulpit, in the media and in press conferences.

    History shows in America, the period between 1920 to 1930, taxes steadily dropped by 50%, from 75% to 25%. History also shows during this same period, that these tax cuts did not lead to more job creation in the private sector and the fact is if it weren’t for government initiated programs like the “New Deal” the “WPA” and the “Civilian Conservation Corps”, things would have been much, much worse.

    History also shows in America, between 1980 to 2009, taxes were brought down steadily again by 40%, from 70% to 30%. History again shows that these tax cuts did not lead to job creation in the private sector.

    High unemployment + Tax cuts for the wealthy + Tax cuts for corporations = REVENUE PROBLEM AND LEADS TO ECONOMIC RUIN!

    • And for those who claim it was WWII that truly got us out of the Great Depression, you would only be half right. While it is true that WWII was the spring board to the manufacturing boom, the fact that most of the rest of the industrial world was digging themselves out of the rubble of a war, had much more to do with getting us out of the depression. We built shit for everyone else. “Made In The USA” labels were on the products and services on the rest of the worlds shelves

      • The reason we had a boom after WW2 was that we spent four years earning wages with little to spend them on because of rationing. The surviving soldiers returned home, reunited with their wives or got married, and set up households, creating large demand for durable goods. We also had a large manufacturing sector that was quickly converted back to peacetime products to meet that demand.

        • Wasn’t it also that the government invested heavily in the returning soldiers, offering mortgage that fueled a housing boom and paid college that fueled a higher skilled work force and all sorts of other veterans benefits.

          Just look around this country and see what was built in the late 40s and through the 50s. The suburbs blossomed, and with them, new schools, hospitals, stores, gas stations, everything that families with decent incomes needed.

          And, the highest end of the progressive tax rate was over 90% if I’m not mistaken.

          • And then cam us baby boomers who spurred an incredible creation of products, services, tv shows etc.
            Years ago, I had a textbook in college called Great Expectations (no, not that one!) it is all about the baby boomers. A great read. I recommend it.

  29. This is great — just great.

    I have eight days to finish getting the last of my stuff out of here, and now I’ve got a cold. I don’t feel like doing a damn thing. Arrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!

    • Hey, I’ll help you! But I must warn you, friends have told stories of arriving at their new homes with dozens of boxes labeled “miscellaneous etcetera”.

      There have been accusations of lazy packing. I prefer to look at it as “moving surprises”! ;)

      • We moved to Marietta Georgia in 1987, and back in 1988. We have ‘moving surprises’ that are still in the same boxes now.

        • My last move (3000 miles) was 18 yrs ago. and there are a couple of boxes in the hall closet……..and now I don’t remember whats in them…..

          • A signed copy of a Mark Twain novel? A long forgotten Jackson Pollack? Old boxes sometimes have great surprises in them .Mostly less valuable to the general public put still valuable.

            • Nah, . however I actually LOOKED after my post and there are a couple hundred 45 records there! might be worth something

        • I learned to just number my moving boxes. The first boxes have the least important things and the last the most important / most used. At the new location I begin unpacking them in reverse order!

          I do have a couple I haven’t unpacked since the last move 6 years ago.

          I use to play golf with a retired CPA who threw away perfectly good things before moving if the replacement cost was less than the per pound cost the mover was charging, like a 10 lb bag of sugar.

            • I still keep some boxes from my move 12 years ago. I should just toss the lot. I used to make it a point to never own more than what fits into the trunk of a car. Nowadays the kid’s Legos alone need the interior of a good sized van. Me, I still don’t own more than fits into a car (make it a Hummer, though).

            • Zooey I wish I was rich enough to make any valued possession fit into a Birkin Bag, diamond necklaces, Rolexes and stuff :lol: As it is, I have an iPad, a computer and a tv set and some clothes, dvds and books and one important binder that includes paperwork to prove that 15 years down the road I am entitled to CHF 1’600 pension. (per year :( ). That’s all.

  30. From the Always Cogent POV department:

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/09/992751/-Saturday-hate-mail-a-palooza?detail=hide&via=blog_1

    My favorite:

    Obama platform

    Retard fuckwad Dailykos operator! As you and the rest of Don Obamas homosexualist/criminalist mafia gang prepare for the next election you must have trouble figuring out a good platform (because you are as stupid as all fuck). so I thought I would give you a hand: here’s a free official democrat party platform for 2012!

    1. All taxes to be raised by 50% every year until all Amercians starve to death. this will be called stimulus.

    2. Every heterosexual man to be put into a special rape camp wherethey will assfucked until they converrt to homosexuality.

    3. Jane Fonda to be made our next secretary of state and who will then surrender this entire country to the vietcong.

    4. American militry to be entirely disbanded and every soldier to be charged with “hate speech”.

    5. Christianity to be outlawed (which it already has) and replaced with islam/atheism.

    6. PRoductive work also to be outlawed and every Ameriican to be “employed” by the public sector as “diversity consultants” and “directors of the federal faggot affairs bureau”.

    7. Guns to be removed from law abiding americans andto be redistrubuted to the New Black panther Party so they can kill white people (this is called racial justice and it is the main goal of this prseident)

    8. Islam to be the new state religion and since the constutition forbids this all copies of the constitution will be burned by Obamas new friends the Muslim Brotherhoos.

    So there you free of charge! This is pretty much copied from the current democrat platform but at least its free! Enjoy the 20% of the vote you’ll get in 2012! NOBAMA!!!q

    • 3. Jane Fonda to be made our next secretary of state and who will then surrender this entire country to the vietcong.

      That is my very favorite obscure reference!

    • I wonder if there are really very many islamic atheists. Do you reckon there really are people who believe this stuff?

    • Do these people realize just how much they’re projecting, and what it says about them and their own fears and hatreds? The Jane Fonda reference pegs this one as an older white male racist who also hated hippies back in the 60s. No one else would use that reference, or mention the Vietcong.

      It is utterly amazing to me what these people will willingly believe to be true. I know I believe some crazy things, too, but at least the things I believe are things that have some grounding in reality. Right-wing fundamentalist nutjobs really are out to destroy this country, and you can show some basis for that belief in the thins they say. Howe can any of the things this “fuckwad” (to borrow a term) says come even close to being grounded in reality? I mean, for Chrissakes, the “New Black Panther Party”? How many stories did we hear about them? One??? yet this clown thinks they’re out to kill all white Americas. And he got all that from one story about two guys supposedly intimidating white voters?

      And where does he get the idea that all of us on the left want to “convert” every heterosexual male to homosexuality? There’s only a handful of us who believe in that. (Just kidding.)
      (There’s more of us than you think.)
      No, there isn’t anybody who wants to do that, but why would anyone even think for a moment that it is true?

      That’s why I have to wonder if someone who is quite sane is just sending in a fake letter like this for the sole purpose of getting it displayed in this weekly column. Like the guys who used to make up stories of sexual encounters and try to get them published in Penthouse. They can’t possibly be real. If they were, then once they reach this stage, they are subject to being committed to a mental institution.

      • Well Wayne, at least the Penthouse letters stimulated men to engage in pleasurable pursuits that harmed no one, other than some hairy palms.

    • I got a good laugh out of this one:

      Conga!
      Conga, conga, con-GA!
      Conga, conga, con-GA!
      Faggot, pervert, ho-MO!
      Wetback, nigger, jew JEW!
      Fuck you Markos, fuck YOU!

      How long did it take that guy to come up with that one?

  31. We totally failed at the farm show, sixth place and not qualified for the sale. Son had fun anyway.

  32. Also all nouns adjectives verbs gerunds prepositions participles conjunctions adverbs et cetera also to infinity so there!

    • Why can’t they play the way they did during the last 10 Minutes right from the start? I don’t get it. Them girls are every bit as stupid as the men. And that’s all I am going to say about the match or the championship for that matter :(

  35. Let me tell ya, if I’ve got to do the Title Company’s detective work for them, I think I ought to be paid for it.

    They were all in a tizzy because some old Quitclaim Deed was wrong, possibly messing up my sale. Since I am highly motivated at this point and Google is my friend, I pulled out the Warranty Deed, got the guy’s name, found him on the internet in less than a minute, called him & left a message, and he just called me back.

    Of course he’ll sign a corrected deed — no problemo. People are so nice. :)

    • Zooey,
      You could get paid for it. Just start a business on tracling real estate claims and move to anywhere in the US where you want to, A small fee like about $100 for easy work and like $100 per hour (full or partial) on the clock on the more difficult work.

      • ssshhhh walt, you are shooing away the crickets… :lol:

        How are you? We haven’t spoken in a long time.

    • I’ll not watch it, listen to it, or even read about it.

      Of course, I wouldn’t anyway, even if all was in perfect order … I avoid each and every pro sport with equal disdain.

      But I won’t say that to Brewer, if she should happen to call and ask me the reason for my boycott. ;)

        • I did live in her district for quite a few years. Lost count of how many times I voted against her. Still can’t believe she was actually elected governor — totally unbelievable, possible proof that AZ is, indeed, a penal colony for the intergalactic criminally insane. No other explanation really works. :neutral:

  37. Sad that it appears a majority of this country has short memories – or simply just doesn’t care.
    Money wills out more times than not…
    truly sad.

    (yes MLB could have made a difference – as it did integrating the league.
    There should be at least a few players willing to take a stand… alas that is not to be)

    • Back in, iirc, the late 80s and early 90s (give or take a few years), when AZ was making a fool of itself on the MLK holiday (thanks the one of the dumbest Republican govs of all time, Evan Mecham), several large scheduled conventions pulled out, also the NFL yanked a Super Bowl game that was set for two or three years down the road. That NFL gambit finally shut the racist bigots up, and a ballot initiative to establish a MLK holiday passed by a good margin, and all was well soon after that. MLB should have done the right thing a year ago and pulled the All Star game, making a lot of noise in the process. No reason not to — I can’t quite imagine they’d have had too much trouble scheduling another venue.

      Money talks, these days, with a voice far louder than anything or anyone else.

      • Frugal, I travel to AZ a couple of times a year (drive). I was born in the US, so I have no “citizenship” papers. I am light haired, light skinned, light eyed. If I ran a stoplight, would *I* be asked to PROVE I belong here? Probably not. However, my spouse came from southern Italy and we both decided that HE would be the one questioned. Should he constantly carry HIS Naturalization paper? or passport? This is BULLSHIT. That state is goddam looney toons. The only rather SANE area is Tucson – because of the U of A. The outskirts of Tucson is rednecky, right wing and more representative of the state as a whole…….

        • Tucson and Flagstaff contain bastions of sanity, but overall, AZ is Wingnuttistan personified. It wasn’t always that way; the looniness didn’t really start to grab hold until the late 80s, but then it came on with a vengeance; oddly enough, it wasn’t really home grown, most of it moved in with the population booms. I first moved to AZ in 1962, left for good in 2008; the political changes in that span were stunning, not to mention more than a little frightening. Shows what happens when the lunatic right fringe takes control. Self destruction becomes the popular mantra.

          • Dunno about Flag – all I have encountered there were cowboy types. Almost moved to Sedona instead of here. I do love the beauty of that state. Fortunately we didn’t move there. Was in Sedona in May – it seems to have some sane folks there…….

  38. For those of you who ever plan to go to the Mall of America… don’t. Save yourself. Don’t do it.

    I can reaffirm that it is one of the most annoying places on the planet. From the stupidly designed parking structures to… well everything.

    Today’s visit should last me for a few more years. Then I’ll get all optimistic and hopeful. I’ll go again. And I’m pretty sure I’ll come to the same conclusion. (I guess I’ll never learn.)

    Otherwise, had a nice lunch with a friend over in St Paul today. :)

    • I’d suffer vertigo in such a place.

      Curious – are there many empty stores- given the current economy?

      We are seeing more and more empty storefronts.

      • Really not that many empty that I noticed. And the place was packed.

        By contrast, I went to another mall on the way home (finally got fed up with the MoA) and it was dead.

        The entire episode is due to getting a Macy’s gift card for Christmas.

    • I’ve refused a visit to that monstrosity every time I’ve been in Minnesota since the thing was first constructed. I hate all shopping malls and haven’t been in even one of them anywhere for at least ten years. Why anyone ever bothers to do more than drive by a mall, any mall (particular the giant ones) is beyond me.

    • I go go to the mall once a year – to get certain Christmas items/gifts

  39. End of the World: ‘Thank you and goodbye’

    Britain’s best-selling Sunday tabloid the News of the World signed off with a simple front page message – “THANK YOU & GOODBYE” – leaving the British media establishment reeling from the expanding phone-hacking scandal that brought down the muckraking newspaper after 168 years.

  40. End of the World: ‘Thank you and goodbye’

    Harold Camping just got his dates wrong.

  41. From the “I’m Having a Lot of Fun With This” File

    @THEHermanCain
    Herman Cain
    RT @CainPress: Breaking: @THEHermanCain wins Conservative Leadership Conference straw poll in Las Vegas, Nevada.

    @WayneASchneider
    Wayne A Schneider
    @THEHermanCain @CainPress I guess it’s too bad for you that straws can’t vote in the 2012 elections.

    • Boehner is insistent that the wealthy be protected, so he refuses to accede to Obama’s grand bargain with everything on the table.
      I hope the people see who are really the stubborn and partisan hacks in this perilous time — repugniscum are demonstrating their craven and dangerous policies. Damn Americans, damn the country — party is everything to them.

    • Drinking again? :)

      Just kidding. I hope you feel better soon, my friend.

      If I could afford the plane fare (and assuming Bush’s people didn’t put me on a no-fly list), I’d fly out there and help you pack.

      You can do it. You’ve accomplished a lot harder things already in life, you can do this. :)

      • hey! I live closer!
        Zooey, can you send me the airfare? I am not on any naughty lists, but just used up lots of miles for a trip to Myrtle Beach (to see grandson in the Cal Ripkin tournaments).
        Get well soon!

    • Repugs are showing everyone that their protection of the wealthy is paramount.

  48. Just posted this on Gretawire’s open blog: http://tinyurl.com/5rtots3

    Why does Speaker Boehner insist that tax cuts for the rich will help spur the economy, when all evidence points to the exact opposite being true? Pres Clinton raised taxes, and the economy prospered. Pres GW Bush cut taxes, and the economy tanked. The rich do not create jobs with their tax cuts, they keep the money for themselves and their families. Unemployment benefits and Food Stamp payouts do more to spur the economy than tax cuts for the rich ever will. There, I said it and I’m glad.

    Let the flaming begin. :)

    • Wayne, I don’t see that post/comment. Don’t you always write under your name?

        • Thanks, crypto.

          Swimming in muck and mire isn’t exactly what I like to do…
          for Wayne I’ll wander over there again (put on my rain boots and mackintosh)…I’ve plenty o’ brain bleach handy as I know the infection won’t take long – after venturing over there!

          • That’s kind of you, Ebb, but I want no one risking their life for me. That’s something I’ll gladly do for all of you. The comment system uses Disqus, so if you’ve had success logging into that, you can post replies, but you will get their answers in your e-mail. That’s where the bleach comes in handy.

            Oh, well. It’s nearly 1 AM in the East, and I really should be trying to sleep. See everyone tomorrow. If I get any funny replies, I’ll let you know.

            Good night, Folks!

      • You may have to go to the next screen of comments. I’ve already had three people tell me I’m wrong. Ironically, one accused me of having liberal talking points memorized. I guess I must have contradicted the Fox news Channel talking points.

        • Thanks, Wayne, that’s exactly what I had to do…

          They are not pleased you spoke the truth. Pelosi must be on their dart board – the comments that she amassed her wealth on the backs of we the people, and that the surplus immediately disappeared the moment she leader…
          I need to re-up my RX for brain bleach – reading some of that was rather painful.

      • The only Schneider that I can locate on that blog is Christian Schneider. I seriously doubt that Wayne would choose that moniker.

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