Friday Night Inspirational Quote

    Party on, Garth!  Party on, Wayne!

This is Weather. This is Climate

  Actually, the most direct proof of Global Warming is the overall rise in ocean temperatures.   At every latitude.  Bye-bye, polar ice caps.

Word for the day : Haboob!

    Some photos of the mother-of-all-dust-storms that blew across Phoenix around sundown yesterday.   No, I didn't take any of these.  I have better things to do than go outside and have my expensive camera get sandblasted while I snap some pics.   For instance, like try to take the dogs for a walk in it.  Yeah, that didn't turn out real good.  Especially with me wearing contacts.

    I've seen reports that it was 50 miles across and a mile high.  It was almost like those Mt. St. Helens "ash" pictures - every outdoor surface throughout Phoenix was coated with dust this morning.  The streets were brown, the lawns were brown, the cars (those that weren't in garages) were brown.  I passed a quarter-mile-long line of traffic on the way home from work around 11:30 AM.  "Strange", thought I, "it doesn't normally pile up at that spot."  Silly me.  They were waiting to get into the local carwash, and the line had spilled out onto the street.

    The Word For The Day is HABOOB, which is Arabic for these types of dust-storms.  Wikipedia has some nice pics of them from other desert parts of the world.  Surprsingly, they're not very dangerous, unless you're trying to drive, fly, or walk around in them.  However, they are a royal nuisance.  Particularly, since we didn't get any precipitation out of it.

    The air today is still filthy with the dust.  What we really need is some rain to wash it all out of the atmosphere.  But it doesn't look good for tonight.  So the only thing to do is sit inside, pour yourself a glass of wine (red wine, s'il vous plaìt), and drink it in order to wash all those pesky dust motes out of your digestive system.  Hey, it's for your health! 

RIF

    True dat.

Book Excerpt for the Day

  The knowledge that all this had happened before and was certain to happen again, was a crushing burden. Since the last crime they had gotten computers and more men and more cars. Since the last time the lighting in the parks had been improved and most of the bushes had been cleared away. Next time there would be still more cars and computers and even less shrubbery. Kollberg wiped his brow at the thought and the handkerchief was wet through.

(from The Man on the Balcony by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo)


The complete review is here.

C&He Guevara!

    Them what knows, knows.  Them what don't knows, google "Cyanide & Happiness".

Fire!

    Any fire's bad enough.  A fire when it's 115°F outside is terrible.  A fire in one of the power company's transformers  means power outages.  As in 80,000 homes without power.  In the afternoon.  In Mesa.  When it's 115°F outside.  With monsoon humidity.

    Our house was without power.  For a couple hours, ANAICT.  But by the time I got home (4:30), it had been restored.  The house was pretty much cooled off.  And the dogs were back to normal.

    The pic above is of the blaze.  The burning transformer was on Power Road.  Liz works on Power Road.  She says this pic is ho-hum, cuz you can't see the flames.  She could.

Jimi owes Jabba

Thank you, New York!

    Another victory for Civil Rights and Equality.  Another defeat for Bigotry and Hatred.  Six down; forty-four to go.  We have our work cut out for us, but New York legalizing gay marriages is huge.  The death knell is sounding for homophobic legislation.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    To say that Effrom was not a particularly good cook was an understatement akin to saying that genocide is not a particularly effective public relations strategy.  He had decided that Tater Tots would provide as good a meal as anything, without challenging his culinary abilities.  He read the cooking instructions carefully, then did some simple mathematics to expedite the preparation: twenty minutes at 375 degrees would mean only eleven minutes at 575 degrees.  The results of his calculation resembled charcoal briquettes with frozen centers, but because he was in a hurry to get to bed, he drowned the suffering Tots in catsup and ate them anyway.  Little did he know that their spirits would return carrying nightmare images of the zeppelin attack.

(from Practical Demonkeeping by Christopher Moore)


(the full review is here)

Quote for the Day

    "Unregulated capitalism is not a pretty sight, which is why we have labor laws, environmental regulations, health and safety standards, unions, much-eroded consumer protection laws, and other checks on the system.

    Barring a few glitches, like the fact that corporations keep buying our government, this is not a bad deal for lots of us, and it's not capitalism's job to help those who don't have enough power to deal with the system.

    It would be helpful, however (from a PR standpoint, if nothing else), if corporations would quit picking on poor people in particular."
(Molly Ivins)

It's "Lightning"

    Yes, I'm a grammar nazi.  I work hard not to let it show.  But come on now,  This is a nationally syndicated cartoon strip.  The jagged, electricity thing in the sky is "lightning".  The opposite of getting heavier (or darker) is "lightening".

Happy Birthday, Clarence Thomas!

    Anita sends her regards.  Now go munch on some Oreos.

Why we fight

    And yeah, I know "Libya" is spelled wrong.  And that the USA has had more than its share of urban idjits gone beserk after their sports team lost.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "Boy," said Gannell, "you gotta know your name in this world.  I mean, you gotta know who you are.  Now, you get born smelling of apples and feeling like you gonna die rich - you're Shando.  You come in smelling sheep and feeling like you might have two krets to leave your woman - you're Karli."

    Gannell took a long drink and sighed pleasurably as the liquor warmed its way down.  "But boy, when you get born smelling sh*t and can't even find a hunk to sell for manure - you know your badluck ass is Wengen!"

(from The Masters of Solitude by Marvin Kaye & Parke Godwin)


The full review is here.

RIP Clarence Clemons

    There's no doubt about it - Bruce was the spirit of the East Street Band.  But you were its soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUMDFQZEzyA

Book Excerpt for the Day

    "...winning those wars didn't matter, since every time a war was fought governments incurred more debt and financiers amassed more privileges.  It's like what drug companies do today.  Treating the symptoms of a disease, never curing it, always being paid."

    Mastroianni finished the last of his chocolate tart.  "I own stock in three of those pharmaceutical concerns."


(from The Paris Vendetta, by Steve Berry)


The full review is here.

In-Flight Movie

I'd jump too.

Furniture Foray - Part Deux

    We passed on the furniture last night.  It's hard to tell for sure if a couch is worn out, but you kinda get a hint when there are three 4-year-old boys jumping on it like it was a trampoline.  Thanks for the heads-up, kids! 

Furniture Foray

    Something quick, as we're off to get a couch, love seat, and chair for Jason's (soon-to-be) house.  Our garage is loading up various acquisitions for it, as we all wait not-so-patiently for the Short Sell to go through.

The difference...

A Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal cartoon showing the difference between physicists, chemists, and biologists.

Personally, I think the part about the Biologists is overrated.

Ah Ahnold!

Book Excerpt for the Day

   "How long it is, since last you spoke to me?"

    "Minutes... Not even an hour."
   
    "I cannot tell, child. Time is nothing where I am. I read once in Aquinas that the duration of the soul in Hell may only be a heartbeat, but to the damned it is eternity."

(from The Wild Machines by Mary Gentle)

The full review is here.

Ymbari...

The whole truth in four words

    "Live and let live."  When you get right down to it, that's the core philosophy of every religion.  Go ahead, try to think of one that isn't based on that.

    Now theology, that's another story.  Every religion has its own individual doctrine.  And most exhort their followers to either convert all others to their theology, or else kill them.

    Frankly, we could use a little more philosophy in life, and a lot less theology.

Quote for the Day

    "How easy it is to destroy a man's political career.  Just murmur: 'You're hot' and he'll do it to himself." (Tess Gerritsen)

Book Excerpt for the Day

Apparently she was under the impression that love was something you could switch on and off like electric current.  Of course, it's not like that.  Oh, it'll survive almost anything if it's contrary and cussed enough, it'll take pruning and flooding and DDT in its stride and carry on growing like convolvulus - the more you try to clear it out, the stronger it gets.  But when it dies, it dies; it's as dead as Queen Anne or the Monty Python parrot, and all the king's horses and all the king's men can't do spit anout it.

(from Little People by Tom Holt)

The full review is here.

The Telltale Heart

    Yeah, he'd be pretty good at birthday cards.  But  Edgar Allan Poe doing Valentine's Day cards; now that'd be something special.

Check-Up at the Vet's

Bella and Huxley had appointments at the vet's yesterday.  Mr. Jynx was off the hook, but as soon as he heard the car keys, he was rarin' to go too.  If he had known the destination, he wouldn't have been so keen.  But ignorance is bliss, and he wasn't to be dissuaded, so he and I went joy-riding while Liz took the other two for their check-ups.

Bella's red blood cell count is stable and in the normal range.  She's almost completely weaned off her meds, so this was very good news.  She'll finish out the remaining meds, and then that's that.  She doesn't have to go back to the vet's until her next regularly-scheduled check-up or unless we see her starting to relapse.  She's gained some weight, but the doctor says she could stand to gain a little more.  Mama Liz will see to that.

    The news was also good for Huxley.  His blood pressure is up a bit, but the vet didn't seem too concerned.  What she liked was that Huxley has lost a little weight and has gotten more toned up.  Methinks he's been hitting the gym while Liz and I are at work. 

    So all in all, the news was as good as could be hoped for.  Here's hoping that trend continues.

HippieFest is coming

    Something called HippieFest is coming to Phoenix, on 05 August, and at Comerica Theater.  Which I think is Dodge Theater under new ownership.  Or Celebrity Theater.  Or Cricket Theater.  Hopefully not that last one; it's outside.

    HippieFest is proclaimed to be a celebration of the Summer of Love (that was 1967 for you young'uns), and the acts include :

Dave Mason  (formerly of Traffic)

Mark Farner  (formerly of Grand Funk Railroad)

Rick Derringer  (formerly of The McCoys)

Gary Wright  (formerly of ??)

The Rascals

    Sad to say, the only one I'd really like to see is Dave Mason, and that's mostly because of his post-Traffic solo material.  The McCoys had only one hit (Hang On, Sloopy), and I'm not keen on Derringer's solo work.  The Rascals would be interesting, and I admit I used to have a couple of their albums.  But there's a reason those LP's are no longer in my collection.

    So I doubt I'll be going to this, despite the fact that it should really appeal to me.  Now if they could get Janis, and Jimi, and Jim-the-Lizard-King to show up, I'd have to reconsider.

Book Excerpt for the Day

As Rafferty strolled toward Tenth Street, he found it hard to get Addie O'Donnell out of his mind.  She had certainly made quite an impression, burning with the sort of white-hot idealism that only the young can manage gracefully.  That alone made her worthy of Rafferty's regard, for he had been the same way once, eager to turn the bitter seed of the world into fresh, bright fruit.  It couldn't be done, of course, but there was poetry in the attempt...

(from Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Alliance by Larry Millett)


The complete review is here.

Once Upon a Time in the West - Soundtrack

Title : Once Upon A Time In The West

Music Composed & Conducted by  :  Ennio Morricone

Genre  :  Soundtrack

Year  :  1972

Overall Rating  :  9*/10

Who?
    I must be getting old.  I'm beginning to enjoy soundtracks.  Of course it helps if the music is from my favorite Charles Bronson flick evuh.  And composed by one Ennio Morricone, who also wrote all those great themes from the Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; Fistful of Dollars, etc.

Why Should I Care?
    Because the music is powerful yet relaxing.  The soprano, Ms. Gabriele Ferzetti hits some simply glass-sghattering high notes.  Because it will remind you of a b*tching movie.  Besides Bronson, it had Henry Fonda, Jason Robards, and Claudia Cardinale.

Track Listing  (my favorites in pink) :

(01) Once Upon a Time in the West

(02) As a Judgment

(03) Farewell to Cheyenne

(04) The Transgression

(05) The First Tavern

(06) The Second Tavern

(07) Man With a Harmonica

(08) A Dimly Lit Room

(09) Bad Orchestra

(10) Jill's America

(11) Death Rattle

(12) Finale

    The LP was in decent shape, so the conversion went smoothly.  I really had forgotten just how good the music in this film was.  Or maybe I'm getting geezerish.  We'll dock it a star only for the harmonica parts which, while good, do get repetitive.  9 Stars.

Demotivational Monday

    I'm happy to say that none of our three dogs would submit themselves to this sort of humiliation.  Unless, of course, it resulted in them getting a piece of beef jerky.  Or cheese.  Or turkey-burger.  Or watermelon.  Or ice cream. 

Book Excerpt for the Day

"Remember when Wing-Tsit Chong called you a tourist?"

"Yes."

"It was a polite way of saying you lack the confidence in yourself to find your own answers to life.  You are always searching, Syrinx, though you never know what for.  Religion was inevitably going to exert a fascination on you.  The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves."

(from The Neutronium Alchemist by Peter F. Hamilton)


The complete review is here.

Summer Project

    I can't complain about the Arizona spring so far.  We've had one or two 100°+ days, but overall the temperatures have been moderate.  And tomorrow and Monday look to have highs only around 90°F.  Not bad for Memorial Day weekend.

    The  problem with Phoenix summers is that the weather is so freaking predictable.  You know that in the next two weeks, we're going to have the big heat-up, and that by 15 June, temperatures above 110°F will be the norm.  Then it's simply a matter of waiting for the monsoons to show up sometime in July.  Which will drop the temperatures back to 105°F, but increase the humidity to Florida swamp standards.

    But no matter.  Our A/C unit has been checked out and is good to go.  Which means you know where to find me until the middle of September.

Blogger Blues

I was forced into an involuntary blogging hiatus by the incompetency of Blogger.  Monday night, it decided that I needed to stay logged onto it forever.  When I tried to log out, it threw me back to the Dashboard.  I could of course go to a different website, but if I tried to go back to Blogger, it still just threw me back to the Dashboard.  Even after I rebooted, it did this.

    I thought maybe I had picked up a virus, but checking at Blogger's Help Site found that lots of others were suddenly having the same problem.  Blogger has acknowledged this is a "known issue", but as of tonight, they still haven't fixed it.

    This is moderately annoying for me, as I have three different Blogger accounts, and the glitch means I am always signed in as only one of those.  For those of you who use a PC at, say, work or a library or an Internet café, the problem is more serious.  Since you can't ever log out, the next person using your computer has easy access to your blog.

    Fortunately, there is a way (two, actually) to negate this.  Neither is without drawbacks, but they are relatively simple.

    First, find the "gear cog" icon at the top of your Internet Explorer.  Mine's at the upper right, but yours may be in a different location.  Click on it, then follow one of the two options below.

01.) Click on "Internet Options".
02.) Under the "General" tab, find the "Browsing History" section.
03.)  Click on "Delete".
04.) Click on "Delete".

- or -

01.) Click on "Internet Options".
02.) Click on the "Advanced" tab.
03.) Click on "Reset".
04.) Click on "Reset".

   I've done the second option and it works.  But you lose all your "cookies", including password-remembrance and user-recognition.  So any site you go to will act like you're new there.  Hopefully, Blogger will fix this FUBAR shortly, and all of this will be obsolete.  But you never know.

P.S. The image is of Lanny Poffo, who old WWF fanatics will remember as "The Genius".  He is also the real-life brother of the recently-deceased Randy "Macho Man" Savage.

My Civic Duty's over!

   The trial is over; we found defendant guilty on all charges, and in all likelihood he's facing a long stint in jail.  The perps were pretty stoopid; the victim was pretty stoopid too.

    I don't intend to give details of the trial; but the demographics of the 50-person jury pool were quite interesting.  I'm knackered tonight, so that post will have to wait until later in the week.

Quote for the Day

    "In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual."  (Galileo Galilei - 1564-1642)

RIP - Randy Savage

Randall Poffo (aka Randy "Macho Man" Savage)

b.  :  15 November 1952

d.  :  20 May 2011

    Anyone who watched WWF (now WWE) will remember Randy "Macho Man" Savage.  Besides having Miss Elizabeth as his manager (in real life she was his wife), he was also a charismatic personality (just ask Slim Jims), equally adept at playing the villain or the hero.

    Macho Man was an accomplished wrestler.  No, I'm not grading him on his championships, or who he beat - it's all scripted.  Rather, it's based on the believability of his moves, the precision of his routines, and the expressions on his face during the match.  Savage was a master.

    Alas, their marriage fell apart in the 90's; Miss Elizabeth died of a drug overdose in 2003, the golden days of Professional Wrestling passed, and time caught up to the Macho Man.  Now mortality has caught him too.  The wrestlers today are sloppy compared to Hulk, Savage, and The Million Dollar Man (who IMHO was the best at doing precision moves).  And not surprisingly, other than maybe John Cena, none of them have the face-recognition and followings of these past masters.

    So Rest In Peace, Randy.  God took you the day before the Rapture.  Or maybe She simply chose you to lead the procession.

Faithpalm!

    "An independent report commissioned by Catholic bishops ... says sexual abuse by priests in the U.S. has largely been resolved and blames the sexual revolution of the 1960's and 70's for sweeping up clerics in a tide of "deviant" behavior."  (AZ Republic; 05/19/11; page one)

    Damn those hippies.