Show of Hands (English Folk Group)

    Show Of Hands is an English folk duo (or trio, if you include Miranda Sykes, and you really should) comprised of Phil Beer (left, above),  and Steve Knightley (right, above).

    I've just recently become acquainted with their music, especially their mega-hit Roots.  Look it up on YouTube and watch it.  These guys are fantastic.

Picture Makes No Sense Sunday

    Somebody put considerable effort into drawing this.  But I cannot fathom why.

Hurricane Irma Preparations

    I'm ready for hurricane Irma.  Of course, here in Phoenix, we don't take hurricanes very seriously.

Socializing

   Yep, that pretty much describes me whenever I'm forced to go to some social occasion.

Truck Song - Part Deux

    Well, I've channeled David Allen Coe, and here's the whole chorus of the yet-to-be-written song about a guy's truck leaving him:

"My pick-up's done packed up and left me,

 Ran off with a Honda Accord;

It cooda been worse,

Like shack up with a hearse,

Or get hitched to a Chevy or Ford."

    I'll let one of you blogger/songwriter peeps write the verses.  The song's in 3/4 time if it's a ballad, in 6/8 time if you make it a fast-tempo tune.  And I'll split the million-dollar royalties with you 50:50,

    I'm sure this will be a can't-miss success.

My Pick-Up Done Picked-Up and Left

   I can hear the twangy singing already.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Shouldn’t we at least try to reason with them first?” she suggested – horrified by the very idea taking a life, let alone several.

    “I think we both know that diplomacy isn’t going to get us anywhere with these people,” he said.  “We’re just lab rats to them; they won’t negotiate with us … you don’t negotiate with lab rats.”

    “You do if they’re holding a gun to your head,” Kate said.

    (from Origins by Andy Wallace)

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Disney Dali

    Walt Disney and Salvador Dali.  Your argument is surreally and fantastically invalid.

Science Sunday

Saturday Punnery

How's it going?

    I actually work with somebody like this.  I had to stop saying "How's it going?" in the morning to them, cuz all it did was make them tell how crappy of a day they were having.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    He’s a grand old guy with a spark in his eye

    And as bright as the Fourth of July!

    And they say that he’s

    Got both his knees

    And still takes his brandy with rye.

    Now he’s ninety-nine

    And he’s feeling fine,

    And he still takes the curves in high!

    We’ll all be here

    Again next year

    To cheer Homer the grand old guy!

    (from The Cat Who Brought Down The House by Lilian Jackson Braun)

  3½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Chronic

    I have this condition.

Loopholes

    Jeez, but I sure do miss Calvin & Hobbes.

The Zen of Floyd

"Huh?" Cartoon

    It took me an incredibly long time to "get" this cartoon.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “Yep,” Chandler said.  “Not many dull moments finding these bond skippers.  It gives you a chance to exercise your wits.  Most of them don’t want to be found.”

   “I noticed that,” Plymale said.  “I noticed two cases here involving some shooting.”

    “Yeah,” Chandler said, confident now that this must have been what made him attractive to Plymale.  “They shoot and miss, and you shoot and hit,” he said.  “Otherwise the system isn’t efficient.”

    (from Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman)

    7*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Rodents of Unusual Size

    "Rodents Of Unusual Size?  I don't think they exist."

Hurricane Harvey

    To all my friends in Texas, and for some reason most of you live in the Houston-Beaumont corridor : STAY WARM AND DRY THIS WEEKEND.

    I can't say I know what it's like to snuggle up with a hurricane for a weekend, but it's got to be a nerve-racking experience.

Resist

    A stunning photograph from last night's protest here in Phoenix of Trump's visit.

Wine Mixes

    True dis.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “When the balance is destroyed, the only thing the Queens can do is to blow everything to flinders and let it settle out into a natural distribution again.”

    “What does that mean to me?” I asked.

    “Depends on who has the edge when everything is settled,” Bob said.  “A war could start the next ice age, or set off an era of rampant growth.”

    “That last one doesn’t sound so bad.”

    “No.  Not if you’re an Ebola virus.  You’ll have lots of friends.”

    (from Summer Knight by Jim Butcher)

    8½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Chalk Art Saturday

    Oh my, what a great piece of chalk art!  So realistic!  Hmmm.  Now waitaminnit...

Oshita Bridge

    My thoughts exactly.

Hate

    No matter how the white supremacists try to rationalize their actions, it always comes down to one thing, and one thing only. HATE.  Pure and simple.  

Book Excerpt for the Day

    “So let me get this straight, and correct me if I’m wrong, but you want us to find somebody doing something wrong, and oh, I don’t know, do whatever it takes.  Such as things like wire-tapping, hacking, breaking and entering.”

    “Now, on the record, I never said such things, but we simply want private supportive investigatory services to independently research items in our investigation that we currently cannot allocate the manpower toward.”

    (from Flapjack by Daniel Ganninger)

    5½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Science Project

    Yes, I used to do science projects in Junior High and High School.  Yes, my final one did pretty good, making it to the county competition.

    But man, if I had thought of the one of above, I would've been tickled pink to enter it.  No matter what grade I'd end up getting on it.

Mahler vs. Opera

    Listen, I like classical music.  Bach, Beethoven, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Mozart, Wagner, Strauss.  They're all good.  But Mahler?  Meh.

    Still, the worst of Mahler is still a lot more enjoyable than the best Opera.

Art Appreciation Saturday

    Existential Dread Edition.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    Some, like Helen’s family the Greens, had gone trekking out into the stepwise wilderness and had begun to build new communities: the story of colonial-era America, rerun across an infinite frontier.  And some just wandered off, helping themselves to the inexhaustible riches of the Long Earth: Thomas’s combers.

    All of which was fine, until the day you needed root-canal dentistry.  Or your e-book reader broke down.  Or you worried whether your kids were ever going to learn anything more than how to plough a field or trap a rabbit.  Or you got sick of the mosquitoes.  Or, damn it, you just wanted to go shopping.

    (from The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter)

    6½*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Minesweeper

    A simply awesome piece of graffiti art.

And Blind Faith begat...

    This is actually very accurate, and I would've been able to repeat all of this, except for the Spencer Davis Group tie-in.  But Freegal has lots of SDG albums available, so I think it's time to close that little gap in my musical repertoire.

An Almost Full Flight

    Laugh if you want, but I work with a guy who pulls this routine when the flight he's on is almost, but not quite, full.  No, he doesn't carry those books, but as the plane fills up, he goes into a coughing, wheezing, shivering routine.

    And it works.  Nobody will sit next to him unless its the last available seat.  It is truly amazing to watch him perform.  The whole trick is to not overdo it, to where people know it's a put-on.

Diets

    Sometimes, when you're three days into your diet, even the snakes start to look like donuts.

Art Appreciation Sunday

    If I could do sculpture like that, I'd call myself an artist.

Book Excerpt for the Day

    When Dortmunder got back to the apartment, trailed by Kelp, May was still there.  “I thought,” Dortmunder said, “you had to work today.”

    “I called in semisick.”

    “Semisick?”

    “I said if I felt better later I’d come in.  I wanted to know how things went – so how’d things go?”

    Dortmunder said, “Is it too early to drink bourbon?”

    “It isn’t even noon.”

    “Add a little water.”

    (from Why Me? by Donald E. Westlake)

    8*/10.  The complete review is here.

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Lunar Eclipse

    It's science and it's a photograph.  You can't really argue with it, can you?

Time-Saving Cooking Tip

    I don't want to brag, but my culinary skills are legendary.

Wednesday Latin Lesson

Stool Sample

    Frankly, taking a stool sample is a bunch of crap.