The Lone Marine

Stupid sounding entree names trying to be fancy, yet sound dumb

Whoever came up with the idea to add "bang-bang" as a prefix for a shrimp or chicken dish - should be shot.  Your entree name is not exotic or hip.  You are neither cute nor snappy.  It doesn't sound Thai or Vietnamese, which you're trying to conjure.  You are dumb.

My personal motto

"Work harder, not smarter." 

It just seems... so right.  I'm getting a bit teary eyed, even.

QOTD

We are more filed, recorded, digitized, data-based, monitored, demographically studied, tracked, cookied, and mal-wared to death than anyone could have ever imagined. I fear that the "face book" generation has lead us down the dark road of servitude to "the cloud."

~Unk., from the comments on a recent story about MRI innovations purporting to reveal the "mind's eye"

Bros don’t f***ing pay attention to rules. I can honestly say that had I paid attention to rules and societal norms, I wouldn’t be the bro I am today. We’re told our entire life by parents, the media, school, books, f***ing everything that some day when we grow up we’ll find the “girl of our dreams” and get married, buy a house, have kids, then spend the next 25 years of our life working some shitty job we f***ing hate, just to make sure our kids can have some “Dora the Explorer” back pack. F*** that. The truth of the matter is that someday, bros will probably marry a woman, but in the words of that Black guy in GLADIATOR, “Not Yet."  ~broslikethissite.com

Poem: "The Picket Guard"

by Ethyl Lynn Beers

``ALL quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
Except here and there a stray picket
Is shot, as he walks on his beat, to and fro,
By a rifleman hid in the thicket.
'Tis nothing! a private or two now and then
Will not count in the news of a battle;
Not an officer lost, only one of the men
Moaning out, all alone, the death rattle.


All quiet along the Potomac to-night!
Where the soldiers lie peacefully dreaming;
And their tents in the rays of the clear autumn moon,
And the light of their camp-fires are gleaming.
A tremulous sigh, as a gentle night-wind
Through the forest leaves slowly is creeping;
While the stars up above, with their glittering eyes,
Keep guard o'er the army sleeping.
There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread
As he tramps from the rock to the fountain,
And thinks of the two on the low trundel bed,
Far away, in the cot on the mountain.


His musket falls slack, his face, dark and grim,
Grows gentle with memories tender,
As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep,
And their mother--"may heaven defend her!"
The moon seems to shine forth as brightly as then--
That night, when the love, yet unspoken,
Leaped up to his lips, and when low-murmured vows
Were pledged to be ever unbroken.


Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes,
He dashes off tears that are welling;
And gathers the gun closer up to his breast
As if to keep down his heart's swelling.
He passes the fountain, the blasted pine-tree,
And his footstep is lagging and weary;
Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light,
Towards the shades of the forest so dreary.


Hark! was it the night-wind that rustled the leaves?
Was it the moonlight so wondrously flashing?
It looked like a rifle: "Ha! Mary, good-by!"
And his life-blood is ebbing and plashing.
"All quiet along the Potomac to-night!"
No sound save the rush of the river;
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead,
And the picket's off duty forever!

Interpreted as song: (LINK)

Cagey's listening to

Underworld - Peach Tree



Underworld - Moon in Water



Underworld - Born Slippy

Logophiles, unite!

Why do people ask, "Can I be honest with you?" when it's much better to ask, "May I be candid?" or "May I be frank?" or "May I speak to you without inhibitions?"

~~~

So, I found this note, written to myself, on my desktop today:

"Every wave, an impetus to move,"

Puzzling at first, but I think this was something about the relative suckitude of the greater Mudville area. Not sure if I was thinking about crime waves, waves of pain, social change, or etc. What's clear is that I need to move soon in order to grow.  Any interpretations?

[Update, 11 OCT:  The wave represents the months Jan.-Dec., which listed from top to bottom, resemble a wave, and too many months of me slogging down in Mudville.]

QOTD

 
 
 
"Draw me not without reason,
Sheath me not without honor."





(LINK)
(LINK)

Webbed foot capers

   Finally, FINALLY. Clear photographic evidence of an extraordinary event. If I were to merely tell you without showing you, surely you wouldn't believe me. I have seen this maybe five times in my life - same kind of stats you'd get playing the lotto. 

   The rare timing of these strange duck-chickens crossing the road while I'm driving through is nothing short of amazing, but there is one more funky piece to this: they cross using the crosswalk. For awhile, I kept my camera in my car just in case I'd have the luck to see it again, but for a time I didn't. During this period, I lost my regular camera and now only have my crummy cell phone camera.

   To increase the believability factor and to enhance everyone's experience, I made one of those magnification boxes like I'd suppose you see on CSI, or NCIS. Could I summon your help, readers, in figuring out what kind of fowl these are walking around my neighborhood in open defiance of cars? I searched the web for ‘spottled ducks’, but no joy. Without further ado:

[UPDATE, 21 SEP: "Muscovy Ducks" - strangely, not Muscovites, but W. Hemisphere natives]

 
Here they are again.  I've been to the Keys and Panama, so we're cool - I've seen this sort of thing, but around here, it's a phenomenon.

Pictured at the shopping center, these ducks clearly DGAF.

The dichotomous key and leaf identification

Soon the leaves will make their way softly to the ground making their crackly carpet, a grand reminder of the circle of life. If only I could remember the name... "dichotomous key"!  That's it.  I was trying to help the neighbor kid with his fall science project and remembered this tool for leaf detectives.  I also finally found the name of the big tree on the terrace, by the lake.  It's an American Basswood.  Very climb-worthy, I just haven't taken myself up yet.  Should probably wood-burn a calling card and tie it up to the top limb, like I'd always planned, but never gotten around to.

The names of trees, as those of friends, should be learned and used when you talk about them. Names are convenient handles by which we designate a particular object. Until we know the names of trees, our interest and appreciation for these beautiful and majestic plants is truly hampered. The information here is designed to help you learn to identify "your trees."

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/plantsci/trees/f436-1.htm#The

Article: "College may be dangerous for men"

In an aptly titled column "College may be dangerous for men," the September 14, 2011 Phyllis Schlafly report nails the mark on this "We must repudiate men" dogma. 

The feminist apparatus is constantly grinding out phony statistics about sexual assault and harassment, accusations that men are naturally batterers, and that women never lie or make errors in sexual allegations. The feminists are unrepentant about the way they and the prosecutors (toadying to the feminists) accepted and publicized lies that destroyed the reputations of the Duke Lacrosse men and of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Now, even more than before, colleges push this propaganda - not sure why the federales have to press it in to the universities, like thumbs in so much clay. I'll never forget when one of my best friends was hauled away, thrown in jail for fitting a very vague DESCRIPTION of an assailant. Name pushed through the press, legal fees, and no apology or significant change in status, just that he was no longer a primary suspect of interest - or whatever the bureau-cowardspeak is that says one thing, but not totally, as to leave inroads open later if they want to change their mind.

I wish I could send this article to my friend, to hopefully help him feel a bit vindicated, but the potential cost is too great; that I might resurrect damaging feelings of his undeserved public humiliation.

Cagey's listening to

Enya - First of Autumn



Enya - Adiemus (1997)



Enya - Anywhere Is (1995)

...The First of Autumn :)

Funny, I first heard the Clannad themes from the movie Clear and Present Danger. And I first learned of Clannad in a small "Irish" pub somewhere in Japan. And now I find out Enya was in Clannad. Yes. (Pre-empting your question, 'Would you date her?' Yes, I would totally hook up with her.)

Joe vs. Jose - land of the free stuff

Thought this was an interesting, to the point explanation of why we need to look at this problem and address it. It's not racism. It's being accountable for your needs and responsibilities like the rest of us.
Interesting when you work the numbers.


You have two families: "Joe Legal" and "Jose Illegal". Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California.

• Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25.00 per hour with taxes deducted.
• Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash "under the table".
• Ready? Now pay attention...
• Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has $31,231.00.
• Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200.0 0 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes. Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00.
• Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $24,031.00.
• Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

• Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.
• Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps and welfare. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.
• Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe Legal now has 9,631 .00.
• Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $ 31,200.00.
• Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance. Joe Legal now has $7,231.00.
• Jose Illegal says, "We don't need no stinkin' insurance!" and still has $31,200.00.
• Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc.
• Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month..

• Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.
• Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family. Joe Legal's and Jose Illegal's children both attend the same school. Joe Legal pays for his children's lunches while Jose Illegal's children get a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal's children have an after school ESL program. Joe Legal's children go home. 
• Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

Do you get it, now?

Cagey's listening to

Cause and Effect - Trip (1994)

10 years later

An artist's representation of the 9/11 memorial park at the Pentagon. 

   LISTEN to Michael Savage on 9/11/2001 (LINK).  Let it get you mad.  He had it right, and don't sugarcoat, it -WAS- OUR- Pearl Harbor. 

   Nice hearing rocker tributes all day on the radio.  "Don't mistake our kindness for weakness," said Tommy Shaw, among others. 

   I think about the "blow it all back to the stone age" vs. "precision targeting" and feel we have done a good job, with the exception of the relentless courts-martial against many combat personnel and overcomplicated rules of engagement.

    I was in Dahlgren when we got the word.  We raced back to Maryland and got down to work.  The next several weeks are hard to remember. 



President Bush with retired firefighter Bob Beckwith. Beckwith, 79, regained
his mantle during a spot decision, venturing to the disaster site in NYC.

Article: Firefighter tells story behind iconic moment with George W. Bush (LINK).

"...I want her to be as grateful as I am every day, to live in these great United States."  ~John Wayne