Eight and 98

Hanging out with the president

From street thug to White House advisor.

Greenpeace manifesto

Greenpeace is embarassed by this statement, and has removed a large part of it from their web page:

“Let's talk about what that mass civil disobedience is going to look like.

"If you're one of those who have spent their lives undermining progressive climate legislation, bankrolling junk science, fueling spurious debates around false solutions, and cattle-prodding democratically-elected governments into submission, then hear this:
We know who you are. We know where you live. We know where you work. And we be many, but you be few.”

Cute, isn't it?

The left has appropriated all the best, most desirable words. "Green," what could be wrong with that? And "peace" is endorsed by 86 percent of the American people, according to the latest polls. No-one wants to be brown and in favor of war, right?

But I digress. This was not the point I wanted to make. Here it is:

I be American. I be native English speaker. I speak and write proper English. You be idiot.

Scary.

Woman demonstrates the virtues of the burka, which covers a lot of flaws.





Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1265883/Jane-Goldman-goes-grunge-glam-brings-Kick-Ass-Los-Angeles.html#ixzz0l5S8Q92D

She also demonstrates deplorable choices in children's names:

Goldman has been spending the week in LA with husband Jonathan Ross and the couple's three children Betty Kitten, 18, Harvey Kirby, 15, and Honey Kinny, 12.

In Hollywood, though, these names might actually show restraint.

Does anyone know what these are?

Weird plants at Longwood. They look like little people (sort of).

more Longwood pix

A couple of housekeeping issues

1.  All you foreigners who found my post a short history of the United States?  Don't take it seriously.  It's meant to be funny.  I would hate to think that someone in Bratislava or somewhere really takes it as gospel.

2.  To the two commenters whose comments I inadvertently deleted:  sorry.  They were really, really good comments.

Want a great job?

Work for the government.

Birthday cupcakes

Misty evening, different treatment

Flowers, Longwood Gardens, April 11, 2010

Sheep that shear themselves

No muss, no fuss.

Now if only the Democrats could apply this technology to  taxpayers.

Sarah Palin: latest television superstar?

Can Sarah Palin be the next Oprah?

I'm not the person to ask,as I would rather put lighted matches in my eyes than watch Oprah.

I did watch Sarah Palin's debut show on Fox, and I found it too treacly for my taste.  It was all sweetness and very little light.  Yes, there are some inspiring people in the US.  But I prefer more variety.  Let's have a few of us nasty people interviewed, for a refreshing change of pace.

I like Sarah Palin well enough.  I wish her well.  But I don't want to watch her.  To my mind she needs seasoning.  She needs a bit more polish and a little less gee whiz by golly.

Misty evening

Tillie the toiler shoes

Tillie the toiler

Tillie the Toiler was a comic strip that appeared in the Sunday comics many years ago.  I remember seeing it when I was a child.  Tillie was a working woman, a modern girl with a job and a boyfriend named Mac.  But what was fascinating to me was drawings like the above--a Tillie paper doll with clothes you could cut out and put on the doll, if you were a brain surgeon instead of a 5-year-old girl.

But I admired Tillie and especially loved her clothes.  She was the essence of chic. I couldn't wait to grow up and dress like her, with high heels and everything.

I recently bought a pair of shoes which would have done Tillie proud.

My daffodils

Poem by William Wordsworth

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought: For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils. William Wordsworth

Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Lake Isle Of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core. 

 

I've heard this set to music, but I don't know whose.

Naming cats

Archness seems to prevail in the naming of cats.

Krugman and his wife, Robin Wells, at home with their cats, Doris Lessing and Albert Einstein.

Is  this pretentious or not?  It depends whether the cats resemble Doris and Albert.  I'd have to see their picture to judge.

My own favorite cat was named Tobermory, after a cat in a story by Saki.  I believe Tobermory is a place in Scotland, too.  The first cat I ever had was named Cleo, shortly afterward changed to Cleopatra when she became pregnant.

An acquaintance named his cat Stokely, for reasons which will be obvious to older people.

You just can't trust people to come up with names for cats, can you?