*
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Don't say I didn't warn you...
Sophomoric, misogynist, yada yada but very funny if you can still laugh at yourself.
Actually there are two channels I am digging, Obscurest Vinyl and Unhinged Records, both barking up the same rancid tree.Then of course there is Vinyl Nightmares.More current events
Good article at the Harvard Crimson - How dare you re-interpret our religion for us.
*
Bruce sent this over - Cross-dresser makes children chant 'Free Palestine' during reading session at Massachusetts art center - even though Hamas tortures gays | Daily Mail Online
It raises an interesting point, especially when this is happening at the same time in Iran. CNN - Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to death for protesting.
Bit of a disconnect, you have to wonder if these left wing protesters have considered what their protest or sexual rights would be like in Iran or Gaza? Oh well.
*
HuffPo: Conservative SCOTUS Almost Entirely Ignores Pregnant Patients In Emergency Abortion Arguments
Amazing that Justice Alito believes that the rights of an unborn child or fetus trumps that of the mother to survive.
"Nobody is suggesting that the woman is not an individual," Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said after suggesting that an "unborn child" must take precedence over the pregnant woman in medical emergencies.
Wow.
*
Amazing that Bernie Sanders voted against Ukraine Aid. I could never stand the guy and now I like him even less.
*
Looks like the conservative SCOTUS justices are doing everything they can to slow walk Trumps legal issues and not allow any trials before the election. Total enablers.
*
Cool to see Mitch McConnell go after Tucker Carlson on his Russian butt smooching.
*
Kudos to Arizona Republican state representatives Matt Gress, Tim Dunn, and Justin Wilmeth for crossing over and joining Democrats in overturning the 1854 abortion ban. Took a lot of guts but the right thing to do.
Be Well Therapy
I may have mentioned this before but just in case I did not let me say it again.
Besides taking yoga classes next door to my shop at Sage Yoga, I have also started yoga at the Fallbrook Regional Health Care building on Mission Rd.
Be Well Therapy hosts yoga classes there for cancer survivors and their caregivers on a donation basis.
The class I attended on a Monday had an excellent teacher with a slightly different approach than the other yoga teachers I have encountered.
There were about eleven people in the class, which may have included one other man but was mostly women. We practiced a variety of stretches, asanas and salutations.
After the class I took it upon myself to ask my fellow students how many of them had experienced cancer. All but one raised their hand, the other was a caregiver. As we all know, caregivers can experience the same amount of stress and grief as the patient, if not more so. Everybody in the world has either had cancer or had a close friend or relative with cancer, it's just the way it is.
I told them my story, having been diagnosed at 25 and losing half my left kidney and undergoing a myriad of surgeries for bladder and ureter tumors.
My cancer returned twenty five years later and then three times after that, ending up stage four in the wall of my bladder as you know. I lost the rest of my kidney along the way. I believe that the cancer is in a stable state right now but it is still there. I get another biopsy next month.
I told my fellow classmates and survivors that I found the phrase "beat cancer" somewhat humorous. Most of us that have had it spend our lives looking over our shoulder waiting for it to return and it usually does in some way or another before it is over. We learn to live our lives more fully and to "buy time." Beat it? I don't like to say that. Hardly. I don't want to jinx anything.
It is because of the fullness that I have experienced of life's offerings and the relationships that I have maintained that I say that in many ways, as difficult as it has been at times, cancer has been a blessing, if that makes any sense. It taught me how to live.
I have always felt that part of my life's mission was to outreach to fellow survivors and help them in any way that I can, as I have been helped by others on my journey.
I appreciate Heidi and the folks at BeWell for having this resource at various locations around San Diego and Orange Counties. They have just celebrated a ten year anniversary. I look forward to my next class.
*
I went to see my G.P. up in Murrieta the other day. While we were waiting for the doctors to get back from lunch I talked with a woman who had obviously lost her hair and was also waiting to see someone.
I asked her what was going on and she told me that she had cancer, first diagnosed in 2020. It was now in various parts of her body, stomach, liver and lungs.
She had been shunted around by the medical system and no one had done anything. I fear that now it is too late. She told me that her doctors really didn't do a thing and now she is searching for a cure at the eleventh hour.
I told her one of my maxims: Never be afraid to fire your doctor if you are not receiving adequate medical care. You have one life. I fired a urologist I loved very much because he refused to look at the roots of my cancer problems and I subsequently became part of a research study at UCSD that bought me time.
Later we patched things up. But you can not afford to sit and do nothing. Life catches up with you fast. Get a second and third opinion and fight vigorously for your treatment and life. You will never get certainty and there are times you just have to make a move. Don't sit and do nothing. Eliminate the people from your life who stand between you and your recovery, if only temporarily.
I feel for this woman, she put her faith in the wrong doctor. You can not put all the burden on a medical professional, you have to be part of the equation. It is too much for any one to bear on their own. Save yourself.
I always say that the doctor patient relationship is like bacon and eggs in regards to relative commitment. The chicken has a certain level of commitment but the pig is all in. You, the cancer patient, are the pig on this platter. Fight.
If any of you ever get cancer or a life threatening disease and need to talk to somebody who has been there, I am always here for you.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Thomas Dolby - 'The Toadlickers'
Symmetry
Met an interesting fellow in front of my shop today. Bob asked if he could come in and look around, he has an interest in local Native American artifacts like the ones I carry in my window.
But the San Clemente native and surfer also collects rare palms and flowers and we know a lot of the same folks.
And he took this picture this morning of a hooded oriole in his aloe morlothii.Now why does that look so familiar?
Food stuff
I have had to go to San Diego a lot lately for medical tests. I try to stop for good asian food if I am driving past Convoy.
After my cystoscopy I stopped at Shan Xi Magic Kitchen and had a bowl of my favorite beef brisket soup with hand made and hand ripped wide noodles.
So delicious!
Shan Xi is one of my absolute favorites.
Anyway, my wife accompanied me down and we stopped at her favorite Chinese restaurant, Spicy City, on the way down.
Our friend Steve bought a gorgeous and gigantic Rookwood Valentien vase from me and he met us at the restaurant to pick it up.Beautiful iris glaze with a poppy.
Anyway he had never done Spicy City and we convinced him to order from the a la carte cold bar.
He followed our lead, ordered the homemade pickled cucumbers, bamboo shoots and smoked beef.
Usually we get the cumin lamb but wanted something different this time.
Everything was excellent.
Burned
I guess the story starts a few months ago. My wife discovered that I had scorched her favorite oven mitt, maybe given to her a beloved aunt or something like that. Soon it was my ass getting scorched. I admit that it was once a very pretty floral mitt that I had desecrated but it was still functional.
Doesn't matter, I was in trouble.
So I decided to go into mitigation mode and found her a couple new oven mitts on Amazon, in purple no less.
By Sunco. It says that they are even good to 400°. Whoopee! Don't believe me? Look:
*
The other night I cooked up a beautiful tri tip roast. My best dry rub yet, seared for a perfect crust. She had bought the prime roast at Frazer Farms in Vista. They get great beef.
I cooked the beef to an internal temperature of 135°, in a 350° oven.On with the show...
I am happy that my Blue Heron Gallery will be exhibiting for the first time next month at the Grass Valley Old West Show. Wish me luck!
I am also going to show at the Palos Verdes Antique Show at the end of May. It is the one held at the Episcopal Church. More on that later. I created this ad for the program today:
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Aloe Marlothii with Icterus cucullatus
People driving down Willow Glen these last few weeks have been treated to a beautiful aloe blooming.
I don't know the name of it but it has stickers in the pads and a gorgeous flower color.
I want one.
I took a shot of it this morning with my cell phone as I was driving by.
It's coloration matched the towering spikes perfectly!
*
I sent a picture to the nice folks at Serra Gardens and got this note back from Beth Newcomer:
Hi Robert!
Don says that has Aloe marlothii in it — but may be a hybrid. We no longer have those available, but you could try Rancho Soledad in Rancho Santa Fe, or Waterwise Botanicals in Bonsall.
Please let them know I referred you.
Beth
I am sure that the bird will not be included. Thanks, Beth. I am on the hunt!
Monday, April 22, 2024
Sunday, April 21, 2024
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Hmmm...
Blogger, the platform that my blog is posted on, is definitely acting weird today. I can't post or edit in either Chrome or Safari but I can in Firefox. I don't know if it is just me or platform wide?
Google has not paid any attention to Blogger since about 2015 and maybe they are putting it to bed. I would sure hate to lose everything...
Wonder if it could be something I said?
Ramble on Saturday
As anybody knows who reads the news, there have been some pretty nasty demonstrations breaking out across our land in support of the Palestinians, including rallies in both Dearborn, Michigan and New York where participants called for not only death to Israel but death to America.
In Michigan, the protest took place April 5 to mark Al-Quds Day, an annual event held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to express support for the Palestinian cause and condemnation of Israel.
Local activist Tarek Bazzi, who organized the Dearborn gathering, railed against “the United States government providing funds that allow the atrocities” and Israel’s “satanic actions.”
Chants calling for the destruction of both America and Israel were heard during Bazzi’s remarks.
Forget about Death to Israel or Death to the Jews for a moment and let's focus on Death to America. Personally I think anybody who utters such a chant, free speech rights notwithstanding, should get an immediate trip to the border and exit ticket, never to return.
You hate America so much, try being a woman in an Islamic country and see how you fare? Or a gay person. Their human rights record is so darn good over there.
The progressive squad is all up in arms over the suspension of the openly antisemitic Ihlan Omar's daughter from Barnard.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, criticized American universities on Thursday for responding to anti-Israel protests on campuses across the country where protesters have engaged in antisemitic behavior.
"From UM to Vanderbilt to USC to Columbia, students across our country are being retaliated against for using their constitutional rights to protest genocide. It’s appalling," Tlaib wrote on X in response to a post by Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.
Hirsi said she was suspended from New York City's Barnard College hours before being arrested and later released for protesting against Israel at Columbia University.
Hirsi is free to protest but not to fail to obey a lawful order to disperse. Do the crime, do the time. Sorry, no tears here for her. You people in Dearborn, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota who hate this country so much, why not get the fuck out? You will not be missed, I can assure you.
*
Of course, this anti Israel, anti semitic and anti American rhetoric is epidemic at college campuses across our country, where Jewish students are now demonized and persecuted and professors preach the most vile and hateful invective without punishment.
How did this round of bile begin? On October 7th, when Hamas operatives decided to kill a bunch of kids and old people, rape and behead and take 250 hostages. You never hear much about that anymore, do you? Israel was supposed to sit back and take the death of over 1200 people nonchalantly and then reward the terrorists with concessions for their perfidy.
There is an interesting opinion out this week by an older woman in the Bay Area, Opinion: I survived the Holocaust. What I see happening in Berkeley is frightening.
...since the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, the hatred towards Jews that I have seen in Berkeley terrifies me more than anything I have experienced while living here. I am still reeling from being called a liar at a Berkeley City Council meeting, where I asked for a proclamation to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day and spoke about October 7. The Jews at that meeting were circled and called “Zionist pigs” by menacing protesters.
It is incredibly painful to see my neighbors vilify Jews, tear down posters of Jewish hostages in Gaza and not believe Jewish rape victims. In this hotbed, hatred and hostility have become normalized. Families have moved their children out of public schools. Jewish businesses have been vandalized and boycotted. And lies about Jews and Israel have gone unchecked and unchallenged in our public forums. Our local Jewish community is both horrified and petrified.
Unfortunately, we can hear similar stories in Jewish communities and at college campuses throughout our nation today. My tribe is once more, under attack.
I was driving through San Francisco last week and I drove by a large Jewish temple. And my first thought was, how secure these people must feel to practice their religion out in the open, after massacres in synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway.
And I flashed on the Mandalorian Star Wars series, about a group who have survived their own holocaust and then hid their "coverts" in back alleys and sewers, cloaked and disguised. If they are discovered they have to move and re-establish in an entirely new and hidden location.
I see parallels to my people's existence. Dispersed by the Romans, then put in two hundred years of slavery by the Persians and Medans, banished from near every country in Europe, put through burning at the stake, the inquisition and finally the gas chamber. Is any idea of security merely illusory?
I was looking through some things I had written on a couple Y genetics boards I belong to that I will reprint here that fills in some detail about Jewish history:
I was in Spain a few years ago and remember reading that Toledo (Toletum) had a jewish population that dates back as far as 586 BCE. Tarshish, which is probably Spain, is spoken of in the biblical books of Ezekial, Obadiah and Jonah. The Council of Elviris segregated the jews from the Spanish population at large in 306 and then things started getting really nasty around the sixth century. I have no doubt that they had similar roots throughout Europe. Large numbers lived in Greece at least as far back as 300 BCE, many in Rhodes. In his Facta et dicta memorabilia, Valerius Maximus makes reference to Jews and Chaldaeans being expelled from Rome in 139 BCE for their "corrupting" influences. According to Wiki "As early as the middle of the 2nd century BC, the Jewish author of the third book of the Oracula Sibyllina, addressing the "chosen people," says: "Every land is full of thee and every sea." Croatia, second century, Switzerland, third and fourth, France, fifth and sixth. From Wiki again:Persecution of Jews in Europe begins with the presence of Jews in regions that later became known as the lands of Latin Christendom (c. 8th century CE) and modern Europe. Not only were Jewish Christians persecuted according to the New Testament, but also as a matter of historical fact anti-Jewish pogroms occurred not only in Jerusalem (325 CE), Persia (351 CE), Carthage (250 CE), Alexandria (415), but also in Italy (224 CE), Milan (379 CE) and Minorca (418 CE), Antioch (489), Daphne-Antioch (506), Ravenna (519), amongst other places. Hostility between Christians and Jews grew over the generations under Roman sovereignty and beyond; eventually forced conversion, property confiscation, synagogue burning, expulsion, stake burning, enslavement and outlawing of Jews—even whole Jewish communities—occurred countless times in the lands of Latin Christendom. In the Early Middle Ages persecution of Jews also continued in the lands of Latin Christendom. After the Visigoths converted from more tolerant non-trinitarian Arianism to stricter trinitarian Nicene Christianity of Rome, in 612 CE and again in 642 CE expulsions of all Jews were decreed in the Visigoth Empire.[26] The Catholic Merovingian dynasty decreed forced conversion for Jews in 582 and 629 CE. Under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toledo multiple persecutions (633, 653, 693) and stake burnings of Jews (638 CE) occurred; the Kingdom of Toledo followed up on this tradition in 1368, 1391, 1449, and 1486-1490 CE including forced conversions and mass murder, and there were rioting and a blood bath against the Jews of Toledo in 1212 CE. Jewish pogroms occurred in the Diocese of Clement (France 554 CE) and in the Diocese of Uzes (France 561 CE). Persecution of Jews in Europe increased in the High Middle Ages in the context of the Christian Crusades. In the First Crusade (1096) flourishing communities on the Rhine and the Danube were utterly destroyed; see German Crusade, 1096. In the Second Crusade (1147) the Jews in France were subject to frequent massacres. The Jews were also subjected to attacks by the Shepherds' Crusades of 1251 and 1320. The Crusades were followed by expulsions, including in, 1290, the banishing of all English Jews. In 1396, 100,000 Jews were expelled from France; and, in 1421 thousands were expelled from Austria. Many of the expelled Jews fled to Poland. Charting the diaspora is difficult across the span of time but if I had to guess I would say that with the clues we have been given regarding tmcra the most logical place to look for the forefathers of our cluster is Poland.
What do you feel is the 64 thousand dollar question regarding our group's particular origin story? For me it is where the members actually lived between the eighth and twelfth century of the common era. Denis Savard (what happened to you Denis?) used to postulate that we started in France. Due to the favorable treatment of Polish King Boleslaw III in the eleventh century, I find it more likely to be Poland. By the sixteenth century it is estimated that three quarters of the world's jewish population lived in Poland. My own family came from Plock, which had one of the earliest Polish populations of jews, starting around 1237. Jews were expelled from Alexandria in 415, Minorca, 418, by the Visigoths in 612, finished off in much of Europe in the Crusades in 1095 forward, Spain mid twelfth century, Bavaria 1276, 1290 in England, 1293 in France. Hungary 1360, Switzerland 1362. Poland looks like the only real port in the storm, the only place that granted at least a chance of survival and the most likely place for our ancestors to have frequented.
The dates of the earliest jewish emigration to Poland loosely dovetail with the emergence and mrca of this haplogroup. Plotsk was one of the oldest Jewish settlements in Poland with them being mentioned in literature as far back as 1237. At one time Poland, founded in 1025, was one of the most hospitable places in Europe for the diaspora. It would be interesting to me to see how many of you trace your origins to that general area. As an informational note, some general history on the subject of jews and Poland from Wiki: The first Jews arrived in the territory of modern Poland in the 10th century. Travelling along trade routes leading east to Kiev and Bukhara, Jewish merchants, known as Radhanites, crossed Silesia. One of them, a diplomat and merchant from the Moorish town of Tortosa in Spanish Al-Andalus, known by his Arabic name, Ibrahim ibn Yaqub, was the first chronicler to mention the Polish state ruled by Prince Mieszko I. In the summer of 965 or 966 Jacob made a trade and diplomatic journey from his native Toledo in Muslim Spain to the Holy Roman Empire and to Slavic countries. The first actual mention of Jews in Polish chronicles occurs in the 11th century. It appears that Jews were then living in Gniezno, at that time the capital of the Polish kingdom of the Piast dynasty. Among the first Jews to arrive in Poland (in 1097 or 1098) were those banished from Prague. The first permanent Jewish community is mentioned in 1085 by a Jewish scholar Jehuda ha-Kohen in the city of Przemyśl. The Radhanites are a very interesting people. Look them up. Early merchants and traders, they brought paper back from China and may have been instrumental in the conversion of the Khazars.
Probably way too much information than you are able or have the time to process and not really applicable to the thrust of this blogpost but you get the general idea. Our history has been one of intense pain and suffering and it is no wonder that we have serious trust issues regarding being able to live with our neighbors. Everybody deserves a homeland except, of course, the jews.
Yet we can trace our genetic ancestry back into the middle east as easily as any bedouin.Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie has expressed skepticism on additional criminal penalties. “I just don’t believe raising penalties is ever a deterrent on crime,” Heastie told reporters last month. Instead, he often says, government should focus on resolving root causes of crime.
Belgium’s euthanasia laws should cover elderly people who are “tired of life” or who feel they are a burden on the public purse, a health insurance chief has urged. Luc Van Gorp, 57, the president of the CM health fund, a Christian mutual insurance provider, said that the number of Belgians over 80 would double to 1.2 million by 2050.
“Many elderly people are tired of life. Why would you necessarily want to prolong such a life? Those people don’t want that themselves, and when it comes to budgets: it only costs the government money,” he told the Nieuwsblad newspaper. “We must remove the stigma.”
What a freaking world we live in. Completely adrift from our moorings. A world largely inhabited by idiots. A computer at everyone's fingertips and yet a people never so uninformed, manipulated and ignorant.
Happy Passover to those that celebrate.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Around the nation
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a law that prevents cities or counties from creating protections for workers who labor in the state's often extreme and dangerous heat.
Two million people in Florida, from construction to agriculture, work outside in often humid, blazing heat.
For years, many of them have asked for rules to protect them from heat: paid rest breaks, water, and access to shade when temperatures soar. After years of negotiations, such rules were on the agenda in Miami-Dade County, home to an estimated 300,000 outdoor workers.
But the new law, signed Thursday evening, blocks such protections from being implemented in cities and counties across the state.
*
First-term state Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Denham Springs, who sponsored the child labor measure and owns Smoothie King franchises across the Deep South, said he filed the bill in part because children want to work without having to take lunch breaks. He questioned why Louisiana has the requirement while other states where he owns Smoothie King locations, such as Mississippi, don't have them, and criticized people who have questioned the bill's purpose.
My favorite quote:
“The wording is ‘We’re here to harm children.’ Give me a break," he said. "These are young adults.”
*
Manufacturers and 24 states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday over the Biden administration’s decision to tighten limits on fine industrial particles, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution.
The state lawsuits are led by Republican attorneys general and argue that the E.P.A. overstepped its authority last month when it lowered the annual limits for fine particulate matter to nine micrograms per cubic meter of air, down from the current standard of 12 micrograms.
It was the first time in a decade that the E.P.A. had made it harder for power plants, factories and other polluting facilities to spew fine particulate matter. The tiny particles, known as PM 2.5 because they are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, can penetrate the lungs and bloodstream and increase the risk of heart disease, asthma and low birth weight.
Bruford - Annette Peacock
Back to the future, again.
The recent abortion decision by the Arizona Supreme Court to go back to an 1864 law enacted while it was still a territory was interesting.
The ban was first enacted in 1864 as part of the Howell Code — the original set of laws that governed the Arizona territory after Union soldiers gained control over the Confederacy during the Civil War.
“[E]very person who shall administer or cause to be administered or taken, any medicinal substances, or shall use or cause to be used any instruments whatever, with the intention· to procure the miscarriage of any woman then being with child, and shall be thereof duly convicted, shall be punished by imprisonment in the Territorial prison for a term not less than two years nor more than five years: Provided, that no physician shall be affected by the last clause of this section, who in the discharge of his professional duties deems it necessary to produce the miscarriage of any woman in order to save her life.”
“Physicians are now on notice that all abortions, except those necessary to save a woman’s life, are illegal,” the Arizona Supreme Court said in its recent decision, adding that additional criminal and regulatory sanctions may apply to abortions performed after 15 weeks, the state’s previous time limit for the procedure.
I decided to look into other laws from Arizona besides the obvious one where women were not allowed to vote.
- In Tucson, it’s illegal for women to wear pants, and for men to wear women’s dresses.
- If a woman became pregnant out of wedlock and had a miscarriage and then concealed it, she would go to jail for a year.
- In 1864, only “white male citizens” of the United States or Mexico who’d lived in the territory for six months were allowed to vote.
- Having “carnal knowledge of any female child under the age of ten years, either with or without her consent.” If she's ten years old or over, you are good to go.
- It is currently illegal to have a sleeping donkey in your bathtub after 7pm in Arizona.
- In Arizona, you can’t feed garbage to pigs.
- Spitting in public is prohibited on crosswalks, highways and sidewalks.
- More than six unrelated women cannot live together in Maricopa County.
- You can’t draw or paint or advertise on a flag. It’s also illegal to mutilate or perform any dishonorable act on a flag.
- You are allowed to challenge anyone to a street race.
- It is illegal for men and women over the age of 18 to have a missing tooth visible when smiling in Tombstone.
- It is illegal to hunt and kill camels.
- Any type of fortune telling, palmistry, or hypnotism is prohibited in Avondale.
- In the city of El Mirage, it is a misdemeanor infraction to hang a clothesline anywhere on a residential property.
- It’s illegal to intentionally trip an equine for the purpose of entertainment or sport.
- Arizona state law 13-3453 declares the creation, possession, or distribution of imitation cocaine as a Class 6 felony.
- No one is permitted to ride their horse up the stairs of the courthouse in Prescott, Arizona.
Weed Reprise
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Shrimp with oil cured olives, orzo and feta
I decided to cook a new entree tonight, a Greek dish, one I found on YouTube. I enjoy this guy's approach to food.Leslie brought home two lbs. of Argentine wild caught shrimp.
We thawed out about half. I cooked the dinner pretty much faithfully per the recipe, toasted the orzo in oil and then added the chicken broth.
Funnily enough, our chicken broth that we already had at home had less sodium than the low sodium stuff that he called for.
The only thing I did was omit the onion and add more garlic.
But I did add onion salt and a little more lemon juice than he suggested.
We used curly parsley instead of the flat Italian he advocated.
It was an excellent dish but we think we can improve upon it in the future.
It is definitely salty!We loved his use of baking soda to fatten the shrimp!
And the oil cured olives were delicious.
We cooked it in the Le Creuset French Oven I got from Bill and Carter, bless their hearts!
I also will cut down on the red pepper the next go.
But the positives really outweigh the negatives, the orzo really loves being cooked in the chicken broth.
Brought it to a boil, covered it and cooked it on low for 12 minutes.
Shrimp were cooked perfectly.
Might substitute goat cheese for feta in the future. Perhaps add artichoke hearts and sun dried tomatoes. Leslie thought about even adding pine nuts.
We paired it with a lovely red Zinfandel, Syrah blend called Seven Moons.
Very nice meal. Simple. Give it a try!And my wife taught me a new trick on using the tongs to squeeze the lemon.
Learning every day!
Billy Joel and Sting, Oy.
While I like Sting's work with the Police, I never jibed much with his solo work or his fatuous air of superiority. Billy Joel is just a prick. I have seen how he treats people, not pretty. Can't stand his music.
Melissa and I have a Sting story, we were backstage with him eating one night in Vegas. Very funny. Ask me sometime.
*
Dave asked me about seeing Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Would be fun but not at $275 a ticket. I can't have fun at these prices. The greatest show I ever say, Thick as a brick, cost me under four bucks.
Thomas Dolby is closer to $75. I would do that, he was so good last time.
I do believe that I am priced out of today's concerts. Like going to Disneyland, I would feel guilty if I didn't have enough fun or the music sucked. Dead and Company, please... rather eat soap.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
Go jump in a Kari Lake
Kari Lake, a top ally of Donald J. Trump who is running for a Senate seat in Arizona, called on her supporters on Sunday to arm themselves ahead of an “intense” period leading up to the election, urging them to “strap on a Glock,” referring to a brand of firearm.
“The next six months is going to be intense,” Ms. Lake said during a rally in Lake Havasu City. “We’re going to strap on our seatbelt. We’re going to put on our helmet — or your Kari Lake ball cap. We are going to put on the armor of God. And maybe strap on a Glock on the side of us just in case.”
The crowd roared its approval, and she continued, “You can put one here,” gesturing to the side of her hip, “and one in the back or one in the front. Whatever you guys decide. Because we’re not going to be the victims of crime. We’re not going to have our Second Amendment taken away. We’re certainly not going to have our First Amendment taken away by these tyrants.”
The Creator Has a Master Plan
Lucky Bob and Lucky Tom
It has been a whirlwind week. Lots of business, activity and driving. Leslie went to Dallas to visit her brother and her flight back Thursday was delayed. Didn't get home until near midnight.
I had dinner with Steve at a neighborhood place in Kensington and then drove to Coronado.I hung out at Chip's and listened to music while I waited for the plane to land.
Bitches Brew by Miles Davis was a near religious experience on his amazing sound system.
Thank you Steve, Chip and Celia!
Next day I drove to Oakland, had dinner and a great visit with Melissa and Gary.The next morning I got up at six, drove into the city and stopped by Big Dave's to have a quick scone-off. Saw Amy and Cassidy.
I brought my two day old cranberry blueberry with dried nectarines and walnuts, he countered with a very tasty lemon poppy.
Tie I think.
Drove over to a client's place in the Outer Sunset district afterwards, bought some incredible material.
Very happy.
Afterwards I drove to Burlingame to see Warmboe and Ann, then drove to Loughlins for a nice chat. Stopped by and saw Kerry too.
Left the city and drove to Sonoma. Bought more great stuff from Petteford and stayed with he and his wife Anne that night in Sebastopol after a terrific Peruvian meal together in Santa Rosa.
I took my leave Sunday morning, drove to Berkeley to see my friend Richard. He took me out to the Berkeley Country Club.
Talk about an outrageous view! What a wonderful golf course. We had lunch at his club and watched the Masters. Really nice. His wife Wanda Westberg is a great painter and I had never met her before. Like to sell a few of her pieces.
I left Berkeley and GPS took me past Tilden Park. So beautiful. How did I never know about this park before? Been going to Berkeley for 50 years. Incredible.
I headed over to Fresno to see my stepmother, Shela.
She gave me a beautiful painting of my fathers that I have always loved, 17th or 18th century Flemish. Might be egg tempera?
I left early yesterday and drove down after a stop in Bakersfield to see my pottery restorers. I bought a blue Natzler bowl that had a small rim chip and needed a touch of restoration. They have retired and are now only working for old clients. Wouldn't know what we would do without them.
Drove home, no traffic but a lot of miles. My right leg throbbed from all the accelerator pushing and frenetic schedule. I can't believe how many people I saw and deals I made in three days. But it all worked out perfectly. Crammed a lot of activity into a very limited amount of time. Left nothing on the table. Put it on my headstone.
And now I am back home. Yea!
*
Last week was tough for me. I was pissing blood, usually a sign for me that the cancer was back. I have a cystoscope scheduled for Friday. But I drove down to the hospital and got a test and was relieved this week that there were no malignant cells detected so I feel a heck of a lot better. I was really getting down and dark.
Now I think I will be alright. One day at a time.
*
Jeff's buddy sent him this shot from Fairbanks.
*
Tom's little dog got away in Rainbow yesterday.Actually it is his wife's dog. Ran away and disappeared.
Would not come back.
Tom, quite rightly, caught holy hell.
Today he went back to that property and the dog jumped in the car.
Very lucky, lots of critters out there to take out a little Bichon frise on a cold and lonely night.
Saved Tom a major ass kicking too.