triticale - the wheat / rye guy

In The Meantime...

I'm having a weird problem here, with posts disappearing off the main page. Archives still work (at this moment the last few posts are in draft mode; that didn't fix anything) and I would be delighted if people poke around a bit.

Lots of good stuff out there I might yet comment on. For starters, Teresa is the first person I've noticed who actually looked at the Supreme Court ruling on the Child Online Protection Act. Most people seem to be taking it as a ruling on child pornography, but she explains how it is a ruling on online protection and why it is a good one.

At the time the legislation was first proposed, I worked with a fellow who figured that his sons would benefit more from learning how to find porn online than from following his example and shoplifting Playboys.

Hunter Update

Emrack was supposed to bring me a digital camera not available locally, but forgot repeatedly. Now he and Hunter are on the road, heading back to California where they first met. No more canine imagery for about a month.

In preparation for the road trip, we took Hunter to the vet and had her spayed. I suspect that this effected the smell of her urine and that she noticed it. Whenever I took her out after we brought her home, she was sniffing very attentively at every tree and fence post along our walk.

O M F G

That stands for Overly Massive Feline Giant. Four separate links there. When I saw the first picture at the first link (hat tip Mog) I thought it was a very small person holding the cat. but the other two images have enough familiar objects to allow scaling. That is a big cat. The last link? Digital scissors and digital rubber cement.

Eeme Meme Chili Beme

Publius started it, I found it via another Munuvian, and I'm passing it on partly because my sparsity of highlights relates to what I've said about the nature of my level of geekisme. It starts off with the AFI's list of 100 Top Movies, the ones you've seen get highlighted, and each person adds three at the bottom.

The movies for which I read the book have an asterisk in front of them, except for The Sound Of Music, which does not represent itself as the film version of the book which inspired it. By the way, I had the same introduction to reading education as Publius, and was never forgiven for it. That may explain why there are a few on the list which I read but never viewed.

Update:

The list has been moved to the extended entry, where I should have had it all along. It turns out that the list of top grossing movies is the hot meme instead of this one. I might yet do a seperate post on that one anyway.

1. CITIZEN KANE (1941)
2. CASABLANCA (1942)
3. THE GODFATHER (1972)
4. GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)
5. LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)
6. * THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939)
7. THE GRADUATE (1967)
8. ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)
9. SCHINDLER'S LIST (1993)
10. SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

11. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
12. SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)
13. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI (1957)
14. SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959)
15. STAR WARS (1977)
16. ALL ABOUT EVE (1950)
17. * THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951)
18. PSYCHO (1960)
19. CHINATOWN (1974)
20. * ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST (1975)
21. THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940)
22. * 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
23. * THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
24. RAGING BULL (1980)
25. E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982)
26. DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)
27. BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967)
28. APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)
29. MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939)
30. THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (1948)
31. ANNIE HALL (1977)
32. THE GODFATHER PART II (1974)
33. HIGH NOON (1952)
34. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD (1962)
35. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
36. MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
39. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965)
40. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
41. WEST SIDE STORY (1961)
42. REAR WINDOW (1954)
43. KING KONG (1933)
44. THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)
45. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE (1951)
46. * A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
47. TAXI DRIVER (1976)
48. JAWS (1975)
49. SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937)
50. BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
51. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940)
52. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953)
53. AMADEUS (1984)
54. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930)
55. THE SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
56. * M*A*S*H (1970)
57. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
58. FANTASIA (1940)
59. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
60. RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)
61. VERTIGO (1958)
62. TOOTSIE (1982)
63. STAGECOACH (1939)
64. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977)
65. THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
66. NETWORK (1976)
67. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
69. * SHANE (1953)
70. THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)
71. FORREST GUMP (1994)
72. BEN-HUR (1959)
73. WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939)
74. THE GOLD RUSH (1925)
75. DANCES WITH WOLVES (1990)
76. CITY LIGHTS (1931)
77. AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)
78. ROCKY (1976)
79. THE DEER HUNTER (1978)
80. THE WILD BUNCH (1969)
81. MODERN TIMES (1936)
82. GIANT (1956)
83. PLATOON (1986)
84. FARGO (1996)
85. DUCK SOUP (1933)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
87. * FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
88. EASY RIDER (1969)
89. PATTON (1970)
90. THE JAZZ SINGER (1927)
91. MY FAIR LADY (1964)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
93. THE APARTMENT (1960)
94. GOODFELLAS (1990)
95. PULP FICTION (1994)
96. THE SEARCHERS (1956)
97. BRINGING UP BABY (1938)
98. UNFORGIVEN (1992)
99. GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER (1967)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
101. THE CAINE MUTINY (1954)
102. METROPOLIS (1927)
103. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)
104. THE JOY-LUCK CLUB (1993)
105. SHREK (2001)
106. TRAINSPOTTING (1996)
107. THE ARMORED BATTLE CRUISER POTEMKIN (1925)
108. THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980)
109. THE GENERAL (1929)

Lawn Gawaited Hunter Images

Taken, of course, out on the lawn. Awaited long enough that I'm not holding to any presumed Friday optimality. This was my second try outside. Even on an overcast day her white and ivory fur overpowers my camera. Additional images will be posted after I get a new one.

I'm Not A G33K!

I subscribe to a mailing list made up mostly of people who met on a web forum and didn't quite fit in there. Topics range from personal issues to world politics to pets to science fiction. Most participants are self-acknowledged geeks, and most were disappointed at the percentage of geekiness they were accorded on the innergeek test.

I am so muchly a geek that at the last place of employment where I had a job description, it was specifically stated, per the plant manager, that if there was ever a requirement at the company that heads be bitten off of chickens it would be my responsibility to do so.

Now I find out that I can't claim to be a G33K, but only a G26.23274K. Even a mere total geek would keep track of all significant digits. The problem with the test is that entire segments require involvement with aspects, some of which I somehow missed completely, of popular culture in order to score a percentage of the degree of geekitude.

There was a provision at the end whereby one could add extra points for things outside their ken which I thought should count. There was no indication of how these would be weighted against the gaming and television stuff I couldn't relate to, but I chose to give myself two out of five. My assumption is that if if they only give one point for "collecting trains" they wouldn't be impressed that other model railroaders think I'm geeky for my choce of scale and prototype. There were references to H.P. Lovecraft, but no credit assigned for having met "le Comte d'Erlette" or having listened all the way thru The Music of Eric Zann as performed by Stephen Dickman.

Sometimes I encounter things online which do reassure me of my geekiness. I found this thru a link from a neocalvinist who reacted no doubt differently from me. I can't think of anything cooler than being one of the fabricators of the human dream's next REM cycle, or, in my case the objects therefrom. It would be hard to have to choose between that and a state of Grace, but I don't see how thye would be incompatible.

Heh! Heh! Heh!

Dean is correct in reporting that Jeff's right that James Taranto summed it up perfectly.

I chouldn't have said it better too.

Grainitude

While blogreading at work today, I noticed, on somebody's blogroll, the Whole Wheat Blogger. I figured, as one grain to another, that I ought to check it out, but I did not commit to memory where I found the link.

Turns out I owe someone a hat tip, because he has (at the current bottom of the page, no permalinks, scroll down) something important to point out. There is, as he says, a double standard among those who tell us that all of Islam should not be judged by al Qaeida (I don't think it should), yet all of the U.S. military should be judged by the handfull on the night shift at Abu Ghraib (it shouldn't either).

The Name Game

Pathetic Andrew has an interesting take on how much honor accrues thru the naming of existing streets, buildings, etc. after deceased notables. He is of course responding to the current interest in renaming this, that, and the other after the late President Reagan.

Here in Milwaukee, there is real historical significance linking the name of Father James Groppi to the 16th St. Viaduct, but with the Menomonee Valley which it bridges no longer a barrier, and with 16th street south of the Valley now Cesar Chavez Drive, people crossing the Groppi Bridge are indeed unlikely to ponder the good Father's efforts to improve the city.

Kidney Divey Too

Today is Bloomsday, in fact the 100th anniversary of the original Bloomsday. Sheila O'Malley has devoted the day to blogging about James Joyce and Leopold Bloom. Other bloggers have also touched on the subject.

As for myself I could never get into James Joyce's writing. Louis L'Amour, David Weber and Eleanora Robertson are more my speed. I am making myself a dish of kidneys for dinner tonite, after giving them a goodly bath of rinse water.

The Cure For Poverty

I have believed, since I first entered the workforce and was living pretty nearly hand to mouth, that the only cure for poverty is wealth. Giving money to people like the middle aged man I had to supervise when I was 22, who proclaimed that his motto was "The least G-ddamn work for the most G-ddamn money" and was sweeping a warehouse for just above minimum wage would at best treat the symptoms of poverty. Only in an economy so booming that only people like him are left to hire could enable him not to be impoverished.

I recently became involved in a debate wherein it was pointed out that the United States has an annual "trade deficit" with China of $124 Billion. After thinking about this for a while, I realised that what this actually means is that the U.S. economy produces so much wealth, is such a great engine of wealth creation, that we can have that much money come back from China as merchandise rather than reciprocal trade, to the benefit (on average; the greater good for the greater number) of the American consumer. It is not that different from saying that I am not suffering from a trade deficit of $4000 a year at the grocery if I can afford to buy the food I prefer for my household.

Further evidence of the U.S. economy's ability to create wealth is the news that "The US had the largest gain in the number of millionaires of any country." I have no doubt that the money flow which results from this wealth creation means an upturn in day labor opportunity for the current crop of skid row stumblebums.

Note that I have nothing against day labor. I worked that way myself for a time in my younger days, when I got laid off just a few weeks before I was to begin the trade school program which was my first major step up in the world. It's just that the people I sat alongside of in the hiring hall tended to be more like the man I heard say "If they don't call me for something I feel like doing I can always roll a drunk in the alley" than like myself.

Dog Blogging

Anyone who has interacted with a canine as we have been recently will find it interesting to work their way down thru Steve den Beste's latest essay to the part about the interaction between a parent and a pack animal.

Still no more images of Hunter. Weekends persist in being overcast. In the meantime, I assure you that the puppies in the extended entry are not mine.

Maybe They Are Right

The lefties claim that Bush is Hitler, and we have asked where the concentration camps are. Baldilocks has found a picture of the first escapee.

He Stopped Loving Her Today

My wee wifey called me at work this afternoon to ask me if I'd heard that Ray Charles had passed away. I had in fact seen the headline on the portal page for my web mail.

If I hadn't gotten the news, I would have figured it out when I turned on the car radio, and the country music station (not the hits and legends station but the hot new country station) was playing I Can't Stop Loving You.

Wups

There was a temporary issue on the mu.nu server, an urgent security patch that didn't work quite as expected and left things poigled for a while. Pixy responded promptly, but once he fixed it every one of my attempted uploads went thru. So, for those of you who saw seven of the previous post, it wasn't my fault. Except for resorting to brute force instead of trying to find out what was going on. Such is life in the blogosphere. At my previous big anonymous bloghost it would have taken more days to get fixed than it took hours here. Yay! (the official mu.nu cheer)

Rather Important

I disagree with Damian. Get your father out of the gears of the combine, throw a tourniquit around the stump to slow the bleeding, and only then should you go read this.

My family had it easier than Tonecluster's. Both sides left Eastern Europe for the U.S. before WWI started, and whatever pogroms they faced before that, the details were not passed down to us. The town my mother's family came from, a Jewish community in Belarus, no longer exists. The Nazis, real Nazis, plowed everything under so there is no sign that it ever existed, and the occupents, some of whom may well have been my relatives, were put to death.

What More Can I Say

I was thinking about how emmiserated I was when Carter was President, and how much better off I became, but I couldn't put it into words. Then I came upon this, in the comments here, and decided not to try.

"Rock," he said, "sometime when the team is up against it and the breaks are beating the boys, tell them to go out there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipper. I don't know where I'll be then, Rock," he said, "but I'll know about it and I'll be happy."

Rituals

Jeff and Roger have been blogging about the rituals they go thru to hide their rum behind a bunch of fooferaw. I will admit to making an occasional Bloody Mary, but this is done mostly so as not to waste the liquid which is drained off when my wee wifey makes her fresh pico de gallo. If my purpose is to drink booze, I pour a wee dram of whichever single malt suits my mood into a snifter.

Because of all the extra ritual which surrounds these guys' drinking, Howard was inspired to blog about all the extra ritual which used to surround the buying of pot in olden times. This extra fooferaw had faded by the time I began what is now thirty six years of on and off youthful experimentation, but I am reminded of a story my older sister told. In her day, she had a friend who was very much into the connecting, scoring, and ineffective exaggerated secrecy. There can be no doubt that this was all an act of rebellion. One day he came home early from a date, and caught his parents getting high. Totally turned him off to pot.

Smile

I would love to know what Kate was shopping for when she happened upon this particular auction.

Update:

Same question applies to The Cake Eater and this one.

Choices - Vehicles

This is the category where things really got interesting and diverse. I didn't foresee people going for aircraft rather than land vehicles, but if I had, my choice would be an absolute classic rather than a warbird. Even within the land vehicles, choices ranged from the sublime to the ridiculous, with the sublime (exotic sports cars) being the commonest choice.

One person went for a motortrike, which certainly is a summer vehicle. Again, I would take a different approach.

As for myself, this is my dream car. As a matter of fact, if it were our larger house we were keeping, or if the smaller one had a garage, I would in fact be ordering one after the upcoming sale. However, since the theme is absolute fantasy, I will put myself down for a '27 Delacourt, in the Coupe de Vitesse body style of course.

How My Mind Works

When I saw the Instanouncement that Merde in France had moved, Schiess in Germany really was my first thought.

I'm Right

Say Uncle has published a list of everything he has learned about online debate, and how to determine whether someone is right or wrong or right or left.

Zuppa maritata
Naples - Campania
Preparation - Medium
Serves 4 - 6

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground veal, pork or turkey
1/4 cup bread crumbs (commercial, or grate your own from stale Italian bread)
1 egg
1 T parsley, finely chopped
1/2 clove garlic, minced (optional)
1/2 tsp paprika (optional)
1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth
2 cups spinach, chopped
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
COMBINE the ground meat, bread crumbs, egg, parsley, minced garlic and salt and pepper in mixing bowl. Mix well with a fork and form into tiny meat balls (shown are about the size of a golf ball, but traditional meatballs are a bit smaller) with your hands.

PLACE meatballs on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 25 minutes at 350F, until brown. (Optionally, you can sauté the meatballs in olive oil until brown and procede with next paragraph, or bring your chicken stock to a boil, add the meatballs, simmer for about 25 minutes, add the spinach, cook until tender, stir in the cheese and serve)

ABOUT ten minutes before serving, bring the chicken broth to a boil, add the spinach and cook until tender. Add the meatballs and return soup to a simmer. Stir in the Pecorino cheese and serve.

ALTERNATE: you can sauté the meatballs in olive oil until brown and procede with step 3 (above), or bring your chicken stock to a low boil, add the uncooked meatballs, simmer for about 25 minutes, add the spinach, cook until tender, stir in the cheese and serve

Of course someone is goinng to point out that no Italian wedding will have 4 to 6 people attending it...

Like I Said

I have stated, in the comments on more than one blog, that hybrid cars cannot deliver their advertised fuel efficiency except under special circumstances. I ponted out the losses from the various energy conversions, and hadn't even considered that the losses multiplied, rather than added. Now it is coming out that real world experience of the buyers of these cars confirm my expectations.

Choices - Handguns

I've been staring at the list of handguns since the weekend, trying to think of a common theme. I really wanted to head this post with Blessed are the Peacemakers but only one person wanted a Colt Single Action Army, and that was to learn the western movie art of spinning the gun on the trigger finger. Other choices included historic oddities, modern exotica and the purely practical. Altho the S&W .500 and the equivalent from 100 years ago were included, there was not the same emphasis on extreme power as there was with the longarms.

One person selected a historic and sophisticated suppressed .22 simply because it would be handy for plinking (oddly enough, the same person who thought a belt-fed machine gun would be handy for cutting down the trees in his yard). I had the same idea, since I have a .22 rated bullet trap for the pellet gun shooting range on my third floor. My choice does not have the same cachet or elegance, being an inexpensive pistol with an inexpensive can rather than a contract built system with an integral suppressor. In the real world, my local law enforcement officials are known not to sign the necessary Federal paperwork, and my wanting approval of it so I can violate the local ordinance against firearm discharge will not be sufficient reason for them to do so.

Choices - Longarms

I'd love to play with all of these but not sure I'd want to keep them...

People who responded to my invitation to pick a longarm, handgun and vehicle extra for the summer got into the spirit I had in mind while going in different directions than I foresaw. The longarm category included a .22 target rifle (as challenging as anything else to shoot well) and some .30 caliber rifles, more or less military (yes, .303 British ammo is available, but it is a might expensive for plinking) but after one rifle in the intermediate chambering of 45-70 all the rest were .50 caliber (all Barretts) and above.

If bigger is the name of the game, there is a gun I've thought about playing with which will leave your .20 mm anti-tank gun, your medium and heavy machineguns and your Civil War cannon in the dust. I'm interested in the use of canister shot in the big guns of battleships as an anti-aircraft round. A salvo of that would have had interesting results at Pearl Harbor.

But that wasn't the longarm I had in mind for this summer. I am fascinated by rook rifles, the genteel single shot ancestor of the varming rifle. They were chambered either for the .22 centerfire rounds of the era or for rounds similar to those used in handguns. I've seen it reported that the standard 9 x 19 handgun round was originally developed as a rook rifle round. I'd like to build one for myself (disclaimer - I won't have enough machine shop this summer) chambered for the high-velocity 7.62 x 25 round used in the CZ52 pistols. Too bad the submachine gun parts kits from which I could scavenge a barrel have disappeared from the market.

One last thing. Teresa thought this was a good question, but doesn't know enough about guns to make a selection. Could some Chicago area gun blogger get in touch with her and take her to the range for an introductory session?