Category: FYI

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“…doubt’s anodyne and care’s surcease… “

The snippet that is this post’s title? A Bartholomew Gill character speaking of fishing in Death On a Cold, Wild River. While I don’t find fishing to be “doubt’s anodyne and care’s surcease,” I do find some comfort in the volunteers of Spring to combat the barbaric nature of contemporary “civilization”. Notably,

Oh, I very much appreciate the delicious mint and wild garlic and even the “possum grapes” that thrust themselves to prominence in Spring, but the dandelion, one of God’s most beautiful flowers, delicious and nutritious, useful in all its parts*, is my favorite.

So, while wearing two knee braces on the same knee *heh* this a.m. (after dealing with some folks’ computer issues), I took a bucket out to sit on while “weeding” and gathered some mint and wild garlic and–for now–just appreciated my lovely crop of dandelions.

Our local cable service tech was out at our Good Neighbors’ place, and we exchanged uses for the dandelion. He told me of grandkids coming over and asking for “yard food”–he and his wife also harvest “volunteer crops” from their yard, and that gave me a foreshadowing of feeds for future grandkids of our own.

A nice lil interlude in the day.

* Continue reading ““…doubt’s anodyne and care’s surcease… “”

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Energy Star Award: Gasoline-Powered Alarm Clock

Seriously.

As Jerry Pournelle says (at the link),

“Now the government that approves an Energy Star Certificate for a gasoline powered alarm clock will now in essence take over administering the Health Care System in the United States. Good luck, America.”

Be sure to follow the link to the NYT article from the comments at Pournelle’s site.

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One of those minor disappointments in life…

…compounded by another, even more minor, but nearly as irritating. While reading along in a book by an author I have come to expect to be fairly literate, published by a company that has usually competent editors, I read, “Here, here” in a context that called for “Hear, hear.”

Now, I know that sort of phrase is subject to one of the common classes of typos, and I have even–momentarily–typed “Hear, here” before *heh-heh* 🙂 But really. *sigh* The author, one of the proof readers or the editor ought to have caught that.

(Sadly, this video, which ought to be a brief introduction to the differences between “here” and “hear”–as a way of leading into the etymology of the expression “Hear, hear”– contains a comma splice in the introduction to “here” that is inexcusable in a video purporting to be English instruction. *sigh*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5xDvkk-qxA)

A decent explanation of “Hear, hear!” is here, hear?

Of course, there is one small problem in the explanation linked above. It introduces another expression that most folks have just not bothered to understand: “exception that proves the rule”–;-) Perhaps a slightly better–for not having “exception that proves the rule”–explanation is here-here.

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This Is NOT JUST “Being PIcky”!

I utterly abhor the illiterate construction, “12:00 p.m.” used to refer to Noon. “P.M.” means “Post Meridian” and Noon IS the Meridian; it cannot be after itself. Now, there may be some weak argument for referring to Midnight as “12:00 a.m.” because in one sense it is “ante meridian” but since it is both the beginning of one day while also serving as the end of the previous day, Midnight is simply better. But there is no excuse under the Sun for “12:00 p.m.” to be used to refer to Noon. None. Anyone who uses it deserves 50 lashes with a sharp second hand.

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Goodbye, Old Friend

Buttons, Son&Heir’s medium-sized “some kind of herding dog/beagle mix” who, for most of his life weighed in at between 45 and 50 very lean pounds, at the ripe old age of seventeen(ish), finally “slipped the surly bonds of earth” yesterday, about noon.

Goodbye, buddy.

(Almost always a “happy dog” he appears to be squinting here because he is. Sun in his eyes and all that. 🙂 Photo taken about four years ago, just a couple of months after he nearly died from an infection–caught just in time to be turned around with very aggressive anti-biotic treatment.)

Although Buttons much preferred outdoor life–and was an exclusively outdoor dog for almost all the years he was with us, after we got him from his previous owners at age 2.5 yrs or so (they had kept him “crated” for about 23 hours/day. Should have been shot). This winter, he spent most of his time indoors, though–especially when temps were below freezing. The sudden slide downhill in the past couple of weeks–most of it in the last couple of days was not easy to watch. The vet agreed with me that he was at the end of the road, and that was that.

Yes, I cried a tad. So sue me for it.

Leashes and treats have already been doled out to The Good Neighbors for their dogs. I’m still waiting to see if they want a ton of dog food–canned and dry. Buttons was a sharing kinda guy. 🙂

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The Best Is Yet to Come

Lovely Daughter’s wedding is two weeks from today. She has made a mix CD of songs for the wedding reception afterwards, and one–“The Best Is Yet To Come” as sung by Michael Buble (nice, just, I dunno, a certain je ne sais quoi)–begged me to post a clip of this version of the song as performed by Frank Sinatra with Count Basie And His Orchestra on the album, Nothing But the Best. It’s barely more than 30 seconds–about what Amazon lets folks sample–so go pick up a 99 cent download for yourself.

[audio:The Best Is Yet To Come-Frank Sinatra-clip.mp3]
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Minor Improvements

Anyone recall the 2000 Census “long forms”? Nightmares for respondents and for Census workers, too, I should imagine.

There’s some small improvement in the Census questionnaire that is to begin being mailed out March 1. Only 10 questions, apparently. Download a pdf the Census Bureau has available for review here.

The only question I found really offensive was the question on race. Somehow, I suspect that if I checked “Some other race” and wrote in “Human” that I’d receive a visit asking for clarification… *heh* The phone number question? It’s not as though getting my phone number from a reverse directory is impossible, although in 2000 it would have been a problem (since we didn’t get “real” street addresses on my street until 2005 or so, IIRC).

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Typical January: Cold

15 years ago when we moved to America’s Third World County, we experienced a very, very cold January. Things warmed up a tad after that for several years, but three years ago, while Albore was loudly trumpeting his Anthropogenic Global Warming Con, we began once again experiencing genuinely cold Januaries (for those Anthropogenic Global Warming Cons, weather does that–change, you know).

This week, beginning the first full week of January 2010, temps have been consistently in the single digits at night, here in America’s Third World County, and the snow and ice on the country roads (and, heck, here in town) have made driving anywhere off the main highways treacherous–driving conditions have, in fact, been bad enough to delay restarting school here after Christmas break.

And so, although I’ve had some gigs and have a 50 mile (one way) on some not-the-best 2-lane highways on Friday for some more business, I’ve been able to–mainly–enjoy my Wonder Woman’s presence here at home this week, and she’s been able to rack up both some extra study time on her classwork and some extra sleep (it’s what winter’s for, you know :-)). It’s not the all-the-time togetherness that the ice storm of January 2007 was (when NO ONE was doing anything except simply surviving a 3-county-wide power outage in one-digit and sub-zero weather), but it’s nice.

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“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Which of the following definitions of “voluntary” applies to Harry Reid’s use of the term in the video below?

voluntary
3 entries found.
1voluntary (adjective)
2voluntary (noun)
voluntary muscle (noun)

Main Entry: 1vol·un·tary
Pronunciation: \?vä-l?n-?ter-?\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French voluntarie, from Latin voluntarius, from voluntas will, from velle to will, wish — more at will
Date: 14th century

1 : proceeding from the will or from one’s own choice or consent
2 : unconstrained by interference : self-determining
3 : done by design or intention : intentional [voluntary manslaughter]
4 : of, relating to, subject to, or regulated by the will [voluntary; voluntary behavior]
5 : having power of free choice
6 : provided or supported by voluntary action [a voluntary organization]
7 : acting or done of one’s own free will without valuable consideration or legal obligation

— vol·un·tar·i·ly adverb

— vol·un·tar·i·ness noun

synonyms voluntary, intentional, deliberate, willing mean done or brought about of one’s own will. voluntary implies freedom and spontaneity of choice or action without external compulsion . intentional stresses an awareness of an end to be achieved . deliberate implies full consciousness of the nature of one’s act and its consequences . willing implies a readiness and eagerness to accede to or anticipate the wishes of another .1

[audio:http://www.thirdworldcounty.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/thatword-f.mp3]

Exactly. None of those definitions in any way, shape, fashion or form reflects the system of income taxation that Harry Reid describes as “voluntary”. The system of income taxation that Harry Reid, Bag of Pus, NV, describes as “voluntary” has exactly NO correspondence to any meaning of the word. None. Zip. Zilch. A big zero with the rim kicked off.

I wonder if he’d testify that paying income tax is voluntary if he were subpoenaed to do so in a tax court. *heh* (For all the good it’d do. Past IRS commissioners have also called our system of income taxation voluntary, but that hasn’t stopped the IRS from forcibly seizing property and placing citizens in durance vile for opting out. Fumduck liars. )