Talk with you later...............

Just like that.....................

Joe Nichols.......................................The Impossible

Hmmmmm.............................

Contrary...............

"Too much consistency is as bad for the mind as it is for the body.  Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life.  The only completely consistent people are the dead."
-Aldous Huxley

Here be dragons....................

"The past is a foreign country:  they do things differently there."
-L. P. Hartley

Anticipation.................

Moral imperatives..............

Victor Davis Hanson questions the nature of 21st Century America.  He also suggests we have developed only the thinnest veneer of civilization.  Essay on Hanson by Emily Esfahani Smith is here.  Excerpt here:

Second, “Don’t have inflated expectations of human nature. Humans are not born, as Rousseau thought, as good people who need to be liberated. Rather, they need to be civilized. Thucydides knew that civilization was very thin. You need to preserve it. We are one blink away from savagery.” He sharpens his point by citing Occupy Wall Street. “Did you see all of the feces and debris on their campgrounds? Is this what 2,500 years of democratization and science have led to?

The Execupundit cherry-picked my favorite quote from the essay here.

Let them stand.................

               Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer

                                        XIII

Don't worry and fret about the crops.  After you have done all you can for them, let them stand in the weather on their own.

If the crop of any one year was all, a man would have to cut his throat every time it hailed.

But the real product of any year's work are the farmer's mind and the cropland itself.

If he raises a good crop at the cost of belittling himself and diminishing the ground, then he has gained nothing.  He will have to begin all over again the next spring, worse off than before.

Let him receive the season's increment into his mind.  Let him work it into the soil.

The finest growth that farmland can produce is a careful farmer.

Make the human race a better head.  Make the world a better piece of ground.

-Wendell Berry

and the fish won't bite.............

The Music Explosion.........................Little Bit O' Soul

Not the worst reason ever................

I love games................

So says Mme. Scherzo.  Her choice is here.  I'm guessing I can guess what book she was reading.  Here is the fifth sentence on the 52nd page of the book closest to me.  A huge "atta boy/atta girl" goes to anyone (other than Jeff) who can guess from whence it came.

     "He began peeling the red cellophane strip from the little package of crackers that came with his soup, looking at me, waiting."

For what it's worth:  The Oracle Google does not seem so sure this is actually "international book week."

Voice mail from................

But let's rely on them.....................

Tempting.......................

I thrash, how about you.................

Jonathan Fields suggests that "failure is only a failure when it doesn't move you forward."  He also suggests that we cut ourselves some slack if we are not perfect from the get-go.  Full post is here.  Excerpts here:

"So, here’s the interesting thing about the early days of any visionary journey, there’s a whole lot of thrashing that goes on.

"It needs to go on. But most visionaries don’t talk about that “dark” time. Because it’s not sexy. It doesn’t feel good or look good to others. Nor do the great creators tend to get any public attention until after the thrash yields a clear enough vision for them to become unwavering pulled toward a quest. The spotlight loves heroes and legends, not WTFs…"

"At some point in your journey, you’ve got to create a specific vision to hold in your mind and give you the intention and purpose, something for the Universe to respond to. But you also need to allow yourself the time to do a lot of tinkering, trying, experimenting and messing up in order to even get a sense of what the elements of a vision that is strong enough to fuel unwavering daily action are. And, here’s the scary part, that process can last for years."

Turning.............................

.....................molehills into mountains (in a good way) with Seth Godin - here.

Alison Krauss/Union Station..................My Poor Old Heart

Wait a minute.....................

Bill Cosby.......................................Drugs

You didn't build that.....................

........the government did.  And in this case, maybe they did.  WRM provides another one of those delightful stories about unintended consequence. Key excerpts here:

"One industry, however, has largely held the line so far against the online shopping revolution: clothing. Given the importance of a good fit, physical stores where customers have the opportunity to try on clothes before they buy them retain a significant leg up over their online counterparts.

"Online retailers are looking to break down this competitive advantage, and they’re using one of the more infamous new technologies out there: TSA body scanners. The scanners allow a potential customer to have his or her exact measurements and overall shape digitized and stored on file by a retailer. Computer algorithms can then match the scanned image to products that would be a good fit, or, if necessary, provide guidance for specially tailored clothes."

You gotta love the creativity of the free enterprise system.  Full post is here.

A question to start the day..............

thanks hugh

No cure............................

Daily..........................

"We are here to change the world with small acts of thoughtfulness done daily rather then with one great breakthrough."
-Rabbi Harold Kushner

Focus....................

"When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present...we experience heaven on earth."
-Sarah Ban Breathnach

Take a chance....................

The Orlons................................Wah-Watusi

Nevertheless...................

"Nevertheless, it is even harder for the average ape to believe 
that he has descended from man."
-H. L. Mencken

image courtesy of

Pay no attention....................

"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger
of taking educated people seriously."
-G. K. Chesterton

Cheerful pessimism........

     "American literary figures have tended to wear their ontological pessimism more cheerfully.  The playwright Tennessee Williams, for example, simply observed that 'a vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff nature replaces it with,' and then had another whiskey."
-Jim Holt, Why Does the World Exist?

By.....................

Yeow...............................

"So, the Federal Reserve continues to push out the date, currently 2015 and counting, at which they say they will wean the economy from ZIRP, and LIBOR remains surreally below a level at which banks might actually lend to each other. Given the alternative, however, who can blame the financial authorities? The only choice seems to be to hold our breath, and hope that no event or mistake causes the ping pong ball to fall on to the table full of mouse traps that now constitutes the global financial system:"
-Eugene Linden

thanks Yves

Don't............................

"Don't own so much clutter that you will be relieved to see your house catch fire."
-Wendell Berry

Theoretical...............

Clarke and Dawe.....................................Quantitative Easing



thanks craig

So glad..............................

Spencer Davis Group..........................Gimme Some Lovin

A glimmer..........................

Remember, we have some fabulous wooded building lots available (reasonably priced too)!

thanks Bill

More parades......................

The United Way Parade, marking the kick-off of the annual United Way fundraising campaign, made its way around the Square in Newark yesterday.  It was a beautiful day and fun was had by all.

The Pride of Newark.  The Wildcats' Marching Band
sounding good.

Your basic vintage fire truck

No fly-over, but still a jet

Our hard walking State Representative loves parades

County Commissioner Tim Bubb was happy the
 Buckeyes eked out a victory over Cal on Saturday.
Otherwise he might have needed to re-think his ride.

Our effective mayor enjoyed all he surveyed

Park National Bank, the local bank, and its mascot,
Parky, supports everything Newark

Some of my favorite Council people were all smiles

Inspires........................

       The Cow In Apple Time

Something inspires the only cow of late
To make no more of a wall than an open gate,
And think no more of wall-builders than fools.
Her face is flecked with pomace and she drools
A cider syrup. Having tasted fruit,
She scores a pasture withering to the root.
She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten
The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten.
She leaves them bitten when she has to fly.
She bellows on a knoll against the sky.
Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry.

-Robert Frost


image via

Hmmmmm.........................

The halt and the blind............

"Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind."
-Albert Einstein

Jetboy is soaring........................

and providing a history lesson as well.  If you savor music, travel
over to here.   For The Dixie Cups' version, without the history:

In touch..................

"All we know is nothing, we are merely crammed
waste-paper baskets, unless we are in touch with
that which laughs at all our knowing."
-D. H. Lawrence

Always be..................

Dave Clark 5..............................Bits and Pieces

Dance again....................

Dave Koz and Montell Jordan.................Careless Whisper

Penned..................

"You might as well expect the rivers to run backwards as that
any man who was born a free man should be contented when
 penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases."
-Chief Joseph



photo:  Smithsonian

Happy girl.......Dad was already proud..........

How little.......................

"Learn, my son, with how little wisdom the
world is governed."
-Pope Julius III