Who's your daddy............................?

The Zombies............................................Time of the Season

Peace, Harmony & Serenity......

My Sweetie suggested I play hooky from work on Thursday and travel with her to nearby Gambier, Ohio.  The plan was to enjoy the one-weekend-a-year-open-house at the fabulous Schnormeier Gardens.  As plans go,  it was a pretty good one.  The air was warm and the sky was blue.  A perfect day for a pathless ramble.  Water, rocks and sculpture abound.  The oriental influence is immediately felt.  The co-creators, (and owners/residents) of the property, Ted and Ann Schnormeier, mingled with the guests, taking time to share and explain.  Nice people. A great experience.  Put it on your calendar for next year.

To celebrate their 50th anniversary in 2007, Ted and Ann had
Alan Cottrill create this scupture

The Japanese Garden House overlooks the five upper ponds
and the Serenity Garden

About the only selfie you will ever see me take

Draco Terribilis, a 1996 steel sculpture by Lou Ferrario, guards
the Chinese Cup garden

"Beginnings", one of a series of bronze sculptures by Charles J. Reina
along the Stream Garden, represents emerging bulbs in the spring.

Looked for Monet, but didn't see him at any of the four lily pad
friendly ponds in the Meadow Garden

A sedge of herons

"Affirmation of Rejection"  by a 2002 steel sculpture by
Michael Kenneth Smith

"Fat Man Dancing" (hey, I didn't name these things)  A 1999 steel
sculpture by Michael Kenneth Smith

"Reflections of a Past Tense"   Michael Kenneth Smith's
steel sculpture influenced by Rodin's The Thinker

Jiku      Silicone Bronze sculpture by Richard Mayer
designed by Ted Schnormeier

The Quarry

The Buddha

There is just something......................

.....................................................about that shirt.

On moderation......................

Again and again the Master would be
seen to discourage his disciples
from depending on him, for this
would prevent them from contacting
the inner Source.

He was often heard to say. "Three
things there are that when too close
are harmful, when too far are useless 
and are best kept a middle distance:
fire, the government, and the guru."

-Anthony de Mello,  One Minute Wisdom

On saving money.............................

It's important.   A gaunt piggy bank is not a good thing.

Feedthepig.org, a partnership between the American Institute of CPA's and the Ad Council, has been buying billboards ads that encourage all of us to save some money.  This is known as "a good thing."

Fifty years ago..............................

The Dave Clark Five..............................................Because

I don't know...........................

"It has long been said that the three hardest words to say in the English language are I love you.  We heartily disagree!   For most people, it is much harder to say I don't know.   That's a shame, for until you can admit what you don't yet know, it's virtually impossible to learn what you need to."
-as excerpted from Levitt and Dubner's Think Like A Freak

One of the things I like about........................

......summer is that Rob Firchau posts more often.  Do visit.

Coverage....................................

Joe Walsh..................................................Rosewood Bitters



Michael Stanley's original is here.  Apparently there is some Intertunnel controversy:  Did Walsh or Stanley write the song.  Our vote is with Stanley, but who knows?  Thanks Scott

On reason..............................

"So convenient a thing is it to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one had a mind to do."
-Benjamin Franklin

Now that school is out, let's spend the summer working on education reform. What...........? Oh. Never mind................

    "In our society, if someone wants to be a hairstylist or a kickboxer or a hunting guide - or a schoolteacher - he or she must be trained and licensed by a state agency.  No such requirement is necessary for parenthood.  Anyone with a set of reproductive organs is free to create a child, no questions asked, and raise them as they see fit, so long as there are no visible bruises - and then turn that child over to the school system so the teachers can work their magic.   Maybe we are asking too much of the schools and too little of our parents and kids?"

"In the U. S. push for education reform, theories abound as to the key factors:  school size, class size, administrative stability, money for technology, and yes, teacher skill."

"But a mountain of recent evidence suggests that teacher skill has less influence on a student's performance than a completely different set of factors:  namely, how much kids have learned from their parents, how hard they work at home, and whether parents have instilled an appetite for education."

-excerpts from Levitt and Dubner's Think Like A Freak

Priceless......................................

...................................................A list worth pondering.

Fifty years ago..............................

Lesley Gore...............................................You Don't Own Me

One of the greatest......................

Cultural Offering has the story - here

One great song is here

And today's for sale
And it's all you can afford

Be wary of "totalization"............................

"Utopians...consider individual freedom as the stumbling block on which the grandiose idea of mankind’s totalization may flounder."
-Thomas Molnar

Models...................................

     "Like many economists we believed that if our models did not describe the world, the fault lay with the world, not the model."
-John Kay, as excerpted from the preface to Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly

Hmmm.........................................

"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future."
-attributed to Niels Bohr

Nifty....................................

Dean Martin and Paul Lynde having some fun....................

A few of my favorite things....................

From Jeff:    "we're doomed"

From David:   Magic

From Doug:   Ideas

From Jonco:   Billions

From John:   Worst question

"In the name of good intentions, you began to do me harm."

Switchback..................................................Bamboozled