What up with that?

:)

The debate is not over I.D. itself, but how you debate I.D. types.

Brin is not pro-I.D., but he seems to be taking flak for suggesting the attitudes of scientists are partially to blame for I.D. making inroads.

Best to go to the source:

Part I:

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/01/supporters-of-science-must-adapt.html#comments

Part II:

http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/2006/01/supporters-of-science-must-adapt_22.html#comments

And in an unrelated note, there's a dsmvwllng entry in wikipedia now.

My Dad had a classmate at the Air Force Academy whose last name was Marvel. Why, yes, he did reach the rank of Captain.

However, the central verse of "Daydream Believer" contains the following lyrics:

Oh, and our good times start and end
Without dollar one to spend.
But how much, baby, do we really need?

Which is all about NOT making acquisitions!

But no, I'm not kidding. And I must say, if it had been me I would have retired right then and had my own letterhead printed up.

Tomato Growers

I want to pick out a few heritage tomatoes for next year. Now, if only I could find purple and pink carrots.

...A man who helped make famous the songs "YMCA" and "In the Navy" is still scheduled to be featured on the television show "America's Most Wanted," after failing to surrender in a San Mateo County courtroom today, according to San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe...

When I was growing up there was an optometrist named Glasser.

And my favorite law firm name, sighted when I lived in Albuquerque: Gresham and Lawless. Accident specialists.

(And the rhubarb seeds are from Kitchen Garden Seeds.)

Switching gears somewhat, I always got a kick out of knowing one of Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington's earliest piano teachers was named Mrs. Clinkscales.

Really.

But then, there's the problem with the general mormon doctrine and an untrained lay ministry - one bishop may believe that God created the earth from many planets, thereby explaining away fossil evidence and one may be willing to discuss Darwin. The GAs I think would prefer not to say anything definitve, so as not to look either like god-hating liberals to the fundies who already hate them, or like gallumphing ignoramuses to the rest of us.

I guess what I'm saying is that OSC can't use the Church as an excuse to believe the stupid, at least in this case; he's a dope in his own right.

Also, the headmaster at a friend's school was named Philip [Barrett?] and proudly displayed his qualifications from Oxford:

Philip Barrett, M.A. D.Phil. (Oxon).

So of course the kids called him "Mad Phil".

There's a Dr. Wimpy in our town. Also a Dr. Butt. In my childhood I knew a veterinarian named Dr. Bloodworth.

And not a doctor, but the Georgia State Patrol used to have a spokesman named Sgt. Killingworth, and yes, he did the announcements about how many people were expected to die on Georgia's highways on holiday weekends.

Not the ordinary foreign names like Draghina Drago Dragovitch*.

No, these are names like Manley Hyde. His middle name is Richard.

The one before that was Ebenezer O'Doom.

Also, Velvet Green.

I grew up with a tough name ["Sanford and Son" was on the air from age 3 to 7, in my life. I had an great-uncle Sanford whom everyone loved. Maybe it made me tough.] Also, in Junior High they will make fun of the name "John."

But for gawd's sake, people, "Bjorn Leader"? That's rough.

*There was a discussion of "how much do they like Vlad Dracul in Romania?" Apparently, THAT much.

In totally unrelated surfing:

http://www.whitedoom.com/Travis/drDoom2.html

There's also a psychiatrist in the area named Dr. Kook.

Dr. Dalbert Fear of Ypsilanti, MI, to be precise.

My dentist's alternate recommendation for an oral surgeon was his wife, who had compounded her name on marriage to become Dr. Awsome-Fear.

If you're accepting PhDs as well, consider the name of Dr. (Travis) Doom.

A well-off classmate of mine was Richard Stiff, called Rich.

That doesn't necessarily mean that evolution is compatible with Mormon doctrine. Your parents might well have been quite devout, yet disagreed with the Mormon Church over that point. It wouldn't be the first time those pesky free-thinkers had ideas of their own.

A little Googling uncovered this and that, which indicate that the matter isn't anywhere near as clear-cut as one might like.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/rhubarbvodka_65975.shtml

It was just right -- not too sweet, not too dry. I can't wait to make a much larger batch this year, as soon as rhubarb looks good in the greenmarket!

It takes all kinds.

(just being a trouble-maker--plus, I almost never get the chance to post first on Open Threads, and by chance, there it was, at 2:30 PM--and I couldn't think of anything else).

Well, it's late January, and time for me to dig out your recipe for bacon and egg soup!

PIE CRUST:

2 cups flour
1 cup butter
dash salt
dash baking powder
1/2 cup cold water

Mix ingredients in large bowl until dough forms. Roll out thin with rolling pin.

PIE FILLING:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
3 eggs, beaten
6 cups chopped rhubarb
2tbsp butter

Put ingredients into the pie shell, cover with remaining pastry, put a hole in the top to let out the steam. Bake at 375 degrees for 50-60 minutes.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Oddly, the guy who repaired my patellar tendon was Dr. Smith, as was my GP a little later.

I know the feeling. Gift Certificate Paralysis. Not a good thing.

I use my Amazon wish list to keep tabs of things not only that I want for myself, but that I intend to buy (or look up in the libarary). When I get a certificate (e.g., through Discover Card's money back deal) I have somewhere to start.

Dr. Roger Warlock

He was a member of the Savannah Historical Society and contributed to at least one major publication, a survey of Colonial and victorian architecture.

I want him to make flag rank. Then I will know a General Slaughter.

I bought three types of corn (all red. Hope Pink Flour Corn, Inca Flour Corn and one I forget). I don't know where Maia put them, or I'd better know. They have very different maturing dates, so I can plant them all at once.

I also got some peas, and one other thing. Some we can plant here, and the corn I will put in the ground at Maia's Mother's place, come early March.

Back in the early 90s, I was doing some research in Surinam, interviewing politicians. I passed up the chance -- because I interviewed the other deputy from his party -- to interview a person described by all and sundry as the most honest and upright man in Surinamese politics. His name: Frank Playfair. There's a degree of appropriateness there that I don't think can be equalled by any other politician in the world.

While this doesn't have anything to do with appropriateness, I should note that years ago the Jamaica Public Service Company (which is alleged to supply electricity in Jamaica) had an employee named Nathaniel Peck. The nameplate on his desk read: 'Mr N. Peck'.

So his kid brother's kids all know that Bob's their uncle.

I just ordered some seeds but mine are chocolate and candy-coated.

Actually, her name was Annie Laurie O'Leary, as I learned when I read her obituary. Her name does give a clue as to why my father used to claim he wanted a donkey named Maxwelton.

When we lived in southern California, the family dentist was Dr. Toothaker. I won't swear to the spelling; I was about 10 then and didn't make the appointments or sign the checks.

My gynecologist is Dr. Song. His name isn't funny in re his profession, but he's also the best tenor in St. Mary's choir.

I. John Lettsom
Bleeds, blisters, and sweats 'em
And if after that they please to die
I. John Lettsom.

I guess it is up to you to decide whether you, well, believe it or not.

Hopi Red Flour Corn
Inca Rainbow Sweet Corn
Mandan Red Flour Corn (this is supposed to be yellow as milk corn, and turns red as you let it dry).

The one I wanted to get was Stowell's Sweet Corn, of which it is purported the stalks can be pulled up, entire, and hung upside down, in a cool place, for some time, remaining ripe.

It's an Iriquois landrace, so it ought to do well in the Northeast.

With that name, I would have expected him to write porn, rather than sf.

my father's Dr. is Dr. Slaughter.
my wife had a chiropractor named Dr Tickle.
my brother-in-law had a plastic surgeon named Dr. Scarsella
my mother-in-law had a dentist named Dr Molar

i take it you didn't hear Vonnegut's interview on NPR's Mornign Edition this week (audio is probably available) ?

he's an ID proponent who's convinced that scientists just refuse to admit they don't believe (like everybody else knows) that humans are just too complex to have happened randomly.

there's an Air Force base in eastern NC called Seymour Johnson. it's on the way to Morehead City.

my wife and I have a song:

Get more head in Morehead City
See more johnson, too

sing it like an old-time country singer.

here's the sign that prompts our singing.

make that "...scientists just refuse to admit they really believe..."

My colleague's O.B. was Dr. Payne --

and a local Indian doctor is Dr. Doktor (as is his wife.)

Could someone explain the appeal of rhubarb? I've had it twice and both times went "urgh," but now I wonder what I'm missing.

There is a financial services firm headquartered in Boston (MA) named "Fiduciary Trust Company"

I just deposed an orthopedist named Dr. Ricketts two weeks ago.

One of the attorneys in my office is named Rusty Fallis.

A guy I went to law school with was named Dick Downey.

That's all I can remember at present.

He usually finished it off in a couple of days though it was so astringent that none of us girls (mom, my sis and I) would touch the thing. I personally don't think there's enough sweetness in any sugar to make it palatable, but he liked it.

and I love rhubarb pie (no strawberries that's just gross...).

No accounting for taste.

Fresh rhubarb dipped in sugar is good. There are milder, more tender varieties of rhubarb, too. When I was a kid we grew it in the garden, so I could snack on it all summer. I used to like it quite a lot.

Mind you, my mum says I used to drink vinegar until my lips turned white, too. I might not be the best judge.

Sandy B--on the subject of Vlad Tepes, am I the only person who's noticed the unnerving similarity between the best known painting of the count, and Yanni? Seriously. It would explain so much.

My home's high-speed internet connection is with Comcast. The modem is plugged into a LinkSys router, to which we plug our two laptops. Every once in a while, our internet access goes belly up, for reasons unknown, although the Comcast people are usually quick to blame the router instead of their own modem. I usually point out that their modems were unfortunately not designed for more than one connection, thus our not having much choice. They say that we should go wireless. After what happened these last few days, I'm sorely tempted. But I won't take their word for it.

Does anybody have that wireless setup? What does it entail? Do we have to install something inside the laptop so that it can be connected to the modem without a cable? Does that slow the response time appreciably if at all? Also, one of the router's purposes is to be a firewall. Once that's gone, are we leaving ourselves wide open?

It was years before I realized the apostrophe on the "Schoolcraft's" sign wasn't a mistake.

Regarding the famous painting of Vlad Dracula, most of the other existing paintings are copied from it; that's believed to be the only one he actually sat for.

Just a death date, nothing else. I'm pretty sure it's a human name.

Of course, they only played the first line of the chorus, which goes:

So don't delay act now supplies are running out
Allow, if you're still alive, six to eight years to arrive
And if you follow there may be a tomorrow
But if the offer is shun you might as well be walking on the sun

Another fun bit that didn't make it in the commercial:

It's just like any fad retracts before impact
And it's just like fashion it's a passion for the with it and hip
If ya got the goods they'll come and buy it just to stay in
The clique

Serge: Does your modem have wireless capability? Because otherwise that just means getting a wireless router, which I don't see improving the situation any, really.

We've got an almost identical setup here, which is Comcast->modem->wireless router. It's so far keeled over dead only once, in contrast to SBC DSL we had last year, where every month or so we'd have to call them and make them reset the connect on their side before it would work again.

Then again, we've got 12 people on this connection. And routers confuse me sometimes.

Maybe it's because I'm a computer programmer, but I keep thinking there HAS to be a catch somewhere.

However, shout out to all my fruit fly peeps. When it comes to alcohol studies, they invented the "inebriometer." That is, put a bunch of flies in a tube, pipe alcohol vapor through, and as they get drunk they fall off the sides, "titrating" themselves by susceptibilty.

Also, the fly people seem to have more fun. They get to come up with entertaining names for genes, like "groucho" for a gene that when mutated causes bushier bristle growing on the face. The mammalian genes are stuck with names like "receptor activated C kinase". Pfeh!

Drosophila got started out on the right foot by T.H. Morgan, who made the next major step in genetics after Gregor Mendel. I've heard tell that he said (and practiced!), "In order to truly understand an organism, you must eat it." Perhaps if there was to be genetic study of rhubarb, it would result in entertaining gene names.

Wireless routers, of course, can be their own can of worms, what with various wireless protocols and types of security encryption and stuff, but as long as your laptops have wireless it shouldn't be too hard to set up. And there hasn't been a noticeable slowdown wired to wireless that I've seen, though logically there should be at least a small one. I just haven't noticed it.

Just saw your second comment - the range, again, would depend on the wireless router (which will be wired to the modem, but depending on the length of your wire, not necessarily in the same place.)

Our cheap router does okay through two or three walls - when you try it down two floors, the signal gets a bit weaker, but you can still connect. I doubt you'd encounter many problems. (In fact, from our living room I can see wireless networks from 2-4 neighbors. Part of that is dense bay-area housing, but...)

I'm a computer programmer too, by trade (well, a student at the moment, but the idea is there) but I've had to get a crash course in the basics of this stuff because somehow all my housemates seem to think being able to program qualifies you to run the house network. Mrg. So, no annoyance at 'silly' questions whatsoever. :-)

We have a large two bedroom apartment, and the router is in the back; we can "reach" it anywhere. The catch is that somethings are hard for radio waves to get through--like a wall lined on bookcases.

The Wireless router, by the way, will likely also have a couple of Ethernet ports. I mostly see Windows users using Linksys. You run software that comes with the router, or sometimes, from your cable company, to set up the router. It's pretty straight forward fill in the blanks. You'll want to have information from your cable company ready--they may have a special password and ID, as well as specific suggestions for other settings.

You will also need to set up a password and ID to control admin access to the Router. Write these down someplace safe.

If you only have a few users, you could get the Apple Airport Express, which, while it is designed to connect to a stereo and allow you to wirelessly play music stored on your computer through your stero, also has a port for an Ethernet connection--you'd run a cable from your cable modem to the Airport Express. Up to ten people with wireless cards can connect to it at once, depending on the bandwidth/speed of your cable connection.

Security--there are two main standards--WEP, which is kind of safe, and WAP, which is better, but may not be supported by the wireless cards in your computer, if they're several years old.

It is also possible to set up a wireless router, or "point of presence," so that only those computers on a list can use it (computers have a unique number called a MAC address; the router "see" this).

And if you're using Windows, you might want to use Zone alarm as a firewall on your computer, or a similar product.

Are you free?
Are you really free?
Are you really really really really free?

The song, of course, is about Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate:

Roman, you're outgrowing me...
Roman, you're a mystery...
Roman, in your victory...
Roman, in your destiny...

Are you free, are you really free?
Are you really really really really free?
Is it you, is it me
Or is it simply history?
Are you free, are you really free?
Are you really really really really free?
Is it you, is it me
Or is it simply jealousy?

Sharon walks alone, azure white
Sharon gives her life for a night
Sharon floating, high up above
Sighing, crying, dying for love

(Chorus)

Life of money, life of sex
Life of honey, life of X
Little girls drinking, eating cupcakes
Glitter girls tease you - your greatest mistake

(Chorus)


Really makes you want to buy a Volkswagen, huh?

By the way, hello. In the last week I've been lurking backwards through several months of archives. This blog and its surrounding community seem to be a home for the kind of wonderful, witty, literate net-folk I haven't known since Usenet. And I found it all through Atlanta Nights. :-)

I recommend updating your LinkSys router to its latest firmware before you even think about replacing it. That may fix it for you.

However, if your router is old, and LinkSys isn't releasing new updates for it anymore, you might want to get a newer router, i.e. one with firmware that is getting regular maintenance these days. No, I can't make any recommendations without disclosing more about my day job than I want.

===================

I am completely and utterly disgusted that a fellow MIT alum is supporting Mr Alito for a seat on the Supreme Court. I was at MIT back in the days when there was still massive gender discrimination against women there, which situation was STILL in existence regarding tenure decisions, until very recently.

Mr Alito is yet another bigoted white Christian male supremacist whose attitudes are that women shouldn't have control over their own reproductive organs and insists that his religious beliefs be forces on those not of his creed. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is female--more than half the population of the US is female, and not Catholic, where is the "no taxation without representation" and equal protection for women in this country? Mr Alito seems to have never met a discrimination case he didn't rule in favor of rich white men and corporations for and against women and minorities and workers.

As a woman, and someone who had come close to having been raped, I have no use whatsoever for someone who appears to be trying to inflict his religion's official pronouncements what constitutes a family, about sexual intercourse, about birth control, about abortion, about the place of women in society, on everyone else in the country, regardless of their creed, values, and beliefs. I am not Catholic, I do not accept Catholic official policy on birth control and abortion and marriage--I am not married, have never been married, and consider it an abomination that some suppsoed-to-be-celibate male priest's values should be imposed on me, by Mr Alito, Mr Kennedy, Mr Scalia, and Mr Roberts. None of them have ever been threatened with an unwanted pregnancy and with rape that could result in a pregnancy--but they are very quick to rule that their views should be imposed on the women of the USA, be they Catholic, Protestant, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, Wiccan, atheist, Mormon, Presbyterian, Unitarian Universalist... Mr Alito does NOT respect separation of Church and State. He does not respect the Constitution and preventing the current occupant of the Oval Office from turning the USA into damned Christian totalitarian democracy....

I remember school prayer, and hated it. I don't want it back, ever, in public schools. I don't want to hear songs about Little Lord Jesus in the schools sung by the schoolchildren...

I spent six years in the USAF, commissioned as one of the first three women in ROTC at MIT. My reaction about the Christian religious proselytizing at the Air Force was fury; the presumption of the chain of command allowing that sectarian bigot seems to come straight down form the top of the US Executive Branch of government, along with the promotion of that Christian bigot Lt General Boykin, who SHOULD have been cashiered--but wasn't.

I am not anti-Christian, I am anti-evangelizing, and against imposing religion on the US population. I would feel the same way were there proselytizing Wiccans or Buddhists or whatever getting preferential treatment and seeking to impose their religion on the US population, demanding that their religious documents be on the walls of courts, and the laws of the USA be rearranged to comply with their religion's rule regard gender relations, marriage, etc.--polygamy is legal in Vietname and Tibet and much of the Islamic world, why is the USA so phobic about it? In the Bible, Jacob and Moses and David and Solomon, and Mohammed and a number of Roman emperors were polygamists, and it was legal during the time of Jesus for Jews, just what is the hangup about "marriage is between one man and one woman" anyway? Just how is same-gender marriage, or polygamy, going to invalidate American nuclear family marriage? Nobody advocating same gender marriage is calling for terminating heterosexual monogamy!

What is this that people like Alito feel so compelled to interfere with other people's private lives where the other people are consenting adults, and authorize spying on them? Don't the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights make it amply clear that "unreasonable search and seizure" and spying on people without warrants, and limiting "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" violate the basic

The "consent of the governed" is supposed to matter. I do NOT consent to the judgment of Alito, Clarence Thomas, Anton Scalia, and Kennedy, I do NOT accept that they are impartial and disinterested and put aside their personal religion's values and judge on the basis of the USA being a nation of people with diverse religions and lifestyles, as opposed to a rightwing fascist Christian theocracy. What would Jesus do? Jesus would not be banning abortion--go look up Jewish Halachic Law regarding pregnancy, if the life of the woman is threatened, abortion is almost mandatory, and that has been the situation since before the time of Jesus. Jesus would not be siding with corporations over workers. Etc.

I am appalled that you support Alito, a rightwing bigot, the type of bigot who helped keep women's presence at MIT in the student body and on the faculty to a tiny minority for decades, and prevented women from gaining tenure for the same level of quality of work and professional achievement as men, until very recently... go look up the reports of the status of women at MIT. And the bigotry is still around--the President of Harvard, who is a member of the same class at MIT as I am, is someone who obviously isn't impartial on the subject. Had I gone to the 30th reunion of my class--I was unemployed so I didn't, something about women being discrminated against STILL in technology, especially when it comes to getting hired in an economic downturn, and the older the woman, the worse it gets....--I was intending on tearing a virtual strip off his hide, if he were there also....

Anyway, I am VERY deeply disgusted, with the direction of the USA and ANYONE who advocates putting an extremist suppressor of women's rights, everyone else's rights, and the Constitution like Alito, on the Supreme Court of the USA.

I kept wondering if the former had a brother called Unseelye, and what, perchance, might transpire if that fellow was allowed into a courtroom . . .

By the way -- apologies for posting the full song lyrics earlier; I discovered that the one place they were available on the web was the Google cache of a long message board thread, and didn't want to bother making them linkable elsewhere.

I have to take my modem off my network and reset and reconfigure it about every two months. Keep a page with the whole routine near the modem. Reconfigure for a direct line from modem to a single computer before you call tech support, and don't tell the ISP that you even have a router in the same building. I was in a recent argument with one who insisted we couldn't proceed until I had reset my router even though the router had been removed from the cabling loop and was powered down. My issue? I had reset the modem and couldn't get into the configuration screen.

I used to go to school with a Wayne Scales, I don't know what he does now, but part of me hopes he's a market stall holder, or somesuch.

I friend of mine claimed to know a Chris Moss. I don't think he became a priest, though.

There should also be some law where by people with certain names should not be teachers, it only distracts the class. I had a teacher called Mr Beighton, where the Mr often was mispronounced Master, and a colleague swears that he had a headmaster called Mr Riddick.

Then bad posters on Hawaiian boards are disconsonant?

I just got the Edible Landscaping catalogue in the mail yesterday. The only part of it that fails to delight me is the number of plants that aren't hardy in Zone 6.

Inappropriate car ad songs: As a boomer, the ones I recognize feature instrumental intros to the Animals' "House of the Rising Sun" and one of the great Who songs (name escapes me at the moment) where the chorus howls about "Teenage wasteland/ It's a teenage wasteland!" More Who in yet another ad: "I can see for miles and miles...." Quite distracts me from whatever it is they're selling.

Nominative determinism: My mother's name is Marian and she works in a library part-time...

Please, no one google it, there's nothin' to see here, don't want no trouble . . .

Anyone have any suggestions? I have hundreds of seeds, but given their age if I can get even one to grow I'll feel particularly lucky...

Serge, a couple more points on wireless routers that I haven't seen specifically addressed:

Firstly, you need to find out if your laptops have internal wireless network capability. Many do, these days, but many still do not. USB or PCMCIA cards are readily available and relatively inexpensive, though, so that's probably not a major impediment.

Secondly, with regards to signal penetration through walls and whatnot, folks in most modern homes have few difficulties...but some older homes with plaster walls or other situations requiring a wire mesh (think chicken wire), may. It just so happens that a standard spacing used in chicken wire for construction purposes is of the right size to block the 2.4 GHz frequency that 802.11 wireless uses to transmit its network signal. Basically, plaster walls (not drywall) sometimes act like a Faraday cage and block the signal. You can also get interference from 2.4 GHz phones (get a 5.8 GHz phone instead), and from microwaves, which run at a similar frequency.

HTH!

Whoa.

(Speaking of The Who, what's with CSI shows using their songs as title music?)

Serge: Now, that I never did. But Granny Smiths (mildly sour, green apples) are among my favorites even now.

I found this note regarding Japanese Larch:

Larix kaempferi, Japanese Larch, zone = 4 , sow 2m @ 39ºF, move to 70ºF for germ.

Good luck

cleek: Vonnegut, I recall from a distance of 15 or 20 years, is a very strong opponent of "trying to make sense out of things". Finding out that he's an ID fan just confirms my stereotypes. . . ID people can believe in God, they just can't believe in anyone smarter than they are.

la di da, so it goes, the world doesn't make any sense, I'm an idiot and so are you.

On the other hand, one of my mom's doctors kept her maiden name so she wouldn't be Dr. Placenta.

Links: Just got finished posting the link to the Lego Knitting Machine Movie to the last open thread, unaware there'd been a new one.

OSC, Brin, and the like: One of my biggest disappointments in OSC's editorial was his assertion that "people who think that ID is just another iteration of Creationism are just silly! ID'ers aren't necessarily proposing that God is the designer! Nooooo!" thus proving that he didn't actually know much about the movement he was defending. Deep *SIGH* The folks at Pharyngula (a related blog?) have an interesting thread on the matter with links to many further interesting articles regarding the conundrum that is OSC.

Slack Nursing Home (Yes, Slack was the owner's name.)

Weak Storage (Used to be outside Omaha; presumably Weak was also a family name.)

Maximum Integrity Air Flight School. In their ads, they sometimes use the name MIA Flight School.

Even more off-topic: While living in the deep south, I noticed a tendency for wildly unrelated business ventures to be operating under the same moniker. My favorites: The Copy & Wig Shop (wigs on one side, photocopiers on the other), and Tire Service & Religious Gifts (a small alcove in the front of the store held Catholic statuary and 3-D pictures of Jesus; this made me wonder about the reliability of their tires).

The good news is that there's not a chance in hell he'll capture the nomination away from Perry, who is immensely and inexplicably popular. The fantasy news is that Strayhorn (who's been mentioned in these parts before) is running as an Independent, and could potentially split the vote. It probably won't be enough, but I'm still kind of hoping that my governor will be Kinky!

Jeffrey Smith: While vacationing in Hawaii and looking at road signs, it occurred to me that disemvowelled text in Hawaiian would be very hard to reconstitute. 7 consonants...

Then bad posters on Hawaiian boards are disconsonant?

Ouch.

"Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono"

would, disemvowelled, become

"m k k ʻn k pn"

Yeah, that would be completely unreadable.

Except that almost nobody in Hawaiʻi actually posts in the Hawaiian language; it's mostly English, albeit flavored with a generous helping of Hawaiian and other languages. This site offers some side-by-side texts in both Hawaiian and English for the curious.

Names: my dad has cousins named Harold and Alexander Weiner. Their nicknames are Harry and Sandy.

Incongruous business combinations: in the Pioneer Valley, Massachusetts, there's a famous and long-lived store called "Soda and Pet Food City".

And a standalone that bears the nameplate, "Bury & Bury."

Many, many years ago I knew a Noel Carroll. He was born on Dec. 25.

"Have food. Get gas."

*known to us as Oxymoronica Estates
**okay, you COULD have a Summit Lake if is was a caldera, but volcanoes seem kind of rare around here

My late mother-in-law always got a kick out of a freeway exit sign (I think it's still there) between here and San Franscisco. The sign is for a service station, but as you drive by it stands above a restaurant.

"Fast gas."

I don't know how I've gotten this far and missed out on strange and interesting names like those given above.

When my father used to publish a magazine I often helped him (especially in the early days) with mailing labels and such. I distinctly remember coming across a subscriber named Richard Floten, who happened to live on Island Drive.

fidelio, you're right of course. Last winter I ordered myself a ton of plants, and when they all showed up in the spring it was a significant project getting them all planted fast enough. I swore this year I'd pace myself (-:

there's a car wash on NC64 (outside of Siler City, IIRC) called "The Wet Spot".

The sign said "LONG FUNERAL SERVICE".

Sadly, it's now gone. (We do still have the East Cambridge "Live Poultry Fresh Killed" sign, however.)

Michelle K, as a frequenter of Hawai'i message boards, I can tell you that we usually converse in English or pidgin, but that doesn't rule out disconsonance.

Down by the State Capitol here in Austin, there's this great SpaceAge Moderne-style gas station that got taken over by the state as pumps for their propane-driven vehicles. The sign read "Compressed Natural Gas." Eventually the station was closed down, and a taco place rented out the space. The gas sign didn't come down for months ...

Disemvowelled text in Welsh, however ...

You'd have to take out the Ws and Ys also (seven vowels)!

Can I say for the record that Western Kentucky has some of the best-preserved pre-Victorian Anglo-Irish surnames I've ever seen? Think of the Hobbit surnames, like Proudfoot, only toss in some raunchier ones... Biggerstaff, anyone? Anyone?

I used to regularly drive past a farm that had a big sign advertising "Rabbits -- Live & Dressed." Try explaining to an excited little girl that they do not sell bunnies in cute costumes.

Given that the firm does not seem to employ anybody of either name, my suspicion is that they just made it up. But it sounds good. :)

Green and orange cauliflower, too... rainbow chard, purple and yellow pole beans, amaranth, sunflowers, purple shiso.

I keep extra rhubarb by chopping very finely, making a quick heavy syrup, and freezing it for "pink lemonade" mix.

The stand didn't last, but people still laugh about it.

Gee, I tipe gud.

"Hump."

I understand that it was taken down very quickly.

Strange company names: When I was driving to BWI to pick up Kip & family for Capclave last year, I passed a small building in Maryland that had a sign that said "Ballroom Boxing." Yes, just next to each other like that. I wish I'd had a camera with me.

Oddly enough, by all accounts, Harper, who's basically an introverted policy wonk, is far closer to Trudeau in personality than he is to Mulroney, who wass an extraverted schmoozer.

The same part of the world held a lady whose MARRIED name was Azalea Bush, and a combination bookstore and grave monument company.

Re: Rainbow Inca Sweet Corn--I've grown it; it's tiny but DELICIOUS. And beautiful.

Re: gene names--my favorite is sonic hedgehog.

Fidelio, re looking at seed catalogues in the winter: I now no longer have a garden (having moved to a lot forested with oaks) but I look at seed catalogs anyway. Tomato porn.

Rhubarb is wonderful, like most sour things. My mom made an apple-cranberry pie a couple of years ago, which she refuses to make again because it was too sour for her. I need to plague her for the recipe again. (But what do salted apples have to do with sourness?)

My laptop doesn't have built-in WiFi, so I have a Belkin USB WiFi adapter -- I have to say it's great, because you can move the adapter around on its cable if your reception is iffy right where you're sitting. The Belkin adapters are about $60 at your average OfficeMax/BestBuy kind of place, and you need one per machine if they don't already have built-in WiFi.

If your ComCast modem has WiFi built in, then it is in fact a router and performs the same firewall services that a standalone router does (probably -- mine does). And tech support will be less panicky if you don't have your own router attached, that's for sure.

Of course, the usual question here is, "How is this a problem?"

Yes, Rhubarb stalks are deeply astringent left to themselves. (And the leaves are outright poisonous, thus placing wild rhubarb in the "Do not eat!" section of the survival handbook).

Sprinkled liberally with sugar and baked into a pie or a crisp, however...

They're like sour cherries, as far as I'm concerned; they make Better pies than their nearest not-sour equivalents.

I'm of the opinion strawberry rhubarb pie is one of the best desserts out there. Colin would subtract the strawberry before he agreed.

I'm thinking that I need to go visit them again, since I'm starting to drool on my keyboard.

(Incidently, why do I never see frozen rhubarb in the grocery store? Everyone I know who has access to rhubarb freezes it, and no one ever has enough. Seems like it would be an obvious money maker.)

Perhaps some sort of mixed grill and salad.

"Pastor Al Counselor"

The newspaper that Herb Caen wrote for (the San Francisco Chronicle) published an interesting anti-Bush screed today (Wednesday) by Mark Morford: read it here.

Bourbon & bloodworms - two great tastes that taste great together.

My first thought was: I wonder if he's a relative of Pastor Al Dente?

Serge, when I was demonstrating searching on the Science Citation Index some years ago I did indeed find a Dr Frankenstein, author of a number of articles on neurology if I remember. And another Dr Frankenstein who was an economist, but somehow that surprised me less.

Returning to lurk

I've seen frozen rhubarb in the grocery store. It was short pieces, and I haven't looked lately.

Names: Back when we were trying to sell our first house, we had it listed with one Fireside Realty. They were a small, struggling realtor; so small and so struggling, in fact, that they ended up operating as Fireside Realty & Macrame before folding up completely.

Terry: TJ's had strawberry-flavored dried rhubarb a year or so back. It was actually quite good. Some sourced says rhubarb doesn't dehydrate, but I've seen instructions for doing it.

Here lies an honest lawyer, and that is Strange.

We have a Dr. Bonebrake in Madison who is an orthopedic surgeon.

My mom once filed an insurance claim for a Dr. Hardy Harhar.

Isn't that special? Ethics --behavior that provides some degree of integrity to our laws and institutions--is not "relevant".
Ok, we'll just ignore it then, as you suggest.
Or maybe not. Asshat.
froggermarch | 01.26.06

I have been craving some plant life on my balcony. There's a huge (5 ft tall, 4 ft wide) jade plant crammed into the corner of my apartment building next to the dumpster. Though it has burst through its pot, it's blooming beautifully. The landlord apparently has no plans to re-plant this thing, and I think has just been waiting for someone with superhuman strength to lob it into the dumpster. Before that happens, I'd like to maybe buy a bag of potting soil, some cheap pots, and take some cuttings.

Since I have never done anything like this before, and because of my proven inability to keep anything in the plant kingdom alive, I'd love some advice. I recently read an article in the Home section of the LA Times which implied that pretty much anyone could pick up a branch from a jade plant that had been knocked off the tree by a dog, and just magically plant it in the dirt and it would thrive. I suspect I could screw that up. So, is there a specific angle I need to cut the branch at? A particular kind of potting soil I should look for? A size of pot to avoid?

Jade, like Christmas cacti, take root really easily. The easiest way to start a new plant is to break off a leaf, and set that leaf on top of some moist potting soil. The leaf will dry out a little, but then should send out root feelers. Once it's rooted, just pay occasional attention to it. Occasionally--but only occasionally--this doesn't work. You know, because the leaf will look rotted. If you're not sure, it's probably okay.

You might even look in the base of the plant and see if you see any fallen leaves that look like they're putting out feelers, or have started to root themselves.

To take a cutting, simply break off a small section (try for a joint), stick it in moist potting soil, and keep an eye on it.

You can root cuttings of all sizes from a jade plant. You can root it in water or in dirt.

For dirt potting: Take pieces of any size you like, and place them in pots whose size matches the size of the cuttings. (If the cutting looks like you need a magnifying glass to find it, it's in too big a pot; if it looks like it's top-heavy and will fall over if you turn around too quickly near it, it's in too small a pot.) Keep the soil damp but not mucky-wet. After a couple of weeks, water when the soil is dry when you stick a finger in the dirt. Standard potting soil is fine; stick some small rocks or pieces of broken pottery in the bottom of larger pots to help drainage.

I'm serious about the cuttings of any size part; I've mostly rooted small bits from jade plants, but a friend once had a plant break when it was knocked over by a half-grown pup--the plant ended up in four pieces, plus some leaves, and she was able to root three of the four--the fourth suffered another dog-related encounter, with even worse results than the first one. I think she tried water rooting and then transplanting on two of them, and direct-to-soil planting on the other two.

Good grief! I didn't realize Rose of Sharon was edible! I can't kill that one, either.

Her parents must have liked suspenseful books.

Also relatively unkillable: mint, rosemary (can be huge but pruning it smells really good), basil, oregano, iris! I've got iris in a pot that is not only still alive but florishing. And it's green all year. Agapanthas (try dwarf) are also negligence resistant. Lavender. I'm one of those people who doesn't like the smell of plain lavender (I like it in blends), but I've got two pots of the stuff. I haven't been able to kill it yet.

Gene Wilder as the modern-day descendant of you-know-who.

Henry Hite, the world's tallest man
Kurt Shmoke, the mayor who wanted to legalize marijuana
White House spokesman Larry Speaks
John Wayne Bobbit

ERNEST F. DUH

Attorney at Law

I was asking after the Rainbow Inca Sweet Corn.

20 years ago, the Challenger exploded.

My balcony is on the south facing wall of the apartment, and so gets full L.A. sun nearly every day of the year. I'd love to put flowers out there, but some years we've had problems with flies and bees so I'm going to with plants with minimal blooms so I can enjoy reading on my balcony more often.

It looks like we'll be going with lots of succulents.

Now where to put the Jolly Roger?

Proudly on your mast, of course! How else will you strike fear into the hearts of those you are about to board and loot?

In the 11 years since I inherited mine from my mother, it's survived a drought-flood-drought pattern of watering and living on a balcony that got 10 minutes of sunlight a day, max. The only way I know it's not thoroughly happy is that I don't need to pull out a machete and hack it back by 50% every three months, the way Mom used to.

Whenever I can, I give rooted cuttings of this plant to friends -- just doing my part to help this plant take over the world. :-)

1. Make cuttings of jade plant.
2. Enclose balcony in hull
3. Erect main-mast; hoist Jolly Roger
4. Plunder house of Armenians next door. Or nearby Jr. High, whichever has better booty. Armenians probably have that awesome strong coffee, but Jr. High can provide bouncy red rubber balls.

Not a pretty mental image...

Yes. And later in the day, the entire sign had been turned off.

After many, many, many years of waiting, the E,L, and the M finally burned out all at once.

I get cranky when I see people wasting water on impractical and boring grass, when there are so many neat plants that will grow with little encouragment, even in this climate. Plus, lemon trees! I think those of us willing to not waste resources should be given a 50% discount on buying a house. You want lush grass? Fine. Go live somewhere that's not an arid desert. And don't get me started on backyard swimming pools.

Serge, we may only celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day once a year, but we should keep pirates in our hearts all year round, no matter what the secularists say. Booty be with you. (and also with you. Yarrrrrr!)

In other news, my favorite privateer, The Royaliste will be featured in a History channel program on pirates later this year. Huzzah!

Awr, awr, awr...

I'm shocked at this statement. I would never go younger than high-school seniors...when looking for the best booty.

Oh! You meant...

Never mind.

Yes, I'm kidding. Allergies suck.

It's a day-by-day account of Los Angeles in 1947 with a focus on true crime and architecture (that doesn't do it justice, but what the heck).

http://pfarley.livejournal.com/83684.html

" . . . if I had to choose a team based on nothing else but the semiotics of their respective logos, I'd have to go with the Steelers. No snarling, bestial caricatures on their helmet; their elegant, abstract logo consists of three hypocycloids representing the three materials used to produce steel (yellow for coal, orange for ore and blue for steel scrap.) The subtext of this logo couldn't be clearer: the Steelers' derive their strength not from brute-animal-muscle force, but from the power of human intellect, as expressed through science and industry!

(Holy shit, that sounded eerily like Ayn Rand.)"

Neiwert quotes at length from his friend Mike Hood who writes...

There's no question the ultra-religious Abramoff shares the racial and cultural imperiousness of his friend, spiritual mentor and business associate, Rabbi Lapin. Abramoff has had no compunction making millions cynically exploiting the ignorance and corruption (and by implication, the inferiority) of under-developed nations- from the American Indian tribes to the unregulated sweat shops of Saipan to black South Africans.

That Lapin hails from Apartheid-era South Africa where racism was strictly codified and staunchly defended with Christian arguments, we think, is more than of passing interest.

It was in South Africa that Abramoff began his friendship with the Lapin brothers.

This is the first I've heard anything about this angle of the Abramoff affair, and I confess it comes as a bit of a shock, even to me. (I'm pretty damned cynical.)

(Says the girl who should be writing code, not reading blogs.)

Googling around tells me that some folks think there are two pronunciations of the verb with a corresponding subtle difference in meaning (to PROtest in the streets vs. to proTEST one's gas bill). I don't get any sense of how universal this is... and even so, does that imply two pronunciations of "protester"?

Thoughts? Citations?

"Also, on a side note, i've been trying to track down the name/author of a story where these people are running out of oxygen in their solar-powered space suits on a small planet so they have to chase the sun as it sets to stay alive. I've been looking for the name of that story forever, I read it when i was a little kid. If you know, or if you have a good sci-fi network of people who might, maybe you could put the word out and see if anyone knows...???"

Anyone have a thought? The querent is a musician who just gave me permission to podcast one of the most powerful SFnal songs I've yet heard, so I really want to help him out.

JennR, I've found that the way to get the strings off the corn is to microwave the cob with the strings & husk and then both husk & strings come off easily.

I seem to recall our hosts finding an alternative to Technorati that got the thumbs up, but the search engine didn't return anything, and I couldn't find a link on the front page. (Although I could simply be linkblind.)

And the rest of us won't have to put up with an ODTAA, or maybe an ODTSWA, that can't be bothered to have a reality consultant and therefore has an Episcopal Bishop visit but not preach, and wear a mitre during the sermon. I'm not saying your reason wasn't the reason; just that it wasn't that great a show, and it's just possible that hardly anyone watched it.

You can also try Google Analytics, which is free and has some very nice reports. My only problem with it is that it's intended primarily for online marketing types, so you'll have to ignore a lot of stuff about "goal conversions" and other voodoo concepts.

I seem to recall our hosts finding an alternative to Technorati that got the thumbs up, but the search engine didn't return anything, and I couldn't find a link on the front page. (Although I could simply be linkblind.)

IIRC they were talking about IceRocket. I personally find IceRocket's interface annoying, and Technorati appears to have improved in the past few months so it's not as frustrating anymore, but it is there as an alternative.