Flower Beds Into the Wee Orchard

I planted about 74 Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) in a 55-foot long bed outlined here with garden lime. 

Fifty Bee-balms and 10 Sedums get picked up tomorrow.

Stella D’Oro lilies and Coreopsis additions are planned, but await existing bed divisions.

What William Shatner Saw From Space

“I had a life-changing experience at 90 years old. I went to space, after decades of playing an iconic science-fiction character who was exploring the universe. I thought I would experience a deep connection with the immensity around us, a deep call for endless exploration.

"I was absolutely wrong. The strongest feeling, that dominated everything else by far, was the deepest grief that I had ever experienced. 

"I understood, in the clearest possible way, that we were living on a tiny oasis of life, surrounded by an immensity of death. I didn’t see infinite possibilities of worlds to explore, of adventures to have, or living creatures to connect with. I saw the deepest darkness I could have ever imagined, contrasting so starkly with the welcoming warmth of our nurturing home planet. 

“This was an immensely powerful awakening for me. It filled me with sadness.

“I realized that we had spent decades, if not centuries, being obsessed with looking away, with looking outside. I did my share in popularizing the idea that space was the final frontier. But I had to get to space to understand that Earth is and will stay our only home. And that we have been ravaging it, relentlessly, making it uninhabitable."

The Power of Comic Truth

War Poem by Lucas Jones

Two children were born in the desert somewhere. One is called Here and the other called There. And Here is okay. He’s pretty and kind. But There is a monster. He’s sick in his mind. Here has a dog and knows birds are for eating. There eats dogs, thinks birds are for keeping. So Here builds a city to protect his people. But the shadow is cast over There from the steeple that climbs from the church to protect Here from evil. And There says, ‘Listen, you’re blocking the sun.’ Here says, ‘You deserve it for all that you’ve done.’ So There throws a rope to topple the tower. And Here retaliates with extraordinary power. And Here rains down all the fire from hell and burns up the crop and dries up the well. There’s some confusion who’s defending themselves. And Here has some books about that on his shelf. But There has no pen and nobody to tell. If it reads black and white, then it’s usually red. And the living determine the truth of the dead. But There is also a feeling of being deceived. And Here’s an idea that you choose to believe in. Let me say that again— that you choose to believe in. Is soul determined by where it was born? Or the language it spoke? Or the skin that it’s worn? Or are we all just text in varying fonts— the same word imprinted with all the same wants. And safety and dreams of family trees and children and peace and honey and wheat. But Here has a promise it needs you to keep. Just kneel at his flag and he’ll give you the dream. Just promise you’ll fight whenever he needs, because There has to die for our living in peace. And it goes on like this for years and years. And Here says, ‘It’s okay, there’s nothing to fear.’ ‘Just do as I say’, ‘God’s guidance is clear.’ And when you get to heaven, I’ll be there… I mean here.

I Love It When a Plan Comes Together

I am happy to report that my soaker hose drip irrigation system is in, and working as planned. A miracle!

Ringneck Snake

This little fellow was curled up right where I am growing out ferns and assembling a soaker system for the wee orchard where flower beds of Black-eyed Susans and other flowers (such as Beebalm, Daylilies, Coreopsis, and Yarrow) will go in between the trees. Ringneck snakes remain this small.

Don’t Get Confused

On This Day In 1943: The Battle of Bamber Bridge

Read about the Battle of Bamber Bridge.

The Obama Presidential Center

These words are inscribed into the facade of the Barack Obama Presidential Center building.

My Little Friend

Willow found a toad this morning.  I persuaded her to leave it alone, but it reminded me of the time I flew to Boston to meet with Mark Kleiman, who was then the drug policy expert at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  

Mark had said extraordinarily nice things about a guide to eradicating street drug markets I wrote, but we had never met or even spoken.  

Time to correct that!

Mark and I got into it pretty quick.  

He loved what I’d written about alcohol, but thought I was a bit rough on marijuana.  

I averred that the psychotropic properties of reefer were not too alarming, but smoking the stuff in volume (something I knew a great deal about) was akin to beating your lungs with a stick twice a week.  

To be clear, this was in the era before chewables, when Zig Zag and plastic bongs were king.  The struggle was real.

I fell back to look for common ground with Mark.

“Let’s think about it on a Platonic scale of 1 to 100,” I suggested.  If we agreed that reefer was 4, what would he park at 100?

He paused, thinking about it.  “I don’t know… what do you think?”

“Marine toads,” I said.

“Marine toads,” he asked? “What….???”

He looked confused.

I explained.

“You fly to Florida.  Go to a golf course parking lot at night. Collect toads under the lights.  Shoot them through the head with a pellet gun — I recommend an expanding Crow round. Skin the toads using a hobby craft knife. Hang the skins on Eagle Claw snell fishing  hooks affixed to a frame in your empty freezer.  Wait 2 weeks so the skins are completely freeze-dried. Take the skins down, grind the skins up so the pieces are the size of red pepper flakes. Load them into a one-shot bowl, and fire them up with a butane lighter.”

He looked at me amazed.  

“You’ve done this!”

“Me? “ I asked?  “Hell no. Do you think I’m crazy?”

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of that story.  

Mark Kleiman is gone now, and I alone am left to tell the tale.

Putin’s New Hell

A joke that's supposedly making the rounds in Ukraine:

Putin dies and goes to hell. Due to good behavior, he's allowed a few days' vacation in Moscow. He orders a vodka in a bar and asks the bartender: "Does the Crimea actually belong to us?" Barkeeper: "Belongs to us." Putin: "And the Donbass? And Kyiv? Does that belong to us too?" Barkeeper: "Yes, it all belongs to us." Putin: "Perfect." Barkeeper: "That'll be 7 euros."

Sarah and Milo

A Bed of Ostrich Ferns

TODAY’S JOB WAS DIGGING through dirt and loose rock to create a wet bed for 18 native Ostrich Ferns.This was a dry shade location, so after excavation, I put down plastic and topped it with 100 feet of soaker hose, which tomorrow will be connected to a water timer.

These Ostrich Ferns will get quite big (four feet tall and three feet across is normal), and I will divide them in a year or two.  

Have I planted them too close? Probably, but my goal is a full bed in Year One.

The same water timer will be connected to a second hose and soaker system to go down the hill to water fruit trees and future flower beds. That project is next week.

Brass Against w/ Michael Cunio :: Immigrant Song

The Civilized Madness of Dogs

Dogs are truly maddening. 

Think about it. 

We call them "Man's Best Friend," but if any other friend pissed and crapped in the house, yelled loudly early in the morning, stole our food, humped our leg, ate poop, and then tried to kiss us, we would brick them in the head in short order. 

And yet with dogs we pay good money for veterinary care and fencing. We pay extra money so our houses will have yards that are big enough to accommodate them, and we let the dogs determine not only what time we get up in the morning, but how quickly we return home at night. 

If this is not the definition of madness, I don't know what it. 

If the big drug companies would make a pill to cure this, you know our spouses would buy it in bulk! 

So what is it about dogs? What is the hole in the soul that they seem to fill? And why does this infatuation with dogs seem to be an affectation of modern "Western" culture not shared the world over? 

What? Modern western culture? 

Yes, I got that right. 

Look around the world to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and you will find far fewer dogs in the kitchen or sleeping at the foot of the bed than you do in Europe or North America. 

Go through the Bible, and you will find little mention of dogs, and what is said is almost entirely negative. 

In Islam, keeping dogs as pets is prohibited, and if dog saliva touches your skin, that spot must be washed seven times. 

In many Asian countries, dogs are still treated as an occasional food item. 

Can any of this be a great surprise? 

Think about it.

Before we had sewage systems, fenced yards, and curb-side trash removal, dogs were seen -- on a daily basis -- as feral animals scavenging in dumps, plagued by fleas and ticks, and carrying the possibility of rabies.

Who wanted any of that? 

Yes, dogs might be kept as pets by the elite who could afford another mouth to feed, but the poor did not have pampered pets, did they? 

Yes, there were village and farm dogs to keep rodents at bay, and to hunt, herd, or ward off petty thieves, but these animals had very hard lives. 

Dog food? It was whatever bit of fatty meat, old bread, or kitchen scraps that could be poached or begged. 

A place to sleep? A porch, barn, or old barrel would do. 

The real heyday for dogs, then, has occurred in the last 300 years, and only in Europe, North America, and Australia. 

The driving force in the ascent of dogs has been rising incomes, a burgeoning middle class, increasing amounts of public services, and basic advances in health care. 

With the advent of a rabies vaccine, dogs have become less of a terror. 

With the rise of the middle class, more and more people had the financial means to acquire and feed dogs. 

With the start of organized bureaucracies came street-side refuse collection, and animal control officers. 

Feral dogs were no longer seen scouring the edges of dumps, and hydrophobia was no longer a pressing concern. 

A real breakthrough for dogs occurred about 130 years ago when really effective flea and tick preventatives came on to the market. Now dogs were starting to make it past the front door and into the parlor. 

The advent of fenced yards and dogs doors were real game-changers. 

Fenced suburban yards, meant every family could have their own dog without worrying about it running off, biting a neighbor, or getting pregnant. 

Dog doors -- a very recent phenomenon -- meant dogs were no longer out of sight in yard, garage or kennel -- they were right at our feet as we watched TV and ate our dinner. 

Is it any wonder the human-dog connection has become so strong in recent decades? 

Overlaying all of this, of course, has been an increasing sense of anomie in Western society as extended families have shattered into smaller units, people have become more mobile, and jobs have become more temporary. 

In this increasingly anonymous and less stable world, dogs have given many people the sense of connection and emotional stability they crave. 

And how could they not? 

To our dogs, we are never just one more face in the crowd, and we are never boring. 

After we come home from work, our spouse and friends are just as drained as we are. But the dog? He's bouncing out of his skin to see us. 

HELLO! So HAPPY to see you! You are the KING of my world. Let me give you a wet wiggly KISS! 

How could anyone say no? 

Dogs, it turns out, are like a universal spanner for the human psyche; they fit every type of nut. 

Are you feeling powerless at work? Has your teenager told you, that you are not the boss of him? 

No matter. With only a little training, your dog will return a ball, roll over, climb a ladder, or "speak" on command. You can be the boss of him! 

Are you new in town? 

Not a problem. Take your newly trained dog to the local park, and you will meet all kinds of people in short order. 

Are you without children? 

No worries. Your dog can be your "fur baby," and you will never need to save for college, or pay a weekly allowance. 

Do you long to be creative, but have no real talent? 

No problem. You can become a dog breeder. No talent is needed to do that, and not much knowledge. 

Feeling a bit common? 

Not a problem. You can get a Borzoi or some other exotic, rare or storied breed, and associate yourself with royalty, romance, or an intrepid lifestyle. 

Are you a frustrated hair dresser? 

Perfect! There are dozens of breeds for you, from Yorkies to Standard Poodles, and from Rough Collies to Gordon Setters. 

Do you long for a "sport" to call your own, but you are so out of shape you get winded reaching for a cigarette? 

Not a problem. Dog showing is for you! You can buy a dog, pay a groomer, and hire a "handler" to walk it around the ring. 

Do you need to get away from the family a few hours a week? 

Easily done. Get a hunting dog, and disappear into thickets and fields for hours at a time. 

Do you have trouble with communication? 

No problem. A human with a 500-word vocabulary is a veritable Shakespeare to a dog. 

And so we come, full circle, to the madness of dogs. It seems we put up with the difficult parts of dog ownership because we need the other things that dogs provide -- a sense of belonging, connection, communication, importance, and command. 

And so, at the end of our lives, many of us will look back and measure our life in dogs. 

We will not remember the names of the people we worked with, our neighbors from a decade earlier, or anyone we dated in grade school. 

But we will remember the names of every one of our dogs.

The Clown Narcissus

Grandson #2

Leo will be one year old in a month.

Moscow As Mordor

A strike on the Moscow Oil Refinery sent the roof of a fuel tank soaring into the air, with a massive fire erupting.  

This is just 10 miles from the Kremlin, and the refinery supplies 40 percent of Moscow’s fuel.

Last night 600+ long-range drones hit Moscow and other locations in Russia, wiping out gas and diesel storage facilities.

Moscow’s skyline is now filled with apocalyptic clouds of smoke. All Moscow airports are paralyzed, with 527 flights cancelled.

Moscow has a population of 12 million people, and this is where Putin will fall. The population has woken up to realize, after over one million Russian dead and wounded, they are losing the war, and Putin and the military cannot protect them.

Ukraine will produce 10 million drones this year, and could double that number if needed. The new long-range drones and Flamingo missiles are capable of hitting anywhere.  Rail lines into Crimea have been destroyed, and people are being told the Karsk bridge is the only exit back to Russia, but only while it stands.

Russia is losing 10,000 soldiers a week, and hundreds of weapons systems it cannot replace.

Russia's front line forces operate entirely on generators.  As Ukraine cuts off fuel supplies, Russia's front line electronics will die, leaving Russian forces blind.

The Religion of Dog Food

Whatever you feed your dog is fine with me, but there is no scientific evidence that what you are feeding is better than Purina Dog Chow, which is is 66 cents a pound, dry, and has been fed to dogs of all kinds for over 100 years.

Dog food is like religion and pedigree dogs: almost everything that is said is entirely made up, the fanatics are immune to evidence or reason, the sale is based on a combination of fear and vanity, and the goal of the purveyor is to make more money off folks who believe by faith alone.

American Error

THE AMERICAN ERA IS OVER.

THE AMERICAN ERROR IS TRUMP.

Purina Dog Chow In Antarctica

Purina Dog Chow was invented in 1926, and was originally cubed and sold as “Checkers”.

It was called “chow” after the “chow lines” that fueled American soldiers in World War I. 

The word “chow” originated in mid-19th century California, and is phonetic for the Cantonese term “chaau,” to fry or cook. Chinese laborers working on the transcontinental railroad popularized the term, and it eventually became US military slang for mess hall food.

The Chow Chow dog is named after the same word origin. The breed was first exhibited at London’s Crystal Palace Dog Show in 1878, where it was billed as a “Chinese Edible Dog”. That same year, a Chinese Edible Dog was also exhibited at the Westminster Dog Show in New York City.

In 1933-1935, Admiral Richard Byrd fed all 150 of his Antarctic Expedition husky-crosses Purina Dog Chow, at the recommendation of nutritionists at Massachusetts General Hospital whose dietetics researchers had been studying high-energy nutrition, vitamins, and protein requirements since 1910. 

Admiral Byrd reportedly said Purina Dog Chow was the finest dog food he had ever used.

Do you know who the lady is in that last picture? 

That’s four-time Iditarod champion Susan Butcher, who powered her teams to victory on Purina Pro Plan's HiPro dog food along with high-fat and high-protein meat broths. Purina Pro Plan's HiPro dog food was developed by sled dog expert Dr. Arleigh Reynolds — a senior Purina research scientist and musher and professor of clinical nutrition at the University of Alaska.

Growing Out Ferns and Black-eyed Susans

My late Fall planting project.  

Severed Root Ball From Trunk

A History of Pennsylvania Hawk Bounties

The Pennsylvania "Scalp Act" (1885) established a 50-cent bounty on all birds of prey.

The 1913 Weeks-McLean Law was a national law that prohibited people from hunting migratory birds during the spring when most birds nest and raise their young. The Weeks-McLean law also prohibited the import of wild bird feathers for use in women's fashion.

The 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or MBTA, is passed. This is a national U.S. law protecting a wide variety of listed native migratory birds from human activities. The MBTA has periodically expanded and reduced both the number of birds protected under the law and the scope of the law's protections. Specific hunted migratory birds, such as ducks, geese, and some cranes, are not protected under the MBTA, and initially neither were hawks, falcons, or eagles (many of which do not migrate beyond our borders).

In 1929, a five-dollar bounty was placed on Goshawks by Pennsylvania Game & Fish in an effort to protect game species that were sometimes preyed upon by Goshawks. $5 in 1929 is comparable to $98 today in inflation-adjusted dollars.

In 1933, Pennsylvania’s legislature officially repealed some hawk and owl bounties, but the bounty on Goshawks lasted until 1951. Full statewide protection for all Pennsylvania hawks did not come until 1969, and Great Horned Owls remained legally unprotected until 1972.

In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act. This act was expanded to include the golden eagle in 1962.

In 1972 all hawks, falcons, eagles, owls, and corvids across the US were finally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Dividing Crowded Flower Beds

Dividing Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) this morning. Some of these will get transplanted into the small orchard. Some of the smaller ones will be put into pots to get hand-watered as they grow out.

I will divide these Stella D’Oro Day Lilies in the Fall, and move the overage down near the small orchard.

Hen House Prowlers :: Gospels In Review

The Family That Scams Together

Both of their fathers are convicted felons.

If You Think the Fox Sporran Was a Problem

From >> https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-australian-boutique-is-selling-lingerie-with-real-taxidermied-rats-sewn-on-the-crotch/?

I Hope Europe Never Trusts the US Again

Does that title surprise you?

It shouldn’t.

Let me put that another way…. I hope Europe grows up.

** It’s time Europe fed itself.

** It’s time Europe defended itself.

** It’s time Europe switched to energy sources found within its own borders.

The US is no longer trust-worthy?

I’m OK with that, if it makes Europe grow up and pull its own weight.

For all of the horror of Donald Trump (and it’s a LOT), his idiocy is making the world grow up.

The world is moving to renewable energy faster than the world shed the horse for the car.

Ukraine has shown that the nature of war has changed, and that there is no reason for the US to subsidize the world through expensive overseas military bases and massive weapons systems.

Of course, there is still a certain amount of “Dunning-Kruger Economics” still going on — a studied unreality, if you will.  

And, to be clear, there’s *plenty* of that in the US too.

That said, some countries seem particularly weak when it comes to standing themselves up, even as they remain as prickly as a hothouse rose when asked to do so.

Take the UK.

As Newsweek recently noted,  

“When Brits are asked how wealthy the United Kingdom is compared with the United States, most believe the country still ranks near the top. In reality, the U.K. is poorer than every single U.S. state — something that comes as a shock to many when they learn the truth.”

Right. There’s a lot of reform needed in the UK, from farm to self-defense to the electrical grid. 

A lot of economic reform is long past due.  

That’s true in the US too. 

But the Brits are absolutely rolling in cash compared to Russia, where per capita GDP is less than one third that of the UK.

And yet Europe still thinks it needs America to defend itself against Russia?

Nope.

The good news — for all — is that sentiment is quickly falling away.

While some in Europe are still seething that they have had to stand up and pay for their own military defense it should, in fact, be proud that it is finally doing so.  

Yes, emancipation is painful, as every young person cut off from Mommy and Daddy’s credit card has learned, but it’s a necessary part of growing up.

European countries want to be at the Big Table with the grown ups? 

I assure you, they are most welcome.

But be sure to bring your wallet to the restaurant, as individual checks will be presented.

Welcome to adulthood. 

How ironic that it took the American diaper-wearing Orange Shit-Gibbon man-child to get us here.

Now, about Israel….. 

Why is the US paying for their national health care, when we don’t have our own?

Talk about a country that needs to grow up! 

 ** It’s time Israel fed itself.

** It’s time Israel defended itself.

** It’s time Israel switched to energy sources found within its own borders.

And Yes, it’s time Israel too learned to never trust the US again.

I can hardly  wait.

Basic Plotting

Cartoon by Ellis Rosen >> https://ellisrosen.com/

We Are Stardust

“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”  — Carl Sagan, Cosmos

The Trump Death Clock

Trump’s sand has run through the hour glass, and the beginning of the end is around the corner.

Yes, his health is shot, with visible lesions and carbuncles. 

His vanity hair medication can no longer be taken, because it interferes with his dementia medication. 

He’s taken numerous basic cognitive tests of the kind given to Alzheimer patients, which he thinks are IQ tests, which means he’s failing on both axis.

He has progressive heart failure, and has likely suffered at least one small stroke. 

He falls asleep in televised cabinet meetings, and his mind is so shot he cannot answer a simple question, tell a cogent story, or parse and string four related sentences together.  

But none of that is the end I am talking about.

Trump’s end is the end of the primary season.

Once the GOP primaries are over, Trump has no more cards to use. 

This is his last hand at his last game. 

Once the primaries are over, Trump can no longer credibly threaten or reward opponents or sycophants in his own party.

And his own party sees the end — both Trump’s, and their own if they continue to tie themselves to the mast of this sinking ship.

The writing on the wall in not hard to see; independents have run screaming from Trump, and even rural farmers are abandoning him as overseas markets disappear and fertilizer prices spike. 

The public cannot unsee the war, the gas prices, the jaw-dropping grocery store inflation, and levels of self-dealing and blatant economic and political corruption unseen since the days of Nero.

The GOP has become the pedophile protection party, the party willing to burn the Constitution and steal scores of billions from the wallets of taxpayers.

Epstein’s pedophilia and Trump’s protection of it , the crazy vanity projects, and the naked billion-dollar sell-outs to the Saudis, Israelis, and Russians are not hard to understand. 

Even low-information voters get that something is terribly, terribly wrong.

Even those who are proudly and defiantly racist, homophobic, and misogynist are embarrassed about the child raping, the 34 felony convictions, the tax frauds, and the billion dollar treasury thefts and foreign and corporate bribes.

Trump has pardoned serial murderers and the biggest drug dealers in the world.

It’s all too much, and it feels like nothing ever seen in anyone’s lifetime.

The shit show can no longer be ignored, denied, or papered over.

And the end of the primaries is right around the corner.

That’s means the end for Trump.

And Trump knows it.  He cannot afford to lose five votes in the House or Senate.

His end game now is simply to rob and run.  He now has no other agenda.

Never Fascist

Can You Hear Me Now?

Dunning-Kruger Economics

“When Brits are asked how wealthy the United Kingdom is compared with the United States, most believe the country still ranks near the top. In reality, the U.K. is poorer than every single U.S. state—something that comes as a shock to many when they learn the truth.” >> Source