Welcome to The Moose Pond! The Welcomings posts give the Moose, old and new, a place to visit and share words about the weather, life, the world at large and the small parts of Moosylvania that we each inhabit.
Welcomings will be posted at the start of each week (every Sunday morning). To find the posts, just bookmark this link and Voila! (which is Moose for “I found everyone!!”).
The format is simple: each day, the first moose to arrive on-line will post a comment welcoming the new day and complaining (or bragging!) about their weather. Or mentioning an interesting or thought provoking news item. Or simply checking in.
So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?
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NOTE: The comments page will now split off after 20 or so left-margin comments with the most recent comments on the current page. To see the older comments, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the link.
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Good morning, Motley Meese! The week begins …
It is 63 degrees in Madison WI, on its way up to 81. Thunderstorms are in the forecast.
What are you reading on the Internets these days?
Have a great day, all y’alls!!
Good morning Meese
Congrats to American Pharoah for the Triple Crown win and to his rider Victor Espinoza, for donating his prize money for pediatric cancer research.
Will be celebrating the birthday of my favorite poets today over at orange – Gwendolyn Brooks (who has joined the ancestors), and Nikki Giovanni, who is alive, well, teaching, writing and lecturing .
Bright sunny day here – yay!
I was laughing at the Twittering over the Triple Crown winner. Apparently some right-winger declared a few years ago that there would never be a Triple Crown winner until America came to its senses and removed President Obama from office, because of the bad karma from electing him, I guess. Oops, as they say.
It also shows how stupid people can look making unequivocal statements:
Oops!
I was reading an article about a study conducted that shows that people in power are quicker to call out injustice when harm is done to them. This is perhaps the source of Republican Butthurt Syndrome:
Indeed.
Speaking up … speaking out: “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”.
I’m sure wingnuts are perturbed that the winner is named Pharoah and owned by an Egyptian Jew :)
I find it delightful.
Am sure they will find a conspiracy there!
Denise, want to check your diary later–got to run some errands in a minute. Max Dashu had a wonderful photo of you with three other women on FB yesterday. It was when you were with the Young Lords.
Glad it’s sunny up there for a change!
Good morning, Meese. Heading for a sunny 73 here.
Thrilled by American Pharoah and his Triple Crown. Just fantastic.
Went to an exhibit yesterday of Japanese art focusing on cats. Hadn’t realized cats only reached Japan mid sixth century. They came on boats from China that had precious Buddhist manuscripts. Guess they were mousers protecting the manuscript. But, once in Japan, like cats everywhere, they found devotion and loving homes! They also became the subject of art, great and comic.
Much to do today but will check in to see how things are in Moosyviania.
Hope it’s a good day for the Pond and beyond,
Good morning Portlaw. Is you knee surgery happening this week? I’m sending healing wishes your way.
thanks for the wishes!!! It’s the beginning of next week and I have much to do before then! Thanks again.
I hope you get everything done. And good luck!
Thanks!
Portlaw, I didn’t know that about cats and Japan! All I know is the story of Dick Whittington and his cat. I love cats. Did you know that in ancient Egypt, when a household cat died, the owners shaved off their eyebrows in mourning?
It’s been a long time since a cat lived with me, though. I’m afraid Monty Beagle would eat the kitten if I tried to get one.
Good morning, 57 and sunny in Bellingham today. I finally visited my favorite garden shop yesterday, but I didn’t bring any plants home. I just couldn’t commit! Apparently I’m not ready to plan my container plantings yet, so I wandered around and enjoyed the garden someone else was tending and watering.
My rock garden project is slowly progressing though…..fine tuning and a birdbath rock will happen on Monday, and then I will start thinking about plants. Looks like I need to think about pruning too, as everything is growing fast now. I’ve been preoccupied with family and life the last few weeks last week so when I walked through the garden last night I was surprised.
Good morning, Moosekind! Partly cloudy and 71. F here at the moment, going up to 78 F. today. The breeze coming through my window is cool. Tonight we’re having a dinner that bfitz could actually eat—barbecued chicken, corn, salad with multicolored tomatoes (not mine, alas), and melon.
Yesterday I had kind of an El Gloom-oh lunch with two of my Circle Sisters. I was depressed because I wasn’t feeling well, owing to my cold; S. was depressed because she and P. had been to a “How to Downsize” meeting before they move to a retirement community, and she suddenly realized she would be entering the last phase of her life; and P. was depressed because two of her friends, one in Colorado and one in Arizona, are on the point of departing this life. It’s sad when one grows old and people die.
However, this morning I’m grinning from ear to ear because of the Triple Crown! What a race and what a horse! Going to get ready to watch the Formula I race in a little while but first have to dash out in search of more flowers. The crops in the garden are coming along—just hope today’s sun dries out the strawberry bed. Lots of the berries are waterlogged or mildewed because of those four days of rain.
Wishing a nice, peaceful Sunday for all!
So, I did “only” 2.4 miles, but o.m.g. hills:
TIME
START 7:08 a.m.
ACTIVE 1:10:24
TOTAL 1:11:33
ELEVATION
START 819 ft
MAX 933 ft
GAIN 387 ft
I had trouble standing at church – only 3 songs standing because communion but then communion. And now I’m having trouble staying awake. Church is showing Jesus Christ Superstar tonight, with popcorn & singing along. I want to go, but I also want to go to bed around 8:30.
Hopefully good afternoon Meeses. Never got warm enough for the A/C last night, never got cool enough to sleep. sigh. Actually it’s the humidity, of course. I can sleep quite nicely at 77F if it’s dry. The A/C is on right now – first time this year – which as far as I’m concerned makes it officially summer and I cleaned out my wood stove. Doing my weekly cooking was most uncomfortable.
Forgive me if this is inappropriate but below is a letter I wrote – published in the local newspaper in January 2008 (blame the word-count restriction for some of the strange phrasing) – and I’d like the Meese consensus. Should I update this and post it on GOS or not bother (because everybody’s already made up their minds and I really am not fond of being a target)? If it’s not appropriate to post my letters in the check-in diary just let me know and I won’t do it again. Thanks, bf
I’ve been reading and hearing a whole lot of rehashed Hillary Hate lately, making me – an Edwards supporter – take another look at Hillary. Which Hillary are they hating?
The Hillary who worked on the Nixon articles of impeachment? The Hillary who started the Legal Clinic while on faculty at UA Law School? The Hillary who did child advocacy cases free? The Hillary who helped make sure any student graduating from any high school in Arkansas had the coursework to attend any college in the country? The Hillary who introduced the Arkansas Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth (HIPPY), preparing rural and underprivileged 4-year-olds for school? The Hillary who, while on the Wal-Mart board 1986-92, convinced them to build the first “green” store (it’s in Lawrence, KS)? The Hillary who, having learned from bombing Universal Healthcare by using Arkansas ways (research and craft a plan for Bill to present to the legislature – Congress doesn’t work that way), worked with Ted Kennedy to create the original State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP, the renewal of which has now been twice Bush vetoed)? The Hillary who promoted funding and researching health problems in general, including Gulf War Syndrome? The Hillary who refused to “tone down” her remarks at the World Conference on Women at Beijing’s demand? The Hillary who investigated and confirmed 9/11 Syndrome? The Hillary who voted that’s it’s illegal for the President to attack Iran without Congressional consent? Surely they jest. This Hillary would get America back on the right track.
It’s a wonderful letter, bfitz, and yes, if you post it at GOS you will become a target. But post it anyway! If you’ll let me know when you post I’ll run by and rec it. It’s time the GOS found out that some of us like and respect Hillary.
I don’t give a rodent’s posterior about her vote for the Iraq war. That was then, this is now. If no one ever forgave me for my mistakes I’d have been in the stocks for nigh on forty years.
Thanks and will do. I do want to update this one a little (the last one I just posted as it published) – rephrase some of those awkward sentences that were a result of the newspaper word limit at the very least – and add a few of her SoS things which I’d like some help on. Aside from her being very instrumental in at least muting the “Ugly American” attitude W rubbed the world’s nose in, I really wasn’t paying a lot of attention at the time being more focused on my J.P. duties locally.
You have committed no faux pas by posting that here. This is a bunch of friends chatting over coffee and we chat about what is important to us.
It is a good letter and really a good reminder that we make lots of decisions in life … some are good and some are bad. I read Smartypants’ blog (I am on her blog post list) and she is a pretty strong Obamabot and hesitant about getting on the Hillary bandwagon. She said that Hillary satisfied her on every one of her concerns except one: she is not sure about her foreign policy positions. Hillary has a difficult balancing act there because of her gender: are women tough enough to order military action? Well, in my mind the best way for her to make the case for herself is to separate from the Bomb Bomb Iran (and now the re-invade Iraq) crowd. You do that by continuing the Obama Doctrine “Don’t Do Stupid Stuff”.
Here is an excellent article from Katha Pollitt at The Nation (no corporate “sellout” is she) telling feminists why they need to vote for Hillary: Why I’m Ready—and Excited—for Hillary .
This is good. I’ll never understand why the Obamabots stayed anti-Hillary after the speech she made at the 2008 Dem Convention. All the way up to that time, while I knew better having had them as the “First Couple” of AR, they were saying the Clintons would destroy the Party yadda, yadda and sort of had an excuse, but afterwards? Come on. The woman threw the entire might of the Clinton everything behind Obama. But that’s neither here nor there. When I get a minute (we’ve just started working on Spring 2016 class schedule, I’m supposed to be doing the Annual Report, and I have a training session I’d forgotten about starting in 30 minutes) I will read the Pollitt article for a few updates to add to the letter before making it a diary on GOS. Thanks, bf
The Pollitt article has some explanations about the hesitancy. I know that Black Twitter is still upset over Bill Clinton’s attack on Obama in South Carolina and many feminists have to get over their personal dislike of Bill (she calls it the ick factor – I have it too, I am not fond of men who cheat on their wives).
The article didn’t really help with what I’m looking for but it was interesting. I’m not particularly fond of men who cheat on their wives – or vise versa – but if there is anything in this world that is Hillary and Bill’s business and not mine, that’s got to be it. Sometimes women seem to be their own worst enemies when it comes to women’s progress in practically anything. Hold up a shining example of a strong woman who has been successful in fields dominated by men and instead of being backed to the max she is attacked by other women. I can understand the male attackers – they feel threatened. I have never understood the female attackers.
I actually disagree about the adultery especially since it took place in the White House. It stopped being “private matter between husband and wife” when that happened. And his inability to keep it zipped made it difficult for Al Gore to run on the Clinton accomplishments and made the 2000 election close enough to steal. The George W. Bush years were not just awful, the terrible things done during the Bush/Cheney Administration are harming our country to this day.
(Technically it may be none of my business but that doesn’t make the “ick” go away!)
Nice thing about being Libruls is the ability to disagree without being disagreeable. I always remember that most of the accusations aimed at Bill and Hillary are lies. Totally made up as part of the “Arkansas Project” originally designed to keep Bill out of the White House and then to get him out of the White House before he served out 2 terms. I looked at it as a man in mid-life crisis (how the heck do you top President of the United States?) wide open for entrapment being trapped.
What Bill cannot be blamed for – when you consider just how high Bill’s popularity was at the time – is the Gore campaign decision to distance themselves from him. The Gore people were very naive – Al was playing to the strengths he had compared to the attacks made on Bill apparently not realizing that anything that could be applied to W that Bill had been attacked on didn’t count any longer. Al never understood that secret media rule IOKIYAR, whatever “it” happens to be.
Never disagreeable!
Good morning, meese! Monday … arg!!! I needed more weekend.
It is 64 degrees in Madison on its way up to 78. Afternoon thunderstorms are in the forecast.
Again! How the heck are they training cops??! Now they are chasing kids at a pool party with guns, grabbing a 15 year old girl by the hair, knocking her to the ground, and then sitting on her. How is that not assault? I started crying when the poor girl who was being assaulted (at 3:00 into video) cried out “call my mama … call my mama”. That could happen to my own 15-year old non-white daughter … and I am her mama. :( It does highlight one thing: cops are bullies … and cops who sit back and let other cops bully are no better than the guy doing it. And the freaking homeowners defending the cops!!! Authorities who let cops terrorize people of color are making a big mistake. You can’t fix the PR nightmare this has caused and it endangers the lives of everyone involved.
By the way, on the Apple watch, they’ve got to be kidding! How do you use this to read email and surf the web??
I’m not even sure 20-somethings’ eyes can read something this small.
Super busy day here today. I have today’s SCOTUS watch diary ready to post: live coverage starts a little before 9:30 Eastern. I need to update it to reflect what we are looking for. When the results are announced on the liveblog they say “overturned” or “affirmed” and I don’t have in my recap what the lower court ruling is.
See all y’all later!!
Good morning, Purple People! Fair and partly cloudy this morning, 64 F. now, going for all the 8s today. Severe thunderstorms, possibly even a tornado, expected later today. Must get out and do some gardening after I return to the house, before all hail breaks loose.
Cops who manhandle children should be dismissed from the police force. Will there ever be an end to racism in this country? Every time I think we’ve made a little progress, there’s an unwelcome surprise. Hope that poor girl isn’t permanently traumatized.
Off to do my morning duty of taking Miss Pink Cheeks to school. See you all later!
Ha!! “all hail breaks loose”.
I had some relatives visiting some years ago and our plan was to go to the Boehrner Botanical Garden which is in a Milwaukee suburb named “Hales Corners”. They were from the drawling part of America and when I told them that, they thought we had a town called “Hell’s Corners”! They were relieved to find out that it was Hales not Hells. :)
LOL, Jan!
Ha! All hail breaks loose. You and JanF are in a punning contest!
Agree, that cops who manhandle kids should not be on the force and should also face charges.
Didn’t walk before work this morning, too tired from yesterday’s really hard workout. And that alarm still went off so incredibly early, though I bet my watch still thinks I was 80-something percent efficient in my sleep. I hope my tea is sufficiently strong.
earworm: In Your Eyes by Austin band the Reivers. When I get to this song, I hit “repeat” for days & days. Kim has such a gorgeous voice.
weather: 70s to 90s. Normal June. Yesterday when I got in my black car after an hour at the grocery store – 96. (next car won’t be black)
Good morning, Meese. In the seventies with rain and thunder. Sigh.
Went out on the harbor last night to see birds. The water was extremely rough and I got extremely seasick. Yuck.
Off to check the news and have some weak tea and dry toast. Hope it’s a good day throughout Moosesylvania and the rest of the world.
How awful, Portlaw. Hope the weak tea and dry toast take care of the nausea. I’m not surprised to hear the water was rough; the wind has been blowing constantly here, so it seems logical to think that it’s blowing up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. I think the weather gods are Up to Something.
Wishing you a quick recovery today!
Thanks!!!!
Monday started at 77 – never dropped below the dew point overnight – and will stay there until the clouds pass through then go up to 90 or so. A/C is on. I tolerate A/C because I can’t sleep without it but I don’t have to like it. Crazy started early – I need more Monday today as I have a training session I forgot about at 10 that will take up the rest of my morning which had been rather thoroughly taken up already by other stuff.
Hope everybody is well or getting better (looking at you Porlaw) and will try to check back later. {{{HUGS}}}
Good morning, 58 and sunny in Bellingham today. I’m off to the pool soon, then home to resume the daily shuffle of a laundry, dealing with the desk mess, escaping to the garden for some fun, then resting and reading while I recover! Such is life and it’s good to be settling into normalcy again.
Scott Walker said this?????
bold mine
http://crooksandliars.com/2015/06/scott-walker-wont-rule-out-another-iraq
I am shocked, astonished, horrified, and then some. Good Grief.
Yup. He has no foreign policy experience, and really, no thoughts of his own, so he has co-opted the worst choices amongst all the bad Republican foreign policy choices.
These guys are not going to be happy when they find out that Americans are glad we are out of Iraq and that no one except the Cheney deadenders are interested in returning.
The president is going to have a big speech on Health Care tomorrow.
From the President in an email to me:
I will try to put up a post to follow the speech live.
Good afternoon Meese
Sorry to have missed the morning check-in
Went back to bed after getting up at around 3 AM – I’m coming down with something.
Speedy recovery to those recovering!
Heal quickly!
Wow – I forgot to check the weather today – Onomastic just called me to tell me I’m under a tornado watch – yikes –
Pray that folks will be safe!
Good grief. Look after yourselves and the animals.
Definitely holding the good thought for your/your household’s safety.
Stay safe!
Good morning, meese! Tuesday …
It is 59 degrees in Madison on its way up to 86. Sunny skies are in the forecast.
So apparently if you catch a cop lying about a cold blooded murder, you can get an indictment! Walter Scott’s killer was indicted in South Carolina but only because video surfaced later showing the cop shooting Scott in the back after he fled a traffic stop. Indicted isn’t convicted, of course but the cop was both fired and locked up, suggesting this case might be different. Still waiting for justice for Tamir Rice.
President Obama will be speaking about health care in America and the Affordable Care Act. From Germany, he discussed the ACA and criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to take up King v Burwell. He also suggested that Congress could fix this by passing a bill that changed four words. The Republicans said “No way! Sucks to be you, 6 million who will lose heath insurance!” and one of their Senate leading lights tweeting this insane Tweet:
Yes! Six million people who could never afford health insurance until the Affordable Care Act was passed will now lose that health insurance because the Republicans sued to have the subsidies taken away and now won’t vote to repair an inconsistency between two sections of the law!!! Best Tweet response, Ryan Cooper from The Week (quoting Lincoln):
I am going to guess that the president will be making a full-throated defense of the health care law, calling out the Republicans and telling them that he will not sign any of their “fixes”. Republicans are on the wrong side of history: 2/3rds of Americans want the subsidies to survive the SCOTUS challenge including almost 50% of Republicans.
I have the speech post ready to go and will launch it about a half hour before he is scheduled to speak.
Hope you are feeling better, Dee … see all y’alls later!!
Good Morning Meese
No tornadoes last night but heavy thunderstorms and flickering power
Checking the news – glad to see Angola 3 member Albert Woodfox is finally being released from jail!
Good morning, Meese! Cloudy and 69 F. right now, going to 89 F. later today. We had heavy rain and strong wind last night but mercifully, nothing worse. Tonight is the Daisies’ end-of-year party, to which I’m taking Miss Pink Cheeks. She’ll spend the night at my house afterwards.
Have learned to my deep disgust that the murderer named Oscar Pretorius will be released from jail in August, on probation. Oh, yes, it’s just fine to kill your girlfriend because you got into a snit, and then to pretend during your murder trial that you were “scared.” You wake up in the night—your sleeping companion is not in the bed with you—you hear noises in the bathroom—who do you THINK is in the bathroom, numbskull? But if you’re famous, you can do whatever you want and get away with it.
Also heard on the news that a boy shot and killed his younger brother, thinking that a burglar was in the house. Doesn’t it ever cross the minds of these idiots to say, “Who’s there? Who are you?”
Denise, hope you’ll feel better! Is school out so you can stay home and take it easy?I’ve gone through a whole package and a half of Alka Seltzer Plus for Colds capsules. Wish this cold would go away so I can breathe.
A good day to those in the Pond and beyond!
Lots of layers to the uneven application of the law. Rich people and famous people have a different justice system than ordinary folks. And then people of color have a completely different one where everything is a capitol crime and they are assumed guilty until they can prove otherwise. When I made the mistake of reading a few of the conversations about the pool incident on Twitter, people were saying “well, the kids should just have listened to the cops and obeyed them”. Right. And while the black kids were cuffed, dragged to the ground and had guns pointed at them, the white kids and the white adults were left to mill around , just like the white bikers in Waco a few weeks ago.
There is no justice when the application of the law is based only on the color of someone’s skin or their economic circumstances. To suggest otherwise is an insult to our intelligence.
Exactly
Good morning, Meese. It’s headed for eighty with the usual thunderstorms to brighten things up.
Went to a terrific concert last night with a great lutenist. I love the lute and it’s not often that I have a chance to see it featured.
On another, more sobering note, just saw the video of the cops at the pool party in Texas that many of you mentioned yesterday. To be honest, I don’t have any idea how I would feel were I a parent of those teenagers, especially of the young girl. I don’t know how the scarring of that incident on the kids involved will heal. Or how their parents will heal. Or how the nation will heal. Here I am, far away, in many ways, from what happened and I am still shaking.
Hope all the ailing Meese are feeling perkier today and that it’s a good day in Mooseland and other lands.
I am still trying to process that whole incident. I have an acquaintance with family in McKinney and, yes, their kids are people of color. How do you tell your kids growing up in a safe bedroom suburb of Dallas that they are not safe from institutionalized racism?
If that cop is not fired, it will be a travesty.
Gosh, Portlaw, you went to a lute concert? I used to love the lute. Listened to Julian Bream’s records of Elizabethan lute music as a teenager. Aeons ago I even saw him perform in the Lisner Auditorium here in DC. However, in later years they moved him to the Kennedy Center and it wasn’t the same at all. The lute is an intimate instrument—it’s like a friend singing to you, not like a rock band trying to be heard in the next county.
I never went again. Don’t know whether he’s even still alive. But it must have a wonderful experience for you to listen to lute music, Portlaw.
I also heard Julian Bream when I was young. Ravishing. And, you’re right, the lute needs an intimate setting as it sings to you.