Lame Ducks

The current occupant of the White House now in his second term is referred to as a "lame duck" despite recent achievements. But the real "lame duck" is the one that floated into Philadelphia as part of the Tall Ships display. This rubber duck - sixty-one feet tall - was being towed up the Delaware when its tow sprung a leak and it had to seek refuge on the Camden, N.J. side. They tried again on Saturday but it couldn't handle the strong winds and had to be deflated. It hardly matched the floatation stability of the rubber ducky in my bathtub.
tjs

Political Potpourri I

It is only six weeks until the first G.O.P. debate to be monitored by FOX News and one hopes that the give and take will be as entertaining as in 2012. To keep track of the entries I am listing them in alphabetical order lest some be overlooked. Bush - Carson - Cruz - Fiorina - Graham - Huckabee - Jindal - Pataki - Paul - Perry - Rubio - Santorum - Trump - that makes thirteen and counting. In the wings we have Christie - Kasich - and Walker - making sixteen. But only ten will make the cut per FOX ground rules. Talk about musical chairs! John Kasich  (rhymes with basic) is pondering his entry while visiting Iowa. Some Hawkeyes like his direct style calling him "Christie Lite." Stay tuned.
tjs

Storm Warnings

Tuesday's storm with attendant power outage recalled a storm of long ago. Four of us amateur boaters were on a 26 foot sloop on Long Island Sound for a three day July 4th weekend. Late in the session we were alerted by NOAA weather that a blow was due. We hastened to find shelter in Block Island anchorage, lowered our ten pound Danforth anchor and prepared to ride it out about thirty yards off the beach. Many neighboring boats were swinging on their anchor lines causing some entanglement requiring all night anchor watch and fortunately daylight came early. I was due back in the office and since I would not make it I queued up to use the common radio telephone and was able to get thru. Other boaters in the same predicament were also calling in and one poor fellow also reported that his secretary would also be absent for the day. At least I did not have that embarrassment.
tjs

FORE! and then some.

The USGA concluded their Open Golf Tournament last weekend played in a corner of Puget Sound on a designer "links" course that would challenge a mountain goat. Several participants took falls and the Trophy was won and lost on the final 72nd hole. When I first dabbled in the game many years ago I had wooden shafts and clubs called niblicks and mashies. Now the current players have "hybrids" and the heads on the drivers are HUGE. One poor fellow swung his tee shot so hard the large head flew off and followed the ball down the fairway leaving him stunned and holding the shaft as his partner picked up the detached head. Then I recalled the words of Rudyard Kipling "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs........" Now it's off to St. Andrews in July.
tjs

A Crime Deterrent

Bom Dia! There is an island in Brazil near the Amazon Delta that is the home of over 400 thousand Asia Water Buffaloes. Besides the normal use for agricultural purposes and supplying meat and milk, some are now being used by the state police battalion as mounted crime preventers. They are docile and can handle the Equatorial heat as well as make the police more approachable. The link below includes usage by a tannery owner which is eyebrow raising but cannot pass my censor.
tjs (Photo by Marizilda Cruppe for the NYTimes)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/21/world/americas/to-soften-image-brazilian-police-ride-in-atop-horned-beasts.html?ref=world

Good News - Bad News

The good news is that "Hamilton" a musical about Alexander Hamilton opens on Broadway next month after rave reviews off Broadway. The bad news is they are planning to remove his likeness from the ten dollar bill - the man who was our first Secretary of the Treasury - who founded the Bank of the United States and whose life was snuffed out at age 49 by Aaron Burr's bullet. I thought they were planning to remove Andrew Jackson from the twenty but plans were changed. Why not the whiskey swigging Grant or that ladies' man Franklin? As the WSJ wrote "the man who made our money is losing his place on it." At least we can seek solace as the Canadian dollar coin has the likeness of a loon.
tjs

Quote of the Week.

The current Women's World Cup Soccer Tournament is currently being held in Vancouver, B.C. and played on artificial turf much to the disappointment of many of the players. This provoked Jere Longman of the N.Y. Times to recall the comment of Dick Allen a former baseball slugger who remarked "If a horse can't eat it, I don't want to play on it."
tjs

Tall in the Saddle.

Today is the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's defeat by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo, Belgium. The battle is re-enacted and commemorated by French devotees in period costume. Their take on history is that he lost the battle but won the war. Some historians say Napoleon was past his prime as a leader but his apologists claim he suffered from a painful bout of hemorrhoids that knocked him off
 his winning stride. His impersonator said he was feeling well but did "have some bother in the posterior." It seems that the
stigma of defeat will always get you in the
end.
tjs
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/world/europe/200-years-after-waterloo-napoleon-still-wins-by-losing.html?_r=0









tjs

Water! Water!

"The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plain." But the rain in Colorado falls mainly "in the plain rain barrels" that many folks are using to collect rainwater to nourish their gardens during the current severe drought. However, this practice has been rendered illegal in that State - the theory being that if everyone owned a rain barrel it would deprive folks down stream of their share of this liquid from the sky. It seems that I am my brother's keeper.
tjs

Bloomsday 2015

Today, June 16, celebrates Bloomsday in Dublin and other points on the planet as devotees of James Joyce trace the travels of Leopold Bloom as he navigates thru that city. This all described in Joyce's novel Ulysses which takes place on June 16, 1904. There are festivities all over the world including foot races and, of course, all the pubs along Grafton St. will see a lot of action. Until the next time! Slainte!
tjs

Don't Mess with Texas

We have been entertaining our in-laws from Houston Texas and we secured a Texas flag to run up the flagpole for their arrival which was well received. Except that I had flown it upside down which is normally a sign of distress. I learned belatedly that the Lone Star should point upward and the red representing the blood of the Alamo should be on the bottom. I was properly chastised and the situation was corrected to avoid a border incident. This Yankee boy said he didn't receive any instructions with the flag. Anyway, all is well with family relations.
tjs

Embarrassing Embassy.

The United States will be relocating its London embassy by 2017 from fashionable Mayfair to a gritty district on the south bank of the River Thames. Presumably this is done for security reasons. A prominent Londoner was quoted "It seems that the U.S. Embassy is relocating from a beautiful historic square in Mayfair to a fortified bunker in former rail yards on the far side of the river. It's like moving from New York's Upper East Side to New Jersey." OUCH! I write this from sunny Cape May, New Jersey the envy of many upper East Siders.
tjs

"Surge Pricing"

The phrase "surge pricing" is one I keep hearing about. If you followed the Iraq war you know that "surge" means an increase. It translates at home as market forces reflect supply and demand. The airlines have long blacked out peak periods of travel. And if you order a UBER car and driver on New Year's Eve at 3AM be prepared for "sticker shock" as the price could triple. A very sobering experience.
  Now I read where Disney World is also following this practice for peak travel dates. I wish my portfolio would surge!
tjs
(Blogger will be in Cape May next week to partake of the waters and salt air and will resume upon my return.)

Eat Mor Chickin.

KFC has strayed afar from their beginnings in Kentucky and are now one of the biggest restaurant operators in China. They are suing several companies there who they say had spread false rumors on social media about its food including that its chickens were genetically modified to have six wings and eight legs. Wow! Just think that IF at Thanksgiving dinner there would be no more fighting over the drumsticks as there would be plenty to go around. KFC is demanding an apology and a token fine.
tjs

Coast to Coast

The N.Y. Times reminded us that this week marked the 36th anniversary of the Los Angeles to New York journey on roller skates of a well meaning fellow who wished to call attention to the then energy crisis. Unfortunately, his pet monkey died from the heat in Arizona and he was robbed in New Jersey. As a former resident of the Garden State I was appalled of such treatment which deprived him of the opportunity to skate between all those orange cones on the George Washington Bridge. The folks in Manhattan came to his rescue and he entered Gotham via the Lincoln Tunnel while holding his breath.
tjs

Say "Cheese"

Have you ever wondered about those holes in Swiss cheese and from whence they came? The Associated Press now tells us that they come from tiny specks of hay that go back to the age old practice of milking the cows in the barns. Current automated milking systems caused the holes to decline so scientists now add small amounts of hay dust to regulate the number of holes.
tjs

We, the People

In a recent ruling on campaign finance, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has defined "corporate personhood" i.e that corporations are people. Now a humane society is asking a lower court to rule that chimpanzees may be considered people and subject to the law of "habeas corpus" in Latin translates to "you have the body". This latter case involves a colony of chimps that were used for biomedical research and seem to be in limbo now. Am I my brother's keeper?
tjs