Well it is Monday over here on this side of the Pond and should be over there with you by the time you get to read this.
SO COME ON! Shake yourself, stretch and take a careful look outside:
It’s the start of a new week! Exciting? Full of anticipation?
All last week’s goofs, gaffes, embarrassing incidents, cock-ups and just dumb stoopid things you did, you can now put behind you. It’s a bright, sunny, new start.
Don’t you just love cheery people first thing in the morning? Well maybe not; but I’m here to help. Really. I mean, you want a nice clean, new start, don’t you? You know..you want to forget the daft things you did over the last seven days. So, as I am sure it will help, tell us about what you did stupid last week. Or even last month. You know telling us will help you forget it. Cleanse the soul, eradicate the embarrassment. Go on, don’t be mean, tell us!. We promise we won’t laugh. Much.
After all:
You weren’t the BBC researcher who telephoned the Bob Marley Foundation saying they wished to spend one or two days filming the singer sometime this July or August. “But our schedule is flexible.” When did he die? Oh yes, 1981. You weren’t that dumb last week, were you?
You weren’t the gunman who pounced on a 32 year old woman walking her dog in San Diego and snatched the bag she was holding that contained the dog mess that she had just scooped up. You weren’t that idiotic last week, were you?
You weren’t Welshman last Thursday who, in front of each and every one of his so-called golf “buddies”, took a hurried short cut to his car across the wet grass of the very steep lawn, just before the game started. Then slipped, suddenly and mightily, and ended up with his feet up in the air and his body bouncing three times on its back as it crashed full length to the soggy ground. You weren’t that stupid in front of all your mates in the club house were you?
So come on, out with it. Start the week by confessing the last one.
We all make tiny errors of judgement:
We promise we won’t tell.
And, who knows, we might do the same diary to help you next week.
for the second week in a row.
Someone tell me tomorrow night, “take it out”, the guys keep coming earlier and earlier on Tuesday!
Also, that way Boogal won’t kill me!
I’m proud to report I washed my dishes! Tomorrow’s cat litter day.
I have nothing to add, except this:
Iraqi troops are trained by US security advisors in front of statues of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad – Telegraph.co.uk, 04/04/2005
an Iraqi advertisement for Doublemint gum.
Next year, (it’s in the budget, somewhere) they will be replaced by twin statues: “The Two Faces of G.W. Bush” (of course they will speak out of both sides of their mouths)
..a gaffe, stoopid, embarrassing or just plain idiotic?
No wonder they flee at the first sight of a Sunni insurgent.
I have to ask.
Is stoopid how you Welshies spell ‘stupid’?
Or I am stoopid?
…how we spell it or how we say it?
I assume you say Stu-pid.
Unless you say Stoo-pid.
But if you say stoop-id, that is a misnomer that refers to the state of mind a crack addict goes through while sitting uninvited on my brownstone stoop.
Stupid is spelt stoopid ‘cos that’s how I say it and I’m stupid. Like tomato is spelt tomahto as opposed to your spelling it tomayto. See?
spelt stupid as “Englishman”
love your grape juice/jelly, welshman.
From FOX 12 in Medford, Oregon:
Three hotels … report they have been waiting almost six months for bills generated mostly by the U.S. Secret Service during President Bush’s whirlwind tour through Jackson County …
Owed $3,332.72, the Red Lion Hotel in Medford sent a letter on March 28 to the president …
The letter written by the hotel’s accountant Kirsten Yunuba Stephens, said: “My question to you: Is this how you help balance the budget at the White House by ripping off retailers in the towns you visit? If that is the case please do not come back to the Rogue Valley.”
A White House representative said the hotels should direct their inquiries to the Secret Service rather than the president.
Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin apologized for delays … “If we haven’t paid it we should have paid it,” he said. …
Mimic those you serve.
I still have a whole hour left until Monday here on the west coast of Canada, and besides, I didn’t do anything wrong this week.
Unless you insist on bringing up that whole ‘daylight savings time’ thing. Listen, I don’t recall ever getting to vote on the whole `let’s change the clocks around every so often just to mess up the forgetful people’ deal. And if someone’s going to schedule a meeting for late Sunday afternoon the day after the clocks change, honestly, all sorts of people are sure to be late right? Or at least one person..
Hold on. If the clock at the bottom of the computer screen says 11:10, do I still have almost an hour left `til Monday, or did it not get changed too? I haven’t messed up next week already have I?
on Daylight Savings Time. It’s sold to us as an “energy saver,” but it’s really an energy waster. At least here in the US, where a huge part of our population lives where it’s really hot in the summer (all of the South and Southwest, big chunks of the West and Midwest). In those places, everyone has air conditioning.
DST “time-shifts” our energy usage for AC. If you turn off the AC when you leave for work in the morning (because who can afford to cool an empty house for 9-10 hours per day?) then DST means you’re turning it off an hour earlier in the morning, when it’s cooler, and then coming home from work and turning it back on an hour earlier in the hottest part of the day.
Sure, maybe we use a little less electricity for lighting, but light bulbs vs. air conditioners? Please. In Florida, (one of our most populous states) one quarter of the household energy usage is for AC.
But we keep doing it every year, because back in WWI and WWII, when nobody had AC and light bulbs were a major energy user, it saved energy. I’d call that a major cock-up, what with “peak oil” fast approaching, etc.
..we complain bitterly about it in the UK, too.
Why the heck won’t someone
DO
something about it?
one of those “everybody knows” things. Everybody knows that DST is a Good Thing b/c it saves energy, and saving energy is a Good Thing. And no one ever goes back and examines the original assumptions.
I really tried to find some studies that showed whether, if, how DST save energy, and I’m pretty sure they’re just not there. No one has ever looked into this. All of the studies that have been done have looked at the question of DST for WINTER – when energy usage for lighting is a bigger part of the equation, and if you’re time-shifting home heating usage, well, using it less in the morning when it’s colder makes some sense.
The only studies I could find were about the year-round extension of DST in the 70’s (winter DST) and even then, one of the authors admitted to “off-the-cuff” calculations. And again, CA looked at extending it during the great electricity scam a couple of years ago – into the cooler months, but their summer calculations were dubious in my eyes – based on two assumptions that I think are false. a) That businesses turn off their AC at the end of the business day (not true around here – businesses run the AC 24/7 regardless of the hours they are open), and b) that most employees would be returning to homes without AC (again, not true here in TX, maybe in northern CA).
Just look at when peak usage is for the electric utilities here – late afternoon, just when everyone is getting home from work, walking into a hot house, and hitting the AC on switch first thing.
ARRRGGGGHHH. I wish I knew some way to get someone’s attention on this.
most people complain and see no reason for it. But how to change it. The reasoning here is, the EU has it, so we just have to adjust. So much for neutrality and independence 🙂
Sorry, I have nothing to confess about last week. Contrary, I finally cleaned my kitchen shelves and am proud of myself! Maybe it’s the spring air.
It is not fair or good etiquette to troll rate Fran just because she cleaned her kitchen last week.
It was obviously the month during the year in which she normally does this.
For people like myself who play an outside sport after work (yes Welshman, even golf qualifies–barely), DST is great. Thanks to the genius who thought of it.
Also, spring mornings in the UK include an incredible cacophony of birdsong. At the peak, in mid April, they start their wild rumpus around 3:45 AM, DST. Without DST, that would be 2:45, and I’d get even less sleep.
This is really the bottom line. We keep DST because many people enjoy it. This is especially true the further north you live or if you are on the eastern side of your time zone.
But lots of people enjoy their SUV’s too. The thing is, is it worth the extra energy it uses?
Continuing to repeat, as most media remind us about this time of year, that we do it because it “conserves energy,” is like someone saying that they are going to buy an SUV because they use less gasoline.
I doubt that DST is an energy waster in the UK, or even in Europe as a whole. I assume that AC is not universal there, and even in countries in southern Europe where some people have AC, probably fewer people have it and they use it fewer days of the year, than people in the southern half of the US.
But I wish we could have an honest debate here in the US about whether it’s worth it, along the lines of “DST increases our energy usage, but do we want to do it anyway because people enjoy the extra hour of daylight after work?” Instead of the having our cake and eating it too position of “we like it and we can pat ourselves on the back because we’re also conserving energy.”
Although I agree that we don’t know if DST makes energy consumption better or worse, I’d wager that it doesn’t make much difference.
Consider your argument in the case of the siesta, popular in Mediterranean countries. Everybody goes home to “rest” between roughly 2 and 4 PM. But who takes a nap without putting on the AC? So, all the businesses are turning off the AC, while the workers go home for a snooze in the AC to escape the heat. Then, in the evening, everything gets hoppin’ again. A lot of that evening activity is open-air, so who knows if AC usage goes up or down.
Frankly, I don’t think the energy argument holds weight either in support or against DST. But in almost every other argument that can be made, DST wins hands down.
Comparing DST to SUV use is also a straw man. SUV usage is so clearly adding to energy waste that no argument to the contrary can even occur. Just look at the MPGs.
..BTW, I used to live in Indiana where they don’t do DST. How stupid is that? Hoosiers just resist change.
that it probably wouldn’t make much difference in energy usage in Europe. I was talking specifically about the US, where in the past 30 years or so, we’ve seen a) a great increase in the usage of home AC, and b) a population shift to parts of the US with hotter climates, ie the South, Southwest and West.
For example, the 4 most populous states now are NY, CA, TX, and FL. TX and FL are very hot and people use AC half the year or more. Same for southern CA. One of the fastest growing cities is Las Vegas – which was pretty damn hot last time I was there in July.
To understand the AC time shift, look at how most people in places like Texas actually use their AC in the summer. I turn mine off when I get up – it’s coolest then, I don’t even need it when I’m getting ready for work in the morning. But when I get home, it’s probably near 100 degrees. The first thing I do when I walk in the door is turn on the AC – an hour earlier, and hotter, than I would be doing if we weren’t on DST. And my employer doesn’t turn off the AC in the building I just left – most big commercial buildings run the AC 24/7.
And in most families, someone is home in the late afternoon/evenings. Maybe Sis is at a soccer game with Dad, and Mom is outside in the garden, but Junior is in the living room playing computer games – with the AC on.
I had an ongoing email conversation with a guy at my local electric utility about this. He agreed, looking at when their peak load was, when brownouts were likeliest to occur, etc. That is, 5:30-6:30pm (DST). Having most folks come home an hour earlier – at peak temperatures for the day – and turn on their AC, increases electricity demand, overall.
Believe it or not …
Daylight Savings Time was started in order to enable factories to start production earlier in the day, to ramp up munition production, so we could defeat the Bosche.
To my certain knowledge World War One is over. But Daylight Savings goes on. Why? I have no idea. It just is.
The strange pub closing hours in the UK also stems from WW One. The idea was to get the factory workers back in the factory, or at home getting some sleep, instead of them sitting around swilling beer and ale.
Mulling this over, I realized that there are Germans on this website and by writing “we could defeat the Bosche” I was putting forward the proposition that the Germans were working to defeat the German Imperial Army in World War One.
Of course it is a defensible position that the Great Powers in World War One were actively, busily, and with great determination working to defeat themselves – Haig immediately springs to mind as the prime enemy of the PBI in the British Expeditionary Force – and by merely mentioning Verdun the all out offensive by General Falkenhayn, the German Minister of War, on the German 5th Army becomes supporting evidence. General Nivelle, with his zeal in killing every poilu who came under his command, should not be forgot. The US Army, coming late to the action, had to score its ‘own goals’ by ignoring basic hygienic practices and conduct bio-warfare against the US Army.
So I must offer a mea stupid for the above and wish to nuance the “we” to “Entente.”
For this mistake I, see my post below, blame the French.
Summer savings time is another of the French inventions that we have managed to impose on the rest of the world.
The previous one was – VAT.
Count on us for bureaucratic genius. I know, the people who invented this all graduated from my school…
They also brought you the front-wheel drive…
I humbly suggest a new operational heurisitic for the “Booman Tribune” website & blog: When in doubt blame the French.
Daylight Savings Time? Blame the French.
Non-support for the Iraqi war? Blame the French.
Can’t sell champagne as “Champagne”? Blame the French.
Car won’t start? Blame the French.
After all, we are basically involved in an Anglo-Saxon plot here so we should take advantage of it.
Now we’re blaming Curveball. It’s far more convenient to pin everything on a single drunken individual than an entire government.
Well, let’s see, last week I had to spend 3 days, (complete days, which usually last about 12hrs+) with 3 die-hard Repubs.. now, talk about a long day, and one day, of them spent on the road, in his Cadillac, (one of them which was about 5hrs on the road, the remainder on the job) listening about lazy welfare people, God, Lying Democrats, and how great Bush is.
The other two days, well that was on the job site, for about 12hrs a day, listening to the same spew, and all the while trying to explain to them that the way they were going about the project would not work, and then listening to how intelligent they were…. Then at the end of the day on Thursday, the rains set in, and washed away all their bullshit work, (that I tried to explain would not work) So Friday I get a call about how God planned it that way…(it was time for a drink, and a good cigar then)
The worst part is, that it was business, and you pretty well have to just listen, nod your head, and go on, for now.
The best part is, once the projects are done, while they set smugly and believe they made the most, I’ll sell them out from under their noses, and more than double what they did… ; ) Sometimes, discretion is the greater part of valor, for a good percentage of the profit, will be used to go to Democratic meetings, and fund raisers…LMAO…..SWWWEEEEEETT
with the look on the dog’s face looking out the doggy door, reminds me of how I look at the begining of the week….”oh shit, what now” ; )
..and I am sure he wasn’t thinking “oh, shit. Look whose arrived” as he saw Sally the Psycho Dog in the back of the Landrover. Or maybe he was. I would fully understand.
I used to get that look, when my ex showed up… LOL
Oh thank God for this explanation. I thought you had shrunk Schottle, and were keeping him in your cottage.
Excellent story from Montana “HELENA – Montana lawmakers overwhelmingly passed what its sponsor called the nation’s most strongly worded criticism of the federal Patriot Act on Friday, uniting politicians of all stripes.” Worth reading.
the weekend and promptly go back to sleep.
I am really pissed off this morning as the sun is shining bright, it’s warm and I really ought to be out doing something – but I can’t it’s Monday!
So I’m listening to the Goons and I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue to recover my equanimity and then I’ll think of taking out the waste-paper – now that they’ve emptied the bins I might have a chance to get rid of it.
I must also do some laundry this morning, no clean shirts!
Pipe-smokers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but you pipe-cleaners!
What a splendid way to pass the morning that is like a summer day here, as well. Next put on Round the Horn and you will almost feel that your mum has handed you some buttered Hovis for tea.
(Which must be the most impenetrable statement I have ever written for Americans on a US blog)
Yes, here it is — Monday, bright and sunny, and my nerves are already jaggled to a frazzle. The neighbor across the street ordered up the removal of three large rotten pine trees in her front yard. And the workmen commenced at gawd-awful 7:30am! The constant drone of the truck motors, stabbed with random screeches of buzz saws, followed by womping thumps of felled logs, followed by tooth-grinding wood chipper branch consumption. My palms are sweating from irrational adrenal reactions to these loud and threatening noises. My cat is whining pitifully, slinking snake-like from under the sofa to under the chair to under the desk to under my chair utterly undecided as to where she might be safest from this assault upon our serenity. It’s a bad omen, I tell you.
Emergency first aid being sent over urgently.
Let’s see: Codeine and Parcetemol, cake, loud CD of Van Morrison, high quality Sony ear pieces, cake, that rare brand of vodka I was saving for a special occasion, a big sign that says BOO courtesy of the owner of the blog and cake.
Oh yes, some of those extra moist meaty tidbits. For the cat, you fool.
Thank you so much. Looking at your user name, I just recalled a delightful experience I had while driving about Wales: I drove under a rainbow! It was up on one of those winding mountain roads and directly ahead was a small rainbow perfectly arched over the road. I slowed to pass under it, arching forward to look up thru the windshield to see if I could see it above me. Nope. But, after driving past it I looked back and there it was. I stopped the car and got out. But, as I approached to see what it might feel like to touch a rainbow, a passing cloud vanished it. There. I shall focus on that rainbow and find inner tranquility.
I still do work for my ex husbands and son’s business which is a Tree Service. My office/home is in the same yard, I live in a house located there.
Every day they go out and annoy neighbors, sometimes 10 a day, sometimes only one neighborhood for a week, think of that. I often do. I feel so sorry for the pople that have to hear the noises these men make.
I hate the sound of trucks, saws, blowers, and all the many sounds you haven’t heard, those are saved for me, being right there on the lot.
Thank goodness for me that they leave here and go and make their noises somewhere else; unless something is broken or they have some maintenance work.
Every day I wake up to the sound of diesel trucks starting up, shouts of workers preparing for the day; maybe they have a few branches to grind up, so they crank up the grinder and that is a sound like chalk on a blackboard times a million.
Saws have to be cleaned and then tested, yard is cleaned with blowers, trucks loaded with gear and ladders and trees to plant, at times. The diesel fumes waft through the air and permeate everything, including my lungs. On a good day they start up the trucks and leave in a few minutes. On a bad day, well you can imagine.
I breathe a sigh of relief when they finally leave, I have the whole day to enjoy my house and garden and thankfully no sounds.
Always in the back of my mind is what kind of job are they doing, will there be an accident, will someone fall out of a tree, will the stump grinder, grind my sons foot off. I worry, its such dangerous work and they have to sometimes remove the largest trees, in the middle of suberbia, in backyards, here in Southern California. They will take on the hardest jobs, huge trees in tiny backyards and crowded neighborhoods, pieces have to be cut one at a time and lifted by cranes over fences, tile roofs, neighbors houses, swimming pools, cars, etc. Fortunately for us, our safety record is great, very few accidents, but still I worry, it could be today!
I settle down and enjoy the day until about 3:00, I start to get a little anxious, sometimes they start coming in with the trucks early, so I have to make sure that I haven’t left anything in their way, so they can crush it(accidentally of course, they always say) when they pull in. I prepare myself, soon they will come.
And they do! I tie up the dog and wait for the sounds in reverse from the morning, the workers are tired and quiet as they unload the gear from the trucks, the trucks back in and shut down, mercifully quickly. In a short time the work is done, the men leave, the gate is closed and I can go back to my life on the blogs.
Glory, hallaluya
Anyone need some tree work done?????
Welshman, what to make of it. First Blair delays the announcement of elections and now, oh horror, Charles is going to marry Camilla only on Saturday. What’s going on in the formerly great empire?
..and Royal reality-show soap opera is explained by one factor.
Ever since the Beatles broke up we have had to make our own amusement and Monty Python was the only model available.
Any openings in the Ministry of Silly Walks?
From the WaPo via The Seattle Times:
WASHINGTON — There was no sign of the flock of sheep said to hover several feet off the ground of a field in St. Mary’s County, Md. There were no sightings of the “giraffedoman,” with its human face, dog ears, neck and legs of a giraffe, which has been rumored to prowl the county’s dark woods.
The home of John Wilkes Booth’s doctor and the graveyard at one of the oldest continuously active parishes in the United States did yield some strange, glowing “orbs” in the digital photographs, but nothing dramatic or conclusive.
The ghost hunters, however, were undeterred. Well after midnight, five hours into investigating the occult in southern Maryland, the intrepid hunters arrived at the local Mecca of incorporeal possibilities. …