Okay, the loudmouth part was just so I can participate in the thread…
I’ve never hosted one of these before so I know I’m missing something about cookies and cognac, but we do what we can with what we have right…
Hi everybody! (Hi Dr. Nick.. umm.. spider) How’s the weather in your neck of the woods?
This Froggy Bottom Cafe is brought to you by the letters C & T. Why C & T you ask? Because a friend of mine who I have frequently mentioned in my comments about dancing until dawn is now no longer lurking and has joined the site! (and of course didn’t tell me until now… and wouldn’t even tell me actually, I had to guess with cryptic clues…)
Now you’ve probably run into him already but if not, meh, oh well, not a big deal.
So who else is a newbie or a lurker here? Say hi and be showered with 4’s and snark by your friendly neighbourhood spiderleaf (seriously, I don’t participate that often so this is your one shot to talk to me… take advantage of it before I’m banned for good!)
🙂
I am heading out to wine country (i.e. niagara-on-the-lake) for the afternoon & can’t wait to be biking through nature and sitting in the sun sipping wine… mmmmm… beautiful day!
Niagra on the lake wine country???
Did it have the Zodiac killer, too?
Janet, from wine country West. 🙂
Congrats on poppin’ your hostin’ cherry. You’re no longer a virgin.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Napa snob.
Where’s Jerome a Paris when you need him to set us both straight… 😉
Man, I was a virgin and didn’t even know it… and everybody else did and probably talked about it behind my back too… damn, no wonder I heard snickering each time I popped my head into a Cafe…
I prefer cheap Italian red 🙂 actually… I do like Coppala’s reds and I can get that in a grocery store.
I had a friend whose buddies from a Sonoma winery “robbed” the Napa Wine Train. They showed up in cowboy garb and water pistols and forced the stewards to serve sonoma wine 🙂
Ahem… after the computer R&D company my husband worked for was SOLD to Malaysia with one damn days notice.. he ended up working in St. Helena engineering safety equipment and batch control for the wine industry. Loved it… just no bennies. But we still have plenty of “connections”. Sadly, it’s still very much so a “Plantation” driven industry. Trickle up.
Don’t ask me why, I couldn’t explain. There is something in the taste of them though that I adore and have seldom found in other reds.
Was my sailing playground for many a year. It’d be glorious there this season; mid 80’s today as I see on the map. But I couldn’t bear it with the hay fever.
Yep, the downwind sides of the Great Lakes can be good for wine.
I’ll stay here in Puget Sound. It’s almost 20 degrees cooler and I don’t even know where my handkerchief is.
Hudson Valley wine country here. Wish I could have more than a sip though. But those damned pesky meds!
Don’t you worry boran2, I’ll take a few sips for you… no one could ever say I wasn’t a team player. 😉
Thanks, LOL!
here…
My hometown is the proud maker of “Wild Irish Rose,” enjoyed by winos and high school students for decades….
Cool!
I’ve turned over a new leaf… 😉
Hey CG, how are ya?
Working frantically to finish up some work projects so I can head out to DC Friday morning! How about you?
most excellent. on vaca finally & the weather is holding up for me… it ain’t winter yet up north! 🙂
That’s great you’re heading to DC! I’ll be watching and thinking about you all on Saturday — I’ll let you know how the protests play in Canada & if they get more coverage than in the US (I could tell you the answer now, but that would just ruin the fun…).
Ha! Just try and rain on my parade with the guaranteed lack of media coverage.
We’ll provide our own stinkin’ coverage-and at least it’ll be an honest and accurate report! 🙂
here today, high 101, tomorrow, expected high 102 — humidity: 57%
UV: Super high
Still GRUMPY — I am inside, bouncing off of the walls — forcasts say that on Sat. the high will only be int he low 80s — MAN that will feel cool after this week!
On another GRUMPY note, my son brought home a worksheet from school (music class), on one side, the national anthem and a flag to color, on the other, fucking GOD BLESS AMERICA lyrics…I am irate, thinking of what exactly to write to the principal/teacher — it’s not that the CONENT bothers me so much, it’s that they do not TALK with the kids about any of it and if they refuse to do that then they should hand out the damn things and make them sing it…grrr.
ugh… that’s just wrong b. I really think God Bless America needs to go… separation of church and state… hello!
Is that Kate Smith I hear in the background??? 🙂
Kate Smith? I’m feeling pretty ignorant — please ‘splain?
CG just gave away her age. Oops, just gave away mine. Kate Smith was a singer from back in the pleistocene. She had a mold of dark hair, like a bundt cake, ontoppa her head and a body that could hold up a building and a voice that could call you home to supper from clear across the continent. Her speciality was God Bless America. GOD BLESS AAAMMEERRRIICCAAA. . .LAND THAT I LOOOOVEEEE. It coulda brought tears to the eyes of Nikita Kruschev. And I’ll bet you don’t remember him, either.
spiderleaf! Good for you! Nice to see your smart snarky self at hosting the cafe.
Well, I may not remember Kruschev on TV or anything — I am 39 1/2 after all [she says indignantly], but I DO know who he is/was….
Thanks for the wonderful description of Kate Smith!
Wasn’t she “also” a
🙂
The one they said was “plain”.. ACK so not true!!!
Hubba Hubba
Definitely not “plain” :{)
Peace
Sorry for the repeat…your pic showed as a busted link here. :{)
Peace
Busty link? :)Two Kates are better than one.
I must confess: I LOVED that show when I was little!
(Gotta dig myself outta this somehow…)
The seventy-some-year-old bartender I worked with (oh God, was it that many?) years ago had a favorite radio station that played Kate Smith’s version of GBA every day at noon. Otherwise, I’d probably be clueless too.
Leave me dangling out here all alone!
Love,
The Ancient One
Actually, you can get out of this by claiming you were a fan of the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team back in the mid to late 1970’s. The team was on a losing streak, but one night played Kate Smith singing “God Bless America” instead of the national anthem (according to legend, the stadium organist couldn’t find the record of the Star Spangled Banner and in a panic played Kate instead), and won. Of course, being superstitious professional athletes, they then had to continue playing GBA for every home game, and lo and behold, they kept winning, and soon were in contention for the Stanley Cup, eventually winning it in 1974 and 1975 against all odds. For several years GBA became the unofficial theme for the team, and they had Ms. Smith come and perform it in person more than once…
– Knoxville Progressive, Graduate of Cardinal Dougherty HS, Philadelphia PA, class of 1977 & big-time hockey fan.
PS – the tune was actually written by Irving Berlin during WWI, who considered it his most important composition. It was considered too jingoistic, however, and gathered dust until 1938, when Kate Smith’s producer approached Berlin for a patriotic song for her radio show. It was a hit, and was sung at both the D and R presidential conventions in 1940. There was a move to make it the national anthem, but Smith testified to congress against that, wanting to keep the Star Spangled Banner. Also in 1940 Berlin established a foundation so that all royalties from the song would go to the Boy and Girl Scouts. Smith sung the song in a 1943 movie, and it has been associated with the WWII era ever since, with its reference to “…Stand beside her and guide her / Through the night with a light from above…”
Google is your friend, and I guess now I get to be the designated BMT fossil. 😉
claim that your father dragged you to all those hockey games as a young child in the 70s, and it has left you scarred for life, and afraid that when you finally turn thirty-five, you’ll have a burning desire to put on Kate Smith records and where a Flyers jersey everywhere you go.
I think we’re both safe now…
Kate & Kruschev
Damn… in that photo she looks like Rush Limbaugh in drag.
MY EYES!!!
Omg! You’re right! That’s his pose in that photo of him that we all know and love and use as a dart board.
Well, Kate may look like Rush in drag, as Dammit Janet says, but unless I’m forgetting all of my ancient history, in that picture Nikita is arguing with Nixon.
A “4” to the first person who can identify the place, event.
Is that the famous kitchen debate? Or was that when Kruschev pounded his shoe on the table? I forget. Mnemosyne if you remember this you are aptly named!
Barkeep, rustle up a nice, tasty “4” here for our smart friend Lil.
It was the so-called Kitchen Debate, in Moscow, 1959. Correct date courtesy of the BBC. Check out K’s hat in the picture!
The shoe-pounding was at the UN.
History major, poli sci minor, ex-editorial writer. I know a whole lotta useless stuff.
Nice little video at the link, too. For some reason I had thought that encounter was in California. Did K ever come to California? I think the futuristic display aspect of the setting made me think of Tomorrowland in the Disneyland of my youth.
I think there was some kind of flap about K visiting SoCal, wanting to see a movie production, and the movie was too “racy” for the times. Nowadays, a yawner. Without googling, don’t know if he got to see what he wanted, but I think he didn’t.
Try “Krushchev movie California” and see what you get.
Snopes account of the incident is pretty entertaining actually. He visited Los Angeles during his eleven-day stay in the U.S. in 1959. The L.A. police chief would not allow his planned trip to Disneyland because he was worried about adequate security. Quoth Kruschev:
But just now I was told that I could not go to Disneyland. I asked: ‘Why not?’ What is it, do you have rocket-launching pads there? I do not know.
And just listen — just listen to what I was told — to what reason I was told. We, which means the American authorities, cannot guarantee your security if you go there.
What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken over the place that can destroy me? Then what must I do? Commit suicide? This is the situation I am in — your guest. For me the situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people.
http://www.snopes.com/disney/parks/nikita.htm
Civility was not his strong suit.
Peace
I’ve been looking for that shot for a while but my web time is limited these days.
Here’s one for ya, Goose…Kansas, Iput it here so I [hopefully] don’t blow the margins. <fingers crossed>
From the folks @ WTF?
Peace
Yeah, I am pretty damned sick of have to debrief my kid every day after school — and even then, I know a lot of it slips under my radar, he’s only six and doesn’t remember to tell me everything — it’s only the blatant shit that I can catch.
It pisses me me off to no end.
about the U.S. flag and post-9/11 patriotism? How she reacted when her 6yo daughter’s school asked the children to wear red, white, and blue? It’s an op-ed piece that got published pretty widely, and then she reworked it for her collection Small Wonders (one of my favorite recent books).
Also, I just wanted to encourage you to have faith that your parenting, in the end, will influence your kids far more than any school worksheets or classroom rites. Just keep fighting the good fight and stay true and clear about your own values, and your kids will be fine.
No — do you know where I can find a copy of it?
Thanks for the encouragement too, songbh, we all need it every once in a while. My kids will be fine, I just wish they didn’t have to wade through so much BS, but I guess that’s always been a part of it, right?
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0925-08.htm
If you can get your hands on a copy of Small Wonder, I really recommend it. Lots of clear vision, humanity, hope.
It get so hard doesn’t it? My daughter comes home from school with tales of class prayer – stopped that
and now Nazi flags were ok’d for the class flag project.
The “G-d” crap in our motto, anthem, money is hypocritical. We are a supposedly a nation that said freedom from church and state. Not so.
and… Cat… I just want to give you a shout out for doing all that you are doing. From Camp Casey, volunteering with the actual relief effort and for doing all that while being a mom 🙂 xoxox
Thanks, Janet, and right back atcha!!
hugs and more hugs!
Your daughter sounds incredible — I hope I do as well, that my kiddos are doing the smae kinds of things when they’re 10!
😉
The next time someone gives me that “land of the free” crap, they are going to get an earful!
The “G-d” crap in our motto, anthem, money is hypocritical. We are a supposedly a nation that said freedom from church and state. Not so.
Sometimes I think their strategy is simply to deluge us with so much hypocrisy we are eventually overcome with it and unable to function, hypocrisy to liberals being much like Kryptonite to Superman.
Take the pledge of allegiance. Conservatives will look you straight in the eye and make a serious argument that the “under God” text in no way constitutes any sort of religious influence on 5 year old children, but at the same time, if there’s a gay person within 4 miles of the grammar school who’s not currently being queer-bashed or the subject of an exorcism to remove the gay demons, then every child in that school will magically turn gay in time for FantasyFest.
Ah, the conservative mind. Spend too much time pondering it and you’ll wind up with the same brand of swiss cheese upstairs.
You are perfection, IndyLib, with that comment 🙂 Thank you!!! So true. I might swipe that bit of writing the next time I’m debating 🙂
‘nuther oxymoron- Compassionate Conservative (I guess that means killing us with kindness?)
Religious Right (they never are)
THAT wonderful line of argument, IndyLib, is going straight into the letter to the principal/teacher…..you are SO right.
Right on. You might want to leave out the bit about the swiss cheese. 😉
Not only “under God”, which is a blatant violation of the establishment clause, but the very concept of coercing little children to take a loyalty oath is abhorrent. If the pledge has actual import, then minors shouldn’t be taking it; if it’s just meaningless drivel, why bother ?
PAHP-ies!
For you–and your little dog, too!
I’ll have a weather photo after I deposit Mrs. Gooserock at her away job.
Yawwwwwwwwwwwwwn… Come to think of it I could go for forty winks. (said the cowardly lion) 🙂
about W, and said that the Katrina debacle showed that he’s brainless and heartless: “he’s both the Tin Man and the Scarecrow”. I turned to the spouse in the car (where we were listening) and said, “And since he skipped Vietnam, he’s the Cowardly Lion too.” 🙂
But but but those guys are something Bush isn’t: Loveable.
He’s more like a flying monkey. Flys where he’s told to fly and spends alot of time playing with his butt and sniffing his fingers.
😀
The BAMA heat has killed all of our flowers here. There will be fall flowers whenever fall arrives.
hey! at least call it the Humpday Edition… I was all excited to live-blog from stats midterm review – you know, cause that’s interesting for everyone right? hehe… hope all is well!
Just a little something in the line of Stats (exceptionally basic)
Enjoying the peace and quiet this morning. Spouse is at work (!) on his “transitional” assignment; reported at 7 so will probably be off around 3. Gives me plenty of time to actually get shit done around here.
Had a pretty major (well, for the Bay Area) thunderstorm yesterday; there was one strike that was pretty close to here, but we’re not sure where exactly. I don’t like thunderstorms (too damn noisy); glad the spouse was back home when the worst of it hit. Today is much more peaceful.
Speaking of peaceful, our noisy upstairs neighbors moved out while we were away on vacation! I’m hoping for a nice quiet academic couple this next time around…
Have a great day folks — off to have breakfast at a decent hour, then get to work…
I have to make a lot of noise at least once a week or I turn into a fungus!
… where did you get that map? What is it? When was it taken? Why did you bring it into the cafe? Got a smoke?
my my, quite testy this morning aren’t ya… 😉
You should in fact be honored that you are being fetted in this manner most excellent, by one who is about to be banned from the site for stealing photos off of the NASA website…
Meh? Thanks, I’ll remember that. ;^)
It was a snarktastic meh if that helps.
😉
Snarkalicious, snarkmeistress.
I for one like the map. Especially so many of us are travelling this week. The storms… and all..
And seeing the map just kinda brings it all “home”.
Also it hits one with a fly sense of “I’m too high! I’m too high!” 🙂
Thank you, DJ
I’ve been a fan of the site since spiderleaf let me in on the secret that this is where civility migrated; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed lurking, but if I can contribute in any small way, I’ll be a very happy Cook.
And, since this thread’s all about me, I’ll share the origin of my handle:
Cook Ting: The Dexterous Butcher.
Excuse me?
Since when is this thread all about you? We are all quite aware that this thread is all about me & my narcissism thank you very much.
🙂
It’s all about me.
How could I have been so blind? Of course it is all about you CabinGirl, it should never have even been in question.
I bow to your ego
🙂
I knew I liked you…
Thank you for sharing that 🙂 I’ve been reading Lee’s Tao of Jeet Kune Do since… well since a very long time. Martial arts has a “way”.
We do Judo here and so many confuse the arts with “kicking ass” and such when it’s actually learning how to live in a way that brings you and others confidence and peace of mind.
The best way to “win” a fight (well, we all know there is never a winner with violence) but the best way to win a fight is to avoid the fight. 🙂
He started it.
Whaaa!
😉
(Sorry, I can’t stop snarking. I’m out of control. Must leave now and go consume wine.)
Ah, the Chuang Tzu! You’ve made my day. I remembered the story but had forgotten the cook’s name. Are you a fellow Taoist-type frog?
Well, seeing as it’s such a stereotypical Taoist thing to resist “-isms”, I guess that makes me a Taoist. But, I know, that’s a paradox, so maybe I’m not. Then again, those Taoists love paradox. And so on.
If I had to pick an -ism of any sort, it would more likely be Syndicalism.
But, to the extent I subscribe to that theory, it’s really just an attempt to find the space between the joints, so I can slip my knife in. And, hopefully, the whole beast will just fall apart.
Short answer: a begrudging yes. 😉
Am I the only one who finds that map vaguely obscene and scary?
Okay, I’m the only one.
There is barely any snowpack. Where is all the snow? The ice?
Global Warming photo of the year. But… don’t tell ExxonMobile execs, they are after all the experts on this … instead of scientists.. Bush appointed Exxon to tell the world that global warming is a liberal hoax. ACKKKKKKK
God, you’re right, that’s why it looks so weird, isn’t it? (And how do you like being addressed as God?) That hadn’t actually registered with me. There was just something about it that was creepy and wrong.
Right about Rush/Kate and now this.
Wished I was wrong about it though.
Gods ARE infallible, you know.
for yourself! 😀
lol! But, ManE, I was!
You’re not seeing the face of some infamous Virgin in it, are you? Because whenever I look at stuff at like that I always see the face of Mae West. 😉
A shrink would have a blast with you and a Rorschach (sp?) test. 🙂
“What do you see in this, IndyLib?”
“Um, Mae West?”
“And this?”
“Mae West!”
“What about this one?”
“Uh, don’t you have any of Marilyn Monroe?”
I’m afraid I’ll be ‘corrupting’ my daughter tonight. Taking her to a club (Webster Hall) to see this group playing tonight (working video and audio links). She’s not yet 16 and the age limit is 18 – but we’re both fans. One of the few electronica groups that are capable to transition from studio to stage – I saw them at Irving Plaza 2 years ago.
Wat would you have done?
that is our job as parents is it not?? 🙂
From one who has two kids who LOVE Hedwig and the Angry Inch and I hope it returns to SF so we can THIS time take the kids to it instead of going by ourselves. … because I haven’t heard the end of it since! 🙂
I take them to Peter Himmleman concerts with us too. Once Wesley ended up on stage and Peter honored Danni’s artwork by showing it onstage and then doing an impromptu song about the kids… it turned into the Wes and Danni show that night.
So yeah – corruption is cool 🙂 Give them as many books and music and shows and museums to corrupt their creative minds with 🙂
Back when I played in a folk band, we have a stage tape from an Irish-theme pub we played that clearly reveals the kid voices in crowd reaction.
Loud, high-pitched music, themes of sex, violence and intoxication, in family settings–it’s been a mainstay of our heritage since the days when the state was the church.
Ah, musical corruption of one’s own offspring warms my heart. Cool band, BTW.
My older son was bragging to his social studies class that he’s seen the Grateful Dead complete with Jerry Garcia 8 times, Traffic 3 times, and of course he couldn’t leave out that he had backstage passes for Smashing Pumpkins at the ripe old age of three…I tease the younger one that he’s a souvenir from the Telluride Bluegrass Festival in June of 1994 (he was born in March 1995).
the older one went to Page/Plant in the 9th row and the younger one to Tom Petty/Jackson Browne in the 15th…..heh heh.
Zygoticrock concerts-cool!
One of my funniest pregnancy memories is from going to a Jefferson Starship (or whatever they were calling themselves) concert, where Mr. I-am- your-seventh-month-fetus-and-I-don’t-like-this kept kicking me because the music was so loud. I had to leave early to save my internal organs from certain doom!
that was supposed to be zygotic rock…
LOL! That’s a great one — have you told the now-child about his/her womb-tastes in music??
I think he’s heard that story…come to think of it, he’s still a little bossy…
Hey, I had a similar thing happen one Sunday when I was very pregnant and watching a Chiefs football game. I had it turned up loud and my baby kicked like crazy! At the time I thought it was because of the noise, but then later, when he became a soccer player, I thought. . .ah, practicing. I know what a soccer ball feels like.
My wife took our 13 year old daughter to see the Killers in Central Park (NYC) this summer. I wasn’t too worried about it since they went with 4 or five other adults.
I figured that between the other adults and my daughter they would make sure my wife didn’t get in any trouble!
Was just going to leave a bunch of ratings in the “Free 4 All Zone” and head out to enjoy the sunshine, but I saw that message and had to comment… lol
took my son to his first concert when he was around 8/9 to see the Doobie Brothers. Mom here got pretty wasted unfortunately. Glad those days are over.
We took my grandaughter to her first concert(so three generations together for music)when she was six…Dave Mathews Band. She rocked all night. She loves music, dancing and now is taking piano lessons. She has very long fingers and a very good ear. Picked it up very quickly. It will be fun to see if she progresses and stays interested in playing.
Something tells me neither of the above partners worry about waxing or altoids.
Good Morning Boo Man Comm.!
Just getting a Scavenger Hunt ready for the kids to do Friday night while I’m gone.
Is it wrong of me to have one of the clues that will be hidden the toilet paper roll dispenser say:
“This could have been easy
This could have been fast
If only you ever bothered
to take time to wipe your ass”
Okay it’s a pg-13 type of hunt 🙂 My kids have a sick sense of humor anyways… they gotta livign in this house.
Thanks for the heebie-jeebies, DJ…
to see if I can give you a minus 4. 😉
<shudder!>
It’s Spidey Porn! 🙂 Arachnidpornograpy
But my sincere apologies to all those who I just creeped and freaked. 🙂
Yeah, yeah…’sposed to be a Vernal Equinox phenomena…but, but, but…
The Bad Astronomer ‘splains it all here
Have a good one! Later.
Peace
And good morning again.
Up early today prepping for my very first teaching gig. Aiee. We’ll see how it goes. Then I squeezed the last few dots of toner out of the laser cartridge printing gray Xs over draft copies of the current novel. Once the toner starts streaking I use it up in my eternal quest to waste the least amount of paper possible. Now I’m procrastinating with tea and bloggies.
You go get ’em, Kelly!! You’ll be awesome, I have no doubt!
My first day teaching was almost 17 years ago to the day and I remember it all SOOO clearly!
May I ask, who what, and where you are teaching?
For the good wishes. I really appreciate them.
I’m teaching “Writing fantasy for the YA and adult markets” at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. I’ve got 15 students, which is a pretty good sized class for the Loft. They’re all volunteers, so they should be enthusiastic about the material.
I’ve done guest lecture gigs before, but never had total responsibility for a class. I’d been sort of idly been toying with the idea of offering a class there for a couple of years–a number of students in classes where I guest lectured have been bugging me to give it a try. I’d probably still be on the fence if the Loft hadn’t called and asked me to teach. So, now I’m taking the plunge. Again, aiee.
We can’t say:
Break a leg… or Knock em dead. 🙂
But I can say HOOORAY for you and “have a great day!!!!”
Procrastinating with blogging… no one here EVER does that.. No not ever never. 🙂 Professional Probloginator.
I appreciate the well-wishes. Heck, In my previous artistic life I was a theater grad, I’d take the “Break a leg.”
“Break a pencil” in your case? 😉
Best of luck — the spouse was looking at the Stanford Continuing Studies brochure, and actually said that now that we have money, I should take some of their writing offerings! Major league WOW there…
More like “Break a keyboard,” something I’ve done a few times. No fun at all on a laptop. I hope you get the chance to take those writing courses. I wish you success on that front.
One thing we don’t have here is much fall color. The midwest and NE definitely star at that.
You can see a bit of darkening on some of the trees on the bluff. In a few weeks we’ll have spotty tepid yellow-brown of the small fraction of deciduous trees among all our spruce and pines. We’re into our 6-7 month primary mode of 40’s AMs to 60’s PMs. Today is largely mist free–though there are pockets.
At some point it seems to be Christmas, at which point the trees already have buds on them. The talk-radio garden shows will come back on the air in February after their “winter layoff.”
One worrying thing is the bare peaks of those Olympic Mountains, now totally devoid of snow. My understanding is that the environment needs there to be a certain amount of snowpack there all year round.
If you look at the map spidey shared.. there is alot of snow/ice missing.
Cripes I’ve never seen the Olys without snow before.
Well thats what happen when ExxonMobile are in charge of researching global warming.
Right here
I took a trip to Alaska last month. This picture is in Denali National Park.
Ooo, I love heathery landscapes. Thanks for that,l’lil
You’re most welcome! You know what, Kansas, I thought it was heather and was told nope, it’s berries. Lots of kinds of berries. And the grizzlies eat tons and tons of them. They told me the names of other shrubbery too, there in the tundra, but I don’t remember it all. Mostly I just love the word shrubbery with its Pythonesque intimations.
The berries picture looks like the Maine blueberry barrens. They turn flaming scarlet in the fall as the bushes die off for the winter.
Wow, I bet the land around Thunderbird Falls is stunning right about now. Did you get the chance to take the trail out there? (I’d love to see pictures of that, hinthint, if you have any more to share!)
I’ve visited Alaska many times and spent a little time as a resident, and I think my favorite hike down in the Anchorage area is the climb to the summit of Flattop. But my favorite part of the state is the central part, the rural area all around Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley River, out Chena Hot Springs Road. Mmmm.
It was my first trip to Alaska, and the trip to Denali was a last minute decision at the end of our 10-day trip, so no time for hiking in the park though we did get off the shuttle and trudge along near the road for a while and catch the next bus. We had to get back to Anchorage that night and fly home the next day. Took not many pictures with my crappy little camera. I’ll post some more later.
Denali was stunning indeed, and we saw so much wildlife — snowshoe bunnies with their bunny feet turning white, fox eyes glowing in the headlights in our pre-dawn drive to the park headquarters to catch the shuttle, mother grizzly with three cubs, moose with giant rack of antlers crashing around the bushes, caribou with white butts tossing their antlers at each other, wolves playing under a bridge. And oh the fall colors. It was a thrill. We were lucky to have just the right timing. We hope to spend more time there some day.
In Anchorage we hiked up Flattop but not all the way ’cause my Anchorage friends had errands to run. Otherwise my daughter and I spent time on the Kenai Peninsula, hiking and took a wonderful boat tour of Kenai Fiords Nat’l Park where the bay was filled with sea otters and puffins nested on a ledge and humpback whales leapt around us and a porpoise followed in our wake and a bear caught a salmon in a stream on a rocky beach and walked into the woods with the fish in its mouth. It was a thrill I tell ya.
Here’s a view of the Kenai as we flew away from our dream vacation.
Here there be glaciers.
Oh it sounds divine. Thanks so much for walking me down a piece of Memory Lane — and for posting another gorgeous pic.
It was truly my pleasure!
and all I can think of is their excellent ice cream 🙂
from another board I participate in (a weight loss board, of all things!):
President Bush was visiting a primary school and he dropped in on one of the classes. They were in the middle of a discussion related to words and their meanings. The teacher asked the President if he would like to lead the discussion on the word tragedy”. So the illustrious leader asked the class for an example of a “tragedy”.
One little boy stood up and offered: “If my best friend, who lives on a farm, is playing in the field and a tractor runs over him and kills him that would be a tragedy.” “No,” said Bush, “that would be an accident.”
A little girl raised her hand: “If a school bus carrying 50 children drove over a cliff, killing everyone inside, that would be a tragedy.”
“I’m afraid not,” explained the president. “That’s what we would call a great loss.” The room went silent. No other children volunteered. Bush searched the room. “Isn’t there someone here who can give me an example of a tragedy?”
Finally at the back of the room a small boy raised his hand. In a quiet voice he said: “If Air Force One carrying you and VP Cheney was struck by a “friendly fire” missile and blown to smithereens that would be a tragedy.”
“Fantastic!” exclaimed Bush, “That’s right. And can you tell me why that would be a tragedy?”
“Well,” says the boy, “It has to be a tragedy because it certainly wouldn’t be a great loss and it probably wouldn’t be an accident either.”
OK I had to download those pics somewhere else.
I mean upload…