I discovered this little guy a few weeks ago growing among the tentacles of the Godzilla geranium.
I have no idea how it got there, though I might have thrown a few excess seeds around after I planted some in indoor pots. A friend has suggested a bird could have dropped it. It is a little more than 2 feet tall while the ones I started in pots are almost 8 feet now. This one had to have started from a seed outdoors some time later than the ones indoors. Incidentally that geranium is more than five years old. I can't remember the first year I put it in, but it comes indoors every winter and it dies and then starts up again.
According to Dee Brown in his book "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee," when the Native Americans of the northern Great Plains first encountered white men they used to word "wasichu" to describe them. This at the time became the literal translation. However years later when the first Lakota saw the Atlantic Ocean they used the same word, "wasichu." At that time it became clear that the word did not mean white men, it meant something without end, something ongoing.
Now Native Americans are protesting a pipeline planned to go through their reservation. Mind you these are people attempting to protect their own land and peacefully at that. Will we never stop killing, stealing land, breaking treaties with the people whose land this was before we got here? Is that part of "wasichu" as well? Somewhere this has to stop. (Note: an earlier version of this post reported the governor of North Dakota had give a shoot-to-kill order. That is not true.
September 1 and not a hint of termination dust on the mountains. We often see it as early as mid August.
My friend, author Tom Walker, who watches this sort of thing, reported the first frost of the year today (8/29) at his home near Denali National Park. That's around 63 degrees North Latitude. I am at about 61.5 N so a little time yet. It did get down to 42 last night, though, so it's coming, but this week we are still setting heat records during the day. Still, I can almost hear that new snowmachine in the shed rumbling in anticipation. And on the drive to town, there were the sandhill cranes in the pasture stopping on their way south.
And, look who showed up here, almost right on schedule.
And half of that one-fifth are probably trying to write the great American novel.
Just about everyone I know has used one. This is mine freshly painted in June.
This is more than an hour long but let it play in the background while you do other stuff. Two of the greatest jamming.
In my partying days my beverage of choice was what I called "cheap writer's wine." I learned one night that most people didn't catch what I was talking about. Then one day it came up and I had to explain it and a friend who'd heard me say it for years said, "oh that's what you mean." Yup, the wine of Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg and Kerouac. The nectar of creativity.
Now comes validation. This came up on the facebook page of Hippies from the '60s and '70s:
Right after finishing their set at New York's Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and on the same day they made their first appearance on the cover of LIFE magazine, the Beatles returned to their suite at the Hotel Delmonico to meet journalist Al Aronowitz who introduced them to his friend Bob Dylan. John Lennon asked the folk singer what he'd like to drink, and Dylan replied, "cheap wine." Isn't validation wonderful?
FROM NASA EARTH:Bubbles, bubbles, and more bubbles, in a steady stream. Many lakes in the boreal regions of Alaska are emitting methane, the product of decomposing organic matter left over from the Ice Age. Thawing permafrost has caused areas of land to slump and fill up with water, creating these bodies of water called thermokarst lakes. The water then exacerbates the thawing, expanding the size of the lake and producing even more methane. In the early cold season, ice covers the lakes and traps methane in large pockets just beneath the surface.
University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists working as part of NASA’s #EarthExpedition Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) find and measure the methane gas in these pockets seep-by-seep and lake-by-lake. ABoVE combines precise methane measurements from individual lakes with satellite data that can monitor lakes like these across the Arctic, to accurately model how much methane sub-lake seeps are adding to the atmosphere.
Valdez airport reported 79 degrees. Going on again the next day, 69 at the house here. More records the next day, 77 in Anchorage and it hit 80 here but that was in the sun.
Best entertainment news of the day: Another season of "Shameless" is coming to Netflix in September.
ICYMI: Every summer the Arctic ice cap melts down to what scientists call its "minimum" before colder weather begins to cause ice cover to increase. The first six months of 2016 have been the warmest first half of any year in our recorded history of surface temperature (which go back to 1880). Data show that the Arctic temperature increases are much bigger, relatively, than the rest of the globe. http://go.nasa.gov/2brmSnK
Hypocrites: Today sports folks interview John Carlos and Tommy Smith about their protest at the Mexico City Olympics and as almost heroic at the same time they are horrified about Colin Kaepernick. They were just as outraged at those two raising their fists at the Olympics, saying many of the same things. If you don't like my country get out. Freedom of speech is all right as long as you agree with me.
A few years ago, shortly before the last presidential election, I used the word "Obamacare" in a headline. The big boss editor changed it and chastised me because he thought it carried a negative connotation.
I disagreed because the way I had seen it being used at the time it appeared to be turning around to a positive. I supposed I wanted that to continue and in the back of my mind I thought the more it was used, the more it would grow in acceptance. There wasn't much sense in arguing the point: I wasn't going to win it.
Some time later as the program itself was going through its birthing pains and its advantages becoming exposed, I wrote on here how I thought Republicans had made a big mistake calling it Obamacare because as it became more and more accepted, they would have to live with it as a constant reminder how the president they hated so much would come to mind anytime anyone mentioned the Affordable Care Act, sort of a living, enduring memorial.
Today the term showed up in headlines a couple of times and I got a good laugh thinking how every time some Repug sees it the politician must cringe. My expectation had come true.
The congressional GOP used the word like a profanity and wasted millions of dollars trying to vote it out more than 50 times. But the hatred continues and some folks will cut off their own tails rather than admit it's a success. Take Aetna Insurance for instance. Aetna benefited tremendously from Obamacare bringing in something like $7 billion overall since the program began. Still the company plans to pull out of it blaming the president for not knuckling under to their demands to change.
The bottom line is the health insurance industry cares more about the bottom line than it does about actually serving people and if they can blame a hated president for their problems, more the better. Single-payer health insurance isn't too far down the road.
Meanwhile every time the name Obamacare pops up they have to cringe at the living memorial to something and someone they say they hate so much. But they still aren't letting go.
The other day a campaign flyer came from our US senator who's running for re-election. Lisa Murkowski is generally considered one of the more moderate Republicans, but to my mind she is just quieter about the more outrageous things she supports in the Senate. The flyer listed bullet points of what she thought were her positive accomplishments in office. Right there in big type she is pointing out how she is proud of voting against Obamacare. Some accomplishment, 50 votes and millions wasted but what's the end result?
The very name she and her fellow obstructionsts hate shows up on her own campaign literature, a blazing memorial to a progressive step in America from a well-liked president and nothing she can do about it. You go, Lisa. Far away, please. And the rest of us will suffer through better health care with a name that turned from a negative to a positive. It's always pleasant to be right once in a while.
– From the College of Rock and Roll knowledge. On Aug. 26, 1970, The Allman Brothers Band was playing a concert at the Miami Beach Convention Center. During the same time, Eric Clapton was in Miami recording his new project Derek and the Dominos. Clapton decided to catch the ABB. After the show, Eric and Duane Allman started talking and Eric invited invited Duane to come to Criteria Studios, were he was recording at. Allman was happy just to observe, but Clapton insisted he grab his guitar and play. The sessions began that very night where they reportedly jammed until the next evening. It stands to this day as one of the most famous collaborations in Rock and Roll history. Think "Layla"!!!!! 46 years ago today.
Some things in life defy politics and borders. We just had the Olympics as an example. Here is another. Incase it's not common knowledge, each member of the National Hockey League championship team gets to take the Stanley Cup home for a couple of days. Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins took it to Russia this week and displayed it at the Russian HockeyHall of Fame.
I've been paying into Social Security for about 60 years. Now some asshats in the neighborhood of half my age come along and want to cut it. I want to cut them.
Here's a phrase we're probably going to get tired of fairly quickly: Alt-right
Facebook and other social platforms helped distribute the message of an armed militia standoff against the feds in Oregon earlier this year. Now, it's being used by prosecutors to build a criminal case against them.
Donald Trump calls on Hillary to shut down her foundation. Meanwhile, we’re all still begging him to choose a more natural color for his.
Bryce who? Baseball MVP holds Olympic swimmer's medals while she throws out the first pitch. At this point in human progression, she's probably more famous worldwide than he is.
My friend Tom has only 10 of these left. PM him on facbook to get one.
Best comment today so far, Rachel Maddow: Vice President Biden went to the three tiny Baltic countries today to assure them of US support. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined US forces in the Middle East after 9/11 under Article V of the NATO agreement. Recently though, presidential candidate Donald Trump has said the US under him might not honor that agreement and leave those countries on their own if Russia should attack them. Biden's mission when he met with leaders of the three countries was to tell them Trump didn't know what he was talking about and assure them the US would honor the agreement and come to aid the countries if needed. The whole trip was to address a mess created by Trump. Maddow's comment? "Cleanup on aisle five!"
Trump has made frequent use of his properties in his presidential bid. In July, the campaign doled out $773,000 to reimburse various Trump-owned companies for expenses. The bulk of that went to TAG Air, the company that owns Trump’s private planes.
In all, nearly $7.7 million has been paid out to Trump companies or Trump family members to cover campaign expenditures, filings show.
From Vanity Fair magazine comes a report Trump actually brought up the idea with NBC of continuing his show "The Apprentice" from the Oval Office in the White House after he is elected.
It's about the high cost of epi pens
Several reports say Trump paid for office rent in one of his buildings out of his own pocket early in the campaign. Now that he is using donated money he quadrupled the rent. The guy is gouging his own campaign for his personal profit.
The roundup file was getting kind of long so I suppose it's
time for another one.
This first one is going to take some explaining. In July a
boat caught fire on a Minnesota lake and passengers abandoned it. A guy using a
fly board hovered over the fire and put it out in about two minutes. Basically
a guy puts his feet into boots on the apparatus. Exhaust water from a wave
runner is pumped through the device and downward which lifts the rider above
the surface.
It's going on two years since Alaskans voted to legalize
marijuana and there hasn't het been a single ounce of it sold legally yet. Meanwhile Colorado is funding schools and help for the homeless from taxes on pot sales. And: Oregon collects $25.5M in taxes on recreational marijuana in first 7 months of 2016
According to milklife.com, nine out of ten US Olympic
athletes grew up drinking milk. Now, about that tenth athlete, what did that
one drink? And how was this ever polled?
July 2016 was the hottest month on record in Anchorage,
Alaska, with an average temperature of 62.7 degrees F.
Jay North who played Dennis the Menace on TV turned 65 Aug.
3. Not so menacing now, are you?
Speaking of which: Here's a stat for
you: Of all the people aged 65 or older who have ever lived, more than half are
alive today. Think about that one.
Jim Thorpe the famed Olympics athlete, still holds a major
league baseball record – most walk-off home runs with 14.
Thanks to KFC, Fried Chicken Sunscreen is a thing that exists
So George Zimmerman was introducing himself in a restaurant
by bragging he was the guy who shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Another fellow
described only as "big" came over and punched him in the face. Poor
George had to call 911 for police help. So far no charges against the guy who
punched him. That's all from gopocalypse.com.
Given that Rio de Janeiro stands just about on the Tropic of
Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere, the summer Olympics this year were
actually staged during winter.
Pedal Forrest, pedal! Someone wearing a bushy fake beard and
a red baseball cap robbed a bank in Anchorage, Alaska, and escaped on a
bicycle.
The US men's Olympic volleyball team had
an official team psychologist. Really? Is this a thing now?
Kenny Baker, the man
under the dome of the Astromech droid R2-D2, died at the age of 81. He
portrayed R2-D2 in the original six Star Wars films
All those medals awarded in the Olympics and not
one for participation.
A cow moose was spotted on the beach of the
Arctic Ocean. (photo by Ted
Jones, no relation)
There's a street near Wasilla, Alaska, called
Knick Knack Mud Shack Road. Honest. There's an elementary school at 7068.
Facebook thinks I might like a story headlined "Olympic
dream crushed by penis."
According to one source Ramen, not cigarettes, is the new black-market currency in US
prisons
Scotland goes a whole day on wind power alone. Portugal goes four days on renewable. In the United States a Tesla went 400 miles on a single charge.
According to Libertarian think tank the Cato
Institute, Alaska ranks among the top five states for personal freedom.
Trending on facebook: Somebody named Farrah
Abraham who's listed as a reality TV star says she doesn't date black men. Why
is this news? Also, for the record, I don't date black men either.
Tony Perkins,
president of the anti-gay religious lobbying group the Family
Research Council, who says God sends natural
disasters to punish gays had his home destroyed during Louisiana "biblical"
flooding in mid August.
Here's how a similar program went in Florida a couple of years ago. It has been the same in every state whee it's been tried but they keep doing it.
Despite similar results in other states, the North Carolina Legislature overroode the governor's veto and voted to start testing welfare recipients for drugs. Result? 0.3, that's zero point three, per cent of those in the welfare pool used drugs. Even the legislators had to agree it was a waste of money. Seven states have active programs and they all show similar results. Despite the evidence several other states have bills pending to begin testing. The results have been documented and they bring into question the cost reported in this meme for Florida. Most costs were considerably lower but the percentage of positives was about the same. They were considerably lower than the national average for drug use which is 9.4 per cent. They ranged from 0.002 to 8.3 with all but one below 1 percent. Here's a good roundup of the testing programs nationwide.
And then there's this:
Midnight on a Sunday and all of a sudden it has to be pancakes. Imagine what it would be like if Alaska ever gets around to letting folks sell that pot we voted to legalize almost two years ago.
A meme came up today asking if anybody remembers a dance called the stroll. It showed up in my news feed because it was liked by someone I think I did the stroll with in high school. Her response: "That's funny, but I'm sure we did! "
To begin with generally when a moose gets mowed down by a
car, truck or train, Troopers call a charirty group and members come out to
butcher the moose and pass the meat on to folks in need. But the butchers sometimes don't get there quickly enough.
One winter in the early 80s I found myself living among a
group of dog mushers near Willow. Three dog lots were involved and my main
chore involved a shovel.
One night we were flopped out watching television after all
the chores had been completed. The phone interrupted us and one of the fellows
jumped up and answered. This guy was a nervous excitable type who spoke with a
thick Eastern European accent. All he spoke into the phone was: "What?
Where?" Now, understand this is an excitable guy, so almost anything would have sounded like a major crisis. He pulled on his jacket and raced for the door, the word
"moose" lingering in the smoke of his hasty exit.
All went quiet for almost two hours until we heard the guy's
truck race back into the yard and onto the dog lot. By the time we got there
all we could hear was a string of what must have been serious swearing in that
Eastern European language. He had already jumped out of the truck and was kicking
at something on the groundThat
turned out to be a moose head and part of a neck and our friend kicked it as
far as he could. Immediately the gang of puppies roaming the yard attacked and
that was that, except for the story.
In between guttural thickly accented grunts of profanity
this is what we discerned listening to our friend. He had arrived at the moose
dead by the roadside before the charity butchers, but in dog mushing country word
of mouth was faster than today's internet. Another musher pulled up at the same
time and apparently quite an argument ensued.
Neither of them would give up claim to the moose nor could
they arrive at a fair way to split the meat between them.
In the end the other musher hitched the hind end of the
moose to his truck leaving our friend to latch onto the head. Then they drove
off in opposite directions. Apparently the weak link in a moose carcass is the
neck because part of that and the head were all our friend came away with. In
his anger he didn't even stop to load it into his truck, just dragged it home
bouncing along the road behind him.
Three of us started laughing and making bad jokes, which
only infuriated him more. Our friend stormed off and we didn't see him until
the next morning.
Out in the dog lot while he was feeding he came across the
head where the puppies had dragged it. He gave it one last kick and it
disappeared into the woods never to be spoken of again. Until now.
Dead moose along Alaska's roadsides is serious business, but stealing might be too strong a word for the aftermath.
Sunflowers are about 7 feet tall now and there are blossoms on all of them, but so far only this one is fully open.
Best tweet of the day so far (from the Anchorage Police Department): "Three men charged with kidnapping. Serge Azede II and William Burgess are still outstanding." Even after a kidnapping, still better than others.
Best headline of the day so far:
When Mongolian Wrestling Coaches Get Angry, They Get Naked
More people tired of Trump shenanigans
This woman has her own Olympic sport and she sure does stick the landing.
I'm not much for promoting businesses but this Midas shop deserves a shoutout. Last year I had a couple of tires go flat on my four-wheeler. I took each in turn to the local Midas and both times they repaired the tires, including putting in tubes, and didn't charge me anything. At the time I thanked them and I figured in time I would take some business their way. So yesterday I took Jeep over there for a lube job. I don't think I was even there a full half-hour and again, no charge. All they said was come back when you break something. Did I go through a time warp or something?
Trump spent 49 seconds 'helping' unload toys off of a truck today.
Here's why the President didn't go to Louisiana yet
I discovered this little guy a few weeks ago growing among the tentacles of the Godzilla geranium.
John Dingell
