Monday, March 31, 2008

bath, maine, that is...

You know how those Appalachian types save Saturday nights for their bath? Well, I was in Bath this past Saturday, and...


Front Street, a look downtown with the famed Bath Iron Works crane in the distance...


The Patten Free Library on the left; the old Bath Y being the brick building down the hill on the right...


The park in front of the library...


The old Carlton Bridge (with the stantions) and that, uhm, newer bridge in front of it...


Bath Iron Works at night.

And for an afternoon, the 70s were today.

Saturday, March 29, 2008

the nats' new stadium...



Check out the cool video (courtesy USAToday). Knowing the area as I did in my Realtor days, the Nats' new home can only boost activity in that area.

Missing D.C...

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

spot on, i'd say...

Just when you thought it was safe to hate on John McCain:
I must say, I'm a little envious. If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.

It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks.


-- President George W. Bush, March 13, 2008



Only a fool or a fraud sentimentalizes the merciless reality of war.


-- Sen. John McCain, March 26, 2008
Hard to say which of the two Dubya is more of; assuming, for the sake of this exercise, he's not both.

h/t to Salon's War Room...

Monday, March 24, 2008

ah, the illusion...

By exercising daily I can make myself look 28 again, eh? Ah, yes! '89 was indeed the summer of love. Oddly, however, if I can but gaze upon a lovely creature, who is, say, cavorting about a small stage before a few mirrors and lights while applying her considerable talents against, say again, a brass pole, then, by Jesus! -- I don't know what it is! -- I just have to satisfy this abrupt desire to go push some weights; stretch out on a soft but firm elastic ball; ride a reclining stationary cycle -- we've all seen the footage, am I not coherent here?

My god, this girl is an athlete: muscular and strong, though soft and aloof; magnificently proportioned; mesmerizing...  climbing and twirling and gyrating, gently levelling, landing. It's all so sublimely rich and luxuriant, even as my dollar bills vanish before my eyes. And when her distant pupils turn to focus on mine, I am made as lost -- in an abyss, in a dream, in a lie.

And here I am now at my table, watching her stand in line for her coffee or her tea and her cookie. She wears her glasses invitingly, along the bridge leaving her baby blues unobstructed, looking academic. She may never have existed before this moment but she's here now.

Or she's over there.

I'll be off to the gym now.

idaho repubs put up a squirrel for craig's seat...

Aspiring Idaho politician changes name to ‘Pro-Life’

... uhm, which is not to be confused w/them putting a squirrel up... uhm, his seat... although they'd be welcome to try...

... but then the squirrel would have to have been very very bad.

smoke & mirrors + dog & pony = causas beli... ?

So now it starts:
Petraeus: Iran did it!
We saw it coming. We've seen it before. They could stand and look you in the eye and say "We're lying thru our teeth!" Do a 360 in-place, then say "this time it's so." And now they'll go out and do it all over again.

And they are.

Friday, March 21, 2008

from your other office...

The recession is an easy hook upon which to hang a hat of unemployment. Ergo, your operations, not to mention your backside, can be found at the local internet cafes: L'il Dog in Brunswick, and, today, Cafe Creme in Bath -- your offices, I see. In between I'll find you at the Y either in the post-nautilus area or in the pool, and, hey!, sometimes in the gym shooting baskets (no running, thank you, time & gravity & friction!).

Meanwhile, you crank out emails w/resume attached to various leads on Craigslist; making appointments with agencies in Portland, and, starting Monday, Bath/Brunswick. The disability income is no more and the savings is winnowing now that coverage has been marked for Cobra retroactive to the end of February, all of which is decidely more expensive and carrying with it no regard for your elegibility for unemployment. Is any of this supposed to make sense?

Oh, forgot to mention the insurance company decided to cover but 1/5 of the hospitalization.

Other'n that, you're fine!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

father, forgive me...

Mel Gibson trying to convert Britney to his screwball brand of Catholicism?

And did anybody else notice Tom Cruise lurking behind the potted palm in the corner?

Monday, March 17, 2008

iraqi soldiers want the *republicans* out...

... not that there's anything wrong with that...
“Just to be perfectly clear here, I did ask them are you following any of the republican candidates?…Do you want to talk about John McCain? Within that whole group, not one wanted a republican in the US presidential seat. They were all for a democrat. They were all for that type of change because they said they were living a republican war.”
Would surely like to see Barack Obama pound McCain over the head with this, i.e., after he beats Hillary's ass.

----------
Update:  so the emphasis of this story isn't lost on the slower of wit: the iraqi soldiers didn't say they wanted americans out, so much as republicans...  

finally, something we all got in common...

mccain's whole campaign in a nutshell...

Benen gets the gold star...
So, McCain needs an insurance policy. If conditions on the ground in Iraq offer some optimism, he can tell voters, “See? I was right; all we need to do is stay the course and reap the rewards.” If conditions are deteriorating, he can tell voters, “See? I was right; our enemies are acting up to influence the U.S. elections. They’re afraid I’ll win and keep Bush’s policy going indefinitely, so they’re sending a message.”

Heads I win, tails you lose.

sunday monday...

Spaghetti sauce by g., bottle of Chilean Shiraz, John Adams on HBO, then Harold & Maude, followed by La Boheme on the iTunes and now episodes of Law & Order on Bravo -- she's Robo-Gondey!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

another saturday night...

It is good to see some of my friends and family check in, by way of my blog, to see how I'm doing. They can call me on my cell of course, but burning minutes isn't always the best way to say, I'm fine, how're you? How's the wife. And the kids? -- you know the drill.

The short of it is I'm getting better. My last visit to the cardiologist was precisely that, I fear: my last. The insurance is expired, this after getting 12 weeks beyond my departure from work in order to visit a hospital room for 9 nights & 10 days back in December. Since then, I've been taking my meds semi-religiously, maybe missing all of two days total. The cardiologist expressed a smile when I told him I'm getting bills from the hospital now, charging me $441 for everytime I visit him. Geez! The EKG takes all of, what, 30 seconds? "Is that what it costs to see me?" he says. "Gonna have to ask for a raise."

"Don't do that," I tell 'im, "they'll only jack me higher."

Christ! I could pay less for more quality time with an escort. And, uhm, hmm... There's an idea.

He was stoic when I said I didn't know when I could come back in. "Well, our door is always open."

Yah, thanks, doc. Check ya' later on the driving range, eh?

So I've just received my last disability check and now I'll have to switch over to Cobra, payments of which will raise me from $120 to, ballpark, $400-a-month. Love that American health coverage -- not!

But I have a month's worth of meds with renewal for another month, but the doc was emphatic when he suggested I shouldn't continue unobserved, i.e., without a doctor advising me along the way. I interpret that to mean I shouldn't continue at all. Just drop dead, eh? I mean, my hospital bills are coming in like snowflakes on an impending Nor'easter, and I haven't even seen the bill for the cardioversion procedure I underwent a few weeks ago. Should be for a few grand, I'd bet. Meanwhile, moths fly out & about whenever I open my wallet. Did you not hear me say "disability??"

I smile as I rue my situation. It's all so sublime. The credit cards are shelved. Everybody wants a piece of my buhttox for lack of the greenbacks forthcoming. I watch Hillary pound her "Universal! Health! Care!" mantra, knowing well how full of shit she is. The Clinton motus operandi is to capitulate well before they have to and get less for the people than they could have. And this was before she was #2 on the insurance industry's Christmas card list. Bottom line for America, my good people, is that outstanding medical balances will ever exceed the coverage they ought otherwise to provide. And she insists it to be "affordable." Like, big good goddamn deal!

Ah, the white tea at the Little Dog is, at least, some comfort. Shame the place closes in 3 minutes.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

here, y'see... !?

What you get when you don't fight back...

duhyeww buhleev'h... !?

Long overdue:
"This ought to clear up any misunderstanding about our interest and the committee's role," Grassley said. "We have an obligation to oversee how the tax laws are working for both tax-exempt organizations and taxpayers."

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

turnabout's fairplay...

Remember when Isiah Thomas said Larry Bird'd be an ordinary NBAer if he wasn't white? Well ol' Geraldine's been caught in the same briar patch.

By the way, my question here applies to Hillary's surrogates too.

Monday, March 10, 2008

the little dog says hello too...

Coming to you from Brunswick, Maine, now. My mom's dying of cancer and she has anytime from now to a year from now. In any event, I'm to look after her, for her, for the siblings... and for me. I'm available and I'm here. There it is. Put me to use.

She still provides professional counseling services, although now, given her elderly status, its for gratus, or pro bono, or for free. In any event, I'm to be out of the house when she is seeing patients. All well and good, I like it here at the Little Dog Cafe, and Brunswick is a charming little town. Let's see what one can make of that, shall we?

Friday, March 07, 2008

strange, stranger, strangest bedfellows...

Chris "Tweety" Matthews touting Hillary over Obama is like the Southern Baptists touting the Israelites over the Palestinians, that is until the Rapture cometh to pass, and when, of course, all the Jews can then go straight to hell!

Is it me or is Prez politics, circa 2008, growing more totally fucked by the day?

The hour?

here's a question...

What's the over/under, that is to say the before/after Pennsylvania betting as to when Hillary chooses to out-nigger George Wallace?

Thursday, March 06, 2008

arlen specter, that pillar of... well, we all know what he's a pillar of...

The senior senator from Pennsylvania; wielder of the Warren Commission whitewash; trasher of Anita Hill for favor of Clarence "The cross-eyed uncle" Thomas; and now harrasser of the NFL, because one had thought he was an Eagles fan who resented the Pats win in '04... But Nooooooo... !!
[T]he object of Specter's NFL ire has been the NFL Network and its exclusive relationship with DirecTV. The Philadelphia-based Comcast cable company is in a war with the NFL over whether they can charge their customers for the NFL Network, unlike DirecTV.
Uh huh! Doing the bidding of another fascist, anti-net neutrality media corp.

We won't mention any names, we'll just... *cough* *COUGH* *COMCAST!!*

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

super tuesdaying it...

Obama to win Texas and Vermont; Hillary, Ohio & Rhode Island. So it is written, etc.

Given her endorsement of John McCain over Barack Obama, or her hemming & hawing on whether he's a Muslim or not, or her piling on when John McCain conspires with the right-wing Canadian prime minister to take down a fellow Democrat and fellow American, I reckon I don't have to say, "She's a Republican, ferChrissakes!" and be seen as barking up the wrong tree.

----------
Update: Naahm's "Think you better get out that eraser for what is written" taunt notwithstanding, dig this:
It's looking more and more like Obama will officially win Texas.

winter in new england...

Cellphone shots...


"Thicket Sunset" - Troy, NH; Dec. '07



"Homestead" - Hadley, Mass.; Jan. '08



"Walking" - Hadley, Mass.; Jan. '08



"Thru the Dining Room Window" - Troy, NH; Dec. '07



"The Bahn" - Troy, NH; Dec. '07



"The Bahn at Sunset" - Troy, NH; Dec. '07



"Dogs With Frisbee" - Troy, NH; Dec. '07



"A Peak Over the Dashboard" - Hadley, Mass.; Feb. '08



"Still!?" - Hadley, Mass.; Feb. '08



"Road Work" - Northampton, Mass.; Feb. '08



"91N" - Whately, Mass.; Feb. '08



"Bluster" - Greenfield, Mass.; Feb. '08



"Rt. 47" - S. Hadley, Mass.; Mar. '08



"Mt. Holyoke" - S. Hadley, Mass.; Mar. '08



"Homestead in Profile" - Hadley, Mass.; Jan. '08

Sunday, March 02, 2008

somebody had t'be...

Rewriting some text and came across this piece on da Vinci. I was impressed:
Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man" or universal genius, a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equalled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.
So I was just thinking: Would I prefer to be known as this or as something more akin to, say, the Son of God?

I mean, it's, like, a toss-up.

Saturday, March 01, 2008

begging the question as to whom, or what, was crispier, dali or the lobster... ?


From Wiki:
Lobster Telephone (also known as Aphrodisiac Telephone) is a surrealist object, created by Salvador Dalí in 1936. Dalí wrote of lobsters and telephones in his book The Secret Life, demanding to know why, when he asked for a grilled lobster in a restaurant, he was never presented with a telephone.
I've often wondered the same thing.

the enemy of my enemy...

Wow! John McCain has, like, totally stepped into a big pile of inorganic biofudge:
According to [Catholic League Blowhole Bill] Donohue, Hagee has "made a lot of money off bashing the Catholic Church and blames Catholics for the Holocaust." What does it say about McCain that he would embrace such a figure? "This doesn't speak well for him. He's tolerating an endorsement by an inveterate bigot, and it's been brought to his attention."
Here're the strait-talker's options: 1) He doesn't repudiate Hagee and he loses the Catholic and, by extension, the, uhm, Latino vote... BIG time! (And do we really fear traditional media will ignore the bellowings of Bill Donohue?); or 2) He does repudiate Hagee, losing his money & organization while getting hammered by him, as well as by those other blowholes Rush Limbaugh & Sean Hannity, essentially the Republican base.

Of course this is fresh off McCain throwing that Cunningham bozo under the clown car.

Here's betting they bring back the Morman.

checkmate... !

Obama goes Queen/Bishop on 'er...
"This is about what you say when you answer that phone. What judgment you show...She, John McCain and George Bush gave the wrong answer."
Ooo! Snap!

----------
Update: If I'm dozing, and she gazintah her "I'm mellllting!" moment -- wake me... ? please!?