SeniorJunior

A Breed Apart A friend recently asked me about Airedales. My response was so succinct, I think I'll share it. Airedales are big (70-90 pounds), curly-coated lovebugs. They were bred originally in Great Britain to catch the various critters in the granaries and on the docks. So they are “self-directed” hunters, i.e. hard to train as pointers, sitters, etc. But, man, can they catch squirrels, chipmunks, and the like. They are very people-centered, loyal and affectionate. Every one of them I’ve met would like to be a lap dog, even at 80 pounds. Oooof . Jake & Friend If smitten with Airedale need, check out the Southwest Airedale Rescue site . Read a warm, mushy true Airedale saga right here .

I love to quote myself. At least I'm sure of the source. Back on June 7, 2006 I was in upper umbrage about the demonizers from the right: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Michael Medved, et al. I took a special swipe at the Queen of Queazy Ann Coulter. Now with her latest spew about Jews, I would like to repeat myself. The Mother Superior of demonizers on the right is Ann Coulter. Her new book "The Church of Liberalism - Godless" paints all "Libs" with one tar soaked brush. She could have worked for any of the great Demonizers of the past. She would have been a star of the Inquisition or - need I say it - she would have been a fine lieutenant for Joseph Goebbels. She gets the right wing Medal of Honor for slimy propaganda. She is the Big Lie boogie queen. There, I feel better. If you want to read the whole rant, click   this

BPA UPDATE In my first post on this worrisome pollutant that is universal in our "better living through chemistry" environment, I asked, "Do you recognise polycarbonate plastic when you see it?" That's the plastic that leaches out the bad stuff BPA. Here's a picture from the September 29 Science News of some examples. See anything you might use? What if the current diabetes epidemic, the scourge of fat folks and the stubborn persistence of cancer are all made worse by this handy kind of plastic? Do you know any kids who look like this? Poor baby. She's going to have an almost impossible time losing that weight as she grows up IF her obesity was caused by BPA - and there is a distinct chance it was if her mother was exposed during pregnancy. Although the chemical companies are doing all they can to keep us from hearing the bad news about this omnipresent plastic, it is slowly leaking out - so to speak. The latest article in Science News is a go

The Shower Curtain Wonder I don't really like shower curtains. They are forever sticking to my shoulder or my rump and feeling totally icky in the process. Especially in hotels. Who knows whose shoulders and rumps have left their spore on that slimy plastic? Someone read my mind. Can you tell how this shower curtain is bowing out? At shoulder and rump level, it's a good three inches outside the edge of the tub, completely out of the way! That bowed piece of metal at the top, a shower curtain rod for the 21st century, holds the curtain well away from contact. It's all made possible by the simplest technology. A small block of aluminum with a slot for the bar. Made in Taiwan, surprise ! The modest traveler's hotel Days Inn in Glendale, CA has these. Maybe the whole chain has them by now. My personal thanks to the genius who thought this was worth doing. I'm now a loyal customer because of it.

[Update: In "Comments" at the bottom of this is a dramatic, first-person, poetic account of one man's experience in WWII. It challenges how any war is depicted, no matter how well it is done. It also challenges the "Greatest Generation" idea. Most of all it reflects how devastating war is to individuals. Read it.] Well Said There is the war (Iraq, Afghanistan and, God forbid, Iran) and "The War," Ken Burns' powerhouse World War II documentary. Being of an age that made me a kid during the actual WWII years, seeing the newsreels that Burns uses so effectively, knowing the relatives and neighbors with dead and wounded kids, doing the paper drives, living with rationing and the whole nine yards, I have the visceral response to "The War" of memories revived*. But beyond that I have an even more powerful response. I was pleased to find an articulate, passionate commentary that captured nearly every element of this other response of min

Back from Extinction, or Just a Curtain Call? Yesterday, just outside our courtyard gate, sitting on a rock and trying to soak up some fine fall New Mexico sun, a baby horny toad! I was stunned. So I grabbed my trusty Cannon and shot this. Imagine me at 20 feet long, puny human! With all the news about them disappearing, I hardly knew what to do next. So I just moved the little darlin' to another rock less in the way of our foot and dog traffic. Should I have put it in a terrarium? Taken it to a toad conservatory? Shipped it to TCU? Finally I decided because we keep a chemical-free environment here in the mountains (7300 feet) it would be as safe here as anywhere. And clearly its momma and poppa were doing OK somewhere nearby. So I'm thrilled. Those "horned toads" are really lizards , but to me they are little dinosaurs, and to have some roaming the homestead is an honor.

An honest Rather mistake Dan Rather's $70 mil lawsuit against CBS might be something of a biggie in terms of defining "the corporate media," it seems. I strongly feel this label needs defining, since the Right blithely labels the very same companies "the liberal media." (Talk jockey Rush Limbaugh calls them the "drive-by media," confusing all but hardcore dittoheads.) The most exhaustive review of the whole Rather/CBS/Whitehouse/Pentagon substance is in Salon today (Sept 27, '07) as Sidney Blumenthal gets after it in gate . He addresses the point that has seriously bugged me ever since the "W stiffs his National Guard Service" story was smothered under allegations of one piece of evidence being bogus, the memo allegedly from Col. Jerry Killian. That point is that the story about Bush skipping his duty was true and proven by many other pieces of evidence. In the context of the whole "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" dirty tr