07:58 – We are living in a temperate rain forest, literally. We had another 1.9 inches (4.8 cm) of rain overnight. I don’t know what our official total is for July-to-date, but according to our rain gauge we’re already over 8 inches (20 cm). That takes us up to about 20 inches (50 cm) in the last six weeks, which would ordinarily be what we’d get in six months. We haven’t had any serious flooding locally, but there has been pretty bad flooding elsewhere in the state.
CNN posted an article on Spotify’s list of the 10 most common mondegreens. Their #1 was Blinded by the Light (wrapped up like a douche), with Jimi Hendrix at #2 (‘scuse me while I kiss this guy). But they didn’t mention the one track with the one line that’s been more mondegreened than any other I can think of: Clapton’s Cocaine, where the original “she don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie. Cocaine” has been butchered at least a dozen different ways: “she don’t like”, “she don’t mind”, “shoot your line”, “she does lines”, “sheep don’t lie”, “she don’t fly”, “it’s all right”, “shit don’t lie”, and on and on.
Funny, just yesterday driving to LA and listening to KLOS, Clapton’s “Captain Midnight” was playing. I still hear it that way even though I know better.
Ah, well. The first time I heard Kind of a Drag on the car radio, I thought it was a Canada Dry commercial.
My faves are “my goat knows the bowling score” and “The ants are my friends, they’re blowing in the wind, the ants are blowing in the wind”.
I saw a vintage “Drink Canada Dry” sign the other day, and as one who has tried, let me tell you how difficult it is to actually drink the 2nd largest country in the world “dry”.
I thought Canada was fourth in land area, behind Russia, China, and the US.
No matter. Once the US annexes Canada, the combination will be by far the world’s largest. It’s true that Obama misspoke when he referred to the “57 US states”, but he’s probably not the only one who isn’t clear on how many provinces and territories make up Canada. With the nine provinces and three territories Obama’d annex, he should have said “62 US states”.
From Creedence Clearwater, “Bad Moon Rising”: there’s a bathroom on the right.
First time I heard “Kind of a Drag” by the Buckinghams I thought it was “Chinaman Drag”.
Never have messed up a Manilow tune. Oh Mandy!
I always thought it was “she does lines”.
The more you know…
We are living in a temperate rain forest, literally. We had another 1.9 inches (4.8 cm) of rain overnight.
Rain thieves! You are stealing our rain that we desperately need here in South Texas. I blame the government.
Well, lost my well early this week. Something happened to the well and it stopped producing water entirely. I had the guys out to try to pull it up and the well pump is stuck in the well pipe. Since the motor is water cooled, it probably overheated and melted the pvc pipe in the shaft. Or else the drive shaft between the motor and pump failed and is now sticking in the wall. Tough to know without extraction. And we cannot extract the pump. Sigh.
So, we are getting a new well drilled next week. Ten foot away from the old well. $10,255 estimate for a 280 ft deep 4 inch wide hole in the ground. New 3 hp pump rated 29 gpm at 50 psi, new 10 foot stainless steel screen, new 10 gauge three wire pump cable, etc. At least gonna reuse the old 220 gal galvanized pressurization tank which is $1,500 new.
RBT wrote: “I thought Canada was fourth in land area, behind Russia, China, and the US.”
Nope, you have the US and Canada mixed up. Russia, Canada, China and then the US. Though one could argue Antarctica is second in geographic area. However, it is a continent and not a sovereign nation. The US would move up the list if you only included land that isn’t frozen tundra.
Annex. That’s a nice way of saying invasion. I do expect it at some point, though. Not yet, Obama hasn’t the balls.
“Mice of Georgia“.
bgrigg, as is generally the case, RBT spoke (well, typed) precisely. The US has more land area than Canada. Canada’s total area is greater than the US’s, but that’s because of that great honkin’ Hudson Bay.
You could also make a good claim that the PRC is smaller than the US. Subtract out the recently conquered territory, mainly Tibet, and they lose a good chunk of their claimed land.
Yeah, I don’t count water, although I suppose Canada could reasonably claim that areal portion of Hudson’s Bay that’s inside the 3-mile limit. Anyway, Hudson’s Bay is so big that if it were a country it’d probably be, what?, in the top 25?
The US is often labelled as larger than Canada as land area, but it’s also in dispute, depending on how you want to slice up territorial waters.
If you wish to reduce the land area by conquered territory, both of our countries would simply disappear!
You might say annex but what you really mean is anschluss. I sometimes feel a bit nervous when I look south. With your Abwehr and gestapo in training I do feel a cause for concern from time to time.
I’ve been reading about post WW I Germany. The assumption is the rise of the Nazis destroyed democracy in Germany. The truth is that it was a fight between the Nazis and the Communists. If the Communists had won, I doubt things would have been any different.
As corporations grow ever larger, so does the government that contains them. The EU may make some mistakes along the way, but it is not going to blow apart, because bigger is absolutely, positively inevitable. Africa is already implementing growth via consolidation, including working on agreements for common currencies. ‘Islands’ are not rocks; they are doomed to fail. Every year that passes brings us closer to a Canada-US-Mexico amalgamation. We already threw out the US Constitution, so not much stands in the way. Nationalist protectionism is dead, and as time marches on, the consequences of trying it, will be quicker, more visible, and more severe.
Not much time to reply these days. We have the same thing going on with my aunt (mom’s sister), who is in hospice in a similar situation as Dutch recently was: multiple things terminally wrong, but conscious rallies between comatose sessions. Compounding it, is that she has severe dementia, and these days, has only known her husband’s name and mine—not even my cousin, her own son. She thinks his wife (a former R.N.) is her daughter, and my cousin is the ‘daughter’s boyfriend’.
It is actually surprising how quickly these multiple shutdowns of systems come. This all started less than a week ago, when she could not be awakened one morning. Prior to that—except for the dementia—she had been functioning normally for a 90 year-old with dementia. So, if I am late in responding to someone, it is because my days are not my own at the moment. Travelled down to get #1 son at the education capital of the state, and we spent yesterday afternoon with my aunt. Our family on that side has been very close over the years.
I started a reply to the question Greg asked about travel in Germany, but have not had time to finish it. The crux is that essentially I agree with Brad and Ray. My major difference is that I’m not sure how useful it is to know just a bunch of German words, without being able to use or understand them in phrasal context. Also, my preferred method of travel is to locate myself in a central place and make day-trips to other locations; I have not found ‘round-robin’ trips very satisfactory—especially if I find some place intriguing and want to spend more time there.
I will try to finish that reply real soon now.
Sorry to hear about your aunt. Our thoughts are with you.
This is pretty funny: Epic KTVU Fail: Anchor Reports Pilot Names Including ‘Sum Ting Wong’ and ‘Wi Tu Lo’. Punked!
Thanks.
Rolf wrote:
“If the Communists had won, I doubt things would have been any different.”
They probably wouldn’t have invaded the Soviet Union, and so would have been quite likely to have won WWII.
This guy should *never* have been made a bishop:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-13/retired-bishop-admits-he-ignored-abuse-allegations/4818456
‘Bishop Michael Malone was in charge of the diocese for 16 years.
He said he was out of his depth in matters of child protection and that he turned a blind eye to decades of complaints against Father McAlinden because “the whole area of sexual abuse is so distasteful that I would have found it unpalatable.”‘
Sure, it’s distasteful, but anyone would at least call in the cops so that they can resolve the issue. As in the US, paedos were often just moved somewhere else when exposed.