THE WEEKENDER :) AMUSEMENT, SUNSET AND A SUPER HERO

FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT
Looks like a spring weekend is shaping in a lot 
of the US.  If you are not stuck to the NCAA games, or 
  active outside, here's a little wonderment to put a 
smile into your weekend. It'll also work on your
language skills.

DAY BOOK
FOLLOWING A SUNSET

It is mind boggling to think this incredible show with amazing effects is free, every evening. 
THE CAMBRIA LOCAL
FLASH MOB CELEBRATES OUR LOCAL 
SUPER HERO

He is also our favorite keyboardist

A super hero theme for our own

Jeannie provided a super cake.

Cheers to a super guy!

A super day for Cambria's super
Friday Lunch Flash Mob.
See you down the trail.

STARTING ANEW?

WHAT WOULD THOMAS JEFFERSON DO?

     As a prelude to the notion, is a notion itself.  Back in the early 70's I read a proposal that American electoral politics

would be more efficient if everything was done like a television rating service.  Well it was an idea before its time and not a particularly good one at that, but novel and bespeaking the need to "modernize" campaigning.

       Fast forward to what seems to be another endless and even more expensive campaign cycle and there is a new idea being floated.  Michael Eisner, ceo of The Walt Disney Company from 1984 to 2005 took to the pages of the LA Times to plug Americans Elect which will hold what they call the nation's first national online primary. You can learn more
by linking here to their web site.  
      I'm not sure of what to make of this particular iteration of an idea that has been kicking around for a while.  What I'm struck by is the logic Eisner employs in his advocacy. His dissection of the silliness and over weighting of Iowa and New Hampshire is spot on.
      American electoral politics has been through previous changes.  Information technology and systems have changed our ways of behavior in profound ways.  While the Americans Elect concept may not be the great salvation of the now costly and money influenced campaign process, it is a novel response and statement of dis-sastifaction with the way it is.
As Eisner says the current system is "mired in the past."  He adds "...we are burdened with a system that gives the bullhorn to the smallest voices and makes the majority feel unheard." 

DAY BOOK

CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS
Thorns of another type 

See you down the trail.

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER

THE DAY OF ARRIVAL
A MOMENT OF HISTORY

       It took three courageous and bloody tries, but on this day in 1965 25,000 marchers reached the state capitol in Montgomery Alabama.  In may ways it was the day that Civil Rights for African Americans, Negroes or Colored people, as were the predominate terms of that age, was made emphatic.

       My father and I made a point to watch the NBC Evening

news everyday during those troubled days of 1964 and 1965 as the US struggled with racism and segregation.  We had

seen police dogs and fire hoses turned on marchers and even the news reporters. We had followed the turbulence and violence, beatings and murders and simply could not understand how those scenes were even possible. Such hatred!  Even though Civil Rights legislation passed in 1964, Alabama, Mississippi and other pockets in the south, refused to grant full rights to people of color.

        Then in March of 1965 the march from Selma to Montgomery ripped into the heart and fabric of America. Twice Alabama troopers and mobs set upon and beat those

who were on their way to the same state capitol building where just two years earlier Governor George Wallace 

said "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever."

         After the failed second march thousands of other Americans, many of them clergy and church people, Christian, Jew, Quaker and Catholic flocked to Alabama to bolster the efforts.

Copyright unknown. Fair use image of historic moment depicting

John Lewis, an unidentified nun, Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph Bunche, Abraham Joshua Heschel, Fred Shuttlesworth. This is from Selma, the beginning of the third March to Montgomery.

      The other historic intervention came when President 

Lyndon Johnson, outraged by the violence of Alabama during the second march, introduced a Voting Rights act on March 15, 1965. He also provided national troops to ensure the safety of the marchers to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge and 

walk through Montgomery to the capitol building, where 

the confederate president Jefferson Davis had been sworn in.

The symbolism was powerful

FBI Photo-Montgomery Alabama, March 1965

       When, finally, Dr Martin Luther King Jr delivered his

"How Long, Not Long" remarks in Montgomery, the American Republic came to grips with the great evil of racial hatred, 

though as we know, it still haunts and bloodies the American Dream.  Yet, that day was a signal that a Federal government and an American citizenry were committed to justice and equality.  

        In those days of hatred and madness, courage and faith

prevailed. Though, we also note that evening Viola Liuzzo, a volunteer from the north was murdered by the Ku Klux Klan.
       We never really arrive, it seems. The dream requires the 
best and courage from each generation.

DAY BOOK

WHIMSY

The wood sculptures and bird houses are the work

of Cambria artist Richard Lee.

Selling the message.  Point made!
See you down the trail.

RUFFLED-CAMPAIGN FEATHERS AND CLOUDS

GET OVER IT NEWT, IT WAS A JOKE!

     The latest flap in the presidential wars underscores a

couple of things.  1)As a nation our sense of humor is rapidly diminishing.  2)Newt Gingrich becomes more sanctimonious 

by the moment.

     Actor Robert De Niro cracked wise at an Obama fundraiser and the desperate Gingrich sought to make some political hay.

      Here is the "offending" joke:

    "Callista Gingrich. Karen Santorum. Ann Romney. Now do you really think our country is ready for a white First Lady?" he asked the crowd. "Too soon, right?"

      Even the Obama camp, when pressed for a response,

said it was inappropriate.  Well, what else could they say?

It was "edgy" I suppose, but if we can't laugh at ourselves

we are taking it all too seriously.  

       I think if one can joke about color, ethnicity, sexual preferences and yes even religion in appropriate, non offensive language, then it shows maturity and real cultural health.  Isn't that coming closer to being color blind than Newt's little hissy fit would be representative of?

      Accept facts for what they are. If you are a person of color the line may have been funny for reasons beyond the fact it was a good line and made even better by the edginess of it. Both the edginess and the personal color matters fueled the effectiveness of the joke, and obviously the Gingrich lack of humor.

      You know what they say you can do if you can't take a joke. Humor is a balm for frayed nerves.  We should all laugh a bit more.  Lighten up!   

DAY BOOK

RUFFLED SKY

Heard any jokes about thrice married candidates?

See you down the trail.

PINK SLIME & METAL AND GREEN

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO EAT IT?

      I was surprised to learn that 70% of all ground beef sold in the US contains pink slime. That is the popular name for Lean Finely Textured Beef (LFTB) which is a fancy name for a processed product now at the center of a growing controversy.

      Pink slime is made by boiling beef bones under pressure to separate what normally sticks to the bone.  The remains are then run through a centrifuge to separate the meat.  The USDA says this process separates "most" of the fat from the meat which is then treated with an ammonia process to kill germs.  Voila-to the market.  

      This procedure, pioneered in the 1980's and "improved" in the 90's  allows marketers to sell older and less fresh beef.  The pink slime is worked into hamburger, frozen hamburgers and most school lunch programs.

      Healthy eating and consumer groups have roiled up enough public reaction the USDA is now undertaking a process to allow schools to opt out of buying food with pink slime for just regular non ammonia gas exposed beef.

       Nancy Huehnergarth, a founder of the New York State

Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Alliance posted the 

following quote in her Huffington Post blog

John Turenne, the president and founder of Sustainable Food Systems LLC, which works with schools to create healthier, sustainable food programs, nicely summed up this past week's collective anger: "Agribusiness is corrupting society with processed garbage," said Turenne. "The fact that chemicals like ammonia are being used on so much of our food, without our knowledge, is infuriating. Let's stick to real food."

           To which I add, amen!

DAY BOOK
METAL AND GREEN
Wherein iron and nature dance together, nicely and with a touch of whimsey.

A lot of intersecting lines and planes in the frame below.

By the way, the iron work is by Sergio Olivares, black smith and welder who works on the Central Coast.
See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) NAP TIME FUNNIES & SOMETHING EXTRAORDINARY

THIS IS GOOD FOR YOU

     Those naps we took as kids were good for us then, and so they are now.  So are smiles. And we know that new thoughts  cause our brains to continue their elasticity. So we've wrapped them all up for you in this WEEKENDER :)

        My friends Beverly and Brian were the first to send

our first video.  You don't need to speak German to enjoy.

Here's a shot for the Luddites against our amazing technology and in an amusing 30 seconds.

Coming up below a mind blowing video

but first, a little Nap Time humor.

DAY BOOK

NAP TIME AT LOW TIDE

A lazy Central California day-ideal for napping.

WHILE THE BIG GUYS DO IT, HERE'S A LITTLE CAT NAPPING

The Further Adventures of Luke and Hemingway

Any Where, Any Time is Nap Time

      "What do you think Hemingway, time for a nap?"

      "My eyes are so heavy.  I just want lay here. What about you?"

     "Think I'll doze just standing here pal. Zzzz"

      "Zzzzzzzzz, um yea. Zzzzzzzzz"

    An old friend, a former network newsman and later college professor said at his retirement he read that napping was good for you.  So he said he thought he'd experiment with it and told his friends not to call him for a couple of hours after lunch because he would be in the laboratory, doing research.

    UNLESS YOU'VE SEEN THIS VIDEO, YOU'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS

I suggest you watch this on full YouTube at the

largest screen size you can.

Wow!!

     Have great weekend.  See you down the trail.

A TOUGH QUESTION & EXQUISITE BEAUTY

HOW DO YOU CLEAN A BATTLEFIELD?

     It is more than a rhetorical question, but the answer is fleeting.  I ask because I watched a friend present a report on his mission to Kuwait to supervise the cleaning of a target range on an American base.  Specifically they were charged with removing uranium shells or bullets that had been fired into a mound of sand. 

      Laborers from Pakistan and India were hired to dig out the material, struggling in 3 digit temperatures, using Geiger counters.  The gathered debris was brought back to the U.S. where it was disposed of in Washington state in one of only few sites approved for such nuclear waste.

       As he noted, the battle fields themselves still have not been cleaned.  Uranium at the grade of weapons has a half life of relative eternity. Another legacy of modern warfare.

DAY BOOK

LOVE THOSE FLOWERING TREES

See you down the trail.