How I spent the weekend

Careful preparations:

and great hats

not to mention shades

and then there are SHADES.  This is my father's Cousin Tolly.  She will be 86 on her next birthday, she just retired a few months ago from 44 years as the City Chamberlain of Hornell, NY, she was Grand Marshall of the parade, leading off something like 80 McCarthys and another hour's worth of fire trucks, Girl Scout Troops and bagpipe bands in her golf cart, she's more fun than a barrel of boas and beads, and don't try to outlast her at the bar late at night on St. Patrick's Day after a long day of marching, meeting far-flung family and drinking -- you will fail.  But you'll have fun doing it!

More to come!

Baby Monkey Riding on a Pig!

What's wrong with this picture?

This is a self-checkout machine at CVS.

Our Boys in Flannel

Oddly fascinating

. . . and can you hear the musician who plays the wrong note?

Happy Birth Day!

His very first birthday post, squeaked in just before midnight!

 Welcome, welcome, James, to the family and the world.

The Noble Savage

All of this would be of academic interest only, were it not the case that the modern environmental movement and many of our public policies are based implicitly on the myth of the Noble Savage. The fountainhead of modern environmentalism is Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. The first sentence in Silent Spring invoked the Noble Savage by claiming "there was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings." But the town Carson described did not exist, and her polemic, Silent Spring, introduced us to environmental alarmism based on junk science. As the years passed, Rachel Carson was elevated to sainthood and the template laid for endless spasms of hysterical fear-mongering, from the population bomb, to nuclear winter, the Alar scare, and global warming.

Human beings have not, can not, and never will live in harmony with nature. Our prosperity and health depend on technology driven by energy. We exercise our intelligence to command nature, and were admonished by Francis Bacon to exercise our dominion with "sound reason and true religion." When we are told that our primary energy source, oil, is "making us sick," or that we are "addicted" to oil, these are only the latest examples of otherwise rational persons descending into gibberish after swooning to the lure of the Noble Savage. This ignorant exultation of the primitive can only lead us back to the Stone Age.

David Deming

Stupid Cat

This cat is wearing a Steamfresh bag. Two weeks ago, it was wearing a bib-shaped piece of white plastic. It hung just like a bib. It got one leg through it and then the other, and then it looked like an apron. The cat wore it for a week. Yes, the bag totally encircles the cat.

How It's Done

Benign Wind Turbines

Welcome!

Here's Alexandra Elyse, born at home -- unintentionally, with Michael as midwife -- last night.  Mom and baby are both doing well, but the lesson to Caleb and Kate is, leave for the hospital early!

Happy birthday, Laura!

As a favor to my mother

I am posting this picture:


Anna left Philly for good yesterday. We will miss her!

Super Bowl Contest II

OK, Luke, here it is. Pick the winner and the score. Deadline is kickoff. Prize is dinner for two at your favorite restaurant, 50$ max. If I win, the other contestants must pick up the tab for me.
1) Winner
2) Winner's points
3) Total points
4) Loser's points

Super bowl contest

Where is it? I want to play.

Holsteins are Big...

...Jerseys are small.

A REAL REAL Number Puzzle

Okay so here's a good one in order to make up for that last one.

A teacher thinks of two consecutive numbers between 1 and 10. The first student knows one number and the second student knows the second number. The following exchange takes place:
First: I do not know your number.
Second: Neither do I know your number.
First: Now I know.
What are the 4 possible solutions?

A REAL Number Puzzle

Can you find the relationship between these numbers?

362, 724, 449, 896, 790, 587, 173, 343, 692, 384

It's very proFOUND. You won't regret investing your TIME into figuring it out!

Let me know when you're all STUCK.

Happy birthday, Caleb!

Do some serious celebrating!

Augghhh!

Steven Tyler is NOT going through to Hollywood.  That was bad. 

On another front, I think I get Dad's second puzzle.  Think letters instead of numbers. 

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Your family loves you.

Anudder

Don't google this one. It's tricksy.

One day walking in a street, Caesar meets his old math teacher. Happy to meet him, he says hello to the teacher but he doesn't remember that his teacher answers everything with a puzzle:
-- How are you doing, professor? It's been a long time since we don't meet! Are your daughters ok? How old are they now?
-- Multiplying the three ages you get 36
-- But that's not enough to know the ages!
-- So, add up the ages and you'll get the number of that house across the street.
Caesar starts calculating, but still can't figure out. The professor seeing that he wouldn't be able to find the answer says:
-- The oldest girl plays the piano...
That's what Caesar needed to know to figure out the problem. How old is each girl?

Puzzle

Define the relationship between these numbers:

81, 11, 56, 14, 90, 72, 16, 66, 33, 12, 24.

Watch This

Here's why

I am never going bungee-jumping.