Carve a jack-o-lantern . . .

here!

The Evening Sun Sucks Up

Headlines from the Norwich Evening Sun for 10/24:

Libous encourages municipal cooperation with DOT gift and

Sen. Libous helps fund sidewalk replacement

From the first paragraph of that story:

"...Libous came to Norwich last week to announce he would be giving the city $50,000 to aid in the sidewalk replacement program."

I really couldn't believe what I was reading. Obviously, no one really thinks that Libous is giving his personal funds to the City of Norwich. But if that's the case, then why write the stories that way?

The editor's response to my inquiry:

"If you've read my blog, you know I feel slimy this time of year when the politicians roll out the pork just before elections. I don't think there's anyone dumb enough to believe it's coming out of Libous' (or Crouch, Seward, Finch, et al) pocket. Nevertheless, those getting the money want it, and want the public to know about it, so they can get more of it. It's a vicious Catch-22, but I trust my readers are astute enough to see the motivation behind the many, many faces of politicians at every single event (even the St. Bart's spaghetti supper!) this time of year."

It's a vicious catch-22? Please. Perhaps he'd feel less slimy if he didn't publish such slimy stories.

Do you know who this is?

Hint: your father does. 

Don't look, Laura!

Here are just a couple of pictures from our visit to the veterinary school. I wish I had taken more but frankly, I was so interested that I forgot all about the camera. We had a completely fascinating tour of the small-animal hospital in Philadelphia, led by Caleb, a third-year student, and a third person, as well as a bus tour of the
New Bolton Center where Barbaro is (though we didn't get anywhere near Barbaro himself.) It was a great day and Caleb has found himself one heck of a fascinating career.

The only pictures I took, however, were during a quickie tour of the anatomy lab given by Caleb and his housemates and friends on the night before. If you don't want to see animal innards, don't look!

This is on the wall of the anatomy lab:


Caleb and his housemate Ashley contemplate a horse:


That great big organ is the spleen. Why is it so big??


He's enjoying himself!

My, how Laura has grown!

 

Sammy Stewart, pitcher and addict

Great story. Con artist, indeed.

Rudy Nunez, 1956-2006

When Mom went to Cornell Law School, I answered an ad for farm help. Even though I had a grandfather who was a cattle dealer, I didn't know anything about cows. In the second grade I had seen a movie about a farm family trying to get the hay in before it rained, and I'd always been fascinated, but fearful, of Boyden's farm in Conway. I was, quite literally, afraid of cows. But here was this man, a year younger than I, an immigrant from Cuba, milking cows in a rented barn. I thought I wanted to learn about tractors and field work, but he bought all his feed from the owners of the farm, and so it was cows or nothing. I remember well walking in the barn and having him ask me to dip a cow after he milked her. Petrified, I was. But I did it and he hired me, and I got the bug.

I remember many of the cows he had. He had Vicki, the only truly vicious, unrehabilitatable cow I've ever come across. It took me a very long time before i could milk her. I had a lot of fun working for Rudy. Eating breakfast in this little camper he had, reading Hoard's Dairyman. Better yet, going out to breakfast at a nice diner in Ithaca, smelling like cowshit and not caring whom we offended.

Rudy lived life with gusto. The constraints of cows and families chafed at him, and he moved in different directions. But he was charming, lively, talented, witty, and quick. He died of pancreatic cancer on October 10th. A lot of people, me among them, were touched by his life, and will miss him.

Cousin Nicky

Nicky's house, in the Northeast kingdom of Vermont, burned to the ground, apparently, and her family lost virtually everything. Joshua was able to get Hannah and the dog out and called 911. The Red Cross, and Ethan Allen, Nicky's employer, have helped out, and they have a small trailer to live in until better accomodations can be had.

Why you shouldn't cut your hair at home:

This morning I trimmed my hair to the usual 1/2," then got ready to take a shower. When I glanced in the mirror I saw a spot I'd missed, so I grabbed my trimmer off the counter and ran it down the middle of my head - whoops. That was my beard trimmer. Now there's a big bald landing strip down the middle of my head. I could have gone with a reverse mohawk look, but decided to just shave it all off. Which is not such a great thing to do when you suffer from familial big head syndrome (FBHS). Don't try this at home.

Vet School Update

Well, I made it through my first round of midterms. Not all grades are in yet, but I know that my anatomy score was above average, and that I did OK on the Histology practical. Histology written and Developmental might not be such a pretty picture. But speaking of pretty pictures:
Here's our cat tree and our two foster kittens, and Sheba of course.


A couple shots of our anatomy lab on the last day of dog dissection. Parents may want to send their dogs out of the room for the next few pictures.

This is Betty.This is Betty's open thorax and abdomen.
This is me pretending to work on Betty.



This is me hiding behind Betty's rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, and her linea alba. I should be wearing a labcoat and not having my elbows on the table. Maybe that's why I constantly smell like formaldehyde.

So now that exams are over, I'm heading out for a day long wine-tasting trip at a vineyard outside Philly. It's being led by one of the Doctors who taught us anatomy, and most of my class is going. Tomorrow I'm studying again and watching football, and then next week I have a full complement of classes before parents weekend and a Biochem exam the week after. Also, we start dissecting horses and goats next week. So it never really stops, huh.

Luck, Baseball, Sadistics, Nuclear Power and the Navy

Yes, but what are the odds the Tigers will lose the last five games of the season, specifically?

Click here.

Luke, note where the author is from. Don't you guys have anything better to do?

Walk to School Month

$612 million dollars. It's hopeless. What will the tongue-clucking, hand-wringing, finger-pointers think of next? I swear my next car will be a Hummer. The big one.

Barbaro at the New Bolton Center

Here's an interesting article about his care, with some great pictures of the Penn. New Bolton Center. Caleb, you can finally get a glimpse of the place!

LOOK OUT!

Grandma goes four-wheeling!

My Mother, the savant

In Marilyn Vos Savant's column today, someone asks the question: Why would a barber in New York rather cut the hair of two Americans than one Frenchman any day?

I had to look at the answer. I asked Grandma and Mom the question and Grandma, without batting an eye, said, "Because he makes twice as much money that way." !!!!!!!

She's not so good at Sudoku, however.

Really good poetry

Grandpa Koeber used to recite to my brother Jim:

Jim, Jim, long and slim,
His neckties were all purple.
He'd stick his neck out like an old gray goose,
And draw it in like a turtle.


Doesn't get any better than that!

I got "Tom, Tom the Piper's Son" which was pretty good, too.

Learning to fight back

Luke, after your comments about the Amish school shootings, I thought this might interest you.

Proof of Global Warming

Record early snowfalls in Detroit and Chicago. Also, no major hurricanes.

Cold.

We better act now before it's too late.

"Typically nasty weather!"

Grandma Murphy is here!

It's party time! Manhattans every night!

Luke's coming home, too!

Is he a dog or a mouse?

How could he get that close to a cat and not eat it?

Is he a dog, or a clock?

Lately Panda shows up in my office every evening within two or three minutes of 6 p.m., shoves his nose into my lap, and whines for his favorite snack -- a Meaty Bone. Tonight, he was right on time -- he came trotting in here crying at 5:58 p.m. Now it is 6:01 p.m. and he is happily crunching his bone on the living room rug, feeling sure in a doggy sort of way that all is right in the universe.

Which of you taught him to tell time?

Heh. Heh-heh. Heh-heh-heh.

I'm maxed out on schadenfreude.

Tolerance

I wonder what happened to free speech at Ivy League schools like Columbia. I realize these lefties are mere children, but does that excuse them from acting like animals? The best and the brightest? I don't think so.

More here.

Odds Are You'll See Something You've Never seen Before

Like Julian Tavarez running to second base from the mound in an attempt to pick off Brian Roberts single-handedly.

Topping that, two Dodgers on first and second, NO OUTS, a fly ball double hit to the right field corner. The right fielder throws a strike to the cut-off man who throws a strike to the catcher. The runner from second is out. The catcher turns his back on the play to show the umpire he held the ball, and the pitcher screams at him, " Here comes another one!" The catcher turns and tags him out, too!. There were no outs! Why couldn't the runner from second score on a hit into the corner, and if HE couldn't, why was the runner from first sent to certain death? With no outs save the gunned-down runner in front of him!

To echo the announcers: "I've never seen that before."

Baseball is a great game.

But What About the Population Explosion?

A victory over environmental racism.