Ok. So maybe AIDS ISN'T gonna get you. But Global Warming Definitely will. Definitely.

Click Here.

The Cow Who Got Her Head Caught in the Crotch of a Tree

Eight days after getting her head caught in the crotch of a tree, Elsie still shows some effects. Her left peri-orbital area is swollen, and it looks as if she had some nerve or muscle damage to her ears. They're droopy. She looks like a Brown Swiss. For a comparison, a cow with normal ears is shown below. I don't think the tongue thing is related. She's lucky to be alive.

Clinton Wins Streisand Endorsement

Now that should help nail down the nom for Hillary. A question remains, however: who's gonna get the all-important George Clooney endorsement?

CNN analysis:

CAFFERTY: Give me a hand with something. What exactly does the Streisand endorsement represent?
BLITZER: It means that Barbara Streisand, great singer, is supporting Hillary Clinton
CAFFERTY: Reclusive, neurotic, over-the-hill vocalist endorses Hillary. I mean, is the ground supposed to shake now, and lightning bolts fly out of the sky. Who cares!?
BLITZER: She's got a lot of fans out there, Jack.
CAFFERTY: Oh, come on!

Buy your wife a Lexus/BMW/Acura for Christmas

What's with all these attempts at tear-jerking heart-warming ads for upper-middle income husbands "surprising" their wives with new cars for Christmas? Gag me. This is romance? This is family Christmas values? The ads are just awful. And what about global warming?

Speaking of which. There are many, many new ads, mostly with kids, many paid for with your tax dollars, that are chock full of hand-wringing about GW. It is a movement, folks. And all the right people are just SO concerned and if we all do our part, we can make a difference. What stuff. Doing our part seems to mean buying a hybrid. So congratulate yourself. There was a well-known economist on CNBC yesterday who said, rightly, that all our energy-efficiency gains of recent decades have been offset by consumer's increased use of energy, and, wrongly, that if we're going to control energy use we must force consumers to use less. Crap.

Using energy is good. It gives us the things that make life enjoyable. And there is no difference between "renewable" and "non-renewable" energy. The world is a limitless source of energy. The recent high energy prices will stimulate the development of more supply. It has happened over and over in our history. Bright minds are presently working feverishly to bring more supply to market because they are going to make money doing it. And more energy use leads to a CLEANER environment. Wealthy, developed nations have cleaner air and water than poorer nations, and are vastly cleaner than they were decades and centuries ago. There are volumes of data that prove this.

The only constraint on how much energy you should "use" is how much you can afford.

Greetings, literally

The most exhausting Thanksgiving weekend I have ever spent. And it will not stop until the thirty cows and heifers that are still outside are inside at the end of the week.

One more thing to do. I want to make sure, children, that I taught you this lesson. When an adult three or more decades your senior addresses you and says, "Hi, (your name)", you would never say, "Hey." Right? Right? I taught you that one, didn't I?

Boston Globe Headline

Local
Commuter rail delays worst in year
Thirty percent of Boston's suburban commuter rail trains ran more than five minutes late in October, the worst monthly performance in a year of increasingly unreliable service that has begun to spark rider unrest.


Well, things just sound terrible in Boston. Thirty percent! More than five minutes! Worst in Year! Just thank your lucky stars you weren't living in Boston and using commuter rail a year ago. It was really, really bad then.

I wonder if they trot this same story out once a year.

Lily Tomlin quote:

"If truth is beauty, how come no one has their hair done in the library?"

An e-mail from my friend Michele

"I went to the blog to celebrate the signing of Mike Lowell and there was nothing :-(

You all do know he was signed right. I just wanted to make sure you heard.

3 years, 37.5 million."

Beware incipient moldy-blog syndrome!

Andy Robustelli Wins a week

Finally.

McDonald's Coffee

I love going to Dunkin' Donuts for the donuts and for when I can say, "Medium coffee with cream and sugar" and I don't have to open packets of sugar and creamers and clean up after my self. And they don't say, "How many of each?" they just put in some cream and sugar. Just do it and give it to me please.



Wel, mcDonald's got smart, first by finally getting good coffee that beat out all the big names in a CR test, and second by handing out coffee that is fully prepared. I like that. The only part I don't like is haveing to have a conversation about how many of each. Just put in some cream and sugar and give it to me. I'm not fussy. Anyway, I like the McDonald's commercial about it.

Bovine Veterinary Science In A Nutshell-The Thermometer method

If your cow is not eating, stick a thermometer in her rectum. Leave it there for 30 seconds if it's made of glass (the thermomter). It helps to keep a string on it so you don't have to fish it out of the gutter or the cow. Read it and interpret the results.



101.0-The cow is hypocalcemic. It may be secondary to paraparturient milk production or secondary to indigestion. If she's standing, run a bottle of calcium gluconate under the skin. If she's down, you probably skipped the thermometer and went straight to the IV calcium.



101.5-The cow is normal. Either she's having you on, or she's full, or trouble is incipient.



102.0-102.5 - A mild infection, such as pneumonia. A shot of ceftiofur, often only one, will put her right in 12 hours. Ceftiofur is another miracle drug. If it doesn't put her right, further investigation is warranted.



104.0-107.0-Udder trouble. Lots of treatment options. You decide.



And that's about all you need to know. You can check the urine for ketosis, if you like. Feeding a low-level ionophore has seemingly eliminated DAs here.



Now I can just hear the handwringers and tonguecluckers: "Ohhh! These poor cows get sick?" Well, yes, they do. But the modern cow is a whole lot healthier that the old-time cows on the mom and pop 25-cow farm, whose growth and production were stunted by low quality feed, poor ventilation, and other forms of abuse. Contrary to myth, the high-producing modern cow is not "pushed" to high production. She is coaxed and babied. The HPMC is the healthy, happy cow. The cows out there scrabbling for the last blades of grass on the sacred "pasture" mandated by organic definitions are being abused. If you give that cow a choice, I can absolutely guarantee what it will be. A clean, dry, warm stall with good feed delivered, and if she can go out every now and then, she'll be happy.

The Yankees are talking...

to Mike Lowell according to the boston Gloebe. heaven forbid. They offered Mariano $45 million for three years, and they tied Posada up until he's forty for some ungodly sum. Those two have been among the best players in the game in recent years, but surely they are on the downhill slide. Not what I'd call judicious and certainly not what the Red Sox would do. Think of the young talent that kind of money would have tied up.

And Beckett didn't get the Cy Young, which in light of the playoffs is a miscarriage of justice. Not that Sabathia wasn't deserving, but if they voted now it would not turn out the same.

Good times in dentistry.

For a good read, check out the reviews of the dentist I've been seeing for the last few months. I finally changed dentists today, and I couldn't be happier.

And no, I haven't written a review yet. But when I do, it'll be a doozy.

I miss Dr. Bianchi.

Ho Hum

Well. No new posts for awhile. Sooo busy. Trying to finish the dry cow barn, keep the cows productive, fill in for Jeremy while he goes to "deer camp" and keep supper on the table in the manner to which the Mom has become accustomed. (How did she do it all those years?) (Venison soup tonight!) We've been considering a new car but we're both so timid, and spending two or three thousand dollars on sales tax is money down a rat hole. Saturday, we drove to Rochester, almost, and traded our car for Laura's so i can do her brakes at a substantial savings over having Midaseineke muffler and brake do them. The horrible milk contract that I entered into for this year expires at the end of the year, which will be a relief. Next year's milk prices should be lower than this year's but i won't be able to tell the difference, given how much i gave up with the contract. Even so, i can't come up with enough places to spend money to avoid paying thousands and thousands in taxes. 15.3 % right off the top for "self-employment tax" before you even get to federal income taxes and state income taxes. The Red Sox signed Schilling but have not yet signed Lowell. Pedroia the pisshead is AL ROTY. Football is pretty boring and most of all stupid. Mom finished the Aubrey/Maturin/Patrick O'Brian Master and Commander books but, being a slower reader i still have six or eight to go. Hooray! I'm considering starting them all over again once i finish the set. What books!

A reminder to a couple of people who haven't done something they should have done.

MOM WON THE BASEBALL POOL! SEND HER FIVE DOLLARS! YOU"RE MURPHIES FOR CRISSAKES!

Was this cow being bullied in the schoolyard...

and no one was allowed to hug it? Or is it one of those global warming effects?

Anyway, look out above.

What?

Is this for real?

Seen this?

The letter that the Sox sent Schilling on Thanksgiving in 2003, a couple hours before Theo and Co. showed up to negotiate with him. Very interesting read.

Vet Article

An excerpt from this column:

He also thinks "wellness exams" are all about improving the financial wellness of the provider. Busby says the best guideline for when to take your pet to the vet is when you can tell there's something wrong. But, with the same fervor displayed by the salesperson at the electronics store who encouraged me to buy the extended warranty on the clock radio, my local pet hospital has pushed me to sign up for its $440-a-year wellness plan, which will provide a full panoply of unnecessary vaccines, as well as dental cleaning, and twice yearly neurological, cardiac, pulmonary, blood, and fecal exams. Even in France, they don't do this for people.

Roger Angell on Joe Torre

Here's a nice article about Joe Torre, who just signed with the Dodgers.