Look up, Dixie

"If tomorrow all the things were gone,
I'd worked for all my life..."
--Lee Greenwood
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In other news, the Boopadoop-Bumstead union is going strong:

Now one of the most famous married couples in the world is one of the most widely read strips in comic history, Blondie and Dagwood are celebrating the milestone anniversary this summer in a running story line featuring cameos by their comic-page cohorts, whose creators also will pay tribute to "Blondie" by inviting the happy couple into their own panels.

Garfield, Beetle Bailey, Hägar the Horrible, baby Marvin, Dennis the Menace, Dilbert, the kid from "Zits" and others -- a virtual Who's Who of the funnies -- will drop in and out as the Bumsteads plan a huge party for an unspecified wedding anniversary to be celebrated in the upcoming Sunday comics. President Bush and his wife, Laura, are also set to make an appearance.
...
Young attributes the strip's longevity to the quality of the art and the gags, but also to Blondie and Dagwood's strong bond over the years.

"You need to have lovable characters for people to like you," he says. "And I think a lot of that has to do with the love that Dagwood and Blondie have for each other in the comic strip. Look at all the dysfunction that's going on everywhere, and here's a man and wife -- they love each other and they've loved each other all these years.

"The passion continues undiminished. And hopefully it's funny, too."

"...a movement and not a condition,

a voyage and not a harbor."

Rachel Sauer in today's PB Post takes a philosophical look at storms.

My kinda lady...

At the hotel Le Richelieu, the winds blew open sets of balcony French doors shortly after dawn. Seventy-three-year-old Josephine Elow of New Orleans pressed her weight against the broken doors as a hotel employee tried to secure them. ``It's not life-threatening,'' Mrs. Elow said as rain water dripped from her face. ``God's got our back.''

"Getting wet is not like dying."

Superdome loses part of the roof. Some people get wet, but choose to keep spirits positive. You can learn a lot about people in how they respond to unplanned times.
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Another blogger @ Accident Prone (and former classmate), who was at the Jack Johnson concert in Somerset, WI this weekend, captures some of my thoughts.

The concert was at River's Edge, one of the smaller tubing resorts in town. The weather was perfect, and they put on a good show. The crowd was mellow and cooperative (no bottles :), and everything came off in a more or less organized fashion. Keeping the campground, tubing, and parking in check when the great numbers of people descend for the music, it's no small feat.

In years past, I've seen Lenny Kravitz roll into River's Edge's main entrance on his bike when he played one festival (Lollapalloza or String Cheese?), and remember Beck belting out "two turntables and a microphone" under an evening sky. Johnson's "Good People" and his encore Saturday night that started out with the "Plastic Jesus" lyrics were special, as was the non-muddy weather. You take what you get, and sometimes it all comes together seemingly seamlessly.

Lend me some sugar. I am your neighbor.

In case you missed this advice Tuesday from Dear Abby:

DEAR ABBY: I am 62 and my husband is 93. Our next-door neighbor, "Sam," likes to expose himself. Other than that, he's a good neighbor and always ready to help out." ...

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Also, I must follow up on this post. The Sox went 5 and 9, with one rain out. To put a positive spin on this, that's 5/14 = 0.357142857, (or 5/15 = 0.333333333), an admirable success rate for a batter, but not necessarily a team looking to post-season play. Then again, I suspect I'm better at honestly evaluating, than spinning after the fact. Still, they managed to take 2 of 3 from the Twins, after having been swept in the earlier series. (I know that's really grasping, but hope springs eternal, they say. And baseball is just a game, afterall.)
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Speaking of mudducks, the Minnesota State Fair started yesterday. Happy weekend.

Katrina...

and the waves. Remember them? (and it's time to feel... Good!)

"This is just a whole new level of weird for me."

13 years ago...

Hurricane Andrew came ashore in Florida. I was living there then in an industrial park warehouse off Blue Heron Blvd. in Palm Beach County, north of Broward and Dade. My friend and his brother had gone home for their parents' 50th anniversary party about a week before, and we were friendly with many of the guys living on the Singer Island, which was evacuated. So Frank from Maine was my warehouse guest for the night. He slept through the storm, having partied most of the day.

My memories of that night mainly include the noise of the bay door rattling from the ferocious winds and pelting rain. I felt sound enough in the concrete bunker, but that noise was something else. You could get an idea without looking what was going on on the other side of that thin metal. In the morning, it was calm and sunny. A lot of people came back to Singer Island, looking to see the damage and how the beach had been changed. A small body of water had temporarily formed on the sand, where it had washed in but was prevented by a wall of sand from rolling back out. Some kids were splashing around in this warmer water that morning, I remember. Otherwise, people were rather quiet and subdued, having witnessed the power of nature. And most were tired.

Down the street from us at the entrance to the industrial park was an ice factory. Cars were lined up all that week and the next, waiting to stock up for the people directly hit farther south and without power. The newspaper box I frequented was across from the factory, and the newspapers were out soon enough...

Has it really been 13 years? Where is Frank today? I've been back to visit the warehouse, they put in windows overlooking the pond where we kept a canoe. Ah, warehouse living. It was a good life at 23, simple but good.

Congrats

In high school, I was in some math classes with students a few grades ahead of me. I particularly remember geometry with juniors, part of the popular pretty-people crowd was in my class. Mondays, I remember, were fun to listen to their pre-class conversations about the weekend. Who partied where, who drank the most, who got most "rowdy" (is that phrase still big today?), etc. Funny thing is, in my observations, the most popular ones -- the ones some of the lessers in the pecker order were always trying to impress with their stories -- never bragged or had to talk about what they did. They did it to do it. I liked that, as it was always my impression that if you're doing something just to brag about it later, you may be missing out on the essence of the experience. That said, if you like to drink, drink already. If you like to smoke, smoke yourself silly. If you like other activities, go for it. Knowing and respecting your limits helps, of course, and everyone's limits are different. Not sure how I generally come across here, but I would consider myself libertarian labelwise -- to a point of not interferring with others -- and some days, I'm very glad I have no children to discipline or set safely on life's journey. Apparently it's not good these days to allow kids too much freedom to choose their own paths and trust life's consequences to teach properly.

That said, stories like these make me think back to those older high schoolers bragging about how much they drank before they puked or passed out. Still, congrats to those UW Madison students, if this makes you feel proud. Personally, I'd be more impressed if we were the number one school for functioning alcoholics who quietly drink for what they get from it, not from binge-ing and telling stories. That school is no doubt out there, just doesn't get an award recognizing it. I suspect the more outspoken types, who have to tell you everything they've done and how frigging great it was, may just be leading more adventureless lives, so this fills the need at the moment.

More evidence

of hockey's future appeal.
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Updated catch upon re-reading: "He began playing hockey at 9, a skater at first. By the time he was 11 he was asked by his coach if he could strap on goalie pads. He played for the Kokudo Bunnies of the Japanese league in 2001 and became interested in playing overseas when he represented Japan at the world championships."

The Kokudo Bunnies?!? ok, I am being optimistic for the sport here. Still, never said there wasn't marketing work left ahead... (the Bunnies, eh? as in "Hop, Hop, Hop"? That's probably harder to do on the ice, than on regular skates. Maybe they could work it into the between-periods entertainment?)

Country tunes

Friday afternoon's journey began, and last night's journey ended with Lonestar's "I'm already there." Mere coincidence, of course, but I ended up listening to country radio on the road trip through the mid-state. Have you heard "We made it to Arlington" yet? I heard that one, no lie, at least 5 times, partially, this weekend, so I know Trace Adkins' song is getting airplay in some regions out there. We're pretty split in the blogosphere and if you wouldn't come across it on your own, I thought I'd reference it here. Make your own attending commentary.
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In other news, it was good to "harvest" and make salsa this weekend. (The pictures will have to wait for another year though.) Some of the bell peppers were even red and ripe for the picking. The garden this year is one of the best we've had, (though the phrase "fertilizing the shit out of it" seems backwards.) You know it's a good one when unexpected pickers "with permission" help themselves. Ah well, the price of dignity varies according to the individual.

My friend's mom is slowly dying, but she was a good cook and a good-natured woman, and a friend to me years back when I first moved into the town where she had lived for many, many years. My favorite saying of hers has always been: "Your health is your wealth." On the outer brick wall of her home now, the county health center (aka. a nursing home), a banner has been hanging for the past few years, even in the winter months. "Love is ageless. Visit us." It's not a saying of hers, but I like that one too. Sometimes you get more than you give -- from a child, an older person, or somebody you think is "beneath" you. I'm just learning that being able to accept gifts is equal in importance to giving them, but then I never claimed to be a fast learner on all things.

Trademark?

Oh, and I forgot to mention... One of the higher ranking officers, we noticed Monday, had the bumper sticker discussed in this article affixed to his office door. Not sure if it has drawn any complaints up there, but what caught my eye was the trademarked logo after the phrase. Interesting that someone would think to do that, similar to the "Let's Roll" phrasing.

"The War We All Fought" by Tom Blackburn in Sunday's Palm Beach Post.

On the road again...

(Back. Told you not to fret, right?) The past two days were spent commuting to Calumet County, in the east-central part of our great state. If you're familiar with Indian words, the calumet, of course, is the peace pipe. And emblazoned on the county building is the friendly phrase, "We extend the CALUMET to all mankind."

And I must say, the hearing yesterday, after the prep work Monday, was collegial enough -- competitive as both sides forcefully argued their points and made sure we got what we wanted into the record -- but shaking hands at the open and close. (I've been to one successful mediation thus far, and the other hearing I attended was settled before it got underway. Have I mentioned my comfort level here with ADR? That's "alternative dispute resolution" -- I'm sure litigation too has it's charms, but I just like that immediate feeling that things are getting done and solutions accomplished.) For small talk, waiting for the 10-minute breaks to wrap up, it was easy enough to find commond ground with our opponents amazing at the price of gas.

Since I can't talk about the work, I'll talk about the drive. Never been to that part of the state myself, and Lake Winnebago is a beauty on the horizon. I particularly recommend the view from the crossroads of Hwys. 151 and 55, looking west with the lake laid out before you. All sky, water, and land. Beautiful.

Our route took us through the unincorporated towns of Quinney, Brothertown, Pipe and Calumetville... I'm attracted to small towns, canopied trees and that slower pace of life visible in the summer, but I know driving through and living there are two different things. Finally, the Calumet County seat is in Chilton, home of what recognizable business? ... Anyone, anyone? Nope, not the Chilton auto manuals, my first guess. (Turns out they fall under the Thomson publishing umbrella, along with WestLaw). The answer is: Kaytee Products. You've probably heard of it, even if you hate squirrels but like wild birds. (Now who said blog-reading wasn't educational?) Off to Portage tomorrow morning, and back in Madison for an evening hearing tomorrow... take care.

Time to move...

the computer. If your sitemeter hits drop off, don't fret any. We'll be back in business shortly.

Waterloo...

Haven't written much about my job. Really not my place to post here, with the confidentiality rules and all, and me just learning a lot on the job. Still, I like the little bit of travel I've done so far. We just got back from the little old town of Waterloo. Home of Trek bikes. I've also been to Racine twice -- another old town with strong union roots -- and the town of Friendship in Adams County. Small town Wisconsin is beautiful in the summer, especially the back roads that take you there. I'm looking forward to autumn.

COUPLE OF THE WEEKEND: Libra and Capricorn know how to make an impression -- on each other or on the world at large. These signs have gracious manners and a keen aesthetic sense, so they're natural hosts. When friends satellite around the power couple, it only adds to their attraction to each other. This weekend, Libra and Capricorn can steer heavily dramatic relationship vibes into a positive direction.
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Let's see: The move to a quiet street in Monona is almost complete; up north, the garden is ripening, the river is running, and the stars are shooting, don'cha know. Have a nice weekend, sincerely. :)

Repeating to the sound of the beat

... yeah. (More here -- from 2002.)

Perseids are often fast, bright meteors and frequently leave long, persistent visual trains, said Steven Emert of the Minnesota Astronomical Society. When viewing the Perseids, you're seeing the result of grains of grit left from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which last came through the inner solar system in 1992. Swift-Tuttle orbits the sun every 130 years. The light streaks are generated as air friction vaporizes the dust grains. What you see blazing across the sky is mainly the ionized air.

Now don't be sad...

because two out of three ain't bad.

Budgeting

If your resources are not unlimited, you make choices. All of us do. Buy this, but then you can't have that. Go down this path, and leave the other untravelled for now. Maybe later you can backtrack or if they intersect, pick up that one too. Most rational adults understand this: you just can't have it all.

Stories like these are what makes me wish, in retrospect, that we had chosen other options dealing with the Iraqi threat. There is no question of the nuclear capability in Iran, but our hands are somewhat tied now. Money and troops, not to mention public and military morale, are not unlimited. You have think before you spend. (And you have to unite the country to fight a war, it seems to me -- especially a war of attrition -- not mistake half of your own people as the enemy in questioning their patriotism. Such vileness should be directed at our enemies. You also want to bring as many people worldwide to the table, it would seem, to gain allies for the fight.)

Efficiency, bang for your buck, rules your options when resources are tight. Again, you can't have it all. What if a special forces unit had infiltrated Iraqi society and arrested, or assassinated, Saddam Hussein without destroying cities, causing collateral damage, and requiring occupation? That would have freed up resources to battle other future threats, right? (Not presuming to be an expert, just wondering aloud.)

Hopefully Iraqi women's rights, which are highly touted these days, will leave the women there better under the law, or at least equal to the rights they had before the new constitution is implemented. Staying inside sucks no matter where you live, and have you tried living without 24 hours of electricity recently? Since America did not invade when the mass killings of the Kurds were taking place, I'm not sure we can claim immediate danger to the people as the reason we invaded when we did. Seems that argument would hold now for intervention in some of the African countries, but that appears to be off the media radar screen for the most part and the immediate danger of death there for some reason doesn't seem to hold much sway.

Again, you should think out all possible options before taking action, right? I never saw Michael Moore's movie, haven't seen it proven that the administration intentionally distorted information or "lied", just that the intelligence community was not up to snuff and should set the bar a bit higher. I'm not a Pollyanna really, but I do like efficiency. Those who would argue President Bush "at least did something" might consider the better, more effective actions that could have been taken to quell potential threats that now appear unlikely. In short, did we attack the wrong country? It's a fair question, I think.

You have to live by the results of your choices, and push for the best. Let's all hope and pray: the armchair warriors don't fail or disintegrate -- I know I am hoping and praying for this not to happen; the fighting men and women know that we've got their back -- with eyes fully open and alert -- to the very end; the domino theory works and you can impose democracy by outside force. Faith is good, faith and foresight is better. GBA.

Law school: 2 years or 4?

Here's an interesting article regarding the necessity of three years of law school. I put off some of my required classes -- mainly Evidence and Trust & Estates -- until my last year, so I could take some of the more specialized seminar classes when they were being offered second year. So I can't vouch for the lackadaisical approach to the final year of classes.

Plus, I had been out of school working for more than (not over! :) 10 years, and had not secured a full time law job until after I graduated, so my perspective may be skewed. For a student, I was an oldster, though I like to think I could still pass and blend in with the crowd. Still, I could see if you pretty much went from undergrad straight through, or just with a few years off to live some, how you might be chomping at the bit as a 3L, with higher priorities such as family planning. Still, I'm inclined to agree with Dean Levmore here. Slow down the merry-go-round, and let me take even more in-depth classes with professors who are available that term. CLEs are not the same as a semester long class. ... What do you think?

Besides, many third-year law students do work hard. Increasingly, they are getting hands-on training in legal clinics. In the classroom, some educators say third year is when students learn the law they most need to know. University of Chicago Law Dean Saul Levmore says students there are more likely to suggest adding a fourth year than dropping the third.

Jeff Lewis, dean at St. Louis University, says he's pushing for more rigor and specialization in the third-year curriculum. He also says the final-year course he teaches is packed with attentive students — though that may be unusual.

David Wilkins, a Harvard Law professor, recalls struggling to conduct a survey of third-year law students because so few showed up to class. In a paper about the third year titled "The Happy Charade," three scholars, including prominent UCLA professor Richard Sander, estimated that the 1,100 third-years he surveyed attended no more than 60 percent of their large classes.

About two in five agreed with the statement "the third year of law school is largely superfluous."

Discovery lands

safely. I was at home in '86, taking the day off to complete a term paper my senior year. I'm glad I was there watching in the tv room, alone in the house instead of at school that day. I was also home -- my parents home -- visiting and using up a few days vacation on an extended weekend in September 2001. My friend in Wisconsin called that morning and had us -- my parents and me -- turn on the tv. So we were watching together in the kitchen when a good part of life fell apart. I'm glad I was there with them then. It's funny how the big events open your eyes to the routine -- and the amazing -- of the everyday.

I'm quite content here this morning, sipping my coffee, perusing headlines, and taking out the paperwork in the inbox for the day's work ahead. These everyday days -- a hot summer morning here -- really add up to a lot, and sometimes the amazing comes off as commonplace. But the memories help with perspective.

An honest evaluation

The time is now: New York, Boston, Minnesota, New York, Minnesota.
The next 15 games should give an accurate accounting of who this team is and where they're going, if anywhere. 9 are road games. To go 10 and 5 would be wonderful, 8 and 7 would have them holding their own. Less than that, the bubble is punctured, unless they can learn from their mistakes and take that knowledge into the postseason. I hope Ozzie has prepared them well, that's what a good coach is for, right?
POSTGAME HATTIP: to the Classy Yanks fans. "Hernandez (8-5) got a nice ovation before the game from Yankees fans who remember all he accomplished during two stints in pinstripes from 1998-04."

And another one gone

"We look for breakthroughs, we look for people who have made it, who have succeeded against the odds, who have proven somehow that long shots do come in."

John H. Johnson, 87:

Born Jan. 19, 1918, in Arkansas City, Ark., Johnson moved to Chicago with his family at age 15. After graduating from public schools, Johnson attended the University of Chicago and Northwestern University.

While working at the black-owned Supreme Life Insurance Co., where he started as a clerk, Johnson founded Johnson Publishing Co. in 1942. Its first magazine was Negro Digest, a journal that condensed articles of interest to blacks and published the poems and short stories of black writers.

Johnson used Supreme Life's mailing list to offer discount charter subscriptions of the digest. To persuade a distributor to take the magazine, he got co-workers to ask for it at newsstands on Chicago's South Side. Friends bought most of the copies, convincing dealers the magazine was in demand, while Johnson reimbursed the friends and resold the copies they had bought. The tactic was used in New York, Philadelphia and Detroit, and within a year, Negro Digest was selling 50,000 copies a month. The magazine is no longer published.

Besides his wife, Johnson is survived by a daughter, Linda Johnson Rice, president of Johnson Publishing.

Goodbye Peter

And another one bites the dust. ( http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050808/ap_on_en_tv/obit_jennings ) Hearing of his lung cancer months ago, hit me more than hearing of his death now. I suppose you could see this coming then, lung cancer kills quickly, so the punched-in-the-gut surprise was then, not now. I'll miss his brains and resolve.

Dan and Tom, I could take or leave. I didn't have the great animosity that seems to ferment in many towards Dan, and Tom, like his replacement, seems nice enough. But Peter. There was one who seemed straight up, who had a worldly intelligence, whose facial expressions after reading a particularly outrageous story seemed neutral but betrayed an impatience with the idiots at work out there. Maybe it was his international flavor, his don't-piss-on-my-head and then-tell-me-it's-raining attitude. I liked the guy, and quite frankly, don't miss the evening news without him. I haven't watched any station much since he's been gone; when the tv is on at 5:30, Madison runs the BBC news at the same time. I find they prioritize the stories better and can go into more detail since there's less fluffy filler. Kind of like a meat and fruit and vegetable meal, minus the sugar and salty pre-processed treats.

Here are some facts pulled from the Star Tribune story: Jennings never completed high school or college, but was educated on the job, you might say. He was picked at 26 to anchor the ABC evening news and debuted on Feb. 1, 1965. (His father was a broadcaster, and Jennings began work on the radio, with a show when he was 9.)

Of his early start with ABC, he was highly criticized and then lost the job at 29. "It was a little ridiculous when you think about it. A twenty-six-year-old trying to compete with Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. I was simply unqualified."

Jennings later described the humbling experience as an opportunity, "because I was obliged to figure out who I was and what I really wanted to be." He returned to the anchor desk in 1978, as part of a 3-person team.

From the Star Trib story: He took pride that "World News Tonight," as its name suggested, took a more worldly view than its rivals. Fans responded to his smart, controlled style.

"I have never spent a day in my adult life where I didn't learn something," Jennings told the Saturday Evening Post. "And if there is a born-again quality to me, that's it."
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Deaths like these are akin to Carson's, except he had been gone a lot longer in the public eye than Jennings. You don't know these people, but I for one spent an awful lot of time, part of my daily routine, watching him in the 80s and 90s. He was a person, yet very real, in a way our come-and-go media today, in an unstable world, is not. I once heard someone describe Peter Jennings as "arrogant". Huh? I suppose that independent, no bullshit, no fawning style might be taken the wrong way. And for those who would tell me he smoked like a chimney, I'm not shedding any tears here for his death. Just sorry to lose that kind of person -- quality, self made -- in times when you always have to be looking to pop the umbrella because somebody out there's getting ready to take a tinkle.

Jennings is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, and his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23. We wish them well, strength like the father.

My new co-workers have a good sense of humor. This was posted on the kitchen bulletin board today, and gave me a chuckle:

Please help!!!! After two long years of being on a waiting list for an agility dog, we have been notified by the breeder that, at long last, our number has come up and ... WE ARE HAVING A PUPPY !!!

We must get rid of the children IMMEDIATELY because we just know how time consuming our new little puppy is going to be and it just wouldn't be fair to the children. Since our little puppy will be arriving on Monday, we MUST place the children into rescue by this weekend!

They are described as:
One male -- His name is Tommy, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), light blonde hair, blue eyes. Four years old. Excellent disposition. He doesn't bite. Temperament tested. Does have problems with peeing directly in the toilet. Has had chicken pox and is current on all shots. Tonsils have already been removed. Tommy eats everything, is very clean, house trained & gets along well with others. Does not run with scissors and with a little training, he should be able to read soon.

One female -- Her name is Lexie, Caucasian (English/Irish mix), strawberry blonde hair, green eyes, quite freckled. Two years old. Can be surly at times. Non-biter, thumb sucker. Has been temperament tested but needs a little attitude adjusting occasionally. She is current on all shots and is very healthy & can be affectionate. Gets along well with other little girls & little boys but does not like to share her toys and therefore would do best in a one child household. She is a very quick learner and is currently working on her house training -- shouldn't take long at all.

We really do LOVE our children so much and want to do what's right for them; that is why we contacted a rescue group. But we simply can no longer keep them. Also, we are afraid that they may hurt our new puppy.

I hope you understand that ours is a UNIQUE situation and we have a real emergency here!!! They MUST be placed into your rescue by Sunday night at the latest or we will be forced to drop them off at the orphanage or along some dark, country road. Our top priority now has to be our new puppy.

(heh! Have a good weekend, and if you can help, just call 1-800-ITS-A-JOKE!)

Fun find

Now who said kids today don't know how to spend their summer time in productive ways? Life in this 21st century can still be a priceless adventure, if you keep your head down and your eyes open...

"Very vigorous."

(w/fingers crossed): God bless the child...