Hambone v3.0

In Which We Explore The World Of Literature

Literature gives us access to panoramic vistas beyond our previous understanding. Many novels through the ages have provided wonderful quotations through which we can experience bits of the world within.
Especially significant are opening lines:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
— Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

And closing lines:

“It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.”
— Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

What are some of your favorites?

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  1. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    TGIF!!
    Mornin’ Gang

  2. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    OK so guns have been made out of junk parts for a long time, especially in places were people can’t have them, so I just can’t understand why this is such a big deal; State Department orders firm to remove 3D-printed guns web blueprints.

  3. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    What are some of your favorites?

    Though the classroom was full of students, it was if the teacher and I were one as she ground the pencil into the paper …….. Oh wait….sorry

  4. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    Good morning Hamsters. Light rain here last night, barely enough to wet the bottom of the plastic rain gauge. However, good folk east of us in Houston and points north got pounded bigtime. And there’s another storm system north of San Antonio that’s winding up and coming our way. The Spring storm season continues apace.
    Hope the rains hold off in Fort Bend County until mid-afternoon. I’m attending a Fort Bend Republican Women-sponsored luncheon featuring Greg Abbott, and it would be nice to get home without wading. 🙂

  5. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    “Oh my God!” Amber whispered as the compressor throbbed to life, shuddered rhythmically towards its inevitable conclusion,
    Romance, The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest 😀

  6. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    “What’s it going to be then, eh?”
    There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim. Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither. Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels and Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet milk with knives in it, as we used to say, and this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was what we were peeting this evening I’m starting off the story with.

  7. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    A Clockwork Orange

  8. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
    To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
    To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
    ― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

  9. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “It was a dark and stormy night.” -Snoopy

  10. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    “His heart beat faster and faster as Daisy’s white face came up to his own. He knew that when he kissed this girl, and forever wed his unutterable visions to her perishable breath, his mind would never romp again like the mind of God. So he waited, listening for a moment longer to the tuning fork that had been struck upon a star. Then he kissed her. At his lips’ touch she blossomed like a flower and the incarnation was complete.”

    This is why the movie will never do what the book did. I’m going to check it out this weekend and see if trying real hard gets close.

  11. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Her stomach felt quite similar to Mt St. Helens just prior to eruption, the churning of her gut, complete with the noxious gas hinted at the toxic pyroclastic flow of partially digested pizza, bratwurst and ice cream, which would soon project violently from her mouth and nostrils; this explosion would pale in comparison to what was about to happen at the other end – the poor dear has been violated by the latest scourge on humanity: a nasty mutated combination of bird and pig viruses known as the Mohammed flu.

  12. Katfish Avatar
    Katfish

    Not an opener or a closer – but a good one nonetheless!

    “But the rest are even scared to open up and laugh. You know, that’s the first thing that got me about this place, that there wasn’t anybody laughing. I haven’t heard a real laugh since I came through that door, do you know that? Man, when you lose your laugh you lose your footing.”

    Can anyone guess where this one is from? *insert Jeopardy theme here*

  13. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    “Call me Ishmael.” Not that I like the book, but I like the opening sentence.

  14. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    11
    There wasn’t a scintilla of doubt in my mind.

  15. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    12
    Cookoo’s Nest?

  16. Katfish Avatar
    Katfish

    #15 – BINGO!! well DONE Brother!
    Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

  17. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Indeed, she would still be quite happy to dig a hole in the lawn at her feet and stick her head in if someone would just offer her a shovel.” -Mary Balogh

  18. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Courage was an admirable trait in a man. In a woman, he decided, it was a pain. -Helen Dickson

  19. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “She knew how to end this conversation. “It’s a female matter.”

  20. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    Opportunity for the Duke brothers to try again to corner the market in FCOJ?

  21. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    I don’t know about all this literary stuff but there’s one thing I do know – never take your drunk pet moose up the stairs of your neighbor’s castle, no matter what your clairvoyant dwarf sidekick says.

  22. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    “If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal- that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself. The greatest gains and values are farthest from being appreciated. We easily come to doubt if they exist. We soon forget them. They are the highest reality. Perhaps the facts most astounding and most real are never communicated by man to man. The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star-dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched.”

  23. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Open your ears; for which of you will stop
           The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?”

  24. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    #9 Shannon
    My choice also.

  25. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
    Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
    Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
    Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
    Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
    Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

  26. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Women are irrational, that’s all there is to that! Their heads are full of cotton, hay, and rags. They’re nothing but exasperating, irritating, vacillating, calculating, agitating, maddening and infuriating hags!” -Professor Henry Higgins
    🙂

  27. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    #21 Hamous
    Sounds like a frat house in Saskatoon.

  28. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Weird stuff blamed on global warming:

    Every Australian knows the best place to keep your spare change is in a kangaroo’s scrotum. But a good nutsack is getting harder to find these days thanks to global warming, or so says John Kreuger in an interview with Vice magazine. Climate change may (or may not) be causing more rain and floods in Australia. Regardless, when bad weather strikes, according to Kreuger, the larger, smarter kangaroos hop away into the interior of the country, leaving behind the younger kangaroos who carry around smaller, inferior scrotums. You can imagine this isn’t good for business.

  29. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    I wonder if they tie them around their waists like the Scots & their sporrans?
    Do they leave the scroti furry for formal occasions and shave them for informal/casual times?
    There’s a BBQ place in Texas City that sells bull scroti. You could use some of them to haul around your bowling ball. 😯

  30. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Then, sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
    And let the young lambs bound
    As to the tabor’s sound!
    We, in thought, will join your throng,
    Ye that pipe and ye that play,
    Ye that through your hearts to-day
    Feel the gladness of the May!
    What though the radiance which was once so bright
    Be now for ever taken from my sight,
    Though nothing can bring back the hour
    Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
    We will grieve not, rather find
    Strength in what remains behind;
    In the primal sympathy
    Which having been must ever be;
    In the soothing thoughts that spring
    Out of human suffering;
    In the faith that looks through death,
    In years that bring the philosophic mind.
    And 0, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
    Forebode not any severing of our loves!
    Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
    I only have relinquish’d one delight
    To live beneath your more habitual sway;
    I love the brooks which down their channels fret
    Even more than when I tripp’d lightly as they;
    The innocent brightness of a new-born day Is lovely yet;
    The clouds that gather round the setting sun
    Do take a sober colouring from an eye
    That hath kept watch o’er man’s mortality;
    Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
    Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
    Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
    To me the meanest flower that blows can give
    Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

  31. El Gordo Avatar
    El Gordo

    “If I had a mind to rent pigs, I’d be mighty upset. A man that likes to rent pigs won’t be stopped.”

  32. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    30
    /swoon

  33. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    What are some of your favorites?

    In the category of mysteries
    “Under the Grandstand”
    By Seymour Butts
    In the category of sports
    “50 yd Dash For The Outhouse”
    By Willy Makeit
    Illustrated by Betty Dont
    In the category of romance
    “Nuts on the Fence”
    By Wun Hung Lo
    And finally
    Moby Dick
    By Herman Melville

  34. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    Breitbart has an updated story on the mooslime cleric that damned the US service personnel just prior to their bodies being loaded onto transport aircraft.

    The families of the servicemen say that America’s enemies were determined to strike back at our special forces for Bin Laden’s death, so they are questioning why military brass sent their sons into battle “without special operations aviation and proper air support” immediately after President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden announced to the world that SEAL Team VI killed Bin Laden.
    /snip

    We learned that this valley [in Afghanistan] was an incredibly hostile territory which our military had cleared on seven prior occasions and then turned it back over to the Afghanis who could not maintain its stability. We learned that night that the mission was so dangerous, that it had to be authorized out of theater, but even then the following took place. The most elite lawyers in our nation’s history and now unfortunately not so secret SEAL Team Six were flown into battles, Billy said that, on a CH47 Chinook Chopper.
    This conventional airframe that these American were forced to do battle in that night was built in the early 1960’s and last retrofitted in 1985. We demand to know who made the call to send our sons into hostile territory or evidence proves a shoot down attempt had been in full force for weeks in less than adequate antiquated airframes documented to be in very poor condition. We also demand to know who made the call to mix conventional aircraft and forces with special warfare operations. In our search, we also discovered that Extortion 17 entered the battle field that night completely unescorted with no pre-assault fire paving the way for that school bus to make it slow contemplated landing in that pitch black hostile territory. A territory that had been engaged in a military battle for three and a half hours.

    It seems that there needs to be some house cleaning in the upper levels of our armed services. There seems to be an overabundance of PC infected idiots.

  35. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Her voice was low. It put him in mind of dark bedchambers rather than dark entryways.”

  36. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    “Her voice was low. It put him in mind of dark bedchambers rather than dark entryways.”

    Upon further inspection the beginnings of a shadow of whiskers on her face coupled with the large adams apple made him think that she might just be a he or a transmission.

  37. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Dark as dusk, and thunderboomers in near NW Houston. Let the rains begin!

  38. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    #37 M42: The radar shows a pretty heavy batch headed our way.

  39. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    It’s darker than dusk up here by the airport.
    Streetlights are on and lotsa lightning.

  40. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Where were all her good intentions now? Destroyed to ashes, consumed in the fire of passion, ignited by his lips.”

  41. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Sounds like some a you guys been reading Harlequin Romances…

  42. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Dark enough here to NEED lights inside the house. The darkness is broken only by the occasional flashes of lightning.
    I worked ’til about 1:00 a.m. last night/this morning. I was woken up around 3:00 a.m. by a tremendous light show. I got up and unplugged all the computer stuff and went back to bed.

  43. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    Well, maybe I’m not going to the luncheon in Sugar Land. We are in severe thunderstorm and flash flood boxes covering about half of Fort Bend County. Just before 10 it was dark as night, all the yard lights on, rain pounding everything, just about constant lightning.
    Slowed considerably in the last 5 minutes but the yard lights are still on. And there’s another angry red/orange blob coming this way that might not target us but surely will hit Sugar Land. So if I go it will likely be by an alternate route, as there’s a good chance the intersection of 90A and Texas 99 will be under water as it is an underpass for the railroad tracks.

  44. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    The power briefly (3 mins) went out here at Richmond and Kirby.

  45. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Power blinked off here. Barf Kitty has come up to the office for a visit. She seems a bit perturbed. I petted her and set up a heating pad here in the office. She’s calming down now.

  46. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    Well, this is a shocker!
    Not that the IRS singled out Tea Party groups for its singular attention, but that they apologized. What will really shock me is if anyone loses their job over it.
    /spits

  47. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Occupy Portland worships golden bull on May 1, 2013.

  48. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    Maybe the God of Abraham and Moses will smite them.

  49. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    “I got up on my feet and went over to the bowl in the corner and threw cold water on my face. After a little while I felt a little better, but very little. I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance. I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room.”

  50. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Sounds like Mike Hammer!

  51. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #47 Shannon
    Love the dude (prolly a professor) with the gray suit and the pigtail. Noted Shell, Halliburton, Chevron logos on the Bull Wagon.

  52. fat albert Avatar
    fat albert

    And the ship went out into the High Sea and passed on into the West until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country and a swift sunrise.

  53. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Obama admin. surrenders in HHS mandate case against Bible publisher

  54. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    It was New Year’s Day. I stood at the kitchen window sipping a hot, bitter espresso and gazing down at the raw, grainy, half-deserted, fog-shrouded countenance of Vandam Street. It looked a lot like I felt. On this day in 1953 Hank Williams had died somewhere along the way to a show in Canton, Ohio. Whether death is indeed preferable to doing a show in Canton, Ohio, has been a much disputed philosophical question ever since.

  55. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    “Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.
    Consider all this; and then turn to the green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half-known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”

  56. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    This breaks my heart – a mother chooses to abort her baby, and it’s born alive:

    When Angele went back to the hotel, she continued to feel her baby kick. This confused her because she had been led to believe that the baby would be dead. At one point, in the middle of the night, while the baby was still kicking, she considered calling the clinic’s after-hours line, but decided not to.
    /snip
    The contractions began. At one point, the pain became intense and she asked clinic worker “Violene” if she could be given anything to ease the pain. She also told Violene that she thought she was about to deliver. Violene told her she was not ready, and left her again. In Angele’s own words:
    “I came back to the sofa, (they both really smelled awful), wrapped up in the wet and sour-smelling blanket, then decided it was better without it. I rocked back and forth on my hands and knees, trying to hold the heating pad to my stomach to both relieve the pain and try to stay warm. I was looking down and saw little smears and spots of dried blood on the floor and an old cotton ball with blood on it by the fabric-covered sofa across from me. Noticing how dirty it was and how no one was in the room or even nearby in the hallway began to make me nervous and uncomfortable. I went right back to the powder room and began to try to push a lot. I thought it might help since I was told I was not nearly ready to deliver.”
    “In one agonizing push, I felt and heard something come out. Then immediately another push. I was weak. I just held my head in my hands for a moment. Then I decided to stand up. I looked. There was my baby, the whitish cord and what I thought surely must be the placenta. “I started sobbing and lay down in the floor. I stared and stared at my son. I was horrified that I had just had him in a commode.” “His right leg moved. He curled up a bit like he was cold; I screamed for Violene! No one came. I managed to get to the doorway, pants down, blood everywhere and yelled again. I went back to my baby. I heard her say she’d be right there.

    “I showed her Rowan, told her he was alive and moving and to call 911! She took a quick look, said he’s not moving now and she’d be back to take care of things while walking out. I called her again. I was touching Rowan softly and he moved again. I called her back. Rowan jumped, I think startled by the loud sound of my calling for help. I showed her that he was moving and alive. I begged her to hurry and call 911, now!”

    The clinic worker took one look at the moving baby and told Angele that she would get her supervisor. But the minutes ticked by, and no one came. It became clear to Angele that Violene was not going to summon help. She grabbed her phone and quickly dialed her friend, pleading with her to call 911 and send paramedics to save her baby. Listen to the call here.
    Angele continued to be left alone with her son, who she said reacted to her voice. All she could do was try and comfort him:

    “I stayed beside Rowan talking to him, telling him how strong he was being and how proud I was of him. I told him God must really want us to be together for him to make it through everything he had just been through and that Mommy was so sorry but so happy to have a chance to love him. I told him he was a strong little miracle and that I couldn’t wait for him to meet his brother and sister. I just kept touching him, trying to warm him with my hands and talking to him so he would not feel any more afraid than he already must.”

    Finally, the baby stopped moving as Angele waited for help.
    She cradled the dead baby and began to pray, filled with remorse for choosing to undergo the abortion. A staff member came and demanded that she give her the baby. Angele refused, and continued to hold on to Rowan. The clinic workers left her alone briefly but returned to pressure her to give up the body of the child.
    Meanwhile, the police (not the paramedics) showed up at the clinic. It was later found out that the paramedics had come, but a clinic worker, thought to be Violene, told them that a patient had merely “passed some tissue” and that “the physician had the situation under control.”(1) She convinced them not to enter the clinic. (The physician was not in the clinic at all when Violene told them this)

    This mother will have to live with her decision the rest of her life. That remorse she felt as she watched her baby die will be there every morning when she wakes up. Don’t get me wrong – she brought it upon herself, but it will be a sorrowful load to bear. And that poor baby, born into a toilet, cold, wet, and unable to breathe – there are not enough words nor tears. My only consolation in an event like this is that Heaven awaited him, where he will never be cold or alone again.
    The clinic workers – my only consolation there is that they will get what they deserve, too. I shudder to think of what awaits them. I pray they have a reversal of mind, develop a conscience, and work against the evils that they have perpetrated.

  57. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    No wonder they banned it form libraries:

    “Git up and hump yourself, Jim! There ain’t a minute to lose. They’re after us!”

  58. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Headline on Channel 11 just now:
    “Two Workers Struck by Lightening”
    Rapid weight loss? Skin bleaching?

  59. Katfish Avatar
    Katfish

    RE: boomers rollin through – I can say with confidence I have NEVER seen it get SO DARK near 0930 on ANY day since this house was built (37 years) – our western neighbors house is 30 feet from my kitchen window and I couldn’t see it – not dark from rain but from the apparent height of that T-boomer’s cloud – I’d bet it was well above 70,000 feet to be that dark outside – thankfully only a very few tap taps of hail as it came through here – I’d be amazed if the rain was less than 2 inches in under an hour

  60. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    ABC13 was showing their live shot from their car cruising on the highways. We get treated to an HD shot of the rear end of an 18 wheeler. But the newsie assures us we a re getting a good idea of what it is like on the roads now.
    /Sniff it makes me so proud of our truckers.

  61. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    50 mharper42 says:
    May 10, 2013 at 11:22 am
    Sounds like Mike Hammer!

    Mike Hammer is a piker, the kind of guy who think’s he’s tough but has a hard time putting a bruise on an apple.
    Its the guy Hammer tired to be: Raymond Chandler, who wrote what are arguably two of the best openings in Modern American Literature, and definetly in American Detective Mysteries:

    There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
    I was getting one in a flossy new place across the street from the apartment house where I lived. It had been open about a week and it wasn’t doing any business. The kid behind the bar was in his early twenties and looked as if he had never had a drink in his life.
    There was only one other customer, a souse on a bar stool with his back to the door. He had a pile of dimes stacked neatly in front of him, about two dollars’ worth. He was drinking straight rye in small glasses and he was all by himself in a world of his own.

    and my favorite:

    IT WAS ONE OF THE MIXED BLOCKS over on Central Avenue, the blocks that are not yet all Negro. I had just come out of a three-chair barber shop where an agency thought a relief barber named Dimitrios Aleidis might be working. It was a small matter. His wife said she was willing to spend a little money to have him come home.
    I never found him, but Mrs. Aleidis never paid me any money either.
    It was a warm day, almost the end of March, and I stood outside the barber shop looking up at the jutting neon sign of a second floor dine and dice emporium called Florian’s. A man was looking up at the sign too. He was looking up at the dusty windows with a sort of ecstatic fixity of expression, like a hunky immigrant catching his first sight of the Statue of Liberty. He was a big man but not more than six feet five inches tall and not wider than a beer truck. He was about ten feet away from me. His arms hung loose at his aides and a forgotten cigar smoked behind his enormous fingers.
    Slim quiet Negroes passed up and down the street and stared at him with darting side glances. He was worth looking at. He wore a shaggy borsalino hat, a rough gray sports coat with white golf balls on it for buttons, a brown shirt, a yellow tie, pleated gray flannel slacks and alligator shoes with white explosions on the toes. From his outer breast pocket cascaded a show handkerchief of the same brilliant yellow as his tie. There were a couple of colored feathers tucked into the band of his hat, but he didn’t really need them. Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.

  62. Darren Avatar
    Darren

    Maybe the God of Abraham and Moses will smite them.

    He smites hard too.

  63. Darren Avatar
    Darren

    Massachusetts investigators have developed what they call “mounting evidence,” bolstered by “forensic hits,” that point to the possible involvement of both Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar in a gruesome, unsolved triple homicide in 2011, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
    The officials cautioned that until more definitive DNA testing is complete, it is still too early to consider bringing an indictment against the younger of the two brothers, who officials said has admitted his role in the Boston Marathon bombings that killed three and injured 260 more on April 15. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the Marathon bombing attack, but Dhzokhar survived and was captured.

    http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/mounting-evidence-boston-bombers-involved-2011-triple-murder/story?id=19151271#.UY0hIoJ4yL3

  64. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Today’s theme instantly reminded me of this:

  65. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Noted Shell, Halliburton, Chevron logos on the Bull Wagon

    I didn’t notice that, which changes the context considerably. I now see a Koch logo also.

  66. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I know I am the lesser for it, but the older I got the more I felt like reading novels was a colossal waste of time. Non-fiction has held sway in my reading for decades.
    Then again, perhaps it’s adult ADD.

  67. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    66 Shannon says:
    May 10, 2013 at 1:23 pm
    I know I am the lesser for it, but the older I got the more I felt like reading novels was a colossal waste of time. Non-fiction has held sway in my reading for decades.
    Then again, perhaps it’s adult ADD.

    Depends on the novel.
    C.S Lewis comes to mind, as does Dostoyevsky, Vonnegutt, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and a slew of others.

  68. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    67 Sarge
    The Brothers Karamazov sits stuck on page 8, on my Kindle, for the last year.
    So much to read, so little time.

  69. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    I determined to read that after the author of a Bible Commnetary I was reading (IIRC it was on James, but I’m not sure right now) went on long expositions of it .

  70. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    69
    I think it’s one of the free ones on Amazon.

  71. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    found on Breitbart via Drudge: The big fix is being attempted and Limbaugh just alluded to it; there is a closed door press briefing taking place at the occupied whitehouse now. Obviously, not all reporters/news agencies were invited and those who were not are not happy about it. What is happening? Izzit to get the talking points straight for a document dump, are they figuring out how to circle the wagons and prepare for Hitlery 2016, are they going to drop that witch in the grease where she belongs?
    A closed door press briefing is way beyond suspicious and to a casual observer at least knocks on the door of conspiracy.

  72. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    Uh Oh.

    CNN) — Texas authorities are launching a criminal investigation into last month’s deadly fertilizer distribution facility explosion in West, Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday.
    The announcement was made on the same day authorities arrested Bryce Reed, a West emergency volunteer who was a first-responder to the disaster.
    Authorities have not tied the arrest to the deadly blast.
    McLennan County sheriff’s records clerk Betty Duncan told CNN that Reed was arrested for possession of a destructive device, booked early Friday, and is in the custody of U.S. Marshals.

  73. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    New word for the day:
    Factotum – someone whose job is to do many different jobs for someone else
    Hmmm. A synonym for Husband? 🙂

  74. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    The Queen’s Henchmen

    The Queen’s Henchmen
    request the pleasure of your company
    at a Lynching – to be held
    at 23rd and C Streets NW
    on Tuesday, December 18, 2012
    just past sunset.
    A blood sacrifice –
    to divert the hounds –
    to appease the gods –
    to cleanse our filth and
    satisfy our guilty consciences.
    And the ones being lynched?
    Who cares? They are pawns in a game.
    Our game. All suckers, all fools,
    all knaves who volunteered to serve –
    Us. And the truth? The truth?
    What difference at this point does it make?

  75. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    A review of the film The Brothers Karamazov which starred Yul Brynner, Richard Baseheart, and William Shatner.

  76. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    74 SD
    Wow.

  77. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    And form one of my all time favorite books:

    Dick said, “Look, look.
    Look up.
    Look up, up, up.”

    Classic prose I tell yuh whut.

  78. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    Sounds a bit advanced for you.

  79. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    #26 Shannon
    My Fair Lady. Love that musical.

  80. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Man, despite the full court press by Mocha jesus and his disciples, this Benghazi thing may have reached critical mass. ABC is finally acknowledging that there is something there. CNN is saying the dam bursts on Benghazi.

  81. Hamous Avatar
    Hamous

    Here’s the troubling thing. From the CNN story:

    It seems that after all that digging, Republicans have found their pony at last.

    In the world of real journalism, shouldn’t the journalists be the ones doing the digging?

  82. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    I got to the luncheon an hour later than planned but made it without going through high water after waiting until most of the storm was well into Houston. The salad course was finished, except for my place, and the main course arrived about 10 minutes after I did. Nibbled at the salad and ate more of the main course while the speakers were at the podium. My tablemates had all arrived earlier and were concerned about my absence although most of them had a nasty trip to get there.
    Attorney General Abbott arrived a bit later than planned because his flight from Austin got cancelled owing to the nasty weather as they were waiting to take off. So he and his aides piled into a car and drove through much of the mess to get to Sugar Land a little later than I did. Previous speakers kept things going. He reviewed the lawsuits he had filed against the Obama administration, including another one against Obamacare after the infamous John Roberts verdict last June. He mentioned suits he will file if things in DC do not turn out as We The People demand. He urged everyone to seriously get involved in safeguarding our freedoms embodied in the Constitution and working with friends and neighbors to join in that effort, as the Democrat effort to turn Texas blue is not an idle project.
    I was able to speak briefly with him a bit later and asked if I understood correctly that he would be announcing his plans to run for office after the Lege adjourns this session sine die. He said “yes” and smiled.

  83. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    “Talking to me, cupcake?”

  84. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    After listening to Hendee and friends this morning make fun of men who shop in flower tents at grocery stores -and knowing my wife back home was listening…
    Well, you know what I just had to do on my way home.
    She will have such a laugh. 🙂

  85. Bonecrusher Avatar
    Bonecrusher

    In the world of real journalism, shouldn’t the journalists be the ones doing the digging?

    If an R occupies the white house, they will leave no stone unturned and if no evidence of malfeasance is produced they will manufacture it. When a D is there, nothing to see, move along.
    Why anybody listens to the LSM at all anymore is a mystery to me. There is no longer even the facade of objectivity.

  86. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Mini-orchid. Miniature rose. Mini-card.

  87. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    And a tiny Happy Mother’s Day balloon.

  88. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    2.2 inches of rain. Not as much as some of you, but we’ll take it.

  89. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #73 Shannon
    New word for the day:
    Factotum – someone whose job is to do many different jobs for someone else
    Hmmm. A synonym for Husband?

    Bwa Haha Ha!! A factotum is a jack of all trades. A husband is more of an honorary factotum, i.e. he would do it for you if he only knew how.

  90. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Well, I only got 1.0″ of rain, but glad to have it. And hope for more tonight or tomorrow.

  91. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    After listening to Hendee and friends this morning make fun of men who shop in flower tents at grocery

    Whut???? There ain’t no shame in that game. It is convenient, cheap and potentially a life saver for some guys. That is unless you are married to my ex-wife. That woman looked at tags or whatever and if it did not come from a flower shop why that was just scandalous. And that is why she is my ex-wife.
    BSue on the other hand is just grateful to get flowers and surprised I did not snag the flowers out of the cemetery.

  92. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    A husband is more of an honorary factotum, i.e. he would do it for you if he only knew how.

    Uhhhh nope not this hubby. There is a whole bunch of junk I know how to do but won’t and if I do not know how to do it I say so and move along.

  93. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    I looked at the rain gauge this morning. Over 4″, from last night to today.

  94. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #91
    How can she be sure?

  95. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    CNN is saying the dam bursts on Benghazi.

    and

    It seems that after all that digging, Republicans have found their pony at last.

    And ain’t none of it gonna go anywhere. Hillary will be re-pillaried but what does that matter? She is out of office waiting for her next turn at the bite of the apple which ain’t gonna make any difference after 4 years. Obama will not be impeached so all we have is a momentary gotcha to make the “right wing” all giddy for awhile, Alex Jones scream I told you so, talk radio get all all indignant and stuff……. so what? Hillary will be the scape goat at the end of the day and that will be that.
    Just more stacking of the proverbial bovine processed hay.

  96. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    What’s more impressive?
    That a 70 year old man took down a 24 year old home intruder? (Okay, he was doped up.)
    Or that he had a girlfriend?

  97. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    mharper

    How can she be sure?

    She knows how much I loathe cemeteries. I DO NOT go in them unless I ABSOLUTELY have to.

  98. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    That a 70 year old man took down a 24 year old home intruder? (Okay, he was doped up.)
    Or that he had a girlfriend?

    The guy was a welder. Prolly still in pretty good shape. not surprising to me at all. i knew some truckers in their 70’s that could work circles around most guys and few of them kept some “younger” wives pretty content.

  99. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Why wouldn’t a seventy year old have a girlfriend?

  100. Katfish Avatar
    Katfish

    #96 – sounded to me like the Lady was his wife (not G/F)

  101. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Yup that was his wife. Said so in the vidiot. The old boy looks pretty stout even with some heart problems.

  102. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Back to Benghazi
    The problem with the “R”s is all they want is the gotcha moment in the sun. Big whoop. Obama has committed enough high crimes and misdemeanors with the aid of the likes of Holder and there has not been a hint of impeachment. The general public does not care. The “R”s do not have the stones to carry Benghazi into even suggesting impeachment and with the “D”s in control of the Senate the point becomes moot anyway. And there is no way Boehner is going to tip over the apple cart.
    Frankly I am tired of all this righteous indignation crappola from both sides of the aisle. If you are gonna get angry, do something, Preaching and admonishing accomplishes nothing.

    You wanna know how to get Capone Obama? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That’s* the *Chicago* way! And that’s how you get Capone Obama.

  103. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Yes Squawk when you have 5 out of the last 8 comments you can pretty much claim having kilt der blog.

  104. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    “Luckily he didn’t have a knife or a gun and Mike reacted so quick,” said Elaine Smith, Salame’s girlfriend.

    Huh? He had a wife and a girlfriend?

  105. Katfish Avatar
    Katfish

    Morty “play the tape!”
    I’m guessing the typing is a typo

  106. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Uhoh…………. Missed that part. Dayyam I do not know whether to admire the guy or feel sorry for him 🙂

  107. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    The text doesn’t mention “wife”. It says “girlfriend”.
    That’s a helluva typo.

  108. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    LOL the boy may be in some deep stuff if wifey watches the clip reads the text.

  109. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    The vidiot interviewed “the wife”. See youse guys were right, ya cannot trust the MSM to get it right.

  110. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I saw it on the innernet.
    Must be true.

  111. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Man you just convinced me. Internet = written in stone

  112. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Bwa Haha Ha!! A factotum is a jack of all trades. A husband is more of an honorary factotum, i.e. he would do it for you if he only knew how.

    au contraire fer mary, I am a jack of all trades, I can repair your TV, VCR recording device, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, etc, etc. I can also build a barn/ hen house, hang a door, put down tile, hang sheetrock, roof a house, install a fence drive a tractor/bull dozer, do minor plumbing, shoe a horse and repair your automobile, including rebuilding the engine. I can’t fix an automatic transmission though…. 🙁
    I’ve done all these things in my 59 years on this earth.
    One more thing, softeware, fugdabout it.

  113. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Since Ms. Clinton is going to be our next president, it’s high time to google Clinton Body Count, agaIn.

  114. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #96 TT
    I submit that the two anomalies (70 y.o. scrapper, and a GF) are not unrelated.

  115. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    It was about 3 a.m. Saturday when Salame was at home with his girlfriend and heard something outside.

  116. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    I’d bet that was a major typo. Yanno the MSM, no one is happily married or afraid of their spouse enough not to fool around.

  117. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #112 SD
    Back when I was actually going to the office every day to work, I had a “pod-mate” who was the drilling optimization expert for the company software. I overheard him take a call from his stay-at-home wife about a plumbing problem. Her told her he would pick up some parts on his way home and fix it that night. Caused me to say “Yahno, if Elizabeth ever gets tired of you, I’ll trade.” To the amusement of the rest of the pod. (A pod is a big office with a bunch of coworkers co-located in it.)

  118. Sarge Avatar
    Sarge

    Its good when you learn something. I learned something today.
    I always thought Factotum was a convenience store that sold encyclopedias, now I know its a husband.
    .
    .
    .
    .
    You know you’re old when you tell a joke that only people over 50 will get.
    You also know you’re old when you get the joke.

  119. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    Our rain total thus far today is 2.1″, for which we are grateful. ‘Course it came in about one hour so there are still puddles here and there on the sidewalk and driveway, and the yards are likely softened a bit. God’s glorious emerald green adorns the plant life again.
    Just hope the next storm coming overnight is not so violent. Lightning and thunder in mega clusters do not make for restful sleeping. Mariposa will have to decide if she wants to sleep under the bed or on it with us, or a little of both depending on how noisy the storm is.

  120. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    Well, you know what I just had to do on my way home.

    Get a set of vacuum cleaner bags?

  121. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    My factotumness is bigger than yours.

  122. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    We had another deer/dog confrontation a little earlier. A bunch of them were grazing beside the house working their way to the back, the dog has done been learned and usually just watches but he couldn’t stand it and went after them. Mama doe says no no and charges him, he backs off but won’t completely, they are by the pool now, I get involved telling him to stay while yelling at the deer – she is less than 15′ feet from us – she backs off a bit, Buddy charges a little again, she comes again, I command him again to stay and she comes after both of us and I charge back at her. Damn! She finally took off. I ain’t ever seen nothin’ like it.

  123. wagonburner Avatar
    wagonburner

    #121 shannon
    perv

  124. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Maybe Tom better be whittling himself a spear stick and clapping rocks to make a hand axe.

  125. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    Hokay, I went back and watched the video and the GF is labelled as the wife. I still think she is the GF, or mayhaps could be considered common-law wife. At their age, Social Security rules could be such that it is preferable not to be married so you can each get your own SS payment. I don’t know how that works, cuz I have not yet applied to see if I can get back anything for my 45+ years of tax-paying.

  126. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    I suggest you stay clear of that bitchy deer, sir.

  127. Dooood Avatar
    Dooood

    What are some of your favorites?

    “Oh, the usual. I bowl. Drive around. The occasional acid flashback.“

  128. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    In the world of real journalism, shouldn’t the journalists be the ones doing the digging?

    Ain’t it the truth! Dayaam sad state of affairs the loss of any objective media,….from “Fast & Furious” to all the green companies that NEVER EVER expected to turn a profit, just feather the nests of the Obama donors, to Benghazi, can you imagine what the “Lame Stream Media” would have said if this had of happened under Bush?!?! 🙁

  129. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Oh and don’t forget Halliburton!
    They did nothing wrong but they were evil because they were somehow conneted to Cheney.

  130. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    #122 GJT, they’re NOT that way in the wild, EXCEPT that they always take care of the fawns, in a urban setting they’re not afraid of peoples and can be much more aggressive. They are real tame at NASA and sometimes the bucks can be dangerous when the rut gets into full swing.

  131. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    About plumbing, one spring my Dad and I dug (by hand) two 100′ field lines for our septic tank, lined the bottom with gravel laid the terra-cotta pipe in the trenches leaving a small gap between each one and adding more gravel and covering it with red clay.
    When I was a young-un my grandmother didn’t have running water and I helped my uncle with plumbing the house. We cut threads for the Iron pipe for the water and used hemp rope and molten lead to seal the drain lines, unfortunately she passed away before we finished the project. 🙁

  132. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    Welp! Dave’s been done, “done it again”. 😉
    Gotta’ axe JimB what kind of deodorant he uses. 😀

  133. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    #131 Dave
    Now that **is** an extreme example, where you almost had to smelt your own iron ore to make the pipes.

  134. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    My entry to the literature of the day – this is the end of a short story:

    He knew they had lied. That was no tumor they had removed from Sledge’s brain, but the memory, the scientific knowledge,and the bitter disillusion of their own creator. But it was true that Sledge was happy now.
    He tried to stop his own convulsive quivering.
    “A wonderful operation!” His voice came forced and faint. “You know, Aurora has had a lot of funny tenants, but that old man was the absolute limit. The very idea that he had made the humanoids, and he knew how to stop them! I always knew he must be lying!”
    Stiff with terror, he made a weak and hollow laugh.
    “What is the matter, Mr. Underhill?” The alert mechanical must have perceived his shuddering illness. “Are you unwell?”
    “No, there’s nothing the matter with me,” he gasped desperately. “I’ve just found out that I’m perfectly happy, under the Prime Directive. Everything is absolutely wonderful.” His voice came dry and hoarse and wild. “You won’t have to operate on me.”
    The car turned off the shining avenue, taking him back to the quiet splendor of his home. His futile hands clenched and relaxed again, folded on his knees. There was nothing left to do.

  135. Super Dave Avatar
    Super Dave

    #133 No, not extreme at all, back in the day, you purchased the pipe for the water lines and cut the threads with a die and for the 4″ drain lines you used iron pipe and when you put it into the Tee’s & elbow’s you had to pack the joints with hemp rope and the pour molten lead over them to seal it. That was my favorite part BTW.
    Axe Mr Tedtam, he’ll tell you. 😉

  136. Tedtam Avatar
    Tedtam

    They don’t oak joints anymore. It’s becoming a lost art. It’s all PVC and glue. I remember Hubby practicing with the molten lead when he was studying for his state tests.

  137. Shannon Avatar
    Shannon

    Second wave of storms will arrive here in about ten minutes.

  138. phil Avatar
    phil

    Saw that the OBeelzebubama propagandist media met behind closed doors with their master to er-uh discuss Benghazi.
    Probably went something like this.
    We got your back, Boss.

  139. Simple Simon Avatar
    Simple Simon

    Shortwave bands are wide open tonight. I am currently in a DX Pile Up
    trying to work 4X4FR (Rafi in Israel) with 6 watts on SSB on 17 meters.
    Simple

  140. squawkbox Avatar
    squawkbox

    Simple Simon
    Oh man I am so jealous. I passed on an opportunity to learn and get licensed in shortwave. Dumb dumb dumb

  141. mharper42 Avatar
    mharper42

    I’m hearing distant thunder, hoping for more rain here overnight.

  142. GJT Avatar
    GJT

    #122 GJT, they’re NOT that way in the wild, EXCEPT that they always take care of the fawns, in a urban setting they’re not afraid of peoples and can be much more aggressive. They are real tame at NASA and sometimes the bucks can be dangerous when the rut gets into full swing.

    We have had 3 other male dogs since we’ve lived out here (well one was an older rescue dog so we won’t count him), one a Lhasa Apso – yeah a sissy fu fu dog but he was every bit a man’s dog – who went after anything and we never saw the deer go after them. Buddy runs at them but he only wants to play. This has happened numerous times with him, it is the strangest thing.

  143. Adee Avatar
    Adee

    The second storm set passed through here, and apparently the main cluster began to split north and south as it got here. Plenty of donner und blitzen in the area and moderate rain for a bit, somewhere around 0.4″ on the digital gauge. The heaviest went mostly south it seems, though there’s plenty left in both directions last I checked the radar.
    However, more is coming tomorrow morning.
    G’night all.

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