This Is Exciting

I just love websites like this, packed with exciting photographs. AIRLINERS.NET - Just Like Flying But Without The Peanuts

There are some really wonderful photos herein, including many scary shots. Some really close calls are illustrated with photos from the landings at the old Kai Tak Airport right on the edge of Hong Kong Bay with buildings lining both sides of the tight approach, crosswinds constantly pitching the plane to and fro, and a short 5000 ft. runway. I actually experienced that a few times and remember them well.

Windows ME

Just for laughs, please click on this.
Instapundit.com -

Down On The Farm

You are going to have to cut and paste this link (My fault. Sorry.) But, it's worth it.

http://itunes.stanford.edu

This time, you can graduate. Enjoy!

Racing Around The Internet

You might wish to try this:

I'm a Mazda RX-8!

You're sporty, yet practical, and you have a style of your own. You like to have fun, and you like to bring friends along for the ride, but when it comes time for everyday chores, you're willing to do your part.

Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Beautiful, But Somewhat Sad

UPDATE: Link to "Fire and Ice"

It's a bit chilly outside, but the weather should be clear for a few days. Thanks for that.

Meantime, I ran across a milblogger who sketches and photographs from Fallujah. These are 7.22mm machine gun rounds. See http://www.mdfay.blogspot.com/

Beautiful picture. Necessary stuff. Sad use.

Stare Decisis!

All last week during the Alito (NOT "Alioto") hearings I was puzzled (I sound like Sen. Biden here) by the pronunciation of "stare decisis." (I have had a bit of Latin in my earlier years.) So I googled it and, ah ha!, I was correct. See All Empires History Forum: How to pronounce Roman names (Latin Pronunciation Guide)

Quoting from therein: Neo-latin terms in Classical Pronunciation
Alumni: Alum-nee
Alumnae: Alum-nigh (i and ae pronunciation swapped between C. Latin and English)
Stare Decisis (law term): Star-reh Dee-kai-sis (English: Stair-ree, Da-cy-sis)
Dies Irae (day of Wrath): Dies Ir-rye (Church Latin: Dies Iray)
Sub Poena (law term): Sub Poe-ena (English: Sub peena)
Neat, huh? I do find these language things interesting.

Nice Picture

Just thought that I would add this:

Bulbs Are Growing

It's cold out there; rainy for some, snowy for others, and it's going down to 5F at Truckee tonight, but, fear not! There is new growth underground, just beginning to show. Heck; there's a new birth in Bromsgrove, and that is super! Spring is just around the corner!

What Has Happened To Our Party?

Some things just have to be acknowledged.

Veni Vidi Vici Vino!

Interesting wines accompanied our authentic, traditional Japanese food at dinner this weekend. Usually I am a fan of California wines, both red and white, for reasons of parochialism, price, and proximity.

However, there are times when overseas offerings have made their presence felt, and this was one of those times, with examples from France and from Italy.

Pouilly-Fume, from the Loire Valley, (that's a castle-in-a-vineyard up above) is a memorable white wine, strong, buttery, and impressively heavy in taste. This was from the Villa Paulus, but I have another version to try soon at another occasion. I look forward to it.

Valpolicella by Villa Bella is a deep, fruity, complex red from the province of Verona, Italy, east of Lake Garda. This bottle was labeled “Classico Superiore” where the label SUPERIORE indicates a 1 percent higher minimum ALCOHOL content and an age of a minimum of 1 year. The best wines are generally those labeled CLASSICO, which indicates that they come from the inner classico zone with its steeply terraced vineyards. See the adjacent photo for a pic of the area.

Similar wines are easily available at better wine shops and upscale supermarket aisles for $15 - $25.
(UPDATE) Just for variety, we ended the evening with a small tumbler each of "Shochu", a distilled(not fermented)rice drink that will knock your socks off, which it did.

Today's Word: metathesis

( Scroll down for update)

(metathesis: Definition and Much More From Answers.com

Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. The most common instance of metathesis is the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes.

Many languages have words that show this phenomenon, and some use it as a regular part of their grammar. The process of metathesis has altered the shape of many familiar words in the English language, too.

The use of ax for ask goes back to Old English days, when ascian and axian were both in use. Some other frequently heard pronunciations in English that display metathesis are:

intersting or intresting for interesting
intregal for integral
julary for jewelry
nucular for nuclear
reelator for realtor
revelant for relevant

The process has shaped many English words historically. Bird in English was once bryd, run was once irnan, horse was hros, wasp is also recorded as hasp. The discrepancy between the spelling of iron and the usual pronunciation is the result of metathesis.

So, the next time President Bush says "nu-ku-lar" and you cringe, just remember that, with his graduate degrees from Yale, he's employing metathesis!

Update: Rudy reminds us of the "Great Vowel Shift" and provides a link at:

http://facweb.furman.edu/~mmenzer/gvs/what.htm

Cheers!

The following comment from National Review On Line just caught my fancy. If you have a moment, put down your drink, with a clink, and enjoy!

DRUNK IN CHARGE [Andrew Stuttaford]
With the leader of Britain’s Liberal Democrats (the country’s third political party, whose internal contradictions would be enough to drive anyone to drink) in trouble over his problems with the bottle, Ben McIntyre of the London Times gives some helpful background on the role of alcohol in UK politics:
“Booze runs through the very veins of British politics. No democracy has been, over the years, so consistently pickled: William Pitt the Younger marinated himself daily with three bottles of port; Winston Churchill slurped through the war on a tidal wave of champagne and brandy. The very language of drinking has been framed by our elected representatives, such as “Squiffy” Asquith and George Brown, Labour’s famously blotto Foreign Secretary in the 1960s, for whom the phrase “tired and emotional” was coined.”
The whole article is well worth reading, but this is too good not to repeat here:
“I suspect that the most famous George Brown drinking anecdote of all immeasurably improved our diplomatic relations with Peru. At a grand reception in that country in the 1960s, the Labour Foreign Secretary tottered up to a figure resplendent in a fetching purple frock, and slurringly asked her for a dance. She turned him down with the response: “First, you are drunk. Second, this is not a waltz, it is the Peruvian national anthem. And third, I am not a woman, I am the Cardinal Archbishop of Lima.”
And why am I not surprised by this?
“New Labour has brought a strange whiff of Puritanism from the likes of Alastair Campbell (teetotal), Peter Mandelson (who is known to sip hot water at dinner parties) and Tony Blair (just a cup of tea, thanks awfully).”
Time for a drink, I think.

Feeling Important Are We?

You could click here and then scroll down for an explanation.

JPL.NASA.GOV: Mars Exploration Rovers

I think I recognize you up there. Please wave back, will you?

(Rampant almost-plagerism from YARGB, which is a yet another really great blog.)

2006!

Anyone for Tee?

My friends, as we wait for the rains to cease, and the fairways to dry out a bit, we consider the Birds of Golf. Behold:
Anyone for Tee? - The Golfer's Feathered Friends

Merry Christmas 2005 To One & All!

Ho! Ho! Ho! (click image to enlarge (I think))

What I Really Want For Christmas

This is the F22, newest manned fighter for the USAF. I love these things, but fear that they will soon be outmoded by electronic wizardry that just keeps getting more capable and less expensive. We shall see.

Guess Who's Coming Tonight?

Winter solstice

Today, finally, is the shortest daylight of the year, and the first day of Winter. It only gets better from here, at about 1 or 2 minutes each day. Until 21 June. Congratulations to us all.

Sibilate

Today's word of choice is "sibilate." Took me a while to find it, starting from Chris Matthews' TV delivery being described as "sibilatious." Whew!

Election Day Again

Well, it's almost 0730 here on the right edge of the Pacific, which means it's about 1830 over in Iraq ( World Clock - Time Zones ) and, so far, so good with the election. Let's hope that the ambiance stays nonexplosive and that the turnout stays high.

I'm just wondering what the minimum legal voting age is in Iraq :-)

News from Down Under

Interesting stuff on the beaches of Sydney, Australia. I found current information from a talk station down there that sounds like an English postal code. Try http://www.2gb.com and "Listen Live." Fascinating thing, this internet is.

YARGB=Yet Another Really Great Blog

For your holiday online shopping, you could do worse than clicking on the permalink: YARGB - Flares into Darkness: 'Tis the Season... The article says it all.

Enjoy.

December 7, 1941

I was taking an afternoon nap upstairs on Midway Lane in Bethesda. The New York Philharmonic was on the radio. Then, the music was interrupted with a news bulletin. The announcer couldn't pronounce the word "Oahu" but the message was clear.

I am very thankful on many, many levels that so much has changed in the past sixty-four years.

See http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/12/07/the-attack-on-pearl-harbor-remembered-64-years-later/ for a whole lot of useful and interesting links.

Need I Say Anything More?

Mount Sellery

Well, this is cool. Mount Sellery is named after my Uncle Harry, who worked for the USGS for many years, was a ham radio fan, and bought a very heavy organ which now resides with Betty, Elizabeth, and Rudy.

This is a nice pic of a different mountain, Mt. Cook in New Zealand. It is, I fear, much more dramatic than Mt. Sellery, but, what the hey:

Norman Rockwell

Further to the Thanksgiving post below, Rich Galen has assembled all four of the "Freedom" covers that Norman Rockwell painted for the "Saturday Evening Post" in 1943. Pretty neat and, for me, a bit nostalgic.

From the top, "Freedom to Worship", "Freedom from Want", "Freedom of Speech" and "Freedom from Fear."

Those were simpler times, although in the middle of World War II.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge

I am certain that at least fifteen other people besides me in the entire English-speaking world know about the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Gateshead, UK, but I just became aware of it.

Built to celebrate the Millennium in 2000, it was designed by Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Gifford & Partners Engineers, for the City of Gateshead, which is located across the River Tyne from the much-better-known City of Newcastle (kind of like Oakland sitting across the Bay from San Francisco.) All this in northeast England.

The supporting structural arch appears to be inclined about 30 degrees from the vertical, and the pedestrian-bicycle bridgeway curves horizontally away from straight across, carried by tension strands from the overhead arch. Quite an engineering feat, and definitely striking in appearance. But, wait!

To permit passage for river boat traffic, several times a day the whole darned thing pivots on its end points to form a double-arched gateway over the river. It is truly an aesthetic and engineering marvel!

I am so impressed that I may make a special trip to Gateshead on my next English vacation.

Thanksgiving 2005

A distinctly American holiday. Thanks for many things about our country, and for the food that commemorates the interaction between the native inhabitants and the new arrivals. Much to think about.

Anyway, Norman Rockwell painted the quintessential image way back in 1943. "Freedom from Want." Behold...

(That just might be Norman himself in the lower right corner.)

GO BEARS!

CAL 27 - stanford 3

Weekend Mileage

Last weekend we took Beatrice, our (almost) new BonnyandClydeMobile Chrysler - 300 on a trip with friends to Copperopolis and Saddle Creek for a little golf and sightseeing.

Yesterday I finally refilled the tank, after 382 miles, with 15.578 gallons of regular. That's 24.5 mpg.

Not bad for a big car with a big whumping 3.5 liter 6 cylinder engine.

Thanks, Beatrice!

Thanksgiving is acoming

Enough of truffles! How about some sunny Walnut Creek roses in mid-November...

Miscellany

First, I just found the following adding to the truffle discussion below: chez pim: The Truffle Don Please read it, if you have the opportunity.

Second, I was reminded of the following:

"Bad spellers of the world, untie!"

That's good.

Mary Katherine Ham

Mary Katherine Ham, guest blogging on the Hugh Hewitt blog site,offers the following in a brief resume of her young career:

"Some folks ask me what the transition was like from NASCAR reporter to
political reporter. It's easy. In one, you try to explain to your readers the
significance of grown-ups getting paid exorbitant amounts of money to go around
in circles indefinitely, always turning left. In the other, you get to
interview racecar drivers."

I think that's funny. But, that's just me.

"Truffles" by Robert Klein

Oliveto Restaurant and Cafe: "Truffles" by Robert Klein

Hunting the White Truffle

Hunting the White Truffle by Maureen Barry | Travel Reviews from Travel Intelligence
We're having a bit of fun here, celebrating the October-November season for hunting truffles in Central and Northern Italy.
I haven't figured out how to put two links into one posting of the blog. Sorribouthat.
Enjoy your Tartufo anyway!

This year's price is only US$120/oz.

Longevity!

Friskies.com - Welcome to the World of Friskies Living
Just opened a bag of Purina "Friskies-Dental Diet", which Morris, our cat, dearly loves. I happened to notice the admonition printed thereon:

BEST IF USED BY MAR 2007

You just have to wonder what they put in that stuff.

'Nuff Said

(H.T. www.lucianne.com )

Santa Ynez Wine Country

We spent two nights this past week in the Santa Ynez Valley just North of the city of Santa Barbara, and the short trip was definitely an eye opener.

I had known that the Central Coast of California grew a lot of grapes but I had thought them to be mostly for bulk wine and the like. No such thing!

We based ourselves at the Ballard Inn ( www.ballardinn.com ) in Ballard CA and started with a wine tasting at the Inn featuring local Syrah and Pinot Noir wines. Dinner followed at the Hitching Post 2 in Buellton, a restaurant/bar made famous in the movie "Sideways." Below is the Ballard dining room with the "ladies is red scarves" on display:

We got smart and used a driver on Wednesday to visit a very few of the many wineries in the neighborhood. These included Cottonwood Canyon (www.cottonwoodcanyon.com), Bridalwood (www.bridlewoodwinery.com), Firestone (www.firestonewine.com), Firestone's neighbor, Curtis (www.curtiswinery.com) (the Curtis daughter married into the Firestone family, quite some time ago) and Bedford/Thompson (www.bedfordthompsonwinery.com). Below is a bit of the Bridlewood Winery.

A superb dinner at the Ballard Inn followed. Their chef is famous and the food was really special. Please see their web site for the dining room menu.

And we closed with a picnic lunch under the oaks on the lawn of Fess Parker's sumptuous winery on Zaca Mesa Road.

All this is not merely to drop names and demonstrate that I'm learning (slowly) how to make Blogger work for me.

It's much more to say that winery watching in California these days is much more than a tour of the Napa Valley. Now there's the Sonoma Valley, the Gold Country, and Santa Ynez!

Salute!

Cool Dancing

Sort of reminds me of ballroom dancing class at the Orinda Community Center. Thanks to www.lucianne.com

Greve is the center of Chianti Country

The symbol for true Chianti Wine is the black rooster. There is a statue of the rooster in the village of Greve, just northeast of Siena, if you're into maps. Behold the statue!

James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal

He writes today on "Best of the Web" as follows:

An item yesterday on Unicef's Smurf snuff film stated that Belgians speak Belch. While this is the language of the French-speaking parts of Belgium, large parts of the country speak a variant of Dutch known as Phlegm. We regret the omission.

Heh.

Lunch at Fattoria Montagliari

Nothing more need be said, except that the tartufo, although out of season, was magnificent.

Royal Worcester

Flowers in September, inside the tourist side of the factory.

Italian Sunshine

Just a simple vision of a lovely lady gazing down to the patio in full Tuscan sun. Nice, no?

Blurry, Schlmurry

This is for Hanako, clear as a bell:

No Comment Required

Just Clearing Out The Attic

First, a utilitarian device:

And then, just because of nostalgia:

Okay, you caught me. I really do like to collect nice images. Both of the above are from pbase.com. Thanks to that service.

(Update. This thing composed well with text, pic, text, pic, text, but it doesn't publish that way. If only I knew someone at Blogger or Google. Sigh.)(Oh, well.)