Just A Slapback. . .

at TempDisplaced in Bromsgrove UK (nice place.)

If You Can See The Arrow...

in the FedEx logo, then you may enjoy studying the profiles here.

(Someone had way too much time on his hands, I fear.)

Mark Who. . .?

Dinner in Danville II. On the main drag, Hartz Avenue, lies Amber Restaurant a somewhat elegant but casual creation by Chef Mark Dantanavatanawong, who formerly was the Chef across the parking lot at Bridges, (of which more later, I suspect.)

His name betrays his Thai/Chinese heritage, as does his food.

This a small-plates place, with asian-california fusion anything-goes stuff. . .fresh, flavorful, tuna, potsticker, lamb chop, beef satay, whateverturnsyouon. It's fun, it's not too expensive, and it's nouveau designed interiors.

No good for kids; no good for romance; this is for food and enjoyment. Easy parking.

Earthquake Hazards Program

Interesting earthquake stuff from the Gummint for us all. I have linked to the Bay Area here, but you can find links to similar pages for the entire U.S. on the same page. On the Bay Area page, as you scroll down, the collapsed apartment house in San Francisco's Marina District (see above) is the one that MWM designed a replacement for back in the early '90's.

Dinner In Danville

Isn't that a sweet-looking Rolls? One of 90 or more on two floors of the Blackhawk Automotive Museum that hosted our celebratory annual real estate evening on Friday. Good banquet food (roast beef or bird-flu-free roasted chicken) catered by Scotts in the totally-flat-black museum surrounded by these magnificent sparkling paeans to the wonderful pinnacle of automobile design. Compared to today's all-the-same styling, the classic cars made for a truly a wonderful venue. I could comment on the wringing out of excitement from human endeavors as they proceed toward maturity. . .I could, but I won't.:-)

Where In The World . . . ?

With all the brouhaha about this Port Security Deal (and Jonah Goldberg wonders when we will get around to Cognac Security. . .)I thought it might be good to see what we're all talking about. Dubai is an emirate, one of the seven that together form the United Arab Emirates. It is almost crime free, a sophisticated amalgamation of East and West, with Arabic (official), English, Hindi, Farsi, Tagalog, Malayam, and Russian languages being spoken. It is hot, but it is on the Persian/Arabian (your choice)Gulf, so it is somewhat scenic. The amazing thing, as you can see from these pictures, is the modernity of the architecture. It's a wow for any architect!

I'm Okay . . .

but sometimes I find myself wondering about you.

F-14 Is Retired

Don Sensing reminds us all that a famous USAF attack aircraft has been retired. Lots of history here

Mother Nature

Awoke this early morning to a "thump!" Hmmm, that was interesting. Unusual. Oh, well.

On the radio today, "a 3.8 shaker; epicenter 11 miles East of Oakland; 4:39 a.m." Whee! That's just about directly beneath HiltonHouse.

And then, once the sun came out. . .

Behold! Snow on Mt. Diablo!

Oyasumi

Rhapsody has Oyasumi, and I've blogged the tracks here.
Oyasumi: "1. Oborozuki yo (Moonlit Night) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
2. Fursato (My Heart's Home) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
3. Sakura, Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
4. Momji (Scarlet Leaves) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
5. Takeda no Komoriuta (Takeda Lullaby) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
6. Aiko's Lullaby - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
7. Aka Tonbo (Red Dragonfly) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
8. Aogeba Totoshi (Song of Gratitude) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
9. Umi (Vast Ocean) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
10. Mimura nu Angwa (Girls from Three Villages) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
11. Hatsu Yuki (First Snow) - Elizabeth Falconer
12. Kirakira Boshi (Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
13. Hama Chidori (Plovers on the Shore) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
14. Hagoromo no Komoriuta (Okinawan Lullaby) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
15. Komoriuta (Japanese Lullaby) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer
16. Oyasumi (Goodnight) - Aiko Shimada And Elizabeth Falconer"

I don't know what you can do with this info. Hey, the music is good, however. I like it!
UPDATE: Click on "Oyasumi" link above, and it will take you to Rhapsody, where you can sign up for a free trial, and hear the music for yourself. (I think.)

Springtime in California

Record snow and wind on the East coast, wonderful warm sunshine for Pebble Beach and the West coast. We'll have some more cold and rain, I'm sure, but, in the meantime it's neat to see the new growth outside making itself known.

Birthday Balloon

I got this way-cool fish for my birthday celebration, but then an attractive young blond talked me into giving it to her. And she didn't even thank me properly! (But, she smiled, and she does have a winsome smile. Good enough for me.)

One Really Awful-Ugly Weekend Pup

Thanks to Lucianne, who always seems to come up with winning pix.

Google Fight : Make a fight with googleFight

Hey, this is fun! Try, say, "Britney" vs. "Paris", or "Hamburger" vs. "Hotdog". Whatever. Click here:Google Fight

'Nuff Said II

h/t: http://bidonotto.journalspace.com

B-2 Spirit

A few more, major, startling photos of military airplanes, taken by Richard Seaman, are at:
B-2 Spirit
Make sure you maximize your screen!

Proud Papa

Well, I'll be darned (he says, blushing impishly.)

(What's a lounge suit, anyway? It doesn't sound like something that I would wear to Buckingham Palace. Maybe to Bellagio in Vegas.)

Nice Digital Picture

Save This For Next Xmas

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.