Month: July 2025

19JUL2025 – Footloose and Fancy Free

photog Current Events, Life in Dunwich, OCF, photog's Corner, Photography , , , , ,

Okay, a break from the political stuff today.  Camera Girl and I took a day off (sort of).  There was an antique car show to go to and used that as an excuse to gallivant around and eat some bad food and visit some of our old stomping grounds.

When we got to the car show there were only two cars there; an ancient VW micro-bus and a not-so exciting 1980’s Chrysler of some sort.  We asked someone at a nearby business and they explained that the show builds up over time and if we came back in a couple of hours it would be much more substantial.

Okay.

There’s an old-fashioned food stand that’s only open in the summer.  It serves burgers, foot-long dogs, fries, fried onions and fried fish.  Many years ago, some of our kids worked there in the summers.  Well, suffice it to say, this isn’t exactly health food.  But, so what?  We were out and about and foot-long hot dogs with mustard and relish was exactly what I wanted.  The batter fried onions were questionable from my perspective but I followed Camera Girl’s lead on that front.  Well, no major gastroenterological damage was noted after this meal so we proceeded back to ground zero.

And, voila!  Classic cars from the 1940s, 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond.  And as a background for this automotive time machine was a loudspeaker blasting out the doowop hits of 1960 – 1963.  Of course, I was in kindergarten at that point but I of course recognize and enjoy these golden oldies.  If only I had my leather jacket and enough hair to sport a DA and if Camera Girl had been wearing her pink sweater and poodle skirt we could have danced the afternoon away.  Well, that is if I could dance.  But no, I settled for a few off-key falsetto notes to “Why Do Fool Fall in Love?” and left it at that.

 

Well, I put my 10mm Voigtlander super-duper wide-angle lens on my Sony A7IV and clicked away for an hour or so.  But then I was reminded that this show comes back every week so we left and headed home for a few more photos around the yard.  So far this year there haven’t been many prime butterflies.  Mostly only the medium sized ones, Fritillaries and Painted Ladies and such.

But as I walked around, I ran into a Monarch and I chased it around in circles for a quarter of an hour.  It was incredibly skittish and I was aggravated by its evasiveness.  Finally, I had enough and put my camera away and sure enough as soon as I did, that darned thing calmed down and almost seemed to be following me around, hanging at my elbow.  This ticked me off so I waved my arms and ran after it and chased it away.  Anyone watching would have assumed I was a hopeless idiot.  And come to think of it there may be something in that.

But all in all, a very enjoyable day out with the missus.  July in New England really is a pretty great time of the year.  Too bad it ends so quickly.  But all good things must.

Push That Tote Bag; Always Be Closing

photog Current Events, Humor , ,

Pompous News Anchor: And to round out the PBS News Hour once again we go to the peerless analysis of Books and Capon.  Good evening gentlemen.  David what effect will this recission bill have on our operation here at PBS?

David Books: Well, I think I know.  Today I received an email from upper management that stated, “Due to cutbacks in the federal funding we will have to let go half of Books and Capon.

Jonathan Capon: What?  I didn’t receive that e-mail.

David Books: Yes, they said because my name starts with a “B” and yours starts with a “C” I get preference and could decide who gets the boot.

Jonathan Capon: What?  Why that’s obvious racism and homophobia too.

David Books: Well, that’s not necessarily true.  I act pretty gay too!

Jonathan Capon: Yeah, well that’s just because you’re Canadian.  Everybody knows you have a wife and kids.

David Books: That’s a deeply anti-trans stereotype.  Why couldn’t Jenny be a trans-man?  Which would make me gay!

Jonathan Capon: Oh, give it a rest.  Look, we can’t let management cave to the Trump defunding.  We must convince them that the nation is crying out for more Books and Capon.  How can the network serve Books without Capon?  It’s unheard of.  People want their Capon.

Pompous News Anchor: Gentlemen, please show more decorum.  The bigger picture here is that we serve the American public and if some sacrifices must be made then we need to show America that we serve them selflessly.

David Books: Oh yeah?  Well, I happened to hear that your slot is being given to the blonde from Fox News that’s sleeping with the station manager.  So put that in your pipe and smoke it, Haircut!

Pompous News Anchor: Why that lying sack of ****!  I covered for him at the office party so his wife wouldn’t find out he was in the penthouse “doing inventory” with blondie!  That’s it.  I’ll be sending a couple of videos to his home as soon as I get off this stage.  I think I’ll deliver them in a PBS tote bag that won’t cost him a cent in donations!

Jonathan Capon: Oh, this is awful.  How could America do this to us?  We’ve spent the last fifty years providing Americans with all the feedback they needed to change into the kind of people that we don’t hate.  We told them that they were racists.  Then we told them that they were misogynists.  Then we told them that they were homophobes and now we’ve told them that they’re transphobes.  Without our help they wouldn’t have known all the reasons why we hate them so much.  What else did they want from us?

David Books: Well, as it turns out they wanted us to shut up.  They didn’t like any of those opinions and apparently the establishment Republicans have been lying to us all these years when they said we were making friends and influencing people with our “helpful comments.”  In fact, the pollsters have been lying to us too.  It turns out this really is a center-right country and the Left doesn’t have enough viewers to pay for public television.  So, Capon you’re gonna have to hit the road.

Jonathan Capon: But how will I earn a living?

David Brooks: Drag Queen Story Hour?

Jonathan Capon: Well, it does have the word hour in it.

Tom’s World – 18JUL2025 – It’s the Real Thing

photog Guest Contributors, TomD , ,

Tom | Flickr

TomD

For the last decade or 4, I’ve not had more than 1-2 soft drinks per year and most times not even that. Don’t ask me about craft beers though I don’t even do that now.

When I can get some of the new, I’ll definitely try though. My boyhood memories of the 6 oz bottles with condensation running down on a hot summer day—. When we first got picked bottles, we’d bet a nickel to see who had the bottle that came from furthest away; the bottlers had their location cast into the glass.

Guest Contributor – Chemist – 18JUL2025 – Reason 2,412; Make Coke Great Again

photog Chemist, Current Events, Guest Contributors, Trump

Reason 2,412: Coke is bringing cane sugar back to Coca Cola!

Not to hijack your thread, but this is HUGE!
https://nypost.com/2025/07/16/us-news/trump-says-coca-cola-agrees-to-use-real-cane-sugar-in-us-drinks-its-just-better/
Monsanto hardest hit.

The taste difference between high fructose corn syrup and cane sugar is significant.
Here in Texas, I can buy “Mexican Coke”. It comes in a glass bottle and has cane sugar.
I buy it as a treat, not as my regular beverage because it is expensive (Glass costs a lot to ship) and inconvenient. (Glass breaks.)
But a cane sugar Coke in a can! Man, I’m lovin’ it!

Reason 2,411 for Why Donald Trump Has Made America Greater – Stephen Colbert Cancelled

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Stephen Colbert hates Donald Trump.  He has said incredibly vile things about him both in and out of office.  So, it must be especially satisfying for Trump to know that his term in office will outlast Colbert’s television show.  And that is a feeling I also share.  I think Colbert is an unfunny comedian and a joyless culture warrior of the Left who preaches a woke agenda endlessly and boringly.

Years ago, he was Jon Stewart’s straight man on the Daily Show when both of them tried to make Barack Obama seem cool.  Now he’s Dave Letterman’s failed replacement on the Late Show and he’s managed to kill off his side of late-night comedy.

Now granted, his $15 million salary is a big part of why the Late Show is being ended.  Broadcast and cable television no longer make much money.  An aging viewing audience and the pharmaceutical companies that advertise to them are reaching the ends of their roads.  By replacing Colbert, Kimmel and Fallon with cheaper talent (or forcing them to take a huge reduction in salary) the networks can probably get another three or four years out of this set-up but essentially late-night comedy is no longer a thing.

But that shouldn’t stop me from enjoying guys like Colbert and Stewart (yeah, him too) getting the old heave-ho.  By splitting their audience into Left and Right their viewership tanked and their employers lost a lot of money.

Now Fox has positioned Greg Gutfeld as the competition for Colbert and the rest of the unfunny late-night hosts.  And he’s killing them in the ratings because ABC, CBS and NBC have to split the same 50% of the audience while Fox gets 100% of the other half.  But more importantly I think he’s only making a fraction of what they make in salary and he appears on two or three different shows on the network.

Now the real innovation may happen when someone decides to be funny to 100% of the audience.  In other words, try actual comedy and make fun of everyone equally.  It used to work quite well in the old days before women, minorities and sexual deviants were declared sacred cows and placed off limits from mockery leaving only straight white men as the only punchlines for unfunny comics.

Well, anyway, we won’t have Stephen Colbert to kick around anymore.  But there is a rumor that MSNBC or whatever they’re going to call that place may hire Colbert to do what Rachel Maddow currently does but for less money.  This seems far-fetched but who knows.  When price tag becomes the most important consideration new possibilities open up.  How about Keith Olbermann?  He used to be Rachel Maddow in the old days and he doesn’t make any money at all presently.  If they gave him anti-depressants and shaving supplies, I think he’d jump aboard again.  And maybe after Whoopi Goldberg gets canned from “The View” she might be available for MSNBC.  Of course, if feeding her was part of the deal that could be costly.

Well, anyway, today was a wonderful day.  And if the recission bill gets approved in the House on Friday that will be a wonderful day too.