Tambourines and Elephants

The John Bachelor Show had a good segment on the speed of neutrinos. Go to LINK and scroll down to Saturday, October 1, 10 PM. You can listen on-line or download the podcast. (iTunes has it as well.)

Riding my bike yesterday, I saw this hawk carrying a squirrel. I was so excited I crashed my bike and took flip into the grass. Then I ran over and got these photos with my phone.

I did a brief photo safari in the McNamara neighborhood this morning. The results are at:

my Post-Irene Flickr set.

The news feeds keep warning that the back of the hurricane has still to arrive, but all indications are that for Jackson Heights, Irene was a dud. Here is an ‘after’ picture of the back yard:

You can see that there are green oak leaves scattered here and there. But even the white sheet of tin over the fence from the left is exactly where our neighbor left it.

In the night there was sporadic hard winds and rain, but to my mind not unlike a midwestern thunderstorm without the lighting and thunder.

Ruth and I got stranded in Jackson Heights, Queens, for the duration of hurricane Irene’s passage. Our flight was cancelled today.

This is the backyard here in Jackson Heights after we finished preparing for the high winds and rain to come when Irene arrives, late tonight.

The President’s current attempt to identify with the public’s dissatisfaction with Washington is reminiscent of Basil Fawlty in the “Waldorf Salad” episode of Fawlty Towers (fast forward to the two minute mark):

When the customer (in my analogy, the American electorate) tries to complain, Basil (Obama) joins in the complaining, saying he can’t get Manuel (or Congress), his waiter imported from Barcelona, to do anything right. “You only have to eat here; we have to live with it!” President Obama seems to think the old Basil trick will work for the next 16 months. I cannot imagine that it will.

That colorful language appears in the comments by Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus on the Framework Agreement on the debt ceiling announced tonight.

After the Senate rejected the Boehner proposal (59-41), Mitch McConnell asks for the Reid proposal to be put on the floor. Reid would not allow it.

Unbelievable. (Unless you have been really paying attention….)

[ht powerlineblog.com]

Iranian president listens intently to translator during Santa Claus convention in Reykjavik

…Perhaps seeking to avoid political turmoil at home, or just to get insights on how to get off the naughty list while remaining a vicious tyrant and international pariah.

http://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/WO-AF768_IRAN2_G_20110601191841.jpg

Can’t Wait Bike Ride, a photo by Jim Melcher on Flickr.

It was only 45 degrees and windy. There are still piles of snow, melting in rivulets across the roads and driveways. But that couldn’t stop me!