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My dentist said he needed a hand like this...
3,525 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 3401 – 3525 of 3525Gentlemen don't kiss and tell so that clearly disqualifies Gaetz as one. And if these women are being paid, there is some sort of breach of professional-client ethics going on.
This blogger claims that Florida Republicans set Gaetz for the US House of Representatives figuring he would do the least damage there. If they knew, they're accessories.
Rick Wilson rates it as "true, tho."
https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson/status/1379417451981643786 He might be kidding/not kidding on that one.
Saw this too:
Stephen Colbert @StephenAtHome
·
19h
Matt Gaetz never took COVID-19 seriously because she was a little too old for him.
The Florida Senate is now comfortably Republican with little chance of flipping Democratic in, say, the next decade. There does seem to be a pattern of quiet people to the state Senate, flame throwers to Congress. My mouse of a Freedom Caucus congressman was primaried, very unsuccessfully, by a retired Air Force colonel last year and after Jan. 6 he had to come up with effusive praise for Trump. One item was that he'd protected the US from Mexican gun runners seeking to inundate our country with illegal weapons. I think pretty soon we'll hear that express deliveries are underway to Antifa in Portland and Chicago. Does anyone follow the far right?
Gaetz is entangled in one of his friends, Joel Greenberg, the recently removed tax collector for an affluent suburban Orlando county. That guy is a complete mess.
That Joel Greenberg is getting even weirder.
"Joel Greenberg claimed to have explosive devices and threatened to harm himself while negotiating his surrender with Seminole County deputy sheriffs in early March, which delayed for hours efforts to take him into custody for violating his bond conditions, newly released records state." Orlando Sentinel.
That guy is indictable for sex trafficking along with Matt Gaetz. He used his access as a government official to access drivers license records, and he diverted some licenses intended for shredding, as well. All signs points to fabricating bogus drivers licenses. I think this is even wider than just sex trafficking, underage drinking licenses. I suspect we'll find he also made sure some highly dangerous criminals got fake licenses and helped identity theft, as well.
(Read: witting pawn of organized crime.)
I suppose I'd threaten suicide if I were in his shoes, and I had just been helping a lot of bad and very powerful people commit crimes by abusing my office. This noise is just to deflect.
The nice thing about this new administration is there's no 10 faked dramas a day to bump this scandal out of the headlines in 2 hours flat. (I suppose right wing news is trying to do the same, but it's not the same.)
Wuw, you guys are awesome! That Gaetz saga just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
And it's good to see Yellojkt again. How's your elbow these days? Things are about the same Chez Parker: we're definitely older, but I hope also a bit wiser.
Humble brag: A big pile o' work (book MS) landed in my email inbox last night. It'll be keeping me off the streets and out of the bars for a couple weeks, assuming all goes well.
Oops. Anonymous in the above post is Nosy Parker.
Holy cow! "Gaetz associate likely to strike plea deal with prosecutors in sex trafficking case":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/matt-gaetz-joel-greenberg-plea-deal/2021/04/08/a1da46ca-965d-11eb-b28d-bfa7bb5cb2a5_story.html
April 8, 2021 at 1:32 p.m. EDT
ORLANDO — An associate of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) who had been charged with sex trafficking of a minor and was suspected of connecting the congressmen to women with whom he could have sex is in plea negotiations to resolve the allegations against him, according to his lawyer and a prosecutor on the case, a potentially ominous sign for Gaetz if the associate ultimately cooperates with prosecutors in a bid for leniency.
Joel Greenberg, the former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., had first been charged last summer in a bare-bones indictment that prosecutors repeatedly superseded to add charges of sex trafficking of a minor, stealing from the tax office and even trying to use fraud to get covid-19 relief money while out on bond. In the course of the investigation into his conduct, people familiar with the matter have said, federal authorities came across evidence that Gaetz might have committed a crime and launched a separate investigation into him.
At a status conference in the case Thursday, federal prosecutor Roger Handberg told a judge he expected the case to end in a plea, though negotiations are ongoing. Fritz Scheller, an attorney for Greenberg, asked the judge to set a deadline of May 15 for the two sides to either reach a deal, or move toward a trial in the summer...
I've been here the whole time, just deep lurking. It's tough to keep up with all the fragments of the Boodle diaspora. I'm most vocal now on the Plum Line until WaPo cancels all comments eventually.
Ah! I didn't even realize anybody of interest was on the Plum Line. I tend to randomly comment on political columns, more on advice columns.
https://twitter.com/PatriciaMazzei/status/1380339505329283072
Apparently Gaetz had a conversation about fixing an ally's race by running a sham candidate with yet another FL insider. Drip, drip, drip, trickle. By the time Gaetz finally gets the cuffs on, half of the Florida GOP elite will be implicated. Including Former Guy and Current Florida Man, no doubt.
As they should be. I admit, I'm enjoying this. Couldn't happen to a dumber, more treasonous perv.
Sham candidates are a thing in Florida. Someone's being prosecuted right now.
Gaetz is entertaining but a shrinking sideshow. More important is that the legislature, which had tended to avoid culture wars, is now showing signs of going Alabama. And the governor may be setting up a big, fat covid outbreak for mid May-early June, when there will still be plenty of unvaccinateds waiting to be caught.
The Orlando Sentinel just published, at 9:08 pm, a convoluted story starting with a Tallahassee lobbyist resigning from his firm. This guy, named Dorworth, has connections to Matt Gaetz, including a power struggle at the Orlando Airport authority, where Gaetz had wanted to can the staff lawyers and replace them with fresh ones of his choice.
The Sentinel is unfortunately not likely to last long. It's a member of the Tribune group, as in Chicago Tribune and Baltimore Sun. While a few pieces of that group have some value, the Orlando and Fort Lauderdale papers don't. Although Orlando is growing fast and beginning to grow a significant tech sector, it's one of the poorest urban areas in the country. Disney and Universal, shortly before the Pandemic began and probably pressured more from southern California than from Florida, finally started offering decent wages about when they began shutting down.
Thanks for the heads-up, gang! Found this explanatory article:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/could-the-gaetz-mess-really-be-connected-to-the-florida-sham-candidate-scandal
I like that the reporter for TPM previously worked in Kyiv. Sunday's Orlando Sentinel summarized the federal charges against the former tax collector, 35 counts that could imprison him for much of his life. Absolutely amazing how much mischief he's accused of. And of course it's even more impressive that Gaetz was so entwined with him.
Mr Trump is gathering tribute from his vassals.
Especially for globe-trotting Boodle gourmets and gourmands, "Michelin Guide Returns To Celebrate Resilience In The Restaurant World":
https://www.npr.org/2021/04/15/987787735/michelin-guide-returns-to-celebrate-resilience-in-the-restaurant-world
Hey Dave, did you ever wonder what became of former Florida Congress-critter Allen West? "Texas GOP chair Allen West resigns":
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/04/politics/texas-gop-chair-allen-west-resigns/index.html
Got any travels planned? We're all vaxxed, but staying put. Mr. P is having another vegetable garden this summer, plus (unlike last year) will go to the local farmers' market this summer to fill in fruit and vegetables we don't raise.
Allen West was the Congressman just south of us. One term, beaten by a Democrat, who in turn was beaten by a wounded vet Republican.
I’m in Newport Beach, Ca. It had been schemed for a while but ended up as a break from handling my brother’s death in late April.
Assuming no mishaps, I’ll be in Rome for six days at the end of the month. No problem getting Vatican Museum tickets.
My condolences, Dave. I had no idea about your brother. Virtual hugs.
My condolences on the loss of your brother, Dave o' the Coonties.
California and Rome sound like good distractions. Are you hitting any botanical highlights?
I just started an Ecosystems of California course on Coursera and watched this video lecture about the 11 Ecosystem Hike which is just south of the dunes at Franklin Point. https://www.coursera.org/learn/california-ecosystems/home/welcome
My shoulder is giving me guff so I'm scaling back gardening plans this summer. Just as well, we're getting a really hot snap right now. I hope to water and loosen earth and do some planting anyway, once I start physical therapy.
To the Pup: I've never been there, but in nearby Pescadero is a restaurant famous for its homemade artichoke soup:
https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Duartes-Cream-Artichoke/
Dave, I hope your area doesn't have high rise buildings as susceptible to collapse as the one that fell in Surfside. The magnitude of that tragedy boggles my mind.
My county has a pair of 12 story condos. That was enough. The counties flanking us have quite a lot. Saltwater routinely ruins concrete balconies. In town, two 4-story hotels that were stripped to their skeletons after the 2004 hurricanes were in good shape, apart from balconies and some modest replacement on the older. The younger’s exterior walls were metal 2x4 with some sort of panel. Didn’t survive the wind, while houses across the street were undamaged.
A major local bridge is getting quick repairs for salt damage. It’s too close to the water.
Corrosion is a chronic problem on the beaches. I suspect the Chaplain is not unique. Improved building codes after the 1992 hurricane (mostly) south of Miami are probably for the good, but I’d want to ensure adequate inspection statewide. The Panhandle beaches might be a lot worse than Miami-Dade county. BTW a cat 4 storm would do enormous damage and leave. Katrina- like numbers homeless.
Oh, ugh re the saltwater concrete problem. I believe it, we had to redo our concrete porch after rock salt was put on it.
Between rising sea levels, hurricanes, climate change, gators, pythons, and the politics, I am amazed that Florida continues to grow in population, but I went there in October once. I remember it was 85 sunny and humid and I was like "what is this? In October? Not my thing."
It's even less my thing now. I know staying warm is a lot of people's thing, of course.
What I am saying is... Katrina-numbers could be low, depending on where it hits, and how easy it is to flood in Florida, despite the expectations of hurricanes hitting every year.
I wonder about remaining near the coast. Hurricane Dorian could easily have hit us as a 5 or close. Orlando is a nightmare of low wages, relatively expensive housing and until Covid, a growth rate resembling Dallas and Phoenix.
BTW, I hope to have my upper jaw implant crown installed in July. I don’t think I can put off the lower jaw very long. Also, left shoulder, which looked good after a minor injury in October, now has a ruptured tendon. Surgery’s set for August. I am wondering about unending repairs.
The Tour de France started and today's route took it through two towns in Brittany that I visited in 2019, Paimpol and Binic. Tomorrow's stage goes through Carnac on the south side of Brittany which was a delightful seaside town.
Later in the week the TDF goes through the Loire Valley and Amboise in specific which we stayed at on the same trip. I actually rented a bicycle while there so I will have ridden on some of the same roads the Tour will, albeit at a much faster pace.
Yello, on the bright side, at least presumably no one holding a sign knocked you over while you bicycled in France, right?
How did the peripatetic Jkts manage during the pandemic? I hope you're getting the chance to travel again.
How's the fluffy little dog? Presumably delighted with extra attention while you were in lockdown.
Dave, best wishes on the dental procedure. Sorry about your shoulder travails, but hope the surgery will bring the relief you seek.
Pup, the only thing we use rock salt for Chez Parker is when making ice cream -- never for melting snow or ice on the walk or driveway.
We have begun to travel again. Flew up to Boston for a college graduation party for my cousin. Then I drove down to Florida and back to see my senile mother.
Next month we go up to Minnesota to spend a few days on a houseboat with my son and his fiance.
Fluffy White Dog has spent the past year and a half sleeping on the sofa in my home office. Mrsjkt is jealous because she is used to FWD spending the summer with her while she is on break.
Yellojkt, May heat waves not pursue you. I have friends in Portland OR
Hey Dave, your thoughts on Olympic surfing?
Vegetable garden and blueberries have been going "great guns" here, although we could really use the predicted rain tonight. Sweet corn's as tall as Mr. P, and tasseling.
Hi. The Olympic surfing contest had quality US surfers (there were big problems with male injuries) and a decent world representation. The contest itself had adequate waves, but the mostly video-only pro circuit has gotten used to elite waves, as we will probably see in France (Tahiti, not Hossegor) in 3 years. I don't expect bodyboard to be added, though that's very popular in less-affluent countries with good beaches. I think Brasil might dominate. Or Portugal?
Skateboarding was neat.
My Rome album is up, though photos are still getting touched up. Weird to have been in Las Vegas, for the first time since the early 80s, so soon after such an important old one. Damascus is a lot older, but Rome's continued influence via the Church is nearly unique and the Renaissance was definitely a thing, until Charles V's army showed up, looting and killing. Somewhat surprising that it sprung back fairly fast after such devastation. In terms of photos, I should have taken many more of Romans eating out on the streets There weren't many foreign tourists. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmW8DWwf
Fresh news: at Disney World, wearing masks will be mandatory indoors staring on Friday. I suspect Gov. DeSantis will be unhappy, but will also decide that it's best not to mess with enormous private companies.
And of course I'm happy that I'll be getting an interim covid vaccination certificate for being dosed with the Novavax vaccine in a clinical trial.
Yello, hope you managed to get the houseboat vacation in between air quality alerts.
This week has been worse than usual where I am, can smell full smoke (with distant smoke, it's a partial smoke smell and more irritation in lungs than smell) and I'm keeping my dog inside as much as I can until the worst passes since he smells like smoke every time he comes in and it can't be good for him either.
He's bored and grumpy about it, but not as grumpy as I am.
Dave, congratulations on your interim certificate. I hope you stay COVID-free (or are well protected from the worst.) The Delta variant is scary and it'd be nice to have more vaccines that work.
A friend has hit the ER with some symptoms that suggest viral infection. She's vaccinated against COVID but I am thinking a mild case COVID is likely to explain it.
We apparently have some Sahara dust, making for orange sunsets and suppressing tropical storm development.
Family in the Tampa Bay area report that all hospitals but one are at capacity and ambulances are stuck waiting for emergency room access. The governor has nullified school district masking requirements and forbidden counties to require masking. Also not showing much enthusiasm for vaccination. He's managed to live in pandemic fantasy land so far (except for pushing for vaccination of those who are 65+). The current wave of infections might spontaneously come to a quick end and he (and the governor of Texas) might emerge as top candidates for the presidency.
This evening, the state released the weekly report. Cases are nearly equal to January's peak while deaths only half as high, but deaths are a lagging indicator. Test positivity way up. In a more rational world, we'd be under a shutdown.
Saw a report that this Delta variant has an estimated Ro of 8 to 9 meaning it's about as contagious as chicken pox (very high) and we'd need 90% plus vaccination and breakthrough infections are happening. Vaccinated seem to shed nearly as much virus as unvaccinated (more multiplication in nose, probably.
I agree with you, Florida should have locked down weeks ago. The high vaccinations of at risk and the fact that vaccines do help prevent serious hospitalization and death is probably why deaths are very low, but they're rising anyway.
I've been seeing the doctor while I can. That and shopping has been the extent of my adventures while my car is in the shop.
In other news, Ajit Pai is finally out as FCC head. Jessica Rosenworcel acting chair for now. Pai has been a very bad, incompetent boy.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/07/ajit-pai-apparently-mismanaged-9-billion-fund-new-fcc-boss-starts-cleanup/
"Big Wave Surfer Garrett McNamara's On His Chase For The '100 Foot Wave'":
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/01/1023509713/big-wave-surfer-garrett-mcnamaras-on-his-chase-for-the-100-foot-wave
NPR's Kelsey Snell talks to big wave surfer Garrett McNamara about the new HBO documentary series 100 Foot Wave.
I've never used HBO. McNamara, for all of being a somewhat crazed adventurer, has come across as responsible person who (as I understand it) has become part of the community in Nazaré, along with his family.
I think I recall Anderson Cooper doing a story on the scene, McNamara included, and actually riding a jetski in big conditions, meaning he needed training for how to handle things that could go wrong. Nothing untoward happened.
Florida is now the center of the covid epidemic in the US, with that long strip from New Orleans to St Louis not far behind. Hospitals, especially north of the southeast urban area, places like Tampa, Orlando, and especially Jacksonville, have full hospitals, a worse situation than July last year, though with fewer deaths. A long-term acquaintance is terribly ill. He has old asbestos damage to his lungs, which worsened the situation.
Photo essay, "In unequal Brazil, a surfing talent rises from the favela / As Brazil becomes an international surfing powerhouse, kids along the coast are inspired to pick up a board, including FabrÃcio Conceição de Jesus, 14":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2021/brazil-favela-surfer/
Surfing, bodysurfing, and I'm sure bodyboarding, which features highly portable equipment that's not quite so expensive as quality surfboards. In the US, a bodyboard will run $200 to $300+ and popular Yucca swim fins are $80 plain, $100 with added foot and heel pads (good combo heel pads/tethers run to at least $20/pair). Good fins are $50+. In Brazil as elsewhere, it's primarily winter (swell from powerful Southern Ocean storms) and wetsuits are much in use.
Rio's surf culture is formidable. Brazilian pro surfers and bodyboarders are as good as any. Mostly within and around ocean lifeguarding, there's pursuit of swimming in big swells. I think they're shut down due to covid, but J.S.C. Mauricio's little "Leblon Fins" training center has worked with ocean rescue people, among others. In the US, you look for California from San Francisco south (William Finnegan will have known a few amazing swimmers when he was in San Francisco and Newport Beach's Wedge just had a substantial swell). Biarritz-Anglet-Hossegor in France. Oahu's North Shore. Honolulu's Point Panic is modest but highly visible as a spot reserved for bodysurfing.
Brazilian swim fins:
https://www.kpaloa.com/
I'm minimizing movement to keep my repaired rotator cuff as still as possible. Should have taken a photo of the stitches.
BTW, today is last day for 75% off all e-books at University of Chicago Press. I want the one on "extinct Madagascar" Code EBOOK75
When we were young, Mr. P loved body-surfing. I prefer just to walk in the surf.
Re rotator cuff: I was lucky enough not to require surgery, but the first couple months of PT were rough. But do what your therapist says, because it'll ultimately be worth it! And if electro-stim is available after each session, take it (am I right, Pup?).
Wishing you well on your recovery, as I raise my unfrozen arms overhead in salute!
Glad the surgery went through and hope you heal beautifully and quickly, Dave o' the Coonties. Electrostim was helpful but I didn't have a torn rotor cuff or surgery first. Seems like the summer a lot of people I know (and myself) come down with shoulder issues. Comes from shouldering the pandemic so long, I suppose.
I hope soon you will be well enough to do some PT for it. What's the timeline and what are your plans for when you recover?
Serious problem with surgery recovery started Monday evening. It seems to be an ulnar nerve injury, making the left hand painfully useless. It's a bit better this morning, so i can resume ball-squeezing therapy. 99º fever, did a covid test, of course.
Oh my Dave! Here's hoping it's just impingement from swelling, not permanent nerve injury. One-handed stuff in pain is no fun however long it lasts. Did they suggest any cold compresses or...?
I was sent home with a cold compress. At the height of the wrist difficulty, the area was too tender to ice. Not even with a towel for cushioning.
The wrist is now back to normal. Upper arm a bit sore, but I don't think seriously.
Watching the Tonys, thinking especially of the Jkts. Have loved Broadway ever since I was a kid seeing scenes presented on Ed Sullivan's TV show ("My Fair Lady" was one of the earliest I can recall offhand). More later.
There are only three musicals nominated this year (actually for the 2019-2020 season which got cut short before the traditional Spring openings} and they are all jukebox musicals of one variety or another.
I saw Jagged Little Pill in Boston on its pre-Broadway run, so that is what I am rooting for.
I'm sure it was disappointing that "your" musical didn't win, but it was good for it to receive high profile exposure on TV.
It will be interesting to see what new shows -- including perhaps some musicals with original scores -- appear on Broadway in the next year or so. I look forward to your assessments.
Hugs (and bon appétit!) to Mrs. Jkt., Jkt. Jr. and the fluffy white dog.
The musical awards got pretty well split. Tina got Best Actress, Jagged got Best Supporting Actress and Best Book, Moulin got the Actor categories, Best Director and Best Musical, as well as a bunch of technical awards so it came out the big winner.
There were no awards for Best Lyrics or Best Score because all three were jukebox musicals.
Hey Jim, you getting much rain from that big storm? Hope you and yours are safe.
Found this online yesterday. Yikes!
https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1452658286331711488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1452658286331711488%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfgate.com%2Fweather%2Farticle%2FHere-s-how-much-rain-fell-in-the-last-24-hours-16561518.php
Re Nazaré, "How a Portuguese fishing village tamed a 100ft wave":
https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20211031-how-a-portuguese-fishing-village-tamed-a-100ft-wave
Things are about the same Chez Parker. Considering the alternative, I'm not complaining.
The flooding in the Chesapeake Bay area looked nasty. As for Nazaré, management of surf recreation has been smart and competent. Garrett McNamara obviously played a big, beneficial role. Having watched the Newport Wedge on a "moderate" 10 foot day, I have no idea how anyone cope with those order-of-magnitude larger monsters. In terms of volume of water, maybe two or three orders of magnitude.
My left shoulder with the rotator cuff surgery is in physical therapy and regaining function rapidly, though I'm still limited in what to do.
Best item from Newport: https://vimeo.com/559584972
Newport Wedge photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmVXmvj3
Rome photos: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmW8DWwf
Hope your shoulder continues to heal, Dave.
Thinking of big waves, Hawaiian-born Brazil resident Kalani Lattanzi was at Peahi ("Jaws") on Maui, bodysurfing with fins by Yucca Fins of Costa Mesa, California and a "Taylor's Mistake Handski" made in New Zealand, marketed from Bali. They are happily celebrating on Instagram.
https://www.taylorsmistakehandski.com
As for fins, Yucca just announced new colors for its fins (they seem to make every batch a different color). Kalani, with likely sponsorship. This tiny company has been willing to spend for exposure and to do good. They provide a lot of fins for local Junior Lifeguard programs.https://yuccafins.com/collections/premium-fins/products/yucca-fins-standard-stiffness-kalani-1
Especially for the Jkts: I've been unexpectedly moved by the outpouring for Stephen Sondheim since his death last Friday. Did you ever see any of his musicals live? We never have, although I've seen a few on TV.
The best things I've encountered thus far have been Terry Gross's three-day tribute on NPR's Fresh Air (W-Th-F) and PBS's rerun:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/stephen-sondheim-theater-icon-who-reshaped-musicals-dies-at-91
We're doing about the same Chez Parker. Got our boosters a couple weeks ago.
Let's start by saying that Sondheim is a genius. With that out of the way, he is also full of contradictions. The biggest is that many of his shows have serious second act problems. Some don't even have second acts.
I have seen a lot of Sondheim over the years and the best of it just blows you away. We saw the revival of Assassins starring Neil Patrick Harris. That was just mesmerizing.
We also saw Patti Lupone in Gypsy and both her and the show are incredible.
Signature Theater in Shirlington specializes in Sondheim and we saw their production of Sunday in the Park with George there. A good show to see in a small venue.
And there is a lot of Sondheim as both full movies and filmed stage shows. The Neil Patrick Harris (him again) concert of Company actually had a theatrical release. And early in the pandemic we found streaming somewhere the original production of Sweeney Todd with Angela Lansbury.
The show I am most conflicted about is Into The Woods. The first act is so perfect. They let youth groups produce it standalone. But the second act is a hot mess. It's preachy and busy and confusing. It's just so...Sondheim.
It's safe to say that not everyone is going to like everything a composer creates. I could name a couple of classic Broadway musicals I don't care for, but most folks rever.
Having been a Music major, I take particular delight in Sondheim's discussions of his processes for making lyrics and music. But I realize that this makes me something of an outlier.
"Into the Stephen Sondheim archive" (tribute from across the Pond, hosted by Maria Friedman, with other British musical stage performers):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct30fn
Hey Dave, are you folks doing a holiday display at the garden this year? Pictures, or it didn't happen. ;-)
This year's Garden of Lights. The Bonsai gallery has every last tree with string lights or a spotlight. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmXfZAse
For some reason I keep losing this link when I clear my caches, so bookmarked it. Thank you so much for these lovely pictures, Dave! Hope you are supported this holiday season.
I am undergoing surgery for an early Christmas gift. It will be abdominal, which means a crapton of post-operative restrictions, but I am happy enough to get this done hopefully before omicron spike really hits ahere nd while my booster is fresh.
Omicron remains an unknown. It's showing up in sewage in an affluent suburban Orlando county. We might have another month of peace & quiet, but I'm bothered at the prospect of those without 3rd shots being vulnerable. I remain in the Novavax clinical trial; no word on 3rd shot, and it doesn't end until Feb 15 at the earliest.
Earlier, I mentioned that Yucca Swim Fins seemed likely to snag a famous bodysurfer as an ambassador for their fins. Sure enough, Kalani Lattanzi got lots of attention riding an enormous wave, and he was wearing Yuccas. And using a Taylor's Mistake Handski, a little plastic hand-held surfboard thing. The guy in Bali who sells them worldwide (they're made in New Zealand and named for a beach at Christchurch that two captains, each named Taylor, mistook for the harbour entrance.
The super-huge waves at Nazaré, Portugal are going on, with English surfer Andrew Cotton getting into trouble on the rocks. No injury, fortunately. He broke his back there in 2017.
Oh man, lighting all those bonsais must've been a painstaking job, although I do enjoy the way they look. I also have a soft spot for the various birds made of lighting, including flamingos and peacocks.
An immigrant friend is a native of near Nazaré, and tells me that surfing has become popular since she lived there. Would love to visit someday, but just for the scenery.
The bonsai lighting was time consuming. I was not involved, except for ensuring a more or less ample supply of coaxial lights and connectors/extension cords. The screw-together connection system is more or less waterproof and the connectors are cheap compared to conventional extension cords. So the overall light cost was reasonable, especially with deals on a few light colors. This was the first year with so many colored trees (a very large pink Bougainvillea led the way last year).
The peacock was entirely a local project, Judy Salmon with a bit of help and encouragement from her late husband, Tom. 12 strings of 100 lights each. With LEDs, electric use is pretty minimal. I should do a calculation.
Politically, I wonder why Trump is kvetching about Sen. majority leader McConnell. He thinks the US should have missed payments on its bills? Trump does seem to live in an unreal world.
NY Times has an important story on how greatly improved tornado forecasts and warnings have drastically cut death tolls. Bad as the latest bout was, it could have been far worse. Tornado are currently predictable, and alarm able, 15 or more minutes ahead. There is technology to provide far shorter warnings for earthquakes. In Japan, the technology is used to bring trains to a halt and get people into safer positions. I wonder whether the US is organized enough to do likewise.
Wishing holiday serenity to all the boodlers here. And get well soon, Pup!
Hope everyone had a Happy New Year, and haven't broken their resolutions yet. ;-)
All quiet Chez Parker.
My Florida county has an exploding infection and hospitalization rate, but still much less bad than the atomic explosions in neighboring counties and thermonuclear Broward (Fort Lauderdale) where 40% of tests were positive over the weekend. Gov. DeSantis had an elaborate news conference there today with lots of underlings and guests, so of course the head of the county Hospital District had to slather on the butter. County hospital districts, which support charity care at some hospitals and otherwise promote public health are under attack in the Republican legislature. Property taxes to help poor people? Offensive.
The annual Garden of Lights photo album is finished. https://flic.kr/s/aHsmXfZAse
Wow, Dave. That third photo, from Nelson Family Farms, is a-MAZ-ing!
Talk about chutzpah: Florida governor obstructs vaxxing, mask mandates, then expects extra help to clean up the mess he's created!
"DeSantis calls for more monoclonal antibodies; feds say Florida is getting its fair share":
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article257011802.html
Dave and Pup, I thought of you both when I heard this story (transcript will be available later today).
"The arctic freeze in parts of the U.S. hasn't stopped surfers in Minnesota":
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/12/1072372552/the-arctic-freeze-in-much-of-the-eastern-u-s-hasn-t-stopped-surfers-in-minnesota
Hey Dave, will the freezing weather reach as far south as where you are?
In any event, watch out for falling frozen iguanas. ;-)
NWS forecast this morning was 28 tonight, warmer tomorrow. So I put towels, frost cloth, storage box tops, a storage box, whatever over tender plants. Orchids are all indoors, and some bromeliads.
So afternoon forecast went up a bit, still with freeze warning. Now, it looks like freezing tonight and almost, maybe with frost, tomorrow.
I was supposed to go to Madrid this week, but too busy and I'm still dubious of the covid situation. My vaccination status remains awkward because my vaccination shots were in a clinical trial and Novavax still hasn't been approved in the US, so no CDC card, though I have one for the booster. My home covid test kits expired, now that I'm a bit curious about whether I'm among the infected but asymptomatic people.
Hmmm given that NATO is gearing up re the Russian build-up to invade Ukraine, I think it's a good idea to put it off anyway.
You need to call Novavax and insist they hurry up and file for EUA. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novavax-nvax-further-delays-fda-152403341.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/10/novavax-ceo-covid-vaccine-could-be-cleared-in-multiple-countries-soon.html
Good luck on getting new test kits soon.
The Biden administration is concerned they may not be able to make enough vaccines (already ordered out to other countries.)
But Novavax is approved in EU: "Please note that Novavax already has an advanced purchase agreement with the European Commission to supply up to 200 million doses of Nuvaxovid. In fact, the member states have already ordered around 27 million doses of the vaccine for first-quarter 2022. The initial doses are expected to arrive in the EU in January."
Covavax is produced in partnership with India and also authorized for EU in India, the Phillippines.
So my guess is Novavax is not really confident in its approval and fears bad PR if it backfires. But if it's approved here and performs well against the variants so far, it's a golden seal of approval for most countries.
I think Novavax's US problem has mostly been with manufacturing. I think they've also had better opportunities for sales abroad. Indonesia, for example.
Some experts (e.g. IHME at University of Washington)think testing has become a nearly useless waste of resources. Infections seem to spread fast and happen to fully vaccinated people, so presumably people (many symptomless) may be briefly spreading omnicron then shutting down.
South Africa stats suggested vaccines drop to 30% immunity against infection with Omicron. Still not zero.
Surveilling for new variants is what we should be doing more aggressively here. Other countries are surveilling new variants better.
(MN genotypes around 10% of its testing samples, I believe, and that's a high rate.)
Hey, Dave! "50 and fabulous: Kelly Slater beat out a surfer less than 1/2 his age to win Pipeline":
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/11/1080204950/50-and-fabulous-kelly-slater-beat-out-a-surfer-less-than-1-2-his-age-to-win-pipe
NPR's Adrian Florido talks with surfing legend Kelly Slater about winning the Billabong Pro Pipeline contest days before his 50th birthday.
It looks like he got vaccinated, finally, to go to a big competition in Australia.
Pipeline is a brutal environment but Pipeline lifeguard and legendary bodysurfer Mark Cunningham is at least a decade older and legendary bodyboarder and bodysurfer Mike Stewart is 58 and ripping Pipeline.
It's a disturbing day, the US is one of a bunch of countries urging citizens to exit Ukraine ASAP; there won't be any rescue missions. Based on today's developments, unless the Ukrainian government resigns en masse and invites Putin to create a new government, Putin will create a new government anyway.
This is in the middle of a huge omicron outbreak in Russia. In WWII, the Germans besieging Leningrad concentrated on applying artillery to hospitals and other medical facilities. Half or more of the city's medical personnel were killed. Sad did the same in Syria. I would not be surprised to see something like that in the next week.
It is too depressing to think about. I keep hoping NATO has some kind of strategy, but evacuation of all foreigners not under arms is a big must-do right now.
I don't think Russian nukes will do as much as Putin thinks; they can be disabled and they're probably not well maintained anymore.
Headline:
"Biden warns Putin of ‘swift and severe costs’ if Russia attacks Ukraine, White House says
In a phone call, President Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the United States and its allies “will respond decisively” to a further invasion of Ukraine, the White House said. The warning came after most U.S. Embassy staffers were ordered to leave the country amid concerns of an imminent offensive by Russian forces."
That's not a bluff. So I'm pretty sure they have something in mind especially to neutralize nuclear threats. They'll also probably freeze all oligarch assets including in London (nexus of Russia's black money.)
However they are also pulling training troops (small numbers of them) out of Ukraine. The retribution will not come from desperate ground (as Sun Tzu calls it when a smaller army is surrounded by a larger one.) but where they lack defenses. Also, I have to think that Biden's advisors know the wisdom of Vizzini of the Princess Bride: "Never fight a land war in Asia."
But unlike Vizzini, I also hope they know not to play Russian roulette with somebody who has built up immunity to iocane.
Maintaining nukes is costly. I assume several submarines are kept in good order. There hasn't been a publicly visible sinking since the Kursk in 2000.
Much depends on the British pulling the rugs out from under their rich Russian clients. That could devastate the City. Boris Johnson seems likely to be kicked out, so things are wobbly there. New Chancellor in Germany, Macron running for re-election. Finland and Sweden are reacting stiffly to Russian urgings that they not cooperate with NATO.
US intelligence releases are extraordinary--Washington Post. Nothing like it since the Cuban missile crisis.
BBC has videos showing Russian tanks driving on roads toward the border. That's done only when they are very close to deployment. Long distance transport is on flatbeds. Ballistic missiles. Jets not normally at Kaliningrad. Lots of Russian "national guard" forces mostly useful for managing civilians. BBC.
It looks like the invasion is underway, just not quite yet crossing borders. I assume airstrikes, missiles, air drops of soldiers to important locations, to be followed by land movements once Ukraine is intimidated and perhaps leaderless.
I should read my recent history of the Cuba crisis. I was a kid on a SAC base at the time. For a short while, we had our own U-2.
Correction: quick and heavy intelligence release story is NY Times
Especially for the Jkts. "The Metropolitan Opera Announces 2022–23 Season, Featuring Renée Fleming, Kelli O'Hara & More / The season will feature the world-premiere staging of The Hours, the company premieres of Champion and Medea, and four more new productions":
https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/The-Metropolitan-Opera-Announces-202223-Season-Featuring-Rene-Fleming-Kelli-OHara-More-20220223
...In November, the world-premiere staging of Kevin Puts's The Hours, based on the acclaimed novel by Michael Cunningham that was adapted into the 2002 Oscar-winning film, arrives on the Met stage with Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting a trio of star singers: soprano Renée Fleming-who makes her highly anticipated return to the Met - soprano Kelli O'Hara, and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato...
I think I first heard Renee Fleming in San Francisco, 1991, Rusalka.
The Russian National Orchestra cancelled its US tour (including us), probably more covid than politics, but I doubt that any Russian opera performers will come to the US for the next season.
A cyber-security friend (Ph.D. in computer science) opines that Russia would never admit if they're hacked. However, I wonder if the results of some cyberattacks (e.g., darkness due to massive power outages) might be visible by satellite and posted online.
"Biden has been presented with options for massive cyberattacks against Russia / The options presented include disrupting the internet across Russia, shutting off power and stopping trains in their tracks":
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/biden-presented-options-massive-cyberattacks-russia-rcna17558
Dave, also this...
"Valery Gergiev, a Putin Supporter, Will Not Conduct at Carnegie Hall / The star maestro, scheduled to lead three high-profile Vienna Philharmonic concerts this week, will not appear after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine":
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/arts/music/gergiev-putin-vienna-philharmonic-carnegie-hall.html
Includes "Aquarius" from Hair and "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret.
"Her senior recital was on historically censored songs. Then her school censored her":
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/26/1083283230/her-senior-recital-was-on-historically-censored-songs-then-her-school-censored-h (audio online soon)
Scott Simon speaks with Friends University student Caitlyn Fox about the recital she was not allowed to perform on campus. It was comprised of [sic] songs that were banned from musical theater.
"War in Ukraine: the cyber frontier":
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct1jbn
How the conflict in Ukraine is playing out in cyberspace.
With the conflict in Ukraine still raging following Russia’s invasion Ed Butler speaks to hackers from Ukraine including Vlad Styran of Berezha Security Group, one of the people tasked with fending off digital attacks on Ukraine.
Dyma Budorin, CEO of cybersecurity firm Hacken.IO, tells Ed he left the country before the current conflict broke out, to carry out a programme of “offensive operations” against Russian targets.
Chester Wisniewski of internet security firm Sophos says the Russian intelligence services occasionally work with existing groups of hackers to carry out targeted attacks.
And Lennart Maschmeyer of the Center for Security Studies in Zurich explains why he thinks some people are overestimating the Russian state’s cyberwarfare capabilities.
"Stunning satellite image shows immense power of monster 7-story waves in Portugal / An 18-year-old surfer rode a record-breaking 101-foot-wave on the day this image was taken":
https://www.livescience.com/seven-story-monster-waves-seen-from-space
NASA has released a stunning image of Portugal’s coastline showing the immense power of massive, seven-story-high waves as they crashed toward the shore. The image, taken in 2020, was captured on the same day that an 18-year-old surfer reportedly rode a record-breaking 101.4-foot-high (30.9 meters) wave in the area.
The photo, which was captured by the Landsat 8 satellite on Oct. 29, 2020, shows a thick band of white foam that was left behind by the massive waves as they broke along the famous North Beach (Praia do Norte) in Nazaré — widely considered to be one of the best locations in the world for big-wave surfing. The image also shows that the ferocious swells ripped up the surrounding seafloor sediment into enormous underwater plumes that stretched around 6.2 miles (10 kilometers) from the shore, according to a NASA Earth Observatory statement.
The waves at Nazaré frequently reach heights of more than 50 feet (15 m) in the winter months due to an underwater canyon less than a kilometer from the coast that channels wave energy. But the waves on Oct. 29 were further enhanced by high winds from the remnants of Hurricane Epsilon, which battered Bermuda and parts of North America in 2020, according to the statement.
From Newport, RI., "A surfer takes the names of passed love ones out to sea for one last wave":
https://www.npr.org/2022/03/13/1086330054/a-surfer-takes-the-names-of-passed-love-ones-out-to-sea-for-one-last-wave
Dan Fischer found solace in surfing after his father died. Now, he's writing the names of other people's lost loved ones on his surf boards, to "memorialize them in the place they so deeply loved."
"Jordy Smith Explains Why Portugal Is one of the Best Surfing Destinations in the World":
https://www.theinertia.com/surf/jordy-smith-explains-why-portugal-is-one-of-the-best-surfing-destinations-in-the-world/
Hope everyone's doing well. Spring has finally arrived.
Portugal's on the better side of the Atlantic, just as everything from Chile to Alaska is for the Pacific (but Australia and New Zealand do very well with the Southern Ocean. East-facing Portugal with little continental shelf tends to catch more waves. SW France gets very big, but narrow swell window. Cornwall tends to have messy surf and Ireland has some extremely challenging waves. I trust they also have spots for mere mortals.
From the Washington Post:
"Wendy Rieger, who co-anchored the popular 5 p.m. newscast on Washington’s NBC station WRC (Channel 4) for more than 20 years, winning a loyal audience with her good-humored and well-crafted reports, died April 16 at a hospice facility in Montgomery County. She was 65."
Yellojkt, have you folks seen any of these nominated shows? Predictions?
"Musical ‘A Strange Loop’ leads the 2022 Tony nominations, with 11 nods / Nominations announced Monday herald the successful completion of the first full Broadway season since pre-pandemic 2019":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/theater-dance/2022/05/09/tony-award-nominations-2022
"Surfing a record 86-foot wave took guts. Measuring it took 18 months":
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/2022/05/24/surfing-record-sebastian-steudtner/
Especially for yellojkt, if he's still biking.
“13 notable restaurants and breweries along Pittsburgh-area bike trails. Bike. Refresh. Repeat”:
https://www.post-gazette.com/life/food/2022/05/24/restaurants-breweries-pittsburgh-bike-trails/stories/202205160093
I took a course in photogrammetry. That was pre-digital; much better tools available now.
New Yorker has a William Finnegan story on Kai Lenny, the most serious of big-wave surfers.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/05/30/kai-lenny-surfs-the-unsurfable
The New York Times had a very nice briefing (for non-water people) on big wave bodysurfing and Kalani Lattanzi.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/19/sports/big-wave-bodysurfing.html
Happy Memorial Day.
Tony Awards tonight!
Dave, how did your beloved botanical garden fare in Hurricane Nicole? Hope all is well.
Hey, yellojkt -- we've got a new EGOT: Viola Davis!
HEY, DAVE! hope all is well with you. Here's a new surfing video from the island of Graciosa in Portugal's central Azores (not exactly Nazaré, but nonetheless a lovely spot):
https://www.rtp.pt/acores/graciosa-online/imagens-do-surf-video_80525
Yay, another Tony Awards Sunday! Anybody home?
Broadway is looking in rude good health. The Metropolitan Opera is facing an ongoing financial crisis, having moved $30 million in endowment funds to make end meet. They're betting the upcoming season on 3 new shows, including "Dead Man Walking", Malcom X, and a search for a lost husband in the Amazon "with music as beautiful as anything Puccini ever wrote." This year's video presentations looked and sounded fine.
reCaptha insisted that an image that was striped but NOT a crosswalk, had to be clicked as such.
Great to see you again, Dave! How are the coonties doing?
Did Lea Michele knock "Don't Rain on My Parade" outta the park, or what???
reCAPTCHA doesn't ask me to do its little tests any more. Go figure...
Congratulations to the talented Viola Davis!
Watching old Night Court episodes instead of the Tonys: I was a bit young to watch this show the first time around and the slapstick's a reliable laugh.
Another gardening season has begun and I'm hopefully learning/levelling up a bit more this year.
I've been somewhat busy with committee assignments for the Florida Native Plant Society. A surprise low-cost air fare combined with favorable wave forecast set up a quick trip to Newport Beach last week, with 20 pounds of camera gear. Upon arrival, my one and only camera body was out of commission--shutter stuck. Summer reading: Surf & Rescue: George Freeth and the Birth of California Surf Culture, by Patrick Moser, University of Illinois Press. It's quite an inspirational tale. Freeth died at age 35, a victim of the flu in 1919. He left behind a heritage of surfing and lifeguarding.
Dave, I feel your pain re the camera shutter getting stuck. That happened to me in Europe in 2008. I wound up buying disposable cameras for the rest of the trip, and limiting the number of shots I took.
Does your local botanical garden have a corpse flower? I've never seen/smelled one in person, but find the idea fascinating.
“Rare Corpse Flower bloom unleashes putrid smell in San Diego”:
https://www.npr.org/2023/07/06/1186278221/rare-corpse-flower-bloom-unleashes-putrid-smell-in-san-diego
NPR's Daniel Estrin speaks with Ari Novy of the San Diego Botanic Garden about the bloom of its corpse flower and why these iconic flowers evolved to stink so badly.
Being caught without cameras are always hard.
My neighbor lent a hand with my tiny front yard which is messy.
I had a neighbor scalp my front lawn without asking me and I am constantly fighting thistle in it. I've given up on the dandelions and hope to just plant a lot of preferably native clover to push out the creeping charlie. I finally uprooted a bush I killed and I can now move to plant something else by my front steps.
The backyard is for food growing and still in progress (just planted a serviceberry tree, and hope to try again with potentilla for tea, if it can hack black walnut) with a small raised garden bed added last year, and a new in-ground bed added behind the hedge of saplings I planted-- it's exploding with pumpkin vines right now-- so I have an excuse there. Been harvesting daylily buds to dry, drying out lambsquarters for winter use. Enjoying all the thai basil I can grow.
It's very interesting gardening climate. Very short cold season (I say it's nonexistent, it's -20 C then 10 C the next week, then 30 C in 30 days.) and the hot season is too hot to grow cold season crops unless they're suited for high temps. Growing stuff in pots was good practice, anyway.
Alas, I've never had the chance to visit Kew.
"The Documentary: Kew Gardens: Botany and the British empire":
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct5hzj
For centuries, Kew Gardens was the flash point for a lesser known British imperial project – the collection of plants from colonised nations for political and commercial gain. Author and journalist Rosie Kinchen finds out about the work Kew is doing today to examine this, and looks into how the institution is supporting botanical science and conservation around the globe. Rosie speaks to curatorial and scientific staff at Kew, as well as taking a wider view on the role of plants in colonial history.
Contributors: Prof Alex Antonelli, Kew director of science; Dr Caroline Cornish, humanities research co-ordinator at Kew; Dr Diego Molina, environmental historian at Kew and Royal Holloway; Shiloh Maples of the Native American Food Sovereignty Alliance.
Producer: Sam Peach
(Photo: Botanical artist Lucy Smith examines the leaves of a new species of giant waterlily, Victoria boliviana, at Royal Botanic Gardens, in Kew, Richmond, Surrey. Credit: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire
“Environmentalists want to protect a rare 'ghost' orchid as an endangered species”:
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/17/1200026125/environmentalists-want-to-protect-a-rare-ghost-orchid-as-an-endangered-species
Surf Scoters -- ducks that surf. Who knew?
https://www.birdnote.org/listen/shows/surfing-scoters
My Google account was blocked for a while, now seems back. This is the first morning of a 2 week tour, delayed for years. Swans have also been caught surfing.
Bon voyage, Dave! Hope you get lots of great photos.
Aren't aquatic birds' bottoms essentially surfboards with paddles anyway?
Seems like they'd get a thrill out of riding waves too, so they know what they can deal with and when it's time to get a-flying instead.
Found a video of black swans (Australia) hanging their webs on a wave. https://youtu.be/bsiqdl6vsGQ
Glad your account is back. Where to now?
How was your two week-tour, Dave o' the Coonties? I think this bunker is about shot, I only check it every once in a long while. I'm off social media so I mainly contact other boodlers by e-mail.
Do you have an e-mail or other means to contact you?
I was excluded from The Bunker for a while. Google expelled one of my accounts with them, so they have to be circumvented. I'm finally working on photos from the Japan trip. The local botanical garden has priority.
This album from Labor Day shows some fun. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjATXNb
The album from the botanical garden is a work in progress. Really weird to be running around at moments when it's empty of people. https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB5ntP
A few Japan photos will be ready, probably tomorrow. I agree that the Bunker has about vanished into the void.
Still photos from Ashikaga Flower Park north of Tokyo, in early November
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjB62aX
I've authorized The Pup to send you my email address, if you're interested in corresponding -- especially re botanical topics.
Happy holidays!
Pup offer is desirable. Dave of the Counties
Dave, try this out for me: thricetolddogtor g mail com
Just put in something I will know proves you're Dave. I'll delete this post once I confirm contact.
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