Remembrance of dogs past

There's a sweet op-ed piece acknowledging the pain of losing a pup and the connection between the new dog and the old in the Boston Globe today ("The Secret Messages on the Dog Bed" by Elissa Ely).

Having never lived in a home (my manners were atrocious, unless you think that standing on tables and knocking lamps over is OK—what did I know?) before I settled in here in ol' Swellesley, I gave Sparky some space. First I slept in my crate. Then I graduated to the guest room. Now, I start off in the guest room, or my crate if I'm scared, then around midnight head to Sparky's old chair in my folks' room.

Let's face it: I'm really too big to fit in there properly, although it's amazing how tiny I can make myself. But Sparky liked it, and my folks are used to having a dog there. It's cozy, worn, and I can check on my parents. As for secret messages, I think it's more like telepathy. We couldn't be more different, but we have lots in common.

Obama Seeks Republican Input NOT

Roanoke Times, 2-28-10, Pg 1 & 3: Obama courts GOP lawmakers for compromise
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The Obama so called Health Care Summit was a continuation of the past 13 months of giving lip-service to bipartisan legislation while totally ignoring input, amendments and proposals all the while trying to discredit and marginalize those with a contrarian view. The real ‘biting’ truth is that the American people have rejected the ObamaCare Bill and approach and NO Obama, it’s not because you have not talked about it enough!
It’s the content – NOT the presentation!
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Even the “Summit” timing was a microcosm of the last year’s shut-out:
Obama talked for 2 hours -------- (it’s hard to listen when you’re talking)
Democrats talked for 4 hours ---- (clearly not listening at all)
Republican input – 2 hours ------ (like talking to a wall)
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The ‘coup de gras’ was Obama’s sarcastic reaction to Virginia Republican Eric Cantor’s display of the one foot high printout of the Senate’s Reid-ObamaCare Bill and it’s relationship to the eleven page addendum that Obama was trying to sell as his new invention..
How dare Cantor put the real Reid-ObamaCare Bill physically on the table for all to see?
How dare he disrespect our new arrogant King and his Court with truth and light?
Off with his head!
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click to enlarge image

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Prior Items:
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/obamacare-incubating-in-black-box.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/09/stop-obamacare-mess-and-start-fresh.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/obama-arrogance-reaches-new-level.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/professor-obama-gives-yet-another.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-audacity-of-arrogance.html
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2010 Oscar-Nominated Animated Shorts

Animated Shorts Program (80 minutes)
@ The Charles Theatre

In the lead-up to the March 7, 2010 Academy Awards TV broadcast, Baltimore's Charles Theatre is currently screening Shorts International's "The Oscar-Nominated Short Films 2010" film program. In years past, I've attended both the live-action and the animated film shorts programs, but this year I went strictly with animation as I find that it's usually the stronger of the two programs and, well, animation is still the red-headed stepchild of shorts in today's Gen YouTube. And besides, live-action is all around us while animation is breaking new ground every day of the new digitized Millennium.

At least three out of the five nominated shorts could take home the Oscar with no argument from me (while French Roast and Granny O'Grimm are both excellent, unfortunately they're punching above their weight against the other three in this year's running), but for my two cents worth, Nick Park's latest Wallace and Gromit adventure, A Matter of Loaf and Death, looks likely to continue Aardman Animation Studio's Oscar nom/win streak alive with a perfect 6 for 6 record; for, like Michael Jordon, they seem to win every "final" they reach: 1991 Best Animated Short for Creature Comforts (actually beating out another Park film, A Grand Day Out with Wallace and Gromit!); 1994 Best Animated Short for Wallace & Gromit in the Wrong Trousers; 1996 Best Animated Short for Wallace and Gromit in a Close Shave; 2006 Best Animated Feature Film for Wallace and Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

(By the by, together with the theatrical run, the nominated short will also be available in iTunes Stores starting today, March 2.)

*** AND THE NOMINEES ARE... ***

OK, for what it's worth, here are my picks for the best of the animated fest:



1. WALLACE AND GROMIT IN "A MATTER OF LOAF AND DEATH"
Dir. Nick Park (UK, 2008, 30 minutes)

Wallace and Gromit have a brand new "dough-to-dough" delivery business. The conversion of 62 West Wallaby Street is complete and impressive, the whole house is now a granary with ovens and robotic kneading arms. Huge mixing bowls are all over the place and everything is covered with a layer of flour. On the roof is a "Wallace patent-pending" old-fashioned windmill. The transformation is perfect. Although business is booming, Gromit is concerned by the news that 12 local bakers have "disappeared" this year - but Wallace isn't worried. He's too distracted and "dough-eyed" in love with local beauty and bread enthusiast, Piella Bakewell, to be of much help. While they enjoy being the "Toast of the Town," Gromit, with his master's life in jeopardy, must be the sleuth and solve the escalating murder mystery before the tally reaches a Baker's Dozen - in what quickly becomes a "Matter of Loaf and Death."

Just when you think you've heard every bread and baking pun imaginable, you see the end credits listing Nick Park's real-world writing partner, one Bob Baker. Can't make this stuff up!

Oh, and I didn't make the connection at the time but, as my friend Dave Cawley later pointed out, the hilarious "I've got a bomb in my pants!" scene is actually a direct reference to the "Sometimes you just can't get rid of a bomb!" sequence in the 1966 Batman movie. Actually, there are loads of classic film references throughout the short, not least of which are the frequent winks to Hitchcock and, of course, Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?

Watch the "A Matter of Loaf and Death" trailer (YouTube).


2. THE LADY AND THE REAPER (La Dama y La Muerte)
Dir. Javier Recio Gracia (Spain, 2009, 8 minutes)

A clear winner in any other year, Javier Recio Garcia's computer-animated La Dama y La Muerte wordlessly tells the story of a sweet old lady who is waiting for the arrival of death so she can meet her dearly departed husband again. One night, while sleeping, her life fades out and she is invited to cross death's door. Bue when she is about to do so, the old lady wakes up inside a hospital's ward: and arrogant doctor has taken her back to life and he will fight hard against death to recover the old lady's life at any cost. Co-produced by Mr. Melanie Griffith, Antonio Banderas, it's been compared to Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal re imagined as a Merrie Melodie" cartoon, which is as apt a description as any I can come up with.

Watch The Lady and the Reaper (YouTube):


3. LOGORAMA
Dir. Nicolas Schmerkin (English, 17 min.)

Hi-larious and seditiously snarky, I'd give it top props in any other year that didn't include a Wallace and Gromit short and The Lady and the Reaper because, despite the brilliance of the concept and the high-tech artistry of the execution, it still is pretty South Park-sophomoric in its F-bomb-laced dialogue/narrative. Michelin Men police chase armed killer clown Ronald McDonald in a brand name version of Los Angeles comprised entirely of some 2,5000 (unlicensed) corporate logos and mascots - including iconoclastic shout outs to Borders, Bob's Big Boy, the Utz potato chip girl, a flamin' hot Esso gal...



...the mustachioed Pringles guys (both Original Flav and Sweet and Sour Flav!), a way-gay Mr. Clean, and even Shepard Fairey's ubiquitous Andre the Giant "Obey" sticker!


Andre the Giant has a logo posse!

According to web site Flux, the four-years-in-the-making short was created by a group of directors within H5, a French graphic studio renowned for its music CD front covers (Superdiscount, Air, Demon) and artistic direction (Dior, Cartier, YSL). Members François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain directed many music videos (Massive Attack, Goldfrapp, Röyksopp), and, in fact Logorama initially started out in 2002 as an idea for a tribute music video for George Harrison!


"By George, I approve!"

Logorama is the H5 trio's first short film, and premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Kodak Short Film Discovery Prize at the 48th Critics' Week. The short even features a voice cameo by filmmaker David Fincher as the Pringles man.

According to co-director Herve de Crecy, the story had to take place in America's West Coast City of the Angels. "The perfect grid of the city, represented by the Burberry pattern logo, and the permanent earthquake threat matched with the concept we had in mind from the beginning: the opposition between order and disorder."

"People don’t realize they’re facing another reality behind the smiling icons they see everyday," adds co-director Francois Alaux. "You can drill for oil but have a green and yellow flower logo, [making people] feel like they’re in a field full of flowers. That’s no more and no less the kind of trick that we used in Logorama – this time not to tell a happy and smiling story."

And speaking of the perception vs. reality dichotomy, an earthquake-ravaged Los Angeles isn't the only thing connected to Logorama that split up; following Logorama's UK premiere, the H5 trio announced they were splitting. Houplain will keep the H5 moniker, while Alaux and de Crecy will work as a duo under Little Minx.

My only regret was noting the omission of Mr. Boh - I thought of him when I saw the Utz Girl (that's the power of advertising, guess I was thinking of that Smythe Jeweler's ad across from Penn Station that has Mr. Boh proposing to the Utz Girl!)...



...but I guess Mr. Boh was too regional to show up on the Transatlantic radar of French filmmakers.

This is easily the wildest and most imaginative short on offer, but with its potty-mouthed soundtrack, Tarantino-esque violence, and a plethora of unlicensed corporate logos, there's no way it'll win - it would need to win 100 Oscars just to pay off the legal team!

Watch the official Logorama trailer


Watch the full Logorama (from Garage TV).


4. FRENCH ROAST
Dir. Fabrice O. Joubert (France, 2008, 8 minutes)

In a fancy Parisian Cafe, an uptight businessman discovers he forgot to bring his wallet and bides his time by ordering more coffee.

Watch French Roast:


Official site: www.frenchroast.fr/

5. GRANNY O'GRIMM'S SLEEPING BEAUTY
Dir. Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell (Ireland, 2008, 6 minutes)

Granny O'Grimm, a seemingly sweet old lady, loses the plot as she tells her version of Sleeping Beauty to her terrified Granddaughter.

Watch Granny O'Grimms Sleeping Beauty.


*** HIGHLY COMMENDED ***

The Charles' animated program also features three bonus "Highly Commended" shorts: Pixar's Partly Cloudy, Poland's The Kinematograph, and Canada's Runaway.

6. PARTLY CLOUDY
Dir. Peter Sohn (US, Pixar, 2009, 6 minutes)

Very funny! I had seen this previously, as it was included as an extra on Pixar's Up DVD. I've always liked the concept that babies are delivered by storks (it's so much tidier than the real placenta-and-afterbirth conception mess!), but the idea that the babies themselves are created by clouds (previously only credited with creating White Cloud toilet paper) is even more intriquing; given England's perpetually overcast skies, maybe God is an Englishman?

Watch Partly Cloudy.


7. RUNAWAY
Dir. Cordell Barker (Canada, 2009, 9 minutes)

Happy passengers are having a great time on a crowded train, oblivious to the unknown fate that awaits them around the bend. When the train runs into a cow on the tracks, the captain is nowhere to be found and the poor fireman is forced to desperately improvise in order to keep the train going. Cordell Barker's Runaway depicts a vicious class struggle where no one wins aboard a runaway train and is at once both a cynical metaphor for an out-of-control world and pure anarchic fun. The manic retro-jazz soundtrack reminded me of The Triplets of Bellville and, lo and behold, when I looked it up on IMDB I found that it shared the same composer: Benoit Charest. Oh, the train captain is voiced by Barker collaborator (on Barker's 1988's Oscar-nominated The Cat Came Back) and fellow National Film Board of Canada animator Richard Condie (of 1985's Oscar-nominated The Big Snit).

Watch the Runaway trailer (NFB).

8. THE KINEMATOGRAPH
Dir. Tomek Baginski (Poland, 2009, 17 minutes)

Typically Polish in its sad existential resignation to - and obsession with - death, Tomek Baginski's tells the tale of a 19th-century inventor close to perfecting motion pictures who films his wife just before her death; when she dies, her memory - as well as her sound and image - lives on through the great artistic power of the kinema (get it?). It's the least imaginative narrative of all the shorts presented (you anticipate how it'll play out from the wife's first dramatic cough), but beautifully animated, especially the time-lapse sequence that has the inventor standing at his wife's hospital bed which then morphs into a cemetary and then into him standing alone outside his house. Strictly Old School Eastern European, though boasting images that could easily hang on the walls of Baltimore's Schuler School of Fine Arts. This is Baginski's second Oscar nom, following 2002's gorgeous Katedra(The Cathedral).

Watch The Kinematograph trailer.


See also:
Oscar Nominated Short Films 2010 (Shorts International)

This hound's from the pound

Fave new read: Dogs by Emily Gravett. Found it yesterday at Wellesley Booksmith where I snagged three treats. Clearly, Barry was not on duty to limit my consumption.
    At first glance the cover pup looks like a basset hound, and I jealously thought, what is it with the fascination with these ill-proportioned hot dogs? Any time a hound is suggested in a children’s book, it’s always a basset. (see, for example, The Hound from the Pound; Lunchbox and the Aliens, and a  forthcoming Clive Cussler story that I’ll pass on. Sleep, Little One Sleep by Marion Dane Bauer, unfortunately out of print, has the cutest cover painting of a basset ever.)
    So groan, groan, even though one of my favorite pals, Padi, is an honorable member of the breed. Her mom is children’s author Barbara Barbieri McGrath, famous for her M&M-brand counting books. My mom’s non-candy favorite is The Little Green Witch, based on ye olde tale of the little red hen. Mom identifies a little too closely with that one. (BTW, tried snagging an M&M’s laced cookie last night—not bad, except that it was followed by Mom’s fingers down my throat.)
    Everyone says that Padi and I look alike, and we do—except that my legs are about two feet longer than hers. She’s a good sport, even dressing up like an actual hot dog on Halloween and baying at her parents' display of a big stuffed basset stuck in an enormous web that would intimidate even hard-working Charlotte. Check out Padi's pix on Barbara's home page.
    Anyway,  I noticed there was something very feathery about the cover dog’s ears, so I opened up the wraparound cover to learn this hound is an amalgam of sorts—not at all a purebred, but that’s OK. A basset is depicted inside, and so is a very nice-looking Dalmatian—tail a bit too long in the leaping scene, but great Sparkyish spots—and, wonder of wonders, an actual foxhound! Not truly wondrous, because Emily Gravett lives in England, where there are tons of my shorter-legged and –eared brethren. Also, she knows her foxhounds: I’m on the page of dogs that don’t bark.
    So there.
    Checking out the inside of the UK edition on emilygravett.com, I noticed that the language of one spread was changed for the U.S. market from “stroppy” (scary bulldog) and “soppy” (puffball). Good move. Good book!

Ring in Spring with Butterflies!

Have you laid your eyes on anything more beautiful than this lovely spring wreath? It's the newest DIY creation from Elsie Flannigan of A Beautiful Mess. This is a simple project, a yarn wrapped, butterfly adorned masterpiece! Check out all the instructions and other lovely projects here!

Happy Springtime crafting!!!

Ring in Spring with Butterflies!

Have you laid your eyes on anything more beautiful than this lovely spring wreath? It's the newest DIY creation from Elsie Flannigan of A Beautiful Mess. This is a simple project, a yarn wrapped, butterfly adorned masterpiece! Check out all the instructions and other lovely projects here!

Happy Springtime crafting!!!

Digital Bridges Event

Tomorrow is the big day, our Digital Bridges awareness event is finally here! The semester is flying by and my PR campaigns group has been planning for several weeks. We took on this campaign as an assignment for our class and it has been great experience for a great organization. Digital Bridges, along with The Knight Foundation and Georgia College & State University, is a citizen led initiative involving the innovative uses of technology to improve the quality of life of the Milledgeville community. Our group will have a station set up at the Milledgeville Mall tomorrow morning/afternoon to inform consumers about what Digital Bridges is all about. Everyone has put a lot of hard work into making this all come together so we're keeping our fingers crossed for the best! A blog post with results is up next...Wish us luck!

Digital Bridges Event

Tomorrow is the big day, our Digital Bridges awareness event is finally here! The semester is flying by and my PR campaigns group has been planning for several weeks. We took on this campaign as an assignment for our class and it has been great experience for a great organization. Digital Bridges, along with The Knight Foundation and Georgia College & State University, is a citizen led initiative involving the innovative uses of technology to improve the quality of life of the Milledgeville community. Our group will have a station set up at the Milledgeville Mall tomorrow morning/afternoon to inform consumers about what Digital Bridges is all about. Everyone has put a lot of hard work into making this all come together so we're keeping our fingers crossed for the best! A blog post with results is up next...Wish us luck!

Internship Time!

It's that time of year again...everyone is on the hunt for the perfect internship. My classmates are interviewing all over the place - some in Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Eatonton, Georgia. With that being said, I've decided to stay in Milledgeville and get some local experience and I couldn't be more excited. I'm so happy to report that my internship will be at the Milledgeville Baldwin County Convention and Visitors Bureau. I have a friend who interned for the CVB last summer and had an awesome experience so she led me to this great opportunity....I'm so grateful! The visitors center is super busy and focused on tourism in the Milledgeville community, always trying to get travelers to explore this "old south" town. Please take a minute to visit the CVB's website (www.milledgevillecvb.com) to discover everything Milledgeville has to offer...especially if you're looking for a charming antebellum getaway. I had no idea how much is out there that I should take advantage of before I graduate!

Internship Time!

It's that time of year again...everyone is on the hunt for the perfect internship. My classmates are interviewing all over the place - some in Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Eatonton, Georgia. With that being said, I've decided to stay in Milledgeville and get some local experience and I couldn't be more excited. I'm so happy to report that my internship will be at the Milledgeville Baldwin County Convention and Visitors Bureau. I have a friend who interned for the CVB last summer and had an awesome experience so she led me to this great opportunity....I'm so grateful! The visitors center is super busy and focused on tourism in the Milledgeville community, always trying to get travelers to explore this "old south" town. Please take a minute to visit the CVB's website (www.milledgevillecvb.com) to discover everything Milledgeville has to offer...especially if you're looking for a charming antebellum getaway. I had no idea how much is out there that I should take advantage of before I graduate!

Obama’s Muslim Political Correctness Doctrine; Where’s The Purple Hearts For Fort Hood Hero’s?

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/02/24/ft-hood-attack-publicly-called-terrorism/?test=latestnews
After four (4) MONTHS of hiding behind Obama’s Muslim Political Correctness Doctrine -- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano (who wouldn’t say "terrorist" for her first year in office) has finally become the first Obama Administration official to publicly describe last year's deadly shootings at Ft. Hood, Tex., as a terrorist act.
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During the Senate hearing on Wednesday morning, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the Homeland Security Committee's chairman, called the administration's "reluctance" to use terms such as "Islamist extremism" or "Muslim terrorist" a "pet peeve of mine."
Lieberman asked Napolitano: "Has the administration made a decision to avoid any public reference to 'violent Islamist extremism' or 'Muslim terrorists'?"
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Now, after four months of hiding what everyone knew after the first week, where are the Purple Hearts for the Killed and Wounded Veterans at Fort Hood who deserve the distinction and recognition of combat service wounds having given their blood and life and health for their country.
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Just more hope and change we can believe in!
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Links to the ongoing and disgraceful Obama Muslim Political Correctness Doctrine
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Purple Hearts for Wounded Veterans at Fort Hood
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/11/purple-hearts-for-wounded-veterans-at.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/11/terrorism-heroism-at-ft-hood.html
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Radical Muslim Terrorists in US Military
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/11/radical-muslim-terrorists-in-us.html
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Obama Team Still Not Terrorist Ready
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-team-still-not-terrorist-ready.html
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Obama: Can You Say “Terrorist”?
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/12/obama-can-you-say-terrorist.html
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Our third session in Second Life.. a visit to the Alhambra!!!

Last Wednesday was a fun day... we visited the Alhambra in Secondlife. According to Wikipedia...

The Alhambra (Arabic: الْحَمْرَاء‎, Al-Ḥamrā' , literally "the red one"), the complete form of which was Calat Alhambra (الْقَلْعَةُ ٱلْحَمْرَاءُ, Al-Qal'at al-Ḥamrā' , "the red fortress"), is a palace and fortress complex constructed during the mid 14th century by the Moorish rulers of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus, occupying a hilly terrace on the southeastern border of the city of Granada, now in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain.
Once the residence of the Muslim rulers of Granada and their court, the site became a Christian palace. Within the Alhambra, the Palace of Charles V was erected by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, in 1527. After being allowed to fall into disrepair, the Alhambra was "rediscovered" in the 19th century. It is now one of Spain's major tourist attractions and exhibits the country's most famous Islamic architecture, together with Christian 16th-century and later interventions in buildings and gardens.

These are some photos we have taken of our trips in second life.....


Encuentra más fotos como esta en thekatamy

To visit the Alhambra in Secondlife just click here. If you want to visit the alhambra in SL.. you can try this exercise designed by la profesora... Amy Fullerton.

Alhambra Activity:

Go to the Alhambra using the link provided in your note card. While you are looking at the architecture and the paintings discuss your favorite areas.  Don’t for get to look up!  Explore the space and complete the following activities.  (This may be divided into multiple sessions)

1.    Find the “tienda” (shop) that sells belly-dancing outfits and use the dance balls located there. Take a video or picture.
2.    Find the “patio de los leones” and take a picture of your group there (one picture per group).
3.    Go to the market place in the city and take a picture of your favorite items there (one for each member of your group).
5.    Find the mosque.  Get the information (on the “I” sign) and follow the directions to enter the mosque.  Spend sometime there discussing the Moorish architecture.
6.    Find the Arabian bathhouse or the Arabian teahouse.  Have a coffee or a dip and talk with your friends.  You may refer to your history notecard on the Alhambra and discuss the things you learned and saw.
7.    ***Optional: If you would like, purchase a flamenco outfit (this costs money) for our party later on at the end of the project. 
This is what Daniela share with us...To follow her adventures in SL, visit her blog...Danik100...

There are still more adventures to come... hope you can all join us... remember we are getting together from Monday to Thursday. 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Keep on shining Love and Peace

Source

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Image: Ladron de Agua

Unplugging: it's healthy!

Ever want your folks to stop working on the computer? Sparky had a great technique: first, he'd stick his nose under the keyboardists' right arm, giving it a gentle upwards bump. He'd leave it alone for a few minutes, then come back and re-bump, this time a little more forcefully. Then, when he was thoroughly annoyed and past ready to go for a walk, he'd bonk the arm so hard it would fly off the keyboard, and continue this behavior until the typist relented out of the sheer impossibility of doing any more work, got out the leash and went for a good long walk.

This gentle yet effective escalation is too subtle for me, the redneck hound. Here's my technique: without any warning at all, I spring from the doorway and launch myself, missile-like, at the typist. Sometimes this results in the typist and chair being knocked over. It sometimes results in bruises on said beloved typist. It always, however, results in me going for a walk. Of course, not if it's raining. But that's my call, too.

It's a bit like my sister's technique of screaming, "Mommy, stop working!" while Mom, on the phone, was trying to work from home. Brutal, yet so effective.

What's your avatar name?

Hostess Gifts from Fred Flare!

Hostess gifts are something I want to start bringing to the get-togethers that I attend. Just a nice way to say thank you. Thank you for cleaning your home just for me, thank you for slaving over a delicious meal, thank you for the handmade origami crane decorations...I noticed all of that....and it meant a a lot! Plus searching out adorable hostess gifts is just another excuse to shop and purchase! Or you could always make a sweet little something wether it be in the kitchen or in your craft room!....and that's just another excuse to create!

1. ice cream kitchen timer. Everyone needs a kitchen timer for eggs or tea, why not have one that looks like icecream?

2. 5 minute candle pack. Handy for the all the time party maker to have in her purse. A birthday candle match book....perfect!

3. Yes, these adorable ladies are indeed umbrellas! You may not need umbrellas while you are entertaining in your home but those flowers are not going to pick themselves up from the florist rain or shine just in time for the big event!

Find these and other perfect hostess gifts at Fred Flare!

Hostess Gifts from Fred Flare!

Hostess gifts are something I want to start bringing to the get-togethers that I attend. Just a nice way to say thank you. Thank you for cleaning your home just for me, thank you for slaving over a delicious meal, thank you for the handmade origami crane decorations...I noticed all of that....and it meant a a lot! Plus searching out adorable hostess gifts is just another excuse to shop and purchase! Or you could always make a sweet little something wether it be in the kitchen or in your craft room!....and that's just another excuse to create!

1. ice cream kitchen timer. Everyone needs a kitchen timer for eggs or tea, why not have one that looks like icecream?

2. 5 minute candle pack. Handy for the all the time party maker to have in her purse. A birthday candle match book....perfect!

3. Yes, these adorable ladies are indeed umbrellas! You may not need umbrellas while you are entertaining in your home but those flowers are not going to pick themselves up from the florist rain or shine just in time for the big event!

Find these and other perfect hostess gifts at Fred Flare!

Roanoke Times Global Warming Omissions

Roanoke Times, 2-23-10, Pg 3: Senators insist EPA lacks regulatory power
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Roanoke Times,2-21-10, Pg Horiz 2: Editorial: Virginia’s attorney general and governor fight the fight against global warming. “We just can’t have global warming in Virginia”.
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Two days after their big editorial lambasting Va. Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli’s legal challenge to the EPA’s unwarranted and unconstitutional move to control CO2 and therefore all carbon based fuels in the US, the editors of the Roanoke Times omitted two key words in their heading: “Senators insist EPA lacks regulatory power to regulate pollution”.
Those two words are DEMOCRAT and CO2!
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One has to read the fine print in the article to find out that eight (8) Democrat senators are challenging the EPA’s authority to regulate CO2.
Eight Democrats – what’s with that?
And doesn't this make Va AG Cuccinelli in the main stream of reasoned thought in opposing Obama’s Cap&Tax and end run around the Congress with his CO2 jihad?
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The Roanoke Times continues the liberal global warming media slant, propaganda and double-speak at every opportunity. Questioning the IPCC-Gore-Hypothesis and alarmism is not just a Republican view and CO2 has not and is not by law defined to be "pollution". In fact CO2 is the primary component of our breath and is the gas that plants breathe in to live. Many greenhouses use CO2 generators to improve plant growth and health.
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Significant recent natural global warming items:
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Roanoke Times Global Warming Double-speak & ClimateGate DoOver
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/roanoke-times-global-warming-double.html
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Roanoke Times And The Sound of Global Warming Silence
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/roanoke-times-and-sound-of-silence.html
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Obama ClimateGates And Snow Jobs
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/obama-climategates-and-snow-jobs.html
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Shoveling Global Warming Frigid Storms
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/shoveling-global-warming-frigid-storms.html
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ClimateGate GlacierGate OzoneGate And The EcoScientists
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/glimategate-glaciergate-ozonegate-and.html
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http://www.roanokeslant.org/GlobalWarmingThoughts/
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Dave Cawley on "New Fist of Fury"

"A man should shed blood, not tears."
- David Cawley
(after watching "Marley and Me" but a code of honor applicable to all martial arts movies, as well)

I promised Dave Cawley I'd reprint his "Tightwad Video Guide" to neglected classics of the martial arts. No one knows kung-fu fooey like Dave Cawley and no one loves New Fist of Fury, the 1976 Jackie Chan remake of the 1972 Bruce Lee classic The Chinese Connection (aka in Hong Kong as Fist of Fury - but not to be confused with Fists of Fury) more than Dave Cawley. And, not to be outdone in his love of fisting, no one loves the 1994 Jet Li remake called Fist of Legend more than Dave Cawley - but that one came out after his '92 review and, so, from Skizz Cyzyk's legendary COUNTEROID Fanzine, I give you Dave Cawley's two-fisted review of the film men like to call...:

New Fist of Fury
"Tightwad Video Guide" column
COUNTEROID Fanzine (1992)

Roanoke Times Global Warming Double-speak & ClimateGate DoOver

Roanoke Times, 2-19-10, Pg 4: Growing list (of states) challenging EPS’s pollution (climate change) claims.
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Roanoke Times,2-21-10, Pg Horiz 2: Editorial: Virginia’s attorney general and governor fight the fight against global warming. “We just can’t have global warming in Virginia”.
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In Orwell’s book 1984, double-speak was employed by the central government and their media outlets as a population thought-control method. This method is being used now by the global warming and climate change alarmists and associates.
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An example of current double-speak is the editors of the Roanoke Times who just will not separate the concept of Natural Global Warming from Man-made Global Warming. If there’s global warming it must be man-made because that’s the only kind there is!
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Apparently the Medieval Warm Period must have been caused by surfs and native peoples burning wood or something; to say nothing of the many massive warming and cooling periods during the past million years.
Have the editors not taken a basic course in earth science in middle-school?
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The climate is changing! The climate has always been changing!
Sixteen thousand years ago the Atlantic Ocean was 400 feet lower than it is today and the Outer Banks were out at the continental shelf, 50 miles east of Duck, N.C..
The Chesapeake Bay was a big fresh water lake and not part of the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently the oceans have been raising a lot for a long period of time!
The northern hemisphere land-based glaciers have been in major retreat since 1750, long before there was any significant man-made anything!
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The little ice age ended in 1750 and the earth entered into our current 250 years of natural global warming that involves considerable amounts of natural variations. These variations appear like the 35 years of significant cooling from 1940 to 1975; and our last 10 years of no significant temperature change. There has been less than one degree warming in the past 100 years, hardly a reason for alarmists to spread panic and there is no proof that the one degree change was your fault.
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Based on the recent exposures of ClimateGate malfeasance and data manipulation by many of the so called scientists involved in the IPCC-Gore-Hypothesis Hysteria, the liberal media is panicked by the lack of public support for draconian government programs to make massive changes to our energy systems that will kill many US jobs and force major increases in the cost of energy for businesses and consumers.
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It is past time for the alarmists to make all the tax payer funded data and data analysis public and place that data in publicly available systems. They should enter into professional dialogue with others to determine the level of uncertainty in the IPCC-Gore-Hypothesis so that the people and the governments can make intelligent and informed decisions based on valid facts and not politics or man-made manipulated data.
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Based on the current scientific and political situation, ConocoPhillips, BP America and Caterpillar (three companies that have significant investment in alternative energy systems) have announced they will pull out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, citing complaints that the bills now in Congress are unfair to American industry.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/02/16/major-firms-pull-climate-change-alliance/
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Yvo de Boer, the top U.N. climate change official, is resigning after the exposure of multiple major ClimateGate issues and the complete breakdown of the Copenhagen gathering of international alarmists and pan-handlers.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/18/climate-official-yvo-boer-resigning/
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Breaking News 2-23-10
Britain’s Weather Office Proposes Climate-Gate Do-Over
At a meeting Monday of 150 climate scientists, representatives of Britain's weather office proposed that the world's climatologists start all over again and produce a new trove of global temperature data that is open to public scrutiny and "rigorous" peer review.
http://www.hmsweather.com/britains-weather-office-proposes-climate-gate-do-over-fox-news.htm
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Additional Breaking New 2-23-10
EXCLUSIVE: U.N. Climate Panel to Announce Significant Changes
In the wake of its swift and devastating fall from grace, the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) says it will announce "within the next few days" plans to make significant changes in how it does business.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/24/exclusive-climate-panel-announce-significant-changes/?test=latestnews
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Significant recent items addressing the issues the media refuses to cover:
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Roanoke Times And The Sound of Silence
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/roanoke-times-and-sound-of-silence.html
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Obama ClimateGates And Snow Jobs
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/obama-climategates-and-snow-jobs.html
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Shoveling Global Warming Frigid Storms
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/shoveling-global-warming-frigid-storms.html
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ClimateGate GlacierGate OzoneGate And The EcoScientists
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/glimategate-glaciergate-ozonegate-and.html
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http://www.roanokeslant.org/GlobalWarmingThoughts/
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The Roanoke Times Climate Scientist
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/04/roanoke-times-climate-scientist.html
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Ski trip snapshots

We just got back from a week of cross-country skiing at Yellowstone. We did a lot of slow, easy skiing and exploring the park. Here are a few snapshots.One a long day (out for 6.5 hours) we stopped for lunch at Lone Star Geyser. Our timing was perfect. Within 5 minutes of stopping, the geyser erupted. We had the whole are to ourselves and were able to enjoy the show - a good 15 minutes of

Obamas-GM Government Motors: An Introduction to Fascism

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Definition: Fascism: an authoritarian hierarchical government (as opposed to democracy or liberalism) that historically focused on government-run industry and minimization of profit-driven competitive systems.
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/06/name-new-american-system.html
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Roanoke Times, 2-19-10, Pg 7: Toyota chief to testify before Congress
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Now that they own and control (with taxpayer money) Government Motors (GM); Obama and the Democrats have a keen new-found interest in Toyota customer complaints and recalls.
This is very interesting since according to NHTSA spokeswoman Olivia Alair, there were 30,000 customer complaints to Obama’s NHTSA in his first year in office 2009. What happened to all these complaints? Apparently Obama didn’t want to disturb the Government Motors and Government UAW at the time he was nationalizing them with $50-BILLION dollars of tax payer money!
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Now Obama’s Democrat cronies in Congress (who are the virtual board of directors of the Government Motors Company) are jumping on Toyota with show-trial hearings without ever looking at or holding hearings on the 30,000 complaints that are primarily focused on US vehicles.
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The Auto Scoreboard (www.myCarStats.com) for twenty years, 1990 -2010, shows comparable data for Chevrolet with 68,301 customer complaints, more than two times greater than Toyota’s 29,803 complaints. Chevrolet also had three times more recalls than Toyota.
But there’s no need for a Congressional hearing for Chevrolet, a key component of Government Motors.
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This is clearly the coming attractions for government control of our health systems in which Obama and associates are and have been demonizing all the private enterprise components of our health systems that are clearly the best in the world but are not yet government owned and run.
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Just more hope and change we can believe in!
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CLICK TO ENLARGE:
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/obamas-government-motors-gm-propaganda.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/obama-gm-ceo-and-major-conflicts-of.html
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The nose-bump: a sign of affection

Nose-bumped my sister awake this a.m. to welcome her home. She didn't mind, having missed me terribly during her college sojourn. Wonder if admissions would consider my application? Then again, I'm probably overqualified, being so scholarly.

The nose-bump, in case, Dear Reader, you are not familiar with this move, is a form of greeting that is at once enthusiastic, loving, and, shall we say, in your face. It works like this: home in on your beloved's face from a distance of about two feet, quickly, steadily and without any loss of momentum, until you bonk it directly nose-to-nose, leaving the bestowed-upon bumper slightly dazed, face moist, and unbearably happy.

Blue skies, baying, and bluebirds

Felt slightly Thoreauvian this a.m. during my constitutional around Lake Waban. The chickadees were cee-dee-deeing and fee-baying, the cardinals were whistling and adding a red jolt of color to match the fire hydrants on the Wellesley campus. The pond, snowy, is beginning to open up on the edges, yet the ice fisherman persist. The part that reminded me of Thoreau was the rumble of the train in the near distance, much like the train that disturbed Henry at Walden Pond. It all was lovely.

So I went home and consulted his journal for Feb. 20, 1859: "It is a warm west wind and a remarkably soft sky, like plush; perhaps a lingering moisture there. What a reve[la]tion the blue and the bright tints in the west again, after the storm and darkness! It is the opening of the windows of heaven after the flood." Later, Henry reports that a boy in Concord saw a bluebird on this day, 150 years ago.

Even better, on Jan. 20, 1855, Henry writes of something even more lovely:
"Very musical and even sweet now, like a horn, is the hounding of a foxhound heard now in some distant wood, while I stand listening in some far solitary and silent field." Music to my ears, too, Henry!

Obama Buying Votes With Tax Dollars

Roanoke Times, 2-20-10, Pg 3: Obama stumps for Reid in Nevada
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Obama’s policies and personal charm and charisma didn’t help Deeds-Va, Corzine-NJ or Coakley-Mass get elected; so now he’s in Nevada handing out $1.5 BILLON of tax payer money to get his Senate buddy Harry Reid reelected.
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Obama has shown once again that he is truly America’s Evita Peron!
Handing out tax payers’ money on the streets to buy favoritism and votes as if it’s monopoly money.
It’s our real tax money – STUPID!
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Where is the liberal media outrage? Just reflect on the pages of coverage in the Roanoke Times about the Gate City Elections in which a very-small town incumbent bought a hand full of votes with cigarettes, liquor and cash from his own pocket.
But now, nary a discouraging word about Obama’s gross handouts of $1.5 BILLION of our tax money for votes.
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Our media have become just a sad sack of biased and partisan hacks carrying water and what-ever for Obama and his cronies. What a sad state of the 4th estate!
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Just more hope and change we can believe in!
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/obama-jobs-and-tax-and-spend.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/01/yet-more-roanoke-times-petty-bias-and.html
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http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2009/09/get-roanoke-times-for-latest-political.html
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Definition of handsome

I don’t really need spectacles to look professorial. When I first moved to Wellesley, and was duly shown off to everyone, one of Mom’s colleagues said I looked just like Dad.

Dad should have been flattered, especially as he has compared himself to Tramp, the good-hearted scamp, and Mom to Lady, the refined purebred, in that famous Disney pic. Someone had given my sister the movie-based book when she was a baby and my family read it over, and over, and over. That spaghetti scene sure was a winner. “He wasn’t really handsome….but she loved him just the same.” Dad was being humble. I, like Dad, am plenty handsome.

Anyway, apparently I not only look the part of an educator, but actually am considered one. The difference between obstinate and stubborn? Someone in the Philippines searched, and presumably found out, from this blog. Try Googling, and I’m the first result, the go-to guy for definitions, at least the trickier ones.

Just a few examples of the answers people seek that lead them to land on my blog:

Difference between obstinate and obdurate? Difference between obstinate and stubborn? Substantive vs. substantial? Apparently, being both substantive and substantial, I’m the hound to ask.

Origin of obstinate? (via Starke, Fla., and Dallas, TX—do they know each other?) Example of things that are obstinate? (bet Milwaukee, WI learned that definition well) English word for “moi au contraire”? (Bridgeton, Saint Michael, which is in Barbados!)

One attention-getting visitor locale was Wasilla, Alaska—yes, that Wasilla. Not sure how that reader came to Dreams du Dog.  Perhaps she was looking to me to define “book censorship?”

Look What They've Done To My Song

The 40 Coolest Cover Versions of All Time
City Paper, May 27, 1988

An incredibly dated piece on cover songs I wrote for the City Paper back in 1988 when these things were released on petroleum-based black plastic-with-a-hole-in-the-middle that we called "vinyl." Scanned in from the Xerox archives (because I can't find the original, yellowing newsprint version!). So, squint - and sing - along with me!

Roanoke Unhealthy

Roanoke Times, 2-18-10, Pg 11: Roanoke rated unhealthiest in region

A report on localities looked at resources and life expectancy in a first-of-its-kind ranking. Roanoke is surrounded by localities that are significantly healthier.
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Yet another interesting study of statistical analysis. The most cogent quote in the article is by Dr Jody Hershey, health director of the New River Health District who cautioned that the rankings, while helpful, are just a snapshot of a very complex situation. He said health outcomes are based on combinations of environmental, genetic, behavioral, economic, educational and access to care.
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The following link highlights a number of “news” articles that have been Promoting Faulty Cause And Effect Data:
http://roanokeslant.blogspot.com/2010/02/promoting-faulty-cause-and-effect-data.html

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The attached graphic shows some of the data in this RT article plotted as Health Outcomes as a function of distance from the Roanoke Times.
One might conclude, based on this graph, that living close to the Roanoke Times is very bad for your health.

People are dying! Looks like a study is warranted and soon!
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Click to enlarge
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