UConn James

Heaven is where you meet all the dogs you ever loved. amiright?!?

My cousin has a thing where he put up two 3/4 steel pipes and a horizontal section connecting them, then runs string down from that. As the tomatoes climb, he attaches a plastic clip to the stem. I dunno. I'm sticking with the cages. The thing for tomatoes is to pinch off some of the lower leaves and plant them deep and they'll root out to get the plant more water and nutrients. Gotta pinch the "suckers" as they appear, and remove fruit that's not developing right. My garden's really taking off. ~8x30 with squash, cukes & pole beans on a firm trellis (the storms knocked me down several times last year (the tornado passed about 10 miles north of us). Poured some concrete in buckets with a hole through it and got 10' metal poles this year. If this thing gets knocked over, losing a few veggies won't be our biggest problem), bell peppers, kale, beets, dill, Swiss chard, sunflowers, and trying garlic for the first time. Nice weather for it here in CT so far. Have to cut down a smallish oak that's now starting to block the morning sun....

Maybe we can get debt forgiveness from the same countries we've done that for time and time and time again. Oh wait. That's different.

Well, maybe if the biggest spender in world history weren't part of taxing the private sector to death.... Watching David Starkey's "Monarchy" series really opens ones' eyes up to how little anything has really changed WRT government, taxation, polling/unpopularity/opposition rising up, thirst for power and money.... Different faces, different places, but the song remains the same.

What I may remember most about last night was a palpable level of phony-ism. All the "Thank you, Jesus!" and the like... and then the slip-up moment where he says the weather gear he had to wear he felt like a "jerk-off" before he caught what he said and tried to soften it. And then back to the Jesus stuff. The over-hyping of this reached new heights of futility. It was like an hour and a half of happy-talk like when the local station has a minute to fill at the end of the newscast, and 30 minutes where something actually happened, tho with all of the drama sucked out of it. And I'm sorry, but his family was Stepford-like.

Not necessarily an inconsistency. SPOILER MATERIAL yellow-fonted. Highlight to read. The Promethean beings told the humans they contacted that this was where they were from, and ostensibly provided the graphic placement of the stars... since those humans sure didn't have the technology to see them. Then, when Earth's people were advanced enough, and curious enough to gamble going there.... When it drank that stuff, it was committing suicide; if the opening is Earth and the creation moment/injection of DNA, was the "Prometheus" a criminal/undesirable of some sort? Was it being hunted by its own kind, determined to wipe out all existence of it and its progeny? But if that were the case, why wouldn't the visitors just annihilate early man with their ooze? (Then again... what that stuff did was create a totally disgusting other being.) Which pretty much brings me to the idea that it was an experiment by the Promethean beings, at the end of which the task was to exterminate the subjects. I don't have a problem with Charlize Theron or the character. She's a control freak of the first order, following the whims of her father. She'd stop it if she could, but for all her control freakiness, as the story goes for those types of people, the core of the psychology is she really has very little power. You'll remember that she uses the analogy of a king dying and leaving the kingdom to his children. She was the princess who was always kept from becoming queen. Note that the ship captain asked her whether she was a robot (like David). Have to tell ya, I watched it through, up until that separate pod conversation with her father, with that in mind. That little bit of David wearing a spacesuit to keep up appearances really had me thinking that the special surgery thing was to cover that she was a robot too. Having never seen the Alien series, only the vague images I've happened to see over the years, I have to say that this stood up fairly well on its own. I guess I'll be checking out Ellen Ripley soon enough.

Some people may find it macabre. And that's fine, it is a little macabre. But, having watched David Starkey's "Monarchy" series just recently, it's not dissimilar to how important kingly succession was in the medieval era. If the king dies without an heir, history showed this led to a LOT of stupid bloodshed from within (and from without, for enemies who attacked during a time of disarray) by warring elements of the people who could pay for the biggest army. Likewise, Ralph has named no successor... just leaving it to the several groups of rich people to duke it out with $ rather than swords. A king was not a good king who didn't provide for the continuity / stability of his people in the event of his death and to have this planned well beforehand and as common knowledge. You can attack this parallel, you can say that there's a secret plan, you can say that's just how it happens sometimes.... But the truth of it is that in the measure of things, Ralph has failed the fans in this regard. At his age, one thinks about a legacy and what will be thought of you when you're no longer here. Yep, he was part of the early league, kept the team here while he was alive and did quite a bit of good for the community. But will that impression of the man last long after he's gone? If he provided a solid future, he would be SAINTED. If the Bills leave through this, he's going to be looked at as little better than Art Modell.

Does that matter? IIRC, SJ was well out of bounds when he flashed his "HAPPY NEW YEAR!" message, got flagged and was pulled from the Pats* game.

IIRC, the NYT is cutting down to 10 per month. Their model is what has started to propel all this at faster than the snail's pace. Gotta agree with Kelly about a sports-only subscription for out-of-town fans, but I'm not sure how feasible that is WRT making a special/partial access parameter for just one section. I'm not sure how much it would entail to create such an option. You don't ask the supermarket to remove half the loaf of bread b/c that's all you'll need. It will probably remain an all-or-nothing proposition, as Sports is one of the most popular sections; if people want it, they'll pay for it.

You've obviously never been to Connecticut....

OTOH, unpopular columnists face a lot more pressure when revenue is less dependent on advertising and more on subscribers. To wit, a columnist in the Hartford Courant, who wrote social commentary in the main section and is just to the political left of Karl Marx, last week was finally handed her hat. So... there's that. Don't like him? It's the same with Internet trolls --- don't read him, and don't respond to his stupid crap. The paper's metrics on customer choice of articles will catch up to him.

An expanded football program that could get in on a new downtown stadium (or even nudged over to Niagra Falls) would be the dream scenario b/w the two. Not going to happen in the near future. It'll take the next owner to decide on whether, where and how to build a new stadium. And I don't envy the amount of tonnage it'll take for him/her/them to do to see it through among the numerous levels of government in NY and groups that want their say. Ninety-something-year-olds don't routinely go building new houses. At best, they paint. Which is essentially what Ralph is going for.

I think this is essentially what's going to happen industry-wide (among bigger papers). Print editions available on Sundays when people have time to sit down, and digital-only through the week. The NYT instituted that Sunday-only still gets the digital package free, which is referred to in the biz as the 'Frank Rich Discount.' With all the adverts, Sunday is their cash cow. It would be nice if our Hartford Courant would offer the same terms as the bolded section. We get home delivery (sporadic at best Monday-Wednesday but then again, the paper has been cut about 10 pages on those days ) but, last I looked, they were charging for the e-paper even for print subscribers. And despite saving them material costs (paper and ink are hella-expensive), production costs and delivery costs... the e-paper is $2.50/week. After a standard discount (basically, call them up and say you're going to cancel unless ...) home delivery of a physical paper is $1.75 per week. Explain that, please! Add to it that there's no accessibility for the iPad, and the interface for it on the PC is beyond stevestojan.

NYPost: Holder's Last Days? Contempt of Congress vote has been scheduled for next week, barring the release of subpoenaed documents that DOJ has been fighting tooth and nail to keep to themselves, showing that the highest level officials knew about and/or championed "Fast and Furious / Gunwalker" prior to February, contrary to Holder's sworn testimony. Not one part of the administration's actions in this whole mess is without shame. Much further than that, tho --- treasonous.

Barring a miracle....

Damn!!! $68 for +- 30 pounds.... Dogfoodadvisor has it as a five-star. I love my dog, but at those prices, I need something more than a wet nose in my face in the morning. As above, we go with AvoDerm and yeah, you notice a big change in BMs. Our previous guys (also German shorthaired pointers) were on the Big bag of Purina from Sam's because I just didn't put much mind to it back then... and they were usually pretty loose and they had some skin/coat issues. Now I understand why The corn industry has a lot of clout and a lot of product that they want to get rid of, and they'll do it cheap. Unfortunately, many dogs don't react well to corn and it's just junk for their bodies. Anyway, we also supplement with leftover boiled potatoes, some carrots (he loves em!), eggs, drippings/fat from meats, and occasionally put a can of anchovies in there instead of the can mix. Love the standard poodles. Was looking at one b/c of allergies WRT hair shedding/dust, but I was outvoted for our current rascal. Been meaning to get some video of him now that we got this iPad, just haven't gotten around to it....

What brand do you use? We went to AvoDerm Naturals awhile back. No corn filler. Rated four stars on dogfoodadvisor.com. it's $39.99 for 26 pounds @ Petsmart ($13 cheaper per bag than at Petco ).

Geez, when they try to sing falsetto I can't make out a flipping' word of what they're saying. I'm just getting vague intimations of lyrics. And the stress on the forced pitch makes the vocalization sound terrible. Not many guys can pull that off and sound good --- Plant and Jeff Buckley are the only ones I can think of. Seriously, leave the high notes for women. On a side note: I'm still feeling out Melody Gardot's latest. I've heard critics say that you have to listen to an album anywhere from 10 to 20 times before you can really say an album is good... so I'll give it more play. Love the "Amalia" track but the Afro-Caribbean style on much of the rest is a little... I don't know. Then again I didn't like Paul Simon's "Graceland" at first blush and now it's a regular rotation. [shrug]

A UConn football player, Jasper Howard, was stabbed to death outside of the student union a couple-few years ago. Also a comment about a woman... one that neither group knew. It seems as if the killer took more offense to a comment that was made than the girl did / he wanted to prove how dedicated to this girl he was so maybe she'd $)&@ him or something... whatever...he and his friends went to their car to get the knives and such, and a few minutes later a star CB was dying in the arms of the place kicker. All because people can't just let anything go these days. Gotta escalate everything. The black-on-black violence doesn't magically stop when these kids set foot on a campus. This stabbing happened about 200 yards from the UConn PD. People can fool themselves into thinking that more cops is the answer, but until we have teleporters, police are still going to be minutes away when every second counts. Just because some people are idiots and criminals doesn't mean law-abiding gun owners should have to concede one iota of their Second Amendment rights.

This is always an impossible question due to the specialty requirements over such a broad range of sport. 'They' say that the toughest/fittest pure athletes are swimmers. Michael Phelps merits consideration. Also have to give some props to Carl Lewis and Hershel Walker, who did multiple events and even multiple sports (Walker competed in bobsled in the Olympics ~ 10 years after football). But for my money, a guy who is fit, fast, powerful, dedication to training regimen, mental toughness, and has supreme hand-eye coordination to go with superior feel for placement of a ball or what have you.... I'd have to go with Raphael Nadal. Watching right now, and he's basically owning Djokovich, running down stuff that just looks like there's no way anyone could get there in time... and then to make down-the-line perfect shots on top of it? As more stuff comes out about concussions and such from contact sports, I find myself more comfortable being a fan of ones that aren't about legitimized bodily violence. I like football, and recognize that these guys play by their own choice and that ordinary people take risks on their jobs (I'm in construction) but the Junior Seau thing was perhaps the tipping-point eye opener for this generation of fans. Is beating each other up really a sport? [shrug]

Don't quite get the folks that are intimating that learning 6-8 plays of offense is going to irreparably harm the kid's development at CB. This would not be an instance of having to learn the entire offense. It's merely using a body with certain physical skills to achieve a certain objective for, at most, once or twice a game. Billicheat surely doesn't quibble with all this crap... DEs as FBs, WRs as CBs. If a guy can do it, it's an option. McGee returned KOs from the get-go, did that hinder him? You've gotta maximize the resources when you've only got 53 guys. Learning from the offensive side might also help him on the defense of it. Just sayin'. Nor do I get the people arguing that it would increase his chance of injury, as if NFL players must be preserved in Tupperware. Go by the number of snaps a guy's taken or whether he feels up to it, but don't EVER say 'Oh, let's save him for exclusive use at CB' as if that's going to guarantee anything. Injuries happen; you can't live your life based on the fear of them or keep a dude on the bench and use someone who's not as good because you can 'afford to lose' a lesser player.

Watched "Mozart's Sister" (2011) after seeing it on Roger Ebert's daily streamer list a while back. Gotta say that Marie Feret is a really, really pretty girl. (Not saying this in that way, just to be sure.) For those who appreciate costume drama and historic settings, this doesn't disappoint.

It smacks of Reverend Lovejoy loudly chiding his huge dog for pooping on Ned Flanders' lawn, while whispering for him not to stop. Anything that distracts from the economy, jobs and deficit/debt... Barry's all over it.

Question... at the current rate of progress, how many more seasons is this going to be on? Really like Peter Dinklage's portrayal. Haven't read the books either, but it's something I might get around to. Still, there's a whole 'I don't want to spoil the show' factor there that's the corollary to the old complaint.... Despite my academic achievements (3.9 GPA, Phi Beta Kappa) I am a really slow reader. Might put it on my iPad and run the text-to-audio thing while I'm washing dishes and such.