Open Thread – Threefer of Brians
Here’s a threefer of Brians to start your weekend! I took this picture a while ago, but a good gathering of bachelor moose never seems to go out of style. There were actually three more of them out of the frame. I’m not sure what cosmic occurance transpired that brought them all together in my yard, but I didn’t look a gift moose (or six) in the mouth. I just grabbed the camera and snapped away from the safety of my car. Enjoy!
Nice picture – animals know when hunting season opens – they hang close to humans in order to survive another year.
Here’s an interesting video about the Emergency Manager legislation passed in Michigan and how it’s affected Detroit. For those of you not familiar with this legislation, it allows the Governor to determine that a municipality is in a financial emergency and appoint an Emergency Manager who has almost unlimited authority with no one to answer to except the governor. The EMs are allowed to dismiss elected officials, close schools, cancel public contracts, sell public assets and even dissolve municipalities completely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mY0aG16aac&feature=player_embedded
Benton Harbor is a small city located on the shores of Lake Michigan, between two wealthier cities. It’s been taken over by an EM who wasted no time in taking care of nearby rich corporations. A waterfront park was deeded to the city in 1917 by a couple in honor of their daughter who died as a child.
“Jean Klock Park, the city’s public lakefront, has been leased to a non-profit associated with the locally headquartered Whirlpool Corp. and turned into an elite private golf course.”
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/16-12
Rachael Maddow did some excellent segments on this law back in March and April. If you missed them, it’s well worth looking them up. This may very well be the future of more states if we don’t fight back against radical right wing Republican governors and local legislators. I do believe that Wisconsin’s Scott Walker is taking very careful notes on what is happening in Michigan and I doubt he’s alone.
Oops, sorry..the video features what’s happened in Pontiac as well as Detroit.
I,the world traveller,spent part of two days in John Wayne’s hometown of Waterloo.Iowa. did not encounter Michele Bachmann-Gacy while I was there. Did not encounter any John Wayne memorabilia either. I don’t understand why Waterloo wouldn’t embrace a true giant like John Wayne. Disclaimer-I am not a John Wayne fan,never have been. I will be going back hopefully next week to spend some more time with my numero uno nephew. I will not,however,be looking for celebrities. BTW my nephew isn’t John Wayne or Ms Bachmann.
How about your niece?
The airport in Orange County California features a larger-than-life (if such a thing were possible) statue of John Wayne. I believe that tells you more about OC than JW.
ATTENTION!
Sign the petition to support the jobs bill!!!!!!!
Thank you, Barbara Boxer
http://www.barbaraboxer.com/petitions/american-jobs-act?utm_source=sp4102500&utm_medium=e&sc=sp4102500&refcode=sp4102500
Already done. I got that as an email.
Wow! I love seeing three of Brian in one place. And, sorry AKPetMom, but I think they look different. I thought I posted earlier, but I think I got distracted when I realized that Brian had gone missing in my house. I’ve actually been missing him for about two weeks. Turns out he got tired of sitting amongst the tea cups in the kitchen and meandered up to the bedroom. I’ve now placed him by the books in the living room. It’s cheery there and he can see everything that is going on.
I think that at least two of them look like they were photoshopped into this scene. There is no way that three Brians with identical racks were sitting there in your driveway, much less 6 of them. I blew up the photo and I see “artifacts” and “seams” surrounding those two in the background which leads me to believe that this photo was altered. The one in the background, on the right, looks as if he is “levitating” and there are strange “pixels” around him and that tree in the background. Nice try, AKM, but I’m not buying it. There was only ONE moose and the other two are just manipulated images of the one in the front. There’s a reason that you didn’t show us the other THREE, that’s because you didn’t have enough time to photoshop them into the background.
(that’s my SNARK for the day; don’t know if any of you have been following the Sarah Palin Iowa 1/2 Marathon debacle, but this is pretty much how I feel about all the drama surrounding that and I just couldn’t help myself…)
I think I see a racing bib on the one in the back! 😉
I was simply delighted earlier this afternoon.
I confess – I have been neglecting my poor garden lately. The first weeks of school have been bumpier than expected, leaving me just knackered and simply unable to contemplate anything more strenuous than an afternoon nap. The garden has been struggling all season due to the weather. First, record rainfall over an extended period left the yard a veritable swamp which delayed planting until way too late. The flooding killed six shrubs and numerous perennials, and I had to replant several of my veggies 2 or 3 times after they rotted out (or were eaten by Glutton Bunny). Then temps in the 90s and no rain at all left the poor plants that had survived drowning trying to deal with a new challenge. My flowers were stunted and sad and the veggie plants that managed to avoid dessication were pathetically small and weak and overwhelmed by weeds (why do THEY still grow when everything else dies???), disease, and bug infestations.
However, the past couple of weeks have brought cooler temperatures and just the right amount of rain. As I ventured out in the yard this afternoon in search of a nice juicy tomato for my lunch, I noticed that everything is trying to make up for lost time. Plants are exploding in growth and some of my later season flowers are finally putting on a good show. The climbing rose that was eaten alive by beetles in June is enthusiastically blooming again. My sad little shrunken pepper plants have suddenly doubled their size, and the tomatoes are pumping out tasty red globes of juicy deliciousness. Even the beets, which looked as though they were in suspended animation at about three inches tall all summer are shooting up towards the sky.
Along the back of the house, my yard has turned into the Happiest Place On Earth for all sorts of buzzing insects that are gleefully swarming over the blue blossoms of caryopteris bushes. Dozens of bees of all shapes and sizes are sharing the flowers with a host of miscellaneous flying critters. And most exciting of all, I counted FIVE monarch butterflies fluttering over my butterfly bush, along with a hummingbird moth and a plethora of other smaller insects. I often have one or two monarchs visiting the yard, especially when my buddleia, echinachea and lavender are blooming, but I’ve never had that many at one time. One seemed particularly curious about me and, each time it left one flower for another, it would zoom around me and come within a foot of my face before heading to the next blossom.
Now that the sun has dipped below the roof and my patio is partly shaded, I am heading out to my nice comfy chair with a book, my camera and my binoculars to enjoy the furious nectar collection that is happening outside my window.
Tomorrow will be a day for weeding, cleaning and reseeding but today is just for enjoying!
My late ex-Father-in-Law/Landlord planted two butterfly bushes next to the house about five years ago. One is over 10 feet tall and has dark pink blooms and the other is about six feet tall and is covered in lavender blooms. Had one hummingbird in them so far. They need to be moved,I think they are too big to transplant. Keep them youngsters in line and happy gardening.
I don’t know if all butterfly bushes behave the same way, but I prune mine down severely every year and it still grows and blooms like crazy. It usually ends up about 7 or 8 feet tall by mid-summer so I deadhead and shape it down to about 6 feet. Then in late winter, before the spring growth spurt, I’ll chop it down to about 3 or 4 feet tall. Otherwise, I suspect it would take over that corner and squeeze me right out of my yard!
If yours are too big for their spots and too large to transplant, you might try some selective hard pruning to bring them ‘down to size’.
don’t know if it’s been mentioned:
the reporter character on saturday’s doonesbury who stole the manuscript of “rogue”, declares that the
book”…is boring”.
uh oh, joe.
http://www.arcamax.com/thefunnies/doonesbury/s-943150-654841
Just saw this, Fawnskin.
I took a look at the arrogant ass’ site after all his smugness about the preceding strips, and found this blow-off:
“Given Sarah’s life and career, that quote could be about almost anything. But if Hedley finds it boring, who cares? It can’t be a reference to anything interesting. So pay this episode no attention. It’s just Roger and Garry and I—The Unholy Trinity—trying to distract you from important issues by making you wonder what’ll happen next.”
Yeah, WHATEVER, ya old blowhard, you.
He actually wrote, “It’s just Roger and Gary and I”?
He’s a professional author and yet didn’t learn that: if you’ve any doubt about whether it should be “I” or “me”, take out the other party(s) and use whichever is gramatically correct? He’s perfectly happy writing [under the test model] “It’s just I” instead of “It’s just me”?
What a piece of work – I do believe I’ll be perfectly happy blowing him off. “It’s just Roger and Gary and I”, indeed! beth.
Just finished with tech rehearsal for “The Guys”, and wow. Just wow. I can not wait until tomorrow when we have our benefit performance. There will be sixty-some theatres all over the country presenting tomorrow, and every single one of them is a benefit for a First Responder organization. I am so proud our theatre is part of this. We are having our performance in a HS theatre that seats 500, instead of our theatre that seats only 184. We are pretty sure we will fill all the seats.
Break a leg.
All good blessings to your theatre group and the First Responders, jimzmum.
Well, yes Michele is in there now–being completely ineffective. The only bill she got moving was something to do with lightbulbs. I think it had to do with cutting back on making bulbs more energy efficient. There has to be a joke in there about dim bulbs. When is she up for reelection? Have you heard the song, “Michele, one L”? So funny! I see the President and First Lady went to Arlington Nat’l Cemt. today. He seems to go there frequently. I think it reminds him of what his decisions about sending troops means. That’s something the previous administration somehow overlooked.
I was unbelievably moved when we went to Arlington. I have seen pictures of it and I just had no idea that being there would affect me that profoundly. So I can understand why President Obama goes there. It does put things in perspective.
There are some beautiful pictures here of their visit to Arlington that are bound to bring a tear to your eye.
I am always so touched by the compassion that the President and First Lady show towards people in pain, either at cemeteries or the scenes of natural disasters. You can see that their concern is heartfelt and that they really make an effort to connect with people on a personal level.
http://theobamadiary.com/2011/09/10/respects-5/
I know. It’s so nice to have a president and first lady who really care and really try to make people’s lives better.
Finally read Blind Allegiance. To think that this country could have had her as president (if the old guy died) leaves me cold. I have a family member, who I finally cut off all ties with, who has much the same personality. Nothing was ever her fault, family history was rewritten, anger issues, get even at any cost, abusive to her kids, food issues, etc. In order to stay on her good side you walked on egg shells. But, could be very charming and was well thought of by outsiders. You ended up doubting your own sanity–such is the power of that personality. Remember the book by Scott Peck about evil people (can’t remember the name). It fit her, and fits Sarah. My family member was beautiful, but has developed a hard look that mirrors her inner self. My grandson pointed out “That lady looks like Sarah Palin”. the first time he saw her. I think Sarah will continue to be in the public eye, but she will never hold any office, and thankfully, neither will Michele Bachman, at least I sure hope so.
Unfortunately, Michele Bachmann DOES hold elected office. Of course, that will never include POTUS, but a lot of Minnesotans are stuck with her as their Representative in Congress.
Well, if they have any sense at all, they will vote her out. And maybe putting her in the national spotlight will serve to wake up voters who were apathetic and let such a nitwit get in office. If, not, then they deserve what they got. It’s just too bad the rest of us have to put up with her nonsense.
Doncha think that if McCain had won, he would have had some sort of accident or sudden medical failure by now?
You mean, like a carving knife sticking out of his back? That kind of accident?
In keeping with her “Outdoorsy” personna,I’m betting it would be a flensing knife stuck in McShame’s back-over and over.
I look forward to a photo of the other three!
Nice! The moose are feeling the love; they know they’re safe on this piece of land.
The only thing better than one Brian is three Brians.
The only thing better than three Brians is a six-pack of Brians.
But that might be just too much moosie goodness for me to even contemplate!
that is a rare happening all right. I don’t ‘get out much’ but have NEVER seen more than 3 at a time….to sight six IS a phenomenon!
For THE ADMIN TEAM
Hey, guys. In the Forum I wanted to start a new topic. How does one do that? I have gone to various links to try and do this and have been given a blank page showing “Done” on Firefox. I tried to use the “Got a problem Contact Us” link with the same result.
I successfully used the Contact Us a few weeks ago with the same questions to let you know but have not heard back on this. Did you get my first communication?
Is it only me? I don’t have problems reading and commenting in the topics.
Thanks,
JaneE
P.S. Got to the How to but where did the ‘New Topic’ button go?
I think it is back now.
I just checked that out. I can’t find the new topic button either. Will alert Snos.
New Topic only appears on the index page of the forum you want to post in.
https://themudflats.net/forum/index.php?topic=94.0
That is a how to on how to post a new topic. 😉
Cheers!
Snoskred
I stopped watching the morning “news” shows shortly after I quit the Sunday political shows. One morning this week, I happened to catch a segment of Good Morning America with Lara Spencer. She had the story of the moose who got caught in the tree except she identified the moose as an elk. I few of the other talking heads on the program got in a little comment about the silly elk story, but no one apparently knew the difference between an elk and a moose???
It was a melk.
Actually I recently learned (on either PBS or Animal Planet…two of my favorite places on the picture box!) that, in Europe and Russia, what we in North America refer to as the ‘moose’, they call the ‘elk’. It’s the species formally known as Alces alces but has two different names, depending on where you live.
It’s gets quite confusing because in NA we use the term ‘elk’ for another species, the wapiti or Cervus canadensis, which is a completely different animal.
Since the poor, silly critter who ended up in a tree after partaking in a few too many fermented apples was in Sweden, it is not surprising that some news accounts used the term ‘elk’ instead of moose.
Same adorable creature, different moniker.
Interesting. Thanks to your comment I learned something today. It troubled me that she was showing a moose and calling it an elk and no one noticed.
You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t take the teacher out of the teacher.
Or something like that! 😉
AKM, I think it’s past time for a picture of Buff the Dog, isn’t it?
Hope this wasn’t Brian http://www.buzzfeed.com/fjelstud/drunk-moose-gets-himself-stuck-in-tree
Ah memories. Reminds Mikey of Mikey’s formative years(the intoxicated part). Trees were my refuge when it was time for Mikey’s bottom to get reintroduced to Dad’s leather belt. For some reason my dearly departed parents never believed that a little Indian snuck out of the neighbor’s trees and set Mom’s waste paper basket on fire,quite often and quite often with nearly disastrous results.First law of physics I remember learning was your tender bottom could burn without catching fire.
Aw, poor thing. That’s horrible.
If one looks closely, those who know will recognize this cannot be Brian. The cow got stuck in the tree, therefore it wasn’t “himself” but herself. Well, don’t even need to look closely, No Antlers showing.
Good morning, muddies! There’s a poll in the Frontiersman, asking whether or not you support the coal mine:
http://www.frontiersman.com/?utm_source=NEW+FOMS+MASTER+LIST-+5_2011&utm_campaign=700e6497ae-Friends_of_Mat_Su_News_February_20112_17_2011&utm_medium=email
When you open the link, look on the left-hand side of the page, and scroll down for the poll. Right now, opposition barely outweighs support, so please participate.
Got it, signed it and thanks for the heads-up. TCW-thank you for the info. Will get at it shortly. Fall is definitely in the air-I;m getting an urge to sprout wings and fly everywhere at once. Geese are headed South.
Mike, every fall since I can remember, I’ve felt the same way. And even though we’ve had temperatures in the 90’s for the last three months, we had big rain storms all day yesterday with temp’s finally down in the 60’s. I got so restless all of a sudden, and just wanted to fly away. Here’s my favorite song about that feeling, dedicatd to YOU.
http://youtu.be/n2xODjbfYw8
“Across the morning sky, all the birds are leaving. Ah, how can they know it’s time for them to go?”
Winds of the old days…
Great one, Mag.
*spreading my wings*
I must admit I had never heard this before and was absolutely blown away(even with my poor hearing). I owe you big time girl. Thank you,thank you,thank you!
It’s my pleasure, toots.
Brian and the boys…trouble looking for a place to happen?
Open thread, so bubbles and I have an amazing link to share:
“Watch. Practice. Learn almost anything for free.
With a library of over 2,400 videos covering everything from arithmetic to physics, finance, and history and 150 practice exercises, we’re on a mission to help you learn what you want, when you want, at your own pace.”
http://www.khanacademy.org/
I saw an interview with the Khan Academy founders at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans this summer; it left me gobsmacked. I LOVE when that happens!
Share it far and wide.
L’Shalom,
thatcrowwoman
Being in the center of all things Moosie,I discovered an actual,by-god Moose Lodge in Charles City,Ioway. Also stopped at and got a few pictures of the “Little Brown Church in the Vale” near Nashua,Ioway.It is on the historic register for some reason.
hahahaha caw Caw CAW!!!
Moose Lodge.
Oh, the memories…DH Happy’s mum and step-dad, of blessed memory, spent many happy hours (and Happy Hours!) at the Moose Lodge. Those moose really know how to party.
Thanks for the memories, mikey.
hugs and kisses,
thatcrowwoman
I’ve been through Chuck City many times!
Memories, light the corners of my mind . . . .
Good weekend, all, and happy happy birthday to one of my older sisters – on 9-11.
We celebrate YOU, the world’s most fabulous nurse!
Thanks again AKM for some great pictures.
The only reason I am sorry that AKM didn’t get all six animals in one photo is not being able to tell us to take a look at her six-pack of meeses.
It’s early here; I need more coffee.
🙂
Happy Labour Day Weekend Alaska!
(I’m thinking Brian was looking for his union card…)
Hey Oz, that was last weekend. But thanks anyway.
OZMud is just the first on the block to wish us a Happy 2012 Labor Day Weekend, huh, OZ? (I bet you always WERE an overachiever!)
ROFL – I AM soOoooOOOooOOoo the opposite! But I do admit that at my age I have no business reading a calendar while drinking wine 🙂
If the jobs act were to be passed, I could indeed get behind a SECOND Labor Day holiday, OzMud!
AKM, if you want to put in another Labor song, THIS was worthy! Kind of being ‘humorous’ (for want of a better word) and ironic poetry:
“The Unions Are to Blame” – Roy Zimmerman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imouDc5u3as&feature=player_embedded#t=258s
Roy Zimmerman is one of my new heroes.
Thank you for introducing us, Kath.
Have you heard this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ege_RBhh37A&feature=related
(It’s Zimmerman’s “Vote Republican”).
Oh, yeah…
I had to check out several of Roy’s songs
and “liked” him on facebook, also, too.
🙂
This one is DH Happy’s favorite.
It’s already made the rounds of the science department at my school.
🙂
Creation Science 101
from Roy Zimmerman
(not from the Khan Academy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIwiPsgRrOs&feature=relmfu
That was great, especially the very end!
Thank you for this link…this guy is hilarious!
Thank you all BACK! I just checked out more of Zimmerman’s songs too and that guy is screamingly funny! Will be checking out even more.
Love the 3-Brians, sweet boys are merely ‘looking for’ upcoming action! Things are going to start ‘hopping’ in your neck of the woods (I think)!
Guess, I should mention – YES, I was first to post. Been years hehehe!
May I be the first to offer congratulations?
🙂
I’ll second that! Oh wait, I’m more like #11 😉
Remember, first to post buys beer for everybody else!
Yikes! I just sent all my beer money to the poor Democrats that lost everything in the Bastrop TX fires, after a plea from Juanita Jean’s.
So I will have to send everybody a ‘virtual’ beer! Drink up everyone! Cheers!