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Open Thread – Brian in Peru

Thanks to Mudflatter WP, Brian had a fabulous trip to Peru! Here is a picture of him at the Incan archeological site of Raqchi, where the temple of Wiracicha is found.

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50 Responses to “Open Thread – Brian in Peru”
  1. eyes wide open in pgh, pa says:

    I also took Brian to Antarctica, Argentina and Uruguay last year. I sent AKM a picture of Brian next to a nesting penguin and also one of him climbing Cape Horn.

    • dreamgirl says:

      Can you fit a dreamgirl in your luggage on your future travels? I can fold up quite nicely next to Brian.

    • PennLawyer says:

      You are my inspiration, both travel wise and posing-Brian-for-photos-wise!

      Can you snap Brian on a Terrible Towel?

  2. PennLawyer says:

    Your post reminded me to include Brian in my travel plans. Next September I’ll take Brian with me, via Munich & Edinburgh to the Scottish Highlands. My retirement savings and traveling plans got literally decimated by the GOP sponsored stock market/ financial collapse. But then my three wonderful kids gifted me with a combination Christmas/birthday gift of a trip to Aigas, a Wildlife Centre near Inverness. I’m going for a week of wildlife observing in late September (many months off, but I have nearly as much fun planning for a trip as taking it). Anyhoo, assuming I can get Brian past TSA, I can introduce him to his Scottish cousins, the red deer:

    Red deer are Britain’s largest land mammals, living in some of the most remote and inhospitable areas of the UK. During late September, male red deer, known as stags, start to prepare for the “rut”.

    If you saw Simon King’s fascinating reports on the rutting red deer stags of Rum during BBC’s Autumnwatch series you’ll know why the rut is often regarded as one of Europe’s most spectacular wildlife phenomenons.

    During the 3-4 weeks of the rut, stags may lose as much as a fifth of their body weight as they vie for control of their harem of hinds. The straths and glens of the Highlands reverberate with the sounds of roaring stags and clashes of antlers are common as newcomers challenge master stags for the attention of the females.

    We’ll also be observing golden eagles, pine martens, otters, beavers, bottlenose dolphins & more. Brian will see lots of wee timorous beasties & return with a bit of Scottish burr in his bellow!
    If my plans work out, we’ll also tour the Royal Yacht Britannia, permanently docked in Edinburgh, & swing south of the city to visit Rosslyn Chapel, a treasure in stone and medieval masterpiece, as featured at the end of the film, The DaVinci Code. As Dr. Seuss said, Brian, oh, the places you’ll go!

    Why travel?

    “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” — St. Augustine

    “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” — Robert Louis Stevenson

    “Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you have traveled.” — Mohammed

    “To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world.” —Freya Stark

    Hitler didn’t travel. Stalin didn’t travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn’t want to have their orthodoxy challenged.” — Howard Gardner

    “Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries.” — René Descartes

    “A man of ordinary talent will always be ordinary, whether he travels or not; but a man of superior talent (which I cannot deny myself to be without being impious) will go to pieces if he remains forever in the same place.” — Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    “Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.” — Frank Herbert

    Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quiestest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” — Pat Conroy

    “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” — Mark Twain

    “We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” — Jawaharal Nehru”

  3. michigander says:

    My kitty Pippin passed away today. Please send out prayer/positive thoughts to innocent creatures,

    Pet lovers XXXXX000000

    I’m sorry, I just had to get it out, it’s been a long time and he was comforted and loved.

    I know he was ‘just a cat’ but my Mother is smiling and my Grandma’s lap is ready (o:

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      Well, I know from your description that Pippin is already well cared for and loved.

      And so are you. {{{{hugs}}}}

      • michigander says:

        Thank – you and I will try to get some sleep. Thanks for representing the mudpups as I know they all care as do I, for you and our families no matter how big or small.

        ((((((HUGS)))))) and pushy paws love from my Pip

        And thank you all for keeping me informed (o:

    • OMG says:

      I am so sorry for your loss. I lost my little buddy, Oakie, a few months ago. It’s painful to lose a family member and furry ones are no exception.

    • bubbles says:

      i am sorry Michigander. love from me and Nubia.

    • dreamgirl says:

      (((((michigander))))))

      I’m so sorry to hear of your loved loss. Maybe Pippin can keep my dearly departed Bobo (lab/shep/husky) company.

      Pippin wasn’t just a cat… he was a dearly loved member of your life and family. R.I.P. dear Pippin and michigander here’s of box of tissues and a cassorole.

  4. overthemoon says:

    “Piper was named after Todd’s airplane, the Piper cub, which gets us to the hunting grounds,” she explains. “Bristol, Bristol Bay fishing grounds. Willow, a local sport-fishing stream. Trig, I pull the TRIG-ger. Track… I remember when we told my dad that his grandson was named Track, he said, ‘Like TRACKing an elephant?'”

    What??? I thought ‘Trig’ was a norse god or godlet? And Track was for running around a track real fast?

    A whole speech of boneheaded comments.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-01-30/sarah-palins-gun-control-warnings-at-safari-club-international/

  5. Marnie says:

    Brian is looking particularly studly these days.

  6. Quick observation-I saw a television ad on a Hunting program this A.M. from Renewable Resources Council imploring people to help defeat the Pebble Mine Project on Bristol Bay. All the way down here in little old Iowa. I am impressed.

  7. OMG says:

    Take a look at this article from Pravda, written by a right wing, Obama hater (from the US)

    http://politico-junkie.blogspot.com/2011/01/russia-one-americans-opinion-about.html

  8. A fan from CA says:

    Spin, spin, spin. Sarah is screeching in Santa Barbara on Friday and now the Young Americans are telling the local news that “high security” is needed.

    http://fwix.com/sbarbara/share/55bf8b205a/expect_high_security_during_palin_visit

    Nothing about the fact that they have Cheney the next night. Does he also need the “security”?

    • jojobo1 says:

      Hop[e the majority of the people of California tell her where she can go!!!!!Did she think about security when she put up gun sights and said don’t retreat reload.She apparently knew what she said as wrong or she would not have changed how she worded things in her new speech She deserves no more protection than any other speech person.

    • merrycricket says:

      I hope that wicked wench slips on a banana peel! No amount of security could stop that.

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      I drive up and down State Street in Santa Barbara all the time and didn’t know the Reagan Ranch Center was there. Had to google it. Lovely location between the train tracks and the freeway. Not. It’s interesting, but this is the first I’ve heard about her visit here. Not that the papers haven’t had the news, but I don’t think it’s been front page. Nobody will mind that she comes if it’s at the Reagan Ranch Center. What with the freeway on one side and the tracks on the other, people will just think it’s a really bad pile up or a train wreck when she talks. 😉
      And notice that she isn’t going to UC Santa Barbara! I don’t think there’ll be much of a protest about her being here. Most people have better things to do that be bothered with her and most Republicans here, frankly, are too well educated to want to be around her. She’ll be as out of her element here as when she went to that horsey racey thingy and dressed like it was a NASCAR event. People here know the rill dill when it comes to class, wealth, fame, and cheap imitation.

    • dreamgirl says:

      Wonder why she isn’t screeching about her mostly free house on Lake Lucille, or not paying property taxes, or screeching about why her vandal-daugher-Willow isn’t suffering from her vandalism actions, or screeching about her slut of another daughter keeps making abstinence-babies, or screeching about Dairy-gate among all her other gates.

      Her screeches ring as hollow as her “ethics” and “transparency”. Just ask her own children and coconspirator “husband-pal” Toad.

  9. OMG says:

    Another excellent talk on Palin’s Sputnik mis-fire et al

    http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7695404/sarah_palins_wtf_moment_causes_a_few.html?cat=62

  10. Bretta says:

    What scares me most about the turmoil in Egypt is the government turned off the Internet, social networking, whatever the method. I know the powers-that-be hurt themselves in the process, but still.

  11. eyes wide open in pgh, pa says:

    Hi, I am the one who took Brian to Peru. I’ll try to post a few more picts. over the next few days.

    • jimzmum says:

      I have never been to Peru. Can’t wait to see the pics!

    • bubbles says:

      lucky moose that Brian. glad you are back EYES and hope you had a grand time.

    • leenie17 says:

      I used to work with a woman who lived in Peru for many years and she recently posted some links to music you might enjoy:

      This video has some gorgeous photographs to go along with the music –

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgHpUBsUdUs

      This is a video of a singer named Gianmarco –

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPnc1Q-rw-Y

      • prisonernumbersix says:

        Sorry, I cannot provide any links, but we heard a great Peruvian band named Arco Iris in Cuzco. They played classical music on Andean instruments. The result was amazing!

    • dreamgirl says:

      Would love to visit Peru someday along with Chile and so many other places…(new Zealand, Ecuador, Argentina, China, Alaska 🙂 to mention a few.)

      Please regal us with pics and any and all adventures, food included. How much fun is it to venture past one’s own culture? Hope you and yours had a blast. Looking forward to more pics.

  12. TX SMR says:

    Here it is in its loveliness!

    http://www.doonesbury.com/

  13. TX SMR says:

    If you’ve not seen today’s Doonesbury, track it down, stat!

    The Bobbleheadidiot doll is back stirring you know what in the toy room!

    I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!

  14. vyccan says:

    Brian is certainly a well-travelled guy. Will he bring us back a mini-report from Peru, I wonder? WUA, some really appropriate signs! 🙂

    • prisonernumbersix says:

      I echo that wish! We visited Peru and Bolivia a few years ago and enjoyed them both immensely. I would enjoy hearing about any adventures in Peru, especially the northern half of the country since we only got to visit the southern portion that time.

  15. WakeUpAmerica says:

    Oh this is so funny. AKM, I would love to see you link to this blog.
    http://theperilsofpalins.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/fee-speech/

  16. lovemydogs says:

    I left an update on Colleen and dogs at the end of the last open thread.

  17. DF says:

    What! No can of Spam?

  18. Seeing that magnificent ,chiseled block of granite mooseness defying all-comers to dethrone him, I feel a Robert service “moment” thrusting itself upon me. Yukon Jack anyone? Water it down for surely the heartburn of gastric reflux will follow me all the days of my life. Better yet make mine milk.

    • Bretta says:

      Love Yukon Jack – with a garnish of SourToe – got mine in Dawson City Yukon Territory 2006.
      Yukon Jack Peppermint is great in hot chocolate.

    • Tallahassee Lassie says:

      My best friend and I used to toast the Florida State Seminoles with Yukon Jack (we called it “Yucks”) before every football game – it worked for 14 years!! We swore it is made from diesel fuel drained from wrecked Mercedes. Can you confirm?

  19. OMG says:

    This is an excellent piece for you Sunday reading about the empty GOP rhetoric and how it is dominating the right:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/opinion/30rich.html?_r=1&ref=global-home

    • jimzmum says:

      I was bringing this here. Need to get up earlier. The last three paragraphs are so important. Thank you for posting this.

      Getting ready for a “major winter event” which starts tonight with 1/2 inch or so of ice, followed by a foot of sleet and snow mixed, and to top it off – winds of 40 mph. We are about ready, just have to make a wine run.

      • overthemoon says:

        Had to do some head scratching about the posted weather advisory…Ice and sleet starting late Sunday, changing to snow Tuesday morning. HEY WAIT!! Are they saying Monday is lost to ice and sleet? All day??

        • ks sunflower says:

          Sounds like the forecast for the KC-metro area. Areas just south of us are supposed to get over a foot of snow with us just getting ice, sleet and 6 to 9 inches. Brrrr. Be safe and warm everyone!

    • A fan from CA says:

      From the article, “But the state of the union itself could yet be in the hands of radicals whose eagerness to see the president fail is outstripped only by their zeal to make an ideological point, even if it forces America into default. ”

      If you haven’t read the Rand thread then this may not make sense. But is the refusal to keep the government running and paying its obligations along with the wealthy refusal to “invest” over 2 Trillion in cash into American business the John Gualt strike. The rich and powerful just will “strike” until they get their way of making life a struggle for most of us so we too can become totally self absorbed just to survive?