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December 18, 2024

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Friday, January 28, 2022

Open Thread – Weed

One man’s weed is another man’s magic.

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58 Responses to “Open Thread – Weed”
  1. benlomond2 says:

    welllll,,,, I’ll be on “Dandliion patrol” in the yard tomorrow, with my screwdriver and yard waste can…. unless any of you want me to mail them to you ???? 🙂 🙂 It’s the last thing on my to-do list….

    • leenie17 says:

      Want to borrow my bunnies? They’re great at dandelion removal…as long as you don’t have any variegated willows in your yard! 🙂

      • benlomond2 says:

        SSSuuurrreee !!!!! send ’em on over !! 🙂 we’ll fatten them RIGHT up !!! ( taste just like chicken !!!! ) ben runs for thise dang hills again !! 🙂

        • mike from iowa says:

          If damdelions are good at liver cleansing,why do so many furry rabbits have spotted livers? We ate rabbits when I was a kid. We ate all kinds of animalsI wouldn’t touch an oyster or liver of any type). My family practically lived off the land when money was tight.

  2. mike from iowa says:

    Please forgive me for this-Florence Henderson-Carol Brady of TV’s the Brady Bunch has claimed she once got “rbcas’ from a one night stand with New York politician John Lindsay.What an episode that would have made for the once popular program.

  3. Lacy Lady says:

    Hope the female judge sues Justice Prosser up to his gazzo! Then he needs to be thrown off the bench!

  4. London Bridges says:

    I think thistles are beautiful plants, too!

    • Zyxomma says:

      I concur. Since I eat plants usually considered weeds (dandelions, purslane, sheep’s sorrel, lambs quarters, etc.), what constitutes a weed to me is different from its definition to others.

      Here’s a great article about the stupidity and pigheadedness of Rand Paul:

      http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/24/rand_paul_playing_dumb?source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%2520Newsletter%2520%2528Not%2520Premium%2529_7_30_110

    • mike from iowa says:

      Buttonweeds(velvetleaf) have beautiful orange/yellow-orange flowers,have seed pods that look like a king’s crown and have a terrible smell. You can locate stands of buttonweeds by their smell.

    • leenie17 says:

      Hate, hate, HATE thistles!!! I’ve got at least three varieties popping up in my garden and all of them are nasty, prickly things. One variety has such sharp needles that they’ve gone right through my leather gardening gloves. The leaves are extremely stiff and you can only get rid of them by prying them up with a shovel. You don’t dare try to grab them or you’ll be pulling stickers out of your hand for days. I’ve had the stickers get down into my hand (through my gloves) deep enough that I couldn’t get them out and had to wait until they worked their way back to the surface. Just today I had my calf scratched up by a plant that grew at the edge of my lettuce bed and grabbed me when I was picking some salad for dinner.

      They are the miserable legacy of the yard next door that was in foreclosure (and empty) for two years. After several months, the town started coming every so often to mow, but only after the grass and weeds were about three feet high. There was a bumper crop of thistle that blew its seeds all over my yard and I’m still digging the damn things up six years later!

  5. leenie17 says:

    Shocking but not surprising:

    As if Wisconsin hasn’t had enough to deal with this year, the scum who won the election for state Supreme Court after thousands of votes were mysteriously found after election day is being accused of physically assaulting another judge.

    “Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser allegedly grabbed fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley around the neck in an argument in her chambers last week, according to at least three knowledgeable sources.”

    This is the same piece of right wing garbage who called Justice Shirley Abrahamson a “total bitch” and promised to “destroy” her. He then accused her and Justice Bradley of goading people into saying things they probably shouldn’t. Yeah, this is the type of classy, thoughtful and intelligent person I’d want as a state Supreme Court justice!

    http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_0eccd0ea-9f33-11e0-b4f1-001cc4c03286.html?mode=story

    • mike from iowa says:

      Justice prosser proved he is fit to sit on Wisconsin’s highest court by trying to strangle a female Justice. Since he did not deny the attack,he obviously did it. Probably won’t be disciplined or RWNJ lose their majority.

  6. OMG says:

    I am so confused…I thought that Palin was doing her civic duty thereby postponing her bus tour…but then I hear she’s headed to Iowa for the premier of her propaganda flick. Will she arrive in the bus or a limo or a presidential looking motorcade?

  7. mike from iowa says:

    We hold these truths to be self-evident,unless you are a right wing nut job.Rethuglicans are redefining the term negotiate,quietly,so the Public doesn’t wake up to their shenanigans. Eric Cantor walked out of budget negotiations a few days ago. He was upset because Dems insist on tax increases for the wealthy. Cantor’s idea of negotiating is telling Dems what is acceptable. End of discussion. Rethugs have a strange sense of what essential services are and are willing to sacrifice police,firemen,teachers,emergency services and first responders(along with programs for the poor and elderly,hospital care etc.)but insist on essential programs the make the wealthy wealthier. The Rethuglican presidential platform will include benefits for the entitled wealthy and that is it.

    • Ivan says:

      if only they would smoke a little weed.
      but sadly someone who thinks they have all the answers is not interested in enlightenment.

    • leenie17 says:

      The Republican definition of negotiation is ‘right or left’ – or which foot should the Democrats kiss when they agree to everything we want so we’ll vote for their legislation.

      My kindergarteners are better at cooperating and working together to come up with a mutually agreeable solution than those eedjits!

      The Republicans have always been controlled and beholden to the wealthy and the corporations, but they’re finally becoming open and almost proud of it. They seem to forget that corporations don’t vote and wealthy people don’t get any more votes than poor people. But the middle class and poor people far outnumber the wealthy ones, and arrogantly shilling for the rich just might come back and bite them in the posterior!

  8. AKjah says:

    Alas my Dandelions are not near as beautiful as that pic. Non the less i like them they add to the view of the lawn. We have a drop to the road i front of the lawn down to the road that has two clumps of Lupine that i hope will spread again this year. If lupine took over our lawn maybe the better half would let me not mow!!

  9. Lacy Lady says:

    This a pretty weed. Looks a little like a dandelion My grandparents made a dandelion salad from the leave—. Vinegar and oil dressing. —–the problem in today’s world, is all the spray that is used on the lawns. .

  10. thatcrowwoman says:

    Dandelion! Make a wish and blow!

    Good afternoon from New Orleans. What an amazing conference so far. Librarians are quite an eclectic group of folks, eh?

    Brian and I joined a group on a stroll down Bourbon Street last night, and had alligator for supper. (Sorry, no pictures.) Yes, it does taste a lot like chicken, but the texture is a bit more dense, more toothsome, chewier.

    Off to explore the exhibits, grab a bite to eat, and attend a couple more sessions.

    L’Shalom, y’all.
    thatcrowwoman in the Big Easy

    • Zyxomma says:

      Tikkun olam shalom, thatcrowwoman, and enjoy the conference with your confreres (and consoeurs, if such word exists, and even if it doesn’t). Enjoy NOLA, and come back with lots of tales!

    • slipstream says:

      I always thought Brian was more of a vegetarian . . .

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      Could one eat alligator on Kosher holidays? I’m just wondering – – –

  11. tigerwine says:

    Ohhh – I got in big trouble because of dandelions when I was in the 3rd grade! I spent the 3rd grade with my grandmother up in Maine, and dandelions are a great delicacy in the spring. I knew my Grandmother loved them, so I went and dug up the neighbor’s yard! Now, most folks would love for a kid to come and rid them of these pesky weeds, but not Mainiacs! I was severely reprimanded and given a good lecture on the rights of property owners: namely, they were entitled to the dandelions on their own property!

    My aunt used to can them, and Laura Ingalls’ (Little House on the Prairie) family made dandelin wine from them. I don’t really like them – too bitter. They were supposed to have some medicinal benefits regarding purging the body after a winter of little or no fresh veggies.

    Love the pic, AKM. I still love to blow on them!

    • London Bridges says:

      if you pick dandy lions early in the spring before they bloom and saute them in garlic, they are very tasty.

      good for liver cleansing, too, i believe.

      • tigerwine says:

        Liver cleansing – that’s what my grandma said. Knew it was some sort of purging/cleansing!

        I’d much rather eat the fiddle ferns we dug in Homer – now, those are great fized the way you described.

    • Man_from_Unk says:

      As kids we use to have dandelion wars – first, wet your head with water then get to a field of dandelions in fluff, declare a patch, stand at least one arm’s length away from your opponent, pick a stem, blow the fluff into your opponents face or hair, pick, blow, pick, blow(have to declare how many stems will be used for each war). The kid with the least amount of fluff clinging to face or hair was the winner. We’d often carry containers of water to the warring fields so that we can rinse off the old fluff before we’d go into other rounds.

  12. Zyxomma says:

    Beautiful video of a giant octopus caring for her eggs, then watching as they hatch:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/23/giant-pacific-octopus-bab_n_883384.html

    Enjoy!!

  13. beaglemom says:

    Our front yard is pretty green but there is far less grass than weed, many different kinds. No weed killer here; we live too close to the Grand Traverse Bay. Fortunately we’ve had plenty of rain this spring and, now summer, so we can enjoy the green, whatever it comes from.

    We also have lots of dandelions and discovered that our resident bunny family really likes to eat dandelions, especially when they are puffs, as in the photo. Many early evenings we have looked out and watched Mr. and Mrs. Bunny munching their way across the front yard. They eat the dandelion from the bottom of the stem up, saving the fluffy part (the best, I guess) for last. We’ve had to be very circumspect in our bunny-munching watching because we do not want the beagles to see them. Our beagles, bless their hunting-instinct hearts, missed the day in puppy class when they were taught to hunt bunnies. Ours prefer chipmunks which, thank God, are far too smart and fast for our pooches. They do like to tease beagles though, even coming up to the front door and chirping at them.

    • leenie17 says:

      My bunnies also seemed to prefer dandelions to any other green thing in my yard. Like yours, they would snap off the long flower stem and munch their way right down to the puff, which I found quite entertaining. Naturally, I encouraged their daily morning and evening visits and reminded them to eat ONLY the weeds, not the other plants. They paid attention to my instructions right up until they discovered how (apparently) tasty my Nishiki willows are.

      In one day, my poor willow shrubs went from lovely rounded forms of multi-colored leaves to a pile of half-eaten green stubs with a few long branches crookedly sticking up into the air. Other branches that were chewed off but not yet eaten surrounded the shrubs like skirts. That night, the fencing and chicken wire went up around the three bushes and the bunnies were back to eating my dandelions.

      The next time I saw them in the yard and chastised them for the damage, I could swear they actually hung their fuzzy little heads in shame! 😉

  14. Zyxomma says:

    “A weed is a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” Ralph Waldo Emerson had it right. And the virtues of dandelions are many; it’s both food and medicine. If you have blood sugar problems (insulin resistance), pick 12 dandelions daily. Pop off the flower heads and eat the stems. They’re bitter, but they’ll help with the blood sugar. Health and peace.

    • BeeJay says:

      I do miss dandelions down here in the desert. There are some, in town, vicariously living off of plant waterings, but they never last much past June. Too hot.

      Besides, how many ‘weeds’ can be used for both salads and wine? 😉

      • InJuneau says:

        And the roots are a good dye stock, apparently. I have tried it yet.

  15. merrycricket says:

    Who gets to decide what constitutes a weed and what constitutes a flower? Why do we listen to them? What makes that person (or persons) so special that they get to decide these things? These are questions I ask myself when weeding my garden.

  16. Diane says:

    I love dandelions! If one does not wear one’s glasses when looking out over the lawn one sees yellow flowers.
    I loved when my kids would bring me ‘flowers’. When my daughter learned to read, she asked my why they were called dandelions. looked it up, French for lions tooth for the sharp pointed leaves.

    Vive le dandelions!

  17. Juneaudream says:

    A genuine..flourishing weed..a beautiful weed..a living thriving lil item..in the grand scheme of things. Having always been someweedish here..I fully ..understand… 🙂

  18. benlomond2 says:

    in the interest of stirring up the pot a bit more 🙂 how did we get to having only one wife as the “correct” thing to do ? I seem to recall in the Old Testament, Abraham having multiple wives, David and Solomon having many wives, etc, etc.. After 31 years ( and counting) with the same woman, I don’t think I could handle more than one myself… but I get a bit miffed when I hear people religion as the basis for it, and selectively quote the Bible… I think you can find opposing arguments in the same book for just about anything in there….

    • Buffalogal says:

      That’s an interesting question Ben – Does anyone know when the change came that marriage is only between one man and one woman ? My guess is there’s less of a religious basis for it and it was something more politically or ruling power motivated.

      • Mag the Mick says:

        Bear in mind that it hasn’t changed! Islam still allows a man to have up to 4 wives, as long as he can properly support them and their families. The LDS officially outlawed polygamy in the late 19th century, but many Mormons still practice it. Polygamy (and in some cases, polyandry) still flourish in many traditional societies. And one could say that our western culture still practices it in a modified form. How many wives has Newt Gingrich had?

        • Gimme-a-break, Sarah says:

          Three, I think.

          These days we just do “serial monogamy.”

        • OtterQueen says:

          A few years ago, one of my coworkers let me in on the fact that he had two wives. Legally married to only one, but they all three lived together. He said he was looking for a third, and that he was part of a network of people that practices polygamy. (Or tries to… strangely, they have a hard time finding women who will go for it.)

          I’m not sure why he told me about it. I mean, I’m pretty open-minded, but…

        • mike from iowa says:

          I thought that giving up polygamy was a prerequisite for Utah to gain statehood. The way Marie Osmond’s life has gone,Mormons must not be opposed to divorce. Some RWNJ will come up with pay to play marriage where money=free speech=ability to marry. Then maybe they will decide you can’t have children unless you give each child a humongous trust fund at birth. Sean Hannity can maybe get Breitbart’s help in videotaping a fetus saying the pledge of allegiance and sign it up as a rill god-fearing American fetus,just as nature intended.BTW I’m still overrun with small furry animals that need to be sacrificed to Nature’s god.

          • leenie17 says:

            No, Mike, I think you’re completely wrong about that idea of restrictions on having children.

            If they did that, how would they get all those women to keep having babies and providing the corporations with lots of cheap, unedumicated labor? After all, they like keeping women barefoot, pregnant and dependent which is why they keep proposing (and, sadly, passing) all those anti-abortion, anti-birth control, anti-education, anti-children, anti-women bills.

            Multiple divorces and rampant cheating, however? It’s all good (but ONLY if you’re a Republican, of course!)

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      Yeah, and that, too. I think undermining polygamy is a good thing.
      My guess is, that polygamy stopped when men finally figured out that none of them could ever “handle” more than one and it was expedient for them to drop all the extras. 🙂

  19. mike from iowa says:

    So….New York passed a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and the world,as we know it, is still intact. Does anyone out there in the rill world know how allowing two loving,devoted people of the same gender to have the same rights of matrimony as hetero-couples,hurts so called traditional marriages? Pay attention to the natural world and you will see that marriage-human style-is an unnatural act. Please to enlighten Mikey from rilly Red Iowa.

    • leenie17 says:

      One of the RWNJs (I can’t remember which one…they all start to sound alike!) claims that same sex marriage will cause an HIV epidemic and thinks that the Health Department should be against it.

      I may be all confused about this, but wouldn’t encouraging same sex couples to marry and be monogamous do exactly the opposite of what he’s claiming??? But, then again, I don’t live in Opposite World where many of the Republicans seems to reside, so maybe things work differently there!

      Sheesh!!!

      (And yes, Mike, the world has not come to an explosive, fiery end since my Governor signed the bill last night. I still can’t figure out how a gay couple in Buffalo getting married is supposed to be able to destroy the marriage of a heterosexual couple in Brooklyn!)

    • Baker's Dozen says:

      I’m a Christian and I am for legalizing gay marriage. Good one, New York!

      And I have never understood how this could undermine traditional marriage, which, BTW, was generally arranged, rarely based on love, and made women the property of their husbands. I’m all for undermining traditional marriage.

  20. Attagirl says:

    Fabulous photo………….

  21. Ivan says:

    Roundup: Birth Defects Caused By World’s Top-Selling Weedkiller, Scientists Say

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/24/roundup-scientists-birth-defects_n_883578.html

    • mike from iowa says:

      I was enrolled in a study of pesticide applicators conducted jointly through the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Chapel hill. We received extensive questionaires about the types of chemicals we handled,the frequency we used them,if we wore proper equipment for applying them and any health related problems we had. The study lasted several years and I received a copy of the conclusions. I’ll have to find it and see if I’m dead yet. I kinda forgot the results.We also were interviewed by phone about once a year. I used lots of Round-Up and other herbicides and different insecticides as well.

  22. Ivan says:

    weed, i love that word. weed.