AdamSmith

Graphic discussions of that topic seem to draw objections on this forum.

Is anything about Mardi Gras "real"?

Britain According to North Londoners

The Japanese have many specific words that name -- and, just by calling attention to, give exquisite insight into -- many different, very specific aspects of human behavior. 'Tsundoku', I learned just now, means the act of buying books and then leaving them lying around unread. Etymology 積む (tsumu, to pile up) + 読 (doku, to read), punning on “積んでおく” (tsundeoku, to leave piled up) Noun 積ん読 (hiragana つんどく, romaji tsundoku) (informal) the act of leaving a book unread after buying it, typically piled up together with other such unread books http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E7%A9%8D%E3%82%93%E8%AA%AD In somewhat similar vein, an American friend who studied the Japanese language intensively for several years informs me there is a particular verb form specifically designed to mean, for any verb expressed in that form, that the action was done to oneself by someone else in such a way as to make oneself a victim of the act.

Somehow never got to Montreal despite all those years parked in Boston, not that many hours' drive away. Idiot me. Still -- any excuse to snicker at our polite northern neighbors. https://vimeo.com/38184318

"...Never Canada again." "Why?" "You've not seen it, right?" "Right," Hutch said. "Don't waste dollars then. It's good for a laugh the first few weeks--grown men standing round, heads bowed in prayer they'll turn into Yanks; but all drinking tea and debating if they'll get a nice visit this year from the Queen and her docked-cock husband. After that it's Hell." Reynolds Price, The Source of Light

Thanks for this note. I had completely forgotten Pussycat from Batman. Fond memories.

So in mechanical engineering there is a thing called the Bill Of Material, or BOM. The software for creating a BOM can display it like the 'outline' view of a Word document, so you can collapse the sub-levels and just have the main levels shown. Or you can pop open the sub-levels to show all the detail. In the lingo, this action is, of course, to... explode the BOM. Not exactly the thing to exclaim out loud into your cell phone, when hunched over your laptop, on a tech support call, in an airport departure lounge, two weeks after 9/11/01. As an engineer friend of mine found out the hard way.

The death of Regulus; the general placed in a nail-studded barrel in foreground, about to be rolled down a hill by two henchmen; behind the barrel a commander on horseback; roundel with acanthus leaves placed in corners outside the frame Hans Sebald Beham (1500-1550) German Northern Renaissance Engraver, brother of Barthel Beham.

Barrel Pillory, or Spanish Mantle A barrel is fitted over the entire body, with the head sticking out from a hole in the top. The person is kept locked in the barrel, forcing him to kneel in his own filth, and in some cases suffer extremes of hot or cold. For a short time this was merely unpleasant, but prolonged confinement could cause death through hunger or thirst, or scaphism - allowing or encouraging insects to breed on and feed on the victim's flesh. The defenceless individual's faeces accumulated within the container, attracting ever more insects, which would eat and breed within his or her exposed and often gangrenous flesh. Feeding the victim would often be allowed each day in some cases to prolong the torture, so that dehydration or starvation did not provide him or her with the release of death. Delirium would typically set in after a few days. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. http://www.medievalwarfare.info/torture.htm

There seems to be some faint hope on the Israeli left that Bibi will, in toto, end up helping their cause.

P.S. Understand completely. Daresay all of us lost people to the insanity of that war.

We can work with that.

Something about the one who felled my tree.

I'm sure you're not saying you would prefer a well mannered pilot over one who knows how to aviate.

Well, Califano does conclude his article this way: LBJ's administration oversaw an extraordinary advance of progressive government despite the tragedy of the Vietnam War, and it achieved striking success despite the turbulence and violence that accompanied the civil rights movement, anti-war protests and roiling cultural revolutions in sexual conduct and drug use. To me this demonstrates that even a president who makes a blunder as monumental as the war in Vietnam need not be not limited to middling domestic achievements. He or she still has the possibility of leading a government that can lift up the many as well as the few, that can not only can conceive but also achieve historic steps forward at home. That's why presidential hopefuls -- and voters deciding which of them to support -- should view the Johnson presidency not an aberration, but as an example. Writing a short journalistic piece like this on any given subject, you have only so much room to treat of other issues, even huge ones. I'm not sure calling Vietnam a "tragedy" and "monumental blunder" exactly gloss over the point.

Firsthand account of how LBJ got things done. The White House Is No Place for Wimps The best presidents stay away from the middle ground. By JOSEPH A. CALIFANO JR. February 15, 2015 http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/02/the-white-house-is-no-place-for-wimps-115219.html#ixzz3RrjYbfES