Coopers Hawk

Our neighorhood Coopers Hawk. Never have been able to get his face until now. This is taken through a window with a flash, unfortunately. If you click on it and look at it larger, you'll see how much detail of the face is in that photo.

Tom Dooley done right

The Fabulous Trio: Wendell, John and Mark.

Great Christmas stories

Some wonderful Christmas stories out there on the blogsphere. One of my favorites is from Fish who didn't tell an especially dramatic story, but told a wonderful American family story.

I wrote a reply to him and thought I might post some of it here:

I spent a many Christmases alone or alone in a crowd.

Christmas is one of those holidays that reflect how you live your life. If you want love and warmth and peace on Christmas, the only way to get it is to live sanely, happily, lovingly in the company of your family the rest of the year. You can't fake it at Christmas. You always end up with the Christmas you deserve.

It took me a long time to get that message and only time and solitude and sadness made me change myself and my life. God can be a severe teacher and he won't hesitate to send his children into the wilderness if that is what they need.

So many people who are lazy or incompetent in life just haven't really been in the wilderness. They make things bad for themselves, and God approves, and then humans go and make things comfortable for them again. And then those sad people never have happy families or happy Christmases. Some people just have to wander in the wilderness. I'm glad I did.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Woods Walker

Here are my incredibly talented inlaws singing a song on Christmas Eve:

How to properly integrate the White Lady

The very very very sensitive Wall Street Journal wrote about this old famous bar drink, the White Lady, but said it should be renamed because of the racial overtones of the drink's name! See post below.

To get the racial overtones just right, follow these instructions exactly to mix the perfect White Lady:

1 1/2 Ounce Gin

3/4 Ounce Cointreau

3/4 Ounce fresh lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a stemmed cocktail glass.

Variations:
Redneck White Lady (pictured above)
Has a little stronger racial overtones. Instead of adding the fresh lemon juice, shake the gin and cointreau over ice then pour into a Martini glass from Dollar General. Squeeze 1/8th lemon into the mix and leave the lemon cause it looks purty.

See post below if this whole thing makes no sense to you.

Now... Who can give me a recipe for the Rev. Sharpton?

WSJ uncovers a racist bar drink: The White Lady

WSJ had a fascinating article about a cocktail invented by the premier bartender of the jazz age, Harry Craddock, who after prohibition became an ex-patriot. In Britain his reputation soared as Americans became more interested in their cups than ever. So for Americans and for the world Craddock invented the White Lady which, unfortunately, didn't stand the test of time and has been largely forgotten.

Until now! The WSJ last week resurrected the drink and suggested the drink's name might be responsible for its bad fortunes after all the name sounds RACIST.

Really, the WSJ thinks the phrase White Lady has racial overtones. (Apparently that is to be avoided at all cost.)

I'm puzzled. What is it about the phrase 'White Lady' that carries with it unpleasant racial overtones?

Like, for example, will black ladies immediately insist that we create a drink called Black Lady because, if there isn't one now, and if it isn't as famous as a White Lady, then the mixing bar isn't level.

Has political correctness ever reached a level more petty and ridiculous? Stay tuned as we find out who is offended by White Russians!

Just what it looks like

Ah.. damn.

Thank God the globe is warming

Ice, then snow, then ice, then snow.


I probably should have taken that hummingbird feeder in this winter.

We got what looks like about 5 inches of snow. Indy got less and I got a kick out of Hoosier Boy who says the hysterical weather predictors who said we were going to get 12 inches of snow were off by a factor of "several hundred percent." He points out that scientists can't manage to predict the climate with their precious computer models 12 hours in advance, much less, 1200 years in advance.

He makes this great point:
"Oh, Hoosierboy, a consensus of scientist agree we are facing apocalyptic climate change that will destroy our planet. Well a consensus of weather experts also said I would be looking at a foot of blowing drifting frozen and crystalized water clogging my driveway this morning. A consensus of scientists believed our planet was flat at one time. A consensus of scientists believed the Sun revolved around the Earth. Heck, a consensus of some of the greatest thinkers in history believed the sun was pulled through the sky by Apollo in his golden chariot. The same scientists who are now ringing the alarm bells of global warming were in agreement a few decades ago we were faced with a coming ice age that would doom our planet, our civilization, our way of life. The computer models said so."

OH that couldn't happen with HERE. Not with Health Care. Nah

I realize it IS nearly Christmastide, but any time is a great time to remember what happens when government gets a hold of an entire sector of the economy.

1933: Stalin in the Ukraine. He starved 10 million to death.

Those warm and fuzzy commies. We should put them in charge of health care!