Memorial Day

The dead soldier’s silence sings our national anthem. -Rev. Aaron Kilbourn

Small Victory

You've no business buying a mare like that
 But buy her if you must
 He bit the end off his cigar
 And spat it in the dust
 She's old, she's lame and barren too
 She's not worth feeding hay
 But I'll give her this, he blew smoke at me,
 She was something in her day.

 I recall her well 10 years ago
 She was a winner in her prime
 She was fast and lean and willing
 But they raced her past her time
 And though she had the heart
 Her legs were gone
 It wasn't see hard to see
 But they kept her at it in the hopes
 Of one more small victory

 She was shunted round from track to track
 From Kentucky up to Maine
 They'd run her in cheap claimers
 All doped up to mask her pain
 And if its my advice you want I'd say
 The poor things had her day
 You'd be thowing good cash after bad
 Its best, he turned away

 Oh they led her round the auction shed
 And bidding started low
 She'll go for dogfood someone said
 The markets been that slow
 But she raised her head and pricked her ears
 And before the hammer fell
 She's was mine
 My friend turned round to me
 You're softheaded I can tell

 But she'd been shoved from pillar to post said I
 And always done her best
 They used her up they rung her dry
 You'd think she earned her rest
 So if she does not bode out her day
 Beneath some shady tree
 I'll have saved her from the knacker's yard
 And that's enough for me

 Oh that was near two years ago
 She's filled out some since then
 And more so since she's been in foal
 She eats enough for ten
 And this morn as I crept to the barn
 Around 'bout half past three
 There stood nursing on still trembling legs
 One more "small victory".

Greek Festival

It’s  Memorial Day Weekend, and the weekend when the Church of the Annunciation in Tremont has it’s Greek Festival.  The smell of roasting lamb drifts over the neighborhood, and many, many walnuts are wrapped in filo dough and smothered in honey.

It’s amazing how many people you meet at the Greek Festival, I’ve seen old patients, nursing staff and ancillary personnel from many hospitals, and the odd mortician there.

There is a lot of stuff at one of these dos, from the retsina raffle to the Hellenic dancers, which you might expect, to the sales of oil paintings, sheets, jewellery, and the rummage sale.  There are also tours of the sanctuary, and new ikons are added every year.   I try to remember my Greek iconography from my Art History courses, and realize I should have pulled the book out BEFORE I go.

But the major reason people go to the Greek festival is to eat.  Last night the gyro/souvlaki line went twice around the church and down the block.  And that was at 8 pm.  I bought a load of assorted baklava and decided to go to the Polish restaurant instead.  So, this morning I came back and the first slices of lamb were just hitting the grill.  That took care of lunch AND supper.

Sappy Cat Blogging

Two creatures joined by a common love of mice.  http://animalvideos.yahoo.com/video-detail?vid=25272362&cid=24037722

When I’m Gone

There’s no place in this world where I’ll belong when I’m gone
And I won’t know the right from the wrong when I’m gone
And you won’t find me singin’ on this song when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

And I won’t feel the flowing of the time when I’m gone
All the pleasures of love will not be mine when I’m gone
My pen won’t pour out a lyric line when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

And I won’t breathe the bracing air when I’m gone
And I can’t even worry ’bout my cares when I’m gone
Won’t be asked to do my share when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

And I won’t be running from the rain when I’m gone
And I can’t even suffer from the pain when I’m gone
Can’t say who’s to praise and who’s to blame when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

Won’t see the golden of the sun when I’m gone
And the evenings and the mornings will be one when I’m gone
Can’t be singing louder than the guns when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

All my days won’t be dances of delight when I’m gone
And the sands will be shifting from my sight when I’m gone
Can’t add my name into the fight while I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

And I won’t be laughing at the lies when I’m gone
And I can’t question how or when or why when I’m gone
Can’t live proud enough to die when I’m gone
So I guess I’ll have to do it while I’m here

Phil Ochs.

Blue Bloods

I’ve always had a soft spot for the horseshoe crab.  Limulus polyphemus, a living fossil, this beast has compound eyes, blue blood (it uses hemocyanin  for oxygen transport) and has been trucking right along since the late Ordovician period, unchanged for 250 million years.    Amoebacytes in their blood coagulate  in the presence of  bacterial endotoxin, and is widely used to test for bacterial contamination in injectable medications.  According to this article, liquid crystal droplets could replace horseshoe crab blood in a test for bacterial endotoxin.

QOTD

From the Earth Bound Misfit, about the sheriff’s shooting in AZ:

If the police want to retain the support of the people, they had better knock this shit off. For the day will come when we will strike back, legally, through the budget process and through the legislative process.

And from Tamara, on the same subject. :

 If your people weren’t dressing up like masked thugs and kicking doors down and shooting people, then robbers wouldn’t be able to impersonate your people by dressing up like masked thugs and kicking doors down and shooting people, in turn necessitating your people dressing up like masked thugs and kicking their doors down and shooting them.

Neat

So there I was, driving over the river on route 2, where I see not one, not two, but three lakers coming into the channel and under Conrail Lift Bridge #1  in line ahead formation.  This is still a neat town.

Why Didn’t I Think Of That?

It’s Friday, and a special edition of Sappy Cat Blogging.  A group of…people, based in Manhattan, is predicting the rapture at 1800 EDT on Saturday, 21st May.  For those not au courant, The Rapture is a doctrine held by dispensationalist branches of Protestantism, that believe in the ascension of the righteous (144,000 of them) to escape the troubles at the end times.  There is some disagreement about the Second Coming of Jesus, and the Antichrist, and all of that.

The thinking is heavily influenced by the Book of Revelation, and, in my opinion, hallucinogens.  But whatever, this is just one in a series of the “ends of the world as we know it”.  Most of them haven’t come off, see this list for details.  I first learned of it when I saw a bumper sticker “WARNING, In Case of Rapture, This Vehicle Will Be Unmanned.”  and I didn’t understand it until I asked around.   (Yes, I know that that bumper sticker is contradicted by Matt 20:16 and Matthew 6:6.  My car has a SNOOD bumper sticker, which tells you where my priorities are)

Be that as it may, some brilliant minds came up with Atheist Pet Rescue.  If you are concerned that no-one will look after your pets after the rapture, dedicated atheists will (for a fee, but you won’t need money if you’re raptured).  I hear they are doing a land-office business, and they raised their prices with the impending rapture.

Bloody brilliant.  Maybe I’m deficient in my faith, but if my companion animals aren’t coming with me eventually, I don’t wanna go.   I read somewhere that Heaven is where you are reunited with every dog you ever owned, and I really prefer that, thank you very much.

Sappy Cat Blogging

http://www.flixxy.com//cats-i-want.htm

Some Resources here, here, and HERE.  Go get yerself a kitty.