Monday Open Thread: December 31 is the first day of Hogmany


December 31 is the 365th day of the year
It is also Setting Orange, The Aftermath 73, 3184 YOLD (discordian)
And let us not forget 13.0.6.2.1 by the Mayan Long Count


Fireworks



For many of us, Hogmany is foreign and unknown. Luckily (or not) the USA population has an alternative. in 1975 somebody invented First Night. Running from "afternoon to midnight" this "holiday", where celebrated or practiced as the case may be, is a celebration of local culture. Not that the local culture in many parts of the US isn't also foreign and unknown. In fact, I, for one, am not at all comfortable with the idea of celebrating all of the nation's local cultures and can only imagine what might transpire at Confederate sacred sites, certain Yee Haw locales, assorted cults and the like, but a chacun son gout as they say.

Twenty years of schooling and they put you on the day shift, look out kid, ...

On this day in history:

1600 – The British East India Company was chartered, making this a truly dark day in history.
1759 – Arthur Guinness scored a 9,000 year lease at £45 per year and began making Guinness.
1878 – Karl Benz, filed for a patent on the first reliable two-stroke gas engine. He eventually got it
1879 – Edison first demonstrated incandescent lighting in public
1946 – Truman anticlimacticlly declared WWII over
1963 – The Central African Federation officially collapsed
1968 – The Tupolev Tu-144 became the first civilian supersonic transport.
1983 – The AT&T Bell System was broken up by the US government. Ah, those were the days.
1999 – Yeltsin, resigned, leaving Putin in charge.
1999 – The US gave control of the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Zone to Panama until we invade them again

Born this day in:

1491 – Jacques Cartier, an "explorer", famous for "claiming" Canada for France.
1720 – Charles Edward Stuart, Bonnie Prince Charlie". "the Young Pretender"
1763 – Pierre-Charles Villeneuve, Admiral in command of the combined fleets Nelson destroyed at Trafalgar
1830 – Isma'il Pasha, Khedive who modernized Egypt but lost the canal to Britain which had him deposed
1869 – Henri Matisse, painter and sculptor
1880 – George Marshall, general and Secretary of State
1905 – Helen Dodson Prince, astronomer
1909 – Jonah Jones, sax and trumpet player
1917 – Evelyn Knight, singer
1928 – Ross Barbour, pop singer, freshman
1930 – Odetta, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1942 – Andy Summers, guitarist, songwriter, and producer
1943 – John Denver, confused artist who got a Rocky Mountain high on a West Virginia country road
1943 – Pete Quaife, bassist, author, and artist
1947 – Rita Lee, singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress
1948 – Donna Summer, singer and songwriter
1951 – Tom Hamilton, bass player and songwriter
1977 – Psy, singer-, ongwriter, producer, and dancer

Died this day in:

1691 – Robert Boyle, chemist and physicist, pv=k.
1719 – John Flamsteed, asonomer
1877 – Gustave Courbet, painter and sculptor
1948 – Malcolm Campbell, speed freak and journalist
1968 – George Lewis, clarinettist and composer
1980 – Marshall McLuhan, media maven who was yet neither medium nor message
1985 – Ricky Nelson, singer, songwriter, guitarist, party-goer, and actor
1997 – Floyd Cramer, singer, songwriter, and pianist
2006 – Seymour Martin Lipset, sociologist and author
2008 – Donald E. Westlake, author
2015 – Natalie Cole, singer, songwriter, and actress

-

Holidays, Holy Days, Festivals, Feast Days, Days of Recognition, and such:

7th day of Christmas
6th day of Kwanzaa
1st day of Hogmany
First Night

-

-

Music goes here, iirc, well,

First Night? What About Last Night?

Bonnie Prince Charlie

Jonah Jones

Odetta

Peter Quaife

Rita Lee

Donna Summer

Tom Hamilton

Ricky Nelson

Floyd Cramer

Almost forgot Hogmany


-



-


Image is Fireworks by jdmoar and is public domain

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detroitmechworks's picture

The absence of drugs is not a virtue in and of itself.

For some people it's akin to announcing that they quit bathing. It won't be pleasant around them, they'll look for alternate ways to handle their problems, and it will be bad.

Course, I also know that the events are heavily watched by the pigs, because they're "Providing community support" or whatever the current propaganda term is for making sure that every one stays in line, properly.

Tonight I will be very high and smoking Pot. Every fucking year assholes decide that it would be a great time to set off fireworks. Making requests that they be toned down is considered anti-American apparently. (Seriously.) Yep. Of course, if I was ANY other group, this would be considered me expressing my needs, but instead, nope we've got to buckle down, man up and just roll with it. Don't be an attention whore. Don't suggest that anybody needs to change. Don't fucking rock the boat and draw attention to the fact that the WAR that is still going on has fucking consequences.

Standards? We've got TWO of them!

Fuck it, I need metal.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMfvO9mrmgo]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

@detroitmechworks
For some people it's akin to announcing that they quit bathing. It won't be pleasant around them, they'll look for alternate ways to handle their problems, and it will be bad.

Damn Man, give a guy a coffee warning when you drop shit like that! Now I gotta clean up, at least I missed the tablet.

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Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

enhydra lutris's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

detroitmechworks's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly I can never tell when my work will properly jive with someone's internal monologue to make something awesome. Wink

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

enhydra lutris's picture

@detroitmechworks
otherwise normally legal is simply stupid, pointless and insane. Loading up on cops is kind of out of it too. I get jumpy if I see too many of them out and about and in the crowd and such - too many memories and recollections and too much awareness that they re not on my side and are just looking for folks to roust.

Have a great day and evening at home with all the pot and metal you desire.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

detroitmechworks's picture

@enhydra lutris Found out today they can't indulge in any legal state, even off duty. Federal DOT regs.

Even if it's the best medication for the problem.

Ahh Hell with it. More pot and Metal!

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QImBolnTVH8]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

NCTim's picture

@detroitmechworks

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

Lookout's picture

May 2019 be the year of awakening and change...
and bring a cup of kindness to all!
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm1hwxc92Mo]

Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintances be forgotten,
And days of long ago!

For times gone by, my dear
For times gone by,
We will take a cup of kindness yet
For times gone by.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

enhydra lutris's picture

@Lookout
dropping in.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Night

I have no stake, one way or another, in First Night. However, I do know that one of the purposes behind First Night, as conceived in Boston, was saving some of the lives lost on New Year's Eve due to drunk driving. One buys a First Night button, which admits you to everything. Public transportation is free from about 7 pm until 2am. I've never been, but I know people who have, even taking kids of all ages, including tots bundled up in baby carriages and strollers.

Early in the evening, there is a fantastical parade with costumes, stilt walkers, etc. and plain ole people marching. In the parade, you may see various ethnic groups--almost always at least one Chinese group.

Incredible ice sculptures abound (see below). If it is cold enough, as it may not be tonight, people of all ages and skill levels ice skate on Boston's Frog Pond.

In Boston, anyway, what is meant by "local culture" is that local theater groups, folk musicians, choirs, the Boston Ballet etc. put on performances, either outdoors or in various venues around the city that open their doors for that purpose. I don't think anyone can take in all of it, so one picks and chooses from the schedule. It all culminates in fireworks at midnight.

So, instead of mum and dad hiring a babysitter and going out, probably to drink too much, it becomes a family late afternoon to evening or later, depending upon the age of the kids and their ability to keep their eyes open.

Tonight's schedule: https://www.firstnightboston.org/

What other cities have done with the concept, I have no idea.

Ice sculptures for this year are probably already on the internet, but here are some ice sculptures from past years:

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enhydra lutris's picture

@HenryAWallace
little cubes and goes in your drink. It does not belong on the ground, nor is it to be sculpted into items or admiration and adoration. Wink

Looks and sounds fabulous, though way too damn cold for me. When I wrote that, of course, my mind had immediately jumped to images and imaginings of certain parts of the deep south, midwest and cowboy fetish southwest upon seeing the phrase "local culture". Boston, OTOH, is well known for actually having some culture here and there, so the snark fits poorly.

Have a great day and a happy new year, and, for grins, since we're on about local culture, there's the culture club

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

@enhydra lutris

I also understand that something that begins with only the best intentions can get fouled up beyond all recognition. I just wanted to give you some hint of, as Scalia might have said, "The original intent."

As far as cold, some New Year's Eves in New England have been very cold; some have been so balmy that the poor ice sculptors have had to watch their brilliant works melt. Either way, the show, if not the ice sculptures, went on. However, I believe it was last year that the activities were curtailed because of extreme cold.

I once read on the cover of a catalogue "There is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes." And it was one of those things that hit me like a two by four--a real life lesson.

After that, I made sure I had the correct clothes for all weather in my climate and for every trip I was taking. If course, sometimes I look funny when I'm geared up for ten below. However, I am not cold.

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magiamma's picture

May good health, good friends and good music abound.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

Hot Air Website, Twitter, Facebook

enhydra lutris's picture

@magiamma
great one.
Feliz ano nuevo
ano nuevo.jpeg

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

magiamma's picture

@enhydra lutris lol. Good idea. Maybe I will go up there next weekend.

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Stop Climate Change Silence - Start the Conversation

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NCTim's picture

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

@NCTim
Have a great one.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

But not on the list. John Denver, died drunk flying. There is little romantic about WV. It is best experienced with pre-selected company.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

enhydra lutris's picture

@NCTim
things, had a summer day camp for kids on one part of the grounds. Every damn day the person running it closed with "country road". Drove me batshit. I was never really a fan, as you may have gleaned from his entry:

1943 – John Denver, confused artist who got a Rocky Mountain high on a West Virginia country road

His stuff was just too sugary for me at the time when it was popular. I was always waiting for his next song to go full Jesus on me.

Have a happy new year

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

NCTim's picture

@enhydra lutris I saw the entry. At least Toots Hibbert changed the words, to make the song work.

If a bomb hits this building today, John Denver's back on top.
- Paul Simon, We Are the World recording session -
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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim @NCTim

All those places he sang about are in VIRGINIA, NOT West Virginia. I camped and drove in the area many times; Appalachian Trail runs there. I know a lot of WVers, and they treat the song like an anthem, and always get annoyed when I point out that it's actually about Virginia, not WV. I REFUSE to learn it on banjo.

Easy to get confused there. I think Denver was loaded when they drove up from DC. Look at a map: all the state boundaries of VA, WV, MD, and PA are close and scrunched up. Weirdest state lines in the country; nearby, MD gets 2 miles wide. That's because the boundaries are mainly derived from a network of rivers in the Potomac watershed, and some Civil War politics. Plus the MD-PA boundary got adjusted in a piece of piracy by Wm Penn; it should have been farther north. Lot of old and interesting history there.

In any case, Hippy New Year, all!

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NCTim's picture

@pindar's revenge … spent 40 some odd years in western PA, and being a motorcycle guy, I have been all around those hills, streams and boundries. There is nothing quite like whipping a boxer through Smoke Hole on a crisp autumn day. Fog on Mount Storm is a nightmare. There is power plant with a warm lake that exacerbates the fog.

The part about the Blue Ridge used to always bother me, knowing that The Blue Ridge never is in WV.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim

Rough weather there, near the edge of the escarpment. I looked at a house next to that lake once, but that area's kinda poor-dreary, at least what I could afford. The area in the rain shadow of the escarpment's not as high and spectacular, but the weather's a hell of a lot milder, something like a 50% drop in precip over a few miles. Fog on the plateau like in Garrett County is scary; they always post a lot of warnings. At that altitude, you're in cloud layers.

Some tremendous views looking DOWN on the mountains driving east of Mount Storm.

I used to do a lot of backcountry hiking in Shenandoah. Beautiful, lush country. I've never been big on vehicles, rode a bike maybe twice, but my dad totaled a couple of Indians way back. Gave it up in middle age.

Are you in western NC? Some of the most beautiful places I've seen are in Transylvania County. Stunning, lush waterfalls. Western NC is fabulous. Best of the Appalachians (that I've seen). I always thought the isothermal would be a great place to get old.

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NCTim's picture

@pindar's revenge Western NC is quite lovely. I am fond of the ride up/down 93. It has a nice wiggle, with fast sweeping corners. And too, 72 along the Cheat River, between Parsons and 32. Up and down, round and round.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim

once told me they call it the Cheat River because it could cheat you of your life.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@pindar's revenge
day and a wonderful new year.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

TheOtherMaven's picture

@pindar's revenge @pindar's revenge

When West Virginia dug in its heels and refused to secede from the Union with the rest of Virginia - but to secede from Virginia instead - Frederick County, VA had to vote on which way to secede. They (and the rest of the Valley) actually had more in common with West Virginia, and still do, but came up just one or two votes short.

Turned out they could have saved themselves a lot of misery by voting the other way, but that's history for you.

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

NCTim's picture

@TheOtherMaven Voted not to secede, but the legislature was composed of land holders and slave holders who seceded anyway. Sherman's army wintered in Raleigh before their punitive march through SC and GA.

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@TheOtherMaven @TheOtherMaven

have more in common with VA. Look at Martinsburg. Plus, everything from Harpers Ferry to Shepherdstown is turning into a DC suburb now. Interesting, that WV was the only state created in the Civil War, in order to NOT secede from the US. Vote was iffy. They were a very different set of people from the slaveowning plantationers down towards Tidewater. At least til recently, WV still had the largest number of small family farms in the US. A lot of 20-40 acre farms. Hill country ain't conducive to plantations. Still, nowadays you see an awful lot of Confederate sycophancy, like in the Stonewall Jackson country.

This is one reason oldtime music evolved in the hills. Escaped slaves went there, and took their banjos. So you get this blend of African (banjo), German (dulcimer), and Celtic (fiddle). Modal tunes on clawhammer banjo are so haunting, like Bell's March. (it was on googletube)

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lotlizard's picture

@NCTim  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_%28LeRoy_novel%29

“Ramps” are North American wild leeks, scientific name Allium tricoccum.

Some rural localities hold annual “ramp festivals.”

http://richwooders.com/ramp/ramps.htm

Because the word “ramp” means “disaster” in Dutch, when I do a web search on “ramp festival” a lot of the items returned have something to do with disasters that happened at a festival, such as the Duisburg Love Parade where 21 people died.

Since search engines distort their findings based on what Google and accomplices think they know about you, I’d be interested to know whether that also happens for readers who, unlike me, have never visited the Netherlands or used Dutch-language software.

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@lotlizard
Boiled ramps, ramp home fries, ramp eggs, ramp meatcake, ramp spaghetti, even sweet ramp cake! Loved 'em all. Got a few small patches started, they take a long time to establish. Very delicious, but you'll reek of ramps for a couple days. I think they have all the medicinal properties of garlic. I started a local practice of drying and saving the tops, which people usually just threw out.

There's a related English word, ramson, for a wild leek in England; they just carried a version of the word over here.

I never use google, any of their services. For anything. So I've never seen the effect you describe. duckduckgo, startpage.

I love Appalachian plants. Ramps, spicebush, ginseng, goldenseal, morels, hen of the woods, chicken of the woods, pawpaw are some biggies

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lotlizard's picture

@pindar's revenge  
magazine in the mail as part of the BSA membership package deal.

Most of the nature lore, like what plants in the wild are edible in a survival situation and how delicious pawpaws are, or geology and archaelogy, like being on the lookout for Indian arrowheads in the soil, didn’t apply in Hawaii . . .

My whole life I’ve been wondering what pawpaws taste like.

The gamut of ramp festival food sounds delightful. In Germany, there’s a wild-growing plant Bärenlauch (literally “bear leek,” Allium ursinum) that is somewhat similar but definitely not the same.

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@lotlizard

which is one reason they fell out of favor. I describe the taste as being like a cross between mango and banana. Wild ones have slight bitter aftertaste. They're a relict from a previous tropical phase of the climate.

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lotlizard's picture

@pindar's revenge  
So Google is collecting data about one and one’s interests and building a profile whenever one looks at anything on YouTube. In theory, Google already knows whenever one loads a page with an embedded YouTube video on it, whether one ever actually clicks on and watches the video or not.

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@lotlizard

how much exposure embedded tubes give you to corporate spying. I read this thru Tor with Noscript on; the embedded tube spaces just show up as white space.
I used to love utube before g@@gle bouught it.

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@NCTim
and the Maytals with Dr. John and John Mayall once. Fabulous concert.

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Raggedy Ann's picture

Staying home with a delightful dinner and bottle of wine. It's a frozen tundra outside. After our storm on Friday, we are now getting above the mid-20's until Sunday - maybe. Another storm is coming in tonight until tomorrow late night. Best to stay in.

I'll probably be asleep before midnight, but perhaps only to nap and be awake enough to toast the new year. We'll see, anything is possible!

Have a beautiful day, everyone! Pleasantry Drinks

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

enhydra lutris's picture

@Raggedy Ann
at home with some fine homemade sourdough and a French triple creme brie some wonderful wind and a French champagne. Today, we go walk at the lake and then go look for an acceptable kitchen faucet, (ours will die within the week) maybe followed by a quick lunch out, probably fish tacos nad Negra Modelo at a little local place we love.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

Raggedy Ann's picture

@enhydra lutris
Enjoy! Cheers! Drinks

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"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

detroitmechworks's picture

As expressed in two songs. Everybody else, enjoy your time, stay safe, and may this year be considerably better than the first half of the last one. (I had a GOOD second half of the year, but then I also turned off social media for the most part in August...)

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH2tX0Q3U0o]
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvRZxn7e3hc]

Edit: ACK! SOrry about the double post here. Meant this to go into another diary and had the wrong tab open.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

NCTim's picture

@detroitmechworks

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

smiley7's picture

Home nursing a slightly pulled back muscle. Think i'll cook up a gumbo this afternoon.

Hey Denver has a different connotation for me as when i hear him, rarely now-a-days, i think of an old girlfriend, a guitar player who sang his songs. He did possess a beautiful voice.

Anyways, going to be a quiet evening here.

Big thank you for your OT's this year and hoping the best for you in health, travels and all things in 2019.

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@smiley7
Medicinal spices.

Yeah, some of his early stuff about passing the bowl around the campfire reminded me of good times on the Appalachian Trail, but note my comment about his geographic dizziness. The Orioles used Country Boy for stadium music, and got a lot of pushback from the black community.

Have a great New Year's! And check out this New Year cartoon on The Nib:
https://thenib.com/break-out-the-yodelling-and-mulled-wine-it-s-saint-si...
Almost sounds like Krampus was there.

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smiley7's picture

@pindar's revenge @pindar's revenge
turmeric, use those often.

Love the Trail, maybe you will enjoy this excerpt from an old magazine story:

Moving scenes of past enchantments played out as visions of trail towns rolled by: the restored Bennington, Vt., full of artists, educated and friendly people; camping by the river in the outfitter's backyard in the Berkshires with the church steeples of North Adams poking through the mountains; pillaging through the bookstore in the ritzy little town of Kent. Conn.--sipping coffee and reading for hours; picking the free fruits of the ultimate trail town, Palmerton, Pa....
[and] laughing with the good-ole-boys while enjoying the regenerative water in Hot Springs, N.C., where the AT is Main Street.

Her sleep deepened and the dream changed from black and white to color. Laughter faded to opera--dah de rah, splendera'. "Are you going to the Mayor's house, the thick mustached pick-up driver barked from his window on the unpainted road?" She was in Unionville, N.Y. again in the modest living room of the ex-mayor eating hamburgers and French fries with the chain-smoking Butch and Bill and watching a video playing an aria, "Nessun dorma," from Giacomo Puccini's Turandot. The mayor cried. As the music crescendoed, her lips moved, singing "Vincero, Vincero, I will win, I will win, I will win."
.......
"We all walk life's trail to the end. Some fall a lot, some race through, some timidly step, many are handicapped from the beginning; others are along the way; most follow the leader and into hell quite often. A few go it alone."

Happy New Year!

edited for duplication

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@smiley7

I passed a blind man doing the whole trail, once.

I slept on the bank of the potomac one night, about 100 yards from where, two weeks later, they grabbed the Trail Killer on the bridge. I had stopped in the shelter where he later raped and murdered a couple, and stole their backpacking gear: prison escapee planning to hike away. This added a very dark edge to a lot of great memories, like having ripe pawpaws rain on us hiking down South Mountain, and all the times hikers would greet and party together in the woods, then go their way, and spending nights in the old campground on the Potomac wading in the nighttime river, and the morning the river was covered in spirals of mist like a flock of ghosts, and sleeping in a field of sweet annie with it's wonderful fragrance...

I did a lot of short trips in most of the southern half. Thanks for that moving paragraph. The Trail is one of our great national treasures.

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@smiley7

Chances are you already know, but it can't hurt to add: use black pepper along with turmeric. It greatly increases the absorption of the active chemical. Many but not all curry mixes contain black pepper.
I always feel less pain after eating curry.

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NCTim's picture

@pindar's revenge

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The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. - Friedrich Nietzsche -

@NCTim

Cayenne - any hot pepper - is good for pain, and other things. I use a roll-on capsaicin salve sometimes.

For my favorite word on all things herbal medicine, look into the many fine books by Dr. James Duke, who died 12/10/17, age 88.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245977.The_Green_Pharmacy

https://thegreenfarmacygarden.com/jim-and-peggy-duke/

He was a hell of a musician, too, played classical, jazz, country, bluegrass. He never used a tuner, didn't need one, tuned by ear to concert pitch. Recorded in the 30's (?) with Homer Brierhopper, and did a bluegrass album about 30 years ago, including songs about ginseng and wintergreen. There used to be a lot of stuff on googletube featuring him and his son John Duke.

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snoopydawg's picture

@pindar's revenge

hot pepper - is good for pain

I used to have horrible pain in my jaw from it not being set right and I would get horrible headaches on top of that. Eating hot tamales the candy helped it immensely. I tried the Mike's and Ike's but it did nothing for it. Maybe it's because they were hot? Whatever it was they worked.

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@snoopydawg

is hot from cinnamon.
Many common spices are ancient medicinal plants. You see the letters USP on a lot of medicines? That refers to US Pharmacopeia, an official catalog of medicines. Until mostly mid 20th cen, it was mostly plants, iirc.

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snoopydawg's picture

@pindar's revenge

I bought them by the bagfulls to keep that insidious pain at bay and never understood why they worked. Gum, chicken, mike and Ike's and a few other things flared it up, but they worked like a charm. I'm going to have try and see if they work on pain elsewhere.

Anyone else use to put toothpicks in cinnamon oil and suck on them? I wonder if I could find it again and try using it this way. Less calories.

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enhydra lutris's picture

@smiley7
happy new year.

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --