OT WE 29 OCT 25 ~ Fall
Submitted by QMS on Wed, 10/29/2025 - 6:50am
~
Crisp Autumn Air
~
A couple of random lines.
The ever evolving tapestry in my mind is a never ending loop of images of
places, people, land and sea scapes permanently etched in memory.
the increasingly desperate defense of comfortable illusions
~
https://newengland.com/weekends_with_yankee/episode-112-fall-color/fall-...
Open thread so give it a go.
Comments
Good morning Cap'n Q, thanx for the OT.
Sometimes the only good things are memories,. It is, as you note, Fall,but many a religionista will tell you that it is always "after the fall". Fall brings us Halloween named after a fake holiday invented specifically to co-opt the underlying pagan celebration. It also brings Tanks+gibbons, or, to some, thanksgiving, which, to many, is Turkey Day. Yestidday I awoke wondering once again how the hell that bird got that name and quickly learned some interesting information.
The Turkey is called that because it was mistaken for over-sized guinea fowl. WHUT? It seems that guinea fowl were introduced into Europe proper via a trade route that ran around the eastern Mediterranian through ye near/middle east and thence west across the Bosphorus. Since they came through what the Euroids then called Turkey, they was deemed to have come from Turkey and were given the name "Turkey-Cock(s)". In time that was shortened to Turkey(s). Later, Conquistadores brought back some Turkeys from the Americas (I suspect Ocellated Turkeys initially, but could easily be in error there). The Euroids deemed these to be simply over-sized Turkey-Cocks, or Turkeys, and called them such. All these Turkeys were domesticated, in Europe, prior to 1550 or so. (Whether or not the Euroids were themselves domesticated by that date is an open question, but not relevant here) At any rate, the Euroids decided that these were not all the same bird after all (possibly because they didn't interbreed, or because they came from different continents, but I have no info on that matter). They then renamed the smaller Turkeys "Guinea-Fowl" based on a hunch that they came from "Guinea" as the Portuguese then called Western Africa. That left the larger birds from the Americas in sole possession of the name Turkeys. As we know, in the intervening years, the name has also been applied to various and sundry humanoids, based on behavioral similarities and other factors.
So, two Brits are riding on a train and one asks the other "is this Wembly". The other says "No, it is Thursday", to which the first replies "So am I, let's go get a drink", but, in fact, it really is Wembly, 10/29, two days short of the eve of the non-holiday.
No, I have no idea how that gourd came to be called a pumpkin, so you can rest easy.
be well and have a good one
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 --
First good hard freeze
of the season last night, got down to 21degF. We stripped all the green tomatoes last week, and they are sitting in a single layer under kraft paper in cardboard boxes in the garage, to ripen as they will. With a little luck, we'll get a few ripe tomatoes here and there over the winter.
Just found out that the project I've been working on for my employer is being reassigned to the only other experienced engineer remaining at the company, now that practically everyone else has left, so I'm not sure that I actually have a job any more. I guess at this point I'll just see when the paychecks stop getting direct-deposited.
Hurricane Melissa is back offshore, having cleared Cuba, with max winds at 100kt and a central pressure of 974mb. She lost a lot of strength over land and overnight, but the day is young- we'll see how much she plumps back up over the course of the day.
Looks like the government of Venezuela is well and truly hacked off at the government of Trinidad and Tobago for hosting the US Navy, here during the runup to Trump's voluntary oil war. Well, given my experience in Trinidad, maybe they'll put a coat of paint on the USS Gravely pictured there- she looks pretty damned rusty, at this point. Maybe they'll give her a little TLC for the cameras before she goes and blows up part of Venezuela. https://archive.ph/h0wLL
I see that the Cheeto fired all the people responsible for "approving" his plans for the Arc d'Trump egosturbation monument, so I'm sure that it will get built at ruinous expense despite everything else going on. Funny how the money gets allocated, innit?
Not a fan. My problem, at this point, is that I'm having a hard time finding anything whatsoever of which I'm still a fan. This will definitely be the winter of our discontent.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Good late morning...
Been raining most of the night and all day so far. It is a gentle rain, about 0.7" so far.
Should help the winter ryegrass, as well as the color developing. Nice colors so far this fall, and should intensify as we move through time.
Hope all is well in your world. Thanks for the OT!
Pepe Escobar: Iran Arms Up, Russia Warns, and China Makes Its MOVE!
(66 min)
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
And to top it off, it would appear
that AWS is having major problems yet again: the CAD tool I depend upon just seized up, Office 365 is wedged, and https://downdetector.com is reporting more widespread outages.
Time to take an early lunch, I guess.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.