I Am The Cool One

NO!

wine-in-a-glass, originally uploaded by eater_ny.

Really, do we need single serve wine in a glass.

What An Asshole

Congressman Bob Etheridge. Just smacks some college kid asking a question.
Update: It appears that this was from a conservative operation trying to make the congressman look bad and it did. I should have noticed that the kids faces are obscured. It is also not known whether they asked if he blew goats with Micky Kaus first. Or asked if he had sex with dogs and Rick Santorum, who always prays after dog sex. His priests say it is OK as long as they are male puppies.

Still the congressman should have handled the situation better.

Update: Glenn is of course right. He should be arrested. The Congressman. He also has a link to a unedited second camera. He comes across as an asshole. As for the earlier speculation it is out there and it would be irresponsible not to speculate.

Bourdain On Pollan

A good Q&A with Anthony Bourdain.

Well, it might not be the best place to go looking for nuance. But what about people who do have more nuanced views on food? What do you think about all these inquiries into the ethics of eating—Michael Pollan's work, for instance, or Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals? You've been rather vicious toward vegetarians in the past.

Pollan is hunting big game, in the sense that he's wrestling with big issues. I think he's discussing them in a way that allows for honest disagreement. He's not an absolutist. I think he's a very valuable addition to the discussion. Safran Foer, while I liked the book, I disagree completely with it. I don't understand how we can acknowledge the importance of the human dimension of turkey dinner yet forgo it anyway. I guess it's just a question of priorities.

An Oily Mess

A short video of where the oil will go. It is not pretty.

Bay Area Ridge Trail

Long Ridge Open Space Preserve, originally uploaded by vincezammit.

I have never heard of the Bay Area Ridge Trail but it looks just gorgeous. Mercury News has a nice piece about the trail.

The plan is ambitious: a 550-mile-long trail for hikers, horse riders and bicyclists, complete with campsites, scenic vistas, mountain ranges and forests.

It's still unknown to many of the Bay Area's 7 million residents.

But the Bay Area Ridge Trail, begun as a far-off dream by a few parks lovers more than 20 years ago, is slowly taking shape.

The project aims to connect and preserve a vast corridor of wildness in one of America's most populous regions, from the Wine Country to Silicon Valley, from the East Bay hills to the ridgelines of the Santa Cruz Mountains — a 21st-century Pacific Crest Trail for urban residents who spend so much of their lives in traffic and in front of computers

Bear Mountain Steps

Trail Steps up Bear Mountain, originally uploaded by JiBryant.

The NY/NJ Trail Conference has finished the Appalachian Trail section of their Bear Mountain Project. Yea and thank you!

A good thing about Bear Mountain is that millions of people can get to it. A bad thing is that millions of people can get to it. So over the years, the trails have been rebuilt and relocated many times. By the 1990s, it was clear that the Bear Mountain section of the trail, used by a half-million people a year, needed to be rebuilt again. The solution, drawn up primarily by Mr. Walsh and another trail designer, Peter Jensen, was an impossibly ambitious series of steps and walkways supported by native stone.

It would last, one hoped, forever. It would keep neophytes on the trail instead of bounding out into the woods. It would work for urban hikers showing up in tennis shoes and flip-flops, as well as for serious long-haul hikers. And it would be a challenge to build.

That section has always had too much pressure.

BP

BP's new ad campaign.

BP Sucks

bp sucks, originally uploaded by pure evil gallery.

Rachel Corrie Attacked

HIGH RES MV-Rachel-Corrie NAME ON SIDE, originally uploaded by freegazaorg.

The Irish humanitarian aid ship Rachel Corrie was attacked along with five other ships in the flotilla. The Rachel Corrie was named after American activist Rachel Corrie who was killed by Israeli Defense Forces as she tried to protect a Palestinian home.

We need to stop supporting the Israeli government. The Israeli blockade of the Gaza strip is a war crime. It needs to end.

Update: I am not sure witch ships were attacked Juan Cole is reporting it was the Turkish ship Marmara. His post is worth reading.

Look For The Union Label

When you are buying.... POT.

Sunday Food Links

Beervana in Portland.

Some ideas for a picnic. Tis the season.

Alice Waters

New Dale Jr vending machine burger. Never the season.

Mentos Coke Zero rocket car with video teaser.

Uh oh! Bad wheat virus in Africa.

Dennis Hopper RIP

Dennis Hopper passed on today. This is the first part of a BBC documentary. Double click the video to see the rest.

Freedom!

A Swiss man is fighting for the right to hike nude.

A Swiss rambler, 47, struck a blow for freedom yesterday when he went to court to uphold his right to roam the Alps in his birthday suit.

A court in the canton of Appenzell — famous for its cheese and stunning vistas — found itself in the glare of the world’s media as it heard the rambler’s appeal against a fine for baring all on the peaks.

The man, unnamed to protect his privacy, had refused to pay a SwFr100 (£60) fine after he was caught walking in nothing more than his boots. His case is seen as a landmark for nudist rights across Europe.

In this country they wuld probably charge you as a sex offender.

Proper Booming

Not safe for work.

Full Moon!

HDR Full moon V2.0, originally uploaded by Jairo .

Full Moon!

$4,300 Per Barrel

BP could be fined $4.300 per barrel spilled. No wonder they are down playing the amount that is gushing into the Gulf Of Mexico. That could mean well over 10 billion dollars so far. We need to get sientists down there with the equipment to monitor the gusher now!

Wednesday Food Links

Mark Bittman has a nice take on a pork burger for Memorial day. I bet it would be good with this mustard. Check out the intro to Mark's burger video, where he channels his inner Blue Man.

Artisanal food Is helping the economy in Hardwick VT.

Fermentation is our friend. Vanilla beans need to be fermented to gain it's wonderful aroma. Fruit vinegars. Wines of Argentina come of age. Texas is the fifth largest producer of wine in the US. Quick name the four states that produce more. Jill makes sauerkraut.

Marion Nestle has a good round up of articles discussing the problems of small meat producers.

Haitian farmers vow to burn Monsanto's Genetically modified seeds.

Grocery stores segregated by peoples weight. Not fatties at Whole Foods.

Bone Marrow Pizza.

Anthony Bordain calls the Tea Partiers, "a lot of marginal, very angry white people." With video.

Sunday Food Links On Monday

Big Ag is upset that the little farmers are getting 65 million from the know your farmer program despite 5 billion in commodities subsidies the last two years and 7 billion in crop insurance. Boo Hoo.

California farmers are donating to AR's Blanche Lincoln. They know who butters their bread.

Good news for small farm producers in New York. They are got a mobile slaughter house.

Research is being done with African rice to increase yields. Most breeding modifications have been done with Asian rice. African rice yields only about 40% of Asian rice. None too soon, I say.

Why does asparagus make make your .... well you know.

From the Pentagon: how to make a brownie in 26 pages.

Who knew cherry blossoms were edible?

Oil Slick cake. Thanks BP.

Perfect Precedence

I believe the media has stopped drinking BP's oil. They are going to start telling it like it is, especially in the gulf coast states.

If some scientists, who say BP and the U.S. Coast Guard are underestimating how much oil is leaking now, are right, the current gusher could easily eclipse the demise of Ixtoc I in the Bay of Campeche. By their count, instead of the 210,000 gallons leaking per day, it's more like 4 million.

``Everybody keeps saying the spill in the Gulf is unprecedented,'' said geologist John Amos, president and founder of SkyTruth, a nonprofit that investigates environmental issues using satellite images. ``That is such bull----t. We had perfect precedence.''

THE IXTOC I

When the Ixtoc I burst into flames on June, 3, 1979, Wes Tunnell and other researchers had to figure out how long it would take the current to carry the oil, in one form or another, 600 miles to south Texas.

``We projected that it would reach the Texas coast in about two months. It exactly did,'' he said. By August, ``it coated the Texas beaches in a ribbon of oil 30 to 50 feet in width from Rio Grande to Port Aransas.''

Months If Not Years

BP's uncontrolled gusher is going to take a long time to fix if it gets fixed.

For those saddened by the scenes of thick oil washing into Louisiana's coastal wetlands a month after the BP oil disaster began, experts on oil spills and the coastal ecosystem have some advice: Get used to it.

The crews mopping up oil on beaches and marsh shorelines this week are fighting just the first of what will probably be a series of rolling skirmishes that will last for months, if not years -- even after the runaway well is finally capped. In fact, the untold millions of gallons of oil already fouling the Gulf off the Louisiana coast could stay in the area for at least a decade, and on the sea floor for more than 100 years.

Really Uncontrolled Gusher!

Most "News Papers" are reporting that the Gusher in the Gulf of Cheney is gushing about 5,000 barrels of oil a day or about 210,000 gallons a day. BP is claiming their 4 inch tube stuck in the uncontrolled 21 inch tube is collecting about 5,000 barrels of oil a day. Except it is not getting all the oil.

McClatchy is reporting that it may be 19 times larger than has been reported.

The latest glimpse of video footage of the oil spill deep under the Gulf of Mexico indicates that around 95,000 barrels, or 4 million gallons, a day of crude oil may be spewing from the leaking wellhead, 19 times the previous estimate, an engineering professor told Congress Wednesday.

Now lets get out our handy NPR oil gusher calculator.

If you adjust the leak meter to 4 million you will find that as of Thursday morning BP has leaked 129 million gallons and counting or more than ten Exxon Valdez spills.

Original Shelter Peter's Mountain shelter, originally uploaded by cheflovesbeer.

The Appalachian Trail Museum at Pine Grove State Forest(PA} has reassembled this shelter in the museum.

The resurrection of the Earl Shaffer Shelter is nearing its completion inside the soon-to-open Appalachian Trail Museum at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

The three-sided log structure, which sheltered Appalachian Trail hikers atop Peters Mountain for over 40 years before it was dismantled two years ago, will be a centerpiece exhibit in the museum, set to open on June 5 in conjunction with National Trails Day.

The over 50 pieces of the last remaining hiker shelter built by Earl Shaffer, the York-area native who in 1948 became the first man to complete the entire Appalachian Trail in one hike

I spent the night in this shelter in my 2001 thru-hike.

Still Uncontrolled Gusher

Its bad you know!

Haute Stoner Cuisine

This is kind of funny.

“There has been an entire strata of restaurants created by chefs to feed other chefs,” Mr. Bourdain said. “These are restaurants created specially for the tastes of the slightly stoned, slightly drunk chef after work.”

A video of some chefs in action.

Public Option

pizza hut

Giant Lucy Pez Dispenser

Giant Peanuts Lucy w/Music Pez Dispenser, originally uploaded by candymachines.com.

The inventor of the Pez Dispenser has died. RIP Curtis Allina.

blue moon over manhattan

blue moon over manhattan, originally uploaded by atomicshark.

Full Moon!

The Grinch

Christmas In A Beer Joint

Via

Happy Christmas

Killer Ukulele solo here.More. Two Ukes.

Happy Christmas

I wish war was over.

Christmas Wrapping

The Waitresses

Christians And The Pagans

Today is the winter solstice. Here is a video of Dar live.

Happy Solstice!

Republicanisms

Maha has this perfect insight of the republican party.

But now the body politic is infested with some sort of social pathology called “movement conservatism,” which is neither responsible nor rational and exists, like a virus, merely to replicate itself. Although there are many vested interests pulling its strings, ultimately movement conservatism is a brainless organism that is killing its host.

Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

Dr Elmo.

Walmart Christmas

NSFW

Christmas At K-Mart

Root Boy Slim

If The People Lead The Politicians Will Follow

Tim Rutton in the LA Times.

The real reason the City Council is having such a hellish time coming to grips with this issue is that this is one of those areas where social attitudes and thinking simply have moved beyond conventional legal thinking or, for that matter, the permissible language of politics. Medical marijuana was, from the start, a back door to legalization, and now it's swung wide open.

Bing And Bowie

Little Drummer Boy/ Peace On Earth

Legalize It

It seems California will have a vote on legalizing marijuana.

Advocates of legalizing marijuana say they've collected more than enough signatures to have California voters decide next year whether to tax and regulate the drug.

The signatures in support of the Tax and Regulate Initiative, which would give local governments the authority to tax and regulate the sale of marijuana, will be submitted to state election officials early next year for verification.

Delaying the submission of signatures ensures the measure would be on the November 2010 ballot, said Richard Lee, the measure's chief supporter.

The petition drive collected more than 680,000 signatures in just two months, less than half the time allowed for such a drive, said Lee, who owns Oaksterdam University and Coffeeshop Blue Sky, two Oakland-based marijuana businesses.

They Got Me

A new record on the Appalachian Trail.

I trekked the trail with no major problems and as soon as I got to the end I turned around and hiked right back. The truth is I hiked the Appalachian Trail from east to west. It took me nearly three ... minutes.

Good Story

Utah Phillips

What is a pacifist?

Cows With Guns

Helen Thomas National Treasure

Has some advice for President Obama.

Remember, the generals work for you. Think about how Harry Truman once proved the point. He had just fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur for publicly disagreeing with his policy against expanding the Korean War into China.

Truman elaborated on the decision for reporters in his typically blunt fashion:

"I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son-of-a-bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."

We do not need war. We need health care!

Do Not Care

The GOP plan is to do nothing because they do not care about you.

Fife And Drum

Rollin and Tumblin

I'll be tumblin If I do not sleep soon!

It's Bad You Know

More RL Burnside.

Ass Pocket Of Whiskey

Still wanna sleep.

Just Wanna Sleep

Rotted Fruit

Robert Borosage.

Recovery requires fundamental reform of America's economic strategy. The old shibboleths of the conservative era—shrink government, cut top-end taxes, free multinationals to move jobs abroad, deregulate finance, wage war on labor unions, declare that trade deficits don't matter —have failed ignominiously. They must be discarded, like yesterday's rotted fruit.

Where will the jobs come from?

Failure!

The war on drugs is a failure. How long can we keep this conservative failure going? We can no longer afford prohibition. An op/ed in the NYT.

The problem is becoming so dramatic that elder statesmen, senior law enforcement officers, intellectuals and philanthropists the world over are speaking out loud and clear: The “War on Drugs” is a disastrous policy that achieves none of its aims and inflicts huge damage on global security and governance wherever it is prosecuted.

They argue that state regulation of the drug market would reduce the health and social risks posed by narcotics and generate huge tax revenues, which could be hypothecated to absorb any costs. At the moment, the vast profits from the illegal drug trade go into the pockets of organized crime syndicates and terrorist groups.

Solar Forest

Ths should be required on all mall parking lots.

Origin Of Stupidity

The Xristian Xrazies are giving out copies of Darwin's Origin Of Species with a special prebuttal argument. Here is a rebuttal.

The Man Can Set You Up!

Be Careful out there.It is a funny video, but scary too! Do not let yourself get set up.
Via Constitutional Scholar Jonathan Turley.

Help Wanted!

Via the Telegraph.co.uk/

I will pay you $1 to sit in my bathtub full of noodles while you wear a one piece bathing suit. I will not be home, nor will anyone else while you do this. I will leave the key for you, and you will sit at your leisure. DO NOT bring any sauce. I will season the pasta after I return home prior to dinner."

Click the link for other interesting Graig's list adds.

Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day

The five A's.

Warming

Warmest August ever.

RIP Mary Travers

Mary Travers from the great folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary has died from cancer. Their album Peter, Paul and Mommy was an important part of my childhood. Here is every kids favorite, Puff (the Magic Dragon).

Wow!

Almost a million Americans were arrested for marijuana last year. That is almost a third of 1%of Americans were arrested for marijuana.

Police arrested 847,864 persons for marijuana violations in 2008, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total marks a three percent decrease in marijuana arrests from 2007, when law enforcement arrested a record 872,721 Americans for cannabis-related violations, but still remains the second highest tally of annual arrests ever reported.

Marijuana arrests now comprise one-half (49.8 percent) of all drug arrests reported in the United States.

Amazing. What a waste of time and money.

Food Care

Michael Pollan on how food affects health care.

But so far, food system reform has not figured in the national conversation about health care reform. And so the government is poised to go on encouraging America’s fast-food diet with its farm policies even as it takes on added responsibilities for covering the medical costs of that diet. To put it more bluntly, the government is putting itself in the uncomfortable position of subsidizing both the costs of treating Type 2 diabetes and the consumption of high-fructose corn syrup.[...]
As for the insurers, you would think preventing chronic diseases would be good business, but, at least under the current rules, it’s much better business simply to keep patients at risk for chronic disease out of your pool of customers, whether through lifetime caps on coverage or rules against pre-existing conditions or by figuring out ways to toss patients overboard when they become ill.[...]
The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

I wonder if the rules will ever take effect.

We Can Not Afford To Wait

Try This At Home

Go for it!

Food Should Go Bad!

But McDonald's food does not. I once spilled an order of fries on the floor of my truck while driving. I figured I would clean them up when they started to smell. They never did. That sat on the floor for a year and a half before I cleaned the truck up. Here is a list of reasons why you should not eat at McDonald's.

9. For those who enjoy sex, take note: erectile dysfunction is connected to endothelial dysfunction. Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me commented that his normally healthy sexual function deteriorated in just one month when he ate only food from McDonald’s. Even his girlfriend commented on camera that “he’s having a hard time, you know, getting it up.”

Via Susie.

In The Crapper

Outhouse Interior, originally uploaded by Wally_Wabbit.

I have heard stories about snakes in out houses. I never really believed a snake would come out of the pit and bite me in the ass. But I never thought someone might be down there.

PORTLAND — When Gary Moody pleaded no contest to trespassing in 2005 for hiding in a pit toilet on White Mountain National Forest property in New Hampshire, a judge urged him to seek help for whatever had driven him to climb down there.

According to a new complaint, Moody didn't get the message.

The 49-year-old Pittston man is charged again – this time in federal court – with climbing into a pit toilet in the White Mountain National Forest.

The guy has problems. But hey, he never took pictures or video. Not very entrepreneurial, I am sure there is a market for that crap on the internet.

Mercury In Every Fish Tested

From The NYT.

When government scientists went looking for mercury contamination in fish in 291 streams around the nation, they found it in every fish they tested, the Interior Department said, even in isolated rural waterways.[...]
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the findings underlined the need to act against mercury pollution. Emissions from coal-fired power plants are the largest source of mercury contamination in the United States.

Good Beer Is Good Buiseness

Craft beer sales are up despite the economy.

National sales of craft beer — an increasingly large part of Colorado’s economy — rose 9 percent in the first half of 2009 despite the economic downturn, the Boulder-based Brewers Association reported Monday.

The volume of craft beer produced nationally also rose by 5 percent from the first half of 2008, though year-over-year overall U.S. beer sales fell by 1.3 percent during that time period, the association reported.

Crash Your Clunkers

Handsome Johnny

Ritchie Havens. The message is just as true today.

Woodstock

Woodstock was 40 years ago.

You Can Not Negotiate With The Crazy

Rick Perlstein in the WaPo writes.

t used to be different. You never heard the late Walter Cronkite taking time on the evening news to "debunk" claims that a proposed mental health clinic in Alaska is actually a dumping ground for right-wing critics of the president's program, or giving the people who made those claims time to explain themselves on the air. The media didn't adjudicate the ever-present underbrush of American paranoia as a set of "conservative claims" to weigh, horse-race-style, against liberal claims. Back then, a more confident media unequivocally labeled the civic outrage represented by such discourse as "extremist" -- out of bounds.

The tree of crazy is an ever-present aspect of America's flora. Only now, it's being watered by misguided he-said-she-said reporting and taking over the forest. Latest word is that the enlightened and mild provision in the draft legislation to help elderly people who want living wills -- the one hysterics turned into the "death panel" canard -- is losing favor, according to the Wall Street Journal, because of "complaints over the provision."

Good thing our leaders weren't so cowardly in 1964, or we would never have passed a civil rights bill -- because of complaints over the provisions in it that would enslave whites.

You have to know you are right and do the right thing. The Republicans have no intention of bargaining in good faith. Here is Digby

Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak were interviewed yesterday at NN by Susie Madrak and Ari Melber. Specter made some news when he revealed that from the beginning the Republicans had circulated among themselves that they were going to "break Obama" --- and it didn't originate over health care, but even before the stimulus. They never had any intention of acting in good faith. This didn't surprise me either. But it certainly seems to have surprised the administration, or at least they thought they could win them over anyway. But they can't.

Sad To Hear

Several hikers have died.
One in the Grand Canyon

The 18-year-old was among a group of eight hikers that ran out of water while hiking the Shinumo Wash route.

Though few details are available pending investigation and notification of next of kin, the National Park Service states that rafters on the Colorado River were flagged down on Thursday by the group from the cliffs above the river, telling them that they were out of water and needed help.

One in the Sierra

20-year-old Cherie Hamilton disappeared Tuesday afternoon, after leaving a trail during a day hike near Wishon Lake.
More info

One on the Pacific Crest Trail.

An 80-year-old Puyallup man was found dead on the Pacific Crest trail in Skamania County Thursday.

Hikers found the body of Albert Mader at about 10:50 a.m. and notified sheriff’s deputies, according to a news release from the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office.

My condolences to their friends and family.

Republican Hissy Fits

That is what they are good at. Krugman on health care.

Some of us were skeptical. A couple of months after Mr. Obama gave that speech, I warned that his vision of a “different kind of politics” was a vain hope, that any Democrat who made it to the White House would face “an unending procession of wild charges and fake scandals, dutifully given credence by major media organizations that somehow can’t bring themselves to declare the accusations unequivocally false.”

So, how’s it going?

Sure enough, President Obama is now facing the same kind of opposition that President Bill Clinton had to deal with: an enraged right that denies the legitimacy of his presidency, that eagerly seizes on every wild rumor manufactured by the right-wing media complex.

This opposition cannot be appeased. Some pundits claim that Mr. Obama has polarized the country by following too liberal an agenda. But the truth is that the attacks on the president have no relationship to anything he is actually doing or proposing.

There is no lie that the conservative media will not repeat.

Fidel Castro

Fidel Castro, originally uploaded by etchasketchist.

Today is Fidel's birthday

McPork In Japan

McPork in Japan　(日本のマックポーク), originally uploaded by CharleyMarley.

You know you want one.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Kings Canyon- Sequoia National Park.

I'm sorry to report there was yet another national park death this week. This one was a bit closer to home, at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. Kevin Trevor Rodriguez, 19, died of head injuries Monday after he fell 50-plus feet near Tokopah Falls, a popular day hike near the Lodgepole Visitor Center.

Rodriguez -- who was reported to be from the Malibu-Agoura area -- and a friend were scrambling on the rocks above the trail when the accident occurred, according to the National Park Service. Instead of climbing down the same way they came up, they tried to descend via an apparently easier route, albeit one with slippery rocks, and Rodriguez took a tumbling fall, landing in a pool below

.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies in Utah.

A California woman died after falling at least 1,000 feet while hiking in Zion National Park Sunday.

Nancy Maltez, 55, of Glendora, apparently stumbled on the north side of Angels Landing, a high peak above Zion Canyon, said park spokesman Ron Terry.

My condolences to her friends and family.

Do Not Feed The Animals

A lady was killed by bears after years of feeding them.

The story of Donna Munson’s tragic death last week is a sad one. She was mauled to death by a bear at her home outside of Ouray.

The 74-year-old woman had been feeding bears on her 40-acre property for almost a decade, despite repeated warnings that she stop.

Bears, it turns out, don’t care how soft your heart is or how much you appreciate them. They care primarily about food and will attack people who get between them and their dinner.

It is sad she was killed but please do not feed the wildlife.

Smokey The Bear

Smokey the Bear Sign, originally uploaded by Neato Coolville.

Happy 65th Birthday Smokey!

August 9th is officially Smokey Bear's, or Smokey the Bear's, birthday. Today, he turns 65 years old.

Back in the early forties, the United States Forest Service used Disney characters to educate the public about the importance of fire safety. However, these characters were only on loan from Walt Disney, so in 1944, a new symbol was needed. Smokey the Bear was born.

June Carter

Ring of Fire.

More Johny Cash Show

Andy Kaufman.

Ring Of Fire

Ray Charles Style. From the Johny Cash show.

The Barefoot Sisters

Have a book out about their 2000 Southbound thru-hike. They hiked north in 2001, the year I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail. It seemed I was always a day behind them. I did occasionally see barefoot prints, however from the pictures in the video you can see Teva tan lines on their feet. I suspect they hikrd in Teva's alot.

The book can be purchased through the AT Store.

Special Comment

The republicans are owned by corporate profits. So are many of the democrats. 1.4 million a day to kill health care reform. That money is not going to health care. Health Insurance companies do not provide health care.

I Am Simple

I was looking for something much more raunchy, but found this,

Beer Summit

Obama and VP Biden, had Gates and Crowley over for beers.

1. Obama Bud Light
   
2. Biden Buckler
3. Gates Sam Adams Light
4. Crowley Blue Moon

Buckler is almost non alcohol beer. Is Biden a teetotaler?

Just Wrong

Canning a woman for drinking beer. We should encourage such behavior. Damn fundemetalist religions.

Bad Gravy

OK. It really was not that bad of a gravy. I had no stock. So when I over thickened, I added some wine. But did not let the gravy get hot enough to burn off the alcohol. A little strange.

Sad To Hear

A hiker dies on Longs Peak in Colorado.

The hiker who died yesterday in Rocky
Mountain National Park has been identified as Maynard Brandsma, 61, of
Durango.
Brandsma died from an apparent heart attack near the summit of Longs
Peak on Monday morning. The Boulder
County coroner will conduct an autopsy today to determine an official cause
of death.
Brandsma was hiking with a family member when he fell ill in the
Homestretch area of 14,259-foot Longs Peak.

My condolences to his friends and family.

Good Beer Month

New York has declared July good beer month.

July is a month of cycling bliss. The weather is perfect for
long rides and, for much of the month, the world’s best riders battle for the
yellow jersey in the Tour de
France.
July is also a big month for beer; good beer, to be exact. This
month, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg officially proclaimed July to be Good Beer Month
in New York City. Approved good beer bars will get a Good Beer Seal.
As a part
of the month of good beer cheer, bar owners are encouraging patrons to Bike to the Bars, where they can enjoy
artisanal beers, in moderation, of course.

Good stuff!

Why Do Today What You Can Put Off Till Tomorrow?

My foot is still mysteriously swollen. I came home to Baltimoe, to have it checked out but have not yet called the doctor.

Deep Thought

The journey is the destination.

Toe Is Better

My infection has gone away with the help of anti- biotics, rest and cleaning. Much better.

It's Bad You Know

It seems my toe is infected. If antibiotics do not work, the toe nail will have to come off. Butch, one of the guys at the Mayor's House, has volenteered to remove it. It will take a bottle of bourbon and a needle nose pliers. Ouch! Go anti-biotics go!

Sad News

Several Hikers have died since I last had access to a computer.

In Washington

A
Mukilteo man reported missing on Tuesday was found dead on Cedar Creek
Trail, west of Mazama.
Cory A. Hubbard, 48, drove across the Cascades
Mountains for a day hike Saturday. When he did not return home or report to work
on Monday, his family called the Okanogan County Sheriff's Office, said Sheriff
Frank Rogers.

In The Grand Canyon.

Grand
Canyon, Ariz. – A body, presumptively identified as 69 year old Robert (Bob)
A. Williams, was found today by park search and rescue personnel in the Hermit
Basin area of Grand Canyon National Park.
On May 26, park rangers received a
report that Mr. Williams was overdue from his Memorial Day weekend plans which
had included hiking in Grand Canyon National Park. On May 27, after finding Mr.
Williams’ vehicle on the South Rim, park rangers began searching a broad
area—from Hermit Basin to the South Kaibab area—that could easily be accessed on
foot or via shuttle from the point where Mr. Williams’ vehicle was found. On May
29, park rangers were able to narrow their search to the Hermit Basin area based
on information received after issuing a public request for assistance to anyone
who had hiked in the park’s back country during the Memorial Day weekend.

Also in Washington.

Medical
examiners have identified the hiker who fatally fell from Rattlesnake Ledge
near North Bend on Saturday.
Officials say Ruben Maldonado, 28, of Snohomish
County, fell more than 100 feet from the popular hiking area above Rattlesnake
Lake about 12:15 p.m. Rattlesnake Ledge is in Iron Horse State Park, in the
Cascade foothills southeast of Seattle.

In California.

As
many as 30 horrified onlookers saw a male hiker plunge hundreds of feet to
his death Saturday as he was climbing Yosemite's world-famous Half Dome, park
rangers said.

In Arizona.

The chief pilot for the New Mexico State Police and a lost hiker died when a rescue helicopter crashed in stormy weather high on a mountain near Santa Fe late Tuesday, authorities announced today. A second officer was seriously injured

My condolences to their friends and families.

I can not figure out the html to fix the way this post looks. Sorry.

Chance Meetings

In Delaware Water Gap, I ran into Mary from NH. I had not seen her since Damascus, Virginia, during my 2001 thru hike. We are both still hiking the Appalachian Trail In large sections. Althogh her sections are linear. When she ends one section, she starts again at the same spot. There is no method to my madness.

Moving Slow

I am not in great shape. My feet and ankles hurt more than they have on other trips. I am currently staying at the Mayor of Unionville, New York's house. I am going to start writing up stories and posting them. Short internet time now.

Update: I had a nice long talk with the Mayor. He is no longer the Mayor, but was when he started taking in hikers. He takes in hikers as a labor of love. His wife was sick for many years, and died in 2006, if I recall correctly. He would tell his wife about the hikers he met in town and how interesting they were. And his wife would always say wouldn't it be nice if some one would show us kindness on our travels. If we were far from home and needed a shower or laundry. Wouldn't it be nice. Of course the Mayor said it would be nice. Out of love for his highschool sweetheart, a lady he was married to for 44 years, he takes in hikers.

It is really his story to tell. If you find yourself on the Appalachian Trail in New York, stop by the Mayors house. It will bring joy to your life and his.