I WONDER . . .

. . . if there's a vaccine for ignorance.

IN OTHER WORDS . . .

Am I appreciated?  Does anyone care?  Well do they?  Witness this message in an e-mail from my old buddy, Tom, who hosts Light Breezes from over in Cal-eye-for-nee-yay.

Post something. A day without Odball Observations is like a day without Anita Bryant---no, no, like a day without either sunshine or orange juice...probably sunshine since I rarely drink oj unless it has been fortified.


how do I know the eastern perimeter of cyber west is ok if I don't see it on OO?

So, taking old Tom's urging to heart, here I am.  What have I been thinking about lately?



Actually I haven't been thinking about that all that much but I do like the song.

It's been very rainy here this week with thundershowers nearly every day.  It sort of takes me back to when I lived in Phoenix.  After about two cloudy, rainy days in a row I'd be grumbling "doesn't the sun ever shine around here?"

(You may not want to read the next part if you're a conservative Republican.  Fair warning.)

I've been contemplating the wackiness going on in the Republican party this year.  Wide-eyed Michelle Bachman, feisty Rick Perry, the man with the weird ideas Ron Paul, a pizza man (?) Herman Cain, and the formerly perennial favorite that no one seems to like anymore Mitt Romney.  I mean, lord have mercy, what a crew!  Actually I guess I was unfair to Ron Paul.  They ALL seem to have a lot of crackpot ideas.  Jon Huntsman had seemed to be the most reasonable of the bunch up until that wild-ass Tea Party debate the other night when he said Perry's statements that Social Security might be unconstitutional sounded like treason to him.  Sheesh!  It's hard to figure out where to begin analyzing this crowd.  Analysis!  Maybe that's what they all need. 

Well, nuff said.  I'll bet even old Tom will start asking me to shut up again!

Front cover of today's New York Daily News.

AND THAT'S JAZZ!

Yes, gentle readers, I've been lazy again lately.  I guess you'll just have to get used to my absences.  I've been enjoying our cooler autumn weather.  But today's post will go from cool to red hot.

Let me explain.  I had never heard of Patricia Barber before this morning.  But I discovered her on my friend Dana's blog, Bug's Eve View.  I listened to the recording there and said "Wow!"  (I encourage you to visit her blog and listen to "Let It Rain", too.)  So then I went to You Tube and found Barber and her jazz quartet performing "Norwegian Wood".  Just give a listen.  Warning: it's 10 minutes long but the drum solo at the end is well worth the wait.  So, without further ado . . .

RAIN

Finally, after what seemed like a failed monsoon season, the rain came yesterday in short but recurring thunderstorms through the afternoon and early evening.  For my friends over in drought and fire ravaged Texas then here is the sight and sound of what you need.



So far today no rain but the temperature was just above 60 degrees when I got up this morning.  It feels wonderful.

PICANTE *

Asian Peppers

* Hotter than Hell

A FACE IN THE CLOUDS

Hmmmm.  I wonder what this means.



A MOVIE AND SOME MUSIC

I find less and less to write about in my sedentary life these days.  But I can make some recommendations.  First among these is a Danish movie I watched today - "In A Better World".  If I were a critic I would give it five stars.  It has already won the 2011 Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Best Foreign Language film.  And the actors are not only skillful but beautiful to look at.  If you haven't seen it . . do.

Now, off on a totally different track, here is one of my favorite singers performing with one of my favorite bands.  Van Morrison and the Chieftains with some Irish soul.

AND NOW. . .

. . . for something completely different.  I have my blogger friend, Tess, to thank for this.  She posted it on her Facebook page and after listening to it twice I had to share it with y'all.  By the way, that "y'all" is proper because the singer is a Texas girl named Janis Joplin.  This recording, with some studio crosstalk, is her first ever studio recording of "Me and Bobbie McGee".  Enjoy.

SEPTEMBER . . FINALLY

At last, it's here.  September.  But summer lingers on here with temperatures in the 90's daily.  But cooler weather can't be far beyond.  So in that spirit here are some talented musicians performing a song for the season, written by Kurt Weill although this video gives the credit to the famed Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

PHAROAH MARKS, MY PHUT!

Yesterday's puzzle picture has been solved.  The guesses were pretty much all of a kind.  Well except for Bobby's guess of a toilet roll holder (????)  And then Tom, who didn't have any idea at all.  But Steve and Dana the Bug were very close and Quilteddogs was right on the money.

Here's an expanded photo.

It's the bridge over Viewpoint that will eventually carry traffic on Highway 89-A.

Thanks for the guesses and congratulations to QD on her good eye.

THE PHAROAH'S MARK

Can anybody tell me what this is?  (Don't be fooled by the blog post's title.)

The winner will receive . . . . . my admiration!

BEAU JACK AND THE DIAMONDBACKS

Take him out to the ballgame.  Not.

(Photo courtesy of the BRD)

DOVELET

This morning I went out to check on baby dove.  He was sitting in his nest, all alone, apparently waiting for someone to bring him some food.  Late this afternoon, I went out again and found that he has left the nest and was securely perched on the gridwork next to it.  He didn't seem at all concerned about me.  At least I don't think he was, though his eyes look pretty big as he carefully watched me take photos of him.

At any rate, he seems to be growing fast and will probably test his wings in a day or so and that's the last I'll see of him.  So this is his graduation picture.  Vaya con dios, young dove.

WATER

Something different from Hurricane Irene.

BIRTH!

There has been an opening.  Sometime in the past couple of days that egg the dove couple had been sitting on in front of my home has hatched.  I discovered the new nestling this morning.

It's staying close to mother (or father) right now, especially through a rain shower this morning.  But judging by its size it will soon be leaving the nest and creating more hoo-huh-hoo-hoo racket in our nice quiet neighborhood.

A MUSICAL INTERLUDE

All right, enough about those damned doves for awhile.  Give a listen to one of the most brilliant talents around.  Esperanza Spalding.

DOVE UPDATE

I snapped a picture this morning but I can't tell whether this is mother or father.

Maybe some of my "dove experts" can tell me.

----------------------

Later: SWMBO wisely suggested I look on the Internet to answer some of my questions.  So I did.  And I learned this: Incubation takes two weeks.  Mom and Pop take turns on the nest, he usually in the morning and early afternoon, she in the afternoon and night.  Also: when one or the other is flushed from the nest, it will typically flop to the ground and flutter around as if it has a broken wing.  This is to lure the predator away from the nest.  That's exactly what happened when I took today's picture.  The camera makes a little beep when it takes a photo and that apparently frightened the bird, which exploded off the nest and then down to the ground about six feet away and began fluttering around on the ground, one wing sort of acting like it wasn't working well.  Horrified, I retreated to the house and when I checked later, the bird was back on its nest.  Fortunately the rowdy departure had not dislodged the egg(s).

DO DOVES CRY?

I have a small problem.  It's a dove mother.  Or mother dove.  It's in a tiny nest on the arbor in front of the house.  A week or so ago, I noticed a shattered egg on the tile.  I looked up and saw this rather raggedy nest.  And I saw a dove's tail end on top of it.  Uh-oh, says I.  They're breeding.  But it's been several days now and each time I pass under it I look up and there she sits.  She has reversed her position now so I'm looking right up into her face (?).  Her big dove eye stares back at me and never blinks.  Nor does she tremble or move even a millisec.  (Whatever that is.)  I had become concerned and asked SWMBO "do you suppose she's dead?"  I mean, she looks petrified.  But then she reversed her position so I know she's alive.  And that eye.  It haunts me.  It doesn't blink.  I wonder if doves CAN blink their eyes.  She doesn't seem to be afraid of me, though I stare at her from only a foot or so distance.  And she stays.  I mean, the temperature has been around 90 in the daytime and she's always on the damned nest!  I asked SWMBO tonight how long dove eggs take to hatch.  She said maybe as much as three weeks.  I said "But she doesn't ever seem to leave the nest.  What about food?  What about water?  I've even thought of somehow bringing her a tiny cup of water."  SWMBO laughed at me.  She said "she'll be okay, she probably leaves the nest to eat and drink . . (SOMEWHERE) . . in the early morning."

Well, we don't particularly like doves.  They cluster around and they're noisy with their "hoo-huh-hoo-hoo" sounds constantly.  But.  And it's a big but.  This is a mother dove.  So I'm stuck checking on her, worrying about her.  Gawd!  I feel so stupid.



If you're still reading, give some thought to my blogger buddy Joan, down in Charleston, South Carolina.  She seems to be right in the path of the new Hurricane Irene.  Tell her to keep her head down.

STUFF I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT

O.K.  Brace yourselves.  I'm finally gonna blog but I'm not sure where this is heading.  I may offend some, or all, of you.  But, what the hey, I'm old now so what do I care?

I'm watching the Iron Chef on the Food Channel.  I love this show.  But I think Morimoto might get beat tonight.  Wait.  Let's see.  Well, I'll be darned.  He won it again, in all categories.  But he cut his finger.  So it goes.

Libya.  The rebels (who don't want to be called rebels) apparently are winning a decisive battle in Tripoli tonight.  Two of Gadhafi's sons reportedly are in rebel hands.  Many, many residents have come out praising the turnover.  There is still shooting as I'm writing this and Colonel Gadhafi is still urging his supporters to continue fighting.  There is a BBC report that he is in Algeria but the daffy dude is unpredictable.

MY Arizona Diamondbacks have now lost five games in a row.  The Giants finally won today so they're only 1-1/2 games behind my guys.  We have a few more days out of town before the team returns home, which is usually much more friendly to them.

It is hotter than h--- here but, as I remind myself, it is only the third week of August.  It's Arizona.  It's supposed to be hot.  But we could use some of that monsoon rain that is slipping off to the east.

Speaking of which, another hurricane is heading toward Florida.  It may only be a tropical storm by the time it gets there but it may also gain strength.  No one can really tell, in spite of all the technical skill the weather forecasters now have.

We had a visit from a friend today who worked in television and radio for many years.  She, as she has told us on the last couple of visits, has become totally upset with "our" old t.v. channel in Phoenix.  She complains about their programs but mainly today about the use (or over-use) of the term "you guys" by the t.v. news reporters.  As in . . . reporter pitching back to the anchors "so that's it from here, guys . . ."  Never mind the fact that the anchors are a "guy" and a "gal".  She says everybody overuses that term and she hates it - "Can you imagine Walter Cronkhite ever saying that?"  Well, no, I can't.  But times change and so does language.

I have another friend who has been a lifelong liberal Democrat.  But he is just beside himself with the actions of President Obama in the past nearly three years.  But I say it's a different time and a different scene in Washington.  I think he's doing the best that he can and we need to just give him time to do what's best for the country.  My dad was a lifelong Republican.  But he always watched the presidential speeches on television because "he is our president."  In these times, people seem to forget that we have only one president and he represents all of us.

One other subject to rant about.  Education in the U.S.A.  I was shocked, as I can imagine many of you were, when I heard the news story about the teachers who cheated on their students' tests to pass them on.  One teacher said "what are we going to do when we have a student who comes to begin high school and they are reading at a third grade level."  Too often, students have been passed on and on and on without doing the work or learning ANYTHING.  I fear that we have a generation, perhaps two generations, of young people who are virtually illiterate, who have no job skills, no education.  They've been trained to pass "the test", not to know anything.  I can only wonder where this nation is going with all of these un- or under-educated children "taking over" for we older and dying people.  Where will it all end?  Is it Rome all over again?

O.K.  I think I'm through for now.  I'll get back to you.