Making it up to Mr. Pumpkin farmer

We were out of town for Halloween this year. This must have disappointing Mr. Pumpkin. 

Today, I partially made up for it by making a salmon and noodle dish with lots of pumpkin seeds. 

Of course as Mr. Pumpkin will tell you, the pumpkin seeds have lots of protein, fiber, iron and magnesium and are a crucial component of America's nutritional health.

This is, in turn, a crucial component of our national defense. 

Thus price supports and supplementary funding for pumpkin cultivation is vital to our national defense.

You're not against national defense are you.

Upon the Return to the US

Panda and Grad Bear went with us to Spain, Gibraltar and Portugal. When they came home Jolene  wanted to talk to Grad and ask whether he had remained sober and celibate on the trip. Of course Grad took offense at the question, "Honey, how could you ask that, you know we are engaged?" Jolene accepted that 'answer'.

Panda was, in the meantime, working on depositing the cash and checks (those are deposit slips he is holding) he got from selling "Genuine Art LLC" acquisitions to people in Europe.  A lot of the sales were of paintings by important Christian Saints (Dominic, Francis) and the foreigners were delighted since they had no idea those Saints did art too. Our Spain, etc. trip is blogged here.

You can run but you can't hide from Coca Cola, Inc.

A few days ago, I sold the Coke stock that was in the kids IRA accounts.

I used to the proceeds to buy some ETFs.

Both the 'value' and the 'increasing dividend' ETFs had large holdings of Coke.

Image is from an earlier 'negotiation' with the Coke Unions where Coke bear pointed out the many countries that don't have unions to which the company could shift production. Grad Bear was giving 'communication advice' and Hard Rock bear was there to see if he could pick up any ideas for the non public holding company that is controlled by the Seminole Indian Nation which owns the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain.
 

UGA Reconsiders Academia

UGA has become somewhat famous at the University of Georgia (aka, UGA) for his criminal interrogation work and his 'inspiring' lectures on CONSTANT VIGILANCE. 

This has resulted in some guest appearances at the University and a nomination as a regular visiting scholar or even as an honorary professorship.

UGA realized the downside today when he was interrogating our cat. She said he was committing micro aggression and she demanded a safe space.

Wily Consults and has some comments

 We got a new hat rack delivered. It is a metal one and will replace a wood rack. 


Various pieces have been falling off the wood one for the past year or so.


I consulted with Wily Coyote about the assembly of the metal coat rack. Wily was helpful, for example in telling me which hex wrench to use for which hex bolts.

However, Wily had some comments as  he was re-reading the directions after the assembly:

"This would work better with a giant spring."

and

"Where is the rocket and the catapult?"

Vampy endorses a non blood beverage

 A recent news story was about a vodka called "Satan's Shot" (see 1st image).


The vodka has a high alcohol content and it is flavored with a very hot chili pepper extract.


Evidently, it is sold in Britain.


At least one person was taken to the hospital after drinking it.

Vampy (second image) gives it his personal endorsement, but also says, " be sure to drink at least 3 or more ounces at a time, heh heh".

A news article on this is here.

Reb Penguin Arrives

Reb Penguin works in the Diamond business.  He spends many days on 47th street in New York City between 5th and 6th Avenue (although he stays with us a lot also).

One of the things he likes is to find a lot of shivimers (impressive diamonds, literally 'swimmers' that are pretty enough to stand out among the other diamonds).  This is especially nice when they are a mame zitser (a large diamond, literally a 'mother sitter').

This will lead to mazel and brokhe (luck and blessing) and thus a sale to a Faynshmeker (a connoisseur, although literally a fine sniffer).

That, in turn will make a deal that is parnose (livelihood) for Penguin and an apparent metsiye (bargain) for the faynshmeker. 

All in all a gevinen gevinen (a win-win).

Diamond lingo is found in this NYTimes article.

Ski Bear Likes the New Smart Car

 Over on the Weiss Chronology, I have a post that discusses the new car we got for George.

One of our stuffed animals especially likes the car. That would be Ski Bear. He likes it because of the name, 'Smart Car'. 

You can see Ski Bear getting ready to drive it in the first image. 

The second image shows a close up of Ski Bear in the driver's seat.

Ski Bear frequently tells people that his head is big because his job as a ski instructor requires enormous mental resources. 

When asked to explain that, Ski  Bear goes on and on about the importance of knowing that you form your skis into a pizza shape to slow down and in the shape of parallel french fries to speed up. Apparently, Ski Bear considers that the proof of his 'enormous mental resources' comment.

Vampy In Office Attire

Vampy was seated in his official Ambassador's chair today for a picture.

He is wearing both an American flag lapel and a pentagram. The latter is a token of recognition from Satan. Igor, perhaps thinking of how to word his 'assistance' to Vampy,  is perched precariously on the armrest.

Vampy, because of his Ambassador status (see a previous post), has been lording over (or as they say down there, 'Sataning Under' the regular demons). One day,  Vampy will have to resign his Ambassador status and there will be hell to pay (yes, I got this idea from what Owen said,  Well, he'd better have those units in the south range repaired be midday or there'll be hell to pay!.)

Lobby's "Success" in Maine

Lobby has been representing the Lobster Industry for a number of years.

In the past few years, the metrics for the Maine part of the industry have been very good. 

The harvest quantity, in pounds, is up and prices have remained stable (note the graph). This is a turn around from the situation before 2000 or so when big harvests depressed prices. 

Although the stable price for lobsters is partly due to the success of retail companies such as Red Lobster and the Urban Lobster Shack, Lobby likes to take a lot of the credit.

Lobby's fellow lobsters don't see the big harvest of lobsters as such a positive thing. 

Lobby responds, "I'm just a lobster making a living like everybody else."

Article on the Maine Lobster Situation is here.

Thinking of the Fall

Even though we are just in the early spring, Gretyl is looking forward to the fall.

I asked her if this was because she could see a new season of "Man in the High Castle" but she said she didn't want to be identified that way.

Instead, she thought maybe being identified with the Octoberfest in Munich would be better. So we did that; also it turns out that the beer is about the same color as Gretyl.

After Tough Beating from Nature, Cherry Blossoms show up

 It was a tough winter for the Cherry Blossom trees.

The warm days in February got them near blooming and then the snow and cold in March killed a lot of the blossoms before they could complete the bloom.

However, a lot of the trees were unaffected or only minimally affected.

These two pictures (top by Marc Andre, bottom by Narvin Sarma both posted on the capitalweathergang website) were both taken yesterday at the tidal basin (both have the Jefferson Monument in the background).

A Triumph for Vampy - only learning about it now

Back in 2014, the after school satan club applied for tax exempt status

Vampy made some calls, made a few night time visits, renewed some acquaintances, perhaps a perceived threats or two and yada, yada, the IRS approved the tax exempt status in only a few days. Back in 2014 Vampy was seeking a management position in the underworld.

The image of the activity book and the logo are from the After School Satan website. 

This website also has an FAQ series about the organization as there may have been some interest in the 'purpose and activities' of this organization.


article on the approval of the After School Satan Club is here


website of after school Satan is here

Coke Bear says a local and limited good bye

Philadelphia instituted a 1.5 cents per ounce tax on all sodas (including the diet kind).

Pepsi is withdrawing completely from the local market 

Coke is withdrawing from the 'large bottle' market but will, for now, still sell products that are 20 ounce and smaller.


In an interview, Coke Bear said, "I'm the victim here."

link to the story is here

Grad and Joleen - Closer to Matrimony

Grad Bear and Joleen are engaged and plan to be married on the first train to use the California High Speed Rail (Cal-HSR).

They recently got an engagement picture made. 

Joleen thought it would be romantic to use The Southern blanket because 'The Southern' was a train company.

Actually the first train to use this will likely be an Amtrak train and thus it would be  'higher than usual speed rail' but Joleen loves trains in many forms.



The construction image is of a viaduct near Fresno which will carry the Cal-HSR. 

The first construction contract package is for the 25 mile long section between the Madera area and the Fresno area (at the top of the map). 

I think this also includes the two stations and will cost about $2.5B but I'm not sure as the websites I went to were not clear on this. Also, I'm not sure if the plain post and beam design in the image will be the norm or if there will be fancy and more expensive designs at many points.


A SF Chronicle article on status of Construction of California High Speed Rail is here.

Vampy Sits for Hearing

Vampy was nominated by President Trump to be the Assistant Secretary for Satanic Affairs working for the Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

This is a classified position and does not appear in the organization chart of the Department of State, although it is easy to figure out where it would go. Also, from page 27 of this site it is obvious that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would be the one conducting the hearing.

The hearing results were positive but because the position is classified, we don't know what happened in detail.  

There was some tension because Vampy was uncomfortable with the fact that some of the Senators had a cross.  Vampy also asked the lights to be dimmed several times. Vampy also stumbled in his response to the question of his overall mission. Vampy said, "we're going to make America Great Tasting, uh, I mean Great Again."


When one of the committee asked Vampy if he had ever drunk human blood, Vampy said back that every member of the committee has probably done so when they accidently bit their lip or at the dentist.  Although it was a somewhat non responsive answer, the committee didn't seem to notice. 

The committee will vote on this in secret and then the full Senate will act similarly. 

UPDATE: Vampy was confirmed Feb 10. He immediately ordered all the lights dimmed in his area of the State Dept. and also had all the mirrors removed and told the cafeteria to ban the use of garlic.

Little Panda in NYCity

 Little Panda was with us on our touring of NYCity.



In addition to the two images in the NYC blog itself, here are three other pictures of him.



The first is inside the Rockefeller Center. Little Panda got to be in front of the famous photo of the workers on a beam high above the city.


The second shows little Panda in front of the window as I look NW from the Top of Rockefeller building.



The third shows Little Panda at a legacy phone from the Hotel Edison which was opened in 1931 and at the time the biggest hotel in town (it had 1000 rooms, 3 restaurants and a ballroom).

Vampy Confused by TV Series

George and I have now watched the first two seasons of the made-

for -Amazon- Prime series "The Man in the High Castle". 

The moral ambiguity is enough to badly confuse our stuffed Vampire (Vampy, in the first image he is back on meds).

The second image shows Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido of the Kempeitai (the Imperial Police). He is stationed in Japanese ruled San Francisco and is the most compulsive obsessive character in this alternate universe (in which the US lost WWII) where many other people are also compulsive obsessive.  He orders people killed. Orders people tortured and risks his life to save Japanese civilization also.  He is however, NOT, by a long shot, the most morally ambiguous character. This is cross posted to the Weiss Chronology.

Wile E. advises us on the Completion of the Sukkah frame.

 Image one is before the completion of said frame.


Image two is the same perspective after the completion of the frame.
 

Image three is Beth and George and Wile E. relaxing after the completion of the frame (which took about 10 minutes).



Wiley is advising us on where to put some of the devices he really wants in the Sukkah, for example,

the rocket,

the giant spring.

the catapult

the cannon

The Professor Discourses on the subject of the sabbath

Lev made the mistake of wishing the professor a 'Good Sabbath'

"Well", 

said the professor, 

"A mythopoetic whole of idealized poststructural context could be considered 'good' according to convention.  But, that paradigm will be only weakly semiotic without robust dialectic."  

Lev inquired, "That's jargon?"

"Yeah." said the professor.

"Incompehesible jargon?" asked Lev.

The professor said, "Is there another kind?"

the Professor becomes annoying to Lev

The professor has described our Passover Seder as a 'Retro Simulation in which we deal with historic trauma by normalizing it through ethnic solidarity'. Once he said, 'ethnic foundation mythology'.  George asked which he meant, 'ethnic solidarity' or 'ethnic foundation mythology'.

The professor answered, "A little of column A and little of column B" (a common line used in the animated show 'Archer').

When George (who thinks the Professor is trying to make 'most annoying stuffed animal' status) asked if we were supposed to understand him, the professor said, "You first have to accept a deconstructed worldview".

That didn't help much.

Lev (once known as Labor Bear) doesn't think the Professor understands his own sentences (image w Lev and the Professor also has Diane's flowers). 
 

Lucy Provides Advice Wants Payment

A few days ago, I was about to make a matzoh dressing (also could be called a matzoh pilaf).

I got out one of Ann's cookbooks and was frustrated at the skimpy table of contents. As I finally got to the matzoh stuffing page, Lucy (the doctor who looks at medicine as a business, not a calling) said,

"Why don't you just Google it?"

I did and used a variation of the James Beard Foundation's recipe.

Then Lucy said,

"That will be $500 for the referral"

Later, after several short reminders of her fee, she told me,

"By the way, you can pay through Paypal"

I'm thinking of getting a restraining order (or as they call it in MD, a protective order).

Professor Plum and Assistant Billie

I had seen a stuffed animal platypus at someone's house (actually during a shiva minyan).  

A few days ago, while getting some kitty litter in the grocery store, I saw a parent and child platypus stuffed animals for sale and bought it (it was discounted for members of the grocery discount club). 

I looked on line for platypus names. Billie was a common choice because the gender of a platypus is difficult to determine and Billie is a gender ambiguous name which highlights the prominent bill of the platypus (see image of actual platypus).

George pointed out we don't have a stuffed animal in the education industry, so the adult Platypus is named Professor Plum. 

The Professor (sometimes we leave out the 'Plum') is Dean of Interdisciplinary Studies (keeping the ambiguity) at a prestigious university that is not named (furthering the ambiguity). The Professor once won the Burns award of outstanding achievement in the field of Excellence.

Also since that industry is highly incestuous (I'm sure most people in the industry would deny it) we gave the child platypus the name of Billie (again gender indeterminate). Billie is the administrative liaison for the Gender Studies Dept. and also assistant to the Professor Emeritus of Gender and Ethnic Studies.

Lucy Is Scandalized

Lucy is our stuffed animal physician (named for Ann's mom whose middle name was Lucille).

Lucy has taken what some might call a dark turn. She regards medicine as a business, not a calling  (In the image she is checking accounts against here written notes).

Lucy is repelled and outraged by those who think otherwise.

When Lucy heard about the CVS Minute Clinic not charging Beth for a consult (this was on April 16), Lucy could barely contain her indignation. 

"What kind of example are they setting for the profession?" she exclaimed.


.

UGA Demands Snow Related Vigilance, Reindeer just relaxs

These images are all related to the post in the Weiss Chronology regarding the Blizzard of 2016. 

In the first image, myself and UGA are shown near the street part of the driveway.

UGA wants us to be constantly vigilant when we pull out of the driveway in these conditions because the visibility is restricted by the high snow mounds. 

 The next image is Christmas Reindeer and me. Mr. Reindeer doesn't get a lot of posts but since the weather was so polar, I put him in. Mr. Reindeer was inherited from Ann's mom (as was UGA). He plays, "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" when you push a button on his hoof.

Vampy Finding Ways to Welcome the Stranded

This is after the Blizzard of 2016 (Jan 22-23) which is subject of a post on the Weiss Chronology.

Vampy likes to welcome the stranded. One type of stranded are pedestrians. 


However, the night of Jan 24 Vampy was thwarted by the end of the shoveled walkway.



Vampy decided to welcome stranded motorists instead. In the second image, he is at the end of the driveway, waiting to offer hospitality.

Of course when they come in he has Igor help them to their room.

Then they are invited to get comfortable and come down FOR dinner.


Vampy says, after the invite, "Heh. Heh."

Panda Is Horrified by Quality of Painting

Panda was with us on our Las Vegas Trip (the blog for that is here).

Two of the venues we visited stood out for their lack of art.

One was the Hoover Dam which had some paintings but they were only of the Hoover Dam.

The other was the Atomic Energy Testing Museum which had only one painting (yes - only one). It was by an otherwise unknown painter (or as Panda might say, a "Painter"). 

Panda has so very much to teach these people. 



.

The Great Wall of Pumpkins

Croton on Hudson has annual pumpkin This is a tradition dating all the way back in 2005.  



The image shows the director of the event and the great wall. They also have many other sights, including a pumpkin planetarium (I think you have to see that one up close as the image didn't come out well).


All may be seen at this report in the NY Times:


 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/nyregion/the-spark-behind-the-great-jack-o-lantern-blaze.html?_r=0

Halloween and Global Warming

The US Energy Dept put out a pumpkins themed public announcement. While the tone is positive, it implies that untreated pumpkins contribute to global warming.  In order to make this seem important, the Energy Dept reports total garbage in tons and pumpkin waste in pounds.

here is a piece of paragraph 2 of the announcemnt

"...With the passing of Halloween, millions of pounds of pumpkins have turned from seasonal decorations to trash destined for landfills, adding to more than 254 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in the United States every year...."

and here is a piece of paragraph 8 of the announcemnt

".... It might not be long until the 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkins we produce annually are nearly as important to our energy security as they are to Halloween!"



http://energy.gov/articles/turn-your-halloween-pumpkins-power