Sometimes it rains,
sometimes it shines.
Sometimes it looks like rain but you’re still surrounded by sun.
All that talk about Van Gogh yesterday had me dreaming of sunflowers fields all night.
May your day be surrounded by sunshine, regardless of the weather.
Linked At: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Free Republic, Thanks!
God forgive me, but on hearing about the passing of Kofi Annan all I could think of was my favorite breakfast:
Black Covfefe and Kouign Amman. That’s how my brain works before covfefe.
In case you’re not familiar with this hard to pronounce (kween-a-mon) pastry it’s a Belgian “cake” comprised of nothing more than buttery pastry layered with sugar that caramelizes to a lacquer coating in the oven. Often described as a cross between a croissant and brioche,
I’d say it’s more like a puffy version of a palmier.
Eat the first KA at your own peril as they are addictive – don’t say I didn’t warn you. I had my first at Les Madeleine’s in Salt Lake. Next thing I knew, I was making weekly trips down the mountain from Park City to satiate my craving. Then Whole Foods came to town, and if I got up early enough I could snag a fix right down the street. Alas, they are much harder to come by now that I’m back in Motown; I even ventured to a local Whole Foods – not a place I gladly shop - looking for them only to discover they don’t make them in these parts. So I went through withdrawal cold turkey. It was not pretty but at least I lost a few pounds.
But in researching this post look what I discovered: they’re available at Trader Joes – oh Noes! Now the whole ugly cycle is likely to begin again. Although on closer inspection I see the post on TJ’s KAs is from 2014. Odds are better than even that they no longer carry them because every. single. item. I’ve ever discovered and come to love from Trader Joe’s has subsequently been discontinued. Pray that’s the case with their do-it-yourself KAs as well, otherwise I’ll be a junkie again as fast as you can say “black coffee and a Kouign Amann please.”
So have a good day, I have to run as my local Trader Joe’s opens at 8:00 am. Thanks a lot, Kofi Annan.
Linked At: Free Republic, Thanks!
These week’s example of Leftist Logic. From Ed Driscoll, highlights mine:
New York City Removes Trash Cans on the Upper West Side:
What happened to the baskets? Did they get removed in anticipation of some windy weather? Surely the Department of Sanitation [DSNY] would soon restore the baskets – thereby easing the overflow trash – she thought.
A neighbor who shared her concerns called 311 and was told that the baskets had been removed because people leaving Riverside Park were putting their trash in them. “You can’t make this up,” says Melissa.
Nope.
Counterintuitive as it may seem, DSNY says having fewer trash baskets increases area cleanliness. “For some reason, when there’s a garbage can on a corner, it attracts litter,” DSNY Community Liaison Nick Circharo told West Side Rag. “The corner without a basket is the cleanest corner. If you take away the baskets, people will take their garbage elsewhere.”
I guess the concept is to send the trash home rather than have it overflow the existing facilities. Following that logic I would think that sanctuary cities like New York would be on board with sending the illegal aliens packing.
And cities like San Diego…
and San Francisco…
might want to find a home for all the itinerants wandering around leaving their human garbage all over the streets instead of hiring “poop patrols.”
The left seems comprised of certifiable idiots who, rather than raising the downtrodden up, seem committed to dragging the rest of us down into their muck.
Linked At: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Free Republic, Thanks!
Beyond the music itself, the moment everyone talked about after Franklin’s performance at the Kennedy Center was the way, just before the final chorus, as she was reaching the all-out crescendo, she stripped off her mink and let it fall to the floor. Whoosh! Dropping the fur—it’s an old gospel move, a gesture of emotional abandon, of letting loose. – Soul Survivor
Ah, such sweet sadness; the lights in Detroit - which only recently began to glow a bit again - will be a bit dimmer tonight as the curtain comes down on one of Motown’s great ones. Aretha’s unbridled talent put all the autotuned, sexualized, humping female contortionists that pose as singers today to shame. The kind of talent Franklin had couldn’t be created by packaging and promotion departments like they are these days. She was the real deal, the once-in-a-century phenomenon that people will listen to, study and emulate for another 100 years. She could sing anything: gospel, soul, pop and jazz standards – like this from a very young Aretha:
And this from the Sam Cooke songbook speaks to anyone who has fought through life’s struggles – black or white.
And yes, Aretha even tackled opera, not just because she could but because she loved it. Although not a “trained” opera singer she worked with a voice coach in order to do a stand-in performance of Nessun Dorma for Pavarotti at the 1998 Grammys. She performed the aria several times subsequently. While the earlier renditions were certainly more powerful, as both age and cancer eventually took their toll in range and stamina, I find this restrained 2015 version far more moving. It will make you weep, if you have a soul; and if you are a fan of Miss Franklin you most certainly do.
Rest in peace dear lady. Surely in time someone will be sent to take your place, for God is generous that way, but there will never, ever, be another Queen of Soul. For they say when Aretha arrived at the pearly gates she did not join the chorus of angels - they were her back up singers. I believe.
Take it home, soul sister.
In the stillness of the midnight
Echoes from the past I hear
Old-time singing, gladness bringing
From that lovely land somewhere.
As I travel on life's pathway
Know not what the years may hold
As I ponder, hope grows fonder
Precious memories flood my soul.
Linked At: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Free Republic, Thanks!
Yes, there is something worse than socialists winning elections in America: socialists so uneducated/stupid they don’t even know they’re socialists.
Christine Hallquist, after winning Vermont governor primary: “I’m Not Sure I Even Know What Socialism Is.”
“So I just don't have the background to answer that question.”
I don’t blame Christine – who’s running on a socialist platform of universal health care and free public college – for not knowing he’s a socialist, heck, he doesn’t even know what gender he is.
But come on, people of Vermont, you can still tell the difference, right?
Christine: poster boy/girl for universal public education. Let’s have more of that.
Linked At: Free Republic, Thanks!
Omarosa be damned, the Trump Train is still rolling.
Still hauling candidates to victory. Oh, and the Dems picked a Transgender to run for governor of Vermont.
Republicans have Trump, Democrats have diversity and identity politics. Stay tuned, still too close to call in a bifurcated nation. But keep you eye on that Blue Wave™
…it might not be what you think it is.
Linked At: Free Republic, Thanks!
On August 7, the New York Times ran a story by Rukmini Callimachi about Jay Austin and Lauren Geoghegan, a young American couple, both graduates of Georgetown University, who decided to quit their humdrum office jobs and go on an epic bike ride and camping trip that would take them all over the world. “I’ve grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of coloring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige,” Austin wrote. “I’ve missed too many sunsets while my back was turned.” - PJMedia
Thus wrote Jay Austin who, along with his girlfriend Lauren Geoghegan, quit their jobs in July of 2017 and set out on a round-the-world bicycle trip. They had many adventures across Africa, Europe, Turkey, Greece and Kazakhstan before landing in Tajikistan. Austin kept a blog along their route that reads like a social justice warriors guidebook.
“You read the papers and you’re led to believe that the world is a big, scary place,” Mr. Austin wrote. “People, the narrative goes, are not to be trusted. People are bad. People are evil.
“I don’t buy it. Evil is a make-believe concept we’ve invented to deal with the complexities of fellow humans holding values and beliefs and perspectives different than our own … By and large, humans are kind. Self-interested sometimes, myopic sometimes, but kind. Generous and wonderful and kind.” - PJMedia
There, on day 369 of their trip their were run down and stabbed along with 2 other cyclists by 5 men in a car who swore allegiance to ISIS and promised to kill all “disbelievers.” I suppose you could say that they were myopic and self-interested but clearly they held values and beliefs and perspective different from the group of western cyclists they mowed down. That’s the point, Evil is real. It cannot be reasoned with or wished away. Ignore it at your great peril. As stated in the PJMedia article: “Their naivete is nothing less than breathtaking.” Austin’s worldview was summed up in his blog:
“with...vulnerability comes immense generosity: good folks who will recognize your helplessness and recognize that you need assistance in one form or another and offer it in spades.”
The moral of the story? From the article (read the whole thing):
In the last analysis, it's a story about two young people who, like many other privileged members of their generation of Americans, went to a supposedly top-notch university only to come away poorly educated but heavily propagandized – imbued with a fashionable postmodern contempt for Western civilization and a readiness to idealize and sentimentalize “the other” (especially when the latter is decidedly uncivilized). This, ultimately, was their tragedy: taking for granted American freedom, prosperity, and security, they dismissed these extraordinary blessings as boring, banal, and (in Austin's word) “beige,” and set off, with the starry-eyed and suicidal naivete of children who never entirely grew up, on a child's fairy-tale adventure into the most perilous parts of the planet. Far from being inspirational, theirs is a profoundly cautionary – and distinctly timely – tale that every American, parents especially, should take to heart.
Linked At: Free Republic, Thanks!
In the event you haven’t seen this yet I highly recommend Caitlin Flanagan’s article in The Atlantic, an otherwise deplorable publication: Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson.
A tease:
These are people who aren’t looking for an ideology; they are looking for ideas. And many of them are getting much better at discerning the good from the bad. The Democratic Party reviles them at its peril; the Republican Party takes them for granted in folly.
If you’re “looking for ideas” the Left’s got nuthin’ to offer these days.
Linked At: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, and Free Republic, Thanks!
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