This little fellow was just outside my door this morning. Luckily for him, I was adequately caffeinated.


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I just swapped out last year's calendar for this year's. I'm not a few days early: I've got a nifty four "page" calendar that runs in three month chunks from solstice to equinox, equinox to solstice, etc. The creator has a stale flash blob of a website that gives a taste of it ( Read more... )

At times my house has looked like I was running a home for wayward Volvos. I was very fond of their B2x engined RWD models and owned several over the years. Their first FWD model kept many of the good things of the older ones even if the engine was mounted wrong way round and had a spare cylinder. Their new ones just leave me cold: Fords with ( Read more... )

I'm not a textile geek and even I find this amazing: an eleven foot long brocade woven entirely from spider silk. It took five years and silk from over a million spiders.

I got word that the truck has left Napa. My grapes will be here on Friday. If you'd like to come stomp grapes, sample prior vintages, or simply cheer on the proceedings then get yourself to Camelot around 6:00PM on Friday. We'll be somewhere near or in the common house.

The Supreme Court just granted cert on McDonald v. Chicago: Alan Gura's follow-up to DC vs Heller. In DC vs Heller, Gura successfully argued that DC's handgun ban was unconstitutional. In this case he's trying to do the same thing with Chicago's firearm ban ( Read more... )

Several years ago I put my wine-making on hold in preparation for my recent move. Now that I'm moved and mostly settled I'm going to make wine again this year.

I have enough wine to tide me over for a little while so I'm not making much this year: six lugs' worth each of Cab Sauv, Merlot, and Syrah and six gallons each of Chardonnay, Riesling, ( Read more... )

"Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind, and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together."
Jonathan Swift

Norm Borlaug did exactly that. Hundreds of millions owe their lives to him. If this is the first you've heard of ( Read more... )

Last week, jagheterlelle and I finally got the last of our stuff out of the house in Bedford. Kipling once remarked that "A man cannot have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition." Obviously, he wasn't around to help me move. By my rough estimate I moved more than a ton of both books and wine.

While listening to WBUR this morning I heard Massachusetts' own Barney Frank railing against the bonuses that AIG is paying to a bunch of current and former employees. I was a bit surprised that the Congress that was perfectly capable of re-negotiating union contracts as part of the automakers bailout is seemingly incapable of re-negotiating ( Read more... )