Winter

Pros and cons of living in Milwaukee in the winter. The pros are mixed in the same list with the cons because one man’s pro is another man’s con.

Dull-yellow dog pee frozen in its tracks on the sidewalk before it can reach the gutter.

My feet are cold.

The steering fluid in my truck feels as thick as a Culver’s milkshake. If Culver’s shakes aren’t thick than replace with thicker Wisconsin based milkshake.

At the end of a party, when it is time to throw the ice from the cooler into the ally, the ice stays put. Eventually it will be dyed yellow by passing drunks and dogs.

Polka Music.

My nose hairs freeze several times a day.

My feet are cold.

Friday night fish fry.

Taffy

By Alice Shaw

Onramp

In Chicago there are onramps that lead you onto the left lane of the expressway. So you have to go fast. A few days ago Luke and I were getting on the expressway and were flagged down by a woman who had stopped her car on the onramp. She looked desperate. I assumed it was a scam. I had read once that an effective tool of negotiation (or sales) was to do so when the other person was under time pressure. What better way to put someone under time pressure than to cause said person to block an onramp in Chicago? So I drove passed her. I felt bad in case she was really in some kind of trouble. She had an accomplice I mean partner waiting safely in the driver’s seat.
A few moments ago Luke called to tell me they were doing it again. This time someone stopped for them causing Luke to back up the onramp and enter elsewhere. So either it was a scam or this couple runs out of gas (or something) on that same on ramp once a week.

I forgot to write this last week...

Finally the war is starting to yield results. I just paid $1.95 for gas!

But that was last week. Gas went back up so maybe the war was not such a good idea.

Politics

Did you hear Libby Lewis reporting on the Lewis Libby trial on NPR this morning? I guess she was the obvious choice.

Libby Lewis quoted bloggers during her report which made me think that if I were to write about the Lewis Libby trial, I would write about Libby Lewis and Lewis Libby (or vice versa) having names that are so similar that they are actually the same. Having done that, I will stop.

Age old question

How can Kraftwerk annoy so many people, while making me happy?

Another person I've been told I look like.

New Years Eve at Bob and Alice’s

I do not spend a lot of time in bars (ha, ha, LOL). But really, I do not spend much time in bars, nor do I use abbreviations such as LOL. December 31st was an exception. I spent a few hours at a neighborhood bar called Bob and Alice’s (with another Alice). When we walked into the bar, the clientele were counting down the New Year and yelling “Happy New Year,” and Auld Lang Syne was playing on the jukebox. It was 8:15 PM. I was, of course, wearing a tuxedo. Several men in the bar told me they appreciated my bringing class into the bar. One of the same men told me, at a distance of two or three inches, that “if anyone messes with the bartender they will end up in the trashcan.” Then he pointed to the biggest guy in the bar and said, “See that guy? He’s got me by 100 – 120 pounds, he may be able to knock me down but he will end up in the trashcan.” The entire time he talked to me I could feel the gentle mist of his spit as it landed on and around my lips. Once I felt a plop of spit land on my leg. Another man told me about deep-sea fishing with Earnest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. The premise of that story was that the two actors could drink a lot without appearing drunk, which was more than I could say about the people I met on New Years Eve.

And the Winner is

Anonymous! Congratulations. The answer is The McLaughlin Cabin. Please send your social security number, bank account number and bank routing number and I will transfer your prize to you.

Does this help? This is the same cabin from behind. This image includes the stove pipe. Another hint: Not famous, not politically charged (like Ted Kaczynski's) and Mark Twain never slept in it.

Quiz

Does anyone recognize the cabin used on the header? Hint: it is not my cabin; nor is it Abraham Lincoln’s.

I miss writing the old fashioned way, you know, putting pen to paper, dipping my quill in a bottle of ink, that sort of thing. So the rest of this entry will be hand written and sent through the mail.

Back to my thesis

The above is a variation on “board and batt,” siding, very common in cabin construction. The above uses split saplings for battens.

Tattoo

Everything is Connected

Did you know that Warren Earl (Burger) replaced Earl Warren as Supreme Court Justice?
Which reminds me of the unlikely fact that Lee Iacocca's last name is an accidental acronym for his former job title: “I am chairman of Chrysler Corporation of America.” And Lee designed the ford Mustang. Ford owns Jaguar. A Jaguar is a large cat native to Mexico. Mexico is an anagram for coexim, which is meaningless. See how everything is connected? It’s like the butterfly effect that is best described as: a butterfly in the Amazon flaps it’s wings and attracts the attention of a bird who eats the butterfly, lands on the ground to digest and is eaten by a Jaguar which is a large cat native to parts of the Amazon and Mexico which, as we discovered earlier, is an anagram for coexim, among other non words. It makes you think.

Fashion

This is what I show my class when we get to the section I call, "Abusing your Subjects."

Root Canal

The lengths some Americans will go to in order to get free dental.

Reggae Royalty

King Tubby, King Cry Cry, King Stitt, King Jammy, King Smiley, King Chubby, King Iwah, King Sporty, King Sighter, King Kong, Prince Alla, Prince Buster, Prince Charles, Prince Django, Prince Douglas,Prince Far I, Prince Francis, Prince Garthie, Prince Hammer, Prince Heron, Prince Irey, Prince Jammy, Prince Jazzbo, Prince Junior, Prince Lincoln Thompson, Prince Malachi, Prince Miller, Prince Mohammed, Prince Moonie, Prince Of Darkness, Prince Phillip, Prince Pompidou, Prince Ras Murray, Prince Student, Prince Tallis, Prince Tonys All Stars, Prince Ugly, Prince Williams, Lord Briscoe, Lord Brynner, Lord Comic, Lord Creator, Lord Cristo, Lord Invader, Lord Ivanhoe, Lord Jellicoe, Lord Kitchener, Lord Koos, Lord Laro, Lord Power, Lord Sassafrass, Lord Spoon, Lord Tanamo, Sir Lord Comic.

Prince Far I and King Cry Cry are the same person - both dead as of September 1983.
I paricularly like the names, "Prince Student," "Prince Ugly," and "Lord Sassafrass."