Trick or Treat- again

Something in my Celtic DNA makes me love this love the Halloween season. I wait all year for this. It's my super bowl, my world series, my St. Patricks Day, my best month of all.

For me, Halloween season runs from the week proceeding All Hallows Eve until the Monday after Thanksgiving. It includes Halloween prep, The Day of the Dead, Katy Day, all the exciting Thanksgiving prepartions, the big day and let down afterwards. The rest of the year is just the waiting for this time of year.

Not that I particularly do anything special, but I do have my routines. I reread Washington Irving's stories, epecially Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Crane. Build a scarecrow at the foot of the drive, watch The Great Pumpkin and Sleepy Hollow for the hundreth time, chop firewood, and prepare for my annual argument with Mrs. T about how much trick or treat candy we should have on hand.

This is our only major argument throughout the year. 5+ lbs each of Snickers, Butterfingers and Baby Ruths seem appropriate to me. Mrs. T sees the world through very dark glasses and believes we really don't need any. This is from a woman who lives for Christmas. Just because we have never had a trick or treater, nor are we ever likely to, she feels we can do without. Bunkum.

There is something fundamentally right about both hard and sweet apple cider, candy apples, harvest festivals, jack-o-lanterns, fall leaves, bonfires, dove hunts, moleskins and all fall activities.

Whatever your plans,be safe but have fun.

Toad

Let us give thanks for....

Had you forgotten that the London Olympics are approaching?

In an effort to sex up the games, several international sports organizations hired consultants to make suggestions on how to make female athletes "more attractive". For instance, last May, the Badminton World Federation in an effort to make a more "attractive presentation" instituted the Skirt Rule for its women members. "We just want them to look feminine and have a nice presentation so women will be more popular" said the sport's mouthpiece.

It took the women less than a week to have the rule tossed. New uniform standards for both men and women are expected in December.

Sex of course sells, and few athletes are sexier than women boxers. The Amateur International Boxing Association,preparing for women's boxing's first Olympic participation, is taking a page from the Badminton World Federation. The AIBA worries that television viewers may be unable to distinguish male from female boxers. (I wish I were clever enough to make this stuff up.) Their solution? World wide eye exams? No. Mandatory 3D HD television reception? Nada

The AIBA wants female boxers to wear, wait for it...Skirts in the 2012 Olympics. How hot would that be?

In a just world, women's hockey would hire the same image advisers. Gymnastic burkas anyone?

Toad

Nordstrom's Holidays

I refuse to shop anywhere ever at stores that advertise Christmas in October. Last night I'd had my fill of the Deck the Halls. Nordstrom may become my favorite shop in the world.

Thank you James. Flo I missed that one too, likely tonight's as well.

Toad

Hartford York

The onslaught of holiday catalogs has begun at our house. The most interesting in today's batch was the latest from hat purveyor Hartford York. I've never shopped here, and am only marginally familiar with their catalog, but being a hat guy I peeked.

Included are hats of all styles from top hats, flat caps, fedoras and ear muffs, from manufacturers including Stetson, Borsalino, Christy's, along with stylists unheard of by anyone not a mad hatter.

Buying a hat is not unlike buying a lamp shade. A successful outcome is more likely if the object to be covered (lamp or head) is present, and is part of the buying experience. Fractions of an inch matter, as gentlemen's hats are sold in 1/4 inch or 1 mm increments. That's why catalog hat shopping only works when either you are replacing a known favorite hat with its identical twin, or price shopping for a chapeau you've tried on elsewhere.

Oddly, all Hartford York hats, save Christy's, are sold, small, medium, large, with no indication anywhere of what a s, m, l, xl is. Since each manufacturer's range is likely different, HY's hat are guaranteed to fit only the very lucky few.

Should you need a hat, buy locally. Buy from a pro. The few dollars extra it costs will pay dividends forever while you enjoy a hat that fits, and enhances your appearance.

Every man looks good in a hat.

Toad

Dogged

Dogged:

Adjective:

Having or showing tenacity and grim persistence: "success required dogged determination".

Like many others I'd considered doggedness at least a minor virtue, before its true meaning became clear to me.

Having one dog is boring. The dog shows you his new tricks, you praise him, he does it again, you praise, quickly each tire of the game. When there are 4 dogs at home, life is a continuous game of one upmanship. Alpha dog shows you her trick, the next tries unsuccessfully to top it, dog 3 not an Alpha wannabe does just enough to get by. Old Ted, his own pack, no longer cares. From dawn to dusk, except for nap times is a constant game of look at me. I love it.

Charlie (on the right below) is youngest, smallest, Alpha and dogged. She'll spend however long it takes to keep her pack in line. Away from the others she'll spend all day hiding a bone in the couch cushions, checking on it, moving it, all the while believing no one in her pack sees where she hides it, before forgetting where she put it and starting over. In her single mindedness she never understands where Ted got the bone he's chewing on, or where her bone went.

Then it hit me. Doggedness* may simply be the result of having a head too small to hold two ideas simultaneously. The other dogs are larger and are far more mischievous. They have larger heads too.

*I'm talking about MY 10 pound dog, not you or your dog.

Toad

OK Corral

Allen street, Tombstone, looking east, with a parade in progress.
Main entrance to O. K. Corral in clump of trees, top center.
Photo: W. B. Shillingberg.

On this date in 1881, at approximately 3pm, what has become known as the Gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona Territory took place.

The gun fight took place not at the OK Corral , but in the alleyway shown behind the wagon on the left.

Toad

Charge!

The Charge Of The Light Brigade

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Memorializing Events in the Battle of Balaclava, October 25, 1854
Written 1854

Half a league half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred:
'Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns' he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

'Forward, the Light Brigade!'
Was there a man dismay'd ?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd:
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do & die,
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd & thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack & Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd & sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse & hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made!
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Note: This poem, including punctuation, is reproduced from a scan of the poem written out by Tennyson in his own hand in 1864. The scan was made available online by the University of Virginia.

Walnut season

For many folks, hard times are all the time, especially in the eastern Missouri Ozarks. A dollar can be hard to come by, so it's not uncommon, perhaps even necessary for entire families to work together to accomplish an incredibly difficult job for a little cash.

It's black walnut harvest season in Missouri. The nut hulls are mostly windblown, which makes the job relatively safe for children. Locals gather the green seed hulls wherever they can. State and national forest rangers tend to turn their backs and allow "nutters" to gather what they will from the parks. It's what comes next that defines work.

Gatherers remove the green outer hull, fairly quickly before the hull discolors and sours the nut inside one of nature's hardest nuts, all without harming the inner fruit . A lot of methods accomplish this work, some suggest driving over the shells with a truck, some say soften the nut in water, other suggest a corn sheller. Any way you chose is going to be difficult, the green hull stains everything it touches, and the lingering aroma, likened to sour onions takes days to fade from your hands and clothing.

In the US there are 2 commercial processors of black walnuts, one in California, one in Missouri, each with a number of hullers (receiving stations) scattered around the growing region. After filling your truck with hulled nuts, and delivering to the nearest huller, at this year's price you may earn a penny per nut.

A very hard earned penny.

Toad

Copenhagen flash mob

They forgot Bo.

Toad

Bertie

Did you know that Hugh Laurie, aka Bertie Wooster/Dr. House is a talented blues singer and musician?

PBS's Great Performances featured Laurie along with Irma Thomas, Tom Jones and Allen Toussaint in a pilgrimage to New Orleans and its music to coincide with the release of Laurie's album Let them Talk.

The episode may be seen here.

This is one of my favorites


Toad
Did I miss the Rapture? This date was known as The Great Disappointment by the Millerites in 1844. They too expected the rapture on 10/22.

The Great Alone

“Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.” Apsley Cherry Garrard

Somewhere in the hidden recesses of my DNA is an attraction to the stories of adventurers and explorers. Discoverers, pioneers or all stripes fill my imagination, but at the pinnacle are the tales of Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton, Cherry-Garrard the men who first explored the Antarctic.

The Centenary of Robert Falcon Scott's unsuccessful attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole is next year. In preparation for the anniversary goings-on, Buckingham Palace has staged an exhibit of photos from the Royal Collection taken during Scott's journey by Herbert George Ponting, and of Shackelton's Endurance Expedition by Frank Hurling, the expeditions official photographers. That any glass plate negatives survived is a miracle. That any survived Shackleton's expedition boggles the mind.

If you are unlikely to find yourself in the UK before mid April 2012, many of the photos and artifacts may be found here.

Toad

Cool Guy- Dominique Browning

In the early days of this blog I would periodically raise the question "Where's Dominique?". Everyone seemed to have an online presence but her. Dominique's devoted fans would email me questions about her whereabouts/comings and goings, as if I knew, I answered their queries as best as I could.

After about the fourth "where's D" her publicist commented that Dominique was engaged in the finishing touches of her latest book,Slow Love which would be published in the not too distant future. Shortly before Slow Love was published, Dominique emailed, and we have maintained an irregular ecorrespondence since, one thread of which led to my standing her up on my first trip East. I must have been out of my mind.

Today is her birthday. I trust she won't object to being included as one of the "cool guys". She is far more than the woman who once... Besides being a gifted writer, blogger and editor, mother and mentor, she is a concerned citizen donating her considerable talents writing for The Environmental Defense Fund. Her work there will have a far more lasting impact than whatever came before.

Happy Birthday Mrs. B.

Toad and Mrs. T

My 1954 Bentley R Type Continental

Didn't you always imagine Ray Milland driving an R- Type Continental in Dial M for Murder?

At the time the most expensive automobile in the world. Hardly a country car, Radford Countrymen were better suited for tweed. James Bond was a Bentley Continental owner albeit in modified trim, as was Ian Fleming. More Saville Row I'd think.

Toad

Must be something in the air

J Peterman's holiday catalog (owners manual 91)arrived by post this morning. One of their best catalogs in along time, it included the double breasted tweed jacket below.



Again, a nice tweed, but doesn't change anything.

Toad

Double Breasted tweed

By actual count I have more than my share of tweed jackets in my closets. Irish tweed, Manx tweed, Harris tweed, and the odd mutt thrown in for good measure. Not a double breasted in the mix. Rarer than hens teeth, Ben Silver is showing 2 this season.

Nice tweed, but to my eye something appears off. Perhaps it's the juxtaposition of the casual tweed and the more formal peaked lapels.

I'm all over wearing the unexpected, and applaud the man who can wear this, but if this is such a great idea why don't we see it more often? Makes a better suit coat than odd jacket, don't ya think? Just saying.

Toad

Still the best

I climbed in the car last night, switched off Mrs. T's radio station just in time as this song was starting. It may have been the first hip hop song, but it is still the best.



Recorded in one take with the bass player and drummer breathing heavily by the end, long before the days of drum and bass machines. It's bound to add a smile to your Monday.

Toad

Dejobbed

If you have ever had the unwelcome experience of sharing the bad news that you have lost your job with family and loved ones, you may be able to feel this man's pain. Having been there, I know what he's going through.

This is from Letters of Note, a site I have recommended previously. For those new here,add it to your reader. This is lifted straight from Letters of Note.


Calabar
February 2nd 1929.

Kind Sir,

On opening this epistle you will behold the work of a dejobbed person, and a very bewifed and much childrenised gentleman.

Who was violently dejobbed in a twinkling by your goodself. For Heavens sake Sir consider this catastrophe as falling on your own head, and remind yourself as walking home at the moon's end of five savage wives and sixteen voracious children with your pocket filled with non-existent £ S D; not a solitudery sixpence; pity my horrible state when being dejobbed and proceeding with a heart and intestines filled with misery to this den of doom; myself did greedily contemplate culpable homicide, but Him who did protect Daniel (poet) safely through the lion's dens will protect his servant in his home of evil.

As to reason given by yourself — goodself — esquire for my dejobbment the incrimination was laziness.

No Sir. It were impossible that myself who has pitched sixteen infant children into this valley of tears, can have a lazy atom in his mortal frame, and the sudden departure of eleven pounds monthly has left me on the verge of the abyss of destitution and despair. I hope this vision of horror will enrich your dreams this night, and good Angel will meet and pulverise your heart of nether milestone so that you will awaken, and with as much alacrity as may be compatable with your personal safety, you will hasten to rejobulate your servant.

So mote it be - Amen

Yours despairfully

Sgd. Asuquo Okon Inyang.

Takes a very brave man to want to go home after that!
Toad

my gym shoes

One of my must stops each day is to A Bit of Bubbly. Yesterday's post told the tale of a love/hate affair with Vibram running shoes, mayhaps you have tried them yourself. Supposedly the benefit of these sleek Italian numbers is that they mimic running barefoot.

I've never liked running shoes. Nike, Saucony, Adidas aren't for me, nor is barefooting through my daily regime. I prefer my lifelong friends, Converse All-Stars and Jack Purcell's, even for the gym.

I learned from Bubbly that "Barefoot runners land on the forefoot and then put their heel to the ground. A running shoe wearer will land directly on the heel, helped by the elevation and cushioning of the shoe. Apparently there is less impact if you land on the forefoot, which is the basic premise behind the Vibram five-finger shoe." Lack of cushioning may explain why my feet don't feel contorted into an unnatural posture, in my Converse as they do in running shoes.

Which got me to thinking. If landing on your forefoot is better, how well do my cheap $39 gym shoes meet that objective?

Not too shabby. Maybe Santa will bring a new pair.

Toad

Mr. Big

It's been a good year for Mr. Big. Married off his 2 youngest kids, the company stock is doing well, the car collection was on display in Paris, the new lines are performing better than expected, all in all not bad for a kid from the Bronx.

It's easy to have sport at Ralph expense, but certainly not on his birthday. His ubiquitous, now cliché, over priced Big Pony polos, the BIG BOOK, the car collection, the lifestyle are all fodder for amusement. Much of his design sensibility may be stuck in the 1930''s, but as a society we owe Ralph a great deal.

To my view of the world, without his impermature, a lot of clothes we take for granted would have died unmourned long ago. Who else kept tweed alive? The citizens of Lewis and Harris Island celebrate Ralph's life, and are eternally grateful for his annual fall looks. It keeps them alive. Fair Isle sweaters? Norfolk Jackets? No one else, but Ralph.

Imagine the newspaper and magazine publishers in fashion or design that would commit ritual suicide before losing RL's advertising. Single handedly Ralph Lauren Corporation must keep much of the lifestyle publishing world employed in these difficult times.

Ralph represents a taste, style and level of quality that few purveyors imagine, much less strive for. He's one of a kind.



Happy Birthday Mr. Lauren. I wish you many more.

Toad

Is your spouse Fair Game?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2048189/Domestic-violence-legal-Kansas-repeals-law--save-police-time.html

From the Daily Mail

By EMMA REYNOLDS

Domestic violence is now legal in Kansas's capital after the city changed the law - to save police time.

In a shocking move yesterday, Topeka's mayor and council repealed the ruling banning domestic violence and released 18 suspects from jail without charge. Victims of domestic abuse appear to have become pawns in an argument between county and city politicians over who should pay for prosecutions.

Cutting corners: Domestic violence is now legal in Topeka, Kansas, because leaders say they can't afford prosecutions. Shawnee County's district attorney last month handed over responsibility for prosecuting crimes including domestic abuse and battery to the city. But Topeka's leaders say they cannot afford to provide services for domestic abuse victims as well as rent jail space from the county for suspects.

Domestic violence support groups were horrified at the move, saying that 'people could die while they're waiting to straighten this out'.
'I absolutely do not understand it,' said Rita Smith, executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
'It's really outrageous that they're playing with family safety to see who blinks first. People could die while they're waiting to straighten this out.'
The repeal came during National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. City and county officials have received hundreds of emails in the last few days from people upset over the situation.

Shocking move: Only three city councillors voted against the proposal to legalise battery and domestic abuse
'Just the fact that it was on our agenda gave us a black eye,' said city councillor Denise Everhart, who was one of just three leaders to vote against repealing the ordinance.
Claudine Dombrowski, an abuse survivor from Topeka, told the council: 'It's a slam in our face'.
She threw dice down on the podium as she spoke, saying, 'Roll the dice — that's what we're playing here.'
District attorney Chad Taylor insisted that the county commission forced his decision to cut the budget by 10 percent next year, with his office still swamped by felony cases.
His spokesman called Topeka's move 'drastic and unprecedented', but said Mr Taylor would re-evaluate his position.
Dan Stanley, who was voted official negotiator with the county over the prosecution of domestic violence cases on Tuesday, advocated the change in the law.
He said: 'I think it draws a line in the sand. It says we will remove all ambiguity from this question, and we will negotiate from a position of strength.'

'It just means there is a new dynamic in play,' said Mr Taylor's spokesman.
Topeka has had at least 35 reported incidents of domestic battery or assault since early September.

With those cases not being pursued, as of Friday, 18 people have been released from jail without charge, according to police.

Prosecutors and police have refused to discuss details of the cases out of concern for victims' privacy, making it difficult to assess in what situations suspects are not being prosecuted.
The use of a weapon in an assault or battery makes a crime a felony, which would be handled in state court.

Mr Taylor has said he knew his decision would upset people but added that the cuts his office faces will force him to lay off 11 of his 63 employees. He said had he considered 'every angle' before making his announcement in early September.

In a memo issued just days before the county commission finalized his budget for next year, Mr Taylor's office said the cuts would force it to drop its prosecution of misdemeanors occurring within Topeka's city limits and 'of greatest concern are domestic violence cases.'
Topeka officials feared the city's ordinance against domestic violence could have forced them to take over prosecuting cases and filing them in its municipal court.

They said they could not handle the £47-a-day cost per inmate of renting space from the county to jail several hundred suspected abusers, or of hiring additional staff to handle prosecutions.
The city already handles cases of simple assault and battery, and incidents of assault or battery against police. Domestic assault or battery victims often need additional services or shelter.
For years, the city and county agreed that the district attorney's office would handle domestic violence prosecutions in the better-funded state courts.

City officials also note that municipal court convictions can be appealed to state courts.
More than 20 demonstrators gathered outside the Shawnee County Courthouse yesterday to protest against the decision.

Many of them went to the City Council meeting to express their opposition to its actions.
'Everyone's just saying, "Oh, it's not us you need to be talking to. It's this other person,"' said Hannah Rucker, a protester from University of Kansas. 'And it's just going in this circle of, "It's not my fault."'

There is no getting around, You get what you vote for.

Toad