“There is a discrete left-opportunist trend that seeks to throw all developments in Cuba post-1959 into the dustbin and forget about it. This does as little for us as the right-opportunist line; both fail to grasp the full reality of revisionist corrosion and capitalist restoration in Cuba, although one cloaks itself in stultified theory.”
Is there anything better than a warm summer night playing in – er, rather sitting near the lawn sprinkler under a street light while watching the 21:00 evening arrivals at KBNA? Well, maybe if I was still 10 …
Back in 2014, I included a chapter in my book detailing Bill Schock’s war experiences as they related to his reporting on the crash of Braniff International flight 250 in 1966.
«This is Bill’s final column» out of countless ones he wrote over 71 years for the Falls City Journal. With this column, he said farewell; the Journal has been sold and moved to a much smaller space in downtown Falls City which it had occupied until 1950. It’s all extremely symbolic of the state of…
This is kind of like how I feel about my (possibly four) upcoming surgeries: I don’t want to do this, but I have to, and I hate it. Received a kind e-mail yesterday telling me of the death of Bill Schock of Falls City, NE, on Thursday evening, six weeks short of his 100th birthday….
«Salute this, asshole.»
I have been attempting to read «Michael Burleigh’s The Third Reich: A New History» since it came out in 2000. Instead, I’ve read «William Shirer’s The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich» twice. Nothing wrong with anything I’ve read of Burleigh’s work; quite the contrary. In fact, it has to do with how big the book is; the first edition is 950-plus pages and weighs a ton and I’ve had hand/wrist problems since, well, 2000. And I have Rise and Fall on Kindle.
Because so much has been messed up and unstuck during the first half of this god-awful year, I just discovered the other day that Dean Allen, the creator of Textpattern, which powers this site, and of TextDrive, which used to host this site until Joyent destroyed it, and of «Textism» and Textile and Cardigan Industries…
While waiting for “Sunset Boulevard” on Sunday at Opry Mills, Carol, Frank and I were … say it with me … “All right, Mr. DeMille, [we’re] ready for [our] close-up!” Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Welcome to KBNA, 787-8 BA223, arriving on 20R after an 8 hour, 56 minute flight from LHR. British Airways began five-times-a-week, nonstop service between London Heathrow and Nashville International last week and I’ve been trying to get the beautiful Dreamliner on film all week and the stars aligned today. Not great lighting, but I got…
That feeling you get when you hang your first curtains in the first house you ever owned? Priceless. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, April 30, 2018
It’s official!!! Frank opens the door for the first time on the first house he/we have ever owned! “Oh frabjous day!… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, April 23, 2018
Rep. Larson Slams GOP for Labeling Medicare and Social Security 'Entitlements' Congressman John Larson (D-Conn.) scolded Republicans in a fiery speech on Thursday, criticizing their use of the word "entitlements." "Newsflash! It's the insurance that the American people have paid for." Posted by IJR Blue on Friday, April 13, 2018
With the recent freeze/heat weather cycle, the Saddlebrooke Deer Herd are a little pressed for food, it appears. The… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Want to know what words were recorded in dictionaries for the first time ever in the year you were born? Kinda… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, March 19, 2018
Finally, I have an identity. I am a "Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement." Strong. Thermal Emission. Velocity… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, March 19, 2018
What happens when Unca Frankie goes to the store without first serving dinner to the Royal Family. (Kinda funny/sad at the end is Bosco, who is now pretty much just lying around, but who still feels well enough to join in the howling. I think he’s turned another corner and we don’t have long. Lotsa…
[Scenes from old age (level 54 edition)] From “Mail Call Three” episode of M*A*S*H (S6,E20; 1978, when I was 15), Radar complaining about his widowed mother having a boyfriend and maybe getting married: “Old people shouldn’t get married. SHE’S ALMOST 50!!” Get off my lawn, O’Reilly!
“BREAKING: An armed teacher reportedly fired a gun in a school in Dalton, Georgia, police say. No students have been hurt. Police have the teacher in custody, who was barricaded inside a classroom.” A. “Arm all the teachers!” B. Welp, that didn’t take long. Oops. C. “Well then arm all the janitors!” D. Prez says…
“It burns! It burns!” Happy birthday to the better half! (Those candles were throwing off sparks which you can barely… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, February 27, 2018
It’s in the 60s, the tree is blooming big time, and the crew down the street is mowing a yard. And sadly, two are dead… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Fergus Beagle avoids the camera studiously, so I snuck up on him and caught him mid-yawn. Incredibly, he turns 11 next… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Bosco likes to sleep facing the wall, sun not required. (He’s hanging tough; while the osteosarcoma has spread from… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
The ever-elegant Queen Sascha likes the sun as well. Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
Some sun!!!! Goose and his Elefunk take advantage of rare sight in Music City: Light. He’s forgotten what it is, but he likes it! (Yes, I’m projecting.) Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, February 26, 2018
#ArmMeWith … so many other things than a Glock. Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, February 24, 2018
#ArmMeWith … Posted by Steve Pollock on Saturday, February 24, 2018
"Seventy-five years ago today, a group of young German idealists, students who had dared to speak out against the Nazis,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 22, 2018
Fact/gut check: Arming 20% of the nation's teachers would result in an army of over 640,000 men and women, as many as… Posted by Steve Pollock on Thursday, February 22, 2018
This is our reality … (another in a series): Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, February 20, 2018
[Yeah, it's long and snarky. Yes, again. Read and think or move along.] A teacher's perspective: This is our reality,… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, February 16, 2018
Hard to tell in this pic, but it’s snowing to beat the band in Music City. Thoughts and prayers to grocery store workers… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, January 29, 2018
In need of some … lighter moments around here, we checked out the new Google Arts and Culture Face Map app to see what… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Bosco started to limp today, indicating a spread of the osteosarcoma to his joint. He also just had a long episode of tremors, so now we’re on our way to NVS to try to get help to get him through the night. And snow is beginning in Nashville. So. You know. Yeah. [And thanks everyone…
We got snow over ice … at least on our patio lights. Don’t want to know about the streets. Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
Every single day is a new low. How low can we go? There is no bottom. So pretty goddamned low. Shithole low.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/jerry-yellin-fighter-pilot-in-last-combat-mission-of-world-war-ii-dies-a… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
[Once again, my conscience overflows and will not give me rest without giving vent to something political/religious. So… Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
Snowing to beat the band in Music City and they’re as panicked as if General George Thomas and his Yankees was a-comin’ agin. Winter is always amusing in Dixie. Snow is purty though! Posted by Steve Pollock on Friday, January 12, 2018
The story is sordid and long, but the details were made clear by Matt Viser’s excellent Globe piece. To wit: Lorenzo sold the Donald the Eastern Shuttle for an overvalued $365 million (if DT had created a brand-new shuttle from the ground up with brand-new planes, not old worn-out 727s, estimates were that he could have done it for $300 million.) Of course, the money was all borrowed. It was 1989; Eastern (and Continental) were already almost dead from Lorenzo’s sledgehammer and the economy was tanking. Pan Am 103 was bombed, the first Gulf War was about to begin. It was incredibly bad judgement to overpay a bunch of other peoples’ money for something that was guaranteed to tank.
There’s this thing that has been closely guarded for going on 40 years in 2018. It’s my secret. So as it hits its 40th birthday in our new year, I decided it’s time to tell the world.
His Majesty is NOT in a mood to be recorded. Rash is gone, ears are better, but not quite there yet. Annnnddd … we discovered a cyst on the Royal Tuckus, which will be medically treated. If that doesn’t work, lancing and draining will be required and that brings forth a nightmare of epic proportions…
His Majesty is trying to magically blink away this followup vet visit, a la “I Dream of Jeannie” It’s not working. He’s… Posted by Steve Pollock on Wednesday, December 27, 2017
Floating Cup Pencil Carving The process looks so fun to watch! That turned out amazing!! Credit: Bobby Duke Art – goo.gl/4YU6ei Posted by Blunt Kommunity on Wednesday, December 20, 2017
“Antonio: ‘Mark you this, Bassanio, The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple rotten at the heart. Oh, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!’” Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act 1, Scene 3, Page 5. We thank thee,…
Two days, two vet visits. Sascha, Queen of Our Hearts, seems to be steadily losing the use of her back legs. Not been a… Posted by Steve Pollock on Tuesday, December 12, 2017 [Update: She’s home resting. Ummmm. Herniated disks and arthritis and a messed up spine and has feeling lower down, but can barely move….
“I must protest this assault upon Our Imperial and Royal Person! We have been captured and drugged –DRUGGED, We tell… Posted by Steve Pollock on Monday, December 11, 2017
So let’s see if I’ve got this. Germany, a country in which there are still many women alive who were raped by invading Russian Red Army soldiers and in which the human products of those rapes are still living, now trust … Russia more than the United States.
Why? Because, as reporter Anne Kingston notes, women are “female reproductive vessels” and not human beings. And because Long Dong Silver has always, and will always, get a free pass. And both of these are realities for reasons which surpasseth understanding.
Nazis are just “the normal people next door” and nothing bad should happen to either them or the New York Times for pointing this out, says The New York Times.
