Peering over the garden fence

Spring is nearly here...which is good because the elections are still far away...I'm not from looking forward to the elections where Republicans will try to convince me even though they've been building bigger government, it's just to get a better view to skink it, and Democrats try to convince me the reason I should vote for them is that other guys are so darned awful that I have no choice.

As everyone knows, spring here in Lakewood is signaled by birds, skateboarders hanging out in parking lots (so glad we built that skate park, huh), and the return of Jed and Betty. My parents seem to come most every spring to help M_ and myself with our notably ungreen thumbs. One of the things we want to do is put up a fence - which sadly, is mostly to block out the sight if not the idea of a neighbour. So I turn to my internet neighbours on my blogroll for what they've been up to...

Speaking of home work, Brian Bento at n-grams and ingrams was working on fixing his expensive Apple laptop:

Not wanting to go back to the Apple store, I took matters into my own hands. Pulling out my trusty library card, I slid it into the CD drive and nudged it up against the CD.

. Read the full story here, which could go into the "computer companies want you to pay top dollar, but don't really care if it's junk" file, if I could find a file folder tab that wide.

Lynn at A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance laments that some folks think the word "cryptoterrestrial" is too long. To me, it doesn't convey enough information. First glance makes me think it represents a creature that's been encrypted, but maybe this just means I spend too much time around computers.

"Do you have any whisky?" and
"This place is far too dirty. You
must clean it

if I am to stay the night."

Read the rest by Adam Harvey, poeting at Organic Mechanic

I like the Escher reflecting ball drawing (which I'm not linking because they all seem to be selling posters), but not so much the modern equivalent photographed by Tim at Brewed Fresh Daily. Although he says it defines the west side of Cleveland.

Jeff Hess, blogging at Have Coffee, Will Write is amused at the cheap bitchiness of a newspaper that takes away the gratis copies in the office for employees, and tries to get them to pay a quarter (because that will them in the black for sure!)

Do suppose Alexander (The Barely Competent) is going to post security cameras on the boxes? Hire guards? Clap his hands together in glee as senior reporters who Don’t have to put up with the chicken shit! walk out?

My rule of capitalism is thus: if the cheap bitches (I use it in a sense to attacks fools of all genders) running your company start cheaping out on items that cost almost nothing, that's the first warning sign.

Jill Zimon, oft accused of Writing like she Talks has some handy info on some local judges running for election here. It always surprises me that despite being nearly free, how many local candidates do not bother creating up to date websites (let alone blogs as useful as Jill's).

Apparently the weather isn't so great down south, according to Michael Schaub, who's blogging at Bookslut

I live in Austin. It was over 100 degrees yesterday and will be again today. The utilities have timed the rolling blackouts to ensure that no traffic light I encounter, at any time of the day, will actually be working. Basically, being outside here is like hugging a very fat man for a long time, and also the fat man is on fire.

(link). Crichton should be worried.

Meryl Yourish has a new hero - he's Danny Gillerman, Israeli ambassador to the UN:

Danny Gillerman deviated from his speech, and turned to the Palestinian representative, saying that there was one word missing from his speech - Hamas. You didn’t use that word even once, Gillerman told Mansour, adding: Come, I’ll spell it out for you how they say Hamas H-A-M-A-S.

Embarrassment is the least of Mansour's (and the UN's) problems on this. (Link).

Marybeth, long accused of having Random Thoughts, has discovered another type of terrorist - kind of - when cat meets rose.

Avedon Carol has a post linking to various blogs on The Sideshow here, including this quote from Glenn Greenwald

Every country opposed to our interests is Nazi Germany. From this it follows that every warmonger is the glorious reincarnation of the brave and resolute Winston Churchill.

I think it's reasonable to ask that you not call a democratically elected leader Hitler - as those on the right mock some on the far left do - but it's equally reasonable to not paint him as Churchill either. Just in case you forgot, it's the same war they're both pulling overblown rhetoric from...

Over at Alphecca Jeff Soyer looks at gun bias in the media. Oddly, he also found some sword bias in Tacoma, Washington:

It's pointed out that "sword crime" is rather rare and in fact, isn't a problem. If it isn't a problem, why pass a law?

The only law about swords in my book is "in the end, there can be only one"!

Last week, Foodgoat did his first podcast reviewing beer. I saw Foodgoat and Ladygoat at a blogger meeting once, but never got to speak to who I consider the stars of the Ohio food-blogosphere, which I am reluctant to shorten to "flogosphere" for obvious reasons.

Meanwhile, oboist Patricia Mitchell won't let us see her in pajamas and also notes

Unless you can't live if you don't do music full time, you may as well face reality and get a job that pays a living wage.

I once tried to do it full-time myself, but when I looked forward to free samples day at the grocery store so you can eat something, I sadly hung up the trombone.

John Ettorre Works with Words and says

How, you ask, could we have ignored such a seminal figure in American culture? Alas, we have no good excuse. So we thought we'd make up for that lapse today.

link).

Finally for spring, Martha at Your Daily Art has flowers, with things I didn't know about the Arts and Crafts movement..." The followers of the movement sought-out the hand-made production methods of the past, as a reaction to the industrial age." We could probably use another movement like this.