Karla having fun at the mid-state fair.... is that a Croc or an Ali?
The California Mid State Fair is something most locals look forward to each yea and no one enjoys it more than Karla. She particularly loves riding the carousels endlessly, so we bring plenty of loot. She also practices all year for the dart exhibits and raises a few eyebrows as she threw three darts hitting two baloons each! She won a lion and a cloth rose!
Just to show her sisters that she was brave, she held a ‘gator.’
As for me, I was happy it just wasn’t over 100 degrees this year!
Flipboard for iPad is UNBELIEVABLE! CLICK on the picture above to read about it!
My daughter Karen first turned me on to FLIPBOARD; but unfortunately for me, at the time, flipboard was swamped! It was like a million people trying to rush through a very small door… and they put me on their waiting list! Today, I was sent a kind email saying that my turn came up… and I rushed to the iPad to log it all in!
With Flipboard you can read all of the social media sites you wish to keep up on! For me that is twitter and facebook! On facebook, I can keep up with friends and family… and then follow a small group of friends and other culinary folks on twitter!
zooming in on a picture or a message is easy! Here I am reading a comment of Laura's
However, iPad jealousy is a sad thing! The critics of the iPad sound all too much like the folks who originally dissed the personal computer, the lap top and the smart phone. Some people just hate technology and the social connectivity that it offers all of us. Some understand that information is power and they really don’t want us to share and connect… let’s face it, some folks just don’t want you to have fun! In the meantime, flipboard for ipad is a wonderful addition to the social media experience!
CLICK on picture to be taken directly to the Drudge Report
There are many people in various levels of leadership who really don’t believe in a ‘free press’ or ‘freedom of speech’ and I am saddened by this. Let us just say, I have heard enough people say the trite, “the people don’t know what’s good for them” as well as the ” I can’t believe Reagan won (80%), because everyone I knew voted for McGovern! (McGovern won only his home state of Minnesota)” to wonder why they really aren’t listening to the rest of us? The unfortunate truth is that we are always one heartbeat from losing our objectivity. When we (and they) listen, we all benefit.
There was a time before Matt Drudge, Fox News, the Huffington Postand nationally syndicated alternative radio talk show hosts where the news was interpreted for us by a few national media outlets and locally by newspapers. Interestingly enough, media folks in those days referred to themselves as ‘moderates’, which amused most everyone. In the ‘old days’, it was almost impossible to have your voice heard, even on the local level. It was an almost impossible task to even stand toe-to-toe with a local newspaper editor… as has been often quoted: “Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel and paper by the ton.” This has all changed for the better with the internet. Today, scandals that would have been swept under the rug get to see the light of day. Stories unpopular with powerful entities get a chance to be played. Common sense rules the marketplace of ideas…. but there are those who do not like this at all.
So, I am reminded that without a true freedom of the press and free speech, none of our other ‘rights’ mean much.
Thank you to all those who present another point of view regardless of that part of the political spectrum you sit…. even on the local level.
CLICK on this picture to see Bucky Cat and friends every day!
First, I do believe in sports and I agree with Benjamin Franklin’s reference to as a ‘sound mind in a sound body.’ However, although I think soccer is interesting — whatever it is — but, it is definitely not a sport. In a sport you have contestants and usually somebody wins. In the world cup of soccer in South Africa, there were at least eight ‘ties’ and very specific ‘rules’ for advancing in the case of almost certain ties… one of the rules included “drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.” Winning by chance or luck should be left in Las Vegas.
Personally, I think a ‘sport’ should reflect reality… and there are seldom any ‘ties’ in the real world. So what is soccer? Soccer resembles ‘aerobics’ more than anything else and call me strange, but watching a bunch of guys jump and run around, pound the ground and show frustration doesn’t do anything for me.
As someone once said, “There has got to be a prize for playing this game.”
1) Well, although there was a lot of talk about ‘world peace’, it was secured – as Chairman Mao once said – through the muzzle of a gun.
2) There was no real anti-Americanism or dialogue that referred to “we are the cause of the world’s problems” rhetoric. Interestingly, the only real blame that was cast was on self serving American politicians. The critics don’t like this as “Politicians’ in this our modern era are sacred, well, at least some of them by the media.
3) Tony Stark appears to at least –temporarily—be turning over a new leaf with a more sincere and possibly monogamous relationship with a woman. This is unacceptable to film critics on many levels. BTW, the previous villain ( a one Mr. Bridges) won an academy award for one of those movies no one pays money to see. I just saw his movie on dvd on sale at Costco … and it wasn’t selling. My guess it will be bundled with another movie – possibly ‘Brokeback Mountain’ – sometime soon, two for $9.00.
4) There were a few lines that would cause immediate political disfavor among the politically sensitive critics. One memorable quote by Tony Stark was, “peace brought to you by the private sector.” The concept that government is not a solution to everything is a problem for them.
5) The movie was decidedly positive, optimistic and upbeat, which is everything a critic locked into the 1970’s political mentality hates.
Oh, yeah, the bad guy was really bad and the good guys really won! Can you believe anything more revolting than that?
IRONMAN 2 is a great flick. See it a feel better for doing so.
"A house is not a
home unless it
contains food and
fire for the mind
as well as the body.”
Benjamin Franklin
_____________
"Without the culinary
arts, the crudeness
of reality would
be unbearable."
Kate & Leopold
_____________
"Tell me what you
eat, and I will
tell you what you
are."
Anthelme
Brillat-Savarin
_____________
"I think it is a
sad reflection on
our civilization
that while we can
and do measure the
temperature in the
atmosphere of Venus
we do not know what
goes on inside our
soufflés."
Nicholas Kurti
_____________
The truth is that
with a gentleman I
am always a gentle-
man and a half, and
when I have to deal
with a pirate, I
try to be a pirate
and a half.
Prince
Otto Eduard Leopold
von Bismarck
_____________
Honesty is not so
much a credit as an
absolute prerequisite
to efficient service
to the public. Unless
a man is honest, we
have no right to keep
him in public life; it
matters not how
brilliant his capacity
