"Urban Intellectual Fodder"
Just read it. We'll talk more about this later.

Happy Birthday!
It's the sixth birthday of The View Through the Windshield, Joe Sherlock's most excellent and perspicacious blog. TVTW is a PoW all-star favorite and has vbeen on th blogroll for ... hmmm, a long time. Joe knows business, he knows cars and he's a dab hand as an artist as well, demonstrated by occasional black and white art work of cars. Wish I could produce art like that!
If you're not a regular visitor, you should be. There is always something interesting and sometimes there is an abundance of linkage and acute thinking. Finding someone like Joe is one of those things that the internet allows that never would have happened before. It's a clear demonstration of how technology adds to one's life. Happy blogiversay Joe!

May The Fifth
Screw your "sinko de myoh" pal. This is Boy's Day! Though called "Children's Day" now (pfaw! ptui!), the day is in celebration of the male offspring who will carry the family name and bring glory to the clan. You will fly your koinobori (carp pennant), one each for the parents (honor the parents) and one for each son and sized according to the age of the boys. Carp because the carp is a fish that swims upstream and grows large and strong. A model for young men.
You will display your kabuto (model samurai helmet) and Kintarō doll. All right, action figure. Traditional Japanese action figure. If that makes you feel better.
Somewhere I have a koinobori that dates back at least several decades and I have a kabuto packed away in my closet. I didn't plan for this day but I think next year I will have both out for the day. I'll post pics.
Go thou and swim upstream!

Almost Sorta Kinda Live From Lycurgus's Neighborhood
This handsome fellow is a Painted Bunting in a growth of mangrove along a canal in central Florida. Pic was taken with a 10X zoom by a neighbor of Brother Lycurgus. If a bird chose to dress like that, I'd have no hesitation introducing him to Ricky Martin.

Good News Everybody!
Emm Gryner has a new disc coming out. "Stray Bullets" by name. And if you pre-order (that's about $15 US), you're entered in a contest to win a home show from the talented lass. I don't like my odds but it would pretty damn cool.
Also, read this post by the vivacious and perspicacious Kathy Shaidle. There is much truth therein young padawan. Then again, why are you not reading her every post every day? You got some splainin' to do!
UPDATE: In my continuing efforts to find strange and wonderful things that I can order from Amazon, I stumbled upon Madagascar pink rice. It's not cheap, I can get a really nice Basmati from Costco or my local Korean supermarket at about a buck a pound. But ... it's pink rice. I have to try it. The description includes this: "tropial spice taste with hints of cinnamon and clove" (which I assume should be tropical). To have that 'built in' to the rice is really intriguing.

Mr. Word Man Learns Something New
I've never bothered to dig into the word "petard," as in "hoist on one's own." But the idea of "hoist" always made me think of something mechanical, something pole-ish as it were. But I was everso wrong. It's actually a wall-breaching bomb. And, to Mr. Word Man's great delight, the etymology of the word is from the French for flatulation. Yup. The root of "petard" is a fart.

I'm Running Around Today
But there is much chewy goodness at The Smallest Minority. Go thou and do some reading. As Tom Lehrer once said, "Life is like a sewer. You only get out if it what you put into it."
But I would like to note in passing that my weather widget tells me today that the temperature is the same 23º as yesterday but the "feels like" is up to a blistering 8º! If this trend continues, tomorrow will "feel like" 64º! Woo hoo!

Not On My Blogroll
Maggie's Farm is a daily read for me so I probably should add it to the 'roll. But there's a post there today that should be read by everyone. A statement in favor of freedom is one way to put it. If you don't visit the site, at least read the post. It is most excellent.

In Brief
Spent all Friday on Kent Island at this year's first day of the Paul Reed Smith "Experience." I'm hurting in the joints today for the walking around and with the rain today, I didn't think it worth going again today as the Guitar Nazi and I hit all the highlights. By pure accident I wore a shirt that was the same color as those worn by the event staff. I did not try to skeeve my way into anything on that basis. I'm better than that.
I have to mention one of the staff though. There was a young lady taking pictures for PRS and she had the most incredible smile I've seen in quite a while. Absolutely dazzling. She was on the wrong side of the camera.
UPDATE: Reuters wrote an article about the Experience.

The Yuman Beings were here for a couple of days, leaving this morning, on their way to their new lives in Wilmington, Delaware. There's something about having house guests who not only take care of themselves, but did a bunch of things I needed done while I was away. And they crept away in the early morning today without making even enough noise for me to know they were awake! That's some kinda sneakin, I tell ya what.

And lastly, I found something I hadn't had at Costco the other day: white nectarines. Absolutely delicious. Smooth skinned, with the taste of white peaches but sweeter. I'm going to get some more and see what I get out of sorbet-ing them. Could be a winner.

Doing The Bullet Points Thing
A full slate for today - even unto having a professional in to estimate regrouting the shower stall - but I thought I might throw up some eructations of what's fermenting in my internal organs.
• iPhone rocks like the Technolithic Age. I've gotten my e-mail, read blogs, txt'ed, listened to iTunes samples, played iTunes songs. I need to set up my contacts list but that'll involve some data entry so it may take me a few days to get that input in.
• The new iPod Shuffle is every bit as amazing as I'd imagined. A couple of pics and little more depth of review will be along shortly.
• Watched Simon Pegg's "Run, Fat Boy, Run" in recent Netflixery. Not exactly a home run. Pegg is a very funny guy ("Shaun of the Dead," "Hot Fuzz") but in this one it's paint by numbers all the way through. The Indian landlord and his stunning daughter (played by India de Beaufort) are nice surprises. Though how Thandie Newton who pegs my "meh" meter was chosen for the love interest is beyond me. Bottom line: good for a few laughs, don't go out of your way.
• I'm still connected to gratitude. I get up with thanks in my heart and the words in my first waking breath. I even thanked a stoplight yesterday that I was sure was going to catch me but didn't. That's just silly. But it made feel right to have done so.
• I've been listening to Emm's latest disc, "Goddess," a lot lately. She's a fantastic talent. The music is wonderfully melodious, she has a voice to which I love to listen and the lyrics, while typically elliptical, are wonderful as well. ("Leftover love / I've got more than enough / Take it from me it was meant to be all for you anyway/ All for you anyway") Can't recommend the new any more strongly even if I don't think it's her best CD.
• I'm considering a few questions as they might inform fiction: What do you believe? What can you not return to? What can you not live with?
• Guitar madness - I bought an ice tray from Amazon which makes ice in the shape of a guitar body into which a plastic neck is laid. I can see stirring my iced tea with one of these bad boys this summer. I may have to practice making clear ice, save for the fact that it's much more effort than it's worth.
• And I have to add a brilliant observation from the Grouchy Old Cripple in a comment on his own site: "I sometimes miss my work, but I never miss my job." Well said, sir. Well said.

A Thought For The Day
I'm usually not terribly aphoristic but I hew firmly to this belief: To avoid being stereotyped, avoid stereotypical behavior.

A Post Stolen (With Permisson) From Billy Beck
I don't usually lift whole cloth from other bloggers but the uncompromising Billy Beck has just posted something that I feel needs to be widely seen. I envy his clarity and directness of expression. The post is entitled "Some Are In, Others Aren't" and is reproduced here for the edification of those who drop by. I would include myself when I say that his Two--Four blog is quite often "caviare to the general."

On CNBC just now, Charlie Gasparino is reporting that the New York Fed meeting in progress right now is considering some form of federal bailout for American International Group. This, of course, is the thing that they were saying would not happen only yesterday.

Through all this, bear in mind that they let Lehman Brothers sink without a trace. The point here is about arbitrary power. These are people who produce nothing, but who are able to dictate survival or doom to those with authentic responsibility for their own actions in markets.

There is nothing reasonable about this, and none of it should be mistaken for "capitalism."