http://greasy.com/drmaus/index.html drmaus's Blog en-us © 06:31:23 Greasy.com All rights reserved. Fri, Sep 06:31:23 5 GMT 30 http://greasy.com/drmaus/land_things_different.html Sometimes I dream of a place where expectations are not met. I yearn for it... If only: Keebler cookies were common, gall were occasionally mitigated, and if only the Devil and the deep blue sea were right smack next to each other. Rocks were coincident with hard places so you didn't have to worry about getting stuck between them; you, me and the bedpost were never conspirators; pie became difficult. Lies did not come in packs, tissues or a web. Them without sin cast the last stone. Every ... Tue, 2 Sep 2008 08:30:47 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/tom-all-alones.html John McCain deserves to have a birthday which falls on the anniversary of the tragedy in New Orleans from hurricane Katrina. Anyone who would be eating cake with George Bush that year (or any year, in my own opinion) should feel sick misgivings each year when the dreaded dates approached. After reading James' post including a long list of sad statistics describing New Orleans today, I think of Dickens' Bleak House and the squalid street called Tom-All-Alone's, which was left to decay after ... Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:41:32 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/russia_united_states.html Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't Saakashvili done something similar to what Saddam Hussein did to Kuwait? Waited for the moment, then opportunistically invaded sovereign territory? That means Russia is acting out OUR role in that business, first rushing in to protect Ossetia (as we did for Kuwait) -- a good thing, because Ossetia had a humanitarian crisis -- then, going after the surrounding country for the oil running through it, for the strategic position Georgia holds in its region, ... Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:57:47 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/figuring_going_georgia.html Combine Ekyprogressive's post HERE -- and the audio by Rachel Maddow was really enlightening -- with Whereabouts' extended post HERE. However, I don't think now that Blackwater or Americans were there, although residents are saying that some soldiers had American insignias. Georgia's army has been built and supplied by the U.S. right down to their uniforms. Those men could be Georgians.. but their uniforms were described as black, and it makes sense that we would already have some people i ... Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:35:29 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/getting_old_complaint_no2.html I hardly listen to music, so when I do, I hate singers who fail to enunciate at all, although they are singing something very emotionally-laden and you gather that the words would explain what the hell the noise is all about. (Wow, I think I just aged 20 years with that sentence. What a Baba Yaga I'm becoming!) Or when it's rap, and supposedly the lyrics matter a lot more. For this reason, I really appreciate people like Chamillionaire -- whoever this is -- whose "Tryin to catch me ridin d ... Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:00:38 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/getting_old_complaint_no.html (Been complaining since birth but this is my new list.) 1. I REALLY HATE THE PACKAGING THEY NOW USE FOR -- Condiments: Heinz ketchup, for example, is beginning to be sold in a flattish squared plastic bottle, a type of bottle I associate with motor oil, not food. This older shape, pictured here, was okay, but then it got squarer. With the newer bottle, if you want to get all the ketchup out, you'd have to get a box cutter and hack it open, and scoop out what is clinging inside every corner ... Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:40:00 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/elie_wiesel.html At Borders I sat down in the cafe with books, but when I went to buy my coffee an employee gathered them to reshelve. So I had to find something else to read with my drink, some book on a shelf close by. Elie Wiesel jumped out at me in paperback. I read half of it just sitting there, because I couldn't stop. It was the book in which he describes his own and his family's capture and imprisonment in Auschwitz. What really got to me was his description of how unbelievably long his family and ... Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:52:54 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/raggmopp.html Definitive version! Sat, 9 Aug 2008 19:13:02 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/youtube.html The earlier version! RaggMopp Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:45:49 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/try_again.html Well, I can't seem to embed YouTube. So here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7OfAAFbmfg&feature=related Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:40:39 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/time_dance.html Hey! Didn't work! Sat, 9 Aug 2008 18:38:11 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/cicada_time.html It's now cicada time. They sit in the tops of the tallest trees and you can hear that patented buzzing as long as there's at least partial sun. They usually stay silent until August, making you forget they're there, and then suddenly the sound begins. They are so LOUD. Just now the ones outside have stopped. They must have gotten tired for the moment. When I was a kid I lived in a neighborhood full of huge willow trees complete with cicadas living and singing on top every summer. These tre ... Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:31:24 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/john_mccain_sock_monkey.html I knew it was him because they were calling him Old Baldy. Sun, 3 Aug 2008 15:40:51 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/cook.html It seems to me that saltines used to come in a 4-block square with perforated lines and you could snap them into 4 and have enough to make 2 peanut-butter-and-jelly cracker sandwiches. This sleeve of single crackers business you get now is just... sad. Maybe graham crackers still come in 2 or 4-block pieces, but I don't eat those. And Stella Artois needs a screw-off cap. ....And that pretty much describes dinner tonight. Sun, 27 Jul 2008 03:28:59 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/sunset.html Some paper wasps decided to start building a nest right inside my screen front door, so I guess I'll wait until sundown to do something about it. Stinging bugs are intimidating. Speaking of sundown, here's my moment of Zen. (If this embedding works.) Nope, didn't work. couldn't paste the embedding text. So here's the link: Aruba Sunset The sun seems to drop like an egg into boiling water. The camera is hard to keep steady due to all the wind. This was put up by a friend. I'll have to try t ... Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:05:41 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/tony_snow_member_fatal.html The Fatal Four is not anything bad at all. Not some right-wing clique or anything. It's the name of his bowling foursome when he was 11 years old. My brother says he wasn't sure for the longest time -- but recent bios of Tony Snow made him realize that the Tony he was friendly with in elementary school was the same one who became press secretary. My brother, Tony Snow, and two other boys named Steve and Thad were in a group for bowling every Saturday at Princeton Bowl in Springdale, Ohio. ... Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:02:24 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/bill_clinton_nationa_governors.html Only after a president leaves office do I start to understand how skilled and informed a person he is. (Of course I expect revelations of a different sort if Bush gives any public talks after his term ends.)Clinton's speech, live on CSPAN, kept me in the same spot on the couch for the duration. I do not usually like to listen to speeches. But this was really, really interesting. He talked about The Big Sort, a concept written about by journalist Bill Bishop. More and more, we have "hunkere ... Sat, 12 Jul 2008 20:18:30 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/governor_wants_invade_ohio.html At the Centennial of the Governors' Association(still going on now, on CSPAN), Cokie Roberts opened her talk by remarking that in Europe, people tend to refer to their state as a "country" -- "in my country, we buy more meat than... etc". So she turned to Ed Rendell (gov. of PA) and asked, "If Pennsylvania were a country, what would you do?" Ed shrugs. "Oh, probably invade Ohio," he says. I'm ready! That state needs to be taught a lesson. I'll go get my gun, which I cling to at night along ... Sat, 12 Jul 2008 19:48:36 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/wrongful_deaths.html I just found out one more false story about a supposed ironic death of someone famous. I think I've run into more recently, but can remember only a couple: Charles Drew, a pioneering physician who came up with the method of banking blood for transfusions, did not die the way I was taught in elementary school. The story was that, because he was black, he was refused a transfusion by the hospital treating him. He was in a serious car accident, but the hospital did NOT refuse him a transfusio ... Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:25:46 GMT http://greasy.com/drmaus/birdie_sunbathing.html I just saw the weirdest thing. I looked out the back screen door to make sure my birdie was okay, on his towel playground on the porch. (He can't fly and is rather lame in one leg, so he stays on the ground in one area, on towels. I put out his dishes, toys, and a cardboard shelter.) He looked like he'd been squashed by a car. He was lying prone in the sun, his head on one side, and his tail fanned out wide. His mouth was wide open too. He was just sunbathing. He does this kind of thing wh ... Thu, 10 Jul 2008 19:26:56 GMT