The white tree — late night version.

It's dark now. The warm day is over. Time to pour a glass and sit here silently. Or talk to me.

Views of the great Saturday melt.

There were great pools of water at the base of every driveway:



Nothing's going to stop the ice fisherman from fishing:



And the boys see the chance to break out the shorts:



When these teenagers passed me on the trail, we had dialogue:

Boy: Taking photographs?

Me: Wearing shorts?

Shortly — yeah, shortly — thereafter, I went to a café to download my photographs. Sitting next to me: a girl wearing flip-flops. February flip-flops.

An 8-mile-wide slab of ice broke away from mainland Ohio and floated off into Lake Erie.

100 people needed to be rescued — and one person died.

ADDED:



(I've replaced still photo from "Way Down East" with the clip I'd looked for and not found. Thanks to chickenlittle for finding it.)

Those "25 Random Things About Me" lists are not random.

There is a pattern — a formula — expertly extracted here.

The white tree.

The Melt.

AND: More melt:

"Fairey's warrants weren't just outstanding — they were FABULOUS!"

Says chuck b., noting the arrest — and the epithetish name — of the Obama poster artist.

Shepard Fairey was in Boston on Friday for his new exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

Police Officer James Kenneally says the department had Jan. 24 warrants alleging the Los Angeles artist tagged property with graffiti.

***

Here's a slide show of Fairey's work from the Institute for Contemporary Art. Here's an old post of mine that includes a photo I took of the old Andre the Giant "Obey" image, without knowing what it was or having ever heard the name Shepard Fairey. I called it "an unrecognizable face on a lamppost":



And really, why should an artist get away with appropriating public property like this? I love Fairey, but it seems that he's committed a lot of crimes along his path to fame. Does he belong in prison for it? Should a man who stomped on a kitty go to prison for a year? But Fairey's crimes were fabulous (and his warrants were outstanding). It is not fabulous to stomp a kitten.

IN THE COMMENTS: Zachary Paul Sire says:

I wonder how everyone here would react had Fairey's subject and object of affection been Sarah Palin.

Oh, that's easy. Then he would belong in jail for a year, just like the kitty stomper. Fairey's more like a cockroach stomper. See the difference? Your sentence depends on whether we love or hate you.

It's going up to 57° here today in Madison, Wisconsin.

I must go out. I'll bring you back some pictures, I hope. And hopefully these won't be like last night's Frozen Creek Alehouse picture — the one that drove ricpic to write a poem called "Suicide Creek":

Wander down to suicide creek,
Walk its ice and snow;
Dream of finding what you seek
In the dark below.

I love to take a picture that drives you to poetry, but not one that drives you toward death. And don't walk on that ice today — suicidal or not.

Is it a day to fret about global warming? Well, if you're not supposed to look at the isolated cold day as a sign that global warming is a hoax, then it's just as wrong to look at the isolated warm day as a sign that it's true. But you know, if there is to be global warming, some of us will be winners. Yet, there's no need to wait around to win the hard way — and it's evil to want to win that way — because there is today, and today is beautiful.

Life is beautiful too, let me remind you. Don't kill yourself.

"I tend to think technology addiction has to do with fear of, or aversion to, direct human contact."

"It allows you to seem to relate to others while actually staying inside your own head and keeping control of the encounter as if it was only your fantasy. Yes, porn, but that's only symptomatic, or emblematic."

Something Amba wrote in the comments back here that disturbed me. Now, come on into my comments and have an experience with me.

WiFi on airplanes. What's the downside?

Terrorists coordinating things? The fact that the mere suggestion of terrorists coordinating things has me instantly eagerly ready to have the government monitor anything sent to or from an airline laptop? Come on, we let them X-ray the intimate items our bags and look at us in that machine that lets them see us naked. And you know how ridiculous you look naked but with your invisible clothes squishing your body into the dressed shape? Or do you think you look better that way, what with your Spanx and your push-up brassiere? I'm thinking of belts and waistbands. So, come on, WiFi on airplanes. It will be great. The time once spent doing that crap crossword in the in-flight magazine and snoozing to a half-heard audiobook will feel just like all those hours you willingly sit in your desk chair on a beautiful warm February day when you could be out traipsing around your beautiful city.

At the Frozen Creek Alehouse.

Make footprints with Althouse.



Talk to me!

Congressman Peter Hoekstra tweets a security breach!

"Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here."

IN THE COMMENTS: Jason (freezing) says:

Please, all his tweets are like that:

Deciding where to put new nuke dump. Who wants to donate to my campaign?

Rate this congressional page 1-10

At meeting with pres, BORED, anyone wanna chat?

@biden I haven't paid taxes in years, where's my appointment? LOL

After Ginsburg? "A woman? It seems certain. It’s inconceivable that the Court could be all-male...."

Jeffrey Toobin thinks Obama might pick a non-judge — maybe Janet Napolitano or Jennifer Granholm. Of the judges, Toobin flags: Sonia Sotomayor, Diane Wood, and Elena Kagan.

Think it's in bad taste to launch into talk about replacing Ginsburg as soon as we hear of her cancer treatment?

What's in worse taste?
	Talk of replacing a Justice the instant we hear of her cancer treatment.
	An elderly Justice remaining on the Court when seriously ill.
pollcode.com free polls

While we're at it:

If the Ginsburg seat is vacated is it necessary to replace her with a woman?
	Absolutely. We cannot have an all-male Court.
	The President should use a sex-blind selection process.
	The President should give some consideration to the sex of the Justice, but not too much.
pollcode.com free polls

"But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked."

Bob Dylan sang that long before anybody thought about where they would rank in a Google search.

Now, here comes Forbes.com with an item titled "Obama's 'Naked' Moment." When have we got a clever title and when is it a cheap traffic grab?

So which of Obama's many moments counts as his "naked" moment? If naked is the metaphor, it seems to me that we've had nothing but naked. It's a veritable nudist presidency.

"Dad is grooving on it, joking... looking forward to the moment he can post it...."

Should we condemn druggy dentist boy's dad?

Well, should we?
	Yes.
	No.
	Eh.
pollcode.com free polls

"You know, much more of this and I’ll start to think that all the concern over rendition and waterboarding was just insincere electoral hooey."

Hmmm... another chance to use my "Obama is like Bush" tag.

Sarah Palin's "unstable grip on reality."

Or... oh... never mind... or no...

Has technology extinguished both true solitude and real social life?

A big essay by Neil Swidley.

"We are both architects in a way. We both deal with structure, we are both artists, and we are both egomaniacs. I have worn a cape."

"There is where we end."

Says T.C. Boyle about Frank Lloyd Wright, the subject of his new novel. Boyle actually lives in a Wright house, the George C. Stewart House in Montecito. Here's a photo of the house, and looking closely at the windows, I believe this portrait of Boyle at his website shows a detail of the house. Here's another portrait of Boyle from his website. I think it's interestingly phallic.

ADDED: If you buy the book — "The Women" — using this link, you will be making a contribution to this blog (without paying extra).

Buddy Holly "got as close as anyone has to the essence of rock 'n' roll...."

"No one will ever do what he did. Sure, there are imitators -- he's very easy to imitate. But no one can do it with that purity and innocence anymore. There will always have to be a layer of irony or allusion."

Jac has 5 videos by artists in the Buddy Holly "nerd rocker" tradition. He wouldn't add a 6th one, which I recommended, so I'm putting it here:




And, by the way, the angels want to wear my red shoes....