Althouse: "I looked out the window to see why it got so dark all of a sudden, and they were over 12-feet high, blocking my front and back doors."

March 27, 2014

"I looked out the window to see why it got so dark all of a sudden, and they were over 12-feet high, blocking my front and back doors."

"We couldn't get out."

The scourge of... tumbleweeds!

36 comments:

rhhardin said...: Nettle makes a fine addition to any ecosystem as well.; 3/27/14, 12:10 PM
MadisonMan said...: Emphasis on weed.; 3/27/14, 12:15 PM
madAsHell said...: To combat the infestation, Garcia said her organization has formed a task force to come up with solutions that include lobbying federal and state governments for special funding.

Is there anything that government can't solve?; 3/27/14, 12:23 PM
Rocketeer said...: Insert Colorado weed joke here.; 3/27/14, 12:24 PM
SteveR said...: They burn with gusto, and they are very effective at spreading their seeds. Russian invasion; 3/27/14, 12:25 PM
Nonapod said...: Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.; 3/27/14, 12:27 PM
Curious George said...: "I looked out the window to see why it got so dark all of a sudden, and they were over 12-feet high, blocking my front and back doors."

Whitey hating on the black man again*

* Since Crack doesn't seem to be around I though I would provide all with their daily dose of racial stupidity.; 3/27/14, 12:28 PM
Curious George said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/27/14, 12:28 PM
Carter Wood said...: Russian thistle came in with flax seed in the 1870s, so if you ever see a Western set before that period with tumblewoods, it's an anachronism.; 3/27/14, 12:30 PM
Amexpat said...: While seen as a symbol of the American West, tumbleweeds are in fact a non-native weed - the Russian thistle - that was introduced into the United States in the late 19th century

Learn something new every day.; 3/27/14, 12:31 PM
paul a'barge said...: no photos

big duh; 3/27/14, 12:46 PM
tim maguire said...: What is a tumbleweed? Is it a bush? Or a bush corpse?; 3/27/14, 1:01 PM
Hagar said...: Russian thistle came in with flax seed in the 1870s, so if you ever see a Western set before that period with tumblewoods, it's an anachronism.

Not necessarily. The tumbleweeds from contaminated flax seed shipments to South Dakota were noted in the 1870's, but the stories I have seen before stated they came to the West with Russian seed grains in the 18th century when the west coast north of San Francisco was settled by Russian colonial enterprises.; 3/27/14, 1:07 PM
Hagar said...: And Russian seed grain would also come from regions where tumbleweeds are native.; 3/27/14, 1:08 PM
Michael K said...: I used to have a house that faced northeast with a U shaped deck. It would fill with tumbleweeds every spring. Just on the northeast side, though.; 3/27/14, 1:22 PM
K in Texas said...: I'm currently working in Pueblo during the week, and these things are everywhere. Yesterday the winds were strong out of the south-southwest. All of the tumbleweeds that had piled up along the north/south running ranch fences were being blown off at the same time, and heading north in large groups.

Instead of the iconic lone tumbleweed tumbling across the road, you had a line of 30 or 40 in a row. It was something to see, but then all the east-west fences are now covered with them.; 3/27/14, 1:49 PM
John henry said...: Ace linked this the other day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcUnE0tHcaI

It was a controlled burn at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal, it caused a tornado of flaming tumbleweeds. Pretty impressive.

Like a sharkenado but with fire. And tumbleweeds

John Henry; 3/27/14, 2:30 PM
David said...: Better than mud.; 3/27/14, 2:31 PM
David said...: I bet those Russian flax seeds were genetically engineered. But Gregor Antonovich Koch. And his brother Dimitri Sonovabich Koch.; 3/27/14, 2:35 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Curious George,

"Whitey hating on the black man again*

* Since Crack doesn't seem to be around I though I would provide all with their daily dose of racial stupidity."

"I've never seen a colored person toward whom I had any hatred or ill-will."

- A racist school principle in James Baldwin's famous 1961 essay "Nobody knows my name"

"I don’t have a racist bone in my body.’"

- Paul Ryan, after his famous comments regarding blacks, 2014

Today's "colorblind" racism: Old wine, new bottle.; 3/27/14, 3:24 PM
Fen said...: Racism will never die because people like Crack need it to live.

BTW Crack, when are you going to pay me reparations for your ancestors driving mine out of Africa?; 3/27/14, 3:36 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: Now if they can cross the tumbleweed with regular weed, you can have a recreational drug that delivers itself. I call dibs on the trademark TumbleWeed.; 3/27/14, 4:16 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Fen said...
Racism will never die because people like Crack need it to live.

"When did segregation officially end?" one student asked.

"The truth of the matter is we're still working on it," civil rights pioneer Terrence Roberts replied.; 3/27/14, 4:21 PM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: The Crack Emcee said...

"When did segregation officially end?" one student asked.

"The truth of the matter is we're still working on it," civil rights pioneer Terrence Roberts replied.

So, no progress since 1957. None. Zero. I see.; 3/27/14, 4:31 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: What's big, and dark, and carries the seeds of Russia?

Barack Obama and everyone into civil rights!

Weird, isn't it?

"Most people think that anti-Communism really started after World War II, during the Joe McCarthy era. Or perhaps, if they are well-versed, they’ll know of the post-World War I Palmer Raids, which gave J. Edgar Hoover a big career boost while nearly destroying the FBI. But did you know that anti-Communist charges were originally used to justify slavery?

Well it’s true,..."

You can file it under: Things those who "don't think" about race don't know they're doing - but everybody else, obviously, does.

Old wine, new bottle.; 3/27/14, 4:34 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Tyrone Slothrop,

"So, no progress since 1957. None. Zero. I see."

Is that what he said? Or what you "see"?

I mean, sure, 97% of blacks consistently vote to defeat Republicans - but that ain't ALL of 'em,...; 3/27/14, 4:40 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Way to shine the Crack-signal, ya knuckleheads.; 3/27/14, 5:29 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: I Have Misplaced My Pants said...
Way to shine the Crack-signal, ya knuckleheads.

My thoughts exactly but - hey - at least they made the cut.

Fen anyway,...; 3/27/14, 5:51 PM
Donna B. said...: My daughter and her husband once had to get a very large commercial dumpster to handle the tumbleweeds that grew in their yard. They filled it twice.

The next year, they put a ton of rocks on top of that black landscape fabric over 90% of their yard to keep them from growing, but the little demon plants still pushed through in places.

By then, they knew to nip them in the bud.

They are the kudzu of the southwest.; 3/27/14, 6:28 PM
Titus said...: fuck em bucky!!!
They burn with gusto, and they are very effective at spreading their seeds-sounds like me.; 3/27/14, 6:55 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: It isn't yet, but as a 1998er soldier in the 'Bowski wars, I welcome the day when my 'Ski reference is welcomed.; 3/27/14, 8:59 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'll Tumble For Ya.

http://youtu.be/kwb9-OlQimc; 3/27/14, 10:27 PM
MisterBuddwing said...: Surprised nobody's seen fit to reference the (original) "Outer Limits":

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xx7i4h_the-outer-limits-original-cry-of-silence_shortfilms

(It may seem silly now, but when I was a kid... oh, boy.); 3/28/14, 12:08 AM
Carter Wood said...: When I first moved to Bismarck, N.D., October 1990, I walked out of the office on one of the major thoroughfares in town, right by the mall and city center. 40 degrees, blowing wind, and tumbleweeds rolling down the street. Desolation Row popped into my head.; 3/28/14, 9:41 AM
Phaedrus said...: Couldn't get out? Seriously, a paper bag provides a tougher challenge.; 3/28/14, 10:19 AM
George M. Spencer said...: MisterBuddwing--

That was an extremely awful TV episode. Eddie Albert is harassed by killer tumbleweeds possessed by evil alien intelligence.; 3/28/14, 12:14 PM