December 24, 2018

Wishing you some Christmas calm...

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... and even cheer if you can find it. And joy.

It's a brighter day today than yesterday, when I took that snapshot of Lake Mendota from Picnic Point. If that photo had audio it would sound like this (trumpeter swans).

CORRECTION: Those are tundra swans.

69 comments:

Temujin said...

And to you and Meade.

wild chicken said...

I hear a meadowlark in the background.

Very mellifluous.

FWBuff said...

Merry Christmas, Ann and Meade! Merry Christmas to all!

rhhardin said...

I put out two baby mice in the field a couple blocks away. Baby mice means there are more mice.

Peanut butter in the Havahart trap.

The mom seems to know better but the babies do not.

rhhardin said...

Peanut butter gives the mice an edge in adapting to the field. They get a half day to indulge. It's like thanksgiving.

wild chicken said...

Glue traps were working great for us inside until my cat got stuck to one.

Original Mike said...

Calm would be nice.

Merry Christmas, one and all.

chillblaine said...

post audio. dangitalthouse do vidya, heck man.

Welcome To Sandog - Plane Spotting Over The Moon over Casa De Oro

chillblaine said...

wow, mellifluous, and used in a sentence. this board is starting to trim out nicely

Matt Sablan said...

Merry Christmas since I may not be around tomorrow to post.

traditionalguy said...

Early closing Last minute shopping day doesn't mix with calmness. And then time for wrapping them.

Not really. We did all that. But memories of xmas past come: putting together a baby stroller, or giving up. Getting air in the bike tires at midnight.Those were the days.

madAsHell said...

I was actually acquainted with Pat Shanahan.when he was the VAX system administrator on the B2 program, and he lived down the street from my Mom.

He was on the Boeing EXPO program. There were people watching over his career, and making sure that he had the right experience. He never stayed in a job more than a couple of years, and he didn't make any lateral moves.

Overall, I thought he was a good guy. He had the people skills, and the problem solving skills to be a really effective manager.

BamaBadgOR said...

If you can't find Christmas calm, just change the lyrics:

https://www.biography.com/news/judy-garland-have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas-meet-me-in-st-louis

chillblaine said...

Merry Christmas From Count Floyd, who is friends with Bruno, and Doctor Tongue.

Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses

chillblaine said...

Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses

etbass said...

Wish this calm would be the mood of Wall St today.

tcrosse said...

Wishing you and yours some Christmas Clams

J. Farmer said...

Just gonna repost this from last night's open forum...

I'm heading out to Colorado with the family for Christmas and New Year's and am going to terribly miss my usually balmy Florida Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you have a day filled with love, laughter, and joy with family, friends, and loved ones.

To those who vehemently disagree with me, thanks for the pusbhack. For those who have had my back, thanks for the support. To my buddy Birkel, who can push my buttons like no other on this site, thanks for the sparring.

And of course lastly to our gracious host, Ann. Merry Christmas to you, Meade, and the family. May the best of your past be the worst of your future.

Cheers!

iowan2 said...

Merry Christmas to all. Our host for putting up with me, and cheers to all the readers and commentators that make this slice of entertainment possible. Here's praying all can experience peace and serenity through acceptance. With that comes happiness through granting forgiveness.

Omaha1 said...

Merry Christmas to you Althouse & Meade. Rhhardin, you are much nicer than me when it comes to mice. I don't really want to catch them alive. But they are getting too smart for my basic traps, have learned to get the peanut butter off without being killed.

Sebastian said...

"(trumpeter swans)"

Sibelius did it better.

rehajm said...

Famiglia is decorating the tree with a fire raging and Christmas tunes playing. No boozy egg nog as some are nursing hangovers from yesterday’s post- air travel experience. It’s sunny in the sixties outside so this is all a winter simulation. Brother in law caught a bass in the lagoon this morning.

Merry Christmas to all!

tcrosse said...

Cheer can be found at Althouse's Amazon Portal:
Christmas Cheer

Bad Lieutenant said...

Merry Christmas to all who want one, and a Happy New Year!

cf said...

Lovely company here this morning, this exchange of delight & peaceful words. Glad & grateful for you, Althouse and this bit of World that has gathered around.

I described my habit for this blog to my girlfriends 4 days ago, because of that "Hungarian" deer run & so I offer it up:

"Say ladies! Thought you would enjoy this record of what must be an ancient, wholesome Move that is alive and Thriving still. 
This blogger is part of my "morning newspaper", haha, a sort of Features and oped section.
The timing fuels my gentle Christmas mood into Big awareness & heart for the whole world, the creation and bounty, now and through the eons. Happy thursday before Christmas!"

2018 has turned out to produce my most unstressed Navidad ever, hallelujah, may it be so for you, & With my Christmas Coffee I clink to Althouse, Salud!

Andrew said...

@Sebastian,
Have you ever seen this performance?
https://youtu.be/lW-fEnOozfA
Watch at approximately 26:20, when the swan theme comes in. Something happens soon after (when more of the orchestra takes up the theme), that is unusual for a classical concert, but it never fails to move me. So beautiful and powerful.
Merry Christmas, everyone.

walter said...

Imagine if they had picked up something else..like bassoon.

Howard said...

Avocado works when peanut butter don't

Churchy LaFemme: said...

The touring Beach Boys (fronted by Mike Love & Bruce Johnston) performing the two best songs from the Beach Boys Christmas Album:

Santa's Beard / Little St. Nick (16 December 2018 North Charleston SC)

A little rough & ragged for sure, but Merry Christmas to all anyway!

Ralph L said...

BamaBadgOR's link to info about the song

Youtube of the Movie version

I never liked it until I saw the movie.

stevew said...

Merry Christmas and Good Will to all, wherever you may be.

Curious George said...

Merry Christmas all. Now off to wrap grandson Georgie's gifts.

Tina Trent said...

Thank you for this forum, and the slate-grey skies I miss.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Here's a taste of Chet Atkins' Christmas : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qXaGWCfvyM

Sebastian said...

Hey, Andrew, thanks -- no, I hadn't seen that performance, and the art in fact enhances it, surprisingly.

But I prefer the Berlin Philharmonic--it's as if the musicians take flight.

Inga...Allie Oop said...

Merry Christmas! I’m off to Madison to our Christmas Eve celebration for our side of the family. All my kids and grandkids are in from all ends of the US, it’s so wonderful to be under one roof.

Andrew said...

Thanks, Sebastian. I'll look for that one.

Josephbleau said...

In my experience there is no better mouse bait than 2 inches of bacon heated for 15seconds in a microwave. It is irresistible.

MayBee said...

Merry Christmas, Althouse, Meade and Althousians!

rhhardin said...

Rush should never explain
1. Economics
2. Mathematics

Chuck said...

Best and warmest holiday wishes to Robert Mueller and his entire team in the Office of Special Counsel for a productive and successful 2019.

The Godfather said...

In a few hours we celebrate the birth of our saviour. Merry Christmas to Althouse and Meade, and all the rest of you in this interesting village on the Internet.

AllenS said...

Merry Christmas, everyone, and a big humbug to Chuck. Give it a break.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Merry Christmas everyone.

May Mueller-Hillary rot in a pot.

gadfly said...

Dow dives 600 points to below 22,000, S&P 500 enters bear market - worst Christmas Eve ever. Market commentators seem to concluded the following:

Trump resumed his attack on the Fed on Monday, tweeting that the central bank is "the only problem" with the U.S. economy. It seems that Jerome Powell, President Trump’s handpicked Federal Reserve chair, has been disappointing his appointer. Our blameless president has recently faulted Powell and the central bank that he runs, claiming that the FED decision to raise rates has negatively impacted millions of Americans.

However the stock market simply doesn't like tariffs, and The Donald has pushed Trump Tariffs too far, so he is sinking the stock market. And while all the major worries for investors — higher rates, slowing earnings growth, recession risks, and the trade war — remain in play, today's market reaction should make clear that right now, markets and businesses are most sensitive to what’s happening with trade.



Tank said...

Merry Christmas all.

gadfly said...

@chillblaine said...

wow, mellifluous, and used in a sentence. this board is starting to trim out nicely.

Methinks that any of these synonyms would work better: sweet-sounding, dulcet, honeyed, mellow, soft, liquid, silvery, soothing, rich, smooth, euphonious, harmonious, tuneful, musical.

Not to worry, however, until we go from Chillblaine to Kibe.

Michelle said...

I have enjoyed this blog and the people who inhabit it for many years. You all have expanded my thinking and thoroughly entertained me. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Thank you to Ann (and to Meade) for cultivating such a vibrant and truly “safe” space to explore a variety of topics and issues.

Birkel said...

I wish Chuck and RGB the exact same wish for health in 2019.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and even Happy Festivus.

tcrosse said...

Dow dives 600 points to below 22,000, S&P 500 enters bear market - worst Christmas Eve ever.

Democrats take the House. Market tanks. Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.

Greg Hlatky said...

Merry Christmas to PPPT, R/V, Inga, Freder, Once Written, Robert Cook and Chuck.

rhhardin said...

The worst part of the holidays is that the radio hosts you're in the habit of listening to aren't there, with the expection of Rush, who has gotten boring but came in, displacing Mark Steyn probably, who would have been a holiday treat.

rhhardin said...

Those future earnings aren't so great discounted by 2.5% instead of .125%.

rhhardin said...

If you could hold the interest rate at zero, every company making money would be worth an infinite amount. Bull market.

narciso said...

steyn is very good, davis is acceptable, belling is supporific, although apparently not in Wisconsin,

stephen cooper said...

Thanks, Ann, for being one of the most patient bloggers that there have ever been. As an example of why I like your blog with its commenting community so much, I have been thinking a lot in the last few days about some of the comments made in your Robert Alter post (comments discussing what the Bible means to the lives of those of us who are poor or forsaken)

After reading some of the wonderful ways some of your commenters were spending Christmas Eve, I decided to do something more than I have done in earlier years, and so I walked a half mile from my little apartment to a woods that nobody walks to much because it is next to a noisy interstate highway (who goes to a woods to listen to traffic?) , and in a little grove of - no kidding - holly trees, little ones and big ones, some of them 30 feet high - underneath a cover of beech and oak and mature sweetgum, with the setting sun's light on their upper branches - I watched the headlights going by from Florida to New York, and I prayed for everyone in every car.

Leaving many details out .... then I went home and opened an absolutely charming bottle of Lebanese wine - Les Breteches 2014 - accent grave sur la deuxieme voyelle - and wrote this comment.

Drago said...

Gadfly: "However the stock market simply doesn't like tariffs, and The Donald has pushed Trump Tariffs too far, so he is sinking the stock market."

Industrial grade stupid.

Powell signalling multiple interest hikes for 2019 (there shouldnt be any) sent the markets tumbling further as he was speaking.

Commodity prices are already declining and inflation is steady at 3%.

I had a bet with some fund mgrs I know who were adament that the market had already priced in Fed activity this year and rates would not be raised further....because that would be "destructive".

I told them I believed Powell and the Fed were going to go Full Volcker in order to drive Trump from office.

Its political, not economic.

They dont yet believe that (or so they say), but none of them are pushing back very hard on my position. In fact, not at all.

I asked them if 2 years ago they would have believed that our intelligence and law enforcement agencies would go Full Stasi and literally run an intelligence setup operation against domestic political opponents.

"Good point" was the response.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Drago... Stop Making Sense!

narciso said...

and this was the other side of the Deep state play:

https://securitystudies.org/jamal-khashoggi-and-qatar-in-the-echo-chamber/

I'm Full of Soup said...

Merry Christmas to Meadhouse and all their readers and commenters!

Marc in Eugene said...

Merry Christmas, everyone, and many thanks for the wide variety of interesting and amusing conversations in the past year. In the new year, via the good offices of Aid to the Church in Need, some poor priest somewhere is going to offer Holy Mass for AA and you lot.

Am trying to keep myself sufficiently enthused to go out in four hours to Midnight Mass, so took advice and am listening to Sibelius's 5th Symphony performed by the Berlin Philharmonic (Rattle, February 2015). "Today at ten to eleven I saw 16 swans. One of my greatest experiences! The Fifth's Finale theme: Legato in the trumpets."

Will be dozing in an hour, I expect.

Ralph L said...

We're counter-programming with the Frankenstein Chronicles on Netflix.

madAsHell said...

Merry Christmas to PPPT, R/V, Inga, Freder, Once Written, Robert Cook and Chuck.

Cookie wrestles with his convictions. The others??......not so much.

narciso said...

Things to consider:


https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-46650911

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...

It's almost midnight EST, the Boston Pops is wrapping up (their "Twelve Days of Christmas" was a musical tour de force that I absolutely did not like) and it's time for bed. One son has arrived, the other, plus our daughter in law and his pet, will be arriving in the morning.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all -- good night.

Darrell said...

Merry Christmas to all!

rhhardin said...

For the eve you can google tweeze denied beef worker

tim in vermont said...

It’s not that hard to see Trump as the George Bailey character and Hillary and the Democrats as Potter, if you keep an open mind. 30 years ago you would have said that the Democrats owned the George Bailey sensibility, but now they have become the party of the rich that wants nothing to do with shirking poor whites.