Althouse: At the First Day of Spring Café...

March 20, 2022

At the First Day of Spring Café...

... you can write about anything you want.

I took these photos at 6:58, 7:00, and 7:15 AM.

40 comments:

rcocean said...: I want to talk about Campers and RV's. And puppies and kittens. And why Arizona will never win the NCAA championship. And why do Stephen King and Whoopi Goldberg have the exact same polticial beliefs. And is Deep Space Nine a good Star trek series.

Thank You.; 3/20/22, 5:35 PM
rcocean said...: Forgot who recommended Eve Cassidy's version of "Blue eyes Crying in the rain" but I just want to the thank them. Its the best version so far.; 3/20/22, 5:41 PM
Owen said...: That first picture could be misunderstood as one taken on the muddy plains of Ukraine, waiting on the tread of the Russian armor.

Sorry to be so morbid but there it is. Seriously: what exempts any of us from the savagery now in full song, half a world away?; 3/20/22, 5:57 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: I have some wonderful news. Multiple Reports coming out of Russia saying that Putin is considering a Ramadan bombing pause.

What? Too soon? Ramadan is not until April?; 3/20/22, 6:12 PM
madAsHell said...: Has anyone else noticed the roll-back of COVID fatalities numbers??

The roll-back is being rationalized as a data entry error, and a failure to understand procedure.......or some such horse shit.; 3/20/22, 6:59 PM
Curious George said...: "rcocean said...
And why Arizona will never win the NCAA championship."

They have. 1997 under Lute Olson. Kind of a Cinderella story too.; 3/20/22, 7:06 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Finishing Dan Carlin’s Human Resources Podcast (euphemism for slavery)

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dan-carlins-hardcore-history/id173001861?i=1000553133741; 3/20/22, 7:11 PM
One Eye said...: Lia Thomas is a disruptor like Napster was.; 3/20/22, 7:17 PM
tim in vermont said...: There are many horrible wars going on right now. Fertilizer prices are skyrocketing, how many will starve to death in poor countries because of this particular war that didn't need to happen? These prices were already climbing due to the pandemic before the fact that Russia supplies nearly half of the world's fertilizer became problematic. China has obviously chosen sides, and thanks to Biden's masturful diplomacy, they have not chosen ours and told Biden to pound sand on sanctions, possibly the root of Biden's bizarre remarks about being blackmailed with naked pictures. China just shut down a major manufacturing city heavily relied on by US companies, due to COVID, or was it "sanctions" by a different name, on us?

Globalism is in tatters, which is maybe the one bright side, but it is going to cause massive economic dislocation. Great Reset indeed. We don't need to make a terrible situation even worse by involving our military in a hot war with Russia.; 3/20/22, 7:25 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Report says Justice Thomas was admitted to hospital.; 3/20/22, 7:45 PM
Jupiter said...: Apparently, Google has been under the impression that Historically Black Colleges and Universities are hotbeds of electrical engineering and computer science, whose graduates are curiously unaware of the many opportunities awaiting them at places like Google. Obviously, it is in Google's interest to tap into this unexploited source of talent. So, they hired a Blackish woman named April Curley (who does not appear to be a graduate of an HBCU) to perform "outreach" to the prospective graduates of those institutions. What Google failed to take into account is that lawfare pays a lot better than software. She is now suing them for being RAYCISSSSSS! Good thing they're made out of money. There's plenty more where she came from.; 3/20/22, 7:51 PM
rehajm said...: To celebrate Spring I won a golf tournament.; 3/20/22, 7:53 PM
Howard said...: Walden Pond Plunge this morning 47-deg F. Sunny and mild. Shot of Jameson's, yum.; 3/20/22, 7:55 PM
MadisonMan said...: What a glorious March day today! UW is 1-3 in their last 4 games. Not a great way to end the season.; 3/20/22, 7:56 PM
BUMBLE BEE said...: Calls for some Nazz! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi9R7jRS0rc; 3/20/22, 7:59 PM
Browndog said...: Mariupol, the Russian speaking city located 30 miles from Russia, has until daybreak to answer the demand to surrender, according to the Russia Defense Minister.

The city is 80% destroyed. The Neo-nazi AZOV Brigade controls a few small pockets around the city. Multiple reports and eye witness accounts say AZOV have been preventing civilians from evacuating, even killing those that try.

BTW: A-Z-O-V are the markings used by the Russian invasion force.; 3/20/22, 8:00 PM
Narr said...: "An oblong puddle . . . a spatulate hole through which you can see the nether sky."

"A sullen day sitting for its picture in a puddle."

Nabokov, of course, who about a 100 years or so ago was transiting a wartorn Ukraine on the way to Odessa and lifelong exile from his own homeland.

Odesa, now. I think of Kharkiv (once Karkhov), Kiev-Kyiv we all know, but only a few recall Lemberg a.k.a. Lvov a.k.a. Lviv. Vinnitzya was Vinnitsa when Hitler flew there to confer with his underperforming lieutenants. Bloodlands indeed.; 3/20/22, 8:05 PM
StephenFearby said...: DM

Elite Russian officers want to POISON Putin and replace him with a chosen successor to restore trade ties with West, Ukrainian intelligence officials say

Ukrainian intelligence claims that Russian elites are planning to poison Putin

They claim that the influential insiders are aghast at Russia's sanctions

Reports claim that the group plans to instill the boss of the FSB as President

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10633433/Elite-Russian-officers-want-POISON-Putin-replace-Ukrainian-intelligence-officials-say.html

Why would Ukrainian intelligence want to broadcast this information to the Russians? It makes absolutely no sense if it is true.

Unless it is disinformation, with the purpose of triggering Putin's anxiety, create a disruptive mole hunt, and make Putin consider offering better terms to end the war.; 3/20/22, 8:40 PM
gilbar said...: so, as an Iowa State alumnus, is The Secret for me to pay no attention at all?
(i JUST heard that they were in some sort of a tournament or something); 3/20/22, 8:54 PM
farmgirl said...: Well, I watched The Adam Project on Netflix.
I loved the kid.

Spring in spring-ing, but she ain’t spring yet! I did see my 1st red-winged blackbird- smashing red epaulets!!! Must be the scout!; 3/20/22, 9:22 PM
Rt41Rebel said...: First, two facts:

--The transcript of the Biden/Xi conversation will not be released, and Xi has publicly stated 'He who tied the bell to the tiger must take it off.'

--Hunter/The Big Guy were paid by both Russia and Ukraine for unknown services.

Now, my conspiracy theory: Hunter/The Big Guy were acting as double-agents, paid by Ukraine for NATO membership consideration, and paid by Russia to thwart it, and Russia and China now both know this through intelligence work.; 3/20/22, 9:43 PM
TaeJohnDo said...: rcocean, we have a 2013 20'6" Pleasure Way Excel motor home. It is a wide body Class B made in Canada on a 2012 Forde E350 Super Duty Chassis. It is a great size - can go to 98% of campsites in the Forest, NP, BLM, etc. We prefer camping in the mountains - I get the best nights sleep in the RV - cold, comfortable bed, heater in the morning used just enough to get the chill off then up to make coffee. Maybe we'll run across Ann and Meade someday. I've always had dogs-none were bad and some were really good. I have a 9 year old weiner/hound/? mix who is a runner. I fully expect her to get loose someday and chased down by coyotes. I also have a pit bull heeler mix who is a homebody. He sticks with me on the property - he has no desire to run off. I had two cats in my life - Pikkie Daggo, a feral born short haired black cat that I got as a kitten who became a reasonable house cat. Poor guy died young of leukemia. Then I had Smokey - he was a happy, long hared grey cat that simply disappeared one day. I don't follow college BB, but if Cleveland can make to to the Super Bowl then maybe someday AZ can win the NCAA. But lets face it - unless they commit massive recruiting fraud, how can they possibly get the talent they need to do so? King and Goldberg are insufferable scolds who started out with modest means and through hard work and perseverance found success and promptly forgot their past and became entitled elitist drones. I say this having had a subscription to Psychology Today in the late 70's and having taken Psych 101. Deep Space Nine is a good Star Trek series. The original was the best, and up until the last season, Enterprise was pretty good too. Voyager was OK, then what ever followed that I'm missing must have sucked because I don't remember them - stopped watching after a show or two. I hope your weekend was good!; 3/20/22, 10:32 PM
stephen cooper said...: Deep Space Nine has some of the best acting in all of 90s TV, and, if you think of it as a deep philosophical meditation on what OUR LIFE would be like if we all lived in apartments near some lousy suburban mall that somehow got jerry-rigged onto a dull spaceship near a vaguely understood warzone, as in the melatonin-laced dreams so many people have so many nights, without ever talking about it to anyone, it has some of the best philosophy in all of 90s TV.

The captain did a good job as Tamurlane at the Shakespeare Theater, and some of the dialogue is witty.; 3/20/22, 10:51 PM
StephenFearby said...: WaPo via Stars & Stripes (linked to by Drudge):

Afghanistan's last finance minister, now a DC Uber driver, ponders what went wrong

'Until last summer, Khalid Payenda was Afghanistan's finance minister, overseeing a $6 billion budget — the lifeblood of a government fighting for its survival in a war that had long been at the center of U.S. foreign policy.

Now, seven months after Kabul had fallen to the Taliban, he was at the wheel of his Honda Accord, headed north on I-95 from his home in Woodbridge, Va., toward Washington, D.C.
Payenda swiped at his phone and opened the Uber app, which offered his "quest" for the weekend. For now his success was measured in hundreds of dollars rather than billions.

"If I complete 50 trips in the next two days, I receive a $95 bonus," he said as he navigated the light Friday-night traffic.

The job was his way of supporting his wife and four children after he burned through his family's savings from Afghanistan. "I feel incredibly grateful for it," said the 40-year-old. "It means I don't have to be desperate." It was also a temporary reprieve from obsessing over the ongoing tragedy in his country, which was suffering through a catastrophic drought, a pandemic, international sanctions, a collapsed economy, a famine and the resurgence of Taliban rule...'

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/middle_east/2022-03-19/afghanistan-last-finance-minister-uber-driver-ponders-what-went-wrong-5400789.html; 3/20/22, 11:06 PM
Lem the artificially intelligent said...: Looking up the Ramadan start date I came upon the information that it’s based on the lunar calendar. That reminded me of that lunar transit I shared about a few days ago when I happened to catch the full moon rise to my right and the sun going down to my left. I said I couldn’t take pictures given that I was driving over a ramp and the light was changing and so I made a note to remind me of that date and that time next year. The thing is lunar calendar dates and our regular calendar dates aren’t exactly the same. I should have known that but maybe I’m starting to forget things like that.; 3/20/22, 11:47 PM
Drago said...: "There are many horrible wars going on right now. Fertilizer prices are skyrocketing, how many will starve to death in poor countries because of this particular war that didn't need to happen?"

Have you seen the graphics on how much Ukrainian wheat is imported by each African nation?

Trouble ahead, even though the ruuskis are conspicuously avoiding the wheat centers in the Ukraine.; 3/21/22, 12:12 AM
gadfly said...: Rt41Rebel said...
First, two facts:

--The transcript of the Biden/Xi conversation will not be released, and Xi has publicly stated 'He who tied the bell to the tiger must take it off.'

--Hunter/The Big Guy were paid by both Russia and Ukraine for unknown services.

Lest we forget to mention real facts, Paul Manafort and Rudy Giuliani we paid far more by Ukraine sources tightly tied to Russian agents than Hunter Biden was paid by Burisma. We also know as quoted from Uday Trump is that the money used to pay cash for Trump's U.K golf courses came from Russia. And we also know that no transcription is available to cover any talks between Putin and Trump e.v.e.r.

The “Laptop” emails were authenticated by “people familiar with them and with the investigation.” Trump-friendly Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Robert Costello and also J. P. Mac Isaac are believed to know something about the Hunter Biden investigation.

Let’s focus on Robert Costello for the moment: When Billy Barr set up a special back channel to ingest Ukrainian-provided Russian dirt on Hunter Biden, Costello was that back channel. In other words, the lawyer that Rudy and Steve Bannon share is one possible source for authentication of a laptop supposedly turned in for repair by some unidentifiable person to legally-blind Mac Isaac (who acknowledged he couldn't identify the customer and therefore likely wouldn't notice a sticker on said laptop either) but may well have served as a witness to investigators in Delaware because he "knew of" the process by which he came to be in possession of a sketchy laptop.

So if you are looking for traitors, emphasized by January 6, I would propose continuing legal activity to convict Manafort, Giuliani and the Big Guy - and who is bigger than Trump?; 3/21/22, 12:32 AM
iowan2 said...: .
Gadfly, you have written a bunch of words. They just don't communicate a single thing.
No accusations of specific acts. Names tossed about with nothing them connects them to Biden laptop.
You never say the laptop is fake, or, Russia, or, really anything. You just spewed out a bunch of words, that fail to state a single fact...relevant fact.; 3/21/22, 6:29 AM
iowan2 said...: Trouble ahead, even though the ruuskis are conspicuously avoiding the wheat centers in the Ukraine.

But the land is not the problem. The problem is infrastructure to plant, grow, harvest, store, ship the grain, is the problem.; 3/21/22, 6:32 AM
tim in vermont said...: There is one email on the authenticated laptop from Burisma directing Hunter to end prosecutions of the boss by Shokin.

Biden then fired Shokin, and publicly bragged about it.

But you go ahead and explain how it is impossible that a crakchead could have forgotten where he left is computer and then refuse to take calls from an unknown number, the repair shop, when it was done. I mean it's so implausible. Not to mention that the laptop was given to authorities, who sat on it for a year. Kind of like they ignored Hunter's lies on his handgun application, lies that would have put you or me into Leavenworth. Yeah, it's all so implausible.; 3/21/22, 6:46 AM
Jamie said...: I was on a plane recently and, having finished my book, took advantage of the free movies. WW84, it was, that I decided to watch - why not? A comic book movie is about the right speed to watch on a tiny phone screen with nothing else to do...

The villain was a dead ringer for young Donald Trump in 1984. Living rent-free in the heads of so many... Like poor gadfly, for instance, with his global conspiracy: No Transcripts Of Trump's Conversations With Putin Exist, Which Is Prima Facie Evidence That They Were Colluding To Take Over The World!

That this is far more likely, in gadfly's mind, to be true than that Hunter Biden, a person with an addiction and a history of erratic behavior, lost his laptop, that he doesn't deny that the found laptop is his, that sufficiently reliable sources confirm that it's his that the NYT, longtime defender of all things Biden, now feels it has no recourse but to report on it - now that is prima facie evidence that Trump really does have mysterious powers.; 3/21/22, 7:01 AM
Jersey Fled said...: Deep Space Nine was horribly underrated.; 3/21/22, 7:54 AM
Narayanan said...: iowan2 said...
Trouble ahead, even though the ruuskis are conspicuously avoiding the wheat centers in the Ukraine.

But the land is not the problem. The problem is infrastructure to plant, grow, harvest, store, ship the grain, is the problem.
==========
Zelenskyy must be dusting off the how to manual for Holodomor and Rules for Radicals to blame on Putin; 3/21/22, 8:11 AM
Narayanan said...: StephenFearby said...
WaPo via Stars & Stripes (linked to by Drudge):

Afghanistan's last finance minister, now a DC Uber driver, ponders what went wrong
===========
did WaPo ask him about how his President was able to take off with billions $$$$$$$$ ?; 3/21/22, 8:16 AM
Narayanan said...: Rt41Rebel said...
First, two facts:...

Now, my conspiracy theory: Hunter/The Big Guy were acting as double-agents,
==========
to call them /agents/ also need primary paymaster!
who is your candidate?; 3/21/22, 8:22 AM
Narayanan said...: BTW: A-Z-O-V are the markings used by the Russian invasion force.
=======
Neat = A(Ze)linskyy would be proud for lesson learned well by both sides - “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.“; 3/21/22, 8:28 AM
Iman said...: Gadfly’s pretzel logic is quite amusing!; 3/21/22, 8:44 AM
Iman said...: Star Trek… deep space nine… sheeeesh…
And here I thought the movie “Galaxy Quest” put this genre to the torch.; 3/21/22, 8:53 AM
TheOne Who Is Not Obeyed said...: Today's pet peeve: Media scribblers and headline writers using "debunked" when they really mean "disputed".; 3/21/22, 1:17 PM
Rusty said...: Blogger iowan2 said...
"Trouble ahead, even though the ruuskis are conspicuously avoiding the wheat centers in the Ukraine.

But the land is not the problem. The problem is infrastructure to plant, grow, harvest, store, ship the grain, is the problem."
The reason the Ukrainian farmers are running off with abandoned Russian hardware is cecause they have to clear the fields now while the stuff -explosives too- are still on the surface of the ground. In a month or so they have got to start tilling and planting.; 3/21/22, 2:08 PM