Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20A | 20B | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25-26 | 27 | 28-29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35-36 | 37 | 38A | 38B | 38C | 38D | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42-43 | 44-45
PART II
ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS
46
MARINA WAS HORRIFIED when she awoke and it was ten a.m. Even though her nightgown was twisted up around her waist and she was in bed with a naked man who was snoring, the only thing she could think about was how awful a wife she’d been—and only married two days!
She rushed around as quietly as she could, gathering her uniform, taking a shower—she sure did like that shower—brushing her teeth, combing her hair, and getting downstairs to cook her husband a proper breakfast.
She was just putting the bread in the oven when she heard him coming down the stairs. She couldn’t look at him, she was so ashamed of herself. First he’d as much as told her she was a loose woman, but said he didn’t want to be a chore, then stormed out when he couldn’t tell her what he wanted her to do.
And now he had to put up with her hasty cooking and wait for fresh bread.
But instead of berating her, he slid his arms around her again and pressed his mouth against her cheek. “Mornin’, Sugga,” he said huskily.
She pulled away from him and muttered “I’m sorry” at the floor.
“Sorry for what?” he asked with exasperation.
“I— Breakfast isn’t ready and the bread won’t be done and cool enough— And, and … ” Then she began confessing. “I didn’t do any housework yesterday,” she blurted, her face hot. “I’m sorry. I just read all day and, and, and I lost track of time and then I got sleepy and I tried to stay awake and I meant to have supper waiting for you but I wasn’t sure if— I mean, I forgot the speakeasy has a kitchen so I— But— And I didn’t dust or, or, or anything! I didn’t even unpack my clothes! And then I slept till almost noon and I’m so … I mean, I— I slept till ten. That’s why breakfast is late and I’m so sorry!” she wailed.
When he didn’t say anything for a long while, she sneaked a peek at him. He was leaning against the refrigerator munching on a piece of bacon.
“You done?” he asked blithely.
“Um … I think?”
“I ain’t your mama,” he drawled, taking a sip of coffee. “I doubt you could make much of a mess all by your lonesome in one day when you’re readin’, not messin’ anything up. I know you’re a good housekeeper and a crackerjack cook—” He held up another piece of bacon. “—so I’m happy. It don’t take that much to make me happy.”
“You weren’t happy when you left yesterday,” she reminded him. “Why would I think you’d be happy today?”
He looked pained. “I … Marina, I’m sorry. I— Honest to God, I don’t know what I want. I just know I don’t want to be a chore.”
She bit her lip.
“Say what’s on your mind.”
“It’ll make you angry.”
He nodded wearily. “Likely so. Say it anyway.”
“It will be a chore. It can’t be anything else.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his head, his fingers digging into his eyeballs. “Oh, God,” he moaned.
“I appreciate—” She stopped when he held up a hand.
“I don’t want to have this discussion again,” he muttered. “Why’d you leave me a plate last night?”
“Because you might be hungry.”
“Mmm hm. Why’d you wait up for me?”
“I … fell asleep,” she said, ashamed again.
“Yeah, but you tried. Why?”
“To ask you how your day went.”
“It was completely fucking awful, that’s how it was.”
She quailed a little.
“And then it wasn’t. Know why? I came home to a plate of good food and a cute little wife who tried to wait up for me.”
“You didn’t eat it,” she whispered.
“’Cuz I can’t sleep right after I eat. I stop eating around midnight.”
She blinked. “Uh … ”
“I appreciate the thought, Marina. That, and waitin’ up for me is more important than what you did or didn’t get done yesterday. I don’t want an accounting of how you spent your day. I’ll allow as how maybe you’ll wanna keep speak hours with me because it’ll be easier on both of us and babies keep speak hours, but that is only a suggestion.”
She nodded. “I thought of that.”
He looked up and gave her a crooked smile. “Of course you did.”
She returned the smile hesitantly. “I— Um, but your bread’s still in the oven and—”
“That’s why God made grocers.”
She couldn’t even laugh at the joke. “I don’t like grocery store bread,” she murmured.
“Then that’s you, ain’t it?”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“Yeah, so let’s talk about this makin’ your husband happy business.”
She tensed.
“Books make me happy. Bacon makes me happy. Havin’ a comfortable bed an’ my own bathroom in a quiet house make me happy. My wife leavin’ me a plate o’ food and bein’ willin’ to wait up for me to get home from work makes me happy.” He paused. “You make me happy.”
Her heart skipped a beat and she looked at him fully.
“Now I’mma ask you for somethin’ an’ I want you to know I’m embarrassed as hell about it but you’re the only person I trust, honest to God, to tell me right an’ not laugh.”
She couldn’t imagine Trey being embarrassed about anything at all. Then again, he considered himself to be stupid, which was not true.
“You been hearin’ me talk like I normally do when I’m not in company like your folks. I don’t wanna talk like this at all. You speak properly, even more upper crust than the upper-middlin’ folks at my speak an’ you got a bigger vocabulary than most. I expect that’s your raisin’ too and readin’ so much.”
She nodded.
“So if you could be on me to speak like you all the time, well, if you could help me with that, I’d appreciate it.”
“Oh,” she breathed. “Truly?”
He nodded. “Now, I’m embarrassed right now, askin’ for help even though I know you won’t laugh. I read a lot. I often don’t know how to pronounce what I read. I broke up with a nice girl who corrected me very nicely because I was so embarrassed. But here I am, tellin’ you my second deepest secret and embarrassed as hell that I’m doin’ it.” He paused. “An’ I’m pretty sure you’ve caught summa those, ain’tcha?”
She nodded hesitantly.
“Lemme have it.”
She took a deep breath. “It’s double on-TAWN. Not IN-tin-der.”
He blinked. “Oh.”
“It’s French,” she rushed on to say, charmed by the slight flush in his cheeks. “Why would you know? My English teacher told me it was the sign of a person who read a lot but wasn’t around well-read people. She was very impressed how you helped me with Dickens.”
He looked at her warily.
Marina nodded. “It’s true. I’m not going to tell you things that aren’t true just to make you feel better.”
His eyes narrowed. “That’s something good wives do, so you pick’n’choose when to be one?”
“No,” she corrected gently, “good wives lie. Smart wives maneuver their husbands into figuring things out themselves and then praise them for doing it. I’m not good enough to lie or smart enough to make you think it yourself.”
His mouth pursed. “Yes, y’are. You’d rather leap lily pads.”
“You’d know if I were doing it.”
“Mmmm, that’s true. What else?”
She closed her eyes. “The detective’s name is pwa-RO. And you didn’t know how to pronounce motif until I said it. Also French. Both.”
At his silence she peeked with one eye. He was almost bright red, his jaw clenched, his eyes on the ceiling.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“You’re doing what I asked,” he said tightly. “I trust you.”
“Why?”
He blinked and looked at her in surprise. “Because—” He stopped, looking very confused. “Um … because you’re … you’re … you.”
Marina gaped at him and he stared back at her with the same confusion. “I’m me. That’s … all?”
She started when he shot across the room and wrapped her in his arms, propping his chin on her head. “You’re just you, Sugga, an’ I wanna make you happy.”
She gasped and pulled away from him to look into his pretty blue eyes. “Oh, Trey, no!” She gestured around. “This— Everything you’ve done for me, it’s … wonderful!” She was gushing. She didn’t care. She wanted him to know, to give credit where credit was due. “I can’t— I mean, I want to live up to it and— I mean, I don’t deserve it. I haven’t earned it or—”
“Horsefeathers!” he barked. “You said that yesterday an’ it pissed me off then. You don’t have to earn this. It’s yours because you’re my wife. I’d’a done this for you anyway, not ’cuz I got you pregnant. A man provides for his wife. Every man has a different way o’ providin’ for his wife and some don’t at all, but this is my way an’ I like my way and that—” He pointed to the platter that only had one piece of bacon left on it. “—is proof my way works.”
She tried not to smile, but it was funny. “Bacon’s hard to mess up,” she said shyly.
“Yeah, tell your mama that. Wanna learn how to drive?”
She blinked. “Now? But I’ve got to … ”
“All you gotta do is take the bread out’the oven. I’m the boss, Sugga. I can do what I damn well please an’ what pleases me now is gettin’ you drivin’ without killin’ anybody.”
* * *
Marina, breathless with excitement when she pulled up behind their house two hours later, looked at Trey with glee. It was so close to what it had been like in the last stages of their courtship, she was giddy. “I did it!”
Trey was still holding on and looking a little peaked. She didn’t care. “You did,” he said thinly. “An’ now I really do gotta get to work.” He got out, came around, and opened the door for her. “G’on in,” he said, slapping her backside. She yelped then blushed when he gave her a saucy grin. “Do whatever you gals like to do when your men are at work.”
“We’re supposed to clean,” she said cheekily, still delighted by her driving lesson.
“But you don’t got anything to clean, ’cuz it is already. Hey, whyn’t you go surprise Dot an’ go to Kresge’s? She probably misses you.”
“I miss her too,” Marina said, fondling her car keys eagerly. “Do you think I’m ready for it?”
“You didn’t do too bad. Tomorrow you can go’t the library or the bookstore an’ stock up or, well, anything you want. Enjoy yourself, Sugga, an’ get plenty’a rest ’cuz pretty soon you won’t have no more time to yourself.”
“Trey,” she began hesitantly, “when you said I could buy anything I want as long as it was in the monthly budget, did you mean it?”
“Yeah. Whatcha wanna buy?”
“A sewing machine. I promise I won’t get an electric one. They’re expensive.”
He shrugged. “Save up for one, then. Just don’t make clothes you intend to wear out on the town if we have to go socializing. Gotta have the latest designer duds.”
“All right,” she said right before uncrossing her fingers.
“I saw that,” Trey said dryly. “Can’t con a conman.”
“You conned Father.”
“Gettin’ a little sassy now, are ya?”
She smiled. “It’s nice, knowing I can talk to you like Dot and you won’t be mad.”
“Why would I be mad? You and me, we’re pals. I ain’t your parent and if you start feelin’ that way, you let me know.”
She gestured toward the house as they headed across the lawn. “When do you think I’ll start feeling like an adult?”
“You already are,” he stated, holding the screen door open for her to unlock and go in. “You always were. Your folks made sure o’ that. You only needed the childish nicks filed off.”
“I needed more flattering clothes, a new hairstyle, and some makeup.”
He grinned. “Yeah ya did. Want me to bring anything home from the speak in the mornin’? Steak or somethin’? Baked potato?”
She blinked. “You serve steak? I thought it was just a little grill.”
“I operate as a restaurant, even though the menu’s limited. Helps cut down on raids and I have more time to hide the liquor. I got a better class of folk when I started offerin’ good steak and spud.”
“All right. Thank you. You work a lot harder than an insurance salesman does, don’t you?”
“I also make a helluva lot more money than an insurance salesman.” He glanced at the clock. “Speakin’ of, I really do gotta go. Had a lotta fun, but I always do with you.” With that, he dropped a kiss on her nose.
She smiled shyly and ducked her head, but felt his knuckle nudging her chin up.
She closed her eyes just before his lips touched hers, but this was no mere peck on the lips she saw other couples exchange.
It was soft, lingering. His mouth lightly caught her top lip, which made her close hers on his bottom one. He pulled away just slightly, then pulled at her bottom lip. Things she had never felt before trickled through her body and she couldn’t tell if they were bad or good. She tingled a little just below her belly.
“Our first kiss,” he whispered.
She opened her eyes. “Didn’t we do this—”
“Didn’t count. You were so high you don’t remember anything between packing up the dishes and waking up the next morning. I told you. I don’t want to be a chore, Marina,” he pled softly, “but I need to find a way to—” He huffed and turned away, one hand running through his hair, one on his hip. He began to pace across the kitchen. “Three o’ my girls quit last night. Walked out.”
Marina gasped.
“Know why? I was so hassled about our argument, I went lookin’ for sympathy an’ what I got was three pissed-off girls who think I’m the evilest cat who ever lived.”
“They quit over me?” she whispered.
“Yeah.”
“But you saved their jobs.”
He nodded fervently. “They knew I liked you so they didn’t mind the bet and they were happy when I said I wanted to marry you and trusted me to do right by you. But then Boss Tom threatened me. Then Albright cleared the path. But last night, they realized I didn’t do right by you because of the way I was thinking—”
“Still think.”
His mouth tightened. “They couldn’t live with knowin’ they had a part in it an’ they couldn’t trust me.”
Marina shrugged helplessly. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“Well neither do I! Lemme spit it all out, willya? You ain’t the only one needs to think out loud. So I come home and you’ve got a plate for me and you tried to wait up, and I’m thinkin’, ‘I really like this girl. She’s sweet and smart and bubbly.’” Marina’s eyebrows rose at bubbly. “‘She’s everything I could’ve asked for in a wife and she’s mine an’ I’m not lettin’ her go. What’s holdin’ me back?’ Well, see, here’s the thing, I figured out. From what I’ve seen of it, affection and sex don’t mix. I don’t want to ruin what we’ve already got and sex always ruins things.”
“What about the Albrights?” she asked softly, twisting her fingers in front of her.
“Shit, Marina, they’re Mormons. They do everything different.”
“Differently.”
He stopped cold. “What?”
“Differently. They do everything differently.”
He blinked. “Oh. Yeah. Thanks. Well, we’re really good friends, but we’re arguing about sex, see? We argued about sex yesterday—”
“I’m not the one arguing.”
“Ye—” He snapped his mouth shut.
“I don’t know enough to argue. You don’t want to be a chore. I don’t want to be a loose woman.”
“Marina, I—”
“As long as you think of me as loose, I can only think of you as a chore. There’s nothing to argue.”
He stared at her then completely deflated, his frustration gone, leaving only weariness. “Marina, I want—”
Marina waited.
So did he.
“Let me see if I understand,” she finally said. “You want our friendship to stay the same.”
“Yes,” he grumbled.
“But you think that because we are married we must be indecent?”
He scowled. “I … yes?”
“No we don’t.”
“I don’t want that either!” he roared.
Marina’s mouth twisted. “I didn’t think so.”
“Goddammit I married a fucking lawyer!”
That startled her as nothing else had. “What?”
He rubbed his temples. “I’mma think about that later. Geometry an’ mysteries an’ whatnot.”
“Trey,” she said softly. “Do you want to be indecent with me?”
After a tense few seconds, he muttered, “I always have.”
She thought hard for a long while, then it came to her. “Oh. I see. You don’t want me to be indecent with you.”
He didn’t answer.
“Well, I’d rather not be indecent with anybody, so you agree? Unless I want another baby, we’ll stay just good friends?”
Trey swallowed. Hard. “I … ” He sighed heavily. “Yeah.”
46
If you don’t want to wait 2 years to get to the end, you can buy it here.
I was grooving on this installment until the end. 😒
Chin up. It gets better.
Oof you’d be surprised.
Reading this chapter, I thought of two fighters feeling each other out.
You should see two Firsters as their arousal and fight or flight response builds off one another’s Firsts.
I thought you couldn’t get aroused.
Congratulations, that was so cheesy you made me laugh.
Oh, and I’m officially on vacation as of this evening. Yay me.
🎉
🙂
Some movie reviewer I had never heard of on Youtube attacked The Critical Drinker for wrong think and basing his reviews off of those views. Not that interesting.
What I do find interesting is that his channel has skyrocketed in popularity while even guys like RLM have pretty much stagnated. (still love them, though I do think it’s cowardly to avoid talking about the biggest topic related to entertainment these days) Those who are ignoring or sticking their heads in the sands? Those ones are being ignored. I’m not even familiar of who the left wing counter to The Drinker would be. Do they even exist? I don’t think they do.
I know there’s people here who are tired of hearing about The Message. People who would rather pretend the movies just suck and it’s not because of wokeness. The Drinker and Nerdrotic and others do a good enough job of explaining how wrong this is. How every step of the process of making movies and shows is now dominated by diversity, equity and inclusion. It supersedes everything else. They don’t hire for talent, they cast the people making the movies based on immutable characteristics or who they claim to fuck.
I’d also add that geek culture became the main culture. So you went from the domain of nerds to the main avenue of employment for everyone in LA. So instead of getting some geek who grew up on comics to write your movie, you now some bitch who would have been writing a Romcom 15 years ago. Or an Afghan feminist documentary film maker making your big budget Star Wars movie. This shit HAD to become more inclusive because too many people needed to get their cut. You are kidding yourself if you don’t think that is a political process in a place like LA.
The average person getting paid to write/make Star Wars or Marvel these days is just like it’s just a dumb big comic book movie, and they had been taking for granted it would make money as they pissed all over the lore and fans while the corporations preemptively labeled critics racist. Now, chickens are coming home to roost and the people who were wrong don’t want to give the credit to those who were saying it loudly years ago. Fuck that.
I have no doubt that a lot of “woke” is really just “grift” – from all sides.
The anti-woke critic space is getting crowded and I see the sun over the horizon. So do guys like The Drinker and Nerdrotic who are starting to subtly shift. The Drinker is focusing on making his own entertainment while offering up solutions (and Hollywood people do watch him, he has actual sources and connections now). Nerdrotic is looking to move into, for lack of a better word, conspiracy territory with a new show on the paranormal. Think of it as Art Bell-esque. Main focus so far has been on ancient civilizations, then aliens given their appearance in the news cycle.
The governor shut down the local movie house in the hysterical overreaction to the vid so the nearest movie place is over an hour away.
Nothing that I have previewed will make me go to the theater in Espanola. I’ll wait until it shows up on satellite or I will simply ignore it.
Woke Hollywood and the overreaction to the panicdemic has killed any interest that I had to go to the theater.
I don’t stream so I guess I will miss out.
Too bad, so sad.
I…sail the high seas for a lot of content. I don’t even have the motivation to do much of that. If something doesn’t suck or insult me, I’ll support it financially.
If something doesn’t suck or insult me
Sad that that is the bar something has to get over and most cannot.
TL;DR
And NPR is just puzzled that the writer’s strike has gone on for so long.
Hard to believe Marina is but 16. OTOH her lived experiences are more like a 12 year old. Once she sees Dot and gets some makeup it’s “Katy, bar the door!”
Thanks, Moj, hooked ’til next Friday.
Yes, she’s in that weird limbo of unexplored potential too late in life.
I was thinking about this today, though. I decided that Marina is amoral. She’s NOT immoral, but she doesn’t have any training in what is actually moral. She goes along with Dot because Dot’s there guiding her. She goes along with Trey because Trey’s the one there guiding her. She doesn’t really think about the morality of any given situation. She does what she thinks she should do in the moment.
Almost utilitarian.
That was the word I was looking for, rather than amoral.
I got talked into getting some of my Covid mullet cut off. I’m not enthused. 😒
Then don’t do it?
Guessing it was a girl.
The power of ass and titties compels you.
Were going to a very nice place for a couple days. It was a small trim – cleaned up a smidge.
Where are you motherfuckers? I’m fixin to get wasted
We’re not stopping you from getting wasted.
Too tired after the red eye, drive, meeting my new boss and dinner with in-law side of family.
Best moment today Mrs OBE asked my new boss “is this guy who is sour that my husband got the job and not him going to be a problem?”
New boss was already aware and said no, OBE has full support.
I’m having a really good hair day
I’m calling it early tonight. Had a fatal MVA I responded to on Weds night – didn’t get home til after midnight and today we had a house fire that I was on for a few hours. No lives lost but the house is a total loss. Had a couple of beers, so I’m off duty until the sun is up.
I am beat down. Dismantled and moved my daughter’s entire bedroom. Tomorrow I paint a new access wall, then put in a new bedroom set. She had a crazy double bunk with a jillion heavy parts.
I am D-E-D dead.
OT WTF?!
How has Mexico eclipsed the U.S. in the race to Utopia?
By electing a socialist? I’d just flee the country like everyone else.
I thought we had wild mood swings in the U.S. but hot damn it’s getting crazy down there.
And yeah, that’s more than just socialism in action.
That’s fuckin’ totalitarian shit.
Socialism can’t help but be authoritarian.
Curious when the laws he broke were enacted. I thought the latins were going to be the last semi western hold outs against the trans insanity. Guess we’re still kind of in the running and so is most of Europe, surprisingly.
‘convicting Cortés of (i) gender-based political violence, (ii) digital violence, (iii) symbolic violence, (iv) psychological violence, and (v) sexual violence for his social media expression.
The Superior Chamber imposed a fine of $19,244.00 MXN, in addition to directing him to publish the court ruling and an apology drafted by the court on Twitter and Facebook daily for 30 days. Cortés also must take a course on “gender-based political violence” and register on the National Registry of Persons Sanctioned in Political Matters against Women.’
Psychological violence? You better throw everyone on earth in jail. The very last part word made me laugh though.
Thank got for the first amendment or we’d already be there.
I mean, this isn’t as bad e as the lesbian cop ordering the arrest of a 16 year old autistic girl who was beating herself out of frustration for homophobia.
Thank god for that first amendment or we would have this in many parts of the country right now.
We’ll get it and soon. The cop will know that they’ll lose in the end but do it anyway. The process is the punishment.
Sovereign/Qualified immunity. They know we cant beat the King’s Men w/o deep pockets and a team of lawyers .
And if you do win against them, its a “mea culpa” and a payout from some tax-filled fund.
“DEG on August 11, 2023 at 6:40 pm
I have a 2021 GT Convertible. V8. Manual. ”
Sounds wonderful. You mentioned it being hard to get in/out of. How tall are you? I’m 6’2″ do that could be an issue.
I don’t plan to use it as a daily driver, so backseat wouldn’t be too big an issue.
5’11”, though the doc’s office thinks I’m 6′ even.
Don’t worry. You’ll shrink a few inches down after 50. Then you’ll fit in all sorts of cars.
They’re pretty low to the ground. Once you master the move to get in it’s not that big a deal. I had a ’17 and an ’18. ’17 (early model year) was used and had problems, ’18 was new and awesome. I just didn’t drive it enough and had too many rules around it. Wish I had kept it now. I’m really pining for a Dark Horse edition of the new Mustang.
Every time I get into my 350Z, I begin to wonder how much longer I am going to be able to to that. The knees aren’t what they used to be.
I even have a problem stepping up into my pickup. I had a Mustang but that was 50 years ago. Even then it was a chore to get in/out.
I was right there with you. 6′ 280 at the time. It required a “move” but once I figured it out, no problem. My Jeep Wrangler on the other hand…. depends on what I’m wearing.
Slide/fall into, out is the hard part.
Watching my fat co-worker getting out of my GTI is mildly amusing.
I liked Oppenheimer. I’m not sure I’d have liked it as much at home, but that’s not a knock on the movie. Surround sound cranked to eleven elevated what was an already engrossing docudrama interleaved with legal/political theater. I think I may have missed something special with Nolan’s other films, having watched them all at home. Thinking of all those dramatic deep orchestral riffs in The Dark Knight.
Then again, it’s the first movie I’ve watched in a theater in several years, so maybe I’m easily impressed.
I think partly what made the film intriguing is that it harkens back to a time of humanist scientists with varied, manifold interests, not the sad self-styled experts we’re meant to exalt today, but true scholars and intellectuals, not to mention their sadly overlooked wives and lovers consigned to typist jobs, or worse, and even the political hacks and lackeys are enjoyable foils, all of whom come together to kill a bunch of Japs.
I can only speak for Interstellar but damn that Zimmer score demands to be heard in Sensurround or whatever is in vogue these days. I know Zimmer did the score for Inception too but I don’t remember it. I do have it in my iTunes, I should check it out. The Interstellar score is amazing.
I walked out of the theater genuinely saddened wondering what I missed watching Interstellar at home on my monitor speakers. The moment of ignition (spoiler alert: the Trinity bomb goes off) and the aftermath actually had me tearing up.
Also saw a preview for a Golda Meir biopic… I wonder whether that’s going to shit on Munich.
Tres Ver 2.0 saw Oppenheimer in the theater while I was away. He mentioned the audio.
heck yes, I pity anyone who watched Interstellar in anything but IMAX or similar. We saw it IMAX (and Oppenheimer too last weekend). Because my god just about every shot in that movie is amazing on a big screen and the liftoff sequence and the wormhole traverse sound was shattering. And yeah I liked Oppenheimer a lot – as a person who grew up in Los Alamos and parents who met a few of the actual people, there were only a few places I was like “welll… eh ok” and it was nice to see some of NM on a big screen again. My son called it “Endgame for WW2 Scientists” which is kinda true.
The score to Inception is good- “Time” is the track most people recognize, I think.
My grandad worked at LANL in the 70s, I’m not sure what on… it was some time after the war, he and dad’s family moved around a lot between various labs. I know he was math heavy, but sadly I never got to know more. LANL is where he retired from, and we have land up in northern New Mexico where he and grandma are buried.
One of the cars from the latest Mad Max is for sale.
https://www.theautopian.com/theres-more-to-that-ridiculous-gmc-twin-six-v12-engine-than-meets-the-eye-cotd/
Any Las Vegas glibs handy that havent moved away? Work has me scheduled there next week.
Shame Hayek bolted for the Left Coast….x2 RAWR
Lahaina update. Death toll is moving closer to three digits. ~1700 structures destroyed. I described the “bomb” at the harbor this morning. The state is preparing to go through every structure with cadaver dogs since multiple fatalities were found huddled together in burned out buildings.
Now that the shock is receding, the anger is building. The complaint is that they had insufficient warning. I am not sure what warning they wanted. The town was tightly packed and only a few blocks wide. Once the fire started with the winds it was only going to be a short time until it hit the ocean. The island over the last few years was warned that the former agricultural fields across the public highway from multiple towns were a risk because they were overgrown with highly flammable weeds. The NWS predicted the winds. They had their warning, but De Nile is not just a river in Egypt.
Some local lefties are demanding the rich who have been moving there have their property seized to pay for reconstruction. I will bow to few in my disdain for Oprah, but she purchased her 900 Maui acres properly and should be secure in her property rights. The same for the others.
But how altruistic is she?
Oahu suspends short-term rental laws to aid wildfire victims
“He also encouraged owners and managers to offer the temporary emergency housing at free or discounted rates.”
Now is that going to happen?
It sounds good if you are an idiot. It will be years before a meaningful number of houses are constructed. If they wanted to help they would call for ending the Jones Act and permitting large numbers of foreign construction owners to reside and work on Maui. More locally they would suspend permitting fees and fast track permitting. Hell, go large and abandon permitting fees and government approval of building construction.
I looked at the area on Google Maps this morning and honestly I could not identify what on earth was going on with the land to the east of that town. Only that it was really brown/gray and barren looking.
That side is the leeward side and w/o watering it all is more desert like than jungle. All those abandoned ag fields are dense with very light fuels (grasses/forbs/brush) it is a tinder box in the dry season.
I remember you mentioned that but my God it looks so obvious from above.
WTF
Mornin’ all!
Music link for the day.
Can’t believe I’m the first up and on.
Good morning!
Mornin’, all.
Off to the Joisey shore for some R&R. Looking forward to seeing how the OCPD is enforcing their curfew.
https://6abc.com/ocean-city-nj-curfew-teen-citations-2023-boardwalk-backpack-ban/13519379/
Ocean City NJ was always a sleepy little shore town when I was a lad. MD’s Ocean City was where you went to party.
Still pretty sleepy, and I like it like that. Party days (in Belmar and Manasquan) are in the rear view mirror.
It was great for my parents and us as youngsters. I liked.
Morning.
Looking forward to a day of zombicide, burgers for lunch… Life’s great.
Cool. I’m hosting a BBQ after picking up my new to me pickup this morning.
Share pics.
Good morning Shirley and Ted.
My morning music.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aIIDGOm6NH4
Great King Crimson song Knott
One of their best. But they have so many bests 😉
Yes they do. I wore out the vinyl on In the Wake of Poseidon and Lizard in my senior year of HS. Instrumental in expanding the consciousness of a nerdy Patzer.
Lizard still gets included in my ‘Radio Knott’ playlist. Nothing like rocking out with an oboe!
Speaking of which, the first 3 Gryphon albums are sheer delight.
Midnight Mushrumps and
Red Queen to Gryphon 3 especially.
Nice! I’ll see your oboe, and raise you a bassoon.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4heHLbchPKk
An old GF took up the bassoon after hearing this.
Oh yeah!
Morning all,
Looks like a good day to check bee hives. Between the drought and robber bees could be a lean year. We’re behind in production with a month to go before Honey Harvest. Hope to play ‘catch up’ and some favorable weather coming, we’ll know more by early afternoon.
Good morning you early risers!
😋
Here’s my music contribution:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hez6tDpiWDA
🎶🎶
Morning!
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/11/politics/direct-air-capture-funding-biden-administration/index.html
🙄
They need to power them with a peat furnace
And this is the technology that doesn’t exist at scale yet but is supposed to save the planet in ten years – or else
(TL;DR – it’s a fantasy.)
We really have gone over the edge. There can be no turning back. I remember when landfills were almost filled up and there was no more space left to put our throwaways but now 30 years later we need to capture some thing that can’t be seen. Oh yeah, recycling solved the trash problem…
/Looks at the inner cities…
suh’ fam
whats goody yo