Weekend Open Thread
Big Bend National Park. (Claire Evans/Bing/Pinterest)
This is a photo taken in Big Bend National Park in Texas. Here, the night skies are darker than what we’re used to. More stars would be visible than where most of us live. Notice the color contrast. Enjoy your weekend.
Category: Open thread
Well, Well, Well, would you just lookie here. Look Coming Yonder, coming round the Big Bend. It’s a TAH Friday Weekend Open Thread, just a’ sittin’ here, Orphaned. I wonder if it will be a Band of Angels comin’ round the Bend that will make the claim to be _______ on the TAH Friday Weekend Open Thread?
It won’t be me, me I won’t be the ______ to holler________
The real FIRST!?
The Crown of FIRST is yours Sapper 3307. It sat there long enough. Rats of the Cong to you Good Sir. I just happened by after playing catchup on the other Threads Comments when I saw it drop at 1500 hrs.
Looked around the inherwebz youToobs for the Swing Low Sweet Chariot Song…and a Band of Angels to Carry Me Home. Decided that this Little Angel on an Orange Blossom Special was more apropos.
Any snacks? Top Shelf Class VI Supplies? A fresh Stoogie? Man y’all got a lot to learn about being King of the miscreanted d’weeded deplorables and the Adorable Deplorables. Ain’t even been no decent Lording over of late. GET WITH THE PROGRAM!
No put that on me Ricky Bobby!
Sad news related to this movie. One of the actors who portrayed his son, who was also was an Army veteran, took his own life.
https://www.military.com/off-duty/movies/2021/03/25/army-vet-houston-tumlin-star-of-talladega-nights-dead-28.html?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR2bC50SiKQbUBWDk7oTROYFIgZ94j1XtEsNWJkwGpeZHs1dbAo1BNzjc-o#Echobox=1616696377
Whole buncha ladies who both play the fiddle and dance… at the same time. Look up Natalie McMaster… looks like a teen but has four kids, all as talented as she. Or Sally Wragg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHZy9cM5xwo
Not sure why but this seems to be a talent mainly seen around Nova Scotia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXm8JdC4k4c&list=PLfCr41NxMzGR7pFAUom_eL4vZsDX5_6W4&index=1
Girls an bagpipe
Must be an illusion, David.
Looking on youtube one can find many family bands. Looking at bluegrass or Appalachian folk music will show up with a good crop of ’em.
In the Greater GB AO there are a number of family folk-music groups as well. At the General Sam Houston Folk Festival we’ve had a number of family groups singing/playing. If you go on youtube and look for The Traveling Murphys you’ll see one of them. I don’t think the Blevins family is on the interwebz, but they do some great Sacred Harp music.
Present
The False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) continues to avoid queries seeking clarification of his highly dubious and potentially felonious Native American, Law Enforcement and Navy SEAL claims that he uses to receive set aside American Taxpayer monies for his procurement of government contracts.
Congrats to Sapper3307.
I was FIRST once. Awesome honor.
It went hand in hand with my serving in the FIRST Sig Bde.
“FIRST to Communicate”
Go Army
I do love how the King of Battle is leaving the crown and scepter right there for anyone to take up! Maybe soon I can grab them and lord over everyone for a week. In the meantime, how’s about some trivia? DID YOU KNOW…? Who was the first actor to portray James Bond on film? By Commissioner Wretched Spring is here at last! The “winter of our discontent” is now behind us! As we “spring” forward, we are looking eagerly for the world to open back up, like a flower opens to the sun. Hard to believe it’s been a year since everything was locked down, and now … someone found the keys! While they unlock the world, I’ll bring you another well-researched, freshly painted and spruced-up collection of trivia. Since it’s what I do in this space every week anyway, why not? If you feel the need to comment you can always reach me at didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com … and I always answer. On to the trivia! Did you know … … in New Hampshire, it is illegal to check into a hotel using a false name? (That makes all those old TV comedy setups impossible, doesn’t it, Mr. and Mrs., uh, Smith?) … rice paper does not have any rice in it? It’s actually made from the pith of a small tree called the Tetrapanax papyrifer. People used to believe, for some reason, that it was a byproduct of rice. (It’s a pith-y that people believed that!) … a breed of shark can live for up to 500 years? The Greenland Shark has a very long life-span; one captured in 2014 was discovered to be 392 years old. Testing revealed that this shark can live more than five centuries. (So does that mean that some critters who feasted on shipwreck victims in the 1800s are still out there swimming around?) … you could be a sufferer of gymnophobia? It’s the fear of nude bodies. (There’s only one that I fear … mine.) … only about two percent of the islands in the Caribbean Sea are inhabited? The Caribbean has nearly… Read more »
Le Chiffre, in that TV version was no other than Peter Lorre.
*none* other….
Another fine job My Man CW. Glad to here from you, was a little concerned about y’all being in the path of the tornados. Got rather sporting over there. Understand Newnan got hammered and there’s 5 KIA in ‘Bama, and at least 1 in Coweta County. Coweta is right up the road from you IIRC. We’re just seeing bands of heavy rain in the mid-state…for right now. Be safe Brother, we’ll need another fix of Trivia next week.
Just as the Tea in a British Tank brings some civilization to Battle, Field Artillery lends Dignity to what would otherwise be considered a vulgar brawl.
If y’all haven’t done so, make sure you check out the youtube video of Ms Thang on that fiddle…and her Band of Angels, doing the Orange Blossom Special…You’ll thank me for it.
Thanks for the concern, KoB! All that nonsense passed about 20-30 miles north of me. I have had the pleasure of writing news stories about it, but didn’t have to go through it. As for another fix of trivia next week, nothing will keep me away!
Went there and checked it out. Well worth it KOB. Don’t forget the obopry.com tonite on Facebook..
and in the David Niven film, Woody Allen played Jimmy Bond. So, yes, he has been a James Bond.
7th by commenter count:just swung by. Celebrating wife’s 43rd birthday – with me. The real number is a tad higher…
Yet again, the Vice President of the proud but humble woman owned business that sells software to the Federal Government formally located in Bethesda Maryland called another emergency sales meeting, precluding Hack from claiming title to the highly coveted and rarely awarded First Post On This ain’t Hell Weekend Open Thread.
It seems that another month has passed that we failed to meet our sales quota, and what with a majority of workers in the National Capital Region working from home, precluding employees of this proud but humble woman owned business supplementing our income by selling Red Hat Software on the River Road Exit/Entry Ramps for I-495.
And before Hack punches out to whip up some Fish Tacos, he would like to see if All Points Logistics has been the schedule for time and locations of dumpsters that Commander Phil Monkress will be working balls.
Hack, if you ever come across one of these in your travels, it should go a long way towards being awarded the “SILVER” clasp to your Precious Metals Recovery Expert Badge:
8465-00-372-0636 Boatswain’s Pipe ( 5 ounces of silver)
Still working on items lucrative enough to contain gold and platinum, will publish stock numbers when found./smile
Well, still FIRST in the hearts and minds of the grandkids.
Rats of the Cong to Sapper3307!
Thinking of the Orange Blossom Special – our little band was due to meet in a front yard to jam again today, and then life happened and everyone had to be elsewhere this afternoon.
Maybe next week.
USFS is doing prescribed burns in our AO, so the air is a mite thick here. ‘Tho the skies are clear otherwise, we may have more problems seeing the stars than usual.
Big Bend (and some other places in New Mexico-that-used-to-be-Texas do have some great star viewing. The McDonald Observatory, almost due N of Big Bend, has some great star-watch parties during Spring Break.
Many moons ago, when the GB family was smaller (in multiple dimensions) we were trapped in Houston, but had some property in the Big Thicket. We would take our kids there for vacations. Once a friend of #1 Son came with us.
It was the dark of the moon, and we arrived after sunset. When I turned the car lights off the poor boy was shocked – he’d never been anywhere that dark. Then we got to the clearing and he could see the stars – he was astounded.
We miss so much with modern lighting.
And yes, the stars at night are big and bright, deep in the Heart of Texas!
At one of my favorite camp sites in the Gila Wilderness atop a ridge, you can see miles in any direction, and not only is there no man made light in sight, you can’t even see the light nimbus from any town.
I’ve always wanted to hike in the Gila Wilderness – haven’t made it yet.
And as for the grandkids idea, my wife still thinks the roomers from Panama are just a un-funny joke.
7 years ago today March 26, 2014 we had the 2 LODD of Boston Jakes LT Ed Walsh and FF Mike Kennedy in the Brownstone when their line burned through and the water supply was lost.
RIP Brothers.
For those interested.
https://www.deviantart.com/yt45
Escrow closes in two weeks.
Looking good TOW. We’ve missed the updates, but can understand that you’ve been busy trying to get the hell out of Commiefornia. Just closed on a spare house that Lady Friend and I had up in the little big town to a Lady from Northern Virginia. She can’t wait to get out from behind enemy lines.
That Naval Aviation Aerial Artillery Platform is looking Badass as all hell with the ordnance package about to be mounted. Hope it don’t go all Maverick on you. Might cook your goose, lose that loving feeling, and put future projects on Ice, man.
Once these are done, next up is a TBM-3 for my cousin, my baby daughter’s B-29, and my wife’s B-17. Also promised my oldest daughter we’d start on her 1/350 USS England kit once we’re moved into the new place.
My son also recently approached me with “Daddy, I want to build Mommy a ship!” When I asked him what kind, he said “A battleship!” After some interwebz crawling, he picked out the predreadnought USS Alabama (BB-8). My leisure time is gonna be pretty well occupied for the foreseeable future.
Kool! ninja will be so very proud that y’all picked USS Alabama BB8 (Roll Tide Roll) for “Mommy’s” Ship. If your leisure time is gonna be pretty well occupied for the foreseeable future with those kind of models, maybe you can manage to keep your hands off of the other model you have…that hot wife! :leer:
He’s awful fond of the song “Roll Alabama” about CSS Alabama, so I think the name was a deciding factor for him. He also says he wants to follow it up with a same-scale project of BB-60. Given that he’s only 5, whether or not his interest holds up for that long remains to be seen, but I gotta say I’m proud of the lad’s ambition!
As for the lovely Mrs. Whitey, there’s *always* time for that. Unless I’m stuck at work, obviously. But as long as I’m home…
Hell even more proud of that young lad now. CSS Alabama, a proud and mighty ship that did Her Duty and went down fighting. One thing that hasn’t been talked about much was the CS Commerce Raiders helped save the sperm whale population by taking out so many whaling ships during the War. Those were prime targets and whale oil was THE lubricate POL then. Whales were getting very scarce and the destruction of the Whaling Fleet gave them a breather for the pods to recover a bit. Right after the war was when more petroleum was starting to be refined and used, giving the whale population another boost. Some estimates have said that if the Raiders had not of taken out that Fleet, the whales would have been nearly extinct by 1865. Baby Brother lives right outside of Semmes AL, and one of my Compatriots portrays Captain Raphael Semmes in Historical Programs.
And on the lovely Mrs. Whitey? Now you’re just gloating!
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/CSS_Alabama
Rockefeller saved the whales with standardized and safe kerosene for lamps.
He removed the gasoline from it, ending the random explosions of lamps.
Also, he made his Standard Oil -vastly- cheaper than whale oil, essentially putting most whalers out of business.
Yeppers he did. The interruptions to the Whale Oil Supply had a lot to do with his push to do that. Rockefellers were invested in whale oil fleets, as were many other old name New Englanders. Somewhere, buried in my library, I’ve got a book that goes deep into that cause and effect. Some of those same families were heavily invested in Confederate Blockade Runners too. Big business, that was. It also help jump start the practice of flying foreign flags on commerce ships. Played hell with insurance rates too.
My kid just got 500+ piece Gundam model in the mail,,its gonna hurt me. But we can do it!
Had to google what a gundam is. Not my proverbial cup o’ tea. That being said, some of the models in that genre pictured online have some really outstanding detail and weathering work done to them, better than anything I’m able to do. I’m gonna have to check out some Tube of You tutorials on how they do it.
Whatever it is, it’s always good to work on it with the kids! Enjoy it!
Not quite sure what to say to a friend’s wife. She could wait no longer to go out of state to visit her grandkids, slipped away to do that and brought back the ChiCom flu as an added bonus. They both contracted it, were plenty sick for a couple of weeks. She’s better. He’s now hospitalized, not doing well at all. Hope that trip was worth it to her.
Shit, sorry to hear that, OWB. Hope he pulls through fine, for everyone’s sake.
Thx, LC. I am so seldom angry at an individual that I just don’t know what to do with that anger. Angry at situations, ignorance, and assorted other stuff, but this being angry at a person is foreign, strange, and disconcerting.
Oh, well. He will either make it or not and I will get over it eventually. Probably easier when he returns to normal. So far he is holding his own. If he doesn’t, the guilt she and the kids will carry is unimaginable. Meanwhile, it is difficult for many of us who should be trying to comfort her to do so.
Here’s a fun contribution – Sidney Powell’s lawyers, in her case against Dominion, are saying that her allegations of fraud were not ‘statements of fact’, and ‘no reasonable person’ would believe what she was saying.
https://reason.com/2021/03/23/sidney-powell-says-shes-not-guilty-of-defamation-because-no-reasonable-person-would-have-believed-her-outlandish-election-conspiracy-theory/
I’ll see your political double speak and raise you a program $500/month for poor families; as long as they aren’t white.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/24/oakland-guaranteed-income-race-wealth/%3foutputType=amp
Apparently stupidity and hypocrisy crosses the isle.
“I was born a poor black child.”
And if dominion wins a suit for over a billion dollars hold on to your butts. Google, Amazon and Microsoft will be right behind.
Perhaps our cooperate overlords will take over before the inevitable AI uprising.
PRESENT and I award myself Honorary First yet again.
((((OVER))))
‘Bout time yo happy azz showed up. You’re late, give an accounting of your self! Guess you never found that set of left handed metric crescent wrenches you went looking for last Friday? You shore didn’t restock the Top Shelf Class VI Supplies, get The Stranger and me a Yuengling, or Slow Joe a Bud Lite. The natives have been so restless that at least 2 of them are in OCD Acronym Jail. No telling what kind of prostate problems SFC D is causing himself by smuggling that hacksaw blade into his cell. SFC D claims he ordered it on Amazon, but we all know they can’t deliver to Cell Block D ’cause there is no porch to leave it on. We haven’t even seen any proper Lording Over this past week. What kind of example are you setting for Sapper3307? Think of the children! C’mon man, we needs a pig pickin’ after that Ham n Muthers recipe that Hondo sent in Thursday. Keep this up and you’ll be spending the rest of your Tour getting the knots out of and rolling up all the Flight Line. Don’t make me sic Ex-PH2 on you. She has a crock pot and is not afraid to use it.
Speaking of conspicuous by their absence, daHell has Roh-Dog been of late. Did hear from ninja the other day. That one is on a seekrit squirrel mission but is doing fine. Will report in with a sitrep soon.
My dog just dropped a huge steaming pile of Phil Monkess is my neighbor’s yard.
My bad. That’s Monkress.
As in Phillip D. Monkress.
Also affectionately referred to as the False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics).
Submitted for approval/discussion:
The best piece of equipment ever issued for we Army Dogfaces:
7310-00-285-6155 Stove, Gas Burner, Heavy Duty (issued as part of the BII/AAL for the BFV)
A new word (possible inclusion in the HOI®™?) for a certain individual who comments here (whose sign-in name starts with the letter “C”):
Cockwomble: (Scottish)
(noun) A person, usually male, prone to making outrageously stupid statements and/or inappropriate behavior while generally having a very high opinion of their own wisdom and importance.
Hi Guys,
I make it a point to read through the threads I miss unless I don’t fully and at least skin, but these days, I need to at least scan everything because I’d miss something like this.
Let me check…. Control + F …”
OK then, Claw
seems like you’ve already gotten this….
Page 5, Mid-bottom, right…..”Cockwomble”.
So you’ve got it.
As always, *EVERYONE* is more than welcome to contribute to the infamous… The Hemisphere of Insults®™ , only here at This Ain’t HELL!!!
Okay, Many Thanks. Looking forward to checking it out on the HOI®™.
Say, what was it called when Democrats used the unpaid/stolen persons of African ancestry?
This is one effed up thing:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/03/when_a_black_life_doesnt_matter_to_microsoft.html