Cutest Photo? Zombie Toddler Eats Kitten!

"After you've finished sucking out the brain, start on the eyes, dear."

photo credit: Huffington Post

For The Fathers

Happy Father's Day to all you fathers out there. My own father and I had a tempestuous relationship. My stepson, Matt, and I repeated the same sort of cycle. All too cliched for words.

But someone did capture those cliches and put them to good use. Harry Chapin was one of my favorite balladeers, may he rest in peace. He wrote this song for his son Josh. It sums up the lives and feelings of millions of us.

Cats Cradle

Damned Fool Yankee

As I type this it's momentarily cloudy and the inside temp. has just dropped 2°F. in 10 minutes to 73°. The roof-top air conditioner has run steadily for three weeks now. Outside it's currently 95° and 53% humidity. Temperatures have only dropped below 75° once for any length of time in the past 10 days or so. It may be Spring on the calendar for another few days, but it has been in full summer mode in Baton Rouge since before Memorial Day.

What in heck am I doing here when it's a cool, wet, rainy 58 - 68° in Maine? About to go to work hauling FEMA trailers to Dallas. Texas. Where it will be even hotter next week. And for the foreseeable future.

Damned fool Yankee!


Look out, Steph -- here we come.

Maine - where Men are men and the sheep are afraid ...

Very afraid.


I came across the above on one of the RVing forums I read regularly. You know me -- perverted. And I just had to share...

BBC - The Big Read

After reading the comments posted on the entry below, I got curious. What IS the story with the BBC in relation to the list. After a quick Google search on 'BBC reading book list' I hit paydirt. Lo and behold, it is a very different list of reads than the 'BBC Reading List Meme' portrayed. Gone is the ultra-heavy reliance on British Classics. Many modern authors and many more genre are represented.

"In April 2003 the BBC's Big Read began the search for the nation's best-loved novel, and we asked you to nominate your favourite books.

Below and on the next page are all the results from number 1 to 100 in numerical order!"

That is a very different kettle of (silver)fish, I think you will agree. And yes, Nellie, it's still a mess of typing, for sure. So feast your eyes on the "original" list that started the meme and then look again at the metamorphosis it has undergone. Sure be some hate for modern novels out there somewhere...

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce (not that I understood it, mind you. It helped that I was drinking heavily back then)
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

Those on the original list which I've read are, appropriately, in red. So, from the original list, I've read 64 (I think, if I counted correctly). Still a lot of reading in this day and age, yet there are obviously some I ought to get on to and there's plenty I've read that would never appear on such an august list. What about you? Did you do more of less than in the entry 67 ways to waste your time and counting?

Fun Map

(image credit: Keith Thompson)

Found at Dark Roasted Blend in my web wanderings this evening as I listened to my LAST.FM station, Pearls Before Swine (probably my most favorite psychedelic band of the 60's). Click the image to enbiggen it. Better yet, learn the history of the image by reading the entry about the map at DRB's
Unusual and Marvelous Maps, Part 2

67 ways to waste your time and counting

The BBC apparently says most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How many have YOU read?

Instructions: [Copy and paste]

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' before those you have read.
2) Tally your total.
3) Post a note with with your total in the subject line


1 (X) Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 (x ) The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 (x ) Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 (x) Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 (X) To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 (X ) The Bible
7 (x) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 (X) Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 ( ) His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 (x ) Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 (X ) Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 (x) Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 ( X) Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 (/) Complete Works of Shakespeare (A lot of his more well known plays and sonnets, but not the C.W.S.)
15 ( ) Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 (x) The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 ( ) Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 (X) Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 (x ) The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 ( ) Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 (X) Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 (X) The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 (x) Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 (X) War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 (x) The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 (x) Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 (x) Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 (X) Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 (X) Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 (x) The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 (x ) Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 (x) David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 (x) Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 (x) Emma - Jane Austen
35 (x) Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 (x) The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 ( ) The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 ( ) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 ( ) Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 (X) Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 (X) Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 () The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 ( ) One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 (x ) A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 ( ) The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 (x) Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 (x ) Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 (/) The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (I tried, really, I tried. Gave it 100 pages and then said, nope, not for me)
49 (x) Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 (X) Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 (x) Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 (x) Dune - Frank Herbert
53 (x) Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 (X) Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 () A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 ( ) The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 (X) A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 (x) Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 ( ) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 ( ) Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 (X) Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 (X) Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 ( ) The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 ( ) The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 (X) Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 x) On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 (x) Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 ( ) Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 ( ) Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie70
(X) Moby Dick - Herman Melville71
(X) Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 (X) Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 (X) The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 ( ) Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 (X) Ulysses - James Joyce
76 ( ) The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 () Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 ( ) Germinal - Emile Zola
79 (x) Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 ( ) Possession - AS Byatt
81 (X) A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 ( ) Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 ( ) The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 () The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 (x) Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 () A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 (x) Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 ( ) The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 (x) Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 ( ) The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 (x) Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 ( ) The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Exupery
93 ( ) The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 (x) Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 ( ) A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 ( ) A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 (X) The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 (X) Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 (x) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 (X) Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

It's a very British-centric list, isn't it? And yet, there are many English classics which are not represented which carry far more weight than “Emma” or “Dracula”. An odd selection, to say the least. I surprised myself by having read 67 of them. I expected fewer. But, if nothing else, my life has been a life of reading. This year, though, I have only managed to complete a handful of new titles. So far...

via Christina Kay Brown

All tied up...

I came across this moments ago and it tickled my funnybone so fiercely I just had to share. Everyone who has ever kept farm animals has run into dead mice, voles and moles while feeding out hay. It's so commonplace, no one thinks to remark upon it.

Have you ever baled a badger?




Check out the rest of the hilarity at TonyRogers.com

Here's a new one on me...

It's raining hard here today. Between an inch and 2 inches per hour. So hard, in fact, that somehow it has managed to overtop the holding tank vents and fill both the gray and black water tanks. Full.

So now I have to go out in the pouring rain and hook-up a pump system to drain the tanks into the sanitary sewer line for the house.

Did I mention it is pouring buckets out there? I'd be dryer on the deck of one of those crabbers on The Deadliest Catch.

UPDATE: Tanks were not full, thanks be to Cthulhu. Instead, it appears something has blown on the monitor circuit board as EVERYTHING reads full, including the fresh water tank which I know to be empty as the drain valve is open. All of which wasn't discovered until AFTER I stood in the downpour running the pump.

Never rains but what it pours...