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Not much damage - just spray painted the building and cemented the doors shut. What's the big deal? Meanwhile my friend Joan Andrews gets 27 month sentence "Pro-lifers imprisoned under FACE Act speak out" for walking into a clinic, sitting on the floor and saying the rosary.
Very tough. But, my friend Laurie managed it quickly. Grrrr.
So a very interesting bourbon cocktail. CAUTION! All the recipes I've seen for this cocktail are "alcohol forward" - they are using bourbons in the 100 to 110 proof range. At Farandaville we had two recipes. First good ol' Jim Beam which is 80 proof. The second with Knob Creek at 100 proof. Watch the video and then our two recipes are below.
Both of our renditions were mixed in an Old Fashioned glass (see image below) on the rocks; we did not mix it in one glass and then pour it into another. Too much trouble. ...
Lower alcohol version:
Jim Beam - 2 oz.
Bak's Cherry liqueur - 3/4 oz.
Luxardo maraschino liqueur (sweet; almost a simple syrup) 1/4 oz.
2 dashes orange bitters
Full octane version:
Knob Creek - 2 1/2 oz.
Heering cherry liqueur - 3/4 oz.
Luxardo maraschino liqueur - 1/4 oz
2 dashes orange bitters
I preferred the Knob Creek version (delicious!); I think the bourbon and the Heering liqueur were superior. Brigid was undecided; kept wanting additional samples ...
If you're not familiar this is an old fashioned glass -
A Croton resident and parishioner of our Church, Holy Name of Mary. He and his lovely wife Dorothy were very active in our community and church for decades.
Bob had 66 years of service with the Knights of Columbus.
A wonderful man. Here is his obituary, "highlighting the man he was"
Robert E. Ferguson, August 11, 1940 – August 24, 2024
If you hit the link it's a five minute read. No pay wall.
Thwaites Glacier drains a huge area of Antarctica’s ice sheet—about 74,000 square miles (192,000 square kilometers), an expanse bigger than Florida. If a snowflake falls within that drainage system, it will eventually end up as part of an iceberg in the ocean off Thwaites.
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Thwaites Glacier holds enough ice to raise global sea level by more than 2 feet (0.65 meters). Once Thwaites starts to destabilize, it also will destabilize neighboring glaciers. So, what happens to Thwaites affects all of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, and that affects sea-level rise along coastlines everywhere.
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We found that Thwaites would remain fairly stable at least through 2100. We also simulated an ice shelf collapse in 50 years, when the glacier’s grounding line—where its grounded ice meets the ocean—would have retreated deeper inland. Even then, we found that marine ice cliff instability alone would not cause a rapid retreat.
The results call into question some recent estimates of just how fast Thwaites might collapse. That includes a worst-case scenario that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change mentioned in its latest assessment report but labeled as “low likelihood.”
Thwaites is the glacier everyone is worried about. If you model the entire ice sheet, this is where marine ice cliff instability starts and where it propagates far inland. So, if Thwaites isn’t as vulnerable to ice cliff failure as we thought, that’s a good sign for the entire ice sheet.
Funny - almost identical to this word - only a couple of letters transposed. Sunday wordle - another ace! They must be getting lazy ...
And had one last Thursday. Luck trumps skill.
Ok pretty easy and straightforward.
From the WSJ. Well the laugh is on the banks.
But nearly two years after Musk’s acquisition, X’s business is still struggling to climb out of the deep hole it fell into under his ownership—the company last year said its value had fallen by more than half, to around $19 billion.
While data indicate that use of the app rose amid the explosion of political news in recent weeks, there isn’t evidence that that is translating to a meaningful recovery in the advertising revenue that long sustained the revenues of the company, which pre-Musk struggled to maintain profits. Musk has gone from telling advertisers who fled the platform to “go f— yourself” to suing them and a trade group this month, claiming they illegally conspired to boycott X. The group has said it plans to rebut the claims in court.
Servicing the loans isn’t helping X’s financial health. Even before rates stopped rising, Musk said its annual interest payments total around $1.5 billion.
With the two-year mark on the Twitter loans rapidly approaching, the banks haven’t made moves to sell them, even after some banks have marked the value of the loans down by hundreds of millions of dollars.
Paper losses on the debt have dented bank profits, and holding high-risk loans directly on the balance sheet attracts more scrutiny from regulators. Because of Twitter and other hung deals, some of the banks also scaled back how much they lent in providing capital for merger-finance deals, according to some of the people.
There's more but here's what will really break your heart -
The hung loans also have cut into some investment bankers’ annual pay.
Good. It was ridiculous for numerous reasons. FTC Chair Lina Khan is a very young (35) hyper progressive. Worth taking the time to read below.
Texas Judge Ada Brown ruled that the FTC lacks the authority to enact sweeping competition rules like banning noncompete agreements between businesses and employees. A month ago, Brown temporarily blocked the FTC’s noncompete ban from taking effect after a challenge from the pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce, tax firm Ryan LLC, and other plaintiffs.
“The Commission’s lack of evidence as to why they chose to impose such a sweeping prohibition—that prohibits entering or enforcing virtually all non-competes—instead of targeting specific, harmful non-competes, renders the Rule arbitrary and capricious,” Brown said.
... Ryan initiated the lawsuit right after the FTC’s five commissioners voted 3-2 to enact the noncompete ban along partisan lines.
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The noncompete policy is a staple of FTC Chair Lina Khan’s aggressive antitrust agenda against big technology companies and other large corporations. One of the Biden administration’s most controversial appointees, Khan’s many critics have accused her of abusing the FTC’s authority and needlessly meddling with market outcomes.
“This decision is a significant win in the Chamber’s fight against government micromanagement of business decisions. A sweeping prohibition of noncompete agreements by the FTC was an unlawful extension of power that would have put American workers, businesses, and our economy at a competitive disadvantage,” said Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne P. Clark.
How do you spell price controls?
I-N-F-L-A-T-I-O-N. She has other equally great ideas if you access the entire article through the link. And see the last two sentences in the excerpt below.
From the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
Ms. Harris’s political problem is that the Biden-Harris economic policies have delivered inflation and declining real incomes. The high price of food is a particular sore point, and the Vice President’s response is to make it worse by resorting to Venezuelan-style left-wing populism. That’s no exaggeration.
On Friday she floated a “first-ever federal ban on price gouging on food and groceries,” including “new authority” for the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general to punish companies for charging too much.
This sounds like legislation introduced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren that would ban “grossly excessive prices” as determined by the Federal Trade Commission. Business violations would carry a penalty of up to 5% of annual revenue. This would effectively let the FTC set prices. But what is an excessive price? Is $4 too much for a gallon of milk in Omaha? Is it a different price in Miami? FTC Chair Lina Khan and her army of bureaucrats would presumably decide.
There is also no evidence that supermarkets or other food retailers are gouging anyone. Food prices are higher than they were before the Biden Presidency, but that is because of inflation. Retail grocery prices have risen roughly in tandem with wholesale prices. Supermarkets also have narrow margins on sales—roughly 2%, compared to 8% on average for other businesses.
Fixing prices is a recipe for shortages, as controls would discourage grocery suppliers. Voilà, empty store shelves. Price controls have led to shortages everywhere they’ve been tried, from Moscow to Caracas.
The last American President to impose wage and price controls was Richard Nixon in the early 1970s. He had to stage a humiliating retreat amid shortages and market dislocations, and prices immediately soared when controls were lifted. If Ms. Harris really believes in this price-fixing, she lacks the most basic understanding of economics. If she is merely floating it to be able to get “price gouging” into a speech, her cynicism is also telling.
On vacation in the Adirondacks with no internet service Friday and Saturday; so my scoring has to start over at one.
UPDATE: I took the plank test - held it for 2 minutes 16 seconds -then it started to hurt...
This is an excellent article with links to how-to-test articles in the NYT. It includes things like flexibility, strength, balance, and of course cardio. SPOILER - the test for power is very easy to do. I plan on doing them all over the next week or two and will report back on the results.
Took about two minutes
Very Catholic indeed. This is a great explanation and if you hit the link it takes under five minutes to read. The painting at the bottom "The Assumption" by Juan Michael Cabezalero is in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Probably painted around 1666.
In discussing Mary’s Assumption, the Catholic Church teaches that Mary’s body was glorified immediately at the end of her earthly life. Thus, unlike other mortal beings who must wait until the end of the world for our bodily resurrection, Mary, as Jesus’s mother, was given the divine gift of being taken body and soul to Heaven upon her death.
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Although Scripture does not explicitly mention the Assumption of Mary—also called the “Dormition of Mary” in the Eastern Churches—Catholic clergy and laypeople alike have believed in Mary’s Assumption since the earliest centuries of Christianity. Pope John Paul II observed that the earliest references to Mary’s Assumption date to the second and third centuries, and that a long tradition of iconography exists showing Mary entering Heaven with her body.
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The Assumption of Mary remained a widely-held belief throughout the centuries until it was officially made part of the Catholic Church’s teachings by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
The Bible itself asserts that “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down…even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Thus, although Scripture doesn’t record Mary’s death or her Assumption, the Catholic Church teaches that Scripture provides a basis for the centuries-old belief in Mary’s Assumption.
If you hit the link above, the article lists seven biblical sources for the Assumption.
After failing two days ago nice to get this.
I love posting about this Saint - the great 20th century martyr who sacrificed himself in Auschwitz to save another prisoner, who had a family. The prisoner survived and actually attended Kolbe's beatification and canonization. Kolbe was executed on August 14th, 1941. Interestingly, he is also considered a Saint by the Anglican and Lutheran Churches.
The picture of him is from 1936 ->
Ugh. It was a tough one. Correct word is NEIGH. I didn't even know that was a word.
Easy - under 2 minutes
Well, some of them are true...
There are many glamorous occupations people pursue — movie star, doctor, satire writer… but perhaps the most prestigious and sought-after line of work is that of being a pastor. Though many want such a job, few are qualified. Do you meet the requirements?
The Babylon Bee has compiled the following helpful list of the nine more important qualifications to become a pastor:
Must be perfect and never make a mistake: Everyone knows pastors never do anything wrong.
Must be thin enough to not be a glutton but fat enough to not be hot: You don't want to be morbidly obese, but you don't want to distract anyone with your handsomeness.
Must always jump out the nearest window if ever in the same room with a woman while no one else is present: This is known as the Billy Graham Rule.
Must be able to survive on a diet made up solely of casseroles: Some may be better than others.
Must be willing to work weekends, weekdays, nights, mornings, afternoons, and holidays: Marriage counseling experience, theological knowledge, and carpentry skills are also preferred.
Must be willing to drive a 20-year-old vehicle and never flash your wealth: White pastors only.
Must enjoy attending 12 funerals per week: Be aware, you'll probably be expected to say something at all of them, too.
Must possess a willingness to suffer all things for the sake of the Gospel: Including weekly conversations with Steve.
Must have read the Bible at least once: This one is kind of important.
If you check all of the boxes listed above, you may have what it takes to be a pastor. Just make sure you're a Christian first.
Very tough; took almost 30 minutes spread over two sessions.
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