'Comes now the tramp'

Comes now the tramp. …

The tramp is one of two kinds of men: he is either a discouraged worker

or a discouraged criminal. Now a discouraged criminal, on investigation,

proves to be a discouraged worker, or the descendant of discouraged

workers; so that, in the last analysis, the tramp is a discouraged

worker. Since there is not work for all, discouragement for some is

unavoidable. How, then, does this process of discouragement operate?

The lower the employment in the industrial scale, the harder the

conditions. The finer, the more delicate, the more skilled the trade,

the higher is it lifted above the struggle. There is less pressure, less

sordidness, less savagery. There are fewer glass-blowers proportionate

to the needs of the glass-blowing industry than there are ditch-diggers

proportionate to the needs of the ditch-digging industry. And not only

this, for it requires a glass-blower to take the place of a striking

glass-blower, while any kind of a striker or out-of-work can take the

place of a ditch-digger. So the skilled trades are more independent,

have more individuality and latitude. They may confer with their

masters, make demands, assert themselves. The unskilled laborers, on the

other hand, have no voice in their affairs. The settlement of terms is

none of their business. "Free contract" is all that remains to them.

They may take what is offered, or leave it. There are plenty more of

their kind. They do not count. They are members of the surplus labor

army, and must be content with a hand-to-mouth existence.

[Jack London, WAR OF THE CLASSES]

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A person may PLAN as much as he wants to, but nothing of consequence is

likely to come of it until the magician CIRCUMSTANCE steps in and takes

the matter off his hands. …

Circumstance is powerful, but it cannot work alone; it has to have a

partner. Its partner is man's TEMPERAMENT--his natural disposition.

His temperament is not his invention, it is BORN in him, and he has no

authority over it, neither is he responsible for its acts. He cannot

change it, nothing can change it, nothing can modify it--except

temporarily. But it won't stay modified. It is permanent, like the

color of the man's eyes and the shape of his ears.

[Mark Twain, WHAT IS MAN?]

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BANANA | Musa

… tropical banana trees require 18 MONTHS of nonfreezing temperatures before it will condescend to produce fruit … the JAPANESE FIBER BANANA (Musa basjoo) is hardy to minus 18° C (0° F) … native of China … will die down in winter and resprout from the roots in the spring if not brought indoors … ‘we especially like’ the HARDY PINK BANANA (M. velutina) – produces yellow flowers all summer with pink bracts & pink fruits …

[BIZARRE BOTANICALS]

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Around 1260 Albertus Magnus … wrote a treatise, On Vegetables and Plants, in which he gave instructions on setting out of a pleasure garden. The first requirement was a lawn, ‘for the sight is in no way so pleasantly refreshed as by fine and loose grass kept short’. … Around this lawn are to be planted ‘every sweet-smelling herb such as rue, and sage and basil, and likewise all sorts of flowers, as the violet, columbine, lily, rose, iris and the like’. …

Medieval gardening techniques were … sophisticated. Young plants were grown in nurseries, the art of grafting was highly refined, rare and unusual plants were cultivated, and gardeners exchanged plants, seeds, and cuttings. Gardeners used implements very similar to our own, with the exception of power tools. They also had instruction books. One of the most popular of these was written around 1300 in Italy by a retired Bolognese lawyer, Petrus de Crescentiis. His treatise, Opus ruralium commodorum (The Advantages of Country Living), was a working manual on botany, animal husbandry, beekeeping, and many other aspects of farming and gardening.

[SWEET HERBS AND SUNDRY FLOWERS: MEDIEVAL GARDENS AND THE GARDENS OF THE CLOISTERS]

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The common NORTHERN LOBSTER, Homarus americanus, is easily the most important crustacean inhabiting the coastal water of the North Atlantic States and the Maritime Provinces of Canada. In this area lobstering is a major industry, with millions of pounds being caught and sold annually. Stand on almost any headland in Maine and try to count the Lobster buoys that can be seen through a pair of binoculars. The chief problem that confronts a Maine Lobster is deciding which of thousands of Lobster pots he will walk into when he reaches marketable size. The end product of this industry is universally recognized as one of the finest of all seafoods, the very name LOBSTER being synonymous with luxurious dining, except to those unfortunate few who are allergic to its flesh.

I was surprised to find that lobstering, besides being an important industry, was also an outdoor sport or recreation of no mean order. I was formerly under the impression that lobstering was the monopoly of salty old professionals whose wisdom in the ways of boats and the sea was handed down through generations, and that breed actually does exist … However, there are others, just as salty and seagoing in appearance, who engage in this activity as a part-time occupation or hobby.

[Euell Gibbons]

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There is no evidence that anyone else visited California and Oregon … until, in 1579, Francis Drake … came sailing north through the Pacific. He had left Plymouth in 1577, crossed the Atlantic, passed through the Straits of Magellan ‘with its hell-darke nights and the mercyles fury of tempestuous storms’, and then had sailed north along the South American and Mexican coasts, raiding as he went. His arrival was a painful surprise to the Spaniards, who, supposing themselves completely secure in a Pacific that was all their own, had taken no defensive precautions whatever. Off Peru, the astounded crew of an unarmed treasure galleon watched with disgust while Drake transferred to his own holds … [and] brought home to England plunder worth $4,000,000. …

With his little ships loaded to the gunwales, he turned northward to carry out … one of his two assigned missions, a search for the non-existent Strait of Anian.

[EYES OF DISCOVERY]

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Now for the payoff …

For eight years, Ronnie was GE’s host and occasional actor; he also became the corporate voice for General Electric’s conservative viewpoint. During Reagan’s tours of the country, he gave The Speech in the name of General Electric in particular and free enterprise in general. Gradually, Reagan became more and more right wing. But then if his principal reading matter told him that the Russians were not only coming but that their little Red brothers were entrenched in Congress and the school libraries and the reservoirs (flouride at the ready), he must speak out. Finally, all this nonsense began to alarm even GE. When he started to attack socialism’s masterpiece, the TVA (a GE client worth 50 million a year to the firm), he was told to start cooling it, which he did. …

During this period, Reagan was not only getting deeper and deeper into the politics of the far right, but he and Nancy were getting to know some of the new-rich Hollywood folk outside show biz. Car dealers such as Holmes Tuttle and other wheeler-dealers became friends. The wives were into conspicuous consumption while the husbands were into money and, marginally, conservative politics which would enable them to make more money, pay less tax, and punish the poor.

[Gore Vidal]

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The apple-grower should never forget that every producer needs to be fed in proportion to his product. If a cow gives twenty quarts of milk per day, she needs more grass or other food than if she gave but two quarts; and an acre of orchard that yields a hundred barrels of Apples per annum needs something given to the soil to balance the draft made upon it. Nature offers us good bargains; but she does not trust and will not be cheated. When she offers a bushel of Corn for a bushel of dirty Salt, Shell Lime, or Wood-Ashes, a load of Hay for a load of Muck, we ought not to stint the measure, but pay her demand ungrudgingly.

And now a last word on Insects.

[Horace Greeley]

»How To Disable Google's New "Personal" Search Results

Last night (most likely while you were sleeping) Google rolled out its new “Personal Search” feature. Do you loathe it as much as I do?

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C-SPAN Caller: ‘Do You Believe That Mitt Romney Has a Big Penis?’

This is simply no way to address New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Wayne MacDonald on his big day. He was not amused.

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Outgoing Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour pardoned nearly 200 people, including convicted murderers

Among those getting full pardons was brother of former New York Jets quarterback Brett Favre

Bitter family members angrily blasted Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour after his 11th-hour pardons freed four murderers who savagely killed their loved ones.

“I’m totally disgusted,” said Glenda Walker, whose son was shot to death in 1993 by ex-inmate David Gatlin. “... One man can’t put you in jail. I don’t think it’s right for one man to remove you from jail.”

Her ire was shared by the families of other victims after the quartet of killers was released Sunday night. Barbour’s office said nothing about the pardons until the family members went public with their disgust.

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We iz Friendz!

ADRIAN, MI—After a week of precipitation, Kelly Knoke has started using "snew" as the past tense of "snow," just to mix it up a little.