2,700 Year Old Pot Stash Found!

OTTAWA – Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

(inhale) So, it's not just the damn teenagers from the 1960's that (exhale) cultivated pot for recreational use! 2,700 year old pot. Man ...

Moon, Jupiter And Venus Conjunction

If you looked out your window this evening, you would have seen the moon, in crescent format, just below Venus and Jupiter. Tomorrow night, at about sunset, the moon will be in conjunction with Venus and Jupiter, in the configuaration shown above. To see it live, though, is truly awesome, and it won't happen again for another 45 years.

P.S., for those living in the Los Angeles area, the space shuttle landed at Edwards Air Force base today, and you could hear the two back-to-back sonic booms as it entered the atmosphere.

Happy Thanksgiving

Growing up in the 1950's and 1960's, Thanksgiving day was not about sports, and most certainly, did not include television. The NFL did not exist at that time, and in the ‘50s, most people did not even own a television in America, and in the ‘60s, very few had color TV sets. Television, for the most part, existed in the family room, and was relegated, as a family, for viewing Ed Sullivan, Lawrence Welk, or the many variety shows that were aired during that period of time.

My family traditional Thanksgivings were huge a family get together. We always cooked two turkeys, and had to start cooking on Wednesday, through the night, and all the way up to Thanksgiving afternoon. We made our stuffing from scratch, as there were no boxed food stuffing at that time. In fact, we made all the food from scratch. Pie crusts were hand made, not store bought. Potatoes, both sweet and regular, were from real potatoes and yams or sweet potatoes. Although, if I am not mistaken, the pea’s were probably from cans (laughing).

I don’t recall when Thanksgiving became associated with football, but that seems to now be the way of life for Americans celebrating this holiday. It’s no big deal for me, because I like sports, and especially football.

After growing up with all the cooking and family fighting that always occurs at a Thanksgiving dinner, I enjoyed not participating in it for many, many years. I would always send my daughter off to her father for the holidays (including Christmas) and enjoyed the calm and quiet of being by myself. It was only after the second round of custody battles over my daughter (during which time issues like not celebrating Christmas or having a tree were brought up) that I actually kept my daughter and celebrated Christmas at my house (I believe it was in 1987 or 1988). Since I didn’t own diddley as far as ornaments or other stuff associated with Christmas, that year alone cost me over $1,000 just to buy lights, bulbs and ornaments for the tree, and other assorted Christmas paraphernalia. However, once I took the religious aspect out of the celebration, I found that I actually enjoyed the Christmas holidays (which generally start right after Turkey day). I got into the spirit of giving gifts to my friends and family, enjoyed decorating my house, and most importantly, playing CHRISTMAS SONGS!!!!!!

Anyway, time to watch some football (who the hell thought Titans vs. Lions was going to be a good game?), pull out the Christmas stuff and hang the Happy Holidays sign on my door!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!

The Evil Coulter Silenced!

From the New York Post:

THAT although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut . . .

I wonder who finally had the guts to slug her in the face ... or who pushed her down the stairs!

Chargers Still Suck Under Turner's Coaching

11-10 was the score of the San Diego/Pittsburgh game. The crawl on the screen said NO NFL game has ever ended with that score. Interesting.

Hey, Spanos, how's that Norv Turner dude working out for you? Ha, ha, ha.

Change = Undo

H/T to Crooks and Liars.

Happy Birthday To DJ Rix

Today is DJ Rix's birthday. Hope he at least gets out of the house for some Dunkin Donuts coffee and a treat!

My impression of him this morning!

Clicking To Miriam Makeba

Aside from the fact that a lot of my harmony knowledge comes from Paul and Art, I have always admired his South African crusade, including his album and concerts.



Miriam Makeba passed away this week. Those my age know her for the "click" song, and of course, her version of Pata Pata.



RIP.

Football Has Not Been "Berry Berry" Good To Me

San Diego Chargers' owners suck. That is about all I can say in defense of a team that has so many good players and cannot do shit this season.

After Dean Spanos fired Schottenheimer (with one year still left on his contract) and let go just about all the other coaching staff, because of a "dysfunctional situation" between the coach and general manager A.J. Smith, he showed the team and the fans that winning was and is not his priority. Sort of reminds me of the Los Angeles Kings' owners, richer than dirt, and yet fielding year after year after year mediocre teams, even when they had the best of the best, Wayne Gretzky.

Dean Spanos released a statement saying "Our fans deserve to know what changed for me over the last month. When I decided to move ahead with Marty Schottenheimer in mid-January, I did so with the expectation that the core of his fine coaching staff would remain intact. Unfortunately, that did not prove to be the case, and the process of dealing with these coaching changes convinced me that we simply could not move forward with such dysfunction between our head coach and general manager. In short, this entire process over the last month convinced me beyond any doubt that I had to act to change this untenable situation and create an environment where everyone at Charger Park would be pulling in the same direction and working at a championship level. I expect exactly that from our entire Charger organization in 2007."

Hiring Norv Turner -- a coach with an incredible losing record, was and is an obvious mistake. Never mind last year's record, because with that team, even I could have coached the Chargers to their 11-5 record in 2007 (after going 14-2 under Shotsie). This year, 3-5 going into a game with a 1-7 Kansas City team, and coming down to the wire (would have been tied if Kansas City did not decide to go for the two pointer instead of the extra point kick) -- well, I think it's safe to say the fat lady has sung this year for them, despite their win.

Come Fly With Me!

Enjoy this until the YouTube police pull the video!

My feelings about the Obama election, Frank style.

You Know You Got It, If It Makes You Feel Good!

So, really, which one of these two were really channeling Janis? Vocally, I'll give it to Joss Stone, but emotionally, it all goes to Melissa Etheridge.

YOU KNOW YOU GOT IT IF IT MAKES YOU FEEL GOOD!

Farewll To Michael Crichton

As a fan of some of his best work, Andromeda Strain, Jurrasic Park (although I never read those books, so I'm more a fan of the directors of the movies), and as a fan of ER for most of it's good years (face it, after Dr. Green's death, was there really life left for ER?), it is with sadness we mourn the death of Michael Crichton.

RIP

Monsters, By Paul Krugman

What I mean by that is that for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggested that the shootings at Columbine happened because schools teach students the theory of evolution. Monsters like Karl Rove, who declared that liberals wanted to offer “therapy and understanding” to terrorists. Monsters like Dick Cheney, who saw 9/11 as an opportunity to start torturing people.

This is what I agree with about the Republican party -- or the "base" of this party, which still constitutes that 23% of dumbness in America vis-a-vis Bush's poll ratings, belief that Iraq had WMD or that Hussein was involved in 9/11.

His opinion piece is pretty good, but the comments are more telling. And to a very great extent, I agree with most of the comments -- that this is really only a beginning of getting rid of the monsters. A defining moment in history, to be sure (judging by how few newspapers were available after 8:30 a.m. this morning in most major cities), but a long way from ending that 23% of hate that has a hold of Americans.

Obama Takes It All!

I am crying I am so happy tonight. To see this happen in a country that was slave driven, and now to know that ANYONE can become President of this Great United States.

God Bless America.

Bruce And Barack

Tomorrow, we will finally be singing a new tune.

Gas Prices Drop Below $3.00 For Regular In CA

Gas literally went under $3.00 per gallon for regular today. I'll do a more in depth post about prices after the election, but I have to put forth my belief that this may not be the same situation as I had asserted earlier, i.e., the 2006 election, where prices went down over a dollar right before the election, and started rising back up the day after -- and past the dollar it had dropped going up to the high of $4.72 (in California) as of the July 4th weekend this year.

That means that gas dropped over a four month period a total of $1.73! That is amazing, and since I have not heard one peep from the Republican party (as opposed to all the claims made during the 2006 election) that they were/are responsible for said drop, I may have to go with option number two -- that (1) Americans are in fact, driving less, and (2) the price has dropped on it's own and not due to any politics being played by either party.

Like I said, more on this after the election.

Great Timing, California GOP!

The California GOP filed an FEC complaint today, just hours after Obama's grandmother died, alleging:

"Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use," the release stated. "Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do -- at his own expense -- but it was not travel that his campaign may fund."

Nice work, dipshits. That should put a few of the undecideds over to the deciding for Obama tomorrow!

Politicians' Families Lose Loved Ones This Week

A sad day for Barack Obama today as his grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has died. My condelences to Senator Obama, his family and friends, and to all those that were fortunate to have known Mrs. Dunham.

On another sad note, Senator Dick Durbin's daughter, Christine Durbin, passed away this week as well. She was 40 years old and died from complications relating to a congenital heart condition. Much too early for a father to lose his daughter, and I feel his pain.

My thoughts and prayers are with both families today.