trinacriabob

I only had a dog as a teen, providing 12 years of joy through college and entering the workforce. She was 35 pound, natural dock tailed, blue merle Australian Shepherd. (This is obviously a faded photo.) She far exceeded what I could have hoped for in being a smart, fun, and loyal pet. Is it any wonder I'm stuck on the idea of getting a Miniature Australian Shepherd? Also, there is no dog versus cat scenario for me. I prefer a dog but there are a fair number of cats with great personalities out there.

We can only wonder whatever became of the likes of King Harvest and even the Silver Convention, seen here ... I randomly thought of this song when I was in a cool bird sanctuary venue, complete with a few alligators, along the Gulf last month. Their thrusting motions with their elbows during their routine are odd and/or dated. Ulterior motive?

J'ai vraiment besoin d'aller au Quebec. Mais je suis triste: maintenant nous ne peuvent pas entrer.

What Warren Buffett* says is a major key to success ... (2 t's, as he is not AYCE) I was surprised to see this, but it makes perfect sense: the ability to say NO. Just think how much more time and money most of us might have saved had we done more of this.

It would. It has an identifiable enough shape for a waffle! Interestingly enough, Michigan's UP, on its own, is a big time logo. Everywhere you go when there, you see the outline of just the UP ... on t-shirts, coffee mugs, billboards, etc. etc. As for the "Four Corners" states, not so much ...

I like those! When you go to those chain hotels in the Lone Star state, they have self-serve waffle makers that produce waffles shaped like the state of Texas! Only the strawberries for me. Add syrup, too. Creative, even though Texas can be self-regarding in many ways. But it lends itself to being a waffle, unlike California and Florida!

It can be tough! But, damn, the Puget Sound area, with the wall to wall evergreen, looks so damn nice when covered in snow, even though it doesn't function well. Also, with enough curvy two-lane roads and hills in the burbs, the black ice sort of sneaks up on you. If a person can walk to a local independent coffeehouse that's open, that could be good. Thankfully, this sort of weather in the Puget Sound Basin is a rare occurrence.

Artists and illustrators can't let go of this. They fail to grasp that Jesus Christ was a man from the Middle East. Instead, we have become conditioned to believe that he looked like someone who may have attended today's Burning Man festival.

There was one MAD magazine cover when I was young that everyone in my house laughed at, and a copy of it was even purchased. It had the MAD magazine guy with the curly red hair and an irreverent prank involving a cartoon of Sophia Loren and her cleavage. My parents even laughed at it. I looked for that image to no avail. But I found this one. This is a little different. I've seen this a lot as of late. (That's Jayne Mansfield.) It's difficult to infer what the possibilities might be here. Main cravings - it's kind of perplexing when they become food, travel (even if sitting on an airplane and playing with the video monitor), and sleep ... a lot of quality sleep.

Really? It seems more difficult to "get off" in general with the passage of time.

Most people would not construe that comment as particularly inflammatory. It was a blighted casino that wasn't cutting it. Atlantic City, in general, doesn't measure up to what it should have been. Implosions are rare and complex events, requiring a lot of planning and with no room for error, so they're sort of nifty in a weird way. I've only seen one and it was that of the Kingdome in Seattle in 2000. Too bad, because I liked the Kingdome. Closer to your turf, the implosion of some stadium, possibly where the Eagles once played ... not sure, on the south side of Philly along the Delaware River was one of the more interesting ones, with the collapse following the circular form of the stadium. And you took my last comment incorrectly. It applies to a lot of people who react the same way when they can't back up anything discussing a weighty topic. So, in addition to you, it would be some ridiculous and not very enlightened friends of my late mom, a few clueless neighbors of mine, etc. I agree, Olds. It's that it's done consistently, as is the situation with the confused vote, and with no added commentary, which doesn't have to be present, but NEVER is. And it's done in a little kid, "cat ate the canary," smart-alecky sort of way.

The reactionary down votes on here are both perplexing and interesting. I'm not advocating extended dialogue on this venue, but if people are going to disagree with you, both parties should have at least 10 to 15 minutes worth of relevant, detailed, and factual back up at hand. Reactionary people don't seem to grasp that. That's why they resort to being reactionary.

Some implosions are better than others ...

I wake up every February 9 and realize that's an important day in the history of the city if a person is an Angeleno. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the big 1971 Sylmar quake. The original movie "Earthquake" with Charlton Heston and Genevieve Bujold was based on this event. The Northridge quake of 1994, aka the MLK quake of January 17, also had its epicenter nearby in the San Fernando Valley, but was stronger. One thing these quakes had in common is that the especially high and long span ramp from the California 14 freeway to I-5 collapsed. They are bizarre events. There's a muted rumble like a distant freight train in addition to the shaking, and you instinctively run to put yourself under a door frame or something structural. They're definitely working on it, but we really need some think tanks like Stanford, Caltech, and Berkeley to come up with more reliable seismic prediction technology.

Sheez, I would have liked to have a photo upon starting this month's car spotting thread, but I was driving on the freeway a ways behind it. I saw a '95 or '96 Buick Riviera in a candy apple red metallic color which may have been an extra cost color that year. There's nothing really off the charts about such a sighting except that you don't see them that often, it was in excellent condition, and, from the rear, and rear 3/4, views, the strong fender flanks and the almost oval shape of the slightly inset rear fascia and tail lamp assembly make a pretty strong (and good) statement. (I am definitely not a fan of what I call its preying mantis front end.)

Not this movie, but another movie ... It's amazing how powerful Hollyweird can be, though. BBHC (Before Beverly Hills Cop), a Chevy Nova was a Chevy Nova. ABHC, they were epic. You would look to see who was driving one ... and why. If they ever rebooted the Chevy Nova, they can run an "Axel Foley edition." Two likely drawbacks to that: 1) it may not be politically correct, and 2) it is more and more conceivable that larger swaths of the vehicle buying public may not be familiar with, or get, the "once in a decade" movie that is "Beverly Hills Cop."

Right now, my random yet persisting thought is this: And, you can think about it all you want and never have to think of "Oc(ea)n Blu(e)" because it is not an ocean, but a gulf. Pensacola Beach, FL for the win!

More so than what kind of car to get next, I have been giving more and more ... and MORE ... thought to getting one of these:

Steel towns and coal mining towns equal tough lives. No doubt. But, my God, being surrounded by homemade and authentic Italian, Greek, Polish, and Slavic food would be way too tempting for me.

I'm going to guess that the proprietorship had some ties to the area around the Bay of Naples or they wouldn't have named the place that. Neapolitans make the best thin crust pizza. Here's an interesting tidbit: among Italian comedians who use Italian life as a basis for their jokes, about 75% of their material is based on the dialects and antics of Neapolitans and Sicilians, for being way out there compared to central and northern Italians. And, thankfully, the subjects are not at all uptight about it ... the Neapolitans and the Sicilians know they're goofy and really eat up this type of comedy.

God, I love some good grated parmesan/romano cheese over a nice plate of al dente pasta with a tomato-mushroom sauce.

In a weird way, this Riv looks good from that angle. I don't know why. This model of Riv photographs differently from various angles. The same holds true for the '92 Riv, for example. This same angle for that newer Riv looks very good, as do several others, while others look just ok. IMHO, it's sad that the artistry of sculpting sheet metal to make for interesting vehicle silhouettes has dwindled.

CREATE a PLATE The California DMV has special interest plates options including one series called "plates for kids." The symbols are 1) a hand (hello), 2) a heart (love), 3) a star, and 4) a plus sign (to do some math, I guess) - they take the place of 1 character Examples of them might be: Possibly: "Hello or hi SHYS" Definitely: "I love Cal State Univ. Long Beach" (I don't know why someone would) - - - - - So I thought of one: "(hand for hello or hi) NOW GFY" Peace.

Yikes, this gives "passing the sniff test" a new meaning.

This is already on YouTube in about 5 to 10 variations. Take your pick. And just because Ah-nold got his vaccine. He always says goofy sh!t. While not quite "Hasta la vista, baby," this "Come with me if you want to live" quip may also get bronze plated.