November 4, 2011

At the Sandhill Café...



... you can hang out all night.

ADDED: Unfortunately, that dot that seems to be on the lens is not on the lens. It's somewhere inside the camera. Any ideas on how to remove it?

25 comments:

David said...

Why is "bird" a nickname for women?

Revenant said...

Help! Water is falling from the sky! Somebody call the cops!

edutcher said...

I only thought they sculled on the East Coast, like on the Schuylkill at Boathouse Row.

I found the first person of my father's family to come to this country, but not from England, as the family thought, but the Netherlands, which would have blown Dad's mind.

Apparently, there was a cultural animus in New York State with the old English families feeling themselves superior to the Dutch - an impression you get reading Washington Irving. Be interesting to find out about that.

PS Riding off into the sunset with someone you love is part of the American dream, Madame.

Glad you have found yours.

William said...

I just read the John Lee Anderson piece on the last days of Muammar Qaddafi in the current New Yorker. He reports the following: Qaddafi had a daughter-in-law named Aline. Aline was a former Lebanese model with a prodigious streak of cruelty. She had a dispute with the nanny of her children. The woman, an Ethiopian national named Shweyga Mullah was tied up and put in a bathtub. Her mouth was taped so she could not scream. Aline poured boiling water all over the poor woman, including her head and face. She was left tied up in the bathtub until the next day. After ten days, she was taken to a hospital by a security officer who felt sorry for her. When Aline discovered this, she demanded that the security officer return Shweyga to the family compound.....Aline has fled Libya and now lives in Algeria. Shweyga is in the hospital. She will spend years having reconstructive surgery, but, of course, things will never be the same for her....I wonder if Aline will ever be extradited for this horrendous crime. I wonder if this will attract the same level of outrage that the incidents of waterboarding attracted here.

traditionalguy said...

Hooray. This is the weekend we get our stolen hour back. I think that's right...moving the clock back means we get an hour twice...I think.

I had better clear that with the wife who is never confused.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Traditionalguy..

I was told the way to remember..

Fall Back.. Spring Ahead.

Karl said...

"Why is "bird" a nickname for women?"

Good question.
The Brits refer to certain female bodied peoples as "birds".

Our Mexican friends refer to some attractive females as "pajaritas" - i.e. "little birds".

rtsquard said...

The lens cleaning was obviously ineffective--the tedious spot is still evident in the blue sky.

Steve Burri said...

Stress at the Monona Cafe
You can stroke all night.

Chip Ahoy said...

Or was it Fall ahead, Spring back?

Peter Hoh said...

edutcher, there are sculls on the Mississippi in both St. Paul and Minneapolis.

beast said...

What is about water and serenity.Every day I drive down a bayshore road just to get that delightful feeling.And cranes,pelicans and egrets make it better.But then so do my sisters cats.

edutcher said...

Peter Hoh said...

edutcher, there are sculls on the Mississippi in both St. Paul and Minneapolis.

I was kidding, but that video was the first time I'd ever seen a regatta away from the East Coast.

Where I come from, the sculls are put away by now.

caplight said...

edutcher said...

I only thought they sculled on the East Coast, like on the Schuylkill at Boathouse Row.

Ah, the Schuylkill. Reminder of a thousand trips on the East River Drive having lived in Philly most of my life.

caplight said...

Was up at 4 AM having been awakened by a nightmare involving Zombies. Seriously. And I haven't even watched Living Dead this season.

AllenS said...

I just got out of the shower. Man, what a pleasurable experience when that hot water is spraying all over you on a very cool morning.

caplight--

I had a dream two nights ago about an old girl friend. In my dream, she was waiting for a ride home, and after I did a couple of things, I was going to offer her a ride home. But, when I got to see her again, she was in someone elses car. That person was NEWT GINGRICH!!!

caplight said...

Allen, I never did trust Newt around women. You'd think he would be happy with Calista. Sheesh.

Psychedelic George said...

O, I saw two sandhill cranes just a few weeks ago.

I was in the woods, crossing a brook on a log that had fallen across it. In the middle, I stopped, glanced to my left, and there was the bird poised (or posing) in the foot-deep still water about 50 feet away.

Being a child of the suburbs, at first I wondered why he stood, pale dusty white, still in the water, occasionally taking a step. Then when his needle-like beak darted down, I understood. He was hunting, not being pretty for me.

After some time, he flapped away. I felt sorry for him. Or her. It must be so lonely, I thought, to be a sandhill crane. But then as the bird was perhaps 100 yards away, out from the left bank came a second crane, flapping away with it.

Finally, much later, walking home, I must have disturbed them, because suddenly one of these great creatures, wings a full six feet wide, took off over the brook. No different from a Piper Cub. Now a bluish grey, he was so close I could actually see different feathers under his beating wings as he seemingly effortlessly gained altitude. My heart and soul rose with him.

pm317 said...

Apparently Obama tried to crack a joke at his joint appearance with Sarkozy. He said he was confident that the new baby inherited Carla's looks than her fathers. It didn't go very well with the French press or with Sarkozy.

This reminds me of a Physics teacher in college who was quite ugly (but a good teacher and a nice person). One day a student mistakenly addressed him as 'Mrs' or 'Madam'. Hearing that he joked that his parents would have had a terrible time if he were a woman.

Peter Hoh said...

edutcher, I meant to say a little more. Like you and Caplight, I associate sculls with the Schuylkill. It's a little weird seeing them on the Mississippi, especially when a giant barge rolls by.

Here's a nice aerial photo of Philly's Boathouse Row.

MarkW said...

"ADDED: Unfortunately, that dot that seems to be on the lens is not on the lens. It's somewhere inside the camera. Any ideas on how to remove it?"

Depends a bit on the kind of camera, but unfortunately the answer is probably either 'take it to a camera shop' or 'send it in'. If it's an SLR and the spot appears with all lenses, it's on the sensor -- something you don't want to clean yourself. If it's a point-and-shoot, it's likely on an inner lens element, and you probably don't want to disassemble and clean it yourself. Also if it's a point-and-shoot, the repair (any repair) may not be worth it comparing to junking the camera.

AllenS said...

Peter, when I worked downtown St. Paul, I was able to look out the window and watch them often. They launched from Navy Island right under the Wabasha St. bridge.

Quaestor said...

That blue dot is likely to be sunlight-induced damage to the sensor. Most consumer camcorders use the somewhat more vulnerable CMOS rather than CCD sensors.

Depending on the model the defect is fixable but may be impractical.

Ann Althouse said...

"That blue dot is likely to be sunlight-induced damage to the sensor. Most consumer camcorders use the somewhat more vulnerable CMOS rather than CCD sensors."

Ah, thanks. I have done a few too many sunsets.

Rockport Conservative said...

It is Fall back Spring Forward.

I live on the Gulf coast where the sandhills are headed. They have a beautiful musical call. Their white whooping crane cousins are already here, right over the fence. I love to hear them but they are not musical, they just love to whoop it up. And BTW sandhills are not solitary, don't feel bad when you see just one, he won't be along for long.