But Why?

     "The Hakone Kowakien Yunessun Hot Springs in Japan, is one of the only places where you can fully immerse yourself in a vat of steaming red wine.

The red wine pool features a 3.6m tall bottle of wine that pours Beaujolais Nouveau into the pool throughout the day."

    

     Now I have in my youth tasted wine that seems in retrospect better suited for bathing than drinking, but it seems to me to be terribly decadent to actually do so...and not in the deliciously naughty fun way, but in the burning a hundred dollar bill to light a cigar and in need of a karmic enema way. Then again, I have often been accused of being a Liberal by people who seem to be under the mistaken impression that they are insulting me.

     Be seeing you.

 mywineadventure

Some Thoughts Upon Funeral

    About a month ago I attended the memorial service for an old acquaintance. She had passed nearly a month before that but, as she was Gay and had no relations in this country, there was a great deal of trouble over the release of the body.

     I don't suppose that made much difference to her, but it was pretty hard on some of those who were close to her. There were a few more tears than normal at such occasions perhaps. It is hard to measure sorrow.

     The service was Wiccan with a lot of Dianic symbolism. About half of those in attendance were not Pagan so it wasn't a complex ritual and I don't believe anyone actually noticed the Dieties being invoked. We all shared memories of our departed friend, many of which had to do with role-playing gaming, while we all silently noted the incursion of grey hair on one another's heads. The Priestess tied the feathers we each held to a length of twine and we draped the result upon the boughs of the pear tree in the yard.

    When it was all over we promised to get together again, but few actually exchanged phone numbers. Such is always the way, I suppose. We feel the cold breath of time upon our necks and we want to reach out to one another, but too many years have passed and we fear we have nothing left in common.

     We all shared food and drink in a communion far older than Christianity. Then,  after a while, we all got into our cars and went our separate ways; all the Lost Boys chilled by the shadow of Winter.

     And so it goes.

   

     

The Day They Hanged An Elephant

   On September 13, 1916 a five-ton circus elephant was executed, hung from a 100-ton Clinchfield railroad crane car, in the little town of Erwin, Tennessee. ‘Murderous Mary’ had killed a man, and for that she had to die. Shooting her in the four soft spots on her head would be both difficult and dangerous. She wouldn’t eat poison. And the town didn’t have enough power to electrocute her.

     It all started when Sparks World Famous Shows hired Walter "Red" Eldridge as an assistant elephant trainer in spite of his total lack of experience. He had only been on the job one day when he made a fatal mistake. He had been using a pole with a hook on the end to guide the elephants to the watering ditch and he had been warned to me gentle with it and not to provoke the animals...

     Suddenly, Mary “collided its trunk vice-like [sic] about [Eldridge's] body, lifted him 10 feet in the air, then dashed him with fury to the ground… and with the full force of her biestly [sic] fury is said to have sunk her giant tusks entirely through his body. The animal then trampled the dying form of Eldridge as if seeking a murderous triumph, then with a sudden… swing of her massive foot hurled his body into the crowd.” —The Johnson City Staff, September 13, 1916

   The circus owner knew they would have to put Mary down. He decided to use a railroad crane used for unloading lumber cars. Over 2,500 people turned out to watch the execution. They let Mary hang for 30 minutes, then lowered her into a grave dug with a steam shovel.

     Be seeing you.

    appalachianhistory

Is You Neighbor a Democrat? There's An App For That!

     Want to know which political party your neighbors belong to? Just download the new mobile application from the Obama campaign! The app links to Google Maps and shows your current location and marks registered Democrats with little blue flags. It also lists each neighbor's first name, gender, age and party affiliation, for example: "Lori C., 58 F, Democrat."

     While all of this is public information, having it all delivered in nice tidy electronic packets to any smart phone is...disquieting. When asked about the privacy concerns and potential for misuse inherent in such software, an spokesman for the Obama campaign replied that "anyone familiar with the political process in America knows this information about registered voters is available and easily accessible to the public." He added that the app only displays a small cluster of addresses at a time and that there are safeguards to alert if someone misuses the data "such as people submitting way too many voter contacts in a short period of time," 

     Of course that could be changed by a less scrupulous user in a future version.

Much more at propublica

     

Modern Classical Art

    The French art director Alexis Persani and the French photographer combined their talents and vision to place classical artwork in in new light:

   To create the project called Street Stone, they first photographed the sculptures, then photographed friends in casual attire in the same pose. Digital manipulation married the desired elements of the two images.

For more, including a video on how it was done, see mymodernmet

Be seeing you.

Words to Live By

Be seeing you.

Dublin's Busking Rules

"The city's famous buskers and street performers are no longer allowed to "hog or monopolise a performance site", or set up within 50 metres of each other. Amp free zones, limited times, and sale of merchandise are also included in the code of practice."
  

    Dublin has a history of respecting buskers, (street musicians), and the regulations seem to be intended to give everyone a chance at earning a bit of income.  The musicians as well as the local shop owners were consulted.

bbc and arbroath