Author Archive
Posted on October 24, 2008 - by deCadmus
October 24, 2008
Posted on October 23, 2008 - by deCadmus
October 23, 2008
Posted on October 22, 2008 - by deCadmus
October 22, 2008
Posted on October 21, 2008 - by deCadmus
Yes, Santa Claus, There is a Virginia.
Dear Editor—
Some of my little friends say there is no Virginia… or that there is a Virginia but it’s not real. Mama Claus says, “If you see it on the Internet, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a real Virginia?
~Santa Claus
Santa, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Santa, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, Santa Claus, there is a Virginia. It exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Virginia! It would be as dreary as if there were no Santa Claus.
P.S. Maybe you should put naughty little Nancy Pfotenhauer on that other list.
Posted on October 20, 2008 - by deCadmus
October 20, 2008
Posted on October 19, 2008 - by deCadmus
It’s Getting Scary Out There
The maple trees are throwing off their scarlet leaves much like our old golden retriever shakes off the rain after a walk in the wet. The smoke-tinged breeze has a bite to it that wasn’t there just a week or two ago. It’s the season, all right… but if you hurry there’s still time enough.
Time enough for jumping in piles of fallen leaves, raking them up and running and jumping again. Time enough for getting pumpkins and squash and just-picked apples at the farm stand down the road (and don’t forget to claim your organic, free-range and thoroughly mollycoddled turkey for the upcoming holidays… just a few left don’t you know). Time enough to check your firebox and flue, maybe put a match to the first fire of the season.
Time enough to carve a pumpkin or two or three. Time enough to have a sip of fresh-pressed cider with your walk in the woods. Time enough to do those things that shouldn’t wait. Time enough… but don’t put it off.
Don’t wait. Not this time.
Now, the best part of pumpkin-carving:
Toasted Pumpkin Seeds
- Seeds from one just-carved pumpkin (carving a political message is optional). About two cups.
- 2 Tbls butter. Yes… butter. Butter is better. Butter browns.
- Salt n’ pepper to taste.
Spread seeds from pumpkin in sheet pan, mopping up pumpkin juice and any remaining stringy bits with a kitchen towel. (Paper towels work fine.)
Melt butter and drizzle over seeds. Mix throughly to coat. Sprinkle with salt (I prefer kosher salt) and pepper.
Roast in 350 F. oven for about 15 minutes. Stir. Give ‘em another 5-10 minutes in oven, or until GBD (Golden, Brown and Delicious). Sprinkle with a wee bit more salt just from the oven.
Try not to eat them all at once. Just try.
Posted on October 19, 2008 - by deCadmus
Autumn 2008 Image Gallery
Posted on October 18, 2008 - by deCadmus
Meet Me In St. Louis
Barack Obama meets over 100,000 of his close, personal friends under the gateway arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
The candidate was, himself, clearly impressed by the sheer mass of the crowd:
“All I can say is… wow.”
This is Obama’s largest crowd ever in the United States, all the more remarkable for a battleground state like Missouri, where issues of politics and race run deep, and where a one-point victory can sometimes be considered a landslide.
Update: In Kansas City (my ol’ hometown) 75,000 people greeted Obama at the Liberty Memorial. Not a bad turnout… but they’ll have to do better than that to top St. Louis.
Kansas City Photos:
Obama in Kansas City
Obama After Dark
Posted on October 18, 2008 - by deCadmus
October 18, 2008
Posted on October 17, 2008 - by deCadmus
Joe the Speed-Bump
“Do you believe in the American Dream?”
That’s what Sam “Joe” Wurzelbacher — Joe the Plumber, to his legion of fans — asked Barack Obama on the campaign trail in Ohio. The story goes that Joe, an uncommitted voter, quizzed Obama on his tax plans, adding that, he wanted to buy the plumbing business he was working for, but… “I’m being taxed more and more for fulfilling the American dream.”
Meh. Not so much.
Turns out that Joe the Plumber… isn’t. He’s not a plumber: he has no plumbing license, never finished his plumbing courses, and hasn’t apprenticed as a plumber. His income of about $40,000 today is unlikely to put him in a position to buy that $280,000 plumbing business, and certainly today’s tight credit markets — largely the result of Republican political and regulatory malfeasance — won’t find him getting a loan any time soon. More, it seems that Joe already has a tax lien against him for about $1200 bucks.
Oh, and he’s actually a registered Republican, who voted in this spring’s primary. You betcha.
Despite the fact that in one day he talked to more folks in the press than Sarah Palin has since her VP nomination, Joe will soon be just another speed-bump under McCain’s Straight Talk Express, ’cause when pressed by CBS news, he admitted that, yeah, Obama’s tax plan would probably save him money after all.
So, Joe — now that your fifteen minutes of fame are tick-tick-ticking down, now that your bank account and your tax status and your failings as a wannabe plumber have been… well, thoroughly plumbed, and now that you’ve been tossed aside by your candidate, having served your purpose as a ready and willing stage prop in a debate — I have only one question.
Do you believe in the American Dream?
Oh! And also…
Last night, Sarah Palin said she didn’t want to talk about Wurzelbacher. “I begged our speechwriters, ‘Don’t make me say Joe the Plumber, please, in any speeches,” she said. After failing to properly vet Wurzelbacher’s situation, the McCain campaign is apparently now throwing him overboard and moving on.
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Hello.
Bloggle is the online playground of Doug Cadmus, a usability guy, writer, photographer and sometime dramatist who moved to Vermont for the coffee. When not writing, reading or walking his old, blind golden retriever, he roasts coffee in his garage and is the Web Guy for Green Mountain Coffee in Waterbury, VT. Flickr Photos
