Footloose in America

On June 22, 2001 Bud and Patricia Kenny with their mule Della left Hot Springs, Arkansas to tour the world on foot. They figure it will take them 15 to 20 years to complete this journey. Bud and Patricia were both 53 when they embarked on this adventure. Della was seven... They're somewhere between Newburyport and Boston today, planning on staying with a friend in Cambridge overnight.

"Old" is only a state of mind.

More about the Kennys, Della, and their travels here. I hope to get to read Bud's book - Footloose in America - Dixie to New England - someday. (Photo by Bob Wallace)

R.I.P. Iggy

Personally, I think this is a pathetic attempt to gain attention, and soon we'll seen BONUS CODE IGGY sponsored by Pamela Anderson, but in memoriam anyway...

A dwarf with a lisp goes to a stud farm to buy a horse.
"I'd like to buy a horth" he says to the owner of the farm.
"What sort of horse ?" asks the owner.
"A female horth", the dwarf replies and so the owner takes him to his finest mare.
"Nithe horth", says the dwarf, "Can I thee her eyth?".
The owner patiently picks up the dwarf and shows him the horse's eyes.
"Nithe eyth" says the dwarf, "Can I thee her teeth?".
Again, the owner picks up the dwarf to show him the horse's teeth. "Nithe teeth, can I see her eerth?"
By now the owner is getting a little fed up but again, picks up the dwarf and shows him the horse's ears.
"Nithe eerth", says the dwarf, "Can I see her twat?"
With this, the owner picks up the dwarf and shoves his head deep inside the horse's vagina and holds him there for a few seconds before pulling him out and putting him down.

The dwarf shakes his head and says,

"Perhaps I should weefwaze that, can I see her wun awound?"
_________________

And of course this happened in Florida

via BBC News:

A rare stamp worth as much as $200,000 (£105,000) may be on an envelope sealed in a ballot box after the US mid-term elections, poll officials say.

Officials in Broward County, Florida, say they saw a famous "Inverted Jenny" stamp while reviewing postal ballots.

About 700 of the stamps were mistakenly printed in 1918 with an upside down illustration. Just 100 went on sale.

But it will be 22 months before laws will permit the box with the envelope to be reopened and the stamp checked.

The original stamps bear a picture of a Curtiss JN-4 plane, known as a Jenny, which was used for training pilots in World War I and later became an airmail plane.

'Oh my God'

Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom told reporters he spotted the red and blue Inverted Jenny on a large envelope with two stamps from the 1930s and another dating from World War II.

"I thought: 'Oh my God, I know that stamp, I've seen that stamp before,'" said Mr Rodstrom, 54, who collected stamps as a boy.

"I'd forgotten the name. I just remembered there was a stamp with an upside-down biplane on it, and that it was a very rare, rare stamp," he told Reuters news agency.

The official said the envelope had no return address, and the ballot was disqualified because it gave no clue as to the identity of the voter.

The box containing the envelope was sealed before the stamp could be authenticated, and election laws do not allow the box to be reopened for 22 months.

In October 2005, a block of four Inverted Jenny stamps sold for $2.7m (£1.52m) at auction.

Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp Club, told the Associated Press news agency that a cancelled [postmarked] Jenny would likely sell for $20,000 (£15,547) to $100,000 (£77,736).

There ain't nuthin' about that woman I don't like

Your Host's audio quality isn't of the best in episode 20 of Dreamtime, but maybe Maria Muldaur's stunning live redition of "Heart of Mine" will make up for the audio engineering problems.

Also, some information on Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour and an excerpt from Kitty Wells 1952 hit, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels."

American Life in Poetry: Column 085

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

The Illinois poet, Lisel Mueller, is one of our country's finest writers, and the following lines, with their grace and humility, are representative of her poems of quiet celebration.


In November

Outside the house the wind is howling
and the trees are creaking horribly.
This is an old story
with its old beginning,
as I lay me down to sleep.
But when I wake up, sunlight
has taken over the room.
You have already made the coffee
and the radio brings us music
from a confident age. In the paper
bad news is set in distant places.
Whatever was bound to happen
in my story did not happen.
But I know there are rules that cannot be broken.
Perhaps a name was changed.
A small mistake. Perhaps
a woman I do not know
is facing the day with the heavy heart
that, by all rights, should have been mine.


Reprinted from "Alive Together: New and Selected Poems," Louisiana State University Press, 1996, by permission of the author. Poem copyright (c) 1996 by Lisel Mueller. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.

And in last night's Wheaties

... humming Oingo Boingo's Dead Man's Party for no particular reason, Mr. Rico sat down at his table, part of a tiny field of 33, at 8:30 ET last night. At 11:07, he stood up, finishing in 2nd place and $79.20 richer.

I think it's my 3rd WWdN 2nd. Lately I've been hooked on micro-limit H.O.R.S.E. and I wasn't sure how that was going to affect my NL Hold `Em game. I'm still not sure. Last night was one of those rare nights where the ol' engine was firing sweetly on all cylinders, the cruise control was on, and I didn't need to do much more than strap myself in and enjoy the ride. I saw the flop 39 out of 258 hands, won 85 percent of the hands that I played out to the River, and took 46 pots without ever seeing a flop.

Notable notables... Apparently in sympathy to my lousy finishes in the past couple of weeks, Iggy rigged the game so his set of 3s ran into a set of Js early on, and he appropriately finished in 33rd place. The Travelin' Pokester was around, but left in the 20th spot before we could sit at a table together. ISS Spock looked for awhile as if he were going to take his namesake tournament, making me fear a rip in the space-time continuum, but he finally went out in 3rd place, giving Blinders a commanding stack over lil' Rico. Never played with Blinders before, but he was a good sport as my railbirds - led by fellow New Hamsterite xkm1245 and including BrainMc and Kyhunny78 - tried to cheer me into 1st.

But 2nd is good. 2nd keeps the Bear fed. Until next week.

Just imagine what Dick Cheney could do with this

Ammo with flavor

The Flintstones - Hebrew Version

Just because I can...

Dylan boxes in Madison

via The Wisconsin State Journal:

When Bob Dylan was in town Tuesday, he spent some time sparring at Ford's Gym on East Wash.

"He came in to do some boxing training before the concert," confirms owner Ford Sheridan. "Him and two of his workout partners, one of them was in his band. They did a little sparring and a little work on the bags. We left him alone to do his thing. I totally respect anybody who wants to get a workout in." Sheridan shook hands with Dylan, whose band mate said they found the gym by looking on the Internet. "He said when they travel around, they look for places like this."

Email exchange with Jeb Bradley offices

Addresses and names removed. Bradley is the incumbent Republican Congressman, in a close race with Democratic candidate Carol Shea Porter, whose offices have yet to respond to the same question... I don't know if the Congressman's email spokesperson is working from a prepared script or developed the response (I assume with Bradley's approval), but in either case, he's factually wrong. The bill's "primary intent [is] to prevent the use of credit cards for illegal Internet gambling," is not true. Credit card use - at least either of the Big Two - on online poker sites is already next to impossible. What the bill does - or will do - is choke off any legal way to conduct financial transfers between U.S. citizens and online gambling sites, essentially killing the current alternative to using a credit card. And I have no idea what his differentiation is between "legal" and "illegal" online gambling - they're cool with me using a Sports Book but not playing poker? Fred Bals <>
To: <>
Dear Mr Bradley, I am a resident of Merrimack, NH, and I will be voting in your election. Your stance on the following question will affect my vote and my endorsement to other voters: Would you support a bill that creates an online poker exemption from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006? regards - Fred Bals

---

Reply-To: p<> To: Fred Bals

Mr. Bals: Congressman Bradley supported HR 4411, the Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act. The primary intent of this bill is to prevent the use of credit cards for illegal Internet gambling. It is important to understand that this legislation does not change current law, nor does it make legal online gambling illegal. In response to your question, an exemption for legal online poker is something Congressman Bradley would take into consideration should further clarification of the Internet Gambling Act be required. Thank you, <> Jeb Bradley for Congress

American Life in Poetry: Column 084

an editorial comment. If we had had twin daughters, Peggy always threatened to name one Amaryllis and the other Forsythia, not least because it's near-impossible for me to pronounce either without bystanders bursting into laughter - fhb

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Many of this column's readers have watched an amaryllis emerge from its hard bulb to flower. To me they seem unworldly, perhaps a little dangerous, like a wild bird you don't want to get too close to. Here Connie Wanek of Duluth, Minnesota, takes a close and playful look at an amaryllis that looks right back at her.


Amaryllis

A flower needs to be this size
to conceal the winter window,
and this color, the red
of a Fiat with the top down,
to impress us, dull as we've grown.

Months ago the gigantic onion of a bulb
half above the soil
stuck out its green tongue
and slowly, day by day,
the flower itself entered our world,

closed, like hands that captured a moth,
then open, as eyes open,
and the amaryllis, seeing us,
was somehow undiscouraged.
It stands before us now

as we eat our soup;
you pour a little of your drinking water
into its saucer, and a few crumbs
of fragrant earth fall
onto the tabletop.


Reprinted from "Bonfire," New Rivers Press, 1997, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 1997 by Connie Wanek. Her most recent book is "Hartley Field," from Holy Cow! Press, 2002. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.

Halloween Hands... and an addendum

busted hand after hand until the bitter end, Mr. Rico's pair of 10s were laughable against a pair of Kings and resulted in a dead-last finish.

Dead indeed. Until next week.

But an addendum: As I found myself at loose ends a lot sooner than expected, I signed up for a $5.50 18-person SnG, ended up placing second, and covered my losses for last night as well as several weeks back in time. And proved to myself I can still play poker.

I got a letter yesterday

yes, I did, from the Hon. John E. Sununu, United States Senator of New Hampshire, in reply to my letter protesting his affirmative vote of H.R. 4411, aka the "Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2005."

I won't quote the entire letter here. Suffice to say that Senator Sununu recapped the history of the bill: Merger of Goodlatte's H.R. 4777 and Leach's 4411. On July 11, 2006, House passed 4411 by a vote of 317 to 93. During joint House/Senate session, proponents of 4411 inserted text from the bill into the so-called "SAFE Port Act "(H.R. 4954).

Sununu used the overwhelming need to pass the SAFE Port Act as the reason behind his support of the bill, and finished his letter with the notation that, "I will keep your concerns in mind should Congress consider any pertinent legislation during the remainder of the 109th Congress" and thanked me for sharing my views.

sigh. Not that I expected much more, but the letter is a typical example of noncommittal political rhetoric. I'd almost prefer to hear, "by God, somebody needed to protect you from yourself, you degenerate, you." But no, I'm left no wiser - except my suspicions of course - about whether Sununu is for or agin Internet gambling.

Dreamtime Episode 19 - That Ol' Black Magic

Dreamtime has its Bob Dylan mask on with a special Halloween show that includes The Little Man Who Wasn't There; Samantha Stephens; Peggy Lee; Jerry Lewis; The Five Blobs; a young Bob Dylan; a Dylan imitator; Judy Garland; The Jitterbug; and The Munsters.

Happy Halloween!

Today's moment of kitty zen

Flatt & Scruggs Seranade Granny with a little Bob Dylan

... about as many of my favorites in one clip as I'm ever likely to see. Flatt & Scruggs, The Beverly Hillibillies, a Dylan song, and Granny and Jed cutting a buck-and-wing.

Who could ask for more?

Fund free mammograms

My friend Patti tells me that The Breast Cancer Site is having trouble getting enough people to click on the "Fund Free Mammograms" button on their site so they can meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to underprivileged women.

It doesn't cost you a thing, and 100% of collected revenue from the sponsors goes to pay for the mammograms.

Go visit today and once a day thereafter, and click on the "Fund Free Mammograms" button.

American Life in Poetry: Column 083

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Poems of simple pleasure, poems of quiet celebration, well, they aren't anything like those poems we were asked to wrestle with in high school, our teachers insisting that we get a headlock on THE MEANING. This one by Dale Ritterbusch of Wisconsin is more my cup of tea.


Green Tea

There is this tea
I have sometimes,
Pan Long Ying Hao,
so tightly curled
it looks like tiny roots
gnarled, a greenish-gray.
When it steeps, it opens
the way you woke this morning,
stretching, your hands behind
your head, back arched,
toes pointing, a smile steeped
in ceremony, a celebration,
the reaching of your arms.


Reprinted from "Far From the Temple of Heaven," Black Moss Press, April 2006, by permission of the author. Copyright (c) 2005 by Dale Ritterbusch. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

American Life in Poetry: Column 082

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

Many poems celebrate the joys of having children. Michigan poet Jeff Vande Zande reminds us that adults make mistakes, even with children they love, and that parenting is about fear as well as joy.


Clean

Her small body shines
with water and light.
Giggling, she squeals "daddy,"
splashes until his pants darken.
Five more minutes, he thinks,
stepping out quickly,
pouring himself a drink,
not expecting to return
to find her slipped under,
her tiny face staring up
through the undulating surface.
Before he can move,
or drop his scotch,
she raises her dripping head,
her mouth a perfect O.
The sound of her gulped breath
takes the wind out of him.
Her face,
pale and awed,
understands the other side
of water and air.
His wife didn't see,
doesn't know.
Her feet pulse and fade
in the upstairs joists.
His daughter cries,
slips from him, not giggling.
She wants out.
He tries to keep her
in the tub, in the light.
He's on his knees.


Reprinted from "Rattle," Winter, 2005, by permission of the poet, whose most recent book is "Into the Desperate Country," March Street Press, 2006. This weekly column is supported by The Poetry Foundation, The Library of Congress, and the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. For information on permissions and usage, or to download a PDF version of the column, visit www.americanlifeinpoetry.org.

Everything was going so well until I was hit by that truck

In last night's Wheaties, that truck was the always-tough HighOnPokr, who submitted the proposition that pairing a board-high 10 backed by a pocket Ace doesn't necessarily mean Rico's winning the hand... certainly not when your opponent is holding a pair of Aces. And I was out in 14th. HighonPokr would finish in 3rd of a very small field of 41 where only five places paid out.

Some mantras to hum to oneself in future games....

1. An opponent who continues to bet, (or calls your big bet) when you've paired the board and are holding an Ace kicker is very likely to have you beat.
   
   
2. Going all-in when you have your opponent covered is a powerful weapon. Going all-in when your opponent has you covered is seldom a good idea unless all signs point to your winning.

My biggest leak continues to be aggressiveness with problematic hands, especially when I'm the relative short stack at the table. But, on the other hand, finishing 14th out of 41 is a helluva lot better than finishing 47th out of 48th.

Outside of playing relatively better - albeit still out of the money, which is the only measurement that counts in tournament games - I had the pleasure of being one slice of bread in a Maudie sandwich for most of the game last night, the lil' dwarf being the other. That conjures pictures beyond the pale, I know, but what the hell. It was fun, and I owe Maudie and Iggy the story of my Dad's adventures as a seaplane charter pilot in Miama during the `30s at some point... but only if BONUS CODE: IGGY on FullTilt becomes a Dreamtime sponsor.

Until next week.