You say goodbye, I say hello.
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Why I Love To Blog
The Los Angeles Times is much more liberal than The New York Times, but even atthe LA Times things are changing, at least based on the headlines. They are subtle, but they are changing.
Today this headline: California's bullet train is hurtling toward a multi-billion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns.
Someone had leak that "confidential" report.
Data points:
The good news. The governor could always ask the president to re-negotiate the deal. Trump could always make Arnold his apprentice to oversee the project.
Every Saturday I look forward to relaxing with the WSJ and writing short notes about book reviews and recipes. But today, after a quick look at the "Review" and "Off Duty" sections, I'm not in the mood. Maybe later, the articles will attract my attention but the first time through, they did not.
My mind is troubled.
Instead I pulled a book off one of my library shelves: Scotland, Nigel Blundell, c. 1998, a Barnes & Noble imprint, printed in China. This is a coffee-table book, that is surprisingly good.
This will be simply notes from the first chapter (geology and geography): it might get me in the mood to re-read Samuel Johnson's The Journey to the Western Island and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
Some notes and observations:
We'll meet nae mair at sunset when the weary day is dune,
Nor wander hame thegither by the lee licht o' the mune.
I'll hear your steps nea langer amang the dewy corn,
For we'll meet nae mair, my bonniest, either at e'en or morn.
The yellow broom is waving abune the sunny brae,
And the rowan berries dancing where the sparkling waters play;
Tho' a' is bright and bonnie it's an eerie place to me,
For we'll meet nae mair, my dearest, either by burn or tree.
Far up into the wild hils there's a kirkyard lone and still,
Where the frosts lie ilka morning and the mists hang low and chil.
And there ye sleep in silence while I wander her my lane
Till we meet ance mair in Heaven never to part again!
This is really, really cool.
Lady John Scott in her poem Durisdeer mentions rowan berries. I've come across rowan trees before in my readings. Instead of repeating all that, here is a link. A photograph of a variety of rowan berries is noted at wiki.
Every day when I stroll Sophia (age 2.5 years old) to the park down the road, we always pass some huge shrubs (tree-height) filled with small red berries which she wants me to pick, to give to her, so she can practice throwing them. I assume the plant is Ilex decidua, meadow holly, also called "possumhaw"; or, at least closely related. I don't know my botany so I could be wrong, but the first thing I noted about this plant before I started to learn what it was, is that it reminded me of Christmas holly. Now that I explore, it appears more likely that what Sophia and I are seeing is Ilex aquifolium, common holly, holly, or European holly).
Some reminders:
Why I Love To Blog
Two days ago, over at #DailyTrumpThought, I opined that two US senators would stop the confirmation of Rex Tillerson as SecState. Fox News is now reporting essentially that. If Mitch McConnell cannot guarantee the votes Tillerson needs, Trump needs to pull that nomination. Trump has several options; one of them is not to let Tillerson be defeated by the US Senate.
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The Bullet Train
The Los Angeles Times is much more liberal than The New York Times, but even atthe LA Times things are changing, at least based on the headlines. They are subtle, but they are changing.
Today this headline: California's bullet train is hurtling toward a multi-billion-dollar overrun, a confidential federal report warns.
Someone had leak that "confidential" report.
Data points:
- a 167% cost overrun
- could cost taxpayers 50% more; $3.6 billion more; and, that's just for the first 118 miles through the Central Valley, the easiest portion
- Merced to Bakersfield, $10 billion vs $6 billion
- the Central Valley portion was to be complete by 2017; now it has been pushed back to 2024
- proponents argue these are just estimates, and it won't cost this much
The good news. The governor could always ask the president to re-negotiate the deal. Trump could always make Arnold his apprentice to oversee the project.
***************************
Saturday Morning With The WSJ
Every Saturday I look forward to relaxing with the WSJ and writing short notes about book reviews and recipes. But today, after a quick look at the "Review" and "Off Duty" sections, I'm not in the mood. Maybe later, the articles will attract my attention but the first time through, they did not.
My mind is troubled.
Instead I pulled a book off one of my library shelves: Scotland, Nigel Blundell, c. 1998, a Barnes & Noble imprint, printed in China. This is a coffee-table book, that is surprisingly good.
This will be simply notes from the first chapter (geology and geography): it might get me in the mood to re-read Samuel Johnson's The Journey to the Western Island and the Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.
Some notes and observations:
- five major firths, counterclockwise as one enters Scotland from the southeast, as many folks from England would: Forth, Moray, Lorne Clyde, and Solway.
- ah, need to pull out my copy of Whisk(e)y Distilled, Heather Greene, c. 2014
- embarrassing: I had forgotten exactly where the island of Islay lay
- the highest village in Scotland is actually situated in the Lowlands: Wanlockhead, almost 1,400 feet above sea level
- most of the single rivers that feed into the firths have the same name as the firths; a notable exception: Loch Ness feeds into the Moray Firth; I have flown low-level up Loch Ness in an F-111; we did not see the monster
- "ben" is the Scottish word for mountain; Ben Nevis is the tallest mountain in Scotland, at 4,480 feet
- "ben" comes from the Gaelic beann -- "peak"
- south of the island of Skye, is the little island of Iona; the cemetery there includes the 9th century Kenneth MacAlpin, Macbeth, and his victim Duncan, as well as four Irish kings and a further eight from Norway: I am so happy to know the identity of William Shakespeare
- it looks like it is time to re-read the notes from The Sagas of Icelanders, preface by Jane Smiley, c. 1997
- the pink granite cathedral is the focus of thousands of pilgrims who visit Iiona every year to pay homage at the site where St Columba settled in the 6th century; the monastery was founded in 563 AD; the Venerable Bede wrote the ecclesiastical history of Britain in about 731
- the airport at Sumburgh, at the southern tip of Mainland Shetland is busy year-round with oil-industry traffic
- it was the abundance of coal and shale-oil deposits below the central belt that literally fuelled the Industrial Revolution in Scotland
- 260 million years ago -- well before man-induced global warming -- deserts, similar to California's Death Valley, once covered much of Scotland
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Durisdeer
Lady John Scott
19th Century
We'll meet nae mair at sunset when the weary day is dune,
Nor wander hame thegither by the lee licht o' the mune.
I'll hear your steps nea langer amang the dewy corn,
For we'll meet nae mair, my bonniest, either at e'en or morn.
The yellow broom is waving abune the sunny brae,
And the rowan berries dancing where the sparkling waters play;
Tho' a' is bright and bonnie it's an eerie place to me,
For we'll meet nae mair, my dearest, either by burn or tree.
Far up into the wild hils there's a kirkyard lone and still,
Where the frosts lie ilka morning and the mists hang low and chil.
And there ye sleep in silence while I wander her my lane
Till we meet ance mair in Heaven never to part again!
*******************************
Rowan Trees
This is really, really cool.
Lady John Scott in her poem Durisdeer mentions rowan berries. I've come across rowan trees before in my readings. Instead of repeating all that, here is a link. A photograph of a variety of rowan berries is noted at wiki.
Every day when I stroll Sophia (age 2.5 years old) to the park down the road, we always pass some huge shrubs (tree-height) filled with small red berries which she wants me to pick, to give to her, so she can practice throwing them. I assume the plant is Ilex decidua, meadow holly, also called "possumhaw"; or, at least closely related. I don't know my botany so I could be wrong, but the first thing I noted about this plant before I started to learn what it was, is that it reminded me of Christmas holly. Now that I explore, it appears more likely that what Sophia and I are seeing is Ilex aquifolium, common holly, holly, or European holly).
********************************
Chapter 23 in Scotland: Water of Life -- Scotch Whisky
Some reminders:
- barley; dried over a peat fire
- wort: the sweet liquid before fermentation, distilling
- fermentation: with yeast; within a few hours
- distillation: usually twice in Scotland; thrice in Ireland
- first distillation cut of each run: foreshot
- last distillation cut of each run: feint
- foreshots and feints are returned to the "wash" still for reprocessing
- maturation: three years in an oak cask before it can be called Scotch whisky
- malts average 12 years in wood before they are considered mature enough to bottle
- Blundell recognizes nine producing regions; Greene focuses on five producing regions
- Islay stands apart from the other regions: much peatier; because all distilleries on Islay are along the coast, the Scotches have an "inbuilt" marine quality about them
- Americans are probably most familiar with Scotches from Speyside
- the Western Highlands has only two surviving distilleries: the town of Oban; and Ben Nevis, a Japanese-owned and Fort William's only remaining distillery
- Aberlour
- Ardbeg (most recent purchase)
- Auchentoshan (perhaps my favorite)
- Bunahabhain (bought simply based on the name)
- Cardhu (one of the best): #1 Scotch found in Spain
- Edradour
- Glenfiddich
- The Glenlivet
- Laphroaid (most distinctive; peatiest; never to be introduced to a non-Scotch drinker)
- Tomatin (bad reviews in one book, but one of my favorites; perhaps my go-to Scotch after Auchentoshan)
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