I was aware he passed away, and remember Apollo 13 (not the movie-didn't see it) quite well. Thanks for the scouting magazine article! I'll digest it a little later tonight.
In my dream home, I have a library. It is octagonal, 2-3 stories tall, narrow windows between each set of built-in bookshelves, with a roller ladder to get to the shelves on the 2nd and 3rd floor. A metal roof. One chair, a stereo, and a good reading lamp.
Sadly, I've noticed at school the trend in faculty offices is NOT to display books on bookshelves, but knick-knacks and totchkes. I have one bookshelf (I have five) for totchkes and family photos, but otherwise, books, books, books!
I'm overhauling and rearranging my bookcases, getting rid of some books to make room for newer ones (newer meaning I acquired them in the past 10 years). But the big book display issue for me is whether to have books vertical or stacked horizontally on each shelf. I think it's OK to do both and to mix them. My tchotchkes and photos have their own display areas. Both my grandmothers had tchotchke display areas, so that's the way one does things.
I read a little on X about the story. She was shooting an influencer take, borrowing three pet bunnies from nearby families. the bunnies were released into the park. Because they are domesticated, they are not used to fending for themselves in a world where predators like to eat bunnies. The families were angry the bunnies were not returned. It turns out a member of the production crew was overwhelmed trying to handle three bunnies on leashes, and didn't know what to do, so she released them. last word is the bunnies were found, safe, and not eaten...
I warned students not to carry their cell phones in their pockets on the trip. One student got picked, doing just that. He was shocked how good the thief was.
I'm seeing similar insanity in the "Send It" mania where bike/skateboard/whatever tricks are getting more and more lunatic, with guys jumping bikes off 100' cliffs and having the bike collapse upon impact...or the guys racing bikes on downhill mountain trails and they kiss a tree at about 25mph...or the skateboard/snowboard/skier attempting some impossible gap and hitting the face of the landing hill.
I absolutely loved Johnny Cash's cover of dirt. Much better IMHO than the original.
I gave my father-in-law's eulogy, and I used the line from Genesis "from the dirt you came and to the dirt you return", not as meaningless, but as reward. Don (my FIL) was an old farmer, and farmer's have a love affair with farms, it's hard to explain or understand. But I explained in the eulogy that to a farmer, he spent his life coaxing life out of the dirt, hand in hand with our Heavenly Father, and that being returned to the dirt means he'll continue working hand in hand with our Heavenly Father for all eternity. It is a reward, not a punishment, not meaninglessness, but hope.
Katie and her sister Donna still own a sliver of the farm (111 acres), and I commented to Katie it's a shame it's 3 hours from home, else we could farm it. Katie looked at me, clasped my hand and quietly told me "The pharmacy sells a medicine for that"....
The show Andor had a burial scene where the persons remains are cremated and mixed into clay and a brick is made, then used in community building. I’m not aware of any society actually doing this but it appeals to me quite a bit. Better than a headstone no one will visit, at least after a generation. Or an urn of ashes that is passed down until… what? I like the brick. But we’ve made plans to spread ashes in the forest somewhere.
My parents, per their wishes, were both cremated, and their urns placed in the cemetery. Their two urns were placed in the same grave with a shared stone marker giving both names and their dates. (We did that after they had both passed.) So ashes don't have to be spread if you don't want to, and you can have a place to visit for those who do want to.
I'd lve for my body to simply be placed in the ground, a tree planted over, plus some daffodils (I love daffodils). But regulations, (sigh) regulations.
In rural China, farmers are laid to rest adjacent to, and usually overlooking, the fields that they spent their lives in.
Caskets are simple wood, usually constructed years before passing and displayed in some portion of the house, when it's all over one is placed on the chosen plot in very specific geomantic orientation, a stone wall is built up around it, and finished by filling the stone enclosure (in which the casket sits) with soil.
There is often a headstone on the field side citing ancestor lineage, with some I've seen going back 17 or more generations.
My issue is a simple one: With which wife will I be buried? I ruled out the family cemetery in Gaston, IN. Pam is buried at Walnut Ridge (rural Knightstown, IN), while Katie's family is 2 hours west in either Bloomingdale or Coloma. I don't care where they plant my body (or if they even cremate me), but I'd like a headstone in both places.
Maybe cremate and sprinkle ashes at both. I have a good friend, who, like me, was widowed with a pre-schooler, then later remarried. She has a dual headstone with her deceased husband, her living husband wants her buried next to him. I tell her to continue exercising and outlive him...problem solved.
My daughter told me Katie is scheduling an appointment for me to get my flu shot, plus any other shots I need. I got 2 shingles shots in the past, so I am good there, I might get the new Covid shot, as a new strain appears to be going about. She has all of my records, and will administer the shots to me. I'm also not allowed to scream or pretend it hurts bad.
That helps explain why I got the Zostavax for free in '17. The pharmacy didn't tell me there was a new one coming out. Eventually I found out about that and got my dual shot of Shingrix. I think it was last year.
EDIT: Just checked my files to make sure I didn't have it mixed up. Zostavax was the old single-shot kind. Shingrix is the current one and you have to get two doses, with the second one 2 to 6 months after the first.
I should look into that. I got mine 3-4 years ago. At the time, they said it was a one time (two shot) deal, that it would last “forever”. Now, they’re saying maybe not…(?)
"About four years ago (around 2021), the most common shingles vaccine in the U.S. — and in much of the world — was Shingrix (recombinant zoster vaccine, RZV).
By that time, Shingrix had largely replaced the older Zostavax (a live attenuated vaccine) because clinical trials showed Shingrix was much more effective at preventing shingles and postherpetic neuralgia, especially in adults over 50. Zostavax had been gradually phased out in the U.S., with its final distribution ending in 2020.
So in 2021, Shingrix was essentially the only shingles vaccine being given at scale in the U.S."
Good morning. Back from vacation, driving part of the last segment through a thunderstorm outside of Cincinnati. Rainy and 73 degrees here, clearing later and reaching the 80s.
The mothership is covering Trump’s calling out the DC Nationa Guard and federalizing the DC Metropolitian Police, in response to a reputed (and disputed) crime wave. The FP worries “:China s Overtaking America”.
I didn't read the FP, but they have it part right. Depending on one's position in the continuum, China is overtaking....OR, America didn't just loosen but took off the lug nuts, tore apart the engines and replaced them with hamster wheels, and quasi-accelerated into the first turn wall, whereupon the wheels fell off.
Whether or not it burst into flames is in the next round of observations.
I once had this fascination with one of those micronations out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Can't remember what it was called, but the "leader" had a cool title and they had a really nice flag.
Soil, dirt, both words sound . . . dirty. That's why the bagged stuff is labeled "potting mix." Mix sounds much more clean to wannabe gardeners who are not clear on how gardening works. Won't get under your fingernails and stuff, right?
So far we have been lucky. Unfortunately, the powers decided to lift the stage 3 fire restrictions. The Coronado NF essentially abuts my property in the back. Stage 3 prohibits camp fires of coal and wood, and target shooting, a major cause of wildfires out here. along with lightning 🌩
Working with soil scientists will do that to you, too. Soil grows and supports things. Dirt has to be scrubbed from the floor and washed out of clothes.
I got the BSA "Soil and Water Conservation" badge! Also was amongst the 1st 5 to achieve the new Communication; Fish and Wildlife, Engineering badges...
My merit badge sash was lost for a long time as Movers sent it to another home. One day that person tracked me down! And a box of my joyful Scouting stuff arrived. Only about 36 merit badges fit on it... And it has the old canvas and twill, and the very first fully embroidered badges.
Interesting. I’d never thought about the words until you mentioned it. “Soil” has neutral and positive connotations, but “dirt” is predominantly negative. “Dirt” appears to be more Germanic in origin, and a (‘nother) word for excrement; while “soil” is Latin-derived, with a hypothetical Indo-European root having to do with pigs, sows, hogs, and their associated filth. So says the American Heritage Dictionary online.
I'm told it's supposed to stop raining here by afternoon. Fang is scheduled to make hamburgers for dinner, and it would be nice if he could use the outdoor grill.
https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2025/08/11/jim-lovell-commander-of-apollo-13-and-silver-buffalo-recipient-dies-at-97/
Astronaut Jim "Shaky" Lovell has died.
I was aware he passed away, and remember Apollo 13 (not the movie-didn't see it) quite well. Thanks for the scouting magazine article! I'll digest it a little later tonight.
My late father was a Navy pilot, and he knew Al Shepard and Jim Lovell.
Fascinating! Did he have any insider stories about them?
I recall that he liked Shepard a lot. I don't remember anything specific about Lovell.
Wow!
But hey, I'd rather have HAM on wye for lunch if it's all the same to you.
It does indeed sound more like a lunch menu item.
Well, of course a man's bookstore is his castle. That idea goes back many centuries!
In my dream home, I have a library. It is octagonal, 2-3 stories tall, narrow windows between each set of built-in bookshelves, with a roller ladder to get to the shelves on the 2nd and 3rd floor. A metal roof. One chair, a stereo, and a good reading lamp.
Sadly, I've noticed at school the trend in faculty offices is NOT to display books on bookshelves, but knick-knacks and totchkes. I have one bookshelf (I have five) for totchkes and family photos, but otherwise, books, books, books!
I'm overhauling and rearranging my bookcases, getting rid of some books to make room for newer ones (newer meaning I acquired them in the past 10 years). But the big book display issue for me is whether to have books vertical or stacked horizontally on each shelf. I think it's OK to do both and to mix them. My tchotchkes and photos have their own display areas. Both my grandmothers had tchotchke display areas, so that's the way one does things.
I see photos of quaint bookstores on Substack Notes sometimes. I could live in one.
It would be handy if one was having trouble falling asleep and needed something to read. But it would have to at least have a comfortable sofa.
Yes, or just an efficiency apartment at the back.
Colin Gorrie writes some interesting articles on old English, language origins..
Origins of Beowulf- It was Cnutes granddad!
https://open.substack.com/pub/colingorrie/p/the-quest-for-the-historical-beowulf
If you are not "up" on influencer news, and I am not, this headline is mystifying.
Anna Delvey Reveals Death Threats After Bunnies Left In Park
I read a little on X about the story. She was shooting an influencer take, borrowing three pet bunnies from nearby families. the bunnies were released into the park. Because they are domesticated, they are not used to fending for themselves in a world where predators like to eat bunnies. The families were angry the bunnies were not returned. It turns out a member of the production crew was overwhelmed trying to handle three bunnies on leashes, and didn't know what to do, so she released them. last word is the bunnies were found, safe, and not eaten...
"was overwhelmed trying to handle three bunnies on leashes, and didn't know what to do"
Put them in a box?
Urban Gen-Z...
This is why I'm not on social media. Though I am glad for the bunnies.
That's funny.
We have a companion to Sudden Russian Death Syndrome: Tourist Self-Inflicted Accident Syndrome. (TSIAS). Contributory examples welcome! I'll go first
https://www.thedailybeast.com/tourist-hospitalized-after-plunging-from-hillside-while-taking-selfie/
Everyone thinks it won't happen to them.
I warned students not to carry their cell phones in their pockets on the trip. One student got picked, doing just that. He was shocked how good the thief was.
Well they’re professionals
We're very sheltered here in the U.S.
You're imagining they're thinking.
No one expects it to happen to them.
There's too many to list, several ending in TSIAS induced death.
We could have categories: Death. Grevious Bodily Harm. Amputation.
That will make it more manageable.
I'm seeing similar insanity in the "Send It" mania where bike/skateboard/whatever tricks are getting more and more lunatic, with guys jumping bikes off 100' cliffs and having the bike collapse upon impact...or the guys racing bikes on downhill mountain trails and they kiss a tree at about 25mph...or the skateboard/snowboard/skier attempting some impossible gap and hitting the face of the landing hill.
More funny....
I absolutely loved Johnny Cash's cover of dirt. Much better IMHO than the original.
I gave my father-in-law's eulogy, and I used the line from Genesis "from the dirt you came and to the dirt you return", not as meaningless, but as reward. Don (my FIL) was an old farmer, and farmer's have a love affair with farms, it's hard to explain or understand. But I explained in the eulogy that to a farmer, he spent his life coaxing life out of the dirt, hand in hand with our Heavenly Father, and that being returned to the dirt means he'll continue working hand in hand with our Heavenly Father for all eternity. It is a reward, not a punishment, not meaninglessness, but hope.
Katie and her sister Donna still own a sliver of the farm (111 acres), and I commented to Katie it's a shame it's 3 hours from home, else we could farm it. Katie looked at me, clasped my hand and quietly told me "The pharmacy sells a medicine for that"....
That’s a lovely eulogy.
The show Andor had a burial scene where the persons remains are cremated and mixed into clay and a brick is made, then used in community building. I’m not aware of any society actually doing this but it appeals to me quite a bit. Better than a headstone no one will visit, at least after a generation. Or an urn of ashes that is passed down until… what? I like the brick. But we’ve made plans to spread ashes in the forest somewhere.
My parents, per their wishes, were both cremated, and their urns placed in the cemetery. Their two urns were placed in the same grave with a shared stone marker giving both names and their dates. (We did that after they had both passed.) So ashes don't have to be spread if you don't want to, and you can have a place to visit for those who do want to.
I'd lve for my body to simply be placed in the ground, a tree planted over, plus some daffodils (I love daffodils). But regulations, (sigh) regulations.
it's better to ask forgiveness than permission
In rural China, farmers are laid to rest adjacent to, and usually overlooking, the fields that they spent their lives in.
Caskets are simple wood, usually constructed years before passing and displayed in some portion of the house, when it's all over one is placed on the chosen plot in very specific geomantic orientation, a stone wall is built up around it, and finished by filling the stone enclosure (in which the casket sits) with soil.
There is often a headstone on the field side citing ancestor lineage, with some I've seen going back 17 or more generations.
My issue is a simple one: With which wife will I be buried? I ruled out the family cemetery in Gaston, IN. Pam is buried at Walnut Ridge (rural Knightstown, IN), while Katie's family is 2 hours west in either Bloomingdale or Coloma. I don't care where they plant my body (or if they even cremate me), but I'd like a headstone in both places.
Complications.
Half with each?
Maybe cremate and sprinkle ashes at both. I have a good friend, who, like me, was widowed with a pre-schooler, then later remarried. She has a dual headstone with her deceased husband, her living husband wants her buried next to him. I tell her to continue exercising and outlive him...problem solved.
Timeshare.
One of good friends went to his sister's funeral. Some type of back to nature composting in an Oregon woodland.
Been to some Jewish funerals. one of my old and wonderful bosses was buried in a simple linen shroud in a simple pine box. He was pretty wealthy.
To the point made earlier, you can't take it with you.
The white shroud and pine box is how all Jews are to be buried.
The indication of wealth is in the location of the grave in the Jewish cemetery, and the headstone that is set at the end of the year of mourning.
I've read about the Oregon operation. Someone is doing it as a business entity.
could be
That's beautiful Jay.
To me there is something restful in the idea of decomposing back to the soil.
Give my nutrients to the trees, and let me be forgotten.
Kurt wrote a poem about that. I copied it into a notebook, but not a notebook I'm currently using. Oops.
ETA: Oh, there it is!
I took out the first part, but I think it holds together OK.
He liked the idea of being among
trees looking down on him
with compassion,
knowing that the fungus under him,
that like himself was not understood in any comprehensive manner,
that extended in all directions
communicating with the forest above it,
would understand and take care of him like it took care of
all the other stuff that died in the forest.
He liked the idea of being broken down,
dissolved,
absorbed and distributed to the trees
that needed all the help they could get.
.... Me
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=1VBSP190XBA&si=ASPsB4nwMGsaelk3
Don't Bother with White Satin
Seldom Scene, sung by John Duffy.
One of my all time favorites.
Beautiful. Yes.
Definitely.
Back from the doctor, where I got my second dose of shingles vaccine.
My daughter told me Katie is scheduling an appointment for me to get my flu shot, plus any other shots I need. I got 2 shingles shots in the past, so I am good there, I might get the new Covid shot, as a new strain appears to be going about. She has all of my records, and will administer the shots to me. I'm also not allowed to scream or pretend it hurts bad.
Just know that the second shot can knock you down for a day. At least it did with me.
I've heard that, but maybe it only happens to guys. I'm feeling fine.
I had the two-day mini-flu reaction to the follow-up Shingrix shot.
I feel fine except that my arm is a little sore. I did my regular (not very heavy) weight lifting this morning.
A friend recently had a severe reaction: three-day “mini-flu” that left her generally weak and feverish. It passed, though.
It seems that I was lucky. It's also possible that my earlier vaccine, the other version, mitigated the ill effects of this one.
I don't recall any adverse reaction when I got my two shingles shots. But I was prepared, picking a time when I had several days off.
For me, it was the next morning.
Well, I don't have to do anything tomorrow morning.
I got mine a few years ago.
I got the original one, but my PA said that they think that one stopped working after a while, so I should get the new one.
Yes, the old shingles shot was not as effective as Shingrex(the new shot).
That helps explain why I got the Zostavax for free in '17. The pharmacy didn't tell me there was a new one coming out. Eventually I found out about that and got my dual shot of Shingrix. I think it was last year.
EDIT: Just checked my files to make sure I didn't have it mixed up. Zostavax was the old single-shot kind. Shingrix is the current one and you have to get two doses, with the second one 2 to 6 months after the first.
I should look into that. I got mine 3-4 years ago. At the time, they said it was a one time (two shot) deal, that it would last “forever”. Now, they’re saying maybe not…(?)
If it was Shingrex you are good to go for a long time.
From ChatGPT....
"About four years ago (around 2021), the most common shingles vaccine in the U.S. — and in much of the world — was Shingrix (recombinant zoster vaccine, RZV).
By that time, Shingrix had largely replaced the older Zostavax (a live attenuated vaccine) because clinical trials showed Shingrix was much more effective at preventing shingles and postherpetic neuralgia, especially in adults over 50. Zostavax had been gradually phased out in the U.S., with its final distribution ending in 2020.
So in 2021, Shingrix was essentially the only shingles vaccine being given at scale in the U.S."
So, it was probably Shingrix. I got it post 2020.
Of course, now I don't remember....
The micronation I was thinking of is Sealand. The leader's title isn't that cool, but they have a great coat of arms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand#/media/File:Sealand_Coat_of_Arms.svg
"From the Sea, Freedom"
They have a national anthem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSmeNJdsQlk
And a bunch of sports teams.
Thanks for a delightfully pointless spell of procrastination.
The anthem is both regal and militaristic! Thanks for searching!
It's stirring but no-nonsense air was heartening amidst the rain this morning.
I imagine they get rains many mornings in the North Atlantic
Speaking of monarchs, I saw many more of them at the “up north” golf course this year than last. The course is filled with milkweed.
That's good news.
Good morning. Back from vacation, driving part of the last segment through a thunderstorm outside of Cincinnati. Rainy and 73 degrees here, clearing later and reaching the 80s.
The mothership is covering Trump’s calling out the DC Nationa Guard and federalizing the DC Metropolitian Police, in response to a reputed (and disputed) crime wave. The FP worries “:China s Overtaking America”.
I didn't read the FP, but they have it part right. Depending on one's position in the continuum, China is overtaking....OR, America didn't just loosen but took off the lug nuts, tore apart the engines and replaced them with hamster wheels, and quasi-accelerated into the first turn wall, whereupon the wheels fell off.
Whether or not it burst into flames is in the next round of observations.
You mean deeper taking over of America 🇺🇸 🙄 😏
I once had this fascination with one of those micronations out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Can't remember what it was called, but the "leader" had a cool title and they had a really nice flag.
You may be thinking of Sealand, established off the cost of England in the North Sea, on an abandoned WWII offshore gun platform. Its owner styles himself a prince. https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principality_of_Sealand
Yup. See below.
Good morning. In my line of work, we like to emphasize that soil is not dirt. All kingdoms and empires are built on soil in a variety of ways.
Also, it's raining here again.
Soil, dirt, both words sound . . . dirty. That's why the bagged stuff is labeled "potting mix." Mix sounds much more clean to wannabe gardeners who are not clear on how gardening works. Won't get under your fingernails and stuff, right?
What's rain?
Another busted monsoon season. We have a big wildfire close by that could sure use the rain.
So far we have been lucky. Unfortunately, the powers decided to lift the stage 3 fire restrictions. The Coronado NF essentially abuts my property in the back. Stage 3 prohibits camp fires of coal and wood, and target shooting, a major cause of wildfires out here. along with lightning 🌩
The government can outlaw lightning? Is that called the Canute law?
Such a good King! and Conquerer
Preserved wildlife and forests
Working with soil scientists will do that to you, too. Soil grows and supports things. Dirt has to be scrubbed from the floor and washed out of clothes.
I got the BSA "Soil and Water Conservation" badge! Also was amongst the 1st 5 to achieve the new Communication; Fish and Wildlife, Engineering badges...
My merit badge sash was lost for a long time as Movers sent it to another home. One day that person tracked me down! And a box of my joyful Scouting stuff arrived. Only about 36 merit badges fit on it... And it has the old canvas and twill, and the very first fully embroidered badges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_badge
Sometimes you’re soiled with dirt. Other times you’re dirtied with soil.
When it comes in the house, it's dirt, unless you have potted plants.
Interesting. I’d never thought about the words until you mentioned it. “Soil” has neutral and positive connotations, but “dirt” is predominantly negative. “Dirt” appears to be more Germanic in origin, and a (‘nother) word for excrement; while “soil” is Latin-derived, with a hypothetical Indo-European root having to do with pigs, sows, hogs, and their associated filth. So says the American Heritage Dictionary online.
https://ahdictionary.com/
Overcast in Derm, potential for rain.
What about night soil?
That can become actual soil with time.
I'm told it's supposed to stop raining here by afternoon. Fang is scheduled to make hamburgers for dinner, and it would be nice if he could use the outdoor grill.
My radar sez you're right in the middle of the front band of the vorticity pulling moisture up out of the Caribbean.
Oh, what fun.