Towse: views from the hill

May 9, 2008

The sixth mistake? "working, hardworking Americans, white Americans"

Filed under: politics — Towse @ 4:35 am

AP article: Clinton presses on, urges supporters to ignore calls to quit

In an interview with USA Today published Thursday, Clinton noted that the coalition of voters who have supported her in the Democratic nominating contest had eluded Obama and would pose problems for him in the general election.

“Senator Obama’s support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again … there’s a pattern here,” Clinton was quoted as saying.

***

Some of us working, hardworking Americans, white Americans are wondering whether anyone has sent a search party out looking for her marbles.

Washington Post Behind The Numbers blog: Clinton’s Broader Base?

Update: YouTube clip of the interview’s salient point [Thx! Archer!]

The Five Mistakes Clinton Made – TIME

Filed under: politics — Towse @ 4:22 am

Now, granted, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip. It ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED wasn’t. …

But I found this article interesting. Some of the points I’d heard before. The Ickes-Penn story I heard for the first time today.

The Five Mistakes Clinton Made – TIME

by Karen Tumulty

For all her talk about “full speed on to the White House,” there was an unmistakably elegiac tone   [Note: Tumulty is not the only person to use this adjective to describe Hillary's speech]   to Hillary Clinton’s primary-night speech in Indianapolis. And if one needed further confirmation that the undaunted, never-say-die Clintons realize their bid might be at an end, all it took was a look at the wistful faces of the husband and the daughter who stood behind the candidate as she talked of all the people she has met in a journey “that has been a blessing for me.”

It was also a journey she had begun with what appeared to be insurmountable advantages, which evaporated one by one as the campaign dragged on far longer than anyone could have anticipated. She made at least five big mistakes, each of which compounded the others:

[...]

May 8, 2008

You can’t go home again. …

Filed under: life,real estate — Towse @ 4:02 pm

14 April 2006, two days before my dad died, escrow closed on the home where I’d spent the majority of my life, where I’d lived over twice as long as I’d lived in my childhood home.

We were without question out of the bucolic ville and into the City.

We’d drive by when we were in the area. The tall poles with orange netting showing the outlines of the house-to-be went up, then tipped and tilted after the winter storms. The renters who moved in shortly after escrow closed moved out around the time the orange netting went up. Bellecourt was vacant, tree fall littering the circular drive. The house that his nibs and his father had helped build was in limbo, just waiting for permits to go through before … before what? We were hoping maybe it would be just a remodel, yes, a major remodel but maybe one where the bones of the place were still visible if you squinted just right. Maybe?

Months. A year went by. Maybe the buyers had run out of money. Maybe they’d changed their minds.

I drove past the old place last week to find cyclone fencing around the entire acre property. A construction truck parked out front. Port-a-potty for the crew. Came home and told his nibs that the house was still standing though.

His nibs just got a note from old friend that his wife drove by and the house has been demolished, scraped, gone-gone-gone in preparation for the new construction.

*sigh*

Even if we win the lottery, we can’t go home again.

Ever.

May 7, 2008

Sentinels

Filed under: life,photographs — Tags: , , — Towse @ 3:04 am

 

Posted by Picasa

Black birds (not “wild parrots of Telegraph Hill” although this *is* their tree if you believe what the politicos would have you to believe).

Where are the parrots? Ou sont les parrots?

May 1, 2008

Grapes 2.0

Filed under: blog,life,people — Towse @ 11:04 pm

Yay, me! I just caught up on eighty back posts at grapes 2.0, dating back to before we left for Jordan/Egypt in March.

bloglines lets me know just how far behind I get on the umpty ump RSS feeds I’ve stashed away here.

So, I go away for a while or don’t hang out on the computer for a while and before you know it, a blog I track has EIGHTY POSTS I haven’t read yet with more added each day.

Fine. Caught up on grapes2.0.

Next up Sara Zarr’s blog: 116 posts behind on that one. …

April 29, 2008

Old Bailey Online – The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 – Central Criminal Court

Filed under: history,resource,URL — Towse @ 4:56 pm

Old Bailey Online – The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 – Central Criminal Court

[courtesy of Auntie K. Thanks, K!]

First thing I did, of course, was pop /towse/ into the search to see what the Towses were up to from 1674-1913.

April 28, 2008

I miss sunsets

Filed under: life,photographs,San Francisco — Towse @ 9:50 pm

We face east toward Oakland and Berkeley and get sunshiney wakeups in the morning, but our location means the sun sets behind the hill directly behind us so we never see sunsets unless we’re out and about.

I was talking with a nabe the other day who told me he takes the stairs to Pioneer Park (AKA Coit Tower to most) to watch the sun set. Sounds like a plan.

We were out and about yesterday …

Tales of the City: Derek Powazek

Filed under: life,San Francisco,video — Towse @ 6:00 pm

Derek Powazek – 90-Second Story: Grumpy Neighbor

April 26, 2008

Recent Earthquakes – Map for 120-40

Filed under: quakes — Towse @ 6:07 pm

Recent Earthquakes – Map for 120-40

Reno’s rocking. …

[ref] nineteen shakes >= 3.0 in the last five days. …

3.5 2008/04/26 08:20:40 39.543N 119.936W 1.1 4 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.4 2008/04/26 02:11:59 39.525N 119.927W 2.1 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.7 2008/04/26 00:29:20 39.527N 119.927W 2.7 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.4 2008/04/25 23:43:50 39.521N 119.924W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

4.7 2008/04/25 23:40:10 39.520N 119.930W 1.4 2 km ( 1 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.3 2008/04/25 23:39:59 39.516N 119.924W 1.7 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.6 2008/04/25 18:13:20 39.529N 119.918W 1.6 4 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.3 2008/04/25 10:30:10 39.531N 119.928W 1.4 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.3 2008/04/25 01:42:58 39.521N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.3 2008/04/24 18:00:33 39.531N 119.929W 2.2 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.6 2008/04/24 17:47:52 40.375N 115.374W 0.0 6 km ( 4 mi) ENE of Ruby Valley, NV

4.2 2008/04/24 15:55:49 39.527N 119.929W 2.8 3 km ( 2 mi) ENE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.0 2008/04/24 15:51:06 39.539N 119.938W 1.8 3 km ( 2 mi) NNE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

4.1 2008/04/24 15:47:04 39.533N 119.932W 1.1 3 km ( 2 mi) NE of Verdi-Mogul, NV

3.0 2008/04/24 00:33:15 37.891N 118.097W 5.5 42 km (26 mi) S of Tonopah
Junction, NV

3.0 2008/04/23 14:21:39 37.377N 114.696W 9.9 14 km ( 8 mi) SSE of Helene, NV

3.2 2008/04/22 19:06:54 37.992N 118.681W 5.6 38 km (23 mi) SSW of Qualeys Camp, NV

3.8 2008/04/22 13:40:09 41.221N 114.806W 7.7 18 km (11 mi) NE of Wells, NV

3.1 2008/04/21 12:14:10 39.517N 119.922W 2.6 3 km ( 2 mi) E of Verdi-Mogul, NV

Update: Earthquake wizards say the increasing 4.1->4.2->4.7 quakes don’t follow the standard pattern of large shake followed by decreasing intensity aftershocks. They don’t know quite what to make of it. CNN update

Highland bagpipe is a recent invention for nostalgic Scotish émigrés, expert claims

Filed under: history,information — Towse @ 5:51 pm

By Patrick Sawer
Last Updated: 3:04am BST 21/04/2008
[telegraph.co.uk]

Whisper it if you dare, but the age-old Highland bagpipe – beloved of sentimental Scots and American tourists in search of their Highland roots – is in fact a recent invention.

A controversial new study has claimed that far from being the time-honoured instrument which led the clans into battle against the Auld Enemy, the bagpipe as we know it was developed in the early 1800s.

It now seems that, like the kilt and most tartans, the tradition of the great Highland bagpipe was something manufactured for the benefit of nostalgic Scottish émigrés.

[...]

[via Funky Plaid at Swirling Vortex of Verisimilitude]

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