Neal's Musings (Hardly Political)


THIS IS THE DEFAULT CATEGORY on this blog and was pre­vi­ously the Gen­eral Ob­ser­va­tions cat­e­gory. Here you’ll find ar­ti­cles about my wife and my cat, anec­dotes and jokes—basically any­thing that doesn’t fit into any of the other, more spec­i­fied cat­e­gories.

Most of the pieces here are rea­son­ably gentle—those es­says or ar­ti­cles that con­tain any vit­riol will be found in the Neal’s Rants (Re­ally Po­lit­ical) cat­e­gory.

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a glimpse into the future for me and my gal

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Mirror cracked

WE WERE DINING OUT at a well-known Chi­nese restau­rant that came highly recommended—despite being rather old and in need of some at­ten­tion. This was one of the few ex­cur­sions we have made re­cently and were looking for­ward to the food, which was rated among the best in the Pa­cific North­west.

After we were seated and the waiter had brought us menus and taken our drink order, I pointed to an­other couple across the room: an old man and woman who re­minded me of my par­ents. READ MORE

home-grown is the way it should be (amen!)

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Homegrown NeilYoung 1500

THE TEASER USED TO LURE READERS to William Rivers Pitt’s thoughtful ed­i­to­rial on le­gal­ized and home-grown pot ti­tled “Home­grown” is a pair of questions:“What is more caustic to this so­ciety: mar­i­juana or thou­sands upon thou­sands of people con­signed to the tender mer­cies of the penal system? Mar­i­juana or thou­sands of people suf­fering and dying in need­less and pre­ventable pain?”  READ MORE

do you think that popeye and olive oyl drank earl grey at tea time?

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Popeye 1

I DON’T KNOW WHY, but for the past forty or so years I have had my self con­vinced that I did not like Earl Grey tea! Was it de­nial? Some form of cog­ni­tive dis­so­nance? Just plain stub­born­ness? Now, the slightly oily, slightly tangy taste beckons me ’round the clock—not that I need con­stant dosing with caf­feine.

I just dig Earl Grey and want to sing hosannas to its and turn on and tune in everyone to its ef­fi­ca­cious­ness!  READ MORE

jurassic sex: fossil catches ancient bugs in the act

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Jurassic Insects Sex

THE TITLE OF THIS POST, “Fossil Catches An­cient Bugs in the Act,” was the head­line for a piece in to­day’s Seattle Times (No­vember 7, 2013). Ac­cording to the paper, “Sci­en­tists say a fossil re­cov­ered in south­eastern China de­picts two in­sects locked in sexual con­gress roughly 165 mil­lion years ago, the oldest such relic ever dis­cov­ered.”

The in­sects have been iden­ti­fied as an “ex­tinct species of froghopper that ex­hib­ited striking sim­i­lar­i­ties to their modern rel­a­tives.” READ MORE

spam as dada poetry (luo is do-drop water gastight)

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Spam Firefly 1200 copy

I AM NEW TO BLOGGING, there­fore I am new to the kind of spam sent to blogs. I have not plugged in any anti-spam soft­ware (yet), as I am having a hoot reading the mes­sages that are at­tached to the spam. Ei­ther the ma­jority of spam­mers do not speak English—even phonetically!—or there is a method to their mad­ness that es­capes me. READ MORE

my bhl petitions on facebook (bleeding heart liberal petitions)

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I SUBSCRIBE TO SEVERAL NEWSLETTERS that are ac­cu­rately re­ferred to by my less-enlightened brothers and sisters—you know them as “conservatives”—as being of the “bleeding heart lib­eral” (BHL) ilk. You know: things like global cli­mate change, en­dan­gered species, women’s/gay/minority rights (no­tably any steps to­ward equality for any or all groups who do not cur­rently enjoy that status), let­ters to the Pres­i­dent, Con­gress, large cor­po­ra­tions, etc., READ MORE