Happy Memorial Day Everyone!

Arlington National Cemetery

Freedom Isn't Free

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

Kelly Strong

Silhouettes

Really Cool. 

High Heels

Lookin Good!

After the Memorial Day Beer Bust

You now know what you can do with the empty beer cans.

In Search of Missing Parts

Bruno Catalanos

this guy is a genius

See more of his sculptures HERE.

Name the City

Sunday Morning

The Other Kingdoms

Consider the other kingdoms. The

trees, for example, with their mellow-sounding

titles: oak, aspen, willow.

Or the snow, for which the peoples of the north

have dozens of words to describe its

different arrivals.

Or the creatures, with their

thick fur, their shy and wordless gaze. Their

infallible sense of what their lives

are meant to be.

Thus the world

grows rich, grows wild, and you too,

grow rich, grow sweetly wild, as you too

were born to be.

~ Mary Oliver

Sunday Funnies

Oil Spill not so funny for us in Florida.

Indeed

The old radical agenda.

Yup!

click on image to enlarge.

Yes, We'll Show You How to Solve It

We'll even refer you to Wall Streeters.

Voices Heard This Past Week

Nobody really knows what opinions of the "drill baby drill" gang are thinking.  They haven't really stated a new position on the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  But almost every news website had something about it and the comments below were standard fair on most of them.  There was also a YouTube showing two good old boys showing how straw can be used to clean the plumes, I picked that as a topic as well because it always came up from some commenter at various news blogs.  First the story from WaPo below the image, then the comments.

COVINGTON, La. -- As the nation remained transfixed by a busted oil well spewing millions of gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico, BP said Saturday that its latest bid to plug the worst oil spill in U.S. history still hadn't worked and scientists suggested any progress was incremental at best.


BP PLC chief operating officer Doug Suttles told reporters Saturday in Port Fourchon that the effort known as a "top kill" has not stopped the flow of oil, and that he doesn't know if the risky maneuver will succeed. He said the company was already preparing its next option to cap the well.

Washington Post

Comments:

• cajunwolf

It's the massive amounts of mud that would be required over the next two to three months till the relief wells are drilled. I don't think we could manufacture enough and get it on location to keep up with the demand. They have been trying the junk shots but are plagued with the same issue of the path of least resistance is out the riser pipe. less

• emajeski

This idea for cleaning up might sound crazy, but it totally works and it's cheap: Straw soaks up oil...very well in fact. We tried it to test this theory and it was amazing. We put oil in an old fish tank and threw a bunch of straw in after it. In a day it soaked up all the oil and the water was clear again. I mean, crazier things have been tried.

• Rescme

If you have 10 tons of oil you would need 5 tons of straw which would also suck up 10 tons of water at which point you now have 25 tons of hazardous waste (instead of 10 tons of oil) that it harder to recover from water and harder to dispose of. It may help on beaches but not in open water for the facts as previously stated, in fact the EPA in their own oil spill recommendations highly disagrees with straw in open water as a means of soaking this stuff up. Only certain types of straw can be used as some of it sinks when it is water logged. It is exponentially simpler to suck oil off water then to soak it up

• 1termBHOBAMA

during the 2007 oil slick disaster on the western coast of Korea, hundreds and thousands of civilians came together to clean the shores. Their effort paid off, using everything from old clothing and papertowels to clean up the slick. I dont think this problem with BP is a manpower issue. This could have been prevented...truly sad.

Openly Advertised

and sold over the counter. I believe it says 1885.  Those were the days!

Yes, You Can Phone It In, Or Tell the Fairies, or Just Scream it!

"It's Caturday"!

"Splish, Splash, I Was Takin A Bath"

Oh these kitties are soooo cute.

"Cat's Do The Darndest Things"

I be stuck in this thing. 

Can't See His Face

What a handfull.

Poster This Caturday

That's true.  I always find Zoey when I'm unhappy.

See You Next Caturday . . .

"bring cukies when you come back"

Nice Woodz Shot

Life in the Woods

Me Want!

Bugatti Convertible

only $2.2 Million

T G I F

Our TGIF model this week is showing us how not to do push ups.  If she had a bathing suit on I would write she guessed what we plan for Memorial Day.  A Honor Veterans Service in the morning and pool party in the afternoon.  I'm bringing T-bone steaks for the outdoor grill.  Make it a wonderful long weekend and exercise that heart!

Cuba

Must be car week here on the cat.  Thanks everyone for sending more old car photos.  I will eventually get around to posting them all. 

We Are Bracing for the Bad News This Gunk Will Arrive Offshore in Cocoa Beach Where We Live and Play . . .See the Panhandle Report from CSMonitor

BP officials, who along with government officials created the impression early in the day that the strategy was working, disclosed later that they had stopped pumping the night before when engineers saw that too much of the drilling fluid was escaping along with the oil.


If the new estimates are accurate, the spill would be far bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 and the worst in United States history.

nytimes

and there's more from the Christian Science Monitor:

Tar balls are not a favorite among beachgoers. And with the oil slick creeping closer to shore along parts of the Gulf coast, there's a chance the gunk could become a reality along Florida's Panhandle. And already this tar-ball effect has bumped the Panhandle beaches off this year's Top 10 Best Beaches list.

A Peck on a Nose? Not on the Cheek?

Is this ducky trying to wake up the dog?

Can't Think How I Missed Finding This One for St Patty's Day

Oh well.

Kids Say the Darndest Things 1912-2010

Art Linkletter

RIP

Arthur Gordon "Art" Linkletter (July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010) was a Canadian radio and television personality and the former host of two long-running United States television shows: House Party, which ran on CBS radio and television for 25 years, and People Are Funny, on NBC radio-TV for 19 years. Linkletter was famous for interviewing children on House Party and Kids Say the Darndest Things, which led to a successful series of books quoting children.

WIKI

At the Movies

I loved watching this show as a kid when it was on TV. 

Watch the Birdie

He's not kidding.

Old Cars

middle photo of a Rolls Royce sold for 2.2 million

The Zoolatry Girls Are Coming Back to Blogging

Pictured here is my Zoey!

ZOOLATRY

Yummy!

I could eat this all day long.

There is little that satisfies me more than the simple pleasure of a blackberry crisp (with vanilla ice cream, of course). It's quick, easy to make, supremely satisfying. I hope you'll treat yourself and make it this weekend.

RECIPE

I Like This Alot

click to embiggen

Name the City

Walking the Dog

Or what the Hey?