Mowing the Lawn

Speaking of getting an "F"... I'm reminded of one of my favorite Volkswagen commercials.  So many great aspects.  Removing the F from "flame" to make it "lame".  Sticking the F on the chest.  "You got an F."  "We just dropped it like it's hot."  Enjoy.

I stepped out of my car yesterday and smiled at Thelma.  "It's a good grass day," I said.  She just laughed.  She humors my obsession with—and general failure at—trying to maintain a healthy lawn. There are two growing seasons around here.  From late Spring to early Fall the grass is usually growing.  The rest of the year the moss is growing.  (The weeds, of course, grow year round.)  We're in the thick of moss season now, but the weather has been unseasonably warm.  Already the primroses are in bloom, the tulips and hyacinths are peeking out of the ground and the grass is growing again.   Saturday, I dusted off the lawn mower and gave our yard its first clip of the year.  The air was too cool for the scent of fresh cut grass to linger, but I did get to stare and soak in the beauty of an evenly trimmed lawn.  I know my 2o1o grass growing adventure will be full of the inevitable frustration and fretting, but for a few days at least everything is perfect. I've deci...

Too often I find reporters trying to strike a balance in their reporting by publishing comments that have little news value.  For example, take the following quote from an article in the New York Times about possible Republican health care proposals .  The comment seems to have little to no news value and sullies an otherwise useful article about the types of proposals that might become part of bipartisan health care reform: Representative George Miller, Democrat of California, said, “If the Republicans’ health care plan was a plan for a fire department, they would rush into a burning building, and they would rush out and leave everybody behind.” The statement is inflammatory.  It is contradicted by the article.  It does not benefit the national discussion on healthcare.  It allows partisans a cute sound bite for avoiding the debate about whether our nation should invest in sweeping changes, incremental improvements or more of the same.  Surely there is at least one Democrat who can p...

My sister-in-law Jennifer posted a terrific story about trying to extract a wild cat from their house.   Read the story and then check out one of my favorite Super Bowl commercials about herding cats . "You see the movies, you hear the stories, it's...  I'm livin' the dream." "Anybody can herd cattle.  Holdin' together 10,000 half-wild shorthairs, well that's another thing altogether."