Nuts, bolts and twisted sisters.

Hi Carolyn,


\

Well, happy Halloween, if you're one who observes this particular event. I do get the feeling though that it has been commandeered by commercial interests to the extent that it gets a smaller version of the same buildup and saturation in the media that Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter et. al. get on a big-time basis. We're far enough out in the hinterland that we probably won't see any little faces at the door, especially as its raining almost biblically again here at the moment and for the next 24 hours at least. 





Well it's clear that you had a lot more fun during your formative years with vinegar than I did. I would have to have purloined it from the kitchen, along with the baking soda, etc., if I had wanted to pull off some of those stunts.  Mom did lotsa baking and such and there wasn't  a budget to cover foodstuffs for what would have been viewed as frivolous purposes.






 
 
 
 
 
 I wasn't deprived of chances for hands on learning as a kid, to be sure, but with two sisters, one older and one younger, who were Olympic calibre whistle-blowers and could have doubled as  Cinderella's stepsisters  (as far as the pre-teen me was concerned) ,  I just couldn't pull a raid on the kitchen with any reasonable chance for success. At that young age I had nothing to offer them as hush money either.








In lieu of foodstuffs to learn and  play with my dad saw to it that my older brother and I had tools, though. We had been inculcated with a love for and respect for the workshop since the beginning. I didn't think we ever saw any kind of tradespeople around our home because dad did it all himself and inspired us to do likewise. If we got a bike, it would have been a used one, usually obtained at the once a year police auction.  And if it broke we were without wheels unless we fixed it ourselves. Try convincing some of todays helicopter parents that this should be the way things go with their young  ones.





I do remember one pivotal event in that regard especially. At the age of eight I had my sights set (pun intended) on getting a telescope for either my birthday or Christmas. A good telescope was simply beyond the budget of a family with a stay-at-home mom, four kids and a dad who was a jeweller and watchmaker.  What I got instead was a  "meccano" set. I was initially very miffed and disappointed but as time went on and the set was augmented by other sets it became the go to toy for this boy hands down. Constructing things with nuts and bolts and wrenches and screwdrivers had more sheer visceral appeal than slapping lego bricks together. I wish I'd kept the whole setup for my kids because, when the time came to consider getting some for them, Meccano had become a carriage trade level toy and cost a king's ransom - more than a young teacher family with a double digit mortgage could justify at the time.

 Never did try the sleeveless sweater, shorts, long socks and oxfords look of the proper young gents on the cover though. Cheerio lads!



 And I could, under the right conditions, still get a pretty good vista on the moons surface with the air force binoculars my dad brought back with him from his time in the service of his country.



I'll be most curious in the coming months, Carolyn,  to see what you discover in your academic pursuit of the wired generation. Actually, it's headed more towards being the wireless generation, wouldn't you say? 

 

 

To the cave thenceforth. I just knew I was way off on your last one, and you were dead on with mine. I will bet it was the " fuzzy" clue that broke it open, too. I'm gonna guess that this time you are riddling about eye drops.

 

 

 

So here's the next one from Canada to put on the block .

 

 

 

 

Over half a hundred members in my entertaining crew

Blue bloods and commoners

Occasionally  two funny guys who may get wild

 

 

 

 

Don

 

 

 

All images sourced from Google Images

 

Fig. 1 - webclipart.about.com

Fig. 2 - studentweb.cortland.edu

Fig. 3 - philbipro.BlogSpot.com

Fig. 4 - aburkitt.net

Fig. 5 - community.sprint.com

 

 

 

 

 



Self-Reliance, Vinegar and The Wired Generation

Good morning, Don! Hope the snow wasn’t too deep. We ended up with maybe an inch of the white stuff. It is keeping the grass green just that much longer.

Vinegar – ah, that brings back memories. Windows, pickled beets, sunburns. I still use the cider vinegar on sunburns – I don’t peel and the pain is gone! But it does sting a bit when I first put it on after a nice warm shower. The smell? It lingers a bit then turns into a nice sweet odor. I can live with that.  And it works wonders on drains when mixed with baking soda. I use it about every two weeks or so just to keep the kitchen sink drains clear and smelling good. I run a lot of water afterwards to make sure nothing gets clumped up in the pipes.

What I remember the most is the fun we had mixing vinegar and baking soda – boy did we get the pop bottles to fly! And the volcanos we created! Hours of fun. I remember a Styrofoam head we carved out, put a glass in and filled it with vinegar and soda to demonstrate your brain on drugs. It got some attention.

As to ants, I found that hot chili powder moves them on quickly – those that are still alive, that is. It was really helpful this spring when all the sugar ants decided to swarm on the patio. I just sprinkle it on the mounds. The ants take it home as food. Not sure what it does to them, but it seems to lessen the ant problem and the grass doesn’t appear to suffer any for it.

You mentioned those times of self-sufficiency and self-reliance. I was talking to a friend about the celebrities who are taking the “ live on $5.00 a day” challenge. I admire them and have to laugh at the same time.  They already have kitchens filled with food and they’ve paid their electric bill on time. So $5.00 to them is not going to Star Bucks or not getting the ice cream dish they were craving. I remember living on $75.00 a month, rent at $50.00 and we were doing better than most of our friends.

It is a great Segway into what my research over the next 6 months will be – the Wired Generation (the millennials) and the challenges they bring to teaching.  One of the more intriguing concepts has been the moving of the grown up at “age” bar. I think that for you and I, we were considered “grownup” at 18 or 19. If we weren’t, our parents helped us transition quickly into a position of being able to take care of ourselves. (I think I discussed this in a really early blog.) With this Wired generation (kids raised in the computer/internet/instant messaging age), the “grownup” age has moved to 26 or 27 years of age.

Another interesting fact is that these kids, on the whole, here in the United States, are less likely to drive or have a real interest in driving. The theories suggest that the restrictions that have been put on teen driving and/or the advent of the smart phone have helped to curb the teen need to get away. Kids can call their friends and since they have their own phone, they don’t need to worry about someone listening in like I did when I was their age. (Remember the family phone in the hallway and you could only talk for 5 minutes?) Of course, when teens were asked why they didn’t drive, they said they were just too busy to learn how and went back to their texting. I would be interested in seeing if this were true for the different cultures.

The cave. Yeah know, we should find a really neat picture of a cave to announce this section…

My guess for your riddle is: fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror of a beat old car.

The answer to mine was picture frames. I thought the “stiff and formal” would give it away.

Okay, here is this week’s installment:

Clearing the personal screen

Drop by drop

Often runs into your ear

 

Sorry to hear about the boat out of water – and how are the kitchen renovations going?

 

Have a great week!

Carolyn

 

Just finished getting the Transport 26 ezine onto Amazon! It will be available in the next couple of days. Don, did you realize that over the last 2 1/2 years we have edited 78 stories, helped authors craft 5 books, published 4 science fiction/fantasy anthologies? Amazing! Thanks!

CV

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – Newblog: how to fight off sunburn retrieved from blogs.thenews.com

 

Fig 2 –  Bottle Launcher Rocket retrieved from almostunschollers.blogspot.com

 

Fig 3 – draanko / She cooks up nice retrieved from shesooksupnice.com

Fig 4 – Join us for the $5 challenge retrieved from eatoutsidethebag.com

 

Fig 5 - 10 ways parents can help the wired child unplug retrieved from thewiredhomeschool.com

Problems, de-duct-ions and solutions.

hi Carolyn,

First of all, thanks for the heads up about the snow. It has arrived in all its flaky glory. Had to search out my window scraper before I could go anywhere in the truck this morning.




Ah, yes, duct tape. It's an indispensable around here, for sure. Just off hand I can think of four different things that currently owe their continuing functionality to the healing and sealing powers of that grey gooey godsend. A few years ago a couple of our more quirky friends invited a bunch of us to their home in another city for a boisterous evening, the sole purpose of which was the making duct tape wallets. That was when I discovered that there was duct tape available with the logo of the NHL team that even the hockey gods cheer for- les habitants.


I made a wallet that raucous evening which I carried proudly for a number of months thereafter. Then,  one very sticky day  I spent a few hours in a hot car seat while it was in my hip pocket and the heat fused together most of the compartments.  Fortunately,  I had the foresight not to carry my major documents in it or they would have been as difficult to retrieve as the folding money within was.



Actually, all this talk of the magic tape reminds me of one of those other seemingly Omni-useful substances - Vinegar. As long as I can remember its been touted as a clean-all, cure-all, and veritable philosopher's stone-ish substance. I took a bit of time to investigate some of the many things this elixir is supposed to be able to do. They are wondrous and plentiful to be sure!

 I've even tried a few in the last few months. I can personally testify that it isn't much of a weed and vegetation controller, nor is it particularly impressive as a rust remover, or ant discourager.  In the fall, when pickling and preserving season is hard upon us, this home is frequently redolent with its pungent odour, though. Its fundamental role in the pickling process makes up handily for all of the other shortcomings I've encountered.   


And as far as its use as a condiment on fries, like the man in black said in The Princess Bride  " I've not seen its equal"


 

One of my earliest recollections triggered by the sense of smell is of my mother diligently attacking the inside windows each spring with vinegar and newspapers and  filling the rooms with strange smells and squeaky sounds. I will admit that teaming it up with baking soda still offers  the best method for cleaning corroded battery terminals, the likes of which were found regularly on the jalopies I tooled around in as a teen.  It made things interesting in those old VW beetles  especially, since the battery was under the back seat. For the first few few jaunts after the battery was cleaned in this manner, the interior would smell somewhat acrid for a few minutes. - Ah, the good old days.




These kinds of solutions (pun intended) tend to harken back to a time when self-sufficiency and self-reliance were more valued traits, I think. We seem to be moving more towards a disposable culture where if it breaks you toss it and buy another rather than fix or repair it. That resurgence of crafts and creative pastimes of which you spoke, Carolyn,  may not be infiltrating the ranks of the Google generation to the extent that its being rediscovered by those further along the demographic curve.

While we're on the topic of solutions, H2O comes to mind briefly here and only because this coming Saturday is the sad day when I must behold the trusty barge we've sailed on a fair amount this summer, hoisted out of the water and placed in its winter perch on dry land.  Sniff.....


Carolyn, what's this I read of an academic writing proposal and acceptance?  Cool. I hope you'll keep us in the loop from time to time regarding your efforts. My daughter is currently putting the finishing touches on an article for The Journal of Popular Culture, too. She finds the whole process engrossing and gratifying.


From the ivory tower to the cave, then. My last item was actually shoelaces. I know I've tripped over mine more than a few times.


I'm very inclined to say your current riddle is eyeglasses, although the "stiff and formal"  part throws me off. Could they be opera glasses ? - Naw, that doesn't fit at all.  Sorry, I gotta put forth eyeglasses as my best bet here and I just know that it'll be something else that  I didn't see coming at all, even with my eyeglasses on. 


For this time I respectfully submit this offering:

 

Small and hard or large and fuzzy

Usually work in pairs

Sometimes exhibit the eyes of a snake 

 

 



Okay, gotta go throw some vinegar on those icy front steps......




Don




Fig. 1-4   Sourced from Google Images


Fig. 1 - forums.redflagdeals.com
Fig. 2 - pinterest.com
Fig. 3 - articles.mercola.com
Fig. 4 - Barnes&Noble.com



 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Duct Tape! Take a chance and write

Good afternoon, Don! Sorry to say that I’m watching the clouds pile up and the temperature drop – looks like we’ll have ‘some” snow by tomorrow morning. I have no idea what that might look like for you. I went walking this morning and the little kid in me came out. I kicked through the piles of leaves and I’m sure I made several motorists green with envy. It was a delicious time!

For several years I’ve been fussing that basic crafts like crocheting and knitting, sewing, pottery, quilting, have been dying! I see the magazines for the crafts, but when I talk to college freshmen about hobbies, they have no idea what I’m talking about. Another strike for the generation gap. Before I could further mourn the loss of crafts, I read an article this morning that crafts are on their way back into the heart of Americans. Not only are kids learning how to throw clay, they are learning how to can or freeze food. Hope is restored.

As far as I’m concerned, there are two places that are must go’s if I’m doing the shopping: the hardware store and the craft store. So while I was in the craft store yesterday looking at all the new ingenious methods that are available for crafting now, I came across two books written on duct tape crafts. Duct tape – never leave home without it; if it can’t be fixed with duct tape, it can’t be fixed – you know, that tape. Crafts included: cushions for worn out sofas and chairs, a hand bag, and a lamp shade.

So my curiosity took over. Just what is duct tape and just what can you do with it besides repair furnace ducts? Oh, it has been an amazing adventure! All leading to the Myth Busters and their various episodes on duct tape - suspending cars, making shoes and hats, water canisters, rope, bridges, boats. It was a marvelous exploration!

Don, did you know that, according to Wikipedia (yes, I advocate its use), some kind of duct tape has actually been around since 1910? And in 1930, one of the monthly magazines for Popular Mechanics actually had instructions on how to make your own. What we know of today as duct tape was actually developed during WWII to seal ammunition cases against moisture and was quickly applied to repairing everything from vehicles to weapons and helicopters. And believe it or not, 3M has invented transparent duct tape. Invisible duct tape – what a way to drive someone crazy! Other names include duck tape, racer’s tape, 100 mile an hour tape, tank tape, gaffers tape and some kinds of electrical tape.

So where does duct tape show up? NASA has been shipping it with missions since Gemini, it’s been used to put the fender back on the lunar rover, was instrumental in saving the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts. Every year Henkel, who manufactures duck tape, sponsors a competition for a college scholarship to whoever creates the best formal wear. I actually watched a couple of students create a wedding gown out of duck tape several years ago. It was an amazing process of wrapping a body in paper, then applying the tape. Getting out of the gown was quite a trick! It won a local design prize. (This is just a picture of what can be done with the tape!)

My hat’s off to duct/duck tape. I rarely leave home without it, I know my husband always travels with some. And recently it has started coming in new and different colors. The craft store was actually selling some that had Christmas designs on it. But ya know, gray is kind of the standard color, who cares if it is beautiful as long as it can fix almost everything!

I wonder if we can use duct tape to fix the next filibuster that will most assuredly come around in January! Government would probably ban the tape as too good to be true. As Public Television has been on the chopping block several times in the last couple of years, as much as I’d love to have Congress (House especially) watch Bert and Ernie’s co-operation shows, I’m afraid that it would just drive some of the Congressional members into a tizzy and Public Television would become a thing of the past – who need puppets, good music, Nova and imagination? (sarcasm intended)

On to the cave – the riddle cave, that is. And you are correct! The bouncy ball, the exercise ball, but my favorite description is “doohickey”. Yeah, that one that bounces and rolls around.

I’ve been turning your latest riddle over and over, and still haven’t come up with an answer I’m fond of. I’ve thought of potatoes, maybe ivy (but ivy doesn’t have eyes). Some sewing machines have 2 or more needles to do the fancy stitching… am I close?

Mine to you for the week is:

Stiff and formal

Black rims, colored or none at all

Designed to clearly view favorites

 

I’m getting ready to put together Transport 26 next week and have been looking at the writing schedule for next Spring. I’m look for a couple of authors who’d like to share their work! Authors retain full rights to their work – all Wormhole does is show case it! How about it writers? Take a chance! Make the dream come true. Contact me!

My academic writing proposal was accepted so my fiction characters are on vacation for a while. (No, they are not happy.) I get to write a non-fiction micro e-book on the Digital Native and Learning. I’m excited about the topic! I know it’s dry for science fiction – but believe it or not, we are now experiencing and living what was considered science fiction 15 years ago. And it has changed us. How to teach to that change has been the challenge for the last 8 years – so I’m looking forward to the adventure!

 

Have a great week, folks.

Carolyn

 

 

All images downloaded from Google Images

Fig 1 – Ductigamibook.jpg retrieved from www.motherearthnews.com

Fig 2 – Duct Tape Headlines News retrieved from www.octanecreative.com

Fig 3 – Duct Tape Queen of Hearts Dress retrieved from mentalfloss.com

Fig 4 – Duck out your locker retrieved from www.girlslife.com

Fig 5 – Bert and ernie graphics and animated gifs retrieved from www.picgifs.com

Fig 6 – retrieved from Google Images

 

 

 

The Eyes Have It

Hi Carolyn,

Just exactly where did the last week go?? It's been seven days  mainly filled with putting things away and getting things ready for the winter and it seems to have positively  hurtled by. There's been none of the dreaded white stuff yet in these parts and none in the forecast. But ! That doesn't mean I'm letting my guard down - not a chance!





Speaking of letting down the guard -  the old guard in this case -  it seems those right and left wingers who have been monopolizing the news waves lately have managed to fly in unison long enough to get through this latest Washington boondoggle. I think the best thing that could be done with the whole indictable lot, both houses and the White House, is to strap them all to their respective chairs for a three or four day filibuster by Bert and Ernie on the topic of co-operation.




Your investigation of cyborg enhancements sounds extremely cool - especially the part about "supersenses". I too am intrigued by the prospect of seeing music in 3D.







 Your question as to what music or sound I would like to experience in that enhanced manner has stuck with me inextricably since I first read it.  I’ve given it plenty of think time whilst doing all the menial stuff that's made up much of each subsequent day. 

 I haven't been off on a musically induced tangent for awhile, so buckle up!


I think, experienced visually, the full orchestral stuff would be simply overwhelming unless it was only a few instruments.  So I’d pick something simple but compelling , say,  Ravel’s Bolero, or some piano concertos.  I almost can’t imagine seeing something like the 1812 0verture or The William Tell in this manner.  Thus Spake Zarathustra would be cool as Hades, too.



  Although,  it might be difficult to distinguish readily, on sight alone, between say the thin reedy voice of Dylan making his way thru Like a Rolling Stone and the thin reedy voice of Lennon  in  Imagine, or the thin reedy voice of Tom Petty or thin reedy voice of Bob Marley, unless the rhythms and other sonic components of each composition were distinctly displayed. With hearing we can catch the diff immediately, though.

I am assuming that this music is being experienced strictly by the eyes, i.e. there would be no actual sounds. I guess the imaginations ear can be just as potent as the imaginations eye. After all didn't Beethoven compose brilliantly even after he was deaf.?

Voices would be the most intriguing for me, I think. How would the gravely and unmistakable pipes of Louis Armstrong in Hello Dolly look, or the basso profundo of Tennessee Ernie Ford booming out  Sixteen  Tons ,  or  Ray Charles just a'wailing his way thru What'd I Say   or a really pure voice like  K.D, Lang's in
Leonard Cohen’s  Hallelujah .

How would individual instruments look, for example,  the saucy  honk of a sax, or the mellow flow of a cello ?   The intervals between sounds/sights would vary with the music but I wonder how the sound of each would look. And lets not even think of those electric guitar wizards who can mimic other instruments. Can you imagine Hendrix or Clapton in visual 3D ? - man this is almost too much!





Truly, as you can see,  this one has got me going in lotsa directions - I mean how would our own voices look to us ?? Would my voice look just like my dad’s or my brother’s ??  Could I make my voice look like someone else's ?



I simply have to pull back now, or I'll be gone until the snow flies. But I wholeheartedly agree,  sounds to be seen would surely be a sight to behold!



There were some other items I wanted to touch on, like how scientists think it could be raining diamonds on Saturn ( talk about A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall ) or how the holiday weekend visit with our daughter went, or the simple but effective devices the Mayans, like the Romans employed to store and conserve that precious H2O. All for other moments, I guess.



To the you-know-what cave.  BTW I chalk that last one of yours up as one of my more interesting recent things I've learned - that there is such a thing as an " ice-cream fork" - far out!


Your guess for my last riddle is quite correct - given the clues provided.  I had actually been thinking of a hypodermic needle.  Subsequently I went back to my riddle file to discover that I had left the word " metallic" out of my original clues. Without that  your guess is easily as good as mine - in fact, with the clues I provided I would have guessed your guess too.  Careless, careless Don trying to do too many things at once.

 

Your most recent offering is, (and I think there may be a more specific term for it but I am a complete stranger to organized exercise so I don't know for sure ) an exercise ball. You know, one of those big rubber ball doohickeys that you sit on and bounce around and stuff.

HEY ! Maybe someone should paint some of these balls to look like the heads of  the prominent Republicans or Democrats who've been exercising their petty, partisan grudges at the expense of everyday peoples livelihoods  so that bouncing some sense into his or her noggin could provide additional gratification.


So here is mine for this time.

I need two or more pairs of eyes to do my job

Keep me tightly constrained or I will trip you up

 

 

 

Thankyou again Carolyn for the chance to go trippin' in music land.

 

 

 

Don

 

 

 

 

All images sourced from Google Images

 

Fig. 1 - 123rf.com

Fig. 2 - containsmoderateperil.com

Fig. 3 - blogs.agu.org

Fig. 4 - musicstack.com

Fig. 5 - raycharlesmusic.us

Fig. 6 - scientificamerican.com

Fig. 7 - jamaicaplaingazette.com

Fig. 8 - exercise-ball-exercises.com

Republican Bullying, Sand Dams and Happy Thanks Giving Canada!

Don, glad to hear that your weather is “holding” and that the “s” is not a part of your experience yet. We’ve been watching the trees change and have marveled at how each tree seems to do it “their way”, sub species does not dictate how the color changes. Some trees change from the top down, slowly, elegantly; others change from the farthest leaves from the trunk inward in streaks that don’t necessarily follow a limb; and our favorite right now is a tree that is changing from the innermost leaves to the outer leaves. The inside of the tree is bathed golden while the outer leaves remain green – it makes the tree look like it glowing on the inside.

Our Mexican standoff for the U.S. government continues. I really appreciated your recipe including fear-mongering and everything being served on a bed of righteous indignation. Several democratic politicians are being recalled because small groups within their district feel they are not being truly represented. The fact that the small group is less than 5% of the voters does not seem to phase them. They have their rights and majority approval does not apply to them. Yeah, it is not a school-yard scuffle, it is bullying at its best. And I’m with you, I have no idea how the Republicans are going to overcome this. Several of my students lost their food stamps because of this “scuffle” – compassion does not seem to be a Republican word.

Climate change due to global warming – the most disconcerting is that weather will become more volatile – storms will be bigger, droughts will be harsher and last longer, floods will be more wide-spread. The droughts in Africa have been devastating, and even though a large lake has been discovered under Kenya, getting that water to the surface and not having water wars will be difficult. In the meantime, many farmers in the drought areas have started using an ancient technique call sand dams. The article I read didn’t provide me with enough words to create a good visual description so I’ll spend some time later today getting a visual look at what a sand dam is. But it is a technique that was created and used by the Romans, those smart people from way back when that gave us aqueducts and the coliseum! Boy! We had practical ancestors who were good problem solvers!

 

 

I’m also reading an article on cyborg enhancements that I’ll use to demonstrate conceptual mapping for my Research class. Artificial skin that is 1000 times more sensitive than real skin – remember Data from Star Trek and how sensitive his skin was? There have been advancements in prosthesis advancement for hands, ears, eyes, using the tongue to aid vision (not sure about that one)… there are also advances in developing supersenses. I’m not sure I want to see the same way a fly does, and there are times when I can smell just fine – I don’t need that particular sense enchanced! But I am intrigued by the idea of seeing sound. Can you imagine what Bach might look like in 3d? What colors would the various sounds be? How would I resolve the different instruments and their sounds? What music, sound, would you like to experience, Don?

On to the cave – Tweezers? Really? I could kick myself! That is what I thought it was, and as I was typing last week, I changed it to chopsticks thinking that you’d never give such a straight forward riddle that didn’t have a twist somewhere!

Forks, yup. And there really is such a thing as an ice cream fork. Some of my culinary students take great pride in being able to show what one looks like.

My guess for yours this week is: veins or arteries

And for your examination, I present:

Bouncing balance

Exercise and back relief

Rolling side to side, front to back

Tush relief

 

Have a great week everyone!

And Canadians – Happy Thanks Giving! You are so sensible having it this far from Christmas!

Enjoy!

Carolyn  

Images are downloaded from Google Images:

Fig 1 – Sand dams: Old technology saves lives retrieved from www.hydratelife.org

Fig 2 – What are sand dams: retrieved from www.excellentdevelopment.com

Fig 3 – Particle tests – 3D music retrieved from Visualizer on Vimeo: vimeo.com

Fig  4 – 3D computer animation in music video for 'SQ… retrieved from www.prweb.com

Fig 5 – Whiting Division – Silvr Lily retrieved from www.replacements.com

Innerspace, Outer Space and the Washington schoolyard!

Hi Carolyn,


First off - re: your last entry and more specifically your opening reference to weather in your area recently - you dared to utter  THE  "S"  WORD !  I am  undeniably into denial at the moment - as far as I'm concerned there is simply no such thing as snowy weather.  To quote Vizzini  " Inconceivable!"

Your observations/concerns about global warming have the support of a growing segment of the scientific community it would appear. I just cruised through an item on the web that spoke of the mid-point of this century as the probable beginning of the warmest weather patterns ever in  temperate  areas of the planet. So you may get to see those fireflies in the yard yet!





Speaking of temperate, or tempers at least, that's  quite the show, (or perhaps sideshow is more accurate )  being put on in D.C. at the moment. Being in Canada means we get a media ringside seat for these Mexican standoff shenanigans. It's sorta morbidly compelling to behold - like a train  wreck.  I have experienced the guilty pleasure, in recent weeks,  of scanning the conservative media especially and its almost scary. The recipe was the same no matter which outlet I cruised.


  Mix one cup of ham-handed fear-mongering with a half cup of jingoism and a tablespoon of third-rate evangelism with the occasional jeremiad thrown in for extra texture.  All of these ingredients are then stewed thoroughly in broth of hyperbolic rhetoric and served  on a flimsy bed of righteous indignation that makes an episode of The A-Team seem muted and fairly  Shakespearian by contrast. Visually it's a constant parade of pseudo-sombre looking men and women in impeccably tailored  suits and conservative ties/accessories surrounded by equally implacable security folk with imposing arms folded and steely expressions prominently displayed. There's always a few of them with those little  slinky-like cords dangling behind one ear Matrix-style too. 

 There's lotsa finger wagging and  pointing, of course, both verbally and physically, and sound/video bites galore which almost invariably open with Obama professing in various ways, his unyielding steadfastness and resolve. Often this is garnished with a John Williams-esque background score.







Actually Carolyn, characterizing them as  rebellious teenagers definitely strikes a chord. I'm more inclined, though,  to see this as a gaggle of petulant grade-schoolers scuffling in the  recess yard.   Seeking to "defund" Obamacare in this manner isn't far removed from extorting lunch money from little kids. In fact its probably literally doing some of  that, now, in one respect. For Republicans, especially, this can't be helpful to the creation of a forward-thinking, inclusive and compassionate party image that will successfully attract intelligent younger members now and  in the future. They may be shooting themselves in the foot with those N.R.A. coddled political and legislative firearms.  As the voter demographic evolves, in gender, age, ethnicity and interconnectivity, I can see the GOP being pushed close to the fringe party fence in the not too far future, unless it puts on a more embraceable face.  "Such is the power of democracy" as you noted, and such is the peril of it, too.




However, even if the shutdown means at the moment one can't take a tour of the most visited residence in your homeland there's  still Graceland - the second most visited homestead in the land of opportunity - and only by a small margin.




While we're in the items of  gravity room, I do believe the  just released movie of the same name will be on my short list of those I wanna see and will actually  "go to the show" to do so. I was, predictably, hurtled back to planet Kubrick upon beholding the promo image seen here. Most cool! 

 Shove over Meryl, and make room for Sandra.


I'm still chewing upon your observation that whatchamacallit and all those words of its ilk are of one generation. I'm  more inclined to think that younger students are still forming their vocabularies and haven't developed their circumlocution skills to the point where any word other than " thing" translates for them yet. That's why the educators mission is endless, n'est-ce-pas?



Okay, now that we're talking euphemistically, lets tackle the riddles too. Backyard globe lights didn't occur to me, I'll admit. My last one was actually tweezers. I figured I had to include the part about the "singular device with a plural moniker"  to avoid getting it confused with things like chopsticks or drumsticks or such that can be identified singly as well as in pairs. 

I am inclined to guess fork for your riddle this time - although the " ice-cream" part sorta flies in the face of that guess, I know. That's my best effort, alas. I present this one in return:

 

Microscopic pipeline carrying life saving and life-stealing solutions

 

 

 

Don.

 

 

 



All images sourced from Google Images

 

Fig. 1 - wemeantwell.com

Fig. 2 - nathanmorgan.com

Fig. 3 - nakeddc.com

Fig. 4 - secretsof7scribes.wordpress.com

Fig. 5 - well.blog.nytimes.com

Fig. 6 - filmofilia.com