What's the biggest dandelion you ever saw?

Want it?

It's nice. We just don't use it and would rather have back the space it takes up.

Before I put it on the sidewalk with a sign that says "Free," I thought I'd let you guys know that it's free to the first interested party who leaves a comment and can come get it.

*Princess lamp not included.

McDonald's, my dad's record collection, and me.

You know that old band from the 70s called Focus? My dad turned me on to their song, "Hocus Pocus," the one with all of that stoned-out yodeling, wild guitar, and flute on their "Live at the Rainbow" album way back when I was a kid. Led by the multi-talented Thijs Van Leer with the awesome Jan Akkerman on guitar, that eight-minutes of absolute mania never failed to knock my socks off. I was probably in my early teens when my dad introduced me to bands like Weather Report, Yes, and Focus from his collection of vinyl records. Previously obsessed with the heavy metal fare of the times (Dokken, Motley Crue, Ratt, etc.), this new-to-me aural discovery did lots to teach me to keep my ears open to the rest of the weird and wonderful out there in the music world.

Now, a good twenty-five years later, imagine my surprise to hear "Hocus Pocus" playing on my TV this morning. The bigger shock is that I heard it in a new McDonald's commercial featuring Line Rider game. I can't find a good clip of the ad on YouTube, otherwise I'd share it here.

Anyway, thanks to McDonald's I was inspired to buy the song on iTunes today. You might like to do the same. It's a really great song. And a great memory for me.

Not Ready To Make Nice...At The Opera

NPR makes a connection between our Dixie Chicks and an opera from 1834 called Maria Stuarda.

Click here for the scoop.

At the risk of having my blogger keys taken away...

...I've never watched Lost and I probably never will.

Actually, I hear the women don't want us men there anyway.

Click it for maximum readability.

Honeysuckle

My first taste of honeysuckle was as a kid on my grandparents' farm in Hartsville, TN. I recently came across more on a walk on the Greenway by my home. I let my kiddos try some. One liked it and the other wasn't about to put her mouth on some plant. I tried a taste myself and couldn't believe how minuscule the drop of honey was. When I was little, I swear there was so much more of it there to taste.

I guess they just don't make honeysuckle like they used to.

I'm calling this the quote of the day.

From And I Am Not Lying: “Like most white guys that work in the tech industry, I’ve never won a fight. Unless you count flame-wars on Digg as fights, but everyone loses those just for being there in the first place.”

MobLogic talks with prosecutor David McDade about convicted murderer David Crowe and his clemency.

Caption This.

My friend Leesa took this.



I'm remembering the end of Braveheart. "Freedom!"

Sunbright, TN

As photographed by flickr user thefog52.

Aria: Italian for "air."

After reading a wonderful post on opera by Donald Laub at the New York Public Library blog, I borrowed a few of his faves from my own Hermitage Public Library. It's been an absolute joy to listen to this beautiful music this week. Some opera goes way over my head and I have no problem with that at all. The stories are unknown to me and I really don't care for the more bombastic pieces. And the male singers don't move me in the least.

What I do like, what does capture me in the best of ways, is the aria. The word itself is Italian for "air." I like that. It's during the pleasure of listening to a soft and beautiful aria that I feel somewhat light as air. The singers pictured above are: Anna Netrebko, Deborah Voigt, Cecilia Bartoli, Karita Mattila, Angela Gheorghiu, and Renee Fleming.

Yesterday I was listening to Karita Matilla when my daughter Ari asked me what I was listening to. I told her and she lit up upon hearing the word "aria." "That's like my name," she exclaimed cheerfully. Indeed, it is. And my life is filled with beauty.

Wherein I explain the brand new, made-up word, "gall-blogger."

A blogger friend made mention of her gallbladder the other day and for some reason the non-word "gall-blogger" came to mind. Looking for a reason to justify its existence, I offer the following:

I offered to my lovely wife today that she could buy me one of two possible gifts for Father's Day this year. I suggested that either an iPod docking station alarm clock or an external hard drive for the laptop would be a perfectly useful and wonderful gift from her to me.

Now there's nothing wrong with this at all, except for the sad fact that for this year's Mother's Day all the poor woman received from yours truly was a card. This is where I imagine some of you are saying, "Can you imagine the gall of this blogger?"

To be fair, that external hard drive really would be a gift for us though.

On Scooters

The Wall Street Journal has a nice piece about the very fuel efficient mode of transport known as the scooter.

Born to Be ... Fuel Efficient

Also, visit SCOOTRAK: affordable GPS tracking for your vehicle

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