A Sunday Drive

Back during my childhood, our parents would often load up my brother and me after Sunday morning church services for a leisurely drive around where we lived.  Even though we were seeing mostly familiar sights, it was still good to see them, and this is why “A Sunday Drive” sounded about right for the name of a weekly series revisiting familiar sites that are well worth seeing again and again.  The link below the image is to the site itself, and the image is linked to the post it was first included in here.

 Link: [A One-Pic Pony]

 Link: [Bird Brains & Dog Tales]

 Link: [Mickey and Me]

 Link: [Ohio River Life]

 Link: [Spirithelpers]

 Link: [Stuff Could Always Be Worse]

Link: [Vienna for Dummies]

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

ESPN Additions

Ironically, some of the best television commercials are for ESPN, and only air on ESPN.  Now, I do not know if these ads really are meant to add all the more to the viewing experience, but it works for me.

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Sites To See

The SOLE purpose of this weekly series is to help call attention to sites that I think many would find most interesting—in one way or another.  Just to be clear, inclusion in this series is not necessarily meant as a recommendation, and I have included sites that are rather disturbing to me.  The link below each image is to the site itself, and each image is linked to the particular post from which it was taken when applicable.  Please, go see for yourself.  Oh, and as of August 10, 2012, I will be no longer including sites that have auto-play and word verification engaged.

 Link: [The Cafe Sucre Farine]

 Link: [The Comforts of Home]

 Link: [The Eagle's Aerial Perspective]

 Link: [The Eff-Stop]

 Link: [The Fifth Horseman]

 Link: [The Girl Next Door]

 Link: [The Middle]

 Link: [The ND's Nigh...]

 Link: [The Outskirts of Suburbia]

Link: [The Postal Picture]

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

ATF: Irish Mist

This weekly series will include as many of my all-time favorite tunes as I can get my grubby little hands on (so to speak).  Now, each one included in each edition will have some connection with the other—albeit only as a figment of my imagination, but they will not be numbered.  For I just cannot bring myself to rate some higher than others.  So, this will not be a countdown, but if you are enjoying them as much as I do, it won’t matter.  Besides, with no countdown, this could go on forever and ever!  Oh, and despite the fact that there is absolutely no way that your musical tastes can be as exquisite as mine, I welcome any suggestions that you might dare to make.  I am, after all, quite magnanimous by nature.

Link: [Loreena McKennitt]

The Mummer’s Dance

Loreena McKennitt

When in the springtime of the year

When the trees are crowned with leaves

When the ash and oak

And the birch and yew

Are dressed in ribbons fair

When owls call the breathless moon

In the blue veil of the night

The shadows of the trees appear

Amidst the lantern light

We've been rambling all the night

And sometime of this day

Now returning back again

We bring a garland gay

Who will go down to those shady groves

And summon the shadows there

And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms

In the springtime of the year

The songs of birds seem to fill the wood

That when the fiddler plays

All their voices can be heard

Long past their woodland days

We've been rambling all the night

And sometime of this day

Now returning back again

We bring a garland gay

And so they linked their hands and danced

Round in circles and in rows

And so the journey of the night descends

When all the shades are gone

A garland gay we bring you here

And at your door we stand

It is a sprout well budded out

The work of our Lord's hand

We've been rambling all the night

And sometime of this day

Now returning back again

We bring a garland gay

We've been rambling all the night

And sometime of this day

Now returning back again

We bring a garland gay

Link: [Enya]

Only Time

Enya

Who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows

Only time

And who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose

Only time

Who can say why your heart sighs

As your love flies

Only time

And who can say why your heart cries

When your love lies

Only time

Who can say when the roads meet

That love might be

In your heart

And who can say when the day sleeps

If the night keeps

All your heart

Night keeps

All your heart

Who can say if your love grows

As your heart chose

Only time

And who can say where the road goes

Where the day flows

Only time

Who knows

Only time

Who knows

Only time

Lyrics From: [elyrics.net]

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Good, Great and Glorious Ads

Since not everyone has been as appreciative of my efforts with the Good, Bad and Ugly Ads series as they should be, it seemed prudent to shake things up a bit from time to time.  Hence, Good, Great and Glorious Ads, as well as Bad, Ugly and Awful Ads.  Oh, and if these new approaches are still not to your complete and utter satisfaction, I would tell you what you can do with the point of your view if saying things like that did not now leave such a bitter taste in my mouth.  Therefore, be ye thankful!

GOOD

GREAT

GLORIOUS

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

The Mag 186

Sponsored by [Magpie Tales]

An Ode to St. Ninian’s Isle

Time passes

Memories fade

Dust collects

On untold treasures

No more people to plunder

No more Vikings to invade

Yet you remain the same

St. Ninian’s Isle

A breakwater against

The fierce North Sea

Waves still crash

Winds still howl

Shetland ponies still balk and bite

At the sight

Of your shoreline

May you remain the same

St. Ninian’s Isle

Until the elements melt

At the very end

Of this world

Then may you be recreated

St. Ninian’s Isle

As a haven in warm waters

May your green grasses grow

May your cool streams flow

Basking in the glory

Of the Son

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

and

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]

Come Monday...The Washington Bureaucrats

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of (or commentary about) websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time.  Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.”  This is subject to change, however.  In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while.  For rants promote change, and change can be good—right?  Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

This started out to be quite a rant.  For the [“stuff”] is starting to hit the proverbial fan again over the name of the [Washington Redskins], and I do not see where anyone should find it offensive.

Yes, “redskins” is indeed racist.  That is, at least in the broadest sense of the term.  For only Indians (feather, not dot) are referred to as being redskins, but in order for it to be reasonably considered offensive, it must be used in a derogatory manner.

No, calling an Indian a redskin has never been the same as calling a black person the “n” word.  Of course, some have used it in the same way, but it does not carry the same meaning to most Indians.

Be assured that I know a thing or two about what I am trying to say.  For aside from coming into contact with Indians all over this country during my adventures, my mom’s father was a full-blood [Cherokee], which would have made her half-Indian, along with being half-Irish.  Now, if you were to have called her a half-breed, or just a breed, you would have seen her get her Irish up and go on the warpath, but she did not mind being called a redskin at all.  Neither did my Uncle Paul, who was a full-blood [Choctaw].

Besides, in the case of the NFL team in Washington, D.C., the name is meant as an expression of pride (along with hoping to strike fear into the hearts and minds of their opponents).  Is that not the way it is for all sports teams?  After all, do you think that the owners of the [Carolina Panthers] wanted to call their team that on account of panthers being generally recognized as being cute and cuddly?

Okay, maybe I need to back up just a little on that sort of reasoning.  For when nerdy academics are involved, the names of their athletic teams do not always make a whole lot of sense to the rest of us (take the [Maryland Terrapins] for an example).

In all fairness, it may have been that the area around what is now known as [CollegePark, Maryland] was overrun with box turtles when the beginnings of the University of Maryland was established there in 1856, and a bite from a box turtle can cause a nasty infection.  Since this was before much was known about infections, one of their bites could have led to death.  So, encountering a bunch of box turtles would have been a fearful thing.

I must admit that I do not know what someone was thinking when they chose the [Kewpies] for Columbia (MO) Hickman High School.  I am also in quite a quandary over the Sparta (MO) Trojans.  Although, for a different reason.

Until I received some more information last Saturday morning, I was going to propose a compromise of changing the name of the Redskins to the Natives, and I thought that would be a very good one.  For the team could keep all of their icons while giving political correctness an obvious nod.

Oh, but I now know that this would not be enough.  For the trouble is not so much about the team being named the Redskins as it is more about where it is located.  For it was various administrations in Washington over the years, who broke all of the treaties with the Indians, and then left them to fend for themselves after taking away practically everything they had to work with.

Alas, it was really no different in America than it has been everywhere else over the ages, but the ugly details to the conquering of this land are still relatively fresh.  After all, there is not anyone screaming about the NBA team in Boston being called the [Celtics] because the [Celts] were conquered and absorbed into the civilizations that took over their territories hundreds of years ago.  Whereas, there were still parts of this country under the control of various Indian tribes just 125 years ago (or so).

Nonetheless, there is much about the history of America that we should be deeply ashamed of.  Therefore, if changing the name of the Redskins will make some Indians happy, so be it, but I now realize that changing it to the Natives is not the answer.

How about changing it to the Bureaucrats?  Would this not strike fear into the hearts and minds of men and women of all colors and creeds?  Oh yeah, just slap a Treasury Department seal on the sides of their helmets, and you would see 300 hundred-pound men on the opposing team crawling back to their sideline and crying to their coach,  “Come on man, those are IRS auditors on that defensive line!”

Please Also Visit:

[FishHawk Droppings]

And

[The Tribulation Times Herald-Exhorter]