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Really Meandering.....

And now for something completely different.....



We've been successfully meandering all over the site, but thought I should put up a new meander thread for the weekend anyway. This is one of the women I'm studying: Martha Maxwell was one of the very first professional naturalists/taxidermists in the country to realistically portray animals.

Comments

  1. Save the photo in my pictures, crop it with picture manager, and then upload it into the post. Easy as pie.

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  2. Can you do that for me? If you click on the photo, you can copy a good (double) version to work from.

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  3. The Senate Dems seem to be going soft on the health care bill, appealing to its moderates and Blue Dogs with a watered down version that nixes the public option but extends Medicare and Medicaid to those 55 and over.

    I suppose this is good news to those on the verge of retirement, but it doesn't do anything to bring health care costs down. I would think these "fiscal conservatives" would be for a public option just so it does drive down the cost of health insurance, but it seems they are too beholden to private health insurance companies.

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  4. You're a genius! THANKS! Martha and the animals thank you too.

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  5. In the end this seems to benefit insurance companies by taking potentially sick old people out of the private insurance market and forcing young healthy people into it.

    Conservatives are only interested in blocking Obama. I love how they are now the great defenders of Medicare. Anything to say NO.

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  6. Yea, these were the same guys who wanted to privatize Social Security.

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  7. And tried to block it to begin with as socialized medicine and taking away people's individual freedom as we just read in Schlesinger. Pretty discouraging when you think about it.

    I give Obama lots of credit for trying to work with them, but even the most so-called moderates of the bunch don't seem interested. Much more interested in defeating him than doing what is best for the country.

    In the meantime, Countdown has sponsored free health clinics in states with wavering Senators -- but the Senators, of course, never bother to attend to see for themselves. You wonder what kind of blood runs in these peoples' veins. Ice water I guess.

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  8. A new bio of Wilson is reviewed (not too favorably) in the Times this weekend, as well as this one on Abigail Adams:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/books/review/Anderson-t.html

    Woody Holton might be an interesting historian to read here at some point. I really liked his Forced Founders -- I have but haven't yet read his Unruly Americans:

    http://www.amazon.com/Unruly-Americans-Origins-Constitution-Holton/dp/0809016435/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

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  9. Where's the Jackalope in that pic?

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  10. Actually I've seen pictures of a scene of monkeys playing cards that she did so she was certainly not above a jackalope if it would bring in some much needed cash.

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  11. I watched the Montana football game today on ESPN.That was some nice weather going on.

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  12. I know. Talk about a home field advantage!

    It wasn't too bad on the hill where I live during the afternoon (although I'm pretty much snowed in this a.m.) but reading the news this a.m. they called it blizzard like conditions for the game. I'm sure it was a wild night in town last night. Montanans love their football.

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  13. I see Lieberman is doing his damnedest to undermine the health care bill, trying to play the role of the conscientious objector on CBS,

    "Though I don't know exactly what's in it, from what I hear, I certainly would have a hard time voting for it because it has some of the same infirmities that the public option did."

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_health_care_overhaul

    It just doesn't get anymore shameful than this.

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  14. What's weird about his opposition now is that this plan really is a gift to the insurance industry. I guess Lieberman is as dumb as he appears to be. The insurance industry needs to take him aside and explain this to him.

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  15. Read Henry James The American to and fro DC -- I think this is the first time I have ever read a real James novel (recall reading Daisy Miller and maybe some other shorter works with the Times group).

    I'm fairly certain I have a few more James novels in boxes in the garage but it's too cold to go out there and dig around, so went by the used paperback bookstore here and picked up a stack. Nice to read something a little more gentile than killing, stuffing, and displaying animals for a change. Might try Portrait of a Lady while we find another book to read here.

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  16. Hate to read about even more grief coming to the reservations:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/14gangs.html

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  17. I read Washington Square sometime ago, but haven't read anything since. It was quite depressing. Golden Bowl is supposed to be his most "uplifting" book.

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  18. Not sure I'm up for something depressing, that's for sure. The American was not particularly uplifting, but it was so astute and took such an interesting novelistic turn that it makes me want to know more about James and his world.

    I think I mentioned here earlier that I read the Five of Hearts, which really interested me in John Hay, Henry Adams, Clarence King, etc. James drifted in and out of their world.

    There's another book I need to read .... Henry Adams autobiography. I don't think I've ever read that one either. I think I'll pull that one out too.

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  19. Good book. There is also Garry Wills' study of Henry Adams, which I've been long meaning to read,

    http://www.amazon.com/Henry-Adams-Making-America-Garry/dp/0618872663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1260811878&sr=8-1

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  20. I'd be up for that one. I have it here somewhere.

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  21. Sounds like what Naismith invented was more like handball. Anyway, Happy 118 for Basketball. It has truly become an international sport, with much more interest in basketball than in soccer here in Lithuania, thanks to NBA Big Men past and present like Sabonis and Ilgauskis.

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  22. I boosted the number of recent comments to 15 as it seemed some of our comments were getting lost. Also allows anyone to go back to long past posts and comment, if so inclined, with links in the margin.

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  23. Good, because I don't want John to miss this one from Jonathan Turley. I think I have a new must-read blog:

    http://jonathanturley.org/2009/12/15/the-perils-of-canadian-ice-fishing/#more-18479

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  24. I didn't know there was actually someone named Tasman. I figured Tasmania was just some kooky name cartographers came up with.

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  25. NY, be sure to check out Josh Kornbluth's latest addition to his website, A Communist Christmas. My idea of a holiday story!

    http://www.joshkornbluth.com/

    (click on the cell phone)

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  26. Visiting briefly but will most certainly do as you advise, many thanks, avrds.

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  27. The video is very short and very worth it. I think it should become a new Christmas classic, but given Kornbluth's politics it probably won't.

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