lookin

I thought that thing tasted like hot sauce!

That is one great post, Lurkerspeaks! I am speechless. Congrats to all the carpet-munchers and many thanks for the fun.

Marvelous, on so many levels. Thanks for posting.

Not sure if those like moi who nominated folks last week are supposed to vote again, so I decided to consult with Hanging Chad, my Statistically Significant Other. He suggested sending some more votes to Lurkerspeaks who can use 'em if he likes and toss 'em if he don't. Naturally, I'm prostrate with gratitude for the advice and other assorted kindnesses.

Very well then, don't think carefully about the future. Sheesh!

Thanks! Like you, I'm all Apple, all the time. But I keep having weird experiences trying to stay away from Apple's cloud. I thought I had severed all ties but then, just a couple of days ago, I discovered some cover art had been installed on some of my iTunes albums which I had manually loaded from my own CD's. I know I didn't load the cover art and I can't figure out who the hell did. And what, if anything, they grabbed of mine while they were visiting. I know I'm a Luddite when it comes to folks having unfettered access to my computer. If it's something that's important to me, like my bank account and 401k, and Amazon, I'll happily hook into their systems. But if it's something important to them, like my emails and music and graphic files, I try to keep a wall up. But, these days, there are so many folks trying to get their mitts on everything, and not being very forthcoming about what they're grabbing, that I'm always looking over my shoulder. I guess, one of these days, I'll just give up any illusion of privacy and dump a disk image onto Weibo and Facebook, but that day is not today. Thanks again for the info.

No time like the present: The Man with Two Left Feet (1917): At five minutes to eleven on the morning named he was at the station, a false beard and spectacles shielding his identity from the public eye. If you had asked him he would have said that he was a Scotch business man. As a matter of fact, he looked far more like a motor-car coming through a haystack. The Inimitable Jeeves (1923): It was my Uncle George who discovered that alcohol was a food well in advance of modern medical thought. I turned to Aunt Agatha, whose demeanour was now rather like that of one who, picking daisies on the railway, has just caught the down express in the small of the back. Jeeves lugged my purple socks out of the drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of his salad. I once got engaged to his daughter Honoria, a ghastly dynamic exhibit who read Nietzsche and had a laugh like waves breaking on a stern and rockbound coast. Very Good Jeeves (1930): The Right Hon. was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say `When!' My Aunt Dahlia has a carrying voice... If all other sources of income failed, she could make a good living calling the cattle home across the Sands of Dee. She fitted into my biggest armchair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing armchairs tight about the hips that season. Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing-glove. Ring for Jeeves (1953): It was a confusion of ideas between him and one of the lions he was hunting in Kenya that had caused A. B. Spottsworth to make the obituary column. He thought the lion was dead, and the lion thought it wasn't. A Few Quick Ones (1959): Attila the Hun might have broken off his engagement to her, but nobody except Attila the Hun, and he only on one of his best mornings. Oofy, thinking of the tenner he had given Freddie, writhed like an electric fan. If you're not laughing by now, then by all means don't head down to the library this afternoon. Otherwise . . .

I've got the iPhone 5 and my contract is just about to expire. So, like markgordon, I'm planning to stop by the Apple store and see what the iPhone 6 looks and feels like. The gating factor for me will be backup options. Seems to me I read a year ago that the new iOS and/or the new Mac OS and/or the new iTunes requires me to backup to the iCloud. Then I think I read a few weeks later that I still have the option to back up to my computer. I have no intention of backing up to the cloud, no way, no how. As a result, and for the first time in thirty years, I have not upgraded to the newest Mac software. My plan is to stand there in the Apple store and have them swear to me that I can continue with local backups. That done, I'll probably get the iPhone 6 and upgrade all around.

Two Wodehouses! I feel vindicated! It's been fifty years since I slipped one of his out of the family bookcase, started reading, and started laughing. To this day, I can take any one of his books off my own bookshelf, open it to any page, and be chuckling within a minute. Two minutes and I'm laughing out loud. I'd never attempt to try mimicking his style in a post, though I think I once allowed that something gave me the pip. And some of my captions seem to end on a downdraft. Hadn't thought to pin it on Wodehouse, though I may may picked up something after all these years. One fellow who did pick up something is Joe Keenan. He's not Wodehouse but he comes closer than I'd ever have thought possible. Not English at all, his main characters are two gay guys in New York City and their close female friend. The two books I've read, if anyone's interested, are Blue Heaven and Putting on the Ritz. Keenan went on to write for, and eventually became the executive producer of, Frasier. Some of the best writing on TV, in my opinion, and occasionally a plot line straight out of Wodehouse.

Oh, Ethyl !!

If they delivered on the I'm gonna come now! holler, you could name your price.

Very well said! I didn't vote in the negative categories (6, 8, 9) which Lurker said was OK. And I had a couple of nominations in most of the other categories, which he also said was OK. Even then, I don't think my votes reflect all the different views I hold throughout the years. I trust Lurker though and I'm sure if he thinks the results would do any harm, he'll manage to lose the ballot box on the way to the convention.

I'm sure the laid-back denizens of Humboldt County would be more welcoming of you than you are of them. Though you may want to bring your own bong.

Well, he's on again, but a fat lot of good that does me. My "Free Chat Has Expired"! It actually expired a couple of days ago, but I thought it might reset every day or two. Not a chance! OZ has got that thing locked as tight as a rusty nut. I've never felt I had the self-discipline to turn my credit card over to one of these chat sites, no matter how tempting the bait. I guess especially when the bait is as tempting as The Young Mister Johnson. So I suppose he'll just have to carry on without me, and my Visa will stay in my pocket. Along with my own rusty nuts and everything else.

Just last evening, I happened to watch a program on da Vinci in which this very painting was featured. The ermine, or stoat, is said to be the spitting image of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan at the time, and at once the lady's lover and Leonardo's patron. The Duke, however, went on to marry someone else, as did Michael Jackson.

All right, fellas, I think it was just a fly-by.

Of course her guests will be throwing Minute® Rice.

I'll be glad to take the extra ticket. I have a friend who's dying to attend.

Dunno which is worse: my fear of heights or my fear of arugula.

Have him Call Me and I don't mean Maybe!

He's b-a-a-c-k! http://www.boytoyflirt.com/rooms/blake_johnson/

Perhaps that's what OZ is off arranging. Wonder how many credits that will cost?

Actually, the genes we carry today have evolved over thousands of generations for most of which we humans have been hunters. So the example of hunters helping one another is one that is quite relevant to our genetic makeup today. You raise a good point that evolution is ongoing and we do not hunt much today. And these days selfishness may be a very viable strategy for passing our genes to the next generation. I'm sure it will register a blip in genetic evolution but, hopefully, it won't overwhelm the large reservoir of genetic material that guides us toward altruism. But that's only a hope and, as far as I understand, evolution is based on what works rather than what we hope will work. Until we take it into the lab that is.

Fine! But I'm keeping Balmoral.

Yes, I recall seeing that 'Piece of Work' film a few years ago and she was either working, or on the phone trying to get work. LA, Vegas, Jersey City, it didn't seem to matter. I've really enjoyed all these threads on her as they give a much more comprehensive look at who she was. One of the most impressive things to me was the enduring relationships she formed. She had a bunch of folks who stuck close to her all her life. (Sorry, MsAnn, out of 'Likes' already and here it is, not even lunchtime yet!)