AS APRIL PREPARES ITS SEGUE INTO MAY UP HERE IN THE MINNWISSIPPI REGION WHERE YOUR CORRESPONDENT IS RESIDENT, it appears rather pleasant and nice outside.
But, come the overnight, expect the likelihood of showers and maybe the odd rumble of thunder or two. Which, for those in areas as have seen all too frequent rainfall translating into quasi-flooding so far this spring, could be like a bad dream constantly repeating itself.
And still, the farmers and planters want some dry weather for once for to get the field work started for once--unless, of course, they elect not to plant much in the way of cereals because of high fuel and fertiliser prices for the most part.
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SHED NO TEARS FOR ALBERT HOFFMANN, the research chemist for Swiss pharmaceuticals company Sandoz (since becoming Novartis after merger with Ciba-Geigy several years back) who accidentally discovered lysergicides (LSD) during some research into plant fungi's medecinal potential back in 1938.
Hoffmann died @ an old age home near Basel from a heart attack @ 102 years of age--not bad for what could likely be considered the first psychadelic love child after discovering that his new compound produced some spectacular out-of-body sensations bordering on the etheral.
Which, by the late 1950's and early 1960's, would get out of hand for a drug which Herr Hoffmann originally hoped would provide some insights into mental disorders. So out of hand, in fact, that many of the world's soverign countries would step in and ban lysergicides as a narcotic or otherwise habit-forming drug.
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IT LOOKS AS IF THE EXCESSES OF HANNAH MONTANA MANIA MAY HAVE FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH MILEY CYRUS, who plays the closet bubblegum country star on the hit Disney Channel series.
As in that quasi-suggestive pose for Vanity Fair's new number, which, in the minds of such like the faltering Christian Coalition, should be grounds enough for Disney Channel to cancel Hannah Montana forthwith under the Morals Clause of her contract (as quoted by Right Wing Watch):
Miley Cyrus should be held accountable for taking the semi-topless Vanity Fair photos, Michele Combs, a spokesperson for Christian Coalition of America, tells Usmagazine.com.
"Disney should reprimand her," Combs says.
Combs is calling for a televised press conference, where "Miley should say it was a mistake and that kids have to be very careful at such a young age." (Cyrus issued a statement, apologizing; the Disney Channel claims the magazine "manipulated" her, which Vanity Fair denies.)
"Kids look up to her," Combs adds. "Something needs to be done."
Miley, 15, also admitted in the interview that Sex and the City is her favorite TV show.
"If she's gonna go out there and represent wholesome values, she needs to be more accountable for her actions," Combs says.
Combs adds that famed photographer Annie Leibovitz has "a reputation for doing racy things ... Miley should have thought this out before she agreed to go in front of Annie."
She said the photos — as well as other ones of a lingerie-clad Cyrus that recently hit the Internet — are "very disappointing ... sad.
The photos are "gonna hurt a lot of people," Combs says. "It's gonna hurt her image.
And I think I know what the so-called "Christian Coalition" means by "wholesome values" in entertainment form: None other than Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur, das Realkultur von der Amerikanischer Volk....
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WHAT A STRAY RACCOON CAN DO TO DISRUPT THE FABRIC OF SMALL-TOWN AND RURAL LIVING was best epitomised on Monday out in Lewiston, some 12 mile west of where Your Correspondent is based--as in a raccoon strutting unnoticed into the local substation for Alliant Energy, tripping all manner of controls, and setting off an outage affecting several area communities for about 12 hours until a portable substation could be brought in to handle the area's power needs in the interim.
The raccoon's intrusion resulted in no less than $750,000 in damage to substation equipment.
As for the raccoon @ fault, he was put to death.
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THERE'S A NOTION IN CERTAIN CONSERVATIVE-LEANING CIRCLES THAT GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE-PRESUMPTIVE JOHN McCAIN, a/k/a The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang of Indecision 2008, by virtue of his being a war veteran, is immune from attack and criticism, and that "all right-thinking Americans" should respect this as a matter of patriotic formality.
Is there anything in law which proscribes criticism or attack of war veterans, under pain of fines and/or penal servitude (let alone "unwritten law and tradition")?
I mention this for the sake of insight into news that the Turkish Parliament, hoping to placate the European Union into considering accession of Turkey as a member state thereof, has modified the notorious Article 301 of its penal code to proscribe "insulting the Turkish Nation" rather than "insulting Turkishness," as heretofore.
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MEANWHILE, THREE RESIDENTS OF THE GREEK ISLAND OF LESBOS (A/K/A MYTILENE), whence comes the term "lesbian" (as in female homosexuals), have sued a Greek gay/lesbian rights organisation for using the term "lesbian" in its name and stylee.
Which, the natives of Lesbos contend, is likely to cause confusion or deception among the public--never mind the fact that Sappho, that poetess of the ancients who celebrated female homosexual relationships, was originally from Lesbos herself.
But then again, the Greeks contend they have exclusive rights to the name of Macedonia, which explains the name and stylee of the "Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia"--and no doubt raises the ire of ethnic Macedonians, whose empire of antiquity extended across parts of present-day Greece, Serbia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
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