IN CASE YOU REGULARS PROBABLY DIDN'T QUITE NOTICE, BLOGDRIVE HAD SOME TECHNICAL ISSUES OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS precluding the immediate posting (as opposed to postdated such) of blog material.

The reasons for which were never disclosed up front, leaving Your Correspondent, no doubt, quite frustrated psychologically trying to find answers or explanations therefor.

In any case, the afflicted postings are now up, and your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Not to mention your support, especially so in form of online shopping--be it off to the side of the page or through my new cybermall.

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IN THE WEATHER DEPARTMENT, ESPECIALLY SO HERE IN THE LIKES OF MINNESOTA, which takes great pride in having such diversities of climatic extremes for the latitudes so situate, you learn rather quickly that appearences can be deceiving vis-a-vis how the weather will turn out as the day wears on.

From a sunny (if breezy) afterlunch yesterday, Your Correspondent can discern a change from hazy sunshine this morning to what could be a showery afterlunch into evening. Forecasts call for the showers to transit these parts around midnight, with a return to nicer weather likely tomorrow.

As for the Syttende Mai weekend (Syttende Mai being the Norwegian national day, celebrated with festivals in communities with substantial Norwegian populations like Spring Grove and Westby in these parts), it should be partly cloudy Friday and Saturday, with showers likely on the Sunday.

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FOR THOSE NEEDING ANOTHER REASON WHY THE OXYCONTIN SOW CAN'T BE TRUSTED (yet still is, particularly so among Those Who Should Know Better), Brave New Films' Fox Attacks unit calls your timely attention to the following video, as speaks for itself:

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AND IS IT JUST ME, OR IS MISSOURI SEEING SOME MAJOR BIG DIVINE JUDGEMENT IN TORNADIC FORM thanks to a possible Constitutional Amendment in the Show-Me State as would require "proof of valid citizenship" as a formality to exercise electoral franchise, never mind the price of electoral disenfranchisement ensuing among the Lower Classes @ the expense of an "elect***entitled as of right" which the Zealots and True Believers of hyperconservatism see themselves as exclusively entitled?

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AUSTRALIANS, AS MUCH AS GERMANS, CZECHS AND BRITS--OR PERHAPS MAYBE A LITTLE MORE SO--HAVE WHAT COULD BEST BE CALLED A QUASI-RELIGION OF BEER (or, as the Aussies oft call it, "the amber nectar") which can get out of hand @ times.

As witness the use of "name-and-shame" campaigns listing such as have been arrested for DUI in local gazettas for the sake of warning.

And the likes of the following, duly noted by the BBC:

A car driver in Australia has been fined for strapping down his beer rather than his young child.

Police said they were "shocked and appalled" when they pulled over the car south of Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.

They said the 30-can pack of beer was strapped down between two adults in the back, with the five-year-old child unrestrained on the floor.

The driver was handed a fine of A$750 (US$709; C$706; £362; €455; Rs.29,753; ¥73,734).

The fine was for failing to ensure a child was wearing a seatbelt as well as driving an unregistered and uninsured vehicle.

'Blank' look

The car was pulled over on the Ross Highway last Friday.

Constable Wayne Burnett said: "I haven't ever seen something like this before.

"This is the first time that the beer has taken priority over a child... The child was sitting in the lump in the centre, unrestrained."

When Constable Burnett handed over the fine he said the driver "just looked at me blankly".

"He didn't get it," Constable Burnett said.

"I asked him about the fact the child was unrestrained and the beer was, and he said he didn't know anything about it."

Superintendent Sean Parnell of Alice Springs police said the incident was a "timely reminder" to ensure "all passengers are secured".