A Return?

The person who was behind Delatacit, which shut down and almost re-started under curious circumstances last year, is apparently sitting in as guest blogger while Mike, author of Down with Absolutes!, goes on vacation.

It's an interesting idea: bringing in someone to keep things going while you refresh and recharge.

I don't think it would work in my case here at Mike's Musings. Who else knows enough about the minutiae of my day-to-day life?

Where's Christina?

Sunday afternoon, we dropped Christina off at Camp Pecometh, a Methodist summer camp on the Chester River, outside of Centreville, Maryland.

Camp Pecometh seems a nice place. Colleen had done a few sessions there and Christina did her first sleep-away -- a mini-camp -- last year. She's a perfect camper; she jumps right into the society in the cabin and makes friends easily. I think she'll have a very nice time.

Odometer Milestone

I rolled 22,222 miles on my Prius today. I noticed while on a back road, so I was able to safely snap a photo. When I rolled 20,000 the other week, I was out on the highway and not able to pull off in time.

Declaration of Revocation, by John Cleese

We can take refuge in humor, and satire such as John Cleese's Declaration of Revocation is a good example. In it, he revokes our independence and provides a prime example of poking fun at both sides of an issue. In this case, the common language that divides the US and Great Britain, along with other factors.

It appears to date from the innocent, pre-9/11 days after the first Bush election. It should be taken as nothing more than a pleasant bit of biting social commentary.

Found by a Fountain

I was taking photos of the fountains in the courtyard at Delaware Technical and Community College, in Georgetown, when I found this sailboat. It was one of two that someone had been sailing in the fountains before I got there.

I wonder what knowledge and notes were soaking away into the paper as it sat there?

I was at Del Tech to pick Colleen up from her first Academic Challenge class. This is a program for Sussex school kids that lets them take advanced level courses and, if they stay with the program from eighth though twelfth grade, earn college credits.

Some Lyrics I Like

I like music with tight, poetic lyrics in language that sings even without the music or the vocalist.

Here's an example that's been in my head lately. It is the middle section (give or take) of Sarah Harmer's Lodestar:

Out in the night,
out on the water,
We pull the boat back to shore.

Breathing the air
in the stillness of the bay.

Intensity of stars
reflected in the water,
Silently ignite.

The oar dips in
to oil like water
and we,
Are away.

Under the moon,
In the great black night
with no lodestar,
In sight.

It helps that the music and the singing are lovely, but I think these lines stand pretty well on their own.

Gannett News Makes an Error

It is a small one, but I think worth correcting.

In a story on Joe Biden's appearance last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Biden raises his hipness quotient, reporter Jennifer Brooks writes:

Stewart broadsided the state of Delaware: Isn't it time, he wondered, for someone to "buy the entire state indoor plumbing?"

Wrong.

Stewart asked if someone shouldn't buy everyone in Delaware "indoor carpeting." Senator Biden responded something like "I thought somebody already did." To which Jon Stewart replied with something about "that spring-y feeling underfoot" in the state.

I think Miss Brooks was projecting her own prejudices about the First State? I'll give her credit and assume it was a Freudian slip.

UPDATE: I sent Ms. Brooks an e-mail this morning calling the error to her attention. Here's her response:

I was in the studio and mis-heard Stewart, then got stuck in a hotel room that didn't subscribe to Comedy Central. Weak! Carpeting makes a lot more sense than plumbing, actually. A correction is already on the way to the paper. Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. I'm going to go bang my head against the wall now.

Good for her! Though I don't think she should bang her head against anything. Also, I hereby strike-out and retract my catty remark from this morning. I shouldn't post before my first cup of coffee.

By the way, I think the whole exchange was really about DuPont carpet products, but that part of it got lost in the banter.

Local Dolphin May Get SAG Card

According to the News Journal, Hollywood stars may be filming in Lewes!

The paper reports that Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker are planning to film a scene at Cape Henlopen State Park on Wednesday, August 3, and may also film in a shop in downtown Lewes.

Parker, star of HBO's "Sex and the City" will only be in town briefly. Mayor Jim Ford is quoted:

"“She'’s just here for a day trip unless she falls in love with Lewes and stays. Who knows?"”

Why not? Lewes is, officially, a City.

The scene at the State Park is to be a converstion between the two stars while they are sitting on surfboards on the ocean. According to Mayor Ford, "a dolphin pops up and grabs his foot."

I think you have to have a speaking part to get your SAG Card, but maybe foot-grabbing is "speaking" among dolphin actors?

Kidding aside, this is cool. I wish I were taking the day off.

Boots on the Prowl

Boots on the Prowl
Originally uploaded by mmahaffie.

Despite my uncertainty, below, I plan to keep taking digital photos. Sometimes you get lucky.

This is Cool, but...

The Flickr site has a neat new tool for exploring the multitude of photos that are posted there each day.

They've come up with a way to measure what they call "interestingness." They use that metric to find the most interesting shots on the site.

This is great. The photos this finds are inspiring and fascinating.

But they are also, frankly...daunting.