Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Faces # 572 - Three Women

Drawings By Jack Brummet



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Meeting the Scouts in Bogota

By Jack Brummet, South America Travel Ed.

On our second day in Bogata, we we were lucky enough to bump into a group of Colombian Scouts, and their leaders.   They were interviewing people about their careers for a project, and seeing a pack of gringos, buttonholed us.  Keelin and Mo answered their questions as Senor Daveed and I shot pictures and talked to the kids in our typically awful Spanglish. . .

What I loved most about the Colombia Scouts is that they are fully co-ed.  And it seemed like it was split about 50-50 between boys and girls. 








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Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Music in New York City, 1963

By Jack Brummet, NYC Metro Ed.

From 1963—this would have been a pretty good week to visit New York.

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Non-postcard views of four historical sites and monuments (Statue of Liberty, The Pantheon, Giza/Sphinx/Pyramids, Stonehenge)

By Jack Brummet, Monuments and World Heritage Sites Ed.


Here are some backsides/darksides of those gorgeous photos and postcards of famous monuments and sites.  If you have other ones, send them to us!




The Statue of Liberty as seen from Jersey City, as opposed to from the harbor:





A view of Stonehenge from the parking lots, as opposed to the normal image you see:


Two photos of Giza/The Sphinx, and the more usual postcard shot:




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Monday, December 02, 2013

Hillary Clinton 2016, or, why Joe Biden is so effed

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor


There is no question in my mind anymore that Hillary Clinton is running for President.  She's running, which doesn't necessarily mean she will remain running.  But for the moment, she's in.  She is making the rounds of all the appropriate conclaves, has worked to solidify her position with the black community after majorly offending many of them (in particular some of the things Bill Clinton said on the campaign trail caused a lot of hurt), and is checking in with all her old friends and supporters.  The strategy seems to be working.


As much as she and BHO tilted during the 2008 campaign, she was a loyal and hard working Secretary of State, and they seemed to have emerged from it all with at least a deep mutual respect.  So much so that President Obama has done literally nothing to help grease the skids in case Joe Biden decides to throw his hat in the ring.  In fact, in 2012, the White House took their sweet time to deny persistent rumors that BHO would dump Joe Biden and replace him on the ticket with HRC.  A President would normally give a serious boost to their VPOTUS at this point in the game.  But BHO is sitting on his hands.  And Smilin' Joe is understandably frustrated.  But, judging from his visits to various Democratic rallies and numerous visits to the early caucus state, Iowa, he too is running for President.  For now. 



In numerous appearances in the last year, former SoS/Senator/First Lady Clinton has differentiated herself from VP Biden, often by reiterating her support for the raid that captured and killed Osama bin Laden (which the Veep strongly opposed).    



In a September appearance in Iowa, Vice President Biden said that John Kerry, Clinton’s successor as secretary of State, was “one of the best secretaries of State in the nation’s history." Clinton was not even mentioned.

Joe Trippi, the veteran Democratic operative who ran Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in 2004, told Real Clear Politics that he did not believe Biden would take on Clinton but that it was possible that something unforeseeable might make her decide not to run (or leave her seriously weakened or wounded).

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Poem: Sailing To Athens

By Jack Brummet



In a pale grey fog, ghosts
Of Helleniki mariners

Wheel phantom sloops, prams, dories,
Catamarans, dinghies, and sailboats,

Across the cerulean blue sea,
Trawling for long-gone  fish.
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Aviophobia/fear of flying part 7 - Poem: The trouble with flying

By Jack Brummet



The trouble begins,
and usually ends,

When you make an unplanned transition
From an initial flying state

To a subsequent not flying state.
Falling per se is OK.

The hitch comes the moment
Falling becomes not falling,

Or, what the pros call
The uncontrolled landing problem.
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Saturday, November 30, 2013

Context Unknown: Cooking with the Rolling Stones - Hot Dogs On The Rocks

By Jack Brummet, Cooking Ed.

I have no context for where this image came from.  Some sort of teen magazine?  



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From Vice - The Real Walter White, an Oklahoma meth cooker

By Mona Goldwater, Social Mores Ed.

A fascinating piece on the real life Walter White, From Vice:



"When AMC's Breaking Bad premiered in 2008, one of Alabama's most successful meth cooks was already knee deep in building a massive meth empire. His name? Walter White. In this documentary, Walter tells us the secret behind his product, how he stacked up thousands of dollars per day, and why his partner is now serving two life sentences."
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Photo: Caroline wearing a JFK mask, with JFK

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