Red Wine: the fountain of youth?

"Red wine may be much more potent than was thought in extending human lifespan, researchers say in a new report that is likely to give impetus to the rapidly growing search for longevity drugs," according to an article in the Herald-Tribune.

Serious scientists have long derided the idea of life-extending elixirs, but the door has now been opened to drugs that exploit an ancient biological survival mechanism, that of switching the body's resources from fertility to tissue maintenance.

A promising recent study is based on dosing mice with resveratrol, an ingredient of red wines. "Some scientists are already taking resveratrol in capsule form, but others believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source, until there is better data on its safety and effectiveness."

In my own research on the subject, conducted over the last 30+ years, I would have to concur that red wine's salubrious effects on the homo sapien have been largely underestimated, if not outright ignored.

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John Prine video: Jesus, the missing years

As you probably know, no one really knows what happened to Jesus from the time he was 12 to around 30. The Bible records his birth and follows His life up to about 12years old. But from around the time he would have had his bar mitzvah to age 30 is a blank. The Gospels that say at the age of 12, Jesus was at the Temple, and the people marveled to hear Him. So he was already preaching. . .and then Pffffft! One of my favorite singer-songwriters, John Prine, took some guesses. Here they are (see the lyrics). This is a later recording, in the last few years. I first saw John play at Western Washington University in 1974, and he was awesome (see Shows I have seen 1966-2006).






Jesus, the missing years

by John Prine

(spoken)
Jesus.... the missing years

It was raining. it was cold
West bethlehem was no place for a twelve year old
So he packed his bags and he headed out
To find out what the worlds about
He went to france. he went to spain
He found love. he found pain.
He found stores so he started to shop
But he had no money so he got in trouble with a cop
Kids in trouble with the cops
From israel didnt have no home
So he cut his hair and moved to rome
It was there he met his irish bride
And they rented a flat on the lower east side of rome...
Italy that is
Music publishers, book binders, Bible belters, money changers,
Spoon benders and lots of pretty italian chicks.

Chorus:
Charley bought some popcorn
Billy bought a car
Someone almost bought the farm
But they didnt go that far
Things shut down at midnight
At least around here they do
Cause we all reside down the block
Inside at ....23 skidoo.

Wine was flowing so were beers
So jesus found his missing years
So he went to a dance and said this dont move me
He hiked up his pants and he went to a movie
On his thirteenth birthday he saw rebel without a cause
He went straight on home and invented santa claus
Who gave him a gift and he responded in kind
He gave the gift of love and went out of his mind
You see him and the wife wasnt getting along
So he took out his guitar and he wrote a song
Called the dove of love fell off the perch
But he couldnt get divorced in the catholic church
At least not back then anyhow
Jesus was a good guy he didnt need this shit
So he took a pill with a bag of peanuts and
A coca-cola and he swallowed it.
He discovered the beatles
And he recorded with the stones
Once he even opened up a three-way package
In southern california for old george jones

Repeat chorus:

The years went by like sweet little days
With babies crying pork chops and beaujolais
When he woke up he was seventeen
The world was angry. the world was mean.
Why the man down the street and the kid on the stoop
All agreed that life stank. all the world smelled like poop
Baby poop that is ..the worst kind
So he grew his hair long and thew away his comb
And headed back to jerusalem to find mom, dad and home
But when he got there the cupboard was bare
Except for an old black man with a fishing rod
He said whatcha gonna be when you grow up?
Jesus said god
Oh my god, what have I gotten myself into?
Im a human corkscrew and all my wine is blood
Theyre gonna kill me mama. they dont like me bud.
So jesus went to heaven and he went there awful quick
All them people killed him and he wasnt even sick
So come and gather around me my contemporary peers
And Ill tell you all the story of
Jesus...the missing years

Repeat chorus:

We all reside down the block
Inside at ....23 skidoo.
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Is Bill Clinton, as Luke Burbank said on TBTL, on "a one-way ticket to Crunktown?"

Luke Burbank pegged it on Too Beautiful To Live (TBTL). He called the tale appearing in Vanity Fair, about which Bill Clinton is apparently livid, "A one-way ticket to Crunktown."

The fast-paced, depressing, and pretty danged interesting story with the subtitles "Bubba Trouble" and "The Comeback Id" appears here."

After reading this story, I just want to give a shout out to Scooter, a long time reader. It's almost a crime you didn't write this VF story! You've been ranting about this for years now, most of it, as it turns out, depressingly spot on. I don't know how much a smear piece the Vanity Fair piece is. . .or if it is 100% verifiable, but. . .whew! Party on Mister President!

At least Dick Nixon went on to write eight books, advise every single President who followed him, and for one thing, in office, helped pry open the doors to China and Russia. Dick Nixon helped our world get just a little bit closer even in "retirement", and you waded into your wife's ill-fated Presidential campaign with anger and racially coded messages, and angry outbursts all along the campaign trail, from cocktail parties, to rally to $5,000 a plate dinners, and apparently some extremely "fast company."
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Does Hillary End it tomorrow?

Interesting, after earlier in the week when Obama seemed to leak that we would absolutely not offer the VP-ship to Senator Clinton (but was considering a cabinet post). . .now she is willing to talk about it! Let's see what tomorrow brings.

For all the talk of the overpowering Obama juggernaut, it took him until the last vote in the last state to finally clinch enough delegates to actually win. OK. Now we begin the dismantling of John McCain.
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The Graduate, Claire Brummet exits the University of Victoria

Claire and Keelin in Berkeley, 1985



Bobbins, Juack, Hari, Cobbles, and Moochie, California 2005

I never told her to get into plastics...that's so The Graduate. I don't think we pushed her to ever take up one line or the other because it would make her rich or famous or put her on top. We've watched Claire Brummet wend her way through a few possibilities: software development, English, Film, and finally, where she found her home, Philosophy. Keelin and I both majored in English in college, and we ended up just fine. I have to assume Philosophy is the same. . .it's one of those majors where you learn to think and write and as life goes on, you translate what you know to what you need to do. In any case, and whatever she makes of it, this is a personal high...to see your child graduate from college is a moving and intensely personal high.

Claire with BF, Colin, 2007, Victoria, BC, Canada

In my case, at least, the curse is broken. I was the first--and only--Brummet to attend college, and certainly the only one to graduate. On my other, Jones, side, only my cousin David finished college. So Claire is the first second generation Brummet to beat the hillbilly curse. The Joneses have managed to get a few more through. And I love her for that. I wasn't just an anomaly! She may even best me by getting her J.D., M.A., or PhD.

Claire and Jack, Pike Place Market, 1986

I am travelling in a few hours to Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to watch her graduate. And I am so happy and proud, it's really hard to articulate. Yeah, we've done a lot of stupid things, and venerated a lot of bad behavior over the years, but come on. . .is this a great country or what? Congratulations Moochie! We just love 'ya.
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Video: Dylan Plays Like A Rolling Stone in England, 1966, with The Band

This video is a gnarly 1966 performance of Like A Rolling Stone in City Hall, Newcastle. Dylan is at his screaming best with a catalog of facial contortions. Some members of The Band are in his band that night. All I can see for sure are Rick Danko (for one second) and Robbie Robertson. I know Levon Helm quit that tour, because he hated all the booing.



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Alien Lore No. 132 - The Alleged Alien Video

The alien video Jeff Peckman showed to the press Friday turned out to be somewhat less than convincing. To no one's great surprise, the video showed a Grey straight from central casting, looking much like the greys in Dark Skies and other filmed and televised representations of greys. Peckman prohibited photography during his presentation Friday (for more details, see Alien Lore No. 130 and Alien Lore No. 131). Although the presentation was "secure," this video has been floating around for a while. Here is a clip, that pretty much tells the whole story:



The video showing the alien has now been shown to the press, the Denver Post reports. The grainy three-minute-long video, shows a creature with big eyes looking through a window into a house, the Post said. But it was unclear if it was a puppet or an alien, or even an animation created in Maya and then blurred and "filmed up."

Peckman, who wants Denver to create an 18-member extraterrestrial affairs commission, screened the video for the media Friday at Metropolitan State College. The video was taken on July 17, 2003, in Nebraska by Stan Romanek, according to Alejandro Rojas, the education director of the Mutual UFO Network, who spoke at Friday's press conference.
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Painting: The Devil in disguise

click the devil to enlarge

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What's wrong with Bill Clinton?

Bil and Belinda Stronach, an often written-about friendship

A fascinating, long, and detailed study of what went wrong with Bill Clinton, it the current Vanity Fair. The entire article is here....
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Painting: Purple nude with tiger skin background

click painting to enlarge

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An intoxicated Hillary Clinton disrobes on campaign plane

by Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Editor,
Washington, D.C.



Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton spent her time in South Dakota today having one two three four five for the road. Clinton took time from her schedule to enjoy a few bumpers of whiskey with a group of journalists. Reporters mentioned off the record that marijuana was openly smoked on the plane, and that the Senator partially disrobed while dancing with a young reporter. Reporters attributed the strange behavior to "a recognition by all aboard that they were approaching the end of the line. There's nothing left to lose."

The Senator was flying back from Rapid City in South Dakota, one of the last states to hold a primary, when she decided to let her hair down. According to the Evening Standard, "Her relaxed mood may give rise to speculation she is preparing to concede to her Democratic rival Barack Obama."


Following the Rushmore visit, Hillary broke out several bottles of Maker's Mark from
the plane's commissary and began pouring drinks for the press, and several for herself.

Earlier in the campaign, Mrs Clinton almost always avoided informal contact with reporters. Today, however, she took a couple of hours from her increasingly spare schedule to visit Mount Rushmore, bringing along numerous reporters who began partying on the bus ride back to her campaign jet.


"I am completely f***ed up," The Senator said after her fourth or fifth drink,before
grabbing the male reporter behind her and dancing to the strains of Fleetwood Mac.
Clinton reportedly removed her top during the song "Go your own way."
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Gee whiz! International space station experiences latrine problems

In news from Cape Canaveral, a Russian toilet pump was ferried from Moscow by an American NASA employee to the U.S. just in time for this weekend's liftoff to the international space station, where the lone toilet is on the fritz. [Ed's note: I have to admit, the space station is cool. I like the idea that there are always a couple of Americans Out There.

Saturday's big ticket delivery is a 37-foot-long Japanese lab, the longest module/room in the growing installed at the space station. But that kaybo pump is critical too.


The latrine situation on the space station has beconme urgent. The two Russians and one American have to periodically manually flush the Russian-built toilet, which takes 10 minutes and requires two people.



Click image to enlarge. A road crew in Washington state collected these jugs of
urine. In one year, a single, small county in the state collected 2,666 jugs.

On the other hand, if it comes to that, couldn't the astro- and cosmo-nauts take a cue from American truckers? My state (Washington) has launched a Jihad on trucker "urine bombs." See the Washington State PSA and photograph, above.
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Alien Lore No. 131 - More details emerge on the Jeff Peckman alien video

Fox Mulder's UFO poster from "The X Files"

More details about the Jeff Peckman alien film have emerged in the last two days. We first reported on this story earlier this week in an Alien Lore post (N0. 130 in a series).

Jeff Peckman, will be showing the alien footage to the press this morning in Denver. He claims he has proof that we have cousins Out There. These details were reported on KRDO "News Channel 13" web site.

The video, shows a four-foot tall grey looking through a window. A film industry expert analyzed the video and believes it's the real deal: "Had it been fake, it would have been very, very, very expensive, it was not done in post production or in a special effects system, or a computer, it wasn't done that way, it was shot on a DV camera," says Jerry Hofmann.

Hofmann told NEWSCHANNEL 13 "The way the glass is through the window, it reflects the wall behind the camera and when the alien pops his head through it, the reflection is over his face."

"The aliens face, moves... it blinks and he moves his cheeks." Hofmann goes on to say the alien was very animated. "In order for this to be a fake, it has to be a very elaborate puppet."

Hofmann, who has worked in Hollywood (not exactly a verifiable credential), tells NEWSCHANNEL 13 "I was a total non-believer, I didn't get involved because I believed it or wanted to be involved with this thing. I became involved because they needed a third party to look at this stuff."

The video was filmed by a Stan Romanek, who claims to have been abducted by aliens. His website has several pictures of what appears to be U.F.O's and a drawing of aliens he claims visited him one night.

I guess we will have a better idea about this tomorrow, after Peckman unveils his video in Denver...

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Alien Lore No. 130 -- Film of living Grey will be shown this week

According to The Rocky Mountain News, A video that shows a living, breathing alien will be shown to the news media Friday in Denver.

click to enlarge Jeff Peckman

Jeff Peckman, who is pushing a ballot initiative to create an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver to prepare the city for close encounters with aliens, said the video is authentic and convinced him that aliens exist.

"As impressive as it is, it's still one tiny portion in the context of a vast amount of peripheral evidence," he said Wednesday. "It's really the final visual confirmation of what you already know to be true having seen all the other evidence."
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"Chicken Thieves Busy in Kent And Vicinity"

Painting "Chickenthief" by Key West artist Mario Sanchez
click to enlarge

Every once in a while, I like to dig into the history of Kent, Washington, where I was born and lived for 19 years. This article comes from a microfiche of The Kent Advertiser-Journal, dated July 25, 1929). Interestingly, I worked for a year at a chicken hatchery in Kent--Westland Hatchery, which was torn down at least 20 years ago. This story, charmingly, uses the word "weenies" for hot dogs, and treats the use of sulphur--however it was used--as something a contemporary reader would immediately grasp. I still don't know how the sulphur was used. What I liked best were the number of grammatical howlers piled on top of the stylistic lapses.

On June 20th, Deputies Seidel and Latimer answered a call at the A.C. Frye & Co. at the foot of Pike St. and Railroad Avenue and arrested Joe Metland and W. H. Tulip. [Ed's note: I grew up near Railroad Avenue, where both sides of the tracks were "the wrong side." However, there is no Pike Street in downtown Kent. The name must have been changed sometime between 1929 and 1960].

Joe Metland was selling at the time to A. C. Frye & Co. 27 Rhode Island Red pullets and 5 Rhode Island hens that were taken the night before from Mr. Robert Wooding. R.F. D. 1, Auburn.

Metland admitted taking the chickens and showed the place where he had taken them.

He also admitted taking chickens from H. J. Hart, July 15th, 1929. They took 44 springers. They took 29 colored hens and nine light hens from Mr.s George C. Clark July 18th at night or the morning of the 16th.

Metland showed all three of these places and admitted that he and Tulip together stole the chickens. Tulip does not admit it.

The man that weighed in the chickens and bought them at Frye's from Metland and Tulip is Steven Elson, at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Pike Street. The bookkeeper is L. Magerstrom at the same place.

On July 15, 1929, Deputies Frank Seidel and Latimer answered a call on Ninth Ave So. between King and Weller [Ed's note: This seems to refer to a Seattle address] to a Mr. shoemaker's Poultry House. They found two men, one giving his name as C. H. Brandon, which is not his true name.

His true name they learned is Lawrence Frisco. The other man gave his name as Dae Hodgins. They had a Dodge truck and a crate of chickens with about twenty Rhode Island Reds and one or two speckled chickens in the bunch.

These chickens, we learned later, belonged to a Mr. Farnscomb, Route 11 Box 526. They arrested the two men and took Frisco to jail: and took Hodgins with them in the car.

Hodgins took them to Mr. Farnscombs place and showed where they had gotten the chickens the night before and poisoned two dogs. One of the dogs belonged to a Mr. Gills and the other one to Mr. Harber -- both across the street from Mr. Farnscombs. They used weenies with arsenic to poison the dogs and have some of the weenies as evidence. They are kept in the county morgue ice box. . . .

On July 10th they went to Wid Evans and stole eight chickens and poisoned the dog. Evans lives at Rt 3 Box 195, Kent.

About June 17th they stole 26 Rhode Island Reds and used sulphur to take the chickens from Mrs. M. C. Smith. Rt 1 Box 133, Auburn, Washington.

On June 19th they took 35 chickens and used sulphur in this case from Al Glenn, Auburn Fish Hatchery, Auburn, Washington.

On the 6th of July, they entered Mr. C. G. Hunter's Rt. 3, Kent and took 30 chickens the first time. On July 8th they got 15 chickens and cut the fence and poisoned three dogs using hamburgers and strychnine.

One June 24th they went to John De Leo's place, Rt 2 Box 92, Renton, Wash., and took 43 mixed chickens and drained the gas tank of his car.

A day or two after that they poisoned a dog in Coalfied of Mrs. L. E. Peterson and drained their gas tank and also poisoned a dog there belonging to Louise Meramakos.

Mr. H. Tuttle, Rt. 11 box 525, Seattle, had a pet rooster that he gave to Mr. Farnscomb and this rooster was stolen with the fifty hens, July 15th, from Farnscomb's and was identified by Mr. Tuttle and Mr. Farnscomb at Mr. Shoemaker's Poultry House in Seattle on july 15th. mr. and Mrs. Farnscomb identified the chickens. The man that bought the chickens from them or weighed them in is Leo Haverty, 508 9th Ave. So. and the bookkeepers name, who reported by phone to Mr. Latimer, is C. A. Toppenfus, 508 9th Ave So.

On the 16th day of May, Eugene Johnson and Jack Powell and Lawrence Frisco went to Samuel Stewarts, Rt. 2, Bothell, and took 3 white Leghorns and a kit of tools from a new Ford car, a grease gun and crank with 25 cents worth of potatoes and a new spare tire.

On July 15th, when Deputies Seidel and Latimer arrested Laurence Frisco and Dave Hodgins, they searched their car and found in the right hand side pocket two thirds of a bottle of strychnine which Hodgins told the deputies was the strychnine that was used to poison Farnscomb's dog. He told them that he rented a house form Mrs. Johnson at Coalfield Washington. They proceeded to this place and he showed them the remainder of Mr. Farnscomb's chickens and also thirteen chickens that belonged to Mr. H. H. Hunter, Kent.

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Other stories from All This Is That about Kent, Washington (red=best of All This Is That)

Kent, Washington
It Can Happen Here: Japanese Relocation Camps, 1942-1946
More on the El Rancho Drive-in in Kent, Washington
snack bar ads, intermission countdowns, and the El Rancho drive-in
All This Is That reheated: Hucking eggs in Kent, Washington
A Blog for Phil Kendall
Four more images of Kent, Washington in the 40's and 50's
Kent, Washington's Meeker Street 1946
Too good to leave in the comments: Scooter and the Hell's Angel Heavy chug-a-lug
Scooter and $2 all you can drink beer day at the Sundowner circa 1973
Fishing With The Old Man
Uncle Romey
Uncle Guy, more hillbilly cred, and living a good life
My Grandma's tavern in Carnation, Wash.
My Dog Slugger
Hucking Eggs in Kent, Washington
Square Dance At Valley Elementary
Foot Washing Baptists & The Catholic Devils
Hillbilly Cred
Growing Up In Kent, Washington: Tarheels, Hayseeds, Hillbillies, and Crackers
Cruising the Renton loop with a keg of nails
The Time I Got Drunk With Roy Rogers
My Worst Jobs: 50 Tons of Sand
My Pathetic Political Career
Defensive Daydreaming (the second poem in these links, and one of my favorites)
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