Pix of the Day - with a moment of Disney

I lifted this off somebody's Facebook page.

Truth might be stranger, but fiction is cuter (for the most part.)

1066

October 13th is the anniversary date of the battle of Hastings, when William the Bastard defeated King Harold Godwinson and conquered England.

(Oops - it was on Oct. 14th.  I'm a day early.)

This unfortunate event was mentioned in a nice L A Times x-word by Mike Paluso, back in July.  Words in CAPS refer to that puzzle.

Both Harold and William had claims to the English throne - though, even if you accept medieval notions of inherited kingship - neither is very convincing.  

The battle of Hastings was really bad luck for King Harold. William's army sat on the shore of Normandy for the entire Summer waiting for the wind to change, (talk about a TIME KILLER) so they could cross the SEA - well, channel - and BARGE in.

Everyone was at the end of their patience and resources. If the weather hadn't finally shifted in Oct. the entire course of English history would be different. William would never have been able to raise that army again. See what we OWE TO weather!

Harold and his MATES had just fought a fierce battle two weeks earlier at Stamford Bridge, against his DRIP of a brother and a Danish Viking army, then had to march about 200 miles to take on William's forces.

During the battle of Hastings he took an arrow in the eye (or so the story goes) and the rest is, as they say, history.

There once was a King they called Harry

Whose luck wasn't bad, it was very

Awful we've found, then when Bill crossed the sound*

He wound up in the cemetery

* Well -channel.

Six Word Saturday 9/4

Performed Outside In High Wind - Yikes!

I've played outside at least 40 times.  I've had rain delays and rain cancellations, but never a wind like this, with gale-force gusts.

Even for a grizzled veteran like me, it was a challenge.   Some of the string players who have no outside experience were overwhelmed.

Still - we brought off a really good performance under very trying conditions.  Made me proud.

Global Warming Hoax Continues - Pt 3

Used to was, 1998 had been the warmest year EVAH, so George Will and other AGW denialists could cheerily cherry-pick that year and say, "It was so much warmer then, it's cooler than that now.   Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

But them flip-floppers at NASA say it's not 1998 any more - It's 2005, by a slight fraction of a degree over 2009.   Well - what do you expect; they're part of the Gummint, and therefore pinko socialistical Librullz who can't be trusted.  And never mind they've been saying it since January, 2006.  Repeating a hoax doesn't make it true.  At least not for Librullz

Now here comes that infamous Keynsian, Paul Krugman, saying that 2010 is even hotter, as if he's a freaquin' expert.  Well, hell - when has HE ever been right about anything?  He posts this absolutely silly graph, when we all know that it snowed during the Winter, so global warming is either a Librull plot to kill the economy and steal our freedoms, or just so much hot air; and Al Gore (as a letter-writer to my local paper so lucidly pointed out when it snowed LAST Winter) "can go suck eggs."

Here is the aforementioned silly graph.  Krugman says the yellow line is 2005.

Yeah.  Like that's supposed to prove anything.  We all know how liars can figger!

And 2009, that 2nd hottest year - why, it was scarcely any hotter than 1998, 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2007!  That's what them NASA people said.

So -- are we screwed, or what?

For Pt. 2, see here.
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My Most Prized Possession

I thought that the silver and gold of my King 2B Silversonic* would stand out against the deep burgundy of this upholstery.  Alas, it's all too dark. 
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* aka The Holy Grail

Wednesday Poetry Blogging

Today, A real-life incident.

A non-fruit-bearing Bradford Pear tree in our front yard split and fell in the wind overnight, Friday to Saturday.  We discovered this trick on Hallowe'en morning.

       My Erstwhile Tree

I never thought that I would see
The fracture of my lovely tree.

A tree that stood with rigid will
Against the side of my front hill.

A tree whose leaves were late to stay
Until a frozen winter day.

A tree whose slant was cause for dread,
Whose leafy arms were too wide spread.

But now whose shape is just half-round
As once high branches touch the ground.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But a mighty wind unmade my tree.

Of Wind and Instruments

Regarding the park concert last night. After a day of very changeable weather: heavy rain, light rain, sun, overcast, etc., it was fine when we got to the park. Soon, though, dark clouds loomed to the west, We started about 15 minutes early, in hopes of getting in a full program before bad things happened.

By the time we got to the storm motif in the WILLIAM TELL OVERTURE*, I was warily eyeing the sky, (about 2:15 to 3:30 in the link captures the ominous mood quite nicely) between the chromatic trombone romps(3:35 to 4:10.) But -except for a few sprinkles and one nasty gust of wind, we got through it unscathed.

An experience outside player always fasten his music. I had mine securely fastened to the folder with cloths pins. Then, in the middle of A MAN AMONG MEN**, a very nice march by Henry Fillmore, a gust dumped my whole folder on the stage. All my carefully ordered music scattered at my feet. By the time I gathered it all up - now in a random heap, the march was over. I was a bit flustered, but settled down, and the rest of the evening was quite pleasant.

Yesterday was VANILLA ICE CREAM day, and the 104th anniversary of the invention of the ice cream cone, in honor of which, we capped the evening with ice cream cones - natch! It would have been wrong not to.
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* Rescored for Concert Band - Alas, no cello
** Can't find it on Youtube. Wie Schade!