Huckleberries Online

New Years Eve Eve Wild Card

Posted by Cindy

Dec. 30, 2009 5:30 p.m. • 39 comments

Two days remain in 2009. Three days until I start screwing up endless checks by writing the wrong year. Five days left on DFO’s vacation clock. Six days until my next big deadline. Ten days until my oldest son reaches his second decade.

Not that I’m counting.

Honestly, I’m not a big fan of change. I still miss 2008— all those loops were fun to write. Heck I still miss September— that was a good month. But as this guy said, the times they are a changing.

Oh dear. I definitely shouldn’t wax philosophical before my second cup of coffee. But I just spelled definitely without spell check— twice. Thanks Cabbage Boy.

Post your own contemplations below.

39 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

hmoffsuite on December 30 at 9:02 a.m.
Teacher arrested in New York at airport ….

TEACHER ARRESTED IN NEW YORK - A public school teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.

At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identify the man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of math instruction. ‘Al-Gebra is a problem for us’, the Attorney General said. ‘They derive solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in search of absolute values.’ They use secret code names like ‘X’ and ‘Y’ and refer to themselves as ‘unknowns’, but we have determined that they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinates in every country.

As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, ‘There are 3 sides to every triangle’. When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, ‘If God had wanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes.’

White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President. It is believed that the Nobel Prize for Physiques will follow.
scootermom on December 30 at 9:23 a.m.
I’m so glad I resisted the Al-Gebra recruiters in high school! I knew all that math stuff would not end well.
Bent on December 30 at 9:24 a.m.
Two more days and my second oldest will be married and I can finally relax this holiday season
Megan_B on December 30 at 9:25 a.m.
How is it we went through a whole decade without deciding what to call it? The triple 0’s? The 2000’s? The new Millenniumz? The oughts? Hmm…. doesn’t exactly roll of the tongue like 80’s or 90’s does…
Cindy_H on December 30 at 9:30 a.m.
Hooray Bent!
Hope all goes well. New Year’s wedding actually sound kinda cool.
@Megan, so is the next decade the tens? Almost as bad as the oughts.
Megan_B on December 30 at 9:34 a.m.
It’s pretty lame that we had ten years to contemplate this and haven’t come up with anything good. Oh, well. FULL SPEED AHEAD!

:-)
Megan_B on December 30 at 9:37 a.m.
Fabulous collection of photos on the New York Times website: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/world/2009-decade.html?hp#/2009_1_29596
LukeB on December 30 at 10:01 a.m.
Excellent op-ed about the farce that is security theater and America’s reaction to terrorism in general:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/29/schneier.air.travel.security.theater/index.html
shanusmaximus on December 30 at 10:41 a.m.
Hmmm….what to call the 2000’s….how about the Toilet years. Because we were more concerned about which way the water turned (left or right) into the pipe…..forgetting that it all ends up in the sewer.
Megan_B on December 30 at 10:47 a.m.
Thanks for the article link Luke, but I have to disagree with most of it, such as the following statement:

“Stop telling people to report all suspicious activity; it does little but make us suspicious of each other, increasing both fear and helplessness.”

So if I think I can make out the shape of a gun hidden in someone’s back pocket I should just keep it to myself? Seems to be opposing common sense if you ask me…
Cindy_H on December 30 at 10:50 a.m.
A gun in a back pocket? Seems a strange place to conceal a weapon. But probably safer than the waistband of your jeans. http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9016512
Megan_B on December 30 at 10:59 a.m.
I knew a dude who shot himself in the ass. I don’t know how it happened, so don’t ask me. Musta been pretty embarrassing though…
Don_Sausser on December 30 at 11:07 a.m.
Cindy, you got “definitely” correct but missed on grammar. “Philosophical” should be philosophically, making it an adverb to modify the verb, wax.

Bear with me, that’s the only English 101 rule I remember :)
poolman on December 30 at 11:09 a.m.
Cindy -

You might as well go ahead and put the story about the guy who was building a mobile bus-home for his soon to be blind wife out front. Any story that involves a relative who sells home made sauerkraut out of his basement is a winner in my book.
Cindy_H on December 30 at 11:13 a.m.
I’ve been waffling on that one all morning Poolman :-)
But the baby and mother back from death has better art.

@Don: This is why one shouldn’t wax before coffee. Just saying.
JeanieSpokane on December 30 at 12:37 p.m.
You know you are old, when you get your Medicare Card five years early (because of dialysis). It looks just like my mother’s card. {sob}
zelda on December 30 at 1:53 p.m.
(from the Associated Press)
The Burlington [Wisc.] Liars Club has bestowed its highest award for this line: “I just realized how bad the economy really is. I recently bought a new toaster oven and as a complimentary gift, I was given a bank.”

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/12/30/us/AP-US-ODD-Top-Liar.html

Hey, hmoffsuite, those geometry compasses are nasty instruments. I remember many times in high school rooting around in my purse for something and getting stabbed by the sharp point. Those things ought to come with scabbards. I don’t know if kids even use them anymore or if they’re considered an unauthorized weapon on school premises.
Arch_Druid on December 30 at 6:02 p.m.
Interesting argument about the “terrorist group” Al Gebra. Hmoffsuite, wrong timing. We had more of a tilt against such a terrorist group in the LAST administration than the current one. Obama weak on Al Gebra? Major Gut Busting LOL!
Sam on December 30 at 6:20 p.m.
Where is the deletion here of HMO’s first post? First, it’s a blogapotamus, and second, it’s plagiarism I believe. Did he write that? I’ve read very similar things on the Internets. Ref?
Sam on December 30 at 6:23 p.m.
Bent - congrats on the wedding stuff, that’s fantastic! A winter wedding sounds awesome!
hmoffsuite on December 30 at 6:27 p.m.
Sam. I didn’t claim authorship. I just thought it cute and rather witty. Lighten up.
empyrius on December 30 at 6:32 p.m.
Hm’s first post on this thread is rather funny: good one bro!

Legalize marijuana!
http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=11749039

O yea!
Cindy_H on December 30 at 6:55 p.m.
Sam, don’t believe anyone thought hmo claimed authorship.
Hmo, do us a favor and include a link.
Sigh.
Sam on December 30 at 7:02 p.m.
Yes, he may not have, good point. But generally it seems like the rule is that only long posts such as that have to be original, and frankly that’s not written in a way like it came from HMO (not trying to be rude, it just doesn’t read the same way).

It’s a blogapotamus of the Nth degree.

I hate to criticize the blog reffing, but I also am not a fan of plagiarism or Blogarting.
Sam on December 30 at 7:04 p.m.
I’ll lighten up HMO, it’s just that the newspaper hosting this blog holds the liability for your copyright infringement there. That’s their choice. I just thought I’d point it out so they could consider trying to prevent said liability. You took a lot of someone else’s work and posted it here. I understand you wanted to share - but that’s someone else’s intellectual and monetary property.
zelda on December 30 at 7:37 p.m.
News services are reporting that Rush Limbaugh, on vacation in Hawaii, was just taken to a hospital in serious condition with chest pains.
Cindy_H on December 30 at 7:42 p.m.
Here’s a link: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/report-says-limbaugh-is-taken-to-hospital/

My husband said he probably ran into Obama on the golf course.
empyrius on December 30 at 7:56 p.m.
I have never been much on the black market for oxys, or else I would help Rush out . . .

Har har har har
zelda on December 30 at 8:13 p.m.
And on another topic entirely, it now looks like attacks in Afghanistan have claimed the lives of 8 CIA employees, 4 Canadian soldiers and a reporter from the Calgary Herald. She was on patrol with the Candian soldiers when they were hit by a bomb. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BT3KD20091231
“The journalist killed was Michelle Lang, 34, on assignment for the Canwest News Service. She was on her fist assignment in Afghanistan and had been in the country since December 11,” according to Reuters.

I hate this war. The Taliban are being funded by an endless fountain of narco money from opium poppies, which I guess ties it all back to Big Pharma, Oxycontin and Rush. Kidding (sort of). Is there a way to get the Taliban hooked on smack so they’ll just give up and lay on a bed all day?
empyrius on December 30 at 8:42 p.m.
Funny thing Zelda is that opium production when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan was virtually zero; and now since the American invasion opium production is at record levels . . .

Funny huh.
keithincda on December 30 at 8:50 p.m.
Empyrius>>> “and now since the American invasion opium production is at record levels . . .”

what is your point and what is your supporting data, (otherwise known as facts) to such a claim?

Zelda>>>”which I guess ties it all back to Big Pharma, Oxycontin and Rush. Kidding (sort of)”

C’mom, you really believe that? wow!
JohnA on December 30 at 9:23 p.m.
@Cindy: But probably safer than the waistband of your jeans.

I heard he was charged with a mis-da-wiener.

Sorry, an old one but a good one. :)
empyrius on December 30 at 9:58 p.m.
Well let’s see:

“In July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world’s most successful anti-drug campaigns. As a result of this ban, opium poppy cultivation was reduced by 91% from the previous year’s estimate of 82,172 hectares. The ban was so effective that Helmand Province, which had accounted for more than half of this area, recorded no poppy cultivation during the 2001 season”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_production_in_Afghanistan

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3294

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/05/record-opium-crop-funding-resurgent-taliban

The statistics are overwhelming bro!

Methinks somebody has a vested interest in keeping the poppy production at record levels …, and America “owns” Afghanistan now, so . . .

Yea
empyrius on December 30 at 10:06 p.m.
As far as “my point” …; you do not really want to know “my point”.

Outside the fact that you Americans are mass-murderers. i.e., war criminals.
zelda on December 30 at 10:09 p.m.
Empyrius - yes, I was kidding. But it angers me that the Taliban and corrupt Afghan government exploit Western vices (opiates) to finance their agenda and enrich themselves. This is morally defensible, in their view, because it weakens us (again, in their view).

Afghanistan is a pile of rocks and dirt. Was it ever really a country? Did it ever have a legitimate government? To them, we’re just another caravan passing through.
empyrius on December 30 at 10:09 p.m.
White Rose
empyrius on December 30 at 10:12 p.m.
Yes Zelda

And who are us Americans to tell them how to live life . . .

So they too can be “consumers”: please.

Some people value not money over their religious values.
spokelooneh on December 30 at 11:38 p.m.
That new Akey poll is spilling all over the place.
spokelooneh on December 30 at 11:47 p.m.
“The Taliban are being funded by an endless fountain of narco money from opium poppies”

They’re also being funded by your tax dollars. We’re paying protection money all over the damn place in Afghanistan, just to get supplies from one place to another, or paying the Taliban not to attack us. Just as we did with the Sunnis in Iraq. It doesn’t always work, and it doesn’t typically work in each and every case. They’ll take our money and STILL attack us. Just a little reminder of who’s in charge. It’s not us.

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.