HBO’s Best of the Local Blogs — 4/16/07

Family Phil/A Family Runs Through It has done us all a favor by snapping this shot of Stickman’s wonderful walking sticks, made generally from wood that he finds on Tubbs Hill. I have two of Stickman’s sticks — an autographed maple staff that I keep with me at the office and a smaller one that I take on my walks to keep the dogs away. You can read about them here .

*”The truly sad thing is,” JeanC /JeanC’s Cat House and Shooting Society sez about the Virginia Tech massacre this morning, “this could have been prevented if VT was not a victim disarmament zone. School policy disarms everyone on campus, even if they have a CCW, which means they are legally allowed to carry concealed in Virginia. Apparently a bill to do away with this policy never even made it out of committee, with one VT official stating that it was good this happened so everyone would feel safe on campus here .

* Marianne Love /Slight Detour writes: “The old guy looks pretty good, and it felt pretty good to take him for a spin down the road yesterday afternoon. My big bay gelding Rambo will turn 22 this year, which is hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday that he shot into the world in our barnyard around 2 a.m. the day after the Fourth of July in 1985. His mother was a huge black Quarter Horse mare named Mrs. Black” here . And she posts nice photos of spring flowers around the Love homestead here .

* Shinie /This Is Growing Up writes, “I love a good chunk of barbecued meat. However, actually cooking on the barbecue can be time consuming and hard to supervise with a small child running under foot. I’ve recently developed this easy, hands free version of baby back ribs. They might even beat out the barbecued variety” here .

* Cis /From A Simple Mind is trying to separate fact from fiction re: the e-mail scare that’s circulating about the Real ID act here .

* Sue Turner /Tumblewords knows what “albedo” is — thanks to word of the day. And she used it recently to describe what was happening to a 4-year-old when she peeled an orange here .

Meanwhile, Bayview Herb remembers Jackie Robinson and bygone days here , Dr. J /CastMD discusses a ship that was built to make us remember here , Mari /Dogwalk Musings knows something about the Virginia Tech campus here , Melanie /Plaid Toaster is fighting moderate dehydration here , and Stebbijo’s Place is offering linguine with shrimp, asparagus and basil here .