Sorry about that.
Near the end of storm recovery in Dallas, on Sunday, our power went out. Still out.
Well, at least partially. I’ll leave it to the electricians, but we’ve lost all big power, 220-volts, to major appliances including the furnace and water heater, and half of our other house circuits, including the one that runs the DSL modem.
Posting will be slight while I shiver and curse and harangue Oncor Energy.
Leave a Comment » | 
Administrivia, Disasters, Global warming, Personal | Tagged: Administrivia, Dallas, disaster, Oncor, Personal, Texas | 
Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
He should have spent more time with the spud farmers and sheep ranchers. He should have spent more time with the Basques who herded the sheep.
Leave a Comment » | Journalism, Personal, Politics | Tagged: Journalism, Lou Dobbs, Personal, Politics | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cue the show tune, “Sunrise, Sunset.” Quickly go the years indeed.
For the second time in our lives, elder son Kenny and I experienced a university graduation ceremony together. This time he wore the gown, and I was the one who didn’t cry and disturb the audience.
Kenny got his diploma in neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas Saturday.
Here’s an almost-decent photo I got as he flew across the stage:
Kenny Darrell speeds to get his diploma, UT-Dallas, December 19, 2009; photo copyright Ed Darrell
At the bottom of the photo you can see a fellow in a UT-D green t-shirt — the official photographer of the day. Kenny’s elation showed so well, the photo that guy got turned up on UT-D’s website (photo #11 in the series).
[Update] Here’s the “official” photo of Kenny with UT-D’s President David Daniel.
UT-D President David Daniel shakes the hand of 2009 graduate Kenny Darrell
Some time in his high school days Kenny got the idea that he’s responsible for his own education. At UT-D he took control of his time and learning. His graduation is his own doing.
Congratulations, Kenny. I have it on good authority your parents are beaming.
Nice cap to the year.
Kenny Darrell, graduate from UT-Dallas, December 19, 2009
9 Comments | Education, Education success, Family, Higher education, Personal | Tagged: Education, Family, Graduation, Higher education, Kenny Darrell, University of Texas at Dallas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Posting’s been much slower than events warrant, lately. Difficulties at work, and a six-week bout with allergies of unknown origins haven’t helped.
A visit with the allergist yesterday offers some hope — I’ve been symptom free now for almost 24 hours, for the first time since early October.
Before next Monday I hope to catch up a bit on the follies at the Texas State Board of Education, and other educational events around Texas. While I’ve been itchy and swelling, the denialists haven’t gotten any smarter or nicer.
One horrible thought: I may be allergic to stupidity in public policy. The timing of the main attacks coincides with several rounds of recent raving excrement from government officers. Avoiding contact with the offending stuff is not possible, then, in a moral world.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Personal | Tagged: Administrivia, Allergies, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Unless things really drop off the table, Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub will have its 2 millionth reader sometime this month, probably between the 14th and the 20th.
Update: No, that won’t happen. Such goofs come from posting when tired. We’ll click over 1.8 million readers, but not 2 million. What was I thinking?
Oh, I know what I was really thinking: The rest of the post is still good:
Gee. Thanks.
Leave a message when you drop by, would you?
4 Comments | milestones, Personal, Weblogs | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You can view, and read, the winners of the 2009 Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest at the website of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Bee on a passion vine flower – 2nd place photo, Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder contest, 2009 – by Patricia, age 70, Peggy, age 47, Maggi, age 16
Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder 2009 contest winners
EPA’s Aging Initiative, Generations United, the Rachel Carson Council, Inc. and the Dance Exchange, Inc. are pleased to present the winners for the
Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder project logo, EPA
third annual intergenerational photo, dance, essay and poetry Sense of Wonder contest. All entries were created by an intergenerational team.
The categories are Photography, Essay, Poetry, Mixed (Photo, Essay and Poetry) and Dance.
Drop over to EPA’s site and look, and read.
2010 contest rules are already up. You can get the entry form there, too. Links to the 2008 and 2007 winners and finalists also reside there.
This photo caught me a bit off guard, bringing back wonderful memories.
Bill and Christian explore outdoors, photographed by Gina – Gina, age 36, Bill, age 64, Christian, age 1 – 3rd place photo, 2009 Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder art contest – EPA
Gina, the photographer, described the photo:
My father has been a good role model to me as I grew up with plenty of time outdoors. The red plaid shirt became a sort of symbol, and it was an honor to get a matching shirt myself when I was in college. Now, at just one year old, my son is continuing the tradition of wearing the red and black shirt outdoors. It was fun to photograph the two together in our rural wooded backyard, and helped illustrate that my father can continue to pass along his sense of wonder and love of the outdoors to my son, his first grandchild.
My father, Paul Darrell, wore an old jacket for my entire life — a once-fuzzy buffalo plaid red-and-black woolen jacket. No one in the family can remember a time he didn’t have it. The jacket was probably at least 30 years old when I was born. He wore it when it was bitter cold — one story was that when it was well below zero one wintry morning in Burley, Idaho, it was the only coat he wore to walk to his furniture and appliance store to make sure the pipes hadn’t frozen, a walk of about a mile each way. It was too cold to start the car.
After he moved to Utah it was his usual gardening and yard-work coat on cold mornings. I know he took it on a few campouts with my Scout troop, and I’ll wager it went along on camping trips with my older brothers and sister 20 years before that. I remember my father sitting warm in that jacket on cold mornings around the campfire.
We had a peach tree in the back yard in Pleasant Grove, Utah. Frosts would come on those mountain slopes when the peaches were just ripened. I have memories of my father picking peaches in the jacket. He’d slice the peaches for our breakfast. No peach has ever been sweeter or more flavorful (but I keep searching). I remember my father in his buffalo plaid jacket, his arms full of ripe, cold peaches, coming through the kitchen door, and the smile on his face.
The red buffalo plaid coat was so much a symbol of my father that, at his death in 1988, it was one of those objects we nearly fought over. My niece Tamara ended up with it.
I have one, now. It’s a good L. L. Bean version, with the wool much thicker than my father’s well-worn version. After 20 years it still looks new, compared to his. I suspect it always will. It could never be warmer than his.
Special tip of the old scrub brush to Dr. Pamela Bumsted.
10 Comments | Art, Family, Life, Natural history, Personal, photography, Rachel Carson | Tagged: Art, EPA, Family, Life, Natural history, Nature, Personal, photography, Rachel Carson, Sense of Wonder Contest | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Dear Reader,
My apologies. Posting is slow — as it always is when the new school year begins. But this year is complicated by a death in the family.
Find a thread and comment.
How are things at your school this year, so far?
Leave a Comment » | Administrivia, Personal | Tagged: Administrivia, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Now we know why Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts wrote the state’s governor to urge a change in law to allow a quick appointment of a caretaking successor — Kennedy’s vote could be crucial to legislation in the next few weeks.
Kennedy died last night, felled by brain cancer.
He served longer in the U.S. Senate than all but five other people. His legislative history on civil rights alone maks him one of the top four or five legislators ever to serve in America — and that ignores his legislation on voting, health care, labor issues, environment, and other places.
There will be tributes to Kennedy over the next few days. Electronic media being what it is, there will be too many jeers of Kennedy, too.
It’s worth remembering that Kennedy was a gracious man, and that even in defeat himself he could rally others to victory and inspiration. His speech at the 1980 Democratic National Convention ranks as one of the 100 best speeches in American history, and it is fitting now.
And someday, long after this convention, long after the signs come down and the crowds stop cheering, and the bands stop playing, may it be said of our campaign that we kept the faith.
May it be said of our Party in 1980 that we found our faith again.
And may it be said of us, both in dark passages and in bright days, in the words of Tennyson that my brothers quoted and loved, and that have special meaning for me now:
“I am a part of all that I have met
To [Tho] much is taken, much abides
That which we are, we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end.
For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.
We can hope. We do hope.
Conservatives appear to love to criticize the man. They are jealous that they had no one like him to carry their banner.
(Audio of the convention speech is here, at American Rhetoric.)
1 Comment | Biography, Famous quotes, History, Personal, Quotes | Tagged: 1980 Democratic Convention, Biography, Edward M. Kennedy, History, Politics, The dream shall never die | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
She looks stuffy in the photographs, but Toni Novello is one of the most genuine people and funniest women I’ve ever worked with — sometimes without intention. When veterans of the old Senate Labor Committee chairman’s staff get together, we still laugh over Toni’s return from a weekend health care seminar raving about “Cahoon cooking.”
We were puzzled until somebody remembered the seminar she spoke at was in New Orleans. In her Puerto Rican view, Cajun was just pronounced a little differently.
Brilliance packaged in a human exterior.
Today in Science History tells us Toni was born on August 23, 19√∞. “Physician and public official, the first woman and the first Hispanic to serve as surgeon general of the United States.”
Leave a Comment » | Health care, History, Life, Personal, U.S. Senate | Tagged: Antonia Novello, Health care, Life, Personal, U.S. Senate | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Am I the only one who sees a whiff of hopeful irony in a guitarist from Sonic Youth being gray?
From Fender: "Thurston Moore + Lee Ranaldo. Jazzmaster guitars slung across seminal shoulders. In the hands of both men, the sound of Sonic Youth is the sound of that guitar used as part paintbrush and part cluster bomb. Introducing the new Thurston Moore Jazzmaster and the Lee Ranaldo Jazzmaster guitars from Fender, releasing July 1st." Photo from the Fender site.
That’s Lee Ranaldo on the right, with the teal guitar and gray hair.
Leon Anderson played a then-vintage Fender blond-neck Stratocaster in our bands back in Utah County, and it was a beautiful machine (and he an underappreciated guitarist). I never could afford a Fender-brand bass. I played two Vox devices, one of which I still own — but they played through an almost-original Fender Bassman amplifier, whose demise I still mourn.
Fender blonde-neck Stratocaster, a lot like the one Leon Anderson played, except Leon's wasn't nearly so beat up - Guitar Village photo
Watching the Fender company bend, dodge and run with the trends over the years has been a lot of fun. One of my ex-brothers-in-law did the accounting and corporate legal work for Leo Fender way back when; as an indication of how stuffy the brother-in-law was, consider that he didn’t have any Fender guitars — or any guitars — when I knew him. How could one work with a master like Leo Fender and not get hooked on the guitars?
Ultimately the guitars are the legacy and history of the company. As with Stradivarius instruments, the music made on the guitars and the instruments themselves outshine the makers and any corporate entity required to get the instruments manufactured. Corporate owners of the Fender name and legacy don’t drive that car, but only hold on for the ride and try to keep the moving parts lubricated and clean.
Any Sonic Youth fans out there?
4 Comments | History, Life, Music, Personal | Tagged: Fender, Guitars, History, Jazzmaster, Music, Sonic Youth, Stratocaster, Well-spent Youth | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Exquisite blooms of the "Maggie" rose (bourbon class) - in Kathryn Knowles' garden, summer 2009
Yes, I intended to leave the spent blossom there. This is a real garden, where the flowers grow and fade.
Maggie is a “found” rose, robust in much of Texas, and a favorite of my wife’s. The blossoms tend to glow, even at mid-day. It will blossom all summer when it’s happy. Maggie’s fragrance earns it a spot in Kathryn’s garden.
Maggie was one of five roses designated by Texas A&M’s horticulturists in 2005 for testing as one of a handful of roses easy to grow (read: “difficult to kill, really”) in Texas. Many rose varieties do not do well in southern heat and humidity — Maggie is one exception.
Maggie is a “found” Bourbon rose. It was collected in Louisiana by Dr. William Welch, Extension horticulturist from College Station. Maggie reaches 8 feet in height and 4 feet in width. Its flowers are medium red, very double, very fragrant, and it is a repeat bloomer. Researchers have found Maggie does best when trained on a pillar or fence. It is designated for zones 6-9.
“Arethusa, Jaune Desprez and Maggie are winter hardy throughout the entire state,” George said. “Bon Silene and Comtesse du Cayla, however, are winter hardy across most of the state except for Amarillo and the northern Panhandle area.”
2 Comments | Biology, Family, Gardening, Natural history, Personal | Tagged: flowers, Gardening, Maggie rose, Natural history, Roses | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
In our yard, after Mrs. Bathtub (Trophy Wife™) works her wonders in the garden, the soil will grow almost anything.
Birds, even, take advantage of that fact, seeding their favorite plants all over. They are especially fond of sunflowers and pequin peppers.
If we didn’t use cooked peanuts, the blue jays would make this neighborhood one of the largest peanut fields in the world.
A bird-planted sunflower in Kathryn's garden - copyright 2009, Ed Darrell
2 Comments | Gardening, Natural history, Natural resources, Ornithology, Personal | Tagged: Bird Watching, Gardening, Ornithology, Sunflowers | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
What do you do with an afternoon in Milwaukee before the game?
You tour the Miller Brewing plant. Free tours, off of State Street (where is Plank Road?).
The gift shop and start of the tour have a good timeline of Miller’s history, which now should be a simple case study in an business history text. There’s a lot more corporate maneuverings that brewing in Miller’s history. One guy on the tour seemed unhappy that Miller is South African-owned.
Gotta run. Maybe a story about the fight at the game later — among the fans, not on the field (Brewers lost).
Clock on State Street, Miller Valley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1 Comment | History, Personal, Travel | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Yeah, we’re on the road. Kenny and I are midway to Wisconsin to pick up James, Friday after his last final at Lawrence.
Blogging light, diet loaded with fat and sodium.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Personal | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
We’re closing out the year at Molina High School, and it’s busier than a blogger wants it to be. I’m way behind on blogging. Among notable things I’ve not written about:
Perhaps fortunately, the State Lege died yesterday, at least in regular session. Alas, they didn’t get all the state programs funded. Special session is likely. No man’s life, liberty or property, etc.
You couldn’t make this up if you were trying to write a humor column.
More soon, I hope.
3 Comments | Administrivia, Education, Education assessment, Personal, Testing, Texas | Tagged: Dallas ISD, Education, Education assessment, Magnet Schools, Molina High School, Testing, Texas | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
You are currently browsing the archives for the Personal category.
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 