So Uhh…

The Saints just won the Superbowl. That’s kind of bizarre.

Not For Nothin But…

Keep your ears open for Tuesday Night/Wednesday morning. Seriously. How does another 6-12 sound?

But this one is really for NYC – enjoy.

Addendum
I’m getting a little tired of keeping up with all of this. Tuesday night to Wednesday, expect something on the order of 10 inches for my neck of the woods. I’ve got to shovel out the deck this evening…just in time to get the last of the bulk snow out of the way for tomorrow night. I’m looking at a good chance of 7 straight days with shoveling here.

Addendum
I guess something like 12-16 for us here in MD – maybe a bit more north and east of Baltimore. 6-10 for the ‘Burg, 14-18 for NYC with really nasty blizzard conditions.

Holy Snow

I live in Elkridge.

This is effing incredible. Just insane. I want to confirm that total. I see at least another 6 inches today.

Addendum
Get official totals here.

We’re bombing! The Nor’Easter is starting to crank, and the snow is accumulating heavily again. The real question – does Elkridge officially break 3 feet? My guess? 38 by 8 PM tonight. That’s insane. You could live four lifetimes here on Ducketts Ln and never see that again.

Addendum
Here are some pictures from 10 AM. Insane. We’ve gotten another 4 inches since then.

Addendum 2/6 1330
I think we’re into our last 3 inches here. I see about another 1-2 hours of decent snow, then tapering down. I have well over 2 feet on the ground which includes compression. Best I can tell for the total snow fall so far is 7.5 by 11 PM last night, 21+ more by 10 this morning, 5 more since.

Addendum
Snow’s stopping. I don’t know how much we got. I’ll go ruin the beautiful deck in an hour or so and see if I can get a good measurement. I think we have about 25 inches of snow on the ground. I think that the spotter report of 30.3 at 6AM is inaccurate. It’s possible that he dealt with a drift or exposed just a small patch of land (which will blow in quickly). Who knows, I just don’t think I buy it. Given compression and all that, I think 30 is fair as a total, but not a 6 AM value – we’ve gotten 6 inches of snow since then.

I just went out on a run. The roads are OK, though I ran over 95 and southbound if parked, mostly semis but other poor dolts mixed in. There were a handful of trees down along the road, and let me tell you, it was incredibly beautiful in the woods.

Addendum
This just in! Elkridge’s official number just dropped from 30.3 at 6 AM to 28.5 at 11 AM! That’s more like it! That means about 30 total.

Addendum
2 W ELKRIDGE 38.3 400 PM 2/06
All right, dude’s got some splainin’ to do. 38 is consistent with the 30 he thought he had at 6 AM, but not consistent with the 28.5 he reported at 11 AM. What gives man? Whatever the case, they’re calling us ground zero for this storm. That’s the highest total. I live 3 miles from this guy’s house, and we have 23 inches in several drop sites in the yard, as many as 25 in various points around the community. We have quite a bit of compression, and the bottom 3 inches of snow are very wet, meaning a lot of it as drained down during the storm, but I find it hard to believe that we lost 15 inches through those mechanisms. I think we were closer to the 30 that everyone else reported near here.

Now, we were in the thundersnow zone at 4 AM. Tons of snow was falling during that event. I don’t know how much of it was related to drifting, but I did get 21 inches from 11 PM to 8 AM. In fact, here are my numbers.

2 PM-11 PM: 7.5 inches (shoveled walks)
11PM – 12 PM: 3 inches (did not shovel)
11PM – 8 AM: 21 inches
Shoveled at 10 AM. Did not measure what fell between 8 and 10 AM. Let’s say 2 inches – it was snowing but not horrendously during that time.
10 AM – 3 PM: 4 inches

So, for me, it’s 7.5+21+2+4 = 34.5 inches +/- something

Well shoot. I dunno what to think. I think he’s high. My measurement is right in line with Columbia and Savage. His is 4 inches higher than anyone else except for a completely aberrant Colesville number. I didn’t trust my 21 inches because that was measured on a stretch of ground that I had shoveled. It was between two areas where the snow was higher – my front porch this is, so the middle was about 1.5 feet from higher snow. It’s my experience that snow will fill in holes and tend to equilibrate.

I can get 44 inches in snow drifts, if that helps.

Long story short, I don’t know if they’re going to accept his measurement.

Here are the reports.

Addendum
…HOWARD COUNTY…
2 W ELKRIDGE 38.3 405 PM 2/06
2 N COLUMBIA 33.8 320 PM 2/06
1 WSW SAVAGE 33.0 400 PM 2/06
ELKRIDGE 32.7 625 PM 2/06
1 SE CLARKSVILLE 31.5 530 PM 2/06
1 SSE SIMPSONVILLE 31.1 430 PM 2/06
1 ESE ELLICOTT CITY 30.2 530 PM 2/06
1 N SAVAGE 29.0 500 PM 2/06
1 WNW JESSUP 23.0 515 PM 2/06 AVERAGE DEPTH

OK, I’ll buy Elkridge #2. They got rid of the bonkers 40 in total from Colesville too. Next off the list, the bonkers Elkridge value.

Addendum
Want some history? This winter, with its two headed blizzard monster, is something like a once a millennium event for Baltimore. If only weather followed the same rules as it has since 1870 for 1000 straight years that is.

Beyond Epic

It is 11:35 and we’re getting buried. I was disappointed with the first 6 hours of the storm, we had only 4 inches at 8 PM. By 11, we were up to 8 inches, with drifting making it difficult to tell. I went out and shoveled the neighborhood – it was just about the heaviest snow I’ve ever dealt with, the bottom 2 inches end up being sopping wet. The wind is picking up, and we’re snowing at 1-2 inch per hour right now. By 8 AM, I expect 16 inches, maybe more. Our official guidance calls for 22.5 now – which is an ungodly number for a computer to put out. Those things are always cautious.

The temps are dropping and snowfall ratios should start climbing. That means the same about of liquid will make more snow. Could we have 20 in the morning? Yup.

Addendum
It’s an hour after the last post. I just helped two cars stranded in front of my house. In the last hour, we’ve gotten between 2 and 3 inches of snow – I had cleared the sidewalk, and now there’s three inches. I’m putting the tally at 11 at 12:15 and going to bed. This is insane. Nothing under 30 is out of the question.

Blizzarding

Fine fine.

Friday through Saturday. 16+ for Baltimore, 8+ for NYC – it’s another big one. It’ll be bigger for more people than the mauler we got the day before my wedding. Sheesh.

Here’s a reliable source.

Addendum 2/3/10
As far as I can tell, Elkridge has had 30 inches of snow so far this year. Average is somewhere like 20 inches. For reference, average snowfall for Goshen is probably around 40-50 inches.

We’re going to get over a foot Friday into Saturday. I’d say closer to 18 than 12.

Next Tuesday? Stay tuned, but it could be another big one. Could we crack 60 inches of snow this winter? Yup. Stormy, cold pattern have we here.

Check this out.

Addendum 2/4 AM
Remember that thing about the model amounts? They’re up to 16 inches now. I’ve never seen a model make such a bold prediction. If you and I are betting on 18 inches, I’d take the over at this point. Looks like it will start tomorrow around noon and end Saturday around 5 PM. 18-24 for Balto-DC, 16-20 for Philly, 6-12 for LBurg, 4-8 for NYC, 4-6 for Goshen. Something like that.

Addendum 2/4 AM later
Looks like my idea (or “my interpretation of their ideas”) is pretty well supported by the most recent snowfall map from Accuweather’s Henry Margusity. Try to make it more optimized for Elkridge, I dare you.

There’s a ton of liquid with this storm. The massive snowfalls will come if the temp drops even a tiny bit. The snowfall to liquid ratio is expected to be about 10 to 1 for my area – so if we get 20 inches, that would mean that 2 inches of precip fell (so 2 inches rain = 20 inches snow). If we are 3 degrees colder, that ratio will change to closer to 15-20 to 1. Now, colder temps pull some of the sting out of these storms, so there’s a limit on the amount of snow we can get, but shoot. Realistically, everything between 12 and 28 inches is still within the realm of possibility.

They do everything in all caps…

..WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST
SATURDAY…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A
WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW WITH NEAR-BLIZZARD
CONDITIONS…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST
SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE…HEAVY SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS…STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 16 TO 24 INCHES.

* TIMING…SNOW WILL BEGIN MID-MORNING FRIDAY…AND WILL CONTINUE
THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE RAPIDLY
FRIDAY AFTERNOON…WITH HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OCCURRING BETWEEN
SUNSET FRIDAY TO SUNRISE SATURDAY. THE MOST HAZARDOUS WINTER
WEATHER CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR FRIDAY NIGHT…WHEN THE
COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WILL REDUCE
VISIBILITIES TO BELOW ONE-QUARTER MILE…PRODUCING NEAR-BLIZZARD
CONDITIONS.

* TEMPERATURES…HIGHS IN THE LOWER 30S FRIDAY. FRIDAY NIGHT AND
SATURDAY…TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE MID 20S.

* WINDS…BECOMING NORTHEAST 10 TO 20 MPH FRIDAY WITH GUSTS TO 30
MPH FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE SIMILAR TO THE 19 DECEMBER
STORM. PLAN FOR SUBSTANTIAL DISRUPTIONS TO TRAVEL FRIDAY AFTERNOON
THROUGH THE WEEKEND.

A WINTER STORM WARNING MEANS SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF SNOW ARE
EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. STRONG WINDS ARE ALSO POSSIBLE. THIS WILL
MAKE TRAVEL VERY HAZARDOUS OR NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE FRIDAY NIGHT.

Snow Boating

Lots of chatter about the upcoming week. First, we should get something Tuesday night here in Balto, probably a couple of inches. Saturday’s definitely a bigger storm – where it’s bigger and what sort of precip is entailed is still pending. It has a better chance to effect the northlands that the previous storms.

Addendum
Looking like ~4 inches for Elkridge tonight, 3-7 across the area, with higher amounts north and west of the city.

Fri/Saturday is shaping up to be a foot for around here. Models are calling for 16 inches to DC. I’m going to keep it on the low side of all this – 10-14 for DC, 8-12 for Elkridge, 6-8 for Philly, interpolate as necessary. 3 or something in NYC.

Addendum 2/3 AM
I use the momentum rule to augment my interpretations of the forecasts. If the snow totals keep climbing, I make them climb more. By that rule, the numbers listed below are too low by, say 4 inches. This is going to be a big storm.

Unfortunately, the model guidance is also shifting north. Good news for Goshen, but a potential issue for us – if this is rain, even any rain, instead of all snow, those totals plummet. I’ll hold the course for now, but stay tuned.

Timing wise, this is going to have more in Friday than originally specified. I see Friday starting around midday, snowing through most of Saturday.

Keep your eyes open for next Tuesday time frame. This is undoubtedly one of the stormiest patterns we’ve had since I’ve been in MD. This is also a historically cold winter for us. Apparently the southern hemisphere has been warm, better be because the US and Europe are not helping to make 2010 the hottest year on record – a prediction that many in the climate community have made.

More Snow, Here You Go

Tues/Wed and then next weekend, both possibilities for more snow. Saturday’s could be an extreme event, though it might not be optimized for the mid atlantic. Bastardi, who has been spotless this year, thinks that we’re in for several more weeks of winter, storms, cold and all.

And The Survey Says…

Every so often, executives at work say to themselves “I want to do something fun, and since I’m in charge here, I’m going to fabricate an excuse to make normal employees watch me have fun.” This time, it’s Family Feud. To support their effort, us employees are to fill out a survey of a bunch of questions. Since it’s optional, you get responses from The Sort Of People Who Have The Time To Do Optional Family Feud Surveys Instead Working™ (that’s the Bess Jankowski Memorial Overused Trademark™ in case you’re wondering).

Forgetting the potential statistical skew this engenders to the data – and I’m on a big “your statistics are worthless” kick these days – it perpetuates a silly counter-culture at work. Let’s be honest with ourselves…those execs who play these games work hard (or at least constantly) most of the time. When push comes to shove, they love the employees they can lean on constantly to work hard too. Yet it’s the other people that go to watch these dog and pony shows – I feel like they should have one of these things one day as a means to decide who to lay off. Get them all into the room, start playing Hollywood Squares, and then anyone who is still watching after 15 minutes gets a pink slip. Sure, the HR people might be appalled, as they seem to be unaware that the acceptable “work/life balance” is “work while you’re still alive, then stop when you aren’t”. I just made up that sound bite, which is why it’s not very clever.

Anyway, one of the questions on the survey was “What is your favorite element on the periodic table?” So, you have 115ish choices, none of which have ever personally distinguished themselves through clever PR. How do they expect to get more than 10% on any of those responses? It’s like asking “what is your favorite number from 1-40?”, because let’s face it, no one knows more than 40 elements. It’s a crapshoot. Still, I have thought about it a little, and here’s my top 10, in no particular order.

Oxygen (O) – now Oxygen has a good PR man, I’ll give it that.
Carbon (C) – recall, we are carbon based lifeforms, just like…all life on the planet.
Nitrogen (N) – there’s a lot of it around, and it rarely hurts people other than deep sea divers.
Hydrogen (H) – with uses as diverse as super powerful bombs and water, hydrogen has its fingers in a lot of pies.
Platinum (ummm) – precious.
Gold (Au I think) – also precious.
Copper (Cu I think) – useful for electronics n stuff.
Sodium (Na maybe) – who doesn’t like salt?
Potassium (K) – this is just a personal thing. I like how it reacts so readily with water.
Aluminum (Al) – Consider aluminum foil.

I don’t know, I could see maybe 10 more being in the mix…Calcium, Magnesium, Iron, Silver, Zinc, Helium, Silicon (for engineers), Neon, Uranium, Plutonium, and then who else would be in there? I’m starting to think maybe it’s not so ridiculous afterall. Still, nothing more than 20% for any one of them.

How About 542 Pictures?

Where are the pictures, where are the pictures, where are the pictures? I’m working as fast as I can people!

I’ve posted all 542 that our photographer Brian McEntire sent to us on my smugmug page. You can buy these pictures.

State of the Union – Nod and Blink

Why not, let’s live blog the state of the union.

9:09 – On a scale of carrot to Holland, how orange does our president look this evening?

9:10 – Jen just noticed that Biden and Pelosi are coordinated in their purple attire. Orange and purple go well together.

9:11 – Joe Biden has a great fake smile. He is a blue collar guy.

9:11 – Nancy Pelosi has cut down on the blinking, but I still can’t get over it. Maybe she needs to start coughing so she can take a break for a bit.

9:12 – I don’t think that the Union allies landed on Omaha beach at Bull Run Mr President.

9:13 – A year ago, I took office in a country exactly as it is now.

9:15 – Jen is watching the SotU while reading “Antineoplastic agents in the management of ovarian cancer”. I stole her laptop so now she can’t live blog.

9:17 – You might recall that I liked Joe Biden the best out of all the democrat candidates. He nods well. Though he just almost clapped out of turn.

9:18 – Root canals need a new PR guy.

9:20 – Jen just noticed that the supreme court and generals don’t stand and clap. That’s what happens when you have jobs that you keep until you die – you don’t over exert yourself.

9:21 – Booo for tax cuts say the Republicans. Boooo! No applause for you Obama!

9:22 – Where’s the “You lie!” guy?

9:23 – For whatever it’s worth, the sound quality on Fox News is substantially better than the sound on CNN.

9:24 – The slums are starting to hire again, that’s good to know.

9:26 – Pelosi, in the last minute, has looked like she’s working exceptionally hard to not blink. The Republicans are unimpressed.

9:27 – In short, let’s do everything that might conceivably make anyone happy. Let’s pay for it with good will and peace for all men.

9:29 – OK guys, bring your dark suits and look annoyed. Never clap.

9:29 – HOUSE HOUSE HOUSE!!!

9:29 – SENATE SENATE SENATE!!!

9:32 – The Republicans begrudgingly also do not accept second place for America. They’re going to have to stand and clap for the puppy portion of the speech too.

9:33 – Jen just read the last thing and did not laugh. Chances are it wasn’t funny. It stays.

9:34 – I wonder how tall Joe Biden is.

9:35 – This doesn’t help, but it’s interesting.

9:36 – I just missed the climate part.

9:36 – Jen thinks that Nancy Pelosi is going to jump up with pom poms eventually.

9:37 – I agree on clean energy. Global warming or not, clean air is good.

9:37 – We will double our experts, by paying our workers more.

9:38 – I like the pro-America thing. He’s got some nationalist tendencies.

9:39 – “So that our trading partners play by the rules…” like by subsidizing farmers.

9:40 – The supreme court can’t even clap for education? What about Santa Claus?

9:41 – I want to be Michele Obama’s special guest. I promise not to live blog next year if I get a seat on the balcony.

9:42 – That’s a strange policy. You don’t have to pay back your loans. Hmmm, sounds too good to be true. Hmm.

9:43 – We’ve entered the health insurance reform portion of our program. I want to hear about death panels.

9:44 – Obama just made a good joke about the political suicide that his health care plan has been for the Democratic party.

9:45 – Michelle Obama hates fat kids like…fat kids like cake.

9:46 – Jen has read three sentences in her paper. She highlighted “platinum agent” and “taxane”. GET TO WORK.

9:49 – The thing is, Bush did put the economy in the tank. He killed the budget.

9:50 – John McCain has gout on his face maybe.

9:51 – Do you think someone made sure that Obama’s tie used slashes in the opposite direction as Biden’s?

9:54 – Obama’s wearing a red tie. Aren’t the Republicans red?

9:55 – Are the Republicans all wearing light blue shirts?

9:56 – Let’s do something we’ve never tried. Let’s make everything better for less money. I’m hearing things like “You are working hard enough, maybe you just need to work smarter.” The only problem is, that is meaningless and/or impossible.

9:59 – Obama just spent a half hour bashing Republicans, now he wants to make peace. I enjoy that tactic.

10:03 – Nod.

10:03 – Blink.

10:04 – Politicians are a bunch of sticks in the mud.

10:05 – Tell me, is it the American policy to impose our social systems on Afghanistan? What if they Afghani people don’t want to give women rights? Just asking.

10:07 – Generals clap for veterans. The supreme court is asleep.

10:10 – How can you increase North Korea’s isolation?

10:10 – How much longer is this going to go? I want to go to bed.

10:11 – Someone just laughed about climate change, and Joe Biden just shot him a death glare. Pelosi stared him down too, but she blinked.

10:13 – The generals didn’t care one way or another about gays in the military. By the way, they aren’t prohibited.

10:17 – This guy is a great speaker. He owns the room when he talks.

10:19 – I want some yogurt. And to go to bed.

10:19 – Dear 8 year old boy in Louisiana: The president is not a 503(c)(3) organization.

10:21 – The president was interrupted 86 times for applause. Fox News is still counting Joe Biden’s nods and Nancy Pelosi’s blinks.

Weekend Snow

All right, thanks once again to my people at Accuweather, who pegged the blizzard of 2009 from about 8 days out…

Based on what they’re saying, I’m seeing a 8ish inch event (they’re saying 6-12) for Baltimore starting Friday evening, going through Saturday. Things are not looking good for NYC getting much, however – at the moment the snow is slipping to the south, leaving you in the not much to 4 inch range. Be forewarned, Bastardi wants to get you some snow, but the models all took a shift south during the day today.

It’s nothing epic, but the cold that follows will be pretty abnormal. Look for single digit lows in our neck of the woods come Sunday/Monday.

I’m all over it, never fear.

Addendum
Well, we’re right on the edge here in Balto/Washington. It’s looking like NYC is more or less in the clear, maybe a squall or two. Washington is probably 2-8 inches, Baltimore probably more like 0-6. Again, plenty of cold available, it’s just looking like this storm is optimized for NC/VA, not so much for us.

Now there’s a lame prediction, 0-6 inches. Oh well, we’ll see.

Want some snow on 2/3? That’s next in the shute, we’ll see on that too.

Addendum 1/28 AM
I dunno. I think Balto is going to get something. Let’s change the forecast from 0-6 to 2-6. Snow will occur mostly on Saturday.

For whatever it’s worth, little Stevie Furst could get a foot in Raleigh.

The storm track for next Tues/Wed seems to be further north.

Addendum 1/29 AM
Fine fine. 1-3 for DC, 0-2 for us, 12ish for Raleigh, nada for NYC. It’s still a big storm, just not for us.

Also, the bitter brutal cold was going to be related to the snow cover on the ground. Without the snow cover, I’m backing off the single digits too. Be on the look out for 10 degrees though.

Experimental Design, People

Jeff Masters, a tropical weather forecaster and occasionally myoptic global warming wag, posted an interesting article regarding the accusation of bias in temperature stations in the United States. As the story goes, over time these temperature stations have been enveloped by development. Since human things (pavement, waste exhaust etc) only lead to warmer micro climates, the theory is that we have introduced an observer bias in these stations. It might skew our temperature measurements warmer on average and explain the cause of global warming. It’s definitely a plausible theory.

Except that it’s apparently been proven false. Some actual scientists (as opposed to the global warming skepticals, who are every bit as ignorant as the global warming fanatics) grabbed the data from these “biased” weather stations and compared them to the pristine ones. If you look in the article, it shows that they’re not biased. In theory, it makes sense that they might be, in reality, they aren’t. So much for debunking global warming through that method.

Now, I will temper this. They have selected a subset of our weather stations, one that still provides adequate coverage, but that is unimpigned by human sprawl. They use this subset for important predictions and measurements these days. Good for them.

What irks me is that they still use the known bad data too. Masters claims that any potential warm bias is counteracted by a known cold bias in the sensor. Uhhh…we’re using a sensor that we know has a measurement error? It’s OK to use things we know are biased in our sample set? Just average em all together, the good, the bad, the broken, smush em all into one big mush of data. Are you telling me that people all over the world are averaging these apples with those oranges to figure out how the lemonade is changing as a function of carbon dioxide introduced to the system by humans? How are we suppose to trust ANY of the conclusions if these scientitists are haphazardly accumulating disjoint conglomerates of data? What kind of experiment is that?

Oh well. We’ll know one way or another by 2030, assuming we make it that long.

Hot Off The Press

Bastardi likes a big storm this weekend – not as big as the one in December, but substantial enough. Details to follow once others start chiming in…or he starts backpedaling.

Addendum 1/26 AM
Things are looking good on this story. Looks like a Friday/Saturday thing. It seems like the big thing for this particular storm will be the temperature – it will be COLD. It looks like we could get a lot of the snow at temperatures at or below 20 F. This could lead to high snow ratios – colder air tends to make puffier snow. This is looking like quite the winter for the mid-atlantic. Last I heard NYC was still in there for a direct hit – I’ll advise this evening after I watch everyone’s videos on the subject.

Addendum 2
This has nothing to do with this weekend’s storm, but how about Mt Washington losing the wind speed record. It wasn’t even close.

Who Dat?

The Saints are in the Super-Booowl.

Hail Cubes

When my brother and I were kids, we’d watch every storm, oftentimes standing under the awning or running to some obscenely unsafe location to get the best vantage point. My father, also a weather weenie, took part as well.

Last year, none of us were home when my mother witnessed one of the worst storms we’ve ever had. She was so annoyed that none of us were there to be impressed by it, to lend it our seal of severe weather approval. She collected hail and stuck it in the freezer to make sure at least my father could be impressed by its severity.

Interestingly, sometimes hail goes in the other direction.

Addendum
You’ll appreciate this. It’s about my guy Drew, written by the hilarious Jo.

Suffering Sufferage

In the past year since he took office, President Obama’s approval rating has dropped from somewhere in the 70% range to somewhat below 50%. Me? I like the guy. I liked him when I voted for him. He’s smart, he’s cosmopolitan – he helps the American brand worldwide. Those outside of the United States think very highly of him, and that improves our position in the world. He has been proactive on the economy, he has managed our military admirably, he successfully purchased a dog.

Some people are disgruntled that he hasn’t accomplished what he said he would. Me? I’m not a clueless idealist. I, like many people who live in reality, knew that it was impossible for Obama to do a third of the things he promised to do. The young and impressionable bought into it. You would have thought we’d have solar powered abortion clinics for gay couples by now – funded by a public option and staffed by illegally held detainees no less.

Hope is a nice thing. It energizes 20 somethings to go to campaign rallies for a few months before returning to their couches to ponder how to leverage their religion degrees into a six figure work at home income. “Hope floats” they say – until it pops and plummets after a few months. It doesn’t take long for optimists to become pessimists. By my estimate, Obama’s lost about 40 million already!

Whose fault is it? It’s not Obama’s. He operates in the same reality that politicians have always operated in. I, for one, blame the fickle American public. We do this after every election, republican, democrat, and if we ever elected a libertarian nihilist, we’d flip flop on him in 9 months too. We prefer to be unhappy for as long as possible, so that we can naively convince ourselves that the future will be better than the past every four years. It’s not a bad system. Stupid, repetitive, predictable, sure, but we have had 200 or so straight years of orderly power transfers. Somewhere, something is working.

Now let’s just not go overboard and elect Sarah Palin – Obama’s not that bad.

Slideshow

You want to want to watch this, probably.

Haiti

Here are the Furst family choices for Haiti donations:

Partners In Health is an organization that Jen has known about for a while. Haiti is their thing – they have over 100 doctors and 500 nurses that operate out of Haiti regularly. Boots on the ground.

World Relief has been my biggest non-church contribution for the last 6 years. Based out of Baltimore (and staffed by friend Amy), World Relief attempts to fulfill part of the church’s mandate to serve the poor. They are large enough to make an impact, and small enough that your donation will make an impact.

For a country with almost no previous infrastructure, something like this is a much bigger deal than just the event. It will take a logistical operation with substantial resources to feed, clothe, care for and house the displaced and injured for the next several months. Feel free to post other reputable organization – Lara, I’m looking at you…

Addendum
Jen hit the nail on the head with Partners in Health. They have spent years building connections in Haiti and their expertise is coming in handy as the world ramps up its effort.

“Yesterday, Dr. Farmer arrived in Port-au-Prince to check in with our team and to meet with Government and UN officials. Since his visit, we have already seen the tide begin to change – this morning, the PIH/Zanmi Lasante team was designated by the World Health Organization to serve as the coordinators of the public hospital, Hopital de l’ Universite d’Etat d’Haiti (HUEH), where thousands are suffering in need of medicines and surgeries. In this new role, we will be supporting the administration and staff and recruiting other NGOs to help restore services, particularly triage, nursing, and surgical, at the city’s central hospital. Our priority is to increase stock of medicines and supplies, ensure steadily functioning operating rooms, and guarantee sufficient medical staff is available, particularly for nursing care to help with post-op recovery, iv management, and other care that has had to be self managed over the past three days.”

Mr Chicken Cacciatore Down on Mulberry Street

Jen dove back into the recipe book tonight, this time preparing Janet’s Chicken Cacciatore. Now, I’ve still never met Janet. I think she’s avoiding me. She has come up in conversation enough times that if I don’t recognize someone that Jen is talking to, I accuse her of being Janet, especially now that Lisa’s existence has been proven.

This is not the first time I’ve eaten Chicken Cacciatore. When I went to class at APL for my masters, I used to stop at Mamma Lucia’s for a chicken parm sub. This was an almost weekly occurrence, but I was too cheap to buy anything other than the sandwich. I determined that I would treat myself to a real meal the last time I went there before graduating. Having confused Chicken Cacciatore with Chicken Piccata, I accidentally ordered it for my celebratory meal.

The thing is, I don’t really care for peppers. They cause imbalance in the humors, make the blood angry. Regardless, Jen cooked it to perfection. Everything was of the perfect crispness, except for the chicken, which was appropriately moist. I are the peppers with gusto, because, damnit, my wife made me peppers and I was going to persevere. I couldn’t let Janet down either.

Tilapia

This is not like previous lives of the blog. If a friend gives me a recipe and especially if my sainted wife cooks it, I’m not allowed to not like it publicly.

Don’t read too much into that disclaimer. The Tilapia over spinach with mango salsa and rice was good. It needed soy sauce maybe, but so does everything. At least salt and pepper. We want to try a different salsa next time. Otherwise, yes, good.

In other news, Jen got me a wonderful Christmas present, The Economist. There’s a minor problem. I read it all the time…and still can’t keep up. There’s so much information in that magazine, much of which is interesting. Sure, I’ve never before said to myself “gee, I wonder what’s been happening in the upcoming election in Kazakhstan,” but if you stick it in front of my face, I’m going to want to know. I like opening my eyes, I really do. I’m not even really all that close-minded. I care more about how the rise of the middle class changed the wine industry than I need to. I like having useless tidbits at my disposal. I like the fact that I read the letters to the editor and don’t feel stupider, instead feeling cowed by the heads of state and government ministers that chime in on a weekly basis. Since I don’t know what it means, I would sign it Eric Furst, Esquire, should I ever write in.

Lemon Bars

We bought a bed today, a soft one, a queen, which is by the way only 6 inches wider than a full, but felt a lot bigger in the mattress store. We’ve been intentionally hemorrhaging money – I saved up a bunch of money solely for the purpose of dumping it all into a bevy of purchases designed to dislodge any vestiges of my previous life. Money buys stuff, and stuff confuses you until you forget what you were looking for, or even who you were.

That’s why you also need lemon bars. This was from my mom, thank you very much Amy, lemon bars better than you’re MOM’s meatloaf. Notoriously fickle, Jen took a game shot at them and managed to nail the flavor exactly right. The crust maybe needed four more minutes and the top layer another minute, and yes, we need a sifter for the powdered sugar, but shoot, I knew where it came from the minute I inhaled the sweet sweet [sugar into my lungs] aroma of lemon bars wafting from the oven.

One of these days I might get around to giving a special Words review of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Prison Letters – until then, you have this from Goodreads.

I’m still deciding how much I like Dave Barry, who is about as far from Bonhoeffer as one can get. I loved the first three chapters of A Series of Unfortunate Events as well – then it was the same for 3 straight books and it got stale. Barry is clever and weird, let’s see how high he flies with that.

Meatloaf

I don’t know what writing on here is going to look like in the future. I don’t know what to write about…or, more accurately, if I’m allowed to write about the things that I want to write about. One must maintain some minimum level of decorum. But before I start doing that, when you neglect to share your bed with people for 28 years, you know what you learn? Sleeping with someone else in a full size bed is not easy. I need some damn sleep.

Anyway, that has nothing to do with meatloaf. Otherwise things are fine. We have a ton of stuff in my house, and we need to figure out where to put it all. We went on a honeymoon to Ocean City, MD and saw almost no one. That was fun, incidentally. If the walls could blog…but I’m not the walls.

Still no meatloaf.

Rewind two months. Jen has her bridal shower, receiving almost no skimpy attire. Instead, she receives recipes. Me, I cook 5 times a week and never use recipes. I do everything on feel, a little bit of this, a little more of that, uhh, maybe make it hotter, colder, 3 or 4 more minutes, too acidic, needs pepper, maybe it’d taste better with soy sauce – as much as it is assumed that I’m anal retentive and formulaic, I really just do something based on how I feel like they should be done. I’m hardly an expert, but if you’ve eaten my food enough times, you’d have to admit it’s pretty decent. Not repeatable, mind you, but most of the time I get it together OK. So, I’m not a big recipe guy. Jen? She IS a big recipe guy. Err, girl. Everyone brings a recipe on an index card, all the index cards are compiled into a scrap book, food ensues.

I, in need of a gimmick, decided I was going to blog about our different recipes. Tonight was meatloaf. I don’t know who made it, but it seems like perhaps one of the Amys. The concept is meatloaf with onions, bisquick, ketchup/brown sugar sauce, ground beef and pork – pretty straightforward in mixture. Instead of baking it as a giant mass, you’re supposed to cook each clump separately, sort of like a tall hamburger. You still do it in pyrex and so on, it’s just not one lump. Jen, who was cooking tonight, supplemented with massed sweet potatoes and corn.

Not sure what to say now. It was good. It was tasty. The sauce was tangy. The meatloaf tasted like meatloaf, but maybe 20% better than most meatloaves. We have leftovers, which is nice. The recipe brazenly exclaimed “better than your mom’s meatloaf.” Better than MY mom’s or Jen’s mom’s? Don’t you talk about my mom. She doesn’t even make meatloaf, but if she did, it’d be better than your mom’s meatloaf. Maybe it’s better than your mom’s meatloaf, but you don’t even know my mom. Maybe it’s better than Jen’s mom’s meatloaf, fine, I’ll give you that. I don’t know if she makes meatloaf either.

Take it back.

Alive

This is going to be quick and fluff free. We made it back last night without much problem, though as of noon on Monday the roads are still snow covered. My first act as husband? Shoving 2 feet of snow to blaze a path for my mostly barefoot wife to the door, then extracting the heat pump from its icy tomb before it crapped out.

In Baltimore, the 22 inches ranks as the #7 snowfall since 1883, and by far the most ever in December. Here in Elkridge, I’d eat my hat if it were less than two feet. It’s astounding, it’s been a decade since I’ve seen snow like this.

And we got married nonetheless. We were short 34 guests but still had a great time. A lot of people seemed to enjoy themselves and many commented that it was one of the most fun weddings they had been to, which is what we were going for. The DJ, mashed potato bar, concentration of kids, and casual atmosphere were all big hits.

For us, trekking into Baltimore on Saturday was a godsend. We had a great time with our friends. Speaking of friends, I lost count of how many people stopped me to tell me how awesome our friends are. We were served constantly – from things as big as Bethany traveling to Hunt Valley at 0-dark-thirty to get the cookies and flowers, to things as small as Uncle Bob breaking several traffic laws at the same time to shuffle family back and forth from the hotel, we were exceptionally blessed by everyone. I get the feeling the thank you cards are going to take a long time…but it will be very satisfying to let everyone know how much we love and appreciate them.

As it stands, we are married. I, for one, am utterly exhausted.

Mush!

I’ve got a bride to evacuate and a wedding to get to. Wish me luck.

Addendum
Made it. Had two spin outs occur directly in front of me (at different times) but we made it. Crazy stuff.

Uhh So…

We’re down 17 guests and falling as fast as the snow. I’m considering trying to make a sortie to pick up the bride-to-be, MoH and a couple of bridal partyers and bring them to the hotel. The NWS suggests I bring a snow survival kit. Baltimore and DC both have the opportunity to break the December record for snowfall. The weather outside is truly frightful.

BTW, if you’re not doing anything on Sunday, feel free to come to a wedding. I’m serious, drop me a line, I’ll give you the details.

Addendum 1
I’m seeing about 6 inches in Elkridge at 7 AM. The snow has just started picking up and the wind is blowing hard. The roads are not conditioned. Driving through snow when it’s like this is actually easier than driving through it when it’s slushier, icier etc.

Leftover Booze

We have roughly twice the soda and alcohol that we need. Maybe we’ll raffle it away at the end for some lucky trekkers…

4x diet pepsi
6x pepsi
7x diet coke
11x coke
5x cherry coke
6x 7Up
5x sierra mist
1x root beer
4x sweppes ginger ale
1x canada dry ginger ale
7x tonic

12 blue moon
12 newcastle
24 yuengling
24 heineken
24 amstel light
24 sam adams winter ale
1.75l jameson whiskey
1.75l bombaby sapphire gin
1.75l tanqueray gin
1.75l bacardi rum
750ml smirnoff vodka
4x castle rock pinot noir
4x bogle petit sirah
4x bogle merlot
6x mark west chardonnay
3x sterling sauvignon blanc
3x wolf blass dry reisling
6x casillero del diablo cabernet sauvignon

And I’m moving the over/under on people not attending up to 12 from 8. My instinct is 20, but we know some people with fortitude. It all depends on if a state of emergency is declared along the I-95 corridor.

SNOW

Thanks for asking Adam – yes, snow.

3-6 inches [Saturday]/Sunday/Monday, locally over a foot for us and east of us. Tapering to 3ish inches for the northlands on that first storm. They’re talking about a second storm, more focused on the NY area, for closer to Christmas. It’d be a bitter pill if I missed the second real white Christmas in my lifetime, but I guess I’ll be busy doing other stuff – we could even get snow over at Ocean City with that second storm.

It’s still too far out for a real definitive statement…but the cold is going to be here, and the energy is going to be here on 12/20. It’s going to be an interesting day.

Addendum
Accuweather’s official forecast, the one that they put on the website, is currently claiming 7 inches for Saturday. The mainstream news media stays away from these situations until they are sure…same goes for the model-driven forecasts. Bottom line, snow is on the way, just in time for my wedding day.

Addendum 2
My official Baltimore is 6 inches starting 6 AM Saturday, ending 2 AM Sunday. The second storm, coming closer to Christmas, looks to be more of a rain event along the coast, with snow inland.

For whatever it’s worth, Ocean City could get a foot of snow this Saturday from the impending Nor’easter.

For those in the NYC, closer to 3 inches, probably.

Addendum 3
The stars are aligning, better make it 10 inches. Blizzard conditions.

Addendum 4
Funny timing on this storm. I’m all over it.

Let’s push the start time for BWI up from 6 AM to 2 AM. Move the stop time to 11 PM Saturday night. Call it 10-12 inches for Elkridge, 10 for Jen in Ellicott City, 7 for Baltimore City.

Over/under on guests not attending: I’ll set the early line at 8.

Addendum 5
For this moment, I’m going to leave start and stop time the same, because I don’t know any better. Let’s add 2 inches everywhere, however, and kick in some 25 mph winds to boot. Should be cold enough to get some drifting.

The timing of the storm isn’t terrible for the wedding…except for the fact that the temperature is going to remain frigid through Sunday (and beyond). Let’s say the snow stops ~3 AM Saturday night. Between then and the wedding, the temperatures won’t sniff the high side of 27 – this will leave everything that was frozen to the ground, still more frozen to the ground.

Want an irony? The Ravens game, which we are otherwise annoyed about, as it’s only a half mile away, is going to necessitate the early use of snow equipment in and around our venue.

Addendum whatever
Let’s add 4 inches all around 18 for Elkridge, 16 in Columbia, 14 in Baltimore. It’s gonna be an interesting event…Worse since 2003, potential blizzard, push the end time a couple hours further into Sunday morning.

Snow

I’m hearing a lot of chatter about a storm next weekend – or more possibly Monday/Tuesday. So, there’s that.

Ear Piercing

Frank Valli and the Four Seasons have this Christmas song that features the most hideously ear piercing voice repeatedly. “Heyyy Baaaabyyyyy, tellin’ you why-hy-hy…” How is this acceptable? Who likes that gross, horrid sound? It makes me want to gouge out my eyes. Or jam things in my ears, more accurately. I think this voice is featured in many of their songs. What was life like in the 50s/60s that this was something that was pleasing to someone’s ears? Maybe compared to jackhammers or dying sea gulls.

Speaking of which, we have a fake hawk at work that patrols the area, scaring away birds. By that, I mean that there are a handful of speakers blasting fake hawk sounds. Last week when I ran past the airport, I hear that familiar call by the runway, presumably as a bird deterrent for planes. But it was chased with a second sound: birds in distress. A cacophony of terrified bird noises. Birds beware.

Snow And Stuff

So, yes, I have been giving individual forecasts for this snow since Monday-ish. I’d like to see 3 inches in our area.

Meanwhile, long long term models are showing a superstorm riding up the east coast on 12/17. Almost no reliability in those models, but they feel like energy is going to be available in that time period and on the east coast. In the interim, it’s slated to be around in the midwest, with the possibility for a blizzard next week around Chicagoland. Anyway, superstorm on the 17th would be interesting…

I’ll let you know in a week.

Dusty Road

I just vacuumed Justin’s room – first time it’s been vacuumed since last October. It kicked up a massive cloud of dust. I vacuumed horizontally, then I vacuumed vertically, then I used the hose for all the edges.

I have a schedule that has every day on it from here till the wedding. Lots of vacuuming is involved. Makes me want to sneeze.

I want to live blog from the honeymoon, we’ll see how that goes over.

Heidi ___

1) Seal has a last name?

2) This morning on the way in to work they handed out a two-pack of Purell hand sanitizing wipes. Since I only have two, I should save them for a special occasion. What are the two most unsanitary events that I’ll face any given week?

End Of An Era

I’d like to announce that this blog will end in September of 2013. It’s been a great run, but sometimes you just have to take a step back and move on with different pursuits.

Remind me to tell you again before September of 2013.

I Refuse To Collect These Statistics

Lets say you have a bathroom with 6 stalls. This is a guy’s bathroom – not everything happens in stalls in a guy’s bathroom. Only important things. Deliberate things. Stalls do not receive random sorting – if I’m going to a stall, I’m going to go to a place where I feel comfortable. You sort of nest. Well, maybe you don’t, but you get the idea.

Anyway, hypothetically, lets say someone took two months of statistics about all stall usage in a particular bathroom. He put a big sign on each of the stalls, indicating an order, 1 through 6, of frequency of use. Everyone saw this number. People’s decisions changed because of it. Which stall do you go to?

I’m thinking you go to the one that was previously used 2nd most frequently. There’s a reason why the first stall was used so often – it must be a nice place. Lots of people will just say, “screw it, this is my stall, this is where the newspaper is most often, this is on the corner, if a ton of other people use it, fine – plus people will use it less once they know that 800 asses a day touch this plastic seat.” People will try to abandon the top half of stalls (when ranked by usage). No one wants to be the outlier on the “more butts” side. Especially the first and second most, but people will stick to the first most because it’s good and because they think others will leave.

Who is going to move into the 2nd most? Me. That’s who. No one says “I want to go to a higher frequency stall”, but lots of people say, “oh man, I had no idea this one would be second most used, I’m going to go to the least used one!” Not me, there will be net loss on #2 (in more way than one, if you know what I mean), and by the time I set up shop, it’ll be greatly reduced in usage.

Speaking of things that are crap, I went in to work before 6 this morning. On the onramp to the highway, a little car with a racing stripe hit its brakes on a curve that clearly required no deceleration. What does that racing stripe represent, exactly?

I got around her quickly enough, at 5:48 AM to be exact, and she was on the phone. Who does one talk to at 5:48 in the morning? I’ve ranted about this before, but there is no way I can find it.

Meb!

Horse chart.

Weekly Update

Many moons ago, probably about 40 now, I decided to stop posting links to other people’s blogs. People got insulted when I didn’t post theirs, but I couldn’t link everything, and people’s feelings got hurt, especially if I didn’t like what they wrote. This all applies to people that I knew in the past but no longer do. In fact, I never knew them, these boring people never existed, Google created them. So, don’t worry, I don’t think your blog circa 2005 was boring.

Anyway, these days, most of the blogs that I visit regularly have these sidebar widgets that inform you of how recently their links were updated. I see these things, and I feel a lot of pressure. I, after all, was the champion internet all-star for about 4 years, post-bigwhoop, pre-Jen. Updated 1 week ago? Has it really been one whole week?

So, what has happened in this last week?

Let’s see… Jen and I went on a two hour walk in the woods, during which time we studied all kinds of respiratory disorders and their associated drugs. We found a bone from a deer or person. I had fire extinguisher training at work! But the fake fire didn’t work so I couldn’t put anything out. I found a piece of scrap metal in the parking lot that fit like a ring, I’m wearing it now, it’s a little scratchy and tetanus-ee, but it fits great. Oh! I spent 2.5 hrs tilling and re-tilling the soil in my new bulb garden. It’s going to be fantastic. Went to church, went to house church, didn’t have bible study because everyone’s husbands are out of town. Had a walk-through of our wedding hall with the caterer, whose car got towed. I kept trying to write that as “town” but that’s a different word, and it doesn’t mean that I need it to mean. I bought my wedding ring online, settling on Tungsten Carbide, because it’s the most best. I sat around while Jen studied for a million straight hours, helping wherever possible, but mostly fretting about it. I decided I wanted to see what would happen to my achilles if I ran 7 straight days, and found roughly what I expected. I woke up at or before 5 AM twice to go to work early. That is never fun.

I think that’s about it. You didn’t miss much. I don’t have time to think up ridiculous things these days. In their stead, I worry about everything that I can’t control, and cease to care about everything that I can. I kind of want to go to bed. Or to sleep, perchance to dream.

World

Last weekend, Richmond got married to the lovely and sweet Susan on the shores of Lake Ontario in Oswego, NY. There are pictures. Here for instance. More to follow.

Sour Grapes

A few years ago, my character was called into question by a yellow journalist. A couple years after that, it happened again, this time by a random lady. I know how it is. The urge to defend yourself is strong. It eats at you; someone thinks that you are deficient, you want to make amends. You want to feel justified before your accusers, you need vindication! Someone, some arbiter somewhere, has got to stand up and say “this person is right, and you, oh accuser, are wrong.” It is an exceptionally strong compulsion, the defense of one’s character.

In some ways, I can understand the urges behind the actions of a member of my church. Jilted by his wife, he took the fight to the church (which had supported her), setting up a mirror website, spepchurch.com, as opposed to the real one, spepchurch.org. As the story goes, his wife determined that he was emotionally abusive toward her. The church, whose job it is to adjudicate between congregants on such matters, agreed with her – admonishing him and not disallowing a divorce.

You don’t need to spend much time on this guy’s website before you understand why someone would want a divorce from him. I want to divorce him. He, meanwhile, has tried to vindicate himself. He insists up and down, the only “biblical” reasons for divorce are abandonment and adultery. He did neither of these. Interestingly, his definition allows for all varieties of abuse within the marital bound. According to this definition, he could beat her within inches of her life and she’d still be stuck with him. It belays a profoundly simple theological misunderstanding.

This is a person who would like to hold his wife to the letter of the law. The Bible specifies grounds for biblical divorce. In other places, it specifies behaviors suitable for mankind. It furthermore indicates that the Holy Spirit is available to inform redeemed individuals on right and wrong – the letter of the law is no longer that which justifies one before God, but instead the nature of one’s heart.

The poor fellow’s is broken. Instead of working toward cleansing himself of whatever it is that makes him so obnoxious and self-righteous (and, according to his wife, whose opinion matters, abusive), he has mounted a very high horse in an attempt to vindicate himself. This seems like one who has never been wrong. He’s saved by grace, because the construct fits him, but he’s the sort who never really needed it. How dare his wife leave him! She’s NOT ALLOWED! And moreover, she’s a sinner for trying, and the church, in condoning this, is wrong.

Forget the Bible extracts and woeful Jesus-speak in his posts. There’s more to it than knowing the words and concocting an unassailable Biblical position. You also, you know sometimes at least, need to love. There ain’t none of that in making a whitehouse.com type website to sham a church. It’s downright childish – preaching one’s spiritual defense from such a pitiful pulpit is not what the Bible means when it says we should take care of our problems in house so as to not shame Christ’s name among non-Christians.

The church, rightly I think, decided that it should preemptively send a letter to the entire congregation, informing us of this shadow site and pointing people to the correct one. The church informed us of the proceedings and invited us to pray for a peaceful resolution. The church, unsurprisingly, took the high ground.

There are few people who would take this fellows side here. Most modern people have little sympathy for those who are abusive to their spouses. Most nominal Christians have no particular problems with divorce. Most evangelical Christians recognize that in cases of abuse, physical or emotional, it is not sinful to escape that situation. The only people who would fall on his side here are those who are otherwise radicalized or jilted. I expect to see him show his truer colors some day. You can tell a tree by its fruit. Who will vindicate him then?

Up, Up, Go Away

Could the Balloon Boy’s parents’ publicity stunt have worked any better? Even if the kid were in the balloon, it wouldn’t get this much coverage. Had he plunged to his doom, it wouldn’t have gotten this much coverage. Had he barely survived and been hospitalized? Not this much coverage. Had he landed in the woods, brought a cell phone with an intermittent signal, and sent occasional text messages, well, maybe then it would have been as big a deal as staging the whole thing…but probably not for as long, unless he were somehow able to incorporate Meghan McCain’s breasts in his twitter posts.

“Day 7: I’m still in the woods, lost and scared. A friendly beaver has Wi-Fi, but wolves howl all night!”

I know the bar hasn’t been set very high here, but is Meghan McCain the hottest political daughter/wife? What were the odds that she would have been a republican? I actually think they were pretty high – bleeding heart liberal women are a dime a dozen.

Implied, If Nothing Else

I have two containers of Q-tips. One is a little travel kit. It holds 30-ish of them and sits in the forefront of my bathroom supplies. The other is a vast repository of 750 (the 3rd such repository since I moved to Maryland, I’ll be married before I finish this one!), which resides in the bowels of the bathroom sink. Periodically, I refill the smaller one from the larger one.

The bulk pack has a few cartoons showing the intended use of Q-tips: putting on mascara, wiping a baby’s nose (or something, that one was unclear), detailing your car, scrubbing your bathroom…but nothing about jamming it in your ear. Well, shoot, that’s what you’re supposed to do with those things! Everyone knows it! Everyone does it, at their own peril. Why not acknowledge it? If they didn’t want us to stick it into our ears, they would have made them bigger than our elbows.

Are their any other products where their wider use is so actively discouraged? If we actually stopped sticking Q-tips in our ears, sales would drop precipitously. Like if people stopped smoking hemp socks…What else? Same line of thought – I’m making a hydroponics lab. I’m actually going to be growing seedlings for my garden in it. What percentage of hydroponics labs aren’t used for growing pot? Probably not many. I’m sure their are other examples.