Summer Garden 2006 (for those of you not on Myspace)

Top to bottom: Vinca, Hibiscus, Handel Rose, Sunflower and a nest of 3 baby Robbins who were being raised by a pair of catbirds and the one mother Robbin. We spoke w/the Audubon and they said that it is very rare for one species of bird to allow another to help it raise its young. Most likely what happened was that the cat birds lost their clutch and the mother Robbin took over their nest, not having a mate the mother allowed the cat birds, (who would have still been instinctively driven to raise a clutch) help her. It really was an amazing thing to watch. Unfortunately, the picture does not do it justice, but I sat every evening and a lot of mornings just watching them w/the binoculars. You could see the cat birds bringing them these big green worms and the mother Robbin sitting on them to keep them warm, you could watch them as their feathers changed and finally as they one by one every couple of days got big enough to hop/fall out of the nest and start to fly. Once they were all out of the nest they moved further into the woods, but would come out in the mornings and evenings as a family to eat bugs and worms.

mazzarella Italian: from a diminutive of Mazza. Mazza nickname or metonymic occupational name from mazza 'club', 'mace', 'sledge hammer'. nickname for a destructive individual, from a derivative of Italian (am)mazzare 'to kill or destroy' (Latin mactare).

Plastic Lawn Furniture

Plastic lawn furniture has its good points, for example: when it rains, plastic furniture dries very quickly, or can be toweled off easily. Unlike wooden or cushioned models (metal should never be considered) which loom ominously amongst root beer guzzling, beer chugging, fruity drinks through straw drinking, diet coke sipping, veggie burger mowing, hot dog stuffing, hamburger gulping, chip munching, onion dip dipping, fruit salad crunching and heath bar trifle stuffing party goers trying to enjoy an afternoon of summer sun, David bowie, Bruce Springsteen, Beach Boys and whatever is on the top forty, these wooden and cushioned arbiters of lawn accoutrement, when wet (which they often are) are a quagmire of disappointment. For those sipping diet coke, or possessing a keen sense for danger all lawn furniture is first tested with a swipe of the hand. Perceiving it is wet one can only stand there staring at the chair, mocking you, begging you to sit down, stop standing, relax, lean back – like a piece of carob chocolate that looks so good but tastes so bitter, so these wet pieces of lawn furniture look so comfortable but feel so gross. Nothing is worse than sitting down on a lawn chair realizing as the cold wet seeps through your pants that the seat cushion is soaking wet. There you are spending the next few hours standing up with a soggy ass at a barbeque trying to avoid all the hot guys, lest they want to check out your ass and suddenly discover it is soggy, leading them to believe you have an incontinence problem which will immediately negate you from ever having a chance with them, because the first thing a guy thinks about (or perhaps in an assortment of first things a guy thinks about) when seeing a girl/woman for the first time is "do I want to have sex with her?" and clearly no man (or any man a girl would want to date) would answer “yes” to wanting to have sex with some one who appears to at the best have a penchant for wearing funny ass stained pants and at the worst have an early on-set of weak bladder syndrome. So yes, plastic lawn furniture has its pluses. In addition to not being wet, it is also inexpensive and durable. Whereas wood or furniture with cushions in addition to being wet are A) expensive B) much less durable C) more likely to get stolen? Wait, are there such things as lawn furniture thieves? I'm suddenly reminded of walking through East Cambridge with Sam wondering how and where we are going to get a grill for the barbeque which we have so feverishly been planning. We do not have enough money for any grill that would be worth buying and we are lazy and do not want to have to drag my parents grill all the way down from Andover to East Cambridge. We are without solution. Then, about two blocks away from our house we notice a very nice grill in stranger's back yard. Our imaginations are ignited and we begin to discuss how simple it would be take that grill, or any grill, in any back yard for that matter, no money involved no unnecessary dragging. It all sounds grand until we realize that this would be stealing and people are not supposed to steal, at least not people like us, at least not big expensive things in other people's back yards, and oh well we end up in fact, having to drag the big grill down from Andover to Cambridge. In the end I am left wondering how it was that the idea of taking someone else's barbeque grill did not immediately register as stealing? How was it that the desire, but not the means to own something was so overwhelming that for a moment taking that grill in the backyard seemed like a solution. I am left questioning not why people steal, but why more people do not. Suddenly, I understand how the overwhelming desire to have a specific material possession can drive one to consider not earning it, but taking it. Sure, I've stolen little things, like eyeliners from CVS or ice cream chipwiches from Christie’s, even a bottle of wine from Richdale’s, but this is a grill, it's big, like a television or a car (sort of) and that is real stealing. It is not pocketing some rinky dink item. It is legitimately stealing, doing something wrong in a big way. Would it have been wrong to take that grill out of the backyard in East Cambridge? Yes, it would have been and that is why we did not do it, but would it have been easy? Oh yes, very easy, the grill just sitting there inside the unlocked chain link fence that only came to waist height, a beautiful barbeque grill with wheels to roll it for easy moving. In the dark two quiet and stealthy people could have very easily stolen themselves a veggie burger, veggie dog, fake chicken cherriake, cheeseburger, hamburger, kebab grilling masterpiece! That summer we brought my parents big old greasy grill back and forth from Andover to Cambridge three times. The grease cup tipping over, the wheels falling off, and I wonder, was it only by chance that the nights the grill spent in Cambridge, in the backyard, inside an unlocked chain link fence that only came to waist height, with wheels to roll it for easy moving, that some quiet and stealthy punk out on a walk in need of a grill for an upcoming BBQ had not just walked in and walked away with a new possession? Stealing a car or a television is big, but it’s also difficult, an automatic deterrent for any average, law abiding twenty-thirty something, but stealing a grill is easy. Is it just the moral high standard of not taking other people’s possessions that keeps us from stealing barbeque grills? Or, is there a universal understanding that karma will bite you in your big soggy having just sat on a wet piece of lawn furniture ass for removing a grill from a backyard that is not yours? I have to believe that it is not just morality which stops us from taking one another’s grills, but the understanding of despair and disappointment that would be inflicted upon a person, their fleeting summer that would be ruined as they walked out to their back yard plate full of veggies and meats ready to cook and realize that their grill has been taken! I have to believe that it this is what keeps us from staying up nights stealthfully rolling barbeque grills from one back yard to another. When it comes to lawn furniture my vote is for plastic, nice shiny white plastic that can collect bugs and grow a black film of dirt, white manufactured plastic, terrible for the environment, easy on the wallet, sure to keep your bottom dry and appealing and sure to be passed over by the furniture thieves for those lovely Adirondack chairs the guy three houses down just bought.

What's Wrong with the United States Postal Service?

Nothing in my opinion. In fact if I had to choose a shipping outfit to call my own, the USPS would definitely get ALL of my affections. Both FedEx and UPS cost considerably more than the good old US mail system and in my opinion do not deliver domestically shipped packages as efficiently or effectively. Over the past few years I've had a number of companies ship purchases to me via UPS. At least half a dozen times these orders have not been delivered when they were scheduled to be and this includes times when I've paid for expedited service. Go figure. UPS does not deliver or continue to ship your package on Saturdays...the post office most certainly does! Also UPS takes eons longer to get a package to you. For example a package mailed priority mail will take two days to go from the East Coast to the West Coast and three to four days going first class mail. The UPS equivalent of first class mail takes SEVEN days! and of course that's if it doesn't come a day late, which happens often. Additionally, and what many of you probably don't know, is that when you send a package via US Mail Priority the postage fee automatically includes up to $100 of insurance, and more often than not packages sent via US Mail arrive earlier than anticipated. As if the efficient and speedy service that the US Postal Service provides is not reason enough, they now have some really great stamp collections available, there are: stamps with super heroes on them like the Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman etc. and the colors and designs are great, there is a collection called Wonders of the US which includes such categories as "Largest Frog" amongst others.they have a neat baseball collection and also a "Crops of the Americas" for you agricultural types out there. Unfortunately it seems that most online retailers prefer to use UPS and do not give an option of using USPS instead. I wish they did, I'd get my mail more quickly, and they'd be able to stop raising the damn postage rate every two years!

More on Lost

"What did one snowman say to the other snowman?" "Smells like carrots." I tell you how he knew, that guy can see the future dude. -Hurley

The Black Donnellys 50/50

The premiere episode of this new ABC drama established The Black Donnellys as a show worth tuning in for. However, after locking itself in as a viable show, this week’s second installment lacked the quality of writing and all things good that the first show had gotten so right. Which of these episodes is the indicator for what we can expect from the coming season? Well, it’s hard to say, but what can be said is that a show that had me hooked with one (commercial free) hour of great drama has left me skeptical and primed for disappointment.

One of the best shows on television that I’ve seen this year was ABC’s premiere episode of the The Black Donnellys. By the close of the first aired hour it seemed implausible that any one watching this show could have been left disappointed. Myself, I was hooked. The story opens with a bang, establishing Tommy Donnelly as the only Donnelly brother capable of “getting out” and in turn qualifying him as the only Donnelly brother capable of protecting his family, and his neighborhood. It’s been said that Tommy’s rise to fame is unrealistic and thusly unbelievable, but if we look at The Black Donnellys as a show reminiscent of a rise to glory movie, or, the template for all things mob, mafia and seedy New York City dealings, The Godfather we see that Tommy is just following in the footsteps of Pacino’s Michael Corleone or DiNiro’s, Vito Corleone. If we look at this show like a novel than it’s just a great story.

The first episode struck the perfect balance between story line, character development and entertainment. As the episode crescendoed Goodfellas montage style, to it’s conclusion I was literally on the edge of my seat, momentarily afraid that Tommy wouldn’t make it into the rest of the season. The episode wound down neatly weaving all of the story lines and sub plots together. I was impressed with the quick witted thinking of the writers and of Tommy who, in a classic use of irony, has his brother Jimmy arrested as a means to protect him from mob retaliation. It is a satisfactory and appropriate conclusion of the show that leaves the viewers poised perfectly for a second episode.

Then came the second episode…

If you’re trying to decide weather or not this is the show for you than this week’s episode of The Black Donnellys was not the one to watch. The episode was unimpactful and disjointed. Some scenes even seemed unedited, running for minutes longer that they should have. How long do we need to watch Tommy standing in his tighty whities brutally smashing the legs of Joey Downtown? How long do we need to watch him, still in his tighties stand under the ice cold hose water, as he washes the blood from his skin? These scenes are gruesome, awkward, uncomfortable and boring. Tommy, the anti hero vacillating between going straight and “getting sucked back in” takes on a maniacal quality that is random and unrealistic of the loyal and sympathetic character that we have seen thus far. These, are not the only scenes that are misplaced in the episode. The scenes between Mrs. Donnelly and Jenny in the hospital and the between Jenny and Tommy in the restaurant/bedroom can also be added to the list of things that should have been edited or just never written at all. Both seemed harried and hurried. The conversation between the two women in the hospital adds nothing to the story and does little if anything to give us any insight into either of their characters and while a get together of Tommy and Jenny was predictable, it was unexpected that it would happen this early on in the show. These are two characters that have waited an entire lifetime to confess their love for one another, but wait only moments to go all the way. Again, Tommy going to Jenny after taking care of Joey Downtown, seems uncharacteristic of the Tommy defined in the premiere. Perhaps, the writers wanted to do something a typical of a storyline norm that drags out an inevitable romance between two characters, but then, the writers debunk that theory by breaking the lovers apart just as quickly as they threw them together. Perhaps, the character of Tommy Donnelly was never meant to be sympathetic, warm hearted and remorseful. Or, perhaps for Tommy the transformation may not have been a slippery slope into the underbelly of New York City’s Irish American environs it may have been a flying leap off the edge of a cliff.

Ultimately, the second episode of The Black Donnellys lacked the panache and ability to compel that it needed to successfully proceed the premiere. Hopefully, going forward the show will redeem itself and be as unwavering in its quality and entertainment value as the brothers Donnelly are in their loyalty to one another.

On Lost

I thought that this episode was pretty good. I was relieved that it didn't return to the love triangle story line between Jack, Sawyer and Kate. Although, to be sure it's only a matter of time before we need to revisit the romance split in three, I'm just glad we've managed to skirt the issue for the last two episodes. To be hones I like Jack a lot, I've liked him for a while now. Kate, I could take her or leave her at this point. She seems to be, becoming more like a tool for the writers to expand Jack and Sawyer's characters than she does an actual character in the show. Maybe it is time for them to return to her past again to remind us of who she is. Sawyer to me has become one big cliche'. Did you ever watch Full House, you know w/Bob Sagget and Candace Cameron? Well if you did than I'm sure that you remember John Stamos' character in the show, Uncle Jesse, who was supposed to be an uber bad ass, but in reality was just an average nice guy in a tough guy costume. The way I see it, that is what Sawyer is starting to become, a joke, comic relief, a foil and a big cliche. What happened to the guy who was so devious and anti social that he conned and then walked away from the woman he was in love with just for the money? Any way...so yeah I'm glad that they didn't focus on the love triangle. Having said that, did we actually find anything out in this episode? No, we just learned something new that we don't completely know the truth about, that somehow, eventually, will be tied in with whatever the heck is REALLY going on. Ha. That may sound like I'm angry, but I'm not, I'm fine with adding more pieces to the puzzle, but not being able to fit them together. At this point I've accepted that, that is Lost, a total conundrum that none of us ever have any chance of solving. To get into specifics, what do you think of this guy with the eye patch? Is he the same one that beat Sayiid? and if so does he recognize Sayiid? how the heck and why the heck is he there? and more obviously where'd the wife go and how did the cat manage to make it? Now that Locke set off the explosives and assumedly some type of warning to Dharma headquarters that they've been infiltrated what's going to happen? Is there actually a warning that gets sent when you press 77 or just an explosinary defense reaction? Is it possible that somewhere in the outside world a signal has now been sent to alert someone that things have gone awry? Ah, but does that really make sense? I suppose not, if it is true that the last survivors of the Dharma Initiative died in the 70's did they say? But just in case let's not forget that when the numbers ran out in the hatch and Desmond turned the key someone, somewhere got a signal...didn't they...? Finally, Are we to assume that Ben and Co. are the rebel group that purged all of the remaining members of the Dharma initiative? If we believe this story, then we should also believe what the eye patch guy said about Ben and Co. having been there for a long, long time. I pretty much figure that's what he's getting at and that, that is the reality of the situation, but I still don't understand why anyone not linked to the Dharma Initiative would be on the Island, not that I really know why anyone who is linked to the Dharma Initiative would be there either. About Rousseau, we do not know that much about her really and it seems like a possibility that she knows far more than anyone originally thought, and is also possibly working for the others. I definitely got the feeling last night that Rousseau was "in the know" more than she let on, but of course she must be, mustn't she? She did after all father a child w/Ben. So what happened to her? Is she really defunct from the Others or is she a plant that the others put in place, possibly the only plant that actually worked, since we know Ean and Ben both failed to infiltrate the group. Of course any episode that doesn't feature Desmond could easily be improved upon, by putting him in the main story line, so in that regard, the episode could have been better. Watching this episode makes me more appreciative of last week's show. Last week's show was fun, had great music and just made me smile, it's good to have that break here and there. A final thought not related to this episode specifically: this goes back to the whole Sawyer vs. Jack issue. Personally, I wish that they could just do away with the whole love triangle (as I previously stated) it's been used a million times, and really there's no where to go with it and there's no right way to pair two of the three off. If Kate were to chose either one, Jack or Sawyer, it wouldn't seem final, is too easy for her to waver between the two because they are stranded on an island. So, pairing two of them off won't work, and continuing the love triangle is annoying, can't they just defuse the whole situation and make them all friends like they would be if they were eight years old? If Kate picks anyone I hope that it is Jack. He may have come off like a goody two shoes, follow the rules kind of guy in the beginning, but I think by now he has proven himself, not only to be a tough guy, but a stand up guy as well. While it may be easy to admire Sawyer for his tough exterior, I think the character to really look up to is Jack. It is far harder to be a stand up guy than it is to be a tough guy. Jack is just as ballsy and tough as Sawyer, it's just that he's also honest and able to be "a man" and to be selfless. I'm tired of these guys like Sawyer whom we are supposed to love not for who they are currently, but for the person that they have the potential to become. Suck it, these guys aren't 16, they're not even 22, they're full on adults and whatever a person's potential may seem to be it is worthless if they can never live up to it.