respublica

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

What's happening on the Washington Mall these days?  The Smithsonian is holding their annual Folklife Festivals and today was given over to Texas.  Texas music, Texas food, Texas wine.  Our older daughter and son-in-law took the two little boys to celebrate the Texas half of their heritage.

Christian found the only weed growing on the Washington Mall.  Unless that is one of the famous Texas Blue Bonnets.

No Shiner Bock for Connor.  Are we noticing a pattern here?  Cardinal fans!  Both boys. 

Texas is so much fun.

Obama street art is popping up all over

Photos of some of the art via The Swamp.

Who's behind this?  It's just a bit too professional to be graffiti type street art.

Chicago based artist, Ray Noland.

I haven't seen any in St. Louis, but if I were to come across one of the "Go Tell Mama I'm for Obama" posters, I'd grab it.  Should be worth something some day. 

George Carlin and our stuff

George Carlin died.  He always made me laugh so hard, especially this bit on the stuff we have  His language gets coarse at times but he was often right on the money.

What about those sandbags?

Watching news reports from flooded areas, ever wonder about all those sandbags?  Where do they come from, how many were there, why do they still use them, what becomes of them after the water recedes?

Slate's "Explainer", explains.

Did you know that the bags should be filled only about half full, not tied, with the flap tucked in?  This makes them less heavy to handle easier to stack.

In one Iowa county, alone, 6 million sandbags were used.  What to do now?  That's what officials are still trying to figure out.  We see lots of film of volunteers filling and stacking sandbags before the flood arrives, but we never see if those same volunteers come back to remove them.

Phrase of the day

Ludic Reading.

Pleasure reading

When we like a text we read more slowly.  When we're really engaged in a text, it's like being in an effortless trance.

Via Slate, How we read online.

Your vocabulary trivia for the day.

The White House tour

What have all the candidates been vying for for 17 months?

The White House.  Last night Katie and Charlie got to take a special tour.

Imagine going to the front door of the White House.  Or even the side door?

Or, getting into the Indian Treaty Room in the Old Executive Office Building where most of the White House Staff is housed and seeing a view of the WH and Washington from up high.  Very cool.

Or, seeing the Home from the side.

But my question is, did they meet Barney?

Happy anniversary to the first NRA

On June 16, 1933, the Roosevelt Administration, as part of its New Deal program, created the National Recovery Act in an attempt to put people back to work.

The Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional in 1935 because it gave the president too much power.  Socialistic in nature, the NRA added too many regulations and seemingly too much governmental price fixing.

Right Wingers are nicer people than than left wingers

So concludes research done on this very subject.  Statistics come from an American General Social Survey and the story is printed in the London Daily Mail. The article begins:

"George Orwell once wrote that politics was closely related to social identity. 'One sometimes gets the impression,' he wrote in The Road To Wigan Pier, 'that the mere words socialism and communism draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, nature-cure quack, pacifist and feminist in England'.

Orwell was making an observation. But today a whole body of academic research shows he was correct: your politics influence the manner in which you live your life. And the news is not so good for those on the political Left.

There is plenty of data that shows that Right-wingers are happier, more generous to charities, less likely to commit suicide - and even hug their children more than those on the Left."

Rather likeable stuff if you're a conservative, rather unlikeable if you're a liberal.

Beijing's Olympic Garden

The Chinese are not only constructing athletic venues for this year's Olympic Games, but they have also put together clever garden sculptures of sport made from shrubs and other plant material.

The artistry reminds me a bit of Rose Bowl floats on a higher level.

Flag Day

June 14th was designated as National Flag Day by an Act of Congress in 1949, although Woodrow Wilson, in 1916, issued a proclamation establishing this date as Flag Day.  Either way, June 14th commemorates the adoption of our flag by the Second Continental Congress in 1777.

Tillotson Ave in Collinsville has always displayed the flags.

Fly the stars and stripes today.