respublica

Quite the link

I noticed this morning that one of my blog posts was linked by the Huffington Post. Wowser, that's quite the thing, a nice bit of news to wake up to. It was a post I did last week on new laws for Illinois and was at the bottom of a story that the HP did on the same subject. 

Merry Christmas

God bless all who have come here since 2004.  

Speaking of 2004, here are two pictures from that Christmas. As you can see Darren was here but Charlie was not. I doubt Katie and Charlie had even met and, it's amazing to count how many more family have been added since then. 2 son in laws, 4.5 grandsons, one great niece and a great nephew. 

One of the girls gave me a Barney dog that year, remember Barney the Bush family's dog who was a regular media presence? He met our dog Speaker. I still have Barney and he's still looking as new as Christmas 2004.

Certainly things have changed, we only live in that house occasionally and it looks totally different now. Speaker is gone and Ferdie has taken his place. One constant is the family dog.

That Christmas night we piled in the car and drove through the Way of LIghts at Our Lady of the Snows in Belleville. How do I remember this? I blogged it. Blogging is a nice trip down memory lane.

Here's a look at Christmas 2005, family may find a sweetness in this.

Photographing school lunches is now forbidden

There's a grade school girl in Scotland who created a blog in which she featured pictures and write-ups of her daily school lunch. It took no time at all before she had a million hits on her site and school children from all over the world were sending her photos of their daily school lunches. 

All of a sudden it was over, her school told her she could no longer take pictures at lunch because her website was getting too much publicity from around the globe. I hope the school reconsiders because the it is has been a terrific look into what kids are eating at school these days and frankly, the food looks much fresher and has more variety than it historicaly has been.

Food is a touchy subject for many of us these days. We want fresher and tastier food but don't want authorities to be telling us what we have to eat or can't eat. Yesterday on KMOX Charlie Brennan was interviewing a doctor who wrote a book on blood sugar or something and after listening I couldn't tell you what this guy believes we can safely eat. So many things were bad, even whole wheat bread which he claims is loaded with sugar.

But let 9 year old Martha Payne keep on with her school lunch blog, it got kids from the whole world and even Illinois involved. That's a good thing.

Typepad comments

Last week Typepad changed the way comments were authenticated, putting up one of those computer generated two words of mixed letters thing. The first time I saw it I tried putting in the letters but many were impossible to make out. Why Typepad thinks its a good idea to follow the bad ideas of other blog companies I do not know. 

But, it also looks like there is a sign in drop down box in which a commenter can sign in to their facebook id if they have one or a few other options. This has become the way of doing things in the comment business on most newspaper etc websites. I guess we're stuck with it for now.

But, signing in with Facebook or Twitter or some other ID does not send anything to your facebook page or anyone else's, its merely the blog site's way of knowing commenters are real person not spammers from overseas.

St Louis the butt of a joke

The famous satirical humor website, The Onion, made St. Louis the object of laughs yesterday.

"The Labor Department reported Monday that the U.S. economy created a staggering 4 million jobs in October, though government officials hastened to add that the new positions are all located in the St. Louis metropolitan area."

Finish the satire written as news bulletin here.

Been down

Typepad was down this morning so this is the first time I've had to update the blog.  Hopefully it will live the rest of the day.

Introducing

A new blog begun over the weekend by our daughter Elizabeth who recently moved from DC back to St. Louis.  

A good blog.  The Omnibus.

Pioneer Woman on tv tomorrow

Just a reminder, the Pioneer Woman's first program on the Food Network premieres tomorrow morning at 10:30 Central time. 

Ree Drummond has one of the best websites around and if you haven't read her, you need to take a look.  Her recipes, dogs, kids, ranch, husband, horses all abound day to day and she uses her photography skills to bring everything she writes come alive.

I've been looking forward to her show all summer. 

The Food Network channel number in St. Louis on Charter is 62 or if you have a high definition set up it is 760. 

7 years

It occurred to me last night that 7 years ago, July 31, 2004, I began this blog. So many things happened during those years, local, state, national and personal that it would be impossible to recount them this morning.

I've loved every hour I've spent on Respublica and have enjoyed everyone I've met across the web as a result of it.

Thank you all.

A window into Madison Wisconsin

There is still no place on the web or on tv which gives a better glimpse into the goings on in Madison than Ann Althouse.

After yesterday's vote by the state legislature and the ensuing rush of protesters (again) piling into the capitol, Ann's husband Meade (new media Meade) was right there with his video and still cameras. 

The photos are amazing, capturing every detail of the protesters, the rotunda, the police.  Ann's descriptions of the who, what, why, where and how outpace any of the journalists covering the situation.  Then Ann comes at the day's events from the area of law, her speciality.

Riveting.