My Dad and I survived Fleck/Hornsby. GREAT show - with Howard Levy back in the fold, the Flecktones dusted off some old numbers -- Blu Bop, Sunset Road (complete with Futureman on vocals). A really nice run through Norwegian Wood by Victor, and some great cuts off their latest album. Hornsby came out for a few numbers, including kicking Howard off the piano mid-song (Prickly Pear), and adding some accordion to the mix on a couple others. The Flecktones are also employing a fiddle player that adds some very interesting textures to the mix.

The Hornsby set was equally good -- a great mix of contemporary stuff, old stuff from the Range days, and some covers. Once he put the Dulcimer down (after "Prairie Dog Town"), it got really juicy, rolling through "End of the Innocence", "The Way it Is", and then Little Sadie > White Wheeled Limousine>Long Black Veil with some of the Flecktones, then Bruce and Bela only doing a "Mandolin Rain" (retooled into a minor key structure), then everyone on stage for "Little Maggie".

After the show, we cabbed back to the hotel, and met the Flecktones busdriver and the fiddle player. I wanted to sneak onto the bus and go to Virgina with them, but thought better of it. The next morning, I got up, left about 10AM and drove from Dayton to Akron, caught a (4-hour delayed flight) to Boston, 2 hour bus-ride to Portland, Maine, where I was met by my wife and sleeping son at about 11:00PM.

Whilst in Maine, I caught some hammock time and some beach time with the boy, we went to the in-laws farm where Luke and I drove the tractor around. A good dinner with my in-laws (grass fed rib-eye). The grandparents kept the boy for a night, so Karen and I went to (finally) see HP 7, had an awesome dinner of scallops, shrimp, and lobster, and then fried haddock sandwiches for lunch the following day. In-laws brought the boy back to the beach, and we cooked dinner for them (grilled swordfish, couscous with grill-roasted veggies, grilled zucchini and yellow squash in pesto, and salad). Homemade blueberry cake for dessert.

The downside: surrounded by insufferable Red Sox/Patriots/Bruins fans.

Belly full and shoes full of sand, I caught the Portland->Logan express Saturday evening. I got into Akron about 11:00PM, and drove to my father's house in Elyria. Spent the night there, visited some the next day (and watched the first two-innings of yesterday's non-game -- man, Huff looked really good), and arrived back in _ichigan about 8PM last eve.

Back to work today.

You know, Cali, the feds always take a count of how many people watch PBR before allocating money their way. They have always found that when asking people if they watch PBS

Oh, PBS. For a second there I thought you were talking about Pabst Blue Ribbon.

As Jesus said ... let he who is without a typo throw the first keyboard. Or something like that.

This forum lets you go back and fix things quite a while later.

I don't know what you're talking about, VT'er.

Hillbilly wrote: But I am glad you find it so entertaining. For the longest time I wondered what the hell our tax money was going there for. Then you came along and I said, OK, I guess there are people out there that actually enjoy it. Now I just bitch about NPR, thanks to you.


You mean you don't like Lawrence Welk?

Truly, if I am going to channel surf the very first three stations I check are the three PBS stations we receive. I always try to catch "Austin City Limits" for it's current musical performances taped live. We get blues and jazz standalone performances and documentaries on PBS often I like to explore.

We have one unique show out here I normally end up enjoying if I catch a 30 minute episode. It's called "Check Please, Bay Area." Each episode three new guests from varying walks of life share dining sites they like for various reasons. The restaurants are not necessarily fancy places and have included sports bars and diners. The premise is that each of the guests has gone on their own to check out the other person's recommendations without the restaurant knowing what they are there for. Then when the episode airs the guest go around the table and share their experiences at the recommended sites and comment and critique. It's usually pretty entertaining conversation and a neat way to hear about restaurants. I'm pretty sure there are local Check Please airings in some other US cities.


Frontline is a show I watch with a discerning eye on the content. They did an hour long episode on Lee Atwater after he passed. Atwater was the Republican strategist best know for his affiliation with the first President Bush. I met Lee Atwater on a few occasions in South Carolina (his home) and followed his career and work closely from about 1981 until his death. If fact, my first wife dated Lee Atwater a few times in her college years. With my personal knowledge of Lee I gave Frontline kudos for what I truly accepted as a "fair and balanced" work that night.

I don't watch Charlie Rose regularly but do tune in if I see a guest I think will be interesting. He has guests from all portions of the political spectrum and public life. I learn something I didn't know previously on nearly every show, and to my eye Charlie Rose normally lays his cards on the table with regard to any personal opinions he might have but in a very fair and civil way with the guest that keeps the conversation and interchange smooth.

One night at 2AM I caught an hour long documentary on the Marshall football team plane crash. It was pre-the movie and I believe it was produced by the PBS station in Huntington. I was at my Grandmother's house in Parkersburg that 1970 evening and again that's one of those events that seared into my mind. The documentary was outstandingly done. It was factual and did not take the "literary license" the movie eventually did.

OK, this commercial will be my PBS contribution for 2011, though I realize it's not tax deductible in this format......

Darkstar, there you go getting me craving a Maine trip again! This morning I was already thinking about it after reading the story about the New Hampshire farm for sale that has been owned and operated by the same family for 11 generations going back to about 1632. When I googled it to find the exact location and learned it was very close to the Maine border....so I already had Maine on my mind.

Not a good story. I always click on Niagara Falls related stories. I think this is about the 5th death due to photo op I've read about in the last few weeks from tourist sites. I once heard The Grand Canyon gets many.


Aug 15, 5:34 PM EDT

Japanese woman swept over Niagara Falls in Canada



NIAGARA FALLS, Ontario (AP) -- A 19-year-old Japanese student was swept over Niagara Falls and presumed drowned after falling from a railing along the Canadian side of the Niagara River, Niagara Parks Police said Monday.

The woman was visiting the falls with a friend at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday when she climbed over the railing and straddled it while holding an umbrella. The woman apparently lost her balance and fell into the water when she stood up to climb back over, police said. She fell into the swift-moving river about 80 feet upstream from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls.

Foul play is not suspected.

"It appears from the review of surveillance video that this incident was a tragic accident," a Niagara Parks Police news release said.

The department said it was working with the Japanese consulate general to notify the victim's family. Her name was being withheld pending the notification.

The woman's body had not been found by midday Monday but the remains of an unidentified male were recovered from the whirlpool below the falls after being spotted by an Erie County Sheriff's department helicopter search crew. Police and the coroner were working to identify him; police said his death appears to be unrelated.

Twin's $50,000 Hockey Shot May Be Lost

Nate Smith made all the sports highlight reels and won $50,000 for making an impossible hockey shot in a chairty fundraiser.

But the 11-year-old hockey fan now stands to lose the bonanza because of his father's honesty. Nate was posing as his twin brother Nick when he made the shot.

"I just felt I had to do the right thing," dad Pat Smith told ABCNews today. "I just think that honesty is more important than any prize or money you could get."

Nate made his amazing shot at a celebrity fundraiser hockey game in Faribult, Minn., last Thursday. He took aim from the center ice and fired the puck 89 feet straight in a goal which measured a mere three and a half inches. The puck is three inches wide.


It happened during the annual "Shattuck vs. the World" game attracts Shattuck -St. Mary's alumni who play in the NHL and raises money for the Faribult Youth Hockey Association. NHL fan favorites Zach Parise, Kyle Okposo, Dustin Byfuglien, and Patrick Ewes were all in attendance at the game.

Pat Smith, the twins' father, purchased three raffle tickets at the Shattuck – St. Mary's school hockey game for a chance for one of his kids to make an unforgettable shot across the ice and win $50,000.

"We thought we'd go to the fundraiser and support those guys, nothing else. So I went over to purchase a few tickets with Nate, who was with me," Pat Smith said.

When asked by his dad if he should put Nate's name on the tickets, Nate declined, saying with a cast on his arm recently removed, Nick had a better chance of scoring a winning goal.

The family didn't expect that Nick's ticket would be drawn, so Nick headed outside shortly before halftime. Nevertheless, he told Nate to take the money shot if his raffle ticket was drawn.

Nate took to the ice in his twin brother's place and in a play which had the entire arena on its feet, effortlessly swung his hockey stick to hit the goal in the $50,000 shot. "I was shocked . . . I couldn't believe it," said Nate.

So was the crowd, commented Smith. "It was kind of amazing for Nate to make that shot, and it was crazy in there . . . People said that it was the loudest it had ever been in that building."

However, the boys may never see the check.

"After he made the shot, we had to sign some documents and stuff, and I thought oh boy, we don't want to mess that up," Pat Smith said. "I didn't have time to really think it through and I said yeah, it was Nick's shot."

"The next day we felt so badly, I called into the organizers, we told them that Nate made the shot. We did the right thing," the dad said.


The insurance carrier for the event, Odds on Promotions, has not indicated whether it will accept Nate making a shot in Nick's name. The company did not return calls to ABC News today.

The twins are hoping to get another stroke of good luck and said if they receive the prize, they will save the money for college and donate funds to their local hockey association.

Nate has hopes that this winning shot is just the first of many great hockey plays in his career. When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, he replied "I want to be a hockey player for the Washington Capitals."

And will Nate and his brother Nick continue to swap places?

"We have before, but I don't think we can again," responded Nate.

The insurance carrier for the event, Odds on Promotions, has not indicated whether it will accept Nate making a shot in Nick's name. The company did not return calls to ABC News today.

Odds on Promotions is actually underwritten by The Praetorian Insurance Company out of Northern New Jersey, part of a worldwide conglomerate under the umbrella of QBE. Much flour has to go through that decision making sieve so not surprised Odds on Promotions is not returning calls yet.

I'll wager the solution will be a compromise partial payment of the $50,000 for a good public face.

My wife has been on the road taking one of our kids back to college in Alabama by car (the "Alabama Stakes" will be run at Saratoga this Saturday), and getting another kid settled in her new hot digs with her boyfriend near Loufla between Naples and Fort Myers.

Meanwhile, I've been back at the ranch making money.

The dog is happy, and the place is clean.

I have wine picked out for my wife for her return.

I'm not sure about Michele Bachmann and her submissive tendencies the press is unhealthily
curious about, but pretty sure my wife will acquiesce for at least a half an inning as needed, and then hoist her resilient Tea Party flag.

For what it's worth, The band SugarLand that was playing at the Indiana state fair, is playing at the Wayne County Fair this year (in about 3 weeks or so). Ironically, the Wayne County Fair was ordered by FEMA to put together a disaster contingecy plan for what if because last year a tornado touched down about 2 miles south of the fairgrounds with about 8000 there at 5pm getting ready for the demolition derby that nite. For those that do not know Wooster is the county seat of Wayne County & about 22 miles or so from Donna.

Yep, that's right.

My Dad sent this to me:



If you want to understand the magnitude of the recent debt and budget reduction actions agreed to by Congress and the President, this non-partisan example really puts it in perspective.

U.S. income: $2,170,000,000,000

Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000

New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000

National debt: $14,271,000,000,000

Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000 (about 1 percent of the budget)


It helps to think about these numbers in terms that we can relate to. Therefore, let's remove eight zeros from these numbers and pretend this is the household budget for the fictitious Jones family:

Total annual income for the Jones family: $21,700

Amount of money the Jones family spent: $38,200

Amount of new debt added to the credit card: $16,500

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

Amount cut from the budget: $385
 

McDoc, I once played golf at a course in Wooster when I came back home from Florida to visit high school and college friends. One guy had moved to Wooster and we played poker in his apartment until 5AM and then headed out to the morning mist of the links.

I can't remember the name of the course.

Go figure!

(Donna's Dad just had some figuring for us in that last post.)

Ironically, I believe it was about $385 I lost in that late night Wooster poker game......

(that was "literary license"......that was actually a night I could not lose no matter how much I tried.....the cards were good)

I'm really looking forward to this weekend of thoroughbred horse racing. A jockey I know has headed east and will be riding a Bob Baffert trained horse in "The Alabama Stakes" at Saratoga Springs, New York on Saturday.

Not far from VT'er's place in Vermont.



Then on Saturday, a jockey I know will be headed South with a chance to ride Akron's Jerry Hollendorfer's horse in "The Del Mar Oaks". Right now she's an AE, but I think she'll get in.


On Sunday the same jockey will have flown from Del Mar to Emerald Downs outside of Seattle to ride in "The Longacres Mile." My trainer friend from this town has a horse in the same race.


The Longacres Mile is a special race at Emerald Downs because it is where blue collar jockeys and trainers who took advantage of a soft spot to start their careers come back for a celebration of summer and to thank their roots. Every originally connected West Coast jockey or trainer covets getting a win in The Longacres Mile.