Secrets of the City

Niagra caves in Harmony. Cheesy little gift shop, but the caves are neat.

Jane is thinking of Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park, another place we have stayed while visiting the area.

It’s a nice little park. As The Rat could likely aver, it has a fairly decent trout stream running through it.

Yep, Mystery Cave State Park.

BTW, other than the fact that my baba ganouge sandwich was a hummus sandwich, lunch was delicious.

Dougie_D your descriptions are hilarious. I would love to see teenage Amish girls hauling ass in a wagon. You can’t keep a good rotten teenager down!

Jane, have you ever seen the Devil’s Playground?

If not, you should watch it.

Here’s what the teenage Amish girls were hauling in a wagon.

One of my friends was a recent import from Newcastle, England and she was amazed/frightened the entire trip. I think in the van she was concerned that she couldn’t get any bars on her phone and was sure we were never going to make it back to the hotel.

The play we saw was a Noel Coward County House romp and my friend was astonished at how terrible the british accents were.

Baker–thanks for the tip!

“his personality is so magnetic he can’t carry credit cards”

-That is all

You mean to tell me that in addition to creating the internet sensation “Chocolate Rain,” Tenzing Norgay climbed Everest?

Another pathetically low comment open thread.

I don’t think you can bitch about low comment numbers when your only contribution is one comment bitching about a lack of comments.

It does get a bit old.

But…but…if Kwatt doesn’t point out there aren’t many comments in a thread, how will I know that I should comment? Some of us can’t count, dammit!

The comment size seems to be a reasonable number to me. Given the economy, isn’t everything being discounted now?

@Baker I’ve seen Devil’s Playground at least three times. I like that one kid who has a bunch of Amish drug dealers wanting to kick his ass for snitching. He seems so sweet. I think his name was Farron.

/That was not sarcasm
//Yeah, there are Amish drug dealers. And apparently they want you to stop snitchin’
///The 90s dress/haircuts among the rumspringa-ing teens are the best
////This was just on National Geographic channel a couple of weeks ago and was originally on HBO. I’m sure you can Netflix it
/////BTW, have the Shakers completely died out yet?

“Given the economy, isn’t everything being discounted now”

Is it the Bush economy or the Obama economy?

I really don’t think you can honestly blame the low number of posts on the last administration.

If you thought Noodleman was “honestly” trying to do anything with that comment, you might need to replaced the batteries in your irony detector.

I think that in the Sparber Economy I only comment once is an indicator.

I don’t have your literary instincts, Kurtis and the detector’s been down from neglect on my part. You can burn out one of those things quick in this place.

I thought I was just telling a joke.

But I read a bittersweet piece about the romance of the automobile from P.J. O’Rourke in the Wall Street Journal this morning and it put me in a lighthearted mood.

A couple little gems:

“In 1970 a Pontiac GTO (may the brand name rest in peace) had horsepower to the number of 370. In the time of one minute, for the space of one foot, it could move 12,210,000 pounds. And it could move those pounds down every foot of every mile of all the roads to the ends of the earth for every minute of every hour until the driver nodded off at the wheel. Forty years ago the pimply kid down the block, using $3,500 in saved-up soda-jerking money, procured might and main beyond the wildest dreams of Genghis Khan,”

and…

“The car ceased to be object of desire and equipment for adventure and turned into office, rec room, communications hub, breakfast nook and recycling bin—a motorized cup holder. Americans, the richest people on Earth, were stuck in the confines of their crossover SUVs, squeezed into less space than tech-support call-center employees in a Mumbai cubicle farm.”

Here’s a

@Rat: I always blame Reagan.

The end of my ramped up bicycling season came today. It came right after I took my wife home from the emergency room at HCMC. I doubt she’ll be commuting too much by bicycle anymore.

We were on the bike lane on Portland Avenue downtown and at one of the intersections a car blew through a red light. My wife had to hit the brakes on her bike and went right over the handlebars. The car slowed down, looked at her and kept driving.

After she got over the wooziness, we walked the two or so blocks to the HCMC Emergency Room. After waiting a good while she had her right knee X-Rayed and they patched up the cuts and bruises. Coulda been a lot worse.

Put the bike in the shed for what will probably be the rest of the summer. I only have to see my wife lying in the middle of Portland Avenue one time to know this kind of recreation isn’t worth the risks.

Sorry to hear about her accident, Rat, and I hope she’s feeling better soon.

Ouch, Rat. Hope the Mrs. heals soon. But you don’t have to give up the biking. There are plenty of nice trails that offer a safer, car-free environment.

Hope she feels better soon, and glad it wasn’t worse!

One last pat on the head for Baxter, Jason DeRusha’s dog, who had to be put down last weekend.

 (wipes tear)

What a great looking little dog. I’m sure he’ll be missed. I’m going home early today to give my dog an extra hug and a treat.