Clemens got off cause jury found govt. case to be self righteous and arrogant.  They prosecuted in order to drive home the point that "If you lie to congress, you're gonna pay."  I wonder if some of the jurors realized this early on and decided that Clemens was (whether guilty or not) being singled out as an example because of his fame and thought "there but for the grace...go I".  And I wonder if I wouldn't have done the same while wondering why there are laws against citizens lying to congress but none about congress lying to citizens. 

R.A. Dickey.  

Every pitch is an adventure in physics.

Every swing and a miss is smile inducing wonder.

A professional and personal history that reads like Dickens. Wanted to be an English Professor if he could't make it in the bigs. Is missing (was born without) an ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. 

Was sexually abused in childhood. Just threw his second consecutive 1 hitter and leads the league in just about everything. What a story!  What drama!  What's not to love?

G.K. Chesterton and his Father Brown Stories.

Just started the classic series about the self-effacing, puzzle solving, criminal reforming priest and it's a train commuter's delight since each story is approximately the length of each of my one way sojourns to and from work.  The mysteries are mostly hokey and often far fetched, but the fun comes from the asides and observations from third person narrator (Chesterton) who takes advantage of every opportunity to hoist every pretension from every walk of life upon its own petard.  To wit:

"The Vernon Hotel at which The Twelve True Fishermen held their annual dinners was an institution such as can only exist in an oligarchical society which has almost gone mad on good manners. It was that topsy-turvy product--an "exclusive" commercial enterprise. That is, it was a thing which paid not by attracting people, but actually by turning people away. In the heart of a plutocracy tradesmen become cunning enough to be more fastidious than their customers. They positively create difficulties so that their wealthy and weary clients may spend money and diplomacy in overcoming them. If there were a fashionable hotel in London which no man could enter who was under six foot, society would meekly make up parties of six-foot men to dine in it. "

I can read stuff like that for hours...and I do.

Haven't posted much about the vacation house lately, so thought I'd share latest snapshot of our sextet as we continue to sort out remaining items on our 'to do' list.  

The building of a house (however humble and however marginal ones' actual engagement in it may be) is sure to sensitize you to the elements of engineering and design.  We Drifters never really had too many opportunities to indulge our desires for anything other than basic necessities and generally had to stick to the simplest solutions for reasons of limited space and funds.  But I've had some fun over the course of the year learning about "designs" for living spaces and collected some stuff that struck my fancy--which usually drifted in the direction of form following function and stuff that struck me as just nifty.

So simple, smart and obvious, I was surprised I hadn't seen it before.  Could probably build it myself pretty easily and would only have to be careful to use heavy duty tracks to withstand body weight.  But shouldn't be a biggie.  Could conceivably go much higher too.

Getting out of the sun doesn't get much simpler than this. And I'm intrigued by all the possibilities with size, shape, material and rigging.  Can use nearby trees, fishing line would be nearly invisible and you could mount ends on portable staffs that fit into portable bases and move the whole thing to wherever you want it.

It's cool, but not sure it could do the work unless the mower mechanism is smooth as silk, the ground is even and firm and your legs are up to the challenge of keeping steady pace---not to mention turning and...well, like I said, it's cool, and maybe just a better sculptural conversation piece in lieu of a birdbath.

Wrote previously about my disdain for dishwashers--so here's a way for those who don't concur to meet me halfway.  Dishes go in rack in sink, add detergent, lid comes down, turn on switch, blast of hot water shoots all around, lift lid and you're done.

Now that I've got a chain saw, this looks like a piece of cake.  Gotta lay down layer of sand and dry concrete mix first but then it's just slice away till you got enough pieces to cover.  Thought about splinters when you're barefoot, but a coat of water seal and periodic sanding should suffice to eliminate that concern.

Outdoor bladder relieving is one of the great joys of country living and too bad it's not considered more acceptable under public conditions--but maybe things are looking up if this catches on.  Ellen tells me urine is bad for plants and soil, but I've read some things that suggest that if kept off surface area and funneled deeper into the ground it's actually quite a good nature nourisher.