Just before the funeral services, the undertaker came up to the very elderly widow and asked,
"How old was your husband?" "98," she replied.
"Two years older than me"
"So you're 96," the undertaker commented.
She responded, "Hardly worth going home, I guess.

CUBS WIN !! CUBS WIN !! Bring on the Goat !!

CHICAGO — The bar-laden North Side neighborhood around Wrigley Field isn't what you'd call docile even when the Chicago Cubs aren't in town.
Long-suffering Cubs fans poured into the streets around the stadium on Friday after the Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers lost, giving the team the NL Central title.

It's the first trip to the playoffs for Chicago since 2003, the fateful year they came so close - five outs - from the World Series.

"I'm so excited, oh my God, I've been a Cubs fan my entire life," said Rachael Shore, standing near a lighted Wrigley Field sign that blared "Chicago Cubs 2007 National League Central Division Champions." (By Karen Hawkins, Associated Press Writer)
CINCINNATI -- On Fox, the so-called network of October, they're already showing Bartman replays and billy goat drawings. This is what's coming, of course, another bombardment of the national consciouness about Cubdom's endless agony and a looming 100-year anniversary without World Series glory. You'd think it's the last piece of dreck that Lou Piniella and his players want to deal with EV-ER-Y DAY.

But a refreshing study of reverse psychology is taking place as they shake the Korbel bubbly out of their hair. The Cubs, for now, are ignoring the dark story line. In fact, they're daring to talk openly about killing the curse and winning it all, which can be construed not only as dissing the farm animal, black cat and hooded left-field intruder but laughing and spitting in their faces. (BY JAY MARIOTTI Chicago Sun-Times Columnist)
Most of the 38,936 fans in Cincinnati for the final series for the season wore blue and rooted for the visiting CUBS, who received a standing ovation when they took the field for the first time. You know what they say: This is "next year". (All posters shown above can be purchased at All Posters.com -- Click on the link below:)

Fishermen enjoy the fall scenery along the Trinity River near Redding, CA.

(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
April 18, 2004

Any way you slice it, it's one cool ride. The electric bike mixes pedal power with a battery pack. Hills? Easy as Pi.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Electrobike calls it the world's fastest hair dryer, but its Pi electric bicycle isn't even in the same league. It has half the wattage of a Conair -- just 750 watts, or about 1 horsepower.

That's the federally mandated limit for an electric bicycle like the Pi, which does triple duty: It's a traditional pedal pusher, a motor-driven bike and an art piece. You can ride it as long as your legs and lungs hold out. Or just nudge the throttle with your thumb and let the 36-volt pack of nickel metal hydride batteries do the heavy breathing. Or you can park it in the living room between your Eames chairs and Albero sofa and admire its arching architecture.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIO !!!

On this day in 1943 Julio Iglesias was born.
Julio continues his unstoppable triumphal march throughout the world. Every thirty seconds one of his songs is played on a radio station somewhere in the world. He performs in concert all over the universe, and his albums continue to be successful in sales. Many consider him to be the most successful and influencial latin singer in history. He spends his time among his houses in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic), Miami (United States) and Marbella (Spain), together with Miranda and their children.

Poisoning the Pike

Lake Davis at sunset. The northern pike, a voracious invader from the Midwest, is now at the top of the California lake’s food chain, devastating the trout population.
(Robert Durell / LAT)

City of Angels

A rainbow forms over Los Angeles City Hall at sunset after a stormy day.
(Bob Chamberlin / LAT)

The Winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagra Falls froze completely solid.

Don Marco..... The Master Crayola Artist

Don Marco developed a technique to create fine art, using Crayola Crayons. Shortly after retiring, he published his first print. Living in Southern California, his work was in demand, including commissions from Burt Reynolds and a one-man show at his Dinner Theater in Florida.
James Arness
Hard to imagine these are done with crayons!!!
River Elk

The View From Here . . .

Observers keep tabs on the fire near Big Bear Lake from a promontory near the "Rim of the World".

Photo by Ken Hively, Los Angeles Times

If you call them, they will come

Interested in learning another language? How about elk? Expert guides at the Gateway Canyons Resort, about an hour south of Grand Junction, Colorado, are offering elk-calling lessons as part of the resort's Canyon Colors package. In the wilderness near the resort, you will learn how to lure the mammals by imitating their loud, cavernous calls.

The lesson takes three to four hours and comes with an elk bugle to help you mimic their distinctive sounds. The Canyon Colors package includes two nights' accommodations, a horseback ride and a guided wilderness tour. It is available through Oct. 31. Prices start at $800, based on double occupancy. Info: (970) 931-2458, www.gatewaycanyons.com.

A Stargazer's Paradise -- Got Milky Way ??

The night sky is nearly free of light pollution in Joshua Tree National Park.
(Wally Pacholka / AstroPics.com)

I'm back -- not that you even noticed I was gone but I did have a great time

Just returned from an Alaskan cruise via Seattle. The weather was on the cool side but we had almost no rain. Of course, the food was quite good and I ate like a "you know what" so I guess I'll try to starve myself for a couple of weeks. The incredible scenery was only enhanced by the cloudy skies that kept following us around. I took many photos -- some of the highlights are shown below:
Seattle's public library
Seattle's Space Needle
The beauty of Alaska
Juneau, Alaska
Last run of the salmon at Ketchikan

The Grande Dame

The Sagamore resort sits at the south end of Lake George, N.Y., on its own 32-mile-long island. It is the grande dame of hotels in the area with a broad lawn, several restaurants, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a dock for watercraft rentals.
(Chris Reynolds / LAT)

The 'Road' much traveled

JACK KEROUAC'S "On the Road" has been iconic since it appeared Sept. 5, 1957. A roman à clef about the author's cross-country adventures (as Sal Paradise) with friend Neal Cassady, known in the book as Dean Moriarty, the novel was begun in the late 1940s and completed, famously, in April 1951, in a three-week writing marathon on a 120-foot scroll.

Several new books commemorate the novel's 50th anniversary, including "Road Novels 1957-1960," edited by Douglas Brinkley (Library of America: 864 pp., $35); "Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of 'On the Road' (They're Not What You Think)" by John Leland (Viking: 206 pp., $23.95); and the first publication of Kerouac's unedited "scroll manuscript," "On the Road: The Original Scroll" (Viking: 408 pp., $25.95).
Neal Cassady and Jack Kerouac

Clouds, Clouds and More Clouds

The Grand Tetons --- For more spectacular shots like this, click on the link below.

The Charminar seen from Mecca masjid, Hyderabad

Photo by nimboo on Flickr.

Wreck of the Titanic Found

In 1985, Seventy-three years after it sunk to the North Atlantic ocean floor, a joint U.S.-French expedition located the wreck of the RMS Titanic. The sunken liner was about 400 miles east of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.

American Robert D. Ballard headed the expedition, which used an experimental, unmanned submersible developed by the U.S. Navy to search for the ocean liner. The Argo traveled just above the ocean floor, sending photographs up to the research vessel Knorr. In the early morning of September 1, Argo was investigating debris on the ocean floor when it suddenly passed over one of the Titanic's massive boilers, lying at a depth of about 13,000 feet. The wreck was subsequently explored by manned and unmanned submersibles, which shed new light on the details of its 1912 sinking.