Monday Words; Assorted Trivia

"We are all travelers in this world
From the sweetgrass to the packing house..."

Robert Duvall
Broken Trail

Now that's a eulogy! I once took a cab ride in NYC from Battery Park to Central Park with Robert Duvall. We were coming home from some high-speed party with Waylon Jennings, who spent the entire party looking like he'd been sucking lemons, and it had started raining, so cabs were in short suppy. I was able to grab a cab, and Duvall asked if he could hop in with me.

The result was a fascinating conversation with a brilliant man. Regular blog readers know I haven't cut actors a lot of slack, largely because of famous art critic and one-time rock and roll lunatic Dave Hickey's classic admonition, "You don't have to be nice to be good." He could have added, "You don't have to be smart, kind, courteous, , quick, clean, or, in the case of Tom Cruise, sane...etc..." to that quote. But Robert Duvall was all of those things.

I'd sure as heck ride the trail with him. And, no, BROKEN TRAIL isn't LONESOME DOVE, but heck, what is? It's still a darn good western. BTW, I know it may be heresy, but I don't think LONESOME DOVE s the greatest western movie ever...for me, that's JEREMIAH JOHNSON. Yeah yeah yeah...SEARCHERS SEARCHERS SEARCHERS...I'll take Utah over Monument Valley.

You'll notice I'm a speck less caustic today, largely because I had my first weekend at home in months and months. Did you know that there's more to life than work? Who'd'a thought it? I actually did some gardenng this weekend...well, my Sweetie did the gardening; I did things like "fetch the hose," "fetch the clippers," "pull the weeds." I'm also been informed by said Sweetie that it's time for me to "shoot the squirrels, chipmunks and voles." AH! My favorite rite of summer! Today I'm decanting my TACTICAL THOMPSON (Center) .22, with Choate folding stock, Harris bipod and a really really expensive scope from my pals Mickey Fowler and John Pride, so I can guarantee hits at the (measured) seven yards to my Sweetie's flower garden.

Cry havoc, and let slip the Roly-poly Puppy of War!

But before we let the Puppy breathe, consider this intelligent commentary from the Washington Times:

At a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-sponsored conference, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- who brags about tracking New Yorkers' blood sugar levels and driving down cigarette consumption with high taxes and a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants -- called for "an aggressive, comprehensive public health strategy" aimed at "deadly menaces [that] result from our choices," including "tobacco addiction, unhealthy nutrition, and excessively sedentary lifestyles."

As to government efforts to influence what we eat and how much exercise we get, Mr. Bloomberg acknowledged "some people may call that too intrusive." He dismissed this with a relabeling: "I call it dynamic and effective public health." You say tomato...