Happy New Year 2020

Another Squirrel Party

My bestest friend of 40+ years will be celebrating her 75^th birthday next Thursday.  So I am loading up the car and heading to the beach tomorrow morning to celebrate this milestone with her family.

I will be traveling through enemy country because my beloved Alabama Crimson Tide defeated the Clemson Tigers in the College Football National Championship Game.  My friend’s son is a devoted Clemson fan and, to make matters worse, is also a long-time fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Since Clemson lost to Alabama, the Steelers lost their playoff game to Denver and my Carolina Panthers beat the Seahawks I doubt that Ron is going to be very happy with me.

I said all that to say that the keys to the liquor cabinet are once again being handed to Proof of Proof Positive and The Grunt of Monte Cristo to provide content while I’m away celebrating my friend’s birthday.

Both Proof and Grunt have proven to be scalawags during my vacays including shenanigans with my Hümmel collection and letting squirrels in the house to wreak havoc inside Casa de Curmudgeon.

My attorney has already drawn up papers advising them both that impugning my good name will not be tolerated.  So if either one of them posts some fractured fairy tale about me don’t you dare believe ‘em!

Pomchi On Board

Beginning today, I’ll be on the road with my little furkid Sophie for two weeks.  My plans include visiting my best friend at the beach and then heading to Hotlanta to catch the home stand of the Braves against the Washington Nationals.

So far the Nats are 7-7 and my Bravos are 8-5.  Atlanta is on the road battling their division rivals the Mets who lead the NL East 11-3.  Next week the Nats come to Hotlanta and I will be there rooting for my boys.  My seat is behind the Bravos’ dugout.  I’ll be wearing my home jersey, a Braves ball cap and holding a cool, refreshing brewski so you should be able to pick me out of the crowd pretty easily if you catch the games on TV. *snicker*

I’ll get to the Ted (Turner Field) a few hours early to watch batting practice and get some autographs to add to my awesome collection of Braves memorabilia.  I hope my boys are able to beat the Nats.  If they do, I’ll being tweeting their No. 1 fan, Dr. Charles Krauthammer, to give him some guff.  If my Braves lose, of course, I’ll keep my big mouth shut.

While I’m away, co-blogger Proof will keep the place going with content.  This time however, I’ve queued up “Flowing Curves of Beauty” so there won’t be any Star Trek hotties unless, of course, Proof decides to throw some in the mix.

I am always grateful to Proof for taking the reins here when I’m on my “Obama-esque” vacations.  Meanwhile, thanks to all of you for your loyal readership.  Take care out there.

Rested And Thankful

I just returned from a little vacation to the home of my best friend of 40-plus years.  I was able to spend some quiet time sitting on the patio beneath a pergola overlooking a waterfront alive with egrets, mallards, swans, turtles and fish.  The turtles and fish were an item of interest for the next-door neighbor’s black lab, Skeeter, who regularly leaped into the little channel and swam around chasing them to her great amusement.

During my visit the temperatures ranged in the mid-70s with clear, blue skies.  The weather was perfect for a couple of rounds of golf at the Burning Ridge Golf Club adjacent to Myrtle Trace Retirement Community where my friend lives and we moseyed over to the horseshoe pits and bocce ball courts for a little outdoor fun with some of the other homeowners of Myrtle Trace.

We took a road trip to visit Atalaya Castle at Huntington Beach State Park and then enjoyed an extraordinary dinner at Folly Beach’s BLU Restaurant and Bar.  I selected petite Charleston crab cakes with a Cajun remoulade, barbeque jumbo shrimp wrapped with bacon, grilled swordfish with creamy polenta, summer vegetable gratin, a strawberry salad with candied pecans and a honey and fig vinaigrette dressing and a truly delicious 2005 Trimbach Gewürztraminer Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre wine. 

We lingered at our table watching pelicans by the dozens as they flew by the massive windows that offered an unobstructed view of the ocean and concluded our dining experience with a raspberry and white chocolate bread pudding.  We were so full we had to be rolled out of the restaurant.

Later in the week I did a little shopping at Tanger Outlet and visited The Christmas Mouse at Barefoot Landing where I purchased a “Sprinkle of Magic” Snowbaby and a whole host of ornaments intended for the new Christmas tree I plan to buy this year.

My friend and I joined her son Ronnie and his “current” girlfriend, her nephew Cole and his squeeze Erin at Buffalo Wild Wings to play Team Trivia.  We were angling for the $50 prize.

The “Ronald McDonalds” were in First Place the entire game until the final question.  Teams were asked to arrange in the correct descending order the following:  What was Clementine’s shoe size?  What is Shaquille O’Neal’s shoe size?  How many points are on Kermit the Frog’s collar?  Crystal is given for which wedding anniversary?  You could wager up to 15 points and that’s just what we did. 

Correct Answer:  Shaq’s shoe size is 23; 15^th anniversary; 13 points; size 9

We didn’t have the correct number of points for Kermit’s collar so we lost, but we had a blast testing our trivia knowledge.

After packing up the car and putting Sophie in the front seat to ride shotgun, I said my good-byes to my friend and headed back north for Hendersonville to buy some Appalachian-grown apples.  I stopped at Coston Farm.  Coston’s is a 4th generation family-owned farm and apple orchard and its pet friendly.

I bought a bushel box of Honey Crisp apples, four ginormous pumpkins, some Indian corn and some fall decorations.  I enjoyed an apple cider slushie as I sat in a white rocking chair on the porch of the gift shop.  Sophie was the only pup there and everybody wanted to pet her.  She got spoiled from all the attention she received from customers and staff.  We hung around for about an hour stretching our legs and headed home.

Apple News: We have no more Ginger Gold, Honey Crisp or Gala apples for the season. We do have apple pies ma... http://t.co/S6wFmwIvJG
— Coston Farm (@CostonFarm) October 13, 2014

It’s good to get away but it is by far better to be home again.  Sophie is glad to be home so she can snooze on her own sofa once again.  Now, I’ve got to get busy baking a poopload of apple pies, homemade chunky applesauce with cinnamon and canning some apple butter.  I have everything I need to churn out the goodies except a bottle of Dr. McGillicuddy’s Apple Pie Schnapps for the apple butter.

Proof, proprietor of Proof Positive and co-blogger here at PCP, was kind enough to keep the motor running while I was vacationing by putting up several posts.  On Saturday, October 4th he posted “Powerful Ad Running Against Mary Landrieu” .  He followed that up with “There Goes The Neighborhood”, “The Return Of Ten Buck Friday”, “Panthers Vs Bengals” and finally, what has become a Monday regular favorite for the menfolk, “Flowing Curves Of Beauty”.

I thank him for taking on the task.  He’s a good guy when “his muse strikes so long as his muse is not on strike.”

Rhetorical Sleight of Hand on Ferguson from the Weasel-in-Chief

By Proof

Obama issued a statement about the "heartbreaking loss" of Michael Brown. He followed that up in a speech:

"Of course, it’s important to remember how this started. We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances. He was 18 years old. His family will never hold Michael in their arms again."

If this guy Obama was my butcher, I'd tell him to get his thumb off the scale while he's weighing my rib roast. "Heartbreaking", "tragic", "His family will never hold Michael in their arms again." Another case for your consideration: an elderly gentleman gunned down in his home without warning. Those who loved him would undoubtedly see this as "heartbreaking", and "tragic". And I can assure you, that his family will never hold Usama bin Laden in their arms again!

You see what I did there? More importantly, did you see what Obama did there? Staying true to form, Obama draws his conclusions without the necessity of waiting for the the benefit of any facts. This guy Michael Brown may have been an A-student choir boy, or just some thug resisting arrest. We don't know. While to his parents it's heart breaking, if this guy was terrorizing his neighborhood, then his death was far from "tragic" for his victims. Would it hurt the man who dithered for six years not approving the Keystone pipeline, to wait at least as many days before pontificating over the character of a man he did not know? Who died under circumstances yet to be determined? Or, at the very least, to use the neutral language of a statesman instead of emotionally charged weasel words, until after all the facts are in?

Assuming that Michael Brown falls somewhere in the spectrum between beloved Robin Williams, whose family will never hold him in their arms again, and Usama bin Laden, whose family will never hold him in their arms again, why should the president of the United States, who never seems to be able to find the time to perform the actual duties of his office, interject himself into racially charged local matter with emotionally charged language that could inflame those already given to riot and disorder?

Obama claims to "be a better speechwriter than his speech writers". Shall we infer then, that it was his intent to use such dishonest, emotionally charged rhetoric to subtly maintain the inflamed passions that sparked the looting and civil unrest of Ferguson, MO? Before you tug our heartstrings with the tale of a poor, elderly man gunned down in his home, whose family will never hold him in their arms again, tell us of the 3,000+ Americans he killed in a single day. Context is everything.

Next time, Mr. President, make the "gutsy call" to get all the facts before you weigh in on subjects both above and below your pay grade. Your followers will not hold you accountable, but history will.

Cross posted at Proof Positive

There's Still a Bear in the Woods

Original art by John Cox. More at John Cox Art

Cross posted at Proof Positive

Six More Weeks Of Winter And My Broncos By 4½

On January 6, 2014 Proof agreed to become a co-author at this site.  Today, I saw at his site a wonderful cartoon created by John Cox.  I was so enamored by it that I decided to steal the idea and create a Photoshop™ of his brilliant work.

T.S. Eliot once wrote, “Immature Photoshoppers imitate; mature Photoshoppers steal; bad Photoshoppers deface what they take, and good Photoshoppers make it into something better, or at least something different.”  (A note from our attorneys: This is not a real quote.)

Today we celebrate Groundhog Day and that other important thing—the Super Bowl.  Throughout the regular season I have taken guff from Proof, Woodsterman and Stogie who are staunch 49ers fans.  They stooped to calling my Carolina Panthers the “Angry Kitties.”

It was all good-natured fun.  First my heart was broken when the 49ers won the trench war against the Panthers on January 12th.  One week later, their hearts were broken when the Seahawks defeated their beloved Niners 23-17 to become the NFC Champions.

Today, we are one.  We will be cheering on the Broncos and Peyton Manning. Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his burrow this morning and predicted six more weeks of winter.  And…the Broncos by 4½.

Go Peyton!  Go BRONCOS!

Announcing A Wonderful Addition To Political Clown Parade

Today, I made a decision of which I am very proud.  Longtime blogger buddy Proof, the proprietor of Proof Positive, has graciously consented to become a co-blogger here at Political Clown Parade.

Proof extols the wisdom of Mark Twain who used satire to skewer society’s foibles.  Proof possesses a roguish wit as evidenced by his profile.  

"Proof is a brilliant, ne’er-do-well, billionaire playboy never seen in the same room at the same time as Batman."  He is so mischievous that he suggests ways to contact him include shining a searchlight into the sky with a silhouette of Mark Twain.

Proof’s humor and compassion, more than anything, makes it easy to call him a friend.

We, he and I, are fellow travelers who choose to stand guard over liberty.  I look forward to his posts becoming a part of this blog.  He will be able to add fresh content which is something my readers deserve.

Please welcome Proof with open arms and an open heart.  I just know you’ll love his work.  He thinks I’m adopting him.  I guess maybe I am.

Falcons Will Run “Afowl” Of The Panthers

The 4-11 Atlanta Falcons go up against the 11-4 Carolina Panthers today at 1:00 PM in the Georgia Dome.  Atlanta has nothing to gain in today’s game.  Their season is shot.  They’ll be playing for pride’s sake.

The Panthers meanwhile, will try to grab the NFC South crown and a shot at the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.  A Panthers victory will garner a first-round bye giving receiver Steve Smith time to heal his sprained PCL after last Sunday’s game.

If the Falcons win—perish the thought—the Saints can claim the NFC South crown by beating Tampa Bay.

Blogger buddies Proof, Odie and Stogie are rooting for San Francisco to defeat the Cardinals in their afternoon game.  A win combined with St. Louis whipping the Seahawks would secure a third straight NFC West title for the Niners.

Since the oddsmakers are taking the Panthers over the Falcons and honestly, who wouldn’t, it’s unlikely that Carolina will lose to the Falcons so the Niners can forget about home field advantage for the playoffs.