Today, I opened Eternal Road – The final stop randomly to page 167. With eyes closed, I pointed to the page. The word closest to my finger is “horses.” That is our prompt today.
As we all know, this month marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776 by John Hancock and others. It would be fun to be there, but of course, there are things we should not do if we go. Take this list with you, as it may save you trouble in the long run. This post was published on July 1st, 2019
Top Ten Things Not to Do at the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
10 If you are at the signing, do not place that tankard of ale anywhere near the document. If you do, at best, you might leave a ring on it. At worst, a careless spill could mean doing the whole thing over. (All those signatures, not to mention the handwritten document, are now soaked, Hosa. Quit trying to clean up the mess with that lace tablecloth. You are only making it worse. It will take days to redo, and now July 4th will be on July 10th.)
9 If you are at the signing, do not go near the document as long as Tiny, the WWF champ, has been assigned the duty to protect it. If you do, at best, Tiny will issue a warning. At worst, Tiny, who just left being scolded by John Hancock for being too soft, will demonstrate his toughness for all to see. ( Trust me, you can survive the step over toe hold with a helicopter body slam finish, Houghton. You just have to relax more.)
8 If you are at the signing, do not volunteer to stand in for New York and sign on their behalf. If you do, at best you’ll be told to sit down. At worst, you will sign and cause a rift between the Continental Congress and New York. ( You see, Houston, New York made a conscious decision not to sign on July 4th because as delegates they weren’t given the go-ahead by New York leadership. They did sign on July 9th after erasing your name.)
7 If you are at the signing, do not think everyone will be signing on July 4th. If you do, at best, you will be disappointed. At worst, the delegation will have you tossed into the street. (Most of the signatures were not collected until copies of the declaration were circulated to the colonies, Hovhaness. The final official document was not fully signed until August 2nd. July 4th is the date that the Declaration was ratified. John Hancock signed as the leader of the Continental Congress.)
6 If you are at the signing, do not begin singing, “God Save the King.” If you do, at best, you’ll be singing alone. At worst, the delegates will take you for a crown sympathizer and ride you out of town. ( I know that rail is uncomfortable, Howahkan. Maybe next time you could pick a better song.)
5 If you are at the signing, do not give the author, Thomas Jefferson, some notes on how you think the Declaration could be improved. If you do, at best, like most authors, he will have a thick skin. At worst, since he has gone without sleep in order to finish the document, Jefferson may challenge you to a duel. (I think you should walk a mile in Thom’s shoes before leaving a review, Hrolleif.) Besides, what do you know about writing a Declaration?)
4 If you are at the signing, although tempting, do not suggest changing the word “men” to “humans.” If you do, at best, your political correctness will evoke a laugh. At worst, the authors had intended human beings to be covered by the Declaration, and now a whole new debate has ensued. (Might have been better just to say nothing, Hu. It seems the Declaration has been tabled and the delegates have dispersed. So much for not creating a time continuum event.)
3 If you are at the signing, do not offer to hold the quill pens. If you do, at best, you’ll mess up a couple of the nubs. At worst, when it comes time for John Hancock to sign, there won’t be a fine point available. (So it was you who caused John to sign in that huge manner, Hueil? All along the story, he wanted King George to be able to see his signature without wearing spectacles.)
2 If you are at the signing, do not suggest adding pizza to the preamble, which reads, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” (You have to wonder about the looks you got at the suggestion, Hugi. You should be glad nobody asked you to explain pizza.)
1 If you are at the signing, do not ask Samual Adams what his seasonal beer flavor will be this year. If you do, at best, he’ll think you are joking. At worst, he will assume you are buying the drinks and invite all the delegates to your party. ( I wonder how you are going to cover the bar bill, Hui. I’m almost positive the inn won’t take that American Express card. It might be time to hit the escape button rather than face the theft charges.)
Today, we are going to the Lakeway City Hall to view an art exhibition by the city’s employees. We are catered by Fona San Miguel of Austin. Our entertainment is Nora Jones.
Menu
POLLO EN MOLE POBLANO – Smoked chicken breast with drumette in traditional Mole Poblano and a side of camote purée.
CHULETA DE PUERCO – Grilled premium Berkshire pork chop served with grilled vegetables and butternut squash purée. Served with salsa Macha.
COCHINITA PIBIL – Slow braised marinated pork, covered in banana leaves for rich flavor. Served with almond pepita habanero salsa and a side of fried plantains.
ADOBO NEGRO RIBEYE – 12 oz. dry-aged prime ribeye served with adobo negro and topped with wild mushrooms. Served with nopal salad and heirloom corn tortillas.
CARNE ASADA A LA TAMPIQUEÑA – Grilled 7 oz. beef tenderloin with guacamole, rajas, refritos negros, and a cheese enchilada with choice of verde, suiza, or mole poblano sauce.
PESCADO VERACRUZANO – Grilled Gulf of Mexico white fish in Veracruz-style tomato sauce with capers, onions, and Spanish olives.
PESCADO A LA TALLA – Whole grilled Branzino (in season) in rojo and verde Guerrero-style (Northwest African influences) marinades. Served with a side of escabeche, herbs, house-made heirloom tortillas, arroz blanco y refritos negros. CAMARONES CON CHIPOTLE – Large Gulf of Mexico shrimp (6) in a spicy cream chipotle sauce with fresh tomatoes.
PRAWNS ZARANDEADO – Grilled tiger prawns (4) served with epazote aoli, onion, cilantro with lime wedge. Side of house-made heirloom tortillas, arroz blanco y refritos negros.
Let’s go
Here is the full collection.
Amy Burr – Parks and Recreation
Jacquie Banks – Building and Development
Paul Duncan – Building and Development
Paul Duncan – Building and Development
Paul Duncan – Building and Development
Kathryn Chalfant – Activity Center
Kathryn Chalfant – Activity Center
Kathryn Chalfant – Activity Center
Kathryn Chalfant – Activity Center
Dallas Gorman – Activity Center
Ruena Victorino – Parks and Recreation
Now that we have seen the lovely exhibition, it is time to relax with food and music. I hope you have a great week.
Sometimes the coffee machinel ikes to prolong the wrecker ball hitting a metal building sound in my brain due to caffeine withdrawal. My guess is that it is jealous of not being able to walk around. When this happens, a subtle reminder of who is the boss gets things back on track. This morning, a message appeared on the touchscreen.
An immediate thump on the top resolved the problem, and two streams of life-restoring elixir began to flow. The first sip quelled the noise in my head. The second (As seems to be the custom now) is accompanied by the cacaphony of Westminster chimes, Tempest, and Twiggy throwing up their warning barrage. A quick toss of a Wagyu steak into the soundproof room and a door slam brought a kind of hush all over the world. A glance at the security monitor revealed the idiot pushing the doorbell. It was none other than Tiny, the WWF champion, with an envelope and a clipboard. Mrs. Howell didn’t raise a fool, so the security shut-down process began.
The B-2 bomber squadron and the F-35 escort must be called off. One call does it. The tank corps and gunboats are told to stand by. The Apache helicopters are rerouted. The electric shock fence is turned off. The drawbridge over the quicksand is lowered. The robot attack dogs are returned to their charging station. The laser-guided machine guns on the roof are set to caution. The nest filled with rattlesnakes is put away. The bucket filled with 1000 marbles is locked down. The tear gas canisters shut off. The electrified welcome mat set to off. The fall-away sidewalk into the pit filled with spikes is locked. The hornet’s nest closed. The water cannons are set to safety. Bear traps are set to off. Peregrine Falcons perched on the roof above front door fed. The vat of boiling oil set to warm. The front door is open.
No time is wasted in signing the clipboard and passing it back with a $20 attached. A smile curled on Tiny’s lip, and it was hard to tell if he was pleased or simply passing gas. Not waiting to find out, the front door quickly came between Tiny and me. The envelope contains a message from Linda Hill. It reads:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “sometimes.” Start your post with the word “sometimes.” Have fun!
A beloved local fish staple that was illegal to harvest as recently as 2012 has seen an incredible recovery in Maine’s rivers following the removal of several large dams.
Particularly on the Penobscot River, the removal of 2 dams has resulted in the “premier success story of our time,” for Maine’s alewife fish, which had been declining in population since the 18th century because of damming.
At its best, the alewife run is like a force of nature. From bank to bank, a babbling brook that’s quiet for most of the year will become a torrent of silver as the fish migrate upriver to spawn just as salmon do.
Colonial settlers, Native Americans, fishermen, and every predator in the woods needed only to reach their hands in and pull out breakfast lunch and dinner. But as the rivers were dammed, the migrations slowed, and even as early as 1840 there were catastrophic collapses in fish stocks.
Commercial offshore harvesting also decimated the fish, causing towns whose rivers weren’t dammed to lost their alewife runs as well. By 1994, annual inland catches had fallen from 3 million pounds average to just 150,000 pounds of fish.
As the country found new ways to power itself, an effort to undam the rivers began in 1999 and finished in 2016—four years after a moratorium was declared on the fishing of alewives offshore.
In 2025, these efforts culminated in 20 million alewives running up Maine’s rivers.
“We’ve gone from losing the fish completely in a lot of river systems due to damming and pollution, and now we have some of the largest populations in the globe,” Rustin Taylor, the executive director of the Alewife Harvesters of Maine, told Sydney Cromwell from Inside Climate News.
More officially known as a river herring, this non-game fish was dubbed an alewife due to its fat silver belly—a reference to female tavernkeepers of yore. Taylor described them in an ecological sense, acting as a great “nutrient conveyor belt,” bringing the nutrients of the cold ocean up into the land inside their guts.
Fed upon by most carnivores and omnivores in the forest and the rivers, the nutrients from the ocean are recycled through other animals and into the soil through those animals’ droppings.
In fact, Cromwell shares, the native Passamaquoddy tribe’s name for the species, siqonomeq, translates to “the fish that feeds all.”
Across Maine, alewife festivals routinely celebrate the return of the herring from the ocean, but for many decades, they were mostly somber affairs, as the torrents of silver from yesteryear became trickles due to overfishing in the Atlantic. Some locals would actively help their fish get past smaller dams by scooping them up in buckets and dumping them out on the other side.
Along with the removal of those dams, the construction of fish channels has helped them to get around the dams that remain.
“Some of those dam removals have led to incredible restorations of alewife migrations much faster than anticipated,” Taylor said, who called two dam removals on the Penobscot, where Atlantic salmon also run, “probably one of the premier success stories of our time.”
The good news about today’s story is that, with a little work, man-made impediments to species health can be removed, and the species will return. Today’s JohnKu talks about helping nature. I hope you have a lovely weekend.
I have turned off comments so you can make them on her post.
Here’s a little about Sally in her own words.
I have enjoyed a nomadic existence living in eight countries including Sri Lanka, Malta, South Africa, USA and Spain, before settling back here in Ireland. My work, and a desire to see some of the most beautiful parts of the world in the last forty years, has taken me to many more incredible destinations around Europe and Canada, and across the oceans to New Zealand and Hawaii. All those experiences and the people that I have met, provide a rich source of inspiration for my stories.
After a career in customer facing roles in the hospitality, retail, advertising and telecommunications industry, I wrote and published my first book in 1999 called Size Matters, about my weight loss journey, losing 154lbs in 18 months. This has been followed by 17 further fiction and non-fiction books, including a number of short story collections.
Today, I randomly opened Eternal Road – The final stop to page 155, and with eyes closed, pointed to the page. My finger fell between two words, ” good” and “deed.” I decided to use both.
This post is a continuation of the Top Ten Things Not to Do with a historical background. In 1922, the entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb was discovered in Egypt. It first ran on November 9th 2018
Top Ten Things Not to Do if You Are Entering King Tut’s Tomb.
10 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not ignore the curse written on the main door. If you do, at best, it is just a practical joke. At worst, that look in the mirror ten days later will give you a hint you should have paid attention. (That dry skin mummy look is trying to give you a heads up to a problem, Faer. Better contact a shaman quickly.)
9 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not disturb that cloth-wrapped hulk with the WWF champion belt. If you do, at best, it is just a statue. At worst, the spirit of Tiny the WWF champ has been waiting centuries to body slam an opponent. (Well, you woke it up, Fagen. I think you should start looking for a soft landing spot.)
8 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not try any of the preserved food in those gold pots. If you do, at best, the food will be dust. At worst, those pickles will have a monumental repeat factor. (Stay close to the facilities, Faine. You just never know.)
7 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not sit on any of the furniture. If you do, at best, you’ll pick a solid piece. At worst, you’ll sit in a 4000-year-old chair that has seen better days. ( No need to try putting it back together, Fane. That priceless antique is now sawdust, and the curator is preparing a bill for you right now.)
6 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not touch the king’s sarcophagus with your bare hand. If you do, at best, a layer of dust will protect the finish. At worst, the oils from your skin will leave a permanent handprint on the priceless relic. (You may need to confess, Faraz. The CSI is now running the print through an identification process, which is bound to lead to you.)
5 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not pull any lever that you may come across. If you do, at best, the lever is not connected. At worst, the lever is connected to the trap door under your feet. (Falling through the dark is pretty scary, huh, Farnham. Wait until you hit bottom.)
4 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not think you can take a souvenir. If you do, at best, the security guy will tell you to put it back. At worst, you will get it home only to discover several Boris Karloff types hanging around your bedroom. (Don’t worry about these guys being see-through, Farquhar. At least they can’t hold a knife.)
3 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not forget a flashlight (electric torch). If you do, at best, someone else may have one. At worst, you’ll try using a cigarette lighter and end up falling into the coffin with the king. (You can stop screaming now, Farren. The king is not holding you down. That cover merely slammed shut. Of course, that click sound is troublesome)
2 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not take a selfie with the king. If you do, at best, the picture won’t turn out. At worst, when you look at it, the picture will have some other characters in it that you never saw. (I’m not saying the place is haunted, Farrokh but you now have captured the souls of the king”s guards. Good luck with that.)
1 If you are entering King Tut’s tomb, do not bring your Big Gulp drink inside. If you do, at best, it will be gone before you set it down. At worst, you will set it where someone will knock it over into the King’s sarcophagus. (History records some unknown substance all over the king, Fars. Your secret is safe with us.)
