Doug C

To sport such ring bling, Rip Taylor clearly earned above the minimum wage, the Nelson Brothers should have made less than minimum wage (though likely could have made a fortune in gay porn) and I am not aware of a mandala ever having gainful emloyment.

"Here's who earns the minimum wage, in 3 graphs" from NPR's Planet Money (and it's current! 25 November 2013) http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2013/11/21/246599184/who-earns-the-minimum-wage-heres-the-answer-in-3-graphs

http://bycommonconsent.com/2010/07/27/the-top-10-lds-musicians-you%E2%80%99ve-never-heard-of-no-9/

My dad's pocket watch. He was born in 1906 and was 57 when I was born, 22 years older than my mom. He died when I was 15. When I was graduating from high school, my mom gave me his pocket watch. I was very excited, honored and humbled because I knew the story behind it. Before my dad's senior year, his dad told him that my dad had to quit school to work full-time on the farm because his younger brothers were too young and his older brothers were gone. My dad wanted to graduate and refused. My grandpa (it always feels weird calling him that as I have no memories of him and from what I heard he

Great Divide Hibernation Ale. The Thanksgiving preparations are finished so now I am on the front porch with my favorite winter seasonal beer, iPod on shuffle, crossword puzzles, the dogs and it's 60 degrees and getting colder. Supposed to get down to 39 tonight. Whoot! Elizabeth is finishing some baking, then she'll join us. We stocked up on several cases of winter beers yesterday. Life is damned near perfect.

Airing an episode of POV.

This one is also the most difficult for me, Donna (oh boy, I hope it's Donna!). Travel is my favorite thing, thanks mom and dad!, and I have been to many beautiful, wonderful and amazing places. To choose one... aye, yi, yi. The Dordogne River Valley, particularly around Beynac and Sarlat, in southwest France is magical. Medieval villages sculpted into the rock, castles, farmland, lazy canoeing and not too touristy (well at least not in 1999). I'll never forget my wife's "ooh aah" awestruck reaction on the train from Paris to Sarlat when we passed Beynac and it's castle hanging from the cli

If this does not make you a fan of Christmas, then nothing will.

Garrison Keillor

Thanks, brother. I deserve whatever I get.

Who cares? Whatever their motivation, the ruling party now rules. Democracy wins the day and future days. It is a Senate rule, not a constitutional requirement. The Republicans are free to reinstate it when they regain control. I'm am certain that they will, according to their rhetoric.

At this moment, I am thankful for the grouper sandwich and gumbo that I had at the local this afternoon. Tasty. Plus, Kelly said that the soup of the day was clam chowder so we ordered that but they brought out chicken noodle. She apologized that it changed and brought me gumbo but said keep the chicken noodle. I ate it all. Yum. The fried grouper was excellent. Drink-wise, the Old Chimney Christmas IPA, which is the Midnight Crossings Black IPA but smoked. Not as smoked as a rauchbier but smoked still. It worked well. Also, the black ipa through the Randall with Cascade hops was equally good.

Every dog that I've had but as the rules call for one, I have to say my current best friend, Phineas. Phineas is an Old English Sheepdog. He is our 3rd OES from Southeast OES rescue. We got him to replace Percy, who died young of spinal cancer. Phineas was different from Percy and Dudley, as we got him as a pup, rare in OES rescue (also making him the only one we named). The breeder in Tennessee had a fire and needed to remove the pups quickly, so they contacted rescue. We chose Phin after watching the pups frolicking around via streaming video and kept a regular eye on him until weaning. When

I am thankful for many people but when asked to name one, without question or hesitation, it must be my wife, Elizabeth. At 29 I had resigned myself to being alone. I was thinking about adopting children alone. I had decided that maybe the life that I had always thought would be, wouldn't be. Then, suddenly, that life was. And still is.

I was not aplogizing for you. I was sorry for the reply, meaning that I felt sorrow that she had to read it. Find the positive in everything is a nice platitude, but it, like most simplistic solutions to complex problems, is about as effective as "Just say no".

It isn't pleasant. Rejoice in the fact that you aren't clinically depressed or have another psychological issue (please don't read into this that I am assuming that someone else is or does). You should hang out with the "doing it wrong" guy.

I didn't post it but I'm sorry for the "maybe you're doing it wrong" reply. It was ill-conceived. It shouldn't take much foresight to grasp that the glowing description of why someone loves it might not apply to everyone. Radiant Witch Face (I'm sure that you have a lovely name), I am assuming that you have Christmas day off. If so, make the most of making it into a day that you enjoy. Take advantage and use the time for Radiant Witch Face day.

I agree with what you're saying about the commercialization and waste of money. I spend little on others and want little spent on me, which is good because that is the opposite of my wife. We love the holidays, mainly because in 5 hours, we won't return to work for 9 days. 3 weeks after our return, we'll have another 16 work-free days. Granted, all of those days are also salary-free, but I'm not complaining.

I agree with you. All of the blather the Republican party is saying about how this is "tyranny by the majority" that had been prevented by the "time-honored rules of the Senate", will prove to be just that, blather. As soon as they gain power, they won't return to the old rules, they'll change them further. As I said, it is a necessary change. Filibusters and holds serve no purpose other than to deny the American people the government that they voted for. If you want control of the Senate, then press your case better with the voters during the next election. The nonsense with nominee filibus

So what? Neither party should filibuster or hold. Again I ask if you have any comment on the likelihood of the Republicans reinstating the "cherished rule of the Upper Chamber" when they are the majority party.

Okay, no problem. I'll change 72 to 27 and keep everything else that i wrote. 27 to 7 or 72 to 7. With what, 3 years to go? Shameful. Any thoughts on the Republicans voting to reinstate when they have the chance?

The information on that chart is shameful. That every Republican senator (plus 3 or 4 Democratic senators) saw that chart but voted against the rule change is telling. 7 filibusters on executive nominees for Geo. W. Bush over 2 terms. It isn't possible to justify 72 filibusters on executive nominees in less than 2 terms for Barack Obama. I keep hearing Bill Maher in my head, "Gee, there must be something different about this president. What could it be?". Since every Rebulican senator is in favor of the old rule, obviously they will vote to reinstate it whenever they regain the Senate. On

It (the above mentioned rule), along with holds on nominees, are undemocratic rules and should have been changed a long time ago. If you are the ruling party, you rule. The idea that one whiny child, see Lindsey Graham, can hold nominees until Benghazi is investigated to his liking, is real banana republic bullshit. These are Senate rules, not constitutionally mandated rules. When the Republican party controls the executive branch and the Senate, they can nominate and appoint anyone they want. If the majority of the country doesn't want Republicans to be able to rule, then the majority of the

Dang, that's rough. I feel for Jules.