June 16, 2011 archive

Six In The Morning

Al-Zawahri succeeds Osama bin Laden as new al-Qaida leader

Al-Qaida statement gives no details about the selection process

msnbc.com news services  

Al-Qaida has selected its longtime No. 2 to succeed Osama bin Laden following last month’s U.S. commando raid that killed the terror leader, according to a statement posted Thursday on a website affiliated with the network.

Ayman al-Zawahri, who will turn 60 next week, is the son of an upper middle class Egyptian family of doctors and scholars.

Al-Qaida “announces that Sheikh Dr. Ayman al-Zawahri, may God guide him, assumed responsibility as the group’s amir [leader],” the BBC reported.




Thursday’s Headlines:

Iran launches second satellite into orbit, claims state TV

Pakistanis accused of CIA collusion over Bin Laden raid

Greek PM George Papandreou to unveil new cabinet

‘Urban Mining’ Could Reduce Reliance on Metal Imports

Côte d’Ivoire launches probe into conflict crimes

Muse in the Morning

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Muse in the Morning

Time for a break from poetry…in order to create some art.

Everyone, either from modesty or egotism, hides away the best and most delicate of his soul’s possessions; to gain the esteem of others, we must only ever show our ugliest sides; this is how we keep ourselves on the common level.

–Gustave Flaubert



Kindle 3

Late Night Karaoke

Rolling in the Mud

Sometimes it’s deeper than others.  I recall a year when I foolishly volunteered to help park cars.  Now when I say it was raining hard I’m not talking 40 days and 40 nights, but it was more than merely damp.

And the drainage was poor.

Now my practice when it rains, which it does more frequently than you ordinarily notice but are forced to confront when working out doors, is to ignore it.  Yeah you’re wet, but you’re going to get wet anyway (though Gortex is a wonderful thing) and unlike Margaret Hamilton you’re not going to melt (My beautiful wickedness!  What a world, what a world).

Well, this was hipboots and waders and the job was to squish through to the cars and get them from the unpaved lot to the driveway in front of the nice dry tent where the owners were waiting.

Now sometimes being good is not exactly a blessing and my winter driving skills honed in the lake effects of upstate New York meant that I was less likely than some others I could name, but won’t, to grind the cars into an almost untowable morass.  This resuling in my spending a lot more time than the untrainable or unlucky getting dirty and moist.

It was almost the last car of the day that I got my first tip which I wasn’t really expecting but gratefully pocketed and I said to the driver as he climbed in the car “I’m not sure you’ll think it’s as good as all that once you sit where I was sitting, but thank you just the same.”

My Little Town 20110615: Granddad Part the First

Those of you who read this regular series know that I am from Hackett, Arkansas, just a mile or so from the Oklahoma border, and just about 10 miles south of the Arkansas River.  It was a redneck sort of place, and just zoom onto my previous posts to understand a bit about it.

I rarely write about living people except with their express permission, but may make an exception or two here because it might be important to talk about some of her decedents who still breathe.  None of those references will be derogatory.

I actually know less about Granddad than I do about Ma, because he died in 1969 at the age of 91.  I was only 12 years old then.  Ma lived until she saw me as an adult and married and their mother having her great, great grandchildren.  Here is what I know about his history.