Green Thursday: A Whale of a Time

On our annual trip to Cape Cod, we took time out to visit our friends, the Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae.)

This whale baby is "Spy-hopping," standing nearly upright in the water next to the boat.

Human activity is a real threat to these giants, especially pollution of waterways. Here's a website with more info.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Raspberries all the way around

It's Raspberry (Rubus idaeus) season!

Here's the LipsYard patch.

Charmaine's dad made these buckets with attached lanyard for two-handed picking.

Serving suggestion: Mix with my other favorite fruit, Peaches (Prunus persica,) and smother with Cheerios for breakfast, or with Ice Cream for desert.

It's also the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Let's send a big raspberry (the Bronx Cheer variety) to all the government agencies who STILL don't have their act together.

So long Mr. Gonzalez

Native to Mexico and Central America, the Zinnia (Zinnia elegans) was named after the 18th-century German botanist Johann Gottfried Zinn.

We think this is a much better representation for the Hispanic community, than the example set by now-departing Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzalez.

Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold commented "Attorney General Gonzeles' tenure was marked by unprecedented politicization of the Department of Justice, deception of Congress and the American people, and disprespect for the rule of law. He should never have been confirmed and should have resigned long ago."

Paul D. Clement, from the Town of Cedarburg, WI. has been named acting Attorney General, thought to be a short-term caretaker at the Justice Department. President Bush is expected soon to name a permanent successor.

Clement, 41, is the solicitor general of the United States, a singular, pivotal role that is little-understood outside legal circles. As the administration's top lawyer at the Supreme Court, he argues cases in a morning coat and answers to "General Clement."

Clement has said the position has been likened to the 10th justice of the Supreme Court - though he hastened to add that he'd never heard a sitting justice make that comparison.

Holy Mow-ly

Now that the monsoon season is over in Southeastern Wisconsin, it's time to harvest the crop. The LipsYard grass (Poa Praetensis) was the longest its ever been. We joined everyone else in the neighborhood over the weekend in firing up the whirling blade machines.

Friday, we set the Honda mower up as high as it would go, 3", and dove in.

That same day, down a wheel notch to 2 1/2" and time for another go round the LipsYard. Mowing 2 times in 1 day got the attention of more than one neighbor, and I'm sure created several cases of lawn-envy. Why all the fussing with the wheel height? Why not just dive in at normal cutting level? Because when its this long, the clippings left behind would turn an ugly yellow, then brown in a day or two. That's just unacceptable in the LipsYard neighborhood.

Just like subpoenas (subpoena duces tecum) for the White House staff, you can never mow enough times, so Saturday, down came the wheels to 2" and another trim.

As we make the turn from Summer towards Fall, we'll keep the grass at this lower level, ultimately getting down to 1" before everything goes dormant for the Winter.

Summer in bloom

Summer is in full bloom in the LipsYard garden. Charmaine does such a nice job supplementing her perenials with annuals. There's way to many to identify, just enjoy.



Just like there's way to many scandals coming to bloom in Washington right now to name. For those, too, we'll just enjoy.



LipsYard will return Monday, August 27, after a pilgrimage to the "lefty" right coast.

Zoo-licious

Here we are at the annual Feast with the Beasts - Zoo ala Carte. Milwaukee County Zoo is divided up into different villages, each with a free music stage, food tents, and of course, the animals on display.
We're set up outside the Family Farm (yes there is a farm in the zoo.)

The Giraffe bends down to fit in our picture.

His food's included with a meal plan, the rest of us have to buy tickets (10 for $5) for our grub.

It's not a trip to the zoo without a ride on the train.

And its the only one allowed to smoke!

The real Rhino was in it's cave, so you get the topiary one instead.

Right across from our Street Studio is the African Savannah, where the Gazelles (in the brush,) hide from the Lioness. Because of the moat between them they can't fulfill their hunter-prey relationship, but they can't figure out why. Thus, the Gazelle are nervous and the Lioness is frustrated. Intern Courtney delivers the afternoon's sweet tooth confections; The Brownie Mountain Sundae and the Double Turtle Sundae.

The elephant takes a peek over her shoulder at the nuts on our sundaes.

I want my time back from ABC

Two ABC shows, "The Nine" and "Knights of Prosperity," once on the top of everyone's list for anticipated new programs now have both been canceled twice. When they were pulled from ABC's schedule during the important ratings sweeps, we were told that at least their filmed episodes would be burned off during the summer months.

Two weeks ago they returned to the air. Now they're gone again, forever.

I never watched "Knights of Prosperity," but I was a devoted "The Nine" fan.

It starred Tim Daly, Kim Raver, Scott Wolf, and Chi McBride as part of a group of bank robbery survivors. Every week, we learned more about what happened in the bank and how the survivors have banded together since. After a strong kickoff and good reviews, the numbers started to drop.

When it returned two weeks ago, it averaged a dismal 3 million viewers, a number which fell by a third in its second outing and finished 111th place in the Nielsen Media Research ratings. That's horrible, but I'd bet that most of you didn't even know the show was back. No advertising will do that.

Both programs aired on Wednesday nights and will be filled by repeats of "According to Jim" and "Primetime." Great. As a bonus, tonight we got a NASCAR race, too!

Is this some Neo-con conspiracy? Is this a farewell gift from Carl Rove?

Why do the masses continue to watch retreads when new shows are on? The ten most watched shows last week included 60 Minutes, five reality shows, and repeats of CSI, Without a Trace, Two and a Half Men, and Criminal Minds. Funny, no ABC shows.

I invested a lot of time in "The Nine," who do I contact about getting my time back?

Font-ificating

I've switched all the fonts on the LipsYard today to Times New Roman. There was always something I didn't like about the look and feel, and I think I've hit upon it.

I've always used TNR (Times New Roman) in all my Word documents. It was easy to read for scripts in the studio, and it always had an athoritative feel to it.

Fonts have feelings? You bet! And I found a study to back me up. It's called "Perception of Fonts: Perceived Personality Traits and Uses" from 2006.

Here's the results:

I'm feeling better about the font thing. In fact, according to the study, I'm feeling Stable, Mature, Formal, and Traditional.

Almost as good as I feel about Karl Rove leaving the White House.

Hey, how are you guys doin'?

Over the weekend, Charmaine and I went off to a fancy-schmancy resort up North. We were looking forward to a fine dining experience at their highly-rated restaurant with a gorgeous lake view. The setting couldn't have been better, then the high-school aged table assistant poured our water, greeting us "Hey, how are you guys doin'?"

Call me a snob, but would "How are you this evening?" been asking too much? We're about to drop big money for a 6 course meal, and we're greeted like it's a deli counter. We grimaced out a "fine," only to be bombarded with "Would ya like a lemon in that?" ARGGG!

Are language skills a lost art? Does every conversation have to be dumbed-down to a NASCAR driver level?

The waiter, perhaps a sophomore in college, wasn't any better, referring to us as 'guys' all night long. On a more waiter-centric critic, his poorly timed, even rushed presentation of the meal, with a lack of attention to detail (we'll need a spoon for that soup) pretty much took the bloom off the rose for a nicely prepared meal.

It's my opinion that this slang is symptomatic of a general laziness that has overtaken our whole culture. Manners are optional, respect for elders is laughable, littering, road rage, even what passes for entertainment all goes back to a 'lowest common denominator' approach to everything in our society.

I, for one, am tired of it.

Back to the Futurity

For many years at the Wisconsin State Fair I've interviewed Fairest of the Fair and Alice in Dairyland about 'Futurity.' For the first several years, all I got out of it was that cows were shown by kids in formalwear. Only in the last several years have I understood that it is much more than that. I was very excited to be invited by Alice in Dairyland to be on the floor of the Colliseum for this year's event.

Here's what the program states:
The purpose of the Wisconsin Holstein Futurity is to stimulate interest in the breeding and exhibition of outstanding Officially Identified Holsteins of 87% Registered Holstein Ancestry or higher.
The judge has narrowed down the field to 5. If the udders look mammoth, they are! Fuller than you would normally let a cow get. Apparently it shows better.

Back to the 'splainin;'
Rules - Owners nominate animals as young heifers hoping they develop into remarkable three-year-old cows to be exhibitied at the show. For the 2007 Futurity, owners entered animals by November 1, 2004 who were born between September 1, 2003 and August 31, 2004.

And the winner is: LaDonna Morty Jackpot (that's the cow) exhibited by Kristina Duwe (in the blue dress.) One of her prizes is the $1,200 check from the sponsors.

Futurity History - Klaas Koopmans of Darien, Wisconsin, founded The Wisconsin Holstein Futurity in 1984. The idea came from reading about the success of the Ohio Futurity. In 1987, the first Wisconsin Holstein Futurity was held at State Fair Park. The first year there were 9 animals, this year there are 43.

Beauty of the exhibitors is also judged, and this group of siblings, decked out in white, orange, and black, took the family prize. I'm thinking Christmas Card picture with this one.

Green Thursday at State Fair

Seventy-two bottled-shaped bins for plastic bottles and aluminum cans are scattered throughout the fair grounds, making it easy to recycle at Wisconsin State Fair.

Over 2 tons of cans and bottles will be kept out of landfills because of the big bottle bins.

Not only is recycling a good environmental choice, but in Wisconsin it helps our economy grow, providing thousands of jobs and conserving valuable oil. Recycling one ton of plastic can save 16 barrels of oil.

Wisconsin State Fair also recycled nearly 26 tons of cardboard

And how about animal poop? Every year the fair collects 3,000 cubic yards of manure and bedding from the livestock exhibition that get's spread on approved fields.

Alice in Dairyland is also in on the 'Green' plan. She drives a Chevy Flex Fuel Tahoe, manufactured in Janesville. It can run on E85 Ethanol.

Every Green Thursday, LipsYard will deal with an issue vital to our global environment.

Dairy Daze

Its a big crowd at Wisconsin State Fair for Dairy Day.

AJ from Mathew Blades in the Morning show hoovers the creampuff in the celebrity contest. Fairest of the Fair gives him a run for the money.

Erin Austin, the Tailgator, and other papparazzi look on.

AJ wins the contest! But wait...he's disqualified for "touching the plate" in the hands free contest! And so are the next 3 finishers! Not that the fix is in, but something's not quite right, and I'm sure Commissioner Selig will get a blue ribbon panel on this right away.

The whole KTI crew drowns our sorrows with a Chicken Dinner from Rupena's.

Say hello to Lome the Cow. She has no idea what is about to happen when we all grab a teat for :30 seconds in our annual milking contest.

Debbie Lazaga gets first grab.

Honey Queen Becky, used to the smaller bee udders, takes her half-minute.

Look what I did with my masters degree in cows," beams Alice in Dairyland.

I get my shot (literally an ounce.)

Fairest of the Fair Sheri shows off her effort. (and thanks for bringing the bovine.)

and the winner is...Becky, the Honey Queen, claiming that "Wisconsin is the land of Milk and Honey!"

Bats in the Belfry

After trapping a mouse (Mus musculus,) in the basement last week, we decided to check the traps in the attic. None of them were sprung, but the floor was covered with dropping! A call to Orkin determined it wasn't mice! They suggest we call 'Critter Control.' After a fascinating conversation in which I described the droppings on the attic floor, the guy tells us it sounds like bats.

BATS! In our ATTIC!

What to do? Call the Bat Guy, Greg Bakke.


Who pulls up in the Bat Mobile.

After a peek in the attic, he shows Charmaine what we're up against. Big Brown Bats. (Eptesicus fuscus.)

Greg speculates we have a bachelor colony of a dozen or less. Bats don't live together in happy family units. The females and their young roost in one cave, barn, or attic. The guys hang out in another location.

They hibernate in winter, then in spring and fall they would be active in the attic. In the hot summer, and here comes the icky part, they burrow down into the walls to get closer to the cool basement.

They fly along the roof line to keep cool, and they poop at the same time, hence our line of guano down the plywood walkway.

Every night they exit the attic and fly to nearby Lower Phantom Lake, where they feast on bugs. Bats eat their body weight every night. Reminds me of some people here at State Fair.

Greg shows us up on the roof where they are getting into our attic. His crew will seal up all the ways they can find into the attic, then install a one-way door here. Bats fly out, but can't get back in. Problem solved. Here's a link to find out more about the Big Brown.

Have you checked for bats in your attic? They should at the Pentagon. Our military experts have lost track of about 190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. That bit of happy news comes from a new government report. And now some officials are worried that some of those weapons have fallen into the hands of insurgents fighting American forces in Iraq.

Talk about bats in your belfry!

The Government Accountability Office says U.S. military officials do not know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons the United States distributed to Iraqi forces from 2004 through early this year as part of an effort to train and equip the troops.

We'll spend around $500 to get rid of our bats. The United States has spent $19.2 billion trying to develop Iraqi security forces since 2003, including at least $2.8 billion to buy and deliver equipment. The GAO said weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005, when security training was led by Gen. David H. Petraeus, who now commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.