October 10, 2008

Take a mid-afternoon break at The Fuzzy Thinking Café.

DSC_0295

Riffs. Chatter. Free association. Nobody ever gets to the point at The Fuzzy Thinking Café. Come on! Feel the fuzziness.

68 comments:

chuck b. said...

I'm off to L.A. for the weekend. Should be nice.

RR Ryan said...

Or, "cum on feel the noize." Slade version. And Chuck B, welcome to LA.

George M. Spencer said...

Truffula!

David said...

Fuzzy logic.
Fuzzy Laval.
Fuzzy Thurston.
Warm and fuzzy.
Fran and Fuzzy's.
Fuzzy balls. (Tennis, filthmuckers.)
Fuzzy eyesight.
Get Fuzzy (cat).
Fuzzy bear.
Peach fuz(zy).
Fuzzy Haskins.
Fuzzy Zoeller.
Fuzzy Wuzzy.
Fuzzy sweater.
Fuzzy thinking.
Fuzzy numbers.
Fuzzy woman.
Fuzzy caterpillar.

MadisonMan said...

The dog is at my feet, sending unmistakable signals that it's time to walk him. My eyes are watering, so out to a beautiful afternoon I go!

Lorelei Leigh said...

"I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop."

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

I love the Midwest...

The point is fuzzy today.

Allergies.

Rich B said...

Do what you like
That's what I said
Everbody must be fed
Get together, break your bread
That's what I said
etc.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Lorelei Leigh said...
"I always get the fuzzy end of the lollipop."

2:48 PM

That's when you buy him this

Paddy O said...

The house next door is thinning its trees. Or, rather, not the house, but the people who own the house. Well, not them either. They're not really around much, it being a vacation home and all.

And, now that I think about it, it's not them either. It's the guy next door to them. He's adding a wing to his present, somewhat small, house, which makes sense really. Well, it made sense. Five years ago when he started it.

He's not very fast at building. Though, he is a somewhat youngish retiree, maybe in his early 50s, who used to work near Newport Beach. So, I guess he was fast at one time.

Anyway, the county said he couldn't roof his new addition until he thinned out the trees next to his house, which are overgrown with cedar and pine saplings, a very potential fire danger what with the Santa Ana winds and low humidity. Though, it's quite cool and hazy today, with chance of rain. But, I think the county is thinking long term in regards to the fire situation.

So, the trees are being thinned by the neighbor two houses down, which are actually closest to the other side of the neighbor right next door. Or rather, across a wee stretch of forest. And, now that I think about it, it's not even that other neighbor at all, but a crew of tree cutters doing the actual work, my use of neighbor being more about who ordered the work. In the same way that someone who hires a hitman is guilty of murder, someone who hires a tree crew is 'guilty' of cutting the trees.

So, I went for a nice three mile run and might have a bit of lunch now, after replenishing my fluids.

True story.

Justin said...

I have worn shorts every day for the last month.

Lorelei Leigh said...

EKC - Ha!

Trooper York said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
If Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
He had to get hair plugs?

Lorelei Leigh said...

Joe Biden is really Fuzzy Wuzzy?

Pardon the election reference. I couldn't help it.

Paddy O said...

I wore pants for the first time in several months today. Well, except for a couple of weeks ago, but that was for orientation.

It's cold here for the first time in a very long while. Might dip below freezing tonight.

Which is why worrying about fire danger is so silly, what with my wearing pants now and all.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Lorelei, you read my mind...

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

Well, Paddy O., just don't lie, and fire will be avoided.

Peter Hoh said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy.
Was he?

Peter Hoh said...

I see Trooper beat me to it.

Rats.

William said...

This whole creative destruction concept of capitalism is so much more comprehensible when other people's wealth is being creatively destroyed.

Simon said...

My thinking's gotten pretty fuzzy in the process of getting this post finished. My brain feels like jell-o.

Trooper York said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
If Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Why does the mainstream media say he looks like Fabio?

Simon said...

William said...
"This whole creative destruction concept of capitalism is so much more comprehensible when other people's wealth is being creatively destroyed."

What's Joseph Schumpeter's line again - the market is a gale of creative destruction?

Chip Ahoy said...

Yay! The Fuzzy Thinking Café.

What will I have, oh, what will I have?

*contemplates*

Man: Honey, My thoughts are fuzzy. What are you ordering?

Woman: I know exactly what I want. I can see it clearly. I want some of Chip's sourdough bread with half an avocado. That's what I want. Now, where's that waiter?

}}} schwing {{{ I heard that. Here you go.

Trooper York said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
If Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Why are all Republicans such racists?

Chip Ahoy said...

I love bear markets. Now is a very good time to buy undervalued stock. But one must be both cautious and brave, that is, have a pair of fuzzy balls, my bad, hairy balls. And if not a pair then one will do.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Riffs. Chatter. Free association. Nobody ever gets to the point at The Fuzzy Thinking Café. Come on! Feel the fuzziness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZwMs2fLoVE

George M. Spencer said...

"Fuzzy-Wuzzy" is the title of a Kipling poem.
Fuzzy-Wuzzies are not cute.

They are Sudanese Mahdist warriors. Ask Charlton Heston.

Darcy said...

Geez, Chip. I do want some of that sourdough bread w/avocado!!

vbspurs said...

Sarah Palin on SNL on 25th October, according to Cindy Adams.

Although the post is about Letterman's continued McCain rant (Mac's making it worse by saying he'll have Palin tag along next time).

Cheers,
Victoria

George M. Spencer said...

'E rushes at the smoke when we let drive,
An', before we know, 'e's 'ackin' at our 'ead;
'E's all 'ot sand an' ginger when alive,
An' 'e's generally shammin' when 'e's dead.
'E's a daisy, 'e's a ducky, 'e's a lamb!
'E's a injia-rubber idiot on the spree,
'E's the on'y thing that doesn't give a damn
For a Regiment o' British Infantree!
So 'ere's ~to~ you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, at your 'ome in the Soudan;
You're a pore benighted 'eathen but a first-class fightin' man;
An' 'ere's ~to~ you, Fuzzy-Wuzzy, with your 'ayrick 'ead of 'air --
You big black boundin' beggar -- for you broke a British square!

Talented guy, that Kipling.

Trooper York said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
If Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair
Was Mrs Wuzzy twat also bare?

vbspurs said...

Fuzzy-Wuzzies are not cute.

They are Sudanese Mahdist warriors.


Oh snap. My great-grandpa was the RMO when his regiment fought against the Fuzzy Wuzzies!

To think my first thought was Fuzzy Zoeller and his bitter fried chicken remark about Tiger Woods.

vbspurs said...

Ann, that photo is not fughazi.

vbspurs said...

Ask Trooper what fughazi is.

knox said...

I can't decide what shoes to buy for fall.

Trooper York said...

Fuzzy Wuzzy brings us all a lot of hope
Fuzzy Wuzzy smoked a lot of dope
If Fuzzy Wuzzy memorary is kind of fuzzy
The mainstream media will cover that shit up.

Chip Ahoy said...

Shoes. Naughty Monkeys are all the rage, presently.

*fuzz*

For men, I'd recommend HS Trask, available on Zappos. I believe they're all bison but I'm not sure. They're my all-time favorite and the ones people have complimented the most. Unfortunately, the style I bought, a three-hole lace up chukka sort of thing, is no longer being produced.

*fuzz*

john said...

I can't decide which shorts to wear tomorrow. It's supposed to rain.

I'm still bothered by Henry "chicken little" Paulson, who if he didn't actually engineer the panic, contributed to it by yelling "fire" in the theatre.

And I don't think there is one master of the universe who knows, or even cares about, an inherent stock value.

Ron said...

Fughazi was a great band!

john said...

Yes, at fuzzy thinking cafe, we CAN mix metaphors.

"The sky's on fire!"

Trooper York said...

Mrs Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear
Mrs Wuzzy pussy had no hair
If Mrs Wuzzy pussy was kinda bare
Mr Wuzzy would spend lots of time there.

vbspurs said...

I can't decide what shoes to buy for fall.

If you want to fall wearing shoes, go with the stilettos.

/minor pet peeve: "Fall" = Autumn
/grinch mode off

Lorelei Leigh said...

I need a new pair of black shoes for work. The ones I have are on their last legs.

Chip Ahoy said...

* groans *

Chip Ahoy said...

My older brother never met a pun he didn't like. Therefore, I will fashion a pop-up card for him that elaborates on the "peace be a pond ewe" pun. It will depict a bee with a peace laurel in it's mouth, which right there is ridiculous, but carrying a bucket of pollen in one set of legs an gardening tools in another set, with the remaining legs left free. Then when the card is opened, a sheep in the middle of a pond. So the card, when pulled from an envelope reads "Peace bee. Then opening the card, "a pond ewe." He'll like it more than I do. I'm confident of that from years of punnage.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lorelei Leigh said...

Chip Ahoy, puns are fun for everyone.

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

I'm buying boots for fall...maybe. We may get some snow here pretty early. So they say. We'll see.

William said...

A bun is the lowest form of wheat.

john said...

The Supremes will be this old in January 2009:

Roberts 54
Alito 59
Thomas 60
Souter 69
Breyer 70
Scalia 73
Kennedy 73
Ginsburg 76
Stevens 89

Except for Scalia, who seems healthy enough, the 4 conservatives are the young lions on the court. Stevens and Ginsburg, and maybe Kennedy, will need to be shipped out, and probably would want to be under Pres Obama. If Obama replaces them in kind, I see no real significant change in the court identity.

Ford nominated Stevens in 1975. Wow. Bush 1 nominated Souter.

So I guess repubs get hoodwinked more than dems.

Ann Althouse said...

Stevens is old enough to be Roberts's grandfather.

rhhardin said...

Autumn quiz.

One of these things is not like the others.

john said...

Power pole or bamboo pole in the foreground?

Heather said...

I choose to believe fuzzy thinking is a call out to me. =p

john said...

One more supreme, who will be 65 in January 2009.

Health uncertain, however.

Simon said...

John, you're not seeing a real significant change in the court's identity because your timeframe is too short. Implicitly, you're looking at the balance of votes in the conference if Stevens, Souter and Ginsburg retire on January 21st and are immediately replaced by Obama recess appointments of equal, I don't know, "liberality" or whatever you want to call it. But that isn't zero sum. This will sound ghoulish, but it's too serious a matter to be squeamish: the reality is that Stevens, for example Ginsburg are leaving the court relatively soon, feet first if not voluntarily. If they are replaced by much younger jurisprudential analogs (and worse yet, if Scalia dies or is forced off the court by health - an apocalyptic thought, but not unimaginable if Obama gets the full eight years - and is succeeded (I won't say replaced) with a youthful liberal), those votes are locked in for a couple more decades. It becomes by those degrees harder to get the court back on the rails, even given a GOP President and Senate majority, because the opportunities to do so are fewer and further between.

Put another way, their replacement by President Obama would mean that even if we got a Republican President in 2016, that President's chances of being able to make appointments to get a conservative majority are almost none. We lose the opportunity to get back on the rails for another generation, just like 1992. By contrast, if McCain wins this year, the chances of him getting the appointment to make a conservative majority - and, praise God, make Anthony Kennedy irrelevant, a goal liberals and conservatives alike ought to share - are very high.

Simon said...

The post says "riffs." What's the best riff I've never heard before? Tell me what it is and I'll learn it. :)

john said...

So your point it that it behoves whoever is in power to appoint younger and younger judges? That prerogative works for whoever is in power (given, of course, senate approval). I don't see your argument, here.

john said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
john said...

Let me elaborate, because I did not mean to call you incorrect on your analysis. However, there are a lot of "ifs" in your scenario, and it is just not possible to engineer a court makeup so far into the future with so many uncertainties. Everyone dies in their own time.

The senate approval process will also affect the outcomes.

Beth said...


Put another way, their replacement by President Obama would mean that even if we got a Republican President in 2016, that President's chances of being able to make appointments to get a conservative majority are almost none.


Simon, thanks for that analysis. I'm so unenthused about this election, but you've given another reason to take a few minutes on Nov. 4 to cast my vote of Obama. Tuesdays are really busy for me -- I teach from 9:30 a.m. till 9:45 p.m., with only a few hours off mid-day, and there was a chance I'd have taken a nap instead.

Simon said...

John, what I'm saying is that after two decades struggling to get a conservative majority, we still have only four conservatives on the court, and replacing the liberal justices with younger liberal justices pushes decades back into the future any possibility of getting a fifth conservative on the court before the existing our start retiring. This is a virtual re-run of 1992: if Bush 41 had won the election, odds are that Blackmun and White would still have left or been forced out by health before 1/20/1996, giving Bush the opportunity to give us that five vote majority. Now, maybe he would have blown it; despite my affection for Souter, Bush 41's batting average on the appointments he got was one for two. Nevertheless, because Clinton won, we'll never know; instead, Clinton was able to appoint two liberals to the court. More than a decade later, the opportunity to undo that and get the elusive fifth vote still hasn't happened and (if Obama wins) may be pushed back by several decades. Indeed, it isn't inconceivable that Obama could appoint enough justices to build a new and unduring liberal majority, in which case we can not only forget fixing all those bad lines of cases, we can kiss goodbye to those few little victories like Seminole Tribe, Lopez, Carhart, Employment Div. v. Smith, Zelman, and so forth.

Simon said...

Beth, while I understand that the reader's mileage will vary as to whether it's a good thing or not, I really struggle to see why anyone would want a liberal majority on the court. Is there really any reason other than Roe-Casey? Is that it? Hasn't enough damage been done - the conversation about law and the role of courts been distorted enough by that misbegotten and (from the standpoint of abortion rights advocates) wholly superfluous doctrine? Once that line of cases is overuled, the issue will return to the states, and the huge pro-choice majorities in America that NARAL always tells us about will mean that there will be no change in the legal status of abortion anyway.

Beyond that, I just don't see the problem. A conservative court is no obstacle to liberal legislation. We're the ones who beleve that the Constitution leaves to the democratic process most policy questions, after all. Ergo, so long as that legislative agenda is consistent with the Constitution, nothing to fear from a conservative court. Unless, that is, liberals are going to concede that elements of their legislative agenda are unconstitutional - which surely can't be the case, since the legislators who'd have to vote for that agenda have sworn to support and defend the constitution and thus surely couldn't and wouldn't pass anything unconstitutional even if they thought it was great policy - there ought to be no problem. Mm?

knox said...

Zappos rules.

If you don't buy shoes at Zappos, you, sir, are worse than Hitler.

(for all the redeye fans out there)

Beth said...

All that being the case, Simon, then what's the problem with Obama appointing liberals to the Court? We're all signed on to the same Constitution, aren't we?

Ernesto Ariel Suárez said...

knox said...
Zappos rules.

If you don't buy shoes at Zappos, you, sir, are worse than Hitler.

(for all the redeye fans out there)

8:11 PM


The Aldo store in KC is a short ride away. That's why I'm partial ;)

Anonymous said...

I've made it to my small cottage in far northern Wisconsin; just a few miles south of the border with the U.P.

The leaves are one week past prime colors; the air is dry, crisp and dry.

This will be a politics-free weekend. Hiking, bicycling and canoeing are on the agenda, with a side trip to the Porcupine Mountains a possibility.

My cottage is only 900 square feet. It is exactly the right size to accommodate the two of us and small enough to discourage the presence of relatives and friends. I like its privacy and seclusion.

There is no cable, no satellite dish, no cell phone service. I reluctantly had a telephone line with DSL service installed, and use both sparingly.

A pair of eagles nest 90 feet from the living room window, an egret stands near the shore, the loons call at night, a pair of otters lives under the dock, and a family of mallards lives in the rushes. A pack of coyotes howls when the moon is bright.

It's small, and it's paradise.