Povey Prattle

Two photo's from a mass gathering of Golden Retrievers in Scotland on 20th July 2018 to mark the 150th anniversary of their development. The 150th anniversary of the founding of the golden retriever has been celebrated at the breed's ancestral home in the Highlands. The breed was created at Tomich near Glen Affric in the 1800s by landowner Dudley Marjoribanks, also known as Lord Tweedmouth. Scotland 1 Scotland 2 ------------------------------------------------------------- Two photo's  of my beloved Zion The day I adopted him With Jacob T, the son of Andi T (former Associate Rector at St. Boniface, Siesta Key, FL) and of Jonathan T. The Humane Society of Sarasota County pegged Zion as a spaniel.  But I am willing to bet that he also has a fair bit of Golden Retriever in his family tree. --------------------------------------------------------- My friend Mary C said of the Goldens in Scotland  "and they are all smiling...

Random House 2005 I've just finished reading this book  ( hint, hint - my copy is going back to the Sarasota County Library system on Friday 20th ). It's a remarkable account of Robert Carter III an extremely wealthy northern Virginia plantation and slave owner in the latter days of the colonial era, and the early days of the new American republic,  who in 1791 by Deed of Gift freed almost 500 slaves. Carter was by no means an idealist, and his journey from being a member of the Colonial era aristocracy to becoming a great emancipator was a tortuous voyage which took forty years.  He wrestled with his inheritance, his education, his family and his religious convictions, and his soul. Indeed he was a tortured soul. He left the Latitudinarian Church of England and became a Baptist, in the days when Baptists were new to Virginia. The elites regarded them as being outside the bounds of respectable society He loved the egalitarian impulses of t...

I've had these pliers for oh so many years.  Indeed I used them two days ago to push an errant lens on my sunglasses back into the frame.  "Necessity is the mother of invention"? As I took a closer look I noted two words which my suggest that my pliers are an antique. Japan.   Who remembers when our markets were flooded with all manner of Japanese made artifacts?   It was the end of the world as we knew it, and we did not feel fine. Now the operative word would be CHINA. Sears.  Who remembers when the catalogues and stores of Sears, Roebuck & Co. were "the place to go"  for well made and reasonably priced items, everything from a pin to an anchor? Who now automatically thinks of Sears when needing a car repair, a washing machine and drier, a new dress, a new suit, bedding, underwear, towels etc? The changing patterns of retail shopping (and poor management) mean that Sears is now but a shadow of its former self. But I'll...

No, I did not run a red traffic light.  (About five years ago I ran an orange/amber light  on the way to Church.   I was caught.  The camera did not lie.  I paid a fine of $158.)    So I am utterly cautious at traffic lights. No, heaven forfend, I have not been in a Red Light District.  I am sometimes bad and sometimes stupid -  but not that bad or that stupid! Here is my RED LIGHT STORY. On Monday 16th I asked my trusty barber Patrick to cut my hair as short as he could. This was to get me ready for  my  Dermatological Surgeon's Red Light treatment  today. I have a squamous cell carcinoma on my pate which has resisted liquid nitrogen treatments, the use of the noxious "Carac" cream, and scraping. The surgeon has been loath to treat it with MOHS surgery 'cause it's quite large  (1" x 3/4" )  so she recommended the Red Light  treatment,  in order to shrink the carcinoma to a m...

Nelson Rubio Buchanan I did what I had to do and called Florida's two Senators, and the Congressman for my district to express my utter dismay and deep alarm about President Trump's recent press conference with President Putin. To place Putin on a level playing field with the Intelligence services of the United States on the matter of Russian interference in the 2016 election is surely a betrayal of our national interests, a betrayal which should be unequivocally condemned and repudiated in both houses of the U.S. Congress. I asked the Senators and the Congressman to address this with boldness, and with loyalty to the U.S. Constitution. For Florida voters Senator Nelson (D)  202 224 5274 Senator Rubio (R) 202 224 3041 Representative Buchanan 202 225 5015 (I am in his District but I think that south Sarasota County is represented  by Rep Pat Toomey) I got voice mail for Nelson and Rubio, I spoke to a living human being for...

Avenue A, Sarasota, FL

Remember when Joseph Stalin was familiarly known as "Uncle Joe" in the chief western allies  (the  United Kingdom and the United States).  Uncle Joe was on our side in the battle to defeat the Third Reich.   Few will remember that the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic's military forces were supplied with huge amounts of American military materials for the fight. Uncle Joe was on our side, but Joseph Stalin had grimmer and more devious plans for a   "Soviet Empire"  which in due course led to the economic and political slavery of such countries as Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia etc, from 1945 - 1991. Uncle Joe was wily.  Churchill and Roosevelt were naive.  Churchill had an over abundance of confidence in his skills as a military strategist and a political negotiator. Roosevelt was physically exhausted and weary.  By February 1945 he was close to death. There were two maj...