U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials publicly executed a Land Rover Defender on Tuesday after it had been seized at the Port of Baltimore in April. Only Defenders 25 years old or older are allowed into the United States, even though they are welcomed all over the world. This Defender had its VIN swapped out, and Customs officials ordered its death.
Disgusting.
For the love of all that is creamy and fattening, is nothing sacred anymore?
The Butter Cow at the Iowa State Fair was vandalized over the weekend. An animal rights group, Iowans for Animal Liberation, hid in the 1904 Agricultural Building until after the fair closed, broke into the Butter Cow’s refrigerated crypt, and poured red paint over the 600 pound cow, which has been a part of the fair since 1911. “Freedom for all” was left painted in large red letters on the glass to the tomb.
Rumor has it that the butter statue of Abe Lincoln had its beard shaved off, and the butter road map of the Lincoln Highway was rerouted from Lubbuck, Texas to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, but Fair officials refused to comment any further. An unidentified source within the Iowa State Troopers office stated that it is believed that the culprits have “spread across the border to Moose Jaw”, and the map is an obvious “taunt at the police”.
Oddly enough, the Crisco Pig, which was also in the crypt with Butter Abe & Butter Cow, was left untouched by IAL.
The butter for the cow is reused for 10 years, at which time it is believed that officials of the Cracker Barrel and Perkins Restaurant chains arm wrestle for it on the Midway. Tickets for this prestigious, once in a decade show are $10 per person.
Sadly, Betsy the Real Cow from Fairfield, Iowa, passed away after giving the milk that went into the making of the additional 100 pounds of butter that Fair crews used to repair the Butter Cow. Representatives of Iowans for Animal Liberation called Betsy’s demise “Unfortunate. But we always knew that collateral damage was inevitable.”
When asked where the Butter Cow’s security detail was on Saturday night, Iowa State Fair officials sheepishly admitted that “they were in Knoxville watching Donny Schatz come back from the 21st slot to win his seventh Knoxville Nationals”.
Photo surprisingly enough, is courtesy of Iowans for Animal Liberation.
The Macallans were kind enough to contribute to the story.
“It had become a place of darkness. But there was in it one river especially, a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.”
——–Joseph Conrad “Heart of Darkness”
This absolutely stunning B-17 Flying Fortress, called the “Aluminum Overcast”, is touring the Midwest and East Coast giving both flight and ground tours. I’ve been in a B-17 a few times at air shows, but I’ve never flown in one. Unfortunately, the Aluminum Overcast doesn’t appear to be touring further west than Milwaukee or Springfield.
12,000 Flying Fortresses were maunufactured between 1935 and 1945. Of those 12,000, 5000 were destroyed in combat. Today 100 remain and only 13 of those still fly.
I was back out on the river recently to finally install a deck rail on a deck I built last year. We were going to install cable rail, but I’m not an overly big fan of the stuff. For what you get, the price is absurd. In the end, I think the client agreed, once she recovered from hearing the bid. We went with conduit instead, and I really like the look.
I’m glad I subscribe to the theory that planning too far out is simply a waste of time. Embrace that loosey-goosey lifestyle!
I was supposed to install a chimney & woodstove this week for a client. The night before I was to start the job, the customer informed me that she was no longer interested in a woodstove. It seems a mutual acquaintance, another contractor in fact, told her she didn’t want to deal with firewood. The damn busy-body! The cost of heating oil isn’t dropping anytime soon, hot shot.
Ahem…
What really annoys me is that she’s going to change her mind back and want the stove installed in October, when we have a nice layer of snow up on the roof. Why do it now when we don’t have a cloud in the sky?
On the plus side, she has about ten cords of downed birch & spruce stacked near the cabin. “If you need firewood, take what you need,” she says to me.
So I’ve been hauling, cutting, splitting and stacking firewood this week. It was 85 degs here today, which is not ideal wood cutting weather. I realize that I won’t be getting any sympathy from South Texas, but 85 is still hot to those of us within a short drive of the Arctic Circle, and I’ve been sweating up a storm this week.
Normally, we’d be seeing rain and weather twenty degrees cooler about now, but there is still no rain in the forecast. Not that I’m complaining about that, since I’m trying to get a nice roof job yet this month.
With the excessively dry weather, the Borough and State have banned woodcutting in the public areas dedicated to that. With the high heating oil prices, the price of firewood is bound to climb as well. So free firewood is just as good as getting paid to install a chimney.
It’s that time again. It’s qualifying night for the 53rd Annual Knoxville Nationals in Knoxville, Iowa. Four days of intense sprint car racing out among the corn fields. If you’re into racing, this is an event you should experience at least once.
Photo courtesy of the world wide web.
