Yep, it’s ickky. But New Orleans produces them the size of a large foot. Just a mere reminder. Is the Peanut still excited and playing? What fun. Here in Austin, TX it is likely to be in high 70s today. Now that is something to cheer about.

This morning, ran downstairs and played with her new legos for a while. Now, she’s running her Barbies up and down the elevator in the dollhouse and they’ve been having little conversations, making food, etc. It’s so fun to be 5, isn’t it?

As for me, hot coffee and a leftover pastry for breakfast. Life is good. *g*

And we will NOT discuss Florida’s ‘palmetto bugs’ which are just giant cockroaches that rain down from the palm trees. Yuck. I”m no expert, but I don’t think cockroaches ever actually hurt anyone, even biting into one. I don’t think they carry any disease that humans can get -

How is everyone doing this morning? It’s a balmy 27 degrees here today — and the birdies are hopping about on the feeders, all fluffed out and stuffing sunflower seeds in as fast as they can…brrrrr.

That looks more like a cricket in the cup.

They grow them the same size in Hawaii as well.

Of course, I never knew of cockroaches being cannibals, so I guess the press members didn’t actually eat any of the multi-leg variety.

And in Hawaii, it is considered good luck to have geckos in your home (at least partly because they eat cockroaches). Lizards are a higher life form than cock-a-roaches for sure.

Bite they little heads off, nibble on they little feet.

I think it’s a palmetto bug — but the pix was too perfect, I couldn’t help myself. *g*

Good Morning Christy et al.

I was all ready for PUAC and then remembered that it isn’t saturday.

Christy, did you wind up getting the dvd’s of the Young People’s Concerts? Glad the Peanut is fully embracing life and all that comes her way.

Looking forward to having a few of the FDL crew over for New Year’s Eve. Good food, old funny movies and great conversation.

and TobyW’s palmettos— I remember them being the size of small mice. ew.

I for one welcome our new cockroach overlords…

If they are more than an inch long they should be cooked first.

Drive by.

Your motivation is on the previous thread.

From various points in their bodies American cockroaches, and cockroaches in general, produce odorous secretions that can affect the flavor of various foods. When populations are high, these secretions may result in a characteristic odor in the general region of the infestation. Disease-producing organisms such as bacteria, protozoa, and viruses have been found in cockroach bodies. Different forms of gastroenteritis (food poisoning, dysentery, diarrhea, etc.) appear to be the principal diseases transmitted by these cockroaches. These disease-causing organisms are carried on the legs and bodies of cockroaches, and are deposited on food and utensils as cockroaches forage. Cockroach excrement and cast skins also contain a number of allergens, to which many people exhibit allergic responses such as skin rashes, watery eyes, congestion of nasal passages, asthma, and sneezing.

Penn State
Palmetto Bugs are American Cockroaches.

That’s really great…we have now become a multi-generation Legos family. It is a remarkable toy;)

thank you for sharing!

I had that t-shirt at one time. It fell apart though after a few years of wash and wear.

“Love to eat them mousies.
Mousises what I luvs to eat.
Bite they little heads off.
Nibble on they tiny feets.”

Naw, that ain’t no “palmetto bug.” Trust me. The big palmetto bugs don’t have those hind legs and their wings cover the upper body. Plus they’re a darker brown.

LOL

Thank you. It’s a great starat….Feature on TV about the Obama cool. That’s a good start, too, isn’t it?

Ah, another Bill Kilban fan, I see…. :)

Heh..words to live by…

Jeeezz…look what Christy started.

Yeah, if only I could get the quotes right.

You are welcome ;)

In college Entomology lab we did experiments using the American cockroach. The first rule was if our experiment escaped we were to squash it.

When I lived in Florida they didn’t bother me, but after I moved back, I have a thing about them. The idea of having even one around freaks me out. And I love bugs, beetles and spiders otherwise.

He’ll be cool when he starts turning things around.

Love that one

do you love the stink bugs too? Never seen them until we moved to PA and then learned that they too were newcomers to the Commonwealth. Harmless or not they sure are odd and creepy. And I hear one dare not squish them else suffer the consequences.

Iktomi (spiders) have a special place in the culture of the Northern Plains Indians.

Don’t know if they still do but at one time Crazy Shirts T-shirts in Hawaii had an exclusive agreement with Kliban. I had the t-shirt with the Troubador cat singing the above ditty.

I also had a couple of others; the one where the two cats are sitting on the fence and one turns to the other and says “If I had two dead rats I’d give you one” and the Cat band with the caption “Sex and Mice and Rock ‘n’ Roll.”

Oh, My Dog! That is just too forkin’ funny! I thought the press *were* the cockroaches (with the exception of a very few real reporters still in existence).

Christy -

Did you include the linky for that press pool report? Have clicked thru most of the ones provided but don’t see it.

I don’t have a link — I got the pool report via e-mail. And I couldn’t find where any news organization had published it — which made it a little more amusing for me. *g*

Actually no. I have to toss them outside, not good idea to squish them. They are stinky and they irritate my skin, too. I find one a day, it seems.

Although for point of reference, that day’s pool reporter was Carol Lee of Politico.

Also live for a good part of the year where such creatures are a fact of life……they don’t fight fair……only visible when one turns on a light in the middle of the night to go to the john or get something to drink. You’re half asleep; can’t put your hand on anything to smash the nasty buggers and then they scuttle thu a crack 1/100th the size of their body.

*massive shutter*

Ahhh — they have a longer piece up now that includes more info that the pool synopsis — just found it. Wasn’t up late last night. Will link it above, but here you go…

Thankee! We heard it here first. *G*

When I lived in New Orleans, my conclusion was that they are big enough to trip you in that middle of the night walk. That’s huge.

We had the geckos in Okinawa. Guys I knew who had been stationed in Thailand all talked about big geckos they called “F**k you lizards,” because of the sound they made. They had some funny stories about hearing them before they knew what they were.

I once stayed in a new hotel in New Orleans. While lying on the bed, reading, a green lizard, about seven inches long, dropped on my upper arm, looked at me and scrambled off. It wasn’t a gecko. At breakfast the next morning, I asked others if they got a complementary lizard.

It would’ve been a nice Christmas tale if the cockroach actually ate the press pool.

Had a problem with the roaches when I lived in NYC. Learned to spread boric acid around the baseboards and under shelf paper. It pretty much took care of them. That was 30 years ago or so.

I still remember a scene when I was working as a waitress there. Someone claimed to have found a roach in their salad. The manager came over, took a look and said “You must have brought that ‘rach’ in with you. I know my raches and that isn’t one of my raches!”

I still laugh thinking about that one.

…..
As Obama’s press pool waited outside near the president-elect’s beachfront vacation home Thursday morning, a neighbor pedaled up on his bicycle with a Christmas card for the future first family in tow.
….

Not to pick nits, but how, exactly, does one tow a Christmas card? Journalism at its best……..

LOL!!

When we took The Peanut to Disney World last year, they had these tiny little lizards that ran along the sides of the walkways at our hotel, catching bugs in the gardens along the pathways. I think she had almost as much fun trying to run around and spot the little lizards as she did meeting the characters and riding the rides.

We spotted one eating a little cricket the first day we were there, and from then on she wanted to find another one, and begged us to let her catch one and bring it home as a pet. LOL (Momma said no — it’s too cold here for the poor little critters and our cat would have a field day.)

No, it was the future first family which was in tow. Just as, on my comment at 38, I have a lizard lying in bed and reading. Need remedial freshman English.

Maybe it was a realllly big card.

And in Hawaii, it is considered good luck to have geckos in your home (at least partly because they eat cockroaches). Lizards are a higher life form than cock-a-roaches for sure.

do you have a link for that (the good luck part)?

we i was a kid and we lived for a while on a small island in the south pacific my mom would take geckos from outside and let them go behind the kitchen cabinets – her idea of cockroach control. worked too.

ack. we i was a kid –> when i was a kid

I just was glancing through the following article by Mark Landler.

China, some economists say, lulled American consumers, and their leaders, into complacency about their spendthrift ways.

“This was a blinking red light,” said Kenneth S. Rogoff, a professor of economics at Harvard and a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. “We should have reacted to it.”

In hindsight, many economists say, the United States should have recognized that borrowing from abroad for consumption and deficit spending at home was not a formula for economic success.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12…..=1&hp

This article is of a type that I particularly hate. It could have and should have been written 5 to 10 years ago. Now it is repackages some China bashing and a bunch of obvious ideas together and pawns them off as insight. I love that “in hindsight” bit which is nothing more than a riff on “No one could have predicted.” Except we could and did. We pointed ages ago that the Establishment mania for free trade would lead precisely to these kinds of dislocations.

Economics has truly become the great source of quackery in our times.

Did the geckos try to sell her insurance? *g*

Wasn’t gonna share my NYC story but here goes….

Long ago and far away I used to carry a group of students to the city for a one-week study tour each year. One year the place we stayed was a sort of youth hostel owned by another university; bunk beds, communal bathroom and kitchen. Well, college students ain’t known for being the neatest of creatures so the kitchen wouldn’t have passed any state sanitation inspection. One night I ventured into that area to discover a forkin’ army of these small pale scuttlers…..all over *everything*. Very different family from the huge dark suckers I’m used to in the south.

Needless to say, that was the first and last year we ever stayed there!

Good lord, that is a masterpiece in failure to take any responsibility for piss poor choices, isn’t it?

your BBF lichtblau is on cspan.

And the banking institutions who got billions in bailout money are “declining” to disclose where the money went. If it were a movie script the critics would pan it because it’s just to unbelievable.

Right.

In the late ’60’s, I lived in NYC in a $50 a month apartment on the lower east side. It was, predictably, infested.
In desperation, I asked the roaches to leave and it worked; I lived there for two years and never saw one.
Rats, yes, but roaches, no.

When I visited a friend in FL while in college, I got up in the middle of the night and got some water in the kitchen. That was the one and only time I’ve ever met a palmetto bug.

Not knowing what to do, I put a glass over it. I figured I would trap it until the morning. A short time later I hear “Who put the palmetto bug under the glass?” being yelled quite loudly.

I admitted to it, explaining I had no idea what to do with it. It was then that I learned why there was hammer on the kitchen counter.

G’morning. About that cockroach? As the old saying goes (somewhat edited for the situation), the only thing worse than a cockroach in yer bag o’cookies is half a cockroach.

Dean Baker up
Part-Time Government Employees Earn $160,000 a Year

The Times also has this article about rough times in Japan’s fishing fleet which was hit hard by high fuel costs and aging boats. The curious thing, well not really that curious, is that the article never mentions once the effects that overfishing has had on the world’s fisheries. That there are fewer and fewer fish in the world’s oceans is simply ignored by the article’s author. I would think this would be a rather important point, as in is it a good thing to be encouraging the fishing industry and indeed shouldn’t it be controlled and curbed much more than it is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12…..shing.html

lol. don’t think she was buying.

hugh and christy – add one more to the DFH right column and thomas friedman blindingly wrong column.

oops. first bit was to foothillsmike @49…

need more coffee….

Who doesn’t need more coffee? *G* The Peanut woke us up at 4:02 am ET yesterday. Even with a nap, I’m still worn out from all the Santa excitement…

lol, well i guess it’s not fair to expect the little ones to sleep in on christmas day. *g*

here’s hoping you get a chance for another nap today.

Hysterical…is that what you call an upgrade?

Man, you had fast reflexes to capture that dude! There is some kind of perverse pleasure in finding the most destructive killing tool; iow, how flat can you smush them? One day I’m gonna have a lot to answer for…..in direct proportion to how much damage I’ve done them.

Can ya tell…..they ain’t my favorite creature?

“This was a blinking red light,”

Movie Sign!

Thanks for the link. Friedman is one of the principal floggers of the corporate/Establishment line. Look how he sold the Iraq war Friedman unit after Friedman unit and then one day he just walked away from it and all of his previous shilling and promoting of it as if none of it had ever happened. China was flat or the world was green or something.

During the warm weather the geckos hunt bugs on my front entry but are not in my back yard where the desert lizards reign. They run up and long my back yard fence wall (I have a cinder block fence) and drive Miss Dog nuts.

It was 49 this morning….. cloudy but not raining now but sure looks wet. They predicted another 11-20 inches of snow in Flagstaff…… on top of the several feet of snow……

Have a fresh pot of french roast…… anyone want a cuppa?

FWIW, the word “papparazzi” is Italian for “cockroaches”.

So, I could see the cookie-baking neighbor having made a comment – subtle, yet unmistakeably piquant (about 4:40 in) – about the presence of the press in the neighborhood.

or something.

i’m ashamed that i used to read that kind of drivel and think there must be something to it if it was in the nyt. still waiting for friedman to be ashamed of writing it. not holding my breath though.

Sounds lovely — would love a cuppa. Am perusing gardener’s supply catalog for some better tomato supports for this year’s garden. Anyone ever use spiral supports like these? I think The Peanut would love the colors, but I want to know if the supports themselves would work well…

i’m beginning to understand what is meant by the phrase, “the truth is stranger than fiction.”

i don’t know either.. but next summer i expect to have enough sun to find a spot to grow tomatoes, so please share whatever you learn about tomato supports.

Christy, This is way OT, and maybe could be another thread. A legal question in my mind is whether there is a way to force the incoming administration to pursue accountability/punishment for the lies/crimes/etc. of the current “deciders.” More than the FDR, “make me do it.” But really legal steps to force the DOJ, etc. to investigate the illegal activities. It seems at some point if those in charge neglect the oversight/accountability function that is a way of joining in the conspiracy/activities, etc. Anyway, I have a question about that and wonder about legal options. In TX there is an action called QUO WARRANTO, I think, that demand so know by “what right” something is done or not done. Any thoughts? Many thanks (and, yes, I know you have your hands full. ;) Bev.)

Are tomato supports doled out by the government?

I used them last year for a container garden of tomatoes, peppers and eggplant on the stairwell. You’ll need a bit of twine to help support the plants once they grow larger, but they worked quite well for me.

I’ve only used the wire funnel shaped tomato supports and it depends on your soil and how large your tomato plants are, my soil is soft sandy and I have to “tie” the supports to stay up when the plants reach a specific height/weight. They are a little spendy if you have a lot of plants. I also use the tomato supports for my green pepper plants ….

Interesting. A quick look doesn’t indicate whether they’re separate or have one central base. Bloody expensive, tho’!

I’d be a little leery of them. While tomatoes are vines, they very seldom grow like a clinging vine. Also, since the stems of tomato plants aren’t that flexible, I think you would still have to use twine or something else for support. And once the tomatoes started to to mature with the weight of the riping fruit, there’s more support that you would need.

I think they would be great for morning glorys, moonflowers, black eyed susans and pole beans though.

David used assorted sizes of tomato supports for a variety of tall-growing, apt to droop flowers, e.g., painted daisies, gaillardia, dinner-plate dahlias. Neighbors accused him of growing tomato supports.

lots of good gardening tips at oxdown

Yep, they’re separate, and actually pretty heavy. The neighbors really liked them as well. Oh, Gardeners Supply goofed and sent me two sets instead of one, so I had plenty of support. ;)

Hot new product idea? Telescoping tomato/flower supports. Start low. Raise a section as the plant grows. I’m gonna be rich, I’m gonna be rich!! I’ll share!! *g*

i have something like that for my peonies. just one section but it can be moved up the poles. works great and would like a couple more. have looked around for several years to no avail.

I had already planned to use ties — we always did with tomato stakes in our garden when I was a kid and I’ve used them with other stakes I’ve used here as well. But a straight stake never seems to give me the flexibility I like in terms of support for tomato vines, which is why the spirals caught my eye — you could have a little more give for the stem with that, I’d think.

Hmmmm…maybe we need a gardening thread for PUAC this weekend. :)

What struck me when I saw that photo of Cheney in the Times this morning was that he was described as being at the Capitol for the regular weekly Republican strategy luncheon. So what was Joe doing there?

The question is how long has Joe been a closet republican? I seem to remember a ticket like this. Gore/Lieberman.

Sadly, barbara, they already have those in the Gardener’s Supply Catalog that I’m looking at online. *g* But it is a great idea!

I’ve had good luck with tomato cages

Well now that cookie season has passed, it would seem like a good idea to look forward to spring. :)

I’ve just never had luck with stakes. I use the wire funnel shapes and have had the best results. It’s just the funnel shaped ones are bulky to store, and bend quite easily.

maybe we need a gardening thread for PUAC this weekend

one vote “yea” here.

i’m wishing for spring already.

Have already gotten 3 seed catalogues in the mail, just ordered a new LED growlight, so I’m ready for spring!

Sounds like you’re ready. I have no luck with seeds. Give me a plant that has sprouted, no matter what the condition and I have the greenest of thumbs.

I have the same problem with seeds — they don’t like me or the light in my house. But once something has sprouted and I can get it outside in the yard? Grows like gangbusters here.

But we have a wonderful greenhouse near us that always has incredibly healthy plants that I buy from — especially for veggies and herbs. I’m already getting the spring itch. *g*

Oh, crap! Another fabulous idea that someone got to first! *g*

Morning Mm…If you’re ever in LA, maybe you can give me some tips. The soil in my yard is hard clay and lottsa rocks. It’s tough gardening. :(

Five days after the solstice and we’re already for it to be over. With spring comes renewal, and with the change in DC in Jan, perhaps it’s on a more spiritual level that we feel so strongly to get out there and plant.

With all the manure from the last 8 years, seems like a healthy and strong garden will grow.

Wow, you must have fierce tomatoes! *g*

Yes to a gardening thread. Folks, I don’t even know where to begin with all of David’s gardens. Gonna need LOTS of direction.

Good morning demi. When I was considering a move to the pacific northwest I was excited about the prospect of learning about the particulars of gardening in that area. Since I’ve been in this area my whole life, and both parents were gardening, I know what works really well here.

I maybe visitng LA soon, I’ll let you know. It would be nice to get some coffee.

Food or flowers……oh, what a choice. :-)

Friend of mine says she has sowed seeds in flats and then put them on top of the fridge or freeze to speed germination; definitely gonna give that a try this year. Free warmth without the expense of those heating coil thingies.

Oh, please do let me know by FB. I would love to have a meet up. East meets West. We could meet at the beach! Venice, Malibu, or ?

Sounds much like the soil in SW NC.

Suggestion the first: invest in a pickaxe….and I wish that were a joke.

Sounds good, either of those would be great. After the layoff I might take a long weekend and visit some friends in LA.

Have a great day. Off to see Doubt. Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, a trio not to be missed.

have never lived in LA, but in dallas i also had very hard clay soil. here is my surefire method, if you are patient and don’t want to have to take a pick axe to it (which i have done). cover area with 1 sheet thickness of newspaper (i don’t think this is necessary if you don’t have weeds or grass you are trying to get rid of too). cover with 4+ inches of good organic compost. add soil amendments (i used a special kind of rock sand for some missing trace elements – it will be different depending on your soil). add some slow release organic fertilizer. cover with 4+ inches of shredded bark mulch. wait one year. (you may have to water very occasionally during drought).

the microorganisms and earthworms will do all the work for you (the fertilizer is necessary to add nitrogen to replace what is used when the carbon rich mulch decomposes).

no experience with vegetable gardening, but did do flower and native type thing.

A Palmetto Bug is just a cockroach with a better press agent.

After a few years of spending Christmas in Hawaii I suspect the Press Corps will get a lot more blase about bugs in general. That or restrict themselves to high end hotel dining rooms. Heat plus moisture gives you the conditions for life. And sometimes that life comes equiped with six plus legs. I lived in Hawaii and Key West until I was eight, trust me neither is a good place for the ‘Eek it is a bug!’ crowd.

EPU land, but I love to tell my cockroach story:

Living in Tripoli, Libya in 1978, my Canadian roomate and I bottled 120 liters of homebrew a little early as we headed off for two weeks to Morocco. Our landlords heard machine gun like popping as 1/3 of our bottles blew up from the fermentation pressure.When we got home we discovered hundreds of drunken cockroaches in our brewing room. It looked like they had a ball!*g*

Pool stopped eating the cookies and dispersed of the remnants immediately.

“Dispersed of”? How about “disposed of”?

Our wonderful TradMed, once again earning its keep. Or not.