The Elephant SanctuaryHi again, folks. Well, it’s shaping up to be another real interesting week. I don’t know how many of you read The Wall Street Journal. In this house, we do, but mostly just for the pictures, the cartoons and the crossword.
However, according to Rupert Murdoch’s proudest possession, the federal government could be subsidizing the automobile industry in a rather unique way. There’s a bill being hammered together in a House Committee ~ and already endorsed by President Obama ~ being referred to as “the cash for clunkers” which would give consumers a voucher for up to $4,500 to trade their gas-guzzlers in for more fuel efficient vehicles.
It’s actually part of an environmental/climate change bill that seems to have the best of intentions and I’m sure that now that a lot of people are looking to preowned but more cost efficient vehicles, this will also help new vehicle dealers out.
What the bill’s not real clear on is what’s going to happen to those older vehicles after that. If anyone’s got any suggestions, send them and I’ll add them to the end of this blog as comments from the readership.
We’ve got several elected officials reading the NSJ, including Maria Cantwell, one of our US senators. Knowing several of you personally and others of you by reputation, this could be real entertaining. I myself am thinking artificial reefs.
A little closer to MY home, Washington State’s done it again. For the second year in a row, The National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors has voted our State Patrol the best dressed in the nation. This year, we share that distinction with the State of Mississippi, so to all our readers south of the Mason-Dixon, nice going, y’all.
Considering the justifiably proud reputation our law enforcement professionals have over a jurisdiction which extends from British Columbia, Canada to Oregon, and from the Columbia River, west to the Cascades, across the Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and its mountains, and finally to the Pacific Coast, it’s nice they can serve so well and spruce up so good for photo ops.
The last time I personally experienced this blend of dedication, ability and pride in appearance, I had some reason to be thankful to the United States Marine Corps. I’ve lived in big cities and backwoods in this state and the WSP is one of the biggest reasons I’ve never had any problem. So, nice going, guys. What’s next? A calendar? (Need a good lens jockey?)
Under the heading a VERY weird week, we just got a big mystery solved in this house and you’re absolutely going to love this. A few years ago, one of the young people in this house was doing a summer vacation hitchhiking from Miami, Florida back up here to Seattle and the University of Washington.
He had a fantastic time in a place in the middle of Tennessee by the name of Hohenwald. It’s a small town with a lot of history and a lot of natural beauty. Tom was a musician back then and he is also part First Nation. He remembers having a real good time with kindred spirits and doing the things that young musicians in search of themselves and things to sing about do.
He ended up camping just outside of the village, in some woods. During the night, a real warm, calm, clear and starry July evening, Tom dreamed of elephants and swore he awoke to the sound of them trumpeting. But also being half rational, he figured there was only one outside possibility and that’s that his Native American ancestors were telling him that wholly mammoths once roamed this land.
Even for Tom, a native Northwesterner, that was just a little too far out there so he just chalked it up to another weird episode among many and kept on trucking. But for some reason, it stuck with him. He tweaked a little when that baby mammoth was discovered in Siberia a few years back.
But it wasn’t until just yesterday that Tom’s mind was set to rest in these regards. One of you emailed out of the clear blue and asked if I knew where the biggest elephant sanctuary in the United States was.
There’s an elephant sanctuary in America? Yep, you’re way ahead of me. It’s a place called ~ somehow appropriately in my humble opinion ~ The Elephant Sanctuary. And guess where it is?
Tom’s settled down some since he camped about five hundred yards from that place. He still loves music but he’s an engineer now and for some reason, he’s wondering if, in a green and increasingly more animal friendly age, there might not be a way of putting these big creatures to work paying their room and board.
Personally, I can’t see elephants stomping around my neighborhood, but then I never figured there’d been twenty-four of them in Tennessee either. But I do like his attitude so I’ve wished Tom the best and asked him to let me know if there’s anything we can do for him in these regards.
Until next time, then, eh, folks? And keep the faith. We’re making it and once we’re through this…right?
Rusty
However, according to Rupert Murdoch’s proudest possession, the federal government could be subsidizing the automobile industry in a rather unique way. There’s a bill being hammered together in a House Committee ~ and already endorsed by President Obama ~ being referred to as “the cash for clunkers” which would give consumers a voucher for up to $4,500 to trade their gas-guzzlers in for more fuel efficient vehicles.
It’s actually part of an environmental/climate change bill that seems to have the best of intentions and I’m sure that now that a lot of people are looking to preowned but more cost efficient vehicles, this will also help new vehicle dealers out.
What the bill’s not real clear on is what’s going to happen to those older vehicles after that. If anyone’s got any suggestions, send them and I’ll add them to the end of this blog as comments from the readership.
We’ve got several elected officials reading the NSJ, including Maria Cantwell, one of our US senators. Knowing several of you personally and others of you by reputation, this could be real entertaining. I myself am thinking artificial reefs.
A little closer to MY home, Washington State’s done it again. For the second year in a row, The National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors has voted our State Patrol the best dressed in the nation. This year, we share that distinction with the State of Mississippi, so to all our readers south of the Mason-Dixon, nice going, y’all.
Considering the justifiably proud reputation our law enforcement professionals have over a jurisdiction which extends from British Columbia, Canada to Oregon, and from the Columbia River, west to the Cascades, across the Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and its mountains, and finally to the Pacific Coast, it’s nice they can serve so well and spruce up so good for photo ops.
The last time I personally experienced this blend of dedication, ability and pride in appearance, I had some reason to be thankful to the United States Marine Corps. I’ve lived in big cities and backwoods in this state and the WSP is one of the biggest reasons I’ve never had any problem. So, nice going, guys. What’s next? A calendar? (Need a good lens jockey?)
Under the heading a VERY weird week, we just got a big mystery solved in this house and you’re absolutely going to love this. A few years ago, one of the young people in this house was doing a summer vacation hitchhiking from Miami, Florida back up here to Seattle and the University of Washington.
He had a fantastic time in a place in the middle of Tennessee by the name of Hohenwald. It’s a small town with a lot of history and a lot of natural beauty. Tom was a musician back then and he is also part First Nation. He remembers having a real good time with kindred spirits and doing the things that young musicians in search of themselves and things to sing about do.
He ended up camping just outside of the village, in some woods. During the night, a real warm, calm, clear and starry July evening, Tom dreamed of elephants and swore he awoke to the sound of them trumpeting. But also being half rational, he figured there was only one outside possibility and that’s that his Native American ancestors were telling him that wholly mammoths once roamed this land.
Even for Tom, a native Northwesterner, that was just a little too far out there so he just chalked it up to another weird episode among many and kept on trucking. But for some reason, it stuck with him. He tweaked a little when that baby mammoth was discovered in Siberia a few years back.
But it wasn’t until just yesterday that Tom’s mind was set to rest in these regards. One of you emailed out of the clear blue and asked if I knew where the biggest elephant sanctuary in the United States was.
There’s an elephant sanctuary in America? Yep, you’re way ahead of me. It’s a place called ~ somehow appropriately in my humble opinion ~ The Elephant Sanctuary. And guess where it is?
Tom’s settled down some since he camped about five hundred yards from that place. He still loves music but he’s an engineer now and for some reason, he’s wondering if, in a green and increasingly more animal friendly age, there might not be a way of putting these big creatures to work paying their room and board.
Personally, I can’t see elephants stomping around my neighborhood, but then I never figured there’d been twenty-four of them in Tennessee either. But I do like his attitude so I’ve wished Tom the best and asked him to let me know if there’s anything we can do for him in these regards.
Until next time, then, eh, folks? And keep the faith. We’re making it and once we’re through this…right?
Rusty
No comments:
Post a Comment