Sand in your birthday cake?

Tuesday, May 27, 2025. It's Tiw's day . . . An overcast day in TulseyTown. The weatherfeather – unreliable as it has been this past month – indicates there is a slight chance of a rain shower. Winds light and variable. Low 70's

National Public Radio and three local stations – Colorado Public Radio, Aspen Public Radio and KUTE in Ignasio, Colorado – filed a lawsuit this morning against President Donald Trump, arguing that an executive order aimed at cutting federal funding for the organization is illegal, violating the First Amendment.

On this day in 1937 the “impossible to build” Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public.

Birthdays

It's the birth date of Julia Ward Howe, The poet, essayist, leader of the women's movement and author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” was born in 819 New York City.

Rachel Carson was born in 1907 Springdale, Pennsylvania.

Poet Linda Pastan was born in 1932 New York City.

Detective novelist Tony Hillerman was born in 1925 Sacred Heart, Oklahoma.

And, Bruce Cockburn turns 79 today. The Canadian singer-songwriter-guitarist (and among my faves) was born in1945 Ottawa, Ontario.

(Wonderin' ) Where the Lions Are

– after Bruce Cockburn

Sand in your shoes?

Leaky patio door,

one troll call too many

from some body-less

entity trying to make a buck

out of nothing?

Neighbor noise?

Nagging memories

insisting on taking up

all the now space

like radio static

bouncing off a crashing

satellite headed for your

back porch? Pen out of ink

and can't find your journal anyway?

Love,

love is all we have –

love is all there is.

– jab

Bright ideas . . .

Monday, May 26, 2025. It's the Moon's day . . . and it is “new.” Overnight and morning rains are moving, temporarily, out of TulseyTown as I write this morning. Moderate Northerlies are in the forecasts through the week with some sunshine returning tomorrow, tho slight rain chances remain tonight and tomorrow morning.

Today is Memorial Day in the U.S. And, Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American (posted as usual last night) held a poignant Memorial Day memory.

And, speaking of memories . . .

It's Dorothea Lange's birthdate. The documentary photographer whose portraits of displaced farmers during the Great Depression greatly influenced later documentary and journalistic photography was born in 1895, Hoboken, New Jersey.

The first American woman to travel into outer space, astronaut Sally Ride, was born on this date in 1951 Los Angeles.

And, Miles Davis was born today in 1926 Alton, Illinois. He was among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.

AI's bad rap for potential negtives is being overtaken by real world positive applications. Medicine is a good example. Heart disease is still the world’s #1 killer … but AI has entered the chat, and it’s scanning your chest X-rays like Sherlock Holmes in a lab coat. AI is getting scarily good at spotting early warning signs doctors might miss. A study in Nature Medicine showed AI could detect hidden heart failure risks just from simple chest X-rays, without needing tests.

AI imaging analysis has already made significant early detection and treatment possibilities in a wide range of disease diagnoses, including but not limted to heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, cancer, infectious diseases,

Don’t be shy about asking your doctor for AI-assisted screening or monitoring.

My uncle, Eugene Wilson Young, was a WWII vet who became a geologist after the war. One fine day, so he told me, while tasting and predicting – more often than not – he came up with a bright idea.

My Uncle's Bright Idea

Eugene Wilson had an idea:

Take home as many oil well core samples

as would fit into his new Volkswagen Golf,

put them on a lathe at his workshop

and using carbon fiber sandpaper

polish them into lamp bases

some of which now adorn my abode's rooms

bringing the light he searched for years

to share.

—jab

Some of us have to go far out into the world.

Sunday, May 25, 2025. It's Sol's day . . . with rain and lots of it. Forecasts for TulseyTown indicate possible storms all day today, and tonight, ending mid morning tomorrow. Moderate Easterlies repeating swings from upper 70's to overnight low 60's. Ah, Spring in Okieland. Hidden Treasure

Hidden Treasure

You are the treasure. And the veil hiding it. – Rumi

You and I are placed in this world of hatred, violence, anger, injustice, and oppression to help transform it, transfigure it, and change it so that there will be compassion, laughter, joy, peace, reconciliation, fellowship, friendship, togetherness, and family. We are here to bring others out of exile. – Michael Battle, in Meditations, The Center for Action and Contemplation.

Regarding transformation:

Today is the day in 1961 that U.S. President John F. Kennedy, in a speech before Congress, committed the United States to land a man on the Moon “by the end of the decade.” The feat was accomplished eight years later in 1969 by Apollo 11.

The space opera set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” George Lucas' film Star Wars premiered today in 1977. It quickly became one of the most successful and transformative multimedia franchises in entertainment history.

Sir Ian McKellen turns 86 today. The multiple laureate British stage and film actor was born in 1939 Lancashire , England.

On this day in 2011 after 25 seasons, the final Opra Winfrey Show was broadcast. The show made Winfrey one of the most influential personalities, not to say the richest woman in the U.S.

Today is the birth date of Bill Robinson. The stage and film dancer known as “Mister Bojangles” was born on this day in 1878, Virginia.

Sometimes A Man Stands Up During Supper
Sometimes a man stands up during supper
and walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.
And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

And another man, who remains inside his own house,
dies there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
so that his children have to go far out into the world
toward that same church, which he forgot.

—Rainer Maria Rilke, from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Robert Bly, Harper Collins, 1981.