robinandallen.com Blog

The Boston Globe, one of the most liberal newspapers in the country, somehow today allowed an op-ed piece by Jeff Jacoby, a Globe columnist, to be published that dares to question the legitimacy of man-made global warming.  (Heretic!)

The piece, titled “Br-r-r! Where did global warming go?” points out facts (I know, people who use facts must be paid off by Big Oil) such as the record cold temperatures in South America and Australia, rare snow in South Africa, record snowfall in New Hampshire, and the Canadian government predicting it’s coldest winter in 15 years.  Some scientists (again, probably those on the Big Oil payroll) feel that we have peaked in terms of a warming trend, and could be seeing a cooling period around 2012.  By the way, the scientifc reports he refers to were released prior to this weekend’s arctic blast that dumped nearly 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada region.

He also points out what many of us believe — that solar activity (particularly the sunspot cycle) probably has more to do with climate change than anything we could do as humans.

Here’s the link to the article.  Be careful speaking to your friends about this.  We who dare to question the Religion of Man-Made Global Warming (and it’s pope, Al Gore) must be prepared to endure ridicule, criticism and questioning of our intelligence.  By the way, I still haven’t received my check from Big Oil!

Jeff Jacoby article in the Boston Globe

My wife Robin has an uncanny ability to select the perfect gifts for me.  More often than not, she will give me something that I didn’t even know I would like until after I tried it.  For example, about a year ago she gave me a Sudoku book.  I had heard of it, but never tried it.  Within a couple of days, I was completely consumed with a puzzle labeled “very difficult.”  (Yes, I finally solved it!)  A few years ago, out of the blue, she gave me a wood baseball bat.  I never played baseball, but I took it to the batting cage to see what I could do.  Well, I soon broke that bat, but now I have my own Easton Black Magic -3 bat, a batting helmet and gloves, and I keep them in my car along with some spare tokens for the batting cage.  It’s my stress-reliever; some guys go to the driving range…I go to the cage.

Last Father’s Day she gave me the book Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson.  Perfect gift!  I don’t think I ever read a book so quickly.  Soon after that, she popped up with Bob Newhart’s autobiography,  I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This.  At first I asked “Why?” but she just grinned and said, “I think you’ll like it.”  I loved it!  It’s a great book by one of the funniest comedians ever. So, for this Christmas, she hit me with a triple-book-treat:  Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson; What’s So Great About Christianity? by Dinesh D’Souza; and the icing on the cake…Just One More Thing: Stories from My Life by Peter Falk.  I love Columbo!

That’s my wife.  Quietly picking up all the little bits of information and putting them together in the perfect, personalized present.  Do I know how fortunate I am to have her?  You better believe I do.

I was helping out Santa this past weekend by picking up a couple of things for Mitchell’s Christmas.  I guess it was when I was standing in Toys ‘R Us looking at all the unbelievable stuff they have now for kids when I started thinking about my favorite toys that I received for Christmas when I was a kid.  For some reason I remembered something called “Captain Action” that I received for Christmas when I was probably about 6.  I hadn’t thought about that in years.  Captain Action was an action figure kind of like G.I. Joe…except you could get different costumes for him.  My favorite TV show at that time was Batman, so my parents gave me the Batman and Superman costumes for him.  They also gave me his sidekick “Action Boy” and his costumes for Robin and “Superboy”.  But the best of all was their vehicle…the Silver Streak.  Man, that was cool.  It had wheels, but it also was a boat.  (And it really floated!)  It also had rockets on the side.  The box it came in was printed to be the Silver Streak Hideout.  That was one of the best Christmas presents ever!  Unfortunately, the line was discontinued in 1968.  Original figures now go for a fortune if you can find someone who will actually sell one.

Captain Action’s awesome vehicle…the Silver Streak!

Here’s a link to the main Captain Action website.  The pictures on this page are from that site:

http://members.aol.com/doctrquest/

I was doing some research online and found out that they are bringing Captain Action back again!  They even have Captain Action gifts and apparel:

http://www.cafepress.com/cptaction

You can’t go through the routine of regularly loading and unloading music on an iPod without beginning to notice some patterns develop.  In my case, I usually listen to new music on Rhapsody, where you pay $10 per month and have virtually unlimited listening capability.  Most new music is available on Rhapsody, so you can check it all out on your computer before buying anything.  And honestly, I wind up actually buying very little new music, at least compared to the days of records and CD’s.  We just connect a laptop to a sound system and let Rhapsody play.  I generally load up my iPod with my old favorite CD’s that I have ripped to mp3 format.

With all of these old albums to choose from, I have noticed that I continually come back time and time again to a certain set of favorites — albums that I just thoroughly enjoy all the way through, track after track.  I never really bothered to actually sit down and make a “desert island” list of albums before.  But for now I just wanted to see how hard it would be to actually cut it down to 20 or 30 albums.  My only criteria was, “if I was going to be stranded somewhere for a very long period of time, with an iPod that could hold 30 albums (including double albums) and had a super-duper battery that never ran down, what would I put on it?”

Getting the list down to 30 was pretty difficult.  I tried to avoid “greatest hits” packages, but the exceptions I made were for actual CD’s that I own and listen to, such as “The Beatles 1967-1970” and an early Steve Earle collection.  Four “greatest hits” out of thirty albums isn’t bad.  This is not any kind of “best albums” list…it’s just a bunch of records that I really love.  What would you take along if you could only have thirty to listen to for a long, long time?

1. The Clash – London Calling
2. The Replacements – Pleased To Meet Me
3. R.E.M. - Murmur
4. The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
5. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
6. The Beatles – 1967-1970
7. U2 – War
8. Dire Straits – Making Movies
9. Oasis – (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?
10. Oasis – Definitely Maybe
11. Massive Attack – Protection
12. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
13. Pink Floyd – The Wall
14. Manic Street Preachers – Everything Must Go
15. Pretenders – Learning To Crawl
16. Prince – Purple Rain
17. Brian Wilson – Smile
18. Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Welcome To The Pleasuredome
19. Husker Du – Zen Arcade
20. Steve Earle – I Ain’t Ever Satisfied – The Steve Earle Collection
21. Stevie Ray Vaughan – Greatest Hits
22. Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
23. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Green River
24. The Who – Who’s Next
25. Yes – Fragile
26. Emerson Lake & Palmer – Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends
27. Rolling Stones – Hot Rocks 1964-1971
28. AC/DC – Back In Black
29. Boston – Boston
30. Cheap Trick – Heaven Tonight