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A Sad But Beautiful Song
Jul. 19th, 2014 08:12 pmI think the title is "Sweet Carolina" but in my mind the title ought to be "Pockets full of Dust" or something like it. This song is about how a lost soul can end up in a lonely place.
Herbs: Phytolacca decandra
May. 6th, 2014 09:32 pm
Just ran across a nice southern article about eating the leaves as salad, and painting the skin with the toxic berry juice. I have been taught to use an alcohol extract of the root as a "lymphogogue" meaning it is supposed to stimulate lymph movement, or at least a strong immune response. Far as I know there is no science to support this use. The juices of the root are very strong and caustic, and it should not be handled with bare hands.
It's Dangerous to Live in the South
May. 3rd, 2014 05:58 pmStatistics show that the "stroke belt" is also where you have the highest likelihood (in the US) of dying of cardiovascular and lower respiratory disease (smoking), cancer and accidents. Obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome are probable causes, but what about accidents? Why do southerners have the most accidents? Bless their dangerous little hearts....
SOURCE
http://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/heart-attack-news-357/southeastern-states-have-highest-number-of-preventable-deaths-687436.html
SOURCE
http://consumer.healthday.com/cardiovascular-health-information-20/heart-attack-news-357/southeastern-states-have-highest-number-of-preventable-deaths-687436.html
Let this Quiz Assess Your Dialect
Dec. 26th, 2013 10:01 amThis is very interesting for anyone interested in regional accents. Answer ten or so questions about your words for things, and it will tell you where it thinks you come from. It had a hard time localizing me though I attempted to use my childhood words for things, but some people it totally pegs. My language is most different from the Great Lakes area, which makes sense because I've never been there.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?
Sexism on the River
Sep. 4th, 2012 11:45 amI am a river runner. From way back. My father got me started, in canoes first. When I was very small he would put me in the bow of the canoe, tell me to paddle, and surf the canoe in river waves. We used to camp by creeks up on the plateau, and he'd let us take the insulite pads that we slept on and go hiking up the stream to float back down on the thin beige mats. I got my first kayak when I was 11. It was a cut-down Mark 4. I was already too big for it, or at least, it was uncomfortable and I always got fiberglass in my arms and legs when I used it. I only used it a few times, once when I got hypothermic on the Nantahala and had to be plowed to shore by my dad's canoe, and once when I got tangled in vines on the Green and completely panicked. I didn't paddle for several years recovering from these experiences.
( ruminations provoked by another woman's story of becoming a guide )
( ruminations provoked by another woman's story of becoming a guide )
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Obesity Trends per CDC
Feb. 6th, 2012 11:54 amhttp://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/trends.html
You can check out the progress of America's increasing BMI by state, since 1985, on this govt page. The South leads the charge.
Colorado is the Rocky Mountain holdout but they are sliding too.
You can check out the progress of America's increasing BMI by state, since 1985, on this govt page. The South leads the charge.
Colorado is the Rocky Mountain holdout but they are sliding too.
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/video/kayakers_plunge_90_feet_over_waterfall/#62943
Notice how the first guy takes a stroke about halfway down the falls. And the rest all toss their paddles before hitting the bottom. Notice also how big the grins are. Nothing like putting your life on the line to make you realize how happy you are to be alive. Gotta have a good hand roll to consider this an option. And huevos.
Notice how the first guy takes a stroke about halfway down the falls. And the rest all toss their paddles before hitting the bottom. Notice also how big the grins are. Nothing like putting your life on the line to make you realize how happy you are to be alive. Gotta have a good hand roll to consider this an option. And huevos.
This video is a composite of answers to this question by candidates for the Miss USA Crown. The vast majority don't believe in evolution, but most seem to think that both evolution and creationism should be taught in school. The California girl that got the crown is a science nerd! Yeay!! Miss Kentucky (~5:30ish) represents the south painfully well.
QotD: the all-volunteer military
May. 3rd, 2011 08:59 amThe all-volunteer military has enabled America to fight two wars while many of its citizens do not know of a single fatality or even of anyone who has fought overseas. Had there been a draft, the war in Iraq might never have been fought. George W. Bush didn't need your body or, in the short run, your money. Southerners would fight, and foreigners would buy the bonds. The U.S. has become like Rome or the British Empire, able to fight nonessential wars with a professional military. Ultimately, this will drain us financially, and spiritually as well.
--Richard Cohen, in the Washington Post
--Richard Cohen, in the Washington Post
Chattooga Old School
Jan. 17th, 2011 12:47 pmThis video is of people from a Georgia paddling club running a whitewater river in the classic craft of the 1970's and 80's. That is when I began running rivers, in the same region. The equipment has changed substantially. The river is still the same. The video is mostly filmed on the Chattooga, where I spent years paddle raft guiding and safety boating (kayak).
The Chattooga river still shows up in my dreams. Section IV of the Chattooga is where I became conscious, woke up, began to see past the tip of my own nose and into the people and world around me. There's some nostalgia and a certain electricity for me in seeing these old boats on familiar waters with such southern-sounding rock playing in the background. This video is inside my head already.
Contrast this with the trailer for a more current whitewater video here and you'll know why I backed down from the cutting edge. No need to go anywhere near THAT edge. I'm too old and too female for that.
The Chattooga river still shows up in my dreams. Section IV of the Chattooga is where I became conscious, woke up, began to see past the tip of my own nose and into the people and world around me. There's some nostalgia and a certain electricity for me in seeing these old boats on familiar waters with such southern-sounding rock playing in the background. This video is inside my head already.
Contrast this with the trailer for a more current whitewater video here and you'll know why I backed down from the cutting edge. No need to go anywhere near THAT edge. I'm too old and too female for that.
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She probably had even less fun than the guides who took her down the Colorado on a motor rig.
FYI: "Left Brain" is her husband.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE EAST TENNESSEE WHITE WATER CLUB
Compiled by Paul Dutky in 1988
( This is not so brief, really, but a very interesting tale of the early days of whitewater river running based in the town of my birth. The tale is deeply interwoven with my family and personal experience, including a mention Potter's falls. )
Compiled by Paul Dutky in 1988
( This is not so brief, really, but a very interesting tale of the early days of whitewater river running based in the town of my birth. The tale is deeply interwoven with my family and personal experience, including a mention Potter's falls. )
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Herbs: Phytolacca (Poke Root)
Jan. 23rd, 2009 12:59 pm
FAMILY: Phytolaccacaea (phyton = plant, lacca = crimson lake)
--two species common in N. America: americana (stronger dt mitogen & antiviral) and decandra
COMMON NAME: Poke root
GENERAL: perennial growing 5-8 feet tall, alternate oblong leaves, flowers in racemes, roots white and succulent with distinctive cross section, common invasive weed in central and SE US, I grew up with this one, always knew the berries are poisonous but we used them to paint our faces as children-->be savages. The constitution of the US was written with poke berry ink on hemp paper.
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