What’s in a Name? For Fibbing Friday, July 18, 2025

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For Fibbing Friday, the theme is What’s in a Name?

The following are all nicknames for celebrities (true answers later) but who or what would you suggest they could be?

1. Nitro: What they call fish eggs after dark.
2. Skinny Legs: Cruel nickname of Jiminy Cricket
3. Iron: How Ronald McDonald introduces himself. 
4. Mailman: An extremely repetitious description of a fella.
5. BoJo: What they call former president Biden now that he’s taken up the violin.
6. Teflon Tony: Anthony Bourdain’s nickname.
7. Iron Lady : The Statue of Liberty. (Actually only wearing an outer garment of copper.)
8. J.Lo: Mr. Leno on a bad day.
9. Smokin’: What mom said at the family reunion when she answered the door for the twentieth time. 
10. Bottler Brown:  James Brown’s moonshiner brother.

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In Memory of Jay Consolati, 1947-2020

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Today I received a message from Jay’s sister inquiring about the location of his ashes. Instead of sending her pictures of the memorial we had to spread his ashes, I decided this would be an easier way for her to share them with the rest of his family and friends.

Sacrificial jarritas from Lake Chapala

As with many Mesoamerican cultures, the people of Chapala worshipped local deities. One was the goddess of the water, Michicihualli (“maiden of the fish”), a feminine spirit believed to control the lake and winds. Ritual baths at dawn in the lake were held in her honor, and older practices even included sacrificial blood offerings thrown into the lake in small jars like the ones pictured above to ensure good fishing and harvests. As the lake started to dry up, thousands of these jars were exposed and people have been collecting them for years. It was Jay’s idea that we ask those of us who had some of these jars in our possession to donate them and to have children write messages to the lake and put them in the jars, seal them with sealing wax, and take them out by boat to deposit them back in the lake.

This was such a beautiful gesture that I suggested we do the same with some of his ashes. We filled jarritas donated by many of his friends with his ashes and cast them out in the lake along with flowers. It was a lovely day as Lety and I and other friends put part of Jay back into the lake that he had loved enough to ensure that her former blessings had been returned to her.

It was today’s request by his sister Anne concerning the location of his ashes, that occasioned this post so long after Jay’s death. As I told her, I also buried some of his ashes under a very special tree in a sculpture garden I have constructed in the lot below my house. Under another tree, I buried a few of the ashes of his friend and housemate John Wester, who died a year or two before Jay did, then sent the rest of Jay’s ashes to his son.

R.I.P. Jay

You can see another tribute plus photos I took of the day on the lake HERE. And HERE is something I wrote for him.

I Hope Trump Supporters are Satisified

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More good news for those who would rather line billionaires’ pockets and spend a billion dollars bombing the entrance to an Iranian nuclear facility than to support schools in the U.S. (Not to mention $25 to $45 million for Trump’s birthday parade and $30 million for his trips to Mar-a-Lago (not counting costs for security.)

THINK, PEOPLE!!!!!!

Supreme Court allowed Trump to slash the Education Dept.

The Supreme Court issued an order this afternoon that cleared the way for the Trump administration to fire thousands of employees from the Department of Education and effectively dismantle the agency.

The decision was a significant victory for President Trump, who has set out to sharply curtail the federal government’s role in the nation’s schools. His administration has announced plans to fire more than 1,300 education workers, which would largely gut a department that manages student loans, tracks student achievement and enforces civil rights laws in schools.

Excerpt From the New York Times,

Author Headshot By Matthew Cullen

FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show

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NY Times: FEMA Didn’t Answer Thousands of Calls From Flood Survivors, Documents Show

Two days after deadly Texas floods, the agency struggled to answer calls from survivors because of call center contracts that weren’t extended.

Listen to this article · 6:26 min Learn more
Kristi Noem, dressed in a black polo and a dark hat with a FEMA logo on it, sits in front of a microphone.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a news conference in Kerrville, Texas, on Saturday. Ms. Noem did not renew a contract to staff call center workers until Thursday.Credit…Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

By Maxine Joselow

Leer en español

Two days after catastrophic floods roared through Central Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.

The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.

The agency laid off the contractors on July 5 after their contracts expired and were not extended, according to the documents and the person briefed on the matter. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, who has instituted a new requirement that she personally approve expenses over $100,000, did not renew the contracts until Thursday, five days after the contracts expired. FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

The Numbers Game #81, Please Play Along, July 14, 2025

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Welcome to “The Numbers Game #81”  Today’s number is 203. To play along, go to your photos file folder and type that number into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. Here are my contributions to the album.

MERA
Warm talk that makes you feel good
Tzintuntzan Pyramid, Michoacan
Tzintzuntzan Pyramid
“Pussycat pussycat, I love you. Yes, I do!”
Open Lens
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Help Solve a Mystery?

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I had 6,343 views so far today-  A good portion of them are from Germany. Can anyone explain to me why? If you are in Germany reading this blog, can you tell me what prompted your reading it?

 

“Missing You” For the Sunday Whirl Wordle #714, July 13, 2025

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Missing You

      The only true space is that one formerly occupied by your laugh, now missing as my world fills in around me–you missing as a piece of it. I send this letter on a mission to find you and bring you back to face the music and explain why you walked out, fists clenched, never to return, firing your former life and loves to leave us all here, disconsolate, our loneliness brewing that weak decoction that lacks you–the most vital element of our world’s infusion.

 

For the Sunday Whirl Wordle #714 the prompt words are: face fire fists walk brewing back only true space piece mission laugh

For the Sunday Stills Red, White and Blue Challenge.

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Sunday Stills  July Color Challenge: Red, White and Blue Challenge.

Luz Marie’s 6th Birthday for Cellpic Sunday, July 13, 2025

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Luz Marie, Birthday Girl
Luz Marie and Dad, Ishmael.

This was a blowout event, so I couldn’t publish just one pic.

For johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday

“Genius” for Three Things Challenge, July 12, 2025

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Genius

Though he marches to the beat of a different drum,
to dump him now would be real dumb!!!!

 

For the Three Things challenge, the three words are: DRUM DUMB DUMP