Bullet Points:
** High-speed maneuvers in a submarine are called ‘angles and dangles’ for a reason.
** Is eating tacos cheating on your diet, or is dieting cheating on your taco eating?
** Liberals care about Palestine and abortion. Ben throws a cracker in the soup.
** (right) EdB the younger years planning for boating excellence to come. These things don’t happen overnight.
** The U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) is investigating the wealth of the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – that’s Xi Jinping- and the other six members of the Politburo Standing Committee, along with the full 25-member Politburo. The FY 2026 Intelligence Authorization Act (Section 513) requires the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to draft the report – and to look at assets, financial holdings, real estate, and business interests – to include those held outside China. The report will also include the ‘cut-outs’ and ‘fronts’ that enable and obscure Xi’s and top officials’ ownership. The final report is due out later this year.
** My children and grandchildren observed that I’m getting older. No kidding. Thanks, kids. I didn’t realize that I was aging until you brought it up.
** In England. More – in England, as they celebrate their soccer victory over Mexico.
** WSF (h/t) is talking jadite. Jeffrey, Alberta, Canada, is “in Canada” for the time being. It forms exclusively in subduction zones, where an oceanic tectonic plate is forced beneath a lighter continental plate. This environment creates immense pressure but maintains relatively low temperatures. Nephrite, which is also called “jade,” is a completely different material. Nephrite forms through the chemical transformation of pre-existing rocks, such as serpentinite, dolomite, or ultramafic rocks. Metamorphic, calcium-rich fluids are driven through faults and fractures in the bedrock by deep geothermal heat. The fluid chemically reacts with surrounding minerals (like tremolite and actinolite), triggering recrystallization. Instead of distinct grains, nephrite grows into a highly interwoven, felted mesh of microscopic fibers. This unique structure makes nephrite incredibly tough and exceptionally resistant to breaking. Imperial jade is a graded variety of translucent emerald green jadite, and pieces can be worth millions of dollars.
** Father’s Day retrospective.
Curator’s Corner
(h/t Claudio)
Identify the Small Combatant
1
2
Hint: Photo taken at La Spezia in the summer of 1937
3
4
End
Identify the Small Combatant
1. British Fairmile B motor launch
2. Italian MAS 501 motor torpedo boat
3. British Motor Torpedo Boat MTB 376
4. Italian Baglietto subchaser
Excellent! That’s Mussolini sitting on the bow of #4.
Eating tacos is part of my diet.
IDSB-
1. ML 124
2. Italian torpedo boat MAS 501
3. British Royal Navy Motor Torpedo Boat (MTB 376)
4. Italian MAS 440 submarine hunter.
X2.
On the tacos x2. Those motorboats were very difficult…
One of the essential food groups.
As it should be. A little cultural appropriation is good for the soul.
Some might consider tacos to be American by divine right of conquest (and the Gadsden Purchase).
Tacos
Hard to eat with no front teeth. Soft tacos just aren’t the same.
Identify the Small Combatant:
1. Fairmile B motor launch HMS ML 124
2. MAS 501
3. US BPT-21 Class Motor Torpedo Boat HMS MTB-376
4. TBD Need coffee
Very good, Surly.
Taco’s/Diet: What’s a diet? 🤔
***
Older: “It’s not the age but the mileage” (h/t Indiana Jones).
From day one once arriving into this world we are getting older, which for some reason only the Lord Almighty knows and has prescribed, seems to speed up after 60 as if time and space get compressed, like the world is finished with us and needs to hasten our exit. NotSoFast…got things to do yet, like the other night; caught a nice cutthroat with the sun setting over the mountains. Perfection in the moment, more of which I intend to partake…God willing.
Fly fishing in my part of Arizona isn’t a fun as where you are.
Better to lucky than good, or something like that…but yes, fortunate to have landed here along the river. As Norm said to Bob Vila, “All it takes is money, Bob.”
At least…so far…we won’t be living in a yurt, which was starting to look like a distinct possibility.
I like the word decrepitude: the state of being worn out from long, hard use
Good word! Dad would agree…he’d say to me, “Keep that up and by 60 you’ll be walking around like an old football player.” Dad was spot on as usual.
Ageing. Ive linked this video here before. A bit on ageing at the 35:35 mark–
—
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo_irQ9bjzU
—
When my own daughter was about age four, she and my wife had just returned home, Hearing their arrival, I came down the hall to meet them. The hall ran east to west, and emptied into our living room. The front entry was to my right. It was afternoon, so the western sun was on the living room windows, lighting up the room, me, and specifically the sprinkling of grey hair I was beginning to accumulate. Daughter and I met at the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks, looked up as if seeing me for the first time, and said, “Dad, you look really old!”.
Getting old—Turned 81 in March. Wife and I have been going to over sixty staying fit classes three times a week. i had been walking a mile with a cane. I’ve had drop foot for 15 years. I could hardly walk after my birthday more than a hundred yards before I would have to sit. My foot and shin felt totally dead. Back in October after downsizing, I made a pact with God and myself that I would ride my bicycle a thousand miles in a calendar year because I can still ride a bike. I feel the pedal pressure. I hit the thousand mile mark two days ago. The mind and the ability to push through life’s problems keep me going. Gotta set another goal! I really miss hiking.
❤️
👍
It’s Tuesday, so it’s Taco day! My cheat day… :-)
Curator’s Corner: Thanks.
jadite. Some serious scholars believe Asians were sourcing British Columbia jadite as early as 1,000 years ago. A well provisioned vessel, using the Japanese current, would have easily reached the Pacific Coast. Getting back? Not much to be found in my limited research.