Word of the Day: Hubris

We actually came up with this idea because of the ruthless authoritarianism displayed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayypid Erdogan. But, given that we don't want to see his face or hear his voice after the sickening images of riot police cracking down on protesters  at Gezi Park and Taksim Square in Istanbul yesterday, we are going with an image of The Shah of Iran instead.

We also suspect that our blog could possibly be blocked in Turkey as there have been no hits from my late father's country in several days, but on the bright side our sister blog "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" is getting hits from Pakistan.

'Hubris:' (According to Wikipedia) Means extreme pride or arrogance. Hubris often indicates a loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of one's competence or capabilities_ especially when this person is in a position of power.

Today is My 41st Freakin' Birthday

You are assuredly asking why this image of the Bath Covered Bridge in Bath, New Hampshire, is the chosen image for this blog entry.

Well, I've learned over the years that finding a good birthday to post with a blog is nearly impossible as for some reason more birthday cake photographs seem to be copyrighted or blocked that anything else.

As it turns out, covered bridges are not easy to hotlink either mainly due to their sizes. We tried to get images of the Humpback Covered Bridge in Covington, Va., the Meems Bottom Bridge in Mount Jackson, Va. (near Edingburg, Va., where I once lived in the Shenandoah Valley) and the Mud River Covered Bridge in Milton, WVa., before settling with this one.

And, I also chose this image because we found out, just today, that Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" was actually the number one song in America when I was born, not "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" by B.J. Thomas, as I had long assumed.

So, I have Wikipedia to thank for making me realize I had been spreading misinformation over the years.

As it turns out, the theme song from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" ('Raindrops') was the number one song in January of 1970.I guess if I had been born prematurely, then I would have been accurate!