Inspired by our own dear puddy, who did us all the great humanitarian service of the recent post on the wonders of vodka, and no less inspired by “Bourbon night in the Tree”, as I recall my fond memories of Friday night, I have endeavered to expand upon this theme, excellent as it is, and bring you the lore, legend, and all around cure for what ails you of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey. As of 2007, renowned world experts who absolutely must be right, Jack was declared the world’s best selling whiskey, a record due in some significant way to my family. It is produced in Lynchburg, Tennessee, in a dry county (why DO they have those?) where you can tour the distillery, but not purchase their product. Muslims all over the world may bow toward Mecca in prayer, but here in the south, we point our nose toward Lynchburg. Here are some assiduously researched facts, uses, and lore of the wonders of Jack Daniel’s. (more…)

From M.I.C. Gadget  we have the true liberal version of an action hero. That would be to let someone else who is highly skilled take the risk and do the work, then take the credit for it. Wait ’til you see this guys, you just ain’t gonna believe it.

From The New York Times : For the headmaster of an intensely competitive school, Randolph, who is 49, is surprisingly skeptical about many of the basic elements of a contemporary high-stakes American education. He did away with Advanced Placement classes in the high school soon after he arrived at Riverdale; he encourages his teachers to limit the homework they assign; and he says that the standardized tests that Riverdale and other private schools require for admission to kindergarten and to middle school are “a patently unfair system” because they evaluate students almost entirely by I.Q. “This push on tests,” he told me, “is missing out on some serious parts of what it means to be a successful human.”
The most critical missing piece, Randolph explained as we sat in his office last fall, is character — those essential traits of mind and habit that were drilled into him at boarding school in England and that also have deep roots in American history. “Whether it’s the pioneer in the Conestoga wagon or someone coming here in the 1920s from southern Italy, there was this idea in America that if you worked hard and you showed real grit, that you could be successful,” he said. “Strangely, we’ve now forgotten that. People who have an easy time of things, who get 800s on their SAT’s, I worry that those people get feedback that everything they’re doing is great. And I think as a result, we are actually setting them up for long-term failure. When that person suddenly has to face up to a difficult moment, then I think they’re screwed, to be honest. I don’t think they’ve grown the capacities to be able to handle that.” (more…)

On April 27, the area I live in was devastated by a tornado. Lives were lost, homes and businesses destroyed, jobs lost. People lived in shelters for weeks. Churches, businesses, individuals came together in a great outpouring of effort to assist those in need. Slowly, very slowly, my little town is taking shape again, a few businesses are re-opening, and some of the jobs are coming back. Still, there are hundreds of houses with blue tarps on the roof. Cherokee Valley, the hardest hit area, has a huge field where downed trees are taken and turned into a mountain of mulch. There are billboards in surrounding towns inviting people to shop in downtown Ringgold. For our newest Treepers, some of the details of the devastation are here.
Today I found this quote in an article about the Waffle House re-opening.
“I saw on the Waffle House Facebook page where they were going to finally reopen,” said LaRoche, “so I contacted them and told them ‘for Karma reasons’ I wanted to come and pay my bill from that night. My wife had just looked at the bill when the tornado came and she remembered the total was for $9.62.” (more…)

Listed as Victim 0001 on his body bag, Father Mychal Judge became one of the most recognized images of the victims lost to us on September 11,2001. Robert Emmet (Mychal) Judge was the son of Irish immigrants. He grew up in Brooklyn during the Great Depression, learning a love for the poor he was to carry with him throughout his life. He took the name Mychal upon entering the Order of Friars Minor in 1961. In 1992, he became Chaplain of the Fire Department of New York. He worked long hours serving the firemen and their families, developing a love of his work and those he served, and they in turn made the priest a part of their world. He became a man known for ministering to society’s castoffs – the homeless, alcoholics and drug addicts, hungry, and those alienated by the Church. (more…)

We have all heard that heroes come in all shapes and sizes; sometimes the most unassuming person rises to the occasion and meets the challenge. And sometimes it is a very special type of animal, a rescue dog. In the aftermath of 9/11 bombings, the world’s largest deployment of rescue dogs were used to search for survivors, working tirelessly with their handlers, searching  the ruins, and according to witnesses, giving great comfort to the workers. Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas will publish a book called Retrieved, featuring the surviving dogs in their final years. Read more and check out the pictures of these wonderful dogs here in this Daily Mail article. (more…)

In honor of our many wonderful Texans who frequent, and greatly enliven this site, we are choosing the great state of Texas as the next in our American Puzzle Pieces series. To refresh your memory, we started this series because we who live scattered across America have come together here, united by beliefs and values we share, by concerns for the future and direction of our country. We enjoy each other, learn a little, share some humor and a beer or two from a Texas sized cooler, manned by our own WeeWeed. To date, I have written articles on a couple of states I have called home, and Pat gave a great feature on Michigan. Sadly, tragically, I have never visited Texas. However, with all the attention given the Lonestar State after Rick Perry’s hat toss, we have wanted to show our appreciation for our Texans, so I have decided to make them work. Being Texans, I just don’t think they will care. (more…)

From the New York Times: A scuffle broke out at an amusement park in Westchester County on Tuesday when a group of Muslims there to celebrate the end of Ramadan were told that women could not wear their head coverings on certain rides, park officials and witnesses said. Fifteen people were arrested.
The Muslim American Society of New York had arranged the trip to Playland Park in Rye, which was expected to bring some 3,000 people to the site from New York City, as well as surrounding suburbs like Yonkers and parts of Long Island.
About 2:30 p.m., the day took a sour turn when some of the female Muslim visitors, most of whom arrived in head scarves, were told they could not get on certain rides — including the Catch-a-Wave ride, the Crazy Mouse roller coaster and the Dragon Coaster — because their heads were covered by the Muslim hijab. (more…)

This AP article from the ABC News site caught my attention this morning. It seems every day we hear of more bombings, more atrocities committed by terrorists. I am impressed that they even use the term ” a radical Muslim sect”. 
A car loaded with explosives crashed into the main United Nations’ building in Nigeria’s capital and exploded Friday, killing at least 18 people in one of the deadliest assaults on the international body in a decade. A radical Muslim sect blamed for a series of attacks in the country claimed responsibility for the bombing, a major escalation of their sectarian fight against Nigeria’s weak central government.
The brazen assault in a neighborhood surrounded by heavily fortified diplomatic posts represented the first suicide attack to target foreigners in oil-rich Nigeria, where locals already live in fear of the radical Boko Haram sect. The group, which has reported links to al-Qaida, wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation and is vehemently opposed to Western education and culture. (more…)

We try to keep her bowl full of kibble. She has her very own elevator to take her up to her penthouse in the very tree top. All for very, very good reasons. Always be nice to the pretty puddy.