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Well, this was about as far as I explored in N.H. Like says their motto, "LIVE, FREEZE AND DIE". This was taken from the hotel window with the outside securely on the outside and me bumping the thermo into the numbers beginning with 80. Pretty friendly peeps and I really do understand the large number of men in beards.

Never got the pic of this I wanted. Pepe was all stretched out, legs splayed, and at some points, the front legs sticking straight up like Superman (Maxmanus Kentus) taking off in flight. Funniest darn thing. This is still cute.

From the 3 March issue of The Economist come the following excerpts from a special report on the American South. Remember, they're British:

Those who wince at Southern piety can always move north. Peter Applebome quotes a liberal Yankee in Georiga:" It seems crazy listening to myself say this, but sometimes I think that a lot of the characteristics that come from some of this fundamentalist religious stuff that I hate also cause it to be so pleasant here."

In any case, with American politics so evenly divided, fears of the "Dixification of America"- that southerners will impose their God-fearing, low tax ways on everyone else- are overblown. And the new Republican South will never be as politically monolithic as as the old Democratic South, says Mr. Black, because the Republicans let their opponents vote.

On the other hand, what other region with such a turbulent history is now so pleasant to live in? The most convincing retort to Dixie's critics is also America's. Just as those who doubt the vitality of the American Dream need only look at the queues for green cards, so those who scoff at Dixie should watch America's internal migration. In 2004-2005 some 1.3m people moved to the South from other parts of America. Many more trekked up, uncounted, from Mexico. And all those who come, come voluntarily.

As it was once kinda sung, kinda spoken, that's the duality of the Southern Thang. -- R'Ed

Tid Bits:

"This is a place where people come, and they're either running away from something or running after something. It's not where a stable honest person comes." [Yeehaw, and I LIVE here! - Ramblin' Ed]

-- Carl Hiaasen, Florida author, addressing the recent spate of bizarre stories from the Sunshine State, including a Tampa principal accused of buying cocaine in his office.

Fire Ants Are The Masters Of All Karma:

There is a big problem plauging the monks of Hong Hock See temple in northern Malaysia. A big problem. Seems it is infested with fire ants.But as a bunch of Buddhist monks, they can't just go to Home Depot and get something to spray all over them. No, there is to be no killing.They tried to use a vacuum cleaner to suck them up and release them in the forest. If you have an ant problem, don't bother with the vacuum idea. And it's not like you can reason with fire ants.

Yeah, I know. This was like one of them crappy forwarded e-mails with an animated teddy bear giving you hugs and imploring you to forward him on to 10 of your friends who could use the lift today. Well... my friends don't need lifts, they ARE lifts. Um, shoot. That makes no sense. Oh... they RIDE lifts. Yeah, that's the ticket.

No! YOU'RE revoked!, out

Ramblin' Ed