ColdWaterFshr

James Taylor put on a great show . . . clearly enjoying himself and having fun. Loved the sneak intro. And he finished strong. Show clocked in a 2 1/2 hours with a 20 minute intermission. Impressive.

Starting with your first statement, ....which is F''d, ....you need remedial history lessons, Wrench. The good??? Well for starters, we probably wouldn't exist as a country if France hadn't come to our aid in the revolutionary war. And Britain and France certainly wouldn't exist if we hadn't come to their aid in WWI and WWII. Never mind Japanese imperialism, Russia's designs on Europe post-WWII . . . . You're joking, right? Your second statement . . . "allowed themselves to be forced into going". I don't know what you're saying here, a certain bone-spur-boy found an exit, but many others didn't. For those who served, how can you not be grateful and in reverence for their sacrifice? -- whether KIA, POW (not "suckers and losers" as BSB described them). Sure, Vietnam was a disaster. Our intentions were good, our intelligence was flawed, and our politics made a bad situation even worse. Certainly not the first mistake in our country's checkered history. As for your 3rd statement about your "personal standards aside," this is so myopic and narrow, . ... .a struggle as where to begin to explain . . . short answer, we don't live in a bubble, and never will. And we cannot pretend that history, treaties, alliances and agreements don't exist . . . . (read that as NATO) . . . . . and there are conflicts, important conflicts, that without some of our involvement would change and threaten our way of life inside our borders, and our long time allies, in a very bad way.

Nice picture. Just curious. Was there an opening band? We're trying to figure out what time to get there tonight.

He is a nice feller. And a helluva fisherman.

Notable concerts for me: Elvis Presley - Hammons Student Center '77 Glen Campbell - sometime around then The Muppets on Ice - sometime around then 80's - complete blank . . . . . Linda Ronstadt / Aaron Neville / Bob Dylan - Ozark Amphitheater, 1990 Squeeze - St. Louis - 1991 Stone Temple Pilots / behind Surfers / Flaming Lips - Riverport 1993 Elvis Costello and the Attractions - World Theater, Chicago 1994 Buckwheat Zydeco - KC - 1995-96? Lyle Lovett solo and with John Hiatt Elvis Costello and the Imposters - multiple times Rolling Stones - Faurot Field, 1995'ish. Cool, but underwhelming Nick Lowe - multiple times Hootie and Blowfish with John Hiatt opener - KC amphitheater, 1996'ish Robert Cray and the Memphis Horns- Liberty Memorial Kansas City, 1997'ish Tony Bennett - 3 times, KC, STL and San Francisco Tedeschi Trucks - twice, always good Bruce Springsteen - Milwaukee last year Tom Waits - twice, Glitter and Doom tour; Chicago and St. Louis Leon Bridges - 2016 Pageant- maybe the best concert I've ever seen and 2023 at STL Music park Jimmy Buffet - 2017 Wilco - multiple times, Pageant was the best Dave Matthews Band - a couple years ago, left early, weather channel music that bores me Jeff Tweedy - Sheldon last year, amazing Wood Bros - twice. Solid and entertaining Nathaniel Rateliff and the Nightsweats - twice, fantastic Black Crowes, Black Keys, Brandi Carlile - last year, all 3 were awesome Sierra Ferrell and Cat Clyde - this year, awesome Andrew Bird, Lord Huron, Pokey LaFarge, Rayland Baxter, Shovels and Rope, Shakey Graves, Graham Parker, John Hiatt solo a few weeks ago I'm forgetting a bunch more.

How was it? Seeing JT tomorrow night at Hollywood Amphi-pit. Last time I saw him was at Telluride Bluegrass Festival in 90 or 91

Kristi Noems would shoot you. Harry Butker would applaud your masculinity. 🤣🤣

I just watched it, too. Nice work! Some very cool footage. Especially like the sunset scene at 16:48 and all the underwater shots as well.

What a difference from yesterday to today. One side of the backyard, almost none. The other side, directly under several tall silver maples -- many thousands of them. Fence was covered. Dog was trying to eat them.

Big time hatch has started just within the last 24 hours here in Ballwin. Not noisy yet.

Looking forward to watching this.

Sorry to hear this news, Gavin. He seemed like a nice guy the few times we chatted, and apparently a helluva fisherman. His spore fly was quite novel creation, and worked really well.

Sierra Ferrell

I'm getting TackleMax ads constantly. Not even as pop-ups. They're embedded in the content. 🤣🤣

Hoffman. Just about everything he bought up, he's now trying to sell or has already sold. https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/hoffmanns-selling-spree-in-augusta-comes-as-the-company-refocuses-on-wine/article_74735a32-7db9-11ee-88d7-d32da8713ddc.html

Thanks, Marjorie. You know, . . . it could very well be another a jewish space laser that took the bridge out.🤣🤣 Anyway, I have given up on the ink cartridge sales biz and taken up Bible sales here in holy week with Lee Greenwood and that other guy who's name must not be mentioned. Some good money in it. Bundle a crappy song with everyone's favorite book, and a swindling presidential candidate set for a porn-star-hush money trial in a couple weeks. Ironically, April 15th is a weekday in Manhattan. Thanks for the reminder Marjorie, I mean, Mitch. We could all use a little cash, redemption, and yes, Manhattans! Cheers! 🤣🤣🤣

The largest container ship in the world, in 1972, when the Francis Scott Key bridge was built . . . was only 1/3rd the size of this ship that hit it today. Take a look at those 50 year old pilings compared to the size of that ship. Like a floating brick adrift against some matchsticks.

Huh? Are you saying the structure wasn't fastened to the piers? Just sitting on top by its own weight? Is this deduced by your own forensic arm-chair videographer examination from grainy late night footage shot 2 miles away, . . . . or by looking at the actual plans of the bridge construction?

A ship that carries +9,000 40' containers and has complete loss of power, is quite a bit of mass plunging into a piling/pier. Not surprised that it could do that damage to the bridge and cause the superstructure to come unpinned. A ship this size is quite a bit larger than a Mississippi river barge. As these mega container ships keep getting bigger and bigger, and this one is mid-sized, maybe its time safety protocols caught up. Like what happened in the Suez canal, the one that went aground due to high winds and set off an economic crisis due to the bottleneck of blocked traffic in a major shipping lane. Yes - tugboat guidance and higher regulation particularly through tricky passages and where loss of life could've been much greater. Also redundant/auxiliary power supplies, inspections and accountability. Ship like that shouldn't lose power or control in those locations, ever. The people who whine and complain about government regulation are the same ones who look for conspiracy crap when stuff like this happens.

Not trying to be argumentative. It just seems that his mastery is more of the technology, and not so much the skillset that I think of in a masterful fisherman. He very well could be both. But certainly having an unlimited budget to have the newest gear, as you mentioned, has helped him greatly. Maybe this is an extension of him missing his former life as a surgeon, where he undoubtedly had access to the best technology and this helped him (as it should) to the maximum benefit of doing his job at the highest level. I'm sure he worked his toukus off too and on some level he misses the grind. I guess it comes down to what you really want to see in his posed picture. If it is just a # . . . 8.1 lbs, and a 7 lb'er the week before, then great. If we were looking at these pictures alone vs. your story of how he caught them, well it colors it in a different light, doesn't it? Different strokes for different folks. Carry on!

Helluva nice fish and good to see that TR is still holding many giants. Thats about the only positive I see here. Though your buddies face is full of pride, this is like doing a photo shoot on the peak of Mount Everest, when a helicopter dropped you off 50 yards from the summit. I'm enjoying pickleball too. Been playing a couple years now, but not as often as I would like. There are 75 year old ladies wearing knee braces that can mop the floor with me. Great game and a surprisingly good work out.

https://www.bigchiefstl.com Good eats here. Historic place.

Speaking of unforgiving . . . Came across this last night in the parking lot of Big Chief.

Yeah, I hope he's doing alright. Got to night fish with him below the dam a few years back. Pine Squirrel nymph or bugger . . that was his fly if I recall. Nice guy.

Hella game. Even if the FBI or DOJ was involved in the final score. 🤣🤣