ness

Man, that's some good stuff right there. The remotes crack me up sometimes. We had something happen at a school in town a while back. The reporter was standing in front of a school, but it wasn't THAT school. She said something like 'It happened at a school like this one.' Must not have had time to drive to the real one. Or, didn't want to take the chance. Then there's the old standby -- find a police car, police station or some crime scene tape to stand in front of when one of those crime things happens. I'd bet they keep a roll of crime scene tape in the car just in case. A while back they were all begging you to post on their cool new Facebook page. Now at least one of our stations has a Twitter feed crawling across the bottom of the screen. And the polls....

Real Housewives of Flippen?

Sorry to leave you guys hanging. I got dragged into this latest Hoffa thing. I wish I had a nickel for every dying mafioso who got his last kicks out of sending the g-men out to another field or barn with a hope of finding that dude. I can't get into details, but I will say he's still around -- never was whacked. I still see him every Wednesday at the club, where we play Gin Rummy. He can still sock away the Old Fashioneds like nobody's business. The Gandolfini funeral would be a decent place to be if you wanted to talk to Jimmy, who now goes by Tito. Anyhoo -- Chip and George pulled me aside and said they wanted to run an idea past me. George's father had just passed away, and George had inherited a warehouse full of 30 tons of silicone gel, the result of his dad's failed attempt to corner the breast augmentation market. Senior had left a mountain of debt, and creditors were chomping at the bit for anything they could convert into cash. Chip's dad, Chuckie, had been swindled out of the Orvis fortune buying a nonexistent wicker creel factory in the Philippines. Both were in desperate financial shape. The two had been marketing majors at Chicago University, and had been befriended by a biology professor by the name of Roger Q. Mayfly. The summer after their sophomore year was a haze of alcohol, pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms, with 'Proff' supplying the goods for the week-long camping 'trips'. Late one night, Mayfly mentioned an idea for a book based on his childhood in New Jersey -- growing up with an alcoholic, absentee, bus-driver dad and a heroin-addicted prostitute mother. Anxious to use his newly acquired marketing skills, and fueled by a righteous buzz, Chip suggested changing the premise of the story to something more -- well -- something more likely to move some silicone and old outdated fly fishing equipment. They called me to ask my opinion, and I told them of a novella I was ghost writing for my friend Norman McClean at the university. Thus a River Runs Through It was born. Sorry, I'm gonna have to finish this later.

Nerver? I do believe the self-proclaimed 'Chief' is rattled. As for the pre-Chief topic at hand: Al -- I've got to agree with you. There's an awful lot of stuff to be concerned about, but the slang name "Czar" sure isn't one of them. I'd bet the founding fathers would get a chuckle out of the concern over that. And, yeah, 501( c)4's need to be scrutinized, as do 501( c)3's and all the rest. If you want to be tax exempt, you gotta play by the rules and expect to have a little higher hurdle than the rest. From what I'm seeing, there was a reasonable suspicion that the Tea Party groups might be trying to skirt the rules. But, add to that good old human nature, and it could go awry pretty easily. As with so much of this, it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. It's gonna be a while before the dust settles and the closest thing we'll ever get to the truth is revealed. I'm pretty patient though.

Yep -- but keep working on it. We can tell you're trying. "E" for effort, and all that. Your C&R post started out pretty good too, then you slipped. This won't happen overnight! Just give it your best shot!

Well, lookey who's out to derail this by getting personal. You just can't help yourself, can you?

I'd snip off those yellow leaves and discard them. I also always prune off the lower stems so no leaves are close to the ground to prevent splash up and soil-borne disease. And try to water below the foliage -- not over the leaves. I use a wand and tuck it up under everything when I water. I've been using a copper fungicide, but it's gooey, clogs my sprayer and is a pain to clean up. I'm gonna go with something else -- I've heard Ortho Max broad spectrum fungicide is good.

Everything is coming along great this year with this cool spring. We've had so much rain that I'm afraid of fungus getting a foothold, so I need to get ahead of that. Maters have set a lot of fruit -- should have some in a couple weeks; already have a couple banana peppers to pick in a day or two. Beans took a while to flower, but they've finally done it. Two things that always seem to be a challenge for me -- snap peas and spinach -- were ok, but they are about done. Built some lightweight wooden frames with bird netting to protect the black raspberries. Within 20 minutes my dog had run through it Got that fixed up, and gave him a little gift today -- a fresh battery for his Invisible Fence collar. Problem solved. Strawberries are throwing off fruit at a decent pace. I've been doing those in pots, and never seem to have enough. I started some more Alpine strawberries this year. Not much yield on those, but they're as sweet and strongly-flavored as candy -- they never make it into the house. Two red varieties and a yellow one. My uncles were out yesterday and one of them said one one of my Celebrity tomatoes didn't look right -- maybe it was mislabeled at the nursery. I told him that was impossible -- I started them all from seed. Then I took a closer look and -- it's not a Celebrity. It's got to be a Sungold (cherry), which I've already got two of, which was probably one too many as it was. Oh well.

Naw -- it was the 'heart's desire' thing. Haven't been to Vogel's in more than 10 years. It was fine back then.

Oh, OK -- it just sounded kinda...never mind.

Hah -- nice spin there. At least now you are acknowledging your other posts weren't accurate. Fact is, you were sweating bullets over that issue, and agreed to stay off the stream to keep it from going to court. Couple more rounds and what -- you told the sheriff to shove it and Prater went to jail? But hey -- I've got better things to do than to continue to refute your attempt to rewrite history. If you can figure out a way to check that ego of yours and just treat folks right, you'll have less trouble here and on the stream. I think you've got it in you. Hope you had a great day with your baby girl.

I hear you on that. My family calling in and an occasional outbound call to Domino's.

As far as getting the story straight -- I did, you had trouble with the law. And a landowner. It's documented pretty well here. If you conduct yourself in person like you do here, I'm sure it's nothing new for you. Even though, I called the sheriff and put in a plug for you, and all fishermen, as did a few others here. You're welcome. And why on earth would you criticize me if you admittedly don't post reports? If you were paying any attention, you'd see I just recently posted a report on a trip I made to Iowa. I guess it didn't look like something you'd be interested in, being about fishing and all. Regardless, this forum is about a whole lot more than reports and posting pics of the kids. A quick look of the last 10 or 20 posts from each of us would help you understand who contributes what around here. You could probably add some value to this forum if you could keep your ego in check, quit ham-handedly trying to turn every discussion into a political fight, and just be civil to people. And it's fine if you want to post a report about your expedition today, but don't make out like you're doing us all a favor. Geez.

...and this is the kinda unnecessarily confrontational reply we can expect from you. Don't need to go too much further than the thread you blew up earlier today to see that. Honestly, the last trip report of yours I remember was when you got in trouble with the law. You've sure got me beat on the pics. Wait...

Geez Cheef -- take your meds. Here's something to tide you over until they take effect.

You betcha!

Nice! In my limited experience there, the higher up you go the better your chances at a brookie. Browns and rainbows lower down.

Best quote I've heard related to this: “If you’re doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide from the giant surveillance apparatus the government’s been hiding.” – Stephen Colbert

He's talking eats Wayne

Yep.

Why am I here?

Sand Springs, just outside the park gates, is pretty good motel lodging with a decent restaurant on the premises.

Nice -- thanks for sharing that.

Good stuff Al! I'm curious what you use to bend the wire -- pliers or some kind of tool? You draw pretty good too