Who Says Climate Scientists Are Not Funny?

Check this guy out.

Forgive me dear readers if you have little tolerance for 'inside football' references.

And for those of you who are wondering why I have a picture of Sarah Palin on this blog, shame on you for not paying attention. I'll bet she has an NRA sticker on her car.

Never mind.

Irony For Sale

Here is a website called Minnesotans for Global Warming that has just figured out how to deal with our debt/spending crisis.

A Three-Step Plan:

1.  Freeze spending: Since the major part of the problem is that we spend too much, we should just stop      spending.

2.  Erase phony debt: I am not sure I follow this but two out of three sensible ideas are good enough for me.

3.  Pronounce Global Warming A Fraud: I have long suspected that our dear leaders are afraid to admit the truth because we underlings might gradually or suddenly realize that all their clothing is either transparent or non-existent.

A Good One

You can tell how good it is by noticing the quick response by the Bugler of Montana.

A Little Late Is Better Than Never

My brother from Wisconsin sent me an email with this as an attachment. I think I would have to have the music in front of me in order to do this. How does one memorize music other than the melody?

Buckley Hits 11th inning Walk-Off Homer

Sean Buckley rounds third base after being congratulated by Manager Pat Kelly on his 10th home run of the season. His team-mates are waiting for him at home plate. They still get excited about winning a ball game in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Pitchers all looked good tonight, especially Cingrani and Muhammed. Umpires are still trying, though these two may be a lost cause. that is Marcoe and Huus in case they show up at your ballpark.

Dispatches From Section 119

Visitors from out of town and an apparent sell-out crowd owing to it being a Friday night and the Mustangs having been on the road for awhile caused Matt and me to buy some far left-field line tickets for the Billings Mustangs v Helena Brewers.

Here is the view much of the time. There are probably 50 to a 100 or so persons who can stand up and obstruct your view of the batter. The seats are $5 per ticket but why would someone pay that much for a good view of the home bullpen and an average view of the left fielder for both sides. I think the SRO tickets are only $3, a much better deal.

The batters were fairly quiet except for a 6 run outburst by the Brewers in the 4th and a 7 run explosion by the Mustangs in the 6th featuring 2—that is two!—home runs each with two men on, by O'Shea and Poulk. Pitchers Mugarian and Jensen didn't look so hot tonight.

One nice thing about sitting in these awful seats is that you realize how big the outfield really is, something difficult to appreciate from our usual seats behind home plate.

A Nice Shot of Dehler Park Late in the Afternoon perhaps from the First Interstate Bank Building

Dehler Park, Billings MT, home of the Billings Scarlets, Billings Royals, Billings Mustangs, and the Yellowjackets of Montana State University at Billings. Late in the afternoon, perhaps from a chopper, more likely with a long range lens from the First Interstate Building. Looking toward the Rimrocks. Looks like a pretty good crowd, perhaps a Sunday afternoon.

Great American Baseball Adventure

I saw this vehicle with California plates in the parking lot at Perkins' Restaurant—oh, oh, busted—across from the entrance to Dehler Park. The 2011 number is obviously a moveable feast so I don't know how long they have been at it. If you google this you find a surprising number of individual and group 'baseball adventures' going on every season.

Presumably they come from near Sacramento where the River Cats hang out. See the sticky emblem on their gas cap to the left.

That is the AAA Pacific Coast League franchise for the nearby Oakland Athletics. According to Wikipedia they have led all of minor league baseball in attendance, averaging over 10,000 fans per home game over the past eight years, well over 10K to start and now a little over 9K for the last few years.

They have done well in the standings of the PCL as well. Wiki is pretty good at following the ins and outs of baseball franchises,—mainly because a lot of ordinary folks keep track of these things—though I wouldn't trust them on things like climate change and probably a few other things that academics might lie about.

There were other emblems scattered on this large SUV. It didn't appear to have any special rhyme or reason to it as far as a particular major league franchise, or some geographic or league gathering of places.

Oh wait a minute, now that I think about it and consult the ever-omnicient Mr Google, it may be that at least part of their trip is simply driving up the 25. From Denver, home of the Rockies, it is about a 4 hour drive to Casper, home of the Ghosts, the Rookie A Pioneer League franchise of the Rockies. They used to be the Butte Copper Kings, hardly ever very strong in the standings and certainly not in the vital attendance numbers.

There apparently is some talk about moving the franchise  in time for the 2012 season to Grand Junction CO where the field that has been used for the Junior College World Series has been having a grand rehab to the tune of $8.3 million.

Siam Thai Restaurant for Lunch

Near the corner of King and 32nd St on Henesta in the West End, Dairy Queen around the corner.

We were disappointed yesterday, Monday, when we found them closed. So we went back today, Tuesday and had some good food. Amongst the three Billings Thai restaurants that I have sampled in the last couple of weeks the standouts are this place, Siam Thai Restaurant, and Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, also in the West End. I'm going to have to check them out a little more. I'm fairly new to Thai cuisine. I like the tastes. 

They give the former Mustard Seed—I liked it much better then than now when it is called Noodle Express—and Sweet Ginger some competition. It's been awhile since we've been to the last, so I will need to check them out too in order to come to a conclusion. Rather than grade them I may have to use the pass/fail system and maybe add a plus or two or a minus or two.

We had some Lunch combos with fried rice, the latter very good—I agree with Jessica—and spring rolls and pork with ginger and vegetables. My daughter remembered that coconut milk soup was often very good, so we had some Tom K(h)a Gai. It was very nice, sweet with ginger and chicken.

Worth going back to.

And So Say We All

A Letter by Dewey from Detroit.