"Whom is a word that was invented to make everyone sound like a butler." - Calvin Trillin

But about that guy in the whitey tighties...

I heard an author on NPR doing the obligatory book tour bit. She's just published, A World Without "Whom" - The essential guide to language in the BuzzFeed age. Some of what she said is just nonsense, like getting rid of all pronouns that identify gender. But she says we should purge whom from our vocabulary because a) nobody knows the rule for when it should be used, and b) it's unnecessary, because if you get it wrong nobody can call you on it. I like it.

Subaru has decided to enter the SUV/Crossover market with the Ascent because, hey, we need another SUV to choose from. Once Bentley decided to build one Subaru had no choice but to enter the fray. The Ascent was revealed this week at the LA car show. It's a big vehicle with a third row giving it seating for eight people.
It also has 19 cup holders! That works out to almost 2.5 cupholders per person.
Is this not a wonderful world?

As long as we're going automotive for a bit, there's this. A guy with a company called FirePunk Diesel tries to build the most powerful diesel engines they can imagine and then race them at the track. The video shows what happens when ambition meets the laws of physics. My favorite part is the last second when you can see the crank still spinning.

We're supposed to get a string of sunny (if not warm) days next week so I figured it's a good time to get AJ from the weaning pen to the freezer. I ordered a knife sharpener on Amazon because a dull blade makes especially the skinning part of that operation tedious. I paid a couple of bucks extra so it would arrive by Tuesday so I could take advantage of what may be the last rain-free days until June. I didn't get the expected "It's shipped" email so I went to Amazon.com to see the status. My Orders page says one or more of my orders (I've only got this one that's active) needs additional action on my part. "Please identify the item below and take the necessary action." Except there's nothing to do. It lists my sharpener but doesn't show anything, including something for me to do. Or that it's shipped.

Once AJ has met his end I'll move the remaining two kids from the weaning pen down to the main pen. I'll butcher Burrito, who's been a little slower to put on weight, in about a month, but moving them down together will help Dolly adjust to life with Sundae and Stella, the two big mommas. By the time I butcher Burrito the two adults should have accepted Dolly into their herd.

Sundae is ready to be bred again. If I correctly identified her last heat cycle she'll come into heat again in the next few days. Assuming she does we'll take her to Marta's to be put in with one of her bucks three weeks later at the next cycle. Five months after that we should have another set of twins, or maybe triplets.
Stella is a doeling (hasn't had kids yet) and best practices say she shouldn't kid until she's two years old. That's August, so we plan to breed her in late Feb. or early March.

This morning I took Sally down the hill to get gas and chicken feed. Coming out of BiMart I walked past the Salvation Army guy and his kettle and wondered if he gets fewer donations because nobody carries change anymore. The age of debit cards means that many of us, me included, rarely even have cash on them, never mind coins.
And that got me thinking about coin purses, and wondering if people under the age of 20 even know what they were.

Remember the plastic squeeze coin holders that usually had business advertising on them and were free promotional give-aways?

I had a hand-me-down leather coin purse that opened up like a flower. It was dark red, perfectly worn, and looked aged without being ratty. Patina. Turns out you can still buy them in a variety of colors...for $12.

If I had either variety now I might start carrying change just so I could pull it out of my pocket and watch eyebrows go up.
Kids would be fascinated!

The 20-something chain smoking gal who pumped my gas (Oregon doesn't allow us to do our own fueling; no self-serve) said, "Do you want a receipt, sweetie?"
I'm thinking of filing a harassment complaint.