What Will Dolores Do?

It's like the Perils of Pauline to figure out what Hurricane Dolores will do. At first, it was forecast to come into the Malibu coast. Then, because a ridge was building from the southern U.S. into central Mexico, it looked like Dolores would dodge west so far it couldn't possibly affect California weather. Now, because the ridge is weaker than anticipated, the models suggest a nearly-ideal situation, where from Sunday through Tuesday, winds would strip the weakening offshore hurricane of moisture, generating rain in southern California all the way from the border to Bakersfield, before the remaining cinder of a storm arrived in Malibu Wednesday morning. Hopefully something like this actually happens.

E. Gets A Fortune Cookie

E.: MMMMAAAARRRRCCC! There is a fortune inside this fortune cookie! It says 'Turn your attention within yourself.' What does it mean?

M.: I don't know.

E.: It means look inside yourself. My life, it makes so little sense. Everything is a mess. First, I was enslaved by you and C. and forced to do your laundry. Now, I wander the Earth with little hope.

M.: It could be worse.

E.: (singing) "And I did it 'My Way'!"

New Horizon's Pictures of Pluto And Charon

These are amazing pictures! Just look at the details!

Pluto detail. What is that linear feature?

Charon. What are those features arrayed in a belt?

Cetacean Diva

Show-off Humpback Whale near the Port of Los Angeles:

The humpback, about 30 feet long, went on to expend an enormous amount of energy breaking the surface more 60 times within 45 minutes, thrilling sightseers who were yelling and screaming and taking pictures -- lots and lots of them.

Proof Of Jade Helm

Heading west on the Yolo Causeway to Davis on Saturday afternoon, about a dozen helicopters flew overhead in single file. Is Northern California Jade Helm 'hostile territory'?

The 'Chicken Church' Of Java

Interesting! (Diane hopes to visit Java, and maybe this church, later this year.)

Hidden deep inside the Indonesian jungle lies an enchanted 'church' which looks like a giant chicken.

The long-abandoned structure known locally as Gereja Ayam - or Chicken Church - attracts hundreds of curious travelers and photographers to the hills of Magelang, Central Java, every year.

But according to the its eccentric creator, the majestic building is neither a chicken nor a church.

Daniel Alamsjah was working in Jakarta - 342 miles away - when he suddenly got a divine message from God to build a 'prayer house' in the form of a dove.

Yanking The Hawk's Chain

Pretty exciting in Birdland Monday evening. I went outside to check why a Northern Mockingbird was making such a fuss. It was because there was a hawk in the tree. The hawk lost its cool and started chasing the Mockingbird. I heard a huge fuss from the crows down the alley, who apparently scattered at the sight of the hawk, because by the time I got out to the alley, all the birds had vanished. I dub the Mockingbird Donald Trump, and the hawk El Chapo.

Check Out Our Kittens

Cute!:

At the Doña Ana County Office in Las Cruces, NM, employees are lining up on their lunch breaks to check out the library. There’s only one catch: Instead of brimming with books, it is filled with adoptable cats.

Did Donald Trump Catch El Chapo's Attention?

It's one thing to bluster and hurl insults when no one can challenge you. Trouble is, El Chapo may be the most-dangerous man in all of Mexican history, including all those skull-peeling maniacs in the Gulf cartel. So, best of luck to you, Donald, and be sure Ivanka is under guard too.:

Donald Trump tells TMZ he is contacting the FBI to investigate threats just made by a man claiming to be the son of escaped Mexican drug lord El Chapo.

Trump is reacting to a tweet reportedly made by El Chapo's son, in which he blasts Trump for saying El Chapo is "everything that's wrong with Mexico."

The tweet was written in Spanish, with the rough English translation, "Keep f***ing around and I'm gonna make you swallow your bitch words you f***ing whitey milks***tter (that's a homophobic slur)."

Trump tells TMZ he's not backing down, saying, "I'm fighting for much more than myself. I'm fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals." He adds, "You can't be intimidated. It's too important."

Summer Health Program

Went to the doctor for a brief physical. Blood pressure medication working so well I have to cut back to avoid fainting. Cholesterol fine, kidney function improving, etc., etc. This is all part of a carefully-designed physical fitness program. It's called the "Purging on opening night of "Evita" because otherwise I'd get bored/ Wanting my cummerbund to fall off in "Evita" due to shrinking belly because otherwise I'd get bored/ Having a peripatetic Labrador Retriever who wants to visit every lawn and bush between here and the Sierras every night/ The Jamaican Dancehall people just don't stop/ Neither do the Zumba and Fierce Funk people/ Not eating that much anyway because it's summer" Program. And it seems to be working fairly well.

"Evita" Closing Weekend

Second-to-last weekend, I was trying to think of something French to say to Evita during the 'Rainbow Tour', so I said 'jean-Paul Gaultier'. A woman in the second row recognized the celebrity fashion designer's name, and laughed. (Bad, bad Marc!)


The "Evita" cast bids you 'Good night, and thank you!'

Dirt Thievery

At the very end of tonight's walk around the neighborhood, at 1:10 am., Bella and I turned down our alley and stumbled across a slim, fit woman, age about 30, loading up her vehicle with dirt from piles behind one of my neighbors. "Neighbor posted free dirt!" she explained. Except that I know the neighbor actually posted "Please don't take." So I memorized her license plate and will talk to the neighbor tomorrow. It was late and I figured a high-speed car chase to pursue the dastardly Sacramento dirt thief can wait until after sunrise.

I checked Nextdoor, the Website where neighbors post about local issues, crimes, lost dogs, etc. Sure enough, yesterday evening, that neighbor posted Free Dirt for the taking. So, just because it looks exactly like a crime in progress doesn't mean it's so!

Albuquerque Precipitation Record

Precipitation records are hit and miss in the arid American West, but apparently Albuquerque had a record 24-hour rainfall total, ending on 07/07/15, of 2.24 inches of rain.

Who Needs Comic Con?

Newsies Dancing to "Uptown Funk"

Toronto's Dead Raccoon Monument

Funny!:

Noticing the hashtag sign, one commenter on this Instagram photo asked, “I don’t get it — is the raccoon trying to go viral?”

Freebooting

Interesting article about Freebooting:

The problem was that Sandlin had never posted it to Facebook, and the version of it that appeared in millions of users’ News Feeds overnight wasn’t his. Rather, a British lads’ magazine called Zoo had apparently downloaded (or “ripped”) his video from YouTube, edited it to strip out references to Sandlin and his SmarterEveryDay channel, and posted the edited version on its own page, using Facebook’s native video player. It was an instant sensation, garnering millions of views and a raft of new followers for Zoo’s page. Sandlin, who puts some of the revenue from his YouTube videos toward his kids’ college fund, got nothing. (Zoo’s parent company, Bauer Media, declined to comment for this story.)

Jokers Everywhere