Travel Blogging IV

Northern Alabama - yep, the Tennessee River dips into northern AL and we earlier during dinner cycled through a lock with a 90 ft. rise. I found myself explaining the ancient technology involved in locks to two elderly ladies from NJ and our waiter, who listened bemused. 

Locks on canals predate motors and pumps, they were formerly powered by gravity and muscle on the canals of Europe and the US. Water flows downhill, powered by gravity and the locks of old were swung in some cases by the barge men themselves who employed simple levers for mechanical advantage. 

I don’t know about you, I find that sort of pre-industrial revolution technology fascinating. The ingenuity the Dutch employed to get wind power to pump their polders dry using Archimedes screws to lift water - amazing stuff.

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One of the fun things about cruising is eating stuff you’d probably not choose to eat if not offered a limited menu of perhaps 3-4 entrees. Things I’ve eaten since aboard that fit this category are lobster raviolis and shellfish ragu. 

Selected as “lesser of 3 evils” choices, they turned out to be good food I enjoyed. Tonight I ate barbecue ribs - very tasty - which the DrsC tend to avoid as they sometimes are tough to digest, but these are riding smooth as silk and I’m glad I took the risk.

Update

I’d normally bring you “Saturday Snark” today but it’s too hard doing it with the iPod. Instead I’ll give you the URLs to the two sources I’d use for today and you can make your own choices.

Power Line’s The Week in Pictures

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2026/10/the-week-in-pictures-search-me-edition.php

Sarah Hoyt’s It’s October and the Memes are Golden

https://accordingtohoyt.com/2026/10/17/its-october-and-the-memes-are-golden/

The Tesla Roadster Flies and Flips

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned more than once, as a young man I read a lot of classic hard science fiction: Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury, Anderson, Herbert and many more. Hard Sci. Fi. involves no magic or dragons, no swords and sorcery. It explores real humans going into space.

Eventually my collection of 800+ paperbacks got unwieldy to lug around so I donated it to a university whose library was building a serious archival collection of the genre. 

Fast forward to earlier this year. When Elon Musk took SpaceX public via IPO, I waited 2-3 weeks and had my broker buy 100 shares for my modest portfolio of equities. 

My interest isn’t speculative, I don’t watch the SpaceX share price daily. I like being part of the most-successful-to-date company building space hardware and planning to colonize the Moon and Mars. I won’t live to see all of it happen but I’ve made a bet where my heart is, and that feels good.

So recently Tesla demonstrated a roadster that can do all kinds of nearly magical things, at least some of which have practical implications. Am I bummed? Not even a little. 

This is Musk dreaming and then doing the engineering to make it happen. And in my small way I’m along for the ride … yippie!

Later … I just figured out how the electric cars fit into Musk’s dream. Internal combustion wouldn’t work on Mars as there is too little atmospheric oxygen to support combustion. On Mars IC engines would have to carry tanks of both fuel and oxidizer, likely batteries would be more expedient.

Update

I’d normally bring you “Friday Meme Fest” today but it’s too hard doing it with the iPod. Instead I’ll give you the URLs to the two sources I’d use for today and you can make your own choices.

Politico’s The Nation’s Cartoonists on the Week in Politics:

https://www.politico.com/gallery/2026/10/16/the-nations-cartoonists-on-the-week-in-politics-01121382?slide=0

RealClearPolitics’ Cartoons of the Week

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/cartoons/cartoons_of_the_week/2026/42/-10-steve_kelley-steve_kelley_for_oct_15_2026.html

Trump Gambles

More than a few conservative commentators have noted the inconsistency of Trump buying diesel from Putin’s Russia. This act being in direct conflict with doing much to cut off Russia’s alternate sources of foreign exchange as punishment for it attacking Ukraine. 

Gasoline drives our cars and it seems to be in fair supply, diesel on the other hand moves our goods by truck and train and it has been in short supply, with corresponding high prices. These transport costs get factored into the prices of everything we buy.

Trump buying Russian diesel is an attempt to slow down inflationary price increases before the November US midterm elections. Ukraine’s Zelensky is naturally unhappy with our doing so. 

It is however a direct application of a foreign policy - enunciated by Rubio - that aims at meeting US needs first and foremost. If Ukraine has to suffer, so be it. Trump views keeping control of at least one house of Congress out of Democrats’ hands as worth the risk. Democrats and GOP hawks naturally disagree.

Is the game worth the candle? Hindsight’s acuity will reveal if expediency was the best choice. Since we’re stuck with it, let’s hope it works. 

There are already some minor signs it could be working. The pundit class is notably less pessimistic now than a month ago,

Travel Blogging III

We spent yesterday tied up near Paducah, KY. This is the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, which we visited in our RV travels.

So far, we’ve been on the Cumberland River. We cast off at noon today, when we begin our travels on the Tennessee River headed south and east (upstream) to our disembarkation point in Chattanooga. Along the way our route dips into northern Alabama.

Today we lunched with a couple who are part of the boat’s entertainment package. She sings, he lectures on the region and its history. Since the other DrC and I lectured on cruise ships for several years, we swapped yarns with them about being shipboard ‘entertainment.’

A blue grass group entertained us Wednesday evening, five middle aged and older white guys who made pretty fair music singing and playing a fiddle, a stand up bass, a banjo, a guitar and a dobro. The pax liked it.

Our cabin is the nicest we’ve ever had cruising, literally a suite. We have a living room, bedroom, and bath, with big screen TVs in both rooms, and a small balcony with small table and 2 chairs. 

Travel Blogging II

Aboard the MS American Symphony, we cruising on the Cumberland River. Our cabin is nice, we’ve had lunch, and we’ve tried on our life jackets, aka flotation devices. 

On our way from hotel to ship we had a city tour and heard about plans to hold a Super Bowl here in 2-3 years, saw the honky-tonk section down by the riverfront, and saw the outside of Dolly Parton’s new hotel which opened a couple of weeks after she died. As noted before, Nashville is booming, growth is happening left and right.

Before it became the country music capital, and eventually the music capital of our great land, Nashville was known as “the Athens of the South.” This was because several colleges and universities chose this as their location. 

Athens of the South is why there is a cast-concrete replica of the Parthenon in a city park. Neither the location nor the copy is anywhere near as spectacular as the marble original in Athens, but it is fun to see nevertheless.

Local weather is warmish, a/c indoors is welcome as this is humidity country. I remarked on how silky the air feels, something we don’t get in either WY or NV. If you look at a map of greater Nashville, you see rivers and lakes sprinkled liberally across the landscape. No one experiences shortages of potable water hereabouts.

One geographical feature seen in this region that I never see in the mountain states or west is layers of whitish limestone. Out our way you see sandstone in colors that range from tan to yellow to auburn to almost dark red, but limestone is rare. Here in the high south limestone is the standard stuff, seen in riverbanks and road cuts.

Travel Blogging I

Hello from Nashville, the “Music City.” I got an eyeful of this in the airport on our way to pick up luggage. I saw at least three people carrying a musical instrument case on their way to or from a plane. And there are more “cowboy” hats in evidence than random chance would suggest.

The trip hasn’t started off auspiciously. We arrived too late to take in the included Jason Aldean performance at the Grand Ole Opry. So we skipped that and had room service burgers and fries.

For reasons that take too long to explain, we had to get up this morning at 1:30 a.m to take our niece to her plane home,  it took off as something like 5:30 mountain time whereas our house is in pacific coast time. 

Our plane took off a couple of hours later so we killed time at the regional airport until our departure. By the tine we finally reached our hotel in Nashville it was after 5 p.m. central time. I did some sleeping on the plane, which helped. Now I’m a zombie, if the foregoing prose makes sense, it is pure dumb luck.

We board our ship tomorrow and sail away going northwest for the first day or so. Something like a week from tomorrow we end up in Chattanooga TN having sailed the length of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s reservoirs on the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. 

If Nashville got any damage from that hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast late last week, I’ve not seen evidence. Nashville is hip-deep in an economic boom, lots of new construction.

More tomorrow after we’ve boarded our ship, or is it a boat?

Talarico Absentee Whereabouts Revealed?

Independent journalists Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher have posted audio they say confirms TX Dem. Senate candidate James Talarico was an inpatient for several days at the Lindner Center of Hope, a mental health facility in Mason, OH. Matt Margolis at PJ Media has the story.

It would seem he was not home recovering from the flu as reported. The nature of his supposed mental health problem has not been divulged.

Talarico has been something of a poster boy for the stable of weird candidates Democrats have backed in 2026. There may be a substantial bloc of Dem. voters who would identify with a candidate with mental health issues.

Later … Power Line’s John Hinderaker writes that the Lindneer Center claims to have never treated Talarico. Perhaps it was a fake. His disappearance has more twists and turns than a snake with stomach cramps.

Update

Our absentee ballots arrived yesterday, thank heavens. Their safe arrival is always in doubt as they are mailed out the same week we leave WY. There have been problems in past years, but not this time.

We will fill them out and mail them before we fly off to TN day after tomorrow. If I’m going to hassle you to vote, I’d better have done so myself, amirite? 

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Earlier this afternoon our phones gave off a weird alert - a National Weather Service flash flood warning in effect until this 5 p.m. I don’t believe we actually had a downpour but it’s better to be safe. 

We truly had rain overnight and in a desert that is an uncommon event. Houses don’t have rain gutters.

Storm’s a-Comin’

The storm headed for SoCal is predicted to come our way tomorrow, attenuating as it leaves the ocean behind and is over land. We may get rain, perhaps even a lot.

The arroyos hereabouts feature quite large flood control structures which in a normal year see next-to-no rain and remain unused. They weren’t built just to look pretty, local history shows that a thunderstorm hereabouts can generate a near-wall of water and do some real damage. 

My guess is the Mormon pioneers who founded this community experienced some terrifying floods and have passed the memories down to the current “town fathers.” The Virgin River most of the time is no bigger than a stream, or a healthy creek. This storm could change that, at least briefly, and give the flood control a workout.

We fly out on Tuesday a.m. en route to Tennessee and a river cruise on the river of that name. Tennessee should be getting over the storm named Isaias that is beating up Pensacola and the Gulf Coast. We hope TN is far enough inland to not be destroyed. 

Storm here and storm there, who would have guessed?

Talarico Rumor Surfaces

Texas Democrat senate candidate James Talarico hasn’t been seen in person since Sept. 26 and on video on Sept. 30. The claim by his campaign organization is that he is down with the flu. 

If you follow politics at all, you know this is unbelievable behavior by a candidate so close to the election. As Matt Margolis at PJ Media notes, if Talarico were all that sick he’d be hospitalized and we’d be getting updates about his condition. 

The unconfirmed rumor is that he had a mental breakdown and is in-patient somewhere. His flaky comments before his disappearance could lend credence to that rumor. 

Later - Talarico “surfaced” chatting up the crowd at some public gathering. Still no explanation for his week+ disappearance.

The Day After

Today is the “day after,” the day after we drove the 500+ miles south to our winter quarters in Nevada. As expected we left what felt like late autumn and arrived where autumn as evidenced by turning leaves and crisp air has yet to visit. We left temps in the 40s, arrived in the 90s.

The drive took about 10 hours including stops for gas, restroom breaks, lunch and a sit-down restaurant supper. Most of it done on I-15 where the posted speed limit is 80 mph which we did. Traffic was mild, we saw 0 accidents, and zoomed thru SLC in the HOV lanes with 3 in the truck making us legal.

The drive was long, the views were nice, if somewhat familiar, and the weather excellent. I was passenger with two ladies, my dear wife and our excellent niece. They did all of the driving and most of the talking. I daydreamed and dozed.

Our winter place survived our absence w/o apparent injury, always a minor worry even though we’ve never had much problem in that regard. Now we’re unpacking and recuperating.

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No memes and snark until late October, apologies for that. I may not get my desktop computer set up until then. My office here doubles as our guest room and our niece is with us until we leave on a cruise in about a week, and then we’ll be gone for close to 2 weeks. I will be blogging however, just no pix.

Interesting Quote

Reading a Heather Mac Donald column on the frat house group sex/rape? at Cornell, a reader responds on X with a comment I'd share with you.

The female privilege to switch back and forth between high agency and low agency depending what advantage it affords them … will not be surrendered willingly.

The ladylike ambivalence that privilege reflects is no new thing.

News from Spain

Pedro Sanchez is the Socialist Prime Minister of Spain. It has been on his watch that the Moroccan invasion of the Ceuta enclave has occurred. 

He is very unpopular with Spanish voters. It is unclear why he has now called a "snap election" in late November that it's likely his Socialists will lose.

Maybe he's made such a mess that his party would rather be out of power where they can carp at whoever replaces him. It is always easier to complain and criticize than to fix problems.

Parallels

I am struck by the fact that, after Islam hating on "crusaders" for 1500 years, militant Islam has become exactly what they've so long criticized - crusading soldiers for God. 

On a somewhat parallel track, Jews who for centuries were the people Europe wanted to get rid of, now find themselves in Israel with a people - the Palestinians - whom they wish would go away.

There is evidence aplenty that the Abrahamic God is a cosmic ironist, a karmic entity who loves seeing the worm turn.

Better Late than Never

Image courtesy of Sarah Hoyt's

Fall into Memes.

Good News

Brazil voted for President today and the conservative Flavio Bolsonaro bested the leftist Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva 47.24% to 44.81%. The polls had predicted Lula would come out ahead. 

As neither got 50%, there will be a runoff on Oct. 25, which Bolsonaro is now expected to win. This suggests more Brazilian cooperation with the US and less with China and Russia.

A Season of "Lasts"

This is a season of "lasts." Today we ate our last Liberty Burger of the summer in Jackson, and said goodbye to our favorite waitress, who knows our order. Yesterday was the last ribeye I grilled on the gas BBQ, and today I cleaned the equipment and stored it for the winter. 

We had a last Rocky Mountain Seafood dinner a couple of nights ago, with local friends. Tomorrow, after loading the truck, we will have our last Mexican meal of the summer. Last, last, last.... 

High country summer is coming to a close, for the 30+th time. Summers here are very nearly perfect. One of these years we'll be too decrepit to come back in the spring, and that will be much more than sad.

Where the Boys Are

Caitlin Flanagan has written for The Atlantic and New Yorker, and today writes for The Free Press, on the subject of why college girls go to drunken parties at college fraternity houses, a fraught behavior to say the least. The late Connie Francis had the answer all those decades ago: it is "where the boys are."

More specifically she notes.

Fraternity members tend to be many of the things college women don’t like: conservative, suburban, usually white, almost always straight.

And yet, year after year after year, young women of all political and ideological stripes flock to their parties, even though they know how dangerous those places are.

Decade after decade, they go to fraternity parties. What are they looking for? It’s the very force they claim to be “so over”: masculinity.

I have only one quibble with her analysis, and it is her omission of something Americans don't like to discuss - social class. Members of fraternities tend to be from more affluent, upper middle class families. Also, frat parties enable lower division women to meet somewhat older men. 

The formal name for this motive is "hypergamy," defined as a "structural practice in which an individual (typically a woman) marries a spouse of higher social caste, socioeconomic class, or educational attainment."

Marrying a man several years older is another form of the same thing. It enables a young woman to assess whether his "life trajectory" is headed in a direction she finds agreeable.

I spent most of my adult life on college campuses, watching attractive, smart young people find both a life partner and a career, plus doing so myself. It was good.

Afterthought:  Flanagan's publicity photo at her Wiki bio (see below) suggests her nice smile would have been very welcome at any frat party.