A five-deer walk

And the funny thing is, after the first sighting, I said to myself, "One deer sighting tends to beget others".  I was right for once.

Last nights walk delayed by Mr. Skunk- the light spot in the middle of the pic.

This morning's first duo were just off the first turn on the new trail.  As you can see, they were the bucks.

They are hard to get into one picture.

Saw a few patches of these flat-topped mushrooms.

The next pair were a mom-and-daughter set.  Mom was on the trail when we turned back into the woods.

Her fawn was just off the other side of the trail.

Here's the money shot- this was so sweet.  I couldn't believe I wasn't hit by lightning just before I took it.

On down the trail, fawn was peeking around the tree at us.

Number five was along the ravine trail, still just laying around.

To my amazement, Scrappy didn't explode when the mom appeared in the trail in front of us.  He did try to follow, but no war-hoops.  He knows Dad's doing something with that black thingie to them, and just lets it go.  But he watched them all the way around.

Time Machine week 26

On July 27th, 1970… Nothing of note happened.  In fact, I even went back a couple days to that weekend, and the best I got was the song that went to number one that week- on Billboard.  Not here, because Cashbox had another song sneak in that Billboard missed.  Which I already knew, because I looked up our #1 this week and saw that BB peaked it at #3!  Sigh…

But it’s still Time Machine, and we do have a new number one, no thanks to Billboard.  We also have a mess of classics hitting birthdays; a mess of songs I didn’t know, but in your best interests reviewed; a old days superstar who couldn’t even get a good review from his own record label; a six degrees that features people like the Police, Randy Newman,  Eric Burden, and Robin Gibb; and a Where Are They Now that features… Superman?

Great Caesar’s Ghost, let’s get on with this!

Eleven debuts enter the hot hundred this week- but sad to say I knew but one, the high debut at #69- recent WATN featuree   Bobby Sherman and Julie Do Ya Love Me.

But a fine crop of birthday songs partially mitigate the low turnout on debuts.  Crosby Stills and Nash’s Wasted On The Way turns 30 this week.  Turning 35 is Bobby Sherman’s spiritual clone Shaun Cassidy with That’s Rock And Roll, along with Meco’s Star Wars Theme and Help Is On The Way by the Little River Band.  Turning 40 are Chicago’s Saturday In The Park, Three Dog Night’s Black And White, and the epitome of serious musicianship, Chuck Berry’s My Ding-A-Ling.

I'm not playing with HIS ding-a-ling...

The Beatles turn 45 with All You Need Is Love, and turning 50 this week are Ray Charles’ You Don’t Know Me, Connie Francis’ V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, Tony Bennett’s I Left My Car In San Francisco (right next to the anti-porn screen in the library), Lawrence Welk’s Baby Elephant Walk, and Alley Cat by Bent Fabric, who was actually Danish pianist (believe this one or not) Bent Fabricius-Bjerre.  Blow out the candles…

Our old timer spotlight moves into the roaring twenties this week with Ted Lewis and his Band.  He started out as a musician, and not a particularly good one- even after he was a star for Victor, they put on their catalogue on one of their tunes, “The sounds as of a dog dying is the clarinet of Ted Lewis.”  Nonetheless, he built a 20-year career as “Mr. Entertainment” that racked up 102 top 40s, 74 top tens, and six top dogs.  His band’s musical style was described as “ a combination of jazz, hokey comedy, and schmaultzy sentimentality.”  We listened to his two top hits, 1932’s In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town, and 1920’s When My Baby Smiles At Me.  They combined solid musicianship with Lewis’ almost talk-your-way-through-the-song style for a pair of fun, warm performances.  He, like so many others of the era, starred in various films, at least two of them titled after his famous catch phrase (and you were wondering where it came from), “Is everybody happy?”  The first, in 1929,  was kind of a biopic, with Ted starring as bandleader Ted Todd.  The second, in 1943, was an actual biopic with Michael Duane playing Ted and lip-synching over his recordings.

He also ended up in an Abbot and Costello flick.  A&C had just scored with their big hit Buck Privates, and were working on the next film, tentatively called Oh, Charlie.  But initial screenings found everyone complaining because the Andrews Sisters, who starred in Buck Privates, were no where to be seen.  So Oh Charlie got put on the back burner while they filmed You’re In The Army Now.  Eventually they changed the sidebar concept of Oh Charlie to include them being waiters who inherit a night club, shot a new beginning and a new ending that involved a set by the Andrews Sisters backed by Ted’s Band, and thus Hold That Ghost (1941) was born.   Ted continued performing, notably ending shows with a rendition of Me And My Shadow, up until his death in 1971.

The big mover this week (another one we reviewed) was a great little tune I didn’t remember from Junior Walker and the All-Stars called Do You See My Love (For You Grows), up 31 spots this week to #46.  The big dropper was a real battle, with two songs (Rare Earth’s Get Ready and Mountain’s Mississippi Queen) dropping 41 spots- one less than The Long And Winding Road, which took a 42-notch plunge to #63.

Superman as the WATN feature? That’s the name of the song at fifty this week, recorded by the Ides Of March. (Another of the songs we sampled, kind of a knock off of Vehicle replacing “Great God in heaven” with “Great Caesar’s Ghost”.) The Ides had been a Chicago band of local repute until some lineup changes, bringing in a horn section and scoring big with top ten hit Vehicle.  This lineup included Trumpeter John Larson, guitar and sometimes-vocal Ray Herr, Larry Millas, Mike Borch, Horn man Chuck Soumer, Bob Bergland, and Jim Peterik.  Strains began to divide the band between the two singers, Herr and Peterik, until the break came just after Vehicle slid from the chart:

With an entertaining show such as this, the Ides knew that they were ready to take their show on the road. The itinerary included stops in both Florida and California, but the whole thing was almost aborted when Herr departed suddenly.

There are two versions to the story surrounding his departure. As Herr told me in 1970, “We were in Florida when I got my draft notice. I had to go back to Chicago to investigate my status with the draft board. The last thing on my mind was playing in a band. About a week later, I get a call from one of the guys saying that I’m kicked out of the band. I was pissed off!!”

Peterik tells it slightly differently. “Ray left us hanging in the middle of the tour. He just up and left without telling any of us. But, we found out that we could get by without him, so nobody ever really got back to him to say he was out for leaving; it was more or less assumed. There were a lot of hard feelings at this point, and it seemed like a better idea to let it pass.”  This from the Forgotten Hits blog.

In 1990, the group I listed sans Herr (who changed his name to Ray Scott right after the split) were brought back together by their home town of Berwyn, IL, for a benefit, and Soumer led the way in making it a permanent thing.  Peterik was also the leader of Survivor a writer for .38 Special (as we learned on an earlier six degrees) and went on to contribute to this summer’s Beach Boys lp, That’s Why God Made The Radio (and if you don’t have this yet, waddaya waiting for?) while being a part of the still performing band.  Herr/Scott died last March (no, not on the 15th) and Larson passed in late September.  Soumer retired from the band last year as well, but they are still alive and kicking.

Eight new top 40 tunes come in this week.  Pickettywitch’s version of That Same Old Feeling comes in at 40, up one notch.  The Assembled Multitude, a set of studio musicians who became the backing band for much of the Philly soul of the early 70s, come in at 39, up 9, with the Overture From The Rock Opera Tommy.  Another of the songs we sampled and really liked was Kenny Rogers and the First Edition with Tell It All, Brother, up 9 to #38.  One song that I did not sample, mainly because most of his songs make me want to pull my hair out after around 15 seconds, was James Brown’s Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine, leaping 20 to #37.  One we did hear and thought okay was Tyrone Davis’ soulful I’ll Be Right Here, once again up 9 spots to 36.  The Archies climb 8 to 34 with Sunshine.  Last week’s Where Are They Now feature, the Who’s Summertime Blues, leaps from 50 to 33.  And jumping 21 spots to #28 is Edwin Starr’s War.

Sorry, dude, I can't spare the hair!

Two songs join the top ten, two drop out.  Falling are Lay Down (Candles In The Rain), from 5 to 12, and Gimme Dat Ding, from 7 to 11.
Hanging on for dear life, The Jacksons slip from 9 to 10 with The Love You Save.
Alive And Kicking kick their way up 3 spots to #9 with Tighter, Tighter.
Ride Captain Ride sails down 2 spots to #8 for Blues Image.
Leaping 8 big notches to #7 is Stevie Wonder with Signed Sealed Delivered (I’m Yours).
Flip-flopping with Blues Image, The Five Stairsteps move from 8 to 6 with O-ooh Child. 
Bread rises (get it?) from 10 to 5 with Make It With You.  And that brings us to the six degrees for this week.

Three Dog Night drops from the top to #4 with Mama Told Me (Not To Come).The first #1 song on Casey Kasum’s American Top 40 on July 4th, 1970, It was a Randy Newman composition that was first recorded by the original Animals just before they dissolved in 1966.  Set to be a single release in September, the release was cancelled after the breakup (it appeared on what amounted to a Eric Burden solo album later the next year).  Burden went on to form a new Animals, and this was the bunch that hit with Monterrey, San Franciscan Nights, and Sky Pilot.  By April of 1968 this group was fracturing as well.  What was left, including a young Andy Summers later of the Police, recorded one last lp, called Love Is.  This double lp included a 7-minute cover of the Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody, (Just picture Burden doing Robin Gibb.  Yeah, it’s like that.) as well as Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire (Got a mental image of that last song?  Yeah, it’s like that.).

Freda Payne moves up one to #3 with Band Of Gold.
Up one is the Billboard #1 song this week- the Carpenters and (They Want To Be) Close To You.

And this week’s top dog, moving up one……

The Temptations with Ball Of Confusion!!!

Okay, that’s it for this week!  Don’t forget the eighties countdown on Saturday.

HEY! PENN STATE!

You ever post your"last word" on a subject,and then find unrevealed developments have forced you to comment further?  That's where I am this morning after rading this ESPN article:


If Penn State had not accepted the package of NCAA sanctions announced Monday, the Nittany Lions faced a historic death penalty of four years, university president Rodney Erickson told "Outside the Lines" on Wednesday afternoon.
In a separate interview, NCAA president Mark Emmert confirmed that a core group of NCAA school presidents had agreed early last week that an appropriate punishment was no Penn State football for four years.
Emmert told Erickson in a phone conversation on July 17 that a majority of the NCAA's leadership wanted to levy the four-year penalty because of Penn State's leaders' roles in covering up the child sexual abuse of former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
"Well, that's a pretty tough number to swallow," Erickson said he recalled thinking when told of the four-year possibility by Emmert. "It's unprecedented. It's a blow to the gut; there's no doubt about that ... I couldn't agree to that at all."

Almost immediately after that conversation, intensive discussions between Penn State and the NCAA began in earnest, Erickson said. Penn State lobbied for the NCAA to take the death penalty off the table, and the NCAA described a series of other sanctions, both "punitive and corrective" in nature.
The discussions were so secretive that most members of Penn State's embattled Board of Trustees had no idea they were happening, several trustees said.
Indeed, the trustees had thought Erickson was officially responding to a Nov. 17 letter of questions from the NCAA. In the interview on Wednesday, Erickson said the letter was set aside last week as the discussions between Penn State and the NCAA intensified.
Erickson said if Penn State did not agree to the sanctions, a formal investigation would have begun and the university could have faced a multiyear death penalty, as well as "other sanctions," including a financial penalty far greater than $60 million.

"There were figures that were thrown around that were quite large," he said.
After five days of intense discussions last week, Erickson and Emmert agreed last Sunday to the historic punishment of a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, significant loss of scholarships and the vacating of 14 years of 112 Penn State victories, causing Joe Paterno to fall from first to eighth on the Division I all-time coaches' win list.
The punishment was for the role played by four Penn State leaders -- Paterno, former university president Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz -- to conceal Sandusky's child sexual abuse for more than 10 years, as described in the university-commissioned Freeh report.


Erickson's comments were made Wednesday afternoon, shortly before he met with Penn State's Board of Trustees about the terms of the consent decree he signed with the NCAA.
Several trustees said they are furious the board was not given a chance to vote on the agreement, which they say is bad for Penn State. But after meeting Wednesday night, the board said it understands Erickson's decision.
"The Board finds the punitive sanctions difficult and the process with the NCAA unfortunate," the board said in a statement. "But as we understand it, the alternatives were worse as confirmed by NCAA President Mark Emmert's recent statement that Penn State was likely facing a multi-year death sentence. The University and Board resolve to move forward together to recognize the historical excellence in Penn State's academic and athletic programs."
Erickson said his insistence that Penn State must avoid the death penalty was driven in large part with worry over the devastating economic impact of no Saturday afternoon football in central Pennsylvania and the words of newly hired coach Bill O'Brien.
O'Brien said in an interview Wednesday that he told Erickson, "I want to play football and I want to play football on television."

"Both of those things are possible under the sanctions," Erickson said Wednesday. "I think it is not only best for our football program but best for our entire set of sports and intercollegiate athletes to be able to continue on and have the opportunity to play in that stadium and participate."
Erickson said he disagrees with the criticism that the NCAA sanctions are worse than the death penalty.
"I think the death penalty would have been far, far worse for the program and the university over the long run," he said.
While it had been known that Penn State faced a possible multiyear death penalty, the level of NCAA support for a four-year death penalty and the import given to that threat by Erickson and other Penn State leaders were not previously known.
Erickson signed a consent decree that accepted full responsibility for the facts and conclusions of the 267-page Freeh report, a seven-month investigation by the firm of former FBI director Louis Freeh. His investigators interviewed more than 430 witnesses and reviewed more than 3.5 million documents.
The decree states the evidence against Penn State "presents an unprecedented failure of institutional integrity leading to a culture in which a football program was held in higher esteem than the values of the institution, the values of the NCAA, the values of higher education and, most disturbingly, the values of human decency."

Some trustees said they hoped the dismantling of Paterno's statue would send a positive message to the NCAA when it considered sanctions. Little did those trustees know, Erickson already had agreed in principle by last Saturday on the "punitive and corrective" sanctions.
Before the Board of Trustees' meeting on Wednesday night, some members said they were considering a bid to overturn the consent decree in court because they don't believe Erickson had the authority to sign it. Erickson consulted with board chairwoman Karen Peetz, acting AD Dave Joyner and several other unnamed members of the board's executive committee, he said Wednesday.
Two trustees said most of the board's members did not find out about the terms of the agreement until Monday morning.
"This is the most significant decision in the history of Penn State, and we didn't know," one trustee said. "The financial impact of this decision could run as high as $500 million, and we didn't know anything about it.
"The Freeh report criticized us for not being in the loop on the Sandusky matter, and we were totally out of the loop on this. What happened to the transparency that we were promised?"
Another trustee said there is a growing movement among some trustees to attempt to challenge the consent decree in court.

"They've destroyed the school, as far as I'm concerned," this trustee said. "Think of the innocent players hurt by this. They had nothing to do with this and they have to pay the price."
On Wednesday, Erickson said he had consulted with Peetz, the board chairwoman, and the university's outside counsel, about whether he had the authority to negotiate and approve the agreement with the NCAA.
"We felt that I had the authority to engage in that consent decree," Erickson said.


Okay, so let me hit the stuff I highlihted an get to the gist of my rant.

1. The four-year death penalty.  First let me say I am surprised that the university presidents were this bold.  And I agree with them 1000%.  And qute frankly, in hearing the whining trustees throughout the balance of the article, I'd tear up the agreement and give it to 'em anyway. 


2.  The agreement needed to be negotiated by individuals and not a board of the guilty.  That's why you HIRE a university president.

3.  And here's why you don't negotiate with the trustees.  They thought that ripping out the scene of the crime (the showers) and JoePa's monument to ego would be good enough of a faith gesture that the NCAA might give them a slap on the wrist. So if I rape your wife, but buy her a new bra afterwards, we're even, huh?  Guess again, slappy.

4.  The trustees didn't mind not knowing when JoePa ran the school like a little floppy-eared Stalin.  Where were you then?  If you got cut out of the loop now, tough.  That's the NCAA telling you how much they admire and respect your fine job of oversight.

5.  Oh, the innocent players.  Well guess what, bozo.  The NCAA didn't fail them, YOU DID.  Your allowance of the malfeasance caused the whole thing.  I don't give a damn about you, because you STILL DON'T give a damn about those kids.  The players I do care about.  I know for a fact that IU has several play-now spots on their roster, so just come on over to Bloomington.  Or Lafayette, or Ann Arbor, or any other of the fine sites around the Big Ten where people believe that serial child molesting is WRONG.


Finally, I happened to see at the side of the article a link to a radio interview where Brent Pusberger said the sanctions "went too far."  Buddy, you have too many friends among the college elite.  You can't see any of them doing any wrong.  I'm surprised you didn't go testify in front of Congress when USC got nailed.  Do us all a favor.  Retire, then you can be as big a fan of whoever as you want.  But don't pretend to be an impartial expert when dealing with your good friends' f-ups.

and more random stuff

Here's some random addendums:

I actually have done something with my Twitter account.  No, I really don't know what I'm doing, but the beat writer for the Reds, John Fay, tweets good info on the team and I thought I'd "get active" just in case I wannna ask him something.

Speaking of baseball, today Milwaukee blew a 5-1 lead, tied the game with the Phillies, and then took the lead only to give up two in the tenth to lose 7-6.  Last night they had a 6-1 lead in the ninth and gave up 6 in the 9th to lose, 7-6.  The night before, they had a 6-2 lead at one point, and were up 6-3 when the Phils scored 4 in the 9th and won.. err... 7-6.  I sense a pattern here...

Time to weigh in on the Chik-Fil-A nonsense.  For those who don't know here's the idiot's guide:  Owner of chicken resturant tell interviewer that he is in favor of one-man-one-woman marriage.  Boston mayor says, you're not allowed to have that opinion here, you'll never build a resturant in Boston again.  Now former Obama head-of-thugs and current Chi-town mayor Rahm Emmanuel says he'll do likewise, that this statement does not reflect "Chicago values".  I don't know what cracks me up more, that the LGBT community (or at least those who pander to them) are so upset about his statement, which is after all his opinion and his right to say, or the statement that Chicago has a code of values.  Not the people, understand, but any government the city has had since Al Capone.  (Oh, Capone wasn't the "government"?  Coulda fooled me.)  Certainly the thought that Rahm has any kind of value system would be a surprise.  What does anger me a bit about the whole thing is that left alliance of liberal/gay/atheist thought complains every time I deal with them that they are being persecuted by mainstream religion.  And yet, a business owner gets rode outta town on a rail because he doesn't share the same "values" as they do.  These people don't have any issue with persecution, they only want to be the persecut-ors.

Next up, here's some more fun in Washington.  First, we have this story in which the House democrats are holding things up in a fit of pique.  The GOP congressmen put together a bill that made it to the verge of a final vote with a typo (forgeting to put the "un" on "unemployment") which the republicans, having it pointed out, asked for unanimous consent to fix it.  But the Democrat Whip told them no way, send it back to conference committee to get it fixed.  Then there's this one, where a Dem statesman from Wisconsin is ready to tear apart the party majority they just one in their baby recall elections because he wants to head a committee more important than "Small Business and Tourism".

CAN I GET YOU PEOPLE A FOOLER??

This government doesn't need a president, it needs child care!!  And I'm not slamming one party here, they are all a buncha babies at this point.

Here's some more random stuff...

A note to the lady two cars ahead of us at the Pizza Hut turn-in:  When you have cars behind you on a semi-busy street, it is not proper etiquette to stop just after pulling in to determine whether the parking spot twenty feet ahead of you is acceptable.  The people waiting to get past the dude behind you- whose ass you forced to be in the middle of the street- and those behind us- who are waiting to get in as well- would appreciate if you stop formulating your parking strategem and JUST PULL IN.  Thank you.

Next, I may not have a job right now, but when I do, I try to do it concientiously and safely.  Thus people like that deputy I posted about yesterday (Duh, I wonder if'n I shoulda secured the road before leaving the scene, seeing's as all those people hit the horses after I left) really piss me off.  Here's another example:  http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/25/exclusive-movie-massacre-suspect-laid-out-plans-in-package-mailed-to/  It seems that color-blind Joker James Holmes sent a notebook filled with his massacre plans to a psychiatrist at the U. of Colorado, which arrived- apparently- at the university A WEEK AGO THURSDAY, but wasn't discovered until he received a similar (though not related) package and reported it to the police.  Lawmen then decided to look further into the U's mailroom and found the notebook -still in the campus mailroom- 12 days after it was delivered to the mailroom and 4 days after the massacre.  Every job is important, lowly mailroom people.  If some one at the Colorado mailroom had done theirs, 12 people might still be alive.  Think about that the next time you blow off something on YOUR job.

Seeing's as the only customer at the new bird feeder we've seen has been that squirrel*, I got another feeder, one of those bell-shaped jobbies.  We'll see if that helps.  At least we might get more rain.

*The squirrel hasn't been back since the end of that little adventure.  I took Scrappy to the door to get him to look at the varmint.  I took him outside.  He would not look up.  I took him up to our room, so he could look down.  Still he refused to see.  Then the dumbbutt squirrel just about fell off the feeder, hanging on for dear life and finally scrambling up onto the shed.  That's when Scrappy finally saw him and gave him a few blasts of the "beagle bugle".  Squirrel saw him in the window, took off and hasn't been back.

I do have a couple pictures from today's stroll.

Empty turtle shell Scrappy found.  Guess Mr/Mrs Fox had a good meal.

I think that's Mrs. Meany.  Saw both of them this morning.

And we caught a glimpse of the two fawns!

Scrappy tangled on a limb, hot on the scent just like Closeau.

Some of the trail has at last been cleared.

Tuesday, Tuesday…

I just read on a friend’s blog her “Official I have nothing to write about post.”  As you might have guessed, I’ve been in somewhat the same position.  In the days since the beer tasting party over on the cap blog (which set a new record for comments on that blog, thanke yewww…),, hmmm…  I’ve recovered from said party; watched my Reds sweep the Brewers and my A’s sweep the Yankees at home (the last time they swept the yanks at home, home was Philadelphia, Babe Ruth had just turned 18, and the Athletics were in the waning days of the legendary $100,000 infield, which these days would get you a second baseman just up from double-A); watched Elliot Sadler snatch victory from the jaws of Ricky Stenhouse; Watched Laurie cap off a day of helping a friend deliver phone books by kicking off the semi-annual kidney stone passing; Finished a bout of verbal jousting with one atheist only to kick off another round with another one (which is a lot like spanking a child who cries, “You didn’t hurt me!” through their tears, since they can overturn any argument by saying, “But God doesn’t exist, and you can’t make Him!”); and took several short walks with Scrappy which netted us a grand total of ONE picture…

What do the animals do for music in the forest?  Spider-CDs!

Yesterday, we did have the brief highlight of someone finally visiting the new bird feeder…

Munch, munch, err, "tweet..."

Hey, waddaya lookin' at?

…and while I could add to the recent noise about Penn State, let me just put it this way- JUSTICE WAS SERVED.  The school should have thought about the “poor players being punished for something they didn’t do” while they were standing there saying, “Pay no attention to the pervo behind the curtain.”

Which brings me to today.  Laurie is finally getting some sleep; Scrappy is still miffed at me for preventing his repeated chewing of his right rear by putting vicks vapo-rub on it; Our attempt at a walk was aborted by lightning, the second flash of which finally convinced Scrappy to move his sniffy butt, and all we got out of it was me falling on my face crossing the canal.  In a few minutes, I have to call some place I applied online to (hey, aren’t they supposed to call ME? Just sayin’).  Yesterday I applied at Toys’R Us, but got an immediate “no thank you”.  Not sure why; but as one of the questions had a “if you are under 40 years old, answer this” question with a required (even though I’m over 40) drop-down entry that did NOT include the year I was born, I have my suspicions…

…I guess that’s all for this morning.


Oh, wait, wait, I forgot something!  How about this story out of Ohio...


From the Evening Leader:
The second crash took place at 12:50 a.m. Sunday. A deputy was dispatched to the area of State Route 49 between Oregon Road and Koch Road for horses on the roadway. When the deputy arrived, he saw two horses on the east side of the road and multiple horses on the west, all loose. The deputy stopped at 9227 State Route 49, the Joe V. Schwartz residence, the owner of the horses, to alert them that the horses were loose.

While alerting the owner, the horses from the east side of the roadway moved onto the roadway. A northbound 2002 Mercedes Benz ML3, driven by Noland R. Kirk, 63, Fort Wayne, Indiana, struck the horses. After striking the horses, the vehicle rolled onto its top sliding into the cornfield on the east side of State Route 49. As the vehicle continued to roll, Kirk was ejected and pronounced dead at the scene. Kirk was not wearing a seat belt.

Two minutes later, a 2003 Buick driven by Angela K. Jenkins, 38, Decatur, Ind., was northbound on State Route 49 and struck the two horses laying in the roadway. Jenkins had two passengers, Kathleen Dolan, 38, Monroe, Ind., and Emma Boomershime, 9, in the vehicle. Dolan was transported to Mercer Health.

Hello, you couldn't have called in backup before leaving the scene?  Put out some flares?  Just gave the animals credit for "horse sense" and left them go on their own recognizance, eh?  I'm sure the Kirk family appreciates your due dilligence.

Okay, now I'm done.

NOTICE!! (What, again with the notice?)

Check out the Caps blog for the great Martin beer tasting #2 that occured yeaterday.  If nothing else, it'll be entertaining!