Flash back, 1976, Dorothy Hamill

A reader sent me this link to a Harvard Crimson’s article on Dorothy Hamill’s almost-retirement from figure skating back in 1975 . Accurate? Well, Dorothy grew up just down the street from me, I watched her learn to skate on Patrick’s Pond in the early 1960s, her older brother Sandy was my friend and Patrol Leader of the Raccoon Patrol of Riverside’s Troop II and – well, yes.

I think that the Crimson author, one JON LEDECKY, was s a bit hysterical calling it a “Watergate moment” – Dodo, as we knew her, was exhausted, frustrated and still a young kid, and if her father saved her from professional ruin, that hardly rises to the level of Presidential corruption, but I assume Ledecky, fresh off a stint as a reporter for Greenwich Time, was a kid himself, so he should probably be excused his histrionics too. Our Savior knows that I’d like to be excused for things I wrote last week, let alone what I said, wrote and did at 19.

Either way, Dorothy recovered her poise, went back to skating and of course won the gold medal. We all cheered.

Brace yourself, Bridget

U.S. government’s housing aid to end.

ELKHART, Ind. — Over the next six months, the federal government plans to wind down many of its emergency programs for housing. Then it will become clear if the market can function on its own. People here are pretty sure the answer will be no.

To the extent that the real estate market is functioning at all, people here say, it is doing so only because of the emergency programs, which have pushed down interest rates on mortgages and offered buyers a substantial tax credit.

Equally important is an expanded mortgage insurance program run by the Federal Housing Administration, which encourages private lenders to accept borrowers with small down payments. The government takes the risk of default.

A few years ago, only one in 10 buyers in Elkhart used the housing agency program. Now about half do. Across the country, the agency has greatly expanded its reach so that it now insures six million mortgages.

“There has been all kinds of help for housing. I’m not unappreciative,” said Barb Swartley, president of the Elkhart County Board of Realtors. “But you can’t turn real estate into a government-sponsored operation forever.”

Not that the Dems won’t try, but I believe Ms. Swartley’s onto something here.

UPDATE: Stimulus funds running out for skooles two!

Joe “I’m no terrorist” Biden runs down Peggy Fleming in Vancouver

Those hair plugs must have affected his vision.

Cheney: repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell” law

Makes sense to me. “It’s a generational thing”, he says, and I think he’s right. People my age (mid-fifties) don’t care much and our kids couldn’t care less.

Hard at work, as usual

Our local legislators can’t get their act together to urge Rell to cut spending but by gosh, they can certainly come up with a useless, lawless  and scientifically illiterate motion to ban cellphone towers from our schools! Wanna bet whether their own kids have cellphones?

Asset freeze my ass

How'd Dad's Rolex end up here?

Greenwich police probe burglary hits near Mark Madoff’s home on 21 Cherry Valley Road. Probe indeed. Just sayin’ ….

Give us back our incandescent lights!

We're turning around!

U – Turn on global warming. None since 1995 – data missing on “proof”. Etc.

Don’t jump in front of them?

Striving to prevent suicide by train

Hottie socialist tried bombing Harvard professor in 1993

Do I look hot to you?

Alabama killer has a long history of violence, abetted by her husband. I’d think a nationwide reduction in cop salaries is in order. If they aren’t earning their pay ….

Not that I’m complaining, but how’s that hopey changey thing going?

Instapundit offers this story from WaPo: “Under Obama, more targeted killings”. Bush could always capture these guys and place them in Cheney’s basement for intensive interrogation. ‘Bama can’t, so we just kill ’em. Okay with me but then, I’m not a liberal.

yuck

From Instapundit, with his usual dry summation:

ANSWERING A LONG-FELT NEED: Whiskey-flavored toothpaste.

Mountain Men

Discussion of Jackon’s Hole (now Jackson Hole, I guess) Wyoming, below, brought back memories both of my own hiking in the mountains out there and my childhood reading – the first book I read by myself, at six, was about mountain men, and I developed a decades-long fascination with these people that still persists today. Googling them just now, I discovered that there’s still not that much information about them on the Internet – tied up in copyright, I suppose, but I know that there are tons of books on the subject, because I once owned many of them. Anyway, here’s a snippet on themthat I did dig up. John Colter was the first to see what’s now Yellowstone and its geysers and Jackson’s Hole.

Frank Rich on Sarah Palin – cunning, devious

Funny – it wasn’t long ago that the Left figured Palin as a drooling idiot. Now, according to drama critic Rich,  she’s so much more. I’m pretty sure it was Professor Reynolds who pointed out that failed Vice Presidential candidates have, in the past disappeared into obscurity but the Left just can’t help itself when it comes to Palin and are going crazy keeping her in the news. These guy are so easy.

Blowback

William Delahunt, the former Mass. prosecutor who persuaded the cops to let  Univ. of Alabama killer Amy Hunter  go free after she killed her brother in 1986, is now considering retiring from Congress. Between his ties to Hugo Chavez, Scott Brown’s impressive win in the conservative district Delahunt represents and now this latest, the old man seems to be getting discouraged. Good.

Who’s got the coolest readers in the world?

The comments nailed it. It’ an M4A1 carbine with RIS -mounted M203 grenade launcher, and sight. Serious business.

Red-tailed hawks

Gimme that!

We’ve had so many red-tailed hawks around here this winter that I’ve wondered how all our squirrels have survived – or if they haven’t we sure have a large surplus of the latter to replace the ones being picked off. Today I watched three of the hawks, two-on-one, squabbling here in the air over the creek. I assume, knowing little-to-nothing about hawks’ love life, that two have paired off and are protecting their newly claimed territory against a single male.

Whatever the actual reason for the dispute, it was cool watching aerial dive-bombing by and among three predators. Better than Top Gun, I thought.

From New York to LA, bad teachers are pervasive and we can’t get rid of them

Simply awful case from Los Angeles. No wonder the NEA comprises the largest number of delegates at Democrat conventions. Just ahead of trial lawyers, naturally. Like snail darters, both classes of these parasites need governmental protection to survive in a harsh environment.

America’s Cup returning to the US

BMW – Oracle wins second race, game over. When this was a game among millionaires, I was caught up in the excitement. These days, it’s about billionaires, law suits, two years of legal wrangling culminating in two days of racing. Doesn’t work for me, although I did like the looks of the winning trimaran.

What the heck is this weapon?

Sniper rifle? Cobra, other knowledgeable gun folks out there, can you educate me? This can’t be standard issue, can it?

Tyler Hicks/NYTimes

First sign of spring

Ready to move

Red Sox equipment ready for shipment to Florida