Weather: Pretty darn good -- mostly sunny, with moisture at night for the last few days. More! More! More!

Wildlife: A Harlequin Duck graced the log on our lake all yesterday afternoon.
Waterfowl - Harlequin Duck

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site : Give Food for Free to Hungry People in the World

Media Watch: (Later -- gotta work!)
It's later now! Books: I read Isaac Asimov's Opus 200 last night -- he eventually published around 500 books before he passed on. A Catalogue of Isaac Asimov's Books

Towards the end of the volume he did an annotation of Rudyard Kipling's poem Recessional (i.e. song played as the congregation leaves).
Here's the poem without the annotations (any resemblence to the present is intentional):
God of our fathers, known of old,
Lord of our far-flung battle line,
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
dominion over palm and pine --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

The tulmult and the shouting dies,
The captains and the kings depart:
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
A humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

Far-called, our navies melt away,
On dune and headland sinks the fire:
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

If, drunk with the sight of fire, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law --
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget -- lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard,
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And, guarding, calls not Thee to guard --
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

The end of empires, written at the height of the British debacle in 1896.