Wildlife: Blue Jays, Magpies, Nuthatches, Juncos, and Chickadees! The Winter birds are coming around the feeders.



Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!

Weather: Luckily, the sun came out and melted the blizzard's mess yesterday. Gray and cold today -- 16 Degrees (F) at sunrise.

Charity Alert: The Hunger Site Click to help out with a few little things -- like nutrition, disease, and oxygen in our air.

Media Watch: Monday Night Football -- Philadelphia played well, but Dallas won 21 to 20. I still think Donovan McNabb needs an operation, and that the Eagles would do better waiting for next year, but I can see how they all want to get out there and play hard every week.
The History Channel ran a piece on the Battle of the Bulge in 1944-45. As dramatic and bloody as the seige and relief of Bastonge was, I'm glad they pointed out how the failure of SS General Peiper to advance through the hills and deep valleys of the Northern Ardennes, despite/because of his 69-ton Tiger tanks, doomed Hitler's whole operation. Lack of gasoline, adverse terrain, and dogged human resistance all played their parts in preventing a near-disaster from turning into a cataclysm.
I had the pleasure of spending a day or two around Bastonge in the spring of 1976 -- there was still a lot of wartime detrius scattered about the woods, a prominent monument with a tank on the top, and a plaque underneath that just said "NUTS."
To tell you the truth, I liked Charlemange's cathedral at Aachen better (see below), and the hot springs around Spa -- yep, the ORIGINAL Spa!


A bright spot in the Dark Ages:
Carolingan Dynasty Cathedral at Aix en Chappell (Aachen, Belgium)
Circa 800 A.D.
Speaking of Charlemange, or Charles the Great, I've always thought it was funny when the Germans call him "Karl der Gross" -- Now THAT'S the right kind of name for a Dark Ages king!