Coal Country

Pennsylvania is hugely coal country. And, with the Marcellus Shale fracking, there has been a sudden influx of money that has been very welcome in most of the state. About a decade ago, neighbors were pitted against neighbors as carpetbaggers with energy exploration contracts came through, getting people to sign exploration rights with rights of first refusal. In economically depressed areas like Carbon County (a county named after coal, what do you think?) the money and the work were very welcome.

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The Hardcore of Yore – Dickey Chapelle

Trigger warning: war and death, death imagery

Dickey Chapelle died when I was a kid and the news of her death was how “war photographer” entered my mental landscape. When I was a kid and started getting interested in military history, I was mostly inclined toward the Napoleonic Wars because of the gorgeous uniforms and the amazing paintings by Meissonier and David (I spent a lot of time at the Musee Des Invalides…)

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So It Begins

Enroute to Vienna, connecting through Copenhagen airport on an SAS flight out of Washington, Dulles, I slept badly because of a the onset of a gout attack in my right ankle…

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Pizza Ideas

(This is an edited re-post from my old ranum.com site)

Most people don’t realize how gosh-darned easy it is to make pizza dough. So they go buy something from the supermarket that’s made of plastic, wrapped in plastic, and intended to be covered in plastic. Let me give you some advice:
Don’t Do It.
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