I'll Take the Pulled Pork and the Family-Sized Side of Hash Puppies, Please *wink wink*

In Gastonia, NC, the police busted a family for selling pot out of their barbecue restaurant.

Traveler's Advisory

Avoid going to Virginia Beach on June 26th-29th:

h/t Brock Townsend at Free North Carolina.

*Sniff Sniff* Roast Chicken For Supper?

Um...no.

An airline flight from Wales to Egypt was forced to land after a flock of seagulls was sucked into the jet's engines.

No, not that flock of seagulls:

Dumbest White Boy In the Navy

He is (soon to be was, probably) an Annapolis Midshipman, and he charged at a cab driver with a butter knife.

No, I didn't misspell that. Butter knife.

Dumbass.

Meanwhile, In McBee, SC...

...they made 50 arrests while breaking up a cockfighting ring. That's a definite rural area, the transition from the Piedmont to the Sand Hills of SC. It's noted for peach orchards; McLeod's Peaches in McBee is a popular tourist stop.

Collector-Quality Pens Made From the Deck Of USS North Carolina (BB-55).

Story.

The website if you wish to buy one of the pens is here.

The brass-and-teak Bolt Action pen is awfully tempting, but at $135 it's hard to fit it in my budget. But damn, it's a pretty pen:

Holy Week In Seville, Spain - - El Silencio

Holy week in Seville, Spain, is one of the greatest religious events on Earth. It features an entire week of processions to the cathedral, sponsored by the various churches and religious organizations known as confraternities. Each procession consists of a float carried on the shoulders of volunteers, marchers from the confraternities dressed in robes and hoods (the US Ku Klux Klan got the idea for its robes and hoods from the confraternities), and various others, many accompanied by bands. Each confraternity marches in procession on a particular day of the week. The week's climax arrives on Good Friday at dawn, called La Madruga in Seville.

Here is the confraternity that marches at dawn on Good Friday, El Silencio, named because the procession is made solemnly and with great dignity, without the band noise and boisterousness of other processions:

And here is the music composed for dawn of Good Friday in Seville, La Madruga, by Abel Moreno Gómez:

Indoctrination Chronicles #12

Parent says daughter warned by teacher for carrying Bible at local school.

The mother of a Potosi High School student said a teacher went too far when her daughter was reprimanded for carrying a Bible around school.

Angela English says her daughter, Kiela, called her from school saying a teacher yelled at her for carrying a Bible and discussing religion with a classmate.

Her daughter wasn't punished, but she says it's clear even talking about the Bible in the hallways of the high school isn't acceptable.

"Freehold" Author Michael Z. Williamson...

...has a new short story available for free on the Baen Books website. It's set in the Freehold universe.

Arrival

Dagger from Museum Replicas Limited:

Much nicer than I was anticipating, because Museum Replicas product, made in India by Windlass Steelcrafts, can be dodgy in quality at times. This dagger has a hilt of Nickel Silver.

Flytrap Poachers!

A crime only possible in coastal North and South Carolina.

You've Heard Of Peak Oil?

What about "Peak Beard?"

After years in the cultural ascendancy, covering all manner of faces from Hollywood to hipster-ville, it seems that the beard’s day in the sun might finally be over.

A new study published in the journal Biology Letters suggests that we might have reached ‘peak beard’, with the overwhelming popularity of facial hair meaning that the beard is no longer unusual enough to be attractive.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales found that when test subjects were shown a succession of clean-shaven men followed by individuals sporting anything from light stubble to Charles Darwin-style face-clouds, it was the second group that rated more attractive.

However, the opposite was also true, and when the test subjects (comprising of 1,453 heterosexual or bisexual women and 213 heterosexual men) were shown a succession of photos of men with facial hear, it was the un-bearded individuals that were deemed better looking. Novelty, it seems, is a key determinant in the attractiveness of beards.

Michael Bloomberg Brags Of Earning His Place In Heaven

" “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

I'm sensing something here...a word...hmm...starts with an "H." Hamfisted? Hack? No, that's not it...Horrible? No, that's not it either...Humble? Good Lord, no. Hubris! That's it! Hubris!

Musical Interlude

Shawn Mullins, Beautiful Wreck.