Krishna's Birthday!

Who knew? Looks like fun.

Cows With Guns

I know, I know... but they taste so good!!!

Born Free

Yvonne has been at large since she breached an electric fence on her farm nearly three months ago, on May 24. Since then, she's adopted a lifestyle that might be called Sherwoodian: sticking to forests, eluding police, and bringing acclaim and tourist dollars to her quaint village.

Yvonne, 6, escaped just before she was due to be sent to the slaughterhouse. But her life of freedom hasn't been without risks. She narrowly missed being struck by a police car; hunters were given permission to shoot her on sight. Food traps were laid; a beagle hunting dog was enlisted. Companion cows were sent in, to draw her out. But all to no avail.

"Yvonne knows exactly what she's doing, and she's tricking us," the manager of an animal rescue farm told a German newspaper.

The same paper, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, says that Yvonne has now become a type of freedom fighter "for the animal-loving republic."

Perhaps conceding the battle of wits — and the public-relations war — to the ruminant, officials are now hoping they can reach her through her heart. They're bringing in a male ox named Ernst, who they hope will capture Yvonne's heart, and lure her back to human society.

Thanks, Skippy

Full Story>

Teddy Bears Picnic

https://picasaweb.google.com/117442847560168618453/2011TeddyBearSPicnic?locked=true#

TV on the Radio

Hat tip to Mock Scissors Paper.

Front Room

Today In U.S. History

On this day in 1775, Congress establishes the United States Post Office and namesBenjamin Franklin the first United States postmaster general.

William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated that the royal postal service was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania Chronicle to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard, laid out a plan for a Constitutional Post before the Continental Congress on October 5, 1774. Congress waited to act on the plan until after the Battle of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Benjamin Franklin promoted Goddard's plan and served as the first postmaster general under the Continental Congress beginning on July 26, 1775, nearly one year before the Congress declared independence from the British crown. Franklin's son-in-law, Richard Bache, took over the position on November 7, 1776, when Franklin became an American emissary to France. Franklin had already made a significant contribution to the postal service in the colonies while serving as the postmaster of Philadelphia from 1737 and as joint postmaster general of the colonies from 1753 to 1774, when he was fired for opening and publishing Massachusetts Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson's correspondence.

While postmaster, Franklin streamlined postal delivery with properly surveyed and marked routes from Maine to Florida (the origins of Route 1), instituted overnight postal travel between the critical cities of New York and Philadelphia and created a standardized rate chart based upon weight and distance. Samuel Osgood held the postmaster general's position in New York City from 1789, when the U.S. Constitutioncame into effect, until the government moved to Philadelphia in 1791. Timothy Pickering took over and, about a year later, the Postal Service Act gave his post greater legislative legitimacy and the service more effective organization. Pickering continued in the position until 1795, when he briefly served as secretary of war, before becoming the third U.S. secretary of state. The postmaster general's position was considered a plum patronage post for political allies of the president until the Postal Service was transformed into a corporation run by a board of governors in 1971.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-establishes-us-post-office