get the latest model calculator out and peck away. Ignore the facts. Total up the gains and display the losses. Great news! Unemployment is up. Wages are stagnant. Lotsa people feel that a recession is just around the corner. Hiring by U.S. companies is down for the first time in more than four years. But there might be some help wanted on Wall Street soon, because Friday's unemployment report is the stuff rallies are made of. Just a half hour into the trading day, the Dow was up 175 and the NASDAQ almost 200 (with inflation-fearing bonds whooping it up right alongside them) as investors saw visions of the long season of economic overdrive, interest-rate hikes and neurotic markets drawing to a close. In fact, there was rejoicing all across the world. First the Asian markets, then the European bourses surged — along with the yen and the euro — on the prospect of the Big Bad American Economy being brought just a little bit low. That's because the dollar, bolstered by investors and assressed by rising interest rates, has been beating up the other currencies in the playground all spring. To keep their own currency up, the Europeans especially have felt pressure to hike their own rates along with Greenspan, thus endangering the nice little expansion they've got going over in Euro-la-la-land. Now everybody from Wall Street to Wittenberg figures they can relax a little, because Uncle Alan has maybe just one more hike in him — a quarter point at the end of June — before he settles in to watch Campaign 2000 on TV. His job, after all, is safe for another three years.

Around The Garden Center.
Hell, with The World Ending as we know it, I'm sure glad I give a five year Warranty on all plant material we install. Thanks FLBS, whatever that means. And thanks to you, NASA.
Last Thursday and Friday, Summer arrived and temps were in the 90s with ensuing humdidity that wilted almost everything. Heavy-duty, serious-warning thunderstorms rolled through Friday evening and though the rain wasn't significant, temps dropped 30-40°, making Saturday and Sunday delightfully dry and cool, in the 70s.
Damned nice job, Mr. United Airlines pilot. You get the Hero of The Week Award.
On Tuesday, I took the day off and went in to Apple Hill Medical Complex at 8am to have a colonoscopy procedure done, and 2 pre-cancerous polyps were removed. Fortunately, I was well-medicated with a Valium IV-drip, so I felt nothing, but watched the entire operation on a 19" Sony, with the Doc & Nurse. I won't go into any details here, but those of you who've had it performed, know what it's like. Rainy (very heavy periods) and cold since early this morning. I slept most of the rest of the day away at the condo.
Gas at $1.98 a gallon? Oh boy, that's gonna go over like a fart in church with everyone who drives. Last week, gas at the local Getty was at $1.53.9; a week later it's at $1.61.9 and climbing.
On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, my good friend Jeff stopped by after work to "upgrade" my SAG Electronics 450 PII to a 700 PIII; I bought his "old" SAG 700Mhz processor and found a new PIII motherboard at EBay. We spent one evening getting BIOS and video driver upgrades et al, and prepping the drive unit for its new "innards". We're still struggling along with NIC Cards (3Com Ethernet), dial-up connections and overall performance.
This one might take a while. As of posting this Journal entry, my former 450 and current 700, is still in a state of disrepair. So it's all now coming to you from the 600 at the Office.
... To Be Continued ...

June's To-Do List.
Finally, Summer's here in USDA Zone 6. So here's the "list of things to do" in your gardens this month. If you get half of these accomplished, pat yourself on the back:
»Prune vines (spring-blooming clematis and wisteria) after they've flowered,
»Remove spent flowers from spring annuals to stretch the blooming season,
»Plant fall-blooming bulbs,
»Mulch flower and vegetable gardens to conserve water during hot spells,
»Plant fall-blooming perennials now,
»Thin out small green fruits on apple, peach and plum trees to one every 6 inches on the branch,
»Sow seeds of perennials directly into the ground,
» Harden off and plant seedlings of warm-weather vegetables and flowers ,
»Prune once-blooming roses after they've flowered,
»Continue to spray peach and apple trees to control fungal diseases,
»Plant balled-and-burlapped and container shrubs and trees,
»Lightly prune tips of blackberries and pinch flowers off young grapevines to form and train growth of new canes,
»Plant container roses,
»Plant balled-and-burlapped, container, and bare-root trees, shrubs, and vines,
»Fertilize and prune azaleas, lilacs, spirea and rhododendrons after they bloom.

No Sympathy.
Under the heading "Crimes and Punishments (Primitive and Savage)," the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics lists possible methods of execution: "Decapitation, strangulation, hanging, stabbing or spearing, cudgelling or flagellation, impalement, crucifixion, drowning, burning, flaying alive, burying alive, throwing from a height, stoning, sending the criminal to sea in a leaky canoe, cutting in two, lopping off the limbs. In certain regions where cannibalism prevails, criminals are whacked and eaten." One method calls for crocodiles. Hey; I like all those methods of execution. I wish all those options were open to us and the victim's family could pick and choose.
Why is society supposed to "feel sympathy" for cold-blooded murderers? And ignore the fact that the victims are still dead 15-20-25-30 years later? Hey, I have NO SYMPATHY for those lowlife, subhuman filth scum! I have sympathy — humanity — for the dead victims and their left-behind families. And NO ONE ELSE! Lib-dem scumfilth whine, wring their bony hands and wet beds over the guilty, and completely ignore the victims, innocents and future victims by trying to "rehabilitate" criminals. My idea of "rehabilitation" is a bullet through the skull.
I'm a little disappointed — no, make that very disappointed — that Dubya gave this piece of subhuman shit murderer any kind of reprieve to further test DNA evidence. It was unneeded and uncalled for by the evidence. He should have died as appointed by the courts.
Sound too harsh? Hey, what about the horrible, evil and dirty way THE VICTIM died? Of course, YOU WEREN"T THERE! YOU didn't see and feel the horror and agony the VITCIM went through. Did YOU? Nope, thought so.
This piece of subhuman filth child molester shouldn't be serving a 5 year sentence, he should be executed, as all child molesters should. There's no room in my book for scum to prey upon innocent children.
For advocating a $10,000 bounty on any dead US Border Patrol Agents, this illegal alien piece of shit needs to go to prison. ASAP. Where the f*ck's the Dept of InJustice now? Too afraid to do what's right? You bet they are. They're lib-dem, f*cking lowlife, sons of bitches, cowards.
Well, better late than never. Here's another subhuman piece of shit murderer executed and sent straight to hell; nice job, Louisiana.
Child rapist and molester and aspiring Democrat politician? Yep, execute him too.

What Bullshit!
The absolute bullshit story of the year is District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's moronic ruling which breaks MS into two distinct entities. This cretinous blubberhead shit for brains, who doesn't own and can't even operate a rudimentary computer, thinks he qualified to decide a case he knows nothing about. Typical lib-dem lowlife appointee: f*ck and penalize those who've made a success; enslave the less fortunate through welfare and other useless social programs. What does it all mean? Who knows, yet?
Knowing full well that the US Congress is full of criminals and liars, it's difficult for me to believe that they did anything worth a flying rat's ass, let alone what this idiot claims.
As with the shit-for-brains Bubba Clintonite spending hundreds of millions on "attitude polls", Britain's PM Tony Blair, a "Third Way" (read socialist-communist) crony of the Clintonistas, has spent over a billion pounds of beleagured British Taxpayers monies on private firms of "expert advisors". What a f*cking joke both those morons are.
Here's another twisted and idiotic line of non-thinking-logic from (y)our shit for brains, Liar-In-Chief, Bubba Clintonista: the Net will lift poor people out of poverty, so let's give them billions for hardware and T1 connections, and we can sleep better! Anyone out there still doubt he's a moronic moron?
And the brainless, lib-dem Blacks, still with their hands out wanting more and more of Whitey's money, are actually beginning to demand reparations for the slavery era. Idiot, racist, bigot idiots like Hutchinson can't quite figure it all out yet. And here's why. Meanwhile, African-Americans who take pride in themselves aren't interested; they're working like the rest of us and oppose taking more handouts which further disable people's ability to take responsibility for their own actions.
OJ Scumbag innocent? Bull-f*cking-shit. Someone put a bullet through that murderous idiot's empty head.
The stinking lib-dem PC shit is way out of control; now they're striking the word squaw from everywhere, because the alcoholic Injuns say it means "female indian genitalia". So what? Squaw you, lowlifes!

Corrupt Clintonistas Scum.
Just one more example of how the alcoholic, politically-compromised, sexually-challenged and mentally-diseased bull dog dyke, Janet "Waco" El-Reno, has compromised justice in the Nation. Her Dept of InJustice has manipulated the FBI to keep all investigations away from Clinton-Gore's corrupt and treasonous '96 fund raising activities-for-hire.
While the US and the World laughed at the sorry redneck, pathetic Clinton, he spent almost a billion dollars flying around the World for no cogent reason. Photo ops? Yeah, sure. The stupid son of a bitch has come away empty handed on every trip, gaining nothing.
After reading this, any doubt that Gore was closely protected by the politically compromised, sexually-challenged, alcoholic, Janet "Waco" El-Reno bitch? None, whatsoever, in any rational mind.
And after reading this, is there any doubt that Clinton has sold America out about our national safety with Russia? He's a traitor, also. Some legacy, Bubba Jeff.
When the FBI Director, Louis Freeh, says that AlGoreBoreScumf*ckerLowlife is being judiciously guarded by the politically-compromised, vastly alcoholic, mentally-diseased, Janet "Waco" El-Reno dog. Woofy, babycakes.

Things That Have Been Sold
In Vending Machines.
You won't find any fancy-pants graphics or dazzling Shockwave cartoons here. Just a plain, text-only list of various commercial items that have been delivered through automated means: model submarines, hunting permits, flower arrangements, leeches. A few relevant facts: In 1989, one could purchase blue jeans through a vending machine in a Paris train station. The short-lived Spanish Telepizza machine shouted "Hey, want a pizza?" in over 10 languages. Fry-on-the-spot french fry machines have been around for 25 years. Beer vending machines are popular in German gas stations