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Britain
Happy Solstice!!
2005-06-21
Posted by:Howard UK

#20  Lol, AP - thx! Burkean, Joycean, lol!

Just for the helluvit, lol, Molly Bloom's soliloquy from James Joyce's Ulysses...

"...I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes. "

By the wine-dark seas, wah-dee-doo-dah...
Posted by: .com   2005-06-21 20:15  

#19  The egg-thread started with the large amount of daylight we ge up in the northern latitudes at time of the summer solstice. I remarked that our chickens lay lots of eggs during time of lots of daylight hours. Connections. Heh heh. RB is like a James Burke show.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-06-21 20:01  

#18  Atomic Conspiracy wrote:

Some years ago, between my two marriages, I got friendly with an attractive but some somewhat eccentric woman who was heavily involved in the New Age movement and various pseudo-Celtic beliefs. She was awestruck when I remarked on my date and place of birth, and remarked that I must have great paranormal powers for having been born within sight of Stonehenge on midsummers day. She was disappointed to learn that I was a hard-core skeptic on such matters.

First off, happy birthday. Second, have you considered that you might have mysterious paranormal powers of skepticism?

Finally, what's that old Marx Brothers joke, about the guy whose brother thinks he's a chicken?

"We'd like to get him help, but we need the eggs..."
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2005-06-21 19:38  

#17  I have 9 hens and one extremely happy rooster. I get between 5 an 9 eggs a day. Any one need any eggs?
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-06-21 19:29  

#16  My grandparents ran a Purina feed store. My grandmother was a champion egg-candler, lol, honest. I know poultry. Poultry (KFC-style / Southern Kitchens-style or as 6-egg crab omelettes from the Captain Cook Hotel, Anchorage, I'm easy) is a friend of mine. I have no phreaking idea what it has to do with the Solstice, lol.
Posted by: .com   2005-06-21 19:24  

#15  Chickens, along with fetal pigs, make good analogs to humans in some studies. Our friend the poultry scientist teamed up with researchers from China to study a disease that strikes children in China and chickens in other places to see if they could work on a cure. Sorry, no more details; it's been a while.

Our local abortion champion claimed that aborting a child is no different from breaking an egg. Local chicken farmers were happy to set her straight.
Posted by: mom   2005-06-21 19:09  

#14  Jeeez, went looking for an image from an Egg and I and remember how freaking depressing it was.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-21 19:09  

#13  Ima in tears. They're little chickens?
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-21 19:02  

#12  I'm in awe.
Posted by: Dave D.   2005-06-21 18:58  

#11  I love the 'burg.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-06-21 18:44  

#10  Barbara---laying hens lay sterile eggs. When they are on a roll they lay about one sterile egg a day.

A rooster is needed to fertilize the eggs and to raise hell with anyone who wants to take the chicken eggs out of the nesting box.

Basic goings-on in a hen that you need to know:

The Formation of an Egg:

The Yolk: The chicken egg starts as an egg yolk inside a hen. A yolk (called an oocyte at this point) is produced by the hen's ovary in a process called ovulation.

Fertilization: The yolk is released into the oviduct (a long, spiraling tube in the hen's reproductive system), where it can be fertilized internally (inside the hen) by a sperm.

The Egg White (albumin): The yolk continues down the oviduct (whether or not it is fertilized) and is covered with a membrane (called the vitelline membrane), structural fibers, and layers of albumin (the egg white). This part of the oviduct is called the magnus.

The Chalazae: As the egg goes down through the oviduct, it is continually rotating within the spiraling tube. This movement twists the structural fibers (called the chalazae), which form rope-like strands that anchor the yolk in the thick egg white. There are two chalazae anchoring each yolk, on opposite ends of the egg.

The Eggshell: The eggshell is deposited around the egg in the lower part of the oviduct of the hen, just before it is laid. The shell is made of calcite, a crystalline form of calcium carbonate.

This entire trip through the oviduct takes about one day.

The egg-production unit (hen) runs on feed (with source of calcium), water, oxygen, and light, producing CO2, eggs, and chicken poop. End of lecture. Heh heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-06-21 18:41  

#9  Nothing to sneeze at AC! I've marked SOL's stice. It is indeed heading south.

I track local 17:00 via lines on the patio.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-06-21 18:02  

#8  Blesséd be, Atomic Comspiracy. Lucky me, I'm off to sleep under the stars tonight in my tent...
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-06-21 18:00  

#7  It just happens that today is my birthday, I was born into this world (which else?) on midsummers day 1949 in the old cathedral city of Salisbury. If you climb a really high tower, you can see Stonehenge from there.

Some years ago, between my two marriages, I got friendly with an attractive but some somewhat eccentric woman who was heavily involved in the New Age movement and various pseudo-Celtic beliefs. She was awestruck when I remarked on my date and place of birth, and remarked that I must have great paranormal powers for having been born within sight of Stonehenge on midsummers day. She was disappointed to learn that I was a hard-core skeptic on such matters.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy   2005-06-21 17:52  

#6  Uh, AP, I profess to know nothing about livestock, but don't chickens need roosters to, you know, make eggs?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2005-06-21 16:09  

#5  They have had the midnight sun baseball game in Fairbanks for years. Pretty neat tradition. Ima down in Anchorage. Gotta work. No baseball for me. I put some good darkening blinds on the windows, otherwise one wakes up and its got plenty of light at 3 or 4 am.

Needless to say we have only hens in the chichen coop, no roosters, heh. The extra light makes the chickens lay eggs like there is no tomorrow.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-06-21 15:38  

#4  AP - heard on the radio that they're having midnite baseball without lights in Fairbanks. Y'going to the game?
Posted by: Fred   2005-06-21 14:55  

#3  Damn, I gotta work late tonight - gonna miss the sacrifice. Maybe I'll catch the Beltaine or Samhain festivities.
Posted by: Xbalanke   2005-06-21 13:35  

#2  We have 19h 22m of daylight today in Anchorage. Sure hope thate we never have to sign up for solar ration cards, heh. Let 'em bring on the carbon ration cards! We have enought beetle-killed spruce trees to get around any ration scheme.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2005-06-21 11:12  

#1  Yea! More solar radiation for everyone! w00t!
Posted by: mmurray821   2005-06-21 11:04  

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