It being St. Me Day, and with a nod to The New York Times for its story on how the DOGEbags have been taking a shillelagh to the National Nuclear Security Administration — which is said to have lost “a huge cadre of scientists, engineers, safety experts, project officers, accountants and lawyers — all in the midst of its most ambitious endeavors in a generation” — we present The Bothy Band performing, “Old Hag You Have Killed Me.”
Mad Blog Media 
Well, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Patrick and Patrick.
Gotta shake my head at the NNSA purges. While most of the day to day work I did in a nuclear facility was done without ever seeing an NNSA site office staffer, if something major were to come up that involved safety, if there had been a more-than trivial fuckup, or if a major change to the facility safety basis was on the line, the NNSA guys and gals were in the loop big time. And woe to Savannah River Site, where they are trying to bring up a bomb factory from scratch. NNSA sits on your head the entire time approving things, as Terry (who in addition to being a former director, is a geophysicist and a bicyclist) says below. And there was that recent lawsuit brought by the anti-nuke folks to negotiate.
This is yet another case of “ready, fire, aim”.
From the Grey Lady: “…Terry C. Wallace Jr., who ran the laboratory in 2018, said that it carried out some of the agency’s most high-risk operations. The government is ultimately responsible both for ensuring the public’s safety and for authorizing work to proceed, he said. He is “quite certain” that fewer government staff members “will have a negative impact on the operation,” he added…”
These people. Swear to Dog. You know what else “moves fast and breaks things?” A poorly parented toddler.
We used a shortcut from Augusta GA to Florida, gated on both ends with your travel timed logged, through the Savannah River Plant. If your arrival at the exit gate wasn’t after a certain driving time, then they went looking for you. Spooky place with warning signs, fencing, and frequent patrols along the river bank if you were boating through. Lot’s of cleanup problems there if memory serves.
Savannah River was one of two sites of Plutonium breeder reactors back in the day that fed the growth of the stockpile. Other one was up in Idaho. Yeah, a lot of shit to clean up there.
Remember the fabulous Hanford Site in Washington state? Night-light for the Pacific Northwest? A buddy of mine used to work for the newspaper up to there, the Tri-City Herald. IIRC, the staff called it “The Nuke City News.”
Oh, yeah, heaven forgive me for leaving out the big Hanford operation. I once wrote a proposal to see if we could measure plutonium in fish from the Columbia River. Never got funded.
Idaho is where the experimental reactors were/are. Richland was the big production reactor site. How soon I forget, now that I am into retirement.
When my buddy Merrill was working at the Nuke City News I was at the Corvallis Gazette-Times in Oregon. I went to visit him in the Tri-Cities, once, and he came to Corvallis, once. Mostly we agreed to meet in Seattle, where he knew a shooter at one of the papers there. Whole lot more going on in Seattle than in either of our towns. Steamer clams and ice-cold brewskis, yum.
Leo Kottke once wrote a song When Shrimps Learn to Whistle. I wonder if any of those crustaceans were feeding off nuke waste? Perhaps given what we now know about humans, perhaps those Shrimps are the most intelligent species on the planet now? Or it could be octopus if you’ve seen the documentary (which will likely make you get out your handkerchief) which shows they have far more intelligence than over 50% of Americans. Ah it’s time for a wee glass of porter followed no doubt by a nap whilst I keep an eye out for ornery little guys with derby hats and red beards no less. Always after me Lucky Charms they is.
Isn’t that a wee pint of Porter? Happy Paddy’s day Herb, ole buddy! We watched Andy, niece’s husband, do the Oro Valley triathlon this past weekend. When he and niece Luz came up to our room for beers, Barrio Rojo and Dragoon Pils of course, she spied my Thule carry on bag and said she had one just like it. Your advice was on the money about that bag. A great piece of gear for short trips, or longer ones when paired with a Timbuk2 messenger bag.
How are the young folks, Paddy me lad? All y’all have a high old time in The Old Pueblo?
My man Steve Frothingham of BRAIN is down there for the Bicycle Leadership Conference at the Loews Ventana Canyon Resort (fat city, hey?).
For some reason I was not invited to be one of the speakers. Probably because I say “fuck” a lot.
They did fine. Both finished and were not the “lantern rouge.” Andy wore a jersey from our LBS, M&M Cycling. They did the Sprint event. We had a fine time, and told Andy’s buddy Matt all about our great time in Santa Fe riding with you and Khal. We splurged and hosted the kiddos at the El Conquistator Resort about a mile from the venue. I refrained from saying fuck in public. I have a little class, very little.
Most excellent. And El Conquistador! ¡Que suave! We have a Hilton card, generally overflowing with unused points, and so whenever I found myself in the Tucson area I usually overnighted at some Hilton property. El Conquistador had the easiest access to the Tucson Bike Loop of any of them. A little dated, but what a great location.
My bros and I saw Leo Kottke in Greeley Back in the Day®. Good show. Opening for him was … Steve Martin. Yes, that Steve Martin, of the arrow through the head.
Saw Kottke and Leon Redbone years back at the Ann Arbor Folk Festival. At the time I didn’t know squat about either but it’s obvious they made a HUGE impression on me based on my CD/vinyl collection. I thought Redbone was a really old guy back then, but it turned out he was playing the part and was damn good at it since he was only about 35 at the time!
Champagne Charlie is my name by golly
And rogueing n stealing is my game
I went down to Louisville
I’ve been there before
Got kicked in the butt by a big fat mule
And ain’t going back no more
Some folks thought Leon was Don Novello (Fr. Guido Sarducci). Others thought he was Tom Waits. Me, I always loved his take on “Ain’t Misbehavin'” and “Harvest Moon.”
Did someone say “Harvest Moon?”