Random Stuff

Kudos to my brother in law from St. Louis, who sent in this great picture of George Hincapie and Levi Leipheimer from Sunday's finish of the inaugural Tour of Missouri. It is terriffic to see three tours in the U.S. that are drawing large crowds and giving fans a chance to see pro cycling on American soil: The Tours of California, Georgia, and now Missouri. It was great to read that the people in Missouri gave such wonderful support to the teams and riders. As much as I hate to see this fantastic team dissolve, for the riders--especially the Americans on the team--it must have been a satisfying finale to what has been a spectacular run.

On the raw milk front, new rules proposed by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture will require gray coloring to be added to unpasteurized milk sold here for pet consumption. The idea is that pets won't care what color the milk is, but since many people who purchase raw milk in this state under that provision are doing so for human consumption, the addition of gray coloring will make the product look less appealing. Labeling is proposed to also be added that would say the milk was not for human consumption. We'll see whether these measures are finally adopted or not.

It finally rained in North Carolina last Friday night. We had been without any appreciable rainfall in this part of the state since June. The drought here is extreme in most counties, and while the recent rain won't break it, rain is better than no rain. Maybe later this week I'll post a blog about an absurd landscaping committee in Wake Forest that is proceeding to enforce restrictive covenants about lawn watering and maintaining green lawns even as every municipality in our area is tightening water restrictions in this drought. People are just crazy.

Duke University's football team snapped a 22 game losing streak this past Saturday, beating Northwestern. I could understand why students from little Appalachian State tore down the goal posts when they beat Michigan earlier this year, but for Duke students to do it on Saturday for beating Northwestern was just silly.