There was a reproduction of this painting in my building lobby when we first moved in. It used to crack Mr S and I up because it was so incongruous. I had no idea at the time what the original was and how it came to be https://www.huntington.org/exhibition/stubbs-zebra
When I was a lad, there was a local sausage maker, R. B. Rice's Pure Pork Sausage, whose namesake owner had a team of zebras trained to pull a wagon advertising its product. The three zebras in the hitch were named after the company's three varieties, Mild, Medium, and Hot.
I rode horses back in my younger days as a little girl and my dad's nickname for me when we'd go riding together was "Horsefly". He's been gone for years now but anything like the article you linked reminds me of those days and brings a smile to my face and heart.
That is lovely story and I’m happy for you to have such a sweet memory.
The second house (condo actually) we owned had a horse farm as part of the property. The business combined boarding horses (some by condo owners), and a horse rescue operation, and was run by two young women.
We did some riding using the “school horses”, and got a very young Mild Jr interested. He joined Pony Club and took part in some of the events. My Grandfather sent us a gift check and we used it to buy an Arabian gelding (I forget how old he was, probably over 10), Rocky, for Mild Jr to ride.
We had him for about a month when he contracted West Nile Virus (probably because in the summer they left some of the horses out overnight in a very wet area). Sadly, Rocky died soon after we had him sent to the large animal vet hospital in Grafton, MA. The horse community was very kind, and raised some money to defray the costs (I think we donated it back to the horse rescue non-profit).
To make matters more difficult at the time, the mother of Mild Jr’s best friend died just about the same time, from a glial blastoma.
There's something special about horses and I feel really lucky to have been able to ride when I was a girl. Living in Southeast Texas, it was lots of barrel racing and pole bending for me. My dad would joke with me that he encouraged horseback riding so it would keep me away from the boys for as long as possible. That tactic didn't work as well as he hoped. LOL
I was driving in a California valley when I spotted zebras (and longhorn cattle, kind of unusual) in a pasture. Immediately parked and walked up and knocked on the ranch horse door and asked to do a story on it. They also had goats who tried to eat my jacket while we were filming, maybe because it was red? Zebras stayed well away from us, long lens time. They sure were pretty.
Trivia note...the woman who played Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless) made a movie about a some kind of hero in Africa. To pretend she was riding a zebra, she rode a horse painted with stripes! So silly.
Kirk is the subterfuge Trump needs to get is ties to Epstein out of the headlines. Look for this "Time of national mourning" to be drawn out for WEEKS.
Interesting... not one person mentioned lowering the flags to half-staff in honor of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
And that school shooting that happened on the same day as Kirks assassination...? Holy fuck - scanning AP News - not one God Damned mention today (9/12) of 9/11 or the school shooting! But link after link after link to Charlie Kirk news.
When I was a local reporter, the first thing I did in the morning if I saw a big story, like a California wildfire that eventually burned my house to the ground, I wouldn't wait for my start time to report to my station.
On the morning of September 11 so long ago, I was a writer at CNN. Same action...I was at the network at 9:30 am, my normal shift started considerably later. Video fed in we wouldn't put on the air, I'll never forget how horrifying it was.
My favorite two sentences in that awwsome WXXI story:
"Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site Tuesday in the Park Avenue neighborhood after being confronted by more than 100 protesters.
The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed."
Cho had strongly requested that the detained South Koreans be allowed to depart on terms that wouldn’t hinder future visits to the U.S., Seoul’s foreign ministry said. They should also be allowed to leave without being cuffed, Cho told Rubio, “since they are not criminals.”
Headline of article liked to the WSJ gift link, posted today at 11:34 am EST: "South Koreans Fly Home After Hyundai Raid, Without Being Handcuffed". Well, gee, isn't that nice of them. Lead paragraph: "A week after arresting more than 300 South Koreans in Georgia and alleging immigration violations, U.S. authorities let them all go Thursday without handcuffs, ending an incident that threatened America’s reputation as an investment destination."
How cute; they think that shipping a bunch of SK nationals how "without handcuffs" after kidnapping them and sticking them in a detention center ends the incident. I'm going to suggest South Korea might not see it that way.
But, hey: Li'l Marco says the CSA (formerly the USA) "welcomes" South Korean investment. Got an odd way of showing it, seems to me.
I appreciate the reminder that in this world we no longer consider all life to be precious, however I am furious at everyone under the sun trying to police my emotions about Kirk's murder. By every definition of the word, he was a stochastic terrorist. And I refuse to participate in this ongoing sophistry, especially on September 11. We will only defeat kinetic and stochastic terrorism by calling them what they are, and in this case, were.
Apparently the flight to send the South Korens back home was delay while officials debated whether the returnees should be manacled during their flight. They are going home, for pete's sake! Why would they want to escape? This kind of thinking is why ICE needs to disbanded. They're noking futz.
September 9, 2025, Kennedy stated, "We had gun clubs at school. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so and nobody was walking into schools and shooting people".
I am seven years older than Bobby. We did NOT have gun clubs in schools, although some of the rural schools, might have. I have no idea how many gun clubs there were in Hyannis Port Schools, although I could probably find out. There were none in mine: not the two elementary schools I attended, or the high school ("junior high" and "middle school" were not yet ubiquitous). If anyone had brought a gun to school, I'm 99% sure the police would have been called. Certainly NOBODY was encouraged to do so.
Buffalo NY. Also, we didn't have Bible reading every day, and only one teacher started the day with a prayer - shocking, if you only read rightwing history.
Can I possibly be the only person who says, "Wait a minute! Wotthehell are you talking about?"
Googles AI says there MIGHT have been some gun clubs in Hyannis Port, because they were all over (not in my schools), and big cities encouraged guns brought to school for target practice. Interesting...I wonder who gave AI that information because it makes a pretty blanket statement about all schools across the country.
Oh, no, he didn't go to public school. I didn't mean to infer that he did. But I don't know if in the 1960s, private schools were encouraging kids to bring guns, any more than public schools.
Yeah, I suspect some private schools and even public schools in rich places had some kind of shooting activity as a sport, skeet, or target shooting or something. And rural schools back then generally didn't have rules about rifles and shotguns in students' trucks in hunting season.
All of which is different than "encouraged to bring guns to school" and he knows it. But if it wasn't for bad faith arguments, he'd have to rely only on arguments pulled out of his ass.
Rep. Sara Jacobs's interview with Greg Sargent on his podcast The Daily Blast this morning was a welcome breath of sanity, I thought. https://newrepublic.com/podcasts
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose family has famously never been personally impacted by gun violence, suggested that back in the day there weren’t any school shootings, that kids were encouraged to bring guns to school, and that it’s all probably driven by antidepressants now."
On 9/11/01 I was watching the Today show, because that's what I had everything timed to. I just started law school, and was getting ready. I heard about the plane. Everything was still random, and I remember them saying maybe it was a little plane.
I continued to get ready.
I called my best friend in NJ, and she said her dad was going into the city but his train got stopped.
My parents were coming back from an art show and were in Kansas--though she has a different memory now, they had no idea about what was going on. In fairness, I didn't either.
I clearly remember Matt Lauer saying that one tower was leaning, and I yelled "shut the fuck up, Matt Lauer!" It didn't occur to me they could come down.
By the time I got to school, people were freaking out and scared. They set up a tv in the students' lounge and the bookstore was handing out calling cards (remember those?) for folks to use at the bank of pay phones.
We knew we weren't going to be in the mood to learn that day. My criminal law professor just let us talk, but also tried to bring it back to criminal law things.
I remember after it was SO quiet. I lived kind of near an airport but not so that I noticed until then. My neighbor was walking her dog and we both said how eerie it was that there were no planes.
When planes started up again, I totally remember how it was SO LOUD, and I kind of ducked.
I was in Alpena, MI, the morning after a public meeting. (Google it, the edge of nowhere. Probably no finer place to be when the world might be ending). Coming back from breakfast at the motel we were staying at I a saw a building on fire on the teevee in the lobby and asked the desk lady "What country is that?" Imagine my shock when she said New York City.
Lots to say here, but the main thing was the night before as I was going to sleep I heard a plane flying over my house and had a sudden terror that it would crash into the house...
Natural beauty. Your hed gif source link: https://martiniambassador.substack.com/p/reflected-zebras
And meme chat: https://open.substack.com/chat/posts/f9b5f79a-196b-4d96-8c5e-712977eacbc9?utm_source=share
Have a dirty zebra? Are their stripes in disarray?
No worries, I know someone who can help:
https://i.ibb.co/Pz9wZrTv/8dabc30878fd822e06e5040ea6d3a827.jpg
Zebras are so weird to me somehow. I think it would be weird to see them in the wild. They're so improbable?
Another Wonker - recommended this 7 x 24 Namib Desert watering hole cam - and I've seen Zebras in the distance live here.
https://www.youtube.com/live/ydYDqZQpim8?si=TcUcqVAXlv3U6KuY
We should approach our water holes
Like zebras in the night
Peacefully we'd reach our goals
As clear as black and white.
Damn, that's good. You are really talented, my friend!
As are you.
Are the zebras shy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkpG4XApJ28
Stripes at night!
They look like horse skeletons in the dark
There was a reproduction of this painting in my building lobby when we first moved in. It used to crack Mr S and I up because it was so incongruous. I had no idea at the time what the original was and how it came to be https://www.huntington.org/exhibition/stubbs-zebra
Andrew Beck's capture is just outstanding. Wild majestic zebras and art too
When I was a lad, there was a local sausage maker, R. B. Rice's Pure Pork Sausage, whose namesake owner had a team of zebras trained to pull a wagon advertising its product. The three zebras in the hitch were named after the company's three varieties, Mild, Medium, and Hot.
With a picture:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3164483970271050&set=a.5195017737217653
On the other hand, I have heard the it is virtually impossible to domesticate zebras. Unlike horses they insist on their freedom.
The trainer used to say “zebras can be trained, but never tamed.”
Marketing was different then...
Wow!
Striped Ghost Ponies gonna come for you in the night!
They're perfect, aren't they?
A very beautiful Tabs, Martini! Although, I am tempted to reference Groucho Marx and the horse in his pajamas joke.
Elephant, funnier.
Zebras seem to have evolved stripes because it confuses biting flies. The flies may circle, but when they come in on final approach they fail to decelerate and either overshoot the target or bump into it. Smart zebras. https://www.science.org/content/article/zebra-stripes-confuse-biting-flies-causing-them-abort-their-landings
They need better flight controls...
I rode horses back in my younger days as a little girl and my dad's nickname for me when we'd go riding together was "Horsefly". He's been gone for years now but anything like the article you linked reminds me of those days and brings a smile to my face and heart.
That is lovely story and I’m happy for you to have such a sweet memory.
The second house (condo actually) we owned had a horse farm as part of the property. The business combined boarding horses (some by condo owners), and a horse rescue operation, and was run by two young women.
We did some riding using the “school horses”, and got a very young Mild Jr interested. He joined Pony Club and took part in some of the events. My Grandfather sent us a gift check and we used it to buy an Arabian gelding (I forget how old he was, probably over 10), Rocky, for Mild Jr to ride.
We had him for about a month when he contracted West Nile Virus (probably because in the summer they left some of the horses out overnight in a very wet area). Sadly, Rocky died soon after we had him sent to the large animal vet hospital in Grafton, MA. The horse community was very kind, and raised some money to defray the costs (I think we donated it back to the horse rescue non-profit).
To make matters more difficult at the time, the mother of Mild Jr’s best friend died just about the same time, from a glial blastoma.
There's something special about horses and I feel really lucky to have been able to ride when I was a girl. Living in Southeast Texas, it was lots of barrel racing and pole bending for me. My dad would joke with me that he encouraged horseback riding so it would keep me away from the boys for as long as possible. That tactic didn't work as well as he hoped. LOL
That's so sweet!
So I should dress like a french mime?
YES. Definitely. All the time.
Now that is interesting!
Reminds me I wished I had a Z-pac for that sinus infection
Striped babbies are statistically at least 2.9% more expensive to raise and the mom incurs a minimum $0.30 charge for each birthing transaction.
Can you post the colour version? This one appears to be in black and white.
I was driving in a California valley when I spotted zebras (and longhorn cattle, kind of unusual) in a pasture. Immediately parked and walked up and knocked on the ranch horse door and asked to do a story on it. They also had goats who tried to eat my jacket while we were filming, maybe because it was red? Zebras stayed well away from us, long lens time. They sure were pretty.
Trivia note...the woman who played Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless) made a movie about a some kind of hero in Africa. To pretend she was riding a zebra, she rode a horse painted with stripes! So silly.
Kirk is the subterfuge Trump needs to get is ties to Epstein out of the headlines. Look for this "Time of national mourning" to be drawn out for WEEKS.
Interesting... not one person mentioned lowering the flags to half-staff in honor of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack.
And that school shooting that happened on the same day as Kirks assassination...? Holy fuck - scanning AP News - not one God Damned mention today (9/12) of 9/11 or the school shooting! But link after link after link to Charlie Kirk news.
How wretchedly sad.
When I was a local reporter, the first thing I did in the morning if I saw a big story, like a California wildfire that eventually burned my house to the ground, I wouldn't wait for my start time to report to my station.
On the morning of September 11 so long ago, I was a writer at CNN. Same action...I was at the network at 9:30 am, my normal shift started considerably later. Video fed in we wouldn't put on the air, I'll never forget how horrifying it was.
My favorite two sentences in that awwsome WXXI story:
"Federal immigration agents were seemingly forced to retreat from a roofing job site Tuesday in the Park Avenue neighborhood after being confronted by more than 100 protesters.
The group shouted “shame” and "Gestapo,” and applauded as agents in the ICE-led action drove a Border Patrol SUV away on four flat tires, which had been slashed."
🤣😆😛
Cho had strongly requested that the detained South Koreans be allowed to depart on terms that wouldn’t hinder future visits to the U.S., Seoul’s foreign ministry said. They should also be allowed to leave without being cuffed, Cho told Rubio, “since they are not criminals.”
The nerve!
When the doors on cop cars open you essentially get "Poo" and "Lice" neither of which are encouraging.
Headline of article liked to the WSJ gift link, posted today at 11:34 am EST: "South Koreans Fly Home After Hyundai Raid, Without Being Handcuffed". Well, gee, isn't that nice of them. Lead paragraph: "A week after arresting more than 300 South Koreans in Georgia and alleging immigration violations, U.S. authorities let them all go Thursday without handcuffs, ending an incident that threatened America’s reputation as an investment destination."
How cute; they think that shipping a bunch of SK nationals how "without handcuffs" after kidnapping them and sticking them in a detention center ends the incident. I'm going to suggest South Korea might not see it that way.
But, hey: Li'l Marco says the CSA (formerly the USA) "welcomes" South Korean investment. Got an odd way of showing it, seems to me.
I appreciate the reminder that in this world we no longer consider all life to be precious, however I am furious at everyone under the sun trying to police my emotions about Kirk's murder. By every definition of the word, he was a stochastic terrorist. And I refuse to participate in this ongoing sophistry, especially on September 11. We will only defeat kinetic and stochastic terrorism by calling them what they are, and in this case, were.
Apparently the flight to send the South Korens back home was delay while officials debated whether the returnees should be manacled during their flight. They are going home, for pete's sake! Why would they want to escape? This kind of thinking is why ICE needs to disbanded. They're noking futz.
September 9, 2025, Kennedy stated, "We had gun clubs at school. Kids brought guns to school and were encouraged to do so and nobody was walking into schools and shooting people".
I am seven years older than Bobby. We did NOT have gun clubs in schools, although some of the rural schools, might have. I have no idea how many gun clubs there were in Hyannis Port Schools, although I could probably find out. There were none in mine: not the two elementary schools I attended, or the high school ("junior high" and "middle school" were not yet ubiquitous). If anyone had brought a gun to school, I'm 99% sure the police would have been called. Certainly NOBODY was encouraged to do so.
Buffalo NY. Also, we didn't have Bible reading every day, and only one teacher started the day with a prayer - shocking, if you only read rightwing history.
Can I possibly be the only person who says, "Wait a minute! Wotthehell are you talking about?"
Googles AI says there MIGHT have been some gun clubs in Hyannis Port, because they were all over (not in my schools), and big cities encouraged guns brought to school for target practice. Interesting...I wonder who gave AI that information because it makes a pretty blanket statement about all schools across the country.
Bobby Jr go to a public school? surely you jest
Maybe they had gun clubs at Choate, or Groton, or Pomfret or whatever prep school Nepo-Fail Son went to
Oh, no, he didn't go to public school. I didn't mean to infer that he did. But I don't know if in the 1960s, private schools were encouraging kids to bring guns, any more than public schools.
i’m sure those snotty little pricks had skeet shooting as an extra curricular activity
Yeah, I suspect some private schools and even public schools in rich places had some kind of shooting activity as a sport, skeet, or target shooting or something. And rural schools back then generally didn't have rules about rifles and shotguns in students' trucks in hunting season.
All of which is different than "encouraged to bring guns to school" and he knows it. But if it wasn't for bad faith arguments, he'd have to rely only on arguments pulled out of his ass.
Love your work. But I’d get out of PayPal. Muskite.
Musk sold PayPal to eBay decades ago.
Rep. Sara Jacobs's interview with Greg Sargent on his podcast The Daily Blast this morning was a welcome breath of sanity, I thought. https://newrepublic.com/podcasts
"(I’m going to Rome. Are YOU in Rome the week after Thanksgiving? Hit me up!)"
I will be if I can win a ticket in the new Wonkette Raffle for Rome!
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose family has famously never been personally impacted by gun violence, suggested that back in the day there weren’t any school shootings, that kids were encouraged to bring guns to school, and that it’s all probably driven by antidepressants now."
RFK Jr. -- Clown or cretin? You decide...
Me: RFKjr has forgotten the face of his father.
My friend: Yep. Brain worm ate it
On 9/11/01 I was watching the Today show, because that's what I had everything timed to. I just started law school, and was getting ready. I heard about the plane. Everything was still random, and I remember them saying maybe it was a little plane.
I continued to get ready.
I called my best friend in NJ, and she said her dad was going into the city but his train got stopped.
My parents were coming back from an art show and were in Kansas--though she has a different memory now, they had no idea about what was going on. In fairness, I didn't either.
I clearly remember Matt Lauer saying that one tower was leaning, and I yelled "shut the fuck up, Matt Lauer!" It didn't occur to me they could come down.
By the time I got to school, people were freaking out and scared. They set up a tv in the students' lounge and the bookstore was handing out calling cards (remember those?) for folks to use at the bank of pay phones.
We knew we weren't going to be in the mood to learn that day. My criminal law professor just let us talk, but also tried to bring it back to criminal law things.
I remember after it was SO quiet. I lived kind of near an airport but not so that I noticed until then. My neighbor was walking her dog and we both said how eerie it was that there were no planes.
When planes started up again, I totally remember how it was SO LOUD, and I kind of ducked.
I was in Alpena, MI, the morning after a public meeting. (Google it, the edge of nowhere. Probably no finer place to be when the world might be ending). Coming back from breakfast at the motel we were staying at I a saw a building on fire on the teevee in the lobby and asked the desk lady "What country is that?" Imagine my shock when she said New York City.
Lots to say here, but the main thing was the night before as I was going to sleep I heard a plane flying over my house and had a sudden terror that it would crash into the house...
That had never happened before or since.