Greek voters dealt a blow to eurozone hopes that Athens will stick to its austerity commitments as parties opposing more cuts, including neo-Nazis, won almost 60-percent support in an election Sunday.
According to updated exit polls, the two main parties suffered heavy losses, with the conservative New Democracy and the left-wing Pasok getting just 32.0 to 34.5 percent between them, down from 77.4 percent at the last polls in 2009.
New Democracy, led by Antonis Samaras, remained the largest party but it fell short of an absolute majority in parliament.
Samaras, as leader of the biggest party, will be tasked with forming a new government by the president, but observers say he will have difficulty forming an administration able to maintain Greece's austerity drive and implement more cuts demanded by the country's creditors.
"We are ready to assume the responsibility of forming a national salvation government with two exclusive goals: to keep the country in the euro and amend the policies of the memorandum," Samaras said late Sunday.
Athens has already committed to finding in June another 11.5 billion euros ($15 billion) in savings in the next two years.
New Democracy obtained about a fifth of support this time, well short of the share needed for an absolute majority in parliament and down from 33.5 percent three years ago.
The other main player Pasok saw its score decimated, polling only 13-14 percent compared to nearly 44 percent in the last elections. The party even looked set to be relegated to third place by the leftist Syriza, which scored 15.5-17.0 percent, more than triple its 4.6 percent of 2009.
"The ruling parties have been struck by an earthquake," shadow foreign minister Panos Panagiotopoulos said on television channel Mega.
Panayotis Petrakis, economics professor at Athens University, expressed hope however that new French president-elect Francois Hollande "would prevent Europe treating us too harshly. There is still a little room for manoeuvre."
Petrakis told AFP that the most likely outcome was another "government of technocrats" headed again by outgoing premier Lucas Papademos, or fresh elections.
Evangelos Venizelos, Pasok leader and the finance minister who negotiated the second bailout, called for a "national unity government" among pro-European parties but admitted this will be "clearly difficult."
Neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn was also set to enter parliament for the first time since the end of the military junta in 1974, with 6.5-7.5 percent, making it the sixth-biggest party in the 300-seat chamber with some 20 lawmakers.
Leader Nikos Michaloliakos said his party would fight against "world usurers" and the "slavery" of an EU-IMF loan agreement he likened to a "dictatorship".
"The time for fear has come," he said.
Independent Greeks, a new right-wing party set up by New Democracy dissident Panos Kammenos, polled around 11 percent to become the fourth-biggest party, followed by the communist KKE on 8.0-9.5 percent.
The Democratic Left, a Europhile new leftist party, notched up 5.5-6.5 percent. In total seven parties were set to enter parliament compared with just five after the last election.
Both Pasok and ND have said they want the "troika" of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank to cut Greece more slack in their two bailout deals worth worth 240 billion euros ($314.0 billion).
But with voters angry at the austerity cuts demanded in response, many of the smaller parties, including possible kingmaker Syriza, want to tear up the agreements.
The communist KKE party want to leave the eurozone and the neo-Nazis say they want to stop servicing Greece's debts, an aim shared by Kammenos who wants to turn to Russia to prop up the country.
"The parties that signed the memorandum (with the EU and the IMF) are now a minority. The public verdict has de-legitimised them," Syriza head Alexis Tsipras said, calling the election a "message of overthrow".
Greece's creditors, not least paymaster-in-chief Germany, the main proponent of austerity before growth, have little appetite to loosen the bailout terms, let alone consider a third rescue.
In ominous comments widely quoted by Greek newspapers on Saturday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that if Greece's new government deviated from its commitments, the country would "bear the consequences."
"Membership of the European Union is voluntary," he said in Cologne.
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Chipper Jones was none too happy with Jamie Moyer during Saturday?s game, not after the 49-year-old left-hander accused of him of relaying signs from second base.
The incident took place in the fifth inning, when Moyer stepped off the rubber and said a few words to Chipper at second base. MLB.com has the quotes:
?That was all on Jamie Moyer,? Jones said. ?He woke a sleeping giant tonight. He started chirping and it went all downhill from there. He accused me of relaying a sign down 6-2 with a 3-0 count to Brian McCann. I have never relayed a sign to anyone while I?m on second base.?
Moyer declined to discuss the matter after the game, but Chipper had more to say:
?I don?t know what the problem was,? Jones said. ?I was literally having a conversation with the shortstop [Troy Tulowitzki] when he stepped off and said that. I don?t know why he?s so paranoid. But to be honest with you, every pitch he throws is 78 [mph]. So it?s not like we really have to relay signs.?
The AJC?s David O?Brien tweeted this afternoon that Chipper said Moyer is ?paranoid? about sign stealing because he comes from a team, the Philies, that always does it.
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Staff Sergeant David Thatcher, center, is saluted as he enters the USS Hornet before a news conference to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Tokyo attack by the Doolittle Raiders in Alameda, Calif., Saturday, May 5, 2012. Survivors of a daring World War II aerial bombing of Japan are gathering in Alameda on the 70th anniversary of the attack. The "Doolittle Raiders" have been credited with lifting the nation's spirits after Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Staff Sergeant David Thatcher, center, is saluted as he enters the USS Hornet before a news conference to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Tokyo attack by the Doolittle Raiders in Alameda, Calif., Saturday, May 5, 2012. Survivors of a daring World War II aerial bombing of Japan are gathering in Alameda on the 70th anniversary of the attack. The "Doolittle Raiders" have been credited with lifting the nation's spirits after Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, right, talks with USS Hornet volunteer Roger Felton as they look at an old photograph before a news conference to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Tokyo attack by the Doolittle Raiders on the USS Hornet in Alameda, Calif., Saturday, May 5, 2012. Survivors of a daring World War II aerial bombing of Japan are gathering in Alameda on the 70th anniversary of the attack. The "Doolittle Raiders" have been credited with lifting the nation's spirits after Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Major Thomas Griffin, seated at right, shakes hands with Lt. Col. Chu Chen as he enters the USS Hornet before a news conference to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Tokyo attack by the Doolittle Raiders in Alameda, Calif., Saturday, May 5, 2012. Also pictured at left is John Fu. Survivors of a daring World War II aerial bombing of Japan are gathering in Alameda on the 70th anniversary of the attack. The "Doolittle Raiders" have been credited with lifting the nation's spirits after Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Staff Sergeant David Thatcher, from left, Major Thomas Griffin, Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, and Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, granddaughter of Gen. Jimmy Doolittle, are shown before a news conference to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the Tokyo attack by the Doolittle Raiders in Alameda, Calif., Saturday, May 5, 2012. Survivors of a daring World War II aerial bombing of Japan are gathering in Alameda on the 70th anniversary of the attack. The "Doolittle Raiders" have been credited with lifting the nation's spirits after Pearl Harbor. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) ? Three of Doolittle's Raiders who helped boost American morale during the early days of World War II recalled the dangers of their bold bombing attack on Japan mainland.
Airman Edward Saylor didn't expect to come back alive when his B-25 set off on the 1942 mission.
"Some of the group thought they'd make it," Saylor said Saturday. "But the odds were so bad."
Saylor and the other 79 Doolittle's Raiders were forced to take off in rainy, windy conditions significantly further from Japan than planned, straining their fuel capacity. None of the 16 planes' pilots had ever taken off from an aircraft carrier before.
Saylor and two other raiders, Maj. Thomas Griffin and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher ? all in their 90s now ? recalled their daring mission and its leader, Lt. Col. Jimmy Doolittle, at a commemoration Saturday aboard the USS Hornet in Alameda, across the bay from San Francisco.
Their mission has been credited with boosting American spirits at a critical time, less than five months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and with Japan sweeping through the Pacific. The bombing inflicted only scattered damage, but lifted spirits at home while shaking Japan's confidence.
But it did not come without a price.
Three raiders were killed while trying to land in China. Eight were captured by the Japanese, of which three were executed and a fourth died of disease in prison.
The Japanese also killed Chinese villagers suspected of helping many of the airmen escape.
Griffin recalled ditching his plane when it ran out of fuel after the raid and parachuting to the ground in darkness.
"I got out of my airplane by jumping real fast," he said. "It was a long, strange journey to the land down below."
Griffin landed in a tree and clung to it until daybreak.
Saturday's event was held in conjunction with the 70th anniversary of the raiders' April 18, 1942 mission. It also included: Doolittle's granddaughter, Jonna Doolittle Hoppes; two seamen aboard the carrier the raiders left from, the USS Hornet CV-8, Lt. Cmdr. Richard Nowatzki and Lt. j.g. Oral Moore; and a Chinese official who as a teenager helped rescue the raiders, Lt. Col. Chu Chen.
The American airmen remembered Doolittle as a great planner who knew his aircraft and fought alongside them.
Hoppes said her grandfather, who was born in Alameda and died in 1993, was very proud of the men on the mission.
"I grew up with 79 uncles in addition to the ones I really had," she said. "He was just very proud of how they turned out."
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Episode 108:
Same tree, different angle.
Bird house becomes mouse house?
I found it interesting that the inside of this tree was hollowed out a bit. Obviously it had already been cut, but had it already been like that? Or did some intrepid animal quickly think that a little digging out the tree remainder could become a nice home?
Poor little fence.
This was just a pretty view.
Yup, already starting to be cut down to size, but the damage to the fence remains.
As a kid I was always sort of amazed by the ability to age a tree by counting its rings.
I am still pretty amazed by it, but also by the images that can be captured/created over the years.
Poor trees.
This storm was no joke.
No joke at all.
This tells the story of one tree falling on another, and that one also succumbing to the wet ground and strong winds.
Yup. They went down together.
Whooooooooosh.
And on a political note. The jerks who put these stickers on these signs are, I'm sure, quite disappointed with the results of our election. I, frankly, can't understand how we can be so divided about issues that seem so obvious. Gay marriage is a civil rights issue and anyone who feels like it is anything else than that is a terrible combination of ignorant and hateful. I know that's not very charitable, but for me it's true. Though I am not gay, it hurts me to the core to think that people truly think they are somehow 'better' or 'more worthy' of the rights and privileges that come with a legally recognized marriage. I think for many of us with that basic vantage point, the true thing that 'sticks in our collective craws' is the fact that extending the rights of marriage, or serving openly in the military, for gay/lesbian/etc does not in any way actually affect the lives of people who oppose it. They think it does. But seriously, they are wrong. I'm getting angry and sick just thinking about this, so I'm going to end it. But I do have to write some sort of something about just how I feel about the strange polarization that's going on and how it's hard to figure it out.
And then there was this. They went hard with the food this time around. I told T. later that I felt like a few of the past events that I had attended served wonderful dishes, though it seemed like some of them were reiterations of similar plates from previous pairing nights. This particular night it seemed like he and his wunderstaff had found a little new passion/were rejuiced creatively (which is a term people use all the time). So. Maine lobster risotto with lime zest, shellfish emulsion and black truffles. Y'all. Come on. Do I need to tell you that the creaminess of the risotto matched with succulent bites of lobster and complemented overall with that rich emulsion was just outstanding? Do I? Well. I just did. 
And it kept coming. I believe this was my actual fave sparkling of the night: Cremant de Loire, Baumard, NV, from the Loire Valley area. Paired with Taleggio, which is a cheese that will never steer you wrong. 
And then there was the oyster-leek chowder with pont neuf and paddlefish caviar. I had to look up pont neuf. It basically means pomme frite, only suggests a thicker cut fry. You're welcome. So this here chowder. We all commented on its richness. There is no doubt that heavy cream played a big part in its overall luxury, but there was depth to the flavor. Heavy cream used with a heavy hand but no especially creative mind will just be fatty. Yes, it will taste good but it won't be all that special. This, on the other hand, had the oyster/leek element going on. Leeks. When I was a kid, we'd go to a family friend's for Thanksgiving. I feel like my mother or the hostess would often make leeks, usually baked with cheese or cream of some kind. But as a kid I didn't get it. I didn't even try them. I stuck to creating mashed potato mountains with secret reserves of gravy hidden beneath their peaks. I've lately been ruminating on leeks, and their specific taste and just how unlike any other of their onion cousins they are. All to say, yummy. The fried oyster was so great I exhibited significant self-control when it came to not devouring it in one bite. And the 'pont neuf' was a nice touch too. 
This is LW turning her eyes to the heavens in appreciation for the meal she had already begun to receive. 
And here is the Coach Farms Peppercorn Brick goat's cheese. I liked the addition of the peppercorns, which certainly added a bit more of a kick to the whole shebang. 
With the goat's cheese we enjoyed Brut Rosé "Timido," Scarpetta from Italy. It was a very pretty wine and perhaps my second favorite. 
The hits kept coming with the food. Here you'll see crisp pork belly with quince mostarda and rose-vadouvan. Words I also had to look up. I'm not as big a fan of quince as some. My feeling towards them is similar to my feelings on figs. I understand that there is hype and but I don't 100% buy it. That personal preference aside, damn, look at that fatty tasty piece of pork won't you? A little unwieldy when it came to eating (the crisp part was hard to cut) but that only made the pay off more worth the while. 
Final glass was Champagne "Cuvee Sainte, Anne Brut," Chartogne Taillet. Actually maybe this was my favorite. Ha. So basically they all were. The cheese with this was the above Delice de Bourgogne, which I think I first found and enjoyed back in my Chicago days. 
Our last dish was roasted monkfish with snapper saupiquet and marjoram. Snapper in this instance, unless I totally misunderstood, was turtle. While my faves were - unsurprisingly - the dishes featuring heavy cream, lobster, truffles and oysters, this little plate was a delicate reminder that you don't always need loads of fat to make something delightful to the tongue. 
Another great event that introduced me to new wines, gave me the change to reacquaint myself with a few of my favorite cheeses, and gave me a renewed appreciation for the collective creativity of McCrossen's kitchen.
Episode 108:
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LB's mother brought us all funny glasses, which we wore throughout the day. RPM went with the martini glasses. 
This lady also did my hair. As a woman who doesn't own a blow dryer, I wasn't entirely sure how much information or direction I needed to give her. Or, rather, I wasn't capable of giving that much information or direction. But I had discussed my hair preliminarily with LW and MP in the office, so I did say that I was hoping for a low chignon and some sort of braid component. You'll see my hair soon enough. The four stylists did a really great job, I don't feel like they rushed any of our looks, and even though my hair was done by 11, it held up for the remainder of the day and all the way into the evening. 
LB's hair took many more steps, which befits the role of bride. So there were a lot of moments when we just congregated around her as she was blown out, curled up, sprayed etc. 
In addition to glasses, there were also snacks and mimosas for us, but somehow I took zero photographs of the spread. 
I did, however, make sure my glasses were documented. I was the only one who didn't think to wear a button down shirt, which became a challenge when it was time to put on my dress without ruining my hair. I managed. I also managed to forget a very important undergarment at my apartment, which led to a anxious period of time when my hair was still getting done, but all I could think about was catching a cab, getting home, picking the item up and returning before everyone else's hair was done. It turned out just fine. 
J. gave LB a massage, which LB loved...but she was quite shocked by just how strong J.'s hands were. 
BC was also rather amazed. 
My hair. 
LB's hair in transition. 
Cuties. 
LB's hair in a light hairspray mist.
Once a good number of us had our hair complete, we started a migration back to the Union League for the next part of the journey: makeup. While this day was totally not about me, I gotta tell you, my makeup was really quite good. But somehow I didn't think to ask anyone to take any photographs of me when it was fresh, and even throughout the night I didn't really get as many photos as I should have. Actually, I was so concerned about what to do with my camera during the ceremony that I handed it over to LW hours earlier than I should have, thus missing out on many of the best stages of the prep process...I took photos with LB's camera, but that means I don't have them to share. In any case, here is LB getting her makeup did. 
There were also snacks and champagne in the suite while we all got made up and ready. Here, RPM and AP both enjoy a hearty laugh about something while sitting near the unpictured food...man I really just wiffed the food aspect of this day. 
The prep process went by in such a funny way. Time stopped, expanded and contracted. One moment it felt like there were so many hours to go before the bridesmaids needed to put their dresses on, next thing you know V. and I are in her room getting into go-mode. Funny aside, while I originally forgot the crazy brassiere that I purchased for the dress, I had brought two additional strapless bras just in case I had a wardrobe malfunction. Turns out that both of those bras were ultimately needed by two other bridesmaids. I'm quite pleased with my own weird craziness...I think most would agree that you don't need to bring three bras for one dress/night. And yet, actually, you do. 
I hope that I turn up in a few of LB's pro photos so I can just give you a better sense of the overall look etc.
