Purple Cow Vineyards

Jon's Simpsons Episode Idea

So it's not about wine.  Sooooo whhattt?!  I don't have a red phone to Groening's office and this is the only publicity I get.  Copyright 2009, Jon Armstrong:

The episode starts with Marge looking through her senior yearbook.  She develops a longing to reconnect with her high school youth.  It turns out she's lost contact with everyone and tries many unsuccessful approaches until Mrs. Lovejoy advises Marge to try online at "Fakebook".  Sure enough, through "Fakebook", Marge finds and reacquaints her old friends.  Then she develops jealousy because everyone on "Fakebook" seems to have a better life than she.  In order preserve her pride, she begins to lie on "Fakebook".  She starts staging home videos of the kids.  She uses Photoshop to doctor the faces Bart makes on photos, she starts lying about how she's "feeling right now".  She gets lots of great feedback and her old friends attempt to meet in person.  Once she realizes that she cannot continue the lies in person, she publishs ("Tweaks") that she's been a phoney on "Fakebook".  This creates a cascade of similar admissions and the fakes on "Fakebook" ultimately bring down the institution since no one wants to reconnect with, as Homer describes, "losers like themselves".

What do you guys think?  Comment to attract the attention of the show's producers.

2009 Growing Season Progress

Here is some fun data to look at.  It is the accumulated heat for May and June.  The orange line is this season.  It is the sum of the number of degrees the mean (average) temperature for that day exceeds 50oF.  Example: If the high was 70 and the low 50, the avg was 60 and you got 10 degree days.  It goes flat at yesterday's date since we don't have data for the rest of June yet.  Despite a slow start to the season, we have roared forward.  Now we're on pace with the warmest years of this decade.  The most interesting annecdote I can offer is that this year has not felt hot.  The graph is driven by warm lows more than hot highs.  I expect bloom to start on the 19th or 20th of June, about 1.5 weeks earlier than 2008. -Jon-

Ch..ch..ch..ChANGes

That's as much tribute to David Bowie as you'll ever get from me.  Real news here is that 2006 Gabriela and 2007 Muscat are sold out.  Boom, there you have it.  In the case of Gabriela, we are changing direction and the new product isn't ready yet.  As for Muscat, well, we're releasing the 2008 this coming weekend.  It should last a few months.