Histrionic and Narcissistic

Night sounds

2006-12-28T05:24:55Z

If everyone was together
I guess no one would be alone
Life's a lot of trade offs in the end.
Somewhere in the fields of heather
The proud souls laugh and love together
somewhere between passion and losing friends

(from Proud Souls, Jason Boland)

Six month reminder

2006-10-11T20:52:54Z

My blogging has shifted focus and moved to:

http://bbill.blogspot.com

Stealth vacation

2006-03-22T13:52:43Z

I have a confession... I spent the last five days in San Francisco, visiting with Dale (bikerbaer) and Les (nashobabear a.k.a. sfbear79). I took advantage of Dale's generosity, and what seems to be nearly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of his having actual TIME OFF (!!) for a few days while he is between jobs. I didn't tell anyone else I was coming, and other than extremely brief chance passing-in-the-street meetings with that_dang_otter and Terry (don't know his last name, the big tall one with all the hair and beard) I didn't visit with anyone else. My profound apologies to other dear friends that I missed (especially ogam!!), but this was the first chance for actually visiting with Dale after about 2 years of constant correspondence, spanning several major upheavals in his life including one that was nearly fatal. And it truly is an exceedingly rare thing for Dale to have more than just a brief, rushed weekend off from work... so we decided to make it a quiet private visit. Next time, I PROMISE, I'll make time for more socializing!

Narcissistic afternoon

2006-03-12T23:03:19Z

Transplanting daffodils

About American old houses

2006-03-10T17:27:04Z

One thing that our Brit and European friends might not appreciate when we deal with 100 year old buildings as "old" and "historic." This is on beyond the relative shortness of our history versus old world history...

Given the American obsession with "new" and "updated," even architectural styles from as recent as the first half of the 20th Century are lost rapidly. In some ways it is like endangered species conservation. This area where I live was settled in the late 19th Century (shortly after our civil war, and after al the natives had been removed) by german and swiss immigrants. Yet, in the entire county there is exactly ONE surviving example of the 19th century swiss-style gingerbread that was in wide use at the time: OUR FRONT PORCH. All the rest have been "updated," which means torn down or allowed to rot, and replaced with something bought at Home Depot. Of those wonderfully rustic hand-tooled limestone chimneys that predominated in the 19th century across this region, only a handful remain intact and standing in the county -- and we own two of them. My mom's turn-of-the-century Queen Ann is almost unrecognizeable inside and out -- no chimneys, no fireplaces, vinyl siding, cheap panelling, linoleum, and slapped on additions that have destroyed its lines. That is the normal condition for anything built before 1950 in this nation, unless it was just torn down entirely.

An offense that should be criminal

2006-03-10T15:36:18Z

Gluing linoleum down on an oak floor.

On second thought, just simplify that to:

Linoleum.

Pinched from "Misquoting Jesus"

2006-03-02T04:25:17Z

As a demonstration of the difficulty of interpreting text with no spaces between words:

"Lastnightatdinnerisawabundanceonthetable."

So was I tripping, or just well-fed?

Stinking predators

2006-03-01T14:41:17Z

Night before last we were awakened by sounds of distressed chickens. Dashed outside with flashlight to discover a great horned owl in the chicken house closest to our house, having entered through a gap in the roof. No harm done to any chickens yet, and the owl was throughly panicked, unable to find a way out. Being careful to stay out of the way of snapping beak and slashing talons, I opened the door, got myself out of the way, and the owl flew off into the night in that amazing silent way. I'd never been that close (like, two feet) to a wild great horned owl before. And one of the first things I noticed was...

The STINK!!

I've heard about it from raptor rescue people, and been told that museums hate freshly-arrived great horned specimens because of the stink. Seems that one of the major components of the diet of a great horned owl in the wild is... skunks. It was so strong that when I came back to bed Peggy could smell it on me, and I had not even touched the bird. The next morning the chicken house still smelled of skunk, and had I not seen the owl I would have been certain that a skunk had broken in during the night.

Trade off -- does the owl itself do more damage to the chickens than the benefit it creates by eating all those skunks (and minks and possums and raccoons and weasels) who are fond of eggs and chickens, too?

Blaming victims...

2006-03-01T14:30:32Z

About New Orleans -- saying that parts of the city should not have been residential areas and should not be rebuilt as such is not blaming the victims. It is a criticism of city planning, which the individual victims had little, if any, part in. Now the city has the opportunity to make difficult choices that will improve the situation permanently, and provide fair and just compensation for those who will suffer from these choices. But they seem to be talking themselves out of doing so.

Unnatural disaster

2006-02-27T23:46:33Z

I'm listening to all the residents of New Orleans talking about how the Katrina flooding was a man-made, not a natural disatser (as a justification for rebuilding the city just like it was).

Yup, they're right. It was a man-made disaster -- caused by having a huge city with way too many people living in really stupid places for neighborhoods to exist!

Beauty

2006-02-27T22:47:49Z

Now that I have lowered the scaffolding around the porch (to continue working my way downwards), the upper parts that are all painted, golf-leafed, and inscripted are much more visible from the street. Neighbors are slowing down as they pass, and last Saturday while I was out there scraping away one stopped to holler up at me.

"It looks beautiful," she said. "I would never have the patience to do that!"

Been thinking about that comment ever since. It may encapsulate so much of the early 3rd millenium in Western Civilization.

Beauty just isn't worth the bother, it seems...

Chickens don't skate

2006-02-19T17:31:18Z

At least not very well.

Snowmelt runoff from the road into the front yard, refrozen by the single digit temps overnight, resulting in a little skating rink right in front of the house. It's's very entertaining watching the chickens try to walk across it.

Looks like wyoming out there

2006-02-18T13:59:39Z

Except for all the trees....

mid 20s, light dry powdery slow falling and blowing all around

Latin grammarians: Libri, Libre, Libro?

2006-02-15T16:03:24Z

The latin motto translated "Beware a man with only one book" I have seen rendered variously as:

Cave ab homine unius libri
Cave ab homine unius libre

with disagreement as to the declension of liber (book). Now, I looked it up, and it looks to me like BOTH are wrong. "With Book" should be the ablative, yes? In which case it should be:

Cave ab homine unius libro

Libri is genitive singular, and libre is not a form of liber at all.

And now to confuse the issue even further, homine is the singular ablative of homo. Shouldn't it be accusative (object of cave), which would be hominem? That would be consistent with Cave canem.

So now I'm down to:

Cave ab hominem unius libro

Can anyone confirm or correct me on this???

EDIT: I suppose the genitive for libri could be correct if you mean to imply the man is of the book; i.e owned or governed by the book. But still you would need hominem, yes?

EDIT AGAIN: OK the preposition "ab" seems to be misplaced, and confusing the structure here. Dropping it, one gets a simple sentence..

CAVE HOMINEM UNIUS LIBRI beware a man of [governed by] one book

Mothers...

2006-02-15T14:09:25Z

Peggy just sent me an e-mail she had received from her mother. It was a lengthy explanation of why you should always use BCC when you send to multiple recipients, and why you should always delete e-mail addresses from the included headers of forwarded e-mails.

Peggy's mom sent this out with a long, publicly visible, multiple recipient "To" list...

Bless her little heart

Morning birds

2006-02-14T23:20:43Z

Bird notes from this morning at...

http://bbill.blogspot.com/2006/02/valentines-notes_14.html

Can you hear her now?

2006-02-13T15:22:02Z

A while back I posted a quot from Molly Ivins to the effect of "Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president, listen." Someone replied that we should ALWAYS listen to Molly Ivins.

OK, is everyone listening now?

"AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.

Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges. "

Full column at:

http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/1/2006/1304

Unfortunately, that sort of contemptible little dodging seems to be exactly what gets someone the Democratic presidential nomination. And what makes it so easy for the NeoCon political war machine to rip them to shreds in the popular media (which they OWN, do not forget). The warlords must be clapping their hands in glee at the thought of running against Hillary. Alas, I have little hope that the Democratic political machinery will fail to nominate Senator Clinton or someone made of a similar mix of Wishy and Washy. Thus, I fear that in January, 2009 we will be watching the coronation of Die Kaiserin Kondolihza Rais, continuing the Reich for another eight years... at the end of which our government and society may be scarcely recognizable. I know I said that 2004 in the US was not Berlin in 1936, but if the NeoCons do get 4 more years, I suspect 2012 may well be.

Does that thought give you the screaming heebie jeebies? GOOD. Now lets find someone WITH A SPINE, not just a name and political connections, to run against the NeoNa... I mean NeoCons.

Four years ago...

2006-02-13T04:59:04Z

...we were in Prague... the Winter Olympics coverage on Czech TV was mostly of curling, a sport we Americans just seem utterly unable to comprehend. The night of the Czech-Russia hockey match up, we walked to Old Town square to watch the game with a mob of thousands on a giant high-def TV screen erected amongst the grand medieval architecture, with the statue of Jan Huss watching alongside us all, the masses waving the flag of their ancient nation and its decade-old government. What an encapsulation of Europe at the turn of the millenium, I remember thinking. The Czech team lost, and thousands of Bohemians adjourned for a beer and a bowl of goulash. Had the Czech team won, the mob of Bohemians would have adjourned for a beer and a bowl of Goulash. Not much fazes those Bohemians. After watching Nazi tanks roll in to town from one direction, Russian tanks roll in from the other direction, empires rise and fall around them... what's one hockey game?

Knee Deep in the Big Muddy

2006-02-07T22:56:53Z

But the Big Fool says "Push On!"

Yes, I know, the "Big Muddy" may not be the best geographic metaphor here, but it's the thought that counts.

We've got a new name for it... the "Long War:"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1704004,00.html

This is getting more Orwellian by the day.

P.S. My Mom says that JC did not even shake Shrub's hand at Coretta's funeral today. Good for him!

Hmmm...

2006-02-07T13:56:06Z

15 days since the last time anyone left a comment here

Return from Hell

2006-02-07T03:35:42Z

I have to say... yet again... I HATE ATLANTA!

It is just so draining... so loud... so frantic... so frustrating... so mediocre.

Nothing grand to report from the dog show. The bitch classes in ridgebacks were very competitive, between 17 and 23 girls each day and many of them were quite fine. Given this, the fact that Ruby placed third in her class on Friday (nothing on the other two days) was a quite respectable showing even if it didn't earn her any points. The judging was good, and the Best of Breed winner all three days was Code Red, the top Rhodie in the U.S. for 2005, a quite handsome boy. Plus both he and his handler are nice in temperament too. One of the other handsome boys did give him a serious run for his money, I thought. You might see Red a.k.a. Mojave if you watch the Westminster KC dog show on TV, good chance he'll be the BOB Rhodie there. I have seen him fail to win the breed once or twice, but it doesn't happen very often.

One thing you learn pretty quickly on the dog show circuit... the handlers and breeders can be real snots and SOBs sometimes, but the dogs are just dogs. Even the Westminster winners are just dogs with flapping tongues and wagging tales when you stop to say "hi" to them at ringside. They don't know or care about national rankings.

Back to my favorite city

2006-02-02T23:20:40Z

Three day dog show in Atlanta, starting tomorrow. Will be leaving before dawn tomorrow, back late Sunday.

Ah those progressive Europeans

2006-01-31T22:03:22Z

Truly lovers of freedom, diversity, and acceptance... so long as you are white, secularized, of christian ancestry, and speak one of the handful of major European languages...

Netherlands move to ban the Burqa:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5181079

That's the way to do it, liberate Islamic women by passing laws dictating how they must dress. Oh, and they are also considering requiring citizens and residents to speak only Dutch in public.

Now if crap like this would only help us remember why we had that revolution and get us back to our own imperiled fundamental principles of liberty.

Time warp

2006-01-26T15:35:59Z

I drove Mom down to Atlanta Tuesday-Wednesday so she could see one of her grandaughters' high school basketball games. Her dad/my brother has been trying to get her to come down all season, but she's not up for the drive herself. Atlanta... one of my less favorite environments to be immersed in. People and traffic and noise EVERYWHERE; my brain wanted to find a quiet place to escape. Driving driving driving. And lousy food that everyone else raves about. Ordered the CRAYfish salad (where do they call them thangs CRAYfish anyway except in zoology laboratories?), and the friggin' things arrived BREADED and FRIED! It could have been anything inside those lumps of fried bread. When did we start throwing breaded and fried food pieces in salads? Silly me, I should have asked, I just assumed they'd be steamed or broiled or sauteed and have flavor and texture, the way we used to cook 'em in South Carolina and the way they were cooking 'em in Louisiana right up until last August 29th. I'd never seen a chicken-fried CRAYfish... oy. This is an innovaton we can well do without.

I have had very little contact with the Old School since graduating 27 years ago. It was odd, to say the least, to find that so many of the main characters are still right there where I left them. Just a lot grayer. Getting together with my old math teacher for the first time in forever was really nice. He's a bigfoot of a fellow - 6'7", 'bout 300 pounds, long beard, broken teeth from street hockey, and recognized as an exceptional math teacher at a national level. Where else could I have gotten differential equations and linear algebra as a high school sophomore? He used to spend his summers in the Yukon; lately with some health issues he spends them in the US rockies. He gave me "some old bird books" that he had inherited from an Uncle: the three volume set of "Birds of Massachussetts and Other New England States" by Edward Howe Furbish, color plates of illustrations by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Allan Brooks, published 1925-1929. It's one of those wonderful old State bird tomes, with pages of information about each species instead of just a short paragraph, and full naturalistic watercolor portraits of the birds in habitat by the most prominent bird artist of his generation.

As for the basketball... well the girls had an off night.

Splitting

2006-01-24T00:29:09Z

I've started moving some of my blogging to another site -- mostly the farming and birding and etc. stuff that is more suitable for mass consumption. I'll duplicate a lot of the posts here; mostly just the more narrowly focused bird stuff will be exclusive to there. I've duplicated a bunch of my archives over there; there's nothing more than a few days old that y'all haven't already seen here. The other site is:

http://bbill.blogspot.com/