FIVE SECOND STORIES

11/23-Chilly, grey, damp November-DHS making a quick patrol.

Beginning the season of lights: 

Seen while out and about:

I have seen none in my neighborhood-I saw a pair on the Lansing Eastside.

 

11/24: Mid-40's with little wind. I mowed over more oak leaves. The sun came out now and again but it was pale, barely casting shadows.

 

Things were slow at the Diner, Juncos on the ground and a lone male Purple Finch at the feeder.

Buddy has been hanging out a lot at Benny's Diner and shed. I think there's small mammals that move around between the shed and house as I often see him in his upright, intensely watchful pose. Our tiger caught sight of me.

Later, I was on the couch and I heard him come in through the portal. I looked to see if he had a kill in his mouth and sadly he did. Evidently, he was a frustrated predator and decided to go for an easy mark amongst the avian ground hunters-he came in with a Junco. I quickly grabbed a dust pan and hand broom and gathered up the poor thing before Buddy had settled in for a feast. I scolded him for bringing in a kill. The hope is that if we can catch him and show disapproval both with our voice as well as taking away his meal, this might be a deterrent. I put the Junco out behind the brush pile. Back inside, I found a single feather.

11/26-38° with a stiff wind, feels like 28°, but at least it's sunny. The golden tree by Farm Bureau's solar array now nearly leafless but with enough for him to ask the photographer "hey, get my good side".

 

This reminded me of a post last year featuring an image from a Pink Floyd album from 1997:

11/28 Thanksgiving-it was a calm day but only in the 30's. I spent a couple of hours mowing the oak leaves in the front. Later, Buddy enjoyed hanging out with me before supper in front of the fire looking elegant with his crossed paws:

Supper: puff pastry mushroom tarts with dijon mustard and caramelized shallots, dressing, mushroom gravy and baked carrots.

The next morning 26°-it had snowed overnight. Side roads were nasty-looks like rain had begun then froze as it switched over to snow.

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In one of the latest Futurama's, there was an episode concerning time travel that dovetailed into a parody of "Back to the Future" and the problems of going to the past and having the hots for your mama. C was reminded of a novelty song from the late 40's-"I'm My Own Grandpa" which I had not heard of. Written by Dwight Latham and Moe Jaffe based on a Mark Twain tale in his 1883 book "Wit and Humor of the Age." Here is Willie Nelson's cover-and the lyrics are so mind twisting that you could quote them to a robot resulting in it screaming "THIS DOES NOT COMPUTE!!!"

Now, many many years ago
When I was twenty three
I was married to a widow
Who was pretty as could be

 

This widow had a grown-up daughter
Had hair of red
My father fell in love with her
And soon the two were wed

 

This made my dad my son-in-law
And changed my very life
My daughter was my mother
'Cause she was my father's wife

 

To complicate the matters
Even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father
Of a bouncing baby boy

 

My little baby then became
A brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle
Though it made me very sad

 

For if he was my uncle
That also made him the brother
Of the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother

 

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so

I'm my own grandpa

 

My father's wife then had a son
That kept them on the run
And he became my grandchild

For he was my daughter's son

 

My wife is now my mother's mother
And it makes me blue
Because, she is my wife

She's my grandmother too

 

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know

But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

 

Now, if my wife is my grandmother 

Then, I am her grandchild

And every time I think of it
It nearly drives me wild

 

For now I have become
The strangest case you ever saw

As husband of my grandmother
I am my own grandpa

 

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa

It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

I'm my own grandpa
I'm my own grandpa
It sounds funny I know
But it really is so
I'm my own grandpa

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A wry fable about uninformed decisions from the French animated series "Minuscule" about a beehive's search for a peaceful setting to do their work. A classic rule of three plus where the pattern and joke are extended.

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My YT feed has been jammed with the following gambling ad from BETMGM featuring Jamie Foxx. It's called the "second chance"-you bet on a player to score the first TD but instead he scores the second, you get your money back.

You could go wild with the permutations of second chance-

-if it's his mama's birthday

-it's a full moon day

-the seventh play of the 2nd quarter is made by a blonde-double your money if he is left-handed

No wonder the Feds forced the industry to include the 1-800-Gambler number if the public has a problem. Sheesh.

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Yi Peng Festival in Thailand:

Nice Ai image:

Those darn robots: Alexa does a good job making a wolf sound:

 
Just in time for Thanksgiving!: "Studies show that watching a beaver eat cabbage lowers stress by 17%"! or... imagine sitting across from a human version at a big holiday gathering:

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Adventures in FUBARland-history has been full of toxic, narcissist rulers. In this vid, hosted by the Daily Stoic, features Nero and his behaviors which sound very familiar.

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European cities placed on North American map with similar latitudes:

Yep-Paris, France is at the same latitude of Thunder Bay, Canada on the North side of Lake Superior! With this in mind, check out the following vid detailing the science of ocean currents and what may happen when they change.

Scientists have figured that currents collapsed like this during the last ice age. It took 1000 years to recover.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the world dither, dither, dither. And the US will be going backward. It's all about the money.

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 Why is the Red Sea called the Red Sea?

1. Algae blooms that turn red. However, the algae is not widespread.

2. Large underwater rocks close to shore whose minerals give the rock a red cast. Again, not widespread.

3. Most probable: many ancient mariners used color to name the cardinal directions-red=south, black=north, white=west, green=east.

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From 2004, Bob Dylan reflects on how his songwriting abilities have changed:

I don't remember hearing about this. It occurred to me that this is common with creatives-they have these magical periods when new work flows-and then it changes. I thought about other artists who were hot for a period then cooled-some into obscurity. The Beatles, Billy Joel, Gillian Welch come to mind.

 

The rise and fall of psychedelia:

Passing noted: Peter Sinfield (27 December 1943 – 14 November 2024) 

Founding member and lyricist for the prog-rock band King Crimson. When I was living with the guys at the Omega Hotel, we very much were into the prog-rock genre and his band along with Yes and Genesis were turntable staples. Their debut album "In The Court of the Crimson King" was one of the first and influential in this genre. It was unlike anything I had ever heard: dark and ominous with the surging mellotrons with lyrics to match yet on other tracks, dreamy and soft. 

One of my favs from the first album from 1969-"Moonchild". The entire song was a suite clocking in at 12:13 including "The Dream" and "The Illusion".

 

 

Call her moonchild
Dancing in the shallows of a river
Lonely moonchild
Dreaming in the shadow
Of the willow

 

Talking to the trees of the cobweb strange
Sleeping on the steps of a fountain
Waving silver wands to the night-birds song
Waiting for the sun on the mountain

 

She's a moonchild
Gathering the flowers in a garden
Lovely moonchild
Drifting in the echoes of the hours

 

Sailing on the wind in a milk white gown
Dropping circle stones on a sun dial
Playing hide and seek with the ghosts of dawn
Waiting for a smile from a sun child

 

FIRST SNOW

11/20: The Back 40 has a carpet of oak leaves from next door

11/21-First snow of the season-last year it was 10/30, 2022 11/15. It started 2-3am.

Looking East, Mr. Burning Bush.

Back 40

Johnnie's Burning Bushes

Across the street

Typical with first snows, it melted by noon.

 
Inside where it's warm and snug, Chester encountering a clever Halloween critter/lolly that C picked up at work

 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

We've had mild weather recently-warmish days with cool nights-often overcast skies and a bit of rain. Johnny's oak has finally turned but oak leaves are quite tenacious when it comes to hanging on. Colder weather is coming this coming week and the "s" word is being uttered although no accumulation predicted. 

One bright morning with rain clouds off to the West:

Mr. Purple Finch with his natty purple pink swath on his lower back:

 

Glowy tree behind the Farm Bureau complex:

 

This morning (11/18), the Turkey Bros were hard at it with the foraging:

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Adventures in FUBARland 

Roach and his toadies have unleashed a tidal wave of bat-shit crazy ideas and cabinet nominations which seem to be designed in part to severely yank the chain of those "pearl-clutching, woke libtards". Naturally, the result has been creating a large amount of op-eds. That's all well and good but what is needed is a cohesive plan to combat these bastards. And yes, this is gonna be the gutter fight, one that they have wanted and worked towards since the Nixon administration. 

These nominations brought to mind the old Holiday Inn Express ads:

This is the grim reality that we are facing and what I find so disturbing is that these brilliant plans all involve cruelty of some kind, purposely designed to inflict suffering. Is this what people truly voted for or did they think Roach was just being an entertainer akin to the fake WWF? What do they think will happen when all those illegals are yanked outta the Tyson chicken processing factories? Supply will dwindle and the price of anything left will skyrocket. This is fundamental economics, for Christssakes. They'll soon be whining for the good old days when old Joe was around. 

No chicken tenders for you!

 

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Speaking of robots, we have begun re-watching Futurama. For those unfamiliar, Futurama was created by Matt Groening who also created The Simpsons. 

A slacker pizza delivery guy who is on a delivery on New Year's Eve 1999 to a cryogenic lab, falls into one of their pods set to be awakened 1000 years later. It's a quite a different world from the one he left-aliens are everywhere and much of the work done is by robots.

We highly recommend this as a pleasant escape-plenty of gags, far out and trippy scenarios, an abundance of "easter eggs" and just plain funny stuff. We're still on season 1 from 1999 and there are astonishingly prescient things such as the character Zapp Brannigan, a starship captain who is a terrible narcissist ( Roachlike, although while thoughtless of others, he is not cruel). Zapp's name points back to the John Wayne character in the film "Brannigan"-a barely legal cop in the Dirty Harry mold. He'll break down a private residence door while saying "knock knock". I wonder if Mad ever did a parody of this film?

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Where our solar system is located in the Milky Way Galaxy seen from above:

 

Ayn Ghazel statues:

 

 

From Wiki: The ʿAin Ghazal statues are large-scale lime plaster and reed statues discovered at the archaeological site of 'Ain Ghazal in Amman, Jordan, dating back to approximately 9,000 years ago (made between 7200 BC and 6250 BCE), from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C period. A total of 15 statues and 15 busts were discovered in 1983 and 1985 in two underground caches, created about 200 years apart.

The statues are among the earliest large-scale representations of the human form and represent remarkable specimens of prehistoric art from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B  or C period. Their purpose remains uncertain, with archaeologists believing they may have been buried just after production, having possibly been made with that intent.

 

None of the statues contain genitalia and in my opinion, this makes them direct ancestors of these two:

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Ancient flood stories:

Many ancient cultures across the planet have tales of a giant flood. Some theories point to the end of the last ice age where there was a sudden melting of glaciers. This happened in different parts of the world at different times. Often, it is described as flooding the entire world although what might be meant is their region. The oldest written record comes from Mesopotamia, one of several tales that predate Genesis which is thought to have been written 800-500 BCE.

 

The Sumerian Flood Story:1900-1600 BCE.

A group of gods known as the Divine Assembly decide to destroy the human race with a flood. However, another member of the Assembly feels humans are worthy of living. He tells a trusted and obedient human leader of the plans and instructs him to build an Ark. The floods lasts for 7 days and nights and wipes out all humans except for those on the ark.  In the end, the Assembly reverses their animosity of mankind.

This sounds pretty familiar doesn't it?

A second version comes a bit later. Here, mankind has grown so numerous and noisy that it disturbs the sleep of one of the Divine Assembly. Flood and ark follow. What I found curious about this tale is that the sleep deprived god first tried to wipe out humans with a plague. No luck. Then a drought in order to starve them. (game show buzzer). Finally, a giant flood.

I was astounded: the rule of three from 1200 BCE is already part of our storytelling!

This version seems seems like a satire of the first. Really, do gods need sleep? Well, if humans are made in god's image then if we need sleep, perhaps so does god.

In this vein, one of the foremost questions to this deity from folks across the planet is "if you indeed made us and love us, why do you let us suffer so"? Perhaps, the deity is taking a nap with ear plugs, to catch a few winks. All those prayers! Oy! 

Now the problem here is with time: who can say how long a few winks are for a being whose existence is timeless? From our perspective, it could be a tenth of a second to 3 billion years.

And so here we are, another flood is coming and suffering is sure to be rampant. The faithful send prayers skyward. 

Good luck to us all.

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Fun vids:

A nice short from storm chaser Pecos Hank (Hank Schyma) concerning an array of light phenomena:

 

The Great Green Wall-begun in 2007, a plan to plant a wall of trees separating the Sahara Desert from the Sahel:

The Sahel region (brown), proposed Great Green Wall (green), and participating countries (white)

Fabulous AI katters gussied up with a David Attenboroughesque narration:

 

 

The worldwide effects of the volcanic eruption on Thera 3500 years ago:

 

Old school scything-looks like work to me:

 

Cannes Lion Award-Winning "Three Little Pigs advert". This advert for the Guardian's open journalism, screened for the first time on 29 February 2012, imagines how we might cover the story of the three little pigs in print and online:

 

 Longest name place in the world (it's not in Wales):

 Four seasons in less than a minute:

 

NOVEMBER DAYS

11/9-most of the leaves are down with the annual exception of neighbor Johnnie's oak which have begun to turn but probably won't drop until snow arrives. We finally got some decent rain early week of 1.25".

Mr. Molting Redbird having a sip-he seems to be recovering:

Buddy out and about:

We've had some sunny days:

Morning sun catching the treetops in the neighborhood

Turkey Bros across the street

 

Mr. Hawk on Father Birch:

It's dark out now by 6pm, Blossom foraging at the Diner:

We were done watching TV and in the darkness, we noticed something moving behind the honeysuckle on the berm: several deer-their dark, ghostly shapes moving East to West.  

11/10-Wet out this morning-we had received .10":

Turkey Bros at the Diner pecking for seeds as a Freddie stands his ground around the giants. All seem pretty tolerant of each other:

A cold front swung through late in the afternoon clearing the skies and bringing sunshine:

Snug and warm inside-Buddy-roo chillin' in the library: