Haluški: FIVE SECOND STORIES

Mamachuck considering her new and potentially stinky neighbor whose front entrance is indicated by the red arrow:

Enjoying a treat from the Buffet:

We've been wondering...is she showing her Fall coat or is she getting elderly? According to Wiki, they can live up to six years although 2-3 is the average. They generally don't breed until their second year so that would make her around 4 years old.

Fun Fact: they belong to the same family as squirrels, chipmunks, prairie dogs and marmots.

As it often is in the Fall, a foggy morning:

We've been hearing a lot of geese flying over to the field across the street to the North and wonder if the South-flying clans are beginning to gather. We have both populations living here: the "snowbirds" and those who overwinter.

But, this week it has been warming to the 80's again, warm enough for deck yoga!

Tiger in my backyard:

DHS going on patrol. Later, he came back behind the shed and was followed by Mr. Stampy who was heading to the Diner. His Lordship wisely kept his distance as well as an eye on the critter while hunkered down by the coneflowers (to the right of the feeder).

While there was no outward sign of aggression by either party, Stampy took several paces towards Buddy who retreated and maintained the same distance. He finally jumped up on a deck chair to relax.

A bit later I saw one of the BentTail clan alone at the Diner.

I went out and tossed peanuts. The squirrel prairie-dogged and revealed her nipples.

She didn't run away yet did not come bounding towards me. Who is this? Liza, with a tail grown back and having become a Mom? Or could it be Skye from a year ago? (later, my neighbor Johnny who lives West of me said he had found a squirrel with hardly a tail deceased in his back yard. Could it have been Liza?)

Later, a smaller BigTail was eating a peanut. I went out and said-Hey! This is how you get peanuts as I tossed another handful. The squirrel just sat eating its peanut, staring at me amidst a peanut shower.

9/13-another beautiful morning. Upon opening the slider, I saw a posse of turkey bros devouring my neighbor Benny's seeds that he puts out on his backyard picnic table.

9/17: Full moon triple threat! A supermoon which looks brighter and bigger than your garden variety full moon; it is the Harvest Moon; and on this night, there was a partial eclipse. Only 8% will be caught in Earth's shadow.

Moonrise at my house:

The moon about an hour into the event. Only a slight shadow can be seen top left.

My SIL Martha's marigolds are in full bloom.

꩜

A saying in our household: Buddy is in his basket and all is right in the world.

꩜

I spotted another monarch in the East garden!

꩜

Screenshot of a startling pictograph found on Ancestral Puebloan canyon cliff dwelling site in the American SW:

From the Desert Drifter series on YouTube. The image is large, perhaps 3' in diameter. 800-1000 years old. Clan symbol? Warning to unfriendly neighbors?

What's the difference between a petroglyph and a pictograph? Found throughout southern Utah, a petroglyph is an image carved, incised or scratched into stone. A pictograph is a painting on stone, using natural pigments.

꩜

We were watching a vid about mysterious ancient monuments. The narrator intoned: there has been little success with dating them. C quipped in response: it's because they kept swiping left on Tinder so no one would date them!

Fun facts:

Where does the word shenanigans come from?

Officially, the etymology is uncertain. The first written example found dates to 1854. It seems to be a word frequently applied to the Gaelic Irish, with their established love of the high-spirited and artful ploy, and in fact may well come from the ancient Irish word sionnach, meaning "fox" — a traditionally sly beast. It is often used when referring to the dodgy practices of ne’er-do-wells and rogues, especially politicians, as in “they’re up to their usual shenanigans”.

When your country has a national problem with alcohol:

Up until 2011, beer in Russia was not classified as a alcoholic beverage because anything with content under 10% was considered a soft drink!

How the pineapple got its name:

At that time the word pineapple was used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees, pine cones. When Captain John Smith, for example, first saw a pineapple in 1624, he described it as a pineapple, probably because he thought that it looked like a superannuated cone.

How the chimichanga got its name:

The most popular theory dates back to the 1920s, in which Monica Flin, the founder of Tucson's famous El Charro restaurant, accidentally dropped a burrito into the deep fryer and instinctively began to mutter 'chingada,' a Spanish swear roughly analogous to the f-word. The name 'chimichanga' is said to be the result of the restaurant's owner stopping herself from cursing at her mistake, as the word 'chimichanga' literally translates to 'thingamajig' in Spanish.

El Charro is still in business and I have been there. It is the city's oldest Mexican restaurant. Good eatin'!

World leaders for drinking tea and coffee (rated by the pound):

Tea: Turkey

Coffee: The Netherlands

Which US state was the last to repeal Prohibition?

Mississippi-1966

Where did Fanta soft drink originate?

Nazi Germany 1941. It was developed as an alternative to Coca Cola whose ingredients were unavailable due to a US trade embargo with Germany.

An idea of how many people live in Bangladesh (171 million) and how it compares to the rest of the world:

When Liechtenstein nearly bought Alaska!

Liechtenstein under Austria, Russia and Prussia was a member of the Holy Alliance, in which all three members guaranteed Liechtenstein's sovereignty in 1815. In 1867 Alexander II of Russia had offered Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein to purchase Russian Alaska, but he refused as he believed the territory was useless.

Alaska is our easternmost and westernmost state!

Several islands in the Aleutian chain are west of the International Date Line, shown here in red, therefore part of the Eastern Hemisphere.