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.

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

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I spotted another monarch in the East garden! 

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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.

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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.

Fun vids:

The Tateyama, Japan snow corridor:

 The Brinicle "Finger of Death"-True Horror in Antarctica:

This is not CGI!

Speaking of freezing... 

Polaris Dawn spacewalk 9/12/24! 

The crew safely splashed down on the morning of 9/15
 

What if UFO's are billionaires from different planets?

Minuscule-It's A Tie! Insect Winter Olympics!

Snapchat instant messaging app: odd series of ads trying to evoke the love, love, love trippy '60s with vomit rainbows.

SEVENTY ORBITS AROUND THE SUN!

I am quite pleased to still be around!

In front of a giant tithonia.
 

This morning two Monarchs and a Canadian Tiger Swallowtail were fueling up on the Butterfly Bush, getting ready for the long journey.

 

A near full moon.

 

FIVE SECOND STORIES

Labor Day this year was one of the coolest in memory due to a cold front that brought us an instant Autumn. Days in the lo-70's and good sleeping nights in the 40's.

A confused Forsythia in the Back 40 blooming:

A bowl of cherry toms:

One of the BentTail clan looking for grub by the hydrangeas:

Mamachuck was out and about:

A squirrely and Mr. Nuthatch:

 Mr. Big Bun looking magnificent:

 

DHS had stopped by the Diner earlier:

His Lordship has been a bit grumpy. It's so hard to get good help these days he complained. They keep forgetting (despite numerous instructive occasions) that meals served in the late afternoon, properly begin with treats served as hors d'oeuvres. He is very much a creature of habit.

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It's been a sad year for our butterfly friends. Just one Monarch and only a handful of other species. A far cry from just 2 Summers ago that we had dubbed "The Summer of Dancing Butterflies" because of a plentiful population.

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9/7-Diner News: the cooler weather has reminded the neighborhood of what is to come so the Diner was hopping! Morning overcast  turned to partly sunny with the luminous cumulus prominent in the blue sky and a brisk wind.

Two mourning dove couples came early for a double date. After they left, one of the strangers came in. He's been around for a couple of weeks-a mature squirrel with a beautiful full tail. I saw him and went to get some peanuts. By the time I reached the end of the deck, he had already fled up Father Birch (probably when he heard the slider open) but he had gone just on the first limb. We eyed each other and I tossed the peanuts turning to go inside to see how he reacted. He had vanished. 

Another new regular came in, a mature Stampy who looks like one of Big Mama's offspring as he has the nice slender blaze on his forehead. He got spooked after a couple of minutes and dashed off revealing his new residence: the brush pile.

 

The raucous caucus flew in to celebrate Saturday afternoon with all 29 of their kids. The new squirrel who had been in earlier tried to have a snack.

Oh, the noise! Soon, a couple more of the Longtails joined him and they chased each other up the Birch. I think they are a clan from the West and seem to have displaced the BentTails as I have not seen them regularly. Mrs. Redbird tried to order something at the counter but the Sparrow children were everywhere and out of control so she left. 

Shortly afterward, a Nutkin approached down the Birch just as the Stampy returned. One of the LongTails thought about stopping by but ran off when he saw Stampy.

The mourning dove couples returned with several more-it looked to be a reunion! Must have been 10 in attendance. They gathered for a picnic West of the Diner as a LongTail enjoyed his snack inside.

I had planned a Saturday night feast for us making spaghetti and sauce from our homegrown tomatoes. It was a proper sauce any Nonna would have appreciated as it cooked down for several hours. The main flavoring were 3 sweet red long peppers, lots of garlic and herbs. For a bit of meatiness, I added crimini mushrooms for C, smoked ham for me which I nuked to be added to my bowl only. Homemade garlic bread, side salad. Red wine to drink. Since it was so cool, I made a fire-probably the earliest we have ever used the fireplace. After supper we settled down to finish another Brit show-The Detectorists-that we highly recommend. Both C and Bud loved the warmth-I had to switch to shorts and a t-shirt, lol.

One blissed out kitty!

Rumor has it that the 80's will return by late week, potentially pool weather. Ah, Michigan.

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Fabulous pic of Marge Simpson with delphinium hair:

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Minuscule shorts: The creators owe much to Chuck Jones and the Looney Tunes cartoons.The setups, the sound effects, the gags.

Cocciland Mom Ladybug drops her 3 younguns off in a human child's playroom so she can run errands. A Daddy Long Legs lives there and thinks he's hit the jackpot for supper.

Hop on! Insects vs windshields but nothing gets in the way of true love.

Patatas fritas: Like everywhere else on the planet, it's a daily competition for resources.

 

The Stubborn Spider: spider's quest is interrupted.

 

Cherry Tomato: ladybug and fly fight over a tomato

The Vegetable Garden: All You Can Eat buffet!

Heartwarming vid-The Crow That Lived Like No Other

 Saturn's mysterious moon Titan:

 Giant wave surfing in Nazare´, Portugal:

Lion's mane jellyfish: (bad speling subs,gawd)

The little-known Michigan desert:

 Arctic Henge, Iceland:

 

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Stephen Axford is an Australian photographer specializing in documenting the large variety of mushrooms across his country.

See more of his work here:

https://www.boredpanda.com/mushroom-photography-steve-axford-australia/

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Oy! Politics

Is it November yet? I am so sick of it all, sick of the ever-unraveling Roach, the anxiety that this piece of shit and his Heritage Foundation enablers with their destructive, crazy ideas that fuck everyone but the extremely wealthy, will take over the country. The honeymoon with the polls has ended and the race is on a knife's edge. I'm hopeful Kamala can keep her shit together and eviscerate Roach in the 9/10 debate (if it happens). It will get real crazy if he wins and shortly afterwards, gets sentenced to do time for his crimes. What are they going to do with a sitting Prez going to jail? Well, that's why he has bought the majority of SCOTUS for literally, a get out of jail free card. 

Meanwhile, I have enjoyed the headlines of "Hell Freezes Over" in response to Dick Cheney announcing that he will vote for Kamala. Really, it should not be of any great surprise. Cheney is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and he is not going to support a traitor, a felon, a truly ignorant and stupid man who hasn't a clue how our republic works. Roach is the Rino here, not the other way around as he declared when the news broke. 

George Carlin's 1992 classic: Not In My Back Yard. Still relevant I am afraid.

Reprise of a August 2023 post. When Melania and Donald first met. 

 

The big man arrives
Disco dancers greet him
Plainclothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters
The band sounds like typewriters
The big man he's not listening
His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight

Edith in the ring
The passed over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws for now withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge they look on
Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snowblind
Romantic and snowblind
She says his crime belongs
Edith and the Kingpin
Each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away

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The Truth about Hello Kitty: C and I both thought the character was a cat, not a human/feline hybrid as it turns out to be. Gosh, where have we been? lol

 

From Wiki: Hello Kitty also known by her real name Kitty White, is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu , currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi  and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a British anthropomorphized white cat with a red bow and no visible mouth. According to her backstory, she lives in a London suburb with her family, and is close to her twin sister Mimmy, who is depicted with a yellow bow.

 

Hello Kitty was created in 1974 and the first item, a vinyl coin purse, was introduced in 1975. Originally, Hello Kitty was only marketed towards pre-teenage girls, but beginning in the 1990s, the brand found commercial success among teenage and adult consumers as well.

 

ILLUSTRATION BY PAWEL KUCZYNSKI

 

WHEN I AM AMONG THE TREES-MARY OLIVER POEM

 

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust,
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

FIVE SECOND STORIES

8/26: We celebrated C's first day of term with a lovely swim and supper on the deck.

 On the menu-BLT's and peach crisp.

 

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Squirrel Nutkin was in the Back 40 and the Diner:

Mamachuck found the tomato the hornworms had attacked that I tossed on the brush pile. Yep, she likes tomatoes.

 DHS keeping an eye on things:

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The next morning, 8/27, a thunderstorm woke us at 6.30 am. It rained hard briefly. Afterwards, it was overcast yet pleasant,  with a nice cooling breeze.The Diner was busy with sparrows, redbirds and mourning doves.

A few hours later, the sun came out and became muggy. Bud stretched out under the table:

 

That afternoon, storms were brewing across the state with a line charging across to the North. When C got home from work, we hit the pool. Before we went in, I checked the radar and saw a blob beginning to fire and expand West of us. It became dark and we heard thunder rumbling. We finished cleaning and exited as a few drops began to fall. We unfurled the solar cover and got inside in the nick of time. The wind picked up and soon it was raining in sheets. Mr. Birch gave up a good sized limb and we heard branches hitting the roof. In the end, we didn't get much rain but there was a lot of stuff down. That evening, the clouds were reminiscent of Maxfield Parrish illustrations:

The next day, I went to work on clean-up and this brought memories of last year's giant late August storm. The damage was nowhere as severe although areas of Lansing and Okemos were harder hit especially with loss of power and downed trees. We lost a tithonia and the cup plants were blown over, too. Rain total was around 1/10". 

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Pool Days

After a swim, they started supper. He went out to the garden and picked a ripe tomato. It was warm in his hand and when he came in, he pressed it to her cheek. She felt the radiance, smelled the fruit and was transported to her first visit to Tuscany as a young woman.

A painting done sometime in the  early 1980's when she first visited

They dodged yet another batch of thunderstorms and came out, wrapped in towels and dripping past the cat who had been sprawled on the lower deck the entire time. She took the first shower and as they passed each other in the hall, both naked, he admired her bikini tan and she smiled. 

After his shower, he opened the door to let the steam out. As he dried off, he looked out at the East garden, waning in its late summer glory. He could smell the butterfly bush which he had planted outside the window when they first moved in. It cast his mind back to the house where he grew up. His father had done the same for his mother, who loved the scent and the chance viewing of butterflies.

He heard murmurings out in the kitchen-she was talking to the cat, who was silent as she fixed its supper. She was washing up as he passed through the kitchen, the cat still working on its meal. She was wearing one of her summer caftans and he kissed her tanned, warm neck as she leaned back into him. They heard a jay call out and parted with a smooch. She went to her room for a yoga session and he moved to the living room to grab some peanuts that were in a bowl on top of the piano next to the slider. Out in the backyard, a squirrel saw him on the deck and ran towards him as he flung the peanuts in its direction. The jay called out again and swooped down to the grass for a peanut. He watched this ritual feeding with enjoyment and shifted his gaze to the bright mountains of cumulus that dominated the Northern horizon. Summer's end he thought. Labor Day was that weekend and she already was back to work at the U. A wave of melancholy came as he thought about his upcoming birthday-his 70th-and the inevitable following thought about how many more he might have. Thankfully, his mind shifted as another friendly squirrel came up on the raised bed next to the deck and rose up on its haunches imitating Oliver Twist with its outstretched small arms. Of course, he said out loud and turned back through the slider to grab more peanuts.

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From 1967, She's a Rainbow by the Rolling Stones-a wonderfully trippy vid. They do come in many colors indeed.

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Fun shorts:

The Pyramids Of Egypt-2013

Reminiscent of the film "Stargate"

 

Minuscule is a French animated series of shorts about the day to day lives of insects. They are a hoot and interestingly devised using animated bugs against a real background. The use of sound is cleverly integrated. They are simple stories told well and illustrate the fact that we all have struggles.   

Honey Fly-2012

Once upon a time, a fly wanted to be a bee.

Fly Hunting

Ladybug is quite a character and in this short, takes on a group of pesky flies. They race around the countryside like rival juvenile gangs on mopeds crossed with the agility of Star War's fighters. 

Top Guepe (top wasp) 

A group of wasps who have "the need for speed" while one has a transcendent encounter with the moon.

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Gordon Goose: Risky Life! 2016

What happens when a remote worker wants to play hooky.

Weirdly prescient of worklife during and after COVID. Be productive!

Soar-2014

A young girl who loves to design flying machines (they all fail) must step up and help a downed wee boy pilot get airborne again and join his family. 

Reminiscent and pairs well with this short that I posted a while back: La Luna

Whale-2017 

A young whale is sad because he has no friends.

The sea bird with goggles cracks me up.

 

The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at The MET-1946

The problem with prejudices.

The Fox and the Bird-2019

Compassion pays off.

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Odds and ends:

To celebrate the orange roach coming within 11 miles of our home and stinking up the joint, some appropriate merch:

Remember Billy Bass? Wellll bunky, something new for you!

 

That's right, it's Trumpy Trout the Talking Presidential Fish Head. You can order yours here:

https://www.trumpytrout.com/

If you want to go all in, serve with this excruciating earworm from Barnes and Barnes, 1980: the "Fish Heads"  song:

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Gawd, it's not even Labor Day and I'm seeing Halloween candy displays in the markets. Then on YT, there was a Michael's ad featuring Countess Dracula and her young son. Oy.

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Space News: 

Hopefully, coming near us at the end of September:

Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) aka Comet A3

A3 as seen on 6/10/24

Becoming visible to the naked eye on 9/27/24 with maximum brightness predicted on or before 10/12. There are hopes that  will be as good as  Hale-Bopp in 1996-97 for us in the Northern Hemisphere but the viewing window is pretty small. Fingers crossed.

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Space X's Polaris Dawn flight has been indefinitely postponed. It's workhorse rocket, Falcon 9, suffered a recent explosion on a return mission. As a result, the FAA recently grounded the Falcon 9 in order to investigate the cause and determine remedial action for repair. 

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 Don't Forget The Driver

 A 2019 BBC series starring Toby Jones as an overwhelmed and downtrodden coach driver in post-Brexit England. He has a Gen Z bi-racial daughter from an relationship in the past who can't seem to get her shit together and grow up. His mother has worsening dementia and is a racist. His car is a piece of shit that needs to have the engine struck with a hammer to start. He probably hasn't been laid in years. 

Upon returning from France one day, he discovers a young African woman who has stowed away in the coach's luggage compartment. Now, this is at a time when the Conservatives were still in power and they wanted to install a scheme to throw illegals on a plane en masse and fly them to Rwanda. Pete is facing a severe moral quandary: despite his own personal problems, he has empathy for this frightened young woman. If he calls the authorities, she gets shipped back to Africa. If he does not and attempts to help her, he faces major legal consequences. But, he has a good heart, a conscience and wants to do the right thing. 

So much is packed into these half-hour shows with funny and unique characters as well as surreal, absurd and slapstick situations. Highly recommended. 

Available from Britbox via Prime.