Thank you Janet, for this superb idea!
Owl Pellet?
I think that this is an owl pellet. I first discovered and photographed it then late last year. I found it sitting on top of the rear spoiler of our Prius. It is still there, although rather weathered by now. I guess that I should really wash the car? If it is an owl pellet then it is puke and not poop. I love these scientific terms! If it is not an owl pellet, then it is likely poop from some other raptor. While we hear owls in the yard, we more routinely see Coopers hawks. You can see feathers and bits of other body parts in the mass. This winter Anne installed one of our two bird feeder’s crooks in the front yard, near the car. While the smorgasbord that we supply is totally vegan, others must be taking a more carnivorous bent.
Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? The Interview, the James Franco and Seth Rogen comedy, the movie that precipitated the alleged North Korean hack of Sony Pictures, appeared on Netflix last weekend and I watched it. Spoiler alert! It wasn’t as bad as I had expected it to be. How’s that for a left-handed complement? In the swirl of confusion and controversy last year, much was made of the fact that this movie portrayed the assassination of Kim Jong Un, a sitting world leader. Leaked Sony emails debated the appropriate amount of fire that should appear on Kim’s face at the moment of his death. In the end there was only one little spot, although his hair was on fire, but I used to that because I work with people who always have their hair on fire.
What I find way more provocative, destabilizing and ultimately damming to the Kim regime is the whole pooh in his pants theme. James Franco’s character, the interviewer, Dave Skylark, first endears himself to Kim and then gets him to open up, inside a buttoned down tank. They bond over the Katy Perry song, Fireworks. Later in the actual interview, a no longer enamored Franco, turns the tables on Kim, his former bro. He foments Kim’s on-air emotional breakdown, precipitating the whole pooh in his pants incident. He had honey-potted Kim.
Interestingly, Katy Perry is slated to be this Sunday’s Super bowl halftime act. Anyone willing to hazard a guess what her final song will be? So, in-between two halves of commentators talking seriously about quarterback’s balls, we’ll get a little fireworks to lighten things up. Is this a great nation, or what?
‘Cause, baby, you’re a firework
Come on, show ’em what you’re worth
Make ’em go, “Aah, aah, aah”
As you shoot across the sky-y-y
Green-Eyed Toad
I heard a new term of art today for the evolving New England Patriots scandal, Ballghazi. Still no word yet, whether or not Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) will be jumping on this investigative bandwagon too. In a press conference today, Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, weighed in on the controversy. The following paragraph is a mashup of Brady press conference quotes about balls. One thing you have to admit about this situation, no matter which side that you are on, this is some of the best Super Bowl hype ever.
“Our equipment guys do a great job of breaking the balls. To me they’re perfect. … I don’t want anyone rubbing ’em. … I wouldn’t want anyone touching those. … Whatever feels good that day … I’m not squeezing the balls. It’s not part of my process. … Breaking the balls. … Some guys like old balls. … I tell them how great they are.”
The photo with this post is of a toad not a Tom. This particular toad, well frog actually, but toad has more alliteration here than frog. Anyway, this organism has been genetically modified. The frog’s eyes are green because scientists inserted a jellyfish gene into the frogs’ DNA. Scientists engineered the gene so that it would only work in the eye. Hence, this post’s title, “Green-Eyed Toad”.
I’ve been having problems lately with another green-eyed toad. This one yells at me a lot and for no good reason, at least as far as I can see. He’ll also physically brush me aside in the hall, if I don’t jump out of his way. In short, he is a bully. None of this behavior is overt enough to warrant me calling him out on it, because I’d have to have a much better case than I have now to go down that route. I’ll just have to bide my time and keep a wary eye over my shoulder. Besides time is on my side. I expect that his past will soon catch up with him.
Don’t Fall In The Fireplace!
“I have no more campaigns to run.” [Republican applause] “I know, because I won both of them!” – President Barack Obama
To my dear Republican friends, you are wrong, but I still love you, in spite of yourselves. This sentence could apply summarize President Barack Obama’s sixth State of the Union (STOU) address. It was an impassioned speech, a departure from the usual dry laundry list that these SOTU addresses have devolved into as of late. While his speech was overtly partisan at times, he also beseeched his Republican colleagues to join with him in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation. This is a plea that he has been making since he first came into office and it has consistently fallen on deaf GOP ears. Now that they control both houses of Congress, they will have to go through him, if they want to get anything done and he made it abundantly clear last night that he is not about to rollover for them, but rather he is fully prepared to hold their feet to the fire.
What does Bill Belichick and European central bankers have in common? They are both worried about deflation.
In addition to Republican legislators, another organization that should have their feet held to the fire are the New England Patriots. They are cheaters, plain and simple. Their latest scandal, dubbed deflate-gate, involves the leaked finding that 11 of the 12 Patriot supplied game balls to last Sunday’s AFC championship were under inflated, making them easier to pass and catch. The losing Colts later claimed that this was also the case in November, when the two teams last met. The Patriots were actually found guilty of cheating and subsequently penalized, in what was then dubbed spy-gate. They were convicted of filming the play signals of the New York Jets. They are also supposedly the reason that on field coaches now hold a card up in front of their mouths when speaking. This is done because it was suspected that the Patriots lip-read the opposing coach’s speech. Now everyone has to suspect and defend against this illegal practice. The list of allegations against Patriot’s head coach Bill Belichick doesn’t stop there though. The day before the Super Bowl both teams hold private practices on the field where the game will be played. Every time that the Patriots have won the Super Bowl, they were the second team to practice. In order to prepare for their practices, Patriot personnel were allowed to set up video equipment to tape their practice, while the opposing team was still running theirs on the field.
Two New Jayne’s Hats – In Colors of Da Bears and Da Blackhawks
How’s it sit? Pretty cunning, don’t you think? – Jayne (Adam Baldwin)
My wife is a knitting fool. She whipped out these two Jayne’s hats over this holiday weekend. In addition to cooking, entertaining, partying and bicycling. She is Super Woman! They are gifts for Dave’s two roommates. Please, take note FOX, no money was exchanged for these hats. Dave’s roommates are both big Chicago sports fans, so Anne made these two hats in their favorite team colors. Anne is sporting da Bears team colors, while Dave is looking cunning in da Blackhawks team colors. I’ll probably get in trouble saying this, but if you want your very own Jayne’s hat, send your request in here, but get in line, because I’m next. They are warm. I’m going to opt for the traditional Jayne’s hat, in hues of yellow and orange. In case you live under a rock and have no idea of what I speak, Firefly was a short-lived, not even a full season, science fiction TV series, but fan support was able to win a movie sequel, Serenity. It is best characterized as a space western and included spaceships, blasters and horses. It starred Nathan Fillion and was created by Joss Whedon. Jayne was sort of the plucky goofy comic relief. In one episode, he receives a package from his mother. In it is this rather hideous looking knit cap. The rest is history.
Today was a pretty good end to this holiday weekend. While Anne was knitting up a storm, I got a bike ride in. I think that the high just might have kissed 70 ˚F today. So, I got to ride in shorts and a short sleeve jersey. There were plenty of other riders out too. The trail was so crowded that I ended up bailing and hit the roads. I got home in time for the Rams kickoff. They went on to give the Oakland Raiders a 52-0 drubbing. If only the rest of the season could have been like today. We finished up the Thanksgiving leftovers, ending with Anne’s excellent pumpkin pie. With the Rams victorious, the food all gone and hats in hand, Dave left for Purdue. He heads out into the annual Wordpress snowstorm.
Currently, at the top of my brother’s Flickr feed that I call Chris’s Camera is his photo, . This image won First Place for Landscape/Nature in the 2014 Popular Photography readers contest. It is on the cover of the January 2015 issue of Popular Photography. Actually it is on the subscription cover of that issue. The magazine does both a newsstand and a subscriber edition, with different covers. He would like to get a copy or two and if anyone out there could see fit to part with their issue that would be great.
Rampage – Rams Mascot
I got my flu vaccine today. Anne got hers today too. I got mine at work around lunchtime, while she got hers at the grocery store after school. Both of us were fully covered under our insurance, but since I got my vaccine while at work, I got paid to get mine. I’m feeling some symptoms from mine. I have a bit of fever (99.2 ºF), general aches, chills and my arm is sore, but it’s not the arm that got the shot. It is the other one. I can’t remember ever getting any side effects before. I interpret all this as yet another sign that I must be getting old.
