April 22 Link Log

Categories: Animals, Crafts, History, Nature, Nice, Weird...

Animals

Animals who deserve better treatment than they get...I have to admit that not every baby chicken inspires that "Keep-Peep" reaction in me either. Chickens have a range of personality traits as wide as their range of sizes, shapes, and colors. Some are clever, cute, friendly pets. Some are vicious little "creeps" that will eat their siblings alive if not stopped. "Easter chicks" can be a horrible present! But even if you find yourself hating a chicken, there's no excuse for cruelty to chickens, as described below. If you can't live with a chicken until it's big enough to eat, give it to someone who can.

http://blogjob.com/pets/2016/04/abusing-pets-as-toys/

Crafts

I sort of prefer "wall jewelry" to wearable jewelry. For one thing it's easier for people to admire a pretty arrangement of rocks, metal, shells, feathers, etc., on the wall without being accused of staring at a woman's body. Then I remember a Seventh-Day Adventist teacher, one who'd grown up in the days when all new members joining that church always sold their jewelry, saying "Stones are beautiful, and if you take the trouble to polish one you should display it in a case, not around your child's neck!" "Junk" jewelry can be great fun to play with and very decorative on a wall, shelf, or table. Nobody's going to steal it, so why not let everybody enjoy staring, fingering, and rearranging?

http://thevagabondtabby.tumblr.com/post/143187261477/time-to-lay-out-some-wall-jewelry-been-too-long

History

Dan Lewis shares the sad story of the place for which McLean, Virginia (a.k.a. Yuppie City) was named:

http://nowiknow.com/mcleaned-him-out/

Nature

Long, but interesting, interview with author Robin Kimmerer. Louise Erdrich's fans will recognize the sound of her Potawatomi vocabulary words--another Algonquin language, closely related to Ojibwa. (The Cherokee language, which I've studied a bit but don't speak, is not so closely related to either, but it shares the feature Kimmerer discusses at length: instead of masculine-or-feminine, words are classified as living-or-inanimate. Cherokee also shares the word Ani- meaning "people.") I've never felt a need to refer to a tree as "ki" rather than "it" to remind myself that a tree is alive...but have you? (If a critical number of readers have that need, I'll start.)

http://www.dailygood.org/story/1270/the-intelligence-in-all-kinds-of-life-krista-tippett/

Pretty roses...in the Deep South, and in greenhouses, roses are blooming today. (In Virginia, native dogwoods and redbuds have passed their peak, but fancy cultivated varieties are still blooming. Roses will be next month's news.)

http://themarthareview.com/r-is-for-roses/

Here's a typical April scene from Alabama. In Virginia, new, young, yellow-green leaves are still just starting to unfurl, so bands of chartreuse lace are slowly climbing up the sides of the Blue Ridge Mountains. By Monday everything should be green here, too, the way it is down in the Heart of Dixie...

http://blogjob.com/gettingoffthegrid/2016/04/22/planting-the-vegetable-garden/

Niceness

If your browser is up for a lot of goofy graphics, Tim Urban has a wacky, chortle-inducing, take on the general idea of enjoying quality time with the people you love, now, while they're nearby. (Thanks to Dan Lewis for the introduction, although I don't think my main computer can handle much of TU's blog.)

http://waitbutwhy.com/2015/12/the-tail-end.html

Weird

Spoiler is obviously not in touch with any of my correspondents. (Personally, I remember a precious metals dealer who used to offer "Silver Jackson" coins--priced at $20 at the time--and think a big, heavy silver-plated $20 coin might be an appropriate memorial to Andrew Jackson. Few people would actually use it, but nobody could complain about its being "ironic." Its base could actually be iron.)

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/04/21/trump-argues-for-a-bill-of-another-denomination-featuring-harriet-tubman-i-think-it-would-be-more-appropriate/?