I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I've given up the blog and gone to the lake. So far I've not done that...but at some point I will.
Animals
"Birdsong is something that can be a vital part of your well-being for years without you noticing or appreciating it, like having intact internal organs."
Shared by Neithan Hador on the Mirror. Google says the picture was posted on Facebook, and warns that although any orphan chicks you adopt from Tractor Supply will probably enjoy snuggling under a feather duster, you have to watch to make sure they don't pull the feathers apart or pull the duster down on themselves, which could result in injuries.
Frugality
How NOT to set up a wood stove.
Lens says this one's been floating around the Internet for a long time, found on Facebook and even on Etsy (to illustrate an ad for a wood stove). In this case the source is thought to be known. According to the plagiarism-ware Lens has started shoving in front of the links, the photo was taken "by John Collier for the Farm Security Administration" in the 1940s and features Mrs. Boris Komorosky of Hartford, Connecticut, in her cozy-looking but unsustainable kitchen. I'm inclined to believe that this is accurate because "Mrs. Boris Komorosky" doesn't sound like a screen name.
* The stove needs a metal "pad" or "mat" under it to protect that wood floor.
* The stove should stand away from the walls, to prevent fires.
* That upholstered sofa should be at least as far from the stove as the cane-bottom chair.
* And that light-colored wallpaper is going to look dreadful before springtime. Rooms with wood-burning stoves or fireplaces should have washable walls.
Men's Issues
This is soooo wrong. Some people think the big political divide these days is between those who want to prop up the old, unsustainable Social Security scheme by bringing in immigrants, and those who want to prop up the old, unsustainable Social Security scheme by having too many babies. We can't afford either of those bad alternatives. We have to make plans for our old age that allow for the human population to shrink back to sustainable levels. We have to celebrate the fact that many young people aren't even waiting to have children, but ruling out the option. We have to want fewer and better, in the sense of healthier, grandchildren.
Also wrong: the myth that, "biologically," if men hadn't done the engineering we'd still be living in caves. Only in a few human cultural groups have men done the engineering. In cultures where advanced architecture and mechanical science have existed, a minority of women have done a minority of the engineering. Most women who are free to cultivate their own talents have talents for other things, and women whose talents are for engineering have often been discriminated against, so it's remarkable that women have, nonetheless, built and designed things--houses, bridges, and machines. If men hadn't done the engineering, the things humans build to make our lives easier would probably be smaller, easier to manage (more rondavels, fewer skyscrapers), more slowly and thoughtfully worked out, and more sustainable. Male hyperactivity has blasted and zoomed further forward at a time, and often needed to take several steps back. Male hyperactivity has led to wars...without it, Europe might have achieved a civilized democracy, somewhere, by now.
And, for individual women, most disastrously wrong: Being chosen by a good woman to be a father has a stabilizing effect on some men, but it also turns mostly harmless slacker-boys into Deadbeat Dads. Once they're out of diapers, as the saying goes, nobody can change them. A man who already is stable, reliable, honest, loyal, and self-disciplined may be improved by marriage; a man who is impulsive, emotional, and self-centered will be totally "unmanned" by it, and run away--if not from the birth process, certainly from a teething baby.
A better guide might be: Any masculinity that seriously considers doing what makes babies outside of marriage, or before the couple have saved enough money to afford the baby, or after the couple already have a baby, is toxic. A man whose attitude toward sex is irresponsible and irreverent needs celibacy, sometimes years of celibacy, and he may never mature into a responsible husband and father. The purpose of dating is to identify men who can make plans and stick to them, and, that done, identify men who need to hear the words "stop" or "no" more than once. If he's not on time for a date, no more dates for him. If he wants "more" demonstrations of affection, it's time to step back, blow him a goodbye kiss, and let him work on his relationship with himself.
If he scores high on reliability and self-control, he might be worth keeping. Jamie Wilson is right about one thing. A good man is one of the wonders of nature. Borders, in fact, on being a miracle.
Music
One of the blog posts I read over the weekend explains why Seventh-Day Adventists love Handel's Messiah so. It quotes all their favorite Bible verses!
From Handel I didn't dive directly into pop music--too much contrast--but eventually I did listen to this authentic 1974 digitized version of the background music that was piped into many stores in the 1970s. The person who shared it thought it sounded spooky. I think one particular tune sounds depressed, but I hear it as bland music, generally...
Then in the 1980s and 1990s some of us were interested in composing new "fusions" of traditional and original music, for contemporary or antique or electronic instruments, preferably a mix of all three. This set of tubular bells tunes is heavy on the contemporary side, but without putting the physical tubes up against someone's head before striking them, it's hard to go too far wrong with tubular bells.
Edward Elgar.
Horse.
Tom Petty.
Beethoven...but if you watch the video, the man appears to be playing the piano for a friendly elephant. I think it's real. If it's a computer simulation, it's well done.
Avishai Cohen.
Shmuel Perdnik. The words are Hebrew and, according to LyricsTranslate.com, they mean:
"I shall await the LORD,
I shall entreat his favor,
I shall ask Him
to grant my tongue eloquence.
I shall await the LORD,
I shall entreat his favor, ay ay ay
I shall ask Him
to grant my tongue eloquence.
In the midst of the congregated nation
I shall sing of His strength;
I shall burst out in joyous melodies
for his works.
In the midst of the congregated nation
I shall sing of His strength;
I shall burst out in joyous melodies
for his works.
(X3)
The thoughts in man's heart are his to arrange,
but the tongue's eloquence comes from the Lord.
O LORD, open my lips,
so that my mouth may declare Your praise.
I shall await the LORD,
I shall entreat his favor,
I shall ask Him
to grant my tongue eloquence."
Joshua Aaron. This is said to be a Hebrew version of the example prayer Jesus gave His disciples, "the Lord's Prayer." The original prayer was probably spoken in Aramaic, but was transcribed in Greek--in both cases the vernacular languages His mostly working-class disciples spoke on the street, not the classical Hebrew some of them learned at school. But if Jesus were here today, can anyone doubt that He would speak modern Hebrew?
Neil Finn.
Tom Goux.
Leonard Bernstein.
40 Fingers.
America. (Many nominations for Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs. Some people love it. I thought the tune was catchy enough to suspend judgment until I found an official statement whether the song is or is not about heroin, the "horse" that carries addicts into their dreams that start out so nice and then become nightmares. The writer's official statement is that it's about open-air meditation. Visions induced by desert conditions? Possible.)
The Stranglers' hard rock version of Patsy Kline's "Walk On By."
The Cars.
The Who.
John Anderson.
New York
"Dirty Yankees" is acquiring a new meaning, we are told. The phrase used to refer to people who sewed their long woolen underwear up tight around the neck in September and left whatever remained of it on until Memorial Day. (Southerners tidied our graves. Northerners sent their underwear out to be burned while they howled and shivered through their first, some said their only, bath of the year.) I don't know. Maybe those people really existed at some place and time. New York State does regularly log the coldest temperatures in the 48 contiguous States.
But New York City, it seems, now has hordes of homeless people.
Most of Washington's homeless weren't as dirty as you might think. Trying not to be noticed as homeless made them careful. The city's full of stores, restaurants, libraries, gas stations, places where people can nip in and use the conveniences. Jars with tight-sealing screw-on lids made sleeping areas hard to find.
In New York, it seems, the homeless are loud and in-your-face. Mayor Mamdani, chortles Joe Jackson, has put the P P in the Big Apple. Citations for public urination are forming a real crime wave.
Parenting
Google says: "The image was taken in St Petersburg, Florida, and was published in the St Petersburg Times in May 1969, featuring Mrs. T.R. Cronin. The photographer, Ricardo Ferro, titled the image "Is This Your Litter, Lady?""
Before people go into "how could she" mode, consider: Baby is at the age where Baby likes practicing standing up while bracing against things. Baby could be in an expensive "baby walker" frame that wouldn't move easily on grass, but instead Baby is in what happens to be available, free of charge, and to fit perfectly. This did not become a fad because the trend of the time was to attach litter baskets to posts sunk deep in the ground, to stop them blowing into windows in hurricanes, or being stolen... I've not seen one of those freestanding baskets in years. But when they were clean and empty they were pretty good frames for babies to practice standing up in.
Note Baby's face...concentrating, learning, not protesting. If Baby had been turned toward Mrs. Cronin, yelling and waving to be let out and picked up, she would have picked Baby up or faced unpleasant social consequences. But Baby likes being where and doing what Baby is.
When one of you Nephews was a few months older than that infant, walking easily but not always understanding where you weren't supposed to walk, you had a "backpack." Your big brother had a backpack to carry his books to school, and you had one with strings attached to lead your mother, aunt, and grandmother all over town. As long as you stuck to public footpaths and walkways you were leading. When we balked and became hard to lead was when you started to walk out into traffic, or onto someone's property.
You enjoyed using your backpack on walks with us, I'm glad to say, even after foolish people tried to tell you that you were "on a leash like a dog." I suppose, technically, a toddler harness does work like a leash for a dog...and so? How bad is that?
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