Monday, November 2, 2026

Monday Music Open Links

This web site affirms, once again, that


Still, this web site does like seeing our page view count surge, so why not link up to Monday's Music Moves Me again. This is an open link day. Some music links at my blog relate to things I'm saying. Most are provided by other people whose blogs or e-mail I read. Some leftover Halloween songs, some memories of someone's punker years, some classic symphonies, some classic rock, blues, jazz, country, some links shared because they're quirky or exotic, and the more different genres the merrier.

Do I "like"...any of it? The music I loved, when I was younger and had more emotional reactions, was pre-digital. Sometimes I look for a song I remember on YouTube and sometimes even find it, but when it comes to digital music I'm a total newbie, still exploring what's out there, without opinions about what I "like" better than what else. For most of my adult life tinnitus came between me and music. In youth I was too Highly Sensory-Perceptive and too sheltered to enjoy a lot of what was playing at the time. I'm happily splashing about like a toddler in a wading pool. No favorites, just fun fun fun, catching up on about 65 years' worth of music I missed before! In another five years I may have some new "favorites."

So, here's Aukai. 


Somebody with a Dakota-type flute.


Emancipator.


Pachelbel.


Neil Young, mourning a bandmate lost to drug addiction.


Joss Stone. 


The Black Angels, mourning in a louder tone.


Justine Griffin.


Matthew Halsall.


Billy Strings.


John Coltrane.


Buffy Sainte-Marie.


Ludovico Einaudi.



Bobby Pickett.


"Meowzart"--someone playing a medley of classical  piano tunes for a terribly cute cat.


Toy Dolls.


Elijah Bossenbroek.


Matthew West. (Christian content.)


The Incredible String Band.


Steph Macleod. (Christian content. This one's a bit different. It's on one of the blogs that are already in the linkup, so I'd like to link to it there.) 


Benny Goodman.


Gordon Lightfoot. It's November. The challenge is to replay and sing along with this song in memory of the bereaved families, and not just to have an excuse to belt out "Lake Ontario!"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phcDgM2Mazk ...because Lightfoot deserves to be remembered for the songs that put him in the position to sing the official song of international mourning, too. He had had a career of writing and singing songs people enjoyed.

Tom Petty.


Sanctus Real. (Another one that links right back to CuriousAsACathy.)


Avishai Cohen. (I don't understand enough Hebrew to know whether the song has religious content or not. Some of his songs do; more don't even have words.)

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Book Review: In Every Heartbeat

Title: In Every Heartbeat 

Author: Issa Reyes

Date: 2025

Quote: "You're the maid's daughter. And you've clearly forgotten your place."

Luisa's mother's mistake was taking a job, as a desperate young widow, that allowed her to keep her daughter on the job. Even when the said daughter was a teenager. Even when the boss had a son who was also a teenager. So one day, just as the teenagers had confessed their feelings of Teen Romance, before they'd even kissed, the boss caught them and threw Luisa and her mother out of the house.

In a wave of hormone-fuelled rage, Luisa vowed to herself that one day she'd come back to that house, not as a maid, but as a doctor. And now she is a doctor, and that mean old Mrs Mendoza is brought in as a cardiac emergency patient. Can Luisa act out pardon for an offender who's never repented? 

She can, of course. And the Mendoza boy is still single, of course, because this is a sweet romance novel and he's never met anyone like Luisa. Revenge fantasies don't come sweeter than this. 
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Butterfly of the Week: The Endangered Brazilian Swallowtail

This week we consider the very rare, endangered, Brazilian Swallowtail, Heraclides himeros. Himeros is Greek for "desire," which was sometimes personified as an attendant of Aphrodite. A Greek writer distinguished between himeros and pothos by saying that Greeks felt himeros for things they could reasonably hope to enjoy, like the company of a living spouse or a meal after a day's work, and pothos for things they might never be able to enjoy, like the company of someone who had died. 


Photo by Zeviniciuss, Brazil, July.

Will the desire to see this butterfly, alive, eventually become an example of pothos? 

Early naturalists proposed a few other names for this species. It just missed being named in honor of Mentor, Lycophron, or Herodotus himself.

It's endangered partly because it lives on Esenbeckia leiocarpa, "Brazilian boxwood," which, unlike English boxwood, can grow over 100 feet tall. This tree is endangered by habitat loss, and, since it is Heraclides himeros's habitat, the survival of the butterflies depends on the survival of their host trees.


Photo from Joao Medeiros for Wikipedia.


Photo by Joao Medeiros for Tropical.theferns.info.

Brazilian Boxwood is valuable because it resists decay even when exposed to weather. It grows straight and tall, seedlings typically about 7 feet tall two years after they sprout.  As a result it's been over-harvested. People living in Brazil are encouraged to plant these trees, which thrive in partial shade....and to try to conserve their rain forests, which as we all know are being gobbled up at an inexcusable pace.

Here is a fact sheet on the care and encouragement of Brazilian Boxwoods:


But will the butterfly populations rebound if the tree populations do? Hard to say. Heraclides himeros seems to be one of those big butterflies that nature always intended to be rare. It was found only in scattered specific places.While the butterflies sometimes flitted as far as Argentina, there were five known breeding populations. The species is believed to require a large amount of space to support a viable colony. 

Walter Rothschild observed that these populations included two distinguishable subspecies. At least the males showed consistent differences. Rothschild wasn't sure that he'd ever seen a female specimen of the subspecies baia. In his time H. himeros himeros was much more common. 


Today H.h. baia may be less rare. While both subspecies disappeared from much of their original range, baia expanded into a new range. Both subspecies remain very rare and seldom seen. They might already be extinct. They were in a certain place last year but they were so few that there might be none in that place this year. The individual photographed above was alive in 2023.


Photo by Thiagoh7, Brazil, June 2019.

(Both butterflies photographed above were baia. Subspecies himeros differs from baia mainly in the placement of the red eye spots on the hind wings; it's photographed at


For the individual butterflies that have been "collected" and studied, it was possible to identify consistent differences between males' and females' color patterns, but from a distance males and females looked alike. This Blogspot post shows museum pieces with male and female patterns:


The wingspread is about four inches; females seem to average slightly larger than males.

Nothing is known about their life cycle. Nobody has yet reared this species and documented what the eggs, larvae, or pupae look like. Are females really much rarer than males in nature, or merely much better at hiding from humans and keeping themselves rare in museum collections? Who can say?

A Brazilian government study documents that Monsanto was at least questioned extensively by the government,in fairly recent years. Monsanto was never a prime suspect in the decline of this species. Himeros are believed to have been mostly forest dwellers rather than farm nuisances. 

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Sunday, November 1, 2026

Web Log for 10.30-31.26

Finally! Oaks and maples are showing color at the Cat Sanctuary on Friday morning. I have a Fluffball to put together...

And a status update: This web site publicly stated that the heir and caretaker of Larry Ricky Calhoun, Professional Bad Neighbor, could earn a place in my will that would make him or his heir(s) the owner(s) of the Cat Sanctuary in the year 2070. Larry Ricky Calhoun has not been noticably better supervised since then, and during the past week I learned that \some younger people had been told that I'd been poisoned and am about to die. 

I don't think so. I'm not feeling good, but I'm still in better health and condition than many people are while they suffer and burden others for fifty years. At least, if I die from any cause whatsoever, it will do no Calhoun any good, nor yet any closer relative of mine who has allowed this confessed murderer to run loose for all these years. Life is uncertain; wills a little less so.

And God will judge the legislators who have failed to recognize poison spraying as a method that can be and has been used to commit serial murders. That recognition needs to be in federal law and in every state's law. Lean hard on your elected officials this year.

Animals 


Lucky cat picture from https://whatever.scalzi.com/2026/10/30/when-the-cat-steals-your-chair/ , which is worth visiting for the discussion below, but the picture's too good not to steal. I love a black cat with a glossy "mixed hair" coat. Stopped at the home of one, on Friday's errands, and was sad when the two female cats in the family came out to say "He's inside, with the human, doing quarantine! Go away!"  (And I nonverbally said "Quarantine? Are you serious?" and one of the humans came out and confirmed it. Get well soon, people.) Anyway, comment on this cat behavior: When Serena sits down where she knows I'm going to sit, I've tested and confirmed this theory, she wants me to pick her up, sit down, and hold her on my lap. It's a dominance display for other cats' benefit, but not a challenge to the human.

Another tidbit of Serena's behavior that may or may not be relevant to anyone else's relationship with a cat: Most cats love having their heads petted, especially around their ears. Serena may let me do that when we're alone, but she does the "I may have to bite you" display, showing her teeth and bumping the edge of her open mouth against my hand, if I do it out in the yard where the other cats can see. Why? I've tested and confirmed this, too: because grooming their heads is the way she reminds the other cats that she's the Queen Cat, the Mother or Foster Mother of all other cats here. I'm her human godmother but she doesn't want to get into that in front of the other cats.

Butterflies, some rare:


Crime 

How the insurance industry promotes crime--your loss, their profit. Why we need a Castle Doctrine and a crackdown on the insurance racket.


And, as a direct result of this pro-corporate-greed attitude...


Exercise 

When you don't need to lose weight, exercise just feels good...


Found at the Marmelade Gypsy's Blogspot, Photos there are usually original, and high quality.The Halloween post celebrated skeleton displays in Harbor Springs, Michigan, where storekeepers apparently adopted the Mexican idea of letting skeletons represent departed friends of whom people want to call back memories/ghosts. 

Life 


Found at https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2026/10/friday-nights-memes.html . Lens says it's circulated too long to be traced further.

Men on SSRIs 

Ernesto Rascon of Prescott (Arizona) blamed a dentist in Nogales (Mexico) for not fixing his loose tooth. The dentist was busy and couldn't give him an immediate appointment. Rascon killed the dentist, then was killed in a shootout with the Nogales police. And while the Daily Mail has photos and even video, they don't supply the answer to the question we're all asking: Which drugs were in Rascon's bloodstream? Considering the number of popular prescription meds Lindsay Clancy had reportedly taken, the probability of overlap seems high. 


Music 

The Mothra Song. (Are we madly eclectic, or are we MADLY eclectic?! This song used to be posted by a good old conservative blogger, and is now posted from time to time at some forums in memory of him. Some people did share Halloween songs; not many.)


Hugh Laurie.


Nick Fradiani.


Honey Piazza. 


Nelson Riddle.


Eric Bogle. ("Age-restricted" because the veteran of World War I observes "Never knew there was worse things than dyin'." A lot of them felt that way, young readers. A lot of them did die; a lot more lived with painful disabilities for the rest of their lives. I suppose the Socialists don't want young readers to be able to imagine what they have in mind for the young. Oh, it'll be different for youall, young readers. In the 1910s war was strictly a man's thing. What they have in mind now will give women equal opportunities to be maimed or killed. War is not something we want to do just because Europeans still think it's a way to solve problems they created for themselves by electing testosterone-poisoned "leaders.")


Parov Stelar.


George Frideric Handel.


Roberto Cacciapaglia.





Bill Monroe. (When I was growing up, in "Carter Country," we thought this was a different genre of music from ours--but we listened to it. Different is good. It's just that Northerners seem to recognize differences only between rockabilly and bluegrass, whereas I hear distinct differences between rockabilly, bluegrass, and Real Country music.)


Guillaume Poncelet.


Mashup: Weezer, Queen, Joan Jett.


Tom Petty.


Bon Jovi.


John Coltrane.


Bella Lam. (All very well but this is not, to my ears, country music. Not even rockabilly. This is rock.)




Cream.


Disney.



Ella Langley.


CGI. (Religious content, not mine, valid expression under the First Amendment.)


Aukai. 



Lulu. (I don't really like the idea of teacher-student romance, but as I recall, in the book/movie from which the song cam the romance heated up when the student finished the course so I'll allow this one.)


Buffalo Springfield.


Box Tops.


Crosby, Stills, Nash, and/or Young.



Bobbie Gentry.


https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5KlFk1EqXE (Warning: link opens a playlist.)

Yeah Man.



Turtles. ("Where were you in 1967?" asked the blogger who posted a batch of 1967 song suggestions. One thing I remember doing in 1967 was wondering why so many pop songs sounded so wrong to any reasonable child. I sang a lot of love songs to my animal friends, but let's face it, although feelings of happiness about a bond with a pet chicken do last all through life, where does that exclusiveness come in? Well, it's supposed to be about Teen Romance, of course. Well, that obsession with Teen Romance does exclude everyone in the audience who happens not to be a teenager. We need more songs that children and adults can sing, too. Though this experience did teach me that singers are supposed to be able to sing for and about other people besides ourselves, that songs are supposed to give us some sense of empathy.)


Strawberry Alarm Clock. (Probably also kids in 1967.)


Aretha Franklin. 


Smetana.


Doors.


Elijah Bossenbroek.


Pinetop Perkins, age 91. Now there's a senior who's still got game.


Simon & Garfunkel.


Fleetwood Mac.


Emancipator.


Atrox. (Warning: punk! A whole punk performance if you let it run on. Oh the crazy teenage energy, I wonder if any of these chaps can still stand to listen to the whole thing now.)


Searchers.


Lionel Richie.


Marty Robbins.


Gilbert & Sullivan.


Johnny Cash.


Incredible String Band.


Warren Zevon.



"Night on Bald Mountain."


Ray Parker.


Ludovico Einaudi.


Al Stewart.


Obituary 

Patrick Stewart, who played Captain Picard on Star Trek. I like that he rescued pit bulls; I'm not a terrier person but I respect terrier people.


Poems 

Baby-boomers must read this. Yes, we were once as young and clueless as today's young. Yes, many of us even believed in Socialism, though back then the Soviet Union still seemed to be a serious competitor for the title of World's Best Large Economy so we did have more of an excuse. And if we did have a solid sense of who was male and who was female, we had some very confused ideas about how to relate to each other...and so on.


Denise Aileen Devries worked with two prompts and came up with a good thought:

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Book Review: For Women Only

Book Title: For Women Only

Author: Shaunti Feldhahn

Author's web site: http://www.shaunti.com/

Date: 2004

Publisher: Multnomah

ISBN: 1-59052-317-2

Length: 180 pages of text

Quote: "Hundreds of personal and written interviews with men--including a professional survey--form the core of this book." 

Shaunti Feldhahn wanted to write a novel with a male protagonist. So she asked men for guidance about how he would think and feel in certain situations. Men she knew started sharing things with her. She did a formal survey of a few hundred men she didn't know, and found the same general tendencies. A lot of young Christian husbands wished their wives "knew certain things about men." She summarizes what she learned as "seven revelations."

Some readers have commented that presenting the "seven revelations" in a non-judgmental way makes the book read like some of the antifeminist books of bygone centuries, where the woman had to do all the giving in and never talk back. I don't read it that way. I think there's a clear intention to open a dialogue, paving the way for For Men Only. As Rebecca Johnson says, if a wife reads For Women Only while her husband reads For Men Only, they are in for a lovely time.

What were the "seven revelations"?

1. The husbands wanted respect. Some of them didn't realize that there were things they could be doing to earn more respect. Some really did seem to have self-esteem problems; without necessarily confirming that someone had lost respect for them, they'd act like jerks because they'd rather feel that everyone was against them than that they'd lost someone's respect.

Not asking for directions was a matter of self-respect for some of these men. Never mind whether a problem could have been solved in one-tenth as much time; they wanted to feel that they'd solved it all by themselves.

2. They were insecure. The greater their need to "be in control," the more intensely they tended to feel that the situation was out of control.

3. They recognized that the biological function of a male human, most of the time, is "providing." Even if their wives were earning enough money to support a family in reasonable comfort, they wanted to feel that the family depended on their jobs. (Foolish, you say? Consider the alternative.)

4. They wanted sex. Most wanted either more encounters or more enthusiasm than they were currently getting.

5. They were obsessively visual. Although they didn't report that "thinking in pictures" impeded thought and communication for them in anything like the way it did for Temple Grandin, most of these men wanted their wives to understand that they did "think in pictures." They'd see an attractive woman for a few seconds, down the aisle in a store, on TV during a commercial, and the "picture" of her body would float back through their minds for days. Feldhahn's own husband expressed surprise that, when women say a man is attractive, we may or may not mean we feel any physical attraction to him, and most of us don't keep trying to visualize him naked.

6. They wanted more, not less, romance in their lives. However, they had different ideas of what was "romantic" than some of their wives did. If they admitted to thinking that the main reason for a candlelight dinner would be to conceal that the food didn't look quite right, they still wanted the "romance" of doing fun things together...hiking, biking, skiing, swimming, sailing, camping, and if their wives went about it in the right way even remodelling the house together.

7. They cared more about appearances than they were entirely happy to admit. "Women need to realize that their doubling in size is like a man going from being a corporate raider to a minimum-wage slacker," one of these guys told Feldhahn. "She is not taking care of herself, so she feels bad about her looks, she has little energy, and we are limiting our opportunities" to go out and have fun, another husband complained.

Some of us may have noticed these things long before 2004. For others of us they may not have been relevant: some men don't think in pictures; I was blessed with a hand-and-ear thinker. Then again...he died, and the "seven revelations" have contributed to the fact that I've been using the phrase "Significant Other" to refer to the same privacy fanatic for all these years.

For many Christian wives, these "seven revelations" may be invaluable. Feldhahn is not the only one out there who notices the "Wide Loads" waddling around many churches on Sunday mornings. "Wide Loads" of both sexes say, "Our emphasis should be on spiritual love, not physical attractiveness." Maybe so, but unattractiveness is not the worst consequence of obesity. Male "Wide Loads" become grumpy; females become depressed; their social and family lives become boring, and they may die "old" at or even before age forty. They do not present the healing message of Christianity.

Some Christian wives might reasonably say, "Didn't Feldhahn even try to explain to these men what happens to a woman who has had too many babies, too close together?" If she did, she doesn't mention it in this book. (When an earlier version of this review appeared on Yahoo, someone commented that at a book discussion Feldhahn had indicated that some of the husbands appreciated effort.)

She also doesn't mention the way some men's willingness to desert an obese wife can become its own revenge. I knew an alleged Baptist who walked out on his wife because the fourth baby had produced more weight gain, impaired thyroid function, and depression than the first three had. He'd been secretly exchanging e-mails with a woman who had posted pictures showing that she had a good figure...some years before he actually met her, anyway. When he found an opportunity to meet her she seemed more functional than his wife, so he left his wife for her. Hah. About a year after the divorce, the wife had recovered and looked pretty again, and the homewrecker had become one of those sloppy, heavy, middle-aged women who can be mistaken for sloppy, heavy, middle-aged men. Idiot Boy went to custody court to attack his wife's character, took a look at her, and has been repenting of his folly ever since.

Feldhahn doesn't actually say "The family that works out together, stays together," but when she quotes all these young men pleading for more romantic physical activity and complaining about how hard it is to be faithful to a fat, depressed wife, she comes close to it. Her take on this idea is positive. What wife or husband doesn't want more time to unwind from work, more time to supervise the kids while attending to each other, more cheap mini-vacation time, a good-looking partner, and a cheerful and healthy family? Getting out and moving around together can be the key to all of these things.
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